state of insanity. The verdict returned was, "Died by his own act, being at the time he committed it in a state of mental derangement *."

The attentions of his friends, and the reflections of conscious integrity, would have eventually restored peace to Sir Richard's bosom, but to his mental trials was unfortunately added bodily fatigue; and after some nights' want of rest, and in the midst of another painful trial of his feelings, for the state of a patient whose life was in his hands, he seems, between sleeping and waking, to have been visited with momentary phrensy, the sad effects of which cannot be recorded without emotions of the deepest sympathy. It must be evident to every feeling mind, that even the natural death of the individual who had attended upon his beloved consort in the most awful period of her life, would have given considerable pain to the heart of Prince Leopold ;-but that he should

* Without impugning the justness of the verdict, which is the only one which could have been given upon the evidence adduced, an important question naturally arises, and which can only be answered by the gentlemen who gave that evidence; which is, that, as according to their deposition, strong symptoms of insanity had exhibited themselves in the deceased for some time previously to the commission of the fatal act, why he was permitted by those friends to follow the duties of a profession, to which so heavy a responsibility is attached, and for the performance of which, the utmost presence and sanity of mind are necessary?

fall by his own hands in a fit of mental derangement, occasioned by the acuteness of his feelings at a loss, ordained by Heaven, and not to be prevented by human power or skill, must indeed have been sufficiently harrowing to open afresh every wound of his too susceptible heart, which the lenient hand of time had begun to heal. The hours of his bitterest sorrow rose again upon his memory, and the past, with its dreaded accumulation of woes, poisoned the fleeting happiness of the present.

In the history of his country, the thanks of the Royal Parent and the Husband for his services will be recorded-with human transactions his course is finished-and in the full spirit of Christian charity let us hope, that his last act on earth has been forgiven by his merciful Creator.

Another afflicting circumstance, of a private nature, resulting from the sudden demise of the Princess Charlotte, was the death of the Countess of Albemarle, one of the earliest friends of her Royal Highness, and to whom she addressed the letter inserted in these Memoirs, page 34.

The accouchement of the Countess was expected about the same time as that of the Princess Charlotte, and some pleasant and jocose observations often passed between the two friends upon the occasion. The melancholy intelligence of the death of the Princess Charlotte no sooner reached the ears of the Countess, than a pres

mature labor came on, which ended in her dissolution.

To perpetuate the memory, and with it the virtues of the Princess Charlotte, a subscription was opened towards defraying the expenses of erecting a Cenotaph; and that the subscription might embrace all classes of persons, it was resolved, that no individual subscription should exceed a guinea, and the smallest sum be received. The Duchess of York patronised the plan, it having been originally intended that the subscription should be confined to the female part of the community; but some very strong objections to that plan having been urged, it was relinquished; and in a very short time, a sum far more than adequate to perform the original undertaking was collected. The Cenotaph will be raised on some public spot, (subject to the approbation of her Royal Highness the Duchess of York,) under the direction of the Committee; and will consist of a temple of the purest architecture, containing a statue of the late Princess, in Parian marble, with a surrounding monumental group. The whole will be under the direction of Mr. Matthew Wyatt.

To the leading motives, and the principles from which the erection of a Cenotaph originated, not a dissentient voice can be raised; but were it possible to consult the wishes of that now-sainted being, to whose memory it is to be erected, we

are certain, that it would be her wish, that the remembrance of her virtues should be her monument alone; and that an asylum for the orphana school for the ignorant-a refuge for the destitute-an hospital for the sick-or a house for the industrious, would, to her heart, be more congenial, than the proudest monument which human ingenuity could erect. We still hope, that the surplus of the money will be applied to the foundation of a charitable institution, the effects of which may be seen in our posterity, when the columns of the Cenotaph are mouldered into dust.

The death of the Princess Charlotte is not one of the passing events of the day, it grows hourly upon the hearts of the community. Time, which effaces common griefs, often adds strength to powerful emotions, and renders them more fixed and painful. The object, however, which we lament most tenderly, is not always that, the loss of which inflicts upon us the most durable sorrow, since reason sometimes heals the wounded affections, by enabling us to calculate and measure more justly the value of the being whom we deplore. But such is not the influence of reason or reflection on the minds of the people of England at this moment. Those who feel most acutely on the present occasion, are they who think most deeply upon the excellence of what we have lost, and on the probable consequences of this great public calamity to the highest interests of the nation. Among the many points of view under which it

has been our pride and study to contemplate the Princess Charlotte, and to point her out to the admiration of the people of England, we have delighted to speak of her character in domestic life. In that capacity she highly merits to be held up as a pattern to succeeding generations; and in a school endowed under her name, the exercise of the domestic virtues might be particularly inculcated. The dissolute manners of some among the upper classes in this country require no ordinary antidote to their corrupting force; the law, though armed with peculiar terrors, is evaded by artful vice, or defied by audacious infamy. Our unspotted Princess, in the lovely purity of her conjugal and maternal character, and in the splendor and pre-eminence of her constitutional throne, would, with the partner of her virtuous affections, have herself supplied the defects of law, and reclaimed the licentiousness of fashion. Every wife would have gazed upon her as a bright example of those duties whose performance rewards itself, and constitutes the chief blessing of society. The loss of such a model, in such an age, may be the subject of lamentation to our latest posterity.

The chasm in the lineal succession to the throne, occasioned by the demise of the Princess, is likely to be supplied by the attention which is at this period paid by the Government to the marriages of some of the branches of the Royal Family; one of which has already taken place between the Princess Elizabeth and a