sors of the people, nor that all who oppose the measures of the ministers aim at the subversion of the throne. They who censured the present connexion of the Prince, were influenced by various motives. The irregularities for which many of his most intimate friends were conspicuous, alarmed men of piety, virtue, and sound morals; and an opposition to Mr. Pitt, whose character was daily rising in the public estimation, and to the King, who was now elevated high above those mists which faction and misrepresentation had raised about his earlier life, was regarded with more than ordinary disapprobation. Yet, it is merely just to his Royal Highness to observe, that his regard to the opposition party never led him into a mode of conduct which would appear personally adverse to his royal parent. He had, on the first reading, supported Mr. Fox's India bill; but, when the feelings of his Majesty were clearly announced, he ceased to attend in his place in Parliament. During the discussions at the Saint Alban's tavern, and the Westminster election, his sentiments were unreservedly displayed; but although the wits who most attacked the person of the King were among the friends and guests of the Prince, he never uttered or sanctioned an expression which could have given pain or offence to his parent*. CHAP. LX. 1787. on the ex Highness. If the expenditure of his Royal Highness can be Observations censured as excessive, many circumstances of mitiga- penses of tion may be allowed. An expense of which he, no his Royal more than any other person who gives orders to an architect can be aware, was incurred by the alteration, or rather rebuilding, of Carlton House, the only residence he had in London. The unostentatious moderation of the royal court would have left England in a state of degrading obscurity when compared with France, had not the only Prince of the blood who had * In this number, I include the authors of such publications as the Criticisms on the Rolliad, and Probationary Odes for the Laureatship; works in which, although his Majesty's personal habits and political predilections were mercilessly ridiculed, the authors, men of family and good education, did not descend to the unmannerly scurrility afterward displayed by such writers as he who appeared under the name of Peter Pindar, and still less in the ferocious disloyalty which characterized subsequent publications CHAP. 1786. Arrears of the Duchy of 1786. tress of the Prince. an establishment exhibited some state and splendour before the French princes and nobles, the Count D'Artois, the Dukes of Orléans, De Lauzun, and others, who visited England in great magnificence. Nor was the Prince altogether conscious that he was not entitled to a larger sum than that which he was accused of squandering. His legal advisers taught him to believe, and their opinion is very strongly supported, that, from the time of his birth, he had been absolutely intitled to the revenue of the Duchy of Cornwall, the accumulation of which, during his minority, would, on the most moderate computation, have exceeded two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. It was confidently believed that he would be put in possession of this sum; his engagements were regulated by this expectation, and it has been frequently observed, that money expected is always spent much more profusely than that which is actually in possession*. sum. At length, the pecuniary wants of the Prince Pecuniary dis- could no longer be parried. An execution for six hundred pounds was levied in Carlton House, and the sheriff's officer remained in possession two days, before a responsible surety could be procured for that trifling The Prince applied to his Majesty for assistance; but his letter arrived most inauspiciously, at a moment when he was said to have sustained a very heavy loss at a fashionable gaming house. The required assistance was not granted, and his Royal Highness immediately announced a general retrenchment, which would reduce him below the level of a country His retrench- gentleman of moderate estate. The works at Carlton House were stopped, and all the Prince's horses, not merely those kept for the turf, but those for the carriage, the saddle, and the most ordinary purposes, were advertised for sale. ment. This measure, by whomsoever advised, was most indiscreet and improper. It did not exhibit the tem * See Letters of John Wilkes to his Daughter, published by Longman, 1804. vol. iii, p. 202. The arrears are there reduced to £110,000. perate resignation of a dignified mind to irresistible necessity, or the candid desire of a man convinced of his error to reform his course of life, but appeared like a fit of petulant indignation, in which, by the indiscriminate sacrifice of comfort as well as superfluity, the public was to be excited to take an interest, through compassion, in sufferings to which, in sober reason, little regard would be paid; or, perhaps, the King, stimulated by shame and pride, might give that aid which his better judgment had induced him to withhold. That a building should no longer proceed, when the funds out of which the artificers ought to be paid were anticipated, was but reasonable; and that a stud of horses, kept only for the purpose of gaming, should cease to be retained, would appear a virtuous and meritorious renunciation of an error; but that the heir of the British throne should divest himself of the means of appearing decently in public, in a carriage or on horseback, was more burlesque than heroic, and, accordingly, the surprise occasioned by the event was unmixed with any feeling of satisfaction*. CHAP. LX. 1786. Another circumstance, of a nature more personal His reported and private, was a cause of much discussion. It was marriage. reported, and by many believed, that