There was Duchess of

some excellent music at the

A Madame Vera, who was on the stage, but is now married to an Italian gentleman, and is quite a lady in mind and manners, sang delightfully. She has one of those deep toned voices so rare in a woman, and which I admire so much. Perhaps a critic might have said her voice was rather too coarse. On the whole, I greatly prefer Italian society to that of the motley English assembled here at present; for whatever vices or scandal may exist among themselves, does not appear; and foreigners are not annoyed, when in their company, by listening to malevolent gossip.

On the whole I am pleased with my séjour here. I live with many of the cardinals, some of whom are both learned and pleasant persons, combining the elegance of the scholar with that true and unaffected spirit of philanthropy which renders them excellent members of society. Some among them it must be confessed are only roguish

was

said, owes the possession of her ducal coronet to the diplomacy of her clever mother. The present Duke of commissioned by his deceased mother to carry a parcel to Lady who received the noble messenger in widow's weeds, and so captivated, or deceived the new heir, by her grief for the loss of her affianced husband, that he offered her his hand; which the Lady, nothing loth, accepted, and so became Duchess of

looking priests; but the greater part deserve the favourable opinions I have recorded of them, and the Cardinal Gonsalvi is a noble exception to the mean ideas attached to his order; while the Pope is, in very deed, the father of his people, and a man every way worthy of being respected. There is a most amiable Archbishop, who is very anxious for my conversion to the "true faith." He gives me all sorts of books to read, and Lord M— strives hard also to persuade me to become a catholic.

Mr. North is arrived he is very amusing. He told me he had dined two days with his fellow servant when he was chamberlain, and now his successor, and that he was very well behaved. Captain Pechell would not let all the company dine with him on board of his ship; the Princess, therefore, would not sail with him; and nobody knows exactly what is become of her. It is very melancholy.

Mr. N. told me, that Lord W——— alighted immediately from his travelling carriage, chez G F―― and repeated the proposals he had made before he went-that the parties came out arm in arm from Devonshire House, and that her trousseau is preparing-that the—are indignant, and will have nothing to say to the marriage. This is all for the sake of filthy lucre, for the girl wants no

thing. Besides, her family is as good as his; and after a man has been very near marrying a silk stocking washer, they ought to be too happy to get, "Une nièce du grand Wellington."

over

I had a long confab with Mr. W things past, present and to come; and in speaking of the Princess of Wales, he told me a curious circumstance which had come under his own knowledge, and which is another proof to add to the heap of petty wrongs, which the Regent caused to be done to his unfortunate victim. When White's ball was finally arranged, and the poor Duke of Devonshire, who had been fretted to death by the parties having cut down some of his fine trees in making the temporary rooms in the gardens of Burlington House, was reconciled, at last, to that misfortune-a message came from a great person to the committee, to desire to know what style of company they meant to ask to their ball, or some clumsy hint of this sort; which the committee however understood, for they sent back word that they meant to request the Regent himself to invite all the Royalties whom he wished should be there, and that they should send a number of tickets to him for that purpose. But this was not deemed secure enough to exclude the obnoxious individual; for some member, a friend to the Regent, (it was said to be Lord Y-) made a

motion that no member should give away his tickets except to his relations, or that some line of rank should be drawn, such as that, no one but peers' daughters should be invited; so as to exclude canaille and higher rank likewise. Upon this Lord S--n got up and said, it was easy to see these confused proposals were meant to exclude the Princess of Wales ;* and he observed that as one of the members, every ticket he subscribed for was his own, and every one of them he intended to send to the Princess; to be disposed of as she pleased. Fourteen other members said the same; but as they were not the majority, and as those who were to pay for the diversion were not to have leave to do what they pleased at it, they determined they would give no ball at all. "I for one," added Mr. North, " quite rejoiced that for once the Regent's mean spite should fail in its object. Ah!" said he, " I could write a book on that man. I never heard of such dirty motives, except in a foolish novel, where the

*This independence and boldness of principle does Lord Sefton great credit, and though he was one of that political party who espoused the Princess's cause in opposition to the Regent's, yet I believe he acted on this occasion from the dictates of his own good heart. Lord S. was famous as the gastronome of his day; but in private life he was much beloved, and his family circle was ever proverbial for its harmony and happiness.

characters are all devils or angels, such as one never looks for in real life. Certainly his rancour is unlike the noble insouciance of the common run of men and women of the world, who are content to keep out of the way of those they hate, and think that revenge sufficient."

I fully agreed with Mr. N.; but then I reminded him of what could be said on both sides of the question; and it ended as usual, by our shaking our heads, and sighing. Mr. North heard from England the other day, that there are reports of great rebellions on the part of the bride elect, who will agree to nothing unless she has it all her own way; a distinct establishmentnever to be made to go abroad-and several other not unwise provisos-or no Prince Leopold; and that she will not say yes at all, till she has seen the Grand Duke Nicolas, whose picture the Duchess of Oldenburgh had shown her, and who they say is a very handsome man. But in all her stipulations, none have transpired connected either with natural affection, or feelings of a right nature towards her poor mother. I assured Mr. N. I thought from all I had ever seen or known, the Princess Charlotte loved her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales with a strong degree of affection, but that the latter had done all she could to destroy those feelings, by leaving Eng