unalterable determination, not to meet the Princess of Wales upon any occasion, either in public or private. The Queen is thus placed under the painful necessity of intimating to the Princess of Wales, the impossibility of her Majesty's receiving her Royal Highness at the drawing-rooms. CHARLOTTE R. The answer of the Princess of Wales was as follows: MADAM, I have received the letter which your Majesty has done me the honor to address to me, prohibiting my appearance at the public drawing-rooms, which will be held by your Majesty in the ensuing month, with great surprise and regret. I will not presume to discuss with your Majesty, topics which must be as painful to your Majesty, as to myself. Your Majesty is well acquainted with the affectionate regard, with which the King was so kind as to honor me up to the period of his Majesty's indisposition; which no one of his Majesty's subjects has so much cause to lament as myself;-and that his Majesty was graciously pleased to bestow upon me the most unequivocal and gratifying proof of his attachment and approbation, by his public reception of me at his court, at a season of severe and unmerited affliction, when his protection was most necessary to me. There I have since, uninterruptedly, paid my respects to your Majesty. I am now without appeal, or protector; but I cannot so far forget my duty to the King, and to myself, as to surrender my right to appear at any public drawing-room, to be held by your Majesty. That I may not, however, add to the difficulty and uneasiness of your Majesty's situation, I yield, in the present instance, to the will of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, announced to me by your Majesty, and shall not present myself at the drawing-rooms of next month. It would be presumptuous in me to attempt to inquire of your Majesty, the reasons of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, for this harsh proceeding, of which his Royal Highness can alone be the judge. I am unconscious of offence; and in that reflection, I must endeavour to find consolation for all the mortifications I experience; even for this, the last, the most unexpected, and the most severe ;—the prohibition given to me alone to appear before your Majesty, to offer my congratulations upon the happy termination of those calamities with which Europe has been so long afflicted, in the presence of the illustrious personages, who will, in all probability, be assembled at your Majesty's court, with whom I am so closely connected by birth and marriage. I beseech your Majesty to do me an act of justice, to which, in the present circumstances, your Majesty is the only person competent, by acquainting those illustrious strangers with the motives of personal consideration towards your Majesty, which alone induce me to abstain from the exercise of my right to appear before your Majesty and that I do now, as I have done at all times, defy the malice of my enemies to fix upon me the shadow of any one imputation, which could render me unworthy of their society and regard. Your Majesty will, I am sure, not be displeased that I should relieve myself from a suspicion of disrespect towards your Majesty, by making public the cause of my absence from court, at a time when the duties of my station would otherwise peculiarly demand my attendance. I have the honor to be, your Majesty's Most obedient daughter-in-law and servant, Connaught-House, May 24, 1814. The Queen, on the following day, replied thus to the above letter: Windsor-Castle, May 25, 1814. The Queen has received, this afternoon, the Princess of Wales's letter of yesterday, in reply to the communication which she was desired by the Prince Regent to make to her; and she is sensible of the disposition expressed by her Royal Highness, not to discuss with her topics which must be painful to both. The Queen considers it incumbent upon her to send a copy of the Princess of Wales's letter to the Prince Regent; and her Majesty could have felt no hesitation in communicating to the illustrious strangers, who may possibly be present at her court, the circumstances which will prevent the Princess of Wales from appearing there, if her Royal Highness had not rendered a compliance with her wish, to this effect, unnecessary, by intimating her intention of making public the cause of her absence. CHARLOTTE R. To the above letter, the Princess of Wales replied: The Princess of Wales has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a note from the Queen, dated yesterday; and begs permission to return her best thanks to her Majesty, for her gracious condescension, in the willingness expressed by her Majesty, to have communicated to the illustrious strangers, who will, in all probability, be present at her Majesty's court, the reasons which have induced her Royal Highness not to be present. Such communication, as it appears to her Royal Highness, cannot be less necessary, on account of any publicity which it may be in the power of her Royal Highness to give to her motives; and the Princess of Wales, therefore, entreats the active good offices of her Majesty, upon an occasion which the Princess of Wales feels it so essential to her, that she should not be misunderstood. Connaught Place, May 26, 1814. CAROLINE P. The Queen replied on the following day :— Windsor-Castle, May 27, 1814. The Queen cannot omit to acknowledge the receipt of the Princess of Wales's note of yesterday, although it does not appear to her Majesty to require any other reply than that conveyed to her Royal Highness's preceding letter. CHARLOTTE R. On the same day, the 29th, on which the Princess of Wales replied to the letter of the Queen, she also transmitted a letter to the Prince Regent, which, as far as it regards the Princess Charlotte, cannot be perused without sympathizing with the feelings of her afflicted mother; it is as follows: SIR, I am once more reluctantly compelled to address your Royal Highness; and I enclose, for your inspection, copies of a note which I have had the honor to receive from the Queen, and of the answer which I have thought it my duty to return to her Majesty. It would be in vain for me to inquire into the reasons of the alarming declaration made by your Royal Highness, that you have taken the fixed and unalterable determination, never to meet me upon any occasion, either in public or private. Of these your Royal Highness is pleased to state yourself to be the only judge. You will perceive, by my answer to her Majesty, that I have only been restrained, by motives of personal consideration towards her Majesty, from exercising my right of appearing before her Majesty at the public drawing-rooms, to be held in the ensuing month. But, Sir, lest it should be, by possibility, supposed that the words of your Royal Highness can convey any insinuation from which I shrink, I am bound to demand of your Royal Highness, what circumstances can justify the proceedings you have thus thought fit to adopt. I owe it to myself, to my daughter, and to the nation, to which I am deeply indebted for the vindication of my honor, to remind your Royal Highness, of what you know,-that, after open persecution, and mysterious inquiries upon undefined charges, the malice of my enemies fell entirely upon themselves; and that I was restored by the King, with the advice of his ministers, to the full enjoyment of my rank in his court, upon my complete acquittal. Since his Majesty's lamented illness, I have demanded, in the face of Parliament and the country, to be proved guilty, or to be treated as innocent. I have been declared innocent. I will not submit to be treated as guilty. Sir, your Royal Highness may possibly refuse to read this letter; but the world must know that I have written it, and they will see my real motives for foregoing, in this instance, the rights of my rank. Occasions, however, may arise, (one, I trust, is far distant) when I must appear in public, and your Royal Highness must be present also. Can your Royal Highness have contemplated the full extent of your declaration? Has your Royal Highness forgotten the approaching marriage of our daughter, and the possibility of our coronation? I wave my rights in a case where I am not absolutely bound to assert them; in order to relieve the Queen, as far as I can, from the painful situation in which she is placed by your Royal Highness, not from any consciousness of blame, not from any doubt of the existence of those rights, or of my own worthiness to enjoy them. Sir, the time you have selected for this proceeding is calculated to make it peculiarly galling. Many illustrious strangers are already arrived in England; amongst whom, as I am informed, the illustrious heir of the house of Orange, who has announced himself to me as my future son-in-law; from their society I am unjustly excluded. Others are expected, of equal rank to your own, to rejoice with your Royal Highness on the peace of Europe. My daughter, will, for the first time, appear in the splendour and publicity becoming the approaching nuptials of the presumptive heiress of this empire. This season your Royal Highness has chosen for treating me with fresh and unprovoked indignity; and, of all his Majesty's subjects, I alone am prevented by your Royal Highness from appearing in my place, to partake of the general joy; and am deprived of the indulgence in those feelings of pride and affection, permitted to every mother but me. I am, Sir, Your Royal Highness's faithful wife, Connaught-House, May 26, 1814. |