The Impeachment of The House of Brunswick Part 11

Afterwards, when an idiotic small boy--Armed with a broken pistol, loaded with red flannel, and without gunpowder--made a sham attack on her Majesty, Mr. Brown courageously rushed to the Queen's aid, and has since received a medal to mark his valor.

For many years her Majesty has taken but little part in the show ceremonials of State. Parliament is usually opened and closed by commission--a robe on an empty throne, and a speech read by deputy, satisfying the Sovereign's loyal subjects. It is, however, the fact that in real State policy her interference has been most mischievous, and this especially where it affected her Prusso-German relatives.' In the case of Denmark attacked by Prussia and Austria, and in the case of the Franco-Prussian War, English Court influences have most indecently affected our foreign relations.

Her Majesty is now enormously rich, and--as she is like her Royal grandmother--grows richer daily. She is also generous, Parliament annually voting her moneys to enable her to be so without touching her own purse.

It is charged against me that I have unfairly touched private character.

In no instance have I done so, except as I have found the conduct of the individuals attacked affecting the honor and welfare of the nation. My sayings and writings are denounced in many of the journals, and in the House of Lords, as seditious, and even treasonable. My answer is, that, fortunately, Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall heard "Not Guilty" given as the s.h.i.+eld against a criticism which dared to experiment on persecution. In case of need, I rely on a like deliverance. I do not pretend hereto have pleaded for Republicanism; I have only pleaded against the White Horse of Hanover. I admire the German intellect, training the world to think.

I loathe these small German breast-bestarred wanderers, whose only merit is their loving hatred of one another. In their own land they vegetate and wither unnoticed; here we pay them highly to marry and perpetuate a pauper prince-race. If they do nothing, they are "good." If they do ill, loyalty gilds the vice till it looks like virtue.