On the return of Bonaparte to France, in 1815, Prince Leopold proceeded to the grand army on the Rhine, and soon afterwards reached Paris. On the termination of the war he visited England; became a suitor to Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales, and, having obtained the consent of the Prince Regent, the nuptials between Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and the presumptive heiress to the British throne, were eventually solemnized. On the 2d of May, 1816, Prince Leopold obtained the rank of general in the British service, and on the 24th of the same month he was promoted to the rank of field-marshal. The colonelcy of the FIFTH, OR PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES' REGIMENT OF DRAGOON GUARDS was conferred upon Prince Leopold in October of the same year, and he presented to the officers' mess a handsome service of plate. His Royal Highness was also honoured with the Order of the Garter, and the Order of the Bath; but in the midst of these accumulated distinctions he sustained the loss of his amiable consort, whose decease on the 6th November, 1817, occasioned the most sincere grief throughout the kingdom, and Prince Leopold was for some time inconsolable. The events which transpired in the Netherlands in 1830, having led to the separation of several provinces from Holland, and to the formation of an independent state, called Belgium, Prince Leopold was invited to accept of the sovereignty of that kingdom in 1831, and His Royal Highness acquiesced. Thus the FIFTH DRAGOON GUARDS had the gratification of witnessing the elevation of their colonel to a throne. On resigning the colonelcy His Royal Highness was pleased to cause the following farewell address to be sent to the regiment:-- "_Claremont, 14th July, 1831._ "The Prince Leopold is desirous on quitting England, to communicate to his regiment, that the circumstances which call him to another country have made it necessary for him to relinquish the command of the corps; and he has reserved it, as one of his last and most painful duties, to bid them farewell. It would have been His Royal Highness's wish on this occasion, to have expressed personally to the regiment his regret in leaving them, and the sincere wishes he shall always entertain for their happiness and welfare; but their distant quarter, and the hurry which unavoidably attends his departure, render such a desire impracticable.