exalted, yet denied a participation in those regal honours to which she was so eminently calculated to give additional lustre-Expectations of the most animating nature are excited-Hopes the most cheering are raised-Prospects the most brilliant are opened before her-Young, buoyant, cheerful, and confiding, the amiable Princess, Caroline of Brunswick, sailed for England to become the wife of Britain's Heir-apparent, with a prospect of even ascending the throne of the greatest nation in Europe-But, alas! one short month had not passed after her arrival in this country ere she began to taste the bitter fruits of disappointment-Soon did she discover that her husband's "inclinations" were at war with their mutual happiness-She gave him a child; but this bond of union was, also, speedily broken-The beloved Princess Charlotte was snatched from her mother's arms; and the mother herself became an exile and a wanderer over more than half of the civilized globe. At length the period arrived, when the death of her great protector, and royal father-in-law, rendered it necessary that she should return-to claim her rights as Queen, and rescue her character from infamy. She implored justice-she invoked the laws of her adopted country-but justice was denied her-and the laws were insulted in her royal person-she cried again and again for justice, after her innocence had been proved; but the blind deity saw not her supplicating posture; and the scales were held by an unsteady hand. At length this illustrious sufferer sunk beneath the weight of oppression; and died of a broken heart, lamented by the whole nation.

Such are the general outlines of the following volumes: that they are rich in important events I need not inform the intelligent reader: that they should be related with candour and impartiality I owe it to my own character, as a writer not altogether unknown to the public, and to my own conscience as a faithful historian.

And here I may be permitted to remark, that in reviewing the Life and Character of her late most gracious Majesty, the Queen; and in remarking on the numerous

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circumstances of the unhappy misunderstanding between her and the King, whatever private opinions I may venture to divulge on this subject, I ought not, in fairness, to be charged with any political bias whatever. This question, as it appears to my mind, has nothing to do with the party politics of the day it is a simple question of right and justice: a question, however, which involves the morality, the feeling, and the happiness of the people at large; and, whatever may be said of the Author's political opinions, he has not hesitated to express himself on the various facts and conflicting testimonies that have come before him with all the freedom that becomes an honest man, and all the truth that ought to influence a candid recorder of important events. If, in the performance of this duty, he should have given offence to those who think, that whatever relates to the royal family must necessarily become a point to be mooted by polemical politicians, he has only to say that his object has been rather to prevent and allay, than to create angry feelings; but he must candidly assert, in the outset, that, as far as his present information and feelings lead him to conclude, he sees little to commend in the spirit and conduct of the late Queen's accusers; and much to admire in the intrepidity, the noble daring, the bold and inflexible appeals to the justice of the nation, manifested by the Queen to the very hour of her death. If the following sheets, therefore, appear to advocate the Queen's cause, it is because the Author has the firmest conviction that her's was the cause of truth, of justice, and of sound morality; and that her opponents, without charging them with any thing like wilful tyranny, or a desire to trample on the sacred rights and obligations of honour, or the feelings and interests of an afflicted, because an oppressed female, were, he is fully persuaded, most egregiously mistaken; and whilst they imagined, that, in lending their ears to reports against the Queen, they were supporting the honour and dignity of the King, they fell into an error from which they will not very speedily be extricated.

London, August, 1821.

MEMOIRS

OF HER LATE MAJESTY,

QUEEN CAROLINE.

CHAPTER I.

WILLIAM of Lunenburg, the youngest of the four sons of the pious Prince, Ernestus, the first of the illustrious house of Brunswick, who embraced the Protestant religion, founded the line from whence sprung the present royal family of Great Britain. His father has been described as not only the first Protestant of his house, but as the progenitor of all the princes of that house now existing in Europe.

William himself, closely following the example of his excellent parent, justly obtained the epithets of the Pious, the Just, and the Pacific, than which it is difficult to conceive titles more honourable, or more worthy of a man's ambition. He died in the year 1592, leaving behind him, by his Princess, Dorothy, daughter of Christian III. King of Denmark, fifteen children; viz. seven sons and eight daughters. The names of the former were Ernest, Christian, Augustus, Frederick, Magnus, George, and John.

These princes astonished all Europe, and even excited the particular admiration of Achmet, the Turkish Emperor, by one of the most extraordinary determinations that perhaps ever before entered the imagination of any number of men, circumstanced as these were. They unanimously resolved that but one of them should enter into the marriage state, in order, as they said, that they might the better maintain the splendour and dignity of their house. It was also agreed, that the oldest should, in the first instance, have the sole regency of the Lunenburg dominions, and that he should be succeeded by the next surviving brother.

Having formed this determination, they drew lots who should first have the honour of the matrimonial contract, when the lot falling on Prince George, the sixth brother, he immediately married, and continued the line. He was succeeded by the four eldest in succession; but the other three died before their turn to reign came.

George greatly distinguished himself under his brother, in the German wars. He married Ann Eleanor, daughter of Lewis V. Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, by whom he had several sons and daughters. Of the former, the most distinguished in the history of the times in which he lived, was George William, Duke of Zelle, who succeded his brother, Christian Lewis, in the principalities of Zelle and Grubenhagen, having previously been in possession of those of Calenberg and Gottingen.

This Duke was much caressed by William, Prince of Orange, and is said to have been one' of the most accomplished and valiant princes in all Europe. Even after the Prince of Orange came to the throne of Great Britain, under the title of William III. he consulted Prince George William on several memorable occasions. He died August 28th, 1705, in the 82d year of his age, leaving only one daughter, Sophia Dorothy, who afterwards married her cousin, George Lewis, Elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg, subsequently George I. King of Great Britain. This prince inherited his father's German dominions, and was the first of this illustrious family who ascended the British throne.

Ernest Augustus, was the youngest son of George, the above named son of William the Pious, of Lunenburg. He was a prince of distinguished talents and learning, and, by the treaty of Westphalia, became the secular Bishop of Osnaburg. In the year 1692, agreeably to a decision of the diet of Augsburg, held three years before, the great merit of this prince procured for him the title of an Elector of the Roman empire. He erected a splendid palace at Osnaburg at his own expense; but, on the death of his brother, John Frederick, he fixed his residence at Hanover, where he established many wise and wholesome regulations, and rendered numerous services to the empire. He married Sophia, youngest daughter of Frederick, Elector-palatine and King of Bohemia, by

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