text:  To this the Prince said--'I see it but too plainly; but why Harris did you not tell me so before or write it to me from Brunswick?' "I replied that I did not consider what the Duke (a severe father himself towards his children) said of sufficient consequence; that it affected neither the Princess's moral character nor conduct and was intended solely as a communication which I conceived it only proper to notice to his Royal Highness at a proper occasion at such a one as now had offered; and that I humbly hoped his Royal Highness would not consider it as casting any _real_ slur or aspersion on the Princess; that as to not writing to his Royal Highness from Brunswick I begged him to recollect I was not sent on a _discretionary_ commission but with _the most positive commands_ to ask the Princess Caroline in marriage and nothing more; that to this sole point respecting the marriage and no other these commands went; any reflections or remarks that I had presumed to make would (whether in praise of or injurious to her Royal Highness) have been a direct and positive deviation from those his Majesty's commands