appear better than others. If ever there was a woman to whom, in this respect, mercy should have been shown, it was the Princess; and those who condemn her should consider the trying, nay, almost unparalleled situation in which she was placed, immediately after coming to this country.

Who and what was the woman sent to escort her Royal Highness to England? Was there any attempt made on the part of the Prince to disguise of what nature his connection was with Lady J[erse]y?* None. He took every opportunity of wounding the Princess, by showing her that Lady J[erse]y was her rival. The ornaments with which he had decked his wife's arms, he took from her and gave to his mistress, who wore them in her presence. He ridiculed her person, and suffered Lady J[ersely to do so in the most open and offensive manner. And finally, he wrote to her Royal Highness that he intended never to consider her as his wife-not even though such a misfortune should befal him as the death of his only child.

When the Prince made known this declaration, it does not appear that he assigned any cause of accusation against his wife. He was the first to blame; and when her subsequent follies (for from my heart I believe they never were more than follies) gave him an excuse for his illtreatment of her, it should be remembered, what an example of barefaced vice was set before the Princess when she was first married to the Prince. Unfortunately, she had not been brought up with a strict sense of moral rectitude, or religious principle, in her childhood; neither was the example set her by her father, the Duke of Brunswick, likely to give her just notions of right and wrong. She loved her father, and therefore excused his From her earliest years she had been taught by the example of others, and those most near and dear to * Frances Twysden, wife of the 4th Earl.

errors.

her, to consider married infidelity as a very venial trespass; and when she came to England, this notion was confirmed by those whom she had thought most to have honoured, and been guided by in her own conduct. It may be said that the person who cannot discern between vice and virtue, and choose for herself which course to pursue, is always to blame. Granted;-but surely, for a woman so educated, and who had such examples set before her, there ought to be some indulgence shown, and some consideration made, for frailties which, in one shape or other, are common to humanity.

While opprobrium was heaped on the Princess of Wales, and the smallest offence against etiquette or propriety which she had committed, was magnified into crime, the Prince ran a career of lawless pleasure unrebuked, nay, even applauded! How true is the proverb-" One man may steal a horse, and another may not look over a hedge." I am not one of those who think that crime in the one sex alters its nature and becomes virtue in the other.

Tuesday, 23d August.—I dined at Kensington. The manner in which Pylades and Orestes are treated, amuses and makes me melancholy at the same time; for it shows how things were, and how they are. The only new person I have seen at Kensington for a length of time, is Madame Zublibroff [Zabloukoff?], the wife of a General Zublibroff. She is a daughter of Mr. Angerstein's, and a very pretty, agreeable-looking person. Her husband appears clever and sincere. I am sure, by the conversation I heard him hold with the Princess, he is a good man. She deceives the wife, I think, completely; but I doubt it is not so with the husband: he nevertheless seems friendly, but friendly with self-dignity. He told her Royal Highness some home truths, which she did not at all relish; but, being determined to like him, she contrived very ingeniously to turn the subject in the light in which she chose to have

it viewed, leaving General Zublibroff [Zabloukoff] precisely at the point whence he had set out. Accustomed as the Princess is, in common with all royalties, to see only through the medium of her own passions, she contrives generally to conceal whatever is disagreeable to her, and to have ears, yet hear not. So far, Bonaparte, by making a new race of kings, may perchance alter the nature of royalty: but I do not believe he will; for the evil lies in the station more than in the individual. Yet any magistrate gifted with the same superiority of power and fortune, would, though under another title, be just as liable to the same prejudices as a king or an emperor; and

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

I conceive, however, that a restless and active mind may dwell on this subject, till all sorts of chimeras enter the brain. My walk lies another way.

Wednesday.-The Princess drove to Lady Perceval's, and dined there yesterday. Chanticleer was there. It was curious to see how she thought she hid matters from Lady P]. The latter is a weak intriguing woman, who seems to me to be a mere convenience, but can see as far into a mill-stone as another, especially such a broad barefaced one.

Lady [] told me, that in going out of Kensington Palace gates, by driving furiously, one of the leaders fell, and the poor little postillion was thrown off, and Lady [] feared, at first, seriously hurt, for he did not get up for several minutes. The Princess was wholly unmoved, and never even asked how he did. Lady [- -] said she could not express the hatred such want of feeling excited in her. The Princess ought not to have allowed the boy to ride on, but should have ordered him to go home and be taken care of. Instead of this, he remounted, and twice afterwards, on the road to Lady