his Royal Highness had undergone the ceremony of marriage with a lady of great personal charms, distinguished by a good understanding, and perfect manners, of an honourable family, and of the Catholic religion, whose name, as a widow, was Fitzherbert, that of her family being Smyth. As this lady, notwithstanding her avowed attachment to the Prince, continued to be received in society, some believed that the story of the marriage was a fable, courteously invented and circulated for the purpose of affording a pretext to those who, under all circumstances, did not think it necessary to withdraw their countenance from an accomplished individual in her situation. Others believed and maintained, Same, vol. iii. p. 187. This author, who was well acquainted with the transactions of the political and fashionable world at the time, says, that Mr. Fox expressly disclaimed the most distant knowledge or suspicion of the matter; and said that the Prince acted immediately on receiving the King's letter, without consulting any one; p. 202. CHAP. 1786. March 29. that the marriage ceremony had really been performed by a Popish priest; and one well-known writer on political subjects maintained, that the lady was, " in all "respects, legally, really, worthily, and, happily for "the country, her Royal Highness the Princess of "Wales." To maintain this doctrine, it was necessary that the royal marriage act should be annulled; and this was performed in the easiest and most compendious manner, by acknowledging it to be an act of Parliament, but denying it to have the force of law*. Such arguments produced very little effect; indeed, had they been admitted, another consequence was distinctly to be apprehended; the forfeiture of the Prince's title to the throne, under the act of settlement; for, as in the Romish church matrimony is a sacrament, it would have been difficult to maintain that receiving it, at the hands of a priest in orders, was not holding communion with that church. But these were the mere speculations, which, in some degree, influenced the political and popular opinions of the day; the fact was never established by the slightest proof; it was denied by those most honoured with the Prince's confidence, and, indirectly, if not explicitly, by the Prince himselft. When his Majesty's message respecting the arrears Parliament of of the civil list came to the House of Commons, occasion was taken to introduce the embarrassments of the the Prince's embarrass ments. heir apparent. Mr. W. Stanhope intimated that £50,000 a year, out of the civil list, was amply suffi Letter to a Friend on the reported Marriage of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. By John Horne Tooke. 66 6 666 On this subject, Mr. Wilkes relates the following anecdote :-The Bishop of B. told me that a most respectable lady, of his particular friendship, said to him, "The Prince came in here yesterday, overjoyed, saying,' I never did better in any thing; I behaved incomparably well; I could not have thought it, as "the case was quite new to me.' The lady answered, 'Your Royal Highness always behaves well; what was the case that was quite new to you?' The "Prince replied, 'I was at a marriage, and gave the bride away.' The lady said, "Was your Royal Highness never before at a marriage?' The Prince answered, laying his right hand with eagerness on his breast, 'Never, on my honour.'" Wilkes's Letters to his Daughter, vol. iii. p. 299. All the topics relating to the Prince were discussed in three pamphlets, of no great ability, although they obtained a temporary reputation, called, A Short Review of the Political State of Great Britain;-The People's Answer to the Short Review ;--and a Reply to both. 66 cient for the Prince; and if he had engaged in building a more expensive palace than his income would afford, the deficiency might be supplied by the sale of some manors in Cornwall. Mr. Sheridan endeavoured to raise an inference from some words uttered by Mr. Pitt, that if the income of his Royal Highness were found too small, application should be made to the House for an augmentation and payment of the debts already incurred; but Mr. Pitt declined entering into any such engagement, or even expressing an opinion; he contented himself with observing, that he had no instructions on the subject. This state of things continued about nine months, when Alderman Newnham asked the Chancellor of СНАР. LX. 1786. Express motion on the subject. 1787. the Exchequer whether it was intended to make any April 20th. proposition to rescue the Prince from his present embarrassed situation, intimating that it would depend on the answer whether or not he should move a parliamentary proceeding. Mr. Pitt said it was not his duty to bring forward such a matter without a command from his Majesty, which he had not received; and the Alderman gave notice that, on an early day, which he fixed, he would make a motion. During the interval, it is said, great exertions were made to combine a party in the Prince's favour, and with so much success, that the minister felt uneasy*. Before the day mentioned by the Alderman 24th. had arrived, Mr. Pitt, seeing a full house, intimated the impropriety of introducing by surprise a matter of so much novelty and importance, and expressed a desire that Parliament should be apprized of the specific object, scope, and tendency of the intended proposition. Alderman Newnham said he had not decided on the exact form, but the object of his motion would be the rescue of his Royal Highness from his present embarrassed situation. Mr. Fox, observing that the subject was one of peculiar delicacy, hoped something might be done in the interim which would render the worthy magistrate's motion unnecessary. *So stated in the Annual Register, vol. xxix. p. 125. |
