The consequence was that he soon became deeply involved in debt, so deeply that, in 1787, a member of Fox's party gave notice of his intention to move that the Parliament should pay his debts and increase his income.

Pitt, without specifying his reasons, avowed that he should feel it his duty to oppose any grant of such a character; but another member of Parliament, Mr.Rolle, one of the members for Devonshire, being trammelled by no such feeling of responsibility, expressed a similar resolution in language which contained an allusion perfectly understood on both sides of the House.

He said that "the question thus proposed to be brought forward went immediately to affect our constitution in Church and State." And every one knew that he was referring to a report which had recently become general, that the Prince was married to a Roman Catholic lady of the name of Fitzherbert.

No direct notice was taken of this allusion at the moment, Fox himself, who had the chief share of the Prince's confidence, being accidentally absent; but a day or two afterward he referred to Rolle's speech with great indignation, declaring that it referred to a "low, malicious calumny" which had no foundation whatever, and "was only fit to impose on the lowest order of persons." Being pressed as to the precise force of his assertion, and being asked whether it meant more than that under the existing laws, such as the Royal Marriage Act, there had been no marriage, because there could have been no _legal_ marriage, he declared that he meant no such evasion, but that no marriage ceremony, legal or illegal, had ever taken place; and farther, that in saying this he was speaking on the direct authority of the Prince himself.

No more degrading act stains the annals of British royalty.