1830.] George the Fourth. 11 



to become the advocates of maxims directly opposed to the Constitution. 

 The ministry were thus placed in the position of its defenders the public 

 feeling gradually gathered round them restraints on the Regency were 

 sanctioned by great majorities in Parliament, which would have made 

 the Regent but a superior servant of the administration ; the prince 

 shrank from this fettered authority, and while he still hesitated, the 

 nation was surprised and rejoiced by the announcement of the king's 

 complete recovery. Whiggism sank at once, and Pitt's fame and influ- 

 ence were triumphantly established on its ruins. 



The prince now sank again into private life. But debt still pursued 

 him. He attempted to throw it off, by reducing all his establishments. 

 This measure was unsuccessful ; his creditors were not to be paid by re- 

 trenchment ; and the painful resource of a parliamentary appeal became 

 once more necessary. His debts now amounted to jB6.S9,000 ! 



But Pitt was now his advocate, for the king's consent had been obtained 

 by a sacrifice which the prince had often declared to be the most trying, 

 and which in after days he had bitter reason to deplore. The king's 

 commands had been laid upon him to marry in his own rank ; and his 

 majesty's niece, the late unfortunate Queen Caroline, was chosen as the 

 bride. The prince's stipulation was the discharge of his debts. The 

 debts were discharged, the marriage ceremony performed, and within a 

 week it was understood that disgust on one side, and disdain on the 

 other, had separated the royal pair for- ever. 



On the 7th of January, 1796, her Royal Highness the Princess of 

 Wales was safely delivered of a princess, at Carlton House, and on the 

 llth February following, in the evening, the royal infant was baptised, 

 and received the name of Charlotte Augusta. Notwithstanding the 

 general joy that prevailed throughout the nation on the birth of a princess, 

 her parents now determined on a formal separation, and the princess 

 had apartments assigned to her in Kensington Palace. Her Royal 

 Highness subsequently purchased a house at Blackheath, and continued 

 in England until the 9th of August, 1814, when the princess embarked 

 at Worthing, in an English frigate, the Jason, to return by way of 

 Hamburgh to Brunswick. 



A long and painful inquiry into the princess's conduct, termed " The 

 Delicate Investigation," had preceded this measure. The charge was 

 not less than her having born a child to some stranger. This the Commit- 

 tee of the Privy Council declared to be altogether unsustained, but 

 admitted that the princess had been singularly careless of appearances. 



Long preceding this unhappy result the prince had been pained by his 

 Majesty's direct refusal to gratify him in a point which honourably inte- 

 rested his personal feelings. The threatened invasion of England, in 

 1803, had summoned the nation to arms, and the prince justly conceiving 

 that he would be expected to signalize his spirit, applied to the throne 

 for some military command. We give one of his eloquent and manly 

 letters on this occasion. 



" I ask" such was the language of the prince " 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, and indifferent to the conse- 

 quences which may follow. Hanover is lost ; England is menaced with inva- 

 sion ; Ireland is in rebellion ; Europe is at the foot of France. At such a 

 ftioment, the Prince of Wales, yielding to none of your servants in zeal and devo- 



B 2 



