a lie.

a family of ten children, he solicits corroborative evidence of their truth. marriage with a high-born and accom- These letters generally emanate from plished lady (whose name is not to be quarters which preclude our dismissconcealed by the initials), whom he ing the statements they contain as knows that he can no more render his idle fabrications. It is, therefore, only wife than he can render Mrs. Jordan fair to all parties that the character his wife. No sooner is this proposal of any man, living or dead, high or low rejected, than he is described by Mr. in social station, should not be thus Freemantle as repeating it, and sup- carelessly dealt with, and be made deporting the application by three flag- pendant upon the gossip of a courtier. rant falsehoods. He first tells the We hope that his Grace, in another lady, who is supposed to be ignorant edition of this book, will give us some as to the power of the Crown to re- careful annotation on points of impeal an Act of Parliament, that portance such as that of which we he has obtained from the Prince an now speak. They will greatly increase alteration of the Marriage Act, which the merit of his work, and they may he must have well known that the atford scope for the development of Regent had no power to change. the critical abilities of which he shows Secondly, it appears (if this writer is himself to be possessed. to be credited) that he had never seen We now pass to some very cu. the Prince on the subject: and thirdly, rious correspondence, illustrative of the message from the Queen, evidently the internal dissensions subsisting beconveyed with a view of intimating tween the different parties in the the royal favour towards the lady in State. The authorship of these comquestion, was, it appears, a fraud and munications is left in obscurity. They

are addressed to “the Marquess of No sooner, again, is this lady en- Buckingham;" but his Grace stugaged to another, than he precipi. diously conceals the name of the tately transfers his affections to a writer, which leads to a plausible supdaughter or ward of Lord Keith. He position that they must be written by declines to take a refusal ; and a Duke a living politician; and that politician, of the blood royal goes to the house too, one who had access to the politimodern

peer, to " re-open the cal secrets of the day, if not a cabinet question," and possibly to be kicked

minister. out. Then there is the discrediting The Prince, it appears from these eircumstance of Mrs. Jordan telling letters, cordially hated Mr. Percival ; all the inhabitants of Bushy, that and that minister, it seems, held office (somewhat inverting the usual rela- on the precarious tenure of the royal tions of life) the Duke of Clarence has indolence. The Regent, in truth, not kept her, but that she has kept would rather go on with a minister the Duke ; that she is now a beggar whom he mistrusted and despised, for her generosity and folly ; and that than encounter the embarrassments the Duke purposes to pay her a cer- of a change. tain sum sufficient to keep herself and Here is an instance of the cordiality half her children, in lieu of his subsisting between Prince and minissquandering, during twenty years, of ter : all her earnings as an actress! Then

The little scheme I enclosed your lordship finally comes the meddling of the for the proposed double establishment to bo Duke of Cumberland, the inadvertence moved for the next day of the meeting of of Mrs. Jordan in putting the wrong Parliament, was perfectly correct. letters into the wrong envelopes ; and but some restlessness of Percival's upon that the scene ends in an explosion between point induced him to reopen it rery unex. the two Dukes, something between a pectedly by a fresh project, that the grant to comedy, a tragedy, and an extrava- defray the early expenses of the Regency ganza!

should only extend to £100,000 instead of We must say, here, as dispassionate

£150,000, as at first agreed on; which, critics, that we think that the Duke

of a

said :

:

Here, again, is an instance of his correctly states, " for a recompense Royal Highness's jealous keeping of from Government for the losses he the royal prerogative, as against his had experienced in Russia." But his minister :

Grace has repeated the old story, that

the murderer had committed this deed Another curious proof of the light in which in enmity with the minister for the Percival is held by the Prince occurs in the course which he had taken. We beconfidence which passed respecting the lieve it to be beyond question that Bishopric of Oxford. When the latter men.

