conclusions contained in your address. I am inclined, in the first place, to think, though the opinion of the world be against me, that the long and continued connection which subsisted between your illustrious master and Mrs. Jordan, was, in the eye of morality, equivalent to a marriage, and as such it was registered in heaven. "It is true that the Royal Marriage Act, the policy of which may well be doubted, does certainly bar the house of Brunswick from allying any of its princely members even to the highest dame in the country, and that far less could a young, beautiful, and accomplished female commoner ever aspire to be lighted to the bridal chamber by the torch of Hymen; still, the interchange of affection, the communication of interests, the sharing of the honours of table and bed, the birth of children, are acts and circumstances which can be but feebly supported by the mere formal nuptial tie. It is not the pronouncing of a few set phrases, no, nor the conformity to a legal and outward mark of intention, that can beget so wide and dreary a vacuum in the intercourse of the sexes. Man clings to woman-his feelings and his wants attach him to her; and woman, fond, relying woman, leaves the guardian of her youth, and the sworn protector of her riper years, for him who captivates her heart and holds out the hand of welcome and protection. To Mrs. Jordan this hand was freely extended, and many, many were the years during which she lay in the bosom of your illustrious master. But 'tis truly said, "Affection changes as the mood inclines;' the domestic comforts began to wax cold, and a separation took place. What advice should you have then offered to your master? Ought you not to have dissuaded him, by kindling the sparks of half-buried love, from allowing a creature, now shorn of her attractions, and worn down by cares and toils in his services, again to offer herself before the public? You will answer, that ample provisions were made to avert this necessity. These, indeed, look fair upon paper, but what are the conditions with which they were clogged? If Mrs. Jordan were to return to the stage, £2,200 were to be struck off, for her daughters' portions and equipages, and she was to shun their society. Does a mother love to be torn from her offspring? Distracted between the two alternatives, either to lose their company, or to give up the hope of earning a livelihood for the children of Mr. Jordan, and of securing some independence, should his Grace be called to his audit, she at length preferred the latter course. Fifteen hundred pounds, therefore, became her sole dependence, but scarcely had she begun her career, than this sum was snatched from her by an unfortunate guarantee. She was therefore destitute. With your approbation she fled to France, and there lived in want and misery. Your amiable and illustrious master was not ignorant of her embarrassments, yet they were unheeded. How they affected her the letter she wrote from St. Cloud is too melancholy an evidence: My weak hand,' says she, 'is scarcely able to trace the still more feeble efforts of my mind.' It is well known that she sunk under the pressure of her situation; foreigners supplied her with rags to cover her squalid and emaciated frame, and the benevolence of foreigners was taxed to lay her ashes in the tomb. Why did not you, sir, communicate these circumstances to your master? Why did not you say that the annuity was to her a sealed book, that she was wretched and forlorn in a foreign land? Had your amiable and illustri 'Surely this is violent exaggeration. All these rags flutter only in the writer's imagination. She never wanted anything, and her companion was a gentlewoman. — AUTHOR. And ous master heard this tale of woe, he must have flown to her relief, repaid the large sums which he had drawn from her theatrical talents, or at least taken some steps to withdraw the arrest upon the annuity. Surely you must have known that a slanderous world would have interpreted your apathy into the apathy of your patron, and that there was risk, however pure and spotless the house of Brunswick is, of a shadow passing across the lustre of one of its brightest ornaments. busy tongues, too, might have said that the bond had a careful provision, by which legal or voluntary assignees were to annul its efficacy, and that the prospect of these had swayed the noble-hearted and munificent granter in amplifying its contents. Unjustifiable and malicious as these allusions were, the credulous public might have given them ear, and it was your duty to have prevented them. You are not entitled, in exculpation, to plead the profuse allowance of two hundred pounds sterling afterward granted to Mrs. Jordan's daughters. Is it any excuse to an ungrateful country that monuments are reared and pæans sung to one whose lamp had expired for lack of the oil of subsistence? "The Athenians honoured their Socrates after compelling him to drink the hemlock-juice. |