UNHAPPY CAROLINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4530, 13 November 1930, Page 1

UNHAPPY CAROLINE.

A QOBGN YET NOT A QUEEN. 'Poor Caroline of Brunswick! And yet the epithet hardly seems to fit the eouirageous woman who was loved by the people and hated by her infamous husband; it was almost a compliment to he hated by George, Prince of Wales, Prince Regent and George IV. At any rate she was unfortunate (says “John o’ London’s Weekly”). Her story is clearly told, with unfailing interest and just sufficient detail, by his Honour Sir Edward Parry in “Queen Caroline.” “I set out,” says the author, “to draw a portrait of Caroline the woman rather than to discuss the political history in which her life was entangled;” hut, lie adds, “you can never get away from the foulness of political conspiracies.” The Prince married Caroline, to put if crudely, for her money; her fortune would pay off a few of his debts. The fact that he was already married to Mrs. Fit/.herbert did not deter him. When she was “formally introduced to her future husband” he embraced her and abruptly strode away. Caroline, an observant young woman, saw that lie had been drinking, and ■she also saw that lie was fat. It is quite probable that, miicourtiel'iike, she made fun of his fatness, which may have partly accounted or his insane hatred of her. For his hatred was insane. He refused to like with her, he tried to I .take her child from her, and when she left England to escape from his persecution he paid, at the public, expense, a disreputable horde of spies, to invent disgusting stories of unchastity about her. 'These witnesses completely broke down in cross-examination when the Bill of Pains and Penalties — miscalled the trial of iCSaroline — ame be fore the House of Lords — and was dropped. REPUNED ADMITTANCE. No doubt Caroline Was a little indiscreet; she was not like her husband’s tame mistresses; she could light with dignity and tenacity. And she was not altogether dignified in her private life; she was fond of romps and impromptu dances; she over-dressed —or un-der-dressed —and she painted and powdered too lavishly. She was also charitable, and given to good works. It was stated against her, on the authority of the perjured Lady Douglas, that a little boy whom, she had adopted and educated with other children at Greenwich was her child; this was conclusively disproved. When the Prince Regent became King, 'Caroline returned to England to claim her place as Queen. He would neither see her nor admit her to the coronation ceremonies. Even when she died, weary and content to leave the world, at the age of lifty-three, he must needs harry her body on its way to the coast for transmission to her native soil for burial. He was afraid of demonstrations against himself if the hearse passed through the city; hut in spite of Ills efforts to prevent it the ryovd had its way. Judge Barry, like Brougham who defended the Quebu before the House of Lords, seems to have begun his investigations with a slight suspicion that she might not have been entirely innocent, but ended them with the conviction that she* was.