Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Character, Life, And Times Of His Late Royal. Highness , By The Public Press.
THE DUKE OF SUSSEX AND THE CITY MAGISTRATES . December 22 , 1808 . —His Royal Highness attended at Guildhall , before Sir Matthew Bloxam , under the following circumstances •—An information was laid against Mr . Woodfall for printing handbills without his name and place of abode . Mr . Hague , the informer ,
was the author of several pamphlets , in which the characters of the royal Dukes were grossly aspersed , ancl the hand-bill for which the information was laid announced a speedy publication of his life . This hand-bill the latter ( Hague ) attributed to the Duke of Sussex , who attended the examination . Mr . Dillon , his Royal Highness ' s counsel , addressed the magistrates , and observed that he should advise his client
to give no testimony , nor answer any interrogatories ; as the object of the informant was not to prosecute Woodfall for a libel , but to procure , by threat and intimidation , a sum of money from his Royal Highness . The Duke of Sussex , however , declared that he came out of respect to the City of London , and that no man should dare to say that he shrunk from appearing in a court of justice to answer for what he had done . His Royal Highness then disclaimed all knowledge of the hand-bill in question , and retired . —The information was dismissed .
MASONIC ANECDOTE . "When at Berlin , his Royal Highness formed a very valuable connection between the Royal York Lodge in that city , and the Grand Lodge of England . During his stay in Lisbon , the Grand Lodge of Paris sent several deputies , officers of the frigate La Topaze , to assemble the Portuguese Freemasons in harbour , and grant them warrants to form
Lodges . The Duke of Sussex , however , advised them rather than do that , to form Lodges of themselves , and send a representative to the Grand Lodge of England , to be acknowledged by that body ; in ivhich case the political independence of the country could not be biassed by the Masonic connection of the Portuguese Lodges with the Grand Lodge of France . The beneficial effects of this advice were shewn in a
remarkable circumstance . When Junot ( himself a Mason ) took possession of Portugal in 1808 , he intimated to the Lodges in Lisbon that he would visit them , provided they would take clown the portrait of their Prince Regent , and substitute in its stead that of Napoleon , who was then , de facto the master or sovereign of the country—he ( Junot ) would accept the office
of Grand Master in Portugal . The Lodges , however , unanimously resolved , rather than submit to the proposition , even to dissolve as a body , and declined the proffered support .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Character, Life, And Times Of His Late Royal. Highness , By The Public Press.
THE DUKE OF SUSSEX AND THE CITY MAGISTRATES . December 22 , 1808 . —His Royal Highness attended at Guildhall , before Sir Matthew Bloxam , under the following circumstances •—An information was laid against Mr . Woodfall for printing handbills without his name and place of abode . Mr . Hague , the informer ,
was the author of several pamphlets , in which the characters of the royal Dukes were grossly aspersed , ancl the hand-bill for which the information was laid announced a speedy publication of his life . This hand-bill the latter ( Hague ) attributed to the Duke of Sussex , who attended the examination . Mr . Dillon , his Royal Highness ' s counsel , addressed the magistrates , and observed that he should advise his client
to give no testimony , nor answer any interrogatories ; as the object of the informant was not to prosecute Woodfall for a libel , but to procure , by threat and intimidation , a sum of money from his Royal Highness . The Duke of Sussex , however , declared that he came out of respect to the City of London , and that no man should dare to say that he shrunk from appearing in a court of justice to answer for what he had done . His Royal Highness then disclaimed all knowledge of the hand-bill in question , and retired . —The information was dismissed .
MASONIC ANECDOTE . "When at Berlin , his Royal Highness formed a very valuable connection between the Royal York Lodge in that city , and the Grand Lodge of England . During his stay in Lisbon , the Grand Lodge of Paris sent several deputies , officers of the frigate La Topaze , to assemble the Portuguese Freemasons in harbour , and grant them warrants to form
Lodges . The Duke of Sussex , however , advised them rather than do that , to form Lodges of themselves , and send a representative to the Grand Lodge of England , to be acknowledged by that body ; in ivhich case the political independence of the country could not be biassed by the Masonic connection of the Portuguese Lodges with the Grand Lodge of France . The beneficial effects of this advice were shewn in a
remarkable circumstance . When Junot ( himself a Mason ) took possession of Portugal in 1808 , he intimated to the Lodges in Lisbon that he would visit them , provided they would take clown the portrait of their Prince Regent , and substitute in its stead that of Napoleon , who was then , de facto the master or sovereign of the country—he ( Junot ) would accept the office
of Grand Master in Portugal . The Lodges , however , unanimously resolved , rather than submit to the proposition , even to dissolve as a body , and declined the proffered support .