Again, referring to a youth dressed _à la Prince de Cumberland_, who had been brought up at Bow Street charged with being an expert pickpocket, _Figaro_ says: “A similarity to the Duke of Cumberland is a very serious matter, and in the opinion of Mr. Halls (the police magistrate) quite sufficient to entitle any one to a couple of months’ imprisonment, as a common thief or an incorrigible vagabond.” Again:—{64} “INQUEST EXTRAORDINARY Found dead of fright, a child, (how sad a case!) Verdict—Saw Cumberland’s mustachioed face.” Again:—“The new piece announced at Drury Lane under the title of _The Dæmon Duke_ or _The Mystic Branch_ has no reference whatever to his Royal Highness of Cumberland.” But these might be multiplied almost to infinity. The examples quoted make it sufficiently plain why it was that the Whig Cabinet of the day felt it advisable to hurry on our late Queen’s marriage. So much for a general review of the duke’s career. We will now return to the year 1815 and the publication of the broadside with which we are more particularly concerned. The duke had just announced his intention of marrying the Princess of Salm, who had been twice a widow. The Prince Regent had raised no objection, but the Queen, who had a rooted aversion to second marriages, made no secret of her disapproval. The country, too, was indignant, because another royal marriage spelt, in accordance with what was now the ordinary usage, a further burden upon the exchequer. [Illustration: “A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggars Petition.” (_From the only known uncoloured impression of the Plate_)] [Illustration: “A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggars Petition.” (_From a coloured impression of the plate, with the figure of the valet obliterated with lamp-black_)] {65} On July 3 the proposal was made in the Commons to increase the duke’s pension of £18,000 a year, which he held in addition to his salary of £3000 a year as Colonel of the 1st Hussars, by £6000. The House was equally divided on the vote, when a dramatic incident occurred. Lord Cochrane, heir to the Dundonald peerage, and a member of the House of Commons, had, in the previous year, been wrongfully found guilty of participation in a Stock Exchange fraud and had been imprisoned. On this very 3rd day of July he was released from prison, and immediately repaired to Westminster. The House was at that moment going to a division. His lordship entered just in time to record his casting vote against the increase of the duke’s pension, and thus by an extraordinary coincidence the duke was the poorer and the country the richer by £6000 a year.