dially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the Power that made me! I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose. And in this, I think, I speak the sentiments of America."

CHAPTER X.

Birth of the Princess Elizabeth, and of Prince Ernest Augustus

- Discreditable Conduct of the King's Brother, Henry, Duke of Cumberland His Marriage - His Death Clandestine Marriage of the Duke of Gloucester - The King Afterward Reconciled to the Duke and Duchess - Princess Caroline Matilda, Wife of Christian VII. of Denmark - Dissolute Character of the Danish King-Domestic Infelicities - Coup d'État at the Danish Court - Banishment of the QueenHer Residence in Zell Castle - Her Death-Decease of the Princess Dowager of Wales.

We have now to record a few events, of a personal and domestic character, which occurred in the lives of George the Third and his queen, since we last intruded upon their privacy at Buckingham House and Windsor. On the 17th of June, 1770, Queen Charlotte gave birth to a daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, afterward Landgravine of Hesse Homberg, and on the 5th of June, the following year, was born her fifth son, Ernest Augustus, afterward successively Duke of Cumberland, and King of Hanover. Surrounded by a young and beautiful family, and formed, as George the Third was, by nature, for the enjoyment of home endearments and home pleasures, his life at this period might be presumed to have

been a happy one. In addition, however, to political anxieties, he was not exempted from the ordinary cares and sorrows which are the lot of humanity. A source of especial vexation to him at this time was the flagrant misconduct of one of his younger brothers, the Duke of Cumberland.

Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, fourth son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, was born on the 26th of October, 1745. A handsome countenance made some amends for the shortness of his stature, and the meanness of his abilities. Walpole dismisses him from his agreeable pages as a pert, chattering, dissipated, and frivolous youth, proud of his exalted rank almost to vulgarity, yet at the same time preferring low society. Doubtless, much that was to be lamented in the duke's character and conduct was attributable to the exclusive and reprehensible system under which he had been educated by his mother, the princess dowager. Kept in close and irksome seclusion till he had reached the years of manhood, and accustomed to no other society but that of sycophants and dependents, it is perhaps not much to be wondered at that a young prince of warm passions and weak character should, on obtaining his freedom, have rushed at once from the schoolroom to the stews and the night cellars.

Had the Duke of Cumberland thought proper to confine his excesses within the limits of ordinary profligacy, the world would doubtless have troubled

one.

itself little with either his vices or his follies. When, however, his name became mixed up, under peculiarly scandalous circumstances, with that of a young and beautiful woman of high rank, and Norman race, when, for the first time in England, a prince of the blood was dragged into a court of justice to defend himself in an action for adultery, the case became a very different His victim, a daughter of the house of Vernon, was wife of Richard, first Earl Grosvenor.' Following her from London, on her departure to her husband's seat, Eaton Hall, in Cheshire, the duke took up his abode at a small public-house in the neighbourhood of the Hall, met her in disguise, and effected her ruin. The earl-himself a notorious libertine - subsequently recovered ten thousand pounds damages from the duke, a sum which it will be perceived his Royal Highness found some difficulty in paying.

The King to Lord North.

"5 Nov., 1770.

"My brothers have this day applied about the means of paying the Duke of Cumberland's damages and costs, which, if not paid this day se'nnight,

'Henrietta, daughter of Henry Vernon, Esq., of Hilton, in the County of Stafford, by Lady Henrietta Wentworth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Strafford. By her marriage with Lord Grosvenor, which took place on the 19th of July, 1764, she became the mother of Robert, second Earl Grosvenor, and of three other children, who died young. In September, 1802, nearly thirty

the proctors will certainly force the house, which at this licentious time will occasion reflections on the rest of the family. Whatever can be done,

ought to be done." 1

Scarcely less discreditable than the profligate details which were elicited at the trial, was the evidence which it afforded of the grossly imperfect state of his Royal Highness's education. Several letters, addressed by him to his paramour, were read in open court, the spelling, style, and grammar of which were so lamentably contemptible, as to provoke frequent bursts of laughter from the audience. For instance, in one of these precious effusions he writes: "I got to supper about nine o'clock, but I could not eat, and so got to bed about ten." "His Royal Highness's diction and learning," writes Walpole, "scarce exceeded that of a cabin boy, as those eloquent epistles, existing in print, may testify. Some, being penned on

board ship, were literal versifications of Lord Dorset's ballad:

"To all ye ladies now at land

We men at sea indite,

But first would have you understand

How hard it is to write.'"

years after her separation from her husband, the countess remarried Gen. George Porter, member of Parliament for Stockbridge.

1 In another note, dated the same day, the king calculates the sum of money likely to be required as £13,000.