nd their report so greatly confirmed them that, even
before the King's death, he laid it before the Prime-minister, with a
demand that he should at once take steps to procure him a divorce, in
which he professed to believe that the Princess herself would willingly
acquiesce. He was so far correct, that her legal advisers were willing
to advise her to consent to "a formal separation, to be ratified by an
act of Parliament." But such an arrangement fell far short of the
Prince's wishes. The Princess Charlotte, the heiress to his throne, had
died in childbirth two years before, and he was anxious to be set free
to marry again. The ministers were placed in a situation of painful
embarrassment. There was an obvious difficulty in pointing out to one
who already stood toward them in the character of their sovereign, and
who must inevitably soon become so, that his own conduct made the
prospect of obtaining a divorce from the Ecclesiastical Courts hopeless;
and the only other expedients calculated to attain his end, "a direct
application to Parliament for relief, founded upon the special
circumstances of the case," or "a proceeding against the Princess for
high-treason," were but little more promising. Indeed, it was afterward
ascertained to be the unanimous opinion of the judges that the charge of
high-treason could not be legally sustained, since the individual who
was alleged to be the partner in the criminality imputed to her was a
foreigner, and therefore, "owing no allegiance to the crown," could not
be said to have violated it.[184]

He chafed under their resistance to his wish, and would have deprived
them of their offices, could he have relied on any successors whom he
might give them proving more complaisant; but, before he could make up
his mind, the death of George III. forced upon both him and them the
consideration of his and his wife's position, since it made it necessary
to remodel the prayer for the royal family, and instantly to decide
whether her name and title as Queen were to be inserted in it. He was
determined that they should not be mentioned; and, as the practice of
praying for a Queen Consort by name appeared not to have been
invariable, they were willing to gratify him on this point, though it
was evidently highly probable that she would consider this as a fresh
insult, sufficient to justify her in carrying out a threat, which she
had recently held out, of returning to England. Her ablest advisers did