DEATH OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE. The death of the Princess Charlotte was soon followed by similar calamities: When sorrows come they come not single spies, But in battalious.

The health of the Queen became gradually worse; and, on November 16, 1818, (a few days more than a year after the death of the Princess,) the Prince Regent received a letter from the Queen's physician, stating, that if he did not use all possible haste to Kew, he would have no chance of again seeing his royal mother alive. The Prince, accompanied by the Duke of York, reached Kew a little after midnight, and found the Queen perfectly in her senses, though at the last gasp of life. Her Majesty recognised those of her family who stood round her bed, and, smiling on them, she held out her hand to the Prince, and, in her effort to grasp his, she fell back and expired, at twenty minutes past one, November 17, 1818, in the seventy-fifth year of her age, and in the fifty-eighth of her marriage to the King.

Her Majesty was buried at Windsor, Dec. 2nd. The Regent and the Duke of York met the procession at Frogmore. The Prince was the chief mourner: his fine commanding figure and majestic carriage appeared most striking in the solemn scene. His "inky cloak" was long, and" of a great amplitude of folds." On his left breast was a star of brilliants, shining most resplendently among his sables; above which he wore four splendid collars of knighthood. The Prince was deeply affected; for the Queen had been an affectionate mother. He wept, and sobbed aloud. Lord Liverpool, who carried the sword of state before him, is said to have observed his Royal Highness' tears bedim the splendid jewellery of the collars of knighthood, which hung in successive rows over his black cloak. What an affecting episode must this have been in this scene of royal woe: his sorrow put out the "golden glister" of regal pomp.

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF KENT AND

GEORGE III.

The Queen had been custodian of the King's person, and the Duke of York was now appointed her successor. The King grew worse, and no hope of his recovery could be entertained, although state policy assumed the possibility.

The hand of affliction now pressed sorely upon the Prince Regent. His unhappy marriage; the premature death of his only child; his mother just laid in the tomb; and the King, his father,

in a condition by far more lamentable than death-made him indeed "rich in sorrow." Added to this scene of domestic woe, distress and discontent hovered over the country.

The year 1820 began gloomily. On January 23, the Duke of Kent, (who had been married but eighteen months previously,) died after a short illness. Of all the Royal Family he bore the strongest appearance of health and had death least in apprehension.

Late on Friday night, January 28, 1820, the King's Physician came express to town, and was closeted a few minutes with the Duke of York, who immediately set off for Windsor. The next evening, January 29, the King expired without a struggle, in the 82nd year of his age, having reigned nearly 60 years. No lucid interval had cheered or distracted the last moments of his life; his long reign on earth was ended; his character became the property of posterity. He was buried at Windsor, February 16; his successor, through illness, could not attend; and the Duke of York was chief mourner.

ACCESSION OF GEORGE IV.

On January 30, 1820, the Prince Regent, now George IV., succeeded to the throne; and on the following day his Majesty was proclaimed with the customary forms.

QUEEN CAROLINE.

The Princess of Wales now became

Queen of England de jure; but, as no mention had been made of her in that capacity in England, she was not recognised abroad. Cardinal Gonsalvi, at Rome, was the first to treat her with indignity, a precedent which was studiously followed by other courts. Mr. Brougham had sent off Monsieur Sicard, the old and faithful servant of the Queen, with the intelligence of the King's death, for no public functionary had performed the duty of sending the official news to her Majesty. The Queen immediately replied to Mr. Brougham, that she was determined to return to England. To a question from Mr. Brougham, in the House of Commons, on the 22nd Feb. 1820, Lord Castlereagh declared, that the English functionaries abroad should treat her Majesty with respect, and that no indignity should be offered to her. Notwithstanding this, she received insulting neglect, and even rudeness, from some of our ministers abroad.

* An Engraving and Description of the Proclamation of William IV.-precisely the same as that of his predecessor, George IV.-will be found in No 440 of The Mirror, published with the present Number.

