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The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924088016898 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE THE FOURTH. 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OP 
 
 GEORGE THE FOURTH 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 HIS LETTERS AND OPINIONS 
 
 WITH 
 
 A VIEW OF THE MEN, MANNERS, AND POLITICS 
 OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 BY 
 
 PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the HEE OP GAREIOK." 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 TINSLEY BEOTHEES, CATHEEINE STEEET, STEAND. 
 
 188L 
 
CHAEtES DICKEirS AH"D EVEN'S, 
 CHY3TAL PALACE PEE53, 
 
 ^i.-f- •' 
 
 A 
 
^0 llorb loitghtrnt. 
 
 Dear Lord Houghton, 
 
 One of the pleasures associated with the conclusion of 
 this labour of many years, is that of inscribing the following 
 pages to you, by whose kind suggestions they have materially 
 benefited. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Always sincerely yours, 
 
 PEECY FITZGEEALD. 
 
 Fane Valley. 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 PEINCE OF WALES.— 1762-1811. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF GEORaE lY. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 1762. 
 
 Peom daybreak on the morning of August 12th, 1762, crowds 
 had been assembled round St. James's Palace, waiting the news 
 of the birth of a royal child, which was hourly expected. Inside 
 the palace were gathered all the great officers of state who had 
 been in attendance all the night, with the Princess Dowager of 
 Wales, the Dukes of Devonshire and Eutland, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, and other distinguished personages. Dr. Hunter, 
 the great surgeon, was " in attendance,'^ but only in reserve in 
 case of emergency, for the Queen had prejudices against calling in 
 the assistance of the accoucheur ; and the oflBce of assisting her 
 Majesty through the crisis was delegated to a simple midwife.* 
 Twenty-four minutes past seven o'clock was the exact moment 
 that ushered the future prince, prince regent, and king into 
 this world. At thirteen minutes past three o'clock, on a Saturday 
 morning in June, sixty-seven years later, this new-born babe was 
 to depart from it. The contrast between the joyful acclamations 
 and the splendid retinue which welcomed his birth, and the 
 desertion and indifference which attended his death, was signifi- 
 cant, and worthy of the study of princes. One companion of his 
 pleasures, and a few doctors and servants, were all who witnessed 
 that scene ; while outside, the feeling was about that of relief and 
 
 * Mrs. Stephens. Huish, "Memoirs of George IV.," i. 8. Mrs. Draper is 
 mentioned in the publications, but she was the Prince of Wales's nurse. 
 
 VOL. I, B 
 
2 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 satisfaction. He, however, was now a smiling infant in Mrs. 
 Draper's arms. No one could forecast the life that was in store for 
 it, and there was universal joy at the birth of an heir to the Crown. 
 The young king, in his satisfaction, presented the messenger that 
 brought the good news with a " gratification " of five hundred 
 pounds, and was presently drawn to the window of his palace to 
 witness an omen of excellent augury. The Park guns were still 
 firing, when loud rumbling announced the passage of a train of 
 tumbrels known to contain the treasure captured from a Spanish 
 galleon — a prize of enormous value, now on its way to the 
 Tower. Twenty waggons descended St. James's Street, and 
 passed before the King and Court. Under these circumstances, 
 then, came into the world the future George IV., the Prince 
 Regent, and " first gentleman of Europe." 
 
 Not until August 17th, the royal infant, who was born 
 Electoral Prince of Brunswick-Lunenburg, Duke of Cornwall 
 and Rothesay, Earl of OaTrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the 
 Isles, and G-reat Steward of Scotland, was created Prince of 
 Wales and Earl of Chester by patent.* 
 
 The royal pair were anxious to encourage access of all comers to 
 the new hope of the kiagdom. Before the infant was a fortnight 
 old, public notice was given that all who desired it might visit 
 St. James's Palace, " on drawing-room days," between one and 
 three o'clock, an offer of which abundant advantage was taken. 
 The crowd of ladies thus tempted to flock to the Court, to see 
 the child and taste her Majesty's caudle and cake, soon became 
 enormous, the daily expense for cake alone being estimated at 
 forty pounds, while the consumption of wine was " greater than 
 could have been expected." f 
 
 The christening took place on September 8th, in the great 
 council-chamber of the palace, and was performed by Seeker, 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury — " that right reverend midwife," 
 as Mr. Walpole styled him, in allusion to his presence at the 
 Queen's accouchement. The names chosen were George Augustus 
 Erederick, and the godfathers were the Dukes of Cumberland and 
 Mecklenburgh-Strelitz — the latter represented by the Duke of 
 Devonshire — the Princess of Wales being godmother. At this 
 
 * Thus, for this most familiar of his designations, the heir-apparent is 
 indebted to the favour of the Crown. His inherited honours give him. 
 uo higher dignity than a dukedom. It was noted that George IV. held 
 no Irish dignity, but the present Prince of Wales was created Earl of 
 Dublin when nine years old — a dignity which ia to be enjoyed by him 
 and his heirs for ever. 
 
 t Many stories were told of the free-and-easy behaviour of the eager 
 throng. Two Jewish ladies sent their footman to the palace, " to know 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 3 
 
 ceremony, whicli was held at night, there was shown the same 
 eagerness to gratify the loyal aspirations of the crowd. All who 
 came were admitted ; but this, fortunately, had not got abroad, 
 so but few used the privilege, and not more than half-a-dozen 
 ladies of title attended. But, in spite of all these efforts, the 
 royal pair were not popular, and when the Queen showed herself 
 in public at an installation, there was an outcry against "'the 
 indelicacy of so early an appearance," and the matter was warmly 
 controverted. Her friends had to defend her on the ground of 
 her G-erman training and habits.* 
 
 The usual addresses and loyal demonstrations were offered 
 by the Parliament, universities, and the leading cities of the 
 kingdom. Later on, fresh offence, however, was given when 
 it was known that the royal child was to be submitted to inocu- 
 lation, then a novelty, and the preachers protested that it was 
 interfering with the order of Providence. The King and Queen, 
 however, were firm, and had the courage to adopt the new 
 preservative in the case of all their children. Lady Charlotte 
 Finch was appointed governess, and Mrs. Henrietta Ooulsworth 
 deputy governess. t 
 
 Prom his birth set in that long series of portraits in which 
 the figure and features of the young prince and maturer regent 
 were being portrayed on the canvas. No one was painted so 
 frequently. We are told that " soon after his birth the Queen had 
 a whole-length portrait 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 Buckingham House. At the decease 
 
 how the Queen did ? " and were told by Lady Northampton that they 
 should have come in person. "That's good! " said the fellow, "why she 
 lies in herself ; '' if she had not, I suppose she would have expected the 
 Queen to send to her. — Walpole " Letters " (Cunningham), iii. 18. 
 
 * A preacher of note — ^Mr. Simpson — inveighed from the pulpit 
 against this "indelicacy;" and a Dr. "Vandeguoht, a Dutch clergyman, who 
 defended the Queen, was roughly handled by the mob. — Huish, i. 9. 
 
 t The two selected nurses, " wet and dry," it was solemnly announced, 
 were Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Chapman ; the " necessary woman " was Mrs, 
 Dodson, and the two " rockers " were Jane Simpson and Catherine 
 Johnson. The person who had enjoyed the honour of suckling the 
 Prince was a lady — -Mrs. Scott, of Soottshall — of an old Scotch familly 
 but much reduced, and to whom the office was very welcome. " She is 
 much liked by our King and royal family," wrote Mrs. Montagu, who 
 looked to the children obtaining little places in the household ; " and I 
 hope the scheme, which I have forwarded to the utmost of my power, will 
 save an ancient, honourable family from ruin. Her royal nursling is 
 as fine and healthy a child as can be." — Dr. Doran, " A Lady of the Last 
 Century," p. 131. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB W. 
 
 of lier Majesty it was exhibited ; the likeness was still palpable, 
 tbougb the original had outlived the date of the fairy model 
 more than half a century. Few years 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 of the 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."* Another picture of the 
 young prince was painted about this time by Ootes. It repre- 
 sented him in his mother's arms ; a rather large-faced child, a 
 singular anticipation of the features of his future child, the 
 Princess Charlotte. The hand of the Queen is raised as if to 
 enjoin quiet and silence. This was always a favourite with the 
 Kingj as representing the two persons to whom he was most 
 attached. 
 
 Evidence of his promising condition was soon given when a 
 deputation from a society styled the Ancient Britons presented 
 him with an address. It seems scarcely credible that an infant, 
 •not three years old, should have to acknowledge such a compli- 
 ment either vicariously or otherwise, but he was said to have done 
 so in a set speech : " I thank you for this mark of your duty to the 
 King, and wish prosperity to the charity." These words, we are 
 told, were, according to the delighted courtiers, delivered with 
 singular propriety, and a grace that even then almost warranted 
 the adoption of his well-known sobriquet. -f 
 
 In the following year, on August 16th, a second son was born 
 — the Duke of Tork, whose christening, fourteen months after his 
 birth, was attended by some curious ceremonies. Within seven 
 months the King had appointed the infant to be Bishop of 
 Osnaburg, a promotion that caused some scandal as well as much 
 angry contention with the chapter of Cologne, who contended 
 that the appointment lay with them. The dispute went on for 
 some years, until it was compromised through the mediation of 
 the great Frederick, and the young prince was allowed to bear 
 the title and revenues of his office. J The first formal introduction 
 of the young children to the public was on the occasion of a 
 drawing-room, held by them in their own name in October, 1 769. 
 The Prince of Wales, we are told, was assisted by his sister, the 
 
 * Huish. 
 
 t He was " tutored " in the speech for days before. But the Ancient 
 Britons were told that they would not be received again. 
 
 X One loyal writer, Burgh, actually dedicated a work '•' To the Eight, 
 Eeverend Father in God," of three years old. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGB IV. 5 
 
 Princess Eoyalj tlieii two years old.* The order of their daily 
 life and the arrangements for their education were creditable to 
 the good sense and care of the royal parents. The old house at 
 Kew, which had belonged to Secretary MolyneuXj had now been 
 settled on the Queen, and was called the Queen's House, later to 
 be the scene of many painful trials. The Bower Lodge and the 
 houses on the old Green were given up to the children,t 
 who did not reside under the same roof with their parents. 
 Their day was after this pattern. If they had become a little 
 indisposed, the King was afoot at five in the morning, and, going 
 down to their house, would tap at their doors and inquire how 
 they had rested. At eight the Prince of Wales, Prince Frederick^ 
 the Princess Royal, and the Princes William and Edward, were 
 brought from their several apartments on the Green at Kew to 
 the Queen's house to breakfast with their parents. "At nine the 
 youngest children attended, and whilst the eldest were closely 
 plying their tasks, the little ones with their nurses passed the 
 morning in Richmond Gardens. The King and Queen frequently 
 amused themselves with sitting in the room while the children 
 dined; and once a week, accompanied by the whole group in 
 pairs, they made a tour round these extensive plantations. In the 
 evening it was the custom for all the children again to pay their 
 respects at the Queen's house before they retired to rest ; and 
 the same order was observed through each succeeding day, with- 
 out any deviation, while at that place of residence. On Sunday 
 every member of the family of a proper age was required to 
 attend public worship ; and in the evening his Majesty himself 
 
 * Some ridicule attended this proceeding, whicli was borrowed from 
 German etiquette, and caricatures were published representing the children 
 going through the ceremonies with their tops, kites, etc. They at last 
 rebelled; and a story went that the boys had refused to leave their 
 cricket, saying the company might wait. 
 
 t When making arrangements, the careful monarch thus wrote to his 
 minister : "I take this opportunity of enclosing you a list of the servants 
 that I find absolutely necessary to place about my third and fourth sons." 
 He adds, he has brought the expense as low as the nature of the thing 
 would admit. 
 
 -r, . (Mr. DeBude £350 
 
 Preceptors | -g^^_ ^^ ;2ooke 300 
 
 Pages of the ) Mannerlay J Each : Salary, £80 ) nnr, 
 Backstairs \ Miller \ Morning, 20 J * 
 
 Housekeeper 50 
 
 Por keeping three hounds, each £20 ... 60 
 
 Porter 30 
 
 Watchman 25 
 
 Writing Master 100 
 
 £1115 
 
6 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE lY. 
 
 made it a rule to read a discourse from tlie writings of some of 
 our best divines." * 
 
 This is an agreeable family picture^ tliougli the impression 
 abroad was that the discipline was far too severe. The Duke of 
 Sussex, nearly seventy years later, complained to Dr. Holland 
 of the too great strictness of his royal father, and described 
 himself as being then afflicted with an asthmatic breathing, 
 which his tutor "required him to stop; " and which, after various 
 rebukes and threats, ended in sound flogging. This, he added, 
 was by no means a rare occurrence. A tutor would scarcely have 
 ventured to have thus indulged his temper unless he felt that he 
 would be supported.f 
 
 The Duke of York also retailed painful impressions of this 
 period, describing how the tutor would hit them with his pencil 
 on the head if they were inattentive. J 
 
 * Watkins, " Mem. Duke of York," p. 28. 
 
 t Ticknor's " Life," ii. 152. 
 
 J In what kind of family circle the children were reared may be con- 
 ceived from the training their mother had to pass through. " Except the 
 Ladies of the Bedchamber," says Mrs. Harcourt, in her Diary (pp. 45, 46), 
 printed by Mr. Locker, " for i an hour in a week in a funeral circle, or a 
 ceremonious drawing E™ she never had a soul to speak to but the King. 
 That this continued till her first child the P. of Wales was born, that 
 then the nurse & his Governess Lady 0. Finch coming into the Boom was 
 a little treat, but that they had still for years no other society till by 
 degrees the Ladies of the Bed Chamber came more frequently, and latterly 
 the Society for various reasons, the Children growing up, the journies &c. 
 •was much encreased. . . . Expecting to be Queen of a gay Court, finding 
 herself confined as in a Convent, & hardly allowed to think without the 
 leave of her husband checked her spirits, made her fearful & cautious to 
 an extreme, & when the time came that amusements were allowed her 
 her mind was formed to a diff* manner of life." 
 
CHAPTBE II. 
 
 1771—1776. 
 
 This early stage^ however, was soon passed. In the year 1771, 
 when the royal child was nine years old, it was considered time 
 that a scheme for his education should be formally arranged. 
 The second brother was to receive a thoroughly German educa- 
 tion. A system of complete and careful English instruction was 
 determined upon. Accordingly, in February, Dr. Markham, 
 lately Master of Westminster School, and now Bishop of Chester, 
 was appointed preceptor. Dr. Cyril Jackson, sub-preceptor, while 
 Lord Holdernesse became governor. The latter was the real 
 director of the children, and was to look after their conduct 
 generally. For the post of sub-governor — a highly important 
 office — there were many candidates. 
 
 Among the candidates for this office were two clergymen of a 
 doubtful notoriety. One was Ejdgell, who had done dirty work 
 for Lord Sandwich, and had been a sort of bludgeon-man on the 
 press. He had contrived to get permission to dedicate some 
 fables to the young princes ; but when the King read the book 
 he was so disgusted at the mixture of levity and gross flattery 
 that he was at the expense of buying up the whole impression. 
 The other clergyman, who had greatly attracted the Qaeen, was 
 the unfortunate Dr. Dodd. She was in his favour, but the 
 King positively declined, not relishing the style and manner of 
 the candidate. 
 
 But the person chosen was Mr. Smelt, a well-known figure 
 in Madame D'Arblay^s memoirs; a man of signal uprightness 
 and virtue, but " a violent revolution whig." As assistant tutors, 
 Lord Holdernesse selected two foreign refugee Protestants, Bude 
 
8 THE LIFE OF aEOEGE IV. 
 
 and Salzes, tbe latter a Swiss of mucli worth, while Dr. Majendie, 
 the Queen^s reader, attended them for Latin and English. The 
 King and Queen added their exertions ; the former being con- 
 sidered to read with propriety and grace, while the Queen 
 imparted instruction in French, German, and even English, 
 which she could scarcely as yet have been very familiar with. 
 
 The sub-preceptor gave lessons, while the bishop supervised 
 and controlled the whole. Markham was a highly-successful 
 schoolmaster, who had been promoted to the deanery of Christ 
 Church, and afterwards, as was becoming a prince's instructor, 
 received the rich prize of the archbishopric of York. He was 
 a pert, arrogant man, by Mr. Walpole's account, and owed his 
 recommendation to Lord Mansfield. Dr. Jackson was a person 
 of a rather unique type, having refused bishoprics three 
 times.* He seems to have been a worthy and conscientious 
 man, spoken of with much respect by his contemporaries. Lord 
 Holdemesse, Mr. Walpole tells us, " owed his office to his insig- 
 nificance and his wife," who, it was supposed, prompted her 
 husband to use the opportunities afforded by his residence at the 
 Cinque Ports for smuggling.f A board composed of such hetero- 
 geneous elements was not likely to work harmoniously, and almost 
 at once the Court was agitated by what might be considered 
 a scandal. 
 
 It became known that the governor and sub-preceptor were 
 at open war. Late in 1775, the former, from " a violent 
 humour " in his face, which struck in upon his breast and 
 affected his hearing, had been obliged to go to the South of 
 France. On his return he found that advantage had been taken 
 of his absence to prejudice the minds of his pupils against him. 
 " They had treated his authority with contempt, and often ridi- 
 culed him to his face. J The juvenile Bishop of Osnaburg " set 
 on " his elder brother ; what he was to do very often later, even 
 when both were old men. The latter, however, was always 
 showing himself self-willed and headstrong to his father as well 
 as to his mother, who could not control him. Lord Holdernesse 
 accused Jackson of setting his pupils against him. There were 
 suspicions that the bishop was at the bottom of the confusion, 
 while Jackson declared the governor to be "most trifling and 
 unfit for his charge." In this general wrangle the only course 
 
 * Hurd, his successor in the tutorship, declined the primacy of Ireland, 
 as Jackson was said to have done that of England. 
 
 f It was stated that in a single "venture" she introduced one hundred 
 and fourteen dresses. 
 
 X " Last Journals " of "Walpole, ii. 51, -which see also for an account of 
 the whole incident. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 9 
 
 •was to provide a new set of instructors. The King, indeed, 
 ■wished to retain Lord Holdernesse; but the latter declined to 
 ■stay, on the ground, it would seem, that he had lost all control 
 over his charge. Smelt, whose character Mrs. Delany declared, 
 with some exaggeration, " to be of the most noble and delicate 
 kind, and deserving the pen of a Clarendon to do justice to it," 
 followed his patron, refusing a pension from the King. De Salzes, 
 the refugee, also insisted on retiring, significantly giving as a 
 reason the " ungovernable temper of his charge, the Prince of 
 Wales."* 
 
 This was told by Lord Holdernesse himself to Lord Hertford, 
 who reported it to Walpole. It speaks badly for the system 
 that the humours of a headstrong child should have had a share 
 in such changes. 
 
 But the most painful part of this transaction was this early 
 anticipation of future discord between the King and Prince ; for 
 it seems certain that between the boy of fourteen and his father 
 there was already implanted a reciprocal dislike; and Lord 
 Hertford declared that the boy stood in no awe of either his father 
 or his mother. The King was seriously affected by this discovery; 
 and it was noticed that he was wasted with the anxiety. In a 
 letter to Lord North, he says it had made him forget important 
 business. It will be seen from the following how harassed he 
 was, and what steps he took. The passage that his sons "would 
 secretly feel a kind of victory, if the bishop remained," is 
 signifi.cant. 
 
 "My dear Lokd" (he wrote from Kew, on May 27th, 1776),— 
 " . . . . I mentioned the Lord [s] Dartmouth, Ashburnham, and 
 Bruce as the only persons that occurred to me in the least from 
 their characters, as fit to succeed Lord Holdernesse. ... I also 
 mentioned that from principles of honour I could not press 
 Mr. Smelt to continue Sub-G-overnor with any other Governor 
 than Lord Holdernesse; that Mr. Jackson knowing he was to be 
 removed prior to my receiving any intimation of Lord Holder- 
 nesse's intentions to retire, the Bishop of Chester was the only 
 one of the establishment concerning whom it was necessary for 
 me to take any decision ; that on principle I think the Governor 
 is my representative, and as such no one about them must have 
 more hold on them than him, therefore that on the new appoint- 
 ment of a Governor I must produce a new preceptor : when to 
 this is added the want of regard of my sons to Lord Holdernesse 
 has made him resign, though he will put it on his health, they 
 
 * " Last Journals " of Walpole, ii. 63. 
 
10 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 would secretly feel a kind of victory if the Bishop remained : I 
 therefore yesterday took the painful task of sending for the 
 Bishop of Chester, and with kindness and frankness told him 
 that, as Lord Holdernesse meant to retire, I should at the same 
 time appoint a newpreceptor. . . . On Thursday I saw Lord Bruce, 
 and used every argument to compell him to step forth to my 
 assistance. ... On Saturday he wished to decline, but after a 
 very full conversation, seeing my distress of mind, he very hand- 
 somely consented to accept, provided the Bishop of Litchfield 
 came to his assistance. He has by my direction spoke this 
 morning to that Bishop, and on Wednesday I hope to be able to 
 say to you that I have secured those two, which will restore my 
 mind to a state of ease, which you cannot think a tender father 
 can possess unless satisfied of the moral principles of men to 
 whose care he intrusts his children." 
 
 In another letter he writes : 
 
 " LoED NoETH, — The letter I received this day from you, in 
 answer to mine of yesterday, is the most ample proof of your 
 affectionate feeling for me. The Bishop of Litchfield has with 
 great modesty and propriety agreed to come as preceptor to my 
 children. I shall therefore direct Lord Bruce and him to come 
 and kiss hands at the levee on Friday." 
 
 For sub-governor the King found " a highly proper person " 
 in Colonel Hotham. The new preceptor owed his post directly 
 to Lord Mansfield, who brought under the Kings's notice some 
 " Dialogues on the British Constitution.''^ He brought with 
 him his own chaplain. Dr. Arnald, as sub-preceptor; a man of 
 much reputation at the university, and " whose mildness, morals, 
 and cheerfulness," according to the King, were as conspicuous as 
 his talents.* 
 
 Hurd recommended himself much at Court, and the King 
 always displayed a particular affection to him, writing to him in 
 the warmest terms, and when invasion was apprehended selected 
 his palace as the place he was to retire to. He was, no doubt, 
 an excellent man, and the fact that he was disliked by his royal 
 pupils, by whom Markham was preferred, is scarcely to his 
 discredit. Tears after, at a great dinner given by the Duke of 
 Norfolk in St. James's Square, where were the Prince, Fox, 
 Sheridan, Erskine, Dr. Parr, and other persons of note, a 
 
 * Letter to Lord North, ii. 33. But about 1782 his wits became 
 unsettled, and bis delusions seem to have been oddly connected with 
 preferment, for be used to wear a mitre about the bouse. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 11 
 
 discussion took place on the comparative merits of the two 
 preceptors^ and which is even dramatic in its illustration of the 
 character of the Prince and of the resolute Parr. 
 
 "The Archbishop of York/^ writes one who took down a 
 description of the scene from Parr's own lips, then in a declining 
 state of healthj " being alluded to, the Prince observed : ' I 
 esteem Markham a much greater, wiser, and more learned man 
 than Hurd, and a better teacher. You will allow me to be a 
 judge, as they were both my preceptors.-' Said Dr. Parr : ' Is it 
 your Eoyal Highness's pleasure that I should enter upon the 
 topic of their comparative merits as a subject of discussion ? ■' 
 ' YeSj' said the Prince. ' Then, sir/ said Parr, ' I totally 
 differ from your Eoyal Highness in opinion.' ' As I knew 
 them both so intimately,' replied the Prince, ' you will not deny 
 that I had the power of more accurately appreciating their 
 respective merits than you can have had.' The Prince then 
 spoke of Markham's natural dignity and authority as compared 
 with Hurd's smoothness and softness, 'and, with proper sub- 
 mission to your authority on such a subject, his experience as a 
 schoolmaster and his better scholarship.' ' Sir,' said Parr, 
 'your Royal Highness began the conversation, and if you 
 permit it to go on must tolerate a very different inference.' 
 ' Go on,' said the Prince. ' I declare that Markham understands 
 Greek better than Hurd, for when I hesitated Markham imme- 
 diately explained it, and then he went on, but when I hesitated 
 with Hurd he always referred me to the dictionary ; I conclude 
 he therefore wanted to be informed himself.' ' Sir,' replied 
 Parr, ' I venture to differ from your Eoyal Highness's conclu- 
 sion. I am myself a schoolmaster, and I think that Dr. Hurd 
 pursued the right method, and that Dr. Markham failed in his 
 duty. Hurd desired your Eoyal Highness to find the word, not 
 because he did not know it, but because he wished you to find 
 by search and learn it thoroughly.' ' Have you not changed 
 your opinion of Hurd ? ' exclaimed the Prince. ' I have read a 
 work in which ycu attacked him fiercely.' ' Yes, sir, I 
 attacked him on one point which I thought important to letters, 
 and I summoned the whole force of my mind and took every 
 possible pains to do it well, for I consider Hurd to be a great 
 man. . . . There is no comparison between Markham and 
 Hurd as men of talent. Markham was a pompous schoolmaster ; 
 Hurd was a stiff, cold, but correct gentleman. Markham was at 
 the head of a good school, tutor of a good college, and finally 
 became an archbishop ; in all these stations he had trumpeters 
 of his fame who called him great, though he published one 
 " Concio " only, which has already sunk in obHvion. From a 
 
12 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 farmhouse and village school Hurd emerged, the friend of Gray 
 and a circle of distinguished men, and sent from the obscurity of 
 a country village a book, sir, which your royal father, sir, is 
 said to have declared made him a bishop. And perhaps, sir, a 
 portion of the adroitness and power you have manifested in this 
 debate might have been owing to him.'' Fox, when the Prince 
 was gone, exclaimed in his high tone of voice : ' He thought he 
 had caught you, but he caught a Tartar.' The argument was 
 maintained with some heat."* 
 
 The shallowness of the Prince's reasoning — which had yet 
 a specious air — may be contrasted with the doctor's intrepid 
 vindication of Hurd, to whom he bore no good-will ; as indeed 
 his adversary, with some malice, took care to remind him.f 
 
 Though the new preceptor started hopefully on his course, 
 writing to his f i-iends that his pupils were " extremely promising," 
 he was not long in forming a judgment of the character of the 
 eldest. Indeed it seems that the Prince exhibited, at this early 
 age, many of those ungracious qualities which were to distiuguish 
 him when he was grown up ; and his new master augured but 
 badly of his future career. To his cousin, Mrs. Parsons, the 
 bishop said one day in reply to a question as to the progress of 
 his pupil : " My dear," he replied, laying his peculiarly small white 
 hand upon her arm, " I can hardly tell ; he will be either the 
 most polished gentleman or the most accomplished blackguard 
 in Europe ; possibly an admixture of both." J 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting event of his childhood was the 
 meeting with Dr. Johnson, who met with him one day when he 
 was reading in the royal library. The doctor, who spoke to him 
 some grave words of encouragement, had thus been in some sort 
 of communication with five sovereigns. He had been touched 
 for the evil by Queen Anne ; he must have often seen the first 
 and second Georges in the streets of London ; with the third and 
 fourth he had spoken. 
 
 It is not surprising therefore to find that with these appoint- 
 ments the King's troubles were only to recommence. Lord 
 Bruce was barely established in his place, and had dined once 
 with his pupil, when he abruptly retired to the country. It 
 was said indeed that he left it to the Bishop of Lichfield to 
 tell the King that he would not return. The cause was said 
 to be his wife, who thought she would be deprived of his 
 
 * Parr, " Life," i. 322. 
 
 t In testimony of his regard for Markliam, he included his portrait in 
 the collection he had made of his friends' portraits, and on that prelate's 
 death went to the expense of having it engraved. — " Memoirs of the Prince 
 of Wales," 1808. % Kilvert, " Life of Hurd," p. 878. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 13 
 
 society. The poor ■worried King thus unfolds his distress to his 
 counsellor : 
 
 "Lord Noeth" (he wrote on June 2ndj 1776), — "I thought 
 by the step I had taken yesterday that my distress was at an end; 
 but after you left me this day I saw the Bishop of Litchfield, who 
 brought me the melancholy news that some difficulties from Lady 
 Bruce had so agitated her husband that he was come to acquaint 
 me from him that he could not think of being Governor to my 
 children. The Bishop broke it with the greatest gentleness. I 
 instantly sent Lord Ashburnham, whose secrecy I could depend 
 upon, to acquaint the D. of Montague of this event, and to 
 desire the Duke to come to me. I have so powerfully shewn that 
 my fresh distress arose from his family,- that I have persuaded 
 him to supply the place of his brother, which he does on the 
 following conditions — not to be appointed until Wednesday, by 
 which he avoids appearing on the birthday, for which he has no 
 cloaths, and that Lord Bruce may still have the Earldom of 
 Ailesbury." 
 
 The Duke of Montague agreed to take the place on these 
 valuable considerations. 
 
 In connection with this matter, a curious scene occurred 
 between the King and the Bishop, which is reported by the 
 Duke of Leeds in his MS. memoranda: "The King sent for him, 
 and told him that 'he had determined on making an entirely 
 new establishment.^ The other seemed surprised, and not very 
 respectfully said, ' Has your Majesty consulted Lord Mansfield ? ' 
 The King, astonished at so strange a question, replied he surely 
 was master to appoint whom he pleased to overlook the education 
 of his children, and repeated his determination. The Bishop, from 
 the imperious tone with which he had just addressed his sovereign, 
 now changed to the most abject humility, and with tears begged 
 the King to consider his numerous family. His Majesty assured 
 him it should make no alteration in his future preferment. The 
 Bishop retired confused." 
 
 Walpole, however, did not at this moment know of the story 
 that was circulated at Lord Bruce's expense— viz. that his lively 
 pupil, the Prince of Wales, had maliciously led him to expose his 
 ignorance in Homer and Greek generally. The Prince, it was 
 added, was able to set him right in a quotation, as well as to 
 point out a false quantity. This was questioned by the tutor, on 
 which the pupil appealed to better authority, and it was decided 
 
14 THE LIFE OF GEORGE W. 
 
 against Lord Bruce^ who was much laughed at. Such was the 
 story. 
 
 The new governor was probably indulgent enough, though it 
 is difficult to arrive at a true estimate of his disposition; for 
 Mr. Walpole tells us he was one of the " weakest and most 
 ignorant men living," while Hurd's obsequious biographer extols 
 him as a nobleman of singular worth and virtue, of an exemplary 
 life, and of the best principles in Church and State. He was very 
 attentive to his charges, and executed that trust with great 
 propriety and dignity. The preceptor {i.e., Bishop Hurd) was 
 honoured with his confidence, and there never was the least 
 misunderstanding between them ;* this last reason may account 
 for this cordial estimate. 
 
 Under this new direction the education of these princes 
 was started afresh. They were now removed to Kew Palace, and 
 were directly under the eye of the King and Queen. A course of 
 study was marked out for them. Eight hours a day were given 
 to classics and languages. Cicero's Offices was a favourite work of 
 study, and there was an attempt at carrying out a sort of German 
 ideal by instructing the youths in husbandry and such matters. f 
 
 We are told that a spot of ground, in the garden at Kew, 
 was dug by his Eoyal 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 of the 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 imagined, was eaten 
 with no shght relish. The King and Queen partook of the 
 philosophical repast, and beheld with pleasure the very amuse- 
 ments of their children rendered the source of useful knowledge." 
 
 * Kilverfc, p. 366. 
 
 t In the British Museum is to be seen a translation made by the Prince 
 about this time, of which the following is a specimen : 
 
 " As soon as I heard your daughter Tullia was dead, I confess I was 
 extremely concerned, as it became me to be at a loss which I regarded as 
 common to ns 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 almost 
 equally afiected with ourselves, nor can they attempt it without shedding 
 many a tear, so that they appear more to be in want of comfort themselves 
 than perform that duty to others." ' 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGB IV. 15 
 
 The Prince's instructor in tte graces of elocution was Mr. 
 Barfcley-j one of tlie last of the good old school of actors, who had 
 deserved Charles Lamb's praise. His drawing-master was a 
 Russian named Cozens, while Angelo taught him fencing. 
 Nothing, indeed, was more remarkable than the elegant tastes of 
 this royal family, pursued with thorough conscientiousness ; 
 and it was no doubt owing to his being brought up in such 
 an atmosphere that the Prince owed his tone of connoisseurship. 
 The number of masters and professors engaged at the palace was 
 considerable. The Queen herself took lessons from Grainsborough; 
 the King himself was taught architectural drawing by Sir William 
 Chambers, perspective by Kirby, and grammar by Mrs. Trimmer. 
 Quin had instructed him in elocution, and Denoger was the 
 drawing-master for the princes. The Princess Elizabeth published 
 a folio of etchings ; while the walls of Progmore were hung with 
 her pen-and-ink drawings, and decorated in the " Asiatic style," 
 whatever that was then considered to be. She even tried her 
 skill at mezzotint engraving. 
 
 Little wine was allowed, and great regularity of hours was 
 insisted on. This, however well-intentioned, seemed hardly 
 judicious, and it was only natural to suppose that the Prince 
 should look eagerly to the time when he should be emancipated. 
 The preceptor was, of course, entirely on the side of the patron 
 who had favoured him, and is described as "a little plausible man, 
 affecting a singular decorum that endeared him highly to devout 
 old ladies." So that here were severe and arbitrary parents, a 
 weak preceptor, and " the most foolish man in England " as 
 governor — influences not likely to operate favourably on a self- 
 willed, self-indulgent, and hot-tempered youth. The tutor being 
 thus engrossed with " currying favour " with the King, the pupil 
 was left to the company of servants and grooms. The story went 
 that the King did all he could to protract his son's nonage, and 
 keep him a schoolboy. He was made to wear a child's frilled 
 collar, to which he one day called a servant's attention, saying : 
 *' See how they treat me ! " * It was not wonderful that he took 
 every means to elude the vigilance of his guardians. The 
 worthy Mrs. Chapone, however, gives a highly favourable picture 
 of the interior of the royal family circle. This occurred in the 
 year 1778: '^Mr. Buller," she says, "went to Windsor on 
 Saturday ; saw the King, who inquired much about the Bishop 
 [of Winchester], and hearing that he would be eighty-two next 
 Monday, 'Then,' said the King, 'I will go and wish him joy.' 
 
 * Walpole, " Last Journals," i. 108. 
 
16 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IV. 
 
 ' And 1/ said the Queen, ' will go too.' Mr. B. then dropt a hint 
 of the additional pleasure it would give the Bishop if he could see 
 the Princes. 'That/ said the King, 'requires contrivance; but 
 if I can manage it, we will all go.' On the Monday following, 
 the royal party, consisting of their Majesties, the Prince of Wales, 
 Duke of York, Duke of Clarence, the Princess Eoyal, 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 acqiiaintance. Whilst the 
 Princes were speaking to me, Mr. Arnald, sub-preceptor, said, 
 ' These gentlemen are well acquainted with a certain ode prefixed 
 to Mrs. Carter's Epictetus, if you know anything of it.' After- 
 wards the King came and spoke to us, and the Queen led the 
 Princess Eoyal 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 all 
 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 conversation 
 was surprisingly manly and clever for his age, yet, with the young 
 Bailors, he was quite the boy, and said to John BuUer, by way of 
 encouraging him to talk, ' Come, we are both boys, you know.' 
 All of them showed affectionate respect to the Bishop ; the Prince 
 of Wales pressed his hand so hard that he hurt it." 
 
 A yet more pleasing picture of the simple tastes of this excel- 
 lent King and his Queen was the mode of commemorating the 
 birthday of the young Prince of Wales. In these happy times 
 Windsor and Weymouth were favourite places of villeggiatura 
 for the royal family. At the former place the morning was 
 ushered in so early as six o'clock by the ringing of bells, and a 
 feu dejoie was fired. Before nine the young princes arrived from 
 Kew to wait on their father, and at ten a procession was formed 
 of all the royal family and the attendants, who walked in state 
 to the church. The Prince and his sis brothers walked two and 
 two, sumptuously arrayed in blue and gold; the three young 
 princesses followed. In the church, all marched up to the table 
 and made their offerings of gold and silver. On their return a 
 procession was formed again, which was swelled by the canons 
 and clergy, who attended them to the door of the palace. Later 
 in the day the royal children appeared on the terrace, where they 
 were greeted with a salute of three volleys from the soldiers ; 
 this was with the good-natured purpose of showing themselves 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 17 
 
 to tlie loyal Windsor folks, wlio ttronged in crowds to look at 
 them. They retired to dine, and at half-past six the Prince and 
 his brothers took leave of their father and returned to Kew. So 
 simple and innocent a mode of celebrating a birthday might seem 
 strange and old-fashioned in our time. And it may be said that 
 this custom of royal personages exhibiting themselves to the 
 public in the " walks at Windsor,^' and which was persevered in 
 all through that long reign, would seem to have been a very wise 
 and laudable one. For in this fashion was loyalty fostered. 
 But this patriarchal system was not to last much longer. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 1779. 
 
 The Prince of Waies was now approaching Ws nineteenth year, 
 when he was to become legally of age, as heir to the throne. 
 Complaints of the rigorous system of discipline began to be heard. 
 It was stated that he was not allowed to appear at balls until the 
 summer of the year 1779, and then only because the Spanish 
 minister asked it as a favour. He himself began to protest 
 loudly. " The Prince of Wales," so ran a paragraph in one of 
 the papers, "with a spirit which does him honour, has three 
 times requested a change in that system. Time will show whether 
 the junta have laid their foundations upon a rock or upon sand." 
 He had already begged to have a commission in the army, and to 
 be allowed to go about as he pleased, like other young men of 
 the day. It happened at this time that the King was busily 
 engaged in visiting the forts and dockyards, and in further 
 kindling the public enthusiasm by tours of inspection and reviews. 
 The two young men earnestly begged to be allowed to attend 
 him on these occasions. Their request was refused, but, instead, 
 they were taken out to Kew Gardens to receive lessons in forti- 
 fication and gunnery. They were also allowed to shift their 
 residence occasionally from Windsor to Kew. This pedantic 
 restraiut overshot the mark, and the young princes seized eagerly 
 the opportunity of their father's absence to cultivate an inti- 
 macy with the gay nobles of the day, who quickly instructed 
 them as to how they were to break loose from this disagreeable 
 bondage. These lessons they almost at once bettered, as the 
 King was presently to learn, and within a few months the 
 forebodings of the worthy bishop, their tutor, were to be realised. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 19 
 
 It is probable tbat if sounder instruction bad been given he 
 would not have followed; but still it must be owned that the 
 stupidj odious, German, sergeant-system of discipline that had 
 been so rigorously applied was, in fact, responsible for the 
 blemishes in the young Prince's character. It will be seen, as 
 we pursue the course of his life, that an indifference to truth 
 was one of these blemishes ; and this, as may be conceived, was 
 owing to childish terror of those above him. There are two 
 simple anecdotes connected with this matter which are almost 
 convincing. Lord Essex, riding out with the King, met the 
 young prince arrayed in a wig, and asked him sharply the 
 reason of his wearing it. No doubt in some alarm, the 
 Prince answered hastily: "That he was ordered to do so by 
 the doctor as he was subject to cold." On which the King 
 turned to his companion, and said : " A lie is ever ready when it 
 is wanted.'^ This shows what the feeling of the father was, and 
 how little he cared to show his respect for his son.* Many years 
 after, the son, become Prince Regent, consulted Lady Spencer as to 
 the choice of a governess for his daughter. " Above all," he said, 
 " I must teach her to tell the truth." Then he added this remark- 
 able declaration : " You know that I don^t speak the truth and 
 my brothers don^t, and I find it a great defect, from which I 
 would have my daughter free. We have been brought up badly, 
 the Queen having taught us to equivocate." f No one corrobo- 
 rated this candid confession and defect so heartily as the Duke of 
 Wellington, who again and again seems to declare that he could 
 not believe a word the prince said. Let the blame, however, or an 
 important share of it, be placed where it is properly due. Yet 
 the young prince was good-natured; and had he been properly 
 directed might have turned out more creditably than he did. He 
 was after heard to say : " I wish everyone would tell me what I 
 ought to do ; nobody gives me any instructions.^^ 
 
 It is melancholy, too, to trace another result of this system. 
 Being jealously shut up in the palace, and deprived of rational 
 amusements, he had contracted a habit of private drinking, 
 which told upon the scrofulous humours which, it was said, the 
 Princess of Wales had introduced into the family, and which now 
 broke out all over his face. To these excesses he was incited by 
 his wild, ever-favourite brother, the youthful bishop, who had 
 the most spirit, and put him on to acting with spirit. Un- 
 fortunately, too, at this time, the King was harassed by the 
 insubordination of his brothers; and, in the dissensions that 
 
 * McCullagh Torrens's " Life of Lord Melbourne," i. 156 
 t Ibid. p. 157. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE LIFE OE GEOEGE lY. 
 
 followed, tlie young princes found themselves encouraged to take 
 part witli them. The Duke of Cumberland, a man of depraved 
 character^ was not slow to profit by this spirit^ and became the 
 guide and prompter of his nephews. We find the young prince 
 taking sides against his father in some of the exciting questions 
 of the hour, such as the Keppel-Palliser episode — congratulating 
 Miss Keppel on the result, and " declaring it the happiest event 
 he had ever known" — and then "cutting" various persons who 
 were on the side of the Court. In the question of the Duke of 
 Gloucester's marriage, he vehemently espoused his uncle's side, 
 assuring him "though he could not come to see him now 
 without the King's leave, that in a short time he would be of age, 
 and his own master. That now he would give out that he 
 intended to visit him."* 
 
 All this was as unpromising as it was unbecoming. But the 
 unlucky, if injudicious father, worried by brothers and sons, was 
 now to feel shame at the discovery that this precocious youth 
 had been secretly engaged in a scandalous intrigue with a 
 notorious personage, Mrs. Robinson. This lady has left memoirs 
 and poems, in which the whole transaction is set out at length 
 in a romantic high-flown strain ; but in which the prosaic and 
 businesslike issues to which she conducted it, viz. the extorting 
 of a bond for twenty thousand pounds, is lightly touched upon. 
 The King had to undergo the humiliation of having to enter into 
 a transaction with this person to save public exposure. 
 
 "I am sorry," he wrote on August 28th, 1781, "to be 
 obliged to open a subject that has long given me much pain, but 
 I can rather do it on paper than in conversation : it is a subject 
 of which I know he is not ignorant. My eldest son got last year 
 into a very improper connection with an actress and woman of 
 indifferent character through the friendly assistance of Ld. 
 Maiden ; a multitude of letters past, which she has threatened 
 to publish unless he, in short, bought them of her. He had made 
 her very foolish premisses [stc], which, undoubtedly, by her 
 conduct to him she entirely cancelled, I have thought it right to 
 authorize the getting them from her, and have employed Lieut.- 
 Col. Hotham, on whose discression [sic] I could depend, to 
 manage this business. He has now brought it to a conclusion, 
 and has her consent to get these letters on her receiving £5000, 
 undoubtedly an enormous sum ; but I wish to get my son out of 
 this shameful scrape. I desire you will therefore see Lieut.-Col. 
 Hotham and settle this with him. I am happy at being able to 
 say that I never was personally engaged in such a transaction, 
 which perhaps makes me feel this the stronger." 
 
 * Walpole, "Last Journals," p. 417. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 21 
 
 Of tlie bond engagement the King does not seem to have been 
 aware, fancying all was arranged when the letters were secured 
 at such an enormous price. Mr. Fox, at this time one of the 
 most reckless of the London roues and a chosen companion of the 
 Prince, undertook the arrangement of this delicate matter, and 
 succeeded in recovering it in return for an annuity of four 
 hundred pounds. This is more disastrous record than the career 
 of this hapless creature, who, forsaken and paralysed, sank into 
 misery and beggary, from which she appealed to her former 
 admirer. 
 
 THE PBINCE or WALES TO MES. EOBINSOlf. 
 
 " Deae.Mes. Eobinson, 
 
 " I have receiv'd your letter, and it really quite overcomes 
 me, the scene of distress you so pathetically paint. I will 
 certainly wait upon you, but I am afraid it will be late before I 
 can come to the Ship, as I have company with me. Should it be 
 within the compass of my means to rescue you from the abyss 
 you apprehend that is before you, and for which you mention 
 Mr. Brent, I need say that the temptation of gratifying others, 
 and at the same time and by the same means making one^s self 
 happy, is too alluring to be neglected a single moment ; however, 
 you must allow me to be thus explicit and candid, that it must in 
 great measure depend upon the extent of what will be necessary 
 to be done for your service, and how far my funds may be 
 adequate, as well as my power equal to attain that object. In 
 the meantime only rest assured of my good wishes and good 
 intentions. 
 
 " I am, dear Mrs. Eobinson, very sincerely yours, 
 
 " Geokge.* 
 
 " To Mrs. Eobinson, Ship Inn, Briglifcon." 
 
 There is some feeling and good nature in this reply, which is 
 at the same time significant. For all through his life he was 
 found ready to answer an immediate and instant appeal to his 
 sympathy and affection. But after a delay, when these had time 
 to grow cold, nothing would be done. Benevolence on such 
 principles is simply gratifying an appetite, and is worthless. 
 
 As the secluded prince was presently to be enlarged, it was 
 natural that some of the nobility should have expressed a wish 
 that he should visit their houses in different parts of the country, 
 and thus become acquainted with his future associates. The 
 
 * MS. in the possession of Sholto Hare, Esq. 
 
22 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IT, 
 
 yonng man eagerly hailed the notion of what was, in truth, a 
 respectable and sensible mode of introduction; but the King 
 refused to sanction the proposal. The best opinions seem to 
 point to the Queen as the person most accountable for the whole 
 course of treatment adopted towards the Prince.* 
 
 * During the Gordon Riots, he set his guardians at defiance, and 
 hurried up to London to join his father, attended by a friend and a 
 servant. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1780. 
 
 It was now tlie year 1780, and tlie King felt that lie could no 
 longer refuse Ms eldest son his freedom. In the summer it was 
 noted as significant that their Majesties had drunk tea at Carlton 
 House, and it was assumed that this mansion was to be got ready 
 for the Prince. As a first step, however, it was determined to 
 send away the Prince Frederick (the Bishop of Osnaburg) to the 
 Continent, as it was imagined that his aid and advice would not 
 be of advantage to the Prince of Wales. This was the view 
 taken by the public at the time. The Prince was really dis- 
 tressed at losing his companion, and begged to be allowed to go 
 with him. The scene of the parting is described as very affecting, 
 " the Prince being so moved that he stood in a state of entire 
 sensibility, unable to speak, or to express the concern by which 
 he was agitated." * 
 
 The establishment now set on foot was but a " bit of one," as 
 Walpole called it, for the Prince was to be kept at Buckingham 
 House still under the royal eye. The King's letters will show 
 how anxiously and equitably he proceeded to arrange this 
 important matter. After declaring that he had been turning to 
 his own old accounts, he says that he " considered that in addition 
 to my eldest son's establishment I must furnish the incidental 
 expenses to my second son's travelling and education, and the 
 taking the three eldest boys now in the nursery and placing 
 them with me : this I felt would require much deliberation, the 
 result of which I will now fully state, . . . 
 
 " I have, therefore, in this view formed an honorable estab- 
 
 * Lloyd, " Life of George IV.," p. 33. 
 
24 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV, 
 
 lishment, and given my son for Eobes and Privy Purse the exact 
 sum I had. His stables will be more expensive in point of 
 saddle-horses, I keeping at that time but four, he will have 
 sixteen; but by appointing a Groom of the Stole instead of 
 a Master of the Horse, a set of horses and two footmen are 
 diminished, which alone attended that oflScer in the first estab- 
 lishment of my late father. As my son will live in my house, he 
 cannot have any occasion for those servants, necessary only if he 
 kept house. . . . The difficulty I find of having persons whose 
 private conduct I think may with safety be placed about a 
 young person is not surprising, as, I thank Heaven, my morals 
 and course of life have but little resembled those too prevalent 
 in the present age ; and certainly, of all objects in this life, the 
 one I have most at heart is to form my children that they maybe 
 useful examples and worthy of immitation {_sic]. I shall therefore 
 be scrupulous as to the private lives of those I place about my 
 son, though in other cases I never wish to be informed, unless of 
 those great enormities that must make every man of principle 
 shun the company of such persons ; but in the case of my 
 children, my happiness, as well as the good of the public, is 
 materially concerned in this investigation. 
 
 " Lord North seemed to insinuate that, if the whole additional 
 expense of my children did not exceed £30,000, he thought the 
 money could be found. I have tried to keep it to £20,000, 
 because, from the very numerous familly [sic] I have, it is 
 impossible to lodge them, and I must make some alterations for 
 that purpose in the wings of the Queen's House. ^'* 
 
 It is amusing to see the fixed purpose of the father to keep 
 his son stdl in leading-strings by " serving him out " supplies as 
 they were wanted, and making him live in his own house. The 
 young Prince, of course, cordially accepted the arrangement, but 
 as an instalment. f 
 
 V 
 
 * The reader will bear tliis in mind later when the question of the 
 
 Prince's " arrears " come to be considered. Here we find the King 
 
 declaring that the cost for all his children would not exceed the sum named. 
 
 t The prudent king made the following calculation of the expenses of 
 
 Prince Edward's table for twelve months : 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Kitchen 1519 3 
 
 Spicery 93 11 
 
 Beer and ale 92 8 
 
 Bread 107 4 l>i 
 
 Dessert 367 
 
 Wines 115 18 
 
 Butter and cheese 37 6 
 
 £ii322 10 1}4 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 25 
 
 But it is curious to note the misgiving tlie King entertained, 
 and the rather tortuous mode which he adopted to obtain public 
 approval. "Some one/^ he wrote to his ministers inPebruary, 1781, 
 " of the P. of Wales^s family may be authorized, if it should in 
 the debate be thought right, just to drop that he is satisfied with 
 the arrangements I have made for him ; for it would be highly 
 indelicate for me to speak to my son on the subject; indeed, I 
 have done for him all that could in reason be expected from me, 
 and I have already grounds to judge the extraordinaries, from 
 his love of expence, will be great, besides some other calls for 
 money that wUl come from that quarter, which convinces me the 
 more that if the allowance had been greater that would not have 
 prevented this other article/' 
 
 Colonel Hotham was to be Treasurer, and a second son of 
 Lord Dartmouth, who was to be Groom of the Chamber, had, 
 indeed, the drawback of being a young man, but the King waived 
 the objection in consequence of "the known piety of the ia,ther.'^ 
 There was a dulness and a lack of knowledge in these provisions 
 which might make us augur the worst. 
 
 Thus appointed and thus emancipated, the young prince was 
 launched upon his new career. We shall now see what quali- 
 fications he was fitted with on entering on the world of fashion, 
 and what figure he presented to admiring society, eager to wel- 
 come him, and indulgently condone as well as encourage his 
 follies. 
 
 On New Tear's Day, 1781, the Prince appeared at Court, 
 enfranchised, in his new capacity, attended by his retinue. He 
 received the congratulations of all the nobility and foreign 
 ministers. From the pictures of him at this time by Cosway 
 and others, he appears as a good-looking youth of a highly florid 
 tone, made more conspicuous by the powder he wore and his 
 
 £ B. d. 
 
 Carried forward from page 24 . . . 2322 10 1)4 
 Supposing H. E. H. to dine at home every day : 
 In these twelve months H.B.H. dined at 
 Windsor 42 days, which makes a deduc- 
 tion of 267 3 
 
 Total expense of the last twelve naonths £2055 7 1}4 
 
 £5000 per annum for my dearly-beloved son P. Frederick. 
 2500 per annum for my dearly -beloved sons P. William and P. Edward. 
 3500 per annum for my dearly-beloved sons P. Ernest, P. Augustus, 
 and P. Adolphus. G. E. 
 
 The Duke of Sussex told Mr. Adolphus that till he was twenty-one 
 his pocket-money never exceeded a guinea a week. When he was thirty 
 he was allowed £2000 a year. 
 
26 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 higli neckercMef . His coat was of pink silk, wifcli white cufEs ; his 
 waistcoat of white silk, embroidered with various-coloured foil, but 
 adorned with a profusion of French paste ; and his hat was orna- 
 mented with two rows of steel beads, five thousand in number, 
 with a button and loop of the same metal, and cocked in a new 
 military style. " The King at the same time commanded all the 
 domestics of his kitchen to submit their heads to be shaved, and 
 wear wigs, on pain of being discharged ; forty complied with the 
 royal mandate, how many proved refractory does not appear." 
 
 " The graces of his person," says one of his admirers — Mrs. 
 Robinson — "the irresistible sweetness of his smile, the tenderness 
 of his melodious yet manly voice, will be remembered by me till 
 every vision of this changing scene are forgotten. The polished 
 and fascinating ingenuousness of his manners contributed not a 
 little to enliven our promenade. He sang with exquisite taste, 
 and the tones of his voice, breaking on the silence of the night, 
 have often appeared to my entranced senses like more than mortal 
 melody." He was free and "offhand" in his manners, but 
 already had acquired the coarse language which was in vogue 
 among the bloods and bucks of the day.* He was considered to 
 be a young man of great accomplishments and education, and 
 when he chose could assume that pleasant graciousness and inte- 
 rest in the person he was addressing for which the present heir 
 to the crown is remarkable. He could speak French, Italian, 
 and German with ease, and particularly affected a knowledge of 
 all points relating to art and the belles lettres. He took pleasure 
 in coming forward as arbiter on a question of a disputed quota- 
 tion or classical allusion. For music he seems to have had a 
 genuine relish, and he could sing and play respectably. The 
 following description of his gifts is amusing, as a specimen of the 
 "valet" style of panegyric, which admiration for the Prince 
 invariably inspired. 
 
 " He could perform on the violoncello, having been instructed 
 by a well-known professor named Crossdill; Parsons, of the King's 
 band, taught him singing, and it must be said that he was con- 
 sidered to have a good voice, and could take his part in a glee or 
 catch.f He was an assiduous patron of the various musical 
 
 * "Walpole, "Last Journals," ii. 458, for a specimen. 
 
 f He is the reputed author of the second verse of the glee of "The 
 Happy Fellow," " I'll ne'er,'' etc., and also of a verse in the song, " By the 
 gaily circling glass," which he was accustomed to sing in his convivial 
 moments with great effect. — Huish, i. 46. As a critic he could not rank so 
 high, to take as a specimen his comparison of Orossdill and Oervetto. 
 Speaking of the performances of these eminent men, his royal highness 
 was heard to say, that the execution of Orossdill had all the fire and 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 27 
 
 societies, the Concerts of Ancient Music, for wliicli lie selected 
 pieces, the Philharmonic, the opera; though from the Ancient 
 Concerts he withdrew, owing to a slight shown to a lady in whom 
 he was interested." 
 
 Unfortunately, in company with these elegant and praise- 
 worthy tastes were found others of a low and vulgar description. 
 He took delight in "rowdy" escapades and riotous jests, later 
 to be in high fashion, and described in works like "Tom and 
 Jerry" and "The Finish." He was fond of Ranelagh and 
 Vauxhall, where he was often engaged in scuffles and broils, 
 being prudent enough, however, to retain a number of " bruisers" 
 to attend him, and rescue him if overpowered ; for among other 
 accomplishments he had been instructed by Angelo in pugilism. 
 In the pleasures of the turf, owing to the strict injunctions of 
 the King, he could not yet indulge himself. 
 
 Thus equipped, this gay young prince " came upon town," 
 and, it may be conceived, stimulated the current of gaiety and 
 extravagance. Balls and masquerades of the most brilliant kind 
 attended his course. His wardrobe alone for a single year was 
 said to have cost ten thousand pounds. Under his direction, one 
 of the most brilliant masquerades was given at a club in St. 
 James's Street, opened by the Prince and the Duchess of Devon- 
 shire. At these entertainments the fairest and most aristocratic 
 dames were not ashamed to mix with courtesans who enjoyed the 
 royal patronage; indeed, there was a general obsequious acceptance 
 of pubhc scandal which uow seems incredible. 
 
 This new and riotous mode, as may be conceived, was to be 
 a source of fresh trial to the King, and widened the breach 
 between him and his son. The hopeful prince showed his 
 disrespect and contempt by ignoring the officers who had been 
 so recently placed about his person, studiously affecting never to 
 address them'; he looked on them as spies set to watch and report 
 him. To Lord Chesterfield he made the objection "that he 
 had hanged his tutor, the unfortunate Dr. Dodd," that he had 
 for patron so depraved a person as Lord Sandwich. Yet, not long 
 after, with characteristic uncertainty, he soon took as violent a 
 penchant to this very nobleman, and drove him pubhcly in the park 
 in his own chaise.* 
 
 brilliancy of the sun, whilst that of Cervetto had all the sweetness and 
 mildness of the moonbeam. It was the delight of his royal highness to 
 attend the Italian Opera, merely to hear Cervetto's accompaniments of the 
 recitatives, which were acknowledged to be unrivalled. " It was a banquet 
 for the ear," he said, " at which the appetite increased in proportion as it 
 was administered to." 
 
 * See Walpole, " Last Journals," ii. 4S1. 
 
28 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 The town, indeed, was full of stories of his wild doings. No 
 sooner had the King gone to bed, than he and his brother broke 
 out of the palace in search of riotous adventures. One of these 
 outrageous scenes may be taken as a specimen of the rest. One 
 night, with his chief favourite and the worthy Duke of Cumber- 
 land, he set off for Blackheath, to sup with Lord Chesterfield, 
 where the whole company presently got so drunk that the Prince 
 was obliged to lie down. One of the party actually proposed a 
 toast, " A short reign to the King," which the inebriated Prince 
 felt was in bad taste, or perhaps an affront to himself. He rose 
 and gave his father's health. The next exploit was to let loose a 
 large and ferocious dog, with whom Mr. George Pitt, a man of 
 uncommon strength, engaged in a fight, attempting, we are told, 
 " to tear out his tongue." The enraged animal broke from him, 
 flew at Mr. Windham, tore his arm, then mangled a footman, on 
 which the whole party assailed him en masse. He had just 
 seized the coat of the Prince when he was felled to the ground. 
 At six in the morning the Prince was setting off for home, when 
 his host, attempting to light him to his coach, fell down the 
 steps, and all but fractured his skull. The story of this 
 orgie soon got abroad.* The poor king was so shocked at 
 the prospect that all this opened that he fell ill, and told the 
 Duke of Gloucester that he had not slept for ten nights. Bat 
 there were other family discussions raging which helped to 
 trouble the unhappy monarch's slumbers. His brother, the Duke 
 of Cumberland, a vicious and ill-conditioned prince, was now at 
 war with the King, whom he insulted in public and private. He 
 and his wife acquired a sort of influence over the heir-apparent, 
 and fostered and encouraged his excesses. The duke would 
 insolently ignore the King and go to the Queen's House every 
 day to see his son. The King would complain that if he met the 
 duke, the latter would take off his hat and turn on his heel. " I 
 am ashamed," he would say piteously, " to see my brother paying 
 court to my son." With the same object the duke would go to 
 the Court balls, though not invited. He himself gave a ball to 
 the Prince, which the King forbade his son's retainers to 
 attend. The duke then invited his household to a dinner-party 
 to indemnify them, at which the King again forbade their 
 attendance. 
 
 * "Walpole would appear to have written these lines in the papers : 
 Then stupid rise, and with the rising sun 
 Drive the high car, a second Phaeton. 
 Let these exploits your fertile wit evince ; 
 Drunk as a lord and happy as a prince. 
 
 " Last Journals," ii. 459. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 29 
 
 We can scarcely credit tlie story told by Mr. Walpole, that 
 ■within earshot of the King the duke and his nephew talked 
 of tim in the grossest terms. People wondered why his Majesty 
 did not forbid the graceless pair to see each other; but he 
 frankly owned that he feared his son would not obey him. The 
 duke as frankly owned that, by means of his influence over the 
 Prince, he meant to intimidate his sovereign into recognising the 
 duchess.* 
 
 At the Queen's drawing-room the Prince drank too much, and 
 in consequence was seized with a fever, which seems to have 
 brought him to a penitent spirit, for he told Lord Graham that 
 he never thought of the night at Lord Chesterfield's without 
 sorrow, and that he was determined never to be drunk again. 
 
 Indeed, the treatment with which the King had to put up with 
 amounted to outrage. Out hunting, neither would speak to him. 
 So once, at an out-of-the-way village, they both seized on the 
 only postchaise, and left the King to get back to London as he 
 could. If he asked the Prince to dine, he, with studious con- 
 tempt, always arrived one hour late, so that all the servants saw 
 the father waiting for the son. Such were the King's complaints 
 to the Duke of Gloucester, and reported by him to Walpole. 
 
 To pander to their nephew's tastes, the Duke and Duchess of 
 Cumberland kept a faro-bank, and when he did not go out 
 brought confreres to the Queen's House, where he lived. They 
 even pursued worse excesses. But soon the fickle youth grew 
 tired of this violent friendship, even though the duke had carried 
 him to common places of debauchery, where they got dead 
 drunk and were often carried home in that condition. The uncle 
 had grown familiar, and was so free as to call him " Taffy," in 
 allusion to his Principality. The Prince haughtily begged that he 
 might not be addressed in such fashion, but without the least effect. 
 
 A friendship which he had contracted with a foreign visitor 
 who came to England — the Duke of Chartres, the notorious 
 " Egalite " — was not without its effect. With this companion — 
 the most depraved man in Europe — he appeared at every place of 
 amusement and public resort. The Frenchman flattered him by 
 •copying his dress, and pressed him to visit him in Paris, a plan 
 ■which the Prince pressed with passionate eagerness on his father. 
 The latter refused his consent, but discreetly proposed a visit to 
 Hanover instead. 
 
 The Duke of Ohartres's grooms, costumes, and equipages were 
 rail English, and heralded that Anglomania which set in on the eve 
 -of the Revolution. Other friends of a more respectable type — 
 
 * "Walpole, "Last Journals," ii. 457. 
 
30 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 and it must be said that from the first lie always cultivated the 
 society of men of parts and position — were Lords Eawdon, 
 Hastings^ Cornwallis, Hugh Seymour, the Dukes of Norfolk, 
 Bedford, Devonshire, with Messrs. Erskine, Coke, Crewe, Fitz- 
 patrick, Francis, Grey, Plumer, Pigot, Taylor, Windham, and 
 others. The most familiar and intimate of all was Fox, who, 
 combining wit, talents, and influence to an extraordinary degree, 
 was for more than twenty years to exercise much influence, and 
 at the present time held him by a sort of fascination. 
 
 In the following year, 1728, the King, had been compelled to 
 dismiss the North ministry, and in a sort of agony of reluctance 
 to accept Lord Eockingham and the Whigs. A year later the 
 death of this nobleman had brought Fox into power as foreign 
 secretary. Fox, as is well known, was particularly odious to the 
 King, who looked on him as the counsellor and instigator of his 
 song's excesses. It may be conceived what torture it was to 
 the father's heart to find the son whom he could not control thus 
 fortified by the assistance of a man whose power was based on his 
 subjection. The humiliation before the nation, to whom this 
 unfortunate relation was notorious, made the matter worse. It 
 will be seen how envenomed was the hostihty to the Crown and 
 the Government of the Crown, from the significant fact that Fox 
 and his friends wore a dress copied exactly from Washington's 
 uniform,* and by the " parricide joy " of a patriot duke — no doubt 
 the Duke of Portland, who actually gloated over the loss of an 
 English ship of war sent to America. f At this time Mr. Fox was 
 about thirty-three years old— a brilliant debauched creature, the 
 idol of his friends, already too a ruined gambler, and his health 
 impaired by excess." His features, in themselves harsh, dark, 
 and saturnine, like those of Charles II., from whom he descended 
 in the maternal line, derived nevertheless a sort of majesty from 
 the additions of two black and shaggy eyebrows. Even these- 
 features, however seemingly repulsive, yet did not readily 
 assume the expression of anger or of enmity, whereas they 
 frequently, and as it were naturally, relaxed into a smile the- 
 effect of which became irresistible. His figure — broad, heavy,, 
 and inclined to corpulency, appeared destitute of all elegance or 
 grace, except the portion conferred on it by the emanations of 
 intellect, which at times diffused over his whole person when he was- 
 speaking with the most impassioned animation. In his dress he 
 had become negligent to a degree." f Such was the friend of the 
 young prince, for whom he was now affectionately "my dear- 
 
 * Wraxall, " Hist. Mem." ii. 229. Third edition. 
 
 t " Life and Letters of Sir G. Elliot," i. 74. J Wraxall, swp. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 31 
 
 Charles,^' and over whom he exercised the most unbounded 
 influence. At this time he was lodging in St. James's Street, so 
 as to be near the great gaming club^ Brookes's; and here of a 
 morning, when he had just left his bed and was making his 
 toilette, was he obsequiously attended by the young heir to the 
 crown, together with a crowd of followers and admirers, " all his 
 disciples." Walpole describes the scene. " His bristly black 
 person and shagged breast, quite open, and rarely purified by any 
 ablutions, was wrapped in a foul linen night-gown, and his bushy 
 hair dishevelled. In these cynic weeds and with epicurean good 
 humour did he dictate his politics, and in this school did the heir 
 of the crown attend his lessons and imbibe them." *, 
 
 Pox's followers were quite unrestrained in their conversation 
 about the sovereign. At Brookes's they laid wagers on his life, 
 and it is not unlikely that the irreverent talk at the club was 
 reported to the King as having been uttered at that morning 
 levee in the presence of his son. The graceless youth, when the 
 King was resisting the Whig ministry then forced upon him, 
 was heard to exclaim in the public rooms of the palace, " that his 
 father had not yet agreed to take them, but he should be made 
 to agree to it." Indecent as this was, some excuse might be 
 found in the rebelliousness of youth, and the inconsiderate folly 
 which made him the tool of counsellors old enough to have 
 known what was becoming. But party passions were intensified 
 by the attitude of the King, who was contending with his own 
 subjects. If the King joined their enemies, they held it to be 
 quixotic not to use the son against the father. 
 
 It was, therefore, at this time that the unhappy monarch con- 
 ceived that bitter hatred to Fox which, as was well said, in time 
 became "a rankling ulcer." In his anguish he implored the rough 
 and surly Thurlow to tell him what to do. The reply was that "he 
 would never have peace till he put both in the Tower." Such at 
 least was the story. On the other hand, at a supper given by 
 the Duchess of Cumberland, the Prince called out aloud that he 
 
 hoped "that d d fellow, the chancellor, would be turned out."f 
 
 This influence of Fox, disastrous because that of a clever, much- 
 admired man, was to endure for many years, though it became 
 enfeebled as the Prince's character was revealed. Not un- 
 expectedly do we find that within a few years " the d d. 
 
 fellow " was to become the Prince's trusted counsellor and choice 
 companion. 
 
 His friends were now installed in office. To what a degree 
 Fox had become his dme damnee will be seen from a few letters 
 
 * Walpole, "Last Journals," ii. 599. f Ibid. ii. 600. 
 
62 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 
 
 written hj the young prince to his friend. In the first there is 
 almost a nervous and passionate eagerness to show his affection 
 and deYotion. 
 
 THE PKINCE or TAIES TO ME. rOX. 
 
 " Wednesday evening, 10 October. 
 "Dear Pox, 
 
 " Nothing could give me more satisfaction than the message 
 you were so good as to send me this morning. You know how 
 sincerely you have my good wishes, and therefore will be con- 
 vinced that I shall rejoice not a little if I again see you in 
 administration, as I look upon it as the most fortunate event that 
 can happen to us all. I mean not only to myself in particular, 
 but to the nation in general. With respect to your friendly 
 kindness to me I shall ever be happy to acknowledge it with 
 the gratitude it so justly deserves. I will not take up any more 
 of your time at present than merely to ask you whether it will be 
 convenient to you or not, my calling upon you between court (if 
 it is over in proper time) and dinner to-morrow. You may depend 
 upon my coming the moment I am released. I can assure you no 
 one can be more anxious than I am to see you at the present 
 moment, as no one has your interest more sincerely at heart, and 
 I hope you will ever look upon me as 
 
 " Your most affectionate Friend, 
 
 " Gboegb p." 
 
 In others will be noted a boyish anxiety to be of use, and to 
 receive direction from his friend. 
 
 THE PEINCE OP "WAXES TO ME, POX. 
 
 " Queen's House, 4 o'clock. 
 '^Deae Charles, 
 
 " I am now returned home, and if you have anything 
 particular you wish to say to me, I am ready either to come to 
 you or to receive you at the Queen's House, whichever is most 
 convenient to you. But if you should have nothing to say to me, 
 I intend going out of town early this evening. 
 
 " I am most sincerely yours, 
 
 " Geoegb p." 
 
 THE SAME. 
 
 " ^ past 2 o'clock. 
 *' Dear Charles, 
 
 ''I am waiting for you at your own house ; pray come 
 directly if you can, as I wish very much to speak to you. I will not 
 detain you three minutes. 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 " GrBOEQE p. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 33 
 
 " If you have not got your own carriage you had better take 
 somebody else's." 
 
 It is creditable to him that he did not forget his old tutor, and 
 at the first opportunity used his interest for him. 
 
 THE SAME. 
 
 " Queen's House, 12 o'clock, Ap. 30, 1783. 
 "Dear ChaeleSj 
 
 " I did not return home till it was too late to answer your 
 kind letter last night. I cannot express to you how happy you 
 made me by the contents of it, as I have always entertained the 
 highest opinion of Dr. Cyril Jackson, and have always had the 
 greatest friendship for him. You may easily conceive how much 
 pleased I shall be at seeing him in so eligible a situation, and in 
 a situation he must so wish for himself. Before I conclude, allow 
 me to thank you, my dear Charles, for your kind attention to 
 me on this and every other occasion, and believe me, 
 
 " Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 " Geoeqe p." 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 1783. 
 
 But now the formal emancipation of the Prince was at hand ; in 
 June, 1783, he wanted but a couple of months of being of age. 
 He was to have a suitable establishment and an allowance voted 
 by the nation, and, what his harassed father brought himself 
 reluctantly to entertain, a recognised portion of authority and 
 independence. It will be seen how painful this question must 
 have been for the King, since an unfortunate turn in the political 
 cards had placed its settlement in the power of the Prince's 
 devoted friends, and of those whom the Eling disliked. As a 
 matter of course these had made lavish promises to their young 
 patron, and he might look for bountiful treatment at their hands. 
 Already he was largely in debt, and it was natural that from his 
 boon companions he should expect relief; but this was not to 
 be done without a serious difficulty, and the question well-nigh 
 overturned the new ministry. 
 
 The Shelburne party during their brief tenure of office had 
 promised him the magnificent allowance of one hundred thousand 
 pounds a year ! When Fox came into power he felt himself bound 
 to do as much, though he and the Duke of Portland and Lord 
 Keppel were the only members of the Cabinet that favoured so 
 extravagant a sum. Lord North and the rest being strongly opposed 
 to it. When the matter came to be laid before the King, on June 
 2nd, he appeared to accept this plan, allowed it to be discussed by 
 the ministers, and suffered the arrangement to be made for its beino- 
 submitted to the House on the 16th. Suddenly on the 15th, 
 when the duke came to make the final settlement for the 
 following day, he announced that the ministry had thought it 
 
THE LIPE OP GEOEGB lY. 35 
 
 better to make the allowance an addition to tlie Civil List, as being 
 more palatable to the House of Commons. But he was thunder- 
 struck to hear the King angrily declare that this was a departure 
 from the first proposition, and that he therefore declined to 
 sanction the business. The duke, alarmed, said that they would 
 then go back to the first arrangement ; when the King declared 
 warmly that he had not changed his bad opinion of the ministry, 
 that he disapproved of the whole. He proceeded to make a 
 violent attack on themj with all their professions of economy, 
 here they were, he said, ready " to sacrifice the public interests to 
 the wishes of an ill-advised young man." Finally, he would never 
 forgive or forget their conduct, and would therefore himself give 
 out of his own slender allowance half the sum. 
 
 This burst produced no less astonishment than consternation. 
 It really manifested not a movement of petulance, but the long 
 pent-up agony of his subservience and hatred of his masters. 
 It was obvious, too, that the stroke was politic enough, for he 
 appeared to the nation as the patron of economy, and ready to 
 sacrifice himself, while he held up the ministry as favouring 
 extravagance and profligacy. A letter of Pitzpatrick's to Lord 
 Ossory sets out the view of the party as to the treatment they 
 had received : * 
 
 "June 17th, 1783. 
 
 "This letter will inform you of the fate of the present 
 administration, and the short account of it is this : The King 
 originally agreed that the whole business of the Prince of Wales's 
 establishment should be settled by the Duke of Portland ; and 
 his first plan was that Parliament should be applied to for the 
 whole £100,000. This was consented to. But upon further 
 conversation it was thought that a part from Parliament, and a 
 part from the Civil List, would be more palatable in the House 
 of Commons. The Duke of Portland apprised the King of this 
 in a letter the day before yesterday, in answer to which he wrote 
 a very angry letter, complaining of the departure from the first 
 proposal. In answer to this the Duke of Portland wrote, that he 
 did not mean the latter should supersede the first plan, which he 
 was ready to propose to Parliament. The King answered this 
 by saying, that he had not changed' his opinion of their (his 
 ministers') conduct by this letter; that he totally disapproved of 
 
 * Here are exactly the tactics pursued by the King when, in 1806, he 
 dismissed another ministry equally odious to him. The parallel is curious. 
 The same devices were adopted by his son when the Catholic question was 
 submitted in 1829. 
 
 B 2 
 
36 THE LIFE OF GBOKGE IV. 
 
 the whole of their proposal; that he could not think of burthen- 
 ing the public, but was ready to give £50,000 a year from the 
 Civil List, which he thought sufficient ; and that he found, 
 notwithstanding all the professions of the present ministers for 
 economy, they were ready to sacrifice the public interests to the 
 wishes of an ill-advised young man ; that he would never forget 
 or foi'give the conduct of the present ministers towards him. 
 This, we suppose, has been settled with the enemy, and no 
 measures are yet determined upon ; but as we have a good 
 attendance of friends in town, the wish is to do something 
 to-morrow, and at least to die handsomely. Everybody thinks 
 they cannot form any government that can have the appearance 
 of lasting. This is coming to you by express, to hope you will 
 come at any rate for to-morrow, though it is quite uncertain 
 what may be done. 
 
 " Tours, 
 
 The secret of this sudden change in the King's tactics is 
 thus explained : A day or two after he had seen the Duke of 
 Portland, Lord Temple, the Lord Lieutenant, arrived suddenly 
 from Ireland, and to whom, as a chosen confidant, the King 
 revealed his trouble, imploring his aid. But Lord Temple 
 shall himself relate what took place. " He spoke," says Lord 
 Temple, " with strong expressions of resentment and disgust of 
 his ministers, and of personal abhorrence of Lord North, whom 
 he charged with treachery and ingratitude of the blackest 
 nature. He then stated the proposition made to him by the 
 Duke of Portland for the annual allowance of £100,000 to his 
 Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. I gave to him, very much 
 at length, my opinion of such a measure, and of the certain con- 
 sequences of it : in all which, as may reasonably be supposed, 
 his Majesty ran before me, and stated with strong disgust the 
 manner in which it was opened to him — as a thing decided, and 
 even drawn up in the shape of a message, to which his signature 
 was desired as a matter of course, to be brought before Parlia- 
 ment the next day. To all this he assented; but declared his 
 intention to resist, at all events and hazards, the proposition for 
 this enormous allowance to his Royal Highness, of whose conduct 
 he spoke with much dissatisfaction. He asked, what he might 
 look to if upon this refusal the ministry should resign : and I 
 observed, that, not having had the opportunity of consulting my 
 friends, I could only answer that their resignation was a proposi- 
 tion widely differing from their dismissal, and that I did not see 
 the impossibility of accepting his administration in such a con- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 37 
 
 tingency, provided the supplies and public bills were passed^ so 
 as to enable us to prorogue the Parliament. To all this he 
 assented, and declared his intention of endeavouring to gain 
 time, that the business of Parliament might go on ; and agreed 
 vdth me that such a resignation was improbable, and that it 
 would be advisable not to dismiss them unless some very 
 particular opportunity presented itself."* 
 
 Such was the rather disingenuous game played by the King. 
 But he was not prepared for what followed, though he fancied he 
 might indulge his feelings in thwarting the ministers. The latter, 
 indignant at such treatment — for they declared that the King had 
 actually agreed to their whole scheme — insisted on resigning, 
 being pressed by the Prince to do so, who had nearly got a fever 
 from disappointment and annoyance. It was soon shown to the 
 King that such a step would leave him in the helplessness and 
 contemptible position of having to sue to them to come back. 
 The cautious Scotchman saw it would not do, and Lord Bute 
 shrank from making himself odious to the Prince, as he felt that 
 the whole change would be set down to him. Lord Thurlow was 
 too sagacious not to see the danger. " This shiftiness in high 
 places engendered an equal shiftiness in those who depended on 
 the King's favour, and the double-dealing of Lord Weymouth, 
 the son's officer, was specially noted. The most shallow of 
 men, he was the one in whom the King had most confidence. 
 Into his bosom he poured all his complaints of his song's behaviour, 
 and from him he heard welcome abuse of that son." It was 
 remarked, Walpole adds, that not a day passed without a secret 
 interview between this nobleman and the King, though the 
 former was actually holding office under Fox and his friends. 
 This subserviency had attracted the suspicions of the Prince, who 
 gave due notice to his friend. Certainly here was an edifying 
 situation. 
 
 THE PBINCE OP ■WALES TO MB,. POX. 
 
 " Monday night, J past 12 o'clock. 
 "Deae Chaeles, 
 
 " When I left the Queen's House this evening, Weymouth 
 was with the King. I wish you would tell me in a short note 
 how you interpret his frequent visits, and let me know whether 
 you have heard anything fresh this evening. 
 
 " I am most sincerely yours, 
 
 " G. P." 
 
 * " Court and Cabinets of George III.," p. 305. 
 
S8 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 The King's device therefore was not to succeed. He became 
 almost terror-stricken at the sudden embarrassment that was 
 opening before him. When, on the 16th, the ministers had met 
 to arrange their resignation, the Duke of Portland was sent for 
 to the King. In an agony of tears, he fell on the duke's neck 
 and owned that he had gone too far. He implored him to rescue 
 him, which the duke was well disposed to do, for his own sake.* 
 
 The difficulty was now small ; a retreat was to be managed, 
 as the ministry was pledged to the Prince, and he, as we hay© 
 seen, had set his heart on the arrangement. It will be found how 
 completely he was in the hands of his friend Pox, and how ductile 
 he was. The skilful Loughborough was the first to suggest this 
 mode of operation. He wrote to Fox : 
 
 "Bedford Square, Tuesday, 6 p.m. 
 "Deae Sie, 
 
 " .... I really do not see that there are two lines to take^ 
 whether successful or not. Submission for the present is the 
 only reasonable course. But it would be much better, and much 
 handsomer, if it were possible to dispose his Eoyal Highness to 
 give way respectfully, and with a dutiful remonstrance profess 
 himself ready to show his obedience, and to wait until his 
 Majesty entertains another view of the matter. If my idea ap- 
 pears just to you, would it not be of great consequence that 
 you should, as soon as possible, try to persuade the Prince of 
 Wales to make a virtue of necessity, and gain the public favour 
 by declining cheerfully any appearance of contest, which makes 
 better ground for him hereafter and can do him no prejudice at 
 present ? Excuse me throwing out thus hastily what has occurred 
 to me_, and believe me 
 
 " Most sincerely yoursj &c., 
 
 "L." 
 
 With what good grace the Prince yielded will be seen from 
 his letters to Pox : 
 
 " Queen's House, 1 o'clock. 
 ''Deae Ohaeles^ 
 
 " I have a thousand excuses to make to you for not having 
 answered your letter immediately, but I am only this instant awake, 
 and therefore have only just had time to read your letter. I saw 
 
 * Mr. Jesse, in his admirable " Memoirs of George III.," speaks of the 
 King's "independent and resolute conduct" (ii. 437) ; but the reader can 
 judge -whether it deserves such a compliment. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEQRGE IV. 39 
 
 the Dacliess of Portland yesterday, and took the liberty of desir- 
 ing her Grace to deliver a message from me to the Dake of 
 Portland, desiring him, if it was not inconvenient to him, to 
 allow me to come to him to-morrow at eleven, instead of to-day. 
 I ought to have explained this to you at Carlisle's when I desired 
 you to meet me in Downing Street, on Sunday, at eleven o'clock, 
 but it really quite slipped out of my memory. I must therefore 
 entreat you to clear up the matter to the Duke of Portland, and 
 make all proper apologies for me. I cannot, however, conclude 
 without Seizing the opportunity of thanking you for the part you 
 have taken in bringing this essential business to me so near a 
 conclusion, which, I can assure you, I shall never forget as long 
 as I live. 
 
 " I remain, my dear Charles, 
 
 " Ever most sincerely yours, 
 
 " Geoege p. 
 
 ''P.S. — ^Tou may depend upon seeing me to-morrow at 
 eleven." 
 
 " Queen's House, June 18tli, 1783. 
 "Deae Chaeles, 
 
 " After what has already passed, I did not require this 
 additional proof of your friendship and attachment ; and you 
 will see by a letter I have this instant written to the Duke of 
 Portland, how ready I am to take your advice, and that I leave 
 it entirely to the Cabinet. 
 
 "Tours most sincerely, 
 
 " Geoege P." 
 
 " Cumberland House, J past 9 o'clock. 
 "Deae Chaeles, 
 
 " I have this instant received your kind letter. I am most 
 exceedingly sensible of the kind and friendly attention you have 
 shown me throughout the whole of this business, which is of so 
 much importance to my happiness. Should anything arrive that 
 you wish me to be immediately apprised of, pray send it to the 
 Queen's House. I shall leave a servant there to bring me any 
 letter that may come from you, wherever I am. James Luttrell 
 I sent an express for immediately, but have not as yet sent to 
 Lord Herbert, and according to your advice, the step not being 
 as yet taken, I shall not send for him at all. 
 
 " I remain, dear Charles, 
 
 " Ever most sincerely yours, 
 
 "Geoege P." 
 
40 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 By the 1 7tli all was happily arranged^ as the following extracts 
 from Fox's letters will show : * 
 
 MR. rOX TO LOBD NOBTHINGTON. 
 
 " St. James's, June 19fch, 1783. 
 "Dear Noethington, 
 
 " There is reason to think that the storm is for the present 
 dissipated, and therefore I hope you have not mentioned to any- 
 one, except Windham, my last letter. The Prince has behaved in 
 the handsomest manner, and his reasonableness under the hardest 
 usage, is likely to keep everything quiet j for how long is a ques- 
 tion which cannot for some days at least be decided. I hope in a 
 few days to be able to write to you a detailed account of the 
 whole business, but really have not now time. 
 
 "Yours ever, 
 
 "0. J. Fox." 
 
 "As to the opinion of our having gained strength by it," 
 wrote Fox to the same friend on July 17th, "the only rational 
 foundation for such an opinion is, that this event has proved that 
 there subsists no such understanding between the King and Lord 
 Temple as to enable them to form an administration, because if 
 there did, it is impossible but they must have seized an occasion 
 in many respects so fortunate for them. They would have had 
 on their side the various cries of paternal authority, economy, 
 moderate establishment, mischief- making between father and son, 
 and many other plausible topics. The King has certainly carried 
 one point against us. The truth is that, excepting the Duke of 
 Portland and Lord Keppel, there was not one minister who would 
 have fought with any heart in this cause. I could see clearly 
 from the beginning, long before the difficulties appeared, that 
 Lord North and Lord John, though they did not say so, thought 
 the large establishment extravagant, and you will, I am sure, 
 agree with me that to fight a cause, where the latter especially 
 was not hearty, would have been a most desperate measure. 
 Under all these circumstances there appeared to me no alternative 
 in common sense but to yield with the best grace possible, if the 
 Prince of Wales could be brought to be of that mind. I believe 
 he was naturally very averse to it, but Colonel Lake and others 
 whom he most trusts persuaded him to it, and the intention of 
 doing so came from him to us spontaneously. If it had not, I 
 own I should have felt myself bound to follow his Eoyal High- 
 ness's line upon the subject, though I know that by so doing I 
 should destroy the ministry in the worst possible way, and subject 
 
 * " Memorials of Fox," ii. 109. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 41 
 
 myself to the imputabion of the most extreme wrongheadedness. 
 I shall always therefore consider the Prince's having yielded a 
 most fortunate event, and shall always feel myself proportionally 
 obliged to him and to those who advised him. In shorty the only 
 thing that ought to be said is, that it was not a point upon which 
 ministers ought to dispute his Majesty's pleasure, and that they 
 were the better enabled to yield by the generosity of the Prince, 
 "who was most ready to give up his own interest rather than be 
 the cause of any confusion, or appear to be wanting in duty to 
 the King." 
 
 " But it will be noted that there was an almost too great 
 exuberance of goodwill on the side of the Prince, which, perhaps, 
 was owing to a weakness of character. 
 
 The King, it would thus appear, had done both Fox and the 
 Duke of Portland — "my son's ministry," he called it — some 
 injustice in supposing that they had "set his son against him." 
 Fox at his very first interview vindicated himself, and protested 
 he had never said a word which he would not have been glad 
 that the King should have heard, while the Duke of Portland, 
 during the course of his trouble, had written a letter to the 
 Prince, conjuring him to submit to his father ; on which the 
 King was charmed, and said " he did not know the duke was so 
 honest a man."* 
 
 Accordingly, on June 28rd, Lord John Cavendish, the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, brought down the following royal 
 message to the House : " His Majesty, reflecting on the propriety 
 of a separate establishment for his dearly-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 
 shall appear consistent with a due attention to the circumstances 
 of his people, evei-y addition to whose burthens his Majesty feels 
 with the most sensible concern. — G-. R." And on the 25th he 
 introduced the matter in a speech, showing that the King's Civil 
 List was about nine hundred thousand pounds a year, of which 
 fifty thousand were set apart for the King, the remainder 
 being scarcely sufficient for all the claims that were on it. His 
 Majesty, however, was willing to supply the whole of the allow- 
 ance for his son, viz. fifty thousand pounds a year, provided the 
 House voted a sum of thirty thousand pounds for debts, and as 
 much more for an outfit. His son would, besides, have the 
 revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, the whole giving him an 
 income of about sixty-two or sixty-three thousand a year. This, 
 
 * "Walpole, " Last Journals," ii. 631. 
 
42 THE LIFE OF GEOKGE lY. 
 
 at the present value of moneyj was equal to about eighty 
 thousand a year. 
 
 This moderate addition was opposed by Pitt, who reminded 
 Lord North of his promises, given some years before, that there 
 should be no addition to the Civil List. However, the whole was 
 voted unanimously. The legislators little dreamed what painful 
 discoveries were in store for them, and how, for years to come, 
 the "Prince's allowance" and "the Prince's debts" would be 
 a thorn in their sides. 
 
 In this fashion, the King, who had a certain cleverness, or 
 cunning as some described it, contrived to secure popularity. 
 But there were no lack of warnings that the insufficiency of the 
 allowance would lead to future difficulties. The implied sug- 
 gestion here was significant ; viz. that the income should be 
 proportioned to the extravagant temper of the recipient, and not 
 to the general standard of what was becoming in the case of a 
 person of his rank. Considering what the value of money was a 
 hundred years ago, it was certainly a suitable provision. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1783—1784. 
 
 The Peince of Wales came of age in August, 1783, an event 
 celebrated by festive rejoicings. By this time be was establisbed 
 at Carlton House, tbe old residence of tbe Princess Dowager, and 
 wbicb bad been tenantless since ber deatb. It was discovered to 
 be out of repair, and unfortunately for bimself and for tbe nation, 
 oiiered itself to tbe Prince as a fitting object for tbe display of 
 bis elegant tastes and reckless expenditure. 
 
 For nearly forty years it was destined to swallow up 
 enormous sums in reconstruction and alterations, and wben 
 tbese were completed after nearly tbirty years' labour, was 
 capriciously razed to tbe ground. Tbe Ducbess of Devon- 
 sbire and Lady Melbourne were consulted by tbe young 
 prince on tbe furniture and decorations, wbile Holland, later 
 to be tbe arcbitect of one of tbe Drury Lane Tbeatres, witb one 
 Nuovosielcbi, furnisbed plans for tbe alterations. Tbis was but 
 tbe beginning of tbat building mania — tbe most ruinous of 
 passions — in wbicb be indulged to tbe last bour of bis life, and of 
 wbicb Buckingbam Palace, tbe Brigbton Pavilion, and tbe Ivy 
 Cottages at Virginia Water are tbe ratber indifferent results. 
 On tbe lltb of tbe same montb be took bis seat in tbe House 
 of Peers, subscribed tbe declaration of supremacy, tbe oatb of 
 allegiance, etc., and, on tbe occasion of a motion relating to a 
 proclamation for preventing seditious meetings and writings 
 made a speecb. He said, " tbat on a question of sucb magnitude, 
 be sbould be deficient in bis duty as a member of Parliament, 
 unmindful of tbe respect be owed to tbe constitution, and 
 inattentive to tbe welfare, tbe peace, and tbe bappiness of tbe 
 
44 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 people, if lie 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 them, of a reverence for the constitutional 
 liberties of the people ; and, as on those constitutional principles 
 the happiness of that people depended, he was. determined, as 
 far as his interest could have any force, to support them. 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 wholesome 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 reform unsanctioned by 
 the people. As a person nearly 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 disapprobation 
 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 concurrence with the Commons 
 in the address they had resolved upon. His royal highness 
 spoke, we are assured, in a manner that called not only for the 
 attention, but the admiration of the House, and the following 
 words were remarkably energetic : " I exist by the love, the 
 friendship, and the benevolence of the people, and their cause I 
 will never forsake as long as I live.'" The Prince then concluded 
 by distinctly saying : " I give my most hearty assent to the 
 motion for concurring in this wise and salutary address."* 
 
 During the progress of the India Bill he made himself con- 
 spicuous by appearing at the debates in the House of Commons, 
 and showed his sympathies and partisanship so strongly that it 
 was urged during this perilous discussion, that " if the great 
 personage in question, not content with merely listening to the 
 debates, should, on any occasion, testify by his behaviour or 
 gesticulation, while in the House, a predilection or partiality for 
 any set of men, such marks of his preference would be unbecom- 
 ing, and might operate as a means of influence." Lord North, 
 however, uttered a panegyric on the Prince's "eminent abilities," 
 expressing his personal gratification in seeing "a prince, to whom 
 the country must look up as its hope, thus practically becoming 
 acquainted with the nature of this limited government, rather 
 than taking up the hearsay of the hour, or looking for his know- 
 
 * Huish, i. 86. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 45 
 
 ledge to flatterers." Mr. Pox characterised the charges as 
 "pernicious and ridiculous alike, adopted by men no less the 
 enemies of free discussion in that House than the calumniators 
 of the motives of a distinguished personage, whose whole spirit 
 was honour." " Was," he asked, " the mind which might, at 
 any hour, by the common chances of mortality, be summoned to 
 the highest duties allotted to man, to be left to learn them by 
 accident ? For his part he rejoiced to see that distinguished 
 personage disdaining to use the privileges of his rank and keep 
 aloof from the debates of that House. He rejoiced to see him 
 manfully coming among them, to imbibe a knowledge of the 
 constitution within the walls of the Commons of England. He, 
 for his part, saw nothing in the circumstances which had called 
 down so much volunteer eloquence." At the first division he 
 had even cast his vote for his friends, but finding that this 
 inflamed the King, he acted on the judicious advice of Mr. Fox 
 and abstained from further part in the contest.* As the sovereign 
 had become himself a partisan, and was secretly plotting with 
 some of his subjects to overthrow his own ministers, the praise 
 of moderation seems to be due to the heir-apparent, f Greneral 
 Fitzpatrick, however, writing excitedly on the night of their 
 defeat, says that " the Prince voted in the minority." 
 
 It has been often told and retold how, within a few hours, the 
 ministry were ignominiously required to deliver up their seals, 
 and what popular execration followed them into retirement. 
 This extended to the Prince of Wales, who, when he appeared at 
 the theatre, was hissed. After this rout of his friends he fell ill, it 
 was thought from mortification, and Mrs. Montagu learned that 
 he had an abscess in his side and was suffering much. He soon 
 rallied, and, when the general election took place, joined eagerly in 
 the struggle that followed, and which ended so disastrously for 
 his friends. Fox, "the man of the people," had now to pass 
 through the critical Westminster election, in which the fascinating 
 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, took so conspicuous a share. 
 Carlton House became the candidate's committee rooms. The 
 fair canvasser — to whom a stolen picture has given a popularity 
 that she might otherwise never have enjoyed — was then in all 
 her beauty, and much admired by the Prince. One who knew 
 her, Sir N. Wraxall, draws this pleasing portrait of her : 
 
 " Her personal charms constituted her smallest pretension to 
 universal admiration ; nor did her beauty consist, like that of 
 the Gunnings, in regularity of features and faultless formation 
 
 * Moore, " Life of Sheridan," i. 403. 
 
 t It has been stated that he attended Cabinet Councils, but this is 
 doubtful. 
 
46 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 of limbs and shape — it lay in the amenity and graces of her 
 deportment, in her irresistible manners, and the seduction of her 
 society. Her hair was not without a tinge of red ; and her face, 
 though pleasing, yet had it not been illuminated by her mind, 
 might have been considered as an ordinary countenance. De- 
 scended in the fourth degree lineally from Sarah Jennings, the 
 wife of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, she resembled 
 the portraits of that celebrated woman. In addition to the 
 external advantages which she had received from nature and 
 fortune, she possessed an ardent temper, susceptible of deep as 
 well as strong impressions ; a cultivated understanding, illumi- 
 nated by a taste for poetry and the fine arts; much sensi- 
 bility, not exempt perhaps from vanity and coquetry. To her 
 mother, the Dowager Countess Spencer, she was attached with 
 more than common filial affection, of which she exhibited 
 pecuniary proofs rarely given by a daughter to her parent. Nor 
 did she display less attachment to her sister Lady Duncannon. 
 
 '^Lady Duncannon, however inferior to the duchess in elegance 
 of mind and in personal beauty, equalled her in sisterly love. 
 During the month of July, 1811, a very short time before the 
 decease of the late Duke of Devonshire, I visited the vault in the 
 principal church of Derby, where repose the remains of the 
 Cavendish family. As I stood contemplating the cofiin which 
 contained the ashes of that admired female, the woman who 
 accompanied me pointed out the relics of a bouquet which lay 
 upon the lid, nearly collapsed into dust. ' That nosegay,' said 
 she, '' was brought here by the Countess of Besborough, who 
 had designed to place it with her own hands on her sister^'s cofiin. 
 But, overcome by her emotions on approaching the spot, she 
 found herself unable to descend the steps conducting to the 
 vault. In an agony of grief she knelt down on the stones, as 
 nearly over the place occupied by the corpse as I could direct, 
 and there deposited the flowers, enjoining me the performance 
 of an ofiice to which she was unequal. I fulfilled her wishes.'" 
 
 The Prince's thoughts were even thus early turning towards 
 domestic repose, and it would almost seem that so early as 1783 
 he was thinking of the serious step he was presently to take. 
 At a dinner-party at Lord Lewisham's the Prince drank very 
 hard — a not unusual incident with him — and then fell into a sort 
 of dejected mood, in which he bewailed his condition, said he 
 envied the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland, who were 
 at liberty to wed two clever women whom they liked. 
 For his part, he supposed that " he should be forced to marry 
 some ugly German." Turning then to Rigby, then Master of 
 the Rolls and a humorist, he put the significant question to 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 47 
 
 tim : " What would he advise him to do ? " " Faith, sir," was 
 the reply, " I am not yet drunk enough to give advice to a 
 Prince of Wales about marrying ; " an answer commended as 
 one of the best, even to a question of this kind. For, as Walpole 
 says, there were lots of fools who thought themselves sober 
 enough to advise him on whatever subject he consulted them on. 
 It showed, however, what was in his mind at this time. 
 
 When the election was over, Fox was carried in a chair 
 adorned with laurels through the chief streets of the West End, 
 and the gates of Carlton House being thrown wide open, the 
 whole cavalcade defiled through in compliment to the new 
 member^s august patron. It was an odd procession. A banner 
 was carried in honour of the duchess, with the inscription : 
 " Sacred to Female Patriotism ; " Mr. North, Mr. Adam, and 
 others, being observed to be mounted on the braces of Fox's 
 carriage. The Prince, attended by a crowd of friends, appeared 
 on the steps, while Fox made a brief harangue. On the following 
 day. May 18th, he determined to celebrate the victory by a 
 noonday fete in the gardens of his house, to which all the rank, 
 beauty, and talent of the Opposition were invited. The grounds 
 were separated only by a wall from the road that led from 
 St. James's Palace to the Houses of Parliament, and it was noted 
 that the King passed by in procession to open the session, and 
 could see the festival going on. On the same night the 
 triumphant party repaired to Lower Grosvenor Street, to an 
 entertainment, or rather revel, given by the fair and captivating 
 Mrs. Crewe, where the ladies all appeared, arrayed like the gentle- 
 men, in buff and blue. The Prince of course attended, wearing 
 the same colours, and after supper rose to give the well-known 
 toast — "■ True blue, and Mrs. Crewe ! " It was received with 
 rapture, the lady, with the same spirit but less point, acknow- 
 ledging the compliment in the phrase : " True blae, and all 
 of you ! " 
 
 Speeches were made on this happy occasion. Fox proposing 
 the Prince's health in glowing terms, professing his " gratitude 
 for the manner in which his royal highness has been pleased to 
 give his countenance to me and to my cause. It is a circum- 
 stance of pride and honour, particularly dear to me, that in 
 pursuing the interests of the people I have at the same time 
 gained the approbation of the Prince. I assure his Eoyal High- 
 ness that his favour and kindness have made the deepest impres- 
 sion on my mind ; and my return to him shall be, to make it the 
 study of my life never to counsel his Royal Highness without 
 having equally in view the interests of the Crown and the people 
 — interests which cannot be severed without injury to both." 
 
48 THE LIFE OE GEORGE IV. 
 
 The Prince replied : " I will not at present speak of my private 
 regard for Mr. Fox; I have entered into his interests from a 
 conviction^ not only that his talents are the brightest in the 
 empire, but that his principles are the best, and his motives 
 the purest; and I assure him that the prejudices of those who 
 do not know him shall never alter my personal or political 
 attachment."* 
 
 Nor was this all, the Prince himself celebrated the victory at 
 Carlton House by one of the most magnificent fetes within recol- 
 lection. Nothing that luxury or taste could devise was absent, 
 and, with an affectation of refined politeness almost inconsistent 
 with the coarse manners of the time, the gentlemen, including 
 the host himself, waited on the ladies at table. It was said by 
 those who had often seen him in society, " that not even 
 Louis XIV. himself could have eclipsed him in a ball-room,^' or 
 while doing the honours of his own house ; and certainly, even if 
 sagacity were wanting, there was in all his conduct a certain gay 
 readiness, a spirit and savoir faire, that was remarkable in one 
 so young, the portraits at this time representing him as an 
 interesting young man with a distinguished air, and a face 
 almost juvenile for its glow and brilliancy. 
 
 These proceedings made the breach with his father complete. 
 No notice was taken of his birthday at Windsor. He was con- 
 sidered to be leagued with the enemies of the Court. When 
 Mr. Pitt was being drawn home in triumph from the City dinner, 
 the shouting mob passed by Carlton House and stopped the 
 carriage to hoot and groan, the minister having to look on. But 
 when they passed by Brookes^s Club they were met by an 
 opposing crowd and a serious conflict took place, in which the 
 minister had a narrow escape. The Prince complained to his 
 father and required an apology, which he does not appear to have 
 obtained. f 
 
 Prom these mortifications he turned to find relief in renewed 
 gaieties and entertainments. The alterations at Carlton House — 
 first of the series — were now completed, and the event was 
 celebrated on March 10th by a ball. The dining-room, lit up by 
 three magnificently-gilt chandeliers, the state-room, the ball- 
 room and its orchestra, all excited admiration, abundant com- 
 pliments being paid to the Prince's taste. This was followed on 
 April 18th by a public breakfast at Carlton House. "About 
 six hundred of the most distinguished persons in the kingdom 
 
 * Eeported in a private letter from a gentleman who was present. — 
 Lloyd, " Life and Eeign," i. 122. 
 t Ibid, i. 126. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 49 
 
 assembled in his beautiful gardens about two o'clock. The pre- 
 parations on the occasion were full of magnificence. Covers were 
 laid under nine extensive marquees for two hundred and fifty 
 persons, and the entertainment consisted of the finest fruits of 
 the season, confectioneries, ices, creams, and emblematical 
 designs. Four bands of instruments were placed at different 
 parts of the garden, and the company were entertained with 
 various novelties of a comic kind, some of the performers at the 
 theatres having attended for that purpose. After they had 
 taken refreshments they rose to dance. A beautiful level, in the 
 umbrage of a group of trees, was the spot which his royal 
 highness selected for their ball, and he led down the country 
 dances, first with the Duchess of Devonshire, and afterwards 
 with one of the Lady Waldegraves. The company frequently 
 changed their partners, and at times grouped off into cotillions. 
 Among the ladies who danced was Mrs. Sheridan.* The break- 
 fast concluded about six in the evening, when the company retired 
 to dress." 
 
 " The Prince of Wales," says Mr. Raikes, " was a constant 
 frequenter of the coteries and parties at Devonshire House, 
 which was then the resort not only of the Opposition, but of all 
 the wits and beaux esprits of the day. Sheridan, Grey, Whit- 
 bread, Lord Robert Spencer, Fox, Hare, Fitzpatrick, G. Selwyn, 
 Prince Boothby, Sir H. Featherstonhaugh, and a host of names 
 which I just remember in all the celebrity of haut ton, but now 
 swept away by the hand of time, and, with only some few excep- 
 tions, leaving hardly a trace of recollection behind them. The 
 Prince of Wales gave the young Count de Gramont a commission 
 in his own regiment, the 10th Light Dragoons, of which the 
 officers were generally his favourites and friends, among whom at 
 that time were Poyntz, W. C. Churchill, Braddyll, Jack Lee, poor 
 little Galway (who was burnt in his bed). Lords R. and C. Manners, 
 and, though last not least, our friend G. Brummell, who was 
 beginning to establish an intimacy with his royal colonel." 
 
 Indeed, it would be impossible to give an idea of the whirl 
 of folly and extravagance in which the pleasure-loving young 
 Prince now lived. A strange restlessness — never absent from 
 what are called the " votaries of pleasure " — had taken possession 
 of him; he was flying from house to house, dashing down to 
 Brighton and up again, as fast as four horses could take him ; 
 now at Tunbridge Wells, or at the country mansion of some boon 
 companion. Attended by a band of roysterers and his " three 
 
 * The lady just alluded to was then in all her bloom, and so " f aat," 
 as it is called now, that we hear of her being brought to hear a debate 
 in the House of Commons dressed in man's clothes ! 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 colonels/' as they were called — Lake, Hulse, and St. Leger — lie 
 gamed and drank, frequented races and boxing-matches and the 
 Gardens. Indeed, from this time to the end of his life, it might 
 seem that clothes, carriages, and building houses were to form 
 his favourite minor pleasures. Were a history of dress during 
 the present and last century written, the changes he inspired 
 should be noted. Carriages he also influenced with infinite variety. 
 Mr. Thackeray indeed professed to see nothing but clothes, when 
 he looked through his life, and his judgment may be worth 
 quoting here, as one of the most mistaken and superficial of 
 estimates. " I try and take him to pieces," he says, " and find 
 silk stockings, padding, stays, a coat with frogs and a fur collar, 
 a star and blue ribbon, a pocket-handkerchief prodigiously 
 scented, one of Truefitt's best nutty-brown wigs reeking with oil, 
 a set of teeth and a huge black stock, under-waistcoats, more 
 under-waistcoats, and then nothing. I know of no sentiment 
 that he ever distinctly uttered. Documents are published under 
 his name, but people wrote them; private letters, but people 
 spelt them. He put a great George P. or George R. at the 
 bottom of the page and fancied he had written the paper. Some 
 bookseller's clerk, some poor author, some man did the work — 
 saw to the spelling, cleaned up the slovenly sentences, and gave 
 the lax maudlin slipslop a sort of consistency. He must have 
 had an individuality : the dancing- master whom he emulated, 
 nay, surpassed, the wig-maker who curled his toupee for him, 
 the tailor who cut his coats, had that. But, about George, one 
 can get at nothing actual. That outside, I am certain, is pad 
 and tailor's work." This view of character, founded on clothes, 
 will be found to be a complete mistake. If he could devise these 
 trifling things, he could turn his mind with effect to what was 
 serious and important. 
 
 The phaeton, a favourite vehicle of his, is familiar to us from the 
 caricatures. It was an unsightly thing, high, single-bodied, " all 
 upon the fore wheels," says the agreeable author of " The Road,"' 
 " and looking as if the hinder ones had nothing to do but to follow. 
 This was commonly driven, by such as could afford it, with four 
 horses in hand. Indeed, it may almost be said to have given birth 
 to our gentleman- coachmanship, as well as to the well-known 
 epigram : 
 
 " What can Tommy Onslow do ? 
 He can drive a phaeton and two. 
 Can Tommy Onslow do no more p 
 Tes — he can drive a phaeton and four. 
 
 "The phaeton was succeeded by the no less classically yclept 
 curricle — a carriage, when properly appointed, and followed by 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 51 
 
 two well-dressed and well-mounted grooms, of singular elegance 
 certainly. It had a long run in the fashionable world, but being, 
 like the phaeton, only calculated to carry two persons, and 
 requiring never less than three horses, taxation and economy put 
 an end to it. Then came the reign of the gig, and the stanhope, 
 so named after the Honourable Fitzroy Stanhope, who planned 
 it, succeeded the tilbury, so called from the well-known coach- 
 maker ; and the cost, without harness, of either may be about 
 seventy pounds. Now, ' every dog has his day,' and so have our 
 prevailing fashions. The buggy, stanhope, dennet, and tilbury 
 have all, during some seasons past, been supplanted by the 
 cabriolet. Fifty years ago the idea of putting a thoroughbred 
 horse into harness would have been considered preposterous. In 
 the carriages of our noblemen and gentlemen the long-tailed 
 black or Cleveland bay — each one remove from the cart-horse — 
 was the prevailing sort, and six miles an hour the extent of his 
 pace." 
 
 Mr. Cyrus Redding recollected some strange varieties of 
 vehicle — "Tim- whiskeys" — some that went on three wheels. 
 The ladies went to Court in chairs. " There was a vis-a-vis for 
 two, generally used by gentlemen going to court, superbly 
 ornamented, and the horse richly caparisoned, with two or three 
 footmen behind in gay liveries. There was the lofty phaeton 
 generally used with four horses, high enough to look into a first- 
 floor window. Some of these carriages had silver panellings. 
 The Prince of Wales launched the most extravagant equipages, 
 crowned with coronets and plumes, the panels fitted with 
 paintings of squabby cupids and rustic nymphs." 
 
 He once saw the Prince arrayed in deep brown velvet, silver 
 embroidered, cut-steel buttons, and a gold net thrown over all. 
 In our own day fashion takes many freaks, but does not amuse 
 itself by costly and whimsical changes in the patterns of clothes. 
 Nor was it in these departments alone that he was the leader of 
 the town. Indeed, at this period London was one of the gayest 
 cities of Europe, and all the ranks of nobles and gentry, and in 
 these ranks the old as well as the young, seemed to be frantically 
 devoted to the pursuit of pleasure under its most showy and even 
 theatrical forms ; while the presence and encouragement of an 
 ardent young prince, handsome, brilliant, and full of gaiety, set 
 the ball rolling, as the phrase runs, with increased avidity. An 
 interesting subject of inquiry would be to discover what taste 
 has regulated the different forms of social amusement at par- 
 ticular eras. In our own day alfresco amusements, dancing and 
 supping at gardens, masquerades and balls at public rooms, 
 would seem not to be in keeping with the manners or tastes of 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IT. 
 
 the day, but one hundred years ago we find the whole of London 
 society rushing heedlessly after such pastimes. Private theatres 
 were highly fashionable, one wing of many a noble mansion being 
 built specially for this purpose; as well as the Almack's balls, the 
 gardens at Ranelagh and Vauxhall, the splendid rooms at the 
 first-named of these places, as well as at the Pantheon and 
 Mrs. Cornelys', which were used for concerts, suppers, and 
 masquerades — all of which offers the most curious contrast to the 
 habits and tastes of our own day. It will not be out of place to 
 give a review here of the pastimes with which the beau monde 
 used to recreate itself. 
 
 The masquerade was then in the highest favour, and might 
 be fairly considered " the note " of a popular taste ; that is, the 
 sort of reckless longing for adventure which such scenes offered. 
 We find that there was such faith in this peculiar fashion that 
 no less than three magnificent places of amusement were con- 
 structed to gratify it. The foremost was, of course, Ranelagh, 
 the rotunda of which, with the magnificent suite of rooms 
 attached and its handsome gardens, was one of the sights of 
 London. Dr. Johnson's visit and his praise are well known. 
 The superb circular room, its cupola supported in the centre by 
 an arcade, while some fifty or sixty boxes for supping in ran 
 round under galleries, offered on gala-nights a superb spectacle. 
 People of the highest rank attended promenades, supped, listened 
 to the music, sought and found adventures. The decorations of 
 these places were of the best architecture. At old-fashioned 
 watering-places abroad, such as Spa, we see some of these noble 
 buildings, whose faded glories, tarnished gilding, and painted 
 ceilings recall these old festive times.* 
 
 Mrs. Cornelys, a German, came to London about the year 
 1763, and opened a splendid building in Soho Square, for 
 concerts and masquerades. Her entertainments became the rage, 
 and we find Mr. Sterne, not long before his death, using his 
 fashionable interest to secure tickets for friends. After many 
 vicissitudes, the fine rooms passed into the possession of the 
 eminent pickle-makers, Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell, but the 
 beautiful stucco ceilings still remain to show what its other 
 glories were. At one of her entertainments the pavilion was 
 ceiled with looking-glasses, while the supper-room was laid out 
 as a garden, the guests advancing in a walk between hedges, 
 behind which were ranged the tables. The Soho fetes continued 
 in fashion for some twenty years or so. The directress at last 
 
 * There is a whole series of prints of Ranelagh and the Pantheon, 
 finely engraved, and much esteemed by connoisseurs. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 53 
 
 became bankrupt, and made ineffectual struggles to revive tlie 
 public taste. But the Pantheon had been opened, and swept 
 away all the fine company ; and the unlucky directress was at 
 last reduced to selling asses' milk at Hampstead. One of her 
 last attempts was a sort of rural fete, for which she sought 
 the Prince of Wales's patronage ; but there is no evidence that 
 it was accorded, and she died in the Fleet Prison in 1795. Such 
 is too often the disastrous finale of those who are known as 
 caterers for public amusements. One of her daughters, how- 
 ever, became a sort of reader to one of the princesses, changing 
 her name. 
 
 Here is the description of an entertainment given at Lord 
 Berwick's house in Portman Square, thrown open for the recep- 
 tion of masks. " The company were selected by tickets limited 
 to the number of five hundred, and about eleven o'clock the 
 rooms were completely filled with the fashionable world, in a 
 great variety of excellent masquerade figures ; the dominoes (con- 
 trary to the generality of masquerades) not being very prevalent. 
 About half -past eleven his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales's 
 party arrived from Carlton House, and consisted of a convent of 
 gray friars, under the direction of a superior ; they were thirteen 
 in number, and most completely clad. The superior of these 
 friars sung an extremely witty new character-song, with a chorus 
 by the whole fraternity in a circle ; which, at the request of the 
 company, was sung a second time in the same manner. About 
 one o'clock the whole body of monks unmasked, and were 
 discovered to consist of the following group : 
 
 Superior of the Convent, Captain Morris, by whom the song 
 was written. 
 
 Monks. 
 
 His Eoyal Highness the Hon. — St. John. 
 
 Prince of Wales. J. Payne, Esq. 
 
 Hon. H. Conway. P. O'Byrne, Esq. 
 
 Hon. G. Conway. M. Braddyll, Esq. 
 
 Hon. C. Dillon. Col. Gardener. 
 
 Hon. S. Finch. Capt. Boyle." 
 Lord Strathaven. 
 
 The Prince gave another grand fete at Carlton House on 
 the 10th of June. " The ball-room was fitted up in a light and 
 pleasing style. Twelve superb lustres were suspended from the 
 ceiling, and the same number of girandoles on brackets placed 
 round the room. Two orchestras were constructed, hung with 
 crimson silk. Upwards of two hundred ladies were present, 
 some of whom were of the first accomplishments and fashion. 
 
54 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IT. 
 
 The ball was suspended at half-past one, and the company- 
 repaired to supper. Five rooms were laid out for the purpose. 
 The Prince and a party, consisting of one hundred ladies and 
 gentlemen, supped in the grand escaglio saloon. The Duchess 
 of Devonshire was seated on the right hand of his royal high- 
 ness, and Lady Beauchamp on the left. All the first families in 
 the kingdom supped in this apartment. The company amounted 
 together to. four hundred and fifty. The supper consisted of 
 eight removes of the choicest dishes, and a grand display of 
 confectionery, with the most curious fruits. 
 
 "After supper the dances were resumed with great hilarity. 
 The Prince danced with the Duchess of Gordon, Lady Dun- 
 cannon, and several other ladies." 
 
 A ball at St. James's Palace a hundred years ago offers a 
 contrast, in many respects, to such entertainments in our time, 
 and, since those of lower degree offered nearly the same elements, 
 the description of a royal birth-night ball may be accepted 
 as a fair specimen of this mode of entertainment. The ball 
 began before nine o'clock, when the King and Queen had taken, 
 their seats on chairs singly placed on the floor. Round them 
 rose lines of seats in "pens," while nothing could be richer or 
 more magnificent than the dresses; and, on great occasions, 
 there was a sort of competition that naade the display quite 
 dazzling. 
 
 It was the ton even to have equipages mounted for the occa- 
 sion ; and the Court newsman would take care to describe " Lady 
 
 'a chair, adorned in magnificent scarlet morocco with very 
 
 rich silver ornaments, her ' running footmen ' in silver lace ; " or 
 he would dwell on Mr. St. Leger — one of the Prince's companions 
 — and his truly elegant equipage, " his carriage, servants, and 
 horses being all as a young man of fashion should be.'" At 
 present this part of the display is quite lost, and persons of con- 
 dition have neither opportunity nor inclination, on arriving or 
 departure, to criticise their neighbours' vehicles. " Gala-suits " 
 were often worn by the princes and young nobles, the distinctive 
 mark of which was embroidery along the seams; and, in 1782, 
 a dress of the Prince, of this description, excited much admira- 
 tion. It was of the colour called dauphin, a sort of blush tint, 
 embroidered with pearls and "foil stones." The Marquis of 
 Graham appeared in carmelite-coloured velvet, decorated with 
 " stone clusters." The other dresses were nearly all of velvet 
 with fur linings. On state occasions the King wore velvet em- 
 broidered with gold, and the Queen, a straw-coloured gown and 
 petticoat trimmed with blonde and silver lace, drawn up in 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOBGE lY. 55 
 
 festoons with strings of large pearls and clusters of diamonds. 
 Tassels of diamonds also hung in fronts relieved by azure blue 
 ribbons. She wore, besides, flowers of diamonds. There were 
 green gowns richly embroidered with silver^ as in the case of 
 Lady Spencer ; or a puce-coloured bodice, as woru by Lady 
 Salisbury ; " the coat of crape-gauze ornamented in stripes with 
 coloured foil flowers, between which were a "number of the eyes 
 of peacocks, fancifully disposed. The headdress fancied was in 
 the style of an emperor's crown." The whole was, however, con- 
 sidered to have " an uncommonly novel and whimsical effect." 
 The effect may be conceived of such a mass of rich materials and 
 colours. 
 
 The King and Queen having given the signal, the dancing 
 commenced. The minuets were the favourite measure. Persons 
 who proposed to dance had previously sent for dancing-tickets to 
 the Lord Chamberlain, and received numbers in regular order. 
 These seated themselves on benches on the floor, at each side of 
 his Majesty, and danced according to their rank. " God Save 
 the King " was played, to the music of which the royal family 
 walked round and greeted the company. The ball would be 
 opened by the Prince of Wales with the person of highest rank 
 present, who was usually the Princess Royal. This rule was 
 carried out rigidly in all degrees of society, so that it often 
 happened that a gentleman and his sister became partners. The 
 Lord Chamberlain stands by with a list. The gentleman walks 
 out to dance, putting on his hat and handing his sword to the 
 Chamberlain to hold during the performance ; at the conclusion 
 of which the lady returns to her seat, while the gentleman remains 
 and dances with the next lady. About twelve dances were 
 generally thus given. Then the more lively country dance suc- 
 ceeded, to the favourite tunes of '^ Good Morrow to your Night- 
 cap," "La Belle Catarina," or the "German Spa." The list of 
 couples was sometimes after this fashion : The Prince of Wales 
 standing up with the Princess Royal; the Duke of Cumberland 
 with Lady A. Campbell; the Duke of Dorset with Lady Salis- 
 bury ; Lord Rochf ord with Lady Stormont ; Lord Graham with 
 Lady Francis Smith ; Mr. Greville with Lady Aylesford ; Mr. 
 North with Miss Bradwith; Colonel St. Leger with Miss 
 Nottis; Mr. West with Lady Talbot; and Mr. Lumley with 
 Miss Woodley. 
 
 This arrangement, it will be noticed, was highly select, and 
 only allowed of but a few dancing out of a large crowd. Before 
 twelve o'clock the ball broke up and the company departed. 
 
 On the 14th of May we find that the Prince was introduced 
 
56 THE LIFE OF GBOEGB IV. 
 
 to a new source of enjoyment in the siape of the " Beefsteak 
 Olubj" which represented the original type of club— which, of 
 late, has become a sort of house of call — but was then the club 
 proper. A general dinner, which occurred at short intervals, with 
 a carouse to follow, was the club ideal of the day. The rules were 
 suspended to admit him, as the number was complete. " The 
 Finish," "The Owls," and a host of such convivial societies, 
 which met at taverns, as did the more respectable. " The Club 
 of Johnson preceded " Watier's," " Crockford's," and other 
 more refined establishments. " White's " and " Brookes's " 
 answered to the " Carlton " and " Reform " Clubs of later times. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1784. 
 
 During this teadlong race of pleasure, he had found time to 
 surround himself with a class of friends not so respectable as 
 the coterie with which he had set out, and these were of a 
 peculiar, if not very respectable, kind. As we have been 
 considering the forms of entertainment which the town affected, 
 it may be interesting to see what was the type of " man about 
 town ■'■' or " blood," which then obtained. These beings com- 
 bined eccentricity and vice to a singular degree. Indeed, the 
 best mode of giving an idea of the " fast life " of the day 
 would be to present a sketch of some of the more conspicuous 
 of the Prince's companions about this season. It should be 
 remembered, however, that at this time the Prince's jovial 
 friends belonged to a preceding era, and were now old-fashioned. 
 They may be said, therefore, to have been his masters ; but, 
 by-and-by, he formed a school of his own. But from his own 
 contemporaries no better specimens could be selected than the 
 
 Barrys, Hangers, " Old Q '' Sir John Lade, and many more. 
 
