bread] was read to him [the Prince Regent], and the cold answer
returned was, that ministers had received no commands on the
subject."[27] The letter found its way into the public prints, and then,
and not till then, if we are to believe Mr. Whitbread, his Royal
Highness directed that the whole of the documents, together with her
Royal Highness's communications to himself, should be referred to
certain members of the Privy Council, who were to report to him their
opinion, "whether under all the circumstances ... it was fit and proper
that the intercourse between the Princess of Wales and her daughter ...
should continue to be, subject to regulations and restrictions."[28]

In their report, which was presented on the 19th of February, the
commissioners stated that "they had taken into their most serious
consideration, together with the other papers referred to by His Royal
Highness, all the documents relative to the inquiry instituted in 1806 ...
into the truth of certain representations respecting ... the Princess of
Wales; and, that after full examination of all the documents before them,
they were of opinion, that under all the circumstances of the case, it was
highly fit and proper, with a view to the welfare of ... the Princess
Charlotte ... and the most important interests of the State, that the
intercourse between ... the Princess of Wales and the ... Princess
Charlotte should continue to be subject to regulation and restraint."

It was only natural, of course, that Caroline should rebel; and she
accordingly wrote on the 1st of March a letter to the Speaker,
protesting against the mode in which this second inquiry had been
conducted. Motions on her behalf were afterwards brought forward
successively in the House by Mr. Cockrane Johnson and Mr. Whitbread,
both of which, however, fell to the ground. The remarks made by Mr.
Whitbread provoked a speech in the House of Lords from Lord Ellenborough
(who had been a member of both commissions), which is singularly
illustrative of the habits and manners of the time. After an
introduction of great solemnity, his lordship said, "that, in the case
alluded to, the persons intrusted with the commission [of 1806] were
charged with having fabricated an unauthorised document, purporting to
relate what was not given in evidence, and to suppress what was given.
This accusation," said his lordship, "is as false as h---- in every
particular." He then proceeded to give an account of th