It is impossible that we can stand acquitted of the obligations due to a mother, and it is one of the greatest reproaches wherewith human nature is burdened, that in respect to tenderness, the maternal instinct far surpasses that, wherewith the child is imbued. Benefits received are less powerful incentives to gratitude and love than those accorded, and the care bestowed renders the child dearer to the mother than the parent to her offspring.

A child who exposes life to preserve that of a mother only performs what is in strict accordance with justice-his duty is to serve her at all times and under every circumstance. Notwithstanding this, we incessantly find sons and daughters neglecting the authors of their being when they have attained a certain age; they blush to keep them company or even acknowledge them. They consign them to banishment or oblivion without a sigh, and leave to a sordid menial, the care of providing for their necessities. Children thus conducting themselves should be regarded as monsters, and deserve to be held in execration by ever member of civilized society.

Of such an imperative nature are the duties of children towards their parents, that they rank next to the awe, veneration, and love due to the Divinity himself. Upon this head, however, independent of the Fifth Commandment, let us consult the page of Holy writ, and adduce proof among the numerous instances therein recorded, and we shall find what anathemas await on the undutifulness of children

'The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.'— Prov. c. 30. v. 17.

Can there be anything more energetic than the above language, or more explanatory of a sentiment instilled by the Most High? It is no palliative to state that the nuptial rites were never solemnized between our parents. Nature has instilled a sacred sentiment in the human heart, and those who refuse to listen to her calls, have severed the great bond implanted by Omnipotence.

Mrs. Jordan having died intestate, after her effects had been administered to in the usual form, the King's solicitor collected the same, ex officio. Letters of Administration were then taken out at Doctor's Commons, on the 24th of May, 1817, the amount of assets being sworn under £300. Seven years subsequently to that date, a partial settlement of the affairs of the deceased took place with her creditors, though an advertisement had appeared on the 8th of December, 1823, running as follows:

DOROTHEA JORDAN, DECEASED.-The Creditors of Dorothea Jordan, late of Englefield Green, and Cadogan Place, Sloane Street, in the county of Middlesex, Spinster, deceased, who have proved their debts, may receive a dividend of five shillings in the pound, by applying at the office of the Solicitor to the Treasury, No. 5, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. And those Creditors who have not yet proved their debts, are requested forthwith to furnish the Solicitor of the Treasury with proof thereof.'

In consequence of the above announcement, which seemed to infer that the payment was tendered by way of a composition with the creditors of Mrs. Jordan, various attacks were made upon the Duke of Clarence, from which we select the following,-paragraphs which appeared in the daily papers.

"MRS. JORDAN,-TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEWS. "SIR,

"I observed a few days ago, (and with sentiments of great indignation,) an advertisement in the daily papers, announcing a dividend of five shillings in the pound as now in course of payment to the bona fide creditors of the late Mrs. Dorothea Jordan, formerly of Cadogan Terrace, and last of St. Cloud, in France.

"To those, sir, who have witnessed, as I have often, the honourable and liberal feelings of this lamented lady, in pecuniary matters, the generosity and self-denial with which she permitted her theatrical salary to be taken weekly, and devoted to expenses of a domestic nature, which expenses in any

similar case would have been defrayed from other funds,-it must prove a source of much pain to see her name held up to the world as that of an Insolvent who had lived beyond her income, and defrauded the honest tradesman of his just due. I am persuaded that there are enough of her admirers still living, who by a public subscription would have rescued her memory from this degrading, but undeserved reproach. Though poor, my mite should cheerfully have been contributed to such a purpose, and hundreds there are I am assured, who would have been eager to have done the same. If strangers to her domestic hospitality, and persons who never partook of her bounty, so feel, what-may I be allowed to ask-must have been the sensations of her high-bred children, when they saw their noble minded parent thus held forth to public animadversion !!

"To have been spared their feelings, had I, Mr. Editor, possessed no other resources, the privations of nature should have furnished the means to have rescued a beloved mother's name from such foul and unmerited obloquy.

"I am, sir,

"AN ADMIRER OF FILIAL PIETY."

"Sir,

"MRS. JORDAN.

"To the Editor of the Morning Herald.

"I am a plain matter-of-fact man, a tradesman, and steer as clear as I can of all party. The late Mrs. Jordan contracted a debt with our house eighteen years since, for which I could never get satisfaction. Lately I was informed of an advertisement calling upon all creditors of the late Mrs. Jordan to come to the Solicitor of the Treasury, and receive five shillings in the pound, and those who had not proved their debts, to come in and prove them. I was one of the latter, and went accordingly with a copy of my account, when to my surprise, and I may say indignation, I was informed the account had been too long standing, and I would not be allowed

to prove. If every long standing account were thus rejected at the ipse dixit of the Solicitor, then I consider the advertisement a humbug; and as there are possibly more creditors than myself, who have felt the same disappointment, I shall feel obliged by your giving this statement to the public in any other way you may think proper, than in the hasty way I have penned this, under the signature of

"A CREDITOR."

In order to repel the various aspersions fulminated against the Duke of Clarence, some friend of the aspersed issued the ensuing statement. These reiterated attacks, however, not having been refuted by authority, were generally credited ;in consequence of which appeals were made, calling upon the confidential friends and advisers of his Royal Highness to repel such assertions, and vindicate his character, which ultimately produced the letter from Mr. Barton, which will be found in the sequel of our Memoir.

"MRS. JORDAN.

"Sunday, Jan. 4, 1824.

"A paragraph is now in progress through the newspapers, stating that the debts of this lamented and interesting lady, have been compounded for five shillings in the pound, which is now in course of payment-this statement is not correct: Mrs. Jordan died intestate in France; the consequence of which is, her property rests in the crown, and it has become the duty of the King's Solicitor to collect her effects, and apply them in the first instance to the payment of her debts. He has done this, and announced a payment to the extent stated. This is the fact, but it is not a composition of the lady's debts, the same course would be adopted in the case of any other British subject dying abroad intestate; but perhaps it would not have been necessary to notice the misrepresentation, were it not for the use to which it is applied by some of the public prints, in

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which it is made the ground of a bitter invective against a royal personage, formerly connected with that interesting female, by many dear and intimate ties. Nothing can be more unfounded than the charge in which it is stated that she was left totally unprovided--to pine and die in want in a foreign land. Mrs. Jordan enjoyed an income of 2000l. a year settled upon her by the royal duke. It was paid quarterly at Coutts' bank, in the Strand, and the last quarter, which did not become due until after death, was received by a lady, formerly a governess at Bushy, and afterwards resident with her as a companion in France, who came over to London for the purpose. But the report of the abandonment and destitution of Mrs. Jordan is not new, it has been so long and frequently reported, and suffered to pass without contradiction, it is now received as truth in every circle. That it has not been noticed by some of the friends of the royal personage aspersed, may excite surprise. We feel it our duty, however, to expose the misrepresentation, without regard to the wishes of the friends. of his Royal Highness. The exposure is due to the cause of truth, it is due to the country which has an interest in the character of the illustrious individual so near the throne, which could not belong to the case of a subject, however important, of inferior rank."

As this document did not appear conclusive nor tend to allay the indignant feelings excited in the public mind, Mr. Barton, of the Royal Mint undertook to espouse the cause of his illustrious employer, accompanying the same with such epistolatory communications from Mrs. Jordan, as he conceived necessary to elucidate the point in question, all of which we now beg to lay before our readers

“SIR,

66 THE LATE MRS. JORDAN.-TO THE EDITOR.

"The attention of the public has lately, as it has many times before, been drawn by notices in the daily papers to the