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land, it was at last resolved to try what could be done in Holland and France; and a convenient agent was found in a Mr. John James de Beaume, who undertook the business, and through whom a sum not less than £200,000. in money and jewels, abating the interest and other expenses, was raised for the occasion; and on the 3d of June, 1790, the three royal brothers, George, Frederick, and William Henry, executed a bond in favour of Mr. de Beaume, for £100,000, acknowledging themselves to be justly and truly indebted to him in the said sum of £100,000 sterling, WELL and TRULY advanced to them as a loan, to be paid to the said John James de Beaume, or his attorney, or his executors, heirs, or assigns, or to any one authorized to receive the same on their behalf, at the time and in the proportions thereinafter mentioned. And further, that the said parties hereto engage and bind themselves, jointly and severally, and and every their respective revenues, goods, effects, and property, in whatsoever place they may be situate, and of whatsoever nature or kind; and further covenanting to pay the interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum, for the term of twenty-five years, to commence the 1st of July 1721; and the capital sum to be paid as follows, namely, on the 1st of June, 1806, and the other parts every year, up to the year 1815. And further reciting that the same parties renounce and disclaim all subterfuge, pretext, or reserves, that might be to the contrary, to the intents of the said agreement: and further that, to facilitate the said J. J. de Beaume in raising the said sum for the said parties, they give him full power to grant and publish parts or portions of the said loan, under his signature, to such person or persons as may be inclined to take shares in the same, by debentures of £100 each debenture, though in a printed form, to be of valid force, provided the same be verified by the signatnre of the said J. J. Beaume, signed thereto, aud the same to carry equal force and value as the original bond of £100,000, the said parties acknowledging to have received, at the signing the said obligation, the consideration therein named.'

It is impossible for the operative parts of a deed to be more

binding in law, or freer from exceptions than the bond of which we have given an abstract; and on this bond Mr. de Beaume proceeded to act, the same being verified by certain notaries, both in London, Paris, and Holland, to the several parties concerned therein.

It is pretended, indeed, that Mr. de Beaume never raised the whole of the money, or, if he did, that he never paid it over to the Princes' trustee, the late Mr. Thomas Hammersley; but, supposing this statement to be correct, does it change the nature of the security on the bona fide holders of any of the parts or portions' of the said loan? It has been held that the demand of a clear title and adequate consideration, evidently intended to embarrass and defer the payment, was known to be clogged with almost insuperable difficulties, arising out of the revolution, and the impossibility of tracing out the heirs and assigns of the original holders of those bonds amid the confusion of such times as those which shortly succeeded the royal contract. Abundant means, however were to be found in this country to establish the validity of these bonds, duplicates of which were attested by the notaries, Sutherland and Bonner, and afterwards deposited at Messrs. Hammersley's, through whose hands the whole transaction passed; nor has it been proved, or attempted to be so, that Mr. de Beaume ever abused the powers with which he was intrusted, by issuing other than the bonds contracted for. If he had so done, the fraud would have been easily detected, as these bonds were numbered and dated in the order in which they were issued, with all the formalities of exchequer or navy bills. When, therefore, these bonds became payable, or interest accrued, the onus probandi lay with the trustees to vouch for their genuineness or falsehood, as they would have been ready to do, if the originals had been either lost or destroyed.

It has been said, in order to magnify the breach of faith on the part of George IV and his royal brothers, that several of the bond-owners were sent out of this country, under the Alien Act, to avoid the claim; and that, on their return to France, the greater number were massacred or guillotined; and

of the latter fact some substantial proofs can be found, especially in the case of Monsieur Vette, a rich jeweller, whose wealth, however, was more likely to have caused his death than the holding of the bonds alluded to, which, neither in the amount nor object, could offend or alarm the French government, jealous and barbarous as it proved itself at that period. It was indeed asserted very confidently, by a journalist in 1823, who seems to have been imperfectly informed on the subject of these transactions, and who involves the narrative in much obscurity, for purposes which we are not now called on to investigate, that fourteen persons were executed in Paris for negociating, or being concerned in circulating such portions or shares of this loan as bore Mr. de Beaume's signature: but it might be as well insisted upon, that, because several of the reputed or actual owners of these securities were lost, on their passage to France. in consequence of the leaky state of the vessel, that such vessel had been scuttled by order of the Home Department, as that the revolutionary government could apprehend a reaction from the fact of this loan, which did not exceed 100,000l. sterling. We confine ourselves to this subject, having already touched on the various attempts to relieve the Prince in 1786, as a complete failure.

