SELECTIONS,

&c.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS little publication is the result of a sugges tion to the Editor, that it might be useful, at this moment of fever and agitation of the public mind, to present to the country such a selection as might exhibit, in one point of view, the leading and most striking features of the answers which Her Majesty (under the pernicious influence, and by the evil advice, of wicked counsellors) was induced to return to the numerous Addresses, (the offspring, for the most part, of faction or of folly,) which have poured in upon her from all parts of the United Kingdom, (Ireland alone excepted,) almost from the moment of her arrival to the present hour. This exception in favour of Ireland will stand recorded as a lasting monument of the temper and good sense of that portion of the Empire.

B

The extreme folly of these addresses is abundantly proved in the sequel of the momentous transaction which gave occasion to them. The extreme wickedness of many of the answers, (penned no doubt for Her Majesty by others, but issued forth to the world in her name,) is manifestly displayed upon the very face of them, and in the specious, but base and artful, means employed to delude and mislead a high-spirited and a generous people, and to seduce them from their loyalty and allegiance to a mild and beneficent Sovereign-under whose Vice-regal and energetic rule the country terminated a war, which, for difficulties and dangers, manfully, patiently, and firmly endured for more than twenty years, and finally triumphantly surmounted, and for the glory and splendour of its close, has not a parallel in the annals of mankind;-and also to seduce them from their devotion and attachment to their admirable Constitution, the best calculated, in practice, as well as in theory, of any which the history of the world can exhibit, to promote and ensure the domestic happiness and prosperity, and the exterior power and grandeur of a nation.

The senseless, because premature, assertions of Her Majesty's innocence, which these addresses conveyed, were fully and completely refuted by the result of the division in the House of Lords on the Second Reading of the Bill of Pains and Penalties, whereby a majority of Her Majesty's Judges, after more than forty days patient and solemn judicial investigation

1

upon oath, pronounced their decision, that the charges adduced against her had been PROVED*-a decision, founded upon the most unexceptionable of all testimony,—the testimony adduced in her own defence. By the evidence of HER OWN WITNESSES were the allegations in the preamble of the Bill established.

Whatever may have been the object, the manifest and nefarious tendency of most of the answers to these addresses, was, to disseminate among the people "rebellious principles, which could have no founda"tion whatever in morals ;" and, to excite them to rebellious movements which could have no pro"vocation whatever in tyrannyt." The best com

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"In rising to address you on the present occasion, I feel that "I have to speak to a question which obviously, and on the "face of it combines two considerations, distinct in themselves, and "which may operate very differently upon different minds."I mean first, the GREAT QUESTION, whether Her Majesty is, Or IS NOT GUILTY of the charges which have been adduced "against her? And, secondly, the legislative question, whether "it is, or is not expedient to pass the present Bill.". "And here, “my Lords, I admit, and indeed I wish most distinctly to declare, "that whatever any Noble Lord may think of any or all of the allegations in the preamble, no one ought to pote, and I trust no one will vote for the Second Reading of the Bill, who " DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT THE ADULTEROUS INTERCOURSE HAS "BEEN PROVED BY SUFFICIENT AND SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE.' Lord Liverpool's Speech, pages 5. and 9.

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One hundred and twenty-three Peers voted FOR THE SECOND READING OF the BILL.

+ See Burke's Letter to a Noble Lord.