English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. Graham Everitt

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СКАЧАТЬ was fear’d he would pistol the Brewer30 For moving the senate, who all cried, oh fie! That the Lady and B——31 had told a d——d lie, And were unworthy credit the oaths they did try; And lamented the witness, whose answer when penn’d, Without questions which drew them, appear’d to portend More reproach than she meant against her good friend. While the hireling servants examined by law, Who thought by a stretch to gain some éclat, While before the commissioners named by the King, To investigate matters and witnesses bring,” etc., etc.

      The eighth of the series is “the spring that set all in motion,” the satirist’s meaning being indicated by a throne, on which lies a cocked hat adorned with the Prince of Wales’ feathers, and beneath it, as is usual in a large proportion of the satires which allude to the prince-regent, a number of empty bottles.

      The Regent seems never to have lost an opportunity of insulting his uncongenial and unfortunate wife. In anticipation of the expected visit of the allied sovereigns in June, 1814, the prince conveyed an intimation to his royal mother that, as he considered his presence could not be dispensed with at her ensuing drawing-rooms, he desired it to be distinctly understood, “for reasons of which he alone could be the judge, to be his fixed and unalterable determination not to meet the Princess of Wales upon any occasion, either in public or private.”32 Queen Charlotte was bound of course to give an official intimation to that effect to the Princess Caroline, which, on the 24th and 26th of May, 1814, brought from her letters to the queen and the Regent. In the first of these communications she intimated her intention of “making public the cause of her absence from Court at a time when the duties of her station would otherwise peculiarly demand her attendance”; while her letter to her husband contained the following intimation: “Your Royal Highness may possibly refuse to read this letter; but the world must know that I have written it, and they will see my real motives for foregoing in this instance the rights of my rank. Occasions, however, may arise (one, I trust, is far distant) when I must appear in public, and your Royal Highness must be present also. Can your Royal Highness have contemplated the full extent of your declaration? Has your Royal Highness forgotten the approaching marriage of our daughter [to the Prince of Orange] and the possibility of our coronation?” These words show that from the first Caroline had decided, coûte que coûte, when the time came to assert her position, in spite of the opposition of her husband and any obstacles which might be raised by his friends and advisers.

      We have entered rather fully into this matter, because it seemed to us necessary, in order that the reader might understand the temper of Caroline, and the motives which influenced her in the extraordinary course of conduct which she afterwards thought fit to pursue. She was treated, we have seen, with the most cruel and studied insult; excluded from ceremonials at which her rank and position entitled her to be present. “Sir,” said the unfortunate woman in the letter to her husband to which we have alluded, “the time you have selected for this proceeding is calculated to make it peculiarly galling. Many illustrious strangers are already arrived in England; among others, as I am informed, the illustrious heir of the house of Orange, who has announced himself to me as my future son-in-law. From their society I am unjustly excluded. Others are expected, of rank equal to your own, to rejoice with your Royal Highness in the peace of Europe. My daughter will for the first time appear in the splendour and publicity becoming the approaching nuptials of the presumptive heiress of this empire. This season your Royal Highness has chosen for treating me with great and unprovoked indignity; and of all his Majesty’s subjects, I alone am prevented by your Royal Highness from appearing in my place, to partake of the general joy, and am deprived of the indulgence of those feelings of pride and affection permitted to every mother but me.” Poor mother! who may help pitying her! Her most prejudiced enemy will admit that this was an eloquent and noble protest. Had she only maintained this language and attitude, we should justly assign to her a place amongst the royal martyrs of history. Naturally this barbarous, impolitic treatment soured her, as it would sour even the sweetest disposition. In an evil hour for her, and we may add for this country, she solicited and obtained permission to travel abroad.

      No sooner was she freed from the restraints which had surrounded her at home, than her conduct not only makes us doubt whether she had any hand in the composition of this maternal appeal, but appears to justify the conclusions at which the commissioners of 1806 and 1813 seem to have arrived. Her temper was obstinate and wilful. She knew that she was watched; and from a spirit apparently of wanton mischief, designed with the view doubtless of annoying her enemies, she indulged in a series of the most extraordinary and undignified vagaries. She took into her service and received into her closest confidence and favour persons of the lowest position. It was impossible for rumours of her extraordinary eccentricities not to reach, not only the ears of those who detested her, but in an imperfect and incorrect degree those of the general public. That this was the case is shown by a caricature entitled, Paving the way for a Royal Divorce, published by Johnston on the 1st of October, 1816, in which we see the corpulent Regent at table with Lord Liverpool, “Old Bags”33 (Chancellor Eldon), Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough, Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and another, probably intended for Viscount Sidmouth. His Royal Highness is made by the caricaturist to say that he and his sympathizers think “we shall now succeed, having secured some evidence from the coast of Barbary.... I have got everything as clear as the sun at noon-day.... Now for a divorce as soon as possible.” Lord Chancellor Eldon says, “I’ll stick to your Highness through thick and thin, or never call me ‘Old Bags’ again as long as I live.” Lord Liverpool supports him by the assurance, “I’m an unmatched negotiator, and I’ll enter into a treaty with the House of Commons to secure your suit.” The temper of the Commons is shown by the doubts expressed by the individual we take to be intended for Viscount Sidmouth. “I have my doubts,” says this person, at the same time laying his hands on the port wine decanter, “I have my doubts and qualms of conscience, your Highness; what say you, Van?” “Oh, my lord,” replies Vansittart, who is seated on the “Budget,” “I have some strange touches of feeling on the subject.” Up rises the hot-tempered Lord Chief Justice, upsetting a decanter of port wine, and at the same time the chair on which he has been sitting, “Don’t put me in a passion with your ’qualms’ and your ‘touches’; they are all false, false as h——! I’ll blow you all to the d——l if you don’t stick to your master manfully!!” By the side of the prince we see, as usual, a pailful of wine bottles, and at his feet, in allusion to his notorious infidelities, an open volume entitled, “The Secret Memoirs of a Prince, by Humphrey Hedghog, Esq., 1815.” By the side of the Lord Chief Justice lie three portly volumes labelled, “The Law of Divorce.” It will be evident from the foregoing, that from an early period, the satirists on the popular side gave credit to the prince and his advisers for being members of a secret conspiracy for compassing the ruin of the erring and unfortunate woman.

      Now what was the “evidence” to which the corpulent Regent is made to refer in the sketch before us? It was not of course evidence, but rumour; and rumour said the strangest things of the Princess Caroline. It associated her name with that of a courier,—a low Italian, named Bartolomeo Bergami; it said that she had enriched and ennobled this man and other members of his family; procured for him a barony in Sicily; decorated him with several orders of knighthood; and asserted in the plainest terms that she was living with him in a state of open and notorious adultery. These reports rendered it necessary to ascertain on what foundation they rested, and the result was that in 1818, Mr. Cooke, of the Chancery Bar, and Mr. Powell, a solicitor, were despatched into Germany and Italy to collect evidence with respect to her conduct. This inquiry, which is generally known as the “Milan Commission,” seemed certainly preferable to an investigation of a more public and notorious character; and upon the evidence these gentlemen obtained was founded the “Bill of Pains and Penalties,” which we shall presently have to consider.

      It is quite clear that the ministers of 1820 were strongly averse 1820. to the introduction of the “Bill of Pains and Penalties,” which is now known to us as the “Trial of Queen Caroline.” The whole odium indeed of the proceedings rested upon them at the СКАЧАТЬ