The King's first act of renewed hostility towards his Queen, was an order for the omission of her name from the Litany. Meanwhile the King, fatigued with the state ceremonies of his accession, and overwhelmed with domestic affliction, was attacked by an inflammatory complaint, which brought within a narrow compass, the throne, the sick-bed, and the grave. His illness assumed an alarming appearance, and bulletins were issued twice a-day for some time. At length, the King happily recovered. To return to the Queen. The equivocal relation between her Majesty and the King gave rise to many debates in the House of Commons.

On the 4th June, 1820, Lord Hutchinson, on the part of the King, proposed to her Majesty, that 50,000l. a- year should be her allowance, on the condition that she should reside abroad, and never assume any right or title appertaining to the Royal Family of England. The Queen gave an instant and indignant answer to the proposition, and immediately left France for England, where she arrived, at Dover, on the 5th of June, 1820. Her reception and her journey to London were one continued triumphal procession.

His Majesty was equally prompt and determined in his conduct; and on the 6th of June there was laid before Parliament a message from the King, desiring that the Houses would take into immediate consideration certain documents, then furnished, relative to the mal-practices of the Queen while upon the Continent. Various adjournments took place, in order to afford an opportunity of a private arrangement, and numerous meetings were held. These were in vain; and at last Mr. Wilberforce was made the agent of the strongest side; and he moved an Address of the House, praying the Queen to succumb; but the enormous number of 124 voted against the motion.

At last, on the 5th of July, Lord Liverpool brought in his bill of Pains and Penalties against her Majesty, depriving her of her rights as Queen of England, and dissolving her marriage, on the ground of her criminal intercourse with Bergami. This measure was generally believed to be meant to intimidate the Queen, and adjournments took place to give time for its operation, and to produce a compromise. Her Majesty, however, stood firm to her purpose; and undauntedly appeared in the House of Lords during every discussion on the bill. She likewise addressed a public protest to the King.

The divisions of the House of Lords are very curious. They were as follows: for the second reading of the bill, 123 to 95, majority 28; for the third reading the majority was only 9. Of the majority of 28, ten were bishops. The writer of these pages was close to the Earl of Liverpool, in the House of Lords, when this last division was announced, and he can never forget the mortified shame of the Earl on being thus compelled to withdraw the bill.*

When the Queen returned to England, Mr. Canning was in office. In a speech which he delivered on the King's mes sage, respecting her arrival, he spoke of her Majesty as "the grace, life, and ornament of every society in which she appeared;" and stated, that in 1814, he had advised her to go abroad, as he saw that "faction had marked her for its own.' It was generally supposed that this more than respectful language gave offence to the King, and soon after, making another speech, on June 7, 1820, in which he declared that towards the Illustrious Personage who was the object of the investigation, he felt an unaltered regard and affection-he resigned the Presidency of the Board of Control.

It is impossible for us to enter more fully into the details of the Queen's Trial.†

The excitement was still kept up. The next step was an attempt in Parlia ment, to procure the insertion of the Queen's name in the Liturgy. The motion was lost by 310 to 209. Then came the King's Coronation. The Queen claimed to be also crowned as of right. The Privy Council decided against her claim. The 19th July, 1821, was fixed for the ceremony, and on the 11th July the Queen addressed a letter to Lord Sidmouth, stating her determination to be present at the ceremony.

The King would not tolerate the idea

*Court Journal.

We find some impartial observations on this event in No. 104 of the Spectator newspaper.

