parasite, that can alter the nature of things; give a partial operation to a general law, or exempt a Prince from the duties of a Christian. The commands of God are no less universal in their application, than impera. tive in their nature; they bind the Prince as strongly as the peasant; nay, they exact more from those to whom more is given; and the greater advan tages which a man enjoys upon earth, whether of rank, of consequence, of wealth, or of talents, the greater his responsibility, and the greater will be the account which he must render to his God. The friend, then, who seeks to call the attention of a Prince to subjects which affect him so nearly, as his present welfare and his future happiness; who endeavours to make him sensible of the opinion, whether false or true, which the world entertains of him; and to point out to him the consequent danger which he runs, either from misconduct on his part, or from misapprehension in others, must, by every sober, rational, reflecting being, be consi dered as the best of friends. Truly, then, does the writer of this Letter observe, on the fame of Princes, that "it is not only necessary that they, in fact, be blameless, but that their conduct be such as to prevent even the suspicion of crime." They should, indeed, be like Cæsar's wife, not only guiltless, but unsuspected. If it be true, as here asserted, that "Mrs. F-tz-t (who is tolerably well acquainted with his disposi tion) has declared that nothing can induce his Royal Highness to think himself unpopular;" they who have cherished this incredulity, who have been the instruments of such gross deception, deserve the curses of the country; and it is high time that his Royal Highness should be undeceived. We, who would shed the last drop of our blood, and spend our last penny, in defence of the throne and of the altar, and who would shew passive obedience to his Royal Highness, were he placed by Providence on the throne, most seriously assure him, that, to judge from the unanimous declarations of every company into which we enter, and from the sentiments of every class of people which we have heard upon the subject, there is not, at this moment, so unpopular a character in his Majesty's dominions, as the illustrious Personage in question. They who surround him, will, we know, tell him another tale; but we tell him, what, alas! he is very little accustomed to hear, and, we fear, still less accustomed to brook-THE TRUTH. The justice of the following admonitory remarks who will dare to deny ? "Your follies might once be considered the follies of youth, your errors, the errors of inexperience; but those times are past, and your sportive bark is no longer hurried along the stream of dissipation, with"Youth at the helm, and pleasure at the prow.'

"You are arrived at an age when reflection should precede decision ; and by your actions will now be scanned the merits of your head and heart. Suffer not, then, your conduct to be influenced by the arts of needy dependants, and interested parasites; tear from your eyes the bandage of Hattery behold, in its true light, your present perilous situation, and by your future conduct endeavour to obtain that popularity which is indis. pensable to the Heir Apparent of the British Empire."

He then proceeds to notice the late extraordinary transaction which has excited so much public interest: and, as he says, so much public indignation; and some circumstances, relating to its origin and its progress, are detailed, of a nature too curious to be omitted here.

"The origin of the odious insinuations that gave rise to the late DE

Ff3

LICATE

LICATE Inquiry (as it has been most inaptly denominated), is reported to have been a letter, signed by a gallant Baronet and his Lady, in which the virtue of your august wife was most scandalously traduced. That such a letter was written, no one has ventured to deny; but that any per sons should have had the effrontery to place their signatures thereto, almost startles credulity; and yet it is equally incredible, that the peace of an irreproachable Princess should be doomed to experience an additional pang, and the purity of the regal succession called in question, upon no other foundation than a vile anonymous libel.

"The public papers have frequently stated, they were authorized to contradict the report of Sir, and Lady, being more intimately concerned than any other persons who had been compelled to give evidence before the Commissioners appointed to investigate the matter, From whom did they receive such authority? From your Royal Highness? I sincerely hope and believe the contrary. From Sir, or his immedi até connexions?—very probably it was: but if I had heard any book universally condemned for its stupidity, should I believe the assertions of the author or his friends, that the language was good, the wit abundant, and the tout ensemble excellent? Unquestionably not; neither will I believe, possessed as I am of particular facts, that Sir and his Lady are quite so immaculate with respect to this affair, as they wish to appear. "It is very true, that Lady in a letter to her friend Lady P-1, strenuously maintains their innocence; but it is also very true that her Ladyship and her husband have, in their unguarded moments, indulged their natural propensity to relate tales of wonder (scarcely less improbable than Mr. M. Lewis's) in a manner which strongly militates against this epistolary defence.

--

"Will she deny having in the presence of many persons, most signif cantly exclaimed,If the foolish woman (meaning your Royal Highness's w-fe) had retired to Germany two or three years back, when she was wished to do so, all this affair would have been hushed for ever!'