 The roystering nobleman or gentleman was fairly exemplified in 
 the careers of the Barrymores, the Duke of Queensberry, the 
 Duke of Norfolk, and Sir John Lade. 
 
 Lord Barrymore, eldest of the family of Barry, ran a short 
 career, and bore the nickname of " Hellgate." His brother, the 
 Honourable Henry Barry, was lame, or club-footed, and dubbed 
 Cripplegate ; while the Hon. and Rev. Augustus Barry, even less 
 reputable than the other two, went by the name of "Newgate," for 
 the rather illogical reason that he had been a tenant of every 
 jail in the kingdom save that. There was a sister, of whom 
 
58 THE LIFE OF GEOKGE lY. 
 
 little is known save ttat she tecame Lady Melfort, and that from 
 her ready and copious use of oaths she receiYed from the refined 
 lips of the Prince the sobriquet of " Billingsgate." Lord Barrymore 
 distinguished himself by bringing a thousand pounds for pocket- 
 money to school. He came into a fortune of ten thousand a 
 year, which in an incredibly short space of time he had con- 
 trived to charge with debts amounting to a couple of hundred 
 thousand pounds, leaving but a couple of thousand a year to live 
 upon. His extravagance took the most fantastic shapes. His 
 hunting retinue was like the French king's, and he went out 
 with four Africans, dressed magnificently, who played on the 
 French horn during the chase. All the lowest scum of boxers 
 and cockfighters were in his train. He delighted in cricketing, 
 then in its infancy, and even held a commission in a militia 
 regiment. He could turn verses and had a decided literary 
 taste ; and was so far musical, that on returning home from a 
 new opera he could give an idea of the overture. " His lord- 
 ship," says a pleasant actor who knew him well, " was alternate 
 between the gentleman and the blackguard, the refined wit and 
 the most vulgar bully was equally well known in St. Giles's and 
 St. James's. He could fence, dance, drive or drink, box or bet, 
 with any man in the kingdom. He could discourse slang as 
 trippingly as French, relish porter after port, and compliment 
 her ladyship at a ball with as much ease and brilliance as he 
 could bespatter in blood in a cider cellar." He was highly 
 popular, the friend and companion of the Prince of Wales, who, 
 later, treated him with the contemptuous freedom with which he 
 favoured many of his boon companions. He would take some 
 "■ spirited companions," and, going by night to a village or 
 country town, shift all the various signs of the public-houses, 
 transposing, say. The King's Head and The Red Lion, to the 
 confusion of the owners and their customers. Often as he and 
 his brothers were driving in a hackney-coach they would imitate 
 the screams of a woman struggling — " Murder, murder ! Let me 
 go ! " etc. — when the passers-by would be attracted, rush after 
 them in pursuit, and stop the coach to rescue the sufferer. Then 
 the fast lord and his friends would descend, fall on the inter- 
 posers, who were quite bewildered to find there was no female in 
 the coach, and administer a sound thrashing on the public high- 
 way. Or he would be driving with a guest and his brother 
 "Newgate" in his chaise-and-four, returning to his country 
 place, when, after some halt, the guest would find himself whirled 
 along at a terrific pace, and discover that the postilions were in 
 the rumble behind, and that the two brothers had taken their 
 place. If he met an ill-conditioned waggoner on the road, who 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. t9 
 
 would not give way, his lordship would descend to fight it out : 
 if the winner, he would present the man with a guinea ; if the 
 loser, he would shake hands good-humouredly. 
 
 At Brighton, he fitted a coffin to the back of his servant, 
 taking the bottom off so as to leave room for the man's feet. 
 This was carried with great solemnity to a gentleman's house in 
 the Steyne, and left against the hall door. When the maid 
 opened the door and saw this apparition, she shrieked and fainted 
 away, and the family rushing down, a pistol was discharged which 
 penetrated the coffin barely an inch above the servant's head. 
 Did a particular kind of mild beer run short, three chaises were 
 sent off in different directions, charged to look for beer, each 
 returning after some hours with a cask inside. 
 
 But it was at his own house at Wargrave that he had full 
 scope for his humour. This was a sort of cottage or villa, not 
 far from Maidenhead, small and inconvenient; but for which, 
 from early associations, he had a liking. There he would collect 
 the band of roysterers and " flappers " and butts, who furnished 
 him with diversion, and here he was able to indulge his passion 
 for the stage, having built a handsome theatre. He brought 
 down an eminent Oovent Garden mechanist, who exhausted his 
 skill in scenes, traps, and other contrivances, so that such em- 
 barrassing works as pantomimes could be brought out success- 
 fully. Here a series of sterling comedies, such as " The Merry 
 Wives of Windsor" and '^' Every Man in his Humour," was 
 brought out, supported by amateurs of reputation like Captain 
 Wathen and Mr. Wade, and professionals such as Palmer, 
 Bannister, Johnstone, Incledon, Munden, and others. Captain 
 Wathen and the host excelled in Archer and Scrub, and they were 
 painted in character. Delpini, a well-known pantomimist, directed 
 behind the scenes, and took the leading part in the pantomime ; 
 the ''favourite Pas Russe, as performed at the Italian Opera, 
 being danced by Lord Barrymore and Mr. Delpini." Nothing 
 could exceed the reckless extravagance with which this hobby 
 was carried out. The professionals were asked en masse, and 
 allowed to gratify every whim. 
 
 In the year 1788, the Prince of Wales was induced to come 
 down and occupy a splendid mansion close by ; Lord Barrymore, 
 whose house was too small, providing the rest of the entertain- 
 ment. The performance did not begin till nine o'clock ; all the 
 rank and fashion of the county were present. The prologue was 
 written at a short notice by a son of Judge Blackstone, who 
 roused his " fuddled " intellects for the purpose by tying a wet 
 towel round his head. 
 
 There was generally in his train a set of bruisers, and one 
 
60 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 noted individual known as "Hooper, the tinman/' was per- 
 manently retained as a sort of body-guard. This man was the 
 hero of one of his lordship's vagaries at Vauxhall, which at the 
 time was much resented. 
 
 "Lord Barrymore," says one of his companions, "had, un- 
 known to uSj contrived to dress Tom Hooper, the tinman (one 
 of the first pugilists at that time), as a clergyman, to be in 
 waiting at Vauxhall, in case we should get into any dispute. 
 His black clothes, formal hat, hair powdered and curled round 
 so far disguised him, that he was unknown to us all at first, 
 though Hooper's queer dialect must soon have discovered him to 
 the waiters. This was a ruse de guerre of Lord Barrymore's. 
 About three o'clock, whilst at supper, Lord Falkland, Henry 
 Barry, Sir Francis Molineux, etc., were of our party ; there was 
 at this time a continual noise and rioting, and the arrack punch 
 was beginning to operate. On a sudden all were seen running 
 towards the orchestra, the whole garden seemed to be in con- 
 fusion, and our party, all impatience, sallied out, those at the 
 further end of the box walking over the table, kicking down the 
 dishes. It seems that Hooper was now for fighting with everybody. 
 A large ring was made, and, advancing in a boxing attitude, he 
 threatened to fight anyone, but all retired before him." 
 
 The death of this noble roysterer was sudden, and of a very 
 tragic kind. He was at Eye with his regiment — and, curious to say, 
 he was considered a very painstaking and efiicient ofiicer — whence 
 he and some French prisoners were to be sent to Deal under escort. 
 He applied specially for the duty of commanding the party, no 
 doubt hoping for some fun, or excitement. When they got 
 outside Folkestone, the commander, always good-natured, 
 halted at a convenient public-house, where he treated the whole 
 party. Being tired of marching, he got into his carriage, which 
 was followiug, wishing to smoke. He had his gun with him, 
 which he had characteristically used as he marched along, to 
 shoot any stray rabbits and gulls he might see on the road-side. 
 Lighting his pipe, he handed his gun to his man, who held it 
 awkwardly between his knees, when, as the good-natured master 
 with his pipe was pointing out to him the coast of France, 
 bidding him note how clear it was, the piece suddenly exploded, 
 lodging the contents in his head. The right eye was blown out 
 upon his cheeks, and some of the brain dropped upon the wheels. 
 He lived but half an hour, groaning terribly all the while, and 
 expired amid lamentations even of the French prisoners. A cynic 
 might find an appropriateness in the scene of his last moments — 
 that public-house where he had been so cheerful but a few 
 
THE LIFE OP GBOEGE lY. 61 
 
 minutes before. He was no more than twenty-three. Such was 
 the fate of "Hellgate," the eldest of the brethren. 
 
 He was succeeded by his brother, the Hon. Henry, known 
 as the lame lord, or " Cripplegate." This gentleman, with 
 the worthy parson, were said to be accountable for all the 
 excesses of the elder brother, encouraging him. in every con- 
 ceivable way. The new lord had not the same bonhomie or the 
 same love of fun. His excesses and oddities also became the 
 public talk. He was considered very amusing, but, asMr. Raikes 
 says, from his want of principle as well as his want of good taste, 
 was avoided by persons of his own station. This sort of cha- 
 racter, too, finds itself more appreciated by persons of lower 
 degree, whose society is therefore preferred. 
 
 Strange to say, this lord generally escaped chastisement, on 
 account of the buffoonery that was mixed up with these insults. 
 He had indeed a duel with a fat Mr. Howarth, at Brighton. A 
 large crowd attended to see the sport, and was convulsed with 
 laughter when he proceeded to strip himself to the waist, having 
 an idea that portions of cloth, etc. were often driven in by the 
 bullet. This comic spectacle took away the serious element, and 
 after a random shot the affair terminated. He married a girl in 
 Ireland of no family, but whose sister had made a conquest of an 
 old French emigre — the Duke of Castries. He gradually sank 
 into distress and difficulties, his house was assailed by bailiffs, 
 whom, it is said, when he gave a dinner, he used to dress up in 
 the family livery. He had finally to retire to Prance, where he 
 died in great poverty, his brother-in-law, the Dake of Castries, 
 now restored to his estates and honours, giving him shelter. 
 " He was, with all his follies, a man," says one who knew him, 
 " of a generous nature. He had nothing mean in his nature, and 
 preserved his independence of spirit amid great temptations to 
 subserviency. One of his claims to fashionable reputation was 
 his having invented the "Tiger," the smart juvenile servant 
 who, in those days, was seated beside the owner of the cab, and 
 not standing behind. 
 
 Of the Hon. and Rev. Augustus Barry, " I believe," says one 
 of his friends cautiously, " neither the nobility nor the Church 
 derived much advantage from his being a member of both classes. 
 He had the curious faculty of exhibiting himself as a perfect 
 gentleman or a perfect blackguard. It would be invidious to say 
 in which of the two characters he most commonly appeared." He, 
 too, died in poverty and obscurity. Of " Billingsgate," the sister 
 ■of the three brothers, little is known, save the faculty of uttering 
 oaths before described. And altogether a very remarkable family. 
 
62 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 The well-known Duke of Queensberry was another of those 
 o-oues of the old school. Pacing the Green Park, and only a few 
 doors from Park Lane, is still to be seen a remarkable porch, 
 consisting of two tall pillars, without the usual steps, perched 
 npon what looks like a small coach-house. This arrangement was 
 made about seventy years ago to suit the infirmities of a dis- 
 reputable old nobleman, who, seated in his chair, was let down 
 by machinery from the high level of his parlour to the street. It 
 was, in fact, " Old Q." himself, whom some London old gentlemen 
 may still recollect. 
 
 " Old Q." was the last Duke of Queensberry, and, it may be 
 added, the last of the frightful old roues, whose aim seemed to be 
 to scandalise both heaven and earth by their excesses ; the coterie 
 that enjoyed " Hellfire Clubs " and Medmenham Abbeys, that 
 " had to go to Paris " to get a waistcoat fit to put on, and who 
 brought back a couple of dozen copies of Crebillon's newest 
 romance for sale among friends. He was of the set that included 
 Wilkes, Sandwich, Hall Stevenson, Grilly Williams, Hanger, 
 Barrymore, and a host of others. 
 
 It is recorded that even when a schoolboy (he was born in 
 1726) he was "distinguished by his escapades in the capital;" 
 such was the pleasant newspaper phrase. Lord March, the title 
 " Old Q." then bore, soon became conspicuous in the town. He 
 was a spirited, clever young man, with an extraordinary store of 
 vivacity ; and certainly it must be said that in writing a letter 
 the roues of his time excelled. The letters of the fast young 
 men of our day contrast unfavourably with the good English, 
 straightforwardness, liveliness, and even wit, of the epistles of 
 Lord March, Williams, Storer, and Lord Carlisle. One wager 
 made him quite a reputation on account of the energy and 
 anxiety he brought to bear on the result. He made a bet with 
 an Irish gentleman that he would drive a carriage nineteen miles 
 in an hour. Mr. Wright, " an ingenious coach- maker " of Long 
 Acre, was employed to construct a vehicle of extraordinary 
 lightness of wood and whalebone. The harness was formed of 
 silk, instead of leather. The noble bettor practised for long 
 before, four blood horses being driven at this terrific speed ; and 
 during the process no fewer than seven horses fell victims to the 
 severity of the training. On the 29fch of August, 1750, this 
 curious match against time was run and won. The carriage was 
 a sort of " spider ''■' arrangement, consisting of little more than a 
 pole and the wheels. 
 
 His lordship was conspicuous for the number and success of 
 his attachments, or, as the newspaper of his day stated it, " was 
 not insensible, if we are to credit report, to female charms.'* 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 6S 
 
 The objects of his devotion were usually selected from the 
 opera, and the " Zamperini '^ and the "Rena" contended for his 
 patronage. As he grew old and older he grew more and more 
 selfish, economised his pleasures warily, and became self-deny- 
 ing, so as to have more enjoyment, and not draw too extensively 
 on his store of health and satisfaction ; and thus succeeded in 
 reaching a fine span of life. When near seventy, " Old Q." 
 " ratted " on the first regency question, deserting his old master, 
 as though he wished to secure the favour of the young prince. 
 An old Lord Essex used to tell of his coming home betimes from 
 a ball with the duke — both arrayed in their stars and decorations 
 — and of some rustics bursting into a sort of horse-laugh at the 
 sight. The duke said, simply, to his friend, at the same time 
 tapping hia stars, " What ! have they found out this humbug 
 at last ? " He had magnificent seats in the country, which he 
 never cared to visit, and a pretty villa at Richmond, to which 
 the pious Mr. Wilberf orce was once invited, and where he heard 
 his host exclaim with an admirable candour : " I can^t see what 
 they admire in this river. There it goes, flow, flow, all day 
 long." The predominant feature of his character was "to do 
 what he liked, without caring who was pleased or displeased with 
 it ; " a simple and agreeable rule of life. As years passed on, 
 and he grew more and more decayed, there was left to him the 
 pastime of sitting in a cane chair, in his balcony, a parasol held 
 over his head, in his bow-window at Piccadilly — " an emaciated 
 libel on manhood," says one, who had seen him ogling the ladies 
 of all degrees who passed by — and a groom ready mounted, Jack 
 Radford by name, waiting below to ride after such friend or 
 acquaintance as the duke recognised. In the afternoon, he was 
 to be seen tottering down the little iron staircase to his vis-a-vis 
 — a dark green vehicle, with long-tailed black horses. During 
 winter he carried a muff, two servants sat in the rumble, while 
 the indispensable Jack Radford rode behind. A buck of fifty 
 years ago recalled him as "a, little sharp-looking man, very 
 irritable, who swore like ten thousand troopers." There was 
 indeed a suggestion of Voltaire's face. Still, we are told that, 
 "viewed from behind," he appeared surprisingly youthful; a 
 rather ambiguous compliment. A physician enjoyed an annuity 
 of five hundred a year for the duke's life, with the understanding 
 that nothing was to be expected after death. But he did not 
 rest on the arts of legitimate pharmacy. A French quack, 
 named P^re Elisee, was in his grace's service, whose duty it was 
 to compound strange drugs, supposed to have an elixir-like 
 virtue, and to supply the vital power that was departing. At 
 one time a rumour was rife in London that the aged duke was in 
 
64 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 the habit of taking milk baths ! Thus the old man struggled on, 
 now becoming deaf of one ear, now blind of an eye, now supply- 
 ing its place with a glass one ; a perfect ruin, but still preserving 
 what were called his " elegant manners/^ At last, when eighty- 
 five years old, and in the year 1810, this selfish and uninteresting 
 specimen of an old epicurean was to be called away from his 
 three superb "places," his hoarded wealth, and his pleasures. 
 
 His testament was found to be a curious document, consist- 
 ing of a will formally executed, and no fewer than twenty- five 
 codicils, more irregularly drawn. His ready money was found 
 to amount to nearly a million sterling, and the disposition of 
 it caused a universal flutter. Lord Yarmouth (later one of the 
 Regent's choicest and most favoured companions), with his wife, 
 inherited all the vast estates ; a disposition revoked in the 
 codicils, and reduced to two hundred and fifty thousand pounds 
 in cash. This jovial boon companion was familiarly styled by his 
 friends, from the peculiar tint of his whiskers, " Red Herrings ; " 
 while his wife was the well-known heroine of George Selwyn's 
 insane devotion. 
 
 A vast number of his friends were left either ten thousand or 
 five hundred a year. Three French ladies received a thousand 
 pounds apiece, with which they were, no doubt, but ill-contented. 
 Some of the other legacies were marked by a strange oddity: a 
 Mrs. Brown was allotted an annuity of only five guineas a year ; 
 while Jack Radford, his well-known groom, received an annuity 
 of two hundred pounds, together with all his horses and carriages. 
 His steward, confectioner, and other important attendants had 
 each the same ; the female servants were nearly all passed over. 
 The French compounder of mysterious drugs had five thousand 
 pounds. The legacy duty on the whole was calculated at about 
 one hundred and twenty thousand pounds. But the old epicurean 
 passed over the apothecary who attended him until he was him- 
 self brought to the verge of the grave. He had attended him 
 for seven weary years, had paid nine thousand three hundred and 
 forty visits, besides sitting up some seventeen hundred nights ! 
 He claimed ten thousand pounds. The heirs were just enough 
 to admit his claim, and at the trial came forward to support him j 
 and though the judge declared that an apothecary had no right to 
 recover fees, the jury found for him to the amount of nearly 
 eight thousand pounds. Unfortunately, all these splendid 
 legacies belonged to the twenty-five codicils, written on sheets 
 of note-paper and improperly prepared. This was to the advan- 
 tage of the Tarmouths, who, indeed, would lose a legacy in 
 specie, but in its place receive a vast estate. The only resource 
 was Chancery, and for six years the Jack Radfords and other 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 65 
 
 humble annuitants were tortui-ed by suspense, until, at last, 
 the Yarmouths consented, on some certain shape of indemnity, 
 that the legacies should be paid. 
 
 He was interred, rather inappropriately, under the com- 
 munion-table of St. James's Church. He was attended to the 
 grave by his male servants only; the unremembered female 
 servants, probably, not caring to attend. The heiress, who had 
 been George Selwyn's pet and had sat on his knee, now more 
 than a hundred years ago, lived until the year 1856, dying when 
 nearly ninety years old. 
 
 The Duke of Norfolk, then Lord Surrey, and the friend of 
 Fox, was another of this odious school of rakes. He was not 
 devoid of political talent, and took a leading and spirited part 
 in the contests that preceded and followed Fox's India Bill. 
 Gross in his tastes, addicted to low pleasures, heartless — 
 a characteristic of convivial intercourse — in his old age he 
 became a sort of bloated voluptuary, delighting in the company 
 low places offered. It is difficult indeed to realise the state of 
 society, when noblemen of the highest rank were found sitting 
 night after night at taverns about Covent Garden, meeting their 
 frequenters on terms of equality. He was described as "a vulgar, 
 heavy, dirty mass of matter, that could swill wine like a Silenus 
 and gorge beefsteaks like a buckhorse." " In his youth,-" says 
 one who knew him (Sir N. Wraxall), "he led a most licentious 
 life, having frequently passed the whole night in excesses of 
 every kind, and even lain down when intoxicated, occasionally, to 
 sleep in the streets or on a block of wood. At the Beefsteak 
 Club, where I have dined with him, he seemed to be in his proper 
 element. But few individuals of that society could sustain a 
 contest with such an antagonist when the cloth was removed. In 
 cleanliness he was negligent to so great a degree that he rarely 
 made use of water for purposes of bodily refreshment and comfort. 
 He even carried the neglect of his person so far, that his servants 
 were accustomed to avail themselves of his fits of intoxication for 
 the purpose of washing him. On those occasions, being wholly 
 insensible of all that passed about him, they stripped him as they 
 would have done a corpse, and performed on his body the necessary 
 ablutions. Nor did he change his linen more frequently than he 
 washed himself. Complaining one day to Dudley North that he 
 was a martyr to the rheumatism, and had ineffectually tried every 
 remedy for its relief, ' Pray, my lord,' said he, ' did you ever try 
 a clean shirt ? ' 
 
 "Drunkenness was in him an hereditary vice, transmitted 
 down, probably, by his ancestors from the Plantagenet times, 
 and inherent in his formation. His father indulged equally in it, 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
66 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB lY. 
 
 but lie did not manifest the same capacities as Ms son in resisting 
 the effects of wine. It is a fact, that after laying his father and 
 all the guests under the table at the Thatched House Tavern in 
 St. James's Street, he has repaired to another festive party in the 
 vicinity, and there recommenced the unfinished convivial rites. 
 At these taverns and houses of call were met an abundance of 
 low revellers, such as Felix Macarthy, who did political service 
 for his friends, Billy Hewardine and Jemmy Bibb, the original 
 of "Jeremy Diddler" — types now likely to be found at the 
 music halls.* 
 
 His companion and protege, Captain Morris, who used to 
 delight him and the Beefsteak Club with his convivial and 
 amatory songs, sank into old age, and would have died in want 
 and destitution unless the pressure of friends had shamed the 
 duke into making him a small allowance. 
 
 Sir John Lade was, we are told, the Prince's tutor in the art 
 of driving, and, on his coming of age in 1780, was honoured by 
 Johnson with some prophetic verses. The sage repeated them on 
 his death-bed. They are indeed admirable : 
 
 Long-expected one-and-twenty, 
 Ling'ring year, at length is flown ; 
 
 Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty, 
 Great Sir John are now your own. 
 
 Loosen'd from the minor's tether, 
 
 Free to mortgage or to sell. 
 Wild as wind and light as feather, 
 
 Bid the sons of thrift farewell. 
 
 Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies, 
 
 All the names that banish care ; 
 Lavish of your grandsire's guineas. 
 
 Show the spirit of an heir. 
 
 All that prey on vice and folly 
 
 Joy to see their quarry fly ; 
 There the gamester, light and jolly, 
 
 There the lender grave and sly. 
 
 * For an account of these worfchies and others of their class, the reader 
 may consult Bernard's " Retrospections," Adolphus's " Memoirs," and that 
 curious miscellany, " Records of My Life," by John Taylor, editor of The 8wn. 
 Another strange and mixed picture of manners at the commencement of 
 the century is given in Richardson's " EecollectionB." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 67 
 
 Wealth, my lad, was made to wander. 
 
 Let it wander as it will ; 
 Call the jockey, call the pander. 
 
 Bid them come and take their fill. 
 
 When the bonny blade carouses, 
 
 Pockets full, and spirits high — 
 What are acres ? what are houses ? 
 
 Only dirt, or wet or dry. 
 
 Should the guardian friend or mother 
 
 Tell the woes of wilful waste : 
 Scorn their counsels, scorn their pother, 
 
 You can hang or drown at last. 
 
 He married a lady said to have been drawn from St. Giles's, 
 under the favouring patronage of Rann, or Sixteen-string Jack, 
 a notorious criminal, at whose execution at Tyburn she secured 
 the notice of persons of high degree. At the Windsor hunt, her 
 skill in riding attracted the Prince's notice. She excelled her 
 husband in the art of driving, and her curricle and four excited 
 the admiration of all.* 
 
 These persons — and there were many more like these — will 
 give a suflB.cient idea of what " the bloods " of the day were like. 
 They were to be succeeded by the Yarmouths, Brummells, Jack 
 Paynes, and many more. The wonder is that the young prince 
 did not become a thorough-paced reprobate. 
 
 Another of these friends was the Hon. George Hanger, after- 
 wards Lord Coleraine, who was a noble author. This eccentric 
 being entered the Guards, which he left to join the Hessians 
 abroad, and after some service in America, returned to town, 
 where he made the acquaintance of the Prince of Wales, then in 
 all the riotous flush of his early career. Mr. Hanger became his 
 boon companion, and for sixteen years " enjoyed his protection, 
 having viewed him in every stage — health, on a sick bed, etc." 
 It was in this connection that he acquired celebrity by his geese- 
 and-turkey wager with the Prince. This singular transaction is 
 thus described : 
 
 * Her skill was celebrated in the well-known lines : 
 
 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 thong ! 
 
 Graceful as John, she moderates the reins, 
 
 And whistles sweet her diuretic strains. 
 
 p 2 
 
68 THE LIFE OF aEOEGE IT. 
 
 " During one of the convivial parties at Carlton House^ Mr. 
 Hanger designedly introduced tlie subject of the travelling 
 powers of the turkey and the goose^ and declared that the turkey 
 Vfould outstrip the goose. The Prince^ who placed great reliance 
 on his judgment in subjects of this nature, backed his opinion. 
 A match was made with Mr. Berkeley of twenty turkeys against 
 twenty geese, for a distance of ten miles ; the race to be for five 
 hundred pounds. And as Mr. Hanger and the turkey party 
 hesitated not to lay two to one in favour of their bird, the Prince 
 did the same to a considerable amount, not in the least suspecting 
 that the whole was a deep-laid plan to extract a sum of money 
 from his pockets. The Prince deputed Mr. Hanger to select 
 twenty of the most wholesome and high-feathered birds which 
 could be procured ; and, on the day appointed, he and his party 
 of turkeys, and Mr. Berkeley and his party of geese, set off to 
 decide the match. For the first three hours, everything seemed 
 to indicate that the turkeys would be the winners, as they were 
 then two miles in advance of the geese; but, as night came on, 
 the turkeys began to stretch out their necks towards the branches 
 of the trees which lined the sides of the road. In vain the Prince 
 attempted to urge them on with his pole, to which a bit of red 
 cloth was attached ; in vain Mr. Hanger dislodged one from its 
 roosting-place, only to see three or four others comfortably 
 perching amongst the branches ; in vain was the barley strewn 
 upon the road. In the meantime, the geese came waddling 
 on, and in a short time passed the turkeys, whose party were 
 all busy among the trees attempting to dislodge the birds ; but 
 further progress was found impossible, and the geese were 
 declared the winners." 
 
 This nobleman, a few years afterwards becoming more 
 eccentric, declined to sign himself by his title, and made it a 
 matter of offence to be addressed by it. He later wrote some 
 strange confessions, and indeed must be pronounced to have 
 been altogether mad. 
 
 Such was the curious assemblage of friends that attended 
 the young prince on his entering life, and in such hopeful com- 
 pany the only surprise is that he was not more hopelessly 
 corrupted than he proved to be. 
 
 Yet it would be as unreasonable to judge of his taste from 
 this type of associate, as it was in Mr. Thackeray to write him 
 down a tailor^'s block and nothing more. Men of low tastes, 
 as they are called, may show lack of refinement, but not of 
 intellectual power, and the Prince would as often be found pre- 
 siding over a gathering of men like Fox, Sheridan, Erskine, 
 
THE LIFE or GEOEGE IV. 69 
 
 Francis, and others. Among his friends, too, was the wonderful 
 and brilliant Hugh Elliott, a name little known now, yet during 
 his career enjoying a European reputation. The story of his 
 marriage with Mdlle. De Krauth and his duel with Kniphausen 
 were the talk of diplomatists ; but more remarkable was his bold 
 interference in Sweden in 1788 — his unauthorised assurances to 
 the king of English support at a most critical juncture. Nothing 
 indeed is more remarkable than the mixed character of the Prince's 
 circle. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 1785. 
 
 One result of such monitors and their wild courses may be con- 
 ceived. He was found to be prematurely steeped in debt, and, 
 before he was five-and-twenty, was as fairly crippled and "ruined" 
 as the most abandoned spendthrift. It was curious to find to what 
 a sum his debts had reached in so short a time ; and the result of 
 the first attempts of those periodical " liquidations/'' which were 
 to recur so frequently, now comes before us. 
 
 "This morning," his Majesty wrote to Mr. Pitt on March 24th, 
 " I received the enclosed note from Lord Southampton, on which 
 I appointed him to be at St. James's, when I returned from the 
 House of Peers. He then delivered to me the letter from the 
 Prince of Wales. All I could collect from him was, that there 
 are many sums, but it cannot be honourable to explain ; that Lord 
 Southampton has reason to believe they have not been incurred 
 for political purposes ; that he thinks the going abroad is now 
 finally resolved on ; and that perhaps the champion of the Oppo- 
 sition has been consulted on the letter now sent. I therefore 
 once more send all that has passed to Mr. Pitt, and hope to hear 
 in the course of to-morrow from him what answer ought to be 
 sent to this extraordinary epistle, which, though respectful in 
 terms, is in direct defiance of my whole correspondence. I 
 suppose Mr. Pitt will choose to consult the Chancellor." * 
 
 The phrases, "incurred for political purposes," "the champion 
 of the Opposition," showed what was in the King's mind. It has 
 been said indeed that " it would almost seem that, instead of hia 
 having turned a deaf ear to his song's solicitations, he was ready 
 
 • Earl Stanhope, " Life of Pitt," i. 30, Appendix. 
 
THE LIFE or GEOEGE lY. 71 
 
 to place the settlement of tte business in the hands of Pitt and 
 the Chancellor." But the later proceedings show that the minister 
 was equally disinclined to consent to arrangement. Taking this 
 letter, with Sir J. Harris's account of his interviews, the inference 
 is that the Prince was right in his view that the other side was 
 not really anxious to come to his assistance, save on the terms of a 
 complete political surrender and submission, and of breaking with 
 the Opposition j and that the objections made as to not disclosing 
 the nature of the debts were a convenient pretext for refusal. 
 The Prince had given up his idea of going abroad, and was 
 willing to retrench, to set aside a portion of his income for pay- 
 ment of his debts; so that his outburst to Sir J. Harris — "I 
 cannot abandon Charles and my friends •" — showed the sacrifice 
 that was required of him. But he himself shall now tell what 
 his desperate condition was and what his grievances. In a curious 
 conversation with his friend Harris, in April, 1785, he unfolded 
 the steps that had been taken to set him free. 
 
 " The Prince began by saying that as he was convinced of my 
 sincere regard for him, he wished to make me acquainted with his 
 situation ; to communicate it to me fully, and to consult me upon 
 it. The original ideas of the then ministry were, to give him 
 £50,000 to pay his debts, £50,000 to fit him out, and £100,000 
 a year, exclusive of the Duchy of Cornwall. The King, after 
 having apparently approved of this arrangement, refused ulti- 
 mately to agree to it. The ministers were on the point of going 
 out (Lord Carlisle, Mr. Pox, and Lord Keppel), but the Prince of 
 Wales being told that Lord John Cavendish was against it, and 
 that the King had referred to Lords North and Stormont (as his 
 old friends) to decide on the propriety of his conduct, he (the 
 Prince of Wales — this affair was negotiated between the Prince 
 and Charles Pox by Colonel Leake) insisted that they should stay 
 in, and that he would not be the cause of a revolution in ministry, 
 or have it said he ran counter to the King's pleasure in his first 
 outset. In consequence of this he received £30,000 to pay his 
 debts, and £30,000 to equip him, with £50,000 a year out of the 
 Civil List. He found his house unfurnished] that, and many 
 other expenses — some necessary to his rank, some, as he con- 
 fessed, incurred by the natural imprudences of a young man — 
 soon involved him in debts to a very considerable amount. 
 
 " In the autumn of 1784* he wrote to the King, stating his 
 embarrassed situation, and signifying his wish to travel in order 
 to retrench. The idea of his travelling was reprobated, and, 
 after several letters had passed, the King desired the Prince of 
 Wales to send in an exact statement of his debts, giving him to 
 * " Diaries of Lord Malmesbury," vii. 121. 
 
72 THE LIFE OP GEORGE lY. 
 
 understand he would liquidate them. THs the Prince did en gros. 
 It was kept four months, and then returned on the King's saying 
 it was not exact. The articles were not specified. The Prince 
 sent it back again with every article minuted by his treasurer, 
 except one of £25,000, which was lumped, and which he could 
 not account for. (He told me it was borrowed money, and that 
 he was obliged, in honour, not to tell from whom he got it.) 
 The King objected to this reserve, insisted on its being explained. 
 The Prince persisted in his refusal, alleging the motive of secrecy 
 to be one of honour. The King replied that if it was a debt he 
 was ashamed to explain, it was one he ought not to pay. Here 
 the matter ended. The Prince's debts increased, and with them 
 his embarrassment and distress. He now owes £160,000. He 
 ended his discourse by telling me that, circumstanced as he was, 
 he saw no means of relief left but by going abroad, that he only 
 wanted to ask me whether he should distress me or not if he was 
 to come to the Hague in a private character, and whether I could 
 present him as such. He added, he would rather not come at 
 all (though it was his resolution to travel) than distress me, or 
 oblige me to act improperly." 
 
 Sir James Harris remonstrated against this step, urging that 
 " you may rest assured in that case I shall receive orders how 
 to act towards you before your. arrival; and those orders, let them 
 be ever so much in contradiction to my feelings, I must obey. 
 
 "P. — Certainly. I should be the last person to wish you to 
 do otherwise. But what am I to do ? Am I to be refused the 
 right of every individual ? Cannot I travel legally, as a private 
 man, without the King's consent ? 
 
 " H. — I think it very immaterial for your Royal Highness to 
 know whether you can, or cannot, legally travel without his 
 Majesty's consent; since it is evident that you cannot with any 
 propriety to the public, or satisfaction to yourself, cross the seas 
 without it. 
 
 " P. — Why not ? I wish to travel on a plan of economy ; to 
 be unknown ; to live in retirement. 
 
 " H. — Without entering into the almost impossibility of your 
 Royal Highness making so rapid a transition in your ways of 
 life, I confess I see no event would give me so much pain, as an 
 Englishman, as to see a Prince of Wales abroad under such a 
 description. 
 
 " P. — I feel what you say ; but what can I do ? The King 
 proposed to me to lay by £10,000 a year to pay my debts, at a 
 time when, with the strictest economy, my expenses are twice 
 my income. I am ruined if I stay in England. I disgrace 
 myself as a man. 
 
THE LIFE OE GEORGE IV. 73 
 
 " H. — Tonr Eoyal Higlmess, give me leave to say, will find 
 no relief in travelling the way you propose. You will be either 
 slighted, or, what is worse, become the object of political intrigue 
 at every Court you pass through. 
 
 " P.— But if I avoid all great Courts ? If I keep to the 
 smaller ones of Germany, can this happen ? I may there live 
 unnoticed and unknown. 
 
 " H. — Impossible, sir. The title of the Earl of Chester will 
 be only a mask which covers the Prince of Wales, and, as such, 
 your actions will ever be judged. 
 
 " P. — You think I mean to go to France. I shall keep to the 
 Empire, and perhaps to Italy. 
 
 " H. — What I say applies to all countries, sir. As for France, 
 I hope never to see a Prince of Wales there on any other purpose 
 than that which carried the Black Prince ; or ever to hear of his 
 being at Calais, but to fix the British standard on its walls. 
 
 " P. — But what can I do, my dear Harris ? The King hates 
 me. He wants to set me at variance with my brother. I have 
 no hopes from him. He won't let even Parliament assist me till 
 I marry. 
 
 " H. — But there exists so cordial an affection between your 
 Eoyal Highness and the Duke of York, that I should think he 
 might be employed most usefully to reconcile the King to your 
 Royal Highness. It cannot be a difficult task when undertaken 
 by a brother. 
 
 "P. — If he thought it possible, he would come over imme- 
 diately. He has often expressed his concern at our disunion, and 
 declares he never will leave the Continent till he can see a 
 prospect of bringing the King to enter into my situation. 
 
 " H. — Surely, sir, the King could not object to any increase 
 of income Parliament thought proper to allow your Royal 
 Highness ?. 
 
 " P. — I believe he would. He hates me ; he always did, from 
 seven years old. 
 
 " H. — His Majesty may be displeased and dissatisfied with 
 your Royal Highness, but surely he cannot hate you ? 
 
 " P. — It may be so, but it cannot be. We are too wide 
 asunder ever to meet. The King has deceived me, he has 
 made me deceive others ; I cannot trust him, and he will never 
 believe me. 
 
 " H. — I am sorry your Royal Highness thinks so. The con- 
 fidence and kindness with which you hear me perhaps makes me 
 speak more freely than I ought, but I think your Royal Highness 
 should try every possible means before you carry into execution 
 your plan of travelling. 
 
74 THE LIFE OP aEOEaE IV. 
 
 " P. — I will think it over, but I see no option. We will meet 
 again soon. I have great reliance on your opinion, and am 
 disposed to attend to you, because I am convinced you have no 
 interested motives in advising me. 
 
 " On Saturday, May the 21st, the Prince took an opportunity 
 of saying many obliging things to me at an assembly at Mrs. 
 Sturt's, in St. James's Square. I was induced, in consequence 
 of this civility, to ask permission to reclaim his promise of allow- 
 ing me to wait upon him again at Carlton House. He appointed 
 the Monday following at 2 p.m. My motive for requesting this 
 interview was, that I had received vague assurances from Lord 
 Carmarthen (Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, and 
 and who spoke after Mr. Pitt, First Lord of the Treasury) that the 
 ministry would not be adverse to increase his Royal Highness''s 
 income, providing he would consent to appropriate a share of it 
 to liquidate his debts, renounce going abroad, and be reconciled 
 to the King. 
 
 " Before I opened this subject to him I consulted both the 
 Duke of Portland and Mr. Fox; and both of them expressed 
 their approbation of the measure, and their wishes for me to 
 mention it to the Prince. 
 
 " After waiting some time after the hour appointed on Monday, 
 he sent for me up into his dressing-room. Our conversation was 
 nearly what follows : 
 
 " P. — If you are come, my dear Harris, to dissuade me again 
 from travelling, let me anticipate your kind intentions by telling 
 you I have dismissed that idea from my mind. I see all my 
 other friends, as well as yourself, are against it, and I subscribe 
 to their opinion. 
 
 " H. — After what you have told me, sir, allow me to express 
 my infinite satisfaction on hearing you have given up your plan. 
 
 " P. — I am glad to have pleased you, at least, if I have not 
 pleased myself. Yet I am sure you will be concerned to see the 
 distressed and unbecoming light in which I must appear by 
 remaining in England. 
 
 "H. — This had better appear here (admitting it to be 
 the case) than to strangers. But, sir, the purport of my 
 troubling your Royal Highness was to obviate this unpleasant 
 circumstance. 
 
 " P.— How so ? 
 
 "H. — I have thought, sir, with great anxiety on all you 
 said to me when I was last admitted to your presence, and, 
 if you will allow me, I will lay before you the result of my 
 reflections. 
 
 " P. — Most willingly. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 75 
 
 "H. — If your Eoyal Highness will give me leave, I will 
 propose to Mr. Pitt to increase your revenue to £100,000 a year 
 on two conditions. The one, that you will set aside £50,000 of 
 it to pay your debts ; the other, that you will cease to be a man 
 of party, and reconcile yourself to the King. 
 
 " P- — Your good- will towards me deceives you. The attempt 
 would be useless. Pitt would not carry such a proposal to 
 Parliament : the King would not hear of it. 
 
 " H. — This, sir, is exactly what I mean to try. You certainly 
 shall not be committed; and the refusal shall be given to me 
 alone. 
 
 " P. — I thank you ; bat it will not do. I tell you the King 
 hates me. He would turn out Pitt for entertaining such an idea ; 
 besides, I cannot abandon Charles and my friends. 
 
 " H. — Mr. Pox and the Duke of Portland have told me often, 
 sir, that they by no means wish your Royal Highness to con- 
 descend, on their account, to take any share in party concerns. 
 They have repeatedly declared that a Prince of Wales ought to 
 be of no party. 
 
 " P. — Well, but admitting this, and supposing that I can get 
 rid of a partiality in politics you seem to condemn, I tell you, 
 Harris, the King will never listen to it. Pitt dares not mention 
 it to him; or, if he did, is he strong enough in the House of 
 Lords to carry it through ? 
 
 " H. — But, sir, I presuppose a reconciliation between you 
 and his Majesty. Surely this would be grateful to the King 
 himself, and most particularly so to the Queen. 
 
 " P. — Why, my dear Harris, will you force me to repeat to 
 you that the King hates me ? He will never be reconciled 
 to me. 
 
 "H. — It cannot be, sir. If you order me, I will ask an 
 audience of him, and fling myself at his feet. 
 
 "P. — I love you too well to encourage you to undertake so 
 useless a commission. If you will not credit me, you will, 
 perhaps, credit the King himself. Take and read all our 
 correspondence for these last six months. 
 
 " The Prince here opened an escritoire, and took out a large 
 bundle of papers, which he read to me. It consisted of various 
 letters which had passed between him and the King, beginning 
 with that in which he asked his leave to go abroad in autumn, 
 1 784, as mentioned in my first conversation. 
 
 " It is needless to attempt to relate precisely the contents of 
 this correspondence ; it is sufficient to observe that the Prince's 
 letters were full of respect and deference, written with great 
 plainness of style and simplicity. Those of the King were also 
 
T6 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 well written, but liarsli and severe; constantly refusing every 
 request tlie Prince made, and reprobating in each of them his 
 extravagance and dissipated manner of living. They were void 
 ■of every expression of parental kindness or affection ; and, after 
 both hearing them read, and perusing them myself, I was com- 
 pelled to subscribe to the Prince's opinion, and to confess there 
 was very little appearance of making any impression on his 
 Majesty in favour of his Royal Highness. I resumed, however, 
 the conversation as follows : 
 
 "H. — I am hurt to a degree, sir^ at what I have read. But 
 still, sir, the Queen must have a reconciliation so much at heart, 
 that through her and your sisters it surely might be effected. 
 
 " P. — Look ye, Harris ; I cannot bring myself to say I am in 
 the wrong when I am in the right. The King has used me ill ; 
 and I wish the public knew what you now know, and was to 
 pronounce between us. 
 
 " H. — I should be very sorry, indeed, sir, if this was known 
 beyond these walls ; for I am much mistaken if the public would 
 not pronounce a judgment widely different from that you think. 
 It is not sufficient, sir, for the King to be wrong in one point : 
 sir, unless you are in the right in all, and as long as any 
 part of your conduct is open to censure, the voice of the 
 public (considering your relative situations) will always go with 
 the King. 
 
 ''P. — That is a cruel truth, if it be true what you say; but 
 it is of no use to investigate it ; my case never will go to that 
 tribunal. You are, however, convinced of the impracticability of 
 your scheme, as much, I hope, as I am of your kind regard in 
 proposing it to me. 
 
 " H. — I would not willingly renounce an idea, which, by its 
 accomplishment, is to relieve your Royal Highness from a state 
 of distress, and, I may say, discredit, and place you in one of 
 affluence and comfort. May I suggest, sir, the idea of your 
 marrying ? It would, I should think, be most agreeable to the 
 King, and, I am certain, most grateful to the nation. 
 
 "P. (with vehemence). — I never will marry ! My resolution 
 is taken on that subject. I have settled it with Frederick. No, 
 I never will marry ! 
 
 " H. — Give me leave to say, sir, most respectfully, that you 
 cannot have really come to such a resolution ; and you must 
 marry, sir : you owe it to the country, to the King, to yourself. 
 
 " P. — I owe nothing to the King. Frederick will marry, and 
 the crown will descend to his children ; and as for myself, I do 
 not see how it affects me. 
 
 " H. — Till you are married, sir, and have children, you have 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 77 
 
 no solid hold on tlie affections of the people, even while you are 
 Prince of Wales ; but if you come to the throne a bachelor, and 
 his Eoyal Highness the Dake of York is married and has sons to 
 succeed you, your situation, when King, will be more painful 
 than it is at this moment. Our own history furnishes strong 
 examples of the truth of what I say. 
 
 " The Prince was greatly struck with this observation. He 
 walked about the room, apparently angry. I moved towards the 
 door, saying : I perceive, sir, I have said too much : you will 
 allow me to withdraw. I am sure I shall be forgiven an hour 
 hence. 
 
 " P. — You are forgiven now, my dear Harris. I am angry 
 with myself, not with you. Don't question me any more. I 
 will think of what you have said. Adieu. God bless you ! " 
 
 Such was this singular dialogue, which shows that not only 
 the King and his minister, but the Prince's own friends, were 
 eager that he should withdraw from political agitation, and cease 
 from presenting to the nation the scandalous spectacle of a son at 
 war with his father. The most remarkable passage in this con- 
 versation was his vehement declaration that he would never 
 marry : most significant when we shall learn the strange 
 romantic adventure that he was then engaged in, which, by 
 an awkward coincidence, was contemporaneous with a general 
 earnest desire that he should contract a marriage. This he was 
 presently to do ; but after a fashion that was to bring discredit on 
 himself and cruel wrong to a highly-principled and virtuous 
 woman. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1785. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL woman, attractive and gifted in many ways, had 
 excited a violent passion in the Prince. This was the well- 
 known Mrs. Fitzherbert, then living on Richmond Hill.* She 
 was then twenty-eight years old, the youngest daughter of 
 Mr. Smythe, a country squire, in Hampshire. She had been 
 first married, in 1775, to Mr. Edward Weld, uncle to the 
 cardinal of that name, a family held in high esteem by the 
 King, who paid many visits to his castle at Lulworth. Mr. 
 Weld died in the very year of their marriage, and she espoused 
 later Mr. Fitzherbert, of Swinnerton, in Staffordshire, who died 
 in May, 1781, leaving her — then a most attractive person — 
 with a fortune of two thousand pounds a year. Looking at 
 her portrait by Conway, we can see of what kind were the 
 blooming charms that so fascinated " an august personage : " 
 the exquisitely-cut lips, the round features (full yet not plump), 
 the store of refined good humour and good nature without 
 vulgarity. All contemporaneous accounts agree as to her amia- 
 bility and strict principle. It was at Richmond Hill, as she told 
 Lord Stourton, that she in the first instance became acquainted 
 with the Prince, and "the object of his most ardent attentions," 
 
 * An attempt has been made to associate her name with the well- 
 known ballad, " The Lass of Eichmond Hill ; " but there can be little 
 doubt the song has no connection with Mrs. Fitzherbert. She could 
 scarcely be termed a " lass " at the time, having been twice a widow ; 
 and the allusion in " I'd crowns resign to call thee mine " is merely a 
 conventional phrase in amatory chanting. A Miss Oropp and a Miss 
 Janson, of Eichmond, in Yorkshire, are the other claimants. It was sung 
 at Vauxhall in 1789. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 79 
 
 and thus the well-known song was said by a number of writers, 
 usually well informed, to have been composed in her honour. 
 
 The late Lord Stourton, to whom she confided her story, and 
 Mr. Charles Langdale, who prepared a moderate and interesting 
 account from the materials, explains the difficulties and embarrass- 
 ments to which she was exposed from the extravagance of her 
 admirer's passion. The lady was a woman of the first fashion, and 
 not what is called a devotee. 
 
 " For some time," says Lord Stourton, relating her story, 
 *' her resistance had been availing j but she was about to meet 
 with a species of attack so unprecedented and. alarming, as 
 to shake her resolution, and to force her to take that first step 
 which afterwards led by slow (but on the part of the Prince suc- 
 cessful) advances to that union which he so ardently desired, and 
 to obtain which he was ready to risk such personal sacrifices. 
 Keit (the surgeon) Lord Onslow, Lord Southampton, and Mr. 
 Edward Bouverie arrived at her house in the utmost consterna- 
 tion, informing her that the life of the Prince was in imminent 
 danger, that he had stabbed himself, and that only her im- 
 mediate presence would save him. She resisted, in the most 
 peremptory manner, all their importunities, saying that nothing 
 should induce her to enter Carlton House. She was afterwards 
 brought to share in the alarm ; but still fearful of some stratagem 
 derogatory to her reputation, insisted upon some lady of high 
 character accompanying her, as an indispensable condition : the 
 Duchess of Devonshire was selected. They four drove from 
 Park Street to Devonshire House, and took her along with them. 
 She found the Prince pale and covered with blood. The sight so 
 overpowered her faculties, that she was deprived almost of all 
 consciousness. The Prince told her that nothing would induce 
 him to live unless she promised to become his wife, and permitted 
 him to put a ring round her finger. I believe a ring from the 
 hand of the Duchess of Devonshire was used upon the occasion, 
 and not one of his own. Mrs. Fitzherbert being asked by me," 
 adds Lord Stourton, "whether she did not believe that some 
 trick had been practised, and that it was not really the blood of 
 his Royal Highness, answered in the negative ; and said she had 
 frequently seen the scar, and that some brandy-and-water was 
 near his bedside when she was called to him on the day he 
 "Wounded himself. They returned to Devonshire House. A 
 deposition was drawn up of what had occurred, and signed and 
 sealed by each one of the party; and, for all she knew to the 
 ■contrary, might still be there. On the next day she sent a letter 
 to Lord Southampton, protesting against what had taken place, 
 as not being then a free agent." 
 
80 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 It might be supposed that this strange scene was an artifice 
 to impose on an excitable woman. Jesse says "it was probably 
 a trick." There can be little doubt that the whole performance, 
 to a certain degree, was genuine; for through his life we iind 
 traces of this extravagant sensibility, which became yet more 
 exaggerated from habits of drinking, with even traces of that 
 excitement under which his father laboured. He was given to 
 tears and violent emotion. Mr. Moore set the story down in his 
 diary with the addition: "that the Prince had fired at the head 
 of the bed, and had then tried the other weapon." In his 
 agitation he had no doubt some confused idea of doing himself 
 injury with a view to make himself interesting in the eyes of her 
 he loved. 
 
 As soon, however, as she reflected on the consequence of what 
 had taken place, she saw its inconveniences. On the next day 
 she left England and withdrew to Holland, while the bafiB.ed 
 Prince retired to the country. From that moment she was 
 persecuted, and his couriers passed and repassed with letters 
 imploring her to return. He displayed the utmost infatuation and 
 despair. He used to repair — Mrs. Fox assured her friends — 
 for comfort to her house, and behaved in the most extravagant 
 style. Lord Holland says that " Mrs. Fox, then Mrs. Armistead, 
 had repeatedly assured him, that the Prince came down more 
 than once to converse with her and Mr. Fox on the subject ; 
 that he cried by the hour ; he testified the sincerity and 
 violence of his passion and despair by extravagant expressions 
 and actions^ — rolling on the floor, striking his forehead, tearing 
 his hair, falling into hysterics, and swearing that he would 
 abandon the country, forego the crown, etc." 
 
 Wearied out with his importunities, she at last agreed to 
 return under a solemn engagement on his part of a formal 
 marriage, such as would satisfy her conscience. This may have 
 been an indiscreet proceeding; but it was hard to expect that she 
 was to expatriate herself for the most precious years of her life. 
 Lord Stourton was shown a letter of the Prince's, thirty-seven 
 pages long, in which was the statement that " the King would 
 connive at the union." This it would be going too far to call a 
 falsehood, and may have been meant as inference merely. 
 
 It was in the first week of December that she arrived. And 
 the sagacious Fox, who had not seen his patron for some weeks, 
 began to suspect what was on foot. The Prince had no doubt 
 avoided the society of his friend, from an awkward conscious- 
 ness of his secret and of the step he now intended. But when 
 the arrival of the lady became known, the Prince must have 
 been disagreeably surprised to receive a remonstrance and warn- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 81 
 
 ing from his friend Mr. Fox, enjoining him to take care, and 
 pointing out the serious dangers of such a step. 
 
 After declaring that he knew he was running the risk of 
 displeasing him, Mr. Fox thus appeals to him : 
 
 " I was told just before I left town yesterday that Mrs. 
 Fitzherbert was arrived, and if I had heard only this I should 
 have felt most unfeigned joy at an event which I knew would 
 contribute so much to your Royal Highness's satisfaction ; but I 
 was told at the same time that from a variety of circumstances, 
 which had been observed and put together, there was reason to 
 suppose that you were going to take the very desperate step (pardon 
 the expression) of marrying her at this moment. If such an 
 idea be really in your mind, and it is not too late, for God's sake 
 let me call your attention to some considerations, which my attach- 
 ment to your Royal Highness, and the real concern that I take in 
 whatever relates to your interest, have suggested to me, and which 
 may possibly have the more weight with you when you perceive 
 that Mrs. Fitzherbert is equally interested in most of them with 
 yourself. In the first place, you are aware that a marriage with 
 a Catholic throws the prince contracting such marriage out of the 
 succession of the crown. If there be a doubt about her previous 
 conversion, consider the circumstances in which you stand : the 
 King not feeling for you as a father ought; the Duke of York 
 professedly his favourite, and likely to be married to the King's 
 wishes; the nation full of its old prejudices against Catholics, 
 and justly dreading all disputes about succession. In all these 
 circumstances your enemies might take such advantages of any 
 doubt of this nature as I shudder to think of, and though your 
 generosity might think no sacrifice too great to be made to a 
 person whom you love so entirely, consider what her reflections 
 must be in such an event, and how impossible it would be for her 
 ever to forgive herself. I have stated this danger upon the sup- 
 position that the marriage could be a real one, but your Royal 
 Highness knows as well as I that according to the present laws of 
 the country it cannot, and I need not point out to your good sense 
 what a source of uneasiness it must be to you, to her, and above 
 all to the nation, to have it a matter of dispute and discussion 
 whether the Prince of Wales is or is not married. If there should 
 be children from the marriage, I need not say how much the uneasi- 
 ness as well of yourselves as of the nation must be aggravated. If 
 anything could add to the weight of these considerations, it is the 
 impossibility of remedying the mischiefs I have alluded to. For, 
 if your Royal Highness should think proper, when you are twenty- 
 five years old, to notify to Parliament your intention to marry (by 
 which means alone a legal marriage can be contracted), in what 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 THU LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 manner can it be notified ? If the previous marriage is mentioned 
 or owned, will it not be said that you have set at defiance the laws 
 of your country, and that you now come to Parliament for a 
 sanction to what you have already done in contempt of it ? If. 
 there are children, will it not be said that we must look for future 
 applications to legitimate them, and consequently be liable to 
 disputes for the succession between the eldest son — and the eldest 
 son after the legal marriage ? And will not the entire annulling 
 of the whole marriage be suggested as the most secure way of 
 preventing all such disputes ? It will be said that a woman who 
 has lived with you as your wife without being so is not fit to b© 
 Queen of England ; and thus the very thing that is done for the 
 sake of her reputation will be used against it ; and what would 
 make this worse would be that the marriage being known (though 
 not oflacially communicated to Parliament), it would be impossible 
 to deny the assertion. In the meantime a mock marriage (for it 
 can be no other) is neither honourable for any of the parties, nor, 
 with respect to your Eoyal Highness, even safe. This appears 
 so clear to me that, if I were Mrs. Fitzherbert's father or brother, 
 I would advise her not by any means to agree to it, mid to prefer 
 any other species of connection luith you to one leading to so much 
 misery and mischief. 
 
 " It is high time I should finish this very long and, perhaps 
 your Highness will think, ill-timed letter ; but, such as it is, it is 
 dictated by pure zeal and attachment to your Royal Highness. 
 With respect to Mrs. Fitzherbert, she is a person with whom I 
 have scarcely the honour of being acquainted, but I hear from 
 everybody that her character is irreproachable, and her manners 
 most amiable. Tour Royal Highness knows, too, that I have not 
 in my mind the same objection to intermarriages with princes 
 and subjects which many have. But, under the present circum- 
 stances, a marriage at present appears to me to be the most 
 desperate measure for all parties concerned that their worst 
 enemies could have suggested." 
 
 Such was this well-reasoned appeal. The singular suggestions,, 
 given in italics — and which the late Earl Russell, with some want 
 of candour, suppressed — were not meant in a cynical or offensive- 
 sense, but as the sincere advice of " a man of pleasure," who had 
 himself married a courtesan.* It literally recalls the suggestions 
 of Sir Pertinax Macsycophant to the clergyman in the play. To 
 
 * Mrs. Fox lived till recently. She has been described to the author, 
 by one vho visited her, as a rather vulgar old lady, with a cockney pro- 
 nunciation. Nothing shows Fox's power, and the fascination he exercised. 
 over his friends, more than the hearty receptions extended to this lady.. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE, lY. 83 
 
 this the Prince did not reply for more than a day, and then at 
 two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 THE PMUCE OP ■WAMS TO ME. POX. 
 
 " Carlton House, December 11, 1785. 
 
 " Sunday Morning, 2 o'clock. 
 "Deae Chaeles, 
 
 "Your letter of last night afforded me more true satisfaction 
 than I can find words to express, as it is an additional proof to 
 me, w'' I assure you I did not want, of y'^ having y* true regard 
 and affection for me, w^ it is not only y^ wish but y^ ambition of 
 my life to merit. Make yourself easy, my dear friend ; believe 
 me the world will now soon be convinced y' there not only is, but 
 never was, any ground for these reports, w^ of late have been so 
 malevolently circulated. I have not seen you since the apostacy 
 of Eden. I think it ought to have y^ same effect upon all our 
 friends y' it has upon me ; I mean the linking us closer to each 
 other; and I believe you will easily believe these to be my 
 sentiments, for you are perfectly well acquainted with my ways of 
 thinking upon these sort of subjects. When I say my ways of 
 thinking, I think I had better say my old maxim, w'^ I ever intend 
 to adhere to ; I mean y* of swimming or sinking with my friends. 
 I have not time to add much more, except just to say y* I believe 
 I shall meet you at dinner at Bushey on Tuesday, and to desire 
 you to believe me at all times, my dear Charles, 
 
 " Most affectionately yours, 
 
 "Geoege p." 
 
 A weak nature might be inclined to justify itself to itself 
 by the quibble that what Fox had deprecated had not yet 
 taken place. Even had it been arranged for, he might think that,, 
 having the power of changing his mind, he could still fairly 
 deny it. What might be the truth of the case, is that like many 
 such fickle and impulsive characters, he was for the moment 
 convinced by Eox, and gave in his adhesion in an exaggerated, 
 fashion, though that evening he may have veered round again. 
 No doubt, too, he believed in his statement that " there not only 
 is, but never was, any grounds for these reports." It is amusing 
 to read his affirmation of his old maxim, " which I ever intend to 
 adhere to j I mean that of swimming or sinking with my friends." 
 
 Almost on that day week, December 21st, the marriage was 
 solemnised ! Nor was this, unhappily, to be the last of these 
 equivocations. There was to come the denial to Grey, and, worse 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 still, tlie instruction to Fox to utter a more public denial, based 
 on his own solemn assurance. 
 
 " A certificate of this marriage," says Lord Stourton, " is 
 extant in the handwriting of the Prince^ and with his signature 
 and that of Mary Fitzherbert. The witnesses' names were added; 
 but at the earnest request of the parties, in a time of danger, 
 they were afterwards cut out by Mrs. Fitzherbert herself, with 
 her own scissors, to save them from the peril of the law. This 
 she afterwards regretted ; but a letter of the Prince, on her 
 return to him, has been preserved to supply any deficiency, in 
 which he thanks God that the witnesses to their union were still 
 living ; and moreover, the letter of the officiating clergyman is 
 still preserved, together with another document with the signature 
 and seal, but not in the handwriting, of the Prince, in which he 
 repeatedly terms her his wife." 
 
 These, however, could not have been the sole witnesses of the 
 ceremony J for it has been stated that Mr. Orlando Bridgman 
 — later Lord Bradford — was present.* Also General Keppel, 
 according to Mr. Raikes.f This was to be expected, the general 
 being a constant favourite of the Prince, and long attached to his 
 household. There were also present her brother and cousin. 
 
 It was often speculated who the clergyman was that had taken 
 on himself so perilous a duty, and it may be conceived that here 
 was a most serious difficulty. Application was made to one 
 Rosenhagen, a disreputable military chaplain, a singular roy- 
 stering sort of clergyman. Among his papers was found the 
 correspondence on this subject. 
 
 " Colonel Gardner, the Prince's private secretary, writes, 
 asking R. to perform the ceremony. R. replies that it would be 
 contrary to law for him to do so, and, if done, would be productive 
 of important, probably disastrous, consequences to the whole 
 nation. The colonel answers that the Prince is aware of all 
 that, but pledges himself to keep the matter a profound secret, 
 and that the Prince will feel bound to reward R. for such a proof 
 of his attachment, as soon as the means are in his power. 
 Rosenhagen, in reply, says he can trust implicitly the Prince's 
 promise of secrecy, but he dare not betray the duty he owes to 
 the Prince by assisting in an affair that might bring such serious 
 consequences to him. Lady Francis says she 'believes Rosen- 
 hagen declined the business because no specific offer was made 
 to him, and not from the motives stated in the letters, as he 
 was daring and unscrupulous.' " 
 ■ Another clergyman consented to undertake the dangerous 
 
 * Lady 0. Bury, " Diary of the Times of George IV." 
 t " Eaikes's Diary," i. 189, ed. 1858. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV, 86 
 
 office, but, at the last moment, drew back, alarmed by warnings 
 made by one who suspected what was the fact. Parson Johnes 
 was long supposed to have been the person. A clergyman was, 
 however, ab last found, whose name was kept secret, though 
 it would appear to have eventually become known ; for, in the 
 year 1796, Mr. Abbott, the Speaker, learned from Mr. Barton 
 that " the Rev. Mr. Burt, of Twickenham, actually married the 
 Prince of Wales to Lady Fitzherbert, and received five hundred 
 pounds for doing it, as he himself declared to his family on his 
 death-bed." * Lord Holland's account, which he received from 
 some unnamed friend of Mrs. Fitzherbert, is admittedly absurd as 
 regards the religious portion, and, in the eyes of anyone at all 
 acquainted with the Roman Catholic religion, ridiculous : 
 
 "It was at the Prince's own earnest and repeated solicitations, 
 not at Mrs. Fitzherbert's request, that any ceremony was resorted 
 to. She knew it to be invalid in law ; she thought it nonsense, 
 and told the Prince so. . . . It was performed by an English 
 clergyman. A certificate was signed by him and attested by two 
 witnesses, both, I believe. Catholic gentlemen, and one a near 
 relation of Mrs. Fitzherbert, Mr. Errington. Mrs. Fitzherbert, 
 from mixed feelings of fear and generosity, tore off the names of 
 the witnesses at some subsequent period, lest they should by 
 possibility be involved in any legal penalties for being present 
 at an illegal transaction. Before George the Fourth's accession 
 to the throne, or, as I believe, his appointment to the Regency, 
 the clergyman was dead (for it was not, as often surmised, Parson 
 Johnes who married them) ; and his name, I understand, remains 
 annexed to the instrument purporting to be a register or certificate 
 of the ceremony.^' 
 
 It was owing to this statement and others of a similar kind 
 by this nobleman, that Mrs. Fitzherbert's vindication was pub- 
 lished by Mr. Charles Langdale. 
 
 It may be imagined that this union was for her but the 
 opening of a series of humiliations and trials. So volatile and 
 unstable a character as his — and it must be said, so little regu- 
 lated by principle — was not likely to ensure comfort. " During 
 the commencement of her union," we are told, " the attachment 
 of that fickle Prince still existed ; few were the happy hours that 
 she could number even at that period. He was young, impetuous, 
 and boisterous in his character, and very much addicted to the 
 pleasures of the table. It was the fashion in those days to drink 
 very hard, and Mrs. Fitzherbert never retired to rest till her royal 
 spouse came home. But I have heard the late Duke of York say, 
 that often when she heard the Prince and his drunken companions 
 
 * " Diary of Lord Colchester," i. 68. 
 
86 THE LITE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 on the staircase, she would seek a refuge from their presence even 
 under the sofa, when the Prince, finding the drawing-room 
 deserted, would draw his sword in joke, and searching about the 
 room, would at last draw forth the trembling victim from her 
 place of concealment/'* She was, unhappily, to furnish one 
 more instance of the experience that those, who voluntarily place 
 themselves in a position liable to be falsely construed, must be 
 content to accept the penalty in the worst construction that can 
 be put upon their situation. She confessed long after that they 
 were very happy and very poor, and went through many difficulties 
 together very cheerfully .f 
 
 In the spring of this year the Duke of Chartres, now Duke 
 of Orleans, forced him into a sort of rivalry of extravagance. 
 They contended in sumptuous entertainments at the Jockey Club, 
 where deep play was carried on. The Prince was said to have lost 
 wagers to the Duke of Queensberry, Count O'Kelly, and others. 
 His present style of carriage and horses was now a " phaeton and 
 six," a postilion directing the two leaders. His stud was costing 
 him thirty thousand pounds a year, and he was living in a mora 
 reckless style than usual. This situation was indeed almost 
 desperate. 
 
 It will be seen from this that unfortunately he had now added 
 to his already expensive pursuits that most costly one — the 
 keeping of a racing stable, with the consequent taste for betting 
 on the turf. Newmarket was his favourite resort, where he would 
 stay at Queensberry House with its owner, and have uproarious 
 nights with " Old Q.," Fox, and his friends. A love of horseflesh 
 was deeply seated in his nature, and to the day of his death he 
 delighted in all that concerned racing, hunting, and horses gene- 
 rally. There was in those days, when racing had not been 
 brought to a system, a more passionate ardour for the sport, and 
 a more healthy enjoyment in it than there is now. Many stories 
 were current as to the Prince's winnings and losses ; and it was 
 said that on the occasion of his taking his guest the Duke o£ 
 Orleans to Newmarket, he had won a sum of thirty thousand 
 pounds. The probabilities are that at this stage he lost and lost 
 heavily. As he grew older, however, he lost his taste for this 
 perilous vice. 
 
 We now hear of Carlton House, where a grand entertainment 
 had been given to the persons who had supported the host during 
 the late crisis. Then began the series of various festivities. A 
 
 * " Kaikes's Diary," iL 29. 
 
 t The Duke of "Wellington repeated to Mr. Greville a story of Mrs. 
 Fitzherbert's having to borrow money to take the Prince down to 
 Newmarket. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 87 
 
 curious spectacle was a grand assault of arms, tliat took place 
 between various famous professors of fencing — St. George (the 
 foreign artist), Angelo, and others. This was followed by a match 
 between St. George and the famous Chevalier (or Ohevaliere) 
 D'Bon, who, dressed in woman^s clothes, succeeded in vanquishing 
 the victor. The Prince himself then took the foils, and fenced 
 with the Chevalier, and was complimented on his graceful 
 attitudes.* 
 
 We see him next at " a grand match at tennis between two 
 French markers, Barcelon and Bergeron — the two best, I believe, 
 now in the world." It is Sir G. Elliot who tells the story. 
 ''He was accompanied by a Monsieur St. George, a famous 
 French mulatto, celebrated for his skill in fencing, music, and 
 m.ost other accomplishments, beyond other men, and almost as 
 remarkable in this sort of fame as the Admirable Crichton, whom 
 you may have read of. The Prince was also attended by 
 Mr. Hesse, now commonly called the Prince of Hesse, and who 
 is more with the Prince than is creditable." 
 
 We find him also following the new craze of mesmerism 
 — attending the seances of Maimaduc, a professor of the 
 ■delusion, and submitting to be operated upon before a company 
 of fashionable persons. The operation was partially successful, 
 and the Prince nearly succumbed to his influence. Thus was 
 society rushing from one hobby and excitement to another, as 
 in our own day it passes capriciously from rinking, to tableaux, 
 blue china, and a hundred such whims. 
 
 It was not surprising, after this round of dissipation, that at 
 the end of the year he should have been attacked by illness, 
 *^'in consequence," the public was informed, "of having drunk 
 some cooling liquor while heated with dancing.^' He was " in 
 perfect health ■" on the Guildford course, came up to the Duchess 
 of Gordon's assembly, and sent on to Lady Gideon's that he 
 should be with her to supper. On reaching her hall, after 
 this busy day, he found himself unable to go upstairs, and was 
 transported home in a sedan-chair. He could not leave his 
 house for a fortnight. He was, indeed, all through his course, 
 subject to attacks of the kind. Boxing, too, had engaged his 
 attention, and he was, for a time, an earnest patron of the " noble 
 science." The company such pursuits introduced him to may be 
 ■conceived. 
 
 * There is an engraving of this curious scene. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 1786-1787. 
 
 It will be recollected that, when the Prince contracted his 
 engagement to Mrs. Fitzherbert, he was engaged in appealing 
 to his father to extricate him from his difficulties. It is curious 
 to find that the earliest results of the improvident step he 
 had taken were to be involved, in a strange way, with his 
 pecuniary embarrassments, and the sagacious predictions of 
 Mr. Fox to be verified. Here, too, was to arise the first of 
 these unseemly contests between the father and son, which were 
 to be the scandal of many years. 
 
 All attempts to arrange his extrication with the King having 
 failed, it was determined to bring the matter before the House ; 
 not by way of formal motion, but incidentally. It happened, 
 fortunately for this purpose, that an application had to be made 
 to the House for an increase to the King's allowance for payment 
 of a large debt, and Pox, with some point, called attention to the 
 fact that while his Majesty enjoyed nine hundred and fifty 
 thousand pounds a year, his son had but fifty thousand. 
 
 Pitt answered, in his coldest and most indifferent fashion, 
 " that he was not instructed to make any communication to the 
 House respecting the royal family ; " adding that " he should 
 avoid the presumption of expressing any private opinion on the 
 subject." Alderman Newnham supported the demand. Fox 
 then threw out a menace that before the session ended he would 
 bring a motion formally before the House. 
 
 This injudicious step was not likely to further an arrangement. 
 Mr. Pitt, however, had declared that if he received the King's 
 commands he would, as a matter of course, take up the business. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 89 
 
 tlius encouraging a fresh attempt. Mr. Hugh Elliott undertook, 
 with the assistance of Sheridan, to make new proposals. He 
 repaired to Mr. Pitt, with a modest demand for two hundred 
 and fifty thousand pounds ; the debts amounting to some 
 hundred and fifty thousand. The minister affected to be 
 inclined to furnish the sum, provided a balance was set aside for 
 ''some specific purposes." This, however, was declined. The 
 King was then once more approached, and he too affected to 
 receive the proposals graciously, asking for a detailed statement 
 of liabilities. This was furnished to him, and after some 
 further delay a final answer was sent, his Majesty positively 
 declining to accept the terms, and declaring that neither then nor 
 at any future time would he sanction an increase to his son's 
 income. This communication was made iu harsh terms, and. 
 " not very civil." 
 
 " As soon as the Prince received the King's letter from Lord 
 Southampton, he told him he must think of the answer for some 
 hours, but begged of his lordship not to lose sight of him ; that 
 let that answer be what it might, his lordship should be able to 
 assure the King from his own knowledge, that he had not seen or 
 been advised in the writing of the answer by any of those people, 
 friends of his, that had the misfortune of being under his 
 Majesty's displeasure. He accordingly, after six hours' thinking, 
 sat down and wrote to the King, telling him his determination of 
 giving up forty thousand pounds a year to the payment of his 
 debts."* 
 
 No doubt the King was alarmed by this threat, and wrote that 
 he had not said absolutely he would noi pay his debts; but if the 
 Prince chose to take a rash step, he must likewise take the 
 consequences. 
 
 THE PEIlfCE or WALES TO THE KING. 
 "SlE, 
 
 "1 have had the honour of receiving your Majesty's 
 written message transmitted to me by Lord Southampton, and 
 am greatly concerned that my poor sentiments cannot coincide 
 with those of your Majesty, in thinking that the former message 
 which I had the honour of receiving, in your Majesty's own hand, 
 was not a refusal. After having repeatedly sent in various appli- 
 cations to your Majesty, for two years successively, representing 
 that a partial reduction out of so incompetent an income as mine 
 was to no purpose towards the liquidation of a debt where the 
 
 * Letter from "a distinguished person connected with the Court," 
 quoted by Mr. Wallace in his " History of the Life and Eeign of George IV.," 
 i. 136. 
 
90 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE lY. 
 
 principal and interest were so considerable^ I this year humbly 
 requested your Majesty tbat you would be graciously pleased 
 (having previously laid my affairs before you, sir, for your 
 inspection, and painted them in the distressed colours which they 
 so justly merited), whenever it suited your conveniency, to favour 
 me with a decisive answer ; as the various delays which have 
 occurred, through the course of this business, have in reality 
 proved more pernicious to me iu the situation in which I have 
 been for some time past involved, than the original embarrass- 
 ment of the debt. To not only these, but to any future delays, 
 would I most willingly have submitted, had they merely rested 
 upon my own patience ; but the pressing importunities of many 
 indigent and deserving creditors (some of them whose very 
 existence depends upon a speedy discharge of their accounts) 
 made too forcible an appeal to the justice becoming my own 
 honour, and to the feelings of my heart, to be any longer delayed. 
 Another consideration is, that any further procrastination might 
 have exposed me to legal insults, as humiliating to me as I am 
 persuaded that they would be offensive to your Majesty. I 
 therefore, previously to my having the honour of receiving that 
 message to which your Majesty has referred me, had determ.ined, 
 that should I not be so forifcunate as to meet with that relief from 
 you, sir, with which I had flattered myself, and which I thought 
 I had the greatest reason to expect, I would exert every nerve to 
 render that just redress and assistance to my creditors which I 
 cannot help thinking is denied to me. These are the motives, 
 sir, that have actuated my conduct in the step I have taken, of 
 reducing every expense in my family, even those to which my 
 birth and rank entitle me (and which I trust will ever continue to 
 be the principle and guide of my conduct), till I have totally 
 liberated myself from the present embarrassments which oppress 
 me ; and the more so as I am persuaded that such a line, when 
 pursued with consistency, will meet with the approbation of every 
 candid and dispassionate mind. 
 
 " I will not trespass any further on your Majesty's time, but 
 have the honour to subscribe myself, 
 
 " Sir, 
 "Tour Majesty's most dutiful and obedient 
 " Son and Subject, 
 
 " G. P. 
 
 " July 9fcli, 1786." 
 
 Of this document the Prince made copies, and gave them 
 away to all his friends. Thus all negotiations ended for the 
 present. It may be conceived what evil passions were raging on 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 91 
 
 botli sides : disappointment, mortification, jealousy, and, it is to 
 be feared, a longing for revenge and humiliation of the adversary. 
 Prompted, it may be assumed, by pique rather than by a desire 
 to economise, the Prince proceeded to carry out the undignified 
 scheme of retrenchment he had threatened, and held himself out 
 to the nation as a prince reduced to poverty and straits by the 
 barbarity of his father and his father's advisers. Without a day's 
 delay, he broke up his establishment, announced the sale of his 
 stud, shut up half the rooms at Carlton House, stopped all 
 the works, and ostentatiously proclaimed that he was setting 
 aside forty thousand pounds a year for his debts. The heir- 
 apparent's carriages and horses were sold by public auction (the 
 whole realising but seven thousand pounds), to the annoyance, 
 no doubt, of the Court. Coupled with this was the renewed 
 announcement of self -expatriation. To this course he was 
 stimulated by his friend Mr. Pox, who gave him great com- 
 mendation. Lord Grey recollected the Prince showing him 
 this letter: 
 
 THE PanfCE OP WALES TO ME. rOS. 
 
 "Brighton, July 19th, 1786. 
 "Mt deae Charles, 
 
 "■ I am more obliged to you than T can possibly express 
 for the contents of y^ letter I yesterday received from you, and 
 am more and more convinced of the necessity of pursuing that 
 plan w'', I assure you, I never should have adopted had I not in- 
 tended to have gone thr° with it. With regard to the other plan 
 you mention I approve most highly of it, but shall not touch upon it 
 at all at present, as I mean to be in London for a few hours on 
 Monday next, when I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you, 
 and of discussing the matter fully at length. At twelve o'clock 
 I shall be ready to receive you at Carlton House. I will not 
 trespass any further upon y'' patience at present, but conclude, 
 with assuring you, that no one can feel more sensibly every mark 
 of y"" friendship and regard, than 
 
 " Tour sincerely affectionate, 
 
 "Geoege p." 
 
 " How noble, how good ! " was the cry of friends and foes, 
 according to the partial view of his friends. His own immediate 
 dependents submitted cheerfully to the reductions required. The 
 only exception was Colonel Hotham, who, having one thousand 
 pounds a year in his household, with "poundage " in other salaries, 
 begged that the loss would be made up to him, as it was hard that 
 he should suffer. The Prince condescended even to make use of 
 
92 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 His friends' equipages, as he had none of his own. And the heir- 
 apparent was seen travelling from London to Brighton in a 
 common postchaise. 
 
 It may be conceived that after these incidents what animosity 
 raged between the partisans of the Court and of the Prince. The 
 King had certainly behaved with harshness, and, it was stated, 
 used to make merry over the dilapidated condition of the works 
 at his son's palace, exhibiting derisively to his courtiers, by way of 
 contrast, a model of the projected improvements which his son 
 had sent him. The Prince's party were not slow to retort in the- 
 most disrespectful fashion. They pointed out, as evidence of the 
 King's lack of paternal feeling and dislike of his offspring, that 
 at that moment his five sons had all been sent away out of the 
 country.* 
 
 This, indeed, has always seemed an awkward fact, ignored 
 by historians and panegyrists of the King, that, on many 
 occasions, he had to come with heavy debts to Parliament, 
 applying for relief; and, while he upbraided his son for his 
 outlay, the latter might have retorted that the Sovereign had 
 received enormous sums. " A caricature represented the King 
 and Queen coming out of the Treasury loaded with money-bags, 
 and the Prince accompanying them in the poor habiliments of 
 the prodigal son." 
 
 These savings were the result of the almost penurious economy 
 that reigned in the royal household. From the time of the 
 King's marriage, it had been ordered on the most careful and 
 saving principles- — as we may learn from the royal ledgers, 
 beautifully and clearly kept for many years, and which are to be 
 seen in the British Museum. There we find it set out that, in 
 1762, all the bills for milliners, mercers, shoemakers, etc., for the 
 Queen and family, amounted to about four thousand pounds, of 
 which nine hundred and eighty pounds went to the milliner, 
 Mrs. MacBune. This moderate estimate was scarcely exceeded, 
 even as the family increased and grew up. In 1806, the estab- 
 lishment consisted of but seven coachmen, six postilions, four 
 helpers, eight hobbygrooms, eight footmen, three chairmen, 
 one bolleman, and the total cost of salaries, etc, was about 
 eighteen thousand pounds a year. But in this year, as there 
 
 * The Duke of York was at Hanover, Prince William at sea, Prince 
 Edward at Geneva, the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester were living 
 abroad in a state of poverty and disgrace, and the remainder were at 
 Gottingen University. " Only the oldest," says Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, 
 " remained at home, in a dismantled palace, all the state apartments of 
 ■which were shut up, his establishment dismissed, and himself reduced, in 
 external, to the condition of a private gentleman." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IT. 93 
 
 were the six princesses to maintain and clothe, the bills for the 
 wardrobe linen reached to some thirteen thousand pounds. This 
 seems moderation itself. 
 
 An incident that occurred about this time shows this view of 
 the vindictiveness of the Court. When the King's life was 
 attempted by Margaret Nicholson, his son, who was at Brighton, 
 was left to learn the event from the letter of a friend. With 
 good feeling that did him honour, he instantly took post, and 
 hurried to Windsor. It will hardly be credited that the King, 
 though in the next room to the one in which the Queen received 
 her son, refused to see him.* 
 
 The Prince was at this time in a state of almost actual penury. 
 He lived at houses lent to him, like that of the Earl of Gloucester's 
 at Bagshot. He was indeed reduced to such a plight that he 
 was driven to the perilous and undignified course of becoming 
 the debtor of a foreign prince. The Duke of Orleans was this 
 year on a trip to London, and with him had come the Dukes of 
 PitzJames, Coigny, and Polignac. Indeed, the people had begun 
 to satire and ridicule these visits, and a fellow had insulted the 
 French Prince at Newmarket, saying he knew he was the Duke 
 of Orleans, and that he ought to be in his own country defending 
 his King. Eager to be more English than the English, he had 
 presented himself at a dinner-party, dusty and dirty, in a 
 m.orning suit, his buttons enamelled with horses and dogs, which 
 he displayed with some pride to the lady beside him. 
 
 His inflamed scorbutic face was seen everywhere — at Brookes's, 
 at the theatre. At the Prince's desire he had sat to Sir Joshua 
 for a fine full-length portrait, abounding in spirit and power. 
 Being rich, and seeing the distress of his friend, the French prince 
 pressed on him a substantial loan. The news of this transaction 
 came from Paris to the Duke of Portland, who wrote in much alarm 
 to Sheridan, in December, 1786 : " I have received a confirmation 
 of the intelligence; the particulars varied in no respect from 
 those I related to you, except in the addition of a pension, which is 
 to take place immediately on the event which entitles the creditors 
 to payment, and it is to be granted for life to a nominee of the 
 Duke of Orleans. The loan was mentioned in a mixed company 
 by two of the Frenchwomen and a Frenchman, in Oalonne's 
 presence (then Minister of Finance), who begged them, for God's 
 sake, not to talk of it. I am going to Bulstrode, but will return 
 at a moment's notice if I can be of the least use in getting rid of 
 this odious engagement." 
 
 * There was a punctilio raised : the Prince assuming that his visit was 
 a suflScient declaration of his wishes ; the King declaring that his son had 
 not asked to see him. 
 
94 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY, 
 
 Sheridan seems to have exerted himself, for the duke writes 
 to thank him for what he had done, and seems to hope that the 
 matter will end favourably.* Fox's aid was also invoked, and he 
 recovered the bonds and brought them to the Prince. This was 
 to be but the beginning of a number of similar operations in th& 
 foreign market. It is stated by Mr. Moore that when Fox came 
 to remonstrate with him on this foolish step, the Prince persisted 
 in denying there was any truth in the matter, until Mr. Fox 
 convicted him by drawing one of the bonds out of his pocket. 
 
 In all these transactions public sympathy, not unnaturally, 
 was on the Prince's side. For several months he pursued his plan 
 of economy, his debts under a certain amount being cleared off, 
 and nine per cent, on the larger sums being paid. This praise- 
 worthy economy being known, many members of the House felt 
 that his situation was unbecoming the nation, and were eager to 
 extricate him. And proceedings now followed, which, however, 
 were only to bring fresh scandal, and further inflame the bitter- 
 ness between him and his father. 
 
 A meeting of the Prince's friends, or supporters, was now 
 held at Mr. Pelham's (afterwards Lord Chichester), at which 
 the Prince was present, for the purpose of concerting what 
 fresh measures were to be taken when the debate was renewed. 
 It was determined to press the matter on. But it was felt that 
 the ground was tender, and the Prince must have been disagree- 
 ably surprised during the interval at having a very serious 
 question put to him by his friend Mr. Pox, and to which he gave 
 only too distinct and satisfactory an answer. This referred to 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert. 
 
 It was accordingly settled, early in 1787, that the matter 
 should be brought before the House, not by the Prince's friends, 
 but by some independent member. 
 
 This step was opposed to the advice of the Duke of Portland 
 and the leading Whigs, except Mr. Fox, who all held that the 
 interest of their party must be considered, and that the advocacy 
 of the Prince's very weak case would damage them with the 
 country. This led to a serious quarrel between the Duke and 
 the Prince, which was only made up two years later. It helps 
 to prove what was before pointed out — that the Prince's politics 
 chiefly were regulated by his own interests. It will be seen, 
 however, that it somewhat supports his vindication of his change 
 of politics — ^viz. that he was not so much bound to the party as- 
 to Mr. Fox, whose follower he was. Accordingly, on April 20th, 
 Alderman Nathaniel Newnham, a City merchant, put a question 
 to Mr. Pitt : " Whether he proposed taking any steps to rescue the 
 
 * Moore, " Life of Sheridan,'' 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 9& 
 
 Prince from His embarrassed and distressed situation ? " He was 
 answered by the minister, in his usual cold strain, that he had no 
 commands from the King in reference to the matter; on which 
 the questioner gave notice that on May 4th he would bring 
 forward a motion on the subject. 
 
 This was the signal for joining battle. Mr. Pitt, a few days 
 later, required to know the shape and purpose of the motion, 
 which the other declined to furnish. While all were wondering 
 at this strange allusion, Mr. Rolle followed, alluding to something 
 which he said " involved matters of Church and State." The Prime 
 Minister indeed threw out what was certainly a menace, alluding 
 darkly to what he called "the delicacy of the question,^^ adding 
 that " the private knowledge he possessed on the subject mad& 
 him particularly desirous of avoiding it ; but, if it were absolutely 
 determined to bring it forward, he would, however distressing it 
 might prove to him as an individual, discharge his duty to the 
 public, and enter fully into the subject ; the minister seemed to 
 endorse the allusion by significant nods and gestures.* There 
 could scarcely be a mistake as to what was intended. Yet,, 
 possibly seeing the advantage he had given his opponents, he 
 sent for Lord Southampton, who waited on the Prince the 
 following morning with his excuses or explanations. The latter 
 was adroit enough to see his advantages, and told him that he 
 never received verbal messages except from the King." Prom that 
 time, we are told, he was eager to declare he was not married. 
 
 On the 27th, Mr. Newnham signified to the House that the 
 motion he intended to make would be to the following effect :, 
 " That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, praying 
 him to take into his royal consideration the present embarrassed 
 state of the affairs of the Prince of Wales, and to grant him such 
 relief as his royal wisdom should think fit, and that the House 
 would make good the same.^'' Several members on both sides of 
 the House having risen to deprecate the further discussion of 
 this business, and to express their earnest wishes that it might 
 be accommodated in some other manner, Mr. Sheridan declared 
 that the insinuations and menaces, which had been thrown out 
 upon a former occasion, made it impossible for the Prince to 
 recede with honour. He said he had the highest authority to 
 declare that his Royal Highness had no other wish than that 
 every circumstance in the whole series of his conduct should be- 
 most minutely and accurately inquired into, and that he was 
 ready, as a peer of Great Britain, to give in another place the- 
 most direct answers to any questions that might be put to him. 
 Mr. Rolle observed that if the motion proposed was per- 
 
 * " Auckland's Memoirs," pp. 1-47. 
 
96 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 sisted iuj he should state without reserve his sentiments upon the 
 subject he had alluded to^ according as the matter struck him. 
 
 Mr. Pitt declared that he had been greatly misunderstood if 
 it was conceived that he meant to throw out any insinuations 
 injurious to the character of the Prince. He added that he had 
 only referred to his pecuniary affairs and to the correspondence 
 which had passed. 
 
 It seems amazing that Mr. Pittj and so many statesmen of 
 the same political honour, could condescend to the sort of equivo- 
 cation that is implied in explanations of this kind. There can 
 be no doubt that what was in his mind when he uttered the 
 threat was the ceremony that had been gone through with Mrs. 
 Pitzherbert, for there was nothing in the revelation of the 
 pecuniary details that could be of an alarming " or delicate " 
 nature; or, if there were, it was clear that the publication of 
 such matters as reprisal would hardly add to the discredit of the 
 Prince. 
 
 All doubt being thus removed, when the House met again on 
 April 30th, Alderman Newnham declared that in all these insinua- 
 tions he saw no dangers, the Prince saw none, and it was by his 
 desire that he was now proceeding. Highly as he was honoured 
 by the Prince's confidence, he was not to be intimidated. 
 
 Then Fox rose, his interposition giving rise to a most exciting 
 episode, declaring that as to the correspondence there was no 
 objection to let it be seen. After dwelling on the debts, etc., he 
 came to the real point of the whole, and, in carefully-weighed 
 words, prompted by the Prince, made this declaration as to the 
 marriage. He said : " If allusion were made to a certain low and 
 malicious rumour, which had been industriously propagated 
 without doors, he was authorized to declare it to be a falsehood. 
 He had thought that a tale fit only to impose upon the lowest of 
 the vulgar could not have gained credit for a moment in that 
 House, or with anyone who possessed the most ordinary portion 
 of common sense and reflection ; but when it appeared that an 
 invention so gross and malicious, a report of a fact which was 
 actually impossible to have happened, had been circulated with 
 BO much industry and success as to have made an impression 
 upon the minds of the members of that House, it both proved 
 the uncommon pains taken by the enemies of the Prince of Wales 
 to depreciate his character and injure him in the opinion of 
 his country. He concluded with adding that he was further 
 authorized by his royal highness to declare that he was ready, 
 as a peer of Parliament, to answer in the other House any the 
 most pointed questions that could be put to him respecting this 
 report, or to afford his Majesty or his ministers any other assur- 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 97 
 
 ances or satisfaction they miglit require." Knowing that the 
 papers lying at the present moment in the cellars of Messrs. 
 Coutts's bank were then in existence^ we listen with astonishment 
 to this extraordinary declaration. 
 
 Mr. RoUe replied that " the right honourable member had said 
 that the fact alluded to was impossible to have happened. They 
 all knew, indeed, that there were certain laws and Acts of Parlia- 
 ment which forbade it, and made it null and void ; but still it 
 m.ight have taken place, though not under the formal sanction of 
 law; and upon that point he wished to be satisfied." 
 
 Mr. Fox observed, that " though what he had said before was, 
 he thought, suflB.cient to satisfy every candid and liberal mind, he 
 was willing, if possible, to satisfy the most perverse. When he 
 denied the calumny in question, he meant to deny it, not merely 
 with regard to the effect of certain existing laws, but to deny it 
 in toto, in point of fact as well as law. The fact not only never 
 could have happened legally, but never did happen in any way 
 whatsoever, and had from the beginning been a base and 
 malicious falsehood." Mr. Rolle rose again, and desired to know 
 whether what Mr. Pox had last said was to be understood as 
 spoken from direct authority ? Mr. Fox replied that he had 
 direct authority. 
 
 Still the sturdy Rolle — having a suspicion of the truth — 
 declined to say that he was satisfied, though assailed by Sheridan 
 and the upright Grey, who accepted the statement. The county 
 member was, alas ! justified in his incredulity. It was, of course, 
 a complete victory for the Prince. No one would have calculated 
 on his meeting these obscure insinuations by so complete, 
 triumphant, and wholesale a denial ! There can be no defence and 
 no extenuation to be attempted beyond this, that the voluptuary's 
 senses become so clouded by indulgence that he comes to view all 
 that brings him inconvenience as something that should not be, 
 and therefore — is not. 
 
 The effect on the friends of his own party — Sir G. Elliot among 
 others — ^was complete. Sir Gilbert had been much " disturbed " 
 by the delicate subject of the Prince's connection and the con- 
 stituent dangers and doubts belonging to this "most equivocal 
 position of things." He thought it all too serious to be excused 
 by " the levity of youth." He was delighted, therefore, to hear 
 the charge denied so explicitly. " Fox," he says, " declared, by 
 authority from the Prince, in the fullest and most unequivocal 
 manner, that there was not the smallest foundation of any sort 
 for the story of the marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert. Rolle hinted 
 at the distinction between a legal marriage and some ceremony 
 that might satisfy the consciences of some persons, but Fox 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 THE LIFE OF GEOEaS IV. 
 
 rejected any such distinction, and asserted again that there never 
 had been the slightest ground for this slander, either legally or 
 illegally, and, in a word, denied positively from the Prince himself 
 the whole of this slander, in words so strong and so unqualified 
 that we must believe him." What were Mr. Pox's feelings, 
 •when, on entering Brookes's after the debate, he was accosted 
 by a gentleman,* who said : " Mr. Fox, I see by the public 
 papers you have denied the Prince's marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert. 
 You have been misinformed : I was present at the marriage ! " 
 No arguments or explanations could have been so convincing. 
 It was a coup de theatre. Here was the voice of a witness who 
 had seen the transaction. Mr. Fox felt, in a moment, in what a 
 humiliating and embarrassing position he stood. 
 
 But the unfortunate lady's position was indeed pitiable. Well 
 might Pitt, or Selwyn whose wit age had not withered, quote 
 from Othello : " Villain ! be sure you prove my love " etc. 
 But the Prince was not without resource. On the very next 
 morning he entered her room gaily, and said : " Only conceive, 
 Maria, what Fox did yesterday! He went down to the House 
 and denied you and I were man and wife. Did you ever hear 
 of such a thing ! •" She made no reply, but turned pale. The 
 ■duplicity was double-dyed. Having committed his friend, and 
 gained the advantage he sought, he proceeded to disavow him. 
 
 She saw that her fate was sealed. On her indignation and 
 reproaches he was ready to make all amends, and remove the 
 mischief, now that his case had been made with the House of 
 Commons and the public. He sent for Mr. Grey, and, after much 
 preamble, and pacing in a hurried manner about the room, 
 exclaimed : " Charles certainly went too far last night. You, my 
 dear Grey, shall explain it ; " and then, in distinct tones, " as 
 Grey," adds Lord Holland, " has, since the Prince's death, assured 
 me, though with prodigious agitation, owned that a ceremony had 
 taken place." Mr. Grey observed that Mr. Fox must unquestion- 
 ably suppose that he had authority for all he said, and that if there 
 had been any mistake it could easily be rectified by his royal 
 highness speaking to Mr. Pox himself, and setting him right on 
 such matters as had been misunderstood between them. "No 
 other person can," he added, " be employed without questioning 
 Mr. Fox's veracity, which nobody, I presume, is prepared to do." 
 A reply such as this might be expected from a man of Mr. 
 Grey's character. " It," he said, " chagrined, disappointed, and 
 agitated the Prince exceedingly," and, after some exclamations of 
 
 * This may have been Mr. Orlando Bridgman, afterwards Lord 
 Bradford. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEaE lY. 99 
 
 antioyance, lie threw Mmself on the sofa, muttering : " Well, 
 Sheridan must say something."* 
 
 But, unhappily, we have to go farther, and foUow this com- 
 plicated intrigue into fresh deceptions. 
 
 The Prince succeeded in persuading Mrs. Fitzherbert that 
 Fox had " exceeded his instructions." And it would seem that 
 for nearly twenty years — to the day of his death — she never 
 spoke to Fox again, believing that this gratuitous insult had 
 come from him. We might be inclined to assume, from the 
 Prince's letter to Fox of May lOfch, and its affectionate tone, that 
 Fox had not then had his eyes opened, or felt that he was 
 bound, without being on friendly terms, to carry through the 
 Prince's business. 
 
 It will be seen, indeed, in a moment, in what a painful and 
 delicate position he stood, since, to vindicate himself, he would be 
 obliged to publicly indict his principal of falsehood, and ruin his 
 interests, and expose him to certain peril. How lightly that 
 principal took the matter will be seen from the letter he wrote 
 off to him at midnight after the debate : 
 
 " April SOth, 1787. 
 
 " Monday night, 12 o'clock. 
 ^'Mt dear Charles, 
 
 "I beg to see you for five minutes to-morrow after 
 I have seen Marsham and Powys, whom I beg you will 
 desire to be at Carlton House at one o'clock to-morrow. When 
 I see you I will relate to you what has passed between my 
 friend and me relative to y® seeing you. I feel more comfortable 
 by Sheridan''s and Grey's account of what has passed to-day. I 
 have had a distant insinuation that some sort of message or terms 
 are also to be proposed to me to-morrow. If you come a little 
 after two you will be sure to find me. 
 
 "■ Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 "George P." 
 
 It is stated that Mr. Fox, when he discovered the dishonour- 
 able use that he had been put to, broke off his friendship with 
 the Prince, and did not speak to him for a year. And this view 
 is supported by a story told by " Coke of Norfolk " to Earl 
 Russell. Pox had been paying his annual visit to Holkham, 
 when, on the very day of his departure, his host received a 
 message from the Prince announcing that he intended coming down 
 next day. He thus missed meeting Fox, but at the dinner he 
 
 * Lord Holland, "Memoirs of the "Whig Party." 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IT. 
 
 ostentatiously twice gave a toast, "To the best man in England — 
 Mr. Fox." Mr. Coke believed that he had come specially to 
 meet his old friend.* 
 
 Fox, however, must have seen that it was idle keeping up his 
 resentment with so irresponsible a character ; and, indeed, their 
 common political interests required reconciliation. Two years 
 later, at the crisis of the regency, we find Sir G. Elliot delighted 
 at Fox's going "to meet the Prince, which he thought a comfort- 
 able circumstance." t 
 
 Under this cruel and unmanly imputation, the behaviour of 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert was admirable for its dignity. Her friends, she 
 told Lord Stourton, " assured her that, in this discrepancy 
 as to the assertion of Mr. Fox and the Prince, she was bound to 
 accept the word of her husband. She informed him that the 
 public supported her by their conduct on this occasion ; for, at 
 no period of her life were their visits so numerous at her house 
 as on the day which followed Mr. Fox's memorable speech; and, 
 to use her own expression, the knocker of her door was never 
 still during the whole day." 
 
 She was visited with studious publicity by the Duchesses of 
 Portland, Devonshire, and Cumberland, and her position in 
 society suffered not the least change. Such was the extra- 
 ordinary testimony to her private character. Some of the meaner 
 parasites of the Prince, we are told, taking their master's cue, 
 went about repeating the same insinuations against Mr. Fox. J 
 That statesman did all he could to repair the wrong, and, when 
 he came to power, offered to create her a duchess. 
 
 Nor was the poor lady yet to have peace. The crazed Lord 
 George Gordon, who was about being put on his trial for 
 libelling the Queen of France, unfortunately came to associate 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert with the case. He introduced himself into 
 her house with a subpoena, but was turned out by the servants ; 
 the police had to interfere to protect her. 
 
 The most extraordinary part of the transaction is, that more 
 than thirty years after we find the Prince, then King, still denying 
 his marriage. Mr. Croker, his friend and admirer, discussing this 
 question, says : " We are bound in fairness to say that, on the 
 
 * Tears after, Lord Holland was waiting to see the Prince, when 
 Sheridan told him a history of some paper or letter which he had corrected 
 or written for the Prince. When both were admitted to audience, the 
 Prince began a story on the same subject, but of a totally different com- 
 plexion, appealing for corroboration to Sheridan, who heartily gave it. 
 " I could not tell which was the greatest liar ! " said the listener. 
 
 t " Life of Sir G. Elliot," i. 238. 
 
 j " Life and Eeign," i. 160. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOBGE IV. 101 
 
 appearance of Moore's 'Life of Sheridan/ George IV. deliberately 
 and distinctly declared that there was not a word of truth in it, 
 and that he never had any communication with Lord Grey 
 upon the subject ; and he further went on to deny ' that absurd 
 story ' of his supposed marriage." This we need hardly say was 
 during Lord Grey's life, and was intended by the King to he 
 publicly repeated. 
 
 Nor would we consider this, in the King, an instance of 
 unblushing falsehood; for, at the time he made it, he had 
 grown into a habit of self-delusion of the most extraordinary 
 kind, partially favoured by a crowd of parasites and flatterers, 
 who never ventured to contradict him or set him right on any 
 subject. With this aid he had come, therefore, to think that his 
 view of an incident, where he fancied he had been ill-treated, 
 was the truth, and that what ought to have been had been. To 
 these delusions belonged the well-known one of having been at 
 Waterloo, and many others. Mr. Groker was but half convinced 
 by his assurances, and at the same time doubts Lord Holland's 
 accuracy, who, in his memoirs, reports the share of Lord Grey in 
 the transaction. Fortunately, however. Lord Grey can speak for 
 himself : 
 
 " I do not recollect having given him any account that would 
 satisfy him. On the contrary, in a long conversation which I 
 had with him, in which he was dreadfully agitated, the object 
 was to get me to say something in Parliament for the satisfaction 
 of Mrs. Fitzherbert, which might take off the effect of Fox's 
 declaration. I expressly told him how prejudicial a continuance 
 of the discussion must be to him, and positively refused to do 
 what he desired. He put an end to the conversation abruptly 
 by saying, " Well, if nobody else will, Sheridan must." * 
 
 Mr. Grey, who took part in all these transactions, was a 
 young man of twenty- two, of great promise, who had just 
 entered the House of Commons, and made an extraordinary 
 impression. Mr. Addington was thus affected : " A new 
 speaker presented himself to the House, and went through his 
 first performance with an eclat which has not been equalled 
 within my recollection. I do not go too far in declaring that, 
 in the advantage of figure, voice, elocution, and manner, he is 
 not surpassed by any member of the House." 
 
 The Prince seems to have taken an aversion to him from 
 the rebuke implied in the rejection of his unworthy pro- 
 posal, and it was curious that for more than forty years he 
 was to find himself encountered and checked by the same 
 
 * Note by Lord Grey in the " Life" by General Grey. 
 
102 THE LIFE OP GBOEGE IV. 
 
 cold, if not contemptuous, appreciation of Ms character^ 
 and the same air of reproof. Before Grey lie seemed to feel 
 abashed ; he had the mortification of being forced to ask his aid 
 at a crisis, when it was clearly shown to him that his shifty 
 notions were understood and seen through, and the assistance 
 was haughtily denied. It is certain that he was cordially dis- 
 liked by George IV. to the day of his death. General Grey, 
 indeed, speaks of those '^idle stories," and quotes a letter 
 of 1806, in disproof of the statement. But there can be little 
 doubt of the fact. 
 
 The management of the parliamentary transactions, of which 
 this was an incident, shows that the Prince was not unskilful in 
 a certain kind of manosuvring. His own party were not united, as 
 we hare seen, in supporting his claims to the liberality of the 
 nation. These dissentients, among whom were counted the 
 Duke of Portland and other " old Whigs," he contrived to 
 neutralise by gaining the favour of the country gentlemen. The 
 bold denial of the marriage had secured this, and had, at the 
 same time, put the Prime Minister in an awkward position. 
 
 He felt that resistance could be no longer offered. He sent 
 a gracious message to the Prince, full of explanations, to which 
 the latter replied bluntly that " he did not receive verbal messages; 
 but that if the minister had any business with him he might 
 come himself." This, however, was softened by a letter from the 
 Duke of Cumberland to Mr. Dundas, written by the Prince's 
 direction, prompted, it was said, by the Duchess of Gordon. 
 Dundas came to Carlton House, and, over much wine> assured 
 him of Mr. Pitt's friendliness. From an interview between the 
 Prince and minister the happiest results followed. Mr. Pitt 
 repaired to the King, a Cabinet Council succeeded, and it was 
 intimated that his wishes would be complied with. 
 
 " The Prince," writes Lord Beauchamp, " begins a most active 
 canvass of the House ; applies by letter or personally to every 
 little knot of members, and indirectly to almost every individual, 
 offering to submit his plans and his interests to the country 
 gentlemen, producing his accounts, showing every letter, and, by 
 the specimen I have seen, he has been guarded to an extreme 
 degree. In short, Marsham, Powis, Hussey, Pulteney, Astley, 
 and others of that calibre, became concerts to his cause, in spite 
 of their original dislike to it. On this footing the business rested, 
 when, the night before the motion was to be made, Mr. Pitt 
 acquaints the Prince, by letter, with his Majesty's gracious in- 
 tention to comply with his wishes, and only hints at previous 
 explanations being made by the Prince, by which it was under- 
 stood that in future he was to be no party man; but, whatever 
 
THE LIFE OF aEOEGE IV. 103 
 
 interpretation was intended to be put upon them^ tHe Prince 
 instantly communicated his readiness to acquiesce, and personally 
 to assure the King of his resolution to act in future as he would 
 wish. The motion is, in consequence, laid aside, but to this letter, 
 though four days have since elapsed, no answer was given till this 
 morning, when the King signified his disapprobation to the 
 increase of the Prince's allowance at all events, and also to the 
 payment of his debts, unless the accounts to be produced to him 
 of the amount should prove satisfactory. The Prince has accepted 
 this qualified offer, and promises instantly to send a precis of his. 
 affairs." * 
 
 In the House of Commons, on the motion being withdrawn, 
 Sheridan executed the delicate commission entrusted to him, ta 
 say something for the calumniated Mrs. Fitzherbert. " But, while 
 the Prince's feelings had, no doubt, been considered on the 
 occasion, he must take the liberty of saying, however some might 
 think it a subordinate consideration, that there was another 
 person entitled, in the judgment of every delicate and honourable 
 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 attempt to injure, and whose conduct 
 and character were entitled to the truest respect." A flowery 
 tribute that was ridiculous, as it could only have meaning on the 
 supposition that she was married to the Prince, and that Fox's 
 statement was untrue. As was well said : " Mr. Fox had 
 declared that a lady living with the Prince, to all exterior 
 appearance, in the habits of matrimonial connection, had not the 
 sanction of any canonical forms to support her ; whilst, on the 
 other hand, Mr. Sheridan reversed the picture, by representing 
 her as a paragon of chastity, the possessor of every virtue, and 
 the ornament of her sex." 
 
 To the Archbishop of Canterbury it naturally seemed all 
 " very odd," particularly as he noted " that the lady was more 
 received than she was, I think, and stands more forward." A 
 singular circumstance in this debate was the announcement by 
 the Prime Minister that nothing had occurred on the side of the 
 Government to cause the withdrawal of the motion. He meant, 
 probably, that no arrangement had been concluded or bargain 
 made. The Prince wrote on that night to ask an explanation, 
 on which Mr. Pitt volunteered to come to him and give it at 
 Carlton House. On his arrival with Mr. Dundas he found 
 Sheridan, on which he declined to enter on the business in presence 
 
 * See "Correspondence of Lord Auckland," p. 416 ; Wraxall's "Hist. 
 Mem." ; Lord Cornwallis's " Correspondence." 
 
104 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IT. 
 
 of one so opposed to the Government, On this the Prince desired, 
 both the inferior agents to withdraw. A long conference followed, 
 at the close of which these written proposals were submitted : 
 
 "1st. That the Prince's debts should be paid, at least in 
 part. 2nd. That a grant should be made to him for the com- 
 pletion of Carlton House. 3rd. That such reasonable increase 
 should be made to his annual income as would prevent henceforth 
 the necessity of his contracting debts." Mr. Pitt took his leave 
 with these propositions, and immediately despatched them to the 
 King at Windsor. Much negotiation followed, and it was 
 said that the minister himself was disgusted by the shiftiness 
 displayed by the King.* 
 
 IHE PBINCE OP WAXES TO ME. POX. 
 
 " Carlton House, May lOth, 1787. 
 " Mt dear Chaeles, 
 
 " No answer is come as yet from Pitt, excepting y' he was 
 to see y'^ King to-night, and w*^ endeavour to get everything 
 settled if he c'^. Some sort of an answer I shall certainly have 
 this evening, when he quits the Queen's House, w^ I will com- 
 municate to you as soon as possible after I have received it. His 
 own statement y' he has made out, as expenses for every year 
 from the time I came of age, is thirty thousand pounds a quarter ; 
 consequently annually an hundred and twenty thousand pounds ; 
 y moment I get a copy of y™ I will transmit it to you for y'' in- 
 spection. In y'' meantime I beg you will not think of going to 
 Newmarket till you have heard again from me ; how late it may 
 be I cannot answer for. Adieu, my dear friend. Pray excuse 
 haste. 
 
 "'Ever yours, 
 
 "G. P." 
 
 The King presently replied with his own hand, in a letter 
 forwarded by Mr. Pitt to the Prince, to the following effect : 
 1st. That the King was gratified to find the Prince ready to 
 submit his debts to inspection. 2nd. That the Prince should 
 set forth not only the amount of his debts, but the manner in 
 which each particular debt was contracted. 3rd. That the Prince 
 should engage not to contract debts in future. 4th. That upon 
 compliance with the foregoing conditions would depend the 
 King's consent to the payment of the Prince's debts, or any 
 portion of them. 6th. That the King vrould not think any 
 increase of income necessary, so long as the Prince of Wales 
 remained unmarried. 
 
 * "Life and Eeign,"i. 165. 
 
THE LIFE or GEOEGE IV. 105 
 
 This counter-project was not found satisfactory, and Mr. 
 Courtenajj one of the Prince's legal advisers, having quickened the 
 negotiations by giving out that he would bring this delicate 
 question before the House, on the 21st of May the minister 
 brought down a royal message, recommending an increase to 
 his son's income. The message added that there was " a well- 
 grounded expectation " that his son would avoid contracting 
 new debts. He demanded their aid to pay the debts, and engaged 
 from his own Civil List to add ten thousand pounds a year to 
 his income. The Prince had given his Majesty the fullest 
 assurances of his firm determination to confine his future ex- 
 penses within his income, and had settled a new scheme of 
 checking the household expenses. An account was furnished to 
 the House : 
 
 Debts or the Prince or Wales. 
 
 Bonds and debts £13,000 
 
 Purchase of houses .... 4,000 
 
 Expenses of Carlton House . . . 63,000 
 
 Tradesmen's bills 90,804 
 
 £160,804 
 
 Espendihtke moM July, 1783, lo July, 1786. 
 
 Household, etc £29,277 
 
 Privy purse 16,050 
 
 Payments made by Ool. Hotham, parti- 
 culars delivered in to his Majesty . 37,203 
 Other extraordinaries .... 11,406 
 
 £93,936 
 
 Salaries £54,734 
 
 Stables 37,919 
 
 Mr. Robins, etc. . . . 7,059— £99,712 
 
 £193,648 
 
 On the following day an address from the Commons was 
 presented to the King, with its vote for a hundred and sixty- 
 one thousand pounds, for payment of the debt, and a sum of 
 sixty thousand pounds for the completion of Carlton House.* 
 
 This schedule was said not to correspond with the one first 
 
 * Erom a letter of Mr. Pitt's, in July, 1789, it would appear that Coutts, 
 the banker, was employed as agent in the transaction. Forty thousand 
 pounds were to be paid to the general creditors through Mr. Anstruther, 
 while Captain Payne was to receive so large a sum as three thousand pounds 
 for the Brighton creditors. — Eose, " Diaries," i. 105. 
 
106 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 presented to the King, and it was understood that the del3ts of 
 honour, etc., had been kept back, because the King declined to 
 recognise them. The relief indeed was of the most temporary 
 kind ; there was no substantial increase to his income, the sum 
 for Carlton House was but a third of what was necessary, and his 
 position was really that of a man in hopeless difficulties, who has 
 obtained a small supply to help to tide him on for a little. 
 Exactly like such a person, the Prince was overjoyed at the relief, 
 which might be an earnest of future aid. So far from an attempt 
 being made to observe this solemn engagement to the King and 
 nation, which common decency might have suggested, three years 
 had not elapsed when his debts reached six hundred and fifty 
 thousand pounds ! 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1787. 
 
 A EECONCiLLiTiON immediately took place between the Prince and 
 his father. The drawing-room on May 24th, it was remarked^ 
 was as fine and crowded as a Birthday. The Prince's household^ 
 now returned to their places, all kissed hands. The King was 
 quite in spirits, and the Qaeen and her daughters beaming with 
 delight. The impulsive Prince told everyone that he was resolved 
 never again to quarrel with his father; a declaration too 
 comprehensive not to excite a serious foreboding.* 
 
 On the following day an interview, three hours long, took 
 place at the palace, at the end of which the penitent was intro- 
 duced to his mother and sisters, when all was made up. By the 
 much-injured Mrs. Pitzherbert he was also forgiven ; and, at 
 a most magnificent ball and supper given by Sir Sampson 
 Gideon, the Prince sat at the head of the table, Mrs. Fitzherbert 
 beside him, with all her particular friends grouped near him. 
 Everyone had noticed that his attentions to her in public had 
 of late been of the most marked kind. 
 
 The creditors, however, were not quite satisfied with the 
 mode of liquidation, which they thought too slow. They were paid 
 in instalments, a first dividend of nine per cent, being presently 
 announced. 
 
 Reconciled to his son, the King was to be further gratified by 
 the return of his favourite, the Duke of York, who arrived on 
 August 2nd after an absence of seven years, during which time 
 he had contrived to impress even Mirabeau unfavourably by 
 his uproariousness and excess in wine. The Prince was then at 
 
 * Auckland, " Correspondence," i. 426. 
 
108 THE LIFE OP GBOEGE IV. 
 
 Brightoiij and the news found him at a supper where was the 
 Princess of Lamballe, whence he rose to post all through the 
 night to Windsor. He was fond of this grotesque and spasmodic 
 mode of travel, for which there was no necessity, and which isj in 
 truth, characteristic of the spendthrift, who loves telegraphing 
 and expresses where mere trivialities are in question. Thus an 
 air of real business is given to pleasure. 
 
 The meeting of the brothers is described as most affecting. 
 After a moment's pause, during which they surveyed each other, 
 they embraced affectionately. Then followed a happy family 
 dinner ; and if we are to accept the reports of the various 
 chroniclers belonging to the Court, the simple raptures of the 
 happy father, and his queen and his daughters, were more like 
 what would occur in the circle of the good Vicar of Wakefield 
 than among those recently engaged in a bitter and venomous 
 family quarrel. The Duke, in truth, had returned a finished 
 debauchee, arrayed in all the vices; he was delicate-looking and 
 stooped, and in the splendid picture of him by Eeynolds, where 
 he is presented in all the splendour of robes and orders, he appears 
 as an interesting, almost feminine-looking youth, with a rather 
 weak and volatile expression. He was now to form a strict 
 alliance with his brother. 
 
 For the Duke of York an establishment was formed at Oatlands 
 Park, Weybridge (now an hotel), a place hereafter to be familiar to 
 London men of fashion; having also a grotesque celebrity as the 
 reign of riot and the grave of innumerable dogs, favourites of 
 the Duchess. Frolic and frivolity now set in, and the royal 
 brothers, in this new-found camaraderie, were to renew the old 
 scandals. Indeed, those of the royal family who were older did 
 not set the young men a good example. The Oumberlands, as 
 we have seen, had openly encouraged the Prince of Wales in his 
 hostility to his father. 
 
 One so flattered and followed often showed a capricious 
 humour, which, in his later days, when he studied to support his 
 character of first gentleman, he would not have exhibited. 
 Thus, when dancing with the beautiful Lady Salisbury at a ball 
 given by the Duchess of Devonshire, he suddenly quitted her and 
 finished the measure with his more lovely hostess. The gay 
 Captain Morris thus wrote on the incident : 
 
 Ungallanfc youth ! Could royal Edward see 
 While Salisbury's garter decks thy faithless knee 
 That thou, false knight, hadst turned thy back and fied 
 From such a Salisbui-y as might wake the dead. 
 Quick from thy treacherous breast her badge he'd tear. 
 And strip the star that beauty planted there. 
 
THE Lli^E OF GEOKGB lY. 109 
 
 Butj as the Duchess of York once said to Mr. Greville, there 
 was a rudoj coarse style of gentility then obtaining, which gave 
 place to the good-natured manners of the later dandies. The 
 Duke of Gloucester, whose attachment to his wife and sacrifices 
 made for her are told in so sympathetic a fashion in Walpole's 
 journals, had now transferred his admiration to Lady Tyrconnel, 
 Lord Delaval's youngest daughter, " feminine and delicate in her 
 appearance, with a profusion of light hair." 
 
 " How the men of business and the great orators of the House 
 of Commons contrive to reconcile it with their exertions I cannot 
 conceive," writes that most charming of public men, Sir Gilbert 
 Elliot, to his wife. " Men of all ages drink abominably. Pox 
 drinks what I should call a great deal, though he is not reckoned 
 to do so by his companions, Sheridan excessively, and Grey more 
 than any of them ; but it is in a much more gentlemanly way 
 than our Scotch drunkards, and is always accompanied with lively 
 clever conversation on subjects of importance. Pitt, I am told, 
 drinks as much as anybody." 
 
 The sarae observer describes a scene at Mrs. Crewe's, where 
 three young men of fashion, Mr. Orlando Bridgman, Mr. Charles 
 Greville, of the Picnic Club (a gentleman celebrated for his 
 elegance of manners), and Mr. Gifford, were so drunk "as 
 to puzzle a whole assembly. The last was a young gentleman 
 lately come out, of good estate of about five thousand pounds 
 a year, the whole of which he is in the act of spending in one or 
 two years at most, and this without a grain of sense, without any 
 fun to himself or entertainment to others. He never uttered a 
 word, though as drunk as the other two, who were both riotous, 
 and began at last to talk so plain that Lady Francis and Lady 
 Valentine fled from the side table to ours, and Mrs. Sheridan 
 would have followed them, but did not make her escape till 
 her arms were black and blue, and her apron torn off." 
 
 Pitt, the model young minister, broke down in the House in 
 the following year, owing to a debauch the night before at Lord 
 Buckingham's, when in company with Dundas and the Duke of 
 Gordon he took too much wine.* Indeed, the manners and 
 customs of the times might be called "a precious school'' for 
 young princes, and there was no public opinion to check these vices. 
 The lawlessness that was abroad reached even to the young, who 
 disdained the control of their parents. When their consent was 
 withheld, the result was improvident marriages with footmen and 
 actors, and numerous elopements. Thus in this year the town was 
 entertained with no less than three escapades, which occurred at 
 
 * " Court and Cabinets," i. 360, 
 
110 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 the same time. "Lady Augusta Campbell is married to Mr. 
 Clavering, the youngest son of General Olavering. His being only 
 two-and-twenty^ and Lady Augusta being a good many years older^ 
 makes people imagine that she rather ran away with him than he 
 with her. They went away from the Duchess of Ancaster's^ who 
 saw masks that night. The Duchess of Argyll went home, and 
 thought that Lady Augusta would soon follow her, but after sitting 
 up till five o'clock, and no Lady Augusta returning, she sent 
 in search of her to the Duchess of Ancaster's. No tidings were 
 to be learned there of the fair fugitive. She, it seems, as soon 
 as her mother went home, left the duchess^'s with Mr. Olavering, 
 -and went with him to Bicester, in Oxfordshire, where they were 
 married. She, it is said, was married in her domino. Accoutred 
 as she was she plunged in. It is to be hoped she dropped the mask. 
 The lover had been the day before to Oranbourne Alley, and had 
 procured every kind of female dress necessary for Lady Augusta. 
 
 " Miss Olinton had, the day before she eloped, offered to take 
 her oath on the Bible that she would not marry Mr. Dawkins 
 without Sir Henry^s consent. He, after her solemn protestations, 
 did not think it necessary to administer the oath ; and she, 
 perhaps, imagining that at some other time he might, lost no 
 time in escaping fi'om the sin of perjury, and likewise from her 
 father's house. Mr. Dawkins had posted half-a-dozen hackney- 
 coaches at the different corners which lead into Portland Place, 
 in order that he might elude all pursuit ; for as soon as the 
 hackney-coach in which he was set off, all the others likewise 
 had their orders to set off too, and go where they liked. 
 
