The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 268: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 257 Oh! who would have thought that two thirds of/ We have already stated that the Prince of Wales the great nobles now assembled, were, if stripped of all the, prestige of thelr rank and hononrs, no- thing more nor less than the most infernal robbe's, _usurpers, and oppressors that ever preyed upon the vitals of the industrious millions?—or who would have fancied that more than half of those beauteons creatures gathered there, and who boasted an alliance with the first families in Britain, were the veriest demireps that ever reflected in the aristocratic sphere the profligacy and demoraliza- tion which parade the pavement of the metro- polis? But so it was then—so it is at the present day — —and so it will ever be with the British Aristocracy until the knell of its corrupt, iniquitous, and ac- ] eursed existence be rung by the mighty voice of the popular will. To retarn, however, to the thread of our narra- tive. - was conversing with his special favoucites in one of the magnificent saloons thrown open at Carlton House upon the occasion of which we are writing: we should now add that in another apartment cf the splendid suite, the Princess Sophia was seated upon @ sofa, surrounded by several ladies and nobles of the highest rank, and with whom she discoursed in a manner which they subsequently pronounced, in the usual nauseating phraseology of the Court, to be most “gracious” and “von- descending.” The Princess was in reality a very bandsome woman. Her figure was modelled to the most volup- tuous proportions: the pldmp, sloping shoulders —the jong arching neck—and the exuberant bus¢ were of the most dampling whiteness ;—and upon he: cheeks the hues of the blushing rose and the stainless lily were delicately blended. Her blue eyes languished with a wanton look—and het . a comicbooks.conn