ew that his
majesty had resolved not to recommend its attention to the members
of parliament. Nevertheless, though the prince knew of his father's
estrangement from him, he afterwards sent Lord Southampton, his groom
of the stole, to lay the state of his affairs before his majesty. Lord
Southampton was graciously received; but the schedule of his royal
highness's debts was too long to admit of a prompt reply, and he did not
obtain any definite answer to his application. A month elapsed, and then
the king informed his son by letter, that he could sanction neither a
motion in the commons for the increase of his income, nor a motion for a
grant to discharge his debts. For some time a plan had been recommended
by his friends, the Whigs, for the dismissal of the officers of his
court, and the reduction of the establishment of his household to that
of a private gentleman; and this the prince now resolved to carry into
effect. Coach-horses, race-horses, and saddle-horses were all sold; a
stop was put to the works at Carleton-house; the state-apartments were
shut up; the prince dismissed his officers; and he descended so low as
to live like a private gentleman. By this step his estimated savings
were L40,000 per annum; and this was to be set apart, and vested in
trustees, for the payment of his debts. The act was a noble one if the
motive was pure; but that demands a doubt. His majesty had before been
declaimed against as parsimonious and harsh; and he was now represented
as an unnatural parent and a merciless miser, who was hording up
millions, which he had neither the taste nor the spirit to employ;
while, on the other hand, the prince was held up as a living miracle of
honour, and a martyr to his high principles and delicate feelings. The
advisers of the young prince, doubtless, foresaw that this would be the
consequence if he was compelled to make the sacrifice; and the prince
himself could scarcely be a stranger to their expectations. But though,
for the honour of natural affection, he may be acquitted of the charge
of wishing to bring his father into contempt, yet it seems clear he had
an idea that by sinking into obscurity, and, by consequence, lowering
the dignity of the high rank to which he belonged, he should obtain both
an increase of income and a grant for the payment of his debts. But
the event did not justify such an anticipation. All the members of his
father's court attributed his act to childish spite and spleen