Volume I Part 6 (1/2)
The Prince of Wales now veered in his political expressions, and deserted his former acknowledged principles, in obedience to the wishes of the _queen_. The other male branches of the royal family were revelling in the vortex of voluptuousness; and so expensive were their amours and gallantries, in addition to their gambling transactions, that they were continually involved in debt, and, for momentary relief, borrowed sums of every person willing to run the risk of a loan, or afraid to incur the royal displeasure.
The king was ignorant of the most dishonorable transactions in which his sons were so deeply involved; what he did know was sufficient to make him miserable. Their supplies and income were to an enormous extent; yet his majesty was aware that the Duke of York's horses and carriage were seized, while going down Piccadilly, and his royal highness obliged to walk home!
Declaration of hostilities was announced between Great Britain and France, and the year's supply amounted to TWENTY MILLIONS. To provide this enormous sum, extra taxes were again levied upon the people.
We enter upon the year
1794,
with sorrow and indignation, as it was the commencement of an all-important era in national affairs. The king beheld the critical state of the empire with much sorrow and disquietude. The extravagant and imprudent conduct of his sons also acted as a canker upon his heart.
In vain did he endeavour to represent to them, that to be worthy of holding their rank in such a great nation, they ought to lay aside the follies which had so long been practised by them; and as earnestly, yet as vainly, did he press them to retire from the society of voluptuous acquaintances, with whom he too well knew they were so deeply involved, in various ways.
At this period of our history, we are grieved to record the tyrannical acts of government, in apprehending a number of persons on the charge of _treason_. Some of our readers will, doubtless, recollect the glorious acquittal of Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall; but there were others, less fortunate. We would rather have been Claudius or Caligula, Nero, Tiberius, or the _Christian_, blood-stained Constantine, than the man who, in cold blood, could deliberately sign a warrant against those patriotic martyrs, MUIR, SKIRVING, MARGAROT, PALMER, and GERALD, whose only _crime_ consisted in having _SUPPORTED MR. PITT'S OWN ORIGINAL SYSTEM OF REFORM_!
Our readers, at this distance of time, will reflect with amazement and indignation, that on the 8th of February, 1794, the four first-named citizens, without a moment's previous notice, were surprised in their beds by the Newgate ruffians, chained and handcuffed like the vilest felons, and thus conveyed to Woolwich, where they were sent on board a transport ready to receive them. A few hours afterwards, the vessel dropped down the river; but, during the short interval it remained at Woolwich, all communication was cut off between them and their friends!
Even the wife of Margarot was denied admission to him! Such were the positive orders of that illiberal and corrupt minister,--Mr. Henry Dundas.
Let us hope that the day is for ever past when men can be thus treated for merely giving vent to their complaints and sufferings. It is the prerogative of affliction to complain, more sacred and natural than any t.i.tles or immunities which _privileged_ persons enjoy! And whenever _force_ is employed against _argument and reason_, though the contest may be unequal, depend upon it that the cause of _TRUTH_ will _ULTIMATELY PREVAIL_!
At this period, the Prince of Wales was involved in more than SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS, beside bonds and bills, signed by him, to a very enormous amount; and, finding himself unable to procure any further sums, he applied to the queen for a.s.sistance in this extremity. Her majesty referred him to his father, and pressed him to yield to any advice which the king might suggest, or any plan he might recommend.
A time was appointed for an interview, and the father and son entered upon these very distressing and dishonorable transactions. After much deliberation, the king observed, ”that it was utterly impossible to ask parliament for any relief, as it was all the minister could now do to keep the wheels of state in motion; and, even to do that, it required _immense loans_ to be raised, to make up the deficiency of the year's current expenses.” As a last resource, the king proposed that the prince should MARRY, and that a lady of royal birth be selected, as agreeable to the inclinations of the prince as possible. Upon such an event, the minister would, no doubt, furnish means for his liberation, and a sufficient income for the additional expenses attendant upon such an alliance. The prince received the opinion of his father with varied sensations, and requested time to think upon the proposition, when he would announce the result of his cogitations.
Alas! how much are kings to be pitied! If their principles and intentions be virtuous, what difficulties have they to surmount, what sorrows to endure! This was a trying period for George the Third: on the one hand, he saw the impropriety and cruelty of marriage merely for state policy, and more particularly so in the present instance, as he considered the prince's marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert solemn and binding in the sight of heaven, though certainly in direct opposition to the _law_ of the country, which was _in operation at the time it was solemnized_. On the other hand, it appeared that a royal marriage was an event that would give great satisfaction to the people, and might, perhaps, reclaim the prince from those considerable errors and obnoxious pursuits in which he was so deeply entangled; for he a.s.sociated with some of the most unprincipled characters, of whom any person of morality or _common decency_ would certainly have been ashamed.
