y made their report, recommending a solemn inquiry
into the conduct of the queen. Next day the Earl of Liverpool presented
a "bill of pains and penalties" entitled, "An Act to deprive Her Majesty
Queen Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of the title, prerogative, rights,
privileges, and exemptions of Queen Consort of this realm, and to
dissolve the marriage between His Majesty and the said Caroline Amelia
Elizabeth" on the ground of the grossly immoral conduct therein alleged
against her.

The ill-advised proceedings once commenced, no time was lost in carrying
them through. On the 7th of July the Italian witnesses in support of the
bill (twelve in number) landed at Dover. The object of their visit soon
became known, and on emerging from the custom house they were set upon
and badly beaten by a furious crowd, composed principally of women. They
were lodged in a building then separating the old houses of Parliament,
which, with its enclosure, was called Cotton Garden; the front faced the
abbey, the rear the Thames. "The land entrance was strongly barricaded.
The side facing Westminster Bridge was shut out from the public by a
wall run up for the express purpose at a right angle to the Parliament
stairs. Thus the only access was by the river. Here was erected a
causeway to low-water mark; a flight of steps led to the interior of the
inclosure. The street was guarded by a strong military force, the water
side by gunboats. An ample supply of provisions was stealthily (for fear
of the mob) introduced into the building; a bevy of royal cooks was sent
to see that the food was of good quality, and to render it as palatable
as their art could make it. About this building, in which the witnesses
were immured from August till November, the London mob would hover like
a cat round the cage of a canary. Such confinement would have been
intolerable to the natives of any other country, but it was quite in
unison with the feelings of Italians. To them it realized their
favourite '_dolce far niente_.' Their only physical exertion appears to
have been the indulgence in that description of dance that the
_Pifferari_ have made familiar to the Londoner."[39] Such was the
residence of the Italian witnesses against the queen, and it is certain
that if they had ventured beyond its precincts they would have been torn
in pieces.

The appearance which Caroline of Brunswick presented at her trial was
an outrageous caricature, and is thus described by one t