you were expected on Saturday; and I now learn with real sorrow that you are not able to come-not, indeed, that I ever expected the poor boy's recovery, but because, from his gaining strength, I thought he might have gone over the winter, and allowed me to see you in town. My chief desire was to give you any information as to the state of things in France. Bonaparte's popularity, now revived since his banishment to Elba, the contempt of the Bourbons, their bad conduct, the hatred of England, inflamed by our folly in sending Wellington there, the state of parties and of individuals, the love of war and horror of losing Belgium, the Slave-Trade, with various other matters. By letter one can't say anything satisfactory. The best way is by being questioned, and answering.

"If there is no chance of your being here before Xmas, I must send you a very precious communication-namely, full notes of very long and interesting conversations I had with Carnot (by far their greatest and most virtuous man), respecting every curious and important particular of the Revolution - times of terror-Directory-campaigns and Bonaparte-and the present state of things. I have already shown this to Romilly, but now I mean to show it only to yourself, and one, or at most two, others whom I can rely on. I saw the Duke of Orleans also, and Lafayette, with others.

"My clear conviction is, that you ought to make a run over there for a fortnight, to see with your own eyes. If you'll go at Xmas, I am going to bring back my mother, whose illness unhappily obliged me to leave her behind.

"You should go alone, en garçon, and might, by having the proper things and persons pointed out, see as much in a week as another would in a month. It is really important, as a public matter, that you should go and see and hear. That it is agreeable, I venture to assure you. I never spent any time by half so delightfully; my fortnight there passed away like a day. It required no small fortitude to come over here to law; and as for politics, Paris has made me quite indifferent to them, for I found (what I never could before) that I could enjoy life thoroughly without ever thinking of parties.

"You would at once be at home. The Ponsonbys and many others are there, and those who know one another make little coteries, and live together.-Yours sincerely, H. BROUGHAM."

Accordingly, I took an early opportunity of sending to Lord Grey the conversation as I have here given it.

134

CHAPTER XII.

The Prince and Princess of Wales.

THE PRINCE OF WALES AND HIS CIRCLE AT CARLTON HOUSE-THE PRINCESS CAROLINE-HER CIRCLE-THE DELICATE INVESTIGATION-THE QUARREL-CORRESPONDENCE-THE YOUNG PRINCESS CHARLOTTE-LADY CHARLOTTE LINDSAY-THE PRINCE'S SEVERANCE FROM HIS POLITICAL FRIENDS

WHITBREAD

MR BROUGHAM AS ADVISER OF THE PRINCESS OF WALES AND HER DAUGHTER KING GEORGE III. HIS LETTER TO THE PRINCE ON THE SITUATION-LETTER OF REMONSTRANCE BY THE PRINCESS TO THE PRINCE-ACCOUNT OF ITS PREPARATION —DELIBERATIONS-ITS DELIVERY AND RECEPTION-MADAME DE

STAËL.

FOR some years I had refused to be presented to the Princess of Wales because of the open quarrel between her and the Prince, a matter in which I did not wish to be at all mixed up, and which those who frequented her society, and were persons of any consideration, with difficulty avoided. Not that I had the least intercourse with the Prince, having only become acquainted with him by his desire that I should be asked to meet him at Melbourne House, where he treated me with the courtesy that belongs to all the family. He was on intimate terms with some of my particular friends, especially Erskine and the Hollands; and Romilly, who was his Solicitor-General for the Duchy.

I was exceedingly pleased with his society. His conversation was that of a very clever person, and he had considerable powers of mimicry. I recollect his taking off Thurlow, who was then living, and also the Stadtholder, respecting whom his talk was very free; and the stories he told of that prince in reference to his own mother and sisters, the English princesses, did not seem quite fitting before persons whom he saw for the first time. But altogether one should have regarded him as a clever and agreeable member of society had he been a common person, and might even have been struck with him. This was in 1805. Next year the Delicate Investigation took place, to the great discredit of the Whig Ministry, and in which it was very much to be lamented that Romilly's official position compelled him to take a part-the proceeding being an inquiry, behind the Princess's back, whether or not she had been guilty of high treason.* Having an invitation to dine at Carlton House, I ventured to avoid going by leaving home for a day or two, and this made my declining to be presented at Kensington the more natural. It was not till late in 1809 that Dudley and Sir William Drummond, who were constantly there, persuaded me to go as to a house where agreeable society was always assembled. Canning was constantly there, and I had no other opportunity of seeing him, which I the rather wished, as we had had some differences on the Orders in Council at the time when I was counsel for the commercial interests. His friend Charles Ellis (afterwards Lord Seaford) and Granville Leveson (afterwards Lord Granville) also frequented the Princess's society. A friend whom I * See above, p. 74.

greatly esteemed, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, and her sister, Lady Glenbervie, were among her ladies, both, like all the North family, persons equally agreeable and clever; so that without taking any part at all in the controversy, I went there as Rogers, Luttrell, and others did, whom the Princess liked extremely to have about her. Canning I often met there; Perceval and Eldon never; but she always spoke of them with great kindness, only she called Eldon "old Baggs," as all the royal family did, which once caused a droll mistake, when the Regent said, "Send for old Baggs," and the page in waiting summoned Mr Banks, who came in court-dress, and was kept waiting in the antechamber till the mistake was discovered, which, it is said, he did not soon if ever forgive. The conversation at Kensington was quite free from any troublesome restraint of etiquette, but always with the respect, both in form and substance, due to royalty.

The Princess had been ill-used by her husband from the very first, as we shall find by looking back to the beginning of her maltreatment, upon her first arrival in this country, when Lady Jersey was forced into her household, and was in league with the Prince to misconstrue all her words and actions; and, although in her service nominally, to act as the Prince's ally against her. The following letter to him urges, or rather repeats, her complaints on this subject :

"Je suis trop pénétrée des devoirs que m'imposent les relations que j'ai avec vous pour blesser en quoique ce soit votre délicatesse, je ne decide point des raisons pour lesquelles vous croyez devoir ménager Lady Jersey, et je ne souhaite pas du tout de lui nuir dans l'opinion publique, mais j'en appelle à votre