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Piiblished "by Tliomas Kelly, Paternoster Row,
1831

MEMOIRS

GEORGE THE FOURTH,

DESCRIPTIVE OP THE

MOST INTERESTING SCENES
OF HI3
AND THE
IMPORTANT EVENTS OF HIS MEMORABLE REIGN;
WITH CHAUACTEEISTIC SKETCHES OF ALL THE
CELEBRATED MEN
WHO
WERE HIS FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS AS A PRINCE,
AND
HIS MINISTERS AND COUNSELLORS AS A MONARCH.

COMPILED FROU AUTHENTIC SOt;RCES, AND DOCUMENTS IN THB
KINO*S LIBRARV IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, &C.
By ROBERT H,\JISH,
Author of Kelly's celebrated. Memoirs ofthe Princess Charlotte, Life of George III.,
Memoirs of Queen Caroline, S(C.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR T.KELLY, PATERNOSTER-ROW; FISHER, SON, AND
P. JACKSON, NEWGATE-STREET ; JONES AND CO., TEMPLE
OF THE MUSES, FINSBURY-SQUARE ;
AND ». VIRTUE, IVY-LANE.

MDCCCXXX.

LONDON :
PniNTF.n BY Wn.MAM Clowes.
Stamford-.street.

INTRODUCTION.
The demise of a British Monarch is an event of no ordinary in
terest ; it breaks asunder one of the dearest ties of a civilized people,
and is sometimes the forerunner of their decline in the scale of
uations. It is a period accompanied with intense anxiety, for the
time is then come when the veil is to be drawn aside which delicacy
or state policy may have prudently thrown over certain transactions ;
the deeds which, during the lifetirae ofthe Monarch, were concealed,
from motives of personal interest or esteem, then stand forth exhi
bited in their genuine colours ; and the historian becomes thereby
enabled to bequeatli to posterity a clear and faithful narrative of
those momentous circumstances which possessed such a prepon
derating influence on the general relations of the country.
The Royal Family of England, which, by the Act of Succession,
includes all the members of the illustrious House of Brunswick,
have long been regarded by the country as a species of public pro
perty, in which the humblest subject of the land claims a deep and
lively interest. It is, therefore, a rational deduction, that whatever
stands immediately connected with the honour and happiness of
those exalted individuals, necessarily becomes a source of national
concern ; we feel ourselves identified with all that relates to them,
and we revert to the scenes of their lives as if we were individually
interested in them, and as being the source from which are to
emanate the renown and glory of the l<ingdom.
The reign of George IV. has been to this nation one of momen
tous import. In it our foreign and domestic relations have assumed
a wholly new and enlarged character ; the arts and sciences have
been fostered and encouraged by a zeal unexampled in any former
period of our history ; and we may proudly point to it as an era
which was distinguished by a constellation of genius in every branch
of useful knowledge which can confer honour on the human
race. It has been marked by events to which the historian points
with exultation, and which, whilst they cemented the glory and
prosperity ofthe country, contributed, at the same time, to exalt its
character in every quarter of the globe, and to establish its
ascendancy in the scale bf civilized governments.
a2

IV INTRODUCTION.
Considered in a general point of view, it may, with propriety, be
affirmed, that there is scarcely a monarch, who ever wielded the
sceptre of this country, whose private and public life abounds with
more extraordinary and interesting incidents than that of George IV.
But it must be admitted, at the same time, that there are also some
circumstances in it, over which has been suspended a dark panoply of
mystery, and from which the public attention was, at the period of their
occurrence, artfully diverted by the deep-laid manoeuvres of crafty poli
ticians, or the more zealous efforts of private and confidential friends ;
but the time is now come when that panoply will be removed, and
that of which only a partial glimpse has been hitherto obtained, or
which has been wholly concealed, from a sense of delicacy and respect
to the feelings of the existing monarch, will now be fearlessly ex
posed, uninfluenced by party spirit, and unawed by personal consi
derations of the consequences which may result to some of the yet
living characters who figured in the eventful drama, and who, now
that the shield of royally is taken from before them, must rise or fall
in the estimation of the British people, according to the greater or
less degree of virtue which they displayed. It may be considered pre
mature to allude in particular to any of those circumstances, as they
must, necessarily, form a part of the present work; but we will,
as an example, allude lo two— the marriage of the Prince of Wales
with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and the death of the Princess Charlotte.
In regard to the latter, some extraordinary things have crept
out ' through the dark cranny of the night,' which require a deep
and solemn investigation : the facts, as they have been disclosed to
us, shall be fully and impartially related ; and if we should be the
means of clearing away some of the mysteries which attended that
melancholy event, we shall have performed the part of the Patriot
and the Christian.
In regard to the publication ofthe following work, it has not beeu
resolved upon from the sudden impulse of the moment, nor is it
founded on any crude and undigested plan ; several years have been
occupied in collecting information from sources purely authentic and
original ; and the deepest researches have been made into the re
cords and documents in the British Museum, on subjects of his
torical notoriety or of doubtful character, with the view of stampino-
that validity and importance on the work which can alone render i^t
valuable to the historian, or useful to posterity.

.MEMOIRS

GEORGE THE FOURTH.

SECTION I.
[From 1-62 to 1780.]

Amongst the royal houses of Europe, there is not one which
can boast of a more illustrious line of ancestors than that
which, fortunately for the liberty and independence of their
subjects, is placed on the throne of Britain. The German
genealogists suppose it lo have descended through females from
the Saxon family, so renowned in the early periods of our his
tory, and to which the majority ofthe royal families of Europe
proudly ascribe their pedigrees. On the other hand, antiqua
rians have traced the descent of the house of Brunswick to
those ages that immediately succeeded the subversion of the
Roman empire, and reckon, amongst the founders of the family,
Caius CEtius, a noble Roman who flourished in the latter part
ofthe fourth century, and who was a relation of the Emperor
Augustus. Pharamond, duke of the Franks, and many otlier
renowned chieftains, whose names are consecrated in the
annals ofthe earlier periods of modern European history, may
be also considered as the progenitors ofthe illustrious house of
Brunswick, although their immediate history is enveloped in
the obscurity of the darker ages. The representative of all
these noble houses, Henry the Lion, duke of Brunswick, mar
ried Maud, the daughter of Henry H. king of England, who
was lineally descended from Egbert, the first king of England;
and, consequently, in his veins flowed the blood of Alfred the
Great, and of the pure Saxon race of English Sovereigns.
From George I., and his father the elector of Hanover,
we ascend in a clear and regular series to the first duke of
Brunswick and Lunenburg, who received his investiture from

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.

Tf
Frederick ll., about the middle of the thirteenth century, ii
their ample possessions had been the gift of the Emperor o
some adventurous soldier, or to some faithful client, we mign
be content with the antiquity and lustre of a noble race, which
had been enrolled nearly six hundred years amongst the princes
of Germany; but our ideas are exalted, and our prospect is
enlarged by the discovery, that the first duke of Brunswick
was rather degraded than adorned by his new titles, since it
imposed the duties of feudal service on the free and patrimo
nial estate, which alone had been saved in the shipwreck of the
more splendid fortunes of his house. His ancestors had been
invested with the powerful duchies of Bavaria and Saxony,
which extended far beyond the limits laid down in modem
geography ; for, from the Baltic sea to the confines of Rome,
they were either obeyed or feared ; and in the quarrels ofthe
Guelphs and Ghibelines, the former appellation was derived
from the name of their progenitors in the female line. The
genuine masculine descent, however, ofthe princes of Bruns
wick must be explored beyond the Alps ; for the venerable tree
which has since overshadowed Germany and Britain was
planted in the Italian soil. As far as our light can reach, we dis
cover the first founders of the race in the Marquesses of Este,
of Liguria, and, perhaps, of Tuscany. In the eleventh century,
the primitive stem was divided into two branches ; the elder
migrated to the banks ofthe Danube and the Elbe ; the other
more humbly adhered to the neighbourhood of the Adriatic.
The dukes of Brunswick and the kings of Great Britain are
the descendants ofthe first; the dukes of Ferrara and Modena
were the offspring ofthe second.
Passing by the intermediate genealogies of the house of
Brunswick, through the course of the middle centuries, as not
generally interesting to the majority of our readers, it would
only be necessary very briefly to shovv in what way arose the
proximity of blood, which, in the early part of the last century,
caused the Brunswick line to be called to the throne of these
kingdoms. The marriage of Henry VII. with Elizabeth,
daughter of Edward IV., in 1485, by uniting the pretensions
of the rival houses of York and Lancaster, put an end to the
factions that had for so raany reigns desolated England and

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. /
stained the land with the blood of the flower of its princes,
nobility, and gentry. Henry left issue by this marriage a son,
Henry VIII., and a daughter, married to James IV., king of
Scotland. On the failure ofthe line of Tudor, in the person of
queen Elizabeth, James VI. of Scotland, and first of that name
in England, succeeded, as matter of right, to the crown, being
descended, in the third generation, from Henry VII. and
Elizabeth of York, and, consequently, uniting in his own per
son all the claims of the dififerent lines that had successively
wielded the sceptre of England.
Elizabeth, daughter of James I., married Frederic, Elector
Palatine, and afterwards king of Bohemia. By this prince she
had a daughter, Sophia, married to Ernestus, elector of Hano
ver, and representative of the house of Brunswick, Hanover,
Lunenburg, Wolfenbiittel, Zelle, &c., whose posterity, by vir
tue of the Act of Settlement, now fills the throne of Great
Britain. Those who augured a prosperous reign to George III., from
the circumstance ofhis ascending the throne on the anniversary
of the victory of Agincourt, deemed it an equally auspicious
circumstance, that an heir apparent should be born on the
forty-eighth anniversary ofthe accession of the house of Bruns
wick. We will not stop to discuss the merits of these auguries,
considering them in the same light as we do the geese of the
Roman augurs, and especially as the pages of history are
open to every one to determine their truth or fallacy ; but in
regard to the battle of Agincourt, if the prophecy had run
that the reign of George III. was to be distinguished by the
most ruinous wars, in one of which the American possessions
were to be lost for ever to the British crown, and in another of
which a national debt was to be accumulated, which sits as an
exterminating incubus on the prosperity and energies of the
nation, we consider that it would be rather a difficult task for
the sapient augurs to prove that they were not in an error,
when they drew their prophecy of the glory of the reign of
George III. from his having ascended the throne on the anni
versary of the battle of Agincourt.
The marriage of George 111. vvith the princess Charlotte of
Mecklenburg Strelitz took place on the Sth September, 1761;

8 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
and on the 12th August, 1762, his late majesty, George IV.,
was born.
Agreeably to the state etiquette, which has always been
observed on the accouchement of the queen of England, ever
since the birth ofthe son, or pretended son of James IL, the
great officers of state are always summoned to attend the birth
of a royal infant; and, on this occasion, there were present, the
Princess Dowager of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Rutland ; the Lords Hard
wicke, Huntingdon, Talbot, Halifax, Bute, Masham, and
Cantalupe, and all the ladies of the bed-chamber and the
maids of honour. The vvhole party assembled in a room
adjoining to that of the Queen, having the door open leading
into it — the Lords arranging themselves at the greatest possible
distance — the Ladies having no other restriction placed upon
them, than to preserve a solemn silence, the accomplishment of
which vvas a task of almost insuperable difficulty. Delicacy had,
in those days, so far the ascendancy, that the obstetrical art was
principally practised by females, and, on this occasion, the
Queen was delivered by Mrs. Stephen, Dr. Hunter being
in attendance amongst the ladies of the bed-chamber and
maids of honour, in case of his professional assistance being
required. Her Majesty was delivered exactly at twenty-four minutes
after seven o'clock, p. m., having been in labour above two
hours. A messenger was immediately despatched to the king
with the pleasing intelligence, and so delighted was his Ma
jesty with the news, that he presented the bearer of it with
500?, The privy council assembled with all possible despatch, and
it was ordered that a form of prayer for the Queen's safe de
livery should be prepared by his Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury, to be used within the Bills of Mortality on the
following Sunday, and throughout the King's dominions
the Sunday after it had been received by the respective
ministers. Nothing can mark more strongly, the character ofthe age
than the periodical publications that were put forth on this
occasion. The Queen refused all medical assistance from

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. »
the other sex, and was attended by a Mrs. Stephen. The
obstetric science vvas then but faintly understood amongst
us, for Dr. Denman, the celebrated father of the present
common-sergeant of London, had not written his famous
work on midwifery ; and reference was always made to the
ancients from Aristotle to Galen, and from him to the doctors
of the Sorbonne. Hence the press had teemed with numerous
speculations or rather prophecies upon her Majesty, some not
very delicate ; and whilst a fevv denied her being enceinte, others
entered into peripherical phenomena, and pretended to predict
ihe sex and future destinies of the child. Mrs. Draper, who
was the royal nurse, had published a pamphlet upon the sub
ject ; but such matter would not be tolerated amongst us at
present, and we must submiss such subjects as features of an age
gone by. Slander was mixed up with these publications ; and
when the Queen appeared at the installation of the Garter, at
St. George's Hall, Windsor Castle, four weeks after her ac
couchement, several violent articles were written upon the inde
licacy of so early an appearance ; whilst she, on the other hand,
was defended by her friends, upon the plea of the customs of
her country being different from those of England. A man
who then ruled London, with respect to opinion, as powerfully
as the king himself, the Rev. Mr. Simpson, preached against
the Queen's indelicacy ; but he was answered in a pamphlet
by the Rev. Dr. Vandergucht, who cited all that could be found
upon the subject from the Bible : and although any quotation
of that description was then omnipotent, still the doctor's Dutch
name was mistaken by the vulgar for German — he was consi
dered as a partisan of the Germans, and met with very severe
usage from the populace.
The birth of the Prince diffused a general joy throughout
the nation, and congratulatory addresses were voted to their
Majesties by both Houses of Parliament, by the city of Lon
don, the two Universities, and the other great bodies corporate
ofthe kingdom. We shall not, however, occupy our pages
with the transcription of any ofthese addresses, for considered
as mere matters of form they are unworthy of notice, and as
the vehicles of the most fulsome adulation and bombastic
1 B

10 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
panegyric, they are deservedly the objects of ridicule and con
tempt. ,, ,
We cannot, however, refrain from inserting a most excellent
one from the Quakers, which was presented to his Majesty on
the 1st of October, and read by Dr. Fothergill, as follows :— ,
' To George the Third, King of Great Britain and the
dominions thereunto belonging.
' The humble address of Protestant subjects, the people
called Quakers.
' May it please the King,
' The satisfaction we feel in every event that adds to the
happiness of our sovereign, prompts us to request admittance
to the throne, on the present interesting occasion.
' The birth of a Prince, the safety ofthe Queen, and thy own
domestic felicity increased, call for our thankfulness to the
Supreme Dispenser of every blessing ; and to the King our
dutiful and unfeigned congratulations.
' In the Prince of Wales we behold another pledge of the
security of those inestimable privileges, which we have enjoyed
under the monarchs of thy illustrious house — kings, distin
guished by their justice, their clemency, and regard to the
prosperity of their people ; a happy presage that, under their
descendants, our civil and religious liberties will devolve, in
their full extent, to succeeding generations.
' Long may the Divine Providence preserve a life of so
great importance to his royal parents, to these kingdoms, and
to posterity ; that, formed to piety and virtue, he may live be
loved of God and man, and fill at length the British throne
with a lustre not inferior to his predecessors.'
The young Prince soon became the object of general solici
tude, and for the gratification of the public, it was announced
before hewas twelve days old, that his Royal Highness was to
be seen at St. James's, from one o'clock till three, on drawing-
room days. The crowd of ladies, whom this offer tempted to flock
to court to see the royal infant, and taste her Majesty's caudle and
cake, soon became immense ; the daily expense for cake alone
was estimated at 40^, and the consumption of wine was greater
than could have been expected. All persons of fashion were

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. ] 1
admitted to see the Prince, under the following restrictions,
viz., that in passing through the apartment they stepped with
the greatest caution, and did not offer to touch his Royal High
ness. For the greater security in this respect, a part of the
apartment was latticed off in the Chinese manner, to prevent
curious persons from approaching too closely.
It may be easily conceived that this extraordinary proceeding
was visited with the severest censure of the reflecting part of
the English people ; they discovered in it neither propriety nor
utility ; on the contrary, they saw that it vvas attended with a
considerable degree of danger to the health of the royal infant,
on whom, perhaps, depended the legitimate succession of the
Brunswick dynasty. There was also something decidedly anti-
national in the exhibition ; and although custom might have
tolerated it in the latitude of Mecklenburg Strelitz, itwas not
consLstent with the habits and prejudices ofthe English people.
His late Majesty may be said to have come into the world
at a most eventful period, when incidents were passing away,
or occurring, or nigh at hand, of the greatest importance to
the national honour and welfare. The long and prosperous
reign of George II. had fixed the House of Hanover in secure
possession ofthe British throne. The welcome accession of
George III., the first sovereign of that House born in this
country, had crushed every vestige of hope in the fevv remain
ing friends of the exiled Stuarts ; the multiplied victories of a
war, of which the people were, notwithstanding, beginning to
complain, had opened the way for honourable and promising
negociation, and with the prospect of peace rendered certain,
just as the Prince was born, both the character and condition
ofthe country were rapidly improving ; an improvement which
his birth was admirably adapted to accelerate, since it gave to
people of every rank and condition a gratifying assurance of
a legitimate succession of the House of Brunswick.
On the fifth day after his birth, his Royal Highness was
created Prince of Wales, by letters patent. The first creation
of the title of Prince of Wales in the Royal Family of England,
occurred in the reign of Edward I. This sovereign, to conci
liate the affections of the Welsh, whom he had subdued, re
moved his Qaeea Eleanor to Caernarvon Castle, in North
B 2

12

Memoirs of george iv.

Wales, in which place, on the 25th April, 1284, she was de
livered of a son. On this event, the sagacious Edward sum
moned the Welsh barons, and demanded if they would be
willing to subject themselves to a native prince. Happily they
consented, and having sworn to yield him obedience, he nomi
nated the royal infant in a subsequent charter, Edward, Prince
of Wales, since which auspicious event, the eldest son and heir
apparent of the King of England has retained that title. His-
late Majesty Geo. IV. was the twenty-first prince of the royal
family of England who has borne that title.
The mode of conferring the rank of Prince of Wales is by
investiture, with a cap-coronet, gold verge and ring, and by
issue of letters patent under the Great Seal. Notwithstanding
the title of Prince of Wales has often merged in the Crown, it
has never yet been bestowed on any but the heir apparent to
the crown.
The Prince of Wales is born Duke of Cornwall, and imme
diately entitled to all the revenue belonging to that Duchy,
We shall have occasion hereafter to refer to that circumstance,
as it formed the basis of a long dissension between the Prince
of Wales and his illustrious father, arising from a well-founded
claim, which the former made to all the arrears of revenue
which had accumulated during his minority, and to which,
as forming a part of his patrimonial inheritance, he considered
that he possessed an inalienable right.
The Prince of Wales, as heir apparent to the Crown of Great
Britain, is likewise hereditary Steward of Scotland, Duke of
Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, and Baron of Renfrew. These were
titles conferred by Robert III., King of Scotland, on the
Prince, his eldest son, in 1399, and perpetually appropriated
to the future Princes of Scotland, as soon as born. Since
the accession of James I., they have been continued to the
Prince of Wales, in Great Britain. It may be here remarked
as a singular circumstance, that the Prince of Wales enjoys no
Irish honours. All the junior branches of the royal family are
Earis of Ireland ; the heir apparent being the only one of his
house who does not derive some title of honour from the Sister
Island. The ceremony of christening his Royal Highness was per-

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memoirs of George iv. 13
formed on the 18th September, in the great council chamber
of his Majesty's palace, by his Grace the Archbishop of Can
terbury. The godfathers vvere his Royal Highness the Duke
of Cumberland, and his most Serene Highness the reigning
Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, who vvas represented by the
Duke of Devonshire, being the Lord Chamberlain of his Ma
jesty's household. The god-mother was her Royal Highness
the Princess Dowager of Wales.
The infantine establishment ofhis Royal Highness was at this
time composed ofthe following persons: — governess. Lady
Charlotte Finch ; deputy governess, Mrs. Henrietta Coult-
worth; wet-nurse, Mrs. Scott ; dry-nurse, Mrs. Chapman;
necessary woman, Mrs. Dodson; Jane Simpson and Catha
rine Johnson, rockers.
It was at this stage of his Royal Highness' infancy that the
drawing of him was taken, which embellishes this work. It was
always a favourite picture of his late majesty George III., as it
was the exact resemblance of tvvo individuals in whom his
heart, at that time, took the greatest interest.
It was stated by many of the journals of the day, that the
Queen suckled her own children ; and some of them, in the
plenitude of their wisdom, found, in the supposed circumstance
of the Queen having suckled the Prince of Wales, a cause for
that predilection which she always entertained for him, in pre
ference to any of her other children. It is, however, contrary to
etiquette for any Queen of England to suckle her own children,
the reasons for which must be obvious; and, at a future period,
in the case of the Princess Charlotte, it was the cause of the
most poignant grief, when it was announced to her, that she
would not be allowed the enjoyment of one of the sweetest
occupations ofthe mother.
The first public address presented to the young Prince of
Wales was from the Governors of the Society of Ancient
Britons, who solicited his patronage for an institution which
educates, clothes, and supports a number of poor and destitute
natives ofthe Principality from which his Royal Highness derives
his title : the address was presented on St. David's day, the
1st of March, 1765, when the Prince was not quite three years
of age. ' Your royal parents,' said the address, ' remember

14 memoirs of GEORGE IV.
no period of their lives too early for doing good ; and when a
few years shall call forth your virtues into action, your Royal
Highness may, perhaps, reflect with satisfaction upou your
faitliful ancient Britons thus laying themselves at your feet.
The Prince made the foUowing reply : ' Gentlemen, I thank
you for this mark of your duty to the King, and wish prosperity
to the charity.'
The Prince had been tutored several days previously, by his
royal parents, in regard to the manner in which he was to con
duct himself on this occasion; and the journals of the day
announced, that he delivered his answer with great propriety
and suitableness of action. At the conclusion the Prince pre
sented the treasurer ofthe charity with a donation of lOOL
The royal parents were remarkably domestic ; in addition,
therefore, to the usual solicitude about an infant heir to the
throne, their first-born became an object of unexampled care,
— care that was thought excessive, if not injurious, at that early
period, and which, although the motive of it must be ever
praised, afterwards did harm to the character of the Prince, by
rendering the transition from youth to manhood, and from
restraint to independence, much too sudden and abrupt.
In the course of the year 1765, his Royal Highness was
elected a Knight Companion of the most noble Order of the
Garter, but his installation did not take place until the 25th of
July, 1771.
On the 3d of March, 1766, the Prince of Wales was inocu
lated for the small-pox, by Pennel Hawkins, Esq., Sergeant
Surgeon Extraordinary to his Majesty and Surgeon to her
Majesty and the household, in the presence of their Majesties
and his Majesty's Sergeant Surgeon, Csesar Hawkins, Esq.,
Sir Clifford Witringham, Sir William Duncan, and John
Pringle, Esq., physicians. The Duke of York was inoculated
at the same time.
In the inoculation ofthe royal children, their Majesties had
many strong and inveterate prejudices to surmount, which, at
that time, had taken hold of the public mind, in regard to the
impious act, as it was then stigmatised, of imparting a disease
to a human being, with which it had not pleased heaven to
afflict it. The most decided and illiberal opposition was every-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 15
where manifested towards the practice of inoculation ; and
some over-zealous and puritanical preachers extended their
zeal so far, as to denounce it from the pulpit, as of the most
impious tendency; — that itwas most criminally and unjus
tifiably interfering in the concerns of heaven, and, conse
quently, its extreme vengeance was denounced on those who
dared to follow such a guilty example. Their Majesties came
in for their full share of abuse from those worthy and en
lightened souls, in thus endangering the lives of their two elder
sons, and thereby frustrating the hopes ofthe nation of a legiti
mate successor to the crown. In despite, however, of all the
anathemas from the pulpit, their majesties, convinced that
inoculation was rather a blessing and a boon of Providence than
a crime committed against it, continued to inoculate all their
children ; and it may, in a great measure, be attributed to that
perseverance and strength of mind which their majesties
evinced on this occasion, that the system of inoculation ulti
mately overcame the obstacles which were so illiberally thrown
in the way of its adoption.
At this time an unexpected and alarming illness of the King,
while it drew forth the sympathy of the nation for him, fixed the
attention of all classes upon the royal heir, then a child of
only four years old. The apprehension of a regency in the
state, and a guardianship to the Prince, for so long a period as
fourteen years, was a feeling peculiarly unwelcome ; but provi
dentially it was removed almost as soon as it arose. Still
the known liability of the king to sudden disease, tending
to afi"ect the royal mind as well as body, caused public atten
tion and anxiety, in no ordinary degree, to be continually di
rected to the rising Prince. Almost idolized by the people,
when he was the subject of diseases incident to childhood, from
which there is no royal road of escape, and which then pre
vailed with more certainty and severity than at present, every
family seemed to feel as though one of its own members were
in danger, and the tidings of his recovery were the signal for
ebullitions of delight, and more confident anticipations that his
life would be long, and his reign prosperous and happy.
It was on the 25th of October, 1769, that the Prince of
Wales, then only in his seventh year, the Bishop of Osnaburg

16 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
(the late Duke of York), Prince William, and the P^^i-
cess Royal, held their first drawing-room ; the latter wa )
then in her second year; and certainly it could only hav
tered into the head of a German Princess, who had been accus
tomed to infantine drawing-rooms, to place the children « he
Kin- of England in such a truly ridiculous and anti-Butlsh
siturtion The historians of those days inform us, that the
young Princes received the company with the utmost grace and
affability ; but on the other hand, the caricaturists were not
idle, for there is a caricature in existence, in which, in ridicule
ofthese infantine drawing-rooms, the Prince of Wales is made
to enter the room with a kite on his back, the Bishop of Osna
burg with his hobby horse between his legs. Prince William is
spinning his top, and the Princess Royal is behind a screen re
ceiving some very indispensable assistance from her nurse. The
ridicule with which these drawing-rooms was received soon in
duced the Queen to discontinue them ; and, indeed, her Ma
jesty found it a difficult matter to persuade either the Prince
of Wales or the Bishop of Osnaburg to attend them ; and on
one occasion, vvhen the royal youths were engaged in a game
of cricket, and were called upon to dress for the drawing-room,
they returned a message, that the company were to wait till the
game was over.
The following account of the royal children at this time vvill
be read with peculiar interest, especially as it contains a trait of
the character of the illustrious individual who is now seated on
the throne of these realms.
Mrs. Chapone, who was niece of Dr. Thomas, Bishop of
Winchester, formeriy preceptor to Geo. III., and used to spend
much of her time at her uncle's residence at Farnham Castle,
relates the following anecdotes of the Royal Family in a letter
to Mr. Burrows, dated August 20, 1778. ' Mr. BuUer went
to ^\";f- on Saturday ; saw the King, who inquired much
about the Bishop; and hearing that he would be ei-htv-two
next Monday ' Then,' said the King, I will go and vtS him
joy.' ' And 1,' said the Queen, ' will go too.' Mr R th
dropt a hint ofthe additional pleasure itwould give thi R- u "
if he could see the Princes. ' That,' said the KinV . ^ "^
contrivance ; but if I can manage it, we will all cr^'' "'^'^""'^^
&"¦ Un the

IkiEMdiRS OF GEORGE tV. 17
Monday following, the royal party, consisting of their Majes
ties, the Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Duke of Clarence,
the Princess Royal, and Princess Augusta, visited the Bishop.
" The King," continues Mrs. Chapone, " sent the Princes to
pay their compliments to Mrs. Chapone; himself, he said,
was an old acquaintance. Whilst the Princes were speaking
to me, Mr. Arnold, sub-preceptor, said, " These gentlemen are
•well acquainted with a certain ode prefixed to Mrs. Carter's
Epictetus, if you know any thing of it." Afterwards, the King
came and spoke to us, and the Queen led the Princess Royal
to me, saying, " This is a young lady, who, I hope, has much
profited by your instructions. She has read them [Letters on
the Improvement of the Mind] more than once, and will read
them often ; and the Princess assented to the praise which
followed with a very modest air. I was pleased with eJI the
Princes, but particularly with Prince William, who is little of
his age, but so sensible and engaging, that he won the Bishop's
heart, to whom he particularly attached himself, and would
stay with him while all the rest ran about the house. His con
versation was surprisingly manly and clever for his age, yet,
with the young Bullers, he was quite the boy, and said to John
Buller, by way of encouraging him to talk, " Come, we are
both boys, you know." All of them showed affectionate re
spect to the Bishop ; the Prince of Wales pressed his hand so
hard that he hurt it.'
We now enter upon one of the most important eras in the
life of a human being, whether prince or plebeian, and on which
may be said, in a great measure, to depend his future success
in life ; we allude to his education. It has been asserted with
great truth, that no man is completely qualified to sit upon a
throne who has not been a member of the republic of letters.
It is only in the freedom of social communication with the
intelligent and the enlightened, without distinction of rank or
circumstances, that the human understanding can be properly
cultivated. This, therefore, is the best school for the forma
tion of a Prince, for it is there that he will soon learn how to
fill his station with satisfaction to himself and benefit to others.
The hours of seclusion from the adulation of courtiers, and
the servile complaisance of interested attendants, are the most
1 c

18 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
precious portions of a young prince's time. It is only there
that he can leisurely reflect upon the obligations annexed to
his title which he wears, and imbibe the salutary persuasion,
that unless he become practically acquainted with the undis-,
guised sentiments and dispositions, and especially with the
spirit of the people over whom he is one day destined to prer?
side, he will remain totally unworthy of that high destination
to which Providence has called him.
It is an observation which has been made by sorae very
acute writers, that the British nation, so jealous almost
in every thing else that regards its princes, has been sin
gularly and culpably inattentive to whatever concerns
their education. Parliament, — which limits the settlement
of the crown, — which points out the religion of the reigning
family — which takes cognizance of the marriages of the
princes of the blood, and confers on them revenues and
estabhshments, leaves the education of our British princes
wholly to the discretion of the reigning sovereign. According
to the dictum of the crown lawyers, the education of princes
is a matter of prerogative with which the two Houses of
Pariiament have no right to interfere; and consequently,
whenever the point has been agitated in the legislature, as has
happened in one or two instances, the answer pf the friends-of
the court to those who perceived, or thought they perceived,
something faulty in the system of education pursued with re
gard to the young princes, has been, that the education ofthe
prince of the blood was a branch of the royal prerogative, and
that the mere agitation of the subject was derogatory to the
honour of the Crown.
Were the preceptors of a prince endowed with all those rare
accomplishments which are so rightly represented as requisite
for such a station, he might safely be resigned to the care which
would then be taken to form him to viriue, knowledge, and
true greatness. But such men are seldom promoted to so high
an ofiice, for it is obtained by dexterity, intrigue, and family in
fluence, much more frequently than by desert or integrity of
character. Fenelon, for instance, after educating the'heir to
the crown of France, was banished from court as a man whose
maxims were too rigid for the laxity of its morals,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 19
A young prince is sometimes placed under the tuition of a
mere teacher of ancient classical erudition: this, doubtless, has
its u.ses, but let those whom it concerns to educate him as a
man who is to govern men, bear it constantly in their remem
brance, that things, not words, are the only objects of solid
knowledge. The great Frederick of Prussia knew perfectly
but one language besides his own, and that language was a
modern one — the French.
The philosopher in his closet may lay down a theory for
the education of a young prince, which, in his judgment,
shall appear infallible ; yet, when it is attempted to be
reduced to practice, how abortive and nugatory will the trial
prove ! The business of real life is so unlike what sages con
ceive in their closets, that it is no wonder their most beautiful
speculations should often be found utterly inapplicable to its
concerns. Nero was the scholar of Seneca, one of the most
severe and rigid moralists of all antiquity ; but whatever might
have been the value of Seneca's instructions, it is certain that
a more atrocious monster than his pupil never dishonoured
human nature. James I. received his education under the
celebrated Buchanan, who was unquestionably admirably qua
lified to instruct a young prince in the maxims of government ;
yet it is notorious, from history, that James made but a very
indifferent sovereign. Rodolphus II. , Emperor of Germany,
and who was the contemporary of James, made also a most
inglorious figure as a sovereign, and yet both of them had been
more carefully instructed than any others that we read of, in all
academical erudition, by the most celebrated professors of the
time. If we take a retrospective view of the mode of education
which was adopted with Geo. III., we shall be able to trace
to that source many of the evils which displayed themselves
so conspicuously during his reign, to the manifest injury
of the country. He was educated under the immediate in
fluence of the Earl of Bute, and the Princess Dowager of
Wales, his mother, in principles far less favourable to civil and
religious liberty than those of any of his predecessors of the
Brunswick line. The education of George III. is allowed to
have been defective, but still it was not so much so as to make
C2

20 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
him undervalue sound learning, or render him indifferent o
proficiency ofhis children. He insisted on a much larger
portion of it than he had attained being offered to the Prince
of Wales, and he rejoiced to find him both able to appreciate
it and ready to make it his own. Perhaps his Royal Highness
did not so willingly submit to the discipline of his noble gover
nors and reverend tutors, which, in fact, was strict beyond all
precedent and propriety. The system derived its severer
features of restraint and seclusion from the authority of the
King, whose firmness in other matters sometimes rose to obsti
nacy, and who was often pertinacious when he only thought
himself prudent. But if the Prince was trained according to
the royal mandate, the agents chosen to execute the stern
decree were well fitted for their work. On the other hand, the
Queen, bred up in foreign prejudices, could not be thought to
have imbibed any sentiments very friendly to the essential prin
ciples of a free constitution, and therefore probably embraced
with eagerness that system in which she had herself been edu
cated, and which was, perhaps, neither in consistency nor assi
milation with the court to which she had been introduced as
the head, nor in conformity to the spirit of the people over whom
she was to preside. It is true, indeed, that she interfered little
in politics, at least in the early part of the sovereign's reign,
and that little was always managed with the greatest caution and
secrecy. The eflTect was very visible, but it was very difl[icult
to determine from what quarter the cause proceeded. She,
however, on several occasions, had sufficient opportunity to
show, that in political sentiments her principles were the same
as those of her august partner, or, in other words, that they
leant to those notions of prerogative and high church power,
which ever since the revolution, and previously to the reign of
George III., have been considered as highly dangerous to the
liberties of the subject.
The partialities of the Queen could not fail to accord with the
King's strong and inflexible Tory bias; and when we take
into our consideration that the King himself was strongly
tinctured with German predilections, we cannot be surprised to
find that a system of education was pursued in regard to the
young Princes, something less liberal than ought to have beeq

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 21
adopted towards the royal sons of a great and a free people.
The English Universities cannot easily forget the affront that
was tacitly put upon them, when the junior branches of the
royal family were sent to Germany for the completion of their
studies, where instead of being instructed in those free and liberal
principles which are compatible with the British constitution,
and which ought to form the main feature in the education of
every British prince, they were instructed in the despotic and
aristocratical notions of German royalty. Bereft of the
advantages of a representative government, absolute power is
the foundation of a German throne, and a subserviency to the
laws is not to be expected from those princes, who by their
sole fiat can enact or rescind any law, which in its effects may
appear favourable or prejudicial to their own personal interests.
In England, however, the case is different : the Prince is as
amenable to the laws of his country as the meanest of his
subjects ; and for this reason, every attempt to extend the pre
rogative of the crown, as placing the monarch above the ope
ration of those laws, is always regarded with an eye of jea-
louisy and distrust. The national feelings of the two countries
are therefore in direct opposition to each other, and our
surprise naturally ceases, when we behold in our native
princes, who were educated in Germany, a display of those
high despotic principles which are decidedly foreign and anti-
British. The dignity of his station, and the important place which he
held in the state as heir-apparent to the crown, prevented the
Prince of Wales from being sent to Germany to receive the
finishing part of his education ; in other respects, however,
the plan of his Royal Highness's tuition was such as was natu
rally to be expected from the known, and in this instance, un
controlled prejudices of his royal parents. It was an attempt
to ingraft the free and independent spirit of the British con
stitution on the despotic and absolute principles of German
aristocracy. The difficulty of the task consisted in reconciling
these discordant principles, without exhibiting a decided incli
nation to either ; or at least in so concealing the preponderancy
of the latter, that it might not prove offensive to a people so
jealous of their rights and liberties, and so proud of their in-

22 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
estimable constitution, as the English. The persons selected
for the important task of forming the mind of the heir-appa
rent were men estimable in the highest degree for their moral
character and various literary attainments ; but at the same
time it was remarked, with some concern, that in their political
principles they vvere high churchmen and Tories, which, al
though they at that time bore the ascendency in the councils of
the nation, are, in many essential points, at variance with the
principles established at the Revolution.
The Earl of Holderness was the first preceptor to the Prince
of Wales ; his sub-preceptor being Monsieur de Salzes, the
intimate friend of Dr. Maclaine, Chaplain to the British Em
bassy at the Hague, and the admired translator of Mosheim's
Ecclesiastical History. A particular degree of notoriety, how
ever, accompanied him, as being the uncle to the celebrated
Maclaine, the fashionable highwayman, who was considered
the genuine Macheath of the day.
Lord Holderness and De Salzes retired from office at the
same time ; and the changes which now took place in the edu
cation of the Prince are generally, and we believe justly, attri
buted to the former nobleman, whose enlarged and liberal
mind would not endure the restrictions which were imposed
on him, and who at the same time observed, with regret, that
a secret influence was at work, which he considered as fraught
with danger to his illustrious pupil. He also felt himself in
competent to contend against a power, which, by the very
secrecy and darkness of its proceedings, could, in one moment,
subvert the fabric which it was his particular design and pur
pose to establish.
A considerable degree of obscurity exists respecting the
quarter whence this secret influence emanated : some persons
pointed to the Dowager Princess of Wales and Lord Bute;
and, considering that those two personages generally carried
on their proceedings like the mole, in the dark, and the results
of which generally came upon their victim like the explosion
of a mine, it is by no means improbable that they were the real
individuals whose secret influence succeeded in eff f
change in the education ofthe Prince. It has also been Itfted
that particular books had been recommended to the perusal and

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 23
study of his Royal Highness, which Lord Holderness con
sidered to be highly improper, and which inculcated principles
inadmissible in the education of a British Prince. He was
also convinced that his interest and influence were on the de
cline ; and, finding that some very unnecessary and unhand
some obstructions were thrown in his way, he requested leave
to resign, which was granted : this resignation was imme
diately followed by the retirement of Mr. Smelt, the sub-pre
ceptor, on a pension, of whose character Mr. Delany says,
' that it was of the most noble and delicate kind, and deserved
the pen of a Clarendon to do justice to it'
When we consider the freedom from magisterial control
that is allowed at our public schools, and the perfect liberty
that our princes of the blood enjoy after they are emancipated
from the trammels of their minority, we shall not be able
easily to assign a sufficient motive for the system of restraint
and seclusion that was so rigorously adhered to in the education
of the Prince of Wales. We have read of the discipline of
camps, and we have seen the etiquette of courts ; but we are
utterly at a loss to conceive what benefit was expected to be
derived from a system, the obvious effect of which was to keep
a young and high-spirited Prince entirely ignorant ofthe world
until the very moment when he was about to enter into it, and
into a sphere of it abounding with the greatest danger and
temptations. If the mariner be called upon to steer his vessel
through an unknown sea, and he has been designedly kept in
ignorance of the rocks and shoals in the midst of which he
will have to navigate his vessel, to whom is the blame to be
attached if he be wrecked ? — to the mariner himself, or to those
who so wilfully kept him in ignorance of the dangers with
which he would have to contend. One of the happy effects of
a public education is, that young men are gradually seasoned
and familiarized to a commerce with the world, by their boyish
intercourse with their equals at school ; and if princes, on their
first entrance into public life, show somewhat less of discretion
or prudence than other youths of high rank perhaps evince,
is it to be imputed to something radically wrong in their dispo
sitions, or to a defective mode of education ?
It has been often said that a prince should keep none but

S4 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE if.

in the

the most splendid company, and we perfectly acquiesce
rule — with the proviso only, that by this company is not meant
the exclusion of the most entertaining and instructive part of
society : it is, however, only by divesting ourselves of pride
and superciliousness, that we are able to enjoy the pleasures
and advantages of persons of this description, and it remains to
be decided in what particular station of society they are prin
cipally to be found. Confined within a very limited circle,
beyond which he was not allowed to digress, the Prince of
Wales saw mankind only as through an inverted medium : he
might have been taught the theory of human life, but of the
practice, which is alone valuable to an individual in life, he was
kept in the most culpable ignorance. Surrounded by the
formal ceremonies and etiquette of a court, and which, being
formed on the German model, carried the observance of all its
punctilios to the utmost nicety, his early life resembled the dull
and monotonous round of the brute in the mill, who is not
allowed to diverge a step from the track prescribed to him, and
who possesses no other superiority over the machine which he
impels, than the mere satisfaction ofhis physical wants. How
unsociable, therefore, and how unwise, must those dispositions
be, which, from a false and misguided attention to the insipid
and disheartening forms of etiquette, will debar a young and
aspiring mind from attaching himself to those objects or per
sons from which a particular and decided degree of mutual
improvement is to be acquired, merely because they happen
not to be in possession of a certain degree of rank or wealth !
How great must be the ignorance of those people, who do not
know that it is in the society of those who have raised them
selves into notice by their talents, much more than in that of
those who are distinguished solely by their birth or riches, that
a prince will become acquainted with the worid! No persons,
from their very situation in fife, are usually less conversant with
the variety of characters that compose the great body of man
kind, than the nobility : immured, as it were, within the pale of
their grandeur, and restrained from moving out of it by the
haughtiness in which they are so frequently bred, they enfoy a
gloomy pre-eminence, undisturbed by the freedom which the
inferior classes of the community carry with them into th '

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 25
social meetings. Why, then, should a prince (and there is no
punctifio of a court which demands the sacrifice) who was yet
in the spring-tide ofhis life, and who could look forward with a
well-founded hope for a considerable interval of years before his
exaltation to the throne, have been debarred the most efficacious
means of looking thoroughly into that world of which the know
ledge is so perpetually inculcated, as the only sure means of
quafifying him to rule with credit to himself and benefit to
the nation at large ?
It must nevertheless be allowed, that the education of the
Prince of Wales was conducted on a plan perfectly well calcu
lated to render him a respectable scholar and an accomplished
gentleman ; but on the other hand, it was ill calculated to make
him either a prudent prince or a great monarch. It was con
ducted with so much austerity, with so little regard to the va
luable principles of practical life, that the moment of his
Royal Highness's emancipation was that of a prisoner re
leased from confinement — it was the daring and boundless
flight of the eagle, which had been long chained to the earth
by some tyrannical power; and no surprise ought to be ex
cited, if it were at first wild and eccentric in the extrerne.
Hitherto debarred from the enjoyment of those pleasures so
natural to youth, he plunged at once into the joys of society
with all the avidity of the fainting traveller who hastens to the
gushing spring to allay the torments of his thirst.
We should justly lay ourselves open to the charge of iUibe-
rality, and perhaps of falsification, were we here to cast the
slightest insinuation on the character of those eminent indivi
duals who were selected as the preceptors of the Prince.
They cannot be supposed to be answerable for the defects of
a plan, in the construction of which, it is probable, they never
were consulted. The preceptors of the Prince were not left to
adopt a system of education, according to their own judgment
and discretion ; but the plan in all its details was strictly pre
scribed to them, with the most peremptory injunction not to
deviate frora it in the slightest degree. The error, therefore,
lay on those who framed the system of education, not on those
who were appointed to carry it into execution ; for it would be
the height of injustice to the raeraory of one of the preceptors,
1 P

26 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
and a neglect of the majority of those who are the survivors, were
we not openly to declare, that the persons to whose care the
charge of the juvenile years ofthe Prince of Wales was com
mitted, were men eminently qualified for the due execution of
so important a task.
Dr. Markham, who, in February 1771, was appointed pre
ceptor to his Royal Highness, was a clergyman who had risen
in his profession solely by his own merit. At the early age of
thirty, he had the distinguished honour of being chosen first
master of Westminster school ; and during fourteen years, he
discharged with the highest reputation the laborious duties of
that useful and honourable employment. His merits, while he
presided over one of the first schools in the kingdom, were not
overlooked, and in 1767 his public services were rewarded
with the deanery of Christchurch. Under the vigilant guar
dianship of Dr. Markham, Christchurch preserved its accus
tomed pretensions to superiority ; and seldom less than from
twenty to thirty youths, of the first families of the kingdom,
were intrusted to his care. On his consecration to the
bishopric of Chester, he resigned the deanery of Christchurch,
and soon after was appointed preceptor to the Prince of
Wales. The sub-preceptor of the Prince, at this period, was Dr.
Cyril Jackson — a man who, like Dr. Markham, had advanced
his fortune in life by his diligence in the pursuit of knowledge,
and the variety ofhis literary attainment.s.
Although Dr. Markhara was the accredited preceptor. Lord
Bruce was about this time appointed governor — a man for
whom interest, not abiHty, obtained the appointraent. His
pupil actually surpassed him in classical attainments, particu
larly in his knowledge of the Greek ; and sorae anecdotes
having been buzzed about the court, in which his Lordship
was represented to be fiterally worsted by his pupil, and
becoming thereby the butt of aU the satirists of the court, his
Lordship resigned his appointment, and, as a reward for his
eminent services, received the earldom of Aylesbury. On
this resignation, the Duke of Montague succeeded to the super
intendence of the royal education ; and in the year 1774 thp
Jiing so far deviated from his accustomed plan of personally

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 27
superintending the education of the Prince of Wales, that he
established a separate household for him at the Queen's palace,
at which a royal chaplain was appointed to reside, for the pur
pose of reading prayers every day.
Amongst the numerous candidates for an office attended
with so many present advantages and prospects of future pro
motion, was the celebrated but unfortunate Dr. Dodd. Al
though he was supported by the strong and powerful influence
of Lord Chesterfield, he did not succeed in obtaining the ap
pointment, which it was supposed was owing to the personal
disapprobation of the King himself, to whora the character of
Dr. Dodd was apparently well known.
Whilst these changes took place in the governors of the
education of his Royal Highness, a change also took place in the
preceptors: Dr. Markhara was succeeded by Dr. Hurd, after
wards Bishop of Worcester ; and Dr. Jackson was succeeded
by Mr. Arnold, tutor of St. John's College, Carabridge.
The latter gentleraan was a person of the most promising
genius, and, as a reward for his services, received the canonry of
Windsor. His mind and constitution were, however, too delicate
for the incessant study to which he applied himself, and he
died insane in 1802.
Of the cause of the removal of Drs. Markham and Jackson
various rumours were at that time afloat ; and amongst others
it was stated, that the question whether it were expedient that
princes should be scholars had occasioned no trifling degree
of agitation in the doraestic cabinet of Buckingham House. It
was opined by some of the leading members of that cabinet,
that the sources of knowledge which Drs. Markham and Jack
son had opened to the minds of the young princes were rather
of too enlarged and liberal a nature, and that, in their instruc
tions on the polity of nations, they had entered rather too
largely into the question of the expediency of placing a limit to
monarchical and aristocratical power, in opposition to the rights
and liberties of the subject. A court without a cabal would
be one of the greatest anomalies of civilized fife ; and that a
secret and clandestine influence was used in the reraoval of
Drs. Markham and Jackson, in the same manner as had been
exemplified in the removal of Lord Holderness, the journals
D 2

28 MEMOIRS OF GEOliGE IV.
ofthe time are all of one accord : and one writer, speaking of
the change of the Prince's preceptors, says, that the erudite
Markham, and the scientific Jackson, were removed to make
way for the supple Hurd, and the insignificant Arnold.
We cannot, however, subscribe entirely to the stigma which
vvas at the time attempted to be cast upon the new preceptors
of the Prince ; for Dr. Hurd was, in every respect, an amiable
prelate, a polished scholar, and a man of the most exemplary
morals. He, as well as Mr. Arnold, had been celebrated
tutors at Cambridge, in the same manner as their predecessors
had been distinguished ornaments of the sister University. It
might appear, therefore, that the dismissal of Dr. Markham
and his colleague was not designed to convey any censure on
their character, but that its real intent was, to afford his Royal
Highness the united advantages that might be expected from
those who excelled in the different modes of education adopted
by the two universities. It must, however, be admitted, that
this change of preceptors, particulariy in reference to their
being members of the tvvo sister universities, was not only
highly injudicious, but was attended with most unpleasant con
sequences to the royal pupil. Equal and eminent as two men
may be in scholastic learning, and capable as they may be
individually of undertaking and completing the education of a
British prince, yet it very rarely occurs that two men can be
found, especially if they have been educated in different schools,
whose ideas and principles so exactly assimilate, that a systera
of education established by one of them can meet with the
entire concurrence and approbation of the other. Thus, if an
architect proceeds to the erection of an edifice according to his
own plan and design, and, previously to its completion, he is
dismissed and another is appointed to complete the work, he
considers it to be his first duty to expose the defects of the ori
ginal plan, to overthrow every part which has been already
erected, and to commence the building from its foundation;
according to his own improved and superior desio-n. Thus vvas
it situated with the Prince of Wales in regard to his preceptors;
and his mind, kept in a state of vacillation between opposite
systems, threatened not to be the depository of any fixed prin
ciple, either political or scientific. The plan of his education.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 29
as pursued by Dr. Markham, was, it is true, in its leading prin
ciples, laid down. by the King himself; and it were natural to
suppose that the successor of Dr. Markham would be subject
to the same restrictions,. and to the same annoying system of
parental interference. A change of preceptors very seldom
takes place without a corresponding change in the system of
education ; and we believe that few individuals ever underwent
greater annoyance and vexation, from the frequent changes
which took place in his governors and preceptors, than the
Prince of Wales — independently of the effect which it must have
had on his personal feelings.
We are, however, induced to believe, that Dr. Markham was
not dismissed on any objectionable ground, from the circum
stance, that he always retained a very enviable portion of the
royal favour, which certainly would not have been the case, had
he not, in the discharge of his duty, given satisfaction to the
King. The same arguments may be applied to Dr. Jackson,
who, although he ceased to fill an office about the Prince's
person, sustained no diminution of the royal favour in con
sequence of his dismissal, or, more correctly speaking, his
resignation ; for, in 1783, he was appointed dean of Christ
church, and, on the death of Archbishop Newcombe, he was
offered the primacy of Ireland. We may, therefore, we think,
safely affirm, that neither Dr. Markham nor Dr. Jackson was
removed from their royal charge, on account of any incapacity
or negligence in the discharge of their duties ; but it was done
to procure the royal youth some advantages of education
which their successors were judged better qualified to impart,
on account of their peculiar habits of study.
According to the busts and portraits of the young Prince at
this period, he was of an elegant, though, for his age, of rather
a robust figure ; and his open countenance corresponded with
what was reported of him, that he was subject to sudden and
violent impressions, was of a warm temper, but was generous
and friendly. It must, however, be confessed, that his temper
sometimes was ungovernable. He had been early taught to
know the dignity of his station, and any affront given to that
dignity was seldom overlooked. We shall have, in a future
place, to mention an act, resulting from this warmth of temper,

30 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
which might have brought him, injustice to the offended laws
of his country, to close his fife under the axe of the execu
tioner. The following circumstance is mentioned by Mr. Arthur
Young, as having occurred when the Prince of Wales was
scarcely more than twelve years of age, and which will go some
way to prove that utility was not entirely banished from the
system of his education. A spot of ground, in the garden at
Kew, was dug by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and
by his brother the Duke of York, who sowed it with wheat,
attended the growth of their little crop, weeded, reaped, and
harvested it solely by themselves. They threshed out the corn
and separated it from the chaff, and at this period of their
work were brought to reflect, from their own experience, on
the various labours and attentions ofthe husbandman and the
farmer. The Princes not only raised their own crop, but they
also ground it, and having parted the bran from the meal,
attended to the whole process of making it into bread, which, it
may well be iraagined, was eaten with no slight relish. The
King and Queen partook of the philosophical repast, and
beheld with pleasure the very arausements of their children ren
dered the source of useful knowledge.
It is a trait, highly honourable to the feelings of his late
Majesty, that he ever continued to hold his preceptors in
high respect ; for a proof of which we have only to mention
the following anecdote, which reflects equal credit on his sen
sibility as a man, and on his condescension as a Prince. On
one of his summer excursions, through some of the western
counties of England, his Royal Highness happened to be in the
neighbourhood of the palace of the Bishop of Worcester, and,
inquiring after the health of its venerable inhabitant, he was
informed that his lordship was so infirm that he seldom stirred
out of his episcopal residence, but that, in other respects, his
faculties remained unimpaired, and that he possessed as good
a share of health and spirits as usually fall to the lot of persons
at his advanced period of life. On receiving this information
his Royal Highness despatched one of his attendants to the
palace of his venerable and amiable preceptor, to ask his per
mission to wait upon him, understanding that the state of his

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 31
health did not permit him to venture abroad. The good bishop,
as may readily be conceived, was charmed with the condescen
sion of his Illustrious Pupil, and in suitable terras expressed
his grateful sense of the honour which his Royal Highness
deigned to show hira. An interview succeeded, highly inte
resting to those who witnessed it, and the Prince left the
venerable Prelate penetrated with the kindness, affabifity, and
flattering remembrance ofhis royal pupil.
In the education of his children, the chief object of George
III. appears to have been to teach them every species of useful
knowledge, in addition to classical acquirements, in which,
even at that period, they were acknowledged to surpass all
their contemporaries. For the Prince of Wales and his elder
brothers eight hours close application to the languages and the
liberal sciences was strictly enjoined, and this arrangement
only formed a part of a system of the most unremitting indus
try. The younger branches of the family were not subject to
such a close confinement to study, but in general they were all
restricted to the same regulations. Exercise, air, and light
diet, were the grand fundamentals in the King's ideas of health
and spirits. He himself drank but little wine, and the same
system was pursued with the children.
The following translation of the epistle of Servius Sulpicius
to Marcus Tullius Cicero, by the Prince of Wales at the age of
seventeen, may be adduced as a proof of the progress which
he had made in classical learning : —
' As soon as I heard your daughter Tullia was dead, I con
fess I was extreraely concerned, as it became me to be at a
loss which I regarded as coramon to us both ; and if I had
been with you I should not have been wanting to you, but
should have openly testified the bitterness of my grief. 'Tis
true this is but a poor and miserable consolation, because those
who ought to administer it, I mean our nearest friends and
relations, are alraost equally affected with ourselves, nor can
they atterapt it without shedding raany a tear, so that they
appear more to be in want of comfort themselves, than perforra
that duty to others. I resolved, however, to set down in a
short letter to you such considerations as occurred to my mind,

32 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
not because they can have escaped you, but because I think
your grief has hindered you from attending to them. What
reason is there why you should be transported by so immoderate
a grief? consider how Fortune has hitherto dealt with us; con
sider that we have lost what ought to be dearer to us than our
own offspring— our country, our credit, dignity, and our honours.
This one misfortune more, how can it increase our misery, or
what mind is there, which has been subject to such distress,
but must now have grown callous, and regard every thing else
of little consequence? Is it for her sake that you grieve? but
how often must you have fallen into that train of thinking into
which I often fall ! — which suggests to me that those persons
are not the most unfortunate at this time who are permitted to
exchange life for death. What is there now which could
make her so much regret the loss of life ? What affairs ? what
hopes ? what prospects of comfort ? Was it that she might
pass her life with some nobleman of high rank and qualifica
tion ? and can you really think that it was within your power,
deservedly honoured as you are, to choose out of our present
youth a son-in-law to whom you might safely commit a child
so dear to you ? Or was it that she might bear children, from
whose flourishing condition she might have drawn much plea
sure, who might have enjoyed a large fortune transmitted to
them from their parents, who might have been candidates in
turn for the honours of the state, and who might have employed
their liberty in the service of your friends ? Alas ! which of
these blessings was not taken away before she was in a condi
tion to bestow them on others ? But it is a most shocking
thing to lose one's children. True, if it were not much more to
suffer and undergo what we now do. Give me leave to relate
to you what, on a certain occasion, afforded me sorae little
comfort, and allow me to hope that it may have the same efifect
upon you. Upon my return from Asia, as I sailed from ^gina
to Megara, I began attentively to view the countries that lay
around me. Behind me was ^gina, before me was Megara,
on my right hand Pirseus, on my left Corinth. These cities
were at one time flourishing beyond imagination, but are
now desolate and in ruins. Thus I began to ruminate with
myself— Alas ! do we poor morials resent it so much if one of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 33
us dies, or is killed,°whose fife is of so short a date, when we see
in one spot the many carcases of so great cities lying before us ?
Will you not, Servius, check your grief by recollecting that you
are born a man ? Believe me, 1 was not a little comforted by
that thought. If you please, therefore, try the power of it on
yourself. It was but lately we saw raany famous men perish,
a great empire declining, and all the provinces in the utmost
distress ; and shall the death of one little woman so grievously
afflict me ? who, if she had not died now, must, in a fewyears, have
done so, for she was born a mortal. Let me beg of you, there
fore, as much as in your power, to call off your mind from
brooding over these subjects, and to turn it rather on such as
are worthy of your character ; consider that she lived as long
as it was desirable for her to live, that her fate was joined to
that of her country, and that she lived to see her father praetor,
consul, and augur — had been married to youths ofthe greatest
distinction * — had enjoyed all manner of happiness — and fell,
at last, with the republic. Upon what account can you or she
complain of fortune ? Above all, do not forget that you are
Cicero, one who is accustomed to advise and direct others ; and
do not imitate bad physicians, who, in the disorders of others,
profess that they are conversant in the art of physic, and are
not able to cure themselves ; but rather follow what you recom
mend to others, and keep it constantly before your eyes : there
is no grief which length of time will not diminish and soften ;
it is beneath you to wait for that moraent, and not to master
your grief beforehand by your wisdora. But if there be any
feeling in the dead, I ara certain that she is very desirous that
you should not wear yourself out so with grief for her sake, on
account of her filial piety and affection for you. Grant this
favour to her, who is now dead, and to the rest of your friends
and relations, who syrapathize with you in your grief: grant it
also to your country, that, if she be in want of your assistance,
she raay be able to make use of your counsel aud advice. And,
last of all, since we are faUen into such a situation that we must
submit to the present state of things, do not put it into the
* His Royal Highness here deviates considerably from the original, but this
latitude is excusable, considering the obscurity which pervades the passage, and
which has been often the subject of critical animadversion.
3 E

34 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
power of any one to say, that you grieve less for your daughter
Ln you do forthe misfortunes ofthe country, and forthe vie-
tories of her enemies. It does not become me to write to you
any more concerning this aff^air, lest 1 should appear to distrust
your prudence; wherefore, when I have mentioned this one
piece of advice, I will conclude my letter. We have seen you
bear prosperity in a manner that becarae you, and acquire great
glory frora it ; now let us perceive that you can bear adversity
with equal fortitude, and that you are no more oppressed by it
than you ought to be ; lest this should appear to be the only
virtue you want, among so many. But as to what belongs to
me, when I understand that you are a little more composed, I
will inform you what passes here, and in what state the provmce
is. Adieu. ,„^^.
' George P., 1779.'
It is well known, that the Queen, from the infancy of the
Prince of Wales, was constantly, through life, to him the
fondest of mothers. Soon after his birth, in addition to the por
trait which is given in this work, her Majesty had a whole
length portrait of his Royal Highness modelled in wax. He
was represented naked. The figure was half a span long,
lying upon a crimson cushion, and it was covered by a bell-
glass. Her Majesty had it constantly on her toilet at Buck
ingham House. At the decease of her Majesty, it was exhi
bited to us ; the likeness was still palpable,"though the original
had outlived the date of the fairy model more than half a
century. Fewyears passed, it is believed, without her Majesty having
his portrait either in [miniature, enamel, silhouette, modelled
in marble or wax, or in some other style of art. One ofthe
latest, if not the very last, was a miniature head of his Royal
Highness, enamelled by Mr. Bone, which he had the honour
of placing in her Majesty's hands at Windsor, the year before
her death; when a conversation ensued upon the subject, which
not only evinced the minute correctness of her Majesty's fond
recollections concerning the illustrious original, but was accom
panied by a circumstance very flattering to the artist.
It would appear, from the following statement, that the paint-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 35
ing of Mr. Cotes, of her late Majesty Queen Charlotte and the
royal infant, is not the only one which was taken of those
illustrious personages ; for in one of the state apartments at
Windsor, is a faraily piece, representing her Majesty seated
with, as it would appear, two of the royal children ; one on
the lap, a few raonths old, exceedingly fair, the other a sturdy
infant, aged apparently about two years. These are described
as the Prince of Wales and Duke of York.
Some years since his late Majesty, going round the collec
tion and describing the pictures to a foreigner of distinction,
stopped at this family-piece. Mr. Legg, the principal cicerone,
had just described it as usual to the party; when the conde
scending Monarch observed, 'You must alter your history, Mr,
Legg.' Then, smiling and addressing hiraself not only to the
foreign gentleman, but to the whole party, he observed, ' That
picture was painted by the ingenious Mr, Allan Ramsay, son
of the celebrated author of The Gentle Shepherd, Now, Mr.
Ramsay having, like his father, becorae celebrated too, fell into
the comraon fault of portrait-painters — undertaking more than
he could perform. He engaged to paint, within a given time,
the Queen and the Prince of Wales, then an infant in arms,
as you perceive. He completed the likeness of the mother,
who might have waited, but somehow neglected to finish the
child, until he had grown into the sturdy boy you see standing
before her.' So that, in fact, it is two portraits of the same
child, though in that short space more dissimilar to each other
than, perhaps, at any subsequent period.
The birth-day ofhis Royal Highness was observed at Wind
sor, on the 12th August, 1766, with unusual splendour. At an
early hour in the morning, the Prince, accompanied by his
attendants, repaired to the King's apartments, and there, hav
ing partaken of some refreshment, the King, Queen, and
children, attended by the Duke of Montague, Lord Bruce,
Lady Effingham, Lady Weyraouth, Lady Charlotte Finch, &c.,
went in procession to the cathedral. The Princess Royal
and her two sisters walked after their Majesties, the Prince of
Wales, and his six brothers, being all habited in blue and gold,
following, with their preceptors and attendants on each side.
Having arrived at the church-door, they were received by the
E 2

36 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
provost, prebends, canons, and poor knights, and on entering the
cathedral, the organ struck up, and continued playing untd
their Majesties were seated. The King, the Prince of Wales,
the Bishop of Osnaburg, and the Duke of Montague, went to
the altar before the service began, and made their offerings of
gold and silver, which were received by Drs. Bostock and
Lockman in a golden dish. The Prince of Wales and the Bishop
of Osnaburg sat under their own banners, and the remainder
of the junior branches ofthe Royal Family, with the ladies of
quality and other attendants, sat in the upper stalls on the right
hand ofthe choir. The ceremony being over, the King, Queen,
and family retired to their own apartments to dine, and the
Prince of Wales, and his three elder brothers, returned to Kew.
On the 22nd September, 1780, the Queen was delivered of
a son, who was christened Alfred by the Archbishop of Canter
bury, and the event itself would have been scarcely worthy of
record in this work, had it not been attended with a circum
stance, which at that time excited considerable attention, as
having a tendency to bring into disrepute and ridicule one of
the most important ordinances of the English church, and
which exposed not only his Majesty, but also the Archbishop
of Canterbury, to the intemperate animadversions of all those,
who considered those ordinances as too sacred to be encroached
upon, and especially by those, who according to the constitu
tion of the country, ought to have been the foreraost and the
most conspicuous in the observance of them. The circumstance
alluded to, was the selection ofthe Prince of Wales, the Bishop
of Osnaburg, and the Princess Royal, as sponsors to their
brother Alfred, they being at the time all minors, and conse
quently, incapable of fulfilling the sacred and truly responsible
duty to which they had bound themselves at the altar. The
Prince of Wales had, at this time, given some very unequivo
cal indications of those libertine propensities which, it is too
well known, characterized the years of his juvenility ; and, in
regard to the other sponsor, the Bishop of Osnaburg the ar
rangements were then concluded for his departure for the con
tinent, for the purpose of completing his education.
The question, therefore, began to be mooted whether the
ordmance of the church of England, in requiring sponsors at

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 37
the christening of an infant, was in itself a solemn obligation,
or whether it were to be considered as a simple raatter of form ;
the duties of which were merely nominal, and which might be
neglected altogether, without subjecting the individual who had
taken upon himself such a solemn office, to the consequences
of the infraction of his duty ; and which, perhaps, as in the
present instance, their very age and inexperience prevented
them from fulfiUing. The three sponsors of Prince Alfred
were all in their nonage, and they had been brought to the
altar of their God to undertake, in his presence, to perforra
certain things of which they never thought for a raoment after
the ceremony was over. This circumstance of minors taking
upon themselves the awful responsibility of becoming sponsors,
attracted the attention of the ecclesiastical dignities ; and the
Bishop of Salisbury, perhaps more bold than wise, ventured to
remonstrate with the King on the subject of the three royal
minors being raade sponsors to their brother, at the same time
that not the most partial fulfilment of the important duties to
which they had pledged themselves could be expected from
them. The venerable bishop, therefore, advised his Majesty
to have Prince Alfred re-christened, selecting persons of a
proper age and discretion to be his sponsors. This circum
stance coming to the ears of the Prince of Wales, and soon after
meeting with the officious divine, his Royal Highness accosted
him, 'Have you heard the news, my lord Bishop?' 'What
news, may it please your Royal Highness ?' asked the bishop.
' My father,' replied the Prince, ' has sent to the sponsors of
the Bishop of Salisbury to know how they could so egregiously
have neglected their duty, as not to have taught their god-child
to hold his tongue when it becomes him.'
The period was now arrived when the Prince of Wales was
to be separated from his favourite brother, the Bishop of Osna
burg, who, on the 30th of December, 1780, left Buckingham-
House, accompanied by Colonel Grenville, for the Continent.
The two brothers had passed the joyous days of boyhood toge
ther ; in their sports they had been inseparable, and in all their
mischievous pranks, which drew down upon them the displea
sure of their royal parents, they mutually screened each other;
and in those cases where the culprit could not be exactly disco-

38 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
vered, each of them was willing to bear the reproach, rather than
declare the real offender. Nothing could be more aff"ecting than
the parting between the young Prince and the royal family ;
their Majesties wept severely, and the Prince of Wales, in
particular, was so much affected with the misfortune of being
deprived, for so long a period, of the sole companion of his
youth, that he stood in a state of entire insensibility, totally
unable to speak, or to express the concern he felt so strongly.
It has been already cursorily mentioned, that the education
ofthe Prince of Wales was conducted on a plan by no means
calculated to give him all those advantages, with which it was
of so much iraportance that the youthful mind of the heir ap
parent to the throne should be stored. The great defect ofthe
plan of the royal education seems to have been a want of
attention to make the prince acquainted with actual life. The
monarchs who have governed their subjects most happily have
been those who have formed their knowledge of human afiairs,
not from books nor the lessons of their governors and preceptors,
but from personal observation and experience. The monastic
seclusion and severity with which the Prince was confined to
his studies caused his mind to accumulate an unusual store of
valuable knowledge, nor was the nation at a subsequent period
a stranger to its beneficial results ; and it may be added, that
to some of its severer features we are, perhaps, indebted for the
highest qualifications of the king, and the noblest embeUish-
ments of the man. But no sooner did its operation cease
than it was found to produce effects, which its royal author and
his noble and reverend agents were the first to discern and to
deplore. It had too long shut out the world from the view of
the Prince, and by not graduating his advance towards the
public scenes of life, rendered those scenes, when at last he
was at liberty to survey them as he pleased, too novel and
enchanting, too luxuriant and overpowering. He had been
confined so long, and restrained so much, that when the period
of emancipation somewhat suddenly arrived, he deemed it im
possible to enjoy too large a portion ofthe pleasure which pre
sented itself on every hand. On his release from the control
of tutors and governors, who had scarcely loosened the rein
before they were required to drop it, a nuraber of persons of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 39
a perfectly opposite character were in waiting to celebrate his
freedom, and adrainister to his gratification and delight. Among
thera the nation must ever laraent were certain individuals,
celebrated for the splendour of their talents and vices, and in
their earliest intercourse with the Prince, rauch more ready to
corrupt his morals by the one, than to enlarge and elevate his
mind by the other.
Here we catch the first glimpse of the cause of those painful
misunderstandings which took place between the then sove
reign and the heir apparent. The early friends of the Prince
were in avowed opposition to his Majesty's government, and
they soon infused their hatred of ministers and their jealousy
of the King into the unsuspecting mind and susceptible heart
of their illustrious companion. On political grounds alone,
the King had reason to be incensed at their influence over his
son ; but when to this we add the moral injury they were
inflicting on one whom the pious father wished above all
things to train for God and his country, we cannot wonder
that, wounded by their arts on his royal, his paternal, and his
christian feelings, he should have set his face against the raen,
and treated with rigour the son, who had raade them his
companions. It cannot, however, be denied, that on those points in which
the preceptors of the Prince were answerable, their duty was
well performed. On attaining the years of majority, he
was unquestionably the niost accomplished young Prince in
Europe. His knowledge of the ancient languages was
correct and extensive, and of the modern dialects, he could
converse with ease and fluency in French, German, and
Italian. His attainraents as a polite scholar were so univer
saUy adraitted, that it is unnecessary here to dwell upon
thera further than to observe, that the best English writers,
particularly the poets, were farailiar to his Royal Highness ;
and that on all subjects relating to belles lettres there were
few critics who possessed a purer taste or a raore refined
judgraent. In those accomplishments, which may be deemed rather
elegant than necessary, his Royal Highness had made a profi
ciency equally striking. He had cultivated the science of

40 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
music with great success, and, considered with that indulgence
which is always due to an amateur, he exceUed, both as a vocal
and as an instrumental performer. His taste in the fine arts
has in many instances been strikingly exemplified and the
interest which he took, at a subsequent period, i" their pros-
perity, may be judged from the munificence with which his
artists have ever been rewarded. , tt- i_
The manner in which the birth-day of his Royal Highness
was celebrated at Windsor, in the year 1781, is thus described
in a letter from Windsor : —
' We had the most briUiant company here yesterday of any
this season. Great numbers of the nobility and gentry of both
sexes came to compliment their Majesties and the royal family
on the Prince's birth-day. In the evening, the terrace was so
crowded, that the King, Queen, and Princesses did not walk
more than half an hour, and then went into their apartments.
' The public celebration of this day of festivity did not com
mence tiU this morning, when there was a review in the park,
and firing voUies. About two o'clock the royal family went
from the Queen's house to an apartment in one of the towers,
whilst the terrace underneath vvas crowded with the greatest
number of nobility of both sexes, seen together for many
years. The Yorkshire Volunteers, commanded by Lord Fau-
conberg, were drawn up on King Charles's Bowling-green,
about three o'clock, and fired a feu de joie, which was followed
by three cheers from the battalion, who immediately formed
into files, and marched off", with their colours lowered in ho
nour of the royal presence.
' After this, their Majesties and the Prince of Wales, with the
rest of the royal family, proceeded to St. George's HaU, where
they dined with about eighty of the nobility ; and in the even
ing there was a grand ball at the Castle, which did not break up
tiU five the next morning, and was remarkably briUiant and
crowded. Windsor was also illuminated at night, and the day
closed with bonfires and other demonstrations of joy.
' The entertainment was upon the same plan as those given
by his Majesty at the Queen's Palace, with this difference, that
the three tables were in one room, viz. St. George's HaU. Their
Majesties, Prince Edward, Princess Royal, Princess Augusta,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 41
and Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of ArgyU, Ladies Effingham,
Egremont, and Weymouth, supped at a small table, facing the
company, under a canopy.
• At the second table was his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, Lady Augusta CampbeU on one side, and one of the
young Ladies Dunraore on the other side; the Duke of Cum
berland, Duke of Dorset, Marquess of Graham, and aU the
young nobiUty that danced.
' At the third table were the Dukes of Queensberry and
Montagu, Lords' North, Boston, Weymouth, Southampton,
&c. Ladies Clarendon, Boston, Fauconberg, North, Dunraore,
Courtown, &c. There were thirty-four covers at each table.
' The Prince of Wales danced with Lady Augusta CarapbeU ;
the Duke of Cumberland danced some part of the night with
the Princess Royal, and the remaining part with the young
Lady Dunraore; Prince Edward danced with the Princess
Augusta; and the Duke of Dorset with the Princess Royal,
Their Majesties, &c. supped at twelve o'clock, and retired at
five.' The mention of this f^te would perhaps have been consi
dered as not possessing sufficient interest to find a place in this
work, had it not been for the purpose of alluding to a particular
individual who was then one Of the greatest beauties of the Bri
tish court, and who consequently was the chosen favourite of
the Prince of Wales. This individual was Lady Sarah Campbell,
the selected partner of the Prince at the table and the ball ;
and perhaps a more angelic creature never captivated his affec
tions. The assiduities which the heir apparent to the crown
may show towards any particular lady, have something in them
of a wholly different character than those which pass between
individuals whose rank and station are equal ; the former can
have only one object in view — the possession ofthe person — for
the usual expectation of any matrimonial union resulting from
the familiar and affectionate intercourse cannot for a moraent
be entertained ; and, therefore, to the strictly virtuous female,
whom no blandishments, however royal, can divert from the
path of modesty, cannot be received but with the most repul
sive indignation. The keenness of the female eye sees at once
the aim, where any great disparity of rank exists ; and to the
2 F

42 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
honour of Lady Sarah Campbell, be it said, that she did see the
aim of the Prince's attentions ; and, although she might have
loved — and if one line in the following composition of his
Royal Highness be true, she might have received and given
' the stolen kiss,' — yet aU beyond was preserved as pure as the
pearl taken from its native shell. She saw the danger with
which she was surrounded ; the chain was not yet so strongly
entwined around her but it might be broken. She did break
it, — and became the wife of one of the most araiable noblemen
of the day.
It is with great pleasure that we are enabled to present to
the public the following lines, written by his Royal Highnessj
and addressed to Lady Sarah Campbell, and for which vve
are indebted to one ofthe most favourite female companions of
his late Majesty. It was sent to her the day after the f6te
which we have described : —
Oh! Campbell, the scene of to-hight
Has open'd the wound of my heart ;
It has shown me how great the delight
Which the charms of thy converse impart.
I've known what it is to be gay,
I've revell'd in joy's fleeting hour,
I've wish'd for the close of the day,
To meet in a thick-woven bower.
'Twas there that the soft-stolen kiss,
'Twas there that the throb of our hearts,
Betray'd that we wish'd for the bliss
Which love, and love only, imparts.
But Fate will those hearts oft dissever.
By Nature design'd for each other;
But why should they part ? and for ever !
And forced their affections to smother.
How short and how blissful the hour
When round each lone hamlet we stray'd ;
When passion each heart could o'erpower.
And a sigh the sweet feelings betray'd.'
O whence is that glance of the mind
Which scenes that are past oft renews •
Which shows them, in colours refined
With fancy's bright glitt'riug hues ?

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 43
Now, sweet be thy slumbers, my friend.
And sweet be the dreams of thy soul ;
Around thee may angels attend.
And visions of happiness roll.
Whilst I 
From particular raotives we forbear to give the conclusion.
A very alarraing circurastance happened at this time to the
Prince of Wales, which might have been attended with the
most disastrous consequences. He was invited to dine with
Lord Chesterfield, at his house at Blackheath, when the whole
party having drank too freely, they set their invention to work
as to what acts of mischief they could commit. Amongst other
acts, one of the party let loose a large dog of a ferocious dis
position, which immediately flew at one of the footmen, who
was looking on, tore one of his arms in a shocking manner, and
nearly strangled a horse. The whole company now formed
themselves into a compact body and assailed Towzer, who de
fended hiraself with great resolution, and he had just caught
hold ofthe skirts of the coat ofhis Royal Highness, when one
of the party, by a blow on the head, felled the dog to the
ground. In the confusion, however, the Earl of Chesterfield
fell down the steps leading to his house, and very severely in
jured the back part of his head. The Prince of Wales, who
scarcely knew whether he had been fighting a dog or a man,
jumped into his phaeton, and there fell fast asleep, leaving the
reins to his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who conducted
him safely to town .
The period when a young man of illustrious rank an4
splendid fortune attains his raajority forms an important epoch
in his life. Our young nobility, educated for the most part at
schools and at the universities, when they come of age have ge
nerally acquired a tolerable share of experience in the world.
Their corapanions, in their outset in life, are generally those
with whom they have associated at school ; and their previous
habits of thinking and acting for themselves, which our public
seminaries are so admirably calculated to teach, fit them to
enter on the great theatre of the world with credit and ad
vantage. With the Prince of Wales, however, the case was wholly
F 2

44 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
different; he had been educated, indeed, under the ablest
masters, and his progress in aU the useful, and many of the
ornamental branches of learning, reflected equal honour on the
dUigence of the teachers and the capacity of the pupU; but a
knowledge of real life formed no part of the systera of his
Royal Highness's education, and he made his entrance into
public life, under the disadvantage of having passed his youth
in a state of seclusion and restraint. In order to give some
idea of the restrictions that were imposed on the Prince to
prevent him mingling with society, we will relate the fol
lowing anecdote. About a twelvemonth before his Royal
Highness attained his legal raajority, he received the invita
tions of some of the most distinguished nobility to make a
tour through the country during the summer months, when
their respective residences should be prepared for the reception
of their illustrious guest. This invitation, as may be con
ceived, was eagerly accepted by the young Prince, and prepa
rations were actually made for his journey ; but when the
consent of his father was asked, the King refused to permit
the design to be carried into execution. A system of restraint
pushed to this extent 'could not faU to have an injurious in
fluence on the conduct of his Royal Highness at his first
introduction to public life ; for, in proportion to the force of
the restraint which was put upon him, so were his gay and
wanton wanderings, when he found hiraself emancipated from
the trammels of parental and scholastic authority.
In one of these cases, when the consent of the King was
asked, it was refused on the ground that his Majesty had it
himself in contemplation to proceed on a party of pleasure in
which it was his royal will that the Prince of Wales should
accompany him ; and with the view of giving to the Prince
some real and substantial ground for his refusal, his Majesty
projected a trip to the Nore, which took place in the raonth of
August, 1781. His Majesty and the Prince embarked in dif
ferent yachts, and as they proceeded down the river, they were
saluted as they passed Woolwich Warren by the ships in Long
Reach, and by Tilbury and Gravesend Forts, and about four in
the afternoon they anchored in Sea Reach. At five o'clock in
the moming, the yachts got under way, and arrived at Black-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 45
stakes about nine. The King and Prince went on shore, and
visited the dock-yard and new fortifications : about twelve,
they left the yard, and returned to the Nore, where they were
saluted by Vice-Admiral Parker and his squadron, who had at
that moraent corae to an anchor. In the evening, the King
and the Prince went on board the Fortitude, on which ship the
Admiral's flag was flying ; his Majesty retired into the great
cabin, where the captain and officers of the squadron were
graciously received, and had the honour to kiss his Majesty's
hand. The King and Prince, after visiting the several parts of
the ship, returned to their yachts, and sailed for Chatham,
where they arrived at nine o'clock the same day.
This trip of his Majesty was regarded at the time as merely
undertaken to aUeviate the pain of disappointment which the
Prince experienced, in not being allowed to accept of the invi
tation of the nobility to visit their country residences, and it
met with the ridicule which it deserved. A witling of the age
thus describes it —
The King and Prince went to the Nore,
They saw the ships and main ;
The Prince and King they went on shore.
And then came back again.
Amongst the various accomplishments which distinguished
his Royal Highness, his skill as a musician was particularly
conspicuous. He was a very superior performer on the violon
cello, having been instructed on that instrument by the cele
brated CrossdiU, whose unrivalled performances were the theme
of universal admiration, not only in England, but on every
part of the continent. The merit of this eminent man was
greatly aided by his early intercourse with the polite world, and
his Royal Highness was so much pleased with his gentlemanly
deportment and elegant raanners, that he raade hira his com
panion, and honoured him with his corapany at all his musi
cal parties. CrossdiU retired early from the profession, but
appeared at the coronation of his late Majesty, being the only
performer who had attended the coronation of George III.,
which he did as one of the choristers of Westminster Abbey.
His Royal Highness was not merely an instrumentalist, but
he was also a vocal performer of no mean celebrity. Sir Wil-

46 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
liam Parsons, the Master and Conductor of his Majesty's
Band, had the honour of instructing his Royal Highness ip
singing ; and it was very justly and happily said of him, that
he was not only a musician amongst princes, but a prince
amongst musicians. His Royal Highness possessed not only
a very good voice, but a very correct knowledge of the science.
He was a very effective member of the Noblemen's and Gen
tlemen's Catch and Glee Club at the Thatched House Tavern,
which he attended very frequently, conversing with the utmost
famUiarity with all the professors, and occasionally taking a
part in the different compositions, which were performed, with
great effect. He is the reputed author of the second verse to
the glee of the Happy Fellow—' I'U ne'er,' &c. ; and also of
the additional verse to the song, ' By the gaUy circling glass,'
which he was accustomed to sing, in his convivial moments,
with great effect.
Although his Royal Highness was so partial to CrossdiU, it
did not prevent his enjoying the gratification of hearing and
appreciating the merits of Cervetto, his talented competitor.
Speaking ofthe performances ofthese eminent raen, his Royal
Highness was heard to say, that the execution of CrossdiU
had all the fire and brilliancy of the sun, whilst that of Cervetto
had all the sweetness and mildness ofthe moon-beam. It was
the delight of his Royal Highness to attend the Italian Opera,
merely to hear Cervetto's accorapaniraents of the recitative?,
which were acknowledged to be unrivalled. It was a banquet
for the ear, he said, at which the appetite increased in propor
tion as it was adrainistered to. At one of the last musica,!
parties of his late Majesty, he commanded a trio of CoreJli's
to be performed on two violoncellos and a double bass by
Cervetto, Dragonetti, and Schrum ; the latter was a musiciap
attached to his Majesty's household, but whose health did not
permit his accepting of any public engageraent ; his great
merits were therefore only known to a few individuals of thp
profession, and to the illustrious individual who patronised
him. His Royal Highness was, with his royal brothers the Dukes
of Cumberland and Carabridge, a director of the King's Con-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 47
cert of Ancient Music, at the Hanover-square Rooms, se
lected the music for the first night's performance, and presided
in the directors' box. He also patronised the annual benefit
of the Royal Society of Musicians^ given in conjunction with
the above-raentioned concerts. Hewas also the patron ofthe
Philharraonic Society, but, frora some supposed personal slight
which was shewn to a lady who was then considered to stand
the highest in his estimation, he at a future period withdrew
his attendance frora the Ancient Concerts, although he conti
nued to support thera by his subscription.
At the period of his life of which we are now treating, he
was the great and liberal supporter of all musical concerns ;
the Opera, the Pantheon, the Professional Concerts ; Vaux
haU, and his favourite resort the Rotunda, at Ranelagh Gar
den, which he was accustomed to visit almost every evening,
enjoying the promenade, surrounded by and discoursing with
all the elegantes of fashion, and the object of universal admi
ration; But he was also the object of notoriety on another account,
for he frequently degraded himself by being the principal in the
broils which took place in the gardens ; and it is an accredited
fact, that he had always a number of resolute fellows at hand,
who were prepared to rescue him, when he was likely to be
overmatched. To this circumstance may be attributed the
patronage which he afterwards bestowed on the most celebrated
pugilists of the day ; for he had himself been tutored by Angelo
in the art of self-defence ; and, urged on by the courage na
tural to his family, he was often led on to be the aggressor,
especially if the object in dispute were a female. It was, how
ever, generally in disguise that his Royal Highness coraraitted
these indiscretions ; and the masquerades, which were then
more prevalent than at present, were the grand scenes of his
libertinism. A ludicrous circumstance has been mentioned,
connected with these frolics, which we have heard related by
one of the parties who was present. At a masquerade in which
the Prince of Wales appeared in the character of a Spanish
grandee, accompanied by four of his squires, he paid particular
attention to a nun, who appeared to be under the protection of
a youthful sailor. The assiduities on the part of the grandee

48 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
were evidently unwelcome to the fairUrsuline, and the gaUant tar
threatened instantaneous chastisement, if any further provoca
tion were given ; the grandee, however, was not to be daunted,
and he was very ably supported by his squires, who, boasting
ofthe high and noble descent of their raaster, declared it to be
an act of the greatest condescension in hira to hold any parley
with a common English sailor. Some high words arose, and
some taunting expressions were used, tending to imply the
opinion, that the fair nun possessed no real pretensions to the
character which she had assumed. At last, some allusion
having been raade to the ladies of Portsraouth Point, the choler
ofthe sailor could no longer brook the indignity, and a general
row was the consequence. The constables were called in, and the
disputants, in a posse, were raarched off to the watch-house ;
the Spanish grandee leading the way in all his gorgeous finery.
On arriving in the presence of the constable of the night, the
culprits were called upon to declare their real characters. The
grandee unraasked, as did also the sailor. — ' Eh! William, is it
you?' exclaimed the forraer: 'Eh! George, is it you ? ' ex
claimed the latter. The saUor was no other person than our
present sovereign. The whole of the party burst into a loud
laugh. The constable was confounded when he saw the heir-
apparent of the crown before him : — he received a guinea, and
the parties retired to complete the frolics of the night.
His Royal Highness was deeply concerned in the affairs of
the Opera House, and after that theatre was unfortunately de
stroyed by fire, in 1785, he, from asense of justice, sided with the
old proprietors and creditors under Mr. Taylor, in consequence
of the Marquess of Salisbury, then Lord Chamberlain, aided
by the Duke of Bedford, granting a licence to O'Reilly for an
Italian opera at the Pantheon ; but after this theatre was also
destroyed, an accommodation was entered into through the
influence of his Royal Highness, by which the licence was
again transferred to the old proprietors in the Haymarket,
but saddled with an incumbrance of 30,000Z. occasioned by
losses incurred at the Pantheon.
It is perhaps not generally known that a certain ambassador
at one of the northern courts owes his elevation principally
to the skiU which he displayed at Carlton House on the vio-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 49
loncello, the favourite instrument of his Royal Highness. It
would, however, be premature, at this eariy period of the
Prince's life, to enter into any detaU of certain acts which led
to that nobleman's aggrandisement, and his subsequent expa
triation as an ambassador, after having incurred the displea
sure of his royal master ; but it deserves to be mentioned,
as rather a curious coincidence, that two of the most con
fidential servants of his Royal Highness owed their elevation
to their skill in music.
On entering on that part ofthe life of the Prince of Wales,
when the passions were first excited, and he may be said to
have entered the vestibule of the Temple of Venus, we are
fuUy aware that we are treading on most delicate ground,
and that the task is one of difficulty so to steer the middle
course, as on the one hand not to avert our view from the
actual truth, and on the other, not to overstep the bounds pre
scribed by modesty and decorum. The veil might be drawn
from before certain scenes, the exhibition of which might be
highly pleasing to the depraved appetite of the sensualist or
the libertine ; but strongly indicative as they might be of the
real character ofthe individual, andin some respects necessary
to complete the portrait in all its darker shades, yet the gene
ral interests of society demand that they should be studiously
kept in the back ground, so indeterminate and obscure, that
although their reality may be apparent, their real features can
not be distinguished. It must also be considered that those
who by their arts and wiles first inveigled the youthful Prince
into scenes of dissipation and profligacy are now far beyond
our censure or our praise. The eyes of beauty, which beamed
upon him with love and admiration and glowing passion, have
been long since closed to the scenes of this world, and the his
torian can only point to them as the objects frora which the
character of the future monarch of the country received its
wayward bias, and, it may be added, some of its worst im
pressions. It has generally been believed, that Mrs. Robinson was the
first object ofhis Royal Highness's affections, and considered as
the first act of public notoriety, it may with some justice be
regarded as true ; but there are certain sexagenarians novv living,
3 G

50 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the members ofthe stiff and ceremonious court of Geo. III.,
who remember the beautiful but ill-fated Harriot Vernon.
The aurora of this girl's life was bright and splendid, its
settin.-- dark and dismal. At the age of seventeen, at the
time vvhen the Prince was approaching his raajority, she
was received as a raaid of honour into the royal house
hold, and she had not been long a resident in the palace
before her black piercing eyes and her sylphlike form at
tracted the notice of the youthful Prince. The strict and
secluded manner in which his Royal Highness was brought
up, prevented, for a time, all familiar intercourse between them,
but it happened that the apartjiients which were allotted for
the residence of the Prince looked exactly upon the rooms
inhabited by the maids of honour, and it was from the windows
that the Prince and the first object of his love conversed, — not
by words, but by signs aud gestures, and they were too expres
sive of the mutual feelings of their hearts to be misunderstood
by either. Still, the difficulty of obtaining a private interview
appeared insurmountable. The unbending etiquette of a
court; the secluded life to which the Prince was subject; the
strictness, araounting to severity, with which all his actions
were watched ; the jealousies and intrigues which were set on
foot to discover the attachments of the Prince, especially to
the youthful beauties of the nobility, with whom he occasion
aUy, but very rarely associated, all tended to make the lovers
despair of accomplishing the summit of their wishes. Through
the medium, however, of Lord Maiden, afterwards the Eari of
Essex, and vvho subsequently made such a conspicuous figure in
the negotiation with the celebrated Perdita, the Prince contrived
to correspond with the beautiful object of his passion, and a
clandestine meeting was appointed in a retired part of the
gardens at Kew. The greatest Marplot, however, in the eariy
amours of the Prince of Wales was his brother, the late Duke
of York. Brought up and educated together ; their sports and
pastimes the same ; attached to each other by truly fraternal
love, they were, with the exception of those hours which were
devoted to their graver studies, the inseparable corapanions of
each other, and consequently one of the greatest difficulties to
be surmounted, to prevent the detection ofthe lovers, was the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 51
manner in which the Duke of York was to be disposed of There
was, however, one noble trait in the character of the Prince of
Wales, and that was a sense of the most inflexible honour,
which threw a redeeming shade over the follies of his early
life, and gave to many of his actions that pleasing romantic
cast, which forms such a striking contrast with the usual scenes
of common life. Noble, generous, and confiding in himself,
he fancied that his brother possessed the same sentiments and
dispositions ; nor was he mistaken in the estimate which he
had formed ofhis character. He therefore determined, on this
occasion, to make a confidant of his brother, and the sequel
will shovv that it was this very circumstance which saved the
lovers from detection. On the night appointed for the meeting,
it was the opinion of the Prince and of Harriot, that the sun
moved slower towards the west than on any other evening,
but darkness came at last : disguised in one of Lord Maiden's
great coats, the Prince hastened to the appointed spot ; — there
was Harriot Vernon, — the object ofhis ardent passion — of his
second, and, as he then conceived, of his unalterable love. It
was, however, perhaps the guardian spirit that was watching over
the innocence of the lovely, yielding girl, that prompted the
King, just on that evening, and just at that critical moment, to
command the presence of the Prince of Wales to play a game
at chess, — bnt the Prince was not to be found. The Duke,
anxious for the safety of his brother, hastened to the place of
assignation : never, perhaps, did the Prince of Wales regret
his knowledge of the game at chess more than at this moment ;
one more, and as sweet a rose-bud as ever bloomed on its
parent-stem, would have lain defoliaged at his feet ; but the
barrier vvas broken dovvn, although the citadel was not yet
gained. The conquest, however, was not long retarded ; it
fell, after a faint resistance, and the triumph of the victor was
complete. We will throw a veil over the future relations of this beau
tiful girl with the Prince of Wales, and vve wish that we had it
in our power wholly to exonerate his Royal Highness from the
charge of neglect and indifference towards her after she had
sacrificed to him all that was the most dear to her on earth.
He had enjoyed the kernel — the shell was not worth his keep
ing, — and he threw it away to hasten in search of another
G2

Od, MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
which had yet something of value to give him. The tears
which she shed are to his account ; and the sighs which rose
from her breaking heart must have often burst on his ear, and
startled him in the midst of his midnight orgies, as the sound
of some accusing spirit telling of the innocence which he had
destroyed. That the royal parents were not entirely ignorant of the pre
dilection of his Royal Highness for the beautiful Maid of
Honour may be deduced from the following conversation which
took place between the Queen and his Royal Highness; and it
was conjectured, at the time, that her Majesty purposely intro
duced the subject to give her an opportunity of letting the
young libertine know that she was not so ignorant of his
amours as he supposed her to be.
' Well,' said her Majesty, ' taking it on the whole, the life
of a Maid of Honour is a very monotonous one.'
' I perfectly agree with your Majesty,' said the Prince ; ' it
must be dulness itself : for what can be more vexatious to the
spirits, than to make one of a formal procession through the
presence-chamber to the drawing-room ; never to speak but
when she is spoken to ; to make an occasional one of six
large hoops in a royal coach ; to make up, at least, tvvo new
court suits a-year, and to aid the languor of an easy party at
a side-box in a royal play ?'
' And, George, is there no other act which a Maid of Honour
performs?' asked the Queen, significantly.
' O yes,' replied the Prince, ' she goes to plays, concerts,
oratorios, 8cc., gratis ; she has physicians without fees, and
medicines without an apothecary's bill.'
' But you have forgotten one very material act,' said the
Queen. ' Very likely ;' said the Prince, ' the acts of a Maid of Honour
formed no part of my education.'
' Then I wiU tell you one,' said the Queen, ' of which you have
lately attained the knowledge ; and that is, you were right
when you said that a Maid of Honour goes to plays and con
certs and oratorios gratis; but you forgot to add that she also
flirts with young Princes, and goes to raeet them by moon
light ; — and is that also gratis ?'
The Prince was completely confounded. ' His Majesty

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 53
requires your presence in the library,' said the Queen. The
Prince took the hint and retired, stung with mortification at
the rebuke which he had received.
A few days previously to this conversation Harriot Vernon
had ceased to be an honourable maid — the day subsequent to
it she was no longer a Maid of Honour.
It cannot be concealed that one ofthe greatest faults of the
Prince of Wales, at this time, was his unbounded propensity to
gallantry ; he had forraed a connexion with certain persons,
whose principal aira appears to have been to exalt him in his
own opinion, and who servUely fell into all his views for the
purpose of their own aggrandizement. There was no act too
grovelling nor too base to which they would not stoop, to ingra
tiate themselves in his favour — there was no virtue which they
would not attempt to undermine, to pander to his passions. It
must be admitted that they were men of superior talents and
education ; but as the companions of a Prince naturally addicted
to libertinism, they were perhaps on that very account the very
worst men that he could have selected as his associates. In
manners they were themselves debauched and profligate — in
fortunes they were broken, and it was for the amendment of the
latter that they looked up to the Prince of Wales. The period
was fast approaching when a separate establishment was to be
formed for the Prince, commensurate to his rank as the heir-
apparent to the Crown ; and the uncontrolled command of an
income adequate to the support and dignity of that exalted
station was looked forward to as the event which would enable
them to enrich themselves, and this they well knew could be
effected in proportion as they administered to the gratification
of his governing passions. It was, therefore, a part of their
plan to entangle him in nets, from which he could not extricate
himself without their assistance; they became the confidants
ofhis actions, the depositaries of his secrets ; and thus he insen
sibly fell into their power, which they knew how to wield to
their advantage whenever the opportunity presented itself.
The Prince of Wales was indebted to Nature for a fine and
handsome person ; to art for a graceful exterior, and the most
polished manners. His accomplishments were of the first
order, but his flatterers were incessantly employed to make him

54 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
believe that they were much greater than they really were.
They inspired him with the belief that, in regard to female
favours, he had only to ask and to receive ; and it must be
acknowledged that a great number of the blooming women,
who by their beauty adorned the court of his mother, required
little or no persuasion to concede to his wishes ; they even
appeared to be vain of the honour of being thought in posses
sion of such personal attractions as to captivate the affections
of such a prince, and so far from repelling him in his advances,
they encouraged him — in many instances anticipated him — and
in all gloried in their conquest. With every fresh amour his
appetite appeared to be sharpened — with the possession of each
object his self-opinion and his natural inconstancy increased.
Like the bee, he roamed from flower to flower, sipped the
honey, but never visited that flower again. That these amours
often led him into some serious scrapes, may be easily imagined ;
in many instances he had to contend with the jealousy of the
husband, or the wounded honour of the brother, or, perhaps,
what was still more dangerous, and more liable to lead to an
exposure, the envy and hate of other females, who were aspir
ing to his affections, and who, consequently, could not endure
the triumph of a rival. The following is one of those cases
in which he was extricated by the mere presence of mind of
one of his confidential associates who resided in the palace: 
One ofthe most celebrated beauties ofthe British court at
this time was Mrs. M  , whose husband is still fiving, and
who enjoyed a situation in the household, with apartments in
the palace as his residence. His avocations frequently required
his personal attendance in town, and it was during these tem
porary visits that the Prince succeeded in ingratiating himself
in the good opinion of his angelic wife ; but it happened that
one of those events took place which the imps of mischief are
sometimes so industriously and provokingly employed in brino--
ing about for the purpose of marring the happiness of huraan
beings, when it is the least expected by them. Mr. M 
had on one occasion expressed his determination to remain in
town during the night, as he did not expect that his business
could be completed so as to admit ofhis return during the day.
As might be expected, the advantage of this opportunity was

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 55
not to be lost ; it was raost anxiously embraced by both parties,
and the sleeping apartment of the Prince was on that night to
be tenantless. It happened, however, that the business of Mr.
M  was finished sooner than he expected ; and as the hour
of midnight struck from the tower of the palace, he was heard
knocking at the outer door of his apartments in the court-yard.
Consternation filled the breasts ofthe hitherto happy lovers — to
escape out of the room was impossible ; a detection would be
the inevitable ruin of one of the parties, and the indelible dis
grace of the other. In this emergency no other resource was
left but concealment in a sraall adjoining roora, but then the
confineraent would continue the whole of the night, and the
escape in the raorning, when the whole of the household would
be in motion, could not be expected to be accomplished
without a discovery. But there was no alternative ; the Prince
slipped on his clothes, and hurried into the adjoining room.
He was, however, rescued from his distressing situation by the
address of Mr. Cholmondely, who in this amour was the con
fidant ofthe Prince, and who, on seeing Mr. M  knocking
at the door of his apartments, hurried towards him, and
addressing him, said, ' My dear M  , I am truly rejoiced
at your return ; something rather of an unpleasant nature has
happened to the Prince, and he commanded me to desire your
attendance in my apartraents immediately on your return.
Accompany me, therefore, thither without delay, and I will
hasten to apprize the Prince that you are in attendance.'
There was nothing by any means improbable in the Prince
being in some dilemma, as it was by no means a case of rarity,
and Mr. M  therefore most willingly accompanied Mr.
Cholmondely to his apartments, where he was politely invited to
repose himself until Mr. C. went in search ofthe Prince, The
sequel may be easily foreseen ; Mr. Cholmondely hastened to
the apartments of Mr. M  , liberated the Royal lover from
his confinement, and hastening back to Mr. M  , he in
formed him that the Prince had retired to rest; and on the
following morning Mr. M  was informed that the business
had been arranged without his interference.
During the earlier years ofthe Prince of Wales, his passions
were vehement, and his temper unmanageable ; but his gene-

56 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
rosity was unbounded, and his faults appeared to be those
which observation and experience would materially alter. To
literature or to science he was not, however, much attached ;
and his amusements were chiefly those which unfortunately
encouraged expensive habits and dangerous associations. Yet
on the Prince of Wales the hopes of the nation were centered ;
and, habitually kind and indulgent towards their rulers, the
English viewed, with a favourable eye, the follies ofhis youth,
and predicted a maturity of great and generous principles. The
first event, however, which peculiarly attracted public atten
tion, and which occurred prior to the Prince having attained
his majority, tended, in some measure, to alter public opinion.
On entering upon that subject a great degree of delicacy is re
quired in the relation, not only in regard to the illustrious
subject ofthese memoirs, but also as far as it respects the fame
of one, whose beauty, whose talents, and whose misfortunes,
cannot fail fo interest every susceptible mind in her favour.
There are fevv of our readers who have not heard or read of
the lovely, beautiful, and in many respects highly-talented
Mrs. Mary Robinson. This lady was the wife of a careless,
neglectful, and profligate young roan, who left her, with her
fascinating, mental, and personal attractions, exposed to the
gaze and blandishments of libertine rank and fashion. A sepa
ration had taken place between them ; and on an introduction
to Garrick and Sheridan, she was encouraged to adopt the
stage as the means of her future subsistence. She accord
ingly came out at Drury-lane Theatre, in the character of
Juliet, ill which she was eminently successful, and ultimately
obtained an engagement, at a high salary, to enact the prin
cipal characters in tragedy and comedy.
At the period when Mrs. Robinson first attracted the atten
tion of the Prince of Wales, she was in the twenty-first, and
his Royal Highness in the nineteenth year of his age. She has
herself left us the history of her intercourse with the Prince,
written at a season vvhen the heart deals with sincerity — in a
season of sickness and dejection ; when the gay prospects of
her eariy life had vanished from her eyes, and nothino- remained
for her but an existence, struggling with personal inconve
nience, debUity of frame, and unavaiUng regrets. The nana-

f

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S»4:JiS!»\*'i,)Qs'CS«i#S¥»#ip

H.Aaiara Soiilp'

TH£ Cr.J.EBajLTEJ; ?J'-.R.OITA.
LoncLon Publisljpd !by Xhomas KeHy 17, PateTnoster Bow: 1630.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 57
tive which she has left us of this connexion carries with it in
dubitable evidence of its veracity, and though some allowance
must be made for one who speaks, or, perhaps, to use a more
appropriate phrase, who rather pleads in her own behalf, stiU
an air of candour and sincerity so pervades that portion of her
memoirs to which we more particularly aUnde, that we feel no
hesitation in using her own materials to give the narrative of
the Prince's first public introduction into the world of gaUantry ;
we say public — for although it was well known that his Royal
Highness had, like a wandering bee, been sipTping the sweets
from many an opening flower, and in which the bee too often
left its sting behind ; yet it was only some of the airy spirits
who hovered about the dark recesses of the gardens of Kew, or
inhabited the sylvan haunts of Richmond's groves, who could
tell the tale of how the lovely rosebud fell defoliaged, to wither
and die neglected. With Mrs. Robinson, however, the Prince
may be said to have publicly exhibited himself in the temple of
Venus, and it must be admitted that his knee was never bent
before a more lovely or more angelic votary of the goddess,
for she locked, without doubt, as she herself said in the play,
' A bank for Love to lie and play on.'
Mrs. Robinson commences her narrative, by stating, that
' the play of the Winter's Tale was, this season, commanded
by their Majesties ; I never had jierformed before the royal
famUy, and the first character in which I was destined to ap
pear was that of Perdita. I had frequently played the part,
both with the Hermione of Mrs. Hartley and Miss Farren, but
I felt a strange, degree of alarra when I found ray narae an
nounced to perforra it before the royal family.
' In the green-room I was raUied on the occasion ; and Mr.
Smith, whose gentlemanly manners and enlightened conversa
tion rendered him an ornament to the profession, who per
formed the part of Leontes, laughingly exclaimed, " By Jove,
Mrs. Robinson, you will make a conquest of the Prince, for
to-night you look handsomer than ever." I smiled at the unme
rited compliment, and little foresaw the vast variety of events
that would arise from that night's exhibition.
' As I stood in the wing opposite the Prince's box, waiting
H

58 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
to go on the stage, Mr. Ford, the manager's son, presented a
friend who accompanied him ; this friend was Lord Viscount
Maiden, afterwards Earl of Essex. We entered into conversa
tion during a fevv minutes, the Prince of Wales all the time
observing us, and frequently speaking to Colonel (afterwards
General) Lake, and to the Honourable Mr. Legge, brother to
Lord Lewisham, who was in waiting oii his Royal Highness.
I hurried through the first scene, not without much embarrass
ment, owing to the fixed attention with which the Prince of
Wales honoured me : indeed, some flattering remarks, which
were made by his Royal Highness, met my ear as I stood near
his box, and I was overwhelmed with confusion.
' The Prince's particular attention was observed by every
one ; and I was again rallied at the end of the play. On the
last curtsey, the royal family condescendingly returned a bow
to the performers ; but just as the curtain was faUing my eyes
met those of the Prince of Wales, and with a look, that / never
shall forget, he gently inclined his head a second tirae ; I felt
the compliment, and blushed my gratitude.
' During the entertainment, Lord Maiden never ceased con
versing with me ; he was young, pleasing, and perfectly accom
plished. He remarked the particular applause which the
Prince had bestowed on my performance ; said a thousand
civil things, and detained me in conversation tiU the evening's
performance was concluded.
' I was now going to my chair which waited, when I met the
royal family crossing the stage ; I was again honoured with a
very marked and low bow from the Prince of Wales. On my
return home, I had a party at supper, and the whole conversa
tion centred in encomiums on the person, grace, and amiable
manners ofthe iUustrious heir-apparent.
' Within two or three days of this tirae, Lord Maiden paid
me a morning visit. Mr. Robinson was not at home, and I
received him rather awkwardly. But his Lordship's embarrass
ment far exceeded mine ; he atterapted to speak— paused —
hesitated— apologized : I knew not why. He hoped I would
pardon him ; that I would not mention something he had to
communicate ; that I would consider the peculiar delicacy of
his situation, and then act as I thought proper. I could not

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 59
comprehend his meaning, and therefore requested that he
would be explicit.
' After some raoraents of evident rumination, he tremblingly
drew a small letter from his pocket. I took it, and knew not
what to say. It was addressed to Perdita. I smiled, I be
lieve rather sarcastically, and opened the bUlet. It contained
only a few words, but those expressive of raere common civi
lity ; they were signed Florizel *.
' " WeU, my Lord, and what does this mean ?" said I half
angrily. ' " Can you not guess the writer ?" — said Lord Maiden.
' " Perhaps yourself, my Lord ?" — cried I gravely.
' " Upon my honour, no I" said the Viscount, " I should
not have dared so to address you on so short an acquaintance.''
' I pressed him to tell me from whom the letter came. He
again hesitated ; he seemed confused, and sorry that he had
undertaken to deliver it. " I hope I shall not forfeit your good
opinion ;" said he, " but" —
' " But what, my Lord ?"
' " I could not refuse — for the letter is from the Prince of
Wales." * I was astonished — I confess that I was agitated, but I vvas
also somewhat sceptical as to the truth of Lord Maiden's asser
tion ; I returned a formal and a doubtful answer, and his Lord
ship soon after took his leave.
' A thousand times did I read the short but expressive letter ;
stiU I did not implicitly believe that it was written by the
Prince. I rather considered it as an experiment made by
Lord Maiden, either on my vanity or propriety of conduct.
On the next evening the Viscount repeated his visit, we had a
card party of six or seven, and the Prince of Wales was again
the subject of unbounded panegyric. Lord Maiden spoke of
his Royal Highness' manners as the most polished and fasci
nating ; of his temper as the most engaging ; and of his mind as
the most replete with every amiable sentiment. I heard these
praises, and my heart beat with conscious pride, whfle memory
* Perdita and Florizel are two characters in the ' Winter's Tale,' and those who
are acquainted with that comedy will easily trace the signification of these adopted
names.
H2

60 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
turned to the partial but delicately respectful letter which I had
received on the preceding morning.'
For some months a confidential correspondence was carried
on between these celebrated parties, through the agency of Lord
Maiden ; and Mrs. Robinson, amongst other tokens of inviolable
regard, received the Prince's portrait in miniature, painted
by the late Mr. Meyer. Within the case containing the
picture, was a small heart cut in paper, on one side of which
was written, Je ne change qu'en mourant ; on the other. Unal
terable to my Perdita through life.
Mrs. Robinson, vvho was an excellent judge of literary com
position, speaking of this epistolary correspondence, says,
' there was a beautiful ingenuousness in his language, a warm
and enthusiastic adoration expressed in every letter, which in
terested and charmed rae.'
At length after many alternations of feeling, an interview with
her royal lover was consented to by Mrs. Robinson, and pro
posed, by the management of Lord Maiden, to take place at
his Lordship's residence in Dean Street, May Fair. But the
restricted situation of the Prince, controlled by a rigid gover
nor, rendered this project of difficult execution. A visit to
Buckingham House was then mentioned, to which Mrs. Ro
binson positively objected, as a rash atterapt, abounding in
peril to her august admirer. Lord Maiden being again con
sulted, it was determined that the Prince should meet Mrs.
Robinson for a few moments at Kew, on the banks of the
Thames, opposite to the old palace, then the summer residence
of the elder Princes. The account written by Mrs. Robinson,
in a letter to a friend, of the lovers' meeting, is. couched in ele
gant and flowing language and with much apparent ingenu
ousness. It deserves particular attention in another point of
view, as it presents us with a more faithful portrait of the man
ners and accomplishments of the Prince of Wales at this
period of his life, than is any where else to be met with. The
date of this letter is in 1783.
' At length an evening was fixed for this long dreaded inter
view. Lord Maiden and myself dined at the inn on the island,
between Kew and Brentford. We waited the signal for cross
ing the river in a boat which had been engaged for the purpose.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. Gl
Heaven can witness how many conflicts my agitated heart
endured at this most important moment ! I admired the
Prince, I felt grateful for his affection. He was the most en
gaging of created beings. I had corresponded with him for
many months, and his eloquent letters, the exquisite sensibility
which breathed through every line, his ardent professions of
adoration, had combined to shake my feeble resolution. The
handkerchief was waved on the opposite shore, but the signal
was, by the dusk of the evening, rendered almost imperceptible.
Lord Maiden took my hand, I stepped into the boat, and in a
few minutes we landed before the iron gates of old Kew Palace.
The interview was but of a morafent. The Prince of Wales
and the Duke of York, then Bishop of Osnaburg, were walking
down the avenue. They hastened to raeet us. A few words,
and those scarcely articulate, were uttered by the Prince, when
a noise of the people approaching from the palace startled us.
The moon was now rising, and the idea of being overheard, or
ofhis Royal Highness being seen out at so unusual an hour,
terrified the whole group. After a fewmore words of the raost
affectionate nature uttered by the Prince, we parted, and Lord
Maiden and myself returned to the island. The Prince never
quitted the avenue, nor the presence of the Duke of York,
during the whole of this short meeting. Alas! my friend, if
my mind was before influenced by esteem, it was now
awakened by the most enthusiastic admiration. The rank of
the Prince no longer chilled into awe that being who now
considered him as the lover and the friend. The graces ofhis
person — the irresistible sweetness of his smile, the tenderness
ofhis melodious yet manly voice, will be remembered by me,
till every vision of this changing scene shall be forgotten.'
It was at this period that his Royal Highness requested
Mrs. Robinson to sit to a celebrated artist for her picture, a
request which she complied with, although not without some
reluctance. The Prince accordingly deputed Stroehling to
execute the task ; and he completed the beautiful painting from
which the engraving in this work is taken. At the Prince's
particular desire, the doves were introduced into the picture,
in allusion to Florizel's own words in the play.
So turtles pair
That never meant to part.

62 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
When the rupture between the lovers took place, and which is
aUeged to have taken place on the part of the Prince, on
account of some alleged infidelity committed by the lady,
the Prince would no longer aUow the picture to adorn his
cabinet, but made a present of it to one pf his household, and
in the course of time it has fallen into the possession of the
publisher of this work.
'Many and frequent were the interviews,' continues Mrs.
Robinson, ' which afterwards took place at this roraantic spot;
our walks sometimes continued tiU past raidnight ; the Duke
of York and Lord Maiden were always of the party ; our con
versation was composed of general topics. The Prince had
from his infancy been whoUy secluded, and naturally took most
pleasure in conversing about the busy world, its manners and
pursuits, characters and scenery. Nothing could be more
delightful or more rational than our midnight perambulations :
I always wore a dark coloured habit, the rest of our party
generally wrapped themselves up in great coats, to disguise them
selves, excepting the Duke of York, who alraost universally
alarmed us by the display of a buff coat, the most conspicuous
colour he could have selected for an adventure of this nature.
The poUshed and fascinating ingenuousness of his Royal High
ness's manners contributed not a little to enliven our prome
nades. He sang with exquisite taste, and the tones of his
voice breaking on the sUence ofthe night, have often appeared
to my entranced senses like more than mortal melody*.
' Often have I lamented the distance which destiny had
placed between us ; how would my soul have idoUzed such a
husband ! Alas ! how often, in the ardent enthusiasm of my
soul, have I formed the wish that that being were mine alone,
to whom partial mUlions were to look up for protection.
* These poetical flights wonld appear, perhaps, ornamental in Huhert de Sevi-ac,
or any other romance, which the heautifnl and highly-gifted Perdita mav have
written ; hut these songs of his Roval Hio-hnp=. o.J^„Ja.^.f,^'. '"^7'^^''^

written ; hut these songs of h.s Royal Highness are not iS exact kee^^ng with the
extraordinary secrecy by which ^these nocturnal meetings appear Thave heen
characterized. The royal lover was in momentary dread of ^a .Sscovery and a
song by his Royal Highness with, perhaps, a chorus by the whole strenSh of the
company, was admirably calculated to bring certain individ„Il7t„ t^^ ^ i
in a very few moments would have put an Hn,l tn ^1 i, "J-^" 'P"*' ¦"''"
In this respect, we opine that tScv of CrJ ^^^^^ «f t^e meeting.
the represe^tion th^ji truth, but it-^thLfS^o'Lttr^^^^^
other circumstances, throw a hue of discredit over the chnrTw

over the character of

more than any

which, in other respects, might he entitled to oi^ u^^uISS; oAt^^!

ticity,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 63
' The Duke of York was now on the eve of quitting the
country for Hanover ; the Prince was also on the point of
receiving his first estabhshment, and the apprehension that
his attachment to a married woman might injure his Royal
Highness in the opinion of the world, rendered the caution
which we invariably observed, of the utmost importance. A
considerable time elapsed in these delightful scenes of visionary
happiness : the Prince's attachment seemed to increase daily,
and I considered 'myself as the most blest of human beings.
During some tirae we had enjoyed our raeetings in the neigh
bourhood of Kew, and I now only looked forward to the
adjusting of his Royal Highness's establishment for the public
avowal of our mutual attachment.'
Mrs. Robinson proceeds to relate that the daily prints now
fostered the malice of her enemies, by the raost scandalous
paragraphs respecting the Prince of Wales and herself. ' I
now found it,' she says, ' too late to stop the hourly augraenting
torrent of abuse which was poured on rae frora all quarters.
Whenever I appeared in public, I was overwhelmed by the
gazing of the multitude; I was frequently obUged to quit
Ranelagh owing to the crowd which staring curiosity had
assembled round ray box, and even in the streets of the me
tropolis, I scarcely ventured to enter a shop, without ex
periencing the greatest inconvenience. Many hours have I
waited till the crowd dispersed which surrounded my carriage,
in expectation of my quitting the shop* I shuddered at the
gulf before me, and felt small gratification in the knowledge of
having taken a step, which many who condemned it would
have been no less wiUing to imitate, had they been placed in
the sarae situation.
' Previously to my first interview with his Royal Highness,
in one of his letters I was astonished to find a bond of the
most soleran and binding nature, containing a promise of the
sum of 20,000?. to be paid at the period of his Royal Highness's
coming of age.
' This paper was signed by the Prince, and sealed with the
royal arms ; it was expressed in terras so liberal, so voluntary,
so marked by true affection, that I had scarcely power to read
it. My tears excited by the most agonizing conflicts obscured

64 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the letters, and neariy blotted out those sentiments which will
be impressed upon my mind till the latest period of my exist
ence. Still I felt shocked and mortified at the indelicate idea
of entering into any pecuniary engagements with a Prince, on
whose establishment I relied for the enjoyment of all that
would render life desirable. I was surprised at receiving it :
the idea of interest had never entered my mind ; secure of the
possession of his heart, I had in that delightful certainty
counted aU my future treasure. I had refused many splendid
gifts which his Royal Highness had proposed ordering for me
at Gray's and other eminent jewellers. The Prince presented
to me a fevv trifling ornaments, the whole in their value not
exceeding one hundred guineas ; even these, on our separation,
I returned to his Royal Highness by the hands of General
Lake. ' The period now approached that was to destroy all the fairy
visions which had filled my mind with dreams of happiness.
At the moment when everything was preparing for his Royal
Highness's establishment, when I looked impatiently for the
arrival of that day, in which I raight behold my adored friend
gratefully receiving the acclamations of his future subjects,
when I might enjoy the public protection of that being for
whom I gave up aU, I received a letter from his Royal High
ness — a cold and unkind letter — briefly informing me, that we
<niust meet no more !
' And now I call Heaven to witness, that I was whoUy un
conscious why this decision had taken place in his Royal
Highness's mind. Only two days previously to the letter
being written, I had seen the Prince at Kew, dnd his affection
appeared to be boundless as it was undiminished.
' Amazed, afflicted beyond the power of utterance, I wrote
immediately to his Royal Highness, requiring an explanation.
He remained sUent. Again I wrote, but received no elucida
tion of this most cruel and extraordinary mystery. The Prince
was then at Windsor. I set out in a small pony phaeton,
wretched, and unaccompanied by any one, excepting my pos
tilion, a boy of nine years of age. It was dark when we quitted
Hyde-Park corner. On my arrival at Hounslow, the inn
keeper inforraed me, that every carriage which had passed the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 65
heath for the last ten nights, had been attacked and rifled. I
confess the idea of personal danger had no terrors for my mind
in the state it then was, and the probabUity of annihilation,
divested ofthe crime of suicide, encouraged, rather than dimi
nished, my determination ofproceeding. Wehad scarcely reached
the middle of the heath, when my horses were startled by the
sudden appearance of a man, rushing frora the side of the road.
The boy, on perceiving hira, instantly spurred his pony, and
by a sudden bound of our light vehicle, the ruffian missed his
grasp at the front rein. We now proceeded at full speed,
whUe the footpad ran, endeavouring to overtake us. At length
my horses fortunately outrunning the perseverance of the as
sailant, we reached the first Magpie, a small inn on the heath,
in safety. The alarm, which, in spite of my resolution, this
adventure had occasioned, was augmented on ray recollecting,
forthe first time, that I had then in my black stock a brilliant
stud, of very considerable value, which could only have been
possessed by the robber by strangling the wearer.
' If my heart palpitated with joy at my escape from assassi
nation, a circumstance soon after occurred that did not tend to
quiet my emotions : this was the appearance of M. H. Meynel
and Mrs. Armstead, afterwards the wife of Charles James Fox.
My foreboding soul instantly saw a rival, and with jealous
eagerness interpreted the hitherto inexplicable conduct of the
Prince, from his having frequently expressed a wish to see that
lady. On my arrival the Prince would not see me. My ago
nies were now indescribable : I consulted with Lord Maiden
and the Duke of Dorset, whose honourable mind and truly
disinterested friendship for me, had on many occasions been
exemplified towards me. They were both at a loss to divine
any cause for this sudden change in the Prince's feelings. The
Prince of Wales had hitherto assiduously sought opportunities
to distinguish rae raore publicly than was prudent in his Royal
Highness' situation. This was in the month of August. On
the fourth ofthe preceding June, I went, by his desire, into the
Chamberialn's box, at the birth-night baU ; the distressing ob
servation of the circle was drawn towards the part of the box
in which I 'sat, by the marked and injudicious attentions of his
Royal Highness. I had not been seated many minutes, before
I

66 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
I witnessed a singular species of fashionable coquetry. Pre
viously to his Royal Highness beginning the minuet, I per
ceived a lady of high rank select from the bouquet which she
wore, two rose-buds, which she gave to the Prince, as he after
wards said to me, emblematical of herself and him. I observed
his Royal Highness immediately beckon to a nobleman, who
has since formed a part of his establishment, and looking most
earnestly at me, whispered a fevv words, at the same time pre
senting to him his newly-acquired trophy. In a few minutesj
Lord C. entered the Chamberlain's box, and giving the rose
buds into my hands, informed me that he was commissioned
by the Prince to do so. I placed them in my bosom, and I
confess I felt proud ofthe powers by which I had thus publicly
mortified an exalted rival. His Royal Highness now avowedly
distinguished me at all public places of entertainment, at the
King's hunt near Windsor, at the reviews and the theatres. The
Prince only seeraed happy in evincing his affection towards rae.'
Of the causes which led to the alienation of the affections
of the Prince frora his lovely and accoraplished friend, Mrs.
Robinson has not left in her Narrative any clue wherefrora to
form a right judgment. ' My good-natured friends,' she pro
ceeds, • now carefully informed rae ofthe multitude of secret
enemies who vvere employed in estranging the Prince's mind
from me. So fascinating, so illustrious a lover could not fail
to excite the envy of my own sex. Women of all descriptions
were emulous of attracting his Royal Highness' attention.
Alas ! I had neither rank nor power to oppose to such adver
saries. Every engine of feraale malice was set in motion to
destroy my repose, and every petty calumny was repeated with
tenfold embeUishments. Tales of the most infamous and glaring
falsehood were invented, and I was again assailed by pamphlets,
by paragraphs, and caricatures, andaU the artillery of slander;
while the only being to whom I then looked up for protection
was so situated as to be unable to afford it.
: I'l the anguish of my soul I once raore addressed the
rrmceot Wales; I coraplained perhaps too vehemently of his
injustice, of the calumnies which had been by my eneraies
fabricated against rae, ofthe falsehood of which he was but too
sensible. I conjured him to render me justice. He did so •

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 67
he wrote me a most eloquent letter, disclaiming the causes
alleged by a calumniating worid, and fuUy acquitted me of the
charges which had been propagated to destroy me.'
After some weeks passed in much wretchedness of mind,
Mrs. Robinson had an interview with the Prince of Wales,
which for a moment promised a renewal of their intercourse.
As this interview was the last which took place between them
with any view of reviving their connexion, we shall give the
account of it in Mrs. Robinson's own words. ' After rauch
hesitation,' says she, ' by the advice of Lord Maiden I con
sented to meet his Royal Highness. He accosted me with
every appearance of tender attachment, declaring that he had
never for one raoment ceased to love me, but that I had many
concealed eneraies, who were exerting every effort to under
mine me. We passed some hours in the most friendly and
delightful conversation, and I began to flatter myself that all
our differences were adjusted. But what words can express my
surprise and chagrin, when on meeting his Royal Highness the
ver-y next day in Hyde Park, he turned his head to avoid
seeing me, and even affected not to know me ?
' Overwhelmed by this blow, my distress knew no limits.
Yet Heaven can witness the truth of my assertion — even in this
moment of coraplete despair, when oppression bowed rae to
the earth, I blamed not the Prince. I did then, and ever shall
consider his mind as nobly and honourably organized ; nor
could I teach myself to belieVe that a heart, the seat of so
many virtues, could possibly become inhuman and unjust. I
had been taught frora my infancy to believe that elevated
stations are surrounded by delusive visions wbich glitter but to
dazzle, like an unsubstantial meteor, and flatter to betray.'
We shall only remark upon this narrative, that it bears on the
face of it unquestionable marks of sincerity and genuineness.
It is written with the freedora of friendship, and the language
and sentiments are such as a person of a sensible and well
cultivated raind, but of strong feelings, would in all probabiUty
use. It has, indeed, scarcely anything of the air of an apology.
Mrs. Robinson candidly acknowledges that the raanners, the
accomplishments, the fascination of the heir-apparent com
pletely seized upon her affections, and rendered her totally

2

68 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
unable to resist his Royal Highness' advances. To this it
may be added, that to the latest period of her life, her attach
ment for the Prince continued unabated. When on her death
bed, she requested that a lock of her hair might be presented
to his Royal Highness ; and this mark of her regard is said to
have been received, on the part of the Prince, vvith strong
demonstrations of sensibility — might we not also add, of com
punction ?
The beautiful poem which was published in the Annual Re
gister, and entitled, by Mrs. Robinson, ' Lines to him who will
understand them,' evidently seem to have been composed at no
very distant period from the date of her separation from the
Prince. As these lines breathe a pensive spirit of tenderness,
affection and regret, which no one but an amiable and accom
plished object could have inspired, we shall offer no apology to
our readers for presenting them with the following extract : —
Thou art no more my bosom friend.
Here must the sweet delusion end
That charmed my senses many a year,
Through smiling summers, winters drear.
Oh Friendship ! am I doomed to find
Thou art a phantom of the mind —
A glittering shade, an empty name.
An air-born vision's vap'rish flame ?
And yet the dear deceit so long
Has waked to joy my matin song,
Has bid my tears forget to flow.
Chased every pain, soothed every woe ;
That truth, unwelcome to my ear,
Swells the deep sigh, recalls the tear ;
Gives to the sense the keenest smart ;
Checks the warm pulses ofthe heart;
Darkens my fate, and steals away
Each gleam of joy through life's sad way.
Britain, farewell !— I quit thy shore ;
My native country charms no more ;
No guide to mark the toilsome road ;
No destin'd clime ; no fix'd abode.
Alone and sad— ordained to trace
The vast expanse of endless space ;

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 69
To view, upon the mountain's height.
Thro' varied shades of glimmering light.
The distant landscape fade away
In the last gleam of parting day ;
Or in the quiv'ring lucid stream
To watch the pale moon's silvery beam ;
Or when in sad and plaintive strains
Tlie mournful Philomel complains.
In dulcet notes bewails her fate.
And murmurs for her absent mate,
Inspir'd by sympathy divine,
I'll weep her woes, — for they are mine.
Driven by Fate, where'er I go.
O'er burning plains, o'er hills of snow.
Or on the bosom of the wave
The howling tempest doom'd to brave.
Where'er my lonely course I bend
Thy image shall my steps attend ;
Each object I am doom'd to see
Shall bid rememb'rance picture thee.
Yes, I shall view thee in each flower
That changes with the transient hour ;
Thy wand'ring fancy I shall find
Borne on the wings of every wind ;
Thy wild impetuous passions trace
O'er the white wave's tempestuous space ;
In every changing season prove
An emblem of thy wav'riiig love.
In dismissing this subject, replete with so much importance
to the early character of the Prince of Wales, we cannot, con
sistently with that partiality which ought to distinguish an his
torian, wholly acquit his Royal Highness of a certain degree
of unfeeling conduct towards an individual who had sacrificed
her fame, her honour, and her person to the ardour of his
passion, and on whose affection and kindness, considering her
own amiable and endearing conduct, she undoubtedly pos
sessed the highest claim. Notwithstanding Mrs. Robinson, in
the fulness of a woman's love, makes every attempt to palliate
the conduct of his Royal Highness, and to throw a veil over
the harsh features of the latter part of it, yet it must be

70 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
apparent to every one that it cannot be justified on any prin
ciple of honour, feeling, or humanity. Still, however, it must
be allowed that vve see only the puppets, but not the secret
machinery by which they are moved ; and, therefore, in com
mon charity, we are bound to put the most favourable construc
tion on the actions of those who are known not to be wholly
independent, and who are obliged to act according to the
power and control of others. In the generality of cases,
the effect usually determines the presence or absence of any
foreign interference ; but, in the present instance, there was no
plea urged qf any secret constraint — on the contrary, there was
a studied and mysterious concealment of the motive — an obsti
nate and decided objection to enter into any explanation ofthe
sudden change which had taken place in the sentiments of his
Royal Highness towards the avowed object of his love ; the
most chilling indifference succeeded almost instantaneously to
the most ardent protestations of unalterable affection, and all
without any other ostensible cause, than mere caprice. Justice,
honour, and humanity, therefore, here step in, and denounce
the action as contrary to every one of their acknowledged
principles : she saw her.self abandoned, deserted, and exposed
to the contumely of a censorious and malicious world ; a help
less being, for the finger of scorn to point at — a victim to an
ardent and ill-requited love. That love was to her a holy spot
in the waste of her memory — it was the single theme of her
thoughts, the idol of her dreams, and the separation was for
ever. It is evident that the calculation of Mrs. Robinson was
founded in error, when she supposed, great and superiative as
were her personal charms, and splendid as were her mental
endowments, that she could enchain the affection of so fickle,
so accomplished, and so illustrious a lover, surrounded as he
was by the youthful beauties of his father's court, and roaming
at large amongst the still perhaps greater beauties of the
humbler ranks of life. Herein she failed, and everything must
have conspired to tell her that her failure was inevitable. That
a connexion of this kind could have been permanent, could
scarcely have been expected by the most sanguine and enthu
siastic spirit; but the dark shade which envelops the cha-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 71
racter ofhis Royal Highness, arises from the manner in which
the once cherished object of his early love was discarded. She
had sacrificed for hira everything that was dear to woman —
for him she bounded over the barrier which is considered the
safeguard of female virtue ; she clung to him with an affec
tion which none but a woman's heart can feel. Self-interest
was an idea too base and grovelling to hold dominion for a
moment in a mind like hers ; she lived but for him, and in
hira only was she happy. When her enemies assailed her (and
that a woman, standing in the relation which she did with the
heir-apparent should be without enemies, would indeed be a mi
racle in the history of human life) — when she became the object
of the malicious wit of literary hirelings, and her name was
coupled with the most noted Messalina ofthe day, did she shrink
froin an investigation of her conduct? — did she hide herself be
hind the veil of secresy ? — did she not appeal to her royal lover
to disprove the charges of her enemies ?¦ — -and did he not then
unequivocally declare that he believed all those charges to be
founded in malice and falsehood ? It is, therefore, proved by
his own declaration, that it was not any imputation which had
been thrown on the character of Mrs. Robinson, which effected
the change in the Prince of Wales' sentiments towards her ;
but his discarding of her partook of the character of the indi-
-vidual, who, having enjoyed the kernel, throws away the shell
with indifference. Had he given any plea or excuse for his
apparently unfeeling conduct ; had he sheltered himself under
the consciousness, which, to suit his purpose, might be sup
posed to have burst suddenly upon him, of the moral impro
priety ofthe connexion, as standing in the exalted rank ofthe
heir-apparent to the crown ; the lovely sufferer, even then,
would have felt the blow severely ; but then, as a balsam to her
wounded spirit, she would have had an apparently ostensible
cause to support her for her loss, and she would have derived
some consolation from the reflection, that it was not the decline
nor the death ofhis affection which had estranged him from her,
but that it was simply owing to the peculiarity of the circum
stances under which her lover was placed. Had he adduced,
as the cause of his estrangement, that the mandate of a parent
had been issued to put an end to the connexion, or that, having

72 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
now attained his majority, and having entered as an exalted
member into the great family compact of the nation, it behoved
him, as the future ruler, to be circumspect and prudent in his
conduct — a tear might have fallen at the destruction of her
earthly hopes, and the memory of the blissful hours of their
love would have hallowed the last moments of her existence.
But the beautiful flower was thrown aside with the most caUous
indifference ; the spoiler had revelled in its sweets — he had
satiated himself with its beauties — in the ardour ofhis love he
took it to his bosom, blooraing, fresh, full of life and bounding
spirit : he threw it frora him, broken, defoliaged, faded,
destroyed for ever.
We have looked in vain for one mitigating plea, for one re
deeming reason, for the conduct of his Royal Highness ; and we
sincerely wish, from that regard which we otherwise entertain
for his general character, that some clue had been left us, by
which the mystery in which his conduct towards Mrs. Robinson
is involved, could have been satisfactorily solved. AVe enter
not into the question of the morality of the connexion, nor do
we attribute the termination of it to any conscientious scruples
which might have arisen in the mind ofthe Prince of Wales for
his subsequent conduct contradicts that assumption ; but it is
our desire to rescue his .memory, as much as possible, from the
imputations which at present rest upon it, of unfeelino- and un
generous conduct towards a lovely and confiding woman, who,
but for his allurements, would have remained an ornament to
her profession ; and who, perhaps, would have closed her earthly
career with the exhilarating consciousness of having spent a life
of virtue and decorum.
Notwithstanding, however, the moral turpitude of this con
nexion of the Prince with Mrs. Robinson, there were not
wanting some who endeavoured to throw over it the veil of
extenuation, and to represent it as attended with a very smaU
degree of indecorum and impropriety: thus, one of the writers
of that day says, ' It was a case stained with no remarkable
turpitude or gross departure from the raoral laws of society. It
was not a case of seduction ; and the person who, of all others,
had the most right to complain, had released his wife frora her
vow by his own estrangement of conduct. Here, then, was

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 73
nothing very flagrant in this particular action of the Prince's
life, yet it has been much dwelt upon by those who have made
the abuse of the Prince of Wales (and such men there are)
their livelihood. These ungenerous and unprincipled writers,
who look into characters only for the purpose of finding faults,
have stigmatized this transaction in the most virulent terms ;
and have inferred, from his attachment to a beautiful and
amiable woman, an unbounded and promiscuous passion for
the sex in general. This calumny, equally detestable and un
founded, has been propagated in a hundred ways ; and, there is
reason to apprehend, with too much success, for no one can
be ignorant hovv much quicker scandal flies, and how much
more tenaciously it is retained, than truth.
Discit enim citius, meminitque libentius illud
Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat, et veneratur.
'The youth of the Prince, and the seductions to which his
rank exposed him, never entered into the calculations of these
writers. It is not for their purpose to seek out extenuating
circumstances, but to magnify what are, at worst, mere levities
or indiscretions, or the pardonable ebullitions of youth. By
what analogy was it to be expected, that the generous blood of
the heir-apparent was to be ice-bound, while that of every
noble youth in the kingdora might run riot, and flow without
reproach ? '
The sophistry ofthese arguments, although very finely spun,
is most easily detected ; and it affords another proof of the in
jury which an over-zealous and officious friend may commit
in the espousal of any cause, when he has not prudence nor
ability to guide him through it. With all the facts staring him
in the face, as related in the simple and candid narrative of
Mrs. Robinson, the writer departs wholly from the truth ; and,
in order to save the honour ofthe Prince of Wales, ventures to
pronounce, that it was not a case of seduction ; from which he
draws the inference, that the conduct of his Royal Highness
was divested of all flagrancy. It will not, however, require great
powers of reasoning to prove, that it was a case of the most
studied, the most deliberate seduction. Previously to the mo
ment when the charms of Mrs. Robinson captivated the affec
tions of the royal youth, calurany had not dared to inflict a
K

1^4 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
sin-le stain upon her character, A beautiful woman, neglected
and deserted by her husband, is generally the object ot the
seductive arts of the libertine ; and such being the case wita
Mrs Robinson, we are able to assert, that her virtue had under
gone and surmounted the severest of temptations. The very
profession which she had chosen as the means of her support,
and which may with justice be considered as the severest
ordeal to which female virtue can be exposed, tended, whilst it
made her the object of public admiration, to throw her into
that very society where, if her disposition had been to faU, she
would have found hundreds who would have been wiUing to
accelerate, and to triumph in it. We have only to refer to the
late Duke of Queensberry, and to another Duke, now living,
almost as notorious as the forraer in the pages of gallantry, who
used every instrument which rank or fortune could place in
their hands to undermine the virtue of this lovely woman, but
she remained firm, unconquerable ; and when the latter
nobleman sent her a carte-blanche to fix her own terms, she
returned the memorable answer, — Poverty with virtue and
happiness is preferable to affluence with guilt and misery*;
But the evU hour came at last. On a sudden she beheld her
self, in the most unexpected manner, the idolized object of one
* We are hy no means ignorant, that at the time when the Prince of Wales was
captivated with the charms of Mrs. Robinson, there were other suitors for het
favours, amongst whom General Tarleton was considered as the most favoured.
The following anecdote, however, deserves mention, as it shows the manner in
which she treated some of those suitors, who wholly mistook her character, in con
sidering, according to the prejudice ofthe day, that, as she was an actress, her far
vours were a marketable commodity, and to be purchased hy the highest bidder.
Amongst the most dashing rakes of the City at that time was Mr. Pugh, the son
of Alderman Pugh, who had seen Mrs. Robinson inthe character of Juliet, and
becoming violently enamoured of her, he wrote to her, oiFering her twenty guineas
for ten minutes^ conversation with her. Mrs. Robinson immediately answered him,
consenting to grant him the favour he asked, for the stipulated sum ; and, elated
with the prospect of the consummation of his wishes, Pugh repaired to the house
of Mrs. Robinson at the appointed time. On his arrival, however, instead, as he
expected, of being closeted with Mrs. Robinson, he was ushered into a room where
he found that lady in company with General Tarleton and Lord Maiden ; and on
his entrance, Mrs. Robinson detached her watch from her side, and laid it on the
table. She then immediately turned from her former companions, and addressed
her conversation wholly to Pugh, who, by the titter which sat upon the counte
nances of General Tarleton and Lord Maiden, evidently saw that he was a complete
dupe in the hands of his beautiful inamorata. Mrs. Robinson now took up the
watch, the ten minutes were expired ; she rose from her chair, rang the bell, and,
on the servant entering, she desired him to open the door for Mr. Pugh, who, com
pletely confounded, took his leave, minus twenty guineas, which, on the following
day, were divided amongst four charitable institutions.

MEJIOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 75
of the most handsome and accomplished youths in the kingdom,
and that youth the heir-apparent to the crown. It were to be
tray a total ignorance of human nature, and particularly of the
feraale character, if we were to assert, that the vanity of Mrs.
Robinson was not flattered in beholding herself the chosen
object ofthe affections of the Prince of Wales, for which many
a bosom was sighing in vain, and to attain which, every snare
and net were laid which love or passion could devise. Agents,
young in years, though skilled in intrigue, and in the conquest
of female virtue, were immediately set to work ; and to the
indelible disgrace of one of those agents be it recorded, that
he condescended to the commission of acts, worthy only ofthe
most unprincipled pander. This man — for we will not affix
the epithet of noble before that word, on the principle, that
every nobleman is not a noble man — so far degraded himself,
as, on the first night of the assignation of the Prince with Mrs.
Robinson, to carouse with her husband, and to leave him in
such a state of complete intoxication as to divest the parties of
all fear of any intrusion on his part ; for although living almost
in a state of separation from his wife, he was in the habit of
continually annoying her, especially when he thought that she
had received any part of her salary frora the theatre. The very
difficulty, however, which the Prince experienced in obtaining
the consummation ofhis wishes, showed that the virtue of Mrs.
Robinson was of no ordinary strength. The fruit which he had
hitherto enjoyed had faUen frora the bough at the first shake ;
and the unexpected obstacles, therefore, which now presented
theraselves, only tended to increase the keenness of his appetite.
Every art and stratagera, which the most finished seducer,
assisted by the most experienced agents could suggest, were
adopted. Assignation after assignation was held, and chiefly at
the Eel-pie House : the Prince leaving Kew Palace in various
disguises, and on one occasion he scaled the waUs of the garden
disguised as a watchman.
y Months after raonths,hovvever, elapsed,and stiU the citadel held
out — the struggle was great — it was agonizing ; it was a con
test which, to the honour and character of the assailed party
be it said, that few in Vft;r situation would have maintained so
Jong — the victory at last was won ; and if female seduction
R2

76 MtMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
be attended with flagrancy, the conduct ofhis Royal Highness
cannot, in this instance, stand absolved from it. He knew
Mrs. Robinson to be a married woman, and the mother of a
dauo-hter — the seduction of her, therefore, stamped him with
the character of the adulterer; and when we are told by the
advocates ofhis Royal Highness that the conduct of her hus
band released her from the obligations of her marriage vow, we
cannot find words sufficiently energetic to express our disap
probation at the danger and immoral tendency of such a
doctrine. Mr. Robinson was certainly a bad and profligate
husband ; but it is breaking one of the most important links in
the chain of human society, to allege that the profligacy ofthe
husband authorizes any profligacy on the part of the wife :
much less can it, in the least degree, extenuate her infidelity.
We have been purposely diffuse on this subject, as we wish to
place all the characters who came into immediate personal
contact with the illustrious individual, who has lately exchanged
his earthly crown for one, we sincerely hope and trust, of
greater glory, in their true, natural, and unvarnished light :
where guilt really presents itself, there let it be fearlessly ex
posed — let the burden of iniquity be borne on the right shoul
ders ; and never let it be repeated, that, in order to screen the
vices or profligacies of the prince or the monarch, we servUely
threw an unmerited obloquy on the character of those, who are
no longer in this world to exonerate themselves from the impu
tations which are cast upon them.
On the whole, this may be considered as the history of a
transaction, which created suspicions which must ever be de
plored, and feelings of dissatisfaction which were never after
wards entirely obliterated. The advocates of his Royal High
ness, indeed, contended that the connexion was improper—
that Mrs. Robinson was a married woman and an actress — ¦
that the Prince was but a young raan — that it would have been
improper, and indeed criminal, to have perpetuated the inter
course — and that the only possible way to avoid the evils
which the connexion would entail on him, was ' to get rid of
her at once.' But to such defence it was replied, that the
Prince had sought, flattered, caressed, and won the heart of Mrs.
Robinson ; that for more than two years the intimacy had sub-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 77
sisted between them ; that there was no pretence now for
breaking off the connexion, especially as others were forming;
that it displayed a wavering and vacUlating disposition and
affections, inconsistent alike with a great mind and a generous
heart ; and, principally, that even if the action were in itself
correct, the manner in which it was performed was alone suf
ficient to indicate a total absence of sensibility, and all the
finer feelings of the heart. On such conflicting conclusions it
is here unnecessary to offer any opinion. The facts, unvar
nished, have been presented by Mrs. Robinson, and the present
and succeeding generations will draw their own conclusions.
In one particular, however, Mrs. Robinson has forgotten to
do that justice to the character ofhis Royal Highness which it
deserves, and which goes, in some measure, to show, that in
her connexion with the Prince, she was not wholly exempt from
selfish motives. It is true that she sent him back his bond ;
but, nevertheless, on her leaving the country, she threatened
to enforce the penalty of it, although, in some respects, it
could not be considered as much more than a bit of waste
paper. The business was ultimately left to the arbitration of
Mr. Fox, who, for particular reasons, which rather tarnish than
exalt his character, used his utmost endeavours to promote the
expatriation of Mrs. Robinson. A handsome annuity was
finally settled on her, and also to extend to the life of her only
daughter by Mr. Robinson.
That the affection of this lovely woman for the Prince was
not of a transient, fickle nature, but that it was interwoven
with the closest fibres of her heart, may be gathered from the
circumstance that, on her death-bed, she requested that a lock
of her hair might be presented to his Royal Highness ; and the
last mark of her regard, this indisputable proof, that he still
lived, even in death, the object of her love, was, it is said,
received by the Prince with strong feelings of solicitude and
care. We envy him not his feelings when he received it.
We now find the Prince of Wales running the range of the
Opera-house — the idol of the women — the envy ofthe men.
To fix him, however, long in his attachments, appeared to be
in direct variance with his nature; and there were many who
had no sooner flattered themselves that they held him fast in

78 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
their chains, than, to their great mortification, he snapped them
suddenly asunder, and appeared as if he had never felt their
pressure. This was particularly the case with Carnovalla,
whose husband originally belonged to the orchestra, and who,
subsequently, by the interest of the Prince of Wales, became
manager of the Opera-house. This lady, although not a beauty
ofthe first order, was in her raanners one of those fascinating
women who often, in the absence of any great personal charms,
establish an unbounded influence over the heart of raan ; and
it was to this power of fascination that Carnovalla owed the
dominion which she held for a short time over the affections
ofthe Prince of Wales. It must not, however, be concealed,
that this connexion, frora reasons the raention of which must
be omitted, was one of the most disreputable which the Prince
of Wales ever formed ; and when the husband ofthe lady after
wards turned out to be an incendiary, by setting fire to the
Opera-house, a considerable share ofthe opprobrium fell upon
his Royal Highness, in having been the instrument of obtain
ing for so bad a character, the management of the concern.
The period was now approaching when the Prince of Wales
was to be emancipated frora parental control, and to take that
station in society to which his iUustrious rank entitled him. In
the month of June, 1783, Lord John Cavendish, who then
filled the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented
the following Message from his Majesty to the House of
Commons.
¦GEORGE R.
His Majesty, reflecting on the propriety of a separate
establishment for his deariy-beloved son, the Prince of Wales,
recommends the consideration thereof to this House, relying
on the experienced zeal and affection of his faithful Commons
for such aid towards making that establishment as shaU appear
consistent with a due attention to the circumstances of his
people, every addition to whose burthens his Majesty feels with
the most sensible concern. G. R '
On the message being taken into consideration, it was deter-
mined that his Royal Highness should be allowed the sum of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 79
50,000^. a-year, and that the sum of 60,000^. should be granted
to him for the purpose of forming an establishment. The
income of 50,000Z. a-year was so inferior to the sums granted
to former Princes of Wales, that its disproportion could not
faU to strike very forcibly. George II. , when Prince of Wales,
had enjoyed an incorae of 100,000Z. per annum, and the same
aUowance had been granted to Frederick, Prince of Wales,
and to George III. when Prince of Wales, during the short
period that elapsed from his coming of age to his accession to
the throne. It was argued, therefore, by those who wished
to see a more liberal provision raade for his Royal Highness,
both on account of his illustrious rank and of his various and
shining virtues, that as his royal predecessors had enjoyed
larger revenues at periods when the necessaries of life were
much cheaper, it was treating the Prince with ill-judged and
unmerited parsimony to place hira in a worse situation than
former Princes of Wales had been placed in ; and there were
not wanting some who, at this time, actually prognosticated
the inconvenience and embarrassments which at a future period
would arise to his Royal Highness from the scantiness of his
income. Araongst this nuraber was Mr. Fox, who then fiUed
the post of secretary of state for the foreign department.
He foresaw that habits of strict economy could not he expected
of so young a man as the Prince of Wales, surrounded as he
was and exposed to all the allurements, which can captivate
the youthful passions, and that the narrowness of his income,
instead of being any advantage to the nation, might throw him
into a state of embarrassment from which the country might
be called upon to relieve him. Had it remained with Mr.
Fox, he certainly would have advised an establishment more
adequate to the object in view ; but the person most proper to
decide on the business was of a very different opinion, and
therefore it vvas his duty to submit.
The person to whom we allude was the King himself, who
was unwiUing, at the close of a disastrous and expensive war,
when economy in every branch of the public expenditure was
loudly called for by aU ranks of his subjects, to increase the
expenses of the state by a larger establishment for the Prince
of Wales. His Majesty, therefore, suggested to confine his

80 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Royal Highness' income to a grant of 5O,O00Z. a-year, exclu
sive of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, which on an
average amounted to 13,000/. a-year. In the same month
he obtained his Colonelcy of the 10th Light Dragoons, which
he retained until he ascended the throne. This was the only
military rank the King would ever allow him to hold.
The Prince had novv begun to manifest that predilection for
Brighton which induced him at a future period to make that
town his residence. The report, however, which was current
at the time, and which is actually founded in truth, goes so far
as to state, that it was neither the raarine views, nor the benefit
of change of air, nor the salubrity of the place, which'^possessed
in the eyes ofhis Royal Highness at this time any great attrac
tions, but that he was drawn thither by the angelic figure of a
sea-nymph, whom he one day encountered reclining on one of
the groins on the beach. In this amour, however, his Royal
Highness was completely the dupe. As far as personal charms
extended, Charlotte Fortescue was of ' the first order of fine
forms,' but as far as mental qualifications were to be considered,
she was one of the most illiterate and ignorant of huraan beings.
In artifice and intrigue she was unparalleled, and withal she
knew how to throw such an air of simplicity and innocence
over her actions as would have deceived even a greater adept
than his Royal Highness in the real nature of her character.
She soon discovered the exalted station of the individual whom
she believed she had captivated by her charms ; and on the prin
ciple that the thing is of little value, which is cheaply or easily
obtained, she for a time frustrated every attempt of his Royal
Highness to obtain a private interview with her. She kept her
residence a complete secret, and for some days she was neither
seen nor heard of. On a sudden she vvould make her appear
ance, and then, suffused in tears, would speak of her approach
ing marriage, and her consequent departure from the country ;
and could that idea be borne by her royal lover ? Heaven and
earth were to be moved to avert such a direful calamity ; a
regular elopement was proposed, and in order to give the
affair a highly romantic air, it was arranged that the dress of a
footman was to be procured for the beautiful fugitive, and that
the Prince was to have a postchaise in waiting a few miles on

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 81
the London road to bear away his valuable prize. There is,
however, an old adage which says, that rauch falls between the
cup and the lip, and in this instance the truth of it was fully
confirmed. The hour was anxiously looked for which was to
bring the lovers into the undisturbed society of each other ; but
as the Prince was dressing for dinner, the arrival of George
Hanger, who had just then begun his career of eccentricity and
profligacy in the fashionable circles, was announced. The
Prince invited hira to dine, excusing hiraself, however, at the
same time for the early hour in which he would be obliged to
leave hira, as he had raost iraportant business to transact that
night in the metropolis. Dinner being over, the Prince inquired
the business which had brought his visiter to Brighton in so
unexpected a manner.
' A hunt, a hunt, your Royal Highness,' said Hanger, ' I
ara in chase of a d  d fine girl, whom I met with at
Mrs. Simpson's, in Duke's Place ; and although I have taken
private apartments for her in St. Ann's East, yet the hussy
takes it in her head every now and then to absent herself for a
few days ; and I have now been given to understand that she is
carrying on some intrigue with a fellow at this place. Let ,me
but catch him, and I wUl souse hira over head and ears in the
ocean.' The Prince now inquired what kind of a lady he was in
pursuit of, and by the description given he doubted not for a
moment that the lady with whora he was to elope that very
evening on account of her approaching raarriage, was the
identical lady who had eloped from the protection of his visiter,
and he began to consider how he could extricate himself with
the best possible grace from the dilemma in which he was
involved. That he was a dupe to the artifices of a cunning,
designing girl was now apparent to hira, and therefore it would
be his greatest pride and joy to outwit her. He, therefore,
disclosed the whole of his intrigue with the runaway, and it
was resolved that Hanger should put on one of the coats in
which she had been accustomed to see her royal lover, and
take his seat in the chaise, instead of the Prince. The whole
affair was weU managed ; the Prince remained at Brighton.
Hanger bore off his lady to London, not a little chagrined at

82 MEMOI&S OF GEORGE IV.
such an unexpected termination of her romantic elopement;
but not raany months elapsed before the lady gained an oppor
tunity of repaying the Prince tenfold for the trick which he
had played her.
The manner in which his Royal Highness travelled at this
time to and from Brighton partook a good deal of the eccentric.
He had always three horses to his phaeton, one before the
other, like a team in a wagon ; the first horse was ridden by a
postilion, the other two were managed by himself. The vehicle
was built upon an entirely new construction, and particularly
adapted for expedition.
In regard to the state of the pecuniary affairs of the Prince
at this tirae, the truth began to display itself, that the fixing
of the Prince's establishraent at 50,000Z. per annum did not
evince much foresight on the part ofthe King. It was said to
have been dictated by a raaxim, that to keep princes out of
vice they should be kept poor, than which nothing ever proved
more erroneous. The allowance to the Prince was exactly one
half of what had been allowed to his grandfather, when money
Was of rauch greater value ; and was of course insufficient for
the support of the royal establishment. This, encouraged by
his natural spirit of extravagance, occasioned him to contract
debts, and when it becarae necessary that those debts should
be discharged, very little care was shown to protect the Prince's
character from disgrace. There was another circumstance
also which ought not to be overlooked: the Duchy of CornwaU
was the Prince's property frora the hour of his birth, and when
he carae of age he was put in possession of the revenues of
that Duchy, but the Prince obtained no part of that revenue
which had been received frora the Duchy during the rainority.
Part of the sura so unjustly withheld from him was afterwards
repaid, but this did fittle towards appeasing his sense of the
wrong. We shaU defer any further remarks on this subject until the
period when it was brought before pariiament by the friends of
the Prince, a circumstance which tended considerably to enlarge
the breach between the latter and his royal parent.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 83
SECTION II.
[From 1780 to 1790.]
It cannot be denied that party spirit is the moving sprino- in
the government of this country. Where freedom exists vvith
so rauch latitude, unceasing contentions for the enjoyment of
power wfll naturally arise, frora the personal ambition and
private interests of men. It has been aUeged that a British
prince should divest himself of all party spirit, and that he
should adhere to those raen only who act up to the principles
ofthe constitution, and whose conduct has been stamped with
national approbation. We are now entering on that period of
the Prince's life when he becarae a meraber in the great
council of the nation, and consequently the choice of his asso
ciates determined his political bias, and his adherence or
opposition to the measures of the acting rainisters of the day.
On the 12th of August, 1783, the Prince of Wales attained
his majority ; the celebration of it, however, was postponed
at court in consequence of the accouchement of the Queen of
her fifteenth child, which took place on the 7th of the same
month. The King and royal family, therefore, received the
congratulations of the nobility in a private manner, and his
Royal Highness gave a very grand entertainment to several of
the nobility, at the White Hart Tavern, Windsor ; a large
turtle, of the enormous size of four hundred weight, was killed
on the occasion, being a present sent to the Prince from the
East Indies.
The first establishment of the Prince was a welcome event
to his numerous flatterers, especially to some araongst them
whose profligacy and poverty seemed to vie with each other
which should the soonest complete his ruin. Deeply did every
real friend of his Royal Highness lament, that, of this perni
cious class, some had obtained an entire ascendency over his
ingenuous raind ; and, that whUst they hailed his independence
with hollow congratulations, they dreaded nothing so much as
for his spirit to become as independent as his circumstances,
and his opinions to disdain the restraint which his person had
L 2

84 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
shaken off. They were, in fact, resolved that neither persons
nor circumstances should long continue independent of their
control; hence arose that course of extravagant folly to
which they urged him, and which, in a very short time, com
pelled the King and Parliament to interfere for his relief.
At the opening of Parliament, on the 1 Ith of Noveraber,
1783, his Royal Highness was introduced into the House of
Peers, on which occasion the following ceremonial was ob
served, as inserted in the London Gazette.
His Royal Highness having been, by letters patent, dated
the 19th day of August, in the second year of his Majesty's
reign, created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, was, in
his robes, which, with the collar and order of the Garter he
had put on in the Marshal's house, introduced into the Hou.se
of Peers in the following order : —
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, with his Staff of Office,
Earl of Surrey, Deputy Eari-Marshal of England,
Lord Privy Seal,
Garter Principal King of Arms, in his robes, with the Sceptre,
bearing his Royal Highness' Patent,
Sir Peter Burrell, Deputy Great Chamberiain of England,
Viscount Stormont,
Lord President of the Council,
The Coronet
On a crimson velvet cushion, borne by Viscount Lewisham, one
of the Gentlemen of his Royal Highness' Bed-chamber,
His Royal Highness the Prince op Wales,
carrying his writ of sumraons, supported by his uncle' the Duke
of Cumberiand, and the Dukes of Richmond and Portland.
And, proceeding up the House with the usual reverences,
the writ and patent were delivered to the Earl of Mansfield,
Speaker, on the woolsack, and read by the Clerk of the Par
liament at the table, his Royal Highness and the rest of the
procession standing near; after which, his Royal Highness was
conducted to his chair on the right hand of the throne, the
coronet and cushion having been laid on a stool before the
chair, and his Royal Highness being covered as usual, the
ceremony ended.
Some tirae after his Majesty entered the House of Peers,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 85
and was seated on the throne with the usual soleranities, and
having delivered his raost gracious speech, retired out of the
House. Then his Royal Highness, at the table, took the oaths of
aUegiance and supremacy, and made and subscribed the decla
ration, and also took and subscribed the oath of abjuration.
The session in which the Prince of Wales now took his seat
in the great council of the nation was one of the raost irapor
tant that had occurred since his Majesty's accession to the
throne, though, at this period, its iraportance is lost in the
magnitude of succeeding events. The Coalition rainistry, with
the Duke of Portland at its head, (but with Mr. Fox the effi
cient minister,) was then at the zenith of its power, and menaced
the royal authority with sorae restrictions of prerogative, which
are supposed to have given high offence to the interior cabinet
of Buckingham House. We allude to the celebrated India
Bill of Mr. Fox, which was introduced in this session, and
caused the disraission of the Coalition administration.
The first time his Royal Highness ever spoke in Parliament
was upon the raotion of the Marquess of Abercorn, for an
araendment to the address of the Commons upon his Majesty's
proclamation for preventing seditious meetings and writings,
and in a raanly, eloquent, and it, raay be added, persuasive
manner, delivered his sentiraents. He said, that on a question
of such raagnitude, he should be deficient in his duty as a
member of Parliament, unmindful of the respect he owed to
the constitution, and inattentive to the welfare, the peace, and
happiness of the people, if he did not state to the world what
was his opinion on the present question. He was educated in
the principles, and he should ever preserve thera, of a rever
ence for the constitutional liberties of the people ; and, as on
those constitutional principles the happiness of that people
depended, he was deterrained, as far as his interest could have
any force, to support thera. The matter in issue was, in fact,
whether the constitution was or was not to be maintained ;
whether the wild ideas of theory were to conquer the whole
some maxims of established practice ; and whether those laws
under which we had flourished for such a series of years were
to be subverted by a reforra unsanctioned by the people. As

86 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV;
a person neariy and dearly interested in the welfare, and he
should emphatically add, the happiness and comfort of the
people, it would be treason to the principles of his mind
if he did not come forward and declare his disapprohation of
those seditious publications which had occasioned the motion
now before their Lordships ; his interest was connected with
that of the people; they were so inseparable, that unless
both parties concurred, happiness could not exist. On this
great, this solid basis, he grounded the vote which he meant
to give, and that vote should unequivocally be for a concur-.
rence with the Commons in the address they had resolved
upon. His Royal Highness spoke in a manner that called riot only
for the attention, but the admiration of the House, and the fol-,
lowing vvords were remarkably energetic. ' I exist by the
love, the friendship, and the benevolence ofthe people, and
their cause I wUl never forsake as long as I live.' The Prince
then concluded by distinctly saying : ' I give my raost hearty
assent to the raotion for concurring in this wise and salutary
address.' In the discussions which took place in the Upper House of
Parliament relative to the India Bill, the Prince of Wales ob
served a dignified neutrality, but it was generally understood
that the Whig party, with Mr. Fox at their head, possessed his
good wishes. Being novv launched into public life, some judg^
ment may be formed of what were his pohtical principles from
the circle with whora he associated ; and in speaking of the
character of the men who at this time formed what was called
the Prince's friends, if we should appear to speak ofhis Royal
Highness in a tone of regret or disapprobation, it proceeds not
from any disrespect which we entertain of his general charac
ter, or from the most distant intention of degrading his late
Majesty in the opinion of the English people. Nevertheless,
with that sincere attachment which is due from every subject of
the British Empire to the heir apparent of the crown, it must
cause a certain degree of distress in the mind of every reflect^
ing EngUshman, when he beholds such shining virtues peiv
verted from their natural tendency to whatever is great and
good,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 87
The Prince of Wales is not only the offspring of the sove
reign, but he is the child of the people. The nation has a dear
and heartfelt interest in hira, and every individual ofthe coun-
ti*y over which he is one day destined to govern possesses a
constitutional right to observe upon his conduct, and to ap
plaud or to lament it.
The virtues of the Prince of Wales were raany, and of the
most engaging nature. They were his own, and it would be
ungracious not to give hira the full raerit of them ; but on the
other hand, if any errors should be found to mingle with his
amiable qualities, it would be an act of equal injustice not to
attribute them to the acts of designing raen, who availed thera
selves of his generous nature, to win his confidential regard,
with the view to apply it, if possible, to their own private as
well as political interests.
When his Royal Highness arrived at that period which.
emancipated him frora the control of the Queen's palace ;
when all that could give pleasure, flatter vanity, and gratify
passion, was at his coramand ; when impelled by the vivacity
of early life and warmed by the glow of a generous mind, he
entered into the world as into a bower of delight, it becomes
by no means a raatter of surprise, that the policy of certain raen
should actuate thera to assume any and every form that might
conciliate his favourable prepossessions, and hiding their ser
pent train in flowers, present theraselves to his view in such a
fascinating shape, and clothed with such attractions as might
appear to justify his warraest friendship. This, indeed, was a
moment when severity itself knew not how to censure him for
preferring the Epicurean to the Stoic philosophy.
It is not by any means improbable that, in his unreserved
and social hours, he now heard arguments insidiously sug
gested to support every branch and refinement of elegant
intemperance. It might now be progressively insinuated to
him, that Princes were elevated at too great a distance from
the coramon herd of mankind to obtain a proper knowledge of
thera, and that to live as a subject was the best preparation
to fulfil the duties of a king ; that to know the world it was
necessary to raix in all the concerns of it ; that to indulge in
what are called the vices of youth and fashionable life, was a

88 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
proof of genuine spirit, and to give grace to his mode of enjoy-
ino- them, was a mark of superior genius ; that dignity was a
grave and solemn quality which suited UI with youth ; that it
was one of the formal accorapaniraents of advanced life, and
should be laid aside till the possession of sovereign power re
quired the solemn exercise of it : in short, that as the only
period of enjoyraent allotted tothe heir of an erapire was the
uncertain space of tirae between the trammels of education and
the cares of a crown, he was certainly raore than justified in
crowding into it all the pleasure it is capable of containing.
Such doctrines raight at this tirae have been propagated to
encourage the glowing dispositions of his age, whUe the crafty
philosophers who taught them knew how to apply their prin
ciples to every object of luxurious and sensual gratification.
It must also be premised, that with the dispositions which the
Prince of Wales possessed, and the partialities which he had
formed, it could not be expected that a rigid prudence was to
be found amongst the most conspicuous of his virtues, or that
he would subrait to the plague of econoraical attention ; and
such was in reality the case : he indulged hiraself in a profuse
fiberality, a splendour of appearance, and a variety of pleasures
beyond the power ofhis revenue to support.
The people whora his Royal Highness chose for his social
friends, soon contrived, also, to involve hira in their poli
tical principles. It was the natural consequence of the society
he had adopted. He was even persuaded to attend the
debates ofthe House of Commons, as the great school of poli
tical instruction, and he appeared to reserve his approving
looks for the orators of opposition. Still, however, he pre
served the decorum of respectful intercourse with his royal
parent, and Mr. Fox, in a parliamentary eulogium of him, re
presented it, with his usual ability, as a very promising fea
ture in his character, that he knew how to reconcUe an opposi
tion to his father's ministers with filial duty.
It is, however, a notorious fact, that the raen who at this
time styled themselves the opposition were the original cause
ofthe pecuniary embarrassraents ofhis Royal Highness. Their
example, their suggestions, their prodigalities, progressively
seduced him from the moral standard before he had acquired

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 89
any knowledge of human artifice, and, in the moment of that
seduction, they meanly and ruinously fattened upon his exceed
ing bounty ; yet no sooner were those means of improvident
support withheld, than they blotted all recoUection of his
munificence from their memories, and had the audacity to
affect a pity for his dirainished splendour, and publicly blaraed
him for having suffered himself to be their dupe and sacrifice.
They rudely cast hira upon an indiscriminating society, encum
bered in a great degree with a weight of responsibihty for
their own irregularities ; they shaded his perception, but could
not suppress the arguraents of his heart.
Amongst the earliest friends of the Prince of Wales, Fox,
Sheridan, and Burke may be considered as the most distin
guished, a triumvirate of talent and genius, which we can
scarcely expect ever to behold again. In the formation of his
establishraent, the Prince consulted Mr. Fox, and it is un
doubted, that he entertained for hira the most sincere regard.
With Mr. Fox, therefore, he thenceforth forraed a permanent
friendship. Influenced by his eloquence and impressed by his
arguments and persuasion, he regarded that illustrious states
man as a pattern for his imitation, and esteeraed and reverenced
him as the friend of raan. Into the arausements and follies of
the lighter hours of Mr. Fox, the Prince entered with a zest
which his previous restrictions tended to increase, and these
follies and extravagancies not unfrequently involved hira in
private broils, which exposed him to public animadversion.
Mr. Fox, then in the prime of life, though not of his glory,
stood on a coraraanding erainence, and the eyes not only of
his own nation, but of all the courts of Europe, were turned
upon him, as the man above all others in the British dorai-
nions best qualified to be at the head of the government.
But his bold independent spirit; the firmness with which he
resisted the encroachments of the crown, and above all, his
sincere and unalterable attachment to the privileges of the
people, were insurraountable objections to his reception at
court. The King, educated in high Tory raaxiras, was averse
to his principles and dreaded his spirit ; the favourites of the
court were naturally disgusted with his integrity, and shrunk
beneath his superior talents. In his parliamentary conduct
M

90 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
there was nothing to censure, and as a rainister he had shewn
himself incapable of being influenced by the seductions of
office, or tempted by the love of power, to continue in place
when the dictates of honour and conscience told him that he
ought to resign.
In the public Hfe, therefore, of this illustrious raan, there
was nothing that the raost iraplacable of his eneraies could fix
upon that rendered hira unfit to occupy the first place in the
confidence of the heir-apparent to the crown ; and, therefore,
in order to justify the obloquy which was cast upon the Prince
of Wales for this attachment, it was necessary that the private
character of Mr. Fox should undergo an examination, and the
amusements and follies of his lighter hours were made to pass
in a severe and raalignant review before the public judgraent.
And here it must be confessed that his eneraies had some
tangible grounds to proceed upon, for it is indisputable that he
was guilty of many of the levities and indiscretions which
young men of fashion and fortune corarait ; and that, like them,
he experienced those pecuniary vicissitudes which generally
indicate extravagance and imprudence. Into these follies and
indiscretions the Prince of Wales unfortunately entered, and
not possessing at that period that hold on the public opinion
which the parliamentary exertions of Mr. Fox had ensured to
him, he participated in all the disgrace incidental to such con
duct, without enjoying the counteracting influence of public
esteem. A finer compliment to the genius of this celebrated man was
never paid than by the late erudite philosopher, Dr. Parr.
Speaking of the friends and companions of that glorious time,
which boasted so many wits and geniuses now no more, he said
that he never feared Dr. Johnson in argument, Richard Brins-
ley Sheridan, nor even Edmund Burke. ' The only man I
feared,' he added, ' was Charies James Fox ! When he argued,
I felt my inferiority.'
It is our wish, from the sincere reverence which we feel for
the extraordinary talents of this great man, that we could
whoUy acquit him of some acts which partake strongly of dis
honour, and a wanton neglect of those upright principles on
which the genuine moral character is founded. We are aware

niomTarMiE) BiwisiEii.

0

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London: Puifclied by nioiaasKelh,' 17 ?a<.em.--<!l:ei Row; 1830

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 91
that these sentiraents are at direct variance with those expressed
by a very able writer when treating of the private character of
Mr. Fox, who says, ' take the word honour in whatever accept.
ance it can be applied, it wUl, frora the narrowest scrutiny that
can possibly be gone into Mr. Fox's life, be found, that he never,
even in the reraotest degree, violated the strictest laws of
honour.' We pledge ourselves, in the course of this work,
that in his relations with the Prince of Wales we will disprove
that stateraent in raany important particulars, and under cir
curastances which can throw no palliative hue over the conduct
which he pursued.
The person who was supposed at this time to hold a second
place in the friendship of the Prince of Wales as a political
raan, was Mr. Burke. Of the character of this great orator
we are not to judge from the maxiras of his later years, but
from the'principles which he asserted up to the period when
he was distinguished by the friendship of his Royal Highness.
Brought into public notice by the munificence ofthe Marquess
of Rockingham, and attached to the Whig party both by
sentiment and gratitude, the splendour of his eloquence, and
his various literary attainments, had raised him to a high rank
both in the political and literary world. The conduct of Mr.
Burke, in his declining years, casts a shade over his character ;
but we are disposed rather to view this luminary as he shone
in the political hemisphere at the meridian of his glory, than
in his declension, when the evening and the lowering tempests
of night obscured and deformed his setting rays.
Mr. Burke was, on many accounts, one of the most remark
able men of his times. He was what few of our modern
.statesmen have been — the architect of his own preferraent,
without ever having had occasion to blush for the raeans which
brought him forward to public notice. Born with a vast and
comprehensive genius, which he cultivated with the most assi
duous industry, he rose to eminence by his own talents ; and
the patronage that was conferred on him reflected as much
honour on the discernment of his Royal Highness as his own
abilities reflected credit on himself. It is not easy to pronounce
the eulogy of such a man ; not because we find it difficult
to separate those parts of his public conduct which we disap-
M 2

92 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
prove frora those which we admire — and, indeed, we may say,
as proceeding from such a mind as Mr. Burke's, which we
reverence, — but because so many great qualities were united in
Mr. Burke's composition, that it is next to impossible to give
a rough sketch of the combined effect of the whole.
In one particular, however, vve will do that justice to the
character of Mr. Burke, which it so preeminently deserves, by
declaring that he neither encouraged nor fostered the libertine
dispositions of the iUustrious individual who honoured him with
his friendship and esteem. In many instances he attempted to
dissuade him from pursuing a career which must ultimately
end in disgrace and ruin, and to which it was evident that he
was led on by the example of his profligate companions, reck
less, as it would appear, of the consequences resulting to the
injury of his character as a prince and a man. Circumstanced,
however, as Mr. Burke was, and in conformity with the prin
ciple of noscitur a sociis, it was irapossible for him to escape
coraing in for a share ofthe general obloquy which was at this
time attached to the associates of the Prince, who were
regarded, in the majority, as a set of men with bankrupt for
tunes, who administered to his wanton appetites merely for
the purpose of their own aggrandizement.
Looking, however, at Mr. Burke merely as a public man,
and as one of the most distinguished leaders of the House of
Commons, we can affirm of him, without the least fear of con
tradiction, that the universality of his knowledge and erudition,
the powers of his imagination, the rapidity of his eloquence,
the perfection of his language, and the various objects to
which those endowments were applied, all conspired to make
him one of the most prominent and conspicuous characters of
his time. It may perhaps be considered by sorae as a misfor
tune in the world that the extraordinary genius of this raan,
whose private studies might have so greatly delighted and
instructed it, should have been thrown into the tumult of
public life, and absorbed in the vortex of politics. But let us
take a passing glance at the various and astonishing qualities
of his oratorical powers, before we too rashly condemn the
destiny which conducted Mr. Burke to the triumphs of the
senate-house.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 93
The argumentative powers of Mr. Burke were ofthe highest
order; his sources of knowledge were universal and inexhaus
tible ; his memory was comprehensive and faithful, while his
mind teemed with the most luxuriant imagery, clothed in the
most elegant language, and strengthened by the raost appli
cable and briUiant expressions. It has been admitted, even by
those who have raost rigidly exarained his pretensions to fame,
that the splendour ofhis eloquence has seldom been excelled
by the most accomplished orators or even poets of any aoe or
country. Frora the depths of science, frora the labours of art,
the long track of history, the flights of poetry, ' the passing
raoraent,' as well as that which is gone for ever, he collected,
or rather coraraanded the raost apt, varied, and beautiful
iraagery to support and decorate his elocution ; and such was
the extent of his powers and the facUity with which he could
muster up his forces, that in the very tumult of his eloquence,
they presented themselves to his mind, to aid, to strengthen,
and to carry the cause he supported. The harraony of his
periods, and the accuracy of his expressions,'even in his raost
unpreraeditated speeches, were araong the least of the orato
rical distinctions of this wonderful man. In the most rapid of
his flights, when the torrent of his eloquence could scarcely
keep pace with his thoughts, and the hearer with difficulty at
tend him in his course, he never faUed to seize the most
choice and felicitous expressions that are to be found in the
treasury of our language. His mind was an emporium of
knowledge, and the comraunication of his stores was elegant,
graceful, and attractive. In the House of Commons, his
details were interesting, important, and correct — his arguments
forcible, replete with information, and never supported by de
signed misrepresentation to answer the purposes of debate.
His knowledge of parliamentary business was so vast and mul
tifarious, that every matter brought into discussion, whether
politics," jurisprudence, finance, coraraerce, raanufactures, or
internal police, with all their divisions, subdivisions, and rami
fications, were treated by hira in such a raanner, as to induce
those who heard him to iraagine that he had dedicated his life
to the investigation of that particular subject. In conclusion
of this brief sketch of this extraordinary raan, it would be in-

94 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
justice to pass over his occasional displays of the most pure
morals, or to orait the acknowledgraent that his speeches seldom
failed to possess a strong tincture of the most amiable philo
sophy. Sheridan, the wit, the poet, the dramatist, and the orator,
but the drunkard, the gamester, and the rake, was also the
personal friend of the Prince of Wales. To the talents of
Sheridan as an orator, the tributes of admiration and applause
have been as numerous as they have been just. Of one of his
celebrated speeches, made before the Lords, on the impeach
ment of Governor Hastings, in June, 1788, Mr. Burke thus
exclaimed : ' He has this day surprised the thousands who
hung with rapture on his accents, by such an array of talents,
such an exhibition of capacity, such a display of powers, as are
unparaUeled in the annals of oratory ; a display that reflected
the highest honour upon hiraself — lustre upon letters — renown
upon Parliaraent — glory upon the country. Of all species of
rhetoric, of every kind of eloquence that has been witnessed or
recorded, either in ancient or modern tiraes; whatever the
acuteness of the bar, the dignity of the senate, the solidity of
the judgment-seat, and the sacred morality of the pulpit, have
hitherto furnished, nothing has equalled what we have this day
heard in Westminster HaU. No holy seer of religion, no sage,
no statesraan, no orator, no man of any literary description
whatever, has come up, in the one instance, to the pure senti
ments of morality ; or in the other, to that variety of know
ledge, force of iraagination, propriety and vivacity of aUusion,
beauty and elegance of diction, strength and copiousness of
style, pathos and subliraity of conception, to which we have
this day listened with ardour and admiration. From poetry
up to eloquence, there is not a species of composition of which
a complete and perfect specimen might not, frora that single
speech, be cuUed and collected.' And yet Sheridan as a rao-
raUst was as defective in principle as he was incorrect in prac
tice. Sheridan, poor, descried, diseased, and wretched, ex
pired in loneliness and raisery ; and so died, not purely, as has
been aUeged, a mariyr to his love of liberty, but rather to his
vices and licentiousness. An acquaintance, therefore with
Sheridan, whilst it could not faU of improving the judgment,

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 95
enUvening the fancy, and heightening the imagination and wit of
the dullest ofhis associates, yet it could not also fail of injuring
that high tone of morals with which the heart of a monarch of a
Christian country should be especiaUy inspired. In the
amours of Mr. Sheridan, the name of the Prince of Wales was
consequently involved, and this circumstance additionally
tended to the permanent injury of his character and reputa
tion. Of the Prince's intimacy with Sheridan many pleasant and,
we regret to add, painful anecdotes are related, "The following
will shew the famihar footing on which they stood with each
other. The Prince became a member of Brookes' Club, in order
to have more frequent intercourse with Mr. Fox. His Royal
Highness was the only person who was ever admitted without
a ballot, and on his first appearance every member rose and
welcomed him by acclamation. When Fox first became ac
quainted with Sheridan, he was so delighted with his company
and brilliant conversation, that he becarae exceedingly anx
ious to get him adraitted as a member of Brookes' club, which
he frequented every night. Sheridan was frequently proposed,
but as often had one black ball in the ballot, which disqualified
him. At length, the balls being marked, the hostile ball was
traced to old George Selwyn, a stickler for aristocracy. She
ridan was apprised of this, and desired that his narae might be
put up again, and that the further conduct of the matter
might be left to hiraself. Accordingly, on the evening that he
was to be balloted for, Sheridan arrived at Brookes', arra in
arra with the Prince of Wales, just ten minutes before the bal
loting began. Being shewn into the candidates' waiting- roora,
the waiter was ordered to tell Mr. Selwyn that the Prince de
sired to speak with hira below immediately; Selwyn obeyed the
sumraons without delay, and Sheridan, to whora he had no
personal dislike, entertained him for half an hour with a poli
tical story, which interested hira very much, but which, of
course, had no foundation in truth. During Selwyn's absence
the baUoting went cn, and Sheridan was chosen, which cir
cumstance was announced to himself and the Prince, by the
waiter, with the preconcerted signal of stroking his chin with
his hand. Sheridan immediately got up, and apologizing for

96 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
an absence of a few minutes, told Mr. Selwyn that the Prince
would finish the narrative, the catastrophe of which he would
find very remarkable.
Sheridan novv went up stairs, was introduced to and wel
comed by the club, and vvas soon in all his glory. The Prince
in the mean time was left in no very enviable situation, for he
had not the least idea of being left to conclude the story, the
thread of which (if it had a thread) he had entirely forgotten,
or which, perhaps, his eagerness to serve Sheridan's cause pre
vented hira frora listening to with sufficient attention to take
up where Sheridan had dropped it. Still by means of his au
ditor's occasional assistance, he got on pretty well for a fevv
minutes, when a question from Selwyn, as to the flat contra
diction of a part of his Royal Highness' story to that of Sheri
dan, completely posed him, and he stuck fast. After rauch
floundering to set himself right, and finding all was in vain, the
Prince burst into a loud laugh, and exclairaed, ' D — n the fel
low ! to leave me to finish this infernal story, of which I know
as much as the child unborn — but never mind, Selwyn, as
Sherry does not seem inclined to come back, let us go up
stairs, and I dare say. Fox or some of them wiU be able to tell
you all about it.' They adjourned to the club-room, and Sel
wyn now detected the manoeuvre. Sheridan rose, made him a
low bow, and said, ' 'Pon my honour, Mr. Selwyn, I beg pardon
for being absent so long, but the fact is, I happened to drop
into devilish good corapany : they have just been making me a
meraber, without even one black ball, and here I am.' ' The
devil they have,' exclaimed Selwyn. ' Facts speak for them
selves,' replied Sheridan, ' and as I know you are very glad of
my election, accept my grateful thanks (pressing his hand on
his breast and bowing very low) for your friendly suffrage :
and now, if you'll sit down by me, I'll finish my story, for I
dare say his Royal Highness has found considerable difficulty
in doingjustice to its merits.' ' Your story ! it is all a lie from
beginning to end,' screamed out Selwyn, amidst immoderate
fits of laughter from aU parts of the room.
Among the nobility who at this time were more particularly
honoured with the countenance of the Prince of Wales, were
the Dukes of Norfolk, Bedford, Devonshire, Portland, and

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 97
Northumberiand, the Earls of Derby, Cholraondeley, and Fitz
william, and Lords St. John, Ponsonby, Craven, Southampton,
and Rawdon (afterwards the Eari of Moira), who, after having
passed thegreaterpart of his Ufein the enjoyment of the respect
and esteem of his fellow countryraen, became the object of
their scorn and contempt, by the mean and pitiful conduct
which he pursued in the investigation of the charges which
were brought against the late Queen Caroline. In regard to
the connection of his Royal Highness with the other noble
men, he derived very little moral benefit or advantage. As
the descendants of the illustrious champions of freedom, or as
men of great talents and acquisitions, they were fit associates
for the heir apparent to the throne of Great Britain, but this
assisted but little in discouraging that general penchant for the
feraale sex, which, however it may accord with continental
manners, ill agrees with the principles of morality, or the
opinions and views of the Christian population. Example is
Unfortunately, as well as fortunately, the school of mankind.
In the short space of three years, the Prince had been
introduced to circles as dissipated as they were gay, and as
immoral as they were dissipated. His personal and raental
endowments attracted for him the admiration of women
distinguished as much for rank and virtue, as for duplicity,
licentiousness, and infidelity.
The residence ofthe Prince of Wales was now chiefly confined
to Carlton-house, it having been presented to him by his father,
and it soon became the focus of conviviality. Brilliant were
the flashes of festive wit which enlivened the royal board, and
some idea may be formed of the nature and spirit of those
meetings from the following comico-tragico event which took
place, in which the celebrated George Hanger was the prin
cipal performer.
It is weU known, that the above-raentioned person was the
particular companion ofhis late majesty, when Prince of Wales,
and many of the youthful improprieties which he committed
were ascribed, by the King, to the company which he kept ;
and particulariy to the society of Sheridan and Major Hanger.
On a particular occasion, when the latter was raising recruits,
the King hearing that the Prince was taken frora place to place

98 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
by him and others in high life, coUecting mobs and throwing
money to them in large quantities, for the sake of creating the
fun of seeing a scramble, and other worse purposes, he, with
much feeling, exclaimed, ' D — n Sherry, and I must hang —
hang — Hanger, for they will break my heart, and ruin the
hopes of my country.'
The following will be read as a rich treat to the lovers of fun
and raischief: it shews the extraordinary gaiety of the dis
position of the Prince of Wales, and the farailiar manner in
which he lived vvith his companions.
It was atthe celebration of her Majesty's birth-day, 1782, that
Major Hanger made his first appearance at court ; and it may
be said to have been a debut which proved a source of infinite
amusement to all who were present, and to no one raore so than
the Prince of Wales, who was no stranger to the singularity
of his character, and the general eccentricity of his actions.
Being a raajor in the Hessian service, he wore his uniform at
the ball, which was a short blue coat with gold frogs, with a
belt, unusually broad, across his shoulders, from which his
sword depended. This dress being a little particular, when
compared with the full-trimmed suits of velvet and satin about
him, though, as professional, strictly conforraable to the eti
quette of the court, attracted the notice ofhis Majesty and his
attendants; and the buz, — 'Who is he?' 'Whence does he
come ? ' &c. &c. was heard in all parts of the room. Thus he
became the focus of attraction, and especially when the con
trast presented itself of his selecting the beautiful Miss Gunning
as his partner. He led her out to dance a minuet, but when,
on the first crossing of his lovely partner, he put on his hat,
which was of the largest KevenhiiUer kind, ornamented with
two large black and white feathers, the figure which he cut
was so truly ridiculous and preposterous, that even the gravity
of his Majesty could not be restrained : the grave faces of his
Ministers relaxed into a smile, and the Prince of Wales was
actually thrown into a convulsive fit of laughter. There was
such an irresistible provocation to risibility in the tout ensemble
of his appearance and style of movement, that his fair partner
was reluctantly obliged to lose sight of good raanners, and
could scarcely finish the rainuet ; but Hanger himself joined in

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 99
the laugh which vvas raised at his expense, and thereby extri
cated his partner from her embarrassraent. This is, perhaps,
the first tirae that the pas grave of a rainuet has been consi
dered as a mighty good jest, but there are moments when even
the most serious circurastances serve only to produce a comic
effect. The Major now stood up to dance a country-dance, but here
his motions were so completely antic, and so much resembling
those of a mountebank, that he totally discomfited his partner,
put the whole set into confusion, and excited a degree of
laughter throughout the room, such as had never before been
witnessed in a royal drawing-room.
On the following day, the subject of the Major's ludicrous
debut at court became the subject of conversation at the con
vivial board at Carlton-house, when the Prince proposed, that
a letter should be written to the Major, thanking him, in the
name of the company which had assembled in the drawing-
roora, for the pleasure and gratification which he had afforded
thera. The joke was considered a good one : writing materials
were ordered, and the Prince himself indited the foUowing
letter, which was copied by Sheridan, with whose hand-writing
the major was not acquainted. ' St, James' Street, Sunday Morning,
' The company who attended the ball on Friday last at
St. James', present their compliments to Major Hanger, and return
him their unfeigned thanks for the variety with which he enlivened
the insipidity of that evening's entertainment. Ihe gentlemen ¦wa.ut
words to describe their admiration of the truly grotesque and hu
morous figure which he exhibited ; and the ladies beg leave to
express their acknowledgments for the lively and animated emotions
that his stately, erect, and perpendicular form could not fail to excite
in their delicate and susceptible bosoms. His gesticulations and
martial deportment were truly admirable, and have raised an im
pression that will not soon be effaced at St. James'.'
This letter produced a highly ludicrous scene, which often
excited a laugh when the Prince related it to his guests, as one
of the most huraorous which had occurred to hira during
his fife.

100 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
On the day subsequent to the receipt of the letter, the
Prince purposely invited George Hanger to dine at Carlton-
House, and it formed a part of the plot of his Royal Highness
that Sheridan should not be invited. After dinner the con
versation turned designedly upon the leading circurastances of
the late ball ; and on the Prince ironically coraplimenting the
Major on the serious effect, which his appearance must have
had on the hearts ofthe ladies, he in a very indignant manner
drew from his pocket the letter which he had received, declar
ing that it was a complete affront upon hira, and that the sole
motive of the writer was to insult hira, and to turn him into ridi
cule. The Prince requested permission to read the letter, and
having perused it, he fully coincided in the opinion of the
Major, that no other motive could have actuated the writer
than to offer hira the greatest affront.
The Major's anger arose: 'Blitz und Hoile I' he exclaimed;
' if I could discover the writer, he should give me iraraediate
satisfaction.' ' I adraire your spirit,' said the Prince : ' hovv insulting to
talk of your grotesque figure ! '
' And then to turn your stately, erect, and perpendicular
form into ridicule,' said Mr. Fox.
' And to talk of your gesticulations,' said Captain Morris.
' Sapperment !' exclaimed the Major, ' but the writer shaU
be discovered.'
' Have you not the slightest knowledge ofthe hand-writincr ?'
asked the Prince ; ' the characters are, I think, somewhat
familiar to me. Allow me to peruse the letter again.' The
letter was handed to the Prince : ' 1 am certain 1 am not
mistaken,' he said ; 'this is the hand-writing of that raischievous
fellow, Sheridan.'
' Sheridan !' exclaimed the Major ; ' impossible— it can
not be.'
' Hand the letter to Fox,' said the Prince ; ' he knows
Sheridan's hand-writing well.'
' This is undoubtedly the hand-writing of Sheridan,' said
Fox, looking at the letter.
' Then he shall give me immediate satisfaction,' said the
Major, rising from the table, and, addressing himself to Captain

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 101
Morris, requested him to be the bearer of his message to Mr.
Sheridan. Having written the note, in which a full and public
apology was deraanded, or a place of raeeting appointed. Cap
tain Morris was despatched with it, and in the raean tirae he (the
Major) would retire to his lodgings to await the answer from
Mr. Sheridan. The Prince novv pretended to interfere, ex
pressing his readiness to be a mediator between the parties ;
but at the same time he contrived every now and then to
increase the flame of the Major's resentment, by some artful
insinuations as to the grossness of the affront, and compliment
ing him on the spirited manner in which he had behaved
on the occasion. The Major was determined not to be ap
peased ; and he left the room rauttering ' D — n the impudent
fellow! grotesque figure! — perpendicular forra ! — gesticu
lations ! '
The Major had no sooner retired, than the whole party burst
into a loud laugh ; the Prince had brought hira to the very
point he wished, and in about an hour Captain Morris arrived
with Sheridan, who entered immediately into the spirit of the
adventure. It was then agreed that Sheridan should accept
the chaUenge, appointing the following raorning at day
break in Battersea Fields, and that Mr. Fox should be the
bearer of the answer of Mr. Sheridan to the offended Major — ¦
Mr. Sheridan undertaking, on his part, to provide the necessary
surgical assistance.
On the following raorning the parties were punctually at the
spot ; the Major accorapanied by Captain Morris, Mr. Sheridan
by Mr. Fox, the Prince of Wales disguised as a surgeon, being
seated in the carriage which conveyed the latter gentleman.
The custoraaiy preliminaries being arranged, the parties took
their station ; the signal to fire was given — no effect took place ;
the seconds loaded the pistols a second time — the parties
fired again — still no effect was produced.
' D — n the feUow,' said the Major to his second, ' I can't
hit hira.'
' The third fire generaUy takes effect,' said Captain Morris,
who with the utmost difficulty could keep his risible faculties
in order, whUst the Prince in the carriage was almost convulsed
with laughter at the grotesque raotions of the Major.

102 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
The signal to fire was given the third time— the effect was
decisive — Mr. Sheridan feU, as if dead, on his back.
' KiUed, by G— d !' said Captain Morris ;' let us fly instantly :'
and without giving the Major time to collect himself, he hur
ried him to the carriage, which immediately drove away towards
town. The Prince descended from the carriage, almost faint
with laughter, and joined Sheridan and Fox, the former of
whom, as soon as the Major's carriage was out of sight,
had risen frora his prostrate station, unscaithed as when he
entered the field ; for, to complete the farce, it had been pre
viously arranged that no ball should be put into the pistols,
and that Sheridan was to fall on the third fire. The Prince
with his two associates drove off iraraediately to town, and a
message was sent to Major Hanger, desiring his immediate at
tendance at Carlton House. The Major obeyed the suramons,
and he entered the apartment of the Prince with a most dolo
rous countenance. ' Bad business this,' said the Prince, ' a
very bad business. Hanger ; but I have the satisfaction to teU
you that Sheridan is not materially hurt, and if you will dine
with me this day, I will invite a gentleraan, who will give you
an exact account of the state in which your late antagonist
lies Reraain here tiU dinner tim^, and all may yet be wefl.'
The Prince, from goodness of heart, and not wishing that
the Major should have the painful impression on his mind, that
he had been the instrument of the death of a fellow-creature,
and one of the most convivial of their corapanions, had im
parted to the Major the consolatory information that his anta
gonist was not seriously injured ; and the Major looked forward
to the hour of dinner with some anxiety, when he was to
receive further inforraation on the subject. The hour came
— the party were asserabled in the drawing-room ; ' Now,
Hanger,' said the Prince, ' I'U introduce a gentleraan to you,
who shaU give you all the inforraation you can wish.' The
door opened, and Sheridan entered. The Major started
back with wonder : ' How ! how ! how is this ?' he stam
mered ; ' I thought I had kiUed you.?' ' Not quite, my
good fellow,' said Sheridan, offering the Major his hand ; ' I
am not yet quite good enough to go to the worid above—
and as to that below, I am not yet fully qualified for it,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE it. 103
therefore, I considered it better to defer my departure from
this to a future period ; and novv I doubt not that his Royal
Highness wiU give you an expUcit explanation of the whole
business — but 1 died weU, did I not, Hanger ? '
The Prince now declared that the whole plot was concocted
by himself, and hoped, that when the Major next fought such a
duel, he might be in a coach to view it. Conviviality reigned
throughout the remainder of the evening — the song and glass
went round — the Prince singing the parody on ' There's a dif
ference between a beggar and a queen,' which was composed by
Captain Morris, and which is to be found in the twenty-fourth
edition of ' Songs, Political and Convivial,' by that first of
lyric poets.
In reverting to the private character of the principal asso
ciate and adviser ofthe Prince (we allude to Mr. Fox),wewiU
proceed, in one instance, to redeem the pledge which we gave,
in a forraer part of this work, of proving that the eulogiums
which were passed upon Mr. Fox, in regard to the unsullied
purity of his honour, were rather the emanations of the enthu
siastic brain of the writer, than a fact, based on incontrovertible
evidence. At the time when the Prince had satiated himself with
the charms of Mrs. Robinson, a lady appeared in the hemi
sphere of fashion, whose beauty was the therae of general
admiration, and whose mental endowments were little inferior,
if any, to those of the ill-fated Perdita. That a meteor of
this kind should be blazing in the world, and the Prince of
Wales not desire to behold it, could not be expected by those
who were in the least aware of his propensities. Of the early
life of this lady it becomes us not to speak ; il is only when
she appears as one of the characters in the scenes of the
eventful drama which we are portraying, that she becomes an
object of our notice. At the period, however, when her beauty
became the therae of general conversation, she was living
secretly under the protection of Mr. Fox, although, to all out
ward appearance, her conduct was regulated by the strictest
rules of propriety and decorum. ¦ She was received into the
first circles, caressed by all the libertines of rank and fashion,
although the doors of the royal drawing-room were closed

104 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
against her on account of some little stain which was supposed
to attach to her character, and which she could not wipe off to
the entire satisfaction of the rigidly virtuous and illustrious
female who then presided over the British court. Moving,
therefore, in a sphere different to that of his Royal Highness,
he had no opportunity of obtaining a view of her in public,
and he therefore applied to one of his immediate and confiden
tial associates to effect an interview — and this associate was no
other person than Mr. Fox hiraself It was rather a startling
commission for him, but at this period Mr. Fox so completely
compromised his honour as to becorae the most active pander
to the passions of the Prince, and Mrs. Armstead was one
evening introduced by him to the Prince at Windsor. The
secret raust now be told : frora that moraent Mrs. Robinson
declined in his affections. She declares in her narrative, that
she found herself surrounded by enemies, and subject to
attacks, but from what quarter they came she knew not ; — she
was assaUed by pamphlets, but of the authors of them she was
ignorant; — she was libelled, caricatured, insulted, and abused,
and all on account of falsehoods which were propagated to her
injury by individuals, who, like the bat, kept themselves in the
dark, that their hideous forms might not be seen. And from
what quarter did all these annoyances in reality proceed? — from
a set of unprincipled and dishonourable men, who saw that as
long as his Royal Highness was under the influence of a lady
in no measure connected with their party, and whom they could
not make subservient to their own personal views, their plans
could not be carried on with that prospect of ultimate success,
as if that lady were supplanted, and one substituted for her,
who would fall into all their views, and through the medium of
whom they could obtain the requisite information of the pro
ceedings of the opposite party, who were endeavouring to
obtain the ascendency in the cotincils of the Prince. Mr. Fox
and his party beheld in Mrs. Armstead the very individual who
was to accomplish this task, and every instrument was novv
set in motion, in the first instance, by base and insidious reports
to defame the character of Mrs. Robinson, to undermine
the attachment of the Prince for her; and, in the second, by
a contmued course of annoyance and persecution, to induce

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 105
her to leave the country. Mr. Fox undertook to effect the
latter, and the successful manner in which he executed his
dastardly coramission has been already described.
Mrs. Armstead now became the companion of the Prince,
and Mr. Fox consoled hiraself for the teraporary loss of her
edifying society by the benefit which her influence over his
Royal Highness obtained for his party, personally and politi
cally. In a short time, however, Mrs. Armstead shared the
fate of her exiled predecessor, when Mr. Fox kindly and
honourably accepted of her again ; and we shall, in the sequel,
find, when the question of the Regency carae to be discussed,
that he was travelling on the continent with her, pointing
out to her the beauties of southern France and Italy, and
recruiting hiraself frora his career of profligate dissipation in
the conteraplation of her faded charras.
The ingredients of which honour is coraposed we believe
to be fixed and determined, however differently they may be
araalgaraated, according to the natural character of the indivi
dual ; but we have minutely analysed this transaction in all
its principles, and we hesitate not to say, that vve have not
been able to discover one single ingredient in it of which
honour, even in its most confined latitude, is supposed to be
composed. We pretend not to enter the lists with any of our coterapo
raries on the authenticity or originality of their respective state
ments, as that is a question which must be decided by the public
voice ; but we cannot refrain expressing our indignation at the
attempts of some of them to purify and bleach the character of
his Royal Highness, by blackening the characters of others,
whose greatest misfortune in life was their connexion with him
and his associates. We feel a high and becoming respect for
the virtues which his Royal Highness possessed, which were
allowed to be great and eminent before they were contaminated
by an association with individuals so deeply steeped in disho
nour and moral turpitude ; but we feel a still higher degree of.
indignation for those who, to serve their own interested views,
could plunge him into a vortex of dissipation and of profli
gacy, which ultimately reduced him to such a state of disgrace,
unparaUeled almost in the history of princes, and which

106 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
alienated from him the good opinion of that people over whora
he was one day destined to rule.
We have been led into these remarks, influenced by the true
spirit of impartiality, and with the sole view of doing justice to
those characters which have been maligned merely for the
purpose of courting the favour of ' the powers that be,' and to
the utter falsification and perversion of the facts themselves, as
they have been transmitted to us by individuals, whose veracity
or testiraony has never been impeached, and also in open de
fiance of chronological truth. We aUude particularly to the
remarks inserted in the Court Journal of July 3, 1830, in
which, in order to cast the odium of the affair of Mrs. Ro
binson on her own shoulders, and to alleviate those of his
Royal Highness from the burthen of the iniquity, an attempt
is made to throw the hue of discredit on the whole of her
Statement, by a pretended discovery of certain anachronisms
and inconsistencies with which it is said to abound.
In our extracts frora the statement of Mrs. Robinson, con
tained in her autobiography, which was too long to insert in
this work, we omitted the following passage : —
' At an interview with Lord Maiden, I perceived that he
regretted the task he had undertaken ; but he assured rae that
the Prince was alraost frantic whenever he suggested a wish to
decline interfering. Once I reraeraber his Lordship's teUing
me that the Duke of Cumberland had raade hira an early visit,
inforraing hira that the Prince was raost wretched on ray ac
count, and iraploring hira to continue his services only a short
tirae longer.'
The remarks made by the Court Journalist on the above
passage are as follows : — 'At this period, the Prince was only
eighteen years of age, Lord Maiden only twenty-three, and the
Duke of Cumberland only nine. We leave the reader to judge
of the lady's accuracy, and of the open field she had for the
exercise of her talents upon such youths,'
By what epithet ought this error to be characterized ? The
Duke of Cumberiand spoken of by Mrs. Robinson was the
husband of Mrs. Horton ; on account of whose marriage,
the celebrated act was passed in 1772, restricting the raarriages
of the descendants of George II. He is the identical Duke of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 107
Curaberland, of whom a writer of that day observes, — . ' To
reproach a man for being an idiot, is an insult to Alraighty
God.' The present Duke of Cumberland was simply then
Prince Ernest Augustus, and, at the tirae of the connexion
between the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Robinson, was cer
tainly only nine years old. We leave this without any further
comment ; a school-boy would be whipped for such ignorance.
The next perversion of facts, which, according to the
diction of the Journalist, throws discredit on the narrative of
the lady, is to be found in the supposed anachronism which
exists between the dates of the Bishop of Osnaburg leaving
England, in 1780, and the date of the letter, in 1783. His
Royal Highness did certainly leave England on the 30th of
December, 1780, as related by the Journalist ; but, in regard
to the date of the letter, he seems to be ignorant, that although
the facts took place in 1779 — 80, it was not till the year
1803, that Mrs. Robinson writes to her friend in Araerica,
( Colonel, afterwards General Tarleton, not Carleton, as
the Journahst has it,) giving hira a full and explicit account
of the whole of her connexion with the Prince. Mrs. Ro
binson does not say, that the facts took place in 1803,
but she writes the account of thera in that year, and thus the
objections of the Journalist to the accuracy of the statement
of Mrs. Robinson again break under hira.
We cannot dismiss this subject finally from our attention
without passing our animadversions on the falsity of the state
ment of the Journalist, — that the connexion of the Prince with
Mrs. Robinson was broken off on account of the Prince's /ne?icZs
opening his eyes to her machinations, and thereby rescuing
him from so pernicious a connexion.
Let us inquire who were those friends, who stepped in so
prudently and laudably to rescue the Prince from the predica
ment in which he found hiraself. They were the very raen who
had been the means of introducing Mrs. Armstead to hira ; who
skipped about with the St. Vitus's dance of abhorrence at the
moral turpitude of his connexion with Mrs. Robinson ; but who
placed over their consciences the healing.plaister of expediency,
when they conducted Mrs. Armstead to his arras. The narae and
temporary influence of the latter were a passport to the whole

108 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
party to the convivial board ofhis Royal Highness, tohis bac
chanalian orgies, and to a participation in scenes, in which
every fine and noble feeling of the heart — every principle of
honour, integrity, and truth was sacrificed on the shrine of per
sonal emolument. And in regard to the machinations of Mrs.
Robinson, — with whora did she machinate, if we raay be al
lowed the expression ? Who were the men that she collected
around her to work upon the credulity of ' the simple, inexpe
rienced youth?' Where are the proofs that she committed an
interested action, by which the advantages of herself or any of ,
her friends were promoted by her connexion with the Prince ?
She came to him impoverished, and she left him the same. His
bond was restored to him — his trinkets, to the araount of the
paltry sura of lOOZ., were returned to hira. Did Mrs. Armstead
do the same ? — on the contrary, did not the bounty and the
presents of his Royal Highness furnish her with the means of
enabling the individual, who had meanly taken her to his arms
again, on her repudiation by the Prince, to continue his habits
of extravagance and profligacy? Machination implies a concert
of action in particular individuals for the attainment of some
specific end ; but we have not a single proof, during the
whole of the connexion of Mrs. Robinson with the Prince,
that she combined or coalesced with a single person for the
accomplishment of any interested vievv. — Machinations were
not committed by her, but against her, and they were deep,
disgraceful, and degrading to the parties in whose breasts they
originated. We now take our leave of this subject; we have given our
feeble aid in rescuing the raeraory of a beautiful, unfortunate,
but highly-gifted female, from the odium which has been at
tempted to be thrown upon her character : faultless it was not.
The temptations with which she had to contend were more
than a woman's strength could conquer ; and if she fell, let
Charity drop a tear upon her errors, and let them stand as a
warning example to others, whose misfortune it may. be to be
placed in similar circumstances.
It was about this period that his Majesty George III. again
evinced some symptoms of that aberration of mind to which he
was habitually subject, and which threw such a heavy cloud

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 109
over the latter part of his life. The political contentions
, which at this time agitated the nation, the profligate life of
the Prince of Wales, and his apparent subserviency to all the
views of the opposition, tended to destroy the equanimity of
the King's mind, and he fell a prey to habitual dejection ;
becoming silent, thoughtful, and uncommunicative, instead of
evincing his customary equality of temper, suavity of manners,
and cheerfulness of disposition. It must, however, be taken
into the account, that his Majesty was now no more the gay
impetuous youth ; the cares of governraent had sitten, for a
length of tirae, heavily on his shoulders, and the loss of the
American colonies had affected him deeply. The buoyancy
of youth had yielded to the sobriety of age ; and, although he
did not deny to the Prince of Wales the right to the enjoyment
of the pleasures of life, yet he was constantly exhorting him to
partake of them with moderation, and not to lose sight of the
dignified station to which Providence had called him. The
admonitions of the royal parent were listened to with becora
ing and respectful attention, but their effect was as transient as
the characters traced on the shores of the ocean, which the
next tide effaces, and they are lost for ever to the view.
The Prince repeatedly offended his father by the bold and
unqualified raanner in which he spoke of his rainisters, depre
cating their measures and ridiculing their talents : thus, in the
year 1781, which was a most inauspicious period for the
British arms, and the nation, getting tired of a long and inglo
rious struggle, vainly persevered to destroy those rational
principles of freedom in our brethren across the Atlantic, which
we are so jealous to preserve, and ready to defend at home, — at
this time many were the expedients proposed to bring about an
accommodation, but the majority of them were more likely to
perplex than to extricate our governraent : the Prince of Wales,
however, undertook to propose a remedy, which would not cost
much, would effectually put a stop to the war, and give ge
neral satisfaction. The King, his father, demanded of him to
state the nature ofhis projects : the Prince, with great gravity,
said, that three half-crowns would buy three halters, and that one
of these should be sent to Lord North, then Prime Minister, and

uo MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IVi
one to each ofhis chief supporters in the adrainistration. The
King was at first surprised at his boldness, but immediately
afterwards he ordered this young counsellor to retire to his
apartraents, and not to approach his sovereign untU he had
made a proper apology. History is sUent as to the apology
being made, but Lord North's administration was dismissed in
a few months,, without receiving the halter ; and peace, with its
concomitant blessings, was soon restored to Europe.
We wish not to refer to any part of the life of George III.
during the melancholy period of his inteUectual aberrations,
but we cannot refrain from inserting the following truly pathetic
counsel which his Majesty, in one ofhis lucid intervals, gave to
the Prince of Wales, respecting the character of those with
whora he associated.
' George,' said the King, ' keep good corapany ; methinks I
am already dead. I solemnly conjure thee, George, keep good
company. Be a father to thy sisters, and a husband to the
Queen, thy mother. 0 George, she well deserves thy tender
ness. Banish the unworthy from thy presence : they flatter
thee, and call thee good and gracious, and so they would, the
man that had dethroned thee. Princes are always good and
gracious to those who fatten on their favours, and from their
smiles draw omens of stiU greater spoUs.
' George, let the virtuous counsel thee. Study thy people's
good ; their interests are united with thy own. In their happi
ness thou wilt find thy truest glory.
' And remember, George, thou art mortal ; the vices of thy
manhood wUl plant with thorns the pillow of reflecting age. Be
wise in tirae ; and let devotion to thy God obtain a glorious
conquest — the conquest of thyself and death.'
Such was the substance of the royal adraonition. The
Prince wept and retired, his bosora convulsed with contending
passions. The effect, however, was but transitory. He waa
so entangled in the chains of dissipation and of libertinism,
that he could not shake them off. As his appetite increased,
fresh objects were always at hand to satisfy it ; and, to the
shame of his associates, be it recorded, that they were not
always very nice in regard to the objects whora they selected.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. IU
Ofthe truth of this, a more striking proof cannot be given than
the connexion which he forraed, about this tirae, with Mrs.
Billington, the celebrated singer.
The exterior of this woraan had soraething to recoraraend
her to the attention ofthe royal Hbertine, but her manners were
distinguished by the utmost grossness, and in many instances
by the raost positive indelicacy. To enter into any description
of the life of Mrs. BUlington previously to her connexion with
the Prince, were to stain our pages with the delineation of
scenes injurious to the interests of the rising generation, and
at variance with those principles which we have laid down for
our rule and guide, in the accompUshraent of the delicate task
which we have undertaken. The exposure of vice may, in
many instances, be of essential benefit to youth on his entrance
into the world, as it is a monster which has only to be exhibited
in its real and naked form, to be despised and shunned ; but,
on the other hand, it has its seductions and its blandishments,
and they may, by talent and address, be so clothed in a capti
vating garb, that the youthful heart, glowing with passion, may
long to become familiar with thera, and to partake of the en
joyment which their possession is supposed to afford.
It was behind the scenes of the theatre that the Prince first
becarae acquainted with Mrs. Billington, and at that time she
appeared to be his chief inducement for visiting the theatre.
Those, who like ourselves are aware of sorae particular traits in
the character of Mrs. BiUington, and of the peculiar penchant,
which was her ruling passion in her intercourse with her
favourites, raust be well aware, that the Prince of Wales was,
notwithstanding his exalted rank and high personal endowments,
not exactly the individual who could long enchain her affec
tions. The vicinity of her dweUing to the Thames, it being
situate at Fulham,, and iraraediately on the banks of the river,
offered raany facilities to the Prince to partake of the society of
the fascinating syren, and to enjoy the delight of her rausical
conversaziones, which were held alraost every night that her
presence was not required at the theatre.
This connexion of the Prince was not, however, of long
duration ; the coarseness of her manners soon disgusted him,
and he declared at last, that the only satisfaction he enjoyed

112 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
in her society, was when he shut his eyes and opened
his ears.
We shall briefly state another amour which followed that of
Mrs. Billington, and that was with Mrs. Crouch, also an actress,
who was then in the zenith of her beauty. On this lady
the Prince expended considerable suras, in one instance to the
araount of 10,000Z., independently of a profusion of jewels and
trinkets, which were purchased at Gray's, to the araount of
5000Z., and which, when in a short time afterwards, a sche
dule of his Royal Highness' debts was laid before his Royal
Parent, excited so strongly his disapprobation and resent
ment, that the King refused to interfere in the liquidation
of his debts. Kelly, in his Rerainiscences, when treating of
the life of Mrs. Crouch, studiously avoids raaking any men
tion of the irapression which her charms made upon his
Royal Highness ; but it is melancholy to relate, that after
having squandered iraraense suras of raoney, and exposed
hiraself to the ridicule of his associates, he found that he had
selected an individual, who, although her person and form were
beauteous, was so addicted to intoxication, that her breath
became disgustingly tainted, which gave rise to the well-known
simUe of George Hanger, coraparing her throat to a smoky
chimney — foul and stinking.
In addition to the sura above-raentioned, he settled upon
her 1,200Z. a-year, but when the debts of the Prince were ar
ranged previously to his marriage, Mrs. Crouch's annuity was
not recognized, as it was said no valuable consideration had
been given for it. About this time the Prince of Wales and the
present Eari Grey, were suitors for the favours of the Duchess
of Devonshire, mother of the present Duke, after an understood
separation from her husband (vvho had under his protection
Lady Elizabeth Foster, the late Duchess). Eari Grey suc
ceeded, and the Prince was ousted. The fruits of this con
nexion was a daughter, a very accomphshed lady.
Before we enter upon that important event in the life of his
Royal Highness (we aUude to his marriage with Mrs. Fitz
herbert), we shall speak of some transactions in which he was
engaged at this period, and by which he incurred a very consi
derable share of obloquy.

memoirs of GEORGE IV. 113
Athletic sports seem ever to have been the favourites with
the EngUsh nation, and it was no doubt sound policy to en
courage them, inasmuch as the safety and independence of a
nation raust in a great degree depend upon the raartial spirit
and habits of its natives. Our ancestors, in their rude and
boisterous sports, seem to have had two objects in view —
to season the youth of England to firraness of mind and
agility of body, or, in other words, to make them skilful in
the science of offence and defence, as well as intrepid in the
encountering of danger; and it must be confessed, thatour-
national character, from the earliest records of our history,
appears to have been adrairably calculated to receive irapres-
sions of the kind here described. The character of a native
Englishman, undebased by adventitious circurastances, is,
perhaps, the noblest that the present race of raen in any
quarter of the globe can produce. In the hour of danger he
is bold, — in the moment of victory he is generous and humane.
No nation that ever made war so frequently as the English
nation, could ever boast of such a series of victories, unsullied
by any imputations of cruelty, as those that have attended the
arms of England in every quarter of the globe. There are, un
doubtedly, unworthy exceptions; but the courage of Englishmen
in general is unalloyed with any mixture of ferocity, and, in many
instances, we have been raost at a loss whether to admire the
invincible resolution, or the matchless generosity of our heroes.
The sports of England, for the most part, have a tendency to
confirm this temper, and it is a mistaken huraanity which
would lead us to see those sports abolished ; not that we mean
to advocate the brutal practice of prize-fighting, much less to
sanction the distinguished patronage which the Prince bestowed
upon the pugilists of the day, degrading himself in their so
ciety, and exposing hiraself to the contarainating influence of
their imraoral habits : but we prefer the noble and raanly
manner in which an Englishman resents an affront, to the
duelling of France, to the detestable American fashion of
gouging, to the Russian mode of boxing ears with the flat
hand, and puUing of beards, or to the music-houses of Hol
land, where the orgies of the night terminate with a skirmish
of knives. Let us seek for no such foreign improvements, —
p

114 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV*
let US be contented with those bold active sports which our
ancestors provided for us, and which are so suited to the
genius and character of our countrymen. Let our populace
leave the Frenchmen to their pistols or swords — the Hollanders
to their knives — the Russians to their woman's play, and the
Araericans to their savage habits. Let the English retain their
honest, national, pugilistic style of contest, in which as much
energy and spirit are required as in any other species of
combat — where far more activity and hardiness are required, far
more skill may be shown, and far more generosity exhibited,
than in any of the other modes of fighting to which we have
alluded. That his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales should have
been an encourager of pugilistic sports, may, perhaps, have
been expected of him as a British prince of his manly form
and resolute constitution of raind ; but that he should have
personally attended the combats, and, in sorae instances, been
the fomenter of them, must have naturally depreciated hira
in the estiraation of the virtuous and the good. He was stig
matized, not in terras, but by implication, as brutal and san
guinary, in having sanctioned, by his presence, some of these
brutal exhibitions ; but still there were some, who extenuated
that conduct by viewing in it a desire in a British prince to
promote the martial spirit and mUitary habits of his future
subjects, and in whose skiU, bravery, and invincible resolution,
he was to look for the security of his crown.
Amongst the other sports to which the English nation are
more pecuUariy attached, and which may, in some degree, be
regarded as a national sport, is the arauseraent of horse-racing.
Since the days of Charles II. , who gave Newraarket the ton
by visiting it with his court, horse-races have been one of the
favourite amusements of the nobiUty and landed gentry of
England; and at the time when his Royal Highness became a
sportsman, the practice of keeping race-horses was encouraged
and countenanced by some of the first and best characters in
the country. On his Royal Highness attaining his raajority,
he turned his attention to the collection of a stud of running-
horses ; and as he pursued his object with ardour, he soon
found himself master of a stud not at all inferior to the best

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 115
in the kingdora. His horses were to be seen at all the
celebrated race-courses, and his Royal Highness often con
descended to honour Newraarket, and other places of sporting
resort, with his presence. These arauseraents were attended
with an enormous expense ; but no estimate can be formed of
the araount which his Royal Highness incurred on this account,
frora the circurastance that the suras of money expended on a
racing estabUshment, and the loss or gain of bond fide matches,
bear no proportion to the sums that are hazarded upon betting
speculations. With regard to the sums which he expended on
betting, it is from the nature of the thing not to be expected
that we should advance even a guess. The probabUity is, that
his Royal Highness, like most other gentlemen of the turf,
experienced his share of the vicissitudes of fortune, and some
tiraes was a considerable gainer, and at others a considerable
loser : general report declares the latter to have been raost
frequently the case, but there was probably in this instance, as
well as in many others, a large share of exaggeration, though
it is likely that the candour of his Royal Highness, and his
well-known spirit of honour, would expose him to some of the
artifices of which the gentleraen of the turf have been accused,
while his proud and dignified sense of propriety would not
allow hira to avail hiraself of those advantages which others
would not scruple to practise with irapunity at his expense.
Few characters of eminence have distinguished theraselves on
the turf who have not been suspected at one time or other of
these unjustifiable artifices, and hence the graver part of the
world has been disposed to view these sporting raeetings with
anything else than sentiments of approbation.
That the Prince of Wales, on attaching himself to the sports
ofthe turf, should have rendered himself liable to these impu
tations, was a consequence naturally to be expected from the
equality that necessarily prevails on such occasions. Losers
could no raore conceal their chagrin when a prince was the
winner, than they could when they paid their raoney to an
equal ; and they well knew that his Royal Highness was as
liable to be deceived and iraposed upon by his grooms, trainers,
and dependants, as any other gentleman ofthe turf: and, there
fore, whenever the royal horses did not perforra according to
p 2

116 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
their satisfaction, either by winning when they had an extra
ordinary opinion of their fleetness, or by losing when they
thought they would prove deficient in spirit and speed, the
result was the sarae ; they attributed their disappointraent,
not to any accidental circurastances over which the Prince of
Wales or his servants could not possibly have any control, but
to some unfair manoeuvres on the part of the Prince and his
dependants, for the purpose of misleading the public judgment.
The case of his Royal Highness' celebrated horse Escape, and
respecting which we shall have to enter into some detail at
a future period, will fully illustrate the truth of the foregoing
statement. In the raean time, the clamour against his Royal Highness
on account of the ruinous expenses incurred in the maintenance
of his racing stud vvas loud and incessant ; and in order to
palliate those proceedings, his partisans very injudiciously
beheld, in the attachment of George III. to the pleasures of
the chase, the same good reasons for imputing to his Majesty
an equal degree of censure, not considering that a very wide
difference exists between the two pursuits. The chase is an
exercise highly salubrious and manly, and it is totaUy distinct
in its best features and characteristics from the pleasures of
the turf The former encourages not the ruinous spirit of
gambling ; and, although a person may be a member of a field
of hunters, he may be stiU as select in his companions, as if he
were foUowing a brace of greyhounds with his immediate friends
on his own estate. It is the suspicious and questionable cha
racters with whom, as a patron of the turf, an individual is
obliged to associate, which tends to throw an iraputation upon
hira, however high and unsullied his honour and integrity raay
be in the general relations of life. In this as in other cases
which we have mentioned, the very zeal and anxiety evinced
by the friends of the Prince to exonerate him from the general
charges alleged against the patrons of the turf, only tended to
involve him deeper in the obloquy, and to raise the clamour
to a still higher pitch against the course of life which he was
pursuing. Surrounded as his Royal Highness was at this time by gam
blers of every rank and degree, his losses became iraraense, his

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 117
embarrassments alarming and disgraceful. His nights which
were not otherwise employed, were spent at the faro-table,
whither he was often taken in a state of almost helpless intox
ication, to render him the greater dupe of those who were then
fattening on the unhallowed spoU obtained by their deliberate
viUainy. At this time there lived a Jew in Crutched Friars, who had
amassed a splendid fortune by his usurious advances to the
extravagant libertines of the age. The exigencies of the
Prince became oppressive to him, and every expedient was
adopted to obtain the necessary supplies for the extravagances
ofthe day, however great the sacrifice might be. The channels
frora which the supplies had been hitherto obtained were com
pletely exhausted, and not a farthing could be raised on the
responsibUity of any of the immediate associates of the
Prince ; the whole of the party were actually in a state of the
deepest poverty; and Major Hanger, in the history of his life,
mentions a circumstance in which he, Sheridan, Fox, an illus
trious individual, and a Mr. Berkeley, repaired to a celebrated
tavern then known by the name of the Staffordshire Arms,
where, after carousing with some dashing Cyprians who were
sent for on the occasion, the combined resources of the whole
of the party could not defray the expenses of the evening.
On this occasion, Sheridan got so intoxicated that he was put
to bed, and, on awakening in the morning, he found himself
in the character of a hostage for the expenses of the previous
night's debauch.
From such circurastances some idea may be formed of the
depressed state of the finances of the whole party — their indi
vidual credit was far below par, and their chief and only expect
ation rested on the responsibihty of the Prince, who had some
sort of security to give, aUhough perhaps at a very distant
date. In regard to the Prince of Wales, individually, an immediate
supply was indispensably necessary; and Sheridan undertook
to set on foot a negotiation vvith Moses Aaron, of Crutched
Friars, who, on hearing that no less a personage than the heir-
apparent to the crown was to be the security for the advance.

118 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
consented to supply whatever was required, but on such terras
as could not fail to draw ruin after them.
Accordingly to the arrangement raade with Sheridan, Aaron
was introduced to Carlton-house ; and the following scene,
which took place between those two personages in the anti-
chamber of the Prince, previously to their introduction into his
presence, will throw sorae light upon the characters of the
Prince's associates, as they were then current in the world : —
'Ah! my old friend Aaron,' said Sheridan, as he entered
the room, ' how do you do ?'
' I should be better, Mr. Sheridan,' said Aaron, ' if every
raan had his due.''
'• Then, Moses,' said Sheridan, ' many a man would have a
halter.' ' It raay be so, Mr. Sheridan,' said Moses ; ' you, I know,
are a raost conscientious raan, and I dare say you speak as
you feel.'
' Well hit, Moses,' said Sheridan ; ' but hark ye — did you
get that little biU done for me ?'
• It was not to be done, indeed, Mr. Sheridan,' said Moses.
' No !' exclaimed Sheridan ; ' why I thought when my friend
Fox had indorsed it, that it was as good as cash.'
' No, Mr. Sheridan,' said Moses, ' it would not do.'
' Money raust be devUish scarce, then ?' said Sheridan.
' Or,' said Moses, ' there must be something the matter with
the credit of the parties.'
' The times — the times,' said Sheridan, ' are very suspicious ;
but you can perhaps effect it for me by way of annuity ?'
' But then, your life, Mr. Sheridan, must be insured,' said
Moses ; ' and how should I stand then, if you vvere to have your
due, according to your own statement, — and then the interest,
what security have you to offer ?'
' My honour, Moses,' answered Sheridan.
^ That won't do, either,' said Moses ; ' it is quite threadbare,
— it won't pay for turning.'
' But if the Prince joins in the security,' said Sheridan—
' how then ?'
« That wiU alter the case,' said Moses.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 119
* Then,' said Sheridan, ' let us go into the Prince.'
From the introduction of this Jew to his Royal Highness
may be dated a great portion of the serious embarrassraents in
which in a short tirae he was involved. A source was opened
to hira in which an iraraediate supply could at any tirae be
obtained ; although, if he had not been hurried away by the
impetuosity of his passions, which left him not a raoraent for
serious reflection, and by the pernicious counsels of his needy
associates, he raust have seen that every step which he took
involved hira deeper in ruin and disgrace. In one instance this
Jew raised hira £10,000 on a post-obit bond, to be paid on the
decease of his father. For this bond he received in reality
but £7,500, the remaining sum being raade up in various
articles, the raost useful of which were, perhaps, two hogsheads
of French playing-cards, and three puncheons of excellent
French cogniac brandy raanufactured at a distillery in White
chapel ; a diamond cross and rosary — the said diaraonds also
manufactured in Houndsditch ; and two hundred tea-urns,
some of which partook of the porosity of the filtering-stone,
and which were immediately disposed of to another Jew at a
quarter of the price which the conscientious Israelite had
charged the Prince. In about three months after the above
transaction, the Prince required a further supply of money,
and these sarae tea-urns found their way back again into his
possession, and were disposed of at the sarae cost and sacrifice.
The above is but one of the many ruinous transactions with
which we are acquainted, which at this tirae marked the thought
less career of the Prince of Wales. If some hoary, venerable
friend of his parents expostulated with him on the inevitable
consequences of such conduct, the effect was transitory, —
amendraent was proraised, but the promise was never kept.
The following is the copy of a letter which was written about
this time by the Prince of Wales to the Duchess of Devonshire ;
and although it does not contain any of the high-flown rhapso
dies of an enamoured youth, it teUs enough to show what were
the real sentiments of his heart towards her.
'How little you know me, ever-dearest Duchess, and
how much you have misconceived the object of this day's

120 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
dinner, which has succeeded beyond my most sanguine ex
pectations ! It has almost, if not entirely, annihilated every
coolness that has, for a short time past, appeared to exist between
the Duke of Norfolk and his old friends ; and brought Erskine
back also. Ask only the Duke of Leinster and Guildford what
passed : I believe you never heard such an eulogium from the
lips of man pronounced, as I this day have pronounced upon
Fox ; and so complete a refutation of all the absurd doctrines
and foolish distinctions which they have grounded their late
conduct upon. He was most honourably, distinctly, and zea
lously supported by Sheridan, by which they were most com
pletely driven to the wall, and positively pledged theraselves
hereafter to follow no other line of politics than what Fox
and myself would hold out to them ; and with a certain degree
of contrition expressed by thera at their ever having ventured
to express a doubt, either respecting Charles or rayself Harry
Howard, who has never varied in his sentiments, was over
joyed, and said he never knew anything so weU done, or so
weU timed ; and that he should to-night retire to his bed the
happiest of men, as his mind was now at ease, which it had not
been for some time past. In short, what fell from Sheridan as
well as myself was received with rapture by the company, and
I consider this as one of the luckiest and most useful days I
have spent for ages. As to particulars, I must ask your patience
till to-morrow, when I will relate every incident, with which, I
am confident, you will be most completely satisfied. Pray, my
ever-dearest Duchess, whenever you bestow a thought upon
me, have rather a better opinion of my steadiness and firmness.
I really think, without being very romantic, I mav claira this of
you ; at the same time I am most grateful to you for your can
dour, and the affectionate warmth, if I may be allowed so to
call it, which dictates the contents of your letter : you may
depend upon its being seen by no one else but rayself. Depend
upon my coming to you to-raorrow. I ara delighted with your
goodness to me, and ever ' Most devotedly yours,
'G.P.'
' Carlton-house, Friday night.'

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 121
The general obscurity which pervades this letter renders it
very difficult to determine the particular circumstances to which
his Royal Highness alludes ; but it may be conjectured, that it
had some reference to the celebrated contested election for
Westrainster in 1784, in which Mr. Fox was a candidate, and
who was chiefly indebted for his success to the extraordinary
influence and exertions which were made by the Duchess of
Devonshire in his behalf. That the Prince, however, should
have so far lost sight of all respect for hiraself, or that he could
have so faricoraproraised his love of truth, as to utter such an
eulogium on Mr. F'ox, as he hiraself expresses it, as never was
before pronounced, is one of those traits in his character
which itis very difficult to explain. As a politician, the Prince
may have had good grounds to approve of the conduct of Mr.
Fox ; but as a private man, fulfilling the comraon relations of
life, there was, perhaps, no one in the whole circle of his asso
ciates less deserving of any eulogiura that could be passed
upon him. In one instance, however, the Prince did resent
the brutal conduct of Fox, and perhaps there was not any cir
curastance that could give greater offence to the feelings of his
Royal Highness than a studied rudeness to a feraale. During
the celebrated election just mentioned, a few nights after Mr.
Fox was returned, a grand supper was given, at which the
Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Devonshire, and the most
eminent of the whig leaders, were present, for the express pur
pose of celebrating the auspicious event. Mr. Fox was seated
by the side ofthe Duchess of Devonshire ; and notwithstanding
the utmost efforts of Hare, who was one of his most favoured
associates, he could not induce hira even to say a few words of
civUity to her Grace, but he actually turned his back upon her,
and would not utter a syllable. Piqued at Fox's conduct. Hare,
who sat nearly opposite to him, and who was accustoraed to
treat hira with the utmost freedom, took out a pencil, wrote
three lines, and pushed the paper across the table to his friend.
We shall not transcribe the lines, as they were too energetic, or
rather too coarse, to allow of their insertion ; but they adjured
Fox, in language as strong as Maecenas used to Augustus vvhen
he wrote to the emperor — ' Siste tandem carnifex 1 ' — to turn
himself round to the lady in question. Fox calmly perused the
Q

122 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
billet, and then having torn it into small pieces, which he
placed on the table, without appearing to pay any attention to
Hare, he turned his back, if possible, stUl more decidedly on
the person on whose behalf the expostulation was written.
This conduct could not fail to attract the attention of the
Prince of Wales ; and, addressing himself to F'ox, he said,
' Suppose you were to consult Buffon on the character of the
indigenous animals of this country, which do you suppose you
would find to be the most finished brute ?'
' I consider each,' said Fox, ' to be a finished brute in its
individual character.'
' But,' said the Prince, ' the habits and manners of one
brute are more coarse and savage than those of another.'
' That is a point,' said Fox, ' which I cannot determine.'
' But it is one,' said the Prince, ' which every one in this
company can determine ; for they have just had a specimen
given them that no animal in brutish manners can exceed a
Fox.' To this celebrated raan may be attributed the greater part of
the profligacies of the Prince of Wales. Fox loved only three
things — women, play, and politics ; yet at no period of his
life did he ever form a creditable connexion with a woraan. He
spoke of marriage as a chain which ought to be borne only in
the decline of life, but that in youth it was an actual loss of
personal liberty and freedora of raind. Sentiraents of a si
milar nature arose in the mind of his Royal Highness; and
although state policy might have required him to enter the
raarried state, at no period of his life was he fit for it. It is,
however, not a little remarkable that the Prince was one ofthe
most strenuous advisers of Fox to look out for some wealthy
heiress as the only means of repairing his shattered fortunes.
At this time he had completely dissipated every shUlingthat he
could either command, or that he could raise by the most
ruinous expedients. He had even undergone at times many
of the severest privations annexed to the vicissitudes that mark
the gamester's progress, frequently wanting money to defray his
common diurnal wants of the most pressing nature. Tophara
Beauclerc, himself a man of pleasure and of letters, who lived
much in the society of Fox at that period of his life, used to

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 123
affirm that no man could forra an idea of the extreraities to
which he had been driven, in order to raise raoney, after losing
his last guinea at the faro-table. He has been reduced, for
successive days, to such distress, as to be under the necessity of
having recourse to the waiters of Brookes's Club to lend him
assistance. The very chairmen, whom he was unable to pay,
used to dun him for their arrears. All dignity of character and
independence of mind raust have been lost amidst these scenes
of ruinous dissipation. He might be considered as an extinct
volcano, for the pecuniary aliment that had fed the flarae was
long consuraed.
Amongst the heiresses who at this tirae evinced their anxiety
to engraft their plebeian stock on some sprig of nobilit)', was the
celebrated Miss Johnstone, not less renowned for her wit than
for the extent of her fortune. To this lady the Prince of
Wales recomraended Fox to offer his hand, but the latter was
as ignorant of the road to gain a woman's love as an anchoret
of the desert. There was a brusquerie in his manner, and an
uncouthness in his general demeanour, which acted as repel
lents to the establishment of any permanent affection. In the
Prince, however, Fox had a raost powerful, and an alraost irre
sistible advocate ; and on one occasion, when his Royal High
ness was pleading the cause of his friend, with the knowledge,
at the same time, that Pitt had also shown sorae predilection
for the lady. Miss Johnstone said, ' I ara afraid, your Royal
Highness, I should get into a pitfall if I were to raarry Mr.
Fox.' ' Perhaps that would be better,' said his Royal Highness,
' than falling into the arras of a Pitt.'
' Better, perhaps,' said Miss Johnstone, ' in the arms of a
Pitt than in the claws of a Fox.'
The profligate character of Mr. Fox put an end to this treaty
of marriage ; and in a short tirae afterwards, during the cele
brated trial of Hastings, Fox raised his eyes and his hopes to
the Duke of Newcastle's box, in Westminster Hall, where
usuaUy sat Miss Pulteney, afterwards created by Mr. Pitt
Countess of Bath in her own right, then justly esteemed one of
the richest heiresses in the kingdora. After exhibiting his
powers of oratory as a pubUc man in the manager's box below,
Q 2

124 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
he sometimes ascended in his private capacity to try the effect of
his eloquence, under the character of a lover. The Prince of
Wales and all his friends aided a cause which, by rendering
Fox independent in his fortune, would have healed the wounds
inflicted by his early indiscretions. General Fitzpatrick usually
kept a place for him near the ladj', and for some tirae the
courtship assumed so auspicious an appearance, that Hare one
day, speculating on the probable issue of the marriage, said
with admirable humour, ' that they would be inevitably duns,
with black manes and tails,' alluding to the lady's fair com
plexion and red hair, contrasted with the dark hue of Mr. Fox.
The affair, however, ultimately went off like the former, and
Mr. Fox at length entered the married state with the Mrs.
Armstead, of ci-devant notoriety.
From this lamentable period of the life ofhis Royal High
ness we turn to one of the most important events of it — his
connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert.
This lady was a widow of great accomplishments and beauty,
and was some years older than the Prince. She was, unquest
ionably, a most beautiful woman, but perhaps too much in
clined to fulness of figure ; and yet it may be said that she
was indebted to that prominence of habit for a great portion of
her personal loveliness and attraction. She was aUied, on
her father's side, to Sir Edward Smythe, of Acton Burnel, in
the county of Salop, and distantly related to the noble family
of Sefton, in the kingdom of Ireland. The family of Smythe
was of ancient origin in the county, and possessed all the
pride common to those who can look far back to an illustrious
and honourable ancestry. There cannot be any reason to
suppose that Mrs. Fitzherbert was insensible to the distinctions
of her famUy ; and her education having been completed in
France, this principle was not likely to lose its influence. Her
first marriage was into one of the most wealthy families of the
Roman Catholic religion in this kingdom ; and, having been
once the mistress of Lulworth Castle, belonging to the Weld
family, was a circumstance of no small dignity to private life.
Her second marriage, with Mr. Fitzherbert, of Swinnerton, in
Staffordshire, continued her in that state of habitual import
ance which would effectually preserve her from being terapted

i^is FnT^ffimmiBiiisT.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 125
into any degradation of her character. The dowers and lega
cies of her different raarriages qualified her to command aU
the elegancies of fashionable life ; and therefore it became the
public opinion, that the relation in which she stood with the
Prince of Wales could only be justified to herself by the so
lemnity of some engagement, or the sanction of sorae cere
mony, whatever the nature of that ceremony may have been.
The first time that the Prince of Wales saw Mrs. Fitzherbert,
was in Lady Sefton's box atthe Opera; and the novelty of her
face, more than the brilliancy of her charms, had the usual
effect of enamouring the Prince. But in this instance he had
not to do with a raw inexperienced girl, but with an experienced
dame, who had been twice a widow, and who consequently
was not likely to surrender upon common terms. She looked
forward to a raore brilliant prospect which her arabition raight
artfuUy suggest, founded upon the feeble character of an amo
rous young Prince ; and when his Royal Highness first declared
himself her admirer, she gave him not the slightest hope of
success, but, in the true spirit of the finished coquette, she
turned away from his protestations, and in order to avoid his
importunities, quitted the kingdom, and took up her residence
at Plombiers, in Lorrain, in France, The lovely idol knew
that an object that is easily gained is seldora esteemed or
prized ; the Prince, indeed, from his peculiar situation as heir-
apparent, could not follow her, although it is stated, in an
anonymous letter preserved in the British Museum, that his
Royal Highness did once travel to Paris incog., and that he
had there an interview with Mrs. Fitzherbert, the consequence
of which was, her iraraediate return to England. As there is
no other authority for this act of his Royal Highness, and
faking the iraprobabUity of the event into consideration, it must
be left with aU the doubt attached to it, acknowledging, at the
same tirae, that the preponderancy leans to the side of it being
a fiction. The residence of Mrs. Fitzherbert at Plorabiers was not of
long duration ; and in describing the cause of her removal, as it
implicates the character of the lady in a most serious manner,
we shall give it, without any comment, exactly as it appears in
a pamphlet contained in the above-mentioned institution
the writer of which professes to have been most intimately

126 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
acquainted with all the proceedings of Mrs. Fitzherbert during
her residence on the Continent : —
' At Plorabiers, Mrs. Fitzherbert contracted an intiraacy with
the Marquess de BeUois, acknowledged to be one of the
handsoraest raen in France, with whora she withdrew for some
time, and lived in the greatest farailiarity. The consequence of
this intercourse was the necessity of retiring to Paris, where, by
means of two of her friends, the scandalous transaction was in
dustriously concealed *.'
It was now known that the Prince had sent his emissaries to
discover the residence of Mrs. Fitzherbert, and in order to pre
vent the above circurastance coraing to the ears ofthe Prince,
she was recoramended by Mr. Bouverie, and Mr. Errington,
her cousin, both of whom were afterwards present at her mar
riage, to return without loss of time to England.
In justice to the character of Mrs. Fitzherbert, we must
admit that the whole of this transaction is strongly tinctured
with iraprobabUity ; and yet it cannot be supposed that any
person (although ex-officio inforraations might not then have
been so rauch in fashion as at the present day) would have
been bold enough to have proraulgated so serious a charge
against a lady then universally known to be the favourite of
the Prince of Wales — by sorae supposed and by others knovm
to be his wife — without having good and incontrovertible, and,
if we maybe allowed the expression, almost divine proofs to
adduce for the truth of it. We found our opinion On the im
probability of such a criminal intercourse having taken place
between Mrs. Fitzherbert and the Marquess, on the ground,
that although the forraer had absented herself frora England,
yet still that she had an eye to the heir-apparent to the crown
of it; and it is not consistent with probability, that she would
so far have corapromised her character, and thereby have
frustrated every hope which her ambition raight have cherished,
by the formation of a connexion, which would have rendered
her rather an object of disgust than of affection to her royal
lover. We have given the facts as they are stated in the letter of
1 ^" ?J?\J'**^'^ ?^ Ivemesis to Alfred, the author, in a note, says, ' Does the
author of Nemesis design to msmuate that Plombiers was unable to furnish a
midwife and other accommodations necessary for a lady obedient tothe Divina
command, " merease and multiply ?" ' = iyiviuo

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 127
Neraesis to Alfred, and in corroboration of the above stateraent,
he subsequently says, ' In the winter of 1788 the Marquess
of BeUois came to England, and becatae known to the
Prince. Mrs. Fitzherbert, fearing a discovery, spoke of hira as
a man unworthy of the Prince's acquaintance, which coraing
to the ears of the Marquess, he was so piqued, that he de
manded the two thousand pounds which she had borrowed of
hira. She refused to pay him, unless he gave up her letters,
with her notes of hand, which on his part was refused also.
She then sent Anthony St. Leger and Weltjee (who, by the bye,
although he filled the menial situation of cook in his Royal
Highness' establishraent, appears to have been employed in
some raatters of a very delicate nature) to negotiate for her ;
and after much debating, by means of the Abbd Sechamp (of
whora we shall have to speak hereafter) the matter was com
promised for two hundred pounds, but the letters were not
given up, some of which contained matter highly disgraceful
to the Prince of Wales, and some of the secrets were
afterwards divulged by her brother, Walter Smythe, whom she
had ill-treated, but a stop was put to the proraulgation of any
further secrets on his part by a large sura of money. Im
mense suras were lavished on her in trinkets ; and the expenses
ofpuffing paragraphs in her favour, and of suppressing others
against her, amounted to an enormous sura.
' Mrs. Fitzherbert was at this tirae said to be in correspond
ence in France with the Gros Abb^, the bastard brother of
the Duke of Orleans, the Abb^ Taylor, and sorae Irish friars
in many parts of Italy. The aira of this correspondence was
said to be toJiarass the existing administration, and to pave
the way for the introduction of Catholics into Ireland.'
So far we quote frora the letter of Neraesis ; and that he was
a person in a great degree acquainted with the private history of
Mrs. Fitzherbert, cannot be questioned. One point, however,
is considerably in his favour, which is, that his stateraents were
never contradicted : on the contrary, the paraphlet was speedily
withdrawn from circulation, and its existence is only known to
those who have made the private history of our late monarch
their particular study.
On the return of Mrs. Fitzherbert to this country, she found

128 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the passion of her royal lover still burning with its forraer
ardour, and such means were soon after employed as to make
the lady no longer consider it a disgrace to acknowledge
herself the object of it. The exterior of this connexion was
evident to all the worid, but the reality of it reraained an
enigma, which it was alraost considered in vain to look to
futurity to expound. That it was confirmed by any forra of
matrimony, was contradicted in the raost authoritative manner
by Mr. Fox, in his place in the House of Coraraons ; but we
shall be able to show that this denial of Mr. Fox was an act
of the most urgent expediency: the very continuance ofthe
government depended upon it — for had it been adraitted, the
Prince of Wales, according to the act of William III., could
not have taken upon himself the Regency of the country, for
the people, on account of his having married a Papist, were
absolved from their allegiance ; independently of which, that
the heir-apparent or any other Prince of the blood should be
privately married, was an event particularly guarded against
by a celebrated act of Pariiament, passed soon after the com
mencement ofthe reign of George III., commonly called the
Royal Marriage Act, and which vvas enacted in consequence of
the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland with Mrs. Horton,
and the Duke of Gloucester with the Countess Waldegrave.
By this act of Parliament it was declared that the descendants of
George II. *, except the offspring of such ofthe Princes as were
married to, or might marry foreign Princesses, were incapable
of marrying till the age of five-and-twenty years, without his
Majesty's consent previously obtained ; or after the age of five-
and-twenty, in the event of his Majesty's refusal, without the
consent of both Houses of Parliament. The marriage, there
fore, of the Prince of Wales with Mrs. Fitzherbert, if it had
ever taken place, was, in point of form, null and void ; and in
point of lavv, the children (if any had been born) of this raar
riage were illegitimate and incapable of inheritance.
* How little could Miss D'Olbreuse, a young French lady, perhaps of equal
beauty and merit, but in no respect superior to, if of equal condition with Mrs. Fitz
herbert — how little could she foresee, that a precedent would in no very distant time
be attempted, for violating the dearest and most essential rights of mankind, in order
to guard her posterity from such a marriage as that to which they owe their own
existence ! But such was the fact, for George the Second was himself the grandson
of Miss D'Olbreuse,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE- IV. 129
But this was by no means the only circumstance in this
delicate affair which made the greatest irapression on the
public mind, for the most serious sensation was excited when
it was known that Mrs. Fitzherbert had been educated in
the principles of the Roman Catholic religion. It was said,
indeed, that she raight have retracted those principles ; but was
that retraction, it was rejoined, even supposing it had been
made, worthy to be believed ? A close and secret investigation
took place as to the character and principles of those who were
her immediate associates, and they were all found to be merabers
of the Roman Catholic coraraunity, and sorae of thera actuaUy
belonging to that most dangerous and intriguing set of men, the
Jesuits, Was this person, then, a proper associate for the heir-
apparent to a Protestant throne ? — Was it not a society fraught
with the utmost danger to the religious faith ofthe future ruler of
the nation ? and, therefore, it cannot be urged as a fault, on
the part of the people of this country, that the irapression which
this supposed raarriage made upon their minds was deep and
alarming. They saw, in their glances into futurity, every
reason to expect the horrors of another civil war ; and in their
zeal for our civil and religious liberties, some of them were
ready, in case of the demise of the crown, to have taken up
arms against its natural successor, by way of antidote and
precaution. Araongst this number was Lord George Gordon, then under
prosecution in the Court of King's Bench, for a libel on the
Queen of France, and Count d'Adheraar, arabassador from the
Court of Versailles, and who, on his trial, coraraented with
great freedora on the connexion supposed to have taken place
between Mrs. Fitzherbert and the Prince of Wales. On his
being interrogated what particular raotive he had for wishing
to have the benefit of that lady's testiraony, he replied,
' that he had a conversation with Mrs. Fitzherbert in Paris, •
relative to some intrigues of the French and British Courts,
which he wished that lady to substantiate.' Previously to
his trial, his Lordship called at Mrs. Fitzherbert's house,
in order to serve a subpoena upon her, but he was turned
out of doors by her servants. The newspapers of the
day, adverting to this circumstance, observed, that Lord

130 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
George Gordon caused a letter to be delivered to Mr. Pitt,
before he went to the house, acquainting hira that he had
received a visit from Mr. Walter Smythe, brother to Mrs. Fitz
herbert, accompanied by Mr. Orton, threatening to caU him to
account if he went to Mrs. Fitzherbert's again, or took any
liberties with her name : to this his Lordship made answer,
that he must stUl apply to Mrs. Fitzherbert, to himself, or to
Sir Carnaby Haggerston, until a written answer was sent con
cerning the just title of their sister. His Lordship thus con
cluded : ' I think it my duty to inform you, as Prime Minister,
with this circumstance, that you may be apprized of, and com
municate to the House of Commons, the overbearing disposi
tion of the Papists.'
The uncomproraising hatred which in the year 1780 had burst
with such memorable and destructive zeal against the Catho
lics, now took fresh alarm ; and, on the rumour of a marriage
between the heir-apparent and a Catholic lady, probably would
have flamed out into fresh excesses, equally pernicious and
dangerous, had the spirit of the tiraes been the sarae. But the
dreadful riots of 1780, in which Lord George Gordon bore so
conspicuous a part, and which were then fresh in every one's re
collection, were too recent for the populace to be propelled by a
siraUar cause to sirailar acts of violence. His Lordship had
also lost rauch of his popularity by certain eccentricities in his
behaviour, though he had not then erabraeed the Mosaic
ritual, which nearly altogether alienated the attachment of his
former adherents. But notwithstanding the disadvantages
under which this once popular and formidable leader laboured,
it is certain that the notice which he took of the connexion
between the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert caused that
affair to be more particularly discussed than it would otherwise
have been.
In the mean tirae there were not wanting many who believed,
or who were willing to believe, that the marriage cereraony had
been actuaUy soleranized; and in the raidst of this painful
vacUlation of the public opinion, appeared the celebrated
pamphlet of Home Tooke, in which he not only declared that
the marriage did actuaUy take place, but that he was acquainted
with the name of the priest who performed the ceremony. He

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 131
also atterapted to prove that the raarriage itself was a nullity,
and consequently that if Mrs. Fitzherbert were absolutely
married to the Prince of Wales, she became ipso facto Princess
of Wales, by which style Home Tooke addresses her through
out the whole of the paraphlet.
This work, coraing frora a man of no slight vigour and
subtlety of mind, caused a sensation in the country which
cannot be described, and every expedient was resorted to which
could check the circulation of such alarming intelligence. In
regard to the marriage of the Prince of Wales with Mrs. Fitz
herbert, on the ground of her being a subject, it was contended
that it was not fraught with any danger to the country, from
the well-known facts of the different marriages which had taken
place between the sovereign of the realm and a subject, and
that such marriages never had been interrupted down to the very
accession of the present family on the throne. Thus the two
iraraediate predecessors of George I., as well as our great
Elizabeth, were the issue of such a match ; and not only they,
but the house of Stuart itself, which immediately preceded the
house of Hanover, and the very sovereign under whom the
house of Hanover claims, are the issue of the sovereign with
the subject. The race of Tudor, also, which immediately pre
ceded that of Stuart, and the very sovereign under whom the
house of Stuart clairas, are also the issue of such a raatch.
Three out of six sovereigns of the house of Stuart, and three
out of five sovereigns of the house of Tudor were the issue of
such matches ; by which it appears that the majority, for the
course of two hundred and thirty years, naraely, six out of the
eleven sovereigns iraraediately preceding the house of Hanover,
were the issue of the sovereign with the subject.
It was not, however, to the raarriage of the Prince with a
subject that the people of this country appeared particularly to
bend their attention, as the legislature had already provided for
the nuUity of such a union, but it was to the religion of one of
the parties that they looked, and in this point of view it was con
sidered an event of the greatest iraportance, beyond anything of
the kind since the Revolution. It was the subject of discus
sion in all the courts of Europe, and in this country excited a
sensation unparalleled in the extreme.
r2

132 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Every possible atterapt was now made to caU into discredit
the statement of Home Tooke ; his ' Letter to a Friend,' in
which the marriage of Mrs. Fitzherbert with the Prince was
asserted, was very difficult to be procured ; and his subsequent
and very extraordinary sUence, when he was publicly chal-
leno-ed to disclose the narae of the priest, and the place where
the ceremony was perforraed, — all tended, in a great degree, to
calm the perturbed mind of the people, as they argued, that
his silence betrayed that he had no real and substantial
grounds for the strong assertions he had made. It belongs
not to us to investigate the reasons of Home Tooke for main
taining such a studied silence on a subject of such vital im
portance, and concerning which, if he had any proofs wherewith
to confirra his statement, he could not have any good and valid
grounds for concealment ; on the contrary, frora the well-
known political sentiraents of the man, he was considered as the
very last who would screen the offending parties from the con
sequences of their iUegal proceedings ; or that, from any servUe
subserviency to the ministers of the day, or even to the Sove
reign hiraself, he could have been induced to withhold any
information which might tend to the ultimate benefit of the
country. It was, therefore, rather a triuraph for the Prince's
party, that no explicit declaration was made, corroborative ofthe
stateraent of Home Tooke in his paraphlet ; although, from the
high and overbearing disposition, and the sudden change which
took place in the manners and conduct of the iraraediate rela
tions of Mrs. Fitzherbert, it was evident that they considered
theraselves as exalted inthe scale of rank and iraportance ; and
certainly it was argued, that such a sudden accession of pride
could not arise frora the prostitution, but the elevation of their
relative. Amongst the immediate friends of the Prince, however, there
were many who regarded his connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert
as an event rather to be rejoiced at than regretted, for however
irregular it might have been in its nature, it had still a ten
dency to withdraw him from the disgraces, and preserve him
from the consequences of vulgar debauchery.
Previously to the attachment of the Prince to Mrs. Fitzher
bert, the passions, it was well known, treated him with as little

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE. IV, 133
reserve as the meanest of their votaries ; and, under their in
fluence, he was continually seen in those pavilions of Pleasure,
where honour is not known, and female virtue for ever banished.
It was, therefore, very fortiinate for hiraself, and of course
beneficial to the nation, if he could becorae stationary sorae-
where, and in particular with a person whose situation in life
entitled her to every attention which the laws of his country
would allow him to bestow. His exalted rank, as heir-appa
rent to the crown, prevented him from entering into those tender
relations which are open to the meanest of his subjects; and,
although sorae fearful forebodings of the future might have
afflicted certain melancholy and scrupulous spirits in the con
templation of this singular transaction, yet, as a mere abstract
gratification of youthful passion, and divesting it of all influ
ence on or interference with the affairs of government, it per
haps ought not to have been considered such a raatter of great
national concern as it was represented — nor perhaps would it
have been, but for the indiscreet conduct ofthe Prince's party;
for when it was seized upon by thera as the circurastance to bind
the Prince more firmly to their views and interests, it then be
came a subject of more serious consideration. That this was the
case is very evident, frora the peculiar attentions which were
paid to the lady by all the first farailies connected with the party ;
nor should it be forgotten that many of those women of distin
guished rank and character, such as the Duchess of Devon
shire, the Duchess of Bedford, and others of equal dignity,
refused even to visit the Duchess of Cumberland, till the Prince
of Wales favoured her with his countenance ; whilst they re
ceived Mrs. Fitzherbert not only with cordial kindness, but
with formal honours. This arrangeraent, so generally known
and observed, aided by a variety of artful insinuations, framed
on purpose to steal on the public ear, gave a sanction to the
opinion, that the Prince had bound hiraself in as irrevocable a
manner to the lady as the operation of forras could effect.
But when, in a parliamentary debate relative to the payment
of the Prince's debts, the nature of this connexion was de
manded, Mr. Fox repeated his declaration that no marriage
had taken place, and every one was satisfied with that decla-

134 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
ration, until Mr. Sheridan rose to reprobate the inquiry, and
to give an eulogium of the lady, which by no raeans harmo
nized with the information that had preceded it.
The contradictions of these two political friends and confi
dential adherents of the Prince were not easy to be recon
ciled. Mr. Fox had declared that a lady living with the Prince,
to all exterior appearance, in the habits of raatriraonial con
nexion, had not the sanction of any canonical forms to support
her ; whilst on the other hand, Mr. Sheridan reversed the pic
ture, by representing her as a paragon of chastity, the possessor
of every virtue and the ornament of her sex, who was injured
by the suspicions introduced into parliaraent, and which had no
foundation whatever but in the subservient fancies of ministe
rial adherents. Here, then, new difficulties arose respecting
this once memorable but unfortunate woman, for she was
now involved in the political arrangeraents and the views of the
party, and was therefore to be supported by it ; but, on the other
hand, she was the object at which the rainisterial party di
rected their most envenomed shafts.
In a letter addressed to'Mrs. Fitzherbert at this time, as the
Princess of Wales, of which Dr. Withers was the author, ap
peared the following energetic passage : —
' When the once celebrated leader of the opposition pre
sumed to sacrifice your Royal Highness to the interested views
ofthe party, I was transported with indignation, because, from
a situation the raost honourable in the kingdom, it reduced you
to a state of infamy and conterapt, It proclairaed, in the face
of day, and to the astonishraent ofthe world, that a woman of
birth, beauty, and independence, was the strumpet of the
Prince of Wales, and under this head, I have no scale to
measure your demerits. A poor disconsolate female, whora
a viUain has seduced, or the want of bread has driven to
public prostitution, is an angel of innocence in contrast witb
Mrs. Fitzherbert.'
Mr. Fox, however, would not retract his assertion, nor would
he give back the paper on which it was founded, to any solici
tation. We shall be able, shortly, to show the Jesuitical
grounds on which his disavowal of the marriage was founded ;

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV; 135
and it does not speak much for the acuteness nor the penetra
tion of the ministerial party, that they did not see through the
nice distinction on which the disavowal was made.
Sophistry was, therefore, now the only resource which could
preserve Mrs. Fitzherbert from that situation which is attended
with irrevocable disgrace to the female character j and in con
sequence of this perplexing dilemma, the retainers of the party
took no small pains to propagate an opinion, that the wisest and
best of raen are governed by circumstances, and that those of the
Prince of Wales were peculiarly oppressive. His Royal High
ness, they contended, who was excluded from the comforts of
connubial life, by being prohibited from choosing a wife for
himself, acted perfectly right in fixing on some one to supply her
place ; and if she were a woman of a previously irreproachable
character, good family, elegant manners, and maintained her
fidelity to him inviolate, the most exalted and respectable
female characters in the kingdom were not only justified in
receiving her, but would merit censure, if they should hesitate
to treat her with the same respect as is due to married ladies
of their own condition.
The flimsy texture of this argument was at once apparent
to the meanest capacity ; and it tended in a very great degree
to the injury of Mrs. Fitzherbert's character, and to render the
Prince of Wales unpopular. Nor did this obloquy attach to
those individuals only, but it was bestowed on every lady of
rank, who either visited Mrs. Fitzherbert, or was visited by her.
That the Prince of Wales was highly unpopular at this tirae
may, in a great measure, be attributed to this mysterious con
nexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and to his avowed opposition to
the measures of his father's ministers. The speculative mind,
habituated to range with freedom, and to meditate without re
straint on the events of life, will find, perhaps, as ample sub
ject for grief and astonishment in the existing unpopularity of
the Prince, as he may find for admiration in the popularity of
the king his father. A Prince of Wales is placed by nature and
by fortune in so high and favoured an eminence above raankind
— all his actions, and his very excesses, are beheld through so
deceptive, or so favourable a medium — he is environed by such
a splendour, resulting from youth and royal dignity, and ex-

136 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
pectation of future virtues — that it requires no small deviation
frora all that can excite attachment, or lay claim to esteera, in
order to divest hiraself, if not of the approbation, at least of the
personal adherence, of the far greater part of those over whom
he is one day probably destined to reign.
We would treat the errors and excesses of his Royal High
ness as resulting more from the example of his profligate com
panions, than from any innately existing moral turpitude.
Decorated as he was with all the grace of personal elegance,
improved by education, cultivated by letters, enlarged by an
acquaintance with men, not often attained by persons so far
removed frora the walks of private and common life ; endowed
with the powers of pleasing, and capacities of a convivial and
social kind, not inferior to those so much admired in Charles
II. ; affable even to familiarity, addicted to the enjoyment of
the table, and keenly susceptible of the charras of feraale
beauty, and the seductions which accorapany it — how, will the
future historian ask, could a youth to whom Nature had been
thus liberal, and on whora every eye was naturally turned with
predilection and partiaUty, have contrived, before he had
almost fully attained to manhood, to shake the affections, and
to dirainish, if not forfeit, the respect alraost inseparable from
his person and his dignity? It is an invidious, but it may be
to future tiraes a useful task, to explain how a Prince of
Wales may degrade hiraself in the eyes of a deserving, a loyal,
and an impartial people. If the following portraiture of the
son of George III. be true in its prominent features, the man
ner in which he degraded hiraself is at once explained.
He raay lay the foundation of this raelancholy proof of his
power by a departure frora that sacred and priraeval law written
by the finger of Nature deeply in the huraan heart, of filial
piety and obedience — a duty as inviolable, and as much ex
acted from the Prince lo the Sovereign, as from the least
and lowest subject to his parent; a virtue ever found to
exist with the greatest force and energy in those bosoms where
Nature has implanted all the most benign and kindly affections.
He may accomplish that degradation by forming his nearest
connexions of farailiarity and intiraacy, not from araong the
youth who naturally surround the successor to the throne, but

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 137
from the most obscure and unprincipled individuals with whom
a capital such as London must of necessity teera. He raay
give the final wound to his popularity, and to the fond partiality
of a great people, by forming a connection of so ambiguous,
so enigraatical, and so undefined a nature, that mankind, with
anxious but fearful eyes, shall tremble to explore what yet they
desire to ascertain ; and if this extraordinary union should be
formed with a person of a religious persuasion different from
that of the country in which so strange a scene is acted, it is
then only to contempt and ridicule that he can fly, to avoid
general disapprobation and resentment. These, and similar
acts, are the means by which a Prince of Wales can descend
from the proud erainence on which he is placed, by which he
can corapel a reluctant people to deprecate his reign, and to
anticipate with terror that event to which they are usually prone
to look with warm and pleasing expectation.
We have been told that Henry V., so dear to every lover
of glory or of his country, emerged frora a similar cloud which
shaded and obscured him before he ascended the throne of
England ; but where is the pretended similarity between the
conqueror of Agincourt and the son of George III. ? Can the
excesses of intemperance or levity, probably exaggerated to us
by that raagic pen which Shakspeare held, or however accu
rately true they may even be supposed, form any real resem
blance between the two Princes ? It is like the similarity which
Burnet has ingeniously discovered between Charles II. and
Tiberius, only consisting in their common attachment to the
pleasures of woraen. In one other particular, the similarity
will not stand good ; Henry V. was a hero, but not a gentle
man, associating with the greatest blackguards of the day; —
George, Prince of Wales, was a gentleman of the most finished
stamp, and might perhaps have been a hero if the opportu
nity had been allowed hira ; but the similarity wiU again hold
good in the latter instance, for he also associated with sorae as
consuraraate blackguards as his dissolute age could produce.
We have been led into these reflections by the true spirit of
irapartiality, which, although it raay oblige us to represent the
character of his Royal Highness in all its darker shades, yet,
that whenever it can be done consistently with that indulgence s

138 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
which is due to the iraperfection of human nature, we may be
allowed to throw over it that paUiating hue, which raay deprive
sorae of his actions of the blackness of their atrocity. In the
delineation of the character of every raan, whatever his rank
or station in life raay be, a just and becoming regard should be
paid to the peculiarity of the circumstances under which he'
may be placed, for it is a too common error to judge of another
by the standard which we raay have formed in our own minds
of the right principles of action, at the sarae time that we are
ignorant of the motives, which may have impeUed the indivi
dual to the particular line of conduct which he raay have
adopted. In the raajority, however, of the actions of the
Prince of Wales, particularly in his intercourse with the
feraale sex, no difficulty exists in the delineation of his cha
racter. The facts speak for theraselves : he had but one
general aira, and if that aira were attained, he did not seera to
trouble hiraself about the propriety or the raorality of the raeans
which were eraployed for the purpose.
Before we return to the important subject of his raarriage
with Mrs. Fitzherbert, we will mention one or two circum
stances which happened about this time, and which led his
friends to suspect that their expectations, in regard to the good
effects which were to emanate frora his connection with that
lady, were not buUt on any good foundation. To fix hira to any
object, however lovely and beautiful, appeared impracticable ;
it was a monotony of life insupportable to hira, and he seemed
to court variety with all the eagerness of a confirraed epicure
at the luscious banquet. Not even the personal charms, nor
the finished elegance of the manners of Mrs. Fitzherbert, could
hold hira within her chains, for their intercourse had scarcely
coraraenced when his Royal Highness received an invitation to
dine with one of the Sheriffs of London, a celebrated distUler
in Whitechapel. The company was composed entirely of noble
men and gentleraen, the raajority of whora were the intimate
friends of his Royal Highness. The Sheriff's lady was one of
the celebrated beauties of the east, being in her person of that
en bon point which was so peculiariy the taste of his Royal
Highness, and the features of her face were of that dignified
and impressive cast, for which the Grecian beauties are so justly

MEMOIRS OF GEORGe'iV. 139
celebrated. Her eye beamed with desire and passion, and her
Lip was not the first trap which, by its lovely pouting, had
ensnared the affection of the enamoured Prince. The lady left
the table soon after dinner, and his Royal Highness felt a
vacuura which could not be filled up by the coarser society of
his corapanions. Feigning sorae excuse, he retired from the
table, and the worthy Sheriff, fearing that the return of his
Royal Highness might be delayed by indisposition, consi
dered he should be wanting in respect if he did not hasten to
make his personal inquiries respecting him. There were
several places in the house to which it was possible that the
Prince had retired, but there was one, in particular, in which '
it was highly improbable that he should be found, and that
was the bed-chamber of his lady. It was, therefore, the last
which the worthy Sheriff visited — but, had he visited it the first,
it would have saved him a great deal of trouble, and calraed
at once his anxiety for the safety of his royal guest. There,
however, in reality, was the Prince found ; and the Sheriff re
solved on the most instantaneous punishment ; — he drew his
sword — and England would, perhaps, have had to mourn the
loss of the heir-apparent to her throne, had not prudence
whispered to hira to save hiraself by the most precipitate
flight. The darkness of the night favoured him, and he gained
the garden ; he heard his pursuers behind him, but no friendly
door presented itself by which he could make his escape : in
an instant he scaled the wall, and he now found the adage to
be true, that a man should always look before he leaps. The
Prince did not look ; and therefore he leapt into as vile a com
pound of dirt and filth as ever received the body of a huraan
being, rauch raore that of a Prince, within its odoriferous bosom.
In what raanner the Prince regained his home, or into what
hospitable dwelling he took refuge, to undergo the process of
ablution, has not been communicated to us*. Associations
are soraetiraes most rude and unpleasant monitors, and in after
years, his Royal Highness never heard the name of Liptrap
mentioned, but he exclaimed, in the words of Shakspeare,
' Oh ! but it has a rank, unearthly smell.'
* We. are indebted for this anecdote to Mr. R  d, who was actually in the
service of the Sheriff when the catastrophe took place, and who was one of the
pursuers of the Prince when he fled into the garden,

140 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
It has been very inconsiderately and most erroneously stated,
by the panegyrists of his Royal Highness, that in none of his
amours he ever wounded the feelings of a father and a hus
band, but that he always selected those objects, whose virtue
already stood on very suspicious grounds, and who, in the world
of gallantry, were ready to yield themselves up to the highest
bidder. It certainly would redound considerably to the cha
racter of his Royal Highness, and divest it of a great portion
of that black atrocity with which it is at present accorapanied,
if these panegyrists had drawn their information from the
fountain of truth, and not, by a wilful perversion of acknow
ledged facts, laid theraselves under the iraputation of being
the disserainators of a stateraent of which falsehood is its chief
constituent feature. To those, to whom it has been permitted
even partially to lift the veil which has been industriously thrown
over the early excesses of the Prince of Wales, numerous are
the instances which present theraselves of the most heartless
attempts of his Royal Highness at the seduction of female
innocence, some of which were too successful, and others
were only frustrated by the removal of the intended victims
from the influence of his contaminating society. In defiance,
however, of these panegyrists, who, by their indiscreet eulo
giums, have only thrown an additional odium on the character
of him whose virtues they profess to admire, by challenging a
scrutiny which it is very unable to bear, we could lead them to a
very beautiful mansion, stUl standing on the northern side of
Kew Green, which, before the rude and heartless spoiler
broke into its sanctuary, was the abode of as perfect happiness
as this sublunary scene can afford. We could shew them two
doting and affectionate parents, watching over the rising beauty
of their only child, and reveUing in the prospect of her future
establishment in life. We could shew them how they trembled
if even a breath of air passed over her which might sully the
purity of her maiden innocence, or inflict a spot on the angel
whiteness of her bosom. We could shew thera how that
same lovely object, before the treacherous serpent poUuled
the chalice of her innocence, looked upon the world and
found the world — a world of bliss to her; her wishes
never straying beyond the precincts of her paternal mansion:

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 141
beloved by and loving only those who gave her birth — her sleep
the sleep of innocence — her gaiety, the happiness of conscious
virtue. We could shew them all this — and we could afterwards
lead them to where those sarae parents are sitting in their now
chUdless raansion — disconsolate and broken-hearted — the
world a sickening desert to them ; we could lead them to the
tomb of their once idolized, novv mouldering child, whose spirit
was too pure to endure its weight of sharae, or to support the
scorn and contumely of the world. Her parents saw the roses
graduaUy fading on her cheeks — the lustre of her eye getting
dira and wan — the cherry freshness of her lips becoraing pale
and shrivelled — they saw the approach of death — their hearts
sickened at the view, and in their raorning and evening prayers,
they iraplored the vengeance of heaven on the ruthless de
stroyer of their child.
To the indelible reproach of the female character, be it said,
that in the ruin of this lovely girl, a woman was the principal
agent ; and when we mention the name of Lady Lade, we have
given the synonyma for all that was vile and despicable in
woman. This notorious feraale first beheld the light in
Lukner's Lane, St. Giles', from which she emerged, on account
of the fineness of her person, to becorae the raistress of John
Rann, who forfeited hislifeon the scaffold at Tyburn, and, after
passing through several gradations, she was taken under the pro
tection of the late Duke of York. We therefore now behold
her in her own box at the Opera, splendidly arrayed, her whole
ambition gratified in viewing lords, dukes, and the princes of the
blood at her side, paying that homage, which only superior
virtue and attractive manners ought to exact. But it was in
the Windsor Hunt that this lady first attracted the notice of
the Prince of Wales. She was then the wife of Sir John Lade,
and to be well up with the hounds — to be in at the death — to
drive a phaeton four-in-hand, and to evince a perfect know
ledge of all the technical phrases of coachmanship, not an
individual in the whole hunt could compete with Lady Lade ;
nor was she exceUed by even Sir John hiraself, who was the
tutor of the Prince of Wales in the art of driving, and from
whom he received a pension,/or his services, of 400Z. per annum,

142 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Born in a lowly and obscure station, and too long kept back
in a state of plebeian insignificance, she at once shone like the
sun piercing through a cloud, so that the strongest eye was
dazzled by the blaze. Her former haunts were totally for
saken — her former companions no longer reraerabered, and she
shone a coraet in the bright regions of taste and fashion.
There were, however, some fastidious females, who still adhering
to the musty prejudices of their forefathers, refused to acknow-
ledo-e the resplendent attractions of this fair paragon, and who
even persisted, notwithstanding the royal favour and protection
ofthe Prince of Wales, to exclude her from their circles. In
these raoraents of her indignation, at her prudish rejection by
the stiff-starched nobUity, she was apt to reraeraber some of
the phrases that she had learned in St. Giles', and whenever
the Prince of Wales wanted an object of coraparison in the
vulgar practice of swearing, he was always wont to say, ' He
swears like Letitia Lade.'
It was in the corapany of this woman, that the Prince of
Wales, one day returning from the chace, met the beautiful
Elizabeth Harrington walking on the Richmond road, in the
company of her parents. She was immediately marked out as
a new victim to his libidinous desires, and Lady Lade undertook
to effect the introduction. It was under the pretence of sud
den indisposition, that this female pander broke into the sanc
tuary of doraestic happiness, and with so much difficulty was
the task accorapanied which she had to accoraplish, that she at
one time relinquished it, despairing of success. But the Prince
had seen the luscious fruit, and to retire without the enjoyment
of it, was at variance with his usual mode of action. He
goaded on his emissary — he threw to the wind his vows of con
stancy and ' unalterable love' which he had sworn at the altar
to HIS WIFE, and, like Csesar of old, though on a far different
occasion, he determined to realize the words veni, vidi, vid.
And here the dark traits of this heart-rending transaction
begin to develop themselves. In all his preceding intrigues,
we behold hira acting under his genuine and royal character as
the Prince of Wales. There had been hitherto no conceal
ment, — no disguise, no faUacious hope of a permanent set-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 143
tlement in life sanctioned by the laws, had been fraudulently
held out. Hitherto he said with the great poet —
In my bright radiance and collateral light
Must you be comforted — not hi my sphere.
On all forraer occasions he wooed as the Prince of Wales —
and as such he conquered. The girl whose every heart-string
quivered with passion for hira, saw in hira only the idol of her
affection — the beloved — the irresistible conqueror of her virtue.
It was to her the landraark — the ultima thule of her wishes, to
be the acknowledged object of his love ; but in the present case,
the announcement of a suitor in the person of the Prince of
Wales would have been received with every raark of indignation
and alarra. Every protestation of his unalterable love which he
raight have made in that quarter, would have betrayed the
lurking motive ; and to some desert of the universe, untrodden
by mortal foot, would the fond parents have removed their yet
unsullied child, rather than have exposed her to the unequal con
test which she would have to wage. Weakness, however, is in
separable frora human nature, and one ofthe prevailing foibles of
Mrs. Harrington was an attachment to aristocratical society.
The possession of a title was a passport to her good favour,
nor did she stoop to discover how it was acquired, whether by
hereditary descent, although originating, perhaps, in infamy, or
whether it was the immediate grant of the raonarch for services
rendered to the country. The honour of a visit frora a lady
of title, although purely accidental, was an event not to be
superficially passed over in the calendar of her fife, and this
lady of title lauded her daughter to the skies as a paragon of
beauty ; and where is the fond doting raother's heart that will
not prorapt her to throw her arms round the neck of the indi
vidual who lavishes her praises on an only, idolized child ? If
there be a way to win a mother's heart, it is that ; not that we
give the feraale pander sufficient credit for the possession of
so much tact, or of such a consummate knowledge of the
huraan character, as thus so skilfully to have seized upon the
prevailing foible of the affectionate raother to effect her unhal
lowed purpose. It raust also be allowed, that since the time
when Lady Lade emerged, as Letitia Darby, from the purlieus
of St. GUes', she had acquired what the French formerly

144 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
called the biens^ances of society, although she could at any
time shake them off, according to the grade of corapany into
which she might be thrown. To the vain fancy of Mrs. Har
rington, Lady Lade appeared as one of the brightest stars in
the galaxy of fashion ; and as she seldora opened her raouth
without alluding to the terras of intiraacy on which she stood
with this or that duke, or this or that lord, it was a decided point
with the infatuated raother that it was a very fortunate hour of
her life when the sudden indisposition of her Ladyship impelled
her to seek for relief under her hospitable roof.
The carriage of Lady Lade, drawn by four beautiful bay
horses, and driven by herself, was now frequently to be seen
standing at the door of Mrs. Harrington's house, for —
More than one steed Letitia's empire feels.
Who sits triumphant o'er the flying wheels ;
And as she guides them through th' admiring throng.
With what an air she smacks the silken thon"- !
Graceful as John, she moderates the reins.
And whistles sweet her  strains ;
Sesostris-like, such charioteers as these
May drive six harness'd monarchs, if they please.
Step by step did this titled demirep worra herself into the
good opinion of this once happy family ; but the eventful hour
carae at last, and the fragile vessel, freighted with all their
earthly hopes, was wrecked for ever. The Harringtons were
invited by her Ladyship to partake of a friendly dinner, and to
accompany her afterwards to the Opera. The invitation was
accepted ; the dinner party was very select, there being only
one gentleman visitor, but a more finished gentleraan — one of
more captivating manners and address, never graced a table.
His attentions to Mrs. Harrington were of the most raarked
and affable nature ; his attentions to her beautiful daughter,
distant and reserved. The vanity of the raother was flattered
— suspicion was laid asleep ; and whilst she was sipping the pa
latable poison of adulation. Lady Lade was insidiously instiUing
into the ears of her unsuspecting victim the raost exuberant
praises of the personal graces and the manly virtues with which
the Honourable Mr. Elliott, her visitor, was endowed. The
feraale heart, unhacknied in the ways and stratagems of the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 145
world, is tbo prone to receive a favourable irapression, which,
although scarcely felt at first, increases in force imperceptibly,
until it becomes at last the very life-blood of its being, absorb
ing all other feelings into one— and that one is love, in all its
full, its blissful, heavenly power.
To the intriguing spirit of Lady Lade, who, it is well known,
declared it to be her pride and glory to make any other female
as infamous as herself, it must be attributed that the Prince of
Wales, in this instance, assumed a fictitious name, for she
soon perceived, that as the Prince of Wales, Mr. Harrington
would not admit him as the companion of his daughter ; as,
independently of his exalted rank, which precluded all idea of
a matrimonial connexion, his libertine excesses and his de
baucheries were now the theme of general conversation in the
fashionable coteries, and excited the deep regret of the more
rao?"al and virtuous part of the comraunity. There was scarcely
a newspaper published at this period which did not contain an
account of some libertine act of an illustrious ind'ividual, or
of losses sustained by him at the gaming-table ; and it is a
fact, for which there is the most undisputed authority, that in
one week his name appears, for three consecutive nights, in
the book of the night charges of St. Martin's watch-house, for
riotous and disorderly conduct. His appearance in that cha
racter was always a source of great emolument to the guardians
of the night, as they always made him pay a high price, not
only for his own liberation, but also for that of his associates,
who, on these occasions, were generally not only sans soucie,
but also sans sous.
In this machination against the happiness of a worthy family,
the intriguing party had nothing to fear but the recognition of
the Prince ; and for that reason he regretted that on account
of a prior engagement, he could not accompany the party to
the Opera, but that he would join them after it at the supper-
table. It was here that the Prince of Wales was known to
exhibit himself in all his irresistible power. The elegance of
his manners — his sportive wit — his unbounded spirit of convi
viality; the liveliness of his conversation, and the extraordi
nary facility with which he knew how to accommodate himself
to the taste and pursuits of those by whom he was immediately T

146 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
surrounded, all conspired to render him an object dangerous in
the extrerae to a female heart, and especially to one, who,
having lived a life of comparative seclusion, sees itself at
once thrown into a situation, where all that is fascinating
and alluring operates upon the senses, and leads, as it were,
all the affections captive.
To follow this amour through aU its details would be to de
scribe, on the one hand, all the arts and blandishments which
the most confirmed libertine could employ to effect the con
quest of female virtue ; and on the other, the helpless contest,
the unavailing efforts, the last expiring struggle of the writhing
victim ; it would be to depicture on the one hand, the heart
rending scene of the afflicted parents, as they followed their
beloved but dishonoured child to the grave; and on the other,
the heartless gaiety, and the reckless indifference with which
the seducer looked upon the wreck that he had made.
And whilst these scenes were passing, the country was
agitated to its remotest corner, by the firm belief that the
marriage between the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert
had actually been consummated; and if one circumstance more
than another tended to confirm that belief, it was the unre
served manner in which Mrs. Fitzherbert was received into the
highest circles, and the blaze of splendour which surrounded
her, not only when she appeared in public, but in the extrava
gant style in which she received her visiters at home. The
veracity of Mr. Fox in regard to the disavovyal of the marriage
was exposed to the severest scrutiny, and the foUowing pas
sage in Home Tooke's pamphlet, only tended to excite still
greater alarm in the minds ofthe English people.
In his ' Letter to a Friend,' he says, ' You agree with rae
that it is not from the debates in either House of Parliaraent,
that the public will receive any solid or useful information on
a point of so much importance to the nation — to the sovereign
on the throne — to his royal successor, and to the most amiable
and justly-valued female character, whom I conclude to be in
all respects both legally — really ivorthily, and happily for this
country, her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.
' After the conversation that has been held in the House of
Commons, and published in the newspapers, together with the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 147
discourse which has circulated universally through the nation,
it would be a most ridiculous affectation to hesitate, in so many
words, to declare, that it is reported, and by me on solid
grounds believed, that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
is raarried to the late Mrs. Fitzherbert, now his lawful wife.'
And in another passage, he says, ' I consider the disavowal
of this marriage to be itself an additional slander on a much
misunderstood, and misrepresented young man. I have no
doubt, for he is young and a Prince, that some things might
possibly be changed for the better in his conduct, but I will
not believe at any time, and least of all in the moment and
manner as reported, such a disavowal, be the marriage true
or false, or any thing tending to lessen the character of the
lady, could possibly be authorized by him. And although ex
tremely disgusted with his politics, yet I have too rauch per
sonal respect for Mr. Fox, to believe, upon the authority of a
newspaper, that he was either the adviser, or silently seeraing
approver, much less the raediura of such a disavowal. If such
a measure had been thought advisable, or even necessary, upon
any important score, yet Mr. Fox knows better how to time
even his necessary measures. What ! at the raoment when
the payment of debt and revenue were the questions, then to
get up and raake this disavowal, and then to give it the appear
ance of sacrificing, on corapulsion, a defenceless woraan's cha
racter, for so raean a consideration as a paltry sura of money ;
I will not believe it !'
The result of a strict analysis ofthe foregoing passage will be,
to shew, that there exists a very striking inconsistency in the
arguments of thewriter, compared with the boasted authenticity
of his information, and it further shews, that he really was not
so thoroughly acquainted with the secret machinery of the
transaction as he professes to be. Home Tooke, in his
pamphlet, unequivocaUy states, that he knows the priest who
officiated at the marriage; it is, therefore, not a little strange
that he should be ignorant of the presence of some other indi
viduals who graced the nuptial day with their presence ; and
stUl further, that he should take upon hiraself the defence of
one of them, who, vvith the exception of the bride, and the
illustrious bridegroom, was the most conspicuous character of
t2

148 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the party. Could he have been ignorant that Mr. Fox was
himself present at the marriage, and that it actually took place
in the very house occupied by that person in Grafton-street ? If
he knew that the Abbe Sechamp was the priest who performed
the ceremony, why not openly avow it ? why pretend a know
ledge of the fact, and yet, from sorae unaccountable reasons,
refuse to make it public, and, what was still worse, so to throw
over it the cloak of mystery, as if he himself vvere the only de
pository ofthe secret ? Was Tooke ignorant that Sheridan and
Burke were both present at the marriage, and also Mr. Er
rington and Mr. Throgmorton, the immediate relations of the
bride, and that Mr. Fox, the same individual who in his place
in the House of Commons disavowed the marriage, was the very
person who handed the bride into the carriage, when the happy '
pair set out for Richmond tcrspend the honey-moon ? It is not
the least surprising feature of this transaction, that Home
Tooke raust have known that the disavowal of Fox was actuaUy
true ar\d false, at the same time ; and that the most consum
mate Jesuit, who ever in his monastic cell concocted a diabolical
scheme to promote the interests of his party, could not have
evinced more skill and cunning, than Fox evinced, in this me
morable disavowal of a marriage, at which he himself was
present. In order to prove the latter position, we wiU give
an abstract from a celebrated pamphlet that appeared at this
time, in which a committee are supposed to sit on the inves
tigation ofthe marriage ofthe Prince, and the parties are ret^u-
larly called in to give their evidence.
It begins with the evidence of Mr. Fox : —
' Mr. Fox.
' It is requested of Mr. Fox that he would inforra the cora
mittee on Avhat authority he asserted in his place that Mrs.
Fitzherbert is now a widow ?
' Mr. F. — I beg leave to decline an answer.
' Does Mr. Fox consider that this coramittee is entitled to a
clear, full, and satisfactory reply ?
' Mr. F.— I have every respect imaginable for the committee,
but I will not abuse the confidence placed in me.
' Mr. Fox may withdraw.

memoirs of george iv. 149
' Mr. St. Omers.
' Does Mr. St. Omers know the minister who officiated at
the marriage of Mrs. Fitzherbert with her present illustrious
husband ?
' St. O.— Yes.
' In the opinion of Mr. St. Omers, were the rites duly per
formed and the union fully and effectually consuraraated ?
' St. 0.— Yes.
' On inspecting the table of disabilities as set forth by the
church, is it the opinion of Mr. St. Omers that either of the
parties laboured under ecclesiastical disqualification ?
' St. O.— No.
' WUl Mr. St. Omers be pleased to state to the committee
his reasons for asserting in his place, that Mrs. Fitzherbert is
a widow ?
' St. O. — The raarriage is good, according to the decrees of
the Church, but of no force according to Act of Parliament.
' For what purpose, then, was the cereraony read ?
' St. O. — To QUIET THE LaDv's CONSCIENCE. Her FA
VOURS were not to be obtained on any other terms.
' In the opinion of Mr. St. Omers, was it manly, was it
honourable thus to impose on a woraan of virtue ?
' St. 0. — I have nothing to do with other people's opinions.
I certainly knew it was all a farce ; but her lover was impa
tient, and I approved of the scheme.
' Is not the lady attached to some of Mr. St. Oraers party,
and was it not expected that all her influence would be exerted
to proraote their cause ?
' St. O. — The question is iraproper.
' Was there not a proraise that the lover, on his accession
to the Regency or the throne, would confirm the marriage ?
' St. O. — Fox, I believe, told the lady something of the
kind, but it was a mere expedient.
' In the opinion of Mr. St. Oraers, have not such dishonour
able transactions a tendency to lessen the power and destroy
the popularity of princes — vvhen the people of England are
inforraed from such respectable authority, that a person of the
first distinction is capable of such deliberate baseness to a de-
fenpeless female, wiU they not be fired with indignation ? Will

ISO MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
they not hold the ministers and advisers of such treachery in
the deepest detestation ? Will it be in the power of venal
panegyrists to do away the infamy ?'
In one of the answers of Mr. St. Omers, is contained the
whole germ of this raeraorable affair. He answers that the
marriage is valid by the rites of the church, but not by the law,
and it is behind this shield that Fox so artfully defended
himself, as we shall have occasion hereafter to shew, when the
question of the Prince's debts was agitated in the House of Com
mons, and whether the Prince of Wales was not actuaUy dis
qualified from assuming the reins of government, in the charac
ter of Regent, on account of his marriage with a papist. Mr.
Fox had the truth on his side, when he declared that the Prince
was not married to Mrs. Fitzherbert, for in the eye of the law,
and in the teeth of two existing acts of parliament his mar
riage with a papist was in reality a nullity ; but if Mr. Fox
had been asked in his place, whether (he marriage was valid in
the eye of the church, and whether it had not been consum
mated in every respect, according to the requisitions and the
ordinances of the Roman Catholic Church, he must either have
committed himself by the grossest falsehood, or he must have
declared himself, and all those who were the abettors or the ac
cessaries to the act of marriage, liable to the pains and penalties
of a praemunire. But the denial of the marriage, in a political
sense, was absolutely necessary, or the whole of the govern-^
ment would have been thrown into confusion ; it was necessary,
in a private point of view, as far as regarded the Prince of
Wales, for the Commons demanded a decided disavowal of the
marriage, before they would enter upon the question of the
payment of his debts, which had now risen to an alarming
amount, and the legal proceedings attendant upon thera threat
ened to divest him of every portion of his personal property. .In
the acquiescence ofthe Prince, however, to give up Mrs. Fitz
herbert, at the suggestion of his advisers, for a stipulated sum
of money, the public read a trait in his character, which, con
sidering the high sense of honour, and the exalted sentiments
which he had displayed on some occasions, theywere not prepared
to behold. He was reminded of the reply of the half-civilized
barbarian, Peter the Great of Russia, to his unciviUzed

memoirs of GEORGE IV. 151
counseUors, to give up a man not a woman, to the extreme
necessity of his situation. 'No,' replied the Prince, ' I can
resign my dominions even up to the waUs ofthe metropolis, for
in happier circurastances, they may hereafter be recovered, but
the forfeiture of honour in a sovereign can never be retrieved.'
In the raean tirae, the manner in which Mrs. Fitzherbert
was received in public, was an enigma which appeared to baffle
every attempt at solution. Her marriage had been publicly
disavowed ; the House of Comraons had expressed their satis-
laction with such disavowal, and yet the public beheld in the
train of this raeraorable woman, females of the highest charac
ter, and belonging to the most noble famiUes of the kingdom.
She had an establishment secondary only to royalty itself, and
in some instances surpassing it. She had her maids of honour
selected from the junior branches of the nobility — she had her
ladies of the bed-chamber from some of the most exalted
families ofthe country ; the whole of the Prince's party knelt at
her shrine, as if she were the fountain of all honour and emo
lument — she was the presiding deity of the sphere in which
she raoved — and the thousands of satellites by whora she was
surrounded, appeared to imbibe all their splendour and impor
tance, accordingly as she condescended to let her light fall upon
them. On the other hand, it was pertinently asked, ' If Mrs.
Fitzherbert is not the wife ofthe Prince of Wales — what is she
then ?' and in regard to her reception in public, the following
passage which appeared in the ' Courier de I'Europe,' excited
considerable sensation, as it pronounced the opinion which was
entertained in the foreign courts of Europe, on the existing
relations between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert.
:• 'La fable du pretendu mariage de S. A. Mgr. le Prince
de Galles a enfin et^ expliqute en plein Parlement de raaniere
a ne plus laisser de doute. C'est une explication, qui est
d'autant plus facheuse pour Mad. Fitzherbert que Ton a sup
pose des liens entre S. A. R. et cette dame, sur lesquels on
n'avoit pas encore prononce. Jusqu'ici Mad. Fitzherbert a
et6 re^ue dans toutes les soci^t^s, oii 6toit invite le Prince,
mais il ne sera guere possible aiijourdhui qu'elle joidsse des
memes avantages, a moins que cette premiere explication n'en
entraine une autre, et que la pretendue intimite de S. A. R,

1.52 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
ne soit presentee sous des couleurs admissibles en bonne com-
pagnie.' *
We are aware that we are rather anticipating the thread of
our narrative, in the introduction ofthe following circumstance,
but the links of the chain which compose this extraordinary
transaction are, in sorae parts, so complicated and entangled, that
we are obliged, in order to unravel them, and to account for
their apparent confusion, to call in the aid of some future events,
from which only a proper explanation can be obtained.
In the passage above quoted, Mrs. Fitzherbert read very dis
tinctly the opinion which was held on the continent of her con
nexion with the Prince ; and that, consequently, under existing
circumstances, she would not be received in the higher circles
abroad with that respect and esteem which had hitherto been
shewn to her. And herein we read the reasons of her refusal of
the splendid offer which was made to her by the supposed au
thority of the King himself, of settling 20,000Z. per annum on
her during life, on condition that she retired to the continent, and
broke off all connexion with the Prince. It was the wish of
the nation that the Prince of Wales should marry, in order that
the succession of the crown might be ensured ; but his infatuated
connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert appeared to stand as an in
superable obstacle in the way of his marriage, and, therefore,
her removal out of the country vvas considered as the only means
which could lead his Royal Highness to comply with the wishes
ofthe nation, and particularly with those of the sovereign, his
father, who viewed the relation in which the heir-apparent to
his crown stood in regard to a Catholic lady, with feelings of
the deepest anger and resentment.
The offer, however, of such a princely income was refused by
* The story of the supposed marriage of his Eoyal Highness the Prince of
\\ ales has at last been fully explained in the House of Commons, and in such
a manner as to leave no further doubt on the subject. It is an explanation so
rauch the more vexatious for Mrs. Fitzherbert, as a certain connexion has been
supposed to exist belween his Royal Highness and that lady, of the exact nature of
which, no decisive information has transpired. Until nowj jVIrs. Fitzherbert has
been received mto every society to which the Prince has been invited, but now it
v'tllbescaicel,/ possible frkerto enjoy t/wsesameadian/affes,un\ess the exnlcaiation
given in Parliament is not retracted by another, and which will exhibit the sup
posed connexion ofhis Royal Highness, in those coloui's, which will render it snw-
tionable m the higher circles.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 153
Mrs. Fitzherbert on the ground that she was independent before
her union with the Prince, and that a mere addition to her for
tune should never induce her to break off a connexion on which.
the chief happiness of her life was founded.
Another atterapt was, therefore, raade to shake the resolution
of the lady ; and this was, the offer of the rank of an English
duchess ; but to this Mrs. Fitzherbert replied, that a rank of
that kind, however exalted it raight appear, would, were she to
retire to the continent, operate rather to her disadvantage than
to her favour. The raere possession of it, considering that she
had not been, nor ever would be received as aduchess at the court
of St. Jaraes', would not procure her adraission into any ofthe
continental courts, at which she would be regarded as rather the
repudiated raistress of the Prince of Wales, than a lady of rank
worthy to be received into the circles of the foreign nobility.
Still there was one condition on which she raight be induced to
accept of the offers proposed to her ; but she knew well that it
was a condition to which it was irapossible to accede ; and that
condition was, that her raarriage with the Prince should be ac
knowledged, but that it was set aside on the grounds of its ille
gality. She should then be able to appear at the foreign courts
with an unbleraished character, which were the only araends
that could be made for her forced expatriation, and the relin
quishment of that society which was her only solace in the
painful trials which she had undergone from the calumniating
disposition of the world. That the Prince's party were at the
bottora of this irapracticable condition, raay be at once per
ceived : the marriage of the Prince, according to the constitu
tional laws of the country, was not an event at all favourable to
their views, although they were, at the sarae tirae, aware that it
was an event in the serious conteraplation of the sovereign, and
that individuals were then actually employed at the courts of
the Protestant princes of iGlermany, to point out an individual
worthy to receive the hand of the heir apparent to the crown of
England. The manner in which these offers to Mrs. Fitzherbert were
received by the Prince, may be gathered from the following
discourse : —
In regard to the following scene, the authenticity of it may
u

154 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
perhaps be questioned by those who are ignorant of the man
ner in which the secret transactions of a royal palace, notwith
standing the vigilance that is used to prevent it, sometimes
obtain publicity *. That it will be perused with intense
interest, cannot for a raoraent be doubted; nor will the impres
sion that it will leave on every mind in . regard to the honour
and veracity of certain individuals, who are iraphcated in the
business, be easily effaced.
The Prince was one raorning sitting in his cabinet, when
Mrs. Fitzherbert was announced. She entered, holding in her
hand a newspaper, which proved to be the Morning Post, of
Deceraber 15lh, 1788.
The Prince rose, advanced to raeet her, and offered her his
hand to conduct her to a seat, but she rejected it with disdain,
and, throwing herself on the sofa, burst into a flood of tears.
Nothing could exceed the astonishment of his Royal Highness.
He entreated her, in the most tender and engaging accents, to
disclose the cause of her uneasiness, that he might at least be
allowed to share her distress, if it were beyond his power to
remove it. Though relieved by tears, the conflict was too
severe to be sustained by her tender frame: the contending
passions triumphed, and she sank into the Prince's arms. Re
storatives were immediately called for by the Prince, which
were brought by one ofthe pages f , who was comraanded ira
raediately to retire.
» During the time that the Memoirs of the Princess Charlotte, and the Life of
George III , were passing through the press, I had several interviews with Sir
Benjamin, now LordBloomfieldj and the present Sir Frederic Watson, at Carlton
House; and on my mentioning pertain circumstances that had come to my know
ledge respecting the former illustrious individual, Lord Bloomfield significantly
asked me, by what means 1 had arrived at the knowledge of those facts — and after
expressing his surprise at the extraordinary manner in which the subjects of his pri
vate conferences with the Prince Regent had sometimes transpired, his Lordship
informed me, that hewas one day closeted with his Royal Highness on business of
great private importance, and that he was certain there was no one who could pos-
.sibly overhear their conversation, as there were tvto rooms with double closed doors
intervening between that in which they were sitting, and that in which the pages
and other ofificers were in close attendance, ' and yet,' said he, ' to my utter asto
nishment, the subject of our conference was publicly known two days aftenvards.'
He finished by saying, ¦ that he never did believe in invisible agency — but if any
thing could prompt him to believe in it, it was that circumstance.'
f We do not exactly point to this Page as having been the instrument of this im
portant conversation being made public, although it has been published that he
concealed himself behind a screen for the purpose of overhearing it. A celebrated
hookseller now living iu St. James' Street can perhaps throw some light upou this
business.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 155
On recovery, Mrs. Fitzherbert appeared languid and unable
to speak, and for what length of tirae she raight have remained
in that coridition it were impossible to say, had not the Prince
pressed her lips with fervour and effect; It vvas not the cold
embrace of compliraent — the kiss of wedded indifference, but
the seal of attachraent, the irapression of a youth who had kept
a lent of love.
' And now, my dearest Fitzherbert,' said the Prince, ' whence
arose this raighty coraraotion ? — my heart informs me, that I
merit not cold reserve. If love and constancy be virtues of
estiraation, I ara entitled to a candid avowal, for, indeed, I love
you with increasing ardour, and the power which terminates ray
attachraent will stop my breath.'
The Prince enfolded her in his arras, and harraony was re
stored. Mrs. Fitzherbert placed in his hands the newspaper,
and, smiUng, asked him whether the provocation was not suffi
cient. His Royal Highness took the paper and read aloud : —
' A very extraordinary circumstance has recently occurred,
which will, probably, be the means of delaying, for sorae tirae,
the final and coraplete arrangeraent of the intended blue and
buff administration (the colours of Mr. Fox) . This impedi
raent originates with Mr. Fox ; and were there not raore of
popular artifice than principle in it, it would be raore honourable
to his character than perhaps any part of his conduct that had
before attracted public notice.
' The memorable declaration of Mr. Fox, in the House of
Commons, on the subject of a marriage between a certain great
character and a lady well known in the higher circles, cannot
but be fresh in the raemory of almost every individual in the
kingdom. ' That connexion, on account of the difference in religious
principles, appears to Mr. Fox fraught with probable mischief
to his measures ; he has, therefore, declared his positive reso
lution not to take any part in the intended new ministry, until
the exact liraits of that connexion are satisfactorily defined, as
he has now reason to believe, that it is of a more coercive and
permanent nature than he was once induced to imagine and
announce. ' To annul the grounds of Mr. Fox's objection, no less a sum
U2

156 Memoirs of george iv.
than the annual allowance of 20,000^ has been offered to the
lady, on condition of her retiring to the Continent. This the
lady has positively refused ; expressing her firm determination
to abide by an authority that she is said to hold forth as unan
swerable and inalienable.
' A character*, who has lately started forth into oratorical
consequence, is the negotiator in this important business, who,
finding the lady obstinate, has offered, in addition to the
enormous income above mentioned, the rank of an English
' duchess ! ! !
' The lady, however, firraly resists all these alluring terapta-
tions, urging that she was in circurastances entirely inde
pendent previously to her being induced to coincide with that
condition frora which she is resolute not to recede, as cha
racter is of much greater iraportance to her than affluence,
however abundant, if attended with the deprivation of that
rank to which she holds herself entitled.'
The Prince, having finished the perusal of the passage,
threw down the paper with indignation, exclairaing, 'And do
you suppose that I ara within the possibUity of countenancing
an action so infaraous in its principle, and disgraceful in its
consequences? — do you believe me to be so superlatively
wicked as to drive that woman to whora I have been so so
lemnly pledged at the altar, to a miserable exile : — so barba
rous, so abandoned, as to sacrifice her to the wretched
pageantry of a court ? What have you ever witnessed in my
conduct to justify the bare suggestion ? I hope my heart is
animated by nobler views — by more exalted sentiments: it
is I, Madam, who have reason to complain ! '
Llis Royal Highness pronounced the last period with an
emphasis that alarmed Mrs. Fitzherbert, and she instantly
replied, — 'Forgive the weakness of my sex; I dreaded lest
approaching greatness should make my George unmindful of
his vows — I did not attribute the brutal outrage to your direc
tions. There is no suffering that I would not encounter with
fortitude to serve you, and of that, I think, I have given suffi
cient proof already.'
• We suppose that Mr. Rolle is here aUuded to, who was afterwards elevated
to a peerage in consequence of his conduct in this important affair.

