TWO LETTERS, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. <$fc.
 
 TWO LETTERS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. EARL ELDON, 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR, 
 
 &p. 8$c. §c. 
 
 WITH OFFICIAL AND OTHER DOCUMENTS. 
 
 BY THE HON. W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MILLER, PALL-MALL. 
 
 1827.
 
 SHACKELL AND BAYLIS, JOHNSONS-COURT.
 
 
 o 
 
 E-« 
 W 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 London, May 6, 1827. 
 
 The two following Letters would have been submitted 
 to the public months ago — but I purposely refrained from 
 publishing them, that I might exhaust every effort to effect 
 a reconciliation with my family, which would have rendered 
 family disclosures unnecessary.* I pressed this conviction 
 with the greatest earnestness. I would willingly have con- 
 sented tp sacrifices that must have materially weakened my 
 case before the House of Lords. I have been unsuccessful 
 in all my endeavours. I am compelled, therefore, to pro- 
 ceed to my Appeal, without receiving that countenance and 
 support from the different members of my family, which I 
 had a right to expect, and which I have so anxiously 
 laboured to obtain. 
 
 W. L. W 
 
 * Vide Correspondence in Appendix. 
 
 30S614 T " E
 
 VI 
 
 June 26, 1827. 
 
 The Appeal to the House of Lords being again post- 
 poned, and malignant falsehoods continuing to be propa- 
 gated without contradiction from those whose duty it ought 
 to be to support a member of their own family, I am left 
 but the alternative I now take to defend my character, and 
 which I have so long delayed. 
 
 Every considerate mind will appreciate the sufferings I 
 must undergo in thus bringing under public consideration 
 delicate subjects appertaining to private life. That 
 the domestic concerns of so humble an individual as myself 
 should occupy public attention at all, to me causes 
 both regret and astonishment ; but my private affairs 
 having been made matter of public discussion, I have car- 
 ried the history of that private life in the following pages 
 much further than my enemies have dared. 
 
 If these pages do not set forth demonstrative truth, I 
 must be fitter to become the inhabitant of a lunatic asylum 
 than to remain at large, resolved as a man of honour to 
 contend, by nil the most public means within my power, 
 for my right to continue to hold that station in society 
 whicb no act of mine has caused me to forfeit. 
 
 In
 
 Vll 
 
 In beg to be understood as not advocating 
 
 the cs i I paid damages in the Court of Com- 
 
 mon gards it, according to the laws of this 
 
 count suredly guilty, under most extenuating 
 
 circumstances, which, for the sake of saving some hundred 
 pounds, I did not choose in full to set forth, but which 
 I shall be justified in bringing to light, if attempts con- 
 tinue to be made, in secret, to wound my honour by those 
 who ought to protect it. 
 
 W. L. W.
 
 TH EARL ELDON, 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. Sfc. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have determined to avail myself of your 
 Lordship's earnest recommendation to appeal to 
 the House of Peers ; and, had I wanted, which I 
 did not, any incentive to such an appeal, I should 
 have found it in that anxiety, so frequently 
 evinced by your Lordship, to have your judg- 
 ment submitted to a higher tribunal. I have 
 imputed that anxiety to some doubts in your 
 Lordship's mind, as to the soundness of your 
 decision, both as it regarded the power of inter- 
 ference and the exercise of it ; for had there 
 been no possibility of doubt, had your Lordship 
 been convinced that no other man, and no other 
 tribunal could have come to any other conclusion, 
 you would hardly have pressed upon me a course 
 which could have had no other effect than that 
 of involving me in fresh and hopeless expense, and 
 
 B
 
 of exposing me to fresh anguish and disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 But whilst I am pressing the r*visal of my 
 own case, I feel that I am advocating one of the 
 greatest and most constitutional questions that 
 ever came before the House of Lords. A prece- 
 dent has been set, through me, for an alarming 
 interference between a Father and Child ! It is 
 for the House of Lords to decide— 1st, whether 
 such a power does really exist? 2dly, whether, if 
 it do exist, it ought to be confirmed, or abolished ? 
 and 3dly, whether such a case has been made out 
 as to justify its exercise against me? Having 
 determined upon making the appeal, it appeared 
 to be indispensably necessary to submit the present 
 letter to your Lordship, that your Lordship might 
 have an opportunity of re-considering the grounds 
 of your decision, and of reflecting whether your 
 Lordship has not viewed the subject in a different 
 light from that in which it ought to have been 
 viewed ; whether you have not relied too much 
 upon evidence which was liable to the greatest 
 suspicion ; and whether you could come to the 
 trial of such a case totally free from all bias, hav- 
 ing in the outset pronounced a decision against 
 me, by ordering that my children should remain 
 in the custody of the Misses Long; rejecting my 
 application for their being restored to me, and 
 thus declaring prima facie that I was unfit to be 
 their guardian.
 
 My pith Miss Long- took place in 
 
 the yea was agreed upon between that 
 
 lady a without the advice, interven- 
 
 tion, o wledgeof the relations on either 
 
 side. r was scarcely even acquainted 
 
 with a y family. The terms of our mar- 
 
 riage settlement were, in the first instance, to 
 have been arranged by an old gentleman of the 
 name of Barry, who had been resident apothe- 
 cary to the late Sir James Long, and was much 
 in the confidence of the late Lady Catherine, and 
 the Misses Long. He is a man of sectarian prin- 
 ciples, and a great collector of sectarian tracts, 
 (it was tracts of this nature which I was in the 
 habit of burning after my marriage, not because 
 they were religious, but because they were wild, 
 fanatic, and not in accordance with the true spirit 
 of Christianity) with which he supplied the diffe- 
 rent members of the family. With this gentle- 
 man I was desired to communicate upon the 
 terms of the marriage settlement. 
 
 He proposed that I should receive from Mrs. 
 Wellesley an annuity of £'10,000, and that the 
 Tylney estates, over which Miss Long had suf- 
 fered recoveries, and had obtained the fee simple, 
 should be re-settled according to the limitation 
 of the Long estates, giving to the Misses Long 
 the remainder of those estates, in the event of 
 there being no male issue of the marriage. 
 
 To these terms I objected at once : and repre- 
 b 2
 
 senting to Miss Long their injurious tendency 
 to herself, she acknowledged the justice of my 
 objections, and desired me to submit the outline 
 of an arrangement, after consulting her solicitor, 
 Mr. Bullock. 
 
 I declined suggesting any terms, but requested 
 the advice and assistance of Sir Vicary Gibbs, 
 the Attorney-General on my own part, whilst 
 I insisted that Miss Long should desire the inter- 
 ference of Sir William Scott, now Lord Stowell, 
 to protect her interests : nor would I allow her 
 to execute her marriage settlement, until I was 
 satisfied she was fully acquainted with the pro- 
 visions of that settlement, as explained to her by 
 Lord Stowell. 
 
 From the day of my marriage to the period of 
 Mrs. Wellesley's death, I never allowed her to 
 join with me in the execution of any securities 
 for the raising of money, which she was not 
 bound to execute by the provisions of her mar- 
 riage settlement : and I rejected all her offers to 
 do so. 
 
 I was totally ignorant of her having made a 
 will, until I was made acquainted with it by a 
 lady to whom she communicated the fact ; so 
 far was I from having any knowledge of it, that 
 upon her decease I wrote to Charles Yerbury, 
 Esq., who had the care of the records of my 
 estates, to search among them for a will. His 
 answer was, that he had found among those
 
 pa }f an unexecuted will, 
 
 frc jd that no will existed, 
 
 uni mmunication to which 
 
 I v alluded. The will was in 
 
 the possession of Mr. Sidebotham, the convey- 
 ancer, who had witnessed its execution by the 
 testatrix, and who had very minutely explained 
 to her all its provisions, and its remotest possible 
 effects. 
 
 During the minority of Mrs. Wellesley, and 
 after her coming of age, Lady Catherine and the 
 Misses Long received from Mrs. Wellesley, gra- 
 tuitously, very large sums of money, as an ac- 
 quittance for which, they were, after the arrange- 
 ments of the marriage settlement were made, to 
 have transferred to Mrs. Wellesley and myself, 
 their portions of £10,000 each, charged upon the 
 Long estates ; but no deeds to that effect appear 
 to have been executed. It was, therefore, not 
 without much surprise, that a few years after 
 my marriage, I was called upon to pay these 
 young ladies their portions ; when they claimed 
 £15,000 each, together with interest, on the 
 gross sum, making the whole amount to nearly 
 £40,000. 
 
 Upon a reference to the Earl of Shaftsbury 
 to decide between us, I paid the money, which 
 was raised by way of mortgage, with the addi- 
 tional security of my own bond. 
 
 Before this period, I became a candidate, not
 
 6 
 
 only with the approbation, but at the request of 
 Mrs. Wellesley and her family, to represent the 
 county of Wilts, in which I succeeded, at an 
 expense of not less than between £30,000 and 
 £40,000. 
 
 About a year and a half afterwards, I found 
 that I had been robbed to an enormous amount 
 by the person who had the controul and manage- 
 ment of my large expenditure at Wanstead, for 
 upwards of three years. No satisfactory account 
 could be obtained from this man, for he had 
 become mad, and died in a private mad-house. 
 The debt in which this man involved me, amount- 
 ed to about £50,000. I am not apologizing for 
 my own neglect ; I am only stating facts which 
 led to subsequent embarrassments. 
 
 As soon as I was convinced of the amount 
 of this debt, I convened the greater part of the 
 creditors, and offered to give them security upon 
 my personal property at Wanstead, for what 
 should appear, upon a proper examination, to be 
 due to them. 
 
 This arrangement has been called the Wanstead 
 deed ; the obligations consequent upon it have 
 been fulfilled since my return to England, al- 
 though it was attempted to be impressed upon 
 your Lordship's mind that the contrary was the 
 fact, and that the debts, so far from having been 
 paid, had only been met by a temporary arrange- 
 ment. It was this deed that was submitted to a
 
 court s validity was acknowledged at 
 
 the as lelmsford ; and the judge* who 
 
 tried 1 omplimented me upon the hono- 
 
 rable : ich had dictated its execution. 
 
 I e: s deed at Calais, contrary to ad- 
 
 vice g ^hich was, that being abroad, and 
 
 having the power, I ought to make the arrange- 
 ment to the extent of securing my property 
 against my creditors, instead of giving it, as I 
 did, in security for their debts. And I have ful- 
 filled to the letter, not only every provision I ever 
 made with persons~with whom I have had money 
 dealings, but every pecuniary obligation, how- 
 ever injurious to my interests, to which others 
 under my authority had bound me. 
 
 I know not whether I ought to answer the 
 absurd charge of having left England from ina- 
 bility to pay some tallow-chandler's or grocer's 
 bill. Those who made it know it to be false : 
 they know the fact to be, that, immediately after 
 I had made the proposal to my creditors to give 
 them my personal security, and before the Wan- 
 stead deed, which I executed at Calais, had been 
 prepared, information was conveyed to me, that 
 a writ, upon the bond for £40,000, raised for the 
 purpose of paying the Misses Long's portions, had 
 been issued against me, and I was in hourly ex- 
 pectation of being arrested. This was the cause 
 of my repairing to the continent, where I re- 
 mained two years, during which time I had reason 
 
 * I believe Chief Justice Dallas.
 
 8 
 
 to be extremely dissatisfied with the manner in 
 which my affairs had been managed during my 
 absence. So improperly had they betn managed, 
 that I found my return to England to be imme- 
 diately and imperiously necessary. And this im- 
 poses upon me the duty of stating the particulars 
 of an event, which, had not every action of my 
 life been wilfully misrepresented, I flattered my- 
 self could never have been alluded to but in terms 
 of commendation. 
 
 His Majesty was applied to, to permit my hold- 
 ing an office in his court, which would relieve me 
 from personal molestation. He was graciously 
 pleased to express himself with personal kindness 
 towards me; and he added, that if he could re- 
 ceive an assurance that my desire to fill that office, 
 was merely for the purpose of making a more 
 speedy settlement with my creditors, he would 
 permit me to hold it ; but if I wished to possess 
 the office for the purpose of setting my creditors 
 at defiance, his Majesty would by no means be a 
 party to any such arrangement. His Majesty 
 was satisfied that I had no such intention, and the 
 office was conferred upon me. Whilst, however, 
 I was in possession of it, T was arrested by a man 
 of the name of Timberlake, for a debt of some 
 hundred pounds, which I had directed my agent 
 to dispute. Without availing myself of the pri- 
 vilege which my office vested in me, I paid the 
 debt ; and some reports having reached me, 
 which tended to induce a belief that his Majesty's
 
 9 
 
 i y misunderstood, I deemed 
 
 i d duty on my part, to sur- 
 
 r he hands of his Majesty. 
 
 1 Mian never, nowever, cease to remember without 
 the deepest gratitude, his Majesty's kindness and 
 favour, of which, I trust, I did not shew myself 
 insensible. 
 
 I remained in England so long as was neces- 
 sary to put my affairs into a train of settlement, 
 and then retired to the continent, in order to 
 wait its progress and termination. 
 
 It was then that I solicited the assistance of my 
 father, but I executed no trust deed to preserve 
 my property against my creditors, nor did I ever 
 execute such a trust ; I gave a simple power of 
 attorney, fixing for my expenditure abroad, 
 
 per annum, to which Mrs. Wellesley was 
 
 no party. My letters, reluctantly produced by 
 the Misses Long, prove my sentiments relative to 
 Mrs, Wellesley's pin money, which always re- 
 mained free, and at her own disposal, and which 
 she claimed, as she had a perfect right to do, 
 though the right was enforced at a moment of 
 the greatest inconvenience to myself. However, 
 the money was immediately paid ; and although 
 the Misses Long have studiously kept from me all 
 the papers and documents, which they seized and 
 secreted from me, to whom they devolved of 
 right, at the decease of Mrs. Wellesley (as appears 
 by the annexed correspondence), I have, never-
 
 10 
 
 theless, been abe to secure some papers and docn* 
 merits, from which I have derived §&pofs, that, 
 before my marriage, Lady Catherine and the 
 Misses Long, received a sum of money amounting 
 
 to £ , £40,000 of which came into the hands 
 
 of Mr. Barry ; the larger part whereof he re- 
 ceived from a transfer of stock ; and he informed 
 Mrs. Wellesley that, having converted that stock 
 into bank notes, he had sewed them into his 
 clothes for better security, meaning to convey 
 them from London to Bath, in order that he 
 might more readily pay the debts due. Of the 
 payment of this money I received no detailed 
 account, beyond a general one, that it was for 
 the use of Lady Catherine and the Misses Long, 
 nor do I believe any account was ever given to 
 the late Mrs. Wellesley.* 
 
 The power which I gave was irrevocable for 
 five years, unless I came to England ; the word 
 irrevocable having been inserted, I have been 
 accused of a breach of faith in revoking the power 
 of attorney, but I came to England the moment 
 that accusation was made against me, and I re- 
 voked that power and resumed the management 
 of my affairs ; because, without meaning to im- 
 peach the integrity of my attornies, I believed that 
 they had not acted with sufficient judgment. 
 
 * It appears now that this sum was equally shared between Lady 
 Catherine Long's brothers and sisters.
 
 11 
 
 The idence which took place with 
 
 Dr. L before and after Mrs. Welles- 
 
 ley's c ' explains my wishes with regard 
 
 to the of my children, and the reasons 
 
 whicr le, before I knew that they were 
 
 Ward dtt mrt, to desire that they might be 
 
 sent to me abroad ; but it was known, even at 
 that time, that it never was in contemplation to 
 bring my children into the remotest intercourse 
 with the lady whose name has been so indecently 
 mentioned in the course of these proceedings. 
 And here I must complain, that your Lordship 
 has by no means given such an explanation of the 
 earlier stages of this event as, in my judgment, the 
 facts warrant. I desired my children to be sent to 
 me immediately after my wife's death (as my let- 
 ters to Mr. Yerbury and Mr. Pittman shew). They 
 were detained in England, not because they were 
 Wards of the Court, but because Mr. Pittman and 
 Mr. Hutchinson chose so to consider them. They 
 had been made Wards by Mrs. Wellesley's assign- 
 ment to them of part of her pin money (the act of 
 assignment shews her to have been in full posses- 
 sion of her pin money), which, of course, ceased 
 at her death. To this, I understand, Mrs. Wel- 
 lesley was induced to consent, in consequence of 
 the false assertion, that during her life, I intended 
 to remove the children by stratagem (a pure false- 
 hood) from her. Where was the necessity for 
 stratagem, when I could, at any period, have gone 
 openly and taken them away ? So secretly were
 
 12 
 
 they made Wards of the Court, that I was wholly 
 uninformed of the fact, until some time after 
 Mrs. Wellesley's death. I then sue( for a writ 
 of habeas corpus, not to take them abroad, but to 
 remove them, during my absence from England, 
 to Draycot House, where it was my intention to 
 have had them pursue that system of education 
 which I had traced out, and which your Lordship 
 has approved of. My letters to Dr. Lushington, 
 to Mrs. Weilesley, and to Mr. Pittman, written 
 without it being possible for me to imagine that 
 the education of my children would become a 
 subject of notoriety, still less of legal inquiry, 
 all lead to one point, the preventing of all inter- 
 ference with my children on the part of the Misses 
 Long, from the conviction of their sectarian prin- 
 ciples, and from the following facts, which I am 
 at length obliged to bring before your Lordship. 
 
 Your Lordship has given easy credit to the state- 
 ment that these ladies are possessed of refined taste, 
 and that a good natural understanding has been 
 improved and enlarged by education. — None of 
 these advantages, either natural or acquired, belong 
 to them. Sectarian tracts have operated upon the 
 mind of the elder sister, at least when I last saw 
 her, to such a degree, that it can scarcely be 
 called rational ; the younger, to a temper the most 
 violent, adds manners the least refined. This 
 must operate as a bar to any claim, or even pre- 
 text, she might be so presumptuous as to advance, 
 to the guardianship of children, more especially to
 
 13 
 
 the guardianship of daughters. I may have other 
 reasi to proclaim. 
 
 W rrested by your 
 
 Lor< sre re-constituted 
 
 Waiaa ui tnc v^uun, ; me oraer drawn out was, that 
 a person, in the shape of a guardian, should be ap- 
 pointed during my absence abroad. About the time 
 I received, whilst at Calais, the Misses Long's, Dr. 
 Bulkeley's, O'Meara's, and Henry Bicknell's affi- 
 davits, I had a letter from the Duke of Wellington, 
 stating that he had accepted of that guardianship at 
 the invitation of the Misses Long, and, as I am en- 
 titled to believe, at the instigation of your Lord- 
 ship. I rejected, with indignation, the project of 
 nominating the Duke of Wellington to be the 
 guardian of my children, without the slightest re- 
 ference to me ; and I informed his Grace, that if I 
 remained abroad, and it became necessary to ap- 
 point a guardian, the natural guardian of those 
 children, if their father were dead, or in a foreign 
 land, would be their grandfather. 
 
 Had I consulted my convenience, or pecuniary 
 arrangements, I should have remained abroad 
 until they were completed, but immediately upon 
 the receipt of his Grace's letter, I resolved to make 
 preparations for immediately coming to England, 
 where I arrived in December 1825. 
 
 What was my first step ? — I refrained from de- 
 manding my children until I had fulfilled every 
 obligation, either written or implied, which my 
 attornies had entered into in my name, and until
 
 14 
 
 I had so arranged my pecuniary affairs, as to en- 
 sure to myself a large surplus income. Nor was 
 this all— I made no claim to have my children re- 
 stored to me until I had purchased and established 
 myself in a house near the Regent's Park (Hall- 
 Place,) peculiarly calculated for the residence of 
 children ; having a large garden, and every con- 
 venience necessary fo* their health and comfort. 
 Of this establishment, the lady who has been so 
 much calumniated was not to form a part, nor 
 has she ever been within its walls. I have sworn 
 so once ; why, I would ask, am I to be required 
 to do so a hundred times, in answer to the accu- 
 sation of Mrs. Scott ? 
 
 Having taken these preliminary steps, I felt 
 that I had done all that depended upon me, to 
 ensure the immediate restoration of my children. 
 
 I pause for a moment, to introduce a subject 
 which it is hard to believe has not pressed itself 
 with great force upon your Lordship's mind. One 
 of the main charges brought against me, and re- 
 lied upon with extraordinary pertinacity by your 
 Lordship, is founded upon my renewal of my con- 
 nection with the lady in question. In the earlier 
 stages of those proceedings, it was sufficiently 
 shewn, that I was earnestly endeavouring to put 
 an end to the connection, and that all my efforts 
 were directed to that end. How, and why were 
 they frustrated ? By your Lordship's self, by the 
 process instituted in the Court over which you 
 preside. Your Lordship, in your own hand-writing,
 
 15 
 
 demand ons of statements on affidavits, 
 
 not coi th my paternal relation to my 
 
 childrei rig solely to transactions in which 
 
 that lac self were implicated. In what 
 
 possible i these affidavitsbe answered, but 
 
 by din ersonal intercourse with her ? 
 
 Would ship have admitted it as a good 
 
 answer, tnat 1 nad put an end to all communica- 
 tion with the lady, and could not reply to the 
 matters of the affidavit, without a renewal of that 
 connection which might be made the ground of 
 future charge against me ? Your Lordship would 
 have intimated that such a plea was wholly inad- 
 missible. I may, therefore, complain that it was 
 the inquisitorial forms of your Lordship's Court 
 that encouraged the renewal of a connection 
 which has been made the ground upon which 
 your Lordship has deprived me of my children. 
 
 When I received, at Calais, the affidavits, 
 which I answered, I should not have been enabled 
 to have given to all the substantial facts those 
 very positive denials I did, without strengthening 
 my recollection by a communication with Mrs. 
 Bligh, who was then living in a separate house, 
 and with a separate establishment from myself. 
 When I arrived in England, that lady continued 
 at Calais ; but when she did arrive in this coun- 
 try, was it my first step to receive, or go to her? 
 Quite the contrary. Mr. Griffith has sworn, and 
 sworn truly, that he took upon himself the re- 
 ponsibility of the rent of a house, not only with-
 
 16 
 
 out any reference to me, but in direct violation 
 of my express directions. 
 
 Still wishing to consider ourselves as separated, 
 but anxious to afford her all the assistance in my 
 power, I desired her to apply to an eminent soli- 
 citor, Mr. Powell, who was not, at that time, my 
 solicitor. That gentleman directed her proceed- 
 ings, without any reference to me, and without 
 any personal interview, on my part, with her. 
 But this state of separation was at length termi- 
 nated by the necessity imposed by the Chancery 
 proceedings of direct personal intercourse, for 
 the purpose of refreshing my memory upon trans- 
 actions long past : of recollecting details, and 
 of comparing dates ; which could not have been 
 done by letter, or by the intermediate agency 
 of any third person. And hence, I repeat, your 
 Lordship's Court led to the renewal of that 
 connection, which is now made the foundation 
 of your Lordship's severe, and unmerited de- 
 cision. 
 
 It was shortly after this renewed connection, 
 that the father of this lady, not from any com- 
 munication with me or his daughter, but with 
 other persons, obtained evidence, which led him 
 no longer to doubt, that which has been proved 
 to be the fact in the course of this inquiry. 
 Having satisfied his mind upon certain points, 
 viz. those which impugned his daughter's veracity 
 and mine, he received his daughter under his 
 protection, and became reconciled to me; and
 
 17 
 
 under these circumstances he made the affidavit 
 he the action at nisi prius, 
 
 be id myself, was coming 
 
 on ly communicated with 
 
 me 
 
 During the life-time of Mrs. Wellesley, I am 
 at a loss to conceive how any individual, actuated 
 alone by a sense of duty, could take more de- 
 cided, or indeed more desperate efforts, to sepa- 
 rate myself from a connection with a lady whom 
 my wife alone introduced to our establishment. 
 
 This lady, after her return to Paris, went to 
 England, and only came to me when I was con- 
 fined upon a bed of sickness (from which I had 
 never moved, except to travel from Dieppe to 
 Paris) for nine months. 
 
 My intercourse with this lady, under all cir- 
 cumstances, and at all times, and now, is of the 
 most unobtrusive kind. She lives in her own 
 house. It would be perfectly unknown that I 
 ever stood in any other relation to her than 
 a friend, but for the proceedings at law and 
 equity. It has been the policy of the solicitor 
 to the Misses Long to drag this lady into 
 notoriety, by assailing her with every species of 
 insult which malice could invent and vulgarity 
 put in practice. It was the assault of Mr. Scott 
 and the summons of Mr. Hutchinson, which 
 forced Mrs. Bligh before the police. The attempt, 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 forcibly, to enter Mrs. Bligh's house by this man, 
 evidently had but this object. 
 
 The question whether I ought not to have dis- 
 solved such an intimacy, during the life-time of 
 my wife (and I have shewn that I did every 
 thing to dissolve it during that period) assumes 
 a very different shape and form after the death 
 of my wife. And here, if I wish your Lordship, 
 as a peer of England, to throw off for a moment 
 the garb of a Judge, and to think as a man, I 
 should request your Lordship to explain how I 
 am to avail myself of the alternative you allow 
 me in your judgment, without being guilty of an 
 act, which would make me lose my self-estima- 
 tion and render every man of honour my enemy ? 
 
