attacked him together, tore the rod from his grasp, and chastised him with it in such a manner that he never thought proper to raise his hand against either of them again.

Up to his eighteenth year, the prince had been absurdly restricted to the society of his relatives and tutors; and, although at that age he had attained his majority as heir-apparent, and was honoured with a small separate establishment at Kew, the restraint and seclusion in which he had been brought up, was even then but slightly relaxed. He contrived, however, at this period, so far to elude the vigilance of those under whose care he was placed, as to indulge in an amour with the beautiful and accomplished Mrs. Robinson. This lady, although not above a year older than the prince, had for some time been married: she was an actress, and had first attracted his notice when performing Perdita, in the Winter's Tale. A correspondence between them forthwith commenced; they frequently had stolen interviews, by moonlight, on the bank of the Thames, near Kew; and their attachment, for some time, appeared to be mutually fervent. Having, by his desire, resigned her theatrical engagements, his royal highness gave her, as a compensation for the sacrifice, a bond for £20,000, payable on his attaining the age of twenty-one ; and, as that period approached, arrangements were in progress for attaching her to his establishment, which was then about to be formed. At the moment, however, when the prospects of Mrs. Robinson were, in her own opinion, brightest, the prince, having, as she suspected, formed a new connexion, sent her "a cold and unkind letter, briefly informing her that they must meet no more." Two years after their separation, he was prevailed upon, with much difficulty, to relieve her, in some degree, from the pecuniary embarrassments into which the connexion had plunged her, and, at the same time, to redeem his bond for £20,000, by granting her an allowance of £500 a year.

In June, 1783, a parliamentary provision was made for his establishment; £100,000 being voted to him as an outfit for his household, and half that amount per annum by way of income.

In the following November, he took his seat among the peers, and, for some short time, supported government; but, like the preceding heirs-apparent of his family, he soon joined the opposition, and obtained popularity at the expense of his father's displeasure. As it was anticipated, from the seclusion in which he had previously been kept, and his evident appetite for pleasure, he indulged freely, on coming of age, in all kinds of dissipation. The political opinions and private characters of his gay and talented associates, were equally offensive to the king; who saw him, with deep regret, becoming daily more and more entangled in the trammels of a party opposed to the administration, and sharing in all the sensual excesses and fashionable follies to which some of its leaders were notoriously addicted. At length, during the great contest between the coalition and Pitt, some offence being taken at his sitting under the gallery of the house of commons during the debates, where his presence, it was said, might tend to influence the votes, he suddenly avowed his disgust for politics, and abandoned himself wholly to pleasure.

Soon after his breach with Mrs. Robinson, he had formed an attachment with the famous Mrs. Crouch, on whom he lavished presents with reckless profusion. Nearly at the same period commenced his connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert, a Roman catholic lady of good family, nearly seven years older than himself, and who had already been twice married. Her person and manners had so fascinating an effect on her royal lover, that, according to rumour, a marriage between them was privately celebrated, for the purpose of satisfying her conscientious scruples. In 1787, Rolle, the member for Devonshire, alluded to the presumed circumstance in the house of commons. Fox, however, with (as he stated) the express authority of the prince, denied the truth of the report in such positive terms, that Mrs. Fitzherbert never would speak to "the man of the people" again. Fox, it is said, subsequently became convinced that she was something more than the prince's mistress, and felt highly indignant at having been betrayed by his royal highness's instructions into the utterance of a falsehood.

This affair was brought before parliament during a debate (in 1787,) relative to the pecuniary difficulties by which the prince had already become embarrassed. On the settlement of his income in 1783, his friends were desirous of procuring for him the same yearly allowance as had been granted to his father under similar circumstances. The king, however, would not consent to his receiving more than half the desired amount. The prince's advocates strenuously protested against the inefficiency of the sum, but the monarch was firm; and the prince's yearly income was settled at only £50,000.

