The morning after the King’s death, the Duke of Cumberland sent for Lord Waldegrave, and told him, that if, as Lady Yarmouth believed, no new will had been made since that in Princess Amelie’s hands, his father had done greatly for him--not, however, so largely as he had once purposed: he had said to the Duke, “William, I see you will never marry; it is in vain to think of making a great establishment of a new branch through you: I shall do well for you for your life; yet not so large as I should have done in that case.” This certainly intimated a project of leaving his purchased Principalities in Germany to the Duke. Lord Waldegrave in return showed his Royal Highness an _extraordinary_ piece; it was endorsed, _very private paper_, and was a letter from the Duke of Newcastle to the first Earl of Waldegrave; in which his Grace informed the Earl,[115] that he had received by the messenger the copy of the will and codicil of George the First; that he had delivered it to his Majesty, who put it into the fire without opening it--“so,” adds the Duke, “we do not know whether it confirms the other or not:” and he proceeds to say, “I dispatch a messenger to the Duke of Wolfenbuttle with the treaty, in which is granted all he desires; and we expect by the return of the messenger the original will from him.” George the First had left two wills; one in the hands of Dr. Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, the other with the Duke of Wolfenbuttle. The Archbishop, on news of the King’s death, carried his copy to the Privy Council, and, without the precaution of opening it before them, which the poor man could not apprehend would be so necessary as it proved, gave it into the new King’s hands, who, to the Prelate’s great surprise, carried it from Council _unopened_.[116] The letter I have quoted above shows what was the fate of the other copy: the honest Duke of Wolfenbuttle sold it for a subsidy! George the First had been in the right to take those precautions: he himself had burned his wife’s testament,[117] and her father’s, the Duke of Zelle, both of whom had made George the Second their heir--a palliative of the latter’s obliquity, if justice would allow of any violation. FOOTNOTES: [110] The same person who, when Governor of Minorca, was forced to surrender it to the Spaniards in 1782.