of your Majesty's illustrious family, that her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales should be admitted with as little delay as possible into your Majesty's royal presence; and that she should be received in a manner due to her rank and station in your Majesty's court and family."

The signatures to this minute were those of the Lord Chancellor Eldon, the Lord President Camden, the Lord Privy Seal Westmoreland, the Duke of Portland, the Earl of Chatham, the Earl of Bathurst, Viscount Castlereagh, Lord Mulgrave, Lord Hawkesbury (now Earl of Liverpool,) and Mr. Canning. It was dated 22d April, 1807. The original or authenticated copies of all the papers connected with the late enquiry, were directed to be sealed up, and deposited in the office of the principal secretary of state; the book was suppressed, and all went on quietly for some time.

Notwithstanding the recommendation contained in this document, however, it does not appear that the Princess of Wales was ever received into favour, either at court or in the Royal Family.

After an interval of upwards of four years the subject was once more forced upon the public. In January, 1813, her Royal Highness appears to have been advised to address a letter to the Prince Regent, which was forwarded by Lady Charlotte Campbell to Lord Liverpool, with a request that it might be laid before the Prince. It was returned by that nobleman the day after its receipt, with an intimation, that as all correspondence between the parties had ceased for some years, it was his Royal Highness's determination not to renew it. The letter was, however, once more transmitted, with a notice, that it contained matter of importance to the state, and was again returned unopened. After some further correspondence the letter, which had been from the first, evidently intended for publication, made its appearance in the

newspapers.

The main object of this elaborate document would seem to have been the removal of the restrictions which had been imposed upon the Princess of Wales, as to her intercourse

with her daughter. She argued, very justly, that this separation of a daughter from her mother would, in the eyes of the world, admit of but one construction-a construction unfavourable to the mother's reputation. That the character of the Princess Charlotte would be injured by the perpetual violence offered to her strongest affections by the studied care taken to estrange her from the society of her parent, and even to interrupt all communication between them. All attempts to abate her attachment, by a forcible separation of the parent and the child, if they succeeded, must injure her child's principles if they failed, must destroy her happiness. The letter concluded with some advice as to the domestic treatment of the Princess, and a recommendation that she should be forthwith confirmed.

Much acrimonious discussion, in the newspapers, arose out of this letter, which created so great a ferment in the public mind, that it was deemed adviseable by the Prince Regent, to refer the matter to a commission, composed of the highest dignitaries of the church, and the high officers of the law; charging them that they should report to his Royal Highness their opinion, whether under all the circumstances of the case, it were fit and proper that the intercourse between the Princess of Wales and her daughter should continue to · be subject to regulations and restrictions.

It was not until many meetings and much deliberation had taken place, that the commissioners made a formal report, the leading clause of which was, that it was "highly fit and proper with a view to the welfare of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte, in which were equally involved the happiness of his Royal Highness, in his parental and Royal character, and the most important interests of the state, that the intercourse between the Princess of Wales and her daughter, should continue to be subject to regulation and restraint."

On the receipt of this report, the Princess of Wales addressed expostulatory letters to the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons.

On the 5th March, four days after the receipt of the letter

by the Speaker, Mr. Cochran Johnstone submitted to the House a motion for an address to the Prince Regent, requesting him to order that a copy of a report made to his Majesty on the 14th June, 1806, by Lords Erskine, Spencer, Grenville, and Ellenborough, respecting the conduct of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, should be laid before the House, with a view to an enquiry, now, while the witnesses were alive, into all the allegations, facts, and circumstances of that investigation. This motion was opposed and negatived without a division.

A short time afterwards the whole proceedings of 1806, including the evidence of the witnesses, soon appeared in the public prints. Sir John and Lady Douglas still continued to assert the truth of what they had formerly sworn; and they presented a petition to the House, praying that they might be again examined before a competent tribunal; and that should the falsehood of their evidence be established, they might suffer the penalty due to their perjury.