When Mr. Goldsmidt became a party to the loan of the Boas, the Princes agents talked of appropriations, savings, &c., to be backed by a parliamentary grant, secured by a mortgage of the revenues of the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, of which Mr. Goldsmidt was to be the receiver; instead of which, no preparations whatever were made by the Prince to meet the first quarter's accruing interest on this loan.

No man could urge the matter with more grace and propriety on the attention of the Treasurer of the Household than Mr. Goldsmidt. But punctuality at Carlton House was no part of its economy-the keeping an engagement no voluntary duty; for, although the Prince could not be said to break the engagement, yet he never troubled himself about the conditions

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of the agreement, when broken; nor, when the consequences were pointed out to him, was he at all solicitous of providing against the recurrence of them, or supplying a remedy for the future. Notwithstanding the result of this want of principle was fatal to the credit, and destructive of the life of both parties, the orgies at Carlton House were never suspended for a moment, and the claimants under this loan were treated afterwards with the same injustice and cruelty as the subscribers to Mr. de Beaume's loan.

A knowledge of the intrigues of a court, like that of the Prince of Wales, can alone authenticate its want of principle; and, although remonstrances dropped in, day after day, in private, and the journals obscurely alluded to the facts of the alarming embarrassments with which the royal Princes were at this time surrounded, no notice was taken of them, nor were any measures devised to avert the consequences which threatened to overwhelm them in ruin. The whole of the plans at last began to excite the attention of parliament, on account of the manner in which the honour of the government was compromised by a course of proceedings that would have convicted any other man, of inferior rank, before the tribunals of the country. And in the case of Mr. Goldsmidt, the sympathy of the mercantile world in particular was excited, on account of the injuries, which one of the worthiest men in it, was sustaining through the profligate and unprincipled manners of the Prince's advisers.

Mr. Goldsmidt's character had for many years been rising in public estimation; his credit was unbounded, and his conduct as a money-broker unexceptionable, and esteemed all over Europe. Rather too easy of access, too liberal in his advances, and too confiding in the principles and probity of others, such a dispositon was little calculated to resist the importunities of a man of the polished manners of the Prince, and every attempt which flattery could embellish, which promises could satisfy, or personal civility confirm, was made to evade the crisis then impending in Pall Mall, and in which

the Prince would have succeeded, but for the unconquerable probity of the negotiator. He, however, at length withdrew, alarmed and disgusted; and without coming to an open rupture with his employer, assisted the Boas, far exceeding what might be deemed prudent, in reference to his extensive foreign transactions. But the event preyed upon his mind; it weakened his influence abroad, and was the first cause of those dismal occurrences which led to his death and the ruin of his fortunes.

We may be allowed to speak our humble praise over the grave of this benevolent Jew. Never was a man lamented by his friends more sincerely. The death of Mr. Goldsmidt was a loss to every man who stood in need of his assistance; and it is no hyperbole to say, that the young lost their benefactor, the widow her husband, and innumerable families their father. The heart of Mr. Goldsmidt was like "the gush of fresh springs," fertilizing what was before barren, and planting flowers amidst the waste of the human affections, to refresh and console the indigent and the unfortunate. Proud Christian! go thou, and do likewise".

On recurring to De Beaume's loan, it is impossible to forget the time at which it was raised. Never was there a period of greater public excitement - never one when a temperate and wise policy was less listened to, between the rulers of France and England. The prejudices which had existed for centuries between two rival nations-the new position in which France stood, with respect to her ancient polity-the strength she displayed, and the doctrines she maintained in asserting her newly-acquired power and liberty--and the revolutionary spirit

*The case of Aslett, the sub-cashier of the Bank of England, must still be fresh in the recollection of our readers. He may owe his salvation from the the scaffold, and his subsequent pardon, to his pecuniary negotiations with the Prince of Wales, and particularly to the active part which he took in assisting Mr. Goldsmidt in raising money on the Prince's bond. Nero was once known to pardon a man for the crime, but then the tyrant was drunk: the Prince of Wales was once known to show his gratitude for previous services, by pardoning a criminal; but Nero was not less the tyrant, nor was the Prince of Wales less the libertine.