Walpole was wrong, and Sir Egerton Brydges right. Charles John Count Königsmark was the instigator of the assassination of Mr. Thynne. Philip Christopher von Königsmark, the younger brother of Charles John, was the presumed lover of Sophia of Zell.
Charles John von Königsmark was mortally wounded at the battle of Argos, on the 29th August, 1686.
The presumed "foul play" in the Königsmark case consisted, I suppose, in Chief Justice Pemberton summing up strongly, in accordance with the known wish of the king, that the Count should be acquitted.
JOHN BRUCE.
MR. MARKLAND will find his inquiries as to the two Königsmarks answered in a late number of the Quarterly Review (I think that for October, 1851), in an article on the Lexington Papers.
C.
Petition respecting the Duke of Wellington (Vol. iv., pp. 233. 477.; Vol. v., p. 43.).
—I thank ÆGROTUS for the clue he has afforded me, as to the date of the document he inquired for, and can now give him some further particulars. At a Court of Common Council held Feb. 23, 1810, in consequence of a proposition in the House of Commons to settle upon Lord Wellington 2000l. per ann. for three lives, a motion was made, and carried by sixty-five to fifty-eight, to petition the House against it. The petition is very long, but it is to the following tenor: it commences by objecting to the grant on the ground of economy, and that his services have not deserved it; "that his gallant efforts in Portugal have lead only to the disgraceful and scandalous Convention of Cintra, signed by his own hand;" that the result of the battle of Talavera was a retreat, with the abandonment of sick and wounded; that as yet they have seen no inquiry into either of these campaigns; that he and his family have held lucrative appointments in the East Indies; that no provision has been made for the family of the highly deserving Sir John Moore. It then goes on to say, "that it appears a high aggravation of the misconduct of his Majesty's incapable and unprincipled advisers;" that they advised his Majesty to refuse to receive from the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, either at a levee, or personal audience, a petition from the livery praying an inquiry into the conduct of the commanders of the late campaign. This is the substance of the petition which I should think might be readily seen in extenso by a reference to a file of newspapers of the date.
E. N. W.
Southwark.