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THE

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. 337.]

MARCH 1, 1820.

[2 of Vol. 49.

In answer to numerous solicitations of old Friends and Subscribers, who, from various causes, have incomplete sets of this Miscellany, the Proprietor proposes, till THE FIRST OF MAY NEXT, to sell any of the back Numbers, the last volume excepted, at ONE SHILLING and THREE-PENCE per Number, instead of the regular price of Two Shillings; and, at this rate, they may be had of all Booksellers throughout the British Islands, on giving orders specifying the Number, or the month and year wanted. Entire sets of Forty-eight Volumes, from their length as well as from the originality and importance of their contents, are now becoming scarce; and, as is well known, are every year increasing in curiosity and value.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

The late King.

In addition to various anecdotes, partly original and partly selected, which we have inserted at page 133 of the present Number, many of which merit the attention of our readers, we have procured a copy of a pamphlet, written by a Lady of rank, never published, and perhaps never circulated in any manner, which describes all the circumstances, personal and political, attending the King's first illness in 1788. These details are too curious, and also too creditable to many of the parties, particularly to our present illustrious Sovereign and the Heir-presumptive, to be lost; and we therefore hasten to lay them before the readers of the Monthly Magazine, where they will add to the genuine materials for History of which we have often been the fortunate medium." It has been thought worth while to insert the entire pamphlet, excepting only certain passages which describe in a common-place manner the public proceedings of Parliament. At the time it was printed, in 1804, a copy was put into the hands of the proprietor of this Miscel lany, with an intention that he should publish it; but, from sentiments of delicacy to the High Personage who was its subject, and to other parties implicated, he not only forbore to become a party in its appearance, but earnestly advised the Baronet who was its proprietor not to publish it. What became of the edition is not known to him; but, as the chief personages are now dead, as well as the gentleman in question, and also the authoress of the journal, the same motives do not operate to prevent its being given to the world. The extraordinary interest of the article will, we trust, serve as our apology for allowing it to trespass on the variety which usually characterizes our pages. MOST IMPORTANT PARTICULARS of the ROYAL INDISPOSITION in 1788-1789; and of its EFFECTS upon ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES and OPPOSITE PARTIES interested in it.

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N Monday, the 3d of November, 1788, the King's disorder excited great alarm, and two other physicians were summoned to Windsor to the assistance of Sir George Baker, who, till then, had attended alone. On Tuesday, the bad symptoms gathered strength; on Wednesday and Thursday apprehensions increased; and on Friday his Majesty was thought in imminent danger. On Saturday, Dr. Warren, at the instance of the Prince of Wales, saw the royal patient for the first time. This gentleman, either possessed of more acute discernment, or acting under less constraint than his brethren, hesitated not to communicate to the Queen that the disorder under which the King labourMONTHLY MAG. NO. 337.

ed was an absolute mania, distinct from, and wholly unconnected with, fever.

On Sunday his Majesty was thought to be actually expiring. After long and violent efforts, nature seemed exhausted, and he remained two hours senseless and motionless, with a pulsation hardly perceptible. Recovering by degrees from this torpor, he became capable of taking some refreshment.

The distress of the Queen and the Princesses was beyond description. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were deeply affected. The former wept abundantly, when the true nature of the malady was communicated to him. Both the Princes remained at Windsor, and were unremitting in their endeavours to support the Queen and to console the Princesses.

November 12th. The account sent to St. James's, that the King had slept from six to nine o'clock the preceding night, Q

but

but that there was no abatement of his complaint, afforded no consolation to those who were interested for his essential welfare. Orders were sent to the Secretary of State's office, that it should be notified to foreign courts, that no apprehensions were entertained of immediate danger of the King's life.

13th. At the usual hour, half-past eleven, advice was received at St. James's, that the King remained as before. Two hours after, a letter was received by the lord-in-waiting, which brought intelligence that the King had shown tokens of recollection, which suggested some hopes, although his Majesty immediately relapsed into his former incoherence.

A palsy upon the brain was said to be the cause of a deplorable malady, which no medical skill could reach; and an opinion universally prevailed, that it would be necessary immediately to form a Regency. Opposition asserted, that the Prince's majority entitled him to undivided power; but Mr. Pitt's partisans reprobated the idea, and strenuously maintained the Queen's superior pretensions.

14th. Circular letters were sent to members of Parliament, stating, that the present unhappy situation of the King making it improbable that his Majesty's commands could be received for the further prorogation of Parliament, it must meet on the 20th instant, when attendance was earnestly solicited.

