244 THE PRINCESS OF WALES [1814. 



must confess that the Princess is vulnerable, and in 

 which it is known he was the instigator ; namely, the 

 time and manner of breaking off her marriage. Under 

 all these difficulties I think I could have had the best 

 of the argument, but I should have nobody in reserve 

 to support me ; and to do justice to the case, I must 

 have betrayed an intimate acquaintance with all the 

 transactions from the beginning, which, if they had 

 known how to use it, would of itself have furnished 

 a new charge against the Princess, and particularly 

 against Miss Knight; and the Chancellor was not a man 

 to overlook such an advantage. 



" Under all these circumstances I could not doubt 

 that the best thing was to get the Duke of Sussex to 

 put off the motion, giving as his reason the appear- 

 ance of the situation, of the Princess Charlotte being 

 better, his hope that it would become what it ought 

 to be, and his desire not to risk that hope, while it 

 could exist, by any proceeding on his part which 

 might produce irritation. This he did very well 

 and answered by Liverpool very moderately, with the 

 exception of a passage at the end about the Prince's 

 parental attention. Of this I took notice; said we 

 had nothing to do in that House with the sovereign, 

 but with his advisers, which they avowed themselves 

 to be on this subject, arid that without going into a 

 discussion which I thought it best, under all circum- 

 stances, to avoid. I could only say that it would be 

 difficult to convince me that the situation of the 

 Princess Charlotte had been such as was compatible 

 with what Lord Liverpool had said. With this I 

 concluded, having introduced it by avowing myself 

 as the adviser of the Duke of Sussex's withdrawing 



