while under age. It had been so solemnly decided by a conference of all the twelve judges, one only differing, or rather expressing doubts. The Princess Charlotte asked to have my opinion rather than Perceval's or Eldon's, whom she knew to be at that time her mother's advisers, because they might be supposed to take part against her father.

Early in 1811 Lady Charlotte Lindsay received the following letter from the Princess of Wales :

"January 3, 1811.

"MY DEAR LADY CHARLOTTE,-I am like the Roman Empire, in a state of decadence.' When you meet me again in the month of March, the most violent pain, which you must remember I had once in my loins at the time you were with me at Kensington, paid me again a visit on the eve of New-Year's Day, and wished me joy (I suppose) on the season. This visitor gave me the most insinuating pain imaginable; and the spirit of turpentine, which I used most unmercifully upon my old carcass, has vanished the phantom who destroyed my peace like Major Arvay " (sic), "which deprived me from meeting you at dear Lady Glenbervie's, if not a cold had oppressed you also. I don't invite you for Monday, as I am not sure whether you will at that time not already be at the Priory; besides, it will be very dull, as only duty brings me to town, to make first a visit in Hanover Square, and then an early dinner at five o'clock at Kensington. I only sleep one night there, as they tell me it is not proper to fly by night, 'pour la future Reine,' though I trust and hope that I am safer now than I have ever been-that that misfortune will not

come over my head, as the accounts are every day better and better. I hope you are delighted with my dear friend Canning's speech,* which was eloquent, judicious, and energetic. I have seen nobody since last Sunday. I sat between two philosophers, the one Greek and the other Hebrew. Mrs Fish sat opposite them, like the figure of Justice with the scales in her hands, measuring their words and sentiments, which, I am sure she, even by concatenation of ideas, did not understand, and they were like hypotheses and hyperboles to her waking brain.

"By the newspapers of to-day I see that Lady Oxford is arrived at her new residence; and if it is the case that for once they say the truth, tell her that I shall be at Kensington on the 7th, and if she will come at ten o'clock, with my Lord and Lady JaneLord Archibald—I shall be delighted; otherwise she must come one morning, which we will then fix, to Blackheath.

"Give my love to your friends at Lisbon, and tell them in what a state of seclusion I now live in, and of despair that they are from their native country. The first restrictions which it seems the present Regent has made upon Kensington is to be to appear in the garment of melancholy on the 7th, which, of course, as I am his first subject, I submit to without protest. I suppose you know that I remain here in this delightful and solitary recluse and sedentary residence till the 9th of February. My best compliments to Lord and Lady Abercrombie, and to the proud Aberdeen, who will not accept my box, at which I am very angry; for the moment Miss Flayman comes, I *On the Regency-defence of Pitt.

intend to procure a person who shall take it entirely off my hands for the present season, as certainly I shall not go again to the play for a long time. The reason I will tell you when we meet. I wish Miss Flayman was now with me, as she is entertaining and of high spirits, and at Kensington she is as a lost good between the many entertaining and pleasant people I meet there. Even the snow don't prevent me from walking. I have only been two days confined to my room. It is very true that a certain portfolio has been very much increased since my 'séjour in this little cabane.' I am now about writing a novel, of which the scene lies in Greece, and the topography of Mr Gell's book will be of very great use to me to make it as probable as possible.

"I expect Mrs Pole in ten days. Poor dear Mrs Beauclerk does nothing but writing, and plaguing me to death with her unentertaining letters. I answered her for once, and told her that from my fireside, and the snow on the top house, and Mrs Leslie's witticisms, I could not make out any sort of suitable letter to a friend; but, unmercifully, she has answered me immediately, two instead of one.

"Now I think it is high time that I also close my letter, as otherwise I fear you would also accuse me as I did Mrs Beauclerk, on the fluency of my pen and the sterility of subjects; and believe me only your sincere and affectionately, C. P."

In 1811, the Regent having broken with his wife's political and personal friends, and kept the Liverpools and Percevals in office, all of that party, except Canning, Ward, and Granville Leveson, gave up the

Princess's acquaintance; and I recollect a dinner at her Blackheath villa, to which they were all invited, when Canning and Ward alone came, the rest of the chairs being unoccupied. This abandonment led to her and her daughter consulting me on all matters, and also Whitbread, who had lately made her acquaintance, though not the Princess Charlotte's. The cruel treatment went on as before. Above all, the intercourse with her daughter was more and more restricted, and there were indications of an intention to cut it entirely off. It was said she was to be confirmed without her mother being present. This would have been such a public condemnation of her as she could not be expected to bear without resistance; and both mother and daughter felt it alike, and viewed it in the same light. Before I left town I received the following letter from Whitbread. I give it, although it does not relate to the Princess of Wales:

"I ought to be ashamed of myself for not having returned an answer to your first letter at a much earlier period; but when you read, as you will do, in the paper of to-day, that on Monday last, and not before, was married the Hon. William Waldegrave to Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Samuel Whitbread, Esq., you will perhaps pardon me; for I do assure you I have been very fully occupied. At last it is done; they are settled at Cardington, which we have made a most complete and beautiful cottage for them, and there is strong reason to hope they will be happy. Lady Elizabeth is just preparing to pay a visit to the bride, and is as reasonably happy as you can well imagine.

VOL. II.

K

"Your success in the summer as well as in the winter theatres has been so great that I should have no hesitation in offering you an engagement. Your individual attraction would be great, but as Creevey has offered himself for low comedy, I think that by taking you both I should do wonders for the theatre. I have before me a letter just received from the old manager, who is living in retirement at Isleworth, away from the profligate capital, recovering his health and spirits in seclusion from an ungrateful world; his society the late King of France and the Princes of the Blood; and he says his Majesty is a better Whig than any

us.

of

"He further tells me that Mr Fitzgerald is Chancellor of Irish Exchequer, and Mr Peel Secretary for Ireland.

Moreover, he says he could tell me a great deal more, and that he means to write every day.

"He had told me before that Canning was off, and his negotiation ended, because he was stout about the Catholic question, and that it had nothing to do with the lead in the House of Commons. He now tells me he was wrong in the point; that our point, I suppose, was the point; but I suppose, also, Canning is all on again, and that he will be the minister of the House of Commons somehow.

"Pray tell me, what I always forgot to ask you, who communicated to you all the civil speeches reported to have been made by Canning of me. It is mere matter of curiosity, but I should like to know how true the report.

"I am indeed uneasy about America. If the war shall die in its birth, go no further than the Declara