The National Register.
London, England, 1813-02-14 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

FEB. 14

PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES.

LETTER OF THE PRINCE'S OF NVALEi TO THE PRINCE
REGENT.

gi Sta—lt is with great reluctance that I presume to ob-
trude myself upon your Royal Highness, and to solicit your
attention to matters which may, at first, appear rather of a
personal than a public nature. if I could think them so—
if they related merely to myself—l should abstain from a
proceeding which might give uneasiness, or interrupt the
more weighty occupation of your Highness's time. I should
continue, in silence and retirement, to lead the life which
has been prescribed to me, and console myself for the loss of
that society and those domestic comforts to which I have
so long been a stranger, by the reflection that it has been
deemed proper I should be afflicted without any fault of my
own—and that your Royal Highness knows it.
dg But, Sir, there are considerations of a higher nature
than any regard to my own happiness, which render this ad-
dress a duty both to Myself and my Daughter. May 1 ven-
ture to say—a duty also to my Husband, and the People
committed to his care ? There is a point beyond which a
gliiltless woman cannot, with safety, carry her forbearance.
If her honour is invaded, the defence of her reputation is no
longer a matter of choice ; and it signifies not whether the
attack be made openly, manfully, and directly—or by e-
cret insinuation, and by holding such conduct toward: her
as countenances all the suspicions that malice can suggest.
If these ought to be the feelings of every woman in England
who is conscious that she deserves no reproach, your Royal
Highness has too sound a judgment, and too nice a sense of
honour, not to perceive, how much more justly tbcy belong
to the Mother of your Daughter—the Mother of her who is
destined, I trust at a very distant period, to reign over the
British Empire. _ _ .

" It may be known to your Royal Highness, that during
the continuance of the restrictions upon your Royal autho
rity, I purposely refrained from making any representations
which might then augment the painful difficulties of your
exalted station.' At the expiration of the restrictions I still
was inclined to delay taking this step, in the hope that I
might owe the redress I sought to your gracious and unso-
lieited condescension; I hive waited, in the fond indulgence
of this expectation, until, to my inexpressible mortification,
I find that my unwillingness to complain, has only produced
fresh grounds of complaint; and I am at length compelled,
either to abandon all regard for the two dearest objects
which I possess on earth, mine own honour, and my be-
loVed Child, Or to throw myself at the feet of your Royal
Highness, the natural protector of both.
I pre:dine, Sir,- to represent to your Royal Highness,
that the separation, which every succeeding month is making
wider, of the Mother 'and the Daughter, is equally injurious
to my character and to her education. I say nothing of the
deep wounds which so cruel an arrangement inflicts upon
my feelings; although I would fain hope that few persons
will be found of a dis Position to think lightly of these. To
set myself cut off from one of the very few doi

tricots left me—ceitaiuly the only .one upon vi]

107

value, the society of my Child—involves me in such misery
as I well know your Royal Highness could never inflict upon
me if •fau were aware of its bitterness. Our intercourse has
been gradually diminished. A single interview weekly
seemed sufficiently hard allowance for a Mother's affections—
that, however, was reduced to our meeting once a rot tnight ;
and I now learn that even this most rigorous interdiction is
to be still more rigidly enforced.
" But while I do not venture to intrude my feelings as a
Mother upon your Royal Highness's notice, I must be al-
lowed to say, that in the eyes of an observing and jealous
world, this separation of a Daughter from her Mother will
only admit of one construction—a corstruction fatal to de
Mother's reputation. Your Royal Highness will also pardon
me for adding, that there is no less inconsisgency than ir•
justice in this treatment.—He who dares advise your Royal
Highnr_.ss to overlook the evidence of my innocence, and
disregard the sentence of complete acquittal which it pro-
duced—or is wicked and false enough still to whisper sus-
picions in your car, betrays his duty to you, Sir, to yot
Daughter, and to your People, if he counsels you to permit
a day to pass without a further investigation of my conduct.
I know that no such calumniator will venture to recommend
a measure which must speedily end in his utter confusion.
Then let me implore you to reflect on the situation in which
I am placed; without the shadow of a charge against me--
without even an accuser —after an inquiry that led to my
ample vindication—yet treated as if I were still more culpa-
ble than the perjuries of my suborned traducers represented
me, and held up to the world as a Mother who may not en-
joy the society of her only Child.
d• The feelings, Sir, which arc natural to my nnexamp'el
situation, might justify me in the gracious judoient :;(.1:r
Royal Highness, bad I no other motives for addressing you
but such as relate to myself. But I will not disguise from
your Royal Hi loess what I cannot for a moment con
from myself, that the serious, and it soon may be, the irre-
parable injury which my Daughter sustains from the plan ;,t.
present pursued, has done more in overcoming illy clue-
tance to intrude upon your Poy:il Highness, than any sulicr.
ings of my own could accomplish ; and if, for her sake, I
presume to call away your Royal Ilijness's attention froni
the other cares of your exalted tati.nr, I feel confident I an
not claiming it for a matter of inferior importance either to
yourself or your people.
The powers with which the Constitution of these
realms vests your Royal Highness in the regulation of the
Royal Family, I know, because I am so advi.crL are ample
and unquestionable. My appeal, Sir, is ma ac to 'our ex-
cellent SCIIFe and liberality of mind in the exerci,e of those
powers; and I willingly hope that your own racental feel-
ings will lead you to excuse the anxiety of mine for impelling
me to repreQent the unhappy consequences which the present
system must entail upon our beloved Child.
" Is it possible, Sir, that any one can have attempted to
persuade your Royal Highness that her character will rvq be
injured by the perpetual violence offered to her so ooge-e

rrangement inflicts upon " IS It POSSUM', r.-ir, iudL uui VLi Sr 16.4,4"
n hope that few persons persuade your Royal Highness that her character will flo be
ink lightly of these. To injured by the perpetual violence offered to her stionge.e
very few domestic enjoy- affections—the studied care taken to estrange her from my
one upon which I set any society, and even to interrupt all communication between ,/
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