Memoirs ov george rV. 157
The Prince, in a tone of dignity and tenderness, requested
to be inforraed to what instance of experienced suffering she
alluded —
' To my silent acquiescence in Mr. Fox's denial of our union.'
' My dear Fitzherbert,' said the Prince, seizing her hand,
' must I reiterate my solemn asseveration ? Am I unworthy
of credit ? Once more then I protest, by all that is dear and
sacred, that Fox's denial of our union was without my con
currence — without even ray knowledge.'
' And did Sheridan and Burke act without your authority?'
' On ray honour they did,' answered his Highness : ' do you
conceive that 1 would sacrifice a defenceless feraale, and that
feraale the partner of my bed, and the sovereign of my affec
tions, for money ? Perdition seize the idea ! I informed you,
long ago, of the true raotives of Fox's conduct. I stood en
gaged for nuraerous suras ; 10,000L to  , 36,000i to
 , 9,0001. to  , beside 70,000/. on bond, and
innuraerable lesser sums, with weighty arrears to my tradesmen
and household. Novv, Fox was apprized of the scrupulous
economy of the county members ; he was also alarmed at an
opinion in circulation that the Protestant cause was in danger
from my marriage wilh a Papist ; and, for sundry other reasons,
which he stated in his apology at Carlton-house, he deemed it
conclusive to my interest to declare that the report of our raar
riage originated in treason and falsehood.'
' And the denial of that raarriage,' said Mrs. Fitzherbert,
' indisputably originated in the personal interests of Fox and his
associates ? I ara confounded at his assurance. May Heaven,
in its mercy, protect the kingdom frora his intrigues. Illus
trious depravity ! It is irapossible to pay a tribute to his abi
lities without doing violence to his honour. Every corapliraent
to his head is a tacit accuraulation of infaray on his heart,'
' Give rae leave,' said the Prince, * to extenuate the crimi
nality of my denial as far as it respects any intention of
ultimate injustice to you. Fox knew that the union had been
properly soleranized. He was present, and so was Burke. He
knew also, that it was my determination, on acceding to the
throne, to repeat the ceremony necessary to your coronation ;
hence he fancied it would be better on the whole to take refuge

158 memoirs of GEORGE IV.
in the expedient which has so justly offended you, for admitting
in candour that he was influenced by the best intentions in the
world ; he ought certainly to have consulted rae on the occasion,
and I trust you wdl do rae the justice to believe that I should
not have forgotten your happiness and ray own honour if 1
had been doomed in consequence to the incorae of a private
gentleman for life.'
' I have never,' said Mrs. Fitzherbert, 'given attention to a
single thought unfavourable to your disinterested raagnanimity;
but I confess, I have my fears of becoming an object of popular
abhorrence on the ground of religion.'
' It is impossible, my dear Fitzherbert,' said the Prince, ' to
control the multitude by argument — I mean in matters of de
votion ; but it will be laughable enough if either you or I incur
censure for a predilection to any particular systera of faith. We
might reasonably have expected long ago to be traduced for
impiety, for I believe, Fitzherbert, you have not been at mass
since our union.'
' No,' replied Mrs. Fitzherbert, ' nor do I purpose to attend
the celebration any more : the Catholic faith was the religion of
my ancestors, and of those men to whom I gave ray hand ; and
I conceive it to be cruel in the extrerae to reproach rae for con-
forraing to practices in which I was educated, and which coin
cided with the devotional sentiraents of my dearest friendships.
I am now in a new relation of life, and disposed to consult the
honour and happiness of my present connexions ; and on this
occasion, I conceive that my duty and my interest flow in the
same channel. Not that religion is a matter of indifference —
far from it. It is the heart which constitutes the essence of
true religion : without it ceremonies are absurd, and with it
they are unnecessary ; at least they form so unimportant a
part of public and private devotion, that I can conscientiously
conform, and I wUl conform, to the established modes of the
realra. Besides, I have no present objection to share ray
George's fate in future life ; the idea of a separation, even there,
is painful.' The Prince smiled, and returned the corapliment with a
kiss ; and then said, ' I entreat you, my love, make yourself
perfectly easy as to anything else. I am at liberty to marry

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 159
Whohi I please, when regent or sovereign ; and if I offer my
•hand to any other woman on earth, may the resentment of
mankind record my infaray, and raake it iraraortal I'
A very erroneous idea has gone abroad respecting the privity
of Mr. Fox to the marriage of his Royal Highngss, and it has
been stated by a contemporary that Mr. Fox was actuaUy duped
into a denial of the marriage, by a letter from the Prince
hiraself, and that Mr. Fox never forgave the falsehood which
had been practised on him ; and further, that his Royal
Highness never could prevail upon hiraself to forgive Mr. Fox
for having so much to pardon. Now, the real state of the case
is, that the only, and greatest dupe, in the whole affair was
John Bull hiraself; in every word that Fox uttered, tending
to deny the raarriage, he was raaking a dupe of the English
nation, and although he was bold enough to declare that he
had a letter frora the Prince himself, disavowing the marriage,
no one ever saw nor read it, but Fox himself; the fact was,
that no such letter was ever written, and when Fox was pressed
by the opposite party to produce so important a document, he
¦sheltered himself behind the plea of breach of confidence, — ¦
that it would be a stain upon his honour to deliver it up, and
that it was an insult tacitly offered to him even to suspect him
of so reprehensible an act. The supposed existence, however
of such a letter tended, in a great degree, to allay the ferment,
and to confirm the belief that the marriage of the parties was a
story vamped up for sorae political purpose, and had been cir
culated by the eneraies of the Prince to injure hira in the es
tiraation ofthe country.
It is, however, certain that the conduct of Fox was re
garded by Mrs. Fitzherbert with the highest raarks of her dis
pleasure ; and it may also be stated that it operated in some
degree to establish a coolness between his Royal Highness and
herself on the grounds of sorae lurking suspicion that the dis
avowal of the marriage by Fox was sanctioned by the Prince,
and therefore she could not look upon herself in any other
light than as a victim to the views of an interested and deeply
designing party.
Mrs. Fitzherbert was at this time living in a mansion in
Park Lane, which was furnished by the Prince iii a style ex-

160 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
ceeding oriental magnificence. The Prince's presents to her
of jewellery, of which we shall have to speak hereafter,
were said even to exceed the stores of diamonds possessed by
the Queen herself, avowedly the greatest collection of diamonds
in Europe, and to whom the King had given, on one occasion
alone, a case of those precious stones which cost 50,000?. The
Queen, however, had receiyed sets of diamonds as presents
from Warren Hastings, from the Nabob of Arcot, and from the
Nizam, and it is certain that Mrs. Fitzherbert's diamonds could
not have equalled these. It is, however, unquestionably trae
that these extravagant presents to Mrs. Fitzherbert, and to
some other ladies for whose favour the Prince was a can
didate, tended to involve him in those pecuniary embar
rassraents which ultimately brought upon hira disgrace and
ruin. Here we raight close our allusion to this raeraorable affair
with a consciousness, on our own parts, that we had not said
too much, and that there are many who would pardon us for
abstaining from further observations, as some of the actors in
this drama are still living ; but there reraains unfortunately a
task to be executed which it were disgraceful and pusillaniraous
to evade. Kings nor princes cannot be viewed in all, or in
their most important phases, by regarding them only on horse
back, or in the camp, or in robes of state, or at the council
board. There is a moral no less than a political influence which a
monarch seldora faUs to exercise over his people. Apart
from prerogatives and political institutions, kings reign over
society in their persons and their habits, as they do by their
ministers over the state itself Neither a sovereign on the throne,
nor a prince in his palace, can enjoy an exemption from the
first law of his regal existence, which places him on high for a
constant spectacle and frequent model to^^others ;' nor can he
grant to his subjects a license to free themselves frora the fetters
of sympathy and imitation, cast over them by the unavoidable
ascendency, whether it be for evil or for good, of that court of
which he forms the inspiring and raoving power.
The qualities of individuals concern chiefly theraselves and
their connexions; an ordinary gentleraan may have private
virtues or vices, and he and they find refuge and oblivion iji

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV4 161
the grave. But a king has no private character, he is all
' matter of record ;' he acts incessantly on the raanners or
morals of his subjects ; all his proceedings affect the tastes or
princijiles of the coraraunity in a degree of which the precedents
established by other men, are altogether incapable. Of a king,
therefore, there is nothing sacred but his person, for we have a
right to speak of those things of which we feel, and trace the re
sults upon our own best interests. A king, in the truest sense,
belongs to history, and his name and reputation fall within its
stern grasp from the hour at which the tomb receives his ashes.
If it be alleged against us, that by exposing the vices of a king
we are bringing the individual into contempt, we answer that
we are not conversant with any law, moral, political, or divine,
which imposes upon us the obligation to select only the bright
parts in the delineation of the character of an English Prince,
and to be so imbued with a false spirit of charity and forbear
ance as to huddle all his vices into the back-ground, that
neither their extent nor their heinousness can be distinguished.
A slavish adherence to such a system of partiality may suit the
latitude of Madrid or Constantinople, but to an Englishman, his
Prince is a part of his political property, and he becomes the
object either of his approbation or his reproach, accordingly as
he exhibits himself the votary of virtue or the follower of
vice ; he possesses the natural right, whicli is a part of his po
litical inheritance, of passing his strictures upon the actions of
his rulers : and although a sense of delicacy may restrain hira,
during the lifetirae of his prince, from an exposure of his
errors, yet he no sooner becomes the tenant of a tomb, than
history steps in, and claims him as her own, and treats hira as
the raeanest peasant of the land.
If we consult the chronicles of our country, we shall find
that the tone of the people's raind generally harraonizes with
the character of the ruling raonarch. The strenuous and
elevated character of Elizabeth formed the minds of her ad
miring subjects for deep reflection and vigorous action. That
of James, so far as it had any influence, irabued them with his
own appetite for solemn littleness, and the display of learning
drawn frora books, however indiscriminate and unprofitable.
Charles II., by a course of audacious and systematic profli-
X

162 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE iV.
gacy, transplanted into England every foreign vice. George I.
and II. were strangers in the heart of England; and she was
little disturbed by their intrusion, or wrought upon by the coarse
and vulgar stupidity of their vices.
George IH. was an Englishman, and was a part, and no
mean part of the nation. He raade an early and happy raar
riage with a virtuous woraan ; and his court and family were
moulded, as nearly as circumstances would admit of, upon the
model of a private, but noble house. The decorum and graces
of a domestic life surrounded their whole establishment. Hus
band and wife were seen everywhere together, and, attended by
their children, were seen frequently and famUiarly, without
churlishness or insolence, or air of exclusion, by the poorest
subjects of George III. ; while the good-huraoured ease and
siraplicity of the King's deportraent — his regular habits and
punctual attention to ordinary duties — his love of rural scenes,
and sports, and business — his affable and kindly raanners — his
unostentatious, but well-judged and extensive charities— -his
manifest consciousness that he and his countryraen belonged
to each other, and were governed by comraon tastes and feel
ings, obtained for George III. a universal access to the hearts
of the people, and reciprocally influenced the farraer's fireside
and the royal palace.
If we direct our view to his successor, how strong, how pain
ful is the contrast! We have seen that George Prince of
Wales was an inteUigent and high-spirited boy, and too soon
discovered that he was heir-apparent to the crown of England.
The authority of his father, exercised over him with strictness
in his childhood, relaxed of necessity as he advanced in years ;
but vicious flatterers — those vultures whose prey is the heart
of Princes — lay in wait for the adventurer as he quitted the
paternal roof, and launched his young bark upon the world.
We may now record, from the authority of an individual fa
mUiar with the subject on which he bore witness, the assertion
— the disgraceful and provoking assertion, although, undoubt
edly, it was meant as a screen to something, if possible, stiU
worse — that neither the Prince of Wales nor the Duke of York
could ever be made to comprehend the value of money ; the dif
ference, as it was insinuated, between pounds, shillings, and

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 163
pence ! If so, both brothers raust have been deficient in the
most ordinary powers of inteUect, which, as to one of them at
least, is known to be an egregious error.
If it were intended to establish the fact, that neither of these
Princes had ever been made conversant with the raeans through
which raoney is lawfuUy procured, or with the uses to which it
ought to be directed, the defect is unhappily too coraraon to be
incredible, in relation to. persons of a rank so elevated that they
need not labour for their bread.
Let the cause, however, be what it raay, the Prince of Wales
soon acquired, if not an appetite for wasting money, a habit of
prodigality the most reckless, incessant, and unbounded ; nor
has the country ceased to feel to this hour the effects of an in
difference to the sufferings of others, little creditable in him who
so frequently aggravated or produced them.
To the last years of his existence this woful spirit of waste
and prodigality possessed the subj ect of the present memoir.
As Prince of Wales, in the tawdry chUdishness of Carlton
Palace, and in the mountebank Pavilion, or cluster of pagodas,
at Brighton, his Royal Highness afforded an infallible earnest
of what raight one day be expected frora him as a king, when
the appetite for profusion, and the contempt for all that deserves
the name of architecture, should have reached their full matu
rity and perfection.
If the court of George III. had a powerful influence in main
taining the decencies of social intercourse through England ; if
his virtuous Queen, by her resolute contempt for vice, and
rigorous exclusion of feraale profligates from her presence, did
actually cover the cause of the adulteress with authorized and
merited scorn ; thereby awarding to feraale chastity that worldly
honour, which, next to religion and her husband's and chil
dren's love, is the surest guard of the matron's virtue ; if such
were the respective meeds afforded at the court of George IIL
to worth and to irapurity, it must be painful to us to speak of
the opposite system which prevailed notoriously during the
reign of his successor.
It raight sound sarcastic or ironical to pretend that the asso
ciates of George IV. were selected by that Prince frora a raanly
confidence in his own capacity for repelling vice, and resisting
X 2

164 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the temptations of the profligate. He may, indeed, have felt
that confidence ; but rugged raust have been the virtue which
could have justified such perpetual exposure. We do not wish
to press hard upon the weakness of huraan nature, nor insist
on it as an arguraent so rauch of anger as of sorrow, that the
Prince of Wales, before his twentieth year, was supposed to
have been initiated in all the vices by which an advanced, and
affluent, and corrupt society is infested.
We do not complain with a too morose rigidity that the
gaming-table, which exhausts the most immeasurable re
sources, and which creates and feeds the vUest and most hateful
passions, was familiar to the youthful Prince. His Royal
Highness could throw off, anddid successively, all the compa
nions of his earlier years, except, perhaps, those habits of life
which are the sole, but brief and precarious bond of such im
moral intercourse.
The Prince of Wales had raany generations of intiraates, with
whom he led a course of life, the character of which rose little
higher than that of animal indulgence. The royal taste, in the
choice of male corapanions, usually exhibited its changes at the
same periods which marked the transfer of his more particular
attentions frora one fair favourite to a rival. But never, we
laraent to say, except in the instance of Lord Moira, with whom
the friendship was of the holyday kind — showy, not solid ; and
in that of Sheridan, where the alliance was a traffic of dex
terous and farailiar service against the hopes of patronage ;
never have we seen recorded amongst the Prince's intimates,
the name of one raan distinguished in the world for any intel
lectual attributes ; we say nothing of the raoral, which.it would
not have been charity to forget.
That the iraraense losses which the Prince of Wales sus
tained at the garaing table were not always the consequence of
a run of ill luck, may be easily conjectured. Scherae after
scherae was devised by which a heavy drain was to be raade
upon his finances ; and he became eventually the dupe of a set
of titled sharpers, who fattened on his credulity, and who, by
acts of the raost deliberate villainy, reduced him to a state of
comparative pauperism. As a proof of the inventive spirit of
these associates of the Prince, we have only to, mention the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 165
celebrated wager between the turkies and the geese, which
emanated from the prolific head of George Hanger, and on
the issue of which the Prince found hiraself minus several
thousand pounds. During one of the convivial parties al
Carlton House, George Hanger designedly introduced the
subject of the traveUing qualifications of the turkey and
the goose ; and he pronounced it as his opinion (although
directly contrary to his real one), that the turkey would
outstrip the goose. The Prince, who placed great reliance
on the judgment of George Hanger, on subjects of that
nature, backed the opinion of Hanger ; and, as it may be sup
posed, there were some of the party who were willing to espouse
the part ofthe goose ; the dispute ended in the Prince raaking a
match of twenty turkies against twenty geese, for a distance of
ten miles — the competitors to start at four o'clock in the after
noon. The race was tobe run for500^ ; and as George Hanger
and the turkey party hesitated not to lay two to one in favour
of their bird, the Prince did the sarae to a considerable amount,
not in the least suspecting that the whole was a deep-laid plan
to extract a sura of raoney frora his pockets, for his chance of
winning, frora the natural propensity of the turkey, was wholly
out of the question. The Prince took great interest in this ex-
.traordinary wager, and deputed George Hanger to select twenty
.of the most wholesorae and high-feathered birds whicli could
be procured ; and, on the day appointed, the Prince] and his
party of turkies, and Mr. Berkeley and his party of geese, set
off to decide the raatch. For the first three hours, every thing
seeraed to indicate that the turkies would be the winners, as
they were then two railes in advance of the geese ; but as night
came on, the turkies began to stretch out their necks towards
the branches of the trees which Uned the sides of the road : in
vain the Prince attempted to urge thera on with his pole, to
which a bit of red cloth was attached ; in vain George Hanger
dislodged one frora its roosting-place, before he saw three or
four others comfortably perching araongst the branches — in
vain was the barley strewn upon the road, no art, no stratagera,
no corapulsion, could prevent them taking to their roosting-
place ; whUst, in the raean tirae, the geese carae waddling on,
and in a short tirae passed the turkey party, who were all busy
in the trees dislodging their obstinate birds ; but as to any further

166 MEMOIRS OF GEOEGE IV.
progress, it was found impossible, and the geese were declared
the winners.
Trifling as this circumstance may appear, it wUl have the
tendency of exposing the characters of the intimates of the
Prince of Wales, and the singular expedients to, which they had
recourse, to restore their shattered fortunes, at the expense of
his character and his fortune.
Connected with this period of his Royal Highness' life, many
stories have been told of sallies of conduct, of various features
of character — sorae distinguished by their extreme eccentricity,
and others by those wanton deviations from the strict line of rao
rality, which however raay be said less or raore of every youth of
high expectations or great possessions. His Royal Highness
was fond of seeing society in its various grades, and, like his
prototype of old, Henry V., soraetiraes went incog, to places}
where his presence was least expected. A public house in
Gray's-inn-lane had become, in some degree, celebrated for its
Burton ale ; and the Prince of Wales wishing to taste it, took
with him the then Groora of the Stole, the first Lord South*-
ampton, and, walking into the house, they called for some
Burton ale. After they had sitten, however, for a short time,
sorae one recognised the Prince of Wales. The Prince, finding
he was discovered, abruptly departed with Lord Southarapton,
and, taking a hackney-coach, they returned to Carlton House.
The neighbours were a few days afterwards surprised by the
Prince's crest being splendidly put up at the public house
alluded to, with the inscription of ' Purveyor of Burton Ale to
his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales ;' the landlord of the
house so describing hiraself in consequence of the royal visit.
The following anecdote is rather of a different and raore
pleasing nature, as it gives us sorae insight into the liberality
and generosity of his Royal Highness, although at the sarae
tirae it raust be stated, that its publicity at the tirae exposed
the Prince to some obloquy, as it was urged by his creditors,
who were beginning to be exceedingly clamorous for the liqui
dation of their debts, that he should be just before he was
generous. Thus, even if there be a good action soraetiraes
coraraitted, there are not wanting those carping spirits who wiU
find a flaw in it, on the same principle that they complain that
the sun has its spots and shades.

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 167
The Prince was one day so exceedingly urgent to have 800^.,
at an hour on such a day, and in so unusual a raanner, that
the gentleraan who furnished the supply had some curiosity to
know for what purpose it was obtained. On inquiry he
¦was informed that the moraent the money arrived, the
Prince drew on a pair of boots, pulled off his coat and waist
coat, slipped on a plain morning frock, without a star, and,
turning his hair to the crown of his head, put on a slouched
hat, and thus walked out. This intelligence raised still greater
curiosity, and with some trouble the gentleraan discovered the
object ofthe mysterious visit. An officer of the array had just
arrived frora Araerica, with a wife and six children, in such low
circumstances, that, to satisfy some clamorous creditor, he was
on the point of selling his coramission, to the utter ruin of his
faraily. The Prince, by accident, overheard an account of the
case. To prevent a worthy soldier suffering, he procured the
money, and, that no mistake might happen, carried it himself.
On asking at an obscure lodging-house, in a court near Covent
Garden, for one of the inmates, he was shown up to his room,
and there found the family in the utraost distress. Shocked at
the sight, he not only presented the money, but told the officer
to apply to Colonel Lake, living in  street, and give some
account of himself in fiiture ; saying which, he departed, with
out the faraily knowing to whom they were obliged.
The pecuniary embarrassments of the Prince now pressed
heavily upon him. The rebuilding of Carlton House, and the
sumptuous decoration of the Pavilion, with a crowd of gay and
profligate associates, could not fail to involve the Prince in
debts, to the discharge of which his slender incorae was far from
adequate. It was, to use Shenstone's simile, a large retinue
upon a sraall incorae, which, like a cascade upon a sraall
streara, tended to discover its tenuity. His Royal Highness'
style of living was splendid beyond a precedent, his stud was
the finest in Europe, but the exact reverse of profitable ; and
his losses at the garaing-table were reported to be iraraense.
His debts araounted to nearly 300,000?., and as his creditors
becarae very iraportunate, he laid his case before the King,
and solicited relief. A schedule of the Prince's debts was, by
the. King's command, soon laid before him; but whatever might

168 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
have been the nature of that document, some ofthe items were
so inconsistent with the strictly moral principles of George HI.,
that the negotiation ended in his positive refusal to assist the
Prince, and the heir-apparent gained nothing by his applica
tion but the unequivocal displeasure ofthe King. One ofthe
items of this schedule was a debt due to Mr. Jefferys, the
jeweUer, for jewels and plate furnished to Mrs. Fitzherbert, to
the araount of 54,000L . ¦
The haughty indifference of the monarch and the minister, to
the pressing claims of the Prince, threw hira entirely on the
sympathy ofthe Opposition. Mr. Pitt identified himself with the
obstinacy of the father, while Mr. Fox and the Opposition con^
nected themselves with the irregularities of the son. One evU
consequence that was on the point of resulting frora the em
barrassments of the Prince, was his acceptance of a loan which
the Duke of Orleans proffered hira, and which would have the
perilous tendency of placing the future sovereign of England
in a state of dependence, as a creditor on a Prince of France.
The secrets of the loan may be estimated by the fact, that
the Duke agreed with the Prince, that he was to receive a
certain sum, on his (the Prince's) coming to the throne. The
nominees of the Duke were two profligate females. This trans
action, unequaUed since the days of Charles II., put every
party to great difficulties ; and the friends of the King and the
Prince were equally anxious to prevent the loan taking place,
or being known to the public. The Prince was deeply in debt
to many English noblemen, but they concealed the fact with
great delicacy, whilst the Duke of Orleans, prompted by the
vanity so natural to his nation, had industriously circulated the
report about the English Prince being about to borrow raoney
of him. The two women who were to receive the Prince's bond
of payment at his father's death, gloried in circulating amongst
the profligate coteries of the French court the degrading obli
gations which their paramour had imposed on the English
crown. The Duke of Portland, as the friend of the King, was zea
lous in stopping the transaction. On the, 13th of Deceraber,
] 786, he writes to Mr. Sheridan : ' I have received a confirraa
tion of the intelligence ; the particulars varied in no respect

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 169
from those I related to you, except in the addition of a pension,
which is to take place iraraediately on the event which entitles
the creditors to payraent, and is to be granted for life to a no
minee of the Duke of Orleans. The loan was mentioned in a
mixed company by two ofthe Frenchwomen and a Frenchraan,
in Calonne's presence (then minister of finance), who begged
them, for God's sake, not to talk of it. I am going to Bulstrode,
but wUl return at a moraent's notice, if I can be of the least
use in getting rid of this odious engageraent,' &c.
Mr. Pitt was as pertinacious as the King in refusing any aid
to the Prince, who was driven to more mortifying expedients for
"¦"raoney than had ever befallen a royal personage. The follow
ing account, given in Jefferys' own words, will exhibit the de
graded state to which he, at this tirae, was reduced for
^ raoney. ' The Prince sent for me td Carlton House, at a rauch earlier
hour in the morning than hewas accustomed to do, and, taking
me into an inner apartment, with very visible marks of agitation
in his countenance and manner, said, he had a great favour to
ask of me, which, if I could accomplish, would be doing hira the
greatest service, and he should ever consider it accordingly. I
replied, that I feared what his Royal Highness raight consider
a great favour done towards him, would be raore than my liraited
raeans could accomplish ; but that in all I could do I was en
tirely at his service, and requested his Royal Highness to narae
his coraraands.
' His Royal Highness then proceeded to state that a creditor
of Mrs. Fitzherbert had raade a very pereraptory demand for
the payment of about 1,600Z. ; that Mr. Weltjee had been sent
by his Royal Highness to the creditor making such demand, to
desire it raight be placed to the Prince's account. This, how
ever, the creditor refused to do, on the ground that Mrs. Fitz
herbert, being a woman of no rank nor consideration in the eye
of the law, as to personal privUege, was amenable to an irarae
diate process, which was not the case with his Royal Highness.
This the Prince stated to have caused in his raind the greatest
uneasiness, for fear ofthe consequences that raight ensue, as it
was not in the power of his Royal Highness to pay the money
then, or to narae an earlier period for so doing than three or
Y

170 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
four months. The request, therefore, which his Royal High
ness had to make to rae was, — that I would interfere on the
occasion, and prevent, if possible, any personal inconvenience
to Mrs. Fitzherbert, which would be attended with extrerae
raortification to his Royal Highness.
' I assured his Royal Highness that 1 would do all I could in
the business ; and I was appointed to attend with the result of
ray endeavours, at Carlton House, the next raorning. I did
attend as appointed ; and presented the Prince of Wales with
a receipt for the whole sum, 1,585/. lis. Id., which I had that
morning paid, being the only effectual means of pacifying the
creditor, and reraoving frora the raind of his Royal Highness
the anxiety he appeared so strongly to labour under.
' His Royal Highness was unbounded in his expressions of
satisfaction at what I had so proraptiy accoraplished ; and in
the afternoon on the sarae day, he came to my house in Picca
dilly, and brought with him Mrs. Fitzherbert, for the express
purpose, as his Royal Highness condescendingly said, that she
might herself thank me for the great and essential service I had
that morning rendered to her by the relief ray exertions had
produced in the rainds of his Royal Highness and Mrs. Fitz
herbert.' The second instance, as related by Jefferys, does not place
the character of his, Royal Highness in the most favourable
light. ' Being once alone with his Royal Highness, he asked me if
I had any money to spare for a few days ; I replied, that I had
in ray pocket 630Z. ; but that itwas destined for aparticular pur
pose, or I should not have had it about rae ; however, as the re
quest ofhis Royal Highness was only for a few days, any part
of it was at his service. His Royal Highness took 420/., and,
thanking me in very warm terms, assured rae, that I might rely
on its return in ten days. I refused to take any meraorandura
for the supposed short loan of this raoney ; but for the return
which I expected in ten days, I patiently waited considerably
more than a year.'
Jefferys says that he frequently threw himself in the way of
the Prince of Wales, hoping that his presence would remind
him ofthe debt, but no notice was ever taken of it.

MEMOIRS oF GEORGE IV. 171
We leave these facts to~speak for themselves. It is true that
an attempt was raade to justify the conduct of his Royal High
ness ; and as a sequitur to defame the character of Jefferys, by
an anonymous paraphleteer, under the signature of Philo Ve
ritas, but, like raany other zealous advocates, who, by atterapt-
ing to prove too much, prove nothing at all, the cause and
character of his Royal Highness were rather injured than
promoted. The Prince now finding that all his usual resources were
exhausted, and that he was totally unable to meet the heavy
and incessant demands which were made upon him from the
establishment in Park Lane, and others of a more private and
secret nature, he formed a resolution which was more loudly
applauded, and more strongly condemned, than any action of
his eventfiil life. Surrounded with pecuniary difficulties, and
exasperated by the King's refusal to relieve them, he resolved
to pursue a course which would have been wise in a private
individual, but which, in him who was the depositary of the
national honour, must be considered, at the best, as a very
dubious Virtue. It was an act similar to that of the pettish child
who destroys all its playthings because it cannot exactly obtain
a particular one on which it has set its heart. This resolution
of the Prince was to live on an income of 10,000Z. a year, ap
propriating 40,000Z. annually to the liquidation of his debts
till all should be discharged.
Actuated by our acknowledged spirit of impartiality, and
anxious to place the conduct of his Royal Highness under the
most favourable aspect whenever an opportunity presents it
self, we will give the reasons of the panegyrists of his Royal
Highness for applauding the resolution which he had now
taken. The answer of the King, declining, in the most pereraptory
manner, to come forward with any relieif of the Prince from
his pecuniary erabarrassraents, was delivered to the Prince on
the 4th of May, 1786, through the hands of Lord Southarapton ;
and the coraraents which a very able eulogist of his Royal
Highness raakes upon this eventfiil period of his life, are as
follows : —
• The Prince no sooner received the King's answer than,
y2

172 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
with a promptitude that did honour to his spirit as a man,
he took only one day to deliberate upon the conduct he should
hold in this emergency. He then resolved, in justice to his
creditors, to curtail the establishment of his household, to
abrido-e himself of every superfluous expense, and to set apart a
large annual sum, to the amount of 40,000Z.,/or the liquidation
of his debts. Nothing could be more generous, noble, and
high-spirited, than the whole of this proceeding.
' But the Prince of Wales's notions of equity were far frora
stopping here. His Royal Highness had hitherto indulged in
a passion frequent araong persons of high rank, — that of training
running-horses for Newraarket, and other places of public con
tention of the sarae kind ; but in this emergency he scrapled
not a raoment to give up a favourite and an innocent (?) re
laxation, the more speedUy to satisfy the clairas ofhis creditors.
Accordingly, his racing stud, which had been formed with great
judgment and expense, and which was looked upon as one of
the raost coraplete in the kingdom, — his hunters, and even his
coach-horses, were sold by public auction, and produced to the
amount of seven thousand guineas ! '
With the vievv of placing this extraordinary conduct of
his Royal Highness in its proper light, we may, perhaps, be
allowed to make a few comments on the consequences which
were likely to accrae to the creditors ofhis Royal Highness on
account of these voluntary sacrifices ; and in candour we must
avow, and we reprobate the advisers of the Prince who could
have urged him to such a line of conduct, that several of his
acts at this time partook more of the galled spirit of disap
pointraent than of raature reflection and consideration ; rauch
less do we adrait that they should be attributed to that high
sense of honour and integrity with which it was the evident
aim of certain individuals to invest them. It was a base and
shallow artifice, on the part of the friends of the Prince of
Wales, to restore him to that popularity which some recent
events had destroyed, and which, acting upon the humane and
sympathetic feelings of the English people, they considered
theraselves certain of obtaining. The idea of a sale of horses
and carriages to the amount of 7,O00Z., to be the means of
stifling the claims of creditors of nearly 300,000/,, was too

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 173
preposterous to be entertained for a raoraent, excepting by
those who thought, if they could adduce one exaraple of
economy, they should obtain credit for all the others which were
promised, but which were never acted upon ; but in furtherance
of this spirit of retrenchment and econoray, the eulogist of his
Royal Highness teUs us, ' that at the sarae tirae, the buildings and
interior decorations of Carlton-house were stopped (we should
wish to know when they were ever finished), and some of the
most considerable rooms shut up frora use. The number of his
attendants was also dirainished ; but, with that thoughtfulness
and kind consideration which always distinguish a truly
generous raind, care was taken to settle pensions on those who
would otherwise have been reduced to distress on quitting the
Prince's service. This trait in the character of his Royal
Highness it would have been unpardonable not to have no
ticed ; and we raay add to it, that as he is a kind, provident,
and indulgent master, so no Prince was ever more cordially
and zealously beloved by his servants. In the shipwreck (if we
may be allowed the term) of his fortunes, many of thera made
hira a voluntary offer of their services free frora every expense ;
and it was not without tears of reluctance, soothed with the
proraise of being taken again into his service whenever cir
curastances would admit of the re-establishment of his house
hold, that these hurable, but faithful servants, were prevailed
on to quit the palace of this much-loved Prince.
' With this magnaniraity of feeling did the Prince of Wales
think proper to retire frora the splendour which belonged to his
high station, rather than forfeit that character of honour and
integrity which undoubtedly every raan ought to consider him
self in pledging to his creditors, and which, above all others,
should be sacred in the eyes of a prince.
' But the conduct of the Prince of Wales, on this inter
esting occasion, far frora receiving that just tribute of pubhc
approbation to which it was so well entitled, from the noble-
raindedness of its motives, becarae a subject of various ani
madversion. In itself, undoubtedly, and taken abstractedly
from any circumstance that had previously agitated the public
mind relative to this iUustrious personage, like that to which
we have before alluded, it was entitled to the highest coraraen
dation ; but it is equally certain that it did not obtain from the

174 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
nation in general that fuU and unequivocal approbation which
it' so justly deserved.'
An anonymous, but candid and sensible political writer,
speaking of this transaction, with equal truth and acuteness
observes, 'that the temper of the present age is a subject
of curious speculation. It cannot be pretended that we
are entire strangers to dissipation and profligacy, but there
is a prevaiUng humour that renders us severe upon the
subject of virtue. In the great contest between Mr. Pitt and
Mr. Fox, on the close of the Parliament which was dis
solved in 1784, undoubtedly there were many considerations
that co-operated with each other for the purpose of giving
so entire a victory to the former. But of all these motives,
perhaps the most cogent was that which was derived from the
sobriety and purity of Mr. Pitt's conduct, and from the known
disposition and propensity to gaming of Mr. Fox. It is
equally true, though not perhaps equaUy obvious, that nothing
tended to carry George III. in safety through all the storms
and calamities of his reign, more than his perfect freedora from
every irregular and vicious pursuit. The contrast, in this re
spect, between the prince upon the throne and the heir-appa
rent and successor, was by no means favourable to the latter.
There was scarcely any deviation in which the Prince did not
occasionally indulge ; and it cannot be denied, that the world
spoke in language of the strongest censure of the choice which
he made of his most intimate companions. All these consider
ations were tenfold strengthened by the affair of the ruraoured
marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert. It seeraed to press upon the
minds of the people as a load which they could not shake off;
and every rumour which had a tendency to confirm it, only
added to the pressure of the odium which his Royal Highness
had to endure. His admirers, it is true, compared hira with
our favourite Henry V., not considering how extreraely injudi
cious that coraparison was to the character of the Prince of
Wales ; and in the plenitude of their adrairation of him, they
asserted that his present dissipation was only the ebullition and
the first violence of great and noble qualities. But to this it
was replied, that the matter in question cut off all hopes. In
this instance he had proved that the wildness and inconsidera-
tion of his nature were deeply rooted, and that he had no

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 175
better and more worthy principles at bottom to check his ex
cesses. To the gratification of a youthful inclination, he had
sacrificed the dignity of his character, and the happiness of his
country." Not to detain our readers with any long coraraents on the
observations of this spirited .writer, it is just necessary to ob
serve, that his language towards the Prince, though far frora
that of forbearance or vindication, falls infinitely short in seve
rity of reproof of the terms of reproach and condemnation with
which the press at this period teemed against hira. It seeraed
as if the raercenary scribblers of the raetropolis had entered
into a regular conspiracy to vUify and degrade the Prince of
Wales ; and scarcely any writer had the courage, or rather the
hardihood, to brandish a pen in his defence. It is not to be
supposed that the ministers of the day gave encouragement to
their vile and unprincipled machinations ; but this much is cer
tain, that the efforts made to check thera were languid and in
efficient, and it was notorious that those vvho inveighed most
bitterly against the Prince, were the writers who most zealously
supported Mr. Pitt's administration. Mr. Pitt's accession to
power had been represented by the great leaders of the whig
party, truly as it was, as an underhand and unconstitutional
transaction : by the minister and his friends, it was pretended
that it was necessary to rescue the crown from a dangerous
combination ; and as there was soraething plausible in this re
presentation of the case, all those who thought that the consti
tution could not be preserved without a just equilibriura was
raaintained among the three estates of the realra, sided with the
minister and his friends, as the only way of securing to the
crown that degree of authority and influence which they thought
it ought to possess, but which was threatened by a corabina
tion of powerful leaders in the House of Comraons. Consi
dered as a raere theoretical question, it is undoubtedly desirable
that the three estates of the kingdom should be perfectly inde- ,
pendent of each other ; that is, that the king should not dictate
either to the Lords or Comraons, nor that either ofthe branches
of the legislature should dictate to the throne. But as cases
may, and, as is too well known, do arise, where the crown and
the Commons differ in opinion, it then becomes a serious ques*

176 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
tion which party Ought to give way. If the Commons fairiy,
fully, and freely represented the people, then no question what
ever could arise upon the subject, because the monarch must
of necessity yield obedience to the wishes of his people ; it
would not be endured for a moraent that the general wUl should
be rendered nugatory by the obstinacy or perverseness of a
single individual ; but as the British constitution, whatever it
raay be in theory, certainly is not in practice so perfectly con
stituted, that the commons of the land can be said to be ade
quately represented, and the influence ofthe crown in elections
is known to be almost predominant, it certainly appears some
what strange, and a sort of dereliction of their own interests in
the people, that that House of Coraraons which stood up raost
strenuously in opposition to the crown, and vindicated the
undoubted right of the representatives of the people to put a
negative upon the appointraent of the King's servants, should
have been the most unpopular House of Commons with the
people at large that had been assembled since the accession
of George III. to the throne. Yet such unquestionably was
the fact ; and the Prince of Wales, receiving into his confi
dence the leaders who principally distinguished themselves in
that raeraorable struggle between the crown and the Comraons,
became a partaker in their unpopularity.
The sacrifices which his Royal Highness made for the ease
and security ofhis creditors, we have already shown, were far
from prodticing the effect which might have been expected
from so generous and disinterested a procedure, and his Royal
Highness' situation became every day more critical. In less
than a month from the period in which he had discharged his
household, an attempt was made upon the life of the Sovereign
by a wretched maniac, of the name of Margaret Nicholson.
When this affair happened, which made a considerable noise
at the time, as being the first of the kind, though, the danger
probably was magnified, his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales was at Brighton ; and the news reached him, not by an
immediate conveyance from the King or administration, as de
licacy and respect for the rank and situation of the Prince
perhaps would have pointed out on such an occasion, but by
the information of a private friend. The conduct which the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. l77
Prince of Wales' adopted was that which becarae him as a son.
Instead of taking offence at the neglect, to say no worse of it,
which had been shown him, he quitted Brighton without a
moraent's delay, and, proceeding post to Windsor, had an
interview with the Queen.
Speaking of this period, the writer to whora we have before
alluded, says, upon this occasion it raight have been expected
that the affection which naturally subsists between the parent
and the child should have carried the Prince and the King into
each other's arras. They did not see each other. The King
knew that the Prince was in the house, but he did not think
proper to summon him to his presence. The Prince on his
part did not demand an interview, because court etiquette
seeraed to have placed the necessity of the first-overture on the
other side, and because he naturally imagined, that he had
sufficiently displayed the dispositions by which he was actuated,
by the journey from which he had just arrived. There had
already been a coldness between the King and the Prince, but this
was the first occasion in which it had broken out into an open act.
It was supposed by raany, that the King was displeased with
the circurastance of the Prince having thought proper to dis
card his household without having consulted the inclination
of his father, or deraanded his consent. It was also supposed
that the King participated in the feelings of the raajority of
his subjects respecting Mrs. Fitzherbert.
This open rupture between the Prince and his father filled
up the measure of the son's unpopularity. The experienced
and the sage took part against him. The domestic character
of the King was well known, and was an object of general
respect. It was not probable, they said, that the father should
fail in paternal kindness to his son, though it was very possible
that the son raight fail in filial duty to his father. They af
firraed, that, in a quarrel between the two, the son was always
in the wrong ; and they predicted the raost calamitous events
as the result of this breach. They looked back to the history
ofthe two preceding reigns, and they believed that something
more bitter, more inveterate, and more injurious to government
and the people would spring up now than in any former in
stances.

178 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales persevered in his
plan of retrenchment for a period of nine months ; and denying
himself those accomraodations and indulgences to which he was
so well entitled both by his rank and personal merit, he adhered
rigidly to the plan upon which he had entered, of devoting the
greater part of his incorae to the liquidation of his debts. No
thing could h^-ve been more proper and dignified than the con
duct his Royal Highness had observed ; but its effect on the
public raind was far from answering the expectations of the
Prince's friends. They were in hopes that so striking an in
stance of magnanimity and disinterestedness on the part of the
Prince of Wales would have operated somewhere, either on the
feelings of his royal father, or on the generosity of the House of
Commons, so as to occasion his embarrassments to be taken up
9.S a matter of national concern. But, disappointed in this rea
sonable expectation, the Prince felt himself indisposed any
longer to submit to the indignity of his situation, or to live upon
the contracted scale on which, with the most laudable intentions,
he had limited his expenses.
The public opinion, as we have before intimated, was divided
as to the line of conduct properto be adopted towards the Prince
in this emergency. On the one hand, it was said, that the
Prince of Wales was the fittest person to do the honours of the
nation to those foreigners of distinction who visited it; and that
the magnificence of his living, the liberality of his teraper, and
the affability of his disposition, were well calculated to exalt
a,nd to do credit to the English character. His present situation
was, therefore, tobe considered as a disgrace to the nation. It
exhibited us, they said, in the eyes of Europe, either as impo
verished and impotent, or as governed by an injudicious and
iU-timed penuriousness, that curbed and chained down the
manly inclinations of the first subject in the realm, and froze up
the natural current of his spirit and generosity. On the other
hand, in opposition to those who argued thus liberaUy and sen
sibly, it was maintained, that the irregular and faulty character
ofthe Prince of Wales required a severe and rigorous discipline.
They admitted that he had shown some rectitude of judgment,
that he knew how to choose the path of virtue, but that it was
necessary he should be taught how to persist in it, in spite of

MEMOIRS OF SEORBE IV. 17Q
the thorns and ruggedness that surrounded it. Adversity, thSy
said, was never y6t injurious to improveraent, biit that a person
of the highest rank was in danger of bein^ spoiled by unintelr-
f upted prosperityj and, therefore, it was right that poverty, hard
ship, knd inconvenience should teach the Prince to feel fot the
sufferings of other raen.
Such were the principal ai'guraents, on this interesting occ^-
don, that were used by those who were the 'advocates of th&
Prince, and by those who conderaned his conduct. While sUcb
was the state of the controversy (to use a parliaraentary phrasS)
Out of doors, his Royal Highness having triedj as he confceivfed,
every other expedient for his extricatibn, at length thought prO"
per, as the last report, to authorize an application to be raa,de
to Parliament ; knd the person to whose management this deli^
cate business was intrusted^ was Mr. Nathaniel Newnham, a
merchant of great erainence, and alderman, and one of the re
presentatives for the city of London. A m6re proper persoii
could not have been selected for the occasion. Mr. Newnhalfl
was, in every sense ofthe word, an independent-raan. Engaged
in a lucrative businessj and possessed of an araple fortune, h6
had nothing to hope or to wish from court favour ; and though
on political questions he usually espoused that side which vva&
opposite to the existing administration, there was nothing in his
parliaraentary Conduct which, strictly cOnStriled, could efliitles
hira to the epithet of a party raan.
The business waS first agitated Oh the 20th of April, 1787,
when Mr. Newnham put the question to Mr. Pitt, whether it
was his intention to bring forward any proposition tO rescue
the Prince of Wales from his embafrjlssed and distressed Si
tuation. Being answered bythe minister, that he had received
no coraraands to that purpose frora the Kingj the aldferniail
gave hdtice, that on Fridaj/, the 4th Of May, he WOuld bring
forward a motion upbrl that subject for the c9nsideration Ofthe
House. This fiotice produced a very extraordinary impression upoii
die minds of his hearers, and avvakeued the utmost ahxiety in
different descriptions of petsohs in pariiament; Mr. Pitt, a few
days afterwards, revived the Subject, and requested to be in
formed more particularly respecting the precise nature of the
za

180 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
proposed motion. To this Mr. Newnham did not think proper
to accede ; and Mr. Pitt then observed, that the subject was
ofthe highest iraportance in itself, ofthe greatest novelty, hkely
to affect the most essential interests of the country, and of aU
others required the greatest delicacy in its discussion. The know
ledge, he said, which he possessed on the subject, raade hira par
ticularly desirous of avoiding it ; but, if it were absolutely deter
mined to bring it fonvard, he would, however distressing it
might prove to him as an individual, discharge his duty to the
public, and enter fully into the subject.
On the 27th of April, Mr. Newnham stated to the House the
precise nature of his motion, which was for an address to his
Majesty, praying him to take into his royal consideration the
situation of the Prince of Wales, and to grant his Royal High
ness such relief as in his wisdom he should think fit, pledging
the House to make good the same. Mr. Rolle (raeraber for
Devonshire, and the sarae gentleman to whom the humorous
poem of the RoUiad was addressed) observed that he felt much
concern to find that Mr. Newnham persisted in his intention,
and particularly called the attention of the country gentlemen
to the subject, as one of those questions, he affirmed, that tended
immediately to affect the constitution in church and state.
Mr. Sheridan, in reply to what had fallen frora Mr. Rolle,
declared hiraself highly irapressed with a sense of the raagnitude
and importance of the subject, and considered it of as much
consequence as any that had ever been agitated within the
walls of that assembly. But he could not agree, he said, that
it interested the country gentlemen alone, and not every indi
vidual meraber of Pariiament. Mr. Sheridan took notice . of
Mr.RoUe's expression respecting the constitution in church and
state, to which, he said, he did not know what precise meaning
to affix ; and he recurred to another expression eraployed by
Mr. Pitt, which, on account of the station of the person from
whom it came, was entitled to the more serious observation.
Mr. Sheridan meant, he said, an insinuation that had fallen
from the minister, that there were circumstances which raust
corae out in the discussion, which would show the impropriety
of granting the assistance required. In reply to this, Mr. She
ridan declared, from the best and highest authority, that neither

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 18l
the friends of the Prince of, Wales, nor his Royal Highness
himself, had any other wish than that every circumstance in the
whole series of his conduct should be minutely and accurately
investigated. His Royal Highness, he felt hiraself authorized
to say, desired that no part of his conduct, circurastances, or
situation, should be treated with arabiguity, concealraent, or
affected tenderness, but that whatever related to hira should be
discussed openly, and with fair, raanly, and direct exaraination.
Mr. Sheridan added, that he had expected long before tbat the
unpleasantness of the discussion would have been prevented by
relief from another quarter, and that he felt an extrerae re
luctance in agitating it in a hostUe raanner.
t Mr. Derapster, Mr. Hussey, Mr. Powys, and sorae others,
who were generally known by the denoraination of country
gentlemen, now interfered, and joined their intreaties to Mr.
Newnham, that he would give up his intended raotion. Mr.
Powys, a member of great weight and respectability, observed,
that instead of hearing on that day an explanation of what
might be the substance of the raotion, he had rather expected
that the honourable raeraber who had prepared it, would have
corae and asked pardon ofthe House for the impropriety of his
conduct. He declared that there never was a question in which
he had felt so rauch, or was so incapable, frora agitation, of
expressing what he was anxious to say ; and he trusted that
every person who wished well to the country, or was attached
to the family on the throne, would use every possible effort to
prevent it from being debated.
Mr. Pitt now rose, and, after prpfessing much good will and
respect for the Prince of Wales, declared he was greatly con
cerned, that by the perseverance of Mr. Newnhara, he should
be driven, though with infinite reluctance, to the disclosure of
circumstances which he had an opportunity of knowing, and
which he would otherwise have thought it his duty to conceal.
He disclaimed any idea of insinuation, and asserted, that the
form of the motion, so far from rendering it agreeable to hira,
was, of all others, the most improper and unjustifiable that
could be proposed.
Mr. Sheridan repUed, that he was unable to comprehend why
the notice of the measure should have occasioned so much

182 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
alarm among the country gentlemen. But be that as it wouldj
the minister had hiraself erected an insuperable bar tothe with
drawing of the raotion. Insinuations had been thrown out in
the first instance, he said, and converted into assertions, on
that day, which the honour and feelings of the parties raade it
necessary to have explained. Should the persons engaged in
the measure now recede from it, could the HousCi could the
country, or could Europe, form any other opinion of such be
haviour, than that the Prince had yielded to terror what he had
denied to arguraent ? Mr. Sheridan very successfully repelled
the charge that had been made against the party with whom he
acted, of foraenting the unhappy divisions that were conceived
to exist in the Royal faraily. The charge was as foolish as it
Was false. Such divisions, he said, so far frora assisting, raust
materially injure those who were not admitted into his Majesty's
councils, and whose opposition was in reality founded, not in
personal animosities, but upon broad Constitutional grounds.
The spirited manner in which the question was taken up by Mr.
Sheridan now induced Mr. Pitt to declare, that the particulars
to which he had alluded, and which he should think it necessary
to state raore fully to the House, related only to the pecuniary
situation of the Prince of Wales, and to a correspondence
which had taken place on that subject, and had no reference to
any extraneous circurastances. He trusted, therefore, that
this matter being explained, he should prevail in his intreatieS
to prevent the proceeding any further in a business which;
though he had no doubt it was undertaken from a regard to the
honour of the Royal family, and the interests of the country,
must, if persisted in, be productive of consequences most inju
rious to both.
Mr. Newnhara, in reply to these observations, reraarked, that
he was nOt so rash and presuraptuous as to have taken up the
idea of his raotion from the bare Suggestion of his own mind,
and that, having brought hiraself to undertake a raatter o'f so
raucli importance, neither was he so weak as to feel any alarm
for consequences which might be held out with an interested
view to drive him from it.
Two days after this conversation, a meeting was held at the
house of Mr. Thoraas Pelham (afterwards Earl of Chichester)^
of the friends of the intended motion of Alderman Newnham,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 183
at which the Prince of Wales was present, in order to consider
of the state of the business, and to concert sueh measures a?
might be thought proper under the present circumstances ; and,
in consequence of this meeting, new ground was taken in a
conversation that was introduced in the House of Comraons
on the following day. Mr. Newnham began with alluding to
the reraark which had been made by Mr. Pitt, that the mode of
application hy address to the throne w£|,s of aU others the most
exceptionable ; and declared, that he should therefore think it
right to decline that form of proceeding, and, if Mr. Pitt would
point out a mode of application the most mild and the lea.st
likely to provoke resistance, he would readily adopt that mode,
in preference to any other that might occur to him. He ob
served, that certain hints had been thrown out by Mr. Pitt
respecting the singular delicacy of sorae matters that it would
be necessary to agitate, which hints, though questionable in
their appearance, were explained by the minister in a satisfac
tory manner. Another allusion had been employed by Mr,
Rolle, who had talked of the question as affecting our consti
tution in church and state, and he conceived that that gentle
man was bound as a man of honour, to come to an open ex
planation of what he intended by that allusion.
Mr. Fox, who had not been present at the preceding con
versations, now followed Mr. Newnham. The testiraony of
that illustrious senator was decisive in the Prince's favour.
He had understood, he said, that Mr. Sheridan, on a forraer
occasion, had observed, that the Prince did not wish to shrink
frora any inquiry which it might be thought necessary to insti
tute. Mr. Fox now confirmed that assertion, from the irarae
diate authority of the Prince. With regard to the private
correspondence in question, he was desirous to have it laid
before the House, because it would prove the conduct of the
Prince to have been in the highest degree amiable, and would
present a uniforra and perfeet picture of duty and obedience,
as much so as had ever in any instance been shown, from a
son to his father, or frora a subject to his sovereign. As to the
debt which was the cause of his erabarrassraent, Mr. Fox de
clared, tfiat the Prince of Wales was wUling to give a general
and fair account of it ; and if any part of it were doubted,

184 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
from a suspicion that this or that article of the"account cora
prehended any sums of money indirectly applied, he would give
a clear explanation to the King or his ministers. He had not
the smallest objection to affording the House every possible
satisfaction, and there was not a circumstance of his life which
he was ashamed to have known. With respect to the allusion
to church and state, Mr. Fox said, that untU the person who
had made it thought proper to explain hiraself, it was ira
possible for hira to say with certainty to what it referred. But
he supposed it raust have originated in that miserable calurany,
that low raalicious falsehood, which had been propagated out
of doors, and raade the wanton sport of the vulgar. He
hoped, however, that a tale, fit only to irapose on the lower
order of persons in the street, would not have gained the
sraallest degree of credit. But, when it appeared that an in
vention so raonstrous, that a report of a fact, which was desti
tute of the slightest foundation, and which was absolutely im
possible to have happened, had been circulated with so much
industry, and raade so deep an irapression, it proved at once
the uncoraraon pains taken by the enemies of the Prince to
propagate the grossest and raost malignant falsehoods, to injure
him in the opinion of his country and of Europe. Mr. Fox
added, that when he considered his Royal Highness was the
first subject in the kingdora, and the iraraediate heir to the
throne, he was at a loss to iraagine what species of party it was,
that could have originated so base and scandalous a calumny.
Had there existed in the kingdom such a faction as an anti-
Brunswick faction, to that faction he should certainly have attri
buted the fabrication of so infamous a falsehood ; for he saw not
what other description of men could feel an interest, in first in
venting, and then circulating, with raore than ordinary assiduity,
a tale in every particular so unfounded. Mr. Fox farther added,
that the Prince had authorized hira to declare, that as a Peer
of Parliament, his Royal Highness was ready, in the other
House, to submit to any of the raost pointed questions that
could be put to him upon the subject, or to afford the King or
his ministers the fullest assurances of the utter falsehood of the
fact in question. With respect to the alarming consequences,
talked of as likely to be the effect of a parliamentary discus-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 183
sion of the Prince's situation, Mr. Fox declared, that he saw
no reason whatever to dread them.
Mr. Pitt now rose, and observed, that Mr. Newnhara had
mistaken the nature of his objection to the intended motion.
His opposition, he said, was pointed at every proposal which
should originate such a subject in that house ; so that in fact
the forra in which it was done could have very little weight in
his consideration. Mr. Fox, he observed, had proceeded a
little too far, in having charged him with dealing in insinuations
and inuendoes, merely because he had stated that disagreeable
topics would be found to mingle in the discussion of the sub
ject. Mr. Pitt added, that it little became Mr. Fox at the
sarae tirae to throw out hints and insinuations, evidently calcu
lated and intended to fall soraewhere, and upon sorae person,
whora, though he had not mentioned, he seeraed to think the
House would be able to discover. Such expressions, he was
convinced, no meraber could expect him to answer. Mr. Fox
had not pointed his charge against any individual, nor should
he point it for him.
Mr. Rolle, who was evidently alluded to in the latter part of
Mr. Pitt's speech, now rose, and acknowledged, that the sub
ject upon which Mr. Fox had spoken, was the raatter to
which he referred, as affecting both church and state. That
raatter had been stated and discussed in the newspapers
all over the kingdom, and it had raade an irapression on
hira, and upon alraost all ranks of men in the country who
loved and venerated the constitution. Mr. Fox had said,
that it was impossible to have happened. They all knew,.
that there were certain laws and acts of Parliament which
forbade it; but though it could not be done under the
formal sanction of law, there were ways in which it raight
have taken place. Those laws, in the rainds of sorae
persons, raight be satisfactorily evaded, and yet the fact
might be equally productive of the most alarraing conse
quences. It ought, therefore, for the satisfaction of those who
had. their fears on the subject, to be fully cleared up.
Mr. Fox replied to the last speaker with great aniraation.
He did not, he said, deny the calumny in question, merely with
regard to the effect of certain existing laws, but he denied it in
2 A

186 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
toto, in point of fact as well as law. The fact, he affirraed, not
only never could have happened legally, but never did happen
any Way, and had frora the beginning been a base and raalicious
falsehood. Mr. Rolle rose again, and asked whether, in what
he had said, Mr. Fox had spoken frora direct authority. Mr.
Fox declared that he had spoken from direct authority.
Mr. Rolle raaking no reply to this, Mr. Sheridan rose, and
observed, that the honourable gentleraan, after having put a
pointed question and received an immediate answer, was bound,
in honour and fairness, either to declare that he was satisfied, or
to take some means of putting the matter into such a state of
inquiry as should satisfy hira. To reraain silent, or to declare
(which was the only answer which could be extorted frora Mr.
RoUe) that the House would judge for themselves of what had
passed, was neither manly nor candid. If, therefore, he did not
choose to say he was satisfied, Mr. Sheridan thought that the
House ought to come to a resolution, that it was seditious and
disloyal to propagate reports injurious to the character of the
Prince, and thus, by their interposition, to discountenance the
report. The arguraent of Mr. Sheridan was enforced in a brief speech
by Mr. Grey, then a young but proraising raember of the House
of Comraons. Mr. Pitt affected to consider the language of
Mr. Sheridan as the raost direct attack upon the freedora of
debate and liberty of speech in that House that had been raade
ever since he sat in Parliaraent. In his opinion, the raerabers
on that side of the House should rather be obliged to the gentle
man who was the first to suggest a question which had been
the means of bringing forward so explicit a declaration on so
interesting a subject, and one which raust give complete satis
faction, not only to Mr. Rolle, but to the whole House. Mr.
Pitt added, that he was particularly prepared to disprove any
arguments which might be brought in support of the necessity
of an application to pariiaraent, as he had opportunities of
knowing, frora the correspondence which had passed, that no
such necessity could arise frora the want of a fit degree of for
wardness in another quarter to do everything which ought to be
done in the business.
In this stage of the transaction, an intimation was conveyed

MEMOIKS OF GEORGE IV; 187
to the Prince of Wales, that Mr. Dundas (then one of the se
cretaries of state) would be glad, if his Royal Highness had no
objection, to have an interview with him. This overture was
reported to have sprung from some things that had been dropped
by the Duchess of Gordon upon the subject, in a conversation
between her Grace and Mr. Pitt. Whether this was actually
the case, it is not for us to determine, but it is certain that ihe
intimation had every desired effect. Mr. Dundas had an in
terview with the Prince at Carlton-house, and the following day
Mr. Pitt was admitted to his Royal Highness. In consequence
of these interviews, Mr. Newnham acquainted the House of
Coraraons, on the day originaUy selected for his long-expected
motion, that that motion was now no longer necessary, and
therefore, with the most sincere and heartfelt satisfaction, he
declined bringing it forward.
Mr. Drake (member for Agmondeshara) was the first to ex-
press his sentiraents upon. the subject, which he did, as he
observed, in a very disarranged and unconnected style ; but
added, that the excessive gladness of his heart was superior to
eloquence, and the pleasantness of his sensations almost de-i
prived him of the power of uttering his sentiments. He ex
pressed his wishes, that the King might continue to reign over
a great, loyal, and united people, till the utraost period of hu-«
raanity ; and that, when by the course of nature his successor
should mount the throne, he might copy the pious example and
purity of manners of his Royal Father. Mr. Rolle concurred
in being pleased with the circumstance of the motion's being
withdrawn, but observed, that the terms upon which the dif
ference had been accommodated were an entire secret to him,^
but, if it should hereafl;er appear that any concessions had been
made humUiating to the country, or dishonourable in them
selves, he should be the first man to stand up in the house and
stigmatize them as they deserved.
A discussion somewhat curious in its nature now followecj
between Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt. By the latter it was re
marked, that he concurred in the general joy, in finding that Mr.
Newnham had at last discovered, in consequence of steps very
recently pursued by the Prince of Wales, that the measure which
he had undertaken was unnecessai-y. For hiraself he could not
avoid declaring, that, as he bad all along regarded it as super*
2a2

188 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
fluous, SO he did not now see that it was more so than at the
tirae when the notice was given. Mr. Fox, in reply to this,
declared, that he was as rauch 'convinced that the raotion had
been necessary, as he was, at that moment, persuaded that it
was no longer necessary. Mr. Pitt, in answer, expressed his
aversion to the saying anything which might lead to a discus
sion of the subject, but he would declare, that he knew of no
alteration in the circumstances of the case, and was confident
that nothing had taken place which might not equaUy have been
brought about without any such interference, as that which had
been resorted to. As to what Mr. Rolle had said of terms and
conditions, he knew of none that had been made. There was
no concession of any sort on the part of that person, who was
the highest and most distinguished on the present occasion.
His conduct had been uniform and consistent ; and he had not,
in any one instance, departed from those principles which had
all along influenced his proceedings.
Mr. Fox acknowledged that the raention of any thing like
terras was highly iraproper and objectionable ; but as Mr. Pitt
had chosen to say, that the conduct of one party had been
uniforra and consistent, it became his duty to declare, that the
conduct of the other party alluded to had been equally uni
form, perfectly respectful, and entitled to the highest coraraen-
dations. Mr. Sheridan now rose, and observed, that he saw no reason,
on the one hand, why the conversation should be prolonged ;
nor, on the other, did he conceive that a necessity for abridging
it could arise frora any apprehension that it might terminate in
altercation or difference of opinion. He would not enter into
the distinctions which Mr. Pitt had attempted to raake, and, if
the object of thera were to insinuate that the raerit of the recon
ciliation belonged exclusively to the ministers of the sovereign,
he should leave them to the consciousness of that merit. Op
position were ready to waive every title to credit, since, in
truth, the measures which had been adopted were the result of
the Prince's own judgment, which none but those who did not
know him could consider as needing the assistance or counsel
of any other person. Mr. Sheridan, in a very impressive and
animated tone, reminded the House, that the Prince of Wales
had shrunk frora no inquiry, though he acknowledged that no

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 189
such ideas having been pursued, was a raatter that did credit to
the decorura, the dignity, and the feeUngs of Parliaraent. But,
while the Prince's feelings had, no doubt, been considered on
the occasion, he must take the liberty of saying, however sorae
raio'ht think it a subordinate consideration, that there was ano-
ther person entitled, in the judgraent of every delicate and ho
nourable mind to the same attention : one, whom he would not
venture otherwise to describe, than by saying, it was a name,
which malice or ignorance alone could atterapt to injure, and
whose conduct and character were entitled to the truest
respect. Fourteen days subsequently to this conversation, a message
from the King was delivered to both Houses of Parliaraent,
inforraing them, that it was with great concern his Majesty had
to acquaint thera, that, from the accounts of the Prince of
Wales, it appeared that he had incurred a debt to a large
amount, which, if left to be discharged out of his annual in
come, would render it irapossible for hira to support an esta
blishment suited to his rank and station. Painful as it was at
all times to the King to propose any addition to the heavy
expenses of his people, he was induced to the present applica
tion from his paternal affection to the Prince of Wales. He
could not, however, expect nor desire the assistance of Parlia
ment, but on a well-grounded expectation that the Prince
would avoid contracting any debts in future. With a vievv to
this object, the King had directed a sura of 10,000/. per annura
to be paid out of the civil list, in addition to his forraer allow
ance ; and he had the satisfaction to observe, that the Prince
had given the fullest assurance of his determination to confine
his future expenses within the limits of his income, and had
settled a plan and fixed an order in those expenses, which, it
was trusted, would effectually secure the due execution of his
intentions. The King further recomraended to Parliaraent the
completing, in a proper manner, the works that had been
undertaken at Carlton-house.
Mr. Rolle was the only person who spoke upon the occasion
of delivering this message. He observed, however, that he
would not anticipate the subsequent debate. The accounts
were presented to the House of Comraons on the Wednesday

190 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
following, and on the next day an address was voted to the
King, to request his Majesty to direct the sura of 161,000/. to
be paid out of the civil list for the fiill discharge of the debts
of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the further
sura of 20,000/. on account of the works at Carlton-house.
The popularity of a prince generaUy rises or falls with his,
fortunes. The excessive liberality, the munificent patron
age of the arts, and the numerous accoraphshraents of the
Prince of Wales, gained him a certain portion of the public
esteem ; but, on the other hand, a contempt of economy, a
readiness to forra engageraents which it was irapossible to meet,
extravagant amusements, and a life of dissipation, weaned from
him the affections of those whose good opinions were neces
sary to the preservation of his reputation. But the errors
which excited the displeasure of his father, and affected his
popularity, were a love of gaming, and the indiscreet selection
of his political associates.
That bane of English society, the spirit of party, had in
fused a raore than usual portion of its leaven into the whole
mass of the nation ; and men were judged of, not by raerit, but
by their attachment to this or that political dogma, or by their
preference of one or other of the tests of patriotic virtue which
were then in fashion, and which, like other nostrums, have had
their day of popularity, and are forgotten. Under such cir
cumstances, it was impossible to mingle with the world, and
choose associates, without becoraing identified with one of
these divided parties. Educated as the Prince had been, it
was, no doubt, raeritorious in hira to step beyond the circle of
the court, and at his first outset to raake brilliant talents, raore
than coincidence of creed, the necessary qualification to secure
his intiraacy.
It is well known that the Prince selected for his friends and
confidants a set of raen whose abUities were an honour to the
nation ; but how deeply is it to be regretted that the private
habits of those individuals should have been loose and profli
gate in proportion to the splendour of their talents I How na
tural that the Prince should have been captivated by the bril-
fiancy of wit, the charms of eloquence, the fervour of ima
gination, the profundity of thought, the capacity of intellect,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 19l
the mighty powers of mind which distinguished a Fox, a She
ridan, and a Burke. It was no small teraptation to a youth
just bursting from the trammels of tuition, to find all that was
valuable in his instructors concentrated in his. friends, without
its accorapanying gravity and restraint.
But when we look back upon the abyss of disgrace into
which these profligate men impelled their thoughtless victim — ¦
leading him frora one excess to another, until the utter extinc
tion of every raoral principle would have been the consequence,
had not an alraost providential power tiraely interfered, and
wrested hira frora their fangs — we are then apt to deprecate the
possession of such talents, and deplore their raisapplication
to the basest and vilest of purposes.
The great vice of these extraordinary raen was the love of
garaing: indeed it maybe said, that, with the majority of them,
the liquidation of the exigencies of the day depended on their
good fortune at the faro-table. It was at this time the practice
of the Jews to frequent the gaming-houses in the moming, for
the express purpose of purchasing the I O U'S of the Prince,
for, as they were given for debts of honour, their payraent was
considered sure. But in what raanner were they generally
paid ? If the I O U was for 500/., a bond or sorae other solid
security was given for 600/. ; the Jew, in order to purge the
transaction of usury, selling t6 the Prince sorae trifling piece of
plate, or an article of jewellery, for the extra 100/. The'
Prince, in sorae instances, expressed his high sense of displea
sure at this traffic in his negotiable securities ; and in one or
two cases, he threatened that he would not play with the indi
vidual whora he detected in this practice ; but, to the great mor
tification of the Prince, he found, that although he was aware
of the ultimate ruin in which it would involve hira, yet, that as
in sorae instances he could not discharge his I 0 IJ from his
immediate funds, it was a systera of great convenience to have
a resource always at hand by which his honour could be saved.
But it was not only at the garaing-table that the losses of the
Prince were iraraense, but on the course and in the pugilistic
ring, he was the dupe of the blackguard and the sharper. As
there is no prescribing to peculiar tastes, it is unnecessary to
itiquire bow far a participation in these pleasures became the

192 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
heir-apparent to the crown of a great kingdom, or however it
raay be wisdora to feel, or to affect to feel a high relish for the
daily sports of the common people, it is still evident, that his
extravagant fondness for such expensive pleasures involved
him in the greatest difficulties, surrounded him with embarrass
raents, weaned hira from the affection ofthe King, and de
stroyed his popularity with the better part of the nation.
It appears certain that his association with the great leaders
of the Opposition had shaken the confidence of the Prince in
the integrity of that man who, with the most upright intentions
and the most consummate skill, wielded the national energies
in the most critical period of our history. It is equally clear,
that Mr. Pitt's opinion of the Prince was warped by political
prejudice. They did not, or they would not, understand each
other. The party of the minister A'isited the Prince's attach
ment to those talented individuals, whora he especially distin
guished as a political sin ; while the Opposition theraselves
affected to consider the admiration with which the Prince re
garded them, as due to their principles and not to their talents.
They succeeded too well in involving hira in sorae overt acts
of disobedience to the King, injudicious and offensive in them
selves, and swelled into overwhelming iraportance by the dis
trust and coldness of the royal bosora, and by the envious dis
tortion of raalignant scribblers influencing the ministry and the
country. In the society of his friends the Prince was plunged into
extravagance : by their advice he degraded his station under
the shallow pretext of self-denial; to serve thera he voted, as a,
peer in parliament, against a measure of his father's rainister;
for thera he condescended to corrupt the press, a portion of
which, to its own disgrace, was sufficiently venal to come to
terms of bargain and sale. Through these he appealed to the
Commons for assistance in his pecuniary difficulties ; by their
mismanagement he gave, or appeared to give, a pledge to the
nation which was afterwards broken, and to their counsels and
directions he subraitted hiraself in one of the most iraportant
eras of his life.
An afflicting circumstance now occurred, which brought the
Prince_of Wales again prorainently before the public eye. This

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 193
was the raalady of the King. His^^first iUness in 1765, his speech
to Parliaraent on his recovery, and the exaraination of the rae
dical attendants during the continuance of the complaint, had
prepared the nation for a recurrence of the affliction, and had
warned it of the necessity for making provision against a sirai
lar calamity ; nothing, however, had been decided, and when
the dreaded affliction reappeared in 1789, it found the minis
try unprovided with a remedy. The discussion of the question
threatened to unsettle the constitution itself. The goodness of
God, raore than the wisdom of raan, averted the awful conse
quences that raight have ensued.
In 1765, the Queen had been appointed, with a council of
regency, to execute the necessary functions of the provisional
governraent ; and there were not wanting persons who accused
her Majesty of endeavouring, by court intrigue and political
manoeuvre, to be again called to that post of high responsibi
lity. The good understanding which always subsisted between
the Queen and her son, and the general character of that
august lady, sufficiently refiite the calumny. In 1789, the
Prince of Wales was twenty-seven years of age, with abilities
and understanding far beyond his years. His residence at
Carlton-house was a little court, and the reputed talent of the
country rallied round his anticipated throne. In common cir
curastances the nation, with one voice, would have called this
gifted individual to supply the vacant seat of his afflicted
father ; but the English are a jealous people. The private
conduct of the Prince and his political associates had raade
hira dreaded, as rauch as his personal character and his extra
ordinary accomplishments had won for him the adrairation of
the world. The friends and advocates of the Prince, in the
House of Coraraons, insisted on the right — the inherent ab
stract right — of the Prince to assume the reins of governraent
in this unprecedented position of affairs. They demanded for
him the unqualified power and unrestricted authority of the
King. They looked upon the father as politically dead, and
regarded delay and discussion as treason against the son. The
Prince hiraself never clairaed these rights, nor is it to be in
ferred that he denied their existence ; they were deraanded for
him in one branch of the constitution by his avowed counsellors 2 B

194 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV;
and friends ; and his claira was supported in the other by the
JDuke of York, whose situation in the course of these discus
sions, as a son, a brother, and the second in succession to the
crown, was most deUcate and singularly critical.
It is needless to say, with what splendid abUities these claims
were explained and enforced. Fox was recalled frora a tour on
the Continent, to thunder forth his eloquent indignation against
the opposers of the Prince. The versatility of Sheridan was
taxed, from the sparkling coruscations ofhis effulgent wit, tothe
strong and steady light of his comraanding reason. Burke, in
whora were combined the most acute conception of the right,
and the highest relish for the absurdities of the wrong, with
perfect power of arguraent and eloquence to enforce the one,
and the most keen and polished ridicule to expose the other,
lavished the rich treasures of his oratory on this important
question. Nor will it be inquired in what manner this host of strength
could be defeated. The persevering efforts of a raind con
scious of its rectitude, the steady opposition of a character
adored for its integrity — the intuitive perception of the truth,
and that wonderful power of corabination, which, above all
other qualities, distinguished the political ability of Pitt, were
of theraselves sufficient to ward off this strange attack upon
the privileges ofthe kingdora.
A regard to self-interest was imputed to each party ; and it
is evident, that in the then temper of the Prince's mind, his
sudden elevation to unrestricted power (as far as that term may
be applied to the limited monarchy of England) would have
changed the relative position of the two great political parties.
It is, however, infinitely more reasonable to consider each side
influenced by their conviction of vvhat was necessary for the
public good. Mr. Pitt's view of the case was — that no inherent
right existed in the Prince ; and he thought it most important
that a distinct declaration to that effect should be inserted in
the journals of the House, as a preliminary measure. In ex
pediency, and as a matter of discretion, he thought the legisla
tive authority was bound to place the power of the executive
in the hands of the Prince. It was, however, in his opinion,
piost essentially requisite that the enjoyment of that power

-Memoirs of george iv. 195
should be distinctly limited to the period of the King's reco
very; that it should be contracted within certain bounds ;
and, above all, that the person and property of the King should
be confided to the guardianship of another. Resolutions to
that effect passed both Houses, in spite of the most strenuous
opposition ; and the Prince accepted the regency, subject to
such limitations, but not without a remonstrance against their
imposition. Faction of course imputed to personal considerations, and
construed into injurious suspicion and insulting reflections, the
regulations, which, with a due regard to the national safety,
and as a matter of precedent in the novelty of the case, it was
the absolute duty of the minister to construct and to impose.
The still credited, though often contradicted report of the
Prince's marriage with a papist, the coldness with which he
was (perhaps unjustly) regarded by the King, his dissolute life,
his extravagance, his debts, and the dread of his political con
nexions, united the country gentlemen, and formed a phalanx
round the minister, which all the eloquence of the Opposition
failed to penetrate.
Parliament met on the 20th of November, 1788 ; and, after
the ministers had briefly explained his Majesty's raelancholy si
tuation, both Houses adjourned for a fortnight. At their next
meeting, a coramittee of twenty-one persons in each House was
appointed to exaraine and report the sentiraents of the royal
physicians ; and a further adjournraent to the 10th of December
took place. On that day, the report of the coramittee was laid
upon the table of the House of Comraons ; and, after comraent-
ing upon it sorae time, Mr. Pitt moved, ' That a coraraittee be
appointed to examine and report precedents of such proceed
ings as may have been had, in cases of the personal exercise of
the royal authority being prevented or interrupted by infancy,
sickness, infirmity, or otherwise, with a view to provide for the
same.' This motion, which evidently went to cause a waste of time,
was strenuously deprecated by Mr. Fox, who, being on an ex
cursion to the Continent when the King's iUness was first known,
had been sent express for by the Prince of Wales, to assist him
in this emergency with his counsels. Mr. Fox contended that it
2 B 2

196 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
was the duty of Pariiament to lose no tim.e in proceeding to pro
vide some measure for the exigency ofthe present moment; and
he thought that exigency so pressing in point of time, that he,
for one, would oppose the motion then made. What, he asked,
were they going to search for? Not precedents upon their jour
nals, not parUamentary precedents, but precedents in the history
of England. He would be bold to say, nay they aU knew, that
the doing so would be a loss of tirae : for there existed no prece
dents whatever that could bear upon the present case. There
might have been an incompetency, there might have been an
inability in former monarchs, to direct the reins of government ;
but if such a misfortune had happened to thecountry, it had
happened at a tirae when there was not the alleviation of a na
tural substitute. The circumstance to be provided for did not
depend upon their deliberation, it rested elsewhere. There was,
then a person in the kingdora, differing frora any other person
that any existing precedents could refer to — an heir-apparent, of
fall age and capacity to exercise the regal power. It behoved
thera, therefore, not to waste a moment unnecessarily, but to
proceed, with all becoming speed and all becoming dUigence, to
restore the sovereign power, and the exercise of the royal au
thority. When the unfortunate situation of his Majesty was
first made known to that House, by a presentation ofthe mi
nute of the privy councU, sorae gentleraen had expressed a
doubt whether the House could raake such a paper a ground of
parliaraentary proceeding. Mr. Fox declared, that he had gone
farther ; that he thought the report of the privy council was
not an authentic docuraent, nor such as that House could raake
the ground of its proceeding. The defect had now been rerae-
died ; and the House was, in consequence ofthe regular exarai
nation which his Majesty's physicians had undergone before a
committee of their ovvn, in possession of the true state of the
King's health. That being known to the House, and through
them to the nation at large, he contended that it was then, and
then only, the precise point of time for the House to decide, and
that not a raoment ought to be lost. From what he had read of
history, from the ideas he had forraed of the law, and, what was
still more precious, of the spirit ofthe constitution — from every
reasoning and analogy, drawn frora those sources, Mr. Fox de-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 197
clared that he had not in his mind a doubt, and he should think
himself culpable, if he did not take the first opportunity of
declaring it, that in the present condition of his Majesty, his
Eoyal ¦Highness the Prince of Wales had as clear, as express a
right to exercise the power of sovereignty , during the continuance
ofthe incapacity with which it had pleased God to afflict the
King, as in the event of his Majesty's having undergone a
natural demise. Mr. Fox said, that, entertaining that opinion,
he thought it candid to come forward fairly, and avow it at that
instant. If the Prince of Wales did not instantly claira those
powers to which, frora analogy, frora history, and frora the
spirit ofthe constitution, he was clearly entitled ; if he acted in
a raanner more suited to his character and education ; that
moderation should be their strongest inciteraent to do hira jus
tice. The Prince, Mr. Fox said, had been bred up in those
principles which had placed his illustrious House upon the
throne, and with a known reverence and regard for those
principles, as the true fundaraentals of our glorious constitution,
in the maintenance of which his family had flourished with so
much prosperity and happiness as the sovereigns of the British
empire. Hence it was, that his Royal Highness chose rather to
wait the decision of Parliaraent, with a patient and due deference
to the constitution, than urge a claim which, he trusted, a raa
jority of that House and of the people at large adraitted, and
which, he was persuaded, could not reasonably be disputed.
But, asked Mr. Fox, ought the Prince of Wales to wait unne
cessarily ? Ought his Royal Highness to wait while precedents
were searched for, when it was known that none bearing upon
the case, which so nearly concerned hira, existed.? In the
deference and forbearance of the Prince they were not to forget
his right. In all their observations, they should reraember that
there was such a claim existing, and it should serve to hasten
their decisions, as far as was consistent with the raagnitude of
the occasion.
Mr, Pitt immediately coramenced a very warm reply. The
doctrine advanced by Mr. Fox, he said, was itself, if any addi
tional reason was necessary, the strongest and most unanswer
able for the appointraent of the committee he had moved for,
that could possibly be given. If a claira of right vvas intiraated

198 MEMOIRS OF GEOBCIE IVi
(even though not formally) on the part of the Prince of Wales,
to assurae the government, it became of the utraost consequence
to ascertain, frora precedent and history, whether this claira
were weU founded, which, if it was, precluded the House frora
the possibility of aU deliberation on the subject. In the raean
tirae, he maintained, that it would appear frora every precedent,
and frora every page of our history, that to assert such a right in
the Prince of Wales, or any one else, independent ofthe decision
ofthe two Houses of Parliaraent, was little less than treason tothe
constitution ofthe country. He pledged hiraself to this assertion,
that in the case of the interruption of the personal exercise of
the royal authority, without any previous lawful provision having
been raade for carrying on the government, it belonged to
the other branches of the legislature, on the part of the nation
at large (the body they represented), to provide according to
their discretion for the temporary exercise of the royal autho
rity, in the narae and on the behalf of the sovereign, in such
manner as they should think requisite ; and that, unless by their
decision, the Prince of Wales had no right (speaking of strict
right) to assurae the governraent, any more than any other indi
vidual in the country. Whatever might be the discretion of
Parliament, with respect to the disposition of those powers,
their right to dispose of thera was undoubted ; and that, until
the sanction of Parliaraent was obtained, the Prince of Wales
had no more right to exercise the powers of government than
any other person in the realm.
In the Upper House of Parliaraent, a siraUar motion for a
coraraittee was raade by Lord Caraden (lord president of thei
council) on the following day ; and as Mr. Fox's doctrine had
excited a large share of the public attention, as well on ac
count of the talents and estiraation of the character by whom
it was delivered, as frora the circurastance that he was well
known to be high in the confidence of the Prince of Wales, it
was particulariy alluded to by Lord Camden in the speech
with which he introduced his raotion. Lord Loughborough
(then Lord Chief Justice ofthe Court of Coramon Pleas), who
headed the Prince of Wales' party in the House of Peers,
and was supposed to look forward to the post of ChanceUor,
in the event of the Prince's having been declared regent, rose

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IVi 199
ta vindicate the Sentiments of Mr. Fox* His Lordship ob
served, that there was an act of King Charles II., by which it
was expressly declared, that no law could in any case be made,
but by the authority of the three branches of the legislature ;
and that any raan asserting the contrary would be liable to the
penalties of high treason. Could anything, therefore, be more
absurd, than to say, that the twO Houses of Pariiaraent, which
could not even make a turnpike act, might dispose, by their
own authority, of the executive government? There were
only two cases, his Lordship maintained, in which the throne
could become vacant, and the interference of the two Houses
of Parliament be requisite to fill it : the one was a total subver
sion of the government by a breach of the original compact, as
in the case of an abdication of the crown ; the other, when the
royal line became extinct, and the king at his decease left no
heir. It had been declared, that the Prince of Wales had no
more right than any private subject. Could this be true ?
Was the Prince of Wales a coraraon subject ? Did not the
law, as expounded by Lord Coke, describe hira to be one and
the sarae person with the king ? Was it not equally high trea
son to compass or imagine the death either of the one or the
other ? It happened that at this tirae, the two Houses were le
gally asserabled under the King's writs ; but, if the case had
been otherwise, it would surely have been warrantable for the
Prince of Wales, as heir-apparent, to have issued writs, and
called a parliament. Lord Loughborough was far from mean
ing that the Prince could violently rush into the sovereignty,
but thought, that upon the authentic notification ofthe King's
incapacity to the two Houses of Parliaraent, the Prince ought
of right to be invested with the royal authority. He next
begged leave to reraind his hearers, that there was a neighbour
ing kingdom that stood connected with us, and acknowledged
allegiance to the British crown. If the regency was declared
to be elective, and not hereditary, how could we be sure that
they would not choose a regent of their own, and thus lead to
endless confusion and embarrassment .''
Lord Stormont supported the principles of Lord Loughbo
rough, adducing a similar argument frora the Act of Union with
Scotland, and concluded with recommending an immediate

200 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
address to the Prince of Wales, entreating him to assume the
exercise ofthe royal authority.
Lord Thurlow expressed extrerae concern that any difference
of opinion should be likely to arise on a question so peculiarly
critical and delicate. He observed, that nothing he had yet
heard gave satisfaction to his mind, and he therefore wished,
previously to the declaration of his opinion, to have the full ad
vantage of every precedent and every analogy that could be
found. He added, however, that the doctrine maintained by
Lord Loughborough was perfectly new to him, and that much
stress could not surely be laid on a metaphorical expression,
such as had been cited frora Lord Coke. At the sarae tirae he
commended that nobleman for having spoken of the Prince of
Wales in the abstract, without affecting to rest any part of his
argument on the personal virtues of the present heir-apparent,
who should always have his applause when the expression of
it would not be an act of impertinence.
The conduct of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in
this delicate and embarrassing exigency, was such as did great
credit to his judgraent and principles. As soon as he found
that the question of his right to the Regency, as stated by Mr.
Fox, had excited considerable alarra in both Houses of Par
liament, and throughout the nation in general, he anxiously
endeavoured to avert the farther discussion of this delicate
topic. For this purpose a declaration was made by Mr. Fox
in the House of Comraons, that the opinion he had delivered
was in his private capacity, and without the Prince of Wales'
authority ; and the Duke of York, in the House of Peers,
after a raodest introduction, soliciting the indulgence of his
hearers, as being unaccustoraed to public speaking, said, ' that
no claim of right had been raade on the part of the Prince ;
and he was confident that his Royal Highness understood too
well the sacred principles which seated the House of Bruns
wick on the throne of Great Britain, ever to assume or exer
cise any power, be his claim what it might, not derived frora
the will of the people, expressed by their representatives, and
their Lordships in parliament assembled. It was upon this
ground that he must hope, that the wisdom and moderation of
all considerate men, at a moment when temper and unanimity

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 201
were so, peculiarly necessary, on account of the dreadful cala
raity which every description of persons must, in coraraon,
laraent, but which he more particularly felt, would make them
wish to avoid pressing a decision, which certainly was not ne
cessary to the great object expected from parliaraent, and
which, in the discussion, raust be most painful to a family
already sufficiently agitated and afflicted. Such,' his Royal
Highness observed in conclusion, ' were the sentiraents of an
honest heart, equally influenced by duty and affection to his
Royal father, and by attachment to the constitutional rights
of his subjects ; and he was confident that if his Royal bro
ther were to address them, in his place, as a peer of the realm,
these were the sentiments which he would distinctly avow.'
This declaration, which was confirraed by his Royfil Highness
the Duke of Gloucester, though it produced a very favourable
impression, failed of preventing the further discussion of the
question of the Prince's right to the Regency. Mr. Fox, in
the House of Comraons, strenuously disclaimed any assertion
of right on the part of the Prince, but raaintained his former
opinion, ' that from the moment that the two Houses of Par
liament declared the King unable to exercise the royal sove
reignty, from that moment a right to exercise the royal autho
rity, with all its functions, attached to the Prince of Wales,
for the time such incapacity might exist.' — ' The idea,' to
quote the words of Mr. Fox's biographer, ' which he raeant to
convey, Was this, that the exercise of the royal authority was
the right, under such circurastances, of the Prince of Wales,
but he had spoken of it as a right and not a possession. Before
the Prince could exercise that right, he raust appeal to the
court competent to decide whether it belonged to him or not,
and from the adjudication of that court receive the possession.
With the Lords and Coraraons of Great Britain rested the
adjudication of the Prince of Wales' right, and by them he
was to be put into possession. But, in considering this, they
were not to exercise discretion, whether he was, or was not, the
proper person to exercise that right, but whether or not he
really had it ; they were not then in the capacity to legislate,
but only to judge ; functions, which they all knew to be clearly
distinct. The more clearly to understand this, it was neces-
2 c

202 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
sary to explain the precise meaning of the word election, and
to contrast it with the term adjudication. That House could
legislate and provide such measures as it deeraed advisable for
the public interest. When they individually gave their votes
for such persons, whom they thought most proper to represent
them in Parliament, they made their election of the represen
tatives ; but when they sat in a committee above stairs, to try
whether A. or B. was entitled to a seat as representative for
such or such a borough, they sat as judges, and their report
was an adjudication of the right of A. or B.
'In this situation did the House stand at present; they had
not a legislative power, for the invigorating principle which
gave life and action to that power was wanting. As the mo
narchy was, on every principle of the Constitution, hereditary,
so, of consequence, was the exercise of the executive power ;
and the House, in its deliberation, was not at liberty to exercise
its discretion, or to choose a parliamentary Regent ; they were
not to consider, whether they were about to make a prudent
election, but bound to pronounce a just judgment.
' He had, in terms the raost explicit and unequivocal, as
serted it as his opinion, that when that and the other House of
Parliament declared his Majesty incapable of exercising the
royal authority, that was the precise period when the Prince's
right attached, and when that House ought not to delay in
restoring the royal authority. Had he not said, that the same
principles which made the crown hereditary made the executive
power and the govemment of the country hereditary likewise ?
Upon that ground it was, that he had argued as he had done,
and that he conceived to be the nature of the Prince of Wales'
right. He could not therefore be supposed to mean, that the
Prince would be justifiable, when the Houses were sitting,
in taking upon hiraself the powers and authority of regent,
untU they were adjudged to hira by Parliament. If there was
no Parliament either sitting or existing, then, indeed, it would
have been the duty of the Prince of Wales to have caUed a
convention of the Lords and Comraons ; to whora the cause of
their being so called might have been explained, and by whora
his right, and the circumstances in which it originated, might
be recognised ; and that then being met by him, as exercising

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV- 203
the delegated functions of the royal power, they would become
a legal parliament.
' Having thus, as he hoped, clearly explained his meaning,
he was free to acknowledge, that more difference of opinion
prevailed respecting the right of the Prince of Wales to exer
cise the royal authority, under the circumstances so often stated,
than he could have expected ; but much of that difference of
opinion, he found, arose from some nice, logical, and legal dis
tinctions, taken between the words right and claim ; distinctions,
in his mind, more equivocal than solid arid substantial, and
which were rested on arguments, which, he confessed, his
understanding was too dull to comprehend. One idea he had
learnt was, that it was allowed by some, that the Prince of
Wales had an irresistible claim, which the Parliament could
not reject nor refiise, whenever it was made, without forfeiting
their duty to the Constitution. To that idea, he, for one, had'
no objection ; because he knew no difference between an ir
resistible claim, and an inherent right. In another place the
right of the Prince of Wales had been gone into deeply, and
that by persons every way qualified to discuss it, who gave aU
their sanction and authority to his opinion.
• If the Prince of Wales had done him the honour to have
asked his advice how to proceed, he should have told hira, as
Parliament was assembled, that his Royal Highness might have
sent a message to either House, or to both Houses of Parlia
ment, stating his claira, and calling upon thera to decide upon
it. But, as he had said on a forraer day, his Royal Highness'
forbearance was such, that he would send his claim to neither
House of ParUament ; but would wait patiently, and with due
deference, being conscious that the two Houses ought to find
that claim, and restore the royal authority. Mr. Fox said, he
could not help thinking, that the conduct of his Royal Highness
deserved the coraraendation he had bestowed on it, and was
entitled to universal applause. He declared, he had sanguine
hopes, that in the adjustraent of a business of so delicate and
important a nature, men of every description would have con
curred in one leading and essential circumstance, viz. — that
let there exist what doubt there might of the Prince of Wales'
right to exercise the royal authority, under the present circum-
2C2

204 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
stances of the country, there could be none of the propriety of
investing him with the sole adrainistration of governraent, and
with the exercise of all the regal functions, powers, and prero
gatives. His opinion, therefore, was, to declare his Royal
Highness Regent, for the purpose of exercising all the regal
powers, in the sarae raanner, and to the sarae extent, as they
raight have been exercised by his Majesty, had his health been
such as to render' hira capable of continuing to exercise the
royal authority.'
The spirited and well-inforraed writer frora whora we have
made the above extract, speaking of the situation of public
affairs at this period, observes, with his usual force, that ' a
variety of circumstances concurred to render the agitation of
the Prince's right extreraely ill-tiraed for the party with whora
Mr. Fox acted. All public bodies are fond of power, and the
Parliaraent of Great Britain being told by grave authority that
they had a sceptre to bestow, with feelings very natural for a
public body in such a predicaraent, were unwilling to waive so
important a privilege. Another consideration was, the unpo
pularity of the Prince of Wales. His debts had been paid the
preceding year to a large amount, and the rainister had dex
terously contrived that aU the odiura of that raeasure should
rest with the confidential friends of the Prince. But what, per
haps, operated raost to the disadvantage of the heir-apparent,
was a serious report which prevailed at this tirae, and
'was credulously believed by raany, whose situations in life
gave them the opportunity of ascertaining the fact, that
his Royal Highness had contracted a marriage, according to
the rites of the Romish Church, with a Catholic lady. It was
in vain that the friends of the Prince declared that the fact not
only never could have happened legally, in consequence of the
restrictions of the Royal Marriage Act, but never did happen
in any way, and had from the beginning been a vile and ma
lignant falsehood. Notwithstanding an explicit declaration to
this effect was made in the House of Comraons by Mr. Fox at
the tirae when the Prince of Wales' debts were under consider
ation, itwas far from removing suspicion ; and raany honest and
well-raeaning Merabers of Parliaraent, who otherwise probably
would have voted for the Prince of Wales' absolute right to

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 205
the Regency, under a strong jealousy of this connexion, sup
ported the proposition of the rainister. Above all, the peculiar
circumstances of popular delusion under which the House of
Coraraons was convened, and which gave the rainister so pow
erful an influence in that House, still existed in considerable
force, and therefore any proposition proceeding from the dis
tinguished leader of the opposition was certain to be received
with the utmost circumspection and reserve.'
After the coraraittee of the House of Commons had made
their report on the subject of precedents, Mr. Pitt, emboldened
by the support which his opinion had received in both Houses
and out of doors, raoved two resolutio.ns of a declaratory
nature, the first affirraing that the personal exercise of the
Royal authority was interrupted ; and the second, that it was
the duty of the two Houses of Parliaraent to provide the
raeans of supplying that defect. These were agreed to, in
spite of the most animated opposition, by a majority of 268
against 204 ; and were soon followed by a third resolution,
declaring it to be necessary, for the purpose of supplying that
defect, and raaintaining entire the constitutional authority of
the King, that the two Houses should deterraine on the raeans
by which the Royal Assent raight be given to the bUl, which
they raight adopt for constituting a Regency. What the mi
nister proposed was, that the Lord Chancellor should be
empowered to put the great seal to any Act which the two
Houses of Parliament might think proper to pass.
This resolution, which implied a monstrous fiction in itself,
was attacked by Mr. Burke with the combined force of argu^
ment and ridicule. ' I consider myself,' said that great orator,
' as fiilly justified in asserting, that Great Britain is governed
by an hereditary monarchy ; it is so by the written, and the
unwritten law ; it is so by the very essence of our excellent
Constitution ; it is our own inheritance ; it is our powerful
barrier, our strong rampart against the ambition of mankind ;
it holds out an excellent lesson to the most aspiring ; it says,
thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. Yet we are taught by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that election alone consti
tutes the right of the Prince of Wales to assume the executive
governraent during the King's incapacity. This is saying, in

206 .MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
other words, that any other individual has, in the present in
stance, as good a right to the throne as tbe House of Hanover.
Is it possible for such raonstrous opinions to be entertained ?
But at the present crisis, there is something very ungenerous in
persisting in such sentiraents. If we fight against the crown,
lefus fight against it fairly: when the monarch is seated on the
throne, then the contest may be fair, and we act manfully ; but
what is to be done when the crown is in a deliquium ? Are we
to take a raan with a large brow and a big wig ? Is he a fit
person ? Trust none of the Royal faraily, for tbey will all rob
the crown, because they are the relatives of the Sovereign ;
and in order to give a proper and legal sanction to our proceed
ings, we will give a fictitious assent to our own acts. This is
called the Royal assent, without any intimation to the Royal
person of any such assent, or to the Ulustrious personage who
is to act for him. This is a glaring falsehood, a palpable ab
surdity I I do not approve of any robbery, house-breaking,
highway-robbery, or any other felony : yet each of them is
less inexcusable than law forgery. The great seal is to be
affixed to a coramission robbing the executive power of its due
functions ; a certain composition of wax and copper is to re
present the monarch : this is a species of absurd metaphy
sics and absurb mechanics, a fiction so preposterous, that I do
not see bow it is possible to treat it otherwise than with contempt
and ridicule ; but the great effect which tbis absurdity is to have,
makes it serious and important. I disclaim all allegiance — I
renounce all obedience and loyalty to a King so chosen, and a
Crown so formed. I bave given ray allegiance already to the
house of Hanover, to possess the power given by the Constitu
tion. I worship the gods of our glorious Constitution ; but I
will not worship Priapus — I bave the pleasure to coincide with
the idea of my Right Honourable friend (Mr. Fox) concerning
the right ofthe Prince of Wales. If the King be blind, dumb,
lethargic, or apoplectic, there raust be sorae person who is per
fect, or else to whom do we owe our allegiance ? Gentlemen
on tbe other side seera to value themselves like antiquaries, who
have a Homer without a head, and thus the Constitution is
made a Museum.'
- On another debate on the same topic, Mr. Burke again ex-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 207
posed, with the most pointed ridicule, the absurd contrivance to
enable the Lord ChanceUor to put the great seal to the decision
of the two branches only of the legislature. ' I never heard,'
said he, ' of a phantom being raised in a private family but for
the purpose of robbing the bouse. So far frora being a repre
sentative of tbe forras of the Constitution, it is a raasquerade,
a mummery, a piece of buffoonery, used to burlesque the
Constitution, and to ridicule every forra of governraent — a
phantora conjured up to affright propriety, and to drive it from
our isle — a hideous spectre, to which it might be said, in the
words of Macbeth, to Banquo's ghost —
Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! Let the earth hide thee !
Thy bones are marrowless ; thy blood is cold ;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes,
Which thou dost glare with. 
And so, in fact, it was with this political spectre ; its bones
are marrowless ; its blood is cold; it has no speculation in its
eyes. It is a chimera, a monster taken out of the depths of
heU.' Mr. Pitt, having, in one of those warm altercations that so
frequently occurred at this period, denied that it was either a
fraud, or a fiction, to employ the great seal as the organ of the
King, under tbe sanction ofthe united wisdora of both Houses,
Mr. Burke said, in reply, ' that such a plan deserved a worse
name than that of a fiction or phantom. They were going to
create Milton's monsters of Sin and Death, — death to the con
stitution, and sin to tbe feelings of the country. What must be
the progeny, but innuraerable barking raonsters, howling at, and
endeavouring to destroy every principle of the constitution ?
They were going to steal the great seal — to commit a forgery
and fraud — to support violence — and to carry them on to their
climax of vUlainy. If the House wished to preserve unity in
the erapire, tbey ought to appoint a person who was interested
in the empire to represent the King : tbey ought to trust, upon
his word, tbe Prince of Wales, whom hereafter tbey raust trust
without ; and thus they would save their country ; and none
would suffer but arabitious raen. The danger wbich had been

208 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
talked of, if they were to address the Prince of Wales to take
the regency upon him, reminded Mr. Burke ofthe giant, who
used to swaUovV a dozen windmUls for breakfast every mOrning,
and was afterwards choked by a small bit of butter in July.'*
* Mr. Burke's exertions in behalf of the Prince of Wales, at this period, were
not confined to his speeches in the House of Commons, but he, likewise, employed
his pen in vindicating the Prince's claim to the regency. Among the numberless
attacks on Mr. Pitt, which appeared at this time, the keenest and the most unan
swerable appeared in the form of ' Questions to Mr. Gill,' who had distinguished
himself inthe defence of administration. The following is a copy of those curious
interrogatories, which were generally attributed to Mr. Burke, and, indeed, carry
with them strong internal evidence of being the production of liis mind. ,i
' Do you not know, that the very same pretences, which are set up for excluding
the royal family from the temporary representation of the crown, in giving assent
to acts the most immediately concerning the exei'cise of the rights of the crown,
may be used for depriving the whole House of Brunswick of the right of succes
sion settled by law P Do you really think that the men of spirit in this country will
tamely suffer themselves to be stripped of the inestimable security they have for
all the blessings of the revolution, in order to turn this flourishing kingdom, under
the false appearance of a republic, into a despotism for Mr. Pitt, and a job for you,
and such as you .''
' Do you not know that a man may live under this raalady of madness for many
years ; and that the pretext of to-day may serve for the deceit of to-morrow; and
that when the successor, after, perhaps, twenty years, comes to his empty name of
inheritance, he will find the same conspiracy of wicked and ungrateful servants,
strengthened by time and the perversion of all the favours of the crown, in full
possession of power, so as hardly to leave him the name of a king ?
' For that purpose did Pitt declare, that every individual in the kingdom (you,
Mr. Gill, for instance) had as good a right to be elected regent as the Prince of
Wales ? Is not that position as false as it is invidious, insolent, and audacious ?
' When did you, even in the most disorderly and distant times, hear that a Par
liament was held, and the royal assent given, during the incapacity ofthe King, to
any acts, except by the eldest prince of the blood, then of full age, aud then in
England P
' Is not the pretended grant of the regency to the Prince of Wales upon terms
on which he cannot possibly exercise his trust without Pitt's consent — is not this
avowedly giving the regency to PittP
Do you not know, as a fact, that Mr. Pitt has not only centred in himself the
whole power of the crown as first minister, but has distributed, for power and profit,
all theprincipal departments of the state, and every honour and distinction, among
his own relations and kindred P Is not his cousin-german lord lieutenant of Ire
land, with the whole patronage of that kingdom.'' — Is not General Pitt commander-
in-chief there ? — Is not his brother, Lord Chatham, first lord of the Admiralty,
with all the patronage of the navy P — Is not Lord Sidney, Lord Chatham's father-
in-law, principal secretary of state, with all the patronage of Canada, Nova Scotia,
and all the West India islands P — Is not his cousin-german, Mr. Grenville, pay
raaster, with the reversion, on a very old life, of remembrancer in Ireland, a place
for life of 3000/. a-year ? — Is not his brother-in-law, Mr. Elliot, made hy him
clerk of the pells, a place of 1800A a-year for life? — .Was not his cousin, Lord
Camelford, made a peer ; and Lord Elliot, whose -son had married his sister, a
peer likewise ?— Do you know to what length he would have gone, unless stopped
by the King's malady ? — ^And are yon resolved he shall never be stopped ?
* ' Do not those who compose the faction you suppcrt in both Houses consist of
Pitt, Thurlow, Dundas, John Eobinson, aud a corrupt and degenerate confederacy

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 209
But, notwithstanding aU the efforts of Mr, Burke, Mr. Fox,
and the other opposition orators, Mr. Pitt's resolutions were
carried by triurapbant raajorities, through both Houses of Par-
baraent. In the House of Peers the resolutions were debated
witb as much acrimony as in the House of Coraraons ; and
when they were finally carried, by a a raajority of 99 against
66, a spirited protest was entered on the lord's journals, signed
by two princes of the blood (the Dukes of York and Cumber
land), and forty-six peers of the realra.
Tbe object of Mr. Pitt, which was to secure to bis own party
the lucrative places tbey held in the royal household, and
thereby perpetuate his influence in the two Houses of Parlia
raent, being now completely obtained, on the SOth of Decem
ber he addressed tbe following letter to the Prince of Wales,
containing the outlines of his plan of the proposed regency.
' Sir, ' Tbe proceedings in Parliament being now brought to a
point, which will render it necessary to propose to the House of
Commons the particular measures to be taken for supplying the
defect ofthe personal exercise of the royal authority during tbe
present interval, and your Royal Highness having sorae tirae
since signified your pleasure, that any coraraunication on this
subject should be in writing, I take the liberty of respectfully
entreating your Royal Highness's perraission to submit to your
consideration the outlines of the plan, which his Majesty's
confidential servants hurably conceive (according to the best
judgraent which they are able to form) to be proper to be pro
posed in the present circumstances.
' It is their humble opinion, that your Royal Highness should
be empowered to exercise the royal authority, in the name and
on the behalf of his Majesty, during his Majesty's illness, and
to do all acts, which might legally be done by his Majesty ; vvith
provisions, nevertheless, tbat the care of his Majesty's royal
oC placemen, pensioners, jobbers, and o/d hacks ofthe court, and the rest of the sup
porters and betrayers of all parties for twenty-eight years ; and are they not di
rectly aiming to hold to themselves, by force, their places, pecuniary profits, power,
and influence, at the risk of the destruction of the crown, and the ruin of the king
dom .>"
2 D

210 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
person, and the raanageraent of the royal household, and the
direction and appointment of the offices and servants therein,
should be in the Queen, under such regulations as may be
thought necessaiy.
' That the power to be exercised by your Royal Highness
should not extend to tbe granting the real or personal property
of the King (except as far as relates to the renewal of leases),
to the granting of any office in reversion, or to tbe granting,
for any other terra than during bis Majesty's pleasure, any
pension, or any other office whatever, except such as must by
law be granted for Ufe, or during good behaviour ; nor to the
granting any rank or dignity of the peerage of this realm to
any person except his Majesty's issue, who shall have attained
the age of twenty-one years.
' These are the chief points wbich have occurred to bis Ma
jesty's servants. I beg leave to add, that their ideas are forraed
on the supposition that his Majesty's iUness is only teraporary,
and raay be of no long duration. It raay be difficult to fix
beforehand the precise period for wbich these provisions ought
to last ; but if, unfortunately, his Majesty's recovery should be
protracted to a raore distant period than there is reason at pre
sent to iraagine, it wiU be open hereafter to the wisdom of Par
liament, to reconsider these provisions, whenever tbe circura
stances appear to call for it.
' If your Royal Highness should be pleased to require any
further explanation on the subject, and should condescend lo
signify your orders, that I should have the honour of attending
your Royal Highness for that purpose, or to intiraate any other
mode in which your Royal Highness may wish to receive such
explanation, I shall respectfully wait your Royal Highness'
comraands. — I have the honour to be,
' With the utraost deference and subraission,
'Sir,
' Your Royal Highness' raost dutiful
'and devoted servant,
' W. Pitt.'
' Downing Street, Tuesday Night,
' Dec. SOth, 1788.'

