Lady Anne Hamilton

“ In considering these base endeavours to injure innocence, in order to raise the noble character of a voluptuous prince, we cannot help remarking that Power was the only weapon of the vitiated monarch, while Right and Justice formed the shield of the oppressed Queen of England! Indeed, every man, glowing with the sincere love of his country, and actuated by that honourable affection for its welfare, which takes a lively and zealous interest in passing events, must have considered such proceedings against her majesty fraught with inevitable evil. ”

“ In the other case, if Queen Caroline, as almost every body believed, and as Mr. Brougham solemnly swore he believed, was INNOCENT, was there any circumstance or consideration upon earth,—the wreck of ambition, the loss of fortune, or the fear of even death itself,—which should have induced an English gentleman, a man of honour, a man who had the feelings of a man, to leave a FEMALE, whom he called "FRIEND," beneath the weight of so awful an oppression? ”

“ Lords Liverpool, Castlereagh, and Sidmouth, and the accommodating George Canning, were now the arbiters of the fates of nations; their will was no sooner expressed than it passed into a law; and, while revelling at the festive board with their puissant prince, the country was writhing in the most pitiable condition. Even bread and water were not always within the poor man's grasp, and the starved peasantry of Ireland, in open defiance of military power, were living by stealing and eating raw potatoes, to enable them to eke out their most miserable existence! ”

“ Let the people be kept in a brutal state. Let their conduct, when assembled, be riotous and irrational as ignorance and our spies [334] can make it, that they may be brought into discredit, and deemed unfit for the management of their own affairs. Let power be rendered dangerous in their hands, that it may continue unmolested in our own. Let them not taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge, lest they become as wise as ourselves!" Such were the political sentiments of those at the head of affairs at this period;—how successfully they acted upon them is too well known. ”

“ Thus many people are actually terrified, through fear of losing their wealth, their liberty, or their life, into silence upon subjects which they ought, in duty to their God, under the principles of justice, fearlessly to expose. "Better pay our taxes patiently, and remain quiet about state crimes," say they, "than, by daring to investigate public measures, or the conduct of great men, risk a prison or a gibbet!" But let us hope that such disgraceful sentiments are not now to be found in the breast of any Englishman, however humble his condition. ”

“ When this was stated in the House of Lords, the Duke of York said, "My lords, I have as much reason, and, heaven knows, I would as anxiously desire as my royal relative to absent myself from these proceedings; but when I have a DUTY imposed upon me, of such magnitude as the present, I should be ashamed to offer such an EXCUSE!" It is astonishing how any man, who had outraged virtue and violated HIS DUTY in a thousand ways, could, unblushingly, thus insult the English nation! ”

“ Why does your royal highness refuse to answer my simple, but honest and honourable inquiry? What have I not endured since the moment I became your princess and wife? Heaven only knows, and heaven only can avenge my wrongs. It is now more than seventeen years since I gave birth to your lovely daughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales, at which time I did most certainly hope and also believe, that her royal father's affectionate recollections of her mother would not only revive, but be exemplified. ”

“ I see in this mysterious persecution against the queen, the intended annihilation of the rights and privileges of the nation at large; and I, therefore, protest against the innovation. I argue, that which was unconstitutional and unprincipled in William the Third is equally dangerous and unconstitutional in George the Fourth! If such unprecedented injustice be allowed in the case of her majesty, where must we look for an impartial administration of justice? and how may we reasonably expect that violence will not be offered, if other means fail, to accomplish the intended mischief? ”

“ Although living upon the establishment of the king, the queen's real independent income was fifty-eight thousand pounds a year! Ought we not to ask why the princess was thus neglected and shamefully insulted?—left in debt, and in extreme perplexity of circumstances, for which the family must ever be considered mean and unjust? How was her royal highness to act in such a trying case? If she had retired to private life, her enemies would have pronounced her an improper person to retain the high station which she had formerly occupied. ”