 " Lady Bowes lived in Fludyer Street, which you know is very 
 narrow, and well it was, considering the bridge she passed to get 
 to her lover, Mr. Jessop. She excused herself to her father for not 
 coming down to supper, saying that it was inconsistent with 
 female delicacy to be in company with so many men as were to 
 sup with her father. As soon as everybody was gone to bed she 
 passed a ladder which had a plank laid upon it, and which reached 
 from her window to that of her lover. She must pass this bridge. 
 She had never seen this man but at his window, before she went 
 over to him." 
 
 Gambling at this time was in the highest vogue, faro and macao 
 tables being found at the fashionable houses. This vice continued 
 to rage until the dissolution of Orockford's, within living memory, 
 when it assumed another shape, which now obtains — that of 
 laying on horses instead of on dice or cards. The French 
 ambassador was a particular votary, and, being struck down 
 with a paralytic stroke at a drawing-room, did not on that 
 account suspend his Sunday evening gaming reunions — and Sir 
 
THE LIFE OF aEOEG-E IV. Ill 
 
 Nathaniel Wraxall attended one, when, "a faro-table being set 
 out in one of tlie apartments, the company gambled at it while the 
 ambassador lay in an adjoining room attended by physicians." 
 
 The Eling and his family, who had been in such delight at 
 the promised reformation, were now to find their son breaking 
 his promises, even the one which had been the sine qua non of 
 the agreement, that he would no longer join in political attacks. 
 There was something most unbecoming in this violation of an 
 honourable agreement, but the public had long ceased to be 
 scandalised. His friend Erskine, after making a wild attack on 
 the Government three hours long, had been forced to desist 
 from illness; he was comforted by the Prince of Wales, with 
 whom he dined in the coffee-room at the House of Commons, 
 and, after being well primed with brandy, was instigated to 
 renew the attack. So gross was his language that a burst of 
 hisses greeted him.* 
 
 No wonder the visits to Windsor grew less and less frequent, 
 and at last were totally given up. But what must have wrung 
 the heart of father and mother most, was to find the youth that 
 had just been restored to them led by his brother into every vice, 
 and competing with him in the race of a degrading notoriety ; 
 and there can be no reasonable doubt but that the agitation and 
 anguish of these days contributed to the derangement of mind 
 which was presently to declare itself. 
 
 Two of the Prince's close associates — Tarleton and Payne (the 
 well-known -Jack Payne) — being proposed at Brookes's, met 
 with the affront of being blackballed, though the Prince himself 
 had put them up. In disgust at this treatment, he and his 
 brother determined to found a new and special club, where they 
 could be free from the restraint of these old respectable Whigs 
 who reigned at Brookes's. 
 
 Accordingly, the task of organising the club was conferred 
 on his German cook, and after the custom of the time it was 
 called "Weltjie's." Weltjie himself, with his broken English 
 and familiarity, became the keeper under the royal patronage. 
 He made money, and lived in one of the picturesque houses in 
 Hammersmith Mall, where he was truly hospitable. He, how- 
 ever, lost the favour of his royal patron by his opposition to 
 the marriage of one of his children which the Prince favoured, 
 and who, crossed in his whim, dismissed him. " His manners," 
 says Angelo, '^were not very polished, but at the same time 
 good-natured, and his humorous, eccentric anecdotes (of which 
 he had so many) with his excellent dishes, so pleased his guests 
 
 * " Court and Cabinets," L 556 
 
112 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IT. 
 
 tliat they were never out of patience in listening to them." 
 Mr. Gronow gives another account of the convivial fashion in 
 which this club was founded. 
 
 In this new locale play set in with new fury^ and the royal 
 pair became the victims. " The Prince has taught the Duke to 
 drink in the most liberal way, and the Duke in return has been 
 equally successful in teaching his brother to lose money at all 
 sorts of play — quinze, hazard, etc. — to the amount, we are told, of 
 very large sums, won by General Smith and Admiral Pigot, who 
 both wanted it very much." This fatal passion the Duke had 
 brought from Germany, and the frantic manner in which he 
 now pursued it filled his more sober friends with apprehension. 
 Even the Prince of Wales was heard to declare gravely that his 
 brother of Tork " was too bad."* 
 
 It was during one of these riotous scenes that an amusing 
 adventure occurred to the royal pair. As they were passing 
 Hay Hill, hurrying to another scene of riot, they were stopped 
 by footpads and robbed of their watches and money. Mr. Rogers 
 heard the Duke of York relate the story, but seems to have 
 misapprehended it. He assumed it to have been a genuine 
 robbery, whereas it was a pleasant trick contrived by some of 
 their boon companions. There was much jesting on the incident, 
 and it was declared that the sum of money obtained from the 
 pockets of both was of but trifling amount. 
 
 The Prince's gambling was pushed to an extent which, con- 
 sidering his recent promises, was scandalous. He was seen to 
 lose two or three thousand pounds of a night.f His brother, 
 the Duke of York, was not behindhand, his conduct being as 
 bad as possible ; " he plays very deep, and loses, and his company 
 is thought mauvais ton." J 
 
 Like other gentlemen of the town, our Prince had recourse 
 in his necessities to the usurers. § One of the most notorious 
 money-lenders who came to his aid was a personage known as 
 
 * The Duke, at a convivial party, rising abruptly from the table, fell 
 upon the floor ; on which his brother exclaimed, solemnly : " There lie, as 
 our royal father says, the hopes of the family." 
 
 f " Court and Cabinets," i. 363. J Ibid. 
 
 § It was at this time the practice of the Jews to frequent the gaming- 
 houses in the morning, for the express purpose of purchasing the I U's 
 of the Prince. If the I U was for five hundred pounds, a bond or some 
 other solid security was given for six hundred pounds, the Jew selling to 
 the Prince some trifling piece of plate, or an article of jewellery, for the 
 extra hundred pounds. The Prince, in some instances, expressed his high 
 sense of displeasure at this traffic in his negotiable securities. But, as in 
 some instances he could not discharge his I O U from his immediate funds, 
 it was a system of gi-eat convenience to have a resource always at hand by 
 which his honour could be saved. — ^Huish, "Memoirs," i. 191. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOKGB lY. 113 
 
 "Jew Travis," or "Treves," with whom the Prince had transactions. 
 Later came "Jew Solomon" and "Jew King." Lord Oornwallis, 
 who had gone out to India, was, in the following year, applied to 
 with great earnestness by the Prince to do something for a young 
 protege of his, also out there. The warmth of his intercession 
 may have surprised Lord Cornwallis, who could not, however, set 
 it down to the kindly feelings of his heart. The fact was, " young 
 Treves " was son of " Jew Treves," which at once explained the 
 solicitude exhibited for him. 
 
 THE PEINCE as WALES TO LORD COBNWALLIS. 
 
 " Carlton House, March 12th, 1788. 
 "Mt deae Coenwallis, 
 
 "Tho' I am sensible how much your time is taken up, I 
 cannot help troubling you on a subject I have already mentioned 
 to you. Having understood that the India directors have sent a 
 species of order to have young Treves removed from his present 
 situation, and feeling myself much interested in this young man's 
 welfare, I cannot help, 1st, recalling to your mind that I took 
 the liberty some time ago of recommending him particularly to 
 your protection, and only hope that if his conduct has not been 
 improper in his situation, you would not admit of his being an 
 innocent sufferer. I trust to your goodness in forgiving the 
 trouble I am now giving you, and that if any application is neces- 
 sary to the subject here at home, you will be kind enough to 
 inform me how I am to make it myself ; or else I must trouble 
 you once more in begging you to make it yourself for me and in 
 my name. I am ever happy in any opportunity that offers itself 
 of recalling myself to your remembrance, and assuring you how 
 sincerely I remain, 
 
 "Your sincere Friend, 
 
 " Geoege p." 
 
 The amiable feelings that had been awakened by the return 
 of the second son had by this time given place to the old bitter- 
 ness, and the relations between the King and his son had now 
 come to be once more on the usual disastrous footing. The blame 
 may be fairly divided between both parties, as will be evident 
 from the harsh treatment extended to another son. Prince William, 
 who had been at sea, and ventured to return without permission. 
 He arrived at Plymouth, as will be shown later, and was detained 
 there by his father. His royal brother hurried down to see him, and 
 the party enjoyed themselves for some time together, in their own 
 
 VOL. L I 
 
114 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 riotous fastiorij when the gay sailor got into a flirtation with & 
 lady of the place. He was at once ordered o£B to sea^ with sealed 
 orders, which, on being opened, banished him to the West Indies. 
 Yet with all this extravagance there were evidences of a good 
 heart, or at least of good nature. 
 
 For what was called " bruising," the Prince of Wales early 
 showed taste ; but it was " recorded to his honour " that, having- 
 witnessed a dreadful prize-fight at Brighton, in the August of the 
 following year, in which one of the " bruisers " was killed on the 
 spot, he gave utterance to a sort of solemn vow that he would 
 never witness another battle or again patronise the sport. 
 This was no doubt prompted by a becoming feeling; but 
 without the catastrophe the spectacle was brutal, and sufiiciently 
 inhuman.* 
 
 A little sketch of him, about this time, at an evening party, 
 shows very effectively the favourable side of his character. 
 Among his friends was Lady Clermont, a lady of the old school, 
 who had brought to a party the well-known Count Persen.f 
 
 " His Royal Highness took no notice of me on his first arrival; 
 but, in a few minutes afterwards, coming up to me, ' Pray, Lady 
 Clermont,' said he, ' is that man whom I see here Count Persen, 
 the Queen's favourite ?' ' The gentleman,' answered I, 'to whom 
 your Royal Highness alludes is Count Fersen ; but so far from 
 being a favourite of the Queen, he has not yet been presented at 
 Court.' ' God d — n me ! ' exclaimed he, * you don't imagine I 
 mean my mother ? ' ' Sir,' I replied, ' whenever you are pleased to 
 use the word " queen" without any addition I shall always under- 
 stand it to mean my Queen. If you speak of any other queen I 
 m.ust entreat that you will be good enough to say the Queen of 
 Prance, or of Spain.' The Prince made no reply; but, after 
 having walked once or twice round Count Fersen, returning to 
 me, ' He's certainly a very handsome fellow,' observed he. ' Shall 
 I have the honour, sir,' said I, ' to present him to you ? ' He 
 instantly turned on his heel, without giving me any answer; and 
 I soon afterwards quitted Lady William Gordon's house, carrying 
 Count Fersen with me. We drove to Mrs. St. John's, only a few 
 doors distant, who had likewise a large party on that evening. 
 When I had introduced him to various persons there I said to 
 him : ' Count Fersen, I am an old woman, and infirm, who 
 always go home to bed at eleven. You will, I hope, amuse 
 yourself. Good-night.' Having thus done the honours, as well 
 as I could, to a stranger who had been so highly recommended 
 
 * Mr. "Windham was employed to get a palliative account inserted in. 
 his papers, being a great patron of the sport. 
 
 t Wraxall, "Posth. Memoirs.". 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 115 
 
 to me, I witlidrew into tlie ante-cliamberj and sat down alone in 
 a corner, waiting for my carriage. While there the Prince came 
 in ; and I naturally expected, after his recent behaviour, that he 
 would rather avoid than accost me. On the contrary, advancing 
 up to me, ' What are you doing here. Lady Clermont ? ■" asked 
 he. 'I am waiting for my coach, sir?' said I, 'in order to go 
 home.' ' Then,' replied he, ' I will put you into it, and give you 
 my arm down the stairs.' ' For heaven's sake, sir/ I exclaimed, 
 ' don't attempt it ; I am old, very lame, and my sight is imperfect. 
 The consequence of your offering me your arm will be that, in my 
 anxiety not to detain your Royal Highness, I shall hurry down 
 and probably tumble from the top of the staircase to the foot/ 
 ' Very likely/ answered he ; ' but, if you tumble, I shall tumble 
 with you. Be assured, however, that I will have the pleasure of 
 assisting you, and placing you safely in your carriage.' I saw 
 that he was determined to repair the rudeness with which he had 
 treated me at Lady William Gordon's, and I therefore acquiesced. 
 He remained with me till the coach was announced, conversed 
 most agreeably on various topics, and as he took care of me 
 down the stairs, enjoined me at every step not to hurry myself. 
 Nor did he quit me when seated in the carriage, remaining 
 uncovered on the steps of the house till it drove ofE from the 
 door/' 
 
 " The Prince," we are also told, " was one day so exceedingly 
 urgent to have eight hundred pounds, at an hour on such a day, 
 and in so unusual a manner, that the gentleman who furnished the 
 supply had some curiosity to know for what purpose it was obtained. 
 On inquiry he was informed that the moment the money arrived 
 the Prince drew on a pair of boots, pulled ofE 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 gentleman discovered the object of the 
 mysterious visit. An officer of the army had just arrived from 
 America, with a wife and six children, in such low circumstances^ 
 that, to satisfy a clamorous creditor, he was on the point of selling 
 his commission, to the utter ruin of his family. The Prince 
 brought him the money himself to an obscure lodging-house/' * 
 
 Tetj as moralists well know, such impulses, unless directed 
 by principle, have little value, and become no more than 
 new shapes of self-gratification. Presently we find him at 
 Tunbridge Wells, where he much contributed to the gaiety of that 
 place. Here, among other visitors, was Fitzgibbon, afterwards 
 
 * Huisb, " Memoirs," i. 1S7. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 
 
 the well-known Lord Clare, whose wife, " a smart lady," and one 
 of "Buck" Whaley's family, attracted the notice of the impres- 
 sionable Prince. 
 
 There was another watering-place which attracted him and 
 engrossed much of his time, thought, and extravagance. The 
 luxurious city of pleasure, the modern " London-on-the-Sea," 
 unrivalled for its gaiety and enjoyment, is indebted to the young 
 Prince of Wales for its earliest appreciation. Almost before he 
 was of age he delighted in hurrying away from town for a brief 
 snatch of seaside enjoyment. We are told a new and fantastic 
 equipage, consisting of a phaeton drawn only by three horses, 
 one before the other, on the first of which rode a postilion, was 
 designed to enable him to reach his favourite haunt with more 
 expedition. With all his fickleness he was through his life con- 
 stant to this fancy, and, like the Grand Monarque, paid it the 
 homage of adorning it with the quaint and costly palace which 
 still rears its outlandish pinnacles.* 
 
 This fancy had taken root after the time when he first 
 visited the Duke of Cumberland, in 1782, who then occupied 
 a small old-fashioned house on the very edge of the sea, known as 
 Grove House, belonging to a Mr. Wyndham. This stood almost 
 solitary, some sandy downs spreading away near it, a curious 
 contrast to the vast crowds of houses which now line the shore. f 
 In the following year he paid a second visit, on this occasion 
 occupying Mr. Kemp's house, or rather cottage, which was close 
 by. This, or some addition, was built by Weltjie, his cook, and 
 was separated from the high road by some shrubs and rose 
 trees. Owing to the bad state of his health, and the agitation 
 
 * In an old posting-book now before me, once belonging to a friend 
 of Mr. Sterne's, in which are set down several notes useful on travel, 
 furnished by that gentleman, as " Mr. Sterne recommended Mr. Eay of 
 Montpellier as a most worthy English banker," — there is a M S. sketch 
 of the place so early as 1767. " Until within a few years it was no better 
 than a mere fishing town inhabited by fishermen and sailors, but through 
 the recommendation of Dr. Russel, and by the means of his writing in 
 favour of sea-water, it is become one of the principal places in the 
 kingdom for the resort of the idle and dissipated as well as of the 
 diseased and infirm. There are two assembly-rooms which are opened 
 on different nights, one kept by Mr. Shergold, who keeps the sign of 
 King Charles's Head, and lives in the very house wherein he was con- 
 cealed; and the other assembly-room is kept by Mr. Hicks, who keeps 
 the cofiee-house. The place on which the company usually walk in the 
 evening is a large field near the sea, called the Stean, which is kept in 
 proper order for that purpose, and whereon are several shops, with 
 piazzas and benches therein erected, and a building for music to perform 
 in when the weather will permit." 
 
 t A view of this old mansion, as it appeared at this date, is given in 
 " The European Magazine." 
 
THE LIFE OE GEORGE IV. 117 
 
 produced by tlie events of 1783, he was ordered sea-bathing 
 by the physicians. And the excuse of seeking health being 
 thus added to the other attractions of the place, he pursued 
 his hobby with the ardour so often found in persons of his 
 disposition. Thus, we learn, he would set off from London, and 
 return the same day, making the drive there and back in ten 
 hours. The next step was to build, and from thenceforth for 
 many years he was engrossed with the costly folly of constructing 
 a country as well as a town palace at the same time — a mania 
 that brought him down to the level of an impoverished spend- 
 thrift, and involved him in the most humiliating shifts. Holland, 
 the architect of Carlton House, furnished plans, and in 1787, 
 the first rough sketch, as it may be called, of the Brighton Folly 
 was completed ; for, like Carlton House, it was to be altered 
 and reshaped several times, a characteristic of the self-indulgent, 
 who build not to have a house, but for the pleasure of building. 
 It then was a plain substantial structure, low, flanked by two 
 wings, with a large rotunda in the middle, the favourite form 
 in those days of the nobleman's house. One wing, however, was 
 the shell of the old house. For the decorations an emissary was 
 despatched to Italy, to study and bring back suitable designs.* 
 But he was not content with so homely an edifice, and Nash, 
 the fashionable architect, was called in to reconstruct the whole 
 in the fantastic form which it now exhibits. Additional land 
 was bought, and for more than twenty years the chopping and 
 changing, and rebuilding went on. 
 
 Just as there was then a sort of spurious. Gothic, which 
 seemed to be evolved from the brain of the scene-painter; so 
 the pavilion affected a sort of Eastern architecture, which might 
 be Chinese or Turkish, or Hindoo, the vague and cloudy term 
 " Eastern,'' being used to cover the assemblage of contradictory 
 and inharmonious elements. The fashionable architect, we 
 are told, worked under "the direct surveillance" of the royal 
 virtuoso, whose "facility of invention and taste" was the soul 
 of the whole. How this taste was inspired may be gathered 
 from the following fact : He received a present of some beautiful 
 Chinese papers, which he was embarrassed how to dispose of. 
 The idea of a Chinese gallery to exhibit the paper suggested 
 itself, and was cai'ried out. This again suggested a sort of 
 transparent chamber in the middle, formed of glass painted with 
 Chinese patterns, and illuminated from behind, so that the guest 
 was delighted, and perhaps provoked, at finding himself in a sort 
 of lantern. These sort of surprises were then considered in the 
 
 * This agent was said to have been a common bricklayer, and his 
 expenses were charged at two thousand pounds. 
 
118 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 best taste. The apartments were certainly laid out on a splendid 
 and spacious scale; and the noble music-room, banqueting- 
 room, blue and yellow drawing-rooms, offered fine proportions, 
 though certainly disfigured by the Chinese monsters and "^'gilt 
 trellis work in imitation of Bamboo," which was all in execrable 
 taste. Yet there were admirable models, and architects of the 
 Adam school, who could have designed a building that would 
 have been effective and in good taste ; but it was characteristic 
 that our Prince should have assumed that he could not effectively 
 display his gifts out in the style that was accepted by the nation, 
 but only in some extravagant and unfamiliar fashion. There, 
 however, it stands to this day — the Brighton Pavilion — decayed 
 and cumbering valuable earth, an eccentric gathering of pinnacles, 
 without the quaintness of antiquity, and having something of the 
 effect of the tawdry decorations of a ball, seen on the morning 
 after. Unhappily, it was now to be associated with scenes of 
 revel and riot, and the Pavilion must always rise to the memory 
 when we think of the merry days of the Regency, or the hot 
 youth of George, Prince of Wales. 
 
 Arriving at Brighton from Tunbridge he brought with him 
 the usual carnival. Wonderful was the change that had taken 
 place within the two or three years since he had " taken up " 
 the place. The effect of patronage on such places as Hom- 
 burg and Brighton is like magic. Already it was overflowing 
 with company. Doctors had established themselves ; and Pepys, 
 the eminent physician, also found it desirable to follow his 
 fashionable patients thither during the season. There was even a 
 playhouse. Unfortunately the example of the august patron 
 had also the effect of drawing there the most indiscriminate 
 collection of persons, for we are told " that, authorised by the 
 royal example, everybody thought himself at Hberty to do as the 
 Prince himself did," and the spectacle of a crowded night at the 
 theatre was not an edifying one. Lord Brudenell, keeper of the 
 King's privy purse, flung himself into the riot with more zeal 
 than discretion, acquiring the nickname of '' Cockie " to the 
 great amusement, it was said, of his Majesty.* 
 
 But in all this frivolity and gaiety he did not suspect that a 
 crisis of the most important and momentous kind was at hand. 
 Here it was that an express reached him with alarming news of 
 his father's illness. He posted at once to Windsor, and the 
 fashionable watering-place, as though everyone was seized with 
 a panic, became deserted almost on the instant. 
 
 * Auckland, ii. 23S. 
 
CHAPTBE XII. 
 
 1788. 
 
 In the last weeks of October some strange rumours as to tlie 
 state of the King's health were current at the two great clubs, 
 though the common crowd knew no more than that the King was 
 indisposed. His physician, Sir George Baker, who had seen 
 him on the evening of October 22nd, had suspected that his 
 mind was disordered, while his strange behaviour at the levee 
 had excited the worst forebodings of the ministers. Not, 
 however, until November 4th could the malady be said to 
 have revealed itself, and for nearly a fortnight the suffering 
 King had been allowed to encounter exciting duties of all 
 kinds, to ride hard, four hours at a time in the rain, to go to 
 town and hold his levee, ail the time suffering from agitation and 
 fever. 
 
 Miss Burney describes minutely the painful scenes at the 
 palace during this early stage : the queen and her daughters 
 sitting up all night '"^in an agony of weeping:" the unhappy 
 King promenading restlessly hither and thither, not so disordered 
 as to warrant restraint or interference : pouring out a stream of 
 ceaseless talk, until he became almost inaudible from hoarseness. 
 The spectacle of his friends and attendants, whom he encoun- 
 tered in every passage and anteroom, whispering together, fol- 
 lowing him, while affecting to hide from him, must have had 
 the worst effect ; to say nothing of the Queen's " ghastly face " 
 and perpetual floods of tears, and the scared manner of her 
 ladies. 
 
 The Prince announced that he intended returning to Brighton 
 
120 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 the next dayj but the events of that night were to change all 
 his plans, for when that dismal family party were seated at 
 dinner, the King flew at his son — who had caused him such 
 sorrows — in a paroxysm, seizing him by the collar and pushing 
 him with violence against the wall. He would know did he dare 
 to prevent the King of England speaking out. The Queen 
 fell off into hysterics ; and the Prince, dreadfully agitated, 
 began to cry. In a situation of the kind his nerves seemed 
 always to fail him. He was, indeed, so upset, as it is called, 
 that he had to be bled next day.* This want of firmness was 
 only what was to be expected in one whose life was so devoted 
 to pleasure. t 
 
 The forms of these early paroxysms show what was preying 
 on the King's heart, and reveal the causes of his madness — the 
 loss of his American colonies, and his son's unfi.lial behaviour and 
 irregularities. 
 
 During this agitating night no one in the castle went to bed. 
 Miss Burney, wandering about the galleries, accidentally opened 
 a door and found herself in a room filled with gentlemen, sitting 
 round in awful silence, among whom were the two Princes. This 
 was the ante-room, while the poor King, now quite mad, was 
 babbling away within, unconscious that such a crowd was near 
 him. Later on he suddenly opened the door and stood bewildered 
 at seeing so many faces, but was scarcely more bewildered than 
 were the others. Even then he showed his instinctive dislike of 
 his eldest son, for he exclaimed piteously, on recognising the 
 Duke of York, " Yes, Frederick is my friend." No one had 
 courage or presence of mind to take any steps. The Prince of 
 Wales shrank back ; the physician, Baker, whose duty it was to 
 have controlled him, lost courage ; until Colonel Digby went up 
 to him boldly, and awing him with some judicious words, got 
 him back to bed. 
 
 The Prince, instead of returning to his pleasures at Brighton 
 the morning after his visit, now found himself the central 
 figure to whom all eyes were turned. The King was not 
 expected to live ; the Queen, utterly crushed by the blow, was 
 falling from one fit of hysterics into another. The future ruler took 
 the whole direction of the castle into his own hands. In every dif- 
 ficulty the people came to him for direction. As numbers of idle 
 persons found their way to the castle to gossip with the various 
 officials, he prudently issued strict orders that, save four persons, 
 
 * Buck. Pap. i. 437. 
 
 f The King did not call his son an old woman, as Lord Stanhope sayiS 
 (" Life of Pitt ") ; that speech was really addressed to his physician. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 121 
 
 wtom he named, no one should be admitted. He Mmself pre- 
 sided at the equerries' table.* 
 
 In London it was believed that the King's illness was of a 
 fatal kind ; and even before November 5th (the day of the first out- 
 break of the insanity) there was " a general alarm " abroad. An 
 anxious placeman at Whitehall, Mr. W. Grenville, was quick to 
 discern the exultation of his opponents, who, he said, did not 
 disguise their anticipations that the blow would happen in a few 
 days. This was to be the tone of the Tories in the bitter struggle 
 that followed; Pox and his friends being usually described as a 
 band of unscrupulous men who wished, not to oust a ministry, 
 but to " seize on the Government " and " overthrow the Consti- 
 tution." On the evening of the 6th, an express had reached Pitt 
 with news of the scene at the dinner-table. All seemed to herald 
 his own fall, and even ruin. He waited in hourly expectation of 
 a messenger from Windsor with news of the King's death. The 
 Chancellor was already on the spot, and came up the following 
 morning with directions for Pitt to go down and see the Prince. 
 Mr. Grenville fondly imagined that this message looked like 
 negotiation. 
 
 Things began to look yet more gloomy when it was found that 
 Thurlow would not be disinclined to serve a new king in the same 
 capacity. Nor was there anything extraordinary or unnatural in 
 such an idea ; for it was known that he cordially disliked Pitt, 
 and that his devotion was more for the Sovereign than for the 
 party. He belonged to " the King's friends." 
 
 An accurate and well-informed observer seems to have kept a 
 sort of diary of these melancholy proceedings, and from their 
 record I quote what follows if "In the violent paroxysms of his 
 Majesty's disorder, he continually raved about the Queen ; some- 
 times loading her with reproaches, and uttering threats against 
 
 * One of these troublesome persons was his old tutor Smelt, wbo, much 
 affected at the condition of the King, was insisting with much importunity 
 that he should be allowed to attend on him as his page. The Prince 
 received him good-naturedly, and told him that he had better stay and see 
 the Queen ; on which the tutor was hurriedly setting off to fetch Mrs. Smelt 
 and secure apartments for her at the inn. The Prince, who purposely 
 changed his mind, had so much to think of that he forgot his instructions 
 to the gate-keepers, and Mr. Smelt was denied admittance at the gate, and 
 went away shocked and overwhelmed. A few weeks later, at Kew, the 
 Prince apologised to him in his own gracious manner ; having, as Miss 
 Burney says, " the faculty of making his peace with captivating grace." 
 
 f These " particulars " are singularly interesting, and are given in an 
 obscure Life of George the Third. They seemed to have escaped the 
 notice of Mr. Jesse and other writers : but I have not been able to trace the 
 author. 
 
122 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 her ; at otters desiring her presence, with expressions o£ passionate 
 regard. One day, tired of vainly soliciting to see the Queen, 
 liis Majesty desired to have her picture. He addressed it with 
 great calmness and recollection in these words : ' We have been 
 married twenty-eight years, and never have we been separated a 
 day till now ; and now you abandon me in my misfortunes.' 
 Another day, his Majesty desired to have four hundred pounds 
 from his privy purse. He divided it into different sums, wrapping 
 them up in separate papers, upon which he wrote the names of 
 persons to whom he had been accustomed to make monthly 
 payments, with perfect accuracy and precision. His Majesty 
 then wrote down the different sums, with the names annexed, 
 cast up the whole, as he formerly used to do, and ordered the 
 money to be paid immediately, it being then due. After this 
 instance of perfect recollection, his Majesty began to deplore the 
 unhappy situation of London ; which, he said, had been under 
 water a fortnight. He then proceeded to explain, with the same 
 composure, that the water was making gradual advances; and 
 that, in one week more, it would reach the Queen's House. His 
 Majesty expressed great unwillingness that a valuable manuscript, 
 the precise situation of which he described, should suffer ; and 
 declared an intention of going, on the ensuing Monday, to rescue 
 it from the approaching evil. This mixture of distraction and 
 reason giving way to absolute alienation, his Majesty expressed 
 
 his sorrow that Lord T was not present, he having prepared 
 
 everything for creating him a Duke.'" 
 
 The behaviour of the Chancellor, from the very beginning, 
 excited the suspicion of his companions in the ministry. It must 
 be said, however, that he seemed careless what they thought, 
 and pursued his course. The "memoranda" of the Duke of Leeds 
 give the fullest account of this episode. On the visit of 
 ministers to Windsor the Prince did not see them, but he was 
 closeted with the Chancellor both in the morning and in the 
 evening ; and Mr. Pitt learned that on the same evening Fox had 
 been with the Chancellor. They were not slow to let him feel that 
 they suspected him; for a week or two later when the whole 
 Cabinet were dining with Lord Stafford, this incident took place. 
 The host, " with much emotion," told them that the King had 
 been struck by one of his pages, adding that the King had not 
 only been shamefully treated but had been betrayed. The 
 Chancellor, thus glanced at, said that if anything of the kind 
 had occurred, the person in question ought not to be "suffered 
 about his person; but he knew that, in a paroxysm, the King had 
 hurt one of the pages extremely.'" Lord Stafford replied signifi- 
 cantly that " it was not the page he alluded to when he said the 
 
THE LIFE 0¥ GEOEGE IV. 123 
 
 King had been betrayed." The Chancellor, howeverj could 
 actually bring himself to assure his colleagues that, " in the 
 several conversations with the Prince there never had been any- 
 thing of a political or ministerial nature introduced.^' A state- 
 ment difficult to accept.* 
 
 In the first agitation the Prince was, as it were, bewildered, 
 and knew not whom to turn to. Pox, his adviser and coun- 
 sellor, in despair at any change in his political fortunes, had left 
 England for a tour, hopeless as to the condition of his party. 
 The situation was of extraordinary difilculty and delicacy, and 
 there was but one person of sufficient sagacity and resolution 
 to whom he could turn for advice. This was Lord Loughborough, 
 the Chief Justice, who had come an adventurer from Scotland, 
 and yet who, though enjoying a splendid office, was eager 
 to adventure yet more. On the 6th November the Duke of 
 York was despatched to him, with an assurance that everything 
 should be told to him, and that to him alone should the Prince 
 look for advice. But, with characteristic oddity, the Prince 
 determined that this communication should be secret and 
 mysterious. 
 
 There was now at Windsor, with the Prince, one of his 
 favourite familiars, a navy officer, known to Sheridan and others 
 as "Jack Payne." This not very brilliant adviser, with wits 
 confused by two nights' vigils, was the last person that should 
 have been cast for the delicate part of a negotiator, yet 
 fancied he was of sufficient calibre to direct the negotiation. 
 Accordingly, on the 7th, Lord Loughborough received from him 
 a letter that began thus solemnly : " In situations of difficulty 
 and moment one generally looks to their friends, who, from 
 presuming most willing, we know also are most able to give 
 advice. Knowing the friendship and good opinion the best 
 of friends entertain for you coincides so much with my own, 
 I venture to say to you that, at a time when he sees nobody, that 
 if anything that can suggest itself that can be of use, I shall 
 be happy to be made a vehicle of it to his advantage." The 
 letter goes on mysteriously : " The Prince talked to me of 
 rejecting a rule where somebody was not united to him. I told 
 him he would be advised to the contrary by his best friends, on 
 the truest principles of public good. If any important accident 
 should happen, I need not say to you," concludes Jack Payne, 
 *' I beg I may not be understood to have had any communication 
 
 * Mr. Jesse is inclined to discredit the trutli of this singularly painful 
 story; but it was repeated afterwards by the King himself, when restored 
 to reason, not only to Lady Harcourt, but to Lord Bldon. To the lady's 
 husband the King also complained of much cruel treatment. 
 
124 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 with you, as I have no authority for doing so, and therefore yoa 
 need not acknowledge any such. Seeing the Prince so much as I 
 do, I am anxious to have the best opinions." 
 
 What this "rejecting a rule" pointed to, is not very clear, 
 but it most likely refers to the Duke of Portland, or to Thurlow, 
 who was in attendance, and whom the Prince received with the 
 marks of the highest consideration, saying : " I have desired your 
 lordship's attendance, not only as my father's friend, but as my 
 own friend; and I beseech you, my lord, to give me your counsel 
 on this unhappy occasion. I have the utmost confidence in your 
 judgment, and shall have the utmost satisfaction in acting by it." 
 
 The King's death was supposed to be only a question of a 
 few hours. As Mr. Payne wrote in the same letter, with ill- 
 dissembled elation, " his state is so bad, that I fear dissolution 
 is almost the best that can be hoped. The last stroke, as I hear 
 from the hest " (underlined) " authority, cannot be far off. It is 
 what everybody, in a situation to see, is obliged to wish, as the 
 happiest possible termination to the melancholy scene. The event 
 we looked for last night is postponed, perhaps for a short time." 
 
 Thus, it is clear that the Prince was revelling in the 
 tracasseries which he considered to be diplomacy. The Chief 
 Justice continued to receive much encouragement : " Tell Lord 
 Loughborough " (Mr. Payne wrote in the name of the Prince) 
 " I am persuaded no less of his attachment than I desire him 
 to be of mine, and shall always receive his advice with 
 the same great degree of pleasure as I do upon this occasion, 
 and without which I shall not act for any material decision 
 of my present deUcate situation." And again : " Certain 
 people, not quite convinced a reform takes place, and all 
 active communication where you are may be well accounted 
 for, without a certain person, who sees nobody, be supposed to be 
 informed. The person I allude to said to me last night : ' I hope 
 Lords L. and S. are in close communication together on this 
 occasion.'" In explanation of this mystery and confused English, 
 it seems that the Prince did not wish to commit himself to any 
 party, save the one which would give him most power. It is 
 wonderful that Loughborough, an old ruse practitioner, could 
 have allowed himself to be played with, or " bamboozled " 
 by such stuff as the following: "Before any decided measure 
 is decided on, it is necessary, I think, you should see the Prince, 
 
 and, he says, as soon as he has seen S he will contrive it ; 
 
 but he is extremely jealous of seeing more than one person at a 
 time, and that not by way of consultation, but in private friend- 
 ship. He said to-night he thought it had better be done by your 
 coming to your farm and then to Bagshot; but more of this 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 125 
 
 tereafter." * In reply, the Chief Justice developed his plans 
 in a long despatch: "I have not the least apprehension," 
 he wrote, "of any mischief that can arise to H.R.H. but 
 from his own virtues." He advised "not dissimulation, but a 
 certain reserve and guard upon the frankness of that amiable 
 •disposition which is the ornament and delight of society." 
 
 But, actually as he was writing, the airy house of cards was 
 toppling. The King, who at midnight " was in a situation he 
 could not long have survived," was suddenly relieved by some 
 strong remedies, fell into a profound sleep, and awoke to be pro- 
 nounced out of danger. This was indeed provoking, and it 
 rendered necessary a total revision of their plans. 
 
 There remained one satisfaction. The mental affliction 
 promised to be permanent. He had " all the gestures and ravings 
 of the most confirmed lunatic," and the doctors agreed " that to 
 the disease they at present see no end in their contemplation." 
 "These are their own words," writes Captain Payne eagerly, 
 " which is all there can be implied in an absolute declaration, for 
 infallibility cannot be ascribed to them." 
 
 The idea of the King's dying was therefore dismissed. The 
 little plotters at the castle had to deal with a new state of things. 
 The next letter of the sanguiae Payne is written to Sheridan, 
 and is almost entirely taken up with consolatory assurances of 
 the hopeless state of the King's wits. " Dr. Warren," he said, 
 " was the living principle of this business (for poor Baker is half- 
 crazed himself), and who I see every half -hour." ■ He was 
 the doctor in the Prince's interest. With a view of checking 
 the malignancy of their political foes, who would do their best 
 to excite public suspicion, " The various fluctuations of his (the 
 King's) ravings " were accurately written down throughout the 
 night, "|and this we have got signed by the physicians every day." 
 Thus was intrigue made to override all considerations of feeling; 
 and it was scarcely surprising if Lord Bulkeley heard that " the 
 two sons of the Queen, I am afraid, do not announce the state of 
 his health to her with caution and delicacy." 
 
 The prospect was now not nearly so brilliant. A regency, 
 instead of sovereignty, was to follow as a matter of course ; and 
 though there had been some whispers that " certain persona " 
 might attempt to impose restraints on that power nothing certain 
 had transpired, for at this time Mr. Pitt had not made up his 
 mind what course to take. 
 
 The Prince had another agent at work — his henchman, the 
 shifty and vivacious Sheridan, who was now in London. With 
 
 * Qampbell, " Lives of the Chancellors," vi. 192. 
 
126 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 tis affected monopoly of tlie Prince's confidencesj and " tis eager- 
 ness t« display his own importance/' he had, as Mr. Granville 
 heard, quite disgusted the Duke of Portland and the more sober 
 and dignified members of the party. Indeed, those concerned in 
 the regency struggle of twenty years later, might have found a 
 clue to the perplexing questions then raised in the fact that the 
 control of the situation fell naturally to the Prince's henchmen 
 and personal friends ; and the Greys and other respectable Whigs 
 might have learned from the proceedings of 1789 that their 
 influence would be but of small account. 
 
 It would seem that the various plotters were carrying on 
 distinct intrigues, each opposed to the other. Payne and his 
 Prince, while affecting to communicate with the Chief Justice, and 
 enjoining secrecy on him, were themselves secretly negotiating 
 with Thurlow ; while with the Duke of Portland and the official 
 leaders there seems to have been little or no communication. 
 
 Sheridan, finding the threads of the intrigue becoming en- 
 tangled, complained almost despairingly to his coadjutor, the 
 Chief Justice : " It is really intolerable," he wrote, " and I mean 
 to speak plainly to him." The Prince was sending up Payne to 
 town on that day, and Sheridan was to try and set the meddling 
 equerry's " head to rights, if possible, for he was growing worse 
 and worse." He was inclined to think, however, that a few words 
 from Loughborough would have more weight. It was reported 
 that a strange sort of council had been held at Bagshot, to which 
 came secretly the Prince, Sheridan, Mrs, Pitzherbert, and the in- 
 dispensable Jack Payne; and that Master Barry, Lord Barrymore's 
 hopeful brother, with some Eton lads, had been called into council 
 at Carlton House. The Duke of Portland and the more respectable 
 Whigs might have learned the significant lesson that there was 
 nothing in common between them and the other wing; and 
 that. Fox absent or Pox dead, there was to be no sympathy for 
 them in the Prince's mind and no place in his councils. This also 
 should be borne in mind when the question of " the treatment of 
 the Whigs " comes to be considered. 
 
 We must now turn our eyes to the opposite camp, where there 
 was hardly less anxiety. The leader himself did not at once take 
 up this later attitude of adherence to his afflicted king, but seems 
 to have been willing to take service with the new administration. 
 For nearly a fortnight he attempted, in his numerous visits to 
 Windsor, to discover what the Prince's intentions were, and it was 
 only when he found, beyond a doubt, that " we were all to be 
 turned out," that he took up a bolder attitude. 
 
 When the crisis of the King's disorder was past, the un- 
 pleasant truth began to dawn on the party that they would be all 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 127 
 
 dismissed. We find Mr. Grenville ruefully olDserving ttat there 
 was ''no knowledge of the Prince's intentions, as no overture^ 
 either direct or indirect, had been made to Pitt." This, with 
 the eagerness with which Sheridan was consulted on all occasions,, 
 was " an index of what was to be expected." Under this view, 
 it is amusing to find how the whole plan of hostile restrictions is 
 developed. They would enforce that there should be a ruler, 
 or " guardian," but he was to exercise authority " in the King's 
 name." It was determined that there should be a Regent, but he 
 was to be invested with only a portion of the royal prerogatives, 
 to be checked by a Council, and not to have the power of 
 dissolving Parliament. They were surely bound, thought 
 Mr. Grenville, by every tie of gratitude and honour, and, indeed, 
 as pubhc men, to preserve all his rights for the afflicted King. 
 This system of offence was only resolved upon when it was found 
 that after nearly ten days the Prince persisted in his reserve. The 
 Prime Minister had now therefore decided on his course of action. 
 There were many encouraging circumstances. On a visit which 
 he himself had paid to Windsor on the 14th, he found that even 
 Eeynolds and Baker had begun to talk with some hope of the 
 King's recovery. There was a general impression, indeed, that 
 the royal patient was getting better, and the friends of the 
 administration were giving this out industriously. The opinion 
 of Hunter, the great surgeon, that " recovery was certain," was 
 also circulated. The flattering offer from the City merchants of 
 a large present of money, with addresses that the present 
 Government might be continued, were satisfactory proofs of the 
 feeling of the country, though Lord Sheffield heard that this 
 element of support was to be " artfully worked up by the 
 Government into a sort of agitation." Arrived at this con- 
 clusion, Pitt now developed his plan, which was conceived in a 
 spirit of just but stem hostility. The Prince was not to look for 
 the slightest indulgence, but was to be dealt with as the chief of 
 a faction. There can be little doubt that the idea of a controlling 
 council was intended, which would have made the Prince's 
 position much about what a Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland is now» 
 This could not have been a secret, as Mr. Jesse thinks, for it was 
 known to his party, as well as to the Opposition. Mr. Storer 
 heard that it was intended to saddle the Prince with a council^ 
 while the Duke of Eichmond was quoted for a plan of the same 
 kind. Even a jest was in circulation, that it was resolved to 
 put the strait-waistcoat on the Prince of Wales instead of on 
 the King. 
 
 When this became known, and it was felt it would be carried 
 out, the plotters and intriguers about the Prince had the incredible 
 
128 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 folly to enter upon a new course, as stupid as it was unconsti- 
 tutional. They deluded themselves that a sort of co2ip d'etat 
 might be attempted without difficulty. They had but to declare 
 the " divine right " of the Prince to take on him the government, 
 unconscious that there was a great question involved : though 
 Payne allowed that some " form ■" might be tolerated on the side of 
 Parliament, in asking the Prince to take on him the government. 
 From this dream they were destined to be rudely awakened. 
 This original blunder vitiated all their plans and destroyed the 
 game. 
 
 More surprising was it that the vigorous Loughborough 
 should have been daring enough to suggest that the Prince 
 should declare his right to rule the kingdom, and put aside, as 
 an affront to his dignity, the interference of Parliament. On the 
 first symptoms of the King's recovery he had prepared the 
 plan. A pencilled note, found among his papers, sets out the 
 details of the scheme. The Privy Council was to be summoned 
 to whom the Prince was to announce it formally, notice was 
 previously to be sent to trusted friends or conspirators, and a 
 proclamation was to be then issued summoning Parliament. That 
 Lord Loughborough had written a letter containing such advice 
 later became known to Pitt. There have been, of course, many 
 supporters of this divine-right theory, which, to the majority of 
 minds, would have been expected to have been a high Tory 
 doctrine ; but this shows how pliant is political conscience, ac- 
 cording to times and persons. This gives an idea of the strange, 
 agitated, and desperate tone of the politics of the times, which v/as 
 verging near to the modern French system. Lord Campbell 
 learned, he does not say from whom, that this programme was 
 read by the Chief Justice himself to the Prince at Windsor, or, 
 more probably, in his secret council at Bagshot : 
 
 " Upon the supposition of a state of disorder without prospect 
 of recovery or of a speedy extinction, the principle of the P.'s 
 conduct is perfectly clear. The administration of government 
 devolves to him of right. He is bound by every duty to assume 
 it, and his character would be lessened in the public estimation 
 if he took it on any other ground but right, or on any sort of 
 compromise. The authority of Parliament as the great council 
 of the nation, would be interposed, not to confer but to declare 
 the right. The mode of proceeding which occurs to my mind is, 
 that in a very short time H.R.H. should signify his intention to 
 act by directing a meeting of the Privy Council, where he should 
 declare his intention to take upon himself the care of the State, 
 and should at the same time signify his desire to have the advice 
 of Parliament^ and order it by a proclamation to meet early for 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 129 
 
 despatch of business. That done, lie should direct the several 
 ministers to attend him with the public business of their offices. 
 
 " It is of vast importance in the outset that he should appear 
 to act entirely of himself, and in the conferences he must 
 necessarily have, not to consult, but to listen and direct. 
 
 " Though the measure of assembling the Council should not 
 be consulted upon, but decided in his own breast, it ought to be 
 communicated to a few persons who may be trusted, a short time 
 before it takes place ; and it will deserve consideration whether it 
 might or not be expedient very speedily after this measure, in 
 order to mark distinctly the assumption of government, to direct 
 such persons — at least in one or two instances — to be added to 
 what is called the Cabinet, as he thinks proper. By marking a 
 determination to act of himself, and by cautiously avoiding to 
 raise strong fear or strong hope, but keeping men's minds in 
 expectation of what may arise out of his reserve, and in a per- 
 suasion of his general candour, he will find all men equally 
 observant of him." 
 
 This memorandum is unsigned, but in the Chief Justice's 
 handwriting ; and, taking what occurred as evidence for commit- 
 ting the Chief Justice to the Tower, might have been sufficient. 
 It was characteristic of the bold Scot, who flung off his gown in 
 open court, in presence of the astonished judges, and took his way 
 to London penniless. 
 
 The self-sufficient Payne airily dismissed the notion of there 
 being any difficulty in the way. He now wrote to Sheridan quite 
 elated : " I can only add," he says, in conclusion, " I have none 
 of the apprehensions contained in Lord L.'s letter. I have had 
 correspondence enough myself on this subject to convince me of 
 the impossibility of the ministry managing the pi-esent Parliament 
 by any contrivance hostile to the Prince. Dinner is on the 
 table." A few days before he had written sagaciously that if 
 " Pitt stirs much, I think any attempt to grasp at power might 
 be fatal to his interests — at least, will turn against it." This was 
 indeed a shallow forecast. 
 
 It was at this time that party spirit began openly to divide the 
 battalion of doctors who were in charge of the King, and which 
 was already ranged as the King's or Prince's men. Already 
 Warren was considered by Jack Payne and his friends as "the 
 living principle in this business," while " poor Baker," because 
 he was more sanguine as to the King's recovery, was held to be 
 " half-crazed himself." On the other hand the Tory view was that 
 " nothing could exceed Warren's indiscretion in giving out that 
 the disorder was incurable." No less than seven or eight physi- 
 cians were called in to take charge of the unfortunate monarch. 
 
 VOL. 1, K 
 
130 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE TV. 
 
 They were Dr. Warren, Sir Lucas Pepys, Sir George Baker, 
 Addington, Heberden, and finally the two Willises. Warren 
 ■was a fashionable doctor, remarkable for "the amenity of his 
 manners, and the cheerful tone of his conversation." He had 
 •cured Lord North of a dangerous illness, and the minister, full of 
 gratitude, had offered to make him a baronet. This, however, he 
 had declined, but requested instead a bishopric for his brother, 
 "which was given. The Prince was very partial to his society, 
 and it was not unnatural that his protege should have little hopes 
 •of the King's recovery. 
 
 Baker seemed to have been a person of feeble cast, and was 
 presently dismissed with some disgrace. Addington had, oddly 
 enough, a clergyman's experience in the treatment of lunacy, 
 and was more remarkable as having supplied the nickname of 
 " The Doctor " for his son, the future Prime Minister.* Pepys 
 was another of the fashionable physicians ; while Heberden will 
 ever be remembered as the affectionate friend and adviser of the 
 revered Johnson. The discord and partiality of this .<931sculapian 
 band became a scandal. Their ignorance of mental disease was 
 profound, and partisanship supplied the deficiency. The strug- 
 gle, however, was soon confined to the two who had most ability 
 — Warren and Willis. By-and-by the daily bulletin came to be 
 considered as a mere form, the public having found out that the 
 •opposing doctors could not or would not agree, except in some 
 colourless report; and the only ofiioial news that was relied on 
 came by the back-stairs, or private letters from the Court. 
 
 * The more immediate occasion of this sobriquet was the m.inister's 
 liaving suggested " a pillow of hops " to the King as a remedy for sleep- 
 lessness. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1788. 
 
 The meeting of Parliament was fixed for November 20tli, and botli 
 ministers and Opposition had issued the most pressing letters, 
 desiring the attendance of their friends. The roads were crowded 
 with members, hurrying from all parts of the kingdom, desirous 
 of witnessing what Sir N. Wraxall calls " so new and so inte- 
 resting a situation of affairs." The same diligent observer had 
 posted from Bath, scenting intrigue from afar, and found 
 London exhibiting a scene of fermentation difficult to conceive 
 or describe. But when the Houses met everyone felt that the 
 proceedings must be purely formal. Neither party were ready 
 for battle, and the Opposition were without a leader. Pitt, after 
 alluding in terms of becoming concern to the King's malady — a 
 malady that prevented his servants from approaching his person 
 or communicating with him, simply moved that they should 
 adjourn for a fortnight. 
 
 But a new performer was now to enter on the scene, and 
 displace the fussy persons whL< were confusing the situation ; and 
 a more capable mind was to take the command. Fox, it was 
 believed and hoped, was fast hurrying to England. Messenger 
 after messenger, it was said, had been despatched by the Prince 
 in pursuit of him, though no one could tell precisely where he 
 was to be found. The task, however, had been entrusted to one 
 resolute and persevering messenger, who had followed in his 
 track like a hound, now losing, now picking'up the trail. Not a 
 moment had been lost in sending him away. He had been de- 
 spatched on the sixth day after the distressing scene at dinner when 
 the King's malady first broke out. He was detained, however, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB lY, 
 
 at Dover by contrary winds till the Sth. Without losing an hour 
 he traced Fox to Geneva, where he was for a time uncertain what 
 route " the chase " had taken, and finally came up with him at 
 Bologna, covering the long journey from Paris in a week. Fox, 
 who was attended by the notorious Mrs. Armistead, had laid out 
 for himself a delightful Italian tour, and, turning with disgust 
 from politics, had purposely left no traces of his progress. He 
 wished, as his friend Elliot said, to be lost. Though he had 
 been absent since August, he never looked at a newspaper save 
 once, and that from curiosity to see what had won a race at New- 
 market. Since September he had not received a letter from 
 England, and knew nothing of what was going on. No doubt h© 
 assumed that the prospects of his party were hopeless, and that 
 the record of perpetual defeat must be uninteresting. One day, 
 at Bologna, he heard from a stray traveller that a messenger 
 had been searching for him at Geneva ; and Fox, having heard 
 from another tourist that Lord Holland was very ill, naturally 
 concluded that news of his father's death was on its way to 
 him. When the messenger at last reached him, his affectionate 
 anxiety was so relieved that he fell upon a sofa and burst into 
 tears. He started at once, and the trusty messenger, still un- 
 wearied after his long journey, set off the same day on his return, 
 ordering horses in advance all along the road for the greater 
 traveller following, who hurried on, travelling night and day. 
 On Mont Oenis, his carriage crossed that of Pulteney, father of 
 the great heiress of the day, and to whom he communicated the 
 news. At Lyons, he found letters still more pressing, with the 
 additional news of the King's total loss of reason ; then, for greater 
 speed, he quitted his companion and proceeded alone, taking one 
 of the ordinary post-carriages instead of his own well-appointed 
 chariot. 
 
 Finally, he drove up to Thomas's Hotel, in Berkeley Square, 
 which still flourishes, arriving on the morning of Monday, 
 November 24th, having been just nine days on the road. This 
 was considered an amazing feat ; and such it certainly was, 
 under the conditions of travel in those times. But the immense 
 exertion, and the rudeness of the chaise for which he had ex- 
 changed his own, told on his bulky person accustomed to ease, 
 and when he was set down in London he was already an altered 
 man. 
 
 This might be considered like the presence of Napoleon 
 with an army. He was only just in time. His coming made an 
 important change in the conduct of affairs. Almost as soon as he 
 arrived he wrote to Loughborough, begging him to come to him 
 
THE LIFE or GEOEGE IV. 133 
 
 to arrange some plan of action j but that he had not seen or 
 heard from the Prince and had no authority.* 
 
 Meanwhile, the negotiations with the Chancellor had pro- 
 ceeded very far. It was contrived that he should have a kind 
 of right of inspection of the King ; which gave him opportunities, 
 as the Prince's party fancied, for arranging with them, but, 
 as he intended it, for judging day by day whether the King 
 would recover. They had determined that " no active courtship 
 was to be practised/' 
 
 Lord Loughborough — ^who had himself set his mind on the 
 chancellorship — was pressed to resign his pretensions, the Prince 
 saying lightly: "Well, if the Chancellor chooses to remain 
 where he is, Lord Loughborough can have the privy seal of the 
 President of the Council for the present, and settle the other 
 arrangement afterwards, if it is more to his mind." We shall see 
 that this partiahty was a whim of the Prince's, which his followers 
 too obsequiously favoured. Sir William Young writes that " this 
 wonderful attachment to Thurlow" was the matter of public 
 remark ; and Sir Gilbert Elliot suggested that the liking was for 
 ''the sake of his table qualities," and that he had been "nego- 
 tiating, and intriguing, and canvassing him incessantly, with 
 little discretion ; and, in spite of many disappointments and 
 breaches of engagements, still persisted in sending for him." 
 With this courtship — not from members of the party, but from 
 the future king — it was difficult for such a character to take a 
 firm part, and he is, therefore, entitled to some iadulgence. We 
 shall presently see how and what he finally determined. 
 
 There can be no doubt, too, that the Chancellor had announced 
 to the Prince that, in any case, his views as to his (the Prince's) 
 rights were opposed to Pitt's. And this should be kept in 
 mind during the curious and much-debated intrigue which is to 
 follow. 
 
 The Prince was all this time imprisoned at Windsor, and 
 obliged for decency's sake to forego his usual round of pleasures. 
 It was noted that he fretted against this confinement, which had 
 now lasted nearly a month. Occasionally he made his escape to 
 Bagshot or to Carlton House, and when the King had been 
 removed to Kew, on November 29th, he found himself within 
 half-an-hour's drive from the capital and the favourite scene of 
 his enjoyments. Stories were circulated of the want of feeling 
 and rashness displayed by the two brothers, but as these were 
 industriously spread by those of the opposing faction, and 
 
 * Lord Campbell is surely mistaken in declaring that Fox offered him 
 the chanceUorship, and that Loughborough " clutched at the seal." 
 
184 THE LIFE OF GEOEaE IV. 
 
 who were virtually his enemies, they may be assumed to be much 
 exaggerated. One charge dwelt on with horror was that he had 
 introduced Lord Lothian into the King's darkened room in order 
 that he might hear his ravings, a proceeding not perhaps to be 
 justified on the score of good taste, but intelligible when it is 
 considered that it was insinuated that the Prince was making out 
 the King's condition worse than it really was. The nature of 
 the struggle between the two contending factions made all 
 delicacy impossible. His situation was the most awkward con- 
 ceivable : credited with the worst motives by his mother and his 
 sisters, watched with jealousy, looked on as an intruder and as 
 his father's worst enemy, he was driven, as it were, into a hostile 
 attitude. Mr. Jesse deals severely with the behaviour of the two 
 princes, but with a certain exaggeration. For the instances 
 of unfeeling conduct are presented as occurring during the 
 horrors of the first stage of the King's seizure, whereas they 
 really belong to a period many weeks later, when the worst was 
 over and his recovery certain. On the other hand, men of his 
 own party represent his conduct during the crisis as having been 
 all that was correct. " It was universally agreed," Storer wrote, 
 "^that he had conducted himself with great propriety." Lord 
 Sheffield declared that he gained great credit by his conduct at 
 Windsor. " It is agreed on all sides," wrote Storer a fortnight 
 after his first letter, " that the Prince has acted with the greatest 
 attention to the King, and in all respects with the greatest 
 propriety," while Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote to his wife that both 
 the Prince and his brother had conducted themselves "in an 
 exemplary way." Making due allowance for their partialities, 
 this testimony may be fairly accepted, especially as there is 
 nothing to set against it on the other side. 
 
 But now Pox had assumed the command, and a larger and 
 less frivolous view of the situation was to be taken. He saw the 
 Prince on the Wednesday, and suggested that the regular leaders 
 of the party should be, as was only fitting, called into council. 
 The Prince had quarrelled with Pox's devoted friend the Duke 
 of Portland, and during the present crisis had had no com- 
 munication with him. This advice had the best effect. In con- 
 sequence, the Prince gave Fox a message for the duke. Taking 
 him by the hand he said : " Pray shake the Duke of Portland by 
 the hand for me, and tell him that I hope everything that is past 
 may be forgot between us ; and, as a proof that I retain no 
 impression from it, assure him that as soon as I come to town, 
 which will be in a day or two, I shall come to Burlington House, 
 and I do not desire that my going there should be kept private.'^ 
 " This looks more like heart, and is done more like a gentleman 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE FV. 135 
 
 than one looks for from any other prince we have known in 
 England," said Elliot. The duke was properly touched, and with 
 the help of Windham and Sir G. Elliot wrote a reply. When 
 they metj the Prince greeted him warmly and emhraced him, 
 begging that every unpleasant circumstance that had passed 
 between them might be buried in oblivion, and assuring him 
 that he should be happy to receive his aid and counsels. The 
 Prince then begged to have the advice of the party who were in 
 the Cabinet in 1783. 
 
 Fox seems to have entered reluctantly into the plan for 
 gaining the Chancellor, who had been allowed access to the King- 
 in the hope that the spectacle would have due effect. Captain 
 Payne was to set off for town immediately after to report the- 
 result to Sheridan and Fox at the latter's house. One of the 
 physicians was despatched to Pitt with the view of announcing- 
 a welcome relapse, and with the rather spiteful purpose o£ 
 letting him know that the Eling had been letting out some state 
 secrets, and brought word that the minister was much taken 
 aback. These small intriguers did not know that this news 
 had only confirmed Pitt in his plans, for that night at White-'s it 
 was remarked that he was in the highest spirits. The attempt 
 on the Chancellor does not seem to have been very successful. 
 Lord Bulkeley, an enthusiastic Tory, wrote that very day that he 
 had " heard for certain that he was now firm as a rook.^^ 
 
 On the Wednesday night, or rather during the small hours 
 of Thursday morning, a messenger came to Pittas house with 
 summonses for a Cabinet meeting at Windsor in the afternoon. 
 The servant who opened the door, after inquiring as to the reason 
 of this unreasonable visit, asked if he had found the Chancellor, 
 and was answered " Yes,'^ and that " Mr. Pox was with him.'^ This 
 seems to have been the first time that Pitt had any direct evi- 
 dence of the intrigue that was going on ; and that the chief of 
 the hostile force should be closeted at midnight with his Chan- 
 cellor had certainly a suspicious air. But however suspicious 
 the transaction may have appeared, the truth was Fox had as yet 
 made him no offers. 
 
 The Duke of Leeds — then Lord Carmarthen, and one of the 
 ministry — describes a curious message to the Cabinet from the 
 Prince, delivered on this very day. Written in his own hand, 
 it set out that "not choosing to act upon his own authority, 
 he had thought it necessary to convene the King's confidential 
 servants, that they might learn his state and see whether it was 
 necessary to remove him to Kew." There was something here to 
 excite grave suspicion. " The manner in which we were convened 
 and the style of the paper rendered it necessary for us to proceed 
 
136 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 witli caution in framing our answer, especially in the use of tlie 
 word ' authority.' " 
 
 The answer was accordingly framed so as to offer no recog- 
 nition of what appeared to be thus claimed ; and they announced 
 that they were ready to see his Majesty, in consequence of an 
 intimation made to them that it was " the pleasure of the Prince 
 and the royal family." 
 
 On the next day the ministers proceeded to Windsor. The 
 object of this visit was to decide on the removal of the patient to 
 KeWj a place more suitable for his proper treatment, as being 
 more private. This matter being settled, it was proposed to 
 exhibit the poor King not to the Chancellor merely but to the 
 Prime Minister. Unfortunately for Captain Payne, he was not in 
 so favourable a state for this purpose as he had been two days 
 before. The Chancellor shed big tears at the affecting spectacle, 
 which were duly ridiculed. The sight might indeed have had 
 some effect in securing his wavering allegiance. It was indeed 
 piteous enough. The colder Pitt owned that the King was 
 deranged, but that his conversation was surprisingly coherent. 
 In concert with the Queen he had brought down Dr. Addington. 
 The Prince declined to see the ministers then, contenting him- 
 self with a written message by the Duke of York, couched in 
 "rather royal style," and which was replied to with a cautiously- 
 drawn paper which did not admit his authority, and at the same 
 time did not proffer any advice. He had a positive dislike to 
 Mr. Pitt, whose respectful hostility had met him at every turn. 
 He was determined, as Sir G. Elliot wrote to his wife, "to 
 have nothing to do with him, since he had insulted him when- 
 ever he could, and was arrogant to him both in manner and 
 conduct." 
 
 The imperious minister, before he left the Castle, was to have 
 his suspicions once more confirmed as to the fidelity of Thurlow 
 in the most curious way. As the council broke up, their hats 
 were brought to the ministers ; but the Chancellor's alone could 
 not be found. He was in some confusion at this loss, when — 
 Lord Stanhope heard Mr. W. Grenville tell the story — a servant 
 came running with the missing article, saying that he had found 
 it in the Prince of Wales's room. The awkwardness of this 
 discovery, and the significant glances of the party, may be 
 conceived.* 
 
 * Mr. Moore makes an odd jumble of this story, representing Thur- 
 low as coming to the Council with the Prince's hat instead of his own. 
 Another version of this story is told by Mr. Wilberforce, which gives 
 Lord Camden the credit of the detection. He was pressing the Chancellor 
 to return to London with him, when the latter made the excuse that he 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 137 
 
 Still, lie was only ^'rattically inclined," to use Lord Bulkeley's 
 odd expression ; and notwithstanding all these interviews and 
 soundings, the Prince and his friends did not find him in a 
 sufficiently encouraging mood to make their ofEer. Meantime, the 
 awkward discovery at Windsor had circulated among his party, 
 and looks of suspicion greeted him. Grenville, however, had 
 sagacity enough to guess how matters stood ; he was even indul- 
 gent. " His situation," he writes, " is a singular one. It is 
 unquestionably true that he has seen Pox repeatedly, and certainly 
 the Prince of Wales ; and, of all these conversations, he has never 
 communicated one word to any other member of the Cabinet. 
 Yet I am persuaded that he has made no terms with them as yet." 
 He was afraid, too, that it was from Thurlow that the Prince and 
 his party had gained their knowledge of Pitt's plans; not that 
 the, Chancellor had deliberately revealed them, but they were 
 inevitably to be gathered from the tenor of his conversation. 
 
 Yet in the adoption of these plans he " explicitly agreed with 
 Pitt." His doubtful behaviour had caused deep resentment, and 
 was universally reprobated by those he acted with ; Pitt, indeed, 
 from his regard to the King, dissembled his knowledge of the 
 matter, and suppressed all allusion to the subject. But a 
 Cabinet Council, held on the following Saturday, must have been 
 a mauvais quart d'heure for the " beetle-browed " Chancellor, 
 whom the cold gaze of his chief and the suspicious reserve of his 
 comrades must have disturbed. 
 
 At once, some artfully- designed inquiries were made to test 
 him. Had anyone heard whether Fox had been to Windsor to 
 see the Prince ? Did anyone present know anything of his move- 
 - ments ? But the rough Chancellor was not to be thus put out of 
 countenance, and declined to be " drawn," as it is called, in this 
 indirect fashion. He joined with the rest, and no doubt with 
 truth, in expressing his ignorance on the point. He even 
 asked if anyone knew what was the colour of Pox's chaise. 
 
 Pitt then came direct to the point, and asked if there was 
 anyone among them who desired to unite with the Opposition, 
 and addressed this question personally to the Chancellor. No 
 doubt he also resented being baited in such a style, and answered 
 that that was an abstract question. Pitt retorted that it was a 
 plain one. He desired to know would he join under any circum- 
 stances. To this no answer was given. But, strange to say, Pitt 
 seemed to gather from the ominous silence of the rest that a 
 coalition of some kind with the Opposition would be necessary. 
 
 had to dine with a friend at Windsor. Lord Camden, having his suspicions 
 aroused, made inquiries, and found that the " friend " was the Prince. The 
 Chancellor was certainly unlucky. 
 
138 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 It is Mr. Eose that reports this little scene, and it illustrates 
 curiously the character of the leading actor, and it farours 
 Thurlow. This was on Saturday, the 29th November. 
 
 On the Thursday Parliament was to reassemble, so there was 
 no time to be wasted in further coquetry. One cause of the delay 
 in making a direct offer was certainly the noted objection of Pox, 
 who felt what a doubtful gain there was in such an alliance, and 
 how disloyal it would be to put aside Lord Loughborough. 
 Nothing shows how worthy Eox was of that warm affection 
 which his friends bore to him than his scruples, and even at 
 being obliged to take this course. He had spent the whole 
 week in trying " to discourage the notion," and had actually 
 prevented the Prince saying anything to Thurlow that would 
 commit him. But the pressure was too strong, and on the 
 Saturday he ruefully consented. Not but that Lord Lough- 
 borough suspected what was going on, and a day or two after the 
 visit to Windsor he addressed a solemn warning to Sheridan 
 against the duplicity of the Chancellor. Nothing could exceed 
 the bitterness of this letter. He drew a picture of Thurlow as a 
 false, self-seeking adventurer, who " wanted to make his way by 
 himself," and who had managed hitherto as one very well prac- 
 tised in that game. The plan of letting him see the King 
 periodically, " the inspection,^'' instead of winning him would 
 be artfully turned to purposes of trimming, as he would then have 
 access to the Prince and to the Queen. It was with this view 
 that he actually contrived that the physicians should magnify 
 the King's disorder so as to lead to the proposal of his visits. 
 " In short, I think he will try to find the key of the back-stairs, 
 and with that in his pocket take any situation that preserves his 
 access and enables him to hold a line between different parties." 
 He laughed at the tears shed over the King as hypocritical, and 
 even with a view of touching the Queen. Their own "best 
 friends," particularly men like Lord John Cavendish, were 
 certain to be alienated, and would be reluctant to take any active 
 part, and would shrink from such an ally. Finally, the Chan- 
 cellor's position at that moment virtually gave him the command 
 of the House of Lords. He explained how, but the rest of the 
 sentence beginning " for " is provokingly obHterated by damp. 
 It no doubt showed how his ambiguous attitude held him out as 
 having in some degree the confidence of both Prince and Queen. 
 
 Lord Loughborough must have been disagreeably surprised to 
 receive an almost supplicating letter from Fox, with a direct pro- 
 posal that he should waive all his own claims and make way for 
 Thurlow. Fox said he was literally ashamed to write to him ; but 
 he explained the pressure that was put on him, and in terms of 
 
THE LIFE OF QEOEGE IV. 139 
 
 humiliation owned that the motive that influenced him was that 
 he shrank from the responsibility that would attach to him, should 
 his refusal be found to have endangered the chances of his party. 
 His feelings were revealed more poignantly in a letter which he 
 despatched to Sheridan. " I have swallowed the pill," he said, 
 "and a most bitter one it was." No wonder he found the piU bitter; 
 since, according to Sir G. Elliot, Pox thought worse of him than 
 of any man in the world. With true forecast, he added he was 
 convinced that it would come to nothing, and their offers be 
 rejected. He never felt so uneasy about any other political thing 
 he ever did in his whole life. 
 
 The next point was, who was to make the proposal to Thurlow. 
 Was it to be the Prince himself, Sheridan, or — strange negotiator 
 — Warren, the doctor ? which shows how much the latter was a 
 creature of the Prince's. To this point had the matter reached 
 by Saturday night, November 29th. Fox assumed to Sheridan 
 that Loughborough's answer "of course must be consent," as it 
 proved to be. The latter wrote dryly, that it appeared to him 
 to be a strong indication of weakness. 
 
 But the wily Chancellor was undecided, and contrived to put 
 aside the proposal ; no doubt with the excuse that he had used 
 before, " a pretence of delicacy towards his colleagues." 
 
 The unfortunate King had now been removed to Kew, under 
 charge of the Queen, who had first received a notification or 
 declaration from her son that, in consequence of what had passed 
 at the Privy Council, he was prepared to accept the post of 
 Regent ; but hoped that she would take on herself " the sole and 
 absolute care of the distraught monarch." The former office, he 
 declared, he claimed from his station and age. 
 
 A Council was held at Mr. Pitt's, on Sunday, at noon. Upon 
 its rising, a messenger was despatched to Kew, with a letter to 
 the Queen. At nine o'clock in the evening of the same day 
 the Prince of Wales received a reply from her Majesty, in wbich 
 were "strongly-expressed sentiments of that prudence, good 
 sense, and maternal and conjugal affection by which her Majesty's 
 conduct had ever been distinguished." Her Majesty informed the 
 Prince that she had been applied to, and urged to take a share in 
 the Regency, as the only means of securing to herself a certainty 
 of preserving the care of the King's person. " But," her Majesty 
 added, " she authorised his Royal Highness to declare that she 
 would on no account take any share in the political affairs of this 
 kingdom ; it being her determination to remain at Kew, or wher- 
 ever else his Majesty might be, and to devote herself wholly to 
 him as his friend and companion." His royal highness's answer, 
 which was immediately returned, contained the most dutiful and 
 
140 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 tender professions. It concluded with the assurance thatj "if 
 her Majesty's taking any share in the government of this country 
 could give her any additional care or authority over his royal 
 father's person, he should be the first to propose its being con- 
 ferred; but, her Majesty being the only person upon whom such 
 a trust ought to devolve, she might assure herself that she should 
 be considered as his Majesty's sole guardian, so long as the 
 unhappy malady should continue."* 
 
 Here were there the beginnings of that unseemly struggle 
 between mother and son, when contending interests soon imparted 
 to it the bitterest rancour; for it wiU be seen that it was the 
 interest of one that the King should recover, of the other that he 
 should not. 
 
 Theoretically, the Prince was a spectator of this contest; but 
 in practice he was known and accepted as the leader of one side. 
 The conflict was to be of a desperate kind — letters were written 
 in cipher for fear of their being opened; meetings between 
 natural allies were contrived with mysterious secrecy ; accusations 
 of treachery, disloyalty, and unscrupulousness were to be bandied 
 to and fro. 
 
 No wonder Thurlow's colleagues were mistrustful. Later, 
 when they were arranging the details of the Eegency Bill and 
 talking of the restrictions, the Chancellor showed his discontent. 
 After a Cabinet Council, we learn from the Duke of Leeds' 
 MS., the Chancellor remained behind, and discussed with Lord 
 Carmarthen some suggestions that had been made. " He said 
 the paper would not do either for our own sakes or other people's. 
 He then mentioned the difficulty of restrictions and the foolish 
 one respecting the peerage. He agreed there was no probability 
 of the King's recovery, and that, for the quiet of the country, his 
 death might not be a very unfortunate event." This was signifi- 
 cant enough. Not unnaturally, the Duke of Richmond, writer of 
 the paper they had been discussing, had his suspicions aroused by 
 finding that on that day Fox had been closeted with the Chan- 
 cellor at the House of Lords. " He said he thought it shameful 
 for him to be making his terms with the Opposition at the same 
 time that he was present at all our meetings." 
 
 * These particulars are to be found in Holt, " Life of George IIL" 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1789. 
 
 On Monday, December 4tli, Parliament reassembled. The Chan- 
 cellor had addressed letters of summons to all the Peers, and in 
 the Lower House a call of all the members had been directed. 
 The attendance, therefore, was very large. The appearance of 
 Fox shocked everyone. "His body seemed to be emaciated/' as 
 one of the members present described himj "his countenance 
 sallow and sickly, his eyes swollen, while his stockings hung upon 
 his legs, and he rather dragged himself along than walked up the 
 floor to take his seat.'' The physicians had been examined by 
 the Privy Council the day before, and their report was laid before 
 the House. This was hazy enough, but all inclined to the idea 
 of the King's recovery. Warren alone had declared it im- 
 possible to give any precise opinion on the point, and the pro- 
 priety of putting the question categorically to him was debated 
 more than an hour and a half. 
 
 Nothing, however, could be extracted from him,and he declared 
 that he had no data on which to found an opinion. This was a 
 disagreeable surprise for the Prince and his party, who were said 
 to be furious at an opinion which they found not sufficiently 
 thorough, and so different from what they expected from their 
 creature. On the other hand. Dr. Addington was more sanguine 
 than his brethren, Pitt moved that it should be considered at 
 their next meeting, and also gave notice that he should move for 
 a committee to search for precedents applicable to the present 
 crisis. It was faintly objected by Fox and others that the House 
 itself ought to have an opportunity of examining the physicians. 
 
142 THE LIFE OF GEOEaS IV. 
 
 but the matter was not pressed. In tlie other House much the 
 same proceeding took place. It struck some observers that the 
 Opposition were rather cast down by the result of the day, while 
 some saw in Pitt's proposals a wish to defer the appointment of a 
 regent and make persons outside think it was unnecessary. 
 T'rom this they might gain their first hint of the inflexible mood in 
 which the minister was to encounter them. The following day 
 he himself brought to Kew an aged clergyman who was Rector 
 of Wapping, and who, from a strange fancy, kept a madhouse, 
 which he conducted with extraordinary success. No one sus- 
 pected at the time that to the introduction of this sagacious 
 practitioner the King was to owe his rapid recovery. For with 
 him he brought confidence and a cheerful hope, whUe his sensible 
 treatment began almost at once to exhibit results. 
 
 On the 10th, when the House met again, Mr. Pitt moved, " That 
 a committee be appointed to examine and report precedents," a 
 motion which was strenuously opposed by Mr. Pox, who con- 
 tended that it was the duty of Parliament to lose no time in 
 proceeding to provide some measure for the exigency of the 
 present moment. What, he asked, were they going to search 
 for ? Not precedents upon their journals, not parliamentary pre- 
 cedents, but precedents in the history of England. There existed 
 no precedents whatever that could bear upon the present case. 
 There was then a person in the kingdom diSering from any other 
 person that any existing precedents could refer to — an heir- 
 apparent, of full age and capacity to exercise the regal power. 
 He declared that he had not in his mind a doubt that in the 
 present condition of his Majesty, his Royal Highness the Prince 
 of Wales had as clear, as express a right to exercise the power of 
 sovereignty during the continuance of the incapacity with which 
 it had pleased Grod to afElict the King, as in the event of his 
 Majesty's having undergone a natural demise ! 
 
 The moment the fatal words as to the Prince's "right" 
 escaped Pox, Pitt was said to have struck his thigh, saying 
 triumphantly, " I'll unwhig the gentleman for .the rest of his 
 life." There was an inconsistency almost ludicrous in such a 
 claim coming from Pox, which was indeed appropriate in 
 some old Tory. Starting to his feet the instant Pox sat down, 
 and with eyes flashing, he declared that the doctrine they had 
 just heard was little short of being treasonable to the Constitu- 
 tion. He scornfully added, the truth was that the Prince had no 
 more right than any individual in the community. He was pre- 
 pared to admit that the Prince had a claim which was of course 
 entitled to the greatest respect. Then this master of resource 
 proceeded to turn the opening to account, artfully declaring that 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 143 
 
 now or never a question tad arisen wticli must "be settled. The 
 great privileges, "our own rights," had been questioned by one of 
 themselves. And with a haughty confidence he pledged himseK 
 to show that the view he had laid down was supported by every 
 precedent. Fox might have gathered from the enthusiastic 
 cheers which greeted Pitt that he had made a monstrous blunder, 
 though a claque, formed of the young followers of his party, and 
 who "took the time" from Fitzpatrick, may have encouraged 
 him. Stung by the clever turn Pitt had given to his mistake, he 
 again defiantly reiterated his statement. He declared that the 
 Prince's right could not be more clear even in the case of the 
 King's death. He defied Pitt, " acute as he was," to prove that 
 the Houses had such a power as he claimed. 
 
 But everyone must have been amazed at Burke, who now 
 leaped to his feet, and with a bitterness and incoherent fury, fell 
 upon the minister. He seemed to have lost all self-control. In a 
 fury himself, he accused Pitt of " bursting into a flame," and of 
 trying to intimidate them. Where was the boasted freedom of 
 debate, he asked, if they were to be charged with treason " by one 
 of the Prince's competitors ? " Instantly he was interrupted by 
 vociferous cries of " Order ! " from the excited Treasury bench. 
 This only inflamed him the more, and he declared that he repeated 
 the phrase and would justify it. But the scene that took place in 
 the House of Lords on the next day was more exciting still, when 
 Lord Camden branded Fox's doctrine as new to him, uncon- 
 stitutional, and extraordinary. Which brought forward Lord 
 Loughborough, who, thus challenged, " in a manly style," says 
 Wraxall, justified the doctrine and avowed it to be his own. 
 Then, assuming the offensive, he assailed Pitt for his doctrine, 
 which, he declared, made the regency elective, which was a thing 
 far more alarming. The Parliament, he said, might set up a 
 pageant of a regent, while they assailed his sovereignty ; for, of 
 course, the elected must be the slave of the electors. 
 
 Then he showed how, as regards treason and its penalties, the 
 law assumed the Prince to be on the same footing as the King. 
 To his ingenious argument the Chancellor came forward to reply, 
 amid much curiosity and speculation. It was noticed that he 
 was " very sour and crusty," but nothing could be more skilful 
 than the few words he uttered. He affected keenly to discuss 
 the point of law opened by Lord Loughborough, which he declared 
 was new to him, though, at the same time, he was willing to be 
 enlightened and receive all the information on so delicate a topic 
 that could assist him. He then passed a high eulogium on the 
 Prince, whose virtues and merits he praised Lord Loughborough 
 for not introducing as a support for his arguments, and "who 
 
144 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE lY. 
 
 slould always have His applause wlien its expression could not b© 
 an act of impertinence." 
 
 This was thought by Pitt's friends almost decisive that 
 "he had opened enough of his sentiments to show that he 
 meant to stand by his colleagues." It struck Lord Bulkeley 
 as being " one of the finest speeches he ever heard," and it 
 was greeted with merry " Hear, hears," a testimonial of adhesion 
 " not very frequent in the House of Lords." This beginning of 
 steadiness was thought to be owing to the positive opinion as to 
 the King's state given by Willis, the new doctor, and also to 
 some pressure exerted by Lords Weymouth and Stafford. 
 
 Lord Campbell and others have alluded to Pitt's threat of 
 sending Lord Loughborough to the Tower, as reported by the 
 Duke of Leeds. But it seems to have been scarcely seriously 
 intended, for the duke, who heard him, writes in his MS. : "Mr.Pitt 
 said if Lord Loughborough again brought forward his doctrine 
 of devolution, his words should be taken down by the clerk, and 
 if they are not satisfactorily explained, he should be sent to the 
 Tower. . . . He then said that though, seriously speaking, it 
 might not be necessary to proceed to so violent a measure, yet 
 it must be directly met by a resolution." The rumours, how- 
 ever, of passion and prejudice that filled the air were incon- 
 ceivable. It was urged that the restrictions on the Prince, 
 according to his followers, were an artful device of Pitt's to 
 make him refuse, when a " committee of Regency " would be 
 appointed, of which the minister would be chief, reigning " as 
 King William IV." Burke lashed him as " a competitor for the 
 Regency." When Pitt replied to such attacks it was noticed 
 that "he spoke in a damned passion," The general opinion 
 was that nothing could be more adroit and masterly than his 
 treatment of the whole matter; yet a heated partisan. Lord 
 Sheffield, when everyone was talking of Fox's and Sheridan's 
 blunders, could only see that Pitt was playing the game without 
 temper or judgment, and his " mountebank speeches suit the 
 nonsense of many." 
 
 Mr. Rose was listening to Pox's speech, and some words 
 which the latter dropped to those near him showed that he 
 felt alarmed at the effect of his declaration, and meant to 
 explain them away. This he attempted to do on the 12th 
 by declaring that the Prince had a claim — and the only 
 one that had a claim — to the Regency, which, however, it 
 rested with the House to declare and admit. Pitt, however, 
 with an almost malicious logic, declared, while admitting 
 the explanation, that as the point of right had been raised 
 it must be settled before they went a step farther, and 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 14.5 
 
 that it was his duty to have it decided that it belonged to the 
 Parliament alone to confer such powers. He affected, however, 
 to make a concession, that the Prince was the most proper 
 and suitable person, and that it was according to the spirit 
 of the Constitution that, subject to certain guards, he should 
 be a Regent, or, as he put it, " whatever portion of the royal 
 power " it might be necessary to invest him with. In reply to a 
 question of Fox's, he even declared that the Prince should not 
 be fettered with a Council, and should be free to choose his own 
 political servants, but that anything likely to embarrass the 
 King's lawful authority on his recovery should be withheld. 
 
 This notification was a relief, as it disposed of the rumours of 
 the Council of Eegency, " King William the Fourth," and the 
 like ; but the question of right was held to be an artful pretext 
 for creating delay. In vain Fox protested ; when the indiscreet 
 Sheridan — carried away by his warmth, and panting for place — 
 warned the ministers against the danger of forcing the Prince 
 to assert his right ! No wonder Mr. W. Grenville declared that 
 he " had never known a man of the meanest talents guilty of such 
 a blunder." And the uproar which he excited exceeded anything 
 that members could recollect. 
 
 Once more the masterful minister had only to turn the oppor- 
 tunity to his advantage, and declare that now — after " so inde- 
 cent a menace " — he must see to maintaining the rights of the 
 House ; and, speaking with great spirit and emphasis, that " the 
 House would do its duty, in spite of any threat, however high 
 the quarter from which it might come.'' 
 
 This heated language shows the pass to which matters had 
 come. The Prince was alarmed and angry, and instantly 
 addressed a letter to the Chancellor, complaining of the disrespect 
 with which he was treated, in this plan being ready to be brought 
 forward without any communication being made to him ; and 
 also bitterly inveighed against the whole behaviour of Pitt 
 towards him personally, since the illness of the King began. 
 This was answered by the minister in his haughtiest style, and 
 he took care to show how he resented the manner in which he 
 had been treated by the Prince. 
 
 The answer received was as follows. Pitt wrote, on Monday, 
 December 15th, that he had the unhappiness to perceive that 
 his general conduct, and what he had said in the House of 
 Commons, had been represented in a light which neither of them 
 deserved. " I have certainly felt myseK bound rather to wait 
 the commands of your Royal Highness, than to intrude on your 
 Royal Highness's time, without having received a previous intima- 
 tion of your pleasure ; at the same time, your Royal Highness will 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 permit me to recall to your recollection, tliat I more tlian once 
 had an opportunity humbly to express my readiness at all times 
 to attend your Eoyal Highness; and have several times, at 
 Windsor, had the honour to inquire whether your Royal Highness 
 had any orders for me, and have received for answer that you 
 had not." He then explained that he had not announced 
 the plan as reported, the details of which he now unfolded. 
 
 To Pitt's communication no reply was sent, so it may be 
 conceived how inflamed was the hostility between the two. But 
 on the same day the Prince had despatched the Dake of York to 
 the House of Lords to disclaim on his part any such intention 
 as had been imputed. After soliciting the indulgence of his 
 hearers, as being unaccustomed to public speaking, he said, " that 
 no claim of right had been made 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 Brunswick 
 on the throne of Great Britain, ever to assume or exercise any 
 power, be his claim what it might, not derived from the will of 
 the people, expressed by their representatives, and their Lord- 
 ships in parliament assembled." This address on the part of the 
 young Prince found much favour, both for its matter as well as 
 for the manner in which it was delivered. But the appeal was 
 ineffectual; nor was that of the Duke of Gloucester more suc- 
 cessful. But the point of dramatic interest was reached when 
 the Chancellor rose to speak. The House was crowded, and the 
 leading members of the Lower House were on the steps of the 
 throne. Pitt and his own party, the last to be taken into his 
 confidence, expected to hear him declare his adherence to the 
 Prince. But there was a surprise in store for all. The scene 
 has become historical. He began by dealing a stroke at Pitt, 
 declaring that the question of right — like all abstract questions 
 of right — was odious and need not be opened. The real object 
 was to preserve the King's rights, " so that when Divine Pro- 
 vidence shall restore him to his people, he may not find himself 
 disabled from exercising his prerogatives." Then alluding to 
 the piteous spectacle of the afflicted monarch he uttered the 
 hypocritical burst so well known : " My debt of gratitude to him 
 is ample for the numerous honours which he has bestowed on 
 
 me, which, whenever I forget, may my God forget me " 
 
 " the rascal ! "* was an exclamation that broke from Pitt as he 
 listened. This bitter comment of Wilkes' has been often quoted: 
 
 * General Manners heard the words, and with natural wonder asked 
 Pitt what was meant by this remark, when the latter gave an account 
 of Thurlow's suspected double-dealing. Wraxall received this account 
 from General Manners himself. — " Posth. Memoirs," iii. 221. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 147 
 
 " Forget you ! He'll see you d d first ! " Nor was Burke's 
 
 less witty or original. " Forget you ! The best thing that can 
 happen you ! " 
 
 This scene is usually considered the consummation of 
 " Thurlow's ti-eachery." He was eager to join the Prince, and 
 had drawn back when he saw that there was little or no chance 
 of the Prince coming to power. But, strange to say, the speech 
 was not considered among the Opposition to be a declaration for 
 the King ; it amounted to no more than a hypocritical burst of 
 sympathy. It is certain that the dramatic point of this declara- 
 tion is lost if we find that it made no alteration in the relation 
 of the parties, and that the offers of the Prince and his advisers 
 were continued for a fortnight more. We find that on Christmas 
 Eve he and Mr. Fox had a conversation, in which he announced 
 that the negotiations must come to an end, and desired that no 
 more should be said to him on the subject till the Regency was 
 settled. He advised that the Prince should now make his 
 arrangements without reference to him. Mr. Pox declared that 
 he was perfectly open and explicit. He talked of the constitu- 
 tional question that was to be debated, and said it was confused 
 and difficalt. Then they passed to general topics — travelling, the 
 classics, and, in short, were in perfect good humour. In this 
 conversation he had left a curious impression on that statesman, 
 who had expected to hear from him an outline of the arguments 
 with which he was to confute those of Pitt and his friends. 
 " But," says Mr. Fox, " I could not collect what would be the 
 course of his arguments. He said it was a confused and difficult 
 case, and I therefore suspect he will answer the arguments of 
 others rather than produce his own. My idea is ho has thought 
 less on the subject than could be supposed."* This was 
 scarcely the bearing of a traitor, but Fox's open nature did 
 not suspect anything. 
 
 The explanation may be that it was directed against Pitt, 
 who, he insinuated, was limiting the King's powers and prero- 
 gatives ; and this is supported by the King's coldness to Pitt 
 when he recovered. In no case could it apply to his continuing 
 as the Prince's Chancellor, such change of service being common 
 enough in those days. 
 
 StiU, we find that the Prince's party equally complained of 
 being tricked. Lord Rawdon, the Prince's familiar, talked of 
 his " coquetting " with them, and that, having taken fright and 
 drawn back a little on some show of amendment in the King, "he 
 received from the Prince of Wales and Duke of York, before Fox, 
 
 * Lord Campbell, " Life of Lord Loughborough," vol. vi. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 so rougt a charge of double-dealing tliat it is impossible lie can 
 close with us."* This was written on February 28th. 
 
 The year after we find Lord Thurlow expressing himself to the 
 Princess of Wales on the manner he had been treated: "It would 
 make a long story to lay before your Eoyal Highness in exact 
 detail the circumstances of the period^ without which it is im- 
 possible to form a judgment, and with which your Royal Highness 
 would be the readiest to discern his futility and folly. The Prince, 
 he believeSj is satisfied that his affairs both then and now would 
 have been in a different situation if he had followed sounder 
 advice."t Notwithstanding this low opinion of the Prince, he was 
 soon to become his friend and adviser. 
 
 * Cornwallis, "Correspondence." f Sir G. Elliot, iii. 24 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1789. 
 
 On the 16th of Decem'ber, the Prime Minister introduced his 
 resolution in a very conTincing speech. He showed that there 
 were precedents ; that the argument of the " civil decease " of the 
 King had no f oundation^ for that then " the Prince would ascend 
 the throne as King, not as Prince ; that when the third branch of 
 the legislature was gone or suspended, there was but one plain 
 remedy to resort to — the organs of the people in both Houses." 
 This seemed a refutation of Fox's truly fanciful argument, that 
 King, Lords, and Commons were necessary for any legislative 
 Act. In fact, his statement of the question they had to settle was 
 so briefly framed that it seemed to carry its answer with it ; viz. 
 " Whether any person had a right title to assume or to claim 
 the exercise of the royal authority during the infirmity or in- 
 capacity of the sovereign ; or whether it was the right of the 
 Lords and Commons of England to provide the deficiency ? " Nor 
 did he fail to repeat publicly the haughty challenge he had sent 
 to the Prince : " I trust that I shall not be represented to the 
 Prince as undutiful or disrespectful to his Royal Highness ; but 
 were I even certain that I should be so represented and considered, 
 I feel that within which prompts me to do what I know to be 
 right ; and I will sacrifice every personal consideration to my zeal 
 and attachment to my sovereign and my duty to the public." 
 
 The three resolutions were : " 1 . That it is the opinion of this 
 committee, that his Majesty is prevented by his present indis- 
 position from coming to his Parliament and from attending to 
 public business, and that the personal exercise of the royal 
 authority is thereby, for the present, interrupted. 2. That it is 
 
150 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 tlie opinion of this committee, that it is the right and duty of the 
 Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons of Great Britain, 
 now assembled, and lawfully, fully, and freely representing all 
 the estates of the people of this realm, to provide the means of 
 supplying the defect of the personal exercise of the royal 
 authority, arising from his Majesty's said indisposition, in such 
 manner as the exigency of the case may appear to require. 
 3. That for this purpose, and for maintaining entire the consti- 
 tutional authority of the King,it is necessary that the said Lords 
 spiritual and temporal and Commons of Great Britain ' should 
 determine on the means whereby the royal assent may be given 
 in Parliament to such bills as may be passed by the two Houses 
 of Parliament, respecting the exercise of the powers and autho- 
 rities of the Crown, in the name and on behalf of the King, during 
 the continuance of his Majesty's present indisposition." 
 
 It was evident that here was opened up a great question, on 
 which many would speak and amendments be moved; so it was not 
 unlikely that there was truth in the charge that he was willing to 
 avail himself of the delay. It, indeed, actually proved to be of 
 inestimable service to his cause ; for the three weeks thus gained 
 to the King, by Fox's and Sheridan's blunder, might have sufficed 
 to place the Eegent in office, and it is probable that the King 
 would not have been "pronounced to have recovered " so speedUy 
 as he would have been when in the hands of his own friends. Nor 
 is it fanciful to deny that the young Prince and his train of 
 impoverished followers would have shown a chivalrous empresse- 
 ment to lay down their offices as soon as the impartial Willis had 
 pronounced that his royal master was restored. 
 
 The first resolution passed. Stung, however, by the disheartening 
 prospect, when they reached the second. Pox made a bitter attack 
 on Pitt. But his speech only showed him to be more indiscreet 
 than he had been before. He spoke of his own relations to the 
 Prince. He accused Pitt of insulting the Prince, " whose favour 
 he was conscious he did not deserve. He was so fond of power 
 that he determined to cripple its exercise for his successors. Why, 
 if his doctrines prevailed, the two Houses might choose for regent 
 a foreigner, a Catholic, and set aside the family of Brunswick ! " 
 At which extravagant and ill-judged supposition, the House 
 showed such impatience that Fox had to explain his illustration 
 away. 
 
 ISTothing could be more crushing than Pitt's reply. Fox had 
 announced himself and his friends to be the successors of the 
 present administration. He did not know upon what authority 
 that declaration was made ; but he thought that the House and 
 the country were obliged to him for this seasonable warning of 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IT. 151 
 
 what they would have to expect. The nation had already had 
 some experience of that right honourable gentleman and his 
 principles. It was well known to be the avowed system of him 
 and his party to endeavour, by the weight and extent of their 
 political influence, to nominate the ministers of the Crown. It 
 could not be denied that they maintained as a fundamental 
 maxim that the ministers ought at all times to be so nominated. 
 It could not but be supposed that by such advisers power would be 
 perverted to a purpose, which it was indeed impossible to imagine 
 that the Prince of Wales could, if he were aware of it, ever endure 
 for a moment. The other side of the House was desponding. 
 "We were shockingly beat," writes Sir Q. Elliot; "two hundred 
 and sixty-eight to two hundred and four." Yet every nerve had 
 been strained. The Prince and his brothers were canvassing 
 openly. To Lord Lonsdale, the head of the great house of Lowther, 
 who directed the votes of half-a-dozen members, the Prince had 
 written, asking his support as a personal favour. This he 
 obtained. In fact, at a meeting at Burlington House, Fox assured 
 his friends that they were certain of victory. Nor was victory so 
 improbable ; for the demoralisation of the situation produced a 
 spirit of political gambling, it being on the cards either that the 
 King would recover or the Prince be established in his place. 
 Either case was fatal for the losers, and this in consequence of 
 the King's own unconstitutional theory that those who opposed 
 the King's ministry were enemies of the King himself, and that 
 those who sought to displace his ministry sought to displace him. 
 To choose one's side was therefore a matter of peril.* 
 
 A discreditable spectacle was the number of distracted 
 waverers and deserters. The list of " rat peers " and "rat 
 members" increased every day; and it was whispered that the 
 most splendid offers and promises were being made. Among 
 these deserters were the Duke of Queensberry, Lords Malmesbury, 
 Lothian, Abergavenny, Cholmondeley, Eglinton, and Rodney, 
 with some baronets. Some of these cases were flagrant. The 
 Duke of Queensberry and Lord Lothian were actively in office about 
 the King. Lord Lothian had been for many years in confldential 
 relations with him. But Lord Malmesbury's behaviour was more 
 extraordinary. He had just been raised to the peerage by the 
 King. The well-known " single-speech Hamilton " was another 
 fleserter, after having " eaten toads " for years at Mr. Pitt's table. 
 
 * The result was shown first in a sort of "cave" or impartial body, who 
 went by the name of "The Armed Neutrality." It bad met at Northumber- 
 land House, and consisted of about thirty members of the House of 
 Commons and some thirty peers. 
 
152 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 Fox was now so ill that the next debate was put off for a day. 
 On the 20th it was resumed, when the second resolution was 
 passed. On the 22nd the third was debated in the most acri- 
 monious style. Pittj fortified by the unanimous support of the 
 country, addresses from the great towns pouring in on him, was 
 determined not to make the slightest concession even to the 
 dignity of the Prince. In vain the Opposition urged that after 
 the Prince was invested with his office it would then be proper to 
 settle the restrictions. Pitt would not trust him. " Who can 
 answer," he exclaimed, " for his not using the royal negative 
 when the limitations are presented to him for assent ? " Until 
 this was done he proposed to supply the absence of the royal 
 assent by a cumbrous mode of empowering the Chancellor to 
 affix the great seal; a fallacy it will be seen, as it was the dele- 
 gated act of the two Houses. It justly acquired the nickname 
 of " the phantom." No wonder, then, that on the 22nd Burke 
 should have attacked this theory, tearing and rending it with aU 
 the powers of his sarcasm and invective. " He was wilder than 
 ever," said an observer, " and laid himself and party open more 
 than ever speaker did. He is Folly personified, but shaking his 
 cap and bells under the laurel of Genius. Among other things, he 
 said that Pitt's proposals could not be adopted by them as 
 gentlemen, as cavaliers." " The words," adds Sir William Young, 
 who was writing these notes, " will not be forgot." " As little 
 acquainted with the interior of Carlton House as of Buckingham 
 House, I profess," adds Burke, " only to deliver my sentiments 
 in a manner becoming a simple citizen. The great seal, it 
 appears, is to be affixed to a commission, robbing the executive 
 power of its due function. A composition of wax and copper is to 
 represent the sovereign. So preposterous a fiction mei'its only 
 contempt and ridicule. I disclaim all allegiance, I renounce all 
 obedience to a king so formed. I worship the gods of our 
 glorious Constitution, but I will not now bow down before 
 Priapus ! " Against the Chancellor, Burke inveighed in the 
 most personal terms. " I approve not," exclaimed he, " of 
 robbery, housebreaking, or any other felony. Yet is each of 
 these crimes less inexcusable than law forgery. If the unfor- 
 tunate monarch, whom we all lament, could know the proposition 
 now agitated, he would no doubt cry out with Macbeth — 
 
 Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, 
 Thence to be wrenoh'd with an unlineal hand, 
 No son of mine succeeding. 
 
 Eestore me," he would add, " to my former state. Let me not 
 behold a black -browed phantom seated on my throne ! " This 
 
THE LIFE OP GEORGE IV. 153 
 
 coarse vein of allusion lie followed up by likening the cliaracter to 
 the god Priapus in the hands of the carpenter Pitt. Then carried 
 away by this madness, as it seemed to the ministerial party, he 
 let out the names of some of those whom his party intended 
 advancing, rewarding such as Lord Fitzwilliam, who was to be 
 Marquis of Eockingham, and Lord George Cavendish. More, it 
 was thought, would have been revealed but for his friends pulling 
 him back, and for the ironical cheers from the ministerial benches. 
 All this brought fresh glory to Pitt, to whom the City 
 of London was now proposing to offer a present of three thou- 
 sand pounds a-year on his quitting office, a thing now considered 
 to be settled. The debate in the Lords, when the resolution 
 reached it, was even more exciting. It was remarkable for 
 Lord Shelburne's (now Lord Lansdowne) brief but admirable 
 summary of the question. The Chancellor strongly supported 
 Lord Lansdowne's arguments,* while he bestowed eulogiums on 
 the Prince. In reply to Lord Loughborough's assertions of the 
 right which his royal highness possessed to exercise the 
 Regency, Thurlow demanded : " What means the term of regent ? 
 Where is it defined ? In what law book, or in what statute ? I 
 have heard of protectors, guardians, and lords justices; but I 
 know not where to look for the office and functions of a regent. 
 To what end then address the Prince to take on him a power the 
 limits of which are not ascertained ? " " No man entertains a 
 higher respect than myself," continued he, " for that illustrious 
 person. I wish as ardently the advancement of his honour and 
 interests as those who affect more attachment to him. But I 
 never will argue that he possesses any inherent right to the 
 regency, or that, as heir-apparent, he can possess such a right. 
 There might even arise Princes of Wales whose conduct would 
 justify the two Houses in setting them aside from the Regency. 
 It becomes, therefore, expedient that we should not abandon the 
 power inherent in us ; nor, under the circumstances in which we 
 are placed, fail to declare it to be our right." When the division 
 took place, only sixty-six peers were found in the minority.f 
 
 * Lord Hawksbury told Mrs. Harcourt that lie had prevailed on the 
 Chancellor to make one of his finest speeches for the cause, probably 
 this one. 
 
 f The Dukes of York and Cumberland voted in the minority ; as 
 the Duke of Gloucester would have likewise done, if he had not been 
 prevented from attending by severe indisposition. All the Lords of the 
 Bedchailiber, with the single exception of the Duke of Queensberry, 
 adhered to Government. Thirteen bishops, including the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, were likewise found on that side; three members of the 
 episcopal bench voting with Opposition. The Scottish peers ranged 
 themselves, six with administration, seven on the other side. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1789. 
 
 The resolution being passed^ and the bill being prepared, founded 
 on tbe principles of the resolution, we will now turn to contem- 
 plate what was going on at Windsor, where the Chancellor was 
 still the central figure. 
 
 " The Prince, having understood that the Chancellor had used 
 some expressions of which he thought he had cause to complain, 
 desired to see his lordship, and generously afforded him an oppor- 
 tunity of vindicating himself, if the rumour were unfounded. The 
 Chancellor assured his Royal Highness that he never had, even in 
 thought, deviated from the profound respect he owed him. He 
 begged to know the full extent of what he had been charged 
 with, in the full confidence of being able to exculpate himself. 
 His lordship proceeded to say that what opinions he had publicly 
 advanced his legal situation compelled ; but that he felt himself 
 strongly devoted to his Royal Highness : and that he might assure 
 himself that he should on no account unite with Mr. Pitt, or 
 enter into any opposition to his Royal Highness's government, 
 when his dismission, which he saw was at hand, should take 
 place. He should, on the contrary, give it every support in his 
 power ; and if, at a future day, his services should be thought of 
 use, he should be happy to offer them. The Chancellor spoke of 
 Mr. Pitt as a haughty, impracticable spirit, with whom it would 
 be impossible for him ever cordially to unite. He added that the 
 whole party was split, divided, and discontented."* 
 
 The family dissensions, too, had reached a scandalous stage, 
 chiefiy owing to the Queen. A hostile system of exclusion was 
 
 * " Particulars " in Holt's " Life of George III." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 155 
 
 adopted, directed by lier. The Prince was not allowed to see the 
 Eang ; or else such difficulties were thrown in the way as made 
 it disagreeable and almost impossible. When he wished to see 
 his mother^ the same obstructive course was pursued. As he 
 fairly argued in his letter of grievances, he " could not force his 
 way in." Up to this time, too^ it had been the practice to send 
 the physicians' report of each day to the Prince — " the only dis- 
 tinction," he sarcastically said, " made between myself and the 
 rest of your Majesty's subjects," and certainly a privilege to 
 which he was entitled. Now express orders were given to the 
 doctors that this was not to be done. 
 
 In the confusion of the removal to Kew, it had been forgotten 
 that the King's papers and jewels had been left open and unpro- 
 tected. The Prince, after consulting with the Chancellor, repaired 
 with Lord Weymouth, the King's friend, and Lord Brudenell, the 
 Keeper of the Privy Purse, to Windsor, and made them, in his 
 presence, collect and seal up all these articles, taking a formal 
 receipt from them. 
 
 When the Queen heard of this reasonable precaution, she fell 
 into a fury. As the Prince describes the scene: " To my extreme 
 astonishment, she condescended, at my next interview, to a 
 species of warmth of reproaches, into which nothing could have 
 surprised or betrayed her Majesty but a degree of passion which 
 I had never witnessed or believed to exist in her Majesty before." 
 Without ascribing the Queen's dislike to him to this cause, he 
 had " soon to lament it, as the first open demonstration of it." 
 This is very significant, and shows the hostility between the hard. 
 German lady and her son. 
 
 " What a fine fellow my brother York is ! " the Prince was 
 heard to say at a supper ; " he never forsakes me." Then, de- 
 scribing the scene of the jewels and his mother's anger, he re- 
 peated his worthy brother's speech to her. " Says York to her, 
 
 * I believe, madam, you are as much deranged as the King ! ' "* 
 " She is playing the devil," wrote Sir Gilbert Elliot to his lady, 
 ''and has, all this time, been at the bottom of the cabals and 
 intrigues against the Prince. It is believed that she was ready 
 to accept the Eegency, if the Prince had been advised to 
 refuse it."t 
 
 This was undoubtedly part of the policy of her faction, and 
 perhaps the object of Mr. Pitt's almost insulting treatment of 
 the Prince. " Mr. Pitt," wrote Mr. Storer, " is so powerful that 
 he can do as he pleases. Had he known his own power at the 
 beginning of this business, perhaps he would never have thought 
 
 * Auckland, " Correspondence," ii. 280. f " Life of Sir G. Elliot," i. 252. 
 
156 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 of the Prince of Wales as Regent ; it being now undoubtedly 
 proved, I think, that he might have conferred the Regency on the 
 Queen. If he has been guilty of any error, it has been in not 
 having foreseen his strength in Parliament.''' 
 
 This envenomed feeling, with the sense that they were looked 
 on by their family and the ministers as enemies, is some justifica- 
 tion for the many outbursts which were set down as " indecent" 
 on the part of the foolish youths. Both talked loudly of their 
 grievances everywhere and in all companies. The following 
 description shows how painfully strained must have been the 
 relations of this happy family.* Through the curious record 
 before alluded tot we are enabled to hear the royal brothers 
 explaining themselves on the situation. 
 
 " At entertainments given by the Duke of York, having for 
 their avowed object the conciliation of members of both Houses, 
 the Prince was present, and expatiated with great eloquence 
 upon "the indignities and injustice he had experienced from the 
 usurpers of those powers of which he conceived he ought to be 
 possessed, as the natural representative of a father unhappily 
 incapable of exercising them, and, to the infinite affliction of his 
 family, not likely to be ever again in a situation to hold the reins 
 of government." He said : " Reports have been circulated that 
 I had frequent interviews with Mr. Pitt. The truth is I saw him 
 but once during my stay at Windsor. In the first days of the 
 King's illness, and before I had recovered from the shock it 
 occasioned me, some person told me that Mr. Pitt and the Duke 
 of Richmond were come. My mind fully occupied by the sad 
 state of things, I hardly heard, and it soon escaped my recollection 
 that they were there. Some time after, Mr. St. Leger entered 
 the room, and told me that the Duke of Richmond and Mr. Pitt 
 had been waiting two hours. I awoke as it were from a trance, 
 and desired that they might instantly be admitted. The duke 
 was most obsequious, bowed incessantly. Mr. Pitt was most 
 stately. He said he should do so-and-so, and looked with unfor- 
 giving haughtiness." He had assured the Queen he should be 
 happy to conform in everything to the wishes of his royal father; 
 and he promised that every indication of his intentions previous 
 to his lamented indisposition should be religiously observed. Her 
 Majesty having then received no unworthy impression, was 
 satisfied and happy in receiving this assurance, and permitted him 
 and the Duke of York to assist in packing up and to put their 
 
 * In the palace, even the royal pages betrayed their master, and no 
 less than four were afterwards dismissed for furnishing the Prince with 
 information. 
 
 t Given in Holt's " Life of George III." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 157 
 
 seals upon the Crown jewels and some valuable movables of the 
 King's, wbicli, together with the Queen's jewels, were conveyed 
 to Kew when the Queen went thither. He had now to lament a 
 sad revolution in her Majesty's opinion, which had been effected 
 by mischievous and designing persons. He had received a letter 
 from her Majesty of her own writing, but not of her own dictating. 
 It charged him with designing to take advantage of the weak 
 state of the King to get possession of his treasures, and to change 
 the whole state of things. 
 
 " Ladies , H , and C were censured by his Eoyal 
 
 Highness as the advisers of this letter. He said he had charged 
 the last mentioned with a knowledge of it, and, if he had not 
 before had a certainty of it, her confusion would have given it. 
 He complained of the personal indignity with which Mr. Pitt had 
 treated him on every occasion. He specified two important 
 instances of most indecorous conduct towards him. The sum- 
 monses to members of the Privy Council to examine the physicians 
 (of which he had received no previous intimation), and the re- 
 strictions upon the power of a regent, had both been sent by 
 common Treasury messengers, and left without ceremony with a 
 porter at Carlton House ! 
 
 " The Prince was not present at the fourth and last entertain- 
 ment. The Duke of York entered upon the interesting detail of 
 the injury done to his brother in withholding his acknowledged 
 rights, and of the imposition practised upon the public by fallacious 
 representations of the King's state. His royal highness said: 
 ' It must be imagined that the subject was a most painful one to 
 him; that only the solicitude he felt to impress a sense of his 
 brother's wrongs, and to warn gentlemen whom there was a 
 design to mislead, could have induced him to enter upon it.' 
 
 " His royal highness spoke concisely but clearly. He declared 
 ' that a string of fallacies had been obtruded upon the public ; 
 gave his royal word that not one of the King's children was 
 permitted to approach him ; ' and lamented that ' the Queen, 
 wrought upon by insidious arts, particularly by the machinations 
 of the Chancellor, seemed resolved to abet the daring attempt to 
 supersede his brother's just pretensions, and to promote the views 
 of those most inimical to him.' " 
 
 His royal highness then mentioned an attempt, on the pre- 
 ceding Thursday, to prevent Sir C. Baker's seeing the King, 
 which was rendered abortive by his steadily refusing to sign the 
 bulletin, if that were not permitted. The Duke said " that endea- 
 vours had also been used, the following day, to prevent Dr. 
 Warren's entering the royal chamber, Willis assuring him that 
 the King was in such a state as promised immediate recovery. 
 
158 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE lY. 
 
 and that his presence would do harm. Warren, upon an acknow- 
 ledgment being extorted that the Queen had seen the King that 
 morning, insisted upon being admitted, as one whose presence 
 was less likely to agitate the royal mind. He found his Majesty 
 sitting quietly, and attentively considering a Court calendar, 
 which he was translating from beginning to end into doggerel 
 Latin. He accosted Warren upon his entrance, 'Eicardensus 
 Warrenensus, baronetensus.' " The Duke said, " Warren had 
 assured him that after a long and minute examination he brought 
 away the melancholy conviction that the mind was only subdued, 
 and that its sanity was in no degree restored." 
 
 On the Duke being asked what was the general state of his 
 Majesty's health, he replied, " he was told that he was deplorably 
 emaciated ; but that that circumstance was as much concealed as 
 possible." His royal highness said, "that the Queen seemed 
 no longer to have confidence in any person but the Chancellor, 
 who, while he was flattering her Majesty with every demonstra- 
 tion of zeal, was paying obsequious court to his brother." He 
 added : " He seems to have learnt a lesson of duplicity from Pitt. 
 The Chancellor," the Duke continued, "seldom fails to receive 
 three or four letters a day from the Queen, and he generally sees 
 her once every day. Till concealments respecting the King began 
 to be practised, and till the Queen suddenly declared her resolution 
 to accept the Regency, if the Prince would not accept it with 
 severe restrictions, my brother and myself omitted not one day 
 paying our duty to her ; but, since these events, our visits have 
 been discontinued." 
 
 The Duke concluded by expressing in strong terms "the 
 misery he felt at being compelled to make an appeal to the public, 
 that induced the necessity of exposing circumstances over which 
 every principle of delicacy, feeling, and filial affection prompted 
 his royal brother and himself to throw a veil j and which a sens© 
 of what they owed to that public could alone prevent their inter- 
 posing ; their duty to that outweighing, in their estimation, all 
 that could affect themselves.^' 
 
 " January 24<th. — The King had been terribly affected during 
 the last seven or eight days. On the 19th his Majesty had been 
 induced to walk in the garden. The anxiety of the amiable and 
 royal female relatives drew them to an upper window. Eegard- 
 less of everything but his own impulses, his Majesty threw his 
 hat into the air and hurled a stick he held in his hand to an 
 incredible distance, such was the force that animated him. His 
 Majesty then proceeded with a rapid movement towards the- 
 Pagoda., which he was very desirous to ascend. Being thwarted, 
 in that, he became sullen and desperate, threw himseK upon tha 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 159 
 
 earth ; and so great was his strength and so powerful his resistance 
 that it was three-quarters of an hour before Willis and four 
 assistants could raise him/^ 
 
 Nor were the scenes in the ranks of the Prince's party more 
 edifying. 
 
 " Meantime, nothing was equal to the violence of the party, 
 de part et d' autre, but most the Prince's side, because disappointed. 
 The Duke of Portland has declared to the Prince his determina- 
 tion not to act with Mr. Sheridan in council, who is just now 
 Prime Minister at Carlton House. He and his wife live with 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert, having no other habitation. Charles Fox, 
 besides iU-health, is plagued to death all day long ; dissatisfied 
 with Mr. Sheridan's supremacy, and not choosing to be questioned 
 by Mr. Rolle, who vows he will, in spite of threats and opposition, 
 ajpprofondir that matter. 
 
 " But what you will not see is the strange supper of which I 
 am going to tell you, and which Lady Mount-Bdgcumbe had 
 from the Duchess of Gordon herself, who, being entirely for 
 Mr. Pett, is vastly teased by the princes, whom she never fails to 
 answer extremely well. A few days ago Mrs. Richard Walpole 
 gave a supper to the two princes, Mrs. Fitzherbert, Colonel 
 Fullarton, Jack Payne (who is such a favourite he is to be a Lord 
 of the Admiralty, and leans on the Prince as he walks, not the 
 Prince on him). Miss Vanneck, and a few others ; the Duchess of 
 Gordon the only Pittite. Then says Jack Payne, after a great 
 many invectives against Mr. Pitt, calling him William the Fourth 
 and William the Conqueror, etc., 'Mr. Pitt's chastity will pro- 
 tect the Queen ; ' which was received by all present as a very 
 good thing. The Duchess of Gordon* (for which you will like 
 her, though a Scotchwoman) declared if they began to abuse the 
 Queen she would leave the room. And now I am in a fright lest 
 I should have told you all this before." 
 
 The triumphant Pitt now addressed a formal letter to the 
 Prince, announcing to him the nature of the restrictions it was 
 proposed to lay upon him. The Prince of Wales complained 
 bitterly of a studied afEront in the mode of delivery of this letter, 
 that it was left at his door by a servant, though this was denied ; 
 but he retaliated by addressing his answer not to Pitt, but to the 
 Chancellor.f 
 
 * " Jack Payne, the Prince's secretary, one day uttered some ribaldry 
 about the Queen, in the presence of the Duchess of Gordon. ' Tou little, 
 insignificant, good-for-nothing, upstart, pert, chattering puppy,' said her 
 grace, ' how dare you name your royal master's royal mother in that 
 style ? ' " — " Lady Harcourt's Diary," Locker MSS., in Massey's " History 
 of England," iii. 389. 
 
 t " Court and Cabinets," ii. 87. 
 
160 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE it. 
 
 Mr. Pitt's communication was dated Tuesday niglit, December 
 SOth, 1788. 
 
 " It is their humble opinion that your Royal Highness should 
 be empowered to do all acts which might legally be done by his 
 Majesty ; with provisions, nevertheless, that the care of his 
 Majesty's royal person, and the management of his Majesty's 
 household, and the direction and appointment of the oflS.cers 
 and servants therein should be in the Queen, under such regula- 
 tions as may be thought necessary. That the power to be 
 exercised by your Royal Highness should not extend to the 
 granting the real or personal property of the King (except as 
 far as relates to the renewal of leases), to the granting any office 
 in reversion, or to the granting, for any other term than during 
 his Majesty's pleasure, any pension, or any office whatever, 
 except such as must by law be granted for life, 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." 
 
 THE PMNCE or WALES TO LOKD LOTJGHBOEOtTGH. 
 
 "Mt deae Loed, 
 
 " I have just received a letter from the Minister with 
 such restrictions as no dictator could possibly, I think, ever 
 have been barefaced enough to have brought forward. . . . 
 Pray come to Charles, as soon as you possibly can, to take these 
 matters into consideration. 
 
 " I am, my dear Lord, 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 "G. P." 
 
 The result of this consultation was a reply which the Chan- 
 cellor was, oddly, selected to be the bearer of. 
 
 Writes the Duke of Leeds : " At Carlton House a note was 
 delivered to him in the hall desiring him to go to Mr. Fox in 
 South Street (Mr. P., for more quiet, was removed to Mrs. Armi- 
 stead's), who was not well enough to come out, and that there 
 the Prince would meet him. He found there Lord Robert Spencer 
 and two other members of the House, who, when Mr. Fox 
 came, withdrew. Shortly afterwards the Prince arrived. I think 
 the Chancellor said the Prince received the paper afterwards 
 and oiiered to send it to the Chancellor, but, his lordship de- 
 clining giving him that trouble, the Prince signed it and sealed 
 it up." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 161 
 
 "He observes, therefore, only generally on the heads 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 insecurity in 
 every branch of the administration of affairs — a project for 
 dividing the royal family from each other — for separating the 
 Court from the State ; and therefore, by disjoining government 
 from its natural and accustomed support, a scheme for discon- 
 necting the authority to command service from the power of 
 animating 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 him, by observing that it is not 
 founded on any general principle, but is calculated to infuse 
 jealousies and suspicions (wholly groundless, he trusts) in that 
 quarter, whose confidence it will ever be the first pride of his life 
 to merit and obtain. 
 
 " With regard to the motive and object of the limitations and 
 restrictions proposed, the Prince can have but little to observe. 
 No light or information is offered him by his Majesty's ministers 
 on these points. They have informed him what the powers are 
 which they mean to refuse him, not why they are withheld. 
 
 "The Prince, however, holding as he does that it is an 
 undoubted and fundamental 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 the 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 strong, 
 manifest, and urgent, which calls for the extinction or suspension 
 of any one of those essential rights in the supreme power, or its 
 representative ; or which can justify the Prince in consenting, 
 that in his person an experiment shall be made to ascertain with 
 how small a portion of kingly power the executive government 
 of this country may be carried on. 
 
 "The Prince has only to add that if security for his Majesty's 
 repossessing his rightful government, whenever it shall please 
 Providence, in bounty to the country, to remove the calamity 
 with which he is afflicted, be any part of the object of this plan, 
 the Prince has only to be convinced that any measure is neces- 
 sary, or even conducive to that end, to be the first to urge it as 
 the preliminary and paramount consideration of any settlement, 
 in which he would consent to share. 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 "■ If attention to wliat is presumed miglit be his Majesty's 
 feelings and wishes, on the happy day of his recovery, be the 
 object, it is with the truest sincerity the Prince expresses his firm 
 conviction that no event would be more repugnant to the feelings 
 of his royal father, than the knowledge that the government of 
 his son and representative had exhibited the sovereign power of 
 the realm in a state of degradation, of curtailed authority, and 
 diminished energy — a state, hurtful in practice to the prosperity 
 and good government of his people, and injurious in its prece- 
 dent to the security of the monarch, and the rights of his family. 
 Upon that part of the plan, which regards the King's real and 
 personal property, the Prince feels himself compelled to remark, 
 that it was not necessary for Mr. Pitt, nor proper, to suggest to 
 the Prince the restraint he proposes against the Prince's grant- 
 ing away the King's real and personal property. The Prince 
 does not conceive that during the King's life he is, by law, 
 entitled to make any such grant ; and he is sure that he has 
 never shown the smallest inclination to possess any such power. 
 But it remains with Mr. Pitt to consider the eventual interests of 
 the royal family, and to provide a proper and natural security 
 against the mismanagement of them by others. 
 
 " The Prince has discharged an indispensable duty in thus 
 giving his free opinion on the plan submitted to his con- 
 sideration. 
 
 " His conviction of the evils which may arise to the King's 
 interests, to the peace and happiness of the royal family, and to 
 the safety and welfare of the nation, from the government of the 
 country remaining longer in its present maimed and debilitated 
 state, outweighs, in the Prince's mind, every other consideration, 
 and will determine him to undertake the painful trust imposed 
 upon him by the present melancholy necessity (which of all the 
 King's subjects he deplores the most), in full confidence, that the 
 affection and loyalty to the King, the experienced attachment to 
 the house of Brunswick, and the generosity which has always 
 distinguished the nation, will carry him through the many diffi- 
 culties inseparable from this most critical situation, with comfort 
 to himself, with honour to the King, and with advantage to the 
 public. 
 
 "G-EOEGE P. 
 " Carlton House, Jan. 2, 1789." 
 
