med to Lord Liverpool to leave him no
alternative, and, in consequence, he at once took the course which he
had from the beginning conceived her arrival would render indispensable.
He brought down to Parliament a royal message from the King, announcing
that her return to England had made it necessary to communicate to the
Houses documents relating to her conduct since her departure from the
kingdom, which he recommended to their immediate and serious attention.
He proposed the appointment by ballot of a committee of the House of
Lords to examine those documents; and when the committee had reported
that the documents containing "allegations deeply affecting the honor of
the Queen, etc., ... appeared to the committee calculated to affect not
only the honor of the Queen, but also the dignity of the crown and the
moral feelings and honor of the country, so that in their opinion, they
should become the subject of a solemn inquiry, which might be best
effected in the course of a legislative proceeding," he introduced a
"Bill of Pains and Penalties" to deprive her of her title of Queen, and
to annul her marriage.

No one would willingly dwell on so melancholy and disgraceful a subject.
As far as the Queen was concerned, a protracted investigation, during
which a number of witnesses, favorable and unfavorable, were examined,
left no doubt on the mind of almost all dispassionate people that the
misconduct alleged against her had been abundantly proved. At the same
time there was a feeling equally general that the King's treatment of
her from the very beginning of their married life had disentitled him to
any kind of relief; and this sentiment was so strongly shown by the
gradual diminution of the majority in favor of the bill, as it proceeded
through its several stages, that Lord Liverpool, who had already
abandoned the clause annulling the marriage, eventually withdrew the
whole bill, perceiving the impossibility of inducing the House of
Commons to pass it when it should go down to that House.

No act of Lord Liverpool's ministry has been attacked with greater
bitterness than that of allowing any proceedings whatever to be taken
against the Queen, partly on the ground that, however profligate her
conduct had been, it had certainly not been more gross than that of her
husband, which had provoked and given opportunity for her errors; partly
because a great scandal was thus published to the world, and a shock was
given to the nat