any occasion either in public or private," and inclosing for the information of the House, the correspondence which had passed on this occasion.

After the letters had been read, Mr. Methuen moved, "that an address should be presented to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to pray his Royal Highness that he would be graciously pleased to inform the House by whose advice he had been induced to form the determination alluded to." The debate on this absurd motion was carried on with closed doors. Mr. Bathurst expressed it as his opinion, that the more appeals were made to the public, and the more this unhappy subject should be agitated, the more irritation would be produced by it; and the more injury would be done to the peace of the Royal Family. Mr. Methuen withdrew his motion. On the 23d of the same month, however, this gentleman introduced another motion, in which he dwelt on the necessity of increasing the establishment of her Royal Highness. "Sir," said he, "when the Princess of Wales married, she had an allowance of 17,000l. a-year from his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, besides 5000l. a year which she received from the Exchequer. In 1800, his Royal Highness sent her a message, informing her, that in consequence of his own embarrassments, he could allow her only 12,000l. a-year. In 1809, his Royal Highness undertook to pay her Royal Highness's debts, amounting to 49,000l.; and to restore her annual allowance to its original sum of 17,000l. For nine years, therefore, her Royal Highness had 5000l. a year less than when she resided at Carlton House, and had no separate establishment to maintain. The consequence was obvious. Her Royal Highness's income was so inadequate to her expenditure, that, in July last, she was under the necessity of reducing her establishment to seven domestics, and of almost entirely giving up seeing company." Lord Castlereagh observed, in reply, that it was the first time parliament had been told that an increased provision for her Royal Highness was the object that her friends had in view. "There never was," said his Lordship, "I am fully convinced, a feeling in his Royal Highness's

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mind, that any thing like money ought to be a question between them. In the year 1809, when his Royal Highness found that the Princess was in debt, he said, rather than that should be thrown on the public, he was ready to take on himself the payment of her debts, and to add 5000l. to her income, making it in all 22,000l., provided that he had any reasonable assurance that no debt contracted by her should in future be brought forward against him. This was agreed to, and a solemn deed was prepared, assuring the separation of the parties. At the time alluded to, the Prince of Wales had an income of 120,000l., which, after deducting the property tax, was 108,000l.; and, after deducting the further sum of 40,000l., which the Prince had annually devoted towards the payment of his debts, many of which had been contracted at a period of life that rendered them of an extremely questionable nature, amounted to no more than 70,000l. Previously to the year 1809, 12,000l. a-year out of that 70,000l. was paid to the Princess of Wales; so that the 5000l. additional, allowed in 1809, with that 12,000l., made in all a deduction of 17,000l. from the income of the Prince, reducing it to 53,000l. The debts of the Princess amounted to 49,000l. (they amounted in reality, to 80,000l., but they had been reduced to the former sum, in consequence of a grant from the droits of admiralty); and, to liquidate that debt, the Prince undertook to set apart 10,000l. a-year; reducing his annual income to 43,000l., as Prince of Wales; which, with 13,000l. from the Duchy of Cornwall, was the whole of the sum on which he was reduced to live. "I question," said his Lordship, "if ever there was a husband who made greater sacrifices for the comfortable establishment of his wife, than the Prince of Wales then did. However the conduct of his Royal Highness may be tortured, and whatever unfavourable construction may be put upon it, I defy any person to say, that he ever betrayed any thing of a vindictive nature towards her, or the smallest wish to interfere with her social comforts: on the contrary, he made sacrifices which no other husband in the land, had he been brought before parliament, would have been called on to make. So

far from the existence of the colour of mind which has been falsely attributed to his Royal Highness, if he could possibly have increased her income without being supposed to be truckling with the base attacks which were continually made on him, he would not have waited for the suggestion of his ministers, had she disentangled herself from the base cabal by whom she was surrounded. With the greatest satisfaction he would have entered into the feelings of her wants himself, and not have suffered his family to be dragged, as it had been, before the public."- His Lordship intimated, that, upon a future day, he should have no objection to submit to the House a proposal for an increase of income to the Princess. Methuen again withdrew his motion.

Mr.

On the 4th of July a proposition was made by Lord Castlereagh, that the net sum of 50,000l. per annum should be granted to the Princess, and that the 5000l. and 17,000l. which she then enjoyed, should be withheld from the Prince Regent's income. At the recommendation of Mr. Whitbread, her Royal Highness, from a sense of the great expenditure of the country, considerately resolved, that the sum proposed should be diminished to 35,000l. per annum : a bill was accordingly passed for settling upon her that sum.