 The authorship of this has often been discussed, being given 
 to Sheridan or to Sir Gilbert Elliot. It was thought that it 
 might have been the handiwork of the first, as he was so intimate 
 with the Prince. Sir James Mackintosh, consulted by Moore, 
 
THE LIFE or GEORGE IV. 163 
 
 •declared from internal evidence that it must liave been Burke's 
 and no other's, thougli Moore declared that " the violent state of 
 this extraordinary man's temper during the debates would have 
 rendered him an unfit person for such an office." Sir Gilbert 
 Elliot, who had written, and was to write, many such public 
 letters for the Prince and his party, disclaimed it and furnished 
 the true answer. " Not a word in it was his," he said ; " it was 
 originally Burke's, altered a little, but not improved, by Sheridan 
 ■and other critics."* 
 
 The Duke of Leeds, however, showed his sagacity at guessing 
 at the authorship. " The Prince of Wales's comments on Pitt's 
 letters filled three quarto pages, showing displeasure to Pitt. It 
 was, upon the whole, a strange performance, by no means an 
 able one j now and then appeared something of Sheridan's 
 language, and still more of Loughborough's." 
 
 The haughty Pitt now proposed that a reply should be sent 
 to this document ; and, as the Duke of Leeds informs us, " at a 
 Cabinet on the 5th, Mr. Pitt read the proposed answer to the 
 Prince. The Chancellor, however, disapproved sending any. 
 They tried to convince him, urging the mischievous eifect on 
 the public of a division of opinion. The Chancellor, however, 
 remained sulky." He complained of being misrepresented. At 
 last an expedient was thought of^ that he should go and ask the 
 Prince of Wales if he wished or expected to receive one, and if so, 
 then present it. To this he agreed, though not with a good 
 grace. The Duke of Eichmond said : " That man will ruin us all 
 yet." Lord Camden said privately to the Duke of Leeds, that he 
 was a bad man. Accordingly the Chancellor wrote to the Prince 
 of Wales on the subject of the answer, and received a note 
 from the Prince, dated Piccadilly (the Prince dining at the Duke 
 of Queensberry's), desiring him to come to him at nine to South 
 Street. The Chancellor went, and found the Prince and Mr. Pox. 
 The Chancellor held the letter in his hand, and asked the Prince 
 whether he expected any answer, to which the Prince answered 
 in the negative ; but on Mr. Pox observing that as there was one 
 prepared it might as well be looked at, the Chancellor delivered 
 it to him. 
 
 After much wrangling over the ''report" of the physicians (it 
 filled four hundred folio pages), Mr. Pitt, on the 16th of January, 
 introduced his " Eestrictions." They were in the shape of 
 resolutions, the first of which conferred the honours of Regency ; 
 the second restrained him from granting peerages, save to the 
 royal family; the third from giving places, save under conditions; 
 the fourth protected the King's property; and the fifth and most 
 
 * " Life and Letters," i. 269. 
 
 u 2 
 
164 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 important, introduced on the 19tli, gave the care of the King's 
 person to the Queen, with power to appoint all officers about 
 his person with the assistance of a Council. These were duly- 
 passed by both Houses. It was this resolution on the household 
 that excited the most tumult. Its object was evident. By house- 
 hold he explained himself to mean any office — " master of horse, 
 chamberlain, and so downward to the pages, beefeaters, and 
 grooms." It was noted that he spoke as though he were 
 "ashamed of such a scheme." It was assailed in vehement 
 style by Sheridan, who stigmatised it as a plan for governing 
 the country through the Queen, when the minister himself shall 
 have been dismissed. 
 
 He denounced Pitt's duplicity and arrogance, and sneered at 
 the Queen with ironical praises, and pictured the former coming 
 down to the House attended by his household. Mr. Fullarton, a 
 fiery Scot, quoted from the " History of France " the description 
 of Queen Isabella and her minister Marvilliers ; a woman whom 
 he described as attached only to her treasures, and governed by 
 her chancellor. 
 
 The Council was to be composed, as Sir G. Elliot heard, of 
 the great officers of the household, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and the Chancellor, " so that this immense job was not trusted 
 even to the Queen, but put directly into the hands of the faction 
 itself." 
 
 When it reached the House of Lords on January 26th, the 
 discussion was expected to be interesting from a melancholy spec- 
 tacle of what Lord Bulkeley would have called " a rat bishop," 
 viz. Watson of Llandaff. Never was there so unlucky a mis- 
 calculation. He was a man of a certain power and talent ; and 
 for his two hours' eager advocacy, it was reported he was to 
 receive splendid promotion when the Eegent came into office. 
 But he was never forgiven by the King, and had to endure for the 
 rest of his life perpetual banishment to his obscure Welsh diocese. 
 
 But there was to be another scene of treachery more painful 
 still. Thurlow now stood forward to bid for the gratitude 
 of the recovering monarch, having at last made up his mind. 
 After dwelling on that piteous and lamentable situation, " a mis- 
 fortune equal to any which has ever fallen to the lot of man since 
 misfortune was known upon the earth ; " then drawing a picture 
 of the ingratitude the royal sufferer had been treated with — 
 
 Deserted, in his utmost need, 
 By those his former bounty fed — 
 
 he burst into tears. This exhibition excited the ridicule of Burke, 
 who, when Pitt moved to wait on the Prince with the resolutions. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 165 
 
 frantically burst out in the most violent agitation. The minister 
 was a despot. " Slaves," he cried, " do you presume to hesi- 
 tate ? " And later he held up the Chancellor — his tears and his 
 " phantom " — in his wittiest vein. " The other House is not yet 
 recovered from that extraordinary burst of the pathetic which 
 was exhibited the other evening; it has not yet dried its eyes 
 nor been restored to its placidity. The tears shed on that 
 occasion were not the tears of patriots for dying laws, but of 
 lords for expiring places. They were the ' iron tears that flowed 
 down Pluto's cheek,' and rather resembled the dismal bubbling 
 of Styx than the gentle streams of Aganippe. In fact, they 
 were tears for his Majesty's bread. The Lords of the Household 
 would stick by the King's loaf as long as a single cut of it 
 remained ; they would fasten on the crust, and gnaw it while two 
 crumbs of it held together ; and they would proudly declare, at 
 the same time, that it was the honour of the service, the dignity 
 of the office, which alone they regarded." Then, bursting into a 
 new paroxysm, he exclaimed : " I cannot, for my soul, under- 
 stand the means of this art-magic, any more than I can doubt 
 the purpose. I see a phantom raised. But I never heard of one 
 being raised in a family but for the purpose of robbing the house. 
 The whole ceremonial, instead of being a representative of the 
 forms of the Constitution, is a masquerade, a mummery, a piece 
 of buffoonery, used to ridicule every form of government." 
 
 At last the resolutions were passed, and it was on the 30th of 
 January that a deputation, consisting of Lords Camden and 
 Stafford, with Pitt and some others, waited on the Prince with an 
 address ; to which he gave the following reply, supposed to be 
 written by Sheridan, but which was, in truth, the work of Sir 
 Gr. EUiot, done in a hurry, half an hour before it was spoken : 
 
 "My Loeds and Gentlemen, 
 
 " I thank you for communicating to me the resolutions 
 agreed to by the two Houses ; and I request you to assure them, 
 in my name, that my 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 exercise 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 me to undertake the weighty and important 
 trust proposed to me, in conformity to the resolutions now 
 communicated to me. 
 
 " I am sensible of the difficulties that must attend the trust, 
 in the peculiar circumstances in which it is committed to my 
 charge, in which, as I am acquainted with no former example, 
 
166 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 mj hopes of a successful administration cannot be founded on 
 any past experience ; but confiding that the limitations on the 
 exercise of the royal authority^ deemed necessary for the present, 
 haye been approved only by the two Houses as a temporary 
 measure^ founded on the loyal hope, in which I ardently partici- 
 pate, that his Majesty^s disorder may not be of long duration; 
 and trusting, in the meanwhile, that I shall receive a zealous and 
 united support in the two Houses and in the nation, proportioned 
 to the difficulty attending the discharge of my trust in this 
 interval, I will entertain the pleasing hope that my faithful 
 endeavours to preserve the interests of the King, his crown, and 
 people, may be successful." 
 
 All this was merely preparatory to the introduction of the 
 bill itself. The next step was to issue a commission, who were 
 to be empowered to set the great seal to a patent for giving the 
 royal assent to the regency bills now to be passed. These 
 " roundabout " devices seem ludicrous enough. The Prince and 
 the Duke of York were included in the commission, but the latter 
 rose in his place and declined the honour for himself and for his 
 brother, and the Duke of Cumberland did the same for himself 
 as well as the Duke of Gloucester. 
 
 When the bill was introduced in the House of Commons, 
 Burke burst out once more into fury. It seems incredible that 
 so sound a mind could deliver itself to such intemperance. He 
 accused Dr. Willis of rashness, impetuosity, and presumption, in 
 taking upon him to fix the probable duration of his Majesty^s 
 illness. He exclaimed : " Of his sanity, should God restore it, 
 where was the confirmation ? With a junto — an obscure and 
 contemptible Council ! manifestly not wishing to produce a sound 
 King, but to usurp the Government without one — where a pro- 
 clamation was to supersede the two Houses — a proclamation from 
 authority existing no more — for the King governs not — but is 
 governed ! " He taxed the bill with reviving the doctrine of 
 divine right, which had been exploded on the expulsion of the 
 House of Stuart in favour of another House. " In the idiot- 
 abominations of the Stuart race divine right was the assumption 
 of the Prince alone ! it was now more monstrously to be usurped 
 by the Minister ! " " The bill," he said, " was not only to 
 degrade the Prince of Wales, but the whole House of Brunswick,, 
 who were to be outlawed, excommunicated, and attainted, as 
 having forfeited all claim to the confidence of the country." 
 
 This extraordinary declaration having excited the smiles of 
 several of the members, Mr. Burke's indignation rose with his 
 climax, and he directly charged the House " with degrading the 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 167 
 
 royal family ; sowing the seeds of future distractions and dis- 
 union among them^ and proceeding to act treasons, for whicli the 
 justice of the country would one day overtake them, and bring 
 them to trial ! " He received a fine rebuke from Mr. Pitt, who 
 observed that when Mr. Burke chose to indulge himself with a 
 direct attack upon him, in the style of invective in which he 
 was accustomed to deliver himself in that House, he seldom 
 thought it worth his while to make him any answer, because his 
 speeches, from their extraordinary style, and the peculiarly 
 violent tone of warmth and of passion with which they were 
 generally delivered, seldom failed to make that impression which 
 those to whom they were directed wished them to make. 
 
 But even here the consequences of the Prince's rash marriage 
 and his flagrant denial were to pursue him. Mr. RoUe, who had 
 been threatening, in spite of all cajolery, that he would bring 
 forward his favourite subject, at last found an opportunity made 
 to his hand in a clause depriving the Prince of the regency should 
 he marry a Papist. He proposed an amendment, awkward to 
 deal with, "excluding any one thus married already, either in 
 law or fact.'' The old ground was once more gone over, and it 
 was urged that the royal marriage virtually repealed the Act of 
 Settlement and its heavy penalties. But it was noted that not 
 one of the law officers now said a word ; while Dundas, refuting 
 this argument as derogatory to the Act of Settlement, " declared 
 that he regarded the solemn assurance of Mr. Fox as decisive." 
 Then alluding to Pox's absence in the country, he said he was 
 convinced that " if anything had occurred to make him change 
 his opinion, he (Mr. Pox) would at all hazards, even at the risk of 
 his life, come down to the House." This artful thrust must 
 have gone home. But he (Mr. Pox) was now considered to be 
 restored, and it was believed that he delayed returning to avoid 
 this awkward situation. The most curious position in this 
 episode was the part taken by Mr. Grey, who rebuked Rolle for 
 his conduct, and imputed to him the worst of motives. This, 
 as he knew Eolle was speaking the truth, seemed strange. But 
 of late his relations with the Prince had become confidential.* 
 
 On the household question Burke again broke out in extra- 
 ordinary style, and, on Pitt's protesting against stripping the 
 King of the adornments of royalty, exclaimed : " Did they 
 recollect that they were talking of a sick king, of a monarch 
 smitten by the hand of Omnipotence ; and that the Almighty 
 
 * In December, wten he wrote to Sir G. Elliot at Brookes's : " I did 
 not see the Prince, for he had just retired to a private room with Grey, 
 who is a great favourite, and is admitted to most private or Cabinet 
 Councils." 
 
168 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 had Burled him from his throne and plunged him into a con- 
 dition that drew upon him the pity of the meanest peasant in the 
 kingdom ? This produced loud calls to order^ and the cries of 
 'Take down his words,' interrupted him; and the Marquis of 
 G-raham told Mr. Burke that neither he, nor any man in that 
 House, should dare to say the King was hurled from his throne. 
 A scene of great confusion followed, during which Burke per- 
 sisted in his course, and justified his expression by the language 
 of the prayer offered up in our churches for the King's recovery, 
 and, proceeding in the same strain, asked : ' Ought they, at that 
 hour of sickness and calamity, to clothe his bed with purple ? 
 Ought they to make a mockery of him, putting a crown of 
 thorns on his head, a reed in his hand, and dressing him in 
 a raiment of purple, to cry. Hail ! King of the British \' " * 
 The disgust expressed by the House at this indecorous allusion, 
 at length induced the orator to change his tone, and to arraign 
 the clause with more chastened animation, and with more 
 temperate eloquence. 
 
 The effect of one of these restrictions was to prevent a peerage 
 being given to Prince William, which " the party thought was 
 an act of pure malice." This was said to have hurt the Prince of 
 Wales more than all the rest, and the Duke of York was heard 
 to say, in a coffee-house, that it was very hard that Mr. Pitt 
 should punish his brother, who had never done anything to offend 
 him ; but that for himself, Mr. Pitt was right to do him all the 
 injury that he could, for he had opposed him. 
 
 Sir G. Elliot said later, the plan was " to consider the Prince 
 and everybody that is suspected of the least attachment to him, 
 as a prey, to be hunted down and destroyed without mercy. 
 This, I assure you, is the private conversation of him and the 
 Queen's whole set." 
 
 It was then proposed that the Duke of York and the other 
 Princes should be of the Council ; which was plainly and sans 
 faqon resisted by Pitt, who declared that if the Prince was un- 
 suited, on various accounts, to have the care of the King, the 
 argument applied, d fortiori, to the others. The last clause was 
 concerned with the delicate question as to who was to have power 
 to declare the King restored to health. This was to be done 
 when it should appear proper to her Majesty and to five members 
 of the Council, and by them should be notified to the President 
 of the Privy Council ; and that, the act being then complete, the 
 Regent should cease to rule, and the King resume his office. This 
 
 * On the following morning Mr. Burke found chalked on his door a 
 sort of parody of the daily bulletins : " Very irritable in the evening ; no 
 sleep all night ; and very unquiet this morning." — Auckland, ii. 292. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 169 
 
 •was hotly contested, and it was urged that Parliament alone 
 should restore the powers it had taken away ; and the plan had 
 certainly a doubtful air, and it was certainly open to the suspicions 
 imputed by the Opposition. 
 
 The excitement that prevailed during this struggle was extra- 
 ordinary. London society was ranged in two factions, each 
 agitated by feelings of the most vulgar kind. Everyone was to 
 gain or lose by the issue j the Opposition rapacious for power and 
 place, now almost within their grasp — the Government as eager 
 to defeat them. Everywhere there was fury and acrimony, and 
 the ladies were more inflamed than the men. At balls and 
 parties ladies were already seen wearing " Eegency caps." 
 
 How the hungry followers of Fox and Sheridan must have 
 been affected by the giving away the control of the household to 
 the Queen, may be gathered from the fact that no less than one 
 hundred and fifty places would be thus lost to them. It seemed 
 invidious, and was certainly insulting to the Prince to lay down 
 that he was not fit to be entrusted with such patronage ; but it 
 must be recollected that — shocking as it may seem — ^he and his 
 father were on the footing of enemies, and that his father's 
 malady was supposed to have been induced by his unfilial treat- 
 ment. On the other hand, there was an inconsistency in the argu- 
 ment of the Opposition, who, it will be recollected, had vehemently 
 denied the power of the House in the matter. 
 
 But the prospect of power had its usual disintegrating effect 
 upon the Opposition, and dissensions had broken out among the 
 leaders. Fox, as we have seen, under pretext of illness, had retired 
 from the fray, disgusted at the inflaence which Sheridan and 
 Grey, with others of that " wing " of the party, enjoyed in the 
 direction of the Prince's affairs. 
 
 The Duke of Portland, Fox's ardent friend, declared that one 
 could take no step so long as Sheridan enjoyed the supremacy he 
 had. Burke, too, as Mr. Moore thinks, was dissatisfied with Fox, 
 as being too temperate. Between Sheridan and Burke there 
 were also jealousies.* It would seem that much of Burke's extra- 
 ordinary violence and intemperance of language was prompted by 
 the pressure of personal necessities, and of a hope deferred in the 
 most exasperating way ; and he was inclined to lay the cause of the 
 failure, which he foresaw was at hand, to the moderate counsels 
 of Fox. 
 
 The first care of his friends had been to lay out splendid pro- 
 vision for him in their plans; and when the next fit of royal 
 lunacy came on some twenty years later, they were to be again 
 busy allotting aerial places of the same kind, and to be again the 
 prey of a similar illusion. 
 
 * Moore, " Life of Sheridan," ii. 60. 
 
170 J'HB LIEE OF GEOEGB IV. 
 
 In this Utopian ministry, Sheridan was to be Treasurer of 
 the Navy. Less sanguine than might be supposed^ he never 
 accepted the prospect of office seriously, always maintaining that 
 the King would recover. They had even sent him the plan of 
 the rooms in the new Somerset House which he was to occupy. 
 And when he came to hear of his disappointment, he could drink 
 the King's health cheerfully at his own table. As to the other 
 offices, the Duke of York was to be Commander-in-Chief ; field- 
 marshals were to be created, of which the Prince himself was to 
 be one. Lord Spencer was to go to Ireland; Pitzpatrick to be 
 Secretary-at- War ; the Home Secretaryship lay between Lords 
 Rawdon and Stormont. 
 
 The Prince in his cups would give away colonelcies to un- 
 qualified persons, who would iusist on keeping him to his promise 
 next day.* Lord North, now old and blind, declined office. 
 Even the Bishopric of St. Asaph had fallen vacant, and a 
 successor had been designated, who had received the con- 
 gratulations of his friends. With these arrangements they were 
 busy in the first weeks of February, and it was thought that the 
 Prince would be in possession by Saturday, the 14th. f Alas ! 
 for such pleasing anticipations. For now, while in this fool's 
 paradise, rumours of a steady change in the condition of the 
 royal patient began to take firmer shape. Dr. Warren, to the 
 disgust of his friends, was compelled to declare that the King 
 was improving every day.J In fact, so early as the beginning of 
 February the disorder had begun to diminish. On the 11th 
 the King bade Warren feel his pulse, and asked him did he not 
 think there was some amendment, to which the doctor agreed; 
 and on the 17th certified that the King was in a state of conva- 
 lescence." On the 19th the Chancellor stood up in the House and 
 announced that it would be '^ indecent, " in the King's state, to 
 proceed with the bill further, and proposed to adjourn for a week. 
 The Duke of York professed great satisfaction at the news. 
 
 In truth the Prince and his party already felt that, in vulgar 
 phrase, " the game was up," for even if they came into office, it 
 seemed to be settled that he could not, with the King fast 
 recovering, dismiss the existing Ministers, who would have to be 
 restored a week or two later. Already the Duke of Portland was 
 
 * Auckland, " Oorrespondence," ii. 292. 
 
 t " Life of Sir G. Elliot," i. 269. 
 
 J One of the Prince's good stories often told at his own expense, was 
 the comfort brought to him by Fox's Italian servant, Basilico, who would 
 approach him confidentially : " I have de honour, sare, to be at Windsor. 
 I have seen your fader, and " — here the Prince would admirably mimic his 
 air of rueful sympathy — " and he looks as well as ever." — Moore's " Diary." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 171 
 
 said to have told the Prince thatj under the circumstances, he 
 could not take office ;* nor were there other annoying elements 
 wanting to make this " day of dupes " even more humiliating. 
 The Irish Parliament, after some angry debates, had voted an 
 address to the Prince, inviting him to take on him the Regency 
 of Ireland. On February 19th the Houses waited upon the 
 Lord-Lieutenant with a request that he would transmit it to the 
 Prince. This he refused to do on constitutional grounds, while, 
 after passing a vote of censure on the Lord-Lieutenant, a deputa- 
 tion was appointed to convey the address to London, which^ 
 unfortunately for their purpose, they did not reach until the 
 " day after the fair," and the King all but restored. This might 
 have brought about a dangerous conflict. " The Irish Ambas- 
 sadors," as they were called, were rather unfairly assailed with 
 gross abuse. Epigrams were showered on them for their bootless 
 errand. The members were ridiculed in a coarse vein. At the 
 various dinner-parties given to the deputies by the Duke of 
 York, Sir T. Dundas, and others, the Prince devoted himself to 
 making a favourable impression on them. At the latter's house 
 he was "uncommonly agreeable and captivating," singing a 
 capital sea-song, which turned on a battle between a French and 
 English ship ; the French ship sinking, and the British rescuing 
 the crew, the burden being that " the Briton conquers but to 
 save." This gives a good idea of his convivial gifts. 
 
 On the 27th of February, when the very bulletins had ceased 
 to appear as unnecessary, the Prince received their address and 
 answered it in a suitable manner : 
 
 "Mt Loeds and Gentlemen, 
 
 " The address from the lords spiritual and temporal, and 
 the commons of Ireland, which you have presented to me, 
 demands my warmest and earliest thanks. If anything could 
 add to the esteem and affection I have for the people of Ireland, 
 it would be the loyal and dutiful attachment to the person 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 attachment to the house of Brunswick, and their con- 
 stant attention to maintain inviolate the concord and connexion 
 between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, so indis- 
 pensably necessary to the prosperity, the happiness, and the 
 liberties of both. 
 
 * "Court and Cabinets," ii. 107. 
 
172 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 " If, in conveying my grateful sentiments on their conduct, 
 in relation to tlie King my 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 
 will not be the less disposed to believe that I have the under- 
 standing to comprehend the value of what they have done, a 
 heart that must remember, and principles that will 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 mo 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 may then render it only necessary for me to repeat 
 those sentiments of gratitude and affection to the loyal and 
 generous people of Ireland, which I feel indelibly impressed on 
 my heart. 
 
 "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 with the melancholy necessity which gave rise to the 
 arrangement proposed by the Parliament of Ireland ; but nothing 
 can obliterate from my memory and my gratitude the principles 
 upon which that arrangement was made, and the circumstances 
 by which it was attended. 
 
 "I consider your generous kindness to his Majesty's royal 
 family, and the provision you made for preserving the authority 
 of the crown in its constitutional energy, as the most uneqaivocal 
 proof which could be given of your affectionate loyalty to the 
 King, at the time when, by an afflicting dispensation of Provi- 
 dence, his government had suffered an intermission, 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 suppose that they were mistaken in their 
 reliance on the moderation of my views, and the purity of my in- 
 tentions. A manly confidence, directing the manner of proceed- 
 ing towards those who entertain sentiments becoming the high 
 situation in which they are born, furnishes the most powerful 
 motives to the performance of their duty; at the same time 
 that the liberality of sentiment, 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. 
 
 " Though full of joy for the event which enables me to take 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 173 
 
 leave of you in this manner, personally I cannot but regret your 
 departure. I have liad the opportunity of acquiring a knowledge 
 of your private characters, and it has added to the high esteem 
 which I had before entertained for you on account of your public 
 merits ; both have made 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 Parliament and people of Ireland to continue to 
 cultivate the harmony of the two kingdoms which, in their 
 mutual perfect freedom, will find the closest as well as the 
 happiest bond of their intercourse." 
 
 On the same day they were entertained at a magnificent 
 banquet at Carlton House, at which assisted the Dukes of York, 
 Cumberland, and Portland; Fox (now returned), Burke, Sheridan, 
 and all the leaders attended. The Prince exerted his most 
 engaging arts as host, and at the close insisting on what he 
 called the " Landlord's Bottle," and drew from Burke the rather 
 solemn jest that he was entitled to order if jure di-vino. They 
 spent some jovial weeks in town feted by aU the Opposition, and 
 then returned to their own country. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1789. 
 
 What made these proceedings the more unbecoming was the 
 fact that the King was actually recovered. On the 20th he had 
 been seen by the Chancellor, who declared that he never, at any 
 period, saw the King more composed, collected, or distinct. All 
 accounts agree in this view, which is, moreover, supported by the 
 minute and accurate reports of Miss Burney. They had even 
 opened to him some of the proceedings which had taken place 
 during his confinement — a most painful and delicate task. 
 
 Pitt, more defiant and haughty under these conditions, was 
 not disposed to allow his enemies even the formal advantages of 
 this position. " We shall not feel ourselves disposed," wrote 
 Mr. Grenville, " to give up the King^s authority into the hands 
 of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the less so 
 because we know that he and his friends, as he calls them, have 
 taken the resolution of makiug the change at all events, and of 
 taking all the ofiices of the country into their own hands, even, 
 as they express themselves, if they are to hold them only twelve 
 hours." * 
 
 But the most disagreeable incident in this painful business 
 was now to be seen. The sons were compelled by this hostile 
 treatment to look on the announced recovery as part of their 
 
 * The same spirit was evident in the mode of treating the Irish 
 address. " On conversing with Pitt," wrote Mr. Grenville, " we were both 
 clearly of opinion that no communication ought to be made to his Eoyal 
 Highness of what had passed in Ireland, as we have uniformly considered 
 him as not entitled under the present circumstances to any com- 
 munication of any part of the business of Government." — " Court and 
 Cabinets," ii. 123. 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGB IT. 175 
 
 ■ game," and possibly a deception contrived by the 
 Queen and her '^faction." On this ground they declined to 
 believe that he had recovered, and were searching in his words 
 and actions for evidence to the contrary. The accounts were still 
 coloured by violent prejudice. The Chancellor had seen the King 
 for the second time on the 20th, and declared to Pitt that there 
 was not the least trace of the disorder. For the other party he 
 
 had a different story. "By G ," he said to the Dake of 
 
 York, " they always contrive to wind up the King when I am to 
 see him, and he appears very well before me." He had told Warren 
 to repeat to the two Princes his opinion of the King's state, which, 
 at his first interview at least, was certainly unfavourable.* 
 
 Inflamed by this suspense and the contradictory reports, the 
 two Princes called repeatedly at Kew, and pressed to be allowed 
 to see their father. They were refused on various pretences ; it 
 being, no doubt, considered that they came, moved not by filial 
 anxiety, but in the capacity of spies. At last they addressed a 
 demand to the Queen : 
 
 " Tour Majesty's most dutiful son, the Prince of Wales, most 
 humbly begs leave to represent to your Majesty the following 
 circumstances : 
 
 " It has for some days been confidently reported, and is 
 generally 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 Dake of York, have 
 frequently made most 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 means in 
 a condition to be approached by them, without the danger of 
 affecting his sensibility in such a manner as to renew or increase 
 his illness. 
 
 "They beg leave to inform your Majesty, that, in such a 
 moment, the Prince claims a right to see his father, as a gratifi- 
 cation 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 
 
 * Even on tlie morning after the Chancellor's announcement to the 
 House of Lords, when Sir &. Baker complimented the King on seeing him 
 dressed in his usual clothes : " I wish you joy, sir, of appearing again like 
 a king, and I am glad to see that star again." The poor patient replied, 
 putting his finger on his mouth : " Hush, hush ! don't talk of stars, we 
 must not talk of stars ; you know I am mopsimiis, and don't like French, 
 mottoes."— Sir G. Elliot, "Life," i. 273. 
 
176 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB lY. 
 
 with proper precautions, an audience of the King, as being 
 actually nominated by a bill, wbicli has passed the House of 
 Commons, for the arduous and delicate trust of his Majesty^s 
 government during his illness. 
 
 " The rule of the Prince of Wales's conduct must, in a great 
 measure, be formed upon an accurate idea of his Majesty's con- 
 dition. He apprehends that he owes it to his Majesty, and to 
 his Majesty's faithful subjects, to do all that in his power lies, 
 that no man should make use of his Majesty's name whilst he 
 labours under illness, which may redound to the detriment of his 
 Majesty's government — which may, against his will, and by 
 surprise, possibly tend to the dishonour and disadvantage of his 
 family. 
 
 " 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 may be, 
 against their wishes, excluded from his Majesty's presence), that 
 circumstance might be hereafter employed by persons not well dis- 
 posed to your Majesty, or to them, to prejudice his Majesty's mind 
 against them, as deficient in reverence, 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 might be urged with regard to the Chancellor, who, 
 in his character of minister, must naturally remind the King of 
 affairs of State, and renew in his mind 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 will 
 certainly make of this visit of duty and respect, the presence of 
 two or more of the attending physicians, provided that all persons 
 who may operate on the King's mind by restraint 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 
 permit the desired interview, the Prince, for his future justifica- 
 tion with the King, may receive that opinion in writing, signed 
 by them. 
 
 " The Duke of York most humbly supplicates your Majesty 
 for the same indulgence, in paying his humble and affectionate 
 duty to the King his father." 
 
 On the morning of the 21st they again presented themselves 
 at Kew, and sent Drs. Warren and Gisborne to Dr. Willis, with a 
 formal demand for admission, requiring also that the reasons for 
 refusal should be given ia writing. Willis returned with a 
 message from his Majesty, thanking them for their inquiries;. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 177 
 
 but wisting to put off seeing them till he had seen the Chancellor, 
 which he was to do to-morrow. This was reduced to writing and 
 sent to them. " How it will be receiyed I know not, but it has 
 completely defeated the avowed object of the visit, which was to 
 prejudice his mind against the measures which have been taken." 
 Such was Mr. Grenville's ardent view. 
 
 Mrs. Harcourt gives a pleasant picture of the restoration : 
 " On February 22nd," she says, " Lady C. Finch said the King 
 showed the greatest affection to the Queen. It was the attention 
 of a lover. He seemed to delight in making her presents — kissed 
 her hand & showed every mark of tenderness. I was just with 
 Lady C. when Gen' H. came to fetch me to M"^ Smelt's house 
 saying the King was waiting to see me. I flew up stairs where I 
 found the King & before I could speak he caught me in his arms 
 & kissed me, which I own I did him on both sides of his face, 
 telling him how happy I was & how I thanked God for this 
 blessing of seeing him well, yet hardly knowing what I said 
 BO overcome was I with joy. He staid about J an hour in 
 which time he was exactly what I had ever seen him when in 
 good spirits. He talked much of Windsor, said it was his only 
 home, he knew no other— spoke of the great regret in quitting it. 
 H« looked very thin but was in excellent spirits, making his 
 usual jokes & looked full of kindness & benevolence. Gen' H. 
 removed from the Ks. mind a prejudice as to the Queen's leaving 
 him at Windsor before he was removed to Kew by fully ex- 
 plaining the plan having been so arranged by the physician & 
 the King declared himself highly pleased & satisfied. The King 
 & Queen afterwards came together to see me. She was dreadfully 
 reduced & shewed me her stays, which would wrap twice over." 
 
 More touching still is Lord Carmarthen's (the Duke of Leeds) 
 account of his first meeting with the poor King. He remained 
 with him three hours : " The moment the door was shut the King 
 embraced me, put his cheek to mine, and, with tears in his eyes, 
 thanked me for my affectionate behaviour during his illness." He 
 found him grown thin, his voice hoarse, but he appeared perfectly 
 clear, and his conversation more connected and less hurried than 
 it used to be. He was most grateful to all for the support he 
 had received during his illness, and said it was no small comfort 
 to him to reflect on the small number of those who had deserted 
 him, and still more so as they were persons whose conduct he was 
 not surprised at. 
 
 On the 23rd the father and his sons were to meet. The meeting 
 was fixed for one o'clock, but the worthy pair did not arrive till 
 half -past three. Though thus kept waiting for them, the King's 
 mind had been fully prepared : there had been unfolded to him 
 
 VOL. T. N 
 
178 THE LIFE OF GEOEaE lY. 
 
 the intended regency, the very day it was to have passed; Willis^ 
 with great tact, impressing on him the providential interposition 
 which had restored him at so critical a point. The result was 
 that he was so moved to thankfulness and pious gratitude, that 
 he expressed himself "ready to bear any reverse or anything 
 vexatious he might have to know/^ Rather strange seems the 
 dislike he now exhibited to Mr. Pitt, chiefly, it would appear, from 
 an idea that it was owing to his interference that he had been 
 confined at Kew. It was more likely to have been caused by the 
 manner in which the minister had favoured the Queen, and given 
 over his authority to her. 
 
 Tet no one could have more chivalrously championed hia 
 master. The King said piteously to Willis that, "Had they 
 crushed you, doctor, they would have crushed me — we must 
 have fallen together."* The Princes, too, filled with bitterness- 
 against the man who had crushed them, gave out that as soon as 
 they had explained matters to the King, he would see Pitt's be- 
 haviour in the worst light. At the interview that followed 
 between the King and Mr. Pitt, full justice was done to the 
 courageous minister who had twice rescued him from difficulties 
 and dangers. 
 
 Ad\dsed no doubt by their friends, the Princes had thought 
 of reconciling themselves to their father, for their position, both 
 from debt and general discredit, had now become most critical. 
 But the vindictive Queen jealously guarded her spouse ; and 
 the odious role which the sons had played was to be transferred 
 to her. It would appear that she was determined to use the 
 victory in the most uncompromising fashion ; more particularly 
 as there were still some strange symptoms in her recovered 
 husband, which pointed at disturbance of the domestic peace. f 
 
 Now began a series of painful family incidents. The Princes, 
 having at last obtained an audience, were shown up to the Queen, 
 while Colonel Digby went to inform the King. When he came te 
 the door he had to stop from agitation, for the tears rushed to his 
 eyes. After a pause, he said to Colonel Digby that the house of 
 Brunswick had to make it a rule never to shed tears. Then, enter- 
 ing, he took both his sons in his arms with the greatest tenderness, 
 " He said he always loved them and always should love them," 
 shedding tears on their faces. And they, too, were affected. 
 " The Prince protested that it was the happiest day of his life." 
 " The King," writes Sir G. Elliot, " did not touch at aU on any- 
 thing hke business, but talked to the Prince about horses, and to 
 the Duke about his regiment. The Queen was present, walking 
 
 * " Mrs. Hai-court's Diary," p. 12. 
 
 t See "Mrs. Harcourt's Diary," p. 28, for this unsuspected episode.. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 179 
 
 to and fro in tlie room witli a countenance and manner of great 
 dissatisfaction ; and the King, every now and then, spoke to her 
 in a submissive and soothing sort of tone. . . . He made, how- 
 ever, one or two 'slips,' such as telling them he was the 
 Chancellor." 
 
 They took leave in half-an-hour, and told Colonel Digby they 
 were delighted that the King was better, though they noted that 
 he had made an odd remark about his ''playing piquet better 
 than Mr. Charles Hawkins." 
 
 The poor monarch's own account of the transaction, dated 
 February 23rd, was given to Mr. Pitt. "It is with infinite 
 satisfaction," he wrote, " that I renew my correspondence with 
 Mr. Pitt by acquainting him with my having seen the Prince of 
 Wales and my second son. Care was taken that the conversation 
 should be general and cordial. They seemed perfectly satisfied. 
 I chose the meeting should be in the Queen's apartment, that all 
 parties might have that caution which, at the present hour, could 
 best be judicious." It will be seen, therefore, that the Princes 
 were maligned when the Court party set it about that they were 
 unfeeling, as it was the King who made the conversation general. 
 In this unfortunate contest now about to commence, the blame 
 must be shared between the parties ; but the chief share attaches 
 to the Queen, who set herself up as the head of a faction, and, it 
 will be seen, conducted the struggle with a venom and bitterness 
 that challenged hostility. The young Princes, without proper 
 advisers, smarting under disappointment and their "wrongs," 
 were only too ready to encounter her enmity with enmity as 
 inflamed — so that here were furnished materials for family 
 scandal of the most indecent kind.* It shows how envenomed 
 the Court party was when it spread abroad the report that " the 
 Princes showed no emotion." The same authority declared that 
 they were frequenting masquerades, "rioting, and drunk. The 
 Duke of York plays much at tennis, and has a score with all the 
 blacklegs, and in the public court tells them they shall all be paid 
 as soon as his father can settle with him some of the Osnaburg 
 money which he owes him. They amused themselves yesterday 
 evening with spreading about a report that the King was still out 
 of his mind, and quoting phrases to which they gave that turn : 
 Bless God, it is yet some time before these mature and ripened 
 virtues will be visited upon us in the form of a government." 
 
 The Queen had despatched General Harcourt to Pitt with 
 her account of the interview, pressing him to come the next day, 
 assuring him of the most cordial reception. Pitt acknowledged 
 
 * "Mrs. Harcourt's Diary," p. 12; "Court and Cabinets," ii. 122; 
 "Life of Sir G. Elliot," i. 274 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 the invitation with some reserve and prido; expressing a hope 
 that the zeal of his friends was not pressing him on the King. 
 The truth seemed to be that the faithless Chancellor was again 
 at work,* and had seen the Prince, who had sent Adam to Fox 
 only the day before to open some new scheme of alliance. This, 
 however, Fox discouraged, saying that he had a horror of 
 negotiations with Thurlow. Here is an amusing glimpse of the 
 rough Chancellor at this time. He was convinced, he told Lord 
 Carmarthen, they wanted to get rid of him, and complained 
 of a want of confidence between members of the Cabinet. 
 " Dundas was the most impudent fellow he ever knew ; that he had 
 proposed a dinner to the Chancellor at the house of the latter, 
 with Pitt and Lord Grenville, where he (the Chancellor) was to 
 give his opinion on the election of the sixteen Peers. The 
 Chancellor told him he would very readily give him a dinner, 
 but no opinion.^' t 
 
 In his daughters the King was blessed. Wrote one in delight 
 at his restoration : " I cannot describe to you the joy everyone 
 showed whenever the King came. I can assure you it was almost 
 too much. Everywhere they sang ' God save the King.' I 
 was greatly entertained on the day we arrived at Lyndhurst to 
 hear a poor man say : ' I am so sorry we have no band for the 
 King ; it is so hard he has no music — he loves it so much ! ' " 
 
 Of the Princess Royal at this time Mrs. Harcourt thus 
 speaks : After declaring that her disposition was such that she 
 had not an enemy in the world, she goes on : " Her apprehension 
 is quick. Her conduct in the difficult situation she has been 
 placed in by being ever distinguished with marked affection by 
 her Brothers, especially the Prince, has been uniformly creditable 
 to her Judgment. She writes with an ease and fluency which 
 renders her letters singularly entertaining. I have heard Miss 
 Goldsworthy compare them to Mad. de Sevigne's. Her desire 
 is ever to be a peace-maker — and if she can procure pleasure to 
 others, it is the greatest delight she knows. Princess Augusta 
 adores her parents ; but tho' she is ever fulfilling her duty she 
 is a less marked character, tho' I cannot exactly define why, 
 than the Pss. Royal. Princess Eliz* again is quite different 
 from her two Elder Sisters. She has great good humour, 
 quick feelings, a great deal of genius, an Imagination full of fire, 
 much resolution, much presence of mind, the same surprising 
 Memory which runs through the family, very strong affections and 
 
 * " The Chancellor is again getting about the Prince, persuading him 
 that he is attached to him and that he hates Pitt ; but he is the falsest 
 and most treacherous character in the world." — Sir G. Elliot, i. 275. 
 
 t Leeds MS. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 181 
 
 friendship, high principles, and a manner which, from its super- 
 lative good humour, pleases everyone. She has a turn for con- 
 versation and a peculiarity of Ideas, which is just entitled to be 
 called wit. She writes as she speaks, often full of humorous 
 conceits, and she has the power of defending and supporting her 
 own opinions in presence of the Queen in a manner her Sisters 
 cannot attempt. I ought rather to say a manner which the 
 P^ Eoyal dares not, and the P^^ Augusta does not wish to 
 attempt. Of the Beauty of the 3 Princesses people think 
 differently, though all agree that they have a considerable share. 
 P^ Eoyal is the finest woman, P== Augusta the prettiest, and 
 P" Bliz. the handsomest." 
 
 PEINCESS AUGUSTA TO MISS GOLDSWOaiHY. 
 
 _20fchreb. 
 '' I have the pleasure, my dearest Gooly, of telling you we 
 had the happiness of a Visit from my dear Papa. Last night he came 
 up stairs at 7 and staid till | past 9. Thank God my dearest 
 GouUy, for this Comfort. Thank God for his great mercy to us. 
 I am so very happy that I really could hardly beleive my eyes when 
 I saw him : he was so composed, so kind, so exactly what you and 
 all our real friends could wish. The Gentlemen below declared 
 they never saw him better than when he quitted us, and he has 
 had a Charming night of 7 hours sleep. Your most affect, my 
 dearest GouUy 
 
 "Augusta Sophu." 
 
 " The P=5 Augusta and the D. of T.," adds Mrs. Harcourtj 
 " was now continually with the Q"" endeavouring to regain her 
 favour & trying to obtain it for the Prince. The Queen said 
 there were parts of his conduct she could never forget, & instanced 
 his setting Sheridan to answer her letters. The King had 
 related this to Mr. Digby & said tears were shed on both sides. 
 But the King looked to amendment of conduct not declarations. 
 
 tf pas Royal told me the P. of Wales had won money of the 
 D. of Bedford at Newmarket & upon the Course as they were 
 riding about he called out to the Duke, You know it don't signify 
 what you lose to me as your Brother-in-law, on which the D. of 
 Orleans said, Qu'est que c'est que qa que vous lui dites la ? Je 
 I'appelle (said the Prince) mon beau-frere. — Qu'est que 9a vent 
 dire ; est-ce que la Pitzherbert a une Soeur ? — Non, non (said the 
 Prince), il est I'amant de ma Soeur aine, il en est foUe. 
 
 " Dr. Willis had now prepared the King's mind. He said he had 
 told the K. of the intended Regency & what day it was to have finally 
 passed. That he was struck as he ought with the mercy of God, 
 who had restored him at so critical a juncture, & that he expressed 
 
]82 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 unfeigned Gratitude to tlie Divine author of all Good. Said lie 
 felt so impressed with it, & with such perfect resignation to the 
 will of him who had afflicted him, that he could bear any reverse 
 or any thing vexatious he might have to know, as under such 
 circumstances he ought to bear it. 
 
 " He told his Majesty the great part M'' Pitt had acted & his 
 obligations to him. The King told M"^ Smelt afterwards he 
 would rather have been obliged to the Nation and next to the 
 Nation to his Fred**^ than to any Individual, but he seemed on 
 the whole reconciled to M"^ Pitt, anxious to see him & likely to 
 receive him kindly." 
 
 Yet Dr. Willis was much dissatisfied with the remuneration 
 offered to him for his great services. He complained of coldness 
 on the part of the King. ." He only now learnt that he was to be 
 rewarded with £1000 a-year for 20 years — £500 a-year for the 
 life of D" John. Tom Willis was to have his Bxpences p"* & 
 to be provided for in the Church. D"^ W. allowance was to be 
 from the King's purse not from Pari'." The other Physicians 
 had their Expenses paid as follows : 
 
 Dr. Geo. Baker £13,000 
 
 Dr. Warren 1,000 
 
 Eeynolds 900 
 
 Pepys & Gisburne 700 
 
 Dr. John Willis, when eighty years of age, and some forty 
 or fifty years after the transaction, was still complaining (to 
 Mr. Julian Young) of Mr. Pitt's having broken his promises. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1789. 
 
 On February 26tli tlie King again saw Ms favourite son, "Hs 
 Frederick," to whom lie would rather be obliged, he said to 
 Mr. Pitt, than to any one, and received from him the keys of his 
 papers, jewels, etc. The King received them with many 
 expressions of delight, which the young Prince told and reported 
 as evidence of his insane state.* 
 
 His pitiless G-erman mother was determined not to let father 
 and sons be reconciled. Almost at the first opportunity the 
 Prince had given her a number of papers to be laid before 
 the King, which included his correspondence with Pitt, and an 
 explanation of his own behaviour. On the 6th of March, having 
 received no answer, he wrote to know if she had delivered his 
 documents, and pressed for an interview with his father. " The 
 <3ueen sent him some excuse," writes Sir Gilbert Elliot, " for not 
 answering that day (not choosing, in fact, to give an answer till 
 she could see the Chancellor next morning) ; accordingly, yester- 
 ■day the Prince received her answer, that she had mentioned the 
 matter to the King, but that he had not asked to see him. The 
 request for an interview she did not notice. The Duke of 
 York seems to have been always admitted, amusing himself by 
 describing his father's conversation, saying it was made up of 
 childish remarks, or rational, with occasional instances of singu- 
 larity." 
 
 On one occasion, however (March 4th), when the Duke tried to 
 
 * He kissed them, and said : " My dear key ! my favourite key ! " which 
 even Sir Q. Elliot, carried away by the distortion of party, declared " was 
 perfectly unlike sound reason in anybody." The Duke had, of course, given 
 ithis account at the headquarters of the Opposition. 
 
184 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 obtain admittance^ lie was met by Dr. Willis, who declared that 
 it was improper that he should see the King. On which the 
 young Prince lost his temper, and threatened to knock him down 
 if he dared to oppose him. "Dr. Willis then besought permission 
 to apprise the Queen of the visit. To this the Duke consented, 
 stipulating that the doctor should not be present at the inter- 
 view, which his royal highness declared should take place. The 
 Queen then hastened to the King^s apartment, and the Duke was 
 admitted. His royal highness did not depart with favourable 
 impressions of the King's state; he scrupled not to declare, that 
 he thought his Majesty very deficient in mental powers, and 
 that he believed something like fatuity had succeeded to irrita- 
 tion. On Thursday, the 12th, the Duke of York visited his 
 Majesty, whom he found carefully examining a great number of 
 spectacles, and selecting with peculiar care some which he said 
 were for his dear Eliza. To change the conversation, the Duke 
 informed his Majesty that he had three desertions from his regi- 
 ment. The King, impatient of the interruption, broke out into 
 violent abuse of the Duke and his regiment, and became so 
 perturbed, that the Queen was obliged to command the attendance 
 of Dr. Willis. On his appearance, the storm instantly subsided ; 
 his Majesty became quite composed : he talked of an intention to 
 visit Germany ; told the Duke that he should send over a curricle 
 and six small greys, and drive the Queen and himself through 
 that country." 
 
 On March 7th, a letter was written and sent to the Prince 
 from the Queen enclosing one from the King to her, in which he 
 virtually declined to see his sons, on the ground of avoiding all 
 business and agitation. How wrong the Queen was all through 
 this transaction may be fairly gathered from her behaviour later 
 on, when her son was engaged in his quarrel with Colonel Lenox. 
 
 On which the Prince of Wales addressed the following letter 
 to the Queen, the draft of which is corrected and the date 
 aimexed in the handwriting of Mr. Fox : 
 
 THE PEINCE OP WALES TO THE QTJEEN. 
 
 " Carlton House, March 9th, 1789. 
 " Madam, 
 
 " The contents of your Majesty's note were really of too 
 much importance, and of too painful a nature, for me to return 
 an immediate answer. I have shown them to my brother, whose 
 sentiments agree entirely with mine, and who feels as I do the 
 distressing alternative that is offered us, of leaving our conduct 
 unexplained to the King, or of obtruding upon him a discussion 
 
THE LIFE OE GEOKGE IV. 1&5 
 
 wHcli may have the effect of agitating him too much. In this 
 situation, however, we do not hesitate to sacrifice everything to 
 our tenderness for his Majesty, and do not desire he should be 
 further troubled upon our account at present. We have too 
 Hvely an impression of what they have to answer for, who have 
 brought or suffered others to bring business before the King at a 
 time when all agitation is improper, to be guilty of anything 
 liable to a similar construction. But I trust we shall be permitted 
 to represent to your Majesty a few facts and circumstances 
 relative to the peculiarity of our situation, with the truth of 
 which you are perfectly well acquainted. I conceived myself to 
 have a promise from your Majesty that the papers which I had 
 sent you should be given the King at the first moment of his 
 being in a proper state to attend to business. Relying upon this 
 promise, I thought myself authorised to disbelieve all the reports 
 which the Ministers had so industriously circulated, of their 
 having laid business before his Majesty, and explained to him 
 what had passed during his illness. But when the Chancellor 
 and Mr. Pitt made their respective declarations in the two Houses 
 of Parliament last Thursday, I could not but suppose there had 
 been some truth in what I had before treated as idle rumour, and 
 wrote to your Majesty in consequence. 
 
 " Feeling as my brother and I do for the King's quiet and 
 repose, we consider the answer sent to us as a prohibition with 
 respect to any present explanation of our conduct; and thus, 
 instead of having the preference, to which we had so just a claim, 
 and which we were induced to expect, we dare not even attempt 
 to counteract the impressions which our enemies, who have daily 
 access to the King, may have given of the part we took in the 
 late important occurrences. Your Majesty must surely be of 
 opinion that this state of things is neither decent nor just, and 
 that whoever is responsible for what passed at Kew since the 
 King's convalescence, has much indeed to answer for. I forbear 
 to say anything more upon this painful subject, nor should I 
 have said so much, if I had not thought that I owed to my 
 brother and myself to make your Majesty this true representation 
 of these peculiar hardships of our situation. 
 
 " I am," etc. 
 
 The draft of another note, says Lord Russell, in the handwriting 
 of the Prince himself, without date, but manifestly written on 
 this occasion, deserves insertion, because it shows what were his 
 spontaneous feelings and surmises on this extraordinary refusal 
 of a father to listen to the vindication of his children. 
 
186 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV, 
 
 THE PEINCE OP 'WAIiES TO THE QUBEN. 
 
 ^' Madam, 
 
 " The contents of your Majesty's note were really of too 
 mucli consequence and of too painful a nature for me to return 
 an immediate answer, before I liad first seen my brother, and 
 consulted with him whether he saw in the same point of view 
 and with the same regret what appeared to me a prohibition on 
 y' just claim we both conceived we had on the paternal goodness 
 and affection of his Majesty, and w'', we are confident, w"^ have 
 induced his Majesty to have furnished us with the earliest oppor- 
 tunity of informing him of what had passed, and of explaining 
 and justifying our own conduct, if the interested advice of some 
 persons desirous of sowing dissension between our father and 
 ourselves, and of concealing the truth from him, had not inter- 
 fered. Under this impression, we have taken the liberty of 
 writing to his Majesty ; and we wait the result of our letter with 
 y^ most anxious impatience, still confiding y', with y^ assistance of 
 your Majesty's gracious and affectionate endeavours, we may be 
 favoured with the opportunity of communication with him, w'', 
 tho' denied to us, has been granted to others, who neither by 
 affection, duty, or blood, are attached to his Majesty as we are. 
 With the most respectful submission, I have y^ honour to subscribe 
 myself. Madam, 
 
 " Tour Majesty's," etc.* 
 
 On March 10th, the Houses met to address his Majesty. The 
 King was still represented by the commission ; so that even here 
 there was an embarrassment. How was the Bang's recovery to 
 be officially known ? From what point did it date ? Who was 
 entitled to say he was recovered ? There was talk of an examina- 
 tion by the physicians ; but all were eager not to raise difficulties. 
 But even here the family rancour intruded ; and Lord Radnor 
 heard that the Duke of York had positively determined to have 
 made a motion, the day previous to the address, tending to show 
 that the King was still in a state of insanity ; but, having felt his 
 ground, he dropped the thought.f This scarcely seems credible. 
 
 In the Lower House, Fox, on the address being moved, pro- 
 posed another to the Prince, who, he said, was also entitled to 
 congratulation on the manner in which he had behaved during 
 the crisis ; but this was put aside. 
 
 Then followed jubilations and festivities. As the King returned 
 to Kew from Windsor, he was greeted, Mrs. Harcourt says, with 
 bursts of joy. At night the City was illuminated. The King of 
 
 * " Correspondence of Charles James Fox," v. 305. 
 f Auckland, " Correspondence," ii. 306. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 187 
 
 France ordered His ambassador to give a f^te. " But ttose 
 about the Court were very uneasy at the King's hurried manner, 
 and the captious temper which he betrayed, evidently produced 
 by the unusual bustle and the premature intercourse with the 
 public." He was full of all kinds of plans for travelling, 
 building, etc. 
 
 About the 1 7thj Lord Chesterfield waited on the Queen with 
 an invitation from the gentlemen of "White's Club, which pro- 
 posed giving the royal family a ball, in honour of the King's 
 recovery. The Court itself proposed some festivities, and it will 
 now be seen what rancour was imported into these gaieties, and 
 how the narrow vindictiveness of a German court was suffered to 
 direct all the proceedings that followed — which offers, perhaps, the 
 best excuse for the behaviour of the Prince. 
 
 The illuminations were of the most spontaneous kind, and 
 extended even into the suburban districts. The whole country 
 seemed ablaze with lights. The reckless Princes, whose good- 
 humour and love of enjoyment never flagged, took what pleasure 
 they could out of the festival. 
 
 " On the day of the illumination the Princes dined with the 
 Irish deputies at Lord Hertford's," writes Sir Gr. Elliot. ' The 
 Prince and the Duke of York went away together in the Prince's 
 coach, and were going to the opera. In some of the narrow 
 streets the coach was stopped by other carriages, and the mob 
 soon knew the Princes. They called, ' God save the King ! ' 
 while the Prince, letting down his glasses, joined them in 
 calling very heartily, and hallooed, 'Long live the King,' and 
 so forth with the mob. But one man called out to him to cry, 
 ' Pitt for ever ! or God bless Pitt ! ' The Prince said he would 
 not ; but called out, ' Fox for ever, and God bless Fox ! ' The 
 man and, I believe, some others began to insist on his saying, 
 ' Pitt for ever ; ' and I believe he said, ' Damn Pitt — Fox for 
 €ver ! ' on which a man pulled the coach-door open, and the 
 Prince endeavoured to jump out amongst them in order to defend 
 himself ; but the Duke of York kept him back with one arm, 
 and with the other struck the man on the head, and called to the 
 coachman to drive on, which he did at a great pace, the coach- 
 door flapping about as they went ; and so they got to the opera. 
 From the opera the Prince, accompanied by some of his friends, 
 among whom was Tom Pelham, would walk to Carlton House; 
 and from thence he chose also to walk abroad the streets to see 
 the illuminations. But they persuaded him first to call at 
 Brookes'. They accordingly made their way on foot through the 
 crowd along Pall Mall. He was soon known, but not insulted ; 
 and several people called, ' God bless your Highness ! ' which he 
 
188 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE TV. 
 
 was mucli pleased with. They also called, ' Long live the King f ' 
 which he always joined in as loud as any of them. At St. James' 
 he fell in with a gang of butchers, with marrow-bones and 
 cleavers, who knew him, and began immediately to play before 
 him ; and he found it impossible to get rid of them. They accord- 
 ingly cleared the way for him, playing and shouting all the way 
 up St. James' Street. When they came to Brookes', they gave 
 him three cheers ; and the Prince in return hallooed out, ' Long 
 live the King ! ' and gave them three cheers himself. He then 
 sent them ten guineas to drink. He heard at the same time that 
 Lord Charlemont and another Irish deputy were on the other side 
 of the street, and could not get across ; on which he gave to the 
 chairmen nine guineas to help them across. From Brookes' 
 Pelham persuaded him to order his coach and go home, which he 
 did." 
 
 This spirit was admired, and there was wonder expressed that 
 he had not the good luck to be exceedingly popular. Still striving 
 to obtain access to his father, he found himself frustrated by his 
 mother, with whom he had an angry altercation on the subject. 
 ",The Prince of Wales," says Sir Gr. Elliot, "has had a smart 
 tussle with the Queen, in which they came to strong and open 
 declarations of hostility. He told her that she had connected 
 herself with his enemies, and had entered into plans for destroying 
 and disgracing him and all her children, and that she countenanced 
 misrepresentations of his conduct to the King, and prevented the 
 explanations he wished to give. She was violent and lost her 
 temper ; and the conversation ended, I believe, by her saying 
 that she would not be the channel of anything that either he or 
 the Duke of York had to say to the King, and that the King did 
 not mind what either he or the Duke of York either did or said 
 or thought." 
 
 The enthusiasm was setting fast in favour of the recovered 
 monarch. 
 
 " I have never seen a greater crowd at the Court, so great 
 that I was never within a room of the Queen. All the women, 
 with only two or three exceptions, had caps with ' God save the 
 King ! ' on them — our ladies as well as the others. All of us went 
 to court. 
 
 " The King is in London to-day — I believe for the first time 
 since his illness. He persists in going to St. Paul's, although 
 every means have been tried to dissuade him." * 
 
 "Inflamed by these exciting scenes the Queen carried her 
 * Sir G. Elliot, v. 288. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 189 
 
 kostility still further. It was proposed to give a concert and 
 entertainment at Windsor, on April 2nd, in return for tlie 
 sympathy that had been displayed. To this the Princes 
 received no invitation ; and it almost seemed that the injudicious 
 Queen had determined to exclude them. She sent for the Duke 
 of York, and delivered to him a message from the King. ' I am 
 commissioned by the King to acquaint the Prince of Wales and 
 you that there is to be a concert here on Thursday next, to which 
 you will be very welcome, if you like to come ; but it is right to 
 tell you that it is given to those who have supported us through 
 the late business, and therefore you may possibly not choose to 
 be present.'* The Duke of York tried to laugh the thing off, 
 and said, ' Then it is given to the whole nation, for all parties 
 have supported the King according to their different opinions of 
 his interests.' f But the Queen would not let him off so, and 
 said, ' No, no ; I don't choose to be misunderstood. I mean 
 expressly that we have asked the ministers, and those persons, in 
 short, who have voted in Parliament for the King and me.' 
 
 "The Duke of York was amazingly angry, as you may suppose, 
 and said that he did not understand the sort of distinction 
 attempted to be made ; that his brother and himself did not yield 
 to any person in the kingdom for loyalty and affection for the 
 King; and since this sort of distinction was to be made, he 
 should certainly not come to the concert. He added, however, 
 that he should inform the Prince of Wales, who would act as he 
 chose. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were both in 
 a violent rage on this attack of the Queen, which charged them 
 in plain words with being enemies to the King ; and they were 
 for sending strong letters or papers of remonstrance and justifi- 
 cation to the King and to the Queen. The Duke of York came 
 to Burke about it, who went to Carlton House, and was very 
 much of the Prince's mind for strong measures, and for an open 
 and explicit explanation. But he advised the Prince to consult 
 his friends first. It was accordingly agreed to assemble some of 
 his friends the next morning, and I was sent for with the rest. 
 The Duke of Portland, to whom Burke went overnight, was very 
 much against any strong measures. I thought it more important 
 to keep the King's house open to the Princes, and to avoid any 
 rupture which might furnish an opportunity for excluding them, 
 than to make their justification at present. It was agreed to 
 support this opinion. It turned out, on the testimony of Colonel 
 
 * Textual, for her son wrote her words down. 
 
 f Even the maids of honour, excepting Miss Brudenell, who had shown 
 her loyalty, were punished, and told they would not be invited. — ^Auckland, 
 ■" Correspondence." 
 
190 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 Goldsworthy, who was by when the King spoke on the matter to 
 the Queen, that the good monarch said that, ' As a matter of 
 course, his sons were to be considered as invited to everything/ 
 So that the rest was an addition of the Queen's/^ 
 
 After many councils a letter of a rather conciliatory character 
 was accordingly written by the Duke of York, as follows : 
 
 " Madam, 
 
 "Having delivered, according to your Majesty's orders, 
 your message to my brother, I lose no time in acquainting 
 your Majesty, that, anxious as we are [and we trust have ever 
 shown ourselves, both in our public and private conduct] to seize 
 every opportunity of testifying our warmest and most dutiful 
 affection and attention to his Majesty, we beg your Majesty to 
 believe that we cannot allow any circumstance whatever to debar 
 us from the happiness of paying our duty to the King [when he 
 is so good as to permit it], and that we shall have the highest 
 pleasure in attending his Majesty at the concert on Thursday."* 
 
 The King, however, according to Mrs. Harcourt, had desired 
 to see the list of divisions in the House of Commons, in order to 
 exclude those who had deserted him in his affliction. f The Oppo- 
 sition declared that he was watched " like a prisoner, and never 
 out of sight of one or other of the head keepers." 
 
 The fSte was a grand demonstration. It was given in 
 St. George's Hall, and attended by all the first people in the 
 kingdom. The ladies all wore "garter blue," a party colour. 
 The Prince and the Duke of York, it was noticed, hardly spoke a 
 word to any of the royal family; the Princess Royal declaring 
 " that he had never been kind to her, but she did not care for 
 that, so long as he was respectful to her parents." J The King was 
 remarkably attentive and kind to the Princes ; the Queen quite 
 the contrary, and, it is said, appeared sour and glum at the 
 King's behaviour to them. Before the place at which the 
 Chancellor sat at supper there was some device in which his- 
 arms were introduced, with a motto alluding to the support given 
 by him to the King. Before Pitt there was a Fame supporting 
 Pitt's arms and the number 268, the first majority in the House 
 of Commons, written in sugar-plums or sweetmeats. At the- 
 concert the music had most of it some allusion to politics. All 
 this is quite new at Court, and most excessively indecent, as the- 
 King is always expected to be of no party, and it is an unconsti- 
 tutional thing that he should even express openly either favour 
 
 * The sentences in brackets were added by Sir Gilbert Elliot, 
 t " Diary," p. 23. J Ibid. p. 16. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 191 
 
 or disfavour on account of any vote in Parliament. But it smells 
 very strongly of the petticoat^ or rather of breeches under 
 petticoats."* At this party there was high play, and Payne won 
 £1000 at faro. This game was now in high fashion^ and four ladies, 
 namely. Lady Archer, Lady EHzabeth Luttrell, Mrs. Strutt, and 
 Mrs. Hobart, kept banks at their houses, which was found to be 
 a most profitable venture. 
 
 But the ball given by White's Club at the Pantheon was to 
 offer yet another display of these animosities. The Prince, it was 
 stated, sent round to his friends to desire that they would not 
 attend it, though a number of tickets were sent to him and his 
 brother. These the royal pair contemptuously sent to "Hook- 
 ham's Library " to be sold to anyone that would buy them ! To 
 meet this the stewards required that the recipient's name should 
 be written on the tickets. They were then sold with the Duke's 
 name attached. At this f^te there were the most extravagant 
 demonstrations of loyalty, the whole company singing " God save 
 the Queen ! " Dr. Willis was the observed of all, and literally 
 "mobbed." He supped beside Mr. Pitt and the Duchess of 
 Gordon, and seemed " all but mad and out of himself with trans- 
 port." And now Brookes's Club followed, rather malgre, it may be 
 assumed, with another fete on the 21st, and the Court ladies gave 
 out they would not attend it, as a rebuke to the Opposition ladies 
 for abstaining from White's. The 23rd of April, the day of 
 the ceremonial of the King's going to St. Paul's to return 
 thanks for his recovery, was not allowed to pass without angry 
 feelings. It was really an affecting display from the delight and 
 loyalty of the crowds, the genuine gratitude of the royal family, 
 the sobbing Princesses, the composure of the so lately afflicted 
 patient. 
 
 But our Princes, who were obliged to form part of the show, 
 according to an ardent courtier. Lord Bulkeley, " behaved in 
 such an indecent manner as was quite shocking." It does not 
 appear that they did more than "talk to each other during the 
 whole time of the service" — an irreverence they probably dis- 
 played on other pious occasions. On the road to and from the 
 Cathedral the demonstration naturally took the shape of rival 
 demonstrations, and it was noted that near Carlton House the 
 King was coldly received, and the Prince warmly; but in the City 
 there was the loudest acclamations for the King, which was said 
 to have put the Prince out of temper. On the return of the 
 procession, when the guards were drawn up before the palace to 
 salute the King and his family, who were at the windows, with a 
 
 * Sir G. Elliot, ii. 300. 
 
192 THE LIFE OF asORGE lY. 
 
 feu dejoie, it was declared that tlie Prince had gone off at the 
 head of a mob, his cook, Weltjie, leading the applause, with the 
 hope of drawing away attention from the King.* The truth was 
 the Prince had hurried home to get on his uniform, and, taking 
 the command of his regiment, proceeded to meet his father and 
 escort him home. At the door he led him in with what was con- 
 sidered by some observers the most affectionate manner. Through 
 all this everyone must acquit the poor harassed King, whose con- 
 dition required the most delicate soothing. The policy of an 
 affectionate wife would surely have been to let the past and all 
 that was connected with it be forgotten; but family quarrels, 
 etc. were terribly agitating for a person in the King's condition. 
 When, early in June, the Duke of York congratulated him on his 
 good looks, and said everyone was struck by them, he replied in 
 private : " What does that signify when I feel myself that I am 
 very ill ? " He complained of weakness, and that riding agitated 
 him so much that he was obliged to give it up. To his sons he 
 was one day harsh, the next tender and affectionate. The con- 
 clusion was that he was kept in subjection by the Queen, and 
 forced to behave in this fashion — indemnifying himself by 
 exhibiting his affection to them. 
 
 It is not difficult to suggest a reason for this behaviour; at 
 least, it was not unnatural that the Opposition faction should do 
 so. It seemed probable that the King would relapse, and that 
 she would use the first opportunity for seizing either the regency 
 or as much power as she could. For the mistakes that had been 
 made during the last crisis in not securing greater power was 
 now evident to her ; or, if he continued in his present nervous 
 condition, she might at least secure the chief direction. In either 
 of these courses there was rather a selfish disregard of the interest 
 of the hapless patient. 
 
 * " Court and Cabinets," ii. 153. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 1789. 
 
 But all tliis bad feeling was now to culminate in the scandalous 
 duel fought between two members of the respective factions : 
 onOj no other than the Duke of York, representing the Prince's 
 side; the other. Colonel Lenox, the Champion of the Court. Sir 
 Gilbert Elliot gives the fullest and most accurate account of this 
 strange transaction. 
 
 " Mr. Lenox (he writes on May 30) had been amusing himself 
 all this winter with abusing and insulting the Prince of Wales 
 and the Duke of York in the most scurrilous and blackguard 
 way, both behind their backs and sometimes to their faces. It 
 was the more blackguard in Lenox as he lived a good deal with 
 both the Princes, and was, indeed, for some time, hardly ever out 
 of the Duke of York's house, whom he bored extremely. Lenox, 
 you know, was graciously forced into the Duke of York's regi- 
 ment, against the rules, or at least common practice, of the army, 
 over all the officers' heads, and without so much as an intimation 
 to the Duke, who was the colonel. This made a great noise in 
 the army, and particularly in the Guards, and most particularly 
 in the Coldstream regiment, which is the Duke of York's. The 
 Duke remonstrated, and took the natural steps for a colonel in 
 such a situation, but without effect, and always without any 
 personal reflections on Lenox, but, on the contrary, with great 
 personal civility towards him. When Lenox was fairly in posses- 
 sion, the Duke of York said to him that though he certainly 
 disapproved of the measure by which he had come into the 
 regiment as prejudicial to the service and offensive to himself as 
 colonel, and had done what he thought his duty in opposing it, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
191 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 that yet he was very glad the thing had happened in the case o£ 
 Mr. Lenox, whom, considering the thing merely in a personal 
 view, he was very happy to have in his regiment. To this gentle- 
 manlike and conciliatory speech Mr. Lenox answered that it was 
 the King's pleasure he should be there, and that was enough for 
 him. I mention this to show the sort of man. Some time after 
 this, Lenox was abusing the Princes and talking offensive 
 language about them and their friends in the presence of the 
 Dake of York at D'Aubigne's Club, when St. Leger said that it 
 was very odd he always chose to say these things to persons who 
 could not resent them. Why don't you say them to some of us 
 who can answer you ? This was the substance. I don't know 
 the terms or the strength of the language in which St. Leger 
 expressed himself. To this Lenox made no answer, and took no 
 notice of it. The Duke of York, it seems, said afterwards to 
 somebody (I don't know who or on what occasion) that Lenox had 
 submitted to language which a gentleman ought not to bear. 
 Lenox, hearing of this, went to the Duke of York on the parade 
 and asked him whether he had not said so, desiring an explanation. 
 The Duke of York acknowledged having said so, but said that 
 was not a proper place for explanation on such a subject. After 
 the parade he went to the orderly-room, and there Lenox renewed 
 the subject in the presence of the officers of the regiment, 
 requiring the Duke of York to inform him what the words were 
 to which he alluded, and who had spoken them. The Duke of 
 York refused to teh him either, because it would be pointing out 
 a quarrel to him, and said there was no occasion for it, as the 
 words were spoken to Mr. Lenox himself, and he must therefore 
 be as well acquainted with them as anybody. Lenox said this 
 laid him under a great hardship, as he was not conscious of any 
 language having been used which he ought to resent, and as the 
 Duke of York refused to inform him of the person who had used 
 it ; adding that the Duke of York was his colonel and the King's 
 son, which placed them on an unequal footing, and made it im- 
 possible for him to have satisfaction, as he might in another case. 
 The Duke desired that he would waive those circumstances, and con- 
 sider him on this occasion exactly as he would any other gentleman. 
 This Lenox declared he could not do, and so they parted. The 
 next thing Lenox did was to write a circular letter, dated May 
 18th, to all the members of the Club, desiring them to inform 
 him if they had heard any language which he ought to resent. 
 
 " ' SlE, 
 
 "'A. report having been spread that the Duke of York 
 had said, "Some words had been made use of to me, in a political 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 195 
 
 conversation, that no gentleman ought to submit to/' I, on the 
 first opportunity, spoke to his royal highness before the officers 
 of the Coldstream regiment, to which I have the honour to 
 belong : his answer was, " That he heard them said to me at 
 D'Aubigne's" ; but he positively refused to tell me the expres- 
 sion, or the person who had used it. In this situation, being 
 perfectly ignorant what his royal highness can allude to, and 
 not being aware that any such an expression ever passed, I cannot 
 find any better mode of clearing up this matter, than by writing 
 a letter to every member of D'Aubigne's Club, desiring each 
 of them to let me know if he can recollect any expression to have 
 been used in his presence, which could bear the construction put 
 upon it by his royal highness, and, in such case, by whom the 
 expression was used. If any such expression should occur to 
 your memory (as you must be conscious of the disagreeable 
 situation in which I am placed), I trust and hope you will take 
 the earliest opportunity of stating it to me. If no such expression 
 occurs to your memory, I would not give you the trouble of an 
 answer, which I should else hope to receive before this day 
 se'nnight. 
 
 " ' I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 " 'Your most obedient humble Servant, 
 
 "'G. Lenox.'" 
 
 " You will see it in the papers. He received no satisfaction from 
 this measure. As he had heard it himself, nobody thought them- 
 selves bound to tell him what he ought to resent. Some of the 
 answers were in a taunting and insulting style. St. Leger's was 
 in substance that he kept no account of club conversation, but 
 that if he had said anything to Mr. Lenox which he wished for 
 satisfaction for, he was ready at all times to give it him. 
 
 " Colonel Lenox not having received any satisfactory answer to 
 his requisition, sent a written message to the Duke, to this 
 purport: — 'That not being able to recollect any occasion on 
 which words had been spoken to him at D'Aubigne's, to which 
 a gentleman ought not to submit, he had taken the step which 
 appeared to him most likely to gain information of the words to 
 which his royal highness had alluded, and of the persons who 
 had used them ; that none of the members of the Club had given 
 him information of any such insult being in their knowledge, and 
 therefore he expected, in justice to his character, that his royal 
 highness should contradict the report as publicly as he had 
 asserted it.' 
 
 " After receiving these unsatisfactory answers, Lenox sent a 
 •challenge to the Duke of York by Lord Winchelsea ; and you 
 
 2 
 
196 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 saw the result in the papers. The Dake of York had a very 
 narrow escape ; and Mr. Lenox had so much an intention to kill 
 hinij that Lord Winchelsea's carriage, with post-horseSj trunks, 
 and imperials, was in waiting at hand during the duel." 
 
 The Duke (says another account), who was then residing at 
 Carlton House, took the utmost care to keep the matter a secret 
 from his brother the Prince of Wales, and the only person he 
 consulted upon it was Lord Rawdon, who, painful and delicate 
 as the commission Avas, could not, in point of honour, refuse to 
 accept the dangerous office of second to his royal highness. The 
 same caution was observed on the following morning, which was 
 the 26th of May, when the Duke, to prevent inquiry, left his own 
 hat at Carlton House, and took one belonging to a domestic. 
 The two seconds issued the following statement, which contains 
 the official account of the duel : 
 
 " In consequence of a dispute already known to the public, 
 his Royal Highness the Duke of York, attended by Lord Rawdon, 
 and Lieutenant-Colonel Lenox, accompanied by the Earl of 
 Winchelsea, met at Wimbledon Common. The ground was 
 measured at twelve paces, and both parties were to fire at a signal 
 agreed upon. The signal being given, Lieutenant-Colonel Lenox 
 fired, and the ball grazed his royal highness's curl. The Duke of 
 York did not fire. Lieutenant-Colonel Lenox observed that his 
 royal highness had not fired : Lord Rawdon said it was not the 
 Duke^s intention to fire ; his royal highness had come out upon 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Lenoxx's desire, to give him satisfaction, and had 
 no animosity against him. Lieutenant-Colonel Lenox pressed that 
 the Duke of York should fire, which was declined, upon a repeti- 
 tion of the reason. Lord Winchelsea then went up to the Duke 
 of York, and expressed his hope that his royal highness would 
 have no objection to say he considered Lieutenant-Colonel Lenox 
 as a man of honour and courage. His royal highness replied 
 that he should say nothing; he had come out to give Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Lenox satisfaction, and did not mean to fire at him : if 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Lenox was not satisfied, he might fire again. 
 Lieutenant- Colonel Lenox said he could not possibly fire again at 
 the Duke, as his royal highness did not mean to fire at him. On 
 this both parties left the ground. The seconds think it proper to 
 add, that both parties behaved with the most perfect coolness and 
 intrepidity. 
 
 ''Rawdon. 
 
 " Winchelsea." 
 
 Two letters were sent off express to town, one to the Prince 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 197 
 
 of Wales, and the other to the Duke of Cumberlaiid, giving them 
 an account of the proceedings. At the instant of his brother's 
 return, the Prince set out for Windsor, lest rumour should have 
 given his parents an incorrect and exaggerated narrative of the 
 business. 
 
 "Jack Payne," Sir Gilbert Elliot resumes, "told me yesterday 
 of the manner in which the business was received by the King 
 and Queen. Observe, in the first place, that the second who 
 carried the challenge, and went out with Lenox, is a Lord of the 
 King's Bedchamber, son of Lady Charlotte Finch, who is in the 
 Queen's family. While the duel was going on, the Prince of 
 Wales was walking about in the yard at Carlton House, in great 
 agitation. The Duke of York brought the account himself, and 
 only said, ' Brother, it is all over, and all is quite well ; but I 
 have no time to tell you particulars, for I must go to the tennis- 
 court.' On which the Prince wished the tennis-court at the 
 bottom of the sea, and made the Duke of York relate what had 
 passed." 
 
 Though the Duke of York's conduct may appear to have been 
 ungenerous in his refusal of explanations before and at the 
 meeting, it must be considered that he was resenting the abuse 
 of himself and his brother, which the Court champion indulged 
 in. To those of the present generation this episode will seem 
 amazing. Everything connected with it shows that it was owing 
 to the enmity of the factions. It would hardly be supposed that 
 this fury would have been directed against a young Prince of 
 the Blood, and that a subject would have deliberately sought to 
 take the life of one in so high a station. That Colonel Lenox 
 was deliberately "set on" by the Court faction, as it was stated 
 by the Opposition, is incredible; yet, from the subsequent 
 adoption of the aggressor by the Court, it would almost seem to 
 be true. Such was their passion that the Court at once took up 
 his cause against the Prince. The Duke, it was admitted, 
 behaved, according to the code of duelling, with much spirit 
 and courage ; and it was clearly believed he was acting as the 
 champion of his brother's cause. Can it be wondered at that it 
 was believed that the Court looked with favour on this attempt 
 to take the life of the Duke, when we read of the extraordinary 
 behaviour of the Queen ? 
 
 Once more the lively Sir Gilbert shall recount what gossip he 
 picked up on the subject : 
 
 "As soon as the Prince of Wales had learnt the particulars, 
 he set off for Kew with the Duke of Clarence, and sent up a 
 message to the King by Colonel Goldsworthy, that he wished to 
 speak to the King immediately for five minutes, and that he 
 
198 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 wislied the King to be alone. Colonel Goldsworthy delivered the 
 message to the King, who said : ' Very well, very well ; but I 
 want just to go up to the Queen first.^ The Prince was. 
 accordingly admitted to the King, Queen, and Princesses. He 
 said he had something particular to say, and wished that the 
 Princesses might not be present. They retired, and he then 
 related to the King and Queen the previous circumstances which 
 led to the duel, and turned about to the Queen and said: 'Madam, 
 you know 1 acquainted you with these circumstances a week ago,* 
 (which he had done in the view of having the thing stopped by 
 authority). The King said: 'Ay, indeed! I never heard a word 
 of it before.^ The Prince then related what had passed in the 
 duel, and when he mentioned the circumstance of the ball having 
 passed through the curls, the King gave a shudder and made a 
 little noise expressive of terror, which was the only mark of 
 sensibility on the occasion which he ventured to show. The 
 Queen heard it all with perfect composure, and without the 
 slightest expression of feeling or agitation. She stood looking 
 out at window ; and when the Prince had told the story, the way 
 in which she expressed her tenderness on the occasion was to say 
 immediately that she understood it was all the Duke of York's own 
 fault, and that, according to her account of the matter, he had 
 showed more anxiety to fight Mr. Lenox than Mr. Lenox had to 
 fight him. The Prince of Wales on this answered that she must 
 have been very much misinformed, and that if she considered the 
 circumstances he was sure she must allow her account was 
 extremely improbable, because if a man was very desirous of 
 fighting another, it was not likely that he should refrain 
 voluntarily from firing at him, and that nobody was very 
 anxious to go out merely for the pleasure of being fired at 
 himself. 
 
 "This interview ended without anything being said by the 
 King or Queen, either of approbation of his conduct or joy at his 
 safety, or any other expression of feeling, or any notice of the 
 Duke of York at all. The Duke of Clarence was not admitted. 
 The day before yesterday the Duke of York went himself to the 
 King and Queen. He saw the King first alone, who was ex- 
 cessively affected and showed the strongest marks of agitation 
 and tenderness for him on this occasion ; but what is remarkable 
 is, that the door being ajar, and the Queen in the next room, the 
 King stole gently to the door and shut it to, that he might not 
 be seen or overheard in these expressions of natural affection. 
 When the Queen came in she took no notice at all of the 
 transaction, good or bad." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 199 
 
 Later he had the whole desci'iption of the scene from the 
 Prince of Wales himself. 
 
 " June 2, 1789. 
 " The account I had from Jack Payne, which I sent you, is 
 pretty right. She has never yet said once that she was glad the 
 Duke of York was not killed ; not once so much as that. When 
 the Duke of York went to the Eng the first time after the duel, 
 I told you of the King having behaved with great feeling and 
 affection. The Queen, on the contrary, did not say one word to 
 him on the subject; and the first and only thing she said was, 
 ' Did you think Boodle's ball full last night ? ' At the French 
 ambassador's ball she not only received Mr. Lenox very graciously, 
 but afterwards, when there was no occasion for it, kissed her fan 
 to him half the length of the room two or three times, taking 
 pains to mark her favour as conspicuously as she could." 
 
 On May the 31st, when the Duke and Lady Charlotte Pinch 
 were with her, she did nothing but inquire about Lord Winchelsea, 
 and how he was and what he was doing, affecting to a particular 
 interest in him, which, considering he had been second to Colonel 
 Lenox, was scarcely an agreeable topic for her son. What 
 inflamed this rage was the fact that the Duke of Richmond, 
 Colonel Lenox's father, had deserted the Opposition during the 
 Regency debates. The son of Colonel Lenox, who still lives, 
 relates that the Prince made a sneering remark to the effect that 
 " the Lenoxes don't fight," * which was of course repeated. 
 These bitter hues are found in the Rolliad : 
 
 When thj rash arm designed her favourite dead, 
 The Christian triumphed and the mother fled. 
 No rage indignant shook her pious frame, 
 No partial doting swayed the saintlike dame ; 
 But spurned and scorned where honour's sons resort, 
 Her friendship soothed thee in thy mother's court. 
 
 That this account of the mother's behaviour was no partial 
 one will be seen from the passages in the letter to the King, in 
 which her eldest son bitterly complains of her conduct. f A more 
 extraordinary indictment of a queen by her son, and addressed 
 to his father, could not be produced. 
 
 * " Eeminiscences," i. 7. 
 
 f Mrs. Harcourt, who was a sem-etis at the Court, well expresses the 
 view taken of the duel there when she says " it was owing to the cruel insult 
 offered to Colonel Lenox. The Duke of York's whole conduct greatly 
 lowered him among his friends." — " Diary," p. 26. 
 
200 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 " The very extraordinary and, I believe, unparalleled event 
 whicli has lately taken place between my brother, the Duke of 
 York, and a private gentleman, an officer in his regiment, and a 
 person nearly connected with one of your Majesty's Cabinet 
 ministers, furnishes me, unfortunately, with too much matter 
 on this subject. I do not wish to trouble your Majesty with 
 a particular examination of all the circumstances which conducted 
 my brother into that transaction, in which, however, I am per- 
 suaded your Majesty will be happy, on consideration, to find that 
 the Duke of York has distinguished himself as eminently for 
 sound judgment and an honourable character, as for the spirit 
 and personal courage which belongs to your Majesty's blood. It 
 is not the event itself, but some collateral circumstances attending 
 it, which I would advert to. 
 
 " Whatever the nature of Mr. Lenox's complaint was, it must 
 be allowed that a challenge from an officer to his colonel is an 
 unusual transaction, and one which is extremely opposite to the 
 general notions of discipline and subordination in the army. It 
 must be allowed that a challenge from a private man, one of your 
 Majesty's subjects, to a Prince of the Blood, and especially to one 
 so nearly allied to the throne, is still more unusual ; and if drawn 
 into a practice, must be deemed productive of very important 
 consequences to the tranquillity of the nation, and the security of 
 the succession. The circumstance to which I would draw your 
 Majesty's attention is, that Mr. Lenox was publicly countenanced 
 by your Majesty's minister the very day on which the event took 
 place ; was received the next day in a very public assembly, and 
 on many other occasions since, with every mark of graciousness 
 and favour by the Queen ; and is not yet known to have received 
 any signification of your Majesty's displeasure. I must also 
 entreat your Majesty's attention to another most remarkable 
 circumstance : the challenge was delivered to your son ; and his 
 antagonist was attended to the field by a Lord of your Majesty's 
 Bedchamber — one who is not merely a political servant, but 
 belongs to your Majesty's family, and is immediately attending 
 on your person. His mother is in the family of the Queen ; and 
 he and his family have dwelt almost the whole of their lives 
 at your Court, in your Palace, and enjoying eminently your 
 Majesty's and the Queen's constant favour and bounty. 
 
 ''Thus circumstanced. Lord Winchelsea did not think it 
 incumbent on him to resign his situation in your Majesty's 
 family. Lord Winchelsea has not been dismissed from your 
 Majesty's service, nor has he received any reprimand or other 
 expressions of your Majesty's disapprobation, but still approaches 
 your Majesty's person, and to the world must undoubtedly 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 201 
 
 appear to enjoy at Court the same grace and favour as before 
 this extraordinary transaction. I hope your Majesty "will not 
 believe me capable of insinuating that these or any other circum- 
 stances can ever convey to my mind the most remote suspicion 
 that to attempt the life of the Duke of York, or to be voluntarily 
 accessory in putting it in danger, or even to be forward in 
 espousing the quarrels of his enemies, are things not displeasing 
 to your Majesty, much less a road to favour. I do most solemnly 
 protest that neither I nor any of my brothers have ever for a 
 moment harboured a thought so undutiful, so monstrous, and, we 
 know, so false and injurious to your Majesty. We are, on the 
 contrary, firmly convinced, and it has been often our only con- 
 solation in the midst of our afflictions, of your Majesty's tender, 
 affectionate, and indulgent love for us and all your children. We 
 do assure your Majesty that this is our frequent theme, and that 
 our hearts overflow with gratitude and duty whenever we reflect 
 on your Majesty's kind and paternal disposition, which, we 
 acknowledge with joy, was never manifested more signally than 
 in the kindness with which we were happy enough to be received 
 by your Majesty, when we were restored to your Majesty's 
 presence on the joyful occasion of your late recovery. On the 
 other hand, we humbly and earnestly entreat your Majesty, on 
 our parts, not to believe those who tell you that we do not love 
 you. Whoever they may be, they are your enemies as well as 
 ours. But it is in proportion to our own affection for your 
 Majesty, to our own confidence in your love, and to the value which 
 we set upon it, that we may contemplate with pain and anxiety every 
 circumstance which to others may seem to render those blessings 
 questionable. Permit me, therefore, to observe to your Majesty, 
 that the world is so framed, and judges so grossly the appearance 
 of things such as they strike the eye, that undoubtedly, in this 
 late transaction, a most ungracious impression must be made on 
 the minds of many. They will not fail to remark that Mr. Lenox 
 could have no difficulty in finding a second against the Duke of 
 York out of his father's family. 
 
 " As soon as I had learnt the happy account of my brother's 
 safety, and had received the particulars of the affair from himself, 
 I flew to Kew, in order to communicate to your Majesty the 
 fortunate issue of a business which had well-nigh proved so fatal. 
 Your Majesty received the account with all the tenderness, 
 affection, and anxious sensibility which belong to your paternal 
 goodness, and which the occasion could inspire in the breast of the 
 kindest father. It is a matter, then, of deep affliction, as well, I 
 am sure, as a circumstance of great and anxious alarm, that I 
 should be compelled to contrast the deportment of the Queen on 
 
202 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 this occasion with that of your Majesty. Tour Majesty knows 
 that I had requested a private audiencOj and that my wish was to 
 have communicated this event to your Majesty's ear alone. I 
 considered the transaction as of too delicate and of much too- 
 aif ecting a nature to be broken abruptly to the Queen ; and it was 
 therefore with regret that I found myself under the necessity of 
 relating in her presence an affair^ the very nature of which was 
 agitating to a mother, and in which some circumstances were 
 sufficiently critical and alarming to shake even the constancy of 
 your Majesty, and to draw from you expressions of parental 
 solicitude and even horror, which, while they did honour to your 
 Majesty's feelings, were surely to be more naturally looked for in 
 a mother on such an occasion. Tour Majesty is my witness, that 
 during the whole relation the Queen did not utter a syllable either 
 of alarm at the imminent danger which had threatened the life of 
 my brother but an hour before, of joy and satisfaction at his 
 safety, or of general tenderness and affection towards him, which 
 might appear natural in moments thus afflicting. Nor were these 
 the only testimonies of indifference that I was obliged to observe. 
 For your Majesty must well remember that the first word the 
 Queen pronounced, and the whole tenor of the only conversation 
 she afterwards held, was a defence of Mr. Lenox's conduct, 
 strongly implying a censure on that of my brother. 
 
 " The Duke of Tork had himself the happiness of seeing your 
 Majesty the next day, and enjoyed in that interview the in- 
 expressible satisfaction of receiving from your Majesty every 
 token of tenderness and sensibility which his situation could 
 draw from the best and most affectionate parent. Tour Majesty's 
 kindness has been the subject of our admiration and gratitude 
 ever since, and the impression it has made on us can never be 
 erased from our hearts. Tour Majesty is again our witness that 
 at this first meeting with the Duke of Tork, the Queen observed 
 a total silence on the subjecb which had thus affected your 
 Majesty. This recent and interesting event was not even 
 alluded to, and on such a day her Majesty condescended only 
 to address my brother on the most indifferent topics. Since that 
 period it is matter of public notoriety, and has no doubt been so 
 of public observation, that Mr. Lenox has received the most 
 distinguishing marks of her Majesty's approbation on every 
 occasion on which they could be bestowed, and has been 
 permitted, if not invited, to mix even in the personal society 
 and amusements of your Majesty's family. This conduct I am 
 confident he would not have dared to hold if your Majesty had 
 been present, nor can the world suppose him to have hazarded 
 what must have appeared even to himself, at least, so shocking 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 20? 
 
 an indecorum without being well assured that it would not have 
 been disapproved of by the Queen.^^* 
 
 Nor did the scandals end here. A ball was given at St. James's 
 Palace on the King's birthday. Colonel Lenox was invited, and 
 actually danced in the very set with the Prince of Wales and his 
 brothers ! There was, at least, a want of taste in this proceeding,, 
 and the Prince, no doubt glad of the opportunity, took a step 
 which was a surprise for the company. As he was dancing 
 down the country dance with his sister, and turning each couple, 
 he came to Colonel Lenox and his partner. As the Princess was 
 going to " turn " Colonel Lenox, the Prince stopped short, and, 
 seizing her hand, abruptly led her out of the dance. The Duk& 
 of York, who came next, turned Colonel Lenox and danced on ; 
 but his brother, the Duke of Clarence, followed the example of 
 the Prince of Wales. The Queen asked him — though she must 
 have known the reason of his behaviour — " was he tired ? " H& 
 answered, " Not at all." She then supposed " he found it too 
 hot." L'ritated by this hypocrisy — for she must have known what 
 was the cause of offence — he broke out with a reply that "in such 
 company it was impossible not to find it too hot." " Then," said 
 the Queen, "I suppose you mean that I should break up the 
 ball?" to which. the Prince replied that "it was the very best 
 thing she could do." And accordingly she gave the signal for 
 retiring. f 
 
 Some odd incidents were associated with this affair. Out 
 of this rencontre another arose — between Colonel Lenox and 
 Mr. Theophilus Swift, an Irish gentleman — occasioned by some 
 strong language which the latter had thought proper to make use 
 of respecting the duel, in a publication addressed to the Kiug. The 
 parties met at Bayswater, and Mr. Swift was severely wounded. 
 
 The Bishop of Llandaff offered " his warmest congratulations" 
 to the Duke on a late event ; adding that, " As a Christian bishop^ 
 I cannot approve of any man's exposing his life on such an occa- 
 sion. As a citizen, I must think that the life of one so near to 
 the crown ought not to be hazarded like the life of an ordinary 
 man ; but, as a friend to the house of Brunswick, I cannot but 
 rejoice in the personal safety, and in the personal gallantry, too,, 
 of so distinguished a branch of it." 
 
 Colonel Lenox's sister was so touched with the Duke's mag- 
 nanimity that she begged to be allowed to have the curl that had 
 been shot away ! She was gratified ; and from this period, we 
 are told, " the purest friendship " between the parties arose. 
 
 * From the letter to the King, " Correspondence of Fox," ii. 346. 
 f The Prince, however, made a gracious apology to Lady Oatherin& 
 Barnard, who was Colonel Lenox's partner. 
 
204 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 Even on his deathbed the royal personage bethought him of his 
 early associationSj and directed that another lock of his hair 
 should be transmitted to the lady. 
 
 Mr. Eaikes tells us that the Prince never forgave Lord Win- 
 chelsea for his share in the transaction ; and, after the old King's 
 death, he seldom or never appeared at Court. His duel with the 
 Dake of Wellington, however, shows him to have been a weak 
 personage. The Duke of York, in this transaction, as all through 
 his life, showed himself superior to little resentments, and, Mr. 
 Raikes adds, " had always a great esteem for his character, and 
 though from their different modes of life they did not often meet, 
 he never failed to express it. In those days, when his royal 
 highness was in the habit of dining with me, I once asked Lord 
 Winchelsea to meet him, and I was struck by the cordiality with 
 which he greeted him." * 
 
 " The charming manners," adds Lady Minto, in a very just 
 view of the Prince's character, " which threw a glamour over the 
 utter worthlessness of his moral character, were combined with 
 considerable talents and acquirements, and could hardly have 
 existed without them, for perfect good breeding would seem to be 
 either the result of a combination of superior moral qualities 
 — which we know the Prince had not — or of certain mental 
 qualities, such as quickness of perception, readiness, and 
 tact — and these he appears to have possessed in no ordinary 
 degree. Sir Walter Scott remarked that it was impossible to 
 form a fair judgment of the abilities of the man who introduced 
 whatever subject he chose, discussed it just as long as he chose, 
 and dismissed it when he chose j but the remark is only just if 
 abilities of a high order are meant. To do the three things well 
 which Scott enumerated would require, in the society of the men 
 the Prince lived with, no small amount of general information, 
 perception, and observation." 
 
 The following natural and affectionate letter, in reference 
 to the illness of his brother, shows him in a pleasing light : 
 
 THE PEINCE OP TALES TO LOED LOUGHBOKOUGH. 
 
 " York House, half-past 12 o'clock p.m., July 2nd, 1789.t 
 
 " Mt dear Lord, 
 
 "The excessive goodness and friendship I ever have 
 experienced from you, makes me trespass, I assure you much 
 against my wishes, once more upon you, hoping that you will 
 forgive my absence this evening from a party which, I am certain 
 from everything I have hitherto witnessed, must afford the 
 
 * Eaikes, " Journal," i. 468. f Lord Campbell, vi. 213. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEaE IV. 205 
 
 greatest pleasure and delight to all whose minds are perfectly 
 at ease, and who have nothing to occupy them but the hospitable 
 and pleasing reception you give all your friends. But to tell you 
 the truthj my dear Lord, I am very unfit for anything so gay or 
 so agreeable. The anxiety I have undergone the whole of this 
 day has worried me to death; and though, thank God, the 
 physicians assure me that my brother is as well as can be, con- 
 sidering his complaint, yet I should feel miserable to leave him. 
 Could I have the pleasure of seeing you in Bedford Square this 
 night, I should wear the same countenance of pleasure which I 
 am sensible that all those, who have not a sick bed to attend, 
 naturally must do at your house. I am sure, from what I know 
 of you, that you will feel for me, and for once forgive me for the 
 disappointment I occasion myself. 
 
 " I remain, my dear Lord, 
 
 " Ever most sincerely your Friend, 
 
 " Geokge p." 
 
 Indeed, as we follow the embarrassing and disagreeable com- 
 plications in which the Prince was now involved, and consider that 
 this was a young man, barely fi ve-and-twenty, it is impossible not to 
 be surprised at the part he took, and the position he maintained, 
 among men like Fox, Sheridan, Burke, and many more. Through 
 all his folHes there was a certain character, which made itself felt. 
 
 After this hostile encounter, it was felt matters could not rest 
 there ; a bitter and unkind letter addressed by the King to his 
 third son, in which he accused him of taking part with his 
 brothers, brought things to a crisis. It was determined by the 
 Princes that a formal statement of their grievances should be 
 drawn up, and with it a complete vindication of their conduct, and 
 laid before the King. This was to include an indictment of the 
 Queen. The task was entrusted to Sir G. Elliot, who bestowed 
 immense labour and pains upon it ; and during its progress he 
 had many opportunities of seeing and consulting the Prince of 
 Wales, who impressed him in the most favourable manner. 
 
 " He was excessively pleased with it, expressing every now 
 and then his approbation in a very warm and agreeable way. He 
 made, at the same time, several very sensible observations, and 
 suggested some alterations which I think perfectly judicious, and 
 shall certainly adopt. I was very much struck with the appearance 
 of judgment, as well as with the signs of good disposition and 
 proper feeling, which he gave in this interview, and I will venture 
 to say that few princes have had anything like the good or 
 considerable qualities which both the Prince of Wales and the 
 Duke of York possess." 
 
•206 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IV. 
 
 When tte letter was completed, it was laid before a sort 
 of council at Carlton House, and the question was formally 
 debated whether it should be sent forward. The step was 
 strongly opposed by the Duke of Portland and Lord Lough- 
 borough, on the ground that it amounted to burning their ships ; 
 that it forced upon the King the necessity of deciding between 
 the Queen and her son; and there was little doubt which side 
 he would take, under her inspiration or compulsion. The 
 result, probably, would be that the Prince and his party 
 would be forbidden the Court. The Prince himself and the Duke 
 of Clarence, as well as Burke, were eager for taking action. Fox 
 doubted. Before anything was determined, the Prince set off for 
 Brighton, hurrying up as usual in a spasm and proposing to give 
 all the papers to the Chancellor, to lay them before the King 
 when an opportunity offered. It would seem that it was never 
 presented, and it may be presumed to be the best vindication 
 of the Prince that could be offered, 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 " Thinking it probable that I should have been honoured 
 with your commands to attend your Majesty on Wednesday last, 
 I have unfortunately lost the opportunity of paying my duty to 
 your Majesty before your departure from Weymouth. The 
 accounts I have received of your Majesty's health have given me 
 the greatest satisfaction, and should it be your Majesty's intention 
 to return to Weymouth, I trust, Sir, there will be no impropriety 
 in my then entreating your Majesty's gracious attention to a 
 point of the greatest moment to the peace of my own mind, and 
 one in which I am convinced your Majesty's feelings are equally 
 interested. Your Majesty's letter to my brother, the Duke of 
 Clarence, in May last, was the first direct intimation I had ever 
 received that my conduct and that of my brother the Duke of York, 
 during your Majesty's late lamented illness, had brought on us the 
 heavy misfortune of your Majesty^s displeasure. I should be 
 wholly unworthy the return of your Majesty's confidence and 
 good opinion, which will ever be the first objects of my life, if I 
 could have read the passage I referred to in that letter without 
 the deepest sorrow and regret for the effect produced on your 
 Majesty's mind ; though at the same time I felt the firmest per- 
 suasion that your Majesty's generosity and goodness would never 
 permit that effect to remain, without affording us an opportunity 
 of knowing what had been urged against us, of replying to our 
 accusers, and of justifying ourselves, if the means of justification 
 were in our power. 
 
 " Great, however, as my impatience and anxiety were on this 
 
THE LITE OF GEOEGE IV. 207 
 
 subject, I felt it a superior consideration not to intrude any 
 unpleasing or agitating discussions upon your Majesty's atten- 
 tion, during an excursion devoted to the ease and amusement 
 necessary for tlie re-establishment of your Majesty's health. I 
 determined to sacrifice my own feelings, and to wait with resigna- 
 tion till the fortunate opportunity should arrive, when your 
 Majesty's own paternal goodness would, I was convinced, lead 
 you even to invite your sons to that fair hearing, which your 
 justice would not deny to the meanest individual of your subjects. 
 In this painful interval I have employed myself in drawing up a 
 full statement and account of my conduct during the period 
 alluded to, and of the motives and circumstances which influenced 
 me. When these shall be humbly submitted to your Majesty's 
 consideration, I may be possibly found to have erred in judgment, 
 and to have acted on mistaken principles, but I have the most 
 assured conviction that I shall not be found to have been 
 deficient in that duteous affection to your Majesty which nothing 
 shall ever diminish. Anxious for everything that may contri- 
 bute to the comfort and satisfaction of your Majesty's mind, I 
 cannot omit this opportunity of lamenting those appearances of a 
 less gracious disposition in the Queen towards my brothers and 
 myself than we were accustomed to experience; and to assure 
 your Majesty, that if by your affectionate interposition these 
 most unpleasant sensations should be happily removed, it 
 would be an event not less grateful to our minds than satis- 
 factory to your Majesty's own benign disposition. I wiU not 
 longer, etc. etc. 
 
 "G. P." 
 
 The most important portions may be given here : 
 
 I owe to your Majesty (it begins) at all times, an account of 
 my actions; but I am most anxious to render that account of 
 myself and my conduct during the unhappy period of your 
 Majesty's illness ; because while it was full of delicacy, embar- 
 rassment, and difficulty to me, it has been exposed in the same 
 proportion to the malicious or interested misconstruction of others, 
 whom I have reason to think enemies of my honour and welfare, 
 as well as wholly indifferent to those of your Majesty. 
 
 My first object is to regain for myself, and my brother the 
 Duke of York, your Majesty's good opinion and affection. 
 
 Permit me, first, to relate those circumstances which are of a 
 private and domestic nature. 
 
 The severity of your Majesty's disorder having increased to 
 a,n alarming degree, I repaired immediately to Windsor, and, 
 
208 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 disregarding every other object, applied myself wholly to the care 
 of a health so valuable, and to the alleviation of your Majesty's 
 sufferings. I provided what appeared to me the best means for 
 your recovery ; I observed the conduct of those who were 
 entrusted with the immediate attendance on your Majesty; I 
 referred the plan of management to your physicians, and super- 
 intended the due and punctual execution of their directions. In 
 these anxious offices, I had the consolation of being supported by 
 the constant, unwearied, and affectionate attendance and counsel 
 of my brotlier, the Duke of York. It is with satisfaction I 
 inform your Majesty that we desired and received the advice of 
 the Lord Chancellor on every material step that we took. I 
 reflected on the great personal confidence with which your 
 Majesty had distinguished Lord Thurlow ; and the nature as well 
 as eminence of his office seemed to point him out as a person who 
 might be consulted with peculiar propriety in this most critical 
 and delicate posture of affairs. In what manner I was able to 
 discharge these weighty duties, it is not fit that I should be called 
 upon to speak myself ; I choose rather to refer your Majesty to 
 the testimony of the Chancellor, and to that of your Majesty's 
 attendants at that period, who were eye-witnesses of our conduct. 
 This only I think it right to say, that from the hour on which the 
 alarming violence of your Majesty's illness appeared to require 
 the care which I have described, until the removal of your 
 Majesty to Kew, neither myself nor the Duke of York was absent 
 for a day from Windsor, nor suffered any consideration, even of 
 health, much less any lighter avocation, to retain us an hour from 
 your Majesty's chamber, and from the discharge of a duty so dear 
 to us both. 
 
 Next to the care of your Majesty's person, that of your private 
 and domestic affairs appeared to claim my attention. While your 
 Majesty and the Queen continued to reside at Windsor, the 
 money, jewels, papers, and other effects belonging to your 
 Majesty, did not seem to require any particular caution for their 
 security. But on the removal of your Majesty to Kew, I con- 
 sidered it as my duty to provide for the safety of those effects ; 
 and I determined at the same time to do so in such a manner as 
 should be consistent with that scrupulous delicacy which suited 
 the occasion, and which I felt to be becoming in a voluntary, 
 although highly necessary, interference with the affairs of your 
 Majesty not expressly authorised by your Majesty's orders. 
 
 In this view, after mentioning my intentions to the Lord 
 Chancellor and receiving his approbation, I desired the attendance 
 of Lord Brudenell, who is keeper of your Majesty's privy-purse, 
 together with that of Lord Weymouth, whom I judged to be the 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 209 
 
 person whose presence your Majesty would tlie most approve upon 
 such an occasion. I directed them to take, from your Majesty's 
 drawers at Windsor, the jewels and the money which were de- 
 posited there. An account of each was taken on the spot, and 
 they were delivered to the custody of Lord Brudenell, whom I 
 conceived to be the proper ofHcer for that purpose. Lord 
 Brudenell's receipt was taken at the same time, specifying both 
 the jewels and the money which were committed to his charge, 
 and he was directed to deposit these effects in his office, and 
 be answerable for their safe custody, and for their production 
 whenever your Majesty should require it. 
 
 The situation of the apartments at Windsor in which these 
 effects were lodged appeared to me by no means secure, and the 
 suspicion which might get abroad of their value seemed to increase 
 the risk. These circumstances determined me to use the precau- 
 tion I have described for their security. Yet I felt it to be a duty 
 of too delicate a nature, to discharge in my own person, and I 
 selected, to the best of my judgment for this service, those who 
 I thought would be most acceptable to your Majesty on such an 
 occasion. The whole was done in my own presence, but was per- 
 formed solely by the hands of Lord Brudenell and Lord Weymouth. 
 A difficulty occurred concerning your Majesty's papers which were 
 deposited in the same place. It had been the opinion of the Lord 
 Chancellor that, for greater security, they should be removed, and, 
 after being properly docketed, should be deposited in some other 
 place. But observing that they appeared to be arranged with 
 great regularity and method, and being extremely unwilling that 
 any paper of your Majesty's should undergo the slightest inspec- 
 tion, or that your Majesty should even have reason to suspect 
 that they might have been seen by any one, T represented these 
 circumstances to the Chancellor, and, with his consent, deter- 
 mined- to leave them untouched by any hand whatever, exactly in 
 the places and order in which your Majesty had deposited them. 
 I did not conceive that papers were in the same danger as 
 money or jewels; and I judged that it would be most acceptable 
 to your Majesty to find your papers exactly as you had left them. 
 Besides which, I felt an invincible repugnance to permitting, 
 without your Majesty's order^ even that degree of inspection 
 which was necessary for preserving their arrangement, to any 
 persons, however confidential I might know them to be with your 
 Majesty. These were my motives for taking this resolution. The 
 drawers were accordingly locked and the keys enclosed in a paper, 
 which was sealed with Lord Weymouth's seal, as well as with 
 others ; and continued in this manner till it was restored to your 
 Majesty by my brother, the Duke of York, as soon as your 
 
 VOL. I. p 
 
210 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 
 
 Majesty's recovery gave us reason to Relieve tliat you would msli 
 to receive it. 
 
 I have not troubled your Majesty witli the detail of these 
 arrangements in order to claim any positive merit on the occasion. 
 I did my duty, and no more. But as this has been the only 
 occasion in my life in which I have felt an obligation to take on 
 myself the direction of a pecuniary or any similar concern of your 
 Majesty's, I trust only that my conduct in this instance has not 
 been such as to deserve the reproach of personal unkindness 
 towards your Majesty, much less such as to expose me to the 
 dishonourable suspicion of infidelity in trusts of that nature, or to 
 render any degrading and affronting caution more necessary 
 against me than any other person . 
 
 With whatever consciousness of rectitude, and, therefore, with 
 whatever satisfaction I may reflect on the discharge of my duty 
 in this instance, yet I have ever since had strong reasons for 
 regretting the necessity I was under to act in it. For it was the 
 first occasion on which I had the misfortune to feel the Queen's 
 displeasure, and to incur her anger. 
 
 The measures which I have described for securing your 
 Majesty's effects against the attempts either of theft or curiosity, 
 were no sooner known at Kew than her Majesty expressed the 
 most marked disapprobation, and, to my extreme astonishment, 
 condescended, at my next interview, to a species and warmth of 
 reproaches, into which nothing could have surprised or betrayed 
 her Majesty but a degree of passion, which, as I had never 
 witnessed nor believed to exist in her Majesty before, so I 
 accounted it the more remarkable on the present occasion, not 
 conceiving in what manner the circumstances were capable of 
 producing so extraordinary an effect. 
 
 Without ascribing to this cause the unfortunate indisposition 
 which I have ever since experienced in the Queen's mind, I have 
 to lament it, however, as the period from which I must date the 
 first open demonstration of her anger; and I cannot but be 
 sensible that I have never since recovered with her Majesty any 
 share of that confidence or affection which I once considered it 
 my principal happiness to possess so entirely. 
 
 Your Majesty's removal to Kew was directed by a Qabinet 
 Council of your Ministers, who previously assembled at Windsor, 
 and examined your physicians relative to that measure. As soon 
 as that event had taken place, the care of your Majesty fell solely 
 and exclusively into the hands of the Queen. From this period 
 I suddenly found my access to your Majesty prohibited in such a 
 manner that I was immediately excluded from the satisfaction of 
 seeing your Majesty, and, indeed, almost deprived of the privilege 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 211 
 
 to receive authentic information of your Majesty's healtli and 
 situation. 
 
 I cannot describe to your Majestyj nor is it, indeed, easy to 
 ascertain tlie precise means by which this exclusion of myself and 
 of my brother — for it extended to us both — from all personal 
 attendance of dutiful aiiection on your Majesty, was brought 
 about. We had, indeed, a right, as your sons, and we felt it as 
 such, to as free and unreserved personal admission, and to as full, 
 particular, and confidential information on such a subject as any 
 other person whatever, until some provision should be made by a 
 competent authority for our exclusion. But your Majesty must 
 be sensible that many considerations, both of afEectionate caution 
 respecting your Majesty's health, and also of personal delicacy, 
 belonging to the peculiar complexion of the times, rendered it 
 impossible for us to assert and insist on this right, invaluable as 
 we deemed it, when opposed by the various devices and pre- 
 tensions with which the possession of your Majesty's person so 
 abundantly furnished those who wished to remove us from your 
 presence. The consequence was, that notwithstanding all the 
 efforts which the circumstances would allow us to make, we came 
 ultimately to be considered as total strangers in your Majesty's 
 palace, and not only to be debarred from your presence, but from 
 a knowledge even of your Majesty's condition. This exclusion 
 was rendered the more mortifying and irksome to us by our 
 knowledge that while we were debarred from your presence, 
 many other persons who are neither connected with your Majesty 
 by blood, nor, as we believe, attached to your Majesty by sincere 
 affection, as we are, had free admission whenever they desired it. 
 
 It had been the practice of your physicians to send me 
 every day a written account of your Majesty's health, and this 
 communication was naturally somewhat more particular than the 
 public account, communicated at St. James's to all the world. 
 It was, in fact, the only distinction that was made between myself 
 and the rest of your Majesty's subjects. Your Majesty cannot 
 better learn the degree in which it was intended to exclude your 
 sons from intercourse with your Majesty, and knowledge of your 
 situation, than by hearing that an express order was delivered 
 by authority to your Majesty's physicians to refrain from com- 
 municating to me any other account of your Majesty's health 
 than that which was transmitted daily to the lord-in- waiting at 
 St. James's for the information of the public. 
 
 I could not. Sir, but feel, in common with my brother, the 
 Duke of York, both grief and mortification at being thus separated 
 and severed, as it were, from your Majesty's person and family. 
 I have had much reason to lament it since, for reasons which may 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 perhaps throw some light on the motiye of those who . "brought it 
 ahout. PoPj from the first moment of your Majesty's joyfal 
 recovery, your Majesty's ear has, by the banishment of your sons, 
 been exclusively possessed by those who have unfortunately felt 
 either an interest or inclination to misrepresent our conduct, and 
 hurt us in your opinion. I shall for ever account it the greatest 
 calamity of my life, that in the first period of returning health, 
 when your Majesty's mind was yet free from prejudice, your ear 
 untainted by slander, and your heart — as it ever is, but most 
 peculiarly so in those moments of softness which succeed affliction 
 and disease — open to impressions of affection, tenderness, and 
 indulgence, I and my brother, who both have ever loved you, 
 and have never justly forfeited our title to your love, were held 
 in exile from your presence, and condemned to silence, while our 
 enemies were labouring, with every advantage of constant inter- 
 course with your Majesty and the impossibility of being answered, 
 to ruin us in your esteem. 
 
 In laying before your Majesty an account of those transactions 
 which may be deemed of a public and political nature, it is with 
 the utmost pain that I must recall to my own memory, and 
 perhaps wound your Majesty's feelings, by alluding to the un- 
 happy necessity which appeared to arise out of your severe malady 
 for supplying, by a temporary Government, the lamented absence 
 of your Majesty during the continuance of your illness. But I 
 rely both on your Majesty's fortitude, and on the ascendancy 
 which the love of justice has in your mind over every weakness 
 of ordinary natures, for your generous approbation of my resolu- 
 tion to postpone the inferior considerations of sensibility and 
 delicacy, to objects which I know your Majesty rates far higher 
 — the honour of your son, the dignity of your family, and the 
 true interests of your crown and people. 
 
 Supported by this reflection, I cannot hesitate to set before 
 you a view of the new, anxious, and arduous situation in which 
 your Majesty's indisposition suddenly placed me, as well, indeed, 
 as the legislature and the whole nation. 
 
 I am too thoroughly persuaded of the magnanimity as well as 
 the justice of your Majesty's character to feel the smallest appre- 
 hension that any indisposition can arise in your Majesty's mind 
 towards me, from the consideration that all men united, without a 
 single exception, in the opinion that the temporary government 
 ought to be placed in my hands. This appeared a necessary 
 consequence of the relation which I bear to your Majesty, and I 
 am sure your Majesty will consider it, as you justly may, as an 
 acknowledgment made to the claim of your Majesty's blood ; not 
 sought by me nor bestowed by Parliament as a thing personal tO' 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 213 
 
 myself, or as a claim of mine distinct from, mucL. less adverse 
 to, your Majesty's personal interests, or those of your crown. 
 
 Such were the circumstances which compelled me to take 
 any part whatever in the affairs of Government. But I cannot 
 for a moment deny myself the satisfaction of acquainting your 
 Majesty, and I hope it will remain strongly impressed on your 
 Majesty's mind throughout, that this necessity was not declared 
 by me, but was first announced to the world by your Majesty's 
 ministers, who took the lead in proposing and bringing forward 
 every step that has been made for accomplishing this purpose. 
 While I was permitted to attend on your Majesty, my whole mind 
 was engaged, and my whole time employed, in the more interesting 
 cares of private and domestic duty; I refrained altogether, by 
 system as well as inclination, from every object of a different 
 nature. The only perfectly true and correct account that can be 
 given of the part which I took respecting public measures and 
 the affairs of Government is, that I industriously avoided taking 
 any part at all ; I remained from the beginning wholly passive 
 and neutral, until the steps taken by your Majesty's ministers 
 called me unavoidably from this retirement into action ; and ren- 
 dered it my indispensable duty to your Majesty, your people, and 
 myself, to direct my most serious attention to the consideration 
 of public affairs. 
 
 I must once more implore your Majesty to reflect attentively 
 on this circumstance, and allow to it its due weight in the judg- 
 ment you are to form of my conduct. It is far from my object 
 in this address to defend the wisdom of all I did, or omitted to 
 do, in this trying situation. 
 
 He then vindicates his share in the late political transactions : 
 
 I must be permitted to claim, with the greater confidence, 
 the full effect of this determination on your Majesty's mind, as it 
 was not adopted without opposition from one in whose opinion I 
 might have been justified for acquiescing, and under the authority 
 of which I might have sheltered an opposite conduct if I had been 
 disposed to adopt it. I was urged, from an honourable opinion, 
 I am sure, and one which was sincerely entertained by the 
 person to whom I allude, to come forward much earlier in my own 
 person to claim the Government, as falling to me of right during 
 your Majesty's illness, and to take the lead out of the hands of 
 your Majesty's ministers into my own. Such was the opinion of 
 my uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, and he pressed it on me with 
 all the earnestness which belonged to a sincere and fixed opinion 
 on a subject of such moment. 
 
214 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 The first public act in which I had any share was a declara- 
 tion, made at my request by my brother, the Duke of York, to 
 the House of Lords, speaking in his place as a peer of Parliament, 
 on the 15th of December. 
 
 It will be necessary to state in a very few words the sub- 
 ject which was then under consideration. Instead of proceeding 
 to settle the mode in which the GoYernment was to be exercised 
 in your Majesty^s name, your Majesty's ministers thought proper 
 to propose that the two Houses of Parliament should first vote an 
 abstract proposition declaratory of their rights on that occasion. 
 This proceeding appearing to us both unnecessary and dangerous 
 in itself, we could not help considering it, in the intention of 
 those by whom it was proposed, as a measure of pure hostility to 
 me. We were sure at least that its tendency was necessarily 
 injurious, in the highest degree, to my reputation in the country. 
 I was informed that it was not usual for Parliament to come to 
 verbal declarations of their rights previous to exercising them, 
 and that such a measure has only been resorted to in cases where 
 the jealousy of Parliament has been excited by attempts from 
 some adequate authority to dispute or to defeat the privilege which 
 they have asserted. The declaration of the rights of Parliament 
 on this occasion did undoubtedly convey to the world an insinua- 
 tion that they had been attacked ; and as there existed at the 
 time no authority which could give weight or importance to such 
 an attack but mine, the eyes of the world were naturally drawn 
 towards me, and the nation was taught to believe that I had begun 
 the public career to which I was unfortunately called, by some 
 attempt or some claim inimical to the constitution and liberties 
 of the country. I have, however, the satisfaction to assure your 
 Majesty that the contrary was the case, and that I had never 
 made, either directly or indirectly, any claim whatever. I know 
 with certainty that no claim was ever offered to either House o£ 
 Parliament by my authority, and I will venture to assure your 
 Majesty that none was ever made or hinted at, in my name, 
 without my authority. Much pains indeed were taken to mis- 
 interpret some sentiments expressed in debate by persons in 
 whom I avow that I place confidence, and to treat them as 
 propositions dangerous to the rights of Parliament. I cannot in 
 general be supposed to know correctly what passes in debate in 
 the House of Commons, but I have reasons on which I can 
 depend, and which enable me confidently to assure your Majesty, 
 not only that the sentiments alluded to were not such as they 
 were, for obvious purposes, grossly misrepresented over the 
 whole nation to be, but that they were rendered so clear and 
 exphcit by frequent ample and satisfactory explanation that it 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOKGE IV. 215 
 
 ■was impossible even to misapprehend them ; and that the 
 scandalous and libellous perversion of detached words in debate, 
 which were so diligently dispersed from one end of the kingdom 
 to the other, could be the work only of a policy equally indiffe- 
 rent to truthj and adverse to your Majesty, your family, and the 
 welfare and tranquillity of the nation. 
 
 In this view, and in this view alone, I authorised my brother, 
 the Duke of York, to declare in my name to the House of Lords 
 in substance that " I had never declared any opinion whatever 
 concerning this important question, and that, so far from urging 
 any claim on that occasion, I was too well acquainted with and 
 revered too much those principles which had seated the house o£ 
 Brunswick on the throne of these kingdoms, to form a wish for 
 the exercise of any power which should not be sanctioned by 
 that House, and the representatives of the people in Parliament 
 assembled." 
 
 But I am well assured that your Majesty would not condemn 
 the caution which led us to deprecate the agitation of that delicate 
 question, and would surely not charge us on that account with 
 any disregard for your Majesty's personal interests, or those which 
 are most nearly personal to your Majesty — those of your family — 
 if your Majesty had had an opportunity of being acquainted with 
 the nature and tendency of propositions entertained, and even 
 tendered to the nation, though unsuccessfully, indeed, at that 
 critical and speculating period, by a person who stood the 
 highest in authority and in your Majesty's confidence. These 
 propositions were indeed neither adopted by the two Houses nor 
 countenanced by the concurrence of any one opinion besides. 
 
 The sincere respect which I entertain for the acts of the 
 two Houses of Parliament does not, therefore, preclude me from 
 submitting to your Majesty whether some danger might not be 
 reasonably and sincerely apprehended, both to the monarchy and 
 to the constitution in all its points, from a discussion which could 
 furnish an opportunity for promulgating from such a quarter an 
 opinion which went to the total extinction, for the time being, 
 of every existing principle of our Government ; throwing open to 
 arbitrary and undefined discretion every point of our consti- 
 tution, both as to persons or powers; and well calculated, 
 undoubtedly, to prepare — if such a project could anywhere have 
 existed — a competition for the sovereign authority, throughout 
 the British empire, to the exclusion of everyoneof your Majesty's 
 blood. 
 
