Correspondence of Charles Lord Kinnaird with Sir Charles Stuart,

His Britannic Majesty's ambassador at Paris.

Kinnaird, Charles Kinnaird, Baron, 1780-1826.
London : Printed by J. M'Creery, 1819.

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.319510023750114

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CORRESPONDENCE,

!
. v.
 CORRESPONDENCE

OF

CHARLES LORD KINNAIRD i

WITH

SIR CHARLES STUART,

HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S AMBASSADOR

8t $art&

LONDON:
PRINTED BY J. M'CREERY, BLACK-HORSE-COURT.

1819.
« .. ) . ; j. . i
94 2-. 0-(3

PREFACE.

I have no alternative but that of printing

my correspondence with Sir Charles Stuart,
or, of acquiescing in the calumnies of the
French Government, being entirely 'aban-v

doned by my own. I When I addressed

the Ambassador, I certainly foresaw the
possibility of the publication being ren-
, dered necessary; but it was so little in my
J contemplation,
^

5 that an answer could be

J; ^j^given
so inconsistent with the duties of
his situation', and with my right as Bri-
!j3

a
£

tish subject, that in my eagerness to come

g

^>
t

*• to an immediate issue with my libellers,

I
I*

may have been betrayed into inaccuracies

1233360
 vi

of expression, which may expose my mean

ing to misinterpretation. I think it there
fore necessary to say, that although I see

in that letter no charge to retract, nor any

language of my own to modify, yet I ob

serve one or two phrases put into the
mouth of the Procureur- General, (whose
wicked conduct I attempt to explain) which

may be liable to a construction hostile to

the Duke of Wellington, which I did not
mean to convey, and have at no time felt.
I cannot now suppress them, because a gar
bled publication is always liable to suspi
cion ; but I utterly disclaim any meaning in
consistent with the view of his Grace's con
duct towards me, which, in public and in
private, I have always held. The Duke
was deceived by the French Minister, who
seems to have concealed from him the fact
of passports being sent for the informer,

through the French Ambassador at the

Hague, at the very time his Grace trans-

 vii

mitted their offer to treat in the postscript

of his letter to Lord Clancarty. The
Duke, I must believe, sacrificed me to the

opinion that his relations with the French

Government imposed upon him a duty
paramount to all considerations, arising
out of my conduct and situation.
The disclosure of the duplicity of M. de
Gazes, his falsehood as to the pretended
summons, and, above all, the conduct of
the trial, must have convinced him that
the warning I addressed to his Grace in
1818, was but too well founded ; and his
former conduct towards me, as well as the

later opinions* he has expressed, convince

me that he must regret to find that I have

been made the victim of such a despicable

intrigue.

* This alludes to a private communication which His

Grace was pleased to make, on becoming acquainted with
the infamous proceedings in the French Courts on the

trial of Marinet.
 LETTE RS,

LETTER I.
*
' ; ".; p . '' '
i : : ;
:

::. '
Milan, 12 May, 1819.
.:,

:
i
;

MY DEAR SIR CHARLES,

have this day read in the Gazette de

I

Lausanne an article, purporting to be the

Acte Accusation against two individuals,
d

charged with plotting the assassination of

the Duke of Wellington in February, 1818.

There something so cowardly and so base
is

in the incidental attack which the Procureur

General therein represented to direct

is

against me, that was willing to believe

I
B
 2

that the article was apocryphal, until I was

assured that it was copied from a French

Gazette, which, however, I have not been

able to procure. The spirit of exaggera
tion and of political hate, manifest in every
line, would perhaps sufficiently protect me

against the mischief it is intended to pro

duce, in the minds of all honest and judi
cious readers ; but the quarter whence it
comes, renders silence on my part totally

impossible. Although, if the same viola

tion of forms and of substantial justice be

pursued during the trial, as is permitted in

this preliminary step, I fear I shall again

be compelled to address you; yet I con
sider it due to my own honor, and to the
character of a British subject, to make an

appeal to you, as the King's ambassador,

and to request your advice, and to ask

protection against the violence and injus

tice of the French authorities.
 If this were the unauthorized act of a
Journalist, I presume the new legislation
in France would aid, rather than impede,
my means of redress ; but it is not of the
licentiousness of the press by Journalist
a

that I complain ; it is the abuse of the press

that I impute to an agent of authority. It
is not the copyist, but the author I would
attack. Against the Journalist the law

gives me arms and a legitimate defence.

