Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/175

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in which the Italian Beigami was her confidant and attendant. Many infamous reports were afterwards circulated, relating to the connexion between the princess and Bergami. On her journey, she received grateful acknowledgments for her liberality, her kindness, and her generous efforts for the relief of the distressed. She afterwards resided chiefly in Italy, at a country-seat on lake Como,

When the Prince of Wales ascended the British throne, January 29th., 1820, Lord Hutchinson offered her an income of £50,000 sterling, the name of Queen of England, and every title appertaining to that dignity, on the condition that she would never return to England. She refused the proposal, and asserted her claims more firmly than ever to the rights of a British Queen, complained of the ill-treatment she had received, and exposed the conspiracies against her, which had been continued by a secret agent, the Baron de Ompteda of Milan. Attempts at a reconciliation produced no favourable result. She at length adopted the bold step of a return to England, where she was neither expected nor wished for by the ministry, and, amidst the loudest expressions of the public joy, arrived from Calais, June 6th., and, the next day, entered London in triumph. The minister. Lord Liverpool, now accused the queen, before the parliament, for the purpose of exposing her to universal contempt as an adulteress. Whatever the investigation of the parliament may have brought to light, the public voice was louder than ever in favour of the queen; and, after a protracted investigation, the bill of pains and penalties was passed to a third reading, only by a majority of one hundred and twenty-three to ninety-five; and the ministers deemed it prudent to delay proceeding with the bill for six months, which was equivalent to withdrawing it. Thus ended this revolting process, which was, throughout, a flagrant outrage on public decency. In this trial, Mr. Brougham acted as the queen's attorney-general, Mr. Denman as her solicitor, and Drs. Lushington, Williams, and Wilde, as her counsel.

Though banished from the court of the king, her husband, the queen still lived at Brandenburg House, in a manner suitable to her rank, under the protection of the nation. In July, 1821, at the coronation of George the Fourth, she first requested to be crowned, then to be present at the ceremony. But by an order of the privy-council, both requests were denied, and, notwithstanding the assistance of the opposition, she suffered the personal humiliation of being repeatedly refused admission into Westminster Abbey. She then published, in the public papers, her protest against the order of the privy-council. Soon after her husband's departure to Ireland, July 30th., in consequence of the violent agitation of her mind, she was suddenly taken sick in Drury-lane theatre. An inflammation of the bowels succeeded, and she died August 7th., 1821. The corpse, according to her last will, was removed to Brunswick, where it rests among the remains of her ancestors. Her tombstone has a very short inscription, in which she is called the unhappy Queen of England. The removing and entombing of her mortal remains gave rise to many disturbances, first in London, and afterwards in Brunswick. These were founded more on opposition to the arbitrary measures of the ministry, that in respect for the memory of the queen. Two causes operated much in favour of the queen—the unpopularity of the ministry, and the general feeling