The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

the county of Hants, second son of Sir John Smythe,
Baronet, of Eske, in the county of Durham, and Acton
Burnell, in Shropshire. She was born in July, 1750, and
married, in July, 177.5, Edward Weld, Esq., of Lulworth
Castle, iu the county of Dorset, who died in the course of
the same year. She married, secondly, Thomas Fitzher-
bert, Esq., of Swinuerton, in the county of Stafford, in the
year 1775. He only survived their union three years,
leaving her a second time a widow, before she had attained
the age of twenty-five.

- • • • • • •
Mrs. Fitzherbert was first acquainted with the Prince
when residing on Richmond-hill, and soon became the
object of his most ardent attentions. !luring this period
she was made the subject of a popular ballad, which desig-
nated her under the title of the " Sweet Lass of Richmond-
hill ":
I would crowns resign to call her mine,
Sweet lass of Richmond-hill.
She was then the widow of Mr. Fitzherbert, in possession
of en independent income of nearly 2,0001. a year, admired
and caressed by all who were acquainted with her character
and singular attractions.
Surrounded by so many personal advantages, and the
widow of an individual to whom she had been sincerely
attached, she was very reluctant to enter into engagements
fraught with so many embarrassments, and, when viewed
in their fairest light, exposing their object to great sacri-
fices and difficulties. It is not, therefore, surprising that
she resisted, with the utmost anxiety and firmness, the
flattering assiduities of the most accomplished prince of
his age. She was well aware of the gulf that yawned be-
neath those flattering demonstrations of royal adulation.
For some time her resistance had been availing, but she
was about to meet with a species of attack so unprece-
dented and alarming, as to shake her resolution, and to
force her to take that first step, which afterwards led by
slow (but on the part of the Prince successful) advances,
to that union which be so ardently desired, and to obtain
which he was ready to risk such personal sacrifices. Keit,
the surgeon, Lord Onslow, Lord Southampton, and Mr.
Edward Bouverie, arrived at her house in the utmost con-
sternation, informing her that the life of the Prince was in
imminent danger—that he had stabbed himself—find that
only her immediate presence would save him. She re-
sisted, in the most peremptory manner, all their importu-
nities, saying that nothing should induce her to enter
Carlton-house. She was afterwards brought to share in
the alarm, but still, fearful of some stratagem derogatory to
her reputation, insisted upon some lady of high character
RCCORllanying her, as an indispensable condition ; the
Duchess of Devonshire was selected. They four drove
from Park-street to P 'onshire-bouse, and took her along
the Prince - and covered with

with them. She found pale, .
blood. The sight so overpowered her faculties that she
was deprived almost of all consciousness. The Prince
told her that nothing would induce him to live unless she
promised to become his wife, and permitted him to put a
ring round her finger. I believe a ring from the hand of
the Duchess of Devonshire was used upon the occasion,
and not one of his own. Mrs. Fitzherbert being asked by
me whether she did not believe that some trick had been
practised, and that it was not really the blood of his Royal
Highness, answered in the negative, and said she had fre-
quently seen the scar, and that some brandy-and-water was
near his bedside when she was called to him on the day he
wounded himself.
They returned to Devonshire•house. A deposition was
drawn up of what had occurred, and signed and sealed by
each one of the party, and, for all she knew to the con-
trary, might still be there. On the next•day she left the
country, sending a letter to Lord Southampton protesting
against what had taken place. as not being then a free
agent. She retired to Aix-la-Chapelle, and afterwards to
Holland. The Prince went down into the country to
Lord Southampton's for change of air.
In Holland she met with the greatest civilities from the
Stadtholder and his family, lived upon terms of intimacy
with them, and was received into the friendship of the
Princess of Ornnge, who at that very time was the object of
negotiation with the Royal Family of England for the
Heir Apparent. Frequent inquiries were, made about the
Prince and the English Court in confidential communica
tions between her and the Princess, it being wholly un-
known to the Princess that she was her most dangerous
rival. She said she was often placed in circumstances of
considerable embarrassment ; but her object being to
break through her own engagements, she was not the
hypocrite she might have appeared afterwards, as she
would have been very happy to have furthered this
alliance. She afterwards saw this Princess in England,
and continued to enjof her friendship, but there was
always a great coolness on the part of the Stadtholder to-
wards her.

