the true principles of every moral law; and every personal resentment or private pique ought to yield to the justification of that character, on which, to suit a private purpose, an unjust and ignominious stain has been thrown.

The mystery of the refusal of this lady at court has not yet been solved; and it is believed that it is definitively postponed, until a certain event takes place.

On the 30th of April, Prince Leopold arrived in his travelling carriage at Carlton-House, and remained a considerable time with the Regent. At this interview, it was stated, that his Royal Highness was first apprized of the interesting situation in which his beloved daughter was then unequivocally declared to be; and his Royal Highness expressed his joy on the occasion in terms which conferred the highest honor on his feelings as a father, a prince, and a man. After leaving the Prince Regent, his Serene Highness proceeded to the Queen's Palace, to pay his respects to her Majesty, and from thence to Gloucester-House. Prince Leopold left town in the evening for Claremont.

Friday the 2d of May, being the anniversary of her marriage, her Royal Highness, notwithstanding her determination to abstain in future from all crowded assemblies, invited a select party to celebrate the happy day. It was commemorated by a dinner and concert; and the principal guests were the Duke and Duchess of York, the

Austrian Ambassador, the Bavarian minister, Lord and Lady Castlereagh, Marquis of Anglesea, Earl of Lauderdale, Lord Ashbrook, the Count and Countess of Lieven, Lady Harrowby, Lord Burghersh, Lady Susan Ryder, Sir Robert and Lady Gardiner, Baron de Just, Madame de Laohan, Miss Mercer Elphinstone, Dr. Short, &c.

The description of a single ball or dinner in high life may be strictly applied to every one. There is little in them to interest the feelings or to excite a generous sentiment in the heart. The real charms of hospitality are seldom witnessed, for the coldness of reserve, and the stiff forms of ceremony and etiquette, have no homogeneity with the warm glow of friendship, or the cheering effusions of reciprocal esteem. The general character, however, of parties in high life does not apply to that which was assembled to celebrate the auspicious union of the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold, on this its first anniversary; and I am enabled to state, from the information of one of the party, that at no period of the life of the Princess Charlotte, did her happiness appear to be more completely confirmed than on this day. To say that the illustrious couple were happy, is, in fact, saying that they deserved happiness; a truth universally acknowledged by all who observed their daily attention to the wants of their inferiors; their active charity, founded on a just but liberal economy; their constant but unostentatious exertion of their means

of usefulness; and, lastly, their perfect attachment to each other. Such conduct does not require the addition of royal splendor to excite our admiration; but it was a high satisfaction to an enlightened and moral nation, to see its future rulers actuated by such just notions of the real grounds of happiness and of greatness.

The storm, which was destined in its desolating course to level this beauteous fabric of sublunary happiness, was then rising slowly on the horizon; the eye could scarcely distinguish it, its murmurs had not yet reached the ear. With the bold front of conscious innocence, and firmly relying on the wisdom and goodness of an almighty Power, the destined victim heeded not its advances; till on a sudden, burst forth the dread tornado, and swept away the hopes of England! The Princess left her earthly crown to inherit a heavenly one! Her soul has fled from this sickly scene of mortal existence, to reap in immortality never-fading joy!

The bounds of the park of Claremont were now seldom passed by her Royal Highness in her morning excursions; and, indeed, it possessed within itself those peculiar charms, which could rivet the attention even of any ordinary mind, much more one of the exalted stamp of the Princess Charlotte's. Disliking the forms, the frippery and the folly of courts, she sought retirement as her paradise below; and in the company of a beloved husband, she experienced the calm enjoyment of domestic bliss, untainted by care,

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unalloyed by disappointment. The morning saw her happy in herself, happy in her consort, happy in her home: the evening sun beheld nothing within her circle to tarnish the honor of the woman, or to disgrace the dignity of the crown. Blessed by nature with a vigorous understanding; with a mind too firm to be misled by flattery, too great to find pleasure in the noisy nonsense and insipid fascinations of fashionable life, too virtuous to participate in its vices, too free to love that slavery in others which she hated herself; a Briton in principle, a Briton in action; she would have been the glory of her country, and the honour of her age.-How dark and mysterious are the ways of Providence! Who can tell why virtue, in the bloom of spring, is so often suddenly snatched away; whilst vice, full blown in iniquity, creeps through its period, till the decay of nature extinguishes the nuisance and the crime? Who can tell why this dignified Lady, who would have been the most royal of mortal sovereigns, should be torn away from the world, which she could have conquered to her purposes with the weapons of justice and of virtue? Who can tell why this Benefactress of the human race must no longer bestow her bounty; no longer make the indigent smile, or wipe away the tears of the afflicted? Why she must no longer dispense her blessings we know not.-But she is gone for ever! The tears of the people will long continue

to moisten her tomb, and their loud lamentations testify their sorrow.

Among the many beautiful traits which adorned the character of the Princess Charlotte, was the warm interest which she took in the fate of the female convicts, under sentence of death in Newgate. Immediately on being informed that any female was sentenced to die, her Royal Highness set on foot an inquiry, not only into the circumstances of the case, but also into the character which the unfortunate convict bore previously to her condemnation. Though a strict lover of virtue, her Royal Highness was not one of those stiff-starched moralists, who turn away with abhorrence from a fallen one of their own sex, and thereby close every avenue to repentance and reformation. She knew the great cause of the moral turpitude of the female character; that the inexperienced and unsuspicious girl yields to the snares and enticements of her seducer; and that the first barrier of virtue being overstepped, irretrievable ruin too generally follows.

The genuine concern which the Princess Charlotte took in the fate of female convicts, was first excited by a petition, which was presented to her in 1812, on behalf of a young woman, by name Frances Sage, then under sentence of death; and her individual case made such a strong impression upon the feelings of her Royal Highness, that she hesitated not a moment