Here again the gewgaw of royal parade was intended to entrap the admiration of the ignorant. The vain pomp and pageantries of courts and the splendour of fortune have ever been an _ignis fatuus_ to seduce the people to their ruin. They have, alas! too often served as an useful shelter to every excess of folly, every enormity of crime; while the deepest distresses and the most urgent wants have not been allowed as an extenuation for the slightest transgression, though committed to satisfy the craving exigencies of famished nature! Had a _private_ individual acted as this prince was about to do, would he not have become an outcast from his family, and would not the whole world have abandoned him? Yet, although the prince's example was ten thousand times more contagious, all the breaches of faith of which he had been guilty scarcely received the slightest animadversion! But so it was; common interest united even those who were disunited by particular discordances, and the _seeming_ harmony of the royal family may undoubtedly be inferred to have arisen from their equal interest in the success of the piece. Their private differences were apparently lost in the immensity of the SECRETS by which the state chain was rivetted, as if it were by adamant.
We must not suppose his majesty was all this time ignorant of the situation of his nephew, the only child of his brother Edward; so far from that being the case, he had caused him to be brought up privately, and was regular in the discharge of the yearly expenses incurred on his account at Eton. The queen presumed that her children were safely seated, so long as the king's _first_ marriage should be concealed, and therefore did not bestow many thoughts upon the happiness or misery, fortune or misfortune, life or death, of this MUCH-INJURED YOUTH! Does not nature revolt at this barbarity, this secret unfeeling conduct of the queen? What mother could know a similar case, and not afford all the generous tenderness of sympathy to mitigate the losses this _orphan_ had sustained, not only of fortune, but of the fostering care of both his parents?
The complicated wickedness of the court seemed now nearly approaching its climax. Deception had been added to deception, until, to complete the delusion, another victim must necessarily be added, in the person of the Princess Caroline of Brunswick!
After conferences with Mrs. Fitzherbert, the queen, and a few others, closely interested in the affair, had taken place, the prince acquainted his father with his submission to the royal will, and requested to know whom his majesty would recommend for his bride. The king suggested his niece, the daughter of his sister, the d.u.c.h.ess of Brunswick, for whose acceptance he urged the prince to send his miniature, and other formalities, usual on such occasions. _The prince, with apparent vivacity, acquiesced_; but his majesty thought that his son's language wanted sincerity.
The evening was spent in revelry and debauchery by the prince and his companions, and his royal highness swore ”I will marry the Princess of Brunswick, which,” said he, ”will be no marriage at all, and desert her, of which I will give her timely notice.” The miniature was painted _flatteringly_, and the following letter from the prince accompanied it to his intended wife:
_Copy of a letter written to the Princess Caroline of Brunswick, by George Prince of Wales._
”1794.
”MADAM,
”The king my father, whom I highly respect and esteem, has just announced to me that your hand is destined for me. I am obliged, by the imperious force of circ.u.mstances to own, that this intelligence has thrown me into despair, and my candour does not allow me to conceal my sentiments from you. I hope that when you are acquainted with them, you will aid me in breaking the ties which would unite us only to render us unhappy; and which will be in your power to oppose, since _I_ am unable to do so. You, Madam, are adored by your parents; I am aware that they have allowed you the liberty of refusing all the princes who have been proposed to you in marriage; refuse _me_ also, I conjure you in the name of pity, to which I know you are no stranger. You do not _know_ me, Madam; you therefore can have no cause to lament my loss. Learn, then, the _secret_ and _unhappy_ situation of the prince whom they wish you to espouse. I cannot love you; I cannot make you happy; my heart has long ceased to be free. She who possesses it is the only woman to whom I could unite myself agreeably to my inclinations. _You_ would find in me a husband who places all his affections upon another. If this _secret_, which I name to you in _confidence_, does not cause you to reject me; if ambition, or any other motive of which I am ignorant, cause you to condescend to the arrangements of my family, learn that, as soon as you shall have given an heir to the _throne, I will abandon you_, never to meet you more in public. I will then attach myself to that lady whom I love, and whom I will not leave. Such is, Madam, my last and irrevocable resolution; if you are the victim of it, you will be a _willing victim_, and you cannot accuse me of having deceived you.
”I am, Madam, ”With great truth, ”Your's sincerely, ”GEORGE P.”
After reading this very curious epistle, the reader may presume that the princess was _indiscreet_ in her acceptance of the hand of a prince who so _boldly_ professed himself averse to the union; but the following letters of George the Third to herself and her mother, (the king's sister) which accompanied the one of the prince, will afford some explanation of her conduct: