Salaberry, and yourself, of our sincere attachment, and in offering a thousand remembrances to your children, and I subscribe, &c., &c, EDWARD.

Having lost in the Antelope and Tankerville his fourth and fifth outfits, it became necessary to order a sixth, which was shipped on board the transport Recovery, and which by an extraordinary fatality was also captured. Thus by the lost of equipments alone, the Prince, up to this date, was a loser to the extent of £10,000 stg.

We have seen that in his later letters he had begun to express the hope that he would be recalled to his native country, from which, though only in his thirty-second year, he had been no less than thirteen years absent; his return was hastened in a way totally unexpected. On returning home from a field day, his horse fell with him on the streets of Halifax, producing such serious injury that his professional adviser recommended his return to England.

But before this, in June preceding, a circumstance had occurred which is recorded in the Journals of the Provincial Legislature, and which was exceedingly gratifying to him, and which shows the estimation in which he was held. It was resolved by the House of Assembly:-"That an humble address be presented to H. R. H. Prince Edward, to beg that he will be pleased to accept from the Province of Nova Scotia, a star as a testimony of the high respect which the Province has for H. R. Highness' person, as well as the gra teful sense it entertains of the very essential services which H. R. H. has rendered to this Province." In this the Council and Lieut.-Governor cordially concurred: a grant of five hundred guineas was made, and the address unanimously passed, to which H. R. H. gave a suitable reply from which the following is an abstract :-"Nothing could afford me greater gratification than to receive so unequivocal a proof of your approbation of my conduct during the time His Majesty has been pleased to honor me with the command of the troops in this Province. My utmost endeavors have always been exerted to obtain your good will, by pursuing that line of conduct which I thought would be most acceptable to the King, and most beneficial to his service, as well as that calculated for the protection of the Province. To have succeeded therefore in this object, of which circumstance your address of to-day affords me so honorable a testimony, is the more gratifying to my feelings, as I flatter myself when

His Majesty is informed of it, he will not hear it with indiff

erence.

While this public and official recognition of his services was taking place, he did not forget his friends in Canada, to whom he wrote as under:

HALIFAX, 15th October, 1798. MY DEAR MAJOR,-Before my departure for England, in consequence of the advice of Dr. North, who is of opinion that the waters of Bath are necessary to recover me from the effects of my fall, I could not permit the mail to leave to-day, though my time is much occupied as you may well conceive, without writing to assure you of the continuation of my esteem, and to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of date 29th July and 10th August, which both reached me in due course.

I regret to learn that you have been suffering from so severe an attack of the affection of the head, to which I know you were subject during my sojourn at Quebec. I hope, however, that you have by this time recovered.

In reference to your son, I may repeat, that I will not fail on every occasion to make my brother aware how deeply I am interested in the promotion of your son, and as I have always said to you, I will not rest till he is appointed, if he is not already so. It is to be supposed that my voyage to England will enable me to do more in his favor than my repeated letters appear to have done. It is very certain that I desire to accomplish this fully as much as yourself.

As to yourself, I shall be equally vigilant to find if I can do anything for you with the Ministers, for it is very certain at present that there is very little to hope from General Prescott. As to your desire that I should remove your son from the 60th Regt; as the subalterns of that Regt., are discouraged by the appointment of so many strangers to the different vacancies in the corps, I will say to you, that there would be great injury to his chance of promotion, as he would be obliged to commence at the foot of the Lieutenants of any regiment to which he might be transferred, consequently it is not to be dreamed of, and convinced as you both must be of my good intentions, I again ask you to have patience.

I approve very much of your letter to His Excellency on the subject of an appointment to the Council, and I shall very much like that you will give me intelligence of the result. I am not acquainted with the difference which you say has taken place between the Governor and Council.

Madame de St. Laurent desires me to say that she wished to write, but feeling so entirely occupied by preparations for our departure, you will have to excuse her till she can give the news from London. Both of us charge you with a thousand compliments to Madame de Salaberry and the children. As for yourself, &c., &c.,

EDWARD.

CHAPTER VI.

England-Duke of Kent-General-Commander in Chief B. N. AmericaReturn to Halifax-Failing health-Return to England.

1799 AND 1800.

KENSINGTON PALACE,
9th April, 1799.

MY DEAR MAJOR,-Although I have no letter from you but that of the 25th October, which reached me here on the 14th January following, I do not wish to let the frigate Topaze, which goes straight to Quebec, leave without charging the Captain with a few lines for you.

I am at present, thank God, almost entirely recovered from the effects of the fall, which caused my return. Two months under the care of the surgeons here have rid me of the trouble, the weakness, and most of the pain, and my leg is as well as it was before the accident.

I may tell you that our voyage from Halifax here, though not quite twenty-one days, was very stormy and disagreeable.

