JET. 36.] AND THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. 219 



as to surrender my right to- appear at any public 

 drawing-room to be held by your Majesty. 



" That I may not, however, add to the difficulty 

 and uneasiness of your Majesty's situation, I yield in 

 the present instance to the will of his Eoyal Highness 

 the Prince Eegent, announced to me by your Majesty, 

 and shall not present myself at your Majesty's draw- 

 ing-rooms of next month. 



" It would be presumptuous in me to attempt to 

 inquire of your Majesty the reasons of his Eoyal 

 Highness the Prince Eegent for this harsh proceeding, 

 of which his Eoyal Highness can alone be the judge. 



" I am unconscious of offence, and in that reflection 

 I must endeavour to find consolation for all the mor- 

 tifications I experience even for this, the last, the 

 most unexpected, and the most severe, the prohibition 

 given to me alone to appear before your Majesty to 

 offer my congratulations to your Majesty upon the 

 happy termination of those calamities with which 

 Europe has been so long afflicted, in the presence of 

 the illustrious personages who will in all probability 

 be assembled at your Majesty's Court, with whom I 

 am so closely connected by birth and marriage. 



"I beseech your Majesty to do me an act of justice, 

 to which, in the present circumstances, your Majesty 

 is the only person competent, by acquainting those 

 illustrious personages with the motives of personal con- 

 sideration towards your Majesty which alone induce 

 me to abstain from the exercise of my right to appear 

 before your Majesty; and that I do now, as I have 

 done at all times, defy the malice of my enemies to fix 

 upon me the shadow of any one imputation which 

 could render me unworthy of their society or regard. 