Does it give me no shield against the stab

of the libeller in place? In England, the

first Judge of the land, as well as the Attor

ney General, would be responsible for a

publication of this sort. Does the same

equality exist in France? — and if not, have

I no defence against the poisonous effects
of that calumny, spread over Europe under
the protection of his name? and shall a

privileged libeller, who does not even wait

the hour when the Hall of Justice might
perhaps have warranted his freedom, but
b 2
 4

would surely have afforded to an absent

foreigner some protection against his licen

tious invectives; shall this sworn protec
tor of the laws, I say, be privileged to vio
late them, by printing, publishing, and

circulating calumnies, for which he him

self would demand infamous punishment
against all other classes and descriptions of
citizens?
I say nothing of the unheard of and in
decent violation of form in the premature

indictment of the prisoner in the Concier-

gerie. It is possible, that in a country

where an accused person can be confined

for fifteen months before the trial of his
peers is allowed him, this effect to poison

the minds of his judges may be looked on

with indifference. At all events, the day

arrives when he may make his defence in

the face of his accuser ; and probably at the

time in which I am writing, that opportUr

nity is afforded ; but to me, whose name is

 5

so extrajudicially dragged forward, who

cannot appear on the same arena with this

Agent of Government, either in person

or by my advocate, what opportunity,
what means of refutation are afforded?
How am I to repel insinuations which as
sume no tangible form ? Where am I to
find a tribunal to listen to my reply,
when the cause is judged, and when the
slander is registered in the archives of
a Court of Justice ? If I mistake not the
character of an Ambassador, he is bound

to give protection to all the King's subjects

injured in their rights and properties by

the Government to which he is accredited,
and I think I am well warranted in appeal

ing to you upon this occasion, wherein the

greatest possible injury is attempted, and
in which I can expect no redress, but that

which your wisdom and power may enable

me to seek. I call for that assistance, arid
 6

the advice you give I will follow ; but if

you tell me the laws of France afford no re
lief against the Magistrate who has thus
abused his official character, I think you
will unite with me in applauding an obser

vation made on another occasion, viz. That

the Nation which wishes to be free, should
learn to be just.
It is now necessary that I should direct
your attention to two paragraphs in the
official document, the malignity of which,
you will without doubt think, justifies
the indignation I express, and the demand
of satisfaction I make.
" Ce fut encore dans cette meme maison
" que Marinet fit la connoissance de Lord
" Kinnaird, Pair d'Ecosse, que les deposi-
" tions recues a Bruxelles representent
" comme professant des opinions politiques
" contraires au systeme actuel de la France,
" comme l'ennemi de Lord Wellington, et
" enfin comme un homme cribl6 de dettes,
" et cherchant par ses intrigues a relever
" une fortune derangee."
I am at a loss to explain the meaning of
the first phrase, " professant des opinions
politiques contraires au systeme actuel de
la France;" but the systeme actuel in 1819,
is not the systeme actuel of 1818 : the sys

tem then was to excite and to persecute, —

the system now is to recal, and to forgive :

I dare say I did profess opinions hostile to

the then systime actuel, and I do so still,

because I am not paid like the Procureur

General to profess opinions, and to execute

measures of opposite tendencies according

as the systime actuel may change from year

to year. But does he mean by the systSme
actuel, that I professed political opinions
contrary to the present Royal Government
of Fiance ? If he means by professing such

doctrines, I did or said any thing tending

it,

to excite rebellion against then say his

I
 8

charge is false, and it is by indictment,

and not by an extra-judicial attack that he

ought to have made it ; but if he only

means that I entertained such opinions, then
I scarcely know how to defend myself, be
cause as the having entertained those opi

is,
nions up to a very late date, as the
Procureur General well knows, very ad

a
missible title to advancement in the sys-
time actuel, can only prove the malicious
I

intention of the magistrate, by his well-

known abhorrence of that heresy, compared
to which, every crime in the decalogue ap

pears to him venial and insignificant. But

the first imputation should seem trivial,
if

the same cannot be said of the next phrase,

the malignity of which manifest, though

is

the accusation scarcely more precise.