Although his royal highness was entitled to an additional revenue of £13,000 a year, out of the duchy of Cornwall, it was, with confidence, foretold that he would inevitably get into debt; and the prediction was soon verified. His expences greatly exceeded his means, and he adopted a variety of expedients to raise sufficient funds for the satisfaction of his creditors; all of which having apparently proved fruitless, he, at length, solicited pecuniary assistance from his father. The king, however, was so irritated by his extravagance, that he not only declined to interfere in his affairs, but even refused to grant him an interview, when his royal highness hurried from Brighton to Windsor, for the purpose of congratulating the monarch on his recent escape from Margaret Nicholson's attempt to assassinate him, of which, the prince had heard entirely by accident; no formal communication having been made to him on the subject.

He now broke up his splendid establishment at Carlton house, dismissed his servants, and intimated his resolution of living in a state of retirement, so that he might be enabled to save such a portion of his income, as would, in a few years, liquidate his debts, which by this time amounted to upwards of £160,000. His seclusion was, however, but brief: Carlton house soon displayed its usual gaieties again, and the prince was persuaded to suffer his affairs to be brought under the notice of parliament.

Alderman Newnham, accordingly, during a debate on the budget, inquired of the minister, if government intended to propose any measure

for the heir-apparent's relief from his embarrassments. Pitt replied in the negative; but, after several violent debates on the subject, a royal message was brought down to the house, by which the king announced his intention of adding £10,000 per annum, out of the civil list, to the prince's income, and solicited the assistance of parliament to extricate him from his difficulties; having, as he stated, a wellgrounded expectation, that his royal highness would avoid contracting any debts for the future. Accordingly, on the following day, the house voted £161,000 to satisfy the prince's creditors, and £20,000 for the completion

of Carlton house.

George the Third having become insane, at the latter end of the year 1788, the minister, Pitt, on the 10th of December, proposed the appointment of a regency. Fox, on this occasion, imprudently insisted on the prince's absolute right to the full prerogatives of the throne, during the king's illness; Pitt, on the contrary, contended that it was at once constitutional and expedient, to repose in his royal highness the executive power, subject to certain restrictions. He proposed that the care of the king's person, and the management of the royal household, should be entrusted solely to the queen; that the prince, while regent, should confer no title of peerage except on such of his majesty's children as had attained the age of twenty-one; and that he should neither grant any pension, save during the king's pleasure, any offices in reversion, or any places whatsoever, except such as were by law conferred for life, or during good behaviour. The prince and his friends highly disapproved of this scheme; and on the 1st of January, 1789, a very able and elaborate disquisition on the proposed measure, written by Burke, was delivered in the name, and as containing the sentiments, of his royal highness, to the lord chancellor, Thurlow. "The plea of public utility," it was stated in this document, "must be strong and urgent, which calls for the suspension of rights essential to the supreme power, or which can justify the prince in consenting, that in his person an experiment should be made, to ascertain with how small a portion of kingly power

the executive government may be carried on."

Pitt, however, soon brought forward his propositions, which were, at length, adopted, although vigorously opposed by Fox and his party, in the house of commons, and notwithstanding the solemn remonstrance of the Dukes of York and Cumberland, and fifty-five other peers, against the intended restrictions. On the 30th of January, a deputation from both houses waited on the prince, and formally announced his appointment to the office of regent. He accepted the trust, and the bill had already been read in the commons (on the 12th of February), when the king suddenly recovered.

In the meantime, an unprovisional regency had been voted to the prince, in the Irish parliament, whose resolutions on the subject the lord-lieutenant having refused to transmit, were brought over by the Duke of Leinster, and other delegates, who presented them to his royal highness about a week after the monarch had resumed the exercise of his kingly functions. The prince now solicited the favour of an interview with his father, probably for the purpose of vindicating his conduct during the recent debates, which, however, was sternly refused; and his royal highness (whose partisans, thwarted, by the king's restoration to health, in their ardent hopes of attaining political supremacy, were now somewhat crestfallen) again abandoned politics for more agreeable pursuits.

About this time he is said to have been enamoured of the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire, who was then separated from her husband; but his advances do not appear to have met with a favourable return. He also formed an attachment for the Countess of Jersey: still his affection towards Mrs. Fitzherbert

had suffered but little abatement. A sumptuous residence was prepared for her at Brighton, which he had previously raised from obscurity into fashionable eminence, by making it his usual place of abode during the summer months; her furniture and equipages were magnificent; and, in diamonds, she is said to have been almost as rich as Queen Charlotte.