 This leads me to say a word upon that fearful 
 armour, or, as I have found it, panoply, of your 
 Lordship's Court, which protects all assertions, I 
 mean assertions couched in affidavit. This 
 armour, well riveted by the artful attorney, ren- 
 ders the most perjured statement invulnerable to 
 the attacks of common law : it also elevates the 
 language of the uneducated man to the level of 
 that of the man of letters. The man of letters, 
 sensible of the import of terms, confused by tech- 
 nicalities, allows his mind to dwell upon manner, 
 so as frequently to become inaccurate as to the 
 matter. The uneducated man gives the matter, 
 in his own inaccurate and indistinct lancua^e, to
 
 19 
 
 the attorney, who amplifies, corrects, or curtails 
 it, in the manner which best bears upon what, I 
 suppose, he would call his case. 
 
 Your Lordship cannot be unacquainted with 
 the process of the manufacture of the staple com- 
 modity of your Court. The poor suitor writes 
 his answer to all the accusations of those who 
 " verily believe." If he be a man of feeling, and 
 perhaps a lover of truth, he is inclined to give 
 his positive denials with some acrimony, and, 
 without very great accuracy as to dates, confines 
 himself to the stout denial of substantive facts. 
 This, in its crude and raw state, is sent to the soli- 
 citor, who goes no further with it than to give it 
 legal phraseology, and just to leave out those 
 little particles which he considers, from his own 
 knowledge of your Lordship, will not be suitable 
 to what you call equity phlegm. But there is ano- 
 ther practice, which strikes at the root of all secu- 
 rity for the suitor, and is destructive of the best 
 principles of just inquiry. No man knows what 
 he is to answer. The counsel, the solicitor, con- 
 sider what parts of affidavits are such as will be 
 deemed by your Lordship as material ; these 
 they desire the suitor to answer. The Scotts' 
 affidavits, the watchmen's affidavits; in short, 
 all the covey of affidavits which flew into 
 Court this last season, all my consel and solicitors 
 desired Mrs. Bligh and me not to answer our- 
 selves ; otherwise you would have been told, that 
 
 C2
 
 20 
 
 which I pledge my soul and honour to be true, 
 first, that Mrs. Bligh never was in any house 
 whatever in Spring Gardens ; and, secondly, that 
 it would be impossible to metamorphose the ap- 
 pearance of Mrs. Bligh into that of Mrs. Scott ; 
 so utterly dissimilar are they in gait, in height, 
 and in size. 
 
 This evidence, however, either given on affi- 
 davit or otherwise, which would have been dis- 
 graced and hooted out of a court of law, is received 
 with courtesy and favour in the Court of Chancery. 
 Thus the testimony of discharged servants, by your 
 Lordship, is held to be indisputably good against 
 their masters. They are suffered, by you, to be the 
 arbiters of morals : and Mrs. Bligh, who has moved 
 in the highest societies, and been an inmate in the 
 most illustrious families — whose manners, as your 
 Lordship might know, are peculiarly distinguished, 
 and whose accomplishments are of the first order — 
 is to go down to posterity an object of disgust, upon 
 the single affidavit evidence of a servant, who had 
 been discharged for the causes stated upon affi- 
 davit, and whose appearance was such as to induce 
 Mrs. Bligh's father, on his first seeing her, to 
 desire his daughter to discharge her without delay. 
 
 It becomes necessary for me now, my Lord, to 
 proceed to the trial in the Court of Common 
 Pleas, in which you have been pleased to say, 
 that there was evident management or conniv- 
 ance between Captain Bligh and myself. What
 
 21 
 
 management there could have been on my part, it 
 would require more than your Lordship's inge- 
 nuity to discover. With much more reason 
 might I complain of that kind of management in 
 another quarter, which contrived to make a pro- 
 cess in one Court linger till a process had been 
 decided in another, which might involve me in 
 greater odium and unpopularity, and thus deliver 
 me up an easier and more unprotected victim. 
 
 But not to conceal any circumstance relative 
 to the trial in the Common Pleas, I must state 
 to your Lordship, that the instructions which I 
 gave my counsel were the following : — I made 
 it a sine qua no?i, that they should cross-examine 
 Bulkeley and O'Meara as to those falsehoods 
 which they had uttered in affidavit. Their atten- 
 tion was especially directed by me to this point. 
 The next was to set forth distinctly, that I had had 
 no intrigue with Mrs. Bligh at Naples ; that my 
 affidavit was strictly true; and, generally, to 
 guard my honour, as it affected the proceedings 
 in Chancery. I desired them to admit the act 
 of which I was accused, at any time or place after 
 Mrs. Bligh left my house ; but insisted on their 
 shewing that it had not taken place before. 
 
 Mr. Scarlett stated distinctly to me that, if he 
 called evidence for the purpose of reducing; da- 
 mages, he would not answer for the effect it 
 might have upon the minds of the jury in pre- 
 venting a verdict. I gave him positive directions 
 not to go into any matter that might produce
 
 22 
 
 unnecessary scandal and exposure ; and, above all 
 things, I told him that I felt myself bound in 
 honour to this lady's family not to attempt to 
 obtain a verdict, provided I could guard my own 
 reputation for veracity in the Court of Chancery. 
 
 My Lord, it is curious to remark the different 
 course pursued in the two Courts of Chancery 
 and Common Pleas ; la the former your Lord- 
 ship entertains an affidavit, declaring me to be 
 insolvent, and calls upon me to shew whether I am 
 or not ; whilst in the Common Pleas, the heaviest 
 damages are pressed, because I am a man abound- 
 ing in riches. And wealthy, indeed, must a man 
 be to bear, at once, the expences of Chancery and 
 Common Law processes.* 
 
 I come now to one subject which I approach 
 with the greatest unwillingness and most painful 
 feelings, because it relates to the defects of one 
 who is now no more. But it is yet some consola- 
 tion to me to know, that whilst I am compelled 
 to pursue this course for my own vindication, I 
 am rescuing her memory from the imputation of 
 having done, of her own accord, some unkind 
 and injudicious acts to her family — acts which 
 proceeded entirely from the dictation and contri- 
 vance of others. 
 
 Mrs. Wellesley was a most amiable woman. 
 
 * The amount already paid is £5,500. The fortunes of both my 
 younger children, independent of me, are only £6,000. Chief 
 Justice Best's charge, now proved to have proceeded upon false data, 
 cost me £6,000.
 
 23 
 
 Her dutiful affection for her mother, her love for 
 her sisters, were exemplary. But she had not 
 profited by education to the degree which might 
 naturally have been expected ; and your Lordship 
 had some proofs of this in the documents that 
 came under your inspection. Whatever letters, 
 therefore, were in her hand -writing, were too 
 frequently the work of others. Such a mind was 
 well fitted to become the dupe of the artful and 
 designing ; she yielded herself to their machina- 
 tions, and nothing is more true than that the 
 letters which bear her signature, convey only the 
 wishes of others, who were equally hostile to the 
 happiness and peace of both. In proof of this 
 I have to state, that whilst we were living in Flo- 
 rence, Mrs. Wellesley, at the instigation of others, 
 was planning a separation from me, and was re- 
 ceiving letters from her sisters tending to alienate 
 her affection from me. I have also ascertained 
 that, when I arrived in Paris, and was in the 
 habit of consulting Sir G. Dallas upon the best 
 system to be pursued with my son's classical edu- 
 cation, he had, unknown to me, combined with 
 Dr. Bulkeley ; that he wrote for Mrs. Wellesley 
 the letter addressed to Lord Maryborough ; and 
 that then, and subsequently, he had recommended 
 legal advisers in the proceedings to be instituted 
 against me. 
 
 All anger has long since yielded to the deepest 
 feeling of regret that Mrs. Wellesley should have 
 listened to such counsels. Many suspicions could
 
 24 
 
 otherwise have been removed, many charges 
 against me could have been answered ; and much, 
 much uneasiness would have been spared us. But 
 her sisters never failed to impose upon her the 
 necessity of secrecy, and she had been too much 
 accustomed to their yoke to throw it off. She 
 might truly say, that her sisters 
 
 in the poiches of mine ears did pour 
 
 The leperous distilment. 
 
 They kept her in a constant state of irritation and 
 peevishness. But their object, from the earliest 
 period of our marriage, had always been to effect 
 an entire separation between us, that their power 
 over her might be undivided and complete. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties which I have 
 had to struggle with, during the whole progress of 
 this suit, has been that of obtaining any other than 
 garbled correspondence from the Misses Long. 
 The attempts I made to procure the correspond- 
 ence in full, will be explained by the following 
 letters, which have produced another extensive 
 Chancery suit, that will probably cost more than 
 the whole value of the effects.* 
 
 That correspondence has been studiously kept 
 from me, because it would exhibit letters from Sir 
 G. Dallas, letters from Mr. Hutchinson, commu- 
 nications from Mr. Treslove, letters from Lord 
 and Lady Maryborough, a variety of letters from 
 both the Misses Long, during their sister's resi- 
 dence abroad, giving her opinions and advice, and 
 * See Appendix A.
 
 2j 
 
 letters to and from Dr. Bulkeley, and O'Meara, 
 who was in direct communication with Mrs. Wel- 
 lesley. This correspondence would shew, also, 
 that I was betrayed as well as Lord and Lady 
 Maryborough ; that after three days' reflection on 
 the part of Mrs. Wellesley, and silence on my 
 part towards both of them — relying upon the 
 honour of my father, who, I have always con- 
 tended, pledged his word to me that I should be 
 in England on the 29th of September — having 
 received, also, from Mrs. Wellesley a distinct and 
 positive avowal of" her intention not to take 
 any steps for a legal separation from me, (in 
 which I conceived my father to have joined) or 
 in any way to impede the system of education I 
 had laid down for my children ; I was induced by 
 the affection I am well known to entertain for 
 my mother, at her solicitation, and from feelings 
 of kindness to Mrs. Wellesley, to forego that 
 which my judgment always led me to deprecate; 
 and, upon the faith of my father and mother, to 
 allow my children to be separated from me ; but 
 not without extracting from Mr. Pittman a dis- 
 tinct pledge to pay implicit obedience to my 
 orders. 
 
 Your Lordship has laid great stress upon the 
 neutrality of my family, for they do not venture 
 to state that, when I came to England, I should 
 be an unfit man to have the guardianship of my 
 children. I think that neutrality highly repre- 
 hensible on their part ; and, as I believe the Mar-
 
 26 
 
 quis Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington to be 
 men of honour, I now invite them to state pub- 
 licly on what point, or in the failure of what 
 duty, as a parent, they conceive me to be unfit 
 to exercise, in the fullest manner, my parental 
 authority. My Lord, I do not wonder at the 
 surprise expressed by your Lordship at the con- 
 duct of my family. For the silence of the Mar- 
 quis Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington, I 
 cannot suggest any reason ; still less can I account 
 for the motives of Lord Maryborough. With 
 the parental affection I am known to possess, I 
 cannot frame a case in which a father can be jus- 
 tified in abandoning his son. That I have not 
 only not deserved it, but that I have fulfilled every 
 filial duty, and thought no sacrifice too great that 
 might contribute to the ease and happiness of my 
 father, shall be proved, not by assertions, which 
 some affidavit-maker might be found to contra- 
 dict, but by documentary evidence, which cannot 
 be controverted.* I am sure I am far from im- 
 peaching the honour of Lord M — , I only lament 
 the erroneous views which he appears to me to 
 have taken of the subject, and which have im- 
 posed upon me the painful duty I am now ful- 
 filling. 
 
 My Lord, we have been taught to believe that 
 
 * See Appendix B. — This correspondence shews my conduct to my 
 father, from the year 1810, after my coming of age, to my revocation 
 of the power of attorney, upon which he acted, in 1826.
 
 27 
 
 the human character h of a mixed kind ; that the 
 best are not without failings, nor the worst with- 
 out some redeeming good. Am I the exception, 
 the only one, in whom there is not to be found 
 one touch of human feeling, one trait of virtue ? 
 All the evidence in my favour is received with 
 suspicion : all testimony against me is scarcely 
 subject to a doubt. Mrs. Wellesley dies ; but no 
 natural cause, no long existing malady, is to ac- 
 count for it. My attempt to see her in Clarges- 
 street, on my return from France, is represented 
 as having thrown her into such a state of nervous 
 irritation and dread, as to have induced that ill- 
 ness to which she at length became a victim. Had 
 such an event occurred to any other man, it might, 
 without any great stretch of candour, have been 
 supposed that no unkind motive could have dic- 
 tated such a visit ; that, if it were made without 
 previous notice, it was because such notice would 
 have afforded an opportunity for those, under 
 whose controul and dictation she was, to have re- 
 moved her. Unexpected, however, as my visit 
 was, the sisters contrived to intimidate her by 
 false insinuations, and to secrete her. Too late, 
 indeed, she repented having yielded to them ; and 
 she expressed to Mrs. Parker, who kept the lodg- 
 ing-house in Seymour-street, her regret at not 
 having seen me in Clarges-street. Nor was her 
 health affected by my attempted interview ; it 
 was never better than it was a few weeks before 
 her death, which was occasioned by dysentery.
 
 28 
 
 This interference of her sisters in every con- 
 cern, in every transaction, from a period long 
 antecedent to our marriage, down to the period 
 of her death, was active and incessant. It was 
 visible in the most trifling, as well as in the most 
 important events. She could do nothing of her- 
 self. She was the machine which they moved 
 and worked at pleasure. Did she write a letter, 
 the meaning, the object, the phrases, were all her 
 sisters'; nay, even in writings which bear her 
 signature, I have traced the hand-writing of her 
 younger sister, mixed up and blended with her 
 own. This is sufficiently clear in the codicil to 
 her will, which is supposed to be in her own hand- 
 writing. 
 
 My Lord, the natural desire I have to bring up 
 ray children in the principles of the established 
 church, has made me more than once press upon 
 your Lordship my conviction, and, if I err not, 
 your own also, that the Misses Long, and those 
 with whom they immediately associate, entertain 
 principles and doctrines hostile to the established, 
 church. Had they kept those principles to them- 
 selves, and confined them to their own bosoms 
 and closets, I should never have interfered with 
 them. But it becomes a different consideration 
 when they attempt to make proselytes of my 
 children, and endeavour to turn the minds and 
 hearts of my sons against that constitution which 
 has made our common country what it is. It is
 
 29 
 
 of the essence of sectarian principles, to be more 
 devoted to the republican than the monarchical 
 form of government. If my sons become puritans 
 and republicans, it will be but a feeble consolation 
 to me to know, that they became so against the 
 warning of their father, but by the connivance of 
 the Lord Chancellor Eldon. I have said that these 
 sectarian ladies are surrounded by persons of their 
 own persuasion.* Their very charities are doled out 
 by the disciples of puritanism, who are almost the 
 exclusive objects of their preference and favour. 
 
 That I endeavoured, during Mrs. Wellesley's 
 life, to produce a more favourable state of things, 
 is well known. I did not confine myself to my 
 own representations, but fortified myself with the 
 works of Paley and Blair, Watson, and other di- 
 vines, which I presented to Miss Dora, Long, and 
 entreated her to peruse them. It was at her 
 instigation, I believe, that Captain Thomas Wind- 
 sor presented me some sectarian tracts ; he gave 
 others also to Mrs. Wellesley, whom I dissuaded 
 from reading them : the one he gave me filled 
 me with disgust. 
 
 A word or two, my Lord, with respect to my 
 son's property. It has been too easily received 
 
 * At this very moment, their confidential friend and adviser is a 
 celebrated Wesleyan ; and I am quite prepared to expect that every 
 effort will be made by the Wesleyan Conclave, to have the case re- 
 ferred to a Master in Chancery, who is not supposed to be very 
 hostile to the tenets of these roundheads.
 
 30 
 
 as truth, that, to guard the property of a minor, 
 it is only sufficient to make him a Ward of Chan- 
 cery. True, the Chancery locks up his property ; 
 but does it see to the proper management of it ? 
 Look at the Draycot estate, the property of my 
 eldest son. A receiver and manager has been ap- 
 pointed, under the authority of the Court' — a needy 
 relative of the Misses Long, to which I disdained 
 making any opposition ; my resolution being not 
 to interfere with the property, if I am to be de- 
 prived of the custody of my children. And here I 
 desire your Lordship to inquire, and compare the 
 present management of it with mine. When I 
 was in possession of it, in right of my marriage 
 settlement, during the life-time of my wife, I im- 
 proved it at a great expense ; all the improve- 
 ments I made, were for the permanent interests 
 of the estate. I carried this system to an extent, 
 which has been peculiarly injurious to my inte- 
 rests, considered separately from those of my son ; 
 and I now state to your Lordship, that, under 
 the management of the present receiver, it is fast 
 going to ruin. The estate nominally is in the 
 hands of Mr. Awdry ; but, virtually, the tenantry 
 and himself are in the keeping of the attorney of 
 the neighbouring town, who is his security, and 
 a banker. I, as the father, give your Lordship 
 this information, the correctness of which it is 
 very easy to ascertain. If your Lordship choose 
 to perform the duty of a man who is in loco pa-
 
 31 
 
 reniis, you will direct your attention to this sub- 
 ject, without which the same system of misma- 
 nagement will ensue, to which the whole of Mrs. 
 Wellesley's property was liable, during her mino- 
 rity, for twenty years. During all that time it 
 was under the controul of the Court of Chancery, 
 and became a source of profit and exaction to a 
 host of trustees, guardians, managers, agents, and 
 receivers, appointed under the authority of the 
 Court. As they became enriched, the estate be- 
 came impoverished , and years of care, and very 
 great expense on my part, were afterwards neces- 
 sary to repair their waste and neglect. 
 
 I do not feel it necessary to make any apology 
 to your Lordship for the language of this letter. — 
 You have done me grievous wrong — you have 
 dug a gulf of separation between my children 
 and me, deeper and wider than death. Was it 
 in mockery or insult that your Lordship desires 
 them to shew filial affection and duty to their 
 father ? What affection and duty can they be- 
 lieve they owe to a father who is pronounced, 
 from the judgment-seat, to be unworthy of the 
 care of them ? What right should I have to cen- 
 sure them if they spurned my paternal counsels, 
 and scorned my admonitions ? Nay, if your judg- 
 ment be the dictate of your conscience, you ought 
 to have interdicted me from all intercourse what- 
 ever with them. The cruelty is incomplete — the 
 arrow is not barbed or poisoned enough —unless
 
 32 
 
 you forbid all interchange of affection and confi- 
 dence, and decree that the commands which God 
 has issued to child and parent to cling to each 
 other, shall be violated and disobeyed. 
 
 My Lord, there may be parents who might 
 yield with submission to so cruel a privation. In 
 the happiness of some men, children may form 
 so small an ingredient, that they can forbid them 
 their presence for years, and condemn them to 
 poverty and exile, for having followed their own 
 inclinations, upon points in which their own hap- 
 piness alone was concerned. 
 
 But I love my children, my Lord, with an in- 
 tense love, and J know that that love has never 
 been mixed up with any thought or wish that 
 was not connected with their moral welfare. 
 
 I insist that no father could lay down a more 
 unobjectionable system of education. 
 
 I feel that the decree which deprives me of 
 them is not justified by any evidence that has 
 been brought against me. 
 
 No relaxation, therefore, shall ever be made in 
 my efforts to remedy this crying injustice. But 
 I am too proud of the laws of my country to 
 attempt to violate them. 
 
 My life, I hope, will not pass away without 
 redress. I appeal to the House of Lords, and 
 demand reparation for an individual grievance, 
 to which many of the most illustrious men in this 
 country may be subject. I trust they will see, in
 
 33 
 
 the enormity of the injustice that has been done 
 me, the necessity of abolishing, or, at least, of 
 limiting a power more dangerous to the peace of 
 every family in the kingdom, than any that has 
 been exercised since the existence of the Star 
 Chamber. 
 
 I am, 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 London, 
 10th February 1827.
 
 TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. EARL ELDON, 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR, 
 
 Sfc. tyc. fyc. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 A severe illness, and the delay of the short- 
 hand writer, prevented me from introducing into 
 my first letter any remarks upon your Lordship's 
 decision. I am compelled, therefore, to address 
 your Lordship in a second ; and I think I run 
 no risk in saying, that more than one perusal of 
 your judgment speech has not placed me under 
 the necessity of retracting one assertion, or of 
 softening one charge which I have made in my 
 first letter. 
 
 My Lord, I shall proceed as regularly as I can 
 through your Lordship's speech : a task of no in- 
 considerable difficulty ; for there is great confu- 
 sion in many of your Lordship's statements. The 
 evidence is neither given with accuracy nor with
 
 35 
 
 impartiality ^conflicting testimonies are not care- 
 fully sifted and weighed ; and I have vainly at- 
 tempted to discover that force in your arguments, 
 or that fairness in your inferences, which distin- 
 guished the former periods of your judicial career. 
 Imjpar sihi is an accusation which no man can hope 
 to escape ; and your Lordship will pardon me if, 
 imitating the frankness of Gil Bias, I suspect that 
 his criticism upon the last homily of the Arch- 
 bishop of Grenada, might very well be applied to 
 the last speech of the Lord Chancellor Eldon.* 
 
 My Lord, the confusion that pervades every 
 part of your speech is more remarkable in that 
 part which ought to have been the clearest and 
 the most precise : I mean that part which refers 
 to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery to 
 remove an infant from the natural and legal 
 controul of the father. The following parts 
 from your speech being reported by the short- 
 hand writer, it is impossible to conceive any 
 thing more obscure or unintelligible : — You 
 
 * " Je prendrai la liberte de vous dire que votre dernier discours 
 ne me paroit pas tout a fait de la force des precedens. Ne pensez- 
 vous pas comrae moi ?" — Ces paroles firent palir mon maitre, qui 
 me dit avec un souiis force ; "Monseigneur Gil Bias, cette piece 
 n'est pas done de votre gout ?" — " Je ne dis pas cela, Monseig- 
 neur," interrompis-je, " tout de concerte ; Je la trouve excellente, 
 quoiqu'un peu au-dessous de vos autres ouvrages." — " Je vous 
 entends," repliqua-t-il. " Je vous parois baisier, n'est-ce pas ? Tran- 
 chez le mot ; vouscroyez qu'il est temps que Je songe a la retraite ?" 
 — Gil Bias, p. 176. 
 
 i) 2
 
 36 
 
 refer us "to a learned treatise upon the subject, 
 as to whether the jurisdiction was given to this 
 Court upon the destruction of the Court of Wards, 
 shewing that it is impossible to say what was the 
 origin of this jurisdiction: and on the other 
 hand it is to be referred to a jurisdiction of a 
 different nature. The books state that it belongs 
 to the king as parem patriae of those who are 
 not able to take care of themselves.'' Can any 
 opinion be less satisfactory ? You direct us to a 
 treatise for the origin of the jurisdiction ; then 
 you acknowledge the impossibility of deciding 
 what was the origin ; next you refer us to a 
 jurisdiction of a different nature, to the king's 
 prerogative as pater patriae. In the treatise of 
 Mr. Maddock upon the Principles and Practice 
 of the High Covrt of Chancery, he says, " that 
 his Majesty is entitled as pater patriot to the care, 
 not the guardianship, of infants ; and this care 
 is delegated by the king to his Court of Chan- 
 cery." He relies upon Bracton : but Bracton is 
 not, I apprehend, sufficiently explanatory upon 
 the peculiar circumstances that placed infants 
 under the regal care. It seems most natural to 
 infer, that they were idiotcy or lunacy on the 
 part of the infants, the death, or continued ab- 
 sence abroad, of the parents ; so that the infants 
 were not able to take care of themselves. 
 
 Mr. Maddock proceeds : " The Court of Chan-
 
 3' 
 
 eery, therefore, it seems/ has the exclusive care 
 over infants ; and though, by act of Parliament, the 
 Court of Wards had a particular power over in- 
 fants and lunatics, yet in every other respect the 
 law, as to infants, continued as before ; and when 
 the Court of Wards and Liveries was dissolved 
 by the 12th Car. 2, c. 24, the power of the Court 
 over infants resulted back to them again in its 
 original extent." 
 
 This opinion does not, as your Lordship must 
 allow, throw any clearer or steadier light upon 
 the question, and does not remove any doubt as 
 to whether the delegated care of infants did not 
 apply solely to idiots or lunatics, or such infants 
 as were orphans, or were at such a distance from 
 their parents, as to be incapable of receiving the 
 benefit of their care and protection. But if the 
 jurisdiction of the Court to remove a child from 
 the parent be so undoubted, how happens it, that 
 during so large a space of time, during a period 
 when the king's prerogative was neither defined 
 nor limited, but depended less upon law than 
 upon the will or caprice of the monarch, no 
 precedent is to be found, at least none has been 
 cited of the exercise of such a jurisdiction? 
 
 Mr. Maddock continues: "the strongest in- 
 stance, perhaps, in which the Court of Chancery 
 has exercised its jurisdiction in regard to infants, 
 is where it has taken from a parent the custody 
 of its child ; but this has been done in many 

 
 ;38 
 
 cases ; for though, in general a father has a natu- 
 ral and legal right to such custody, yet a child 
 has been removed from the controul of a father, 
 in constant habits of drunkenness and blasphemy ; 
 and so in cases of gross ill treatment ; and even 
 where (a strong case) the father had become 
 insolvent. Acting under the same power of con- 
 troul, a father has been prevented taking his child 
 abroad with an intention to educate him there ; 
 and even if it be suspected that the child will be 
 taken abroad, the court will interfere, and oblige 
 the parent to give security that he will not remove 
 it, or do any act towards, or for the purpose 
 of removing it out of the jurisdiction. 
 
