INTRODUCTION.

THAT it should be thought useful and interesting to publish Memoirs of a Sovereign, whose reign lasted only a few months; who, in fact, never was crowned, and who was not known amongst us more than five or six and twenty years, is a circumstance that necessarily supposes something of more than ordinary interest in the events of that Sovereign's life and character. Such, however, is the case in the instance now before us.

The life of the late Queen, in a public point of view, was marked by events and circumstances fraught with the deepest interest, at one time threatening to involve consequences of the highest importance, not only to her own future welfare, but also to the happiness, the honour, and the internal and external tranquillity of these realms. But the hand of death suddenly arrested the progress of these portentous anticipations, and allayed, for a time at least, the fermentation which the almost ceaseless persecutions of the Queen were so fearfully calculated to produce.

From the moment in which it was first contemplated, that a foreign Princess of the house of Brunswick should form a matrimonial alliance with the heir-apparent of King George III., every thing that concerned the two royal personages became matter of deep importance to the government and people of Great Britain.

Happily for our liberties as Englishmen, we are not placed at such an immeasurable distance from the Monarch who, in the course of Divine Providence, may be raised to the Throne, but that we feel a paramount interest in all that the Monarch may himself deem essen

tial to his own honour and happiness. Ours is a mixed, not a divided government, compounded of three estates, but leading to one end; the movements of each, by an approximation which nothing can disunite but what would destroy the general form and texture of the whole, affect every part. By a kind of reversed climax, formed in a period less enlightened and less happy than the present, and now continued in the spirit of courtesy, we say the British Constitution is composed of King, Lords, and Commons; but we do not, therefore, infer, that the King reigns or acts independent of the Lords, from whom are selected his responsible advisers; nor that those advisers hold their high trusts wholly apart from the general or the individual interests of the Commons, who are the representatives of the whole nation or people.

We all live and act, or ought to do so, as by one social compact; as one great family, bound by one great charter for the general good of all; but if there is an individual more limited in regard to his public, and, in many respects, even as to his private actions, than another, that individual is the King.

If this principle of union has in any case been infringed, it has been invaded in direct opposition to the letter and spirit of the Constitution itself; which, in its present state, knows nothing of the old maxim of jure divino. I speak of the government of this country as it really is in itself; and not what either the corrupt influence of some mistaken governors, or the enthusiastic reveries of a democratical spirit, may have attempted to make it.

Let it not, however, be hence inferred, that because I thus speak, I am supposing that any inroads of magnitude have in fact been made on our excellent Constitution. I allude to the nature of that Constitution merely to justify the proceedings of those individuals, of whatever rank in the state, who may take a public part in whatever concerns the great affairs of the King or Queen, who reign by their choice, and for their benefit.

This doctrine has a peculiar applicability to the house

of Brunswick. The principles that raised the family of that illustrious house to the throne of this kingdom, are those only by which they can hope to maintain that high station; and it is grateful to know, that we have a King who can appreciate those principles, who recognises their authority, and has manifested an interest in their preservation. He imbibed them with the milk of his motherthey were fostered by the example of his virtuous father— they were strengthened by his earliest associates-and matured by years of experience. Never have these principles, in the most remote degree, been overlooked or misunderstood, but the backsliding has been checked by the public voice, and the error restrained by an instantaneous threat of irremediable danger to those from whom such aberrations have emanated.

To preserve these principles of rational liberty from danger, the Revolution of 1688 provided the most just and wholesome laws, not indeed as regarded the Protestant succession, but with a view to every branch of our civil polity; and our union with the house of Brunswick appeared eminently calculated to strengthen and cement every sentiment of freedom that could best promote the happiness of the community at large.

The marriages of the apparent or the presumptive heirs to the Crown have, ever since that period, been watched with a most jealous and scrutinizing eye by the public; and, for the most part, they have been negotiated and solemnized in perfect unison with the popular feeling. Hence, whatever has, at any time, worn the appearance of laxity in regard to the public duties attached to royal marriages, so sanctioned by the voice of the nation, has never failed to rouse the public indignation. The people have no means of controling personal dislikes or individual antipathies, nor of preventing those domestic animosities which such feelings naturally engender within the walls of a palace, as well as amongst individuals of humbler rank; but they never will patiently submit to witness what they may deem an infringement of public

decorum, and still less will they witness, unconcerned, what has the appearance of tyranny and injustice, especially when such conduct is directed against the honour and the reputation of a female of the Royal Family.

Queens of England are, by right, just as much entitled to the loyalty and affection of the people as Kings, and it is impossible that any indignity should be offered, either apparently or in reality, without bringing into action every loyal feeling of indignation, and exciting the warmest sentiments of sympathy and regard, accompanied with the most determined resolution to offer every protection which the laws of the land, and the affections of the people, can afford.

Englishmen, however, are not so romantically gallant towards their Queens as to forget their allegiance to their Kings; and we have not wanted instances in which they have manifested fully as much indignation against the former as attachment for the latter. The same generous spirit which would prompt them to defend the insulted innocence of the one, would also urge them, with equal ardour, to maintain the insulted honour of the other.

Thus it is, that, in respect to the subject which forms. so prominent a feature of the ensuing work, two parties were formed in the country: the one professing to have a jealous regard for the honour and dignity of the King, and the other as warmly espousing the cause of the Queen, between whom, it is lamentable to observe, a most serious misunderstanding existed to the dying hour of the latter.

It were, however, insulting to the reader, and tending to mislead the future historian of England, who will, doubtless, have recourse to the publications of the present day, to assert that the King's party (I regret the necessity of the phrase) bore any moderate proportion, in point of numbers, to that of the Queen. From one end of the land to the other, there was scarcely any other cry heard but "The Cause of the Queen!" "The Rights of the beloved and injured Caroline!"

Can it, therefore, be a matter of surprise, that the

public should most earnestly and eagerly inquire into the particulars of the Life of so illustrious a personage as her late Majesty, the Consort of King George IV. ? the feeling is natural, the curiosity intense and irresistible to gratify it, the Author of this work has availed himself of every possible means of information, public and private-He has had opportunities of conversing with those who have been the witnesses of her Majesty's conduct; who have been so far in her confidence, as to obtain the means of appreciating her real character, as well as of acquiring a knowledge of numerous facts of her history. To these private sources of information he has added the closest attention to whatever authentic documents have been laid before the public.

There is an abundant sufficiency of truth in the events of the late Queen's checquered life, without calling in the aid of fiction, to give interest to a work such as is now offered to the public; and the reader may rest assured that no fact or circumstance, connected with the subject of these Memoirs, has transpired unrecorded, whilst the Author has carefully abstained from giving credence to those reports and rumours which have nothing to recommend them but their marvellous character; and nothing to engage the Reader's interest, but their forced and fabulous introduction into a subject pregnant with events of deep and serious import, not only to readers of the present day, but also to those who may hereafter have occasion to review the history of our country, during a period when almost every day brought to light circumstances of the greatest magnitude; when the destinies of nations. appeared to hang upon a breath; and ancient dynasties were removed with almost as much facility and rapidity as, in ordinary times, men make an interchange of their respective landed possessions.

These Memoirs embrace a period of about fifty-three or four years; but the most interesting portion of that time is undoubtedly to be found in the last seven-andtwenty, when the illustrious and now deeply-lamented