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 211
To this communication, the Prince of Wales, not deeming
it expedient to enter into a personal correspondence with Mr.
Pitt, caused the following answer to be delivered to the Lord
Chancellor. ' The Prince of Wales learns frora Mr. Pitt's letter, tbat tbe
proceedings in Parliament are now in a train, which enables
Mr. Pitt, according to the intimation in his former letter, to.
communicate to the Prince tbe outlines of the plan which his
Majesty's confidential servants conceive proper to be proposed
in the present circumstances.
' Concerning the steps already taken by Mr. Pitt, the Prince
is silent. Nothing done by the two houses of Parliament can
be a proper subject of his aniraadversion ; but when, previously
to any discussion in Parliament, the outlines of a scherae of
governraent are sent for his consideration, in which it is pro
posed that be sball be personally and principally concerned,
and by which the royal authority and public welfare raay be
deeply affected, the Prince would be unjustifiable, were he to
withhold an explicit declaration of his sentiraents. His silence
might be construed into a previous approbation of a plan, tbe
accoraplishraent of which every motive of duty to his father
and sovereign, as well as of regard for the public interest,
obliges him to consider as injurious to both.
' In the state of deep distress in which the Prince and the
whole royal family were involved, by the heavy calamity which
has fallen upon the King, and at a moment when governraent,
deprived of its chief energy and support, seeraed peculiarly to
need the cordial and united aid of all descriptions of good sub
jects, it was not expected by the Prince, tbat a plan should be
offered to his consideration, by which governraent was to be
rendered difficult, if not irapracticable, in tbe hands of any
person intended to represent the King's authority, rauch less
in the hands of bis eldest son, the heir-apparent of his king
dom, and the person raost bound to tbe maintenance of his Ma
jesty's just prerogatives and authority, as weU as most interested
in the happiness, the prosperity, and the glory of the people.
' The Prince forbears to remark on the several parts of the
sketch of the plan laid before him ; he apprehends it must

212 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
have been forraed with sufficient deliberation to preclude the
possibUity of any arguraents of his producing an alteration of
sentiraent in the projectors of it. But he trusts, with confi
dence, to the wisdora and justice of Parliament, when the
whole of this subject, and the circurastances connected witb
it, shall corae under their deliberation.
' He observes, therefore, only generally on the beads com
municated by Mr. Pitt — and it is with deep regret the Prince
makes the observation, that he sees in the contents of that
paper a project for producing weakness, disorder, and insecu
rity in every branch of the administration of affairs — a project
for dividing the royal faraily from each other, for separating
the court frora the state ; and therefore, by disjoining govern
ment from its natural and accustoraed support, a scheme for
disconnecting the authority to command service from tbe
power of aniraating it by reward ; and for allotting to the
Prince all the invidious duties of government, without the
means of softening them to the public, by any one act of grace,
favour, or benignity.
' The Prince's feelings on contemplating this plan, are also
rendered still more painful to hira, by observing that it is not
founded on any general principles, but is calculated to infuse
jealousies and suspicions (wholly groundless, he trusts) in that
quarter, whose confidence it wiU ever be the first pride of bis
life to raerit and obtain.
' Witb regard to the raotive and object of tbe liraitations and
restrictions proposed, tbe Prince can have but little to observe.
No light or inforraation is offered hira by bis Majesty's rainis
ters on these points. They have infonned him what the
powers are which they mean to refuse hira, not why they are
withheld. ' The Prince, however, holding as he does, that it is an un
doubted and fundaraental principle of this constitution, that
the powers and prerogatives of the crown are vested there, as a
trust for the benefit of the people ; and that they are sacred
only as they are necessary to the preservation of that poise and
balance of tbe constitution, which experience has proved to
be the true security of the liberty of the subject, must be
allowed to observe, that the plea of public utility ought to be

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 213
strong, manifest, and urgent, which caUs for the extinction or
suspension of any one of those essential rights in tbe supreme
power or its representative ; or which can justify tbe Prince in
consenting, tbat in his person an experiraent shall be raade, to
ascertain with bow small a portion of the kingly power the
executive government of this country may be carried on.
' The Prince bas only to add, tbat if security for his Ma
jesty's repossessing his rightful government, whenever it shall
please Providence, in bounty to the country, to reraove the
calaraity with which he is afflicted, be any part ofthe object of
this plan, the Prince bas only to be convinced that any raeasure
is necessary, or even conducive, to tbat end, to be the first to
urge it as tbe prelirainary and pararaount consideration of any
settlement in which he would consent to share.
' If attention to wbat is presumed might be his Majesty's
feelings and wishes on the happy day of bis Majesty's recovery,
be tbe object, it is witb tbe truest sincerity the Prince expresses
bis firm conviction; tbat no event would be raore repugnant to
tbe feelings of bis royal father, than the knowledge, that the
governraent of bis son and representative had exhibited tbe
sovereign power of tbe realm in a state of degradation, of cur
tailed authority, and dirainished energy — a state hurtful in prac
tice to tbe prosperity and good governraent of bis people, and
injurious in its precedent to the security of the monarch and
the rights of bis famUy.
' Upon tbat part of the plan which regards the King's real
and personal property, the Prince feels hiraself corapelled to
reraark, that it was not necessary for Mr. Pitt, nor proper to
suggest to tbe Prince, the restraints he proposes against tbe
Prince's granting away the King's real and personal property.
The Prince does not conceive, that, during tbe King's life, he
is, by law, entitled to make any such grant ; and he is sure,
that he bas never shewn the smaUest inclination to possess any
such power. But it remains with Mr. Pitt to consider the
eventual interests of tbe royal famUy, and to provide a proper
and natural security against tbe mismanagement of them by
others. .' The Prince bas discharged an indispensable duty, in thus

214 WEMOIRS OF GEOEGE IV.
giving his free opinion on the plan submitted for his consider
ation. ' His conviction of the evils which may arise to the King's
interests, to the peace and happiness of tbe royal faraily, and to
the safety and welfare of the nation, from the governraent of
the country remaining longer in its present maimed and debi-
fitated state, outweighs, in tbe Prince's mind, every other con
sideration, and wiU determine him to undertake the painful
task imposed upon him by tbe present melancholy necessity
(which of all the King's subjects be deplores the raost), in full
confidence that the affection and loyalty to the King, the ex
perienced attachraent to the bouse of Brunswick, and the
generosity which has always distinguished this nation, will carry
hira through the many difficulties inseparable from this most
critical situation, witb corafort to hiraself, with honour to the
King, and witb advantage to the public, (Signed) ' G. P.'
' Carlton House, January 2, 1789.'
Dangerous as tbeir plan seeraed to be in theory, and hostile
to the true spirit of the constitution, rainisters were encouraged
to proceed with it, by the addresses that were presented to them
frora various parts of the kingdora, expressive ofthe gratitude
of the persons by whom they were sent for the assertion which
had been raade by the House of Coraraons of their right of
providing for the present deficiency.
On the 16th of January Mr. Pitt opened his propositions to
the House of Coraraons. He began by observing, that he
should make no alteration in what he bad intended to suggest,
and stated as tbe ground of their proceedings, tbat the King's
recovery was raore probable than the contrary, and that thei
greatest length to which the malady was ordinarily known to
extend was a year and a half or two years, the shortest three
months, and the average five or six. Such was 'the decisive
opinion of Dr. WiUis, who, of all the King's physicians, was
most entitled to credit, as having had the greatest experience
in this particular disorder, and being most constant in his
attendance upon his patient. Mr. Pitt adverted to the Regency

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 215
bUls of Queen Ann, of King George I., and King George II.,
where, the circurastance in conteraplation being a rainority, the
prospect of a raore certain and longer delegation of power was
afforded than in the present instance. In each of these cases,
tbe powers of tbe crown had been lodged not in a single hand,
but in a great variety of persons. He had hiraself consider
able doubts whether these bills were well adapted to tbe circura
stances of the tiraes in which they had passed, and, accord
ingly, was firraly of opinion, that the political power should be
intrusted by Parliaraent to one individual. But as the dele
gated authority bad been in former instances restricted by the
mode in which it was distributed, so be deemed it more espe
cially right in the present, that it should bave certain limita
tions. He reasoned particularly upon the liraitation respecting
the peerage, and contended tbat it could scarcely be raain
tained, that tbe want of such an incentive for a few months
was likely to deprive the country of the service of its merito
rious citizens. The prerogative of creating peers was of a very
delicate nature, since an honour of this sort was perraanent,
and when once bestowed, could not be revoked. As an in
stance of its possible abuse, Mr. Pitt desired to make the sup
position of such a confederacy and cabal (the minister here
evidently alluded to the coalition) being formed, as bad been
convicted, a few years since, of a design to overthrow tbe Con
stitution, alleging, that by such persons they might expect the
Regent to be advised to create so great a number of peers, as
would considerably embarrass the crown in carrying on the
government, wben tbe King should again be restored to his
regal capacity.
The last proposition, Mr. Pitt said, was not the less impor
tant and indispensable. Without investing tbe Queen witb the
control of the household, she could not properly discbarge
tbe guardianship, which they were unanimously disposed to
commit to her care. It was impossible to suppose that the
influence arising from this patronage could operate to the dis
advantage of the Regent's administration. For a moraent to
harbour the idea would be equally romantic and indecent. He
believed no man would venture to charge blarae of any kind
upon tbis great personage, who had lived alraost thirty years in

216 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the country, a pattern of doraestic affection, tenderness, and
virtue, against whom the breath of calurany had not dared to
utter a whisper, and who could not raerit it at a moraent of
such coraplicated affliction. The Master of the Horse indeed,
the Lord Charaberlain, tbe Lord Steward of the Household,
and others, were by raany thought high officers of state ; but
the fact was otherwise. They were the raenial servants of tbe
crown, essential to its dignity and splendour. He urged it to
the House, as a raatter of huraanity and loyalty, not to interfere
with the King's doraestic arrangeraents. What, he asked, must"
that great personage feel, when he waked from the trance of
bis faculties, and asked for his attendants, if he were told, that
his subjects bad taken advantage of his momentary absence of
mind, and stripped him of tbe symbols of bis personal eleva
tion ? Mr. Pitt added, that he was sensible of what was due to
the Regent, who ought to bave a. retinue adequate to the ira
portance of bis station. He meant to propose such a retinue,
and he was confident, that, though it might involve some addi
tional expense, it would cheerfully and unreluctantly be con
tributed by that House.
The arguments of the minister were attacked with great
energy by Lord North, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Fox, and others.
Lord North particularly controverted Mr. Pitt's description of
the great officers of the household. They might, observed bis
Lordship, in tbe tirae of King George II., bave been intimately
connected with the interior of the palace, and been, in the
strict sense of the word, doraestics of the sovereign; but it
was well known that of late years the Lords of the Bedchamber
bad been otherwise eraployed. They were indeed the political
servants of the crown, not appointed for the domestic conve
nience of the monarch, but for his public pomp, being a part
of the pageantry annexed to bis office, and a source of the
influence which it was intended to raaintain among tbe people
at large.
Mr. Sheridan declared that the minister had discovered in
one part of his speech the true motives of his conduct, when
he bad stated his apprehensions, that the government would fall
into the hands of those persons, who he had dared to assert
had been convicted of a conspiracy to overturn the Constitu-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 217
tion. This was the real spring of Mr. Pitt's measures. Had
the Regent intended to bave kept the present ministers iu
office, the limitations, he verily believed, would never have
been beard of The whole of Mr. Pitt's conduct was con
fessedly governed by party considerations, and the impulse of
his personal ambition. He had talked of the evil advisers to
whom the Regent raight possibly be exposed. But was there
in fact any reason to dread such a circurastance ? If it oc
curred, was there not vigour enough left in that House, to
crush any atterapts at the abuse of authority, to call bad rai
nisters to a severe account, and address the Regent to reraove
thera frora bis councils ?
Mr. Pitt bad raore than once wantonly attacked that side of
the House, as containing a political party. He raade no scruple
to declare, that he thought it the glory and honour of his life to
belong to that party. Was it a disgrace to have been formed
under the Marquess of Rockingham, and under his banners to
have combated with success in the cause of the people ? Was
it a disgrace to be connected with the Duke of Portland, a
nobleman, who, actuated solely by the desire of the public wel
fare, dedicated hiraself unreraittingly to the service of his
country .'' Of Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan reraarked, that it was
his characteristic distinction, fully to possess hiraself of the
affection of all those who were in habits of intercourse with
him, and to force them by the most powerful and amiable sort
of compulsion to participate in his fortune. With respect to bis
talents, be would not speak of thera. They could derive no
additional lustre frora the raost sanguine panegyric of the most
enlightened ofhis friends. Thus rauch he only would observe,
with regard to the extent of bis raind and the keenness of his
understanding, that it was the best proof of any other raan's
talents to be able to coraprebend the enlargeraent and feel the
superiority of those of his friend. He regarded the friendship
of such a man as the greatest happiness that could befall him;
and be desired to know whether the Duke of Portland and Mr.
Fox were the less worthy ofthe confidence of their country, or
the more unfit to become rainisters, because an arrogant indi
vidual chose presuraptuously to load them with calumny. Mr.
Sheridan condemned, in the strongest terms, the idea of reserv-
2 E

218

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.

ing the patronage of the household, which could answer no
other purpose but what Mr. Pitt had unjustly charged upon
Mr. Fox, the erecting a fortress, frora which, when out of office,
he might successfully counteract the measures of administra
tion. The pretence, that tbe feelings of tbe King would be
shocked when he recovered and found his household changed,
was ridiculous. The bad advisers of the Regent were to be
allowed the power of making war and peace, and alliances, and
exerting various other important prerogatives. To talk, there
fore, ofthe feelings ofthe King, as Mr. Pitt did, was to suppose
that he would be less shocked to learn, that the constitution of
the Government was changed, part of his dominions ceded to
foreign potentates, and a thousand calamities and disgraces en
tailed upon his country, than be informed of the most trivial
alteration in his doraestic arrangeraents. Mr. Sheridan con
cluded a brUliant speech, with describing the ex-minister, as
coraing down to the House in state, with the cap of liberty upon
the end of a white staff, a retinue of black and white sticks at
tending hira, and an array of beef-eaters to clear his way through
the lobby,
Inthe House of Peers, the rainisterial resolutions were des
tined to experience an opposition equally resolute, and equally
ineffectual. A speech intended to have been spoken by the
Duke of York on the occasion, but which, for some reason or
other, was not delivered, is, in itself, so beautiful a coraposUion,
and, according to our ideas, coraes so near up to what were the
sentiraents of the Prince of Wales, and the other branches of
bis iUustrious family, in this melancholy dilemraa of the royal
house, that we feel no hesitation in laying it before our readers.
It appeared in the newspapers of the day, under the title of " A
Speech, intended to have been deUvered by his Royal Highness
the Duke of York, in the Debate on the Regency BUL'
' My Lords, ' My wishes would lead rae to take no part at all in the
debates on this bill ; but to subrait rayself implicitly to your
lordships' discretion. But the point to which raatters have been
brought, does not leave it in ray own choice whether I shaU
speak, or whether I shall be silent.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 219
' I see the children of the king separated fropa their father —
the raother alienated frora her offspring — thewhole royal faraily
degraded and excluded, not frora their rank and situation only,
but frora the first and dearest privileges of nature. The chil
dren and brothers of his Majesty are excluded frora any share
as principals, or even by participation and advice, in the care
of the King. We have been rejected one by one, and name
by narae ; this, my Lords, I own, sinks deep into my mind.
' Frora the very beginning of these transactions, 1 thought
that the intention of those who have taken the lead in thera
could not be raistaken. They began by a formal declaration of
right, so perfectly uncalled for, that it could not (as I then
conceived) have any other purpose than tbat of conveying to
the world an opinion that the Prince of Wales bad questioned
tbe just powers of Parliaraent, or bad maintained a claim
to the regency, independent of the recognition of tbe two
bouses. ' Whatever the views might be of those whobroughtit forward,
it was impossible that I should consider it in any other light than
as a scheme to throw unmerited suspicion on the Prince of Wales,
and to prejudice hira in the opinions and hearts of the people.
These I ara sure ray brother thinks his best inheritance ; and
that the regency, and even the throne, or a greater throne, if
such there were, are nothing without them.
' I was authorized by the Prince of Wales to disavow any such
claira on his part, and faithfully executed my commission. I
did it with tbe greater cheerfulness, because the opinion of tbe
Prince of Wales was exactly my own. But your Lordships
well remember in wbat manner, and on what principles, that
measure was persevered in. The gratitude of his Majesty's
servants, with I know not what appeal to heaven, was set in
opposition to tbe gratitude, the duty, and natural affection of
all his children and both his Majesty's brothers, in order to
justify a declaration wbich struck obliquely at the honour of all
his Majesty's family *.
* In this part of his speech his Eoyal Highness evidently meant to allude to
what had fallen ftom Lord Thurlow on a former day. In answer to the speech
delivered by the Royal Duke in an early stage of the discussion, and to which
we have already had occasion to refer, the chancellor observed, ' that his feelings
were rendered more poignant, from having been in the habit of personally re*
2 E 2

220 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
' Your. Lordships weU know tbat this exclusion is not war
ranted by precedent; and that this is undoubtedly the first
instance of such a trust in this, or probably in any country from
which the Princes ofthe blood have aU been rejected.
' The exclusion, therefore, cannot be referred to any general
principle ; but must of necessity, and in the fair construction of
aU men, corae home to sorae ground of disqualification, and sorae
circumstances of distrust, personal and peculiar to ourselves.
' When I look to the shocking nature of the suspicion, on
which our expulsion is grounded, your Lordships would think
me unpardonable, if I did not rise, in the face of the world, to
assert the honour of a family, which till novv has never been
impeached, and for which the British Pariiament and the
British nation have been used to express affection and respect.
' My Lords, it is not to be expected that I should conde
scend to purge myself or any of my family of the suspicion of
attempting the life or prolonging the malady of ray parent, if
we were suffered to be even in the reraote character of an ad
viser in the care of bis person — I cannot brook the thought
that I should be called to do so. I do not rise to clear rayself
and my blood from so scandalous an imputation — I rise to
demand your Lordships' protection and justice against a mon
strous oppression.
' My father, my Lords, did not suspect rae of parricide. I
bave ever honoured hira ; and I had reason to think I pos-
ceiving various marks of indulgence and kindness from the suffering monarch.
His debt of gratitude to his Majesty was ample, for the raany favours his Majesty
had graciously bestowed upon hira, which when he forgot, might God forget
him.' Mr. Burke alluding to this celebrated speech, and to another by the same
noble person, in which he compared the King to the unfortunate Darius,
' Deserted in his utmost need
By those his former bounty fed,'
ohserved with a mixture of sarcasm and ridicule, that ' the theatrical tears which
were shed on these occasions, were not the tears of patriots for dying laws — but of
lords for their espiriog places. The iron tear that flowed down Pluto's cheek,
rather resembled the bubbling of the Styx, than the gentle murmuring stream of
Aganippe. In fact, they were tears for his Majesty's bread ; yet those, who shed
them, would stick by the King's loaf, as long as a single cut of it remained ; they
would fasten to the hard crust, and gnaw it, while two crumbs of it held together ;
and what was more extraordinary, they would proudly declare at the time, that it
was the honom- of the service, and the dignity of their offices, which they regarded ;
and that, as to the emolument, they did not value the money three skips of a louse.
This was gratitude, a degree of gi-atitude which coui'tiers never failed to exhibit.'
.—Mem. ofthe late Bight Hon. CJ, Poor, p. 272.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 221
sessed a large share indeed of bis tenderness, from the earliest
period of ray own meraory, to that fatal hour in which his has
been interrupted. If God in his raercy to the King, and his
chUdren, and his people, should restore that memory, and
should revive tbe affections of his heart, I have no reason to
think he will applaud the authors of ray disgrace, or account
those his friends who have branded his children and his
brothers with the suspicion of raurder and rebeUion. All this
is pretended to be done for the King : but it is no great pre
sumption in me to assert, that I know, and can speak the sen
tiraents of ray father as authentically as any of the creatures of
his favour.
' My Lords, I have tbe honour of being a meraber of another
great body, as well as of this. With what face can I show
myself to a coraraonwealth of Princes, and to a people sub
jected to me, when I am thus disgraced in a country that gave
me birth ? I am a Prince of the empire — I ara the son of your
King. If these should be no titles to justice, I ara a Peer of
Parliaraent, and have a right to defend myself in this House.
If I ara stripped of all these, there is one character dearer to
me than all the rest, I ara an EngUshraan, and ara entitled
freely to contend for ray rights.
' I pity the situation of the Prince of Wales. He raust
suffer rauch in sUence. It is the unhappy prerogative of great
ness. But care is taken in this biU that he shall not waste the
King's property. 1 know he never desired to have power over
it. If he had, I know the King's property could not be in
safer hands ; and this is the unanimous sentiraent of the whole
family. If we were to choose a trustee, he should be our
trustee, in preference to aU the world. Happy in his protec
tion, secure in bis love, the family would find their honour in
his glory, their provision in his wealth, their opulence in his
bounty. We know his integrity — we are conscious of his heart.
He never meddled with the King's property but to secure it,
and to secure it in a raanner the raost prudent and raost ho
nourable. For this there are witnesses in this House, if they
choose on this occasion to do justice. More raight be told.
For my share in any (I pray God raost remote) eventual inte
rest in that property, I regard it not at all. I am wounded in

222 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
a more tender part — but I have brothers and sisters who cannot
speak for themselves.'
Why this admirable address was not delivered by the Duke
of York, in his place, in the House of Peers, it perhaps vvould
be superfluous now to inquire ; but the probable reason was,
a certain degree of tiraidity and indecision araong the friends
of the Prince's party, and sorae manifest syraptoras of ap
proaching convalescence, which enabled the raedical politicians
ofthe day to prognosticate that the indisposition of the King
could not be of any long duration. There is indeed every
reason to suppose, that it was this persuasion, from the first
intiraation of the King's raalady, which induced tbe friends of
Mr. Pitt to adhere so firraly to the interests of that minister,
and in this they were justified not only by the event, but from
previous calculations drawn frora the mass of people afflicted
with the same disease. On the other hand, the opposition
seeraed to consider the King's recovery as a distant, if not a
probleraatical event, and therefore they wished to provide for
the full and vigorous exercise of the royal authority, till the
capacity of the sovereign was sufficiently restored to enable
hira to resurae the functions ofhis high office. The opposition
were anxious to preserve the constitution in its purity, and
conceiving that this could not be done without granting to the
Regent the sarae powers and prerogatives that the King was
possessed of, and to which the Prince would have been entitled
had he succeeded to the suprerae power by a natural demise,
with an honourable consistency of principle, and attachment
to the pure spirit of the constitution, resisted at every step the
liraitations and restrictions with which, manifestly for the pur
pose of party ambition, it was proposed to clog the regency of
the Prince of Wales,
The minister of this period was a man of unbounded arro
gance, and surrounded by a base and servile host of dependants
and sycophants, to whom he too often, certainly not from the
easiness of his temper, but frora the necessities of bis cir
curastances, surrendered up his better judgment. All the
events of this period may be traced to the intrigues and cabals
of the low-minded and interested individuals witb whora he

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 223
was connected, and the whole scherae of the regency was a
plan (we had nearly said a plot) to continue Mr. Pitt and his
friends in tbe most essential, iraportant, and lucrative offices
of governraent.
After several ineffectual atterapts on the part of the friends
of tbe Prince of Wales to modify the restrictions ofthe regency
bUl, and to invest bis royal highness with superior powers, the
two houses of parliament agreed to the following resolutions,
which were presented by a deputation of peers and comraoners
to the Prince, on the SOth of January, 1789.
' Resolved, that for the purpose of providing for the exercise
ofthe royal authority, during the continuance of his Majesty's
illness, in such manner, and to such extent, as the present
circumstances and the urgent concerns of the nation appear to
require, it is expedient that bis royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, being resident within the realra, shall be erapowered to
exercise and administer the royal authority, according to the
laws and constitution of Great Britain, in the name and on the
behalf of his Majesty, under the style and title of Regent of
the kingdom ; and to use, execute, and perform, in the narae
and on the behalf of his Majesty, all authorities, prerogatives,
acts of governraent, and administration of the sarae, which be
long to tbe king of this realra to use, exercise, and perform,
according to the laws thereof, subject to such limitations and
exceptions as shall be provided.
' Resolved, that the power so to be given to his royal high
ness tbe Prince of Wales shall not extend to the granting of
any rank or dignity of the peerage of the realm to any person ,
whatever, except to his Majesty's royal issue, vvho shall have
attained the full age of twenty-one years.
' Resolved, that the said powers should not extend to the
granting of any office whatever in reversion, or to the granting
of any office, salary, or pension, for any other term than during
his Majesty's pleasure, except such offices as are by law re
quired to be granted for Ufe, or during good behaviour.
' Resolved tbat the said powers should not extend to the
granting of any part of bis Majesty's real or personal estate,
except so far as relates to the renewal of leases.
' Resolved, tbat tbe care of bis Majesty's royal person, during

224 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the continuance of his Majesty's illness, should be coramitted to
the Queen's most exceUent Majesty ; and that her Majesty should
bave power to reraove frora, and to norainate and appoint such
persons as she shall think proper, to the several offices in his
Majesty's household ; and to dispose, order, and manage all
other raatters and things relating to the care of his Majesty's
royal person, during the tirae aforesaid : and that for the better
enabling her Majesty to discharge this important trust, it is also
expedient that a council should be appointed, to advise and
assist her Majesty in the several matters aforesaid, and with
power from time to time, as there may be cause, to examine
upon oath the physicians and others attending bis Majesty's
person, touching the state of his Majesty's health, and all
matters relative thereto.'
Die Mercurii, 28 Januarii, 1789.
' Resolved, that a coraraittee be appointed, to attend his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with the resolutions which
have been agreed to by the Lords and Comraons for the
purpose of supplying the defect of the personal exercise of the
royal authority during his Majesty's iUness, by erapowering his
Royal Highness to exercise such authority in the narae and
on the behalf of his Majesty, subject to the liraitations and
restrictions which the circurastances of the case appear at pre
sent to require : and that the coraraittee do express the hope
which the Lords spiritual and teraporal, and Comraons, enter
tain, that his Royal Highness, from his regard to the interests
of his Majesty and the nation, will be ready to undertake the
weighty and important trust proposed to be invested in his
Royal Highness, as soon as an act of Parliament shaU bave
been passed for carrying tbe said resolution into effect.'
To this comraunication, the Prince of Wales was pleased to
raake the following answer : —
' My Lords and Gentlemen,
' I thank you for communicating to me the resolutions
agreed upon by the two Houses, and I request you to assure
them in my name, that ray duty to the King, my father, and
my anxious concern for the safety and interests of the people,
which must be endangered by a longer suspension of the ex-

memoirs of GEORGE IV. 225
ercise of the royal authority, together with my respect for the
united desires of the two Houses, outweigh, in my mind, every
other consideration, and will determine rae to undertake the
weighty and iraportant trust proposed to rae, in conforraity to
the resolutions now coraraunicated to me. I am sensible of
the difficulties that must attend the execution of this trust, in
the particular circumstances in which it is comraitted to, ray
charge, of which, as I am acquainted with no forraer ex
ample, my hope of a successful administration cannot be
founded on any past experience. But confiding that the limita
tions on the exercise of the royal authority, deemed necessary
for the present, have been approved by the two Houses only
as a temporary raeasure, founded on the loyal hope, in which I
ardently participate, that his Majesty's disorder raay not be of
long duration, and trusting, in the meanwhile, tbat I shall re
ceive a zealous and united support in the two Houses, and in
the nation, proportioned to tbe difficulty attending the dis
charge of my trust in this interval, 1 wUl entertain the pleasing
hope, tbat my faithful endeavours to preserve the interests of
the King, bis crown, and people, may be successful.'
While the two Houses of the legislature of Great Britain
were thus eraployed in framing limitations and restrictions, to
fetter the power of the Prince Regent, and cramp the exercise
of the royal authority within narrower bounds than any sove
reign of the country bad ever submitted to, tbe Parliament of
Ireland pursued a very different course, and it was agreed by
both Houses, though not without considerable opposition, and
very spirited protests being entered upon the journals, that the
regency of the kingdom of Ireland should be conferred on his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, during the contiwaance
ofhis Majesty's indisposition. An address to that effect was
accordingly prepared, and the Lord Lieutenant (the Marquess
of Buckingham) was requested to convey it to England, but
refused to do so, under the impression that his official duty,
and the oath he had taken as chief governor of Ireland, obliged
him to decline transmitting such a document. The two Houses
of Parliament, upon this, passed a vote of censure upon the
conduct ofthe Lord Lieutenant, and appointed delegates frora
each bouse, witb the Duke of Leinster, the first peer of Ireland,
2F

226 memoirs OF GEORGE IV.
at their head, to wait upon the Prince of Wales, with the
foUowing address, which was presented to his Royal Highness
on the 27th of February.
' To His Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales.
' The humble address of tbe lords spiritual and teraporal,
and knights, citizens, and burgesses, in parliaraent assembled.
' May it please your Royal Highness.
' We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal .subjects, the lords
spiritual and temporal, and the commons of Ireland, in parlia
raent assembled, beg leave to approach your Royal Highness,
with hearts full of the most loyal and affectionate attachraent
to the person and government of your royal father, and to
express the deepest and most grateful sense of the numerous
blessings which we have enjoyed under that illustrious house
whose accession to the throne of these realms bas established
civil and constitutional liberties upon a basis which, we trust,
will never be shaken ; and at the same time to condole wilh
yogr Royal Highness upon the grievous malady with which it
has pleased Heaven to affiict the best of sovereigns.
' We have, however, the consolation of reflecting, that this
severe calamity hath not been visited upon us until the virtues
of your Royal Highness have been so matured as to enable
your Royal Highness to discharge the duties of an important
trust, for the performance whereof the eyes of all his Ma
jesty's subjects of both kingdoms are directed to your Royal
Highness. ' We therefore humbly beg leave to request, that your
Royal Highness will be pleased to take upon you the govern
ment of this realm during the continuance of his Majesty's
present indisposition, and no longer ; and under the style and
title of Prince Regent of Ireland, in the name and on the
behalf of his Majesty, to exercise and administer, according to
the laws and constitution of this kingdom, all regal powers,
jurisdictions, and prerogatives, to the crown and government
thereof belonging.'
To this address, so conformable to the frank, generous, and
liberal temper of the Irish nation, and so honourable to the
Prince of Wales, for the confidence which it reposed in his

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 22Y
character and principles, his Royal Highness returned the fol
lowing answer
'My Lords and Gentlemen,
' The address from the lords spiritual and temporal, and
the commons of Ireland, which you have presented to me,
demands my warraest and earliest thanks. If anything could
add to the esteera and affection I have for the people of Ire
land, it would be the loyal and dutiful attachment to the per
son and government of the King my father, manifested in the
address of the two houses.
' What they have done, and their manner of doing it, is a
new proof of their undiminished duty to his Majesty, of their
uniform attachraent to the bouse of Brunswick, and their con
stant attention to raaintain inviolate the concord and connexion
between the kingdoras of Great Britain and Ireland, so indis
pensably necessary to the prosperity, the happiness, and the
liberties of both.
' If, in conveying ray grateful sentiments on their conduct,
in relation to the King ray father, and to the inseparable
interests of the two kingdoms, I find it impossible to express
adequately my feelings on what relates to myself, I trust you
wUl not be the less disposed to believe tbat I have the under
standing to comprehend the value of what they have done, a
heart that must remember, and principles that wUl not suffer
me to abuse their confidence.
' But the fortunate change which has taken place in the
circumstance which gave occasion to the address agreed to by
the lords and commons of Ireland, induces me to delay, for a
few days, giving a final answer ; trusting that the joyful event
of his Majesty's resuming the personal exercise of his royal
authority raay then render it only necessary for rae to repeat
those sentiraents of gratitude and affection to the loyal and
generous people of Ireland, which I feel indelibly irapressed
on my heart.'
The King at this period was daUy advancing towards a state
of convalescence ; but the Irish delegates continued some time
longer in town, to wait tbe issue of this extraordinary conjunc
ture, and oftener than once were honoured by the Prince with
2 F 2

228 memoirs of george iv.
invitations to partake of the hospitalities of Cariton-house.
On one of these occasions, there were present (he Dukes of
York and Cumberiand, the Dukes of Portland and Devonshire,
Eari Fitzwilliam, Burke, Fox, Sheridan, &c., to the number of
thirty-six. The party was raost happUy convivial, to which
the engaging manners of the Prince not a little contributed.
On the company rising, his Royal Highness insisted on the
Landlord's Bottle: this meeting with some little objection,
was afterwards assented to from an observation of Mr. Burke,
who said that, although he was an enemy in general to inde
feasible right, yet he thought the Prince, in his own house, had
a right to ruley jure de vino (by right of wine, or the divine
right). At length, the King's perfect recovery being no longer a
matter of doubt, the Prince of Wales, on the 12th of March,
delivered his final ansvver to the deputation from both houses
of the parliaraent of Ireland, in the following terras.
' My Lords and Gentlemen,
' The happy event of the King's recovery, and the conse
quent reassumption of the exercise of his auspicious govern
ment, announced by his royal commission for declaring the
further causes of holding the parliament of Great Britain, has
done away the raelancholy necessity which gave rise to the
arrangeraent proposed by the parliaraent of Ireland ; but no
thing can obliterate frora my memory and my gratitude the
principles upon which that arrangement was made, and the
circumstances by wbich it was attended.
' I consider your generous kindness to his Majesty's royal
family, and the provision you made for preserving the autho
rity of the crown in its constitutional energy, as the most
unequivocal proof which could be given of your affectionate
loyalty to the King, at the time when, by an afflicting dispen
sation of Providence, his government had suffered an inter
mission, and his house was deprived of its natural protector.
' I shall not pay so ill a compliment to the Lords and Com
mons of Ireland, as to su[)pose that they were mistaken in
their reliance on the moderation of my views, and the purity of
my intentions. A manly confidence, directing the manner of

memoirs of GEORGE IV. 229
proceeding towards those who entertain sentiraents becoraing
the high situation to which they are born, furnishes the most
powerful motives to the performance of their duty ; at the
sarae tirae that the liberality of sentiraent, which, in conveying
a trust, confers an honour, can have no tendency to relax that
provident vigilance, and that public jealousy, which ought to
watch over the exercise of power.
' My Lords and Gentlemen,
' Though full of joy for tbe event which enables rae
to take leave of you in this manner, personaUy, I cannot
but regret your departure. I have had the opportunity of
acquiring a knowledge of your private characters, and it has
added to the high esteera which I had before entertained for
you on account of your public raerits : both have raade you
the worthy representatives of the great bodies to which you
belong. ' I am confident that I need not add my earnest recom
mendation to the Parliaraent and people of Ireland, to con
tinue to cultivate the harraony of the two kingdoras, which, in
their rautual perfect freedom, will find the closest as well as
happiest bond of their connexion.'
On this subject we shall raake but a few brief reraarks. In
regard to the right of the Prince of Wales to the regency, we
consider it to have been clear and indubitable, and vve do not
hesitate to say, that the conduct of his Royal Highness, on that
most trying and delicate occasion, was raanly, consistent, and
honourable, becoming his duty as a son, and worthy ofhis cha
racter as a prince. Had the Prince of Wales succeeded to the
regency under all the restrictions and limitations proposed, it
is scarcely possible but that his government must have fallen
into confusion and disorder. What was asked for him was no
raore than what the exigencies of the state required, and the
powers which the constitution would have given him inthe case
of a natural demise. Indeed, it is impossible to review the
transactions of this period without feeling for what must have
been the sensations of the Prince of Wales at the treatment he
received from an arrogant and supercilious minister, deemed

230 memoirs of GEORGE IV.
unworthy to be trusted with the temporary occupation of the
throne; every restraint that jealousy or suspicion could devise
was resorted to, to fetter and circumscribe his authority.
Happily for the Prince of Wales, he was not called upon to
undertake the government under such mortifying and humi
liating circumstances, and the nation vvas spared the danger of
an experiment full of difficulty and hazard.
The last document which we shall present to our readers,
relative to the transactions of this interesting and memorable
period, is a letter, which was transmitted to the Queen by the
Prince of Wales, in his own name, and that of the Duke of
York, who, on the report of the King^s convalescence, and
after the Lord Chancellor had several interviews with his
Majesty, applied in vain to be admitted to the royal presence.
In consequence of this, the following representation, or remon
strance, was drawn up, anrl sent with the signatures of the
royal brothers to the Queen : —
' Your Majesty's most dutiful son, the Prince of Wales,
most humbly begs leave to represent to your Majesty the
foUowing circumstances : —
' It has for some days been confidently reported, and is
generaUy credited, that his Majesty is happily restored to
health ; though that health is not yet perfectly confirmed. It
must be on a supposition of this fact, that the Lord Chancellor
has been introduced into his Majesty's presence.
' That the Prince of Wales, with the Duke of York, have
frequently raade raost respectful and dutiful applications to be
permitted to see the King their father ; but that they have met
with a refusal, on the idea that his Majesty was by no raeans
in a condition to be approached hy them, without the danger
of affecting his sensibility in such a manner as to renew or
increase his illness.
' They beg leave to inforra your Majesty, that, in such a
moment, the Prince claims a right to see his father, as a gra
tification due to his feelings as a son. The Prince claims
access to his Majesty in right of his birth. He claims at
fitting times, and with proper precautions, an audience of the
King, as being actuaUy norainated by a bUl, which has passed-

memoirs op GEORGE IV. 231
the House of Comraons, for the arduous and delicate trust of
his Majesty's governraent during his illness.
' The rule of the Prince of Wales' conduct must, in a great
measure, be formed upon an accurate idea of his Majesty's
condition. He apprehends that be owes it to his Majesty, and
to his Majesty's faithful subjects, to do all that in his power
lies, tbat no man shall make use ofhis Majesty's name whilst
he labours under illness, which may redound to the detriraent
of his Majesty's governraent — which raay, against his will, and
by surprise, possibly tend to the dishonour and disadvantage of
his faraUy.
' Her Majesty will naturally expect that the Prince of Wales
should be exceedingly anxious and apprehensive, lest, if he
and the Duke of York should not see the King (though they
raay be, against their wishes, excluded frora his Majesty's
presence), that circurastance might be hereafter employed by
persons not well disposed to your Majestv, or to them, to pre
judice his Majest's mind against them, as deficient in rever
ence, duty, and natural affection.
' If it be thought that their seeing his Majesty might agitate
his mind, and retard his recovery, the Prince is sure that the
same reason raight be urged with regard to the Chancellor,
who, in his character of rainister, must naturally remind the
King of affairs of state, and renew in his raind the cares and
anxieties of his government.
' The Prince of Wales desires and requests, as guarantees
and witnesses of the prudent use which he and the Duke of
York wiU certainly raake of this visit of duty and respect, the
presence of two or raore of the attending physicians, provided
that aU persons who may operate on the King's raind, by re
straint, be not present.
' The Prince of Wales entreats, that if the physicians should
be of opinion that his Majesty's state of health will not safely
perrait the desired interview, the Prince, for his future justi
fication with the King, raay receive that opinion in writing,
signed by thera.
' The Duke of York most humbly supplicates your Majesty
for the same indulgence, in paying his hurable and affectionate
duty to the King his father.'

232 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
The recovery of his Majesty was announced to Mr. Pitt in
the foUowing manner :— On the 23d of February, 1789, Mr.
Pitt and Lord Melville were dining with Lord Chesterfield, when
a letter was brought to the former, which be read, and, sitting
next to Lord Melville, gave it hira under the table, and whis
pered, that when be had looked at it, it would be better for
them to talk it over in Lord Chesterfield's dressing-room. This
proved to be a letter in the King's own hand, announcing his
recovery to Mr. Pitt, in terms soraewhat as follows : —
' The King renews, with great satisfaction, his comraunica
tion with Mr. Pitt, after the long suspension of their intercourse,
owing to his very tedious and painful iUness. He is fearful that,
during this interval, the public interests bave suffered great in
convenience and difficulty.
' It is raost desirable that iraraediate raeasures should be,
taken for restoring the functions of his governraent ; and Mr.
Pitt wiU consult with the Lord Chancellor to-raorrow raorning,
upon the most expedient means for tbat purpose. And tbe
King wUl receive Mr. Pitt at Kew, afterwards, about one
o'clock.' There could be no hesitation on the part of Mr. Pitt ; and
having held the necessary conference witb the Chancellor, he
waited upon the King at the appointed time. He found him
perfectly of sound mind, and in every respect as before bis ill
ness, corapetent to all the affairs of his public station.
This was the first notice, in any way, which Mr. Pitt received
of this most important event : the reports ofthe physicians bad
indeed been of late raore favourable ; but Lord Melville verily
believed there was not a raan except Dr. AViUis who entertained
the smallest hope of the restoration ofthe King's mind. Mr.
Pitt continually declared this opinion to Lord Melville, and
they had both deterrained to return to the bar, as the dissolu
tion of the ministry was then on the point of taking place.
The letter in question Lord Melville took from Mr. Pitt,
saymg, he had a trick of losing papers, and furnished hira only
with a copy, tbe original reraaining in his Lordship's possession.
The King wrote the letter at a little table of the Queen's which
stood in his apartment, without the knowledge of any person :
and having finished, rang his bell, and gave it to his valet-de-
chambre, directing it to be carried iraraediately to Mr. Pitt,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 233
In a conversation which his Majesty afterwards had with
Justice Hardinge, he "greatly commended the conduct of the
House of Comraons in regard tothe regency question, and said,
his illness had in the end been a perfect bliss to him, as proving
' bow nobly tbe people would support hira when be was in
trouble.' His Majesty's malady had, however, been very distressing ;
for, in a letter addressed frora Windsor by Admiral Payne to
Mr. Sheridan on the Regency negociation, we find, ' the King
has been worse these last two days than ever : this morning he
made an effort to jump out of the window, and be is now very
turbulent and incoherent.'
The following anecdotes wiU show the state of the King's
mind at this time, and tbey bave been now made public on
the authority of one of the pages who was then in attendance
on his Majesty.
' The King was driving the Queen in the Great Park at Wind
sor, when, on a sudden, he exclaimed, " There he is I " and
giving tbe reins to his iUustrious consort, descended frora the
phaeton. I was then on duty, and the horse on which I was
raounted was young and restive; and, notwithstanding ray
utraost exertions, turned and ran towards the carriage. I was
covered witb confusion, but ber Majesty, who saw my distress,
most graciously condescended to relieve me by a well-timed
reraark on the restiveness of ray horse.
' His Majesty now approached a venerable oak that had
enlivened tbe solitude of that quarter of the park upwards of a
century and a half. At the distance of a few yards he unco
vered, and advanced, bowing with the utraost respect; and
then seizing one of the lower branches, be shook it with the
most apparent cordiality and regard — just as a man shakes bis
friend by the band.
' The Queen turned pale with astonishraent — the reins
dropped from her hands. I felt the most painful apprehension
lest the horses in the carriage, finding theraselves under no
control, should run headlong to destruction : nor did I dare
to call for assistance, lest the attendants should witness a
scene that I desired to keep frora their view. At last, her
Majesty became attentive to her situation ; and as the reins
2 G

234 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
were happily within reach, they were recovered, and the Queen
comraanded me to disraount, and to go and intimate, in a
soothing voice and suppliant terms, that her Majesty wished
for his company.
• On my approach, I perceived the King. was engaged in ear
nest conversation. It was the King of Prussia with whora bis
Majesty enjoyed this rural interview. Continental politics
were the subject.
' I approached with reverence — " May it please your Ma
jesty—" ' " Don't you see I am engaged ? " said tbe King.
'I bowed and withdrew. " His Majesty is engaged, and — "
' " Go again," said the Queen, interrupting rae. I went. " May
I presume to inform your Majesty that — "
' " What is the raatter?" said the King, in great surprise.
' " Her Majesty is in the carriage, and I ara coramanded to
intimate her desire of your Majesty's company."
' " Good lack-a-day 1 " said the King, " that is true : run on
and inforra her Majesty that 1 ara hastening to her.'"
******
' It was Sunday, and his Grace of Canterbury commanded
prayers to be read in the royal apartment.
' '^Dearly beloved brethren — " said the chaplain.
« " Tallee ho ! Tallee ho I " said the King.
' " The scripture moveth us in sundry places — "
' " Go forviard, Miranda ! go forward ! Tallee ho I Jlctaeon I
Tallee ho 1 "
' " To the end that we may obtain — "
< " Halloo ! Ranger and Swift ; Tallee ho ! Tallee ho ! ' Ware
Fox, Miranda! 'Ware Fox!"
' The chaplain looked at Sir George Baker, and Sir George
looked at the chaplain ; and then, risum teneatis amid, — they
laughed. 'And the King laughed — and we all laughed, — and Sir
George Baker said that the prayers had done his Majesty a
vast deal of good — and Dr. Willis said the same — and the
King dined very comfortably, and was cheerful — and he told
Dr. WUUs and Sir George that he wished to see them dance a
hornpipe.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 235
' '* We beg leave to decline the honour of dancing in your
Majesty's presence."
' " Sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas,"" said the
Sovereign. " Here is my sceptre," said he, holding the
knife in a threatening posture ; " and the man who pre
sumes to oppose my will shall be instantly — instantly irapaled
alive." ' And tbe King called for bis flute, and Sir George Baker
and Dr. Willis danced till it was dark ; and thus ended the
sabbath day.'

' It was my fate to be on duty this morning in the King's
apartments. ' The attendants bad been enjoined the profoundest silence.
No answer was to be given to any question proposed by his
Majesty. I was unable to see the wisdom of this injunction.
A discreet answer raight have frequently soothed the patient,
and concUiated attachment.
' I am confident the prohibition was productive of great mis
chief; and in evidence of this proposition, I beg leave to
relate a memorable occurrence.
« Several syraptoras of convalescence had raade their appear
ance the preceding day; and with the benevolent view of
refreshing the domestics, after long and severe attendance,
they had leave of absence for three or four hours. Meanwhile,
I was comraanded to reraain in the royal presence, and to act
according to exigencies.
{ <c **»*^" said the King, caUing rae by narae, " it is a fine
morning — has there been a hunt ?"
' I bowed.
< II m*»n ggjfj |.}ie 'K.ing again, ' bas there been a hunt this
morning ? "
' I bowed.'
' His Majesty was obviously displeased ; but I did not dare
to transgress orders.
' " Give me the lemonade," said the King.
' I gave it, and bowed.
' " Take tbe glass," be said. 2G3

236 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
' I approached to take it. In a raoraent be seized me by tbe
collar, threw down tbe glass, and then attacked me with so
much vigour and alacrity, tbat 1 was constrained to call for
assistance. ' A physician was happily in the antichamber, and beard me.
On seeing bim enter the room, the King desisted, asking me,
" Whether I had found my tongue ?" '
A national thanksgiving for the recovery of tbe King was
solemnized on April 23, at St. Paul's Cathedral, at which their
Majesties and the Royal family attended. At the conclusion
of the service, the Prince of Wales hastened frora tbe cathedral
to Carlton-house, where he changed bis dress for the uniforra
of his regiment : and, taking the command of it, proceeded to
raeet his Royal father on his return ; thus becoming himself
bis guard and conductor to the Queen's palace. Alighting
there, his Royal Highness presented hiraself at the door, in a
manner that required to be seen,' in order to be appreciated.
' It was to the revered monarch — to the beloved parent — that
bis Royal Highness offered assistance. The tender attachraent
of the raost affectionate of sons — the zealous devotion of the
first of subjects — were raanifested with an energy and a grace
that no language can adequately describe. The event Was
otherwise commemorated by grand fetes, illuminations, &c.;
and the King's birth-day was celebrated witb unusual splen
dour, terminating witb a ball, at which an incident occurred
which was strongly characteristic of the Prince's regard for
¦¦ the small sweet courtesies of life.'
The King, however, was not present during any part of the
day, owing to the shock occasioned by the duel so recently
fought between the Duke of York and Colonel Lenox. In the
evening, a most splendid ball was given ; and notwithstanding
what had so recently happened, and the estabUshed etiquette
that no person should stand up at country-dances who had not
danced a rainuet. Colonel Lenox appeared in the circle with
Lady Catherine Barnard. This the Prince of Wales did not
perceive until he and his partner, the Princess Royal, came to

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 237
the Colonel's place in the dance ; when, struck with the impro
priety, he took the hand of tbe Princess, just as she was about
to be turned by the Colonel, and led ber to tbe bottora of tbe
dance. Tbe Duke of York and the Princess Augusta carae
next, and tbey turned tbe Colonel without notice or exception.
The Duke of Clarence with the Princess Elizabeth carae next
and his Royal Highness followed the example of the Prince of
Wales. The dance proceeded, however, and Colonel Lenox
and bis partner danced down ; but wben they carae to the
Prince and Princess, his Royal Highness led bis sister to the
chair by the side of tbe Queen. Her Majesty then, addressing
herself to the Prince, said, ' You seem heated, Sir, and tired.'
' I ara heated and tired, Madara,' said tbe Prince, ' not with the
dance, but with dancing in such corapany.' ' Then, Sir,' said the
Queen, ' it will be better for rae to withdraw, and put an end to
the ball.' ' It certainly wiU be so,' said the Prince, ' for I never
wUl countenance insults given to ray family, however they may
be treated by others.' At the end of tbe dance ber Majesty
and the Princesses withdrew, and thus tbe ball concluded.
The Prince, with his usual gallantry, afterwards explained to
Lady Catherine Barnard tbe reason of his conduct, assuring
her Ladyship that it gave him much pain to be under the neces
sity of subjecting a lady to a raoment's erabarrassraent.
On the 6th of February, 1788, his Royal Highness was
initiated into the raysteries of Freeraasonry, at the Star and
Garter, Pall-raall. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cura
berland, as Grand Master, tbe Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of
Manchester, and several other noblemen of that respectable
order, attended at the ceremony.
About this tirae tbe first dividend of his Royal Highness'
debts was declared to be nine per cent., which was very gladly
received by the creditors, and tended to raise the Prince in the
estiraation ofthe people.
His Royal Highness now for a short tirae took up his resi
dence at Richraond-house, the cause for which wUl be subse
quently explained. On the 20th of April, 17/78, the comedy of
The Way to Keep Him was privately perforraed before his
Royal Highness ; tbe characters being cast as follows : —

238 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV;

Lovemore . .
Sir Brilliant Fashion
Sir Bashful Constant
William . . . .
Sideboard .
Widow Belmour .
Mrs. Lovemore .
Lady Constant

Lord Derby.
Hon. Mr. Edgecumbe.
Major Arabin.
Sir Harry Englefield.
Mr. Campbell.
Hon. Mrs. Hobart.
Hon. Mrs. Damer.
Miss Campbell.

Muslin  Mrs. Bruce.
The prologue was written by the Right Honourable George
Conway, and spoken by the Honourable Mrs. Hobart. Of
this lady, who afterwards becarae the Countess of Berkshire,
we shall have to speak hereafter, when, according to the
fashion of the times, she presided at a faro-table which
was frequented by the Prince of Wales ; and where on some
evenings she gave ber dramatic readings, in which she was
assisted by that sprightly and witty barrister, the present Mr.
JekyU. The following additional lines were made to the prologue,
in compliment to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cum
berland, who very condescendingly noticed this mark of the
attention of their visiters : —
And should those favour'd feats, this happy night.
Shine with a lustre eminently bright ;
Should royal greatness humbly condescend
To lay the prince aside, and act the friend.
Indulgent to the liberal arts they love.
They'll strive to pardon faults they can't approve.
And could their flattering smiles with equal ease
As the ambition give the power to please,
We'd fill the mimic as the real part.
And pay in duty what we want in art.
Among the audience present were Kis Royal Highness the
Duke of Cumberland, Lord and Lady Stormont, Mrs. Fitz
herbert, the Duchess of Devonshire, Mr. Dundas, Mr. Sheri
dan, and, what was considered very wonderful, Mr. Fox and
Mr. Pitt carae in together. The Duke of Richmond was sole
attendant and raaster ofthe ceremonies on this occasion.
Among the events of this reraarkable period, we cannot for
bear mentioning, tbat the Prince of Wales, with his usual con-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE FV. 239
sidera,tiori and beneficence, apprehending that the poor of the
city of London might sustain sorae hardships and inconve
nience from the delay of his Majesty's annual bounty, directed
bis treasurer to pay into the charaber of the city of London the
sura of lOOOZ. for the relief of the poor of the same, and like
wise directed 2001. to be transmitted to the Lord Provost of
Edinburgh for the sarae purpose. A motion was made soon
after in the Court of Coramon CouncU, and carried unani
mously, for a vote of thanks to his Royal Highness the Prince
of Wales, for his timely and munificent benefaction ; but an
amendraent, moved by Mr. Deputy Birch, that thanks should
also be given to bis Majesty, for tbe frequent bounty which had
been extended by hira for the same humane purpose, and to
congratulate the Prince on his treading in the steps of bis
father, was rejected. Tbis amendraent, which came from a
well-known party man, and was evidently of a party com
plexion, gave rise to awarm debate, as being founded in an error
ofthe grossest kind. It was observed, that the annual bounty
of the King did not corae frora the private purse of the King,
but from the civil list, and raade a part of the annual grant of
the nation, for that establishraent ; whereas, the present raag
nificent bounty carae from the purse of the Prince, and would
not even prevent the coraraon sura frora being paid into the
City Charaber, as soon as the governraent was happUy settled.
This being clearly explained by the Recorder, Alderman Wilkes,
Alderman Skinner, and others, Mr. Deputy Birch at length
consented to withdraw his motion.
At Christmas, 1789, bis Royal Highness visited that bon
vivant, the Eari of Sandwich, satirized by Churchill under the
name of Jeraray Twitcher, at his seat at Hinchlnbroke, where
a numerous party annuaUy assembled during the holidays.
The mornings were devoted to concerts, at which his Royal
Highness perforraed on the violoncello ; Madame Mara, then
in the zenith of her ability, came frora Burleigh with the Eari
of Exeter to join the party ; an exceUent band, led by Ashley,
was engaged, and his lordship assisted as usual on the kettle-
druras. Peter Pindar, speaking of his lordship's perforraance
on tbat instruraent, says —
He beats old Ashbridge on the kettle-drums.

240 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
An elegant theatre was fitted up for tbe evening amuseraents,
when Love-a-la-Mode, The Mock Doctor, Virgin Unmasked,
High Life below Stairs, &c., were perforraed by amateurs ; and
an occasional prologue, written by his lordship in honour ofhis
Royal Highness' visit, was spoken by L. Brown, Esq., M.P.
for Huntingdonshire. After supper the evening concluded with
catches and glees. His Royal Highness reraained with the
Earl one week, and on departing said, be had often beard of
bis lordship's hospitality, but could not bave expected to
have experienced so rauch gratification and pleasure in such
a very nuraerous and diversified asserablage.
Soon after the recovery of the King, the Prince of Wales set
off on an excursion to Yorkshire, and honoured tbe races at
York witb bis presence. The day after his arrival, he was
waited upon by the corporation, who presented tbe following
address to his Royal Highness, with the freedom of their
ancient city, in a most elegant gold box, which were very gra
ciously received.
' May it please your Royal Highness,
' The Lord Mayor and Corporation of the City of York,
animated with the most Uvely gratitude for the high honour
conferred on tbis ancient city by your presence, beg leave to
approach your royal person with the utraost respect, and most
cordial affection. This honour. Sir, is greatly increased by
your Royal Highness' being the only heir-apparent to the
imperial crown of this realra whora we bave ever bad the feli
city personally to address.
' "They cannot resist the present favourable opportunity of
expressing their just adrairation of, and unfeigned acknow-
ledgraents for the wisdora and moderation which so eminently
distinguished the affectionate and princely conduct of your
Royal Highness, in the most awful and trying situation, when
all men looked up to your Royal Highness for protection, with
the fullest assurance of receiving it ; and blessed as this king
dora hath been by divine providence, in the happy recovery of
our most gracious Sovereign (for whora they entertain the
warmest sentiraents of duty and loyalty), it is their fervent
prayer, that when it shall please the Almighty to call bis Ma
jesty to a heavenly throne, your Royal Highness may succeed

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 241
him in the hearts and affections of a free, brave, and loyal
people, and long Uve to reign over them with the happiness
and glory of a patriot king.
' Your Royal Highness is respectfully entreated to perrait
your royal name to be enrolled among the. freemen of this
ancient city, and to accept the freedom thereof, which is thus
humbly offered to your Royal Highness' gracious reception.'
To this address his Royal Highness was pleased to return
tbe following answer.
' My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen,
' I thank you for your loyal and affectionate address, and
for the satisfaction you express at my visit to the city of York.
' It gives me sincere pleasure that my conduct has been
properly understood by you, and that ray opinions, as to the
powers necessary to have been trusted to me for the general
welfare, have not been mistaken, by the respectable citizens of
York, for an extravagant lust of power, or any unbecoraing
haste to assurae the seat, which to be called to as late as pos
sible is the constant and warmest wish of ray heart. Irapressed
with these sentiraents, I must, above all others, rejoice in that
happy event, vvbich is the subject of your joyful congratu
lations, and which touches my feelings not raore as an affec
tionate son, than as the person most interested in everything
which concerns the prosperity and happiness of the realra.
' I with pleasure accept the freedora of your ancient city,
and your offer of enrolling ray narae araong its citizens.'
Frora York, the Prince of Wales proceeded to Wentworth
House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam, the heir of the estate and
virtues of the illu.strious Marquess of Rockingham. At this
hospitable mansion, a raagnificent fSte was prepared in honour
of his Royal Highness. Nothing could be more superb and
sumptuous, than tbe whole of the arrangeraents. In the true
style of old English hospitality, which is nowhere to be found
in greater perfection than in the county of York, nor exer
cised with more generous splendour by any nobleman than
tbe worthy representative of the bouse of Wentworth, the
gates of Wentworth Park, on being honoured witb the presence
2 H

242 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
of the heir-apparent, were thrown open, to the love and
loyalty of the surrounding country, and no fewer than twenty
thousand persons partook of the liberality of the noble owner.
The diversions (consisting of all the rural sports in use in that
part of the country) lasted the whole day, and his lordship's
park was the grand stage on which the numerous personages
played their parts. The spectators were the Prince, with bis
attendants, and the nobility and gentry frora every part of
the country without distinction. The dinner was an asserablage
of every delicacy that the world could produce ; and the ball at
night, consisting of more than two hundred ladies, the flower of
Yorkshire, with their partners, was the most briUiant ever seen
beyond the Humber.
In coraing to town from Wentworth House, his Royal High
ness encountered an alarming accident, but wbich was attended
by no UI consequences. About two mUes north of Newark, a
cart crossing the road, struck the axle of the Prince's coach,
and overturned it. It was on the verge of a slope, and the
carriage fell a considerable way, turned over twice, and was
shivered to pieces. There were in the coach with his Royal
Highness, Lord Clermont, Colonel St. Ledger, and Colonel
(Lord Viscount) Lake, recently deceased. Two of tbe Prince's
servants were on the box. The Prince suffered a slight con
tusion in the shoulder, and bis wrist was sprained. His
Highness was undermost in the first fall, and by the next roll
of the carriage was brought uppermost, wben, with great pre
sence of mind, he disengaged himself, and was the first to
rescue and disengage his fellow-travellers. Lord Clermont was
the most hurt. He was much wounded in the face, and was
otherwise so severely bruised, that be was obliged to reraain at
Newark. The other gentleraen were, like the Prince, fortunate
enough to escape with little injury. The accident happened at
ten o'clock at night, and it was a clear moon-light. The
carriage was his Royal Highness' own traveUing coach, with
hired horses and postilions; and the mischance was occasioned
by the wilfulness of the postilions, who drove to clear the cart
with their common precipitation. Colonel Lake's post-chaise
being close behind, the Prince and Lord Clermont went for-

.MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 243
ward in it to Newark, where his Royal Highness slept, and
proceeded to London the next raorning.
In the early part of the year 1788, the Prince of Wales went
to Plyraouth, in company with bis brother .the Duke of York, to
pay a visit to their brother. Prince WiUiam Henry, commander
of the Pegasus frigate, who had lately arrived in that port.
On their arrival at Plymouth, Prince William hastened to meet
tbem, and it was represented by an eye-witness at the time as
a mo.st noble and gratifying sight, to behold the three royal
brothers together, of whora every parent would have been
proud, and to whora the nation looked up as the future guar
dians of its rights and liberties. On the raorning after their
arrival, their Royal Highnesses, accorapanied by several naval
and railitary officers, visited the dockyard, and surveyed every
object of curiosity or interest. In the evening they dined with
a select party, and at eleven o'clock proceeded to the Long-
roora Store-house, where there was an assemblage of the prin
cipal ladies and gentlemen of Plyraouth and its environs. On
tbeir entering the roora, the three brothers walked arm in arra,
the Prince of Wales in the centre : they received the compli
ments of tbe whole corapany, and retumed tbem witb affability,
dignity, and ease. Their Royal Highnesses danced with Miss
Winne, Miss Calton, Mrs. Depeister, Miss Fanshawe, and Miss
Arthur. Tbeir Royal Highnesses retired about one o'clock.
On the following day their Royal Highnesses went afloat,
and the whole fleet in Hamoaze iraraediately raanned ship, and
saluted witb twenty-one guns each. After riding to Maker
Heights, and taking a survey of Whitsand Bay, Penlie Point,
and the Rara Head, they returned to dock, dined, and in the
evening went to tbe Long-roora. The next day, taking coach at
tbe barrier gate, they drove through the town very slowly, and,
being again saluted frora the raraparts of tbe citadel with
twenty-one guns, they set out on their return to London.
Few things in tbe life of George III. did raore honour to his
reign, than the devotion of bis son. Prince WiUiam Henry, bis
present Majesty, to the service of the British navy ; nor can
anything be considered more honourable to an individual than
that son's spirited acceptance of tbe professional life proposed
2H2

244 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
to hira by his royal father. The naval character is one of tbe
dearest to the interests of Britain. Every rank of life alike
looks up to it for protection and security. Naval fame is, bow-
ever, dearly earned. The sailor's warfare is in the farthest
extreme of sufferance and danger. ' The very elements,' to
use the words of an elegant writer, ' are bis foes ; and he often
receives more injury frora them, than frora those ofhis coun
try. He has to contend not only witb a faithless ocean,
replete with danger, but with the change of climate, with the
trying succession of burning suns and freezing skies. He is
borne away from bis friends and native land, confined to the
ship in which he saUs, and deprived of every comraunication
that may cheer his heart in the moraent of distress, and at the
extreraities of the globe. The hour of corabat approaches hira
with redoubled danger ; and it not unfrequently proves bis
laraentable fate to fly frora tbe quick approach of consuraing
fire, to find a tomb in the devouring wave. The first years of
the infant seaman's life are fatigue and hardship. Removed
from a parent's tender care, and all tbe coraforts of a protect
ing home, it is his lot to enter upon a scene where the severe
discipline of rigorous instruction prepares hira to bear with
resolution the future toUs of his profession.'
It is pleasing to know, that the exaraple ofthe King of Eng
land's son, thus devoting hiraself to a course of arduous service,
in order to gain instruction in the duties of an important pro
fession, was not without its influence in other countries. The
Prince had not long been at sea, before the King of Prussia
made use ofthe circumstance to Ulustrate, in a very striking
manner, the excellent sentiments contained in the following
answer to a nobleman who had applied for a commission to his
son in the array.
' Most iUustrious, dear, and faithful!
' I have seen your petition concerning your son. It is
proper to inforra you, that, some time since, I have given orders
that no men of rank should be admitted into my armies, as
these gentlemen, after a campaign or two, thinking themselves
exceedingly clever, generally retire, settling on their own

MEMOIRS OF GEOEGE IV. 245
estates, where tbey enjoy tbe reputation of having been in the
service. If your son chooses to be a soldier, I can assure you
tbat bis title will avail him nothing in tbe way of preferment,
unless he endeavours to acquire the knowledge requisite to
his profession.'
P.S. (In tbe King's own hand.) ' As our young nobility in
general never learn anything, they of course are exceedingly
ignorant. In England, one of the King's sons, wishing to
instruct himself, has not sci-upled to set out as a common
sailor. ' If any one of our men of fashion should chance to distin
guish bimself, and prove useful to bis country, be wUl have no
reason to plume himself upon his quality.
' Titles and birth are nothing else than vanity and folly.
True merit is personal.
' Frederic'
There was one peculiarity in the style of living which dis-
tinguiiihed his Royal Highness at this tirae, wbich gave great
offence to the King, although it was by no means regarded as
so venial by sorae of the other branches of the royal faraily,
and particularly so by his mother, who, having been brought
up in Gerraany, assirailated ber habits in a great degree with
those of that country, although at the sarae tirae she identified
herself as rauch as possible with the raore staid and formal
ones ofthe English people. The Duke of York had also just
arrived frora the native country of bis mother, completely
germanized, and iraraediately despised, as he was wont to call
it, tbe monastic gloora of an English Sunday evening, by fre
quenting the evening concerts and conversaziones, which it
was at this tirae the fashion to bold on a Sunday evening, the
sabbath. These meetings at Carlton House were rich and
inspiring to the devotees of mirth and harraony; but, injustice
we must add, that had they been confined to rausic only, or to
a display of harraless jollity, even perhaps the most rigid Cal
vinist would not have raised his voice against them, much
less bave visited them with the whole weight of his zealous
fury; but they were the resort of the titled profligates of both

246 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
sexes, and some of the meetings were distinguished by Bac
chanalian and Circean scenes, which would have raerited casti
gation on any night, much more so on the sabbath. It must,
however, be mentioned, that the King himself frequently in-
dulo-ed in music on a Sunday evening, untU the Bishops inter
fered in the same laudable manner as they did with the short
petticoats of the figurantes ofthe Opera House, although it were
a curious question to decide whether they were the eye-witnesses
of the aboraination, or took their measures from the opinion of
others ; yet the King, actuated bythe genuine spirit of piety, was
no sooner inforraed that the practice of holding Sunday evening
concerts was contrary to the due observance of the sabbath,
and having, at the sarae time, received sorae inforraation of the
scenes that were passing on a Sunday evening in the house of
the heir-apparent, than he immediately caused it, to be known
to the nobility and gentry of all the royal house, that it would be
expected they should dispense with all Sunday evening con
certs and entertainments of the kind, as everything of that
nature would be discountenanced by his Majesty. As it may
be supposed, the coraraand was laughed at by all those who
were not of the royal household, or who were not dependent
on royalty for a pension ; but at Carlton House and other
places it becarae a standing joke, and with sorae of the party
it was their regular custom to send to the Bishops, who might
be resident in London, a polite invitation to a Sunday evening
conversazione, as the most rational method of recreating them
selves from the fatigues of the day. The Prince was consi
dered at the head of this party, and, consequently, the whole
weight of the indignation of bis royal father fell upon him ; but
parental authority was rejected, clerical interference was laughed
at, and although at court the evening concerts were suspended,
yet in some of the raost exalted coteries of the fashionable
world, they were followed with an enthusiasra which appeared
to exhibit the sabbath as a day of joUity and rairth, not of
devotion and pious exercises.
The foUowing anecdote shows the promptitude which his late
Majesty always felt to embrace every idea that could promote
the essential interests of the nation. It occurred in the year

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 247
1789, and is thus recorded by a writer of that period. Lord
Rodney dining some months ago at Carlton House, congra
tulated the Prince of Wales on seeing a plate of British cured
herrings at table. ' Your Royal Highness,' said the noble
veteran, ' does infinite good to tbe British navy in encouraging
this ejcaraple of English luxury; every table wiU follow the
fashion, and if the nuraber of fashionable tables in the nation
be considered, the result raay be in time an addition, of twenty
thousand ofthe hardiest searaen to our navy — of seamen raised
and employed in that branch of fishery which has raised
Holland to ber maritime force.' ' My lord,' replied the Prince,
' you do me more justice than I deserve ; these herrings, I am
sorry to say, were not cured by British bands. I understand
your reasoning, it is just — it is tbat of Lord Rodney, upon his
own element. Henceforward I shall order a plate of British
cured herrings to be purchased at any expense, and appear a
standing dish at tbis table — we shall call it a Rodney. Under
that designation, what true patriot will not follow my example ? '
For a long time afterwards, a red herring was called a Rodney,
but the origin of the name was not generally known.

248 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV
SECTION III.
[From 1790 to 1800.]
It has been pointedly said by a celebrated French writer,
Le temps qui change tout, change aussi nos humeurs,
Chaque age a ses plaisirs, son esprit et ses moeurs ;
and if, in accordance with those sentiments, we were to draw
a coraparison of the close of the last century and the present
period, we raust confess that, in regard to the raorality and
purity of tbe feraale character, the preference is decidedly to
be given to the latter. About the year 1790, the principal
garabling-tables, or faro banks, were kept by titled ladies, who
hesitated not to repair tbeir .shattered fortunes frora the accru
ing profits ; and it raay easily be conjectured that these noc
turnal raeetings, although avowedly held for the purpose of
gambling, were often scenes of a far different description, fre
quented as they were by all the younger branches of nobility
and raen of fortune, who were certain of raeeting there with
the most dashing Cyprians of the age, and also with some who
were training up to that character under the auspices of the
patroness of tbe night. The lady who was most conspicuous
at this tirae at tbe head of her faro table, was the celebrated
Lady Archer, a woraan steeped to the crown of ber head in
infaray and vice, and who, when she left this mortal stage,
was unable to say ' I have performed one good or generous
action.' We would rather avert our view frora tbe scenes wbich took
place in the harera of this woraan, but the illustrious subject
of the present Memoir is deeply concerned in thera ; and tbe
writer of it has, in the entire ruin of a very near relative, reason
to deprecate the hour wben this woraan's eyes first opened on
the world, and to regret that she was not swept from it as a
pestilence in which no huraan happiness could live ; and yet,
to. the close of her life, this Hecate of iniquity shone conspicu-.
ously for ber piety and religion. She was seen on the sabbath
bending ber way to tbe conventicle — a living painted sepulchre.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 249
SO bedaubed with cosraetics, and the wrinkled deforraities of
ber nature so filled up with tbe impotent remedies of art, that
the eye shrunk from the vievv as if it had presented to it one
of nature's vUest abortions ; but
Not Archer's bible can secure her age.
Her three-score years are shuffling with her page ;
While Death stands by, but till the game is done,
To sweep that stake in justice long his own.
In all the arts and mysteries of love she was acknowledged to
be the paragon of the day ; and one of the first who feU into
the snares of this accomplished Circe was the late Duke of
York. Re-ascending in the scale of the alphabet, in regard to
the names of her admirers, we find her at last, under the protec
tion of Mr. Errington, the cousin of Mrs. Fitzherbert; and it
was by this gentleman that the Prince of Wales was introduced
to the faro-table of Lady Archer. At this period her ladyship
was the raother of three lovely daughters, whora, from the laud
able plea of not exposing them to the snares and temptations
of the world, she kejit in a state of alraost raonkish seclusion.
But the real grounds /or that raode of treatment was the loss
ofthe income derivable from their fortunes, which was to be at
the disposal of their mother until their marriage. Vigilant, how
ever, as the raother was, and strictly as she supposed that she
was guarding the Hesperian fruit, two of her daughters, whilst
her ladyship was presiding at ber faro-table, let young Love in
at the window, and the raischievous urchin one night opening
the door, they rushed into the arras of their lovers, and, by
their subsequent marriage. Lady Archer lost the usufruct of
their fortune. One, however, still remained — the loveliest of
the three ; and Lady Archer, fearing that she might follow tbe
example of her sisters, determined that she should be her cora
panion during her nocturnal revels ; and thus was she intro
duced into a society in which feraale virtue was of no estiraa
tion, and in which it raight with truth be said to have no
existence at all. The Prince of Wales saw the beautiful
daughter of Lady Archer, and for a time the charms of Mrs.
Fitzherbert were neglected by hira. But in this instance
he had a very difficult and delicate part to act. Mr. Errington
2 I

250 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
was generally the attendant of the Prince to the Pandemoniura
of Lady Archer, and any attentions or assiduities which he
mio-ht shew to her lovely daughter, might be taken notice of
by that gentleman, and conveyed to a quarter where least of
all he wished it to be known. Some little bickerings had
already taken place there, in regard to a connexion which at
this time was supposed to exist betvveen his Royal Highness
and the famous, and we may also add, the infaraous Lady
Jersey ; but it was then only floating on the surface of
popular report, although credited by those who moved in the
particular sphere ofhis Royal Highness.
The Prince now looked round him for an auxiliary to assist
bim in the conquest of the youthful Archer, and he very, judi
ciously selected an individual, who was in every respect cal
culated for the purpose, and this was no other than the
Honourable Mrs. Hobart, to whom we have briefly alluded in
a former page. The first step which this lady took was to give
a grand masked fete at ber superb villa in the vicinity of Ful
ham, to which Lady Archer and her daughter were to be invited,
and where the Prince, assisted by the disguise of a masque
rade, would be enabled to whisper the effusions of his unalter
able love into the ears of the new conqueror of his affections,
without the Argus eyes of jealousy being constantly upon hira.
On referring to the European Magazine for July, 1791, we
find the following description of this memorable f6te, which
was attended with sorae very extraordinary circurastances to
the Prince of Wales.
' June 28. — Mrs. Hobart' s Rural Breakfast and Promenade.
' This long looked-for and long-prevented dfejeune was
given yesterday, in spite of tbe weather. It is almost needless
¦to remark, that all the first nobility and fashion about tovvn
graced this most delightful fete. The Prince of Wales came
first, and precisely at one o'clock. About four or five hun
dred persons were present : araongst them was the Duke of
-Gloucester, Duchesses of Rutland and Gordon, Margrave of
Anspach, Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Duke of Queensberry, seve-
ral of the corps diplomatique, and many other foreigners of
:the very first distinction. The Duke of Clarence was expected

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 251
but did not attend. The breakfast lasted from two tiU past
seven o'clock.
'The leading person in tbis entertainment (which was obUo-ed
to be confined to the house on account of the weather) was
Mrs. Bristow, a near relation of Mrs. Hobart. This lady, who
had long resided at the Indian court of Lucknow, was every
inch a queen. Dressed in all the magnificence of eastern
grandeur, Mrs. Bristow represented the Queen of Nourjahad, as
the Light of the World, in the Garden of Roses. She was
seated in the large drawing-room, which was very beautifully
fitted up with cushions in the Indian style, smoking her hookah,
amidst all sorts of tbe choicest perfumes. Mrs. Bristow was
very profuse with her otto of roses, drops of which were thrown
about the ladies' dresses. The whole house was scented with
the most delicious fragrance.
' The company, on entering, were all presented to Mrs; Bris
tow by Mrs. .Hobart. Young Keppel, son of the Margravine
of Anspach, was dressed in girl's clothes. He was in the cha
racter of a Calabrian, and sang sorae charming French songs
with the divine Le Texier, who was in woman's clothes, as a
ballad-singer, and played on the fiddle.
' A lady was dressed as a Savoyard ; she also sang, but could
not be distinctly heard, on account of an intolerably large mask
over her face. This lady was afterwards discovered to be Miss
Archer, daughter of Lady Archer, and to whom the Prince of
Wales, as a Bohemian nobleman, appeared to pay particular
attention. ' Each lady had a lottery-ticket given her by Mrs. Hobart on
entering, and each drew a prize. The Duchess of Rutland
drew the second highest ; but tbe gross lot, or first prize, never
went out of the wheel untfl the last lady that drew, and that
lady was Miss Archer. It was reraarked, that on her opening
her prize, a deep blush carae over her countenance, and she
becarae so confused that Mrs. Hobart led ber into an adjoining
roora, where they were soon afterwards joined by the Prince of
Wales. The party did not jjreak up untU nearly nine o'clock.'
As it may be supposed, the cause of Miss Archer's confusion
excited considerable surprise, and aU were anxious to discover
it ; but it did not transpire until some time afterwards, wben
2 12

252 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Mrs. Hobart raentioned it in confidence to a friend on whom
she could rely — who mentioned it to another — and thus it
soon becarae the theme of conversation iu the immediate co
teries where the parties were known.
The plan was entirely devised by Mrs. Hobart, with tbe
knowledge and privity of the Prince, to declare the ardent
affection which he entertained for Miss Archer, and the prize
contained a beautiful locket set round with diamonds, in the
centre of which was G. P., encircled with the raotto ' L'amour
est I'ange du monde.' The present was accompanied by sorae
araorous lines, taken from one of tbe ancient poets, which
have been beautifully versified as follow :—
I wish I were the bowl.
The bowl that she kisses ;
I would breathe away my soul
In the goblet of kisses.
I wish I were a flower,
Or the dove which sings
In the evening bower.
With sun-set on her wings.
For, if I were a flower,
I should sleep upon her breast;
And, if I were a dove,
I would sing her to her rest :
And lovely her slumbers.
And sweet her dreams should be.
And beautiful her wakino-.
If watched by me.
This meeting may be considered as the declaratory one of
the Prince's pas.sion for Miss Archer ; and, perhaps, no female
virtue ever withstood so nobly the incessant attacks of an
assaUant, hitherto deeraed irresistible. There was, however, a
power watching over the virtue of this intended victira, which
ultiraately saved her frora the ruin that awaited her, and that
power was a deep and rooted attachment for another, but
whose circurastances in life were considered by her raother as
not sufficiently affluent, nor could his connexions boast of any

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 253
titled descent or aristocratical honours. Flattered, however, as
she might have been by the raarked attention which the raost
accomplished Prince in Europe had paid her, stiU, with the
holy fire of a secret love burning within her, she considered
every return that she might make to his protestations as a direct
profanation of the vows of fidelity and constancy which she
had sworn to another, and consequently she met all his assi
duities with tbe raost raarked coolness and indifference. To
experience a repulse of this kind was a very uncommon cir
curastance in his career of gallantry, but rather than operating
as a check, it appeared to act as a stiraulus, and to goad him
on to the final consuraraation of his wishes.
If, however, this amiable girl was able to withstand the
blandishments by which she was surrounded, and to rise
superior to all tbe stratagems which were employed to effect
ber downfal, there was one individual at the (ite who vvas
determined, coute qui coute, to chain the Prince to her car,
and to be the temporary ascendant in his affections, to the
coraplete discorafiture and mortification of her aspiring rivals.
This lady was the Queen- of Nourjahad, the Light of the
¦World — the beautiful Mrs. Bristow. To account for the deter
mined spirit with which this elegant female prosecuted her amour
with the Prince of Wales, it may be said to have arisen in a
great degree, frora a revengeful disposition for sorae supposed or
real affront which Mrs. Fitzherbert had offered to her, in refusing
to acknowledge her in public on account of the questionable
purity of her character. We hold in our reraemnbrace the old
adage of the DevU caUing the kettle black, — and certainly for a
lady like Mrs. Fitzherbert, whose raarriage had been openly,
publicly, and officially contradicted, and who, in consequence
of that disavowal, was then living under the protection of the
Prince of Wales, as his raistress ; it certainly raust have ap
peared rather farcical to see her mount herself upon tbe stilts
of immaculacy of character, and to cast her look of scorn
and contempt on aU those who had not just the countenance
of royalty to support them in their iniquity. To humble a
rival of tbis kind was tbe pride and glory of Mrs. Bristow ; and
being in the possession of personal charms very little inferior,
if any, to Mrs. Fitzherbert herself, it was a struggle of ascen-

254 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
dency between these celebrated beauties, in which each claimed
the conquest, and each believed herself to have achieved it.
It was also currently reported at this time that Mrs. Fitzher
bert had been heard to say, that it was the rank of his Royal
Highness that she loved more than his person ; and as this
report was found to be actuaUy true, it was greedily taken
advantage of by her artful rival, to exalt herself, and to debase
Mrs. Fitzherbert, in the good opinion of his Royal Highness.
It was aptly and jocosely said by Sheridan, that the Prince
was too much every lady's man to be the man of any lady •
and this was a trait in his character of which Mrs. Fitzherbert
was by no means ignorant. The disparity of their ages stood
in the way of any perraanent attachraent: personal esteem
and regard for each other's virtues formed no part of their
connexion : it was on one hand the enjoyment of the sensual
ist; and on the other, the gratification of female vanity, and the
love of personal aggrandizement. The monopoly of his affec
tions was a task which no woman who had the slightest insight
into his character would ever attempt to accomplish ; and
therefore Mrs. Fitzherbert looked upon the teraporary ascen
dency of Mrs. Bristow with the eye of comparative indifference,
being conscious to herself that any attempt at restraint on her
part would only lead to a greater estrangement ; and as tbe
world believed her to possess the ascendency in bis affections,
she was satisfied with the shadow, although she could not
always coramand the substance.
On the morning subsequent to the fete given by Mrs. Bris
tow, as the Prince was sitting at breakfast in company with
Sheridan and Hanger, a sraall package was delivered to bim,
which, on opening, he found to contain the locket which on
the previous night he bad presented to Miss Archer, but witb
no other notification than a few words written in the envelope,
' La verfu est la felicity de la vie,'
In regard to the foUowing conversation, which took place on
this occasion, we must be excused for giving it verbatira as it
appears in the MS. before us, which was found amongst the
papers of the late Lord Coleraine, beaded, A Prince's Opi
nions of Female Virtue. If opinions were always tbe criterion
of, or a clue to the development of human character, w6

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 255
• should consider ourselves liable to censure if we suppressed a
tittle of any conversation in which a man exhibits himself in
bis real, unsophisticated colours, by an unreserved disclosure
of his sentiments ; but with the knowledge which we possess
ofthe real opinions which the Prince entertained of the exist
ence and the strength of feraale virtue, we are certain that any
estimate which an individual raight be tempted to draw of the
Prince's real character, from tbe sentiments expressed on this
occasion, would be one of error and misconception.
' Sheridan,' said the Prince, laying the package on the table,
' what is your opinion of the strength of feraale virtue ? '
' It is the brightest pearl in the diadem of a woman,' an
swered Sheridan ; • and when supported by modesty, truth, and
religion, it is a rock in tbe ocean, against which all the waves
may dash in vain: but, on tbe other hand, when once an ira
pression bas been made upon it, under the influence of passion,
it is like the frost-work of an autumnal moming, which is dis
solved witb tbe first ardent beam that falls upon it.'
' Do you think,' asked the Prince, ' that there is any feraale
virtue that cannot be overcorae ? '
' Sheridan,' said Hanger, ' let his Royal Highness answer
bis own question. I know' no one more able. An individual
who has traveUed a road five hundred times, and stopped at
every house that presented itself, must be able to give a correct
account of thera.'
' But suppose,' said the Prince, ' that that individual was re
fused admission to some of them ; would it be fair to pass an
opinion of the character of their inmates, according to that
which you may have forraed of those into whose houses you
may have been admitted ? '
' It would be illiberal in the extreme,' said Hanger.
' Then, by the sarae parity of reasoning,' said the Prince,
' it would be illiberal in rae to pass a general opinion of the
strength of female virtue from my own single experience.'
'There is a great deal of sophistry in that remark,' said
Sheridan ; ' for, is not the raost valuable part of our knowledge
founded on experience ? and therefore, let the subject be what
it raay, that raan niust be the wisest who has had the greatest
experience in it ; and who wiU dispute tbe experience of your

256 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Royal Highness in every thing relative to the character of
woraan ? '
' But in which I ara still a fool,' said tbe Prince ; ' and
of that fact Archer's daughter bas just now convinced rae.
She has given me a lesson to read which I never studied
before. But, to repeat ray question — do you believe that
there is any feraale virtue existing which cannot be over
come — I raean, supposing that it has been subjected to every
temptation and every ordeal which the most fertile ingenuity
can devise ? '
' Most undoubtedly,' replied Sheridan ; ' and I should be
very sorry to hold a contrary opinion. I believe in the exist
ence of a pure, unsullied feraale virtue, Avith the sarae reUgious
certainty as I do, according to the dictates of ray raoral sense,
in the existence of right and wrong.'
' I dispute not the existence of it, nor ever did,' said tbe
Prince; 'its very destruction presupposes tbat it did once
exist ; for that can never be destroyed which had no previous
reality — but it is the fact of its invincibility that I wish to
have established.'
' Then look to Lucretia, your Royal Highness,' said
Sheridan. ' A solitary instance,' said the Prince, ' which history has
treasured up, to show us a phenomenon ; but let me state a
case to you — supposing a woman were to present herself before
you, gifted with all the beauty which invests the feraale with
such irresistible power, and you found that the possession of
that beauty was not to be obtained by the ordinary raeans of
seduction, what would then be your opinion, and how would
you act ?'
' I would let her alone,' said Sheridan, ' and hold her as a
sacred thing.'
' And declare it to the world,' said the Prince, ' that her
virtue was invincible.'
' Certainly,' said Sheridan, ' as far as the raeans that have
been employed to overcome it.'
' That virtue is still but negative, in my opinion,' said tbe
Prince, ' for a fortunate expedient raight still effect its con
quest.' •

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 257
' Before, however,' said Sheridan, ' I pronounce a virtue as
incorruptible, invincible, I ara supposed to believe that every
expedient has-been tried, even the scarcely resistible expe
dient of a deeply-rooted, passionate attachment ; for if a girl
falls not to that, I would fearlessly expose her to every other
teraptation which the utmost ingenuity of man could devise.
I consider the contemplation of a woman, strong, firra,
unconquerable in her virtue, to be one of this world's finest
spectacles.' ' What is the raere conteraplation?' said the Prince ; ' 1 can
look at the stars, and admire them in tbeir glory ; but bow I
am benefited by that contemplation ? there is no sensual gratifi
cation in it.'
' Certainly not,' said Sheridan ; ' but there is a pleasing sen
sation conveyed to the mind by the contemplation of any beau
tiful or sublime object.'
' Apropos,' said the Prince, ' speaking of the contemplation
of a beautiful object, I have been very much struck with a
singular reraark of Dr. Darwin's, wherein he says, that the
delight which the eye of raan experiences in the conteraplation
of a feraale bosora, arises from the association that it is the
source frora which we drew our first sustenance.'
' Indeed,' said Sheridan, with a smUe ; ' then why do we
not feel the same delight at the conteraplation of a wooden
spoon * ?'
" ExceUent ! ' exclairaed the Prince, ' excellent — in future I
shall never see a beautiful bosora but 1 shall think of Sheri
dan's wooden spoon — nevertheless, you must allow that con
templation is one thing, enjoyment another, and to wbich
would you give the preference ?'
' To each,' said Sheridan, ' in their own individuality; but
tbey are as distinct in their natures as they are different in the
effects that are produced. The contemplation of a beautiful
woman, abstractedly speaking, depends entirely in its degree
of delight upon the innate power which we possess of actually
determining what beauty is — the mere question of enjoyraent
* This inimitable reply of Sheridan's has been erroneously claimed by another
individual, who, it is well known, delights to strut about, decked out with plumes
borrowed from others ; but it is only in the master mind of a Sheridan that such
a happy idea could have been engendered, 2 a.

258 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
may be decided by a Caliban, to whora sense is everything —
mind nothing. There is, however, another point to be taken
into consideration, which is, that there is one sense wbich
nature bas implanted in tbe heart of every feraale, and on tbe
facility or difficulty of the suppression or suspension of that
sense, the great question may be determined ofthe strength or
weakness of her virtue.'
" And wbat is tbat sense,' asked the Prince ?

' Now,' said his Royal Highness, ' yesterday I was at Ho
bart's /efe, and there, I will not say exactly by assignation, I saw
that lovely girl, the daughter of that  Lady Archer.'
' Ripe as a cherry,' exclaimed Hanger, ' and luscious as a
peach.' ' By the dexterous raanageraent of Hobart,' continued the
Prince, ' I contrived to convey a present into her bands,
which I intended to be the forerunner of our future intiraacy.
1 conversed with ber afterwards — I found ber reserved and coy,
— but c'est souvent la fapon des jeunes filles de jouer le role
d'une niaise, et de se porter s'ils ne savaient pas la difference
entre un homme a deux jambes, et un bete a quatre. The jirl,
however, is not to be caught in the usual way ; for there, in
tbat package, lies tbe present which I gave her. Now, wbat is
your opinion of that girl ? is her virtue to be conquered, or
not?' ' My opinion is,' said Sheridan, ' that she is not destined for
your Royal Highness ; and rather than I would take one raore
step to underraine a virtue of that kind, I would hold rayself
satisfied with what I have already got, and leave ber the pure
and unsullied gem which I found her.'
' A rara avis ! a rara avis ! ' exclairaed the Prince ; ' a
Sheridan preaching morality. But now, in the plenitude of
your raerciful and forbearing spirit, wUl you teU me tbat
this virtue is so strongly entrenched, that no art, no stratagem,
can make a breach in it ? '
' That is an opinion which I have never expressed,' said
Sheridan. ' In tbe general intercourse of the world, we can
only judge of particulars from universals — we proceed from

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 259
unities to numbers ; and although by that method we sorae
tiraes arrive at an erroneous estiraate, yet in the present case
it wiU hold good. Tbat giri, I say, wiU never be yours.'
' By G — d ! but she shaU,' said the Prince ; and rising frora
the table, he placed tbe rejected present in his escrutoire.
The conversation afterwards turned upon the enorraous
sums which were depending on tbe races at Newraarket, where
the Prince's horse, Escape, was backed to win every race in
which he was to start.
On the evening of this day, his Royal Highness repaired to
the faro-table of Mrs. Hobart. The corapany were unusually
nuraerous, and it was evident that extraordinary exertions had
been employed to augment the amusements ofthe night. One
apartment was appropriated for music, in which the instru
mental and vocal performers of the Opera-House executed
some of the most favourite corapositions of the day ; the
roora adjoining was fitted up in the Turkish style, with its
ottomans and its other voluptuous accessaries ; and it only
required the slippers at the door, to declare the real purpose
for which this apartment was intended. Into this room the
Honourable Mrs. Hobart conducted his Royal Highness, hav
ing previously whispered to bira that she had something of
great iraportance to comraunicate to hira. Sherbet was
handed to his Royal Highness in a golden goblet — he threw
bimself on an ottoman — Hobart, in all the richness of her
voluptuousness, seated herself by his side. 'The point is
gained,' she said , ' Archer is yours, if you wiU pay the
price.' ' Impossible I ' exclairaed tbe Prince ; ' I cannot believe it —
you raust have been misinformed — for it is only this morning
that I received back the present which you so dexterously
conveyed into her hands.'
' That is a trifling circumstance,' said Hobart : ' the sudden
effect, perhaps, of a qualm of conscience — a matter of false
delicacy. A girl, unless she be a consuraraate sirapleton,
generally suspects to what a present leads, or, raore correctly
speaking, to what it is intended that it shall lead ; and I have
known many girls who bave refused a silver toy, and have
afterwards accepted of a golden one. Perhaps your present
2 IC 2

260 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
was not rich enough. But the truth is, I have arranged tbe
business with the mother — the price, I raust confess, is rather
high.' ' With her raother, did you say,' exclairaed the Prince, ' with
Lady Archer herself? Oh, it is not possible 1 why, I should
suppose that she was the last person on earth with whora you
would have conferred on a subject of that nature. To consult
with a raother on the ruin of her daughter, and to arrange a
stipulated price for it — such an act is scarcely heard of in his
tory — it is too preposterous — too unnatural for me to entertain
the thought for a moment. Hobart, it cannot be — '
' But it is true,' said Mrs. Hobart, ' and tbe terms are 5001.
a-year for the life of the mother, and a settlement of lOOOZ.
a-year upon the daughter.'
' And upon the fulfilment of these terms,' said the Prince,
' Lady Archer consents to sacrifice her child ?'
' It has been so stipulated,' said Mrs. Hobart,
' Then,' said the Prince, rising with indignation, ' I renounce
the business altogether. Whatever may be my libertine pro
pensities, never shall posterity have to record of rae, that I
could stoop to the infaray of bartering with a raother for the
ruin of her daughter. I know not by what terms to stigmatize
this conduct of Lady Archer, nor do I consider that there is a
word in the English language forcible enough to express my
abhorrence of her character. If by any arts, stratagems, or
promises, the ruin of a girl be accomphshed, let the conse
quences fall on the head of her seducer ; but to mingle the
infamy with it of having purchased her innocence of her own
mother, is an act that I would not have resting on my con
science to be put in possession of all the beauties of a seraglio.
TeU Lady Archer that the Prince of Wales in future declines
her further acquaintance.'
There never was a state of society so degenerate that it did
not include a great proportion of good, and consequently of
goodness ; there never was an individual so thoroughly a repro
bate as not to possess some redeeming virtues : and it is also
generaUy the case, that the strength of those virtues is in the
ratio of the turpitude of the vices. Be it, therefore, a part of
our task, the best and dearest part, to shew the bright picture

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 261
by the side ofthe dark one. We will endeavour to place before
our readers ' the counterfeit presentment' of those two cousin-
germans at least, if not brothers, Wisdora and Folly; we wiU
bid thera look on this picture and on this. We wUl ask them
to see what a grace is seated on this brow, and will enable thera
to contrast it with the cap and bells that jingle on the forehead
of the other ; vve wUl, in short, strive to place before thera
' Hyperion' and ' the Satyr' side by side, and then, if they will
quit the one to dwell with the other — if they will
On this fair mountain leave to feed.
To batten on this moor,
they must — but it shall not be for want of seeing the qualities
of each, and the differences and distinctions that subsist
between thera.
The issue of this affair of Lady Archer was the very oppo
site to what was expected either by that lady herself or Mrs.
Hobart. To find a sense of feeling or of honour in the Prince
of Wales, when the possession of a beautiful girl was the
question, appeared in their eyes as little short of a miracle —
a complete metaraorphosis of the raan raust have suddenly
taken place, or be would not, libra a mere qualm of conscience,
have thrown away so rich a prize, especially as some cases of
seduction on the part of his Royal Highness had come to the
knowledge of those ladies, in which a complete obtuseness of
feeling was displayed in regard to the raeasures wbich were
adopted to accoraplish the end in view. But it was not
the untoward issue of this business as far as regarded the
daughter of Lady Archer that excited the regret of the inter
ested parties, but it was the resolution of the Prince to with
draw hiraself altogether from the faro-tables of both Lady
Archer and Mrs. Hobart, and this was a loss of no trifling
consideration, for independently of the sums which he lost
nightly, his presence gave a rank and character to their parties,
which rendered them the most attractive assemblies of the day.
Numerous and ingenious were the attempts that were made
to bring the deserter back, and all of them had a reference to.
the gratification of his paramount passions. If some exqui
site beauty had burst suddenly upon the worid, she was only

262 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
to be seen at Mrs. Hobart's or Lady Archer's ; but for a tirae
the Prince withstood all the aUureraents, until the celebrated
Lucy Howard — that raasterpiece of God's creation, who —
was sent on earth
To shew to man what angels are in heaven,
was brought by Mrs. Hobart frora ber father's raansion in
Yorkshire, to captivate the affections of the heir-apparent, and
to bring him again within the circle of her influence. Th6
game was deeply and skilfully played, and the royal stakes
were won. Lucy Howard was to be contended for, and she
was a prize for which many a sovereign would bave given the
brightest diadem in his crown.
Lucy Howard was, as might naturaUy be expected, on her
first visit to London, a perfect novice in the world. Her father
was first cousin to Mrs. Hobart, in possession of but a very
moderate income, with a large and expensive family to support.
She had two sisters, almost equal to herself in beauty, one of
whora raarried a gentleman of considerable fortune, and for a
length of tirae was the leader ofthe fashionable world, tbe pre
siding goddess of Portman-square. She now resides in Gros-
venor-place, Pimlico, an expressive raeraento of the transitory
duration of personal beauty. Of the other sister, we shall have
raore to relate, when she appeared at court as the wife of a
Nottinghamshire gentleraan, the admiration of every beholder
— the ruling toast of the debauchee — the identical female, of
whom the late amorous Duke of Queensberry declared, that
' to inhale ber breath would restore him to juvenility,' and who
becarae the avowed object of the attachraent of the Prince of
Wales, he being himself ignorant at the time, that she was
actually the sister of his once adored Lucy Howard.
We will not transcribe tbe scenes which led to the fall of this
earthly angel, but the visitants of Brighton raay recollect a
corafortable raansion, which stands about three miles from the
town, at the foot of a wood, on the right hand ofthe road leading
from London, and to this place was Lucy Howard conveyed,
the secret love of the Prince of Wales. It has been mentioned
as rather a remarkable circumstance, that no issue was ever
known to emanate from any of the amours of either the Prince
of Wales, or the late Duke of York : we bave it, however, in our

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 263
power to contradict that stateraent, as far as concerns the
forraer illustrious personage, for in this retreat at Brighton,
Lucy Howard becarae the raother of a child, which, however,
lived but to its second year, and was buried in Brighton
churchyard, under tbe name of George Howard.
Tbis amour of his Royal Highness brings iraraediately under
our notice, a female whom we deprecate whenever we mention
her, and who raay be considered in the huraan race, as the
type of the serpent — beautiful, bright, and glossy in its exte
rior—in its interior, poisonous and pestiferous : we allude to
Lady Jersey, the coadjutor of Dr. Randolph in the abstraction
of the letters of the Princess of Wales, the vile and dastardly
instruraent of a faction, to heap obloquy on the head of a
female, not half so guilty nor so crirainal as theraselves.
It raay be easily supposed that the visits of the Prince of
Wales to bis beloved Howard were not paid in the open face
of day, but to avoid suspicion, be was generally accorapanied
by Lord Rawdon. It was his usual custora to leave the
Pavilion at twilight, when no official or state business re
quired bis presence, and, leaving the town by the Lewes
road, ride over the Downs to tbe arras of his expecting beauty.
There was, however, one person, who witnessed these rayste-
rious raotions of the Prince, and who, fancying herself to
be then paramount in his affections, could not brook the
idea of a secret rival, and with all the art and cunning
inherent in her character, she deterrained to trace the raystery
to its source. For this purpose she enlisted in her cause one
of the stable boys, who could not withstand the teraptation of a
few guineas, and be consented to becorae a spy upon the actions
of bis Royal raaster, and to follow hira in private, whenever he
left the Pavilion on his nocturnal adventures. The first report
of tbis feUow to his eraployer was, that he had traced the Prince
to a particular house, but of the raotives of his visit, or of the
character of the inmates of it, he was utterly ignorant. Here
were materials furnished sufficient to set the heart of a jealous
woman in a blaze. It was indispensably necessary that the
exact relations of tbe inhabitants of the house should be ascer
tained ; for Lady Jersey was too well acquainted with the cha
racter of the Prince of Wales, not to suspect that he was

264 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
attracted thither by some hidden beauty, who might eventuaUy
supersede her in the station which she supposed that she held
in the affections of his Royal Highness, and thereby overthrow
at once aU the plans which she had formed for her future
aggrandizement. The issue of this affair was of a deeply tra
gical nature, and vve have cursorily alluded to it in a former part
of this work (see pages 29, 30).
The youthful emissary of Lady Jersey, without the aid of
experience or of caution to guide him through such a labyrinth,
went fearlessly to work. In an ill-fated hour he was entrapped
in tbe vicinity of the premises by the Prince hiraself. An
instantaneous explanation was deraanded — the boy hesitated —
the Prince becarae exasperated — he beheld hiraself the object of
the curiosity of a vulgar raercenary hireling — and, hurried along
by the irapetuosity of his feelings, he inflicted that suraraary
chastiseraent upon the boy, which rendered bim a cripple
for the remainder of his life ; and which, but for the aid of the
highest professional skill, would have proved his death*.
This affair caused an extraordinary sensation in the country,
and rendered the Prince highly unpopular; and such was the
excitement which it occasioned, that the house in which Lucy
Howard resided was literally so besieged by spectators during
the day, that she eventually found it necessary to evacuate it,
and took up her residence in the vicinity of Richmond. Thither
the Prince followed her, and there is a tree now standing in
Richraond Park, with the initials G. P. and L. H. cut on it, as
a memorial of the happy hours which they spent under its
shade. Lucy Howard afterwards became the wife of Mr. Smith, a
gentleman of independent property in Yorkshire, and was the
mother of a nuraerous faraily, and died respected by all who
knew her.
WhUst these proceedings were carrying on, a storra was
gathering in another quarter, which threatened to bring his
* We are fully aware that in our version of this affair we differ from the
general report, which goes so far as to state that the death ofthe boy ensued from
the injury which he received. We rejoice in the opportunity which is thus afforded
us of rescuing the memory of his late Majesty from so grievous an imputation
as that of having been the cause of the death of a fellow creature, for the boy
lived above a dozen years aftenvards with his parents at Horsham, the Prince
allowing them 50/. per annum for his support.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 265
Royal Highness into iraraediate contact with the members of
his own faraily, and particularly with one of his royal parents.
The extreme partiality which the Queen always manifested
for the Prince of Wales, in preference to any other of ber
children, was a subject of general notoriety. It was not the
profligate course of Hfe which he pursued — it was not his
wanderings into every path wbich could lead to scenes of dissi
pation and libertinism^it was not his open and avowed oppo
sition to the counsels of his royal father, which could effect
any dirainution in ber affection for hira ; but what the cora
bined force of all these circurastances coiild not achieve was
nearly brought to pass by a supposed insult offered to her
dignity, by the public appearance of Mrs. Fitzherbert in those
quarters where Royalty soraetiraes condescended to appear.
The countenance which was openly given to that celebrated
lady by faraUies of the highest distinction, and who were the
regular attendants at court, bad been long a subject of secret
annoyance to sorae of the female branches of the royal family,
but raore particularly so to the Queen herself, who saw, or thought
she saw, in the open and public acknowledgraent of Mrs.
Fitzherbert, tbe groundwork of the contaraination of her court,
by her being obliged to receive at it those individuals who were
known to be the constant associates of the raistress of tbe
Prince of Wales, and of sorae other ladies whose virtue stood on
very questionable grounds. To shut the doors ofthe drawing-
rooras against such females as the Duchesses of Devonshire
and Gordon would have been an act which could not have
failed to have involved her in the most serious differences with
those noble famUies ; and yet, according to the principle of
noscitur a sociis, those ladies were the constant corapanions of
Mrs. Fitzherbert, and to whom she appeared alraost as a
divinity at whose shrine they bent their knee, as the chosen
object of their adoration. On viewing the matter, therefore,
in this light, neither the Duchess of Gordon nor of Devonshire,
nor any other of those noble ladies who were the associates of
Mrs. Fitzherbert, were proper persons to be received at the
pure and iraraaculate court of St. Jaraes'.
To enter into a fuU detail ofthe various intrigues which were
now set on foot, to break off aU connexion between the Prince
2 L

266 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert, would be to exhibit a systera
of the most unwearied machination, unparalleled in the pri
vate history of individuals. Offers of the raost princely kind
were made to her to leave the country, but finding aU these
rejected, recourse was bad to threats, which involved her per
sonal existence. She was menaced with the whole power of
the governraent to prove her gmlty of high treason — she was
threatened with prosecutions on account of ber pecuniary dif
ficulties, and these threats were actually put in force, the
effects of which, however, ultimately recoiled on the promoters
of them ; for to whom else could Mrs. Fitzherbert apply in her
pecuniary difficulties than to the Prince of Wales ? and what
ever the sacrifice might be, wbich he was called upon to make
on these occasions, the money was always procured, and
thereby helped to swell tbe araount of bis debts, which the
nation was called upon in a short tirae afterwards to pay.
Connected with these heavy drains on the finances of bis
Royal Highness, we are enabled to state the foUowing fact,
on the authority of the individual who was tbe principal agent
in the business : —
Tbe person of Mrs. Fitzherbert was one morning taken in
execution for a debt of 1825Z., the Prince of Wales being in
the house at the time. The writ being returnable on the mor
row, and no bail being avaUable, the money raust be paid, or
the lady conveyed to prison. The Prince lost not a raoraent
in raaking the appUcation to bis custoraary resources, but
they appeared to be, raost unaccountably, herraetically closed
against hira. In some instances the most shaUow excuses
were returned ; in others, the irapossibUity of supplying so
large a sura on so short a notice ; aU of which the Prince knew
to be false, and, therefore, he began justly to suspect tbat
there was sorae secret raachinery at work to prevent the
necessary supplies from being advanced. In this emergency
Mr. C  1 was despatched to an erainent pawnbroker in
Fleet-street *, who at that time was in tbe habit of lending
* We are indebted to the same authority for the following humorous anec
dote of this pawnbroker, in some of his pecuniary transactions with Sheridan.
That celebrated man had, at one time, disposed of all his personal property, with
the exception of a horse, which had been presented to him bythe Prince of Wales

MEMOIRS OF GEORGIE IV. 267
large sums of money to the nobility on their plate and jewels,
and who was tbe actual holder of the celebrated jewels of the
Duchess of Devonshire, the publicity of which hurried her
prematurely to ber grave. On tbe present occasion Mr.
Parker, the pawnbroker, lost no time in repairing to Park-
lane, where tbe unfortunate lady was in the custody of the
sheriff's officers, and bere a new difficulty presented itself in
tbe way of ber eraancipation. The harpies ofthe law objected
to any part of tbe plate or jewels being deposited in the bands
of Mr. Parker until their demand was satisfied. On the olher
band, tbe wUy pawnbroker refused to advance tbe money until
the property was placed in his bands, as be did not know but
there might be other actions in reserve, for tbe liquidation of
which tbe property in tbe bouse raight turn out to be inade
quate. Under these circumstances C  1 was secretly
despatched to Carlton House, with instructions to bring away
with bim a particular casket, which contained the Prince's
state jewels, which, although exceeding in value ten tiraes the
araount of the sura wbich he had to pay, was borne away by
the pawnbroker to his depository in F''leet-street, but wbich,
however, was redeeraed on the following day, by an advance
wbich the Prince obtained frora the wealthy Jew in St. Mary
Axe. To return to tbe original subject. Tbe object which chiefly
engrossed tbe attention of tbe public at tbis time was the trial
of Warren Hastings, and on one occasion tbe Queen, with
and in the exigehcy of the moment he applied to the pawnbroker to advance him
50/. on the horse, he agreeing to pay for the keep until the animal was redeemed.
It was a species of pledge that had never been offered to the pawnbroker before,
and he at first refused to receive it, but on Sheridan undertaking to redeem it
within a month, the 50/. was advanced. Month after month, however, elapsed, and
the horse was not redeemed, the pawnbroker receiving, as usual, from Sheridan
his promises that in a few days the horse should be taken off his hands. Sheridan,
however, had made no stipulation that the pawnbroker should make any use
of his horse, but he was frequently seen riding it about town, and especially to and
from his country-house at Clapham. This intelligence was conveyed to Sheridan,
and on the following week, when he went to redeem his horse, the charges for
principal, keep, interest, &c., amounted to 80/. ' Aye, but,' said Sheridan, ' I have
got a set'off against you ; you were to keep my horse, not to ride it ; but I'll let you
off cheaply, there is your 50/, the sum advanced, and I will only charge you 30/.
for your pleasant rides, and now we are quits, Parker.' The pawnbroker looked
confounded ; he knew the law was on the side of Sheridan, and seeing himself
completely outwitted, he quietly gave up possession of the animal, determining
never to take any horse again as a pledge — st least, not from Sheridan.
2 L 2

268 , MEMOIRS OP GEORGE iV.
the Princesses Elizabeth, Augusta, and Mary, made their
appearance in the Duke of Newcastle's box. Her Majesty
was attended by the Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Holder-
nesse, and Lord Aylesbury ; and as she came without state, the
usual etiquette was dispensed with, allowing those ladies, and
the young daughters of Lady Lincoln, to sit on the sarae
seat with her. The royal box in Westrainster Hall was on
the right band of the chancellor ; on the left was the box for
the Princes, and the one contiguous to it was appropriated to
the nobility. On the entrance of the Queen into the royal
box, that which was set apart for the nobUity was nearly empty,
but on a sudden a personage appeared in it, towards whom
every eye was soon directed, and this personage was no other
than Mrs. Fitzherbert. The look of indignation which the
Queen cast upon her, is represented to have been as deep and
severe as it was possible for the human countenance to assume,
and after addressing a few words to Lady Holdernesse, she rose
with all the pride of offended majesty, and retired frora the
box. This extraordinary conduct on the part of the Queen
excited the utraost astonishraent, for the proceedings of the
day had not yet coraraenced, and, therefore, sorae very power
ful cause must bave operated upon her to induce ber to take
so sudden a departure frora a scene which she was come
expressly to witness, without even waiting for the coraraence
ment of it. The most contradictory rumours were iraraediately
afloat, but, strange to say, not one of thera ever approached
the truth ; and the prevalent one was, that the King had been
suddenly taken iU, and required the attendance of the Queen.
In a short tirae, however, the Prince of Wales entered the box
appropriated for the princes of the blood, and immediately
entered into conversation with Mrs. Fitzherbert. By the
apparently forcible manner in which that lady expressed her
self. It was evident that something had incurred her high dis
pleasure ; and her frequent aUusion by signs to the royal box,
betrayed that the cause of her displeasure arose from that
quarter. The Prince in a short tirae retired, but Mrs. Fitzher
bert reraained until the close ofthe cereraony.
The Prince iraraediately returned to Cariton House
where he had scarcely arrived before the following note was

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE iV. 269
delivered to bim. It was dated Buckingham House, February
13, 1790.
'The Queen takes the earliest opportunity of expressing to Uie
Prince of Wales her high sense of displeasure, at the very marked
affront which has been offered to her, by the very unseasonable
intrusion of a certain lady at the trial of Warren Hastings. It is
the opinion ofthe Queen, that that lady should have been prevented
from exhibiting herself in the royal presence, under the peculiar
circumstances in which she is placed in regard to his Royal
Highness. The sentiments which the Queen is so well known to
entertain on that subject should have had their proper influence on
the mind of the Prince of Wales, not still further to wound the feel
ings of his royal mother, by exposing her to the personal society of
an individual, for whom she cannot entertain the slightest respect
or esteem.
' The very ambiguous and mysterious relation in which the
Prince of Wales stands in regard to the lady in question, will
always have its becoming weight in the mind of the Queen, to pre
vent her acknowledging her, or any of her associates, at the court
over which she presides.'
The Prince no sooner read this extraordinary epistle, than
in a sudden ebullition of passion he tore it into pieces, and
threw them on the ground. He then iraraediately despatched a
messenger for Sheridan, who was found at Brookes', slowly
recovering from the debauchery of the preceding night, and
in no very fit state to appear before his royal patron. He,
however, iraraediately obeyed the sumraons, and on his enter
ing tbe private apartment of his Royal Highness, he fonnd
hira pacing the roora to and fro in the highest state of exaspe
ration. The Prince had succeeded in collecting the fragments
of the letter, and it lay in a legible forra on the table. ' There,
Sheridan,' said the Prince, as the forraer entered the roora,
' read that letter, and teU rae what answer I ara to send.'
Sheridan perused the letter—' There's the devil's cloven
foot in this,' said he, ' but we'U pose her Majesty. She
speaks of a certain lady, but whora are you to understand that
she means by such an ambiguous phrase ? It raay be Moll
Flanders or Bet Bounce. Call upon her Majesty, first to
explain herself as to the identical lady whom she means, and,
Itbink, it may be the means of stifling the business alto-

270 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
gether, for her Majesty wUl pause before she commits the name
to writing. Besides, it would be a very impolitic act in your
Royal Highness to pretend to know to whom her Majesty
alludes, as it would be a tacit acknowledgraent that you do
actually stand in a particular relation with the lady in
question.' The Prince saw soraething very plausible and dexterous in
this advice of Sheridan, and the latter indited tbe foUowing
answer, which was transraitted forthwith to Buckingliara
House. ' The Prince of Wales loses not a moment in acknowledging the re
ceipt of a letter from the Queen, in which she expresses herself in very
strong terms, on a supposed affront offered to her Majesty, by the
appearance of a certain lady at the trial of Warren Hastings. As
the Prince is not acquainted with any lady over whom he possesses
such an undisputed right of control, as to fix a personal restraint
upon her actions, much less to be made accountable for them, his
Royal Highness respectfully submits to the Queen, the necessity of
her Majesty being more explicit in regard to the individual who has
given the offence, in order that the Prince may have some decided
grounds to determine how far he ought to be called upon to enter
into any further explanation ou the subject of her Majesty's letter.
' Carlton House, Feb. 13, 179].'
In the course of tbe evening of the sarae day, the following
note was left at Carlton House.
' I am commanded by her Majesty the Queen, to acknowledge the
receipt of a note from his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in
answer to a note written by her Majesty, complaining of the insult
which was this morning offered to her in Westminster Hall. As the
answer of his Royal Highness is considered by the Queen as wholly
evasive, her Majesty, consistently with her dignity, is under the
painful necessity of declining to see the Prince of Wales, until an
assurance has been given that the insult shall not be repeated.
(Signed) Aylesbury.
' To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, ^c.
Carlton House'
This note was conveyed to his Royal Highness at Brookes'

MEMOIKS OF GEORGE IV. 271
who after having perused it, handed it over to Sheridan, and
tbey retired into'one of tbe private rooras, to consult on the
next step that was to be taken ; for the note of Lord Aylesbury
was nothing less than a formal dismissal of his Royal Highness
from tbe court of his mother; and he now perceived the deli
cate situation in wbich be stood, and still more, the difficulties
which be had to overcome before tranquillity could be restored.
Mr. Fox being at that tirae in the house, the Prince proposed
sending for hira, that be raight assist hira with his advice, and
on tbe whole affair being explained to bira, he saw the abso
lute necessity of tbe Prince raaintaining a high and coramand
ing ground, and not to recede a single point, however severe
and coercive might be tbe measures taken against bim. Mr.
Fox highly approved of the answer wbich had been recora
mended and written by Mr. Sheridan, and it was ultimately
agreed by these two friends of bis Royal Highness, that the
following note should be transraitted to Lord Aylesbury.
' My Lord, ' I am commanded by his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, tp acknowledge the receipt of your note, written by the com
mand of her Majesty, and to express his extreme regret, that as the
affair between her Majesty and his Royal Highness is entirely of a
private nature, she should have thought it necessary to have recourse
to the intercession of a third person, to whom his Royal Highness is
a perfect stranger, and with whom, consequently, he cannot enter
into any confidential correspondence.
' I am further commanded to say, that his Royal Highness is dis
posed to pay the utmost deference to any communication coming
directly from her Majesty. Ihave the honour to be,
My Lord, Your obedient'Servant, Charles James Pox.
' To the Right Hon. Lord Aylesbury,
Buckingham House.
'Brookes' Hotel, Feb. 14, 1791.'
No immediate reply was given to this note, and the following
day the Prince set off for Brighton, but in a few days after-

272 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
wards we find hira again at Carlton House ; and although we
have reason to suppose that the correspondence did not termi
nate with the note of Mr. Fox to Lord Aylesbury, and tbat
the subsequent letters are in the possession of a person now
residing at Brighton, yet certain motives, and very prudential
ones, have operated on the mind of that individual, not
to give them publicity, as their contents could not fail to
be extremely painful to the feelings of the very lady on
whose account they originated. So far, however, we are
enabled to state, that a personal interview was effected
between her Majesty and the Prince of Wales, through the
medium of Lord Thurlow ; and as the same affectionate inter
course was resuraed between thera, by which their conduct
towards each other had been hitherto distinguished, it was
considered that an explanation had been given by the Prince
sufficiently satisfactory to appease the wounded feelings of his
royal raother.
The general style of living by the Prince of Wales was at
this period in every respect most costly. His elegance of
manners, his superb person, his exquisite taste in dress, as
vvell as in the fitting up of his palace, his equipages and
entertainments, were the theme of general praise and the
objects of imitation. It must, however, be admitted that, in
the decorations of Carlton Palace, and the Pavilion at Brighton,
there was a more studied attention paid to what was gaudy and
flimsy, than to that which might be deemed classically elegant.
In regard to the latter edifice, which has been the subject of
so much ridicule, it is undeniable that a thoughtless expendi
ture of money was bestowed upon it, which the general appear
ance of the building renders almost incredible. It is principally
built of wood, but it may be stigmatized as a non-descript
monster in architecture, and appears like a mad-house, or a
house run mad, as it has neither beginning, middle, nor end •
and yet, to acquire this harlequin design, a raiserable bricklayer
was despatched to Italy, to gather soraething equal to the
required magnificence, and actually charged two thousand
guineas for his expenses. The room in which the Prince
usually dined may be compared to a kind of oven. It is sup
ported by four piUars in scagliola; and when the fire is lighted,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 273
the room is so hot, that the inmates are nearly baked and
incrusted. This circumstance gave rise to the severe reply of
Sheridan to Hanger, who, dining one day in tbe royal oven,
the forraer said to the latter — ' How do you feel yourself,
Hanger ? '
' Hot, bot, bot as h — I,' replied Hanger.
' It is quite right,' said Sheridan, ' that we should be pre
pared in tbis world for that which we know will be our lot in
another.' The ground on which the Pavilion is built is a kind of copy
hold, held under the town of Brighton, for which the Prince
agreed to pay 501. per annum ; 'just sufficient,' says a satirical
writer, Anthony Pasquin, ' to furnish the merabers of the cor
poration witb grog and tobacco.'
About this period, the passion of the Prince for the turf
appears to have been carried to an extraordinary excess, and
he had been long not only an honorary, but an active mera
ber of the Jockey Club. Two of the most distinguished mem
bers of the club at this time were tbe Duke of Bedford and
Mr. Fox ; and as tbe circumstance wbich we are now about to
enter upon operated more to the injury of the character of the
Prince of Wales, as a man of honour, than any other event of
bis life, we shall hold ourselves justified in giving every parti
cular concerning it.
To enumerate tbe different tricks which horse-jockies are
thought to be in tbe habit of employing, in order to give them
an undue advantage over their adversaries, would be to write a
dissertation on cheats, some of thera so curious and extraordi
nary, that without a thorough and previous acquaintance with
tbe raysteries of the turf, it would be irapossible to coraprebend
them. Few characters of erainence have distinguished thera
selves on the turf who have not been suspected, at one time or
other, of these unjustifiable artifices ; and hence the graveir
part of the world have been disposed to view these sporting
meetings with any thing else than sentiments of approbation.
What they could not but concede was innocent in itself, nay,
even laudable, an exhibition of generous steeds contending for
the palm of fleetness, they affirmed had degenerated frora its
original intention, and bad become nothing raore than a plan-
2 M

g7i MEjaOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
sible vocation for drawing two sets of men (such as are always
to be found in opulent communities) together, naraely, the
dupes and the sharpers. These severe moralists divided the
patrons of the turf into only two descriptions of men — fools
who have money to lose, and knaves who devise plans to rob
thera of it. We need not point out in which of these two
classes the Prince of Wales was placed ; but it happened that,
in the opinion of raany, the circumstance of his horse Escape
gave him the title of being ranked in both of thera ; and it is
to rescue his character frora that imputation, tbat we bave
resolved to give the most extended publicity to every circura
stance connected with that singular event of bis life.
It raust indeed be confessed, that tbe araateurs of the turf
bave theraselves given good cause for the outcry which has
been raised against thera. Where vast suras of raoney are at
stake, it is by no raeans wonderful that suspicion should suc
ceed disappointraent in the breasts of the losers. So rauch are
we under the influence of self-partiality, on alraost all the oc
casions of life, that it is uot in the least surprising, that a raan
who bets on his own judgment, if he loses, should be rather
incUned to suspect foul play on the part ofhis antagonist, than
admit that his own judgment deceived him. To this we must
impute the raany disputes that arise among gentlemen sports
men, and the many recrirainations with which they charge each
other. Sportsraen forra a coraraunity of theraselves, like the fre
quenters of the stock exchange, and are governed by a code of
laws, different frora those in usage among ordinary men.
Their contracts are contracts of honour : very few of thera are
cognizable in our courts of justice, because it bas been tbe
policy ofthe legislature to discountenance every sort of gaming
speculation, and to prevent gambling questions from being
agitated in our courts of law, and thereby deriving encourage
ment from the rigid adrainistration of justice, which so erai-
nently distinguishes the public tribunals ofthe kingdora.
Under these disadvantages, it becarae necessary for the gen
tleraen ofthe tUrf to institute a court of their own, which ob
serving sorae of the forraalities of the ordinary courts, (as the
solemnity of an oath in the examination of witnesses,) should

HEMOiaS OF GEOftGfi iv. 275-
decide upon the disputes that might arise amongst them, and
their decisions in matters of this kind were to be regarded as
final. Of this nature was the Jockey Club. The decisions of
this body were confidently appealed to, by all who thought
theraselves aggrieved by any sporting transactions, and the fiats
of the club were regarded as standard authority, by all who
were engaged in any pursuits within tbe sphere of its cogni
zance. But perfection is not the nature of any huraan institution,
and, therefore, that the Jockey Club should soraetiraes err ia
its decisions, cannot excite any surprise. In the auturan of
1791, the Prince of Wales came under tbe Cognizance of this
tribunal, and its decision proved so disagreeable to him, tbat
he iraraediately retired frora tbe turf. The circurastances at
tending tbis transaction, which produced so extraordinary a
sensation in the sporting world at the period wben it happened,
were nearly as follows : —
On the 20th of October, 1791, the Prince of Wales' horse*
Escape, then reckoned tbe best horse upon tbe turf, waS
beaten at Newraarket by two horses of inferior reputation.
The odds, wbich, previously to this race, had run high in
favour of Escape, now changed against bira, and it was the
general opinion of the sporting world tbat be would lose the
match he bad to run tbe next day. Accordingly bets were
made to a large araount, and with great odds, that Escape
would lose ; but contrary to the opinion, and rauch to the dis
appointment of the knowing ones, Escape won his race.
The jockey who rode Escape on these two memorable days,
published a pamphlet* a short tirae before his death, in which
he very satisfactorUy accounted for Escape's losing his first,
and winning his second race. The raystery was nothing raore
than this : tbat on tbe first day's race Escape, for the want of
proper exercise, was not in a fit condition to run ; and tbat tbe
exercise of the first day's race bad opened his pores, and
* ' Genius Genuine, by Samuel Chifney, of Newmarket. Containing a fuU
Account of the Prince's horse Escape running at Newmarket, on the 20th and
21st days of October, 1791:' This curious production made a considerable noisa
in the sporting world, and though only the size of an ordinary pamphlet, con
taining one hundred and thirty pages, sold at the enormous price of two pounds.
2 M2

276 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
enabled bim to perform better on tbe second day ; but this was
far from appearing satisfactory to tbe gentlemen of the turf,
and as soon as the race was concluded, a rumour was propa
gated that Escape had run unfairly on the first day's race.
It was reported that his Royal Highness got the grooms out of
the way, and had given the horse a pail of water just before
he had to run, and of course tbe horse was winded, and
easily beaten. Chifney's own account of these particulars is
SO very curious, that we should do wrong to withhold it from
our readers.
' As I came from scale,' says Chifney, ' I was told that Mr.
W. Lake (brother to Lord Viscount Lake, and the gentleman
who had the manageraent of the Prince of Wales' running
horses) bad been saying soraething iraproper to his Royal
Highness concerning Escape's winning ; 1 made it therefore
my business to go iraraediately to bis Royal Highness, who
was riding with a gentleraan near to the Great Stand House,
and he iraraediately accosted me in the foUowing words : —
*' Sara Chifney, as soon as Escape's race was over, Mr. Lake
came up to me, and said, ' I give your Royal Highness joy ;
but I am sorry the horse has won, I would sooner have given a
hundred guineas.' I told Mr. Lake that I did not understand
him, that he must explain himself." I then answered his
Royal Highness, saying — •" Yes, your Royal Highness, it is
very necessary he should explain bimself." This is all that
passed on the subject to-day.'
Chifney's further account of this remarkable affair is as
follows : — ' On the 22d of October, 1791, in the raorning after
Escape had won, his Royal Highness sent for rae into his
dressing-roora, and then ordered me to be shewn into an
adjoining room, where he thus accosted rae : — " Sara Chifney,
I bave sent for you on some very unpleasant business. I am
told, Sam Chifney, that you won six or seven hundred pounds
upon the race on the day before yesterday, when you rode
Escape, and was beaten upon him."
' 1 replied, that 1 believed his Royal Highness bad not such
an opinion of me.'
' His Royal Highness continued : — " I am told, Sara Chif
ney, that you won six or seven hundred pounds upon the race

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 277
yesterday, when you rode Escape, and won upon bim : and I
am told that VauxhaU Clark (clerk of the stables to the Prince
of Wales) won all the money for you." I answered, " May I
not offend by asking who it was tbat dared to tell your Royal
Highness so ?"
' His Royal Highness replied, " Sam Chifney, I wish to
know whether you bave any objection to take your affidavit,
naming all tbe bets you bad upon the race, every way, when
you rode Escape, and was beaten upon hira on the day before
yesterday." I acknowledged ray readiness to do it, if it would
give his Royal Highness any satisfaction. His Royal High
ness said, "Sam Chifney, your doing it will give yourself
satisfaction, it will give the pmblic satisfaction, it will give me
satisfaction. You will specify in your affidavit all the bets
you bad upon both day's races , when that you rode Escape
on the day before yesterday, and was beaten upon bira ; and
yesterday wben tbat you rode Escape, and won upon bim,
naming all the bets you bad upon both those races, and to
take your affidavit as such. 1 hope, Sam Chifney, you do
not misunderstand me." I answered that I did perfectly
understand, and that I would take care to do as his Royal
Highness had ordered me.
' His Royal Highness said, " Sara Chifney, I wish to know
if you have any objection against being exarained by the
Jockey Club, and in any way that they are pleased to think
proper." To which I most fuUy and freely consented.
' His Royal Highness said, " I am told, Sam Chifney, that
you were arrested at Ascot Heath for 300Z., and that VauxhaU
Clark paid the money for you." I replied that this was the
first word I had ever heard upon the subject. His Royal
Highness said, " Sara Chifney, I wish to know if you have any
objection to raake an affidavit that you were not arrested at
Ascot Heath, and that VauxhaU Clark did not pay 300?. for
you ?", I repUed to His Royal Highness, " 1 am very wiUing
to do it." '
After relating some inconsequential particulars, Chifney pro
ceeds to state, that ' On the same raorning (22nd of October,
1791) his Royal Highness caUed rae across the betting ring.
I.instantly obeyed his commands, and his Royal Highness put

?7§ MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
me between himself and Sir Charles Bunbury, and then rode
out upon the heath. After bis Royal Highness and Sir Charles
had talked upon the subject, his Royal Highness said, " Sam
Chifney, I think you told me tbat you were willing to be ex
arained bv the stewards of the Jockey Club in any way they
should please to think proper." I said, " Your Royal Highness,
/ am proud to meet any man upon the subject." His Royal
Highness then addressed hiraself to Sir Charles Bunbury.
" There, Sir Charles, you hear hira say that be is proud to meet
any man upon the subject. Now, Sir Charles, 1 beg of you to
take every pains you possibly can, so as to make yourselves
perfectly satisfied ; and then enclose me Sara Chifney's affida
vits, and apprize rae how the business ends, as I ara going to
Brighton to-night." His Royal Highness left Sir Charles, and
rode near the betting-ring, where, after be stood a little while,
he said, " Sara Chifney, this business should be explained."" I
answered, " Your Royal Highness, I don't how to explain it."
His Royal Highness then rode off the turf to town, before the
day's sport was finished, and I iraraediately went horae. Soon
after this, I received from Mr. Weatherby, clerk to the Jockey
Club, copies of affidavits which I swore before tbe Rev. Dr.
Frampton ; naming that I bad no bet upon the race, when I
rode Escape on the 20th of October, 1791 , and that I had
twenty guineas, and no more, betted upon Escape on the fol
lowing day, when I rode hira on the 21st of October, I79I ;
and that I had the sarae desire of winning upon Escape when I
rode him on the 20th of October, 1791, as I bad when
I rode bira on the following day, the 21st of October,
1791 ; and further, that I had never been arrested on Ascot
Heath, and that Mr. VauxhaU Clark never did pay any raoney
for me. When I had sworn these affidavits, they were sig^ned
by the Rev. Dr. Frampton, and I immediately returned them to
Mr, Weatherby.
' I was then had up before the stewards ofthe Jockey Club,
who were Sir Charies Bunbury, Bart., Ralph Dutton, Esq.'
and Thoraas Panton, Esq.
' Sir Charles Bunbury asked rae sorae few questions :  What
bets I had upon the first day's race, when I rode Escape on the
20th of October, 1791 ; and what bets I had upon the race

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. "279
when I rode Escape on tbe following day, wben he won, and
who raade ray bets for me ? I answered, that I had no bets
upon the first day's race ; that I betted twenty guineas upon
Escape the next day, and no more : and that VauxhaU Clark
betted for me.
' Sir Charles Bunbury then proceeded to ask me what was
my motive for waiting with Escape on the first day.
' I told Sir Charles Bunbury that be was a wrong judge of
his man.
' Sir Charles Bunbury now stopped, and looked about appa
rently dissatisfied.
' Mr. Dutton said, I think Chifney spoke very fairly.
' Mr. Panton immediately said, yes, very fairly.
' Sir Charles Bunbury did not ask me anymore questions.
' 1 then said to Sir Charles and the two other gentleraen,
tbat my motive for waiting with Escape was, because I knew he
could run very fast; I likewise knew Sky Lark could run fast,
thougb a jade, for I had ridden against him raost of the races
he had run.
' I was now disraissed, and this is every thing that passed
with me frora and to the Prince of Wales, Mr. W. Lake, and
the Jockey Club, on this subject at Newmarket.
* It may appear to some persons that I was too dry and harsh
in my answer to Sir Charles Bunbury: the two other stewards,
however, acknowledged it to be fair. I at this tirae had raade the
affidavit, and had answered every particular that was necessary
forthe Jockey Club; and this question of Sir Charles', to know
my raotives for waiting, went into private trials and abUities'.
But it was a personal reason which caused rae thus to answer
Sir Charles. 1 had been told by a nobleraan, that a baronet,
and a raeraber of the Jockey Club, I believe Sir Charles Bun
bury, had severely reprobated my conduct on being beaten on
Escape.' After sorae reflections, which would only be found interesting
to those who are concemed in the raanageraent of running-
horses, Chifney concludes his narrative in the following w'ords :
— ' Sorae weeks after this, and I well reraember that it was
after tbe Duke of York's coming frora abroad with the Duchess,
Sir John Lade wrote to me at Newmarket, for me to attend on

280 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the Prince immediately. I went to Cariton-house directly, and
tbe Prince of Wales told rae, that Sir Charies Bunbury came to
him and told hira, that if he suffered Chifney to ride his horses,
that no gentleman would start against hira. His Royal Highness
said, he told Sir Charies Bunbury that if he or any other
person could make it appear that Sam Chifney had done
wrong, then he would never speak to bim again ; and without
that he would not sacrifice him to any person. His Royal
Highness then said he should leave the turf, as be could not
he guilty of that ingratitude to let his horses go over for the
forfeUs, after being told that no gentleman would start against
him, but that he should pay the forfeits, and leave tbe turf.
His Royal Highness then said, be could see the meaning of it.
 " They think you, Sam Chifney, a good rider, and they
think you have won a race or two for me that you bad no
business to bave won ; and that there are others who wish to
have you, and others who think you too good for me, as they
know you wiU not see rae robbed." His Royal Highness then
told me, he should always be glad to see rae, and for my own
sake to let hira see rae often ; and that if he ever kept horses
again, tbat 1 should train and manage thera. After this, I was
ordered to attend on his Royal Highness at Sir John Lade's,
in Piccadilly, which I did ; and in the presence of Sir John
Lade and Mr. PhUips, his Royal Highness put his hand upon
his bosora, and said, that be beUeved Sara Chifney had been
to him very honest, and wished rae to understand, that the
two hundred guineas a year he gave rae, was for his life, saying,
" I cannot give it for your life, I can only give it for ]ray own
life." I bowed to his Royal Highness, and said 1 was well
satisfied.' In 1802, Chifney relates, that at the Brighton and Lewes
race tirae, as the Prince of Wales was walking on the Steyne,
having hold of a gentleraan's arra, he approached and told his
Royal Highness that they cried out very rauch for him at New
raarket. His Royal Highness said, ' Sara Chifney, there has
never been a proper apology made ; and they used me and
you very ill ; they are bad people ; I'll not set my foot on
the ground any more.'
To show the corrupt appetite of the vulgar for detraction

MEMOIRS OF GEOEGE IV, 281
it was currently reported, that personal threats, and even per
sonal demonstrations, had passed frora the Duke of 
towards bis Royal Highness on the race course. This,, how
ever, could not have been tbe case, for the Duke continued in
friendship with the Prince to the last. The singularity, how
ever, of the case is, that Sir Charles Bunbury, who decided
against the Prince, and ejected hira frora the Jockey Club, as
well as the Duke, who shook, or is said to have shaken, his
horsewhip at bira on the race ground, retained his friendship to
the last hours of their respective lives.
Such was the termination of the Prince of Wales' connec
tion with Newraarket. His Royal Highness, upon this occa
sion, seems to have acted with a very proper degree of spirit
and firmness, and it would not be easy to produce any reason to
justify the Jockey Club for declaring, that if his Royal High
ness did not discharge Chifney from his service, no gentleraan
would aUow bis horses to run against him. There was sorae
thing so very imperious in this requisition, that it was impossible
that his Royal Highness should coraply with it ; and it is not
a little extraordinary that the Prince of Wales had no bets on
the first day's race, and that on the second day's race bis bets
on Escape did not exceed four hundred guineas. Was this a
sura that the Prince of Wales could possibly be guilty of any
unfair manoeuvre to win ? Was this a sura that any but a mere
common swindler of the turf would have hazarded his reputa
tion to gain, by fraud and deception ? Could it for a raoment
be thought, that for so paltry a sum as four hundred guineas,
the Prince of Wales would corarait an action not only un
worthy of his rank, but which any gentleraan would be
ashamed of doing ? Had the sura depending upon the event of
the race been raany thousand pounds, there might have been
some teraptation to foul play, though the fraud would stUl
bave been as dishonourable. But, in the present instance, the
Prince of Wales had no adequate raotive for doing a thing so
mean, and so unworthy of elevated rank and unsullied cha
racter. It may be asked, why did not the Prince of Wales declare
upon his honour that no foul play had been used with respect to
Escape's first race? Such a declaration would at once have
2 N

282^ MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
solved all difficulties, and put an end to all embarrassments.
But was it proper for the Prince of Wales to bave condescended
to such a submission ? Are there not soraetiraes suspicions of
so disgraceful a nature afloat, and at the sarae tirae so irnpro-
bable withal, that if the person, who is the object of thera,
condescends to reply to thera, he degrades hiraself? Was
it to be expected of the Prince of Wales that be should
purge hiraself, by oath, like bis doraestic ? Or was it to
be looked for, that the first subject in the realra, the per
sonage whose siraple word should have coraraanded defe
rence, respect, and belief, was to subrait himself to the exarai
nation of the Jockey Club, and answer such questions as they
might have thought proper to bave proposed to hira ? That
his Royal Highness could have satisfactorily answered all such
questions, we are firraly persuaded ; but at the same time we
are fully of opinion that it would have been in the highest
degree incompatible with the dignity of the Prince to bave
submitted to any such interrogatories. He did every thing
that could, with due delicacy and respect to bis rank and
character, be required of him. He permitted his servant to
be examined before the stewards of the Jockey Club, and
even urged thera to take every possible pains to corae at
a thorough investigation of the raatter. What more could he
bave done ?
We have been thus particular in our relation of this affair,
because we are aware it excited a very strong sensation in the
sporting world at the period when it occurred, and because
we know that sentiraents unfavourable to his Royal Highness,
in regard to this transaction, prevailed long after the Prince
had withdrawn from the turf. Had our opinion in relation to
his Royal Highness' conduct on this occasion been unfavour
able, we should not have hesitated to avow it ; but, after the
most minute exaraination of all the particulars that have corae
to our knowledge, we do not hesitate to express our sincere
conviction that, in the whole of these transactions, the Prince
acted a most manly, upright, and honourable part. We bave
shown, in the first instance, that his Royal Highness bad no
adequate motive for any foul play on either of tbe days that
Escape ran bis matches. On the first he had no bets depend-

MEMOIRS OF GEOEGE IV. 28^
ing; and on the second day, the stake he bad depending was
far too inconsiderable to have produced any bias on his Royal
Highness' mind, so as to bave led bim to the commission of
a dishonourable action. Men do not commit dishonourable
actions without some adequate motive ; and that we should
believe tbe Prince of Wales was privy to, or conniving at, or
coramanding the dishonesty ofhis servant, is far too monstrous
a proposition for us to accede to. To this we may add, that
Chifney, without whose co-operation the scherae must bave
been defective, or at least very liable to detection, puts tbe
most soleran negative on the imputation. It must have been
by Chifney's manageraent that Escape, if capable of winning,
lost the first race, and occasioned the great alteration in the
betting odds that occurred previously to the second race. But
this raanageraent Chifney denies in the raost soleran terras,
and we have an opportunity of knowing tbat he persisted in
this stateraent to the last moment of bis life. Interest, a
natural desire to stand well in tbe opinion of his contempora
ries, together witb many other considerations, raight have
induced Chifney, whilst in the vigour of his health, to persist
in this statement, and even to substantiate it by the sanctity of
an oath ; but when he was on the verge of tbe grave, and
when he could have no possible motive for persisting in a false
hood, his voluntary and repeated asseverations that his first
declaration was correct, fumish a strong corroborating evidence
to induce us to give credit to bis statement. We know also
tbat Chifney died in a state of comparative indigence and
want. Was this likely to have happened, bad he been in
possession of so important a secret, as the knowledge of any
thing dishonourable iu the conduct of the Prince, respecting
his turf engagements ? Would he not have availed hiraself
of such a circurastance to have reUeved hiraself frora his
embarrassraent ? or, bad he faUed in that attempt, would he
not bave given vent to his disappointment by disclosing the
secret ?
Viewing, therefore, the subject in every possible light, we
cannot see the slightest ground for suspecting the Prince of
Wales of any thing dishonourable in his sporting engageraents;
on the contrarv, he appears to us to have acted with thfr
2 N 2

284 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
utraost fairness and candour ; and in withdrawing from the
turf, to have done nothing raore than what the unmerited and
unbecoraing treatraent he received called for.
Were it possible at one glance to take a survey of the whole
panorama of a human life,andto trace it through all its meander
ings, with its bright and glooray scenes, how rauch we should
be struck with the erroneous opinion which we may have forraed
of the probable consequences of any particular event, at the
tirae of its occurrence, and how often we raay bave been induced
to regard that as a calaraity, which actually in its consequences
turned out to' be a blessing to us ! We wiU not go so far as to
say, according to the Godwinian philosophy, that if Alexander
had not bathed in the Cydnus, Shakspeare would not bave
written his tragedies ; but we wiU affirm that there is not an
individual who, on taking a retrospective view of his past life,
is not able to trace his present circurastances to sorae very
remote by-gone cause, which at the time was scarcely noticed,
or supposed to possess any decided influence on his future
destiny. This principle may be strongly exeraplified in the
case of the Prince of Wales, who little thought that the appa
rently trivial circurastance of one of his race-horses losing its
race was actually the cause of his salvation frora a plot which
was then laid by a certain lord — now a marquess — and some of
his associates, to plunge him into an abyss of positive ruin by
their gambling transactions. We will raention only one which
happened at this tirae, and which will fully expose the character
of sorae of the Prince's associates, into whose society he was
thrown solely by his attachment to the turf.
One night at Newmarket he was induced to play at hazard
with certain individuals whose rank and station precluded the
idea of any established or concerted system of fraud ; but it
must not be concealed, that on the head of one ofthese indivi
duals (though now the possessor of iraraense wealth, and
nearly of the highest rank of nobUity) lies the weight of the
ruin of raore famiUes than can be laid to the charge of any
other professed gambler in the kingdom. On the night in
question. Fortune appeared- to frown on the Prince with her
utmost severity ; and on rising from the table, he found himsel
the loser of neariy 4000L Sorae suspicion immediately arose

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 285
in his raind, that there must be some fraud at the bottora ; and
taking the dice frora the table, be put thera into bis waistcoat
pocket, declaring that if the dice were found to be true, the
money should be paid on the following moming. Consterna
tion iraraediately seized the whole of the party ; they knew the
dice were plugged, and the discovery of the fraud would be
attended with the raost serious consequences. A consultation
was held, and it was determined that the only method of avert
ing the disclosure of their villainy was tbe abstraction of the
false dice, and the substitution of good ones. But bow was
this difficult task to be accomplished .'' The Prince was at this
time a visiter of the Duke of Bedford, whose house was the
resort of aU the sporting characters at Newraarket, and at
which sorae of the sharpers who had concocted the deep-laid
plan against his Royal Highness were on terms of the greatest
intimacy. It was therefore proposed that lots should be drawn,
and tbat the individual who drew the lowest nuraber should
repair iraraediately to the Duke of Bedford's, and by some stra
tagem obtain possession of the dice. Fortunately for the gang,
the lot fell on a Mr. RusseU, who, being himself a distant
relation of the Bedford faraily, was less liable to suspicion as
to his motive for repairing to the house of the Duke, and who,
besides, being well known to all the domestics, no demur would
be raised to his admittance. It was, however, found impracti
cable to accoraplish the scherae without the aid of the doraestic
who was in close attendance on the Prince ; and, influenced
by the bribe of 1002., this doraestic undertook to obtain pos
session of the waistcoat of his Royal Highness, when he was
undressing for the night, and, after abstracting the false dice,
to substitute the genuine ones. The stratagem fully succeeded ;
Mr. Russell returned in triuraph to his chap-faUen associates ;
on the following raorning, the Prince, had the dice exa
mined, and finding them to be good, he paid the araount of his
loss without any further raurrauring.
This business, however, did not rest here. The parties no
sooner saw their innocence established, than they began to
vent their indignation, openly and secretly, upon his Royal
Highness ; accusing hira of having cast an imputation on their
characters which they did not deserve ; and declaring that it

286 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
was his rank only which protected him from the infliction of
the raost suraraary punishraent. Reports discreditable to
the character of his Royal Highness were now circulated in
every quarter ; the popular opinion rose against him ; and
the circumstance of his horse. Escape, which happened im
mediately afterwards, furnished fresh materials for the vindic
tive spirit of his eneraies ; the result of all was that his narae
was erased frora the list of the raembers of the Jockey Club,
and his horses declared incapable of running in his own name
in future.
Under these painful circurastances, the Prince always main
tained a dignified attitude. He met the storm which gathered
around him without fear or despondency, although at the same
time he could not but regret his forced retireraent from the
turf, as it deprived hira of one of his most favourite arause
ments, and estranged him in a certain degree from the society
of particular individuals whom he respected and esteemed : but
on the other hand, had there been one step which a wise and
disinterested counsellor would have advised hira to adopt — had
there been one which a sincere friend would have considered
it his duty to urge hira to, that one would have been his retire
ment frora the turf. It was a hot-bed in which his most dan
gerous passions were nurtured — it was a sphere in which he
sank from the dignity of a prince to become the companion
and the dupe ofthe unprincipled sharper. To hira it appeared
a calamity — it was, in fact, a blessing to him : he saw in the
loss of the first race by his horse an actual misfortune ; whereas
it might be characterized as an act of Providence, in its being
the forerunner and cause of an alteration in his mode of life —
by which his character was to be retrieved — by which he was
to be rescued from the fangs of a set of harpies, who were
fattening on the noble and unsuspicious nature of his disposi
tion ; and, like the vulture on the body of Prometheus, gra
duaUy lacerating the vitals of his moral existence. By the
sincere friends and well-wishers of his Royal Highness, this
event was hailed with no comraon satisfaction. The hopes of
the nation revived. — that as he was in sorae degree estranged
frora the unprincipled abettors of his extravagant propensities,
and had relinquished a pursuit fraught with ultimate ruin to hia

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IVi 287
character ilnd to bis finances, he would assume a more steady
and irreproachable mode of life, and regain the good opinion of
that people over whom he vvas destined to govern. How far
these sanguine expectations were realized, the sequel will suffi
ciently indicate. To expect a sudden transition frorn a life of
habitual enjoyraent and profligacy to one of doraestic habits or
personal restraint, could never have been imagined by any one
in the least conversant with the human character ; nor did it
follow by any means, that although his Royal Highness had
been forced to withdraw hiraself from one pursuit, that was
attended with an enormous expense to him, yet that there
were not others of a still raore ruinous nature to which be was
addicted, and which he still foUowed with all the reckless
enthusiasra ofthe individual, who although he sees before him
the abyss in which his terrestrial happiness is to be destroyed,
thoughtlessly rushes into it, never to be afterwards restored to
the station which be once held in the ranks of society.
Towards the latter part of the year 1792, the whole stud of
his Royal Highness, araounting in all to twenty-eight head,
was disposed of, and produced, what we should at the present
day consider the rather inadequate sura of about five thousand
guineas. This sacrifice, although in every respect it did hira honour,
was, no doubt, a painful one to his feelings. Its bitterness
was not a little enhanced by the peculiar circurastances of the
case, as well as the particular good fortune that had attended
his stud during the previous year. In 1791 we find hira the
winner of no less than thirty-one races, including seven king's
plates ; and it has been very pointedly asked, how it was pos.'
sible that his Royal Highness, who in the year 1791 won alraost
every race for which his horses started, could, on his retireraent
frora the turf, have been so considerable a loser, and involved
in such distressing erabarrassraents * ?
' Iu order that a correct opinion may be formed of the success of his Royal
Highness, during the year 1791, we subjoin the following: —
Mademoiselle by Diomed, 660gs. at Newmarket.
Devi Sing by Eclipse, 150gs. and 50/. at Lewes.
Don Quixote by Eclipse, lOOgs. aud 5Ul. at Newmarket.
- Pegasus by Eclipse, the ICing's Plate at Newmarket, and 140gs. at Stock-
bridge. Serpent by Eclipse, 80gs,, at Brighton 60gs., and the Ladies' Plate at Lewes. Amelia

288 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Disgusted with the treatraent that be bad received, mortified
with the stern and unbending disposition of his illustrious
father, who stiU refused to adrait hira into his presence — dis
tracted with the incessant clamours of his creditors, the Prince
determined to seclude himself for a time, and took up his resi
dence at the Grange, in Hampshire.
It is not on record that at any time of his life bis late Ma
jesty was fond of shooting : to the nobler sport of hunting,
however, he was much attached ; and, though never what is
called a forward rider, was considered a very excellent and
distinguished judge. During his residence in Hampshire — the
happiest period perhaps of his life — he had as fine a pack of
fox-hounds in his ikennel, and, of course, as splendid a lot of
hunters in his stable as could be met with in the country. The
first of these came frora Goodwood, where they had long
formed the rauch-adraired kennel of the grandfather of the
present Duke of Richraond ; and araongst the lattter were not
a few thorough-bred ones, who had distinguished themselves
on ihe turf, yet were notwithstanding equal to the weight — by
no means an inconsiderable one — of his Royal Highness.
Araongst others. Curricle, Asparagus, Totteridge, and Torbay,
raay be raentioned as at this tirae coraposing part of his hunt
ing stud ; and it is not often now-a-days,' we fear, that such
magnificent specimens of blood and power are to be met
with. The Prince, though by no raeans a bruising rider, was, on all
hands, acknowledged to be a most elegant and accoraplished
horseraan ; and as no less than six packs of fox-hounds (be
sides his own) were within easy reach of his house, he spent
rauch of his tirae at this period in the enjoyraent of that sport
so truly worthy the protection and patronage of royalty. His
Amelia by Highflyer, the Third Class of the Filly Stakes, lOOOes and 300e-s
at Newmarket, and the Prince's Stakes at Ascot ^uu^gs., and dUUgs.
Escape by Highflyer, 25Clgs., lOOOgs., the WOgs., and 55gs., at Newmarket
Traveller by Highflyer, 400gs., at Newmarket. ivewmarKer.
St. David by Saltram the Second Class of the Prince's Stakes at Newmarket
Creeper by Tandem, 50gs. at Newmarket, 60gs. at Burford ^ru^iT^v- ¦
Plates at Lichfield and Burford ^ curlord, and the King 3
Baronet by Vertumims the Oatlands' Stakes at Ascot, and the Kin<.'s Plates at
Winchester, Lewes, Canterbury, and Newmarket " -'^^'^^'^S at
Clementina by Vertumnus, 50/. at Swagliam, aud 200gs. at Newmarket.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 289
own ^ Lord Maryborough' of those days was Colonel Leigh,
just then in high favour ; and George Sharpe was for some
short tirae his huntsraan, although before long superseded by
a raan naraed Grantson, who, strange as it may sound,
thougb imported /rom Epping! to superintend a royal kennel,
gave great satisfaction, and was disraissed only by death from
the service of the Prince. His hounds, we are given to under
stand, shewed as fair a proportion of sport as could be expected
from the flints and woods of Hampshire : the country, bow-
ever, does not, and never did, rank high even in tbe list of pro
vincials ; and other agr^mens, besides the facility of hunting,
bad no doubt their weight in detaining his royal master as a
resident. We can scarcely wonder, however, at his predilection,
when we consider the particularly delightful picture of society
which Hampshire at that moraent presented. No party bicker
ings, no sporting squabbles were at any time heard ; harraony
and unaniraity appear to have been the order of the day, from
Alpha to Omega ; and the whole country resembled one large
and happily united faraily, of which their distinguished visitor
was looked up to and adored as the august and beloved bead.
Often, no doubt, amidst tbe doraestic troubles of his after-
days, did the Prince look back with a sad satisfaction and sor
row on the quiet privacy and tranquU enjoyments ofthe
regretted sojourn at the Grange.
The actions of men are generally spoken of according to
their eccentricity frora the general rule of conduct, or to their
departure from that peculiar line, which the raoralists of the
age have chalked out as the boundary betvveen vice and virtue.
The great in infaray, as well as the great in goodness, are
equally spoken of, though viewed [through different raedia ;
and the viUain who expiates bis sins on the scaffold, and the
phUanthropist whose chief study is to diminish the sum of
human misery, become equally the objects of the attention of
the philosopher, who from those heterogeneous and discordant
materials erects at last his proud edifice of the physiology of
man. It has been beautifully said by Cowper, that
Man in society is like a flower
Blown in its native bed. 2 O

290 MEMOIRS OP GE,ORGE IV.
But it is not less true that man, like tbat flower, suffers by
every transplantation which he undergoes, and flourishes and
degenerates accordingly as the station to which be is reraoved
is congenial to the growth of bis virtues, or to the further
expansion of his vices. We bave hitherto beheld the Prince
of Wales moving in that exalted sphere to which he was born,
the gayest amongst the gay — the proudest araongst the proud.
We have seen hira the idol of the court, of which he was
the greatest ornaraent ; an elegant specimen of the huraan
forra in all its most manly proportions ; and, descending through
the different gradations of life, we have beheld hira in the
coraraon tap-roora of an obscure public-house — the visitant of
the poUuted brothel — and the nocturnal inmate of tbe watch-
house. It might have been supposed that these singular muta
tions in life, these strange and extraordinary contrasts, would
have had a wonderful effect on a raind so strongly susceptible,
and so keenly alive to every irapression, as was that of bis
Royal Highness, and had he known how to have taken the
proper advantage of them, would, doubtless, have rendered
him, perhaps, one of the most profound adepts in the know
ledge of the human character, which ancient or modern his
tory could afford, but the lesson which they would have taught
him was neglected ; it was only the superficies to which
he looked; — it was the simple gratification of the moment
which he courted, apparently ignorant of or indifferent to the
valuable raine of useful wisdora which was open to bis con
templation. Diverting our view frora the different characters in which his
Royal Highness has at yet appeared, we will now proceed to
observe him in that of the plain country gentleman, divested
of the forms and etiquette of royalty, and associating with
men as different in their habits and pursuits from his former
companions, and as strongly contrasted in their moral senti
ments, as the anchorite of the desert and the libertine of a
court. Not that the Prince was wholly estranged from the
society of those whose friendship and esteem he valued, and
also, to his misfortune, from those, whose pauperism obliged
them to cling to him, as the ivy to the oak, for their support ;
but in the vicinity of his rural retreats, the great provocatives

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 291
to vice were wanting ; the faro-tables of the deraireps of
fashion were not to be found in the houses of the gentry sur
rounding Kerapshott Park or Critchill House, but in thera he
becarae initiated in the good and regular habits of the honest
English yeoraan, and had an opportunity presented to bim
of distinguishing the great advantages wbich tbe latter pos
sess over tbe deceptions and hollow distinctions of what is sur
reptitiously called high life.
The cause of his Royal Highness rusticating so rauch at
tbis tirae has been attributed to various motives. To enu
merate thera all would be to rake up all tbe gossip of those
tiraes, in which the truth was disguised or perverted according
to the illiberality of raind which distinguished the propagator
of the report. It is, however, an undisputed fact, that various
reasons combined to induce hira to seek retireraent in the
country, wherein he might enjoy a coraparative state of tran
quillity, while the storm which assailed bira bad spent its fury,
and the loud voice of claraour was stifled wbich sounded
against hira frora every quarter.
Shortly after tbe death of Lord Keppell we find him tbe
tenant of Bagshot Park, the present residence of tbe Duke
of Gloucester, during whose minority tbe late duke lent it to
bis Royal Highness. The jealousy of a certain lady, and the
intrigues of a notorious countess, have been mentioned as the
ostensible causes of bis teraporary residence at Bagshot Park;
as by the forraer person there was a restraint put upon his
actions which he could not endure, for he considered himself
Hke the air, ' a chartered libertine,' bound to no time, circum
stances, nor person ; and the greater the indication of control
that was raanifested, the greater was his determined spirit to
offer every possible opposition to its power.
It bad been for some tirae raanifest, that a degree of cool
ness had subsisted between his Royal Highness and Mrs. Fitz
herbert, and it was universally attributed to the egaremens of
tbe former in certain quarters, where, on the part of the lady,
it was considered as a positive degradation of his character that
he should be known to hold any connexion. That this opinion
bad sorae foundation in truth cannot be questioned, but the
foUowing may be considered as the root of the quarrel.
2 0 2

