"Carlton House,
"Monday, 9th November, 1817."

[[371]]COPY OF A LETTER FROM DR. CROFT TO HIS ROYAL
HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT.

"The gracious assurance of his royal highness for my happiness was this day conveyed to me, by the desire of her most gracious majesty.

"The many former favours and kindnesses bestowed by my royal benefactor is retained in my mind with the deepest sense of gratitude.

"That I regret, with heartfelt grief, the invisible power that determined my inevitable misery, and marks the hand that gave the blow to my eternal peace. Could no other arm inflict the wound than he who, in happier moments, indulged me with the most apparent unfeigned friendship? That I shall not, to my latest breath, cease to complain of such injustice, heaped upon me in the eyes of the world, and before the nation, who at my hands have lost their dearest hopes.

"My conscious innocence is the only right I plead to a just and Almighty God! That I consider this deed of so foul a nature as to stamp with ignominy, not only its perpetrators, but the throne itself, now to be obtained by the death of its own offspring, and that death enforced by the Queen of England, whose inveterate hatred is fully

[[372]]exemplified, by heaping wrongs upon the unfortunate partner of your once happy choice, who now only impedes your union to another.

"To remove now this only remaining obstacle, I am called upon by the ministers. With a view of tranquillizing my mind, every restitution is offered me. But, no doubt, many will be found amongst them, who can, without a pang, enjoy the reward of such services—as her majesty will most liberally recompense.

"It has ever been my highest ambition to fulfil the arduous duty of my situation; to be rewarded by upright encomiums; and to merit, as a subject and a servant, the approbation of my most gracious benefactor, as conveyed to me on the 9th of this month by Sir B. Bloomfield, would have been a sufficient recompense to me under any circumstances of life.

"I can, therefore, only assure his royal highness, with unfeigned sincerity, that I should feel happy upon any occasion to forfeit my life for his peace and happiness; nor can I more fully evince the same than by assuring his royal highness, that this melancholy circumstance shall be eternally buried in my mind.