“ His lordship pressed the queen to relieve the people, and, by every possible means, to mitigate the public burdens. But, though her majesty was gentle in her language, she expressed herself positively and decisively as being adverse to his views; and took the opportunity of reminding him of the secrecy of state affairs. As Lord Chatham had once given his solemn promise never to permit those secrets to transpire, he resolved faithfully to keep his engagement, though their disclosure would have opened the eyes of the public to the disgraceful proceedings of herself and ministers. ”

“ Who are these proud, yet base, tyrants,—who, after destroying the child, still continue their plans to destroy her mother also? Are they not the sycophants of a voluptuous monarch, whose despotic influence has for a long period destroyed the liberties and subverted the rights of the people, over whom he has exercised such uncontrouled and unconstitutional power? And what is the MORAL character of these state hirelings, (continued the queen) who neither act with judgment, or speak with ability, but who go to court to bow, and cringe, and fawn? ”

“ Does not nature revolt at this barbarity, this secret unfeeling conduct of the queen? What mother could know a similar case, and not afford all the generous tenderness of sympathy to mitigate the losses this orphan had sustained, not only of fortune, but of the fostering care of both his parents?
The complicated wickedness of the court seemed now nearly approaching its climax. Deception had been added to deception, until, to complete the delusion, another victim must necessarily be added, in the person of the Princess Caroline of Brunswick! ”

“ This has proved but too true, as well in the Manchester affair as in many other diabolical state proceedings. The little value, indeed, which the ministers of this period entertained for human life ought never to be pardoned. Property, if seized or lost, may be restored; or if not, man may enjoy a thousand delightful pleasures of existence without riches. The sun shines as warmly on the poor as on the rich; the gale of health breathes its balsam into the cottage casement on the heath no less sweetly and salubriously than in the portals of the palace. ”

“ We are, therefore, prevented by the Duke of Cumberland and his adherents from proving the truth of the statements we made in "The Authentic Records" in a court of law; but where resides the power that shall rob us of the glorious LIBERTY OF THE PRESS? We are the strenuous advocates of the right to promulgate TRUTH,—of the right to scrutinize public actions and public men,—of the right to expose vice, and castigate mischievous follies, even though they may be found in a palace! ”

“ Had unity and resolution been the watch-words of the sons of Britain, what millions of debt might have been prevented! what oceans of blood might have been saved! The iniquitous ministers who dictated war with America should have suffered as traitors to their country, which would have been their fate had not blind ignorance and servility, engendered by priests and tyrants, through the impious frauds of church and state, overwhelmed the better reason of the great mass of mankind! ”

“ The king's simplicity of style and unaffected respect for the people would have induced him to despise the gorgeous pageantry of state; he had been happy, indeed, to have been "the real father of his subjects." His majesty well knew that the public good ought to be the sole aim of all governments, and that for this purpose a prince is invested with the regal crown. A king is not to employ his authority, patronage, and riches, merely to gratify his own lusts and ambition ”

“ She who possesses it is the only woman to whom I could unite myself agreeably to my inclinations. You would find in me a husband who places all his affections upon another. If this secret, which I name to you in confidence, does not cause you to reject me; if ambition, or any other motive of which I am ignorant, cause you to condescend to the arrangements of my family, learn that, as soon as you shall have given an heir to the throne, I will abandon you, never to meet you more in public. ”

“ My Lords,—Although there is no noble lord more zealously attached to the privileges of this House than I am, yet when I see those privileges interfering with, and destructive of, the rights of the people, there is no one among the people more ready to oppose those privileges than myself. And, my lords, my reason is this: that the privileges of neither house of parliament were ever constitutionally given to either to combat with the rights of the people. ”

“ Whatever price will cost our tender love, we shall at least have the comfort, in the melancholy circumstance of this juncture, which our kingdom most justly laments with us, to give to our subjects a successor more worthy of the possession of our crown, either partly or wholly, than the detested daughter of our dearest brother, who, by her conduct, has brought disgrace upon our royal house, and whom now we will, for us, and our descendants, without difference of the substance of blood and quality, that she shall at all events be estranged from us and our line for ever. ”