 In this light did the opinions, distinctly and repeatedly 
 delivered by vour Majesty's minister, Mr. Pitt, on this ques- 
 tion of right appear to me, and I am not without grounds for 
 
216 THE LIFE OP GEOEGB IV. 
 
 supposing tliat they must have conveyed a similar impression to 
 most other men ; since all the support which Mr. Pitt is accus- 
 tomed to find, and actually obtained throughout the strongest 
 measures which he ventured to propose in this extraordinary 
 crisis, could not, however, procure for him. one assenting voice 
 to the sentiments I have alluded to ; and your Majesty's Attorney- 
 General, who must no doubt be supposed in general to act 
 in concurrence with your Majesty's minister, delivered, however, 
 on this occasion, an opinion diametrically opposite to the doctrine 
 of Mr. Pitt. 
 
 I owed it to your Majesty to preserve entire for your Majesty, 
 when you should resume your government, the rights, powers, 
 and dignity of your crown such as you had before enjoyed them ; 
 and I owed it also to your Majesty to fulfil the objects of your 
 royal power by protecting your people from foreign danger, and 
 providing for its internal tranquillity, prosperity, and happiness. 
 
 If these reasons might justify my apprehensions at being 
 entrusted with the whole duties, but with only a portion of the 
 power belonging to royal authority, your Majesty will see that it 
 follows necessarily from the same principle that my difficulties, 
 and therefore my uneasiness and alarm, should be still greater 
 when I saw not only many powers cut off from the authority 
 which I was to administer, but some of those very powers of 
 which I was deprived erected into a distinct, separate, inde- 
 pendent, and perhaps, therefore, adverse authority in the state ; 
 and those very arms which are intended for the defence of the 
 crown and the service of regular government, disposed of in such 
 a manner as to be capable of being employed in defeating and 
 destroying them. 
 
 I could not, at the same time, but lament one consequence 
 which appeared too likely to follow from the proposed arrange- 
 m.ent, of placing a considerable department of power and influence 
 in the hands of the Queen. 
 
 I had been accustomed to see her Majesty engaged solely in 
 domestic cares and occupations, and while her Majesty's mind 
 had been thus employed, I had experienced at her hands from 
 my infancy the strongest and most invariable marks of parental 
 tenderness and even of personal partiality and fondness. Her 
 affection had always been one of the first joys and the principal 
 pride of my life. It was not, therefore, without much solicitude 
 and pain that I perceived a scheme formed for creating between 
 us a rival and separate interest, and endangering domestic 
 harmony by political competition. I confess, Sir, it was with the 
 most acute pain that I saw her Majesty set up by designing men 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 217 
 
 as the head of a system^ which I must frankly and without reserve 
 say I could not ascribe to any solicitude for your Majesty's 
 happiness, or connect by any rational principle with your sub- 
 stantial interest, to every one of which I thought it dangerous 
 and adverse in the extreme ; but which I considered as a device 
 of private ambition, which aimed at the accomplishment of its own 
 projects by contention with me and opposition to the very power 
 it was constrained to establish in one degree or other in my 
 hands. 
 
 I cannot, however, quit this subject without expressing to 
 your Majesty the resentment I felt at seeing a system, which 
 appeared to me destructive of every object which I know your 
 Majesty, as a wise and good sovereign, as well as a father and 
 chief of a family, must hold most dear and valuable, justified by 
 a reference to the meanest and most unworthy feelings which 
 were supposed to exist in your Majesty's mind, and which I felt 
 to be a cruel slander on your Majesty's character. The separation 
 of the whole of your Majesty's household, to an extent even which 
 could not be at first avowed, but was covered under the equivocal 
 and undefined sense of that word, from the dignity, the patronage, 
 and influence of your Majesty's representative, was defended on a 
 ground which I am sure your Majesty will feel to be injurious to 
 your magnanimity and public spirit. It was contended that your 
 Majesty's private and personal feelings might be wounded by the 
 arrangements which, without a colour of authority or probability, 
 were assumed as a thing intended by me, if I had had the control 
 of that department. 
 
 With this memorial (says Earl Russell) was written an intro- 
 ductory letter for the King's perusal, complaining in bitter terms 
 of the Queen's treatment of her sons. This was also the 
 composition of Sir Gilbert Elliot, but was not transmitted to 
 the King. It was agreed that the introductory letter should be 
 suppressed, and that a short letter, expressing in general terms 
 the Prince's uneasiness under his father's displeasure, and stating 
 that he had prepared a justification of his conduct to be submitted 
 to the King, should be substituted for it. It seems not im- 
 probable that a letter, published by Mr. Moore in his " Life of 
 Sheridan," from a rough copy of Mr. Sheridan's, was the letter 
 written on that occasion. It answers to the description of the 
 letter ordered to be written ; but if so, it was not finished or 
 transmitted to the King before the middle of August. 
 
218 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 THE PEDfCE OF VALES TO THE KING. 
 " SlE, 
 
 "I find myself at last not only at liberty, but I think, 
 invited by your Majesty to throw myself at your feet and 
 implore of your justice and paternal goodness, at least an 
 equitable, if not a partial and indulgent hearing to the most 
 solemn and anxious address that was eyer made by a son to a 
 father. 
 
 " During the calamitous period of your Majesty's late illness, 
 I waited with impatience for that happy time when the recovery 
 of your health might afford me an opportunity of appealing to 
 your justice and affection, against the misrepresentations of those 
 whose situations might enalsle them to preoccupy your Majesty's 
 first opinions. 
 
 " I had reason to believe that attempts would be made to 
 prejudice me in your esteem, and Grod knows my apprehensions 
 have been too well justified by the event. Urgent, however, as 
 I felt this concern to be, I was unwilling to disturb the first 
 hours of your returning health by any matter however important 
 to myself, which might either fatigue your attention or agitate 
 your spirits ; I refrained accordingly from pressing any applica- 
 tion on the subject, till I was given to understand, with a joy 
 which was shared indeed by the whole nation, but chiefly felt by 
 me, that your health was perfectly confirmed. Since that period 
 I have sought every opportunity of engaging your Majesty's 
 attention to a subject which weighed so heavily on my mind. 
 But in vain ! Your Majesty has either been surrounded by persons 
 whose presence rendered it improper to explain myself on delicate 
 and confidential points ; or if ever I have had the happiness to 
 enjoy a few moments of your presence alone, I have on such 
 occasions been expressly enjoined either by your Majesty or the 
 Queen to abstain from all points of business whatever. 
 
 " I was not satisfied with seeking every opportunity to make 
 a verbal explanation at your Majesty's feet ; the difficulties which 
 opposed my personal communication with your Majesty induced 
 me, amongst other reasons, to have recourse also to my pen ; and 
 I flattered myself that some moments of leisure and some periods 
 of strength would be found for perusing the justification of a son 
 whose accusers, I too well knew, had procured, or rather con- 
 stantly possessed, the means to be heard. When I considered 
 the interesting nature of the subject, and still more the aw© 
 which I never fail to experience in your Majesty's presence, it 
 was my wish to address your Majesty in writing, because it would 
 both enable me to lay the matter before your Majesty in a more 
 correct and satisfactory form, and would afford your Majesty an 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 21^ 
 
 opportunity of bestowing on it a more deliberate consideration 
 than any verbal conference could do alone. 
 
 " In tbis view I collected some papers, wbicb I tbougbt im- 
 portant towards informing your Majesty of the transactions in 
 wbicb the course of events bad involved me, and I proposed to 
 annex some observations explanatory of my conduct. I delivered 
 tbe papers to tbe Queen, requesting ber to communicate tbem to 
 your Majesty wben sbe sbould find a convenient opportunity. I 
 was constrained to trouble ber Majesty with tbis application, 
 partly by tbe fear of intrudiag unseasonably on your Majesty 
 after your long illness, and partly by tbe obstacles wbicb I found 
 perpetually in tbe way of a personal interview ; as well indeed as 
 tbe express injunctions I bad received to refrain from addressing 
 your Majesty on business. 
 
 " Having waited for some time witb great anxiety tbe effect 
 of tbis communication, and a public intimation baving been given 
 to Parliament of tbe joyful event of your Majesty's recovery, I 
 addressed to tbe Queen tbe following letter : 
 
 " ' Dear Madam, 
 
 '"I bave tbis moment learned tbat Mr. Pitt bas announced 
 to tbe House of Commons tbat a communication is to be made 
 to Parliament from bis Majesty on Tuesday next. 
 
 " '' Your Majesty will, I am sure, bave observed tbat, notwith- 
 standing tbe impatience I must naturally feel to bave a fit oppor- 
 tunity of submitting to bis Majesty a faithful statement of my 
 conduct and my sentiments on tbe conduct of others, I have 
 abstained from every idea of intruding on his Majesty's attention 
 until tbe opinion of those who can best judge shall point out 
 tbe proper time for submitting matters of business and public 
 importance to his consideration. 
 
 "■"The notice given to-day I conceive to ascertain this point; 
 and as your Majesty was graciously pleased to assure me that the 
 papers I lodged in your Majesty's bands should be communicated 
 to his Majesty the moment it was fit for him to attend to public 
 business, I request from your Majesty to be informed whether 
 the present is the proper time to make that communication, and 
 when in consequence my brother and myself may attend his 
 Majesty upon a subject so interesting to our feelings, and the 
 duty we owe to his Majesty and tbe public' 
 
 " Tbis letter was written on the 5th of March ; and the next 
 day I received an answer from her Majesty, acquainting me, 'that 
 she bad taken an opportunity of mentioning to your Majesty tbat 
 she was in possession of those papers, and must now leave it to. 
 
220 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 your Majesty's own judgment when you would think it proper to 
 peruse them.' 
 
 " On the day following I received another letter from the 
 Queen, enclosing one from your Majesty to her, both of which I 
 take the liberty of copying in this place : 
 
 TEE QUEEN TO THE PRINCE OF "WALES. 
 
 "' Kew, March 7th, 1789. 
 " ' Mt dearest Son, 
 
 " ' I have found an opportunity of communicating to the 
 King your letter of the day before yesterday, to which he has 
 given me the enclosed in answer ; and as this paper contains his 
 Majesty's sentiments upon the subject, I have nothing further to 
 say, but hope that you are convinced of my having fulfilled your 
 wishes, and that you will believe me sincerely, 
 " ' My dearest Son, 
 " ' Tour very affectionate Mother and Friend, 
 
 " ' Ohaelotte.' 
 
 " This letter enclosed the following from your Majesty to the 
 Queen : 
 
 THE KING TO THE QUEEN. 
 
 " ' Eew, March 6th, 1789, Friday evening. 
 " ' Mt deakest Chaelotte, 
 
 " ' As I cannot but be deeply impressed by the considera- 
 tion of how much you must have been afflicted by the long con- 
 tinuance of my illness, and the events that attended it, I cannot 
 but wish to prevent your having any further trouble concerning 
 it; and therefore desire you will acquaint both the Prince of 
 Wales and Frederick, that, though I do not mean to decline 
 giving that attention to public business which may be necessary, 
 yet that I propose avoiding all discussions that may in their 
 nature agitate me, and consequently must for the present decline 
 entering on any subjects that are not necessarily before me. 
 " ' I shall ever remain, my dearest Charlotte, 
 
 " ' Your most affectionate Husband, 
 
 " ' George E.' 
 
 "I found myself unhappily constrained to submit to this 
 declaration of your Majesty's pleasure, and I saw with grief every 
 means of setting myself right in your opinion denied me. In 
 this situation I could only resort to one sentiment capable of 
 affording me either hope or consolation. I reflected on your 
 
THE LIFE or GEOEGE IV. 221 
 
 Majesty's habitual love and practice of justice, and on tlie tender- 
 ness and affection whicli I had experienced on many occasions at 
 the hand of an indulgent father. I judged that the attempts of 
 my enemies to deprive me of your love and good opinion must 
 probably have been abortive ; for I could not believe that your 
 Majesty would either reject a reply to any accusation which you 
 deemed worthy of attention, or would condemn your sons unheard 
 on any charge, whether grave or frivolous. I confess, however, 
 that the implicit confidence I should naturally have placed in 
 this affection was much diminished, and very painful alarms were 
 raised in my mind by many circumstances which I could not help 
 observing. These were by degrees multiplied in such a manner 
 as to leave me little doubt ; and I now see at length my worst 
 fears verified, and my misfortune too fully authenticated under 
 your Majesty's hand, by a clear declaration of displeasure, and 
 an explicit condemnation of my conduct on the tenderest point, 
 conveyed in writing to one of my brothers. Many of the circum- 
 stances which gave me reason to apprehend some prejudice in 
 your Majesty's mind against me, are of a nature which it is 
 difficult or impossible to describe in words, or to render sensible 
 to others by relation. 
 
 " I am sure your Majesty will not think it unnatural that these 
 circumstances should sensibly afflict and alarm your sons, and 
 we shall not be censured for drawing a rash conclusion, if we 
 believe, that her Majesty's behaviour could not have been such 
 as I have described, unless there had existed in her mind some 
 previous dissatisfaction and some general indisposition towards us, 
 independent of this transaction, and sufficient to extinguish entirely 
 the natural affection and tenderness of a mother. If we observe 
 the common course of nature and consult the happy experience of 
 aU other families, we cannot help acknowledging that Providence 
 seems to have designed it as the part of a mother to feel and to 
 express solicitude for the safety of her children ; to absorb all 
 other considerations in those of anxiety and tenderness at critical 
 periods of a son's life ; to plead his cause, even if it be doubtful j 
 to heal all family differences, if such exist ; to soften and conciliate 
 towards her children the mind and opinion of their father, if it is 
 in danger of being estranged : in examining their conduct to 
 leave to others even the impartiality of a judge, but much more, 
 the severe scrutiny of an adverse party, and above all, to leave to 
 their rivals and enemies the care of fomenting the anger of their 
 father, together with that of anticipating, and by that means, 
 perhaps, procuring the condemnation of the world — an effect of 
 her Majesty's unfortunate displeasure, which we have had too 
 many occasions to feel and to lament. 
 
222 THE LIFE OE GEOEGE IV. 
 
 " It is quite impossible^ Sii-j that we sliould behold with indif- 
 ference a departure in our house alone^ from that first and best 
 law of nature which protects the harmony of other families^ and 
 which, reserving at least one indissoluble relation and one bond 
 ■of affection exempt from decay, seems to have appointed maternal 
 tenderness as the stronghold and the last sanctuary for domestic 
 happiness, against those storms of adverse interests and rival 
 passions which drive it from every other post. 
 
 " It is not, Sir, without a severe conflict, nor without the most 
 acute pain, that we find at length power to express these sorrows 
 to your Majesty. We are sensible of the sacred character and the 
 religion as it were that surrounds and covers the subject of our 
 complaint. Since we do not, and in our hearts cannot, acknow- 
 ledge that we have merited, either by any part of our conduct, 
 or by our most secret thoughts, the loss of the Queen's love, we 
 feel that in lamenting that dreadful calamity we appear to be her 
 accusers, and her accusers before your Majesty. We entreat you 
 therefore to cast your eye for a moment on the afflicting alterna- 
 tive which is left to us. We cannot disguise to ourselves our true 
 situation. The Queen's affection is estranged from us. We can 
 neither be ignorant of nor forget a misfortune which we feel every 
 day in a thousand shapes, both wounding our feelings and work- 
 ing our ruin. Her Majesty is alone possessed of your ear, and 
 from the endearing relation which she bears to your Majesty, is 
 naturally entitled to your confidence. In the Queen's indisposi- 
 tion towards us we see therefore the loss also of your Majesty's 
 opinion and regard. Our characters and reputation in the world 
 are not less endangered. Those who are known to approach 
 m.ost constantly her Majesty's person, and to enjoy the greatest 
 share of her confidence and favour, seem to have no other 
 language in which to express their zeal and attachment for her 
 Majesty, than the bitterest invectives against us, and no other 
 business or occupation than to invent and circulate from one 
 extremity of your dominions to the other, the most gross, false, 
 and scandalous slanders on her sons. In the meanwhile we find 
 ourselves constrained to a silence which our enemies and even 
 the impartial part of the world may well enough attribute to a 
 consciousness of guilt. What choice therefore is left to us, but 
 either to forego voluntarily your Majesty's love and the good 
 opinion of the world, or to tell your Majesty and the world, that 
 without blame on our parts we are unhappy enough to have been 
 deprived of a mother's affection, and to tender to your Majesty 
 and the world the documents which we possess of our innocence ? 
 
 ^'Yet, Sir, we might stih be silent if even these reasons, 
 powerful as they are, were the only grounds for our alarm, and 
 
THE LIFE Q-F GBOEGE IV. 223 
 
 if our fears were not at length too surely verified hj the event. 
 For if the occurrences which I have alluded to could leave us 
 without anxiety concerning the unfortunate impressions which 
 may too probably have been made on your Majesty's mind to our 
 •disadvantage, your Majesty must appear to have deprived us of 
 hope on that subject by a letter which your Majesty has written 
 to my brother the Duke of Clarence. I trust your Majesty does 
 not yet think us capable of perusing that unequivocal and severe 
 declaration of your displeasure, without the most poignant grief 
 and the deepest mortification. The love which we bear to the 
 Duke of Clarence, and the happiness which we enjoy in our mutual 
 affection and harmony, is our sole consolation under the many 
 humiliating and afflicting circumstances which we experience in 
 other branches of our family. The loss of that blessing would be 
 a heavy blow indeed ; but how much would its severity be 
 increased, by reflecting that it comes from the hand of a parent ! 
 We see, therefore, with anguish, and we confess, with wonder, 
 your Majesty, under the persuasion of others, and contrary to 
 your own nature, labouring to hurt us in the opinion of our 
 brother, and to deprive us both of his affection and society. It 
 is with inexpressible grief we perceive the imputation of some 
 monstrous but undefined guilt in us made a ground for harshness 
 and rebuke even to him. I trust your Majesty will not be 
 offended at seeing us sensible to such afflictions, and that you 
 will allow, at least, that we are distinctly called upon to vindicate 
 our conduct by one passage in your Majesty's letter. You are 
 pleased to say, ' Though I choose to cast a veil over the un- 
 kindness I met with during my illness from the ill-advised 
 ■conduct of my sons, yet I cannot but feel it, as well as the 
 Parliament, and, indeed, the whole nation.' 
 
 " This, Sir, is the first explicit declaration you have made of 
 these unfortunate and, I must presume to say on our parts, un- 
 merited sentiments. Till now, we might flatter ourselves that, 
 however prevalent in your palace such opinions might be, they 
 had not yet reached your Majesty. Indeed, Sir, we cannot yet 
 consent to banish entirely a hope, which is so indispensable to 
 our happiness, and we would yet cling to a fond conjecture that 
 your Majesty has rather yielded to the importunity of others, and 
 condescended to adopt their suggestions, than spoken your own 
 opinions, or consulted your own heart on this occasion. We have 
 ever found your Majesty personally kind and good to us. We 
 most solemnly and seriously call God to witness, that we have 
 ever felt your goodness with gratitude, and repaid it with affection 
 and reverence. We cannot, therefore, easily and rashly believe 
 that your Majesty should become at once cruel and unjust. Yet 
 
224 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 your Majesty will admit^ that so express a declaration of your 
 displeasure leaves us no choice, and that if any consideration on 
 earth should induce us to withhold a full and circumstantial 
 account of our conduct in that critical and important period of 
 our lives to which your censure is applied, we should subscribe to 
 our own condemnation, and should merit indeed the pain, heavy 
 as it is, of your anger and reproaches. Your Majesty cannot be 
 offended if we do not account your present judgment final and 
 irrevocable ; for your Majesty knows that we have not been 
 heard, and that an opportunity to defend ourselves, although it 
 has been often sought by us, has hitherto been denied. It would 
 be, therefore, injurious to your Majesty's character, as a just 
 sovereign, to believe that your mind is not still open at least to a 
 fair and equitable consideration of the subject. With this view, 
 we humbly lay the following relation at your Majesty's feet. 
 
 "It is submitted first, as it ought, to your Majesty. But we 
 are taught by your Majesty's words not to neglect the opinion of 
 our country, and to that country which we love and honour, and 
 whose good opinion is essential to our comfort and happiness, we 
 consider ourselves bound also to address ourselves. 
 
 " I will not detain your Majesty longer from the perusal of a 
 paper which I hope will restore us to your esteem, and regain for 
 us the blessings of your wonted affection and confidence." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1789. 
 
 The most natural expression of tlie Prince's feelings at this time 
 will be found in his letters to Lord Cornwallis, then in India. 
 Here he delivers himself with a true empressement, and his 
 utterances throw some light on the Duke of York's duel, as well 
 as on the summary proceedings of the Court. The style of these 
 curious productions will be noticed — the superabundance of 
 assertion as well as of qualification : and it will be seen that 
 this genial Prince loved a kind of florid exaggeration almost 
 grotesque. Allusion has been before made to this Treves' s 
 father, a money-lender, whose definition of a gentleman, in 
 answer to the Prince, was significant of his character as well as 
 of the familiarity which the Prince tolerated — "A man with 
 
 money in his pocket and that does not care a d n for you or 
 
 your father." 
 
 THE PRINCE OF WALES 10 LOED COENWALLIS. 
 
 " Carlton House, May 30th, 1789. 
 *'Mt deae Loed, 
 
 " I must begin by thanking you for the very kind and 
 friendly letter I received from you by the last ship from the Bast 
 Indies. It was so long since I had heard from you y' I began 
 to think you had forgot all y"" old friends in this part of the world. 
 How things are changed, and what a chequered scene of Life I 
 have been obliged to go thro' for the last six months ! Ere this, 
 I suppose, you will have heard of the King's Indisposition, and 
 tow the Minister not only attempted to destroy 'my Rights,' but 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IV. 
 
 to deprive every other individual of our family of the common 
 liberties & rigjhts of Englishmen. Supported I have been by 
 some 'real and true friends/ at the head of whom your Friend, 
 rav Brother, stood foremost, w^ has gained immortal Honor. 
 Had you been here, my dear Lord, I doubt not y* we sh"^ have had 
 the happiness of meeting with a similar support from you, tho'' I 
 am sorry to say that your members consulted the interests of the 
 ' cause ' of Pitt instead of the Rights and Independence of the 
 Constitution of the Country, as well as of the House of Bruns- 
 wick. Everything has fallen into very different hands. Th© 
 King is convalescent, that is to say, he certainly is better. Every- 
 thing is thrown into the hands of the Queen. Every Friend 
 y* supported me & the common cause of succession of the 
 Family, if they had any place, have been dismissed, such as the 
 Duke of Queensberry; and our little friend Lothian Queensberry 
 has been dismissed by order of the Queen & Mr. Pitt from the 
 Bedchamber. Lothian has left his regiment of Horse Guards; &■ 
 they have had the Insolence to threaten the Duke of York with 
 taking his Regiment of Foot Guards, and when they, at last, did , 
 not dare do that, they have brought officers into his Regiment, 
 and committed towards him every species of Indignity to force 
 him to resign, w^he has had prudence & coolness sufficient, as 
 well as firmness enough, to resist. Not only these great officers, 
 but numbers of a lower class, whose sole dependence in life and 
 sustenance depended upon their places, have been disgracefully 
 dismissed from their offices for the disinterested support of me & 
 our Family. You will forgive me, my dear Lord, for thus ex- 
 patiating upon a subject w'' I w*^^ not have done but to such a 
 friend, as I consider you. I cannot but confess y' I feel for the 
 dangerous situation in w^ the Rights & Liberties of this Nation 
 are at present, as well as the very critical position in w^ every 
 member of Our Family stands at present. Even the very pre- 
 carious state of the King's health renders some People a little 
 upon their guard, who are not driven to a state of Dispair, such 
 as not only pervades the Minister himself, but his Adherents 
 in General. I will not bore you any further at present, as I 
 suppose you will have heard by many Letters of our critical- 
 situation in this country at the present Period, but trust you will 
 attribute my prolixity to the intimacy of an old Friend. 
 
 " Before I conclude, I must thank you for the kind expressions 
 you have made use of to me respecting my protege, Mr. Treves. 
 I confess I feel myself much interested in his wellfare and success 
 in Life, & nothing can make me more happy than thinking 
 y' he will owe y' Success to you. I have just heard from a Friend 
 at the India House y' the object of Treves' ambition, at present,. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 227 
 
 is to be appointed to fhe Adaulet of Benares, w'^ is now held by 
 a Black named Alii Carrow. Understanding that most of the 
 Adaalets are now held by Europeans, and as I am informed it is 
 the intention that the Europeans are to be so placed in future, in 
 preference to the natives, I sh"^ be vastly happy if — ^without com- 
 mitting any injustice — ^you C^ place young Treves in y^ situation, 
 as I shall feel personally obliged to you for his promotion. 
 
 " I will not trespass any further upon you, but conclude with 
 desiring you to believe me, my dear lord, 
 
 " Ever sincerely your Friend, 
 
 " G-EOEGE P." 
 
 It may have been suspected that what lent acrimony to this 
 struggle of the Princess, which had now terminated in his com- 
 plete defeat, was the sense of his situation, now well-nigh 
 desperate. Though an arrangement had been so recently made 
 for the settlement of his debts, he had now become once more 
 frightfully involved, and on this occasion, at least, without hope of 
 extrication by the Parhament. A sum of £2 0,000 had been granted 
 for Carlton House ; but an estimate was sent in for £55,200 for 
 building and furniture, which, during the course of the next two 
 years, had been paid. What greed the Prince and his friends showed 
 in this matter wiU be evident from the furniture estimate, which 
 in 1787 was fixed at £5500. Within two years a demand was 
 sent in " for furniture and decorations ordered for the state 
 apartments, to replace some of that for which the sums voted by 
 Parliament in 1787 had hardly been expended; and he had con- 
 trived that a much larger sum should be laid out on that costly 
 ' Polly ' of Carlton House ; while a large sum had just been 
 paid, not for the completion, but for the progress of the building, 
 which was intended at the time of the application to the House^ 
 and to furnish other apartments not then projected," and this was 
 modestly placed at a sum of £56,950.* This, however, was sum- 
 marily rejected by the Board. It certainly showed an incurable 
 recklessness and even effrontery, and not the least prospect of 
 reform. 
 
 Sunk, therefore, in debt and difficulties, and without prospect 
 of extrication, in his desperation he resorted to the old favourite 
 scheme for raising money abroad, from which he had been 
 prudently dissuaded by his friends. This was the issuing bonds 
 in the nature of ''post-obits," which were to be negotiated in 
 foreign countries. This scaijdal was now to be talked of. In 
 
 * His creditors seemed to have lost all respect for Hm, and stopped him 
 in the street with their demands. The workmen employed at Carlton 
 House addressed a petition for payment to the Prime Minister. 
 
228 THE LIFE OF GEOEaE IV. 
 
 July this year Mr. Wilberforce had a very agreeable dinner with 
 Lord Chatham, whom he found " very chatty and good-humoured." 
 Among other curious gossip, he told him that " a wretched 
 dependant" of the Prince's had applied to a certain person — so 
 confidential was his talk that the names are designated by 
 numbers — to lend money on the joint bond of the Prince and his 
 two brothers, double the sum to be paid when the King should 
 die, and any of the brothers come to the throne. This matter 
 (says Huish) was perfected on the 16th of December, 1788, 
 witnessed by Andrew Robinson and Charles Bicknell, and on the 
 same day the money was paid.* 
 
 This transaction had been set on foot during the King's 
 illness, under the management of the cook Weltjie, " the wretched 
 dependant," and a large operation was at first proposed to be carried 
 out in Scotland and Ireland, under the direction of brokers. 
 Weltjie introduced a Mr. Cator, of the Adelphi, and Mr. Jones, of 
 Soho. The first provided £10,000, on the condition of his being 
 repaid treble the amount. About £30,000 was said to have been 
 obtained in £100 bonds, repayable in twelve years. It was 
 stated that no interest was ever obtained from the Princes, 
 which is not improbable, as they never had money to pay it with, 
 
 * The form of these bonds runs as follows : 
 
 "Kuffw ALL MEN by these presents that We, George Prince of Wales, 
 Frederick Duke of York, and William Duke of Clarence, all living in the 
 City of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, are jointly and severally, 
 justly and truly indebted to John Cator, of Beckenham, in the County of 
 Kent, Esquire, and his executors, administrators, and assigns, in the penal 
 sum of Sixty Thousand Pounds of good and lawful money of Great Britain, 
 well and truly paid to us at or before the sealing of these presents. Sealed 
 with our seals this 16th day of December, in the 29th year of the reign of 
 our Sovereign Lord George III., by the Grace of God, King, Defender of 
 the Faith, Anno Domini 1788. 
 
 " The condition of the above-named obligation is such, that if the above 
 bounden George Prince of Wales, Frederick Duke of York, and William 
 Henry Duke of Clarence, or any or either of them, or any other of their 
 heirs, executors, or administrators, shall well and truly pay unto the above- 
 named John Cator, his executors, administrators, or assigns, the full sum 
 of Thirty Thousand Pounds of lawful money of Great Britain, within the 
 space or time of six calendar months next after any one or either of us, the 
 said George Prince of Wales, Frederick Duke of York, and William Henry 
 Duke of Clarence, shall come to and ascend the throne of England, together 
 with lawful interest on the same, to be computed from the day that such 
 event shall happen, up and home to the time of paying off this obligation, 
 then, and in such case, the same shall become null and void ; otherwise to 
 be and remain in full force and virtue. 
 
 " George Prince of Wales, L. S. 
 
 " Fredeeick, L. S. 
 
 " William Henry, L. S." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 229 
 
 th'e lenders paying it for a couple of years, wLen they became 
 bankrupt.* But little relief, however, was obtained in this 
 direction ; for as the King recovered the security grew less and 
 less valuable. It was then conceived that money might be raised 
 abi'oad, and a sort of financial operation was accordingly set 
 on foot in Holland. Mr. Abraham Goldsmidt, a financier, under- 
 took the speculation, which was arranged at the Hague ; though 
 it would seem to have been started under the auspices of the 
 Dukes of Portland and Northumberland, who at all times took 
 an interest in settling his affairs. They had heard of the first 
 loan, and the " usurious terms " which were offered. They had, 
 no doubt, felt that he should be saved from the unbecoming 
 proceedings of the " post-obits," and determined to arrange for 
 his extrication on the usual and legitimate terms of good 
 security and fair interest. Accordingly it was determined to 
 raise a sum of about £350,000 on the security of the Duchy 
 of Cornwall and Bishopric of Osnaburg, with payments by 
 drawings and a sinking fund, and the whole to be paid off in 
 twenty-five years. The two Dukes, Lords Southampton, Rawdon, 
 and others, were to be trustees to receive the interest. The 
 Duke of Portland had interviews with one Van der Meulen, 
 who came from Holland, and the loan seemed to have been 
 regularly subscribed at Antwerp by the House of Werbrouck 
 and De Wolf, and a Frenchman, De Beaume, the three royal 
 brothers being joined in the security. 
 
 This affair, like most of the transactions in which the Prince 
 was concerned, was unfortunately to be attended with accusa- 
 tion of breach of faith, repudiation, etc. Over £100,000 is said 
 to have been received in cash and jewels, but no interest was 
 paid. The King presently heard of it, and was indignant at the 
 unworthy mode in which his third son — a mere youth — had been 
 drawn into such serious obligations. The whole was treated as 
 an attempt to extort money ; pleas were set up of " no value " 
 being received, and the law officers discovered, or affected to 
 discover, that the security of the Duchy could not be pledged. 
 Though this matter has been hotly controverted on both sides, it 
 seems that the events that followed this loan were of the most 
 disastrous kind, and at least led to unpleasant suspicions, the 
 reckless Princes, like other spendthrifts, seeming to look on those 
 that lent to them as enemies, to whom any fate, for treatment, 
 
 * Lord Kingsborough told Mrs. Harcourt one night at the Queen's Lodge, 
 that the Prince had been offering £10000 and an Irish peerage, after the 
 King's death, for every £5000, though even on these terms he could get 
 little. — " Mrs. Harcourt's Diary," p. 46. 
 
230 -THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 was good enough. That industrious chiffonnier, Huish, whose 
 garbage seems always to contain a certain amount of facts, has 
 collected much about this curious affair. 
 
 " The plan," he says, " proposed by De Beaume, to raise a sum 
 of money on the Continent for the use of the Princes, was very 
 similar to that which was negotiated by the Boas in Holland. 
 Mr. Bicknell was directed to prepare a bond for their esecution 
 for £100,000, payable to De Beaume, and vesting in him the 
 power to divide it into £1000 each by printed copies of the bond, 
 which, under the signature of De Beaume, with the amount and 
 number certified by a notary public, should be as binding on the 
 Princes as if executed by themselves. The original bond was 
 deposited, in trust, in the bank of Ransom, Morlands, and Ham- 
 mersley ; while an attested copy was immediately delivered to 
 De Beaume, and the bankers' acknowledgment of holding such a 
 security was given as De Beaume's authority and credentials, as 
 the agent of the three illustrious Princes, who, in this instance, 
 seem to have taken every precaution to secure themselves against 
 imposition. 
 
 " De Beaume went to Paris as the agent of the Prince of Wales, 
 and established himself there in that capacity. The French 
 Hevolution then wore a very serious aspect, and many of the 
 French wished to leave their country till better times. As by 
 remitting bills to England they sustained a very heavy loss, the 
 securities of the British Princes were eagerly purchased from 
 De Beaume by those who wished to emigrate, because those 
 securities were not only more portable than specie, but they were 
 purchased without being subject to the fluctuations of the course 
 of exchange, and at the time were considered as the best negoti- 
 able securities in the market. The unfortunate French who pur- 
 chased them and came hither, thought themselves perfectly safe 
 in this country ; but as they could not get any money paid on 
 them, they were involved in great di£B.culty, and consequently 
 became very urgent and clamorous. 
 
 " The Duke of Portland was then Secretary of State for the 
 Home Department, and to him came many complaints from 
 Carlton House against such of the emigrants as were most 
 troublesome and unjust in demanding their money. They were 
 sent out of the country, as in the former instance, and landed on 
 the Continent. Twenty-six foreigners, who were creditors of the 
 Princes, and who had placed the utmost reliance on the honour 
 and faith of a British Prince, were sent out of England, though 
 no charge was preferred against them. It is, howeverj an 
 accredited fact, that the Prince of Wales, on several occasions. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 231 
 
 and to various persons, did deny the receipt of any consideration 
 for the bond of De Beanme. 
 
 "The trustees delivered up the hond, which was cancelled at 
 Burlington House, in the presence of the Duke of Portland, on 
 the 16th of November, 1790. This remittance had been made by 
 De Beaume in diamonds, through the bank of Perregaux at Paris, 
 to the bank of Ransom, Morland, and Hammersley, on account 
 of the Princes. The diamonds thus remitted were to the amount 
 of £38,653 10s. We have the bills of parcels of these diamonds 
 now before us — they were disposed of by his bankers for the 
 benefit of the Prince : on what ground of common justice, then, 
 •could the Prince declare, that he had received no consideration 
 whatever for the bond ? 
 
 " De Beaume and his confederates were denounced as treason- 
 able in the face of it, for declaring George III. to be King of 
 Great Britain, France, and Ireland. The prisoners were tried, 
 condemned, and executed within twenty-four hours. 
 
 "Thus, in one day, perished Richard, Ohaudot, Mestrirer, 
 Niette, De Beaume, and Aubert, either for negotiating the 
 Prince's securities or for purchasing shares of them, as was also 
 the case- with Viette, a rich jeweller, who had purchased a 
 hundred shares of the bond from De Beaume. 
 
 " The next victim who bled on the scaffold, for having been 
 the purchaser of twenty shares of the Prince's bond, was Charles 
 Vaucher, a banker in Paris, who quitted Prance with a large 
 fortune in 1792. He fixed his residence in England, where he 
 married an English lady. Having demanded payment of the 
 interest on his shares of the Prince's bond, he was referred to the 
 bank of Ransom & Co., when he was advised, if he wished to 
 remain in England, never again to apply for his money ; for, if 
 he did, he would be sent out of the country, as many in his 
 situation had already been. This threat did not deter liim ; he 
 repeated his application, and was equally unsuccessful. He laid 
 his case before Mr. Shepherd (afterwards Sir S. Shepherd), 
 Solicitor- General, who decided that his claim upon the Prince 
 was just and legal ; and at the close of the opinion which that 
 eminent lawyer gave are the following rernarkable words : ' If 
 any action is brought with this case, it will require the clearest 
 proof of the facts, and that there is no collusion between De 
 Beaume and Vaucher, because, as a bill has been passed for the 
 payment of his royal highness's debts, subjecting them to the 
 examination of commissioners, it will be a strong argument 
 against the justice of a demand that has been withheld from 
 Buch examination : however, there is nothing in the bill which 
 
232 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 prevents a creditor of his royal Higliness from suing, if he chooses, 
 in preference to going before the commissioners.' 
 
 " In this opinion the learned counsel seems to have anticipated 
 the very objection that was raised by the commissioners, and the 
 grounds on which they contested the validity of the claim. The 
 Prince inserted it not in his schedule of debts, he disclaimed it in 
 toto ; and, therefore, as the Prince disavowed it, the commis- 
 sioners could not be called upon to allow it ; and the only redress 
 which Vaucher could hope to obtain was by an appeal to the laws 
 of the country. A copy of the opinion of Mr. Shepherd was sent, 
 with a polite note, to the Prince of Wales, hoping his royal 
 highness would render all legal measures unnecessary, by ordering 
 the interest to be paid. The interest was not paid : the apphca- 
 tion was renewed to his royal highness, adding that, if no satis- 
 factory answer were returned, such measures would be adopted as 
 would compel his royal highness to pay the amount. On the 6th 
 of October an official order was given for him to quit England 
 in four days. Having other pecuniary matters to arrange, he 
 petitioned the Duke of Portland to allow him to remain until the 
 issue of his claims had been determined. On the 11th of October 
 a warrant was signed by the Duke of Portland, directing William 
 Eoss and George Higgins, two of the King's messengers, to take 
 Mr. Vaucher into custody till he should be sent out of the country. 
 On the 15th he was taken into custody, and on the 20th he was 
 carried to Harwich, to be sent thence to Rotterdam, where he 
 arrived on the 2ord of the same month. Not long after his arrival 
 on the Continent, he was apprehended, taken to Paris, and thrown 
 into prison, where he remained until the 22nd of December, 1795, 
 on which day he was tried on the same charges as De Beaume, 
 was found guilty, and guillotined. 
 
 "Our limits will not allow us to enter at full into the cases of 
 Mr. D. Lovell, the editor of The Statesman, and that of Mr. 
 Auriol ; but proof is on record that, with the diamonds remitted 
 by De Beaume, and the money advanced by Auriol, the sum 
 received by the Prince amounted to between £60,000 and 
 £70,000 sterling." 
 
 The transaction, indeed, caused a great sensation abroad ; and 
 a number of pamphlets, setting out the grievances of the bond- 
 holders and those interested, were pubhshed on the Continent.* 
 
 * The following advertisement appeared in the Dutch papers of 1796 : 
 "September 2. Notice. The bearers of shares in the loliowing loans, 
 negotiated by Abraham and Simeon Boas, at the Hague, to wit, &c., 350,000 
 florins for the three English princes, namely, George Prince of Wales, 
 Frederick Duke of York, and William Henry Duke of Clarence, made in 
 1789, &c., are entreated to apply before the 1st of September nest, from 
 
THE LIFE or GEOEGE IV. 233 
 
 From this account* has been omitted all speculations or 
 libellous insinuations and statements. But, after making due 
 allowance, it seems but too probable tbat high-handed proceed- 
 ings were adopted towards the unfortunate foreign bondholders. 
 The defence urged for the Princes was — that spurious bonds 
 had got into circulation ; that " no consideration " had passed. 
 The scandal caused by these transactions was great. 
 
 So late as 1829 claims were being made under this loan, and 
 some of the mysterious journeys to the Continent of Sir William 
 Knighton were connected with the arrangement of this affair. 
 
 nine in the morning till one in the afternoon, to the notary, Corneille van 
 Homrioh at Amsterdam ; the notaries, Huggen en Tendall, at the Hague; 
 ■where are deposited, for the purpose of being signed, the respective acts of 
 procuration and qualification upon Messrs. Wills and Company, merchants, 
 at Amsterdam, appointed to withdraw from the hands of the registrar of 
 the Court of Holland the original letters of mortgage in the said negotia- 
 tions (which letters were removed from the custody of Abraham and Simon 
 Boas, to be there kept), to deposit them with the notary. Van Homrich, 
 and to prevent, by this measure, any loss upon the said negotiations, to 
 attend to the concerns of the subscribers, and to promote the payment of 
 their interest, and the reimbursement of their capitals." — Wallace, " Life 
 and Reign," i. 224. 
 
 * Two pamphlets were published at Antwerp in 1791, describing the 
 negotiations, giving the names of trustees' security, etc. The amount 
 was over three millions and a half of guelders. It gives the date of the 
 Prince's signing the power of attorney, his two bonds, an account of Van 
 der Meulen's interviews with the Duke of Portland, the counsel's opinion as 
 to the power of mortgage, which was signed by Lowten, Adam, and Baldwin. 
 The unfortunate Colonel Frederick, son of Theodore, King of Corsica, was 
 employed as an agent in this transaction. Mr. Cyrus Redding investigated 
 the whole transaction, and found in the Monitewr of the time the debates 
 en the unfortunate bondholders. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 1790—1791. 
 
 Through air these affairs, the King's illness, the debates on the 
 Regency, and the quarrels with the Queen, there was one name 
 often mentioned, and which exercised an important influence — 
 that of Mrs. Fitzherhert, at whose house we hear of many 
 secret consultations being held, "Jack Payne " and Sheridan being 
 the chief councillors. She would have been less than woman 
 had she not been excited by the prospect now opening, and it 
 was currently reported that, had the Prince succeeded to the 
 Regency, she was to have been created a Duchess. But the hold 
 any adviser had over the Prince's mind was at all times uncertain, 
 and it seems extraordinary how she contrived to retain her 
 influence on one so unsteady. We may fairly impute it to 
 respect for her and the honesty of her motives. One of his 
 friends wrote : " I fear there is in the Prince this feature of his 
 father — that he loves closets within cabinets, and cupboards 
 within closets ; that he will have secret advisers besides his 
 ostensible ones, and still more invisible ones behind his secret 
 advisers — that he will be faithful to none of them, and a most 
 uncomfortable master to those ministers who would really serve 
 him." These are the words of the sagacious and amiable Sir 
 Crilbert Elliot, and severe as is the character it is not over- 
 drawn. The reader will keep it before him during the course 
 of this history, and find that it explains many of his proceedings. 
 Nor was Mrs. Pitzherbert without her troubles during this 
 critical period. All this time the irrepressible Rolle was 
 struggling to bring forward the question of her marriage. 
 Home Tooke had also some time before published his remarkable 
 
THE LIPB OP GEOEGE IV. 235 
 
 pampUet, in -wliich lie tad persistently styled lier " Your Eoyal 
 Highness." But slie still maintained her hostility to Mr. Fox. 
 Sir Philip Francis, indeed, tells us that she often told him, 
 that she so abhorred Fox, and never would be reconciled 
 to him, "notwithstanding many advances and earnest submissions 
 on his part, of which, at his request, I was more than once the 
 bearer. She said that by his unauthorised declarations in the 
 House of Commons he had rolled her in the kennel like a street- 
 walker ; that he knew that every word he said was a lie, and so 
 on, in a torrent of virulence which it was in vain for me to 
 encounter, so I gave the point up and made my retreat as well 
 and as fast as I could. On the other hand. Home Tooke 
 flattered her in his own way — but whether by direct access to 
 her or not I cannot say — that she was Princess of Wales, that 
 she must be acknowledged. All this he maintained for the mere 
 purpose of doing mischief, and to gratify his own rancours. The 
 Prince ought to have sent to the House this message, supposing 
 the thing to have been absolutely necessary, by his own 
 Chancellor, or some principal officer of his household ; or, at all 
 events. Fox, if he would or must be the carrier of such a declara- 
 tion, ought to have taken it in writing, on no other condition, 
 and answering for nothing himself. All that can be said for his 
 imprudence is, that, at that time he did not know the Prince, 
 who soon after disavowed him, at least to the lady. At that 
 time there was not a well-informed man in London who was not 
 .convinced that, in 1785, the rites and ceremonies of marriage 
 between the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert had taken place 
 according to the rules established in both Churches, and I am 
 as sure of the fact as if I had been present." 
 
 It was, however, now so fully understood that the statement 
 made in the House was a fiction, that her position had not been 
 affected by it. It was remarked that certain great and exclusive 
 ladies received her, not merely with friendliness, but with formal 
 honours. Testimony to this belief of the marriage is found in 
 a, conversation held between Mrs. Harcourt and the Duke of 
 .{Gloucester, in this very year of the King's recovei'y, when 
 he told her that "the Tnarriage between the P. and Mrs. 
 Fitz. was without much love on either side. He had his 
 amusements elsewhere, but he had much consideration for her. 
 She was sometimes jealous and discontented; her temper 
 violent, though apparently so quiet. He hoped," he went on to 
 .say, "the Prince would remain in her hands, as she was no 
 political intriguer, and probably, if they parted, he would fall 
 into worse hands." * This, the tone of the Court, seems to 
 
 * "Diary," p. 41. 
 
236 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 define Her situation^ whicli was looked on as analogous to that of 
 a German "left-handed" marriage.* 
 
 The Prince at this time found himself obliged to prosecute the 
 proprietor of The Times newspaper — then not nearly so important 
 an organ as it has become — Mr. Walter, for writing that he and 
 his brother had entered the King's apartment and purposely 
 disturbed him, and for libellous reflections. The offender was 
 sentenced to two years' imprisonment and the pillory. This part 
 of his punishment was remitted, and his term of imprisonment 
 reduced to sixteen months.f 
 
 It may be conceived that if the Prince were in such straits, 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert had her share of difficulties. She herself had 
 expensive tastes, and had brought her jointure into the common 
 stock. It must be 'said, the Prince in many of his straits 
 came to her rescue with due loyalty and generosity. Thus one 
 morning at her house in Park Lane, when he was with her, the 
 bailiff arrived with a warrant for her arrest for a sum of £1825. 
 There were no means of discharging this debt, though the Prince 
 tried every resource. He at last sent for Parker, a well-known 
 pawnbroker of Fleet Street, the same who was connected with 
 the transaction in which the Duchess of Devonshire's jewels were 
 concerned, and tried to raise the money on some of the lady's 
 jewels. Owing to some difficulties this could not be contrived, 
 and the Prince sent for his own jewels from Carlton House, 
 which were pledged for the day, until the Prince could raise the 
 sum from some Jews in St. Mary Axe. J Jewellers, indeed, 
 figure largely in these transactions. 
 
 About this time he had made a most important change, as it 
 seemed to him, viz. in selecting a new jeweller. Gray, of 
 Sackville Street, having presumed to require "a settlement," 
 had been discarded, and now Jefferey, of Piccadilly, was 
 selected for the profitless, or certainly precarious, office of 
 purveying ornaments to iis royal highness. How important 
 the function may be conceived, when this tradesman solemnly 
 states that for many years not a single day passed without his 
 spending some time at Carlton House, when articles of his 
 profession were offered for selection. 
 
 * A pamphleteering parson named Withers assailed her in a series of 
 libels, from which she had to seek the protection of the law. Her assailant 
 was punished with fine and imprisonment. 
 
 f " Tet the statement was quite true," says Mrs. Harcourt, " and the 
 remission was against the Duke of York's wishes, who was very violent. 
 Jack Payne was Walter's greatest enemy." 
 
 X Huish states that he had this story from the pawnbroker himself. 
 The substance, though vulgarly dressed up with additional " facts " from 
 the writer's imagination, seems to be true. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEORGE IV. 237 
 
 One morning Jefferey received a visit from Mr. Weltjie, beg- 
 ging for a loan of £1600 on the part of the Prince to extricate 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert, desiring to have it placed to the Prince's account. 
 Mr. Jefferey found the cash, and attended on the following morn- 
 ing to announce that the debt was paid. Full of gratitude the 
 Prince brought Mrs. Fitzherbert to his shop, to return her thanks 
 in person. The money was repaid in three months. This was 
 the beginning of many such transactions with this accommodating 
 jeweller, and also, as will be seen later, of much discreditable 
 disputes. 
 
 We next find the Prince at Frogmore, where he was " hardly 
 civil to anyone, tho' he seemed to pay more court to the King. 
 He did not speak to L'^ Harcourt, to whom he had been very civil 
 always during the King's late illness, until he was the first to tell 
 him that the King w'^ certainly recover — a characteristic touch. 
 The Queen & Princesses this evening (that of September 20) 
 were evidently afraid of him."* In October, at the Himt, " the 
 King made General Harcourt converse the whole time, as if to 
 keep off the Prince, who does not speak to the General since the 
 illness."t A general reconciliation with his family seemed there- 
 fore hopeless, and indeed the tone adopted by the Prince even in 
 indifferent matters was not likely to encourage harmony. Thus 
 the King, ever partial to music, was fond of giving Sunday 
 evening parties, where he offered his guests the rational entertain- 
 ment of good music and conversation. The Bishops, however, 
 conceiving that this was "contrary to the spirit of the Sabbath," 
 respectfully remonstrated, and with success. But it becoming 
 known that his son also celebrated the Sunday with music and 
 with more joviality than was becoming the day, he took the 
 injudicious step not of speaking to the Prince, but of warning the 
 nobility that he disapproved of their attendance at such perform- 
 ances. As was to be expected, the command was laughed at by 
 all those who were not of the royal household, or not dependent 
 on royalty for a pension ; but at Carlton House and other places 
 it became a standing joke, and with some 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. 
 There was, as usual, an edifying state of things and in the worst 
 .taste, and the blame must be not a little distributed. 
 
 It was during this year, too, that the Prince paid a visit to one 
 who,without injustice, might be styled a notorious "rake, "viz. Lord 
 .Sandwich. " Jemmy Twitcher," as he was called, belonged to an 
 •old generation of rakes, and had been little heard of since Miss 
 
 * " Mrs. Harcourt's Diary," p. 36. f Ibid. 
 
238 THE LIFE 01' GEORGE IV. 
 
 Ray's tragic end. The attraction would seem to liave been the 
 musical tastes of his host and the harmonious fare offered. HiS' 
 lordship had the odd taste to choose for his favourite instrument 
 the drum ; and at his own concerts, when a full band was engaged^ 
 he always performed on that instrument. As Peter Pindar wrote : 
 " He beats old Ashbridge on the kettledrum." 
 
 On this occasion, Madame Mara sang, and his royal highness 
 " assisted on the violoncello." Grenerally there was a theatrical 
 performance — " Pool a la Mode,'' " High Life Below Stairs," or 
 some favourite piece; while the evening wound up with catches, 
 and glees, in all of which the Prince was fond of taking a part. 
 He had an excellent and a cultured voice, a greater distinction 
 then than in our own time, when the study of music has been sO' 
 diffused. He remained a week at this agreeable house, and on 
 going away expressed his delight at the way he had been 
 entertained. 
 
 In a glee, his royal highness could supply " the basso " with 
 more good will than delicacy. On one of the evenings at the 
 Pavilion (one of Sir P. Francis's daughters reports) his royal 
 highness, after dinner, having proposed music, and being actively 
 engaged in performing, with Mrs. Francis and some other 
 persons, the pretty hunting trio of "Azioli," of which the burden 
 
 is " Ritorneremo a Olori" But the story is amusing, and 
 
 bears such a favourable testimony to the Prince's good humour, 
 that the lady must be allowed to tell it herself. 
 
 " It is well known that, to an excessive love of music he added 
 much real taste as an amateur, and some power as a performer ; 
 but his execution was not particularly good, and Mr. Francis, 
 Sir Philip's son, with whom he frequently sang, was sometimes 
 comically struck by the loudness of his voice, and his peculiar 
 manner. On one of the above-mentioned evenings at the 
 Pavilion, his royal highness, after dinner, having proposed music, 
 and being actually engaged in performing with Mr. Francis and 
 some other person the pretty hunting trio of 'Azioli,' of which 
 the burden is, 'Ritorneremo a Clori, al tramontar del dl,' Mr. 
 Francis suddenly found the full face of the Prince, somewhat 
 heated by the eagerness of his -performance, in immediate contact 
 with his own ; and this circumstance, combined with that of th© 
 loud bass tones in which his royal highness was singing the 
 words ' Ritorneremo a Glori,' striking him in some ludicrous point 
 of view, he became absolutely unable to resist the effect on his 
 nerves, and burst out laughing. The Prince evidently perceived 
 that his own singing had produced the unseasonable laughter, , 
 but, instead of showing displeasure at a rudeness which, however 
 
THE LIPE OF GEOEGE IV. 239 
 
 involuntary, would liave been resented by many far less illustrious 
 persons, lie only called the offender to order witli the words, 
 ' Come, come, PhUip ! ' bis countenance betraying at tbe same 
 time a strong inclination to join in tbe laugb bimself j and tbe 
 trio proceeded to a conclusion. Sir Pbilip (adds bis daugbter), 
 by bis original bumour and great powers of conversation, was 
 often tbe life of tbe Pavilion, tbougb' bis temperate babits made 
 tbe excesses occasionally committed at tbe Prince's table dis- 
 tasteful to bim ; and bis royal bost, perceiving bim ready to drop 
 asleep wben tbe revels were long protracted, would say, ' We 
 must carry grandpapa away to bed.' " 
 
 Tbe same ready good bumour is sbown in a pleasant scene 
 wbicb took place at tbe Pavilion. Cricket was often played on 
 tbe lawn, and tbe dinner wbicb followed was served in a marquee. 
 On one of tbose occasions, tbe Dake of York and Sberidan fell 
 into dispute on some point of tbe game. Sberidan at lengtb 
 angrily told tbe Duke " tbat be was not to be talked out of bis- 
 opinion tbere or anywbere else, and tbat at play all men were on 
 a par.^' Tbe Duke was evidently about to make some peculiarly 
 indignant reply, wben tbe Prince stood up and addressed tbem 
 botb. 
 
 " Tbe narrator of tbe circumstance, a person of rank, wbo was 
 present, bimself one of tbe most attractive public speakers of tbe 
 day, bas often declared tbat be never, on any occasion, saw any 
 individual under tbe circumstances acquit bimself witb more 
 ability. Tbe speecb was of some lengtb — ten or fifteen minutes ; 
 it was alternately playful and grave, expressed witb perfect self- 
 possession, and toucbing on tbe occurrences of tbe game, tbe 
 cbaracters of botb disputants, and tbe conversation at tbe table, 
 witb tbe bappiest delicacy and dexterity. Among otber points 
 tbe Prince made a laugbing apology for Sberidan's unlucky us& 
 of tbe pbrase ' on a par,' by bidding bis brotber remember tbat 
 tbe impressions of scbool were not easily effaced, tbat Dr. Parr bad 
 inflicted learning upon Sbei'idan, and tbat, like tbe lover in ' Tbe 
 Wonder,' wbo mixes bis mistress's name witb everytbing, and 
 calls to bis valet, ' Eoast me tbese Violantes,' tbe name of Parr 
 was uppermost in Sberidan's sleep.: be tben ran into a suc- 
 cession of sportive quotations of tbe word jsar, in tbe style of 
 Ludere par impar, equitare in arundine longd, until tbe speeck 
 was concluded in general gaiety, and tbe dispute was tbougbt of 
 no more."* 
 
 During tbis season, too, be bad witnessed some more private 
 tbeatricals, performed before bim at Eicbmond House, with. 
 * Dr. Croly, " Life of George IV." 
 
240 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 the following distinguislied caste. The piece was Murphy's "Way 
 to Keep Him " : 
 
 Lovemore . 
 Sir Brilliant Fashion 
 Sir Bashful Constant 
 William 
 Sideboard . 
 Widow Belmour 
 Mrs. Lovemore . 
 Lady Constant . 
 Muslin 
 
 Lord Deebt. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Edgecumbe. 
 
 Major Aeabin. 
 
 Sir Haret Englepield. 
 
 Mr. Campbell. 
 
 Hon. Mrs. Hobaet. 
 
 Hon. Mrs. Damee. 
 
 Miss Campbell. 
 
 Mrs. Beuce. 
 
 The prologue was written by Mr. Conway, and spoken by the 
 Hon. Mrs. Hobart.* 
 
 In February, 1788, the Prince had been initiated into 
 Freemasonry, at the Star and Garter, Pall Mall. His Royal 
 Highness the Duke of Cumberland, as Grand Master, the Duke 
 of Norfolk, the Duke of Manchester, and several other noblemen 
 attended the ceremony. 
 
 Meanwhile, the King's condition seemed to improve, and the 
 fetes still given in honour of his restoration continued to testify 
 the affection borne him. The Spanish Ambassador's fete, given 
 at Ranelagh, was one of the most magnificent of those galas, and 
 was said to have cost £12,000. It was a fair specimen of all that 
 money and labour could do in those days. A description may 
 be quoted. 
 
 " The entrance into the rotunda (we are told) was formed into a 
 shrubbery ; the lower boxes represented a Spanish camp, and 
 the gallery formed a temple of Flora. The Queen's box was of 
 crimson satin, lined with white satin hung in festoons, and richly 
 fringed with gold, at the top of which was a regal crown. The 
 orchestra was a magnificent pavilion of white and gold, lined 
 with green embroidered satin, in which was a table of eighteen 
 covers for the royal family. Opposite the Queen's box was a 
 small stage, on which a Spanish dance was performed by 
 children, which had a pleasing effect. In another arch of the 
 centre were beautiful moving transparencies ; and in a third was 
 a lottery of watches, gold trinkets, medals, etc., consisting of six 
 hundred prizes, the number of ladies invited. The great prize, 
 a gold watch richly ornamented with diamonds, fell to the lot of 
 
 * "Afterwards Countess of Berkshire, wlio, according to the fashion of 
 the times, presided at a faro-table which, was frequented by the Prince 
 of Wales, and where on some evenings she gave her dramatic readings, 
 in which she was assisted by that sprightly and witty barrister, the present 
 Mr. Jekyll."— Huish. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IT. 241 
 
 Miss Eliza Sturt. Her Majesty drew an etwee-case, with a 
 beautiful medallion of the King. An Ode, the words by Colonel 
 Arabin, was sung ; after which a red curtain drew up, and about 
 thirty girls and boys, in Spanish dresses, entertained the 
 company with Spanish dances. Her Majesty and the royal 
 family then retired to the back part of their box, to view the 
 fireworks from the garden. There were about twenty sailing- 
 boats on the water, illuminated with lamps, which moved back- 
 wards and forwards, letting off sky-rockets. The fireworks were 
 very grand, and well conducted." 
 
 All these entertainments were so many affronts to the Princes. 
 At the Spanish minister^'s fete members of the party were said 
 to have been excluded ; and the Princes showed their feelings by 
 quitting the room almost as soon as they entered it. At the 
 French Ambassador's fete they noticed that the Qneen "bowed 
 graciously to Colonel Lenox," on which the royal brethren at 
 once took their departure. The Princesses, whose position at such 
 places must have been awkward, merely made their appearance 
 and then went away, and during the dance the Princesses had to 
 be led out by noblemen. A journey to the seaside, with visits to 
 various great houses, was prescribed for the King, as well as 
 some stay at his favourite Weymouth. The Princes set out on 
 a progress of their own into Yorkshire and other places. It was 
 hoped that the Prince of Wales would have waited on his father ; 
 but he despatched the Duke of York in his place with a letter, 
 in the composition of which Sheridan and Fox, then staying at 
 Brighton, had been concerned. 
 
 The Prince, as usual, preferred to hurry post from Brighton 
 without stop, had stayed only a single day, and thence returned, 
 sleeping in his chaise. He played a match of cricket there, then 
 set off with his brother for the York races, where both were 
 received by Lord Fitzwilliam at Wentworth. It was hardly 
 surprising that the Duke, who had only just recovered from the 
 measles, should have fallen sick again at York. For these wild 
 courses a heavy price was to be paid later, in the sufferings that 
 attend a life of excess.* 
 
 * On this tour or progress lie was attended in all state by the Dukes 
 of Bedford, Ancaster, and Queensberry, Lords Carlisle, Derby, Rawdon, 
 and others. He won a stake at the York races, and received the freedom 
 of the city. No wonder that Mr. Burke wrote to Fox — this was in 
 August, 1789 — " Things went ofi well in Yorkshire. I wish the Prince 
 had staid a few days longer, to show himself to the manufacturing towns, 
 which are the headquarters of the enemy. It is very probable that he 
 might have dislodged them. However, as it was, the Northern excursion 
 has been of use." 
 
 In returning to town he m.et with an accident : " About two miles 
 
 VOL. I. iE 
 
242 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 At Lord Fitzwilliam's a unique and truly magnificent dis- 
 play was contrived. The whole county round was bidden to 
 the park, where all were entertained, and it was calculated that 
 no. less than twenty thousand persons were feasted : two hundred 
 of the Torkshire helles and Yorkshire " quality " sat at the tahle 
 with the Prince. 
 
 As if to encourage him further in his reckless course of life, 
 there now arrived in town his friend the Duke of Orleans — having 
 left Paris on the eve of the Revolution. At Boulogne he had 
 been seized and detained by the fishermen, and was only 
 allowed to depart after infinite difliculty. A house had been 
 taken for him in town. The Prince put off a visit he was 
 about paying to Holkham to "Coke of Norfolk," to entertain 
 the Duke. The Prince and his brother were at their favourite 
 jeweller's, when they encountered their French friends. But there 
 presently arose a coldness between them, when the behaviour of 
 the French Prince to King Louis XVI. became known ; the 
 Duke of York declined meeting him at entertainments ; while 
 it was remarked that at the Prince of Wales's ball given to 
 Prince Gralitzin the Duke of Orleans was not present. 
 
 The summer had been spent at Brighton with more than usual 
 frivolity. Mr. Fox was on a visit with him, and both repaired 
 to Lewes races, where the Prince was welcomed by the High 
 Sheriff, attended by "the whole population as javelin men/' a. 
 most grotesque spectacle. Here, too, were seen three ladies, 
 distinguished by their rather eccentric equipages — the Duchess of 
 Rutland, Lady Lade, and Mrs. Fitzherbert — each in a carriage 
 drawn by four gray ponies.* 
 
 In January, 1790, we find the gay Prince, as previously stated, 
 
 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 along with him, Lord Clermont, Colonel St. Leger, 
 and Colonel Lake. The Prince suffered a slight contusion in the shoulder, 
 and his wrist was sprained. Being undermost in the first fall, by the next 
 roll of the carriage he was brought uppermost, when, with great presence 
 of mind, he disengaged himself, and was the first to rescue and 
 disengage his fellow-travellers. Lord Clermont was the most hurt. The 
 accident happened at ten o'clock at night, and it was clear moonlight. 
 The carriage was his royal highness's own travelling-coach, with hired 
 horses and postilions ; and the mischance was occasioned by the wilful- 
 ness of the postilions, who drove to clear the cart with their common 
 precipitation." 
 
 * Lady Lade was scarcely company for the other ladies, but she enjoyed 
 the Prince's patronage, which, however, did not avail to protect her. For 
 when on the night of the race ball she stood up for the dance, her appear- 
 ance was greeted with loud murmurs, and a voice from the crowd called 
 out, " Lady Lade's carriage stops the way ! " on which she retired. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 243 
 
 at Lord Barrymore's, at Wargrave, where lie remained three 
 days, and was entertained with plays and a masked ball. But 
 this disorderly celebration was to be further marked by accident, 
 an unfortunate coachman being flung from his box in a collision, 
 and killed on the spot. Then followed in the same month a 
 magnificent baU at Carlton House, to about two hundred of the 
 chief personages. It was a private entertainment, being given in 
 honour of Prince Galitzin, who '' wished to see an English country 
 dance." At the close of the night he was introduced to English 
 gaming. Captain Payne was said to have won a thousand guineas 
 at faro. But presentlythe public must have been a little surprised 
 to learn that after the bitter animosity that reigned between the 
 Prince and his father, a reconciliation had taken place between 
 them. This was believed to have been brought about by Lord 
 Thurlow, with whom the Prince had continued to be exceedingly 
 intimate, taking dehght in his rough jests and coarse abuse of the 
 people they both disliked. " Tou, sir," Lord Thurlow would teU 
 him in his rough way, "will never be popular; your father is, 
 because he is faithful to that ugly woman your mother." It 
 was noted that the Prince now received and invited persons 
 without distinction of party. Eeconciliation with the Queen 
 presently followed, brought about, it was said, through the agency 
 of the Dukes of Leeds and Richmond, though the Princess Royal 
 had been unwearied in her efforts to attain this end. This happy 
 event took place in March, 1791. "A gentleman, who lives at 
 the east end of St. James' Park," wrote Mr. Walpole, " has been 
 sent by a lady who has a large house at the west end, and they 
 have kissed and are friends, which he notified by toasting her 
 health in a bumper at a club the other day."* It would seem 
 that the feelings of the Prince had not gone with this becoming 
 act, and that he still nourished a sense of injury. 
 
 He was still carrying on a correspondence with his friend. Lord 
 Cornwallis, in an effusive vein, and which that nobleman received 
 in almost dry fashion, as some unreasonable request for a place or 
 patronage was always presented. The style should be noted. 
 
 THE PEINCE OP TAiES 10 LORD COBNWAlilS. 
 
 " Carlton House, April 16th, 1790. 
 "Mt deae Loed, 
 
 " It is so long since I had the pleasure of hearing from 
 Tou y* I am quite afraid Tou have forgot Tour old Friends on 
 this side of the Water, therefore think it high time to assure Tou 
 y' there are a few of us who have had the pleasure of passing 
 
 *" Letters," ix. 299. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE LIFE 0¥ GEOEGE lY. 
 
 many pleasant & happy Hours in y'" Society, whoever are most 
 happy in hearing, be it ever such short Letters, y* You are well 
 and situated to y^ Satisfaction. By this time You must have heard 
 of the treatment — the shameful, unjust treatment — our little 
 worthy Friend Lothian has experienced from the Minister. I 
 would expatiate more upon this Subject, was it not so perfectly 
 of a piece with everything y* had been inflicted, not only upon 
 other individuals, but upon every relative and relation of the 
 King's Family who acted from principles of disinterested honor, 
 y* had it not happened, one might have been astonished y' for 
 once, the natural mean, paltry, and revengeful disposition of 
 the Minister did not demonstrate itself in the odious and impres- 
 sive light, which now it has in every instance in w*^ either could 
 or dared give it vent. I will not, my dear Lord, intrude further 
 upon y"^ time, as I know how much it must naturally, from y"^ 
 situation, be taken up ; however, before I conclude, I must just 
 mention to You how much I wish to recommend to y'' protection 
 Young Mr. Watts, who is, I believe, in the Company's service. 
 I understood y' his wish is, if possible, to get equal Rank 
 in the Regulars, to y* which he has in the Company's troops. 
 I do not know whether this is an easy matter to be done or not. 
 I must leave it entirely to you, my dear Lord, to y'' better judg- 
 ment and knowledge of the possibility of effecting these matters ; 
 however, I only hope y' sh'^ this plan not be possible to be 
 arranged, you will employ the Young Man in some other line to 
 w^ You may deem he has abilities. Pray excuse hurry and scrawl, 
 and believe me, my dear Lord, 
 
 " Ever most truly Y'' Friend, 
 
 "G. P." 
 
 " Carlton House, May llth, 1791. 
 "Mt dear Loed, 
 
 " Allow me to return you my thanks for the Letter I last 
 week received from you. We had, about a fortnight before, 
 received the accounts of Colonel Floyd's affair, & regretted much 
 that so much bravery had not been crowned with more success, 
 at least with a more signal victory. My Brother is gone, upon 
 the report of War, to attend the Prussian Army, in case there 
 sh'^ be any service to be seen, and sh"^ there not, then to return 
 to England when the grand Reviews are over. As to Topics, 
 there are so few except the French Revolution and the prospect 
 of a War with Russia, with both of w^ you must be so much better 
 informed about by other persons than I can pretend to do with 
 mine, y' I will not even take up your time with mentioning the 
 subject. I have had the pleasure of seeing lately a great deal of 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IV. 245 
 
 my old friend Singleton^ whom I had not seen hardly since he has 
 had the honor of being related to your Lordship; & having taken 
 a house in Hampshire about fifteen miles from mine, he now & 
 then rides over in order to meet my Hounds, when they throw off 
 within a distance of ten or a dozen miles from him ; & all I can 
 say is, I flatter myself, when he has the honor to be as well 
 known by your Lordship as he is by me, he will gain the same 
 place in y'^ esteem y* I confess he long has done in mine. Before 
 I conclude^ allow me to mention y* the Young Man who will have 
 the honor of delivering this Letter to y'' L'^^'^'p is a young man 
 whose Brother, thro^ the interest of my friend Lushington, I have 
 got the permission of the Company to be a Free Merchant. I 
 formerly recommended him to You, & his name is Coleman, and I 
 flatter myself he will always merit y"^ support & approbation by 
 his industry and diligence. The young man himself is coming 
 out as a Cadet, & I can only add y* any attention & assistance 
 you are so good as to show him on my account, I shall attribute 
 to the source of that friendship w'^ I hope I shall always experience 
 from you. 
 
 " I am, My Dear Lord, Most Sincerely Yours, 
 
 '^G. P." 
 
 Lord Cornwallis's answers to this and other rambling effusions 
 offer a curious contrast. They are rather cold and stiff, and even 
 seem to rebuke the want of propriety in abusing the King to the 
 King's ofllcer. He wrote that "he felt the strongest disinclination 
 to enter on that unpleasant topic of the Eegency." No one could 
 love or admire his royal highness more, but " he was a deter- 
 mined friend to the liberties of his country and the prerogatives 
 of the Crown," and had he been in the country he would have 
 felt it his duty to have opposed the Duke of York. For one of 
 the Prince's proteges he would have to displace an old judge. 
 This could not be done. Neither could he say whether, during 
 his term of office, he would be able to do anything for him. He 
 complained to Lord Southampton of persons actually not in the 
 Company being sent out by the Prince. Mr. Colebrook had 
 arrived in this way with all his family " on the chance." Lord 
 Cornwallis plainly told him he could do nothing for him. He 
 said that he had been advised to come by Sir T. Macpherson, the 
 Prince's friend.* 
 
 * " Cornwallis Cor." passim. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 1791. 
 
 It can scarcely be understood how passionate and successful a 
 follower of racing was the Prince of Wales. Notkingj indeed, 
 more completely disposes of the conventional idea of his character 
 that he was a frivolous being without talents and engrossed in 
 pleasure. To be successful in this sport requires, as is well 
 known, qualities of judgment, sagacity, and calculation, with the 
 power of analysing experience and turning it to profit. No one 
 of his time had so genuine a love for horses, and no one had " a 
 finer eye for them,'''' says the author of "Post and Paddock." 
 Hacks and hunters he never seemed tired of trying, and the 
 dealers, like the jewellers, were always welcome. At Carlton 
 House, Mat Milton's refrain, '' Throw your thigh over him, your 
 Highness, and you'll find him to be the sweetest goer you ever 
 mounted," was invariably responded to. Hunting to a man who 
 latterly weighed more than twenty-three stone was, of course, out 
 of the question, but when he was able to don his blue coat with 
 gilt buttons and top-boots and buckskins, he cared very little 
 what Milton or any other dealer chose to ask for a clever hack. 
 It used to be a saying at Brighton that, heavy as he was, he rode 
 so well that he never soiled his nankeens.* He used to hunt with 
 Mr. Villebois's hounds in Hampshire, and the plumes still appear 
 on the Club button. 
 
 It was during this period (1788 to 1791) that he was most 
 partial to hunting, though it was admitted that he was never 
 what was called a forward rider. As we have seen, he had 
 hunted in Hampshire. We are told " Colonel Leigh was then in 
 
 * "Post and Paddock," p. 108. 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGE lY. 247 
 
 Mgli favour; and George Sharps was for some short time his 
 huntsman, although before long superseded by a man named 
 G-ranstoUj who was dismissed only by death from the service of 
 the Prince. His hounds showed as fair a proportion of sport as 
 could be expected from the flints and woods of Hampshire ; the 
 country, however, does not, and never did, rank high even in the list 
 of provincials ; and other agremens, besides the facility of hunting, 
 had no doubt their weight in detaining his royal master as a 
 resident. No party bickerings, no sporting squabbles were at 
 any time heard ; and the whole country resembled one large and 
 happily united family, of which their distinguished visitor was 
 looked up to and adored as the august and beloved head. Often, 
 no doubt, amidst the domestic troubles of his after-days, did the 
 Prince look back with a sad satisfaction and sorrow on the quiet 
 privacy and tranquil enjoyment of the regretted sojourn at the 
 Grange, which, then or later, belonged to Lord Ashburton. His 
 hounds came from Goodwood, where they had long formed the 
 kennel of the grandfather of the present Duke of Richmond ; and 
 amongst his horses were not a few thoroughbred ones, who had 
 distinguished themselves on the turf, yet were notwithstanding 
 equal to his weight. Amongst these were Curricle, Asparagus, 
 Totteridge, and Torbay." In 1790, however, we find him at 
 Critchill, the seat of Mr. Sturt, and where recently the present 
 heir-apparent was entertained. Here he entered thoroughly into 
 the enjoyment of rustic life, and kept himself rather secluded. 
 
 Mr. Chafin — a quaint hunting divine — describes in an ad- 
 mirable sporting book, now forgotten, but which has the flavour 
 of the " History of Selborne," how the Prince called on him. One 
 morning he was surprised to receive a visit from his royal high- 
 ness, who was in great excitement, desiring an information to be 
 taken for robbery, and that a search-warrant be granted to him, 
 " He insisted," says the clergyman naively, " on my administering 
 the oath to him, which I reluctantly did ; and then described how 
 his groom's box had been broken open and a watch and other 
 valuables stolen." He suspected certain persons, and chose to 
 •come himself lest the alarm should be taken. He sat by Mr. Chafin 
 while the warrant, was being filled up, and it was a circumstance 
 •of great satisfaction to him that the goods were found where he 
 had suspected them to be.* 
 
 Another hunting parson, the Rev. W. Butler, and a friend of 
 Mr. Chafin's, used to describe a rencontre with the Prince. 
 Eeturning home after a blank day in the Vale he was joined by a 
 gentleman who, entering into conversation, began to ask questions 
 
 * " Oranbourne Chaoe." A book after Lamb's own heart which should 
 be reprinted. 
 
248 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 about the neigtbourSj and more particularly about one gentleman, 
 ■who, he bad beard^ could despatch three bottles of port at a 
 sitting. This the clergyman thought little of, and declared he 
 could be " as drunk as a Prince." As he rode away the Prince 
 declared that this was the first time he bad learned that a person 
 of that rank was to be taken as the standard of inebriety. Mr, 
 Butler presently discovered who his companion had been. Many 
 years afterwards, when the Prince was Regent, he was advised to 
 go to Court, and when his name was announced the Prince was 
 heard to mutter : " I shan't forget the Rev. William Butler ! " 
 Sometime afterwards he, unsolicited, presented him with a Crown 
 living. 
 
 "Jack'' Radford was his groom, having come to him from 
 " Old Q.," in whose service he had filled the curious function of 
 waiting in Piccadilly, mounted on a fleet pony, to ride after any- 
 one whom the decayed old Duke espied passing by. This 
 familiar was often heard to declare, that horses were the sole 
 subject of the Prince's thoughts, even of his dreams. If he fancied 
 a racer he would buy him at any price, as when Lord Darlington 
 had bid 1100 guineas for an animal at Lord H. Pitzroy's sale, 
 he was told it was no use going on, as the King had instructed 
 Mr. Delme Ratcliffe to secure the mare at any price. " Indeed 
 he was most liberal with money, as long as he did not see 
 it. Cheques he would sign away to any amount; even £300 
 for ' Pea-green Haynes's' dressing-box. But when he had a 
 fifty-pound note in his pocket it was a bitter pang to him to 
 spend £5 of it." * 
 
 To Newmarket he was particularly partial, and his colours 
 were always to be found there. The scene at the races, when the 
 Prince and the men on the turf visited, is pleasantly described by 
 a lively, witty lady (Miss Berry), and reveals more the idea of a 
 foreign racecourse than the crowded tumultuous scene an English 
 race now presents. 
 
 "Newmarket Heath is entered by a turnpike at what is called 
 the Devil's Ditch, a high mound, with a deep ditch of turf below, 
 extending for several miles, of which no account is given, and 
 which is in fact a curious antiquity. The inn is almost opposite 
 what are called the Rooms, where men only meet, and which have 
 rather a handsome entrance of three arcades from the street, and 
 in this street Tattersall was selling horses by auction, and all the 
 young men whose faces one knows in London were walking 
 about, as well as all the fathers of the turf, such as Sir Frank 
 Standish, Sir Charles Bunbury, etc. etc. It had the oddest 
 
 * " Post and Paddock," p. 109. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEaB lY. 24& 
 
 effect possible to see so many figures one hardly ever sees out of 
 London walking about in a sort of village-town, for Newmarket 
 is no more, with the exception of some good houses. About 
 one o'clock all these men mounted their horses, and proceeded 
 towards the Heath, half a mile from the town. We followed 
 them in the carriage, with many other carriages, and Lord 
 Hardwicke on horseback. The scene of so many horsemen and a 
 good many people on foot, all trooping the same way, very gay 
 and pretty. When they got upon the Heath, it is so vast that 
 they seemed only like small groups upon it. It was said to be a 
 day of little sport. But four races were run : two subscriptions, 
 for each of which six horses started; and two matches. But the, 
 style in which all this is managed here, the rapidity with which 
 one race follows another, though on different courses — that is, on 
 different parts of the Heath — the scene at the betting-post, one 
 of which belongs to each course, and is the only permanent thing 
 upon it, for the ropes are immediately moved, and the winning- 
 post (a little machine upon wheels) is moved from one to the 
 other. All this was new and entertaining to me. Between each 
 race all the men and all the carriages are collected at the 
 betting-posts. Just before the horses start, the carriages take 
 their places near the ropes, and the crowd on horseback disperse 
 from the post. As soon as the horses are past, all the men follow 
 them to the rubbing-house to see them rubbed down, and their 
 clothes put on. The rubbing-house, stables, etc. etc., are little 
 insignificant buildings, which occupy no space and take off 
 nothing from the extreme bareness of the Heath. Stand there is 
 none. The ladies are all in their carriages. There were more 
 than I expected to see there. The fashionable custom at New- 
 market is, to have the plainest carriage and liveries possible, and 
 the gentlemen all to be mounted upon shabby-looking rips of 
 horses. The races were over between three and four." 
 
 At the very outset of his career, in 1788, he had won the 
 Derby. From this time until 1792, when he first retired from the 
 turf, he was so fortunate. Lord William Lennox tells us, as to win 
 a hundred and eighty-five races, including eighteen King^s Plates, 
 with a valuable stake now and then of three or four thousand 
 guineas. Adding the prizes together he will be found to have 
 won about £30,000 ; but the cost of his stud was stated to have 
 been some £30,000 a year. 
 
 " His first race was won at Newmarket, with Anvil, for a stake 
 of £60 ; and his stud, which then consisted of four or five horses, 
 gradually amounted to forty-one in 1791. From 1800 to 1807 
 he won a hundred and seven races, and in the latter year he was 
 
250 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 most fortunate, winning twenty-six races. According to Lord 
 W. Lennox's calculations, lie won altogether about three hundred 
 and thirteen races in twenty years." * 
 
 His favourite jockey was " Sam Chifney," of whom and of 
 whose family many traditions linger at Newmarket, but who is 
 best known from his connection with the Escape transaction. 
 This unfortunate incident we shall now describe. 
 
 "This weU-known horse was bred by the Prince himself, 
 and, when his stud was sold off in 1787, was purchased by 
 Mr. Francis.f In 1789 the Prince bought him back for the sum 
 of £1500. 
 
 On the 20th of October, 1791, Escape, then reckoned the 
 best horse upon the turf, was beaten at Newmarket by two 
 horses of inferior reputation. The odds now changed against 
 him, and it was the general opinion of the sporting world that 
 he would lose the match he had to run the next day. Accord- 
 ingly bets were made to a large amount, and with great odds, 
 that Escape would lose ; but contrary to the opinion, and much 
 to the disappoiatment of the knowing ones. Escape won his 
 race." 
 
 Chifney, who rode Escape on these two days, published a 
 pamphlet, a short time before his death, entitled " Genius 
 
 * "" In order," says Mr. Huish, " that a correct opinion may be formed 
 o£ the success of his royal highness during the year 1791, we subjoin the 
 following list of winners belonging to him : 
 
 " Mademoiselle, by Diomed, 660 guineas, at Newmarket. 
 
 " Devi Sing, by Eclipse, 150 guineas and £50 at Lewes. 
 
 " Don Quixote, by Eclipse, 100 guineas and £50 at Newmarket. 
 
 " Pegasus, by Eclipse, the King's Plate at Newmarket, and 140 guineas 
 at Stockbridge. 
 
 " Serpent, by Eclipse, 80 guineas at Brighton, 60 guineas, and the Ladies' 
 Plate at Lewes. 
 
 " Amelia, by Highflyer, the Third Class of the Filly Stakes, 1000 guineas, 
 and 300 guineas at Newmarket and the Prince's Stakes at Ascot. 
 
 " Escape, by Highflyer, 250 guineas, 1000 guineas, 140 guineas, and 
 55 guineas, at Newmarket. 
 
 " Traveller, by Highflyer, 400 guineas, at Newmarket. 
 
 " St. David, by Saltram, the Second Class of the Prince's Stakes, at 
 Newmarket. 
 
 " Creeper, by Tandem, 50 guineas at Newmarket, 60 guineas at Burford, 
 and the King's Plates at Lichfield and Burford. 
 
 " Baronet, by Vertumnus, the Oatlands Stakes at Ascot, and the 
 King's Plates at Winchester, Lewes, Canterbury, and Newmarket. 
 
 " Clementina, by Vertumnus, £50 at Swaffham, and 200 guineas at 
 Newmarket." 
 
 t One night the horse thrust his foot through the woodwork of his stall, 
 and was extricated without injury, and to the astonishment of the trainer, 
 who could only exclaim, " What an escape ! '' which at once suggested the 
 name. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 251 
 
 Genuine, by Samuel Chifney, of Newmarket ; containing a fall 
 account of the Prince's horse Escape, running at Newmarket on 
 the 20th and 21st days of October, 1791" — in which he very 
 satisfactorily accounted for Escape's losing his first and winning 
 his second race. On the first day's race, Escape, he said, for 
 want of proper exercise, was not in a fit condition to run ; that 
 the exercise had opened his pores, and enabled him to perform 
 better on the second day. But this was far from satisfactory to 
 the gentlemen of the turf, and a rumour was propagated 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 the horse was winded and easily beaten. 
 
 " 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 management of the Prince of Wales's running horses) 
 had been saying something improper to his royal highness con- 
 cerning Escape's winning ; I made it, therefore, my business to 
 go immediately to his royal highness, who was riding with a 
 gentleman near to the G-reat Stand House, and he immediately 
 accosted me in the following words : ' Sam 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 that he should explain himself.' 
 This is all that passed on the subject to-day. 
 
 " On the morning after the race, his royal highness sent for 
 me into his dressing-room, and then ordered me to be shown into 
 an adjoining room, where he thus accosted me : ' Sam Chifney, I 
 have 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 
 were beaten upon him.' I replied, that I believed his royal 
 highness had not such an opinion of me. 
 
 " His royal highness continued : ' I am told, Sam Chifney, 
 that you won six or seven hundred pounds upon the race yester- 
 day, when you rode Escape, and won upon him ; and I am told 
 that Vauxhall 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 that dared to tell your Royal 
 Highness so ? ' 
 
 " His royal highness replied, ' Sam Chifney, I wish to know 
 whether you have any objection to take your affidavit, naming 
 
252 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 all tlie bets you had upon tlie race, every way, wlien you rode 
 Escape, and was beaten upon him on the day before yesterday ? ' 
 I acknowledged my readiness to do it, if it would give bis royal 
 highness any satisfaction. 
 
 " His royal highness said, '' Sam Chifney, your doing it will 
 give yourself satisfaction, it will give the public satisfaction, it 
 will give me satisfaction. You will specify in your afSdavifc all 
 the bets you had upon both days' races, when that you rode 
 Escape on the day before yesterday, and was beaten upon him ; 
 and yesterday when that you rode Escape and won upon him ; 
 naming all the bets you had upon both those races, and to take 
 your affidavit as such. I hope, Sam Chifney, you do not mis- 
 understand 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, ' Sam Chifney, I wish to know 
 if you have any objection against being examined by the Jockey 
 Club, and in any way that they are pleased to think proper.' 
 To which I most fully and freely consented. His royal highness 
 said : ' I am told, Sam Chifney, that you were arrested at Ascot 
 Heath for three hundred pounds, and that Vauxhall 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 : 
 ' Sam Chifney, I wish to know if you have any objection to 
 make an afi&davit that you were not arrested at Ascot Heath, 
 and that Vauxhall Clark did not pay three hundred pounds for 
 you ? ' I replied to his royal highness : ' I am very willing to 
 do it.' 
 
 "■ On the same morning (22nd of October, 1791), his royal 
 highness called me across the betting-ring. I instantly obeyed 
 his commands, and his royal highness put me between himself 
 and Sir Charles Bunbury, and then rode out upon the Heath. 
 After his royal highness and Sir Charles had talked upon the 
 subject, his royal highness said, ' Sam Chifney, I think you told 
 me that you were willing to be examined by the stewards of the 
 Jockey Club in any way they should think proper ? ' I said, 
 ' Your Royal Highness, I am proud to meet any man upon the 
 subject.' His royal highness then addressed himself to Sir 
 Charles Bunbury. ' There, Sir Charles, you hear him say that 
 he is proud to meet any man upon the subject. Now, Sir 
 Charles, I beg of you to take every pains you possibly can so 
 as to make yourself perfectly satisfied ; and then enclose me Sam 
 Chifney's affidavits, and apprise me how the business ends, as I 
 am going to Brighton to-night.' His royal highness left Sir 
 Charles and rode near the betting -ring, where, after he had 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE 17. 253 
 
 stood a little wLlle, lie saidj ' Sam Chifney, ttis business sliould 
 be explained.' I answered, 'Your Royal Higliness, I don't 
 know how to explain it.' His royal higliness then rode oil the 
 turf to town, before the day's sport was iinished, and I imme- 
 diately went home. Soon after this I receiTed from Mr. 
 Weatherby, clerk to the Jockey Olub, copies of affidavits which 
 I swore before the Rev. Dr. Frampton, naming that I had 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 following day, when I rode him on the 21st of October, 
 1791, and that I had the same desire of winning upon Escape 
 when I rode him on the 20th of October, 1791, as I had when 
 I rode him on the following day, the 21st of October, 1791 ; 
 and further, that I had never been arrested on Ascot Heath, 
 and that Mr. Vauxhall Clark never did pay any money for 
 me. When I had sworn these affidavits, they were signed by 
 the Rev. Dr. Frampton, and I immediately returned them to 
 Mr. Weatherby. 
 
 "I was then had up before the stewards of the Jockey Club, 
 who were Sir Charles Banbary, Bart., Ralph Datton, Esq., and 
 Thomas Panton, Esq. 
 
 Sir Charles Bunbury asked me some 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 when 
 I rode Escape on the following day, when he won, and who made 
 my 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 Vauxhall 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 he was a wrong judge of 
 his man. 
 
 "Sir Charles Bunbury now stopped, and looked about 
 apparently dissatisfied. 
 
 " Mr. Dutton said, ' I think Chifney spoke very fairly.' 
 
 " Mr. Panton immediately said, ' Yes, very faiiiy.' 
 
 " Sir Charles Bunbury did not ask me any more questions. 
 
 " I then said to Sir Charles and the two other gentlemen 
 that my motive for waiting with Escape was because I knew he 
 could run very fast ; I likewise knew Skylark could run fast, 
 though a jade, for I had ridden against him most of the races he 
 had run. I was now dismissed, and this is everything that passed 
 with me from and to the Prince of Wales, Mr. W. Lake, and the 
 Jockey Club, on this subject at Newmarket. 
 
 "■Some weeks after this, and I well remember that it was 
 
254 THE LII'E OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 after the Duke of York's coming from abroad witk tke duchesSj. 
 Sir Jokn Lade wrote to me at Newmarket for me to attend on 
 the Prince immediately. I went to Carlton House directly, and 
 the Prince of Wales told me that Sir Charles Bunbury came to 
 him and told him that if he suffered Chifney to ride his horses 
 no gentleman would start against him. His royal highness 
 said, he told Sir Charles Bunbury that if he or any other 
 person could make it appear that Sam Chifney had done wrong, 
 then he would never speak to him again ; and without that he 
 would not sacrifice him to any person. His royal highness 
 then said he should leave the turf, as he could not be guilty of 
 that ingratitude to let his horses go over for the forfeits, after 
 being told that no gentleman would start against him, but that 
 he should pay the forfeits, and leave the turf. His royal high- 
 ness then said he 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 had no business to have won ; and that 
 there are others who wish to have you, and others who think you 
 too good for me, as they know you will not see me robbed.' 
 His royal highness then told me he should always be glad to 
 see me, and for my own sake to let him see me often ; and 
 that if he ever kept horses again, I should train and manage 
 them. After this I was ordered to attend on his royal high- 
 ness at Sir John Lade's, in Piccadilly, which I did j and in the 
 presence of Sir John Lade and Mr. Phillips, his royal highness 
 put his hand upon his bosom and said that he believed Sam 
 Chifney had been to him very honest, and wished me to under- 
 stand that the two hundred guineas a year he gave me was for 
 his life, saying, ' I cannot give it for your life, I can only give it 
 for my own life.' I bowed to his royal highness, and said I was 
 well satisfied." 
 
 In 1802, Chifney adds, that at the Brighton and Lewes race 
 time, as the Prince of Wales was walking on the Steyne, having 
 hold of a gentleman's arm, he approached and told his royal 
 highness that they cried out very much for him at Newmarket. 
 His royal highness said : " Sam Chifney, there has never been 
 a proper apology made ; and they used me and you very ill j 
 they are a bad people j I'll not set my foot on the ground any 
 more."* 
 
 This unpleasant affair seems to have arisen from the dis- 
 appointment of Lake, one of his own suite, who behaved very 
 faithlessly to his master. Having lost on the race he started the 
 objection. In another account the Prince is described as being 
 deeply wounded by the speech, and replied : " I did not expect 
 
 * Huish, i. 275. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 255- 
 
 this from you."* Colonel St. Leger told Lord Malmesbury that 
 Lake was the whole cause of the Newmarket affair, and that he 
 had behaved very ill towards the Prince.f This, however, ter- 
 minated his connection with Newmarket, which nothing would 
 ever induce him to visit again. In 1805 a meeting of the members 
 of the Jockey Club was held at Brighton during the races. The 
 result was the following resolution, unanimously carried : " May 
 it please your Royal Highness, the members of the Jockey Club, 
 deeply regretting your absence from Newmarket, earnestly entreat 
 the affair may be buried in oblivion, and sincerely hope that the 
 different meetings may again be honoured by your Royal High- 
 ness's condescending attendance." This document was submitted 
 to the Prince, who received it graciously, and, in his reply, 
 signified his intention of assenting to it, but never carried his 
 intention into effect. To Ascot, however, he was to the last 
 partial. When in later years he was induced by an earnest and 
 affectionate appeal from his racing friends to renew his connection 
 with them, he gave a Jockey Club dinner, which was marked by 
 graceful freedom, speechifying, and conviviality. 
 
 * "Life and Times of George lY." i. 226. f " Diaries," ii. 462. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 1790—1793. 
 
 DuEiNG this time tlie wild Duke of York kept jDace with his 
 brother — gambling, playing tennis with blacklegs, and squander- 
 ing recklessly. " We are not popular," wrote Lord Southampton, 
 *' less so than our elder brother ; yet there is always a stronghold 
 with the father." His state was truly pitiable^ and the only 
 resource that offered for extrication was marriage. 
 
 It was unfortunate that the King and his family should have 
 always pressed this notable remedy on all their dissipated chil- 
 dren, making it take the odious shape of a condition precedent 
 to any relief from their difficulties. During the Dukes's long 
 absence in Germany he had opportunities of seeing the Princess 
 Frederica, Princess Royal of Prussia, and since his return had 
 corresponded with her. An alliance was now arranged; his 
 brother, the Prince of Wales, entered very cordially into the 
 idea, and was considered to have " behaved very well." " He 
 has put in," says Sir G. Elliot, " a saving clause for himself, in 
 case he chooses to marry, which he thinks probable, if he sees 
 his brother happy with his wife, and told the King that had he 
 permitted him to go abroad at the time he asked leave to do so, 
 hie meant to have looked out for a princess who would have 
 suited him, as he was too domestic to bear the thoughts of 
 marrying a woman he did not like."* 
 
 We who have heard his conversation with Lord Malmesbury 
 at the time alluded, know how far this was from the truth, 
 though it was no doubt spoken in good faith ; an instance of that 
 self-delusion in which he was wont to indulge. 
 
 * "Life and Letters of Sir G. Elliot," i. 293. 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGB lY. 257 
 
 It would appear he formed a plan of meeting his brother 
 abroad at Coblentz, but this was given up. Like all his schemes, 
 it seems to have been an incoherent idea arising out of his 
 difficulties. He had actually despatched Lord Malmesbury to 
 his brother with a proposal that he should raise a loan at Berlin. 
 The spectacle of a prince coming to wed a foreign bride, and 
 using the opportunity of his visit to raise money among her 
 countrymen, was not a dignified one; and in this view Lord 
 Malmesbury was employed on a sort of mission of which he gave 
 an account to the Duke of Portland, who seems to have favoured 
 the scheme.* 
 
 The wedded pair were welcomed by the Prince " with that 
 unaffected grace for which he was always pre-eminently distin- 
 guished." The next proceeding was a re-marriage before the 
 King,-]- on account of a legal quibble arising out of the royal 
 marriage, matters having been so awkwardly arranged that the 
 marriage had taken place at Berlin on the day after the King's 
 consent had passed the Great Seal; but the Act required that 
 it should be set out in the licence and register, which, of course, 
 could not appear at Berlin. 
 
 On the King and Queen's visit to the royal couple, some odd 
 ceremonies were noted : " The royal party were led to the lower 
 apartment, fronting the park, where tea was served, and the 
 following ceremony observed : the Prince of Wales, in the first 
 place, was to attend on the King and hand to him the tea, which 
 was brought to the door by the servants, 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." Another of the royal brothers 
 was not treated so handsomely. 
 
 The story of the unfortunate Prince Edward is perhaps not 
 well known. Few royal princes passed so wretched a life. Like 
 his brothers, he had been despatched out of his native country 
 when eighteen, under charge of a military pedant, named Baron 
 Wangenheim, with an allowance of £1000 a year, which the latter 
 was to control. Coming to Geneva his allowance was increased 
 to £6000 a year ; but it is said that only a guinea and a half per 
 week was paid to him by his instructor. Incurring debts, and 
 disgusted by the treatment he was receiving, he left Geneva 
 without leave and hurried to England, where he arrived in 1790. 
 The anger of the King was excessive : he refused to see him. In 
 
 * Lord Malmesbury, " Diaries," p. 438. 
 t Huish, i. 302. 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 THE LIFE OF GEOEaE IV. 
 
 vain tte Prince of Wales and the Dake of York implored 
 indulgence for him ; and after a f ortnight^'s delay the only 
 communication he received was a peremptory order that he 
 should embark for Gibraltar at a day's notice. A hurried and 
 ungracious interview with his father was vouchsafed him, and 
 £500 given to the captain of the ship for his wants. The rest of 
 his life was made wretched by struggles with pecuniary embarrass- 
 mentSj of which he was to have the family share. He was sent 
 about to various places in the colonies, and did not return to 
 England until the year 1799, when he was heavily in debt. He 
 had now been created Duke of Kent. In 1802 he was appointed 
 Governor of Gibraltar, where his attempts to reform the habits 
 of the garrison led to a mutiny, the object of which was to put 
 the Prince on board a vessel and send him back to England. All 
 the capricious changes of place to which he had been exposed 
 entailed no less than seven equipments at a cost of some £50,000, 
 which he had never been paid for, and which the Government 
 refused to pay. By the year 1807 his debts amounted to the 
 respectable sum of £108,200. Nothing, however, would be done 
 for him by any party or Government, as he was a respectable and 
 long-suffering creature. 
 
 It is curious that his brother Wilham (" the sailor prince"), 
 who had been sent to sea, should have ventured on similar 
 insubordination, and which was as sternly dealt with. In 1786 
 he had been given the command of the Pegasus, a ship of 
 twenty-eight guns, and had earned the high praise of Nelson, a 
 man not likely to pay compliments. In a letter to Captain 
 Locker, he writes : " In his professional line, he is superior to 
 nearly two-thirds, I am sure, of the list, and in attention to orders, 
 and respect to his superior officer, I hardly know his equal. His 
 royal highness keeps up strict discipUne in his ship, and without 
 paying him any compliment, she is one of the finest-ordered 
 frigates I have seen." 
 
 When his ship was ordered to Quebec he did not relish being 
 imprisoned in the St. Lawrence river for a whole winter, and 
 without ceremony or orders, brought her home. Anchoring 
 at Cork, he sent a sort of justificatory letter to the Duke of 
 Eichmond, who had been Lord-Lieutenant. He was just dead. 
 The Prince at once received orders to go to Plymouth. The Eling 
 and his Council assembled, and the insubordinate, when about to 
 set off for London, received peremptory orders to remain with his 
 ship. The Admiralty, after deliberation, required him to serve 
 his proper period at that port, and at its expiration he was ordered 
 away to the West Indies. Such was the spirit in which the 
 service was administered. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOKGE lY. 259 
 
 There was yet anotlier son, wLose adventures abroad were to 
 «xcite the displeasure of his father. 
 
 The history of the private marriages of the four brothers 
 really makes up four little romances — romances like so many 
 other romances, owing to restriction and " tyranny." 
 
 In the year 1792, Prince Frederick Augustus, sixth son of the 
 King of England, was on his travels in Italy. He was then only 
 nineteen, and, according to precedent, was under care of a 
 governor. His health had been so delicate from his birth, that 
 the air of England was found too severe for his system, and he 
 had scarcely lived there at all. He was, indeed, almost virtually 
 a German ; for he was born at Hanover and educated in 
 Germany. Rome was then, as indeed it was through the last 
 century, one of the gayest of capitals — full of princes, dukes, 
 wits, and adventurers ; and among the English " persons of 
 quality" found there during the winter of 1792 was the Countess 
 of Dunmore and her family, which was a large one. The Earl 
 was governor of one of the American provinces, and was absent 
 at his duties. One of the daughters was Lady Augusta Murray, 
 a young lady of great attractions, by whom the Prince, who 
 mixed a great deal in English society, was quite fascinated. 
 
 "The well-known accomplishments of my wife," wrote the 
 Duke later, " caught my peculiar attention. After four months' 
 intimacy, by which I got more particularly acquainted with all 
 her endearing qualities, I offered her my hand unknown to her 
 family, being certain beforehand of the objections Lady Dunmore 
 would have made me, had she been informed of my intentions. 
 The candour and generosity my wife showed on this occasion, by 
 refusing the proposal and showing me the personal disadvantages I 
 should draw on myself, instead of checking my endeavours, served 
 only to add new fuel to a passion which already no earthly power 
 could make me resign." 
 
 This warm attachment, thus inaugurated, was of course 
 evident to Lady Dunmore ; but she could hardly have conceived 
 that it would have had such a termination. Unknown to her, 
 the lovers proceeded, according to the old-fashioned canons 
 which then obtained, to bind themselves by solemn written 
 engagements ; and the royal innamorato insisted on drawing up 
 and signing the following singular document, which he presented 
 to his flame : 
 
 " On my knees before God our Creator, I, Augustus Frederick, 
 promise thee, Augusta Murray, and swear upon the Bible, as I 
 hope for salvation in the world to come, that I will take thee, 
 Augusta Murray, for my wife, for better, for worse, for richer, 
 
 s 2 
 
260 THE LIFE OF &EOEGE lY. 
 
 for poorer, in sickness and in healthj to love and to cherisli, till 
 death us do part, to love but thee only, and none other; and 
 may God forget me if I ever forget thee ! The Lord's name be 
 praised; so bless me, so bless me, God ! And with my hand- 
 writing do I, Augustus Frederick, this sign, March 21st, 1793, at 
 Rome, and put my seal to it and my name. 
 
 "l.s. (Signed) Augustus Feedeeick." 
 
 There was a clergyman of the English Church then in Rome 
 named Gunn ; and this gentleman was indiscreet enough to listen 
 to the Prince's proposal that he should marry them. Knowing 
 the despotic character of the King, who exercised a family 
 authority that was quite German, it was surprising that a British 
 subject could have been found daring enough to take part in 
 such an adventure. Moreover, the severe Marriage Act, passed 
 only a few years before with a most discreditable obsequiousness, 
 was in itself intended as a menace. Notwithstanding all this, the 
 clergyman entertained the proposal. The lady was said to be six 
 or seven years older than the Prince, which was perhaps the only 
 awkward element in the case — for her, at least ; otherwise, her 
 manner of meeting his proposals was very natural and engaging. 
 The Prince stated that he would press the clergyman to consent 
 by urging that his honour was involved, an idea which the lady 
 thus combats : 
 
 "Then, my treasure, you say you will talk of honour to him. 
 There is no honour in the case ; if there is, I will not marry you. 
 I love you, and I have reason to hope and believe you love me ; 
 but honour in the sense you take it is out of the question. I 
 cannot bear to owe my happiness to anything but affection ; and 
 all promises, though sacred in our eyes and those of Heaven, 
 shall not oblige you to do anything towards me that can in the 
 least prejudice your future interests. As for honour, with the 
 meaning Mr. Gunn will annex to it, I am ashamed to fancy it; 
 he will imagine I have been your mistress, and that humanity, 
 commonly termed honour, now induces you to pity me, and so 
 veil my follies by an honourable marriage. My own beloved 
 Prince, forgive me if I am warm upon this. I wish you to feel 
 you owe me nothing ; and whatever I owe you^ I wish to owe to 
 your love and to your good opinion, but to no other principle. 
 Tell Mr. Gunn, my own Augustus, that you love me, that you are 
 resolved to marry me, that you have pledged your sacred word ; 
 tell him, if you please, that upon the Bible you have sworn it, 
 that I have done the same, and nothing shall ever divide us ; but 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 261 
 
 don't let tim imagine that I have been vile. Do this, my only- 
 love, but pray take care of the character of your wife, of your 
 
 " Augusta." 
 
 The Prince wrote back : " Do, my dearest Augusta, trust 
 me j I will never abuse the confidence you put in me, and more 
 and more will endeavour to deserve it. I only wait for your 
 orders to speak to Mr. Gunn ; say only that you wish me to do 
 it, and I will hasten to get a positive answer. See, my soul, it 
 only depends upon you to speak ; thy Augustus thou wilt find at 
 all times ready to serve you. He thinks, he dreams of nothing 
 but to make thee happy. Can he not succeed in this, all his 
 hopes are gone ; life will be nothing to him ; he will pass the 
 days in one constant melancholy, wishing them soon to conclude, 
 and finding every one longer than the other. Indeed, my 
 Augusta, that cannot be the case; my solemn oath is given, 
 and that can never be recalled. I am yours, my soul, ever 
 yours." 
 
 About ten days passed over, and nothing was done. The 
 lover, on April 4th, 1793, wrote the following frantic appeal, 
 which no fair one thus piteously entreated could resist : 
 
 " Will you allow me to come to you this evening ? It is my 
 only hope. 0, let me come, and we will send for Mr. Gunn ! 
 Everything but this is hateful to me. More than forty-eight 
 hours have I passed without the smallest nourishment. 0, let 
 me not live so ! Death is certainly better than this ; which, 
 if in forty-eight hours it has not taken place, must follow ; for, 
 by all that is holy, till when I am married, I will eat nothing ; 
 and if I am not to be married, the promise shall die with me ! 
 I am resolute. Nothing in the world shall alter my determina- 
 tion. If Gunn will not marry me, I will die. ... I will be 
 conducted in everything by you ; but I must be married or die. 
 I would rather see none of my family than be deprived of you. 
 You alone can make me ; you alone shall this evening. I will 
 sooner drop than give you up. Good God, how I feel ! and my 
 love to be doubted sincere and warm. The Lord knows the 
 truth of it; and, as I say, if in forty-eight hours I am not 
 married, I am no more. Augusta, my soul, let us try; let 
 me come; I am capable of everything; I fear nothing; and 
 Mr. Gunn, seeing our resolution, will agree. I am half dead. 
 Good God, what will become of me? I shall go mad, most 
 undoubtedly." 
 
262 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 To which Lady Augusta sent the following reply : 
 
 " My treasure, my dearest life and love, how can I refuse 
 you ? And yet dare I trust to the happiness your letter promises 
 me ? You shall come if you wish it ; you shall do as you like ; 
 my whole soul rejoices in the assurances of your love, and to 
 
 your exertions I will trust. I will send to ; but I fear the 
 
 badness of the night will prevent his coming. My mother has 
 ordered her carriage at past seven, and will not, I fear, be out 
 before the half -hour after. To be yours to-night seems a dream 
 that I cannot make out. The whole day have I been plunged 
 in misery, and now to awake to joy is a felicity that is beyond 
 my ideas of bliss. I doubt its success ; but do as you will ; I 
 am what you will ; your will must be mine ; and no will can ever 
 be dearer to me, more mine, than that of my Augustus, my lover, 
 my all." 
 
 The clergyman came, and, unknown to Lady Dunmore, they 
 were married. 
 
 Only three months later. Lady Dunmore learned the truth 
 that her son-in-law was a royal prince. They came to England 
 towards the winter, and there the Prince heard that, apart from 
 any bearing of the Eoyal Marriage Act, the fact of the marriage 
 being in the Roman jurisdiction might invalidate it, or be used 
 to invalidate it. He at once determined to have the ceremony 
 repeated ; and the congregation at the now fashionable church 
 of St. George's, Hanover Square, must have heard the banns 
 given out of two private persons unadorned with titles. 
 
 When the King heard of it, steps were taken to have the 
 marriage set aside, and the Royal Marriage Act was introduced. 
 The hardship and absurdity of the measure were also put forward ; 
 for the descendants of George II. might amount to over a thousand 
 in time, according to the horseshoe progression, and " where were 
 husbands or wives to be procured for them ? " It was therefore 
 a virtual prohibition from marriage, and " a perpetual restraint." 
 And a ridiculous inconsistency, taken in connection with this 
 view of the matter, was that the House had just been discussing 
 the Thirty-nine Articles, and had affirmed them ; one of which 
 was that all Christians had a right to marry. Frequent allusions 
 were made to the Star Chamber; and Mr. Dowdeswell made a 
 teUing point when he asked : " Why a man should not be thought 
 fit to marry before twenty-five, when he was thought fit to reign 
 at eighteen ? " 
 
 This last point, indeed, redeemed the bill ; for the limitation 
 
THE LIPE 0¥ GEOEGE IV. 263 
 
 up to twenty-five years of age, under which the King's consent 
 was necessary, virtually made him guardian during a long minority. 
 After that age, if the King still refused his consent, the Prince 
 might give notice to the Privy Council; and if, after a year's 
 interval, the Parliament did not object, the marriage might take 
 place. Now, this portion the King was evidently induced to 
 adopt from the belief that Parliament would always be as eager 
 to indorse the royal wishes as it was then. But a royal prince 
 may now marry whom he please, and the House of Commons 
 would find it contrary to its temper and constitution to dream of 
 interfering. 
 
 It is curious, therefore, that this Royal Marriage Act should be 
 so little understood, or that a false idea of its repressive powers 
 should be abroad. It has long been believed, for instance, that 
 certain august personages connected with the royal family (to use 
 the verbiage of The Court Newsman) have been prevented con- 
 tracting or declaring their marriage, owing to the pronounced 
 veto of a still more august personage. It will be seen that these 
 personages, beiag past five-and-twenty, could have safely consulted 
 their own inclinations. 
 
 But the real hardship of the Royal Marriage Act lay in 
 the penalty — viz. the nullity and voidableness of the marriage. 
 The idea of dissolving an honourable contract between those 
 " whom God has joined ■" on the mere whim of a parent seems 
 wholly unworthy of a soi-disant religious country. At the present 
 day, however, it may be doubted whether the nation would tolerate 
 the dissolution of such an unequal marriage, but still one of 
 affection, even if the sovereign was inclined to exert the powers 
 given by Act of Parliament. 
 
 These considerations applied with great force to the case of the 
 Duke of Sussex. When we come to consider who was Lady 
 Augusta Murray, the old King might have had more reverence 
 for one of more illustrious pedigree than he could boast. Through 
 her mother, who was a Stewart, she could trace back in the 
 straightest line to the Hamiltons, Dukes of Chatelherault, and, 
 with a step beyond, to James II., King of Scotland, On her 
 father's side, she could trace back through the Stanleys to the 
 daughter of Henry VII. of England. Farther, through the 
 Stanleys a descent was established from William I., Prince of 
 Orange, and Louis, Duke of Montpensier. And finally, through 
 the same line, from Charles VII. of France. With such a 
 pedigree the young Scotch lady might have challenged com- 
 parison with many a princess in Europe. 
 
 The Court of Arches, by a formal process, declared both the 
 marriage in England and that at Rome null and void. It was 
 
261 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 confidently asserted at the time that the Prince wrote a letter 
 to his father, begging permission to relinquish his contingent 
 rights in the succession, and to sink into the character of a 
 private gentleman, rather than be separated from his beloved 
 Augusta. This could not be granted; but, in 1806, the King's 
 licence was given to the lady, to assume the name of d'Ameland, 
 which was in some degree a recognition of her affinity to the 
 royal family, and, though illegitimate by the law of England, the 
 son was to succeed, in failure of male issue of the King and the 
 Duke of Cumberland, to the crown of Hanover. 
 
 The marriage having been dissolved, so far as the law of 
 the land was concerned, the Prince vehemently protested his 
 resolution not to accept this decision ; and though his health 
 did not allow him to live much with her in England, and an 
 " estrangement " took place later, he always manfully maintained 
 the troth he had plighted to his wife, the Lady Augusta 
 Murray. There were two children of the marriage — Sir Augustus 
 d'Este and a daughter, both now dead. The former made un- 
 wearied efforts to procure some recognition of his claims, obtaining 
 legal opinions, and petitioning ; but of course with no result, 
 the King being inflexible. The well-known Sir Thomas Wilde, 
 afterwards Lord Truro, married the daughter of this unlucky 
 marriage. In the year 1830, the heroine of the romance died, 
 and the royal Prince, after a short interval, married an Irish lady 
 — Lady Cecilia Buggin, or rather Underwood ; who, after the 
 death of her royal husband, was created Duchess of Inverness. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 1793. 
 
 Rettjening now to the Prince of Wales, this question of his 
 marriage seemed to become more pressing as his affairs became 
 more desperate. He and his brother were pursuing their old 
 courses with even greater recklessness. His friend, Sir J. Harris, 
 now Lord Malmesbury, having arrived in town from the Con- 
 tinent, on Sunday, June 3, was called into council on the follow- 
 ing day. To him he unburthened his wretched and hopeless 
 state — thus graphically described by his friend : 
 
 " Saw Prince of Wales early the 4th ; he was very well 
 pleased with what I had done at Berlin, thanked me for it, 
 etc.; stated his affairs to me as more distressed than ever. 
 Several executions had been in his house — Lord Rawdon had 
 saved him from one — that his debts amounted to three hundred 
 and seventy thousand pounds. He said he was trying, through 
 the Chancellor, to prevail on the King to apply to Parliament to 
 increase his income. 
 
 " On the Wednesday following I was with him again, by 
 appointment. He repeated the same again, said that if the 
 King would raise his revenue to a hundred thousand pounds a 
 year, he would appropriate thirty-five thousand of it to pay the 
 interest of his debts, and establish a sinking fund. That if this 
 could not be done, he must break up his establishment, reduce 
 his income to ten thousand pounds a year, and go abroad. He 
 made a merit of having given up the turf, and blamed the Duke 
 of Tork for remaining on it. He said (which I well knew before) 
 that his racing-stable cost him upwards of thirty thousand pounds 
 yearly. He was very anxious, and, as is usual on these occasions, 
 
266 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE lY. 
 
 nervous and agitated. He said (on my asking him the question) 
 that he did not stand so well with the King as he did some 
 months ago^ but that he was better than ever with the Queen — 
 that she had advised him to press the King, through the Chan- 
 cellor^ to propose to Mr. Pitt to bring an increase of the Prince's 
 income before Parliament^ and that if this was done^ she would 
 use her influence to promote it. 
 
 " I strongly recommended his pressing the Queen. He sug- 
 gested the idea of going to Mr. Pitt directly through the 
 Chancellor, etc. I doubted both the consent of the Chancellor 
 to such a step at the moment he was going out, and his influence 
 and weight if he did consent to it. I took the liberty of dis- 
 approving his going abroad on any terms I saw the 
 
 Duke of York on the 4th of June, and the Duchess at their own 
 house. He mentioned with concern and uneasiness the division 
 in the party. He considered it as a breaking-up of its strength, 
 and he was apprehensive of the consequences to the country at 
 large. He condemned Yox, and reprobated in the strongest 
 terms the conduct of Grey^ Lambton^ and the Reformers. He 
 said the King of Prussia had for a long time not written either to 
 him or to the Duchess, or even answered their letters, without his 
 being able to assign a cause. He said he stood very well at 
 St. James's. 
 
 " I saw the Prince again on the 7th June, at Carlton House, as 
 before. He repeated the same things, and added that, if he could 
 not obtain some assurance from the King that he would apply to 
 Parliament in the next Session of Parliament, before this ended, 
 that he should be ruined, and must go abroad. I combated 
 again this idea ; but he appeared to have a wish and some whim 
 about going abroad I could not discover. He talked coldly and 
 tinaffectionately about the Duke and Duchess of York, and very 
 slightingly of the Duke of Clarence. He asked me whether 
 I approved his having spoken on the Proclamation — that is, in 
 favour of Government — in the manner he had, and held very 
 right language on the subject. I told him I was sorry his 
 lawyers, Erskine and Pigot, went a different way from him ; that 
 this was unbecoming. He said he once had thought of dis- 
 missing them, but that, on considering it, he was inclined to believe 
 that such a marked measure would only give them consequence, 
 and do more harm than good, by bringing the subject into more 
 frequent conversation." 
 
 Colonel St. Leger came to Lord Malmesbury on the 8th June. 
 " He said the Prince was more attached to Mrs. Pitzherbert than 
 ever. She dislikes the Duchess of York, because the Duchess 
 wiU not treat her en belle-soeur — it is that is the cause of the 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEaE lY. 267 
 
 coolness between the two brothers. He confirmed the total ruin 
 of the Prince, and said the Duke's affairs were in a very bad way. 
 He had returned to England with the highest reputation, and 
 might have done what he pleased with the King, who doted on 
 him ; that he very idly has resumed several of his old habits — he 
 plays at Brookes's, goes to Newmarket, and loses, and neglects 
 St. James's; that he behaves vastly well to the Duchess, and 
 is happy. Anthony St. Leger confirmed all that his brother said 
 about Mrs. Fitzherbert. He blamed her excessively, and said 
 she was the cause of the two brothers being ill together." 
 
 We are not, therefore, surprised to learn that the step of 
 appealing to the King was decided upon : and Lord South- 
 ampton, who was growing accustomed to such tasks, drew up a 
 statement which was presented to the King. His Majesty was 
 obdurate. Again came the ostentatiously theatrical retrench- 
 ment : five hundred horses sold, servants discharged, Carlton 
 House shut up, and trustees appointed. Lords Thurlow and 
 Radnor undertook this office. He was to live as a Cornish country 
 gentleman ; the strictest economy was to be observed, and his 
 modest revenue was to be limited to £11,000 a year.* 
 
 The truth was the King was triumphant and highly popular. 
 It was now that the events on the Continent had brought 
 about the well-known division among the Liberals; the Duke of 
 Portland, Burke, and the purer Whigs breaking off from Mr. Fox, 
 the more Radical wing of the party. This revolt was natural 
 in the face of the bloody excesses which were being perpetrated 
 by revolutionary mobs. Burke's "dagger-scene" and his quarrel 
 with Fox were the melodramatic elements of the episode,t and it 
 may be conceived that Reformers and Radicals were in ill odour. 
 The Prince, who had found out that Liberal politics and an empty 
 purse went together, and that the Tories had at least the 
 power of granting supplies, had besides little sympathy with 
 the extreme doctrines of Mr. Fox and his friends. And it is 
 only fair to him to bear in mind — when we come to consider 
 his later better-known "treatment of the Whigs," that these 
 had set him the example of gravitating to the other side. 
 He had signified his cordial approval of the Government 
 "proclamation," though his friend Mr. Fox disapproved of it. 
 We do not find him taking part in the open negotiations with 
 
 * Auckland, " Correspondence," ii. 463. 
 
 f This weapon, wliich. when thrown on the floor of the House excited 
 ridicule rather than terror, had been brought to Su- T. Bland Burgess, the 
 Under Secretary, by a Birmingham maker, who had received it as a pattern 
 for a large order. Burke borrowed it for his exhibition. Lord Eldon had 
 another of these pattern daggers.— Twiss, " Life of Lord Eldon," i. 218. 
 
268 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 the Whigs that followed, hut here is opened a rather carious 
 chapter of politics. In the advances that were made by the 
 Liberals to the Government, the Duke of Leeds, in the August of 
 the year 1792, was employed as negotiator, and with no less a 
 person than the King himself. He tells the story in his interest- 
 ing unpublished "Memoranda.'"* Walking on the terrace at 
 Windsor, where the King was, he asked his Majesty for a private 
 interview, having arranged this proceeding with Lord Malmes- 
 bury, having also, as he told his Majesty, "the concurrence" of 
 Fox and the Duke of Portland. The King, however, was 
 exceedingly cold as to the first-named statesman, and did not 
 mention him more than once during the whole interview, " if 
 even that." The Duke suggested that several interviews had 
 taken place between Lord Loughborough and Mr. Dundas, at one 
 of which Mr. Pitt had been present, "fair evidence (he urged) 
 that ministers were not indisposed to an arrangement." " To 
 my great surprise the King answered that he had not heard 
 anything upon the subject for a long time ; that Mr. Pitt had 
 indeed some months ago mentioned something like an opening 
 on the part of the Duke of Portland and his friends, to which 
 his Majesty had answered, ' Anything complimentary to them, 
 but no power \"' " This brief, but copious answer," adds the 
 Duke of Leeds, " explains the offer of the Garter to the Duke of 
 Portland, and of a marquisate to Lord Pitzwilliam." The King 
 then asked who was to be the First Lord of the Treasury under 
 this combination, and was answered, " One who had the confidence 
 of both parties." His Majesty said that was very hard on Mr. 
 Pitt, who had been so long in office, and added significantly, that 
 people, from eagerly wishing an object to succeed, often deceived 
 themselves by thinking it much nearer its accomplishment than 
 in truth it was. 
 