15th. It had been hoped that lucid intervals and better prospects might have enabled the King to prorogue Parliament, and would have justified the measure. Early in the morning of this day, the Chancellor, actuated by this hope, went to Windsor; but the sad situation in which he found the King, suggested only the necessity of hastening the distribution of notices, which had been delayed to the latest moment.

Sunday, the 16th, expectation was kept upon the rack at St. James's till half-past two o'clock. Bad presages drawn from the delay were confirmed by the event. "Notwithstanding six hours' sleep, the King is not better today," was the affecting report. It appeared that the messenger had been detained beyond the usual hour, in the hope that some favourable symptom might authorise a different one.

Opposition now forcibly felt the misfortune of Mr. Fox's absence. His powerful and extensive talents qualify ing him alike to guide in council and

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to lead in debate, his return was anxiously desired. Increasing bad symptoms in his Majesty augmented their impatience for accounts from the messenger who had, upon the first idea of his danger, been dispatched to the continent in quest of Mr. Fox. His acknowledged honour, as well as his transcendant abilities, made every member of the party solici tous that he should have frequent access to, and obtain the confidence of, the Prince; to whom they now looked up as to the source of power and honours.

Those who enjoyed the sweets of subsisting arrangements, and trembled at the thoughts of change, were inclined sanguinely to hope what they anxiously wished. They firmly believed that the derangement of the King's intellects would be but temporary, and that repose and method would not fail to effect his restoration. But, amongst those over whose hopes and fears interest had no sway, few were found who did not draw the most afflicting conclusions, from all the circumstances they were acquainted with. That the approach of the terrible malady had been gradual and regular, that sound sleep, good appetite, and total absence of fever, had produced no diminution of it, appeared to them a formidable basis for the worst apprehensions.

The number of those who watched over his Majesty was now increased. A rash attempt created the necessity. With the extraordinary cunning that is often found to accompany intellectual maladies, his Majesty one night, feigning to sleep, even to snore, threw the apothecary, who alone watched by him, off his guard, and hastened to a window of his apartment with a precipitancy which, while it bespoke the worst of purposes, happily prevented its perpetration, by the alarm it spread.

The Queen and the royal children now no longer saw his Majesty. Interviews which produced no effect upon him, but which exquisitely tortured their feelings, were judged best discontinued.

It was hoped that the frequent interviews which the Prince was said to have with Mr. Pitt at Windsor, might soften the dislike his Royal Highness made no secret of entertaining for that minister. The influence of the Queen, who was known to esteem him, seconding the flame of mind which the calamitous situation of his royal father was likely to produce, might, it was hoped, lessen the acrimony of the Prince's feelings towards Mr. Pitt and some of his adhe

rents.

rents. It was also hoped by the candid and moderate, that a calamity like the present might have had the effect of reconciling parties; and that, attention to the public good, absorbing selfish considerations, might have produced union, and prevented contention, that must aggravate the material difficulties which embarrass government. But these, little susceptible themselves of the impulses of avarice and ambition, were incompetent judges of their influence upon minds in which they had long predominated. It was however some satisfaction to persons of this description to know, that the Prince had sent for the Chancellor (Thurlow), and receiving him with the marks of the highest consideration, had said to him, "I have desired your lordship's attendance, not only as my father's friend, but as my own friend, and I beseech you, my lord, to give me your counsel on this unhappy occasion. I have the utmost confidence in your judgment, and shall have the utmost satisfaction in acting by it"

The habitual piety observable in the King's life did not forsake him in his calamitous situation. On Sunday the 16th, his Majesty desired to have prayers read; and, on Mr. M's approach, seeing him confused, embarrassed perhaps from emotions of sensibility, he rose from his seat, and presenting a Book of Prayer, pointed to several which he had marked, and desired these might be read. His Majesty accompanied the chaplain with much recollection; but, soon after, his wanderings returned, and great disturbance of mind ensued. In the middle of the night, his Majesty rose suddenly from his bed, and rushed into the anti-chamber. The equerry-inwaiting there earnestly besought him to return; which the King absolutely refused to do, saying, "What right have you to command me? I know who you are. You are my servant." Colonel Gwynne, with a happy presence of mind, replied, "Sir, it is not so now. I am now your master; and you must and shall return." The King replied not; but turning away, shed tears, and complied.

In the King's calmer moments, his principal occupation was writing; and the subject, generally, dispatches to foreign courts. These, founded upon imaginary causes, were said to be written with great consistency and uncommon eloquence. At some periods, all gra

cious, condescending, and munificent, his Majesty lavished honours upon all who opposed him; elevating to the highest dignities, pages, gentlemen of the bed-chamber, or any occasional attendant.