Bellingham mistook the premier for tioned his intention of giving it away to Willian, Jackson, Mr. Percival immediately

Lord Granville, who had been sent

into the Baltic after the treaty of “On that point, sir, I am positively

Tilsit, and to whose conduct in mat. pledged.”

ters originating from that embassy, " Positively pledged, Mr. Percival ?" said Bellingham's grievances were, in his the Prince; positively pledged to give "

own mind at least, to be ascribed. away one of my bishoprics ! I don't under- The Prime Minister, however, thus stand you.

suddenly lost to his country, Govern.

ment fell into total confusion. The To this the embarrassed minister rising hopes of the Opposition were efreplies :

fectually damped by the extraordinary

animosity which the Prince had be"I mean that it was the King's positive gun to conceive for them. Mr. Thomas and declared intention to give it to Dean Grenville tells us (vol., i., p. 300) Legge.”

that, “ Lord Carysfort quotes Lord ** Mr. Percival," said the Prince, “if I

Grey for saying that the Prince, the had any direct intimation of what were really day before yesterday, in speaking of the King's wishes upon the subject, I would pot only make Dean Legge Bishop of Oxford,

the opposition, said his own friends but Archbishop of Canterbury, if it were in

had behaved to him like scoundrels,

but that Lord Grenville he had no my power ; but as this is not the case, I shall make my own Bishop. And further, I

complaint against.'" desire never to hear what were the King's

The story of the famous Liverpool wishes upon such subjects through a third Administration is soon told. The imperson."

portant question now submitted to the

ministers was, whether, on their agreeThe following sketch from the same ing to the premiership of any public source is well worthy of attention : man then in the cabinet, they could

carry on the Government without a Canning is in Wellesley's hands. He junction either with Lords Grey and builds upon that separation of the present Grenville, or with Lord Wellesley and cabinet in his favour, to which I have already Mr. Canning. So doubtful were the adverted. I do not observe that any inroad

answers returned individually to this upon opposition is meditated, savo in the

question, which the Prince had inperson of Whitbread, whose objects are high

structed the Chancellor to propound, office for himself, and a peerage for his wife (!) The Sidmouths the Prince never will employ,

that a negotiation with the latter was

resolved on. having the greatest personal dislike to their chief.-P. 192.

Lord Liverpool (says the Duke) made his

first proposal to Mr. Canning on the 17th of Thus we find in another letter, May, the details of which have been recorded when the final separation between iu a minute; for, in all these transactions, Wellesley and Percival had taken the parties treated with insisted that everyplace, that the latter recommended thing should be put into black and white. Lord Sidmouth to fill the Marquess's

This was taken down by them, and corrected; place :

and authenticated by the opposite negotiator.

The minute then proceeds to "Is it possible, Mr. Percival,” said the

woman

While the Prince, under these dif- &c., were interchanged. ficulties, was once more relasping into It was first mooted that Canning should his normal lethargy, and was resolved

return to his old situation at the Foreign rather to put on with the headless Office, to which Castlereagh agreed, on its administration which now nominally

being expressly stipulated in uriting that he conducted the state, a motion was car

was to coutinue to manage the House of ried in the House of Commons at the in

Commons-a point which he would not, stance of Mr. Stuart Wortley, calling good ålr. Perceral,' ever reccde from. To

holding himself successor of the great and on the Regent to establish “a strong this Mr. Canning objected (proposing a comand efficient administration." This

promise).

This proposition produced the immediate resignation Ca:tlereagh positively rejected, repeating the of the headless Cabinet. The Prince same thing orer and over again, of his pious now hoisted general signals of distress. regard to the memory of Jír. Perceral, &c. ; He first sent for Lord Wellesley. The and the meeting broke up re infecta."Wellesley negotiation seems to have

pp. 399-400, been based on the double principle of the inclusion of Roman Catholic

Thus, then, the disseverance of claims, and the exclusion of petticoat Canning from the high Tory party government.