“ Ignorance alone has produced such lamentable results; for a thirst after blood is never so effectually quenched as when it is repressed by the influence of knowledge, which teaches humility, moderation, benevolence, and the practice of every other virtue. In civilized society, there cannot be an equality of property; and, from the dissimilarity in human organization, there cannot be equality in the power and vigour of the mind. All men, however, are entitled to, and ought to enjoy, a perfect equality in civil and political rights. ”

“ It is one of the unnatural distinctions of royalty, and which is often fatal to the happiness of society, that their ways are not the ways of the other sons and daughters of humanity. Though royal blood is not of itself considered a barrier against marriage, the very few persons that are eligible to marry a king's daughter, besides the unsurmountable difficulties which religion opposes to such unions, makes them almost amount to absolute exclusion.
It would argue a callous heart not to feel the force of the above reflection, while speaking of the royal daughters of Queen Charlotte. ”

“ Yet as we are not in America, but in England,—the boasted land of liberty,—we must, forsooth, be seized as criminals, merely because we wish to institute an inquiry into the circumstances of the murder of an individual, whose assassin, or assassins, have hitherto escaped the slippery hands of justice! We are no cowards in regimentals, nor did we make our statement with a view of slandering the royal pensioner. We would have willingly contended with his royal highness in a court of law, if he had had the courage to have met us on fair grounds. ”

“ As an honest man, he very warmly advocated the cause of the nation, and represented the people to be in a high state of excitement, adding, that "if they be repelled, they must be repelled by force!" And to whom ought an unhappy suffering people to have had recourse but to the throne, whose power sanctioned the means used to drain their purses? The queen, however, was still unbending; she not only inveighed against the candour and sentiments of the earl, but requested she might not again be troubled by him upon such subjects! ”

“ The queen knew that war required soldiers and sailors, and that these soldiers and sailors must have officers over them, which would afford her an opportunity of selling commissions or of bestowing them upon some of her favourites. So that these things contributed to her majesty's individual wealth and power, what cared she for the increase of the country's burdens!
It is wonderful to reflect upon the means with which individuals in possession of power have contrived, in all ages and in all countries, to controul mankind. ”

“ We are sure that our readers WILL ADMIRE, with us, the "ANXIETY of his royal highness for the SAFETY of Sellis;" for, as soon as his wounds were dressed, the duke sent HIS OWN SURGEON to attend Sellis! Where shall we look for greater CARE or CONDESCENSION than this? How truly fortunate was the duke in being blessed with so expeditious and so penetrating a surgeon! "Mr. Home soon returned, and said there was no doubt that the man had killed himself!" Oh, talented man! who could perceive, at a glance, that "the man had killed himself!" ”

“ The earth, in many quarters, was covered with "killed and wounded," while the money of the tax-payers paid the legal assassins!
In the mean time, the minister at home was racking his brains how new taxes might be levied, to supply the means for the continuation of carnage. Property, liberty,—nay, even life itself, were deemed toys in the hands of Mr. Pitt, whose passions seemed to centre in rapine, enmity, and ambition. ”

“ No time ought to be lost; every thing that CAN be done OUGHT to be done, without delay. The queen is placed in the most serious situation. You ought not to forget, for one moment, that her enemy is her sovereign; and such is the utter absence of principle manifested to this illustrious lady since her left-handed marriage with the son of George the Third, that every person must fear for her safety, unless their hearts are hard as adamant, and themselves actors in the villanous tragedy. ”

“ It is to make us accusers, judges, jury, and executioners too, if we please. It is to give us an executive power, to which, in our legislative capacities, we are not entitled. It is to give us a power, which even the executive power itself has not, which the prerogative of the crown dare not assume, which the king himself cannot exercise. My lords, the king cannot touch the hair of any man's head in this country, though he be guilty of high treason, but by means of the law. ”

“ Alas! how much are kings to be pitied! If their principles and intentions be virtuous, what difficulties have they to surmount, what sorrows to endure! This was a trying period for George the Third: on the one hand, he saw the impropriety and cruelty of marriage merely for state policy, and more particularly so in the present instance, as he considered the prince's marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert solemn and binding in the sight of heaven, though certainly in direct opposition to the law of the country, which was in operation at the time it was solemnized. ”