"It is probable that without some most notafor his daughter would have prevented the King ble folly on the part of the late Queen, respect from proceeding to extremities against her; and that the Bill of Pains and Penalties would never have been heard of had the Princess Charlotte lived. The death of that young and promising lady, which drowned England in tears, cut the last connecting link of sympathy between George the Fourth and his unfortunate consort. We will not absolve the King from blame in the persecution, for so in reality it was, carried on against the Queen. We believe it was carried on chiefly in obedience to his desire; and indeed the haste with which Ministers seized the first opportunity that presented itself of abandoning it, proves it was so. But that the error of the King, on the part of the Queen, no one, now, who though great, was palliated by gross misconduct coolly looks to the evidence, will deny."

of being crowned with the Queen; but his law officers found it impossible to get rid of the dilemma by any legal or moral means. The Coronation was accordingly delayed till the period above stated, when the King unable to brook further opposition, determined to exclude the Queen from the ceremony by irresponsible power. He did so; and the Coronation took place. The details of the pageant, and the magnificent items of the banquet in Westminster Hall would occupy many pages. The whole passed off well, although not equal to the anticipated effect.

During the ceremony, the Queen thought proper to present herself at the gates of the Abbey; when her entrance as Queen was refused! Never was Majesty so "fallen, fallen, fallen!" This however was the last of her humilia tions. The mortification of this moment dwelt on her mind; and, on July 30, while at Drury Lane Theatre, to cheat sorrow of a sunny smile— .

"Though the cold heart to ruin ran darkly the while."

the Queen was seized with illness, which terminated her life, August 7, at her residence Brandenburgh House, Hammersmith.

Since her arrival in England, she had enjoyed the high carnival of popularity, which Death did not terminate. She was buried at Brunswick; but her funeral procession through London was escorted by great multitudes, interrupted by disgraceful tumults and loss of life.

THE KING'S VISITS TO IRELAND, HANOVER, AND SCOTLAND.

The proceedings against the Queen, and the state of the country, had made the King extremely unpopular, for some time. He, however, strove to court public favour by a visit to Ireland, in the autumn of 1821. His reception was in the fullest vein of Irish enthusiasm, fraught with political calculation. The news of the Queen's death reached the King on his way to Ireland, but did not interfere with his enjoyments. Expectation had been greatly raised by this visit, and its disappointment brought serious consequences upon Ireland.

ters, the Marquess of Londonderry. The King was received with wisdom-tempered loyalty by the Scotch; and arrived in London on September 1.

RETIRED LIFE OF THE KING.

The King now lived in retirement, and rarely appeared in public. His Majesty, however, visited the Theatres during this year (1823) and was received with great enthusiasm.* This was early in December. In June, the King presented to the nation, the splendid Library of the late King, and Parliament voted 40,000l. for a building at the British Museum, to receive it. This year his Majesty discontinued his residence at Brighton, although in 1822 a new chas pel had been completed, adjoining the

Pavilion.

Little is known of the personal history of his late Majesty, during the last of his seclusion. After the King dis six years, beyond the immediate circle continued his visits to Brighton, he re sided at the Cottage in Windsor Park. In 1823, his Majesty held his first court at Windsor Castle. One of the first acts of Parliament, after his accession, was a vote of 300,000l. for renovating the Castle; and towards the end of 1828, the King first took up his residence there. Subsequent grants have been made; and the repairs are yet far from completed.

The Royal amusements in retirement have been of the same elegant, though, with some exceptions, less expensive character, than those in the early life of the late King. His Majesty again ap peared on the race-course, (at Ascot,) but merely as a spectator of the sport. Virginia Water, with its picturesque scenery of forest, lake, cascade, and favourite retreat; and here, under his landscape-garden, has been the King's structed a fishing temple, and another in own superintendence, have been conthe Chinese taste; but we suspect the Royal architect found more pleasure in designing the embellishments than the tasteful eye will ever derive from their addition to the scenery. With the substantial glory of Windsor Castle in the distance, and the poetical associations of the Forest in the vicinity, some surprise introduction of these fantastical buildmay be expressed at the inharmonious

On August 10, of the following year, 1822, the King visited Scotland: on his way thither his Majesty received the news of the suicide of one of his minis

spot. Aquatic excursions were his Majesty's favourite amusement in the sum, mer months; and his superb yacht, freighted with Royalty, and noble beauty

On the King's visit to Covent Garden Theatre, there were 4,255 persons present; and the receipts were 9717. 18s. 6d.

