STATE PAPERS. 



349 



ti-ious heir of the House of Orange, 

 who has announced himself to me 

 as my future son in law. From 

 their society I am unjustly exclud- 

 ed. Others are expected of rank 

 equal to your own, to rejoice with 

 your Royal Highness in the peace 

 of Europe, iWy daughter will, for 

 the first time, appear in the splen- 

 dor and publicity becoming the 

 approaching nuptials of the pre- 

 sumptive Heiress of this Empire. 

 This season your Royal Highness 

 has chosen for treating me with 

 fresh and unprovoked indignity : 

 and of all his Majesty's subjects, I 

 alone am prevented by your Royal 

 Hi'^hness from appearing in my 

 place, to partake of the general 

 joy, and am deprived of the indul- 

 gence in those feelings of pride and 

 affection permitted to every Mo- 

 ther but me. 



" I am. Sir, 

 " Your Royal Highness's 

 " faithful wife, 



"Caroline P." 

 " Connaught-house, 

 May 26, 1814." 



judge, to be his fixed and unalter- 

 able determinalion not to meet 

 the Princess of Wales upon any 

 occasion, either in public or pri- 

 vate. 



The Queen is thus placed under 

 the painful necessity of intimating 

 to the Princess of Wales the im- 

 possibility of her Majesty's receiv- 

 ing her Royal Hiy;hness at her 



Drawing-Rooms. 



Charlotte R." 



The Queen to the Princess of 

 Wales. 



Windsor Castle, May 23, 1814. 



The Queen considers it to be 

 her duty to lose no sime in ac- 

 quainting the Princess of Wales, 

 that she has received a communi- 

 cation from her son the Prince 

 Regent, in which he states, that 

 her Majesty's intention of holding 

 two drawing-rooms in the ensuing 

 month having been notified to the 

 public, he must declare, that he 

 considers that his own presence at 

 her court cannot be dispensed 

 with ; and that he desires it may 

 be distinctly understood, for rea- 

 sons of which he alone can be the 



Answer of the Princess of Wales 

 to the Queen. 



" Madam ; 

 " I have received the letter 

 which your Majesty has done me 

 the honour to address to me, pro- 

 hibiting my appearance at the 

 Public Dra«ing-Rooms which will 

 be held by your Majesty in the 

 ensuing month, with great surprize 

 and regret. 



" 1 will not presume to discuss 

 with your Majesty topics which 

 must be as painful to your Majesty 

 as to myself. 



" Your Majesty is well ac- 

 quainted with the affectionate re- 

 gard with which the King was so 

 kind as to honour me np to the 

 period of his Majesty's indisposi- 

 tion, which no one of his Majes- 

 ty's subjects has so much cause to 

 lament as myself: and that his 

 Majesty was graciously pleased to 

 bestow upon me the most unequi- 

 vocal and gratifying proof of his 

 attachment and approbation, by his 

 public reception of me at his court 

 at a season of severe and unmerit- 

 ed affliction, when his protection 

 was most necessary to me. There 

 I have since uninterruptedly paid 

 my respects to your Majesty. I am 

 DOW without appeal or protector. 

 But I cannot so far forget my duty 



