60

Bourbon Procession. ·

splendour, stately movement, and countless multitude, gave a coup d'œil of unrivalled richness, interest, and variety. A troop of gentlemen on horseback, with white cockades (which were on this occasion universally adopted) led the way; the state carriages followed: the King of France was accompanied by the Dutchess of Angoulême, and the Prince Regent, drawn by eight cream-coloured horses, escorted by detachments of the Life Guards; a strong body of the Light Dragoons, and the City of London Volunteer Horse brought up the rear: the ceremonial proceeded slowly on, being respectfully impeded by the eagerness of a well-ordered exulting multitude.

This heart-inspiring sight our amiable Princess enjoyed from the Pulteney Hotel; to which mansion she had been invited, as also her Majesty, the Princesses Elizabeth and Mary, with Sophia of Gloucester, &c. by the Grand Dutchess of Oldenburgh, whose residence it then was. As the procession moved past the house, her Royal Highness came forward to the balcony, mingling in the general acclamations, and shewing herself but as one amongst a mighty people. At this period, indeed, her Royal Highness mixed openly with the Public, without form or ceremony, often visiting and visited by the Grand Dutchess, with whom she was upon terms of the greatest intimacy. In the mean time the Allied Sovereigns arrived, and most

Drawing-room Fracas.

61

important considerations came on the tapis; and it will be remembered, that in a letter written on the 26th of May, 1814, by the Princess of Wales to the Prince Regent, (E) she stated, that the Prince of Orange had already announced himself to her as a future son in-law. This letter was written in consequence of the renewal of the unhappy family differences, which had long been a source of great unhappiness to the youthful Princess; a renewal which seems to have arisen from the declared intention of the Princess of Wales to appear at Court on the arrival of the Allied Sovereigns, and their long train of attendant Princes. The intention was checked in the first instance by a note from the Queen, containing, not an interdiction, but a notification of the intention of the Prince Regent to absent himself from the Drawing-room if the Princess should be there; an intention confirmed by the Prince's declaration, that he would never consent to meet her Royal Highness either in public or in private. We need not remind our readers, that this determination was persevered in; but we may be permitted to record, that the Drawing-room did take place on the 2d of June, when the Princess Charlotte, amidst a blaze of royalty and splendour, made her first public appearance on what may be called the Great Congress of Europe! and the most splendid day witnessed in Britain. The Prince of Orange was this day at Court, along with the

62

Rupture with the Prince of Orange.

Continental Sovereigns, and his Royal Highness seemed to have taken that opportunity publicly to announce his devotion to the Heiress of Britain; as he handed her formally to her carriage, and afterwards dined with the Royal Family at Carlton House, upon the most familiar and friendly footing.

Every thing now tended to convince the nation, that the proposed union was likely to take place, though private rumour of a disinclination on the part of the Princess abated, in some measure, the astonishment which burst forth on the announcement of its sudden rupture early in June. It had been whispered that party had been at work to defeat the object in view, merely from a wish to annoy the Prince Regent, and traverse the political plans of the Cabinet; other reports boldly asserted, that the ambition of a great Continental Power had taken advantage of the friendly intercourse of female society, to excite a dislike to the match in the mind of the Princess herself; but, though both these facts may be correct in part, we believe that another event, shortly to be alluded to, was the principal stimulus to her Royal Highness, after the negociations had proceeded a considerable length, to address a communication to Lord Liverpool, in which she expressed her reluctance to being carried out of the kingdom at a period so critical, when the situation and circumstances of her Royal Mother required all the countenance and consolation of an

Patriotic Objections.

63

only child. In this letter she also stated, with great propriety, that she had not yet experienced, to any competent extent, opportunities or means of seeing her own country, or of forming a just constitutional knowledge of that nation whose high destinies she might be called on, at some future day, to superintend and direct.

Y

With a candour and consideration the most praise-worthy, her Royal Highness next addressed a letter to her youthful lover, in which she went so far as to assure him, that no personal objections to the union had produced the determination now announced to him. We shall not here enter into the discussion how far the advice of the Princess of Wales may have influenced the Princess Charlotte upon this occasion: but it appears, from a letter addressed by her Royal Highness to the Prince Regent, (F) a few weeks after these events, that the match was broke off entirely at the instance of the youthful Princess herself. She added that, aware that the match was ardently desired by the nation, she wished neither to impede their happiness, nor that of her daughter, and therefore she became solicitous to undertake a long projected continental tour, being quite unhappy at seeing a child rendered, on all occasions, a source of dispute between her parents.

We gladly drop, however, this unpleasant part of our narrative, to return to the matter in

64

Public Disappointment.

question. In recording the disappointment of the long cherished wishes of our venerable Monarch, we cannot refrain from admiring that steadiness of mind in the youthful Princess which enabled her to judge for herself; though it must be confessed, that in the minds of many it was a very serious source of political regret; for after the establishment of the kingdom of the Netherlands, the Prince of Orange had now come over to England in the character of her suitor,, in a situation very different from that in which he had before presented himself—as an independent Prince—as the heir to a Crown-no longer suing as a pensioner upon the English nation; but as a Prince of equal rank and independent dignity; yet he was steadily refused, and a decided negative given to his long cherished hopes.

Indeed in this case, as in all others, decision and frankness seem to have been the leading features in the character of her Royal Highness: she never hesitated to avow her sentiments, and was always above that disingenuousness which prompts to concealment. One great source of her independence of mind was, the conviction of truth and rectitude upon which she formed her principles-what she thought right, she was not afraid to confess and maintain; and in the case in question, where weaker minds would have yielded to persuasions founded on political suggestions, she had the good sense to support her refusal upon Constitutional grounds, objecting