upon, with one exception, the finest artificial water in the kingdom,-must have been a voluptuous scene. Temporary pavilions, marquees, &c. were on such Occasions put up with magic celerity; whilst music, with its silver sounds, floated on the surface of the lake, or sighed with the breeze through the surrounding foliage; the royal band being a constant accompaniment in the lake excursions. Such a species of splendid seclusion might well win the sovereign from the cares of state, and political perplexities. Some may affect surprise at the monarch's choice;--but

How much do they mistake, how little know
Of kings and kingdoms, and the pains which
flow

From Royalty, who fancy that a crown,
Because it glistens, must be lined with down.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

The gem they worship, which a crown adorns, Nor once suspect that crown is lin❜d with thorns. The King's ruling passion for building was also in course of gratification. At his bidding, Carlton House, the scene of his youthful pleasures, was razed, and not one stone is left upon another, to record the site: within half a century it rose and disappeared, and all its glories passed away within the life-time of its royal occupant. A distant age may in vain seek for the metropolitan palace of George the Fourth; although Buckingham House has grown into an inharmonious architectural assemblage yet the taste alone belongs to the late reign. The truly national restoration of Windsor Castle, is a work of much more exalted character, and entitles George IV. to a proud rank in its archives.

One of the most recent works, under the superintendence of the late King, was the erection of a statue of his revered father in the Windsor domain. He did not live to see it completed, but is said to have expressed anxiety on this subject, in his last days-a tribute of filial affection which will perpetuate his memory in ages to come.

On January 5, 1827, the late King's nearest brother, the Duke of York, died. This loss occasioned his Majesty much affliction; but he might have said "His chair was ready first; and he is gone before us.

Of the political changes of the last few years, we do not speak in detail. The concession of the late King to the Catholic Claims need only be named.

A narrative of the King's health, from the commencement of the present year, and of his sufferings and death, will be found in No. 437 of the Mirror, where they occupy upwards of a dozen co

* Dr. Franklin on the death of his brother.

lumns; this precludes the necessity of any more than this general notice to complete the present Memoir.

THE reader is now in possession of the leading incidents of the personal history of our lamented Monarch..

We have not room for a summary of his reign; nor an estimate of his character, either public or private. Neither will our readers regret the absence of these details, especially as they have already occupied no inconsiderable portion of the public press.

In the progress of this Memoir, we have occasionally halted, as a traveller would on a journey, to admire or censure such acts of its distinguished subject as we have thought fit to set before our readers. The rest we had rather leave to the historian.

Perhaps, few of our contemporaries have spoken of the late Sovereign in terms of greater fidelity than the following:

"His disposition was marked by strong feelings both of kindness and resentment-his memory was tenacious of the sense of injury-he was deficient in that magnanimity which is swift to forget the occasion of displeasure. He was affable, and familiar in his address -fond of even facetious intercourse with those who were honoured with his personal intimacy. But, at the same time, jealous of his dignity beyond what so exalted a station required, and to any thoughtless violation of personal respect, even in moments when he appeared to lay aside the formal distinctions of rank and indulge in social merriment, he was sensitive in the extreme. Yet he had a heart feelingly alive to the claim of hu manity-a benevolence truly munificent -and a hand open as day to melting charity.'

6

"His fine taste led him to patronise the arts which embellish life more than any British Sovereign since the days of Charles the First-he was a patron and promoter of literature and of learned men; his collection of pictures afforded ample evidence of a chaste and cultivated taste in the fine arts. His love of architectural display, though in some instances indulging more in what was rather curious than correct, was, on the whole, associated with ideas of grandeur and splendid improvement, as the streets and buildings which he caused to be erected abundantly proved. Although he could not realise the boast of Augustus, that he found the metropolis of brick, and left it of marble,' yet, under his auspices, a great part of London un

derwent a transformation quite as unex'pected, and nearly as beautiful."*

* Morning Herald.

TITLES AND OTHER HONORARY DISTINCTIONS BORNE BY HIS LATE MAJESTY.

