THE "PRINCESS OF WALES: : [1814. 



me an 6pportunity, which I gladly seized, of writing a 

 careful article in the * Edinburgh Review.' Although 

 the time had neither arrived, nor even been anticipated, 

 when such a subject was to have practical application, 

 yet such discussions are always useful, not only to 

 inform, but to prepare men's minds for circumstances 

 which recent events might in the course of time make 

 of paramount importance. 



The part of the inquiry on which I took the most 

 pains, was that relating to the analogy attempted 

 to be set up between the royal family and private 

 families : it had been absurdly argued that the man- 

 agement of the members of the royal family was 

 altogether the private concern of its head, and that 

 it would be the height of indelicacy if anybody in 

 any way interfered. 



Between the family of a sovereign and the children 

 of a subject there is nothing in common. The mem- 

 bers of a royal, as compared with those of a private, 

 family, are by law debarred from feelings common to 

 humanity, and from all free action. They cannot fall 

 in love, without the consent of the Crown ; they maybe 

 over head and ears in that passion, but it must remain 

 a dead letter to them unless the sovereign in Council 

 permits its indulgence. The King for a wife must 

 choose some Protestant princess he has never seen ; 

 but this he must do for the sake of his people, and to 

 secure a Protestant successor ; and his heir comes into 

 the world, not in the privacy of the domestic household, 

 but in the presence of a crowd of the great officers of 

 state. All the tender feelings engendered in the 

 private family, all the closest relations of parent and 

 child, must be disregarded as if they had no existence. 



