“That he’s ne’er known to change his mind Is surely nothing strange; For no one ever yet could find He’d any mind to change.”
Again:—
“He boasts about the truth, I’ve heard, And vows he’d never break it; Why zounds a man must keep his word When nobody will take it.”
Again, referring to a youth dressed à la Prince de Cumberland, who had been brought up at Bow Street charged with being an expert pickpocket, Figaro says: “A similarity to the Duke of Cumberland is a very serious matter, and in the opinion of Mr. Halls (the police magistrate) quite sufficient to entitle any one to a couple of months’ imprisonment, as a common thief or an incorrigible vagabond.”
Again:— {64}
“INQUEST EXTRAORDINARY
Again:—“The new piece announced at Drury Lane under the title of The Dæmon Duke or The Mystic Branch has no reference whatever to his Royal Highness of Cumberland.”
But these might be multiplied almost to infinity. The examples quoted make it sufficiently plain why it was that the Whig Cabinet of the day felt it advisable to hurry on our late Queen’s marriage.
So much for a general review of the duke’s career. We will now return to the year 1815 and the publication of the broadside with which we are more particularly concerned.
The duke had just announced his intention of marrying the Princess of Salm, who had been twice a widow. The Prince Regent had raised no objection, but the Queen, who had a rooted aversion to second marriages, made no secret of her disapproval. The country, too, was indignant, because another royal marriage spelt, in accordance with what was now the ordinary usage, a further burden upon the exchequer.