292 MEMO'lRS OP GEORGE IV.
Amongst the most intimate friends of Mrs. Fitzherbert was
the truly amiable and virtuous Miss Paget : tbe most interest
ing and syrapathetic connexion bad long subsisted between
thera — the foul breath of calumny bad never tainted her cha
racter — her virtue could only be equaUed by her beauty, and
her talents and perfections were the theme of universal pane
gyric. Bruyere, in his iraraortal work, where be paints tbe
manners and characters of the age in which he lived, acknow
ledges the power ofthe female sex over the heart of raan.
Our habits and raanners are greatly influenced by our con
nexions with them, and they assume a higher degree of poUsh
in proportion as the sphere of our intercourse with them is
enlarged. It is, however, not only within the circle of a
court that this influence is predominant ; it pervades all the
different gradations of society. Its empire is universally trium
phant, and perhaps in the annals of human history there
never was a more abject slave to it than the Prince of Wales.
The languishing look of a woman's eye, dissolving in love and
desire, was to him what the raoonbeara is to the mariner in a
stormy night ; it was a picture, he was wont to say, that he
could gaze on with delight for ever ; and although, in some
respects, he could not but consider woman as Nature's most
beautiful error, yet it was his pride to confess that he loved that
error more than truth itself.
It is a dangerous thing for a woman, let her stand either in
tbe relation of a wife or a concubine, to have a beautiful girl
as her corapanion. The eye of the husband or the friend
wiU, at times, wanton over that beauty ; the lynx-eyed keen
ness of a woman's passion will soon detect the roving glance,
and jealousy, with its attendant brood of evUs, springs up to
annihilate every vestige of earthly happiness.
That the beauty of Miss Paget should fail to make an im
pression on the Prince of Wales could never be expected by
any one in the least conversant with the susceptibility of the
heart of his Royal Highness ; but in his endeavours to obtain
a conquest over her virtue, his failure was coraplete. Never
theless, it was evident to Mrs. Fitzherbert that sorae negocia
tions were pending between Miss Paget and his Royal High
ness ; and as she could not discover their exact tendency, their

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 293
probability was taken into the account, and, consistently with
the opinion which is generally forraed on such occasions, they
could only refer to one point, and that point was one of aU
others raost likely to excite her indignation. -Trifles liffht as air

Are to the Jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ —
and it raust be allowed that tbe following discovery was suffi
cient to arouse the jealousy even of the most placid feraale.
It was well known to Mrs. Fitzherbert that an epistolary-
correspondence had been for a short time carried on between
Miss Paget and bis Royal Highness ; but of the import of it,
Mrs. Fitzherbert was wholly ignorant. Nevertheless, it was
the cause of great uneasiness to her, for to what other subject
could it refer than to the expression of a mutual attachraent ;
indeed not the most distant idea entered the head of Mrs. Fitz
herbert, that it could bave the least reference to a transaction
of a private and confidential nature, in which Miss Paget was
acting a part in perfect accordance with the well-known gene
rosity of her disposition. Jealousy is generally allied with
raeanness ; for there is scarcely any action so low or so base, to
which that passion will not stoop to obtain its end. To arrive
at the precise knowledge of the subject of the correspondence
of Miss Paget and his Royal Highness, one raethod presented
itself by which it raight be accoraplished ; and that was the
interception of one of the letters frora either of the parties.
In a very short tirae, the following letter frora Miss Paget fell
into the hands of Mrs. Fitzherbert. Park Street, Sept. 11, 1792.
Miss Paget regrets that it is not in her power to comply
with the wishes ofhis Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, to their
full extent : but in a matter of so much delicacy, and in which the
character of his Royal Highness is at stake, there is not anything
which Miss Paget would not undertake to accomplish the purpose
which he has iu view, and thereby contribute to his personal happi
ness. As secresy in matters of this kind is of the greatest moment,
if his Royal Highness will confer the honour on Miss Paget of
meeting- her at the faro-table of the Duchess of Cumberland on

294 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Tuesday night, the business may be arranged, perhaps, to the entire
satisfaction of his Royal Highness.
To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
Carlton House.
The jaundiced eye invests every object with one colour ; and
the construction which Mrs. Fitzherbert put upon this letter
was perhaps only such as every other jealous woraan would
have put. In the corapUance of Miss Paget to the wishes of
his Royal Highness, Mrs. Fitzherbert read nothing less than
the surrender of her persorf ; and the secrecy which was en
joined confirmed her in that opinion. The assignation at the
faro-table of the Duchess of Cumberland was the climax ; it
was the cope-stone of the intrigue ; and witb the art and cun
ning natural to woman in cases of this kind, Mrs. Fitzherbert
placed so much violence upon her feelings, as not to exhibit
any signs of her displeasure, nor to betray, by any inuendo or
remark, that she was in any degree privy to the intrigue which
was going on between her dear friend, Paget, and her still
dearer friend, the Prince of Wales : but in order to entrap
them in their iniquity, she determined to repair to the faro-
table of the Duchess on the night appointed in the letter ; and
she then doubted not that she should arrive at the full know
ledge of the design which they had in view.
The mansion of the Duchess of Curaberland in PaU Mall
was at tbis time the resort of aU the elegance and fashion in
town. Her faro-table was most numerously attended ; conse
quently, the profits arising from it were very considerable. The
Duchess, with the assistance of her lovely and amiable sister,
Lady EmUy Luttrel, conducted it with aU imaginable decorum,
never losing sight, however, of the main chance ; and a noble
harvest they made of the opulent pigeons that frequented it.
Mrs. Fitzherbert and the Duchess were at this tirae alraost
inseparable ; and to suppose that the forraer — thus honoured,
thus beloved — was living in a state of fornication, would bave
been a most atrocious libel, not only on herself, but on all the
most amiable and august personages who frequented the same
society. The expected evening came, and Mrs. Fitzherbert and Miss

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 295
Paget drove to tbe house of tbe Duchess of Cumberland. Tbe
corapany was uncoraraonly nuraerous : pleasure and gaiety
seemed to sit on every countenance ; tbough, now and then,
the suUen frown and the deep gloora of the luckless garabier
intruded themselves, as a striking contrast to the open, merry
countenances of tbe youthful visitors who bad not yet bent
their knee at the shrine of the Paphian goddess. It was
nearly ten o'clock before the Prince of Wales arrived — the
magnet of attraction-r-the Adonis of tbe scene. The conduct
of bis Royal Highness towards Mrs. Fitzherbert in public was
always distinguished by the most respectful attention, approach
ing very nearly to the most studied formality. To view thera
in corapany, tbe casual observer would have considered them
as individuals remotely acquainted; and between whora no
intiraate connexion could ever bave possibly existed. A for
mal acknowledgment was sometiraes all that passed between
thera ; and each of them, frequently took their departure
without bestowing on one another the slightest raark of their
respect. Tbis forraality, apparently agreed upon between them, enabled
the Prince to be more profuse in bis attentions in other quar
ters ; nor did the prima donna of his affections appear to
resent the profuse manner in which he lavished his incense
• at the shrine of some glowing beauty, and where she well
knew the conquest of her virtue was the sole aim of his
adoration. On this evening, however, a positive assignation had been
raade ; and there is scarcely anything in which a i woraan
triuraphs with raore raalicious joy than in the detection of a
rival, and especially if that rival should be in any degree
within the influence of her power.
Tbe house of tbe Duchess of Cumberland, although not so
extensive nor magnificent as some others of the noble faro-
table keepers, yet it was universaUy acknowledged tbat it was
not surpassed by any in convenience. Where all understood
the specific purpose of each apartraent, interruption was never
feared, and the prima donna with trembUng anxiety looked
forward to the moment when her bosom friend, whose virtue
had hitherto stood as firm as the rock in the ocean, though

296 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
assailed by the most tempestuous billows, was to be led away,
to satisfy the wishes of his Royal Highness, although not to
their full extent. Every motion of the falling culprit was
watched with tbe same keenness with which the basilisk
watches its prey. At last the Prince was observed to accom
pany Miss Paget frora the princifial roora ; and so thoroughly
was the conviction now irapressed upon the raind of the infu
riated lady, that she had detected the virtuous Paget, ber
dearest and most confidential friend, in an araorous intrigue
with his Royal Highness, tbat she immediately ordered her
carriage and drove home, leaving the supposed culprit to find
her way after her in the best possible raanner she could.
On the following morhing, Miss Paget was given to under
stand that the intimacy which had hitherto subsisted between
Mrs. Fitzherbert and herself was at an end, and that it would
be highly agreeable to the former lady if she would select for
herself another place of residence. Confounded with this
most unexpected dismissal. Miss Paget requested a personal
interview, as she was not conscious to herself that she had in
any manner acted injuriously to the interests of the offended
lady, nor in opposition to the principles of virtue or of rectitude.
The interview was refused ; nor did the offended lady conde
scend to assign any reason for her apparently harsh and unjus
tifiable conduct. In this dUeraraa Miss Paget applied to the
Prince of Wales to intercede in ber behalf, and at least to
obtain frora Mrs. Fitzherbert a distinct avowal of the causes
which had conspired to estrange thera frora each other. It is,
however, certain that Miss Paget could not have selected an
individual raore iraproper to espouse her cause than the Prince
himself; but he immediately undertook the office, and, on the
entrance of his Royal Highness into the apartraent of Mrs.
Fitzherbert, he evidently saw, by the sullen frown that sat
upon the beautiful countenance of the lady, that a storm was
raging within, which was soon to burst upon hira with all the
fury of the woman who bas detected her lover in an act of
infidelity. The Prince heard the charge against him with the
utmost indignation ; but it is reported that the lady so far
transgressed the rules of decorum and good breeding, as to
throw a cup of coffee into the face of his Royal Highness ;

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 297
and then, by way of climax, to declare that she would accept
of the offers which had been made to her, and leave the
country for ever.
There is a secret pride in conscious innocence, which enables
it to rise superior to every aspersion which can be thrown upon
it, and to bring discomfiture and disgrace on aU those who by
the restlessness of some predominant passion have attempted
to throw over it the darkest shades of guilt and criminaUty.
The Prince, as it may be easily imagined, was no stranger to
the female character, and he knew weU, that to restrain the volu
bility of a woman's tongue, at the moment when she is smarting
with the pangs of jealousy, were a task as hopeless of success,
as to check a rocket in its ascending flight. He, therefore,
very wisely suffered the storm to exhaust itself, before he en
tered upon his justification, but when he was shewn the copy
ofthe intercepted letter, as the confirmatory proof of his infi
delity, and of his secret amour with Miss Paget, his indigna
tion then could be no longer controlled, and he gloried in the
opportunity which was given him of hurabling the infuriated
darae, and of exposing the folly and injustice of her conduct in
their most glaring colours.
' It is true,' said the Prince, ' that Miss Paget declares in
her note, her regret that she cannot satisfy my wishes to their
full extent. The construction which the jealousy of your dis
position has put upon that passage, may be easily iraagined, but
it is in direct variance with truth. You know my embarrass
raents — you also know that I am in danger of having even my
horses and carriage taken* in execution in the open streets, if I
do not come to some immediate settlement of Gray's account.
I have completely exhausted my own resources ; the sale of
my racing stud has produced me comparatively a mere trifle,
in fact, when the necessary expenses are defrayed of my estab
lishment at Newmarket, there will not be the surplus of a pound.
The connexions of Paget I know to be opulent, and I know also,
that she possesses resources, frora which a teraporary assistance
can be obtained. In ray present erabarrassraent, I applied
to her to obtain for me the loan of 10,000Z., and in her an
swer, she teUs me, that she regrets that she cannot satisfy my
wishes to the full extent. The secrecy she enjoins, is no more
2 P

298 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
than that general line of prudence which usually distinguishes
pecuniary transactions ; and the assignation at the Duchess o
Cumberiand's was nothing more than to inform me of the suc
cess of her application.— On that night she delivered to me
7000Z. in cash, and a negotiable security for the remaining
3000Z. ; and now,' concluded the Prince, ' 1 leave you to the
enjoyment of your feelings, at the undeserved obloquy which
you have thrown on the character of a virtuous and generous
girl, and I trust this circumstance wiU operate as a caution to
you, never to throw a stain upon the character of a' individual,
before you are fully acquainted with all the secret springs of
action, and have arrived at a genuine and undisguised exposi
tion of the ruling motives.'
There is perhaps nothing more painful to a candid and ge
nerous mind, than to find that, misled by false appearances,
we have been heaping odium and censure on the actions of
our friend, and then ultimately to discover that those very
actions were richly deserving of our highest approbation and
gratitude. In this situation Mrs. Fitzherbert found herself in
regard to Miss Paget ; she felt that she had wronged her —
cruelly wronged her, and consistently with that most singular
trait in the huraan character, Mrs. Fitzherbert, as the injurer,
could not be easily brought to forgive Miss Paget, whereas the
forgiveness lay entirely on the part of the latter. By degrees.
however, the offended pride of the haughty dame was gradually
softened down, a reconciliation took place, and to tbe honour
of the Prince of Wales it raust be recorded, that in a very
short time the pecuniary obligation was satisfied, and when
she afterwards became the wife of a general now living, who
signalized himself in the Peninsular war, the Prince gave
her away at the altar, and made her a present of a diamond
necklace of the value of 2000/.
It must, however, be mentioned, that this circumstance did
rot tend to exalt Mrs. Fitzherbert in the opinion of the
Fnnce, and that it was the cause of establishing a coolness
between them, which, in conjunction with some other unplea
sant circumstances, induced the Prince to retire into the
country. The following may be considered as the different
residences wbich his Royal Highness successively occupied,

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 299
and where, in some respects, his health and constitution were
repaired frora the consequences of the libertine life which he
had led in the iraraediate vortex of the raetropolis.
Frora Bagshot Park he removed to Kerapshott Park,
between Basingstoke and Pophara-lane ; afterwards to the
Grange, Hants ; and latterly to CritchiU House, near Bland-
ford, Dorset. His residence at the latter place was very short,
owing to an amour in which be was detected with the only
daughter of a gentleman resident in the neighbourhood, and
heiress to the whole of his property. This affair, however, did
not pass off quite so smoothly as some others in which he
bad been engaged, for the father being a determined, high-
spirited man, and endowed with uncomraon personal strength,
hesitated not one day to give his Royal Highness that sura
raary pugnacious punishraent, which rendered his future resi
dence at Critchill House rather unpleasant to him. He
therefore returned to Brighton, and between that place and the
raetropoUs he now passed the chief part of his tirae.
The legitimate succession to the crown now became the
theme of the raost serious consideration, not only with the
royal parents of the Prince, but also with the ministers of the
country. The most terapting offers were held out to his
Royal Highness to induce him to enter into the married state ;
but he rejected them with the most deterrained spirit, alleging,
as the ground of his refusal, that from the knowledge he pos
sessed of his own character, he was certain be was not calcu
lated for the marriage state ; and tbat were be to enter into
that union, it would only be to establish the misery of both
parties, without, perhaps, being productive of tbe purpose for
which it was intended. That this studied opposition to the
dearest wishes of bis august father could not faU to widen the
breach between them may be easily conceived; and it is
natural to suppose that those individuals who were suspected
of possessing a domineering influence over the conduct of his
Royal Highness, were visited witb the whole weight of the
resentment of the royal parents, who beheld in the attachraent
of their son to certain ladies, the chief and the alraost insu
perable obstacle to his entering into the raarried state ; accord
ingly every engine was set to work which raalignity or malice

300 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
could devise to inflame the minds of the people against those
individuals ; whilst, at the same time, secret agents were era
ployed to pry into their private affairs, and wherever an open
ing presented itself, there to inflict such a death-wound as no
after paUiative could remedy. The venal part of the public
press was bribed . to circulate the most inflammatory reports
respecting the ulterior views of the reputed friends of the
Prince of Wales, and the ruinous consequences that must
inevitably await the country from his avowed attachraent to
the Roraan Catholic party ; in which attachraent it was pre
tended to foresee the gradual downfall of the Protestant reli
gion, and the return of England, when the tirae should come
that he was to sway the sceptre of it, to aU the superstitious
doctrines of the Romish Church.
On the other hand, the Prince rallied around him a raost
powerful party, and it must be acknowledged, that the supe
riority of talent displayed by his friends tended, in a great
degree, to turn the tide of popular feeling in his favour; indeed
to such an excess of enthusiasm was the contest carried, that
on one occasion the populace took the horses from Mrs. Fitz
herbert's carriage, and drew it to her residence. By the
serious and reflecting part ofthe community, these ebullitions of
popular feeling were regarded as a sinister oraen of the future
state in which the country would be plunged, if by any interpo
sition of Providence the royal functions were to be again sus
pended, and the reins of government placed in the hands of
the Prince's party. Fortunately, however, for the nation at
large, the public attention was directed to a circumstance, at
this moraent of paramount interest, as far as regarded the
succession to the crown, and that was the marriage of his
Royal Highness the Duke of York with the Princess Frede-
rica Charlotte Ulrica, the eldest daughter of the late King of
Prussia. His Royal Highness, during his residence in Ger
many, had conceived an affectionate attachment to the Prin
cess, and the sentiment being mutual, the consent of parents
on both sides was soon obtained to the marriage, which cere
mony took place at Berlin on the 29th of September, 1791.
On their journey from Prussia to this countiy they were
rauch annoyed by the brutal mobs, which then abounded in

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 301
every town and village, committing the most atrocious excesses
in the name of liberty, and insulting, as aristocrats, aU per
sons who had a respectable equipage. At Lisle, their Royal
Highnesses were exposed to considerable danger frora the
savage rabble, whom the arras on the carriage had attracted,
and who kept possession of the vehicle till they had com
pletely satisfied their revolutionary spirit by obUterating the
ensigns of royalty. After encountering many dangers, the
royal party at length reached the more tranquil shores of
England ; and, on the 18th of November, arrived at York
House in London, where the Prince of Wales received his
royal sister in the great hall, and congratulated her, in the
German language, on her arrival in England.
It may be necessary to show the prominent part which the
Prince of Wales enacted in the ceremonies of this raarriage,
in order to show how far the etiquette of a court can demand
tbat the smile of personal esteem and affection shall sit upon
the countenance, whilst some of the most deadly passions of
our nature are rankling in the heart. The relation in which the
Prince of Wales stood at this time, in regard to his royal
father, was any thing but one of affection, and yet to behold
them, in their rautual intercourse with each other, subject to
the forms and ceremonies of a court, the uninitiated observer
might be led to draw the conclusion, that the father and the
son were upon the most friendly and affectionate terms with.
each other.
On the Sunday after the arrival of the Duke of York, he
walked to Carlton House, and returned with the Prince of
Wales, who stayed at York House more than an hour. He
then took his leave, but in about two hours returned, for the
purpose of accompanying the Duchess to Buckingham House,
whither he went with her Royal Highness in her own carriage ;
the Dukes of York and Clarence following them. On their
arrival, the Duchess of York was conducted by the Prince of
Wales on his right hand, and the Duke on bis left, into the
grand dining-room, in which were seated the King, Queen,
and six of the princesses, all of vvhom rose and advanced into
the raiddle of the roora to raeet the iUustrious stranger, who
dropped on her knees before their majesties, but was instantly

302 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
raised by the King, who conducted ber to a seat by the side of
the Queen.
A fevv days afterwards tbeir Majesties, accompanied by the
Princesses, paid a visit to York House, and the etiquette of
the palace was strikingly exemplified on this occasion ; for the
King and Queen never forgot the old school of ceremonies,
even with their children on public occasions. After reciprocal
salutations in the great hall, the royal party were led to the
lower apartment, fronting the park, where tea was served, and
the foUowing ceremony observed : — the Prince of Wales, in
the first place, was to attend as lacquey on the King, and hand
to him the tea, which was first brought to the door by the ser
vants, then taken by the servants of the Duke's establishment,
who handed the trays to the Prince of Wales, and his Royal
Highness then attended upon his Majesty. The Duke of
York received other tea-trays through the same channels, and
handed them to the Duchess of York, who was to wait on the
Queen in the capacity of a servant. Such were the raanners
of the olden court of George III. ; and, perhaps, it would be
a curious subject of investigation to inquire frora wbat source
this curious custom took its origin. It certainly is not British,
and most probably was an importation from the latitude of
Mecklenburg Strelitz.
On the 23rd of November their Royal Highnesses were
re-married according to the formulffi ofthe Church of England,
the Prince of Wales giving away the bride, and afterwards
attesting the certificate of the raarriage.
There were several persons at this time, forming a kind of
circle of which the Prince of Wales was the focus, who
dreaded nothing more than a reconciliation of their patron
with his illustrious parent ; and who, in the event of that cir
cumstance taking place, beheld their own discomfiture, and
the frustration of all the plans which they had laid for their
future aggrandizement. It should not be concealed, in order
to purify the character of his Royal Highness from a deep
stain that has been thrown upon it, in regard to his utter
desertion of several of his intimates, who, perhaps, having
been carried into the vortex of his extravagance, with very
slender fortunes to support it, were at last reduced to the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 303
lowest stage of pauperism, and becoming the tenants of a
prison. It is, however, a fact, well known in a particular
circle, that tbe Prince granted sorae very Uberal pensions to
raany of his destitute corapanions , and we have only to raen
tion the late Felix M'Carthy, a needy Irish adventurer, but a
man of infinite wit, — at the same time destitute of all principle
and honour. Still he was received at the table of his Royal
Highness, to whom he was introduced by Lord Moira, who,
though certainly the steadiest of his late Majesty's friends,
was, on account of his iraprovidence, and bis total ignorance
of the value of raoney, a very unfit person to be the adviser of
the Prince. His Lordship was continually in debt, and rais
ing raoney upon post-obits and other securities, at enorraous
rates. His royal companion and friend did the same ; and
the Prince's proraissory notes to his Lordship, and his Lord
ship's proraissory notes to his Royal Highness, were at any
time to be obtained at one quarter of their value*. It was,
however, with such men as M'Carthy, — Henry Bate Dudley,
alias the Fighting Parson, — George Hanger, — and others of
that grade, that the Prince lost his character and his money.
When the former of these worthies was a tenant of the King's
Bench Prison, be was chiefly supported by the bounty of the
Prince, who used to transmit his grants under an envelope,
addressed to ' The Irish Giant, now exhibiting on the other
side of the water.' The Prince ultimately granted him a pen
sion of 2001. a year, but which was only paid for two years, on
account of the intemperate habits of Felix, which brought him
prematurely to the grave.
It was such men as these who had good reason to dread the
reconciUation of the Prince with his father ; for they knew it
would be the signal for their removal to a different sphere of
life, and their return to their native haunts of insignificance.
There are various versions existing of the following circum
stance, and tbe precise motive has been differently represented,
» We can state it as a fact, that two promissory notes of his Royal Highness,^
and of Lord Moira, for lOOU/. each, and an acceptance ofthe late Archbishop of
Canterbury for 500^., were offered by a butcher in St. James' market to a notorious
discounter of bills, Uving in Piccadilly, who observed that he had never had such a
trinity of trash offered to him before. The whole were obtained for 250^., the
Prince's being valued at 150/. ,: his Lordship's and his Grace's at 50/. each,

304 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.

some considering it as the act of a deliberate thief, whilst
others looked upon it as a studied manoeuvre to put an end to
the conversation which was then passing between his Royal
Highness and his august parent.
The drawing-room which was given in honour of the mar
riage of the Duke of York was declared to be unequalled for
the splendour and nuraber of the visiters. Towards the close
of it, the King and the Prince were standing in very earnest
conversation, the crowd around thera being very great, when
on a sudden the Prince felt a raost violent pull at the handle
of his sword. On turning round quickly, he perceived that
the diamond guard was torn off, and hanging by the wire, the
elasticity of which alone had saved the jewels, which araounted
in value to between three and four thousand pounds. The
Prince did not expose the depredator ; for he had some shrewd
suspicion on his mind that theft was not the object of the indi
vidual. It, however, excited a considerable degree of sensa
tion ; and if the object of the person was the interruption of
the discourse, he fully succeeded in his design ; for the King
and Prince immediately separated, and never entered into con
versation again, during the remainder of the evening.
A., in a future part of this work, when we come to discuss
the proceedings in parliament on the payment of the Prince's
debts, we shall have occasion to refer to those which took
place in the House of Commons, on the question of a provision
for their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York,
we think it necessary to insert the following abridgment of them.
It was at an early period in the session of 1792, that the
establishment of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and
Duchess of York carae under consideration ; and on this
occasion the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed that the
sum of eighteen thousand pounds annually should be granted
out of the consolidated fund, to be computed from July Sth,
1791, which, added to the twelve thousand already granted to
his Royal Highness from the civU list, and likewise to seven
thousand which it was intended to give him out of the Irish
revenue, would render the amount of his whole income thirty-
seven thousand pounds per annum. He also proposed that
her Royal Highness' jointure, upon the contingency of her

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 305
surviving the Duke, should be eight thousand pounds, payable
out of the Consolidated Fund.
The sentiraents of ministry and the leaders of opposition on
this subject seemed perfectly to coincide, except that the latter
rather wished to go farther, and not only grant his Royal High
ness an annuity for Ufe, but enable hira, by a suitable present,
to coraraence, as a raarried raan, with princely splendour. The
minister, having no proposition of the last kind in coraraand
from his Majesty, could not raake a motion to any such effect.
Mr. Fox warmly deprecated the idea of reducing a prince of
the blood to the necessity of raising raoney on an annuity.
It was, however, on the other band, observed that, as the
grant would take place frora July, 1791, the amount of half
of it would be immediately at his Royal Highness' disposal.
Notwithstanding the general coincidence of opinion in Mr.
Pitt and Mr. Fox, the House was by no raeans unaniraous.
Mr. Burdon thought 18,000?. too great an allowance, and pro
posed 10,000Z. in its stead. He was supported by several
gentleraen, particularly by Sir Jaraes Johnstone, who con
ceived that the Duke's revenues frora Osnaburgh should be
taken into consideration, which he stated to araount to 3.5,000Z.
per annura. Sir Williara Dolben seeraed of the same opinion
witb respect to tbe propriety of considering tbe revenue from
Osnaburgh, but did not think it exceeded 12,000?. Mr. M. A.
Taylor (who approved of the original sura proposed) asserted
that the revenue did not nett above 5000Z. or 6000?. a year.
Amidst such a contrariety of opinions, Mr. Fox reraarked,
where should tbey look for an ultimate decision ? In fact, it
was unusual, improper, and undignified, for a British House
of Coraraons to calculate the income of a Gerraan principality,
when called upon to support the splendour of a British prince.
With his accustoraed shrewdness of application, he exclaimed,
' Did gentlemen forget that monarchy was an essential part of
our constitution ; and would they act upon the leveUing prin
ciple of the meanest republic, and sink their princes to the
rank of private gentleraen ? If the people chose to have the
benefit and pageantry of monarchy, it was beneath them to
grudge at the necessary expense of it.'
The Chancellor of the Exchequer supported Mr. Fox in the
2 Q

306 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
assertion, that we had no right to inquire into tbe expenditure
of the revenue of Osnaburgh.
Mr. Burden's proposal was rejected, and that of the Chan
ceUor ofthe Exchequer passed without a division.
From these scenes of courtly magnificence and splendour,
we turn to others of a very opposite character, and which have
a direct tendency to impugn the character, not only of the
Prince of Wales, but of sorae other branches of the royal
family, and more especially that of their subordinate agents,
to whom a stigma attaches, in the catastrophe of the foUow
ing transaction, which no after-explanation has been sufficient
to wipe away. It is not in our power exactly to point out the
individuals who were the secret agents in the tragedy, nor are
there any documents in existence by which the crirae can
be brought home to the real perpetrators ; at the same time
we cannot for a raoment entertain the idea, that either of the
royal princes was privy to the act, but that it was wholly
planned and matured by men of needy and desperate for
tunes, who having no character to lose, were willing to plunge
into the coraraission of any crimes by which their circura
stances raight be improved ; especially if they had the pro
tecting shield of high authorities to conceal them frora detec
tion. In one respect, however, and it is a very iraportant poli
tical one, the following transaction will show to what secret
purposes that most odious of all enactments the Alien Act was
applied, and whUst it was aUeged by the ministers of the day,
that it was introduced solely for the purpose of preventing the
domiciliation of foreigners in this country, who raight be the
secret agents of Buonaparte, yet that it was frequently ap
plied to the reraoval of persons out of the country, who were
not tainted with any political offence, and who, in fact, had
visited it with no other view than the enforcement of their
rightful claims, as creditors, on some particular branches of the
royal family.
We have followed hia Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
through a career of profligacy and extravagance, unexampled
in any prince of ancient or modern times ; we have seen him
reduced to the necessity of applying to the parliament of the
country, for relief frora the accuraulated weight of debt that was

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 307
pressing so heavily upon him ; and under the most solemn pro-
raises of reforra and araendraent, we have beheld the country
liberally coraing forward with the desired relief, and placing
the heir-apparent of the throne in the possession of that
incorae which was fully adequate to maintain the dignity and
splendour of his station. The severe lessons, however, which
are taught in the school of adversity, appear, in the case of
his Royal Highness, to have lost all their efficacy — their in
fluence was that ofthe raoraent, for he no sooner found him
self extricated from one embarrassment, than he heedlessly
rushed into another, more deep and huraiUating than any
of the preceding ones. That sense of shame, which ope
rates even on ordinary minds, formed no part of his moral
character — he commenced his life as he closed it, vain-glo
rious, profligate, and extravagant ; he seeraed not to feel nor
to understand the duties of his station — all his gratifications
were selfish — all his indulgencies sensual. Real friends he bad
none — but of needy dependants he had a crowd, and ' the'
most finished gentleman of Europe' was content to reign over a
palace occupied by none but courtezans and parasites. Educa
tion, which corrects and modifies the passions of other raen,
appeared to have no other tendency than to confirra and
strengthen his in all their plenitude and force. The raoral
beauty of virtue, emasculated in the festivities of vice, and
the debaucheries of a harem, possessed, in his sight, no fixed
nor permanent value. Without eyes for pure and innocent
forras, every thing was meretricious about him ; innocence
sunk abashed in his presence, and modesty tumed from his
gaze. The gallery of English beauties was the fascination of
voluptuousness, and tbe walls of Carlton House were 'aspic'
to every woman's character, who had the misfortune to attract
his notice.
We doubt not that we shall call down upon our heads the
bitter animadversions of the senseless tribe of courtiers and of
menials, who conceive that because, 'there is a divinity which
doth hedce a king,' it becomes at once an act criminal and
unjust to portray him as the man, and to hold him up to
view with all the vices and imperfections by which he was dis
tinguished in his career through life. If, to gratify a selfish
2 Q 2

308 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
passion— if, to obtain the indulgence of a sensual desire, a
prince or a raonarch has lost sight of the interests of the coun
try, and set at defiance every principle of raoraUty and virtue,
we wiU not, to gain the erapty applause of a courtly circle,
screen him from the merited indignation which naturaUy arises
in the breast ofthe good and virtuous, at the infraction of those
moral duties, by which the great chain of human society is
held together. In the delineation of a royal character, the
varnish of mystification may suit the parasite and the hireling ;
we will paint it as we have seen and known it, and although
the sight of the picture may be repellent to some, we shaU
persevere, unintiraidated by threats, to use our colours accord
ingly as the scenes present theraselves ; and when we give tbe
last finishing touch, it will stand as a portrait for after ages,
to conteraplate with mingled feelings of approbation and
disgust. In order faithfully to depicture the transaction which now
comes under our immediate notice, it will be necessary to in
troduce two individuals on the canvass, one of whom is the
present raonarch of the country, and the other, the late Duke
of York. Of the latter personage, it wiU be raerely requisUe
to state, that on his return to this country from his military
education in Prussia, he brought with him the prevaUing vice
of the majority of the courts of Germany — that of gambling ;
and to bis inordinate attachment to this ruinous propensity,
may be attributed the deep disgrace which he was often
obliged to endure, as well as the total ruin of his property and
fortune. Previously to his raarriage, he was little inferior to his
elder brother in bis attachment to the feraale sex, and tbe ex
penses which he incurred in sorae of his establishments for his
mistresses, joined to other pursuits of a still more extravagant
nature, soon reduced hira to such a condition, as actually to have
his carriage and horses taken in execution in the open streets,
and hiraself obliged to dismount and retum to his residence
on foot. In conjunction with his royal brothers, the Prince
of Wales and the Duke of Clarence, every source was tried in
this country from which such a supply could be raised as would
avert the storm which impended over their heads ; but all their
endeavours failed, and as the last resource, the Prince of

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 309
Wales was advised to try to raise a loan in Holland, and
Messrs. Bonney and Sunderland, then of George-yard, Lom
bard-street, were appointed notarial agents for the verification
of the bonds, and the late Mr. Thomas Hararaersley of Pall-
Mali, banker, was to receive the subscriptions and to pay the
dividends thereon to the holders on the joint bonds of the
Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence.
The sura intended to be raised was 3,600,000 guilders, about
one raillion sterling, the greater part of which, there is every
reason to believe, was subscribed for by foreign houses only, at
a price extreraely beneficial to the subscribers, provided the
conditions of the contract had been faithfully kept. The ne
gotiation for tbis loan comraenced in 1788, but an interruption
to its final corapletion, was occasioned by the death of
Mr. Bonney, the notary, and it was ultiraately confirraed, to
the great loss of those who had so rashly speculated in such a
questionable security. The interest of the loan was to bear
six per cent., and all the revenues and appendages of tbeir
Royal Highnesses were to be vested in the hands of the Dukes
of Portland and Northuraberland, and of other trustees of the
first distinction, for the due payment of the interest and principal
of the loan. The dishonourable part of this transaction now
commences : a great portion of the money had been received
by the Princes, to the amount of nearly half a million, and the
remainder was in the course of payraent, when the revolution
in France, of 1792, presented a terapting opportunity to resist
the payraent of those bonds which had been issued, and even
the interest which was due was refused. It happened, how
ever, that the revolution drove sorae of the holders of the
bonds to England, as an asylura ; and numerous applications
in person, or by the representatives of several of the holders,
were made to the three Princes, for the discharge of, or at
least for the interest which had become due on their obligations.
Tbe chicanery ofthe law now stepped in, and it was pretended
by the legal advisers of the Princes, that their bonds had by
various means got into hands wbich were not entitled to the
interest assigned ; it being alleged that the bond fide holders
had perished during the troubles in France and Holland, and,
consequently, that the grantors could not be legally bound to

310 MEMOIRS OP GEOEGE IV.
admit tbeir claims. On the other hand, it was contended tbat
tbe bonds being transferable securities, it raattered not into
whose hands they had fallen, nor was it a question decisive of
their validity, as to the nature or the extent of the considera
tion which had been given for thera. It was sufficient to pro
duce them in order to entitle the holders to all the benefits ac
cruing from their possession, in the same manner as if they had
been the actual subscribers to the loan. In this evasive attempt
to resist the validity of the bonds, a wound was inflicted on the
character of the royal Princes, which was never afterwards
wholly healed. It was considered as a base and dishonour
able artifice to obtain possession of an iraraense sura on pro
posed securities, declared and recognized at first as transfer
able, but the payment of which was to be resisted, on the
ground that the existing holders were not the original ones, and
that the possession of the bonds had been obtained by sinister
and fraudulent measures.
It should be here stated, out of a proper respect for the
character of the present King, that he appears to bave been
drawn into these transactions, not frora any very pressing
pecuniary exigencies of his own, but from a laudable and
generous disposition to assist his elder brothers in- extricating
thera from their embarrassments, by offering himself as a col
lateral security for the due payment of the bonds. And this
opinion is in a great measure confirraed by the circurastance,
that when George III. was informed of the negotiations which
were going on for the loan, he expressed the high sense ofhis
indignation in no measured terms, at the Duke of Clarence
being drawn in to sign the bonds, and thereby rendering him
self liable to the payment of an enorraous sura of raoney, with
all its accuraulating interest, which might eventuaUy reduce
him to the condition of abject pauperism. The evil was, how
ever committed before the transaction became known to George
III., and the only question now under consideration was the
remedy to be applied, in order to avert the ruin which impended
over tbe three elder branches of his family. A compromise was
at first projected with all the bond fide holders of the bonds and
that the option should be given to them of receiving at once
half the amount which had been advanced in full liquidation ot

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 311
the obligations, or to receive the whole at such stated periods, and
in such suras, as tbe finances of the borrowers could afford. It is
most probable that tbe latter proposal would have been immedi
ately accepted by the majority of the holders, who had now dis
covered that the security given was not so soUd as bad been
represented ; but the legal advisers of the crown again stepped
in, and recomraended a total denial of the validity of the bonds,
and, consequently, of tbe responsibihty of the grantors. In
order, however, to try the latter question, an application was
made to the Court of Chancery by a Mr. Martignac, one of
the original bondholders, who offered, as such, to verify tbe
security, and the matter came on regularly to be beard, by
way of raotion, when Sir Arthur Pigott, who was then Attor
ney-General to the Duchy of CornwaU, stated in answer, that
he had never heard ofthe existence of such bonds, and that if
such obUgations had been contracted, the court must be aware
of the difficulties, after the occurrences which had taken place
in France and Holland, attending the identification of the
bond fide holders, as well as the liabUity of tbe grantors, pro
vided such securities should be discharged. Tbe iraraediate
irapression on his own raind, said Sir Arthur, negatived tbe
existence of such bonds, although he should feel it to be his
duty to raake the necessary inquiries in the proper quarter,
and mention the matter again in court, as soon as he had any
coraraunication to make.
On the other side, the applicant stated, that the bonds had
not only existed, but were still in existence, and that those to
which he was legally entitled were then in his possession, and
that he appeared there in person to enforce his claim. The
motion was then disposed of, with the understanding that Sir
Arthur Pigott should mention it again at as early a day as
possible. This, however. Sir Arthur neglected to do, and the
court was again moved by the claimant, when it appeared, to
the astonishraent of aU, that Sir Arthur bad entirely forgotten
the business. It was, however, finaUy agreed to confer at
chambers on the subject, and the matter was no more
heard of.
This conduct of Sir Arthur Pigott constitutes one of not the
least extraordinary features of this singular transaction, and it

312 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
goes 'a great way to prove to what shifts and expedients a
lawyer can have recourse, in order to bolster up a rotten
and indefensible cause. In the first place, with the most un
blushing effrontery, he declared that he had never heard of the
existence of the bonds in question ; and that he verily believed
no such obligations ever were in existence. Can it for a
moment be credited, that Sir Arthur Pigott, the legal adviser of
the Prince of Wales, could enter the Court of Chancery,
with the ignorance of a fact on bis mind, which was then noto
rious, not only in this country, but in every part of the conti
nent ? The bonds in question were then floating in the money
raarket as comraon as any other negotiable security. There
was scarcely a broker on the Exchange, who bad not some
of them in his possession to dispose of; and it was well
known, that secret agents were employed to depreciate their
value, in order that they raight be bought up at the lowest
price; and it was no later than the year 1829, that Mr.
Charles, of Canterbury, had laid before hira notarial copies of
the whole ofthe arrangeraents, bonds, &c., verified in France
by a French notary, upon which legal proceedings were threat
ened, but which were never carried into effect, on the ground,
it is believed, of a coraproraise having been entered into with
the holders.
It is not iraprobable that Sir Arthur Pigott was obliged to
act up to the instructions given to hira, and that the part
which he had to perform was one of great difficulty and deli
cacy. His denial of tbe existence of the bonds, however, tended
in a great degree to excite the animosity of the holders, and to
make them raore claraorous for the liquidation of their claims.
The fact also having transpired of the successful issue of the
application of Mr. Martignac to the Court of Chancery, the
applicants considered that the path was chalked out to them
by which they could be equaUy successful; and, conse
quently, a number of holders on the continent hastened to this
country, for the sole purpose of enforcing their claims, with
out investing themselves with any political character, or raix
ing themselves up with either of the great contending parties,
which were then struggling in France against the despotism and
fanaticism ofthe Bourbon race.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 313
• At this period, that weak and irabecile minister. Lord Sid
mouth, held the seals of the Horae departraent; and itwas
under his adrainistration that the odious Alien Act was put
into its fuUest force : the spirit of espionage, so uncongenial to
the principles of a free constitution, like that of England, was
carried to an extent hitherto unknown in this country ; and the
unoffending foreigner, who had sought an asylura on the British
shores frora the troubles which devastated his own country,
was, on the mere breath of suspicion, or some anonymous
information, taken secretly frora his bed, and without knowing
the nature of the offence which be had given, hurried out
of the country, and thrown upon a hostile shore, into the pos
session of his most iraplacable eneraies, to raeet the immediate
death of the traitor. As a powerful political engine, at a period
of anarchy and rebellion, when kings were fighting for their
thrones, and nations for their constitutions, tbe exercise of the
AUen Act might have been tolerated under circurastances of
an iraperious nature. It is, however, the abuse of it of which
we complain, and its application to individuals, whose cases
carae not within the sphere of its operation, according to the
principles on which the alien laws were Tounded. In no in
stance, perhaps, was the severity of the Alien Act carried to a
greater extent, than in the case of the holders of tbe bonds of
the royal princes. They carae to this country to enforce ajust
and long-standing claira for raonies which they bad advanced
on the security of the future raonarch of it, and of his illustrious
brothers ; and, certainly, it must be acknowledged that if cir
curastances did not admit of the iraraediate liquidation of those
clairas, that degree of courtesy was due to the clairaants which
is always readily and willingly granted from a debtor to his cre
ditor, in the most ordinary transactions of life. The exact
reverse, however, was tbe case with the unfortunate bond
holders of the Princes. Their claira was disputed on the
ground that they were not the original holders. In vain they
argued that they bad given a bond fide consideration for thera,
and therefore that their title was unquestionable to all the ad
vantages which would have resulted to the original holders, in
whose shoes they considered theraselves to be then standing.
This arguraent was blinked by the subterfuge, that no proof
3k

314 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
had been given of any bond fide consideration having been
paid; that the revolution in France, and the consequent trou
bles in the adjacent countries, bad completely altered the poli
tical relations of England, and had placed the responsibility of
tbe grantors of the bonds on a very different footing than it
stood at the time when the security was entered into. This,
however, was a species of reasoning which the bondholders
could not, or would not, understand. They considered the
laws of England to be open to them, and to those laws they
expressed their deterrainalion to appeal for redress. The tem
per of the English people was not at this period in a state to
endure any fresh cause of excitation ; much less one which,
bore immediately upon the extravagance and profligacy of their
princes. The French were then reading a most powerful lesson
to the Bourbon princes, on tbe wasteful expenditure of the
nation's riches ; and it was feared, not without sorae substan
tial grounds, that the English people raight be disposed to read
the sarae lesson, in equally expressive terras, to sorae of their
own princes, the catastrophe of which might close in the
sarae raanner as had been exhibited in France. An iraraediate
adjustraent of the bonds was certainly the raost efficient me
thod of stifling the clamour of the clairaants ; but, 'although
advisable in one point of view, it was attended in another with
the greatest danger and erabarrassraent to the parties con
cerned ; for, on the return of the clairaants to the continent,
rejoicing in the success of their application, the whole host of
the holders would tread in the same steps, and repair instantly
to England, to substantiate their claim upon the royal Princes.
In the mean tirae, the claimants then in the country shewed
by tbeir proceedings tbat the threat of an appeal to the laws
was not an idle breath ; and it was judged necessary and highly
politic that an immediate stop should be put to thera. Accord
ingly, without a single raoment's notice, the whole of the claim
ants were taken up under the AUen Act, and being put on
board a vessel in the Thames, it set sail iraraediately for Hol
land ; but, for a particular purpose, it cast anchor at tbe
Nore, under pretence of waiting for the necessary papers from
the Secretary of State's office.
And here begins the gravamen of the charge which we make

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 315
against tbe constituted authorities of this country, in tbe com
mission of an act wbich might have been tolerated under the
tyranny of a Nero, or the ferocious despotism of a Russian
autocrat. The charge is one dark and dreadful ; — dark in the
secresy and mystery which still hangs over the transaction ; —
dreadful, as it implies the comraission of an act which could
only have been engendered in the head of a fiend, and wbich ^
tbe hands of fiends could alone have executed. We know not
on wbat head to attach tbe enormity of tbe crime ; but for the
sake of the country which could bave nurtured such a head in
its bosom, we should bail an official and authentic denial of
the fact, as the happy removal of a stain upon its character,
which now adheres to it with the most obstinate tenacity, ex
tending in its inflictions to tbe very highest quarters, and im
plicating individuals in tbe estiraation of foreign nations, wbich
were heretofore accustoraed to regard the British character
as a corapound of aU that was noble and dignified in huraan
nature. It was openly declared in a certain quarter, that the act was
one of raere accident — one of those casualties against which
no huraan foresight could prevail. But it is not customary to
throw the veil of secresy and raystery over a raere accident ;
for where an evident desire of concealraent is raanifested, there
is generally something raore than accident or casualty behind.
The particulars of the tragical catastrophe were known but to
few ; and it was not the interest of those few to divulge all they
knew upon the subject. Ruraour, which is generally very busy
on occasions of this kind, obtained but a very partial insight
into the affair ; but still such a sufficiency was gathered as to
sanction and confirra the suspicion that accident had very
little to do in the affair, but that the whole was a deep-laid,
diabolical plan to prevent the unfortunate holders of the bonds
from giving any further trouble on the score of their clairas.
In sorae cases, presuraptive evidence is as strong as positive
proof; and it were natural to presume that the crew of the
vessel in which the bondholders were embarked must have had
«ome very powerful reasons for taking to their boat at night,
and landing on the nearest shore : but raost extraordinary it
was that, before they reached it, not a vestige of the vessel
2 R 2

316 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
which they had just left was discernible above water — it bad
sunk, and every soul on board perished. If accident bad any
share in this catastrophe, it must be attributed to a power
which distributes the evil and the good in this world according
to its ovvn wise and inscrutable dispensations ; but if it sprang
from premeditation and design, on the head of man let the
whole weight of the ignominy rest ; and when the day of retri
bution coraes, the spirits of the victiras will rise frora the deep,
the hour of vengeance has arrived, and woe to those on whora
its weight raay fall !
Speaking finally of these bonds, it is a question of no trifling
iraport to his present Majesty, how far his UabUity extends to
the liquidation of those which are still outstanding, and for
which no provision has been made by either of his royal bro
thers deceased. The validity of the documents has been re
peatedly acknowledged, either by payraent in full, or by cora
promise ; and as several of the bonds appeared so late as 1829,
it is not improbable that many others are still in existence, the
payraent of which may be demanded, and which must now
fall solely on his present Majesty. It may be important to
remark, tbat when the question of the payment of the Prince
of Wales' debts was agitated in parliaraent, shortly after his
marriage, it was stated by the Duke of Clarence, that this
foreign loan was put a stop to by the Secretary of State. We
have fully exposed the particular measures which that rainister
adopted for effecting the end in view.
We bave had few occasions hitherto to regard the Prince of
Wales in his political character ; but he was always, as is
usual with heirs-apparent in this country, an ostensible rallying
point of parliaraentary opposition to his father's govemment.
His Royal Highness, in his professed adherence to the party
out of office, felt conscious of the exercise of an independent
power, which gained him popularity, and cost him nothing.
Whig doctrines have a smack of liberty about thera ; they were
showy appendages to a prince, and wore handsomely in fine
weather, when all was calm and sunshine ; but the sunshine
did not last for ever. The French revolution carae, and me
naced all thrones, and royal famUies, and courtly institutions,
with destruction. The King and his ministers made war upon

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 317
this foe. The Whig leader and bis partisans were compelled
to struggle against the course adopted by the minister, or they
must have been extinguished as an opposition ; and this again
forced thera into a constructive and reputed, though certainly
an undesigned co-operation with those who laboured under the
reproach of being Jacobins, and at least theoretic rebels. The
Prince, therefore, less than any raan inclined to lose his caste
or incur peril for such a cause, bade fareweU to the opposition,
in a speech against revolutionary politics, and was thenceforth
designated by Mr. Fox's friends as one unworthy of political
trust or attachraent. The Prince of Wales was nevertheless
associated in this censure with sorae of the ablest and raost
estiraable individuals of their generation. Burke, with Wind
ham by bis side, and in their trains Lords Spencer, FitzwiUiam,
and the Bentincks, expounded the mystery of the times in tbe
sense in wbich it was understood by the heir-apparent, and
transferred their influence to the king's government, embarked
as it then was in the quarrel of constitutional liberty, against
headlong violence and injustice. The Prince of Wales appears
not to have borne any active or conspicuous part in politics,
between the day in which he ceased to countenance the Foxite
opposition, and that far more memorable epoch in December,
1810, at which, on tbe mental demise of George III., his
Royal Highness assumed the government of these realms as
Prince Regent.
In 1793, the Duke of York's mUitary duties were called into
active service in the Netherlands, and in 1794, the Duke of
Kent commanded the grenadier brigade in the attacks on
Guadaloupe and Martinique, under Sir Charles Grey and Sir
John Jervis. The Duke of Clarence had been devoted to the
navy, and the Prince of Wales, then Colonel of the 10th regi
ment of light dragoons, felt most severely his leading a life of
inactivity and of inglorious ease. He entreated his royal
father to employ him in some military capacity, and at the
tirae of the threatened invasion, his request was pressed raore
warmly. The following is the letter which he addressed to his
royal father.
' I ask,' such was the language of the Prince on this
occasion — ' to be aUowed to display tbe best energies of

318 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
my character, to shed the last drop of my blood in support
of your Majesty's person, crown, and dignity; for tbis is not
a war for empire, glory, or dominion, but for existence.
In this contest, the lowest and humblestof your Majesty's sub
jects have been called on ; it would, therefore, little become
me, vvho am the first, and who stand at the very footstool of the
throne, to remain a tame, an idle, and a lifeless spectator of the
mischiefs which threaten us, unconscious of the dangers which
surround us, and indifferent to the consequences which may fol
low. Hanover is lost ; England is raenaced with invasion; Ire
land is in rebellion ; Europe is at the foot of France. At such a
raoraent, the Prince of Wales, yielding to none of your servants
in zeal and devotion — to none of your subjects in duty — to
none of your children in tenderness and affection — presumes
to approach you, and again to repeat those offers which he
has already made through your Majesty's rainisters. A feeling
of honest arabition, a sense of what I owe to myself and my
family, and above all, the fear of sinking in the estimation of
that gaUant array which raay be the support of your Majesty's
crown, and ray best hope hereafter, command rae to persevere,
and to assure your Majesty, with all buraUity and respect,
that, conscious of the justice of ray claira, no huraan power
can ever induce me to relinquish it.
' Allow me to say. Sir, that I am bound to adopt this line of
conduct by every motive dear to me as a man, and sacred to
rae as a prince. Ought I not to come forward in a moraent of
unexarapled difficulty and danger ? — Ought I not to share in
the glory of victory, when I have every thing to lose by defeat?
The highest places in your Majesty's service are filled by the
younger branches of the royal famUy ; to rae alone no place is
assigned; I ara not thought worthy to be even the junior
major-general of your army. If I could subrait in sUence to
such indignities, I should indeed deserve such treatraent, and
prove, to the satisfaction of your eneraies and ray own, that I
am entirely incapable of those exertions, which my birth and
the circurastances of the times peculiarly call for. Standing so
near the throne, when I am debased, the cause of royalty is
wounded. I cannot sink in public opinion without the parti
cipation of your Majesty in my degradation. Therefore, every

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.

319

motive of private feeling and public duty induces rae to implore
your Majesty to review your decision, and to place rae in that
situation which my birth, the duties of ray .station, the example
of my predecessors, and the expectations ofthe people of Eng
land, entitle me to claim.'
From sorae cause, which is not generally known, this re
quest was not acceded to. Sorae bave attributed tbe refusal
to the Prince's attachment to the political party opposed to
the governraent, but the real cause is yet unrevealed.
Tbe Prince now spent tbe greater portion of the few suc
ceeding years between Carlton House and Brighton ; and,
unfortunately for hira, very seldora identified hiraself with the
people, whose future sovereign he was destined to becorae.
There is, however, one trait in the private character of his
Royal Highness, which deserves to be recorded, and that is,
the warm interest which he took in the personal welfare of his
menial servants, of which the two following anecdotes will
bear araple testiraony : —
Being at Brighton, and going rather earlier than usual to
visit his stud, he inquired of a groora, ' Where is^Tora Cross * ?
is he unwell ? I have missed him for sorae days.' ' Please
your Royal Highness, he is gone away.' ' Gone away! — what
for.'" ' Please you Royal Highness, (hesitating) I believe —
for — Mr.  can inforra your Royal Highness.' ' I desire
to know. Sir, of you — what has he done 9' ' I believe — your
Royal Highness — soraething — not — quite correct— soraething
about the oats.' ' Where is Mr.  f , — send him to me
immediately.' The Prince appeared rauch disturbed at the
discovery. The absent one, quite a youth, had been eraployed
in tbe stable, and was the son of an old groom, who had died
in the Prince's service. The officer of the stable appeared
before the Prince. ' Where is Tora Cross ? — what has become
of hira?' ' I do not knovv, your Royal Highness.' 'What
bas he been doing ?' ' Purloining the oats, your Royal High
ness ; and I discharged hira.' ' What, Sir I send bira away
¦without acquainting rae ! — not know whither he is gone ! a
fatherless boy ! driven into the world frora my service, with a
* This name is assumed, but his Royal Highness spoke to him with a similar
characteristic familiarity of designation.
¦ f A superior ofthe stable department.

320 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
blighted character ! Why, the poor fellow wiU be destroyed :
fie,  ! I did not expect this from you ! Seek him out,
Sir, and let me not See you until you have discovered hira.'
Tom was found, and brought before his royal master. He
hung down his head, while the tears trickled from bis eyes.
After looking steadfastly at hira for some moments, ' Tom,
Tom,' said the Prince, ' what bave you been doing ? Happy
it is for your poor father that he is gone ; it would have broken
his heart to see you in such a situation. I hope this is your
first offence.' The youth wept bitterly. ' Ah, Tom ! I am
glad to see that you are penitent. Your father was an honest
man ; I had a great regard for hira ; so I should bave for you,
if you were a good lad, for his sake. Now, if I desire Mr.
.  to take you into the stable again, think you that I may
trust you ? ' Tora wept still raore veheraently, implored for
giveness, and proraised reformation. ' Well then,' said the
gracious Prince, ' you shall be restored : avoid evil corapany.
Go, and recover your character. Be diligent, be honest, and
make me your friend ; and — hark ye, Tora — I will take care
that no one shall ever taunt you with what is past.'
At another time, a gentleman, whilst copying a picture in
one of the state apartments at Carlton House, overheard the
following conversation between an elderly v/oman, one of the
housemaids, then employed in cleaning a stove-grate, and a
journeyman glazier, who was supplying a broken pane of
glass : — ' Have you heard how the Prince is to-day ?' said he,
(his Royal Highness had been confined by Ulness.) ' Much
better,' was the reply. ' I suppose,' said the glazier, ' you are
glad of that?' subjoining, ' thougb to be sure it caw' i concern
you much.' ' It does concern me,' replied the housemaid ;
' for though I am only a humble raenial, I have never been
ill but his Royal Highness has concerned himself about rae,
and has always been pleased, on my resuming my work, to
say, " I am glad to see you about again ; I hope you have
been taken good care of; do not exert yourself too much, lest
you be ill again." If I did not rejoice at his Royal Highness'
recovery, aye, and every one who eats bis bread, we should be
very ungrateful indeed !'
It raust, however, be adraitted, that there must ever be a

T.-BajQies, deJ^

H. Adlai'd. sciilpT

WlIW®g(0>3E ©A^TILIS.
lanamEulibdiBd. -fcy Hlomas Kelly 17, Pitemoster iow; 1830

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 321
wide distinction between the prince and his people; but just
in proportion as that barrier to rautual respect and confidence
is removed will the one rise in reputation, and the other raani
fest a propriety of conduct. When, therefore, the Prince ap
peared in public, he was either received with indifference, or
with dislike ; and tbe English, who possess not the art of con
cealing their unfriendliness, frequently developed tbeir feel
ings in noisy strains of invective and reproach. The private
conduct of the Prince unfortunately tended to increase such
sentiments. Although his debts had been paid — his esta
blishment increased — his incorae enlarged — his palace cora
pleted, yet his creditors again becarae clamorous — his friends
continued to be distinguished for their imraoral habits, and
not unfrequently the public prints announced adventures and
occurrences which were as undignified as they were mor
tifying. The King, who was a man as moral and virtuous in bis
habits and associations, as he was naturally averse from splen
dour and profligacy, was greatly distressed by the rumours
which reached his ears, and which pained his heart ; for which
reasons he frequently intimated to Mr. Pitt his desire that the
heir-apparent to the throne should enter into the married state.
Mr. Pitt, naturally keen and calculating, perceived objections
even to that measure, and secretly endeavoured rather to per
suade to a reduction of the expenditure of tbe Prince than to
favour his marriage. On one occasion, that minister corarau
nicated his sentiraents to his Majesty, and expressed in terms, ill
suited to the increasing petulance of the monarch, his aversion
from the project. The measure was as yet undecided, but the
King vvas firm, and the minister, who knew how to differ without
offending, and to yield when perseverance in opposition would
be unavailing, from that tirae left the management of the matter
entirely to the royal faraily.
It requires but a slight knowledge of the human heart, and
of the principles and raotives which operate in the forraation
of character, to enable any one to perceive, that the previous
habits of the Prince of Wales were such as naturaUy to have
engendered an aversion frora the raarriage state. Such aversion
he did not hesitate to reveal, and his friends did not endeavour
2 S

322 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE I'V.
to remove it. For the feraale sex he, indeed, professed admi
ration the raost sincere, and friendship the most ardent ; but
a permanent attachment, founded on the basis of mutual
affection, was wholly incorapatible with his character.
The marriage of the Duke of York, wbich was anything
but a happy one, as neither bis habits nor bis dispositions assi-
raUated with those of the Duchess, did not tend fo reraove the
objections of the Prince of Wales ; and be often disclosed to
an intimate friend, afterwards discarded, that be would rather'
forfeit bis right to the crown than be plagued witb a wife.
Nor should such feeling in itself excite either surprise or ani
madversion. Habits, when of long duration, becorae prin
ciples of action, and how could it be expected that he, who
had ruled the hearts and persons of some of the most beauti
ful and even accoraplished of his countryworaen, could easily
bring his mind to enjoy, or even endure, the retired and pri
vate joys of domestic and matrimonial life. To Mrs. Fitz
herbert the Prince was really attached, although it was well
known, that during his intimacy with that lady he had fre
quently bent his knee at the shrine of other goddesses ; but
the latter was a fleeting passion, whilst Mrs. Fitzherbert con
tinued to exercise her dominion over his passions and judg
ment, by presenting to bim, in fearful array, the horrors of a
matrimonial connexion. Yet, after marriage, the conduct of
that lady was, on the whole, dignified and proper ; and even
the Princess of Wales herself habitually spoke of ber in
friendly terras. That Mrs. Fitzherbert should be unfriendly to
the raarriage of the Prince is not at all astonishing. Her
dignity, her fortune, ber rank, her happiness, would all, of
course, naturally suffer by the arrangement ; and, therefore,
before she should be censured, it ought to be recoUected, that
very few would not have so felt and acted. Nor should it be
omitted to be recorded, in an impartial narrative of these events,
that that lady, after the marriage had taken place, thougb
disappointed and chagrined by the circurastance, did not en
deavour longer to exercise her influence over her previous
acquaintance ; and that, although tbe connexion between her
and the Prince was subsequently renewed, it was by his desire,
and not at her request.

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 323
The King now became still raore desirous than forraerly for
the raarriage of the Prince of Wales. The Duke of York
had no issue by his raarriage, and it was considered by the
royal faraily, and the physicians of the Duchess, that issue
.was not to be expected. The King was advancing in years —
the Prince was then thirty-two, and state policy suggested to
his Majesty the propriety of providing for the succession.
Unhappily for the Prince, for the royal faraily, and for the
nation, the pecuniary erabarrassraents of tbe Prince of Wales
at this tirae corapelled hira to apply to his father, and to Mr.
Pitt, for further assistance. The forraer recoraraended mar
riage, and the latter did not offer to it any objections. His
Majesty had made it a matter of public conversation and cor
respondence ; and in two letters to his sister, the Duchess of
Brunswick, he had pointedly adverted to the subject. It ap
pears to be indisputable, that the Duchess had in consequence
conceived sorae hopes that her daughter raight be selected as
the consort of the future King of England ; and she actually
expressed thera to that effect to a lady of her court. StUl she
entertained sorae apprehension that her brother raight object
to an alliance between individuals so nearly related, and who
had not possessed any opportunities of obtaining a personal
acquaintanceship. We may, perhaps, be accused of travelling out ofthe re
cord, in expressing our objection to these close, and, we may
add, unnatural aUiances in princely families, which may be
considered as the acting cause of that fatuity, which the most
superficial observer must allow has in all ages been the disease
of hereditary royalty and of ancient dynasty. This is a truth
of such magnitude and importance, that to the interests of
^political phUosophy its discussion is due, unfettered by all
teraporal and trivial considerations. If the fact be doubte^,
we may point out to them the cases of the Emperor Paul of
Russia, the late Sovereigns of Denraark and Portugal, the
deposed King of Sweden, the late King of Naples, George HI.
, of England, &c. — a fourth or a fifth of the Kings then occu
pying the thrones of Europe, and consequently a proportion of
mental disease in£;nitely greater than can be exeraplified in
any other rank of society. The marriage of the Prince of
2 S 2 '

324 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Wales with the daughter of his father's sister approached very
closely to incest ; and this has generally been the practice of
all princely famUies in their marriages, having usually inter
married only with persons of similar rank, of similariy depraved
education, of similarly degenerated intellectual and physio
gnomical character. The royal famUy of Spain is more re
markable than any other for intermarriages between parties so
closely aUied as to be almost incestuous ; and, accordingly,
the ultimate result of these infaraies has been the production
of a sort of unnatural being— of Ferdinand, the monster ; and
if we look to this country, we believe there is little doubt that
it will soon witness a marriage but one degree removed frora
incest, in the aUiance of brothers' children in the persons of
Prince George of Cumberland and the Princess Victoria.
We consider the latter circumstance deserving of the most
serious reflection ; the stock of royal imbecUity on hand is
already sufficiently large, without incurring any further risk of
increasing it.
To return frora this short digression. In the year 1794,
the Duke of York left this country to take the coramand of
the British army in Germany, in the war which was then pro
secuting against the French republic. After a trifling success
gained over the enemy, the situation ofthe allied forces became
extremely perilous. Pichegru, bold, intelligent, and perse
vering, successfully opposed the combined efforts of Clairfait,
the Prince of Coburg,' and the Duke of York ; and the latter
was compelled to fly to Antwerp. The ultimate result of the
war it is here unnecessary to record. The British troops were
sacrificed, the British character injured, and the British re
sources expended unnecessarily and unwisely ; and the ter
mination of this expedition was of the most raelancholy cha
racter. During this unfortunate campaign, the Duke of York became
acquainted with his uncle the Duke of Brunswick, and to his
court and famUy he was introduced. Such introduction was
unhappUythe means of that subsequent alliance, which good
and wise men can never cease to deplore. The accomplish
ments and personal charms of the Princess Caroline made
impressions of the most favourable nature on the mind of the

MEMOIRS OF GEOEGE IV. 325
Duke of York, and those feelings he coraraunicated to the
Prince of Wales and to his father the king.
The prelirainary objection which the Prince of Wales had
invariably made when marriage was recoraraended to him,
now appeared to the king to be removed, and be requested
the former to be united to the Princess. The requisition was
made at a time when the resources of the Prince were espe
cially exhausted — when his creditors became importunate —
when it became necessary to discharge some debts of honour,
and when, therefore, the prospect of relief, even at any sacri
fice, was desirable. The portrait of the Princess of Bruns
wick, which had been shevvn to the Prince of Wales, repre
sented a lady of by no means a disagreeable appearance, and
the proraise of tbe King in writing, that on the raarriage of the
Prince his debts should be discharged — his incorae increased,
and the favour of his father augraented and secured, addi-
tionaUy operated on his mind in favour ofthe connexion. He
consulted with Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan ; the former advised
acquiescence, and the latter was less averse from the alteration.
The Prince ultimately consented, and the negotiations for the
raarriage comraenced.
Those who knew little of the Prince's character, and who
discre(Jited as calumnies the current rumours respecting his
life, were eager for this earnest of a second example of do
mestic regularity and concord in the royal family of England,
and asked each other who was to be the fortunate object of
bis affections ? Those, however, who knew better, asked, who
ivas to be the victim ofhis necessities ? and her name was in due
tirae announced.
This raatch, however, was not one of choice on either side ;
for her Serene Highness had fixed her affections on a German
Prince, whom she could not marry. Thus interest, indiffer
ence, and second love held out but an uripropitious prospect
for the royal pair. The Princess did not withhold her consent;
although she had heard of the foUies of the Prince, she had
also heard of his virtues ; and his generosity and sensibility
bad been greatly extoUed. Yet, for reasons just stated, the
Princess neither did, nor could, love her future husband. The
precise state of her mind cannot be better stated than in the

326 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
unguarded frankness of one of her letters to a friend, dated
Noveraber 28, 1794:—
' You are aware, my friend, of my destiny. I am about entering
into a matrimonial alliance with my first cousin, George, Prince of
Wales. His generosity I regard, and his letters bespeak a mind
well cultivated and refined. My uncle is a good man, and I love him
very much, but I feel that I shall never be inexpressibly happy.
Estranged from my connexions, my associates, my friends — all that
I hold dear and valuable — I am about entering on a permanent con
nexion. I fear for the consequences. Yet I esteem and respect my
intended husband, and I hope for great kindness and attention.
But, ah me ! I say sometimes I cannot now love him with ardour.
I am indifferent to my marriage, but not averse to it ; 1 think I shall
be happy, but I fear my joy will not be enthusiastic. The man of
my choice I am debarred irom possessing, and I resign myself to
my destiny. I am attentively studying the English language ; I am
acquainted with it, but I wish to speak it with fluency. I shall
strive to render my husband happy, and to interest him in my favour,
since the Fates will have it that I am to be Princess of Wales.'
This letter, in German, was addressed to one of the Princess'
countrywomen, resident in England. It has a tone of senti
ment and romance which is truly painful.
The first intimation of the intended raarriage was conveyed
to the public in the speech which his Majesty delivered on
the 30th of Deceraber, 1794, to both Houses of Parliaraent,
in which he expressed himself in the following manner : —
' I have the greatest satisfaction in announcing to you the
happy event of the conclusion of a treaty of raarriage with the
Princess Caroline, daughter of the Duke of Brunswick. The
constant proofs of your affection for my person and faraily
persuade rae that you will participate in the sentiraents I feel
on an occasion so interesting to my doraestic happiness ; and
that you will enable me to make provision for such an esta
blishment as you may think suitable to the rank and dignity of
the heir-apparent to the crown of these kingdoms.'
The address of the Commons to his Majesty was, as usual
a mere echo of the speech, expressing also their high satis
faction at the proposed marriage, and their extreme readiness

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 327
and cheerfulness to vote away a large sura frora the public
purse, for the support and maintenance of the rank and dig
nity of tbe heir-apparent.
On the SOth of December, 1794, the Princess Caroline left
the court of Brunswick, attended by her mother and a retinue
splendid and nuraerous. The acclaraations of the populace
followed her for several miles on her route ; and those to
whom she bad manifested any kindness prayed to the God of
Charity for his blessing on the union. During the period that
elapsed frora the time of her leaving Brunswick to that of quit
ting Cuxbaven, she studied the English language, raade raany
enquiries as to English raanners and custoras, and appeared
particularly anxious to be perfectly acquainted with the genius
and character of the nation over whora she might one day bd
called to reign.
The eyes of the whole English nation were now directed to
the arrival of the Princess of Brunswick : congratulatory ad
dresses were prepared, and the powers of poetry were invoked
to bail her arrival on British land. At length, on the 28th of
March, 1795, she embarked in the Jupiter, Commodore Payne.
She was accompanied by Mrs. Harcourt and Lord Malmes
bury, and also by Mrs. Aston and Mrs. St. Leger, who had
been sent for that purpose expressly by the Prince of Wales.
Lady Jersey had also received instructions to embark from
Rochester ; but she retumed to London with the excuse of
being indisposed, and stated her inability to proceed.
We raust here be allowed to call the attention of our readers
to the following interesting facts concerning the treacherous
and infaraous conduct of Lady Jersey throughout the whole of
the circurastances connected vvith the marriage of the Prince
of Wales, which have transpired by degrees since we wrote
tbe Memoirs of Queen CaroUne*, and which wiU be found to
fill up raany chasms in that work, for which the requisite ma
terials could not at that time be found, or which were so stu
diously concealed as to defy the power of the raost industrious
research. The following pages of individual history will be
perused with pain and regret by every one whose mind is
* Published, with the Trial, complete in four volumes, hy Thomas Kelly, Pater-
uoster-rovT.

328 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
rightly constituted, and whose heart is not incapable of noble
and generous sympathy. They will carry with them the deve
lopment of actual, positive misery, and one continued narrative
of sorrow and suffering. Whatever might be the cause of
such evils, their existence cannot be disputed ; and that very
reality must therefore excite pity and regret.
The whole of this affair, intensely interesting to eyery one
who bears the name of an Englishman, carries with it reflec
tions of the most momentous import. That the heir-apparent
to the throne of a free country should be compeUed, against
his incUnations, to unite his destiny with an individual whom
he did not love, is a circumstance which the statesman, the
moralist, and the philanthropist must deplore ; and that the
daughter ofthe brave, the virtuous, and noble Duke of Bruns
wick should also be induced to consent to a union from which
she was averse, is equally lamentable. Against such arrange
ments of national policy many objections to their theory might
be urged ; but the history of this marriage is so replete with
proofs of their baneful operation, that theory is superseded by
fact, and supposition by demonstration. To all nations and to
all governments it must read a lesson which should never be
forgotten, and which should not only be deplored, but should
induce a universal determinat'on to repeal or discontinue all
laws and customs, however sanctioned by experience, or vene
rable for antiquity, which are the real causes of evUs so dire,
and which, unhappily, are as frequent as they are distressing.
It was on the 4th of April, 1795, that the Jupiter, having on
board the Princess Caroline, anchored off Gravesend ; and on
the following morning she went on board one of the royal
yachts, and about 12 o'clock, landed at Greenwich Hospital.
The Princess was received by Sir Hugh PaUiser, the govemor,
who conducted her to his house ; but Lady Jersey did not
arrive there till an hour after the Princess had landed. They
both soon after retired into an adjoining room, and the dress
of the Princess was changed for one which was brought from
town by Lady Jersey.
Her stay at Greenwich was very short, as she departed,
immediately after dressing, for town, in the same coach with
Mrs, Harcourt and Lady Jersey, and arrived at St. James' a

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 329
little before three o'clock. She was iraraediately introduced into
the apartments prepared for her reception. On her entering
the palace the Prince of Wales appeared agitated, but on being
introduced to her, he immediately saluted her. The King was
particularly affable and kind to his intended daughter-in-law,
but tbe Queen met her with the mo.st repulsive coldness, made
but few inquiries, and manifested feelings much opposed in cha
racter to those ofthe King. The Prince of Wales was not only
polite and affable to the Princess, but he paid her many com
pliments, expressed his happiness and confidence in the pro
spect of an union with her ; and his surprise at the fluency
with which she conversed in English. At eleven o'clock the
Prince of Wales retired, and the Princess was then left under
the care of Mrs. Aston.
Lady Jersey, who had been present during the greatest part
of the interview, and who had appeared displeased by the
attentions which the Prince of Wales had paid to his destined
wife, now also retired, determined to avail herself of the period
which would elapse prior to a second interview between the
illustrious personages, to represent to the Prince, in false and
unmerited language, the character of her royal mistress. To
Lady Jersey, the Princess of Brunswick had certainly most
incautiously and unwarily stated her attachment to a German
prince ; and Lady Jersey stated that the Princess said, ' she
was persuaded that she loved one little finger of that indivi
dual far better than she should love the whole person of the
Prince of Wales.' The accuracy of this statement, to its full
extent, was subsequently denied by the Princess of Brunswick,
but still she admitted that she had imprudently referred to a
forraer attachment. Lady Jersey, on the succeeding day,
apprised the Prince of Wales of that attachment, assured him
that his intended consort had made the above declaration —
found fault with her person — ridiculed the coarseness of her
manners — predicted that the marriage, if consummated, would
be unfortunate, and inveighed against the King for promoting
the intended union. A great part of this statement was sub
sequently admitted by Lady Jersey, and vvhat was not so
admitted, was stated by the Princess, on the highest authority,
to have taken place. 2 T

330 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
The effects of the machinations of this female fiend were im
mediate and baneful, for on the following day, when the Prince
of Wales visited St. James', he was distant and reserved in
his manners, and manifested, if not a decided aversion from
the Princess of Brunswick, at least such a marked alteration
in his conduct, that it was observed by all present, and augured
little for the happiness of the intended union. Queen Char
lotte has been accused of having been the individual who
effected, or contributed to effect, such alteration ; but the
charge is without foundation. The malicious and artful Lady
Jersey was the principal, if not the sole cause.
At length the day arrived when the nuptials were tO' be
solemnized, and on the evening of April the Sth, 1795, the
raarriage took place. It was celebrated at the Royal Chapel,
St. Jaraes', and the cereraony was splendid and iraposing. To
enter into a full detail of the whole cereraonial is unnecessaryj
asit has been fully described in the ' Meraoirs of Queen Caro
line ; ' but it raay not be deeraed irrelevant to show how rauch
the King was interested in the match, which was sufficiently
manifested by several minute circurastances connected with the
ceremonial of the day. The whole of the royal family having
dined together at the Queen's Palace, it was necessary after
wards for thera to proceed to St. James' to their respective
apartments to dress ; and on leaving Buckingham House, the
good old King kissed the Princess in the haU, and, in the
fulness of his heart, shook tbe Prince of Wales by the hand
till rautual tears started from the eyes of father and son. When
the service was performing, and the Archbishop of Canterbury
asked, ' Who gives the bride in marriage ?' the King instantly
and eageriy advanced to the Princess, and taking ber witb both
his hands, presented her with expressive marks of satisfaction.
The indifference of the Prince was indeed a chiUing con
trast with this parental warmth. The bride was unseemingly
dejected, and the Prince, at the comraenceraent, bore his cora-
pulsory fate with very little grace ; he, however, bethought
him of ' the sweet little courtesies,' and before the cereraony
concluded, assuraed the gallantry of a gentleman, and paid the
most polite attention to the bride and bridemaids. This was
but the sunshine of ceremony. Only on one occasion did

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. ' 331
the King reprove bim, and that when the Prince impatiently
rose too soon from his kneeling position. The Archbishop of
Canterbury paused, wben the King rose from his seat, and
whispered to the Prince, who kneeled again, and the service
concluded. After tbe ceremonial, their Majesties held a drawing-room,
which was numerously and brilliantly attended ; and on its
close, the whole of the royal family returned to the Queen's
palace to sup quite in a domestic style, and the newly-married
pair retired to Carlton House at raidnight.
Tbe celebration of this splendid cereraony was hailed by all
ranks and orders of people with the utmost enthusiasm. The
thundering expressions of delight by the cannon in the Park
and at the Tower were answered by the acclamations of the
populace, tbe ringing of bells, by the display of flags, the
flashing of a million tapers, fantastically shining in all shapes
and dimensions, and iUuminating the whole of the raetropolis.
The syrapathetic feeling extended itself, with the rapidity of
lightning, to the reraotest parts of the empire, and produced
the most enthusiastic effusions of loyalty and joy.
. From these public demonstrations of happiness, we turn to
private ones of a very different character. We would gladly
forbear to touch any further on the fate of the raost ill-used of
the Brunswick race, and with one exception, Matilda of Den
mark, the raost unhappy; but we dare not avoid the subject,
although now to dweU upon it would excite feelings which raay
be let sleep without tbe sacrifice of any pararaount duty.
It is very probable that the Prinpess of Wales would not,
under any circurastances, have made ber husband a fit meraber
of the marriage state. To supply that ajjsent grace to bis
character, she raust have reclaimed bira ; and the wife who
would reclaira a libertine raust begin by awakening his affec
tions. But the affections of tbe Prince of Wales ! where were
they ? of what nature ? by what engaged, or by whom ? His
passions were known, alas 1 to be far otherwise excited. His
pity might have been touched; but, if Caroline of Brunswick
herself could feel that sentiment, she disdained to sue for it.
If Lady Jersey bad not, with a perfidy only equalled by her
hardihood, stepped forward to prevent tbe possibility of bappi-
2 T 2

332 MEMOIRS OF GbORGE iVi
ness to the Ulustrious individuals, although they might ilot
ever be models of conjugal attachment, yet it is more thart
probable that at least in comparative peace and harmony the
Prince and Princess of Wales would have passed their days.
It is, indeed, adraitted that the Princess was not in a state of
mind most favourable to marriage ; and it is not less certain
that the feelings and situation of the Prince were not more
adapted to his projected union ; but just in tbe same propor-
tion as they were mutually unprepared and unfitted, so was
that malice, which, by treachery and by falsehood, conspired to
render the happiness consequent on that union not merely pro
blematical, but impossible.
To that period, and to such conduct, then, raay be traced
the subsequent dissatisfaction and misery which resulted from
this marriage, and which tended to involve 'the parties, the
royal family, and the nation, in feuds which have not yet
wholly subsided, and which have been attended with evUs
which wiU ever reraain as blots on, the pages of Enghsh his
tory, and as rallying points for party spleen and political

rancour.

Let it, however, be remembered, that to the imprudence, the
unjustifiable ingenuousness, and the love of independence of
the Princess, raay be partially attributed tbe evils wbich en
sued ; since to Lady Jersey, who was to her a stranger, a
foreigner, and an inferior, she should not have betrayed feel
ings which she ought to have concealed frora every one ; and
thus roused into action the dormant evil passions and princi
ples of that celebrated traducer.
Let us, however, follow the injured feraale to the horae of
her splendid misery, tier reception in her husband's house
was a stain to raanhood : a fashionable strurapet usurped
the apartraents of the Princess — her rights, the honours which
were due to her — every thing but the name she bore, and the
bonds which galled and disgraced her. The raaster of the
mansion felt not his own dignity insulted, when the half
drunken menials raade their royal raistress the subject of their
gross ribaldry or spiteful abuse. She complained to ber
parent, her letters were intercepted and the seals violated.
The offence of her raisery was unraercifuUy punished. She

.MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 333
becamd a wanderer over the earth — she sought, after many
years, a bome in England — the birth-place and once the ex
pected kingdora of her only child. ITnsated malice, vengeance,
perjury and persecution followed her — she grappled with —
strangled them — and bravely perished.
We are aware that in the foregoing passage, we have, as it
were, been anticipating the march of our history, and in a
few lines have embraced the leading points of the melancholy
fate of Caroline of Brunswick. But thewhole picture, with
all its dark and glooray shades, presented itself at once to our
-view; we have given a faint^transcript, but the original, with all
its horrors, will be reraerabered as long as England fills a place
in the nations ofthe world.
We have previously shewn tbat the Princess of Brunswick
was not selected by the Prince of Wales, but by his father
for him, and that the King refused to recoraraend the payraent
of the debts of his son, unless he consented to be married to
the Princess of Brunswick. Yet he did consent, and having
consented, be should have felt bound by the arrangement,
and it raay with propriety be asked, what should have been
the conduct of each of the distinguished personages under such
circurastances ? As a woman and a wife, the Princess should
have been courteous, kind, respectful, attentive, and submis
sive. She should not have expected that ardour of affection,
and that care and assiduous attention, which she would have
had a right to expect, if the Prince had professed to love her,
and if she had loved the Prince. Her rank, her character,
her accomplishments, her faraily, her relationship to the
reigning raonarch and to the heir apparent, ought, however, to
have obtained for her the public and private respect, confi
dence, and society of the Prince. These, however, she did not
obtain, for others, far less deserving, studied to supplant her,
and they succeeded.
As to the Prince, his situation was even more peculiar. He
consuraraated a raarriage without sufficiently reflecting on the
consequences. He forgot that Lady Jersey and Mrs. Fitz
herbert raust be wholly relinquished for a Princess whom he
did not love, though he bad made her his bride. But he
speedUy discovered his error, aud that was the moment of

334 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
difficulty. Every artifice that female jealousy could invent
was set in motion to ruin the Princess in the eyes of ber bus-
band, and every day added to the aversion which he felt for
ber. That the Prince soon testified a disposition to retract bis
promises, was evident to all who bad the opportunity of wit
nessing tbe cabals of Carlton House ; and the ascendancy
which Lady Jersey held over bis actions soon involved bim
in the most perplexing embarrassraents. That he did not feel
the slightest delicacy for the situation in which he was placed as
a married man, was alleged by the Princess herself, who de
clared, that George III. bad disclosed to her, tbat the late
Duke of Gloucester, in a conversation, positively stated tbat
an arrangement was made with Lord Carlisle to give up Lady
Jersey to the Prince ; that this was agreed to at Rochester,
when Lady Jersey first set out to meet tbe Princess of Wales,
and that there was an understanding that she should always
be the object of his affections : this was the stateraent ofthe
Princess, but the Duke of Gloucester is dead, and the direct
method of ascertaining its accuracy cannot, therefore,
be resorted to. But his son survives bim, and to bim appli
cations have been made. He bas stated, that tbe full and
perfect conviction in his Royal Highness' raind is, that his
father never was party to such a conversation. But the con
viction of his mind only araounts to an opinion, however well
founded ; and an opinion cannot be opposed to a direct and
positive declaration. If that declaration were untrue, then
the raoral weight of all her late Majesty's declarations would
be destroyed ; but, before her testimony should be wholly
rejected, it would be absolutely necessary to prove that she was
not worthy of credit. That the conversation did take place
ought not, therefore, to be denied, even if it should be ques*
tioned. And it should not be forgotten, that it is not only not
impossible, but that it is not even iraprobable that it did
occur, and that such arrangeraent was made ; because every
subsequent fact in the history of tbe Prince and Princess of
Wales, for the next few years, demonstrates tbe connexion
which subsisted between the forraer and Lady Jersey,
If this arrangement really did take place, then the subse-*

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 335
quent conduct of Lady Jersey can be raore easily accounted
for, aud ber farailiarity witb the Prince of Wales appears yet
more objectionable and improper. If it did not take place,
then bow unaccountable is the conduct of Lady Jersey in
venturing to step forward and intrude on the ears of a prince,
falsehoods wbich would tend to create perraanent distrust and
want of affection on the part of the Prince for bis consort,
when by such result Lady Jersey could not expect to derive
any advantage. The inference, therefore, must be this, that
the arrangeraent referred to was made ; and that tbe inter
ference of Lady Jersey was as interested and sordid as it was
malicious. The marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales had not
occurred raany days, when the latter was inforraed, that Lady
Jersey had been on terras of intiraacy with tbe Prince — that
she bad endeavoured to poison his raind against her, by false
and injurious stateraents — and ' that Lady Jersey was the real
wife, and tbe Princess of Wales only the norainal one.' Every
day deraonstrated to her that such inforraation was correct, and
she avowed to tbe Prince the dislike she entertained to her lady
ship. Tbat avowal he received with considerable displeasure,
and professed for the individual tbe raost sincere friendship.
But a few words of mutual explanation at that time reconciled
the difference.
At length, tbe conduct of Lady Jersey became more marked
— she did not conceal her aversion frora the Princess — she en
deavoured as much as possible to obtain the private society of
the Prince — and discord and misery appeared fast approach
ing. The first quarrel which occurred between these illus
trious individuals took place one day when, on-conversing on
the subject, she declared her intention of refusing to dine with
Lady Jersey when the Prince was not present, and also at
any tirae to converse witb her. The Prince insisted on a dif
ferent line of conduct. He required her to treat Lady Jersey
' as bis friend' — to dine witb her at all tiraes — and to converse
with her, as witb tbe rest of ber ladies. She refused so to act,
and in language fervent, and in an animated tone, inveighed
against the character of Lady Jersey, and required her dis
missal. The Prince, on his part, refused to accede to the

336 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
wishes of the Princess, and he left her for some tirae at Carlton
House, angry at her refusal and her conduct. But who can
censure the Princess of Wales for refusing the society and the
conversation of a woraan who was her greatest enemy, and who
had endeavoured to effect her misery and ruin ?
To the King the Princess now applied — she explained to
him the causes of her unhappiness — and the conduct of Lady
Jersey — and she represented her situation as a solitary, tra
duced, and miserable woraan, aggravated especiaUy by her
delicate situation. The King interfered — effected a reconci
liation — and prevaUed on the Prince to give up Lady Jersey,
and direct that she should no raore come into waiting. Part
of that engagement was fulfiUed ; but to Lady Jersey the
Prince was too much attached wholly to abandon her. The
marriage-bed, which had been forsaken during the absence of
the Prince, was now, however, left no longer ; and hopes were
cherished by the King, that happiness might be restored.
On receiving the communication of their mutual unhappi
ness, the King was rauch concemed, and evinced his grief by
conduct the raost prompt and energetic, yet kind and affec
tionate. In addition to these troubles, he had been, and con
tinued to be, greatly harassed by the question ofthe Prince of
Wales' debts, which had been brought before ParUament ;
and this proceeding had given great uneasiness to the mind of
the Princess. Scarcely had the marriage been consuraraated,
when the subject was agitated throughout the country, snd the
union was publicly designated as ' unwise, impolitic, absurd,
and ruinous.' The character of her husband she saw aspersed
in the public journals, and his friends and associates desig
nated by epithets, as wounding to her pride as they were unne
cessary and unkind.
As one of the conditions of the Prince's marriage was, that
he should be exonerated from the pecuniary embarrassraents
under which he laboured, a raessage from the Kino- was
delivered to both Houses of Parliament on account of the
debts of the Prince of Wales, on the 27th of April. The
message stated the reliance of his Majesty upon their genero
sity for enabling him to settle an establishment upon the
Prince and his august bride, suited to their rank and dignity, 

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 337
that the benefit of any settleraent now to be raade could not
be effectuaUy secured to tbe Prince, till he was relieved from
his present incumbrance to a large amount, — but, that his
Majesty did not propose to his Parliaraent any other raeans of
providing for this object, than the application of a part of tbe
incorae which might be settled on the Prince, and the appro
priation, for a certain time, of the revenues of the duchy of
CornwaU, declaring his readiness to concur in any plan for
establishing a regular arrangement in the future expenditure
ofthe Prince, and of guarding against the possibUity of his
being again involved.
As tbis communication was made at a season of great
national embarrassraent, and when the discontents of the
people ran high, we cannot be surprised that it should bave
excited a considerable sensation araong sorae of tbe inde
pendent raerabers of the House of Coraraons. After the
reading of his Majesty's raessage, Mr. Pitt raoved for a cora
mittee to consider it that day se'nnight, upon which Colonel
Stanley (member for Lancashire) moved for reading the
address to the House on the 24th of May, 1787. This related
to the former discbarge of the Prince's incurabrances, and
being read, Mr. Stanley observed, that the House bad already
liberally paid the debts of the Prince ; and he wished for a
call of the House, tbat the attendance upon an affair of so
much importance might be as full as possible. This was
opposed by Mr. Pitt, who stated that it was not his Majesty's
intention to require a specific sura for the discbarge of tbe
principal debts, but to set apart a certain portion of that
income which might be granted by the liberality of Par
liament, to their gradual discharge. An establishment for tbe
Prince of Wales, he said, had long been a raatter of general
expectation. In a provision to be raade for supporting the
dignity and splendour of the heir- apparent, it was certainly
necessary to free his affairs of all clogs and erabarrassraents.
Comparing tbe grants made to the grandfather of his Royal
Highness, at a tirae wben tbe scale of expense was infinitely
less, the sura to be now proposed was coraparatively sraall.
Mr. Pitt then enlarged upon the necessity of supporting the
dignity and splendour of every branch of the royal family ; and
2 U

338 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
argued, that, on a subject of such general obviousness, there
was no necessity for a call of the House.
WhUe the public attention was called to this interesting
question by the discussions in parliaraent, a variety of publi
cations issued frora the press, teeraing with the most virulent
abuse of the Prince of Wales. Had the administration of the
day been half so bitterly reviled, or had there been any Scar-
letts existing at that tirae, the files of the Court of King's
Bench would have been crowded with official inforraations of
the attorney-general to prosecute the offenders ; but the libels
against the Prince of Wales were passed over without notice.
The season, too, was favourable to their propagation. Tbe
crirainal excesses of the French revolution were recent in the
recollection of every one, and it was circulated with industry,
and believed with avidity, that the raischiefs which bad faUen
on royalty in that country had been produced by tbe prodi
gality ofthe French princes. There was, indeed, sorae founda
tion for this accusation ; and as it was one tbat every one
could understand and apply, it was widely spread, and found
alraost universal acceptance. It is likewise to be taken into
consideration, that at this period there were many disaffected
persons in the kingdom, who wished for an alteration in the
government. These persons were not disaffected to the Prince
personally, but they were disinclined to royalty generally:
as the want of prudence imputed to the Prince furnished
thera with an opportunity of attacking the throne by a side
wind, tbey eagerly seized .it ; and, if we reckon the number
of publications that appeared on tbe subject, it cannot be
questioned that tbey made the utmost possible use of the occa
sion. These writers certainly had a considerable influence on
the public mind, and as the ostensible object of tbeir publica
tions was to show, that the way best calculated for the pre
servation of the hereditary monarchy, was to prevent it from
being oppressive to the people, though their real motive was
very different, it was difficult to answer tbem in a way to meet
tbe popular judgment.
The further consideration of tbe Prince of Wales' debts
was resuraed in tbe House of Coraraons on the 14tb of May,
wben Mr. Hussey proposed tbat tbe reports of the commis-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 339
sioners on the state of tbe crown-lands should be referred to
the present coraraittee. He stated that, by tbe first of Anne,
cap. 7, this subject, and that of provision for tbe royal family,
were closely connected. These lands, he said, had never yet
produced 6000Z. a year, though they raight be improved to the
annual value of 400,000Z. The raotion was, however, objected
to, as not proper in the present stage of the proceeding, and
irrelevant to tbe subject ; it was accordingly negatived, — and
the House proceeded to take into consideration the raessage
from his Majesty relative to the establishment of tbe Prince
and Princess of Wales, and the liquidation of the debts of the
former. After an animated exordiura, which few men were more
capable of making on some occasions than Mr. Pitt, in which
the immediate interest of the country, in supporting the dig
nity and splendour of the royal family, was strongly insisted
upon by bim, the minister proceeded to state tbe necessity of
an additional establishment on account of the marriage of tbe
Prince, and a jointure for ber Royal Highness. These were
tbe only objects, Mr. Pitt said, to which be wished, at that
time, to direct tbe attention of the coraraittee. The present
incorae ofthe Prince of Wales was 60,000Z., exclusive of the
duchy of Cornwall, which was about 15,000Z. per annura.
Fifty years ago, his grandfather, then Prince of Wales, pos
sessed a net income of 100,000Z. per annum, in addition to
the duchy of Cornwall. Eighty years ago, his great grand
father, then Prince of Wales, had 100,000^., without that
duchy. Frora a review of those establishraentS) Mr. Pitt said,
the House would see that his present Royal Highness ought
to have a considerable addition, even if he were not incura-
bered with debt. The difference of expense, between the
forraer period and the present time, amounted, be thought,
to at least one- fourth of the whole incorae. He therefore
proposed, that the incorae of his Royal Highness should be
125,000Z. per annura, exclusive of the duchy of Corn
wall. This was no raore, he thought, than the committee
would be disposed to allow to the Prince on the event of
a marriage which they approved and rejoiced in. Here, be
said, he rested the present question : witb regard to regulations
2 U 2

340 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, "i
to be made hereafter, he should state the preparations for the
marriage at 27,000?. or 28,000/. for jewels and plate, and
26,000/. for furnishing Cariton House. The jointure of the
Princess to be 50,000/. per annum. The debts of his Royal
Highness, which were for future consideration, he stated at
nearly 630,000Z., up to the last quarter; besides wbich, there
were some debts in which he was security for the Dukes of
York and Clarence ; but from tbeir meritorious exertions, such
debts were in such a train of liquidation, and a course of punc
tual discbarge, that there was no fear of their becoraing bur-
densorae to the public. Mr. Pitt said, be wished to take tbe
sense ofthe house on the best raode of freeing his Royal High
ness from bis incurabrances ; and was convinced tbat, before
the house should take any step for tbeir liquidation, tbey ought
to be clearly stated for accurate investigation. For this pur
pose he wished to know whether the bouse would prefer a
secret coraraittee, which was the raost expeditious mode, or
whether they would leave tbe whole to be settled under legis
lative provisions. Whatever raode was adopted, it was neces
sary that regard should be had to a provision against contract
ing debts in future ; and it was, be thought, necessary that
parliaraent should mark the sense they entertained of the
manner in which His Royal Highness had incurred his present
embarrassraents ; and in that view, the liquidation of the debt
might properly be a tax on the affiuence of the Prince. He
should, therefore, in a future stage of this proceeding, propose
certain provisions for liquidating the debts out of the duchy of
CornwaU, and the other incorae of his Royal Highness, certain
parts of which should be vested in commissioners, to discharge
the debt and interest at four per cent., except such as bore
legal interest at five. For tbis purpose, he proposed 25,000/.
a year should be set apart, which would discharge the debt in
about twenty-seven years. In the case of the demise of the
Prince of Wales within that time, 25,000/. would be charged
annually on that succession ; but in the event of the demise of
the crown, and of his Royal Highness, within that tirae, the
burden raust fall on the consolidated fund. There were be
said, two beads to be attended to in the business under consi
deration — the punctual payment of the debt already contracted

' MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 341
— and tbat no further debts should be incurred. For tbis
purpose, no arrears should.fon any pretence, go beyond tbe
quarter ; that debts thus claimed should be punctually paid,
and no other. Mr. Pitt further proposed to invest Carlton
House in tbe crown for ever, tbat the furniture should be con
sidered as a heir-loom, and tbat all suits for the recovery of
debts from bis Royal Highness should lie against his officers.
Mr. Pitt concluded with moving that the revenue of his Royal
Highness tbe Prince of Wales should be increased to 125,000/,
per annura.
Mr. (now Earl) Grey, and other raerabers, opposed the
motion on tbe popular grounds, tbat, as the comraunity at
large were suffering great privations, on account of a burden
some and expensive war, the Prince of Wales, having incurred
debts to an enorraous araount, ought not at such a period to
have recourse to the public purse for assistance, but raake such
a reduction in his expenses as would enable bira to discbarge
tbe clairas of his creditors. However exalted bis rank, be
ought, tbey said, to endeavour to corae to a coraposition with
his creditors, which it was probable they would gladly accept ;
and that, until be bad satisfied their deraands, until the caUs
of strict justice were corapletely answered, be should limit his
expenses, and abstain from the splendour of a court. Mr.
Grey moved an araendment to Mr. Pitt's proposition, that the
Prince of Wales should only have an augmentation to bis
income of 40,000/. per annum, instead of the sum of 65,000/,
which the minister's proposition recoraraended.
Mr. Fox, in an admirable speech, took a luminous view of
tbe question. He admitted, be said, the necessity of support
ing the splendour of the crown, as an essential part of tbe
constitution ; but be did not understand calUng it, as it had
been called, the centre of the constitution. He did not regard
tbe establishraent of forraer Princes of Wales as the raost
creditable part of tbe history of the house of Brunswick. The
establishment. of George II., wben Prince of Wales, had been
a raere matter of party ; still more so was that of his son,
Frederick Prince of Wales. Tbe establishment of the latter
bad been 60,000/. when he happened to differ frora his Ma
jesty's ministers, and 100,000/. wben he agreed with them

342 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
Mr. Fox delicately adverted to the suspicious circumstances
in which such a transaction placed that Prince*, and wished
tbe bouse to avoid such a conduct as might expose the Prince
of Wales to sirailar suspicions. He blamed the scantiness of
the former incorae granted to his Royal Highness, and excul
pated hiraself for having concurred in it, on the ground of its
having been an experiraent ; and tbat great deference was due
to his Majesty, who gave 50,000/. out of the civil list. A few
years afterwards, other ministers advised his Majesty to apply
to parliaraent to exonerate the civil list frora this allowance.
In 1787, provision was raade by parliaraent for paying the
debts of bis Royal Highness, and 10,000/. a year was added
to his incorae. Tbis be thought insufficient, but could not
oppose it, after both his Majesty and the Prince bad declared
that it was sufficient. The declaration of his Royal Highness,
that he would not again apply to parliaraent, bad greatly sur
prised hira : it was, however, a proraise which, in honour, he
thought hira obliged to keep. It was, however, the opinion of
ministers, that 60,000/. a year, in addition to the duchy of
Cornwall, was sufficient for reinstating the Prince in all his
splendour. Upon what principle then did they now say that
125,000/. a year was necessary ? This, he thought, could not
arise frora his marriage — a circumstance which, whatever
changes it raade in the lower classes, very little altered the ex
penses of those in superior life. Howthen could those who said,
in 1787, that 73,000/. a year was sufficient, say that 138,000/.
raust be necessary now ? It seemed that, like his grandfather,
ministers measured the extent of his allowance by the degree '
of approbation be bestowed upon their measures. He was
not actuated by the same motives, and therefore he should
vote for the larger sum, provided that no sirailar application
should be made to parliaraent in future. Mr. Fox then pro
ceeded to vindicate the character of the Prince of Wales frora
sorae of the iraputations that had been thrown out against it by
preceding speakers. Was the Prince of Wales, he asked, the
* A particular account of the intrigues here alluded to, aud certainly not 'very
favourable to the character of Frederick Prince of Wales, or to the purity of his
political advisers, is to be found in the Meraoirs of Bubb Doddington, Lord Mel-
combe, who, it i§ vfell known, entered as largely as any man into the cabals of
his day.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 343
first example the house would select for reform, or, in sorae
sort, for punishment ? It would ill become him to be very
pointed in his disapprobation of imprudent expenses in others ;
but be would say to Westrainster, to the public at large, ' if you
coraplain of increased habits of expense, begin the reformation
by reforming yourselves.' Considering tbe influence allowed
to the crown, was it seemly to act harshly and austerely towards
a prince who had no such influence ? Something on this
occasion might, he thought, have been spared out of the civil
list. Queen Anne, frora a civU list of 600,000/., gave
100,000/. towards the support of the war. George I., out
of 700,000/. a year, gave 100,000/. for the establishraent of
his heirs ; and George II. the sarae sura. In the Araerican
war, parliaraent paid a large debt for the civil list, and added
to it 100,000/. a year. The sura for the privy purse had been
gradually increased frora 36,000/. to 60,000/. a year. Why
should not the establishraent of the Prince be proportionably
increased ? After the proraise given in 1787, and that no
engageraent appeared on the part of his Royal Highness
against future clairas of the sarae nature, he was averse from
noticing the debts. On account raerely of tbe Princess of
Wales, for whora tbe bouse, by its addresses, was pledged to
make a suitable provision, would he assent to relieving the
Prince frora his embarrassraents, but not without a sinking
fund for liquidating the debts within a reasonable tirae. The
sraall sura proposed by the rainister for liquidating his debts,
the payment of which would take twenty-seven years, Mr. Fox
thought only exposed the Prince to injurious reflections on the
part of tbe public : relinquishing his state for the piesent would
leave a sura for the payraent of his debts in a short tirae, at
the end of which the public would gain a beloved and respected
Prince of Wales, and his future years must be prosperous
indeed, if be counted tbe years of bis probation as tbe least
happy of his life.
For this purpose, Mr. Fox wished the Prince of Wales to
give up 65,000/. a year, witb the incorae of the duchy of Corn
waU, for the discharge of his debts. The sale of the duchy,
he said, would effect this much sooner, and without expense
to the public. He had been informed that it would sell for

344 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
800,000/., but he would state it at 600,000/., and the Prince's
life interest in it at 300,000/. There would then only reraain
about 300,000/. of debt, which the fund be bad raentioned
would pay off in three or four years. Mr. Fox strongly recom
mended precautions for tbe prevention of future debts, pro
vided they were applied to all future kings and princes ; but
thought there were inconveniences in making tbe officers of
the Prince responsible for bis debts, which could not be
obviated. After some further observations of Mr. Fox, on the propriety
of bis Majesty coraing forward on such an occasion, and tbe
right tbat the Prince had to the arrears of the duchy of Corn
wall during his minority, and which had been applied by suc
cessive rainisters in aid of tbe civil list, the house proceeded to
divide upon Mr. Grey's araendraent, when the nurabers for it
were 99, against it 260. On the division for repairing Carlton
House, there were for it 248, against it 99. For tbe expense
ofthe royal raarriage 241, against it 100.
The debates in the House of Coraraons excited a correspond
ing sensation out of doors, which was artfully kept alive by
inflararaatory publications, and newspaper paragraphs, tending
to degrade the Prince of Wales in tbe estiraation ofthe public.
In this state of the affair, Mr. Anstruther, then attorney-general
to the Prince, and afterwards chief justice of the suprerae
court at Calcutta, was authorized to raake the foUowing cora
munication to the House of Comraons, in the narae of tbe
Prince of Wales.
' Tbat bis Royal Highness was desirous to acquiesce in
whatever raight be the sentiraents of the house, both in respect
to the future regulation of his expenditure, and the appropria
tion of any part of the incorae they raight think fit to grant
bira, for the discbarge of his debt ; his wish, on the present
occasion, was entirely to consult the wisdora of parliaraent.
He was perfectly disposed to acquiesce in whatever abateraent
of splendour they might judge to be necessary, from a view of
bis situation ; and desired to have nothing but what the country
might cordially be induced to think he ought to bave. In fine,
that his Royal Highness left aU raatters relative to the regula
tion of bis estabhshraent, and the payment of his debts, to the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 345
wisdom and discretion of parliaraent, with the assurance that
whatever raeasures they raight adopt would meet with his
hearty concurrence.'
Mr. Pitt, upon this occasion, congratulated the house upon
the constitutional sentiraents which bis Royal Highness had
expressed ; and said, he observed with pleasure that a parlia
raent which had never failed in any expression of loyalty to
their sovereign, or attachment to bis faraily — which had never
been wanting in discovering a proper spirit of liberality, when
the occasion called for it — had no less in the present instance
shewn a degree of jealousy, care, and circuraspection, when a
demand was made upon the pockets of their constituents,
attended witb sorae circurastances wbich they could not alto
gether approve. He had no less satisfaction, he said, in ob
serving that the illustrious personage hiraself was irapressed
with a just sense of that line of conduct which regard to his
character and situation required hira to pursue ; and he trusted
that the bouse had tbat day received an earnest of the future
disposition of his Royal Highness, and of that regard to the
welfare of the people which would distinguish hira in the
exalted situation to which he might one day be called. Under
that irapression, he hoped there would be little difference of
opinion as to the proposition which he should submit to tbe
house. Tbe instruction he raeant to raove went precisely to
the two objects which his honourable and learned friend (Mr.
Anstruther) bad referred to, in the coraraunication frora his
Royal Highness : the regulation of the expenditure of his
household, and the appropriation of part of the incorae for the
discbarge of bis debts. It was certainly satisfactory, Mr. Pitt
said, for tbe house to know that his Royal Highness was per
fectly disposed to concur in whatever arrangeraents the wisdora
of parliament might adopt in respect to those two objects.
He hoped tbat by this communication every difficulty would
be considerably lessened, though they raight not, perhaps, be
entirely removed ; as sorae raerabers, however, who were dis
posed to support the dignity and credit of the Prince of Wales,
by a proper establishraent, bad expressed their opinion that no
notice ought to be taken of the debts at all. The question, he
would remark, at present, was not what part of the income
2 X

346 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
should be appropriated to the payment of the debt, nor did tbe
instruction he meant to propose go so much as to narrow even
the largest sum that had been suggested for that purpose.
The only question was, whether the aid of pariiament ought
to be given to his Royal Highness, by adopting legislative
reo-ulations for the discbarge of debts, which, it was admitted
on aU hands, ought never to have been contracted. Without
any retrospect to the past, over which Mr. Pitt said he wished
to draw a veil, he appealed to the fair and candid feelings
of the House, whether they could refuse to adopt a measure so
necessary for the character and credit of his Royal Highness,
so infinitely connected with his personal comfort and the
¦splendour of bis rank ? Could they refuse to concur with his
Royal Highness in appropriating a large part out of the
income allotted him, in order to relieve hira frora the erabar
rassraent of debt ? The business appeared to him to rest
upon so plain a proposition, and to be in itself so self-evident,
that, reserving all particular details for future discussion, he
trusted that what he had now to propose would meet the
almost unaniraous concurrence of the House. Mr. Pitt con
cluded with moving an instruction to the committee, that an
other committee should be appointed to bring in the bill rela
tive to a general regulation of his Royal Highness' expendi
ture, and the appropriation of part of bis income to the dis
charge of his debts.
The substance ofthe arguments of those who op.posed Mr.
Pitt's motion, may be gathered frora the speech of Mr. Dun-
corabe (one of the raerabers for York), who stated that he was
one of those who, on a former day, had voted for the smaller
augmentation of the Prince's incorae. ' At a time,' said this
gentleman, ' when the comforts and conveniences of life are
wanting to the middling classes of society, when the poor are
scarcely supplied with even common necessaries, and when the
prospect of a dearth * becomes every day raore alarmino- I
cannot listen to the idle clairas of splendour and raagnificence-
I trust that at such a season the feelings of his Royal High
ness will dispose him rather to syrapathize with tbe distress of
* The harvest of 1795 was at this period very unpromising, and afterwards
¦turned out extremely unfavourable.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 347
the lower orders, aiid to sacrifice soraething for their relief,
than to forra selfish and extravagant pretensions. There is
another consideration which deserves to be attended to. In
these distempered tiraes, let us beware bow, by an unnecessary
or wanton profusion of the public money, we furnish the
favourers of wild and dangerous innovations with a colour and
plausibility for their arguments. As a friend to the hereditary
monarchy, as an adherent to the family on the throne, I feel
myself called upon to resist the motion. Let us recollect that
there are other branches of the royal family. If, after the
assurance we bave received, we again consent to pay the debts
of his Royal Highness, we shall establish a precedent, of
which we cannot tell to what purpose it raay be applied, or to
what extent it may be carried. I do not mean to say tbat the
debts ought not to be paid, but I look to other resources for
that purpose.., I look first to the justice of his .Royal High
ness to make provision for the payraent of those debts that
shaU be proved to be just: raany of thera, I apprehend, do
not corae under that description. I look to his future economy
in the regulation of his household ; and lastly, I look to tbe
assistance he may derive frora the well known munificence of
his royal father. As the idea of temporary retireraent has
been suggested, I have only to remark, tbat frora such a
retireraent his Royal Highness might reap great advantage in
settling his affairs, and be again enabled to emerge with fresh
splendour. Retirement, it has been reraarked, is the nurse
of reflection; by its influence his Royal Highness might be
enabled to confirra those resolutions which he has expressed in
bis coraraunication to the House, and to return again into
public life fortified against future error, and qualified for the
important duties of that high station which be may one day be
called to fiU.'
The allusion to assistance that raight be expected frora tbe
King, was repeated by Mr. Curwen and other raerabers, and
coraraented on by Mr. Dundas, who said, be was surprised at
one resource wbich had been pointed out by some honourable
gentlemen, in the affection and benevolence of his royal
father. {A cry of hear, hear, pervaded the House.) That
cry, Mr. Dundas said, be was confident, could only proceed
2X2

348 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
frora a few voices, and by no raeans discovered the g®"^""^
feeling ot the House on the subject. They had repeatedly had
occasion to exaraine the situation of bis Majesty with respect
to the civil list, particularly on occasion of granting estabhsh
ments to the Duke of Clarence, and to the Duke of York on
his raarriage. They raight recollect, that on the arrangement
formeriy raade with respect to tbe debts of his Royal High
ness, part of that provision arose out of the liberality of his
Majesty. The civU list was indeed large, but was wholly
appropriated to particular services, except the sum aUotted for
his Majesty's privy purse. The idea of such a resource arose
out of the miserable feeling which he was surprised that any
gentleraan could entertain. He knew not (and his raeans of
inforraation were as good as those of any other meraber) of
the existence of any such sura, as that which had been referred
to. Besides, he would ask, with that nuraerous faraUy witb
which his Majesty was blessed, were there no other objects
who clairaed bis royal raunificence and attention ? The Prince
of Wales was tbe last who might be supposed to bave such a
claim; he, from the situation in which he stood, was the pecu
liar care of the public. AUusion might be raade to the reve
nues which bis Majesty derived frora tbe electorate of Hanover.
But had his Majesty no state to support in that quarter ? Was
he to rob his Hanoverian subjects in order to pay debts con
tracted in this country by the heir apparent to the British
crown ? The appeal that bad been made on tbis subject he
could consider as neither fair nor candid, and, as such, he
should dismiss it without further observation.
These reraarks of Mr. Dundas drew a raost animated speech
from Mr. Fox. That great statesraan enlarged, in the raost
eloquent terms, upon the glorious opportunity afforded in the
present instance for the display of royal munificence, and
lamented that his Majesty had not been advised to lead the
way upon this occasion. He did not mean to say that the
whole 600,000/. should be paid by his Majesty ; but he would
say, because he felt, that it was a little unseemly, at a tirae of
such general calamity, his Majesty should be the only person
in the kingdora who did not contribute a single farthing towards
the discharge of the incumbrances of the Prince of Wales.

MFMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 349
This, he could not help repeating, was unseeraly. He hoped
his Majesty would be better advised upon this subject. A
glorious opportunity offered itself for the display of royal rau
nificence ; and a handsorae conduct upon such an occasion as
this would do even more for the constitution than the raost
vigorous exertion of the arra of power. It was with this view
he had contended, and sorry be was he had contended unsuc
cessfully, against the additional 100,000/. a year to the incorae
ofhis Majesty hiraself, during the continuance of the Araerican
war ; because, when all the subjects of his Majesty felt so
rauch during that war, he thought that his Majesty would do
well to show them a lesson of frugality and economy. If this
principle were correct, and the application of it just at that
time, how rauch raore so was it now, wben the question is —
'how raany burdens are to be laid upon the public to relieve
the Prince of Wales from debt?' He would say again, it
was unfortunate that sorae person had not advised his Majesty
to lead the -way upon tbis occasion, to shew the public an
example of liberality, and to convince them that he felt, him
self, the necessity there was for indulging a generous temper.
Happy should he be, when this subject should come to be
discussed, if tbe house, by a gracious communication, should
be given to understand that the illustrious personage to whom
he alluded intended to take some share in the contingent bur
den wbich might be felt.
On the 5 th of June, Mr. Pitt presented to the House
of Coraraons an account of the proceeds of the duchy of
CornwaU, during the minority of the Prince of Wales,
an abstract of the debts which his Royal Highness had
incurred, and an account of the application of 25,000/. for
finishing Carlton House. From these documents it appeared
tbat tbe several sums paid frora the revenues of the duchy of
Cornwall during the minority of his Royal Highness the Prince
of Wales amounted to 233,764/. lis. 2d. £. s. d.
Debts on various securities, and bearing interest 500,571 19 1
Amount of tradesmen's bills unpaid . . 86,745 0 0
Tradesmen's bills, and arrears of establishment,
from October 10, 1794, to April 5, 1795 . 52,573 5 3
^£639,890 4 4

350 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Mr. Pitt then stated, that it was his intention to move in tbe
coraraittee, that 65,000/., with tbe income of tbe duchy of
CornwaU, should be set apart for the hquidation of the debts,
raaking an annual sura of 78,000/. The burden, be said,
could not be thrown upon the civil list, which, in the event of
the demise of the Prince, would be charged with the jointure
of the Princess. He should therefore move, tbat the com
mittee have a discretionary power to provide, out of the here
ditary revenue of the crown (in case of tbe demise of his pre
sent Majesty) during the life of his Royal Highness, for tbd
payraent of his debts ; and, in ease of the deraise of the
Prince, to provide out of the consolidated fund for the pay-*
raent of such suras as should then remain unpaid. He ex
plained, that for several reigns it had been thought proper to
comraute the hereditary revenue for a civil list. The mode he'
proposed was at once calculated to give security to tbe credi
tors, or, in the event of an accession to the throne, to rende¥
his Royal Highness responsible for the payment of his remain
ing debts.
One of the most eloquent speeches delivered at this inter
esting period, and which raade the deepest impression on the
public mind (if we except a speech subsequently delivered by
his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence) was that which
was delivered by Mr. Sheridan. In the inflammatory pub- "
lications of the day, Mr. Sheridan had, with peculiar viru
lence, been accused as one of the evil advisers of the Prince,
from whose pernicious counsels the greater part of his embar
rassments had flowed ; but from this charge Mr. Sheridan vin
dicated himself so fully, that we cannot help feeling the utrnost
Surprise, on looking over some recent publications, to find
that Mr. Sheridan should still continue to be charged with
being a prime agent in leading the Prince of Wales into his
serious embarrassments. This distinguished orator opened his
speech with urging the propriety of ministers having suggested'
tb his Majesty the necessity of his setting an example on the
present occasion. Were, he asked, the expenses of the Prince
so very unpardonable ? His Majesty possessed many great
and good quaUties; but on the subject of expense^ and keep
ing his proraise with the public, would the Prince lose by the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 351
comparison ? In this he imputed all the blame to ministers.
On his Majesty's accession, tbe civil list was settled at
800,000/. a-year, which was thought so ample, that parlia
ment was assured from the throne that the civil list should not
be suffered to run into arrears : since then, debts of the civil
list had been paid to an amount, which, at compound interest,
would exceed seven millions. The Chancellor of the Exche
quer had, in the early part of his adrainistration, assured the
House that no more debt should accrue on the civil list, yet he
soon after called upon the House to pay a new debt.
Mr. Sheridan then adverted to the embarrassraents felt by
the Prince of Wales on account of the narrowness of the
incorae which had been fixed for hira, during which his Royal
Highness had often done him the honour to consult him,
xbiefly because his Royal Highness knew his fixed determi
nation to accept no favours ; and Mr. Sheridan took that
opportunity of declaring that he had never received any pre
sents of great value from the Prince. He had, he said, advised
his Royal Highness not to make the proraise he made in 1787,
from the improbability of its being kept. He had at that
time drawn up a plan of retrenchraent, which was approved
by the Prince, and by his Majesty ; and the Prince told him
the promise was not to be insisted upon, though to bis great
surprise he found it inserted in the. King's raessage, which
had been seen by his Royal Highness. The Prince wished
.hira to retract it, but this he declined. Ministers had then a
, check upon the expenditure of his Royal Highness, which
they had never enforced : tbey had never interposed to stop a
sharaeful profusion of money upon Carlton House.
Another plan of retrenchment therefore followed, and the
Prince was advised, Mr. Sheridan said, by Lord Thuriow and
himself, not to apply again to parliaraent, and to take no part
in politics, but to retire from public life, and apply the greatest
¦part of his income to the liquidation of his debts. Another
noble lord, however (Loughborough) having, about tbis time,
obtained the Prince's notice, he, it seeras, told his Royal
Highness that such advice was too neariy alhed to tbat given
to. Monsieur Egalite, and clearly pointed out the quarter from
which it came. His lordship, though mistaken in his aUusion,

352 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
had that effect on his Royal Highness tbat bis former resolu
tion was superseded, and the present application made — an
application which he extremely conderaned, and thought of a
nature that tended to shake the very foundation of monarchy
in this kingdora, raore perhaps than any plan tbat tbe most
inveterate Jacobin could bave pursued.
The raonarch, as far as was possible, was rendered un-
araiable, and the House insulted. The Prince was held up at
once to scorn and reprehension, and at last obliged to live in
splendid penury, to stand, as it were, in a gilded pillory, and
to do penance in an erabroidered sheet, proclaimed to the
world a wasteful prodigal, unfit to be intrusted with tbe
raanageraent of bis own affairs. Soraething, he said, ought
to be given by the King. There were debts due to honest
tradesraen, to whora no exception could be taken, which
ought not to be postponed. There were, on tbe establishraent,
gentleraen of honour, whose salaries were fourteen quarters in
arrear. Carlton House being raade the property of the public, the
public, he thought, ought to pay the expense of rebuilding
it. This would reduce the debts to 500,000/. The interest of
tbis at five per cent, would be 25,000/. In 1777, the privy
purse of the King was made 60,000/. a-year, and the Queen
received 50,000/. for her establishment. He should tberefore
expect 10,000/. a-year frora tbe privy purse, and 5000/. from
the Queen's establishment ; for the reraaining 10,000/. a-year,
he would look to places and sinecures, taking thera as they fell,
which in tirae Would forra a fund for paying off even the prin
cipal. Mr. Sheridan then proposed an araendraent, that
nothing should be charged upon the sinking fund, till it should
be found that the resources be had indicated were insufficient.
— On a division, Mr. Sheridan's amendment was negatived by
a majority of 148 to 93.
On the motion of Mr. Pitt, the annual sum of 65,000/. was
appropriated to the revenue of the Prince, out of the consoli
dated fund, by a majority of 93 against 68. A conversation
then took place, respecting the appropriation of an annual
sum out of tbe revenue of the duchy of Cornwall, towards
paying tbe debts of his Royal Highness, and whether the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 353
consent of tbe Duke of York was not necessary (which occa
sioned instructions to the committee for this purpose) during
the tirae that his Majesty, or his Royal Highness, sball be
interested in that revenue. The commitment of the bill was
opposed by Mr. Whitbread, as containing provisions degrading
and disgraceful to the Prince. Mr. Lambton (raeraber for
Durhara, and who was in the confidence of the Prince) stated,
however, that his Royal Highness was perfectly satisfied with
its principles, and in general approved its restrictions. Mr.
Powys and Mr. Fox thought raany points still remained to be
discussed, before the subject was sufficiently raatured for tbe
decision of the House. What Mr. Fox particularly objected
to was, that the income ofthe Prince would, he feared, be laid
under the manageraent and approbation of the rainister *- He
further objected to considering the furniture of Carlton House
as a heir-loom, as unfair to the Prince, and to his creditors.
The sale of tbe duchy of Cornwall was again strongly recora
raended by several members, particularly by Mr. Sheridan,
who opposed the coraraitraent. The House, however, went
into a committee, when it was moved, to allow the Prince of
Wales 65,000/. per annum. Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Whit
bread moved an amendraent, liriiiting the sum to 40,000/.,
which was negatived by a large majority. Another araend
ment was proposed by Sir W. Young, that the annuity should
be paid out of the civil list ; but upon the question for taking
it out of the consolidated fund, the ayes were 149, noes 16 :
27,000/. were also granted, on account of the marriage of his
Royal Highness, and 27,000/. for finishing the repairs of Carl
ton Plouse.
The arrears ofthe duchy of CornwaU, during the rainority of
the Prince of Wales, which bad been so frequently adverted
to in tbe preceding debates, were again made the subject of
discussion by General Sraith, on reading the report. He
moved a clause for inquiry into the amount of the revenue
during that time, witb a view to its being applicable to the
. * The Commissioners appointed vmder this hill for discharging the debts of his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, were, the Speaker of the House of Com
mons for the tirae heing, the ChanceUor of the Exchequer, the Master of the
Ralls, the Master of his Majesty's Household, the Accountant-General ofthe High
Court of Chancery, and the Surveyor-General of the Crown Lands.
2 y

354 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
hquidation of his Royal Highness' debts.. The attorney-
general admitted that he had been inaccurate on a former
night, respecting the tenure of that duchy, which was of a
nature so difficult and pecuhar, that it was not easy for him to
describe it. It was a fund set apart by the legislature for the
support of the Prince of Wales, who had very properly been
represented as major de die nativitatis. The right of the
Prince was extreraely difficult to ascertain : if it were a fund
for his support frora his birth, the King, as his guardian, had
the disposal ofthe fund during his rainority; and the long
period which had since occurred would render any claira on
tbe part of the Prince extreraely doubtful. To tbis was added,
by Mr. Pitt, that if any claira existed, it was on the part of the
public. The revenue had been applied in aid of the civil list,
and as such had been recognized by parliaraent. If tbis were
a fund for tbe support of tbe state and dignity of the Prince,
it was certainly intended that the appropriation of this fund
should prevent any expense from falling on the civil list, or
the public. Who would then bave a right to set off against
the incorae any expense incurred on account of the Prince ?
The expenses of his education had been 80,000/., with an
extraordinary expense of 3000/. This included tbe Duke of
York : but as tbe same preceptors would have been necessary
for the Prince, this made a trifling addition. In ] 783, 60,000/.
was granted to defray the expenses of his outset ; in 1797, his
debts were paid to the araount of 219,000/. These united
made 300,000/., and would have to be deducted from tbe pro
ceeds of bis rainority, should they be adjudged to bira.
Mr. Fox controverted these arguraents, and said, tbat with
respect to the duchy being conceived tbe only fund necessary
for the support of the Prince of Wales, tbat was far frora
being the case, since the principality of Wales, and the earl
dom of Chester, had been granted for the same purpose.
Natural feehng, he said, required that the King, like other
fathers, should be charged with the education ofhis son. The
pubhc had never given the King the duchy of CornwaU • but
the public indeed paid the King's debts, and they allowed the
arrears arising out of the duchy of CornwaU to go in part to
discbarge tbem ; if tbey had not, tbe amount of his Majesty's

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 355
debts would bave been considerably greater : but was it to be
asserted that, be they what they raight, they would have dis
charged them ; or tbat, as a matter of course, tbey would bave
given 800,000/. with the sarae facility as 600,000/. ? Mr. Fox
thought it of the utmost i nportance to ascertain what was
really due to the Prince. The expense of his education, and
that of the Duke of York, as appeared by a paper on the
table, for a term of years, had been 40,000/., of which 25,000/.
at most could be charged to the account of the Prince, though
at the same tirae the revenue of the duchy was 75,000/. The
60,000/. voted in 1783 was not for the Prince, but in aid of
the civil list ; and of this the Prince did not receive raore than
20,000/. On a fair calculation, it would be found tbat bis
Royal Highness had not received raore than 100,000/. above
his regular incorae ; and tbe revenue of the duchy, during bis
minority, witb interest, amounted to 500,000/. On a division,
there appeared for the motion 40, E^ainst it 97.
A bill was then brought in by Sir.W. Pulteney, for prevent
ing any future Princes of Wales from incurring debts, and
passed; and the jointure of her Royal Highness tbe Princess
of Wales was fixed at 50,000/:
The discussions in the lower bouse on this interesting sub
ject were followed by a series of debates in the House of Peers,
equaUy animated, and, from the peculiar situation of some of
the speakers, perhaps stUl raore interesting to the public. On
the first day's debate, the question of the Prince's right to the
proceeds of the duchy of Cornwall was warraly agitated ; and
it was strenuously contended by thera that be was entitled to
them frora the day of his birth.
But the debate of raost interest was that which occurred on
the 24th of June, on the second reading of the bill, when a
message was delivered by Lord Cholmondely from the Prince,
sirailar to the former raessage delivered by Mr. Anstruther in
the House of Coraraons, stating bis Royal Highness' readiness
to acquiesce in whatever raeasures the wisdora of parliaraent
might think proper to recoraraend. The Duke of Clarence
particularly distinguished hiraself on this day's debate ; and,
in a speech, delivered under the evident irapression pf strong
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356 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
personal feeling, took a perspicuous view of the whole
question. His Royal Highness coraraenced his speech with declaring,
that having on a forraer occasion stated that be should act in
this business without any regard to party, he now rose to deli
ver his sentiraents to the bouse, before an opportunity had
been afforded to mingle personal feelings in the discussion.
Whatever were h'ls sentiments with respect to the bill — whether
he was satisfied with the whole, or only with parts of it — he
should certainly vote that it raight pass. His Royal Highness
next made sorae observations on the title of the bill, and said
he should principally confine his remarks on it to that which
related to the provision to be made for the payraent of his
Royal Highness' creditors. There were sorae parts of the bill
which, he confessed, met with his entire approbation. It na
turaUy and properly, his Royal Highness said, became an object
to grant a suitable establishraent to the Prince, on account of
his raarriage. In granting this establishment, it raight have been
supposed that the Prince had now come to an age, at which
he was fully capable of acting for himself, and would, of his
own accord, have been disposed to take measures to^free him
self frora any incumbrances which he might have contracted.
But, instead of this — instead of aUowing him the raerit and taking
measures of his own accord, to pay his creditors, the authors
of the bill had taken the popularity of such a step out of his
hands. The other provision, which made the different officers
of bis Royal Highness' household responsible for the expenses
incurred under their several departments, he highly approved.
He conceived it to be a measure extremely necessary for the
dignity and comfort of every Prince of Wales. A Prince of
Wales, his Royal Highness observed, by a particular law,
becarae of age at eighteen, while every other subject was not
of age till twenty-one. A young man at that age, when the
passions were at their height, and in his situation, might be
led into expenses beyond his incorae, and which, perhaps
might border on extravagance ; but such a circurastance he
could not consider as a serious reflection on a youno- man of
eighteen.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 357
His Royal Highness next reraarked, that those who had
been most concerned in bringing forward the business, instead
of acting as they ought, bad so man^iged as to take away all
popularity frora the Prince, in order to centre it in theraselves.
The bill to prevent future Princes of Wales from contracting
debt, instead of going hand in hand with the present biU, the
Duke of Clarence said, had been so brought in as to be attended
with a marked personality to his Royal Highness. Thougb
he should not betray anything that passed in private conversai-
tion, yet he could not help making some remarks on the man
ner in which the business had been introduced into parliament.
It was a raatter, his Royal Highness said, of public notoriety,
that when the Prince of Wales' marriage was agreed upon,
there was a stipulation that he should, in the event of that
union, be exonerated frora his debts. What could his Royal
Highness understand by this stipulation, but that raeasures
should be taken for the iraraediate exoneration of those debts
— not, as by the provisions ofthe present bill, that they should
be left hanging over for the space of nine years and a half,
and, perhaps, even a longer period. The authors of the bill
had stated, that the credit and stability of the throne depended
upon the support of the independence and dignity of every
branch of the royal famUy, particularly of the Prince of Wales.
AVas this the rdethod they had taken as best calculated to sup
port tbat dignity, and that independence ? His Royal Highness
bad, indeed, expressed his acquiescence in whatever measures
the wisdom of parliament might think proper to recommend ;
but what Was the situation in which he was placed ? The bill
was, in one point of view, a public bill, as was every bill which
related to any branch of the royal famUy ; but it was more
strictly a private biU, as nothing could be done without the
consent of the Prince. Advantage then had been taken ofthe
difficulties in which he was involved, in order to procure frora
him this consent. He was forced to express his acquiescence,
in order that something raight be done. He was in the situa
tion of a raan, who, if he cannot get a haunch of venison, wUl
rather take any other haunch than go without.
Tbe Duke of Clarence next alluded to the vast number of
pamphlets which had been published, in order to influence the

358 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
minds of the good and generous people of England agamst
his royal brother. He knew persons in another place, he
said, who possessed great powers of eloquence, and an abun
dant choice of animated expressions. These persons bad
exerted their powers in order to support tbe measure of grant
ing a subsidy of 200,000/. a-year to the King of Sardinia, a
sum of 1,200,000/. to the King of Prussia, and lately the loan
of 4,600,000/. to the Eraperor of Austria. But though on
these occasions they displayed all their stores of aniraated lan
guage, yet when they brought forward the situation of the
Prince of Wales, they prefaced what they had to propose
witb tbe expressions — ' an unpleasant task. — an arduous
undertaking — the distresses of the people in consequence of
the war — the regret of laying additional burdens on the
public — ' yet he must reraark, that, if they had adopted witb
respect to his royal brother, a language something more
favourable, as to the impression it was calculated to give of his
conduct to the country, they would not have had a vote less to
the present bUl.
His Royal Highness next touched on the situation of the
Princess of Wales, a lovely and amiable ivoman, torn frora her
faraily, for though her mother was the King's sister, she might
still be said to be torn from her faraily by being reraoved from
all her early connexions ; what must be her feelings from such
circumstances attendant on her reception in a country, where
she had a right to expect every thing befitting her high rank,
and the exalted station to which she was called ? As a friend
to the Prince he, however, would not oppose the passing of
the present biU, for he was convinced that the sooner it passed,
the sooner would its absurdity and raalignity appear. If, as
had been stated, the arrears of the duchy of Cornwall were
due to the Prince during the period of his minority, be hoped
that question would be quickly brought forward, and he trusted
that the noble lord before whom it would come to be argued
in his judicial capacity, and whose justice could not be im
peached, would throw no impediraent in the way of its speedy
decision. Lord GrenviUe replied to the observations of the Duke of
Clarence, and moved the coraraitraent of the bill. The Duke

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 359
of Bedford said he would have opposed the bill, bad not a
message been brought down, stating his Royal Highness'
acquiescence to it. The bill itself he considered as highly ob
jectionable, as it referred to two points, which were in them
selves perfectly distinct. He certainly approved of the con
duct of his Majesty, in having stated in the raessage to parlia
raent that bis Royal Highness was rauch encumbered with
debts. But the conduct wbich he thought ministers ought to
bave adopted was, either to have voted the necessary sura for
his establishment, and left to bimself to take the proper mea
sures for satisfying his creditors, or have waited till such time
as he had chosen to corae forward, to request the assistance of
parliament for tbe purpose of their liquidation. Considering
the rise of all articles, he did not think an addition of
25,000/. above what had been granted to former princes of
Wales, too much on tbe present occcasion. But he was sur
prised that ministers, who had formerly thought so much
smaller a sura adequate for his establishraent, should now
think tbat the alteration in his circurastances required so large
an addition as 75,000/. However disposed he raight be to
censure the extravagance of the Prince, be was not one of
those who thought that it ought to be raagnified into a crime.
This style of asperity, be remarked, had been adopted by
men, who wishing to go back to their constituents, after throw
ing away raillions of the public money in the prosecution of
a war, which they must, at least, admit to be unprofitable,
were glad of an opportunity to claim sorae credit for their
economy in the manageraent of the national purse. They
might say to their constituents, ' Though we have spent your
money in tbe prosecution of a war for the support of tbe
throne, do uot accuse us of profusion : we have voted away
several miUions for that public object, but we have refused to
grant even a few hundred thousands for the gratification of
the heir-apparent, for tbe stabUity of whose claims we are
contending.' There were several circumstances, the Duke said, which
tended to extenuate the conduct of the Prince. They ought
to recollect his age, the station in which he was placed, and the
insufficiency of his income to support the splendour necessary

360 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
for his rank. He thought it would have been much better to
have advanced a sum at once sufficient to have liquidated the
debts. His royal father might have been expected to have
contributed for that purpose. It was rather singular, that
when in the course of one year they had granted a subsidy of
1,200,000/. to the King of Prussia, and a much larger sum in
loan to the Emperor of Austria, they should now be disputing
about advancing a few hundred thousand pounds to the Prince.
His Royal Highness was certainly as good security as the Em
peror, for a sum so comparatively small. When ministers
railed at the extravagance of the Prince, they forgot the ex
amples of extravagance which had been given him in former
times. Was his the only instance which had occurred of
promises having been made to the pubUc, and having after
wards been broken * ? The same ministers who adopted this
ungracious mode of conduct towards the Prince, if, at a future
tirae, they saw him on the throne, would be disposed to pay
the raost implicit submission to his wiU, to contend that aU his
measures were infallibly right, and to brand with the name of
Jacobins all those who might happen to be of a different opi
nion. This, he said, was not the way in which the monarchy of
Great Britain ought to be supported.
The Earl of Lauderdale, another nobleman high in the
confidence ofthe Prince of Wales, followed on the same side of
the question. His lordship observed, that the sum which was
to be granted to the Prince of Wales was by no means more
than was necessary. It was not indeed so rauch as had been
granted to his Royal Highness Frederick, the late Prince of
Wales. That Prince had been allowed an income of 100,000/.
a-year ; and when the noble Secretary of State carae forward
to propose the coramitment of this bill, which was, araong
other purposes, to maintain the dignity of the heir-apparent to
the throne, he would do well to consider the proportion of the
sum now to be granted to his Royal Highness, and that which
had been granted to Prince Frederick, as well as to consider
what had been allowed to various other branches of the royal
* His Grace here alluded to the promises that were made from the throne, on
the occasion of the first payment of the debts of the civil list, promises that were
more thau once hroken afterwards, and subsequent appUcation made to parUament
for reUef.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 361
family for the last century; and, when tbat was done, be
believed tbe sura now proposed to be granted to the Prince
would by no means appear to be exorbitant ; it would be so
far frora it, that it would appear unequal to what parliament
had aUowed before on many occasions out of the pockets of
the public. He did not raean to say, that raore should be
granted than was now proposed ; but be wished to take a view
of it, as corapared to other allowances raade out of the public
purse to branches of the royal faraily. There was to be
allowed to bis Royal Highness a sura of 125,000/. a-year.
Prince Frederick had 100,000/. Now, he would desire their
lordships to cOrapare the situation of the two princes. To do
this, it would be necessaiy to consider the state of the revenue
of the country at the time when Prince Frederick had this
allowance, -and the state of it now. There was a term which
was, perhaps, raore farailiar to a F'rench than an English ear,
but which was, however, easily understood : he meant that of
' direct and indirect taxes.' At the time when Prince Fre
derick had bis 100,000/. a-year, the indirect taxes were alraost
nothing when compared with tbe direct ones. The indirect
taxes were those, which, being laid on the articles of life,
which every one consumes, must necessarily fall on the con
sumer, and these were the only taxes to which the royal
famUy were subject ; for, by a clause which was uniforraly
inserted in biUs that related to their incorae, they were ex-
erapted from direct taxes. Since the time when Prince Fre
derick had this income, upwards of three mUlions of indirect
taxes had been laid upon the public, consequently the present
Prince of Wales must hear his share of thera as well as every
other individual. None of those fell on Prince Frederick ; it
followed therefore, by calculation, that the 125,000/. now
allowed to his Royal Highness was inferior in reality to that
which bad been allowed to his grandfather in a sirailar rank.
The noble Secretary of State had, on a forraer occasion,
expressed his regret that this measure was at all necessary.
He regretted it also ; but he jegretted it too, that all the raea
sures wbich were proposed to ameliorate the condition of his
Royal Highness, did not go hand in band. In the first place
he must say, that in bis opinion, much blame rested upon
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362 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
ministers for this proceeding, and tbey bad contrived, very
unworthily, to load bis Royal Highness with an unpopularityj
which they could not have brought upon him, but by the
means they had pursued in the progress of this proceeding.
The noble Duke who had preceded him in tbe debate bad
stated that they bad given away the public inoney in loads and
heaps, for carrying on the war : to this be readily assented, for
they had done so, and for what ? Why, upon tbeir own decla
rations, for the purpose chiefly of securing royalty in the coun
try. In this declaration, they might be able, perhaps, to make
soraething up to their own consciences, for he knew not wbat
was passing there ; they would, however, find it difficult to
satisfy the public upon tbat subject. But such was tbe avowed
object. Now, he should be glad to know bow any raember of
the House of Coraraons, who voted for the war upon this prin
ciple of supporting royalty in this countr}', could tell bira that
he had any great objection to this allowance to the Prince of
Wales, especially when it was recollected that 99,000/. was
granted to the emigrants upon the cause of royalty. He could
not conceive how men who did this should oppose tbis income
to the Prince, or say they were discontented with it, unless
they supposed there was some other quarter which it was more
important for them to conciliate, perhaps more useful than that
of pleasing their constituents. Ministers had acted very warily
in this business ; they had taken to themselves the credit of
rescuing his Royal Highness from his embarrassments ; and to
pay his creditors, they were unwilling that he should bave any
of the raanageraent of it himself, because they knew tbat, in
that case, he would have the popularity of the measure, because
the public would then see that the idea originated from bim :
but although ministers had thus acted, he, for one, must say,
that while they pretended to provide for his dignity, they had
done everything in their power to lower hira in the opinion of
the public. Had they allowed hira this incorae, and given to
hira the raanageraent of it, they would have given a much
more solid foundation for the support of his dignity.
His Lordship said, he did not now look whether the Prince
had or had not been extravagant ; the question now was, what
he came to tbe public for? and upon this he must say .that

i 4

w

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 363
the Prince bad been hardly dealt with in this business, and he
should not have been in the least surprised, had the demand
been greater upon his Royal Highness than it really was.
Wbat had the Prince done to be censured as he had been ?
Was there anything so very extraordinary in his present situa
tion ? Wbat princtf did we know who had not, in his situation,
come for a greater sum from the public ? Persons at his time
of life, and in his station, rather regulated their conduct with a
reference to what they expect they will have, than by what they
actually possess ; and here it would not be improper to take a
short view of what had been allowed to other branches of the
royal family in this country. 500,000/. were paid for Queen
Anne. George I. had 1,300,000/. extraordinary aUowed hira.
George II. about 1,500.000/., and this at a tirae when the
public revenue was less by raillions than it is at present, and
when the indirect taxes, all of which his present Royal High
ness must pay, like any other individual, chiefly constitutes
tbe difference. His Royal Highness had yet only received an
extraordinary from the public of 261,000/. For his own
part, his Lordship said, he should not have been surprised if
his Royal Highness had wanted a much larger sum than he
did. It was not a case which be could affect to lament, parti
cularly after his Royal Highness, having manifested a disposi
tion to lessen bis expenses, was dissuaded frora attempting it,
and told that such an attempt would appear too much an imi
tation of M. Egalite ! By this sort of catechism was his Royal
Highness brought into his present situation ; and he was sure
that, if the people of this country saw the raatter in its real
light, ministers would not be successful in their endeavours to
bring odiura on his Royal Highness ; it would fall upon minis
ters themselves, who now affected to feel such perfect acuteness
upon touching tbe public purse.
His Lordship disapproved of the restrictions, as far as they
were personal against his Royal Highness ; but observed he
should approve of thera, if they were raerely general to any
Prince of Wales. He blaraed rainisters for not raaking those
provisions, when the subject of the Prince's debts was before
parliaraent on a forraer occasion ; for be did not see why one ,
message to parhament should be foUowed up with more restric-
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364 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
tion than another raessage. Ministers might ask, ' how could
they do it?' There were a thousand ways by which they
could. They might have done it by the very means tbey
adopted now, if they had been wUling. It would require raore
ingenuity for thera to convince the public that they should not
then have done it than that they would not ; for their want of
capacity was pretty evident. However, if they could not, they
were the only persons who were in that situation. They had
cherished the hopes of his Royal Highness, and now they
atterapted to degrade hira ; but he was not at all surprised at
that, because it was perfectly correspondent with aU their con
duct towards his Royal Highness, and towards the public. He
could enlarge raore upon the subject, but the message delivered
that day from his Royal Highness prevented hira from oppos
ing the principle of the biU.
Lord GrenvUle warraly defended the conduct of his Majesty's
servants. It was not, he said, the ordinary course of debating
in that house, to charge the King's ministers with trying to
degrade the son of the King, and the heir-apparent to his
throne. This was not an ordinary censure, and therefore he
felt himself called upon to repel the atterapt. What was the
censure ? and what were the arguraents to support it ? First,
that rainisters were the cause of these debts being contracted.
They the cause of the debts being contracted ? Hovv so ?
Was there any raan in the country who could lay bis hand
upon bis heart, and say so ? At the tirae when the subject of
the debts of his Royal Highness was before parliaraent on a
forraer occasion, he had not the honour of holding any official
situation under his Majesty. He gave his opinion as a raem
ber of parliament only, and that opinion he was now ready to
maintain. Whatever the noble earl raight think, be was of
opinion that the whole of the incorae now proposed might be
proper, although the former income might have been sufficient
for his Royal Highness, the whole difference being between
tbe state of a married and an unmarried prince.
The question of the precise amount to be granted, bis Lord
ship said, was one on which there must be a great diversity of
opinions ; and perhaps no two persons raight exactly agree
upon it. But how could it possibly be supposed that ministers