About this time a marriage was talked of between the Princess Charlotte and the Hereditary Prince of Orange, who had received his education in England, and had served with distinction under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula. The treaty was, however, at the instance of the young princess herself, finally broken off.

Shortly afterwards, the Princess of Wales came to the resolution of travelling on the continent; an intention which, as she observes in her letter to Mr. Whitbread, she had cherished since the year 1806.

Having applied for, and obtained the Prince Regent's assent, on the 9th August, 1814 the Princess embarked at the seaport of Worthing, in an English frigate, called the Jason, to return by way of Hamburgh to Brunswick. Lady Charlotte Lindsay and Lady Elizabeth Forbes were her maids of

honour. Sir William Gell and Messrs. St. Ledger and Keppel Craven were her chamberlains; her equerry was Captain Hess, her physician Dr. Holland. She had six servants, namely, a major-domo, a messenger, a page, and two females, all of whom were Germans; her coachman was the only English servant in her suite.

On the 16th of August her Royal Highness arrived with her retinue at Hamburgh, under the title of the Countess of Wolfenbuttle. She visited the theatre there the same evening, and was received with the loudest acclamations by the audience. Early the next morning she set out for Brunswick. In the evening of the 18th she arrived at Brunswick, and at a short distance from that city was met by his Serene Highness the Duke. A general illumination took place in compliment to her, and it being the Duke's birthday, the festivities and rejoicings were unusually great: the whole of the public authorities were ready at the palace to receive her Royal Highness. On the 29th she left Brunswick on her journey to Italy; and arrived on the 3d September at Frankfort, under the title of the Duchess of Cornwall. On the 6th she arrived at Strasburgh, at which place she remained several days, visiting the public places, promenades, &c. and appeared highly delighted with the amusements and exhibitions she witnessed. The generals and prefects of the Department of the Lower Rhine, Marshal the Duke of Valmy and the mayor of Strasburgh, had severally the honour of paying their respects to her Royal Highness. In the latter end of September, after visiting Berne, Palermo, Lausanne, &c. she arrived at Geneva, where the ci-devant Empress of France, Maria Louisa, had just arrived before her.

During her first tour on the continent her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was received with all the honours and distinctions due to her exalted rank and station. At Capel she was visited by his Serene Highness the Elector, and her Royal Highness the Electress, the Princess of Denmark. She visited the public institutions, and conversed with the professors of the museum. At Strasburgh, we have already stated,

the Duke de Valmy gave in her honor a magnificent fête, at which were exhibited a variety of military manœuvres. Her Royal Highness there frequently saw and conversed with Professor Scheweighaufren, author of the celebrated edition of Atheneus, and since engaged in the republication of Herodotus. At Berne, she was visited by her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Anne Petrona, her cousin, consort of the Grand Duke Constantine, and daughter of the Emperor of Germany.

At Milan, the Princess of Wales was received with the highest honors. On the 17th of October, 1814, towards the midday, Il Campo di Marte was crowded to witness the military parade, in which infantry and cavalry were to manœuvre, and fire vollies in honor of her Royal Highness, who was seated on the most elevated spot of a spacious area prepared for that purpose. She afterwards rode along the ranks amidst the acclamations of the surrounding multitude, amongst which were distinguished some shouts of liberty and independence, as if her presence had rekindled the half-extinguished hopes which the Italians entertained of being redeemed from their political bondage by the hands of the British nation. In the evening she visited the theatre, attended by Count Bellegarde and all the officers of his etat-major. The theatre was most brilliantly illuminated á Giorno. On her Royal Highness's entrance the curtain drew up, and the ballet was performed by Scotch girls and peasantry, analogous to the circumstances of the moment. The concourse of people, which was immense, continued, during the performance, to testify their delight at the presence of the Princess, who several times ascended into the ridotto, and bowed her thanks in the most graceful manner. The literati of the country also waited upon her Royal Highness to testify their respect and homage.

It was about a week after her arrival at Milan that her Royal Highness took into her service the celebrated Bartolomo Bergami, an Italian, as courier, footman, and valet de place. He was a few months afterwards appointed her chamberlain, and, as a further proof of her Majesty's consideration for his services, all the members of his family (with the exception of