is

take this to be the interpreted language

I

of the Procureur General. " cannot ac-

I

" cuse Lord Kinnaird of meditating the as-

\

" sassination of the Duke of Wellington,

 9

" but if I can insinuate, that being his

" Grace's enemy, he did by his language
" irritate the minds of others against him,
" I shall, in fact, leave with him the blame
" of the crime ; and if I cannot have his
" blood, I shall at least fix an indelible
"stain on his character;" and indelible
indeed would it be, if my treachery were
equal to the blackness of this man's imagi
nation ! But although almost ashamed to
reply to such an insinuation, it would ill
become me to leave it without the only re-

futal my adversary leaves in my power. I

assert and challenge contradiction, that by
no word or deed of mine did I ever treat
the Duke of Wellington but as a man I
loved and respected, up to that hour when,

believing myself betrayed by him, and

knowing that on his account I was not

enabled to observe the promise of safety I

had pledged to another, I had to chuse be

tween the abandonment of my relations

 10

with him, and the sacrifice of my honor.

And this enmity of mine the Procureur
General ventures to assert upon depositions
obtained at Brussels ! Shameful abuse of
official authority! Let the Procureur Ge
neral give me the opportunity, and I will
in open day confound the vile falsehoods,
which in darkness and in dirt he seems to
have sought to calumniate me, whom in
this covert way only he dares to attack. I
know not where he searched for depositions,
but having long lived in Brussels, I chal
lenge inquiry; let that excellent commu
nity, let the Procureur's respectable and
persecuted countrymen, (I suppose in the
systtme actuel, it is not treason to call them
so) be asked as to my habits and language,
or whether I ever slandered my own coun
try, or spoke of the Duke of Wellington
but in the language of an Englishman and
a friend.

But there is a more vile aspect, under

 M
which this calumny must be received. The
Procureur General, in this miserable piece
of wickedness, less galling to me than it is

insulting to the character of the Duke of

Wellington, who is incapable of taking the
hint, to his Grace : " Here is an
says argu-
" ment for you, Lord Kinnaird challenges
" you to produce the Duke of Richmond's
" declaration to you, that he advised him
" to act as he did — others accuse
you of
" sacrificing a friend, who, if he can
" wrongly understand your meaning, no-
"
toriously suffers on your account, and
" suffers not from a rash
judgment, but
" after consulted the
having throughout
" man of all others you had the most con-
" fidence in, and having had the same opi-
" nion from the first Law Officer of the
" Low Countries. Here is your justifica-
" tion. This friend betrayed you. His
. f constant invectives against you inflamed
?' the minds, and provoked the crimes of
 12

u those assassins —he hopes to make his for-

" tune by it. It is true he is your dupe,
" but know for your consolation, that he
" was already your enemy." Rare instance

of moral feeling in the responsible magis

trate of a civilized country ! This artist
in defamation is aware, that an intimacy

which had been uninterrupted for some

years, had ceased on account of differences,
which, having no reference to previous

occurrences, did not necessarily suppose

deadly enmity on either part. No such

conduct has been exhibited on my side.
It would be unjust in the Duke of Wel
lington, were I to attribute to him the
manifestation of any feeling of that sort.
" This well,"
is not says the Procureur Ge

neral, " I cannot lower the character of this

" enemy of the systime actuel sufficiently,
" unless I make him guilty of treachery
" towards his friend, which these foolish
" Englishmen think more unpardonable
 13

'
" than any political opinions contrary to
" the actual system of France. By the aid
" therefore of a garbled disposition, which
" if it once sees the light, can only do so
" when no refutation of it can take place,

Lwill in the mean time destroy the in-

" terest, which the Duke cannot fail to
" take in the character of his
countryman,
" and
perhaps finish all, by seeing the
"
eriemy of the system fall under the just
" and honourable vengeance which the
" man he has deceived is entitled to in-
"flict!" Let the guilty and christian con
science of this impartial magistrate search
for his tranquilliiyla worse trait of miachi-
avelism in the worst moments of 1793 or
' j.v.
'')

18'1.5»:.) f
.'-

". , !.'» . ''.i *

'

The climax of this libel consists in the

imputation, that, " being loaded with debts,
sought by intrigues to recover my fallen^
I

fortunes^"— there no great precision in the

is

word intrigues but, will be presumed

it
;
 14

that the language means political intrigues.