To these gentler workings of a disordered mind often succeeded sad transports of vehemence and agitation, which were expressed in tones so ungoverned, as sometimes to reach beyond the walls of the royal apartment. Exhausted nature would thien feel a pause; during which, it was not uncommon for his Majesty to express a consciousness of his unhappy state, and a despair of ever being relieved from it.

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The sleep which succeeded these various agitations of mind and person, was often sound and long; but never did the monarch awake from them in a composed state of mind. The refreshment of the body seemed only to add strength to the mental malady. From this circumstance, the most melancholy inferences were drawn; and, in confirmation of them, it was said, that a brother of the -'s mother had terminated his existence under a total privation of the first of blessings. Music, which had formerly been found peculiarly soothing to the royal mind, now served only to excite impatience. In the last fortnight, his Majesty had resisted all solicitations to be shaved. His malady, and his exertions, had so emaciated him, that it' was judged expedient to remove every mirror, lest the reflection of his own figure should affect him too sensibly.

The accounts transmitted to St. James's on the 21st, 22d, and 23d, varied little. Quiet, or disturbed sleep, made the only difference; and the continuance of fever was always announced. The account of the 24th said, his Majesty had had a restless night, and was not better.

Nov. 27th. An observable change appeared in the physicians' note of this. day:-" His Majesty has had sufficient sleep, but does not appear to be relieved by it." This seemed a prelude to a public avowal of the deplorable malady; and inspired a belief, that those who were most unwilling to admit the improbability of recovery, had now a melancholy conviction forced upon them of the permanency of the disorder.

In the violent paroxysms of his Majesty's disorder, he continually raved about the Queen; sometimes loading her with reproaches, and uttering threats

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against

against her; at others, desiring her presence, with expressions of passionate regard.

One day, tired of vainly soliciting to see the Queen, his Majesty desired to have her picture. He addressed it with great calmness and recollection in these words:"We have been married twenty-eight years, and never have we been separated a day till now; and now you abandon me in my misfortunes." It being deemed improper to hazard the Queen's having an interview with his Majesty, a lady whom he used particularly to esteem and value, begged to be permitted to see him, in the hope of exciting some salutary feeling in the royal mind.. The event did not answer the benevolent intention; but too well confirmed the expediency of the Queen's remaining at a distance.

Another day, his Majesty desired to have 4007. from his privy purse. He divided it into different sums, wrapping them up in separate papers, upon which he wrote the names of persons to whom he had been accustomed to make monthly payments, with perfect accuracy and precision. His Majesty then wrote down the different sums, with the names annexed, cast up the whole, as he formerly used to do, and ordered the money to be paid immediately, it being then due.

After this instance of perfect recollection, his Majesty began to deplore the unhappy situation of London; which, he said, had been under water a fortnight. His attendants, who never directly contradicted any assertion, assured his Majesty that they had received no account of such an event, though they had daily communications with persons from town. His Majesty very calmly replied, that they either sought to deceive him, or were themselves not well informed. He then proceeded to explain, with the same composure, that the water was making gradual advances; and that, in one week more, it would reach the Queen's house. His Majesty expressed great unwillingness that a valuable manuscript, the precise situation of which he described, should suffer; and declared an intention of going, on the ensuing Monday, to rescue it from the approaching evil. This mixture of distraction and reason giving way to absolute alienation, his Majesty express ed his sorrow that Lord T was not present, he having prepared every thing for creating him a duke.

The temper of the King's mind was

at this period free from violence. He did not now exhibit the terrible transports that were frequent during the first fortnight of confinment.

Nov. 27th. The chancellor, Mr. Pitt, Lord Stafford, and the other members of the cabinet council, waited upon the Prince of Wales at Windsor, and proceeded to examine the King's physicians, and also Dr. Addington, who had visited his Majesty three or four times previous to this inquiry. The four attending physicians having declared his Majesty's malady to be of a species that had not been the subject of their researches, this gentleman, at Mr. Pitt's particular desire, had been called in. It was known, that thirty years had elapsed since Dr. Addington had abandoned the practice of that branch of the medical art now required, and it was more than ten years since he had wholly withdrawn from business.

The result of this examination, was a determination to issue summonses to every member in the list of privy counsellors to attend a general meeting on the 3d of December, when a further inquiry respecting medical opinions was intended to be made. It was further resolved, that the King should be removed as soon as possible from Windsor to Kew. The considerable diminution of the inconvenient distance from the capital, and the means of taking exercise without being exposed to observation, were great and solid reasons for the change of situation.