 " If a child, a Ward of Court, would not be 
 safe, the Chancellor would not permit it even to 
 go to Scotland; nor will it, at the instance of a 
 guardian, make an order to take the infant out 
 of its jurisdiction ; and if taken out of the juris- 
 diction, he will be ordered to bring him home." 
 
 Still, my Lord, we have, according to Mr. 
 Maddock, only the exercise of the right, and not 
 the foundation, or the law, on which the right 
 rests. We have precedents, " by which," ac- 
 cording to Mr. Maddock, " Chancellors ought to 
 be guided." This is a sweeping opinion, indeed ! 
 The precedents cited by Mr. Maddock are, per- 
 haps, not half a century old : but not one of the 
 three cases is applicable to myself. I have not 
 been accused of being a constant drunkard and
 
 39 
 
 blasphemer, nor of gross ill treatment of my chil- 
 dren, nor of being insolvent. Does Mr. Maddock, 
 therefore, in citing these precedents, mean that 
 he has quoted them merely to shew that the 
 Chancellor may exercise this jurisdiction when- 
 ever he sees fit, and that his power extends to all 
 possible cases ? 
 
 My Lord, I have yet to learn that there is any 
 precedent for such a decision as the one you have 
 given against me ; mine will make the precedent, 
 and it will have been founded, not upon any ill- 
 treatment of the infants ; not upon any derelic- 
 tion of duty on the part of the parent ; no neglect 
 of their mental and moral improvement j no in- 
 difference to their religious duties; no want of 
 the greatest paternal affection ; but upon the com- 
 mission of an offence in which the infants were 
 not implicated, nor k their interests or welfare in 
 the least degree affected. This, I hope, will not 
 be forgotten. 
 
 My Lord, it is probable that lawyers may treat 
 the loose observations I have thrown out, upon the 
 power of the Chancellor to interfere between 
 parent and child, with ridicule or contempt : 
 however that may be, I must always contend that 
 so tremendous an authority as that exercised by 
 the Chancellor, should be more clearly and strictly 
 defined. All power should be defined, else a trap 
 is laid for the unwary, and " Man knoweth not 
 how to conduct himself." In the early part of
 
 40 
 
 my life I was employed in a diplomatic capacity* 
 and became intimately acquainted with the laws 
 and customs of Turkey and of Greece. In Greece 
 the power of the pacha, or governor, was discre- 
 tionary — it was not defined nor limited by any 
 law; his decrees were capricious, and the measure 
 of punishment was seldom or ever adapted to the 
 nature of the offence. Hence, no " Man know_ 
 ing how to conduct himself," there was the 
 greatest looseness of morals : and the governors 
 became objects of fear and hatred, without being 
 ablo to check the licentiousness of the people. 
 In Turkey, however, the power of the pacha 
 was strictly defined and limited ; and, though 
 punishments were severe, yet the law being clear 
 and precise, the people were less immoral and 
 less discontented. 
 
 A considerable part of your Lorship's speech 
 is devoted to the absence of the direct evidence 
 of my near relations. I am reluctantly compelled 
 to afford your Lordship all the advantage that 
 can be derived from their neutrality. No man can 
 deplore it more than I do : I think it neither fair 
 to me, nor creditable to themselves. Your Lord- 
 ship says, " that they do not go so far as to give 
 their opinion that I ought not to have the care of 
 my children, but it is impossible not to collect 
 that their sentiments are so." They do not state 
 positively that I am an unfit person, but they 
 damn me by inuendo and inference; which, though
 
 41 
 
 it is calculated to do me as much injury as direct 
 evidence against me, is not tangible. A charge 
 is open to an answer ; it can be grappled with 
 and repelled by evidence : but how can I con- 
 tend with an inference and an inuendo? If, there- 
 fore, I feel indignant against them for their 
 negative evidence, I hope I shall not be subjected 
 to the accusation of want of delicacy or of duty. 
 It was this neutrality, this indirect, or, to speak 
 more correctly perhaps, this direct abandonment, 
 that imposed upon me the painful task to which 
 I have alluded in the body of my letter, of shew- 
 ing, by documentary evidence, the manner in 
 which I have fulfilled my relative duties to Lord 
 Maryborough. 
 
 Your Lordship cannot fail to have perceived, 
 that a strong sense of filial duty has led me almost 
 to the brink of sacrificing my honour for the pur- 
 pose of preserving that principle inviolate. I have 
 carried this to the utmost possible extent : but, 
 with regard to the other branches of my family, 
 I am not withheld by any such considerations 
 from demanding from them, as I should from any 
 other man in the world, that explanation and 
 satisfaction, which I am entitled hy the use your 
 Lordship has made of their negative testimony, 
 not of their direct condemnation, but of that most 
 insidious and subtle mode of destroviner a man's 
 character ; that kind of censure which, in private 
 life, often falls from the lips of some candid
 
 42 
 
 friend. Far is it from my wish to bring disgrace 
 upon an illustrious name : they may shelter them- 
 selves under their system of neutrality, from a 
 wish not to injure the fame of their house. But 
 I who, according to the laws of nature, am to be 
 the head of that house, and the inheritor of its 
 honours, dare the living branches of that family 
 to state one act of my life which is disgraceful to 
 me as a man of honour. I may, or I may not, 
 possess the brilliant qualities which belong to the 
 name I bear ; but I will never condescend to 
 allow any members of that family to assume to 
 themselves even the right to question my possess- 
 ing every ordinary qualification that fits an honest 
 man for the high station which I may one day be 
 called upon to fill. 
 
 I might, perhaps, my Lord, be excused for not 
 taking up your Lordship's time and my own, 
 with any observations upon my pecuniary means ; 
 but I did hope your Lordship would not have 
 passed over one occurrence sub silentio. " It is 
 proved that his (my) circumstances are not such 
 as to enable him to take care of his (my) chil- 
 dren." By whom is it proved ? It is sworn to 
 by Mr. J. J. Hutchinson, who makes the asser- 
 tion without knowing any thing upon the sub- 
 ject, or taking the pains to inquire ; for if he had, 
 he would have found the fact to be (as your Lord- 
 ship tardily acknowledges, towards the end of 
 your speech) directly the contrary. Now, what
 
 43 
 
 I complain of is, that your Lordship did not think 
 fit to rebuke this man, or in any way censure him 
 for his most reprehensible attempt to mislead and 
 deceive you. The fact is, my Lord, that, with 
 the fortune which I must inherit from my father, 
 added to that which I possess at present, I shall 
 be able to bequeath to my younger children a 
 sum of between 200 to £300,000 : presuming, 
 as I do, that my father has not overvalued his 
 property both to me and to the late Lady Ca- 
 therine Long. 
 
 Another complaint is rather against your Lord- 
 ship — You allude to a charge which has never 
 been made against me. " It is not necessary you 
 should give an opinion upon the subject of 
 drunkenness, as there is no such imputation in 
 this case." Why then make any allusion to it ? 
 Where was the necessity of stating what you 
 should feel it your duty to do, in a case wholly 
 foreign from the one under decision ? Your Lord- 
 ship must know enough of human nature to be 
 convinced that, in a process which had excited so 
 undue a degree of popular prejudice, the very 
 allusion to a vice, even though the party may be 
 perfectly innocent, may and does tend to swell 
 the tide of prejudice against him. The many are 
 more inclined to give the judge credit for deli- 
 cacy, than to acknowledge the innocence of the 
 accused. 
 
 In the earlier part of the proceedings it was
 
 44 
 
 asked of your Lordship, whether you were trying 
 me for adultery ? You replied in the negative. 
 And in your judgment speech, you state distinctly 
 that you are " not called upon to say, what would 
 " be the consequence of the mere act of adultery 
 " on the part of the father ; I will give no opinion 
 " upon that." And yet your Lordship not only 
 does give an opinion upon it, but the whole ground 
 and foundation of your decision rest upon the 
 adultery. Let it not be supposed, my Lord, that 
 I am excusing or palliating that offence. But I 
 am yet to learn, that the present case does not 
 stand less prominent in guilt than any other in- 
 stance of the kind. I cannot recognize any of 
 those dark features which have characterized 
 almost every preceding one. There was no pre- 
 vious intimacy with the husband ; there was no 
 betrayal of friendship or confidence. It is in 
 evidence, that the wife remained spotless so long 
 as she lived in the house, and under the protec- 
 tion of Mrs. Wellesley. And this I know not 
 only to be the fact myself, but I am warranted 
 in inferring that such is your Lordship's belief, 
 because your Lordship dates the adultery from 
 the period of our departure from Florence ; that 
 is, after Mrs. Bligh had quitted the house and 
 protection of Mrs. Wellesley. Of the manner 
 in which the adultery was subsequently carried 
 on, your Lordship seems to form your opinion 
 solely upon the affidavit of Mrs. Scott. Now,
 
 45 
 
 had that woman been a woman of credit and 
 character, her evidence would be entitled to all 
 the weight which your Lordship is inclined to 
 afford it. But when your Lordship has it in affi- 
 davit before you, that that woman was discharged, 
 among other causes, for improper conduct with 
 the male servant of the house;* when all she 
 swore has been contradicted by females of unsus- 
 pected character, (Maria Evans and Sarah Lit- 
 tle,) who are not under my controul or Mrs. 
 Bligh's : when, I say, her testimony has been so 
 beat down, what stress ought your Lordship to 
 lay upon it ? Or, how happens it, that the tes- 
 timony of Maria Evans and Sarah Little is never 
 once alluded to? Is there no ground for infer- 
 ring malice on the part of a woman who had 
 been discharged with disgrace? And was your 
 Lordship imposed upon by the artifice of sending 
 her husband to intimidate Mrs. Bligh, and pretend 
 that he came to claim articles which belonged to 
 his wife, (silver snuff-boxs, and watches, and 
 laces, forsooth ! !) — an artifice trumped up for the 
 sole purpose of inducing a belief, that the main 
 charge against her was untrue.* But Scott's evi- 
 dence is equally entitled to credit. It is a confir- 
 mation of what Mrs. Scott swears. Now, if 
 the confirmation by Scott of his wife's evidence 
 rests upon the assertion that she was of the same 
 stature as Mrs. Bligh, it could not have been 
 
 * Vide Affidavits.
 
 Mrs. Bligh whom lie saw entering* a common 
 brothel in Spring Gardens; because so far are 
 Mrs. Bligh and Mrs. Scott from being of the 
 same stature, that there is a great difference in 
 height between them ; and there is not the slightest 
 resemblance between their figures. Scott is half a 
 head taller than Mrs. Bligh ; the former has 
 light hair, the latter black. So much for Scott's 
 confirmation of his wife's evidence! Now, my 
 Lord, I do not mean to say, that Scott did not 
 trace some female into the brothel ; nor would I 
 take upon myself to assert, with the knowledge 
 that so many persons possess of Mrs. Scott's pro- 
 pensities and practices, that that female was not 
 his wife. At any rate, it is false that it was 
 Mrs. Bligh. 
 
 My Lord, though I do not mean to enter into 
 any defence of adultery, I may be allowed to say, 
 that in every crime thjere are shades of differ- 
 ence- — points of greater or less atrocity. Your 
 Lordship, upon the evidence of Mrs. Scott, cha- 
 racterizes the adultery as the most shameless and 
 disgraceful you ever heard of. Any one would 
 understand by these epithets, that the adultery 
 was carried on openly, and without disguise ; and 
 yet all the evidence on which you rely tends to 
 shew that the utmost secrecy was practised ; dis- 
 guises had recourse to ; the night preferred to 
 day: in short, that every attempt was made to 
 conceal it from public notice and observation. 
 And your Lordship may further be requested to
 
 47 
 
 recollect, that, at the period to which you attach 
 such epithets, Mrs. Wellesley was no longer in 
 existence. I shall conclude this part of the sub- 
 ject, so far as it relates to Mrs. Bligh, by saying, 
 that your Lordship, to the surprise of every body, 
 seems perfectly willing to take the character, and 
 manners, and bearing of that lady, as they are 
 drawn by the woman Scott. You put out of 
 your consideration the evidence of other persons, 
 whose testimony seems strangely to be of no 
 value, because it shews her to be a lady, who was 
 thought worthy to be an inmate in the family of 
 the Duchess of Wellington ; who has been the ac- 
 quaintance of my own sister ; who has constantly 
 moved in the first societies ; and who has always 
 been distinguished by the refinement of her man- 
 ners, and the superiority of her mental accom- 
 plishments. 
 
 Yet not one word of this evidence is to be cre- 
 dited, because a servant, discharged for reasons 
 stated in the affidavits, has sworn to a contrary 
 belief, though her evidence has been contradicted 
 by that of seven persons, not one of whom has 
 been impeached.* 
 
 There is a letter of mine to Mrs. Wellesley, 
 dated from the Hague, which, intentionally no 
 doubt, was not delivered to your Lordship, till the 
 
 * Maria Evans, Sarah Little, Joseph Burge, Auguste, Mrs. Stowe, 
 Mary and Mrs. Glover, who lived for some years, head nurse in 
 Lady Fitzroy Somerset's family, and who was hired for Lady Fitz- 
 roy, by Lady Maryborough.
 
 48 
 
 evening before yon gave your judgement ; I had 
 not time, therefore, to answer or p ain it, nor 
 indeed did I know that it had been produced till 
 after your judgment had been delivered. But 
 this is not the only reason I have had for com- 
 plaining of the total want of all fairness and 
 justice in the course of these proceedings. The 
 letter relates to Mrs. Bligh's abberration of mind, 
 which, under the circumstances in which she was 
 placed, can scarcely be a subject of wonder. It 
 shews the accuracy of the statement I made, that 
 the letter produced in the Court of Common 
 Pleas, and commented upon with such severity 
 by Chief Justice Best, was not the letter I wrote 
 to Mrs. Wellesley. Had Mrs. Bligh been my 
 sister, I know not how I could have adopted a 
 different course. It was with great difficulty she 
 was persuaded to set off alone. I wrote to her 
 father from Florence, imploring him to meet her 
 at Paris, and informed him of my intention to 
 delay my journey upon the road in order to give 
 him time to arrive. She had been at Paris, as my 
 banker knows, three Weeks before my arrival ; 
 and the passport would prove, that we never met 
 from the time of my quitting Florence with Mrs. 
 Wellesley, till my arrival at Paris. Hence all the 
 suspicions evidently instilled into Mrs. Wellesley 's 
 mind by Dr. Bulkeley, of our meeting on the 
 road, and of the cause of my hurrying my jour- 
 ney, are utterly false and unfounded. The tena-
 
 49 
 
 city, as it is called, with which I prevented her 
 from repairing to England, is explained by the 
 fact stated in my letter from the Hague, that the 
 very mention of going thither only increased her 
 paroxysm. But when I could not persuade her 
 to go to England, I resolved not to remain at 
 Paris myself, but set off for the Hague, with the 
 utmost secrecy, and precipitation, a few days after 
 Mrs. Weilesley left Paris. Mrs. Bligh found, by 
 inquiring at the British Ambassador's, that I had 
 got a passport for Holland, and she followed me. 
 The very day of her arrival I wrote that letter 
 to Mrs. Weilesley, which it had been previously 
 my intention to have given, in the first instance, 
 to Colonel Shaw. 
 
 My Lord, if there be any person who may 
 think that blame attaches on account of these 
 melancholy details, it must be allowed that that 
 blame cannot attach to me. 
 
 I shall now direct my attention solely to the 
 subject nearest and dearest to my heart — my 
 children. My Lord, I will be bold to say, that, 
 if the greatest paternal affection, if the most 
 anxious desire for their proper education, can 
 render a man worthy to have the care of their 
 persons, and the comfort of their presence, my 
 children, as I shall prove, have been most unjustly 
 taken from me. 
 
 My Lord, we must take society as it is; we 
 cannot constitute it as the moralist may wish ;
 
 50 
 
 we cannot make man without failings and even 
 vices. Mixed up of bad and good, all we can do 
 in deciding upon his character is, to weigh the 
 good parts against the bad. It would, I think, 
 be a most unfair mode of reasoning to say, that 
 because a man might not fulfil all his duties as a 
 husband, he was totally incompetent to fulfil the 
 duties of a father. I am not making any apology 
 for the failure of conjugal duty, though I will not 
 admit that I ever treated Mrs. Wellesley with 
 harshness, but with mildness.* Circumstances 
 may weaken the affection of the husband, which 
 have not the slightest effect upon his affection as 
 a father ; and your Lordship must have been a 
 very inattentive observer of life indeed, if you 
 have not witnessed many instances, in which 
 husband and wife have lived unhappily together, 
 yet both have been most attentive and exact in 
 the performance of their duties as parents. Hence, 
 I come to this conclusion, that the competence of 
 a father, is not to be decided altogether by the 
 manner in which he has filled the character of a 
 husband, but by the manner in which he has filled 
 the character of a father : and by this test I arn 
 willing to be tried. 
 
 * It happens too frequently that a positive judgment is pro- 
 nounced upon a man's general behaviour from a few instances. 
 
 Some men's usual manners are abrupt — others naturally mild. 
 
 The general manner must be ascertained before a stranger can jud^e 
 of any isolated charge of rough and abrupt language.
 
 The first charge against me is, that I not only 
 did not rebuke my children forswearing, but that 
 I actually encouraged them. The charge rests 
 upon the evidence of Dr. Bulkeley,* the servant 
 O'Meara, and Dr. Southcote. I trust that I need 
 give myself very little trouble to show that the 
 evidence of Dr. Bulkeley is not to be relied upon, 
 and that it is beat down and destroyed even 
 by himself. There is not one of his affidavits 
 which is not in contradiction to the one he has 
 sworn before ; and it is rather strange that your 
 Lordship did not even allude to that documentary 
 evidence which contradicts him so positively as 
 to dates and facts. Still more extraordinary is it, 
 that your Lordship omits altogether the import- 
 ant fact of the Doctor and his servant O'Meara 
 refusing to put themselves in a situation where 
 they might have been cross-examined. If their 
 evidence had been so unassailable — if they knew 
 that they had only stated facts — why did not they 
 submit themselves to the test which no honest 
 man would have shrunk from ? I know not, 
 therefore, why we are bound to place reliance 
 upon evidence which, being upon affidavit, could 
 be given without being subject to so uncomfortable 
 
 * Just before this letter was put to press, I received a copy of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Edward Bligh's depositions, and others, at Doctors' 
 Commons. They produce dates, assertions, and facts, which, at 
 once, destroy Bulkelev's infamous charge of Mrs. Bligh's attempting 
 an abortion. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 a process. I insist that in no main point is their 
 testimony corroborated. But some remark has 
 been founded upon a declaration I am supposed to 
 have made, that I would not believe G'Meara, 
 because he was a Catholic : I made no such decla- 
 ration ; I did say that it was to be doubted, be- 
 cause he was a low Irish Catholic ; and I illus- 
 trated my observation by the distinction I drew 
 between the testimony of such a Catholic as the 
 Abbe Nicole, and the evidence of such a man as 
 O'Meara, a low Irish Catholic. 
 
 If any fresh remark be necessary upon the evi- 
 dence of Buikeley, it is that we have it on the tes- 
 timony of Mrs. Wellesley herself, that he did 
 apply to her for " remuneration for his valuable 
 services;" conduct which your Lordship merely 
 notices, as if it were not open to the slightest sus- 
 picion, and as if it were not of the utmost import- 
 ance when viewed in connection with the corre- 
 spondence between him and the attornies. 
 
 As to Dr. Southcote, I will not suppose that 
 your Lordship can place any reliance upon his 
 declaration, that I boasted to him of having fre- 
 quently procured children, of the lowest descrip- 
 tion, to teach my children swearing and blas- 
 phemous language : and that it was my wish to 
 make them associate with persons of the lowest 
 description, in order to give them a low style. I 
 say, I will not dwell upon Dr. Southcote's evi- 
 dence, because your Lordship must see that it is
 
 53 
 
 wholly incredible. This man was a man of vulgar 
 habits, and had been relieved by me upon various 
 occasions. Having accused me of having a dis- 
 ease, which I had not, and never had, I resisted 
 payment of a bill which I did not owe him, and 
 was arrested. I gave bail with the intention of 
 going to trial ; but the Doctor never thought 
 proper to proceed in his action.* 
 
 Upon the subject of swearing, your Lordship 
 has evidence which you think fit to pass over, and 
 which shows that Mr. Pittman does not con- 
 tradict or answer the evidence of Randall, who 
 swears that I said to him, in that respectable 
 person's presence, that should the children ever 
 use improper language before him, he was to 
 carry them immediately to Mr. Pittman — not 
 to me. 
 
 Some stress has been laid upon two or three ex- 
 pressions in my letter to my children and their 
 tutor, as if they tended to encourage swearing: 
 such as " Hell and Tommy ;" " A father and his 
 children ought to be allowed to go to the devil 
 their own way;" " Neither God nor devil shall 
 interfere between me and my children." I do not 
 defend these expressions; they are ill chosen, and 
 in bad taste ; but I think every man will view 
 them, not as advising children to swear, but as the 
 
 * I wish to press this more earnestly, in order to rebut the cruel 
 inuendo built on the expressions in your Lordship's judgment: — 
 " Victim of many abandoned women."— Vide p. 7-1.
 
 strong 1 , though hasty expressions of a father, 
 smarting under the suspicion that others were 
 doing that which he had determined they should 
 not do — interfere between him and his children. 
 
 There is one fact with regard to swearing, 
 which is a curious one. Tn what way could the 
 case have been treated by your Lordship's prede- 
 cessor, Lord Thurlow, who was not only more 
 addicted to swearing than any other man almost 
 that ever existed, but who lived in constant and 
 notorious adultery ? He might have acted as 
 your Lordship has ; but, at least, it would have 
 been a curious circumstance to have heard him 
 reprobate and punish a suitor, for the very vices 
 of which he himself was guilty ! However, 
 against this suspicious testimony of Bulkeley, 
 Southcote, and O'Meara, I have to produce the 
 evidence of my own letters to my children and 
 their tutor; not written with the least idea that 
 such a process as the present would have been in- 
 stituted, but written under the anxious feeling 
 and desire, that they should attend to their 
 studies; and not only be good classical scholars, 
 but that they should hold deceit and falsehood in 
 the greatest abhorrence. Every line of that cor- 
 respondence proves my wish, that they should be 
 men of good-breeding and taste. I entreat my 
 eldest son, in one of these letters, to aim at being 
 " the card and calendar of gentry." I desire 
 Mr. Pittman, to prevent them by all means, from
 
 55 
 
 a fondness for low society. I encourage them in 
 field sports, which, whilst they contribute to 
 health and exercise, will give them a disgust to 
 the resources for amusement, to which so many 
 young men have had recourse, a gaming house 
 or a brothel. 
 
 And yet, whilst even your Lordship has given 
 me credit for these letters, I am to be supposed 
 capable of recommending a course of action — a 
 fondness for low life and vulgar society, which I 
 always detested — for profane oaths and blasphe- 
 mous language, which must have rendered a good 
 classical education, and a hatred of falsehood and 
 cunning, utterly impossible ! Before, howover, I 
 dismiss the subject of my children's education, let 
 me say one word about their tutor, Mr. Pittman. 
 In the correspondence that has been produced to 
 your Lordship, you have seen that I disdain to 
 reply to a charge of having, at Paris, called my 
 father a rogue. And J remarked to Colonel 
 Shaw, that the mere giving a reply to such an 
 assertion, was conferring upon it a sort of cre- 
 dence. The same principle governed me in many 
 points of the affidavits that have been alluded to — 
 the same principle governs me in declining any 
 answer to the observation of my children having 
 sometimes used improper language in France. 
 What asseveration — what expression is there made 
 use of by a French postillion, that is not to Eng- 
 lish ears coarse and indecent ? What wonder is
 
 56 
 
 it that a lively child, from the very novelty of the 
 phrases, should occasionally allude to, and repeat 
 them, during a journey from Paris to Calais ? 
 That Mr. Pittman, who has been so extolled by 
 your Lordship, performed his duties with great 
 assiduity, and in strict obedience to my daily and 
 hourly commands, I am quite as ready to admit 
 as your Lordship. But has your Lordship so 
 shallow a knowledge of human nature as to be- 
 lieve, that such a man is to step out of the ordi- 
 nary line and walk of men of his description, and 
 not to be capable of yielding to such allurements 
 as even you yourself could not refrain from hold- 
 ing out to him ? — that that man's testimony is to 
 be held up as paramount to all others, because his 
 benefactor has treated him with kindness and 
 civility. I desire the gentleman to be asked, 
 whether he remembers my wishing my children 
 to be confined, at first, to their catechism, and not 
 to proceed to studies, in which they would have 
 to inquire the meaning of the terms fornication 
 and adultery ? How does this bear out the accu- 
 sation, stupid and false altogether, of my desiring 
 them to debauch every woman they came near ? 
 How happens it that, out of one hundred letters 
 from me, Mr. Pittman has only preserved thirty? 
 — that he has not preserved the one I wrote upon 
 courage— another upon sound religious feelings 
 — and another, in which I introduced a quota- 
 tion from Cicero — another, in which I inserted the 
 prayer I composed for my little girl at Arras?
 
 o? 
 
