up with the less important details of fashionable life: but there is, at least, this consolation, that like the sun-beams breaking forth through the fluctuating clouds which conceal the luminary from our eyes—these specimens convince us, that the Princess Charlotte pursued the same course when hidden, as when revealed; and, had she lived to ascend the Throne, would then have issued with the greater glory from those secluded shades to which she delighted to retire. Since, however, the Divine Providence has been pleased to destroy all these fair expectations, we next turn our attention to the suddenness of her removal from the very summit of earthly happiness, and contemplate it as a signal proof of the utter instability of earthly things. The particulars of her illness, death, and funeral, possess a peculiar interest; and, it
may
be safely added, that so full and authentic an account has not bitherto appeared.
The histories of the Houses of Brunswick and Stuart are prefixed to these Memoirs; and the present state of the Succession to the
Throne is subjoined, in order to dissipate the universal alarm which naturally pervaded the public mind on account of this unexpected calamity. The former, also, is especially intended to shew the principles upon