 A few days later the negotiator tried Mr. Pitt, whom he 
 thought "not quite at his ease." He opened his proposals, 
 saying that Mr. Fox and the Duke of Portland concurred in 
 what he was offering. Mr. Pitt listened attentively to all I 
 said, and answered " that there had been no thoughts of any 
 alteration in the Government, that circumstances did not call 
 for it, nor did the people wish it, and that no new arrangement, 
 either by a change or coalition, had ever been in contempla- 
 tion ! " The Duke of Leeds then alluded to the interviews 
 with Mr. Dundas and Lord Loughborough, suggesting that he 
 (Mr. Pitt) had been present. Mr. Pitt said that it was true, but 
 such meetings had not in view any changes of ministry. 
 
 This is one of the most extraordinary pieces of secret history, 
 
 * Preserved in the British Museum. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 269 
 
 and requires tlie clearest explanation from any biographer of 
 Pitt, as anyone who follows Lord Malmesbury's minute account 
 of the negotiations — the offer by Dandas of four Cabinet 
 places, etc. — will admit.* 
 
 If it be well established, as we find it stated in the Duke of 
 Leeds's memoranda, that Mr. Fox had been so unpatriotic as to 
 send his friend Adair to St. Petersburg to counteract the 
 negotiations there, it would be difficult for any loyal person to 
 act with him. Mr. Moore states "that on the secession of the 
 leading Whigs in 1792 the Prince had also separated himself 
 from Mr. Fox, and had no further intercourse with him or any of 
 his party — except, occasionally, Mr. Sheridan — till so late, I 
 believe, as the year 1798." Thus it will be found that on two 
 important occasions prior to his final withdrawal from the party 
 in 1810, the Prince seized opportunities of showing his want of 
 sympathy with their principles. And in 1793, when Lord Lough- 
 borough accepted the chancellorship of the party to which he 
 had been opposed, the Prince wrote a letter to the hesitating 
 Duke of Portland, and sent a message to the Grenvilles declaring 
 his intention of joining the Government, f 
 
 To the Duchess of Devonshire he later addressed the following 
 letter, referring the differences between sections of the Liberals 
 as to supporting Government, written in a sort of after-dinner 
 excitement, and under the idea that he had made all friends. 
 It is undated. 
 
 THE PRINCE OF VALES 10 THE DUCHESS OP DEVONSHIEE. 
 
 " Carlton House, Friday Night. 
 " How little you know me, ever dear duchess, and how much 
 have you misconceived the object of this day's dinner, which has 
 succeeded beyond my most sanguine expectations ! 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 Guilford what passed. I believe you 
 never heard a stronger eulogium pronounced from the lips of 
 man than I this day pronounced upon Fox, in complete refuta- 
 tion of all the absurd doctrines and foolish distinctions which 
 they have grounded their late conduct upon. This was most 
 honourably, distinctly, and zealously supported by Sheridan, by 
 which they were completely driven to the wall, and positively 
 
 * Lord Malmesbury, " Diaries," ii. 458. 
 
 f In a letter to the Duke of York, pronounced to be " proper," and 
 " explicit."—" Court and Cabinets," ii. 237. 
 
270 THE LIFE OF GBOEaE IV. 
 
 pledged tHemselTes hereafter to follow no other line of politics 
 than that which Pox and myself would hold out to them ; and 
 this with a certain degree of contrition expressed by them at 
 their ever having ventured to express a doubt respecting either 
 Charles or myself. Harry Howard, who never has varied in his 
 sentiments, was overjoyed, and said he never knew anything so 
 well done or so well 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 
 both 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. 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 dear 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 may 
 claim this of you ; at the same time I am most gratef al to you 
 for your candour, 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 but myself. 
 Depend upon my coming to you to-morrow. I am delighted 
 with your goodness to me, and ever, 
 
 " Most devotedly yours, 
 
 " G. P." 
 
 The Duke of York's departure for the disastrous expedition to 
 the Netherlands furnishes us with a sketch of the heir-apparent 
 as he appears about this time : 
 
 " The King was on the parade with the Prince of Wales, the 
 Dukes of York, Clarence, Gloucester, and Prince William of 
 Gloucester ; the King, I think, in the character of an equestrian 
 statue on a fierce white charger, a sufiicient gigg, but looking so 
 pleased that one liked to see him. The Grenadiers, when they 
 began their march, sang ' God save the King ! ' of their own 
 accord as they passed by him, which overcame him a good deal. 
 The Prince of Wales was in his new Light Horse uniform, which 
 IS very handsome and theatrical, and, I daresay, delighted him ; 
 "but it displayed an amount of bulk which entertained Mundy and 
 me, and probably all beholders. The Duke of York is gone with 
 them to Holland. I hear the Duchess is much affected, as she 
 really likes him."* 
 
 But there was something more in this display than a mere 
 taste for uniforms, for after the first disaster, when a relief of ten 
 * " Court and Cabinets," ii. 119. 
 
THE LIEE OF GEOKGB IT. 271 
 
 thousand men was being sent out to tlie Duke, and Lord Moira, 
 late Lord Rawdon, was given tlie command, tlie Prince eagerly- 
 pressed tliat he might be allowed to go with his friend and serve 
 under him. This was, of course, refused ; but he was presently 
 to be engrossed with a more important affair — the question of his 
 own marriage. Almost every step in his long life, rashly and im- 
 providently taken, seemed destined to lead to a train of in- 
 conveniences and misfortune, and not one was more fruitful in 
 this direction than this. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1794 
 
 Many causes, and above allj his overwhelming money difficulties, 
 were now forcing him into a sort of cul-de-sac, whence there seemed 
 no method of extrication, save one. Any change would be welcome, 
 and various minor causes seemed to favour the King's wishes in 
 this regard. The first step in the transaction was a letter in 
 which the King communicated to his minister that the Prince 
 had, of himself, offered to make the sacrifice. He wrote from 
 Weymouth, on August 24th, 1 794 : " Agreeable to what I men- 
 tioned to Mr. Pitt before I came here, I have this morning 
 seen the Prince of Wales, who has acquainted me with his having 
 broken off all connection with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and his desire of 
 entering into a more creditable line of life by marrying ; express- 
 ing at the same time that his wish is that my niece, the Princess 
 of Brunswick, may be the person. Undoubtedly she is the 
 person who naturally must be most agreeable to me. I expressed 
 my approbation of the idea, provided his plan was to lead a life 
 that would make him appear respectable, and consequently render 
 the Princess happy. He assured me that he perfectly coincided 
 with me in opinion. I then said that till Parliament assembled 
 no arrangement could be taken, except my sounding my sister, 
 that no idea of any other marriage may be encouraged. 
 
 "G. R."* 
 
 In spite of these protestations, it was notorious that at this 
 time he had come under the influence of a lady about the Court, 
 Lady Jersey. She was known as the " beautiful Miss Twysden," 
 
 * Lord Stanhope, "Life of Pitt," ii. 20 (Appendix). 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOKGE IV. 273 
 
 B,nd tte daughter of an Irish dignitary, the Lord Bishop of 
 Raphoe. She was of mature age, like another lady of quality 
 whom our Prince admired later. It was stated also that she had 
 been a friend of Mrs. Fitzherbert's, and for a time, as will be seen, 
 ■was destined to have a tralj funeste control over the Prince. 
 
 The mode in which this change of feeling was signified to the 
 unhappy lady with whom he had gone through the form of 
 marriage, was characteristic. He had written to her from 
 Brighton in his usual affectionate strain, and spoke of a dinner 
 engagement at the Dake of Clarence's for the following day, 
 where they were to meet. At the dinner a note was put into her 
 hand, which gave her the first intimation that she had lost her 
 ascendancy. Speaking of the matter to Lord Stourton, she 
 seemed to attribute this step to Lady Jersey, who was then also 
 at Brighton. In consequence, Mrs. Fitzherbert did not go to 
 Brighton as usual, and also gave up her house ; while Lord 
 Jersey was appointed Master of the Horse to the Prince. 
 
 It has been often stated that it was upon a favourable 
 report of the Duke of York, who had been sent to Brunswick, 
 that the Princess had been selected. At the time of the 
 arrangement he was in Holland, with his army; but he had 
 already seen the Princess, and his report was most unfavourable. 
 He augured ill of the match, and seems to have incurred the 
 bitter enmity of the family. There was, besides, no good feeling 
 between the Duchess of Tork and the members of the Brunswick 
 family. The Princess Caroline, indeed, told Lord Malmesbury 
 that she beHeved she had impressed the Duke of Clarence 
 favourably. 
 
 Some five-and-twenty years later Lord Liverpool assured 
 Lord Holland that he had been told by George III. how one day 
 his son came to him, on his return from hunting, and said abruptly 
 that " he wished to marry.^' In reply, the King said he would 
 send off a confidential agent to report on the merits of the 
 various Protestant Princesses. The Prince declared that this had 
 been done. The King then recommended that the most careful 
 inquiries should be made as to her person and manners, and 
 his son declared this also had been done. Lord Holland adds 
 confirmation of the report that the later Queen of Prussia had 
 been named, who was infinitely the superior of the Brunswick 
 Priucess in youth, beauty, and every merit. Perhaps these 
 were found objections by those who guided him, and who 
 wished a public and legal marriage, to secure the downfall 
 of Mrs. Fitzherbert. All well-informed persons report that the 
 choice was directed by Lady Jersey and Lady Harcourt. The 
 faction always gave out that he had been promised the sum of 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IT. 
 
 £100,000 a year, with payment of Lis debts, though the ministers 
 later violated their engagement. It was for the gain of the 
 German people, no less than for her own, that the beautiful and 
 interesting Princess of Mecklenburg had not been selected; nor 
 is it quite so certain that after all it would have benefited the 
 Prince of Wales. 
 
 Lady Charlotte Campbell records some curious gossip of the 
 notorious Mrs. Clarke, who had been told by the Duke of Tork 
 " that it had been at one time proposed that he should marry 
 her (the Princess Caroline), and for that purpose he had been 
 previously to see how the land lay at the Court of Brunswick ; 
 the result of which was that he did not like the Princess." A 
 writer in "The Quarterly Review" (vol. Ixxv. p. 421) states that 
 he heard the same reason given for the dislike of the Brunswick 
 family to the Duke. It occurred to Lord Malmesbury at Bruns- 
 wick that it was the Duke of Clarence who had fi.rst suggested 
 her. The King, however, told Mr. Pitt "that she was the person 
 who must naturally be the most agreeable to him. She was, 
 moreover, his niece."* Lord Malmesbury was abroad at this time, 
 and was promptly directed to repair to Brunswick and make a 
 formal proposal for the hand of the Princess. 
 
 * "Diaries," iii. 179. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVI. 
 
 1794—1795. 
 
 On a Thursday at the end of November, 1 794, the little Court 
 was excited by the news that an envoy had arrived to arrange 
 a marriage treaty between the Prince of Wales and Princess 
 Caroline, according to the elaborate formularies then in favour. 
 The Englishman was one of the most spirituel and versatile of 
 diplomatists, even his remarkable appearance — his abundant 
 hair and brilliant eyes — exciting attention. This, however, was 
 not the main object of his mission, which was to persuade the 
 vacillating Duke to take the command of the forces in Holland. 
 He was received with great honours, and installed in the palace 
 with servants, carriages, and guards at his disposal. Almost at 
 once he was presented to the Princess, who was embarrassed. He, 
 too, must have had misgivings at the meeting, for the future bride 
 appeared to be a rather ungraceful, hard-featured young woman, 
 redeemed, however, by a certain air of coarse good-humour. Her 
 eyes, however, were expressive, "her bust good," and her 
 shoulders what the French call " impertinent."* This absence 
 of feminine refinement struck other English observers. f She 
 could not conceal her delight at the brilliant prospect before 
 her. 
 
 Then commenced the regular formal festivities of a petty 
 German Court — great dinners, " ombre with the Duchess and her 
 grand maitre," whist with the Landgravine, a masquerade at the 
 Opera House — during all which time the diplomatist was narrowly 
 
 * For the account of this mission, see Lord Malmesbury's " Diaries," 
 iii. 151. 
 
 t Huish, " Memoirs of Oaroliae," i. 13. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 observing all that was going on, and studying the character of 
 the young lady. On December the 3rd, his credentials having 
 arrived from England, the state carriages came to take him to 
 Court to make formal demand of the Princess's hand. All parties 
 were nervous, the Duchess quite overcome, the Princess much 
 affected, but making her answers distinctly and firmly. This 
 ceremony was celebrated by Court and general congratulations, 
 presentations of gold snuff-boxes, immense dinners, and the in- 
 evitable whist. Prom this moment she was greeted as Princess 
 of Wales. On the following day the contract was signed, and a 
 very unhappy chapter in English history had commenced. 
 
 By this time the shrewd envoy had learned enough of the 
 Princess herself to see that she was unsuited to the destined 
 position and to the person who was to be her husband. Nearly 
 all the petty German Courts were then distinguished by a sort of 
 Philistinism, both in morals and manners ; the young Princesses 
 being brought up in a kind of natural religion, whose principles 
 were sufficiently convenient and flexible to allow them to adopt 
 the creed of any husband that might be selected for them. 
 There were little conventional restraints for married life. He 
 must indeed have learned many strange stories of the youthful 
 days of the Princess which he was too discreet to report, and 
 which, indeed, as he said in answer to the reproaches of the 
 Prince, it did not fall within his mission to report. 
 
 She was now nearly twenty-seven years old ; but the sneer of 
 one of the Court ladies, Madame Waggenheim — who said to Lord 
 Malmesbury at the opera, " that, old as she was, her education 
 was not yet completed" — seemed to be founded on truth.* 
 Beyond an acquaintance with the harpsichord, she could not 
 be called accomplished j a friend of Mr. Addington's, M, Le 
 Mesurier, who dined in her company, noted that she never spoke 
 and was visibly kept under restraint. And the Duchess of 
 Wurtemberg, writing to Lady Elgin, gives a strange picture of 
 the domestic tyranny under which she was brought up — ^bullied 
 by her mother and governesses. f As to morality and religion, 
 the scandal of her father's behaviour must have been of fatal 
 import. Her mother had little or no influence with her child, 
 who had small respect for her, and "was inattentive to her when 
 she dared." It was scarcely surprising, therefore, that various 
 escapades should have been reported of her girlish days. One of 
 these stories was long after told to Mrs. Charles Kemble by one 
 
 * She bott wrote and spelled badly, as her father owned to Lord 
 Malmesbury. 
 
 t Lady Eose Weigall, "Princess Charlotte," p. 4. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOKGE IV. 277 
 
 who had been an oflBcer in the Duke's body-guard. She was at 
 that time about sixteen, and her parents had refused to allow her 
 to attend a ball. During the night they were summoned back to 
 the palace by the news of her being alarmingly ill, the whole 
 Court following, and the officer with the rest. While waiting in 
 the ante-chamber he heard her screams ; and on her parents 
 coming to her bedside she informed them that the time was 
 past for concealment, that she was being accouchee, and begged 
 that a proper doctor might be sent for. This astounding decla- 
 ration was heard by the whole Court. When the doctor came she 
 jumped up, owned that the whole was a trick, and asked: " Would 
 they again attempt to prevent her going to a ball V* Making 
 due allowance for exaggeration, this trait is quite in keeping 
 with the admitted recklessness of her later career. It was also 
 found necessary to keep a strict watch on her acts to prevent her 
 making advances to persons of low degree. As was to be ex- 
 pected, some arrangements for marriage with a German prince 
 had been contemplated ; but these had failed, owing to the un- 
 certainty of temper of the Princess ; and she was now, as we have 
 shown, not far from her thirtieth year, when this unlooked-for 
 and advantageous alliance offered. 
 
 The Duchess, her mother, was, on the whole, a good-natured, 
 coarse woman, of sense and of agreeable manners. The mother of 
 Archbishop Trench, one of the most engaging and interesting 
 women of her day, who was at the Brunswick Court about five years 
 before, was delighted with her "ease, good humour and familiarity, 
 and winning condescension." She was struck, too, with the simple, 
 almost homely, fashions of the royal circle — ladies sitting round, 
 working, knitting stockings. f Such was the bride of the Prince of 
 Wales and her family ! 
 
 Meantime the versatile diplomatist was busy makiug himself 
 acquainted with the character of the young Princess. But from 
 all sides he was receiving ominous warnings ; and the whole Court, 
 it is clear, were nervous as to what her behaviour would be in her 
 new situation. All impressed on him that she was to be " kept 
 strictly " and with a tight rein, and the envoy was almost 
 implored to advise her to be cautious, and avoid her besetting 
 sin of being too familiar with everyone and of " saying every- 
 thing that came into her head.''' " She was not hete," said 
 her father to him, " but she had no judgment." Again and 
 again he came back to the subject : " She could not go alone," 
 he said, " she must be guided and directed." He excused her 
 
 * " Diaries of a Lady of Quality," p. 186. 
 f " Eemains of Mrs. Trench." 
 
278 THE LIFE OP GEORGE lY. 
 
 on tlie score of the free style of speeoli of her mother in every 
 company, which was a bad example. Less profltablOj how- 
 ever, was his own. Strangers remarked that his manner to 
 the Duchess was very cold, and that hers was embarrassed, and 
 soon discovered that one Mdlle. Hertzfeldt, a lady of rank, was 
 installed at the palace as mistress en titre, and had actually had 
 her recognised place at all the Court festivities. What could be 
 hoped of a daughter in presence of such a scandal? The lady 
 now alluded to who engaged the Duke's favour was also one of 
 those who gave useful advice to the envoy, who courted her 
 assiduously. It was absolutely necessary, she said to him con- 
 fidentially, that the Princess should be watched and kept in 
 retirement. " She is not corrupted ; she had never done anything 
 really bad, but she had no command of her words ; she confides 
 in everyone, and when she is surrounded in London with clever 
 intriguers, everything she says will be reported and distorted." 
 This lady was certainly sagacious, and her words were strongly 
 prophetic. She also hinted at the indiscreetness of the Duchess, 
 who made no secret of her dislike to Queen Charlotte and other 
 members of the royal family. These prejudices her daughter 
 would take with her to England.* This dislike extended to the 
 Duke and Duchess of York. 
 
 Thus encouraged and assured that his advice would be of the 
 greatest assistance. Lord Malmesbury proceeded to lecture, as 
 it might be called, the Princess seriously. His efforts were 
 received favourably. Sitting next her at supper, he would advise 
 her to avoid familiarity, to have no confidants, to avoid giving 
 any opinion, and above all be very attentive to the Queen. To 
 his surprise she asked him about the Prince's attachments ; nor 
 was she disturbed at learning that one of his " favourites " was 
 to be placed about her, as lady-in-waiting. " She says it is wished 
 here that her brother William should marry the Princess Sophia 
 of Gloucester ; I advise her not to meddle in it. She talks about 
 the Duke of Clarence, whom she prefers to the Duke of Tork ; 
 and it struck me to-day for the first time that he originally put 
 her into the Prince's head, and that with a view to plague the 
 Duke and Duchess of York, whom he hates, and whom the Prince 
 no longer likes; well knowing that the Princess Caroline and 
 Duchess of York dislike each other, and that this match would be 
 
 * This, it is plain, was one of the discordant elements in this unfor- 
 tunate marriage. There was a rooted dislike between the female members 
 of the two families. The Duchess complained to Lord Malmesbury that 
 the Queen grudged her some jewels, and had asked back a diamond ringj 
 the King's present. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORaE lY. 279 
 
 particularly unpleasant to her and the Duke. I praise the Diike 
 of York to herj and speak with great applause of the behaviour 
 of the Duchess, who by her discretion and conduct has conciliated 
 to herseH the goodwill of the whole nation. I did this to pique 
 her, and to make her anxious to do the same. She has no fond, 
 no fixed character, a light and flighty mind, but meaning well 
 and weU-disposed ; and my eternal theme to her is, to think 
 before she speaks, to recollect herself. She says she wishes to be 
 loved by the people ; this, I assure her, can only be obtained by 
 making herself respected and rare — that the sentiment of being 
 loved by the people is a mistaken one." 
 
 In a letter written to a German lady in England, dated the 
 28th of November, she wrote : 
 
 '^'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 miad 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 connections, my 
 associations, my friends, all that I hold dear and valuable, I am 
 about entering on a permanent connection. I fear for the conse- 
 quences. 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 ardor. I am indifferent 
 to my marriage, but not averse to it j I think I shall be happy, 
 but I fear my joy will not be enthusiastic. The man of my choice 
 I am debarred from 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, 
 siace the Fates will have it that I am to be Princess of Wales." 
 
 Meanwhile expresses were passing between London and the 
 little Court, and all the arrangements were nearly completed. 
 Before Lord Malmesbury had been at Brunswick a week, a 
 messenger had arrived from the Prince of Wales with a letter 
 pressing him " vehemently " to set out with the Princess at once. 
 The messenger was also bearer of the Prince's portrait, in which 
 he was highly flattered and represented as arrayed in becoming 
 regimentals. Up to this moment the Princess had an idea of him 
 only from description. 
 
 Thus wrote the eager suitor : 
 
280 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 THE PEINCE OP WALES TO lOED MALMESBTJET. 
 
 " Carlton House, 23rd November, 1794-. 
 " My dear Lord, 
 
 "I have sent Major Hislop back again to Brunswick, 
 ■which I judged to be an advisable measure on many accounts, as 
 more particularly, I think, he may prove, from his knowledge of 
 the country, a very useful avant-courier to you and your fair 
 charge in your journey to the water's side. I have charged him 
 with letters for the Duke, Duchess, and Princess, which I will beg 
 of you to present to their different destinations, with every proper 
 expressions on my part, and to which no one can give so agreeable 
 a tournure as yourself. I have likewise desired Major Hislop to 
 give you an ample and thorough account of the steps I have taken 
 towards the expediting everything on this side of the water, as 
 well as with my brother the Duke of York, to whom I have 
 written also by Hislop ; and as to what is now necessary to 
 forward the completing everything at Brunswick, I must leave 
 that to you, hoping that you will make every exertion possible to 
 put the Princess in possession of her own home as near the 20th 
 of the ensuing month as possible, for everything that can create 
 delay at the present moment is bad on every account, but parti- 
 cularly so to the public, whose expectations have now been raised 
 for some months, and would be quite outrageous, were it possible 
 for them to perceive any impediment arising to what they have 
 had their attention drawn to for so long a time, besides the 
 suspense, and the naturally unpleasant feelings attendant upon 
 suspense, which I myself must be subject to, and the very 
 honourable, fair, and handsome manner in which the Duke and 
 Duchess have both conducted themselves to me in this trans- 
 action ; their having also in their last letters, both to the King 
 and me, said that the Princess was ready to set off instantly ; in 
 short, all these reasons make it necessary for me, my dear Lord, 
 to desire you to press your departure from Brunswick at as short 
 a date as possible from the receipt of this letter. I have written 
 fully to the Duchess upon the subject, and I doubt not but she 
 will acquaint you with the contents of her letters, as I 
 desire that you will have the goodness to do so by her, by 
 showing her, or acquainting her nearly of the purport of this 
 letter. 
 
 "1 should think the travelling through Holland still practicable 
 and safe, and if so, certainly preferable on every account ; but, if 
 not, we then must have recourse to the Elbe, which is certainly 
 a very disagreeable alternative; however, whichever way the 
 Princess is to come, I am clear it should be determined upon 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 281 
 
 instantly by you. I wisli most certainly, if possible, tliat she 
 should pass through Holland, if it is still upon the cards, therefore 
 desire you to determine if you can upon that. We cannot tell on 
 this side the water as well as you can, or rather as Hislop can, 
 after his communication with the Duke of York ; and you will 
 then be able, when you have seen the Major, and know what has 
 passed between him and the Duke, to fix your plan immediately, 
 and so immediately put it into execution. According to our 
 calculation, Hislop ought to be at Brunswick the 8th ; I there- 
 fore trust that by the 16th I shall from you, my dear Lord, 
 receive an account of your having fixed the day of your departure, 
 and not only of the probability, but indeed of the certainty of 
 your being many miles on your journey. There are some other 
 particular circumstances which might not be so proper or so safe 
 to commit to paper, which I have entrusted Major Hislop with, 
 and which he will communicate by word of mouth to you. I 
 will not detain you, my dear Lord, any longer, except to assure 
 you how happy I was in having this opportunity of testifying the 
 very sincere regard I entertain for you, as well as those sentiments 
 with which I remain, etc. 
 
 "Gbgkge p." 
 
 This singular communication was characteristic of the writer's 
 loose train of thought, and belonged to those illusions which he 
 indulged in. Neither he nor Lord Malmesbury had anything 
 to do with the arrangements for bringing over the Princess. 
 These were all controlled by the King, and depended on the 
 safety of the route, the position of the protecting force, and other 
 matters, which required the gravest consideration. Lord Malmes- 
 bury was much embarrassed by this pressure, as he was " tied 
 down by the most precise instructions." He wrote to the 
 minister — the Duke of Portland — a complaint of this treatment, 
 explaining that he was there " under the Kings's command, and 
 could only act by his special order." 
 
 The Prince had also added some private instructions which he 
 did not venture to commit to paper, and which were no doubt 
 beyond his province. All this the envoy quietly put aside in his 
 reply to him, with assurance that " not an hour should be lost " 
 as soon as he learned what place had been fixed on for embarking 
 at. It will be said indulgently that it was but the ardour of the 
 bridegroom eager to see his bride. This feeling, however, could 
 have amounted to little more than curiosity. It might be that 
 he was thinking of the price which was to be paid on completion 
 of his contract; and, as it turned out, the subject of his debts 
 was brought before the House a fortnight after the marriage. 
 
232 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 This is, indeed, further proved by his ungraciously refusing to 
 allow a lady, whom the Princess had selected as a sort of confi- 
 dential reader, to be brought over. 
 
 At last, on Monday, December 29th, the party started, amid 
 firing of cannon and the shouts of the crowd. " She must be 
 ruled by fear — even by terror," were almost the last encouraging 
 words addressed to the envoy. Her mother was to go with her as 
 far as the sea. The Duke was much affected at parting, and begged 
 the English nobleman to watch over her. With such awkward 
 forebodiags the luckless Princess commenced her journey to the 
 land to which she was to bring so much confusion and scandal. 
 The whole of this preliminary leaves a most unpleasant impression, 
 and it is impossible to have followed the conversations, so care- 
 fully reported, without seeing that all the later events followed 
 in the most natural order, and almost as of course. 
 
 The fleet had been ordered to the Texel, and it was proposed 
 that the party should journey through Holland. On the road, 
 however, it was heard that the French had made such progress 
 that it was impossible to think of reaching the coast. The party 
 therefore, after staying at Osnabruck — the seat of the Duke of 
 York's bishopric — determined to wait events at Hanover. These 
 obstacles caused a long and tedious delay; and, as it proved, they 
 were three months on the road. 
 
 The effect of this comparative emancipation on the character 
 of the Princess was seen almost at once. Her mentor was every 
 day more and more surprised by some new and disagreeable reve- 
 lation ; though it must be owned his tone to her was too much 
 of the schoolmaster. But there were other matters which shocked 
 him inexpressibly. It would have been worth while seeing his 
 face, when a page brought down her highnesses tooth, which had 
 just been drawn, for him to look at ; "nasty and indelicate," he 
 writes, with disgust. 
 
 Lord Malmesbury's notes and observations on the journey 
 are significant enough. We shall let him speak for himself. 
 
 "January 2nd. — I persuade the Princess Caroline to be 
 munificent towards some poor emigres dying of hunger, and 
 through want — she disposed to be, but not knowing how to set 
 about it. I tell her, liberality and generosity is an enjoyment, 
 not a severe virtue. She gives a louis for some lottery tickets ; 
 I give ten, and say the Princess ordered me. She surprised ; I 
 said I was sure she did not mean to give for the ticket its precise 
 value, and that I forestalled her intention. Next day a French 
 emigre, with a pretty child, draws near the table; the Princess 
 Caroline immediately, of her own accord, puts ten louis in a paper 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 283 
 
 and gives it to tlie child j the Duchess observes it, and inquires of 
 me — I was dining between them — what it was. I tell her a 
 demand on her purse. She, embarrassed, 'Je n'ai que mes 
 beaux doubles louis de Brunswick.' I answer, 'Qu'ils deviendront 
 plus beaux entre les mains de cet enfant que dans ta poche.' She 
 ashamed, and gives three of them. In the evening, Princess 
 Caroline, to whom these sort of virtues were never preached, on 
 my praising the coin of the money at Brunswick, offers me very 
 seriously eight or ten double louis, saying, ' Cela ne me fait rien 
 — je ne m'en soucie pas — je vous prie de la prendre.' I mention 
 these facts to show her character; it could not distinguish 
 between giving as a benevolence, and fliaging away the money 
 like a child. 
 
 "January 4th. — Princess Caroline very gauche at cards — 
 speaks without thinking — gets too easy — calls the ladies (she 
 never saw) ' Mon coeur, ma chere, ma petite.' I notice this, and 
 reprove it strongly. The Princess, for the first time, disposed to 
 take it amiss ; I do not pretend to observe it. Duchess wants to 
 return to Brunswick, and leave us to go on by ourselves ; this I 
 oppose, and suppose it is impossible. ' If I am taken,' says she, 
 ' I am sure the King will be angry.' ' He will be very sorry,' I 
 reply ; ' but your Royal Highness must not leave your daughter 
 till she is in the hands of her attendants.' She argues, but I will 
 not give way, and she does. 
 
 "January 18th. — Princess Caroline very missish at supper. 
 I much fear these habits are irrecoverably rooted in her — she is 
 naturally curious, and a gossip — she is quick and observing, and 
 she has a silly pride of finding out everything ; she thinks her- 
 self particularly acute in discovering likings, and this leads her 
 at times to the most improper remarks and conversation. I 
 am determined to take an opportunity of correcting, coute qu'il 
 coute. 
 
 "January 10th, 1795. — On summing up Princess Caroline's 
 character to-day, it came out to my mind to be, that she has 
 quick parts, without a sound or distinguishing understanding ; 
 that she has a ready conception, but no judgment ; caught 
 by the first impression, led by the first impulse ; turned away 
 by appearances or enjouement ; loving to talk, and prone to 
 confide and make missish friendships that last twenty -four 
 hours. Some natural, but no acquired morality, and no strong 
 innate notions of its value and necessity; warm feelings, and 
 nothing to counterbalance them ; great good humour, and much 
 good nature ; no appearance of caprice ; rather quick and vive, 
 but not a grain of rancour. Prom her habits, from the life she 
 was allowed and even compelled to live, forced to dissemble ; 
 
284 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 
 
 fond of gossipingj and this strengthened greatly by the example 
 of her good mother, who is all curiosity and inquisitiveness, and 
 who has no notion of not gratifying this desire at any price. In 
 shorty the Princess, in the hands of a steady and sensible man, 
 would probably turn out well ; but where it is likely she will find 
 faults perfectly analogous to her own she will fail. She has no 
 governing powers, although her mind is physically strong. She 
 has her father's courage, but it is to her, as to him, of no avail. 
 He wants mental decision, she character and tact. 
 
 "February 18th. — Argument with the Princess about her 
 toilette. She piques herself on dressing quick; I disapprove 
 this. She maintains her point; I, however, desire Madame 
 Busche to explain to her that the Prince is very delicate, and that 
 he expects a long and very careful toilette de proprete, of which 
 she has no idea. On the contrary, she neglects it sadly, and is 
 offensive from this neglect. Madame Busche executes her com- 
 mission well, and the Princess comes out the next day well washed 
 all over. 
 
 " March 6th. — I had conversations with the Princess Caroline 
 on the toilette, on cleanliness, and on delicacy of speaking. On 
 these points I endeavoured, as far as was possible for a man, to 
 inculcate the necessity of great and nice attention to every part 
 of dress, as well as to what was hid as to what was seen. (I knew 
 she wore coarse petticoats, coarse shifts, and thread stockings, 
 and these never well washed, or changed often enough.) I 
 observed that a long toilette was necessary, and gave her no 
 credit for boasting that hers was a short one. What I could 
 not say myself on this point, I got said through women — through 
 Madame Busche, and afterwards through Mrs. Harcourt. It is 
 remarkable how, on this point, her education has been neglected, 
 and how much her mother, although an Englishwoman, was 
 inattentive to it." 
 
 THE PEINCE OE WALES TO LOUD MAIMESBTJET. 
 
 " Carlton House, 21st Feb. 1795. 
 "Mt deae Loed, 
 
 " I do myself the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt 
 of three letters I received on the 19th from your Lordship — two 
 dated the 15th and 18th January, the other I suppose written 
 on a subsequent day, but bearing no date. Accept my best 
 thanks for every step that you have taken, as, to the best of 
 my judgment, nothing can have been more consistent in point 
 of prudence and propriety, and, indeed, more consonant to my 
 wishes than your conduct appears to me to have been throughout 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 285 
 
 this very tedious and trying embassy. The accounts you are 
 so good as to give me of the temper and resignation with which 
 the Princess is so good as to bear with the interruptions in her 
 journey, is more than I fancy anyone would venture to say for 
 me from hence, as I assure you, all the mismanagement, pro- 
 crastinations, and difl&culties that I have met with in the conduct 
 of this busiaess on this side of the water have totally put patience 
 (a virtue you well know that our family in general are not much 
 endowed with) out of the question. On account of the unfor- 
 tunate position of affairs on the Continent, I have judged it 
 necessary, in order to bring the Princess over in the most 
 expeditious, as well as the safest mode, to contrive she should 
 be in a manner smuggled over into this country ; this meets 
 entirely with His Majesty's approbation, and the plan to be 
 pursued is this. The yachts, as well as the ladies and gentlemen 
 who were to have had the honour of attending the Princess, to 
 remain under expectation of receiving sailing orders hourly. 
 The convoy destined originally to attend upon the Princess, to 
 proceed to sea with the rest of the fleet and transports going 
 to fetch the remains of our army from the Continent. By which 
 means they will endeavour to make Stade, having detached them- 
 selves from the rest of the fleet at a certain latitude. Finding 
 themselves there, to take you and your charge aboard, before it 
 is suspected even on this side of the water that such a plan is 
 in agitation. Not thinking it proper that the Princess should 
 come without a lady, Mrs. Harcourt is ordered to attend her; 
 and her own ladies, Lady Jersey and Mrs. Aston, who were to 
 have sailed in the yachts to have fetched her over, will be ready 
 to receive her at the water-side on her landing, together with 
 Clermont and the rest of her suite. The general and universal 
 mortification occasioned by the fleet's being obliged to put back, 
 made us doubly anxious by every means that human foresight 
 can devise to prevent a similar unpleasant contretemps happening 
 again ; and we therefore think, in addition to this motive, that 
 by retaining the yachts and attendants here, we shall pi-event 
 entirely our enemies from having the smallest intimation of our 
 having in present and immediate contemplation the scheme of the 
 Princess's crossing. 
 
 I hope you will make this plan acceptable to the Priucess as 
 well as the Duchess, as you must be well acquainted with my 
 impatience ; and I beg you will assure them both that there is 
 no sort of respect, state, and attention, that shall not be shown 
 the Princess, the moment she sets her foot on our dear little 
 island. I am convinced you will heartily concur with me in 
 my anxious endeavours through this, or even any other means, to 
 
286 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 tring your Toyage to as expeditious and Happy a termination as 
 possible. I write to the Dachess of Brunswick by the same 
 courier, which letters you will have the goodness to deliver into 
 her hands yourself. I cannot help once more reiterating my thanks 
 to you, my dear Lord, for your judgment and caution through all 
 these late occurrences, etc. 
 
 " I remain with great truth, etc., 
 
 "Geoege p. 
 "P.S. — Pray say everything that is kind from me to Hislop.'" 
 
 At last news arrives of the fleet being off Stade. The Dachess 
 parted from her daughter in much affliction, and then started 
 for home. At this stage their guide arrives at the conclusion 
 that " the Princess's heart is very, very light." 
 
 One of the ladies selected to attend her, Mrs. Harcourt, had 
 met the Princess at Hanover; the other. Lady Jersey, was to 
 meet her on landing in England. The first had driven into the 
 town attended by two horsemen. The other lady, presuming on 
 her influence, had come down to Rochester, and tried to force her- 
 self on board the yacht, scandalising that not too sensitive " Jack 
 Payne," who was in command. For his proper refusal Mr. Payne 
 fell into disgrace with his royal master, and did not recover his 
 favour for several years.* A crowd of English of distinction, 
 with some of the emigres, were eager to secure a passage home. 
 On Saturday, at seven o'clock, the Princess embarked on board 
 the Jupiter, fifty-gun ship, and by Wednesday the squadron was 
 ofE Yarmouth. A thick fog here set in, and it was not until noon 
 on Saturday that they dropped anchor off Gravesend. The 
 Princess won the hearts of the officers by her unflagging good- 
 humour, and even extorted praise from her mentor. On Sunday 
 morning the royal party was transferred to one of the royal 
 yachts, and after a pleasant sail, reached Greenwich at twelve 
 o'clock, where vast crowds were assembled to greet her. There 
 was a delay of more than an hour at the governor's, owing to the 
 royal carriages not having arrived from London ; and it turned 
 out that this was owing to her lady-in-waiting not being ready. 
 When she did arrive, she conducted herself with a strange 
 arrogance, found fault with the Princess's dress in such terms 
 that Lord Malmesbury had to speak rather sharply to her. The 
 poor stranger, who was becomingly dressed in a muslin gown and 
 blue satin petticoat, with a black beaver hat and blue and black 
 feathers, was required to doff her attire in a room of the governor's 
 house, and put on a white satin gown and an elegant turban cap^ 
 which Lady Jersey had brought from town. 
 
 *" Life of Sir G. ElUot," iii. 47. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 287 
 
 The procession, consisting of two coaclies and six^ and escorted 
 by a detacliment of the Prince's own regiment, Cornet Brummell 
 being one of the officers^ then started for London^ and was 
 attended with but moderate greeting and applause. The poor 
 friendless creature was virtually alone, being refused anyone of 
 her own countryfolk, who might have advised and guided her. 
 
 About half-past two they reached St. James's Palace, the 
 rooms of the Duke of Cumberland in Cleveland Row being given 
 up to her. Then the windows were opened and the Princess 
 showed herself to the crowd. Lord Malmesbury at once went for 
 the Prince — a dramatic crisis indeed. The next few minutes were 
 to reveal what was to be the issue of this fatal experiment. The 
 Prince came immediately, and it was noticed by the crowd out- 
 side that he was agitated. " I, accordingly," says Lord Malmes- 
 bury, "to the established etiquette, introduced (no one else being 
 in the room) the Princess Caroline to him. She, very properly, in 
 consequence of my saying it was. the right mode of proceeding, 
 attempted to kneel to him. He raised her gracefully enough, 
 and embraced her, said barely one word, turned round, retired to 
 a distant part of the apartment, and, calling to me, said: 'Harris, 
 I am not well : pray get me a glass of brandy.' I said : ' Sir, 
 had you not better have a glass of water ? ' Upon which he, 
 much out of humour, said, with an oath : ' No ; I will go directly 
 to the Queen.' And away he went." 
 
 No wonder after this strange reception the Princess, bewildered 
 and confused, should have exclaimed : " Mon Dieu ! is he always 
 like that ? " Then added : " I find him very fat, and not at all 
 like the picture sent me." Lord Malmesbury tried to mend 
 miatters as best he could, after a lame fashion — "His royal 
 highness was a good deal affected and flurried at this first 
 meetiag." The Princess, not likely to be imposed on by such 
 an excuse, proceeded to make other uncomplimentary remarks, 
 embarrassing her companion a good deal, when he was hastily 
 summoned away to wait on the King. This propitious intro- 
 duction to her new life is significant of the future treatment she 
 was to experience. 
 
 The Prince went straight to the Queen and the King, strangely 
 enough began to talk on foreign politics with Lord Malmesbury, 
 carelessly putting a single question as to what another father 
 would have considered a most interesting subject. " Is she 
 good-humoured ? " he asked. The other answered that he had 
 never seen her otherwise, even when severely tried. " I am glad 
 of it," said the King, significantly. Thus already there was a 
 hostile party formed against her, and on the very night of her 
 arrival she must have learned that her husband already almost 
 
288 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IV. 
 
 disliked her, that her cousins the Duke and Duchess of York 
 were hostile, that her lady of honour was her enemy, and placed 
 near her to be a spy, that the other attendant was unacceptable 
 to her, while her new parents were indifferent. 
 
 There was a small dinner that evening, consisting only of the 
 travelling party and the Prince, and at which the Vice-Chamberlain 
 did the honours. Here the behaviour of the Princess was most 
 unfortunate, " flippant, rattling, affecting wit ; " and the guests 
 were amazed to hear her throwing out railleries on the Prince's 
 well-known penchant. The Prince showed by his looks how 
 disgusted he was. " This, unfortunately," says Lord Malmesbury, 
 " fixed his dislike, which, when left to himself, the Princess had 
 not the talent to remove, but, by still observing the same 
 giddy manners and coarse sarcasm, increased till it became 
 positive hatred." This was deplorable enough, and there must 
 have been more of recklessness than of want of feeling ; and she 
 explains it piteously in her own account : " The first moment 
 I saw my futur and Lady Jersey together I knew how 
 it all was, and I said to myself, ' Oh, very well ! ' I took 
 my partie. . . . One of the civil things his royal highness 
 did just at first was to find fault with my shoes, and, as I was 
 very young and lively in those days, I told him to make me a 
 better pair and bring them to me. I brought letters from all 
 the princes and princesses to him from all the petty courts, and I 
 tossed them to him, and said, ' There ! that's to prove I'm not an 
 impostor \' "* The envoy, with all his diplomacy, could not see 
 what is here revealed, that this lightness of behaviour was the 
 assumed indifference of a woman hurt in her pride — " Oh, very 
 well ! I took my partie." 
 
 In the same spirit the Princess now actually made a confidante 
 of her lady-in-waiting, and is said to have calmly confided to her 
 that she had been attached to another person. This, it was pre- 
 sumed, was reported to the Prince, who on the next day showed 
 a marked coldness. Another speech was also reported. Hair- 
 powder was then going out of fashion, but the Prince still adhered 
 to his custom, and the Princess declared to the same confidante, 
 "that he looked like a sergeant-major with his ears powdered." 
 Such personal remarks — his upon her shoes, hers upon his wig- 
 were not likely to produce agreeable feelings. 
 
 After this dinner was over, arrived the King and Queen and 
 other members of the royal family to welcome the Princess, who was 
 presented in due form. The King was cordial and even affectionate, 
 but the Queen's coldness was remarked.f Then she was left in 
 
 * "Memoirs of Lady C. Bury," i. 17. 
 t Huish, "Memoirs of George IV." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 289 
 
 the old Palace, in charge of Mrs. Aston, and thus the exciting 
 day ended. 
 
 Three days later, on Wednesday, April 8th, 1795, the marriage 
 was performed with customary state and magnificence, and, 
 according to the favourite phrase, with great demonstrations of 
 joy ; and the puhlic seem to have been well contented with her 
 appearance, her good-humoured and intelligent air, and taste in 
 dress. The ceremony took place at night, and was performed by 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury. In the chapel the Prince gave 
 his hat, with its rich diamond button and loop, to Lord Harcourt 
 to hold, and then made him a present of it. The Duke of Leeds 
 says, in his memoranda : " I could not help remarking how little 
 conversation passed between the Prince and Princess during the 
 procession, and the coolness and indifference apparent in the 
 manner of the Prince. I was afterwards informed that he 
 appeared much agitated on entering the chapel, and that during 
 the ceremony he was perpetually looking at his favourite, Lady 
 Jersey." 
 
 He then explains that the hat thus presented was decorated 
 with a magnificent diamond star and buckle. Lady Harcourt 
 was known to be the most intimate friend of Lady Jersey. 
 
 During the ceremony a strange incident was noticed. The 
 Prince, who seemed dazed or bewildered, rose impatiently from 
 his knees before the ceremony was half over. The Archbishop 
 stopped, but the old King stepped forward and recalled his 
 son to his situation. He also took the part of " prompter" through 
 the whole ceremony, and in the hall later " shook his son's hand 
 with a force that brought tears to his eyes." 
 
 As the newly-married pair drove from the chapel their first 
 falling out took place. The Prince had remarked, on hearing 
 the mob shout, that " many were interested in their happiness," 
 at the same time taking her hand. She pettishly snatched hers 
 away, put out at something in her reception ; on which he 
 became angry and sullen.* Such was the course of this ill- 
 omened day, 
 
 * Lady 0. Campbell, " Diary.' 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
CHAPTBE XXVII. 
 
 1795—1797. 
 
 Two days after tlie marriage the "happy pair" returned to 
 Windsor, where they remained a few days. They then repaired to 
 the Prince's rural residence at Kempshott. It seems incredible 
 what the bride had to encounter here during her honeymoon. 
 There was but one lady, and that one her lady-in-waiting, and 
 the men were the " blackguard companions of the Prince, who 
 were constantly drunk, and sleeping and snoring in boots on the 
 sofa."* It is not surprising to learn that within two or three 
 weeks of the marriage a sort of separation took place between 
 the ill-starred pair. However, some decency of appearance was 
 to be kept up. There was a visit in state to Covent Garden 
 Theatre, where the Princess was, as it were, presented to the 
 public for the first time ; while in May a dancing fete was given 
 at Frogmore to the " happy pair," where the ladies all appeared in 
 white, with " Prince of Wales " plumes, and the gentlemen in blue 
 and gold. 
 
 They were then established at Carlton House. It at once 
 became evident that all the good advice, so laboriously impressed 
 on the Princess, had wrought little effect; for, at the various 
 dinner-parties given during the first two or three weeks after the 
 marriage, she behaved so flippantly and talked so lightly that 
 her husband called Lord Malmesbury aside and asked him " what 
 he thought of this sort of manners ; " on which he could only 
 repeat her father's words — that, if she were not kept strictly, 
 she would give way to this extravagance. Then the Prince 
 reproached him with not warning him in time; to which the 
 
 * Sii- G. Elliot, iii. 14 He was shown the correspondence and written 
 complaints on these matters. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 291 
 
 reply was given tliat lie had acted under instructions from the 
 King to conclude the marriagOj and that such matters did not 
 ■enter into his commission. It was hardly surprising that this 
 blunt declaration should displease or leave a rankle in his mind. 
 
 It must be owned that his position had been an embarrassing 
 one, for though he owned that he would have felt it his duty to 
 mention any notorious or glaring defect, or such as would render 
 the union unseemly, mere levity would not have been sufficient 
 ground to disturb the negotiation. But the truth is, after these 
 signs and tokens, it was scarcely surprising that the negotiator 
 should now begin to augur the worst. " It is impossible," he says, 
 "to foresee or conceive any comfort from this connection, in which I 
 lament very much having taken any share, however passive it was." 
 
 The Princess, who was not nearly so volatile as Lord 
 Malmesbury would make out, for some time bore with the treat- 
 ment very patiently. She said that her father had told her to 
 observe everything, but say nothing. Indeed, her whole course 
 in this trying situation was at first marked by a certain amiability 
 and prudence ; and her best claim to indulgence is that she was 
 driven into the opposite defects by a long series of outrages. She 
 saw her lady-in-waiting invited to the Queens's House, and set 
 down to play cards with the Princesses. The worthy old King 
 disapproved of these proceedings, but could do nothing. All 
 the summer the attendance of this person was forced upon her. 
 
 Lord George Seymour described to Lord Houghton a charac- 
 teristic scene that occurred during this disturbed honeymoon. 
 At a convivial party, at which assisted Lord Ooleraine and others, 
 punch and pipes were introduced. When the Lady-in- Waiting 
 had sipped a little, the Prince, in a marked way, took her glass ; 
 on which the Princess seized Coleraine's pipe, and gave a sort of 
 contemptuous puff at the Prince. There was a rough humour, as 
 well as readiness, in this proceeding. 
 
 At Brighton, appearances were maintained and the gaieties 
 kept up. The Prince introduced various friends of his, such as 
 Sheridan, with whom he had fallen out, but was now reconciled ; 
 also Sir Sidney Smith, and the Stadtholder of Holland, whom 
 the Brighton folk were entertained in watching.* 
 
 * The Princess commanded a play for his entertainment ; in spite of her 
 vivacity and utmost efiorts, he slept and snored in the box beside her, and 
 was roused with some difBoulty when the curtain fell. A ball having been 
 given in compliment to him at the Castle tavern, he fell asleep whilst 
 eating his supper, and snored so loud as to disturb the harmony of the 
 orchestra. His Dutch Highness was also entertained with a grand 
 masquerade ; and was perplexed by the difficulty of resolving in what 
 dress or character he should attend it. The Prince of Wales said he might 
 eo as an old woman. — " Life and Eeign," i. 270. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 THE LIFE OF GEOEG-E IV. 
 
 But now, on April 27th, the first steps were taken to furnish 
 the consideration of the bargain, and the question of paying the 
 Prince of Wales's debts was introduced to the House, and 
 received with "marked disapprobation." The tone assumed was of 
 the most offensive kind, and the unhappy spendthrift was lectured 
 and reprobated. Mr. Pitt took a high strain. The debts, he 
 said, must be paid out of the income, which would be increased; 
 but no gross sum would be granted. There were loud complaints 
 of broken faith on the part of the Prince and his friends, and it 
 was openly said that the minister had violated his engagements. 
 This was no doubt the proper course, as a general discharge 
 would only be an encouragement to incur fresh liabilities. On 
 this Colonel Stanley, a Lancashire member, moved that the old 
 engagement and promise given to Parliament in 1787 should be 
 read. In the discussion that followed, the Prince felt himself 
 humiliated to an extraordinary degree, as he was treated like 
 a spendthrift and pauper ; but this he had brought on himself. 
 
 In May, when the general plan came on for discussion, it 
 was stated by Mr. Pitt that the Prince's income was about 
 £73,000 a year (including the Cornwall revenue). This he pro- 
 posed to raise to a sum of £125,000 a year, without adding the 
 Duchy, which would make together nearly £140,000, with £26,000 
 for Carlton House (a bottomless gulf), and £28,000 for jewels and 
 outfit. But the debts were found to reach the enormous sum of 
 £630,000, all incurred since the last settlement ! His proposal 
 was that £25,000 should be set apart yearly ; and it was calculated 
 this sum would clear off all in twenty-seven years. Further, any 
 arrear beyond three months should not be recoverable at law. 
 Such was the plan of extrication. It was certainly infinitely 
 mortifying for the Prince. His party either held aloof, or gave 
 but cold support. Mr. Grey was even hostile. After declaring 
 himseK as ready to support the splendour of the royal family, as 
 "any slippery sycophant of the Court," he announced that, "con- 
 sidering the distress of the people and their burdens, it was a 
 m.ost unfitting time to make a demand for satisfying extravagance." 
 He added that no matter how exalted the Prince's rank, he 
 should descend to the level of other embarrassed persons, 
 compound with his creditors and retrench his establishment. 
 His tone, indeed, was almost studiously blunt and offensive, and 
 the Prince never seems to have forgiven it. He concluded by 
 moving that £40,000 a year in addition would be sufficient. Mr. 
 Fox supported the ministerial proposal but coldly, though he 
 suggested that the King should contribute, and contrasted the 
 large allowance made to the civil list. His suggestion was that 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 293 
 
 the debts stould be paid off speedily, by allotting £65,000 a year 
 and tbe Ducby revenues. 
 
 These debates and recriminations were continued for some 
 weeks, when the Prince found himself compelled to come forward 
 and put himself humbly in the hands of the House. His 
 Attorney- General, Mr. Anstruther, made the following com- 
 munication : " That his Royal Highness was desirous to acquiesce 
 in whatever might be the sentiments of the House, both in respect 
 to the future regulations of his expenditure, and the appropriation 
 of any part of the income they might think fit to grant him for 
 the discharge of his debts ; his wish, on the present occasion, was 
 to consult the wisdom of Parliament. He was perfectly disposed 
 to acquiesce in whatever abatement of splendour they might 
 judge to be necessary, from a view of his situation ; and desired 
 to have nothing but what the country might cordially be induced 
 to think he ought to have. In fine, that his Eoyal Highness left 
 all matters relative to the regulation of his establishment and the 
 payment of his debts, to their wisdom and discretion, with the 
 assurance that whatever measures they might adopt would meet 
 with his hearty concurrence." 
 
 This was opposed to all the arguments his friends had been 
 urging. And Mr. Pitt was not slow to press the advantage. 
 Indeed, it will be seen that this was always a characteristic 
 of the Prince — to abandon a course no matter how vehemently 
 championed, when another better suited his purpose. 
 
 On this failure of these attempts he is said to have written 
 to Lord Fitzwilliam and Mr. Fox, offering to put himself at the 
 head of the party, and oppose all measures of the Government. 
 But they dissuaded him from this course. 
 
 But a very reasonable plea in his favour had been put forward, 
 which was certainly embarrassing enough to deal with. This 
 was the claim, by way of set-off, to the revenues of the Duchy 
 during his minority. These had been appropriated by the King, 
 on the high German tradition of paternal despotism, and when 
 the claims became inconvenient, the reply was that the revenues 
 had been absorbed by the expenses of education. No account 
 was rendered till the present discussion, when Mr. Pitt was obliged 
 to admit that a sum of nearly £234,000 had been received. 
 The Government had to make an extraordinary defence. It 
 pleaded the Statute of Limitation — the claims of Parliament, which 
 had paid his debts, and the cost of his outfit, which must be set off. 
 Then the expenses of his education had been £83,000. AU 
 this was mere special pleading. The claim of Parliament could 
 not hold, as the Prince could hardly be considered a bankrupt. 
 
294 THE LIFE OE GEOEGB IV. 
 
 who had to give up all his assets to those who gave him relief, 
 Mr. Pox declared that, by the return before them, the expenses 
 of education were £40,000, of which half should certainly be 
 charged to the Duke of York, who had the same preceptors, etc. 
 He made out also, that the accumulated revenues, with interest, 
 amounted to £500,000. Surely, he said, the King, like any other 
 father, might fairly undertake the modest charges of bringing up 
 his children. But it has been already shown how the King 
 himseK left on record the penurious calculations made for the 
 support of his younger children, and the same scale was no doubt 
 applied to the support of his eldest child. The annual expense for 
 many years could not have exceeded £3000, of which one-half, 
 or say two-thirds only, should have been charged to the Prince, 
 leaving an enormous balance. The King's own debts had been 
 enormous, and these arrears had been used to discharge them.* 
 Fortunately we have satisfactory evidence in support of Mr. 
 Fox's contention, that the Prince's education and maintenance 
 had cost but little, and by reference to the Palace accounts, 
 kept with great accuracy and minuteness, and preserved 
 in the British Museum, it will be seen what trifling sums 
 in the wages to services, salary of governess, etc., had been 
 expended. 
 
 " The Prince," said Mr. Sheridan, " had often done him the 
 honour to consult him, chiefly because his royal highness knew 
 his fixed determination to accept no favours ; and he took that 
 opportunity of declaring that he had never received any presents- 
 of great value from the Prince. He had, he said, advised him 
 not to make the promise he made in 1787, from the improbability 
 of its being kept. He had at that time drawn up a plan of 
 retrenchment, 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 his great surprise he found it inserted 
 in the King's message, which had been seen by his royal 
 highness. The Prince wished him to retract it, bub this he 
 declined. Ministers had then a check upon the expenditure of 
 his royal highness, which they had never enforced; they had 
 never interposed to stop a shameful profusion of money upon 
 Carlton House." 
 
 Such was this singular declaration, inspired of course by the 
 Prince. There was certainly truth as to the sums lavished on 
 Carlton House, and it will have seemed surprising to find 
 
 * Mr. Nicholl states that these fines for the Duchy leases amounted to 
 £250,000, powers being given by Act of Parliament. It should be added,, 
 too, that all the revenues of the Bishopric of Osnaburg, accruing during 
 the Duke of York's minority, were paid to him on his coming of age. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE lY. 295 
 
 additional sums paid ■without demur wliioh had not been voted 
 originally by Parliament.* 
 
 The original proposals were privately agreed to ; the Prince, 
 though Mr. Whitbread and others declared that it was degrading 
 to the Prince, accepting them cheerfully, through Mr. Lambton, 
 his friend. A jointure of £50,000 a year was then voted for 
 the Princess, rather late, it might be thought, and the odd pro- 
 vision for preventing the Prince incurring fresh debts was 
 adopted. Commissioners were named for examining claims and 
 discharging them. Some of the salaries were fourteen quarters 
 in arrear. The various heads of offices in the Prince's household 
 were made responsible for the expenses in their departments, a 
 singularly inquisitorial proceeding. But astonishment must have 
 been excited by a most extraordinary harangue of the Duke of 
 Clarence, in favour of his brother, in which he declared bluntly 
 " that the marriage was part of a bargain, the price being the 
 payment of his debts. Advantage then had been taken of the 
 difficulties in which he was involved, in order to procure from 
 him this consent. He was in the situation of a man who, if he 
 cannot get a haunch of venison, will rather take any other haunch 
 than go without." 
 
 In this speech he showed that honest and earnest but indiscreet 
 partisanship which distinguished him through life. 
 
 This business, thus arranged, gave rise to many harsh com- 
 ments, the one that had most plausibility being that the Prince 
 had " constituted himself a bankrupt ; '•' for the fact that a regular 
 commission was appointed (consisting of the Speaker, Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, Master of the EoUs, the Master of the King's 
 Household, the Accountant of the Court of Chancery, and the 
 Surveyor of the Crown Lands), together with an investigation 
 and abatement of all tradesmen's claims, rather lent the air of a 
 " composition with creditors." It was the occasion of much dis- 
 content and some injustice, the commission holding a regular 
 court, and abating all claims by ten per cent. It is obvious that 
 this proceeding could not affect the demands of creditors who 
 might enforce them in the regular tribunals of the country. And 
 one of this body actually did so — his jeweller, named Jeffereys,t 
 whose complaints and attacks were to harass the Prince for many 
 years to come. 
 
 On the marriage of the Prince, he had received a magnificent 
 order of jewels for presents. No limit, he says, was fixed. The 
 
 * Eose, " Diaries.'' Why the King should have paid these sums, trusting 
 to have been afterwards indemnified, seems strange, unless we assume he 
 had some reason for gratifying the Prince in this his favourite hobby. 
 
 t This man was for a time a member of Parliament. 
 
296 THE LIFE OP GEOKGE IV. 
 
 finest and best of everything was to be provided. As of course^ 
 the nation being paymaster, £64,000 was laid out for the bride, 
 with £10,000 as presents for the Queen and Princesses. Even 
 the Princess miniature, which was sent out in a jewelled frame, 
 cost over £4000 ! When his claims came before the commission, 
 they were placed at the enormous amount of £85,000, which 
 included bonds of the Prince's old debts. As the jeweller 
 declined to submit to the reduction, he brought actions for the 
 whole amount, which he recovered, the Prince encouraging him 
 in this step. He had, notwithstanding, to accept the deductions ; 
 but the balance was paid in debentures. It is characteristic of 
 the persons who had dealings of this kind with the Prince, that 
 their behaviour should have always been of the most selfish and 
 ungrateful kind. This man, who had received such large sums, 
 now began to annoy the Prince with demands for redress of his 
 grievances.* 
 
 Jeffereys soon after was totally ruined. Then began a 
 series of piteous appeals, which took the shape of threatening 
 letters ; and it was only when he had a pamphlet ready that the 
 friendly Lord Moira, who in delicate matters acted as his master's 
 agent, had to treat with him privately. But nothing came of 
 the interview, and Jeffereys began to publish a series of pamphlets 
 full of attacks, chiefly on Mrs. Fitzherbert. These ran through 
 many editions. 
 
 Though the arrangement made might be assumed to be a 
 fairly satisfactory one, the Prince took his favourite mode of 
 showing his discontent — by exaggerated and theatrical reduction 
 of his establishment. Lord Cholmondeley now addressed a circular 
 to the household, dispensing with their services. Four ladies of 
 the bedchamber were retained, withLords Jersey and Cholmondeley 
 as masters of the horse and of the household — the latter declining 
 his salary of £2000 a year. 
 
 * He complained that his reception at Carlton House was cold and distant : 
 " I 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 : ' I believe I owe you some money 
 — £420 ; do you want it now P ' I humbly replied, when it suited his royal 
 highness's convenience. The Prince said, ' Very well,' and left the room 
 without another word ; nor was I able to form any expectation when it 
 would be repaid." The Prince, too, had to endure all the regular annoyances 
 of an impecunious debtor. Hamlet, Gray, Vuillamy were some of these 
 unlucky fournisseurs. It was told of Vuillamy that, being always denied to 
 the Prince, he lay in wait at the gate, and with much agitation and despair 
 told the Prince that " unless paid, he would be in his Papa's Bench." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEaS IV. 297 
 
 Meanwhile the new menage was not going on happily, and 
 presently an extraordinary business was to excite the curiosity of 
 the gossips and the disgust of the judicious. Early in 1796 there 
 appeared an appeal to the public^ in the shape of a pamphlet by 
 Lord Jersey, written to vindicate his wife from a strange charge. 
 The transaction had occurred in the preceding year. 
 
 One Dr. Randolph, a clergyman, had undertaken to carry a 
 packet of letters for the Princess to her relations in Brunswick, 
 Not going abroad, however, he sent back the letters to the 
 writer. They never reached her, and soon after the Princess had 
 good grounds for suspicion, if not for certainty, that the Queen 
 had read their contents, and resented the manner in which she 
 had been described. 
 
 The Princess, indeed, admitted that the lost letters contained 
 free but confidential remarks of the kind. There were highly 
 suspicious circumstances in the case. When the clergyman gave 
 up his journey, he despatched the packet as a common parcel, 
 booking it, he said, by the Brighton coach. He addressed it to 
 Lady Jersey, who was with the Princess at Brighton. As the 
 Princess had placed the packet in his hands, he might have 
 thought it was important enough to be returned in a more formal 
 manner than by a common carrier. 
 
 It is admitted that the parcel was regularly " booked " and 
 directed to Lady Jersey, so it would not have been difficult to 
 trace it. There were recriminations on all sides, but the matter 
 was never cleared up ; and it was rather happily said that Lord 
 Jersey's vindication wanted but one thing to make it satisfactory, 
 viz. " his avowal that he knew nothing at all about the matter." 
 Altogether a most significant token of the happy relations in the 
 royal family. 
 
 Every day the Princess's position was indeed growing more 
 distressing. She was soon to be confined, and this, it might be 
 supposed, would secure her more indulgence. She complained 
 piteously to a German friend of the dislike of the Queen and her 
 sisters-in-law; that whatever she did was misrepresented. The 
 people alone were kind. 
 
 While thus engaged in domestic troubles, a strange sympathy 
 for the Irish nation seized on the Prince. He had not forgotten 
 the compliment paid to him by the Irish Parliament, when the 
 Regency was impending. He had latterly been thrown a good 
 deal with some of the patriots. Mr. Grattan and Lady Louisa 
 Connollyj Lord Colchester tells us, actually persuaded him that 
 he ought to be appointed Viceroy of Ireland. It is stated, 
 indeed, that a formal request to this effect, signed by Grattan, 
 was tendered to him, praying him to undertake the government 
 
298 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 of the country. On this subject he himself addressed Mr. Pitt 
 in some lengthy letters, setting out the dangerous state of the 
 country, and volunteering to go and pacify it. The minister 
 declined to make any such representation to his Majesty. 
 
 Nearly thirty years later, when as George IV. he was strenuously 
 resisting Catholic emancipation, and distracting the ministry by 
 his vehement opposition, the Duke of Wellington seems to have 
 "looked up^' these rather compromising documents, no doubt 
 with a view to refute the theory that the King had always been a 
 " Protestant Prince.^^ 
 
 Everything in the first of these documents is in the Prince's 
 peculiar style ; the abundance of italicised words is all his own. 
 No doubt the topics and arguments had been supplied to him by 
 his Irish friends. 
 
 MEMOKIAI TO MB. PITT PEOM THE PBINCE OP WAXES. 
 
 " London, 8tli Feb. 1797. 
 
 " I trust that the importance of the subject, added to the 
 interest I must naturally feel in the safety and welfare of the 
 State, as well as in whatever affects the honour of his Majesty's 
 Grown, and the happiness and prosperity of my father's reign, 
 will apologise for the desire I feel to call the attention of ministers 
 to the following considerations : 
 
 " The situation of Ireland at this moment demands their most 
 serious attention, and ought to engage them to leave nothing 
 undone to prevent the calamities that would arise to Great Britain 
 from a civil war. The value and importance of Ireland cannot 
 be adequately estimated or sufficiently prized ; and its loss or 
 separation would be the most mortal blow that this kingdom 
 could receive. This is well known to every man who is acquainted 
 with the relative situations of the two kingdoms. 
 
 "The French Government appears to be now thoroughly 
 apprised of this truth ; and by their late expedition, fitted out at 
 a prodigious expense, and sent in the depth of winter, when an 
 attempt on the Irish coast was generally deemed impracticable, 
 they have shown that they thus consider no expense too great, no 
 risk sufficient to deter them from the prosecution of the plans 
 they have formed for the purpose of depriving Great Britain 
 of the aid, support, and advantages derived from Ireland. The- 
 first attempt has failed; but the French, by an enterprise un- 
 equalled in their history, have gained advantages that would more 
 than compensate them for the loss of the whole expedition, if 
 every ship had perished in the storm. They have destroyed the 
 security we enjoyed from our insular situation. They have 
 proved, by an experiment, that our coasts may be attempted with 
 
TKE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 299 
 
 impunity by an infenor fleet, and have destroyed a prepossession 
 that had grown venerable by age^ and was worthy a fleet of 60 
 sail and 50^000 men to this kingdom ; but they could not attempt 
 an invasion without having heat our fleet and being masters at sea. 
 From the circumstances of a part of the Toulon fleet having been 
 brought round to Brest, and of the preparations being continued 
 in that port subsequent to the sailing of the expedition under 
 Hoche, in December, there is reason to conclude that the plan 
 was of a very extensive and alarming nature ; and if the fi7-st 
 landing had taken place, that it would have been followed up and 
 supported by successive expeditions, either to act in concert with 
 the flrst, or to divide our attention and strength by a diversion in 
 the coasts of England or Scotland. 
 
 " So far their intentions appear manifest, and from the con- 
 tinuance of the preparations in their channel ports, as well as their 
 avowed declarations and the aspect of affairs on the Continent, 
 it is reasonable to suppose that the attempt will he renewed ; and 
 however they may threaten or infest the coasts of this kingdom, 
 that Ireland will he the point of their operations. This might have 
 been doubtful hefore the late attempt ; it can scarcely be so 
 now. 
 
 "The French have declared that they went to Ireland as 
 friends, and not as enemies. I hope they would have been 
 deceived in their expectations. But still the opinion must have 
 been formed either from direct communications from that country, 
 or from known circumstances operating to discontent in that 
 kingdom ; or lastly, from a conviction arising out of the former 
 of their being able to propose superior advantages to Ireland 
 from a connection with them. 
 
 " That the French have been excited by direct communications 
 from Ireland, there is reason to suppose, from the number of dis- 
 tricts in the north of that kingdom that have been proclaimed by 
 Government to be in a state of insurrection. 
 
 " I shall not question the wisdom or policy of such pro- 
 clamations. If they do not originate in party disputes and private 
 quarrels, they increase and extend them; and one dangerous 
 effect of them is evident : they render the proclaimed districts 
 desperate, and give encouragement to a foreign enemy. And if I 
 am rightly informed, the districts so proclaimed are not the most 
 dissatisfied or the most dangerous parts of the kingdom. 
 
 " I understand that the town of Belfast, though not proclaimed, 
 is in reality the centre of dissatisfaction, and perhaps I might say 
 disaffection ; and that the wealthy and independent Presbyterians 
 of the north are at the bottom of all the secret machinations that 
 agitate the kingdom. 
 
300 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 "Whatever the private views of the leaders may be, they have 
 hitherto confined themselves to demand a Parliamentary Reform. 
 In this they have acted artfully, by comprehending the Roman 
 Catholic claims in their demands, and thus forming two bodies, 
 hitherto opposed, into one, under the title of United Irishmen. 
 
 "li the secret object of this union be a revolution in the 
 Government and a separation from Great Britain, as there is too 
 much reason to apprehend, it is alarming from its ohject and 
 formidable from its numbers ; and a moment should not be lost to 
 disunite its members, particularly as I hope the Roman Catholics 
 are not, as yet, to any degree tainted with disaffection, though 
 they may be led by degrees to go the full lengths with the 
 Presbyterians. 
 
 " If it be alleged that very few indulgences remain to be 
 granted to the Roman Catholics, and those not of a nature to 
 interest the multitude, I should say that the man is little 
 acquainted with human nature, who does not know that mankind 
 is more guided by pride and passion than by interest, and that an 
 affront operates more forcibly than an injury. Besides, the rich 
 and powerful few in this case influence the thoughtless and ■ 
 unreflecting many; and the term emancipation, applicable only - 
 to a state of slavery, is selected on this occasion to indicate the 
 general sense entertained and propagated on that head among 
 the people. 
 
 " Without, therefore, entering into a fruitless inquiry whether 
 the discontent on this score be just and founded, it is sufiicient 
 that the discontent exists, and that the party in Ireland who are 
 suspected of Republican principles, and of being inclined to a 
 connection with France, make use of this grievance, supposed or 
 real, to attach the Roman Catholics to their views and form a 
 common cause. 
 
 "Without also entering into the policy of withholding or 
 refusing these concessions on former occasions, I shall only say 
 that circumstances may render it prudent to grant at one time 
 what has been refused at another, and that without any incon- 
 sistency ; and, therefore, without any retrospect to what is past, 
 I feel myself called upon to declare my decided opinion that no 
 time ought to be lost in repealing every exclusive restriction and 
 disqualification on the Irish Roman Catholics. If formerly the 
 suprema lex justified these prohibitory statutes — and on no other 
 principle can they be justified — I am persuaded that it now 
 imperiously demands their repeal. The Irish Roman Catholics 
 are naturally loyal and attached to monarchy; they have 
 behaved well in a distinguished manner on the late threatened 
 invasion. The affectionate attachment and zeal they have shown 
 
, THE LIFE OE GEOEGE IV. 301 
 
 on that tiying occasion deserve every possible return from the 
 throne ; and any concession granted in consequence will appear 
 a reward for past services, and encourage to future exertion ; 
 andj above all, by exciting warm and grateful sentiments, for 
 which the Irish are particularly distinguished, it may be fairly 
 expected that such a measure would detach the Roman Catholics 
 from the disaffected party, without appearing to have that for 
 its object. 
 
 "If this measure be adopted, I should express my wish and 
 readiness to undertake the government of Ireland — great and 
 arduous as the task appears under the present circumstances — with 
 a view of securing the full benefit of this concession to the throne, 
 and in the hopes of more firmly attaching that valuable kingdom 
 to the Crown of Great Britain, and animating the spirit of that 
 loyal and affectionate people to the most powerful exertions 
 against our desperate enemy, if they should again renew their 
 attempts upon that kingdom. 
 
 "I am thoroughly aware of the great responsibility that 
 attaches to ministers on the score of Ireland. If my opinion be 
 adopted, I am willing to share that responsibility with them ; if it 
 is not, it must remain ivith them. I recommend it to them to 
 grant this boon before it is asked. If it is asked, it must be 
 granted ; but it will then appear extorted from our fear, and not 
 granted from our affection, and the whole benefit will be lost. 
 I recommend a, preventive measure, and request them to weigh 
 it with the consideration its importance requires. The interval 
 of suspended invasion is favourable, and should be improved with 
 the. most sedulous attention, in order to adopt this and such other 
 measures as promise most effectually to divert the impending 
 storm or to breah its force. 
 
 "T shall at present forbear to consider the other measures 
 that it may be proper to adopt for conciliating the affections and 
 extinguishing the dissensions that agitate parts of that kingdom, 
 as likewise the relative advantages that may be held out by 
 France and Spain to Ireland on the score of commercial intercourse. 
 These are subjects of great importance, that will naturally present 
 themselves to the judgment and penetration of ministers. 
 
 " I cannot suppose that they will impute the loyal behaviour 
 of the Irish Roman Catholics on the late occasion to a, perfect 
 acquiescence in the situation, and from thence infer that the present 
 system should be continued. So perverse a mode of reasoning 
 may prove fatal in a future trial, as it is aggravating injustice 
 with insult. Neither do I believe that, from the appearance of 
 zeal and loyalty exhibited by all ranks, they will infer that there 
 is neither dissatisfaction nor disaffection in that kingdom, though 
 
302 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE lY. 
 
 they did not break out into open action while the fate of the 
 Prench expedition was uncertain. What might have happened 
 if the expedition had succeeded, and the French landed in force, 
 may be more doubtful. I fear it is too well known that both do 
 exist to a considerable degree; and their not having burst out 
 into acts of violence proves only more caution and prudence than 
 were to be expected, but leaves ua ignorant of the magnitude and 
 extent of the danger. 
 
 " G. P." 
 
 SECOND MEMOEIAI, ABDUESSED TO MB. Pni. 
 
 " Carlton House, May 29tli, 1797. 
 
 " In the beginning of last February I transmitted to his 
 Majesty's ministers my thoughts on the state of Ireland, recom- 
 mending to the Cabinet concihatory measures, as they appeared 
 to me indispensably necessary in order to secure the well-affected, 
 to attach the minds of the Irish nation to the Crown, and to 
 prevent civil war and rebellion, of which symptoms had even 
 then appeared in that kingdom. 
 
 " I had the mortijBcation to find the measures I recommended 
 disapproved of, and that a system of coercion was to be pursued 
 in the government of Ireland. Lamenting the adoption of such 
 a system, and deploring the consequences that it must necessarily 
 produce, I have notwithstanding preserved silence hitherto on 
 the subject, that ministers might give that system a fair trial. 
 But, having now done so, and the menacing circumstances in- 
 creasing every day, I should consider a further silent acquiescence 
 as betraying the dearest interests both of my king and country ; 
 for I regard it as the first duty imposed on me by my situation to 
 endeavour, by every means in my power, to prevent the effusion 
 of civil blood, and to avert the misfortunes incident on a 
 rebellion in Ireland and the loss of that kingdom. 
 
 " In the month of February last I could only state what I 
 conceived to be the probable consequences of neglecting to adopt 
 conciliatory measures. I can now appeal to the report of the 
 Committee of Secrecy of the Irish House of Commons on certain 
 papers seized in Belfast on the 14th April last, and laid before 
 the House on the 29th of that month. 
 
 " The report is deficient as to dates ; but it appears from it 
 that the Society of United Irishmen had been formed as early as 
 1791, for the express purpose of separating Ireland from Great 
 Britain. It appears also, by a return dated December 7th, 1 796, 
 that the above society had at that period gained 59,688 adherents 
 in the province of Ulster. From the month of October, 1796, the 
 system of coercion had been rigorously pursued without inter- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 803 
 
 ruptlon or opposition from any quarter. On the contrary, the 
 ■whole strength and loyalty of the kingdom have been called 
 forth, and corps of yeomanry embodied throughout the kingdom, 
 for the purpose of strengthening the hands of Government. 
 
 "And yet, notwithstanding every effort of administration 
 backed by a great military force, the report states that in 
 four months, from December to April, the number of United 
 Irishmen had increased from 59,688 to 99,411 ; and the 
 county of Meath, one of the most turbulent in the kingdom, is 
 included in the former and not in the latter; if it had, the 
 numbers would have nearly doubled. The fair conclusion is, that 
 the system of coercion had in four months spread as great dis- 
 affection to the Government as the Society of United Irishmen 
 had been able to do in the five preceding years. 
 
 " So alarming an increase can alone be accounted for by the 
 avowal of this system, coupled with the declaration of the Irish 
 ministers in both Houses of Parliament in that kingdom — that 
 no further concessions would be made by Government to the 
 Roman Catholics ; a declaration that I must condemn as unwise 
 and impolitic, and originating in unparalleled ingratitude to a 
 description of men who had shown the greatest zeal, loyalty, and 
 sound principles by their distinguished exertions in the public 
 cause when their country was threatened with a French invasion. 
 
 "If a French fleet should again visit the coasts of Ireland, 
 could ministers depend on the cordial co-operation of the Irish 
 Roman Catholics, as in the month of December last ? and, if not, I 
 must infer that the neglecting the measures of conciliation that I 
 recommended, and pursuing an opposite system, have actually 
 alienated the affections of the then loyal and friendly Roman 
 Catholics of that kingdom. 
 
 " The papers of the Ulster committee only have been seized, 
 and the report is consequently confined to that province. It 
 throws no light on the state of the other three provinces, in 
 which the proportion of Roman Catholics is much greater than in 
 Ulster ; so that I think it will not appear exaggerated if we allow 
 that they may contain 100,000 more of United Irishmen. 
 
 " If, then, ministers advert to the rapidity with which this 
 society have gained converts to their principles, and make any 
 allowance for their further extension, I should recommend it 
 to them to weigh again the probability of success in pursuing a 
 system of coercion. That system was fully and fatally tried in 
 America, and failed. The Irish are a brave and high-spirited 
 people, and more numerous than the Americans were at the 
 commencement of hostilities. France is more in a situation to 
 give them assistance and support; and Great Britain, by the 
 
304, THE LIFE OP GBOEGE lY. 
 
 very defection of Ireland, less able to carry on a contest, 
 weakened as slie is by the expensive struggles of the last four 
 years. 
 
 " There are many circumstances that ministers will further 
 take into consideration that have occurred since February last, 
 to which it is sufficient to advert without enlarging on them, as, 
 the temper of the navy and army, and the number of Irishmen 
 in both ; the peace agreed on between the Emperor and Prance ; 
 above all, the certainty that the Irish militia have been tampered 
 with, and the danger of their joining their countrymen in the 
 case of open insurrection. 
 
 "But in one view it is sufficient that the disaffection of 
 numerous bodies of men in Ireland is proved beyond a doubt by 
 the report. I consequently appeal to ministers if any system of 
 coercion, however successful, can remove that disaffection ; and 
 if his Majesty's ministers be not called on to try every possible 
 means to satisfy the people by removing the causes of the dis- 
 satisfaction ; and to endeavour to regain the confidence and affec- 
 tion of the Irish nation before an open rebellion widens the 
 breach ; for conciliatory measures must, in any supposed issue to 
 the contest, be resorted to at last; and what must be resorted to 
 after bloodshed, and all the horrors of a civil war, ought to be 
 tried at least in the first instance to prevent them. 
 
 " That the Irish will rise in their demands every day that 
 arrangement is deferred, is very certain. That the same measures 
 that might have satisfied them in February last, may not do so 
 now, I am inclined to suspect. But I have but one decided 
 opinion, that no time should be lost in still trying conciliatory 
 measures to the utmost extent. A strong military force may 
 secure temporary advantages; but no force can long coerce a 
 nation of four millions of people, united in sentiment and 
 interests. 
 
 " I must once more earnestly recommend conciliatory measures, 
 and I adjure you to pause on the awful brink of civil war, and to 
 avert its fatal consequences. Dissatisfaction is fast spreading in 
 this kingdom, from a variety of causes ; and a civil war with 
 Ireland would certainly increase it, and produce great divisions 
 and differences of sentiment, the consequence of which may 
 extend far beyond what human prudence can foresee or calculate. 
 
 "I request that this paper may be commended to the 
 Cabinet, and I wish it to be considered as containing my decided 
 sentiments on the subject of Ireland. 
 
 " G. P." 
 
CHAPTBE XXVIII. 
 
 1796. 
 
 On January 7th, 1796, at twenty minutes past nine, tlie Princess 
 of Wales was delivered of a daughter. The Dake of Leedsj the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and other noble persons were in 
 attendance all night. The shaggy-browed Thurlow was present 
 by the Prince's invitation. The Princess was in a critical way 
 for a time, and it was rumoured that " her life was saved by 
 the intelligent friendship of a distinguished statesman." The 
 agitation of the Prince was conspicuous, and indeed the excite- 
 ment which was part of his character seems to have actually led 
 him to devotion.* This amiable agitation would have been more 
 sincere had it been supported by acts ; but it is painful to have to 
 relate that as the crisis drew near he did not show any delicate con- 
 sideration for her situation. Thus his angry father shortly after 
 the event addressed him this reproof : 
 
 THE KING TO THE PKINCE OF 'WALES. 
 " [GrEOEGITJS EbX.] 
 
 "The professions you have lately made in your letters 
 of your particular regard to me are so contradictory to your 
 actions, that I cannot suffer myself to be imposed upon by them. 
 You know very well you did not give the least intimation to me 
 
 * " With a due sense of that religion," says an admirer, " the exercise 
 of which had thrown such a pure and unsullied splendour over a well-spent 
 life, he morning and night, surrounded by his family, offered up his prayers 
 to that Being who " can soothe the pangs of the mother, and still the cries 
 •of the infant." — Huish, " Life of Princess Charlotte," i, 11. 
 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 or to the Queen that the Princess was with child till within a. 
 month of the birth of the young Princess. 
 
 " Ton removed the Princess twice in the week immediately 
 preceding the day of her delivery from the place of my residence, 
 in expectation (as you voluntarily declared) of her labour ; and 
 both timeSj upon your return^ you industriously concealed from 
 the knowledge of me and the Queen every circumstance relating" 
 to this important affair ; and you at last^ without giving notice- 
 to me or to the Queen, precipitately hurried the Princess from 
 Hampton Court in a condition not to be named. After having 
 thus, in execution of your own determined measures, exposed 
 both the Princess and her child to the greatest perils, you now 
 plead surprise and tenderness for the Princess as the only 
 motives that occasioned these repeated indignities to me, and to 
 the Queen your mother. 
 
 " This extravagant and ungrateful behaviour in so essential a 
 point as the birth of an heir to my crown, is such an evidence of 
 your premeditated defiance of me and contempt of my authority, 
 and of the natural right belonging to your parents, as cannot be 
 excused by the pretended innocence of your intentions^ nor 
 palliated or disguised by specious words only; but the whole 
 tenor of your conduct for a considerable time has been so 
 entirely void of all real duty to me, that I have long had reason 
 to be highly offended with you ; and until you withdraw your 
 regard and confidence from those by whose instigation and advice 
 you are aided and encouraged in your unwarrantable behaviour to 
 me and to the Queen, and until you return to your duty, you shall not 
 reside in my palace, which I will not suffer to be made the resort 
 of them who, under the appearance of an attachment to you, 
 foment the division which you have made in my family, and 
 thereby weakened the common interest of the whole. 
 
 " In this situation I will receive no reply ; but when your 
 actions manifest a just sense of your duty and submission, that 
 may induce me to pardon what at present I most justly resent. 
 
 " In the mean time, it is my pleasure that you leave St. James's 
 with all your family when it can be done without prejudice or 
 inconvenience to the Princess. 
 
 " I shall for the present leave to the Princess the care of my 
 granddaughter, until a proper time calls upon me to consider of 
 her education. "Gr. R."* 
 
 On February 11th the royal child was christened Chaelotte 
 Augusta, destined with her father and mother, uncle and aunt, to 
 form one ill-fated circle. The name Charlotte was chosen in 
 * "Memoirs of Lord Brougham," ii. 155, 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 807 
 
 compliment to the Queen ; Augusta, in honour of her mother and 
 grandmother. 
 
 There were of course great rejoicings^ but it was unfortunate 
 that even on this occasion the Prince's humour should have drawn 
 him into a foolish embarrassment. The Corporation of London 
 desiring to present an address, were informed that the Prince, 
 having now reduced his establishment, was unable to receive 
 their address "in a manner suitable to his situation." It was 
 intimated that the address might be sent to him. The Common 
 Council immediately passed a resolution to the effect that it was 
 inconsistent with their dignity to present it in any but the usual 
 way. The Prince, alarmed, sent for the Lord Mayor to explain. 
 " His royal highness," said this functionary, " declared that his 
 sentiments, he conceived, had been mistaken or misunderstood, or 
 at least a very different construction had been given to them than 
 he meant, or was intended to be conveyed by that letter. He 
 thought it incumbent on him to preserve a consistent character ; 
 that as his establishment, 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 highness conceived he could not receive an address 
 in state, and particularly from the Corporation of the City of 
 London, for which he entertained the highest veneration and 
 respect." In situations like this he could always acquit himself 
 gracefully enough. 
 
 Scarcely was the Princess recovered when the old state of 
 things was renewed. The Prince quitted Carlton House, and 
 removed to Windsor about the middle of March. This was what 
 Lord Colchester calls " an open difference," though at the opera 
 they were noticed to affect an extraordinary cordiality. The 
 same peer declares she was used unpardonably — obliged to dine 
 alone, seeing no one but old people selected for her by the Queen 
 and Lady Jersey, who were on excellent terms. Neither was she 
 allowed to go anywhere except to take airings in the Park. 
 Angered at last by this treatment, she began to utter complaints, 
 appealing now to the King, now to the Prince, who for many 
 weeks had not seen her. The reply she received through Lady 
 Cholmondeley was that " they ought to separate ! " This pro- 
 posal seems to have been repeatedly made, but she declared she 
 would be quite happy to live with him, provided a change was 
 made in his behaviour. In April, as she herself said to her 
 friend, " Well, after I lay in — je vous jure, 'tis true, upon my 
 honour, upon my soul 'tis true — I received a message through 
 Lord Cholmondeley to tell me I never was to have de great 
 honour of inhabiting de same room wid my husband again. I 
 
 X 2 
 
308 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 said : ' Very well ; but as my memory was short, I begged to 
 have dis polite message in writing from him.' I had it, and 
 was free."* 
 
 The extraordinary letter that was sent to her is well known. 
 
 "April 30, 1796. 
 " Madam, 
 
 " As Lord Cholmondeley informs me that you wish I would 
 define, in writing, the terms upon which we are to live, I shall 
 endeavour to explain myself on that head with as much clearness, 
 and with as much propriety as the nature of the subject will 
 admit. Our inclinations are not in our power, nor should either 
 of us be held answerable 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 distinctly subscribe to the condition 
 which you required through Lady Cholmondeley, that even in 
 the event of any accident happening 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 connection 
 of a more particular nature. I shall now finally close this 
 disagreeable correspondence, trusting that, as we have com- 
 pletely explained ourselves to each other, the rest of our lives 
 will be passed in uninterrupted tranquillity. 
 " I am. Madam, 
 " With great truth, very sincerely yours, 
 "Windsor Castle, April 30tli, 1796." " Geoege P. 
 
 This cynical document is unique, the most unpleasant portion 
 being the pious appeal to "Providence in its mercy" and the 
 convenient principles of morality laid down. To this she replies 
 in French on May 6, and the letters afford a strange contrast : 
 
 " The avowal of your conversation with Lord Cholmondeley 
 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 complain 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 make it doubtful whether this 
 arrangement proceeds from you or from me ; and you are aware 
 that the credit of it belongs to you alone. 
 
 * " Diary ot George IV." i. 37. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 309 
 
 " The letter wLicli 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 enclosed 
 the copy of my letter to the King. I apprise 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 
 meets his approbation I shall be in some 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 motive, 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." (Signed) " Caeoline. 
 
 The delay of nearly a week was owing to her deliberations as 
 to which course she was to take. She thought first of writing to 
 her parents, and even of returning to them ; then of appealing 
 to the King to bring about a reconciliation. Lord Cholmondeley 
 gave her to understand with much politeness the Prince disliked 
 her too cordially to think of such a thing. The King did make 
 some attempts at arrangement, but matters had gone too far. 
 He suggested an arrangement that she should have an allowance 
 of £20,000; but, advised by friends who were beginning to 
 gather about her, she rejected the pension, and declared that 
 her bills should be sent to the Prince ; * and some rooms were to 
 be kept for her at Carlton House, as a sort of pied de terre, the 
 Prince retiring to Windsor or Brighton. Thus was war declared. 
 
 There could be but one opinion on the behaviour of the 
 husband that could come to an irreconcilable breach with his 
 wife within the first year. His defence, "that he had taken 
 a dislike to her," or, as he put it, " our inclinations are not in 
 our power" — almost childish — puts him out of court. The 
 honest public, which soon learned the truth, at once took her 
 side. At the opera she was applauded "with a transport of 
 affectionate respect.''' She came attended by her ladies — Lady 
 Carnarvon and Mrs. Fitzroy — and with the Duke of Leeds, to 
 whom she said she supposed the public had " been acquainted with 
 
 * Lloyd, p. 221. 
 
310 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 what was very trop vrai;" tliat "the Prince had not spoken to 
 her for three months past, but that she had nothing to reproach 
 herself with." The Duke of Leeds, in his " Memoranda," 
 describes her agitation and even alarm at this reception, and her 
 natural remark that when the Prince came to town " she supposed 
 she would be guillotined for what had passed that evening." 
 Yet, notwithstanding this treatment, she still pressed for recon- 
 ciliation; only firmly stipulating that the chief cause of their 
 difference should be dismissed from her service.* 
 
 At this time it is clearly shown that the Princess was driven by 
 a consistent course of ill-treatment to the follies of her later life. 
 All her friends now were people known for their rank, respec- 
 tability, and character. Even the rude Thurlow thus spoke of her 
 to the Duke of Leeds. "He thought with me the Prince's strange 
 conduct could only be imputed to madness, and expressed him- 
 self as much struck by the good sense and discretion of the 
 Princess. He declared the letter to the King, for which he very 
 undeservedly had the credit, was written by the Princess of her 
 own will, and, though in his presence, without assistance from 
 him." She made a very humble and most proper appeal to 
 the Prince, to be relieved from her attendance; also to the 
 King. Her request could not be refused, as the public were now 
 beginning to clamour against the indecency of the proceeding. 
 The King, in a fatherly and admirable letter, advised another 
 attempt at reconciliation, now that her wishes had been complied 
 with in regard to the lady-in-waiting. He advised her to show a 
 wish that the Prince should return to her ; on both sides all 
 reproaches should be avoided, as well as any confidences in third 
 parties. The tone of the letter was most cordial, affectionate, 
 and sensible. On the same day the poor Princess wrote to her 
 husband an eager and humble letter, which it would have been 
 hard to resist. 
 
 "I avail myself with the greatest ardour of the King's desire, 
 whose letter shows me that you are willing to yield to his wishes, 
 which fills me with the greatest delight. I look forward with 
 
 * This favourite was soon dismissed, supplanted by others. Another 
 Lady Jersey, her daughter-in-law, became the object of his enmity. 
 Mr. Rogers one night found himself seated with her at a ball in a long 
 gallery, down which the Eegent had entered without seeing her. When 
 he saw her he stopped a moment, but could not retreat, then marched 
 past her with a look of the utmost disdain. " She returned the look," 
 says Mr. Rogers, "and then turning to me with a smile, said: 'Did 
 not I do it wellP'" — "Table Talk." Such were the contests in which 
 our Prince came off victorious; such, too, is the fate that attends the too 
 obsequious service of princes. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 311 
 
 infinite pleasure to the moment that will bring you to Carlton 
 House, and that will for ever terminate a misunderstanding, 
 which, on my side, I assure you, will never be thought of again. 
 If you do me the honour of seeking my society in future, I will 
 do everything to make it agreeable to you. If I should displease 
 you, you must be generous enough to forgive me, and count upon 
 my gratitude, which I shall feel to the end of my life. I may 
 look for this, as mother of your daughter, and as one who is 
 ever yours." 
 
 That this appeal would be unfruitful is evident. A month 
 later, the Duke of Leeds, as he tells in his interesting " Memo- 
 randa," informed her that he would leave the Duchess at 
 Weymouth, " as long as her liking for the place continued ; " 
 when the Princess exclaimed : " Ah ! vous n'etes pas tyran ! " 
 On the same authority we learn that Lady Cholmondeley could 
 venture to say to the Queen that " she wondered the Prince 
 would ever return to Cai'lton House, after the usage he had 
 received." 
 
 Some of the Princesses were eager for family quiet, and the 
 Queen was seen to " speak good-humouredly twice " to the 
 Princess of Wales at the Drawing Room. The latter, naturally 
 finding that it was hopeless to look for being reconciled to 
 the Prince, now removed to Montague House (or Villa), at 
 Charlton, near Blackheath. She was not allowed to have her 
 child with her, who was kept at Carlton House under the 
 direction of Lady Elgin with Miss Hayman, the sub-governess. 
 Mrs. Harcourt and Miss Garth were the Princesses ladies. So 
 envenomed was the factious spirit in this unhappy quarrel, that 
 it was given out that the Prince " set on " drivers of the 
 Greenwich coaches to run her carriage down ; and once her life 
 was in actual peril. The Prince himself lived at Carlton House 
 in his old style, but had not much time to devote to his child. 
 It was thus that the Prince impressed the sub-governess at the ' 
 first interview, by his gracious and elegant manners : 
 
 " In going across the hall I met his royal highness full butt 
 in the doorway, coming, I believe, to my apartment. He re- 
 quested me to return into the ante-room, which we did. He 
 spoke to the following effect : ' Miss Hayman, I am very happy 
 in this opportunity of becoming acquainted with you. I sin- 
 cerely hope you will find everything tolerably comfortable here, 
 and I wish it was in my power to make it more so, but I fear 
 you may have some circumstances of difficulty to contend with. 
 My good Lady Elgin knows and fulfils every wish of my heart 
 relative to your little charge, and I doubt not she has informed 
 
312 . THE LIFE OF GEOKGE IV. 
 
 you of everytMng necessary; on her goodness you may rely^ 
 etc. I am afraid you will find the confinement irksome, but 
 it is unavoidable ! ' I assured him my only doubts were of my 
 ability to please him. He said he had no doubts ; that all he 
 heard of me from many people beside those who recommended 
 me, and on whose judgment he had the greatest dependence, 
 made him think himself fortunate in this appointment. He 
 hoped I should not dislike it, but my remaining was optional. 
 .... He then turned to Lady Elgin and said, ' It is an addi- 
 tional pleasure to me that Miss Hayman is one of my own 
 countrywomen,^ and, taking both by the hand, said, 'You are 
 both my countrywomen : my two first titles are Welsh and 
 Scotch.' 
 
 "The business part of the interview ended, he talked of more 
 indifferent matters, and took his leave with all that grace and 
 dignity for which he is so remarkable. Never (Miss Hayman 
 continues) had any one such captivating manners. I could 
 have sat down and cried that he is not all that he ought to be — 
 sometimes it is impossible to think his heart is not naturally 
 good. 
 
 " The Princess came in to see me (she goes od) ; she 
 spoke very affably to me, and asked me if I did not see the 
 infant wonderfully like the Prince of Wales, whether I was fond 
 of children, and told me hers was very hot, but very soon 
 pacified, that she had been naughty, but was now, by Lady 
 Elgin's care, quite good. She stayed about half-an-hour, chose 
 some lace for frocks, and was most kind. The nest day, when 
 Lady Elgin came in and said, ' Miss Hayman must now kiss 
 her royal highness's hand,' she got up and said, ' Oh ! we will 
 shake hands,' and turned the whole formality into a jest; she 
 then began a gossiping conversation on novels, and showed 
 throughout the warmheartedness and kindliness, the indiscretion 
 and want of dignity which Lord Malmesbury had noticed in 
 her."* 
 
 Miss Hayman, however, notwithstanding this fair promise, 
 was dismissed at the end of three months, probably, as Lady 
 Rose Weigall suggests, because she was regarded with too much 
 favour by the Princess — and she was then taken into the latter's 
 service. 
 
 The mother was eager to have her engaging child with her, 
 and applied to the Prince for permission, but no notice was 
 taken of the request. She continued her mode of life at Black- 
 heath in great intimacy with such persons as Sir Gilbert Elliot, 
 Lord and Lady Wood, Lord Thurlow, who, strange to say, was 
 
 * Lady Eose Weigall, " Memoirs of Princess Charlotte." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 313 
 
 the friend and adviser of both husband and wife, the Duke 
 and Duchess of Hamilton, the Edens and others. Again and 
 again Sir G-. ElUot, who saw much of her at this time, declares 
 that her behaviour was everything that was proper. She was 
 utterly undeserving of " such strange neglect." Even her 
 attractions were of some power, " her countenance being 
 remarkably lively and pleasing." " I think her positively a 
 handsome woman.''' The only blemish he noted was the signifi- 
 cant one of an indiscreet and voluble confidence imparted to the 
 first comer. At her little al fresco parties she delighted in 
 pouring out the whole of her story to a guest whom she fancied, 
 while the rest looked on. 
 
 He says, " Princess Charlotte was in the room till dinner, and 
 is really one of the finest and pleasantest children I ever saw. The 
 Princess of Wales romped with her about the carpet on her knees. 
 Miss Garth said to her, ' You have been so very naughty I don't 
 know what we must do with you.' The little girl answered, 
 crying and quite penitently, ' You must soot me,' meaning 
 shoot her. 
 
 "At the Drawing Room, when she and the Prince attended, he 
 did not bow to her, though they were quite close. He declared 
 afterwards that she would not meet his eye. When the King 
 said to her that a new arrival, the Countess d'Almeyda, could not 
 be handsome as she was not fair, the lively Princess curtseyed and 
 said she wished others of his Majesty's family were of the same 
 opinion. The good King laughed very heartily, and said he 
 wished so too, and that he thought it a proof of very bad 
 taste."* 
 
 Strange to say, she did not give up hope of their differences 
 being arranged, and towards the autumn of 1798 the idea of 
 a reconciliation was broached — on this occasion by the Prince 
 and his friends. As she saw, or fancied she saw, that it was 
 merely for some object of little reference to her, she was deter- 
 mined not to tolerate the suggestion unless the matter was 
 entered on in regular substantial shape. That she was right in 
 this view is shown by the fact that at the very time he was 
 eagerly engaged in pressing Mrs. Fitzherbert to renew their old 
 relations. 
 
 When the Princess heard of this she said to a friend and com- 
 panion of the Prince, that " she hoped her husiand would not 
 feel her any impediment to the reconciliation he was so desirous 
 for." A few days afterwards the same gentleman informed her 
 that he had delivered " the message " to the Prince, who said : 
 " Did she say so ? Indeed she is very good-natured ; " and the 
 * Lady Eose "Weigall, " Memoirs of Princess Charlotte." 
 
S14 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 Princess was not long in tearing that slie was represented as 
 liaving taken an active part in the reconciliation referred to, to 
 the great disgust of the Prince, who commented to her informant, 
 a gentleman of his household, on the indelicacy of the proceed- 
 ings. "Indelicacy, indeed !^^ she said, "and I wonder who 
 could say such a thing or suppose I could ever have thought it ? 
 All I said was, that I hoped I did not stand in the way of his 
 lappiness." It was remarked with regret by those who frequented 
 her society that she was apt to prosecute inquiries concerning 
 the movements of the lady in question which it did not become 
 her dignity to know.* 
 
 The last time the Prince had been near Mrs. Fitzherbert was 
 the day before the marriage, when he galloped by her house at 
 Marble Hill. The grief and mortification this step had brought 
 her may be conceived ; but, by the advice of her friends, she 
 courageously faced the public, and went through the hard ordeal 
 of receiving her friends. All made a point to attend, including 
 the royal Dakes. "Upon this, as upon all other occasions," says 
 Lord Stourton, " she was supported by the Duke of York, with 
 whom, through life, she was always united in the most friendly and 
 confidential relations. Indeed, she frequently assured me, that 
 there was not one of the royal family who had not acted with 
 kindness to her. She particularly instanced the Queen ; and, as 
 for George III., from the time she set footing in England till he 
 ceased to reign, had he been her own father, he could not have 
 acted with greater tenderness. That she should have been recon- 
 ciled to him was but the logical consequence of the original 
 marriage, for she looked on her own as the true one. She did 
 not act on her own responsibility. Her agent was despatched to 
 lay the matter before the Pope. The reply from Eome was 
 favourable to the wishes of the Prince; faithful to her own 
 determination to act as much as possible in the face of the public, 
 she resisted all importunities to meet him clandestinely. The 
 day on which she joined him again at her own house, was the 
 same on which she gave a public breakfast to the whole town of 
 London, and to which he was invited. She told me, she hardly 
 knew how she could summon resolution to pass that severe ordeal, 
 but she thanked God she had the courage to do so. The next 
 eight years were, she said, the happiest of her connection with 
 
 * About the time of the Queen's trial it was stated in a mixed company 
 that the Speaker of the House of Commons had condescended to join in a 
 game of romps with her Majesty. One or two past Speakers happened to 
 be present, including Lord Colchester, who seriously repelled the charge. 
 No one, however, thought of the sober Addiugton, who privately confessed 
 that he had been the delinquent. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 315 
 
 the Prince. She used to say that they were extremely poor, but 
 as merry as crickets ; and once, on their returning to London, 
 they mustered their common means, and could not raise £5 
 between them. Upon this, or some such occasion, she related 
 to me, that an old and faithful servant endeavoured to force them 
 to accept £60." 
 
 In this singular relation, she now occupied a large house in 
 Park Lane, and, during the season, one in Brighton, which the 
 Prince fitted up for her. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 1798. 
 
 Yet in the Prince's disposition, and united witli this undomestic 
 temper, there was a strain of impulsive sympathy that might fairly 
 pass as symptoms of a good heart. 
 
 In illustration of this tender feeling, and which he felt pleasure 
 in gratifying when its effect was fresh and no interval had elapsed, 
 may be mentioned his interest in the family of the unfortunate 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald. This presents him in a pleasing light. 
 The unfortunate nobleman was lying in the Dublin Newgate, 
 suffering from a mortal wound, and treated with extraordinary 
 rigour. The real piteousness of the situation centres in his 
 family, and there is really nothing more heartrending than the 
 picture of the crowd of agitated relatives — including Charles 
 Fox, Lady Louisa Connolly, Lady Sarah Napier, the aged 
 Duchess of Leinster — all pleading, not for grace, but for delay 
 and fair trial; and, above all, for the poor privilege of being 
 allowed to see their kinsman for a few moments. Not until he 
 was within a few hours of his death was this favour granted. 
 The wretched wife — the well-known Pamela — ^had been hurriedly 
 put on board a packet, with a view of getting to town to 
 throw herself at the King's feet to beg for mercy. Nor were 
 the ministers in London inclined to be harsh. 
 
 It was truly pathetic to find his mother, then at a distance 
 from him, " working heaven and earth," as it is called, to obtain 
 mercy. She flew to the Dake of York, who, though he only 
 listened with compassion and made no promise, exerted himself, 
 and sacceeded in obtaining from the King that the trial should 
 be delayed. 
 
 The Prince's interference, as may be imagined, was not likely 
 to have much weight, considering the feelings of his father 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB lY. 317 
 
 towards him. But to tlie husband of the agonised mother he 
 addressed the following genuine and feeling letter : 
 
 THE PRINCE OF -WAXES TO WILLIAM OGILVIE, ESQ. 
 
 " Carlton House, June 6, 1798. 
 
 " Three-quarters past 5 p.m. 
 "Mt dear Sib, 
 
 " I feel so truly for the Duchess and the unfortunate 
 Edward, that I am sure there is nothing in the world I would not 
 attempt to mitigate the pangs which I am afraid but too much 
 distress her grace at the present dreadful crisis. I would, were 
 I in the habit of so doing, most undoubtedly write to Lord 
 Clare ; though, even were that the case, I should hesitate as to 
 the propriety of so doing, thinking that such an application to 
 the Chancellor might be subject to misconstruction, and conse- 
 quently detrimental to Lord Edward's interests. But I have no 
 hesitation in allowing you to state to his lordship how much 
 pleased I shall be, and how much I am sensible it will conciliate 
 to him the affections of every humane and delicate mind, if every 
 opportunity is given to poor Lord Edward to obtain an impartial 
 trial, by delaying it.till his state of health shall be so recruited as 
 to enable him to go through the awful scene with fortitude ; * 
 and until the minds of men have recovered their usual tone, 
 so absolutely necessary for the firm administration of justice. 
 
 " This, my dear Sir, I have no scruple to admit of your stating 
 in confidence, and with my best compliments, to the Lord Chan- 
 cellor. My long and sincere regard for both the Duchess and 
 Duke of Leinster would have naturally made me wish to exert 
 myself still more, were I not afraid by such exertion I might do 
 more harm than good. 
 
 " Excuse this scrawl, which I pen in the utmost hurry, fearing 
 that you may have left London before this reaches Harley Street. 
 I am, dear sir, with many compliments to the Duchess, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "Geoege p." 
 
 For this generous conduct he earned a handsome tribute from 
 Lord Byron : 
 
 To be the father of the fatherless,t 
 
 To stretch the hand from the throne's height, and raise 
 
 Eis offspring, who expired in other days, 
 To make thy sire's sway by a kingdom less, — 
 
 * Moore, " Life of Lord E. Fitzgerald," p. 203, edit. 1875. 
 
 f He promised to take care of Lord Edward's child, and later gave him a 
 
318 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 TMs is to be a monarcli, and repress 
 
 Envy into unutterable praise. 
 
 Dismiss thy guard, and trust thee to such traits, 
 For who would lift a hand, except to bless ? 
 
 Were it not easy, Sir, and is't not sweet 
 
 To make thyself beloved ? and to be 
 Omnipotent by mercy's means P for thus 
 Thy sovereignty would grow but more complete, — 
 A despot thou, and yet thy people free. 
 And by the heart, not hand, enslaving us. 
 
 Of late the Prince was beginfling to affect the airs of a con- 
 noisseur. He had a sort of natural feeling for art and things 
 connected with art, and could no doubt discourse of the 
 " correggiosity of Oorreggio." But his taste was, in truth, un- 
 cultivated, and therefore remained always indifferent. We now 
 find him concerned in an artistic matter of a sensational kind. 
 When the "Ireland" imposture was attracting attention the Prince's 
 curiosity was excited, and the papers were brought to him. His 
 remarks and general behaviour are all in character. 
 
 "At Mr. Ireland's entrance, his royal highness, with his 
 usual affability, rose to receive him. On the production of the 
 manuscripts, his royal highness began to inspect them with 
 the strictest scrutiny, when, to Mr. Ireland's infinite astonish- 
 ment, he not only questioned him on every point with an acute- 
 ness which he had never before witnessed from the learned who 
 had inspected the papers, but he also displayed a knowledge of 
 antiquity and an intimate acquaintance with documents of the 
 period of Elizabeth, which Mr. Ireland had conceived to be 
 confined to those only that had made this particular subject the 
 object of their study. Having examined the manuscripts, his 
 royal highness said : " As far as the external appearance wiU 
 witness for the validity of the documents, they certainly bear a 
 strong semblance of age ; to decide, however, peremptorily from 
 this cursory inspection, would be unjustifiable, as in matters of 
 this nature so much is to be said pro and con, that the decision 
 requires mature refiection. I certainly, Mr. Ireland, must 
 compliment you much upon the discovery j as the name of 
 Shakespeare, and everything appertaining to him, is not confined 
 alone to the literary world, but to the English nation, to which the 
 publication will, I trust, afford that gratification which is expected 
 to be derived from it." 
 
 commission in his own regiment. He was a young man of spirit, and highly 
 popular as " Mike" Fitzgerald. Colonel Gronow describes him during the 
 occupation of Paris as ever ready to fight the French ofScers, and placing' 
 his card on the chimney-piece in a caf^, with an offer to meet all comers. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEORGE IV. 319' 
 
 The taste for anything bizarre, and the natural wish to be 
 considered a patron of the fine arts, led the Prince to sanction 
 the interesting process of "unrolling papyri/' with which view 
 he actually despatched an agent to Italy, who thus reported to him : 
 "About thirty years ago the King of Naples ordered the develop- 
 ment, the transcription, and the printing of those volumes which 
 had then been saved. This operation was accordingly begun, and 
 went on till the invasion of Naples by the French. But the 
 mode was slow, being performed by a single person, with only 
 one frame. The frame consists of several taper and oblong pieces 
 of wood, with parallel threads of silk running on each side the 
 whole length of each piece. When the frame is laid on any 
 volume, each piece of wood must be fixed precisely over each line 
 of the page, while the respective threads, being worked beneath 
 each line, and assisted by the corresponding piece of wood above, 
 raise the line upwards, and disclose the characters to view. The 
 operation was, I believe, invented by a Capuchin at Naples. The 
 fruits of it are said to be two publications only — one on music, by 
 Philodemus, who was a contemporary of Cicero ; and the other on 
 cookery. The first is in his Majesty's library, at the Queen's 
 palace. Through the obliging politeness of Mr. Barnard, the 
 King's hbrarian, I have had the advantage of perusing it. I 
 hope your Eoyal Highness will not disapprove my acknowledging 
 in this place the very warm and respectful interest which both 
 this gentleman and the right honourable the president of the 
 Royal Society have expressed for the furtherance of your Royal 
 Highness's great and good design." 
 
 The Prince was encouraged to go on, and he incurred an 
 immense expense to little benefit. Six rolls of manuscripts came 
 to Carlton House] but none of value, except a fragment of 
 Epicurus. 
 
 That surprising graciousness of manner — which was indeed 
 more than manner and reached to good nature — was shown in his 
 reception of the young and friendless Irishman, Moore, who 
 wrote home in delight of the condescending Prince and his 
 " fascinating manners." " He said he was happy to know a man of 
 my abilities ; and when I thanked him for the honour of being 
 allowed to dedicate ' Anacreon ' to him, he replied that the 
 honour was his, in being allowed to put his name to a work of 
 such merit." He added, that he hoped during the winter they 
 would have opportunities of enjoying each other's society. When 
 the poet returned from his disastrous Bermuda expedition, he 
 met the Prince for the first time at a small supper party. There 
 was again something happily gracious in the manner of his 
 welcome. With a judicious tact — for Moore was at the moment 
 
320 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB lY. 
 
 " under a cloud/' as it is called, and sucli recognition would be 
 useful — "I am very glad to see you here again, Moore," he said 
 heartily, "from what I had heard, I was afraid we had lost 
 you. I assure you (laying his hand upon his shoulder) it was a 
 subject of general concern ! " The good-natured Prince did not 
 dream how, within a dozen years, the poet was to turn his talents 
 on which he had been complimented against him, and that the 
 most bitter of the long series of lampoons which stung and 
 tortured him for years was to come from that airy and facile pen. 
 Moore was also struck by his genuine passion for music, the Prince 
 being engrossed with his favourite pastimes of music and attending 
 theatricals. 
 
 A taste for the best music and the stage was at this period 
 cultivated to a remarkable degree by the nobility. The Duke of 
 Queensberry, Lords Buckingham, Boyle, Hampden, and many 
 others of ton and fashion, were in the habit of giving concerts at 
 their houses, at which the best music was performed. The 
 Duchess of Devonshire united this to her other graces, and 
 Sheridan^'s well-known song, introduced in "The Stranger," 
 " I have a silent sorrow here," was set to a plaintive melody by 
 her. The well-known taste of the Prince of Wales no doubt 
 encouraged this pleasing accomplishment. The opera was then 
 an exclusively aristocratic pastime. It has since become the 
 delight of the people in general, and rests on a purely commercial 
 support : then it was a costly and exclusive enjoyment. When 
 it was installed at the handsome Pantheon, in the year 1791, 
 under R. O'Reilly, Esq., the list of patrons filling the tiers of 
 boxes was truly imposing ; and a little volume was published, 
 containing elaborate plans and references, with a full list of the 
 subscribers, furnished with which any visitor could find his way 
 to any particular loge. There the King and Queen, the royal 
 Princes and Dukes regularly attended. The staff was on a 
 handsome scale. For "serious opera,"' there were six leading 
 singers ; for "■ comic opera," eight. The ballet (or " dancers," as 
 it was styled) consisted of nearly fifty leading "subjects." The 
 orchestra comprised forty performers, with Mr. Cramer as leader 
 of the band, and Mazzinghi as composer and accompanist, a 
 harpsichord being always beside the conductor. It is curious 
 indeed to find here many of the names that now figure at 
 Covent G-arden and Her Majesty's Theatres — the Hills, Lavenus, 
 Howards, etc. 
 
 The taste for the theatre was stimulated by the patronage of 
 the King, who not only favoured the stage in London but took 
 delight in the little provincial houses at Windsor and Weymouth, 
 where he had always a good-natured speech or nod for such 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 321 
 
 players as he relished. And it is significant of this interest to 
 find Lord Harcourt thus writing to the admirable Elliston : 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " As I understand their Majesties will not leave Windsor 
 before the beginning of next month, I am glad to hear that you 
 are in treaty with Mr. ThorntoUj as it will be the means of making 
 your talents known to the King and Queen, who, I doubt not, will 
 honour you with their commands. I have apprised them of the 
 probability of your engagement at Windsor, and allow me to say 
 their Majesties are no strangers to the opinion I entertain of your 
 abilities in the art you profess. Don Felix, Charles Surface, 
 Young Wilding, the Jew (in 'The Jew and Doctor'), and Vapour, 
 are characters which would please their Majesties, and represent 
 you to advantage. Walter, one of your best performances, I do 
 not mention, because I'm sure the King will never again see ' The 
 Children in the Wood.' " 
 
 In consequence of this flattering correspondence with his 
 noble patron, Elliston arrived at Windsor, and by command of 
 his Majesty acted on the following night. 
 
 It was at Weymouth that a curious little adventure befell this 
 comedian. On the morning of this actor's benefit, his Majesty 
 had been rambling about the suburbs of the town, when the rain 
 coming on just as he was passing the theatre-door, in he went, 
 and finding no one immediately at hand proceeded at once to the 
 royal box, and seated himself in his own chair. 
 
 " The dim daylight of the theatre, and slight fatigue which 
 exercise had occasioned, induced an inclination to drowsiness. 
 His Majesty, in fact, fell into a comfortable doze, which presently 
 became a sound sleep. In the meantime, Lord Townsend, who 
 had encountered Elliston in the neighbourhood, inquired whether 
 he had seen the King, as his Majesty had not been at the palace 
 since his three-o'clock dinner ; and it being then nearly five, the 
 Queen and Princesses were in some little anxiety about him. 
 Elliston, now making his way to the theatre for the purpose of 
 superintending all things necessary for the reception of his august 
 patrons, went straight into the King's box, and on perceiving a man 
 fast asleep in his Majesty's chair was about recalling him to his 
 senses in no gentle a manner when, very fortunately, he recognised 
 the King himself. What was tobe done ? Elliston hit on the follow- 
 ing expedient : taking up a violin from the orchestra he stepped into 
 the pit, and, placing himself just beneath his truly exalted guest, 
 struck up, dolcemente, ' God save the King ! ' The expedient 
 had the desired effect ; the royal sleeper was gently loosened from 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
322 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 the spell whicli tad bound him, and, awaking, up lie sprang", and, 
 staring the genuflecting comedian full in the face, exclaimed : 
 ' Hey ! hey ! hey ! what, what ! Oh yes ! I see, Elliston — ha ! 
 ha ! rain come on — took a seat — took a nap. What's o'clock ? ' 
 
 " ' Approaching six, your Majesty.' 
 
 '' ' Six ! — six o'clock ! ' interrupted the King. ' Send to her 
 Majesty — say I'm here. Stay — stay^this wig won't do — eh, eh ? 
 Don't keep the people waiting — light up — light up — let 'em in — 
 let 'em in — ha ! ha ! fast asleep. Play well to-night, Elliston. 
 Great favourite with the Queen. Let 'em in — let 'em in.' 
 
 " The house was presently illuminated; messengers were sent 
 off to the royal party, which, in a short lapse of time, reached 
 the theatre. Elliston then quitted the side of his most affable 
 monarch, and, dressing himself in five minutes for his part in the 
 drama, went through his business with bounding spirit ; nor was 
 his glee at all diminished when, on attending the royal visitors to 
 their carriage, the King once more nodded his head, saying : 
 ' Fast asleep, eh, Elliston ! — fast asleep ! ' " 
 
 It would indeed be hard to give an idea of the extent to 
 which private theatricals were indulged by the nobility; for 
 a time they literally raged, and at every country house and 
 mansion these entertainments formed the favourite pastime. 
 With the aid of " Albina, Countess of Buckinghamshire," a 
 rather eccentric lady of fashion. Colonel Greville, a fop of 
 the first water, founded the " Picnic Society," which gave 
 its performance in Tottenham Court Road, and also at the 
 Pantheon. In the orchestra were found lords and men of fashion 
 performing on the flageolet and double-bass, and the Lady Albina 
 herself presided at the harpsichord. French proverhes and 
 English vaudevilles formed the regular performance, while the 
 evening was concluded with a picnic supper, for which the 
 contributions were settled by lot. As a large number drew lots 
 the result was a very handsome banquet, and the quaint uncertainty 
 as to what each was obliged to supply furnishing the diversion. 
 " Some luckless wight," says a friend of the Prince of Wales, 
 one of the performers, " whose beauty was her sole dowry, drew 
 a Perigord pie, value three guineas at least, whilst her rich 
 neighbour drew a pound-cake, value half-a-crown. Then some 
 needy sprig of fashion, a younger brother, drew his lot of 
 misery in a ticket for a dozen of champagne, and a wealthy 
 nabob another for half-a-dozen China oranges."* Mr. Greville 
 figures in Miss Burney's memoirs of her fathei', and is there 
 sketched with much vivacity. In due course he was utterly ruined 
 by his Picnic Society and other fashionable pursuits, and the 
 
 * Angelo, " Eeminis.," i. 293. 
 
THE LIFE OF aEORGE lY. 32» 
 
 gay elegant was compelled to accept an appointment in the Isle 
 of France, where, like Brummell and other professors of fashion, 
 he died in exile. 
 
 At this place, too, may be noted a curious incident which 
 excited some attention. Gaming had never been one of the 
 Prince's favourite vices, though he indulged in it ; but it was a 
 passion with his brother, who, to his death, suffered the most 
 humiliating straits in consequence. For some years before, 
 we have seen the ladies all embarked in such speculating. 
 Mrs. Strutt, Lady Archer, Mrs. Hobart, Lady Elizabeth Luttrell 
 (sister of the Duchess of Cumberland) were avowed bankers — 
 in other words, held gaming-tables. 
 
 Another noble person who gave " garden-parties " was con- 
 spicuous for the same practice. But at last an information was 
 actually laid against two persons of fashion, Mrs. Archer and 
 Lady Buckinghamshire, who were brought up and fined; and Lord 
 Kenyon, giving judgment in a case of less importance, declared 
 boldly that if any ladies of rank were convicted of this offence 
 before him they should stand in the pUlory ! A little later the 
 Middlesex magistrates were applied to to license rooms where 
 gaming was to be carried on, and it was urged that this 
 undertaking was patronised by the Prince of Wales. These 
 worthies, rather awe-stricken by this influence, appealed to the 
 judge to take the matter on himself, on which the latter boldly 
 said, there was a rumour that a gaming-house was to be opened 
 under the patronage of a very high and illustrious personage ; 
 he trusted, however, the magistrates would do their duty 
 fearlessly and refuse the license. 
 
 On this the Prince, with some spirit, wrote to Lord Kenyon 
 the following vindication of himself : 
 
 THE PRDJOE OP "WAIES 10 LOED KENYON. 
 