She left Holland in the royal barge, and spent above
another year abroad, endeavouring to " fight off" (to use
her own phrase) a union fraught with such dangerous con-
sequences to her peace and happiness. Couriers after
couriers passed through France, carrying the letters and
propositions of the Prince to her in France and Switzerland.
The Duke of Orleans was the medium of this correspond-
ence. The speed of the couriers exciting the suspicion of
the French Government., three of them were at different
times put into prison. Wrought upon, and fearful, from
the past, of the desperation of the Prince, she consented,
formally and deliberately, to promise she would never
marry any other person ; and lastly she was induced to
return to England, and to agree to become his wile,
on those conditions which satisfied her own conscience,
though she could have no legal claim to be the wife of the
Prince.

Immediately atter her return she was married to the
Prince, according to the rites of the Catholic Church in
this country; her uncle Harry Errington and her brother
Jack Smythe being witnesses to the contract, along with
he Protestant clergyman who officiated at the ceremony.

No Roman Catholic priest officiated. A certificate of this
marriage is extant in the handwriting of the Prince, and
with his signature, and that of Mary Fitzherbert. The
witnesses' names were added ; but at the earnest request
of the parties, in a time of danger, they were afterwards
cut out by Mrs. Fitzherhert herself, with her own scissors,
to save them from the peril of the law.
From this period her life may be divided
into three epochs. First, from her marriage
with the Prince to the Prince's marriage with
the future Queen Caroline ; secondly, from
her reconciliation with him after this event to
the final rupture, a period of about eight
years; and, thirdly, from that time to her
death in the year 1837. During the early
years of her union the only memorable cir-
cumstance connected with it, was Fox's cele-
brated denial of the marriage in the House of
Commons It is difficult to arrive at a correct
judgment of Mr. Fox's conduct. The speech
in question was delivered in the house on the
30th of April, 1787 ; and it is certainly con-
ceivable, though not perhaps probable, that
Fox may have remained in ignorance of what
had occurred for nearly a year and a half. The
friends of that statesman have taken on them-
selves to pronounce that the Prince told him
a falsehood. But the truth of such matters
very soon oozes out, and we can hardly acquit
Mr. Fox of some sort of jesuitry even had he
received, as was reported, a written authority
from the Prince to deny the marriage. But
the emphatic terms in which he did so seem
to have exceeded the Prince's expectations, as
they certainly excited the indignation of Mrs.
Fitzherbert to the highest degree. The
Prince assured her that he had given Fox no
such authority :

Mrs. Fitzherbert was on a visit to the Honourable
Mrs. Butler, her friend and relative, and at whose house the
Prince frequently met Mrs. Fitzherbert. The Prince
called the morning atter the denial of the marriage in the
House of Commons by Mr. Fox. He went up to Mrs.
Fitzherbert, and taking hold of both her hands and cares-
sing her, said, " Only conceive, Maria, what Fox did
yesterday. He went down to the house and denied that
you and I were man and wife ! Did you ever hear of such
a thing?" Mrs. Fitzberbert made no reply, but changed
countenance and turned pale.
Both Fox and Grey, however, steadily
refused to soften down the denial, and with
considerable difficulty Sheridan was induced
to rise and say a few words in the house
laudatory and respectful towards " another
person." Mrs. Fitzherbert never spoke to
Fox afterwards.

The eight years succeeding her reconcilia-
tion with the Prince after his German marriage
she used to describe as the happiest period of
her connection with him. " They were ex-
" tremely poor, but as merry as crickets."
Their time was passed principally between
Brighton and London; and at the former
place, as we learn from other sources, they
lived in the most simple manner, unen-
cumbered by any of the circumstances of
royalty.
She was first supplanted in the affections of
the Prince by Lady Hertford. A Lady Hora-
tio. Seymour had confided the guardianship
of her child to Mrs. Fitzherhert, and at her
request the Prince had applied to Lord Hert-
ford, the head of the house of Seymour, to
prevent the child being taken away. It was
during these negotiations that Lady Hertford
obtained an ascendancy over the Prince,
which ultimately led to his separation from
one who had so long been the faithful partner
of all his troubles. We have not space to
detail the exact circumstances of the case, but
Mrs. Fitzherbert frequently said she wondered
how she survived the mortification of the last
two or three years. Shortly before the King's
death she wrote him a letter, to which she
received no answer :
Nothing, she said, bad so " cut her up," to use her own
expression, as not having received one word in reply to
that last letter. It is true, she observed, that she had been
informed by the Duke of Wellington that he more than
once expressed his anxiety that a particular picture should
be hung round his neck and deposited with him in the
grave, and it seemed to be the opinion of his Grace that
this portrait was one which had been taken of her in early
life, and was set round with brilliants. It appeared the
more likely, as this portrait was afterwards missing when
the others were returned to her. The copy of the letter,
which, in answer to my question, she went into her bed-
room to fetch, she put into my hands to read. It was
an expression of her fears that the King was very ill,
and an affecting tender of any services she could render
him, in a strain which I could not read without sympathis-
ing deeply in her distress.

