demonstrating the truth of that position, it was most wisely added, that the people of England were not like the natives of China, who are content to know that their sovereign lives, although it is not permitted for them to behold him. The aim of these individuals, in thus attempting to divert her Royal Highness from that dignified retirement, which from the most prudential motives she had chosen for herself, was too apparent to excite her indignation, and tended rather to confirm her in her favorite mode of life than to induce her to alter it. Independently of the cordial and ardent attachment which her Royal Highness felt for rural retirement, prudence and policy dictated to her the line of conduct which she had chosen; her acquaintance with ancient and modern history informed her, that the noblest characters which have adorned its pages were formed in retirement, where the first great lesson of self-government is taught, the acquisition of which is indispensable to those who are one day destined to govern others. The mind of the Princess Charlotte, had, by deep reflection, and a just comparison of the opinion of others, acquired a mode of thinking wholly original; from which arose that decided determination of action, for which she was so eminently distinguished. Those individuals, who are not accustomed to extend the range of their observations beyond a certain line of character, and consequently are unable to discover the main spring of an action,

unless it comes immediately within their contracted powers of investigation, are generally prone, from the wayward disposition incident to human nature, to attach an artful or sinister motive to the deeds of others; and censure is thereby often heaped upon an agent, where applause ought to have been awarded. The Princess

Charlotte, in adhering to that strict line of neutrality which she had marked out for herself, in all matters relating to the private or public interests of any of the individuals of the Royal Family, and in totally abstaining from all interference on the subjects of dispute between them, adopted a line of conduct which prudence would certainly have pointed out to her, and which policy on her part strictly demanded. Those, however, whose passions are not under the control of reason, condemn all the arguments which can be adduced by prudence or common sense; and influenced by the grossest partiality, they consider those to be their enemies, who will not immediately chime in with their own private views, or who will not grant them every assistance in promoting the interest of those whose cause they have, perhaps, mistakingly espoused. That strong differences have existed in the Royal Family, is a matter of too great notoriety to be treated with that delicacy, which the slightest shadow of a doubt of their existence would necessarily demand; and at this particular period they were increased by the continued refusal of an illustrious individual to

receive the Duchess of Cumberland at her court; although to the public there did not appear any substantial grounds for that refusal. According to the trite maxim, that he who is not my friend must be my enemy, the partisans of the offended individual were not the least clamorous in their remarks on the line of conduct which the Princess Charlotte adopted; as she positively refused to throw her influence into the scale towards effecting a reconciliation, and thereby placing the discarded individual in that station to which her rank entitled her. The Princess Charlotte was not to be drawn from her neutrality, especially on a subject in which she felt no immediate interest, and interfering with which, she would have been brought into closer contact with certain individuals, with whom her particular station obliged her sometimes to associate, but whose company was certainly not the object of her choice. The cabal and intrigues of public life, met with no congeniality in the disposition of the Princess Charlotte. As to man, in the abstract, she knew him well, with all the virtues and vices of his nature; but on several points, the old cynic in his tub, did not entertain a more contemptible opinion of man in society, than the Princess Charlotte. She had been educated in a school, in which the knowledge of man is fundamentally acquired; and although she was too well aware that her rank and station in life precluded all idea of a complete seclusion from the world, yet,

the conviction was ever predominant in her mind, that the happiness of a human being is increased by a dignified and, (what may appear rather paradoxical,) a social retirement from a general intercourse with the world. The sphere in which the Princess Charlotte moved was one of her own creating; it was a circle in which all the tender charities, which sweeten the bitter cup of life, were daily called into action. The heart, not ostentation, prompted the gift, destined to assuage the wants of others; and the delicacy and kindness with which it was offered doubled its value. Beyond that circle, her Royal Highness, felt herself transplanted to a different climate; she looked around her, and beheld few or no objects, on which the affections of her heart could reasonably be placed, and which she had sufficient time or opportunity to study, to ascertain if they were worthy of her regard. She found, therefore, her happiness in retirement ;-being in principle the genuine philanthropist, in action the perfect christian, it was her endeavour to divest the affliction of others of its poignancy, and the tear which flowed in secret was, by her hand, in secret wiped away.

In her Royal Highness were united those qualities which are calculated to interest the feelings, fix the attachment, rouse the enthusiasm, and command the respect of mankind. She possessed all the feminine charms that, by interesting men, bespeak their good opinion. In the most trying

circumstances she proved herself superior to the dictates of a paltry ambition, and the miserable plea of political expediency; no persuasions could induce her to bestow her hand where her heart did not sanction the gift. For the short period in which she was a wife, she enjoyed all the happiness of which the married state is capable-unostentatious, retired, pure domestic bliss. The husband of her choice was truly worthy of her affection; and by his attention to her, when the absence of all her relatives had cast her wholly upon him for consolation and support, in her most trying and departing moments-he has earned a title to the gratitude of the British nation-a claim which they will ever recognise-a claim which will be handed down to posterity, as a sacred pledge. The example of conjugal felicity, and of the domestic virtues, thus set by her, whom the nation fondly regarded as its future Queen, gave the promise of happy days to come, when the dissipation of a court should not bestow a specious kind of sanction on profligacy of manners, nor afford a fashionable excuse for openly setting at nought the decencies of private life. The unshaken firmness with which the Princess adhered to a suffering parent proved that she possessed a mind which could not easily be warped from what she conceived to be right, nor be induced to abandon long-cherished principles and feelings. This trait of character, so invaluable, particularly to persons in her station, rendered her known attach、