The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

For this fete he had invited Grisi and Lablache, and the
other Italian singers, to amuse his royal guests, end
ordered a separate table to be prepared for them. When
Grisi arrived, he asked her at what hour she liked to dine.
She replied, Oh, at your hour, and when your dine ;"
and seeing what she expected, he was so goodnatured that
he complied. The consequence was, that she chose to
fancy herself part of the company, and would only now
and then get up to sing.

Mr. Raikes saw Thistlewood and some of his
gang hung. They died, with one exception,
in an irreligious mood. One of the criminals,
a black man, was very devout, and when Mr.
Raikes mentioned his case to the late Marquis
of Hertford, the latter said, " He was right.
You should never give away a chance."
Of Sir William Knighton we are told :

Sir W. Knighton died lately in London. He was
oriabially placed by his parents, who were of humble
origin, as apprentice to an apothecary at Tavistock, and
afterwards practised obscurely in London. In 1810 he
accompanied Lord IVellesley to Spain, who on his return
from that mission requested his Majesty, the late King,
then Prince of Wales, to app.iint Knighton one of his
physicians. In this capacity he became very intimate
with Colonel Macmahon, and was finally named his
executor. Among the papers which thus came into his
possession were some of a very delicate nature relating to
the private affairs of George IV., particularly about Queen
Caroline and the late Lady Jersey. He instantly carried
those documents to Carlton house, and placed them at
once, without comment or condition, in the hands of the
rightful owner. The Prince Regent, struck with the im•
portance of the benefit, appointed Knighton to an impor
tent office in the Duchy of Cornwall, afterwards made him
a Baronet, and then Grand Cross of the Guelph.
The full tide of prosperity now opened upon him, and
after Sir B. Bloomfield had been raised to the peerage,
and sent as Minister to Sweden, he succeeded him as pri•
vate secretary and privy purse, appointments which he
retained till the death of George IV. He was a constant
inmate of Cailton•house and of Windsor Castle, possessing
the entire confidence of his Sovereign, who latterly lived
in great privacy, surrounded by his household, and only a
few occasional visitors. He was, as might be expected,
the devoted friend of Lady —, and though never sus-
pected of having used his interest at Court for any great
objects of personal aggrandisement, he was believed privy
to that extraordinary appropriation of above :100,0(,01.,
which was sold out of the Stocks a very few days before the
death of his royal master. It was always supposed that
this sum had been given at once to that lady, but the fact
of the sale was currently known at the time, and no trace
of the money afterwards appeared. I have myself heard
the Duke of Wellington say that when sent tor by express
on the demise of the Kin. he, in quality of executor, in-
spected all the papers, &c., at Windsor, and did not find
sufficient money in the royal escrutoire even to pay the
post horses of the different expresses. Sir W. Knighton
died possessed of a very large fortune, partly acquired by
his original profession, and partly perhaps by that political
information which had been used fur the same purpose by
his predecessor Macmahon.

Colonel Macmahon was for a time paralysed
in his right arm, and Knighton was recom-
mended as an assistant secretary by Lord
Wellesley. We have put in italics a line in
the last sentence of the foregoing extract,
and several persons about the Stock Exchange
arc quite competent to illustrate it. The
time has not yet come for telling all Knighton's
extraordinary story to the world, and Mr.
Raikes evidently did not know much of
it Possibly the Mr. C— alluded to by Mr.
Raikes will reveal it all in his memoirs of his
own times

Of the death of George IV. we read :
No man clung to life with greater eagerness than
George IV., or was more unwilling to hear from those
about him any hint or suspicion of his apparent decay.
When confined to his room, and his case had become
evidently hopeless, he still telt the vital stamina so
strong in hint that he would not believe his own danger ;
he talked of preparations for the approaching Ascot
races, which he would attend in person, and showed a
confidence in his recovery, which all around him knew to
be impossible.
On the 27th of May, 1830, prayers were ordered to be
read in the churches for the restoration of the King's
health ; and though the work of death was gradually
approaching, the most contradictory accounts were con•
stantly circulated of his real state. At length the awful
moment arrived. He went to bed, without any particular
symptom, on the night of the 25th of June, but at three
o'clock in the morning he seemed to awake in great
agitation, and called for assistance. Sir Wathen
who was in attendance, came to his bedside, and at his
request helped to raise him from his bed. He then ex
claimed, " Watty, what is this? It is death ! They have
deceived me !" and in that situation, without a struggle,
expired.

This differs from the account which we have
received, but it corroborates the writer in the
New Quarterly Review. The following anec-
dote would have roused the ire of the late
Mr Douglas Jerrold, and Mr. Thackeray still
lives :

The temptations in his exalted situation to a life of
indulgence were numerous; but he was not without a
proper sense of religions feeling, as may be inferred from