declaration of the duke to the Goldsmiths' Company, on their
presenting him with the freedom of their society.

Having sketched the principal circumstances which appertain to what
may be termed the _public career_ of his royal highness, it is our
less pleasant, though equally important, duty, to notice his _domestic
life_; for obvious reasons our details will be less perfect. It is
a portion of the duke's life which cannot be entirely passed over in
silence, since it must be conceded, that much of his unpopularity may
be traced to this source. Neither the court nor the people of England
are so ascetic as not to extenuate the indiscretions of royalty; but
this charitable estimate of misgivings does not extend to approbation
of any culpable dereliction of social and moral duties. The fact of
his royal highness having a large family, by a lady now no more, is
too well known to be concealed; but the odium attached to his royal
highness for his participation in a certain scene of license and
poverty, has doubtless been over-rated; but his proportion must be
left for the biographer of a future age to settle; and we sincerely
hope that, to quote a contemporary, "when the time arrives that the
historian shall feel himself at liberty to enter into details, and
sift matters to the bottom, his royal highness will come out of the
investigation, (not without some blame, for which of us is faultless,
but) with a character unsullied _even in this respect_, and in
all other respects irreproachable." Mankind are, more or less, the
children of error; but their propensity to exaggerate human frailty
deserves to be reprobated for its cruelty and wickedness.

The happy marriage of his royal highness, to which event we have
already alluded, has, we trust, been the means of clearing away the
prejudices which the duke's former conduct may have engendered.

There is a tide in the affairs of man,
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.

This period of his royal highness' life has probably arrived, and
his appointment to the important office of Lord High Admiral will
doubtless accelerate the beneficial effect. The public are perhaps
sanguine in their expectations; but from early and subsequent proofs
of the duke's devotion and attachment to the service over which he now
presides, we have reason to think they will not be disappointed. It
has been shown that his royal highness neither wanted zeal nor ability
at any stage of his life,