 If I have thus shewn that I did not, and could 
 not, encourage in my children a fondness for low 
 society, and for swearing and blasphemy ; that, 
 on the contrary, I was anxious for their moral 
 and mental improvement ; I think I have shewn 
 enough to convince the most fastidious, that I am 
 not a man to whom the custody of his children 
 might not be safely entrusted. 
 
 But the intimacy with Mrs. Bligh!— I am of- 
 fered the guardianship of my children if I will 
 put an end to my intimacy, with that lady. In 
 plain language, if I prove myself to be a scoundrel, 
 I shall be deemed a very fit and proper father. 
 My Lord, I cannot accept your alternative ; and, 
 if you can relax the sterner feelings of the judge, 
 you will acknowledge that I ought not. But in 
 what way has, or is, that connection to influence 
 me in the government of my children ? Had it 
 already made me, in any way, regardless of their 
 welfare, and neglectful of their improvement, 
 there might have been some force in the argu- 
 ment ; but the contrary has been proved ; and 
 the very application, which I am now making, 
 with such intense anxiety, affords the most une- 
 quivocal proof of the sincerest and deepest affec- 
 tion for my children. In desiring, however, 
 their restoration, have I ever connected that resto- 
 ration with any intention of placing them under the 
 eye, or in contact with Mrs. Bligh ? A separate es- 
 tablishment was provided ; and Mrs. Bligii would 
 have been to them as if she had never existed. The
 
 58 
 
 boys would have been pursuing their education 
 at a public school, and at the university, and the 
 daughter would have been under the care of a 
 married lady of the highest respectability. But 
 this fact your Lordship forgets ; at least, you have 
 not noticed it. You say, even, " that you have 
 my authority for stating, that the separation of 
 the boys from the daughter is a thing that ought 
 not to be done." My Lord, in the common 
 course of education, the boys must be~separated 
 from the girl ; but I declared that I had provided 
 a guardian for my daughter, distinct and apart 
 from myself. I had selected a lady of gentle 
 manners and great rectitude of conduct (Mrs. 
 Wright), to extirpate from my daughter's mind 
 those weeds of deceit and cunning which must 
 have grown up during her residence with the Misses 
 Long. I am anxious that she should have the 
 manners of a lady of rank and fashion ; that she 
 should take for her model such an exalted female 
 as Lady Maryborough, and thus have acquired 
 that grace of manner, which she can never ob- 
 tain, so long as she remains under the care of 
 women so deficient in all those qualities as her 
 aunts. 
 
 But the omission I have just complained of is 
 not the only one. I must regret that the evidence 
 adduced on my part has not been deemed more 
 worthy of attention and respect. Thus your Lord- 
 ship never dwells upon nor alludes to my letter 
 to Colonel Shaw : thus the evidence of a clergy-
 
 man (the Rev. Mr. Langdon) is described as if 
 he had done nothing more than supply my sons 
 with ponies, and have been to visit me frequently 
 whilst I was abroad. My Lord, I know not that 
 either of those actions is incompatible with the 
 duties of his sacred profession. He considered 
 himself to be owing me a debt of gratitude, and 
 he was anxious to shew his sense of it by kind- 
 ness to my children, and attention to me. But 
 your Lordship forgets to add, that Mr. Langdon's 
 affidavit states his long acquaintance with me — 
 his knowledge of my principles and habits — the 
 reneated instances he had seen of my attention to 
 the welfare of my children — my kindness to my 
 tenants — my respect for the doctrines and dis- 
 cipline of the established church, and my hatred 
 of bigotry and superstition. It would have been 
 quite as fair if your Lordship had stated this part 
 of his affidavit at the time you quoted the other 
 part. But you add, " it would have been as well 
 if he had informed us whether he met Mrs. Bligh 
 when he visited me abroad." And if he had, in 
 what point would it have weakened or invali- 
 dated his affidavit ? He would have found her, 
 tending me, (as she did) on a bed of sickness, 
 which was likely to have been to me a bed of 
 death, with unrepining assiduity and patience, for 
 nine months — the attendance, and visits, and 
 solace of every member of my family having been 
 denied me. 
 
 The death of Mrs. Welleslev makes me allude
 
 m 
 
 to any circumstance relative to her, with great 
 hesitation ; but I cannot avoid saying, that had 
 her sisters permitted me to have an interview 
 with her in Clarges-street, much that has since 
 taken place would have been avoided : and I 
 have, in my first letter to your Lordship, alluded 
 to a living person, to whom she expressed her 
 regret that the interview had not taken place. 
 The mention of another fact is rendered neces- 
 sary by the attempt of Dr. Bulkeley to induce a 
 belief that the separation, d thoro, between Mrs. 
 Wellesley and myself, is to be dated from the 
 arrival of Mrs. Bligh at Naples. Now the fact 
 is, and it is well known to Dr. Bulkeley, that that 
 separation had taken place long before, in conse- 
 quence of her malady, and by the advice of medi- 
 cal men. In forming an estimate of the adultery 
 this is a fact which I think your Lordship will 
 allow to be most material. 
 
 With respect to the sectarian principles of the 
 sisters, I have some curious documentary evidence 
 in the letters* of a Mr. Barry, whose name occurs 
 more than once in my first letter. He was the 
 guide and director of the family ; a kind of 
 father confessor, as well as steward. He inter- 
 
 * See Appendix C. — An attentive perusal of them will convince 
 every person of the propriety of my wish to prevent my children 
 from associating with him, and imbibing the principles of this silly 
 hypocrite: — Noscitur a sociis. Let Mr. Barry translate this for 
 
 the benefit of the Misses Lon» !
 
 til 
 
 fered in all their temporal as well as spiritual 
 affairs. Oh ! inimitable Moliere ! what deeper 
 traits, what fresher colouring, would he have 
 enabled you to give to the character of the hypo- 
 crite ! 
 
 I have before me some dozens .of this per- 
 son's letters, which I had never read till after 
 your Lordship's judgment; and never did I see 
 such hypocrisy and cant. 
 
 He "only endures life that he mav witness 
 the prosperity of his lovely friends, the Misses 
 Long! His happiness or misery, health or ill 
 health, all depend upon them !" I annex two or 
 three of his letters, all of which are in the same 
 trashy and nauseous style. 
 
 Many, many more observations might be made 
 upon your Lordship's Judgment Speech ; but I 
 trust I have said enough to shew that your deci- 
 sion against my claim to the custody of my chil- 
 dren cannot be sustained by any known or recog- 
 nized rules of jurisprudence in this country. That 
 the Court of Chancery had no right to interpose 
 its authority so as to divest me of my natural 
 claims as the surviving parent, or at all events, 
 that it had no such right, until after a case had been 
 clearly made out, upon distinct and unquestionable 
 evidence, that their morals or their future welfare in 
 life icere likely to be affected or endangered by their 
 remaining under my protection. 
 
 My Lord, I maintain with the utmost confi-
 
 62 
 
 deuce, that the only solid and defensible ground for 
 depriving a father of the care of his children, should 
 rest upon the clearest and most distinct proofs of his 
 having neglected the duties of a father ! 
 
 I feel perfectly satisfied that no person in the 
 kingdom, nay, that no woman with the feelings 
 of a mother would ever lend her sanction to the 
 doctrine laid down by your Lordship, that a 
 father, in the event of his surviving his wife, is to 
 be held incapable of being intrusted with the care 
 and management of the offspring of their mar- 
 riage, if it shall be discovered after her death, by 
 any of her relations, who may have an interest in 
 raising the question, that that father has during 
 her lifetime been guilty of infidelity to her. 
 
 Your Lordship knows, that such a doctrine, if 
 made a ground for disqualifying a father from 
 having the custody of his own children, will, in 
 several well known cases, endanger the parental 
 rights and privileges of some of the first men in 
 the kingdom. 
 
 I am, 
 My Lord, &c. &c. 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 London, 
 25th February, 1827.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Page 23, line 28. — Mrs. Wellesley had in her suite, in the 
 capacity of Lady's maid, a person who had received a finished 
 education, who corrected and wrote many of her letters. 
 
 Page 51, line 16. — It now appears that Dr. Bulkeley was brought 
 to a court-martial in Corfu, and broken. For what ? — For telling 
 an untruth ! ! 
 
 Page 56, line 26. — The cause for the production of these thirty 
 letters, some of which have appeared in the public journals, arose 
 thus : — the objectionable part of those two letters (out of one 
 hundred sworn to have been written,) which contained oaths, were 
 produced in proof by the Misses Long in the Court of Chancery. 
 This brought to my recollection the tenour of my correspondence 
 with my children and their tutor, which 1 had written according to 
 the feeling of the moment, and of which I retained no copies. I 
 made my counsel call for all the letters I had written ; and with 
 great difficulty, after much delay, I succeeded in obtaining those 
 which have appeared before the public ; and which are obviously a 
 selection not made to favour me ; as the seventy letters retained, 
 are chiefly those which were written to my eldest son, being com- 
 posed for the instruction of one more advanced in years than my 
 other children, they of necessity would be better written. Would 
 to God I could be judged by the whole of my correspondence with 
 my children, as well as with others, which have reference to their 
 interest.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 In reconsidering the contents of Appendix B, I am called 
 upon in fairness to Lord Maryborough to add, that before I came 
 of age, he paid several hundred pounds for me ; at this distant 
 period of time I cannot call to my recollection the amount — I 
 believe it was under one thousand pounds. 
 
 My father also gave me an allowance with which I was satisfied, 
 and which I believe was fully equal to what it ought to have been ; 
 I believe it varied at different times ; I cannot recollect its amount. 
 
 I do not in these pages desire to make myself better than I am, 
 I wish to shew I have been represented as very much worse than 
 I am. 
 
 I avow that all my life, till within these last few years, I have 
 been most inconsiderate with regard to my own pecuniary interests ; 
 that I have frequently contracted, thoughtlessly, debt ; but I have 
 the consolatory reflection of knowing, that I have given proof of 
 my considering no sacrifice to vanity, or privation even of comfort, 
 too great to myself, but never to my wife, to give me the more ready 
 means of meeting the heedless pecuniary obligations I had con- 
 tracted ; as also that I have narrowly watched over the pecuniary 
 interests of others confided to my care, especially those of my 
 children ! 
 
 When the family arrangement took place in the year 1810, I 
 believe Mr. Trebeck paid out of my father's estates the bills I then 
 owed, which were under one thousand pounds, I think.
 
 APPENDIX (A). 
 
 (COPY.) 
 
 Correspondence between Messrs. Williams, Brooks, 
 Powell, and Broderip, and Messrs. Hutchinson 
 and Holdsworth. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn, 29th Nov. 1826. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 We are directed by Mr. Long Wellesley to apply to you 
 for the delivery to him, as the administrator, with the will annexed, 
 of the late Mrs. Long Wellesley, of all the effects of his late wife, 
 which came into the possession of yourselves, or the Misses Long, 
 upon that lady's death. As no doubt can exist of Mr. Long 
 Wellesley's right, either as the husband or administrator of his late 
 wife, to all she died possessed of, we presume you will have no 
 difficulty in advising their being given up. Waiting your reply, 
 We are, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient Servants, 
 (Signed) WILLIAMS, BROOKS, POWELL, & BRODERIP. 
 
 To Messrs. Hutchinson and Holdsworth. 
 
 Lincoln'' s Inn, 29th Nov. 1826. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 We lose not a moment in replying to your letter, applying 
 on behalf of Mr. Wellesley for the delivery of all the effects of the 
 
 F
 
 64 APPENDIX (a). 
 
 late Mrs. Wellesley, which came to the possession of ourselves, or 
 the Misses Tilney Long, upon that lady's death. As concerns our- 
 selves, the answer is, there were none ; and we will write to the 
 Misses Tylney Long by the post of to-morrow, to apprize those 
 ladies of the application as concerns them. 
 We are, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient Servants, 
 (Signed) HUTCHINSON & HOLDSWORTH. 
 
 To Messrs. Williams, Brooks : Powell, 
 and Broderip. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn, 4th Dec. 1826. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 We request to be informed what answer has been given by 
 the Misses Long to the application made by us on the 29th ult., for 
 the delivery to Mr. Long Wellesley of all the effects of the late 
 Mrs. Long Wellesley which came to their possession. In your 
 reply of that date you stated it to be your intention to apprize them 
 of the application by the succeeding post. We presume this was 
 done, and that by this time you have received their reply. 
 We are, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient Servants, 
 (Signed) WILLIAMS, BROOKS, POWELL, & BRODERIP. 
 To Messrs. Hutchinson and Holdsworth. 
 
 Hall Place, 9th Dec. 1826. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I have deeply reflected upon the communication you have 
 made to me of the purport of what passed between Mr. Hutchinson 
 and yourself yesterday ; and I request you will inform Mr. Hutchin- 
 son that it is my express desire that you, or some person in whom 
 I equally repose delicate confidence, should be present at the time 
 the proposed inventory of Mrs. Long Wellesley's papers and effects 
 is taken.
 
 APPENDIX (a). 65 
 
 I require this, because I do not choose to suffer these papers to 
 be indiscriminately read by any person whatever: and I feel it to 
 be more essential, in consequence of Mr. Hutchinson's declaration, 
 that he should think it right to retain such of Mrs. Long Wellesley's 
 papers as he might deem advisable not to be handed over to me. 
 
 This declaration assuredly conveys either the intention of in- 
 specting these papers, or, that having been already made acquainted 
 with their entire contents, he judges it expedient to select certain 
 portions of them ; it is a matter to me of no consideration what 
 may be the papers (trifling or important) which, in the discharge 
 of his duty as agent for the Misses LGng, he may think it politic to 
 retain ; but I do protest against the principle of any man, let him 
 be who he may, assuming to himself the power of acquiring the 
 knowledge of one scintilla of the contents of the general and private 
 papers of a deceased wife, which are naturally, and, in my case, 
 also legally, the property of her husband. 
 
 Having learnt, at the time, by a letter from Mr. Yewbury, which 
 isaiow lying before me, that immediately after Mrs. Long Welles- 
 ley's death, seals had been put on every thing that belonged to her ; 
 having caused repeated notices to be given to Mr. Hutchinson that 
 these seals should not be broken but in ,my presence, until I re- 
 ceived your communication, I of course concluded that they would 
 in the ordinary manner be kept sacred, and be delivered up to me 
 in the same state. 
 
 I have no hesitation in declaring to Mr. Hutchinson, that I con- 
 sider the production of these papers, in their integrity, will enable 
 me most triumphantly to overthrow the accusations which have 
 been brought against me, by the disclosure of a succession of unde- 
 niable facts, which would confirm all the statements of my affi- 
 davits. 
 
 It must be obvious to the weakest understanding, that if Mr. 
 Hutchinson claims to examine, to retain, or to destroy any of these 
 papers, it can only be to prevent the elucidation of the truth. 
 
 To this I will not submit. I ask, to whom, if not to me, these 
 papers and all other effects of Mrs. Wellesley belong ? I ask, by 
 what right the Misses Long presume to detain them from me one 
 moment, still more of selecting from them all that might tend 
 
 .f2
 
 (Jlj APPENDIX (a). 
 
 to their discomfiture and my justification ? Do these ladies reflect 
 upon the course they are advised to pursue ? Do they consider it 
 consistent with principles of justice, with common candour, I 
 would add with common honesty, to say nothing of delicacy, to 
 ransack papers which do not belong to them, for the purpose of 
 suppressing, if not of destroying, evidence ? 
 
 I hope they are not capable of it ; at alLevents, it is my duty to 
 prevent it. 
 
 I desire you will be good enough to communicate this letter to 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson to be laid before the Misses Long. I am aware I 
 
 have expressed myself strongly. I intend to do so, for I will not 
 
 tamely stand by and see my dearest rights infringed, and my best 
 
 affections trampled upon, without a struggle to avert it, and to 
 
 throw back upon ray accusers the obloquy they would attach 
 
 upon me. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 Most faithfully, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 To J. A. Powell, Esq. Lincoln's Inn 
 
 Lincoln's bin, llth Dec. 1826. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 We are desired by Mr. Long Wellesley to send to you the 
 enclosed copy of a letter he has written to us on the subject of Mrs. 
 Wellesley's papers and effects, which, as you will perceive, he de- 
 sires may be communicated to the Misses Long. We therefore re- 
 quest you will do so as early as possible. 
 
 On our part we have only to add, that we shall be ready to attend 
 any appointment for the purpose of taking the inventory, and that 
 Mr. Long Wellesley will be prepared to give any proper discharge 
 for these effects, upon the whole being delivered up to him ; but he 
 directs us to say, that he will not permit any part to be kept back. 
 We are, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient Servants, 
 (Signed) WILLIAMS, BROOKS, POWELL, & BRODERIP. 
 To Messrs. Hutchinson and Holdsworth.
 
 APPENDIX (a). 67 
 
 Lincoln's Inn, Dec. \'2lh, 1826. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 
 In reply to your letter of yesterday, enclosing copy of one 
 of the 9th instant, from Mr. Wellesley to Mr. Powell, we have to 
 say that we deem it unnecessary to make any other reply to Mr. 
 Wellesley's observations, (whether as applied to the Misses Long 
 or to Mr. Hutchinson) about suppressing or destroying evidence, 
 and ransacking papers, &c, than that they are wholly devoid of 
 truth and justice. The round assertion of Mr. Wellesley, that he 
 considers the papers of the late Mrs. Wellesley, now in the pos- 
 session of the Misses Tylney Long, would enable him triumphantly 
 to overthrow the accusations which have been brought against him, 
 &c. &c, would have excited surprise, had not statements of a 
 similar character been made on former occasions, during these 
 proceedings. Mr. Wellesley deposed to the same effect in one of his 
 affidavits with regard to the papers left by him in the New Road, 
 which he described as having been stolen, although he could hardly 
 be ignorant how Captain Bligh had taken possession of them. 
 
 Upon the main points of Mr. Wellesley's letter, the delivery of 
 Mrs. Wellesley's effects to him, and the inventory to be previously 
 taken of them, the Misses Long are advised that the effects of the 
 late Mrs. Long Wellesley having fallen into their hands at the time 
 of the fatal event, as her nearest friends and relations, they were 
 entitled to take an inventory of them for their own indemnity, 
 without the intervention of any person whomsoever, at any time 
 before delivering them up to the ultimate legal possessor of them, 
 and therefore they are advised that they are so entitled now. And 
 with regard to her letters and papers in particular, the Misses Long 
 are advised that this is a case where they rather than any other 
 persons, and above all, perhaps, exclusively of Mr. Wellesley, are 
 the most natural and proper persons to inspect and examine those 
 letters and papers ; and acting as they do in these proceedings 
 under the express and almost testamentary injunctions of their 
 deceased sister, we conceive it is also competent for them to decide 
 which of these letters and papers shall be retained, at least until 
 the decision of the question now pending. Nor do we believe that 
 any person, not entirely devoid of all sentiments of delicacy,
 
 g8 APPENDIX (a). 
 
 propriety, or even common decency, can hesitate to admit this 
 claim on the part of the Misses Tilney Long. Certain it is, that 
 they will be advised to insist on it. 
 
 An inventory will be made as speedily as conveniently may be, 
 and all such letters, papers, and effects, as the Misses Long are 
 advised they can with safety and propriety deliver up, they will 
 order to be delivered. 
 
 We are, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your very obedient Servants,. 
 (Signed) HUTCHINSON & HOLDSWORTH. 
 
 To Messrs. Williams, Brooks, Powell, and Broderip. 
 
 Lincoln 1 s Inn, Dec. 14th, 1826. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 We yesterday received your letter of the 12th instant, in 
 reply to ours of the 1 1th and its enclosure. Having laid it before 
 Mr. Long Wellesley, he has directed us to state that his observation 
 respecting "the destroying evidence," was founded upon Mr. 
 Hutchinson's distinct avowal of his determination to destroy (if he 
 thought proper) any of his own letters that he might find among 
 Mrs. Long Wellesley's papers ; and that the charge of " ransacking 
 papers and suppressing evidence," is fully borne out by the equally 
 distinct avowal in your letter of the 12th, of the intention of the 
 Misses Tylney Long " to inspect, examine, and retain"' such of 
 the papers as they shall decide upon as fit to be retained. With 
 these avowals staring him in the face, Mr. Long^ Wellesley is 
 content to leave it to every candid mind to decide on which side 
 lie " truth and justice." The lapse of a very short time will shew 
 the accuracy of Mr. Long Wellesley in the statement 1 he has madei 
 of the importance of these papers to his cause as well as of those 
 stolen in the New Road. Mr. Hutchinson, from the recent applica- 
 tion to serve him with a subpoena to produce those papers, must be 
 aware that until the disclosure made by him at that time, Mr. 
 Wellesley was ignorant of their being in the possession of any 
 other person than Mr. Hutchinson himself. 
 
 We do not know who the advisers of the Misses Tylney Long
 
 APPENDIX (a). 69 
 
 may be, but we cannot conceive any person so ignorant of the 
 commonest principles of the law, as to have told them that they 
 have the rights you contend for. Upon Mrs. Long Wellesley's 
 death, every thing belonging to her becameimmediately the property 
 of her husband, or of her executors, if she had power to make a will 
 and appoint them. The persons into whose possession her effects 
 casually came (whoever they were) were bound in honour to seal 
 them up, and to keep, or place them in safety, for the husband, or 
 executor. 
 
 From the moment the executors were known, and the will 
 proved by them, or that it was known there were none, and 
 administration was granted to the husband (who alone had right 
 to it), the property ought to have been delivered up to him without 
 any examination. 
 
 Under such circumstances no inspection could be necessary, no 
 inventory be required, and the receipt of the persona! representative 
 would be a sufficient discharge. 
 
 Where seals are once placed, they cannot with propriety be 
 broken, without the consent of those legally intitled to the property 
 they cover, and in their presence, if required. 
 
 Mr. Long Wellesley desires us again to insist upon every part of 
 these effects being delivered up to him. He says, " That if among Mrs. 
 Long Wellesley's papers there should be found any of the exposure 
 of which any persons may be afraid or ashamed, they must take the 
 consequences of the folly or wickedness of having written them. If 
 there be not any such, there can be no good reason for the anxious 
 and unbecoming desire expressed to examine and retain them. 
 
 It seems to Mr. Wellesley not a little strange, that the only person 
 not allowed to see or possess these effects should be precisely the 
 person to whom they legally belong. 
 
 Mr. Long Wellesley knows of "no testamentary injunctions of 
 his late wife ;" he looks to his situation as her husband, to her will, 
 and to the administration of it granted to him, for his natural and 
 legal rights; and finds those rights complete in them. 
 
 In this case the Misses Longs can legally put themselves in no 
 better situation than strangers. They are, in the opinion of Mr. 
 Long Wellesley, the last persons, as relatives, (because they are
 
 70 APPENDIX (a). 
 
 interested parties) to whom ought to be entrusted the care or 
 examination of his wife's papers. He has already seen what he has 
 to expect from a selection made by them or those under whose 
 advice they act. He adds, that he has yet to discover " the senti- 
 ments of delicacy, propriety, or even common decency," which have 
 actuated those ladies in their proceedings against him. 
 
 We are, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient Servants. 
 
 (Signed) WILLIAMS, BROOKS, POWELL, & BRODERIP. 
 
 To Messrs. Hutchinson and Holdsworth.
 
 71 
 
 APPENDIX (B.) 
 
 ■1° § 
 
 £ 5 £ 
 
 £§ 3d 
 
 -" iS «- QO 
 
 >£ £ |» 
 
 O fa, 4) S; 
 
 *■ e fe "« 
 p _ a. ro 
 5 C -s oj 
 
 (No. 1.) 
 
 Copy of Mr. Trebeck's Statement, with the 
 Remarks of Mr. Long Wellesley thereon. 
 
 STATEMENT RELATIVE TO THE AFFAIRS OF THE RIGHT HON. 
 W. W. POLE. 
 
 January 1810. 
 
 Mr. Pole has various debts, which he wishes to discharge, 
 
 amounting in Irish money to about 
 
 In order to raise a fund for the discharge of those debts, Mr . 
 
 Pole wishes to sell unimproveable property in Ireland. 
 To cut down timber upon the demesne of Ballyfinne, 
 
 calculated to produce 
 
 And to borrow stock of the trustees of his marriage 
 settlement, computed to be of ihe value, in Irish Money 
 of about £ ; in order to obtain which stock it 
 will be necessary to secure to the trustees the sum of 
 £ British, or £ Irish, which he was 
 bound to accumulate for the portions of his daughters, 
 to the interest of which he is entitled during his 
 life £ 
 
 The estates will, after Mr. Pole's death, be liable to the 
 payment of interest on this sum of £ Irish, 
 which at £6 per cent would be £ 
 
 That, added to the unimproveable property sold, would 
 reduce the annual income of the estates after Mr. Pole's 
 decease £ 
 
 £
 
 72 APPENDIX (b). 
 
 Mr. Pole, being desirous of making a proper provision for his son, 
 proposes to increase the allowance he makes to £1,500 British, per 
 annum, and to settle his house in Saville-row, and an estate in 
 Wiltshire, called How and Dean, subject to his and Mrs. Pole's 
 life estates therein, upon his son, absolutely. 
 
