ness took with him to the court of Berlin, in the capacity of a tutor, a worthy superannuated colonel of the name of Greville, who had risen gradually to his rank by favouritism and influence; and he had never seen any actual service, but by his suppleness as a courtier, he was well calculated to be a bearleader at one of the proudest courts of Europe. Instruction, however, by no means implies the acquisition of knowledge, for there are some faculties so obtuse, so impervious to every thing having any affinity to intellectual brightness, that a ray of knowledge imparted to them is refracted like the beam of light from the block of marble. George III., if he had possessed a common degree of penetration, must have seen the bias of the disposition of his son Frederick, long before the time appointed for the commencement of his military scholarship, and further, George III. could not be ignorant of what was well known throughout all Europe, that the court of Berlin was at the period of the Duke of York visiting it, one of the most profligate and immoral of all the European courts. The reigning monarch himself was, in morality, a decided latitudinarian, the females of the court were notorious for their departure from the commonest rules of chastity and decorum, and the courtiers, who buzzed about them, were men immersed in debauchery and licentiousness. And was this a proper court at which to fix the residence of a young prince for a considerable length of time, who had in him by nature the seeds of the most dangerous vices, and which only wanted opportunity and encouragement to spring up into a most baneful luxuriance. The Duke of York was sent to Prussia, to fit him for being placed at the head of the English army, and when occasion required it, to command it in the day of battle. He, therefore, attended all the reviews, paid some attention to the evolutions of the Prussian infantry, then supposed to be the best disciplined in Europe, he admired some of their cumbersome, harlequin uniforms and having thus amused himself in the morning, he was certain to be found at the gambling table in the evening, or paying his devotions to some of the celebrated beauties of the court, whose favours were a direct purchasable commodity; but

who possessed the art of assuming the guise of virtue, to render the possession of them more desirable. We have only to cast a retrospective view upon the achievements of the Duke York at the head of a British army in France and Holland, to arrive at once at a just conclusion of the great advantage which the country derived from a seven years' residence of the Duke of York at the court of Frederick the Great. The truth appears to lie in the circumstance that his Royal Highness did not possess capacity sufficient for the complicated and arduous duties of a military commander in the face of an enemy, or if he did possess the requisite capacity, it had been completely stultified in him by his gross addiction to sensual enjoyments, and to a fatal adherance to those vicious propensities, which brought him at last to beggary and disgrace. The Duke possessed in an eminent degree the family virtue of courage; but it is a mistake fatal to many brave men in this instance, that there was a supposed royal road to the military genius, required for leading armies through a successful campaign. The Duke of York was better acquainted with the strategy of the faro table, than he was with that of the field of battle; at the the former, however, with all his skill, he was a decided loser, losing that frequently which was not his own, and at the latter, he was also a deplorable loser, losing that which he never afterwards recovered, that is, if a man can be said ever to lose that, which he never possessed.

Colonel Greville was commissioned to see that the very best masters in the art of war, which the Prussian service could produce, were to be selected as the instructors of the future Alexander of the British empire; but unfortunately for the royal pupil, the colonel in his selection of the ablest tactitians, forgot to take into his account, that some degree of respectability of character was required in the instructions of a royal youth, not the most eminent in the world for a strict adherence to the maxims of morality; nor did the too easy Colonel Greville ever take into his consideration, that an individual may be an excellent tactitian, and yet a very bad man. And unfortunately for the royal duke, the two characters were very intimately

blended in two of the individuals to whom the instruction of the royal duke was entrusted. One of them was one of the most expert engineers in the Prussian service, and no one was better calculated to impart to his royal pupil the entire strategy of a siege; but on the other hand there was not a more skilful adept in the art of undermining female virtue, or taking it by assault, if a good opportunity presented itself. Thus in the day-time he taught his pupil the tactics of war, and at night the tactics of women, and there is very little doubt existing as to which science he exhibited the greatest proficiency.