For some time previously to 1790 he had patronized horse-racing and

pugilism; but, in that year, having attended a prize-fight in which one of the boxers was killed, he ceased to support the ring, declaring that he would never be present at such a scene of murder again; and, in 1791, he disposed of his stud, on account of some apparently groundless suspicion being attached to his conduct, with regard to a race, in the event of which he had little or no real interest.

In the midst of his dissipation, foppery, and extravagance, he was not altogether destitute of laudable ambition. It is supposed that he attempted, but without success, to obtain the vicegerency of Ireland; and also vainly solicited the favour of being permitted to join the British forces under the Duke of York, in Holland. An apparent reconciliation at length took place between the prince and his father; who, on the failure of issue by the marriage of his second son, appears to have evinced considerable anxiety to remove the heir-apparent's scruples against a royal union; to avoid which the prince is stated, on more than one occasion, to have emphatically said, that he would willingly forfeit his right to the crown.

His increasing embarrassments, which had been materially augmented by the erection of a fantastic pavilion at Brighton, eventually, however, induced him to consent to a match with his cousin, the Princess Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, (born on the 17th of May, 1768,) daughter of George the Third's favourite sister and the Duke of Brunswick, on condition that his debts, which amounted to nearly £70,000, should be forthwith discharged.

The bride elect was in her twentyseventh year, high-spirited, accomplished, of a prepossessing appearance, and, according to the journals of the day, "of great taste in dress, and much goodness of heart." She spoke English with great fluency; and on her arrival in this country, which took place on the 5th of April, 1795, she appears to have used her best endeavours to win the affection of her royal relatives. By the prince, she was received with flattering politeness and respect; by the king, with great cordiality; but by his consort, with decided coolness. She had been attended,

during her journey from Greenwich to London, by Lady Jersey, who had artfully extracted from her the secret of her having an attachment for a young German, which was, of course, immediately communicated to the prince; whose deportment towards her, on the day after her arrival, was consequently rather reserved.

On the 8th, their marriage was celebrated at the chapel royal, St. James's, and on the following day they proceeded to Windsor, whither they were accompanied by Lady Jersey, for whose establishment in his household, the prince had peremptorily provided. The princess soon discovered his close intimacy with her ladyship, whose dismissal, on appealing to the king, she eventually procured: her royal highness, also, no doubt, became acquainted with the fact, that Mrs. Fitzherbert had procured from him a superb mansion in Park lane, a magnificent outfit, a pension of £10,000 per annum, and an assurance, that, notwithstanding his marriage, the attention which he had previously shewn her should still be continued. The mortification of the princess was speedily increased, by learning that the heir-apparent had reluctantly consented to an union with her, merely to obtain relief from an enormous load of debt; previously to the settlement of which, an investigation of his affairs took place, and many disclosures ensued, with regard to his conduct and character, that severely wounded her pride, and aggravated her

resentment.

Feeling highly indignant at the neglect with which she was treated by the prince, she remonstrated with him on the subject in such terms, that his disinclination towards her evidently increased. She returned the queen's continued coldness with disdain; and, rather imprudently, made use of some very sarcastic terms with regard to her majesty, and other members of the royal family, in a packet of letters for her friends at Brunswick; which she entrusted, for delivery, to a clergyman named Randolph, who was about to depart for Germany; but, finding occasion to defer his journey, he forwarded them to the residence of her royal highness, at Brighton, under an envelope addressed to Lady Jersey,

whose dismissal from the pavilion had not yet taken place. They never reached the hands of the princess: and her royal highness expressed a most firm belief, that they had been malignantly distributed among the members of the royal family, for the purpose of adding to the difficulties of her painful situation. The king continued her stedfast friend; but, notwithstanding her pregnancy, she was treated with increasing coolness by the prince; who, shortly after the birth of the Princess Charlotte, in January, 1796, sent her proposals for a separation, to which she promptly acceded; at the same time insisting, that their intercourse, even in the event of her daughter's decease, should never be renewed.

