e
foremost of her champions. From this time the agitation in the public
mind hourly increased, till it began to assume a most threatening
aspect. Nothing was left undone by the Queen to ingratiate herself with
the people; and, as a natural result, she never appeared publicly
without creating intense excitement. When in the streets, her horses
were taken from her carriage, and she was drawn in triumph, by scores
of shouting adherents, through a clamorous mob. Before the alderman's
house in South Audley Street stood hour after hour a shouting myriad,
excited to a pitch of frenzy to which no description can do justice, by
the appearance on the balcony of a stout lady, in a large hat
surmounted by a plume of feathers.

On the day of her arrival in town, the King sent a message to the
Houses of Lords and Commons, to the effect that the step taken by the
Queen had forced him to bring before the consideration of Parliament,
certain papers detailing her conduct since her departure from England.
The Queen, on the same day, sent a message by Mr. Brougham, in her
usual high tone, expressing a desire for an open investigation. The
friends of both parties were striving to spare the country the
threatened exposure; and on the 9th, the Queen so far complied with the
suggestions of her most sensible advisers as to write a moderate letter
to Lord Liverpool, expressing her inclination to consider any
proposition the Government were disposed to make in behalf of their
Sovereign. Communications were exchanged; the Ministers repeated their
liberal offer, and the Queen repeated her indignant refusal. How this
sad business was felt at the period may be gathered from the letters
that follow. But the first expresses a belief, then generally gaining
ground, of a change in the Government in favour of the Grenville party.
It would appear as if a proposal of the kind had been submitted to the
head of the family, but the sensible advice here given must at once
have put an end to such a negotiation:--

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, 12 at night, June 11.

We have both talked this thing over as fully as our materials
enabled us to do, and it is our decided opinion that the King has,
and can have in the present moment, only the alternative of putting
himself fairly and fully into the hands of one or other of the two
great parties; and that it would be deceiving him, and trifling
with a mos