failings, so firmly rooted in those arrangements that excluded the Princes from rights, without which no body of men could live, in a manner either virtuously or correctly. They were compelled by the aristocratical pride of their father, acting upon a weak, and besotted head, to lead the life which exposed them to the severe reprobation of that part of the human herd, styling themselves virtuous, moral, and religious, not taking into their account at the same time, that the Princes of the nation were a set of proscribed men; they were even proscribed before they were born, and placed without the pale of the law of privilege and natural right, with respect to the most material circumstances in life. A Prince of this realm must either begin by deceiving or debauching the woman with whom he means to cohabit, or he must cohabit with some one that has already been debauched or deceived. He is entirely deprived from choosing a companion from amongst persons of education, unless chance happens to throw one in his way.

The law of the land compelled the Princes to be either fornicators or adulterers, and it is a most curious anomaly in the history of the Legislation of this enlightened country, that whilst with one breath, a law was enacted compelling the Princes of it to be adulterers, with the next breath, another law was enacted for the prevention of it. The latter however, met with the most decided opposition, it was attacked with all the virulence of party, at the head of which stood the Heirapparent to the crown, the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence, in direct and bold opposition to the Primate and the whole bench of bishops. In the arguments used by the royal Princes, considering the peculiar situation in which they stood, there was a goodly share of worldly wisdom, but very little religious knowledge; much liberality of sentiment, but little integrity of principle; much zeal for the worthless part of the fair sex, but little regard for the preservation of public morals. It was indeed said, though perhaps not exactly according to truth that the bishops and judges, particularly the former

were not competent to decide on such a law, as not being possessed of that worldly knowledge, which was indispensably necessary to appreciate its merits

If knowledge of the world makes man immoral

May Juba ever live in ignorance.

That the Act of George III. called the Marriage Act, was a bonus for adultery on the part of his children, cannot be denied. The Princes were debarred from the enjoyment of the greatest bliss of life, which springs from domestic, connubial relations. Their knowledge of the most beautiful side of human nature was cramped and contracted, and as to their knowledge of the world, they collected it at the stews, at the gambling table, and all those other detestable haunts, at which fashionable profligacy rides triumphant, bidding alike defiance to the mandates of God and the laws of the realm. Such knowledge however cannot be possessed in its pure and most valuable sense, by titled or untitled adulterers; by titled or untitled panders; by titled or untitled fornicators, or by the titled or untitled ministers to the illicit pleasures of those, whom they are bound by every principle that man should hold sacred to defend from all contamination, nor yet by the titled and untitled profligates who are the partakers of such pleasures and the partners of such guilt. The character of George III. was one of paradox and contradiction. By his Marriage Act, he made his sons, aye, and his daughters too, guilty of adultery and fornication-their sins were upon his head, and yet no man, in the utmost rigidity of morality could be more severe than he was, on any promiscuous connexion that his sons entered into, with some of the beautiful women of the day. Bereft of all political foresight, he saw not that his odious law brought contamination upon society, by corrupting manners at their source, and thereby laying the foundation of ruin to the empire at no very distant day; a circumstance which is the more unfavourable, seing that the luxury of the times, and the wealth enjoyed by the higher classes, as in ancient Rome, lead naturally to a relaxation of

manners, without the additional aid of the example of the first family in the ration.

If then the injustice of the law be confined to one family; if it be confined to a few, the contamination of examples is extended to the many, the circle indeed on which it operates, has no other bounds, than that of the country in which it is the centre.

We consider ourselves justified in entering upon the previous prefatory matter, as we are now arrived at one of the most important epochs of the life of William the IV. namely his connection, when he was Duke of Clarence, with the celebrated Mrs, Jordan, some of whose children now rank amongst the peerage of the country, but into which, had their father been wise, they would never have been introduced. With all the high respect which we entertain for the character of William IV as the sovereign of the country, we cannot consistently with that spirit of impartiality and truth, to which we have endeavoured to adhere in the delineation of the scenes of his life, wholly avert our view from those transactions which cast, as it were, a cloud upon it, and which still dim the brightness of his earthly fame. It is, however, no trifling satisfaction to us, to know that in the following exposition of the transactions which took place between the Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan, we shall have it in our power to rescue his memory from some portion of that obloquy with which malice and uncharitableness have loaded it, and which it is the interest of a particular party not to have removed.

