on accused must be permitted the employment of every means of
defence, including recrimination, the scandal was yet one which would,
to a certain extent, pass away with the close of the inquiry. But, if
she were left undisturbed in the enjoyment of her royal rank, and of
privileges which could not be separated from it, that scandal would last
as long as her life--longer, in all probability, than the reign. It is
hardly too much to say that the monarchy itself might have been
endangered by the spectacle of such a King and such a Queen; and the
ministers might fairly contend that, of two great dangers and evils,
they had, on the whole, chosen the least.

Lastly, if the Queen's conduct was to be investigated, though the mode
adopted was denounced as unconstitutional by the Opposition (for, not
greatly to their credit, the leading Whigs made her guilt or innocence a
party question), it does not seem to deserve the epithet, though it may
be confessed to have been unsupported by any direct precedent. Isabella,
the faithless wife of Edward II., had, indeed, been condemned by "the
Lords" to the forfeiture of many of the estates which she had illegally
appropriated; but it does not appear that her violation of her marriage
vows, or even her probable share or acquiescence in her husband's
murder, formed any portion of the grounds of her deprivation. And the
Parliament which attainted Catherine Howard proceeded solely on her
confession of ante-nuptial licentiousness, without giving her any
opportunity of answering or disproving the other charges which were
brought against her. Unprecedented, therefore, the course now adopted
may be admitted to have been. But it was the only practicable one. The
different minutes of the cabinet, which the Prime-minister laid before
the King, established most conclusively the correctness of their opinion
that no impeachment for high-treason could lie against her. She could
not be an accomplice in such an offence of one who, being a foreigner,
could not have committed it. It was equally impossible for the King to
sue for a divorce, as one of his subjects might have done; because it
was the established practice of Parliament not to entertain a bill of
divorce without the judgment of the Ecclesiastical Court being
previously obtained and produced. And, under the circumstances, to
obtain from the Ecclesiastical Court such a sentence as could alone lay
the foundation for a bill of divorce was clearly out