er-in-chief," said the young officer, like a second Seid," should command me to do a thing which I knew to be civilly illegal, I should not scruple to obey him, and consider myself as relieved from all responsibility by the orders of my military superior." "So would not I," returned the gallant and intelligent officer who maintained the opposite side of the question. "I should rather prefer the risk of being shot for disobedience by my commanding officer, than hanged for transgressing the laws, and violating the liberties of the country.""You have answered like yourself," said his Royal Highness, whose attention had been attracted by the vivacity of the debate; " and the officer would deserve both to be shot and hanged that should act otherwise. I trust all British officers would be as unwilling to execute an illegal command, as I trust the Commander-in-Chief is incapable of issuing one." The religion of the Duke of York was sincere, and he was particularly attached to the doctrines and constitution of the Church of England. In this his Royal Highness strongly resembled his father; and, like his father, he entertained a conscientious sense of the obligations of the Coronation Oath, which prevented him from acquiescing in the further relaxation of the laws against Catholics. We pronounce no opinion on the justice of his Royal Highness's sentiments on this important point; but we must presume them to have been sincerely entertained, since they were expressed at the hazard of drawing down upon his Royal Highness much odium from a party equally zealous and powerful. In his person and countenance, the Duke of York was large, stout, and manly; he spoke with some of the indistinctness of utterance peculiar to his late father, rather than with the precision of enunciation, which distinguishes the King, his Royal Brother. Indeed, his Royal Highness resembled his late Majesty perhaps the most of any of George the Third's descendants. His family affections were strong, and the public cannot have forgotten the pious tenderness with which he discharged the duty of watching the last days of his Royal Father, darkened as they were by corporeal blindness and mental incapacity. No pleasure, no business, was ever known to interrupt his regular visits to Windsor, where his unhappy parent could neither be grateful for, nor even sensible of, his unremitted attention. The same ties of affection united his Royal Highness to other members of his family, and particularly to its present Royal Head. Those who witnessed the coronation of his present Majesty, will long remember, as the most interesting part of that august ceremony, the cordiality with which his Royal Highness the Duke of York performed his act of homage, and the tears of affection which were mutually shed between the Royal Brethren. We are aware, that under this heavy dispensation, his Majesty will be chief mourner, not in name only, but in all the sincerity of severed affection. The King's nearest brother in blood was also his nearest in affection; and the subject who stood next to the throne, was the individual who would most willingly have laid down his life for its support. In social intercourse the Duke of York was kind, courteous, and condescending; general attributes, we believe, of the Blood Royal of England, and well befitting the Princes of a free country. It may be remembered, that when, in " days of youthful pride," his Royal Highness had wounded the feelings of a young nobleman, he never thought of sheltering himself behind his rank, but manfully gave reparation by receiving the (wellnigh fatal) fire of the offended party, though he declined to return it. We would here gladly conclude the subject; but to complete a portrait, the shades as well as the lights must be inserted, and in their foibles as well as their good qualities, Princes are the property of history. Occupied perpetually with official duty, which, to the last period of his life, he discharged with the utmost punctuality, the Duke of York was peculiarly negligent of his own affairs; and the embarrassments which arose in consequence were considerably increased by an imprudent passion for the turf and for deep play. Those unhappy propensities exhausted the funds with which the nation supplied him liberally, and sometimes produced extremities which must have been painful to a man of a temper so honourable. The exalted height of his rank, which renders it doubtless more difficult to look into and regulate domestic expenditure, together with the engrossing duties of his Royal Highness's office, may be admitted as alleviations, but not apologies for such imprudence. A criminal passion of a different nature proved, at one part of the Duke's life, fraught with consequences likely to affect his character, destroy the confidence of the country in his efforts, and blight the fair harvest of national gratitude, for which he had toiled so hard. It was a striking illustra tion of the sentiment of Shakspeare: "The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices The Duke of York, married to Frederica, Princess Royal of Prussia, Sept. 29, 1791, lived with her on terms of decency, but not of affection; and his Royal Highness had formed with a female called Clarke, a connexion, justifiable certainly neither by the laws of religion nor morality. Imprudently he suffered this woman to express her wishes to him for the promotion of a few officers, to whose preferment there could be no other objection than that they were recommended by such a person. It ought doubtless to have occurred to the Duke, that the solicitations of a woman like this were not likely to be disinterested. In fact, she seems to have favoured one or two persons, as being her paramours several for mere prospect of gain, which she had subordinate agents to hunt out for, and one or two from a real sense of good-nature and benevolence. The examination of this woman and her various profligate intimates before the House of Commons, occupied that assembly for nearly three months, with an intenseness of anxiety seldom equalled. The Duke of York was acquitted from the motion brought against him by a majority of eighty; but so strong was the outcry against him without doors, so much was the nation convinced that all Mrs Clarke said was true, and so little could they be brought to doubt that the Duke of York was a conscious and participant actor in all that person's schemes, that his Royal Highness, seeing his utility obstructed by popular prejudice, tendered to his Majesty the resignation of his office, which was accepted accordingly, March 20, 1809. And thus, as, according to Solomon, a dead fly can pollute the most precious unguent, was the honourable fame, acquired by the services of a lifetime, obscured by the consequences of what the gay world would have termed a venial levity. The warning to those of birth and eminence, is of the most serious nature. This step had not been long taken, when the mist in which the question was involved began to disperse. The public accuser, in the House of Commons, Colonel Wardle, was detected in some suspicious dealings with the principal witness, Mrs Clarke. It became manifest that she was brought to the bar as a bribed witness, and it began to be remarked that a great part of her testimony was only supported by that of her own visitors and confidants. Next occurred, in the calm moments of retrospect, the great improbability that his Royal Highness ever could know on what terms |