282

The character of George IV. does not rise
in our estimation by a study of his connection
with Mrs. Fitzherbert. The contemptible
artifice by which he first sought to engage her
sympathies, his ignoble equivocation when
the marriage was publicly discussed, and
the want of delicacy which marked his
conduct when under the influence of Lady
Hertford, are all failings of an essentially un-
manly nature,—a mixture of cunning, pusil-
lanimity, and selfishness almost unintelligible
in one of his race, and singularly at variance
with what others have told us of his engaging
personal qualities.
The question of Mrs. Fitzherbert's mar-
riage is fraught with very considerable difficul-
ties. Mr. Langdale has proved that the
marriage was valid in the sight of that Church
to which Mrs. Fitzherbert belonged. But
then the question arises, how far that cohabita-
tion is innocent which is not practically hedged
round by the restrictions of marriage. The
point for theological casuists to decide is
this—Whether a woman can be married to a
man without the man being married to her.
If so, Mrs. Fitzherbert was innocent ; if not,
she was guilty. It was expressly provided by
the Royal Marriage Act of 1772 that any mar-
riage contracted by a member of the Royal
Family under twenty-five years of age, without
the King's consent, should be null and void.
And the law of the land cannot be overridden
by any ecclesiastical dogmas.
The conduct of the King and Queen is, we
think, a fair example of how we should treat
the memory of Mrs. Fitzherbert. The most
virtuous Court in Europe made no scruple of
receiving her with marked kindness. But
still the Queen never imagined that the Prince
was legally incapacitated for the Brunswick
alliance. " You know best, George, whether
" you can marry the Princess," cannot have
implied a belief that he was married to an-
other. But she meant to ask, was he bound
as a man of honour? As George IV. left no
issue by Mrs. Fitzherbert, the question has
no political importance for the present gene-
ration. But if it had, we cannot believe
there could be the least doubt about the
matter; and, though we sympathise deeply
with the position in which Mrs Fitzherbert
found herself, we cannot agree with Mr.
Langdale that she was ever the lawful wife
of the Prince. And if she was not the lawful
wife, what was she ?

Military Organisation and Administration of
France. By Captain Thackeray. London :
Newby.
IF we are to trust to the various accounts of
Sir A. Alison, General Napier, Mr. Russell,
and Colonel Hamley, the ar►ny of England has
ever commenced war at a disadvantage, owing
principally to the decline of organisation
during the previous peace. This disadvantage
is no doubt ultimately (if not soon) overcome.
The military is essentially a practical art; its
wants and necessities are soon brought home
by actual experience and suffering in the field.
If it possess the resolution to fight, and the
discipline to obey, a very short time will sup-
ply the rest: there is no education so rapid
and effectual as that which takes place in the
presence of an enemy. At the end of the
Peninsular war it was difficult to say whether
the French or British army was the more
admirable; and few things during the last
campaign have been more remarkable than
the improvement of those very Russian
levies, that were scattered like chaff at the
Alma.

This certainty of practical improvement
after the commencement of a war has keen
constantly cited by the advocates of an imper-
fect organisation, as a proof of the absence of
any necessity of a better system of army ad-
ministration than that which at present exists.
But it is by these persons forgotten what
frightful penalties have been paid by the
English army for their practical experience,
both at the commencement of the Peninsular
and Crimean campaigns.
In order to avoid such catastrophes for the
future, it is said that a reconstruction of our
military system has become a necessity, and
that we have a model to copy from in the per-
feat organisation and administration of the

li..