provision for the prince by a reduction of useless places, would be to amerce themselves. For my part, I never thought them capable of any folly of the kind."

The prince at length interposed, and by Anstruther, his solicitor-general, sent a message to the house, declaring "his acquiescence in any arrangements which it might deem proper with respect to his income, and its appropriation to the payment of his debts. He was perfectly disposed to make any abatement in his personal establishment that was considered necessary." The princess coincided in the message; and the proceedings were closed by three bills.* The 1st. For preventing future Princes of Wales from incurring debts. The 2d. For granting an establishment to the prince. And the 3d. For the princess's jointure. Commissioners were next appointed for the examination of the debts. The creditors were paid by debentures, with interest on their claims; and the term of nine years was fixed for the final payment. Many of the claims were rejected as groundless, many were largely reduced as exorbitant, and a per centage was taken off the whole. Thus ended a proceeding in which the minister's sagacity had failed of satisfying the nation, the creditors, or the prince. Sheridan's advice would have led to a course more generous and more popular. The debt ought not to have been brought before the nation.

* June 24th, 1795.

CHAPTER X.

The Royal Separation.

In the period of the prince's retirement, before and after his marriage, several incidents occurred which brought him, from time to time, into the presence of the public. Some of them exhibited that want of caution which was the source of his chief vexations through life; but all bore the redeeming character of his original good-nature.

Prize fighting had become a popular, and even a fashionable amusement, by the patronage of the nobility and the Duke of Cumberland. Brutal as the habit is, and mevitably tending to barbarize the people, it was for a while considered a peculiar feature of British manlmess. The prince adopted this patriotic exhibition, and was honoured accordingly; but one display, at which a wretched man was beaten to death before his face, gave him so effectual an impression of championship, that, with honest indignation, he declared "he would never be present at such a scene of murder again."

The Lennox duel not less exhibited his good feeling. The offence received by the irritable colonel was of the most trivial nature. The attempt on the life of the son of his king, and who might himself yet be his king, was a public crime; and if Colonel Lennox had killed the Duke of York, nothing but the mercy of that duke's grieved parent could have saved him from an ignominious death. But the result was fortunately bloodless, and the king seemed to think it a matter of etiquette to overlook the crime. But the Prince of Wales was unable to

restrain his feelings; and on the first meeting with Colonel Lennox at court, he expressed his displea sure in the most pointed manner, consistent with the presence of royalty.*

The transaction with Jefferys, the well-known jeweller, was one of those instances which made the prince's connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert sc perpetual a source of disaster. Nothing could be more trifling than the transaction itself-a loan of 1600l., which was repaid at the promised time; but the circumstances under which it was borrowed, -to save Mrs. Fitzherbert from an immediate pro cess at law by a creditor, who refused to look upon her in any other light than "as a woman of no rank or consideration in the eye of the law, as to personal privilege;" in other words, who was prepared to throw public contempt upon the tie by which the lady professed to be bound to his royal highness;at once gave great pain to the prince, and supplied a topic of peculiar scandal to his enemies.

Jefferys was obviously a person unfit for royal confidence. The prince had thanked him, in his good-natured language, for the service; and the jeweller's vanity was instantly inflamed into the most extravagant expectations of patronage. The prince

The story was thus told in the newspapers. Col. Lennox, to the surprise of every one, had appeared at the ball given at St. James's on the king's birth-day (1789). The colonel stood up in the country dance with Lady Catherine Barnard. The prince, who danced with his sister, the princess royal, was so far down the set, that the colonel and Lady Catherine were the next couple. The prince paused, looked at the colonel, took his partner's hand, and led her to the bottom of the dance. The Duke of Clarence followed his example; but the Duke of York made no distinction between the colonel and the other gentlemen of the party. When the colonel and his partner had danced down the set, the prince again took his sister's hand and led her to a seat. Observing this, the queen approached the prince, and said, 'You are heated, sir, and tired. I had better leave the apartment and put an end to the dance.' 'I am heated,' replied the prince, and tired, not with dancing, but with a portion of the company; and emphatically added, 'I certainly never will countenance an insult offered to my family, however it may be regarded by others.' The prince's natural gallantry next day offered tt. necessary apology to Lady Catherine Barnard, and he 'regretted that h should have caused her a moment's embarrassment.""

was as destitute of power as any gentleman in the kingdom; but he gave him all that he could give, the order for the marriage jewels, which amounted to 64,000l. Jefferys had, in the mean tiine, followed his fortunes in other ways: he had become a member of parliament, Coventry having the honour to return him; and he had at length thrown up trade, and become a solicitor for place. The commissioners for the payment of the prince's debts attempted to deduct ten per cent. from his bill for the jewels. But this he resisted, and, by the help of Erskine, obtained a verdict in Westminster Hall for the full amount; which, however, he complained, was but partly paid. Thus he continued for years, pamphleteering, and appealing to the prince for compensation which he had no power to give, and forcing the royal name before the public in the most perplexing and unfortunate manner.'

The royal marriage was inauspicious; and it was soon rumoured, that the disagreements of habit and temper, on both sides, were too strong to give any hope of their being reconciled. Of an alliance contracted with predilections for others existing in the minds of both parties, the disunion was easily foreseen; a partial separation took place, and the tongue of scandal availed itself fully of all its opportu nities.

* The prince's sale of his stud, and retirement from Newmarket, was a public topic for some time. This whole affair also is almost too trifling for record.-A horse belonging to his stud ran ill on one day, when heavy bets had been laid upon his winning. But he ran well on the next day, when heavy bets had been laid on his losing. Chifney, the jockey, was immediately assailed by the losers on both occasions, as having plundered them; but he made an affidavit that he had won only 201. The Jockey Club sat in judgment on the case, and disbeliev ing the jockey, ordered that he should ride there no more. The prince, believing him, looked on the decision as an injustice to his servant, and as an offence to himself: he instantly withdrew from the course; and feeling for the state to which Chifney must be reduced, gave him a yearly allowance. It was impossible to believe that the prince had been privy to the trick, if trick there were. The charge was soon and totally abandoned.

R

Lady Jersey has been so distinctly charged with taking an insidious share in this separation, and with personal motives for taking that share, that the public voice must be acquiesced in, peculiarly as no defence was offered by herself or her husband. The charges were repeated with every aggravation, yet those noble persons suffered them to make their unobstructed way through society; much more to the scorn than to the surprise of the country.

The princess had no hesitation in requiring Lady Jersey's dismissal from the household. Her first demand was that this woman should not be suffered to appear at the table, when the prince was not present. The request was not complied with. The princess next applied to the king. His majesty immediately interfered, and directed that Lady Jersey should "come no more into waiting," and should be given up. Half of this order was complied with: her ladyship was dismissed from her waiting; but she was not given up.

Never was there a more speaking lesson to the dissipations of men of rank, than the prince's involvements. While he was thus wearied with the attempt to extricate himself from Lady Jersey's irri- tations, another claimant came; Mrs. Fitzherbert was again in the field. Whatever might be her rights, since the royal marriage, at least the right of a wife could not be included among them; but her demands were not the less embarrassing. A large pension, a handsome outfit, and a costly mansion in Park Lane, at length reconciled her to life; and his royal highness had the delight of being hampered with three women at a time, two of them prodigal, and totally past the day of attraction, even if attraction could have been an excuse, and the third complaining of neglects, which brought upon him and his two old women a storm of censure and ridicule. But the whole narrative is painful, and cannot be too hastily passed over.