 " Carlton House, Nov. 15th, 1799. 
 ^' Mt Lord, 
 
 " As I am thoroughly persuaded that in the administra- 
 tion of justice the very last thing that could enter your lordship's 
 thoughts would be by any remark that would fall from your 
 lips to unwarrantably prejudice the public mind against an 
 individual of any description whatever, I am confident that your 
 lordship could never have used the expression which in the notion 
 of everyone so decidedly alludes to me, as stated in a morning 
 paper of yesterday, which my Attorney-General has the honor to 
 bear you. It is true that, from applications from many respected 
 quarters, I have been induced to assent to my name being placed 
 
 T 2 
 
324 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 among others as a member of a new Club, to be instituted under 
 the management of a Mr. Martindale, merely for the purpose of 
 social intercourse, of which I never can object to be a promoter, 
 and especially as it was represented to me, that the object of 
 this institution was to enable his trustees to render justice to 
 various honorable and fair claimants. But if these were really 
 your lordship's words (which I cannot for a moment suppose), 
 give me leave to tell you that you have totally mistaken my 
 character and turn, for of all men universally known to have the 
 least predilection to play, I am perhaps the very man in the 
 world who stands the strongest and the most proverbially so upon 
 that point. I shall not trouble your lordship further upon this 
 strange circumstance, as Mr. Graham will convey to you my 
 feelings and sentiments upon it, and I am well persuaded that 
 your own knowledge of the world, as well as the urgency of the 
 case, will suggest to you the propriety of taking such measures 
 in consequence as are requisite and ought to be adopted." 
 
 Lord Kenyon answered that he was acting according to what 
 he thought was his duty, and that Mr. Martindale was an 
 improper person to receive a license, " considering what had 
 passed respecting him judicially. I can only add that I am con- 
 fident that I meant nothing offensive to you. They know little of 
 my sentiments who conceive me capable of using language tending 
 to expose the higher orders of the state to censure or light obser- 
 vations. May I presume to hope that your royal highness wiU 
 pardon this trouble ? " 
 
 Turning from these dilettante pursuits, and disappointed in 
 his aims at political office, the Prince of Wales was presently 
 filled with what was called "martial ardour, and a longing ta 
 take part in the general preparations for the defence of the 
 country." It was in 1798 that the enthusiasm for volunteering 
 and enrolment in patriotic corps became universal. Everyone 
 was armed and belonged to some corps ; even the Speaker of the 
 House of Commons and the Prime Minister took service and were 
 seen practising their drill. " My study," the former writes, 
 " exhibits a curious scene : the journals are diversified by helmets 
 and sabres ; and a book of military tactics is now lying upon my 
 table in close contact with the orders of the day." 
 
 " We can remember," says Mr. Croker, "that the fine figure 
 and consequential air of the Speaker emerging from the wig and 
 gown in a gay cavalry uniform was one of the amusing topics of 
 the day." Indeed the " martial ardour " at this time was so hot 
 and furious that the strange spectacle was presented of the Prime 
 
THE LIFE OP GEORGE IV. 325 
 
 Minister resorting to the duello in vindication of his measures for 
 the defence of the country. This quarrel arose out of his comment 
 on the behaviour of Mr. Tierney, of whom he said, indignantly, 
 that "no man could oppose it in the manner Mr. Tierney had 
 done unless it were from a wish to impede the defence of the 
 country." On which he was challenged by the offended gentle- 
 man. As everything connected with this business was to be 
 singular, almost the Premier's first act was to send for the 
 Speaker (!), who found him making his will. Whitsunday was 
 the day fixed for the encounter, and the representative of the 
 House of Commons attended him to the ground. " I went," says 
 the latter, " with him and Ryder down the Birdcage Walk, up 
 the steps into Queen Street, where their chaise waited to take 
 them to Wimbledon Common. Unable to rest, I then mounted 
 my horse and rode that way. When I arrived on the hill, I 
 knew, from seeing a crowd looking down into the valley, that the 
 duel was then proceeding. After a time I saw the same chaise 
 which had conveyed Pitt to the spot mounting the ascent, and 
 riding up to it, I found him safe, when he said, ' You must dine 
 with me to-day.' Someone afterwards observed, ' The Speaker 
 knew of the meeting, and ought to have prevented it;' but Lord 
 Chatham remarked that I could not have taken any step so 
 injurious to his family; in fact, as I had received the information 
 from Pitt himself, my interfering would have looked too much 
 like collusion." 
 
 For so decorous and righteous a man as Mr. Addington, 
 this seems a strange proceeding. It is a remarkable fact that 
 four most conspicuous men, who all filled the office of Prime 
 Minister, should, during a short period of about thirty years, 
 have condescended to expose their lives in this fashion. Mr. Pox 
 fought Mr. Adam ; Mr. Pitt, as we have seen, Mr. Tierney ; 
 Mr. Canning, Lord Castlereagh ; and, finally, the Duke of 
 Wellington, Lord Winchelsea. Two, viz. Pitt and the Duke, 
 were actually holding the office of Prime Minister at the time. 
 This seems an almost incredible state of things; yet three of 
 these encounters might be within the memory of some now 
 living. 
 
 The volunteer enthusiasm seized on the nation, and we find 
 our impulsive Prince wearing his uniform, making glowing and 
 warlike speeches to the men, and reviewing his regiment, the 
 well-known 10th. Finally, he was so filled with ardour that he 
 applied for leave to go on active service. Bonaparte and his 
 armies were supposed to be about invading England, and to his 
 father he now addressed the following appeal : 
 
S26 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 THE PEINCE or WALES TO THE KIKG. 
 
 " Carlton House, April 2Sth, 1798. 
 
 " I have, from various considerations of duty and respect,, 
 delayed to the latest hour obtruding myself by a direct applica- 
 tion to your Majesty ; and it is now with an earnestness that I 
 never before ventured to approach you, sir, that I presume to 
 throw myself at your feet, and to implore your gracious attention 
 to the humble sentiments I offer in this letter. 
 
 " The serious and awful crisis in which this country now 
 stands calls for the united efforts of every British arm in the 
 defence of all that can be dear to Englishmen ; and it is with 
 glowing pride that I behold the prevalence of this sentiment 
 through every part of your Majesty's kingdom. 
 
 " Whatever may some time back have been your Majesty's 
 objections to my being in the way of actual service, yet at a 
 crisis like this, unexampled in our history, when every subject in 
 the realm is eagerly seeking for and has his post assigned him, 
 those objections will, I humbly trust, yield to the pressure of the 
 times, and your Majesty will be graciously pleased to call me 
 forth to a station wherein I may prove myself worthy of the 
 confidence of my country, and of the high rank I hold in it, by 
 staking my life in its defence; death would be preferable to 
 being marked as the only man that was not suffered to come 
 forth on such an occasion. 
 
 "Should it be my fate to fall in so glorious a contest, no 
 injury could arise to the line of succession, on account of the 
 number happily remaining of your Majesty's children. At the 
 same time, were there fifty princes, or were I the single one, it 
 would, in my humble judgment, be equally incumbent on them, 
 or me, to stand foremost in the ranks of dgfnger at so decisive a 
 period as the present. 
 
 " I am the more induced to confide that your Majesty's 
 goodness will comply with this humble petition, from, the con- 
 viction I feel, that, had similar circumstances prevailed in the 
 reign of the late King, when your Majesty was Prince of Wales, 
 you would have panted, sir, for the opportunity I now so 
 earnestly covet. I know your Majesty, and am fixed in this 
 belief; and I should hold myself unworthy of my descent and 
 station if a tamer impulse could now possess me ; still more to 
 justify this confidence, allow me to recall to your Majesty's 
 recollection the expressions you were graciously pleased to use 
 when I solicited foreign service upon my first coming into the 
 army. They were, sir, that your Majesty did not then see the 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 327 
 
 opportunity for it ; "but that if anything was to arise at home, I 
 ought to be one of the first and foremost, 
 
 " My character with the nation, my honour, my future fame 
 and prospects in hfe, are now all at stake. I therefore supplicate 
 your Majesty to afford me those means for their preservation which 
 affection for my country and devotion to my sovereign would 
 have prompted me to solicit, even though my birth and station 
 had not rendered it my duty to claim them. I presume in no 
 respect to prescribe to your Majesty the mode of being employed ; 
 what I humbly, but most earnestly, solicit is the certainty of 
 active service, in such a character as to your Majesty shall 
 seem fit. 
 
 " With the profoundest humility, I have the honour to 
 subscribe myself, your Majesty's most dutiful and most affec- 
 tionate Son and Subject, 
 
 "GEOEaE P." 
 
 The " should I fall " must have produced a grim smile on the 
 lips of the King, whose fixed opinion was that there was but one 
 of his family deficient in personal courage. His answer was a 
 blunt refusal, on the ground " that military command was 
 incompatible with the situation of the Prince of Wales." 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 1801. 
 
 We have now arrived at the curious incident which obliged 
 Mr. Pitt to retire from office and brought into prominence the 
 feeble Addington and his family party — the " clan " of relations, 
 Hileyj Bragge Bathurst, and Vansittart, without due provision 
 for whom his services could never be obtained. Never, indeed, 
 were the claims of family connection carried so far, or political 
 interest made so subservient to the ties of kindred. Mr. Croker, 
 who interspersed his spirited, though often truculent, articles with 
 reminiscences of curious facts gathered from the important men 
 with whom he had associated, tells us how Mr. Bragge, "the 
 Premier's brother-in-law, then in his first Parliament, was raised 
 to the Privy Councillor's office of Treasurer of the Navy. His 
 brother, Mr. Hiley Addington, was Secretary of the Treasury. 
 His schoolfellow and intimate, Mr. Bond, just come into Parlia- 
 ment, was a Lord of the Treasury. So afterwards was his 
 cousin, Mr. Golding, who does not seem to have been in Parlia- 
 ment at all. Mr. Adams, another brother-in-law, was a Lord of 
 the Admiralty. These were all respectable gentlemen, whose 
 abilities were equal to their positions — and we do not know that 
 they at all exceeded the proportion of private friends that every 
 first minister used, and perhaps ought to have, in his administra- 
 tion — but they were as yet little known, and their connection 
 with the Premier was easily misrepresented as being their sole 
 merit. This, with Addington's own inferiority to the great 
 masters of debate amongst whom he stood, gave ample scope to 
 the satiric pleasantries of Canning,* a strophe of one whose 
 
 * " The pleasantries of Canning, though nowhere alluded to in these 
 volumes, and only now lingering in a few failing memories, had so much. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 329 
 
 sallies, caricaturing the style of the Doctor's oratory and the 
 class of its admirersj had no small effect in its day, and still clings 
 to the memory : 
 
 " Cheer him when he hobbles vilely, 
 Brother Bragge and Brother Hiley ! 
 Cheer him when his audience flag, 
 Brother Hiley — Brother Bragge ! 
 
 "Brother Bragge, however, was a well-informed and judicious 
 man, who spoke with considerable weight ; and we have heard 
 that, in his earlier day, Brother Hiley was remarkably lively and 
 clever ; and he certainly was, in our time, a sensible as well as 
 amiable gentleman." 
 
 The wit of Canning would have been more exercised had he 
 known that " Brother Hiley ■" later indulged in a romantic tender- 
 ness for the fascinating Miss Stephens, which he seemed to have 
 even confided to Mr. Jordan, through whose good offices bis 
 admiring strains were inserted in a popular journal. 
 
 The retirement of Pitt was owing, as is well known, to the 
 measure for the relief of the Catholics, the irresponsible question 
 which was to overset or impede so many ministries. It is re- 
 markable that the Prince had signified to Mr. Pitt his approba- 
 tion of the measure, and indeed avowed, on several occasions, that 
 he was favourable to it. And this, of course, was to be accounted 
 for, as Lord Moira, his present friend, was an ardent " Catholic." * 
 
 influence in Addington's defeat, that we think it worth while to preserve 
 two or three specimens of this kind of small shot. In allusion to those 
 specious orations with which Addington used to captivate the country 
 gentlemen, Canning quoted, ' I do remember an apothecary .... culling 
 of simples ! ' On another occasion, when Addington was loftily enumerat- 
 ing his various measures of national defence, Canning interjected, loud 
 enough to be heard, ' Oh, most forcible Feeble ! ' ' The relative merits 
 of Pitt and Addington,' he said, ' might be determined by the Eule of 
 Three Inverse : 
 
 " 'Pitt is to Addington— 
 
 As London is to Paddington ! ' 
 
 An d we have half forgotten a French epitaph which concluded : 
 
 ■ Cy git 
 
 Ministre par hasard et Medecin malgre lui.' 
 
 Mr. Pitt himself would in private indulge a smile at his successor's some- 
 what prosy orations. We heard very lately from one of the company still 
 happily surviving, that about this time Pitt, who was expected to a dinner- 
 party, did not come in till the second course, ' begging pardon for being 
 so late, as he was obliged to hear Addington out ; and the Doctor, you 
 t-nnw- triivels with his own horses ! ' " 
 
 know, travels with his own horses 
 * Eose, " Diaries," i. 302. 
 
330 THE LIFE OF GEOKGE lY. 
 
 But at this moment lie was more than usually reckless in 
 associating with the Jacobins and the Opposition, uttering the 
 most violent speeches ; * the Duke of York, however, remained firm 
 to the King. A strange surprise, however, was at hand, which 
 was once more to raise his hopes. Unfortunately the agitation 
 commenced with the late change, and the struggles he had gone 
 through were now to have their effect on the King. Agitated 
 and distracted by different forms of excitement, his life attempted 
 in the theatre, the behaviour of his son and daughter-in-law, and 
 above all, shocked at the proposals of his minister to concede 
 what with him was a matter of morbid horror — indulgence to 
 the Catholics — it had not been a surprise to anyone that the mind 
 of the King should have for the third time given way. 
 
 About the middle of February he caught cold ; the old 
 " hurries " set in, and within a fortnight the fatal Willis had 
 arrived on the scene, and he was " as bad as ever." From his 
 ravings it was easy to learn what had caused his disorder, for 
 he was heard to mutter frequently, " I will be true to the 
 Church." 
 
 Never was there such an awkward contretemps, for the 
 arrangements were only in progress : Mr. Pitt had not gone out, • 
 or rather Mr. Addington had not come in. All was confusion. 
 But the hopes of the Prince and his friends were raised, and once 
 more the regency became the existing topic. It is amusing to 
 find that the Prince, bearing in mind a wholesome recollection of 
 .his encounter with Mr. Pitt on the last occasion, took the first 
 opportunity to make eager approaches to him. On the 23rd 
 February he sent for him to ask his advice, which the minister — 
 for he was still such de facto — firmly and significantly said he 
 would be glad to give, but on this condition : "that he would not 
 be advised by his friends of the Opposition." The Prince agreed 
 at once, only stipulating that he might occasionally consult his 
 friend Lord Moira.f 
 
 Pitt added a further stipulation, that if unhappily there 
 should be a necessity for a regency, his royal highness should 
 acquiesce in the arrangement as settled in 1789 ; " that the Prince 
 seemed to be struck at that being put to him so distinctly, and 
 perhaps a little averse to the unqualified tones used (as if 
 Mr. Pitt was conscious of his manner of stating his determina- 
 tion having been severe), and that his royal highness asked how 
 some of those now acting with Mr. Pitt would feel on the subject 
 who had taken a very different line on the former occasion ; to 
 which Mr. Pitt replied he thought every one concerned in it, 
 
 * Malmesbury, " Diaries," iv. 6. 
 t Eose, " Diaries," i. 311. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEQE IV. 331 
 
 ■witliout excepting Ms royal highnesSj could not do better than 
 accord with what was most evidently the clear sense of the 
 legislature, expressed so as not to be mistaken. The Prince then 
 expressed uneasiness at some of the restrictions as likely to be 
 found extremely inconvenient. Nothing, however, passed con- 
 clusive between them as to any arrangement of an administration. 
 The interview ended with the Prince saying that he must take 
 time to consider all that Mr. Pitt had said ; his whole demeanour 
 perfectly decorous and proper, as well with Mr. Pitt as at the 
 Queen's House, when he was there. Mr. Fox has certainly not 
 been with his royal highness, and Mr. Pitt thinks he has not seen 
 Mr. Sheridan." 
 
 There was a second interview a few days later. Both parties 
 were inclined to put aside any burning question of principle, and 
 arrange the matter by a sort of compromise. Pitt (Mr. Abbott 
 says), at one of the interviews, advised the Prince to carry out the 
 Addington arrangement, which had been in train ; to which the 
 Prince consented. Neither did the Prince consult any of the Oppo- 
 sition, but with his usual lack of propriety he appeared at a concert 
 given by the notorious Lady Hamilton, and was heard to say to 
 Calonne, the ex-minister, " Savez voiis, M. Galonne, mon pere est 
 aussi fou que jamais ?" At Carlton House dancing and singing 
 were going on. 
 
 As the Prince found Mr. Pitt on the whole rather stiff — 
 indeed, he said " that no good came of it," as Lord Malmesbury 
 repeats, "it was natural that the Prince's next step was to see what 
 he could do with Addington." Accordingly, "Jack Payne'" was 
 despatched for him. The Prince asked him bluntly, " Was he or 
 Mr. Pitt minister ? " He said that Mr. Pitt was. " In that case, 
 pray send Mr. Pitt to me." The other naturally hesitated, and 
 said something about consulting the Duke of York, on which the 
 Prince, with a certain readiness or smartness which never deserted 
 him, replied, " No advice can be wanting on such an occasion, 
 Mr. Addington : if you decline acceding to my request, be so 
 good as to obey my commands."* 
 
 Another account says the Prince declared that he would 
 look to Mr. Addington if necessary. f The Prince, it may be 
 said, had no authority to give commands to Mr. Addington, and 
 could only "request." Among other topics, he dwelt on the 
 improper signing of a paper by the King, which he had been 
 made to do by one of his physicians at the instigation of the 
 Chancellor, a matter on which the Prince was eager to have Mr. 
 Addington's opinion ; but the latter was reserved and begged to 
 
 * Lord Malmesbury, "Diaries." 
 
 t Lord Colchester, " Diaries," i. 249. 
 
332 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 be excused. The Prince was gracious, and praised his general 
 behaviour.* 
 
 All, however, seemed anxious that the Prince should " keep 
 himself quiet" and be "passive." But this he could not do. 
 He was remarked to be in great agitation of mind and spirits, 
 uttering complaints of the way he was treated at the palace, 
 how he was furnished with no news of the King, and talked 
 " Opposition language." His brother, the Duke of York, was 
 remarkable for his devotion to the royal family, and seemed to 
 be worn out with his affectionate attendance. The Duke of 
 Cumberland, exhibiting his natural contending disposition on 
 this, as on other occasions, was going about uttering sentiments 
 of great violence, declaring that the Chancellor who had 
 procured the King's signature deserved a hatchet. This Prince 
 was busy at his favourite labour of embroiling people, for on 
 one of the last days of February, when the King's life was 
 despaired of, he sent at once for the Duke of York but not for 
 the Prince of Wales. The latter protested against such treat- 
 ment, on which he gave the excuse that the Prince was not 
 acceptable to the King. By March the 7th the King had 
 recovered after about a three-weeks' illness, so that once more 
 the Prince had been beguiled into following a will-o'-the-wisp. 
 The first admitted was his favourite son, the Duke of York, 
 and at the interview it is remarkable that while questions were 
 eagerly put as to all his family, there was no allusion to his 
 eldest son.t 
 
 Not until March the 11th — four days later — did the Prince 
 see his father. The Court party malignantly gave out that this 
 was his own fault, that he had purposely chosen to come at times 
 when he knew he would not be admitted, etc. We know enough of 
 the feelings of the Queen and her faction to see that this exclusion 
 was part of their policy. Payne, describing this interview to Mr. 
 Rose, declared that the Prince had not been with him more than 
 a minute or two before Doctor Thomas Willis came into the room 
 without having been sent for, and remained in it the whole time 
 his royal highness was there, which of course prevented any con- 
 fidential conversation ; but that much passed of a general nature. 
 
 * In Dean Pellew's " Life of Lord Sidmouth,"Lord Malmesbury's story 
 of the Prince's rebuke is dismissed as untrue ; yet, in the very account of the 
 interview given by Addington to Mr. Abbott, we find that, " Mr. Addington 
 explained that, not having received his royal highness's commands to go 
 before, he had voluntarily forborne to call, as it must appear to be courting 
 a situation ; but that being now commanded to go," etc. From this apology, 
 it is evident that something of the kind had taken place. 
 
 f Malmesbury, " Diaries," p. 31. 
 
THE LIFE OE GEORGE IV. 333 
 
 Among other matters entered upon by his Majesty, he said he 
 was glad to find the inquiries made about his health had been 
 very general. The Prince answered, he believed everybody had 
 been to the Queen's house who could either go there or be carried; 
 to which the King replied, Mr. Fox had not been, but that 
 Mr. Sheridan had, who he verily thought had a respect and re- 
 gard for him ; particularly dwelling on his conduct at Drury Lane 
 Theatre, when the attempt was made on his Majesty's life by the 
 madman who had been in the Dragoons ; which led his Majesty 
 to ask whether the Prince was in the house at the time ; who said 
 he was not, but that he repaired there the moment he heard of 
 the transaction.* 
 
 It would seem that the Prince was misinformed as to Fox's 
 inquiries at the palace. Fox left his name only on that evening. 
 Thus he seemed destined to turn everything to his own dis- 
 advantage, and set himself in a worse light than ever in his 
 father's eyes. One matter, however, arose out of the crisis which 
 comes in aid of his consistency later, when we come to deal with 
 his " desertion of the Whigs," and the charge of his retaining his 
 father's advisers ; for he had now declared to Lord St. Helens, 
 who repeated it to Mr. Abbott, that his purpose had been " to 
 maintain his father's ministers in their situation." -f The Oppo- 
 sition, too, had not been very eager for place ; for Fox and 
 the rest expressed themselves glad and relieved at the crisis 
 being over. The Prince was therefore the only one mortified and 
 discredited. 
 
 But there soon came evidences of a relapse in the King's 
 condition, and at the Drawing Room held on March the 26th it was 
 noted how pale the Queen was, and the Princesses seemed as if 
 they had been weeping. The Prince of Wales, Lord Malmesbury 
 states, behaved rudely to the Queen. His adviser, Lord Thurlow, 
 who was talked of for Chancellor in case the party had come in, 
 was reported to have used shocking language about the King, so 
 that Lord Kenyon, who heard him, declared that of the two he 
 was the one who was really mad. 
 
 The Prince, however, found it advisable to be on good terms 
 with the Court, as he was now, as ever, in want of money. He 
 wished to make an arrangement for borrowing a sum of money 
 from the King, on the security of extending for a year more the 
 present plan for paying off his debts. On one day in April he 
 and the King rode down to Kew together, and after dinner rode 
 again. This, or the discussion during the exercise, brought on 
 agitation, and he was heard putting questions to workpeople and 
 
 * Rose, " Diaries," i. 332. 
 
 t Colchester, " Diaries," i. 262. 
 
S34 THE LIFE OF aEOEGE IV. 
 
 others. On these rides the Prince founded an extraordinary- 
 legend, for he sent for the Chancellor, Lord Eldon, on the following 
 day, and announced to him that his Majesty was about to retire 
 to Hanover or to America, and resign the government to him ! 
 He wished the Chancellor, therefore, to take the necessary steps, 
 and see Lord Thurlow for the purpose. The Qaeen and his 
 brothers wished him to confine the King, etc. The Chancellor 
 received this extraordinary communication very coolly and bluntly, 
 and declined to adopt any of the measures suggested. He then 
 pressed Lord Rosslyn, the late Chancellor, with similar proposals, 
 sending him earnest messages by Payne. This in itself seemed 
 like madness. Yet his forecast came true. 
 
 In a few weeks the poor King had relapsed. Dr. Willis 
 riding out with him, he would tell his physician that he had a 
 " most charming night : no sleep from eleven till half after four," 
 the time being passed in getting out of bed, opening the shutters, 
 in praying at times violently, and in making such remarks as 
 betrayed a consciousness of his own situation. He frequently 
 called out : " I am now perfectly well, and my Queen, vaj 
 ■Queen has saved me ! ■"* 
 
 In fact, his body, mind, and tongue were all upon the stretch 
 every minute, and his eldest son and his eldest son's affairs were 
 unfortunately too much connected with this agitation. Good and 
 conscientious king as he was, he had now before his mind the 
 trouble of his little grandchild's future, which he felt he alone 
 was competent to decide on, and had determined to take the 
 charge of her himself. 
 
 That there was scarcely a more wretched household in the 
 kingdom than that at Kew will be seen from the following 
 piteous letter : 
 
 THE PEINCESS ELIZABETH TO THE EEV. DR. THOMAS WILLIS. 
 
 " June 6th, 1801. 
 
 " After receiving one' note you will be surprised at this : 
 iDut second thoughts are sometimes best : besides which I am 
 commanded by the Queen to inform you by letter how much 
 this subject of the Princess is still in the King's mind, to a 
 degree that is distressing, from the unfortunate situation of the 
 family ; Mama is of opinion that the Lord Chancellor should be 
 informed of it. The Queen commands me to add, that if you 
 could see her heart, you would see that she is guided by every 
 principle of justice, and with a most fervent wish that the dear 
 
 * " Life of Lord Eldon," i. 376. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 335 
 
 King may do nothing to form a breach between him and the 
 Prince, — for she really lives in dread of it ; for, from the moment 
 my Brother comes into the room till the instant he quits it, there 
 is nothing that is not kind that the King does not do by him. 
 This is so different to his manner when well, and his ideas con- 
 cerning the child so extraordinary, that, to own to you the truth, 
 I am not astonished at Mama's uneasiness. She took courage 
 and told the King, that now my Brother was quiet, he had 
 better leave him so, as he never had forbid the Princess seeing 
 the child when she pleased ; to which he answered, ' That does 
 not signify ; the Princess shall have her child, and I will speak 
 to Mr. Wyatt about the building of the wing to her present 
 house.' You know full well how speedily every thing is now 
 ordered and done. In short, what Mama wishes is, that you 
 would inform the Lord Chancellor that his assistance is much 
 wanted in preventing the Kiug doing any thing that shall hurt 
 him. The Princess spoke to me on the conversation the King 
 had had with her, expressed her distress, and I told her how right 
 she was in not answering, as I feared the King-'s intentions, 
 though most kindly meant, might serve to hurt and injure her in 
 the world. I hope I was not wrong, but I am always afraid 
 when she speaks to me on such unfortunate subjects. I think 
 the King heated and fatigued, which I am not surprised at, not 
 having been one minute quiet the whole day. I assure you it is 
 a very great trial, the anxiety we must go through ; but we trust 
 in God, — therefore we hope for the best. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " Elizabeth." 
 
 THE PEDTCESS ELIZABETH, PEOBABLT TO THE BEV. DB. THOMAS WILLIS. 
 
 " June 9tli, 1801. 
 
 " I am but just come into my room, where I found your very 
 comfortable letter, which I return you many thanks for. I had 
 promised Mama to tell you, etc. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " She commands me to say to you that she wishes the Lord 
 ■Chancellor would show Mr. Addington, that, as the King is con- 
 tented with it, that he had better not hurry our going, as he is so 
 much better, that there is hope that in gaining strength it will 
 ensure us from having a relapse, which you may easily believe is 
 her earnest and daily prayer. He has been very quiet, very 
 heavy, and very sleepy, all the evening, and has said two or three 
 vtimes, yesterday was too much for him. God grant that his eyes 
 
336 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE lY. 
 
 may soon open^ and that he may see his real and true friends in 
 their true colours. How it grieves one to see so fine a character 
 clouded by complaint ! but He who inflicted it may dispel itj so 
 I hope all will soon be well. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " Elizabeth." 
 
 A change of scene, fresh country air, with perfect quiet, was 
 absolutely necessary, and the King, who delighted in staying at 
 a favourite subject's house for a few days, honoured Mr. Rose 
 with a visit at Cufnels. Gradually he was restored to health, for 
 a time at least. 
 
 It was when he was at Weymouth that the military taste of 
 the kingdom was enlisted by the behaviour of the First Consul : 
 drilling, volunteering, addresses going forward with great anima- 
 tion. Mr. Addington, now established as Prime Minister, was being 
 pressed by the Duke of York and his brother for military em- 
 ployment, the former proposing to go down and urge the matter 
 on the King. Once more the Prince of Wales's military ardour 
 flamed up, and he addressed the ministers in the following 
 strain : 
 
 THE PEINOE or "WALES 10 MB. ABBINGTON'. 
 
 " Brighton, August 3rd, 1801. 
 " Deae Sie, 
 
 " In the present anxious pressure of public affairs I am 
 extremely unwilling to obtrude the smallest additional weight of 
 business upon you, and more especially to intrude any which 
 could belong personally to myself. But the station you fill 
 renders it necessary that all such communications as I have to 
 state should be made directly to you. Besides, the zeal which I 
 am conscious animates you in the cause of all the royal family, 
 together with the kind and obliging interest I believe you so 
 particularly to take in whatever essentially relates to myself, 
 induce me to communicate with you in thorough confidence, and 
 under the impression of high personal opinion and esteem. 
 
 "As I wish to make you perfectly master of the subject I am 
 about to treat I enclose you a copy of a letter* which I wrote to 
 the King in April, 1798, when the alarm of invasion was universal, 
 although very wide of the formidable aspect which this measure 
 unquestionably wears at the present day. I cannot immediately 
 put my hand on the answer his Majesty wrote me to this letter 
 (it being among my papers in London), but it went distinctly to 
 this, that, in case of the enemy's landing, my regiment was to be 
 
 * Ante, p. 326. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE lY. 337 
 
 foremost of the cavalry, and myself at their head. The feelings 
 I have expressed to the King in this letter, as possessing me at 
 that day, be assured have lived in my breast ever since, and 
 operate at this moment with a tenfold increase; yet, dreading 
 even the apprehension of offering any proposition that might 
 tend, however slightly, to flurry the King, I have determined not 
 to repeat a similar mode of application to his Majesty on the 
 present occasion ; but, confiding in your friendly discretion, 
 place these uppermost wishes of my heart entirely in your hands, 
 requesting that you will take the earliest convenient opportunity of 
 bringing this subject before his Majesty as a suggestion from 
 yourself, not only founded upon the infinite anxiety you know it 
 to excite in my mind, but from the high rank I bear in the 
 country, as a measure of national expectation at so eventful a 
 crisis as the present, and in its consequences materially affecting 
 my future character and consequence in life in the estimation of 
 the world. I again submit, as before, to be called out in whatever 
 character his Majesty shall think fit. I own that a command of 
 cavalry would be most pleasing to me, because I think in that 
 line I could best serve my King and country; but I have no 
 difficulties. I am willing and ready to serve in any command and 
 with any rank a letter of service may assign me ; or even to serve 
 under the command of any officer whatever it may be his Majesty's 
 pleasure to place over me. Independent of an ardent love for 
 actual service, the consideration of my fame and character with 
 the world engrosses, as you m^ay readily conceive, my every 
 thought, and will, I make no doubt, insure to me your good 
 offices and cordial co-operation in the attainment of an object I 
 have so earnestly at heart ; for I can with the utmost sincerity 
 conclude this letter with assuring you of the truth of the 
 declaration I made in my letter to the King, ' that death would 
 be preferable to the being marked as the only man that was not 
 suffered to stand forth on such an occasion.' 
 
 " I am, dear Sir, ever very sincerely yours, 
 
 "Geoege p." 
 
 A month was allowed to elapse before an answer was returned 
 to this appeal. It was of the conventional kind. The King, it seems, 
 declared there was no situation suited to the rank of the Prince. 
 " The conversation," the minister adds significantly, " from causes 
 which it is unnecessary for me to state, was unavoidably short ; 
 but he should have thought himself justified in attempting to 
 
 protract it." . , , . , 
 
 Peace, however, was presently concluded, due notice of which 
 the minister gave to the Prince. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 
 
338 THE LIFE OP GEORGE IV. 
 
 THE PEINCE OP WALES TO MK. ABDINGION. 
 
 " "Windsor Castle, Oct. 2nd, 1801. 
 ''Many thanks, my dear sir, for your obliging communi- 
 cation. It is a matter of amazing importance, and upon which 
 I most heartily congratulate you. Everything, I have no doubt, 
 will smile upon us now. . . . As I am this moment summoned to 
 his Majesty's dinner, excuse my not adding anything more, except 
 that I am, with the truest regard, dear Sir, 
 
 " Ever most sincerely yours, 
 
 " Geoege p." 
 
 Indeed, so soon as Otto, the French plenipotentiary, arrived 
 in London, we find the Prince, with a kind of emotional view of 
 the event, taking an interest in the negotiations, and closeted 
 with the envoy. Sir John Macpherson, one of his favourites, 
 was engaged in the matter. " We all knew and appreciate 
 thoroughly," wrote Otto to the latter, " the talents of the 
 Prince, who so ably expounded to us the true system that 
 should guide the relations of his country as well as of all Europe. 
 Peace, founded on such consideration, becomes not a simple 
 exchange of snuff-boxes or a ten years' truce, but a solemn 
 pact, guaranteed by all that humanity holds most dear. ' All 
 is new in this age of ours,'' said the Prince. All is indeed 
 new, and so, too, was the language he used, and which will never 
 be effaced from my recollection."* We can see the figure of 
 the Prince as he thus expatiated at Carlton House, and fancied he 
 was controverting events. Otto's letter was shown to the Prince 
 by Macpherson, and the former, much gratified, forwarded it to 
 the Prime Minister : 
 
 THE raiNCE OE WALES TO ME. ADDINGTON. 
 
 " Jan. 22nd, 1802. 
 "When the letter of M. Otto, which I have now the 
 pleasure to inclose to you, was communicated to me, I desired 
 Admiral Payne to lay it before you : he called twice in Downing 
 Street, but missed you. It is neither from the compliments that 
 M. Otto has been pleased to pay me, nor even from the justice 
 which he renders to your administration, that I am anxious to 
 draw your attention to the contents of his letter. It is the 
 wisdom, the temper, and the pleasing harmony of the political 
 order which it embraces, that have won my admiration. For- 
 tunate shall I reckon my own destiny in life, if I can in any 
 
 * Lord Sidmouth, " Life," ii. 25. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 339 
 
 way he useful to favour a political system of such extensive good. 
 I know wliat you will naturally feel on the subject ; and no one 
 can wish you more success in the arduous and noble duty you 
 are discharging for your country. 
 
 "Geokge p." 
 
 _ The minister of course gratefully acknowledged these com- 
 pliments. On the conclusion of the peace in 1802, festivities and 
 revels of all kinds followed. The Lord Mayor gave a magnificent 
 entertainment, which the Prince attended, whose horses were 
 taken ofE at Temple Bar, and his carriage drawn by the mob to 
 the Mansion House. A ball given by the gaming Club in 
 Bond Street followed. 
 
 We are told how their rooms were decorated upon the most 
 magnificent scale. " The windows, by excellent mechanical skill, 
 served as so many entrances, and were ornamented with flowers ; 
 gilt corbeilles depended from them, containing lights. The 
 great room was illuminated with about forty lustres ; and it 
 was covered with a green and buff treillage paper. Bach recess 
 formed a greenhouse, which was stocked with the choicest plants, 
 trees of considerable size, beauty, and value. A grand orchestra 
 contained a full band of musicians; and a number of Indians 
 performed their war-dance, battle, and song. The Prince of 
 Wales was habited in a rich Highland dress, and he had a room 
 exclusively for his own party. An adjoining one represented 
 a subterraneous cave for a number of banditti. These sung 
 several excellent comic songs, for the amusement of his royal 
 highness. The banditti consisted of Lord Craven, the Hon. 
 Berkeley Craven, Mr. Manners, and Mr. T. Sheridan. The 
 greater part of the foreign ministers were present, and also 
 several strangers of distinction, among whom was the beautiful 
 Madame Eecamier. This was one of the most splendid fetes 
 ever given in this country." 
 
 He was now indeed beginning to exhibit that curious taste 
 for costume and fancy dressing for which he was to be so 
 remarkable. At the Lord Mayor^s he had worn "a general's 
 frock uniform,'' which, considering that he did not hold the rank, 
 seems strange. 
 
 At one of these balls a difficulty had arisen out of the 
 position that two important ladies, the Duchess of York and 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert, were to take. The King and Queen would not 
 hear of them being placed at the same table, and the Duke was 
 •distracted between his father and brother. It was arranged by 
 iaving separate tables. Here the Prince's rude speech to " Old 
 
 z 2 
 
340 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 Baggs" (Lord Eldon) caused mucli amusement. The latter was 
 pressing on him the necessity of consulting the dignity and 
 comfort of the Princess of Wales, when the Prince declared 
 roughly, "That he was not the sort of person to let his hair 
 grow under his wig to please his wife." The Chancellor answered 
 him firmly : " Your Royal Highness condescends to be personal. 
 I beg leave to retire." The Prince wrote to him to say that 
 nothing was intended, that he had quoted a proverb ; but it was 
 awkward that the practice alluded to was one in which the 
 Chancellor indulged ! 
 
 During this year the Prince seems to have been more than 
 usually restless, and some eccentric houtades of his are recorded. 
 He seriously proposed to one of the ministers to go abroad 
 " and form a Northern Confederacy." His plan was to gain the 
 Duke of Brunswick, which he said he could do, and through 
 him Russia and Prussia. In this he was to be assisted by one 
 Baron Hompesch, " a rank adventurer." He pressed the matter 
 on Lord Pelham, who only put it aside as one of the ten thousand 
 chimeras his royal highness had conceived. The following day 
 Hompesch was despatched by him to Lord Pelham to talk the 
 plan over, but the latter declined entering on such a subject with 
 the baron.* 
 
 * Malmesbury, " Diaries," iv. 263. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 1802—1803. 
 
 The Prince's affairs had now for some five or six years been 
 submitted to strict regulation, and, it having been made illegal 
 by Act of Parliament to trust him, it was presumed that he was 
 secured against all relapse into debt. The public was now to 
 be surprised by learning that it was the father, and not the son, 
 that was in debt ; and an application was made to Parliament to 
 discharge the arrears of the Civil List, amounting to nearly a 
 million sterling. Lord Holland was bold enough to suggest that 
 his Majesty should be treated as his son had been, and a portion 
 of the royal income set apart. It is but fair to state that this 
 deficit was attributed to public charges — secret service money 
 and, strange to say, outlay upon elections. This was a favourable 
 opening, and accordingly the old wearying subject of the 
 Prince's situation was brought forward, and Mr. Manners Sutton, 
 the Solicitor-General, once more made an appeal for the Duchy 
 of Cornwall arrears. This long-disputed claim was now in 
 the Court of Chancery, where it had remained without decision 
 for some years. The old arguments were put forward, and 
 it was shown that the King had not only appropriated the 
 arrears, but taken fines from tenants for long leases, leaving the 
 Prince's powers as a landlord much impaired. The motion for 
 a committee was defeated by a not very large majority — 160 to 103. 
 The minister was beginning to feel the weakness of the position, 
 and in December, 1802, sent to consult Mr. Pitt as to making 
 a compromise with the Prince on the terms of discharging him 
 from the arrangement of 1795, by paying off whatever debts 
 remained due. In return, the Prince was not to press for the 
 
342 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 Cornwall arrears. Mr. Pitt declared himself against all compromise.. 
 If the arrears were justly owing, he said, they should be paid; if 
 not, the question of increased allowance should be considered 
 separately. On February 16th, Mr. Addington came to the 
 House with a message from his Majesty, to this effect :* 
 
 The minister dwelt on the necessity of the position of 
 splendour a Prince of Wales ought to hold, and proposed 
 that a sum of money, not exceeding £60,000 in the year,, 
 should be granted for three years from January 5th, 1803. 
 This was not to affect the previous arrangement of 1795.f In 
 the succeeding debates it came out that the legal proceedings 
 for the arrears had been suddenly stopped, so that this step had 
 the air of a compromise. It was also announced that no less a 
 sum than £575,000 of debt had been paid off by the 
 commissioners. Mr. Sheridan made himself conspicuous i)j his 
 devotion to his master^s interest, declaring that the Prince 
 considered himself bound in honour to pay his creditors the ten 
 per cent, which the commissioners had deducted, and that until 
 he was quite clear he would decline to reassume his state and 
 position. Lord Malmesbury seems to have truly interpreted 
 the meaning of these protestations, viz. that the Prince had 
 incurred a new tale of debt in the teeth of the Act of Parliament. 
 And, indeed, it is evident that there would have been found 
 persons ready to advance an heir-apparent money as he required, 
 on usurious terms, in spite of any Act.f 
 
 Mr. Fox boasted in extravagant terms that the Prince had 
 now shown himself worthy of the management of a large income by 
 his prudence — the only virtue he was ever charged with wanting. 
 Mr. Erskine declared for him, that now, at forty years of age, 
 he did not owe one shilling to the public. Mr. Tierney said he 
 was the least expensive Prince of Wales that ever existed ! 
 However, on February 28th, the Prince's equerry. Colonel 
 Tyrwhitt, brought down a message to the House, stating that 
 
 * Dean PelleVs mode of appreciating his hero may be conceived from 
 the following passage : " Speaking of this event " (the execution of the 
 unfortunate Governor Wall), Lord Sidmoath observed : " In the case of 
 Governor Wall, Lord Eldon said he would not say he ought to be hanged 
 and he would not say he ought not. He was hanged," added Lord Sidmouth, 
 in that calm tone which marked the mild decision of his character. — 
 " Life," i. 478. 
 
 t In 1801, Mr. Addington had sanctioned an increased allowance of 
 £8000 a year to the Prince. It becomes difficult to follow the changes in 
 the arrangements : the Prince, however, was the gainer. 
 
 J The Chancellor, however, explained that there virtually had been no 
 reduction, as they were given the full sum in debentures at three per cent., 
 or the reduced sum with five per cent., no interest being due on mere 
 book debts. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 843 
 
 the Prince gratefully accepted the promised Actj declaring that 
 there -were still claims on him for which he must set apart a 
 portion of his income. Mr. Calcraft on March 4th brought 
 forward a motion in this spirit, for a committee to examine the 
 Prince's affairs, and enable him to resume his position with 
 proper state and dignity. All his friends declared that the 
 Prince had not directed this motion, though he did not prevent 
 it, and Sheridan made a humorous and effective speech. 
 
 The ministers carried the previous question by a small majority 
 of about 40. In the House of Lords, however, Lord Moira 
 brought the matter to a conclusion, by a sort of official accept- 
 ance on the Prince's part. The Prince also declared, by the 
 mouth of Mr. Brskine, his chancellor, that he could not think of 
 adding further to the burden of the country, and that he was 
 perfectly satisfied with what Parliament had done.* For, as Lord 
 Malmesbury learned from Lord Pelham, " it is understood the 
 Prince is to restore his establishment." He asked, " Was this put 
 in writing ? ■" He answered : " No ; but it was implied by the 
 Prince's promise." In short, it is clear that the whole is a com- 
 promise between the Prince and Addington, to induce the Prince 
 to waive his claims on the arrears of the Duchy, and which the 
 Crown lawyers consider to be a fair one, and so withdraw his 
 petition of right. No terms are made with the Prince but this 
 (Lord Pelham was one of the Government, it must be borne in 
 mind) : " None of his income (which will now be net which is 
 paid him by the public) is appropriated to any specific purpose, 
 as the Civil List is ; and the whole will evidently be squandered 
 away, without his assuming any one single extensive work of 
 royalty or splendour, to prove that he and his hangers-on do not 
 consider it a farce." f 
 
 The reader will recall Mr. Addington consulting with Mr. 
 Pitt on the compromise. Yet we now find him denying it. The 
 Priuce also denied it, and abruptly stopped his suit, which was ripe 
 for decision. The affair, however, was arranged; the public were 
 not to learn more of the matter for a long period. 
 
 The peace, one which " every one was glad of and no one 
 proud of," soon ended in a violent rupture, and once more the 
 
 * It is characteristic that, while the Prince's friends were thus clamouring 
 in his behalf, their principal should have arranged matters with the minister; 
 to whom Mr. Sutton had written apologetically, that the Prince did not 
 wish to embarrass the Government or reflect upon any one, but merely to 
 satisfy the public that he had not been a burden on the country, and that 
 the state of accounts should be in his favour. — " Life of Lord Sidmouth," 
 i. 493. 
 
 t " Diaries," iv. 205. 
 
344 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 kingdom re-ectoed with valorous shouts and the noise of pre- 
 paration. Once more, too^ was our Prince fired with martial 
 ardour, and put forward his claim to be allowed to serve his 
 country as a soldier. He addressed Mr, Addington in a number 
 of letters. 
 
 THE PRINCE OF TALES TO MB. ADDINGTON. 
 
 " Carlton House, July 18tli, 1803. 
 
 ''The subject on which I address you presses so heavily 
 on my mind, and daily acquires such additional importance, that, 
 notwithstanding my wish to avoid any interference with the 
 disposition made by his Majesty's ministers, I find it impossible 
 to withhold 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 extra- 
 ordinary 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 responsibility of a military command; 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 same time I cannot regard myself as 
 totally unqualified, nor deficient in military science, since I have 
 long made the service my particular study. My chief pretensions 
 were founded on a sense of those advantages which 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 necessarily greater ; and I 
 confess, that if duty has not been so paramount, a reflection on 
 the splendid achievements of my predecessors would have excited 
 in me the spirit of emulation. When, however, in addition to 
 such recollections, the nature of the contest in which we are 
 about to engage was impressed on my consideration, I should 
 indeed have been devoid of every virtuous sentiment if I felt no 
 reluctance in remaining a passive spectator of armaments which 
 have for their object the very existence of the British empire. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 315 
 
 " Thus was I influenced to make my offer of servicOj 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 appointment seems to remain so long undetermined ; when I 
 feel myself exposed to the obloquy of being regarded by the 
 country of passing my time indifferent to the events which 
 menace, and insensible 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 show myself foremost 
 in contributing to the preservation of the country. The time is 
 arrived when I may prove myself sensible of the 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 
 participating 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 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 prearrangement and successful 
 enterprise. 
 
 " I am. Sir, very sincerely yours, 
 
 " G. P." 
 
 THE PEINCE OF WALES 10 MB. ABDINGTON. 
 
 "July 26th, 1803. 
 
 "■ A week has now elapsed since the Prince of Wales trans- 
 mitted 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 show the people of England an 
 
346 THE LIFE OP GBOEGE lY. 
 
 example of zeal, fidelity, and devotion to his sovereign, he 
 naturally thought that he was only fulfilling his ap pro jjriate; 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 misrepre- 
 sented ; he has, at a moment when everything 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 birthright 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 that all his efforts have been 
 fruitless, and that he has been deprived of making those 
 exertions which the circumstances of the empire, his own incli- 
 nations, 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." 
 
 Mr. Addington explained that though a verbal answer had 
 been sent he could now declare that the King " applauded " the 
 Prince's spirit, but referred him to the answers given before. 
 
 The Prince of Wales then desired Mr. Addington to lay his 
 note of the 26th of July before the King. 
 
 ME. ADDINGTON 10 THE PEINCE OP WALES. 
 
 "Downing Street, August 1, 1803. 
 " SiE, 
 
 " 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 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 347 
 
 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 Eoyal Highness's most humble Servant, 
 
 "Heney Addington.^' 
 
 THE PBINCE OF WALES TO THE KINS. 
 
 " Brighthelmstone, Aug. 6, 1803. 
 OIR, 
 
 " A correspondence has taken place between Mr. Adding- 
 ton and myself on a subject which deeply involves my honour and 
 character. The answers which I have received from that gentle- 
 man, the communication which he has made to the House of 
 Commons, 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 with the sanguine 
 hope that the ears of an affectionate father may still be opened 
 to the applications of a dutiful son. 
 
 "1 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. In this contest, 
 the lowest and humblest of your Majesty's subjects have been 
 called 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, aud 
 indifferent to the consequences which may follow. Hanover is 
 lost — England is menaced with invasion — Ireland is in rebellion 
 — Europe is at the foot of Prance. 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 ambition, 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 Majesty with all 
 humility and respect, that, conscious of the justice of my claim, 
 no human 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 me 
 as a Prince. Ought I not to come forward in a moment of 
 
318 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 unexampled difficulty and danger ? Oaglit I not to sliare in tlie 
 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 iu 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 my birth and the 
 circumstances 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 the public opinion without the participation of 
 your Majesty iu my degradation. Therefore every motive of 
 private feeling and of public duty induces me to implore your 
 Majesty to review your decision, and to place me in that situa- 
 tion which my birth, the duties of my station, the example of 
 my predecessors, and the expectations of the 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 duty ; 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 become 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 
 have ceased to exist. 
 
 " I have the honour to subscribe myself, with all possible 
 devotion, your Majesty's most dutiful and affectionate Son and 
 Subject, " G. P." 
 
 THE KING TO THE PRINCE OP WAXES. 
 
 " Windsor, August 7, 1803. 
 "My dear Son, 
 
 " Though I applaud your zeal and spirit, of which, I 
 trust, no one can suppose any of my family wanting, yet, con- 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 34& 
 
 sidering the repeated declarations I have made of my determina- 
 tion 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 shall certainly think it mine to set an 
 example, in defence of every thing that is dear to me, and to my 
 people. 
 
 " I ever remain, my dear Son, your most affectionate Father, 
 
 "Geokge R.'' 
 
 THE PEINCE OP WALES TO THE KING. 
 
 " Briglithehnstoae, 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 a 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 recall 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 
 servicej upon my first entering into the army. They were. Sir, 
 that your Majesty did not then see the opportunity for it, but if 
 anything was to arise at home, ' I ought to be first and fore- 
 most.'' 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. 
 
 "1 understand from your Majesty, that it is your intention. 
 Sir, in pursuance of that noble example which you have shewn 
 during the course of your reign, to place yourself at the head of 
 the 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 misfortune. 
 
350 THE LIFE OF GEORGE TV. 
 
 " Who could imagine tliat 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 more than sorry, to be obliged to break 
 in upon your leisure, and to trespass thus, a second time, on the 
 attention of your Majesty; but I have. Sir, an interest in my 
 •character 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, tiU 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 
 man is more aware than I am of the existence of such a disposition, 
 and no man is therefore more determined to place himself above 
 «,11 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 
 reasons which have induced you to refuse a request which appears 
 to me and to the world so reasonable and so rational. 
 
 " I must again repeat my concern, that I am obliged to con- 
 tinue 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. 
 Reason and honour forbid me to yield : where no reason is alleged 
 I am justified in the conclusion that none can be given. 
 
 " In this candid exposition of the feelings which have agitated 
 and depressed my wounded mind, I hope no expressions have 
 escaped me which can be construed to mean the slightest dis- 
 respect to your Majesty. I most solemnly disavow any such 
 intention; 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", to state to your Majesty, with plainness, truth, 
 and candour, but with all the submission of a subject and the 
 duty of an ailectionate 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 sentiments of the prof oundest veneration and 
 respect that I have the honour to subscribe myself, 
 
 " Your Majesty's most dutiful and most affectionate 
 
 " Son and Subject, 
 
 "G. P." 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 351 
 
 Up to tMs point we have the Prince addressing ttese official 
 protests assisted by his political friends. But now we shall 
 find him adopting his own characteristic style in continuing this 
 singular controversy with his " dear brother " of York. This 
 interchange of ideas had something ludicrous. 
 
 THE PaiNCE as WALES TO THE DTJKE OP TOBK. 
 
 "Brighton, October 2, 1803. 
 ''My deae Beothee, 
 
 "By last night's Gazette, which I have this moment 
 received, I perceive that an extensive promotion has taken place 
 in the army, wherein my pretensions are not noticed ; a circum- 
 stance 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 
 routine of promotion, had it been followed up, would have placed 
 me either at the bottom of the list of generals, or at the head of 
 the list of lieutenant-generals. When the junior branches of my 
 family are promoted to the highest military situations, my birth, 
 according to the distinctions usually conferred on it, should have 
 placed me 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 military 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 Grovernment so urgent as to call forth 
 the energy of every arm 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 mine 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. 
 
 " If that be the only situation allotted me, I shall certainly do 
 my duty, as others 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 more formal and official than I 
 have before pursued, that I address this to you, my dear brother, 
 as the Commander-in-chief, by whose counsels the Constitution 
 presumes that the military department is administered. 
 
362 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 " 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 may 
 at least hope, as a debt of justice and honour, to have it explained 
 that I am laid by in virtue of that judgment, and not in con- 
 sequence of any omission or want of energy on my part. 
 
 "Etc. etc. etc. 
 
 " G. P. W." 
 
 The Duke of York replied to his "dearest brother,^' regretting 
 " 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 my declining it.-"' He then explained 
 that " 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 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 con- 
 sidering it as a profession, or of your being promoted in the 
 service. And his Majesty, at the same time, added his positive 
 commands and injunctions to me, never to mention this subject 
 again to him, and to decline being the bearer of any application 
 of the same nature, should it be proposed to me ; which message 
 I was, of course, under the necessity 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 ofiicer, particularly as I 
 recollect your mentioning to me 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." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 353 
 
 THE PEINCE OP WALES TO THE DUKE OF TOBK. 
 
 "Brighton, Oct. 9, 1803. 
 "My dear BeotheEj 
 
 " I liave taken two days to consider the contents of your 
 letter of the Gtli instant, in order to be as accurate as possible in 
 my answer, which must 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 
 expressed 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 am sure, would lead you. 
 But as it is not at all improbable that every part of this trans- 
 action may be publicly canvassed hereafter, it is of the utmost 
 importance to my honour, without which I can have no happiness, 
 that my conduct in it shall be fairly represented and correctly 
 understood. When I made a tender of my services to his 
 Majesty's ministers, it was with a just and natural expectation 
 that my offer would have been accepted in the way in which alone 
 it could have been most beneficial to my country, or creditable to 
 myself j or, if that failed, that at least (in justice to me) the 
 reasons for a refusal would have been distinctly stated ; so that 
 the nation might be satisfied that nothing had been omitted on 
 my part, and enabled to judge of the validity of the reasons 
 assigned for such a refusal. In the first 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 sentiments 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 coming into the 
 army ; and I am in possession of full and complete documents, 
 which prove that no terms whatever were then proposed, at least 
 to me, whatever might have been the intention : and the com- 
 munications 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 my mind. 
 
 V,0L. I. 2 a 
 
354 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 "As to the conversation you quote in 1796 (wlien the King- 
 was pleased to appoint me to succeed Sir William Pitt), I have- 
 not the most slight recollection of its having taken place between 
 us. My dear brotherj if your date is right, you must be mistaken 
 in your exact terms, or at least in the conclusion you draw from' 
 it; for, in the intimacy and familiarity of private conversation, it 
 is not at all unlikely that I should have remembered the com- 
 munication you made me the year before; but that I should have 
 acquiesced in, or referred to, a compromise which I never made, 
 is utterly impossible. 
 
 " Neither in his Majesty's letter to me, nor in the correspondence- 
 with Mr. AddingtoD (of which you may 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 regiment on such terms, my acquiescence could only have 
 relation to the ordinary situation of the country, and not to a case 
 so completely out of all contemplation at that time, as the 
 probable or projected invasion of this kingdom by a foreign 
 force sufficient to bring its 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, with dignity and 
 effect. Whenever his Majesty appears as King, he acts and com- 
 mands ; you are Commander-in-chief ; others of my family are 
 high in military stations ; and even by the last brevet, a con- 
 siderable 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 
 kingdom may depend. 
 
 " I do not, 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, with every degree of esteem possible for 
 your judgment of what is due to a soldier's honour, I must be- 
 the guardian of mine to the utmost of my power. 
 
 " Etc. etc., 
 
 " G. P." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. S55 
 
 The Duke of York replied : 
 „ , ^ « Horse Guards, Oct. 11, 1803. 
 
 "Mt dbak BeOTHEEj 
 
 " I have this moment, upon my arrival in town, found your 
 letter, and lose no time in answering that part of it which appears 
 to me highly necessary should be clearly understood. Indeed, 
 my dear brother, you must give me leave to repeat to you, that, 
 upon the fullest consideration, I perfectly recollect your having 
 yourself told me at Carlton House, in the year 1793, on the day 
 on which you were informed of his Majesty's having acquiesced 
 in your request of being appointed to the command of the 
 10th Regiment of Light Dragoons, the message and condition 
 which was delivered to you from his Majesty. And I have the 
 fullest reason to know that there are others to whom, at that time, 
 you mentioned the same circumstance ; nor have I the least 
 recollection of your having denied it to me, when I delivered to 
 you the King's answer ; and I conceive that your mentioning in 
 your letter my having stated a conversation to have passed 
 between us in 1 798, must have arisen from some apprehension, as 
 I do not find that year ever adverted to in my letter. 
 
 " I have thought it due-to us both, my dear brother, thus fully 
 to reply to those parts of your letter in which you appear to have 
 mistaken mine; but as I am totally unacquainted with the 
 correspondence which has taken place upon this subject, I must 
 decline entering any further into it." 
 
 THE PErNCB OP WJOJES TO THE DUKE OE YOKE. 
 
 "BrigMon, Oct. 22, 1803. 
 "Mt dear Beothee, 
 
 " By my replying to your letter of the 6th instant, which 
 contained no sort of answer to mine of the 2nd, 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 statement of a fact, which is 
 unpleasant even upon the idlest occasion. 
 
 " I meant to assert, that no previous condition to forego all 
 pretensions to ulterior rank, under any circumstances, had been 
 imposed upon me, or even submitted to me, in any shape what- 
 soever, on my first coming into the service ; and with as much 
 confidence as can be used in maintaining a negative, I repeat that 
 assertion. 
 
 " When I first became acquainted with his Majesty's purpose 
 to withhold from me further advancement, it is impossible to 
 recollect; but that it was so early as the year 1793, I do not 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE lY. 
 
 remem'ber, andj if your expressions were less positive, I should 
 add, nor believe ; but I certainly knew it, as you well knew, in 
 1795, and possibly before. We were then engaged in war, there- 
 fore I could not think of resigning my regiment, if under other 
 circumstances I had been disposed to do so ; but, in truth, my 
 rank in the nation made military rank, in ordinary times, a matter 
 of little consequence, except to my own private feelings. This 
 sentiment I conveyed to you in my letter of the 2d, saying 
 expressly that mere idle, inactive rank was in no sort my object ; 
 but upon the prospect of an emergency, when the King was to 
 take the field, and the spirit of every Briton was roused to 
 exertion, the place which I occupy in the nation made it indis- 
 pensable to demand a post correspondent to that place, and to the 
 public expectation. This sentiment I have the happiness to be 
 assured, in a letter on this occasion, made a strong impression 
 upon the mind, and commanded the respect and admiration, of one 
 very high in 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 my advocate for mere 
 rank in the army. Urging further my other more important 
 claims upon Government, would be vainly addressed to any 
 person, who can really think that a former refusal of mere rank, 
 under circumstances so widely different, or the most express 
 waiving of such pretensions, if that 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 Govern- 
 ment, and to obtain either their attention to it, or their avowed 
 refusal, etc. 
 
 " G. P." 
 
 THE BIJKi; or yOKK TO THE PKINCE OP WALES. 
 
 "Horse Guards, October 13, 1803. 
 "Deae Brothee, 
 
 " I have received your letter this morning, and am sorry 
 to find that you think that I have misconceived the meaning of 
 your first letter, the whole tenor of which, and the military 
 promotion which gave rise to it, led me naturally to suppose your 
 desire was, that I should apply to his Majesty, in my official 
 capacity, to give you military rank, to which might be attached 
 the idea of subsequent command. 
 
 " That I found myself under the necessity of declining, in 
 obedience to his Majesty's pointed orders, as I explained to 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 357 
 
 you in my letter of the 16tli instant. Bat from your letter 
 of to-dayj I am to understand that your object is not military 
 rank, but that a post 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 as I have most carefully 
 avoided, at all times, and under all circumstances, ever inter- 
 fering in any political points, I must hope that you will not call 
 upon me to deviate from the principles by which I have been 
 invariably governed. 
 
 " Beheve me, my dear Brother, 
 
 '' Your most affectionate Brother, 
 
 " Peedeeick." 
 
 THE PMNCE OF WAMS TO THE DTJKE OE YORK. 
 
 " Carlton House, October 14, 1803. 
 " Mt deae Beothee, 
 
 "It cannot but be painful to me to be reduced to the 
 necessity of further explanation on the subject which it was my 
 earnest wish to have closed, and which was of so clear and dis- 
 tinct a nature, as, in my 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 me somewhat deficient in the powers of 
 explanation, when it can lead your mind, my dear brother, to 
 such a palpable misconstruction (for far be it from me to fancy it 
 wilful) of my meaning, as to suppose, for a moment, I had uncon- 
 nected my object with efficient military rank, and transferred it 
 entirely to the view of a political station, when you venture to 
 tell me "^my object is not military rank, but that a post should be 
 allotted to me, upon the present emergency, suitable to my situa- 
 tion 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 at 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 mine, contained in any one 
 of the letters I have ever written on this, to me, most interesting 
 subject. I call upon you to reperuse the correspondence. In my 
 letter of the 2d instant, I told you unequivocally that I hoped 
 you knew me too well to imagine that idle, inactive rank was in 
 my view ; and that sentiment, I beg you carefully to observe, I 
 have in no instance whatever, for one single moment, relinquished 
 or departed from. 
 
 " Giving, as I did, all the considerations of my heart to the 
 
358 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 delicacy and difficulties of your situation^ nothing could have 
 been more repugnant to my thoughts, or to my disposition, than 
 to have imposed upon you, my dear brother, either in your 
 capacity as commander-in-chief, or in the near relationship which 
 subsists between us, the task, much less the expectation, o£ 
 causing you to risk any displeasure from his Majesty, by disobey- 
 ing in any degree his commands, although they were even to 
 militate against myself. But, with the impulse of my feelings 
 towards you, and quickly conceiving what friendship and affec- 
 tion may be capable of, I did not, I own, think it entirely 
 impossible, that you might, considering the magnitude and 
 importance which the object carries with 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 my character 
 and my future fame in life were so deeply involved in the 
 consideration : for I must here again emphatically repeat, that 
 idle, inactive rank was never in my view ; and that mihtary rank, 
 with its consequent command, 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 that our correspondence on this 
 subject shall cease here ; for nothing could be more distressing 
 to me, than to prolong a topic, on which it is now clear to me, my 
 dear brother, that you and I can never agree, etc. etc. 
 
 "G. P." 
 
 While this odd controversy was going on between the 
 brothers, serious news of invasion reached the Prime Minister, 
 who sent off a despatch to the Prince. 
 
 ME. ADDrtfeTON TO THE PEINCE OP WALES. 
 
 " Eiohmond Park, Oct. 23, 1803. 
 "SlE, 
 
 " In consequence of some intelligence which has reached 
 me, I am impelled by a sense of duty to your Eoyal Highness, and 
 to the public, to express an earnest and anxious hope, that you 
 naay 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 them 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, 
 
 "Henet Addinqton." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 359 
 
 The Prince at once availed himself of the opening this 
 •communication offered, and replied : 
 
 THE PEINCE OP WALES TO MB, ADDINGION. 
 
 " Carlton House, Oct. 24, 1803. 
 ^' Sir, 
 
 " By your grounding your letter to me upon intelligence 
 ■which has just reached you, I apprehend that you allade to 
 information which leads you to expect some immediate attempt 
 from the enemy. My wish to accommodate myself to anything 
 which you represent as material to the public service would of 
 ■course make me desirous to comply with your request; but if 
 there be any reason to imagine that invasion will take place 
 ■directlyj I am bound by the King's precise order, and by that 
 honest zeal, which if not allowed any fitter sphere for its action, 
 to hasten instantly to my regiment. If I learn that my con- 
 struction of the word ' intelligence ' be right, I must deem it 
 necessary to repair to Brighton immediately, etc. etc. 
 
 " G. P." 
 
 The first letters to Addington were supposed to have been 
 written by Sheridan, but one, Mr. Moore states, was the work 
 ■of Sir E,. Wilson, the second of Lord Hutchinson.* It has 
 been stated, however, in The Morning Chronicle, that they were 
 written by Mr. Fonblanque, who was then in the Prince's con- 
 fidence. f On the other hand, in one of Sir Philip Francis's 
 letters he alludes to his claim of having written letters for 
 the Princes ; and his family always maintained that he was the 
 a,uthor of these offers of military service. 
 
 The correspondence between the brothers shows that the 
 Duke had chosen his line, and cast his lot with the King. But 
 there was only a coolness between them, and the affection between 
 the Prince and his brother continued to the last. 
 
 Unfortunately, this refusal inflamed the Prince still more 
 against the King. He showed the correspondence to everyone, 
 ■and uttered the most violent complaints of the treatment he had 
 met with. In the House of Commons the matter was taken up, 
 and on December 2nd direct allusions were made to the pro- 
 scription of the Prince, the matter becoming so delicate that 
 strangers were excluded. The question arose on a motion of 
 ■Colonel Crawford as to the defences of the country, and became 
 of an exciting kind, owing to the episode being prolonged till 
 nearly three in the morning — then unusual. A report of what 
 
 * " Life of Sheridan," ii. 317. t Huish, i. 444. 
 
neo THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 took place, however, got into the newspapers, where we find 
 Colonel Tyrwhitt indiscreetly disclosing what had passed with the 
 King. 
 
 Prom this communication we learn that Colonel Tyrwhitt 
 said : " I esteem it my duty, sir, here to declare (deprecating any 
 imputation that might 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 have proof 
 that the fault does not lie at his door." " Several members, 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 more ready to bear attes- 
 tation to feelings so worthy of the rank and character of the 
 illustrious personage alluded to than I am. Having made this 
 declaration, I must here pause, and declare that nothing short of 
 the commands of the King, and the united authority of this 
 House, shall in future ever compel me to say one word more 
 upon the subject.^" 
 
 Mr. Calcraft observed, that "the Prince of Wales had been a 
 colonel in the army from the year 1782. His brother was a field- 
 marshal and commander-in-chief. Three younger brothers were 
 lieutenant-generals. And you leave the heir-apparent to the 
 monarchy to fight for that crown which he is one day to wear, 
 as the colonel of a regiment, under the command of a major- 
 general, his own equerry .^^ 
 
 A few days later, public curiosity, thus irresistibly stimulated, 
 "was further gratified by the correspondence being published. 
 It appeared in The Morning Chronicle of December 7th, Lords 
 Thurlow and Hutchinson, with Mr. Francis, who were then his 
 guides and directors, having advised the proceedings. Its effect 
 on the King was extraordinary, and gave the last touch to the 
 hateful and degrading picture he had conceived of his son. He 
 looked on it as an affront — as it were, something unbecoming 
 and ungentlemanly. Often afterwards he would allude to this 
 crowning insult on the part of his son — that " he had published 
 his letters." 
 
 The Prince consoled himself by making martial addresses ; 
 and on one occasion harangued a corps of volunteers to this 
 effect : " Volunteers, — It is with the highest satisfaction I 
 take upon me the honourable office of presenting the Royal 
 Spelthorn Legion this day with their colours. When I view so 
 respectable a corps, and consider the high character attached to 
 it, it would be superfluous in me to point out those duties and 
 obligations which have been so fully exemplified in its conduct. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEaS lY. 361 
 
 Wten you betold these colours/' taking them in his hand, 
 " they will remind you of the common cause in which you are 
 engaged for your King, your country, your religion, your laws, 
 liberty, and property, your children and your wives — nay, in 
 short, for everything dear to Englishmen ! Accept, then, this 
 pledge, this sacred pledge, which you will take care to defend 
 with your last drop of blood, and only resign with your lives ! "* 
 
 After the declaration of war in 1803, Fox was living in 
 retirement, when some views of the Prince were communicated 
 to him through Mr. Adair. It will be amusing to peruse them, 
 and see that Fox only considered them worth notice from a sort 
 of good-natured toleration. By this time he had found there 
 could be no union between him and a person directed by Moiras 
 and Sheridans. 
 
 Mr. Fox wrote in answer : " I can only say that if the P. of 
 W. wants to see me it will of course be my duty to wait upon 
 him, either in London, or wherever else he chooses to appoint : 
 but that as to attending Parliament at present, it appears to me 
 impossible that any good can come of it. It is, as the P. very 
 properly says, respecting the war, both too soon and too late ; 
 too soon for anything like a junction and strength, and too late 
 for opposing the Defence Bill, etc. At the same time you may 
 tell II.R,II. that I am very happy to find that my general 
 opinions are nearly the same as his. To add the conscripts to the 
 regulars would be far the best plan, but whether his mode of 
 raising recruits be at all right, even for the purpose which I best 
 like of a regular army, is another question. If the conduct of 
 ministers respecting Hanover be as blameable as H.R.H. sup- 
 poses (and I have little doubt but he is right), a motion of 
 inquiry may certainly be made on that subject; and indeed this 
 is the only thing like a parliamentary measure that can be now 
 taken. 
 
 "The part of theP.'s opinions in which I most heartily concur 
 is that which relates to the propriety he thinks there would have 
 been in waiting for some cause of war in which other nations 
 would have concurred. Now as to men, you know I have no 
 objection to any set, and to some of those mentioned I have 
 something like partiality ; but you know the strong impressions 
 which many of my friends entertain against Windham, and 
 everything of the name of Grenville. That these prejudices 
 must, if there is occasion, be resisted, I am most ready to admit ; 
 
 * His brother, the " sailor prince," on a similar occasion, was brief and 
 to the point. " My friends and neighbours, wherever duty calls us I will go 
 with you, fight in your ranks, and never return without you." This, it 
 must be said, had more of the true ring than the Prince's elaborate periods. 
 
362 THE LIFE OE GEORGE lY. 
 
 but until there seems some opportunity of doing good, there is 
 XLO use in doing violence to the feelings of friends. Lord 
 Spencer's influence with the K. I suspect to exist only in the P.'s 
 imagination, nor do I conceive that any influence can turn him 
 -against a ministry made in a manner so agreeable to him. What, 
 then, is to be done ? Alas ! I know not ; but I think the best 
 chance is to wait for the effect which these violent measures and 
 outward events will produce, and then if much discontent should 
 arise, a junction, such as the P. seems to wish, may be produced, 
 and the exertion of H.R.H.'s influence may very much contri- 
 bute to give strength — ay, and cordiality too — to such a junction. 
 
 " One thing, however, it may be necessary to premise, viz. : 
 that I cannot be one of any party who do not see the possibility 
 and the eligibility of being at peace with Bonaparte upon certain 
 conditions. The only question with me at all doubtful is, whether 
 in the expectation of the propriety of such a junction as has been 
 hinted at, hereafter, it might not be advisable soon to have some 
 ■concert provisionally, if I may so express myself, between the P. 
 and some at least of the Greuvilles, Lord Spencer, etc., in order 
 that our respective modes of conduct might be such as at least not 
 to create new difiiculties, if not to facilitate a union next session. 
 One good consequence of such an understanding might be to put 
 a stop to Moira's rhodomontades, and other things of the kind. 
 I am sensible all this is a proceeding far too slow for the Prince's 
 impetuosity, an impetuosity which upon this occasion, however, is 
 much to his credit. If he and those most immediately connected 
 with him can suggest any plan of more rapid operation, I am sure 
 I have no unwillingness to listen to it with all imaginable defer- 
 ence. In the meantime pray say everything from me to H.R.H. 
 that is respectable and affectionate, and if I might venture one 
 piece of advice, it would be to take great care not to say or do 
 anything that can tend to declare a personal enmity between him 
 and Bonaparte. I am sure this advice is unnecessary, but the 
 
 follies of and make one feel an inclination to 
 
 give it." 
 
 It will be seen from this communication how uncertain Fox 
 was as to his royal friend and patron, and that he was in fact 
 humouring him. He might have had suspicions as to his fealty, 
 for in this very year Mr. Pitt was astonished at receiving a 
 message from him in a circuitous manner, to the effect that his 
 royal highness had not the slightest disinclination towards him ; 
 that he had entertained the thought, when he came to power, of 
 giving his confidence to Lord Moira, and at one time he had 
 intended employing Mr. Fox ; but now he was satisfied, from the 
 parties themselves, that he could not do better than employ 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOKGE lY. 363 
 
 hircij Mr. Pitt. But lie could not make way with tlie hauglity 
 statesman, wlio never compromised what he felt towards him — 
 something, it would seem, bordering on contempt. He merely 
 replied that he entertained a " due respect and proper sense of 
 duty " towards the Prince, but gave him what was only a rebuke, 
 saying he trusted, as he was certain his royal highness did, that 
 the occasion for coming to a decision on such matters was very 
 far off, and that in the meantime he might give his confidence to 
 such ministers as had his father's confidence. Relating this to 
 Mr. Rose, Mr. Pitt set the overture down to a wish to win his 
 support during this very discussion of his offer to take a com- 
 mand.* This was a harsh and prejudiced view, and we may 
 rather accept the idea that it was a caprice, that came of anger 
 and disgust at his treatment by the Prime Minister. 
 
 * Eose, " Diaries," ii. 58. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 1801—1803. 
 
 Unfoettjnatelt in January, 1804, the King, agitated and 
 harassed by political difEculties and family quarrels, was once 
 more to hover on the gulf of derangement. The publication of 
 his letter to his son, which amounted, as he considered it, to an 
 attempt to excite the nation against him, had sunk into his heart, 
 and helped to disorder his intellect. Once more the hopes of 
 the Prince and his friends were excited. Though the King 
 " recovered," as it was considered, in a few weeks, his intellect 
 seems to have continued disordered during the greater part of 
 the year. Nor can we think it surprising when we consider how 
 the unfortunate monarch was baited and worried both within and 
 without his household. Instead of approachiug him with the 
 most soothing and tender treatment, the Queen, affecting to 
 dread some outburst, avoided his presence, and assumed a per- 
 petual silence. His own family looked on him with distrust. 
 The proper doctors (the Willises), who understood his case, were 
 not suffered to attend, and his mind was hopelessly distracted 
 with ministerial changes. 
 
 All students of political life are familiar with the curious 
 attitude of Mr. Pitt, the real leader of the party now in power, 
 and who had allowed the faineant Addington to take his place 
 until the moment came when it suited to thrust him out of 
 office. More amusing, however, were the airs of the substitute, 
 who, with an exquisite self-complacency, began to take the 
 matter seriously, and to think that it was owing to his own force 
 that he was where he was. However^ the nation was not 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 365 
 
 inclined to endure him longer, and were calling loudly for his 
 deposition. 
 
 The Prince, who had been declaring that his father's illness would 
 last many months ("The wish, Harry, was father to the thought ! " 
 exclaimed Pitt scornfully when this was reported to him), had 
 been closeted with Mr. Addingtou on several occasions, but was 
 soon to learn that there was nothing to be gained. We, however, 
 now find him engaged in negotiating arrangements about a 
 regency with the Premier. Sheridan, on the question of the 
 Prince's inability to command, had taken Mr. Addington's side, 
 which produced a coolness between him and his royal patron. 
 But he was now once more in high favour. The post of receiver- 
 ship of the Duchy of Cornwall had fallen vacant on the death of 
 Lord Elliot, and the Prince, unsolicited, now conferred it on 
 Sheridan " as a trifling proof of that sincere friendship he had 
 always professed and felt for him during a long series of years. 
 I wish to God," he added fervently, " it was better worth your 
 acceptance." The person to whom the recipient, full of gratitude, 
 wrote the news was Mr. Addington, as " a person who would be 
 glad of it." 
 
 " It has been my pride and pleasure to have exerted my 
 humble efforts to serve the Prince without ever accepting the 
 slightest obligation from him ; but in the present case, and under 
 the present circumstances, I think it would have been really false 
 pride and apparently mischievous affectation to have declined 
 this mark of his royal highness's confidence and favour. I will 
 not disguise that, at this peculiar crisis, I am greatly gratified at 
 this event. Had it been the result of a mean and subservient 
 devotion to the Prince's every wish and object, I could neither 
 have respected the gift, the giver, nor myself. I trust I need 
 not add, that whatever small portion of fair influence I may at 
 any time possess with the Prince, it shall be uniformly exerted 
 to promote those feelings of duty and affection towards their 
 Majesties, which, though seemingly interrupted by adverse cir- 
 cumstances, I am sure are in his heart warm and unalterable — 
 and, as far as I may presume, that general concord throughout 
 his illustrious family, which must be looked to by every honest 
 subject as an essential part of the public strength at this momentous 
 period." * 
 
 This office was worth £2000 a year ; but it is curious to find 
 that on the appointment being made a claim was made to it by 
 Lord General Lake, whose brother produced a formal deed 
 promising the reversion If 
 
 * Moore, " Life of Sheridan," ii. 321. f Lord Oololiester, " Diary," i. 481. 
 
366 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 It is not easy to gather up tlie threads of these advances. 
 The clue, however, will be found in what we fear was the 
 clue to most of the transactions in which the unsteady Prince 
 engaged, viz. his own immediate interest, and the chance of 
 succeeding to the regency. As it seemed to be at hand, he 
 would take the shortest and readiest mode to the issue; as it 
 became remote, he abandoned what he had undertaken. Thus, as 
 the King's illness seemed gaining ground, we find him eagerly 
 negotiating with the minister. As he recovered, he returned to 
 the old Opposition principles. This may seem a harsh view, but 
 it is the only one that makes all consistent. 
 
 Sheridan (says Mr. Moore, who had seen all the letters and 
 papers) formed a sort of connecting link between Carlton House 
 and the minister, and took a leading part in the negotiations for 
 the regency. The Prince was indeed a little alarmed at a rumour 
 that got abroad that it was intended associating the Queen and 
 the Duke of York in the Government, but was reassured on this 
 point by Fox. The latter, as is well known, took a wholly dif- 
 ferent view, and possessed with a sort of hatred of " the Doctor," 
 founded on the lowest possible opinion of his " lies ■" and taste 
 for scheming, was for the sounder and broader policy of joining 
 with the old Whigs, or semi-Tories, the Grenvilles, and the rest, 
 for the purpose of ejecting the obnoxious minister. An address 
 got up at Carlton House by Sheridan and his friends was pre- 
 sented to Pox, entreating him not to adopt such a course, " his 
 royal highness deprecating all party struggle at a moment when 
 the defence of all that is dear to Britons ought to be the single 
 sentiment that should fill the public mind." * 
 
 Mr. Tierney had already joined the administration; Sheridan, 
 Moore says, was willing to do so; and now Brskine, being offered 
 the Attorney- Generalship, might naturally suppose he was at 
 liberty to accept. He, however, consulted the Prince through 
 Sheridan, and received a reply that no doubt astonished him. 
 " While he expressed the most friendly feelings towards Erskin© 
 he declined at the same time giving any opinion as to either his 
 acceptance or refusal of the oflBce of Attorney-General, if offered 
 to him under the present circumstances. He also added the 
 expression of his regret that a proposal of this nature should 
 have been submitted to his consideration by one, of whose 
 attachment and fidelity to himself he was well convinced, but 
 who ought to have felt, from the line of conduct adopted and 
 persevered in by his royal highness, that he was the very last 
 person that should have been applied to for either his opinion or 
 countenance respecting the political conduct or connections of 
 
 * « Life of Sheridan," ii. 326. 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGB IV. 367 
 
 any public character, especially of one so intimately connected 
 with him, and belonging to his family."* 
 
 He was now much under the influence of this new favourite — - 
 Lord Moira. He had generally some such friend of the kind, 
 whom he took up in this almost romantic style, and discarded 
 as speedily. In due course Lord Moira fell, and Lord Wellesley 
 succeeded ; indeed, a long list could be made of those privileged 
 whom he affectionately called by their christian-names, and soon 
 grew tired of. By Lord Moira's direction he was now regulating 
 his conduct. 
 
 There was another of his friends and boon companions who 
 had begun to complain of the fickleness of a Prince's attachments, 
 under the sense of obligations unrequited, of promises unkept. The 
 fierce and uncontrolled Francis, the habitue at the Pavilion, 
 whose children had been fondled by his royal highness, was 
 now a bitter disappointed man — discontented with Pox, with his 
 party, with all things. There was some just retribution, how- 
 ever, in the fact that he, who had been so pitiless and even 
 cruel, should himself feel some sharp pangs, taking the shape 
 of neglect and mortification. It may be said in favour of the 
 Prince that it must have been difficult to live on harmonious 
 terms with such a man. One that would impatiently quicken his 
 royal host when lagging through some rambling story, with a 
 " Well, sir ; well, sir ; what then ? " — (to be, however thus 
 rebuked: "If Sir Philip Francis will let me proceed") — or 
 thunder unceremoniously if kept waiting too long at Carlton 
 House gate; or, as we have seen, burst out laughing during 
 the Prince's song, must have been rather a trying companion. 
 There were claims and promises. When Francis was offered the 
 government of the Cape, the Prince engaged — we are now 
 anticipating — impulsively, if he accepted the post, to get him 
 promoted to something substantial. In one of his letters he 
 shows an almost piteous obsequiousness. 
 
 " September 24, 1801. 
 
 " SlE, 
 
 " Confiding in your Royal Highness's constant goodness to 
 me, I cannot restrain myself from taking the liberty to express to 
 you the concern and anxiety with which I heard last night of the 
 unfortunate accident your Royal Highness has met with. The 
 same intelhgence says that, although you suffer considerable pain, 
 it is not attended with danger. I hope soon to have the honour 
 of waiting on your Royal Highness, and the happiness of finding 
 you perfectly recovered. Believe me. Sir, that in every event in 
 * " Life of Sheridan," ii. 323. 
 
368 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE lY. 
 
 wliicli your Eoyal Highness is concerned I take the part that 
 belongs to the sincerest attachment to you. It was inclination 
 before it was gratitude, and assuredly will live as long as I do. 
 
 "There is another subject. Sir, on which I have nothing to 
 express to you but pleasure and thankfulness. I have just heard 
 of your generous intentions in favour of Ealph Johnson. What 
 the young man's engagements or views may be, or those of his 
 guardians for him, I do not know ; but I can answer for him that 
 he feels the honour done him by your Royal Highness more sensibly 
 and with deeper acknowledgment than perhaps he may submit to 
 you in proper terms for himself. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, etc. 
 
 "P. Francis." 
 
 But his bitterness seems to have been chiefly against Fox, 
 against whom he inveighed and nourished the deepest resent- 
 ment. In 1798 Fox had withdrawn from politics, thus causing 
 the division in his party. And, a propos of this secession, 
 Francis entered into a correspondence with the attractive 
 Duchess of Devonshire, who, as we have seen, was devoted to the 
 man of the people. The mixture of serious argument and gal- 
 lantry is here well illustrated, and makes us lament that the 
 talent of writing in such a strain seems now to be almost a 
 lost art. 
 
 " I am particularly vexed,^' she wrote to him, on November 
 29th, 1798, "at having been prevented writing, lest you should 
 think I was affronted or unworthy of your kindness. But, besides 
 having been at a country ball, and having had a house full of 
 Derbyshire savages, I have been vexed to my heart's core. Oh ! 
 my dear Mr. Francis, you must have spoilt me, since I feel a 
 pleasure in telling you how worried I have been, though I cannot 
 tell you the cause, though you can do me no good, and though 
 my poor heart has been torn to pieces. You know not what you 
 have done in taking some interest in such a being as I am ; you 
 must often listen to lamentation, because, though in reality an 
 old woman, my heart and mind are still childish ; nor can I 
 encounter without pain a world that is too wise for me. I must 
 feel unkindness when I meet with it, and anxiety when it presses 
 round me. Do not be angry at my boring you with all this stuff j 
 indeed, if you knew me such as I am, you would know that I pay 
 you a compliment in writing thus. 
 
 " How can you suppose me angry for your averring your 
 opinion ? I knew it long ago, and wished to bring you to own 
 it, that I might attack it ; but low spirits, which have taken from 
 me the power of writing for these ten days, have also weakened 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEaE IV. 369 
 
 my strength as a champion. You are wrong, indeed you are. 
 Charles has, and always had, faults of heedlessness, that may 
 injure him, and have, as a statesman, but never as the greatest 
 of men. Who, at one glance, took in the view of the French 
 Revolution ? Who saw its consequence, and warned us of the 
 inutility of opposing its progress ? Will not posterity remember 
 this and bless him ? Will not they remember his merciful 
 wishes on the condemnation of Louis XVI., and the various 
 times he would have checked (and it could have been done 
 then) our wild career ? Who has sacrificed even his darling 
 popularity to his principles ? His standard is in the hearts of 
 men, in my heart of hearts, in your own, for you are one of 
 those formed by Nature with the fire, the animation that, I am 
 sure, must make you shrink from any other cause. I blame not 
 George Tierney ; but he is no great man. A man who is only 
 bright in the absence of superior merit is in the right to make 
 use of his opportunity, for it will not last long. No, would I 
 were a man, to unite my talents, my hopes, my fortune with 
 Charles's, to make common cause, and fall or rule, with him. 
 
 "The confidence of men is with Pitt; they respect him, as 
 often a wife does her husband ; think him a very disagreeable 
 fellow, but a good manager of their views and happiness ; and 
 now, though they think he has been going and going on too far, 
 yet they still cling to their spouse, lest the separation or divorce 
 should bring on immediate ruin ; for they have given up all 
 their settlements, jointure, and even pin-money into his hands ; 
 but, whilst they are mingled in the interests of il caro sposo, 
 their hearts are with Charles. He is not rich enough for an 
 elopement with him ; and the husband, by extreme jealousy and 
 misrepresentation, has hurt him a little in their opinion ; but 
 still they love him in secret. He has a heart. Pitt has none. 
 Now I cannot think that they will look on Tierney or Lord 
 Moira, or any pretender I know of, even in the light of a gallant, 
 or even flirt. They feel themselves in a bad situation, and, if 
 long trial at last engages the people to break all connection with 
 Pitt, it will be for no petty intrigue, but for the lover whose 
 abilities and genius could save them by some vast effort of 
 genius, and whom they have so long felt to be their destiny. 
 
 " As I am very sure you do not think that I, as a woman, ever 
 was, could be, or am, in love with Charles Fox, you will allow 
 tha;t, in fervour, enthusiasm, and devotion, I am a good friend ; 
 and I assure you, dear Mr. Francis, short as our acquaintance 
 has been, I could and would make a very noble battle for you, 
 should anybody attack you, which hitherto has not been the 
 .case, as all I have seen admired you as I do. Tell me that you 
 VOL. I. 2 b 
 
370 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 are not angry, and that I may write on as I think. Form na 
 judgment of my dear sister; for she is ill and low, as she too 
 often is at the beginning of the cold weather." 
 
 He replied in the same strain : " Some cruel words in the 
 letter I received from you yesterday have filled me with deep 
 and serious anxiety, and the more as I cannot, if I would, 
 conjecture what grief they relate to, or what is the nature or 
 extent of it. Do not believe it possible that your heart can be 
 ' torn in pieces,' and that mine can be unwounded. Ou a 
 subject so described, it would be equally unbecoming and useless 
 in me to ask a question, or to solicit an explanation. Sorrow 
 is certainly softened by participation. To share the burden is to 
 lighten it ; but that case supposes a long and mutual intimacy, 
 and cannot be extended to many. From woman to woman, 
 it is most dangerous. In a few minutes, I have hated at first 
 sight. In others, as you perhaps may think possible enough, I 
 have loved without waiting for a second. But mere love should 
 beware of confessing anything to its object, except its own 
 passion. The party that desires more intends to command. 
 With all these wise considerations before you, it is for yourself 
 to judge whether any service, or council, or consolation, of mine 
 can be of any use to you. If not, you ought not to tell me ; for 
 though I know you would be safe, you do not. Religion comes 
 late, and serves only to console. Can you endure, and will you 
 forgive, these moral airs in a man who never pretended to be 
 anything, and to be a moralist least of all ? With all possible 
 veracity, I do confess to you that I am very wise for everybody 
 but myself. Wisdom has been beaten into me by experience, 
 of which no man, I do believe, has had more than I have had, 
 to my cost, crowded into the same number of years. Yet, born 
 and bred as I was in adversity, and traversed by disappointment 
 in every pursuit of my life, I never should have been unhappy 
 if it had been possible for me never to be imprudent. My 
 mind is come at last to maturity, of which you, if you please 
 and if you want it, may at all times have the benefit. Should I 
 fail in judgment, you will find me safe, faithful, and discreet. 
 You talk of the shortness of our acquaintance ; why, then, if all 
 this be not mere moonshine, and if we are really and seriously to be 
 friends, we have no time to lose. The fact, however, is that I 
 have known you many years, and long before the date of our 
 acquaintance. It is true I saw you at a great distance, and as a 
 bird of passage. The planet passed by, and knew nothing of 
 the poor astronomer who watched her motions and waited for 
 the transit. Hereafter, I hope you will not insist on my seeing 
 you through a telescope. Honestly and honourably, I believe I 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 371 
 
 meant nothing but that, while you were writing to me, you 
 thought of nobody but C. F. Not at all, however, in the sense 
 of being in love with him. That idea never entered into my 
 thoughts. On that subject, I begin to be what fine ladies call" 
 nettled, by your eternally answering me at cross purposes, or 
 telling me, as you do in effect, that six and four do not make 
 nineteen, and as if I had maintained the contrary. My allegation 
 is that I am forsaken, etc. Your defence is that he is a man of 
 transcendent abilities, and externally amiable in private life. I 
 admire the discovery, but it gives me no sort of consolation. . . , 
 I feel like gummed velvet, and wish I could hate you for half an 
 hour, that I might cut you into a thousand little stars, and live 
 under the canopy. On Monday I wrote till I could not see, 
 without saying half what I intended. You say I must have spoilt 
 you. Will you be so good as to tell me what sort of being you 
 were before you were spoiled ? As for me, it is a clear case that 
 I must be bewitched, or I never would trust a declared enemy 
 with such a letter as the enclosed. . . . You say, ' I knew your 
 opinion long ago, and wish to bring you to own it, that I might 
 attack it.' Most dear insidious person ! I had no disposition to 
 inveigh against Mr. Fox's conduct, nor should I have said any- 
 thing about it if you had not provoked me on one side and 
 ensnared me on the other. Will you now be honourable, and can 
 you be just ? Did such a letter deserve no answer ? " 
 
 With much more in the same style. Both these gay and 
 gallant personages passed through a life of trouble and disappoint- 
 ment : the " Beautiful Duchess " was to close her life entangled 
 in embarrassments, chiefly owing to play.* 
 
 In the preceding year the Prince had sent a gracious message 
 to Mr. Pitt, which had been coldly received. In view of the 
 serious condition of the King, the Prince seems to have recurred 
 to this idea — or, at least hoped to conciliate the great commoner ; 
 but his advances seemed to lack sincerity and found no favour. 
 This will be seen by following the course of the intrigues his 
 confidants set on foot. In March, 1804, Lord Moira, who was 
 at Edinburgh, opened himself to the Lord Advocate (Hope), who 
 reported to Lord Melville, who in his turn reported to Pitt. 
 The Prince, Lord Moira said with a curious confidence, had early 
 sent a message to Fox and Grey, assuring them that he was 
 sensible of their attachment, but that in the event of a regency 
 he intended to throw himself into Lord Moira's hands. He would 
 not therefore see them. He (Lord Moira) had on this assured 
 
 * I have given these extracts at this length, because they illustrate the 
 almost elegant style of communication between an accomplished man and 
 woman of the time. 
 
 2 £ 2 
 
372 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB lY. 
 
 him tliafc Addington and the present ministry were incapable 
 (i.e. of doing anything for him). A union of all talents was 
 necessary : " Stretch forth your hand to Mr. Pitt ! Have you 
 the magnanimity and good sense to lay aside all feeling of 
 estrangement ? " The Prince at first put this aside, saying that 
 Mr. Pitt would not act with others, and declaring that Lord 
 Moira and no other should be his minister. " But let me know 
 your feeling as to Mr. Pitt," persisted Lord Moira ; but the Prince 
 declared that "Fox and Pitt would never act together." The 
 other again urging it, and adding that he thought it fpr his 
 good, the Prince exclaimed ardently : " Then I submit entirely 
 to your opinion — to have the broadest ministry possiole," though 
 he still thought the elements too discordant, and that Pitt 
 would never be subordinate in the Cabinet. " But," he added, 
 " I shall moderate between Pitt and Fox ! " This being duly 
 transmitted to Pitt, it is curious to see with what cold contempt 
 he received it. 
 
 " With respect to the Prince's intentions, I must also say to 
 you confidentially that I fear no very certain dependence is to 
 be placed on any language which he holds. The conversation 
 which Lord Moira reports is certainly at variance with the 
 assurances which I have good reason to believe the Prince has 
 held out in other quarters. He has certainly seen both Pox and 
 Grey. The former, I have good reason to believe, understands 
 that in the event of the Prince having the Government in his 
 hands, it is by his (Fox's) advice that he would be guided, and 
 I believe too that his advice is likely to be to apply to me." He 
 added that he could not take part in any Government of which 
 he was not the head.* 
 
 Fox seems to have been kept in the dark, for we find him 
 writing much puzzled at what was going on : 
 
 " Since last Monday I have not heard one word but from the 
 newspapers, from which I understand that the P.'s visit to 
 Windsor, Friday (of which, by the way, he had apprised me), was 
 prolonged till this day. Moira must, I think, have seen Pitt by 
 this time, as he said he was in a hurry to return to Scotland. I 
 saw Sheridan, and I need not tell you that he was in a terrible 
 fidget. My opinion is that, notwithstanding all these intrigues, 
 the P. will be in essentials quite steady. I think, too, that Pitt 
 and Melville will not be able to get authority to offer him any- 
 thing that will shake him. I have this day intelligence (which I 
 believe) of an event which will bring all these matters to a crisis 
 — and which, on that, as well as many other accounts, I shall 
 think a very good one. I hear it is quite certain that the Irish 
 * Lord Stanhope, " Life of Pitt," iv. 137. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 373 
 
 Catholics will petition botli Houses for complete Emancipation. 
 Upon that question, the P. and Moira must declare themselves, 
 and what will be most satisfactory to me, the Opposition will 
 be marshalled together in a cause that is not merely of a personal 
 nature ; for to have so much stress laid upon my coming, or not 
 coming, into office is, to say the least, very unpleasant." * 
 
 This scheme having failed, we next learn that upon the cri- 
 tical attacks upon " the milk-and-water Addington " (as Mr. Fox 
 styled him), whose majorities were hourly lessening, the Prince, 
 with much wavering, had made up his mind. He was heard ex- 
 pressing great satisfaction at the prospect of the Doctor's over- 
 throw, and indeed he helped to drive the minister with whom he 
 had been negotiating from power. It is clear that Fox's influence 
 had asserted itself. 
 
 Yet what was the end, after all these months of busy intrigue 
 ■ and finesse, but failure and discredit ! The King, as is well 
 known, laid Fox under a ban. Mr. Pitt, the uncompromising, 
 came into office, and the Prince, baffled, disappointed, and hope- 
 less, was left to console himself with his Moiras and Sheridans. 
 
 It was evident that the King was still anything but restored. 
 He was seized with a suspicious mania for dismissing everybody 
 about him — old and faithful servants, lords-in -waiting, and others. 
 In all these illnesses their divisions and jealousies seem to have 
 hindered due and proper care being taken, and the eagerness of 
 his friends to defeat their foes, dragged him from his retirement 
 before he was restored. 
 
 At the Drawing Room held in June, he was not well enough 
 to be present : neither was his son, who, however, was seen 
 driving through the town on the box of his barouche. The 
 baffled Prince was himself only recovering from one of those 
 serious sudden attacks to which he was subject all his life, and 
 which he treated with profuse bleeding. 
 
 * " Memorials of Fox," iv. 63. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 1804. 
 
 We now turn to anotter houselicld wliicli for a time lias been 
 lost sight of. The young Princess Charlotte was now eight years 
 old ; a very pleasing child from the high spirit and character^ that 
 gave some anxiety to her aunt, the Princess Royal, in Germany. 
 She exhibited a hot and rather uncontrolled temper, but in other 
 respects was most engaging. Her grandfather appeared to 
 dote upon her. Miss Berry sketches her at this time : " Her face 
 damaged by small-pox to an extent rarely seen at the time among 
 the higher classes ; saying she was afraid of dark and dismal 
 stories, and telling a good one herself." She had a taste for the 
 "little accomplishments," could speak French, knew music, but 
 she had a nervous hesitation or stammer in her speech, which she 
 never wholly lost. Indeed it was rather increased in late years, 
 owing to the agitation of dreaded interviews with her father. 
 
 This amiable and interesting young creature seems indeed to 
 owe her defects to the intolerant system under which she was 
 brought up : her father and mother being at war, her mother at war 
 with her grandmother, her grandfather at war with her father, 
 she herself — in hackneyed phrase — a bone of contention among 
 them all. 
 
 Miss Gale had succeeded Miss Hayman as sub-governess; 
 Mrs. Gagarin (a worthy German who had been deceived, like 
 Angelica Kauffman, by a false marriage) was dresser ; Mrs. Trew 
 was tutor ; while Lady Elgin directed all. She lived at a country- 
 place known as Shrewsbury House, near Shooter's Hill. 
 
 Her mother, residing at Montagu House, and enjoying 
 the powerful protection and favour of the King, was living a 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 375 
 
 sober and exemplary life, quiet and rational. We find her culti- 
 vating a taste for music, painting, and modelling. Among the 
 friends now gathered around her were the Mintos, Garnarvons, 
 Hawkesburys, Dundases,Windhams, Grenvilles, Cannings, besides 
 Lords Bldon and Loughborough, the former of whom, perhaps, 
 had rallied to her, because of his " dear old master.-" These she 
 received at dinner and seemed to have attached to her, and the 
 only objection that could be taken to her behaviour was a certain 
 indiscretion of speech — talking loudly, and abusing the Prince 
 at her own table. The first ride taken by the King after his 
 recovery in 1801 was down to Blackheath to see her, nor did he 
 tell anyone whither he was going till he just reached her door. 
 She was not up, but jumped out of bed to receive him, arrayed 
 in her bedgown and nightcap ! He told Lord Uxbridge that 
 she ran in his head perpetually during his illness, and he had 
 resolved to visit her the first time he went out, without telling 
 anybody.* It was owing to his prevision that the Princess was 
 allowed the pleasure of seeing her child, with suitable restraint, 
 so as not to interfere with the progress of her education. 
 
 Lord Albemarle gives some child-letters of the young Princess 
 that are singularly interesting and engaging. Like her father, 
 she had violent likings and dislikes ; her special aversion being 
 the Bishop of Salisbury (Dr. Fisher), whom she nicknamed 
 the G-reat " U-p," and Mrs. Udney. A most amusing incident 
 connected with this prejudice is the will the little girl drew up, 
 excluding them from any share in her property.f 
 
 This harmless pleasantry caused much agitation among her 
 governing powers, and it seems incredible that it could be treated 
 
 * Sir G. Elliot, " Life," iii. 217. 
 
 f " I make my will. First, I leave all my best books, and all my books to 
 the Eev. Mr. Nott. Secondly, to Mrs. Campbell my three watches and half 
 my jewels. Thirdly, I beg Mr. Nott, whatever money he iinds me in 
 possession of, to distribute to the poor, and I leave with Mr. Nott all my 
 papers, which he knows of. I beg the Prayer Book which Lady Elgin gave 
 me may be given to the Bishop of Exeter, and that the Bible Lady Elgin 
 gave me may be given to him also. Also my playthings the Miss Fishers 
 are to have ; and lastly, concerning Mrs. Gagarin and Mrs. Lewis, I beg 
 they may be very handsomely paid, and that they may have an house. 
 Lady de Clifford the rest of my jewels, except those that are most valuable, 
 and these my father and mother, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are to 
 take. Nothing to Mrs. Udney for reasons. I have done my Will, and 
 trust that after I am dead, a great deal may be done for Mr. Nott. I hope 
 the King will make him a Bishop. 
 
 " Ohaelotie. 
 
 " March, 1806. 
 
 " My birds to Mrs. Gagarin, and my dog or dogs to Mrs. Anne Hutton, 
 my chambermaid." 
 
376 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 seriously. In tte journal of Lady Susan O'Brien, heroine of the 
 well-known runaway episode, what occurred is thus described : 
 
 " While I was in town, I was informed of a curious transaction 
 going on at Carlton House, on account of a childish will the 
 Princess Charlotte had made, in which she left half her jewels to 
 Lady de Clifford, half to Mrs. Campbell, and all her valuable 
 jewels to her papa and mamma. They suppose Mrs. Campbell 
 concerned in making it, and told the bishop of it, who smiled. 
 [Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, preceptor to the Princess 
 Charlotte.] The Prince was displeased, and said ' it was high 
 treason,' and called Mr. Adam, Chancellor of the Duchy of 
 Cornwall, who answered : ' Your Royal Highness has a just con- 
 ception of the matter.' All this nonsense has been before the 
 Privy Council, whose time might be better employed. The will 
 expresses a wish that Mr. Nott, sub-preceptor, might be made a 
 bishop." * 
 
 In short, the matter led to the dismissal of the worthy 
 Mrs. Campbell. 
 
 There are many stories of her waywardness, of her affection, 
 of her amusing insubordination. She used to leave the doors 
 wide open, rushing tumultuously into her governess's room. 
 " My dear Princess ! " would exclaim the latter, " you should 
 always shut the door after you." " Not I, indeed," she answered, 
 " if you want the door shut, ring the bell ; " and then rushed away. 
 Self-willed enough, she would commit some forbidden act, and 
 then say defiantly, " I have done it, now punish me." She went 
 to dine on fixed days with her mother. We find the Princess 
 of Wales giving her daughter such excellent advice as this : " It 
 must have been an honour and pleasure to you that your father 
 wished to see you on his birthday, and I trust you will never 
 in any day of your life deviate from the respect and attachment 
 which is due to the Prince, your father." t 
 
 But the good King, hovering as he often was between re- 
 covering stages of his malady, saw enough to convince him that 
 this situation of a child of ten years old was dangerous enough. 
 The life led by the father made him quite unsuitable as director 
 of her education, or even as inmate of the same house. Her 
 mother, for other reasons, was equally undesirable. He deter- 
 mined to take her education into his own hands, acting as trustee 
 for the nation. 
 
 Mr. Pitt, now in the plenitude of power, feeling that thia 
 state of discord would not suit a well-ordered Government, began 
 at once to try and reconcile the parties. As a preparatory step, the 
 
 * She had a childisli attaotment to Dr. Nott. 
 t Lady Eose Weigall, " Princess Charlotte," 283. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 377 
 
 Lord Chancellor, wlio was liigli in favour at Court, laboured to 
 reconcile tlie Queen to her son. This was not so difficult a task. 
 It \7ill be seen that the Prince was eager " to be friends " with 
 his father by the following letter : 
 
 THE PEINCE or 'WAI.ES TO THE QTJEEN. 
 
 " Carlton House, July 4th, 1804. 
 "My dearest Mother, 
 
 " It is impossible for me, when so many embarrassing cir- 
 cumstances surround us, to refrain longer from assuring you of 
 my undiminished and unalterable tenderness. Believe me that I 
 deeply regret the not having it in my power to do that in person; 
 for, independent of what I suffer from such a cruel privation, as 
 the being separated from you and my sisters, I lament heavily 
 the not paying my duty to the King. Were this allowed me, I 
 should fly to throw myself at the King^s feet, and offer to him 
 the testimony of my ever-unvarying attachment. I have long 
 grieved that misrepresentations have estranged his Majesty's 
 mind from me ; and the most anxious wish of my heart is for the 
 opportunity of dispelling that coldness. Every consideration 
 renders this distance most severely painful. My first object is 
 the gratification of the feelings of affection, leaving all else to 
 the spontaneous dictates of my father's kindness ; and, if any 
 public view can mingle with this sentiment, it is the incalculable 
 importance to his Majesty, and to the country, of the whole 
 Royal Family appearing united in a moment so awful as the 
 present. 
 
 "I am ever, my dearest Mother, 
 
 " Your dutiful and affectionate Son, 
 
 "George P." 
 
 Not the Prince only, but ministers, whenever their position 
 was imperilled, were fond of resorting to the appeal of " the 
 present awful position of the country." 
 
 THE QTIEEN 10 THE PBINCE CE VALES. 
 
 " Kew, July 4tli, 1804. 
 "Mt dearest Son, 
 
 " I have this instant received through the hands of Lady 
 Aylesbury, your most affectionate, and I must say, most joyful 
 letter. 
 
 " I am anxious to acquaint the King with the contents, which 
 I will do at the first opportunity. Assuring you that I shall not be 
 
378 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 behindhand to seize that moment, for which I have so long 
 anxiously prayed, and I trust will be the means of again uniting 
 our too long separated family, in which event no one has suffered 
 more than, 
 
 " My dearest Son, 
 
 " Your most affectionate Mother and Friend, 
 
 " Chaklotte. 
 
 " I cannot say more at present, being in such a hurry." 
 
 This was a natural and touching reply, showing "heart." 
 The King, however, was not to be at once beguiled, and the 
 bitterness of his reply to the proposal made to him, shows how 
 deeply he felt the treatment he had received. The Prince had 
 determined to give earnest of his desire to be on good terms with 
 his father by offering him the complete charge of the little 
 Princess, and he perhaps assumed that this spontaneous gift 
 would be received gratefully. 
 
 THE KIN& TO LOUD ELDON. 
 
 " Kew, July 18th, 1804, 10 m. past 4 p.m. 
 
 " The King has this instant received the Lord Chan- 
 cellor's note, enclosing the one from the Earl of Moira. Un- 
 doubtedly the Prince of Walesa's making the offer of having the 
 dear little Charlotte's education and principles attended to, is the 
 best earnest he can give of returning to a sense of what he owes 
 to his father, and indeed to his country, and may, to a degree, 
 mollify the feelings of an injured father; but it will require some 
 reflection before the King can answer how. soon he can bring 
 himself to receive the publisher of his letters. So much he can 
 add at present, that if he takes the superintendence of his grand- 
 daughter, he does not mean to destroy the rights of the mother ; 
 that therefore the Princess of Wales, whose injuries deserve the 
 utmost attention of the King, as her own conduct has proved 
 irreproachable, and the attention to what sum the Prince is to 
 pay for the maintenance of the child, though anything which 
 exceeds what he receives on that head from the public must 
 undoubtedly be exonerated by the King. 
 
 "Geokgb E." 
 
 However, more than a month passed away, and father and 
 son had not met. As the King told Mr. Rose at Cuf nels, he was not 
 willing to meet his son, feeling that " no good could come of it." 
 He seems to have sagaciously suspected that there was some 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 379 
 
 object beMnd; and indeed there was a sort of wish expressed 
 that Lord Moira should receive office as Lord-Lieutenant of 
 Ireland, and thus the Prince would have his " friends " in the 
 ministry, though he himself would not have joined. However, 
 persuaded by the Chancellor and Mr. Pitt, the King at last 
 consented to an interview. 
 
 THE KING- TO LOBD ELDON. 
 
 " Windsor, August 20tli, 1804 
 " Though the King trusts his excellent Lord Chancellor, he 
 felt himself authorised on Saturday to acquaint the Prince of Wales, 
 that in consequence of what the Earl of Moira had been authorised 
 to express, his Majesty is willing to receive the Prince of Wales 
 on Wednesday at Kew, provided no explanation or excuses are 
 attempted to be made by the Prince of Wales ; but that it is 
 merely to be a visit of civility, as any retrospect could but oblige 
 the King to utter truths, which, instead of healing, must widen 
 the present breach. His Majesty will have the Queen, Princesses, 
 and at least, of his sons, the Duke of Cambridge, present on the 
 occasion. The Lord Chancellor is to fix on twelve o'clock for the 
 hour of the Prince of Walesa's coming to Kew. The King cannot 
 conclude without expressing his earnest wishes that the union to 
 take place on Wednesday in the Scott family may prove a source 
 of happiness to them, as his Majesty must ever be a sharer in 
 any event that may add to the domestic felicity of his Lord 
 Chancellor. 
 
 "Geoegb R." 
 
 Another letter, written on the same day, is devoted to 
 praises of the Princess of Wales, who at an interview had given 
 him the greatest satisfaction. " She will be entirely guided by 
 the King, who has directed her to state whatever she pleases 
 to the Chancellor, as the person alone to be trusted by her in 
 any difficult occasion that may arise." Acharge that fully explains 
 the zeal shown by that functionary in her cause.* Mr. Pitt, 
 however, complained that though she had promised an alteration 
 in her bearing towards the Prince, she had stated " particulars in 
 the Prince's behaviour that created alarms in her mind of which 
 
 * " What think you now, my lord," said the Prince to Lord Thurlow in 
 one of these contentions, " of your old friend Scott, whom you puffed to 
 me as a sound lawyer and an honest man?" "Indeed, sir," answered 
 Thurlow, whose advanced age had abated neither his convenient courtliness 
 nor his jocular coarseness, " I think he has lost the little law he once had, 
 and is become a very great scoundrel." 
 
380 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 she could not get the better." The minister uttered gloomy 
 prognostications as to her future, but admitted that her behaviour 
 might be prompted by jealousy.* But in the interval the Prince 
 seems to have changed his mind, pleading indisposition. The 
 King came specially to Kew for the interview. 
 
 THE KING TO LOED ELDON. 
 
 " Kew, August 22nd, 1804, 
 
 " 10 m. past 1 P.M. 
 
 " The King, soon after his arrival here with the Queen and 
 his daughters, found the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge; since 
 which the Lord Chancellor's letter has been brought by a servant 
 of the Prince of Wales. The King authorises the Lord Chancellor 
 to express to the Prince of Wales his sorrow at his being unwell ; 
 that in consequence of this his Majesty will postpone his inter- 
 view with the Prince of Wales until his return from Weymouth ; 
 and then, as was now intended, it will be in presence of his 
 family at Kew, of which the Lord Chancellor will be empowered 
 to give due notice to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 "Geoeqe R." 
 
 There is here an air of relief at being spared the meeting. 
 The Prince did not write, but he sent the Chancellor's letter by a 
 groom, which was much remarked on. The Chancellor naturally 
 remonstrated at his disrespect to the King, when the Prince, in 
 his roughest mood, said : " Sir, who gave you authority to advise 
 me ? " The sturdy Eldon answered him as haughtily, telling 
 him he was his Majesty's Chancellor, that he must get some one 
 else to take messages of the kind — " I will not." The Prince, 
 however, wrote to one of the Princesses, announcing that the 
 meeting might take place after the King's return, and in presence 
 of the Queen and Princesses. f 
 
 Indisposition was not the cause of this change. The Prince 
 had learned what an increase of favour had been extended to his 
 wife, and that if he gave up his daughter to the King the 
 Princess of Wales was to benefit by the step. The little Princess 
 had been asked to a ball at the Castle, and being told that she 
 might bring a friend, instantly named her mother.J A house, 
 too, had been already secured for her, with apartments for her 
 mother whenever she should choose to visit her. 
 
 The Prince's relations to Fox since the later crisis had con- 
 siderably improved. On Fox's rejection by the King, the Prince 
 
 * Eose, "Diaries," ii. 173. 
 
 f Auckland, " Correspondence," iv. 209. J Ibid. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE TV. 381 
 
 had taken the matter up warmly, assuring Sir Philip Francis of 
 his " entire and perfect approbation of these resolutions, and 
 desires further that it may be known, and understood, and 
 published to all the world in his name and authority that, in this 
 personal rejection of Mr. Pox, he considers himself as the party 
 injured; that he is not at all the dupe of Mr. Pitt's excuses and 
 explanations ; that he sees clearly that Mr. Pox is rejected as his 
 friend, and that it was meant to wound him through his side." 
 
 It should be stated, however, that old Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, 
 told Haydon that when he heard that Pox was willing enough to 
 join the Government, he had declared to him that he would sever 
 himself from him ; and that Pox on this had written, assuring 
 him that he was determined never to join Mr. Pitt. 
 
 _ " You may think, perhaps, that I might have written on the 
 Prince's negotiation, if it may be so called " (wrote Mr. Pox to his 
 friend Grey in September); "but I cannot make out the facts, and 
 still less all the motives, to my own satisfaction. Lauderdale 
 would, of course, tell you all he knew, when he left London, and 
 I knew no more till my return from Cheltenham, when the thing 
 was quite over, and I am not sorry (as you may suppose) that I 
 had no advice to answer for. It originated with Tierney ; and 
 Sheridan was, I believe, kept out of it till quite towards the close. 
 My judgment is, that if a reconciliation could have taken place 
 by the Queen it was right, if by Pitt it was wrong; but Tierney 
 saw no such distinction. The refusal to see the King had gone 
 before I knew anything more than when I went to Cheltenham : 
 I should not have advised it. It seems to be all over ; and the 
 only thing that is of any consequence is to know how far Moira 
 acted fairly in it, or indeed how far he was concerned at all. 
 His advice to the Prince to offer the young Princess to the King 
 was certainly very bad, but I believe it was only folly ; and the 
 Prince has (upon good pretences enough) done away the offer 
 completely. Some accounts from Weymouth say the King is very 
 well, others the reverse. My way of reconciling them is, that he 
 is better in health, but still insane." 
 
 Pox himself, or some one inspired by Pox, now pointed out 
 to the Prince this danger. The King thought that Sheridan had 
 interfered. 
 
 The King had repaired later to Mr. Rose's place at Cufnels, 
 where he had many interesting conversations with his host, which 
 give a high opinion of his sagacity and observation, and show 
 what a pleasant companion he could be. In these interviews were 
 also revealed, with a terrible intensity, the state of his feelings 
 towards his son. 
 
 When his daughter was thrown from her horse on the road, 
 
382 THE LIFE OF GEORGE lY. 
 
 lie peremptorily required her to take her choice : if hurt^ to drive 
 home; but if not, to remount and drive on. When remonstrated 
 ■with, he answered quietly that " he could not bear that any of 
 his family should want courage." It being urged that driving 
 home after such an accident scarcely amounted to lack of courage, 
 he made the remarkable speech : " Perhaps it may be so ; but I 
 thank God there is but one of my children who wants courage, 
 and I will not name him because he is to succeed me ! " 
 
 This most painful utterance of course came of an excited 
 state of mindj and rationally as the King could discourse, it 
 seems he uttered many incoherences. And when he was at 
 Weymouth, Sir R. Wilson, later one of the Prince's faction, was 
 busily engaged in noting down the most extravagant of his 
 speeches, which was shown about, to the Prince among others, 
 who sent back a very civil message to the effect that " he would 
 make it as public as he could."* 
 
 The King, however, felt quite satisfied that he was to have 
 the charge of his favourite, the young Princess ; and in his rides 
 with his host explained the plans he had formed. He had 
 thought of Lady George Murray as governess, widow of a Bishop 
 of St. David^s. In one very pleasing conversation he discussed 
 the point in all its bearings, suggesting that there might be a 
 danger of the Duke of Athole having an influence over her, with 
 other matters, which showed that he had weighed the subject 
 carefully. 
 
 On November 7th, the King wrote to "his" Lord Chancellor, to 
 inform him that he was now ready to receive the Prince, as had 
 been proposed. 
 
 THE PEINCE OF WALES TO THE LOED CHAUCELLOH. 
 
 " Brighton, November 8th, 1804. 
 " The Prince of Wales without delay acknowledges the 
 receipt of the Chancellor's letter, and will, in consequence of the 
 gracious intention signified from his Majesty, be in London to- 
 morrow evening with Lord Moira, who has just arrived at 
 Brighthelmstone. The Earl of Moira is authorised by the Prince 
 to wait upon the Chancellor at any hour on Saturday morning; 
 that his lordship may please to appoint. "f 
 
 Lord Moira accordingly saw the Chancellor, and begged him- 
 
 to assure the King of his son's dutiful and affectionate sentiments. 
 
 The meeting at last took place between the father and son 
 
 * " Life of Sir E. "Wilson," p. 327. 
 
 t Eldon MS., quoted in Mr. Jesse's " Eeign of George III." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 383 
 
 on November 12th, and the first person to whom the King com- 
 municated the result was his favourite, the Princess of Wales. 
 It will be seen how warmly he wrote to her : 
 
 " Windsor Castle, November 13th, 1804. 
 " Mt deaeest Daughtee-in-law and Niece, 
 
 " Yesterday I and the rest of the family had an interview 
 with the Prince of Wales, at Kew. Care was taken on all sides 
 to avoid all subjects of altercation or explanation, consequently 
 the conversation was neither instructive nor entertaining; but it 
 leaves the Prince of Wales in a situation to shew whether his 
 desire to return to the 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. You and I, with so much reason, 
 must interest ourselves ; and its effecting my having the 
 happiness of living more with you is no small incentive to my 
 forming some ideas on the subject, but you may depend on their 
 not being decided upon without your thorough and cordial concur- 
 rence ; for your authority as a mother it is my object to support. 
 "Believe me, at all times, my dearest daughter-in-law and niece, 
 " Your most affectionate Father-in-law and Uncle, 
 
 " Geoege E." 
 
 To ^'my^^ Lord Chancellor, as he always rather affectedly 
 styled Lord Bldon, he wrote that the interview had been " decent.'^ 
 But Mr. Pitt learned that the Prince was '^uttering great 
 lamentations at having found the King so broken in all respects." 
 The rainister, however, had reason to believe that intrigues were 
 on foot to undo what had been done, clearly pointing at Pox. 
 
 Mr. Premantle, who was present, thus describes the meeting t 
 " The royal party consisted of the King, Queen, Prince of Wales, 
 Duke and Duchess of York, Lady Ilderton and General Pitzroy j 
 the other Princes and Princesses at different tables in the same 
 room. I was very near the King's table, and nothing could be 
 better acted than his manner. I can't say the same of the- 
 Prince. He was evidently very much out of spirits and in ill- 
 humour, hardly spoke a word to anybody, and looked very ill.. 
 It is quite impossible this reconciliation can last." * 
 
 This is explained by a sort of negotiation which was being- 
 carried on simultaneously j there being thus, according to the- 
 hackneyed phrase, wheels within wheels. 
 
 The heaven-bom minister was now very anxious to gain over 
 the section of the Opposition known as " the Prince's friends." 
 * " Court and Cabinets," p. 366. 
 
384 THE LIFE OF GEOEaS lY. 
 
 TMs curious incident is thus described in a letter of Pox's : 
 " The P. sent for me to tell me of the message he had had from 
 the K., and of an interview which Lord Moira had had with 
 Pitt. With regard to the first, it seemed only a continuation of 
 what had passed before the Weymouth journey, and when he did 
 see the King (almost all the family present) at Kew, he says 
 there was no cordiality or pretended affection, but common talk 
 on weather, scandal, etc. — a great deal of the latter, and as the 
 P. thought, very idle and foolish in the manner, and running 
 wildly from topic to topic, though not absolutely incoherent. 
 With respect to Lord Moira's meeting with Pitt," Pox goes on, 
 "he said that Pitt had expressed a particular desire of having 
 him (Moira) in the Cabinet, and a general wish to admit many 
 of the P.'s friends. I rather think Moira, whom I saw separately, 
 added hopes of time bringing about all. That Moira had declared 
 explicitly that he could do nothing without me and my friends. 
 I asked whether it was considered that any proposition had come 
 from Pitt, to which either H.R.H. or I were to give any answer; 
 this was answered by a most explicit negative ; so that there was 
 no difficulty for us — nothing having been said to us, there was 
 nothing for us to say or do. Here there seemed to be an end, 
 and a very good end, of all this folly ; but I understood from 
 Moira that he was again to see either Pitt or Melville, and to 
 know positively whether or no the P. was to have a military 
 command offered him.'' 
 
