enjoy the scene: she was highly gratified with the heartfelt tributes of applause which she received, for the first time, from a British audience, and which she repaid by the most enchanting affability and condescension.

In celebration of the royal nuptials, the queen gave a grand féte at Frogmore, on the 21st of May. At six o'clock in the evening, their majesties and the princesses went there, and at half-past nine they were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of York. The ball immediately commenced; eleven tables were laid for supper, and at twelve o'clock, 170 persons sat down. The room was beautifully decorated with artificial flowers, interwoven with bay-leaves encircling the pillars. The upper part of the room, where their majesties sat, was ornamented with three beautiful paintings of flowers, executed by the Princess Elizabeth. The ball-room was elegantly decorated with artificial flowers; and the ceiling was painted in imitation of the firmament, the effect of which was uncommonly fine. In the centre of the room was an elegant white and silver feather, with the initials, G. C. P., and the centre of the supper-room was decorated with a beautiful transparent star, with a number of variegated lamps, in festoons. The dancing re-commenced after supper, and the rest of the company did not separate till nearly four in the morning. The ladies were universally dressed in white, with white feathers in their heads, intermixed.

with diamonds, The gentlemen were generally in blue and gold.

It was however very evident to those who were immediately included in the royal circle, that her majesty and the Princess of Wales were not upon the most gracious terms; and in the month of June, a letter from the Princess of Wales, containing some indecorous expressions respecting the queen being intercepted, some violent disagreements arose upon the subject, and finally tended to enlarge the breach which had been already made in the conjugal felicity of the royal pair.

In regard to these intercepted letters, which at this time were so much the subject of conversation, we acknowledge our obligations for the liberty of transcribing the following letters, which throw some light upon this mysterious affair.

Several malicious and scandalous paragraphs having appeared in the newspapers of that period, accusing the Countess of Jersey of having opened a letter intrusted to the care of her ladyship, by her royal highness the Princess of Wales, and adding, that the letter so opened had been conveyed by the countess to the queen, Lord Jersey came forward in a public manner to clear the character of his lady from the imputations which had been thrown upon it, and to prove that they had been fabricated for the most malicious purposes.

It appears that Dr. Randolph, who it is said was advanced to a bishopric, in consequence of

the part which he took in this affair, having expressed his intention of visiting Brunswick, her royal highness the Princess of Wales intrusted him with a packet of letters, which from a most mysterious cause never reached its destination, and were supposed to have been intercepted by the Countess of Jersey, in order to be delivered to the queen. Lady Jersey in consequence wrote the following letter to Dr. Randolph :

Pall-Mall

The newspapers being full of accusations of my having opened a letter either to, or from, her royal highness the Princess of Wales, and as I cannot in any way account for what can have given rise to such a story, excepting the loss of those letters, with which you were intrusted last summer, I must entreat that you will state the whole transaction, and publish the accounts in the newspapers you may think fit. Her royal highness having told me, at the time when my inquiries at Brighton, and yours in London, proved ineffectual, that she did not care about the letters, they being only letters of form; the whole business made so little impression ou me, that I do not even recollect in what month I had the pleasure of seeing you at Brighton. I think you will agree with me, that defending myself from the charge of opening a letter is pretty much the same thing as if I was to prove that I had not picked a pocket; yet in this case I believe it may be of some use to shew upon what grounds so extraordinary a calumny is founded. As I cannot wish to leave any mystery upon this affair, you are at liberty to publish this letter, if you think proper to do so.

Dr. Randolph, in his answer to Lady Jersey, appearing rather averse to give the public state

ment required by her ladyship, having, as he expresses himself, no clue to the transaction, the following letter was written by Lord Jersey to the doctor, dated June 30, 1796.

SIR,

Lady Jersey wrote to you early in the last week, requesting that a full statement from you, of all that had passed relating to the packet of letters belonging to her royal highness the Princess of Wales, might appear in public print. To that letter she has received no answer from you; nor have I learned that any such publication has appeared. The delay I have been willing to attribute to accident. But it now becomes my duty to call upon you, and I do require it of you, that an explicit narrative may be laid before the public; it is a justice she is entitled to, a justice Lady Jersey's character claims, and which she has, and which you have acknowledged she has, a right to demand at your hands.

Your silence upon this occasion I shall consider as countenancing that calumny which the false representations of the business have so shamefully and unjustly drawn upon Lady Jersey.

I am, &c.

In consequence of this resolute letter, the doctor, after a week had elapsed, wrote to Lady Jersey, in which, after some prefatory matter, he gives her permission to make the following statement public.

I need not recall to your ladyship's recollection, the interview I had with the princess at Brighton, when she delivered to me the packet in question; all her attendants in waiting were, I believe, present, and the conversation

generally turned upon the various branches of her august family, and the alteration I should find in them after an absence of ten years. This interview, if I am not mistaken, took place on the 30th of August, and after waiting, by her royal highness' desire, till the 14th, when the prince was expected from Windsor, to know if he had any commands to honour me with; I had no sooner received from Mr. Churchill his royal highness's answer than I departed from London with the intention of proceeding to Yarmouth on the 11th. On my arrival in town, finding some very unpleasant accounts of the state of Mrs. R's. health, I took the liberty of signifying the occurrence to her royal highness; annexing to it, at the same time, a wish to defer my journey for the present, and that her royal highness would permit me to return the packet, or allow me to consign it to the care of a friend, who was going into Germany, and would see it safely delivered. To this I received, through your lordship, a most gracious message from her royal highness, requesting me by all means to lay aside my intentions, and to return the packet. In consequence of such orders, I immediately went to Carlton-house to inform myself by what conveyance the letters and parcels were usually sent to Brighton, and was told that no servant was employed, but that every day they were, together with the newspapers, committed to the charge of the Brighton post-coach from the Golden-cross, Charing-cross.

On the subsequent morning, therefore, I attended at the Golden-cross, previous to the departure of the coach, and having first seen it regularly booked, delivered my parcel, inclosing the princess's packet, addressed to your ladyship, at the pavilion. Immediately afterwards I set out for Bath, and had scarcely been a fortnight at home when to my great surprise and mortification I received the following letter from your ladyship, dated Brighton, September 1st:

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