successors may be pleased to direct; and no children of this marriage shall be allowed to marry without the consent of his Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or his successors for the time being. ARTICLE V. It is understood and agreed that her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Augusta shall not, at any time, leave the United Kingdom without the permission, in writing, of his Majesty, or of the Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, and without her Royal Highness's own consent. And in the event of her Royal Highness being absent from this country, in consequence of the permission of his Majesty, or of the Prince Regent, and of her own consent, such residence abroad shall, in no case be protracted beyond the term approved by his Majesty, or the Prince Regent, and consented to by her Royal Highness. And it shall be competent for her Royal Highness to return to this country before the expiration of such term, either in consequence of directions for that purpose, in writing, from his Majesty, or from the Prince Regent, or at her own pleasure. ARTICLE VI.. This treaty shall be ratified by his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, on the behalf of his Majesty, and by his said Serene Highness, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in ten days, or sooner, if possible.. In witness whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed it, and have affixed thereunto the seals of their arms. Done at London the thirteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen. (L. S.) C. Cantuar. (L. S.) Eldon, C. (L. S.) Harrowby, P. (L. S.) Bathurst. (L. S.) Liverpool. (L. S.) Baron de Just. (L. S.) Castlereagh. (L. S.) Sidmouth. (L. S.) N. Vansittart. ADDITIONAL ARTICLE. It is hereby expressly declared, that no article or provision, contained in the treaty of marriage signed this day, shall, in any manner, be taken, or deemed to affect, or prejudice any right or prerogative of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, touching or concerning the education or marriages of any of the children or descendants of her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Augusta, or the education or marriages of any of the Royal Family or their descendants. The present additional Article shall have the same force and effect, as if it were inserted, word for word, in the treaty of marriage signed this day. It shall be included in the ratification of the said treaty. In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seals of their arms. Done at London, the 13th day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen. (L. S.) C. Cantuar. (L. S.) Eldon, C. (L. S.) Harrowby, P. (L. S.) Baron de Just. (L. S.) Bathurst. (L. S.) Liverpool. (L. S.) Castlereagh. There is one singularity attending this marriage settlement, which admits of some observation. It was signed by all the cabinet ministers on the 13th of March, and the signature of N. Vansittart, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, appears the last on the list. By this document, the ministers placed his Royal Highness the Prince Regent in rather an unpleasant predicament. They affix their signature to an important instrument, in which his Royal Highness lays himself under the promise of securing 60,000l. a year to the Princess Charlotte, which 60,000l. could only be secured by a grant of Parliament; and, on the 13th of March, when the treaty was signed by the ministers, no application whatever had been made to Parliament for any annual allowance to the Princess Charlotte, in consequence of her approaching marriage. It was not till the 15th of March, two days after the signature of the treaty, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer applies to Parliament, for the grant of that allowance to the Princess Charlotte, which, by a document then in existence, himself in conjunction with all the rest of the cabinet ministers, had, on their responsibility alone, and without any appeal to that part of the legislative power, by which only the grant could be allowed, subjected his Royal Highness to a promise, from the performance of which Parliament had it in its power to prevent him. An application to Parliament for pecuniary grants, although backed by all the influence of ministers, is not always successful; and for the purpose of elucidating this subject, let the position be stated, that the Prince Regent had, by the advice of his ministers promised that 6000/. a year should be granted to the Duke of Cumberland from the consolidated fund; and that ministers, in the plenitude of their promises by anticipation, had, as a mere matter of form, and without the slightest suspicion of any opposition to the grant, carried a royal message to Parliament, calling upon it to confirm the royal promise. The result of that application placed ministers in the very pillory of embarrassment, in which they all went round and round, not being able to look each other in the face, and with the pain of their awkward situation still smarting upon their memory, it would have been much safer and more decorous in them, and far more congenial to the true principles of the British Constitution, had they awaited the result of the application to Parliament, before they had affixed their signatures to the treaty, and not laid themselves at that time under an obligation to give what they must be well aware could have been refused them. On the 25th of March, the Earl of Liverpool presented in the House of Lords, a bill for the naturalization of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, on which occasion, the standing orders of the House were suspended, that the progress of the bill might not be retarded. On the following day, it passed through all its stages, and was sent to the Commons, where it was passed and received the royal assent on the following day, the commissioners being the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and Lord Melville. Prince Leopold being now naturalized, it was intended that he should be called up to the House of Peers, by the title of the Duke of Kendal; by which creation the Princess Charlotte of Wales, heiress presumptive to the throne, would lose her former rank, and become simply Duchess of Kendal, a title only known in this country by having been conferred on the German Princess of George I. On mature consideration, many weighty objections appeared to the adoption of this measure; and the country certainly would not have been satisfied had it taken place. It would have required some explanation, why her Royal Highness should have been obliged to relinquish for herself her present title as a Princess, in order to assume that of a Duchess, to which her birth and destination have rendered her superior. If it were alleged that it was proposed, because her intended husband could not be raised to an equal elevation with herself, as a Prince of England, it might have been fairly suggested, that, being a Prince already, his title could never have been mistaken for that of any of the English Princes, who were there all addressed as Dukes Royal; and the addition of his title of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld would always secure the distinction. But, if in this measure it was designed that the Princess Charlotte should descend to a level with her husband, it may be answered, that the instances are numerous among our English nobility, where a lady of quality marries a nobleman of inferior rank, and yet retains her former title. The heralds certainly would not find more difficulty in announcing the Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince of Saxe-Coburg, |