to our officer, but merely state that, first, a coldness, and then a quarrel, having occurred between him and the object of his attentions, he shortly after forsook her society altogether, and was soon after found most actively employed in that scene so natural to his genius, and so conducive to his own fame and his country's glory.

The following is a description of Sir Sidney's appearance at the time of his acquaintance with the princess, to whom the world so generally gave him as a favoured lover. He had an air of general smartness, and was extremely gentlemanly in his deportment. He had a good-humoured, agreeable manner with him, with a certain dash and turn of chivalry that was very taking with the ladies. We are not using our own words, but the very expressive ones of a good judge upon these matters.

He used then to wear mustachios; they were not then vulgarised, as now; which fashion he had adopted when so much associated with the Turks. He was about the middle height, rather under than over, and of slender construction, which much helped his activity. He was generally very showily dressed, perhaps with some singularity; but there was not a particle of coxcombry about him. In features, he something resembled Bernadotte, though with not so promi

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nent a facial angle. The countenance of Southey the poet still more closely resembled that of Sir Sidney Smith, when both were in their younger days.

The following is the best means in our possession of vindicating Sir Sidney Smith's character, being an extract from the letter dated 2d of October, 1806, that the Princess of Wales sent to his Majesty George the Third.

"And I will begin with those which respect Sir Sidney Smith, as he is the person first mentioned in the deposition of W. Cole.

"W. Cole says, "that Sir Sidney Smith first visited at Montague-house in 1802; that he observed that the princess was too familiar with Sir Sidney Smith. One day, he thinks in February, he (Cole) carried into the blue room to the princess some sandwiches which she had ordered, and was surprised to see that Sir Sidney was there. He must have come in from the park. If he had been let in from Blackheath he must have passed through the room in which he (Cole) was waiting. When he had left the sandwiches, he returned, after some time, into the room, and Sir Sidney Smith was sitting very close to the princess on the sofa: he (Cole) looked at her Royal Highness; she caught his eye, and saw that he noticed the manner in

which they were sitting together; they appeared both a little confused."

"R. Bidgood says also, in his deposition on the 6th of June, (for he was examined twice,) "that it was early in 1802 that he first observed Sir Sidney Smith come to Montague-house. He used to stay very late at night; he had seen him early in the morning there; about ten or eleven o'clock. He was at Sir John Douglas's, and was in the habit, as well as Sir John and Lady Douglas, of dining, or having luncheon, or supping there every day. He saw Sir Sidney Smith one day in 1802 in the blue room, about eleven o'clock in the morning, which was full two hours before they expected ever to see company. He asked the servants why they did not let him know Sir Sidney Smith was there; the footmen told him that they had let no person in. There was a private door to the park, by which he might have come in if he had a key to it, and have got into the blue room without any of the servants perceiving him. And in his second deposition, taken on the 3d of July, he says he lived at Montague-house when Sir Sidney came. Her (the princess) manner with him appeared very familiar; she appeared very attentive to him, but he did not suspect anything further. Mrs. Lisle says, that the princess at one time ap

peared to like Sir John and Lady Douglas. I have seen Sir Sidney Smith there very late in the evening, but not alone with the princess. I have no reason to suspect he had a key of the park-gate; I never heard of anybody being found wandering about at Blackheath.'

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Fanny Lloyd does not mention Sir Sidney Smith in her deposition.

"Upon the whole of this evidence then, which is the whole that respects Sir Sidney Smith, in any of these depositions, (except some particular passages in Cole's evidence, which are so important as to require very particular and distinct statement,) I would request your Majesty to understand, that, with respect to the fact of Sir Sidney Smith's visiting frequently at Montaguehouse, both with Sir John and Lady Douglas, and without them; with respect to his being frequently there at luncheon, dinner, and supper, and staying with the rest of the company till twelve, one o'clock, or even sometimes later,— if these are some of the facts which must give occasion to unfavourable interpretations, and must be credited till they are contradicted,' they are facts which I never can contradict, for they are perfectly true. And I trust it will imply the confession of no guilt, to admit that Sir Sidney Smith's conversation, his account of the

various and extraordinary events, and heroic achievements in which he had been concerned, amused and interested me; and the circumstance of his living so much with his friends, Sir John and Lady Douglas, in my neighbourhood on Blackheath, gave the opportunity of his increasing his acquaintance with me.

"It happened also that about this time I fitted. up, as your Majesty may have observed, one of the rooms in my house after the fashion of a Turkish tent. Sir Sidney furnished me with a pattern for it, in a drawing of the tent of Murat Bey, which he had brought over with him from Egypt. And he taught him how to draw Egyptian arabesques, which were necessary for the ornaments of the ceiling: this may have occasioned, while that room was fitting up, several visits, and possibly some, though I do not recollect them, as early in the morning as Mr. Bidgood mentions. I believe also, that it has happened more than once, that walking with my ladies in the park, we have met Sir Sidney Smith, and that he has come in with us through the gate from the park. My ladies may have gone up to take off their cloaks, or to dress, and have left me alone with him and, at some one of these times, it may very possibly have happened that Mr. Cole and Mr. Bidgood may have