In the meantime, a statement of his debts had been laid before the house of commons; by which it appeared, that his extravagance had been boundless. His farrier's bill alone amounted to £40,000. Several animated debates took place on the subject; and the prince's conduct was animadverted on with great severity. After a protracted discussion, parliament eventually determined that a jointure of £50,000 per annum should be settled on the princess; that £28,000 should be granted to purchase jewels and plate for the royal couple; and a further sum of £26,000 for finishing Carltonhouse: that the prince's future income, exclusive of his ducal revenues, should be raised to £125,000; out of which, such an annual deduction was to be made, as would pay off his debts in the course of nine years. In answer to a proposal, that the accumulation of receipts from the duchy of Cornwall, during the minority of the prince, and which amounted to upwards of £230,000, should be appropriated to the satisfaction of some of his creditors, it was insisted, on behalf of the king, that if the prince were entitled to the ducal arrears, his majesty had a claim, equally valid, for the whole cost of his royal highness's education and first establishment!

Commissioners were now appointed to examine the prince's alleged debts; many of which were rejected as groundless, and among others, an annuity of £1,400 to Mrs. Crouch was disallowed, because it had been granted

"without any valuable consideration." For the admitted claims, debentures, payable with interest, were given; and the prince retired into comparative seclusion, in order to save a sufficient sum out of the residue of his income, for the discharge of what Earl Moira, in the house of lords, termed certain demands on his royal highness's honour; which are supposed to have been loans obtained by him from the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the Duke of Orleans, and some other foreigners of distinction.

By degrees his debts were liquidated, and he emerged from his temporary retirement; but, he seems to have felt no inclination to attract the notice of the public, until the threatened invasion of this country by the French, on the rupture of the peace of Amiens, in 1803. The prince had, for some time before, been colonel of a dragoon regiment, which, it is said, he kept in a state of the most admirable discipline, and manœuvered with uncommon skill. He had ardently studied the principal authorities on the science of war, and, in theory at least, was supposed to be an excellent tactician. His predilection towards a military life appears to have been so powerful as to have led his associates to believe that he would almost have waived his right to the succession for the command of an army. With such feelings, it is by no means surprising that he solicited promotion, and active employment on the coast, with considerable earnestness. Government, however, refused to comply with his request. He then addressed a spirited letter to Mr. Addington on the subject, in which he stated, that, as no event in his future life could compensate him for the misfortune of not participating in the honours and dangers that awaited the brave men destined to oppose an invading enemy, he could not forego the earnest renewal of his application. "All I solicit," continued the prince, "is a more ostensible situation; for, situated as I am, a mere colonel of a regiment, the major-general commanding the brigade, of which such regiment must form a part, would justly expect and receive the full credit of pre-arrangement and successful enterprise."

No reply having been given to this

letter, he repeated the application; but his services were coolly declined. He now made a direct and eloquent appeal to the king himself, from whom he implored permission "to display the best energies of his character, to shed the last drop of his blood in support of his majesty's person, crown, and dignity. In this contest," continued he, "the humblest of your subjects have been called upon; 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 danger which surround us, and indifferent to the consequences which may follow. Hanover is lostEngland is menaced with invasionIreland is in rebellion-Europe is at the foot of France;-at such a moment the Prince of Wales, yielding to none of your servants in zeal and devotion, to none of your children in tenderness and affection, presumes to approach you, and again to repeat those offers which he has made to your majesty's ministers." Ought I not," he also asked, "to share in the glory of the victory, when I have every thing to lose by defeat? The highest places in your majesty's service are filled by my brothers; to me alone no place is assigned. I am not thought worthy to be the junior major-general of your army. If I could submit in silence to such indignities, I should, indeed, deserve such treatment, and prove, to the satisfaction of your enemies and mine, that I am entirely incapable of those exertions which my birth and the circumstances of the times peculiarly call for."

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The king, in answer, briefly stated, that if the enemy should land, his royal highness would have an opportunity of shewing his zeal at the head of his regiment. The prince then entered into some correspondence on the subject with the Duke of York, to whom he had unjustly attributed the failure of his applications; and towards the close of the year, warmly remonstrated against the omission of his name in a list of promotions: the affection, however, of the royal brothers suffered

no abatement.

At length, intelligence having been