thing plausible in this representation of the case, all those who thought that the constitution could not be preserved without a just equilibrium was maintained among the three estates of the realm, sided with the minister and his friends, as the only way of securing to the crown that degree of authority and influence which they thought it ought to possess, but which was threatened by a combination of powerful leaders in the House of Commons.

Con

sidered as a mere theoretical question, it is undoubtedly desirable that the three estates of the kingdom should be perfectly independent of each other; that is, that the king should not dictate either to the lords or commons, nor that either of the branches of the legislature should dictate to the throne. But as cases may, and, as is too well known, do arise, where the crown and the commons differ in opinion, it then

becomes a serious question which party ought to give way. If the commons fairly, fully, and freely represented the people, then no question whatever could arise upon the subject, because the monarch must of necessity yield obedience to the wishes of his people; it would not be endured for a moment that the general will should be rendered nugatory by the obstinacy or preverseness of a single individual: but as the British constitution, whatever

it

may be in theory, certainly is not in practice so perfectly constituted that the commons of the land can be said to be adequately represented, and the influence of the crown in elections is known to be almost predominant, it certainly appears somewhat strange, and a sort of dereliction of their own interests in the people, that that house of commons, which stood up most strenuously in opposition to the crown,

and vindicated the undoubted right of the representatives of the people, to put a negative upon the appointment of the king's servants, should have been the most unpopular house of commons with the people at large that has been assembled since his present majesty's accession to the throne. Yet such unquestionably was the fact, and the Prince of Wales, receiving into his confidence the leaders who principally distinguished themselves in that memorable struggle between the crown and the commons, became a partaker in their unpopularity.

The sacrifices which his royal highness made for the ease and security of his creditors, we have already shewn, were far from producing the effect which might have been expected from so generous and disinterested a procedure, and his royal highness's situation became every day more critical. In

less than a month from the period in which he had discharged his household, an attempt was made upon the life of the sovereign by a wretched maniac of the name of Margaret Nicholson. When this affair happened, which made a considerable noise at the time, as being the first of the kind, though the danger probably was magnified, his royal highness the Prince of Wales was at Brighton; and the news reached him, not by an immediate conveyance from the king or administration, as delicacy and respect for the rank and situation of the Prince perhaps would have pointed out on such an occasion, but by the information of a private friend. The conduct which the Prince of Wales adopted was that which became him as a son. Instead of taking offence at the neglect, to say no worse of it, which had been shewn him, he quitted Brighton

without a moment's delay, and, proceeding post to Windsor, had an interview with the queen.

Speaking of this period, the writer to whom we have before alluded, says, Upon this occasion it might have been expected that the affection, which naturally subsists between the parent and the child, should have carried the Prince and the King into each other's arms. They did not see each other. The King knew that the Prince was in the house, but he did not think proper to summon him to his presence. The Prince on his part did not demand an interview, because court etiquette seemed to have placed the necessity of the first overture on the other side, and because he naturally imagined, that he had sufficiently displayed the dispositions by which he was actuated, by the journey from which he was just arrived. There had already been