"Has she not, to all her acquaintance, uniformly declared her unnatu ral opinion, that the hateful charges in question must be substantiated ?-And does Sir forget the conversation he had with Major T-p—m at Mr. W-h P-rt-r's table? Whether he do or not, little signifies; but it is of the utmost consequence that your Royal Highness, and the world in general, be apprized of its substance, that you may appreciate, as it deserves, his veracity on other occasions.

"He declared, as I am credibly informed, that dining some time ago in company with an august personage (whom he has most impudently named) she arose from her chair the instant the cloth was removed, and tapping Captain My on the shoulder, retired with him into the garden. This circumstance exciting his suspicions, this gallant warrior, who undaunted braved the fearful odds of Buonaparte's legions, assumed fas himself affirmed) the degrading office of a domestic spy: and having followed them to a-summer-house, applied his eye to the key-hole of the door, and thereby discovered what I shall not insult your

Royal Highness by repeating. A man who could speak this palpable, this diabolical falsehood, must either be devoid of reason, or destitute of common honesty. Charity induces us to imagine the former was the case; indeed, an hereditary infirmity strengthens the supposition.

"But

"But if Sir be always either mad, or what is nearly the same thing, insanely drunk, it cannot be contended that either of these disorders afflicts her Ladyship; why then did she thus ardently anticipate the de struction of a Princess, with whose friendship she was once particularly honoured, whose moral excellence she once enthusiastically praised?

"Some attribute this revolution of sentiment, or what may be more proper ly styled, this annihilation of virtuous impulse, to pique, arising from a discontinuance of those marked attentions she once enjoyed; whilst others boldly assert, that a proffered bribe, from a Lady, with whom you, Sir, are too intimately connected, was the irresistible temptation. Annuities of one thousand pounds, it has been said, were to reward Sir- and Lady, provided they substantiated their abominable charges.

"If the Lady alluded to did tamper with the parties in this, or any other manner, with a view of ruining the amiable Personage, whom I know she still regards with jealousy, how depraved must be her heart ! how execrable her disposition! But, when I contemplate the whole of her preceding behaviour, even the idea of this atrocious conduct can scarcely render her more despicable in my eyes than she was before. She has artfully robbed her once successful rival of all domestic joys, and endeavoured to seduce your Royal Highness from the most sacred duties: nor can she plead the all-conquering power of Cupid in extenuation of her crimes; for

"At her age the hey-day of the blood is tame.'

! Inordinate ambition is all she seeks to gratify: what it may prompt her to attempt heaven on', knows!

"It is a notorious fact, that Mrs. F-tz-t does not, and never did, feel the slighest predilection for your person. Interest, and interest alone, attaches her frigid heart; and yet, for such a woman, you have forsaken an amiable wife, who possesses every charm of personal and mental beauty,"

Nothing betrays more strongly the wretched depravity of the times, and the profligate servility of the great, than the countenance given to this miserable woman. For her, the barriers that separate virtue and vice are to be broken down; for her, all pride of character, all manly sentiment in the one sex, and all honourable principle in the other, are to be sacrificed. And who, and what is she? In what capacity does she stand? In what character is she courted? At whose expence is she maintained? For what services does she receive an annual stipend of five thousand pounds from the public purse? On what plea of repentance, on what promise of reform, does she obtain absolution from her ghostly confessor ? If the press of this country were not as servile and as venal, in some respects, as that of France is in all, this graceless minion of fortune would, fong ere this, have been forced to yield to shame, what she refuses to decency; and to have retired to that privacy, whence she should never have emerged, there to pass the scanty remnant of her days in penitence and prayer. We call upon that popular preacher of the Romish Church, who is entrusted with the care of this Lady's conscience, to deny, if he dare, that the advice which we give her is strictly conformable with the religion which he professes, and the doctrine which he preaches! We will thus publicly ask him also, whether it is compatible with his construction of the decalogue, to limit the application of the Seventh Commandment, to "persons of low degree?" Whether, lastly,

in the courtly catalogue of Rome, on the article of prostitution, the degree of guilt is varied according to the rank of the person who occasions it?-Good heavens! is it in England that these things take place ;-that women of the highest rank, and some of character too, degrade them. selves, and risque the ruin of their daughters, from the contagious inflųence of example, by courting that vice which every religious and moral duty teaches them to abhor and to shun ?-Is it in this country, which has hitherto maintained its proudest pre-eminence, in the purity of her women, and the integrity of her men, that we are doomed to witness a monstrous intercourse between chastity and adultery, virtue and pollution? If we persist in adopting the vices of France, the destiny of France will assuredly be our lot. We now return to our author.

"But to recall your Royal Highness's attention to the subject of this irreverent report, let me inquire: As your name has been generally coupled with Mrs. F-tz-t's on other occasions, can you imagine it has not been so on the present?