It is not our province to enter into any of the particulars of Mrs. Jordan's life previously to her connexion with the Duke of Clarence, no further than a slight reference to those circun.stances which are immediately antecedent to it, and without which the narrative cannot be considered as regularly connected.

Mrs. Jordan was a native of Ireland, and at an early age evinced a strong predilection for the stage, on which she first appeared at the age of sixteen, under the name of Francis. In regard to the assumption of the name of Jordan, there is a very

singular anecdote related, which however delicacy prohibits us inserting, it had not, however, the slightest reference to those "obvious and pressing reasons," which are alluded to by certain obscure historians, and the signification of which cannot be mistaken.

It has been generally reported that the Duke of Clarence first saw Mrs. Jordan at Drury Lane Theatre, such, however, is not the fact, for it was during the year 1788, when George III. visited Cheltenham, accompanied by the royal family, amongst whom was the Duke of Clarence, that his Royal Highness first saw at that time the first of Thalia's daughters, and it was owing to his influence, that Mrs. Jordan was presented during her stay in that town with a very elegant gold medal, accompanied by a written document, so truly gratifying to her feelings, as to confer a ten-fold value on the token by which it was accompanied.

It appears that the brilliant success and increase of salary awarded to Mrs. Jordan, excited great uneasiness in the Kemble family. Mrs. Siddons in particular, the Melpomene of the day, whose idol was Croesus, could not restrain her internal dissatisfaction, which became so intrusively disagreeable to Mrs. Jordan, that overtures were made to her from the manager of Covent Garden and a carte blanche tendered, in order that she might stipulate her own terms. Alarmed at the idea of losing one of the main props of his house, Mr. Sheridan had an interview with Mrs. Jordan, who having stated her grievances respecting the Kemble coterie, he at once closed with her at a salary of thirty pounds per week, then esteemed a very enormous stipend. In reference to the dissatisfaction of Mrs. Siddons, a caricature was issued, we believe, from a design of Bunbury, representing the tragic queen with pockets overgorged with gold and bank paper; while hanging to the prong of a pitch-fork thrust up from the infernal regions, was a bag of gold, to obtain which the hungry Melpomene was stretching forth her hand in a fine tragedy attitude, accompanied by a look of greedy supplication.

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If such was a leading trait in the conduct of Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Jordan was the very opposite; charity being the prominent characteristic of her mind. No deserving object ever applied to her in vain, and even prior to her connection with the Duke of Clarence, the following fact may be relied upon. Bearing in mind the cruel conduct exerted towards herself by Mr. Dayly, and the difficulties experienced during her pregnancy; she always entertained the most humane and lively feelings for destitute females similarly circumstanced. Actuated by that praise-worthy sentiment, Mrs. Jordan provided herself with several complete sets of linen necessary for lyingin women, which, upon application and a knowledge that the objects were deserving, she was accustomed to lend out for the use of females under such circumstances. Being better enabled to indulge her philanthropic disposition after joining the Duke of Clarence, her charitable exertions increased for a time in proportion to her means, and numerous were the objects, who showered blessings upon one, whose benevolence was as unostentatious, as it proved liberal and extented in its varied ramifications.

The winter of 1789 was spent by Mrs. Jordan in personating, during the season, most of those characters in which she had so uniformly obtained the plaudits of her hearers. In the summer she made a trip to Edinburgh, where the same success crowned her endeavours, until towards the close of her theatrical exertions, when the manager sought to cast odium upon her, for not completing her agreement, which she was prevented from doing on account of the death of her revered mother. No female ever felt more unbounded love for a parent than did Mrs. Jordan, who experienced the most acute anguish for the loss she had sustained; it was indeed, an affliction so deeply rooted, that it required every effort of reason and philosophy to counteract its poignant effects. Grief, perhaps, found some alleviation from the efforts of the poetic muse, as at the period alluded to, we find that the accompanying lines were written by Mrs. Jordan, and which were inserted in the Edinburgh Herald.