THE PRINCESS AUGUSTA OF CAMBRIDGE.—THE QUEEN'S MESSAGE. (Hansard, 13 June 1843)

§ The Duke of Wellington
—My Lords, I rise, agreeably to the notice which I gave to your Lordships a few nights since, for the purpose of submitting a proposition in answer to her Majesty's most gracious communication just read. It is impossible that your Lordships or the whole of the country should not feel a lively and deep interest in the subject which Her Most Gracious Majesty has submitted to your consideration. It is impossible, when we call to mind the excellent qualities of her Royal Highness—-her affability—to doubt that she has made a most favourable impression upon the minds of your Lordships. It is impossible that your Lord- 1397 ships cannot but take a great interest in the happiness and welfare of the illustrious Princess about to be allied to his Royal Highness Frederick Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz. I rejoice in the auspicious marriage which is about to take place with a Prince for whose qualities every individual who ever had the honour of knowing him must have the greatest respect, on account of the affability and kindness which he invariably manifested to all who approached his Royal Highness. I beg, my Lords, to move in answer to Her Most Gracious Majesty's message an address to thank her Majesty for the most gracious communication which it has pleased her Majesty to make to this House, relating to the intended marriage between her Royal Highness, the Princess Augusta Caroline, eldest daughter of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, and his Royal Highness Prince Frederick, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz; that this House feels the most lively interest in any event connected which can contribute to the happiness of the Royal Family, and will concur in the measures which may be proposed for the consideration of the House to make a suitable provision for her Royal Highness on this occasion.

§ Earl Fortescue
trusted their Lordships would do him the justice to believe, that he did not rise upon that occasion to oppose the motion just submitted to the House by the noble Duke. The contrary, he felt happy in expressing his entire concurrence in the observations which had fallen from the noble Duke. The noble Duke had but given expression to those sentiments of respect and esteem, and if he might use the term good-will, which he felt for the illustrious persons to whom the noble Duke had referred. He wished to take that opportunity however—the only one on which he could with propriety refer to the subject—to call the attention of the House to other parties, connected with the Royal family; parties whose distress associated as it was with a late afflicting event, certainly entitled them to the sympathy and kind consideration of their Lordships and the country. He was bound, in limine, to state that he had had no communication either directly or indirectly with any of the parties interested in this matter. They were all utterly ignorant of the course which he was about to take, the responsibility of 1398 which for good or for ill rested solely on himself. It was not more than a month back that the noble Duke opposite,— and the right hon. Baronet, the Prime Minister of the country, moved addresses of condolence to her Majesty, on the lamented death of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex. Upon that occasion, both the noble Duke in that House and the Prime Minister in the other House of Parliament, expressed in the highest terms their sentiments of respect for the memory of his Royal Highness. The sentiments so expressed were, he believed, shared by all, All concurred in the tribute paid to the high and varied attainments which his Royal Highness had exhibited during life—to the liberal and unostentatious patronage which he had extended to science — to his extensive charity—and to his constant efforts to promote all those objects which he thought calculated to advance the improvement and happiness of his fellow-creatures. The situation of his Royal Highness was different from that of any other member of the Royal family. He was the only member of the Royal family who had never received any income in addition to his Parliamentary grant, and if he had not been misinformed, his Royal Highness up to the age of thirty did not receive that Parliamentary allowance, but was solely, in the receipt of the limited income which he derived from his father, George 3rd. Under these circumstances, he was necessarily a good deal embarrassed, and these embarrassments continued for a considerable period afterwards. In 1831, his Royal Highness married Lady Cecelia Underwood. The circumstances of their marriage were, he (Earl Fortescue) believed, known to his late Majesty William 4th; but for reasons of which he was not aware, it was not thought advisable to make any public declaration of that event. It was his Royal Highness's intention, however, subsequent to the marriage of her present Majesty, to make a public declaration of his marriage, and if no address proceeded from either House of Parliament against it, he (Earl Fortescue) understood, that his Royal Highness would have been entitled to consider his marriage strictly legal. The Duke of Sussex had, however, by the persuasion of his wife, abandoned that determination, in consequence of her Majesty having expressed her wish to that effect, and her intention to confer upon Lady Cecelia Un- 1399 derwood) the title of Duchess of Inverness. Though the marriage of his Royal Highness was not held valid in law, there could exist no doubt but that it was so in a moral point of view. His Royal Highness, by a former marriage with Lady Augusta Murray, had also two children, whose chief if not their sole income, was the allowance made them by His Royal Highness. He believed, that after the sale of all his Royal Highness's effects, and the payment of his just debts, there would be nothing left for the maintenance of his family, who would not merely be deprived of their present affluence, but even of the comforts common to all who moved in the circles in which they had been accustomed to life. He well knew, that no proposition for a public grant of money could originate in that House, but he trusted that the notice which he had drawn to the subject would excite attention in another place, in which a proposition for some provision for the parties in question could only be made.

§ The Duke of Wellington:
My Lords, the motion which I had the honour to submit to your Lordships affords your Lordships an opportunity of discussing any questions connected with the subject of a provision for the Royal Family. I very much regret that the noble Lord did not give notice of his intention to discuss the question which the noble Lord has brought under the consideration of your Lordships' House. If the noble Lord had given that notice it would have enabled those connected with her Majesty's Government to have spoken with some authority on the subject. The noble Lord has only done justice to myself, and to my right hon. Friend in the House of Commons, in stating that we spoke of the late illustrious Duke with the utmost respect, and that both of us entertained the sincerest admiration of the qualities, the acquirements, and the life of his late Royal Highness. For my part, I always felt the greatest respect for him; I always experienced the utmost affability and kindness from him; I respected his virtues, and I felt how much he was esteemed by the people. My Lords, I had no knowledge whatever, nor, indeed could I acquire any knowledge, respecting his different marriages, or the circumstances to which the noble Earl has adverted. Of course, therefore, I can in no way be prepared to state anything upon those sub- 1400 jects; and your Lordships will, I am sure, excuse me for not further adverting to them than to repeat my respect for his Royal Highness's memory, and to lament that any friends of his should be left in any state of difficulty. It is obvious that the marriage referred to, though a marriage in a moral point of view, in a legal and political view could be no marriage of a member of the Royal family, and cannot be considered as such in discussing a question of this kind either in this House, or in another place, where, if the matter were discussed at all, it must, of course, be brought under more distinct consideration.

Lord Brougham
felt with the noble Duke, that the observations of the noble Earl, though clearly proceeding from the kindest and best motives that any man's heart could entertain, yet were entirely foreign to the question before the House. The question was one in which he hoped the House would unanimously concur. For his own part, he entirely approved of what had fallen from the noble Duke with respect to it, and he should give his most cordial vote in favour of the motion. With respect to what had fallen from the noble Earl, having had the honour of holding office under hi3 late Majesty King William 4th., and the circumstances referred to having then been brought under his notice, he wished to be understood, that his silence upon this occasion was not to be taken as an assent to the legal doctrine laid down, to his utter astonishment, by his noble Friend. Further than this he would only add, that he had the highest respect for his Royal Highness, and that nothing would give him more satisfaction or greater joy than anything which could conduce to relieve the distress in which it was stated his friends were involved.