, the intercourse between the
Princess of Wales and her daughter, the Princess Charlotte, was
subjected to regulation and restraint; they were allowed at first a
single weekly interview, which, for some doubtless sufficient reason,
was afterwards reduced to a fortnightly meeting.[25]

While pitying the mother, we seem scarcely justified in assuming, with
our present knowledge of her obstinate nature and disposition, that
these restrictions were imposed without some just and sufficient reason.
It would seem to have come to the knowledge of the Princess Caroline in
1813, that the interdiction was intended "to be still more rigidly
enforced,"[26] for on the 14th of January of that year we find that she
wrote a letter to the Prince Regent, in which she complained that the
separation of mother and daughter was equally injurious to her own
character and to the education of her child. Adverting to the
restricted intercourse between them, she observed that in the eyes of
the world, "this separation of a daughter from her mother would only
admit ... of a construction fatal to the mother's reputation. Your Royal
Highness," she continued, "will pardon me for adding that there is no
less inconsistency than injustice in this treatment. He who dares advise
your Highness to overlook the evidence of my innocence, and disregard
the sentence of complete acquittal which it [_i.e._ the inquiry of 1806]
produced--or is wicked and false enough still to whisper suspicions in
your ear, betrays his duty to you, sir, to your daughter, and to your
people, if he counsels you to permit a day to pass _without a further
investigation of my conduct_.... 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 culpable _than the
perjuries of my suborned traducers represented me_, and held up to the
world as a mother who may not enjoy the society of her only child."

No possible objection can be taken to this letter; indeed, by whomsoever
it was penned, taken altogether it was an admirable composition. If,
however, we are to credit the statement of Mr. Whitbread, made in the
House on the 5th of March, 1813, it was thrice returned to the writer
unopened. But the princess, as we shall find, was not a person to be
intimidated by any amount of rebuffs. "At length that letter [we quote
Mr. Whit