, or to
a malicious design of injuring the popularity of his majesty and his
ministers; and when he wrote to the king, explaining his motives, it was
replied, that if he chose to take a rash step, he must likewise take the
consequences. His conduct, indeed, seems to have increased the distance
which had too long subsisted between the prince and his father; for when
he hastened to Windsor, on occasion of his majesty's escape from the
attempt made upon his life by Margaret Nicholson, although he was
received by the queen, the king refused to see him. But this may have
arisen chiefly from his profligate connexions, which must have been
exceedingly offensive to a mind of such moral and religious mould as
his majesty possessed: a sacrifice made for the payment of debts could
scarcely thus have acted upon honourable feelings, unless, indeed,
the king looked upon it in connexion with his dissipated and gambling
habits. This subject, however, in the dearth of more important, together
with that of the impeachment of Hastings, formed the staple of public
and private discussion; some taking part with the king, and some with
the prince, as best suited their respective views or passions. It would
appear that both Fox and Sheridan assured the prince that his popularity
was so great, as to hold out a certain hope that a money-vote might be
carried, despite his father and the chancellor of the exchequer; and
that having gained his assent to the plan, great exertions were made to
gain the support of the independent members of parliament, although
they lacked the means of purchasing the votes of these said "independent
members." In the meantime the Duke of Orleans, Philippe Egalite, who was
one of the most intimate friends of the Prince of Wales, and had betted
large sums of money with him this year at Newmarket and Epsom, offered
to relieve his necessities by a loan of French money. The prince
appears to have been inclined to accept the offer; but his Whig friends
discovered it, and convinced him of its impropriety, as it had a
perilous tendency of placing the future sovereign of England in a state
of dependence on the House of Bourbon. But the Whigs in thus advising
the prince, had a care for their own honour as well as his future
interests: had they allowed him to take the money, no matter upon what
conditions, an ill savour would have been brought upon their names as
a party; a savour more odious than that which attaches itself to the