On my return I was received in the most flattering manner by their Majesties and all my family. My establishment has passed both Houses of Parliament, and has received the Royal assent, and I have reason to believe that in a few days I shall be created Duke of Kent. It appears that His Majesty has not the least intention to send me on service out of England at present, but has thought proper to appoint me to the command of the army of the interior, and I will immediately establish my Headquarters in the centre of the County of Hampshire, in command of the troops there in cantonment, for the defence of Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, in case of attack.

Madame de St. Laurent, who has charged me to say a thousand agreeable things to yourself, your wife and all your family, is now in perfect health, but the rigorous winter which we have had, has made both of us suffer a good deal.

I learn that General Prescott has received permission to return to England on leave, and that a Major-General to command the troops ad interim will immediately leave, with a Civil Lieut.-Governor, to fill his double office. This will last, it is thought, till the return

of General Clarke from the East Indies, which is expected towards the end of the coming year, when it is supposed General Prescott will be obliged to retire on a pension, and that General Clarke will replace him. You have here in a few words all that can interest you, for as to the political news the papers will give you more fully all the information you desire, than I could in the space of a letter.

Madame de St. Laurent and myself earnestly request you to assure the good Curé Renauld of our remembrance, and you will doubtless communicate to him what this letter contains in relation to us. Say to him further that his letter of the 26th October reached me, but that truly I have been so fully occupied as to be unable to reply, consequently I have charged you to express to him that I am sensible of the regret he feels from the failure of my efforts with Bishop Denaud, in favor of the Abbé Giliner. You will not fail also, I hope, to remember me to the Rev. Père de Berrey, and to all who think of me with pleasure.

It is now time to close, so subscribing, &c.

EDWARD.

It is to be borne in mind that the Prince was now thirtytwo years of age, and that for the long period of thirteen years, from February 1785 to October 1798, he had been banished from his home and family; and that it was known to his father that from the causes we have mentioned, he was oppressed with debt, which he was most honorably struggling to discharge from his limited income, and though his father promised to pay the Gibraltar debt, it was never done; and moreover, though the Duke of York had got his parliamentary allowance at the age of twenty-one, and the Duke of Clarence at twenty-four, the King permitted him to remain in known embarrassment to this date, and as if to make the injustice more apparent, had caused to be voted, on the same day as his allowance was passed, a similar grant to the Duke of Cumberland, four years his junior. Parliament granted him £12,000 per annum, but strange to say, no allowance for an establishment, as had been done in the case of the Duke of Clarence. When the Prince pointed out to Mr. Pitt the invidious delay which had taken place in his case, that Minister replied:-"The Prince having been abroad so many years on foreign service, his provision had been totally overlooked. An omission which was entirely his (Mr. Pitt's) fault, and for which he took shame to him

self, but that so far as pecuniary loss was concerned His Royal Highness should receive amends." This pledge was never fulfilled. "His pecuniary difficulties," says Neale, goaded him to the very quick. They embittered the present, and tinged with apprehension the future."

66

On the 7th May, 1799, he took his seat in the House of Lords; on the 10th was gazetted General in the army, and on the 17th nominated Commander in Chief of the Forces in British North America; and on this occasion, he for the first time experienced some liberality at the hands of Government, who gave him £2,000 for an outfit. What his own feelings were, can be well judged from the following letter:

KENSINGTON PALACE,

10th June, 1799.

MY DEAR MAJOR,-I received on the 28th of last month a letter from you, without date, to which I hasten to reply by the packet which will leave in a few days, though I am very busy in making arrangements for my return to America, with which I am literally occupied from morning to night.

As Madame de St. Laurent writes you by this occasion, it will be unnecessary for me to repeat what my reception was here on my arrival, and the proof which I have received of the favorable opinion which the King had formed of me, by promoting me to the rank of General, and appointing me Commander in Chief in North America. So I have now to tell you in consequence that I am about to return again to Halifax in the course of the month of August, as I propose to embark in the course of three weeks.

I hope my present appointment will give me more influence than I formerly had, nearly as much as if I filled the civil Government at Quebec, and that I shall be able to give you something under Government that will be both agreeable and useful. As a prelude, I have written to the Duke of Portland, and urged him very strongly to. recommend you particularly to the good offices of his relative, Mr. Mills, and I confidently hope it will have effect.

I am very sensible of the kind manner in which you express the joy which yourself, Madame de Salaberry and all your family felt on hearing our safe arrival in England.

It appears that His Majesty, thinking that the dispute between your Governor General and the Council was such as to make it necessary to recall General Prescott, came to the decision to appoint me his successor in the military command. For the present, I believe there will be only Lieut.-Governors in all the Provinces. But it is thought they are looking out for a person to appoint Governor General.