In the departure of the Duke of York for the continent, for the purpose of being germanized in his manners and habits, the Prince of Wales lost the brother and friend of his youth, and the parting between them was of the most affecting nature. In regard to Prince William, he had been for some time estranged from them, nor at any time, having a different place of residence, did he ever stand with his elder brothers on those intimate terms of reciprocal friendship for which the connexion between the Prince of Wales and the Bishop of Osnaburg was distinguished. A copious stream of tears is said to fallen down the cheeks of the former on taking leave of his brother, and also that Prince William was much affected at the parting scene. A description of such milk-and-water sensibilities may do very well for the pages of a novel, but they are sadly out of place, and out of character also, when they are meant to apply to George Prince of Wales on the occasion of the separation from his brother.

""Tis rare that prince's cheeks are stain'd with tears,

They feel not for the woes of other men ;

But in their own iniquities immersed,

All human griefs become their mockery."

The season of festivity for Prince William was drawing to a close, and as the Prince George was one of the ships destined for the relief of Gibraltar, his return to his ship was an act of immediate necessity. The birthday of his royal mother was celebrated on the 18th of January, by a splendid ball which was given at St. James's, at which Prince William danced al

most the whole of the evening with the Hon. Miss Julia Fortescue, one of the rising beauties of the British Court. The charms of this truly angelic girl made a deep impression upon the heart of the youthful sailor, and it subsequently transpired. that an affection had taken root in her heart for Prince William, which was obliged ultimately to yield to the unnatural and severe provisions of the Marriage Act. The Prince of Wales and Prince William, were at this time, similarly situated in regard to the affections of their heart, the former having placed them on the beautiful Lady Sarah Campbell, and the latter on Miss Fortescue. The affection was returned on both sides, and yet it was well known by all the parties, that they could never be united to each other, by the ties of wedlock. George III. stepped in between them, with his odious and tyrannical Marriage Act. It was the sacrifice of the happiness of his children, to a false aristocratical notion of royal legitimacy, as if royal legitimacy had not entailed a greater misery upon every country, in which it is fastidiously revered, than any other of the political institutions by which the royal dynasty is to be supported. Legitimacy was a very tender subject for George III. to enter upon, and he boasted of the possession of it upon the same principle, that the man boasts the most of his honour, who is conscious to himself that he has a very small portion of that commodity belonging to him. No law could be more pernicious in its effect upon the general morals of society, than that which prevents the sons of a British King from contracting marriage without permission demanded, and which if demanded, is certain of being refused, and especially when it is well known, that such permission never is to be expected for any of those marriages of the heart, those contracts of love, which nature allows, and in which it places the supreme felicity of mankind.

Such a law could only emanate from a Monarch who was utterly deprived of all foresight as to the consequences which might ultimately arise, and although he did not live to see half of the disgrace which has been brought upon almost all the

branches of his family, not even excepting some of the female ones, by his odious enactment, yet he saw enough in the connexions which his two elder sons formed, to give any one but himself, an abhorrence of such an oppressive law.

The occasional aberrations of young men of rank and fortune, before they arrive at that period of life, when they become fit for the marriage state, are comparatively of little importance; they are generally secret, and at all events have little more effect on society, as operating in the way of example, than the play of school-boys, or the tricks of madmen. But Princes without the prospect of ever entering into the marriage state, are driven to do from necessity, and in a permanent manner, what men of rank only do in a casual way. They are forced to continue in their riper years, those practices, which youth only can excuse, except where the law of nature is inverted by the law of man.

The British Princes are condemned to celibacy, that is, they cannot chuse a partner for life amongst that honourable rank of society, in which they would naturally find one possessed of education and virtue. They cannot live like husbands, or if they do, it is one of those forced, ceremonious marriages, in which the heart is never consulted, but merely the prospect of a perpetuation of the family, in two instances. of which, the prospect was rendered abortive, namely the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence. Their children cannot inherit either the property or the respectability enjoyed by their father, and in every respect, the religious and moral law is infringed in their persons. But we have heard it said, this is the price they pay for being Princes. Yes, indeed, and who gave the Government or the nation any right to impose that price? Are they Princes with their own consent? Are they not born like other men, and, therefore, by the Constitution of this free country, have all the rights enjoyed by their fellow subjects? It is as much an infraction of the Constitution of the country, as if it were enacted that the child born to a peasant, was to be a slave. The whole feudal system had nothing