their loaf decreased by the discharge of his encumbrances."

To the charge of sharing in the prince's expenditure he gave the most distinct denial. "He had never accepted any thing, not so much as a present of a horse. He scorned the imputation, and would leave it to defeat itself." He repulsed with quick sarcasm the attacks made on him in the course of the debates by the minor antagonists, who had rashly volunteered this proof of their ministerial devotion. Colonel Fullarton had said, in a long and desultory speech, that the prince's councils were secretly guided by Sheridan. After contemptuously retorting the charge," I, the secret counsellor of the prince! I have never given his royal highness a syllable of advice, in which I did not wish it were possible to have the king standing on one side, and the people of England on the other;" he proceeded to repay the colonel.

"As to certain portions of the honourable gentleman's speech, some of the sentences, I actually believe, no gentleman in this house understood, nor could understand; and the only solution of the problem is, that somebody must have advised him to prepare a speech against what he conjectured might be said to-night. He had rifled the English language to find out proverbs and trite sayings; and had so richly enveloped his meaning in metaphor, and embel

lished it with such colouring, as to render it totally unintelligible to meaner capacities."

Rolle had called him to order. He did not escape. Sheridan told him, "that he was not at all surprised to hear himself called to order by that honourable gentleman; but he should have been very much surprised to hear any reason for the call from that honourable gentleman." Even to Pitt, who had, on one occasion, made no other reply to his speech than moving to adjourn, he flung down the glove." I make no comment on the indecency of moving to adjourn, when the public relief is the topic. To desire the gentlemen on the opposite side to make 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

June 24th, 1795.

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.

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 inevitably tending to barbarise the people, it was for a while considered a peculiar feature of British manliness. 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 displeasure 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 so perpetual a source of disaster. Nothing could be more trifling than the transaction itself-a loan of 1,600/., which was repaid at the promised

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

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