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GENEROUS SYMPATHY.

midshipmen were at the dreadful sentence, they knew not how to obtain a mitigation of it; since Mr. Lee was ordered for exetion, while they had not time to make an appeal to the Admiralty, and despaired of a petition to Admiral Rowley. However, his Royal Highness generously stepped forth, drew up a petition, to which he was the first to set his name, and solicited the rest of the midshipmen in port to follow his example. He, then, himself carried the petition to Admiral Rowley, and, in the most pressing and urgent manner, begged the life of an unhappy brother; in which he succeeded, and Mr. Lee is reprieved. We all acknowledge our warmest and grateful thanks to our humane, our brave and worthy Prince, who has so nobly exerted himself in preserving the life of his brother sailor."

Thus terminated, more gloriously to himself than to his country, the first period of the life of Prince WilliamHenry. The crown which he was destined by Providence, in the course of half a century, to wear, had, indeed, now lost one of its jewels; but it was not a little remarkable, that he alone, of all his family, should have appeared in battle, to preserve the diadem entire.

Here we shall be excused for concluding with a singular anecdote. Mariners are much given to put faith in omens, and, just before the close of this disastrous war, they had one exactly to their humour. At the beginning of 1782, the Atlas, of ninety-guns, was launched at Chatham : when they came to ship her bowsprit, the figure stood so high, that it was necessary to cut away part of the globe upon his shoulders; and that part happened to be North America. Sailors regarded this as inauspicious; and time has not weakened their credulity.

THE PRINCE ARRIVES AT WINDSOR.

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CHAPTER IV.

A. D. 1783 TO 1785.

THEIR Majesties were at St. James's when the Prince arrived at Windsor: on which, a messenger was despatched to town with the welcome intelligence; and the whole Royal Family, then in England, were soon collected, forming a happy circle on the joyful occasion.

His Royal Highness had not as yet attained his eighteenth year; yet, of him it might have been said, that

"Qui mores hominum multorum vidit, et urbes :"

he had seen human life in various forms, and witnessed wonderful changes.

The piping-time of peace, however, did not repress his ardour, or induce him to seek pleasure in the lap of repose and luxury. As much at his own desire, as that of his Royal Father, the Prince made preparations for a visit to Germany.

Nelson, writing to his friend Captain Locker, on the 13th of July, says,-" On Monday or Tuesday I am to be at Windsor, to take leave of Prince William, previous to his embarkation for the Continent. Captain Merrick, a young man of Lord Hood's bringing up, is to be with him."

On the morning of the 31st, his Royal Highness left Buckingham House for Greenwich, accompanied by his

94

THE PRINCE VISITS THE CONTINENT.

old tutor, General Bude, and Captain Merrick. At the Hospital, the Prince was received by Sir Hugh Palliser the Governor, and conducted into the grand councilroom, where he was introduced to the several officers respectively. His Royal Highness was afterwards attended by the Governor to the Painted Hall, and the other principal parts of that noble building. Having inspected the several departments of the Hospital, he was shewn, at his own request, the apartments of the officers, and those of the pensioners. About half-after twelve, the Prince embarked on board the Princess Augusta yacht, Captain George Vandeput, which fell down the river the same tide; and, on the 1st of August, arrived at Stadt, where his Royal Highness was waited upon by the Regency and citizens, with every mark of respect. The next day he departed for Hanover, and there met his brother, Frederick, the secular Bishop of Osnaburg, whom he had not seen for nearly three years.

After a short stay at Hanover, Prince William, under the travelling name of Lord Fielding, visited Berlin, with his brother; and at Potsdam they had an interview with the great Frederick; who, notwithstanding his advanced age, still retained his mental energies and bodily activity. The old king had, for some time, been employing himself on two objects, neither of which, at an earlier period of his life, occupied much of his attention. These were agriculture and commerce. "The former," he said, "while it furnished profitable employment for the soldier in peace, tended to enrich their superiors, and benefited the nation-the latter promoted industry, and gave encouragement to the spirit of enterprise." At this time Frederick had the gratification of seeing the fruits of his pacific conduct, so different from that career in which he

had gained false glory, and the equivocal appellation of the Great.

The maritime provinces were no less flourishing than the interior; and, in the Prussian ports, which, some years before, had scarcely any shipping, there were above fifteen hundred vessels, which gave employment to fifteen thousand men. These solid improvements drew from the veteran monarch the confession, that wars are terrible, and, at the best, nothing but a waste of blood. Yet he still kept up his annual reviews on an extensive scale, in Silesia; whither he was attended by the two English Princes, and their uncle, the Duke of Brunswick.

They repeated their visit on the same occasion, the next year. But the appearance of the army, and their conduct, gave so little satisfaction to the king, that, after his return to Potsdam, he wrote the following angry letter to the commander-in-chief:

"MY DEAR GENERAL VON TAUENZEIN,

"I WILL herewith repeat with my pen, what I mentioned to you when I was in Silesia-that my army there has never been in such bad discipline as it is at present. If I were to make shoemakers and tailors generals, the regiment could not be worse. The regiment of Tadden's is not to be compared to the most insignificant land-battalion of a Prussian army. Rolkirch and Schwartz are not worth much, neither. Zaremba is in such disorder, that I intend to send one of the officers of my own regiment to bring it in order again. The fellows in Von Erlach's regiment, are so spoiled by smuggling, that they have not the appearance of soldiers. Keller's is like unto a parcel of rough unmannerly boors. Hager's has a miserable commander; and your regiment is very middling. It is only with Count Von Anhalt, Wendessein, and Heinrich, I can be satisfied. See-so are the details. I will now describe the manœuvres.

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THE PRINCE'S TRAVELS.

"Schwartz makes the unpardonable mistake near Neisse not to cover sufficiently the heights on the left wing-if it had been in earnest, the battle would have been lost.

"Erlach, by Breslaw, instead of covering the army, by placing troops on the heights, marched with his division, like cabbages and turnips, in defile; so that, if it had been in earnest, the cavalry of the enemy would have cut the infantry to pieces, and the battle have been lost.

"I don't intend to lose battles through the laziness of my Generals; therefore, I herewith command you, that, in case I am alive next year, you march with the army between Breslaw and Olaw; and, four days before I come to the camp, that you manœuvre with the ignorant Generals, and shew them their duty."

The winter being exceedingly severe, not only in Germany, but all over the Continent, prevented the royal traveller from proceeding, as he intended, into Switzerland and Italy. His time, therefore, was chiefly divided between Brunswick, Hanover, and Osnaburg; with which last city he was particularly pleased, on account of its handsome structures, and the liberal spirit and activity of the inhabitants. At Lunenberg, he applied to the study of the German system of military tactics, both in principle and practice, as essentially necessary to a thorough knowledge of the science of war. When the spring opened, his Royal Highness left Hanover for Gottingen; where he attended the lectures of Michaelis, and one or two other professors. From thence he went to Cassel, and there met a welcome reception from the Electoral family, to whom he was nearly related, and who were then in deep affliction for the recent loss of the eldest son of the Hereditary Prince.

After crossing the Rhine at Manheim, the Prince and his friends pursued their course, in the direction of that