 He proposes to make many beneficial arrangements with regard to 
 his estates, particularly in the reduction of his establishment at 
 Ballyfinne, and the letting part of the demesnes and the deer-park ; 
 by which means he expects to effect a saving or difference of at least 
 £ per annum, and still materially benefit the inheritance, as 
 
 also doubly compensate for any reduction in the rental, by sale of 
 the unimproveable property before-mentioned, and upon the whole 
 of the proposed arrangements, Mr. Pole's income will be much more 
 considerably increased. 
 
 In order to bring these plans into effect it will be necessary for 
 Mr. Pole and his son to sign and execute proper deeds, in order 
 that recoveries may be suffered so as to cut off the entail created by 
 the will of the late Mr. Pole. These deeds are preparing, and will 
 be transmitted to London, with the proper instructions as to the 
 mode of executing them. 
 
 The estates will by them be settled, in the first instance, on Mr. 
 Pole for his life, then on Mr. William Pole for life, subject to Mrs. 
 Pole's jointure, now charged thereon, and then to the heirs of the 
 survivor of Mr. Pole and his son, subject notwithstanding to any 
 other mode of resettling the estates which Mr. Pole and his son may 
 afterwards think proper to make. 
 
 " All this meets with my entire and most ample concurrence." 
 
 W.W.POLE. 
 23d January 1810. 
 
 The lines written across the top of the first page, and the con- 
 cluding lines on this page, are in the hand- writing of Mr. Long 
 Wellesley.
 
 APPENDIX (b). 
 
 73 
 
 (No. 2.) 
 
 4th January 1810. 
 
 Copy of Mr. Pole's Memorandum, with the Re- 
 marks of Mr. Long Wellesley thereon. 
 
 The memorandum marked No. 
 1 , states briefly the sum wanting 
 to clear incumbrances, the mode 
 of providing it, and the burden 
 that will remain upon the estate 
 to be borne by my son, if he con- 
 curs in the arrangement. 
 
 The advantages which will be 
 given to him as an equivalent for 
 the sacrifice he will make by 
 what is proposed, are the imme- 
 diate income of £1,500 a year, 
 and the reversion of How and 
 Dean estate, and of the house 
 in Saville Row ; these, taken to- 
 gether, are worth, upon the cal- 
 culation which has been made 
 by my people of business, above 
 half the value of the charge that 
 will be laid on the estate, and 
 the loss of £ a year by the 
 
 intended sale ; this I understand 
 is more than the proportion which- 
 my son's interest in the estates 
 bears to mine, considering the 
 relative value of our lives. But 
 besides this equivalent, the dis- 
 tribution of Ballyfine must be 
 
 Nothing can be considered by 
 me a sacrifice which tends to 
 relieve my father's embarrass- 
 ments. 
 
 Extremely liberal ; more than 
 I should have expected ; as much 
 as I desire.
 
 74 
 
 AI'PKNDIX (b). 
 
 I am well aware that my 
 father would have recourse to no 
 measure that was not most strict- 
 ly equitable, as well as beneficial 
 to my interests ; but I wish my 
 father to think less of my interests, 
 and be assured that most willingly 
 I shall always enter into any ar- 
 rangements that may be beneficial 
 to him and other branches of my 
 family. 
 
 I am most positively deter- 
 mined not to enter minutely into 
 any of those arrangements, as I 
 hold my father's judgment supe- 
 rior to my own ; he may always 
 command my opinion on this 
 subject. 
 
 highly beneficial to my son ; for 
 it will be instantly turned into 
 two productive farms, with a per- 
 manent increase to the property 
 of £ per ann. And all the 
 young growing timber, planted 
 by me, amounting to about se- 
 venty acres, will remain, and 
 must become, in course of time, 
 highly productive. 
 
 The house, &c. will be pre- 
 served at an expence to me of 
 £ a year ; but may in future 
 be made productive by sale, if 
 it should not be of consequence 
 to my son to keep up his inte- 
 rest in the Queen's County. 
 
 W. W. POLE. 
 
 W. W. P. 
 
 (No. 3.) 
 
 Copy of Mr. Long Wellcsleys Letter to Mr. Wel- 
 lesley Pole, enclosing Papers Nos. 1 and 2. 
 
 Greenvrich Park, 23d January 1810. 
 My Dear Father, 
 
 Mr. Trebeck, who has just quitted me, delivered to me 
 your letter of the 4th instant, together with the papers therein con- 
 tained, marked Nos. 1 and 2. 
 
 I have to observe on the paper marked No. I, that I wish to rest 
 in ignorance as to the amount of the embarrassments with which 
 your property may be encumbered ; it must be for the joint interest 
 of us both to dissipate- those incumbrances in the most advantageous 
 manner ; it is for you to fix on the mode : for me to acquiesce in 
 your opinion.
 
 APPENDIX (b). ?.*> 
 
 Pursuing this principle, I have refrained from examining the first 
 page of the paper No. 1 , from the commencement of that part of 
 the paper No. 1, which I have thus marked, >< to its conclusion. 1 
 have only to repeat that the suggestions therein contained meet 
 with my most ample concurrence. 
 
 The best answer I can offer you to the Paper No. 2. are the 
 observations I have scratched down in the margin of the said paper, 
 and which I now enclose you. 
 
 I am most perfectly satisfied with the allowance of £1,500 a year 
 which you are pleased to grant me. 
 
 I have been induced to make some observations on the monies 
 due to Lord Wellesley and Wellington. I trust that you will in your 
 goodness place a favourable construction on the motives which 
 induced me thus frankly to state my feelings on the subject. 
 
 Without trespassing further on your time at this moment, I shall 
 confine myself to expressing the anxious solicitude which I shall at 
 all periods feel in tendering to your equitable and honourable care 
 my signature. 
 
 I feel infinite satisfaction in having had the pleasure of making 
 Mr. Trebeck's acquaintance, in whom I have discovered the most 
 upright and impartial conduct ; and I shall feel great delight in 
 rendering all possible civilities to this gentleman. 
 Believe me, my dear Father, with the 
 
 greatest respect and warmest attachment, 
 
 your affectionate Son, 
 
 W. W. POLE. 
 
 P.S. I take the liberty of observing on the arrangement which 
 you intend making relative to my sister's fortunes, that this equally 
 meets with my admiration ; and that, although it is a part of the 
 subject now under review which, having in any way touched upon, 
 I should have so done with a most delicate hand, I ought, in justice 
 to Mr. Trebeck to state, that I have been prevented even thus ap- 
 pearing to interfere by the candid disclosure of this gentleman. 
 
 The papers Nos. 1 and 2, with my remarks, I beg leave now to 
 reinclose to you. 
 
 W. W. P.
 
 76 APPENDIX (B)o 
 
 (No. 4.) 
 
 Copy of Mr. Trebeclcs Letter to Mr Wellesley 
 Pole, transmitting Recovery Deed. 
 
 24th January 1810. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have the particular pleasure of transmitting herewith the 
 recovery deed, and other documents relating to it, under a cover, 
 addressed to Mr. Cathrew. In obtaining to them the signatures of 
 your son, I have the extreme satisfaction of finding him alive to 
 every sentiment which would be gratifying to a father, and perfectly 
 according in every plan proposed for the arrangement of the affairs 
 of your family generally. Such were the impressions upon my 
 mind, that, although it was unnecessary to enter into any detail as 
 to the nature of the incumbrances upon you, I was induced to 
 explain to your son that they were two sums due to Lord Wellesley, 
 and Lord Wellington, which were intended to remain upon your 
 personal security, and were not included in the suggested arrange- 
 ment. On this point, 1 have his particular request that you will 
 allow them to be included ; and, professing the greatest respect for 
 both their Lordships, he begs me to suggest his desire and wil- 
 lingness that he may be permitted to join in a security for the 
 sums. 
 
 Feeling as I do, every bearing of the transaction, I hope and 
 trust that although my having stated these debts was not part of my 
 written instructions, yet the conduct of your son rendered it but 
 proper that the circumstances should be stated. 
 
 I have found Mrs. Pole and your son much gratified by the 
 suggested arrangement with regard to the Dublin property, and on 
 your arrival in London the whole of that plan may be carried into 
 effect. 
 
 I have not yet had the honour of seeing Lord Wellesley, but
 
 APPENDIX (b). 77 
 
 expect to do so daily ; after having seen his lordship I shall wait 
 upon Lord Clarendon, and as I feel the necessity of arranging the 
 matters before I leave London, most probably I shall have the 
 honour of seeing you before I set off on my return to Ireland. 
 
 I remain, &c. &c, 
 (Signed) CHARLES TREBECK. 
 
 24th January 1810. 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HON. W. POLE. 
 
 9th July 1821. 
 My dear Father, 
 
 Your letter of the 5 th of July I received the day before yes- 
 terday, announcing the assumption of your long rumoured peerage, 
 together with the causes which induced you to refrain from a more 
 early communication to me of the event. That any communica- 
 tion which comes from you should at all times command my re- 
 spectful attention, you have no cause to doubt. The letter in ques- 
 tion has occupied my most serious reflections ; and I must be guilty 
 of gross duplicity did I admit the reasons you assign as those which 
 precluded your communicating to me earlier your intended eleva- 
 tion, were calculated to remove from my mind long sufferings of 
 .the deepest and most painful nature. 
 
 You inform me Lord Liverpool enjoined you to secresy; but, 
 during the existence of this bond of secresy, you were allowed to 
 notify the event of your projected peerage to three persons, Lord 
 Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, and another person, under pe- 
 culiar circumstances. I must confess I can conceive no circum- 
 stances so peculiar as that which could not induce you to solicit 
 Lord Liverpool to allow you to add my name as a fourth. Perhaps 
 my vanity tells me I ought to have been the first person. I have 
 reasons to believe Lord Liverpool has denied his intention to keep 
 the matter secret from me ; but of this I am satisfied, if he made 
 1 any special injunction, by which I was to be kept in ignorance of 
 the event, his Lordship was to me guilty of an insult, which I shall 
 ever remember.
 
 78 APPENDIX (B). 
 
 It is some years since I first learned it to be your wish to become 
 a peer. When this information was given to me, I treated it as an 
 idle rumour, merely because I had never heard you mention the 
 subject. And now it will be above a twelvemonth since Charles 
 Stuart communicated to me several particulars concerning your 
 title. I denied the matter, entirely from the same reasons that I 
 did three years ago ; but I must confess, when in the same week I 
 saw authentic paragraphs in newspapers, sanctioning the public 
 rumour, I felt deeply mortified. 1 could not avoid looking into my 
 mind, searching after and inquiring for, but, thank God, finding no 
 cause, why my father should publicly hold me forth to the world 
 as a man unworthy of his confidence, and one he did not think 
 proper to treat with the ordinary courtesy which parents generally 
 condescend to adopt towards their sons. 
 
 I shall take the present occasion, which seems to have revived 
 our intercourse, to bring under your view subjects not in answer to 
 your letter of the 3d instant. 
 
 Public rumour has informed me you expressed yourself surprised 
 at my not confiding to you the direction of my affairs. I regret 
 that my motives for not availing myself of your abilities escaped 
 your sagacity. There were two conclusive reasons which induced 
 me to refrain from soliciting your aid, both of which operated at 
 different periods of time, the first separately, and afterwards the 
 two collectively. 
 
 When you spoke to me of my affairs at Stratfield-Say, they had 
 been open to my men of business, and the readiest mode of relief 
 to them appeared to be to allow a portion of the interest of my debt 
 to bear upon your estates. 
 
 Your manner to me of late years, your expressions towards me, 
 were to my mind convincing that you did not place in me that se- 
 cure confidence which would have allowed me in prudence to open 
 to you the state of my affairs ; when the first paper that would have 
 met your eye must have been one containing a proposition to come 
 upon you for relief, your suspicions would all afresh have been 
 awakened, and you might have presented to your imagination a 
 ground on which to form an opinion that I sought your interference 
 but to entrap you into the giving me assistance. 
 
 This cause operated antecedently to the King's death. I then
 
 APPENDIX (fi). 79 
 
 Was anxious to have your advice; Shawe was equally desirous to 
 profit by it ; but this reason appeared, both to himself and me, so 
 paramount against making application to you, that we abandoned it 
 altogether. I must add, admitting the force of my reasons, Shawe 
 did so at my instigation. 
 
 After the death of the king, my affairs wore a more gloomy 
 aspect ; I found I had to contend with an assertion, that it was my. 
 intention to ev,ade, by legal chicanery, a fair adjustment of my 
 creditors' claims against me — a vile insinuation, which might ulti- 
 mately affect my honour. 1 resolved to foil so base an attempt ; 
 and after much reflection, and no consultation with aught but my 
 own mind, 1 resolved upon a project, wasteful in a pecuniary sense, 
 but which would place, as I foresaw, beyond the possibility of 
 doubt, the rectitude of my intentions. 
 
 It was impossible that I could have then sought advice from you, 
 any more than I could have solicited you to become my s jcond in 
 a duel. 
 
 The sequel proved the justness of my forethought ; for the very 
 act which proved to me honourable, was endeavoured to be set 
 aside as a fraudulent transaction. The measure was tried in a 
 Court of Justice, and the Judge decided the transaction to be most 
 honourable to my character, and reputable to my understanding. 
 Had you been a party to these arrangements, the world would have 
 said my honour had been saved by my father's interference. Ho- 
 nour is the only point in life which it is a virtue to treat selfishly. 
 If I had erred in that essential particular, I should have desired to 
 have fallen by myself: if I had not, I shall desire by myself alone 
 to have risen.* 
 
 Those were the reasons which induced me to abandon all thoughts 
 of accepting your offer to mix yourself up with my affairs ; and if 
 they are not satisfactory to you, I can but regret it ; to me they ap- 
 pear conclusive. 
 
 I have now had ample time to reflect and to sift, in all its differ- 
 ent bearings, the state of my affairs, which makes it expedient that 
 I should most respectfully bring under your serious consideration 
 
 • For five years I bad not seen this letter. Once I sent it to my father; but 
 so strong were the principles contained in it impressed on my mind, that they 
 will be found almost in the same words a* the letter which I wrote to my son.
 
 80 APPENDIX (b). 
 
 the errors which have crept into the family settlement, which was 
 made between yourself and me, when I came of age, and that I 
 should point out to you how seriously it will affect the future in- 
 terest of my children, if it is allowed to remain in its present state. 
 
 The settlement gives you, at my death, an absolute right in fee 
 over my mother's and your own estates, by which clause you pos- 
 sess the power of leaving the estate away from my children, should 
 I die before you, a no very improbable event. When you inform 
 yourself upon the nature of the different settlements under which 
 these estates were originally taken by yourself and my mother, you 
 will instantly perceive the error your lawyers fell into when the 
 estates, upon my becoming of age, were resettled. 
 
 This subject I have not mooted to you till now, because I was 
 unwilling to urge any measure which could alter a settlement of 
 your Lordship's property, until you ascended the peerage; as I 
 know well the false colouring which election partizans give to all 
 measures ; and, as I have been led to understand, all proceedings 
 relative to property are more public in Ireland than elsewhere. 
 
 Mr. Blake has long since informed himself on the subject. He 
 is ready to communicate either directly with you, or any professional 
 man you will appoint, with whom he will enter into the details con- 
 nected with this matter. 
 
 I have endeavoured, in selecting Mr. Blake, to give my confi- 
 dence to a person I believe worthy of it ; and I have only to add, 
 Lord Wellesley wrote me word he was one of the best and wisest 
 men he ever met with. None but a professional man could explain 
 all the bearings of the case. I preferred, for obvious reasons, using 
 Blake in preference to an attorney. 
 
 In urging the resettlement of your estates, you will perceive I 
 solicit no diminution of your income, no loan of money which can 
 diminish your income ; I ask for your serious consideration of a 
 subject which, from error, has crept into a settlement. But I 
 will not disguise the fullest extent of my intentions, which are, if I 
 possess, which, in my conscience, I believe I have a right to pos- 
 sess, as an act of justice to my children, the reversionary interest 
 of these estates in fie, to them and to my wife to leave them; and I 

 
 Vri'h\ DJ v (lJ - s I 
 
 shall feel no scruple in bringing your estates to bear upon the heavy 
 interest of the debt now charged upon Mrs. Wellesley's estates. 
 
 Perhaps no man ever was in a more curious situation than that 
 in which I now am, with regard to my hereditary property. I was 
 reputed, not by myself (for I never have known, and I do not now 
 know, the value, situation, or circumstances of your estates), but by 
 a letter of yours and by your lawyers to Mrs. Wellesley's family, as 
 having a large hereditary property settled upon me ; but it now 
 appears to be only a collateral interest, subject to a contingency 
 which may possibly alienate the property from my heirs. 
 
 I am sorry to have troubled you so long ; the only excuse I can 
 give, is the not possessing the power to compress in a smalle 1 ' 
 compass the subjects I have deemed necessary to bring under your 
 consideration. 
 
 TO A. R. BLAKE, Esq. 
 
 10th July 1821. 
 
 1 have received a letter from Mr. Pole, announcing his as- 
 sumption of the title of Baron Maryborough. In a letter in answer 
 to his, I have opened to him my wishes with regard to the re-settle- 
 ment of his landed property. I have acquainted my father you 
 have informed yourself upon the subject, that you are prepared 
 to communicate directly with him, or any professional person he 
 may appoint, with whom you will enter into the necessary details. 
 
 My first, main, object is, to secure to myself the power of giving 
 the estates, after the life-possession of my father, absolutely to 
 Mrs. Wellesley and my children. My second object is so to obtain 
 a re-settlement of the property, as to bear upon the heavy interest 
 of the debt now charged, during my life, upon my wife's estates. 
 
 If Mr. Pole would join me in raising £100,000 upon his estates, 
 this would be a direct mode of obtaining my object. 
 
 You must now be so fully acquainted with all matters touching 
 the settlement of his estates, that it does not become necessary, after 
 all I have already written to you on the subject, to trouble you again 
 with a repetition of a long letter touching my wishes. 
 
 Pray let me beg of you to treat Mr. Pole with the utmost re- 
 
 G 2
 
 82 APPENDIX (BJ. 
 
 spect, at the same time that you will urge, in the most forcible 
 mariner, my resolution to have recourse, if necessary, to every re- 
 sort to obtain the restitution of my just rights. 
 
 As soon as you receive this letter, pray lose not a moment in 
 placing yourself in communication with Mr. Pole. 
 
 To Col. SHAWE. 
 
 13th August 1S21. 
 
 I hope the surrender of my opinion to yours, in the letter 
 to Lord Maryborough, will produce the effect you anticipate. You 
 are aware I have not had a word from him on the subject of his 
 re-settlement of his property. 
 
 To A. R. BLAKE, Esq. 
 
 20th August 1821. 
 
 The tenour of my letters to you on this subject is quite in 
 unison with the wishes of Lord Maryborough ; for all I require is 
 such a re-settlement of the property as will place beyond the pos- 
 sibility of danger the security of his income. 
 
 I must beg, therefore, you will, without delay, place yourself 
 in communication with Mr. Cathrew, and enter immediately into 
 the negotiation, by letting my father's own men of business point 
 out the security he requires; and then having secured his life-in- 
 terest, and full enjoyment of the income of his estate and my 
 mother's jointure, to raise as large a sum of money, not exceeding 
 £150,000, as you can, at 5 or 6 per cent., the payment of the 
 interest being secured by a rent-charge upon my estates in pos- 
 session. 
 
 The £1,500 a year I desired him not to pay me; therefore 
 there must be no discussion upon that subject, unless he requires 
 it. If he should, you are authorised by me, to say I shall sur- 
 render up my right to it, upon the re-settlement taking place. 
 Nor is it necessary there should be any discussion whatever as to 
 debts of his contracting for which I have joined 
 
 him in security, except the ascertaining the amount of them.
 
 APPENDIX (h). 83 
 
 To Col. SHAWE. 
 
 16th September 1821. 
 
 I have all along contended for my right to possess the fee 
 simple of his (Lord Maryborough's) estate, he enjoying the life- 
 interest in it; and, obtaining that point, I shall consider myself at 
 full liberty to do as I please with it. 
 
 If, by an act of mine, not injurious to my enjoyment of the 
 fee simple of his estates, I can give additional security to my 
 mother for her jointure, to whatever amount it may be, with which 
 I am now wholly unacquainted ; to my sisters additional security 
 for their jointures ; and, in short, I can more amply secure all the 
 family charges, I assented to when I came of age, provided they 
 do not deprive me of the power of disposal of the fee of my 
 father and mother's estate, subject to these charges ; I shall be 
 ready to do so : and this is all Lord Maryborough can or will I 
 should imagine require. 
 
 Of course I shall be prepared to give him a legal surrender of 
 his annuity, if he requires it ; and still I will hold myself responsi- 
 ble for the debt I have joined him of late years, of the amount of 
 which also I am quite ignorant. 
 
 To Col. SHAWE. 
 
 8th November 1821. 
 
 The very best friends, and persons of the most excellent inten- 
 tions, frequently differ in opinion, though they mutually respect each 
 other's judgment. 
 
 I fear it is my misfortune not to accord in opinion with you 
 regarding the settlement of Lord Maryborough's property ; but I 
 think I divine in your letters the semblance of a greater difference 
 between us than exists in reality : from an amiable feeling of 
 yours, in not desiring to excite any hostility towards my father, you 
 do not express to me your full sentiments. 
 
 I am now like the Austrian commanders-in-chief, in Napoleon's 
 days, who took the field to fight no battles but under the direction 
 of the Aulic Council. Those who, in critical situations, surrendered
 
 84 APPENDIX (|$,. 
 
 their own judgement to the superior wisdom of the Aulic Council 
 got well threshed by little Nap. 1 shall not follow the Austrian 
 general's principles, for though I will give my Aulic Council all 
 proper praise, I will advance to fight my battles in opposition to its 
 detailed opinion. 
 
 Blake's letter, touching the re-settlement of my father's estate, 
 conveys to me little information with which I was not formerly ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 First, the re-settlement of Mrs. Pole's estates. They were 
 settled by Admiral Forbes upon all the younger children of her 
 marriage with Mr. Pole, except on an elder son, which, I find, 
 under my father's hand-writing, was a mistake of the lawyers, not 
 the intention of Admiral Forbes; which, soon after his marriage, 
 was by Admiral Forbes, Mr. and Mrs. Pole (before, I believe, I 
 was bom) thought proper to be rectified. The case was submitted 
 to Mr. Scott, the now Lord Eldon, then a barrister, who gave as 
 his opinion that it would be better to be altered upon the younger 
 child coming of age. Had my father, therefore, upon my coming 
 of age, not taken the earliest opportunity of fulfilling the wishes 
 of Admiral Forbes, and rectifying the error of a negligent lawyer, 
 he would not have done his duty. 
 
 But had he pursued a course different from that which he 
 adopted, when I came of age, Lord Maryborough would not have 
 consulted his own interest, 
 
 It is not necessary to observe, if this arrangement was of greater 
 advantage to me than to my sisters, nor does it signify quoad 
 Lord Maryborough, which of us had the best of the bargain. Hence 
 the point to be considered, if it was in favour of Lord Maryborough, 
 or not ? 
 
 This was advantage the first to Lord Maryborough. He got 
 by the bargain ; he touched, to pay his debts, a sum stated to be 
 in amount £ — which, by a statement of his own to me, 
 
 was the amount of money he was obliged to save from his 
 income to accumulate for junior children's portions. Having so 
 applied this money to the liquidation of his own debts, he charged 
 these augmented portions, which Hi was not to pay, upon estates ;' 
 which porticos I am to pay when I come into possesion of the
 
 APPENDIX (b). 85 
 
 estates. Lord Maryborough was debarred from any application of 
 Admiral Forbes's estates, but the division of them, between Lord 
 Maryborough's children, other than an eldest son. He entered on 
 the estates, but as a tenant for life, and, like most other things, they 
 would have been of no use after his Lordship was under ground. 
 
 But this settlement to me of those estates, when I came of age, 
 facilitated the charge of £ the gross amount of his debt, and 
 
 the £60,000 for my sister's and my mother's jointure ; for if I 
 had been bereft of the Dublin estate, with what grace could he 
 have sought to charge the Pole estates with £60,000 ? 
 
 But giving me the interest he did in all his property, including 
 How and Dean, an estate in Wilts, not yet brought upon the tapis, 
 and Saville-Row-House, he made the family arrangement, when I 
 came of age, look, to a casual observer, better than it really is. 
 Bad enough would it have been had he given me, as I imagined he 
 then had done, the fee simple of them, not reserving to himself the 
 contingent remainder of survivorship. But, contrary as it is to every 
 example, where estates, taken under similar limitations ever were 
 settled, my wife's estates are settled upon her children : she possesses 
 no reversionary right by which she can leave the estate from Bill 
 Long's children ;* she has had no debts paid, and takes her estates 
 under descent, not even from a collateral branch ; but Mr. Pole took 
 his estate from a remote branch, hardly a relation : nor will such a 
 benefit of survivorship be found to exist, I believe, in any settled 
 estate in the world operating against the legitimate heir. 
 
 Consider, I now ask not Lord Maryborough for any diminution 
 of income, no loan of money — no sacrifice, I believe, of any in- 
 terest. Beasts of the field generally like their kind, and human 
 nature generally likes to requite in some degree, advantages 
 heaped upon it. — £ debt paid is something — ten years re- 
 
 spite from the payment of £1,500 per ami. is £15,000. And 
 £ and £15,000 make — a little gift which, from 
 
 the lord's justice, requires a requital, even to his exiled son. 
 There are several other little £l,000's to be added to these insigni- 
 ficant £ 
 
 * The children of my eldest son.
 
