332 THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. [1817. 



promised so much happiness to them, and held out 

 such satisfactory hopes to the nation, was suddenly 

 brought to an untimely end by the death of the 

 Princess, shortly after if not concurrently with, the 

 birth of a male child still-born. 



This most melancholy event produced throughout 

 the kingdom feelings of the deepest sorrow and most 

 bitter disappointment. It is scarcely possible to ex- 

 aggerate, and it is difficult for persons not living at 

 the time to believe, how universal and how genuine 

 those feelings were. It really was as if every household 

 throughout Great Britain had lost a favourite child. 



It is bootless to indulge in speculations and sur- 

 mises, but Grey and I in discussing the event took 

 somewhat different views. He held that death had 

 mercifully saved Princess Charlotte from what would 

 have been, to her, the fearful consequences of the dis- 

 graceful proceedings against her mother. I, on the 

 other hand, felt persuaded that, had she lived, the 

 proceedings of 1820 never would have seen the light. 

 Even against her, standing alone, George IV. would 

 scarcely have ventured to have instituted them ; but 

 against her, supported by Leopold, he would have 

 found such a course impossible. For Leopold, of all 

 men I have ever known, possessed every quality to 

 insure success against such a man as George IV., and 

 even against such ministers as had weakly, if not dis- 

 honestly, done his bidding in 1820. 



His qualities were indeed of the highest order, and 

 among all the foreign princes ever connected with Eng- 

 land he stood pre-eminently high second to none, 

 save one, the great and good Prince Albert, of whose 

 inestimable qualities none were more remarkable than 