 This seems to disclose the motive for the Prince's eagerness 
 for the reconciliation, in the hope of obtaining something sub- 
 stantial, and which he had set his heart upon. Mr. Fox thought 
 that, "notwithstanding all these intrigues, the P. will be in 
 essentials quite steady. But he also thought that Pitt would not 
 get authority to offer him anything that will shake him." * 
 
 The King now assuming that all had been arranged as 
 regards the transfer of the young Princess to his care, drew up a 
 plan for her education : 
 
 " Enclosure. — The Prince of Wales having, through the Earl 
 of Moira, expressed his wish that the education and care of the 
 person of his daughter should be placed under the immediate 
 inspection of the King, his Majesty is willing to take this charge 
 on himself, and has prepared a house at Windsor for the 
 reception of the Princess Charlotte. The sum now issued each 
 quarter, out of his Majesty's Civil List, for the maintenance and 
 education of the young Princess, should in future be paid into 
 the hands of the person who shall be named by the King to 
 defray those expenses ; and such additional charges as may arise 
 
 * " Memorials of Fox," iv. 62. 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IV. 385 
 
 from tlie ctange of establisliment will be defrayed by the 
 King. 
 
 "His Majesty proposes to name a bishop to superintend 
 Princess Charlotte's educationj as it cannot be that alone of a 
 female ; but she, being the presumptive heir of the crown, must 
 have one of a more extended nature. His Majesty also thinks it 
 desirable that the bishop should fix on a proper clergyman to 
 instruct the young Princess in religion and Latin, and daily to 
 read prayers : that there should be another instructor for history, 
 geography, belles lettres, and French ; and masters for writing, 
 music, and dancing ; that the care and behaviour of the Princess 
 should be entrusted to a governess ; and (as she must be both 
 day and night under the care of responsible persons) that a 
 sub-governess and assistant sub-governess should be named. 
 
 " These seem the necessary outlines, to form such a plan as 
 may make so promising a child turn out, as it is the common 
 interest of the King and his family, and indeed the whole nation, 
 eagerly to wish." 
 
 When this paper was handed to the Prince he received it 
 with much discontent. Mr. Fox learned from him what had 
 occurred on the occasion : 
 
 " The Prince expressed, in a written note, his surprise that, 
 after what had passed, such a proposition should be made to him, 
 and sent it back. Both Pitt and the Chancellor replied, first 
 insinuating that the Prince ought to have shown more respect to 
 a paper coming directly from his Majesty, and saying they had 
 not understood Moira as the Prince did. The Prince sent an 
 answer, disclaiming of course all intentional disrespect to the 
 King, refusing peremptorily to give up his daughter, and for 
 what had passed referring them to Moira, to whom he said he 
 transmitted their notes. Luckily enough, Moira had left with 
 the Prince a written summary of what had passed between Pitt 
 and him, which entirely justified the Prince's interpretation. 
 Since this I have heard no more ; but I read in the newspaper 
 that the preparations making for the Princess of Wales and the 
 child at Windsor are discontinued." 
 
 From another account we find that Pitt sent the Prince a very 
 harsh and uncivil rebuke for making such a reply to the King. 
 
 A very painful dispute then arose, in which a question of 
 veracity was concerned, and as to whether the Prince had ever 
 agreed to consign his daughter to the charge of the King. It 
 was insisted that he had done so through Lord Moira. The 
 truth seems to be, that the Prince was disgusted at the mode in 
 which his advances had been received, and at not receiving any- 
 thing by way of consideration for his concessions. Finding that 
 VOL. I. 2 c 
 
386 ■ THE LIFE OF GEOEaE IV. 
 
 all was to turn to the profit of the Princess of WaleSj he was now 
 eager to withdraw from what he had engaged. In such cases 
 there almost inevitably arises a question of what has been 
 promised or conceded. The version that his friends gave out 
 now follows; but Lord Grenvillej dining at Carlton House on 
 November 29thj had from the Prince himself a fuller account of 
 his grievances : 
 
 "He laid his principal stress on the following points — viz. that 
 Lord Moira had been pressed to accept a Cabinet place, which he 
 had refused, on the ground that the Prince would not separate 
 himself from those whom he had advised with at the end of last 
 session ; that it had, therefore, been understood that the recon- 
 ciliation was to have no political reference whatever ; that he had 
 found things at Windsor as bad as they had been represented — 
 no cordiality (hardly common civility) towards himself ; a power 
 of restraining himself [i.e. the King's] and talking rationally for 
 some time, and on some points, but no day passing without much 
 of a different description, and many points very prevalent in his 
 mind of a character extremely irrational ; not a word said to him 
 during three days' stay at Windsor of the arrangements making 
 respecting his daughter, and on his return to town a message sent 
 to him through the Chancellor, referring to and misrepresenting 
 what had before passed on the subject between Lord Moira and 
 Mr. Pitt, which the King construes into a wish expressed by the 
 Prince that his Majesty should take upon himself the entire 
 direction of her education. This wish has been positively denied 
 by the Prince, and thereupon they are at issue, the Prince having 
 referred to Lord Moira, who is in Scotland, for the truth of his 
 statement, and declaring that nothing shall induce him to put 
 his child out of his own control, particularly under circumstances 
 so little auspicious as those which result from the King's present 
 state of mind. He desired you might know all this. How it is 
 to end, I do not even guess." 
 
 The annoyance and even rage of the King at this sudden turn 
 in matters is shown by his bitter letter of December 16th, to Lord 
 Eldon. "The King," it ran, "though he has banished every 
 spark of irritation and impatience, from feeling truth and fair 
 dealing is the honourable line to combat misapprehension, chicane, 
 and untruth, has with stoical indiBerence waited the arrival of 
 some information," etc. 
 
 Lord Moira having arrived, the controversy warmed afresh ; 
 but it would seem that the harsh construction put on the Prince's 
 behaviour was not warranted, for it turns out that in the original 
 proposal the young Princess was offered to the care of the King 
 
THE LIEE OF GEOEaB IV. 387 
 
 exclusively. This, as Lord Moira explained, was intended to bar 
 all interference on the part of the Princess of Wales.* 
 
 It was soon felt that this state of things could not continue. 
 Some interviews followed between Mr. Pitt and Lord Moira, and 
 soon proposals for mutual accommodation were made. Explana- 
 tions took place between them, in which the former admitted that 
 the Prince's view was more or less correct, and showed himself 
 very anxious to come to an arrangement. The King, however, 
 showed his bitterness by refusing to see Lord Moira. 
 
 This result, according to all accounts, was owing to Lord 
 Moira, whose position was rather an awkward one. Discussions 
 followed between the Prince and Chancellor, in which the 
 former, referring to the statement that he had refused to see the 
 Chancellor, used singular language, saying that it was " a strange 
 fabrication of the King," or a "malicious suggestion of some 
 other person.-" He also stated very plainly that he had had legal 
 advice as to his rights. However, he ended by graciously saying 
 that his view was to gratify the King's wishes. In this happy 
 disposition, though the King remained cold and wounded, it was 
 not difficult to arrange matters. 
 
 The Prince had already a little encounter in the House of 
 Lords with the Chancellor. In one instance the Duke of Clarence 
 reminded the latter of the irregular frequency with which he left 
 the Woolsack to address the House upon the same question. The 
 Chancellor made no reply at the moment, but referred on a 
 subsequent night to the expressions of the Duke of Clarence. 
 Upon this the Prince of Wales, in explanation, disclaimed, on the 
 part of the Duke, all personal offence, and declared that "he 
 understood his noble relation as merely illustrating the necessity 
 of a liberal and indulgent construction of the orders of the 
 House." " The observations of the Prince of Wales were made 
 with a facility and propriety which produced expressions of regret 
 that he addressed the House so rarely." 
 
 THE KING TO THE LOUD CHAUCEIiOE. 
 
 " (End of December, 1804.) 
 
 "His Majesty, in the paper which the Lord Chancellor com- 
 municated by the King's command on the 23rd November to the 
 Prince, referred in the preamble to the Prince's wish, expressed 
 
 * In May, 1805, the King showed his regard for the Princess of Wales 
 by presenting her with two beautiful Arabian horses and an elegant service 
 «f gold. He had also given her the rangership of Greenwich Park. 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 ttrough the Earl of Moira. That wish was expressed in the 
 Earl's letter of the 1 7th July last, in which the Lord Chancellor 
 was requested to tender the Prince's humble duty to his Majesty^ 
 with the profession that, if it was his Majesty's inclination, 
 nothing could be more highly gratifying to the Prince than to 
 see the Princess Charlotte taken under the King's especial 
 direction. 
 
 "His Majesty, therefore, in the preamble of the paper, 
 referred to the wish which had been so communicated on the 
 part of the Prince, and has accordingly considered the commu- 
 nication through the Earl of Moira as representing that the Prince 
 wished to see the Princess Charlotte taken under his Majesty's 
 special direction, in consequence of the Prince's understanding 
 that such was his Majesty's wish and desire. 
 
 " The King repeats, what he has before stated to the Lord 
 Chancellor and Mr. Pitt, and which he has been informed they 
 represented to the Earl of Moira, that his Majesty regarded the 
 communication from the Prince, founded upon his desire to 
 gratify what he understood to be the King's wishes, as a step 
 very acceptable to his Majesty, and conformable to the sentiments 
 of duty which the Prince had expressed. 
 
 " His Majesty has uniformly stated that, in his taking upon 
 himself the care and management of the Princess Charlotte, he 
 must be understood to do so in a sense consistent with all the 
 attention due to each of the parents of the Princess. 
 
 " His meaning was to form the best plan he could for the 
 education and governance of the Princess, and to refer that plan 
 to the consideration of the Prince, and to make such communi- 
 cations respecting it to the Princess of Wales as the nature of 
 their respective relations to the Princess Charlotte seemed to 
 require. It will be his Majesty's earnest desire to act according 
 to this principle. 
 
 " His Majesty has great satisfaction in believing that there is 
 reason to think that the Prince is likely to concur in the measures 
 proposed by his Majesty, if the misapprehensions which have 
 been entertained are removed ; and he trusts that the explana- 
 tions which have taken place may effectually remove them. If 
 that should happily be the case, his Majesty will proceed to 
 state, for the consideration of the Prince, the names of the 
 persons who may appear proper to fill the very important 
 stations mentioned in his Majesty's paper ; and as this measure 
 originated and has been carried on in consequence of the Prince's 
 having expressed a wish to meet his Majesty's inclination, it will 
 be most satisfactory to the King that the arrangement should be 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 389 
 
 completed upon the same footing, and that his Majesty's choice 
 should be made with the Prince's entire concurrence." 
 
 The Prince's answer to this document has not been found j 
 but its purport appears from the following letter of the King : 
 
 TEE KING TO LOED ELDON. 
 
 "■Windsor Castle, Jan. 5th, 1805. 
 
 " The Ejng received the Lord Chancellor's note, accompany- 
 ing the paper of the Prince of Wales, intended as an answer to 
 the one drawn up by the Lord Chancellor and Mr. Pitt ; which 
 having met with his Majesty's approbation, he sent a copy of it on 
 the 3lst of last month to be delivered or sent by the Lord Chancellor 
 to the Prince of Wales. His Majesty entirely joins in opinion 
 with the Lord Chancellor and Mr. Pitt, that undoubtedly the 
 paper contains expressions liable to observations ; but, if the 
 King was to enter into such minute discussion, the main object 
 might be retarded; and, as truth, and what he owes to his 
 subjects, have alone dictated his conduct, provided right is 
 effected, he will not stoop to cavilling on words, which is ever the 
 path of those actuated by meaner sentiments. The King has 
 therefore drawn up a paper this morning, which he trusts is 
 consonant with the opinion contained in the Lord Chancellor's 
 note, which if the Lord Chancellor views in the same light, he 
 desires may be forwarded to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 "Geoege E." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 1805. 
 
 The person appointed to succeed Lady Elgin in the charge of the 
 young Princess was the Dowager Lady de Clifford, a lady who 
 had seen much of the French Court, and, while remarkable for 
 firmness, and even intrepidity of character, seems to have pos- 
 sessed a charm and graciousness that was very attractive. Once 
 travelling with her dying husband in France, she surprised a 
 robber stealing into his room. She seized him by the collar 
 and flung him downstairs. She is pleasantly described in her 
 grandson's (Lord Albemarle) agreeable "Eecollections.'"* 
 
 On March 1st, 1805, the King had written to direct the Chan- 
 cellor to inforni the Prince. It is painful to find that he could not 
 bring himself to communicate directly with his son, for he had 
 harshly declared that " he could never forgive his conduct because 
 it was impossible to forget it ; " that in a week or two the Court 
 Lodge would be ready to receive the Princess. The same evening- 
 Lady de Clifford received the following communication : 
 
 THE PEINOE OF WALES TO LADY DE CLrFEOEI). 
 
 "Mt deaeest Lady de Clippoed, 
 
 " I am only this instant returned home, and I have so- 
 many letters to write and so much to do this evening that -will 
 
 * Under her there -svere t-wo sub-governesses, Mrs. TJdney and Mrs. 
 Campbell. Dr. Fisher, then Bishop of Exeter, vyas the preceptor ; and it is 
 curious to find that Lady Pembroke, for -whom the King had always a sort 
 of penchant, -was originally named as governess. Lady George Murray, 
 whom he had spoken of so -warmly to Mr. Rose, he seems not to have 
 thought of. Mrs. Campbell had lamented her own unfitness for the post 
 to the King, -who replied in Johnsonian phrase : " Madam, I hope -we can 
 afiord to purchase accomplishments, but we cannot buy principles." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 391 
 
 not admit of delay, in order to summon an early meeting to- 
 morrow morning, that it will be too late before I have 
 finished all my business to attempt to come and see your little 
 charge and you. However, at one to-morrow you may be certain 
 of seeing me and, I hope, Mrs. Udney. 
 
 " Pray, if possible, let me have the little watch that I may 
 give it to Charlotte in your presence. I shall be most happy to 
 do so for every reason, but I shall consider myself most fortunate 
 the having it in my power thus early in life, after your very short 
 acquaintance with her, not only to prove to her my readiness to 
 acquiesce in, and to forward every reasonable wish she may 
 entertain, but also the implicit confidence I place in you, as well 
 as that you are the medium, and ever must be the properest 
 medium, through which her wishes and inclinations must be 
 conveyed to me. Excuse my saying anything more at present, 
 for I am, as you may believe after so long and so very irritating 
 a day, quite worried to death. If you wish for me later this 
 evening — I mean by that between eleven and twelve o^ clock — 
 you will know where to find me.* 
 
 " Ever most affectionately yours, 
 
 " Geoege p." 
 
 " Carlton House, Friday, 8 o'clock, March 1, 1805. 
 " P.S. — Say everything that is most kind to the child and to 
 Mrs. Udney, whose goodness in temporising with her present 
 situation I can never forget." 
 
 Here was again the recommencement of the old tortuous 
 system] and it is scarcely surprising that the King wrote angrily 
 to Lord Eldon, to declare that he must have full control over the 
 child, declaring too his suspicions that the Prince " meant further 
 chicanery." 
 
 Further, a few days before the Prince had been using language 
 to his " dearest Lady de Clifford," which the King declared " he 
 could not sanction." The latter seems to have had an idea of 
 placing his grandchild under the formal guardianship of Lord 
 Eldon, declaring also, that it was "quite charming to see the 
 mother and daughter together, which he had seen on the day 
 before." This extravagant partiahty of the sovereign, which 
 blinded him to her defects, explains, as was before hinted, the 
 devotion of the Tories to the cause. 
 
 A few days later the Prince, full of good purposes, furnished 
 Lady de Clifford with a paper of instructions for her guidance. 
 
 * At Mrs. Fitzherbert's in Tilney Street. 
 
392 THE LIFE OF GEORGE TV. 
 
 MEMORANDim FOE LADY DE CLUTOKD PEOM THE PEINCE OP WALES. 
 
 " March 4, 1805. 
 
 " Lady de ClifEord and the Bishop of Exeter having now 
 entered upon the important functions committed to them, the 
 Prince is desirous that they should from time to time lay before 
 his Majesty such ideas as occur to him as to the details necessary 
 for carrying into execution the general opinion adopted respect- 
 ing the education of Princess Charlotte. This memorandum is 
 intended to apprise them of the present state of the business, and 
 to serve as a guide for them in such conversations as his Majesty 
 may honour them with on this subject. 
 
 ''In consequence of some previous intimation which the 
 Prince had received of his Majesty's wishes, the Prince has 
 expressed that without meaning to discharge himself in any 
 degree of that duty of superintendence and control which nature 
 imposes upon a father in all that relates to the education of his 
 child, he was at the same time desirous of receiving the benefit 
 of his Majesty's gracious assistance and advice in a matter so 
 interesting to his feelings, and of giving the Princess Charlotte 
 the full advantage of that affectionate interest which his Majesty 
 is graciously pleased to take in her welfare. But a reason which 
 it is not here necessary to particularise compelled the Prince to 
 require that the person through whom this communication was 
 made should respectfully but distinctly explain to his Majesty 
 that the Prince could on no account agree to the interference of 
 any other person whatever except his Majesty in the dispositions 
 to be made on this subject, and that this point must at all times be 
 considered as the indispensable condition of the Prince's consent 
 to any arrangement present or future. 
 
 "What has hitherto been done on the subject has, as the 
 Prince conceives, been intended to be regulated by this principle. 
 The next point to be adjusted for giving effect to it is that which 
 relates to the residence of Princess Charlotte, on which subject 
 the Prince desires that Lady de Clifford and the Bishop will 
 submit to his Majesty for his gracious consideration the following 
 ideas : 
 
 "The Prince thinks that during the period of the year in 
 which he is usually resident in London his daughter can nowhere 
 so properly be placed as under her father's roof, where her educa- 
 tion may be carried on without interruption, and where he himself 
 will have the constant opportunity of observing its course and 
 progress. His Majesty's habit of doing business in London 
 several days in each week during most part of the year will 
 afford to the Princess Charlotte ample opportunities of paying 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 393 
 
 her duty there to tlie King and Queen as often as fhey may be 
 pleased to require it, and it is by no means tbe Prince's idea that 
 this arrangement should exclude such short visits to Windsor 
 during the season of holidays or on other temporary occasions as 
 may be found not to break in too much on the course of her 
 education. 
 
 " During those months when the Prince is usually not resident 
 in London, he would have great satisfaction in his daughter's 
 being allowed to reside with his Majesty at Windsor, Weymouth, 
 or elsewhere, reserving to himself in the same manner as above 
 stated the pleasure of seeing her sometimes, if he should wish it, 
 on short and occasional visits. 
 
 " The communications already made to Lady de Clifford seem 
 to give every reason to hope that these ideas are very little, if at 
 all, different from those entertained by his Majesty on the 
 subject. And at all events the Prince is confident that they 
 cannot fail to be considered as fresh proofs of his respectful 
 desire to meet his Majesty's wishes in every way consistent with 
 his honour and with the feelings of paternal affection and duty 
 towards his daughter." * 
 
 Only a few weeks before this festival he expounded his views 
 at the Antient Music Concert to the Speaker of the House of 
 Commons ; and Lord Colchester, iu his " Diary," gives a rather 
 favourable idea of the vivacity and even cleverness of his mode 
 of expressing himself : 
 
 " May 8th. — The Prince of Wales entered into a long conversa- 
 tion with me, condemned the altercations in the House of Commons 
 about naval papers, expressed his surprise at Mr. Pitt saying one 
 day that he would not advise Lord Melville's being struck out of 
 the Privy Council, and announcing upon a subsequent day that 
 he had advised it. Spoke very favourably of Whitbread's manner 
 of opening the charge and carrying on the proceedings against 
 Lord Melville. Wondered Lord Melville did not offer himself for 
 examination; thought that nothing was now left but impeach- 
 ment. Spoke of the Master of the Rolls's two last speeches as 
 having fallen much below his expectations. Endeavoured to 
 persuade all his friends not to meddle with these quarrels, but to 
 look to the greater concerns of the country in these times of 
 external danger. Ridiculed the idea of Lord Barham, at eighty- 
 two, becoming First Lord of the Admiralty and having a peerage 
 for himself and daughter, accompanied with an intimation that 
 he was only a temporary First Lord, and not to last many weeks. 
 He mentioned also the Catholic question ; said that he had so far 
 
 * Lord Albemarle, "Fifty Years of My Life," i. 264 
 
394 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 prevailed with Mr. Fox as not to think of bringing forward the 
 whole claim, but to soften it down to a question for a committee. 
 That he had not succeeded quite so easily with his friend Lord 
 Grenville, etc., and then went into high encomiums on his 
 talents/'' etc. 
 
 After this we find him at Stowe, where Lord Buckingham 
 entertained him magnificently^ and assembled all " the Grenvilles" 
 to meet him. The festivities began on August 25, and lasted for 
 a week ; the Prince, with his brother the Duke of Clarence, and 
 some fifty guests, being welcomed by four hundred of the leading 
 persons of the kingdom. Mr. Fox was also of the party. 
 
 We have a pleasing glimpse of him at this time in a picture ' 
 drawn by the venerable Dr. Burney, Johnson's friend and 
 admirer, who seems to have been enchanted with the polite 
 attentions of the gracious Prince. This, again^ is infinitely in his 
 favour, and a mark of true good nature. 
 
 " 1805. — In May, at a concert at Lady Salisbury's, I was 
 extremely pleased, both with the music and the performance. 
 The former was chiefly selected by the Prince of Wales. . . . 
 I had not been five minutes in the concert-room, before a mes- 
 senger, sent to me by his royal highness, gave me a command 
 to join him, which I did eagerly enough ; when his royal high- 
 ness graciously condescended to order me to sit down by him, 
 and kept me to that high honour the whole evening. Our ideas, 
 by his engaging invitation, were reciprocated upon every piece 
 and its execution. After the concert. Lady Melbourne, who, when 
 Miss Milbanke, had been one of my first scholars on my return 
 to London from Lynn, obligingly complained that she had often 
 vainly tried to tempt me to dine with her, but would make one 
 effort more now, by his royal highness's permission, that I might 
 meet, at Lord Melbourne's table, with the Prince of Wales. Of 
 course I expressed, as well as I could, my sense of so high and 
 unexpected an honour ; and the Prince, with a smile of unequalled 
 courtesy, said, 'Aye, do come. Dr. Burney, and bring your son 
 with you.'' And then, turning to Lady Melbourne, he added : 
 ' It is singular that the father should be the best, and almost the 
 only good judge of music in the kingdom] and his son the best 
 scholar.' 
 
 " But I heard nothing more of the projected dinner, till I met 
 Lady Melbourne at an assembly at the Dowager Lady Sef ton's; 
 when I ventured to tell her ladyship that I feared the dinner 
 which my son and I were most ambitious should take place, was 
 relinquished. ' By no means,' she answered, ' for the Prince 
 really desired it.' And, after a note or two of the best bred 
 civility from her ladyship, the day was settled by his royal 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 395 
 
 Mglmess for July the 9th. The Prince did not make the com- 
 pany wait at Whitehall (Lord Melbourne's) ; he was not five 
 minutes beyond the appointed time, a quarter-past six o'clock : 
 though he is said never to dine at Carlton House before eight. 
 The company consisted, besides the Prince and the lord and 
 lady of the house, with their two sons and two daughters, of 
 Earls Egremont and Cowper, Mr. and Lady Caroline Lamb, 
 Mr. Lutterel, Mr. Horner, and Mr. Windham. 
 
 " The dinner was sumptuous, of course, etc. 
 
 " I had almost made a solemn vow, early in life, to quit the 
 world without ever drinking a dry dram ; but the heroic virtue 
 of a long life was overset by his royal highness, through the 
 irresistible temptation to bobbing and nobbing with such a 
 partner in a glass of cherry brandy ! The spirit of it, however, 
 was so finely subdued, that it was not more potent than a dose of 
 peppermint water j which I have always called a dram. 
 
 " The conversation was lively and general the chief part of the 
 evening ; but about midnight it turned upon music, on which 
 subject his royal highness deigned so wholly to address himself 
 to me, that we kept it up a full half hour, without any else 
 ofEering a word. We were, generally, in perfect tune in our 
 opinions ; though once or twice I ventured to dissent from his 
 royal highness ; and once he condescended to come over to my 
 argument ; and he had the skill, as well as nobleness, to put 
 me as perfectly at my ease in expressing my notions, as I should 
 have been with any other perfectly well-bred man. 
 
 "The subject was then changed to classical lore ; and here his 
 royal highness, with similar condescension, addressed himself to 
 my son, as a man of erudition whose ideas on learned topics 
 he respected; and a full discussion followed of several literary 
 matters. 
 
 " When the Prince rose to go to another room, we met Lady 
 Melbourne and her daughter, just returned from the opera ; to 
 which they had been while we sat over the wine (and eke the 
 cherry brandy) ; and from which they came back in exact time 
 for coffee ! The Prince here, coming up to me, most graciously 
 took my hand, and said, ' I am glad we got, at last, to our 
 favourite subject.' He then made me sit down by him, close 
 to the keys of a pianoforte, where, in a low voice, but face to 
 face, we talked again upon music, and uttered our sentiments 
 with, I may safely say, equal ease and freedom ; so politely he 
 encouraged my openness and sincerity. 
 
 " I then ventured to mention that I had a book in my posses- 
 sion that I regarded as the property of his royal highness. It 
 was a set of my ' Commemoration of Handel,' which I had had 
 
396 THE LIFE OF QEOEGE IV. 
 
 splendidly bound for permitted presentation through the medium 
 of Lord St. Asaph j but which had not been received, from public 
 casualties. His royal highness answered me with the most 
 engaging good-humour, saying that he was now building a library, 
 and that, when it was finished, mine should be the first book 
 placed in his collection. Nobody is so prompt at polite and grati- 
 fying compliments as this gracious Prince. I had no conception 
 of his accomplishments. He quite astonished me by his learning, 
 in conversing with my son, after my own musical tete-a-tete 
 dialogue with him. He quoted Homer in Greek as readily as if 
 quoting Dryden or Pope in English ; and, in general conversa- 
 tion, during the dinner, he discovered a fund of wit and humour 
 such as demonstrated him a man of reading and parts, who knew 
 how to discriminate characters. He is, besides, an incomparable 
 mimic. He counterfeited Dr. Parr's lisp, language, and manner ; 
 and Kemble's voice and accent, both on and off the stage, so 
 accurately, so nicely, so free from caricature, that, had I been in 
 another room, I should have sworn they had been speaking them- 
 selves. Upon the whole, I cannot terminate my account of this 
 Prince better than by asserting it as my opinion, from the know- 
 ledge I acquired by my observations of this night, that he has as 
 much conversational talent, and far more learning than Charles 
 the Second, who knew no more, even of orthography, than 
 Moliere's ' Bourgeois Gentilhomme.' 
 
 " My next great concert was at Mr. Thomson's, in G-rosvenor 
 Square. Before I arrived, from not knowing there was a royal motive 
 for every one to be early, I found the crowd of company so exces- 
 sively great, that I was a considerable time before I could make 
 my way into the music-room ; which I found also so full, that not 
 only I could not discern a place where I might get a seat (and to 
 stand the whole night in such a heat would have been impossible 
 for me), but also I could not discover a spot where I might look 
 on even for a few minutes, to see what was going forwards, 
 without being bodily jammed ; except quite close to the orchestra, 
 where alone there seemed to be a little breathing room left. To 
 gain this desirable little opening, I ventured to follow closely, as 
 if of their party, two very fine ladies, who made their way (heaven 
 knows how !) to some sofa, I fancy, reserved for them. But what 
 was my surprise, and shame, when upon attaining thus my 
 coveted harbour, I found I came bounce upon the Prince of Wales, 
 from respect to whom alone no crowd had there resorted ! I had 
 no time, however, for repentance, and no room for apology ; for 
 that gracious and kind Prince laughed at my exploit, and shook 
 me very heartily by the hand, as if glad to see me again ; and 
 obliged me to sit down by him immediately. Nor would he 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 397 
 
 suffer me to relinquisli my place, eveu to any of the Princes, his 
 brothers, when they came to him ! nor even to any fine lady ! 
 always making a motion to me, that was a command, to be quiet. 
 We talked, as before, over every piece and performance, with full 
 ease of expression to our thoughts : but how great was my grati- 
 fication, when, upon going into a cooler room, between the acts, 
 he put his hat on his seat, and said, ' Dr. Burney, will you take 
 care of my place for me ? ' thus obviating from my stay all fear 
 of intrusion, by making it an obedience. And his notions about 
 music so constantly agree with my own, that I know of no indi- 
 vidual, male or female, with whom I talk about music with more 
 sincerity, as well as pleasure, than with this most captivating 
 Prince. 
 
 " Another time, at the Opera, the Prince of Wales, perceiving 
 me in the pit, sent for me to his splendid box ; and, making me 
 take a snug seat close behind his royal highness, entered with 
 his usual vivacity into discussions upon the performance ; and so 
 re-jeunied me by his gaiety and condescension, joined to his 
 extraordinary judgment on musical subjects, that I held forth in 
 return as if I had been but five-and-twenty ! " 
 
 To this may be added the better-known anecdote of his 
 considerate behaviour to one of his servants. It is thus related 
 by Dr. Croly : 
 
 "Being at Brighton, and going rather earlier than usual to 
 visit his stud, he inquired of a groom : ' Where is Tom Cross ?* 
 Is he unwell ? I have missed him for some days.' ' Please 
 your royal highness, he is gone away.' ' Gone away ! — what 
 for?' 'Please your royal highness (hesitating), I believe — ^for 
 
 — ^Mr. can inform your royal highness.' ' I desire to know, 
 
 sir, of you — what has he done ? ' 'I believe — your royal high- 
 ness — something — not — quite correct — something about the oats.' 
 
 ' Where is Mr. ? Send him to me immediately.' The Prince 
 
 appeared much disturbed at the discovery. The absentee, quite 
 a youth, had been employed in the 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 Tom 
 Cross ? — what has become of him ? ' ' I do not know, your 
 royal highness.' ' What has he been doing ? ' ' Purloining 
 the oats, your royal highness; and I discharged him.' 'What, 
 sir ! send him away without acquainting me ! — not know whither 
 he is gone ! — a fatherless boy, driven into the world from my 
 service with a blighted character ! Why, the poor fellow will 
 
 be destroyed : Mr. ! I did not expect this from you ! Seek 
 
 * This name is assumed. 
 
398 THE LIPE OF GEOEaE IV. 
 
 him out, sir, and let me not see you till you have discovered 
 tim.' Tom was found and brought before his royal master. He 
 hung down his head, while the tears trickled from his eyes. 
 After looking steadfastly at him for some moments, ' Tom, Tom,^ 
 said the Prince, ' what have 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. Tour father was an honest man; I had a 
 great regard for him ; so I should have for you, if you were a 
 
 good lad, for his sake. Now, if I desire Mr. to take you 
 
 into the stable again, do you think I may trust you ? ' Tom 
 wept still more vehemently, implored forgiveness, and promised 
 reformation. ' Well, then,' said the gracious Prince, ' you 
 shall be restored. Avoid evil company : go, and recover your 
 character : be diligent, be honest, and make me your friend ; 
 and — hark ye, Tom — I will take care that no one shall ever 
 taunt you with what is past.' " 
 
 " Some years since, a gentleman, whilst copying a picture in 
 ■one of the State apartments at Carlton House, overheard the 
 following conversation between an elderly woman, one of the 
 housemaids, then employed in cleaning a stove-grate, and a 
 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 illness). 'Much better,' was the reply. 
 ' I suppose,' said the glazier, ' you are glad of that ; ' sub- 
 joining, 'though, to be sure, it can't concern you much.' 'It 
 ■does concern me,' replied the housemaid ; 'for I have never been 
 ill but his royal highness has concerned himself about me, and 
 has always been pleased, on my coming to 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 should be ill 
 again." If I did not rejoice at his royal highness's recovery, ay, 
 and everyone who eats his bread, we should be ungrateful 
 indeed ! ' " 
 
 On the news of the death of Nelson, he addressed the follow- 
 ing effusive letter in answer to a person who suggested his 
 attendance at the funeral : 
 
 THE PBINCE OE -WALES TO MR. ALESANDEE DAVISON, 
 
 " I am extremely obliged to you, my dear Sir, for your 
 confidential letter, which I received this morning. You may be 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IT. 399 
 
 •well assured, that did it depend upon me, there would not be a 
 wish, a desire of our ever-to-be-lamented and much-loved friend, 
 as well as adored hero, that I would not consider as a solemn 
 obligation upon his friends and his country to fulfil ; it is a duty 
 they owe his memory, and his matchless and unrivalled excellence. 
 Such are my sentiments ; and I hope that there is still in this 
 country sufficient honour, virtue, and gratitude, to prompt us to 
 ratify and to carry into effect the last dying request of our 
 Nelson — by that means proving, not only to the whole world, but 
 to future ages, that we were worthy of having such a man 
 belonging to us. It must be needless, my dear Sir, to discuss 
 over, with you in particular, the irreparable loss dear Nelson ever 
 must be, not merely to his friends, but to his country, especially 
 at the present crisis, and during the present most awful contest : 
 his very name was a host of itself — Nelson and victory were one 
 and the same to us, and it carried dismay and terror to the hearts 
 of our enemies. But the subject is too painful a one to dwell 
 longer upon. As to myself, all that I can do, either publicly or 
 privately, to testify the reverence, the respect I entertain for his 
 memory as a hero, and as the greatest public character that ever 
 embellished the page of history, independent of what I can, with 
 the greatest truth, term the enthusiastic attachment I felt for 
 him as a friend, I consider it as my duty to fulfil ; and therefore, 
 though I may be prevented from taking that ostensible and 
 prominent situation at his funeral which I think my birth and 
 high rank entitle me to claim, still nothing shall prevent me, in 
 a private character, following his remains to their last resting- 
 place ; for though the station and the character may be less 
 ostensible, less prominent, yet the feelings of the heart will not 
 therefore be the less poignant or the less acute. 
 
 " I am, my dear Sir, with the greatest truth, 
 " Ever very sincerely yours, 
 
 "GeoegbP." 
 
 His feelings on this subject were even more excited by 
 meeting with Mr. Scott, Nelson's chaplain and attendant in the 
 Victory. "I was once,'' he says, ''without preparation or the 
 least knowledge of his royal highness, suddenly, I may say some- 
 what clumsily, in the midst of a party, introduced to the Prince. 
 Se immediately rose, grasped my hand, and shed tears ; in short, 
 his feelings were so acute, that I retreated into the crowd to 
 :spare him. I never can forget the pressure of his hand, nor the 
 sensibility he evinced." The poor chaplain was writing this 
 appeal from the Charterhouse, the only retreat he could obtain 
 from a grateful country. It would seem that he appealed vainly 
 
400 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 to the Regent and Lord Moira. Lady Hamilton's treatment is 
 well known ; Magrathj his medical officer, met with similar 
 neglect. The midshipman Pollard, who had avenged Nelson's 
 death by shooting the man that killed him, obtained a retreat 
 at Greenwich : having no interest, he never rose higher than a 
 Heutenant. 
 
 A long list, indeed, could he furnished of instances of the 
 Prince's generous sympathy for cases of this kind; that is, where 
 there was a certain dramatic element to stir his kindly emotions. 
 Connected with the fate of Nelson was the hard treatment of 
 Lady Hamilton — as to which the Prince declared that his desire 
 was, that Nelson's last wishes should be given effect to in every 
 particular. But, as may be conceived, he had no power and no 
 influence at court, or with ministers. Mr. Warren Hastings was 
 induced to lay his case before him, and bent his proud spirit so 
 far as to set out what would atone for the treatment he had 
 received, mentioning in particular a peerage. He describes in 
 his diary the gracious kindly way in which he was treated. Lord 
 Moira was instructed to do his best, but nothing came of it. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 1805. 
 
 With this year now came the first remarkable symptom of the 
 change in the Princess political opinions, and which have been 
 generally associated with what is called his treatment of the 
 Whigs five years later. This is a fair element in his vindication, 
 and shows that not only was it the influence of Mr. Fox that 
 had attached him to the party, but that even before Mr. Fox's 
 death his views had been changing. That he should have 
 changed his views can be scarcely urged as a serious reproach, 
 when statesmen of importance did the same, and, without scruple, 
 shifted from ministry to ministry. Nor is he to be judged as 
 severely as a subject. The Catholic question was at this time 
 being pressed, and became, as it generally did, the test or solvent 
 of much clouded opinion. It was significant that Fox now should 
 have doubts of his royal friend as to this crucial point. These 
 misgivings are expressed in letters to his friends. 
 
 There was scarcely a year of the Prince's life in which, as 
 Johnson would have called it, his " superfoetation of activity," or 
 rather his habit of thoughtlessly taking action where his feelings 
 were involved, did not plunge him into some awkward embarrass- 
 ment. Early in 1805, he found himself eagerly engaged in 
 ardently forwarding a lawsuit, which related, says Sir S. Romilly, 
 " to the guardianship of a daughter of Lord Hugh Seymour, who 
 had remained, at the death of her parents while she was of very 
 tender years, under the care of Mrs. Fitzherbert. With that 
 lady she had been left by her family till she was between five 
 and six years old, and they then required to have her returned to 
 them. Being an orphan, and without a legal guardian, no person 
 VOL. I. 2d 
 
402 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 
 
 had a right to remove her^ and the principal object of the suit 
 was to have a guardian for her appointed. On the one side were 
 proposed for this office Lord Euston and Lord Henry Seymour, 
 who had been named by Lord Hugh in a will made before the 
 birth of this little orphan ; and on the other, Mrs. Pitzherbert, 
 who had in truth become a mother to it. The Master, to whom 
 the matter was referred, approved of Lord Euston and Lord 
 Henry Seymour as guardians ; and from his decision Mrs. Fitz- 
 herbert brought the matter, by an exception to the report, before 
 the Lord Chancellor, who, after a long hearing, and with less 
 than his usual deliberation, confirmed the Master's report. 
 While the cause was depending, the Prince of Wales, who lived 
 at Mrs. Fitzherbert's house as his own, was extremely anxious 
 about the event of it. He loved the child with paternal affection, 
 and the idea of having her torn from him seemed to be as painful 
 to him as it was to Mrs. Fitzherbert. It was upon the occasion 
 of this cause that he desired once that I, who was one of the 
 counsel for Mrs. Fitzherbert, would meet him at her house. I 
 met him accordingly, and had a very long conversation with his 
 Royal Highness." * 
 
 It was thus that he was brought in contact with Romilly. 
 Some years (as Lord Moira had told Lord Lansdowne) he had 
 been eager to know some " sound lawyer of high character and 
 judgment," in whom he might place unbounded confidence, and 
 with whom he was desirous of forming a connection before his 
 accession to the throne.f This was a prudent and praiseworthy 
 idea, but, unluctily, it is not in the power of princes of his nature 
 to secure advisers of this stamp, who, after a time, are alienated 
 or whose advice becomes unpalatable. The Prince, however, 
 during the course of the business took a great liking to him, 
 and in September, 1805, offered to bring him into Parhament. 
 Mr. Creevy was the person to whom the Prince proposed the 
 idea : 
 
 " On Monday last, the day after his return from Weymouth 
 and London, in the course of a very long discussion upon these 
 matters, he said he had done one excellent thing during his- 
 absence — 'he had got a seat in Parliament for Romilly.' He 
 then went at great length into your history and your merits; 
 pronounced you to be the chief of your profession, and a certain 
 future chancellor ; and expressed the greatest desire for himself 
 to be the means of your coming into Parliament. He said he 
 had mentioned this in an interview with Fox, in town last week, 
 who had likewise expressed the greatest delight at it. You 
 would have been amused had you heard the familiarity with 
 * " Memoirs," ii. 117. Ibid. ii. 126. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 403 
 
 wMcIi he handled the possible objections to this measure: he 
 said your parliamentary business was principally in the House 
 of Lords, with which it would not interfere, and that you seldom 
 or never attended election committees.^' 
 
 Romilly, however, declined the offer on principle, not wishing 
 to be a nominee of the Prince's, or to enter Parliament save 
 through popular election. Though mortified at his refusal, the 
 Prince's partiality was so great, that he declared enthusiastically 
 that " if he was not permitted to give him a seat, he would take 
 care that he should be sure of one when he wanted it." And 
 presently he found his services useful in a most critical business, 
 which we shall presently deal with. 
 
 Meanwhile this affair of young Miss Mary Seymour was en- 
 gaging his attention. She was with Mrs. Fitzherbert at No. 6, 
 Tilney Street. The present Earl of Albemarle, author of a 
 most interesting book of " Eecollections," was living close by, in 
 Audley Street, with Lady de Clifford, the governess of the young 
 Princess. Young Keppel was often found at Tilney Street. 
 
 " By my Kttle hostess," he says, " I had the honour of being 
 presented to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George the Fourth. 
 His appearance and manners were both of a nature to produce a 
 lively impression on the mind of a child — a merry good-humoured 
 man, tall, though somewhat portly in stature, in the prime of 
 life, with laughing eyes, pouting lips, and nose which very 
 slightly turned up, gave a peculiar poignancy to the expression 
 of his face. He wore a well-powdered wig, adorned with a pro- 
 fusion of curls which in my innocence I believed to be his own 
 hair, as I did a very large pigtail appended thereto. His clothes 
 fitted him like a glove, his coat was single-breasted and buttoned 
 up to the chin. His nether garments were leather pantaloons 
 and Hessian, boots. Round his throat was a huge white neck- 
 cloth of many folds, out of which his chin seemed to be always 
 struggling to emerge. 
 
 " No sooner was his royal highness seated in his armchair than 
 my young companion would jump up on one of his knees, to 
 which she seemed to claim a prescriptive right. Straightway 
 would arise an animated talk between ' Prinny and Minnie,' as 
 they respectively called each other." 
 
 This pleasant sketch shows the Prince in an amiable light. 
 His affection for the child amounted to a passion. He offered to 
 adopt it, and settle £10,000 on it, but Lord Henry Seymour, the 
 guardian, was inflexible.* Being thus opposed, he became more 
 bent on having his way, and even swore an affidavit in Chancery, 
 in which he set out that he believed Mrs. Fitzherbert was the best 
 
 * Auckland, " Oorrespondence," iv. 219. 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 THE LIFE OP aEOEGE IV. 
 
 person to have charge of the education of the child. The Chan- 
 cellor having decided against the PrincCj the case came before 
 the House of Lords on appeal, before another Chancellor, Lord 
 Erskine. The Prince indiscreetly made the most open exertions, 
 canvassing all the peers to support him.* This proceeding was 
 much to the amazement of Romilly, who earnestly deprecated the 
 step to Colonel MacMahon. In the arguments, the high cha- 
 racter of Mrs. Pitzherbert received due acknowledgment on all 
 sides. The objection was the entrusting of a Protestant child to 
 her care. The peers mustered strongly ; there were some seventy 
 or eighty present. But there was no division, and the Chancellor 
 reversed his decree. Thus was the child handed over to the 
 charge of the Hertfords, who, it was known, would consign her 
 to Mrs. Fitzherbert's care. For her, this day of triumph was to 
 bear fresh troubles. 
 
 Mrs. Pitzherbert had indeed felt the matter acutely, and there 
 were circumstances in the case almost of pathetic interest. Lady 
 Horace Seymour had been her dearest friend, and, in the last 
 stage of decline, had been ordered abroad in her husband's ship. 
 Her last act was to confide her infant to her friend. She told 
 Lord Stourton she had tried everything, but at last took a step 
 by which she unconsciously was to sacrifice her own happiness. 
 She had recourse to Lady Hertford, with whom she was for- 
 merly intimately acquainted. She requested her to intercede 
 with Lord Hertford, as head of his house, to come to her aid, 
 and demand for himself the guardianship of the child, to give 
 it up to her upon certain conditions as to its education. " This 
 long negotiation, in which the Prince was the principal instru- 
 ment, led him at last to those confidential relations which ulti- 
 mately gave to Lady Hertford an ascendency over him superior 
 to that possessed by Mrs. Pitzherbert herself, and from a friend 
 converted her into a successful rival. Lady Hertford, anxious 
 for the preservation of her own reputation, which she was not 
 willing to compromise with the public even when she ruled the 
 Prince with the most absolute sway, exposed Mrs. Pitzherbert at 
 this time to very severe trials, which at last almost, as she said, 
 ruined her health and destroyed her nerves. Attentions were 
 
 * THE PEnSfCE OP WALES TO THE DUKE OE NOEFOLK. 
 
 " Carlton House, Monday Morning, Jan. 8, 1805. 
 " My DEAR Duke, 
 
 " I have seen Lord Hertford, who will call upon yon in the course 
 of the day, or, at any rate, before the business is brought before the 
 Committee. 
 
 " I am ever, my dear Duke, your very sincere friend, 
 
 " Gecege p." 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEaS lY. 405 
 
 required from her towards Lady Hertford herself, even when 
 most aware of her superior influence over the Prince." 
 
 Eeturning now to the 10th of May, when the debate came . 
 on, we find that the Prince had actually sent the pliant 
 Sheridan to his friend Fox to dissuade him from taking part 
 in the matter. But Pox, ever manly, straightforward, and 
 independent, sent the following reply, after stating that he was 
 committed to the cause, from having presented a Cathohc 
 petition. He says : 
 
 "Now, therefore, any discussion on this part of the subject 
 would be too late ; but I will fairly own, that, if it were not, I 
 could not be dissuaded from doing the public act, which, of all 
 others, it will give me the greatest satisfaction and pride to 
 perform. No past event in my political life ever did, and no 
 future one ever can, give me such pleasure. 
 
 "I am sure you know how painful it would be to me to 
 disobey any command of his Royal Highness's, or even to act in 
 any manner that might be in the slightest degree contrary to his 
 wishes, and, therefore, I am not sorry that your intimation came 
 too late. I shall endeavour to see the Prince to-day ; but if I 
 should fail, pray take care that he knows how things stand before 
 we meet at dinner, lest any conversation there should appear to 
 come upon him by surprise."* 
 
 There were "opportunists" then, as now, who looked to a 
 convenient mode of shelving a question without sacrificing 
 principle, as will be seen from what next occurred. 
 
 "Soon after the return of Mr. Pitt to ofiice," says Mr. Wallace 
 in his "History," "the following semi-ofiicial announcement 
 appeared in a journal devoted to the Prince, and the known 
 vehicle of party squibs and political notifications by Sheridan. 
 ' The leading members of both (Fox and Grenville) Oppositions 
 have declared themselves decidedly in favour of Catholic Emanci- 
 pation, the personal friends of an illustrious personage alone 
 excepted.' A second paragraph appeared in the same paper 
 only a few days before the discussion of the question. ' The 
 Irish Catholic question, we have reason to believe, will not for the 
 present, at least, be brought under parliamentary discussion. 
 Mr. Fox, we understand, is disposed to concede to the public 
 opinion as to the inexpediency of moving it at this time ; and it 
 is not improbable that Lord Grenville may also relax so far from 
 his prejudices as to yield to the more discreet judgment of an 
 illustrious personage, who, although he continues to approve the 
 measure of emancipation, deprecates this polemical enquiry at so 
 momentous a period.' " 
 
 * Moore, " Life of Sheridan," ii. 333. 
 
406 THE LIFE OP GEORGE IV. 
 
 All this stows what suspicions there were of the change 
 having taken place in the Prince's views. 
 
 By the death of Mr. Pitt, which occurred on the morning of 
 January 24th, 1806, the long-deferred change in the Prince's 
 fortune was at last to arrive, and his old friend and partisan, 
 Mr. Fox, was now in power. It was unfortunate, however, that 
 at such a time the old warmth of friendship should have abated, 
 and that the Prince, through the agency of his henchman 
 Sheridan, should have been making advances even during the last 
 ministry to Mr. Addington. The first direct communication from 
 Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox was received by Lord Sidmouth on 
 the 29th : 
 
 " In consequence of a note received this morning," wrote 
 Lord Sidmouth, " from Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, I am to see 
 them to-day; but a connection with them will not result from it 
 unless I have a perfect conviction that it would be advantageous 
 to the country, and honourable to myself." 
 
 A few days later he wrote to "Brother Hiley" the foUowiag 
 amusing communication, by which it wiU be seen how admirably 
 the family were provided for : 
 
 ''Hiley has, I believe, explained to you how and by whom 
 the overture was made to me.* Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox 
 were nearly inundated by the pretensions which poured in from 
 their respective connexions; and I was, therefore, as moderate 
 as I could be without unbecoming concession or sacrifice. I have 
 laid a strong claim for you, which was readily admitted, to a 
 situation of adequate importance whenever a vacancy may take 
 place. For Hiley the joint paymastership is promised ; and 
 Vansittart is to return to his former station at the Treasury (at 
 his own request), if his Majesty will dispense with the punctilio 
 arising from his rank as a Privy Councillor, which I think very 
 questionable." 
 
 It was curious, too, to find him about this time warmly 
 uniting with the head of the " centre " party. Lord Grenville. 
 
 "As early as the 23rd of January" (when Mr. Pitt was in 
 extremis), "Mr. Sheridan told him by note that 'he had been 
 commanded to have a confidential communication with him, and 
 requested permission to wait upon him at Richmond Park for 
 that purpose.' " 
 
 What inspired this communication is indicated in a letter 
 which Lord St. Vincent addressed to Lord Sidmouth on the 
 25th of January: "The Prince of Wales came to me at five 
 o'clock, while I was dressing, and desired I would lose no time 
 in giving you information that the ministry was entirely broken 
 * From the Prince of Wales, through Mr. Sheridan. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 407 
 
 up, and that the King meant to send for Lord Grenville. . . . 
 From all that passed, it appears your moderation has pro- 
 duced a good effect upon the new and old Opposition, amongst 
 whom Windham is the most violent." The next morning, 
 January 26th, Mr. Sheridan was again commanded to write to 
 appoint an interview. Two other notes shortly afterwards arrived 
 from the same party, in the last of which, dated January 29th, he 
 stated, " that he had something to communicate to Lord Sidmouth 
 from the Prince and Mr. Fox." 
 
 Mr. Grey Bennett, in his MS. Diary, writes : " Lord Aberdare 
 told me that the Dukes of York and Cumberland, who told him, 
 went to announce death of Pitt to Ejing, who tears and said, 
 * This will be my death-blow ! ' When Grenville sent for Mr. 
 Fox, the King required him to sign a paper in which he claimed 
 right of refusing or accepting any plan of Cabinet. Lord Grenville 
 and Fox said of course that this was unnecessary, as it was 
 his constitutional right. This showed King's alarm. . . . Fox, 
 at his first interview, made a speech, in which he said he had 
 been misrepresented, and yielded to no man in attachment to 
 constitution for his Majesty. The King agitated, and said : ' I 
 believe you, Mr. Fox. I know you to be a man of honour, and 
 thank you for what you have said.' Lord Grenville told Lord 
 Derby that the King expressed himself much pleased with 
 the kind treatment he had received; and that he had not 
 expected it." * 
 
 * From ttese curious and entertaining notes, kept during a number of 
 years, I propose taking large extracts during the course of this work. 
 They fill several volumes, and are full of parliamentary and other 
 sketches, gossip, and bits of " secret history," and I am indebted for them 
 to Mr. W. J. Fitzpatrick, the author of the " Life of Dr. Doyle." 
 
CHAPTEE XXXVI. 
 
 1806. 
 
 We are now arrived at one of tlie most singular episodes tliat 
 has been connected with the royal family. The disagreements 
 of the Prince and Princess of Wales had long passed from public 
 observationj and it was assumed that the ill-assorted pair had 
 settled down into a state of decent incompatibility and indifference. 
 But about the summer of 1806 strange rumours got abroad of 
 scandals at Blackheath, and that a secret tribunal had sat in 
 judgment on the Princess. A committee of noblemen had actually 
 tried her in her absence^ brought her servants before them, and 
 accepted their testimony without its being tested on her behalf. 
 It is enough to state the terms of this truly Venetian proceeding, 
 which was the first stage in the persecution that was for fourteen 
 years to assail this unfortunate lady. 
 
 It is not necessary to go into the unpleasant details of what 
 was called " the delicate investigation/'' or indeed of any of the 
 other proceedings against her. A very simple statement will 
 show what the character of the whole affair was. It will be seen 
 that the PrincesSj becoming careless and reckless, had, with her 
 usual indiscreetness, adopted strangers as though they were old 
 friends. She had always an extraordinary fancy for children, and 
 indeed up to her death she adopted some half-a-dozen, and was 
 scarcely ever without a child of low degree in her train. This 
 hobby, or folly — ^for such it was — notoriously gave rise to stories 
 and speculations. 
 
 It was to be lamented indeed that, with the King and nation 
 on her side, she could not have behaved with ordinary discretion 
 among her neighbours. It seems that the Princess, now living 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 409 
 
 at Blacklieath, had heard that Lady Douglas — her neighbour, 
 an utter stranger to her — had been confined, and introduced 
 herself on the occasion. On this, an extravagant intimacy fol- 
 lowed, which continued for some years, until the end of 1804, 
 when the lady was suddenly dismissed and her letters returned 
 unopened. Much exasperated at this treatment, Lady Douglas 
 soon after declared that she had received anonymous letters 
 and drawings of a scandalous character. On which, her husband 
 threatened that he would expose the Princess, and informed the 
 Duke of Kent that he would do so. The latter interposed, and 
 begged that the matter would not be mentioned, as it would 
 annoy the King. It should be noted that at this stage it was 
 merely " a private squabble " between the parties, the Douglases 
 complaining of the Princess's slanders, and requiring redress. In 
 November, 1805, the Duke of Sussex appeared on the scene, and 
 waited on the Prince of Wales with a new and startling com- 
 munication that Sir John had told him some facts relative to 
 the Princess, and which " might affect the royal succession." 
 
 This must have been welcome information to the Prince, who 
 felt himself bound by " duty " to move in the matter. On this 
 Sir John and Lady Douglas made declarations before the Duke 
 of Sussex at Greenwich Park, dated December 3rd, 1805. Lady 
 Douglas's was virtually the " act of accusation," and it was of 
 extraordinary length. It set out such charges that Lord Thurlow, 
 to whom the Prince submitted the papers, called in the assistance 
 of Romilly, now the Prince's legal friend ; two men likely to come 
 to an honest opinion on the matter, even though Thurlow was 
 now the Prince's private adviser on every important subject. 
 Colonel Macmahon and Lord Moira, two of the Prince's familiars, 
 were also busy in the case. It may be said here that, when such 
 a matter was brought to the Prince's notice, he could not avoid 
 taking the matter up and investigating it. 
 
 Lord Thurlow's opinion, expressed with his usual coarse 
 energy, was that "he did not believe Lady Douglas's ac- 
 count." There was "no composition,''' he said, "in her nar- 
 rative — i.e. it did not hang together; no dates; that some parts 
 were grossly improbable ; that the Princess could hardly have 
 said such things when he first knew her, but she might have 
 altered. But to be sure it was a strange thing to take a 
 beggar's child, but a few days old, and adopt it as her own ; but 
 that, however, the Princess had strange whims." 
 
 Upon the whole, his opinion was there was no evidence on 
 which to found action, and the Prince must wait and see what 
 facts would come to light in future. This was a sound and 
 correct judgment. He then advised that evidence should be 
 
410 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 collected respecting lier general teliaviour, and suggested that 
 a skilled practitioner should be employed. 
 
 Thus, when we add the verdict of the later commission to the 
 ■declarations of the Prince's advisers, it is clear that the Princess 
 was acquitted almost as soon as the charge was made. 
 
 This statement of Lady Douglas — filling some sixty octavo 
 pages — is the most extraordinary document conceivable, and seems 
 rather the rambling incoherence of some of those wild women 
 who come into court as plaintiffs in strange and romantic trials, 
 than that of a sober accuser. In this she raked together con- 
 versations of the most extraordinary kind — coarse and imprudent, 
 -which probably did take place. A single passage shows the 
 spirit of the whole : " I now received, by the twopenny post, a 
 long anonymous letter, written by this restless, mischievous 
 person, the Princess of Wales, in which, in_ language which any 
 ■one who had ever heard her speak, would have known to be 
 hers, she called me all kinds of names — impudent, silly, wretched, 
 ungrateful, and illiteral (meaning illiterate) ; she tells me to take 
 that, and it will mend my ill temper, etc. etc. etc., and says she is 
 a person high in this government, and has often an opportunity of 
 {sic) freely with his Majesty ; and she thinks my conduct authorises 
 her to tell him of, and that she is my only true and 'integer friend.' 
 Such is the spirit of this foreigner, which would have disgraced a 
 housemaid to have written." 
 
 Seeing that the case had broken down, it was determined to 
 make one ; and at this point it is difficult to acquit the Prince 
 and his advisers. The solicitor to the Douglases, this Lowten, was 
 appointed to " get up " facts ; and the amiable Romilly, who had 
 •declined to advise on this part of the business, was talked over 
 into himself examining Lady Douglas. All the Prince's servants 
 were " got at," and two — Bidgood and Cole — detailed stories of 
 familiarities with visitors. On the truth of these and other 
 ■charges it is impossible to decide; rather, it is beyond the 
 province of a work like the present to decide. To this and the 
 later investigations may be applied a development of the 
 acute remark of Mary Lamb : " They talk of the Queen's guilt. I 
 should not think the better of her if she were what is called 
 innocent." But there can be no doubt that the whole was a 
 most improper, unfair, and unjust proceeding. 
 
 More than five months were consumed in raking together 
 these accusations and trying to strengthen them. Lord Grenville, 
 Mr. Pox, and the Prince's friends were now in office. These were 
 honourable and upright men, but it is certainly remarkable that 
 no official action should have been taken till they were in power. 
 But Pox was dying, and the papers were at last submitted to her 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 411 
 
 friend the Xing, who gave his consent to a commission of 
 inquiry, naming, on May 29, 1806, Lord Brskine, the ChanceUor, 
 Lord Grenville, Lord Spencer, and Lord Ellenborough for the 
 purpose. There was a certain impropriety in choosing Erskine, 
 who had been consulted by Romilly on the papers, and who was 
 one of the Prince's most devoted followers. Romilly assisted at 
 the inquiry, and may be said to have been conducting counsel 
 against the Princess ; but his presence was a guarantee of im- 
 partiality. On the 7th of June it began. Six of the servants 
 were brought from her house without notice to the Princess. 
 The Duke of Kent communicated to her this resolution, and she 
 said, with dignity, they were welcome to examine all. "The 
 result," says Eomilly, " was such as left a perfect conviction on 
 my mind, and I believe on the minds of the four lords, that the 
 boy in question is the son of Sophia Austin. The evidence of 
 all the servants as to the general conduct of the Princess was 
 extremely favourable to her royal highness, and Lady Douglas's 
 account was contradicted in many very important particulars." 
 This from the counsel for the prosecution is remarkable testimony. 
 In fact the ref utal of the charge was complete, and Lady Douglas's 
 account was not only " contradicted " — the amiable word of 
 Eomilly — but seemed to furnish ground for an indictment for 
 perjury. 
 
 On July 14th, 1806, the report was furnished to the King. 
 They completely acquitted her of the charge of being mother of 
 the boy, whose parentage they traced in the most convincing 
 manner. But they added this singular censure : " We do not, 
 however, feel ourselves at liberty, much as we should wish it, to 
 close our report here. Besides the allegations 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 interpretations, 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 wisdom ; 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 
 
412 THE LIFE OF GEOEGB lY. 
 
 to our minds satisfactorily disproved^ so ou tlie other tand we 
 think that the circumstances to which we now refer, particularly 
 those stated to have passed 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." 
 
 It is sufiScient to quote these words, to show their injustice, 
 for how were the charges alluded to to receive " some decided 
 contradiction," unless opportunity was given ? They also attempted 
 to vindicate the Prince from having had any share in the matter ; 
 and it must be said that the Princess generously joined in this 
 view.* He is certainly entitled to indulgence in this respect; 
 for when the affidavits were laid before him, he consulted 
 Lord Thurlow, who advised him to consult his father's ministers, 
 on which the Prince asked Lord Grenville : " What am I to do ? " 
 " I know what I must do," was the reply. 
 
 But during the investigation his favourite. Lord Moira, was 
 busy examining witnesses for himself, and tried to intimidate 
 one Edmeades, a doctor, who flatly contradicted one of the ser- 
 vants, by examining him in presence of a magistrate. The real 
 view to take would seem to be this : That as the main charge 
 had so completely broken down, it looked as though the rest had 
 been " got up " as a supplemental accusation, and would naturally 
 share the fate of the first. 
 
 All that followed was of a piece with the rest. After the 
 process was concluded, the Princess was kept for months 
 waiting a decision. It was not until the January of 1807 that 
 the King was allowed to decide on the question. 
 
 An unfortunate and unusual accident now occurred, which 
 might be considered of evil omen. Driving with Miss Chol- 
 mondeley and Lady Sheffield in September, near Leatherhead, 
 the carriage was overturned ; the Princess herself was much 
 contused, but the young lady was killed on the spot. 
 
 As she was not allowed to defend herself at the trial, it was 
 determined that this should be done now. The Princess, however, 
 had important friends to defend her, and none more warm and 
 eager at this time than the late Chancellor, Lord Eldon. He was 
 in constant communication with her, and advised and supported 
 her through these trials. It was to him that she complained of 
 her papers being stolen, and later of the monstrous affront that 
 she was forced to keep in her service the very servants who had 
 made criminal charges against her. 
 
 But a more valuable ally was Mr. Perceval, afterwards minister, 
 who had now become her ardent champion. " To the tower or 
 * As she told Lord Minto. " Life of Sir G. Elliot," iii. 388. 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 413 
 
 scaffold in such a cause," lie had exclaimed enthusiastically to Lady 
 Malmesbury, as they returned together from a visit to the Princess. 
 The service he did her consisted in drawing up a statement of her 
 case. It has always been considered one of the most masterly 
 and powerful defences ever written^ and indeed she was always 
 fortunate in having such friends, whose adroit management nearly 
 brought this and other incidents of her persecution to a successful 
 issue, in the face of terrible odds. In this task he was mainly 
 assisted by Mr. Plumer and Sir Vicary Gibbs, later so notorious for 
 his prosecutions ; but the chief credit must be given to Perceval. 
 In October she writes thus gratefully to Lord Bldon : 
 
 THE PEINCESS OF WALES TO LORB ELDON. 
 
 "Blackheath, Oct. 13th, 1806. 
 
 " The Princess of Wales, with the most grateful sense, is most 
 sincerely obliged to Lord Bldon for his kind inquiry through 
 Lady Sheffield. 
 
 " Her body as well as her mind have naturally much suffered 
 from the last melancholy catastrophe, having lost in so short a 
 time, and so unexpectedly, a most kind and affectionate brother 
 and a sincere friend. The afflictions which Providence has sent 
 so recently to her are very severe trials of patience and resigna- 
 tion, and nothing than strong feelings of religion and piety could 
 with any sort of fortitude carry the Princess's dejected mind 
 through this. She puts her only trust in Providence, which has 
 so kindly protected her in various ways since she is in this 
 kingdom. 
 
 " The Princess also has the pleasure to inform his Lordship 
 that the Queen has twice made inquiry, by Lady Ilchester, 
 through Lady Sheffield, about the Princess's bodily and mental 
 state. The Duchess of York, through her Lady to Lady Sheffield, 
 and the Duke of Cambridge, in the same way, made their inquiries. 
 The Duke' of Kent wrote himself to the Princess, which of course 
 she answered herself. The Duke of Cumberland, who has twice 
 been with the Princess after the melancholy event took place, 
 desired her to announce, herself, to his Majesty the unexpected 
 event of the death of the Prince Hereditary of Brunswick. She 
 followed his advice, and the letter was sent through Lady Sheffield 
 to Colonel Taylor. The answer was kind from his Majesty, and 
 full of feeling of interest for the severe loss she sustained in her 
 brother." 
 
 By October 3rd it was ready for presentation to the King. 
 '' It was a matter of much delicacy, as it was difficult to avoid the 
 
414 THE LIFE OF GBOEGE lY. 
 
 appearance of impeaching tlie credit of those who conducted the 
 inquiry, which was dangerous." He wrote to Mr. Eose: "The 
 report was so framed that she could not acquiesce under it in 
 silence without admitting its truth ; and that, in fact, there was 
 evidently so much disposition to be hostile to her manifested in 
 the whole course of the proceeding, that looking forward to a 
 new reign, there could be no possible security for her being 
 permitted to hold her rank or station in this country, but from 
 the existence of a strong sentiment in her favour throughout the 
 kingdom ; and that, therefore, her letter to the King should be 
 so prepared, that if published, it should have the efEect of pro- 
 ducing rather than checking that sentiment. The copies of this 
 letter, undoubtedly, unless it should be determined to publish it, 
 ought to be kept very secret ; but as soon as I conveniently can, 
 I will endeavour to procure you a sight of one of them, as I really 
 shall be very anxious to know your opinion upon it." 
 
 The admirable vindication was presented to the King early 
 in October. The effect of reading it must have been complete 
 and irresistible. As Lord Colchester said : " The answer renders 
 the evidence on which the Lords have relied very incredible, 
 from its inconsistency and absurdity."* But no notice was taken 
 of it. After waiting nine weeks, she once more appealed to the 
 King ; but still no answer came. The fact was the Cabinet felt 
 themselves in a serious diJBBoulty, owing to the awkwardness of 
 two of their members having been concerned in the matter. 
 Then arrived piteous letters from her father and mother, who 
 acutely felt the disgrace, imploring a speedy decision in the case 
 of their unfortunate chUd, but without result. 
 
 Not until January 28th, 1807, did she receive a letter from the 
 King, announcing that the ministry had considered the papers 
 and agreed as to report; that no further steps need be taken, 
 save so far as it might be advisable to consider whether Lady 
 Douglas should be prosecuted. He was advised it was no longer 
 necessary for him to decline receiving the Princess into his royal 
 presence. That the King saw with satisfaction the decided proof 
 of the falsehood of the accusation of pregnancy and delivery,, 
 brought forward against her by Lady Douglas. But that there 
 were other circumstances against her which he regarded with 
 serious concern, and he desired and expected that such conduct 
 might in future be observed by the Princess, as might fully 
 justify those marks of paternal regard and affection which he 
 always wished to show to every part of the royal family. 
 
 " Other circumstances stated against her ! " This extra- 
 ordinary phrase is her vindication. For if the accusations of tha 
 
 * "Diary," ii. 106. 
 
THE LIFE or GEOEGE IV. 415 
 
 servants were to he accepted as true, then she was surely 
 unfitted to be received at Court ; if false, she did not deserve the 
 reproof ! 
 
 The Princess accepted it as it was, and wrote to be allowed to 
 visit at Windsor; but the King said London would be more 
 convenient. But now the Prince interposed, and on seeing the 
 strength of her case, declared that he would put it into the hands 
 of his lawyers, to make a reply. The King was induced to 
 declare that he would put off receiving her until this was done — 
 i.e. sine die. In another masterly paper, also drawn up by 
 Perceval, she urged, with irresistible logic, that the tribunal to 
 which the Prince had appealed had declared that " there was no 
 longer any reason why his Majesty should not receive her. Why, 
 then, was she not received months before, since but for this 
 " cruel, unjust, and unreasonable interposition of the Prince ? " 
 She then renewed her defence. Her position was logical ; for the 
 Prince had now come forward in person : hitherto it had been the 
 proceeding of a neutral tribunal. 
 
 Some extracts from this powerful indictment of the Princess 
 of Wales may be given here : 
 
 " There may be circumstances disclosed, manifesting a degree 
 of condescension and familiarity in my behaviour and conduct, 
 which, in the opinions of many, may be considered as not suffi- 
 ciently guarded, dignified, and reserved. Circumstances, however, 
 which my foreign education and foreign habits misled me to 
 think, in the humble and retired situation in which it was my 
 fate to live, and where I had no relation, no equal, no friend to 
 advise me, were wholly free from offence. But when they have 
 been dragged forward, from the scenes of private life, in a grave 
 proceeding on a charge of high treason and adultery, they seem 
 to derive a colour and character from the nature of the charge 
 which they are brought forward to support. 
 
 "In making that determination, however, it will not escape 
 your Majesty to consider, that the conduct which does or does not 
 become a married woman, materially depends upon what is or is 
 not known by her to be agreeable to her husband. His pleasure 
 and happiness ought unquestionably to be her law; and his ap- 
 probation the most favourite object of her pursuit. Different 
 characters of men require different modes of conduct in their 
 wives ; but when a wife can no longer be capable of perceiving, 
 from time to time, what is agreeable or offensive to her husband,, 
 when her conduct can no longer contribute to his happiness, no^ 
 longer hope to be rewarded by his approbation, surely to examine 
 that conduct by the standard of what ought, in general, to be the 
 
416 THE LIPB OP GEOEGE IV. 
 
 conduct of a married womaiij is altogether unreasonable and 
 unjust. 
 
 " What then is my case ? Your Majesty will do me the justice 
 to remark that, in the letter of the Prince of Wales, there is not 
 the most distant surmise, that crime, that vice, that indelicacy of 
 any description, gave occasion to his determination ; and all the 
 tales of infamy and discredit, which the inventive malice of my 
 enemies has brought forward on these charges, have their date, 
 years and years after the period to which I am now alluding. 
 What then, let me repeat the question, is my case ? After the 
 receipt of the above letter, and in about two years from my 
 arrival in this country, I had the misfortune entirely to lose the 
 support, the countenance, the protection of my husband — I was 
 banished, as it were, into a sort of humble retirement, at a 
 distance from him, and almost estranged from the whole of the 
 royal family. I had no means of having recourse, either for 
 society or advice, to those from whom my inexperience could 
 have best received the advantages of the one, and with whom I 
 could, most becomingly, have enjoyed the comforts of the other. 
 
 " Tour Majesty's confidential servants say : ' They agree in 
 the opinions of the four lords ; ■" and they say this, ' after the 
 fullest consideration of my observations, and of the affidavits 
 which were annexed to them.' Some of these opinions, your 
 Majesty will recollect, are, that ' William Cole, Fanny Lloyd, 
 Eobert Bidgood, and Mrs. Lisle, are witnesses who cannot,' in 
 the judgment of the four lords, 'be suspected of any unfavourable 
 bias ; ' and ' whose veracity, in this respect, they had seen no 
 ground to question ; ' and ' that the circumstances to which they 
 speak, particularly as relating to Captain Manby, must be 
 credited until they are decisively contradicted.' Am I then to 
 understand your Majesty's confidential servants to mean, that 
 they agree with the four noble lords in these opinions ? Am I 
 to understand, that after having read, with the fullest considera- 
 tion, the observations which I have offered to your Majesty; after 
 having seen William Cole there proved to have submitted himself, 
 five times at least, to private, unauthorised, voluntary examina- 
 tion by Sir John Douglas's solicitor, for the express purpose of 
 confirming the statement of Lady Douglas (of that Lady Douglas 
 whose statement and deposition they are convinced to be so 
 malicious and false, that they propose to institute such prosecution 
 against her as your Majesty's law officers may advise, upon a 
 reference, now at length, after six months from the detection of 
 that malice and falsehood, intended to be made) — after having 
 seen this William Cole submitting to such repeated voluntary 
 examinations for such a purpose, and although he was all that 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV, 417 
 
 time a servant on my establishment, and eating my bread, yet 
 never once communicating to me that such examinations were 
 going on — am I to understand, that your Majesty's confidential 
 servants agree with the four lords in thinking that he cannot, 
 under such circumstances, be suspected of unfavourable bias ? — 
 that after having had pointed out to them the direct flat contra- 
 diction between the same William Cole and Fanny Lloyd, they 
 nevertheless agree to think them both (though in direct contra- 
 diction to each other, yet both) witnesses, whose veracity they 
 see no ground to question ? 
 
 " Was it then noble, was it generous, was it manly, was it just, 
 in your Majesty's confidential servants, instead of fairly admitting 
 the injustice which had been — inadvertently and unintentionally, 
 no donbt — done to me by the four noble lords in their report, 
 upon the evidence of these witnesses, to state to your Majesty 
 that they agree with these noble lords in their opinion, though 
 they cannot, it seems, go the length of agreeing any longer to 
 withhold the advice which restores me to your Majesty's presence? 
 
 " They agree in the opinion that the facts or allegations, though 
 stated in preliminary examinations, carried on in the absence of 
 the parties interested, must be credited till decisively contradicted, 
 and deserve the most serious consideration. They read, with the 
 fullest consideration, the contradiction which I have tendered to 
 them ; they must have known that no other sort of contradiction 
 eould, by possibility, from the nature of things, have been offered 
 upon such subjects ; they do not question the truth, they do not 
 point out the insuflficiency of the contradiction, but in loose, 
 general, indefinite terms, referring to my answer, consisting, as 
 it does, of above two hundred written pages, and coupling it with 
 those examinations (which they admit establish nothing against 
 an absent party), they advise your Majesty, that ' there appear 
 many circumstances of conduct, which could not be regarded by 
 your Majesty without serious concern.' 
 
 " And here. Sire, your Majesty will graciously permit me to 
 notice the hardship of the advice which has suggested to your 
 Majesty to convey to me this reproof. I complain not so much 
 for what it does, as for what it does not, contain : I mean the 
 absence of all particular mention of what it is that is the object 
 of their blame. 
 
 " For my future conduct. Sire, impressed with every sense of 
 gratitude for all former kindness, I shall be bound unquestionably, 
 by sentiment as well as duty, to study your Majesty's pleasure. 
 Any advice which your Majesty may wish to give to me in respect 
 of any particulars of my conduct, I shall be bound and be anxious 
 to obey as my law. But I must trust that your Majesty will 
 VOL. I. 2 b 
 
418 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 point out to me the particulars, whicli may happen to displease 
 you, and which you may wish to have altered. 
 
 " Surrounded, as it is now proved that I have been for years, 
 hy domestic spies, your Majesty must, I trust, feel convinced that 
 if I had been guilty, there could not have been wanting evidence 
 to have proved my guilt. And that these spies have been 
 obliged to have resort to their own invention for the support of 
 the charge, is the strongest demonstration that the truth, un- 
 disguised and correctly represented, could furnish them with 
 no handle against me. And when I consider the nature and 
 malignity of that conspiracy, which I feel confident I have 
 completely detected and exposed, I cannot but think of that 
 detection with the liveliest gratitude as the special blessing of 
 Providence, who, by confounding the machinations of my enemies, 
 has enabled me to find, in the excess and extravagance of their 
 malice, in the very weapons which they fabricated and sharpened 
 for my destruction, the sufficient guard to my innocence, and the 
 effectual means of my justification and defence. 
 
 " I trust therefore. Sire, that I may now close this long letter 
 in confidence that many days will not elapse before I shall receive 
 from your Majesty that assurance that my just requests may be 
 so completely granted, as may render it possible for me (which 
 nothing else can) to avoid the painful disclosure to the world of 
 all the circumstances of that injustice, and of those unmerited 
 sufferings which these proceedings, in the manner in which they 
 have been conducted, have brought upon me. 
 " I remain. Sire, 
 " With every sentiment of gratitude, 
 
 " Your Majesty^s most dutiful, 
 
 " Most submissive Daughter-in-law, 
 " Subject and Servant, 
 
 " (Signed) C. P. 
 "Montague House, February 16, 1807." 
 
 Such was this admirable defence. More effective, however, 
 was the alarming declaration that she would lay her case before 
 the public. Still a month more went by. The ministry was in 
 its last agony. " The Book "* — the name it was long known by 
 
 * One Edwards, of Crane Court, Fleet Street, was the printer, and a 
 Member of Parliament was " confidential assistant," or " reader." We may 
 presume the proof-sheets were sent to an ostensible editor, and returned in 
 same fashion. The whole impression, except two copies, was delivered at 
 Mr. Perceval's house. These two copies were, later, destined to cause much 
 embarrassment and annoyance. See Wilks' "Memoirs of Queen Caroline," 
 i. 261, a work containing many curious and authentic details. 
 
 Another legend ran that it had been printed at a press set up in Lord 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOKGE IV. 419 
 
 — was actually printed, and five thousand copies were got ready 
 to be launched on the town, under circumstances of extraordinary 
 secrecy and mystery. 
 
 _ At last, irritated by these delays, the Princess wrote to the 
 King, naming a particular Monday, after which the bolt would 
 certainly be launched. Suddenly, the "Ministry of all the 
 Talents,^' collapsed — turned out in the unceremonious fashion 
 so often described. It is not unlikely that this very business and 
 its embarrassment helped the other causes of the fall. 
 
 Lord Holland throws some curious light on the contending 
 interests that were at work and causing the long delay. He 
 is inclined to believe that it was at the suggestion of 
 the King that the Commissioners were named. Mr. Pox 
 excused himself on the score of his health, business, and 
 connections with the Prince. The report was evidently, he said, 
 a compromise. The King adroitly referred the Princess's appeal 
 to him to the Cabinet, saying he would be guided by them. 
 Some were inclined to be severe. Lords Sidmouth and Grenville 
 " thought that after so broad an acquittal upon the main charge, 
 we would exceed our powers by touching on levities, and wished 
 to decline giving an opinion at all. The King perceived our 
 embarrassment, and dexterously insisted on an opinion. Then 
 Windham sent in a separate minute acquitting her altogether, 
 which was never made known.''' The Prince, Lord Holland adds, 
 was dissatisfied with the report, and declared that he was not 
 bound by it. He called on the Cabinet to say so, and acquit him 
 of all complicity in the business. Lord Holland pressed that this 
 should be done. On the last day the Cabinet met " a cold testi- 
 mony to his conduct" was despatched to the King. This is a 
 curious proof of his shrewdness, for some years later, when it was 
 necessary to inquire into the Princess's conduct, this recognition 
 of his having had no share in the business fairly gave him a 
 ground for reopening it. 
 
 Now came her triumph. Never was an injured woman so 
 happily rescued. Here were all her friends and champions 
 in office — ^Lord Eldon, Mr. Canning, and Perceval. _ Within 
 two or three weeks a minute of Council was drawn up, in which 
 it was set out that : 
 
 "After the most deliberate consideration, however, of the 
 evidence which has been brought before the Commissioners, and 
 
 Eldon's house. Mr. Canning seems to have disapproved of the book, and 
 when Mr. Perceval sent him a copy (and he seems to have shown copies to 
 Mr. Abbott and others) he replied that he was sorry it had been printed ; 
 that it was certain to be pubhshed ; and that, in order that he might not be 
 held responsible, he returned his copy. 
 
 ^ E iu 
 
420 THE LIFE OF GEOEaS IV. 
 
 of the previous examinations, as well as of the answer and obser- 
 vations 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 main 
 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." 
 
 In another minute they recommended that she should have 
 apartments in one of the palaces, and that she should be treated 
 in a manner worthy of her high position. 
 
 Such was the ignominious repulse of this first organised attack 
 upon the character and honour of the Princess ; and the Prince of 
 Wales had now the mortification of defeat to add a poignancy to 
 his dislike. 
 
 In the meantime — to anticipate a little — Mr. Pox had died, 
 and the disappearance of the Prince's chief friend and ally may 
 have been connected with the decisions taken in her case. 
 
 Her friend, Lord Eldon, went specially to the King, and warned 
 him of the dangers that would ensue if Mr. Perceval published 
 ''The Book," and there can be little doubt but that such intimation, 
 coming from " my dear old master's devoted friend," would have 
 secured the result, even had her friends not come into power.* 
 The threatened publication was of course suspended by the very 
 terms of the menace, as the end was gained. It was often made 
 a subject of reproach to Mr. Perceval and Lord Bldon that, when 
 they had gained their aim and attained power, they found it 
 convenient to abandon their advocacy of the Princess ; and their 
 suppression of " The Book " is put forward as a proof. The fact 
 was, the " incident was closed," as the French say. The object 
 had been attained. Unfortunately, too, the Princess, from this 
 time forth, instead of profiting by this narrow escape, seems 
 to have grown reckless, and herself was to furnish sufficient 
 grounds for the desertion of her best friends. 
 
 This episode may be closed by the singular meeting that took 
 place some months later between the parties to this quarrel. 
 "■ Soon after the entrance of the Queen into the drawing-room, 
 
 * Lord Bldon assured Lord Grey (wto told Eomilly) that Ms visit was 
 for this purpose. — Bomilly, iii. 104. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 421 
 
 tlie Prince arrived, and conversed witli her for some time. About 
 three o'clock the Princess of Wales came, elegantly attired. 
 After complimenting her Majesty and the Princesses, she entered 
 into conversation with the Prince; during which there was a 
 profound silence in the room ; all eyes were fixed upon them. 
 But nothing appeared beyond the forms of politeness; it was 
 thence conjectured that further connection was impossible." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 1806-1807. 
 
 With the death of Pitt, and the arrival of his friend Pox at 
 the plenitude of power, the Prince might fairly look for a 
 ■welcome change and a share in its enjoyment. We hare seen 
 that he was partly instrumental in introducing Lord Sidmouth, 
 and seems to have been consulted in the arrangements. But 
 Fox was near his last sickness and enjoyed but a brief snatch 
 of office. 
 
 The Prince of Wales now set off on a sort of progress, leaving 
 London on the 26th of August for Bushy Park, taking with him, 
 by appointment, the Duke of Clarence on an extensive tour. 
 They were attended by Colonel Lee and Major Bloomfield. Their 
 royal highnesses slept that night at Benson, Oxfordshire, and 
 passed through Oxford. They then proceeded to Blenheim, and 
 drove through the park. The royal brothers next proceeded 
 to the Earl of Guildford's, at Wroxton Abbey, where they 
 dined. A round of entertainments was provided for the 
 amusement of the guests during their stay, among which a 
 play was performed. On their route to Ragley, the Marquis of 
 Hertford's, they stopped at the Lion Inn, in Stratford, where the 
 volunteers assembled to receive them. The Prince of Wales was 
 waited upon by the mayor and corporation, who presented a 
 loyal address to his royal highness, accompanied with an elegant 
 box, adorned with an appropriate inscription, made of the cele- 
 brated mulberry-tree planted by the immortal Warwickshire bard. 
 While at Ragley, the royal brothers visited Warwick and Warwick 
 Castle. After leaving Ragley, they passed through Shrewsbury 
 on their way to Ross Hall, the seat of Cecil Forester, Esq., M.P. ; 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 423 
 
 thej were escorted by a detaclimeiit of tte Shrewsbury Yeomanry. 
 Their royal highnesses, leaving Ross Hall, proceeded to Loton, 
 the seat of Sir Robert Leightou, Bart., and from thence to 
 Trentham Hall, on a visit to the Marqais of Stafford. 
 
 Addresses were presented from various corporations, etc., and 
 most graciously answered. The volunteers who turned out were 
 noticed with great and peculiar condescension by the royal 
 tourists. The next visit was paid to Liverpool; to which place 
 they went from Knowsley in a coach and six of the Earl of 
 Derby's, followed by twenty other carriages. On their arrival 
 they were received by the Duke of Gloucester, the Dragoon 
 Guards, Devon Militia, Liverpool Volunteers, etc. After the 
 royal brothers had inspected the docks and various other establish- 
 ments, they partook of an elegant dinner provided by the Mayor, 
 and in the evening returned to Knowsley. The entertainment 
 cost the Corporation of Liverpool not less than £10,000. The 
 number of persons who flocked to Liverpool upon the occasion 
 was immense. Such was this gay progress. 
 
 Within a few months Fox had followed his great rival to the 
 grave. The Prince was at Brighton when his illness had grown 
 ci-itical, and hurried to his bedside. Fox had rallied a little after 
 the operation of tapping, and was encouraged by the Prince to 
 hope for recovery. The other shook his head, and said the relief 
 " only made room for fresh attack." That was the last time they 
 saw each other. It was remarked, however, with some surprise, 
 that the Prince did not attend his funeral, though this was said 
 to have been owing to the interference of the King. 
 
 Not long before the Prince had lost another friend and useful 
 favourite, one of his most faithful servants. Admiral Payne, 
 "treasurer of Greenwich Hospital, warden of the Stannaries, 
 and auditor-general to his master.* The Prince seems to have had 
 a deep regard for him, though, as we have seen, it was somewhat 
 cooled by his lack of subserviency on the occasion of the Prince's 
 marriage. The loss of Fox really marked an era- in the 
 Prince's life, for though his influence had been clearly waning, 
 and was but precarious, there was no one left with equal power. 
 Lord Grey's son, indeed, is inclined to accept, au serieux, that 
 sort of impulsive letter, which the Prince would deliver himself 
 of at seasons of emotion, and appeals to one addressed to 
 
 * The world, we are told, called him " Jack Payne," the Prince "honest 
 Jack Payne," and had his portrait painted for Carlton House. The Prince's 
 deputy at the funeral attended in a coaoh-and-sis. His own librarian and 
 chaplain, Dr. Clarke, read the service, and he lies in St. Margaret's, West- 
 minster. His place had been already taken by another favourite, who 
 became far better known, Colonel MacMahon. 
 
424 THE LIFE OP GEOEGE lY. 
 
 Mr Grey in proof of the stanchness of the Prince's opinion, as 
 well as friendship for his father. But such have little value, as a 
 few months was to show. 
 
 THE PEINCE or WALES TO ME. GKET. 
 
 „ ,, ^ "Knowsley, Sept. 18, 1806. 
 
 "Mt deae Geet, 
 
 "I am hardly in state to write at all, much less to answer 
 your very friendly letter. As to my feelings it would be super- 
 fluous to say anything, as they exceed all belief, and all power of 
 description. I consider the loss we have sustained as incalculable 
 to the country, and irreparable to all his friends, and to myself 
 in particular. Having, from the earliest period of my life, when 
 I first entered a political career, looked up to no one but to Pox ; 
 having been constantly and invariably attached to him and to his 
 principles ; having trodden that path which he marked out for 
 me ; and having been guided through it by the support of his 
 hand ; I do candidly acknowledge to you, that the difference is 
 so prodigious, the loss so immense, that my thoughts are quite 
 bewildered, and that as yet I have not been able to collect my 
 ideas so as to bring them to any one point. 
 
 " As to Lord Grenville, for whom I entertain the very highest 
 personal regard and friendship, I felt quite confident that you 
 would find him everything that could be wished or expected from 
 a strictly honourable and great-minded man ; which opinion I 
 have long entertained of him, and which induced me so anxiously 
 to wish to bring him and our departed and for-ever-to-be- 
 lamented friend together, and to frame and consolidate that 
 union in which I afterwards so fortunately succeeded. But as to 
 ourselves, my friend, the old and steady adherents and friends of 
 Fox, we have but one line to pursue, one course to steer — to stick 
 together, to remain united, and to prove by our conduct, in our 
 steady and unshaken adherence to those principles which we 
 imbibed from Pox when living, that now (though alas he is no 
 more !) we were not merely nominally his friends, but that we 
 are not unworthy of him, and that his memory will for ever live 
 in our hearts. In saying this, all I mean to convey is, what my 
 sentiments are as to the line which it behoves us to trace, and 
 abstractedly attaches to us, as the old, firm, and uniform adherents 
 of Fox. 
 
 " As to my opinions, if I can form any at the present moment, 
 and to which I profess myself perfectly unequal, it does appear to 
 me that everything ought to be done which can be done, for 
 every possible reason, to convince and to substantiate to our own 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV, 425 
 
 nation, as well as to foreign Powers, that such is the respect, such 
 the regard, that the present ministers not only feel individually as 
 men, but collectively as a G-overnment, for the memory of our 
 dear departed friend, and such the estimation in which they hold 
 his principles, and the reverence with which they view the great 
 and enlightened system which he had prepared, and was so 
 mdefatigably pursuing ; and which no one was able to frame 
 but himself ; and which there is no doubt he would have suc- 
 cessfully brought to the desired point ; that they are resolutely 
 resolved, steadily and firmly to adhere to, and to follow up those 
 ideas, those views, those plans, which were laid down by his 
 masterly hand, and which line will be attended, I have no doubt, 
 with the happiest consequences, as it will infallibly be the means 
 of establishing confidence at home, as well as all over the 
 Continent. 
 
 " The simplest and most natural mode, it does, I confess to 
 you, appear to me of effecting this in the first instance (subject 
 always to better and wiser opinions than mine, and subject also 
 to any subsequent arrangements that it might be thought 
 necessary or advisable to make) would be, without any delay, not 
 to make any change whatever just at the present moment, but to 
 put the seals for the Foreign Department into the hands of 
 Holland. You know Holland too well to make it necessary to 
 say one word about him ; but as far as I can allow or induce 
 myself to view anything that tends to business under our present 
 most distressing situation, this is what appears to me to be the 
 most correct, as well as desirable measure, and it cannot but be 
 attended with universal satisfaction, and peculiarly so to all Fox's 
 old friends, and, though last, most singularly grateful to myself. 
 
 " With respect to what you so delicately state to me, my dear 
 Grey, concerning yourself, as you know me to detest all flattery 
 and all prolixity of expression, I shall merely say that the regard 
 and admiration with which I have viewed your talents, and the 
 friendship which has always subsisted between us, decide my 
 opinion upon the propriety and wisdom of those duties which 
 rested upon that great and f or-ever-to-be-lamented man, devolving 
 upon you. It remains only for me to assure you how truly happy 
 I shall be, and what comfort it will afford me, to communicate in 
 the fullest confidence with you, and by every means in my power 
 to aid and strengthen the views and wishes of the Government. 
 "J. am, ever very affectionately yours, 
 
 "Geoege p." 
 
 My father (says General Grey) having told the Prince the 
 plan which had been proposed for reorganising the ministry — the 
 
426 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 difficulties which interposed — and having alluded to the possible 
 alternative of having to declare to the King that they were unable 
 to form an administration capable of meeting the present crisis, 
 his royal highness wrote in answer as follows : 
 
 THE PMKCE or WAIES TO MB. GEEY. 
 
 [" Peivatb and Secket.] " Doncaster, Sept. 22, 1806. 
 
 "Mt deae Gket, 
 
 " Although it is now past three in the morning, and that 
 I am quite knocked up with the long journey of this day, I cannot 
 delay writing a few lines in answer to both your letters, the one 
 of which I received at Knowsley this morning previous to my 
 departure, and the other which I have this instant found on my 
 arrival here. I think myself peculiarly fortunate that the cursory 
 view I took in my letter to you of our present situation coincides 
 so entirely with your opinions ; but I must candidly a.nd most 
 confidentially acknowledge to you that it grieves me much that 
 any of Fox's old friends should, of themselves, think of retiring 
 from their situations at a moment like the present ; as there never 
 was a moment, in my poor opinion, that could so imperiously call 
 upon them to remain in office, were it only by every exertion on 
 their part, to further and bring to bear, as far as lay in their 
 power, that general system, but more especially that system upon 
 the Continent, which the great and powerful mind of our poor 
 friend would soon have effected. I think it is a duty they owe 
 his memory, and a duty they owe to this country, as well as to 
 Europe. For God's sake talk not to me of such an alternative as 
 you mentioned in the letter which I received from you this 
 morning. I really conceive it would be ruinous in every point 
 that I can view it ; ruinous to the country in the first instance, 
 and ruinous to your own reputations in the second; and I am 
 certain, were he alive, it would be what he would deprecate more 
 than anything else; and last of all it would be considered as a 
 miserable copy of the grounds which the last despicable and 
 odious administration took, upon the death of Pitt, for sending in 
 their resignations. 
 
 " My dear friend, this is a strange world we live in, and 
 nothing can be done in it without a little temper and a little 
 policy. We must do the best we can, and because we cannot 
 have everything our own way, we must not, therefore, instantly 
 throw up the whole game, and by that means become the tool of 
 others. This would not be consistent with what we owe to our 
 own characters ; to the language we have held ; to the line we 
 
THE LIFE OF GEOEGB IV. 427 
 
 have publicly pursued ; and, last of all, to what we ougHt never 
 to lose sight of — the precepts we have learnt from Pox, and what 
 I am confident, were he now able to advise, would be his wishes. 
 At the same time that I say this, I desire, my good friend, that 
 you will clearly understand me — that I by no means mean that 
 we should relax, in any one instance, to carry such points as may 
 be necessary to the completion of those great views, nor in any 
 effort that may tend towards the accomplishment of them : though 
 there may be difficulties and delays, still we must not be dis- 
 heartened, but boldly meet them, and, if it should be necessary, 
 reasonably to submit to them. I should hope that when you 
 mentioned such an alternative to me, you were influenced by the 
 distress under which we were both suffering, and which may 
 mislead the very best judgment. Besides what I have already 
 said, reflect one instant how fatal it would be to me, in this pecu- 
 liarly delicate and awful moment, to be left in such a situation by 
 all my friends, exposed to the accumulation of distress both 
 public and private. I need not, I am sure, my dear Grey, say 
 more to you than this — only to call upon you to rouse all the 
 energies of your mind — but, proudly and with cool judgment, let 
 us meet whatever may arise, thereby performing, to our best, our 
 duties to the country, as well as those which we owe to the memory 
 of our departed friend. 
 
 " I really am so fatigued that I cannot answer for any inaccu- 
 racies you may find in this letter ; but I will answer for my firm 
 and steady adherence to these principles and opinions. 
 " I am ever, my dear Grey, most truly yours, 
 
 "Geoegb p." 
 
 It is amusing to find what hopes always filled the Prince's 
 partisans on any news of change. Writes Mr. Grey Bennett : 
 
 ''My father told me, September 27, 1806, that when at 
 Alnwick, the Duke of Northumberland had said that upon the 
 death of Mr. Pitt, and during the first plan of the formation of 
 the present administration. Lord Moira passed through Alnwick, 
 being sent for to town from Scotland. As he passed through the 
 town he sent a note to the Duke, expressing his sorrow at not 
 being able, from his anxiety to get forward, to call upon him, but 
 to assure him of his regards, etc., and that, as no administration 
 could be formed without his presence and concurrence, he was 
 obliged to be in town with all speed. Soon after his arrival in 
 London, he wrote again to the Duke, saying that he was kept 
 quite in the dark ; he had been neglected like all the rest of the 
 world; and that, at last^ they had offered him the place of Master 
 
428 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 of tlie Ordnance, with a seat at the Cabinet, which he considered 
 as an insult, and would not have taken, had it not been joined 
 to a promise of the patronage of Scotland. This is a strange 
 mixture of vanity and falsehood. His place is as good as he had 
 any title to expect, and the Scotch patronage was never offered 
 to him. He expected it, and accordingly wrote to the Lord 
 Justice- Clerk, 'Hope' (the gentleman with the ardent mind), 
 to inform him that the patronage would go on in its old channel, 
 that is to say, through him. Lord Melville's friend : so much for 
 Lord Moira, his truth, his sense, and his principles." 
 
 To Fox's ministry was now to succeed the "composite" one 
 — that strange mixture of Foxites, Grenvillites, and "Doctors," 
 which, as Moore happily said, was more like the brass of Corinth 
 in the variety of the metals than in their excellence. It of course 
 provided handsomely for the " Prince's friends." He, indeed, 
 pressed, it was thought rather with a want of dignity, for pro- 
 vision for too many of his followers. Lord Moira was in the 
 Cabinet, and the Prince pushed the claim of his friend Erskine to 
 the Chancellorship. It was certainly a most favourable state of 
 things for his interests. He was also eager to see Mr. Tierney 
 in the Speaker's chair. 
 
 Bat here, over the division of spoil, we trace the beginning of 
 that coldness which reached to positive dislike between the Prince 
 and Lord G-renville. This was mortifying, considering how 
 recently had an alliance been cemented. Almost at once we find 
 Lord Grenville speaking of his "most unreasonable demands." 
 He particularly resisted the appointment of Mr. Calcraft, which 
 he complained was pressed on him " in a mode amounting to 
 persecution." * The Prince assured Eomilly, through the mouth 
 of Colonel MacMahon, that he had owed his appointment as 
 Attorney- General to him, to his pressure on Lord Grenville and 
 Mr. Pox. But the downfall of the ministry becomes the more 
 remarkable from the change that was to take place in the Prince of 
 Wales's opinions. The death of Fox had removed the last influence 
 which had any positive control over him ; though, as we have 
 seen, he had long been already wavering. On the Catholic ques- 
 tion his views seemed to have advanced from regarding it as 
 " inopportune " to positive hostility. Here we can believe he was 
 sincere. 
 
 When the "Talents" Ministry fell, to no one was the news 
 more welcome than to the Prince of Wales. His high regard for 
 Lord Grenville had passed away ; and how bitter his feelings were 
 
 * " Court and Cabinets of George III." 17. 
 
THE LIFE OF aEOEGB IV. 429 
 
 will be seen from tlie following manifestoj whicli lie addressed to 
 his friend Moira, and was of coarse intended to be sbown : 
 
 THE PKINOE OP WAXES TO LOKD MOIEA. 
 
 " Oarlton House, March 30, 1807. 
 "My dear Peiend^ 
 
 " Although I think it perfectly beneath me to notice with 
 any degree of personal anxiety the unfounded and calumnious 
 reports, which, I have reason to believe, have been industriously 
 propagated respecting my motives and purposes in the present 
 important and unfortunate crisis, yet I think it fit to place in 
 your hands, to be used at your discretion, the only notice or 
 refutation of the misrepresentations I allude to, which I conceive 
 it becomes my character and my sense of my own rectitude to 
 give to anyone. 
 
 "No one, my dear friend, knows better than yourself how 
 much and how long I have been used to find myself the mark 
 of the most false, contemptible, and, at the same time, the most 
 malignant slanders ; nor how little disposition has ever been 
 shown to feel for me, suffering under these attacks, or to afford 
 me the redress which I could not but conceive myself entitled to. 
 The motives upon which I have acted, and my future intentions, 
 I will explain to you, my friend, in a very few sentences. From 
 the hour of Pox's death — that friend towards whom and in 
 whom my attachment was unbounded — it is known that my 
 earnest wish was to retire from further concern and interference 
 in public affairs; still, however, I was induced (upon what 
 grounds, what arguments, and what application is not now the 
 question, but certainly upon no personal consideration) to con- 
 tinue my endeavours to give every countenance and assistance 
 in my power to the new arrangements, and to persevere to place 
 my trust in an administration still formed of men whom I 
 respected and esteemed; and this most sincere and warm dis- 
 position of my mind and views I communicated in a letter to 
 Lord Howick, written a very short time after the death of my 
 ever-to-be-lamented friend. Prom that period, I must declare to 
 you with the frankness with which I have ever opened my mind 
 to you, I have conceived myself to have experienced the most 
 marked neglect (to use no stronger term) from the newly-consti- 
 tuted Administration ; having been, according to my own con- 
 ception, neither consulted nor considered in any one important 
 instance — a proceeding the more observed by me on account of 
 the contrast it exhibited to the conduct of my dear friend Pox. 
 
430 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE lY. 
 
 But of this I desire distinctly to observe that I am not now 
 complaining, because the recollection of it has no influence 
 whatever on my present decision, nor on the course I have thought 
 it incumbent on me to adopt. 
 
 " For the same reason I waive entirely all observations^ how- 
 ever painful I feel those which at this moment arise in my mind, 
 upon the extraordinary condition in which I have been so long 
 kept, while . a victim to the most envenomed attacks of malice 
 and falsehood, during the investigation commanded by his 
 Majesty, respecting the conduct of the Princess of Wales; so 
 far am I from blending any feelings (and I wish they may have 
 been mistaken ones) which may have arisen in my breast during 
 the discussion, with the present question. The only remark I 
 shall make is, that I consider the last minute of the Cabinet 
 on this subject as evincing the justice and decision of men of 
 the highest honour, entertaining a due interest of my private 
 character and public estimation. 
 
 " I am, at all events, incapable of allowing personal pique 
 or disappointment, whether such opinions have been entertained 
 through my own misapprehension or otherwise, to interfere with 
 the great duties of my situation. 
 
 " On the subject which has occasioned the unfortunate and, I 
 fear, irreconcilable difference between the late Ministers and my 
 father, my opinion was ever known to themselves respecting the 
 agitation of this question; yet neither was my advice asked 
 when it might have been of use in the commencement of the 
 discussion, nor my interposition desired when it might possibly 
 have prevented an ultimate mischief. Ministers quitting office 
 on this ground of dispute with the King, it was not possible for 
 me to appear as the advocate and defender of the ground they 
 had taken. I determined to resume my original purpose, 
 sincerely prepared in my own mind on the death of poor Pox to 
 cease to be a party man (although in alliance with him it had 
 been the pride of my life to avow myself to be so), and to retire 
 from taking any active line whatever, at least for the present, in 
 political affairs. 
 
 "To this extent I deemed it my duty to communicate my 
 resolution to the King, accompanied by such expressions of duty 
 and affection to his person as I thought proper to use on the occa- 
 sion. Whoever by insinuation or assertion has given a different 
 turn, or ascribed a different motive, to the course I have adopted, 
 and to the communication above referred to with his Majesty, has 
 most ignorantly and presumptuously mis-stated the fact and mis- 
 represented me. 
 
 " I have only to add, my dear friend, that you are too well 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGB IV. 431 
 
 acquainted witli my hearty and tlie steadiness of my attachments ■ 
 where I have once professed a friendship, not to be convinced 
 that I continue to cherish strong sentiments of regard and esteem 
 for many of the late ministers individually, and which I trust I 
 shall never have any occasion to alter ; and still more confident 
 am I that it is not necessary for me to renew to you any declara- 
 tion of those sentiments of unalterable affection and regard which 
 never have yet been interrupted, and never can cease but with my 
 life. I am, my dearest friend, 
 
 " Most affectionately yours, 
 
 " G. P. 
 
 " Earl of Moira, etc." 
 
 Nothing could be more distinct. He had ceased to be "a, 
 party man." No wonder it had evidently already gone about 
 that the Prince had deserted his friends as well as his old 
 principles. 
 
 This letter speaks for itself, and really amounted to a break 
 off with the old Whigs, whom he so cordially disliked in the 
 person of Lords Grey and Grenville. The paper was (as 
 Mr. Moore tells us) written by Sheridan, and the arguments were, 
 no doubt, found by him. He also shows that the key to the 
 Prince's politics was henceforth to be found in men and " pre- 
 dilections." 
 
 Lord Holland, too, confirms this change of opinions, and 
 frankly owns that not the Prince but the party were to blame. 
 
 " Grey has, perhaps, neglected consulting persons somewhat 
 too much. He wrote, however, at my request, to the Prince ; 
 and the Prince is in better humour than he was. Sheridan has 
 been behaving strangely, and will, I fear, do much mischief. 
 But considering his connections, talents, and appearance of 
 steadiness to the mob and the public, I fear there is too much, 
 disposition to set him at defiance, and a greater desire to get rid 
 of him altogether than is either prudent or perhaps right. It 
 must be owned that the manners and tone of our Administration,, 
 amidst its many wise and liberal measures, contributed very 
 sensibly to accelerate [its fall] .... The Prince of Wales, who- 
 had been active in the formation of it, was neglected, or thought 
 himself so. Some symptoms of his ill-humour had transpired 
 before I was in office. That circumstance was an additional 
 motive with me for making his approbation a condition in my 
 acceptance of the office. His letter to me on the occasion was 
 more than gracious ; it was kind and friendly. But though he 
 approved my taking office, and expressed some goodwill to the- 
 Ministry, he distinctly disclaimed all connection with them, and 
 
432 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 repeated above once his total indifference to politics since the 
 death of Mr. Fox. ... I paid my personal homage pretty con- 
 stantly at Carlton House ; but I never sought, or rather I 
 avoided, being the channel of any intercourse between him and 
 the Government. I believe I did wrong ; I am sure I acted 
 unwisely for the interests of the Administration. If I had been 
 aware of Lord Moira's overstrained scruples, I should have re- 
 commended to my colleagues a more unreserved communication 
 with Carlton House from motives of policy ; but had I been 
 apprised of the degree to which the Prince had been consulted, 
 not only on the formation but on the principles of the Ministry, 
 I should have thought every member of it bound to concert with 
 him certain public measures more fully than they did. . . . 
 Truth compels me to acknowledge that he had some reason to 
 complain of the Ministers, and that their impartial historian has 
 yet more reason to lament their impolicy in neglecting him." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 1807— 1808. 
 
 On the fall of the "Talents/^ fortune again favoured the Princess 
 by bringing into high office her trusty champion, Mr. Perceval. 
 Had she shown common discretion, her position would have been 
 unassailable, for she had with her the Ministry, the King, and 
 the public. Unfortunately, as if grown reckless, and after 
 having so narrowly escaped a great peril, she seems to have set 
 out on a new and erratic course, lamentably distinguished by an 
 utter absence of caution or prudence. 
 
 Since the investigation she had attracted but little attention. 
 She lived at Kensington Palace, where she held a sort of court, 
 and was duly attended by the Tory nobility, who, knowing that 
 the King was on her side, made it a point to pay their respects. 
 Among them were the Dukes of Beaufort and Rutland, Lords 
 Harrowby and Eldon, Mr. Perceval, and others. 
 
 There could be no doubt that the influence of the good old 
 monarch contributed to hold all parties in check, and that the 
 Princess herself was thus restrained from imprudent proceedings. 
 She lived in good state at her palace, keeping also her villa at 
 Blackheath, to which she would make excursions and bring 
 friends to dine. She was seen at fashionable routs and parties — 
 a strange-looking personage at times. At a ball at Mr. Hope's, 
 of " Anastasius " celebrity, she danced. " Such an exhibition," 
 says Miss Berry, who was presented to her that night; "but 
 that she did not at aU feel for herself she should have felt for 
 her. Such an overdressed, bare-bosomed, painted-eyebrowed 
 figure, one never saw." But allowance should have been made 
 for he consciousness of her false position, hunted and harassed 
 and watched. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 F 
 
434 THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. 
 
 " Although," says one of her observers in a graphic passage, 
 " during the last year of her life she was bloated and disfigured 
 by sorrow and by the life she led, the Princess was in her early 
 youth a pretty woman : fine light hair^ — very delicately formed 
 features, and a fine complexion — quick, glancing, penetrating 
 eyes, long cut and rather sunk in the head, which gave them 
 much expression — and a remarkably delicately formed mouth; 
 but her head was always too large for her body, and her neck 
 too short ; and latterly, her whole figure was like a ball, and her 
 countenance became hardened, and an expression of defiance 
 and boldness took possession of it, that was very unpleasant. 
 Nevertheless, when she chose to assume it, she had a very 
 noble air." 
 
 She had, however, friends that were really respectable, such 
 as Lady Anne Hamilton and Mrs. Darner. But these were 
 gradually supplanted by a "set" of persons whose characters 
 were marked by instability and lightness, even eccentricity. 
 Among these were the gay and airy Lady Charlotte, a passee 
 beauty whose head was turned by vanity and admiration ; Lady 
 Caroline Lamb ; Lord Abercorn, the odd nobleman who slept 
 in black satin sheets ; the volatile " Monk " Lewis ; the singular 
 Ward; Lady Oxford, whose name was "in the papers;" and the 
 lively Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, with many more. 
 
 " Her conversation," says Miss Berry, " is certainly uncom- 
 monly lively, odd, and clever. What a pity that she has not a 
 grain of common sense, not an ounce of ballast to prevent high 
 spirits and a coarse mind running away with her, and allowing 
 her to act indecorously and ridiculously whenever an occasion 
 offers." These words describe her accurately. On these occasions 
 she had with her the boy " Billy Austin," who had been the cause 
 of such troubles, and whom she ought to have sent to school. 
 But there was a merit in the constancy with which she clung to 
 those whom she had once taken up. She was fond of wild and 
 indiscreet pranks, such as going to masquerades incognita. 
 
 She was at this time completely under the influence of some 
 Italian singers named Sapio ; the result of which was that no 
 really steady persons could continue long in her establishment. 
 
 "The Princess," says her friend, "is always seeking amusement, 
 and unfortunately, often at the expense of prudence and pro- 
 priety. She cannot endure a dull person ; she has often said, to 
 me : ' I can forgive any fault but that.'' And the anathema she 
 frequently pronounces upon such persons is : ' Mine Grod ! dat is 
 the dullest person God Almighty ever did born ! ' " 
 
 But all this was really a foolishly assumed exultation to cover 
 her woes, and the unhappy lady was seeking such excitement to 
 
THE LIFE OP GEOEGE IV. 435 
 
 forget Her trials. By 1813 she had ruefully owned to a friend 
 that her situation was hopeless^ and that there was no issue save 
 the death of one of the two. This issue she used openly to 
 discuss and long for and anticipate. " After dinner^" says her 
 attendantj " her Royal Highness made a wax figure as usual, and 
 gave it an amiable addition of large horns ; then took three pins 
 out of her garment and stuck them through and through, and 
 put the figure to roast and melt at the fire. What a silly piece 
 of spite ! Yet it is impossible not to laugh when one sees it 
 done." 
 
 One of her ladies reported her eagerly coming in with one of 
 Mr. Burke's works in her hand. " Read it," she said, " he has 
 drawn the Prince's character exactly." The passage ran : " A ■ 
 man without any sense of duty as a priuce, without any regard 
 to the dignity of his crown, and without any love to his people; 
 dissolute, false, venal, destitute of any positive good qualities 
 whatever, except a pleasant temper and the manners of a gentle- 
 man." This was told everywhere — a lamentable indiscretion, to 
 say the least. 
 
 Passages in her letters show a lively wit and observation. 
 Thus : "Lord Deerhurst is quite a joke to the secret marriage of 
 the ci-devant Mrs. Panton with a Mr. Geldi, and why it is kept a 
 secret, and why it is made public, nobody can guess, as she was 
 her own mistress — or that she thought that she was public pro- 
 perty, and that it would be essential to have an Act of ParHament 
 to make an enclosure to become private property at a moment's 
 warning." 
 
 It is remarkable, and perplexing too, that she should have 
 attached to her interests two men of remarkable ability and 
 character, whose support through the troubles that followed were 
 of incalculable advantage — Mr. Canning and Mr. Brougham, 
 The former has been believed to enjoy a particular partiality, 
 and his extraordinary devotion to her at a later crisis, almost 
 to the imperilling of his interests, was remarkable, so that, as 
 Lord Campbell tells us in one of his piquant narratives, "the 
 Regent condescended to be jealous of him." That she should 
 have carried on the struggle for the next eight years that followed, 
 without Mr. Brougham's aid, seems unlikely, for though she 
 had many champions as ardent she had none so powerful and 
 sagacious. It was in 1809 that he began to resort to her house. 
 He had for several years previously avoided being presented to 
 lier — not wishing, he said, to be mixed up in her quarrel — and 
 was presented to her by Canning. 
 
 According to the same authority Mr. Brougham recommended 
 himself highly to her by his sympathy and agreeable manners, and 
 
436 THE LIFE OF GEOEGE IV. 
 
 secured a promise that lie should be her future Attorney- General. 
 He himself affects to say he was drawn to her home by the 
 pleasant society found there, and the chance offered of meeting 
 Mr. Canning, Rogers, and others. He noticed that she always 
 spoke of Lord Bldon and Mr. Perceval^ though they had aban- 
 doned her. Lord Grey and the Whigs keeping away, the popular 
 barrister felt that here was an opening for his f ortunes^ not to come 
 for him under the existing administration^ and, considering the 
 condition of the Liberals, not be looked for until years had gone 
 by. He also contrived to win the confidence of her daughter, in 
 whose presence he was kindly welcomed as the greatest lawyer of 
 the day, and she was taught to look on him with kindness as the 
 friend and adviser of her mother. Lord Campbell declares that 
 he was founding hopes upon the failing health of the Regent, as 
 of the reigning King. This might seem uncomplimentary to the 
 Queen's new champion, save for its being notorious that Brougham 
 was thoroughly chauvin. 
 
 At this time also we begin to have some pleasing glimpses 
 of her daughter, the engaging young Princess Charlotte, now a 
 little girl some ten years old. The Prince at this moment was 
 laudably solicitous as to her education, and the following letters 
 show him moderate and temperate in reference to the proceedings 
 of the Princess of Wales : 
 
 THE PEINOB OP WALES TO LADY DB CLIEEOED. 
 
 " Carlton House, Saturday night, Nov. 21sfc, 1807. 
 " Mt dear Lady db Cliipoed, 
 
 " I have only this moment learnt from Lady Haggerston 
 that Lady Albemarle is safely delivered of a son. Pray accept 
 my sincere congratulations on this event, as I do assure you that no 
 one can participate more truly in everything that interests you than 
 
 " Your very affectionate Priend, 
 
 "Geokge P. 
 
 " P.S. — I hope the little lady and the new-comer are both 
 quite well. I have ordered them to be inquired after to-morrow 
 morning, for I only heard of the circumstance too late this 
 evening to send sooner." 
 
 THE PKINCE or WALES TO LADY DE CLIFPOED. 
 
 " Carlton House, Tuesday night, April 19th, 1808. 
 "My deae Lady de Cliepoed, 
 
 "I am much obliged to you for the communication you 
 were so good as to make me respecting the notification you 
 
THE LIFE OF GBOEGE IV. 437 
 
 received from the Princess of Wales. You not only have acted 
 up to the sacred trust imposed upon you by your office in 
 acquainting me immediately with the circumstance, but you have 
 shown your usual excellent judgment and good taste, as well in 
 your way of meeting the message, as in signifying to me the 
 proposed visit, without any comment. Indeed, it was impossible 
 for you not to know how I must regard it when you notice the 
 date of this letter, and the time at which you receive it. You 
 will comprehend that I did not wish to explain my sentiments 
 more fully to you till the visit was actually over, lest the Princess 
 should put any question to you, and that thereby you should be 
 subjected to embarrassment by the answer you would have been 
 forced to give. The step having been taken by the Princess, it 
 was my wish that the visit should not be interrupted, that nothing 
 might appear discordant to the polite attention always to be 
 observed ; though I might have my suspicion that the visit was 
 not really made from a misconstruction of the licence I had 
 granted in a special instance, but was an attempt to pass beyond 
 the line established by me through the King. In the regulation 
 laid down, and transmitted by his Majesty to the Princess, it is 
 precisely defined that she is not to visit her daughter at Warwick 
 House, that house being considered as part of Carlton House. 
 Charlotte's illness, which prevented her from going to her mother 
 at Blackheath, was a case not foreseen, and was sufficient reason 
 for relaxation in this particular instance. But as my daughter 
 has been for some time able to go about again, that pretext must 
 no longer remain, and I cannot assent to the Princess visiting at 
 Warwick House on any other grounds. Her apartments not 
 being ready at Kensington can be no excuse whatever. Should 
 you have any apprehension of a visit hereafter, I must request of 
 you, my dear Lady de Clifford, immediately to ask for an audience 
 of the Princess at Blackheath, when, with all that respectful 
 delicacy which nobody knows so well as yourself how to testify, 
 you will explain to the Princess the line herein enjoined you, and 
 will entreat her not to come to Warwick House, which she cannot 
 do without my previous assent, and which can only be given on 
 some consideration as strong as what lately induced me to grant 
 it. According to the existing regulation, Charlotte may always 
 (in moderation) be sent for by her mother to Blackheath or 
 Kensington, under the limitation of its not giving any peculiar 
 interruption to her studies or the necessary train of her 
 education. 
 
 " I remain, my dear Lady de Clifford, with the greatest truth, 
 ever your sincere friend, 
 
 " Geobge p." 
 
438 THE LIFE OF GEOEaB IV. 
 
 Here is a natural pleasing letter of tlie young Princess's, 
 unpublislied hitherto.* 
 
 " January 28tli, 1808. 
 " My deae Me. Conway, 
 
 "'As I find you admired Mrs. Udney's saufibox, though I 
 should not think of making you so shabby a present, I hope 
 you will not look to the intrinsic value of it, but receive it as a 
 mark of the sincere regard of 
 
 " Your ever affectionate 
 
 " Chaelotte. 
 
 "P.S. — Perhaps you will deign, to acknowledge this in person, 
 as I find you require some bribe to come to Warwick House ; and 
 now the bust is done there is little hope of the favour of seeing 
 you, but by some similar motive. My dear friend Mrs. U. begs 
 her kind compliments." 
 
 The creditors of the Princess of Wales assembled on the 17th 
 July, iu consequence of an intimation to them that Mr. Adam, 
 the Prince's chancellor, would attend, when the plan which the 
 Prince had adopted to pay their debts, and secure them in future, 
 would be laid before them. 
 
 " Mr. Adam then stated that the Prince's treasurer had 
 uniformly and regularly every quarter paid the allowance of 
 £12,000 a-year to the officers of her royal highness; that this 
 had never been in arrear one instant from 1802 to the present 
 time ; that Mr. Gray (who was present) was the person who paid 
 it ; that the Prince had always paid this sum to the Princess 
 without deducting the income-tax, although there was £12,000 
 per annum deducted from him at the Exchequer on that account. 
 That his royal highness had now increased the Princess's income 
 to £17,000 a-year, to be paid quarterly, without deducting the 
 income-tax. That the Princess was paid for personal expenses at 
 the Exchequer £5000 a-year, making in all an income of £22,000. 
 Unless the Prince had spontaneously undertaken for the arrange- 
 ment of their debts, the creditors would have had no redress. 
 In doing this, the Prince stipulated that he should be fully 
 indemnified against future demands, a claim which his royal 
 highness was justified in making, because, to the £41,000 there 
 was to be added the sum of £34,0.00 which the Princess had 
 received from his Majesty's Droits of Admiralty, making together 
 £75,000 of debt contracted by her royal highness ; which, divided 
 on the number of years, exceeded by many thousand pounds a 
 
 * MSS., Brit. Mus. 
 
THE LIFE OF GEORGE IV. • 439 
 
 year tlie greatest income ever proposed for her royal highness ; 
 that after the payment of £41,000 had been undertaken by the 
 Prince, and guarantee against future demands arranged to his 
 satisfaction, Mr. Adams said that towards the conclusion of the 
 business it -was stated to him by the Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer, to be by him (Mr. Adam) laid before the Prince, that the 
 debt was £8000 more than the £41,000. On this the Prince 
 gave his commands to Mr. Adam to represent to the King's con- 
 fidential servants, that the main and principal object which had 
 uniformly directed his royal highnesses determination, and which 
 he had never for a moment lost sight of in any one part of this 
 transaction, had been to prevent (in these times of great and 
 necessary expenditure) any debt of his own, or any other for 
 which he might be considered liable, becoming either directly or 
 circuitously a burden upon the country. That he had been like- 
 wise greatly influenced by the desire of seeing justice done to the 
 creditors of the Princess, although under no legal obligation 
 whatever to pay those debts. On these grounds the Prince of 
 Wales gave it to be understood to those of his majesty's 
 ministers concerned in the transaction, that his royal highness 
 would spontaneously take upon himself the payment of the sum 
 of £8000 in addition to the rest." 
 
 END OP VOL. I. 
 
 CJIAELES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. 
 

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