 86 APPENDIX (fi). 
 
 My resolution is, to have the estates settled upon me as I have 
 required — if Lord Maryborough continues to refuse me, to sue the 
 Court of Chancery, if he refuses to give up to me my annuity and 
 the arrears thereon. 
 
 I shall not idly, in opposition to Mr. Blake's advice, enter into 
 a legal dispute with Lord Maryborough. 
 
 I cannot anticipate the possibility of my not suing with success 
 for my <£] ,500 a-year, which he shall pay if I can make him. 
 
 It is not necessary to add again the motives which induce ;me to 
 seek the re-scttlement of this property, and to object to assent to his 
 proposition of joining me in raising any sum I can upon his estates. 
 The just and long sought for equitable right, I hope to obtain that 
 which I then asked for, and was then readily accorded to me by 
 Lord Maryborough's observation, " that he would do any thing to 
 relieve me in any point which would not make his situation preca- 
 rious or insecure :" and, secondly, because I feci confident in the 
 existing state of my affairs, that any person, should I die, look- 
 ing over my papers, would say I was both a fool and a rogue to 
 leave in my father's power the contingency of dispossessing my 
 children of their legitimate inheritance, or which ought to be so ; 
 which he will have the power of doing, does he continue to enjoy 
 the power he now holds. 
 
 To A. K. BLAKE, Esq. 
 
 15th Nov. 1821. 
 When I can be brought to believe I seek from Lord Maryborough 
 the restitution of that which can affect his interest, or even comfort, 
 or detract in the slightest degree from his respectability, I will 
 cease to urge my claim. 
 
 To A. K. BLAKE, Esq. 
 
 3d Dec. 1821. 
 I have received a letter from Colonel Shawe, containing the fol- 
 lowing paragraph : — 
 
 " Your father thus obtains a power of depriving your children 
 " of the estates, if he survived you; this power, injustice to vour
 
 APPENDIX (b). 87 
 
 h children, you require of him to abandon, and to this he does 
 " not object. He agrees to re-convey this power by a deed, which 
 " will secure to your children the inheritance of his estates, even if 
 " yon should die before Aim." 
 
 This I am willing to assent to. 
 
 " But if you survive him, you will then have the power of selling 
 " the estates in Ireland, if you prefer it." 
 
 To this also I assent. — I must possess the power of leaving 
 the estates, after my father's death, to such children as I may specify 
 in my will, should I die before him. 
 
 " He also agrees to your raising a sum of money fully equal 
 " to the highest value of the estates in the present state of things, 
 " provided you secure the payment of the interest of that sum 
 " during his lifetime upon your English estates." 
 
 To this also I assent. — I think it would be advisable 
 able not to specify the amount of the sum; but to endeavour to 
 obtain from Lord Maryborough the power to raise the full value of 
 the estate — the interest of the loan charged upon my estates in 
 possession during his life. This arrangement I assent to upon the 
 understanding that the annuity is to be given up legally upon his 
 joining me in the raising of £12,000 at six per cent. — my paying 
 the interest of the same. 
 
 In thus assenting to this arrangement, I do so in opposition to my 
 own judgment, and in deference to Colonel Shawe's ; but having 
 adopted his opinion, I shall not henceforward 
 
 in my own mind ; and if the results should be that 
 which I may contemplate, no regret will ever escape me. 
 
 I beg you will now put this business in the course of arrangement 
 as soon as possible. 
 
 I have thus submitted the correspondence that took place relative 
 to my father's affairs to the end of the year 1821. 
 
 I then sought my father's aid, as one of my attornies to the power 
 already alluded to. My motives for seeking this aid are explained 
 by the following extracts from a letter to Colonel Shawe, dated the 
 29th September 1821 :— 
 
 " If he has exacted fines from his tenantry, to the injury of his
 
 88 APPENDIX (b). 
 
 heirs, he has ; but if he has done 
 
 so, considering my conduct towards him I had better be 
 
 quietly made acquainted with his proceedings, than have them 
 discovered by attornies and devils, who may not be inclined to act 
 so delicately towards his reputation as I should be." 
 
 I was desirous that the necessary inquiries and information re- 
 specting the value and situation of his property should be given by 
 himself; and pursuing the same system of punctilious delicacy to- 
 wards Lord Maryborough which I had done all my life, I got him 
 to act as my agent ; merely because, with the greater privacy, he 
 might rectify the errors which I complain of in my letter of the date 
 of the 9th July 1824. 
 
 At this moment I am not aware of the amount of debt for which 
 I am or have been security for Lord Maryborough. I have always 
 tendered to him my signature, and I have never, that I can call to my 
 recollection, even allowed my men of business to examine any legal 
 instrument whatever in which I have joined him at his instigation. I 
 have never called upon any one of my family, or upon Lord Mary- 
 borough, to benefit me in any way, or to advance any one interest of 
 mine in my life. 
 
 I even now do not wish unnecessarily to pain Lord Maryborough ; 
 1 have limited my explanation to the extent alone which I deem 
 it necessary : irrevocably to prove to your Lordship, that from 
 the earliest period of my life to the latest moment, I have conducted 
 myself, at least towards my father, in a manner which ought to 
 command from him countenance and support.
 
 89 
 
 APPENDIX (C.) 
 
 The following Litters are from a Mr. Barry, who was the Executor 
 to Lady Catherine Long's Will, and is now in the confidence and 
 the Adviser of the Misses Long. — 
 
 My Dear Miss Long, 
 
 I hope you are all returned safe to Draycott House, where I 
 was last night preparing myself to enjoy myself with you all ; but 
 this morning I felt myself far from being well, although nothing 
 alarming: that I must be mortified for the present; however hope, 
 next week, sometime, that I shall not be sensible of any obstacle to 
 my intended journey. In the mean time, I think you should write 
 to Mr. Bullock, saying, that as all will be hurry when he comes 
 down next month, and as it would yield you much satisfaction to 
 know the state of your finances, previous to your taking possession, 
 ■which you suppose you will be entitled to as soon as you arrive at 
 the age of twenty-one years; therefore you desire he will give you' 
 an account of what has been paid the Accountant-General for you, 
 and in what funds it has been placed ; and also, as nearly as he 
 can judge, the amount of the receipts at Michaelmas next, as you 
 have many pecuniary concerns which require such information.— 
 {It rests with yourself whether to add, that you may, perhaps, have 
 occasion to consult a friend respecting them.) — As I would not 
 write you a barren letter, I have hinted this letter to be wrote to
 
 90 APPENDIX (c). 
 
 Mr. Bullock, if it should meet your approbation, and that the 
 papers you mentioned don't contain any such information ; surely 
 you should have some knowledge of what you are to be possessed of, 
 and when ; but of this I leave you to judge for yourself, after ob- 
 serving, that, according to a kind of engagement you have made 
 respecting the payment of a certain person's debts, I don't know 
 how far it can extend, nor can you, without such information ; and 
 it is natural to suppose the creditors will anxiously look for their 
 being liquidated when you are put in possession of your property, 
 although you have not committed yourself as to their payment. You 
 have silenced me as to making any apology in future for my inter- 
 ference; therefore, with our respectful compliments to your Mamma, 
 and love to yourself and sisters, 
 
 I remain, my dear Miss Long, 
 
 Your sincere and affectionate Friend, 
 
 JOHN BARRY. 
 Beaufort Buildings, Sept. 14, 1810. 
 
 My Dear Miss Long, 
 
 Pro bono publico. 
 
 A wise man once said, never is there any thing done, whilst 
 there is any thing left undone. Mr. Arnold will receive your in- 
 structions by this day's post. This far is done ; but to pay my debt 
 to you is only now doing — Ah me ! and in what coin ? — But why 
 ask me ? — Did not this morning, twenty summers now past, usher 
 my dear friend into the world ! Nor would it satisfy my voracious- 
 ness — an odd word — if I had words of congratulation sufficient to 
 fill a volume upon the occasion ; but you, having a more moderate 
 appetite, will be satisfied with the assurance that we are not among 
 the least of your friends in rejoicing upon the occasion. A short 
 time ago, I was ready to, and almost desirous of, taking my flight 
 from this lower world into the hevenly regions ; but in order to see 
 this day once more, to see my chere arnie take possession of the 
 means, and to see her follow the natural bent of her mind in ap-
 
 APPENDIX (c). 91 
 
 plying those means, as well for the comfort of others as her own, I 
 say, that, in order to be a spectator of these things, I shall be con- 
 tented, if it is the will of Providence, to bear the events of another 
 year, even if equal to this last as to corporeal sensations. However, 
 to put an end to a subject which begins to be too serious, I shall beg 
 leave to know what amends you will make for the irregularity which 
 will be introduced into my house to-day ? It is now eleven o'clock 
 only, and common decency has prevented my doxy from having re- 
 course to the brandy bottle, which she is as fond of as yourself ; and 
 as to the kitchen folks, I have them secure under lock and key until a 
 proper time : but when the mistress and virgins begin, it will 
 behove the master to keep himself sober, that should they, in their 
 cups, set the house on fire, there may be somebody to put it out. 
 I was thinking about some constables to keep order, but fear that 
 when acquainted with the cause of their being summoned, viz. Lady 
 C. T. Long's and her daughter's characters for generosity and hos- 
 pitality being so well known, they will run restive also ; so that, 
 upon the whole, I think it best that I don't transfer my authority, 
 but keep the reins tight in hand. — Yes ! yes ! the reins — now what 
 a fortunate word; and why? I'll tell you. The word reins, if not 
 tiresome to you to hear it a third time, puts me in mind of a 
 bridle ; thence, by a concatenation of ideas, springs up a saddle, 
 and — wonderfully marvellous the fertility of my genius ! — hence is 
 produced a noble creature called a horse. And now I seem to 
 soar beyond this terraqueous globe for a still more sublime 
 thought — Oli, I have it : and what then is it, may be ques- 
 tioned ? Answer : I see you, even you, elegantly seated upon 
 this said horse. Very well, Mr. Barry ; and why all this puzzling 
 yourself, as lam sure you must have done, by this round-about way 
 of wishing me a pleasant ride. I suppose, now, I must tell you, 
 my dear Miss, that, however vain you may be in the imagination 
 that you have unravelled my design, yet you have only done it in 
 part, as I not only intended what your deep judgement has found 
 out, as to my wishing you a pleasant airing, but, also, that I had a 
 further motive, which, as a friend, I will let you into the secret of; 
 and that was, as this letter was not to contain a word of advice more 
 than the quotation from the wise man with which it commenced,
 
 92 APPENDIX ((').■ 
 
 to assist in filling up my paper ; so, if the secret is worth having* 
 pray remember that you are in my debt for it. Again, let us return 
 to the serious, that I may thank your mamma not only for the enter- 
 tainment at her house, but likewise for the maintenance of us at 
 our own ; as our servants, being ignorant of our return, were not pro- 
 vided for us, so that our pair of nice young rabbits stood us in good 
 stead. But this was only part of her kindness ; however, between 
 you and me she is a very cruel woman, for over the servants-hall 
 fire-place it is written, or used to be, I well remember, "that the 
 merciful man is merciful to his beast;" now the same is meant for 
 woman as well as man ; and I can prove your mamma to be very 
 unmerciful, by loading her own horses, and afterwards Mrs. Lawes's, 
 with so many good things for such undeserving creatures as we are ; 
 however, as my old woman loves good eating as well as good drink- 
 ing, we shall not make any further complaint. Now, according to 
 my motto, I should say something for your sisters to hear : — oh, that 
 I could say any good — and yet, it is very hard, with my strong in- 
 clination to be censorious about them — that I cannot — no, not even 
 invent anything reflecting upon them ; however, I will be as spite- 
 ful as I can, by charging them with having risen so early, out of 
 complaisance, before their appetites were ripe for the morning's 
 meal of your uncle Andrews. I shall only notice that he is a good 
 kind of man when he returns with a full budget of game, and when 
 he joins in a laugh. As to yourself, I hereby make it known to all 
 your auditors, that I think you are a provokingly pleasing young 
 lady, at present ; and that in the course of time, with good instruc- 
 tions, you will become more than tolerable. In the meantime, lest 
 you should think me intolerable, 1 shall, with our united respects 
 and love to all the parties mentioned, subscribe myself, 
 My dear Miss Long, 
 
 Your's truly, very truly, 
 
 J. BARRY. 
 Beaufort Buildings, October 2d, 1809. 
 
 " Oh the blessed morn 
 When the child was born."
 
 APPENDIX (c). 93 
 
 My Dear Miss Long, 
 The contents of your packet have, also, much gratified me, as I 
 have also your interest and happiness at heart ; but my gratification 
 is chiefly on account of your comfort: therefore, I am very glad that 
 your gentleman will condescend to take your money ; but as I told 
 you in our last conversation, if we could peep into futurity, and if 
 even, only for a few year 5 ;, could discover that your situation would 
 not be changed, I would have advised an immediate discharge of 
 such an idolater — for what else is the covetous man. However, let 
 us retort, and make that convenience of him which he is bribed for; 
 as, from so long a management of your property, without any re- 
 straint, his advice, in many, many instances, it would be impolitic to 
 neglect; and that of Mr. Mowbray's continuance is one wherein I 
 am glad to see you are disposed to agree with, and the addition of 
 sixty guineas is no object to you for a time, although your gentle- 
 man would have made a better bargain for himself; your mention 
 of not acquiescing in, or rather being led by him in all this recom- 
 mendation, meets my full approbation ; therefore, if it is your wish 
 that Mr. Ridpath should manage your Hampshire property, I will 
 consult with him as to terms, and his necessary application to Mr. 
 Bullock, for such information as may be expedient for him as 
 manager and receiver. He does not mention Mr. Heath as to the 
 Wiltshire property : this, therefore, rests on your nomination of 
 him ; but it will be necessary that you should see Mr. Heath, and 
 settle some terms with him, with explanations concerning it; such 
 as Mr. Bullock's auditing his accounts, and his own salary ; but 
 letting him understand that he is accountable only to you for every 
 transaction respecting it, Mr. Bulkxk having only to examine his 
 half-yearly accounts. I wish ever to keep in the back ground as to 
 your concerns with others, as I want not to appear of the least con- 
 sequence in them ; but this, my dear friend, not from cowardice — 
 not for want of inclination to assist you — as, in such case, I should 
 readily meet any person as in the open day, and as openly proclaim 
 that I would act as your advocate, as your friend, although I have 
 experienced its disagreeableness to the person who professes him- 
 self such, and who, 1 am well convinced, therein considered me as
 
 94 APPENDIX (c). 
 
 an enemy to him ; and here I leave him to his own reflections. As 
 to you, he has done his worst, and our letter gratified him ; no 
 wonder! when all his proposals were acquiesced in, and he was 
 complimented into the bargain ; and yet, however despicable his 
 conduct, I don't regret it, as it contributes to save you, my dear 
 Miss Long, much, very much, trouble, which it might have been 
 necessary to repeat, perhaps, not long hence, although I hope not 
 soon — you will understand me. And now I come to your mamma's 
 concerns with this friend to the interest and happiness (I suppose) . 
 Upon reading the copy of his letter to your mamma, before I came 
 to the conclusion, my sentiments were the same as your mamma's, 
 which I read afterwards ; the sooner, therefore, it is done the better : 
 but who is to advance this thousand ? You, I conclude, unless your 
 mamma should go to her hoard, or strong box. Joking apart, my 
 opinion is that she should write to Mr. Bullock to call, or draw 
 upon Messrs. Goslings for £1 ,000, and that you should give them, 
 by the same post, notice of it ; and this I would advise to be done 
 immediately, and before you see him, as such kind of business is 
 best done by letter, and prevent shyness in all parties. I must 
 repeat that it is for your peace sake I wish you to be upon good 
 business terms with this man, as I believe him to be honest and 
 upright ; this is all in future to you : if he becomes avaricious, the 
 curse will be upon himself. It is right, however, as I have ever 
 said and wrote, that you should have an opinion of your own ; but 
 be not hasty, my lovely friend, in giving it — you are apt to be quick 
 —it is constitutional, and my tender affection for you leads me to 
 give you such truths as you may not receive, or, perhaps, bear from 
 any other. In all cases, therefore, let your judgement first deter- 
 mine ; be solitary for a few minutes ; and when that is fixed, and 
 your words even adapted to the business, leave your closet, and 
 shew the reasonableness of your determination ; thus you will avoid 
 being over-ruled by your dependants, and establish that character 
 which I ever wish you to possess (a lady of business) : such a 
 character can never derive from your being a lady of address, of 
 good manners, with many other etceteras. It is true, there may be 
 those whose inability, or negligence, may cast reflections upon the 
 vulgarity of it ; but the more conscientious, the more valuable part
 
 APPENDIX (c). 95 
 
 of society will ever applaud it. How officious, how intruding, do I 
 appear to myself, in thus pressing subjects so distant from the neces- 
 sary answers required to your letters — and now what excuse can I 
 make for so doing ? — a very sufficient one to satisfy myself ; if not 
 so to you, pray let me know, tiiz. that of having so affectionate a 
 desire to see you, and so sincere a friendship, as to contribute 
 towards making you perfection itself; but such not being ever 
 granted to human beings, I shall rest upon my best wishes, 
 and your own exertions, for every advance which can be made 
 towards it. 
 
 When you have determined about Mr. Ridpath, pray send me 
 the Hampshire rent-roll. 
 
 Last night I received your packet; this morning, before my 
 breakfast, I began this; it is now past nine, and I have yet to give 
 a sketch of a letter for Mr. B., which you will read first, as you will 
 find therein the additional proof of your truly filial affection to an 
 indulgent, although mistaken parent, which will ever enable you to 
 reflect (when her place is no where to be found on earth) upon 
 your endeavours for her comfort ; and which will, I hope, have this 
 good effect (when the present guide of my pen becomes inanimate 
 matter), that you will receive an ample return by the dutiful beha- 
 viour of your own children: Heath can best tell Betsey's settle- 
 ment, or she may procure it from her brother-in-law. Excuse 
 any and every inconsistency in my letter, as I wished to be speedy, 
 and send it early as possible. I am glad you are well ; we are 
 very much so, to what we have been ; 1 mean Mrs. B. We unite, 
 in wishing your mamma, self, and sisters, every comfort ; and 
 should it be the will of Providence that we ever meet again, it 
 Will be truly a day of rejoicing to me, who want words more 
 expressive of my friendship and affectionate regard for you, than 
 subscribing myself, my dear Miss Long, your very affectionate friend, 
 
 JOHN BARRY. 
 
 P. S. You are teased again by one poor man, and I am not 
 pleased with another. He called here twice, but fortunately I was 
 not at home ; I would excuse him if he acted from motives of 
 friendship to you, but fear his complaints proceed from malice 
 only to others. 
 
 H
 
 96 APPENDIX (c). 
 
 My dear Miss Long, 
 Your letter and the inclosures reached me yesterday, and truly 
 I am sorry that you should be continually thus teased. Surely with 
 a good fortune you are exceedingly unfortunate ; as, although you 
 nave acted so nobly, yet none of the parties seem satisfied. But 
 let not this occasion you uneasiness, as you are possessed of what 
 is not to be found on every pathway, and that is a very, very sin- 
 cere friend, who will be glad to hear from you, to write to you, to 
 write for you, to come to you, be the distance what it may, if he is 
 able ; in short, one who must have a fellow-feeling for you when 
 in distress of any kind, and would most heartily contribute to its 
 removal. As to the wish you have for my opinion at present, I 
 shall first notice that letter from Harley-street, which has disap- 
 pointed me very much upon the whole ; on reading the first page, 
 I was indeed pleased with the affectionate and thankful acknowledge- 
 ment of your great goodness ; and (on finishing the second,) I was 
 much satisfied that there was not the remotest wish to be further 
 drawing on your finances. Here a conclusion would have done 
 credit to the writer ; but there was a third side to be read, which 
 was such a monster, as to devour, at once, the two preceding ones ; 
 and upon turning to the fourth, I perceived, with astonishment, the 
 requesting permission to considt ivith Mr. Arnold upon the businesS4 
 Whose business ? Surely your dear cousin cannot be charged with 
 a deficiency in courage, or to abound in modesty ; the former being 
 proved by getting herself so deeply in debt, the latter by the bold- 
 ness of the application made to you. Your name, she says, will 
 do, and yet she does not understand business ; however, she has 
 made a very successful guess, as your name would certainly insure 
 a sum of fifty times the value ; but did not a friend once advise 
 you never to lend your name ? nor has he any reason to deviate 
 from that advice. There is a small monosyllable which some- 
 times may be used to very great advantage, and it is actually neces- 
 sary^ in our concerns with mankind, occasionally, as it is quite con- 
 clusive, and saves its possessor from impertinent teasings ; I am 
 always sorry when obliged to recommend the calling for this little 
 gentleman's assistance, but in the present instance, he will be of
 
 APPENDIX (t). 97 
 
 essential service to you ; and, indeed, I think you will commit 
 yourself very much if you set him aside. The arguments I made 
 use of in favour of the party must convince you that I don't advise 
 from prejudice against her; but can I be silent respecting you, when 
 I see one, and more than one, endeavouring to make you a dupe to 
 their extravagance ? I cannot, in such case, prevent myself from 
 calling in that useful negative, no ; but I will suppose that your 
 delicacy renders the application of it in this instance difficult: but 
 why so ? Cannot the refusal be made by writing, that you must 
 repeat your observations made in your last of the great demands 
 you have had for ready money — the immense expense attending 
 Wanstead House, with the alterations you are going to make there, 
 {alluding to your taking down Mr. Curry's habitation) and at Dray- 
 cott House ; also the continuance of applications daily from objects 
 deserving compassion ; and, although last yet not least, the expenses 
 attending yourself in board, carriage, and servants ; so that you are 
 Very sorry you cannot further assist your dear cousin : and as to lend- 
 ing your name, you had made a solemn promise, long ago, to a very 
 particular friend, that you never would do so ; and in consequence 
 of that promise, you have actually refused such a request. — (Lady S.) 
 I mean not by the above to point out words to you ; it is meaning 
 only ; for at words you are more ready than I am. I say no more 
 than this: be resolute — be firm, respecting Mr. Arnold's letter; I 
 will relieve you by writing to him. How could you think that I 
 advised you not to pay off the annuities, when I had left money for 
 that purpose ? I did recommend a continuance of the insurance, 
 but I now think otherwise ; but as to the annuities, I shall only 
 observe, that the redeeming them, which will cost only £3,500 
 (bearing an interest of .£175), has and would cost your mamma 
 £500 per annum. The principal sum is at Gosling's, in Arnold's 
 name, and for which I have his receipt ; and all that you will have 
 further to advance, is what part of the annuities may become due* 
 but this cannot be much. Your mamma is not much obliged by 
 Mr. Arnold's desire of not paying off these annuities, which would 
 occasion such a deduction from her income ; 1 have, above, pro- 
 posed settling this business with him to save you trouble ; but should 
 I appear officious herein, you will inform me. If you are silent 
 
 h 2
 
 98 APPENDIX (c). 
 
 by Monday's post, I shall conclude that it meets your approbation. 
 Having been confined to time, it remains only for me to congratu- 
 late you all upon the general good state of health you enjoy, and to 
 express the pleasure I feel at the favourable account of my dear 
 Dora's nights ; to present our kind remembrance of your mamma ; 
 to give our love to your sisters ; to accept the same fromMrs. B., and 
 every regard she can possibly conceive from my dear friend's truly 
 affectionate 
 
 JOHN BARRY. 
 
 Sunday morning (church time almost), a good day, may it not be 
 a bad deed : but this letter should be destroyed.
 
 99 
 
 APPENDIX (D) 
 
 Correspondence between his Grace the Duke of 
 Wellington and Mr. Wellesley. 
 
 (COPY.) 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Hall Place, 16th March, 1827. 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 I feel very much obliged to you for the kind reception you 
 gave me this morning. 
 
 I enclose you the Lord Chancellor's judgment ; I also, with deep 
 regret, enclose you my father's affidavit, connected with others. 
 
 I am now placed in this heart-rending situation, that I must 
 either, in the House of Lords, have the support of my family, or I 
 must in some way answer Lord Maryborough's affidavit. For God's 
 sake ! prevent my collision with my father, or any other branches 
 of my family. 
 
 I certainly did not expect that the Chancellor would have mixed 
 my fami'y up in this melancholy affair as he has done ; but having 
 done so, I leave it in your hands, fully convinced that you will see 
 the propriety of my calling upon you to prevent further discussions 
 which relate to me and my family. 
 
 I will not risk again (as I have done in Chancery) in the House 
 of Lords, the obtaining of the full and free possession of my children. 
 I have always held the duties of a son towards his father to be so 
 paramount, that I never can have the slightest hesitation to lay 
 myself at his feet, and ask his pardon with all humility for any 
 unintentional offence I may have given him. 
 
 Pray bring this matter to a speedy conclusion between my father
 
 100 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 and myself, that I may be enabled before Easter to instruct my 
 
 counsel. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Duke, 
 
 Most affectionately, 
 (Signed) W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 Copy in Answer to Mr. [Vellesleys Letter oj the 
 \6th of March. 
 
 London, March 17 th } 1827. 
 