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 365
bad endeavoured to attach any unpopularity on the Prince, by
bringing the matter forward ? But, it was said by tbe noble
Earl, that ministers endeavoured to degrade the Prince of
Wales by the measure which they now brought forward. He
would wish to ask, whether the noble Earl would not have
said, and, indeed, with a better chance of succeeding with the
public if be did, that ministers, if they refused to bring this
subject forward, had attempted to disgrace his Royal High
ness ? So that the endeavour to assist the Prince of Wales
was not novv brought forward against rainisters, as an attempt
to degrade him. He, on the contrary, trusted that their Lord
ships and the public would feel that ministers had done every
thing practicable to support the dignity of his Royal Highness.
Lord Grenville said, another point had been insisted upon
with as little reason as the rest. It was contended that rainis
ters were to blame for not bringing this business forward
sooner, and to prevent tbe contracting of debts in future.
What ! before any application on the part of his Royal High
ness to discharge his incumbrances ? What right had they —
what power had they — what influence had they to do so ?
When the application was regularly raade, they brought for
ward the best raode they were able ; and vvere they therefore
to be censured for submitting the whole of it to parliament ?
Indeed, if the noble Earl blamed ministers for not coming
forward on behalf of the Prince, without knowing that his
Royal Highness wanted any of their assistance, to settle a
raode for the payraent of his debts, without knowing that he
wished to adopt any, he raust say that the blarae was of a very
extraordinary nature. There would have been very great in
delicacy in such an officious conduct, and for which he had no
doubt that the noble Earl would bave been teady enough to
censure ministers for adopting it. His Lordship then observed
that it did not become bim to take upon hiraself the defence
of members of the other house of parliaraent, to whom allusion
bad been made ; frora sorae of whom he differed, and some of
thera he knew to be pretty weU able to defend theraselves.
They had granted large supplies for the prosecution of this
just and necessary war. TThey had many of them expressed
much unwillingness at the present measure. He knew no

366 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
reason for saying that they were not actuated by a due sense
of their public duty, and tberefore, be for one, was not pre
pared to censure thera for their conduct. The question before
their Lordships was not a question of attachment to any parti
cular person, but a public question, on which every member
of pariiament ought to act according to his own idea of public
duty. There were, no doubt, some persons who wished to
vUify his Royal Highness, and every branch of the royal faraUy,
Such persons were eneraies to raonarchy; but he was sure it
was the object of ministers to keep the monarchy respectable
and dignified, and he had no doubt but that such was the wish
of the great raass of the people.
The Duke of Clarence observed, that the noble Secretary of
State (Lord Grenville) had stated that he was not a minister
when the debts of the Prince of Wales were before parliaraent
on a forraer occasion ; but he must call to his recollection
that he was minister in 1792. He now wanted to know whe
ther there was not a stateraent of facts on the incurabrances of
the Prince of Wales at that tirae presented to a certain quar
ter. He knew there was, and therefore the noble Secretary
could not be ignorant of the affairs of the Prince at that
period. Lord Grenville, in reply, said, there could be no debate
where there was no equality, and therefore he raust decline
any further contest on this part of the subject. He had stated
what part he had taken as a raeraber of parliaraent, and wbat
officially occurred upon the subject now before the house. He
did not apprehend it carae within the scope of his official duty
to state in that bouse anything conceming an application made
to another quarter.
The Earl of Moira, who possessed a large share of the con
fidence of the Prince, and whose character weU justified the
confidence which his Royal Highness reposed in hira, now
rose to state his opinion on the subject ; and, in a manly and
energetic speech, vindicated the conduct of the heir-apparent.
He contended that the provisions of the bill were equally
inadequate and inapplicable to the purposes which it held out
and maintained that, througbout the whole of tbe transaction,
the Prince of Wales had been unfairly dealt with, in the man-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 36*7
ner in wbich his situation bad been brought before the public.
If a different conduct bad been pursued, he was sure tbe public
would bave been as ready to come forward with assistance, as
tbe Prince was uneasy tbat circumstances made it necessary
for bim to apply for it. Nothing could more strongly point
out this, than the comraunication which had been made to
parliament, setting out, in language of heartfelt contrition,
the embarrassraents he laboured Under; and this, he con
ceived, ought to bave been received more as a candid and
manly acknowledgment of his real situation, than held out as
an inference that he had been guilty of any criminal extrava
gance, or idle waste of raoney not his own. He bad always
been one of those who thought tbe Prince's income inade
quate even to the current expenses of his situation, and,
therefore, he was the less surprised at his getting into debt.
He differed entirely from the nOble earl, who stated that his
Royal Highness had regulated bis conduct and expenses by
catechism set down to hira, by which he was led to believe,
tbat whenever his debts araounted to a sura sufficiently large,
he ought then, and not before, to make his situation known to
parliaraent. By such advice be Certainly raight have been
deceived, and encouraged to run heedlessly into expense ;'but
he was sure tbat from no such catechism, and by no such
advice, had his Royal Highness' conduct been dictated, and
no raan could have been raore seriously affected than be was
when he first knew tbe situation of his affairs ; in short, his
lordship thought language by far too harsh had been applied
to his conduct, wben his fault really amounted to no more
than this. He seemed ignorant of the old proverb, ' that
drop added to drop raay become an ocean, and thus he had
thoughtlessly involved himself in erabarrassraents much greater
than be had any idea of.
His lordship deprecated the language and manner in which
tbe business had been agitated in another place, and declared,
tbat if he had been a meraber, be would have recoUected that
the subject was so nearly connected with one who was now
Prince of Wales, (the heir-apparent of the crown,) and who in
the fulness of time was to be their sovereign : he would like
wise have recollected, that pot only as a prince, but as a gen-

368 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
tieman, the Prince's situation claimed greater respect than this
bill shewed to him ; it was a bUl of that kind that he raust
have resisted in every possible way, and to have done so would
have well becorae a British House of Coraraons, whose duty
should have led thera to treat the Prince with a manly libe
rality, and to bury his imprudence in a noble silence. It was
the duty of pariiaraent to support the dignity ofthe raonarchy,
which this bill so deeply encroached upon, and none could be
more bound in duty to have acted otherwise, than those who
brought it forward. But how unfairly have they acted by the
Prince. They grant him 125,000/. per annum, but do they,
or can they say, that it is granted for the purposes proposed
and stated ? He had that day heard the message so gra
ciously coraraunicated by his Royal Highness through one of
his household, which signified his acquiescence in whatever the
wisdom of parliament might recoraraend. Having heard this,
and agreeing perfectly in all that had fallen frora an iUustrious
duke (the Duke of Clarence), were the only reasons that
could induce him to give any support or countenance to the
bill. This acquiescence on the part of the Prince, arising
frora his respect for parliament and the public, was the sole
ground upon which he could vote for it, because he was sure,
and he knew the Prince thought, that no bill raore iniraical
and contradictory to his interest could bave been introduced,
even by his worst enemies. The Prince having paid such
respect to the public, he trusted the public would not be defec
tive in properly considering the hardship of his treatment, and
that they would convince those who proposed this raeasure of
their absurdity, and oblige thera to reraedy it in some shape
or other ; and he trusted parliaraent would take an early op
portunity of bringing the business forward. He then aUuded
to what had taken place in 1787. He well knew that the
Prince could never do witb the income then aUotted to him.
He acknowledged that the message had been read to him, but
in a manner too lightly, and that the sort of promise then made
was founded on an expectation that he was to have 100,000/
per annum, exclusive of the duchy of CornwaU. On the sub
ject of the arrears due to the Prince, he held the same opinion
which he bad stated on a former night ; and he contended that

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 369
the ministers had acted unfairly with the public as well as the
Prince, and detracted frora the credit which was due to the
public. Had tbey bepn candid and manly in bringing facts,
and facts only, before the public, tbey would have met the
exigency most readily. They, however, had done otherwise,
ai^d there was nothing, be thought, so bad as tbat affectation
oi shame which rainisters held out upon mentioning any thing
connected with this subject. His lordship warraly reprobated
the caluranies which had been circulated against bis Royal
Highness, and the injurious paraphlets, teeraing with abuse,
which daUy issued frora tbe press. As a full refutation of
tbem all, he stated how willing the Prince was that every par
ticular of those debts should be publicly known ; — to the com
missioners every particular raust be known. On the appoint
ment of those comraissioners, he raust say by the way, that
the Prince had been shamefully neglected ; he had nothing to
do with tbe appointment, nor was he at all consulted, which
looked very like an insult on the part of ministers, whether
they meant it so or not. It likewise gave them a sort of in
fluence amongst the creditors, wbich some tirae or other raight
appear at a Westminster election, as tbe coraraissioners would
bave it in their power to pay off the debentures of one set of
creditors in preference to another, as it best suited their
views. He declared that be did not raean now, or at any
future stage of tbe bill, to move any alteration in it, because
he trusted its absurdity was such, that parliaraent and the
public would see the necessity of setting it aside. His lordship
concluded with observing, that be did not think that this ques
tion could be entirely unconnected with party ; but be dif
fered widely frora those who thought that the opposition and
harshness used in both houses on this bill would give plea
sure to the ear of a certain great personage. Certain he was
that his Royal Highness glowed with every sentiraent of affec
tion, duty, and gfatitude for his royal parents.
The Earl of Lauderdale replied : he contended that nothing
had fallen frora any of the noble lords that could be called a
vindication of rainisters. He had always thought the Prince's
incorae was inadequate ; at the sarae tirae be never would
agree to have it made so much greater a burden upon
3 A

370 MEMOIRS OF GEORGfe iV.
the people for the purpose of paying his debts. He had
always believed, and now he had heard from authority,
the nature of tbe message in 1787, which was, that it
did not come as an actual promise from the Prince, but as
a measure wbicb ministers thought politicaUy convenient for
themselves at tbe time ; and they bad persuaded his Royal
Highness, against his own opinion, to agree to it. Pro'-
mises of this sort had been made before. Here the noble
Earl stated the first addition granted to the civU list in 1769,
and tbat in 1777, when tbe speaker of the House Of Comraons
had made a speech at their bar, which bad justly merited and
received the repeated thanks of both Houses of Parliament.
His lordship next adverted to a new raode of reasoning which
had been used that night ; noble lords talked of supporting the
bill, because its absurdity was so great, that the public raust
see the necessity of setting it aside. He was very sorry to hear
such declarations in tbat house. He saw much censure at
tached to the rainisters in the whole of this business ; and
was sUrOj if other men bad been in power, and other men
more naturally connected with his Royal Highness had given
advice, such embarrassraents never would bave occurred ; an
araple revenue would have been first allowed the Prince, and
then an additional income upon his marriage, and all that
would have been done by other rainisters with credit to the
Prince, and justice to the people. He begged leave to set the
noble earl (Moira) who spoke last to rights, as to the sup
posed insinuation, that the opposition to tbe bill was to give
pleasure to tbe ear of a certain iUustrious personage ; he would
think hiraself a raadraan or a fool,' had he said any such thing.
What he said alluded to a very different quarter ; and it must
have been obvious he meant rainisters, when he observed that
he could not conceive any one would endeavour to degrade his
Royal Highness, unless they knew it would please another
quarter better than their constituents, and, perhaps, be raore
useful and profitable to them.
In a subsequent debate, Lord Moira repeated his former ob
jections to the biU, and advanced some fresh arguments to shew
its unreasonableness. He put it to their lordships, whether it
Was proper that the PrincesSj after being invited over by the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 371
unanimous wish of the nation, under the idea of being made
the partner and sharer of the splendour due to the rank she
was to hold, should be sent into a retirement of nine years ?
If the measure of dignity and splendour necessary to the sup
port of the character of the Prince of Wales could not be sup
ported under the sum of 125,000/, per annum as declared by
the bill, bow could tbe Prince support it by so curtailed an
income? If it was constitutionaUy necessary that such rank
and appearance should be kept up by the Prince, it was acting
contrary to the interests of the monarchy, and therein iiontrary
to the interests of tbe country, which was attached to the in..
terests of the monarchy, to make sUch arrangements as would
not permit bim to support that dignity. His Royal Highness
must draw the same inference ; and every man in his closet,
reasoning upon the subject, would, and must necessarily, draw
the same conclusion. At the expiration ofthe nine years of re»
tirement, where would be tbe difference of the situation of the
Prince, as relative to the monarchy ? If he could not support
the becoming dignity as proposed during the nine years, at the
expiration of that terra he stood exactly in the sarae relative
situation as he now did, and according to this principle, all he
received above the present proposed incorae, would be a lavish
waste of the public raoney. If, on the contrary, such arrange
ments were made as would disencumber his Royal Highness,
he coul^ take upon hira to say that, from the disposition of
his Royal Highness, all matters might in future proceed to the
satisfaction of the nation. His lordship concluded with con
demning the bill, as bearing the appearance of driving his
Royal Highness into retirement, without even leaving him the
grace ofthe measure.
Lord Thurlow, whose sentiments were entitled to particular
respect, as well on account of bis own high character, as on
the fact which was generally known, that be had been
consulted both by the King and the Prince on the subject
of his Royal Highness' embarrassments, declared, that he
thought the Prince would acquire real and solid dignity by
•retirement ; but at the same time, he did not think that
principle should be pushed so far as to say that all splendour
was unnecessary. On the contrary, the splendour which con-
3 A 2

372 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
stitutions had thought properto throw around tbeir magistrates,
had an effect upon the minds of the public, and was one of
tbe lines of attachment which existed between them.
Lord Loughborough (tbe lord chancellor), in a very able
and eloquent speech, vindicated the character of the Prince.
It had been supposed by some, his lordship said, that the de
bates on this subject had gone the length of attaching crimi
nality to the raagnitude of the debts ; but be felt quite differ
ently. He approved of the bill, because he thought the raea
sure evinced a great deal of care and circumspection to tbe
dignity of the Prince. It was a necessary consequence, that
the action of personages of exalted rank should be remarked
and felt by mankind ; and he conceived it arose frora tbis prin
ciple, that they felt theraselves interested in their conduct.
Frora this connexion — this kind of union between thera — arose
that circurastance of the peculiar attention paid ^to their
actions. A private raan in his actions raight pass unnoticed,
because they extended in their consequences only to hiraself;
but not so with public characters. Those who stood in the
exalted ranks of life must move in their conduct by other rules
than those in the lower spheres. In tbem it would be low
and paltry to count pounds, shillings, and pence, andto reckon
with minute attention the expense of every article. If extra
vagance, or rather want of economy, was to be the conse
quence, it was excusable ; if the contrary was tbe case, tbeir
very virtues raight be turned against thera : taste, liberahty,
generosity, benevolence, &c. were but so many incitements to
error. Those mild virtues which adorned human nature, in
such characters, would lead thera into the devious path of
wrong. The artist exerted all his skill in the fabrication of
various articles, which he presented to thera for reward.
Every thing was unfolded to their view, and every inciteraent
stirred. And the more they possessed the above virtues, tbe
more were they likely to act with incaution. The regulations,
therefore, which prevented such incautious excesses, were not
directed against the Prince, — they were guards which sur
rounded bim, and prevented him frora being liable to the en
croachments such as he bad represented. In such regulations
the honour of tbe character felt no wound.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 373
His lordship next defended the appointment of tbe corarais
sioners, who, he said, were selected from high official situa
tions, and persons perfectly conversant in business. In
tbe manner in which these were appointed and the debts
arranged, tbe bouse bad shewn how much they considered it
as connected with themselves. It was a matter of great deli
cacy to put-any confidential servant of the Prince in such a
situation. It raight be necessary to ask raany questions, in
the adjustraent of tbe debts, wbicb a friend to tbe Prince
would not like to do. Such a situation be thought best avoided,
and the present appointraent was such as must afford satisfaction.
This was the last debate of importance on the subject ; and
a few days afterwards (June 26, 1795) the bill received the
royal assent by coramission. A raotion was raade in tbe House
of Comraons for an inquiry into the Prince's claira to the pro
ceeds of tbe duchy of Cornwall, during his rainority ; but not
being supported, it was negatived without a division.
We cannot dismiss this subject without introducing an anec
dote wbich raay serve to throw some light on the characters of
sorae of the individuals who were raost free in their censures
on tbe conduct of tbe Prince of Wales. Far be it frora us to
conderan any man, in either House of Parliaraent, for tbe
freedom of bis language. It is the privilege of their station,
and the spirit and essence of the constitution would be violated
if it were suffered to be attacked. But we should be in a state
of hcentiousness, not of rational freedom, if it were perraitted to
a raember of the House of Comraons to deliver a violent speech
against an exalted personage at one period of his life, and
afterwards not to be allowed to apply to that individual, wben
he ceased to be in parliaraent, sorae of those observations which
he applied with so ranch asperity to his Royal Highness.
It is a curious fact, and no less curious than true, that
one of tbe persons in the House of Coraraons who reflected
most severely on the conduct of his Royal Highness tbe
Prince of Wales, at this period, afterwards became a de
faulter himself to an araount full as great, we believe, as
that of bis Royal Highness' debts, and certainly attended
with far raore individual raisery and ruin (misery and ruin
that subsist to the present hour) ; not to say a word of tbe

374 . MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
national embarrassments it produced, and which shook the
credit of the kingdora to its centre, than any extravagances
the Prince of Wales ever committed, or the most bitter and
malignant ofhis slanderers ever imputed to him. Tbe person
to whora we allude was, at the period of which we are speak
ing, a representative of one of the northern counties, and a
provincial banker of first-rate erainence. He was, besides,
one of those raembers who stand upon what is called the inde
pendent interest, and his sentiments were always heard in the
house with the utraost attention. It cannot be doubted, then,
but that, when such a man stood up in bis place in the Housq
of Comraons, and taxed the Prince of Wales with a violation
of his promise, with indiscretion and profusion, with riot and
luxury, and warned the house not to grant away the money of
their constituents improvidently, that the sentiments of such a
man were heard with attention, and produced a corresponding
effect. His speech became a sort of text book for the pam
phleteers of the day ; and his constituents, though perhaps
they did not forraerly thank hira, yet they individually approved
of his conduct, and at a succeeding general election, testified
their approbation in a way raost, honourable and gratifying to a
person arabitious of a seat in parliaraent, by raaking his return
certain. This much it is but justice, to the character of the
individual alluded to, to say. — We admit, in its utmost lati
tude, the right of every raeraber of parliaraent to canvass the
conduct of the highest personages. But we beg our readers
to raark the sequel of the history of the person who made raore
free, perhaps, than any other with the conduct of the Prince
of Wales, when his Royal Highness' debts were under discus
sion. A few years after that period, his banking establishraent,
which, was one of the first in England, and, through its raraifi-
cations and credit, was extended through all the counties north
of the Huraber, failed, and produced general distress wherever
its notes were in circulation. We bave heard the amount of
the quantity of notes of this bank, or of others depending upon
it, which were in circulation at the tirae of its bankruptcy ;
and, if our recollection serves us right, it considerably exceeded
the araount of the Prince of Wales' debts, to say not a word of
securities which were lodged in this bank at the period of its

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 375
stoppage. Here, then, we would ask a question — Was the
Prince of Wales' indiscretion in contracting debts to a large
araount, or this private individual's inattention (to use the
softest phrase) in perraitting vast suras to be issued by his firm
—suras which, if be had taken the trouble to inspect the books
of his banking concern^ he must bave khown that neither
he nor his partners had adequate funds to answer, guilty of
the most culpable negligence ? No question could arise, even
if the argument of tbe Prince of Wales' ridiculous and impu
dent calumniator (Mr. Jefferys) were true, naraely, that the
Prince had been put irt a state of bankruptcy, by the biU which
provided for the liquidation of his debts ; because a fund was
assigned for the payraent of all clairas upon his Royal High
ness, and the persons who felt pressed for raoney could carry
their debentures to a ready raoney market. No question
could arise (if we may compare great things with sraall, ex
alted personages with little) between the situation of the credi-'
tors of his Royal Highness, and those of the individual to
whora we have aUuded. The debts of the individual whd
severely taxed the conduct of tbe Prince of Wales were debts
contracted for purposes of raercenary and sordid emolument.
Gain was the object ; risk was the means. The issues of
paper from the banking-house in question were far greater
than their funds were adequate to pay, and the result was,
that the holders of their notes, who araounted to an immense
number of individuals, were plunged into a state of the most
pitiable distress. They had parted with their property for
these notes, upon the faith that they were equivalent to cash
payraents, and consequently they had deraanded no advantages
which a less secure raode of payment would have justified.
Could the creditors of tbe Prince of Wales allege tbis ? No !
Unquestionably they did not look for ready money payment
frora his Royal Highness, and, like true tradesraen, tbey
charged tbe Prince, upon every article they furnished hira with,
an advance equivalent, in their estiraation, to the risk of the
credit they gave. It is an excellent apophthegra of Swift, and
one in daily practice, that ' an expert tradesman makes a few
of his best customers answer, not only for those whom he gets

376 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
little or nothing by, but for those who run away or die tn his
debt.' Who can entertain the slightest doubt, but tbat in tbis way
the majority of the creditors of the Prince of Wales secured
themselves ? but who for a moraent can suppose that this was
the conduct of the creditors of the individual who so bitterly
arraigned his Royal Highness.
On tbe one part, there was an individual deeply conversant
in coraraercial transactions, and, from his education and habits
of life, minutely acquainted with the mysteries of ledgers
and day-books ; on the other, there was a Prince to whom
such affairs were alraost wholly foreign. Tbat the man of the
comptoir should accuse the Prince need not astonish us ; but
tbat the same individual, a few years afterwards, should fall
into the sarae indiscretions (to say no worse of thera),' and
should produce, by his raisconduct and the avarice of his part
ners, an infinitely greater quantity of public and private un
happiness than any tlioughtlessness of the Prince of Wales has
ever given birth to, and should, under such circurastances,
and with a full recollection of his forraer character of an ac
cuser, and the impression which his accusation produced, be
passed by unnoticed, requires, we must confess, a degree of
forbearance which we do not feel ourselves in possession of.
The question which was raost strongly urged against the
Prince of Wales was, that, possessed of a very splendid
incorae, be had not confined his expenditure within the
bounds of that incorae. The next question was, his proraise
to pariiaraent to regulate bis expenses so as they should not
exceed the bounds of his incorae. We have already shewn
that this proraise was not very fairiy extorted frora his Royal
Highness. But let us now consider the difference of conduct
between his Royal Highness, and that of one of his princi
pal accusers in the House of Commons. His Royal High
ness contracted his debts imprudently and improvidently
enough we will allow, but the basest and raost irapudent of
bis accusers dare not venture to irapeach bim of any avari
cious raotives in tbeir contraction. They were debts, to say
the worst of thera, of heedlessness and improvidence  debts

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 377
which the liberality of the nation ought long since to have
discharged ! But tbe debts of tbe individual, who so severely
blamed tbe Prince of Wales, were debts of a far different
description. Tbey were debts contracted witb tbe poor, tbe
industrious, and jthe .indigent, through the raediura of a cir
culation of country bank-notes, tbe credit of wbich rested
alraost solely on the character for good faith and integrity
which the opponent, or rather tbe accuser of his Royal High
ness had acquired !
Judge here, then, of tbe character of those who so severely
arraigned the conduct of tbe Prince of Wales. Adraitting his
Royal Highness to have been guilty of imprudence, was be
guilty of criminality or fraud ? Was there more barm, or any
deeper mischief attending the beir-apparent's contracting a
debt to the amount of 700,000/., divided, for by far the
greatest part, among a nuraber of wealthy individuals, whose
charges, if they were paid, secured thera frora any loss that
might arise from procrastination of p':i^ ...ent, than in the con
duct of a country banker, who, relying on the honesty of bis
partners, could permit them to issue sums to an unliraited
araount in his narae, after the warning voice of two stoppages
of payment, and yet stand up in bis place in the House of
Coraraons to accuse the Prince. Frora the attacks of such an
adversary would the Prince wish to be defended ? — frora the
attacks of such a man would the most tenacious of bis friends
think it necessary to defend him ? The Prince might plead
his own improvidence, the carelessness or negligence of his
servants, but such an apology would not be adraitted on the
part of the person to whora we have alluded. His raature
years, bis coraraercial habits, rendered him completely ob
noxious to the rigid application of the law maxira, qui facit
per alteram, facit per se ; he could not plead, who, on the
hustings of the county wbich he then represented, bad been
objected to, on tbe score that an opulent landed interest would
receive a severe disgrace if they subraitted to the indignity of
perraitting a banker's clerk to represent thera, that he v/as
ignorant of the speculations of his partners. Yet such was
the raan who stood foreraost araong the accusers of the Prince
of Wales. 3 B

378 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
On a review of the two cases there can be no manner of
doubt, but tbat the iraprovidence of the banker was attended
with much more fatal consequences than it could ever be
pretended flowed frora any iraputed extravagance of the Prince
of Wales. The one irapoverished a populous and industrious
district ofthe kingdora, but who ever heard of tbe rained credi
tors of the Prince of Wales '"' ? Here then seeras to be the point
at issue: tbe worst tbat the accusers of the Prince of Wales could
allege against bis Royal Highness was iraprovidence, by which
a few mercenary individuals were disappointed in their hopes
of extravagant gain : one of the prime accusers of the Prince
of Wales, through the mismanageraent of bis coraraercial con
cerns, incurs debts to full as large an araount as bis Royal
Highness ; and, while every epithet of reproach is lavished on
the Prince, shall such a man pass uncensured?
From tbe multitude of libels that bave at different times ap
peared against tbe Prince, it is irapossible to notice each sepa-s
rate publication ; some of them probably bave escaped our
search, and perhaps we bave reason to congratulate ourselves
on tbat score, for more vile and raiserable effusions than the
greater part of them it has seldora been our misfortune to
peruse: but we have paid that respectful attention to the pro
ceedings of the two Houses of Parliament, whenever the inte
rests of his Royal Highness were concerned, which became us
to show to the peers of the realra and to the representatives of
the nation in parliaraent asserabled ; and this attentionalo ne
has drawn frora us the preceding remarks on the conduct of
an individual member of the House of Comraons, who, accord
ing to our conceptions, censured the Prince unjustly, and whose
own subsequent embarrassraents were ten thousand tiraes
less worthy of indulgence than those ofhis Royal Higbnessf.
* We are aware that Mr. Jefferys may be quoted against us in regard to this
point, but we must observe that we do not consider Mr. Jefferys as anv authority
and we shaU have occasion hereafter specifically to refute the calumnies of that
gentleman.nr,^''^^V™?"'''''''r!u™^r,''-*^'°^"'^''' ^" ^°^^ ^ouses of Parliament, who
ppposed the claims ofthe Prince of Wales upon this occasion, and who were not
themselves very remarkable for the purity or correctness of their characters
reminds us of the old fable, that Jupiter hadVng over every man's shoulders two
^atchels, of which onehung before, and contained the faults ifhis neighbours and
the other behind, which contained his own. '^ '"uuio, ana
Non videmus id maniicts quod in tergo est.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 379
We have been led into this vindication of bis Royal High
ness on the mere ground of coraparison, of the particular rela
tion in which be stood with that of certain individuals, whose
chief aira, at tbis tirae, appeared to be to defame his Royal
Highness, although they were themselves the greatest prodigals,
and the most lavish spendthrifts, in tbeir expenditure of immense
sams of money belonging to the public, to which they had no
further right than was given to thera by the character of offi-'
cial trustees, witb which tbe nation bad invested tbem. What
ever tbe prodigality and extravagance of tbe Prince of Wales
might have been, bis actions were never tainted with dis
honesty, nor fraud ; and, according to the principle, that those
who live in glass-bouses should not throw stones, tbe abuse
which was heaped upon tbe Prince recoiled upon those whose
want of fair dealing and of principle instigated them to the
dissemination of it ; it must, however, be admitted, that in
some quarters tbe poison worked well, and was productive of
the severest pain to tbe parties interested.
On no occasion whicli happened in the last or present cen
tury were ' the coiners of scandal and clippers of reputation'
more busy at work than on the raarriage of the Prince of
Wales. Almost every day produced its pamphlet, written
either in the worst spirit of lampoon, or unblusbingly defending
the grossest errors ; whilst not a few were put forth to justify
extortionate claims, and gratify the worst spirit of extortion
and threat. Araongst the latter stands conspicuously Mr. Jef
ferys, who provided the jewels on tbe marriage, and who
represents himself in his pamphlet as the most injured of mem
chiefly because a jury could not be persuaded to award him
the whole of bis demand, for the recoveiy of which be insti
tuted an action against the Prince in the Court of King's
Bench. Without, however, referring to the immediate subject of
Jefferys' pamphlet, wbich is principally on the adjustraent of a
disputed account, we shaU extract the following passage, as it
contains a notification of the feehngs of his Royal Highness
on the proposed marriage, which is at complete variance with
the generally-received opinion ; but as it is given upon the
3 B 2

380 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
authority of the Prince hiraself, we wiU not pretend either to
confirra or discredit it.
' An event,' says Mr. Jefferys, ' was now about to take place,
of great national iraportance in the establishraent of the Prince
of Wales, the inteUigence of which afforded very general
satisfaction to the public ; it was tbe proposed raarriage of his
Royal Highness with the Princess of Brunswick, and bis ex
pected final separation frora Mrs. Fitzherbert.
' At tbat period, I passed rauch of ray tirae at Carlton-House ;
and, though I raay provoke the hostility of the Prince of
Wales, and the anger of Mrs. Fitzherbert, I will state that,
which, from my being so frequently with his Royal Highness,
I had an opportunity of observing and knowing.
' I declare it to be ray firra belief, however subsequent events,
which raay truly be termed unfortunate for his Royal High
ness and for the country, may contradict the probability
of my assertion, that no person in the kingdom appeared to
feel, and I believe at the the time did actually feel, more
sincere pleasure in the prospect of the proposed marriage and
the consequent separation from Mrs. Fitzherbert than hii
Royal Highness. 1 will not repeat the expressions of his
Royal Highness upon this subject, it is sufficient for rae to say,
tbat what I heard was not of a nature to increase ray respect
for the character of that lady ; but far otherwise, as it totally
reraoved frora ray mind every apprehension I had before enter
tained, that his Royal Highness would be displeased by an
application to her for money ; I accordingly sent in my ac
count ; when I was told, at the house of Mrs. Fitzherbert, I
must make ray application to the Prince for the payraent of it.
I therefore informed his Royal Highness of what had passed,
who directed General Hulse to discharge the account.
' But to return to my narrative. On the proposed marriage
of the Prince of Wales, bis Royal Highness gave me orders to
procure the jewels necessary on that occasion : no lirait was
fixed for the amount, but that the finest and best of everything
was to be provided. My wish was, in the execution of these
orders, not to go to too great or an unnecessary expense ; but
the magnitude of the occasion, and the extensive orders in
pursuance of which I acted, exceeding ray own ideas, the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 381
araount naturally extended to a very considerable sura, fifty-
four thousand pounds ; and nearly ten thousand pounds, in
addition, for jewels as presents from his Royal Highness, on
the raarriage, to the Queen and Princesses.
' It having been reported at tbe tirae, that I had gone (con
trary to what I have just asserted) to greater expense than was
necessary, I beg leave, in contradiction of such report, and to
bring the question fairly before the public, to state the foUow
ing circurastance : — I had, by the desire of tbe Prince of
Wales, procured a setting for the miniature-picture of his
Royal Highness, intended to be sent to Brunswick for the
Princess, surrounded with large brilliants, and a brilliant chain,
amounting to two thousand five hundred guineas. As soon as
it was corapleted, I attended with his Royal Highness at Buck-
ingbara-house, to submit it to the approbation of the Queen,
previously to its being sent to the Continent. Her Majesty
thought it by no means of sufficient elegance for the occasion,
and I accordingly prepared another, pursuant to the orders I
then received, araounting to more than four thousand pounds.
' Could it for a moment be supposed (without an insult to tbe
high and august character of her Majesty) that I hazarded
any thing by executing the orders received from such authority.
I could not and did not entertain any doubts upon the subject,
but acted as I was coraraanded to do.
' A considerable tirae after the jewels had been delivered, the
araount of my charge, was disputed by the coraraissioners ap
pointed to settle the Prince's affairs. 1 resisted the ruinous
deduction they proposed to make, and subraitted ray claims
to a jury of ray country, in three actions brought against the
coraraissioners, which came on before Lord Chief Justice
Kenyon, in February, 1796. But the cause tried was for
the jewels furnished for tbe Princess, amounting, as I have
before said, to tbe sura of fifty-four thousand pounds,
wben I obtained a verdict for the whole of my demand, de
ducting only so much as was charged for the insurance
of the Prince's life, which, from tbe magnitude of the
concern, and when it is considered who was the debtor, was
a necessary measure of precaution. The Chief Justice, in
his charge to tbe jury, stated, that the risk wbich had made

382 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
such precaution necessary, being at an end, the insurance
ought to be taken off the account. Witb this decision I was
naturaUy>atisfied, especially when accompanied,'as it was, by an
observation from Lord Kenyon, that aU hazard was then'ended.'
In a forraer part of this work, we have related the circura
stance of the Prince borrowing 420/. of Jefferys, which was to
have been returned in ten days ; the manner in which he ob
tained tbe payment of this sum, is contained in the foUowing
extract : —
' Through the medium of Mr. Tyrwhitt, theti secretary to the
Prince, I dutifully solicited an audience of his Royal Highness.
X attended twice, each time by appointment, and waited many
hours. At last, the Prince, coming into the room with several
gentlemen, asked me, in a hasty tone of voice ' what I
wanted ?' I was so agitated with the contemplation of my own
situation, and so confused by the unusual mode in which his
Royal Highness spoke to me, as to be hardly able to make
any answer. His Royal Highness then said, ' Ibelieve 1 owe
you some money 1 — Four hundred and twenty pounds ; — do
you want it now?' I humbly replied, when it suited his
Royal Highness' convenience. The Prince said, very we//,
and left tbe room without another word ; nor was I able to
form any expectation when it would be repaid.
' Leaving Carlton House in a very dejected state of mind, as
may be supposed, I met, in Pall-Mail, the late Admiral Payne,
who had been the confidential friend and secretaiy to tbe
Prince, but had recently been dismissed. Admiral Payne
asking me jf I bad been lately at Carlton-House, I related to
bim ^what had passed. He said, the conduct I experienced
was most shameful, but that he could put me in the way of
getting the money.
' We walked together for a considerable time in St. James'
Square, when be told me, if I would write such a letter as he
would dictate, I should get the money directly. Pursuing his
instructions, I accordingly wrote the sarae day to the Prince,
stating ray hope that his Royal Highness would excuse
the appUcation I made to bim for the payment of the four
hundred and twenty pounds, which I had advanced at his
request nearly fifteen months before ; that my necessities were

MtlMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 383
very urgent in consequence of the heavy losses I had sustained
in his service ; the consideration of which, together with the
recollection tbat the raoney had only been borrowed for a few
days, would (I trusted) induce his Royal Highness not to
leave town for Newraarket, where he was going the next
morning, without first returning this raoney. That I was pre
vented by delicacy to bis Royal Highness, in the morning
when I had been with him, from mentioning the circumstance,
so many gentlemen being present.
* The letter produced tbe effect expected by Admiral Payne,
the money being sent to me that evening. Tbis application
for money, I believe, produced such a degree of irritation in
the raind of the Prince, as to do away all recollection of wbat
for years he bad termed services ; and was, I believe, consi
dered by his Royal Highness to be such an offence as never
to be forgiven.'
Prevailed on by tbe Princess of Wales, by his father, and
bis begt friends, as well as irapressed witb the importance and
necessity of the measure, the Prince of Wales now reduced
his establishraent, but retained tbe Marchioness o^ ownshend,
the Countesses of Jersey, Carnarvon, and Cho' jndeley. Tbe
Princess requested only the discharge of one of their nuraber,
but the favour was refused.
Soon after the marriage of the Prince and Princess, a cir
cumstance occurred which excited the indignation of the
Princess towards Lady Jersey, and tended additionaUy to
develop the feelings of the Queen towards her Royal High
ness. In tbe month of August, 1795, whilst residing at
Brighton, the Princess committed to the care of Dr. Randolph
a packet of letters to convey to Brunswick, as he expressed
his intention of visiting Gerraany, Those letters were private
and confidential : tbey contained strictures on the character
of the Queen, and one of them had been imprudently laid
about by her Royal Highness, after she bad written it. That
letter was perused by . Lady Jersey, and to the Queen she
determined to convey it, with those which constituted the
remainder of the packet. The letters never reached their
destination, and were afterwards possessed by Queen Char
lotte. How are those circumstances to be accounted for?

384 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
The Princes^ of Wales repeatedly stated that she knew tbe
letters were intercepted by the Countess of Jersey, and delif-
vered by her to the Queen. Lady Jersey denied the charge :
she contended that she bad no concern with the packet, and
that to Dr. Randolph alone all blame must attach. He, in
his turn, exculpated himself from the charge, and gave a state
raent to Lady Jersey of aU the circurastances ; maintaining,
that not visiting Brunswick, be had returned tbe packet by
coach to the Princess. The Princess expressed herself indig
nant at the loss, and required an explanation. Inquiries and
investigation ensued ; but it was not for some tirae after the
charge was raade, nor until the public newspapers accused
her of treachery, deceit, and erabezzleraent, tbat Lady Jersey
endeavoured to clear her character frora such imputations ;
and at length she addressed privately to Dr. Randolph tbe fol
lowing letter. ' Pall Mall.
' The newspapers being full of accusations of my having opened
a letter either to, or from, her Royal Highness the Princess of
Wales, and as I cannot in any way account for what can have given
rise to such a story, excepting the loss of those letters with which
you were intrusted last summer, I must entreat that you will state
the whole transaction, and publish the accounts in the newspapers
you may think fit. Her Royal Highness having told me, at the
time when my inquiries at Brighton, and yours in London, proved
ineffectual, that she did not care about the letters, they being only
letters of form, the whole business made so little impression on
me, that I do not even recollect in what month I had the pleasure
of seeing you at Brighton. I think you will agree with me, that
defending myself from the charge of opening a letter is pretty much
the same thing as ifl was to prove that I had not picked a pocket;
yet in this case, I believe, it may be of some use to shew upon
what grounds so extraordinary a calumny is founded. As I cannot
wish to leave any mystery upon this affair, you are at liberty to pub
lish this letter, if you think proper to do so.'
To this application Dr. Randolph paid no attention ; but as
the subject attracted public notice, and became a subject of
universal reprobation, Lord Jersey addressed to Dr. Randolph
another letter.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV 385
'Sir, ' Lady Jersey wrote to you early in the last week, request
ing that a full statement from you, of all that had passed relating
to tbe packet of letters belonging to her Royal Highness the Prin
cess of Wales, inight appear in public print. To that letter she has
received no answer from you ; nor have I learned that any such
publication has appeared. The delay I have been willing to attri
bute to accident. But it now becomes my duty to call upon you,
and I do require it of you, that an explicit narrative may be laid
before the pubhc : it is a justice she is entitled to, a justice Lady
Jersey's character claims, and which she has, and which you have
acknowledged she has, a right to demand at your hands.
' Your silence upon this occasion I shall consider as countenanc
ing that calumny which the false representations of the business
have so shamefully and unjustly drawn upon Lady Jersey.
' I am, &c.'
In consequence of this further application. Dr. Randolph,
in a few days, wrote to Lady Jersey, in which, after prefatory
matter, be gave her perraission to raake the foUowing state
ment public.
' I need not recall to your Ladyship's recollection the interview I
had with the Princess at Brighton, when she delivered to me the
packet in question : all her attendants in waiting were, I believe,
present ; and the conversation generally turned upon the various
branches of her august family, and the alteration I should find in
them after an absence of ten years. This interview, if I am not
mistaken, took place on the 13th of August; and after waiting, by
her Royal Highness's desire, till the 14th, when the Prince was
expected from Windsor, to know if he had any commands to honour
me with, I had no sooner received from Mr. Churchill his Royal
Highness's answer, than I departed from London with the intention
of proceeding to Yarmouth. On my arrival in town, finding some
very unpleasant accounts of the state of Mrs. R.'s health, I took
the liberty of signifying the occurrence to her Royal Highness ;
annexing to it, at the same time, a wish to defer my journey for the
present, and that her Royal Highness would permit me to return
the packet, or allow me to consign it to the care of a friend, who
was going into Germany, and would see it safely delivered. To
this I received, through your Ladyship, a most gracious message
from her Royal Highness, requesting me by all means to lay aside
3 C

886 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
my intentions, and to return the packet. In consequence of such
orders, I immediately went to Carlton House to inform myself by
what conveyance the letters and parcels were usually sent to
Brighton, and was told that no servant was employed, but that
every day they were, together with the newspapers, committed to
the charge of the Brighton post-coach from the Golden-cross,
Charing-cross. ' On the subsequent morning, therefore, I attended at the Golden-
cross, previous to the departure of the coach, and having first seen
it regularly booked, delivered my parcel, inclosing the Princess's
packet, addressed to your Ladyship at the Pavilion. Immediately
afterwards I set out for Bath, and had scarcely been a fortnight at
home, when, to my great surprise and mortification, I received
the following letter from your Ladyship, dated Brighton, Sep
tember 1st :
' In consequence of your letter, I had her Royal Highness the
Princess of Wales' commands to desire that, as you did not go to
Brunswick, you should retarn the packet which she had given you.
I wrote, accordingly, about a fortnight ago. Her Royal Highness,
not having received the packet, is uneasy about it, and desires you
to inform me how you sent the letters to her, and where they were
directed. If left at Carlton House, pray call there, and make some
inquiries respecting them. ' I am, &c.'
To this letter Dr. Randolph thus replied :
' I know not when I have been more seriously concerned than at
the receipt of your Ladyship's letter, which was forwarded to me
this morning.
' The morning I left town, which was on the SOth of August, I
went to the Brighton post-coach, which I was told at Cariton
House was the usual conveyance of the Princess's papers and
packets, and booked a parcel addressed to your Ladyship at the
Pavilion, inclosing the letters of her Royal Highness. I have
sent to a friend in London by this night's post, to trace the busi
ness, and will request your Ladyship to let your servants call at the
Ship, the inn I believe the coach drives to at Brighton, to make
inquiry there, and to examine the biU of parcels for Thursday, the
20th of August. If this prove not successful, I shall hold it my
duty to return to town, and pursue the discovery myself. I shall

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 387
not be easy till the packet is delivered safe ; and trusting that this
will soon be the case, ' I remain, &c.'
Bath, September ith, 1795.
The apparent quarrel between Dr. Randolph and Lord
Jersey was always stated by the Princess of Wales to have
been raerely a shallow raanoeuvre to exonerate each other, and
above all Lady Jersey. That she, or sorae one by her autho
rity, conveyed the] letters to the Queen,^is indisputable, since
observations wbich tbey contained were subsequently raen
tioned by her, and retailed to the royal faraily, and to many
persons connected with the court. It was the opinion of the
Princess of Wales that Lady Jersey was the chief instruraent
in tbis transaction ; and believed, either that she received the
packet frora Dr. Randolph, prior to bis quitting Brighton, or
directed hira to transrait it under cover to the Queen.
The Prince on this occasion vindicated the characters of
Lady Jersey and Dr. Randolph — stated that, in his opinion,
his raother would not have been a party to conduct so irapro
per — and finally blaraed the Princess for writing what she
would object to any person perusing. That it would have
been most wise, and prudent, and delicate for her Royal High
ness to bave concealed, at tbat time, her sentiments, and on
tbat subject, even from ber friends, there can be no doubt ;
but that the conduct of Lady Jersey, the Queen, and even of
Dr. Randolph, was highly reprehensible, appears to be equally
manifest. The fact, when developed, tended greatly to increase
the affection evinced for her Royal Highness by the people,
and was received with general and just disapprobation.
On tbe 17th of January, 1796, being just nine calendar
months, wanting one day, frora her raarriage, her Royal High
ness the Princess of Wales was delivered of a princess at
Carbon House, between the hours of nine and ten in the
morning. Conformably to the etiquette observed on such
occasions, his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, his
Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor,
the Lord President of his Majesty's Council, bis Grace the
Duke of, Leeds, tbe Eari of Jersey, Master ofthe Horse to hi?
3 C 2

388 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the Right Honourable
Lord Thurlow, and the Ladies of the Princess of Wales' Bed
chamber, were present at the royal accouchement.
The royal infant was christened in the grand audience-
chamber at Carlton House, on the 16th of February, his Grace
the Archbishop of Canterbury performing the ceremony. The
infant Princess was naraed Charlotte Augusta. The sponsors
were his Majesty, the Queen, and her Royal Highness the
Princess Royal, proxy for her Serene Highness the Duchess
of Brunswick.
Addresses of congratulation in the usual forra were voted by
both houses of parliament, and presented to their Majesties,
and to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of
Wales, who received the two houses in a private manner.
The corporation of the city of London, at the same tirae,
voted an address of congratulation to tbeir Royal High
nesses ; but it being intiraated to the Lord Mayor by Lord
Cholraondeley, who was at the head of his Royal Highness'
household, ' that the Prince of Wales being under the neces
sity of reducing his estabhshraent, he was precluded frora
receiving the addresses in a raanner suitable to his situa
tion ;' and desiring that copies of tbe addresses might be
sent to hira, it was raoved by Mr. Deputy Birch, ' That
bis Royal Highness the Prince of Wales having stated
that the inadequacy of his establishraent precluded him
frora receiving the compliraents of congratulation voted to
be presented to their Royal Highnesses in a way suitable
to his situation, this court is of opinion that it cannot, con
sistently with its own dignity, suffer the said compliraents
to be presented in any other way than the custoraary forra.'
After sorae conversation, the raotion was agreed to, and the
Remembrancer was ordered to convey a copy of it to his Royal
Highness. At the next Court of Common-councU, the Lord Mayor
rose to state to the court the conference he had had with the
Prince of Wales, on the subject of not receiving the congra-
tiUatory address of the city in the usual forra ; observing, that
in a raatter of so deUcate a nature, he had thought it bis duty
to commit the purport of this conversation to writing, which.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 389
with leave ofthe court, be would wish to read. The commu
nication was as follows : —
' In consequence of a letter frora Lord Cholraondeley,
dated January 31st, 1796, stating that bis Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales Avished to speak to me at Carlton House, and
to give rae a private audience on Tuesday, (but which
appointment was afterwards, by a second letter, fixed for
Monday last, at one o'clock,) I bad the honour of waiting on
bis Royal Highness, who addressed me by saying, that he bad
seen with concern in the public papers a stateraent of what
bad passed in the Court of Common-councU on Thursday
last, respecting a letter written by Lord Cholraondeley, at the
coraraand of his Royal Highness, and sent to the City Reraera-
brancer, conveying his sentiraents on the intended address of
congratulation to their Royal Highnesses, wbich sentiments he
conceived had been raistaken or raisunderstood, or at least a
very different construction bad be€;n given to thera than he
meant, or was intended to be conveyed by that letter. His
Royal Highness said that he thought it incumbent on him to
preserve a consistent character ; that as his establishraent, for
certain reasons, had been reduced, and that the necessary
state appendages attached to the character and rank of the
Prince of Wales did not in consequence exist, his Royal High
ness conceived he could not 'received an address in state, and
particularly frora the Corporation of the City of London, for
wbicb he entertained tbe highest veneration and respect. His
Royal Highness, therefore, thought it would appear disre
spectful to the first body corporate in tbe kingdora to receive
the raerabers of it inconsistently with their character and his
own dignity.'
After this candid and raanly explanation on the part of tbe
Prince of Wales, we should bave thought it irapossible for any
one to indulge in cavUs on this subject ; but such is the per
verseness of sorae dispositions, that the most innocent, nay,
soraetiraes tbe raost laudable, actions of other's lives, furnish
their raalignity with food for detraction. This is strikingly
exemplified in the conduct of an illiberal anonymous writer,
who censures the Prince of Wales on tbis occasion with equal
.injustice and asperity. The Prince of Wales, from feelings

390 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
of propriety, and a strong sense of his own dignity, declined
receiving the address of the City of London in its corporate
capacity. This the writer to whora we bave alluded thinks
proper to stigraatize as proceeding frora spleen and ill-huraour,
and calculated for no other end than to make tbe City of
London dissatisfied with his Royal' Highness. We wiU put it
to this gentleman hiraself — would it have been quite decorous
for the Prince of Wales, then living on a retrenched scale of
expense, with little raore state than sorae of the most opulent
nobUity of the land can and do assume, to have received the
Lord Mayor of the City of London, arrayed in the city regalia,
and attended by the Courts of Aldermen and Coraraon-council,
all habited in their state dresses, with as little ceremony as if
they had been a deputation of his own tradesraen who waited
upon bira ? So preposterous an idea could bave never
entered into the brains of any one, but a writer determined, at
all events, right or wrong, to find fault witb the conduct of the
Prince of Wales.
The result of the quarrels of tbe Prince and Princess of
Wales, previously and subsequently to ber accouchement,
was neither magical nor singular ; mutual distrust, dissatisfac
tion, and want of affection, were naturally succeeded by indif
ference and disgust. The Prince loved society, and did not
love his home. He loved Mrs. Fitzherbert, and did not love
his consort. He bad not selected her for his wife, and the
worthless and interested had vUified ber. She was unsuited
to the Prince, and she soon discovered tbe fact ; she was open
and ingenuous, and so was the Prince ; they neither concealed
tbeir dislikes, but tbe one was well, and the other ill founded :
the one was the result of unkindness, justifiable jealousy,
neglect and raisrepresentation ; the other resulted from the
previous dislike of the Prince to raarriage ; frora his original
indifference to the Princess, and frora his affection for other
individuals, less raorally and mentally deserving. Whenever
the Princess coraplained to the King, he pitied her, and syra-
pathized with her; but be advised tbat privacy should be
observed, and if they could not be happy with each other,
at least that their external conduct should not indicate their
dislike. To this recommendation they mutually deferred, and

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 391
hence on many occasions the ladies in waiting were by them
directed to withdraw. Soon after the appearance in public of
the Princess after ber accouchement, a dispute originated, on
a, matter of comparatively trivial iraportance, but which, in
the end, tended materially to widen that breach wbicb had
so long existed. This ended in another temporary separa
tion, and in solitude and misery ; witb but two faithful domes
tics about her person, the Princess of Wales bad to sustain
the evils of suspicion, calumny, and disappointment. That
tbis state of feeling could not long exist without some deve
lopement or alteration, could not be expected, and, conse
quently, to the Countess of Cholraondeley tbey rautually ex
pressed tbeir dissatisfaction. The Prince, however, visited
Windsor and Brighton with Mrs. Fitzherbert and Lady Jer
sey, and endeavoured to render hiraself happy and content.
But the King reproached bira for quitting a wife whora he bad
vowed to cherish, and expressed bis desire for a reunion.
This was now irapossible. The Princess had too much feeling
and independence to allow herself to be maligned and despised,
withont resenting it ; and she intreated that, by some arrange
ment or understanding, she might enjoy the society and pro
tection of ber husband. To the Prince she wrote, but he did
not attend to ber remonstrances, but only directed the Coun
tess Cholraondeley to suggest the propriety of a separation.
At this idea tbe raind of the Princess at first revolted ; she
knew tbat it would lessen her dignity, degrade her character,
disturb tbe happiness of her beloved parents, and be injurious
to the future character of her child. Yet the Prince had fre
quently stated to ber bis dislike of ber person, character, and
society, and she did not therefore long feel that aver
sion to the raeasure, which she otherwise would. On receiv
ing this comraunication, the Princess wrote to the Prince,
requiring an explanation of his conduct, and representing the
sources of their uneasiness and dissatisfaction; andto it she
received a reply which was to ber unsatisfactory. Windsor
was now tbe residence of tbe Prince, and Carlton House of
the Princess. Interviews but rarely occurred, and they often
only tended to increase their rautual unhappiness.
In March, 1796, the propriety of a separation was again

392 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
represented to the Princess, and feeling that her situation could
not be rendered more painful or degraded, she intiraated to
Lady Cholraondeley, that if she so separated now, at the
request ofthe Prince, she would have it expressly under
stood, that in case of the death of the Princess Charlotte
prior to herself and her father, she would not consent again
to cohabit with the Prince, merely for the purpose of pre
serving the succession of that branch of the royal faraily
to the crown. During the raonth of April, a further cor
respondence and conference took place, and at length the
Princess requested that she raight be definitely apprised of the
wishes of the Prince of Wales ; at the sarae tirae adding, that
if it were possible, she would still be happy to reside with
her husband, but that his conduct must be materially altered,
to render her palace the abode of happiness or even peace.
To the Prince she desired that her feelings and wishes might
be communicated by Lord Cholraondeley. His lordship cora-
plied with her request, and he returned a reply tbat his Royal
Highness thought an iraraediate separation had better take place,
that in future they should each forra their own arrangeraents,
and neither of thera be accountable to the other. With a
verbal raessage on a subject of such great iraportance, the
Princess was not content, and she required that she should
receive from the Prince, in writing, his wishes and proposition,
that she might be assured tbe comraunications she received were
those of the Prince, and not of artful and designing individuals
anxious to proraote a separation, frora personal and sordid
motives. With that request the Prince soon complied, and on April
30, 1796, he addressed to her the foUowing letter : —
' Madam, ' As Lord Cholraondeley informs me that you wish I would
define, in writing, the terms upon which we are to live, I shall endea
vour to explain myself on that head with as much clearness, and with
as much propriety as the nature ofthe subject will admit. Our in
clinations are not in our power, nor should either of us be held an
swerable to the other, because nature has not made us suitable to
each other. Tranquil and comfortable society is, however, in our
power ; let our intercourse, therefore, be restricted to that, and I will

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 393
distinctly subscribe, to the condition which you required, through
Lady Cholraondeley, that even in the event of any accident hap
pening to my daughter, which I trust Providence in its mercy will
avert, I shall not infringe the terms of the restriction by proposing,
at any period, a connexion of a more particular nature. I shall now
finally close this disagreeable correspondence, trusting that, as we
have completely explained ourselves to each other, the rest of our
lives will be passed in uninterrupted tranquillity.
' 1 am, Madam,
' With great truth, very sincerely yours,
' George P.'
' Windsor Castle, April 30/A, 1796.'
This letter, about which so much has been said and written,
was merely a link in the chain, thougb certainly one of consi
derable importance. That letter adraits, first, That to the
Princess of Wales be was not attached ; secondly, that he had
no specific charge to bring against the conduct of her Royal
Highness ; and thirdly, tbat a separation was essential to
his happiness and tranquillity. By the letter, however, the
Princess was surprised, agitated, and vexed. It was true, that
of a separation they had often spoken, but when the event
was presented to ber in the light of reality and iraraediate
occurrence, she was grieved and disappointed. The Princess
hesitated, as to tbe course wbich it would be prudent for her
to adopt, and accordingly, first determined on consulting ber
parents in Brunswick : but the time which would elapse, prior
to receiving an answer, and all delays being improper, she re
solved, at tbe advice of a particular friend, to consult tbe King,
and to write a speedy answer to the Prince. To the Prince
she accordingly coraraunicated, in French, her reply to his
letter, and to the translation of which particular attention
should be paid.
' The avowal of your conversation with Lord Cholraondeley neither
surprises nor offends me ; it merely confirmed what you have tacitly
insinuated for this twelvemonth. But after this, it would be a want
of delicacy, or rather an unworthy meanness in me, were I to com
plain of those conditions which you impose upon yourself.
' I should have returned no answer to your letter, if it had not
been conceived in terms to raake it doubtful whether this arrange-
3 D

394 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
ment proceeds from you or from me ; and you are aware that the
honour of it belongs to you alone.
' The letter which you announce to me as the last, obliges me to
communicate to the King, as to my sovereign and my father, both
your avowal and my answer. You will find inclosed the copy of my
letter to the King. I apprize you of it, that I may not incur the
slightest reproach of duplicity from you. As I have at this moment
no protector but his Majesty, I refer myself solely to him upon this
subject; and if my conduct meet his approbation, I shall be in sorae
degree, at least, consoled. I retain every sentiment of gratitude for
the situation in which I find myself, as Princess of Wales, enabled by
your means to indulge in the free exercise of a virtue dear to my
heart — I mean charity.
' It will be my duty, likewise, to act upon another raotive — that of
giving an example of patience, and resignation, under every trial.
' Do me the justice to believe, that I shall never cease to pray for
your happiness, and to be, ' Your much devoted,
'May 6, 1796.' 'Caroline.'
Of the letter of the Prince, it has been said, that it is a
' Letter of Licence' to the Princess, and to a certain extent,
the title is applicable ; but stiU it was just such a letter as the
previous conduct of the Prince should have induced her to
expect ; and it was highly creditable to her character. It ac
cused her of no crime — nor of any impropriety of conduct.
The Prince could not, and did not love the Princess, and that
was neither her fault nor his own. He admitted it. But then
the question arises, whether, although he could not love her,
yet as he had solemnly pledged himself to love and cherish
her, he ought not to have abstained frora those connexions
with other individuals, which necessarily tended to increase as
well as perpetuate those sentiments of indifference, and ulti
mately of dislike, which were entertained by the Prince. As
to the propriety of such abstinence, there could not surely be
any doubt, and it was all that was required by the Princess of
Wales. Nor ought she to bave desired more. The Prince she
did not love, though she esteemed and honoured hira, and she
bad, therefore, no right to expect from him feelings more
ardent than her own ; but it did not foUow that she should

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 395
expect, first, indifference, then dislike, and finally, persecution,
from hira to whom she looked up for protection. This letter
tacitly admitted the correctness of her conduct. ' The inclina
tions of each other were not within their own power, nor
should either of them be answerable to the other, because
nature bad not made them suitable to each other.' This was
the aUeged reason for the separation, and it was certainly the
final reason ; but had the Prince endeavoured to ascertain
whether tbey were made so suitable ? Certainly not. Before
his future consort bad visited England, an arrangeraent is
stated to bave been raade with Lady Jersey : afterwards ber
scandal and reproaches were listened to, and retailed : — then
the raarriage-bed was forsaken : — Mrs. Fitzherbert was retaken
under royal protection, and the Princess wholly discarded.
Nor was this all ; ber eneraies were placed as sentinels over
her conduct, although the society and protection of ber hus
band she did not enjoy ; and she who was a foreigner, a
Princess of Brunswick, an intelligent and accoraplished feraale,
was destined to live not raerely in soUtude, but in the midst of
scandal and reproach.
On the receipt of tbe letter from the Prince, the Princess of
Wales consulted with a political friend of his Royal Highness,
as to the conduct she should adopt. He expressed himself
surprised and grieved : but persuaded her iraraediately to
consult her father and raonarch, George III. Such advice
harraonised with her own feelings ; yet she expressed herself
desirous to avoid distressing his raind and agitating his sensi
bUity, by narrations which could not faU of producing dis
satisfaction and unhappiness ; but it was irapossible. Lord
Cholraondeley advised ber, that a reconciliation appeared
impracticable, since the feelings of the Prince were not the
resuh of momentary displeasure, but of a long determined in
difference, now araounting to dislike. He gave such opinion
with bis usual poUteness and respect, and she feU that it was
most likely to be correct. She then thought of returning to
her father; but it was irapossible so to act, without incurring
the charge of irapropriety of conduct ; and, after rauch hesi
tation, she resolved on the letter which she sent, and deter
mined on transmitting a copy to his Majesty. 3 D 2

396 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
The letter to the Prince she wrote in French, because she
could correspond in that language with greater propriety and
elegance ; and a copy of such communication she sent with a
letter to the King. His Majesty wrote to, and visited her.
He deplored her situation, and endeavoured by every possible
method to remedy the evils wbich he had been tbe uninten
tional instruraent of producing. His son he could not reproach
for not loving a woraan whom be had married froni policy ;
and bis attachments to Lady Jersey and Mrs. Fitzherbert had
been so frequently discussed and reprobated by bim, that fresh
animadversions were unnecessary. The Prince said, and wrote
but little on tbe subject. Alienated from his wife, he yet re
spected the dignity of the Royal Faraily, and he supreraely
desired that privacy, as ranch as possible, should be preserved.
In this respect all parties agreed, and tbe terras of separation
now alone reraained to be discussed. Concerning those ar
rangeraents some difference of opinion occurred. The King
thought it was possible for a separation to take place without
an actual change of residence, whUst the Prince and Princess
were each favourable to a complete alteration. The King
thought, that 20,000/. per annum should be allowed to tbe
Princess for a separate raaintenance ; whilst she was advised to
reject such incorae, and transrait periodically to the Prince her
accounts for payraent. To remedy the first difference, it was
deterrained, that apartments should be reserved for ber at
Carlton House, which she raight occasionally visit ; and to
reraove any objections as to the plan of ber proposed raainte
nance, she promised to be econoraical in her arrangements and
retired in her habits.
For some time, however, after these arrangeraents were
concluded, the Princess continued to reside at Carlton House,
and the Prince at Windsor and Brighton ; till, at length, she
retired to Charlton, a sraaU but beautiful village in the vicinity
of London ; where, in a comparatively humble abode, the
Princess of Wales resided for two years. To that place her
beloved child accorapanied her, and Miss Garth, Miss Ver
non, Mrs. Harcourt, and Mrs. Sander, vvith a few other ladies,
forraed her establishment.
^ The Princess of Wales was now apprized of the renewal of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 397
the intiraacy between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert, but to
the latter she never coraraunicated on the subject ; yet in a
raeraorable letter published at this tirae, and addressed to Mrs.
Fitzherbert and the Prince, the writer has neither overstated,
on the one hand, the intiraacy of the Prince with her, nor, on
tbe other, tbe feelings of dissatisfaction and disgust which it
.excited. In the letter to Mrs. Fitzherbert are the foUowing
energetic passages, evidently written under a strong irapulse
of resentraent and indignation.
• When the Prince of Wales was married to the Princess, it
was agreed that you should retire from that intiraacy of friend
ship you had so long enjoyed, and your houses in Pall Mall
and at Brighton'were given up accordingly.
' However creditable, prospectively, to your character, that
you did retire to the villa purchased for you at Castlebear,
yet, viewed in a retrospective light, tbe necessity of such a
retreat, accompanied as it was by a pension of several thou
sands per annum, payable quarterly at an eminent banker's,
and a retention ofthe very valuable plate, jewels, &c. given to
you by the Prince, did not, in the opinion of the world, add
much good fame to your reputation.
' Had you continued in the retireraent expected of you, the
world would probably never bave disturbed you in the enjoy
ment of your great possessions, by any reflections upon the
mode of their acquisition ; but not long after the Prince of
Wales was married, his Royal Highness discontinued to live
witb tbe Princess, and returned to your society, in which he
was eagerly received.
' On this unexpected renewal of intimacy, an establishraent
upon a still larger scale was forraed for you — a noble house in
Park-lane, most magnificently fitted up, and superbly fur
nished — a large retinue of servants — carriages of various
descriptions — a new pavUion, buUt for your separate residence
at Brighton — and the Prince more frequently in your society
than ever.
' When, Madara, your friends pretend that your feelings are
hurt, let me ask you and them, if you think the people ot
moral character in this country have no feeUngs ? I am sure
tbey must relinquish all claim to any, if they could view with

398 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
indifference such a departure frora decency as this conduct
exhibits in you, and not see, with anxiety and fear for the
future, the probable result of such a dreadful infatuation,
not less dangerous to the future interest of the country, than
any that was ever experienced at the profligate court of
Versailles.' And in a letter to his Royal Highness, the same writer says,
' I shall not, however. Sir, so easily pass over your renewal of
the connexion you had agreed to abandon with a lady, whose
society, frora her equivocal character, one part of tbe fashion
able world thinks it tbeir duty to avoid ; whUe the other, more
polite, in eorapliance with the expectation of your Royal High
ness, as a tribute of respect to yourself, that the lady should
be of every party where you are invited, sacrifice their sense
of decorura to their vanity ; while your Royal Highness, who
can exact such a concession, as the price of your corapany, or
tribute to your rank, does not raanifest that regard to the
opinion of the nation which they have a right to expect.
' The defiance to public opinion in the departure frora
decency which the conduct of the lady alluded to exhibits,
since the raarriage of your Royal Highness, is such as cannot
be reprobated with too rauch severity, and is very justly appre
ciated by the public, by whora her name is never mentioned
unaccompanied with expressions of the greatest conterapt.
' The forlorn and hapless female, compelled to seek refuge
from famine and despair in resources which her aching heart
condemns, claims at once the pity and forgiveness of the world ;
but the female who, surrounded by affluence, prostitutes her
self in the open face of day, ought to be pointed out as a pub
lic raark of infaray and vice.'
In regard to the conduct of Mrs. Fitzherbert, we raust be
aUowed to express our opinion as in sorae raeasure coinciding
with that of the writer of the letters frora which the foregoing
extracts have been taken : at the sarae tirae, it must be ad
mitted, that it would have been expecting too much frora her
to bave required that, when solicited by the Prince of Wales to
renew tbeir intiraacy, and when visited by him, that she should
refuse so to do. That the Prince required that Mrs. Fitzherbert
should be one of every party to which he was invited is unde-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 399
niably true ; and that be quitted two parties where she was
not so present, under evident signs of displeasure, is a notorious
fact, and was much commented upon at the time, as a positive
infraction of the coramon rules of propriety and decorum. It
should also be taken into consideration, by those who view the
conduct of Mrs. Fitzherbert at this time, as exhibiting some
of the darker traits of feraale turpitude, that the relation in
which that lady stood in regard to the Prince was one, per
haps, of the raost extraordinary in which a woraan was eveir
placed. She was conscious to herself that she possessed a
prior claira to the hand and bed of his Royal Highness, and
tbat she bad been deprived of the one, and alienated from the
other, by an act of mere state policy, which conderaned hira
to the thraldora of a public raarriage, which was repugnant to
his own feelings, and to which his heart was most decidedly
opposed. This, however, is the only palliation tbat can be
advanced for the conduct of Mrs. Fitzherbert after the mar
riage of the Prince ; for, after having formally consented to
discontinue her intimacy with his Royal Highness, on certain
weighty considerations, a renewal of that intimacy, after raar
riage, cannot be considered as agreeable to their propriety or
principle. It would not adrait of the slightest doubt, that the conduct
ofhis Royal Highness, and the open raeasures which he took
to renew bis connexion Avith Mrs. Fitzherbert, raet with the
raost raarked disapprobation and reprobation of the Princess
of Wales. She expostulated, but all her expostulations were
disregarded. Her disapprobation was ridiculed as foolish —
ber reprobation as wholly unworthy of notice. The arguraent
that was used with her was, that ' you cannot expect that the
Prince should renounce his friends, and absent himself from
their society, merely because it has been deemed expedient by
the country that he should marry you.' We do not attach
a great value either to the head or the heart which could have
invented, or raade use of such an arguraent, to give a sanction
to an open display of matrimonial infidelity, and a studied
desire to wound the feelings of a wife, on those points on which
she is generally the most susceptible ; and yet this appeared
to be the immediate study of the associates of the Prince of

400 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Wales, for (he express purpose of ultiraately effecting a sepa
ration between hiraself and his much-injured wife. It was not,
however, solely to Park-lane that the Princess of Wales looked
for the infidelity of her illustrious husband, but certain scenes
were actually carried on under the very roof of her own resi
dence, that would bave been more in character had they been
enacted in the den of Circe, than in the palace of the heir-
apparent to the British crown, and under the immediate obser
vation of his legitimate wife.
We have no disposition to press heavily upon tbe character
of any individual, especially that of a female, whose good
narae is the brightest gem in her dowry ; but wherever we
behold vice stand arrayed before us in all the plenitude of its
atrocity, we then disregard all distinctions of person or of
rank, and we wUl lash the thong of censure to its last thread,
untU ' the galled ^'ade is made to wince,' and the deep scars of
merited chastisement show themselves obtrusive to the gaze of
an indignant public.
That the Prince of Wales soon lost sight of all observance
of even the coraraonest principles of matrimonial attention,
degenerating into positive insult to the feelings of a woraan,
who had as yet conducted herself with the utraost decorura and
propriety, was a fact too well known by every inmate of
Carlton House to be concealed long frora the public, and
loud and lasting were the deep expressions of the public
indignation which burst frora every quarter on the head of his
Royal Highness. He was now marching at a rapid rate to
that extrerae verge of unpopularity which he soon afterwards
reached, and which, but for the strong arra of power, would
have shaken tbe peace of the country to its very base. Nor
did the conduct 'of Queen Charlotte tend in any degree to
appease the popular ferraent. She even vindicated in tbe
court circles the conduct of her son — expressed doubts as to
tbe moral character of the Princess, to a meraber of tbe royal
faraily now departed ; and, instead of being anxious to hush
the jarring eleraents of discord into peace, she only increased
the dissatisfaction, and fanned the flarae of personal dislike
between the royal couple, by her most unwise and improper
interference. The Princess of Wales, on the other hand, was

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 401
perhaps, nearly equally faulty. She studied not to conceal
her resentraent and dislike. She paid a raarked deference to
the King and Queen. The forraer she caressed as a father,
whilst the latter she received with all the stiffness and for
raality of court etiquette. Tbat the Princess of Wales acted
frequently with the utraost indiscretion and folly cannot for a
moment be disputed, for to whom did she coraplain of the
harsh and cruel treatraent which she received ? — not to those
individuals who might possess not only the power but the
inclination to redress her wrongs, but she denounced the con
duct of her husband, and of her husband's mother, to tbe very
individual who was then living under the same roof witb her,
as the mistress of her husband, and for whose removal from
her household she had petitioned, but petitioned in vain.
She made Lady Jersey the confidant of her sorrows — the
depository of her grievances — and the treacherous creature
iraraediately hastened to the Queen, and there disclosed that
inforraation wbich had been so thoughtlessly, and so irapru-
dently, coraraunicated to her, in the moments of unsuspecting
confidence, and which was afterwards made use of in the most
treacherous manner, as a part ofthe proofs of her immoral and
imraodest conduct.
Carlton House may be looked upon, at this tirae, as a Pan
dora's box, filled with treachery and vice. The immediate
associates of the Prince, male and feraale, were persons disr
tinguished for their iraraoraUty of conduct, their licentiousness
and debauchery. Scenes of the raost indecent nature were
daily and nightly practised under its roof, which, as it was
now the residence of a virtuous wife, and a raother, ought to
have been uncontarainated by the presence of the harlot or
the libertine. It was about this time that a character was
introduced to Carlton House, admirably fitted for the per
formance of any act which required dexterity or deep finesse ;
and who, although originaUy a pauper of the very lowest
cast, by his dexterous raanageraent of an intrigue, and
juraping over a few punctUios, which the rigidly moral man
would have declined overstepping at all, becarae, at last, the
confidant of tbe heir-apparent to the crown, the distributor of
3 E

402 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
places and emoluments ; and, at the sarae tirae, as Tom Moore
designated him, his ridicule and reticule.
We are aware that in the following exposure we shall call
down upon our heads the indignation of the surviving raem
bers ofthe famUy of Sir John M'Mahon ; but, at the same tirae
that vve profess an esteem for that man who raises hiraself by
his talents and an honourable course of action, frora a menial
situation to one of rank and emolument, with the same spirit
do we deprecate that individual, who, crouching at the feet
of his superiors, will lend hiraself to the coramission of the
meanest and the raost disgraceful actions, for the sole pur
pose of his own personal aggrandizeraent. We should not,
however, have deeraed it necessary to enter into any detail of
the birth, parentage, and conduct of the quondara privy-purse
to the Prince of Wales, if it did not present an original pic
ture of the state of society at that time, as far as influence and
character extended, in the appointment of many of the prin
cipal officers who formed the household of the Prince of
Wales. It was not talent, it was hot an unsullied reputation,
which then formed the stepping-stone to advanceraent, but the
finished adept at an intrigue, the artful seducer of a wife's
affections, or the husband who ivould leave his residence at
one door, while a prince entered it at another, and absent
hiraself for the night ; these were the raen to whora the door
of preferment stood open, on whom all honours and dignities
were showered, as if reward were the concomitant of infaray,
and eraolument the attendant on vice.
The courts of most princes are the same, and the intrigues
of courtiers operate and promote similar results. This may in
a great raeasure be attributed to the leading principle, that
the higher the power, the more stationary its action. While,
tberefore, civUization has progressed in almost an equal ratio
with population, courts and courtiers do not keep pace with
the improved inteUigence of the age ; the former forming as it
were a terra incognita, and the latter a distinct race of people,
although of the same community and country, and subject to
the same laws as society in general. This was pecuUariy
the case with the court of his late Majesty, to the very period

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 403
of his decease. The few persons called the King's private
friends, such as the Duke of Devonshire, Earl Cowper, &c.,
were occasionaUy guests at the royal board, but were never con
sulted nor advised with. They had no political influence, nor
desired any. Ductile as wax, they were irapressed with the
signet of raajesty, and he.ld in the same estiraation as the auto
graph ofthe hand-writing on the wall, for their rarity ; or, like
the gold plate of the household, only exhibited on extraordi
nary occasions, to give dignity to the presence of the King
bimself, or to add to the splendour of his hospitality. On all
other occasions, the circle of the Prince of Wales, as well
then as when he was King, was coraposed of persons raised by
his bounty to the rank of companions — -no raatter by what
nature of services that dignity had been obtained, or how far
personal character had been injured or offended by thera.
Their dependency was assured on terms which declared their
own baseness and raeanness, and like satellites they revolved
round the royal planet, but in no other atraosphere could their
splendour be acknowledged.
On referring to the pages of history, and particularly to
those which treat of the actions of the sovereigns of the earth,
it will appear as an extraordinary fact, that their favourites
have generaUy been chosen frora the dregs of society, and
that, in the raajority of instances, their aggrandizeraent has
been owing to their adroitness in intrigue, or to their total dis
regard of those solemn ties which are interwoven with the
dearest affections of our nature, and by which the interests of
society are held together. On the feraale side of favouritisra,
the aspect is, if possible, stUl more hideous ; for there it has
generally risen from the very worst of passions, which to
gratify, it would ieed on offal. A Lanskoi, a Struensee, and a
Godoy, were the selected favourites of crowned heads, and all
of thera bom in the lowest grade of huraan society, yet all of
thera rising to the highest honours ; and although one of thera
forfeited his life on the scaffold, yet he once ruled the destinies
of a nation ; and, but for the illicit affection of his Queen for
hira, would perhaps have lived to be the regenerator of his
country. We may be excused this digression, as being introductory
3 E 2

404 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
to a short biographical detail of the actions of an individual
who was the confidant and the companion of the Prince of
Wales, and who, we have reason to know, was deeper impli
cated in some of the amorous transactions of his Royal High
ness, than any of his predecessors who held the same office.
We could point to two ladies now living, the mothers of farai
lies, and moving in a raost respectable station of life, who, but
for the intriguing skiU of John M'Mahon, would never bave
reposed in the arms of his Royal Highness; and we could
point to another lady, in the person of Mrs. M'Mahon herself,
to the effect of whose charras on the heart of the present raost
illustrious personage in the kingdom was solely owing the ag
grandizeraent and elevation of her pliant and accoramodating
husband. John M'Mahon, the corapanion ofthe Prince of Wales, was
a natural son of John M'Mahon, butler in the faraily of the
Right Honourable Mr. Cleraents, afterwards Lord Leitrira, of
the Park, near Dublin. His mother was a chambermaid in
the same family. At the age of nine, young John was taken
into the sarae family, as kitchen-boy, to clean knives and boots.
His father soon afterwards left the service of Mr. Clements,
and opened an oyster-shop in Dublin, which gave him an
opportunity of sending his son to school, where he made such
rapid progress in his learning, that he was appointed one of
the under ushers, at a salary of 10/. a year. His father after
wards married a Miss Stacpoole, of the county Clare, by whom
he had two sons, the present Sir Thomas and Sir William
M'Mahon; and at a future period, a very extraordinary diffi
culty arose in regard to there being two Johns in the same
famUy, on which a bill in equity was filed in Dublin, in which
John M'Mahon, the Privy Purse ofthe Prince of Wales, was
made a party ; and he was obliged to put in his answer, and
to swear that he believed he was the natural son of John
M'Mahon, and that his mother, the maid-servant, was never
raarried to him, nor any one else.
John M'Mahon now obtained the situation of an exciseman •
but finding the employment of measuring and gauging beer
and whiskey rather dull and stupid, he formed an acquaintance
with Mr. John Ferrar, the then proprietor of the Limerick

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 405
Chronicle, and a few other literary tradesmen, and they
formed a debating society, each person to pay 6Jc/. admission
fee. The novelty of the plan occasioned very crowded bouses,
and the projectors of it soon found themselves in possession of
funds to the amount of 500/. The society, however, was not
of long duration ; and M'Mahon left Limerick for Dublin,
where he was not very well received by his father, who pro
cured him, however, the situation of a petty clerk in the
Treasury, which he occupied for about two years ; but being
dismissed witb disgrace, his father refused to interest hiraself
any further about hira, and being thrown upon the world, he
joined a corapany of stroUing players, with whom he reraained
about two years. One night, as he was acting the character
of Scrub, in the Beaux' Stratagera, at Ennis, county Clare,
he attracted the notice of Mr. WiUiara English, then well
known by the cognoraen of Buck English*, who being a raan
of gallantry, and excessively partial to the feraale sex, soon
found in bis new servant a raost able coadjutor in bis designs
upon the wives and daughters of the gentry and peasantry in
his neighbourhood. In one instance, however, although
M'Mahon succeeded in obtaining the lady, it proved a dear
bargain to his eraployer. This was the case of Mrs. Kissane,
whose husband lived about a raile from the town of Tipperary,
Mr. Kissane was a gentleman considerably advanced in years ;
bis wife was young and beautiful, and therefore she became
the object of English's desires, and M'Mahon was employed
to carry on the intrigue. He succeeded so far as to conduct
Mrs. Kissane to the spot where she was to meet Mr. English;
but being observed by a man of the name of Shew, the latter
placed a ladder at the window, and there saw sufficient to
convict the parties of crira. con., and daraages were awarded
against Mr. English of 1500/.
* This English was one of the most extraordinary characters of the day. He
acquired his property in a very singular manner, for his father, who was a day-
lahourer, being at work on the lands of Shoonhill, county Tipperary, then the
property of the ancestors of the late Lady Caroline Damer, he found ti large
earthen vase filled with gold, that was supposed to have been hidden there upon
the an-ival of Oliver Cromwell at the siege of Clonmell. With this money, old
William English purchased lands and houses, which at his death became the pro
perty of his son, William Alexander English, the patron of M'Mahon. He fought
two duels, in both of v/hich he killed his antagonist; and being once in England,
he killed a waiter at an inn, and had him charged in the bill at 50/.

406 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
M'Mahon's stay under the roof of Mr. English was not of
long duration, for one night the latter, being drunk, ordered
M'Mahon to act the part of Scrub, for the entertainraent
ofthe company; but M'Mahon refused, on which Mr. Eng
lish took up a stick, and laid M'Mahon prostrate on the
ground ; and if it had not been for the interference of Lieu
tenant Hiffernan of the 32d regiment, who was then com
manding a recruiting party in the town of Tipperary, it is
most probable that M'Mahon would not have lived to becorae
the Privy Purse of the Prince of Wales. With a lacerated
head, and the whole of his wardrobe, consisting of two shirts,
a corab, a razor, and a pair of black breeches, he left the
house of Mr. English : and the schoolboys of the town, Mr.
Regan, Mr. Keating, and some other gentleraen, raised a sub
scription for hira at one shilling each, and obtained for hira a
bed at the house of a poor widow ofthe name of Rose Burne,
at the weekly rent of three shillings and sixpence, British, for
the payment of whicli Lieutenant Hiffernan becarae security.
When this worthy officer Avas obliged to leave the service, on
account of ill health, and being considerably reduced in his
circumstances, he sent the following curious bill to Lieutenant-
Colonel M'Mahon, then an inmate of Carlton House ; and it
w^as delivered by Major Mansergh, of the 32d regiment, witb
the injunction on the part of Lieutenant Hiffernan not to
declare the nature of the bill, as it might hurt the feelings of
the favoured companion of the Prince. We have, however,
obtained a copy of the bill ; and it was not only discharged by
M'Mahon, but three guineas were added to it, and he subse
quently obtained an ensigncy for one of Hiffernan's sons.
The bill was as follows : —

John M'Mahon Dr. to Thomas Hiffernan.

£.

2d Jan. 1776. Paid Rose Burne for your lod"-in"-s,
one fortnight . . . .077
Paid T. Coney for dressing your hair, a
fortnight  0 2 8i
Paid for your supper and whiskey . 0 1 71
Paid your washerwoman . ..028

¦i

Carried forward 0 14 1

£.

s.

</.

0

14

1

0

5

5

0

4

10^

0

2

2

0

3

3

0

3

'3

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 407
Brought forward
2d Jan. 1776. Paid for a pair of shoes .
Paid William Makers, the tailor, for
turning your coat
Paid for your supper and gin toddy .
Money lent . . . . .
Feb. 2. Paid for a pair of stockings
Paid the tailor for mending and seating
a pair of black breeches . .019
Paid for supper and grog at Read's Inn,
Tipperary .....
Paid for two cravats . . . .
Paid for two pocket handkerchiefs
Paid Rose Burne another week's lodg
ing 
Paid washerwoman . . . .
Paid T. Coney, hair-dresser, for a comb,
powder, and pomatum
Paid supper and whiskey
Paid for mending your shirts and stock
ings 
Paid for covering your hat .
Paid another week's lodging to Rose
Burn .....
Paid for two neck handkerchiefs, and
two pocket handkerchiefs, atReilly'.s,
in Tipperary

On recovering from the wounds inflicted by the chastise
ment which Mr. English had given him, a subscription was
set on foot for M'Mahon by sorae gentleraen in the town of
Tipperary, and the sum obtained amounting to about 20/.,
M'Mahon departed for Dublin, where he volunteered in a
regiment, then on the eve of erabarking for North America.
Lord Rawdon, afterwards Earl Moira, was an officer in the
.same regiment, and he soon discovered M'Mahon's tact in
intrigue ; and being always found ready, on every occasion, to
promote the designs of his lordship with particular ladies, and

0

2

2

0

4

4

0

3

3

0

3

H

0

1

n

0

1

n

0

2

•2

0

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n

0

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3

0

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0

6

10^

£Z

7

H

408 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
especially with Mrs. Doyle, he was rewarded with an ensigncy,
and subsequently he was appointed to the situation of de
puty comraissary. From the eraoluraents of this office he was
enabled to purchase a lieutenancy and a corapany ; and at
the close of the American war, in 1783, M'Mahon returned to
England, and settled at Bath, where be was introduced, by
Captain Hazard, to a lady, whom he subsequently raarried,
and settled at Ham Common, near Richmond. By accident,
a certain iUustrious individual, in one of his rides frora Bushy
Park, saw Mrs. M'Mahon, and became deeply enamoured of
her; an acquaintance was formed, and the royal Duke was a
frequent visiter at the cottage of M'Mahon ; but it happened
that whenever the Duke called, some urgent business required
the attendance of M'Mahon in town, where he spent his
evenings at the Cocoa Tree with Mr. Butler Danvers, Colonel
Matthew, brother to Earl Landaff, and other gentleraen. By
the interest of the Duke, M'Mahon was proraoted to the
brevet rank of major and Ueutenant-colonel; and, subse
quently, by the joint influence of his Royal Highness and
Lord Moira, he was introduced to Carlton House, where, in
a short time, he raised himself to be the companion and con
fidant of the heir-apparent to the throne.
We shall have again to refer to the actions of this man in
some of the dark intrigues in which he was engaged on behalf
of his royal raaster, but we have, in the foregoing sketch,
exhibited an extraordinary picture of the rautability of huraan
affairs in the life of an individual, comraencing in tbe most
abject poverty, and closing in affluence and rank. On his
entering Carlton House, his income as a half-pay officer was
only 60/. per annum, to which was added an annuity of 60/.
by right of his wife ; but he began to improve bis finances,
first by disposing of tickets at fifteen shiUings and a pound
each for viewing the interior of Cariton House ; and, secondly,
by procuring situations and titles, which were paid for accord
ing to the emoluraent to be received. In one instance, a
gentleman applied to him to obtain a peerage for hira, and
5000/. was offered The offer was rejected, the sum was
then doubled, and the peerage was obtained. When Lady
M'Mahon was on her death-bed, she bade Sir John open a

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 409
a particular drawer, and in it he found, to bis great astonish
ment, 14,000/. in Bank of England notes, obtained entirely by
the exercise of her influence over some of the branches of the
royal faraily, in the obtaining of commissions, and other ap
pointments under government. In one instance, Robert Donkin,
who was a lieutenant in the Supplementary Militia, gave Mrs.
M'Mahon 120/. for an ensigncy in the line. He was killed at
the battle of Maida.
John M'Mahon was the principal agent in procuring Mrs.
Jordan frora Mr. Ford for the Duke of Clarence.
Good and bad seera to be blended together through all
nature, and soraetiraes to be confounded with each other. In
raan there seera to be certain vices and virtues, which gene
raUy go together, and when we see, as we continually do, that
some faulty characters please, and some virtuous characters
displease, we ought to distinguish what in particular it is that
pleases' or displeases in thera ; and if we do, we shaU find at
least, we believe, rauch oftener than we are aware of, that
the virtuous character displeases only in the vicious part,
and the vicious character pleases only in the virtuous part. It
must, indeed, be confessed, that some virtuous characters dis
please us more, upon the whole, than sorae vicious charac
ters, but then it happens that the vice raingled in the virtuous
character is of tbe most odious kind, for we are more offended
with parsimony degenerated into avarice, than with liberality
pushed on to profusion ; and it should also be reraerabered, that
there are sorae good and bad qualities which partake very little
either of virtue or vice, and will yet alraost obscure the one, and
atone for the other.
But we have been told, that we are to regard the actions
of the confidants of the Prince through a different raediura
to that of ordinary raen, but we cannot discern where the
distinction lies. We know of only one standard of right and
wrong, and both are so fixed and deterrained in tbeir prin
ciples, that that which is guilty in one individual cannot be
innocent in another ; the respective relations of the individual
cannot possibly possess any influence on the _p/us or minus of
raoral turpitude which he raight display, and the only excuse
that can be offered for tbe display of any vice, which the
3 F

410 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV,
confidant of a prince raay display, is, that he is not an inde
pendent agent, but that he is constrained to act according to
the commands of his superior. The responsibility of the act
rests on hira who enjoins tbe coraraission of it, qui fecit per
alia, fecit per se ; and, in accordance with tbat principle, the
onus of the many disgraceful acts which Sir John M'Mahon
committed during the reign of his pursership, within and
without the walls of Carlton House, raust rest on tbe shoulders
ofthe plotter and contriver of them, not on the executor.
It may be added, that the whole family of the M'Mahons
bave been ennobled by tbe influence which Sir John M'Mahon
possessed with the Prince Regent. He succeeded in having
his brother William made a serjeant of law in Ireland, and
afterwards Master of the Rolls, to which a baronetcy was
attached. His other brother, Thomas, a captain in the army,
was, by the same interest, made Aid-de-camp to the Prince
Regent, and raised to the rank of Ueutenant-colonel. As Sir
John M'Mahon knew he should not have any children, he
succeeded, when a baronetcy was conferred upon him, for his
great and signal services, in having the title to descend, at bis
decease, to his brother Thomas ; and we believe both these
baronets are now living.
Frora the private history of this prurient and parasitical
courtier, we proceed to subjects of greater interest, and which
possess a most decided influence on the general welfare ofthe
country. The marriage of the Prince of Wales was soon
followed by another of the male branches of the royal faraily,
which, as connected with the succession to the crown, and
bearing peculiariy upon the character, not only of George
IIL, but of the iUustrious subject of these meraoirs, demands
frora us peculiar notice. We allude to the raarriage of the
Duke of Sussex with Lady Augusta Murray, the daughter
of Lord Dunraore, at that tirae Governor of the Baharaa
Islands. It is not the least curious part in the history of the
royal faraily of England, and especially of the Brunswick
line, that almost aU the members of it have been inclined to
select their wives frora araongst the commoners, on the fair
and just principle, that an English prince should have an
English wife. It assuredly was the baneful, narrow, and

Memoirs of geOrge iv. 411
imraoral poficy of contracting state marriages, which first
warped, and ultimately shattered, the mind of George III.
The father of that monarch, had he been left to follow his
own free will, would have married a grand-daughter of the
great Duke of Marlborough, and bis son, George III., was
deeply enamoured of Lady Sarah Lennox. State policy,
wielded by an ambitious and haughty raother, interfered, and
snapped asunder and uprooted tbat honourable attachraent ;
and seeking in the petty courts of Germany for a consort,
gave tbat first great shock to his feelings which led to deep
and irreparable evils, not merely to the King, but tO tbe
nation ; for, during various periods of longer and more fre
quent aberrations than his people knew of, the monarchical
functions were exercised solely by bis ministers, in concert,
perhaps, with a Queen, araongst whose virtues any deep
reverence towards the rights of the people was not num
bered. An honourable, although a mistaken, feeling of public duty
bad led George III. to relinquish his intention of raarrying
Lady Sarah Lennox, and acknowledging her as his Queen
consort; and the sarae principle led hira to wish to controul
and guide his brother's choice ; and what was the result ?
The deepest immorality, continual violations of the laws of
hospitality, the seductions of the wives and daughters of the
first ofthe English nobility; and it also led to the comraission
ot felony, as Well as to innumerable acts ot adultery.
We may be considered as retrograding too far in entering
on the amours of George IIL, for, to a casual observer, they
may be supposed to have little or no reference to the imme
diate subject of these memoirs ; but they will be found to be
the foundation of those arbitrary and restrictive measures,
which, in the subsequent marriages of the raerabers of the
royal faraily, and particularly in tbat of the Prince of Wales,
were fraught with so rauch misery and danger to the vital
interests of the country. StiU there is something strongly
paradoxical in tbe character of George IIL, who, being him
self thwarted in bis first and sincerest attachment, might be
supposed to possess some sympathy with the other branches
of his family, who, emancipating themselves from the tram-
3 F 2

412 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
meis of state policy, bestowed their affections on the daughters
of our nobility, and even on coraraoners, but wbich tbey were
constrained to sraotber, to make way for a spurious and
bastard love for. some ugly, stinted member of a German
principality. If we regard the Marriage Act as operating on the children
of George 111., in how terrible and awful a situation did that
jwlicy place the successor to the throne ! What a dreadful
train of variegated misery did it entaU upon his beloved niece,
the daughter of his eldest sister, whora he selected as a bride
for his eldest son ! The horrid and vile anoraaly in British
jurisprudence, the hateful BiU of Pains and Penalties, was its
offspring, the effects of which no human eye can foresee, no
huraan tongue can tell. The raost prophetic vision, piercing
the veil of futurity, catches but a partial glimpse of the evils
with which that raeasure is accorapanied, and which at, per
haps, no very distant period, may shake the dynasty of the
Brunswicks to its very base. If we look to the succession to
the throne, how dark and gloomy is the prospect in wbich the
enactments of the Royal Marriage Act envelope the country!
To this odious measure, contrary to the laws of nature and of
God, we are now indebted for the most singular exhibition
which the succession to the throne of tbis country now pre
sents. We are at this time virtually without a heir-apparent,
while the presuraptive heiress is a princess, the daughter of
the late Duke of Kent, and under twelve years of age. The
Dukes of Cumberland and Cambridge bave each a son, and
the Duke of Sussex, by the operation of the Marriage Act,
bas been obliged to live single. The union between him and
Lady Augusta Murray took place at Rome, and, on her be
coming pregnant, they retumed to England, and a second
marriage took place in December, 1793, in the church of St.
George, Hanover-square, according to the ceremonies of the
Church of England.
The empty cry ofthe expediency of preserving the succes
sion to the crown pure and unsullied was now set up, and
George III., he, whose heart was still aching for the object of
his first love, instituted a suit in the Arches Court of Canter
bury, to annul the raarriage of the Duke of Sussex ; and it

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 413
was declared by that court, that not only the marriage in
England was null and void, but that tbat wbich had been
contracted in Italy was also illegal and invalid. Where then is
tbe man, possessing coraraon sense, who will dare tp deny that
it is not high tirae to abolish tbe Marriage Act, by which so
much crime and misery bave been engendered in the royal
faraily, and by which the first and noblest of British women
can attain no higher connexion with that family than to becorae
a concubine to a British prince ?
It is tbe sickening pride of the pauper princes of Gerraany,
which has entaUed so heavy a calaraity on this country as the
Marriage Act. In the case of the Prince of Wales, who ac
tually carae to the altar as a raarried man, and who, as such,
forswore himself in the presence of bis Creator, generations
yet unborn may have reason to rue the day when that inau
spicious union was consummated. It brought the country at
one tirae to the verge of actual rebellion — private and public
tranquillity was destroyed — the farae of England, which stood
the brightest and the fairest in the estiraation of foreign nations,
was, shorn of its splendour, and the reraains of the last, and
it raay be said, the raost ill-fated of England's queens, was
huddled out of the country, araidst the din of arras, and cries
of vengeance on the heads of her raurderers.
It raay not be unworthy of remark, that tbe objections to
the marriages of our royal faraily witb any of the branches of
our nobUity, has universally risen frora the queen-consorts.
In tbe case of Frederick, Prince of Wales, Horace AValpole
asserts, in his * Rerainiscences,' that tbe day was actuaUy
fixed for his secret marriage with Lady Diana Spencer, at
the lodge belonging to tbe Duchess of Marlborough, in Wind
sor Great Park; and Sir Levett Hanson, so late as 1808,
affirmed, that he was assured by a gentleman, who belonged to
the Prince's household, that Frederick Prince of Wales used
often to tell Prince George, that as he was an English boy, he
should, if he pleased, bave an English wife ; observing, tbat
by continually intermarrying witb German women, the royal
faraUy would continue for ever gerraanized, and distinct frora
tbe nation tbey governed. When it was urged by bis cour
tiers that such marriages might prove prejudicial to the state,

414 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
by conferring too great an ascendancy upon particular fami
lies, and thereby create jealousies and ill blood ; be would
reply in a jocular way by saying, he should bave girls and
boys enough lo connect the crown by blood with so many
families that no such danger could arise, and he would never
force his sons or daughters to raarry, adding, if they should
like the Germans best, let them take their choice; but I would
rather that they should all marry into English families, and
then their descendants would be of British blood as well as
Britons born. His consort, however, having been reared in
the petty court of Saxe Gotha, where the people and the cattle
were held in about equal estiraation, and expected silently and
submissively to yield to every mandate, heard with surprise
and indignation these alarraing doctrines, and energetically
affirmed, that if she had power to prevent it, never should a
child of her's marry into an English famUy. The sentiments
expressed by the father, at a later period of his life, sunk deep
into the raind of his son George, and when, in 1756, his
grandfather thought of marrying him to a princess of Bruns
wick, he expressed to his raother his strong aversion to the
raarriage, who, having other views, supported ber son's deter
mination without saying why, and there ended the incipient
project. If we look to George III. before he had attained the age
of twenty-one, he had secretly made up his raind to adopt
his father's maxims, and select an English woraan to share, as
his consort, the English throne. His affections, as it is well
known, settled upon Lady Sarah Lennox. The enamoured
youth was not slow in finding raeans to let the noble young
damsel know of the pure and ardent affection his heart che
rished towards her, and if she deigned to listen to his suit, it
was his intention, if he lived to ascend the throne, that she
should share it with him. With a frankness of heart, which
reflects honour upon her memory, the amiable giri freely
acknowledged, that had the rank of her lover been as far
below her's as it was above, she could have met his advances
without doing violence to her feelings, but as the case stood,
after having gratefully and humbly thanked the Prince for
the proud distinction be hadhestowed, and wishing him every

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE ly, 415
happiness, she informed him she dared not act othefWise than
decline bis flattering offer. Having fully made up his mind
on the subject, this graceful denial only fanned the intense
passion he felt, and which, perhaps, be did not wish to con
troul ; and so powerful were its effects, that it wrought a
sudden and marked change in bis pursuits. His dogs, his
horses, his field sports, were for a time wholly neglected, till
upon tbe reiterated assurances of the resolution he had long
formed of marrying a British lady, and that he would rather
relinquish the throne than his hope of obtaining her for his
bride, she cancelled the negative previously given, and they
interchanged vows of love and constancy. Thus when his
mind was released from the racking anguish of suspense, and
he was received as a favoured lover, the youthful Prince re
sumed his former sports, though with diminished ardour, for
the fair Lennox revelled in his viituous bosom the queen of
his soul — tbe sole object ofhis youthful love.
Sir Levett Hanson speaks of these interesting court anec
dotes as sober facts, and he smiled at the idea that the reign
ing family could have been disgraced by the heir-apparent
raarrying the daughter of an English peer ; whUst in the raost
fuU and positive terras he affirmed, that the Duke of Rich
mond, her father, had no knowledge of, nor participation in
this amour ; stating that a cousin of her raother's was gover
ness to Lady Sarah, and also her confidant ; and that her
conduct was raarked by the strictest propriety and decorura in
every stage of the transaction, when her hopes were lifted
high, and an imperial crown seemed irapending over her
head, and when by a cruel reverse the flattering prospect sud
denly vanished, and love was made an offering to state
policy. Beset on every side with interested observers, it must have
been a matter of great difficulty for the Prince to have car
ried on this intercourse undiscovered ; yet this was accom
plished through the medium of his brother Edward, and the
lovers frequently met at the country seat of a lady of rank,
which stood in the track of the Prince's rustic excursions.
During these stolen interviews, which could not last long,
the lover acquainted his intended bride that he neither had

416 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
nor should consult any of his courtiers ; but, deferring the
marriage untd he had ascended the throne, he would plead
his father's promise — claira his natural right to select his
partner for life — and throw hiraself upon the generosity of bis
people for support and approbation*.
We raay be considered as digressing frora the avowed sub
ject of these raeraoirs in thus entering into the particulars of
the araour of George III. ; but, in the first place, tbey are
not generaUy known, and, in the second, they serve to com
plete the odious picture of the irapolicy of state raarriages,
and tbe baneful consequences which result frora thera to the
general interests of tbe country. The raarriage of the Prince
of Wales witb Caroline of Brunswick may be regarded as the
apex of tbis unnatural systera ; and the exposition of the evils
witb which such marriages are accompanied may sooner or
later be the means of attracting the notice of the legislature,
and the result may be the abolition of an act which now stands
as a disgrace in the archives of one of the raost liberal and
enlightened nations of the vvorld.
The chief household spy of the Princess Dowager of Wales
was Mr. Creset, who was also her private secretary ; and he
was the person who, suspecting Prince George's visits to the
Countess of  were connected with sorae intrigue, had
the credit of having discovered the araatory intercourse and
correspondence which, before he reflected bow much better
a hand of that discovery he raight have raade by concealing
it frora all except the lovers, be babbled out to bis inquisitive
mistress. The Princess Dowager was affected by this dis
covery no less powerfully than if she had been apprized of
the sudden death of her eldest son. She had been for sorae
time suspicious that the Prince was deeply engaged in an
amour, but her pride repelled the idea that he had already
plighted his faith to raise an English lady to be the partner
of his throne. Rage — indignation — scorn — dismay — each by
of *his To;*l^|f„*^f ™''™ °f tis father for Lady Sarah Lennox is a witticism
father, wh4tperfmbuiltW%''^^/''' ''^"i, "° •''¦'?S informed that his
Park, had beei?pum,edbv^on?^fi^ ^""w T "" ™'?'*y.°f Windsor Great
sorry for it,' said the Prin. < v .*! ¦°''^'' which were grazing in the fields, ' I am
in danger from a Lel^lT'' ^"' " " "°* ^^' ^''^ '""'' *''' ¦"? f^^^er has been

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 417
turns assailed her agitated bosora, yet her usual caution did
not forsake her ; and tbough constrained forbearance cost
her a severe pang, the Princess despatched Creset to suraraon
the Earl of Bute to her presence, before she ventured upon
any atterapt to avert a blow alike fatal to all her ambitious
projects, and intolerably humiliating to her haughty mind.
Lord Bute was scarcely less surprised than the Princess,
nor less alarmed. He saw all the dangers which surrounded
thera, and taught the mother, bursting with passion, the
necessity of subduing her feelings, and having recourse to sap
and mine to effect that purpose for which he expressed his
fullest confidence that all angry remonstrance would utterly
faU. Convinced by his reasoning, and frora habit submissive
to opinions so gracefully and eloquently expressed, the Prin
cess yielded to his better counsels, nothing doubting his fidelity
or discretion ; and thus, whUst the youthful lovers, lulled in a
false security, enjoyed their present happiness, and confidently
looked forward to a prosperous issue to their virtuous wishes,
silently but rapidly were the elements of that storra accumu
lating, which vvas destined to sever their fond hearts, and
annihUate every enraptured vision of future bliss in which they
were indulging.
Never at a loss for expedients to bring about any greatly
desired end, tbe Earl of Bute called into action a few selected
noblemen and ladies upon whose prudence he could rely, to
whom, partially and cautiously, he explained the uneasiness
of the Princess Dowager, on account of ber eldest son's
devotion to Lady Sarah Lennox, and her maternal fears lest
the amour should end in the dishonour of the young damsel;
not once alluding to the Prince having pledged his faith to
the fair object of his love, and destined her to be his consort,
from the fear that it should counteract their own projects, and
raise up auxiliaries for the lovers where she hoped to create
enemies. It raay be necessary to carry in reraembrance the leading
points of this araour, in order properly to understand the
iraport of raany passages in the dialogue betvveen the Prince
of Wales and his illustrious father, inserted in a subsequent
part of this work, and which has been obtained by the
3 G

418 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
kindness of a gentleman who was at the tirae secretary to
the Earl of Moira, who was hiraself present at the royal
interview. To the credit of the Prince and his beloved, so great had
been their discretion and self-coraraand, that no one, except
the few already alluded to, had the least idea of their innocent
araour. At the instigation of the Earl of Bute, the Duke
of Richraond was suddenly visited by a succession of noble
guests, whose presence occupied too ranch of Lady Sarah's
tirae to perrait of her raeeting her royal lover as usual. Their
intercourse was, in consequence, epistolary ; and as neither
of thera had the smallest mistrust that their secret' passion
was known to the Princess, they consoled each other in the
pleasing illusion that the tirae for secresy and constraint would
shortly terrainate. But when visit after visit was proposed,
and Lady Sarah found herself insensibly, as it were, reraoved
farther and farther frora ber lover, dark fears unbidden ob
truded on her raind ; and although she could not perceive
any visible traces of reraote agency or secret raanageraent, yet
the result of the different doraestic moveraents alarraed her
fears, and suggested danger, without affording any clue to its
source, or any raeans of prevention.
During this period, the lovers were alraost wholly debarred
frora correspondence ; and by coraparing dates, it seems, from
the recoUections of men of ancient days, who were then in
the service of the royal family, that the Prince was rera.arkably
dejected, neglected his favourite animals, and bis rural sports,
and sought out solitudes, wherein perhaps to give greater scope
to his perturbed feelings unobserved.
Sir Levett Hanson stated that neither the Princess nor Lord
Bute thought it advisable to intercept the letters which passed
between the lovers. ' It was not,' said he, ' any sentiment of
delicacy by which they were deterred, but the dread of irrepa
rably offending the noble-minded youth, and hurrying him to
the consumraation of the marriage they wrought so earnestly
lo avert.' Such was the state of affairs when the death of
George II. took place, soon after which event, various of his
ministers and councillors strongly urged the young monarch
to take a consort; but neither his mother nor the Eari of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 419
Bute were foremost to recommend tbis measure. Finding
hiraself thus pressed, the King raentioned bis father's proraise
to Lord Bute, and asked bira if he conceived any serious
injury was likely to accrue to the state if he were to act as his
parent had advised, and take an English lady for bis bride ?
The dissembler appeared as if suddenly overwhelraed by the
deepest grief and surprise. After a soleran pause, be told his
Sovereign, except a recantation of his faith, he could not call
to mind any act so fuU of disastrous consequences as that to
which he had alluded. Irapatient of further dissimulation,
the King coraraunicated to the Earl the deep affection he
cherished towards Lady Sarah Lennox, the soleran engage
raents into which be bad entered, and bis fixed determination
to exercise that natural right which the meanest of his subjects
possessed, and select his wife himself.
The cautious politician saw clearly that everything might be
lost by Ul-tiraed opposition ; and finding that, piqued at the
long-continued silence of Lady Sarah, the King had not taken
any decisive step since the death of the old King, all he ven
tured to ask of the young monarch was, to pause a given time
before he coramitted hiraself irrevocably; protesting with many
well-dissembled tokens of affectionate zeal, tbat if, at the end
of that period, his Majesty's wUl should remain the sarae, that
he should use all bis interest to soothe the public raind, and
prepare his raother for a stroke which he pretended raight
break her heart. This was touching a chord that vibrated
through every nerve : the young Prince turned pale, and said,
' It is a sad alternative in which I ara placed ; the crown is
not worth the sacrifice I am called upon to make. You say
my raother's heart will break if I raarry Lady Lennox ; and so
intensely do I love that lady. Sir, that I fear ray raind would
not be able to bear up against the shock of the disappoint
raent. My raother's aversion is not rational, and I do not
perceive that she ought to require the sacrifice at ray hands.'
As he spoke, his voice faltered and tears trickled down his
cheeks. At last, the distressed lover gave his word as required,
and, during that interval, the pathetic entreaties and adrao-
nitions of the Princess Dowager, powerfully backed by the
3 G 3

420 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
sedate and dignified expostulations of Lord Bute, developing,
according to old slate maxims, the necessity there was, if he
aimed at the conscientious discharge of his public duty, as a
wise and virtuous monarch, to sacrifice his passions to the
safety of his erapire, induced bim to waver; and then bis
raother and his private monitor made such forcible appeals
to his pride and generosity, that the young Prince, agreeing
to be guided by tbeir counsels, gave them his word of honour,
that, whatever it might cost him, he would make the sacrifice
required. He kept that word, although his heart was wrung
with anguish. He passed, as it was said, a week in solitude,
striving to raaster his feelings and yield up his love. The
letter he wrote to Lady Sarah Lennox: was represented by Sir
Levett Hanson as teeming with the finest touches of passion.
He candidly stated all that had occurred, and assured her that
no considerations whatever had the least influence upon his
decision, except his sense of public duty, and his raoral Con
viction that, however painful the sacrifice deraanded, it would
be dishonourable in hira to hesitate. In the interval. Lady
Sarah's confidential friend, a raaternal relation to Sir Levett,
either by design or chance, obtained possession of the letter
written by Lord Bute, the contents of which, though guardedly
composed, and the raeaning obscurely expressed, gave the
innocent victim of his machinations a full comprehension of
the whole scherae. The shock was great, but a greater yet
reraained. This was the affecting letter alluded to, written by
the King, and sent to her by a gentleman of his court, on
whose honour and delicacy he relied. Although the blow was
tempered by all that was tender and affectionate in language,
and noble in sentiment, and offered a brother's love, where ber
fondest wishes yet combined with her undoubted claims, it
still fell dreadfully heavy. The health of the araiable girl
sunk under the pressure, but time and reflection had their
usual influence ; and after a few months' seclusion. Lady Sarah
Lennox was able, not only to forgive the King, but even to
assist at his marriage with another; not so regarding Lord Bute
and the Princess Dowager, towards whom she felt the most
intense hatred. The impression produced on the mind of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 421
the King was answerable to the greatness of the love he
had cherished towards ber, and gave new poignancy to his
sorrows. Infinitely to the credit of Lady Lennox, although she had
detected tbe secret agency of Lord Bute and the Princess
Dowager, she concealed her knowledge of their delinquency,
that she might not wound the bosora of her royal lover, whora
she resigned in a manner becoming a woman worthy to have
been his bride. After the death of the Princess Dowager of
Wales, the veil was withdrawn, and the whole of the secret
machinery exposed by wbich the projected marriage had been
prevented. Such was the account given by Sir Levett Hanson of the
deep-rooted attachraent of the King ; to the disappointraent
of which passion be attributed, not only the partial flashes of
disordered intellect, which in less than a year after his mar
riage are said to have been perceptible to the Queen, and bis
nearest attendants ; but also that profound piety, and unfeigned
reliance on the consolations of religion, by which he was hence
forth so eminently distinguished.
To revert briefly to the consequences which may arise to
this country from the marriage of the Duke of Sussex, the most
important circurastance is the eventual separation of the crown
of Hanover frora that of England ; for although the raarriage
was declared illegal by the laws of England, it is not considered
so by the laws of Hanover ; and, consequently, it is not irapro
bable that the crown of that kingdom may, at no very distant
day, devolve upon Augustus d'Este, the son of the Duke of
Sussex ; and should that event take place, the separation of
the two crowns raay be considered as final.
We are now about to enter upon the recital of one of the
raost extraordinary transactions which raarked the present era,
and the whole of which had its foundation in the pecuniary
embarrassraents of the Prince of Wales and Lord Moira. It
forras one ofthe raost striking incidents in the Ufe ofhis Royal
Highness, that during the tirae when he was Regent of the
country, a naval officer, who is an ornament to his country
and to his profession, was prosecuted and punished for the
coramission of an act of wbich the Prince himself, though not

422 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
overtly, and one ofhis rainisters, had actually been guUty, for
the express purpose of providing for those exigencies which the
extravagance and profusion of a court bad caused. At the
tirae of its occurrence various versions were given ofthe trans
action, according to the political bias, or the prejudices ofthe
individuals, but the materials have been furnished to us exclu
sively, by which we are enabled to clear up the mystery in
which it has hitherto been enveloped, and to represent the
affair in its genuine colours, without regard to the noble indi
viduals whom it raay irapeach, or the stain which it raay leave
upon their character.
In order, however, fully to detail the transaction, and to
render it a connected narrative, it will be necessary to take a
view of the ministry as it stood in the year 1806, although the
circumstances originally took place about the period of which
we are novv writing, in the year 1796, and were in operation
as long as Lord Moira remained in office.
The accession of Mr. Fox to power, in the year 1806, after
so long an interval of rainisterial duties, brought on a coali
tion of interests between hira and many raerabers of the then
recent administration, of which, previously to his death, Mr.
Pitt was the head. Lord GrenviUe becarae First Lord of the
Treasury, Lord Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, Eari
Moira, Master-General of the Ordnance, and Mr. Fox, Secre
tary of State for Foreign Affairs. The first act of the new
administration was to open a negotiation with France, the
present ambassador now in England, Talleyrand, enjoying
the same station under Napoleon Buonaparte as Mr. Fox in
England. Lord Lauderdale, who had always adhered to the
Whigs, and manifested what would be now called ultra-liberal
principles, was sent to Paris as the plenipotentiary on behalf
of England, and continued to conduct a vacillating negotiation
until it terminated in complete failure.
During the progress of this negotiation, the fluctuation in
the funds indicated that some parties were concerned in the
operations, who must have had access to sources of informa
tion of an exclusive nature ; and at last the indiscretion of
these parties proceeded so far as to whisper the name of Lord
Moira, a cabinet minister, as the party on whose authority

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 423
these transactions rested. Mr. H  , a banker at the
west end of the town, Messrs. I, and H., of the Stock
Exchange, and Messrs, Walsh and Nesbitt, with Mr.
M  , then a banker in Lorabard-street, were pretended
to be, and actuaUy were, in coraraunication with St. Jaraes'
Place, directly or indirectly, where Lord Moira re.sided. It
was also generally asserted, that the Prince of Wales, who
had previously contracted the most serious obUgations to Lord
Moira, was indirectly cognizant of the speculations, and gave
them his sanction as a source to enable Lord Moira to pro
vide for the exigencies for which they were naturally bound to
provide. It was also found, on referring to the several stages
of the negotiation, and coraparing the several docuraents laid
before parliaraent, that the changes and fluctuations in the
prices of the funds, for a rise Or a fall, corresponded with the
date of good or UI news, as traceable in the government
despatches. For a long time, however, previously to this period, that is
about the year 1796, the connexion of Lord Moira with the
pecuniary distresses of the Prince was publicly known, by the
attempts of his lordship to raise money on his own security,,
and that of his agents, for the accomraodation of his Royal
Highness; wherever a channel presented itself by which an in
stantaneous supply could be obtained, it was immediately taken
advantage of, no matter how high or exorbitant were the terras
which were asked. For a long tirae the fact was well known,
that the credit of Carlton House was reduced to the lowest
ebb, and that Lord Moira's paper was at such a ruinous dis
count, as must bave exhausted and absorbed the revenues of
an empire. If two hundred pounds could be obtained upon a
biU of one thousand, and the reraainder in a mass of useless
luraber, which was again disposed of at a loss of three or four
hundred per cent. — it was greedily snapped at, and, in raany
instances, the biUs coraing due, were renewed at a similariy
ruinous rate. However, the favour of the Prince, the hopes
of his succession to power, the urbanity of the noble lord
himself, and the facUe nature of his temper, formed a corabi
nation around hira of the arabitious and the selfish, and all
the parasites who adrainister to the wants and cravings of an

424 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
inordinate court, for tbe purpose of supporting his pecuniary
views, especially as they were well aware, tbat although the
suras required were ostensibly for tbe use of Lord Moira, yet
that they were in reality destined to relieve the Prince of Wales
frora the pressing erabarrassraents which every day thickened
upon hira. Thus, on one occasion, Walsh and Nesbitt ad
vanced Lord Moira 5000/., and bankers and speculators of all
descriptions pawned their credit to preserve and supply the
influence and wants of a court, which subsisted by no other
means than what such persons could raise at an extravagant
interest, and which ended in the ruin of many of them, and
in one instance of the most deliberate suicide. The latter
was the case with the Reverend George Henry Glass, a man of
voluptuous habits, of considerable talents and address, and,
Ave believe, one of the chaplains of the Prince of Wales. He
was rector of Hanwell in Middlesex, and, setting aside his
clerical character, a fitter person, perhaps, could not have
been selected to carry on the pecuniary negotiations of the
Prince and his co-equal. Lord Moira, in extravagance and
thoughtlessness. Mr. Glass becarae one of the raost respon
sible agents of Lord Moira in the city; through him new
channels of accomraodation were opened, a variety of specu
lations were entered into, sorae of which succeeded, and en
abled the besieged party in Cariton House to bold out against
the attacks of the infuriated creditors, by paying a small por
tion of their demands, with positive proraises, that ere long
the whole should be liquidated.
It was the sagacity of Mr. Charles (to whom we acknow
ledge our obligations for the particulars of these transactions,
which have never before been presented to the public eye) or
rather his attachraent to Mr. Fox, that exposed and over
threw all that might have been anticipated from some of the
intrigues which were then carrying on, in which principle and
honour had no share, and which went to underraine the
credit and respectability of the first comraercial establishment
in the world.
Mr. Charies was at that tirae a clerk in the Bank, and the
principal in a considerable raercantile estabhshraent in the
Old Jewry. He had for a long time observed the operations

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 425
which were carrying on in the funds, and he communicated
to several of his private friends his opinion of those transac
tions. The parties known to belong to the junta of Carlton
House were regarded as the barometer of tbe value of the
funds ; and so correct in general was tbeir information of those
events which might occasion a rise or faU, that a suspicion
was entertained that such inforraation could only be acquired
frora one in the iraraediate confidence of governraent, and
their raotions were subsequently narrowly watched by all those
speculators who deal in tirae bargains, and who are always on
the alert to take advantage of any fluctuation in the public
securities. Thus, when the persons in iraraediate corarauni
cation with Lord Moira found theraselves baffled by the ad
verse progress ofthe negotiations at Paris, they endeavoured
to support their faUing credit with the name of that noble
man. The fact of the speculation in the funds was reiterated
by Mr. M  , the banker in Lombard-street ; and, at last,
it becarae so pubUc, that tbe Whig party of the adrainistration
Vvas openly charged by the press as betraying the secrets of
government for corrupt and personal advantages. The known
attachment of Mr. Charles to Mr. Fox's principles no longer
permitted him to conceal his disgust, and a private commu
nication was made to that minister, at the raoraent when the
disorders of his constitution began to prognosticate that dis
ease, which shortly afterwards consigned him, with an impe
rishable narae, to the records of a nation's veneration.
In consequence of the critical situation of Mr. Fox, Sir
Francis Vincent, his private secretary, transferred the letter
which Mr. Charles had written to Mr. Fox into the hands of
Lord GrenviUe, who, on the receipt of it, sent for Mr. Charles
to Downing- street, where an interview took place in the pre
sence of Lord Spencer. At this raeeting, Mr. Charles, by the
advice of Mr. Const, the present Chairraan of the Quarter
Sessions for Middlesex, declined to comraunicate in the pre
sence of a third person, when he was assured by Lord Gren
ville that Earl Spencer was only called upon to be present, so
that Lord Moira raight be satisfied with the proceedings which
might take place during the meeting ; but the fiat justitia
wanted the ruat in ccelum, and Mr. Charies was brought to
3 H

426 J«EM0IBS OF GEORGE IV.
trial on the joint affidavit of the two noble Lords, for a gross
and unwarrantable libel.
If any event could prove the divided state of the cabinet, and
the intrigues of the Tories connected with, or eraployed by, the
adrainistration, this case would settle the dispute; for, as to
the incident in itself, obscure as the individual concerned in the
charge raay be, and slight as the iraputation upon Lord Moira
may be, to whora a guilty participation in the alleged transac
tions was never iraputed, yet the charge, in the hands of the
Tory portion ofthe adrainistration, was vituperated by the then
organ of government, the Times newspaper — the conversation
which took place in private in part disclosed, and the contents
ofthe letter itself published, tbough held by the two ministers
present, Lords GrenviUe and Spencer, as without prejudice,
a confidential communication between the individuals naraed.
Lord Moira, of course, had no alternative but to proceed with
the prosecution, or lose his seat in the cabinet.
No doubt can exist of the raotives which influenced these
disclosures, after the understanding between Mr. Charies and
Ihe noble Lords alluded to; and, in fact. Lord Grenville,
during the several interviews which took place on the subject,
made a great parade of his impartiality, and of his reluctance
to proceed against the writer of the letter, who, in his turn,
made the raost frank comraunication of all he knew of the
affair, without concealing the slightest circurastance which
could fix the blame on the proper shoulders, rather desiring
the acquittal of Lord Moira than his conderanation. Mr.
Charies was, however, advised to defend the action by those
who knew the accuracy ofhis inforraation, and for sorae tirae
he considered that no further notice would be taken of it in a
legal sense. He was, however, ultimately indicted for the
libel ; and the law officers of the crown. Sir Vicary Gibbs and
Sir William Garrow, then Attorney and Solicitor-General,
-conducted the prosecution, ex officio, against him.
Nothing more strongly developes the nature of ministerial
responsibUity than this prosecution; nothing exposes more
fully the secret constructions of a cabinet not actually acrree-
able to the Crown. For raany years Mr. Fox had bera a
stranger to office; on the death, and, it is believed, on the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.

427

recommendation of Mr. Pitt, he was called into power, and
office was divided, so as to balance the opinions of men who
could only conduct the business of the nation to any advan
tage by a cordial and zealous co-operation with each other.
Such, however, were the difficulties felt on the first formation
of this adrainistration, that an expedient was hit upon wbich
compromised the principles of Mr. Fox, by the introduction
of l.iOrd EUenborough into that cabinet, as a legal arbitrator of
poUtical differences ; and it was by his direction that the pro-.
secution against Mr. Charles was undertaken.
It appears, however, that a fresh light broke on a sudden on
the rainds of the projectors of this prosecution ; and it was
strongly suspected that it carae from the ' rising sun,' as some
very well-founded fears were entertained in that quarter that,
in the course of the trial, certain raatters might be disclosed
which would not contribute to conciliate the affections of the
English people, whose minds were already inflamed with
reports of certain proceedings at Carlton House, in respect
to the Princess of Wales and other ladies connected with that
establishment ; and therefore it was wisely considered that the
times were by no means auspicious for any public proceedings
which had any reference to the affairs of his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales, the public having twice paid his debts,
and still found him in a state -of comparative insolvency.
A few days before the trial was to come on, tbe proceedings
were arranged with Mr. Charles by Messrs. Lowden and
Peyter, of Gray's Inn — ^judgment vvas suffered to go by default
— and the whole affair was settled in court, on Mr. Charles
entering into his own recognizance, the same having been
previously adjusted at Sir William Garrow's, in the presence
of Lord Moira, who then frankly confessed the dangerous
conspiracy of professed friends, and corapliraented Mr. Charles
on the honourable frankness which he had evinced through
the whole of this delicate affair. ' Certainly,' said Sir Williara
Garrow, ' the conduct of Mr. Charles has been very rash ; but
the discoveries which you have raade will operate to the renun
ciation of such agencies in future, Avhich have led your Lord
ship into your present difficulties.' 3 H 2

428 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
It is, however, raelancholy fo reflect that this advice was
thrown away upon his Lordship. A most extraordinary degree
of infatuation appeared to have taken possession of bis raind,
and his unhappy attachraent to the Prince of Wales only led
bim into further errors, as in the case of the Queen, frora the
public obloquy of which he was only rescued by the gift of
the raost splendid governraent belonging to the Crown ; but
which, so far from liberating him frora his pecuniary erabar
rassraents, contributed to augraent them— which afterwards
involved hira with the Messrs. Palraer — suspended the usual
pension at the India House — and sent hira alraost as an
exile frora his country, to die at Malta, leaving a narae
endeared to all the social virtues, to the malignity of bis
eneraies, and which even the courage and generosity of friends
could not re-establish.
Perhaps there was no raonarch to whom the Prince of
Wales bore a stronger resemblance than to Louis XV. of
France. He had his pare aux cerfs, of whicli Madame
Maintenon was the ranger, witb a number of other inferior
beauties, to gratify the passions of the amorous raonarch.
Our George IV. was less a sensualist than a voluptuary,
although his appetite for a variety of woraen was equally
boundless and extravagant. In France it was the fashion of
the courtiers to supply the royal harem with tbeir own
children, in order to vary the pleasures of the monarch. In
England it had been the custora to ransack the abodes of indi
gent virtue for victiras, or to corrupt the confidence of wedded
life, to adrainister to the licentious pleasures of the king. In
France the vices of the court were discipUned by the craft of
the priest, and the hypocrisy of the devotee ; in England the
creatures of the court toiled in their nefarious occupations,
and boasted publicly of their success over the innocent, the
gay, and the unsuspecting, whora they had hunted into their
snares. These persons, composed of parasites, discarded
mistresses, and candidates for court favour, bad their several
rendezvous and disguises, to fascinate, deceive, and allure the
unwary. All the obligations of morality were relaxed or broken
down by the example of the court and the hcentiousness of

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 429
its followers ; the throne was surrounded by courtesans and
flatterers, and access denied to all without the sanction of the
favourite concubine of the day.
The decorura and modesty of the court of George IIL
forraed a melancholy contrast with the splendour and de
bauchery of bis son's. The veil which concealed the doraestic
misfortunes of that amiable man — wbich irapregnated no
atraosphere but his own, was rudely drawn aside to inquire
out tbe causes of his raental calaraity and dejection, in tbe
raidst of an apparently innocent faraily. But the conduct of
the Prince raatured, unsatisfactorily, the power of the King,
who adopted undisguisedly the political and raoral principles
of the worst sovereigns of the House of Capet. Thence seduc
tion was conducted systeraatically by agents, both male and
female, instructed and trained for the purpose ; and of such
various ranks and grades as might obtain for thera an intro
duction to every faraUy, high or low, public or private, where
a beautiful victira presented herself, or Avhere the sacred ties
of raatriraony could be broken, by estranging the wife from the
affection of her husband, and leading her into scenes where her
ruin was to be accomplished.
Tbe foUowing will show that the portrait which we have
drawn of the vice and licentiousness of the court of Carlton
House is not too highly coloured, and it must be a subject of
deep regret to those who are acquainted with the powerful
effect which example possesses over the morality of society in
general, that the very highest personages in the realm should,
in their conduct, have exhibited a depth of depravity unpa
ralleled, perhaps, in any ancient or modern court of Europe.
It was about this time that Miss Bolton became a pubUc
favourite, and, as usual with persons on the stage, [she at
tracted the attention of sorae young raen of fashion, nor
was the Prince of Wales indifferent to that interesting naivete
which was the peculiar characteristic of her acting. Miss
Bolton was, however, too well guarded by her respectable
mother, and too serious and circumspect in her own deport
ment, to run into the snare which was laid for her. The usual
prelude to negotiations of this nature, such as presents of
diamond necklaces, was punctually adhered to in this in-

430 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IVi
stance, but it failed of the desired effect ; for every act that
was coraraitted, which appeared to have the slightest reference
tothe conquest of her virtue, was repulsed witb an indignation
which would have deterred the raajority of individuals frora
proceeding any further in the atterapt, and have induced
them to- relinquish it as a hopeless task. Not so, however, the
panders of the Prince of Wales — with every rebuff — wifh
every indication of the most deterrained spirit to repel all
their attempts — their exertions appeared to increase — their
plans were distinguished by deeper stratagem and artifice —
their whole conduct more strongly marked by an apparent
acquiscence to ber will, at the sarae tirae that they were
concocting their diabolical scheraes, by which this araiable
girl was to be numbered araongst those unfortunate victiras
Avho had already fallen a prey to the inordinate appetite of his
passions. It would scarcely be deeraed credible, that the
human mind could exhibit such an extraordinary degree of
ingenuity in the devising of a scherae for the accomplishment
of the ruin of feraale virtue, as was displayed in this instance;
and strong and firra, indeed, raust have been that virtue which
could have escaped uninjured through so severe an ordeal, in
the progress of which libertinism assuraed the raask of phi
lanthropy and humanity, and treachery put on the garb of
friendship and disinterestedness. Whatever part the male pan
ders ofthe Prince raay have acted in this affair, it was no more
than could be expected frora tbe base servility of their charac
ters, and their total disregard for every tie of raorality and virtue ;
but that beings could be found, calling theraselves women, and
bearing the honourable litle of wives and mothers, to aid und
abet the infaraous seducers in their designs, is a foul blot in
human nature, and makes the heart sicken with hatred and
disgust whenever their naraes are mentioned.
The theatrical talents of Miss Bolton, her graceful and
elegant person, and, above all, the high character which she
enjoyed of an unsullied reputation, so rare and difficult to
obtain and maintain in the profession which Miss Bolton had
adopted, acquired for her the estimfition of raany good and
worthy people, who watched over ber with that affection and
care which the preservation of her virtue demanded, and on,

MEMOIRS OF- GEORGE IF. 431
which tbey well knew the success of her future prospects in
Ufe depended. It required a dragon to watch the Hesperian
fruit, but it was lulled to sleep, and the fruit was gathered ;
and to that Providence Vvbich in an unexpected moraent sends
the wished-for relief, raust be attributed the salvation of Miss
Bolton frora the ruin which awaited her.
Having obtained a teraporary engageraent frora the manager
of the Windsor theatre, Miss Bolton repaired to that place ;
and amongst the many aspirants for her acquaintance, was a
Mrs. HaU, or rather the chere amie ot Mr. Sykes, but then the
reputed Avife of Captain P  . Miss Bolton was a total
stranger to the character of Mrs. Hall, and seeing that she was
visited and caressed by certain people of haut ton. Miss B.
considered that no reflection could be cast upon her character,
by associating Avith her. Mrs. Hall Avas a Avoman Avhose
intercourse Avith the world had enabled her to acquire that
ease and freedora of raanners Avhich force their Avay so iraper-
ceptibly on the unsuspecting heart, and she soon acquired such
an ascendency over her young friend, as could not fail to be
dangerous when exercised by an intriguing Avoraan. The cir
curastance of Mrs. Hall being the intiraate acquaintance of
Miss Bolton Avas soon raade public, and the panders of the
Prince saw in that circumstance the consummation of all their
designs. A private negotiation was entered into Avith Mrs.
Hall, and everything presented an eariy prospect of success.
In the mean time, this AVoraan ingratiated herself deeper and
deeper in the good opinion of Miss Bolton ; and on the latter
leaving Windsor to resume her professional duties in toAvn,
Mrs. Hall projiosed to return Avith her, and it Avas finally
agreed that she should take up her abode with the family, and
on such terras as, at that tirae of day, would aid Miss Bolton's
exemplary endeavours to maintain her faraily.
"In order, however, to render this narrative perfectly intelli
gible, it Avill be necessary to remark that, in the acceptation of
the world, Mrs. HaU was considered as Mrs. P  , the wife
of Captain P  ; but the name of Hall was that by v/hich
she was known as the chere amie of Mr. Sykes, and at a certain
celebrated brothel which was then kept in Duke-street, St.
James', This expensive eslabllshment was once maintained

432 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
by six ladies, all of a particular forra and make, combining the
en bon point with extrerae elegance of carriage, and the raost
perfect syrametry of shape. Of this nucleus of feminine
beauty Mrs. Hall was by no means the least conspicuous
meraber ; and araongst the feAV select individuals Avho Avere
adraitted into this voluptuous harera, was the gentleraan to
Avhora we are indebted for these interesting anecdotes, and who
Avas fortunately the individual Avho first put Miss Bolton's
fainily on their guard, in respect to the character of their new
associate. Being on intiraate terras with the Bolton faraily, this gentle
man, on the arrival of Miss Bolton in Long Acre, proceeded
to pay his respects to ber ; and on entering the draAving-room,
to his infinite astonishraent, he was introduced to Mrs. P.,
in Avhora be iraraediately recognized the Mrs. Hall, of Duke-
street, and consequently a most improper inmate for the house
of Mr. Bolton. He hesitated not a moraent to caution that
gentleraan against his new acquaintance, as a dangerous cora
panion for his daughter, especially as Mrs. P. Avas soon visited
by General F. Turner and Colonel M'Mahon, both persons
intiraately concerned in proraoting the pleasures of Carlton
House, and in procuring gratifications for their royal master.
The intrigue consequently continued to progress agreeably to
the Avishes of Mrs. Hall, when a trifling incident, under the
eye of Providence, disturbed and finally crushed the attempt
meditated against the virtue of Miss Bolton.
Araongst those whom the good sense and virtue of this lady
bad attached to ber, was tbe late Dr. Blackborough, and to
Avhose protection she owed her introduction to many persons
of worth and character in the fashionable worid. It Avas for
tunate that it Avas so, as Miss Bolton certainly OAved her disen
tanglement to his advice and fortunate interposition on the
foUoAving occasion. At this period, a noted milliner, of tbe
name of Brace, resided in Pall Mall, Avhose house was the
resort of the leading fashionables of the day, and raany repaired
to it for very different purposes than the adjustraent of their
dress. This house was so situated that it ran back into St.
Jaraes' square, in which it formed at that time No. 10, but which,
for very obvious reasons, has since been altered. At this house

MEMOIRS OF GfeORCjE IV. 433
in St. James'-square, a person of tbe narae of Watson was
supposed to keep a faro-table, and therefore the frequent egress
and ingress of sorae of the highest nobleraen of tbe country
excited very little surprise ; but the house Avas in reality a
place of assignation — the lady entering by the house in Pall
Mall, the gentleman by that in St. James'-square.
Perhaps no woman was better qualified for the task she had
undertaken than Mrs. Hall. The blandishments of her man
ners — her thorough acquaintance with tbe forras of society —
ber fashionable exterior — flexibUity of raind, and consuraraate
tact in applying those accoraphshraents to fascinate and secure
her victira, — -who then can wonder at the infatuation which Miss
Bolton raanifested in ber conduct with this woraan? in fact,
she appeared to be spell-bound by the raagic power of the
enchantress, and her influence began to awaken passions which
the exeraplary prudence of her raother had cheeky, or directed
to invigorate the better principles of her nature. In the raean
time the visits of M'Mahon becorae raore frequent — presents
succeeded presents— ^and she was now told of the unalterable
love which the heir-apparent to the crown had irabibed for
her. The Prince was, it is true, a raarried man, but bis se
paration frora his wife had taken place, and, therefore, no act
of raatriraonial infidelity could be pleaded against bira.
Miss Bolton was now about to appear at the theatre in a new
character — and this occasion was seized upon to consummate
ber ruin — a most splendid dress was to be provided for ber by
her secret lover, such as had never before been seen on a British
stage. The first Step to accomplish the ruin of a feraale is tO'
excite her vanity — it is tbe most successful instrument that
can be used, and, in tbe present instance, was very near pro
ducing the wished-for effect. The person eraployed to make
this superb dress was Mrs. Brace, and an hour was appointed
when she was to raake ber appearance to try it on. At tbia
critical hour Dr. Blackborough was passing frora St. Jaraes'-
square into Pall-raall, when be observed the Prince of Wales-
entering the bouse No. 10; but the circurastance raade no deep
irapression on his mind, until, turning the comer into Pall-mall,
he observed Mrs. Hall and Miss Bolton (the latter ignorant that
3 I

434 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
she Avas about to meet tbe man who was bent on her ruin)
on the point of entering the house of Mrs. Brace. Tbe danger
of Miss Bolton was at once apparent to tbe Avorthy doctor, who
knew the character of Mrs. Hall, and who was now able to
account for tbe visit ofthe Prince of W^ales to tbe bouse in St.
James'-square. He lost not a moment in accosting Miss Bolton
—asked in a very unceremonious manner if she were acquainted
with tbe character of ber companion, and insisted upon con
ducting her back to her parents. In a moment Miss Bolton
saw tbe gulf on the brink of which she was standing ; with
tears in ber eyes she threw herself under the protection of Dr.
Blackborough, who led her home, and she lived to be the vir
tuous spouse of Lord Thurlow.
High events like these
Strike those that make them.

