disciples. His bristly black person, and shagged breast quite open, and rarely purified by any ablutions, was wrapped in a foul linen nightgown, and his bushy hair dishevelled. In these cynic weeds, and with epicurean good-humour, did he dictate his politics, and in this school did the heir of the Crown attend his lessons and imbibe them."

"1

It was an amiable custom among the habitués of Brooks's to ridicule the King, to mention his name with irreverence, to crack ribald jests on his person and opinions, and to make bets on how soon the Prince would come into his inheritance and the Prince's friends receive their reward. The heirapparent at eighteen entered into a liaison with the famous "Peredita" Robinson.2

In 1783 "dear Charles," to use the expression with which the Prince in his letters addressed

Fox, was in power. In a few weeks the heirapparent would attain the age of twenty-one, and it was necessary that he should have a regular establishment. Eager to enlist the Prince's favour, the Shelburne Ministry had already suggested the handsome revenue of £100,000 a year. This was double the allowance enjoyed by the King's father

1

Walpole's Last Journals, vol. ii. pp. 598–9.

2 "My eldest son," wrote the King to North on the 20th August 1781, "got last year in an improper connection with an actress, a woman of indifferent character, through the friendly assistance of Lord Malden. He sent her letters and very foolish promises, which undoubtedly by her conduct she has cancelled.” What the King justly calls "the enormous sum" of £5000 was paid by him to recover the Prince's letters. Mrs. Robinson afterwards became the mistress of Fox.

FOX AND THE PRINCE

when Prince of Wales, and this in spite of the relevant circumstance that Frederick was married, and the father of a numerous family. Fox, however, thought he could give no less, although the majority of his colleagues thought the sum grossly extravagant. Fox declared that he had pledged his word to the Prince, and he would rather resign than break his promise. The Minister's proposal was made in camera. He does not seem to have thought it necessary to consult upon such a matter with his sovereign. When George learned some weeks later of the proposed arrangement (it was casually mentioned by the Duke of Portland in the royal closet) he was deeply offended. It was far, he said, from being either his wish or his policy to render his prodigal and disobedient son SO suddenly and so entirely independent of parental control.

In the next place, assuming the heir to the throne to have a fair claim to the liberal endowment proposed for him by Ministers, surely it was to his own father, and not to a party whose political opinions were diametrically opposed to those of his father, that the Prince should have been taught to feel himself indebted. Never, exclaimed the King in the bitterness of his feelings, could he forgive an administration that could sacrifice the interests of the public to gratify the wishes of an "ill-advised young man." He ironically asked the Duke of Portland if he intended setting up his son in opposition to himself."

1

1 Russell's Memorials of Fox, ii, 113.

2 Walpole's Last Journals, ii. 631.

The King's mind was soon made up. Taking into consideration, he said, the heavy expenses of the late war and the financial embarrassment under which the country at present laboured, he could on no account think of further burthening his subjects with an annual charge amounting to so large a sum as £100,000. To him £50,000 a year appeared quite a sufficient allowance for his son, and that sum he was ready to disburse out of his own Civil List.

After this, if the Ministers persisted in urging the larger sum their dismissal was a foregone conclusion. From this fate they were for the present saved by the Prince himself, who consented to release his friends from their obligation by accepting the King's offer of £12,000 a year from the Duchy of Cornwall, and £60,000 for his debts and present expenses.

1

As may be imagined, this episode had greatly distressed the King. In one of his interviews with the Duke of Portland he had actually burst into tears. In putting his son on the same allowance that his own father had enjoyed before him, and

1 "I believe," wrote Fox to Northington, "he was naturally very averse to it, but Colonel Lake and others whom he trusts persuaded him to it, and the intention of doing so came from him to us spontaneously. If it had not, I own I should have felt myself bound to follow his royal highness's line upon the subject, though I know that by so doing I should destroy the Ministry in the worst possible way, and subject myself to the imputation of the most extreme wrong-headedness. I shall always, therefore, consider the Prince's having yielded a most fortunate event, and shall always feel myself proportionally obliged to him and to those who advised him."-Russell's Memorials of Fox, ii. 117.