HER IMPRUDENT CONDUCT. a few days terminated the cohabitation of this ill-assorted pair. The bride objected to have the husband's mistress placed about her person. This was resented; and it was only by the interposition of the king, that the insolent harlot was removed from a position so offensive to decency, as well as to the feelings of the wife. 149 Ch. 35. 1795 the Prince and No sooner had Caroline recovered from child- Separation of birth, than a formal separation took place. From Princess. that time until the sad close of her eventful career, the conduct of the neglected wife was watched with malignant vigilance; and every tangible imprudence which she committed was distorted by treachery, and moulded into shape by the pliant arts of sycophants and lawyers. Deprived of her natural protector-a stranger in the land-unfixed in principle, deficient in judgment, delicacy, and tact-the poor princess afforded ample opportunity to the unscrupulous emissaries of her lord. What began in folly ended in vice; and though there is not sufficient reason to believe that she had departed from the path of virtue before she came to England, or, even during her residence here, her Princess looked dignified and composed; but the Prince agitated to the greatest degree; he was like a man in despair, half crazy. He held so fast by the Queen's hand, she could not remove it. When the Archbishop called on those to come forward who knew any impediment, his manner of doing it shook the Prince, and made me shudder. The Duke of Gloster assured me the Prince was quite drunk; and that after dinner he went out and drank twelve glasses of Maraschino.'-COUNTESS HARCOURT's Diary, Locker MSS. 150 DEBTS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. Ch. 35. subsequent conduct ultimately justified the most uncharitable opinion of her enemies. 1795 The Prince's A few days after the Prince's marriage, the establishment. Minister brought down a Royal Message relating to the future establishment of His Royal Highness, and communicating the unpleasant information that the state of the Prince's affairs required some special provision with regard to the appropriation of his future income. The fact was, that the Prince's debts were nearly seven hundred thousand pounds, a sum equivalent to an average annual expenditure of one hundred thousand pounds in excess of his income, since the period when Parliament had paid his debts, on the express promise that his expenditure should in future be confined within the limits of his ample revenues. This disclosure coming at a moment when it was more than ever important to exhibit royalty in a dignified and respectable light, was peculiarly unfortunate. Few persons who were acquainted with the audacious falsehoods by which His Royal Highness silenced Rolle and the Country Gentlemen, in 1787, put any confidence in the promises by which, in conjunction with the falsehoods, he then obtained the means of relief from his immediate exigencies; but few persons beyond those who were honoured with his confidence, be d His annual income being £73,000 including the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall. APPLICATION TO PARLIAMENT. lieved it possible, that, upon the payment of his debts by the nation, he would immediately begin to spend nearly three times the amount of his income. Yet such was the tale which, with a manifest sense of shame and vexation, the First Minister had to tell the House of Commons. Never before, indeed, had the Crown applied to the House to make provision for the royal family, in such terms as those which George the Third was made to employ on this humiliating occasion. He announced, with 'the deepest regret,' and without a phrase of extenuation, the necessity of making arrangements to relieve the Prince from incumbrances to a large amount. He admitted that he could not expect any grant of public money for such a purpose, and that the only mode in which relief could be granted, would be by the appropriation of such part of the Prince's future income as Parliament might think fit for the liquidation of his debts, and by the imposition of such securities as would guard against the possibility of the Prince being again involved in so painful and embarrassing a situation. 151 Ch. 35 1795 The House listened to this extraordinary com- Reception of the Royal munication with the respectful silence with which a message. royal message is received; but after it had been read from the Chair, a murmur of surprise and indignation arose from all sides; and when Pitt made the usual motion, that the message should be referred to a Committee of the whole House, a country gentleman started up and moved that the 152 PUBLIC INDIGNATION Ch. 35. king's message of the 21st May, 1787, relating to 1795 the debts of the Prince of Wales should be read by the clerk. This being done, as a matter of course, the same member moved for a call of the House on the day when the subject was to be considered. Pitt resisted this as unusual and unnecessary; but the temper of the House was such that he found it necessary to give way. He even tried, against his nature, to assume a conciliatory tone; but the House would not be conciliated; and the excitement was such as had hardly been equalled by any of the debates on the French Revolution, or the War. The general feeling of indignation first found an utterance from the lips of Grey, the most rising, and the most respected member of the party of which the Prince had been long the reputed head. But Grey had ceased to be numbered among the Prince's friends, since that day when he had declined to serve his Royal Highness by treachery and prevarication. He now stood forth to denounce the selfishness and meanness which sought to add to the burdens of the people at a time when every class was suffering, and the poor were reduced to the extremity of privation. He exposed the flimsy pretext under which it was intended to obtain a vote of money for the payment of the Prince's debts, and desired to know, in plain truth, what burdens they were called upon to bear for his Royal High See Vol. iii. p. 325. AT THE PRINCE'S CONDUCT. 153 ness. Several members followed, and demanded Ch. 35. an enquiry into the circumstances which had led to a breach of the solemn promise, of 1787, when the Prince's debts had been paid. None of the Prince's friends said a word in his defence. Fox and Sheridan, not certainly rigid moralists, and neither of them wanting in courage or generosity, maintained a significant silence. Pitt, who had not, perhaps, been either unprepared or unwilling to hear some severe remarks on the Prince's conduct, became alarmed at the course which the debate was taking. Without attempting to palliate what had been done, he deprecated in the most earnest manner the investigation which was proposed. He implored the House to recollect, before it gave way to heat and resentment, that in the issue of the discussion was involved the credit of the hereditary monarchy, and, consequently, the safety of the country. He proposed that day fortnight for the consideration of the subject in the Committee of Supply, and it was ordered that the House should be called over on that day. 1795 to relieve the The plan which Pitt ultimately proposed for the Pitt's proposal relief of the Prince's embarrassments was a tacit Prince. admission that no confidence whatever was to be placed either in his Royal Highness's promises, or the stability of any good resolutions he might form. The Prince's income was to be increased to one hundred and twenty-five thousand a year. The revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall were to |