t: correct, copy of the first Portrait painted by Francis Cotes, RA

FROM THE ORIGINAL NOW IN THE POSSESSION OF THE ROYAL FAMILY

formed on the 18th September, in the great council chamber of his Majesty's palace, by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. The godfathers were his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, and his most Serene Highness the reigning Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, who was represented by the Duke of Devonshire, being the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty's household. The god-mother was her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales.

The infantine establishment of his Royal Highness was at this time composed of the following persons:-governess, Lady Charlotte Finch; deputy governess, Mrs. Henrietta Coultworth; wet-nurse, Mrs. Scott; dry-nurse, Mrs. Chapman; necessary woman, Mrs. Dodson; Jane Simpson and Catharine Johnson, rockers.

It was at this stage of his Royal Highness' infancy that the drawing of him was taken, which embellishes this work. It was always a favourite picture of his late majesty George III., as it was the exact resemblance of two individuals in whom his heart, at that time, took the greatest interest.

It was stated by many of the journals of the day, that the Queen suckled her own children; and some of them, in the plenitude of their wisdom, found, in the supposed circumstance of the Queen having suckled the Prince of Wales, a cause for that predilection which she always entertained for him, in preference to any of her other children. It is, however, contrary to etiquette for any Queen of England to suckle her own children, the reasons for which must be obvious; and, at a future period, in the case of the Princess Charlotte, it was the cause of the most poignant grief, when it was announced to her, that she would not be allowed the enjoyment of one of the sweetest occupations of the mother.

The first public address presented to the young Prince of Wales was from the Governors of the Society of Ancient Britons, who solicited his patronage for an institution which educates, clothes, and supports a number of poor and destitute natives of the Principality from which his Royal Highness derives his title: the address was presented on St. David's day, the 1st of March, 1765, when the Prince was not quite three years of age. Your royal parents,' said the address, remember

no period of their lives too early for doing good; and when a few years shall call forth your virtues into action, your Royal Highness may, perhaps, reflect with satisfaction upon your faithful ancient Britons thus laying themselves at your feet.' The Prince made the following reply: Gentlemen, I thank you for this mark of your duty to the King, and wish prosperity to the charity.'

The Prince had been tutored several days previously, by his royal parents, in regard to the manner in which he was to conduct himself on this occasion; and the journals of the day announced, that he delivered his answer with great propriety and suitableness of action. At the conclusion the Prince presented the treasurer of the charity with a donation of 1007.

The royal parents were remarkably domestic; in addition, therefore, to the usual solicitude about an infant heir to the throne, their first-born became an object of unexampled care, -care that was thought excessive, if not injurious, at that early period, and which, although the motive of it must be ever praised, afterwards did harm to the character of the Prince, by rendering the transition from youth to manhood, and from restraint to independence, much too sudden and abrupt.

In the course of the year 1765, his Royal Highness was elected a Knight Companion of the most noble Order of the Garter, but his installation did not take place until the 25th of July, 1771.

On the 3d of March, 1766, the Prince of Wales was inoculated for the small-pox, by Pennel Hawkins, Esq., Sergeant Surgeon Extraordinary to his Majesty and Surgeon to her Majesty and the household, in the presence of their Majesties and his Majesty's Sergeant Surgeon, Cæsar Hawkins, Esq., Sir Clifford Witringham, Sir William Duncan, and John Pringle, Esq., physicians. The Duke of York was inoculated at the same time.

In the inoculation of the royal children, their Majesties had many strong and inveterate prejudices to surmount, which, at that time, had taken hold of the public mind, in regard to the impious act, as it was then stigmatised, of imparting a disease to a human being, with which it had not pleased heaven to afflict it. The most decided and illiberal opposition was every

where manifested towards the practice of inoculation; and some over-zealous and puritanical preachers extended their zeal so far, as to denounce it from the pulpit, as of the most impious tendency;-that it was most criminally and unjustifiably interfering in the concerns of heaven, and, consequently, its extreme vengeance was denounced on those who dared to follow such a guilty example. Their Majesties came in for their full share of abuse from those worthy and enlightened souls, in thus endangering the lives of their two elder sons, and thereby frustrating the hopes of the nation of a legiti mate successor to the crown. In despite, however, of all the anathemas from the pulpit, their majesties, convinced that inoculation was rather a blessing and a boon of Providence than a crime committed against it, continued to inoculate all their children; and it may, in a great measure, be attributed to that perseverance and strength of mind which their majesties evinced on this occasion, that the system of inoculation ultimately overcame the obstacles which were so illiberally thrown in the way of its adoption.

At this time an unexpected and alarming illness of the King, while it drew forth the sympathy of the nation for him, fixed the attention of all classes upon the royal heir, then a child of only four years old. The apprehension of a regency in the state, and a guardianship to the Prince, for so long a period as fourteen years, was a feeling peculiarly unwelcome; but providentially it was removed almost as soon as it arose. Still the known liability of the king to sudden disease, tending to affect the royal mind as well as body, caused public attention and anxiety, in no ordinary degree, to be continually directed to the rising Prince. Almost idolized by the people, when he was the subject of diseases incident to childhood, from which there is no royal road of escape, and which then prevailed with more certainty and severity than at present, every family seemed to feel as though one of its own members were in danger, and the tidings of his recovery were the signal for ebullitions of delight, and more confident anticipations that his life would be long, and his reign prosperous and happy.

It was on the 25th of October, 1769, that the Prince of Wales, then only in his seventh year, the Bishop of Osnaburg