 My dear William, 
 
 I have received your letter, and return the enclosures. 
 I understood from you that you wouM enable me to state 
 to your father that which should be calculated to reconcile his mind 
 to you. 
 
 Even that part of your letter which states that you can have 
 no hesitation to ask his pardon is not positive ; nor is the intention 
 conveyed in terms calculated to produce the effect which you state 
 that you wish to produce. But when I advert to the first part of 
 the letter I think it appears but too clearly that the intention to take 
 this step in relation to your father, depends upon your " having the 
 support of your family,'''' in your appeal to the House of Lords. If 
 you have not this, it appears that ** you must in some way answer 
 Lord Maryborough'' s Affidavit." I conclude that this answer 
 must lead to fresh collision with your father ; and no man reason- 
 ably expects your father, already offended with you, should forgive 
 and forget all former causes of offence, leaving hanging over him 
 the fresh causes of complaint which will be given to him by your 
 answer. 
 
 What the Chancellor said in delivering his judgment is very 
 clear, " None of the family would suggest to the Chancellor that 
 they thought Mr. Wellesley should have the care of his children." 
 I positively refused to yourself to answer an affidavit containing such 
 a suggestion ; and I am certain that if you are anxious that I should 
 convey to your father your anxiety to be reconciled to him, you
 
 APPENDIX (d). 101 
 
 will do best to stale that anxiety in clear, distinct terms, and 
 without reference to conditions. 
 
 Believe me, ever 
 
 Your's most affectionately, 
 
 (Signed) WELLINGTON. 
 
 (COPY.) 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Hall Place, 16th March, 1827. 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 In answer to your letter of this morning, I can but again 
 express, in the most positive terms, my anxious desire to be re- 
 conciled to my father, and to repeat that I have always held the 
 duties of a son to a father to be so paramount, that I can never have 
 the slightest hesitation in laying myself at his feet, and asking his 
 pardon, with all humility, for any unintentional offence I may have 
 given him. 
 
 I implore of you to bring this reconciliation to bear between my 
 father and me. 
 
 I can assure you, I desire most sincerely to be reconciled to 
 Lord Maryborough. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Duke, 
 
 Most affectionately, 
 (Signed) W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 Copy of the Duke of Wellington's Letter in Answer 
 to Mr. Wellesleys of the \6th March 1827- 
 
 London, March 21st, 1827. 
 My dear William, 
 
 It will really answer no good purpose, indeed it will do more 
 harm than good, for me to approach your father upon the subject of 
 his displeasure with you, with the general statement in my hands 
 contained in your letters.
 
 102 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 I wish you would recall to your recollection all that has passed, 
 and all that you have said against your father ; I believe frequently 
 without thought. You told me that you had copies of every letter 
 you had ever written, and I entreat you to revise your correspon- 
 dence with your father, and see whether some of your letters 
 were not of a nature to give him reasonable cause of offence. 
 
 I assure you that I am ready to undertake 4 and forward your 
 reconciliation with him, whenever you will enable me to do so, in 
 a manner with which I shall be satisfied. 
 
 Ever, my dear William, 
 
 Your's most affectionately, 
 
 (Signed) WELLINGTON. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Hall Place, 2\st March, 1827. 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 I really am exceedingly obliged to you for the interest you 
 have been so kind as to take in this business, which is so near my 
 heart, and I should hold myself to be insensible, as well as wholly 
 unworthy of it, did I not endeavour to facilitate the accomplishment 
 of that which I verily believe to be both our wishes. 
 
 As. to having said any thing against my father, if I ever did, it 
 was, I allow, extremely culpable, and I should be ashamed of 
 myself if I did not make a most humble apology ; but at the time I 
 have been accused of the offence, I was confined to my bed and 
 room for nine months by illness, and had no communication with 
 any other persons than Mrs. Bligh and my medical attendants, 
 and, God knows, I said nothing to them about my fadier. 
 
 I have already stated all this to Lady Maryborough, and to others 
 connected with my father and mother. 
 
 Since the receipt of your letter of this morning, Mrs. Bligh has 
 found the enclosed memorandum, or notes of a letter to my father. 
 I do not know if it be an accurate copy or not of what I wrote to 
 him ; it however must contain the substance of a letter, which I
 
 APPENDIX (d). 103 
 
 must have written to him from Dieppe. These notes were taken 
 by Mrs. Bligh, and continued with her papers, therefore I was not 
 aware of their existence. 
 
 If this be the letter of which my father complains, I am sure I 
 am most ready to express my deep regret at ever having written it, 
 and my anxious hope that my father will accept my thorough con- 
 trition, and extend to me his forgiveness. 
 
 I hope you will see, my dear Duke, in this communication to 
 you, my earnest desire that, through your kindness, a thorough 
 reconciliation may be speedily effected, which I feel to be necessary 
 for the welfare and happiness of all concerned in these transactions, 
 and which I, in my conscience, believe, will lead to the future 
 comfort of Lord Maryborough. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Duke, 
 
 Most affectionately, 
 (Signed) W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 Copy of a Letter to Lord Maryborough, dated the 
 22?id of January, 1825. 
 
 Dieppe. 
 
 Thus stands the facts. I told you, in London, at the Duke of 
 Cumberland's apartments, I would not interfere with the manage- 
 ment of my property during the continuation of the trust ; but be 
 pleased to bring to your recollection, that this observation of mine 
 (not solemn promise) grew out of your repeated assertions to me, 
 after you had examined the state of my affairs, and seen my people 
 of busness, that in two years they could not fail to be brought 
 about, provided I lived abroad during that period of time upon 
 5000/. per annum. Upon that income I have lived, nor have I, 
 during two years, interfered with the management of my affairs. 
 
 In July, 1 824 , you arrived in Paris, by me most unexpectedly ; 
 and not only unasked, but unknown to me, you had engaged your- 
 self in my most unpleasant and delicate domestic concerns. Con- 
 trary to my own judgment, I adopted your opinions, and I followed 
 your counsels, upon the faith of your repeated assertions, that
 
 J04 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 the unsettled state of my pecuniary affairs could not last after 
 the 29th of September, 1824, so as to impede my going home, 
 provided I followed, as I did, your opinion. Also at this time, 
 at Paris, I executed unhesitatingly deeds, papers, &c. &c. upon 
 this belief of my being enabled to go home on the 29th of 
 September, 1824. These assertions were repeatedly reiterated 
 by you to others, and by others to me. The entire of my conduct, 
 since July last, has been governed by a full, free, and unbounded 
 confidence in your word, repeatedly given, that, after the 29th of 
 September, 1824, the power of my being a free agent in England 
 could not be disputed. This is the 22d of January, 1 825 ; here I am, 
 my affairs unsettled, and without the means of going to England. 
 
 My surprise was certainly unbounded when I received, about the 
 8ih or 9th of October last, two papers, marked No. 1 and 2, pur- 
 porting to be a statement of my affairs, but so inaccurately worded, 
 and so vague as to general information, as to be even now, to my 
 poor judgment, incomprehensible. If my surprise at the statement 
 was great, my feeling at the memorandum which accompanied it 
 was still more unpleasing — " that I must try the effect of time," 
 &c. &c. 
 
 Without one observation at having deceived yourself, and, conse- 
 quently most fatally deceived me, as to the period of time I might 
 have returned to England, for the purpose, by myself, of settling 
 those domestic concerns, which are of far more importance to me 
 than my pecuniary interests. Then it was I sent for Mr. Gibbs ; 
 I gave him the list of annuitants who had signed the arrangement 
 proposed to them. He expressed his satisfaction at its equity, and 
 he distinctly stated to me his belief that all the annuitants had not 
 signed, because they had not been properly applied to. He said 
 he might require information upon some points of detail. But I 
 being blind, and as unwell as a man could be alive, dictated to him 
 that letter, at which you have chosen to take so much offence. 
 
 I have, in silence, with the greatest forbearance, with the utmost 
 degree of confidence that one man can place in another, risked my 
 hopes and faith for months in you ; and in return for this, my pro- 
 priety of conduct, you adopt towards me a mode of communication 
 which no man of character and self-estimation can allow to be 
 used towards him.
 
 APPENDIX (d). 105 
 
 You must excuse my adding your communications to me are 
 of a nature to assume, that / have placed myself under the most 
 unbounded obligations to you ; now, if I am willing to admit 
 my obligations to you, I must observe, in justice to myself, as far 
 as obligations can be reciprocal between a father and son, they are 
 so between you and me, with the balance of advantage of real and 
 substantial still standing on your side, as I wish to remain. 
 
 After all the disappointments which I have met with, and after 
 all the communications and conduct which you have deemed it ex- 
 pedient to adopt towards me since our last interview, my resolution 
 is, to relieve you from that burthen you complain of, and to request 
 you will give up the trust you are engaged in. I could enter into 
 much detail upon various subjects which might belong to my present 
 communication, but as I am resolved from this date, never with my 
 free will to seek the benefit of your experience and abilities in my 
 affairs, I will not unnecessarily occupy your time. 
 
 It will save time if you will be good enough to state to Mr. 
 Yerbury your having given up the trust. 
 
 Copy of the Duke of Wellington's Answer to Mr. 
 Wellesleys Letter of the 21^ March 1827. 
 
 London, March 24*/t, 1827. 
 My dear William, 
 
 Your letter followed me to Windsor and back, and I received 
 it yesterday. Since T received it, I have had reason to believe that 
 you are still thinking and talking of making " disclosures," in case 
 your reconciliation with your father should not be effected. 
 
 As long as you hold this language, you are deceiving yourself 
 in thinking that you entertain a sincere or serious wish to be recon- 
 ciled to your father. In.expressing such a wish you are led away 
 by the feelings of the moment ; you would act upon a different 
 feeling in the following week if the occasion should offer ; and even 
 if the reconciliation should have been effected, the heat between you 
 and your father would revive, and would be more inveterate than 
 ever.
 
 106 APPENDIX (D). 
 
 I really don't know what you can have to disclose about your 
 lather ; and my firm conviction is that you have taken an erroneous 
 view of your father's conduct towards you, as you have of other 
 matters. But if your father's conduct towards you had not been 
 kind, affectionate, and meritorious in every point of view, as I 
 believe it has been, I could not recommend to him to be recon- 
 ciled to you while I should know that you hold out to others threats 
 of making " disclosures" unless such reconciliation should take 
 place. 
 
 I entreat you to consider this subject maturely. If you are in 
 earnest, let me have a clear, distinct disclaimer of these threats, 
 and all ground for them ; and I will then go to your father, and do 
 every thing in my power to prevail upon him to be reconciled 
 to you. 
 
 Ever, my dear William, 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 
 (Signed) WELLINGTON. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Hall Place, 25th March, 1827. 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 I have never intended, nor have I held out any threat respect- 
 ing Lord Maryborough ; I wish most sincerely to be reconciled to 
 my father ; therefore, pray go to him as you have promised, and 
 attempt the reconciliation which I so sincerely wish. 
 Believe me, my dear Duke, 
 
 Most affectionately yours, 
 
 (Signed) W. L. W. 
 To the Duke of Wellington.
 
 APPENDIX (d). 107 
 
 Copy of the Duke of JFeI!i/igto?i , s Afiswer to Mr. 
 Wellcslefs Letter of the 9.5th March, 1827. 
 
 London, March 26th, 1827. 
 My dear William, 
 
 On the 24th I wrote you as follows ; " If you are in earnest 
 let me have a clear distinct disclaimer of these threats and of all 
 S rounds for them ; and I will then go to your father, and do every 
 thing in my power to prevail upon him to be reconciled to you." 
 
 In answer you tell me, " I have never intended, ncr have I held 
 out any threat respecting Lord Maryborough. I wish most sincerely 
 to be reconciled to my father, therefore, pray go to him as you 
 have promised, and attempt the reconciliation I so sincerely wish." 
 
 Is this a disclaimer of " these threats and of all grounds for 
 them ?" Upon what ground then can you claim the performance 
 of the promise which my letter contains ? 
 
 But I will go further, and tell you, that since I wrote ray letter to 
 you on Saturday the 24th, I have seen a letter from you to another 
 person, in which you distinctly state that unless this reconciliation 
 is effected, discussions of the most unpleasant nature must take place 
 between you and your father. 
 
 This is exactly the temper of mind which I have endeavoured to 
 describe in my letter of the 24th. As long as it exists, there can 
 be no solid or permanent reconciliation with your father. I should 
 act unfairly by both parties, and particularly by your father, if I 
 were to attempt it. 
 
 Believe me, ever 
 
 Your's most affectionately, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Hall Place, 26th March 1827. 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 If you will be good enough to refer to my original conversa- 
 tion with you, and all my letters, you will not discover the scintilla
 
 108 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 of an expression which can hear the construction that I wished to 
 hold out a threat to Lord Maryborough. 
 
 I stated the consequences of my going into the House of Lords, 
 urging my suit for the restitution of my parental rights, being at 
 variance with my father, as being calculated to produce, as they 
 must do, most painful, and, I fear, most scandalous expositions of 
 family secrets ; this is no threat ! it is a consequence which I 
 apprehend, which it is my duty to point out to my family, as one 
 which will occur, unless a reconciliation takes place between my 
 father and myself. 
 
 I really feel that I have acted in this correspondence with your 
 Grace with all truth and good feeling towards my parents ; I have 
 done my duty ; and if all hopes of a reconciliation are at an end, 
 I shall feel myself at full liberty to use every possible means to 
 explain and justify my conduct. 
 
 I enclose you an extract of, I presume, the letter you allude 
 to ; one 1 wrote to Colonel Shawe ; it was not worded as you 
 quote it. 
 
 Most affectionately yours, 
 
 (Signed) W.L. WELLESLEY. 
 To His Grace the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 Copy of the Duke of Wellingtons Answer to Mr. 
 Wellesley's Letter of the <26th March, 1827. 
 
 London, March 31st, 1827. 
 My dear William, 
 
 I have been at the Lodge at Windsor, and otherwise much 
 occupied, which has prevented me from answering your note of 
 the 26th. 
 
 There is no use in taking up your time and mine by the definition 
 of a threat. 
 
 You think that there exist family secrets as between your father 
 and myself ; and you point these out to your family; and you 
 state these disclosures as the consequence which must ensue, unless
 
 APPENDIX (D). 109 
 
 a reconciliation takes place between your father and yourself. Then 
 you say, this is no threat ! ! 
 
 Now, what I say is this — that as long as these supposed family 
 secrets exist, there can be no solid reconciliation. 
 
 I conclude that nothing will prevent your appeal to the. House of 
 Lords from the decision in Chancery. In prosecuting this appeal 
 the family secrets must come out equally, whether there should be 
 a reconciliation or not. Even if I could believe, then, that these 
 secrets relate to facts, upon which you have reason to complain of 
 your father, or your family, which I do not, as I firmly believe that 
 you are mistaken and misled, I could not advise your father to be 
 reconciled to you with the certainty to my own conviction that the 
 quarrel must break out afresh, and must be more deeply rooted 
 than ever. You had much better clear up the supposed ground of 
 complaint, in other words the family secrets, before you commence 
 the reconciliation. As you are yourself convinced that you have 
 no reason to complain of your father, or in other words, have 
 forgiven him, there will be no difficulty, I doubt, but in reconciling 
 him to you. 
 
 Believe me, ever 
 
 Your's most affectionately, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 P.S. When I wrote to you last, I had not before me the letter 
 to which I referred. But there is no material difference between 
 the terms used by me, and those which you used. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 London, April 2d, 1827. 
 My Dear Duke, 
 
 I perfectly agree with you that there is no use in taking up 
 your time and mine in the definition of a threat ; my object, which 
 I hoped I had sufficiently explained, was this — that I was most 
 anxious to be reconciled to my father, has been sufficiently proved 
 to you by the letters that have passed between us : that reconcilia- 
 tion would, of necessity, have closed the door against any disclo-
 
 110 APPENDIX (D). 
 
 sure of family secrets, because they would have been unnecessary* 
 for the House of Lords would have had one great and most heavy 
 charge in my estimation — and the Chancellor's — removed from 
 their consideration, the main charge upon which the discussion was 
 founded in the Court of Chancery — the neutrality, or the aban- 
 donment of me, by my family. That charge I could neither meet nor 
 remove in the Chancery proceedings, because I could not anticipate 
 the manner in which it could bear upon the mind or judgment of 
 the Chancellor ; a reconciliation with my father would have put an 
 end to that neutrality, and hence the necessity no longer existing, 
 it would have been wholly unnecessary for me to have alluded 
 to it. 
 
 But if every effort to produce that reconciliation be fruitless — 
 if my anxiety to effect it is to be frustrated by definitions and dis- 
 cussions upon phrases — if Col. Shawe, inster.d of taking the 
 straight forward course, of presenting my letter to my father, 
 deemed it necessaiy to secure your Grace's previous permission, 
 which permission he could not obtain ; if, I say, my family, as I begin 
 to fear, do not desire a reconciliation, I must then proceed to the 
 Appeal under theunremoved disadvantage of my family's continued 
 neutrality or abandonment. 
 
 What task is, of necessity, imposed upon me ? What duty am 
 I imperatively called upon to perform ? Your Grace's sagacity will 
 anticipate the answer. I must, and I will, shew, that the ground 
 upon which my family take their stand, is untenable ; that I do not 
 deserve their dereliction, and that their conduct is unjustifiable ; 
 this I am bound, in self-defence, to prove ; I feel I can do so, not 
 by assertions, but by written evidence and documents. This may, 
 or may not be called a threat, but it is in the inevitable nature and 
 essence of these proceedings — as well might the accusation be 
 brought against a man, who, having received notice of an action 
 against him in a court of law, should declare, or threaten (as 
 you term it), that he would prove by witnesses and documents that 
 the action could not be maintained. 
 
 Thus then stands the fact : a reconciliation with my family re- 
 moves from the case, or my Appeal to the Lords, the main-ground 
 that was taken in Chancery by Lord Eldon, but which was not taken
 
 APPENDIX (d). Ill 
 
 [and, indeed, privately almost promised to me by Lord Eldon, that 
 it would not be taken) till the final judgment was pronounced, could 
 not have been be at down or even answered by me : a refusal on 
 their part of all reconciliation, leaves me only the choice of one of 
 two courses ; first, to shew that 1 have not deserved to be so aban- 
 doned ; or, secondly, by abstaining from all notice of the charge, to 
 allow it to be inferred that it is well founded. Now this I cannot, 
 and I loill not do ; I oive it to myself, and indeed to my family, who 
 ought not, from what they ought to know of me, to luisli, or to expect 
 of me to allow myself by any act of theirs or mine, to be considered 
 as unworthy of being allied to them. 
 
 Your Grace will, of course, conclude, that nothing can prevent 
 my appeal to the House of Lords from the decision in Chancery : 
 because I think that decision unjust, and because I will not suffer 
 my children to charge me hereafter with having had so little affec- 
 tion for them as to have neglected any moans of restoring them to 
 my paternal guardianship and care; besides, the Chancellor himself 
 has most earnestly recommended the appeal. 
 
 I am compelled to be prolix, because as it will, in all proba- 
 bility, be the last communication I may have the honour to make 
 to your Grace, I am determined to leave nothing to doubt, or con- 
 jecture, but to place my wishes and intentions in the clearest and 
 strongest light. 
 
 I lament that my father and myself have not had justice done us, 
 and are withheld from having an interview by letter, or in person, 
 which might have softened animosities, and probably have removed 
 much of all that misrepresentation and misconception under which 
 he appears to labour. 
 
 Pardon me, if here (after having smothered many) I indulge in 
 one feeling. Is it not strange that 1 alone should be held up to 
 popular odium, and be denied the common rights that belong to 
 me as a father and as a son, whilst I feel and know myself to be as 
 moral a man as any of the members of my family, who, if not 
 arrayed against me, remain silent and unconcerned spectators ? 
 
 When I waited upon your Grace at Apsley House, I wished to 
 ascertain whether that which Lord Fitzroy Somerset stated to Lord 
 Auckland was true — that you had, or would, accept of the guardian- 
 
 i
 
 112 APPENDIX (D y . 
 
 ship of my children at the request of the Misses Long ? Your denial 
 to me at Apsley House of your having had any communication with 
 the ladies (as you termed them), excepting that which you made me 
 acquainted with at Calais, of course led me to believe that Lord 
 Fitzroy Somerset had stated that for which he had no authority ; but 
 a similar rumour having again been mentioned to me, I must ask the 
 favour of you to inform me if you have any intention of permitting 
 the Misses Long, or any one else, to name you as the guardian of 
 these children, or in any way to impede or to affect any appoint- 
 ment of any guardian I may deem it expedient to name ? 
 
 I now take leave of your Grace with deep and bitter sorrow, 
 lamenting that no reconciliation has been effected between my 
 father and myself ; for, if there had been, all family disclosures might 
 have been avoided, and if I am ultimately to be visited by so heavy 
 and unmerited an affliction as to have my parental rights limited in 
 their exercise, I might, as I before told you, have given to my 
 children their next natural protector to myself. But as it is, my 
 father not being reconciled to me, cannot be their guardian, and 
 disclosures must be had recourse to, and God knows much against 
 my desire. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Duke, 
 
 Your's affectionately, 
 
 (Signed) W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 No answer to the above. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 London, I2tk April, 1827. 
 Mv dear Duke, 
 
 It becomes absolutely necessary that I should request the 
 favour of you, without delay, to be so obliging as to answer the 
 following paragraph of my letter to your Grace of the 2nd inst. 
 
 " When I waited upon your Grace at Apsley House, I wished to 
 " ascertain whether that which Lord Fitzroy Somerset stated to 
 M Lord Auckland was true, that you had, or that you would accept of 
 f the guardianship of ray children at the request of the Misses Long >
 
 APPENDIX (d). 113 
 
 " Your denial to me, at Apsley House, of your having had any com- 
 " munication with the ladies (as you termed them), excepting that 
 " with which you made me acquainted at Calais, of course led me 
 '* to believe that Lord Fitzroy Somerset had stated that for which he 
 " had no authority ; but a similar rumour having again been men- 
 " tioned to me, I must ask the favour of you to inform me if you 
 " have any intention of permitting the Misses Long, or any one else, 
 " to name you as the guardian of these children, or in any way to 
 " impede or to affect any appointment of any guardian I may 
 *' deem it expedient to name ?" 
 
 Most affectionately your's, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 No Answer to the above. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 London, \7th April, 1827. 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 I have learnt this moment from Sir Philip Roche, with 
 great regret, that you have taken offence at my last letter but one 
 to you. 
 
 I am sure, upon reflection, you will be convinced I never could 
 have wished to give you offence: for, in fact, nothing could be 
 further, of course, from my intentions. I hope this will be satis- 
 factory to you upon this point. 
 
 My object is to obtain an interview with my father, for I have 
 now seen enough of this melancholy business, to be convinced that 
 it is all bottomed upon misconception and mistatements, which I 
 confidently trust a personal interview, either in the presence of a 
 third person, or alone with my father, will remove. 
 
 I therefore earnestly entreat you to make an application to this 
 effect from me to my father in terms the most respectful and 
 affectionate. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Duke, 
 
 Your's affectionately, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY; 
 No Answer to the above Letter. 
 
 i 2
 
 114 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Hall Place, May 4, 1827. 
 
 Mv dear Duke, 
 
 By a communication I received from my solicitor last night, 
 I find that a proposal has absolutely been carried in before the 
 Master in Chancery, by which your Grace and Colonel Windsor 
 are to have the care and education of my boys, and the Misses Long 
 that of my girl, with the maintenance to be paid to your Grace of 
 £1,200 per annum, and to the Misses Long £ 500 per annum; 
 and in this, their proposal is stated to be the plan for their educa- 
 tion, with the consent and sanction of your Grace ; and that you 
 have agreed, at the instigation of the Misses Long, to take upon 
 yourself this appointment. 
 
 After what has passed between your Grace and me, I of course 
 cannot bring myself to believe this to be true ; I therefore once 
 more entreat of your Grace to give me upon this subject that infor- 
 mation which I have so frequently sought for, in order that I may 
 regulate my conduct. 
 
 I am, &c. &c. 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 Note. — When I received intimation of the intention of the 
 Misses Long, I applied, as my letters shew, to Lord and Lady 
 Maryborough to become the guardians of my children, to "prevent 
 family disclosures." My honour, and my duty towards my chil- 
 dren make it necessary that I should oppose the nomination of the 
 Duke of Wellington and the Misses Long to be their guardians, or in 
 any way to interfere with their education, with my assent. I pray 
 to God that I may not be driven to close this tragedy, by declaring 
 upon oath, that which will satisfy all mankind, that my objections 
 to the wishes of the Misses Long, are founded upon reasons, the 
 validity of which no parent dare dispute !
 
 APPENDIX (d). 115 
 
 Extract of a Letter to Colonel Shawe, dated 
 March 22, 1827. 
 My dear Shawe, 
 
 With regard to the prosecuting of my suit for the purpose of 
 reversing the abominable decree of the Lord Chancellor, I shall 
 continue to do so under the advice of Mr. Brougham. I feel the 
 deepest anxiety to be reconciled to my father and mother ; and if 
 you have any regard for my family, it is your duty to attempt such 
 a reconciliation as will enable me to stop the unhappy discussions 
 which must take place if I go into the House of Lords at variance 
 
 with my father. 
 
 Your's truly, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 To COLONEL SHAWE. 
 
