An additional nine thousand pounds annually were also granted to each of the princesses, whilst places and pensions were proportionally multiplied. In the case of Colonel M'Mahon, upon whom a private secretaryship had been conferred, much very unpleasant altercation took place in the House of Commons; but bribery effected that which argument proved to be wrong. It was a well-known fact, indeed, that this individual was nothing more than a pander to the regent's lust, to which infamous engagements and practices we shall hereafter refer.

On the 11th of May, as Mr. Perceval was entering the lobby of the House of Commons, he received a shot in his left breast, and, after staggering a few paces, fell down and expired. The assassin was tried on the 15th and executed on the 18th of the same month. He defended his conduct on the ground of having received much injury from the government, who had denied redress of his grievances, and, therefore, thought he had only done an act of justice in taking away the life of a member of so callous an administration.

Agreeably to the regent's message, fifty thousand pounds were voted for the use of Mr. Perceval's family, and two thousand annually to be paid to his widow. In case of her demise, however, the same amount was to be continued annually to such male descendant as might at that time be the heir, for the term of his life.

[[210]]Let us here inquire into the services which Mr. Perceval had rendered his country to warrant ministers in this lavish expenditure upon his family, one of whom now frequently intrudes his crude notions in the House of Commons. Mr. Perceval had been for a long period the pretended friend of the ill-fated Princess of Wales. "The Book" which he arranged, and which had been printed, but not published, in 1807, giving the particulars of the "Delicate Investigation," improperly so called, was bought up in 1809, and as much as fifteen hundred pounds GIVEN for a single copy. The rancour and malice of the unprincipled enemies and calumniators of the open-hearted Princess of Wales had been much exposed by Mr. Perceval, and by his apparent generous and manly defence in her royal highness' favour, the storm materially abated. After a long period, she was again received at court, and acknowledged innocent of the charges preferred by her assailants. Apartments were given to her at Kensington Palace, and it appeared very probable that her wishes would finally be completed, in the restoration of her beloved daughter to her society. But mark the ensuing change. Mr. Perceval was chosen by the regent to assist in his councils; and as no man can serve two causes at the same time, Mr. Perceval deserted the princess, and became the servile minister of the prince! Surely there must be something supernatural in the smile of royalty, when, in some instances, principle and conscience have fallen subdued before it! We know for an incontrovertible fact, that

[[211]]but a few months before Mr. Perceval's acceptance of office, he delivered his sentiments concerning the Princess of Wales to a particular friend, in these words: "I am decidedly friendly to the Princess of Wales, because I am well satisfied and assured her royal highness is a much-injured lady. I am also convinced her mother-in-law had conceived an inveterate dislike to her before she arrived in this country, on account of the objections preferred by the prince against any connexion, except that which his royal highness had already formed. From these unhappy circumstances, I am obliged to believe, that the sufferings of her highness are unmerited on her part, and very much increased by the dictatorial behaviour of her majesty." At another interview with the same person, the following question was put, unreservedly, to Mr. Perceval: "Do you, Sir, think her royal highness has been deserving of the persecutions she has endured, by any deviation from virtue and propriety?" "I do not think the princess guilty," earnestly rejoined Mr. Perceval, "and I am fully satisfied, in my own mind, that if there had not existed ungenerous intentions on the part of the royal family, the affair would long since have sunk into silence. There is a gaiety and levity about her royal highness which is not usual with the English ladies generally; but, with all the exterior frivolity of the princess, when she chooses to be lively, I would prefer her infinitely to the professedly-modest and apparently-reserved of the sex in high life. I believe the princess to be playful, and incautiously witty, in

[[212]]her deportment; but I prefer that to secret intrigue and infamous practices."

We leave our readers to judge whether this simple declaration was not honourable to the princess, and whether it does not correspond with every speech delivered by this gentleman in his public and private defence of her royal highness. Humanity, however, is weak, and the ingratiating attentions of the prince were too powerful to be resisted by Mr. Perceval. At his royal command, Virtue, Goodness, and Truth, assumed the garb of Vice, Infamy, and Falsehood. "Oh, blasting privilege of sovereignty! The bare scent of thy perfume spreads desolation to society; changes man, the noblest of God's works, into a monster; and the consequences of thy unnatural existence will most probably produce the engine to be used for thine own destruction!"

Shortly after the untimely death of Mr. Perceval, Lord Liverpool was appointed first lord of the Treasury; Mr. Nicholas Vansittart, chancellor of the Exchequer; and Lord Sidmouth, secretary of state for the home department.

On the 17th of June, Mr. Vansittart brought forward his budget,—the amount of the supplies required being more than sixty-two millions. Certainly this was not a very exhilarating or agreeable prospect to the nation of the retrenchments intended by the new ministry; but notwithstanding the divisions on the subject, it finally received the sanction of parliament. Had it not been for the corrupt state of the representation, can we suppose it possible that

[[213]]such a sum would have been permitted to be drawn from the starving multitudes, when there existed such pecuniary distress in the manufacturing and commercial districts, unequalled in former years?