The Duke tells us, took place from 1812 to 1822-a pequoting from Mr. Grenville

riod of ten years-at the close of

which he succeeded, on the catas“ It is reported that the Prince, in conver- trophe which occurred to Castlereagh sation with Wellesley, said he knew Wel. lesley must be shocked at the grossness of

(then Lord Londonderry), to the Fofemale connexions being adverted to in poli

reign Office and the lead in the tical controversies : and that Wellesley an

House of Commons. He had, indeed, swered that he had female connexions enough,

at an intervening period accepted the and that he did not care who knew of them : subordinate position of President of but he took ample care that no

the Board of Control—a policy which should have anything to say to him on the must imply that he had lived to resubject of politics."-P. 309.

gret his refusal of the offer of the Fo

reign Office in 1812. Indeed, if CanThe Catholic question, however, ning had foreseen the glorious period presented an effectual barrier to a which was about to open upon EuConservative reunion. After some

rope in that juncture, in which a negotiation between Canning and British minister could do more by Lord Liverpool, and again between diplomacy than by his position upon him and Lord Grenville, everything the treasury bench, there can be no again fell through. The formation of

doubt he would have cheerfully sura Government seemed as hopeless a rendered the leadership to Lord Cas. task as the dethronement of Napo tlereagh ; and would have mainleon. Wellesley finally resigned the

tained, titularly as a subordinate micommission.

nister, the primacy in parliament. Lord Liverpool appears to have This, we think, was not only the been now charged to concert a Go

most unfortunate step in Mr. Canvernment at all risks and hazards.

ning's career, but it was a blunder The only interesting feature in the

upon his part; for he ought to have commission which devolved on this

seen that his splendid oratorical and minister is to be found in the endea

debating abilities would have cast vours by which it was sought to into the shade the nominal leaderestablish a concert between Lord

ship of his rival, whatever had been Castlereagh and Mr. Canning. The

the prominence which events might interview here brought about be- have given to his departmental functween the two rivals is thus vividly tions. In truth, the only means of described by the anonymous correspondent of Lord Buckingham

attaining a practical equality between

Canning and Castlereagh, was by “In two days after this, Canning and

conceding to the latter, as he perCastlerengh had the proposed meeting, which

haps himself foresaw, a titular suapparently was a very cordial one ; shaking periority. hands, mutual acknowledgments of beat The second volume of the Memoirs happiness at meeting-professions of regurd of the Regency has far less merit - wish for renewal of connexion, and great

than the first. His Grace of Buckadmiration of each other's talents, integrity, ingham gives a long and not unin..

teresting narrative of Queen Caroline, informs his master that an applica. then Princess of Wales ; but there is tion has been made on behalf of She very little of a novel character to be ridan, who is represented to be dying gleaned from this dissertation ; nor in circumstances of destitution. The are any illustrative letters annexed Prince immediately advances £500. of any considerable value. The sub- Mr. Sheridan's friend is “ with diffiject, indeed, of the Regency was culty induced to accept so much as scarcely one which naturally admit- £200.” This, however, he does take ted of two such bulky volumes as to expend on the comforts of the those which have been devoted to it. dying orator. Three days afterwards There is also a long discussion on the he returns to the Prince's secretary, subject of the Holy Alliance, with- asserting that Mrs. Sheridan's friends out the merit of a communication of had taken care that “ he should want further knowledge on the designs by for nothing," and restores the £200. which its originators are generally The Prince hears no more till he supposed to have been actuated. learns that Sheridan is dead.

We feel called upon, however, to This is the simple statement of advert to the chapter relating to the George IV. made impromptu, on death of Sheridan; because his Grace learning the calumny circulated by has republished without comment Moore, and taken down at the time the story which until lately received of its delivery. Now is it possible to general credit, and which ascribed to believe that the Prince could have the Prince of Wales a total neglect of betrayed the impudence requisite for that great man in his distress. The the spontaneous fabrication of a story duke has further quoted the insolent so circumstantial ? And, even suplines applied to the Prince by Tom posing that such a story could Doore, as a characterisation of his have been thus concocted, it is obbehaviour to Sheridan.

vious that no man would have venNow it happens that the publica- tured thus to put on record a delibetion of Moore's Memoirs by Lord rate and monstrous lie, while there John Russell, elicited, from another were those living who would have quarter, the publication of a state- been as able as they would have been ment made by the Prince himself, on willing emphatically to contradict it. the first appearance of this charge We certainly think, therefore, that shortly after the orator's death, being it is high time that such a stigma an unequivocal and also a very cir- upon the Regent should be removed; cumstantial contradiction of the accu- inasmuch as there is a vast preponsation. According to this counter- derance of evidence and of probability statement [See a recent number of in favour of the statement communithe Quarterly Review, containing a cated by the Prince, review of Moore's Memoirs, evi- It is difficult to surmise, amid as dently from a very old and recognis- well the variety as the splendour of able hand), it appears that Sheridan, the intellectual development which after being defeated in his election in adorned the period of the Regency 1812, received a generous offer of the and of the reign of George III.,