 Hall Place, March 29th, 1827. 
 My dear Shawe, 
 
 I must request the favour of you to make the following 
 
 application to Lord Maryborough. 
 
 I very respectfully implore my father and mother to allow me to 
 
 have an interview with them, where, and in the presence of whom 
 
 they please. 
 
 Your's truly, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 To COLONEL SHAWE. 
 
 Hall Place, April 5th, 1827. 
 My dear Shawe, 
 
 I feel it necessary to repeat again and again, both to the 
 Duke of Wellington and yourself, that I hold myself bound to use ■ 
 every effort in my power to effect the restoration of my children, and 
 a reconciliation with my father. 
 
 Your's truly, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY,
 
 116 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 To LADY MARYBOROUGH. 
 
 Hall Place, April 29th, 1827. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I implore, I beg of you on my knees to see me. I am most 
 anxious to have an interview with you and my father, to request 
 you will both do me the favour to accept the guardianship of my 
 children. I implore and btg of you to see me, and to take me out 
 of the cruel situation in which I am now placed. Any apology or 
 concession you may wish me to make to my father, I am ready to 
 comply with ; and believe me, I have never hesitated to ask his 
 forgiveness in the most humble and affectionate manner. 
 
 Your's, affectionately, 
 
 W. L. W. 
 
 To Major-General SIR COLIN CAMPBELL. 
 
 Hall Place, May 3d, 1827. 
 My dear Campbell, 
 
 Many thanks for the interest you take in this distressing 
 family matter. 
 
 My anxious desire is, and long has been, to be reconciled to my 
 father ; a full and unqualified reconciliation, if he so pleases, by 
 which every thing that has passed shall be buried in oblivion — for 
 this object I am ready to make to him any apology, and to make 
 any concession that a son, under such circumstances, may be called 
 upon tc make to a father. 
 
 My next desire is, that my father should consent that he and my 
 mother should be proposed by me, pro tempore, to take the care 
 and education of all my children, upon such a plan as shall be 
 approved by them and the Master of Chancery. 
 
 If my father should think it more prudent or desirable that our 
 intercourse should be limited (which, however, I should regret), I 
 am willing it should be regulated in any manner, and to any extent 
 he may think proper.
 
 APPENDIX (D). 117 
 
 My anxiety is to be again reconciled to my family, and for this 
 I am willing to make any sacrifices consistent with my honour and 
 rectitude, and I feel satisfied no more will be required of me. 
 
 Your's, truly, 
 W. L. W. 
 
 %* These letters produced no effect — excepting an interview 
 with my mother, in which she conveyed to me my father's resolu- 
 tion not to be reconciled to me. Where is the human being who 
 will deny that I am not called upon to shew that I do not merit 
 Lord Maryborough's conduct to me ? I wish to go no further than 
 I have done, in demonstrating that I have, at all times, performed 
 with exactitude, with service to my father, my duties as a son. 
 
 Letter to the Counsel— Messrs. Hart, Heald, and 
 Beames. 
 
 Calais, December 1st, 1825. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I have directed my solicitor, Mr. Griffiths, to deliver this 
 sealed letter to you, called together in consultation. 
 
 In thus addressing you, I may not be following the practice con- 
 sidered to be most regular by your profession. 
 
 I feel my honour and character is at stake, owing to my 
 solicitor having used his discretion, where he ought to have exer- 
 cised none. 
 
 I am satisfied I am addressing gentlemen of rank and reputation 
 in their profession, who will feel for the situation in which I am 
 placed, by having been allowed to remain, against my will, one 
 hour, the passive victim of the basest perjuries. 
 
 I beg your joint attention to the enclosed letter to the Duke of 
 Wellington, as well as the copy of his Grace's letter to Miss 
 Long. 
 
 I will not allow, for the reasons therein stated to his Grace, any 
 one of my family to become the guardian of my children; ana if
 
 118 APPENDIX (u). 
 
 an attempt be made to constitute any one of them a guardian, or 
 more of them guardians, I request the favour of you " totidem 
 verbis'" to read my letter to the Duke in Court. 
 
 I must require your consideration in council of every note, scrap, 
 and bit of paper, which I have written and forwarded to Mr. 
 Griffiths, touching my answers to the affidavit and petition of Miss 
 Long, to the affidavits of Dr. Bulkeley, John Meara, and Henry 
 Bicknell. 
 
 I request of you to consider ot the very best mode in which these 
 answers, in a technical shape, can be placed ; in order to come 
 before the Lord Chancellor in such a manner as to render (as the 
 matter of my answers are calculated to do) my refutation of the 
 allegations contained in the affidavits, complete. 
 
 I have to require also, that you direct Mr. Griffiths to lay before 
 you all the letters I have written to him from the 1 Oth of last month 
 to the 28th inclusive ; and upon such parts of these letters as con- 
 cern my wishes with regard to the publicity of my refutation of the 
 matter contained in the affidavits, you advise upon, and give your 
 opinion in writing. 
 
 I have then to request, you will give your consideration to all 
 my correspondence with Dr. Gladstone ; to all my correspondence 
 with Dr. Lushington ; and all other such correspondence as is in 
 his keeping, relative to my connection with Mrs. Bligh ; my conduct 
 towards Mrs. Wellesley ; with regard to my children ; my corres- 
 pondence with Mrs. Wellesley upon this, subject ; and that parti- 
 cular correspondence, which sets forth, beyond the possibility of 
 doubt, my having endeavoured to impede, and not to excite, her 
 
 INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP WITH MRS. BlIGH^ 
 
 Dr. Lushington possesses copies of Mrs. Wellesrey*s correspond- 
 ence with Mrs. Bligh's mother — which was conducted unknown 
 and unauthorized by me, and which takes away all the virulence, 
 indeed I may say infamy, which is attempted upon this question, 
 insiduously to be heaped upon me. 
 
 You will perceive, in my correspondence with Mr. Griffiths, 
 what are my wishes' respecting Sir Colin Campbell's acting in the 
 nature of a guardian to my boys. You will also be made ac- 
 quainted with my wishes with regard to my girl.
 
 APPENDIX (dJ. 119 
 
 These wishes are so reasonable, so just, are founded upon 
 such true parental affection, that I desire them all to be published ; 
 and to let my character stand or fall by the decision, publicly given, 
 and equally publicly discussed before the Lord Chancellor in 
 Court. I never will submit to the Court any other proposition ; 
 and I never will submit to this proposition being made in private. 
 My positive orders to you, Gentlemen, are, to make this propo- 
 sition in the most public manner, that the forms of your profession 
 will allow. 
 
 I hope you will excuse the further great liberty I am about to 
 take with you. First, I have to request, that you consult freely 
 upon all the various points which I have brought under your con- 
 sideration, as frequently as you may deem it expedient. 
 
 Secondly, Using thus freely, as I desire to do, your great ta- 
 lents, you will excuse my expressing to you my desire to give you 
 the readiest and fullest remuneration for your valuable services. 
 
 You must excuse the frankness with which I have addressed 
 you. I beseech you to bring the matters which now oppress me, 
 and which I intrust to your united care, to set forth in the light 
 of naked truth, by a public exposure of the real infamy with which 
 I am assailed. 
 
 The Christmas holidays must not intervene before my public 
 answers are given to the affidavits filed against me, and until a 
 public decision is come to with regard to the custody of my 
 children. 
 
 I request from yourselves as short an answer as you please, but 
 from yourselves an answer to this letter. 
 
 Copy of a Letter from the Duke of Wellington to 
 Mr. Wellesley. 
 
 Stratfield Saye, Nov. 25th, 1825. 
 My dear William, 
 
 I have received a letter from Miss Long, desiring that I 
 should allow myself to be appointed, by the Court of Chancery 
 the guardian of your children.
 
 120 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 I enclose the copy of my answer to Miss Long's letter. 
 You will easily comprehend the reason for which I have declined 
 to have the understanding with Miss Long therein stated. 
 
 I have been no party to the discussions on the subject to which 
 it relates ; and I desire to avoid to become a party to such discus- 
 sions ; because they must be personal to yourself. But I don't think 
 I should do that which is fair by your children, or by their mother's 
 family, if I were to decline to undertake the charge proposed to me 
 under the Chancellor's appointment. 
 
 Believe me, ever your's affectionately, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 Copy of his Grace the Duke of Wellingtons 
 Letter to Miss Long, enclosed in Letter of 
 December 1, 1825. 
 
 Stratfield-Saye, Nov. 25th, 1825. 
 My dear Madam, 
 
 I have to apologize for the delay in answering your letter 
 of the 22d, but I wished to have an opportunity of considering the 
 proposition which you made to me. 
 
 I feel the most anxious desire to be of service to those 
 whom your lamented sister has left behind her, and to do every 
 thing in my power to render them fit to fill the great station in their 
 country, which, in due time, they are destined to fill. 
 
 The question respecting the care of these children origin- 
 ated in the life-time of your lamented sister, between her and Mr. 
 Long Wellesley ; and I understand that the Lord Chancellor has 
 decided, that till Mr. L. Wellesley shall return to England, and 
 shall in England claim the care of his children, a guardian shall 
 be appointed by the Court of Chancery to take charge of them. 
 
 I have no objection to undertake that charge under such appoint- 
 ment ; but I beg that it may be understood, that as I had nothing 
 to do with the Lord Chancellor's recent decision, I may be ex- 
 cused from interfering in, or even having any knowledge of any
 
 APPENDIX (d\ 121 
 
 future proceedings which it may be thought necessary to adopt 
 upon the same subject. I am certain you will appreciate justly 
 this motive for my desiring to come to this understanding with you, 
 and that you will see that the future welfare of the children may be 
 materially influenced by it. 
 
 In every other matter I shall, to the best of my judgement, 
 perform my duty by those whose interest and welfare you are 
 pleased to confide to my care. 
 
 If my acceptance of this charge, on the condition above 
 specified, should be satisfactory to you, I will take the earliest 
 opportunity of waiting upon you to confer with you on the measures 
 to be adopted respecting the children. 
 
 (Signed) WELLINGTON. 
 
 Copy of Mr. We ties leys Reply to the Duke of Wei- 
 I'mgton's Letter dated November 25. 
 
 Calais, 1st December, 1825. 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 Your letter of the 25th ultimo I only received this day, 
 with its enclosure. This enclosure has indeed distressed me much. 
 You cannot be aware either of the Misses Longs' affidavits or petition, 
 or the affidavits of others filed against me under their sanction in the 
 Court of Chancery. 
 
 If you have seen these papers, and could doubt even, as to their 
 being falsehoods, you would be bound never to hold any further 
 communication with so infamous a person, as I am therein stated 
 to be. If you do not believe these papers to set forth truth, it 
 is impossible you can do me but the grossest injustice, if you hold 
 any communication with the persons who have' been in any way a 
 party to them.
 
 122 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 Your Grace's letter to the Misses Long, enclosed to me, is in 
 my judgment, a direct sanction of their conduct towards me. 
 
 You must be aware that I have sought your assistance, repeatedly, 
 antecedent and since my wife's death, to bring to a conclusion the 
 unfortunate misunderstanding existing between my father and my- 
 self; which has no reference to my wife or to my children. My 
 father is the natural person to be appointed by me, to the guardian- 
 ship of my children during MY absence abroad; but inconse- 
 quence of your informing me, he would hold no communication 
 with me, that became impossible. The petition of the Misses 
 Long sets forth, that my family sanction their proceedings against 
 me, which has been, and is, in the most offensive manner to arrest 
 my parental authority being in any way exercised over my children, 
 as well as to debar me from all intercourse with them. I, there- 
 fore, decided that my family should not interfere with my conduct 
 towards the Misses Long, or my children. Your Grace must bear 
 in your recollection also, that you repeatedly expressed to me, that 
 you would not interfere or be put into my affairs, in a way which 
 could cause you to interfere with Lord Maryborough. 
 
 You cannot become the guardian of my children, without mixing 
 yourself up in my affairs ; you cannot be the guardian appointed 
 by the Misses Long, without to the eyes of all mankind jus- 
 tifying their unprecedented shameful conduct towards me. 
 
 You are my uncle, and in no way connected with the Misses 
 Long; I have a natural right, therefore to claim your support 
 against the calumnies they have heaped upon me; not only them- 
 selves, but excited others doing. You cannot do me this justice 
 when you establish an intercourse with the Misses Long. 
 
 I have appointed Sir C. Campbell to act, as the Lord Chancellor 
 terms it, " in the nature of a guardian," during my absence 
 abroad. Not, I apprehend, as a guardian, to wrest from me all 
 authority and controul over my children, which was the desire of 
 the Misses Long, and which has been expressed by their legal 
 people in and out of Court. 
 
 By this appointment of Sir C. Campbell, I avoid all the 
 consequences above-mentioned, which could either be disagreeable
 
 APPENDIX (d). 123 
 
 to you, or give the false impression that my family did sanction 
 the conduct of the Misses Long towards me. 
 
 I have desired my boys to be immediately sent to Eton, under 
 a proper tutor selected by Dr. Keats, not to be attended by the 
 man who is at present with them.* 
 
 You cannot, therefore, as a father, sanction the Misses Long 
 usurping an authority which does not belong to them, by appoint- 
 ing a guardian to my children, as they have done your Grace, 
 without consulting me. 
 
 If my father does not do me the favour to become the guardian 
 of my children during my absence abroad, I will not allow any 
 other branch of my family to have any controul whatever over my 
 children or my affairs. 
 
 Were I now to assent to your accepting of the guardianship 
 offered to you, unknown to me, by the Misses Long, I immediately 
 do that which would fully justify the assertion, that I acted un- 
 becomingly towards my father, and did not hold him in that esti- 
 mation which I, as his son, ought and wish to entertain towards him. 
 I will never, therefore, justify by any act of mine, a proceeding 
 which, in my judgment, causes him to descend from that natural 
 position in which he stands, as the grandfather of children whom the 
 Court of Chancery have thought proper to call upon the father (not 
 the Misses Long) to recommend a person in the nature of a temporary 
 guardian to be appointed over them. 
 
 It is of such deep importance to my honour, and I am so reso- 
 lutely determined that my will shall be obeyed with regard to my 
 children, and that my motives shall be publicly known, for all the 
 conduct I have adopted towards my family, my wife and my chil- 
 dren, that your Grace will excuse my doing with this letter as I 
 have done with others, viz. to send it to my counsel to be read 
 in Court to the Lord Chancellor, if requisite. 
 
 I enclose you a copy of a letter I have written to Dr. Gladstone. 
 The only answer I have received to this application to the Misses 
 
 * The plan sent in to the Master, under the direct sanction of the Duke of 
 Wellington, is, that this man, Mr. Pittman, should accompany my boys to 
 Eton. The man who swears against the father— that father declaring, upon 
 •ath, the tutor to have sworn falsely ! !
 
 124 APPENDIX (D). 
 
 Long, and many others, is a refusal on their part to hold any com- 
 munication with me, and the setting my parental authority at 
 defiance. 
 
 I do not write in haste, or without due consideration ; my reso- 
 lution is irretrievably fixed to allow no private discussion, and to 
 admit of no compromise of my rights as a father over my children. 
 
 Believe me, dear Duke, 
 
 Most affectionately your's, 
 (Signed) W. L. W. 
 
 After the perusal of this correspondence, do I say too much, 
 when I accuse the Duke of Wellington of dissimulation 
 
 ? 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Lincoln'' s Inn, October \9th, 1826. 
 My Lord, 
 
 The prospect of a reconciliation being effected between Mr. 
 Long Wellesley and his father appeared to me of so much moment, 
 that I made an immediate communication to him of the conversa- 
 tion I had held with your Grace on that subject, and he has autho- 
 rized me to inform you, that he is willing on his part to put himself 
 wholly in your Grace's hands, and to write to Lord Maryborough 
 any letter your Grace may think ought to proceed from a son, 
 under such circumstances, to a father. At the same time, he 
 directs me to say, that he wishes for no other intermediary than 
 your Grace ; and that if you are disposed to see him, he will be 
 happy to wait upon your Grace at any time you will fix. 
 
 I have only to add, that my desire would be that this delicate 
 matter should rest wholly with your Grace ; but if any co-operation 
 of mine should be found requisite, I shall be at all times most 
 happy to give it. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 Your Grace's obliged and faithful servant, 
 
 (Signed) JOHN A. POWELL.
 
 APPENDIX (d). 125 
 
 To JOHN A. POWELL, ESQ. 
 
 London, October 19M, 1826. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have received your note, and I must say that however 
 desirous I may be of effecting the object which you have in view, 
 it is very difficult, if not impossible, for me to suggest any mode of 
 proceeding calculated to be successful. I must take some time to 
 make inquiry, and you shall hear from me again as soon as I can 
 come to any satisfactory result. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 Your most obedient and faithful servant, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn, October 20th, 1826. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have been favoured with your Grace's letter of yesterday's 
 date, and shall refrain from again troubling you until I receive a 
 further communication from you on the subject. In the mean time, 
 it may not be unsatisfactory to your Grace to be put in possession 
 of Mr. Long Wellesley's own wishes, in his own words ; I there- 
 fore take the liberty of sending you a copy of a letter addressed to 
 me by him last night upon the receipt of a copy of that which I 
 wrote to your Grace yesterday. 
 
 The original will be at your Grace's command at any time. 
 I have the honour to be 
 Your Grace's obliged and faithful servant, 
 
 (Signed) JOHN A. POWELL. 
 
 To JOHN A. POWELL, ESQ. 
 
 October \Qth, 1826. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I approve entirely of your letter to the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 All I can possibly desire to stipulate for is, that this reconciliation 
 
 between Lord Maryborough and me should be brought to bear by
 
 126 APPENDIX (D.) 
 
 a leading member of my family. I wish upon this subject to put 
 myself entirely in the hands of the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 Your's faithfully, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 To JOHN A. POWELL, ESQ. 
 
 London, October 20th, 1826. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have received your note of this morning. I omitted in 
 mine of yesterday afternoon to say, that of course I shall be glad to 
 see Mr. Wellesley whenever he will call either at my house or the 
 Ordnance Office. I am going out of town to-morrow, but I shall 
 be back immediately. 
 
 Your most faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 To JOHN A. POWELL, ESQ. 
 
 London, October 29th, 1826. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have made an effort on the subject on which you spoke 
 
 and wrote to me ; the result of which has convinced me, that, 
 
 although it may be successful some time hence, it is best at present 
 
 to say nothing more about the matter. 
 
 You may rely upon it, however, that I feel too much interest on 
 
 the subject, not to keep it in mind, and to avail myself of the 
 
 earliest opportunity of producing so desirable a result. 
 
 Ever, dear Sir, 
 
 Your's most faithfully, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 To His Grace the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 7, George-street, 30th October, 1 826. 
 My Lord, 
 
 I am very much concerned to learn the result of your 
 
 Grace's first effort to effect the desirable object you had so kindly 
 
 undertaken.
 
 APPENDIX (D.) 127 
 
 Having, however, every reliance on your Grace's intentions, I 
 trust a more favourable opportunity will present itself, of which I 
 feel persuaded you would avail yourself. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 Your Grace's obliged and faithful Servant, 
 
 (Signed) JOHN A. POWELL. 
 
 I called at Apsley House several times ; I called at the Ordnance 
 Office several times ; I left my address — but I was never fortunate 
 enough to see his Grace. 
 
 This correspondence has been thus irregularly added to these 
 pages, as it only very recently came to hand. The letters were 
 written for purposes which I had believed had long since gone by, 
 and I was obliged in some instances, where I had no copies, to 
 refer to persons to whom they had been addressed. 
 
 The following letter was written in consequence of a most kind 
 and voluntary offer upon the part of a truly honourable and respect- 
 able individual, a relation of my father's family, to attempt a recon- 
 ciliation between Lord Maryborough and myself. This gentleman's 
 gratuitous efforts failed entirely. 
 
 28th June, 1827. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I feel deeply obliged to you for your kind offer. I do most 
 anxiously, ardently, and devoutly desire a reconciliation with my 
 father, upon any terms he pleases to dictate, no matter what they 
 may be. 
 
 There are a million of reasons why this reconciliation should 
 take place ; and not the least important is this one, that I shall be 
 spared the painful necessity of attempting so far to explain my 
 conduct as to shew that I have performed, with exactitude, my 
 duties as a son. I must do this from no desire to pain, or to incon- 
 venience, or to render uneasy my father ; but for the purpose of a 
 record for my son hereafter, to judge if my opinion be a just one,
 
 128 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 that my father has acted, and is acting towards me, from miscon- 
 ception. 
 
 In this reconciliation, if it is to be carried to the extent, either 
 of my naming my father as the guardian of my children, or of my 
 leaving that matter as it stands at present — for I have no desire to 
 press the subject upon him, beyond the paying him the compli- 
 ment of offering the appointment, if he chuses to take it — or I will 
 receive Ms suggestion for any other guardian, excepting the Duke 
 of Wellington, till my appeal becomes heard, for the appeal of 
 the House of Lords must take place soon, I understand. 
 
 As soon as my statement is printed, you shall receive a copy. 
 If a reconciliation takes place with my father, I leave it entirely to 
 you to put your pen through such parts of it as you think objection- 
 able or affecting my father in any way, or to burn the whole, if you 
 please. 
 
 I believe this is the substance of our conversation ; of course, 
 I shall expect to be consulted, and my wishes attended to with 
 regard to the persons now with the children, and who are to be re- 
 moved from their persons. 
 
 I must also have no allusions or conditions to a certain lady. 
 
 Your's faithfully, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 P. S. 1 write this in haste, but I thought it better to lose no time. 
 
 Hotel de Londres, Friday. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I cannot express to you my astonishment at the note Mrs. 
 Wellesley put into my hands from you this night : it is only ex- 
 ceeded by the purpose for which you and Lord Maryborough are 
 arrived, as it appears from what escaped Mrs. Wellesley to me. 
 God knows, upon any other matter I should be too happy to fly to 
 your arms; as it is, I will not see you upon this subject. I never 
 will allow any one ; no, not my father and mother, to interfere 
 between me and my wife.
 
 APPENDIX (D). 129 
 
 In order that you should have the freest intercourse with Mrs. Wel- 
 lesley, I am going to Versailles, and shall not return until you and 
 Lord Maryborough are willing to give me your words of 
 honour that you will enter upon, with me, no subjects connected 
 between Mrs. Wellesley and myself, excepting those which con- 
 cern her property. 
 
 Your's most affectionately, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 LETTER TO MR. SIDEBOTTOM. 
 
 Hall Place, June 17 th, 1827. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I must request the favour of you to be so obliging as to an- 
 swer the following questions : — 1st. If I caused a will (the one you 
 saw Mrs. Wellesley write) to be prepared ? 2ndly. If I induced 
 her to execute it ? 3rdly. If the same will was never read over to 
 her ? 4thly. If, immediately after the will was executed, it was 
 taken possession of by me, and remained in my possession until 
 her decease ? 
 
 Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 Most faithfully, 
 
 W. L. WELLESLEY. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 In order that the questions and answers may go together, I 
 answer your inquiries on the other half sheet. I shall be ready, at 
 anytime, to answer the questions more fully, and on affidavit, if 
 required. 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir, 
 
 Faithfuly your's, 
 
 A. R. SIDEBOTTOM. 
 
 1 st. — I know nothing of any person that induced Mrs. Long 
 Wellesley to make a will, for I never knew of her intentions to 
 make one till she shewed her will to me ; and I understood from
 
 130 APPENDIX (d). 
 
 her that it was made by Messrs. Tennant and Harrison, of Gray's 
 Inn. I was at Wanstead on business as your auditor, and she 
 asked me to see that her will was right. I was left alone to read 
 the will, and when she returned to the room, I told her that before 
 I could answer her question as to the will being right, I must know 
 her intentions, which she explained most clearly, and which were 
 perfectly consistent with the will as prepared, I suggested some 
 alterations, particularly that the £50,000 charged for your 
 benefit on the Hants estate (I think), should be charged on all the 
 estates subject to her power, as that (the Hants) estate, was already 
 subject to a charge ; and I also suggested, as she wished to give 
 every thing to you, that she should appoint the arrears of her pin 
 money to you, as you were not appointed an executor. 
 
 2d. — Mrs. L. Wellesley requested me to see her execute the will, 
 which I begged to decline, as she wished the alterations I had made 
 to be adopted ; and as her will had been made by solicitors, who 
 ought to attend the execution of it ; and lastly, as I was your 
 auditor, and the will was in your favour. Her answer was, that 
 she was very anxious to have the will executed without delay, " as 
 something might happen, and she should feel uneasy." I could 
 no longer refuse to see the will executed, and she said that the 
 alterations might be made afterwards, and she could afterwards 
 execute it as altered. 
 
 Your 3d. question is completely answered by my answer to your 
 first inquiry. 
 
 4th. — I took the will with me to London the day it was exe- 
 cuted, in order to have the alterations made which I declined 
 making myself; and the day after my return to London, I wrote to 
 Messrs. Tennant and Harrison, desiring to see them on the subject 
 of the proposed alterations. I never saw them on the subject; a 
 coolness shortly after took place between you and myself, and the 
 will was never out of my possession, from the day on which it was 
 txecuted, until after Mrs. L. Wellesley"s death. 
 
 I should add, that whilst I was perusing Mrs. L. W.'s will,, and 
 during my conference with her, you were riding out, and that you 
 returned as she was executing the will.
 
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