live within a prescribed circle of state and splendor. The law acknowledged her only as the heiress presumptive to the crown, but did not invest her with any of the rights of royalty, when in full possession of its power. It is very necessary that a high degree of pomp should accompany the executive monai ch, commensurate with the power and the riches of the country over which he reigns; and few countries have so amply provided for the grandeur of their kings as England. The nation also provides, that the monarch in succession shall be enabled to support the splendor to which his station entitles him; but it leaves the choice of that splendor to the individual himself, and forces him not to adopt another in which the happiness of his life may be destroyed. The splendor chosen by the Princess Charlotte was that of a dignified retirement, it was the true otium cum dignitate; and the illustrious female, conscious of the high destiny to which she was born, considered that she fulfilled the duties of her station with greater exactness in making herself acquainted with the laws and institutions of her country, in the promotion of religious principles, and in the encouragement of the arts and sciences, than in exacting the stare of the passing rowd by the splendor of her equipage or the richness of her attire. The Princess Charlotte, young as she was, had witnessed instances of excess in royal establishments, which did not fail to produce in her mind the observation and reflection necessary to complete the happiness of one placed in so elevated a state, and

connected by the best and dearest ties and relations with the British nation. The lavish expenditure of an extensive income prevents even greatness itself from exercising some of its finest attributes and qualities, plunges it into a self-indulgence that generates difficulties and embarrassments which are rarely or never surmounted, and induces an habitual feeling of false security against all disapprobation or control; for this luxury, this show of pomp, it often pays the painful cost of the people's respect and love. The Princess Charlotte, although born in the lap of royal affluence, had yet tasted of affliction; and it impressed upon her mind a strong bias of reflection, which enabled her to appreciate the intrinsic value of things, and not to be seduced by adventitious ornament, or the false glare of superfluous decoration. Though of a young and tender age, she had not to learn that royal splendor has its bounds and limits; and, she did not require the aid of instruction to teach her, that her exalted station derived its purest lustre from true moderation, which is in every respect more calculated to attract and secure the pure love and zealous homage which beat in the heart of a nation, than all the outward forms and gaudy trappings of courtly pomp and magnificence.

It must, however, be admitted on all sides, that Parliament adopted the wisest course, in fixing the establishment of the Princess Charlotte at once at a maximum; thereby preventing any future application for an increase of income, or exposing the illustrious

parties to the unpleasant alternative of contracting debts, in order to keep up even that degree of state to which they had determined to conform.

In this respect, the ministers had a precedent very much in point, for, on the marriage of Queen Anne, when Princess, with Prince George of Denmark, a small annuity was settled upon her husband. The consequence was, that in the second year of her accession to the throne, she sent the following message to Parliament, and they granted the Prince a hundred thousand pounds a-year, should he survive her :"ANNE R.

"Her Majesty, considering that there is but a very small provision made for the Prince her husband, if he shall survive her Majesty, and that her Majesty is restrained from increasing the same by the late act of parliament for settling her income, thinks it necessary to recommend the making further provision for the Prince, to your consideration."

In the speech at the close of the Session, the Queen thus acknowledged the grant :

"I must further take notice to you, that the readiness you have shewn in the provision made for the Prince, is a very sensible obligation*."

In the House of Lords, Earl Darnley and Lord Holland used the same arguments against the grant

* I am not aware what was the amount of the first annuity granted to Prince George. It was probably something charged by Charles II. upon the crown lands, for there was no message to Parliament upon the occasion of the marriage.

of 60,000l. as were used by the opposition members in the House of Commons; they were, however, all overruled, and the bill was ultimately passed.

The stay of Prince Leopold at Hampton-Court was very short; on the 9th he returned to Brighton, but it was then understood that his establishment at that place was to be given up in the course of the following week.

During the course of these proceedings, no difference appeared to take place in the manner of life of the Princess Charlotte. She visited the Royal Family at Windsor, and was visited by them in return; and, she appeared rather a subordinate character in the great drama which was then acting, than a principal. The forms of etiquette are seldom allied to the principles of common sense, or hold any relationship with the dictates of reason. In the humbler walks of life, the purest happiness of which the human heart is susceptible, is felt in the society of the object. of our affections, and every opportunity is eagerly embraced which can bring us into the presence of that object; but it is an enigma, not to be solved by the common rules of human actions, why, in the royal circle, two individuals destined for each other, should be as rigidly and scrupulously prevented from meeting, as if, instead of giving them an opportunity of testifying their affections for each other, a fear existed, that some quarrel would ensue, which might ultimately be the means of breaking off the union. The Princess, destined in a few days to give her hand in marriage to an individual selected by herself and

approved of by her country, was obliged to move in a particular orbitin to which that individual did not dare to enter; as if by their conjunction some baneful influence might be exerted on the body politic of the nation ; and if, by some eccentric impulse, their motions should happen to digress into the same orbit, it was but momentary, for we immediately beheld them flying off again in a tangent, and like Uranus, moving cheerlessly in a distant sphere, where the influence of the power which gives life and activity to creation, is deadened by the distance through which it passes.

Etiquette certainly requires a positive sacrifice of personal feeling; but in the case above alluded to, it would be "honored more in the breach than in the observance."

On the 10th of April, Mr. Phillips, the newly appointed steward to the household of the Princess Charlotte, took possession of Camelford-House; and the most strenuous exertions were made, to render it in every respect, a suitable residence for the illustrious couple.

An arrangement took place, at the same time, in regard to the state liveries of the Princess Charlotte; and it was determined, that they should be of dark bottle-green cloth, as well as the frocks, and were to be decorated in every respect as the Prince Regent's servants, with gold lace on the coat. The waistcoats and breeches were to be of fine white cloth. Although the carriages for the royal pair were then building, the linings, ornaments, and decorations were not then finally settled.