what Prince's assistance to ensure his elec- will be the ultimate character which tion by some other constituency; on history will impart to it. If we reterms, indeed, somewhat controlling member the complaint of Cicero his independence, yet such as Sheri- against Rome, in the age of its trandan would generally not have hesi- scendant glory, that it had produced tated to have accepted in haste and many illustrious generals, but very evaded at leisure. Sheridan, while few even tolerable orators, we may rejecting this offer, writes to a friend look back with peculiar pride on this proposing to raise "an intrigue' splendid passage in English history, which should induce the Prince to as representing an epoch which filled advance £4,000, in order to enable all the theatres of political life with him “ to buy a borough.” He obtains the grandest and most capacious inthe money ; and the Prince finally tellect that the world has seen. There discovers the imposition. From that we find at once statesmen, orators, time all communications cease be- and generals, such as no other countween Sheridan and the Court. At try ever before excelled, and such as length, in 1816, the Prince's secretary few other countries ever before pro

66

was

duced. There were the elder and the the rivalry which literature mainyounger Pitt standing unequalled in tained against statesmanship and foresight, in ability, and in power ; arms—will hereafter arrogate the until it seemed as though that poli- foreground in the history of these tical supremacy which the Medicis sixty years. usurped in their own free state, But one prediction may be safely through the descent of their private entertained, that on whichever side wealth, was destined to be transmit- the weight of genius and originality ted to the house of Pitt, as an intel. may incline, IRELAND will at least lectual birthright. There, too, wero contribute the largest share to the such orators as Fox, and Sheridan, intellectual splendour of Great Briand Burke, and Canning, and Grat- tain in that age. Wellington was tan. There arose a great military hers : Sheridan was hers: Burke commander such as Bonaparte alone hers: Canning and Grattan could rival, and who finally oversha- and Moore, and many another illusdowed the romantic fame of Bona- trious name, were also hers. Amid

the differences of nationality, the hence to the peaceful ornaments of the complaints of nuisgovernment; life, we find no less splendid a con- and the clamours for a legislative disstellation of poetical originality. It severance, there will ever remain this is thus hard to predict whether the bond of union between the two counsplendour of the oratorical develop- tries : that the sons of Ireland fought ment--the gigantic magnitude of the the battles, and created the intelleccontinental struggle, which brought tual renown, by which either nation to view the great naval and military was at once delivered from the perils commanders of these isles, as though of war, and maintained in the the heroes of antiquity were honours, the arts, and advantages of more produced upon the earth-or peace.

once

Is this age of the world, when everybody has been everywhere, seen every. thing, and talked with everybody, it may savour of an impertinence if we ask of our reader if he has ever been at Massa. It may so chance that he has not, and if so, as assured. ly has he yet an untasted pleasure before him.

Now, to be sure, Massa is not as it once was. The little Duchy, whose capital it formed, has been united to a larger state. The distinctive features of a metropolis, and the residence of a sovereign Prince, are gone. The life, and stir, and animation which surround a Court have subsided ; grass-grown streets and deserted squares replace the busy movement of former days; a dreamy weariness seems to have fallen over every one, as though life offered no more prizes for exertion, and that the day of her ambition was set for ever.

Yet are there features about the spot which all the chances and changes of political fortune cannot touch. Dy. nasties may fall, and thrones crum. ble, but the eternal Appenines will still rear their snow-clad summits to: wards the sky. Along the vast plain of ancient olives, the perfumed wind will still steal at evening, and the blue waters of the Mediterranean plash lazily among the rocks, over which the myrtle and the arbutus are hanging. There, amidst them all, half hid in clustering vines, bathed in soft odors from orange groves, with plashing fountains glittering in the sun, and foaming streams gushing from the sides of marble mountains, there stands Massa-ruined, decayed, and deserted ; but beautiful in all its desolation, and fairer to gaze on than many a scene where the tide of human fortune is at the flood.