There is something ludicrous in Ihis notion

of a speculation which this charge holds
out. . I certainly shall not condescend to

enter with the Procureur General into any

details of my private affairs, although I
might perhaps relieve his anxiety about
the state of them ; because, whatever ad

vantage he might have found by raising

his fortunes by intrigues, I doubt he will
find it difficult to point out any specific

advantage they could procure to mine. In

any violent change in France I can easily

comprehend that he might lose ; but, / do

not distinctly see what J could gain (save
always the chance of having to deal with
a Procureur General, whose notions of law
and morality differed somewhat from his.)

I might add, that, if times of blood were

to return, and the question were, whether

the Procureur General, or I were best fitted

to flourish in them, the success of that
 IS

learned magistrate in the last five years

would give him an undisputed superiority
over every other competitor.
I have said something more upon this

head, because the evident import is to

identify my views with those of Marinet ;

and by describing the fortunes of both as

equally desperate, to render probable the

intimacy which the Procureur General
seems to have mightily at heart to prove.

There is something so ungenerous in dis

avowing relations with a man in distress,

while yet he is not found guilty, that unless

I knew his fate must be decided when this

letter is received, I should unwillingly

recur to my earliest evidence, viz. that
my acquaintance with him was of the
slightest sort, a fact easily proved by many
of his countrymen now in Paris ; and that

nothing could have justified his commu

nicating this plot to me, but the belief
he was authorized to entertain that I was
 16

the Duke's friend; and, therefore, more

interested than another to avert the danger.

Lastly, the following paragraph appears

in the Act of Accusation. " C'est ici que
" la conduite de Marinet va être mise au
" jour, et qu'on pourra se con-
grand
" vaincre qu'il a été le moteur et le Procu-
" rateurde cette
grande machination; c'est
" ici que va se dévoiler le projet que Lord
" Kinnaird méditoit, selon Marinet, depuis
"
long tems, et dont on devait entendre
" parler sous peu."

At the first view of this paragraph I was

riot aware of its precise import, but, upon

reconsideration, I think it appears, that
without venturing to connect the two pro
jects explicitly, it is meant to leave the im
pression that the "grande machination" of
Marinet was but a subordinate part of the
"
projet dont on devoit entendre parler sous
" ;" and, although nothing more said
is.

peu

of the "projet" which, however, the para

 17

graph promises to unveil, the evidence ad

duced disconnects the knowledge from me,
though the above-quoted phrase insinuates
that it was with a secret view to assist my

projet that Marinet imagined the other. The

absurdity of this is as manifest as its ma

lignity, and one might almost suppose the

Procureur General hesitating from delicacy
to accuse me of being the author of the
assassination plot as well as of the "projet
" dont on devoit entendre parler sous pen;'
and this is the only hypothesis that would

justify the conduct that he has adopted on

the occasion ; now, without stopping to in

quire whether this phrase, imputed to Ma
rinet, is in fact a part of his deposition,
which may have been (as J solemnly de

clare important parts of mine quoted in this

piece are) perverted and disfigured ; and,

whether it belongs to that interrogatory
which the Procureur General, after giving
c
 18

jt .consequence swhen it was to wound roe,

with a stupid forgetfulness asserts to be a

tissue of absurdities, I will put the question
of this "projet" upon a fair and unassailable

issue. I remained above two months in

Paris, during which time every species of
inquiry was made there and in Brussels,
and you, Sir, are aware, that the satisfac
tion at my conduct expressed by the Minis
ter Decazes at that time, was extorted by no
personal or political good will ; but that,
on the contrary, had it been possible to
implicate my name in any plot against the
French Government, no disposition was
wanting on the part of that government to
make me, who had no saufconduite, and
■who asked for none, pay the penalties of
such an act. Since that time it was my
duty to expose the conduct of the French
Police, and of M. Decazes in particular,
and this is his turn, and his style of ven

