The Enquirer

March 11.

The following story has been for some time in every one's mouth. It has travelled far & wide. We now copy it from a Scots paper—

'Nothing has been talked of for the last week but the fracas, as it is called, which occurred at Carlton-House, on Saturday the 22d ult. On that day the Prince Regent had a large party at dinner, among whom were the Princess Charlotte, the Duchess of York, and their female attendants; their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of York & Cambridge; Lords Moira, Erskine, and Lauderdale: Messrs. Adam, Sheridan, &c. The conversation soon turned on the late attempt to form a united Administration—and the Prince is said to have expressed himself in warm terms of disapprobation of the joint Letter of Lords Grey and Grenville, in answer to the letter from the Prince to the Duke of York, relative to the important business. These expressions of disapprobation, however, were not unmixed with complaints of being deserted by his early friends. The Prince having repeated, more than once, his surprise and mortification at the conduct of Lords Grey and Grenville, and characterised it in terms which such emotions would naturally suggest, Lord Lauderdale, who considered himself as particularly and personally addressed to on the occasion, entered into a justification of his friends, and declared in a tone of firmness, not perhaps quite in unison with the usual phraseology of a Court, that the letter which returned the answer of his two Noble friends, did not simply speak the individual sentiments of those two Noble Lords, but that it had the approbation of the principal persons; and that for himself he was ready to say, that he was present at, and assisted in drawing up of that answer—and that not only every sentence, but every word in it had his most cordial assent. Here, as might be expected, the conversation became more warm, and the Prince appeared to be suddenly and deeply affected by Lord Lauderdale's reply, so much so, indeed, that the Princess Charlotte who was still present, observing his agitation, dropt her head, and burst into tears; upon which the Prince turned round and begged the female part of the company to withdraw; but the noblemen and Gentlemen remained with the Prince Regent till a late hour. Mr. Adam is said to have entered, at the request of his Royal Highness, into a friendly explanation of what had passed with Lord Lauderdale; and his Royal Highness afterwards came up to his Lordship, and shaking him by the hand, expressed his wish that there should be no difference between them. Here the matter ended for that night; but, on the following day, Lord Lauderdale, fearful of misunderstanding or misrepresentation, reduced what he had said to writing, and sent it in a letter to the Prince; which, it is said, has produced a disagreeable impression on the Prince's mind.'