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Josiah Phillips, who dwelt in the Strand. He was prosecuted and punished. Many years after Sellis's death, the duke's name was unfortunately mixed up with another suicide in The duke, it was

a most unpleasant manner. well known, though at this time a married man, had an intrigue with Lady Graves, whose husband was so sensitive to the injury inflicted on his honour, that he ended his life by his own hand. The duke, who had become used to such tragedies, was too philosophical to let this affair prey upon his royal mind, and, immediately after the funeral of the unhappy man, was seen day after day driving about in public with the widowed Lady Graves.

In 1814, he contracted a marriage with his cousin, Frederica Caroline Sophia, daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Charlotte's brother. This lady possessed a temperament usually designated as gay; she had thrice entered the holy bonds of matrimony, and been once divorced. The queen, unaware of this latter little circumstance in the life of her future daughter-in-law, wrote to the Duke of Mecklenburg to say she would endeavour

to render the residence of her niece as pleasant as circumstances would permit, 'Considering,' says Her Majesty, 'that my sedentary life prevents me contributing much to the amusement of the princesses, and that the greater part of my time is passed in the country, where our society is very limited, and our life uniform.'

She then requested her brother to inform his daughter of certain usages of English society.

It is not the fashion here,' said royalty, 'to receive morning visits from gentlemen, to which she will be exposed, by reason of the duke being colonel of a regiment, unless he himself introduces them to her: she should also be very circumspect in the choice of ladies with whom she shall associate, which will be so much the more necessary, as the duke has acquaintances amongst our sex who, though not actually of bad conduct, might, however, become injurious to her in point of policy.'

Her Gracious Majesty finally informed the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz that she sent him by the courier who conveyed her letter, six pounds of tea and two cheeses. Eat the latter,' she added, to my health, and,

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in drinking the tea, remember a sister whose attachment to you will not cease but with death.'

His Serene Highness the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz gratefully accepted the cheeses and the six pounds of tea from his royal sister-presents worthy of so great a

queen.

When the royal duke brought his bride to England, her aunt, who had meanwhile heard various little items of her history, more entertaining than edifying, refused to receive her at Court, or hold any communication with her; the universal detestation which was felt to the duke was at the same time expressed by the refusal of Parliament to grant him an addition of £6,000 per annum, as had been the custom to bestow on the royal dukes when they married.

The Dukes of Kent and Cambridge were by far the most estimable of the king's sons; their public careers were not brilliant, but their private lives were respectable, and they have fortunately left behind them no disreputable histories.

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CHAPTER III.

The Prince of Wales and his Difficulties-His Proposed Marriage-Lord Malmesbury at the Court of Brunswick-The Bride-elect-Her Journey to England and Reception by the Prince-Marriage and Honeymoon -The Evil Genius of her Life-The Story of the Lost Letters The Prince's Debts-Disloyalty of the People -The Cry of No King!'-The King's Life Attempted -Birth of a Young Princess-The Prince's Separation from His Wife-The Lord Chancellor's Opinion of His Sanity-Mrs. Fitzherbert Communicates with Rome.

EANWHILE the Prince of Wales sank

MEAN

lower and lower in the morass of debt and dissipation which now threatened to swamp him; the outlay on the whimsical, unnecessary alterations of Carlton House reached the enormous figure of £56,950; his stud cost him, he admitted, £30,000 a year; and the sums he squandered on any woman who chanced to please his amorous fancy were prodigious. He had signed bills and bonds in numbers, heedless

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of the consequences of the future, if he could relieve the necessities of the present; and had, in conjunction with the Dukes of York and Clarence, whose respective incomes of £18,000 and £12,000 a year were insufficient for their expensive tastes, raised large sums on their bonds through the respectable agency of the prince's German cook, Weltjie.

Nor was this all; the heir to the throne offered £10,000 and an Irish peerage (which must have weighed but little in his estimation), after the king's death, for every £5,000 which was given him in the present. But, finding that even on these terms there were few who were ready to swallow the bait and trust him, he resolved on a yet more desperate proceeding; this was to raise £350,000 on the Duchy of Cornwall and the bishopric of Osnaburgh, with payments by drawings and a sinking-fund, the whole to be paid off in twenty-five years; this transaction coming to the king's knowledge, much trouble followed which covered the royal brothers with dishonour.

The prince was now, as the Duke of Portland lamented to Lord Malmesbury, but little re