e mode in which
everything had been taken down from the mouth of the witness, and
afterwards read over to and subscribed by her.[29] He concluded his
peculiarly energetic speech by again denying, in the most positive
terms, the truth of the imputation which had been cast upon the
commissioners.

The inquiry of 1813 set the pencils of the caricaturists in motion, and
among the satires it occasioned, I find a series of eight pictures on
one sheet, representing the witnesses, the commissioners, Mr. Whitbread,
and other persons connected with that and the previous investigation of
1806. It is called _A Key to the Investigation, or Iago Distanced by
Odds_; and the most amusing of the series is the seventh, which
represents the furious Lord Ellenborough, attired in his official robes
of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The following doggerel
clearly identifies it with the speech from which we have already
quoted:--

"This is the Chief J---- who, as the Lords tell,
Swore that the reflections were false!--black as h----!
_And though such bad words no man can use fewer_,
In his rage it was fear'd he would pistol the Brewer[30]
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 _eclat_,
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 unalter