Star.
London, England, 1830-07-03 00:00:00

ANECDOTES OF GEORGE THE FOURTH.

(From the Spirit of Literature.)
The following letter, without a date, directed " To
Mrs. Robinson, Ship Inn, Brighton," delivered appa-
rently by hand to that lady, was, two or three years ago,
!sold seen autograph sale at Southgate's auction rooms :
" Dear Mrs. Robinsonr—l have received your letter, and it
really quite overcomes me; the scene of distress you so petite.
tially paint. I will certainly wait upon you, but lam afraid it
will be late before I can come to the Ship, as I have company
with me. Should it be within the compass of my means to
rescue you from the abyss you apprehend that is before you,
and for which you mention Mr. Brent, I need not say that the
temptation of gratifying others, and at the same time, and by the
same means, making oneself happy, is too alluring to be neglected
a single moment. However, you must allow me to be thus ex-
plicit and candid, that it must in a great measure depend upon the
extent of what will be necessary to be done for your service, and
how far my funds may be adequate, as well as my powets equal
to allow that object. In the mean time, only rest assured of my
good wishes and good intentions. I am, dear Mrs. Robinson, very
sincerely yours, GEOkGI P.'
Mrs. Robinson, as the reader is doubtless aware, was the object
of his late Majesty's first youthful attachment. The above letor
would seem, from the coldness of its expressions, to have been
written after that attachment had ceased, and if an, the Prince must
have been then in the 21st or 22d year of his age. The lste Pre-
sident Jefferson used to affirm, that in his youth, the Prince, wi h
good natural abilities, was extremely ignorant of all awful know.
ledge." The excessively awkward and untrammatical style of this
letter furnishes strong evidence of the truth of this statement.
• • • • • •

George IV. must, no doubt, have often heard, from his early
Whig associates, that every person who sets foot on British
ground becomes free ; and that it matters not, as regards the point
ef freedom, whether a man is white, black, brown, olive, or yel-
htte. But though such is undoubtedly the theory of the British
constitution, it was not so expounded in practice by our late Sove-
reign. His Majesty had all the antipathy of a Virginia nigger-
driver to blacks, and would not even admit persons slightly tinged
with lade-ink into his royal presence. A certain naval peer, Lord
T—n, incurred irretrievable disgrace by an attempt to smuggle a
wealthy half-breed from Calcutta, of the name of 11--i th. ough
the formalities of presentation ; and Cramer, the musician, nearly
lost his situation of leader of the royal band by a similar piece of
imprudence. The story, as regards Omer, runs thus : —The
fiddling generalissimo was bent on having a black man to beat the
kettle-drum; but, aware of his Majesty's antipathy to the sable
tribe, he was in despair of being ever able to accomplish his wishes,
when he met by chance with a nsrive Englishtnan of so dark a hue
that at a short distance he might easily be mistaken for an importa-
don from the coast of Guinea. Cramer had the man forthwith in-
stalled in the office of kettle-drummer ; now came the trying scene
of his Introduction to the royal presence. On the King's entering
the music-room, he started, and seemed much displeased ; but after
approaching a little nearer, and applying a glass to his eye, he called
Cramer to him—" I see, Sir," said the King, "you wish to as
me to a black drummer by degrees."
%Viten the late Lord Erskine was Attomey-General to the Prints
of Wales, he was retained by Thomas Paine to defend hint on his
trial for publishing the second part of his Righle of Marc; but it
was soon intimated to hint, by high authority, that such advocacy
was considered to be incompatible with his official situation ; ant
the l'rince himself, in the most friendly manner, acquainted him
that it was highly displeasing to the King, and that he ought to en.
deavour to explain his conduct. This Mr. Erskine immediately did,
in a letter to his Majesty himself; in which, after expressing his
sincere attachment to his person, and to that constitution which was
attacked in the work to be defended, he took the liberty to claim,
as an invaluable part of that very constitution, the unquestion-
able right of the subject to make his defence by any counsel of
his 05:11 free choice, if not previously retained, or engaged •by
office front the crown ; and that there was no other way of deciding
whether that was or was not consistent with his situation as actor-
ney.general to the Prince, than by referring according to custom,
the question to the bar, which he was perfectly willing and even de.
sirous to do. 1 n a few days afterwards, Mr. Erskine received, through
the late Admiral Paine, a most gracious message from the Prince,
expressing his deep regret in feeling himself obliged to accept slr.
Erskine'. resignation, which was accordingly sent. A few years
afterwards, however, His Royal Highness sent for Mr. Erskine
to Cerlton.house, whilst be was still in bed under a severe
illness, and, taking him most graciously by the hand, said to him,
that though he was not at all qualified to judge of retainers, nor to
appreciate the correctness or incorrectness of his conduct in the in.
stance that had separated them, yet that, being convinced he had
acted front the purest motives, he wished most publicly to manifest
that opinion, and therefote directed bins to go immediately to So.
mersct.house, and to bring with him, for his execution, the patent
of Chancellor to his Royal Highness, which he said he had always
designed for Mr. Erskine.