found, except amongst those whom domestic example and an improved understanding. have formed to a just taste and virtue.

These illustrious individuals might have said with the great bard,

Come,

We two will sit alone, like birds i' th' cage.
When thou dost ask my blessing, I'll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. Thus we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies; hear sycophants

Talk of court news, and we'll talk with them too;
Who loses and who wins---who's in, who's out ;
And take upon us the mystery of things,

As if we were Heaven's spies.

During the first months of the residence of her Royal Highness at Claremont, her attendance on divine service, at the parish church of Esher, was regular and constant; and it must certainly be allowed, that during those months, the inhabitants of Esher and its vicinity exhibited a corresponding disposition to the due performance of their public religious duties. An adherence to truth is, however, the paramount duty of an historian; and, in this instance, it might with justice be considered as a gross dereliction from it, were it not to be stated, that the crowds, which re sorted to Esher church every sabbath, went, to parody a line of Pope's,

Not for the sermon-but the Princess there.

For her Royal Highness no sooner discontinued her visits to Esher church, than many others withdrew their presence also; and it does not require the deep powers of the logician or the casuist to determine the cause from which that effect proceeded. It is, however, curious to mark the dispositions of certain individuals, who, rather than not adduce a cause for an effect, will supply one from the fertile stores of their own imagination; never considering whether it bears any relation to the actual truth, or whether it presents in its character the slightest shade of genuineness, That the total abandonment of her public devotional duties, on the part of the Princess Charlotte, could only be ascribed to some strong and cogent reason, became a matter, which the most hardy disputant would not contend against; and therefore, with a due portion of ignorance of the real character of the Princess Charlotte, it has been stated that her abstaining from visiting Esher church arose from the number of booted beaux and dashing élégantes, who, on hired steeds and in glass coaches, hurried from the metropolis, to render the virtuous village of Esher, on a Sunday, a scene of dissipation; and substituting a struggle for the nearest pew, and the confusion of a country dinner, for that devotion which ought to have been practised by the said beaux and belles in their own parish churches. The mere supposition that her Royal Highness could have been induced to abstain from the performance of her pub

lic religious acts, in consequence of the rude stare of a booted beau or the keen gaze of a bedizened belle, would be a gross libel upon her character; and it was only requisite to witness the ease and condescension with which her Royal Highness received and returned the salutations of the people, who lined each side of the path leading from the church to where her carriage usually stood in attendance, to give the most decided negative to any display, on the part of her Royal Highness, of pride or uneasiness at the anxiety which was shewn to see her; on the contrary, she was often heard to express her gratification at those tokens of respect which were universally testified towards her, and at the interest with which she was so unequivocally regarded.

It is to be hoped, that in rendering public the real cause of the Princess Charlotte desisting from her visits to Esher church, not the slightest umbrage will be taken by that highly respectable and much esteemed individual, to whom this act of the Princess Charlotte particularly refers.

The present incumbent of Esher has resided there above fifty years, and the infirmities of age are now heavy upon him; added to extreme deafness, his articulation is so indistinct, that neither the sense nor argument of his discourses are rendered intelligible to his congregation. The Princess Charlotte was not one of those frivolous characters who attend divine service for the mere exhibition of their persons, or the elegance of

their dress. Her visits to church were founded on the principles of genuine piety; she went for improvement, edification, and instruction; and finding from the physical infirmities of the reverend divine who officiated, that not one of those advantages could be reaped, she fitted up a chapel in Claremont-House, in which divine service was performed by the domestic chaplain every sabbath; and it was a most gratifying and interesting sight to behold this truly religious Princess at the head of her establishment, in humble adoration before their God, and joining with them in their holy songs. Well might the Princess Charlotte have exclaimed with the Poet:

"Yet on that day, hallowed by ages past,
To which exhausted labour looks for rest,
And tumult for the hour of sacred peace,
My feet shall hasten from their sylvan haunts,
Tho' sweet as fabling poets ever sung;
Mine ear the warbling Philomel forego,
And all the woodland harmony of spring,
To raise with man a nobler strain of praise---
Man, who alone of all creation knows
His Maker to adore, with vocal praise.
Whether the village church attracts my steps,
Whose simple bell calls from the hamlet round
Their meek inhabitants to praise their God,
Where all is decent, quiet, plain, and fit,
And untaught voices hymn their Maker's praise;
Or whether, in some old cathedral pile,

I find myself enclos'd with cloister'd cells,
Long Gothic aisles, and windows richly dim;
Where slowly rising to the pealing sound

Of swelling organ, the low-echoing chaunt
And lofty anthem raise the enraptur'd soul,---
Alike I own Thy presence, hear Thy word;
Nor would I ever for the world forego
This dearest privilege to man allowed,
Due as the sun each sabbath-day shall shine,
To meet, with kindred man, the parent God!"

On the 23d of January the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold had a large party to dine with them; and this may, in some measure, be considered as their first political dinner. Lord Liverpool, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Huskisson, and other members of the cabinet were present; and although it was contended at the time that the meeting of these great political characters at Claremont, had some ulterior view, which was in a short time to disclose itself; yet, whatever this mountain, might have been pregnant with at the time, and great as was the anxiety to discover the issue, it is certain that it never arrived to the knowledge of the public, either in its remote or proximate bearings. Lord and Lady Castlereagh, and Mr. Huskisson, remained at Claremont that night, and returned to town to dinner on the following day.

At this period the attention of the public was excited to the forlorn and destitute condition of the poor Irish labourers in the metropolis, and a subscription was set on foot by some philanthropic individuals for their relief. The situation of these