geance. Well, fifteen months are now

 19

elapsed, the Procureur General has dis

covered a projet of mine, and surety he has

had time to procure the proofs of it. Now

I am not inclined to endure the sufferings

by which his tardy procedure may gratify

his personal vengeance, whatever may be
the ulterior decision of the law, and there
fore I cannot consent to a previous incarce
ration ; but, if you, on the part of the
British Government guarantee my freedom
until the day of trial, I pledge my word,
that I will meet the Procureur General
upon any charge he is prepared to make

against me.This engagement, which you

know me well enough to esteem a solemn
One, may appear madness to many who
know that I expose myself to the ven
geance of a Minister who has so basely

injured me, to the intrigues of a Police,

which no one is dupe enough to believe
ceases to exist, because it wears a mask :

c 2,
 20

and to the decision of judges* removable

at the will of the crown. But, with the

knowledge of my own cause, I do not fear

any tribunal composed of honorable men,

such as the Bench and Bar of France un

doubtedly possess ; and I am at least certain

of being heard in defence, an advantage of
which this ex-parte attack entirely de

prives me. Till then, I trust the King's

Attorney General will be compelled to ab

stain from an abuse of power, which can

only be likened to the crime of which he

now seeks the detection and the punish
ment.
This letter bears evident marks of the
haste in which it is written ; but, do not
believe that the sentiments it professes are

* I find, that the judges, however accessible to the in

fluence from the crown in other less direct channels, are

not, by the French Constitution, liable to be removed at the

mere will of the sovereign.

 21

lightly adopted, and it comes from one who

is too proud to retract, or to refuse to bear

the pain which its utterance may occasion.
I will only add, that having declared to
you, that no invitation or summons what
ever, to appear at the trial now pending

having been delivered to me, I must jus

tify the suspicion I entertain that some

perfidious use may have been made of my

absence, by recalling to your mind what
happened in 1818, and by subjoining the
account of of which yourself, the Duke
it,

of Wellington, and ihejuge Instruction

d

at Brussels, are the undeniable witnesses.

ever am,
I

My Dear Sir Charles,

Your Faithful Friend and Servant,

(Signed) KINNAIRD.

P. — You will excuse the publicity

S.

feel myself bound to give to this address,

 22

without waiting your answer, when you

consider the necessity I am under to reply
to a libel already circulated in every part
of Europe.

Right Honorable Sir C. Stuart,

kc. kc. kc.
 LETTER II.

Paris, June 14th, 1819.

MY LORD,

I am to acknowledge the receipt of your

letter of tfie 12th of May, in which you

request, as a British subject, my advice
and protection, to enable you to repel the

imputations affecting your character, in the

Acte d'Accusation drawn up by Monsieur
Bellart, the French Procureur General a-

gainst the individuals indicted for an at

tempt to assassinate the Duke of Wellington.

As the imputation in this Acte d'Accusa
tion can only be considered an injury of a
 24

private nature, which is wholly foreign to

the French Government, I do not feel my
self at liberty to offer any observations
upon that paper, or upon the judicial pro
ceedings to which it gave rise ; much less
can I interfere officially, in a case where the
tribunals will not be closed against any

prosecution which you may think it advis

able to bring forward.

I have the honor to remain,

&c. Sec. Sec.

(Signed) CHS. STUART.

To the Right Honorable

Lord Kinnaird, Sec. Sec. Sec.
 LETTER III.

Milan, 26tkjuh/, 1819.

SIR,

The delay which has taken place between

the delivery of my letter to you, and the
date of your reply, leaves no doubt in my
mind that the communication you have
been pleased to make to me, is in con

formity with instructions received from the

Cabinet at home. This conviction will
prevent the appeal which, with the most
sincere respect for . your judgment, I
should otherwise have felt it right to make
to His Majesty's Government Your Ex
 56

cellency's rather tardy reply has deprived

me of the means of resorting to Parliament,
which is about to be prorogued ; and I am
therefore compelled to submit for the pre
sent to a decision, against the justice of
which however I must be permitted hum

bly, but firmly, to protest. Your Excel

lency assigns two reasons for refusing me
your advice and protection. The first

is,
that the " Acte d'Accusation" private
is
a
injury, which wholly foreign to the
is

French Government. will acknowledge

I

that read this opinion with the utmost

I

astonishment. should have thought

it
I

impossible to distinguish between the offi

cial act of the first Law Officer of the Go
vernment, and the act of the Government
itself, until the Magistrate had been dis
by

placed or disavowed the Ministers.

