diligent enquirer after truth may be excused for shrinking from the task of examining the scanty journals of the middle of the eighteenth century.

QUEEN CAROLINE.

We were talking one day of Queen Caroline: a doubt was expressed whether some of the blame which attaches to her character may not be removed by attributing some of her extraordinary actions to insanity, by which alone they can be accounted for. Mrs. Kemble told me she had known, at Lausanne, a man, now a landamman or magistrate, formerly an officer in the Duke of Brunswick's Guards, who told her that it was the general opinion that in early youth the Princess had shown strong symptoms of insanity, and he gave the following instance to prove his assertion :

A great ball was given, to which the Duchess would not allow her daughter, then aged sixteen, to go. The ball was just begun, when a messenger came to the Duke and Duchess to inform them that Princess Caroline was taken violently ill. Of course, they returned immediately to the palace, all the court following them; the landamman, then on guard, being one among them. When they reached the antechamber of the apartment of the Princess, they found she was on a bed in the next room, screaming with agony; they were told that she was black in the face, &c. &c. The doors were all

open, when the Duke and Duchess went up to the bed and tenderly enquired what was the matter. The doctors were not yet arrived; the Princess said any attempt at dissimulation would be useless and impossible. I am in labour, and entreat you, madam, to send for an accoucheur immediately.' These words were spoken loud enough to be heard by all those who were waiting in the next room; their astonishment may be conceived. Soon after the accoucheur came: as soon as the Princess saw him, she jumped out of bed, wiped the livid colouring from her face, and with a loud laugh said to the Duchess, 'Now, madam, will you keep me another time from a ball?' At this period, whenever she did go into public, there were persons appointed to watch that she did not give notes, &c. &c.; but it was supposed that she found means to elude their vigilance.

The idea of the unsoundness of the mind of the unfortunate Caroline is strongly confirmed by the following circumstances, related to me by Lord Redesdale in May 1828. Having been invited to dine with the Duchess of Brunswick at Blackheath, he and Lady Redesdale, coming at the time specified, found themselves long before the rest of the company. They passed half-an-hour en tiers with the Duchess, who, having known him from his earliest youth, began talking very confidentially and imprudently of the misconduct of her daughter, ending with saying, But her

excuse is, that, poor thing, she is not right here.' She struck her forehead, and burst into a violent flood of tears. By this time some guests were heard entering, and Lord and Lady Redesdale were obliged to support the poor infirm old woman to her room, and make the best story they could.

He told me also, and I forget how he knew it to be true, that when the Princess was at Baden and the Grand Duke made a partie de chasse for her, she appeared on horseback with a half-pumpkin on her head. Upon the Grand Duke's expressing astonishment, and recommending a coiffure rather less extraordinary, she only replied that the weather was hot, and nothing kept the head so cool and comfortable as a pumpkin. Surely nothing that was said by Brougham or Denman could plead so strongly in extenuation of the nudities of the Muse of History, &c. &c., as the pumpkin.

EXTRACTS FROM THE WORKS OF FRANCIS EGERTON, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER,

Birkenhead: January 23.-Mr. Nugent has just brought me a bundle of the publications on various subjects by Lord Bridgewater; all excepting one of addenda and corrigenda to an edition of Euripides, and a letter from the Seigneurie de Florence au Pape Sixto 4re, 1478, relate to himself, his family or

inland navigation. A Life of the Chancellor Egerton seems interesting from the variety of documents, relating more to contemporary history than to his hero, which are thrown into notes; especially a letter from Essex to the Chancellor, who had tried to persuade him to return to the Court and sue for pardon to Elizabeth, after he had received the famous box on the ear. The most singular production is a single sheet beginning

...

A report has been generally circulated that I have an intention of writing a life of F. E., third Duke of Bridgewater . . . consequently I am induced on my part to announce to the public that I will not write his life. It is true that for ten or eleven years before his death I and I only lived in the house with him . . . that I prepared materials with a view of writing his life. When I reflected more and more continually every day upon what I saw, first I faltered, and lastly I became assured that I could bring neither the faculties of my mind or body on to the accomplishment of this task. How could I bring my mind to the task, were I impressed with the persuasion that the general system of navigable canals and inland navigation ought to be carried forward upon the enlarged, comprehensive, and elevated view of benefiting the public and the country? How could I bring my mind to the task, should I have seen such an object neglected or overlooked by one of the first and greatest subjects in Great Britain (most certainly in Europe), and all things appertaining to the navigation considered as in a merchant's counting-house, exclusively upon the strictest calculations of profit and loss and individual interest? How could I bring my mind to the task? how portray a domestic tyrant, selfish

in all things, living for himself alone, regardless of those duties. which attach to one who inherits immense estates from a long line of ancestry, unacquainted with even the persons of most of his own family, his own name, his own blood, giving nothing in charity, with no service at home and yet never attending any public worship? . . . Under all these considerations, and many more, I confess I faltered; I cannot bring myself to the task. Briefly, therefore, &c. &c. [Here follows an account like that for the peerage.]

London, 1809.

F. H. E.

Another singular paper is his petition to Louis XVIII. to be exempted from the Droit d'aubain on the Hôtel de Noailles, which he had purchased. The grounds on which he requests this exemption are singular:

Que je suis resté plusieurs années en France, et que pendant tout ce temps je n'ai pas voulu acheter aucune propriété quelconque. Qu'au commencement de 1815 j'ai changé d'avis. Que je n'ai pas voulu profiter des délais que la loi et l'usage m'accorderaient pour payer les droits d'enregistrement, mais que les circonstances critiques où V. M. se trouvait alors m'ont déterminé à solder les droits le lendemain, 18 mars 1815, la somme de 30,743 francs. Qu'il est impossible de ne pas reconnaître dans ces paymens onéreux faits par anticipation le vif intérêt que m'inspirait alors la situation de V. M. Que je n'ai plus tardé à voir de quel œil on regardait ma conduite; car Buonaparte, sous prétexte d'utilité publique qui exigeait que les bureaux de Secrétariat du Gouvernement passent dans mon hôtel, a mis sous le séquestre mon hôtel, mon mobilier, et m'a ordonné de sortir de mon hôtel, sous peine d'expulsion forcée. Que j'ai défendu mon droit