On the 17th of March, Mr. Whitbread, in the House of Commons, entered into a general vindication of the Princess of Wales's conduct; and, in conclusion, moved "an address to the Prince Regent, expressive of the deep concern and indignation of the House at the publication of the obscene and offensive depositions; and requsting his Royal Highness to order measures to be taken for discovering and bringing to justice the persons concerned in giving them publicity." This motion produced a warm, and even angry, debate. It was negatived without a division.

During the discussion Mr. Whitbread referred to an authenticated paper, which he held in his hand, relating to the testimony of some of the witnesses examined before the Commissioners of 1806, and deduced from it some inferences which could only be understood as calumniatory reflections on the Commissioners. The illustrious persons who had constituted the commission, took an early opportunity of repelling these injurious insinuations, and of vindicating the whole proeeedings. Lord Ellenborough, in particular, declared that the

noble Lords acting under his Majesty's commission had been most foully and malignantly calumniated. "His name," he

remarked," had been inserted in that commission without his knowledge; but once engaged by his Majesty's command, he did his duty to the best of his ability: but it was in the performance of that duty that some person, with the most abandoned and detestable slander, had dared to charge him with a gross act of dishonesty; - him, on whose integrity, diligence, and care, depended more of the property and interests of the people, than on those of any man in the country; - yet of him it was foully and slanderously alleged, that he had falsified the evidence given before the commission, giving in as a document, evidence that was not received, and suppressing that which was actually given. This was all a lie. a vile slander as FALSE as HELL! He would not violate the propriety of that house; he knew the respect and the decency which it required, but he must give the lie to falsehood. Their Lordships could not blame him for standing forth to repel, in the strongest manner, so base, so impudent, and miscreant an imputation ; nay, the thing was foolish as well as wicked: it was despicable from its stupidity."

A few days afterwards (March 31st) Mr. Whitbread moved that a message should be sent to the House of Lords, requesting their Lordships to grant permission to the Earl of Moira to attend at the bar of the House of Commons, for the purpose of being examined as to his knowledge of certain circumstances connected with the conduct of the Princess of Wales, and touching a letter from that Nobleman to the grand lodge of freemasons, which Mr. Whitbread regarded as casting some reflections on her Royal Highness. The Speaker treated this motion as unprecedented: after some discussion it was withdrawn.

The ferment arising out of continual and acrimonious controversy was now beginning to subside, when a circumstance occurred, which for a time involved the country in new perplexities. In June 1814 it will be remembered that this country was visited by many illustrious strangers from various parts of the

continent. Among other matters connected with the preparations for the reception of these noble guests, the Queen announced her intention of holding two drawing-rooms in the course of that month. Immediately after this notification the Princess of Wales received a letter from her Majesty, dated 23d of May, as follows:

"The Queen considers it to be her duty to lose no time in acquainting the Princess of Wales that she has received a communication from her son, the Prince Regent, in which he states, that her Majesty's intention of holding two drawingrooms in the ensuing month having been notified to the public, he must declare, that he considers his own presence at her court cannot be dispensed with; and that he desires it may be distinctly understood, for reasons of which he alone can be the judge, to be his fixed and 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 her drawing-room."

On the following day, her Royal Highness replied, that "though she could not so far forget her duty to her King and to herself, as to surrender her right to appear at any public drawing-room to be held by her Majesty, yet that she might not add to the difficulty and uneasiness of her Majesty's situation, she should in the present instance yield to the will of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and should not present herself at the drawing-rooms of the next month."

On the 26th of the same month the Princess addressed a letter to the Prince, demanding to know what circumstances could justify the proceeding which he had thought fit to adopt.

A further correspondence on the subject took place on the 3d of June, when the Speaker of the House of Commons announced the receipt of a letter from the Princess, animadverting upon the dangerous nature of the "fixed and unalterable determination of the Prince of Wales never to meet her on