It will appear evident, then, that Sir Richard had not been perfectly sane since the ever-to-be-regretted fatal event at Claremont. Was it not therefore astonishing, that his professional as well as other friends, who were suspicious, if not fully aware, of the doctor's derangement, should have been silent upon this important point, and have allowed Sir Richard to continue in the exercise of his professional practice? Did they not, by such silence, contribute to the peril of females in the most trying moment of nature's sorrow? The disinterested reader will, doubtless, join us in our expressions of indignation at such wanton and cruel conduct.

The letter written to Sir Richard, by order of the prince, proves nothing but the folly of those who advised it. That letter was not calculated to remove any of those suspicions respecting the untimely death of the Princess Charlotte, which rolled like heavy clouds over the intelligent minds of the greater portion of the nation; neither was it likely to hush

[[301]]the spirit of inquiry, because its details were evidently meant to prevent any special explanation. The Marquis of Hertford, chamberlain to the regent, well knew, at this period, how to estimate medicinal cause and effect!

Presuming my Lord Bloomfield to have been an actor in "the tragedy," we cannot help thinking that his reward was more than adequate to the services performed. His pension of twelve hundred pounds per annum was dated December, 1817. What extraordinary benefits had he rendered to this oppressed nation to merit such an income? We ought also to mention, that, after this period, we find his lordship named as "envoy and minister-plenipotentiary in Sweden," for which he received the annual sum of four thousand, nine hundred pounds, and, as colonel of artillery, one thousand and three pounds, making in all the enormous annual sum of seven thousand, one hundred, and three pounds!

These remarks are not intended to wound the feelings of private families; but are made with a view to urge a strict investigation into the cause of the Princess Charlotte's death. We are well aware that many great persons have reason to fear the result of such an inquiry, yet the injured ought to have justice administered, even at the "eleventh hour," if it cannot sooner be obtained. Many a murderer has been executed twenty, or even thirty, years after the commission of his crime!

Though at this time ministers had a parliament almost entirely devoted to their wishes, there were a

[[302]]few members of it who vigorously opposed unjust measures, and they could not always carry their plans into execution. The amount solicited for the Duke of Clarence upon his intended marriage with the Princess of Saxe Meiningen is a proof of this; for, although the regent sent a message to the House to accomplish this object, it was at first refused, and the duke did not gain his point till a considerable time afterwards.

In this year, the Duke of Kent was united to a sister of Prince Leopold.

In September, while most requisite to her party, the queen was taken ill. Bulletin followed upon bulletin, and the disorder was reported to increase. Some of the public papers announced, that her majesty had expressed an ardent desire to witness a reconciliation between the Prince and Princess of Wales, as she imagined her dissolution was now near at hand. The report, however, was as false as it was unlikely; for, only a month before this period, spies had been despatched to obtain witnesses, of any description, against the honour of the princess, by which means her enemies hoped to accomplish their most ardent desires. Queen Charlotte's conscience was not of a penetrable nature as her bitter enmity to the Princess of Wales continued even to her death!

With her majesty, it had ever been an invariable maxim, that "might constitutes right;" but the reflections of her mind, while surveying the probability of a speedy dissolution, must have been of a