In opposition to all remonstrance and advice, the prince gradually sunk deeper into the vortex of

[[119]]sensuality, and very frequently expressed himself in high hopes that the princess would soon "BE GOT RID OF." He still remained ignorant of the confidence the princess had reposed in her uncle; and well was it for her he was ignorant of it, as his passion was extreme, and rage might have gained such a pre-eminence as to have induced him to add another FOUL DEED to his number.

This fatal year, more than twenty-nine millions were required, eighteen of which were raised by loans! Here may be observed how progressively the "national debt" was incurred, partly for the immoderate extravagance of those who ought to have acted as models for imitation at home, and partly by unjust and destructive wars abroad! until Englishmen became any thing and every thing but a free people. The discontents of the tax-payers were loud and deep; but the ministers heeded them not!

On the 7th of January,

1796,

the Princess of Wales was safely delivered of a daughter, whose birth, in some measure, assuaged the miseries of her forlorn condition. The Duke of Clarence might have very frequently repeated his expressions, delivered in the House of Lords in the preceding June, when he said, "Unless suitable provisions were made for the prince, the Princess of Wales, A LOVELY AND AMIABLE WOMAN, must feel

[[120]]herself torn from her family, (although her mother was the king's sister) removed from all her early connexions," &c. Ah! William Henry, were you prepared to prove this to be a speech in favour of your cousin and sister-in-law? Was it not only for the aggrandizement of your spendthrift brother?

To oblige her majesty, the young princess was named Charlotte. But what a different character did the younger Charlotte prove from the elder! Oh! that so sweet a disposition and so noble a mind should have been crushed in the bud, and that, too, by one nearly allied to her by the ties of nature!

Those more immediately about the person of the Princess of Wales were best capable to form an opinion of her maternal tenderness, and of the prince's negligence. The proofs of affectionate solicitude on the part of the mother, contrasted with the indifference of the father, deserve public explanation. The first time the prince saw his child, his countenance was not in the least illuminated by any ray of pleasure, as he contented himself by merely observing, "It is a fine girl." The princess afterwards acknowledged her disappointment, as she had hoped his heart was not entirely debased, or his sense of virtue altogether lost; but this fond, this very natural, hope was doomed to disappointment, and while this desolate lady was nursing her tenderly-beloved child, the prince was walking and riding out, openly and shamelessly, with Mrs. Fitzherbert and Lady Jersey! Would not the poor cottager have felt abashed to hear of his fellow-labourer's similar

[[121]]conduct, even in the most humble station of life, who must, of necessity, be devoid of ten thousand advantages this personage had derived from birth and education? Yes, doubtless; and he who could so act deserved no other appellation than that of a VOLUPTUOUS BRUTE.