thus for a time effectually checked, the whig ministry, including the friends of the prince, went out of office and there was no longer any obstacle to the receiving of the princess at court. The details respecting “ The Delicate Investigation," which constituted “ The Book,” were, although ready for publication, suddenly withdrawn from the public eye. Three copies only, it is supposed, escaped the vigilance of those whose interest it was to suppress then, and for these the most extravagant prices were offered. Intense curiosity was excited only to be disappointed, and the country at large remained in ignorance of the charges which had been brought against the princess, and which, in the absence of truth, were distorted in the most shameful manner.

It must be acknowledged that Mr. Perceval, up to this time, acted in the most honorable manner toward his illustrious client,- he had cleared her of every imputation-he had restored her to the court

- he had replaced her in a palace, (for she obtained apartments in Kensington palace,) and had done all that her most sanguine wishes could have anticipated

Her royal highness was now. visited by his ma. jesty at Blackheath, who often passed a whole day with his royal daughter-in-law and his beloved grand-child. Some severe misunderstandings occurred between the king and the prince of Wales

On account of these visits, but as no circumstance had taken place to warrant his majesty in withdrawing his countenance from her royal highness, all remonstrances on the subject were in vain. Indeed it was evident that the separation of the prince and princess of Wales was occasioned by some private dislike or other personal motive, and not by the commission of any criminal act which could be imputed to the princess of Wales.

In 1807, the duchess of Brunswick, her royal bighness's mother, arrived in England, and was met by his majesty at the house of the princess of Wales. The meeting was exceedingly affecting : but the king abstained from domestic subjects, and endeavoured to amuse his sister with the rapid progress which her grand-daughter, the princess Charlotte, had made in literature and music.

We must naturally suppose that the duchess of Brunswick was very unhappy on the account of the separation of the royal pair ; and particularly more so in consequence of the unjust calumnies which had been artfully and maliciously propagated against her daughter's character. The duchess, of course, dwelt, in conversation, upon the attention which had been paid to her education, and by these means the following anecdote obtained publicity.

When the princess had attained her fifteenth year, an Irish gentleman, of prepossessing manners and elegauit appearance, arrived at her father's court.

The first acquaintance between the duke of Brune wick and this gentleman was formed •after a hard fought battle on the French frontier, in which the allies had been victorious. The personal intrepidity of the young officer was conspicuous, and was observed by the duke himself, who praised his con-, duct on the field with the frankness of a soldier, raised him to the rank of colonel, and appointed him one of his own aides-de-camp. An attachment is said to have sprung up between this gentleman and the young princess, which excited the displeasure of her father. After the lapse of several years, and the eve of the princess being brought to England to be married to the prince of Wales, a wild and desperate attempt was made by the gentleman in question, aided by an Irish nobleman. This was defeated by the vigilance of her father: and the princess was rescued from the danger by which she was threatened, and safely conveyed to the English shores. The authors of the intended outrage were for some time confined in prison, but eventually escaped. The one was subsequently reported to have been killed at the battle of Hohen Linden, and the other fell a victim to certain visionary schemes into which he had entered with regard to his own country.

His majesty's health, at this tiine, was in a very delicate state, and soon after the death of his beloved daughter, princess Amelia, his malady l'e

re

turned. A sudden meeting of parliament consequently took place, and the prince of Wales was made regent of the united kingdom, under certain restrictions.

Though the princess of Wales had been recon. ciled to the king before his mental derangement, her royal highness was never on the same footing at court: she was also absent from the occasional entertainments, and particularly the fetes given in honour of the jubilee, October 25, 1809, which was celebrated in consequence of his majesty's reign of half a century. When the regency came to be established in the person of the prince—when the husband came to be exalted to the rank, the splen. dour and power of a king, the princess was still left in her former comparatively obscure and penu, rious state. Mr. Perceval's conduct on this oecasion excited a considerable degree of animadversion, He had relieved the princess from the consequences of a foul calumny, and he publicly declared in his place in the house of commons, that he knew of nothing against the character of the consort of the prince regent; yet her husband being now exalted, her non-exaltation operated with regard to her character, in nearly the same way as her exclusion from court had formerly operated.

The generosity with which the princess of Wales refused to accept the allowance of £50,000 per annum, proposed to be granted to her by his ma

jesty's ministers under the regency, added considerably to her popularity: she limited the sum proposed to £35,000, which provision she has since enjoyed.

On the 11th of May, 1811, the right honorable Mr. Perceval (who had been hér royal highness's able advocate,) was shot in the lobby of the house of commons, for which the assassin, John Bellingham, was tried, convicted and executed. - Her royal highness was again exposed to the malevolent shafts of time-serving malice'; but still she reserved a dignified silence, and would probably have remained in retirement were not her maternal feelings deeply wounded by the encreasing testraints imposed upon her intercourse with her daughter. On the 4th of October 1812, she visited Windsor for the purpose of seeing the princess Charlotte. Her royal highness drove to Augusta Lodge, where she supposed her daughter was ; and on being denied admittance to her she requested an audience of the queen, which immediately took place, but the result was by no means satisfactory to her royal highness, who expressed her determination to bring the matter of her situation to an immediate question by an application to parliament. Her indigvation now burst forth, and she addressed the following energetic letter to the prince regent :