[THE last, and not the least affecting tribute to the memory of an illustrious man, is the Herald's duty of breaking the wands of office over his tomb, and proclaiming his several titles and honours. The following were those of his late Majesty :]

George (Augustus Frederick) IV. of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, Prince of Wales, Duke of Lancaster and Cornwall, Duke of Rothsay in Scotland, King of Hanover, Duke and Prince of Brunswick-Lunenburg, Arch-Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire, Sovereign Protector of the United States of the Ionian Islands, Viscount Launceston, Earl of Carrick in Ireland, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Great Steward of Scot land, Earl of Chester, Captain-General of the Honourable Artillery Company, Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Colonelin-Chief of the two Regiments of Life Guards, High Steward of Plymouth; Sovereign of the Orders of the Garter, Bath, Thistle, St. Patrick, Hanoverian Guelphic Order, St. Michael and St. George of the Ionian Isles; Visiter of University, Oriel, and Christ Church Colleges, Oxford, and of Trinity College, Cambridge; Knight of the Orders of the Golden Fleece of Spain and Austria, St. Stephen of Hungary, Pedro of Brazils, of St. Esprit of France, of Maria Theresa of Austria, of Charles the Third of Spain, of William of the Netherlands, of St. Hubert of Bavaria, of Gustavus Vasa of Sweden, and several others. His Majesty was created Prince of Wales 17th August, 1762; Regent, 5th February, 1811; King of Great Britain, 29th January, 1820; widower, 7th August, 1821, having married, 8th April, 1795, Queen Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, second daughter of Charles William Ferdinand, reigning Duke of BrunswickWolfenbuttle, deceased, by Princess Augusta, eldest daughter of Frederick Prince of Wales, and sister of King George III. Her Majesty was born 17th May, 1768, and died 7th August, 1821. The issue of this marriage was, Charlotte Augusta, Princess of Wales; born 7th January, 1796; died in child. bed, to the inexpressible grief of the nation, 6th November, 1817; having married, 2nd May, 1816, Prince Leopold

George Frederick, third son of Francis Frederick Anthony, reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg, deceased. The Prince was born 16th December, 1790; Royal Highness by patent, 7th April, 1818, when he was permitted to quarter the Royal Arms with his paternal coat.

THE LATE SIR EDMUND NAGLE.

Ar page 4, we noticed the recent death of Admiral Sir Edmund Nagle, as a source of considerable pain to his Majesty during his last illness. Sir Edmund was a Groom of the Bedchamber, and we learn from a Memoir that has since appeared, a nephew of the late Right Hon. Edmund Burke. The Admiral died at the age of 73. He had seen some service; but we can only notice him in connexion with the late Sovereign. In 1814, Sir Edmund had the distinguished honour of being nominated a Naval Aid-de-camp to his late Majesty, then Prince Regent. The flattering and distinguished marks of favour experienced by Sir Edmund Nagle from our Sovereign, had their origin in a casual interview with the Royal personage many years ago, while Prince of Wales. Sir Edmund and his lady had for some years been occasional visiters to Brighton, where they resided at an hotel; he had been mentioned to his Royal Highness as a most heroic and spirited seaman; and his frank and honest manners gaining upon the Prince, he very soon became a constant and indispensable guest at the Pavilion; and upon his Royal Highness becoming Regent, a more permanent attachment ensued, as he received an appointment in the Royal household soon after; and upon the demise of George III., he became enrolled among the Grooms of the Bedchamber to the new Sovereign. Sir Edmund was without guile or deception; but sometimes his good-nature and simplicity of mind led to his being made the vehicle of the artifices with which the waggish guests were inclined to enliven the princely table during the festive hour. So high did he stand in estimation with his Royal master, who loved his nautical humour, that of late years he had been almost domesticated with him.

No. 440,

Published with the present No. contains AN ENGRAVING OF THE PROCLAMATION

OF

HIS PRESENT MAJESTY, WILLIAM IV.

Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) London.