The honourable and learned gentleman had found fault with that part of his noble friend (Lord Castlereagh's) speech, in which his noble friend had compared a committee of that House to a grand jury, and had observed, that grand jurors were always sworn. In that respect, certainly the members of that House could not be made to resemble the members of a grand jury; and therefore, if it were fitting that the matter in question should be at all submitted to the House of Commons, the ceremony of an oath must be dispensed with. But the honourable and learned gentleman was of opinion, that Government ought rather to have at once come forward with a Bill of Pains and Penalties; and on their own responsibility, and without consultation with either House of Parliament, to have become Her Majesty's accusers. He (Mr. Canning) for one, so help him God, would never place himself in the situation of the public accuser of that individual. But what, according to the honourable and learned gentleman's own showing, would have been gained by that mode of proceeding? The honourable and learned gentleman had professed that he should consider the report of the committee as of no authority, because the committee would be in effect nominated by His Majesty's Ministers. What authority then would the honourable and learned gentleman have been disposed to allow to an accusation emanating directly from His Majesty's Ministers themselves? Even under the circumstances which had overwhelmed all the efforts of Ministers to avoid this discussion, he was at a loss to see the obligation upon them to become public accusers. Their efforts in the spirit of peace and conciliation had failed; but before a Bill of Pains and Penalties, or any other decisive measure, assuming guilt as its foundation, was introduced, the Ministers thought it right to communicate to Parliament the whole of the materials of which they were

themselves most unwillingly in possession, and to take whatever chance there might be that Parliament might reverse their opinion, and decide that there was no ground now for inquiry. Would that decision be open to Parlia ment, if His Majesty's Ministers had prejudged the question so far as to bring forward an accusation? Would Parliament even have entertained such an accusation in the shape of a Bill of Pains and Penalties, without insisting upon ascertaining, by a committee of their own, whether there was any ground for such a measure? And would not, therefore, the very proceedings which the honourable and learned gentleman now recommended have been such, to an absolute certainty, with the very motion for a committee which he now so strenuously reprobated? His Majesty's Ministers could do no otherwise than appeal on this terrible question to Parliament. If they had attempted to take a shorter course, Parliament would have tried then to abandon it. How the House of Commons would deal with the appeal now made to it—whether by secret, or by open investigation, was now the question to be determined. If the former, there might be yet one chance-whatever the value of that chance might be that the further proceeding might be averted. In the latter case publicity would be given at once, to all the grounds of charge against Her Majesty; and then a complete investigation would become a matter of justice to Her Majesty. For this reason, he much preferred the proceeding in the first instance by a secret committee. If the secret committee reported that there was ground for crimination, then undoubtedly to the public the whole question must come, and opportunity must be given to the illustrious individual to confront her accusers, and to detect the infamy, if infamy were justly imputed, of the evidence on which the charges against her rested.

His first wish had certainly been that this investigation

might be averted; his next wish was, that Her Majesty might pass through the approaching ordeal triumphantly. Never, in public life, nor in a private capacity, had he felt such difficulty as in the present question. He hoped the House would pardon him for speaking of his personal feelings. Had it been in his power to avoid the call of duty, he would rather have been any where than where he was, when the subject first came to be agitated elsewhere, and during the present debate. Towards the illustrious person who was the object of the investigation, he felt an unaltered regard and affection-if he might use, without impropriety, so ardent a term. Gladly would he have rendered her any service; and there were no efforts he would have spared, no sacrifiees he would not have made, to have prevented the necessity of such a proceeding as the present against her.

If there had been any injustice meditated towards Her Majesty, no consideration on earth should have induced him to be a party to it, or to stand where he at that moment stood. Yet, on the fullest consideration, he had not thought that he should act honestly if he suffered his private feelings to prevent the discharge of his duty to his country, and to his Sovereign. From all he had observed, the proceeding hitherto had been just and honourable; and he could not have withdrawn from his official situation without giving rise to the most injurious suppositions of a contrary character. By saying that the proceeding was just, he by no means intended to pronounce any opinion as to the validity of the charges. That was a matter for subsequent examination--and not to be prejudiced by individual opinion. What he intended to express was his entire conviction, that the proceeding was instituted only because it could not be avoided; and that there was no other motive for it than public duty--no other

object in it than a sincere desire to elicit the truth. It was but justice to those with whom he had the honour to act, to say, that they had undertaken the painful task only from a sense of what was due to the Sovereign, to the country, and, under the circumstances of the case, to the illustrious individual immediately in question.

How happy would they have been, if, by a favourable result of their efforts at accommodation, they had been enabled to spare all these interests, and, what was of no less importance, as the honourable and learned gentleman had justly remarked, to spare the national morals the shock, and the taint of such an inquiry! It was not their fault that these earnest efforts had failed. All that had been done by the Government with reference to Her Majesty had been done in the spirit of honour, candour, justice, and feeling. If he had observed the existence of any other disposition, no consideration on earth, he solemnly repeated, should have tempted him to become a party, or to remain a witness to it. His Majesty's Ministers had all alike been animated by the same zeal to avert the necessity of such a discussion as the present. But (such were the mean agencies that sometimes controlled human affairs) all their efforts had been rendered fruitless-he would not say by the evil intentions-but by the weak judgment of certain indiscreet individuals who had displaced Her Majesty's more sober advisers.

If any sacrifice on his part could have averted this calamity, if any sacrifice on his part could now avert this calamity, he would willingly retire into the most insignificant station. He saw there was something that seemed to delight the honourable gentlemen opposite in this declaration. Certainly he knew that it had been one of the commonplace topics of the honourable gentlemen's speeches, that His Majesty's Ministers were clinging fast to their places,

and that out of their adherence to those places the present communication to Parliament had arisen. The honourable and learned gentleman, however, was well aware, that such a charge was not well founded; the honourable and learned gentleman knew that His Majesty's Ministers possessed the means of refuting it. He repeated, then, that if the present had been a case in which any preponderating influence had been exerted in order to have the charge brought forward, and if the bringing of it forward could have been at all checked by the retirement from public life of so insignificant an individual as himself, God knew with what cheerfulness he would have resorted to that expedient! But this was by no means the case. With a judgment therefore perfectly conscientious, though at war against his private feelings, with a reluctant sense of duty, and with a heavy heart, he came to the discussion, which could only have been averted by a favourable termination of the negociation with Her Majesty; regretting deeply the fatal success of those counsels which frustrated all the endeavours of Ministers, blasted their fondest expectations, and had left one course only for them to adopt the course which they had this day adopted. Such were the observations which he had thought it necessary to offer to the House-some of them forced from him by his own personal situation, others dictated by the duty which he owed to his Sovereign and his country. Having now discharged that duty to the best of his ability, he hoped he might, without any dereliction of it, indulge his private feelings, by abstaining, as much as possible, from taking any part in the future stages of these proceedings.

MR. WILBERFORCE moved an amendment (which was carried)" that this debate be adjourned until Friday next." Meanwhile negociations were entered into between the Queen's counsel (Messrs. Brougham and Denman, Her