life; and the distinguished proceeding, adopted by the first city in this great empire, will be considered by posterity as a proud memorial of my vindicated honour."

It must be allowed that the cloven foot of party spirit was visible in these addresses; nevertheless, it must at the same time be granted, that there, perhaps, never was a subject on which the nation was so unanimous. Events of a great national importance immediately succeeding to this inquiry, the public attention was directed into a different channel, and before the conclusion of the year, the Princess of Wales was scarcely ever mentioned.

Encircled with the pomp and etiquette of royalty, the Princess Charlotte passed a recluse and monotonous life. The same dull round of ceremony, the same abstraction from those innocent and necessary pleasures, which give a zest to life, were punctually observed; .and she looked abroad, round the wide circle of fellow-creatures, and could not fix upon one, in whose bosom she could pour out her sorrows with confidence, or meet a return of affection. To Him, then, her Father in heaven, were her morning and evening orisons offered; in the fulfilment of his commandments she found her happiness; and the tear on her own eye was exhaled, when, tendering the gift of charity, she made the tears of others cease to flow. But man is not an isolated creature; he is a link of one great and mighty chain, and each must

necessarily have a dependence upon the other: in society, he is like the flower blown in its native bed; in solitude, he is like the blasted shrub of the desert-neither giving nor receiving support, the energies of his nature fail himhe droops, degenerates, and dies.

Bereft of the society of her mother, the affections of the Princess Charlotte received a deep and painful wound. The circumstances also which led to the severe restrictions imposed upon their intercourse, tended in no small degree to aggravate the smart; and so far from any prospect presenting itself of a mitigation of the evil, every day seemed to bring a fresh assurance, that some heavier restrictions would be put in force.

That these suspicions were well founded, was too positively confirmed in a very short time. On the 4th October, 1812, the Princess of Wales went to Windsor with an intention of paying the Princess Charlotte a visit. Her Royal Highness drove to Augusta Lodge, where she supposed the Princess to be, but she was not permitted to see her daughter. In consequence of this denial, she requested an audience of the Queen, which immediately took place; but the result was by no means satisfactory to her Royal Highness, who expressed her determination, upon legal advice, to bring the matter of her situation to an immediate question, by an application to parliament.

The country had been long aware that objections

were stated to the frequency and length of the visits which the Princess of Wales paid her daughter at Windsor; and, in general, to the closeness of the intercourse which subsisted between them. A law officer, of the highest distinction, was the first person commissioned to be the bearer of a message to this effect; who, on his approach to the fair object of his embassy, was received with such a flow of eloquence, which he had never before experienced in any of his official capacities, that his lordship chose to retire without disclosing the object of his visit. This difficult task then devolved on the Earl of Liverpool, who executed it with all the coolness and the adroitness of the courtier and the statesman. The denial of access to the Princess Charlotte became a new substantive cause of complaint on the part of the Princess of Wales, and was likely to bring again before the public notice, the whole of the proceedings of the Inquiry of 1806, from which the present treatment of her Royal Highness appeared to emanate.

At the close of the year 1812, and the beginning of 1813, the Princess Charlotte was afflicted with an indisposition, which was in a great degree aggravated by the poignant feelings which preyed upon her mind, in regard to the unpleasant differences between her royal parents. It was also well known, that some strong disagreement prevailed at Windsor, and the frequent consultations which were held between a great personage and

the Lord Chancellor, evidently proved, that the subject on the tapis was not of trifling import. Various surmises were afloat as to the object of these consultations, and the illness of the King at that time was deemed the most ostensible cause. It is, however, beyond a doubt, that these deliberations had no reference whatever to the malady of the King, but were entirely confined to the affairs of the Princess Charlotte. It was, perhaps, highly politic to throw as thick a veil as possible over the momentous affairs then in agitation at Windsor; as, from the perturbed state of the public mind in regard to the severe restrictions which had been placed upon all intercourse between the Princess and her daughter, the most unpleasant consequences might have ensued from an open promulgation of the measures which were on the eve of being adopted.

That the matters, then under deliberation, were of the most urgent nature, may be gathered from the few authentic documents which are extant of that most important period of the life of the Princess Charlotte; for it appears that, on the 10th of January, 1813, the Princess sent a communication from Windsor to the Prince Regent by one of her own footmen, and the Queen dispatched another messenger at the same time. On the same evening the Prince Regent sent to the Lord Chancellor, commanding his lordship's attendance early on the following morning. His lordship was accordingly at Carlton House, by 10 o'clock, and set off with his Royal Highness for Windsor at 11.

The cause of this apparently hasty measure was subsequently discovered to relate to a change in the establishment of the Princess Charlotte, on account of the resignation of Lady de Clifford of the office of governess to her Royal Highness, and which inflicted an additional pang upon her already wounded feelings. On the resignation of Lady de Clifford being made known to the Princess Charlotte, her Royal Highness expressed an opinion, that she was of an age to do without any governess; and desired that the future appointment about her person might be in the capacity of a lady of the bedchamber, and not in that of a governess. This desire she made known to the Queen, who referred her to the Prince Regent. His Royal Highness immediately sent for the Lord Chancellor; and, on their arrival at Windsor, there was a meeting, at which the Queen, the Princess Charlotte, the Prince Regent, and the Lord Chancellor attended. The Prince Regent, adverting to the wish of the Princess Charlotte to have no governess after Lady de Clifford, but simply a lady of the bedchamber, declared his opinion and his pleasure to be, that she should still have a governess. The Queen expressed her sentiments to the same effect, and the Lord Chancellor. wholly coincided in them. The Prince Regent being resolute, the Princess Charlotte at last sub mitted, and the Duchess Dowager of Leeds was appointed governess.

Whilst these important matters were adjusting