435

SECTION IV.
[From 1800 to 1810.]
The peace of Amiens, or rather the truce of Amiens (for a
treaty concluded under circumstances of mutual jealousy and
suspicion hardly deserves the name of peace), was destined to
be of no long duration, Tbe effervescence caused by tbe
French revolution bad by no means subsided wben tbat peace
was concluded. It was a matter, as the British ministers
frankly confessed, purely of experiment, and its continuance
was to depend upon a steady view of the conduct and prin
ciples of the government of France. After a war of so long
duration as that to which the French revolution gave birth,
and so many animosities as that great civil convulsion excited,
it was not to be expected that tbe two nations should at once
harmonize together. Peace was signed, and an intercourse
renewed between them, but still it was an intercourse of
restraint on the one part, and of suspicion on the other. There
was no hostility, but there was no cordial union.
In a question where our own interests and feelings are so
immediately concerned, it is not easy to say where the fault
lay ; but this may be affirmed, without much fear of contra
diction, tbat no war was entered into on the part of Great
Britain, in which she Appeared as the aggressor, which had so
decisively tbe sanction of a vast raajority of the people as that
which took place at this period.
The conduct of tbe governraent of France, frora the peace
of Araiens, had been, to say the best of it, equivocal ; but a
serious insult was offered to the high spirit and independence
of the British nation, when it was proposed that the British
goyemraent should take under its iraraediate cognizance the
freedom of the British press, and prevent the appearance of
publications offensive to tbe governraent of France. This was
one of tbe points more particularly insisted upon in tbe dis
cussions of this memorable period by the cbief of tbe French
3 12

436 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
nation. Accustomed to have bis will regarded as law at home,
and having nearly the whole continental press either under his
control, or at his devotion, the attacks of our news-Avriters
and paraphleteers excited in bira the highest degree of resent
ment. It AA^as honourable to the English character thus to
call forth the indignation of the head of the French govern
ment. No where, on the face of the globe, is there to be
found, in the sarae space, an asserablage of men so competent
to discuss questions of moral equity between individual and
individual, or state and state, as in the British"^ nation. The
persons who compose the thinking part of the body politic of
this great coraraunity are certainly more eminently qualified
than any other great coraraunity at present in existence, to
pass judgraent either on the acts of their own governraent, or
on those of any other nation. Foreigners judge very UI of us
if they do not conceive that the opinion of this body has a
raost raaterial weight in the adrainistration of our public
affairs. This seeras to bave been mistinderstood in France,
when requisition Avas raade by its governraent to abridge tbe
freedora of the British press.
As soon as this circurastance becarae known, it excited in
the literary world a degree of indignation without exaraple.
The literati, whatever party they had before espoused, united
to oppose this insolent and audacious attempt of the French
government to fetter tbe freedora of the press. On this occa
sion they were a united body ; and it deserves, for the honour
of British Uterature, to be recorded, that (if we except one
man's) there was not to be found in the whole nation a
single press which French principles or French gold could
corrupt. In the two bouses of parUament, tbe spirit of indignant
patriotisra glowed Avith equal ardour. Mr. Sheridan greatly
distinguished hiraself upon this occasion. In one of the raost
briUiant speeches he ever delivered, he drew a striking picture
of the relative situations of England and France. ' Look,'
said he, ' at the raap of Europe ; there, where a great raan
(Mr. Burke) said he looked for France, and found nothing
but a chasm. It was in our power to measure her territory,
to reckon her population ; but it was scarcely within the grasp

MEMOIRS. OF GEORGE IV. 437
of any man's mind to measure the ambition of Buonaparte.
If, then, it were true, as be bad stated, that his arabition was
of that iraraeasurable nature, there were abundant and obvious
reasons why it should be progressive — reasons rauch stronger
than any which could bave existed under the poAver of the
Bourbons. They Avere arabitious ; but it was not necessary
for them to feed tbeir subjects with the spoil and plunder of
war. They had the attachraent of a long-established faraily
applied to thera ; tbey bad the effect and advantage of heredi
tary succession. But he saw, in the very situation and cora
position of tbe power of Buonaparte, a physical necessity for
hira to go on in this barter with his subjects ; and to proraise
to raake thera the raasters of the world, if they would consent
to be his slaves. If that Avere the case, raust not his most
anxious looks be directed to Great Britain ? Everything else
Avas petty and contemptible, compared with it. Russia, if not
in his power, was at least in his influence. Prussia was at his
beck — Italy was his vassal — Holland was in bis grasp — Spain
at his nod — Turkey in his toils — Portugal at his feet. When
he saw this, could he hesitate in stating his feelings ? still less
could he hesitate in giving a vote that should put us upon
our guard against tbe machinations and workings of such an
ambition.' In another part of his speech, Mr. Sheridan drew a striking
picture of the malignant character of Buonaparte's ambition,
particularly as it related to this country. In the tablet and
volume of his raind, he said, there might be sorae raarginal
note about cashiering the King of Etruria, but the whole text
was occupied with the destruction of this country. This was
the first vision that broke upon hira through the gleara of
the raorning ; this was bis last prayer at night, to whatever
deity he addressed it, whether to Jupiter, or to Mahoraet; to
the god of battles, or the goddess of reason. An iraportant
lesson was to be learnt frora the arrogance of Buonaparte. He
said he was an instruraent in the hands of providence — an
envoy of God ; he said he Avas an instruraent in the hands of
providence, to restore Switzerland to happiness, and to elevate
Italy to splendour and iraportance ; and he (Mr. Sheridan)
thought he was an instrument in the hand^ of providence to

438 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
make the English love their constitution the better ; to cling to
it with more fondness, and to bang round it with truer tender
ness. Every man felt when he returned from France, that he
was coming frora a dungeon, to enjoy the light and life of
British independence. Whatever abuses exist, we should still
look with pride and pleasure upon the substantial blessings we
still enjoy. He believed too, tbat Buonaparte was an instru
ment in the hands of providence, to make us more liberal in
our political differences, and to render us determined, with
one heart and band, to oppose any aggressions that might be
made upon us. If that aggression Avere made, bis honourable
friend (Mr. Fox) would, he was sure, agree witb bira, tbat we
ought to meet it with a spirit worthy of these islands ; and that
we ought to meet it with a conviction of tbe truth of this asser
tion, tbat tbe country which had achieved such greatness bad no
retreat in littleness ; that if Ave could be content to abandon
every thing, we sball find no safety in poverty, no security in
abject submission. Finally, that we ought to raeet it witb a
fixed determination to perish in the sarae grave witb the honour
and independence of tbe country.
In the Upper House, about the sarae tirae, Lord Moira, in
a most animated address, called tbe attention of their lord
ships to tbe situation of tbe country. He was not for speak
ing of Buonaparte, he said, in such terms of gentleness and
moderation as, other noble lords had used. What was there
in the procedure of the First Consul that could recommend
such forbearance ? He saAV no motive for further corapliraent
to this new Hannibal, who bad, on tbe altars of his inordinate
arabition, sworn unextinguishable enraity to this country.
Were he to speak of tbe First Consul in any other relation
than tbat Avhich he had assuraed to the concerns of Britain, he
would speak of him witb the deference befitting his high sta
tion, and with the respect which bis wonderful actions must
deraand. But when he wilfully opposed himself to the welfare
of these realms, nay, openly struck at the root of their pros
perity, the language of complacency on tbat head was ill-
timed and raischievous. If, said his lordship, you would aA^ert
war, you must shew yourselves on a level with the exigency.
You must, in the immortal language of Shakspeare,

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 439
Be stirring as the time ; be flre with fire ;
Threaten the threat'ner, and out face the brow
Of bragging honour 
not from any false ostentation of courage, but to insure this
solid, this inappreciable advantage, which the bard truly indi
cated would be the result :

-So shall inferior eyes,

That borrow their behaviour from the great.
Grow great by your example, and put on
The useful spirit of resolution !
It is impossible adequately to describe the effects produced
out of doors on tbe minds of the people by these energetic
harangues ; and their influence was tbe greater when it was
considered tbat Lord Moira and Mr. Sheridan were the parti
cular friends of tbe Prince of Wales, and consequently that
tbeir sentiments might be supposed not to be very dissimilar
from those of his Royal Highness himself.
On the actual renewal of hostiUties, never did the national
spirit soar to a higher pitch of proud and dignified patriotism.
Volunteer associations were formed with incredible industry
in all parts of the country, and persons of the highest rank did
not think it beneath them to serve as private men *. Iraraense
contributions of raoney were, at the sarae time, raised, to
reward tbe brave raen who raight distinguish themselves in the
service of their country, or alleviate the sufferings of those who
* Some of his Majesty's ministers, at the period alluded to, were privates in the
corps called the Royal Pimhco Volunteers. The Duke of Clarence commanded
a corps raised in the neighbourhood of Bushy Park, called the Royal Spelthorn
Legion. The speech which his Royal Highness made to them on their irest as
sembling deserves to be preserved for its manly and patriotic simplicity. — ' My
friends and neighbours,' said his Royal Highness, ' wherever om- duty calls us, I
will go with you ; fight in your ranks, and never return home without you.'
On the 4th of December, 1803, the Prince of Wales presented a pair of colours
to this corps, (on Ashford Common) and addressed them in the following
words : —
' Volunteers ! — It is with the highest satisfaction I have taken upon myself the
honourable office of presenting the Royal Spelthom Legion this day with their
colours. When I view so respectable a corps, and cousider the high character
attached to it, it would be superfluous in me to point out those duties and obliga
tions which have been so fully exemplified in its conduct. When you behold these
colours (taking them in his hand) they will remind you of the coramon cause in
which ydu are engaged, for your king, your country, your religion, your laws,
your property, your children, and your wives, nay, in short, every thing dear to
EngUshmen. Accept then this pledge, this sacred pledge, which you yiiM take
care to defend with your last drop of Wood, and only resign Arith your lives,'

440 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
might bleed in her defence. In a Avord, nothing could ex
ceed the patriotic ardour displayed by all ranks upon the
occasion. But ' araidst the general note of preparation,' sorae sur
prise was excited in the public raind, that at a crisis of such a
moment, involving the very fate of the country, no station,
equal to his prorainent rank in the state, was assigned to his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. He was only a colonel
of dragoons, while railitary coraraands of the highest iraport
ance were bestowed on the junior branches of tbe Royal Fa
mUy. The public had not time sufficient to indulge in much
speculation on this apparent backwardness of the Heir Appa
rent, Avhen the foUoAving correspondence was published by
perraission of his Royal Highness, in order to do away with
the ill impression which the seeming singularity of bis conduct
was likely to produce, as well as to vindicate bis reputation in
the eyes of his country and of Europe at large.
The first letter in this interesting correspondence was from
the Prince of Wales to Mr. Addington. ' Carlton House, July 18, 1803.
' Sir, — The subject on which I address you presses so heavily
on my mind, and daily acquires suoh additional importance, that,
notwithstanding my wish to avoid any interference with the dispo
sition made by his Majesty's ministers, I find it impossible to with
hold or delay an explicit statement of my feelings, to which I would
direct your most serious consideration.
' When it was officially communicated to parliament that the
avowed object of the enemy was a descent on our kingdoms, the
question became so obvious, that the circumstances of the times
required the voluntary tender of personal services ; when parlia
ment, in consequence of this representation, agreed to extraordinary
measures for the defence of these realms alone, it was evident the
danger was not believed dubious nor remote. Animated by the
same spirit which pervaded the nation at large, conscious of the
duties which I owed to his Majesty and the country, I seized the
earliest opportunity to express my desire of undertaking the respon
sibility of a military coramand : I neither did, nor do presume on
supposed talents as entitling me to such an appointment. I am
aware I do not possess the experience of actual warfare ; at the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 441
same time I cannot regard myself as totally unqualified, nor defi
cient in military science, since I have long made the service my
particular study. My chief pretensions were founded ou a sense of
those advantages Avhich my example might produce to the state, by
exciting the loyal energies of the nation, and a knowledge of those
expectations which the public had a right to form as to the personal
exertion of their princes at a moment like the present. The more
elevated my situation, in so much the efforts of zeal became neces
sarily greater; and I confess, that if duty has not been so para
mount, a reflection on the splendid achievements of my prede
cessors would have excited in me the spirit of emulation : when,
however, in addition to such recollections, the nature ofthe contest
in which we are about to engage was impressed on my considera
tion, I should, indeed, have been devoid of every virtuous sentiment,
if I felt no reluctance in remaining a passive spectator of arma
ments, which have for their object the very existence ofthe British
empire. ' Thus was I influenced to make my offer of service, and I did
hope that his Majesty's ministers would have attached to it more
value. But when I find that, from some unknown cause, my ap
pointment seems to remain so long undetermined ; when I feel my
self exposed to the obloquy of being regarded by the country of
passing my lime indifferent to the events which menace, and insen
sible to the call of patriotism, much more of glory, it then becomes
me to examine my rights, and to remind his Majesty's ministers
that the claim which I have advanced is strictly constitutional, and
justified by precedent ; and that in the present situation of Europe,
to deny my exercising it is fatal to my own immediate honour, and
the future interests of the crown.
' I can never forget that I have solemn obligations imposed on
me by my birth, and that I should ever shew myself foremost in
contributing to the preservation of the country. The time is arrived
when I may prove myself sensible ofthe duties of my situation, and
of evincing my devotion to that sovereign, who by nature as well as
public worth commands my most affectionate attachment.
' I repeat that I should be sorry to embarrass the government
at any time, most particularly at such a crisis : but since no event
in my future life can compensate me for the misfortune of not par
ticipating in the honours and dangers that await the brave men
destined to oppose an invading enemy, I cannot forego the earnest
renewal of my application.
' All I solicit is a more ostensible situation than that in which I
3 K

442 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
am at present placed ; for situated as I am, a mere colonel of a
regiment, the major-general commanding the brigade, of which
such regiment must form a part, would justly expect and receive
the full credit of pre-arrangement and successful enterprise.
' I am, Sir,
' Very sincerely yours,
(Signed) ' G. P;
' Right Hon. Henry Addington, &c. &c. &c.'
This letter producing no iraraediate reply, the Prince of
Wales addressed the foUowing note to Mr. Addington. ' July 26, 1803.
' A week has now elapsed since the Prince of Wales transmitted
to Mr. Addington a letter on a subject of the highest importance.
Though he cannot anticipate a refusal to so reasonable a demand,
he must still express some surprise, that a communication of such
a nature should have remained so long unanswered.
' When the Prince of Wales desired to be placed in a situation,
which might enable him to shew to the people of England an
example of zeal, fidelity, and devotion to his sovereign, he naturally
thought, that he was only fulfilling his appropriate duty as the first
subject of the realm, in which, as it has pleased Providence to cause
him to be born, so he is determined to maintain himself, by all
those honourable exertions which the exigencies of these critical
times peculiarly demand. The motives of his conduct cannot be
misconceived nor misrepresented ; he has, at a moment when every
thing is at stake that is dear and sacred to him, and to the nation,
asked to be advanced in military rank, because he may have his
birth-right to fight for, the throne of his father to defend, the glory
of the people of England to uphold, which is dearer to him than
life, which has yet remained unsullied under the princes of the
house of Brunswick, and which, he trusts, will be transmitted pure
and unsullied to the latest generations. Animated by such senti
ments, he has naturally desired to be placed in a situation where he
can act according to the feelings of his heart and the dictates of
his conscience.
' In making the offer, in again repeating it, the Prince of Wales
considers that he has only performed his duty to himself, to the
state, to the King, and to Europe, whose fate may be involved in
the issue of this contest; if this tender of his services is rejected,
he shall ever lament tbat all his efforts have been fruitless, and that

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.

443

he has been deprived of making those exertions, which the circum
stances ofthe empire, his own inclinations, and his early and long
attention to military affairs, would have rendered so peculiarly
grateful to himself, and, he trusts, not entirely useless to the public'
To this coramunication the ChanceUor of the Exchequer
returned the foUowing answer. ' Downing Street, July 27, 1803.
' Upon receiving the letter with which Mr. Addington was last
week honoured by the Prince of Wales, he assured his Royal High
ness, that it should be immediately laid before the King. A com
munication was afterwards made to his Royal Highness the Prince
of Wales in a mode, and through a channel which Mr. Addington
humbly hoped his Royal Highness would approve. Mr. Addington,
however, now finds it tobe incumbent upon him, in consequence of
the expectation which has been expressed by his Royal Highness, to
state, that his Majesty, on being informed of the sentiments and
wishes ofthe Prince of Wales, applauded in the strongest manner
the feelings by which his Royal Highness is actuated ; but referred,
nevertheless, to the answers which his Majesty had judged it neces
sary to return to similar representations, and which, in obedience to
tile commands of his Royal Highness, had been laid before his Ma
jesty on a former occasion.'
The Prince of Wales then desired Mr. Addington to lay his
note of the 26tb of July before tbe King, which was accord
ingly done, and bis Royal Highness received from the minister
the following reply. ' Downing Street, August 1, 1803.
' Sir, — In obedience to the commands of your Royal Highness,
I laid before his Majesty the letter dated the 26th of July, with
which your Royal Highness honoured me ; and I have it in com
mand from his Majesty to acquaint your Royal Highness, that the
King had referred Mr. Addington to the orders he had before given
him, with the addition, that the King's opinion being fixed, he
desired that no further mention should be made to him upon the
Subject. ' I have the honour to be,
¦ With every sentiment of respect and deference,
'Sir,
' Your Royal Highness' most humble Servant,
(Signed) ' Henry Addington.'
3K2

444 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
On receiving this comraunication, the following admirable
letter was addressed by his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales to the King: Ave have already given an extract from it
in a forraer part of this Avork, but we now give it entire. It has
been stated th-at these letters Avere frora the pen of Sheridan,
but the first of the series Avas Avritten by Sir Robert Wilson,
and the remainder by Lord Hutchinson. We find it hoAvever
stated in the Morning Chronicle, that these letters Avere
actually Avritten by Mr. Fonblanque, Avho then enjoyed raore of
the confidence of the Prince, than his professional advisers.
' Sir, — A corre.'ipondence has taken place between Mr. Adding
ton aud myself, on a subject which deeply involves my honour and
character. The answers Avhich I have received from that gentle
man, the communication which he has made to the House of Com
mons, leave me no hope but an appeal to the justice of your Majesty.
I make that appeal with confidence, because I feel that you are my
natural advocate, and vvith the sanguine hope that the ears of an
affectionate father may still be opened to the applications of a duti
ful son.
' I ask to be allowed to display the best energies of my character;
to shed the last drop of my blood in support of your Majesty's
person, crown, and dignity ; 'for this is not a war for empire, glory,
or dominion, but for existence. Iu this contest, the lowest and
humblest of your Majesty's subjects have been calle on; it would
therefore little become me, who am the first, and who stand at the
very footstool of the throne, to remain a tame, an idle, and a lifeless
spectator of the mischiefs which threaten us, unconscious of the
dangers which surround us, and indifferent to the consequences
Which may follow. Hanover is lost— England is menaced with in
vasion — Ireland is in rebellion — Europe is at the foot of France.
At such a moment the Prince of Wales, yielding to none of your
servants in zeal and devotion — to none of your subjects in duty —
to none of your children in tenderness and affection — presumes to
approach you, and again to repeat those offers which he has already
made through your Majesty's minister. A feeling of honest am
bition, a sense of what I owe to myself and to my family— and,
above all, the fear of sinking in the estimation of that gallant army,
which may be the support of your Majesty's crown and my best
hope hereafter, command me to persevere, and to assure your Ma
jesty with all humility and respect, that, conscious of the justice of
my claim, uo human poAver can ever induce me to relinquish it.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 445
' Allow me to say, Sir, that I am bound to adopt this line of
conduct by every motive dear to me as a man, and sacred to me as
a Prince. Ought I not to come forward in a moment of unexampled
difficulty and danger ? Ought I not to share in the glory of the
victory, when I have everything to lose by defeat? The highest
places in your Majesty's service are filled by the younger branches
of the Royal family : to me alone no place is assigned. I am not
thought worthy to be the junior major-general of your army. If I
could submit in silence to such indignities, I should indeed deserve
such treatment, and prove to the satisfaction of your enemies, and
my own, that I am entirely incapable of those exertions, which ray
birth and the circumstances of the times peculiarly call for. Stand
ing so near the throne, when I am debased, the cause of royalty is
wounded; I cannot sink in the public opinion, without the partici
pation of your Majesty in my degradation. Therefore every motive
of private feeling and of public duty induces me to implore your Ma
jesty to review your decision, andto place me in that situation, which
my birth, the duties of my station, the example of my predecessors,
and the expectations ofthe people of England entitle me to claim.
' Should I be disappointed in the hope which I have formed,
should this last appeal to the justice of my sovereign, and to the
affection of my father, fail of success, I shall lament in silent sub
mission his determination ; but Europe, the world, and posterity,
must judge between us.
' I have done my duly ; my conscience acquits me ; my reason
tells me that I was perfectly justified in the request which I have
made, because no reasonable arguments have ever been adduced in
answer to my pretensions. The precedents in our history are in
my favour ; but if they were not, the times in which we live, and
especially the exigencies of the present moment, require us to be
come an example to our posterity.
' No other cause of refusal has or can be assigned, except that it
is the will of your Majesty. To that will and pleasure I bow with
every degree of humility and resignation ; but I can never cease to
complain of the severity which has been exercised against me, and
the injustice I have suffered, till I cease to exist.
' I have the honour to subscribe myself,
• With all possible devotion,
' Your Majesty's
' Most dutiful and affecliouate son and subject,
(Signed) ' G. P.
' Brighthelmstone, Aug. 6, 1803.

446 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
LETTER FROM THE KING.
' My dear Son,— ThoughT applaud your zeal and spirit, of which,
I trust, no one can suppose any of my family wanting, yet, consi
dering the repeated declarations I have made of my determination
on your former applications to the same purpose, I had flattered
myself to have heard no further on the subject.
' Should the implacable enemy so far succeed as to land, you
will have an opportunity of shewing your zeal at the head of your
regiment ; it will be the duty of every man to stand forward on
such an occasion, and I shaU certainly think it mine to set an ex
ample, in defence of every thing that is dear to me, and to my
people. ' I ever remain,
' My dear Son,
' Your most affectionate father,
(Signed) ' George R.'
' Windsor, August 7, 1803.
The Prince of Wales replied to this communication in the
following words: — ' Brighthelmstone, August 23, 1803.
' Sir, — I have delayed thus long an answer to the letter which
your Majesty did me the honour to write, from the wish to refer to
u former correspondence which took place between us in the year
1798. Those letters were mislaid, and some days elapsed before I
could discover them. They have since been found. Allow me
then, Sir, to recal to your recollection the expressions you were
then graciously pleased to use, and which I once before took the
liberty of reminding you of, when I solicited foreign service, upon
my first entering into the army. They were. Sir, that your Majesty
did not then see the opportunity for it, but if any thing was
to arise at home, " I ought to be first and foreraost." There
cannot be a stronger expression in the English language, or one
more consonant to the feelings which animate my heart. In this
I agree most perfectly with your Majesty — " I ought to be first and
foremost." It is the place which my birth assigns me — which
Europe — which the English nation — expect me to fill — and which
the former assurances of your Majesty might naturally have led me
to hope I should occupy. After such a declaration, I could hardly
expect to be told that my place was at the head of a regiment of
dragoons. ' I understand from your Majesty, that it is your intention. Sir,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 447
in pursuance of that noble example which you have shewn during
the course of your reign, to place yourself at the head ofthe people
of England. My next brother, the Duke of York, commands the
army ; the younger branches of my family are either generals, or
lieutenant-generals ; and I, who am Prince of Wales, am to remain
colonel of dragoons. There is something so humiliating in the
contrast, that those who are at a distance, would either doubt
the reality, or suppose that to be my fault which is only my mis
fortune. ' Who could imagine, that I, who am the oldest colonel in the
service, had asked for the rank of a general officer in the army of
the king, my father, and that it had been refused me ?
' I am sorry, much raore than sorry, to be obliged to break in
upon your leisure, and to trespass thns, a second time, on the at
tention of your Majesty ; but I have. Sir, an interest in my cha
racter more valuable to me than the throne, and dearer, far dearer
to me than life. I am called upon by that interest to persevere,
and pledge myself never to desist, till I receive that satisfaction,
which the justice of my claim leads me to expect.
' In these unhappy times, the world. Sir, examines the conduct
of princes with a jealous, a scrutinizing, a malignant eye. No raan
is more aware than I ara of the existence of such a disposition, and
no man is therefore raore determined to place himself above all
suspicion. ' In desiring to be placed in a forward situation, I have per
formed one duty to the people of England; I must now perform
another, and humbly supplicate your Majesty to assign those rea
sons which have induced you to refuse a request which appears to
me and to the world so reasonable and so rational.
' I must ag&in repeat my concern, that I am obliged to continue
a correspondence which, I fear, is not so grateful to your Majesty
as I could wish. I have examined my own heart — I am convinced
of the justice of my cause — of the purity of my motives. Rea
son and honour forbid rae to yield : where no reason is alleged, lam
justified in the conclusion that none can be given.
' In this candid exposition of the feelings which have agitated
and depressed ray wounded mind, I hope no expressions have
escaped me which can be construed to mean the slightest disre
spect to your Majesty. I raost soleranly disavow any suoh inten
tion ; but the circumstances of the times — the danger of invasion,
the appeal which has been made to all your subjects, oblige me to
recollect what I owe to my own honour and to my own character.

448 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
to state (o your Majesty with plainness, truth, and candour, but
with all the submission of a subject and the duty of an affectionate
son, the injuries under which I labour, and which it is in the power
of your Majesty alone at one moment to redress.
' It is with sentiraents of the profoundest veneration and respect
that I have the honour to subscribe myself,
' Your Majesty's raost dutiful,
' And raost affectionate,
' Son and subject,
(Signed) ' G. P.
A correspondence Avas subsequently entered into between
the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, on the sarae sub
ject, and the foUowing letters passed between their Royal
Highnesses on the occasion : — ' Brighton, October 2, 1803.
' My dear Brother, — By last night's Gazette, which I have this
moment received, I perceive that an extensive promotion has taken
place in the array, wherein ray pretensions are not noticed; a cir
cumstance which, whatever may have happened on other occasions,
it is impossible for me to pass by, at this momentous crisis, without
observation. ' My standing in the army, according to the most ordinary rou
tine of promotion, had it been followed up, would have placed me
either at the bottora of the list of generals, or at the head ofthe list
of lieutenant-generals. When the junior branches of iny family
are promoted to the highest military situations, ray birth, according
to the distinctions usually conferred on it, should have placed rae
first on that list.
' I hope you know me too well to imagine, that idle, inactive
rank is in my view ; much less is the direction and patronage of the
railitary departments an object which suits my place in the state or
my inclinations : but, in a moment when the danger of the country
is thought by government so urgent as to call forth the energy of
every arra in its defence, I cannot but feel myself degraded, both
as a prince and a soldier, if I am not allowed to take a forward
and distinguished part in the defence of that empire and crown of
the glory, prosperity, and even existence of that people, in all which
raine is the greatest stake.
' To be told I may display this zeal solely and simply at the head
of my regiment is a degrading mockery.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 449
'If that be the only situation aUotted rae, I shall certainly do my
duty, as olhers will ; but the considerations to which I have already
alluded entitle me to expect, and bind me every way to require, a
situation more correspondent to the dignity of my own character,
and to the public expectation. It is for the sake of tendering my
services in a way raore forraal and official than I have before pur
sued, that I address this to you, my dear brother, as the Cora-
mander-in-chief, by whose counsels the constitution presumes that
the military department is administered.
' If those who have the honour to advise his Majesty on this
occasion shall deem my pretensions, among those of all the royal
family, to be the only one fit to be rejected and disdained, I raay at
least hope, as d, debt of justice and honour, to have it explained,
that I am laid by in virtue of that judgment, and not in consequence
of any omission or want of energy on ray part.
&c. &c. &c.
(Signed) ' G. P. W.'
' Hiis Royal Highness the Duke of York, Sfc'
REPLY OF THE DUKE OF YORK.
'Horse Guards, Oct. 6, 1803.
' Dearest Brother, — Nothing but an extraordinary press of busi
ness would have prevented me from acknowledging sooner your
letter of the 2d instant, which I received while at Oatlands on
Monday evening.
' I trust that you are too well acquainted with my affection for
you, which has existed since our most tender years, not to be
assured of the satisfaction I have felt, and ever must feel, in for
warding, when -in my power, every desire or object of yours ; and
therefore will believe how much I must regret the impossibility
there is, upon the present occasion, of my executing your wishes
of laying the representation contained in your letter before his
Majesty. ' Suffer me, my dearest brother, as the only answer that I can
properly give you, to recall to your memory what passed upon the
same .subject soon after his Majesty was graciously pleased to place
me at the head of the army ; and I have no doubt that, with your
usual candour, you will yourself see the absolute necessity of ray
declining it.
' In the year 1795, upon a general promotion taking place, at
your instance I delivered a letter from you to his Majesty, urging
your pretensions to promotion in the army; to which his Majesty
3 L

450 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
was pleased to answer, that, before ever he had appointed you to
the command of the 10th light dragoons, he had caused it to be
fully explained to you what his sentiments were with respect to a
Prince of Wales entering into the army, and the public grounds
upon which he could never admit of your considering it as a pro
fession, or of your being promoted in the service. And his Majesty,
at the same time, added his positive commands and injunctions to
rae, never to mention this subject again to hira, and to decline
being the bearer of any application ofthe sarae nature, should it be
proposed to rae ; which message I was, of course, under the neces
sity of delivering to you, and have constantly made it the rule of
my conduct ever since ; and, indeed, I have ever considered it as
one of the greatest proofs of affection and consideration towards
me, on the part of his Majesty, that he never allowed me to become
a party in this business. Having thus stated to you, fairly and
candidly, what has passed, I must trust you will see that there can
be no ground for the apprehension expressed in the latter part of
your letter, that any slur can attach to your character as an officer,
particularly as I recollect your mentioning to rae yourself, on the
day on which you received the notification of your appointment to
the 10th light dragoons, the explanation and condition attached to
it by his Majesty ; and, therefore, surely you must be satisfied that
your not being advanced in military rank proceeds entirely frora his
Majesty's sentiments respecting the high rank you hold in the state,
and not from any impression unfavourable to you. Believe me
ever, with the greatest truth,
' Dearest Brother,
' Your raost affectionate Brother,
(Signed) ' Frederick.'
' To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales'
¦ Brighton, Oct. 9, 1803.
' My dear Brother, — I have taken two days to consider the con
tents of your letter of the 6th instant, in order to be as accurate as
possible in my answer, which raust account to you for its being
longer, perhaps, than I intended, or I could have wished.
' I^ confide entirely in the personal kindness and affection ex
pressed in your letter ; and am, for that reason, the more unwilling
to trouble you again on a painful subject, in which you are not free
to act as your inclination, I ara sure, would lead you. But as it is
not at all iraprobable that every part of this transaction may be pub
licly canvassed hereafter, it is of the utmost importance to my

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 451
honour, without which I can have no happiness, that ray conduct
in it shall be fairly represented, and correctly understood. When I
made a tender of my services to his Majesty's rainisters, it was with
a just and natural expectation that my offer would have been ac
cepted in the way in which alone it could have been most beneficial
to my country, or creditable to myself; or, if that failed, that at least
(in justice to me) the reasons for a refusal would have been dis
tinctly stated ; so that the nation might be satisfied that nothing
had been omitted on ray part, and enabled to judge of the validity
ofthe reasons assigned for such a refusal. In the flrst instance, I
was referred to his Majesty's will and pleasure, and now I am
informed by your letter that, before " he had appointed me to the
command of the 10th light dragoons, he had caused it to be fully
explained to me what his sentiraents were with respect to a Prince
of Wales entering into the army."
' It is impossible, my dear brother, that I should know all that
passed between the King and you ; but I perfectly recollect the
statement you made of the conversation you had with his Majesty,
and which strictly corresponds with that in your letter now before
me. But I must, at the same time, recall to your memory my
positive denial, at that time, of any condition or stipulation having
been made upon my first coraing into the army ; and I am in pos
session of full and complete documents, which prove that no terms
whatever Avere then proposed, at least to me, whatever might have
been the intention: and the coramunications which I have found it
necessary subsequently to make have ever disclaimed the existence
of such a compromise at any period, as nothing could be more
averse to my nature, or more remote from ray mind.
'As to the conversation you quote in 1796 (when the King was
pleased to appoint rae to succeed Sir William Pitt), I have not the
most slight recollection of its having taken place between us. My
dear brother, if your date is right, you raust be raistaken in your
exact terras, or at least in the conclusion you draw from it ; for, in
the intiraacy and farailiarity of private conversation, it is not at all
unlikely that I should have remembered the communication you
made rae the year before ; but that I should have acquiesced in,
or referred to, a cOmproraise which I never raade, is utterly im
possible. ' Neither in his Majesty's letter to rae, nor in the correspondence
wilh Mr. Addington (of which you raay not be fully informed), is
there one word, or the most distant allusion to the condition stated
in your letter ; and even if I had accepted the command of a regi-
3 L 2

452 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
ment on such terms, my acquiescence could only have relation to
the ordinary situation of the country, and not to a case so com
pletely out of all contemplation al that time, as the probable or pro
jected invasion of this kingdom by a foreign force sufficient to bring
ils safety into question. When the King is pleased to tell me,
" that, should the enemy land, he shall think it his duty to set an
example in defence of the country," — that is, to expose the only life
which, for the public welfare ought not to be hazarded, — I respect
and admire the principles which dictate that resolution ; and as my
heart glows with the same sentiments, I wish to partake in the
same danger — that is, wilh dignity and effect. Whenever his Ma
jesty appears as King, he acts and commands ; you are Com
mander-in-chief; others of my family are high in military stations;
and CA'en by the last brevet, a considerable number of junior officers
are put over me. In all these arrangements, the Prince of Wales
alone, whose interest in the event yields to none but that of the
King, is disregarded, omitted — his services rejected : so that, in
fact, he has no post or station whatsoever in a contest on which the
fate of the crown and the kingdora may depend.
' I do nol, my dear brother, wonder that, in the hurry of your
present occupation, these considerations should have been over
looked. They are now in your view, and, I think, cannot fail to
make a due impression.
' As to the rest, Avith every degree of esteem possible for your
judgment of what is due to a soldier's honour, I raust be the guar
dian of mine lo the utmost of my power. &c. &c.
(Signed) ' G. P.'
' His Royal Highness the Duke of York.'
'Horse Guards, Oct. 11, 1803.
' My dear Brother, — I have this moraent, npon my arrival in
town, found your letter, and lose no lime in answering that part of
il which appears to me highly necessary should be clearly under
stood. Indeed, my dear brother, you must give me leave to repeat
to you, that, upou the fullest consideration, 1 perfectly recoUect your
having yourself told me at Carlton House, iu the year 1793, on the
day on which you were informed ofhis Majesty's having acquiesced
in your request of being appointed to the coramand of the 10th
regiment of light dragoons, of which Sir William Pitt was then
colonel, the message and condition which was dehvered to you
from his Majesty; and which his Majesty repeated to me in the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 453
year 1795, as mentioned in my letter of Thursday last. And I
have the fullest reason to know that there are others fo whom, at
that time, you mentioned the same circumstance ; nor have I the
least recollection of your having denied il lo me, when T delivered
to you the King's answer ; as I should certainly have felt il incum
bent upon rae to recall to your memory what you had told me your
self in the year 1793.
'No conversation whatever passed between us, as you justly
remark, in the year 1796, when Sir William Pitt was promoted lo
the King's dragoon guards, which was done in consequence of what
was arranged in 1795, upon your first appointment to the 10th
light dragoons ; and I conceive that your mentioning in your letter
my having stated a. conversation to have passed between us in 1798
must have arisen from some misapprehension, as I do not find that
year ever adverted to in my letter.
' I have thought il due to us bolh, my dear brother, thus fully to
reply to those parts of your letter ia which you, appear to have mis
taken mine ; bul as I ara totally unacquainted with the corre
spondence which has taken place upon this subject, I raust dechne
entering any further into it.
' I remain ever, my dear Brother,
' With the greatest truth,
' Your most affectionate Brother,
(Signed) ' Frederick.'
' His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales' 'Brighton, Oct. 22, 1803.
' My dear Brother, — By my replying to your letter of the 6th
instant, which contained no sort of answer to mine of the 2d, we
have fallen into a very frivolous altercation upon a topic which is
quite foreign to the present purpose. Indeed, the whole importance
of it lies in a seeming contradiction in the stateraent of a fact, which
is unpleasant even upon the idlest occasion.
' I raeant lo assert, that no previous condition to forego all pre
tensions to ulterior rank, under any circumstances, had been imposed
upon me, or even submitted lo me, in any shape whatsoever, on my
first coming into the service ; and wilh as much confidence as can
be used in maintaining a negative, I repeal that assertion.
' When I first became acquainted with his Majesty's purpose to
withhold from me further advancement il is impossible lo recollect ;
bul that il was so early as the year 1793 I do nol remember ; and,
if jour ^expressions were less positive, I should add, nor believe :

454 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
but I certainly knew il, as you wefl knew, in 1795, and possibly
before. — We were then engaged in war, therefore I could not think
of resio-niu"- my regiment, if under olher circumstances I had been
disposed to do so ; but, in truth, my rank in the nation made mili
tary rank, in ordinary times, a raatter of little consequence, except
to my own private feelings. This sentiraent I conveyed to you in
ray letter of the 2d, saying expressly that mere idle, inactive rank
was in no sort ray object ; bul upon the prospect of an emergency
when the King was lo take the field, and the spirit of every Briton
was roused to exertion, the place which I occupy in the nation made
it indispensable to demand a post correspondent lo that place,
and lo the public expectation. This sentiment I have the happiness
to be assured, in a letter on this occasion, raade a strong irapression
upon the raind, and coraraanded the respect and adrairation of one
very high iu government.
' The only purpose of this letter, my dear brother, is to explain,
since that is necessary, that my former ones meant not to give you
the trouble of interceding as ray advocate for mere rank in the army.
Urging further my other raore important clairas upon governraent,
would be vainly addressed to any person., who can really think that
a former refusal of mere rank, under circumstances so widely differ
ent, or the most express waiving of such pretensions, if thai had been
the case, furnishes the slightest colour for the answer I have received
to the tenders I have now made of my services.
' Your department, my dear brother, was meant, if I must repeat
it, simply as a channel to convey that tender to government, and to
obtain either their attention to it, or their avowed refusal, &c.
(Signed) ' G. P.'
' His Royal Highness the Duke of York, Sfc'
' Horse Guards, October 13, 1803.
' Dear Brother, — I have received your letter this raorning, and
am sorry to flnd that you think that I have misconceived the raean
ing of your first letter, the whole tenor of which, and the railitary
proraotion which gave rise to it, led rae naturally to suppose your
desire was, that I should apply to his Majesty, in my official capa
city, to give you military rank, to which might be attached the idea
of subsequent command.
' Thai I found myself under the necessity of declining, in obe
dience to his Majesty's pointed orders, as I explained to you in my
letter of the 16th instant. But frora your letter of to-day, I am to
understand that your object is not military rank, but that a post

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 455
should be allotted to you, upon the present emergency, suitable to
your situation in the state.
' This I conceive to be purely a political consideration, and as
such totally out of my department; and asl have raosl carefully
avoided, at all times, and under all circumstances, ever interfering in
any polifical points, I must hope that you will not call upon me to de
viate from the principles by which 1 have been invariably governed.
' Believe rae, ray dear Brother,
' Your raost affectionate Brother,
(Signed) ' Frederick.'
' His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.'
' Carlton House, October 14, 1803.
' My dear Brother, — Il cannot but be painful to me to be reduced
lo the necessity of further explanation on the subject which it was
my earnest wish lo have closed, and which was of so clear and dis
tinct a nature, as, in ray humble judgment, to have precluded the
possibility of either doubt or misunderstanding.
' Surely there must some strange fatality obscure my language
in statement, or leave rae somewhat deflcienl in the powers of ex
planation, when it can lead your mind, my dear brother, to such a
palpable misconstruction (for far be il from me lo fancy it wilful) of
my meaning, as lo suppose, for a moraent,^ I had unconnected my
object with efficient military rank, and transferred it entirely to the
view of apolitical station, when you venture to tell me " my object
is nol military rank, but that a post should be allotted to me, upon
the present emergency, suitable to my situation in the state." —
Upon what ground you can hazard such an assertion, or upon
what principles you can draw such an inference, I am utterly al
a loss to determine ; for I defy the skilful logician, in torturing the
English language, to apply with fairness such a construction of any
word or phrase of raine, contained in any one of the letters I have
ever written on this, to me, raost interesting subject. I call upon
you to reperuse the correspondence. In my letter of the 2d in
stant, I told you unequivocally that I hoped you knew me loo well
lo imagine that idle, inactive rank was in ray view ; and that senti
ment, I beg you carefully to observe, I have in no instance what
ever, for one single moment, relinquished or departed from.
' Giving, as I did, all the considerations of my heart to the deli
cacy and difficulties of your situation, nothing could have been more
repugnant to my thoughts, or lo ray disposition, than lo have ira
posed upon you, my dear brother, either in your capacity as com-

456 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
mander-in-chief, or in the near relationship which subsists between
us, the task, much less the expectation, of causing you to I'isk any
displeasure from his Majesty, by disobeying in any degree his
comraands, although they were even to niiUtate against myself.
But, with the impulse of ray feelings towards you, and quickly con
ceiving what friendship and affection may be capable of, I did nol,
I own, think it entirely impossible, that you might, considering the
magnitude and importance which the object carries wilh it, have
officially advanced my wishes, as a matter of propriety, to military
rank and subsequent command, through his Majesty's ministers,
for that direct purpose ; especially when the honour of ray character
and ray future fame in life were so deeply involved in the considera
tion : for I must here again emphatically repeat, that idle, inac
tive rank was never in my view; and that military rank, with its
consequent coramand, was never out of it.
' Feeling how useless, as well as ungracious, controversy is,
upon every occasion, and feeling how fatally it operates upon
human friendship, I must trust thai our correspondence on this sub
ject shall cease here ; for nothing could be raore distressing to me,
than lo prolong a topic, on which il is now clear to me, ray dear
brother, that you and I can never agree, &c. &c.
(Signed) ' G. P.'
' His Royal Highness the
Duke of York.'

COPY OF A LETTER FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY
ADDINGTON.
Dated Richmond Park, Oct. 23, 1803.
' Sir — In consequence of some intelligence which has reached
me, I am impelled by a sense of duty to your Royal Highness, and
to the public, to express an earnest and anxious hope, that you
may be induced to postpone your return to Brighton until I shall
have had an opportunity of making further inquiries, and of stating
the results of thera to your Royal Highness.
' I have the honour to be,
' With the utmost deference and respect,
' Sir,
' Your Royal Highness's most faithful,
' And most humble servant,
(Signed) ' Henry Addington.'
' The Prince of Wales.'

IHEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 457
ANSWER. ' Carlton House, Oct. 24, 1803.
' Sir, — By your grounding your letter to rae upon intelligence
which has just reached you, I apprehend that you allude to infor
mation which leads you lo expect some immediate attempt from the
eneray. My wish to accoraraodate rayself to any thing which you
represent as raaterial to the public service, would of course make
me desirous to comply with your request; but if there be any rea
son to imagine that invasion will take place directly, I am bnund
by the King's precise order, and by that honest zeal, which if not
allowed any fllter sphere for its action, to hasten instantly to my
regiment. If I learn that my construction of the word intelligence
be right, I raust deem il necessary to repair to Brighton imme
diately, &c. &c. (Signed) ' G. P.' *
' Right Honourable Henry Addington.'
* An eminent political writer, William Cobbett, speaking of the refusal to
grant the Prince of Wales a military command equivalent to his rank, ,says, ' To
refuse the Prince a command, while the rest of his royal brothers are employed, is
to make a distinction so invidious, is to cast such a slur on the character and rank
ofhis lloyal Highness, is, in effiict, to give such a stab to the monarchy, that no
person, who does not wish to see the destruction of that monarchy, or, at least, who
is riot perfectly indifferent as to its existence, can possibly hear of this refusal with
out feehng the utmost indignation at the conduct of the Ministers, to whom, and
to whom alone, it can, or ought to be ascribed. That it is expedient that the
heir-apparent to the throne should stand high in the opinions of the people, is, we
imagine, the position, which even the Ministers themselves will hardly attempt to
deny ; and, disguise the fact how we may, it is absolutely impossible that, while
the transaction of which we are now speaking remains enveloped in darkness, the
people of this country, whose habit it is to think for themselves, should not entertain
doubts respecting the character and views of their future sovereign, doubts not less
dangerous to the present safety of the realm, thau injurious to his Royal High
ness. By publishing the correspondence, iherefore, the danger would be removed,
and the injury paUiated, though by no means redressed. It has been officially
declared, that his Eoyal Highness has offered his services as a general in the
army, employed for the defence of the country, for the defence of the people over
whom he is to reign, and whose peace and happiness and safety must, in a great
degree, depend upon his wisdom and courage. All that the people know of, as
the consequence of this offer, is, that it has been rejected. They are well aware
that his Eoyal Highness has been a military man from his youth, they perceive
his royal brothers and cousin invested with high military commands ,- and they^
moreover, see the latter sent to infuse, by his presence, a military spirit into the
people of that principality from which his Eoyal Highness takes his title ! And
can it be supposed that the people do not wish to know the cause of this distinc
tion ? Had the slanders of the king-killing saints reduced the nation to that state
of indifference, gloomy indeed would be the prospect before us ! As to the ob
jection founded on the field-marshalship of his Eoyal Highness the Duke of York,
that might have been obviated by placing the Prince at the head of the irregular
army, a measure which would, in every point of view, have been attended with
immense advantage to the service. Besides, if there had still been an objection
to assigning the Prince a command in this island, what objection could there be,
or can there now be, to giving him the military oi' civil command in Ireland,
3 M

458 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
Such was the correspondence that took place between his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Mr. Addington, the
rainister of the day, his Majesty, and his Royal Highness the
where there is every reason to hope and believe, that his presence alone would
give greater security to the country, than au army of a hundred thousand men,
and where, without some such step, it is greatly to be feared that tranquillity will
never be restored ? — No satisfactory reason can, therefore, be conceived, why, at
this time of universal zeal and exertion, his Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales
should be condemned to an irksome, not to say disgraceful inactivity ; and the
nation demands from the Ministers, and beseeches from his Eoyal Highness,
that explanation which can be afforded only by the correspondence which has, on
this subject, taken place between them. For want of an explanation of the truth,
falsehoods are circulating in every direction ; falsehoods the most atrocious in
themselves, and of a tendency the most dangerous. We shall not dwell upon the
insinuations which have been made as to the ' manner' in which the Prince ten
dered his services, the ' exorbitant demands' with which his offer was clogged, the
' interested' and ' aspiring' views apparent in his conduct. These wicked and
base insinuations will produce little effect upon well-informed persons ; but, then,
how few are there that answer that description ! The Minister did, indeed, conde
scend to acknowledge, that the Prince's offer was made in a 'most handsome and
gallant manner ;' but it is understood in the world that these are words of course ;
and, besides, their effect was instantly destroyed by the mysterious close of the
Minister's declaration, from which the natural inference was, that something was
suppressed in tenderness to the Prince. Thus it was that the affair went forth
to the world ; and under the improving influence of those wretches, who are never
wanted to anticipate, and, we hope, in the present instance they have surpassed,
the wishes of their superiors, the Prince's injuries have been increased a thou
sand fold. The truth is, that, unless the Ministers publish the correspondence,
we fur our parts cannot see how the Prince can avoid doing it ; for, to suppose
him willing to bear the conclusions which the partizans of Ministers draw from
his silence, would be to join iu the slander whicli we have so decidedly con
demned. The publication of the correspondence will also destroy the effect of
the insinuations, by the means of which it is attempted to fix on another great
personage the blame of refusing the offers of the Prince. The nation will then
see, that the refusal came from the Ministers, and from the nature of their excuses
will be able to discover the real motives by which they have been actuated in
injuring and insidting a personage, whom, next to their Eoyal Master, it was their
bounden duty to cherish and to honour, but whom, for reasons too obvious to
mention, they wish to keep in a state of helplessness and obscurity.' — Political
Register, August 27, 1803.
Now mark the political consistency of Mr. Cobbett, who in this ' Essay' so loudly,
and, in our opinion, so justly, calls for the publication of the Prince's correspond
ence. In his ' Eegister' of December 10, the same year, he has the following
observations on that very correspondence which, no doubt, his own spirited and
manly remarks were a great cause of being made public. ' The con-espondence,'
says he, ' between his Majesty, his Eoyal Highness the Prince of AVales, his Koyal
Highness the Duke of York, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, having ap
peared in the other public prints, some surprise may, perhaps, be excited at its not
appearing in the Political Eegister ; but, when reflection shall have taken place of
curiosity, 1 trust that there will be found but very few of my readers who will dis
approve of the omission. A correspondence between the Prince and the Minister
I should have thought myself at full liberty to publish, aud also to comment on ;
but, &om pubUshing the letters, which are here alluded to, I am vrithheld by all
the notions which 1 entertain of the royal character, and by all the principles
which have hitherto been the guide of my public conduct. 'There may, however,
be some persons who will be disappointed at not seeing the correspondence in the
PoUtical Eegister, and who will, perhaps, deny that, after its appearance in every

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.. 459
Duke of York, coraraander-in-chief. Before we proceed to
raake any observations upon it, which we shall feel it our duty
afterwards to do, but with the utmost delicacy and reserve, it
raay not be iraproper to raention that this correspondence
would probably bave reraained a secret frora tbe public, but
for a conversation in the House of Coraraons, on the motion
of Colonel (since) General Craufurd, for the appointraent of
a coramittee to inquire into tbe mode of fortifying the country.
This brought on a debate of considerable length, in which Mr.
Fox raoved an araendraent, recomraending the appointraent of
a railitary council. After a long debate, Colonel Craufurd
withdrew his raotion ; and the house continued debating on
Mr. Fox's amendment nntil three o'clock in tbe raorning,,
when a division took place, and tbe araendraent was lost by a
considerable majority.
In the course of the above debate, a motion was raade that
strangers should be excluded frora the gallery. This being
one of the standing orders of the House of Coraraons, a single
raeraber has the power of enforcing it, and though, in the
present instance, the public good perhaps, according to the
feelings of the raember who wished the gallery to be cleared,
was his predominant object, still instances have been known
when the gallery has been cleared to gratify the purposes of
private pique. We have no reason for thinking that this was
the case at this time, and more particularly so, as the following
particulars of what passed, while the bouse sat with closed
doors, was published on the following morning, bearing witb
it every mark of authority.
' While strangers were excluded, it is understood that sorae
other periodical work, it ought to be excluded &om mine. If this opinion should
operate to the prejudice of my labours in general, I shall be sorry ; if it should
injure the cause that I have espoused, I shall still more sorely lament ; but, nei
ther this consideration nor any other shall induce me, either now or at any future
period, to be instrumental in communicating to the world, or in putting upon
record, the documents in question ; or to admit into my work any comments on
them, or allusion to them; a resolution which has been dictated by that profound
respect and veneration which I entertain towards all the royal personages con
cerned, and particularly towards my Sovereign, to whom I am bound by the ties
of affection, gratitude, and allegiance, and whose sacred office and person God'
has commanded me to honour.' — Political Register, December 10, 1803. It would
be no difficult matter ui this place to expose Mi*. Cobbett's tergiversation and ver-
satiUty ; but, having placed his two separate opinions before the public, we leave
them to form their judgment upon them.
3 M 2

460' MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
very reraarkable conversation took place with respect to an
offer raade by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales of his
services at tbe present crisis ; Avbich, it was understood, bad
not been accepted. After several gentleraen bad delivered
their sentiraents on this subject, Mr. Tyrwhitt, one of his
Royal Highness' household, is stated to have spoken as
follows : —
' Mr. Speaker, an illustrious personage, in whose faraily I
bave the honour to be placed, having been so directly alluded
to by the honourable gentleraen who preceded rae, I can no
longer be silent. The Prince, frora the very coraraenceraent
of the war, has raanifested an anxious wish to be placed in
any railitary situation to Avhicb bis Majesty raight be pleased
to call hira, Avhich wish has been raade known to his Majesty's
Ministers. ' I esteera it ray duty, also, Sir, here to declare (deprecating
any iraputation that raight be thrown upon a character of such
value to us all to preserve unshaded), that if the services of
the illustrious personage alluded to have been rejected, I bave
proof that the fault does not lie at his door.'
' Several raembers, and in particular Mr. Fox, having,
upon this, pressed ministers to give an explanation of their
reasons for refusing the services of the Heir Apparent, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer rose, and it is said, spoke nearly
as follows : —
' No man is raore ready to bear attestation to feelings so
worthy of the rank and character of the illustrious personage
alluded to than I ara. Having made this declaration, I raust
here pause, and declare that nothing short of the comraands of
the King, and tbe united authority of this house, shall in future
ever corapel rae to say one Avord more upon the subject'
Mr. Windham (than whom no man's opinion in the House
of Commons Avas raore highly entitled to consideration) most
strongly enforced the necessity of a council of war, and thought,
at all events, that the Prince of Wales ought to have a
coraraand. Several other raembers spoke for and against the question ;
but the speech which most strongly arrested the attention of
the House was tbat of Mr. Calcraft, who strenuously urged the

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 461
necessity of a council, and pointedly conderaned its rejection
for want of precedent, when the crisis, he said, Avas unprece
dented, Mr. Calcraft spiritedly observed, that ' the Prince of
"Wales had been a colonel in the army from tbe year 1782.
His brother was a field-marshal and comraander-in-chief.
Three younger brothers Avere lieutenant-generals. And vou
leave the heir-apparent to the monarchy to fight for that
croAvn which he is one day to wear, as a colonel of a regiment,
under the coramand of a major-general, his own equerry.'
This conversation, Avhich took place on the 2d of August,
1803, was not followed by any subsequent proceedings in tbe
House of Coraraons. Indeed, tbe delicacy of the subject,
and the very proper reserve Avhich the Minister preserved on
the occasion, precluded alraost all further discussion. But
tbis did not prevent the question from being agitated out of
doors. At a raoraent when invasion was alraost daily ex
pected, and when raen of all ranks were called upon to afford
tbeir personal services at so exigent a crisis, it could not be
thought wonderful that those Avho deserted their peaceful
pursuits at such a moraent, to follow the occupation of arras,
should anxiously inquire, and perhaps with sorae degree of
querulousness, wbat part was tbe Prince of Wales to act in
such an unexarapled raoraent of national alarra ? Was he,
at such a period, when coramissions of the same rank as that
which his Royal Highness bore were showered doAvn Avith
unheard-of profusion upon men certainly not of railitary habits,
and, frora their pursuits in life, not likely to be much ac
quainted with railitary affairs, to be content to remain in the
station of a colonel, a station in Avhich he could have no
remarkable opportunity of distinguishing hiraself, and in which,
it was well observed, he was liable to be coramanded by one of
his own servants ?
His Majesty, as possessing, by the constitution, the power
of disposing of all military preferments according to his own
discretion, a discretion to which it is at all times equally our
duty and our inchnation to pay every respect and deference,
certainly bad a right to refuse to gratify the wishes of
the Prince of Wales, in regard to military preferment, if he
thought proper ; and perhaps it was right, in a theoretical

462 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
point of view, that his Royal Highness should not be alloAved
to pursue the military hne as a profession. In ordinary
times, Ave should be inclined to hold the opinion tbat it
was improper for a Prince of Wales to be invested with any
high military coraraand ; and in a like manner, except in case
of actual invasion, or of very irarainent danger, we should
be sorry to see tbe post of coraraander-in-chief filled by tbe
sovereign hiraself. But taking into consideration the alarra
ing state of the nation — the extraordinary danger that rae
naced it, — tbe character ofthe eneray, — his railitary genius, —
his iraraense resources, — and above all, the iraplacable hatred
with which he seeraed actuated against this country, it could
not but excite sorae surprise to see the Prince of Wales, at a
raoment of such unparalleled difficulty, continue in the station
coraparatively of a private nature, and an inquiry was natu
rally raade into the cause Avhich produced a conduct in the
heir ofthe raonarchy apparently so unworthy ofhis birth, and
of his stake in the glory and independence of bis country.
The feelings ofthe people of England deraanded an explana
tion, and the raode which his Royal Highness adopted for giv
ing that explanation was the best Avhich could bave been de
vised on the occasion. The publication ofthe correspondence
of the Prince of Wales, bis Majesty, the Duke of York, and
the Minister, corapletely exonerated the Prince frora every
charge of reraissness or inattention to the dangers that rae
naced his country, and procured bim the applause of every
patriotic and spirited individual in the nation.
Ecce iterum Crispinus. The irabecility of the Addington
administration Avas never raore strikingly displayed than in
the session of 1803, when the Prince of Wales' debts again
occupied the attention of parharaent. A raore impudent,
barefaced juggle Avas never practised on the English nation
than on this occasion, when the Prince's friends rose in tbeir
places, and unblusbingly declared, that the additional grant
then sought for was not for the purpose of relieving his Royal
Highness frora his erabarrassraents, but raerely to enable him
to resurae his former splendour, as becoming the heir-appa
rent to the throne. The most extraordinary feature, however,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 463
of this transaction is, that whilst the Prince of Wales in his
own raessage to the House, very gravely and candidly de
clared, that sorae debts were still pressing heavily upon bira,
wbich he was bound injustice and honour to pay, his friends,
on the other hand, as gravely declared, that they should con
sider it as an insult to the English public to propose any fresh
burden upon them for the payraent of tbe Prince's debts; but
all tbey wanted was an addition to bis income, to enable him
to live at a more riotous and extravagant rate than he had
been able to do for tbe preceding eight years. It was, how
ever, to Mr. Fox that the English people were indebted for a
piece of inforraation, which carae rather unexpectedly upon
thera, which was, that the Prince, by bis prudence, had shown
hiraself worthy of the raanageraent of a large incorae, and
that as prudence bad been the only virtue of wbich he had
been hitherto wanting, be might henceforth be regarded as the
possessor of every virtue which can adorn a huraan character.
There is an old adage, wbich says, ' save rae frora ray friends,
and I will take care of ray eneraies,' and in no instance was it
more completely verified than in the case of the friends of tbe
Prince of Wales. By atterapting to prove a great deal, they
proved the exact reverse, and although the grant was ulti
mately allowed, the public were not so thoroughly convinced of
the prudence of his Royal Highness, nor of his attention to
the coraraonest principles of economy.
On tbe 16th of February, a message frora his Majesty was
brought down to both Houses of Pariiament, recoraraending
the present situation ofthe Prince of Wales to their considera
tion. This raessage was accordingly taken into consideration
in the House of Coraraons on the 23d, when, on tbe raotion of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the House resolved itself
into a coramittee ofthe whole House. The debate was opened
by Colonel Stanley inquiring whether it was intended to raise
money for the purpose of relieving the embarrassraents of the
Prince, or whether this raeasure were not a coraproraise for cer
tain claims of raoney which had not been appropriated to
bis use.
Mr. Addington denied that the present raotion was founded
at all on a coraproraise of clainis, neither was it for the purpose

464 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
of paying the Prince's debts, as they had been already provided
for, by a forraer arrangeraent. It was merely for the purpose of
re-establishing his Royal Highness in that splendour Avhich
belonged to his rank in the state. He should, therefore, sub
mit to thera a proposition, Avhich he trusted would have the
general acquiescence of the coraraittee, the object of which
Avas ' to enable his Majesty to grant to the Prince of Wales
the sura of 60,000?. annually.' His Royal Highness, in the
year 1795, had an annual incorae of 138,000?., which, consi
dering the increase of price in everything, Avas not as rauch in
proportion as 90,000?., Avhich was the establishraent of the
Prince of Wales above ninety years ago. He then moved,
' that it is the opinion of this committee, that his Majesty be
enabled to grant yearly any sum or suras of money, out of the
consolidated fund of Great Britain, not exceeding in the Avhole
60,000?., being to be computed frora the Sth of January, 1803,
and to continue till the Sth of July, 1806, toAvards providing
for the better support and dignity ofthe Prince of Wales.'
Mr. Manners Sutton, on rising to second the raotion, stated,
that although he was no longer in the service of his Royal
Highness, he Avas still honoured with his confidence, and he
would express in his name, that he felt the most sincere grati
tude to his Majesty for the interest he had been pleased to
take Avith regard to his situation, and that he subraitted with
cheerfulness to the Avisdora and justice of the House. It was
the object of the Prince to shew in all instances bis sincere
respect and duty to his country, and rather than at all dirainish
the harmony Avhich should subsist between him and his royal
father, he was content to forego every claira of right which
raight lead to a contest, that, Avhether successful or not, raust be
to hira a source of the deepest regret. There certainly had
been no corapromise, nor any thing resembling it ; the intima
tion of the present raeasure carae upon bis Royal Highness
unexpectedly, and no terms were attempted to be iraposed upon
hira. He concluded by stating, that whatever were the
expenses incurred by his Royal Highness, they had not fallen
on the public. In order to be convinced of that, it Avould be
only sufficient to compare the present with former tiraes ; and
the actual situation of his Royal Highness with that of his

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 465
illustrious predecessors. He concluded, by declaring that he
should vote forthe resolution proposed.
Sir Ralph Milbank said, that it was notorious that the
Prince had lived in a state of comparative obscurity, for the
last eight years, and that it was tirae to restore hira to that
state and splendour, which becarae his exalted rank.
Mr. Harrison objected to^the manner of grahting this annuity,
as a boon to his Royal Highness, when it was clear that he
was a creditor to the public, for more than the araount of his
outstanding debts. The Solicitor- General had inforraed them,
that legal opinions were agreed upon that subject. Although
for his part, he did not think the dignityof monarchy depended
upon its trappings, yet Avhen he saAV splendour in every corner
of the court, and in all its appendages, be saAV no reason Avhy
tbe Prince of Wales should be the only person frora whora it
was withheld.
Lord Castlereagb was of opinion last year, when this raatter
was first suggested, that the tirae Avas corae for restoring the
Prince to the full dignity and coraforts Avhich becarae his rank ;
but as the claims of the Prince then came forward in a more
legal shape, it was necessary to aAvait a legal decision. He
perfectly approved, hoAvever, of the feeling Avhich dictated that
course, naraely, that the Prince wished rather that his debts
should be paid out of his own raeans, than that he should
appear burdensorae to the public.
Mr. Sheridan said, he preferred so much the character of
his Royal Highness to his coraforts, that, if this were to be
represented to the public as a boon to the Prince, he was
not prepared to say that he should support it. The fact Avas
this, the Prince bad, in the course of last session, applied for
the restoration of his eight, not on his OAvn account, but for
the sake of his creditors. The petition of right was then pro
ceeded on, but suddenly the proceedings were stopped, and
the present message came down to the House. He, therefore,
thought this Avas a fair and honourable compromise ; but he
wished the House to bear in their rainds, that his Royal Pligh-
ness considered hiraself in honour and injustice bound to pay
his creditors the ten per cent, which the comraissioners had
reduced of their demands ; and until that was done, his Royal ¦
3 N

466 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
Highness could not resurae conscientiously, nor in honour, bis
state and dignity.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer explained this circura
stance in the following raanner. For all the debts wbich were
fairly and justly due, there were given to the creditors, to
accept thera at their option, debentures of 100?. bearing three
per cent, interest, or 90?., bearing five per cent, those who
preferred the 90Z. could not be said to have their debt re
duced, as, by law, no interest at all was due on debts which
Avere merely book debts.
Mr. Fox said, that be conceived tbe account closed be-
tAveenthe Prince and the public in 1795. In that year there
were sorae persons Avho thought 125,000?. was too great an
income to be allowed a Prince of Wales, but he was not of that
nuraber. As to the clairas respecting the Duchy of Cornwall,
the only way he thought they could enter into the present ques
tion was, that, in addition to the consideration that the Prince
had for eight years subraitted to great privations and restraints,
other reasons bave occurred, which strengthened his clairas on
the generosity of the nation. He concluded by observing,
the Prince had noAv shoAvn hiraself worthy of the manageraent
of a large incoraeby bis prudence, which was the only virtue
he was ever charged with wanting.
The resolution raoved by Mr. Addington Avas unaniraously
agreed to in the coraraittee.
On the 2Sth of February, his Majesty's message was taken
into consideration in the House of Lords, when Lord Pelham,
after a few prelirainary observations, moved an address to his
Majesty, similar to that raoved in the House of Coraraons.
Lord Carlisle seconded the motion for the address, and after
a fcAV Avords frora Lord Moira, in praise of the conduct of his
Royal Highness upon that occasion, the address was unani
mously agreed to.
On the 28th February, Mr. Tyrwhitt brought down a mes
sage from the Prince of Wales, in Avhich his Royal Highness,
after expressing his gratitude for the liberality of Parliament,
declared that there Avere still clairas upon bim, both in honour
and justice, for the discharge of which, he must still set ajiart
a considerable sinkins fund.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 467
Mr. Calcraft gave notice of a raotion to enable his Royal
Highness iraraediately to resurae bis state and dignity, which
Mr. Erskine declared was without the knowledge of the
Prince. A very long and interesting debate took place on the 4th
March, in tbe House of Comraons, on the raotion of Mr. Cal
craft respecting the Prince's establishraent. That gentleraan
began by stating, that the raotion he Avas now to bring forAvard
originated solely with hiraself, and that he bad not corarauni
cated with any person on the subject, previously to his giving
the notice. He said tbe country was anxious to see the heir-
apparent resurae tbat state and dignity due to bis exalted rank,
which, notwithstanding the liberal grant of Parliament, could
not now be done, unless there were some arrangeraents made
for those clairas, which affected the honour and justice ofthe
Prince, and wbich otherwise he raust levy upon a considerable
part of bis income, to discharge. Pie therefore raoved, that a
Select Coramittee be appointed to inquire into the extent of
those clairas which had been signified to the House in the
message frora his Royal Highness.
Sir William Geary seconded the raotion.
Mr. Erskine said, that when on a forraer day he had asserted
this raotion was brought on without the knowledge of his
Royal Highness, be by no means raeant to say, that it Avas on
that account iraproper for discussion in that bouse. His
Royal Highness felt grateful for the kindness of his Majesty,
and for the great liberality of Parliaraent. He was amply
satisfied; and, personally, felt himself no way interested in the
motion. If he, therefore, coincided in the raotion, it Avas as a
meraber of pariiament, and not as a servant to the Prince.
He was only anxious, for the honour of the Prince, that it
should be known, that he bad, out of his own revenues, paid
within the last eight years the sum of 575,000?. ; and that
now, at forty years of age, he did not owe one shilling to the
public. Sir Robert Buxton considered, that in the present state of
tbe country, when the taxes were so bigh, princes Avould do
theraselves raost credit by avoiding useless expenses and idle
parade. His Royal Highness kncAV that tbe dignity of a
3 N 2

468 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
prince consists, not in the trappings of a court, but in the
virtues of the man. He therefore raoved the previous
question. Mr. Curwen .seconded the motion. If his Royal Highness
still foundhimself involved in debts, it would be right of hira
to pay them ; but he could hardly expect the public to be
satisfied Avith a burden Avliich raight appear to thera as pro
ceeding from extravagance. He thought a coramittee would
be incouA'enient ; as, if debts appear that the coraraittee did
not think fair, it was not to be supposed that Parliaraent
would pay thera.
Mr. Johnstone objected to the raotion most decidedly. At
a time that such large revenues Avere raised upon the subject,
he could not consent to such an increase ofthe public burdens.
As to the Cornwall claims, he thought the time for the Prince
to urge his right was in the year 1795 ; but then he preferred
appealing to the liberality of parliament. He said, there was
another very good reason for not prosecuting this claira. The
Avhole araount of the revenues of Cornwall, from his birth to his
coming of age, was but 234,000?., and the expenses Avere at
least as rauch ; therefore it did not appear that there Avould be
anything coraing to him out of those revenues.
Mr. H. Lascelles opposed the motion. He thought the
CornAvall clairas Avere only held over the house in terrorem,
Avhile indirect applications Avere raaking.
Mr. Burdon thought that, if such a coraraittee were ap
pointed, it Avould be in the aAvkAvardest situation that ever a
coramittee of that house was placed : it could not pretend to
inquire into debts of honour, which certainly an act of parlia
raent could not raean to consider.
Mr. Tierney voted for the Coraraittee, but would not pledge
himself to vote the payraent of all sums that might be found
undischarged ; but, as a raeraber of parliament, he wished to
knoAv, Avhatthe circumstances were Avhich prevented the Prince
from resuming his splendour. He contended that his Royal
Highness Avas the least expensive Prince of Wales Avho had
ever existed, and that 30,000?. was all that the public had
advanced to him by extraordinary grants. If the revenues of
the Duchy of Cornwall Avere deducted, as they ought to be.

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 469
the 125,000?. which Avas assigned to the Prince in 1795, Avas
not more than the 100,000?. per annum Avbich had been given
to his grandfather in 1733 ; he believed, considering the differ
ence ofthe tiraes, that it was not so much, tie concluded Avith
giving his hearty assent to the raotion.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that knowing, as he
did, the sentiments of His Royal Highness upon the subject, the
present motion was to him rather a matter of surprise than of
any other sensation. In point of regularity, no proceedings
could be taken on the present motion without a previous
recomraendation from the crown. The raessage that had been
sent down had nothing to do with the payraent of the Prince's
debts, which bad been provided for by a previous arrangeraent.
After that arrangeraent of 1795, it was impossible for bis
Majesty to conceive that any fresh debts would have been
incurred, nor could the House take notice of such debts. It
would be disgraceful to have entered on the journals a third
proceeding for the payment of debts. He therefore opposed
the motion.
Mr. Fox supported the original motion ; he had hiraself no
doubt of the validity of the claim of the Prince to an account of
the revenues of Cornwall, and he did not think any one could
advise his Majesty to resist thera, on the ground that be had
educated the Prince of Wales handsoraely, and given hira the
sarae raasters as his other sons, and therefore that he ought to
be paid for it.
Mr. Sheridan supported the original raotion with great force,
and answered the objections in the happiest vein of humour.
He considered that coupling the raessage which had been sent
by bis Majesty, Avith that which carae down frora his Royal
Highness, the House bad docuraents enough to see that the
intentions of bis Majesty could not be carried into execution
on the sura noAV voted, and therefore it was corapetent to them
to increase the vote : an honourable member (Mr. Johnstone)
had said, that in 1795, when the spirit of jacobinisra was
abroad, less objections were raade to increase the splendour
and dignity of the royal faraily : this was indeed a strange prin
ciple for supporting royalty. It rerainded him of the story of
the conversation of the two owls in a ruined castle. One of

470 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
thera said ' Long live King Mahraoud ! as long as be lives to
carry on his devastations, we owls will never Avant ruined
castles to build our nests in.' The Royal Faraily might say
on the same principle, ' Long live tbe jacobins ! as long as
they exist, Ave shall enjoy all the splendour and dignity due to
our rank ; but the moment the spirit of loyalty returns, and the
love of monarchy resumes its place in the hearts of the people,
we shall be thrown on the shelf.' In reply to Sir Robert Buxton,
who appeared to despise all external trappings, and think that
virtue alone was the only true dignity of a prince ; he said he
was ready to adrait the principle, but not to confine it entirely
to the heir-apparent ; for instance, if all the great ofiicers of
state would consent to rest upon their virtues, it Avould then be
all very Avell ; if the Speaker, when going to present an address
to his Majesty, Avould dispense Avith his gilded coach and mace,
and Avalkto St. Jaraes', wrapped up in his virtues and a warm
surtout, vvith the privilege of carrying an urabrella if it should
rain ; if our judges would lay aside their state, and go their
circuit in the raail-coaches, and the gentlemen of the bar move
as outside passengers ; if the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, instead
of their gilt barges and Guildhall banquets, would come doAvn
in hackney-coaches, and dine at Dolly's Chop-bouse on their
return, then, indeed, it Avould be undoubtedly right that the
Prince should conform to the prevailing customs, and lay aside
all his state and splendour. Mr. Sheridan concluded by sup
porting Mr. Calcraft's motion.
Lord Hawkesbury defended the arrangement, wbich had
been proposed by ministers, in consequence of a message
from bis Majesty. The House could not, as raerabers of
parliament, look into any debts contracted by bis Royal High
ness since 1795 ; the discharge of such debts, if they existed,
raust be left entirely to his own honour and prudence. No
new account ought now to be entered into about debt, and
there was nothing in either the raessage or the proceedings of
parliaraent thereon respecting the speedy re-assumption of his
state. Sir John Wrottesley and Mr. Smith spoke in favour of the
raotion, and Lord Castlereagb against it.
The House divided on the previous question — the ayes were
184, the noes were 139,

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 471
On the 14th of March the Prince of Wales's Annuity Bill
was read a second time in the House of Lords, previously to
which Lord Pelhara raade sorae observations On the length of
tirae the Prince had lived in a state of coraparative obscurity,
and the universal wish that now seemed to pervade the House
and the public, that he should be relieved frora his difficulties.
Lord Moira stated, that on account of debts which the Prince
found binding upon hira, both in honour and injustice, hewas
prevented even now frora resuming that state and dignity, but felt
grateful to parliaraent, and content Avith the allowance they raade
him, and that be. bad instructed his counsel to drop the pro
ceedings respecting Cornwall ; and bis Lordship, in explanation,
further denied, that the abandonraent of the Cornwall claims
was at all the effect ' of coraproraise, for that bis Royal High
ness had only made that' claim for the benefit of his creditors,
but when be found that the allowance now proposed would
enable him to satisfy his debts, without recurring to it, he
abandoned it with pleasure. The bill was then read a second
time, and ordered to be coraraitted.
We have thus entered into detail on the subject of the debts
ofthe Prince of Wales, as at that time ij; engrossed the atten
tion ofthe public in a very particular degree, and was in other
respects attended Avith circumstances Avhich are strongly indi
cative ofthe political feelings ofthe tiraes.
The orio-inal proposition wbicb had been made by rainisters
for giving the Prince of Wales an annuity of 60,000?. per
annura for tbree years Avas the final settlement of this important
business ; for in a fcAV days after an event took place, which
caused the Prince to signify to the House by Mr. Erskine, bis
chancellor, tbat he could not think at such a time of incjgasing
further tbe burdens of the country, and that he was perfectly
¦ satisfied vvith what parliaraent had done.
The large division against Mr. Addington in the House of
Coraraons, which was the greatest he had yet encountered,
sufficiently raanifested that the sense of the House was Avith
the Prince of Wales, and the public beheld in the minister's
conduct on this occasion either a mysterious ambiguity, or a
low spirit of chicane equally unAvorthy of tbe high situation
which he filled. It was recollected with surprise, that admi-

472 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
nistration had refused to entertain, in the course of the last ses
sion of Parliament, a proposition for considering the amount
of bis Royal Highness' claims as the creditor of the pubhc ;
and the reference he proposed to raake upon thera to the judg
raent and Avisdora of the legislation, on the ground that the
matter Avas one solely for the decision of a court of laAV, and
not for that of Parliament. HoAvever strongly this opinion
raight be corabated, and it was carried by a very sraall majo
rity, the inference was obvious. In consequence of Avhich,
his Royal Highness had prepared a petition of right, which
Avas submitted to the Lord Chancellor, and his claims were
ready to be finally determined by the issue of a solemn adjudi
cation, when, on a sudden, the adrainistration, as if fearful of the
result of such an inquiry, and desirous of quashing all further
proceedings, came forward Avith a specific proposition, or rather
compromise for increasing his Royal Highness' income by an
annuity of 60,000?. per annura for three years ; specifically
however, preraising, that this sura was given in order to restore
him to the state and splendour belonging to his rank, which, it
was well known, he had for eight years voluntarily forgone, by
the dirainution of his establishraent more than one-half, in
order tbat his creditors might be finally satisfied. In the same
spirit of acquiescence to the King's government, Avhich, in the
course of this business, had already distinguished the Avhole of
his conduct and noAV, as then, equally averse from the indeli
cacy of a suit with the croAvn, the Prince cheerfully announced
bis acceptation of the proposed sum Avith eagerness and with
gratitude, and Avaived for ever an investigation, which it was
the decided conviction of hiraself and his great law officers,
Avould have placed hira in the desirable situation of appearing,
what he really was, the creditor, not the debtor, of the public.
But in the acceptance of this increase of income, his Royal
Highness wished it expressly to be understood, that in conse
quence of the reduction he had submitted to for more than
eight years, some incumbrances had gradually increased upon
him, Avhich, superadded to the payment of those debts not
provided for by the arrangeraent of 1795, but Avhich he found
hiraself bound in honour to discharge, would yet further delay
the reassumption of the state and dignity of the heir-apparent

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 473
to the iraperial crown of these realras; unless Parliaraent
should inquire into those erabarrassraents, and adopt tbe raost
effectual raeans of relieving thera as speedily as possible, and
that therefore the sura, Avhich he took in the same spirit in
Avhich it was given, namely, as a satisfaction for foregoing, the
further prosecution of his claims, was still insufficient for the
purposes for Avhich it Avas alleged to be granted. For this
purpose, the motion Avas raade which gave rise to tbe debate
Avhich we have just detailed, and which Avas supported by all
the talent, wit, and ingenuity of the House. Mr. Addington,
however, brought the usual strength of the rainisterial mera
bers to bear upon the subject, and it Avas lost, there being 328
members in the House, by the slender majority of 45. Nor
did the minister retire frora the contest Avith any increase of
credit or reputation ; it Avas not forgotten that after driving the
Prince of Wales to the necessity, Avhich he actually deprecated
in the face of the nation by his rainister's declaration in the
forraer session, of a suit-at-law Avith his Royal father, that he
dehberately checked the course of public justice by the offer
of Avhat could only be considered a compromise. Nor Avas
this all ; far frora alloAving it to be, what in fact it Avas, the
price of the relinquishment of a legal investigation, Avhich was
dreaded, he sought, under the specious pretence of a boon to
the Prince of Wales, to call it the raeans by Avhich the splen
dour and dignity of this august personage Avould be restored.
Yet, when the fallacy and utter impossibility of the attainment
of this desirable end being accoraplished without an inquiry
into the actual state of the Prince's affairs was stated, he ob
stinately refused to entertain such an inquiry, and persisted in
giving the appearance of increased obligation, to Avhat was, in
fact, unjust in its principles, unsatisfactory both to tbe Prince and
to the public, and totally inadequate to the proposed ends. Such,
however, is the usual fate ofthe half measures of little minds.
Contrasted with this line of conduct the people observed in
the whole of that of their future monarch, dignity, equity, and
raoderation, and wben it was seen, that at the critical and
awful moment Ave have already alluded to, he declined giving
any further trouble to the great council ofthe nation, that in
such a moraent he could not think of adding to the burdens of
3 O

474 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the country, and that he declared hiraself perfectly satisfied
with the Uberality of Parliaraent, gratitude and adrairation
universally prevailed, and his future subjects beheld in tbis rae
ritorious and exemplary conduct, ample promise of the greatest
blessing providence can bestOAV — a Patriot King.
On the 15th the House of Peers resolved itself into a cora
mittee on the Prince of Wales' annuity bill.
The Earl of Carlisle was still of opinion, that this bill was
inadequate to the object it professed ; but in the present cir
curastances, it was perhaps better to be silent on that subject.
The bill Avas read a third tirae without further opposition and
passed. In the year 1804 a strong altercation took place between
the King and the Prince of Wales, respecting the education of
the Princess Charlotte ; the Prince insisted that the raother
was an iraproper corapanion for the daughter, and resolved
that she should be confided to his sole raanageraent. Tbe
King, on tbe contrary, raaintained that the Prince of Wales
was an improper person to have the charge of his OAvn child,
and insisted upon the right of the mother. The Prince remon
strated Avith him, and pronounced the line which the King
had taken to be an insult to bim. His Majesty, however,
AA'as firm, and became himself the guardian ofthe child.
This topic engaged at this time rauch of the public atten
tion. In tbe reign of George I., a question was subraitted
to the judges, Avhether tbe reigning sovereign had the right of
directing the education, and disposing in marriage, of his
grand-children. Ten of the judges at that period were of opi
nion, that the right was invested in the King, but tAvo of thera
dissented, and gave their reasons why they thought that the
King had the right to dispose in marriage, but not to the care
and education of his grandchildren, Avhich belonged to the
Prince, their father. However, the opinions of the majority of
the judges prevailed, and from the time of George I. to the pre
sent day, it has been held part of the royal prerogative, and
accordingly was so acted upon Avhen the education of her
Royal Highness the Princess Chariotte of Wales came under
deliberation. The Prince of Wales remonstrated on the sub
ject as became hira, both as a father and a man ; but all his

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 473
objections were overruled by prerogative. It is, perhaps, not
unworthy of reraark, that in the House of Brunswick the en
mity between the parents and their eldest sons appears to be
hereditary ; and frora certain circumstances we are inchned to
date it earlier than tbe dissensions between the three Georges.
The raahgnant antipathy of George I. to bis son betrayed a
callousness of heart revolting to nature, and a grovelling sus
picion disgraceful to a raanly character. Tbe quarrel between
George II. and his son reserabled, in its causes, very much
that which in the after reign took place between George III. and
his son. It was both private and pohtical ; but the two quarrels
had this difference, that the first originated in an expostula
tion of the son with the father, on the raal-appropriation of
the funds of tbe civil list and the wanton extravagance dis
played in various departraents of the household ; and the latter
originated in an expostulation of the father with the son, on
the iraraoraUty ofhis habits, and the amount of his debts con
tracted by profusion and libertinism.
On the subject of the Prince of Wales not being alloAved
the education of his own daughter, a writer of that day^ in
vindication of his Royal Highness, says, ' We should be glad
to know by what legal process the Prince's daughter is to be
taken frora him. We do not raean to say, that the nation has
not such a superior interest in the royal faraily, particularly
those Avho are iraraediately allied to the succession, that the
care and education of thera, as well as their raarriages, raay
call for specific regulations. But positive law has done no
thing to transfer the care and education of the children of the
Prince of Wales to his father. No act of parliaraent has done
it, and surely Ave are not to be araused with second-hand civil
law from Bracton and Fleta. It is not easy to see good reasons
for such transference, unless it be thought important to raake a
transfer also of filial duty and affection. Nothing but strong
particular reasons could possibly justify the taking of the Prin
cess Charlotte frora his care ; for the very transference must be
founded upon the supposition of error or misconduct in him, and
with prejudices so excited, perhaps artfully encouraged, it
raight not be easy afterwards to reconcile the filial reverence,
obedience, and duty of the child. A Prince of Wales must
3 0 2

476 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
always be most perraanentiy interested in tbe good education
and the proper tuition of his child ; and it never can be his part
to irabue the raind of infancy with prejudices against his own
character. Even if the strict right do raost unquestionably exist,
as we think it certainly does not, we should consider it one of
those rights which ought to lie dorraant till they are called
forth as reraedial of sorae great evil. But we should be glad
to know Avhy the Prince of Wales is to be so stultified and so
stigraatized, as to be held forlh to the country and to Europe,
as unworthy to have the direction of his OAvn daughter's edu
cation? The Prince of Wales seems actually to be the object
of every species of insult. At one tirae he is told, that during
a teraporary suspension ofthe royal authority, any raan in the
kingdora had just as good a right as be to the regency. At
another tirae he is refused a command in the army above that
of a colonel of dragoons, though the country is supposed to
be on the point of invasion ; and, last of all, his own daughter
is to be taken out of bis hands, as if he had neither capacity,
virtue, nor natural affection to enable, or to prompt him, to
perform the duty of an intelligent father. If such things do
not tend to degrade a character, and to bring into question all
that is most valuable to the most ordinary individual, far more
to the Prince of Wales, Ave do not know Avbat more suc
cessful arts of detraction can be practised. We cannot con
ceive, therefore, tbat those who advise the assertion of such a
right as has been clairaed, can be actuated by proper motives.
There can be no pretence that such a right is now necessary
for the good education of the Princess Charlotte, and for the
advantage of the public. On the contrary, there are the most
manifest and undeniable reasons against the exercise of such a
right, did it exist. If his Ma-jesty clairas the right, he must
be surrounded by very pernicious councillors, and against these
counciUors the public indignation should be directed. Those
who Avish Avell to the hereditary succession of this monarchy,
ought seriously to consider whether the principle has not of
late been too much sacrificed. Those who would overthrow
the monarchy altogether, could not forward their designs raore
effectually, than by disgracing, mortifying, and calumniating
those Avho, in the natural course of events, will be called to

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 477
It requires but a very sraall portion of skill to penetrate into
the speciousness of these arguraents, the general tendency of
which goes to prove that the Prince of Wales was gifted Avith
those virtues Avhich are considered to be requisite towards the
education of children, and that he was, in olher respects, Avell
fitted for the task, by a due and rigid observance of those
moral duties which belong to the character of a preceptor.
It is a trite maxim, that example is better than precept, and
certainly nothing yet has been delineated in the character of
his Royal Highness, nor in that of his iraraediate associates,
which could induce those persons to believe, who were raost
deeply interested in the education of the Princess Charlotte,
that any example which could be set before her eyes, as
emanating frora the conduct of ber father, could be produc
tive of instilling into her raind any fixed notions of virtue and
morality. Itis certainly true, that the Prince of Wales de
clared at a public dinner, that his daughter should be educated
in the political opinions of those Avho had been bis earliest and
most valued associates ; and in that isolated case sorae credit
is due to his Royal Highness, as those opinions are certainly the
most congenial to the spirit of tbe British constitution ; but in
regard to private character, wbat could be expected frora the
exaraple Avhicb Avould be daily exhibited to her under the roof
of her father. Feraale prostitution on one side, and male liberti
nism on the other — on one hand, she would have been obliged
to associate with the Jerseys, the Hopes, and other ladies of
that grade — with the very woraen who had lighted the flarae
of discord in the bouse of her father — and, on the other hand,
with that father hiraself, who bad expelled her raother frora
his bouse, to Avanton in the raeretricious charms of sordid
concubines. It may be aUeged against these remarks, that if
the education of the Princess Charlotte had been confided to
her father, it does not follow that she would have been
exposed to such contaminating influences, and that her exalted
rank in life Avould have entitled her to a separate establish
ment, where it would not have been possible for her to have
corae into contact Avith such scenes of profligacy ; and further,
it raay be urged, that instances are by no raeans rare in human
Ufe, in Avhich a profligate parent has educated his child in the

478 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
strictest precepts of virtue and religion ; but these objections,
applicable as they raay be in certain cases, have no force Avben
considered in reference to the education of the Princess
Charlotte. His natural affection for his daughter, which he
manifested on every occasion but one, but that one was, of all
others that, when it should have been the raost unreraittingly
displayed, might have propelled hira to bave Avatcbed over her
education witb all the care and anxiety of the most virtuous
parent; but it should be recollected, that the Prince of Wales
was not an independent agent : continually subject to the con
trol and influence of sorae favourite concubine, or sorae fawn
ing parasite, he was obliged to regulate his conduct according
to their dictura ; a dangerous interference might have been
practised in the change of preceptors, and notions instilled
into the mind of the Princess Charlotte, which, bad it pleased
heaven to spare her to ascend the throne, might have struck
at the root of the welfare and prosperity ofthe country. We,
therefore, cannot but applaud the firmness which was dis
played by George III. on this occasion, and tbe choice which
he made of the preceptors of his grand-daughter was an evi
dent proof of his parental anxiety to instil into ber mind the
soundest principles of virtue, religion, and morality.
The following circumstance forms, however, a strong con
trast with the foregoing, and Avhich, in its leading features, is
of so singular a nature, that no Avonder need be excited at the
extreme interest which it occasioned at the time, and the
extraordinary construction which was put upon it by tbe
scribblers and gossips of the day. We allude to the suit in
Chancery respecting the guardianship of Miss Seyraour, in
which, although the Prince of Wales was only a collateral
party, his feelings Avere supposed, notwithstanding, to be as
nearly concerned as those of any other person. The question
on Avhich the Court of Chancery Avas caUed to pronounce was,
Avhether the infant daughter of the late Lord Hugh Seyraour
should reraain under the guardianship of Mrs. Fitzherbert to
Avhose care she had been intrusted by her mother. Lady Ho-
ratia Seymour, almost from the hour of her birth ; or whether
she should be placed under the care of the same guardians as
the other children of Lord Hugh and Lady Horatia ?

IVIEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 479
It appeared frora the afl[idavits exhibited in the Court of
Chancery, during the progress of the suit, that both Lord
Hugh and Lady Horatia Seyraour wished their daughter to
(•eraain under the protection of Mrs. Fitzherbert ; but as this
was not legaUy provided for in the will of Lord Hugh, who
was the survivor, it was contended by the guardians of bis
other children that it Avas iraproper to perrait Miss Seyraour to
reraain in the bands of a Roraan CathoUc, lest, while she con
tinued under such guardianship, her religious principles should
be subverted.
Sorae wholesorae old statutes (thanks to the liberality and
moderation of the tiraes, now become obsolete) provide that no
Protestant child shall be intrusted to the care of a Roman
Catholic guardian, unless the Protestant relations next of kin
sball thereunto consent; and these statutes, in the case of
Miss Seymour, Avere attempted to be enforced. It was shown
in eA'idence tbat Lady Horatia Seymour, one of the raost vir
tuous and accoraplished, as she was one of the raost lovely
woraen of ber age, on ber death had bequeathed her youngest
daughter to the care of Mrs. Fitzherbert, who, on account of
Lady Horatia's ill health*, bad had the rearing of the child
frora her infancy, and with all the solemnity of a dying request,
conjured the Prince of Wales to see that her last wishes Avere
carried into effect.
It is not possible to conceive a scene more solemn and
affecting than that which was proved on oath to have passed
betAveen the Prince of Wales and Lady Horatia Seymour, a
few hours before her decease. Worn out by that insatiable
and unconquerable scourge of English beauty, a pulmonary
consumption, ber Ladyship sent for his Royal Highness a fcAv
hours previously to her dissolution, and, in the most earnest
and pressing terms, conjured him to Avatch over the future
safety of her daughter, who was then, and had been almost
from her birth, under the care of Mrs. Fitzherbert. The
Prince, deeply affected with the scene, promised to comply
with her Ladyship's request, and, on the death of Lord Hugh
Seyraour, took upon himself the whole charge of maintaining
and educating the orphan, so that her oAvn fortune, which was
bnt narrow, might accumulate for her future benefit.

480 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
It ought to be mentioned that Lord Hugh Seymour, who
was an adrairal," and coraraanded a squadron at Jaraaica, died
in that station subsequently to Lady Horatia, but without
receiving intelligence of ber Ladyship's death. By bis wiU,
he bequeathed the guardianship of bis children to bis lady, so
that had Lady Horatia survived him but a single day, she
might have left the guardianship of her daughter to whom she
pleased, without any one having a right to interfere.
It appeared clearly in eA'idence that the child had been
placed under the protection of Mrs. Fitzherbert Avith the per
fect concurrence and approbation of Lord Hugh Seyraour,
AA'hicb concurrence and approbation, considering the very ques
tionable relation in Avhich that lady stood Avith the Prince of
Wales, reflect no great credit upon the prudence and judg
ment of his Lordship. It Avas also proved that his Lordship
bad frequently expressed the utmost gratitude for the tender
ness which Mrs. Fitzherbert had shown to his daughter ; and
there appeared no reason Avhatever to suppose that he Avould
have changed the dispositions Avhich his lady had made, re
specting their child, on her death-bed.
It appeared, further, that Miss Seyraour Avas a child of an
extreraely delicate constitution, that she had been with great
difficulty reared, but that in all probability her life Avould
be endangered, were she to be removed out of the hands
of Mrs. Fitzherbert, and committed to the care of another
person. The only answer that Avas made to all this, and, indeed, the
sole objection to Miss Seymour's remaining under the protec
tion of Mrs. Fitzherbert, Avas that, that lady being a Roman
Catholic, the religious principles of her Protestant Avard might
be endangered. In reply to this, Mrs. Fitzherbert put in an
affidavit, denying that she Avas actuated by any spirit of prose-
lytism, or had any desire to convert her Avard ; on the contrary,
that she Avas determined to educate her according to the reli
gious principles of her noble parents. An affidavit of the
Prince of Wales to the same effect Avas read in court, and
another of the Bishop of Winchester, Avho, by-the-by, appears
at this time to bave been the most complaisant of the whole
mitred fraternity, in Avhich his Lordship deposed that he had

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 481
exarained Miss Seyraour touching her religious instruction,
and found that she bad received regular lessons on the subject
frora a clergyraan ofthe Church of England, and Avas as well
and properiy instructed in the fundamentals of the Protestant
faith, as it Avas possible for a young person of her age to be.
We knoAv not, in the whole range of human society, a raore
execrable character than that of a tirae-serving priest, a raan
of holiness and sanctity, Avbo, for the sake of present or future
eraoluraent, will truckle at the feet of his superiors, and be
ready at their coraraand to further tbeir designs, however deep
those designs may be steeped in infaray and vice. Whatever
the worthy Father in God raay have been called upon by bis
royal patron to depose to, we knoAV that in some particulars
his depositions Avere not consistent Avith the truth, for he could
not have been ignorant that Miss Seyraour, although profess
edly educated in the Protestant religion, was still artfully
worked upon by all the iraposing cereraonies of the Roraisb
Church — tbat she was an eye-witness of tbe celebration of all
its splendid ordinances — and tbat, as a resident under the roof
of a Catholic, she was necessarily obliged to submit to all the
fasts and penances enjoined by the superstition and fanaticism
of the Mother Church ; not tbat we raean to infer that, in a
house like that of Mrs. Fitzherbert, tbe forras of the Roraisb
Church were rigidly observed, or that, in sorae particulars,
they Avere observed at all; but to depose that a Protestant
feraale, living in a Roman Catholic family, exposed to all the
intrigues and stratagems of a crafty priesthood, can remain
uncontarainated with their prejudices, or averse frora adopting
their opinions, Avould be just as near the truth as to depose
that a horse-chestnut and a chestnut horse were one and the
sarae thing. It was not, however, with the religious educa
tion of Miss Seyraour that the gossiping part of the English
people chiefly interested theraselves ; but sorae strange ru-
raours got afloat, as to tbe actual relationship of Miss Seymour
to her alleged parents ; and it was darkly hinted that that
young lady Avas raore closely related to her guardian than the
world knew of; indeed, the extraordinary exertions, which were
raade to retain the guardianship, afforded fresh materials for
the support of that suspicion, involving, at the same tirae, the
3 P

482 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
character of the Prince of Wales. It was positively stated
that the Miss Seyraour living under tbe protection of Mrs.
Fitzherbert, and concerning Avhora the Prince of Wales so
strongly interested hiraself, was not the actual child of liOrd
and Lady Horatia. Seymour, but that, with the privity and
concurrence of those individuals, the child was sent to Mrs.
Fitzherbert as their ovvn ; Avhereas, it was the real offspring of
the ilUcit connexion between that lady and the Prince of
Wales. Many cogent reasons could be given for tbe invalida
tion of that stateraent ; but tbe extraordinary exertions raade
to retain tbe child, Avhicb could not be exceeded by parental
affection itself, gaye sorae colouring to the floating suspicions,
and tended in no degree to abate the virulence witb which the
character of the Prince of Wales was at this tirae assailed, i
Whoever has bad the patience or the curiosity to peruse pne
half of the defaraatory productions which were pubUshed
against the Prince of Wales, from tbe year 1783 to tbe time
alraost of the Regency, will have ran through a tolerable
number of volumes, and niay be able tq form a competent
judgraent of the licentiousness of tbe press which existetj
at that period. Censure, as SAvift justly observes, is the
tax a man pays for being erainent ; but it should be. men
tioned to the honour of bis Royal Highness, that he never
considered one of these scribblers worthy of his personal
resentment, in fact, in one or two instances in wbicb the libellers
of the Prince were prosecuted, it was, Ave bave reason to
believe, much against the inclination of his Royal Highness ;
and in this place we cannot forbear mentioning an anecdote of
the Prince of Wales, which it raust be adraitted, even by his
adversaries, reflects high honour on his feelings and consider
ate deUcacy. A person, who was convicted of a libel on the
Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, but not at tbe prose
cution of their Royal Highnesses, was sentenced by the Court
to stand in the piUory opposite the Horse Guards. On tbe
morning on which that part of the sentence was to b ecarried
into execution, it happened that the Prince of Wales, perfectly
unacquainted Avith the circumstance, rode past the spot Avbere-
the pillory was erected, and was detained by the croAvd sorae
moments in sight of the offender. Such an occurrence as this,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 483
ihoiigh purely accidental, raight bave been construed to the
disadvantage of his Royal Highness, as an illiberal triurapb
Over a fallen eneray, and therefore, tbe next day, the Prince
sent one of his servants to the individual to apologize for the
seeming indelicacy of bis being present on the occasion, by
shewing that it was owing to raere accident.
The above is a trait of character wbich will go far to redeem
many venial errors ; but perhaps in the coraposition of no indi
vidual was gOod and evil raore strongly araalgaraated, than
in tbat of the Prince of Wales. He could exhibit bimself at
one time a Colossus of virtue, standing upon an eminence
which few would essay to reach ; and at another, sinking into
an abyss of profligacy characteristic of the most degenerate
reprobate. At one time be could be tbe Prince — ' every inch
a Prince' — at another he could condescend to converse with
his inferiors, on terms of the utmost urbanity and familiarity ;
a stronger instance of whicli cannot be given, than in the fol
lowing anecdote bf Papiera, the raanufacturer of plaster-casts.
When his Royal Highness was between the age of thirty
and forty, bis mask was taken in plaster of Paris, by Papiera,
an Italian, from which, if we raistiake not, the bust by Mr.
Banks was modelled. The operation, even wben executed by
the raost skilful, is not very agreeable, to say the least of it.
Soraetiraes the plaster is apt to adhere to the skin, and had
such a circurastance occurred witb tbis iUustrious personage,
tbe dileraraa would have been of serious consequence perhaps
td the operator. ' How long, think you, will it require to pro
duce the mask ?' inquired the Prince ; ' Five rainutes. Sir,' was
the answer. ' WeU, then,' said the Prince, ' we sball see ;' so,
looking at his Avatch, be shewed tbe tirae to Papiera, laid it
upon the table, and kindly added, ' Do not hurry yourself, for
I am not irapatient, and I wish you tb perform your task Avell.'
Papiera, to use bis own Avords, observed, ' So gracious and con
descending Avas the manner of bis Royal Highness, that I
went to my work Avithout embarrassraent, and corapleted it
within tbe time.' The Prince expressed his satisfaction at the
skiU with Avbich it was performed, and entered into farailiar
chat with tbe plaster-daster. ' V/hat is your height, Papiera ?'
asked his Royal Highness : ' I thihk you are as near as raay
3 P 2

484 , MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
be to ray stature.' Papiera, ansAvered, ' I believe your Royal
Highness has the advantage.' ' Come,' said tbe Prince, ' let
us raeasure ;' when placing hira against the wall, he un
sheathed a sraall sword and Avith tbe point made the raark.
' Now,' said he, turning to Lord Moira, who was present, ' mark
ray height ; but do it fairly, my Lord.' The point Avas fixed,
and Papiera proved hiraself, though a courtier, yet no flatterer,
for his Royal Highness had the advantage by half an inch.
This courtesy ofthe Prince extended itself to the ingenious of
all classes who had the least personal intercourse with him.
Papiera, be it known, Avas of no higher rank in the arts than a
manufacturer of plaster-casts.
As a contrast to the above we will insert another anecdote,
which, although it happened at a remoter period of his life,
will shew, that even when he was a king, decked with all the
trappings of royalty, he could take even a reproof Avithout
considering bis dignity insulted.
Previously to MatheAVS leaving this country for Araerica, he
exhibited a selection frora bis popular entertainraents, by com
mand of his Majesty, at Carlton Palace. A select party of not
more than six or eight persons Avere present, including the
Princess Augusta, and the Marchioness of Conyngham. During
the entertainment, Avith which his Majesty seemed rauch de
lighted, MatheAVS introduced bis imitations of various per
formers on the British Stage, and Avas proceeding Avitb John
Kemble, in the Stranger, when be Avas interrupted by tbe King,
Avbo, in the raost affable manner, observed, that his general
imitations were excellent and such as no one Avho had ever
seen the characters could fad to recognise; but be thought the
comedian's portrait of John Kemble someAvhat too boisterous.
' He is an old friend, and I raight add, a tutor of raine,' observed
bis Majesty ; ' when I was Prince of Wales, he often favoured
me with his corapany. I will give you an iraitation of John
Kerable,' said the good-huraoured Monarch. ' May I request
your attention,' said the King to his attendants, peers and
lords, who stood near the sofa, on which he and the ladies
were seated. Mathews Avas electrified. The lords of the
bedchamber eyed each other Avith surprise. The King rose,
and prefaced his imitation by observing, ' I once requested

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 485
John Kemble to take a pinch of snuff" Avith rae, and for that
purpose placed ray box on the table before him, saying, " Kem
ble, oblige {obleege) me by taking a pinch of snuff." He took
a pinch, and then addressed me thus : — (Here his Majesty as
suraed the peculiar carriage of Mr. Kemble)—' I thank your
Royal Highness for your snuff, but in future do extend your
Royal jaws a little Avider, and say, oblige." The anecdote
was given witb the most powerful siraiUtude to the actor's
voice and raanner, and had an astonishing effect on the party
present. At times he would even be jocular on subjects of serious ira
port, and especiaUy on one Avhich others could not, and dare
not raention, Avithout encountering one of those deep impres
sive frowns of displeasure, Avhicb Avere so rauch his peculiar
characteristic in his later years.
When tbe tAvo Owyhee chiefs Avere introduced to hira at
Carlton Palace, he Avas ranch araused Avith their conversation,
through an interpreter, and he asked them a good many ques
tions ; among other things the elder chief told him he had s'lx
wives, after wbich his Majesty good humouredly observed,
' Notwithstanding which you left your country ! Well I have
but one, and I find that enough to manage.'
To return to the affair of Miss Seymour. As in the majority
of cases where prudence gets the better ofthe spirit of litigation,
and knowing that publicity only tends to expose both parties to
contempt if not to odiura, the affair of Miss Seyraour Avas taken
out of Court, and referred to the arbitration of the head of Miss
Seymour's family, tbe Marquess of Hertford. Ofthe decision
of tbat nobleraan, no particulars transpired ; but it raay be pre
suraed that it Avas not unfavourable to the guardianship of Mrs.
Fitzherbert, as Miss Seymour continued under the protection of
tbat lady ; but it was publicly reraarked, tbat subraitting the
case to tbe arbitration of the Marquess of Hertford Avas the
sarae thing as subraitting it to tbe Prince of Wales hiraself, as
that nobleraan Avas then beginning to bask in the bearas of royal
favour, frora a cause which will be explained in its proper place.
In the early part of the year 1804, the Prince of Wales
had an opportunity of evincing his sincere regard for one of
his Avarraest and most confidential friends. On the death of

486 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
Lord Elliot, tbe office of Receiver of the Duchy of Cornwall
becarae vacant, and it was iraraediately bestowed by the Prince
of Wales upon Mr. Sheridan, ' as a trifling proof of that sin
cere friendship his Royal Highness had always professed
and felt for him through a long series of years.' His Royal
Highness also added, in tbe sarae communication, the very
cordial Avords, ' I wish to God it was better worth your
acceptance.' Who is there that has turned over the pages of the history
of the feraale sex, and has not been Avrapt in adrairation at the
raany acts displayed of conjugal heroisra, in which the feraale
appears to soar above the sphere of her nature, and, in defiance
of tbe most appaUing dangers, becomes the victira to the force
of her affection ? Who is there, that whilst reverencing arid
almost adoring the character of a Lavalette, does not see that
woman, notwithstanding tbe natural weakness of ber sex, is
able, under the influence of love, to accomplish a deed, which
sets at nought the boasted exploits of raan, and places him aS
it were in the second rank of greatness and of virtue.
Perhaps few feraales are raore richly deserving of the above
encoraiura, than the once celebrated Lady Massarene, the
avowed favourite of the Prince of Wales, and who bestowed
upon him all the force of her affection, to be treated like the
majority of his other favourites, with the raost cruel neglect and
indifference. The history of this celebrated woraan is of a
truly romantic character, and had she had the good fortune to
have bestowed her first love on an object Avorthy of ber, or
who could have appreciated the value of ber transcendent
virtues, she Avould have shone in the world as one of th^
brightest lurainaries in the galaxy of the female sex.
Beauty is Avith the raost apt similitude, and Ave may say Avith
the most literal truth, called a flower that fades and dies alraost
in the very raoment of its maturity. Yet there is, we know,
a kind of beauty which lives even to old age — a beauty that is
not in the features, but which, if Ave may be allowed the
expression, .shines through them. Such was the beauty which
shone through the features of Lady Massarene, even when the
beauty that was in the features had given way to the ravages
of age. As tbat beauty is not merely corporeal, it is not the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 487
object of raere sense, nor is it to be discovered but by persons
of fine taste and refined sentiment. There are strokes of
sensibility, mere touches of delicacy, sense, and even virtue,
wbich, like tbe master traits in a fine picture, are not to be
discerned by vulgar eyes, wbich are captivated Avith vivid
colours and gaudy decorations. There are emanations of the
mind, Avbich, like the vital spirit of heavenly fire, aniraate the
form of beauty Avith a living soul. Without this the most
perfect syraraetry in the bloom of youth is but a kneaded
plod ; and with this, the features, that tirae itself has defaced,
have a spirit, a sensibUity, an inexpressible charra, Avhich those
only do not adraire who want faculties to perceive.
It raay be said, that of all the feraales who were captivated
with the handsorae persoii and fascinating raanners of the
Prince of Wales, there were few Avho remained until their
death raore sincerely attached to bira than Lady Massa
rene. Of the precise raanner in which his Royal Highness
succeeded in bis araour Avith Lady Massarene, Ave have not
been able to discover any authentic data ; on hei; side, how
ever, it was one of the warmest affection — on his a raere tran
sient ebullition of passion — burning for a time with a Vesu-
vian ardour, and then sinking into coldness and inanity.
Lady Massarene Avas a native of France, and daughter of
tbe keeper of the prison in Paris, in which Lord Massarene
had been confined for debt for several years. As persons of
condition in France, under tbe old regirae, were not asharaed
of the office of gaoler, nor were in consequence of their fill
ing that odious situation deprived of tbe association of the
higher classes, no detriraent accrued to the beautiful daughter
pf the gaoler, in the extent of ber education, nor of her inter
course with the more poUshed classes of society. Compassion
is the nurse of Love. Lord Massarene, during bis confine
ment, excited the compassion of the lovely girl : she gave him
her love, worthless and vicious as be was, and they Avere
married in the year 1786. By sorae it bas been said that it
was the rank of Lord Massarene Avhich the gaoler's daughter
coveted, for that to love hira Avas irapossible. To judge, how
ever, by her subsequent actions, she raust have been ruled
by an almost enthusiastic attachment, or she never would

4S8 MEMOIRS OF GEORGK iV,
have braved those dangers for him, wbich place ber narae
in the same scroll with that of a Lavalette, or a Matilda of
Tuscany. If the heart of Lord Massarene had not been as impervious
to the feelings of gratitude as raarble is to the rays of the sun,
he raust have discovered the inestimable value which he pos
sessed in the heart of his wife, in her raeritorious attempt to
release him from prison, and Avhich Avould have terminated
successfully, had not, just at the moraent of its accoraplish
raent, the flooring given way Avhich she had underrained frora
a house contiguous to the prison, and which, being detected,
she nearly escaped the forfeiture of her life.
This affair becarae soon known to the public, through the
proceedings instituted by the fiscal ; and at such a raoraent,
Avhen the revolutionary spirit Avas on tbe eve of bursting forth,
Avas enthusiastically applauded by the people, vvho, in 1792,
on the memorable 14th of July, conducted her Ladyship to
the gates of the Bastille, Avhere she animated the people witb
the most invincible courage, until the Governor surrendered.
This was the first step to a still nobler action, which
evinced one of the highest traits of conjugal affection, by
making use of her popularity to release her husband, tbe gates
of whose prison Avere forced, and Lord Massarene liberated,
at the hazard of her own life.
After such heroic actions. Lady Massarene might have fairly
anticipated the applause of her country and the gratitude of
her husband ; but the latter basely Avithdrew bimself frora
France, Avithout giving her the slightest intiraation of his
design, leaving her without any pecuniary means, either to
perish upon the theatre of her intrepidity, or to find her
Avay to England in the best possible manner she was able.
At last, on reaching this country, she found that Lord Massa
rene had de[)arted for Ireland, Avhere her fame had already
reached, and which was rewarded by the generous Irish with
the utmost respect and distinction, although the noble Lord
himself scarcely acknowledged the connexion, and treated his
generous liberator with the greatest indifference.
On Lord Massarene leaving Ireland for England, his lady
accorapanied him ; but be had not been long a resident in this

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 489
country, before be was tbroAvn into the King's Bench prison,
where he would have been reduced to the most abject misery,
but for the generosity and humanity of his Ul-treated wife.
Fortunately for Lord Massarene, a settlement which be made
upon ber of SOO?. a year, out of the Avreck of his fortune,
enabled her to support bim in prison, even when the irregu
larity of the Irish agents threatened to involve her personally
in distress and difficulties.
At the period of which we are now speaking. Lady Massa
rene possessed a finely-formed person, brilliant eyes, and a
countenance beaming Avith sensibility and expression. Of
course she soon became an object of attraction to the volup
tuous and the dissipated ; but she Avas excessively reserved in
granting her favours, for selfishness formed no part of her
character, and she rejected all emolument and lucre, Avhere
she could not give her heart. The Prince of Wales' jackals,
being always on the alert, prowling in quest of their prey for
the royal voluptuary, were not long in discovering tbe beauty
of Lady Massarene, and the usual expedients AA'ere put in force
to obtain possession of it It Avas at Mrs. Howe's, in St.
James'-place, where tbe first negociation took place for the
transfer of Lady Massarene to the teraporary affections of his
Royal Highness ; and as her Ladyship had actually irabibed a
strong affection for his person, the negociation Avas not of long
duration. On his part, hoAvever, the attachraent Avas capri
cious and transient ; it Avas raarked witb all the fickleness and
inconstancy which were so glaringly apparent in all his other
amours, and he soon discarded Lady Massarene to make way
for another whose chief recoramendation was that of novelty,
without perhaps, possessing a single good quality to render the
conquest desirable.
Lady Massarene, however, Avas a woraan who deserved to
be beloved ; nor was it until she had obtained the most dis
gusting proofs of the gross and sensual appetites of Lord
Massarene, that she becarae enamoured of the Prince, and
even then her passion Avas regulated by an exterior deportment
the most becoming, and habits of the greatest delicacy and
propriety. Courage, constancy, and devotion were elementary
parts of her character ; in fact, her strong fideUty seemed
3 Q

490 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
doomed, in the two connexions wbicb she raade in England, to
be treated Avith neglect by the highest, whUe, in the person of
ber husband, she was disgraced by the lowest of raankind.
Of the general opinion which was entertained at this tirae of
character of tbe Prince of Wales, the following extracts from
the celebrated letters of Neptune and Gracchus, addressed to
his Royal Highness, wiU afford a striking evidence. Of the
author of these letters, which, in their style and boldness of
expression, bear a strong reserablance to the Letters of Junius,
many ruraours were at the tirae afloat : the raost prevalent
opinion, however, was that they were frora the pen of Sir
PhUip Francis, to whora the Letters of Junius have also been
ascribed. Their general tenor is vituperative of Mr. Fox ;
and to hira is attributed all the poUtical offences which the
Prince of Wales coraraitted, and especiaUy the dissension
which existed between his Royal Highness and bis iUustrious
father, ' Your dishonourable intiraacy with the raost profligate cha
racters in the kingdora, has not only excited an alarra
araong all ranks of people at horae, but it has become the
coraraon table conversation of every petit cabaret in Europe,
where you are censured raore for your want of pride than your
Avant of prudence ; and while foreigners behold, with scorn
and astonishraent, the heir to tbe crown of Great Britain
degrading hiraself below the level of even the raeanest of his
worthless corapanions, your fellow-citizens lament, with the
most affectionate concern, your obstinate attachment to men
Avho haA'e long since forfeited every pretension to the confi
dence of their country, and who have neither talents nor
integrity equal to the eraployraents wbicb tbey audaciously
deraand. ' A moraentary reflection would be sufficient to awaken you
to a sense of your situation ; but your associates, aware of
the danger of leaving you to yourself, bave artfully contrived
to keep you in the vortex of dissipation, lest a lucid interA'al
should restore you frora the deliriura of pleasure to the exer
cise of your understanding.
' In the black catalogue of their aggravated guilt, the infamy
of playing off the son against the father is not the least crirainal

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 491
and injurious. It is perfectly consistent with their principles,
and favourable to their designs, to render the former a dupe
to their artifices, and tbe latter a cipher in his dorainions ;
but as raiUions are involved in your fate, it is irapossible but
the claraours of the multitude must force their way through
the sturdy and beggariy phalanx with Avbich you bave guarded
Cariton House, and compel you to acknowledge a truth which
filial duty, independent of every political obligation, ought to
have suggested to you.'
In one of the letters of Gracchus, addressed at this period
to the Prince of Wales, on his general raode of life, are the
following energetic passages : —
' It has been said, and I fear by some of your intimates, I
wiU not caU them friends, with a treachery unparalleled, that
a narrow selfishness is tbe motive of all your actions ; that the
gratification of the moment is the sole purpose of your exist
ence ; yet it remains with you to counteract the raalice of
such assertions. Let your raind only correspond with the
comeliness of j'our person, and the nobleness of your coun
tenance ; be but half as active in acquiring esteera as you;
have been in losing it, and you wiU rise to a height of splendour
as incoraparable as uncoraraon.
' But let us exaraine in what, hitherto, your activity has been
shown, what haA'e been your Herculean labours. The inquiry
is too odious ; they Avould better suit a Silenus or a Satyr. The
history of your own time, if comprised in a volume, woidd,
perhaps, be curious ; but the recitals it would contain, instead
of tinging your cheek with the glow of vanity, ought 7'ather to
crimson them with shame, and cover you with confusion. Can a
Prince of Wales place the point of excellence on such raean
endeavours ? Debauchery and dissipation distinguish only in
proportion as they consign to censure. Let even that idea
check your progress towards iraperfection, a progress which
has hitherto increased with the rapidity of a coraet in its ap
proach to the suh.
' If, Sir, your pursuit of woraen, the raost raeritorious occu
pation of your life, had been marked with sentiraent or affec
tion in any instance, we raight probably, in some degree, ha\e
approved your conduct; had you never boasted when you
3 Q 2

492 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
failed, the world would have less conderaned you when suc
cessful : but though you can only talk of conquests, there are
others who raention defeats.'
It is well known that none can give so accurate an account
of any errors or follies as those Avho have theraselves been sub
ject to thera, or, at least, connected with sorae that have. They
knoAv the fort and the foible, the pour and the contre, to the
latter of which raaybe traced all the vices and virtues by which an
individual is distinguished. They know, and they only know
because they have /e??, wbat was the charra tbat fascinated, the
attraction that drcAV, and the tie that bound ; they tberefore can
best describe, and most effectually expose tbem. Who for in
stance could so effectually expose the fopperies and rauraraeries
of Popery, as a converted papist ? Who can so well describe the
intrigues of a court, as those who either by choice or necessity
are dooraed to inhale its baneful atmosphere ? We bave indeed
lived removed frora it, but we bave lived Avith those who have
passed their lives in it, Avho have draAvn aside and exposed to
our vieAv the secret raachinery, the raotives and the ends of
the motley group, Avhich from the monarch hiraself, to the
lowest of his menials, swarm within its precincts. In the de
lineation of those characters, the greatest danger lies of falling
into caricature, and instead of giving a portrait drawn by the
hand of the master, a coarse daubing of some mis-shapen
figure is exhibited, which cannot be recognised as ' born either
of Heaven or earth,' but as sorae vile abortion ofthe artist's
OAvn imagination. It is a most difficult task, in the delineation
of character, to catch the raan when his real self is exhibited,
when the disguise, Avhich the relations of society into wbich he
may have been thrown, is laid aside, and the whole nakedness
is presented Avith all its iraperfections and deformities. It may
appear paradoxical, but it is nevertheless founded in truth, that
the same quality may be delightful in one man and disgusting
in another ; one man raay have a light that Avants a shade,
another a shade that Avants a light ; the difficulty lies in giving
the due proportion to each, and thereby rendering the portrait
true and faithful.
It does not require the rod of the domine to Avhip into us the
truth of tbe axiora, that a raan is known by the society that be

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 493
keeps ; and if we measure the quantura of virtue which tho Prince
of Wales possessed, by tbat which bis associates exhibited, the
result wiU not be very favourable to tbe character of his Royal
Highness. It raust be allowed that, as farae and reputation are
intimately connected Avith personal associations, they necessarUy
becorae a subject of the gravest import in the portraiture of the
character of any individual ; but much more so in that of a
Prince, and that Prince standing in tbe exalted station of heir-
apparent to tbe throne. It cannot, however, be denied that
the Prince of Wales Avas at one tirae surrounded by a halo of
talent, unexarapled in the history of any ancient or raodern
Prince ; it is of the use, or, raore properly speaking, the abuse
which be made of tbe inestimable advantages arising frora such
a society, that we coraplain ; and that whilst the highly-talented
individual was atterapting to enrich tbe raind of his Royal
Highness with the soundest principles of raoral and political
knowledge, his sensual corapanions were debauching and 'de
grading him to a level with the raost depraved and profligate
raerabers of society.
¦ Itis not consistent Avith our plan to enter deeply into the
causes of the rise or fall of nations, as originating from the
influence of their Monarchs or their Princes ; but it is neverthe
less an observation founded on the truest philosophy, that
tbe history of nations records little else than cases of injustice,
usurpation, and cruelty. The absolute monarchical principle
has been counteracted by crirae, tortuitous in its policy, and
selfish and exclusive in its views. Its dorainion bas absorbed
not only the treasures of the human mind, but it has era
ployed tbe religious, moral, and civil capacity of raankind to
subdue and overcome tbe laws of nature ; but the time has
noAV arrived, Avhen the anomaly is about to be investigated,
and a wholesome and permanent reraedy supplied.
Modern history supplies us with few instances of a Avise,
teraperate, and constitutional governraent, by an individual,
where the sole power has been intrusted to bira ; yet there have
been Avise and huraane kings, who have raerited and deserved
the esteem of raankind. The evil is in the men who surround
thera, in the adulation of the air tbey breathe, and in the foUy
of the axiora that ' a King can do no wrong.' ,

494 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
George IV., according to the nature of our governraent, was
called a constitutional monarch ; that is, one who rules agree
ably to law, without civil or legal responsibility. But who can
be ignorant of the supple nature of a Court and courtiers ?
Who that has beard of their intrigues and felt the influence
of them, can confide in a proper adrainistration of justice?
The policy of the Sovereign is necessarily that of his Ministers,
and the raost unworthy of thera but dispense his bounties and
execute his coraraands. If it chance that a King or a Prince
selects his friends and corapanions frora men of moderate capa
city and unequal attainments, Avithout rank or independence,
both of which must either be acquired or given, to enable thera
to raaintain their station, can the people otherwise than suffer?
Who shared in the splendour ofthe Prince of Wales but the
creatures ofhis Avill, or the instruraents of his pleasure ? and
where or how Avere these instruraents selected ? From the lowest
stages of society, as in the case of Sir John M'Mahon, Sir
Benjamin Bloomfield, Sir Frederick Watson, Mr. Marrable, &c.
the latter of Avbich gentleraen stood prominently in the will ofhis
patron. Sir John M'Mahon, as a legatee for 2000?., but stiU
more advantageously for himself as a specific legacy in bis own
person to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales *. It is
well known that the individuals who surrounded bis Royal
Highness were persons of obscure origin and mediocre talent,
for he was himself like the sun in centre of his own systera ;
he appeared to be pleased with no other lights than what were
reflected frora himself
If, however, the Prince had one meritorious servant about
himt Ave believe Sir Frederick Watson to have been such, al
though the secret of his rise is as inexplicable as bis origin was
bumble. His father Avas one of the doorkeepers to the Trea
sury, with a very large family to provide for. One son be suc
ceeded in placing in the Post-office, to whom Sir Frederick in
bis earlier days was rauch indebted, and another in tbe Bank :
but Frederick took more to- books than men, and was what is
vulgarly called the gentleman of the faraUy. At last a fortu-
* It would be curious to inquire, as Mr. Marrable was a specific legacy to his
Eoyal Highness, .al what amount the worthy gentleman was rated under the
Legacy duty. If his- value were to be estimated according to the nature of his
services, the most proper referees would be the Proctors of Doctors Commons ! !

