hundred pounds. The sentence was a severe one, the judges of the time taking their tone from the model on which they framed, altered or amended their absurd libel law, the starchamber of the Stuarts. In these cases the juries were always packed, and the defendants, right or wrong, were sure of conviction. Few, however, had much pity for this John Walter If there were those, who thought the sentence inflicted upon the culprit too severe, still he deserved little of the public sympathy. The judges were faithful to that uniform dislike of the press, which, since they were somewhat curbed by Mr. Fox's libel act, determined them to shine in the reflection of their own severity whenever it was possible, and punished libellers worse than thieves, because they wanted to make their own dogmas absolute. Walter got of them another year in Newgate, and another hundred pounds fine for a libel on the Duke of York, and the Prince of Wales, conjointly. Lastly, though it was well-known that the Duke of Clarence had returned to England without orders, which was a breach of discipline, the judges who delighted to exemplify the maxim that "truth was a libel, and the greater the truth, the greater the libel, laid a third heavy fine upou Walter for stating the fact.

The vindictiveness of these sentences disgusted the public all but the party of Mr. Pitt and the Court, whom Walter was serving by attacking the royal brothers. They affected great astonishment that the Prince who was of the popular party and belonged to the side that gave a constant support to the liberty of the press in their toasts, should seek satisfaction for injuries which true magnanimity might overlook. This might have been just were the offender the agent of a political party that sought to disparage as much as possible the character of the heir-apparent, as if his follies and indiscretions were not of sufficient charge against one, the paternal treatment of whom had been so injudicious, if not harsh. It was a rule with George III. to regard his children as minors, when they were men, and to disregard the most earnest appeals they made to him respecting anything in their treatment, which thwarted his

own very narrow capacity. The Prince Edward, afterwards Duke of Kent, exhibited a proof of this. The King had kept him abroad," Germanizing" him, as he had done the Duke of York, who was kept in Germany eleven years. It was in vain that Prince Edward wrote and beseeched his father to allow him to return to England. It was the treatment that the fourth son received in this way, which attached him also to his three brothers, and divided the royal family against itself. Finding that his remonstrances were unavailing, Prince Edward set off for London, where he arrived on the 14th of January, 1790. As soon as he arrived, a messenger was despatched by him to his brother at Carlton-house. The Prince of Wales, in whom affection for his family was never wanting, whatever was his heartlessness in other respects, immediately went to the hotel and brought Prince Edward to Carlton House, where he remained, while the Duke of York went to St. James' to mediate in his brother's behalf. The mission was in vain. The King would be absolute, where he could be so; no feeling of affection, no dictate of reason, could atone for an act of disobedience, and Prince Edward was banished in a very few days to Gibraltar, where a regiment was stationed of which he had the command.

It is a matter of history, that at this particular juncture, the three elder branches of the royal family, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence, stood at a very low degree in the opinion of the public, particularly the two former. To follow the former through his career of profligacy and extravagance, would be merely the repetition of a tale, at once odious and disgusting, nor would it have been considered necessary in this history to touch upon it at all, had not the illustrious individual who forms the subject of these memoirs been deeply implicated in the results which emanated from it. The Prince of Wales, as well as the Duke of York, appeared to be reckless of the consequences which their adherence to a life of profligacy and debauchery entailed upon them, nor did they appear to care as to whom might fall a victim to their vices. The severe lessons which are taught in the school of adversity,

appeared in the case of his Royal Highness, to lose all their efficacy-their influence was that of the moment, for he no sooner found himself extricated from one embarrassment, than he heedlessly rushed into another, more deep and humiliating than any of the preceding ones. That sense of shame, which operates even on ordinary minds, formed no part of his moral character-he commenced his life as he closed it, vain-glorious, profligate, and extravagant; he seemed not to feel nor to, understand the duties of his station--all his gratifications were selfish-all his indulgences sensual. Real friends he had none-but of needy dependents he had a crowd, and 'the most finished gentleman of Europe' was contented to reign over a palace occupied by none but courtezans and parasites. Education, which corrects and modifies the passions of other men, appeared to have no other tendency than to confirm and strengthen his in all their plenitude and force. The moral beauty of virtue, emasculated in the festivities of vice, and the debaucheries of a harem, possessed, in his sight, no fixed nor permanent value. Without eyes for pure and innocent forms, every thing was meretricious about him; innocence sunk abashed in his presence, and modesty turned from his gaze. The gallery of English beauties was the fascination of voluptuousness, and the walls of Carlton House were 'aspic' to every woman's character, who had the misfortune to attract his notice.

