the brevity, and the mutability of every thing, as it respects our present state of existence?

If we direct our view to the severe calamities which have befallen this country, as a just and seasonable interposition of Heaven to humble us, and check the excesses of our national pride, we cannot advert to two events of a more afflicting nature than those which have occurred in the annals of our Royal Family, and which must strike home in the most acute manner to every breast, not wholly bereft of sympathy and feeling. We allude to one, who is not yet dead, and who nevertheless partakes not of the joys nor the affections of his kindred nor his people. To him, there is neither sun nor moon, nor kingdom, nor wife, nor children, nor subjects. The little world in which he dwells is a solitude, peopled only by imagination; but the inhabitants are not those which haunt the guilty mind, even when reason is not overthrown. It is said that ministering angels are the companions of his thoughts in the loneliness of the circle by which he is cut off from rational intercourse either with this world or the next. How pure a spirit is then gone before him, to minister peace to him in his hermit hours on earth; and to give him a foretaste

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of that bliss to which he must soon be called! That being, whom on earth he so ardently loved, may now be the visitant of his nightly watchings, and in the darkness of his state he may hear the whispers of consolation from those lips, which to us on earth are henceforth closed for ever. In the midst of our afflictions here, some beam of consolation may dawn upon us, when we reflect that on the wings of this blessed spirit, his may be carried to those regions where the agony of his wounds will be hushed on the bosom of his Maker.

We turn from the shrouded corpse to reflect on the frailty of sublunary greatness :how dark!-how inscrutable here appear the ways of Providence!-But" my thoughts are not as your thoughts," saith that almighty Being by whom kings reign and nations are upheld, and at whose command all flesh returns to that dust whence it was originally created. The tear of affliction may flow, and the sigh of grief break from the burthened heart; yet resignation to the will of Heaven is the duty of the Christian: to that we must bow with implicit faith, and adore the Power, which from darkness can lead us unto light, from misery to joy.

Having thus primarily depicted a faint

sketch of the melancholy event which has given rise to the present work, it will be necessary to enter into a brief analysis of the principles which will be adhered to in the execution of it. The actions of monarchs and their immediate descendants are viewed through a different medium than those of individuals of a less exalted station; they become, as it were, the property of the nation over which they rule, and are examined according to their respective bearings on its prosperity or its injury. In proportion as the sphere of action of an individual increases, he rises in the scale of society; and his responsibility to the moral and political laws is augmented according to the degree of rank which is assigned to him; but the ordeal, which the actions of exalted individuals undergo, is seldom that of truth; revenge, malignity, or party spirit, often attaches criminality to an action to suit its own sinister purposes, and hunts down the character of one individual to blazon that of another, more faulty, perhaps, than the former. It falls not to the lot of every one to lift the veil which hides the actions of royalty, and then the faint glimpses which are caught through a clouded medium, are by malice converted into a clear and lu

minous observation of the action through its most remote ramifications; and a baneful construction is induced, to answer some private or malicious view. It is, besides, no easy task to follow a chain of circumstances from their outset to the catastrophe, where private interests or national prejudices require that certain links of it should not be exposed to public view. The positive commission of the act becomes immerged in the probability of it, and then invention is often exercised to supply the links which may be wanting, which, from a deficiency of positive data, assume a decided character and complexion, according to the views of the agent. The higher the object, the more conspicuous the mark, and there are few characters at which the shafts of malevolence may not be aimed. It becomes, however, the duty of the historian, in the delineation of an exalted character, to divest himself of all prejudice and partiality; to trace the course of events to their pure and genuine source, before it be sullied by the feculence of party spirit; and, with a due sense of the infirmities of human nature, to throw the veil of Christian charity and indulgence over the blemishes which may be discovered.

There are circumstances of deprivation attendant on persons born to a sceptre, which fix their ratio of social happiness at a point far inferior to that experienced by those in more humble stations of life. The truth is seldom, if ever, spoken to them, and very seldom of them. They are debarred the enjoyment of the pleasures arising from disinterested friendship; and, animated by the same desires, and influenced by the same wants, they stand aloof from their fellowcreatures. They are deprived by their situation, of all those nameless, but numerous comforts, which smooth the path of life, and are found necessary even by the most exalted. Such is the unfortunate lot of royalty, which, if we duly reflect on, will incline us oftener to the exercise of pity than to that of condemnation.

Far be it from us, in the prosecution of this work, to pass an eulogium on the dead at the expense of the living: the former is beyond our censure or our praise; and we hold the tear too sacred, which is not yet dry on the cheek of the latter, to aggravate their sorrows by an immediate recurrence to those scenes, the memory of which is attended with regret and pain. We turn with indignation from