Summonses were also issued to the members of the House of Commons, to meet at the Cock-pit in the evening of the 3d of December; and it was expected that some measures would speedily be adopted for supplying the essential chasm which the King's deplorable malady had occasioned in the state.

Consultations were every day held by Ministry; and a daily assembly of Opposition members took place at Burlington-house. The strength of parliamentary interest was anxiously calcu lated at both. The wish of Opposition was, that the Prince might be sole Regent, and that he might be invested with every kingly power and function; his royal father being by them considered as virtually defunct.

The partisans of Mr. Pitt advanced, that, in the present case, when the disorder probably was but temporary, arrangements ought to be the same as would have taken place, had his Majesty made an excursion for a limited time

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to his foreign dominions. They contended, that, as in that case, he certainly would have given the Queen supreme power, so, in the present situation, it ought to be vested in her.

The Queen, wholly occupied at this time by solicitude for the health and restoration of her august consort, resisted every attempt to engage her in political contests. She positively declared, that the only stipulation she wished to make, was, for permission to watch over his Majesty's safety. The Prince's attention to his royal mother and sisters was unremitting; and reciprocal regard, and mutual confidence, furnished the best consolation to each under the common calamity.

The King expressed great unwilling ness to remove from Windsor. But, on Saturday, the 29th of November, the point was happily accomplished. The Queen wrote a letter to his Majesty, entreating him to go to Kew; and some of his attendants gave an unauthorized assurance, that he would there be allowed to see the Queen. It was not, however, till his Majesty had been shewn the carriages which conveyed the Queen and the Princesses from Windsor, that he consented to leave it. His impatience then became extreme, and his agitation so great, that it was some time doubtful whether the wished removal would be practicable. Something like tranquillity succeeding, his Majesty was placed in the carriage, accompanied in it by General Harcourt, and Colonels Goldsworthy and Gwynne. The motion seemed to compose his mind, and the journey was happily performed.

The sufferings of the Queen and the Princesses, on this trying occasion, cannot be described. Uncertain whether the King would follow, yet, satisfied that their departure was the only possible means of inducing his Majesty to remove, they left Windsor, doubtful whether they were not performing an unavailing journey, and their minds tortured with solicitude for what might occur during a cruel interval. If any thing could add to feelings thus acute, it must have been the profound, respect ful, silent woe, manifested by every individual of an immense crowd assembled to behold the sad procession.

Either disappointment of the expectation his Majesty had entertained of seeing the Queen on his arrival at Kew, or irritation from exercise long discontinued, produced hurtful effects upon the

royal mind, and the succeeding night was passed in a deplorable manner.

December 3d. The examination of the physicians before the privy council, who, on this important occasion, assembled to the extraordinary number of ascertaining the nature of the King's malady, and his incapacity to exercise his royal functions, a regency was deemed necessary to supply the deficiency. The result was communicated to the Prince; who waited upon the Queen to apprise her of it, and to declare his intention to assert those pretensions which his situation and age gave him. His Royal Highness added, that if, as he expected, he should be declared sole regent, he should hope her Majesty would take upon herself the sole and absolute care of the King. Her Majesty at this time entertained no other wish, and unequivocally professed her determination to take no part in politics.

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His Royal Highness then proceeded to the Duke of Portland, and embracing him most cordially, begged that every unpleasant circumstance that had passed between them might be buried in oblivion; assuring his Grace, that he had the highest regard for him, and that he should be happy to receive his assistance, and to depend upon his wisdom, in this moment of calamity."

The genuine urbanity of the Duke's mind rendered this concession ample atonement. His Grace promised to devote himself to the Prince's service; and prepared to combat the difficulties of arrangements with a zeal inspired rather by the testimony of the Prince's confidence, and the desire to serve dependent friends, than by any immediate wish for power to himself. That he had exercised, heretofore, long enough to reach the alloy that lurks under its enchanting surface; and the now opulent state of his fortunes, made emoluments of little account in his scheme of happiness.

December 7th. When the end desired has not been obtained, it is common to condemn the means that have been employed. The King's malady not having abated during the restraints imposed at Windsor, it was judged that the indulgence of a degree of liberty might have produced salutary effects. On his Majesty's removal to Kew,'his range was enlarged; and, instead of several persons watching over him, a single page only remained to receive his commands. Two equerries only waited in the anti-chamber; and the assistance

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