We doubt not that we shall call down upon our heads the bitter animadversions of the senseless tribe of courtiers and of menials, who conceive that because there is a divinity which doth hedge in a king,' it becomes at once an act criminal and unjust to pourtray him as the man, and to hold him up to view with all the vices and imperfections by which he was distinguished in his career through life. If, to gratify a selfish passion-if, to obtain the indulgence of a sensual desire, a prince or a monarch has lost sight of the interests of the country, and set at defiance every principle of morality and virtue, we will not, to gain the empty applause of a courtly circle, screen him from the merited indignation which naturally arises

in the breast of the good and virtuous, at the infraction of those moral duties. by which the great chain of human society is held together. In the delineation of a royal character, the varnish of mystification may suit the parasite and hireling; we will paint it as we have seen and known it, and although the sight of the picture may be repellant to some, we shall persevere, unintimidated by threats, to use our colours accordingly as the scenes present themselves; and when we give the last finishing touch, it will stand as a portrait for after ages, to contemplate with mingled feelings of approbation and disgust.

In regard to the Duke of York, it will be merely requisite to state, that on his return to this country from his military education in Prussia, he brought with him the prevailing vice of the majority of the courts of Germany-that of gambling; and to his inordinate attachment to this ruinous propensity, may be attributed the deep disgrace which he was often obliged to endure, as well as the total ruin of his property and fortune. Previously to his marriage, he was little inferior to his elder brother in his attachment to the female sex, and the expenses, which he incurred in some of his establishments for his mistresses, joined to other pursuits of a still more extravagant nature, soon reduced him to such a condition, as actually to have his carriage and horses taken in execution in the open streets, and himself obliged to dismount and return to his residence on foot.

It is not in our power exactly to point out the individuals who were the secret agents in the tragedy, which we are about to describe, nor are there any documents in existence by which the crime can be brought home to the real perpetrators; at the same time we cannot for a moment entertain the idea, that either of the royal princes was privy to the act, but that it was wholly planned and matured by men of needy and desperate fortunes, who, having no character to lose, were willing to plunge into the commission of any crimes by which their circumstances might be improved; especially if they had the pro

tecting shield of high authorities to conceal them from detection. In one respect, however, and it is a very important political one, the following transaction will show to what secret purposes that most odious of all enactments the Alien Act, was applied, and whilst it was alleged by the ministers of the day, that it was introduced solely for the purpose of preventing the domiciliation of foreigners in this country, who might be the secret agents of Buonaparte, yet that it was frequently applied to the removal of persons out of the country, who were not tainted with any political offence, and who, in fact, had visited it with no other view than the enforcement of their rightful claims, as creditors, on some particular branches of the royal family.

We shall now proceed to exhibit all the circumstances which took place between the Prince of Wales and his royal brothers, York and Clarence, respecting the raising of a large sum of money, and we wish, for the honour and character of the country-we wish for the fame and the reputation of all the parties concerned,—that a full and impartial inquiry had been made into every circumstance of the case, in order that such a foul blot should not have been allowed to remain on the character of the Princes of the blood of these realms. We know that princes are but men, and, like other men, are liable to be entranced "by the magic gaze of vice," to form imprudent associations, to be the dupe of designing men, and hastily to adopt, the views of polished parasites. We profess ourselves to be liberal in political principles; we will be also so in act and deed; we declare our determination to make no accusation, but, anxious for the development of truth, although we cannot hope at this remote period of producing that fair discussion, before which all falsehood, maudlin, and disguise must fall, we shall proceed to publish that, which we doubt not would have been highly conducive to the interests and the character of the royal brothers never to have suppressed. The suppression of any document goes far to the presumption of the guilt of the parties concerned in the implication; for a consciousness of innocence rather courts, than shuns inquiry, and will rather