succeeding page with an anecdote still more amiably pathetic: after telling us of the meeting between the Princess and her Royal Mother at Connaught House, he thus proceeds: "Previous to this, but after the Prince Regent had issued his commands that these natural branches should not meet together, another interview had actually taken place, under the appearance of accident. The Princess Charlotte was returning from an airing in Hyde Park in her carriage, and in Piccadilly had nearly passed that of her mother, when both the vehicles stopped as it were by mutual instinct, and the salutations and endearments that took place between the affectionate child and her discarded parent, being witnessed by a number of spectators, was truly affecting." (P. 28.) In reading this wonderful account we cannot but regret that, the fact being notorious and undoubted, no pains were taken at the time to ascertain whether the instinct was in the carriages, or in the horses, and whether an intimacy contracted by the vehicles while under repair at the same coachmakers, or by the horses at some fair, or in some common pasture, might not render the incident somewhat less miraculous; or whether, after all, these cattle might not be of the breed so commended by Gulliver for their sociable and friendly dispositions. The insinuations thrown out in this, and in many other similar publications, of inattention throughout the whole Royal Family to the situation of the Princess, appear to us to deserve the most indignant reprobation: nor can we doubt but that the manly heart of the unhappy husband would feel such imputations, on those to whose liberal and affectionate behaviour he is so much indebted, a considerable aggravation of his sufferings. No one acquainted with the vast importance of keeping the mind in a composed, and even confident and cheerful state, on the approach of childbirth, can doubt the propriety of consulting the feelings and wishes of the patient, as far as might be consistent with due caution and management, or that, in the healthy and satisfactory state of the young Princess, it could be imprudent to permit to her the choice of the place of her delivery, and an exemption from that surrounding scene of bustle and agitation, which it was her anxious wish to be spared. There are necessarily many circumstances accompanying the situation to which we have been alluding, when it happens to one who is about to give birth to the lineal probable successor to the crown of these realms, which may agitate the spirits of a young lady as the untried and awful crisis approaches. The embarrassment of state and ceremony, beyond what decorum, and precedent, and policy, might demand, to a person so situated, and of so natural and feeling a character, would only have tended to produce inquietude, and perhaps alarm: nor was it possible, except for malicious ingenuity, to find any thing to discommend in an arrangement which left the Princess in the undisturbed enjoyment of domestic retirement and conjugal assiduities. That to be thus circumstanced was her own ardent wish, and that this wish was yielded to with the reluctance which the anxiety of relations, and the magnitude of the occasion, would naturally suggest, and after pressing offers of more splendid, and what to some might seem more suitable accommodation, is now sufficiently known; and it is no less known that in the appointment of medical assistance the predilections of the person requiring it, and the skill and ability of the persons to administer it, were objects judiciously and feelingly consulted. Had the result been correspondent to the wishes of the nation, in the moment of exultation the privacy indulged to the Princess, and the liberation allowed her from unnecessary pomp and courtly incumbrance, would not have been without its praise; nor would it have been discovered that the want of an attendance which could only have multiplied suffering, without conducing to safety, was an omission deserving the disrespectful and ungenerous animadversions which this book has picked up from amidst the common rubbish of seditious invective. It requires but little sagacity to see that from those who now mix with their mourning for the Princess censures, equally illiberal and disloyal, upon the members of the illustrious House to which she belonged, the Princess herself, had she lived longer, might have lived to experience a treatment no less base than unmerited; she might have lived to experience the forfeiture of a fugitive affection for the simple offence of becoming our queen; she might have lived to know and to feel that factious or party panegyric imposes upon its objects conditions delusive and degrading, and suffers nothing ingenuous to thrive under its contaminating influence. The Sirocco blasts whatever it breathes upon, and the tropical heat smites with disease and corruption the florid, the fresh, and the fair. To an influence not less injurious to the moral health this fair flower would have been exposed. "With her flatterers " would have been "busy mockers," whose object it would have been, by dividing the Royal House, to prejudice the Royal cause, who would have done their utmost, by insidious praise, and surmises of ill treatment, and calumnies against which exalted personages have no remedy but in death, or contempt, or conscious innocence, to destroy the common bonds of family union, and to make the successor to the throne, before the throne should become hers, the unsuspecting instrument of its degradation. This is the use which no small number of her hypocritical eulogists would have endeavoured to make of our young Princess had she lived a little longer; this is the use which was endeavoured to be made of her Royal Father while his own virtuous Father was yet the father of his people; and the probability is, that the most prostitute of her flatterers would have become her most malicious defamers as soon as the active career of her duty was begun. From every topic of public joy or sorrow it is the unholy purpose of some among us to extract discontent: victories under their cold and transforming touch wither into misfortunes; misfortunes furnish sources either of malevolent insinuation or vindictive delight. No food comes amiss to the Jacobin patriot; every thing supports the growth of the animal, and nourishes his noxious strength, whether it is found by the side of the laurel or the cypress, whether he crops the narcissus or the nightshade, all is assimilitated by his digestive organs into the same system of vivacious enmity. So subtle are his disguises that his presence is not always discernible. Under the semblance of sorrow and sensibility he fabricates his mischiefs; and the best feelings of the public are made the engines of his secret power, or the vehicle of his destructive poisons. But in general we are persuaded that the grief of the public has been founded on feelings of a character and principle very estimable and sound; and that the mode in which it has been manifested to