348 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 18J4.. 



ROYAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



Letter of the Princess of Wales to 

 the Prince Regent. 



•* Sir, — I am once more reluc- 

 tantly compelled to address your 

 Royal Highness, and to enclose for 

 your inspection, copies of a note 

 which I have had the honour to re- 

 ceive from the Queen, and of the 

 answer which I have thought it 

 my duty to return to her Majesty. 

 It would be in vain for me to en- 

 quire in to the reasonsof the alarm- 

 ing declaration made by your Royal 

 Highness, that you have taken the 

 fixed and unalterable determina- 

 tion never to meet me, u pon any oc- 

 casion, either in public or private. 

 Of these, your Royal Highness is 

 pleased to state yourself to be the 

 only judge. You will perceive by 

 my answer to her Mnjesty, that I 

 have only been restrained by mo- 

 tives of personal consideration to- 

 wards her Majesty, from exercis- 

 ing my right of appearing before 

 her Majesty, at the public Drawing 

 Rooms, to be held in the ensuing 

 month. 



" But, Sir, lest it should be by 

 possibility supposed, that the words 

 of your Royal Highness can con- 

 vey any insinuation from which 1 

 shrink, I am bound to demand of 

 your Royal Highness — what cir- 

 cumstances can justify the proceed- 

 ings you have thus thought fit to 

 adopt ? 



" I owe it to myself, to my 

 Paughter, and to the Nation, to 

 which I am deeply indebted for 

 the vindication of my honour, to 

 remind your Royal Highness of 

 what you know : that after open 

 persecution and mysterious inqui- 



ries, upon undefined charges, th« 

 malice of my enemies fell entirely 

 upon themselves; and that I was 

 restored by the King, with the ad- 

 vice of his Ministers, to the full 

 enjoyment of my rank in hig 

 Court, upon my complete acquit- 

 tal. Since his Majesty's lamented 

 illness, I have demanded, in the 

 face of Parliament and the Coun- 

 try, to be proved guilty, or to be 

 treated as innocent. I have been de- 

 clared innocent — I will not submit 

 to be treated as guilty. 



" Sir, your Royal Highness may 

 possibly refuse to read this letter. 

 But the world must know that I 

 have written it : and they will see 

 my real motives for foregoing, in 

 this instance, the rights of my rank. 

 Occasions, however, may arise 

 (one, I trust, is far distant) when 

 1 must appear in public, and your 

 Royal Highness must be present 

 also. Can your Royal Highness 

 have contemplated the full extent 

 of your declaration ? Has your 

 Royal Highness forgotten the ap- 

 proaching marriage of our daugh- 

 ter, and the possibility of our coro- 

 nation ? 



" I wave my rights in a case 

 where I am not absolutely bound 

 to assert them, in order to relieve 

 the Queen, as far as I can, from 

 the painful situation in which she 

 is placed by your Royal Highness; 

 not from any consciousness of 

 blame, not from any doubt of the 

 existence of those rights, or of my 

 own worthiness to enjoy them. 



" Sir, the time you have select- 

 ed for this proceeding is calculated 

 to make it peculiarly galling. — 

 Many illustrious Strangers are al- 

 ready arrived in England ; among 

 others, as I am informed, the illus- 