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 495
nate introduction as secretary to tbe old Marquess Townsend,
forraeriy Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, threw hira in the way
of the present Duke of Curaberiand, who, discovering a cer
tain tact about him, begged him of the marquess, who very
reluctantly parted with hira to his Royal Highness. At the
time of Sellis' affair, be was the confidential servant of
the Duke, and tbe raystery (if it be a mystery) which still
hangs over that extraordinary transaction, shews that Sir
Frederick Watson is one of those individuals who betray not the
secrets of their raasters, although it was, perhaps, the very pos
session of that particular secret, which raade it necessary to
retain Sir Frederick within the precincts ofthe court. For this
reason perhaps the Duke, on his going abroad, was induced to
recoraraend his faithful and confidential servant to the Prince
of Wales, Avho took bira iraraediately into his household, and
he soon -grew into the especial confidence and favour ofhis
new raaster. After passing through several subordinate but
confidential employments, he was appointed, in 1826, as one of
the Comraissioners ofthe Custoras, but he was not allowed to
reraain long in tbat situation ; for, on the return ofthe Duke of
Curaberland to England, after the death of Mr. Canning, for
the avowed purpose of opposing the claims of the Catliolics
(the only solitary act of bis life which can be enroUed in the
annals of his country as deserving of its gratitude), Mr.
Watson was reraoved frora the Custoras, and proraoted to the
superior situation of CoraptroUer of the Royal Household, and
at the same tirae created a knight of the Guelphic Order.
Sir Frederick Watson is rather an accoraplished and inge
nious raan than a well and regularly instructed one ; but he is
said to possess all the qualities required to forra a courtier*;
* Of the truth of this part of his character we can speak from self-experienee.
The person who breathed the atmosphere of Carlton House, at the period when Sir
Frederick was a resident within its walls, must have been every inch a courtier, or
he had no business there. The only person, then one ofthe intimates ofthe Prince
of Wales, who could not exactly assimilate himself to the smooth and silky ways
of the courtier, was the late Sir Edmund Nagle. Sir Frederick would accost you
with all the suavity and urbanity of the most finished gentleman — Sir Edmund
would meet you with his usual ' Gr — d d — n you ! and what do you want now ? '
Tlie refusal of Si-J Frederick to any favour that was asked, had something of such
a fiatte-i-ing nature intermingled with it, that you left him with the strongest pre
possession in his favour ; he appeared to take an interest in your suit — proffered
his advice with the most apparent friendship — and would actually refer you to indi
viduals whose greater influence might promote your views, but where, in the true

496 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
and is generaUy held by all persons at Court as the represen
tative of tbe interests of his forraer royal raaster.
We heard rauch, at the accession of his present Majesty, of
the purging and purifying of the Court, and especially of the
interior of Windsor Castle, it being then considered as an
Augean stable, in Avbich a certain class of aniraals had domi
ciliated themselves, of the wildest and raost dangerous propen
sities ; and Avhich had been allowed for a length of tirae to
frisk it and prance it about, as if no control existed over their
misdeeds. Some, it was ascertained, to the great joy of the
country, and to every lover of virtue, had been removed, or
had removed themselves, though not without loading them
selves Avith iraraense Avealth, extracted frora a too liberal and
generous people, groaning under an insufferable load of taxa
tion, to support a proud and pensioned aristocracy. StUl,
hoAA'ever, no little surprise Avas excited, that any of the depen
dants of the former profligate Court should have been retained.
Not that Ave allude in particular to Sir Frederick Watson, for
he is too useful a man to be dispensed Avith, and, Ave may add,
he knows too much for any branch ofthe royal famUy to make
an enemy of him. The raan who has served faithfully and re
spectably two branches of the royal faraily — Avho is privy to
the actions of one of them, which Avill cling to hira, even if the
croAvn Avere on his head — raay Avell consider hiraself worthy
of tbe confidence of a third, and tbe present raost illustrious
branch of it. We deny not tbe clairas of Sir Frederick to this
especial raark ofhis Sovereign's favour; but we wish we could
say that it had been exclusively bestoAved. There is a great
deal ofthe old leaven still at Avork ; and so long as it is aUowed
to operate, so long the nation be kept in a state of ferment
ation. During the Ulness ofthe late King, it Avas manifest to every
one about his royal person, and to the public also, tbat an
obnoxious agency existed somewhere, which intercepted the
spirit of the accomplished courtier, he knew that you would not succeed. We had
once the honour of being referred by him to Lord Sidmouth, at that time Secre
tary of State for the Home Department, and we were received by his Lordship
with the utmost urbanity. He undertook, on the subject of our apjilication, to for
ward a petition to his Majesty ; and the conversation afterwards turning on literary
subjects, his Lordship expressed a desire to have two of the works of which we
were the author. The books were sent, and we heard no more either of the peti
tion or of his Lordship.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 497
knowledge of the real cause of the existing indisposition of tbe
King, by tbe equivocating bulletins pubUshed by his authority.
In its proper place we shall point to tbe fountain-head of that
secret agency ; but, in the raean tirae, it wiU be sufficient to
express the suspicions prevalent at the tirae, that Sir Fre
derick Watson was the correspondent of raore than one public
journal, wbich held out to the last an adverse testiraony to
that of the physicians and other persons best acquainted witb
the nature of the disease.
The mild and araiable character of Sir Frederick Watson,
and the duties of his station, raay be supposed not to affect
the political condition of tbe country ; but, as the faithful
confidant of an artful and intriguing raan — bound by a thou
sand services to insinuate ,his capacity, and to support bis
pretensions to a share in tbe railitary administration of the
country — the Duke of Curaberland is a dangerous colleague
for such a raan ; nevertheless, it is true that such raen some
times rule the fate of nations. We have only to refer to some
of the intrigues which have lately shown themselves in the
quarter above alluded to, to prove that they are carried on
with the vicAV of embarrassing the executive part of the
national policy, by opposing wbat is liberal, and inculcating in
the minds of the subjects certain notions of power which are
at variance witb the principles of a free governraent.
The party of the Prince, -vvbich had been for sorae tirae
crest-faUen, and reduced to their last shifts in the raising of the
necessary supplies for the pressing exigencies of tbe raoraent
beheld, on a sudden, their hopes reviving, by the rumours
which were at this tirae afloat of the precarious state of the
King's health, and the consequent return of tbe Prince of
Wales to the provisional governraent of the country. By his
own iraraediate party tbis ruraour was not only circulated, witb
extrerae assiduity, but the royal raalady was aggravated into a
disease of a peculiarly dangerous nature, tbe recovery from
which was extreraely probleraatical, if not bordering on irapos
sibUity. These insidious reports were productive of the de
sired effect ; the capitalists no longer held back witb the sup
plies required — the bonds of tbe Prince rose in value, and
every advantage was taken by the agents of bis Royal High-
3 R

498 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
ness of tbe too ready disposition wbicb was shown to sup
port, by iraraediate advances, the extravagance and profusion
manifested in every departraent of the household of Carlton
House. In the raean tirae various ruraours were afloat as to
the precise nature of tbe royal raalady, and whilst sorae main
tained that itwas a recurrence of that mental aberration under
which his Majesty had previously suffered, and, consequently,
as not of that fatal nature as to affect bis life; others, on the
contrary, maintained that it had no relation whateA'er to his
former malady, but that it arose frora a rheuraatisra, con
tracted through excessive beat, arising from tbe exercise of
bunting. Tbe latter Avas ultiraately found to be the case. The
disorder Avas at first deeraed slight, and hopes were entertained
that it would be easily reraoved ; but, after various interrais-
sions, and after sorae varieties of health and disease, in
which his Majesty was occasionally advised by his raedical
attendants not to adrait any visitant, tbe disorder assuraed a
more alarming appearance, and four physicians and doctors.
Sir Lucas Pepys, Reynolds, MUlraan, and Heberden, were
in constant attendance ; assisted by Doctors Turton and
Symmonds, who attended occasionally.
The certainty of a coalition between the two great political
parties bad for a long tirae absorbed tbe whole of the public
attention, but it was now diverted into a different channel by
tbe alarraing Ulness of the King, which, by its predorainant
interest, seeraed for a while to damp, and even almost to
extinguish, the ardour which the intended attack on rainisters
bad created. This attack was made Avith the approbation and
concurrence of the Prince of Wales, whose displeasure was
deep and vehement, in consequence of the rejection of his
application for an efficient coraraand in the array ; and from
the publication of the letters it raay be well inferred, that the
parties hostile to government would draw frora tbat event
the most sanguine hopes of their ultiraate accession to
power. The Prince's party now began to coUect all their strength in
parliament, to force from tbe reluctant minister an avowal of
the exact state ofthe King's health, and bis consequent inabiUty
to exercise tbe royal functions. On the latter point all their

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 499
hopes were based of seeing tbe Prince of Wales at the head
ofthe government; and, as a natural consequence, their own
restoration to the highest ofi&ces of the state. It was on tbe
27tb of February, 1804, that the subject was first mentioned
in both Houses of Parliaraent, and it took place on a bill for
consolidating the several Acts relative to the Volunteers, on the
proposition for a second reading of which. Sir Robert Lawley
moved an adjournraent. Ever since the 14th of tbe present
month, be said, tbe House, in coramon witb the public at large,
bad been in possession of tbe melancholy information, that
his Majesty had been confined by a dangerous and doubtful
illness. It was not his wish to enter witb any degree of rai-
nuteness into tbis most delicate and distressing subject ; but
be could not help thinking, that after the interval which had
taken place, and after tbe reports of the physicians, specially
appointed to disclose to tbe public the state of bis Majesty's
health for the last two days, that parliaraent had a right to
expect sorae explicit coraraunication.
Mr. Addington was at that tirae Chancellor of the Ex
chequer, a raan who, as long as he filled tbe chair of the
Speaker of the House of Coraraons, raerited the respect and
esteem which were so liberally bestowed upon hira ; but who
no sooner becarae the prirae minister of the country, than bis
whole conduct, as a statesman, was raarked by imbecility and
vacillation. In bis ansAver to Sir Robert Lawley, be declared
himself happy in being able to state, that in the opinion of
bis Majesty's confidential servants, founded on tbe best infor
mation tbat could be obtained, such a coraraunication as tbat
required by tbe Honourable Baronet could not possibly answer
any good purpose ; and further, that any proceeding founded
on such coraraunications on the part of his Majesty's rainis
ters, would, in their opinion, be inconsistent Avith the duty
tbey owed to the King, to parliaraent, and to the country ;
highly indecent in itself, under the present circurastances of
his Majesty's indisposition, and, therefore, utterly unwar--
rantable. Mr. Fox, as the leader of the Prince's party, said, tbat
whfle be denied any intention, in tbe course of bis observa
tions, to fail in that deUcacy, which tbe subject in debate so
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500 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
strongly suggested, be avowed that it did not accord with bis
opinion to attach so great a degree of delicacy to this discus
sion as sorae persons raight wish to inculcate. The public, he
contended, had a right to better inforraation than could be
derived frora the daily reports published by official authority.
The Right Honourable Gentleraan had inforraed thera, that
certain individuals, styling theraselves his Majesty's con
fidential servants, of whora the House constitutionaUy knew
nothing, had felt it their duty to give no inforraation on a sub
ject deeply interesting, not to the Members of the House
alone, but to every loyal man throughout the empire. They
added, that any coraraunication of this sort Avould be pro
ductive of no good consequence, but that to require any
information at present Avould be equaUy improper and indecent
Now tbe constitution required, both in its letter and spirit,
that the executive authority should keep up a due influence
over the legislative power. It Avas the undoubted prerogative
of the Sov^ereign to preserve a certain degree of control over
the legislature, as it was of the legislature to watch over tbe
proceedings ofthe executive part of the constitution. A dis
solution of ParUament might be necessary even at five minutes
notice ; and hoAV was this control to be exercised during a sus
pension of the royal functions, or how could rainisters claim
a right to decide wbat was the fit tirae to raake a coraraunica
tion ? A fortnight bad already elapsed, during which the func
tions of royalty bad been confessedly suspended. Another
fortnight raight elapse, and the House raight reraain as unin
formed on the subject of the indisposition of the Sovereign
as at the present raoraent. He required that Parliament
should be apprised of the actual state of the King's health,
and thus be enabled to form an opinion ofthe steps necessary
to be adopted for the public interest
The Chancellor of the Exchequer declared that rainisters
bad no Avisb to withhold any degree of information, which,
consistently with their duty, could possibly be disclosed, but in
the conduct which they had hitherto pursued, had flattered thera
selves they had consulted the wi.shes and feelings of a great
majority ofthe House as weU as the public, and if they now
abstained from any communication, it was frora a sincere con-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 501
viction that it would be inexpedient, and that, instead of being
subservient to any useful purpose, it might only furnish grounds
for discussion at all times to be reprobated, but raore especiaUy
to be avoided in the present circurastances of the erapire.
They were aware of the extent of tbeir responsibility before
tbey deterrained on their present raode of conduct. It surely
Avould not be raaintained tbat, on every occasion when, by tera
porary illness, the functions of the Sovereign were suspended,
it would be either necessary or expedient to make a cora
munication on the subject to Parliaraent. But this would be
the araount of Mr. Fox's arguraent, if carried to its utraost
extent. Frora the reports of the physicians, Mr. Addington
inferred that the Ulness of bis Majesty was not likely to be of
long duration ; and if an expression frora which a contrary
opinion could be draAvn had been used in one of their daily
reports, it bad been put in raore through a wish to relieve tbat
impatience which pervaded all ranks of the comraunity, than
frora any opinion that the disorder with which his Majesty was
afflicted was of a lingering description. He assured the house
that, if any extraordinary occasion should occur for the exer
cise ofthe royal functions, there existed no obstruction to their
exercise. Mr. Addington decried the raotion of adjournment
as being not at aU calculated to promote the object of inquiry.
Mr. Pitt agreed in tbe last observation, and, not without
many remarks on the perilous nature of the responsibUity of
rainisters, at length declared that tbey being, up to the rao
raent of the supposed inability of his M:ajesty to exercise his
royal functions, intrusted with the raanageraent of public
affairs, it was not possible tbey could be displaced, or absolved
from the duties of their offices, untU the fact was ascertained
by Pariiaraent. He would not take upon himself to say hovv
long the communication might be delayed, or at what moraent
it ought to be raade ; but, whatever raight be his opinion of
the conduct of rainisters upon other points, he could not
believe they could push to a dangerous and crirainal excess
that awful responsibility which belonged to thera.
Frora tbis period, tbe discussion rested, in a great raeasure,
on words used in the debate ; but tbe rainisters, notwithstand
ing all the skill and ingenuity displayed by the Prince's party,

502 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
were not to be intrapped into a confession of the positive
inabUity of his Majesty to exercise the royal functions, and
which, could it have been extracted, Avould have had an extra
ordinary influence on a certain negociation wbicb was at this
tirae pending with a German prince, for a loan of money to
bis Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and to.Avbicb a tera
porary stoppage had been put by the great uncertainty which
prevailed of the King's ultiraate recovery. Had Mr. Fox, or
any of the Prince's party, been able to extract from ministers
the avowal that the royal functions were positively suspended,
or that any irarainent danger existed frora the royal raalady,
the difference of tbe terras on which the loan would have been
contracted would have araounted to nearly 15 per cent. It is
supposed that the obstinacy of rainisters, in giving the required
inforraation, arose frora sorae intelligence that bad reached
thera of the pecuniary transactions in which the Prince of
Wales was at this period engaged ; and that they did not wish,
by any official information, either to promote or retard the
negociations. In tbe raean tirae, however, sorae very sinister
reports were circulated, evidently witb tbe view of affecting tbe
money-raarket, and ministers were again called upon to give
to tbe country an explicit stateraent of tbe King's health.
Mr. Windhara, in his place in tbe House, declared the country
Avould not be satisfied with the vague and arabiguous inforraa
tion given by rainisters, whose whole stateraent Avas contradic
tory, inasrauch as they declared that the King was competent
to do some things, and incorapetent to do others ; consequently,
those which were not done by the King must be done by some
one, and that some one must be his Majesty's rainister.
When the Chancellor of the Exchequer bad answered this
objection by a ncAv explanation, Mr. Grenville censured that
explanation, as sti.ll unsatisfactory, and insisted that the physi
cians ought to be exarained at the bar.
On the 1st of March, the sarae subject was raentioned in
tbe upper bouse by Lord King, who alluded also to the decla
ration raade in the House of Coraraons by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. He required sorae expUcit inforraation from
rainisters, but desisted from making any raotion.
Lord Hawkesbury and the Lord Chancellor stated that

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 503
there existed at present no necessary suspension whatever of
bis Majesty's royal functions or authorities, and that his Ma
jesty was in a state of convalescence.
Lords Grenville and King, and the Earls of Carlisle, Fitz
wiUiam, and Carnarvon, professed theraselves not satisfied
with tbis explanation : their reasons were nearly those which
had been given in tbe House of Coraraons, and Lord Gren
viUe mentioned tbat he should renew the subject at an
early day.-
Frora the 2d to the 9th, several conversations took place in
both bouses, and particularly when the royal assent was given
by coraraission to several bills ; but to every succeeding in
quiry, the answers of rainisters were raore and more expUcit in
asserting, from tbe authority of the medical attendants, and
frora the interviews of tbe Lord Chancellor, that the cause of
public anxiety was rapidly dirainisbing. The reports of the
physicians were equally favourable ; and before the end of the
month it was formally announced that their official attendance
was closed, and his Majesty gave audience to bis ministers,
and transacted business as usual.
Although tbis succinct account of the proceedings in Parlia
ment may be supposed more properly to belong to the reign
of George III., yet, it has been given here as a clue to the
conduct of tbe Prince's party, Avhose aim it was to represent
the malady of bis Majesty as attended with irarainent danger ;
and so far did tbeir intrigues extend, that a considerable bribe
was given to two of tbe public journals, to circulate adverse
inteUigence, wbicb was transmitted to the iraraediate quarter
from which tbe loan was to be obtained, the consequence of
which was, that being too eager to seize the bait, the raoney
was advanced on far raore advantageous terras than it would
have been obtained if the malady of bis Majesty bad not been
represented to be of a dangerous nature.
It was in tbe course of tbe year 1804, that the six rolls of
Papyri presented to the Prince of Wales by the King of
Naples were safely deposited in Carlton House. Connected
with these valuable reraains of antiquity, is the flattering
trait wbicb it presented of the character of the late King in
the promotion of the Arts and Sciences, and diffusion of the

504 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV,
advantages of literature. In the year 1800, his Royal High
ness directed the Rev. John Hayter, a gentleraan erainently
well qualified for the task, to go to Italy, and witb a suitable
provision, to exert himself on tbe spot, under the permission
of the King of Naples, to unrol and transcribe the papyri. In
a letter, addressed by that gentleraan to his Royal Highness,
be says, 'The nuraber of raanuscripts saved frora Herculaneura
and Porapeii is said to be about 500 ; but if I be rightly in
forraed, by those Avhose official situation raust give thera a
corapetent knowledge of the subject, your Royal Highness, by
facilitating the developraent of these voluraes, will probably be
tbe raeans of further excavation, and of rescuing from their in
terment an infinite quantity of others. But tbe very period
at which the manuscripts Avere buried, serves to point out to
your Royal Highness that you raay expect the recovery of
either the Avhole, or at least a part of the best writers of anti
quity hitherto deeraed irrecoverable.
' Your Royal Highness, by having proposed to concur with
his Sicilian Majesty in the quicker and raore effectual deve
lopraent, transcription, and publication of these manuscripts,
will reap the satisfaction of having raade a most princely atterapt
in behalf of knowledge and literature, on an occasion when
their interests raight be affected raost raaterially, and in a
manner of which no annals have afforded, or can hereafter
afford an example. Your very interposition will be your
glory ; your want of success will only raake the learned world
feel Avith gratitude what you would have done.'
This interference of the Prince of Wales had the happy effect
of reviving the drooping spirits of the Italian literati, and the
immediate consequence was, that the business of unrolling and
transcribing the manuscripts proceeded witb the raost pro
mising success. In forty-six years, not raore than eighteen
rolls had been developed before the interposition of his Royal
Highness, but under his encourageraent ninety were recovered
in tAVO years. Several of these were pubUshed, in the first
instance at Naples, and afterwards in this country, by Mr.
PhUlips, under the sanction ofhis Royal Highness.
One of the raost difficult trials which Col. M'Mahon had to
undergo in the procuring of some distinguished favourite for

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 505
the royal harem, was in the case of tbe celebrated Hillis-
berg, and tbis araour presents the extraordinary feature of
bis Royal Highness becoraing hiraself the negotiator of an
other suitor for ber favours, after he had satiated himself with
the richness of the fruit, and thought the exterior shell no
longer Avorthy of bis keeping. If ever there Avas a woraan
dear to the iraagination as a dancer, Louise HiUisberg seemed
created to realize the Idylls of the ancient poets, wben
peopling the groves of Greece with the dances and rausic of
nature. She was the beau ideal of the voluptuary, when in
his fancy he is creating a forra gifted with all that can inflarae
the heart of man, or Avbich can bring the mortal into close re
serablance with the angel.
HiUisberg Avas born in England, of French parents, and
Avas early destined for the stage, an atmosphere teeming witb
the raost baneful influences upon the existence of feraale
virtue. It was, however, in Paris, under the elder Vestris,
that she first manifested that draraatic exceUence, that knows
how to awaken the syrapathies by a glance of tbe eye, or to
subdue the tumult of the passions by a smUe of innocence
and love. In private the sarae graces acquired for her the
respect of the higher rank of feraales, who were delighted to
intrust their children to ber ; Avhile the raen of fashion, who
sought to attract her notice, and contended for her love,
mingled respect with admiration, and the virtue that appeared
to surround her, kept the passions under control.
HiUisberg made her debut in this country at the raoment of
tirae when the rivalry of certain nobleraen kept the world of
fashion in a state of continual exciteraent. Whenever a
youthful beauty presented herself, under circurastances in
which it might be supposed tbat a conquest could be gained, a
crowd of candidates iraraediately presented theraselves, out
vying each other in their assiduities and pretensions to exclu
sive favours, and exhausting the utraost force of their inven
tions, in draAving the desired victira into tbe snares prepared
for her.
The Opera was, at the debut of HUlisberg, at its zenith in
this country; Banti, Viganoni, MoreUi, and BoUa, for the
serious and comic opera ; the younger Vestris, HiUisberg, 3 s

506 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
MaiUaird, Rosa, &c., for the ballet ; and Noverre, as tbe
master of the latter, rendered their arausements classical and
perfect in their several attractions. HiUisberg, as a dancer,
becarae, in fact, the rage ; and tbe corapetition for her favours*
which she knew bow to repel without offending, added to her
wealth and influence. Some of those raen who were apt to
regard the virtue of an opera-dancer as equally frangible as
the ice of an April raorning, and that it would dissolve aAvay
with the first warra gust of passion that Avas breathed upon it,
regarded HiUisberg as a being corapletely sui generis. There
was that about her which the eye of man looks for in woraan,
and yet apparently so cold, so frigid, and seeraingly as iraper-
vious to the influence of love as an oyster. These shrewd
observers, however, only saAv the exterior ; there was a secret
flarae glowing within, but She never told her love ;
But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud.
Feed on her damask cheek.
HiUisberg was a woraan fit to be wooed and won by roy
alty ; and the Prince of Wales no sooner saAV her than the
abilities of John M'Mahon were called into action to com
mence the negociation. She was, however, one of those
women who, although yielding to the weakness of their nature,
pay great deference to the opinion of the world ; and although
the Prince acquired a decided ascendancy over her heart, yet
she so veiled her partiality, as to conceal her connexion from
the eyes of the public ; and this secret araour Avas so well
managed at Carlton House by M'Mahon, who was in the
confidence of both parties, that HiUisberg stood in the esti-f
mation ofthe public as an exemplary pattern of female virtue.
A stronger proof of the secresy Avith which tbis araour Avas
carried on and consummated, cannot be deduced than the cir-t
cumstance that, at the very time Avhen she was the secret
nocturnal guest of Carlton House, the late Duke of York
was making every exertion in his power to make an impression
upon her apparently obdurate heart, little suspecting, at the
tirae, that that sarae heart was vivified by an ardent attach
ment for his own brother.
, Araongst the young raen who sbone at this period in the

.MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 507
hemisphere of fashion, was the first Lord Barryraore, whose
introduction to Cariton House, where he became initiated
in aU the vices wbich were exhibited in that royal brothel,
joined to a disposition of his own naturally profligate and
extravagant, soon rendered bira notorious in the annals of
gaUantry ; and as one of the corapanions of the Prince of
Wales, he became acquainted wUb some of the most distin
guished beauties of the day. The bacchanalian orgies of
Cariton House Avere, at this tirae, of a raost extraordinary
description, and raight be said to reserable raore the interior of
a Turkish seraglio, than the abode of a British Prince, in which
it raight be supposed that some respect ought to have been
paid to the custoraary forras of decency and raorality. The
young libertine, with the tide of passion flowing strong upon
hira, bad scenes exhibited to hira, wbicb opened at once to
hira the raysteries of nature, and rendered him on a sudden an
adept, ere alraost be had becorae a scholar. Tbe dances which
were exhibited for the arauseraent of the corapanions of tbe
Prince were perforraed by females, whose sole aira and study
appeared to bave been, like the dancing girls of tbe East, to
perfect themselves in voluptuousness of attitude, and in a
sharaeless exposure of their person, to the unrestrained gaze
of tbe libidinous voluptuary. Lord Barryraore was, at tbe
Opera-house, one of the satellites who were continually
moving round the HiUisberg ; but the extraordinary reserve
which she raaintained in ber intercourse with the nuraerous
suitors for ber favours, especially when she was in the perforra
ance of ber professional duties, drove many away frora her
presence in despair, whilst in others it only increased the force
of tbeir exertions to carry off so splendid a treasure. It was,
however, at Carlton House, tbat Lord Barryraore saw HiUis
berg in ber real native beauty, free from tbe garnish and garni
ture of her profession, and it was at a time when the Prince
began to be sated witb ber charras, and would AvUlingly have
relinquished her to another, if that other could be found on
whom she could fix ber affections. The assiduities of Lord
Barryraore were noticed by the Prince, and be doubted not
tbat be had now found the individual, who would rid hira of
an object who possessed no longer the charm of novelty for
3 S 2

508 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
bira, and whose very connexion with him, on account of its
secresy, Avas rendered positively irksome to bira. His Royal
Highness coraraenced a negotiation, but be soon discovered,
that in regard to any iUicit connexion, HiUisberg would not
enter into any terms, which might be considered as a corapro
mise of her character, and thereby expel her at once from tbat
station in Ufe which she had hitherto maintained. The Prince
of Wales was strenuous in his efforts to obtain a settleraent for
HiUisberg, and the extrerae anxiety wbich be displayed to
transfer her to the arras of another, by no means exalted bis
Royal Highness in her good opinion. Finding, however, that
secondary measures would not avail, '^Lord Barryraore, at last,
was induced to raake a forraal offer of marriage, which was
accorapanied Avith tbe proprietorship of the house then build
ing in Piccadilly, and since the residence of the Marquess of
Hertford, with all the family diaraonds then unsold, and tbe
whole of the personal property, wbich the extravagant habits
of this scion of nobiUty had yet left for hira to dispose of.
These offers Avere, hoAvever, all rejected. HUlisberg could not
give her band Avhere she could not bestow ber affections, and
the Prince of Wales finding that be could not eraancipate
hiraself frora the chains that enthraUed hira, by throAving her
into the arras of another, took the earliest opportunity of
excluding her from his society, and leaving ber, like many of
the victiras who had preceded her, to further her own interest
in the world according to the ruling bias of ber disposition.
There are three kinds of returns for injuries : abject sub
mission, severe retaliation, and conteraptuous disregard. The
first is always the Avorst and the last generally the best;
yet, hoAvever different tbey raay be in theraselves, the dignity
of the last is so much superior to coraraon conceptions, that
an individual is, perhaps, forced upon the second, raerely to
prove that she did not stoop to the first ; HiUisberg, for the
treatment she received, sought not for retaliation, although she
bad it in her poAver to raise a flarae araongst tbe coraraunity of
Carlton House, Avhich raight have extended to a certain quarter,
where it was the least wished for that it should reach. Her
subsequent conduct to the Prince was, however, strongly
marked by a contemptuous disregard, which, whilst it humbled

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 509
the royal delinquent, invested HUlisberg with a dignity of
character seldom to be raet with in the individuals of her
vocation, and particularly araongst the feraale part of it. One
evening, shortly after ber repudiation (if that strong terra, as
applied to HiUisberg, raay be allowed us) the Prince of Wales
was behind tbe scenes at the Opera-house, when, in the
most farailiar raanner, and as if totaUy unconscious of any
previous iraproper conduct on bis part, he accosted HiUisberg
as she was leaving tbe stage. She cast upon bim a look of in
effable scorn, saying, ' You are the Prince of Wales, Sir, — then
know, tbat I am Louise HUlisberg;' and without deigning to
make any other acknowledgment, passed on.
HUlisberg raay, in verity, have been called an amiable woman.
She fell, it must be confessed, to the blandishments which roy
alty strewed around her ; and it raust be added, to as ardent an
attachraent as ever vivified a feraale heart ; but the close of her
life was miserable. She connected herself with an eraigrant
ofthe court of Marie Antoinette, who squandered her for
tune — neglected her person — broke ber heart, and furnished
another link to that chain, which although wreathed with
flowers, tbat wither and die in the fetid atraosphere of a royal
brothel, drags the suffering victira at last to an untiraely grave.
Tbis individual was Mr. Charles Beauraont, who acted, Avhile
in England, in tbe double capacity of agent of both govern
ments, but who bas long been exiled frora France, as the raur
derer of tbe virtuous Manuel, and one of the greatest slaves to
tbe VUlele adrainistration.
Tbere was not, perhaps, any circurastance which contri
buted more to increase the unpopularity of tbe Prince of
Wales than bis being in an alraost continual state of discord
with bis Ulustrious father. It is said that the good can only
live with the good ; and as George III. was known in his habits
to be a strictly raoral and virtuous raan, tbe reflecting part of
the comraunity iraraediately carae to the conclusion, that as
the sovereign and his son could not live together on terms of
amity and goodwill, the acting cause was, that the virtues ofthe
father could not coalesce with the vices of tbe son. It must,
however, be acknowledged, that this disparity in their raoral
dispositions had no share in tbe early dissensions of tbe royal

510 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV,
parties, for theywere entirely of a poUtical nature. From tbe
very first entrance of the Prince of Wales into life, wben he
emerged frora the trararaels of parental authority, one ofhis
first steps was to enlist hiraself under the banners of opposition
to his father's governraent ; and from that period up to that of
wbich we are now writing, numerous instances can be ad
duced in which the son arrayed himself against the father, and
by his uniforra devotedness to the political principles of the
great leader of opposition, clogged the wheels of the machinery
of the executive government, and threw every possible ob
stacle in the Avay of the accoraplishment of its designs. The
licentious and immoral conduct of the heir-apparent went
deep to sting the heart of the royal parent ; and the hand of
forgiveness was no sooner stretched out, on the proraises of
reformation, than some new act of profligacy, • of a deeper
dye, perhaps, than any of the preceding ones, carae upon the
royal ear, and closed every avenue to all personal communi
cation. The disastrous results of the raarriage of the Prince of
Wales, who iraputed the entire blarae of the Ul-starred union
to the obstinacy of his father, in forcing hira into a relation
of life which he knew he Avas unable to fill with propriety, or
even comraon decorura, tended, in a very raaterial degree, to
widen the breach between the illustrious parties ; to which
may be added, the decided espousal on the part ofthe King of
the cause of tbe Princess of Wales, and his decided refusal
of permitting the Prince to educate bis own daughter, on a
raere fictitious plea of prerogative.
Thus raatters stood between tbe Royal parties at the close
of the year 1804, when by sorae means, never raa de public,
a reconciliation took place, which proraised, though falsely, to
be productive ofthe raost beneficial consequences. The inters
view took place at Kew Palace, the Queen and the Princesses
being present. The raeeting, after a long interval, was ex
treraely affecting, raarked by every eraotion of kindness and
conciliation on the one part, and of filial respect on the other.
After an hour's conference, his Majesty, accompanied by the
Duke of Curaberland, returned to Windsor, and the Prince of
Wales witb tbe Dukes of Kent and Sussex, to Carlton House,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IVi 51 1
where tbe Duke of Rutland, Eari Moira, Mr. Sheridan, and
others were ready to receive hira ; at tbe sarae tirae that an
express was sent to Woburn, to fetch Mr. Fox, to bave an
audience of tbe Prince on this happy occasion.
The King, however, had still sorae raisgivings, as appears
from the following letter, addressed to the Princess of Wales, to
whora his Majesty continued to shew tbe most decided marks of
affection. The Princess wa-s at this time living at Montague
House, Blackheath, his Majesty having presented her, in the
year 1800, witb the Rangership of Greenwich Park.
' Windsor Castle, November 13, 1804.
' My dearest Daughter-in-Law and Niece. — ^Yesterday I and the
rest of the famUy had an interview with the Prince of Wales at
Kew. Care was taken on all sides to avoid all subjects of alterca
tion or explanation, consequently, the conversation was neither in
structive nor entertaining ; but it leaves the Prince of Wales in a
situation to shew whether his desire to return to his family is only
verbal or real, which time alone can prove. I am not idle in my
endeavours to make inquiries that may enable me to communicate
some plan for the advantage of the dear child, for whom you and I,
with so much reason, must interest ourselves, and its effecting my
havino- the happiness of living more with you, is no small incentive
to my forming some idea on the subject ; but you may depend upon
their not bein"- decided upon without your thorough and cordial con
currence ; for your authority, as a mother, it is my object to support.
' Believe me at aU times,
' My dearest Daughter-in-Law and Niece,
' Your most affectionate
' Father-hi-Law and Unele,
' George R.'
Tbe opinion which was held by the public ofthe actual prin
ciple on wbicb this reconcUiation took place, was variously
expressed ; for whUe sorae persons raaintained that it was
wholly of a private tendency, others saw in it an approxima
tion of the two great political parties, and the latter opinion
was in a great degree confirmed by the following comraents
extracted from a ministerial paper of the day, avowedly under
the influence of Mr. Pitt and Lord MelviUe.
' The bappy interview and reconcUiation between bis Ma-

512 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
jesty and the Prince of Wales, have been placed upon such a
footing by the partizans ofthe opposition, tbat some coraraents
and explanations seem to be indispensably necessary. We
bave observed an extraordinary anxiety in them to assure the
public, that the event is totally unmixed with political consi
deration, and that it bas not the slightest political tendency, is
an assertion which Ave will not credit. Is there a man amongst
us that has not seen the lengths to which political differences
have been carried ? They have divided the dearest relatives,
and shaken the longest friendships. But when a reconcUiation
is effected between men AA'ho have long been divided, is it pos
sible that it can be effected without mutually softening the vio
lence, and allaying the heat of political aniraosity ? To say,
then, that the reconcUiation between bis Majesty and tbe Prince
of Wales has no political tendency, appears to us an absurdity,
unless, indeed, those who assert it mean to aver that the recon
ciliation is not sincere ! But if it be sincere, as we belieye
it is, it is impossible but that it must bave a political tendency.
The very caution and prelirainary steps taken by the oppo
sition bespeak their fears and apprehensions. Tbey wish
to give the reconciliation the air and form of a negociation ;
they seera to have tried to hedge the Prince round Avith clogs
and conditions ; they subrait his feelings and affections to the
cold, calculating process of diploraatic proceeding. Mr. Fox
must corae to town ; Mr. Pitt raust be consulted. — Why ?
The intrusion of Mr. Pitt into the transaction is easily ac
counted for: they Avish to have it supposed that Mr. Pitt
exercises such a despotic influence, as to render his consent
necessary, even upon a subject relating to the doraestic ties
and affections of his Sovereign and the heir-apparent. It is
true that they confess his behaviour to have been candid
and raanly, but they take care to add that "he disavowed
all Avish to suffer any rainisterial interference whatever on the
occasion." What do they mean by this? Do they mean
to insinuate to the courts of Europe that ministerial inter
ference does or can extend to the preventing a reconciliation
between tbe King of England and bis son — that the King
must ask Mr. Pitt's consent to have an interview with his
son — and that the son must enter into a negociation with

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 513
Mr. Pitt before he can be allowed to pay bis dutiful respects
to bis father ? Such is the inference which they seem to
intend should be drawn frora the appeal made to Mr Pitt.
We dare say that gentleraan wiU feel little inclined to thank
them for a compliment purchased at such an expense. It is
impossible, we should think, for the Prince not to see that
the opposition make a parade of these preliminary steps,
for the purpose of having it supposed that they bave him in
their toils and trararaels. " You raay be reconciled to your
father, but you must not support his minister." Tbis is the
language they bold to bira ; but can be believe thera when
they tell bim that " every loyal Englishman will rejoice to
hear that, in tbe bappy interview between his Majesty and
the Prince, as well as in all the prelirainary steps that led
to it, there was not the slightest raixture either of policy
or party ? " Can it be a subject of joy to any loyal English
man to hear that the King and the Prince entertained different
political sentiraents ? Every loyal EngUshraan would have
been glad to bave been inforraed that there had been a raix
ture of politics in the interview ; for it can never be any other
than a subject of sorroAV and regret to see the heir-apparent
to the throne at variance, in political sentiments, with bis
iUustrious father. Yet it must be allowed that it is tbe ob
vious interest of the opposition to endeavour to continue a
difference in political opinion between bis Majesty and the
Prince, in order that they raay shelter theraselves under bis
Royal Highness' countenance. But Ave rejoice in believing
the party will no longer be able to misrepresent bis Royal
Highness' opinions respecting them. Tbey Avould otherwise
continue to find a political motive and raeaning for every
AvOrd and action ; for it is not long since the public saw
the very conviviality of the Prince's hospitable board repre
sented as political raeetings, for the purpose of strengthening
and consolidating a systera of opposition to the confidential
friends and advisers of bis Royal Highness' father. Let his
Royal Highness reflect, too, upon the consequences of its
being supposed for a moraent, by the rest of Europe, that
he approves of Mr. Fox's prostrate principles with respect
to France. Wbat would be the opinion of Europe, could
3 T

514 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
they iraagine, after Buonaparte's daring insults and libels
upon bis Royal Highness' father, tbat be could entertain for
an instant the supposition that tbe designs and intentions
of Buonaparte were purely pacific and innocently coraraer
cial ? We repeat, therefore, our firra opinion, that the recon
ciliation raust have a tendency of a political nature. We
hail it as an auspicious oraen for tbe Prince and for the
country ; for nothing, we seriously believe, could give the
people greater satisfaction than to see bis Royal Highness
escape frora the perUous support of such a party.'
It is one of the trite raaxiras of life, that some men are born
great, and others have greatness thrust upon them ; but bow
far the truth of that maxira may regulate the courtesy of a
court, where one only can be called great, may furnish raatter
of distinction between the late John M'Mahon and his sur
viving secretary, Mr. Marable. Araongst those persons, bow-
ever, wbgra royal favour raised to tbe rank of gentlemen, Mr.
Marable is one Avhom it is difficult to denominate by any spe
cific official term, or to fix on the station which he occupied
in the royal household. As we before stated, he was rather a
legacy to the late King than bis own voluntary choice, and he
was retained rather for what he knew, than for that with
which he was entrusted.
His late Majesty possessed considerable tact as to persons,
and it is well knoAvn tbat tbe chief eraployraent to which
M'Mahon devoted bimself Avas to contribute to tbe gratifica
tion of his royal master's passions. The laborious part of the
intrigues in wbicb M'Mahon was engaged, on behalf of the
most princely voluptuary, fell, hoAvever, chiefly to the lot of
Mr. Marable, who, in the first instance, did not hiraself look
out for the objects of gratification ; but they having been found
by M'Mahon, the terrain was iraraediately beaten by Mr.
Marable, the necessary snares were laid for tbe capture of tbe
game, and Avith tAvo such staunch, well-broken, and thorough
bred hunters on its scent, the chances of an escape amounted
alraost to an impossibility.
About this period, a lady appeared at the British court
whose beauty was of that angel nature, that mortals Avere apt
to faU down and worship ber, as if some divinity bad come

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 5 15
down upon the earth, in its condescending spirit, to be for a
tirae the associate of tbe huraan race, and be the sharer of
tbeir griefs and joys. This lady was the wife of a Notting-
harasbire gentleraan ; and she no sooner breathed the air of
the British court, than she becarae one of the presiding deities
in the temple of Fashion. Her routs were the gayest, the
most briUiant of the season ; and at each of thera shone con
spicuously bis Royal Highness the Prince of Wales*. To
effect the conquest of such a woraan was now the ultima thule
ot the wishes of his Royal Highness, and M'Mahon was set to
work to lay the foundation for the accoraplishment of tbe act.
It may appear contrary to the manners of the present day, but,
at the period of which we are now writing, there were certain
bouses in the vicinity of town, the resort of the gay and profli
gate, and at wbicb persons of the highest rank did not think
themselves degraded in being seen ; for, where all are engaged
in the sarae pursuit, there is no door open for mutual criraina-
tion, nor for a pubUc exposure of the delinquency. The
favourite house of Colonel M'Mahon and Mr, Marable, where
it was their custom to make their assignations with those ladies
whose charms bad raade an irapression on the susceptible
heart of their royal raaster, was the Horse and Groom at
Streatham, then kept by a raan of the narae of Higginbottora,
who afterwards removed to the British Hotel, Jerrayn-street.
To this house the beautiful Mrs. M. was invited, for the
avowed purpose of joining a bunting party, an amusement to
wbich it was well known she was exceedingly partial. For
some reason, however, wbich M'Mahon, if be bad pleased,
was well able to solve, the bunting expedition did not take
place on the day of invitation ; but Mrs. M  found at the
• The following anecdote, which was .related to us by the individual himself,
win convey to the reader some idea of the personal charms of this angelic mortal.
Mr. B — t wa!5 at this time the leading dentist and chiropedist of the fashionable
world. He belonged to the Society of Friends, but, unlike the members of that
decent and modest community, Friend B — t was known to prefer tlie rosy lips of
a lovely girl to witnessing the moving of the spirit in the Sunday conventicle.
His whole time was spent in the boudoirs of the female votaries of fashion, and
one day he was called in to exercise his professional skiU on the feet of Mrs.M  .
Having finished the operation, he imprinted a passionate kiss on one of her feet.
' B — ^t,' exclaimed Mrs. M  , ' what do you mein by that ? ' ' Thou wert
going to pay me in money, friend, wert thou not ? ' said the chiropedist. ' Cer
tainly,' answered Mrs. M  ; ' what is your demand ?' 'X have taken my pay-
ment,' said B — t ; ' and for the same will I attend upon thee at any time.'
3 T 2

516 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV,
bouse a select party, Avhich was composed of the iraraediate
corapanions of the Prince of Wales, and preparations appeared
to be raaking for an entertainraent of a princely character.
The artful intriguer began to ply bis despicable arts ; the poi
son of adulation was instilled into the too credulous ear ofthe
lovely woman ; and the effect wbicb ber superlative beauty
bad raade upon tbe heart of tbe most amiable and accomplished
individual of tbe kingdora was painted in such rapturous co
lours, tbat vanity, the raost powerful, and, at tbe sarae tirae,
the most dangerous weakness of the feraale sex, arose witb all
its raastery in ber breast, and tbe victory was half Avon ere the
despoiler carae to rob tbe shell of its pearl, never afterwards to
regain its original brightness and splendour.
It was growing late, and the party were about to return to
town, wben a carriage and four, the horses covered with
foara, drove up to the door of the inn, for the ostensible pur
pose of refreshing the jaded aniraals, and Colonel M'Mahon,
who was then standing at the window witb Mrs. M.  , ira
raediately recognized the carriage to belong to the Prince of
Wales, and bis Royal Highness alone in it.
There Avas apparently no disposition on the part of his Royal
Highness to aUght, for who could suspect for a raoraent, that
tbere was any preraeditation, any preconcerted plan in bis
arrival at the Horse and Groora, at the critical moraent when a
party, of whora he Avas not supposed to possess any previous
knowledge that tbey were actually in the bouse, Avere on the
eve of their departure for town. Nothing, on the first view of it,
could be raore natural nor raore coraraon than that his Royal
Highness, on bis way frora Brighton, should stop to refresh his
horses ; and in regard to Mrs. M  , it must not be concealed
that she felt a secret pleasure in being thus thrown accidentally
into the immediate society of the most amiable and accom
plished gentleman of the country, on Avbose heart her charras
were said to have raade so deep an impression. Not truer
is tbe needle to tbe pole than woman to the love of con
quest, but tbe great difficulty lies in maintaining that conquest
after it is made, and perhaps with no individual was that diffi
culty greater than with the Prince of Wales. The heart of
Mrs. M  , however, beat with sorae strange eraotions when
she beheld Colonel M'Mahon assisting his Royal Highness to

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 517
alight, and in a feAv minutes afterwards usher bira into tbe
roora in which she Avas sitting. To follow tbe interview through
all its minute details, Avould be to depicture a scene on the one
hand of the raost heartless protestations of an excessive, un
bounded love, and on the other, of all the trerabling fears, the
hesitation, tbe alraost suffocating eraotions wbich sway the fe
male breast, when virtue is struggling for the mastery against the
impetuous tide of passion, which in force increases every mo
ment, whilst fainter and fainter becomes the opposition, until
the eventful hour arrives, and the splendid fabric wbicb stood
beauteous and bright in the raorning ray, presents, ere raidnight
coraes, an object of ruin and desolation.
Mrs. M  returned to town in the carriage of his Royal
Highness ; but we will not follow tbem to the haunts of their
guilty pleasures, sufficient avUI it be to expose the terraination of
this amour, wbicb threatened to unsettle tbe reason of one of the
parties, and if the heart ofthe other had not been so cauterized
by a continual course of Ubertinism as to render it impervious
to the finer feelings of our nature, a pang must bave been in
flicted upon it, wbich it Avould require the duration of bis after
life to appease.
It was morning, and the Prince and bis beautiful companion
were sitting at breakfast, wben tbe conversation happened to
turn on certain events in the life ofhis Royal Highness, as ex
planatory of sorae acts in which he bad been engaged, and of
which perhaps he wished to exculpate himself, in the opinion
ofhis then adraired favourite. ' I know,' said the Prince, ' that
I suffered rauch at tbe time in the public estiraation ; my ene
raies, for I believe no raan has bad a greater nuraber than ray
self, stigraatized rae at the tirae as the actual raurderer of the
boy, but it was proved that although he bad received a severe
chastiseraent frora my hands, yet that his immediate death was
not the result of it. The provocation which I received was
sufficient to arouse tbe irascibUity of the raost phlegmatic per
son, and I afterwards discovered that be was suborned by the
Countess of Jersey, in one of her jealous fits, to trace ray steps
in order to detect a little affaire de coeur, in Avhich I was en
gaged with a beautiful girl in the vicinity of Brighton. And
having now raentioned that once beloved favourite to you, I

518 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
cannot refrain expressing to you, tbat tbere is something in
your shape and figure, in tbe very forra of your countenance,
and in your very manners, that strongly reminds me of her.'
' Was she aUied to nobUity?' asked Mrs. M  .
' Of ber immediate station in life,' answered tbe Prince, ' I
knew but little ; she represented herself, and was known in
tbe fashionable circles, as the daughter of a respectable York
shire gentleraan, of raoderate fortune ; but I frequently beard
ber speak of her two sisters, one of whora she depictured
as far surpassing herself in personal attractions. Wbat tbat
sister raust have been in beauty I cannot pretend to say ; but
I wiU so far confess, that I considered Louisa Howard as one
ofthe raost perfect beauties I had ever seen.'
« Louisa Howard ! ' exclairaed Mrs. M  , whUst an
ashy paleness carae over her countenance.
' And what of ber ? ' asked tbe Prince, ' did you know
her?' ' Gracious God ! ' exclairaed Mrs. M  , scarcely able
to raaintain herself, ' and bave I then been sacrificing rayself
to the seducer of ray own sister ? '
' Louisa Howard your sister 1 ' exclairaed the Prince — ' it
cannot be.'
' Oh ! it is all too true,' exclaimed Mrs. M  ; ' I had
forgotten many things which now rush upon my memory, to
show rae ray own guilt. When Louisa became a victim to
your stratagems, I was then but just bursting into life. I
heard the Avhispers of ber dishonour, but never to tbis moraent
did I know the narae of bira who brought it upon ber. For
her I weep not — for she is happy. It is for myself I weep — I
stand now a dishonoured, a guilty, wretched creature— shut
out frora future happiness — a loathing to myself — the merited
scorn and hatred of a raalignant world. Henceforth tbere is
no desert too dark for rae — no solitude too deep — I shudder
wben I think of it, that to ray sister's seducer — to bira who
dragged her like a larab to be iraraolated on the altar of his
unhaUowed passion — to hira have I now sacrificed all tbat is
dear, all that is valuable to woraan. — From this raoraent we
part to raeet no more — seek out for another victira, and add
another crirae to your already overloaded soul.'

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 519
Tbey did part to meet no more ; this beautiful woraan dis
appeared on a sudden from the world of fashion, like one of
those coruscations of heaven, bright and glorious for a rao
ment, wben on a sudden not a trace of it is to be seen — lost,
annihilated for ever * .
Deeply must his Royal Highness have felt (that is, if a
libertine has any feelings but wbat originate in bis own grati
fication) when be perused the following lines, tbe coraposition
of a highly gifted feraale ; tbere is a dagger in every line, and
the heart from which they eraanated raust bave suffered
much, ere it could bring itself to such severity of reproof.
Awaken ! awaken ! 'tis more than the dead
That bids thy dark slumber unseal :
'Tis a heart that has wither'd, a soul that has bled,
A lip whence the dew of forgiveness has fled,
Bids thee hear what thou never wilt feel.
Awaken ! awaken, thy adamant trance
Shall avail nought in moment like this ;
Know'st thou not of a victim, whose perishing glance
Might well o'er thy profligate threshold advance,
To blast all its brightest of bliss.
Thy victims are wide ; have I witness'd thy worst ?
Lo ! all thou gavest is thine ;
The blood thou hast lent to be harrow'd and curst,
A torrent of vengeance upon thee shall burst.
Here I leave thee the tribute of mine.
No ! not for the pride and the power thou canst see
Shall that voice in its waking be hush'd ;
No ! not for the thousands who smile upon thee,
To hallow thy crimes, and who shudder at me
For unshrouding the hearts thou has crush'd.
* In the year 1805 we were in company with this angel votary of fashion, this
matchless specimen of feminine beauty. The worm that gnaweth at the heart
had despoiled the cheek of its roseate hue, and had robbed the eye of the greater
portion of its briUiant fire ; but still the knee might have been bent before her as
an object worthy of worship and adoration. It was visible by the melancholy
which overshadowed her brow, that the knell of her terrestrial happiness .had
rung, and that ere long she would be called upon to join her kindred sisters in
another world. She still appeared as the elegant remnant of a master-piece of
creation, when nature found that in her formation she had come too near an inha
bitant of heaven, and threw away the mould for ever. She has beeu long the
tenant of a grave, but it will be long ere earth vrill see her like again.

520 MEMOIRS OF GEOEGE IV.
Oh ! that reptiles like thine should have power to controul
The thorn of one life on its stem.
To poison and crush the best thoughts of the soul.
Then deafen and drive it with calumny's howl
For an echoing world to condemn.
Sorae characters are very like certain bodies in cheraistry,
they raay, perhaps, be very good in theraselves, yet tbey fly
off and refuse the least conjunction with each other. Carlton
House was the doraicile of raany of such characters, and with
the exception of one pursuit, Mr. Marable is tbe very type of
them. He is, it is true, not so arabitious as Sir Frederic
Watson, although the faithful secretary has not been badly
rewarded for bis services : his station, in the household, bas
a considerable salary attached to it ; be is (or was) one of the
Coraraissioners of the Hackney-Coach Office ; and bis
brother, until the Board of Custoras for the three kingdoras
becarae consolidated, held an appointraent in Ireland, of
about 1500?. per annura ; and the Secretary hiraself derived a
still more considerable incorae frora his offices about the late
King, and particularly as a rcAvard for bis secret services.
It has been said that tbe King should be allowed the choite
of his own servants, and that it is the height of presuraption
to dictate to bim by whom be shall be served. We dissent,
not to the general principle ofthe position, for certainly there
is not any thing in his situation which precludes bira frora the
coraraon privilege of every one of bis subjects. But we do
abrogate frora the King any right to squander away a con
siderable sura of raoney in rewarding persons of no public
merit, selected from the purlieus of the court ; nor should be
infiuence any appointraents in the public departraents, which
generally supersede long standing raerit, and which, in such
cases, are generaUy filled by the norainee of the favourite
courtezan for the tirae being. If the King has a surplus
incorae to dispose of, who has so great a right to receive it
back again as those Avho gave it * ? Why should the people
* We write this at a time when the King of England enjoys an annual income
of 1,200,000/. 1 ! and the expenditure of the country is fifty-eight millions ' ' ' to
pay which the people of it are taxed in the proportion of seventy pounds in everv
hundred gained by their industry. ¦'

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 521
be taxed to reward the procurer, to enrich tbe auxUiary, and
to fill our public offices with the creatures of the royal plea
sures ? and all in defiance ofthe dignity of virtue, the decency
of public raorals, and the injury of raen, Avhose raeed
Is won
By all the useful acts they have done ;
and whose honesty and probity should claim and enjoy the
fruUs of their experience and labour, if not elbowed out by
vice and injustice, into obscurity and solitude, and, perhaps,
reduced to indigence and want.
It was irapossible, boAvever strong was the interest wbicb
subsisted before Colonel M'Mahon's death, but that it should
abate wben Mr. Marable lost his benefactor, and raore parti
cularly so, as this influence arose out of an eraployraent,
which raight be said to subside with the exciteraent which the
intervention of such agent was necessary to gratify. The task
of such a person, and the duty he had to perforra, Avere any
thing but raeritorious. If a novelty were to be oblated, Mr.
Marable prepared the sacrifice, and erabellished tbe cererao-
nials with ' all the porap and circumstances' which could
reconcile the victira to subrait patiently to ber destiny. Sur
rounded by fascinations, which no virtue but tbat of a Lucretia
could withstand, the head grew giddy, and the heart drunk
witb vanity and arabition. On these occasions, the half-
sraotbered sigh of the woraan was heard to be gently condoled
by the alluring descriptions of the eloquent Secretary ; — of tbe
honour of her illustrious pararaour — his rank — his power — his
all-surpassing goodness. The whole of the lesson of love's
catechism was told o'er and o'er again, until, like the struggling
bird, struck witb the look ofthe basiUsk, all power of resistance
is gone, and the victira faUs into the ruthless grasp of its insa
tiable destroyer.
Mr. Marable is in all respects a gentleraanly raan, in fact, his
employments under tbe late King deraanded that he should be
the raost finished gentleman j he is also wbat is generally
termed a man of the world. We are, however, well conver
sant with the raanual wbicb the individual who entered into
any office at Carlton House bad to learn, before he could be
considered as entitled to the designation of a raan ofthe world.,
• 3 u

522 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
It ran as follows: — He must always wear a smooth exterioi,
and conceal his real sentiraents behind a raask of impenetrable
dissimulation. He must make the raost extravagant professions
of love and attachment, while hatred and malignity are rank
ling in his heart. He raust bend the knee of submission to
the arrogance of power, and feed with never-ceasing adulation
the weak vanity of princes and of fools. He must resolutely
dismiss every lingering attachment to virtue, as an incum
brance incompatible with tbe nature of his pursuits. He will
find the appearance of justice, benevolence, mercy, and can
dour, occasionally useful, but he must take care not to clog
hiraself with any of that antiquated rubbish in reality ; it would
prove an insuperable obstacle to his refined operations, parti
cularly with feraales, and in the end prove the raeans of his
destruction. He raust appear to be an eneray to injustice,
cruelty, and dissiraulation ; but he raust reraeraber to be
possessed of these vices in fact ; he will find thera absolutely
necessary in tbe furtherance ofhis plans. If be should receive
favours, it will be judicious to raake professions of tbe raost
unbounded gratitude, but be raust observe tbat bis gratitude
be merely professional, for otherwise it might become greatly
prejudicial to bis personal interests. He may affect to be a
Avarm and disinterested friend, but be raust be at all tiraes
ready to sacrifice bis friendship when it coraes in corapetition
with tbe success of bis schemes. He must put confidence in
no one, but live witb his friend under the expectation of that
friend becoming one day bis eneray. He must on no occasion
express the resentraent he may feel, but raeet bis eneray with
every appearance of respect, under the idea that the tirae raay
corae when, his eneray's interest and his own being the sarae,
they raay act together as friends. He raust practise every
vice, and descend to every species of meanness that he
may find useful in the progress of his operations, but these
things must be transacted as much as possible in the shade.
He raust assurae the garb of piety ; beneath the snoAvy raantle
of religion, be may erect a kennel for the hellhounds of vice
and a harbour for the raonsters of iniquity. He must forra a
just estimate of the vices, weaknesses, and ruUng passions of
his associates, arjd make aU these things instruraental to bis

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 523
own adA'anceraent. We do not mean, however, to infer that Mr.
Marable, as a man of the world, and once a resident of Carlton
House, was perfect in all these qualifications ; but that a man
could be a resident there, and not be a proficient in tbe ma
jority of thera, Avere tantaraount to saying that he was not fit
for the situation which be held. In regard to birth, Mr.
Marable and Sir Francis Watson stand on nearly an equal
grade ; but it should be reraerabered, that the forraer was only
secretary to a secretary, or rather privy purse to his Royal
Highness ; that Mr. Marable's patron is dead — and tbat Sir
Frederick Watson survives ; that the one is in po'ssession of
secrets with wbich tbe other never was intrusted, and that the
gratitude of George IV. to Mr. Marable was raore political
than personal ; nevertheless, if a correct estiraate be forraed
of tbe services rendered by Mr. Marable — if tbe darkness
of tbe future could be illurainated by a parting ray of the
light gone by — we raight then be able to forra sorae idea of
tbe extent of the claims which Mr. Marable possessed upon
the royal bounty. Who tbat has Avitnessed tbe preliminary
orgies at Streatham, the assemblies at Mrs. Ii  ''s, in
Charles-street, in the decline of her life, that notorious meUe
of tradesmen's wives and tonish deraireps, where Colonel
M'Mahon and his friend appeared the centre of a circle, but
must acknowledge that Mr. Marable has not been rewarded
to the extent of the services Avhich he rendered ?
Mr. Marable is the son of a respectable faraily at Canter
bury, and is indebted for his entrde into the service of Colonel
M'Mahon to Mr. Edward Taylor, of Bifrons, near that city,
the unfortunate but accomphshed brother of Sir Herbert
Taylor, whose estates in Kent the Marquess of Conyngham,
it is said, has recently purchased of the family. By tbis
gentleman be was recoraraended to his brother, and by his
brother to the late Colonel M'Mahon, to whora he proved
a faithful friend and exeraplary servant. The death, however,
of bis patron stopped his proraotion, and his marriage with
an araiable and exceUent woman adds respectabUity to bis
partial retireraent from the service of royalty. In the winter
of bis life, raay the shades of Mrs. B— ing— n and her hus
band never cross bim in bis path, to recall to bim tbe
3 U 2

,524 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
memory of the past, and thereby embitter the enjoyraent of
the present.
Mrs. B — ing — n was the wife of the son of an old respect
able raerchant on the Harabro' Walk, who had brought
up his son to be a credit to bis business. Mrs. B. was a
beautiful woraan, not raore than twenty-one years of age, and
of a faraily equally respectable with that of her husband. At
the time of ber marriage, ber husband was a raeraber of a
club at the west end of the town, and was consequently ac
quainted with several raen of rank and fashion, to whom,
after bis marriage, he introduced his accoraplished and beau
tiful wife. She becarae the reigning toast of the day; tbe
Prince of Wales witnessed the enthusiasm with which ber
narae was raentioned ; and the result raay be easily foreseen.
The husband soon got intoxicated with tbe srailes of royalty.
To bask in tbe sunbearas of a prince's favour— to be announced
in the fashionable publications of the day as a raeraber of the
convivial parties of Carlton House — to be acknowledged by tbe
Prince of Wales in the drives of Hyde Park, where one fool
follows another, merely to try which can be tbe greater fool
of the two — where is the head tbat would not grow giddy with
such an accuraulation of honour, with such a sudden transit
frora tbe soot ofthe city to the raeridian splendour of a court?
But he raight say with the poet —
At once my high-blown pride
Broke under me, and all my pleasures left me.
Sullen, and sad, and angry, to the mercy
Of a long tongue that must for ever haunt me.
The ruin of Mrs. B  n was determined upon ; and an
easy access to the board of the infatuated, inflated husband
was obtained for the usual class of the Prince's friends. The
sequel is deeply tragical. Mrs. B  n died broken-hearted
for the loss of her honour, and the husband languished in pri
son till bis death. To labour in fulness
Is sorer than to lie for need ; and falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars.
It is impossible to dwell upon the preceding narratives and

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 525
conceive for one raoraent that the sensual powers of one raan
could survive araidst such a continued series of fresh excite
ments ; or that such a raan could of hiraself organize and
sustain such a system of intrigue, so extensive, so raraified
into every departraent of life; and at the same time find
agents equally sensitive with hiraself, to act faithfully between,
bira and their own passions. Nor was it the case. We could
point to many women who were run down — the peace of raany
families destroyed — the confidence between man and wife
weakened, if not whoUy destroyed — and aU in the narae of
the Prince of Wales, raerely for the gratification of bis
favourites. He bore the fault ;
And there were men who, if a crime were done.
Would point with scorn, and cry, ' He is the man
On whom the guilt must lie :' but in his court
Were men as guilty as himself, who stood
Deep mersed in sin, the hatred of their race.
We shaU, however, draAV the veU over this part of our his
tory ; but our forbearance arises frora no fear of the conse
quences which might result to ourselves from the vengeance
of the individuals whora we have it in our power to expose ;
but the forra of vice is, in sorae of its features, so hideous, that
tbe interests of society are injured by the exposure of thera.
Yet, in a general view of the state of Carlton House, and
its dependencies, at this tirae, bow sball we be able to account
for the great nuraber of feraales of light character Avho were
known to subsist on the Prince's bounty, without any personal
clairas of a meretricious nature upon his generosity. It would
fill a tolerably sized volurae to enumerate those who were
known to be maintained, and also those who, being ambitious
of the honour, allowed theraselves to be named as sharing in
the royal favour. We are aware of a nuraber of debts which
were contracted by feraales of tbis starap, under the recora-
mendatory plea that tbey were living under the protection of
the Prince of Wales ; but, although it would not be a difficult
task to trace out an actual connexion between the parties, yet
tbe greater number of these feraales, it is suspected, Avere
employed, not on account of their own personal attractions,
but for tbe sole purpose of pointing out, selecting, and over-

526 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
coraing such feraales as should attract tbe regards of tbe
Prince of Wales. We knoAV, hoAvever, that it has happened
in nuraberless cases, and for the honour of the sex be it re
corded, that raonths have elapsed and have failed in producing
the necessary alienation, before raany woraen who had excited
the passion of his Royal Highness could be brought to sacri
fice their virtue, and surrender all the consolations arising
from the good opinion of a Avorld not always just in its deci
sions, but, in its moral rules and regulations, exercising a
wholesorae influence over the sensual and the profligate,
which tends materially to check altogether the subversion
of society.
It has been said of George IV. that his example was too
secluded to operate dangerously on the raanners of tbe people.
As a raonarch, the saying raay bave sorae truth in it ; but as
a prince, and as such Ave are now describing hira, we will
venture to say that the exaraple which he set, as far as his
influence could extend, went further to the deraoralization of
society than any prince recorded in the pages of history. Can
the idea be for a raoment entertained that such a man was
surrounded by none but moralists ; and that the intellectual
wants of a court, frora day to day, and frora hour to hour,
could be supplied by such raen as those whose characters we
have already decyphered ; tbe same men whose cbief pursuit
was to provide for far less raeritorious pleasures ; and the only
shrine at which they knelt was that of the reigning Lais of the
palace. Is it possible that such an exaraple as this should
not be productive of the most baneful effects ? Society is
like tbe carved globe of the Chinese ; it has its concentric
circles, each possessing its specific individuality, and gradually
diminishing to a centre point. We wUl suppose that point
in society to be the point of royalty, and tbe very next circle
to be that of the nobility ; is it then possible that the circle
of the nobility should not be influenced by tbe exaraple of
royalty ? and, in a regular gradation, that the plebeian circle
should not take its forra and pressure from tbe exaraple of
the nobility ? The putrid atraosphere in wbich a courtier
lives and breathes, like the sirocco of the desert, pervades all
ranks of society witb its devastating influence, and from one
gradation to another tbe sentiment ot the courtier would circu-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 527
late, the example be applauded, the charms that captivate
would engross greater popularity, Ulicit pursuits would be
invigorated, new desires created, and a species of imraoral
eraulation excited between the sexes, as to who should attract
the most, and the greater number of triuraphs be reckoned
over tbe coy and the reluctant, the giddy and the arabitious.
It could not, however, be expected that suitable objects
would always be found within the iraraediate circles of the
parties seeking these Cytherean laurels ; and therefore every
class was ransacked to recruit the brothels ofthe rich and the
voluptuous. In England, in consequence of the dissoluteness
of tbe iraraediate court of tbe Prince of Wales, society under
went an eleraentary change, Avhich neither the virtuous cha
racter of George III. nor the exeraplary conduct of his Queen
could counteract or delay. The poison extended far and
wide; the virus was deep seated and radical, and festered
through every class of society. In fact, the manners of the
court of tbe Prince of Wales, if it be deserving of the name of
a court, had corrupted the body politic in all directions, Avhich
an affected piety, and an outward observance of the forras of
religion, could neither qualify nor disguise. The affair with
the Queen drew tbe veil that concealed these deforraities still
more aside ; and the subsequent attachments of the Prince
when he becarae the Monarch — the influence which these
attachments acquired over bira, both in bis doraestic habits
and tbe internal policy of the state, daily accelerated tbat
crisis, naraely, a revolutionary moveraent of the people, which
bis death alone could have retarded and prevented.
As the parasitical panders of tbe Prince could not always
succeed agreeably to bis and tbeir wishes, tbe following anec
dote will go far to redeem tbe female character frora much of
tbat odiura wbicb several of our recent stateraents are calcu
lated to cast upon it; and it is a splendid instance, which raay
rank with the deeds of the raost erainent feraale characters
recorded in history. A personal acquaintance with the parties
enables us to vouch for the Avhole of the facts being rainutely
correct, although, frora certain raotives of delicacy, and frora
tbe bigh esteera which we entertain for the faraily, we will
forbear publishing tbe names.

528 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
At this period, the house of Taylor, tbe shoemaker, in Bond-
street (as appeared in evidence afterAvards, in the affair of
Mrs. Clarke and the Duke of York), was a noted rendezvous
for fashionable intriguants. The raaster ofthe bouse, 'nothing
loth,' would either aid or connive at tbe raeetings appointed
there ; and he has been known to succeed, when every other
channel bas faded, to coraplete the delusions of bis raost
fashionable custoraers. Araongst the latter Avas tbe beautiful
Lady R  . She was the daughter of a country gentleraan
of good fortune, on whose education the utraost care bad
been bestowed, in order to confirra Avhat nature bad ingrafted
on a heart of peculiar tenderness and sensibility. In ber
twentieth year she became the Avife of Lord R  , thirty
years older than herself, afflicted with an hereditary gout, but
an accoraplished and araiable raan, forraed to ceraent, perhaps,
the friendship of a Avoraan more than to awaken those kindlier
syrapathies witb which youth, and pleasure, and flattery glad
den the heart and iraagination in the day-spring of a woman's
life. Intelligent, grateful, and ardent, she grew attached frora
principle, and a rautual passion was reciprocated, based on
an affection springing from the estiraation of each other's
virtues. Young, beautiful, and interesting, Lady R  soon becarae
an object of fashionable adrairation ; and, although seldom
seen abroad wben ber lord was confined by the periodical
attacks of the gout, stiU circurastances carried her soraetiraes
into society whUe he remained at home ; and on one of these
occasions, at Hertford House, she had the honour of being
introduced to the Prince of Wales, and both of thera seeraed
mutuaUy gratified by the introduction. A short time after
this interview. Lord R  went to Bath, taking his lady witb
bim, but who in a few weeks returned to town on some faraUy
affairs, which afforded the first opportunity for the Prince to
coraraence his long raeditated attack.
A mUitary raan, in the person of General Turner, was
appointed to coraraence the siege; and, meeting with ber
Ladyship accidentally at an evening party, he took the oppor
tunity of intiraating to ber the sensible irapression which she
bad made on the heart of bis royal master, insinuating, at the

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 529
sarae time, tbe unbounded respect which her Royal Highness
entertained for her husband ; but at the sarae tirae he confessed
that tbe difficulty was alraost insuperable of rooting out those
involuntary feelings, which insensibly corabined the finest
moveraents of the affections. Lady B  was a woraan, and
therefore, perhaps, not insensible to the flattery so copiously
showered upon her ; but tbe eraotion was fugitive, and on tbe
foUowing day she intended to join her lord at Bath.
Prior to her Ladyship quitting town, she called at Taylor's,
in Bond-street, to leave an order Avhich it Avas her intention
to carry back witb ber to Bath ; and the obsequious trades
man appointed the next day for her Ladyship to call for it.
She was punctual to the appointraent, when, by various arts
in which tbe tradesraan was a finished adept, her Ladyship
was induced to walk up stairs, where, however, she was
scarcely seated, before, from an adjoining roora, the Prince
of AVales threw hiraself at ber feet, with protestations of tbe
most ardent love. But tbe scene was too draraatic to suc
ceed witb a woraan of honour and sensibility. The royal
lover was repulsed witb dignity and modest resolution ; and
although the atterapt was afterAvards raade by every concession
that could reconcile ber Ladyship to grant bira a parting inter
view, yet the Prince could never succeed, and he retired,
abashed and discorafited, to coraraence an attack in a dif
ferent quarter. To the honour ofthe noble lord and bis lady
it raust be stated, that up to the very hour of the King's death,
neither of tbem could be persuaded to visit bis court, nor kiss
the band of a raan who bad sought to destroy their peace and
honour. — O si sic omnia I
Frora these scenes of private profligacy and deep moral
degeneracy, we turn to others of a graver iraport, but which,
in the extent of their crirainality, stand the raost conspicuous
in tbe history of tbe Ulustrious subject of these raeraoirs. If
any event were wanting to finish the body of the picture which
the court of the Prince of Wales exhibited at tbis tirae, it
was tbat one which now occurred, surpassing in extravagance
and cruelty the crimes and perjuries of that of Henry VIII. ;
we allude to the conduct adopted towards an unhappy and
defenceless woman, the late Queen Caroline. We regret that
3 X

530 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the nature of our work adraits of little raore than the sketch
of an episode that raust hereafter furnish tbe most grave and
important chapter in the future history of this short but event
ful reign.
It is irapossible to look back upon tbe intrigues described,
and the character of the actors who played their parts therein,
and not forra sorae decided opinion in regard to tbe nuraber of
tbe agents of all ranks who lent theraselves to ' this raost foul
and daranable' conspiracy. Men and woraen of tbe highest
rank, lawyers of eminence, and tbeir hireling understrappers ;
even clergymen of honest repute, and the Avhole of the Prince's
court, without exception, frora Lord Moira (who, in this busi
ness, lost ' tbe farae of a thousand years') doAvn to the door
keeper and the scullery-wench, combined to destroy one lone
woman ; whilst her husband, rioting in wantonness and volup
tuousness, openly or sinisterly encouraged the attacks, which
had for their end her death on a scaffold. Even the cradle
in which her infancy was reared was ransacked for nursery
tales ; and ere the Princess Caroline could lisp the narae of
love, or reason and passion develop raaterials wherewith to
adjudge her character, ber infancy was slandered, and ber
puberty corrupted by the inventions of ber eneraies. By
wbat course of tortuous policy was such a Avoraan selected
for the arras of the Prince of Wales ? Who advised the con
nexion, or wbat raust that raan have been who consented to
accept of it ?
It is, however, now well known, that tbe whole of tbe tales
concerning the young Princess were fabricated in this country
by tbe corapanions of the Prince of Wales, and the creatures
of bis wiU. We could point to two individuals, now enjoying
lucrative offices — one at the Cape of Good Hope, and tbe other
at Botany Bay (who, if he bad his deserts, should bave been
sent thither in a different capacity) — whose only services ren
dered to the country which is taxed to pay their salaries,
consist in the exertions wbich they used to prove that tbe
virgin character of Caroline of Brunswick was tainted ere
nature bad implanted in her breast a, single idea of love or
passion. In a court everything is predicated to gratify tbe
wisji^s of its master : if he frowns, where is the courtly syco^

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 53l
phant who dare be seen to smUe ? if from bis PahdeHioniutii
be issues bis mandate for the imraolation of a victim — uprise
the executors of his will — as erst the spirits of bell, rose from
their sulphureous fires at the voice of Satan ; and tbe deed is
done, thougb infamy follow them tbrougb every path of tbeir
future life.
If we exaraine the condition ofthe cburt of Carlton House At
the arrival of the Princess of Brunswick in this country, what
a scene presents itself! We find Lady Jersey, tbe dorainant
in-door favourite, by vvhose intrigues Mrs. Fitzherbert bad
withdrawn, giving up to tbe forraer lady the suite of apart-
tnents which she had occupied, and frora which apiartraents
the Prince of Wales was seen retiring one morning by his
own wife ; — we find Mrs. Fitzherbert stiff tbe out-door fa
vourite, witb a number of minor satellites, accordingly as the
purveyors succeeded in tbeir search for novelties ; we find
John M'Mahon privy purse, grand caterer for tbe royal plea-
stires, the confidant of tbe Prince, and bis most obsequious
and pliant parasite *. The interminable link of courtezans
and tbeir pararaours was struck frora tbe grasp of the pander,
and the Prince sighed over tbe fragraents of tbe Circean cup,
which this ill-fated raarriage bad dashed from bis lips.
Tbere is a sobriety in the union of tbe sexes, when virtue
is the foutidation, wbicb is little calculated to please tbe taste
of the voluptuary. The very stUlness of tbe palace — tbe
decorum of its doraestic arrangeraents — tbe change of society,
and those nameless graces of modesty which steal so imper
ceptibly upon the heart of man, could not survive in such a
tainted atraosphere without being corrupted by it: all tbis was
acknowledged and foreseen, but not provided agElinst. The
mistress of bis illicit pleasures was introduced by tbe Prince
to tbe confidence of the wife, nor was tbere a creature of the
* We have been informed, that the exposition of the birth, parentage, and
education of John M'Mahon, given in a former part of this work, has excited
towards us the severe wrath of the surviving branches of his family. The expo
sure may be to them ' bitter as wormwood ;' but we tell them fearlessly, that we
wiU not conceal the flagrant actions of their relative, as the pander of the Prince
of Wales, to gain either their favour or approbation. It is the vice we reprobate,
not the individual. But the family of John M'Mahon should be grateful to us—
what we have hitherto stated is not a tithe of what we know; and, therefore, we
consider ourselves entitled to their most special favour for our forbearance;
3X2

532 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
establishment changed, who had aided in its forraer excesses
or shared in its pollutions. Tbe erabraces of tbe Avife Avere
less exciting than those of the courtezan, and tbe coldness
of the husband paralysed that Avild turault of the affections
Avhich subsides into sentiments of purity and connubial love.
Disgust on the one side, and indifference on the other, ended
in a separation which endangered the state, and brought on
the ruin of the woman, Avhom frora the first it Avas designed to
destroy. Of the subordinate actors in this great national tragedy Ave
know not how to speak with even comraon raoderation. By
their conduct the character of England and of EngUsbraen
becarae ira peached ; it was pronounced as the synonyrae of
all that was base, treacherous, and vile ; the native spoke it
Avith sharae, the foreigner with scorn ; loyalty fell to a dis
count, and allegiance Avas regarded as a thing of mere question
and expediency. If there were strong appearances of guUt in
the conduct of the Princess, still appearance is not fact. It
requires soraething raore than raere serablance to establish
positive crirae ; and until that crirae be proved, by unirapeach-
able, incontrovertible evidence, tbe accused is fully entitled
to aU the privileges and consideration which innocence can
lay claira to. If she did err, let her separation, ber exposure,
ber eneraies, and especiaUy sorae of ber friends, be considered ;
let ber origin, her education, ber prospects, her disappoint
ments, ber provocations, be taken into the account ; let the
characters of the emissaries eraployed against her be properiy
estimated, and the charges Avhich tbey were instructed to
prove ; and if the bead did not madden, and the heart break,
with the accuraulated injury, tbey must have been made of
sterner stuff than it faUs generaUy to tbe lot of mortals to be
composed of
There was a tirae when delicacy for the living, and a desire
not to disturb the peace of the country, prorapted us to be
sUent on certain deeds connected with this deepest of Eng
land's tragedies*; but as those reasons exist no raore, we are
* In a work published by Fairman, and written by an individual in the service
of the late Queen Carohne (but how she got there. Heaven best can tell), and
which was intended as recriminatory ou the part of her Majesty, we kre made to

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 533
not bound by any further restriction. It may then be said
of us —  This man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretels the nature of a tragic volume.
So looks the strand whereon th' imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.
Perhaps tbere is not anything which tends raore to sap the
moral principles of a faraily than tbe want of concert between
the parents. This is felt raore or less in all classes of society,
tbough its effects are more fatal to the loyier than the upper
ranks of tbe people. Tbe manners of the court of the Prince
of Wales bad already seduced a number of followers, gay and
reckless as the Prince hiraself, to courses highly injurious to
the conservative raoral principles wbich unite society in a
comraon obligation to protect each other. In this instance no
thing could be raore afflicting than the situation in which the
heiress-presuraptive to the throne Avas placed, in a national
point of view, by the unnatural state wbich subsisted between
the father and the raother, and which her own raagnaniraity
could alone bave repelled and mitigated ; this magnaniraity
had, however, nearly proved fatal to ber own character and
principles. It raay scarcely appear credible, but Ave vouch
for the accuracy of the stateraent, although publicity has never
yet been given to it, that insinuations were actually conveyed
abroad to sev.eral of the Gerraan principalities in alliance Avith
the House of Brunswick, that the legitiraacy of the Princess
Charlotte was doubtful ; and thus in order to accoraplish the
ruin of the raother, the child was not spared on whose head
tbe crown was to dcA'olve in case of her father's decease,
how greatly soever the throne Avas irapUcated in tbe fall.
One ofthe most raeraorable epochs in the Ufe ofthe Prince
of Wales, and, it raay be added, in the history of raodern
enjoy the honour of being a pensioner on the privy purse of the late King, of 100/.
per annum, not as a reward for what we did say in a certain book, but for what
we did Tiot say ; and in the same authentic work, we are made the participator in
the delinquency, in conjunction with a servant of the royal family, of the name of
Sims, of breaking open the desk of the late Princess Charlotte of Wales, for the
purpose of extracting the celebrated letter written to her by her ill-fated mother—
which letter, by some means, feU into the hands of the late Queen Charlotte, and
was the chief cause of that deadly feud which ever after existed between them.
More of this letter anon. In the mean tirae, the pension and the felony have a
similar foundation in truth.

534 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV,
nations, is the conspiracy wbicb was got up against the
Princess of Wales, and Avhich there is little doubt, but for
the force of popular opinion, would bave ended in her death
on the scaffold. It began so early as 1801, wben tbe Princess
was living at Montague House, where she forraed an acquaint
ance witb Lady Charlotte Douglas, which was productive of
the raost extraordinary results. Voluraes have been written
concerning thera ; the interest and anxiety of tbe nation were
roused to a state of excitation scarcely paralleled at any
forraer period in its history ; and in order to substantiate sorae
of the alleged occurrences, which are asserted to bave taken
place at Montague House, such a tissue of falsehoods was
asserted, and ultiraately published, as bas rarely, if ever, been
beard of in any civUized coraraunity. These statements, and
tbe transactions connected witb tbem, bave been usually de
signated as the Douglas Conspiracy.
Of Lady Charlotte Douglas, the cbief contriver of and
actress in this extraordinary draraa, tbe following biographical
particulars have been obtained. Her grandfather was an
attorney at Gloucester, whose narae was Charles Barrow, and
who was created a baronet in consequence of bis connexion
with the corporation of tbat city. Sir Charles acquired a large
fortune ; be was, however, never raarried, but he left several
daughters, one of Avbom, tbe mother of Lady Douglas, raarried
a private soldier, naraed Hephinson, or Hopkins'on, who was
soon raade a serjeant ; and afterwards, by tbe interest of Sir
Charles, he obtained the situation of array agent : he subse
quently becarae a colonel, possessed of considerable wealth,
and a fine estate near Gloucester. Mr. Douglas, whUst on
the recruiting service at Gloucester, being then a lieutenant
of raarines, becarae acquainted with Miss Hopkinson and raar
ried ber, but at wbat period is not precisely known. According
to Lady Douglas' stateraent their courtship raust have been a
long one, as she says that she waited for Sir John nine years.
In the raonth of AprU, 1801, Sir John and Lady Douo-la«
went to reside at Blackheath, because tbe air was better for
Sir John, after bis Egyptian services; and it was somewhat
nearer Chathara, where his military duties occasionally called
hira, Tbe person of Lady Douglas was handsome — she cer-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 535
thinly appeared much younger than her husband ; but tbe
effects of his severe carapaigns bad produced in his counte
nance and in bis general health an early senescence.
It raay be bere also necessary to introduce the narae of Sir
Sidney Sraith, another prorainent personage in this singular
affair. Wben tbe Princess of Wales first becarae acquainted
with bira is not exactly known ; but Lady Douglas stated,
that she understood tbe Princess knew Sir Sidney before she
becarae Princess of Wales. However, soon after Sir John
and Lady Douglas went to reside on Blackheath, and alsp
soon after Sir Sidney Sraith's return to England frora the Me
diterranean, his visits to Sir John and Lady Douglas, frora his
previous intiraacy witb the former, becarae very frequent ; in
short, he became, as Lady Douglas said, a part of the family.
That jealousy, on the part of Lady Douglas, was one of tbe
moving causes of ber subsequent conduct, there can be,
however, no reasonable doubt. It should not be forgotten,
that Sir Sidney Smith bas not, at any period, corae publicly
forward to repel any of the insinuations wbich have been raade
relative to bis conduct at Montague House : bis connexion
with tbe Douglases wUl, it is presuraed, fully explain the cause
ofhis silence.
Tbe intimacy of Lady Douglas witb the Princess of Wales
continued from the month of November, 1801, till about
Christraas, 1803 ; at which tirae the Douglases left Black
heath, and went into Devonshire. In the raonth of October,
1804, they returned, when Lady Douglas lefl; ber card at
Montague House, and on tbe 4tb of tbe sarae month received
a letter from Mrs. Vernon, desiring her not to corae there any
raore. After receiving Mrs. Vernon's letter. Lady Douglas
wrote to the Princess on the subject, but it was sent back
unopened. Lady Dpuglap reraarked, in her subsequent state
raent, ' I had never, at tbis tirae, raentioned the Princess'
being witb chUd, or being delivered of a chUd, to any person,
npt even to Sir John Douglas.'
Tbis assertion, however, is untrue ; for it was in consequence
of sorae observations of Lady Douglas, reflecting on the cha
racter apd conduct of her Royal Highness, and coraraunicated
to ber, tbat the visits of l^dy ppuglas were ordered oot tp be

536 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
repeated at Montague House. Nor Avas this the sole reason
for the conduct of the Princess ; but tbe levity and improper
behaviour of Lady Douglas, which was a subject of general
animadversion in the circle in which she moved, additionally
determined tbe Princess on reUnquishing her acquaintance
altogether. But for this determination on the part of ber
Royal Highness, Lady Douglas would have continued her
intiraacy at Montague House.
The visits of Sir Sidney Sraith to Montague House, at this
time, were more frequent than was agreeable to Lady Douglas ;
and whenever he was spending the evening there, ber domes
tics observed that she was agitated and vexed. But Lady
Douglas expressly stated, in ber deposition, that she never
observed any irapropriety of conduct between Sir Sidney Sraith
and the Princess.
It unfortunately happened for the Princess of Wales, tbat
she bad, about tbis time, adopted a child of a poor AVoman of
the name of Austin. Concerning the birth and parentage of
this boy there fortunately bas not been the least doubt, since
first the matter was investigated. But Lady Douglas thought
this a fit opportunity to assume and assert that this child was
the offspring of the Princess of Wales; and to couA'ey to the
then heir-apparent an account ofthe conduct ofhis wife (long
since, it is true, living apart frora him, and Avhora, in fact,
though not in laAv, he had repudiated), wbich, as stated by
Lady Douglas, was so wicked and so indecent, that, if true,
deraanded frora the Prince of Wales and the country severe
aniraadversion and reproof, not to say the ulterior proceeding
of a regular and legal divorce, accorapanied possibly with the
higher and dreadful penalty which awaits the crirae of high
treason. But, if the aUeged transactions had even been true,
of all persons in the world Lady Douglas Avas the last who
should have betrayed her friend and her benefactress ; a prin
cess whose benevolence knew no bounds but the utmost lirait
of ber raeans ; a princess who had heaped on tbe Douglases
innuraerable favours and kindnesses ; who bad fostered them
in ber bosora, without being aware that tbey would soon
forget all ber kindnesses, and become her secret accusers, and
tbe projectors of ber utter ruin. But these alleged transac-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 537
tions have been indisputably proved to be false ; and, there
fore, whatever epithets are bestowed upon Sir John and Lady
Douglas raust acquire from tbis consideration additional pro
priety and force.
Eariy in November, 1806, his Royal Highness tbe Duke
of Sussex, influenced by the gross misrepresentations of Lady
Douglas, acquainted the Prince of Wales that Sir John bad
coraraunicated to hira sorae circurastances relative to tbe
conduct of bis illustrious consort, which were of the utraost
consequence to tbe honour of his Royal Highness, and to
tbe security of tbe royal succession ; and that Sir John and
his lady were ready, if called upon, to raake a full disclosure.
He added, that the Duke of Kent had been made partly
acquainted with tbe affair a year before. In consequence
of this coraraunication, tbe Prince requested the Duke of
Kent to inforra hira of the nature of those circurastances,
and why be had, for a Avhole year, kept from bis knowledge
a matter so interesting to the honour of the royal faraily.
An interview took place, in consequence, between tbe
Prince of Wales and the Duke of Kent, in the bed-charaber
of the forraer; and the conversation which took place be
tween the illustrious brothers raay be considered as the ground
work of the ulterior proceedings which were adopted, and
which had such a decisive influence on the tranquiUity of the
country. On being closeted with the Duke of Kent, the Prince ira
raediately dismissed his attendants, and inforraed his royal
brother that circurastances bad corae to bis knowledge, with
respect to a transaction with the Princess of Wales, in which
he found that the Duke bad been concerned ; and that, if be
had not placed the raost irapUcit reliance on the attachment
of tbe Duke to hiraself, and, he added, to the Duke's well-
known uprightness of character and principle, he should cer
tainly bave felt hiraself in no sraall degree offended, in having
learnt the facts alluded to frora others, and not in the first
instance; frora the Duke himself, which be conceived hiraself
in every way entitled to expect, and more especiaUy from that
footing of confidence on which the royal brothers had always
stood with each other. Being, however, fully satisfied in bis
3 Y

'638 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
own raind that the explanation would justify bim in tbe opi
nion which he ahvays entertained of his brother, and tbat he
had been actuated by the raost honourable raotives in ob
serving a silence towards hiraself on this, to bim, most inte
resting subject, he requested the Duke to give hira a distinct
stateraent of the transaction, as far as he himself was con
cerned ; and, offering his hand to the Duke at the sarae tirae,
assured hira tbat he did not feel the slightest displeasure
towards hira, but expected tbe raost candid stateraent frora
bira of every particular connected Avith tbe purport of his
visit. The Duke of Kent, in a Avritten declaration, stated that,
about the end of the year 1804, be had received a note from
the Princess of Wales, stating she had got into an unplea
sant altercation with Sir John and Lady Douglas, about an
anonyraous letter and a filthy drawing Avhich they iraputed
to her, and about Avhich they were making a noise. She
requested the Duke of Kent to interfere, and prevent its going
further. His Royal Highness applied to Sir Sidney Sraith, and,
through bira, had an interview with Sir John Douglas, who
was greatly enraged, and who seeraed convinced that both the
anonyraous letter and the loose drawing were by the band
of the Princess ; and that the design was to provoke Sir John
Douglas to a duel witb his friend. Sir Sidney Sraith, by the
gross insinuations flung out respecting the latter and Lady
Douglas. The Duke of Kent, however, succeeded in pre
vailing on Sir John Douglas to abstain from bis purpose of
comraencing a prosecution, or of stirring further in the busi
ness, as he Avas satisfied in his raind of the falsehood of tbe
insinuations, and could not be sure that tbe fabrications were
not sorae gossipping story in Avbich the Princess bad no band.
Sir John, however, spoke with great indignation of the con
duct of tbe Princess ; and proraised only that he would abstain
from further investigation, but would not give a proraise of
preserving silence, should he be further annoyed. The Duke
of Kent concluded with stating tbat nothing was communi
cated to him beyond this fracas ; and that, having succeeded
in stopping it, he did not think fit to trouble bis Royal High-

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 53ft
ness with a gossipping story, that raight be entirely founded
on the raisapprehension of the offended parties.
It is particularly worthy of notice, that Sir John Douglas,
in tbe coramunication which he raade to tbe Duke of Kent,
did not refer to any conduct of the Princess, except relative
to the anonyraous letter and the drawing ; although he and
Lady Douglas subsequently deposed to her pregnancy and
delivery, and other iraraoral transactions, which, in tbeir de
positions, tbey state to bave been previously coraraitted.
Shortly after this. Sir John and Lady Douglas raade forraal
declarations, not only as to tbis anonymous letter, but also
relating generally to the conduct of the Princess of Wales
during their acquaintance witb ber. These declarations were
made before the Duke of Sussex, and are dated Greenwich
Park, Deceraber 3, 1805. They contained in substance tbe
raatter to wbicb Lady Douglas subsequently deposed, and
. which will be noticed hereafter, but were corabined with ranch
more grossness and iraprobabUity.
These declarations were subraitted by the Prince of Wales
to tbe late Lord Thurlow, Avbo said that his Royal Highness
bad no alternative — it was bis duty to subrait them to tb©
King ; as, if tbe allegations were true, tbe royal succession
raight be thereby affected. In the raean tirae it was resolved to
raake further inquiry ; and a Mr. Lowten, Sir John Douglas'
soUcitor (whose selection Avas most extraordinary), Avas directed
to take steps accordingly. The consequence was, that WUr
bara and Sarah Lampert (servants to Sir John Douglas),
William Cole, Robert and Sarah Bidgood, and Frances Lloyd,
raade declarations, the whole of which, together witb those of
Sir John and Lady Douglas, were subraitted to his Majesty.
Having perused thera, and advised with Lord Thurlow, be,
issued bis warrant, dated the 29th of May, 1806, directing
Lord Erskine, Lord GrenviUe, Earl Spencer, and Lord EUen
borough, to inquire into the truth of the allegations, and to
report to hira thereon.
It appears, however, tbat although in this affair the Prince of
Wales at first acted upon tbe advice given to bira by Lord
Thurlow,, bis brdsbip bimself advised tbe Prince to, consult
Sir Samuel Romilly. The Prince's motives for so doing wer^
- ~ ' \ 3 Y 2

540 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
(as Sir Samuel many years afterwards stated, in his place in
the House of Coraraons), because be. Sir Sarauel,'was uncon
nected with the Prince of Wales, and generally with politics.
Tbe information Avhich tbe Prince bad received relative to
tbe conduct ofthe Princess of Wales was accordingly sub
mitted to Sir Samuel RoraiUy for his advice ; and after
having considered it witb the utraost care and anxiety, he
addressed, in Deceraber, 1805, a letter to bis Royal Highness,
containing his sentiraents on this important subject. After he
gave that opinion. Sir Samuel said, that bis Royal Highness
took every possible raeans to ascertain Avhat credit was due to
the parties whose testiraony had been given. In the change
of adrainistration which shortly followed after the death of
Mr. Pitt, Sir Sarauel RoraUly was appointed Solicitor-Ge
neral; and in March, 1806, he received his Majesty's com
raands to confer with Lord Thuriow on tbis matter : and in a
short tirae afterwards the alleged charges Avere subraitted to
sorae of the King's rainisters, and an authority Avas then issued
to certain raerabers of tbe Privy Council.
Sir Sarauel RoraiUy also, at the sarae tirae, stated, that he
Avas the only person present, besides the Coraraissioners, at all
the examinations which were conducted by the four noble
Lords raentioned, he taking doAvn all the depositions. He
thought that he was selected for this purpose in preference to
the Attorney-General, raerely because, if it should not be
found necessary to institute any judicial or legislative proceed
ings upon it, it Avas desirable that the utraost secrecy should be
observed. He declared, in the most soleran manner, that no
inquiry was ever conducted with more irapartiality, nor was
there ever evinced a greater desire to discharge justly a great
public duty. He subsequently stated, tbat he was present at
aU the examinations but one, which was the last, and that was
of Mrs. Lisle.
The Comraissioners in tbis inA'estigation were prorapt in
proceeding according to bis Majesty's coraraands. The Cora
raission was dated the 29th of May, and on tbe 1st of June
Lady Douglas and Sir John raade their depositions. It has
since been ascertained, tbat all the witnesses were examined
separately, and enjoined to the strictest secrecy. Mrs.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 541
Austin was sent for at ten o'clock at night from Pimlico to
Downing-street, and conveyed tbere by one of Lord Gren-
ville's servants ; she never coraraunicated the fact of her exa
raination to any person, not even tb the Princess of Wales, tUl
the year 1813.
On tbe 14th of July tbe Coraraissioners made the follow
ing Report to his Majesty, wbicb deserves and should receive
particular consideration.
' May it please your Majesty,
' Your Majesty having been graciously pleased, by an
in.strument, under your Majesty's Royal Sign Manual, a copy of
which is annexed to this report, to auth|&Tize, empower, and direct
us to inquire into the truth of certain written declarations, touching
the conduct of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, an ab
stract of which had been laid before your Majesty; and to examine
npon oath such persons as we should see fit, touching and concern
ing the same, and to report to your Majesty the result of such exa
mination. We have, in dutiful obedience lo your Majesty's com
mands, proceeded to examine the several witnesses, the copies of
whose depositions we have hereunto annexed ; and in further exe
cution of the said commands, we now most respectfully submit to
your Majesty the report of these examinations, as it has appeared
to us. But we beg leave, at the same time, humbly to refer your
Majesty, for more complete information, to the examinations them
selves, in order to correct any error of judgment into which we
may have unintentionally fallen, with respect to any part of this
business. On a reference to the above-mentioned declarations, as
the necessary foundations of all our proceedings, we found that
they consisted of certain statements, which had been laid before his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, respecting the conduct of
her Royal Highness the Princess ; that these statements not only
imputed to her Royal Highness great impropriety and indecency of
behaviour, but expressly asserted, partly on the ground of certain
alleged declarations from the Princess's own mouth, and partly on
the personal observations of the informants, the following most im
portant facts, viz. That her Royal Highness had been pregnant in
the year 1802, in consequence of an iUicit intercourse ; and that she
had, in the same year, been secretly delivered of a male child, which
child had, ever since that period, been brought up by her Royal
Highness in her own house, and under her immediate inspection.

542 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
' These allegations, thus made, had, as we found, been followed by
declarations from other persons, who had not indeed spoken to the
important facts of the pregnancy or delivery of her Royal High
ness, but had related other particulars, in themselves extremely
suspicious, and still more so when connected with the assertions
already mentioned. In the painful situation in which his Royal
Highness was placed by these coramunications, we learnt that his
Royal Highness had adopted the only course which could, in our
judgment, with propriety be followed. When informations such as
these had been thus confidently alleged, and particularly detailed,
and had been in some degree supported by collateral evidence,
applying to other points of the same nature, (though going to a far
less extent,) one line could only be pursued. Every sentiment of
duty to your Majesty, and of concern for the public welfare, re
quired that these particulars should not be witllheld from your Ma
jesty, to whom, more particularly, belonged the cog'nizance of a
matter of state so nearly touching the honour of your Majesty's
Royal Family, and by possibility affecting the succession of your
Majesty's Crown. Your Majesty had been pleased, on your part, to
view the subject in the same light, considering it as a matter which,
on every account, demanded the most immediate investigation.
Your Majesty had thought fit to commit into our hands the duty of
ascertaining, in the first instance, what degree of credit was due to
the informations, and thereby enabling your Majesty to decide what
further conduct to adopt concerning them. On this review, there
fore, of the matters thus alleged, and of the course hitherto pur
sued upon them, we deemed it proper, in the first place, to examine
those persons in whose declarations the occasion for this inquiry
had originated, because if they, on being examined upon oath,
had retracted, or varied from their assertions, all necessity of further
investigation might possibly have been precluded. We accordingly
first examined ou oath the principal informants, Sir John Douglas,
and Charlotte his wife, who both positively swore, the former to
his having observed the fact of the pregnancy of her Royal High
ness, and the latter to all the important particulars contained in
her former declaration, and above referred to. Their examinations
are annexed to this report, and are circumstantial and positive.
The most material of those allegations, into the truth of which we
have been directed to inquire, being thus far supported by the oath
of the parties from whom they had proceeded, we then felt it
to be our duty to follow up the inquiry by the examination of

MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV. 543
such other persons as we judged best able to afford us information
as to the facts in question. We thought it beyond all doubt that,
in this course of inquiry, many particulars must be learnt, which
would be necessarily conclusive on the truth or falsehood of these
declarations — so many persons must have been witnesses to the
appearance of an actually-existing pregnancy : also, many circum
stances must have been attendant upon a real delivery, and diffi
culties, so numerous and insurmountable, must have been involved
in any attempt to account for the infant in question, as the child of
another woman, if it had been in fact the child of the Princess, that
we entertained a full and confident expectation of arriving at com
plete proof, either in the affirmative or negative, on this part of the
subject. ' This expectation was not disappointed. We are happy to declare
to your Majesty our perfect conviction that there is no foundation
whatever for believing that the child now with the Princess is the
child of her Royal Highness, or that she was delivered of any child
in the year 1802; nor has anything appeared to us which would
warrant the belief that she was pregnant in that year, or at any
period within the compass of our inquiries.
' The identity of the child now with the Princess, its parents, age,
the place and the date of its birth, the time, and the circumstances
of its being first taken under her Royal Highness' protection, are all
established by such a concurrence, both of positive and circumstan
tial evidence, as can, in our judgment, leave no question on this
part of the subject. That child was, beyond aU doubt, born in the
Brownlow-street Hospital, on the llth day of July, 1802, of the
body of Sophia Austin ; and was first brought to the Princess'
house in the month of November following. Neither should we be
more v/arranted in expressing any doubt respecting the alleged
pregnancy of the Princess, as stated in the original declarations — a
fact so fully contradicted, and by so raany witnesses, to whom, if
true, it must in various ways be known, that we cannot think it
entitled to the smallest credit. The testimonies on these two points
are contained in the annexed depositions and letters. We have not
partially abstracted thera in this report, lest, by any unintentional
omission, we might weaken their effect ; but we humbly offer to
your Majesty this, our clear and unanimous judgraent upon them,
formed upon full deliberation, and pronounced without hesitation,
on the results of the whole inquiry. We do not, however, feel
ourselves at liberty, much as we should wish it, to close our report

544 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
here. Besides therallegations of the pregnancy and delivery of the
Princess, those declarations, on the whole of which your Majesty
has been pleased to command us to inquire and report, contain, as
we have already remarked, other particulars respecting her Royal
Highness, such as must, especially considering her exalted rank
and station, necessarily give occasion to very unfavourable interpre
tations, from the various depositions and proofs annexed to this
report ; particularly from the examinations of Robert Bidgood,
William Cole, Frances Lloyd, and Mrs. Lisle : your Majesty will
perceive that several strong circumstances of this description have
been positively sworn to by witnesses who cannot, in Our judgment,
be suspected of any unfavourable bias, and whose veracity in this
respect we have seen no ground to question.
' On the precise bearing and effects of the facts thus appearing,
it is not for us to decide ; these we submit to your Majesty's wis
dom : but we conceive it to be our duty to report on this part of
the inquiry as distinctly as on the former facts ; that as, on the one
hand, the facts of pregnancy and delivery are to our minds satisfac
torily disproved, so, on the other hand, we think that the circum
stances to which we now refer, particularly those stated to have
pas.sed between her Royal Highness and Captain Manby, must be
credited until they shall receive some decisive contradiction ; and, if
true, are justly entitled to the most serious consideration. We
cannot close this report without humbly assuring your Majesty that
it was, on every account, our anxious wish to have executed this
delicate trust with as little publicity as the nature ofthe case would
possibly allow; and we intreat your Majesty's permission to express
our full persuasion that, if this wish has been disappointed, the
failure is not imputable to anything unnecessarily said or done by
us ; aU which is most humbly submitted to your Majesty.
(Signed) ' Erskine,
' Spencer,
' June 14, 1806. ' Grenville,
' Ellenborough.
' A true copy, I. Becket.'
It is to be laraented tbat this soleran, though secret in
quiry should appear to have originated in his Royal Highness
the heir-apparent, because, as it was universally known, he
had for a long tirae lived apart frora the Princess ; and, from

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 545
the letters Avbich passed betAveen thera in 1806, morally he
could have no right to institute any inquiry into the conduct
ofhis wife. But it is said he had advisers, and two of these
were Lord Thurlow and Sir Sarauel RoraUly. After giving
due weight to both these gentleraen's opinions, it is evident
that that advice raust bave been bad, which, when acted upon,
tended to loAver the heir-apparent to the throne in the eyes
of the people, to Avhora it is always desirable tbat they should
look with respect and esteera. Whether, on account of the
nation, such an inquiry, on the mere stateraents of Sir John
and Lady Douglas, ought to have been instituted, is another
question ; but the Prince should not have been raade the raost
prorainent party in it; indeed, he ought not to have appeared
in it at all. It appears, however, that too ready credence
Avas given to the stateraents of the Douglases ; for, although
two of their servants, the Laraperts, were exarained (of whose
exarainations nothing is known, and therefore no observations
can be raade upon thera), yet, if other servants, who were
living, or had lived with Sir John and Lady Douglas, at the
period Avhen they Avere intiraate with the Princess of Wales,
bad been exarained, a very different complexion would bave
been given to tbe whole affair, as the real character of Lady
Douglas raust, by these raeans, have been knoAvn. Whoever,
tberefore, advised and proraoted this inquiry, under the ira
pression that they were discharging ' a great public duty,' bere,
at any rate, evinced a great dereUction of it.
Tbe coraraission itself was one of those anoraalies in juris
prudence, of which it is to be hoped no repetition will ever
occur. In the first place, it was secret ; and the secresy
alone is its sufficient condemnation. The witnesses Aver»
exarained separately, and enjoined to secresy. One Avas
taken frora her horae to be examined at ten o'clock at night.
Tbe accused was not present, either by herself or by her
counsel ; consequently, no proper cross-examination could
take place. It must occur to every one that, if the Princess
of Wales appeared to be guilty of tbe high treason which was
laid to ber charge by Lady Douglas (admitting, under the
peculiar circurastances of the case, that her conduct ought to
have been inquired into), it was tbe bounden duty of those
3 Z

546 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
who bad tbe welfare of tbe state in their hands to have insti
tuted a solemn, and a public exaraination and trial of tbe
accused lady. Nothing short of this ought to bave been
atterapted. The very existence of a secret tribunal, and the
raode of examining the witnesses, excite so much suspicion,
and are so opposed to the genius of tbe English constitution,
as well as to the great principles of justice, that no conclusion,
made under such circumstances against the accused, ought to
be for a raoraent entertained. The Princess coraplained raost
strongly, in her letter to the King, of such tribunals. They
bave, indeed, a taint in their nature, from wbicb it is not pos
sible, by any sophistry, that they ever can be freed.
In concluding these observations on the evidence adduced
on this inquiry, the reader's attention should be directed to
the circurastance that, although the raotive for which the
original inquiry, in consequence of the declarations of Lady
Douglas, was begun, bad been reraoved by the total disproof
and utter annihilation of all her stateraents concerning the
Princess, yet, that d^ther charges were afterwards raade by
some other individuals, particularly relative to Sir Sidney
Sraith and Captain Manby, with Avhich those of Lady Douglas
bad, apparently, nothing to do. That these charges bave
been satisfactorily disproved to the conviction of every unpre
judiced raind, it is confidently assuraed. For, although it is
difficult to agree with the report of the comraissioners, that
' what is stated to have passed betAveen her Royal Highness
and Captain Manby raust be credited untU it receive sorae
decisive contradiction,' considering that tbe evidence on which
that opinion was founded is by no raeans entitled to the credit
Avbich the four Lords thought proper to give it, yet, as the
' decisive contradiction' is supplied by Captain Manby's affi
davit, this question is for ever set at rest.
As the Princess had been for raany months, in consequence
of this investigation, excluded frora the royal family, and from
any communication with his Majesty, who bad always shown
the greatest disposition of any branch of his iUustrious House
to do her justice, she naturaUy expected that, after the report
of the commissioners, and the letter containing her defence,
that the King Avould receive her as be bad formerly been

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 547
accustomed to do. After, however, waiting nine weeks from
the period of the transmission of ber defence to his Majesty,
she wrote hira a letter, dated tbe 8tb of December, 1806, cora-
plaining of not having heard frora his Majesty, and raost feel
ingly deplored the delay.
On the 28th of January, 1807, she received a note frora bis
Majesty, inforraing ber that the King, having referred to his
confidential servants tbe proceedings and papers respecting
ber conduct, had been apprized by thera, after liie fullest con
sideration, that they agreed in the opinions contained in the
report of the four Lords ; and tbat it was their opinion that
tbe facts of the case did not warrant their advising tbat any
further steps should be taken by his Majesty's governraent
upon it, except such only as his Majesty's law servants raight
think fit to recoraraend for the prosecution of Lady Douglas
on those parts of ber depositions which appeared justly liable
thereto ; tbat bis Majesty was advised it was no longer neces
sary for hira to decline receiving the Princess into his royal
presence ; that the King saw Avith satisfaction tbe decided
proof of tbe falsehood of tbe accusation of pregnancy arid
delivery brought forward against ber by Lady Douglas : but
that there were other circurastances stated against her, which
he regarded witb serious concern ; and be desired and expected
that such conduct might in future be observed by the Princess
as might fully justify those raarks of paternal regard and affec
tion wbicb be always wished to shew to every part of the royal
faraUy. His Majesty added that he had directed tbat copies
of tbe proceedings should be coraraunicated to the Prince of
Wales. Tbe next day tbe Princess wrote a note to bis Majesty,
requesting permission to wait upon hira the Monday foUowing
at Windsor, or that be would narae some other early day for
tbat purpose. To tbis a reply was returned the same day
from Windsor, informing ber that his Majesty preferred receiv-
ino- ber in London, upon a day subsequent to the ensuing
week, and of wbicb be would apprise her.
On the lOtb of February tbe Princess received a note frora
ihe King, purporting that, as the Princess of Wales raight
have been led to expect, from the King's letter to her, that he
3 Z 2

548 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
would fix an early day for seeing ber, bis Majesty thought it
right to acquaint her that the Prince of Wales, upon receiving
the several docuraents concerning her conduct, made a formal
comraunication to hira of bis intention to put them into tbe
bands of his lawyers ; and praying that his Majesty would sus
pend any further steps in the business, untU the Prince of
Wales should be enabled to submit to hira the stateraent which
he proposed to raake. The King, therefore, deferred naraing a
day, untU the result of tbe Prince's intention should be known.
To this note the Princess, on the 12th, addressed a letter,
beseeching his Majesty to recall his last deterrainalion, and in
forming hira that she should, without delay, represent to hira the
various grounds upon Avbich she felt tbe hardship of her case.
She said, after suffering the punishraent of banishraent from his
Majesty for seven months, pending an inquiry, affecting both
her life and her honour ; after the termination of that in
quiry, and the opinion of his sAvorn servants, tbat tbere was
no longer any reason for his Majesty declining to receive ber;
after bis- Majesty deciding to receive ber at an early day ;
after all this, she now found a renewed application on the part
of the Prince of Wales, upon whose comraunication tbe
first inquiry had been directed ; and that that punishraent,
which had been infiicted pending a seven months inquiry, was
to be continued, and that she was to wait the result of some
new proceeding suggested by the legal advisers ofthe Prince of
Wales. On the 16th of tbe sarae month, the Princess, according to
ber last coraraunication, sent the King a long letter, explain
ing tbe various grounds on which she felt the hardship of ber
case. On the 5th of March, ber Royal Highness transraitted
another letter to the King. She began by informing his Ma
jesty, that she bad hoped to bave heard frora hira, and to have
received his coraraands to pay ber duty to hira, in his royal
presence. That hope being disappointed, she deterrained to
wait a feAV days longer, before she took a step, which, Avhen
once taken, could not be recaUed. Having, however, assured
herself that his Majesty was in town, on the 4th, and not hav
ing received any coraraand to wait upon bira, she abandoned

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 549
aU hope, and informed the King, that tbe publication of the
proceedings alluded to Avould not be Avithbeld beyond the
Monday foUoAving.
Soon after this letter Avas sent, the ministry, of Avhich Lord
GrenvUle was the head, retired from office, and were succeeded
by those who were confessedly the friends of the Princess. It
was, therefore, natural to suppose, that the most complete justice
would be done her. The new administration was formed of
the very raen who had so resolutely and so fully espoused and
defended ber cause, and who so openly and undisguisedly
declared to his Majesty their full conviction of her innocence.
The situation of her Royal Highness was, hoAvever, in the
mean tirae, raost irksorae and harassing. She Avas well aware
tbat tbe great obstacle to ber reception at court rested witb her
mother-in-law, and notwith his Majesty hiraself; and so long
as the Grenville admintration remained in ofiice, Avhich was
known to be faA'Ourable to the views of the Queen, no hopes
could be entertJtined of her restoration to her dignity and rank
at court.
In less than a raonth after tbe new ministers came into
office, the foUoAving Minute of Council was deterrained upon.
' Minute of Council, April 22, 1807.
Present,
Lord Chancellor, (Eldon).
Lord President, (Camden).
Lord Privy Seal, (Westmoreland).
The Duke of Portland.
The Earl of Chatham.
The Earl Bathurst.
Viscount Castlereagh.
Lord MuLGiiAVE.
Mr. Secretary Canning.
Lord Hawkesbury.
' Your Majesty's confidential servants have, in obedience to
your Majesty's commands, most attentively considered the original
char""es and report, the minutes of evidence, and all the other
papers submitted to the consideration of your Majesty on the sub
ject of those charges against her Royal Highness the Princess of
Wales.

550 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
' In the stage in which this business is brought under their con
sideration, they do not feel themselves called upon to give any opi
nion as to the proceeding itself, or to the mode of investigation in
which it has been thought proper to conduct it. But adverting to
the advice which is stated by his Royal Highness the Pjince of
Wales to have directed his conduct, your Majesty's confidential
servants are anxious to impress upon your Majesty their convic
tion, that his Royal Highness could not, under such advice, con
sistently with his public duty, have done otherwise than lay before
your Majesty the statements and examinations which were submitted
to him on this subject.
' After the most deliberate consideration, however, of the evi
dence which has been brought before the Commissioners, and ofthe
previous examinations, as well as of the answer and observations
which have been submitted to your Majesty upon them, they feel it
necessary to declare their decided concurrence in the clear and
unanimous opinion of the Commissioners, confirmed by all your
Majesty's late confidential servants, that the two raain charges
alleged against her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, of
pregnancy and delivery, are completely disproved ; and they further
submit to your Majesty their unanimous opinion, that all other
particulars of conduct brought in accusation against her Royal
Highness, to which the character of criminality can be ascribed,
are satisfactorily contradicted, or rest upon evidence of such a
nature, and which was given under such circumstances, as render it,
in the judgment of your Majesty's confidential servants, undeserving
of credit.
' Your Majesty's confidential servants, therefore, concurring iu
that part of the opinion of your late servants, as stated in their
minute of the 25th of January, that there is no longer any neces
sity for your Majesty being advised to decline receiving the Princess
into your royal presence, humbly submit to your Majesty, that it is
essentially necessary, in justice to her Royal Highness, and for the
honour and interests of your Majesty's illustrious family, that her
Royal Highness the Princess of Wales should be admitted with as
little delay as possible into your Majesty's royal presence, and that
she should be received in a manner due to her rank and station in
¦•your Majesty's court and family.
' Your Majesty's confidential servants also beg leave to submit
to your Majesty, that, considering that it may be necessary that
your Majesty's government should possess the means of referring to
the state of this transaction, it is of the utmost importance that

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 551
these documents, demonstrating the grounds on which your Ma
jesty proceeded, should be preserved in safe custody, and that for
that purpose the originals, or authentic copies of these papers,
should be sealed up and deposited in the office of your Majesty's
principal Secretary of State.'
The 'rainisters did not, however, stop bere, but decided
upon the following separate Minute, which appeared on the
same day as the preceding.
' Your Majesty's confidential servants think it necessary to notice,
in a separate Minute, the request of her Royal Highness the
Princess of Wales, that for her more convenient attendance at your
Majesty's court, some apartment should be allotted to her, in one of
the royal palaces ; although it appears to your Majesty's confidential
servants, that some arrangeraent in this respect may be supposed
naturally to arise out of the present state of this transaction, yet
they humbly conceive that this is a subject so purely of a private
and domestic nature that your Majesty would not expect from them
any particular advice respecting it.'
In consequence of these rainutes ber Royal Highness was
received at court, and apartraents were assigned to her in
Kensington Palace. She was not, however, on the sarae foot
ing either at court, or in the royal faraily, as she had forraerly
been. It is remarkable that when she appeared at court on
his Majesty's birth-day, tbe 4tb June, 1807, as she passed
through tbe presence-chamber and other rooms where the
spectators were asserabled, they received her with clapping of
hands, and on ber return frora the drawing-roora the sarae
mark of respect Avas shewn her. Such an occurrence in such
a place is very extraordinary and unusual, and evinced that
sympathy in the sufferings and feelings of her Royal High
ness, which the British public" ever displayed towards her.
Her triumph was now, therefore, coraplete ; and having gained
the object of her Avishes, she seldora appeared at court, except
on his Majesty's birth-day ; she lived alraost in a state of com
plete estrangement from the royal faraily ; and dedicated
ber time to acts of benevolence, and tbe iraproveraent of her
own raind.
Witb these proceedings the matter, as far as the public was
concerned, appeared to be set at rest; but the fiends of malig-

552 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
nity Avere set privately to work, and the Princess of Wales was
surrounded by a set of pretended friends, but Avho were, in
reaUty, spies placed upon her conduct by the Countess of Jersey,
Avho becarae the depository of all the scandal that Avas col
lected, of all the misrepresentations that Avere invented, and
of all the falsehoods that Avere fabricated. With her* budget
of infamy she hastened to the Prince of Wales, to Avhora she
knew it Avould be a welcorae offering : he gloated over the
contents, and secretly triumphed that his victira was so fast
hastening to her ruin. It is much to be regretted that the
Prince did not understand the character of Lady Jersey, or
tbat he was blind to her- vices ; or, otherwise, if he bad dili
gently and impartially considered the representations which
were made to him — had he analyzed thera in the alerabic of
truth or probabiUty, he Avould have seen their constituent
principles to bave been selfishness, raalice, and revenge.
In regard to tbe merabers of the royal faraily, the bouse
becarae divided against itself. The Queen and the Princesses
espoused the cause of the Prince of Wales ; the King, that
of the Princess. The forraer abstained from her society, as
if it exhaled sorae contaminating influence ; the latter not
only patronized her, but solemnly ratified his approval of her
conduct, by frequently paying her a visit. The latter circum
stance gave great offence to the Prince of Wales, and caUed
forth his severest animadversions. The breach which had
been lately closed up between the father and the son noAV
threatened to be far raore extensive than on any other previous
occasion. When they met, their acknowledgments partook
raore of the character of the ncAv and formal acquaintance,
than of the affectionate intercourse between parent and child :
on the countenance of the former sat the frown of a father's
anger ; on that of the latter Avas visible the disdainful look of
a person labouring under a supposed injury.
By the public the tempest was supposed to have passed
over, and the exciteraent which it had occasioned gradually
subsided: but the rauttering of the approaching storm, more
terrible than its predecessor, Avas heard by some at a distance.
The fiends Avho were to guide the destructive elements of it
were seen proAvUng in their murky atraosphere, and emerging,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 553
at the coramand of the ruler of tbe storm, frora the dark caves
of their guilt,- to collect the poisonous raaterials to throAV into
the cauldron in which tbe intended victira was to be irarao
lated. In tbe raean time, the Hecate of the royal harem
Avound her pestiferous spells round the heart of ber infatuated
slaA'e — tbe venom Avorked marvellously — its livid spots became
gradually visible on the body politic of the nation — the gan
grene vitiated its dearest interests — and lust, iniquity, and
guilt threatened to overcorae tbe power of right, and justice,
and huraanity.
That tbe conduct of George III., in requiring tbe raarriage
of the Prince, Avas unwise, iraproper, and irapolitic, cannot be
disputed. He lived to deplore his deterraination, and sincerely
did he regret it. Yet tbe excellence of his intentions are
equally obvious, and their prudence raust be acknowledged.
This was, however, the cause of those disturbances which, for
five and twenty years, at periods, agitated tbe English nation,
and wbich threatened to involve tbe country in all the horrors
of a civil war.
That the mere fact of a disagreeraent between the Prince
and Princess of Wales has not and would not have occasioned
such evils raust indeed be adraitted ; and that tbe wrongs she
sustained, and the raisery she endured, would alone bave been
insufiicient raotives to induce such feelings, must also be con
ceded. Connected with this fact, were the subsequent aggra
vating circurastances of conspiracy, of unpunished perjury,
of rewarded-falsehood, of the institution of illegal and uncon
stitutional inquiries into private character, of the establishraent
of petty Star Charabers, of the bribing of Avitnesses, of the
persecution of an inquisition, ofthe introduction of novel laAvs
and retrospective enactraents, of secret coraraittees, of open
insult offered to a AVoraan, and a queen ; of rights denied
wbich tbe Constitution, the laws, and coraraon sense acknow
ledged ; and, finally, of individual antipathies, requiring illegal
relief, and of a rainistry distinguished for duplicity and cun
ning, yet, for raeanness, servUity, and ignorance, proposing
raeasures disapproved. by the nation, and expending, unneces
sarily and extravagantly, enorraous suras ofthe public revenue.
These Avere some of the aggravating circumstances ; and,
4 A

554 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
united, tbey at length created a raass of evil which the people
would no longer endure, and of which they siraultaneously ex
pressed their disapprobation and abhorrence.
Frora this therae of national alarra, and national disgrace,
we turn to a subject of raelancholy reflection, naraely, tbe
deaths of two of the most celebrated statesmen who ever
wielded the energies of a nation, which took place in the
year 1806. With the naraes of Pitt and Fox is identified all
that is great and grand in the huraan raind — all that is noble
and sublirae in intellectual power. Rare is the raeteor in thq
heavens, and rare is genius on the earth. We stand transfixed
witb wonder, gazing at tbe splendour of the forraer — it vanishes,
and we look around in vain for the object which shed its bright
ness on our path. Not so the genius on the earth ; — he has
sojourned araongst us in the plenitude of his intellectual
brightness. He has, as if by the potency of sorae magic
Avand, opened to us the stores of nature, aniraate and inani-
raate. We have lived in a creation of bis own, engendered
in a raoraent of subliraity and terror, when on sorae Alpine
height the lightnings flashed around him, or, borne on the
wings ofthe tornado, be saw ' bis giant tail' raising the raoun
tain billow. Lovely, bright, and glorious, like an angel's train,
through floods of fire, we have revelled in bis track : frora
star to star, frora world to world, we have followed hira in
his flight ; with hira Ave have soared aloft, and asked the sun,
'whence thy fires, and where the hand that sent thee forth .3'
The warrior who has borne his banner in the field of victory —
the philosopher who, by bis discoveries, has increased the sura
of huraan happiness — tbe poet who, in tbe excursive flights
of his iraagination, bas erabodied aU that is great, and beau
tiful, and sublime in the huraan raind — the statesraan who has
successfully guided the belra of a raighty state at a period of
danger and anarchy — bas each, in his respective character,
staraped a never-dying celebrity on bis name. The ground
is hallowed which contains his ashes ; and, in the fulness of
compatriot pride, we pronounce his name with triuraph and
exultation. It is not the tear of the afilicted relative only
Avhich faUs on the grave of the philosopher or the statesraan
but the tears of a nation are shed over bis remains ; and in

WHLE^KAM FITT,

C-'-n/C'V.' '.>,n,//',//n/ ^ Tr - ,^¦^1'-// :

.uy TlionLas T^plly Jatprnost&r How. 3£30.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 555
whatever clime a congenial heart raay beat, attuned to aU the
noble feelings which elevate and adorn our nature, there wiU
the sigh of regret be heard, and the note of lamentation break
upon tbe hour of its mirth.
Tbe meteor of heaven vanishes — tbe mountains of the
earth may crumble away — but the genius of man lives for
ever, imperishable, inextinguishable, indestructible. Though
the body, bke tbe mountain, may lie mouldering into dust,
the spirit stiU Uves araongst us ; it has left behind it tbat
wbich can never die — which wiU never perish, until all life
and breath are swept frora tbe earth, and poAver is given to the
angel of destruction to blot the world from being.
It is, however, a raelancholy truth, verified by daily expe
rience, that it is only after an individual, celebrated for his
actions or bis talents, bas been enveloped in bis shroud, and
laid in the torab of bis fathers, that his virtues or his raerits
becorae properly appreciated. A host of enemies, conjured.
up by envy and malice, assail, whilst living, tbe fame and
reputation of tbe raan of genius, who, carried away by tbe
power of bis intellectual spirit, creates for hiraself an orbit
of his own, and, scornful ofthe faint and feeble light emitted
by the minor objects which surround him, dares, like an
erratic star of heaven, loosed from an Alraighty hold, to raove
in an eccentric course, and plunge into distant spheres, which
the low and grovelling raind can never reach.
To atterapt the deUneation of the lifei and character of a
rainister of state is at all tiraes a difficult, delicate, and sorae
tiraes a dangerous task ; for the passions of tbe majority of
men are too much agitated to attend to the coolness of dis
cussion, while they conteraplate the iraraediate political situa
tion of their country ; and it raust also be considered tbat Ave
should be deviating too far from the aim and intent of this
work, were we to enter into an enlarged detail of the private
or political history of tbe two illustrious statesraen Avhose
death took place within a few raonths of each other; that of
Mr. Pitt happening on the 23d of January, and that of Mr.
Fox on the 13th of Septeraber, in the sarae year. Of the
former it may be said that bis character early passed^its ordeal.
Scarcely had be attained the age at wbicb reflection cora-
4 A 2

556 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
mences, Avhen Europe with astonishraent beheld him fiUing
the first place in the councils of his country, and raanaging
the vast mass of its concerns Avith all the vigour and steadiness
of tbe most raatured Avisdora. Dignity, strength, discretion —
these were araong the masterly qualities of his mind at its
first daAvn. He bad been nurtured a statesman, and bis
knowledge Avas of that kind which always Ues ready for prac
tical application. Not dealing in the subtleties of abstract
politics, but moving in the slow, steady procession of reason,
bis conceptions were reflective, and his views correct. Habi
tually attentive to the concerns of governraent, he spared no
pains to acquaint bimself with whatever was connected, how
ever rainutely, witb its prosperity. He Avas devoted to the
state ; its interests engrossed all his study, and engaged all his
care : it Avas the eleraent alone in which he seemed to live
and move. He allowed himself but little recreation from his
labours ; his raind was always in its station, and his activity
was unreraitted.
He did not hastily adopt a measure, nor hastUy abandon
it. The plan struck out by him for the preservation of
Europe Avas the result of prophetic wisdom and profound
policy. But, although defeated in many respects by the selfish
ambition and short-sighted imbecUity of foreign powers, whose
rulers Avere too venal or too weak to follow the flight of that
mind Avhich could have taught them to outwing the storm, the
policy involved in it has stiU a secret operation on the conduct
of surrounding states. His plans were full of energy, and the
principles which inspired them looked beyond the conse
quences of the hour. In a period of change and convulsion,
the most perilous in the history of Great Britain, Avhen sedi
tion stalked abroad, and when the eraissaries of France, and
the abettors of her regicide factions, forraed a league, powerful
frora their nuraber, and forraidable by their talent, in tbat
awful crisis the proraptUude of his raeasures saved his
country. He knew nothing of that timid and wavering cast of mind
which dares not abide by its OAvn decision. He never suffered
popular prejudice nor party clamour to turn him aside from
any raeasure which his deliberate judgment had adopted : he

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 557
bad a proud reliance on hiraself, and he was justified. Like
the sturdy warrior leaning on his own battle-axe, conscious
where his strength lay, he did not readUy look beyond it.
As a debater in tbe House of Comraons, his speeches were
logical and arguraentative. If they did not often abound witb
the graces of metaphor, or sparkle with the brilliancy of wit,
they were always aniraated, elegant, and classical. The
strength of his oratory Avas intrinsic ; it presented the rich
and abundant resource of a clear discernraent and correct
taste. His speeches are stamped with inimitable marks of
originality. When replying to his opponents, his readiness
was not raore conspicuous than his energy : he Avas always
prorapt, and always dignified. He could soraetiraes bave
recourse to the sportiveness of irony, but he did not often
seek any other aid than Avas to be derived frora an arranged
and extensive knowledge of bis subject. This qualified hira
fully to discuss the arguments of others, and forcibly to de
fend bis own. Thus arraed, it was rarely in the power of
bis ad\'ersaries, mighty as they were, to beat bira from the
field. His eloquence, occasionally rapid, electric, veheraent,
was always chaste, Avinning, and persuasive ; not aAving
into acquiescence, but arguing into conviction. His under
standing was bold and comprehensive ; nothing seemed too
reraote for its reach, or too large for its grasp. Unallured
by dissipation, and unsAvayed by pleasure, he never sacri
ficed tbe national treasure to tbe one, nor the national
interest to tbe other. To his unswerving integrity, the raost
authentic of all testiraony is to be found in that unbounded
public confidence wbicb foUoAved bira throughout the whole of
bis political career. Of this part of his character a finer
eulogiura could not be passed than that which Avas pronounced
by his great political opponent, Mr. Fox, in the House of
Coraraons, on the raotion respecting the erection of a monu
ment to his meraory, which came on to be debated on the
27tb of July, 1806. ' But,' said Mr. Fox, ' Avhen I see a
minister who has been in office above twenty years, Avith the
full coraraand of places and public raoney, Avithout any jiecu-
liar extravagance and Avaste, except what raight be expected
from the carelessness that, perhaps, necessarily arose frora the

558 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
multiplicity of duties to wbich the attention of a man, in such
a situation, must be directed ; when 1 see a minister undet
such circumstances using his influence, neither to enrich hira
self, nor those with whora be is by faraily ties raore peculiarly
concemed — it is irapossible for rae not to conclude that this
man is disinterested.'
To the disgrace of Mr. Fox, however, be it recorded, that be
voted against the erection of a raonument to a man, who, what
ever raight have been his political transgressions in the opinion
of Mr. Fox, yet whose narae will stand imperishable in tbe
annals of his country as one of tbe mOst illustrious of its
statesraen. The opposition which was shoAvn to this raeasure
by the party of Mr. Fox, was considered by the majority of the
English people as captious and pitiful — but it raust be remem
bered, that the memory of his great narae depends not on
the records of a British House of Coraraons, for long aftet
they shall have been annihUated, when the constitutiori itself
shall no longer exist, nay, Avhen the venerable pile which
contains his sacred ashes shall be crurabled into dust, the
iraraortal name of Pitt will be found in tbe history of the
world, when his great character will receive that justice which
is due to his transcendent virtues and abilities.
The death of Mr. Pitt broUgbt Mr. Fox again into office,
but bis accession to power, whatever hopes it raight have
excited in political party, or in the great body of the nation,
was a circurastance pregnant to himself witb incoUA'e nience
and danger. In a Ufe of retirement, which, comparatively
speaking at least, he might be said to enjoy, before his sum
mons to power by the death of his political rival, the conse
quences of his youthful eccentricities were capable of beino'
palliated by cautious attention and remedial applications. But
on his advance to office, the perplexities of intrigue, the col
lision of claims, the chagrin of submitting to arrangements
which he most desired to preclude, but which it seemed requi
site to adopt, the prolonged contests in parliament, the fre
quent sumraonses to council, and even tbe very convivialities
with which it was thought expedient to celebrate and cement
a new adrainistration, were but ill calculated for the preserva
tion of that health, which was now more than ever desirable,

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV, 559
but also seemed more than ever in danger. In a few months
syraptoras appeared of an alarraing nature, and it was strongly
apprehended that Mr. Fox laboured under an incipient dropsy.
The business of the House of Coraraons he was consequently
obliged to abandon : but Avith tbis deduction frora his harass
ing eraployraents the reraainder pressed too heavily upon hira ;
and Avhatever chance raight bave been afforded by a total
abstinence frora public business, and a recurrence to his
rural retireraent and regularity, this chance was not afforded.
It Avas not long before the raost decided indications of dropsy
appeared, in consequence of Avhich, all hope of continued life
was founded upon a long succession of operations, which, in
coraparatively vigorous subjects, have sometimes preserved the
springs of life for a series of years, but which a broken con
stitution has seldora, if ever, been capable of sustaining. The
operation of tapping was several tiraes perforraed on Mr. Fox,
producing tbat teraporary relief which it seldom faUs to effect ;
but the disease was too forraidable for effectual resistance, and,
in a short tirae, even for raitigation. After a series of increas
ing languors, amidst which the fondness of affection would
seem to perceive foundations for hope wbich medical skiU
could never really adrait, this great raan, in the fifty-ninth
year of his age, closed his connexion Avith all raortal scenes.
In the preceding pages of this work we have frequently
touched, in a cursory raanner, on tbe character of Mr. Fox,
and it may be adduced against us, that in several instances we
have depictured him, especiaUy in his youth, as addicted to
Borae of the very Avorst vices of our nature. It would have
been exposing ourselves to the charge of gross irapartiality, or
of ignorance of the respective characters in their social rela
tions, which have presented theraselves to our notice in our
progress through this work, if we bad, frora a mere spirit of
forbearance, moUified our statements, or in some instances
actuaUy falsified them from a raotive of prejudice or of party
feeling. The private conduct of a raan belongs to society in
general — his political conduct is the sole property of history,
and vce are aware that tbe two characters are so opposite in
tbeir principles and qualifications, that the liraner in sketch
ing the former may represent it as true to life, deforraed and

560 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
disfigured by the grossest iraperfections, and j'et in turning to
the latter, he raay delineate it with the brightest and raost
splendid colours Avhich his pallet can produce. The conterapo-
raries of Mr. Fox have, however, in raany instances, so con
founded his private and political character, and have so inter-
raixed the shades of each, that the excellence of the one fre
quently overpoAvers the viciousness of the other, and the
utmost vigour of raind is required so to analyse the Avhole, as
to give to each portion its genuine and distinctive properties.
We wiU, however, now regard him estranged frora the garabling
table, and tbe haunts ofhis youthful dissipation, and view hira
as the raan, when the irapetuous ebullitions of youth have sub
sided into the gravity and steadiness of age, and he stood in
the legislative asserably of his country, as its brightest, greatest
ornaraent. Mr. Fox Avas a compound of extreraes — at one raoment a
giant in inteUect — at the next a child in siraplicity and fri
volity. He united in a raost reraarkable degree, says a noted
historian, the seeraingly repugnant characters of tbe mUdest
of raen, and the most vehement of orators. In private life he
Avas gentle, raodest, placable, kind, of siraple raanners, and so
averse from dogmatisra, as to be not only unostentatious, but
even soraetiraes inactive in conversation. His superiority was
never felt but in the instruction Avhich he iraposed, or in the
attention Avhich his generous preference usually directed to the
raore obscure raerabers of the company. Tbe siraplicity of
bis raanners Avas far frora excluding that perfect urbanity
and araenity which flowed still raore frora the boldness of his
nature than frora familiar intercourse witb the most polished
society of Europe. The pleasantry, perhaps, of no man of
wit had so unlaboured an appearance. It seemed rather to
escape from his mind than to be produced by it. He had
lived on the most intimate terras with all his conteraporaries,
distinguished for politeness, or phUosophy, or learning, or the
talents of public life. In the course of thirty years he had
knOAvn almost every raan in Europe, Avhose intercourse could
strengthen, or enrich, or polish the mind. His own literature
was varied and elegant. In classical erudition, which, by the
custora of England, is more particularly called learning, he

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 561
was inferior to few professed scholars. Like aU men of genius,
be delighted to take refuge in poetry from the vulgarity and
irritation of business. His own verses were easy and plea
sant, and might bave claimed no low place among those,
Avhicb the French call vers de society. The poetical character
of his mind was displayed by his extraordinary partiality for
the poetry of the two most poetical nations, or at least lan
guages of the west — those of the Greeks and of the Italians.
He disliked poUtical conversation, and never wiUingly took
any part in it. To speak of bira justly as an orator would
carry us far beyond our prescribed liraits. Everywhere
natural, he carried into public soraething of tbat siraple and
negligent exterior Avbich belonged to bira in private. When
be began to speak, a coraraon observer might have thought
hira awkward; and even a consuraraate judge could only have
been struck Avith tbe exquisite justness of his ideas, and the
transparent simplicity of bis raanners. But no sooner bad
be spoken for sorae tirae, than be was changed into another
being ; be forgot hiraself and everything around hira ; he
thought only of his subject ; bis genius warraed and kindled
as be went on. He darted fire into bis audience ; torrents of
impetuous and irresistible eloquence swept along their feel
ings and conviction. He certainly possessed, above all mo
derns, that union of reason, siraplicity, and veheraence, which
forraed the prince of orators. He Avas tbe raost Demostbenean
speaker since the days of Deraosthenes. ' I knoAV bira,' says
Mr. Burke, in a paraphlet Avritten after their unhappy differ
ence, ' when be was nineteen, since Avbich time be bas risen,
by slow degrees, to be tbe most briUiant and accompUshed
debater tbat the world ever saw.' The quiet dignity of a raind
roused only to great objects, and the absence of petty bustle,
the conterapt of show, tbe abhorrence of intrigue, the plain
ness and downrightness, and even the thorough good-nature
wbich distinguished Mr. Fox, seera to render bira no unfit
representative of the old English character, wbich, if it ever
changed, Ave should be sanguine indeed to see it succeeded by
a better. Tbe sirapUcity of his character inspired confidence,
the ardour of bis eloquence roused enthusiasm, and the gentle
ness of his manner invited friendship. ' I admired,' says Mr.
4 B

562 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Gibbon, ' the powers of a superior man, as they are blended
in his attractive character with aU the softness and simplicity
of a child ; no human being Avas ever more free from any
taint of malignity, vanity, or falsehood.'
From these qualities of his public and private character,
it probably arose that no EngUsh statesraan ever preserved,
during so long a period of adverse fortune, so raany affec
tionate friends and so many zealous adherents. The union
of ardour in pubUc sentiraent, with mildness in social man
ners, was in Mr. Fox an hereditary quality. The same fas
cinating powers over tbe attachment of all who carae within
his sphere, is said to have belonged to his father ; and those
who are acquainted with tbe survivors of another generation,
will feel this delightful quality is not extinct in tbe race.
These few hasty and honest sentiments are sketched in a
teraper too sober and serious for intentional exaggeration, and
Avith too pious an affection for the raeraory of Mr. Fox, to pro
fane it witb any interraixture with the factious brawls and
wrangles ofthe day. As a politician, he belongs exclusively to
history; the tneasures Avhich be supported or opposed raay
divide tbe opinion of posterity, as tbey have divided those of the
present age. But be wUl most certainly coraraand the unani
mous reverence of future generations by bis pure sentiments
towards tbe coraraonwealth ; by bis zeal for the civil and reli
gious rights of all raen ; by his liberal principles, favourable to
mild governraent, to tbe unfettered exercise ofthe huraan facul
ties, and tbe progressive civilization of raankind ; by bis ardent
love for a country, of which the well-being and greatness were,
indeed, inseparable frora bis own glory; and by his professed
reverence for tbat free constitution which be was universally ad
mitted to understand better than any other man of his age, both
in an exactly legal and in a coraprehensively philosophical sense.
We AviU now take a view of the conduct of the Prince of
Wales, during tbe last illness of tbis illustrious statesman, as it
is related by the talented biographer of Sheridan ; and certainly
when bis Royal Highness saw on bis bed of death, tbe friend
and corapanion of his early years, bis preceptor in political
knowledge, and, it raay be added, the proraoter ofhis pleasures
and bis sensual enjoyraents, it would have been .strange indeed

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 563
if the tear of regret had not fallen frora thc eye, unaccustoraed as
it may bave been to any expression of ' the melting mppd.' We
are tpld, 'that tbe Prince showed all the raarks of a feeling heart,
and of great constancy in his friendship, more honourable to
bira than the high station Avbich he adorned. Daily he called
upon hira ; there was no affectation in his visits — tbe counte
nance fuU of good-natured concern, the raanners expressive of
lively interest, tbe softened voice, evinced that not all tbe splen
dour, tbe flattery, or pleasures of a court, bad changed the
brightest feature in tbe huraan character — attention to a sick
and drooping friend. If bis affectionate solicitude about tbe
great statesraan, then struggling under a cruel disease, and the
constancy of bis affection, even tUl tbe last gliraraering spark
of life was extinct, were the only traits recorded of bim, pos
terity wUl say, this was a great Prince, a faithful friend, and
possessed of a feeling, uncorrupted heart.'
Witb all becoming adrairation for tbe talents of Mr. Moore,
we wish that there bad been less of the sickening incense of adu
lation in the foregoing panegyric on bis Royal Highness. An
isolated display of feeling is no proof of a corapassionate heart,
nor ought it to be taken as the criterion of a natural sense of
kindness or humanity. Two of the greatest tyrants of anti
quity, Nero and Dionysius, were once known to weep, and the
casual observer might have called them, at tbat moment, kind
and good. We dispute not that there might bave been origi
nally iraplanted in the breast of his Royal Highness an innate
sense of feeling and of general philanthropy ; but the libidi
nous excesses of his youth, his systeraatic destruction of ferai-
nine virtue (wbicb raust bave been preceded by many a burn
ing tear, tbat made as slight an irapression on his cauterized
heart as the drop of heaven on the wing of the cygnet), his
indefatigable pursuit after personal gratification — each and all
of these bad so deeply contaminated bis original dispositions,
tbat tbe whole nature of the rnan became changed ; and
That which once was, became
As if the child had writ it on the sand,
And the next wave erased it from the view.
In regard to the political connexions ofthe Prince of Wales,
as influenced ,by the death of Mr. Fox, Mr. Moore says, ' By
4 B 2

564 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
the death of Mr. Fox, the chiet personal tie tbat connected the
beir-apparent witb the party of that statesraan was broken.
The political identity of the party itself had, even before that
event, been in a great degree disturbed by a coalition again.st
Avhich Sheridan bad always raost strongly protested, and to
which tbe Prince, there is every reason to believe, was by no
raeans friendly. Iraraediately after the death of Mr. Fox, his
Royal Highness made known his intentions of withdrawing
frora all personal interference in politics ; and, though still con
tinuing his sanction to the remaining ministry, expressed hira
self as being no longer considered " a party raan*." During
the short tirae that these ministers continued in office, the under
standing betAveen them and the Prince was by no means of that
cordial and confidential kind Avhich bad been invariably main
tained during the lifetirae of Mr. Fox : on the contrary, the im
pression on tbe raind ofhis Royal Highness, as well as on those
of his iraraediate friends in tbe rainistry, Lord Moira and Mr.
Sheridan, was, that a cold neglect had succeeded to tbe con
fidence with which they bad hitherto been treated ; and that,
neither in tbeir opinions nor feelings, were they any longer
sufiBciently consulted nor considered.'
The strong attachraent of the Prince of Wales to tbe poli
tical principles of Mr. Fox may be gathered from the speech
wbich he raade at the PavUion at Brighton, on the occasion of
the health of the Princess Charlotte being drank, when be said,
that ' be bad raade it his first care to instil into the raind and
heart of bis daughter the knowledge and love of the true prin
ciples of the British constitution, and he bad pointed out to
her young understanding, as a raodel for study, tbe political
conduct of bis raost revered and laraented friend, Mr. Fox,
who had asserted and raaintained with such transcendent force
the just principles upon wbicb the government, under tbis ex
cellent constitution, ought to be adrainistered for the true and
* This is the phrase used by the Prince himself, in a letter addressed to a noble
Lord (not long after the dismissal of the Grenville ministry) for the purpose of
vindicating his own character from some imputations cast upou it, in consequence
of an interview which he had lately had with the King. This important exposition
of the feelings of his Royal Highness, which, more than anything, throws light
upon his subsequent conduct, was drawn up by Mr. Sheridan. Mr. Moore says,
that he hoped to have heen able to lay it before liis readers, but the Uberty of
perusing it was all that was aUowed him.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 565
solid dignity of tbe crown, and the real security, freedom, and
happiness of tbe people. He bad the raost heartfelt enjoy
raent in knowing, that, even in her present early years, his
daughter had a just conception of tbe value of the precepts
which had been iraplanted in ber breast, and that she Avould
fulfil all the duties which she might be called upon to discharge
wben bis bones were laid in the grave.'
Tbe year 1809 Avas distinguished by the raeraorable charges
which were brought against the Duke of York for raalpractices
in bis official situation as coraraander-in-chief; and which frora
their venal and unconstitutional nature, did not tend to increase
the affection of the people for particular branches of tbe royal
family. It should bere be stated, to the credit of the Prince of
AVales, tbat very few, if any instances are on record, in the early
part ofhis Ufe, in which his Royal Highness employed his exalted
patronage for the proraotion of any of the iraraediate connex
ions of bis numerous mistresses, for in reality there was one
virtue, Avbich Nature had forgotten, in his formation, to inter
mix Avith his constitution, and that virtue was gratitude ; or, at
least, it bad been doled out to, him witb such a sparing hand,
tbat its actual existence became a very questionable thing.
From tbeir infancy, tbe two elder brothers of the royal faraily
had been brought up in entire ignorance ofthe value of raoney ;
both of tbem regarded it as tbe means, not as the end; and it
would be a difficult point to decide which of the two brothers,
on that particular bead, was the greatest ignoraraus. It Avas,
however, tbis reckless indifference to pecuniary raatters, in an
economical point of view, which brought down a nation's indig
nation on their beads, and covered tbe younger of them witb
disgrace and odium. It was, indeed, alleged, by the advocates
of the Duke of York, tbat no instance bad been adduced, by
any of tbe witnesses exarained at tbe bar of the House of
Coraraons, of his Royal Highness having participated, even in a
remote degree, in any of the eraoluraents derived by bis mis
tress from ber traffic in tbe sale of places and comraissions.
This was, however, completely blinking the question, for be
could not but be regarded, relatively speaking, as a consider
able gainer by the concern ; in fact, he might, with the greatest
propriety, bave been cpnsidered as the sleeping partner, whilst

566 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
Mrs. Clarke took upon herself the active part of tbe business.
The resources of the Duke were at the lowest ebb. The de
mands of his mistress were extravagant and boundless ; ber
establishraent partook of the splendour of royalty itself ; atthe
sarae tirae that the Duke was supporting another lady at a beau
tiful cottage at Fulhara, Avhose habits, although not so extrava
gant nor profuse as those of Mrs. Clarke, subjected bis Royal
Highness to raany heavy drains on his finances, which, added
to his garabling speculations, kept bim in a continual state ofthe
deepest erabarrassraent. To supply the pecuniary necessities
of the estabhshraent of Mrs. Clarke frora bis own iraraediate
resources, was found to be an irapossibUity ; and tberefore the
influence of the Duke, and his exalted patronage as com
raander-in-chief, were called into action, as the sources frora
which the pressing exigencies of bis raistress could be sup
plied. Her price for a raajority was 900^, a captaincy 700^,
a lieutenancy 400Z., and an ensigncy 200Z., to be paid to ber
by Colonel French, who, in 1804, Avas appointed to a corarais
sion for raising neAV levies ; and Mrs. Clarke was not only to
enjoy a certain patronage in the appointraent of the officers,
but a certain sura out ofthe bounty to every recruit that was
raised. This influx of eraoluraent stifled the claraours of Mrs.
Clarke for any supply frora the iraraediate resources of tbe
Duke ; and thus, although he could not be styled an actual
participator in the profits, yet, be Avas a considerable gainer,
inasrauch as, if those resources bad not been raade available,
the supply raust bave been produced frora bis own iraraediate
incorae. Whilst, however, Mrs. Clarke was carrying on this traffic at
the west end ofthe toAvn, a public office Avas opened in the city
of London, under the auspices of Mrs. Carey, the fair resi
dent of the cottage at Fulhara, Avhere comraissions in tbe
army were offered to purchasers at reduced prices, and where
the clerks openly and unequivocally stated that they were
employed by the before-mentioned lady, and that, in addition
to comraissions in the array, they Avere eraployed to dispose
of places in every departraent of church and state. These
practices, so repugnant to the constitution, and at such direct
variance with the spirit of the law, bad been long suspected

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 567
but it was difficult to come to tbe proof of thera. The press
bad for a long time teemed with publications injurious to tbe
character and principles of tbe Duke of York, as the com
mander-in-chief; and various surmises and opinions, agree
ably to tbe different tempers of tbe people of England, Avere
forraed, either favourable or derogatory to the object of those
publications. Some considered thera as raere vehicles of
scandal ; others imagined tbem as insidious attacks upon the
whole of the royal faraily, and a vile conspiracy against tbe
illustrious House of Brunswick.
That tbe Duke of York was the dupe of an artful, intriguing,
and talented woraan cannot for a moment admit of a doubt ;
in fact, tbere were fcAv whom she did not raake her dupes,
if ber own interests could be proraoted by it : but it was tbe
circurastance of ber attempt to involve the subject of these
meraoirs in the accoraplishraent of her plans, which rendered
it iraperative on our part to enter iuto this detail of one of the
most important eras in the history of tbis country, as far as
the merabers of the royal faraily Avere concerned.
Tbe Prince of Wales having received an anonyraous letter,
stating that the writer bad sorae very iraportant comraunica
tions to make, the trusty John M'Mahon was despatched
to No. 14, Bedford-row, Russell-square, whence tbe note was
dated. Tbere be was introduced to a lady, who began to
question bim respecting any knowledge which he possessed of
Mrs. Clarke ; and, having denied that be bad any personal
knowledge of ber, be Avas then questioned as to the knowledge
which be possessed of ber character. The courtier, however,
saw not through the snare that was laid for hira, and expressed
hiraself in very disrespectful terms of the lady, concluding with
the observation tbat nothing which he had beard tended to
her advantage. The lady Avhora be was addressing, and to
whora be had given such a questionable character of Mrs.
Clarke, Avas Mrs. Clarke herself! and John M'Mahon stood
before ber, abashed and confounded. He begged her a thou
sand pardons for the portrait Avhich he had drawn of ber, but
be disclairaed being the painter. ' I know it well,' said Mrs.
Clarke, with all that fascination of which she was the raistress,
and in Avhich, perhaps, she exceUed more than any other

568 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
woraan of her pecuUar condition ; ' I know,' said she, ' who
bave drawn ray character to you ; it is Adaras and Green -
Avood :' and she then proceeded to enter upon the business
for which the intervicAV was desired. It was evidently the
aira of Mrs. Clarke to engender enraity between tbe Prince
of Wales and the Duke of York, but on what grounds, or on
whose account, M'Mahon refused to disclose, wben be was
exarained on the subject at the bar of the House of Commons,
of which be was a meraber for the rotten borough of Alde-
burgh, in Suffolk; and, at the saftie time (although it is
enacted by the legislature that no person holding any office
or eraployraent under Governraent, frora wbich is derived any
profit or eraoluraent, shall be deeraed eligible for a seat in
parliament), we find M'Mahon meraber of the Honourable
the Council of his Royal Highness as Duke of Cornwall,
Deputy Warden of the Stannaries, Auditor and Secretary to
the sarae. Keeper of the Privy and Council Seals, Keeper of
the Privy Purse, &c. &c. At a subsequent period of this most
extraordinary investigation, Mrs. Clarke avowed herself to be
the author of the anonyraous letter to tbe Prince of Wales ; and
in consequence of the interview which took place between
ber and M'Mahon, a message was sent by bis Royal High
ness, regretting that bis departure for Brighton would prevent
him interfering in the business, but that M'Mahon should
be the raediator betAveen herself and his royal brother. It
appears, however, that so far from being the raediator, he
became, under the guise of friendship, tbe slavish instrument
of extracting particular inforraation from Mrs. Clarke; to be
afterwards raade use of to her injury, when a phalanx of
power was arrayed against her, wbicb would have crushed
any spirit, were it a hundred tiraes raore firra and daring than
ber OAvn. To shoAV, however, the duplicity of this raan,
whose character and honour were deeraed so unblemished as
to entitle hira to the confidence and friendship of the future
King of England, Ave give the following letter, which is but
one of a series which was read at the table of the House of
Coraraons, frora the sarae person, and Avhicb was purposely
done to show M'Mahon's character in its proper light.

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV. 569
' Nothing, Mrs. Clarke may be assured, but indisposition, and
wanting in the pleasure of having anything successful to report,
could have so long prevented my calling on or sending to her.
' In whatever communication may have been made to Mrs.
Clarke's lawyer, I am indignant that such terms as " either deceiv
ing, or laughing at you" should form a part of it, having reference
to me ; for while I lament my total inability to serve Mrs. Clarke, I
am ready to confess, that in the few interviews I had the honour to
hold with her, her conduct and conversation deraanded nothing but
my respect and the good wishes I bear her. ' J. M.'
The whole of tbe public business was for a time suspended,
in the investigation of these charges against the Duke of York,
and perhaps on no occasion was raore acriraony evinced by
the opponents ofthe Duke, or a raore ardent zeal displayed by
aU tbe adherents ofthe Court, to bring off the royal delinquent
in triuraph. The voice of the pubUc was, however, against
his Royal Highness, and the facts which were proved were so
glaringly corrupt and iraraoral, that the Duke saw it no longer
possible to stera tbe torrent wbicb poured frora all sides so
rapidly against hira, and therefore adopted the wiser plan of a
voluntary resignation rather than tbat of a corapulsory dismissal.
On tbe 20tb of March, therefore, the Chancellor of the Exche
quer rose in the House of Coraraons, and stated, that be had to
coraraunicate to tbe House, that bis Royal Highness the Duke
of York, of his own accord, spontaneously waited on his Ma
jesty, and resigned the high office wbich he had so long held,
as Coramander-in-cbief, into his Majesty's hands. The raotives
for bis Royal Highness having taken that step at this particular
time, appeared to him so proper, that be entertained the raost
sanguine hopes, tbey would prove satisfactory to the House.
Tbe substance of the coraraunication was to the following
effect, ' That the House of Coraraons, after a long and full investigation
into the conduct of his Royal Highness, as Coraraander-in-chief,
having passed certain resolutions, declaring their conviction of his
innocence, and acquitting him of those criminal charges which had
4 C

570 MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.
been moved against him, bethought he raight now tender a resigna
tion of the office he held of Commander-in-chief, without appearing
to shrink frora those charges, or that he ever entertained a doubt of
his innocence being fully proved. That the motives which induced
him to approach his Majesty, who, as a kind and indulgent father
and gracious Sovereign, had conferred on him this fiigh command,
in order to request he would again receive them, were that, having
obtained so complete an acquittal of all corrupt motives, and of all
participation or connivance at corruption, with which he had been
charged, he was desirous of giving way to that public sentiment
which those charges, however ill founded, had unfortunately drawn
on him. That it did not become him to give up a situation in
which his Majesty's confidence had placed him, without expressing
a hope that, during the period of fourteen years he had had the
honour to hold it, his Majesty had been convinced that he had done
everything in his power to promote the interests of the service, and
to evince his constant regard for the welfare and prosperity of the
army.' This communication having been made to bis Majesty by
bis Royal Highness, bis Majesty bad been most graciously
pleased to accept it.
Mr. Bragge Bathurst then moved the following resplutipn —
' That, while the House acknowledges the beneficial effects re
sulting firom the services of his Royal Highness the Duke of York,
during the time ofhis being Commander-in-chief, they had observed
with the greatest regret that, in consequence of a connexion most
immoral and unbecoming, a pernicious and corrupt influence had
been used in respect to military proraotions, and sijch as gave
colour to the various reports respecting the knowledge of the Com
mander-in-chief of these transactions.'
Tp which Lord Althorpe raoved an araendment 
' That the Duke of York having resigned, the House did not
now think it necessary to proceed further on the minutes of evidence
taken before the committee appointed to inquire into the conduct of
the Duke of York, as far as relate to his Royal Highness.'

MEMOIRS OF GEORGE IV.. 571
He bad purposely put in the word ' now,' because he thought
the Duke of York ought not at any time hereafter to be re
stored to his late situation as Commander-in-chief; and if
he should, the House would resume their proceedings upon the
charges. The Chancellor of the Exchequer next moved, that the
word ' now' should be left out of Lord Althorpe's amendraent ;
when it was carried by a raajority of 123.
Thus ended this iraportant investigation — a circurastance
wbich threw a deep gloom over the happiness of the royal
family ; and it is believed to have been one of tbe principal
causes which led, in a short tirae, to the return of that raalady
with wbicb the King bad been previously afflicted, and from
which be never fully recovered.
We bave already traced the rise and progress of several of
the chosen favourites of the Prince of Wales ; and as we sball
have shortly to introduce to tbe notice of our readers ano
ther of tbe vagaries of fortune, in tbe person of the suc
cessor of Sir John M'Mahon, we shaU, at this time, briefly
state the manner and place in which this new favourite Avas
found. His Royal Highness was one evening on a friendly visit at
the bouse of Lord Melbourne, at Whitehall ; and on bis return
at two o'clock in the morning, he perceived a young man
lying huddled up beneath the portico of tbe noble lord's bouse,
where he had crept to avoid the incleraency of the weather, it
having rained very bard during the evening. His Royal
Highness accosted the young man, who replied that he had
come from the country, and bad neither parents nor horae.
Tbe Prince observed to his attendants, that the youth raust
not reraain there to perish, and ordered bira to follow tbe car
riage to Carlton House. On their arrival be directed every
necessary refresbraent to be given hira, and that he should be
put into a corafortable bed. In the raorning bis Royal Pligh-
ness again interrogated the boy, and finding hira to tell a true
and artless tale, iraraediately directed that be should be era-
4 C 2

572 MEMOIRS OP GEORGE IV.
ployed in tbe household, having first given orders tbat be
should be neAvly clothed.
A feAV years more, and we shall find this houseless wan
derer the corapanion of the Prince of Wales, and, in the year
1830, enjoying one of the most honourable offices Avhich the
sovereign can bestoAV upon a subject.

END OF the first VOLUME.

LONDON :— W..Ci,0WES, .Stamford-street.

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