This however appears, the doctrine
is
it

of the British Cabinet — and very conve

a

nient doctrine for all Cabinets. If,

is
it
indeed, this distinction should be techni
cally valid, I can only lament, that while
the Sovereigns of Europe are protected by

special laws from the licentiousness of the

press, their subjects are left without de
fence against the severest injuries inflicted

by the agents of authority, who are thus

permitted to shift their responsibility, and
to become private characters, when they
are called to account for the abuse of that
power, the possession of which alone en
abled them to do the injury. An indivi
dual is calumniated in an act, the official
character of which insures and legalizes
its universal circulation, (for without, that
character no publisher would have dared
to utter it), and he is told by the Ambas
sador of his Sovereign, that this act is so
wholly foreign to the Government, that his
Excellency does not feel himself at liberty
to make any observations on it, much less
to interfere officially in the case. This may
 28

be sound law, and it may be the law of

nations; but it is so revolting to justice

and common sense, that I must go the

length of believing that your Excellency

may be mistaken, rather than adopt the

notion that such oppression can exist. I

come now to the second reason assigned by

your Excellency, viz. that the Courts of

Justice will not be closed against any pro

secution which I may think it advisable to

bring forward. As your Excellency re

fuses to interfere officially, I presume I
must regard this as purely an opinion of a

private nature. I therefore take leave to

state, that, as I am at present instructed, no

prosecution can be instituted against any

agent of the French Government, without
leave obtained from that Government ; and
as you, Sir, refuse to interfere, I need not

point out the futility of any attempt on my

part to obtain such permission. Perhaps
indeed, an action for pecuniary compensa
 29

tion might be open to me ; but you can

not think that I would condescend to cal
culate the pecuniary injury which the ca
lumnies of M. Bellart, already pretty well
known to the world, and the falsehoods of
such men as Lamy and Dupin can have
done to my character; and you must know

that it is only because M. Bellart is a ma

gistrate, and the official agent of the French

Government, that I attach any importance
to the conspiracy which he has directed
against me. I must repeat, that I appealed
to you, Sir, for protection against the abuse

of power in the Procureur General of

France, a crime which in all good govern
ments entails disgrace upon the guilty
person, however humble the victim ; and
which, in spite of your refusal, would
still be visited by the indignation of jus
tice, if justice was to be obtained by an
Englishman in France. But, if even I
were so mad as to seek redress in those
 30

very courts which in their lale proceedings

have exhibited such a wretched want of
decency, your Excellency's official refusal
would save me from such an act of folly ;

for, I need not remark, that to undertake

such a process, my presence at Paris would
be necessary ; now, what security have I
that my presence would be permitted at
all, or, if permitted, that it would be en
dured a time sufficient for my object
have already been desired to quit France,

because my opinions were guessed to be

hostile to the government of the day ; and,

if I were now to go with the avowed inten

tion to impeach its ministers and agents,
what expectation could I have of better
treatment ? Above all too, when my sove
reign's Ambassador declines all official in
terference. My first act must be to dis

prove the statement which the minister of

the Interior has made, viz. that I was sum
moned to the trial of Marinet : my second,
 31

to demand justice on the confidential law-

officer of the crown : and the third, to ac

cuse of a conspiracy against my liberty

and character, the very persons by whose

ukase I may be driven from Paris without

delay, and without appeal. Does your Ex

cellency think, that with the intentions that

I have declared, the ministers would long
hesitate to discover that my presence was

dangerous to the state? When, therefore,

you inform me, that the Tribunals of
France are open to me, you forget, perhaps,
that France itself is not. And the precau
tion with which vou make me understand
that my government abandons me entirely,
I cannot but interpret as a good-natured
hint not to foil into the trap, which the
attempt to obtain justice, by an appeal to
the French Tribunals, would inevitably
prepare for me. As an Englishman, I
blush to say, that I cannot reproach the
 32,