"Of the same nature as the last mentioned is the story, universally circulated, respecting Captain M-y, who is stated to have received a letter, offering twenty thousand pounds, upon similar conditions; which, suspecting to be what is fashionably termed a Quiz, he tore in pieces; on reflection, however, he collected the fragments, and was at length convinced the fact was otherwise. A second letter, it is added, was ad. dressed to the same gentleman, repeating the offer, and rebuking him for his inattention to the contents of the former.

"It is shrewdly observed, by those malevole spirits who wish to implicate your Royal Highness in these transactions, that it is very extraordinary your immediate dependants have constantly expressed the most vindictive hopes that the late Inquiry would end to the disadvantage of the accused, and declared their conviction that the accusations were well. founded. Let me seriously advise your Royal Highness to correct this licentious language of your servants, otherwise, may not your enemies maliciously quote the following verse of the Mantuan poet :

"Quid facient domini audent cum talia fures ?' "'

"From many anecdotes of a similar tendency I shall select this one :Mrs. M, who possesses all that enthusiastic admiration of your Royal Highness, which distinguishes the little C-1, has of course been fre. quently interrogated on the subject of the late Delicate Inquiry. On one occasion a lady observed that she thought the situation of the Princess of Wales excited the commiseration of every feeling heart.

"Surely,' exclaimed Mrs. M---, you cannot mean to defend her

cause?'

"All I have to say on the subject,' replied the lady, is that, de. serted as she is in a foreign country, and bereft of every domestic bliss, it is impossible to contemplate her misfortunes without emotions of pity." Pray, my dear Madam,' rejoined Mrs. M-, does the desertion of a wife justify her becoming a libertine ?'

"By no means: but can you believe the lady in question to be guil ty ? answered Mrs.

"Believe it! vociferated Mrs. M, is there not a ch-d; and is there not a letter before the Commissioners, wherein she informs Lady that no person but herself knew she had been in a certain situation?'

"Such

Such authority Mrs. thought conclusive; and there, for that day, the conversation ended; but, in less than a fortnight afterwards, Mrs. M-repeated her visit, and being asked how the business proceeded, exclaimed, Don't ask me; I know so much that it is dangerous to speak.'

For heaven's sake,' cried Mrs.

for if you do I shall certainly betray them. will probably be the end of this affair.'

tell me no state secrets, All I wish to know is, what

"It will all end very well,' replied Mrs. M, with a degree of non chalance almost incredible.

Did not you tell me of a ch-d and a letter? How then can it end very well? was the natural question of Mrs. ——

"Oh! answered Mrs. M——, all about the ch-d is satisfacto, rily explained; and the letter, they say, was written to prove the strength of Lady D.'s friendship.'

"Thus did this unfeeling woman absurdly explain the seeming mys. tery, without expressing the smallest regret at having been accessary in injuring the reputation of her future Queen; for such, spite of the machi. nations of Mrs. F-tz-t, and her other foes, she inevitably must be, unless death should will the contrary.

"There is another report concerning a debate said to have taken place at the D― of S's, respecting the time, place, and manner of ostensibly delivering the accusing letter to your Royal Highness, which the respect I bear your rank will not allow me to repeat."

If these facts be true, which we are most unwilling to believe, but, which, if not controverted by authority, we must be compelled to believe, they open to us a scene of unparalleled baseness and infamy; a horrible conspiracy against the life and character of an illustrious personage, destined to be our future queen! And is such a charge to pass sub silentio; can the nation be satisfied with a secret investigation of a subject fraught with so many important consequences? Who knows to what civil commotions, what bloodshed, what anarchy, we may be hereafter exposed by the cautious, and we must add, most suspicious, silence, now observed. Are the facts then such as will not bear the light 2 The virtuous object of the charge is universally admitted to be pure and spotless the secrecy, then, does not arise from any delicacy to her. Nay, it is known, that she wishes, that she implores, that the whole business may be rendered public. Thus the Lords of the Privy Council, to whom the investigation is said to have been referred, are bound either to publish the facts, or to declare the motives of their silence. Again, let us ask, as indeed the author himself asks, why are not those persons who have preferred a faise accusation of high treason against our future Queen brought to justice? Is a miserable tinman to be prosecuted, and imprisoned, for an attempt to poliute the virgin purity of Mr. Addington, and are the libellers of a Princess, to be screened from punishment? Forbid it decency, forbid it law, forbid it justice!The author most justly obseryes, that we have. been enabled to maintain the arduous struggle in which we have been engaged, by the public and private virtues of our beloved Sovereign; and he truly tells the Heir Apparent, that the defenders of our rights can only be inspired by their admiration of his civil and moral conduct. He then concludes, in the following energetic and impressive terms.

"Oh!