If that were so, then it was a most inconvenient mode of showing it, and the same end might have been achieved at much less trouble to themselves. Others--and Lord Hervey amongst them--describe it as a pure act of bravado and arrogance to show the Prince’s independence. If this were the true reason then the Prince must have been an inhuman brute, and we know from a great many instances of his kindness and undoubted affection for his young wife, that he was _not_. No, to venture an opinion of the real reason for this most extraordinary proceeding, we must review a few simple facts. In the first place the true position of the Prince of Wales with regard to his parents and the rest of the Royal Family, must have been well known to the Princess Augusta before she came to England at all. She knew full well, in common with most continental Princesses, that the heir to the throne of England was by no means a favourite with his parents and that he was only brought over from Hanover because the English people demanded it. He was not _wanted_ by the Royal Family, they wanted the crown of England for the handsome second son, William Duke of Cumberland, afterwards adorned with the additional title of “The Butcher of Culloden.” Frederick was not handsome though he had a charm of manner, chiefly owing to his amiability and kind-heartedness which endeared him to the people. William had none of these attributes, he was handsome, and very like his mother--a glance at their portraits will show that--and he also had an exceedingly cruel nature, which perhaps the people soon found out. Any doubt which may exist in a reader’s mind as to the preference of King George the Second and his Queen for their second son, may be set at rest by a glance at the following account of certain events which took place in the reign of George the First: “George I. in his enmity to George II. entertained some idea of separating the sovereignty of England and Hanover (Coxe’s Walpole, p. 132) and we find from Lord Chancellor King’s _Diary_, under the date of June, 1725, ‘a negotiation had been lately on foot in relation to the two young Princes, Frederick and William. The Prince (George II.) and his wife were for excluding Prince Frederick, but that after the King and the Prince, he would be Elector of Hanover and Prince William, King of Great Britain; but that the King said it would be unjust to do it without Prince Frederick’s consent, who was now of an age to judge for himself, and so the matter now stood.’ (Campbell’s Chancellors IV. 318). Sir Robert Walpole, who communicated this to the Chancellor, added that he had told George I. that ‘if _he_ did not bring Prince Frederick over in his lifetime, he would never set his foot on English ground.’”[45] This early enmity of his parents to Frederick, Lord Campbell cannot explain.