practice of another country, while a simi

lar injustice disgraces the Statute Book of
my own ; but it is not the less true, that in
the degenerated hospitality of modern times,
a foreigner is subjected to all the laws of
the country which he inhabits, in common

with native subjects, with this overwhelm

ing disadvantage, viz. that whatever be

the interests of his family and fortunes,

whatever be the injuries he has received,

he may be deprived of the means of pro

tecting the former, and of obtaining redress

for the latter, by the arbitrary will of an
irresponsible minister, amounting in some
cases to ruin, in all to a peremptory denial

of justice. Thus it is with me. Your Ex

cellency refuses to aid me in demanding
the vengeance of the law against a magis
trate for prevarication in office, and you
refer me to the ordinary Tribunals for
satisfaction. Even this minor counsel is
 33

unavailing, because, after all the trouble,

expense, and risk, to which such an effort

would expose me, the fears of those impli
cated may still triumph, and a timely de

portation may most certainly baffle my exer

tions, if at any moment they appeared about

to extort justice for an Englishman from

the Tribunals in France. I must conclude,
Sir, with repeating my regret, that the

protection of a British subject from the

official injuries of the French Government,
is no longer within the competence of a

British Ambassador; and I take leave to

add, that if the agents of the crown in one

country shall continue with impunity to

cover with their official character libels di
rected against the subjects of another, so

ciety must speedily return to that state,

where justice is only to be had by the
strong; the punishment of injuries will
not be the less fatal, because left to the
discretion of the injured, when Providence
D
 54

may place the opportunity for personal

vengeance in their power.

I have the honor io be, Sir,

Your very obedient

Faithful Servant,

(Signed) KINNAIRD.

His Excellency Sir C. Stuart,

ice. Sec. Sec.
COPY OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S
LETTER TO LORD CLANCARTY.

Paris, February \2,th, 1818.

MY DEAR CLANCARTY,

1 inclose the copy of a letter to Lord

Bathurst, which will inform you what has
been passing here since I wrote to you on
Tuesday.
I have nothing to add to the details which
that letter contains.
 86

I inclose the original of a letter, which

Lord Kinnaird wrote to Sir G. Murray, on
January 30th, in which you will see that

his Lordship knows a person at Brussels,

who had information of a plot to assassinate

me, formed among persons, who had for

four months paid a man to commit that

crime, who had attended me for that pur

pose. I request you to lay this letter be

fore his Majesty, and to urge his Majesty

to take such steps as he may think proper,

to prevail upon Lord Kinnaird to disclose
the name of the person who confessed to
his Lordship that he had a knowledge of

this plot. After Lord Kinnaird will have

disclosed the name of this person, I should
have no ob
hope that his Majesty would
of his
jection to order that the authority
execution to
government may be put in
force this person to disclose the name
of
as well
the persons who formed the plot,
as of the assassin, considering that the
 31

attempt to commit the crime has actually

been made.

(Signed) WELLINGTON.

P. S. * // may be proper to mention, that

the French Government are disposed to go

every length in the way of negociation with

the person mentioned by Lord Kinnaird, or
others, to discover this plot, and to co-ope

rate with the Government of the King of the

Netherlands on that subject. But it is very
obvious to me, that these persons will dis
cover nothing, unless the Government of
the King of the Netherlands speak to them
in a very firm and authoritative tone ; and

probably not even Kinnaird. From the

reports which have been in circulation at

Belgium, and from thence to Valenciennes

* The words in italics are all that were shewn by Mr.

Chad, the Secretary of Legation at the Hague, to Lord
Kinnaird and to the Duke of Richmond.
 38

and Cambray, that I was actually assassi

nated, I am inclined to believe that the

plot exists at Brussels, and that persons

there employed the man.

FINIS.

John M'Creery, Pi inter,

Black Horse-Court, Loudon.
 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
942.073 K622
Kinnaird, Charles Kinnaird, Baron 1780-
^2E5£2£!!2!.2'. Lord Kinnaird

1951 002 375 011 4