the eyes of the world at large has raised very high the moral credit of the country. Our loss, indeed, has all the character of a personal misfortune. Something emphatically British distinguished the deportment of this amiable personage. Every man and woman of the land has lost a relation: the tie was a domestic one. She loved the country of her ancestors, and refused the marriage which would have made her half a foreigner. There was something in the style of her sentiments and habits that partook strongly of a period anterior to the new principles which had their origin in the revolutionary epoch of France. The old and faded English mind, with its indigenous properties and national enthusiasm, seemed to be restored in her to its original freshness and primitive lustre. Local affections, home delights, unstudied care, decorous familiarity, hospitable intercourse with neighbours, and charity that came in contact with its object, however humble, or old, or poor, were the pledges of her future greatness, the earnest of a magnanimous reign and beneficent sway, secure in its natural titles to the homage of gratitude, and of the free subjection of the heart. Something so warm and womanly, something so natively noble, so much soul, so much reality, so much natural relish, and such heartiness of sentiment, have rarely been coupled with so many artificial accomplishments, or survived a culture so studious and elaborate. Her part, indeed, was difficult to sustain with all eyes upon her conduct: from this fiery ordeal, nevertheless, she came out blameless, not by management, or artifice, or study, but a conduct above display, and even superior to her great station,-by making the Bible her monitor, and living in the cheerful discharge of the duties of an elevated christian. The crown of all this felicity was her husband's love; a foreigner, but more like an English gentleman than English gentlemen themselves; a mild, virtuous, and intelligent Prince; fully sensible of the friendship and distinction with which this country has received him, and giving back a full equivalent; aye, and how much more! by the noble pattern he has displayed before the eyes of the nation, of a rational, domestic, and useful life. Such was the happiness which this Princess had procured for herself by her own free and well-directed choice, and such the hopes of the nation dependant upon the continuance of this happy union. Such has been the personal loss: and in this personal loss the nation participates with the highly respectable husband, and the illustrious family of the deceased. The nation loved her for her own sake. But greater still has been the moral loss. Would China open to us all the benefits of her commerce, would the southern America give us the exclusive possession of her mines, were all the powerful states of the universe to meet in congress, and settle upon us in mortmain the entire dominion of the ocean, or to agree to liquidate for us as much of our national debt as we might deem expedient, either, or any, or all of these events, would be little in comparison of the happiness of having the throne filled by a sovereign of moral and religious habits, ruling in the fear of God, and training up children to uphold the succession, and to become the bright and christian ornaments of the empire, the pledges of perpetuity and internal peace. The source of all substantial security in this country, the vital spring of government itself, is the moral principle which pervades the public, and determines the preponderancy of feeling and opinion as to laws, and measures, and men; and the primary paramount source of this moral principle is to be found in the Prince upon the throne, and his Family. He is the fountain of morality as much as he is the fountain of honour; and in a qualified sense the maker of good as well as of great men. The law by a metaphor supposes him to put new and noble blood into the veins; and in this moral sense and spirit of the phrase he may be said to put new life into the hearts of his people. The whole system rests upon a moral fulcrum. Every man in the country now holds an opinion of some sort or other, and is ready to act upon it as opportunity occurs. It is the natural effect of all the numerous institutions now actively on foot throughout the land, to stimulate into exercise and efficiency these reasoning, intermeddling, and deciding habits of the people. There is no undoing, no unravelling all this. It is become a part of the order of things holding as determined a course as any of the physical appointments by which the natural destinies of the world are evolved. The thing has been set a-going, and even if it could be proved to be subversive in its tendencies, still no constitutional efforts of man can arrest its progression. The truth, however, is simply this-that all this fermentation of mind is only dangerous if neglected. If princes, and rulers, and honourable and rich men, will but consider that while they promote universal instruction they are setting up critics upon their own conduct, and giving an irresistible moral momentum to the multitude; if they will but consider that they virtually undertake to live according to that standard whose authority the institutions which they patronise profess to inculcate; if they will but determine upon affording room for Christian worship to those on whom they bestow so much Christian education; if they will act like sincere men, by adopting what they recommend, and illustrating by example what they enforce by precept; there is no danger in all this stir given to the public mind. All then will be proportioned, natural, and beneficial. But it is awful to think of the' consequences, if all this change in society is treated as bringing with it no new duties or relations. All must be new, or it will be like putting "new wine into old bottles." No new theories, but a new practice is requisite. And that the mental effervescence of the people may not find its vent, and vent it will have, in sedition or infidelity, or revolutionary madness, all men of light and leading that love their country or themselves, are called upon to live soberly, and circumspectly, and consistently. If this be a just view of things, as we think will hardly be denied, it is scarcely possible to rate too highly the importance of the religious and moral character of our rulers. It is every thing. Neither monarchy nor magistracy can afford to be for one day without it. There is no repose upon the couch of preferment, no dignity in the staff of office, no terror in the sword of Justice, no sanctity in the crosier, and no majesty in the diadem, unless opinion, moral and religious opinion, administer to them respectively its unseen and gratuitous support. Without this alliance, "The strong statutes Stand, like the forfeits in a barber's shop, Recent occurrences in our Courts of Justice may serve to convince us how dangerous it is for men of rank and station to tamper with those great truths and solemn sanctions on which the |