for a character whom he supposes injured. The mother of this unfor tunate Princess, though daughter to the sister of our venerable monarch, had been long a proscribed exile. Her august daughter, after being exposed to the most disagreeable vicissitudes, had only found happiness and a resting place, in comparative obscurity, with the Prince whom she preferred to any political choice or unprincipled splendour. But yet even this abode of virtue and purity proved no refuge for her from the storms of fate. At that period when all resentment of the past is generally consigned to oblivion; when the common charities of our nature, invariably kindled into the most lively and generous feelings, rush spontaneously towards their object, because the existence of the loveliest parts of the creation depends as it were upon the chance of a dye; this Princess also seemed proscribed, or at least deserted, and death followed." (P. 62.)

Our readers will mark the logical inference with which the above extracted passage concludes. If there was any thing in the appointments of this young and royal lady which entitles those to whom those appointments belonged to esteem and approbation, it was the retired, unembarrassed, and domestic life, which was permitted to her during the first year of her happy marriage. If her royal rank had excluded her from this privilege, it could have made her no compensation. It would have lessened our moral loss. The spirit of real greatness is not to be caught from the colours, or the figures, or the shadows of painted life. Drawing rooms and saloons, and the precincts of a court, offer neither the scenes, nor subjects, from which that knowledge of nature and reality is to be deduced, on which all rule and government, to be accommodated to freemen, must be framed and established. It is quite an essential part of the education of a person destined to the throne of these dominions, that it should be natural rather than artificial; that it should be indigenous; that it should receive into itself many homebred and household ingredients; that it should be mixed and multifarious; that it should be large and capacious; that it should partake of the court and the country; that it should lead by actual intercourse to an acquaintance with poor as well as with rich; with daily and ordinary things and men; and, above all, that it should leave behind, or at least confine to a secondary place, the arts of exterior decoration and unprincely pomp. No sovereign has ever governed well without a familiar knowledge of the character of his people; and this knowledge is to be acquired neither in camps nor universities. It is, therefore, a very wise wish, indulged by the British people, that a home-educated and British-born Prince should sit upon this throne. The wish goes probably further with many, as it does with us,-that the heart of every future king may be kept at home, with as little adulteration as may be from foreign travel, and his principles reared among

the hearths, and altars, and tombs of his ancestors. There is something, therefore, to us indescribably silly in the blame endeavoured to be thrown by the querulous little volume at the head of our article, on the government of the country, for what it calls "the arrangement prescribed to her for avoiding the splendid intercourse to which her rank entitled her." For which cruelty the author is consoled by reflecting, (we really should be ashamed of quoting such passages, but that we are afraid there is too much of the same spirit in the country) that "Such was the result of her submission, that the very means used to prevent comparison led to it, and her party became that of the whole people of Great Britain." (P. 78.)

The biographical memoir which stands second at the head of this article, is not altogether without its entertainment, and really aims here and there at edification. One literary benefit we hope also to have to thank it for. It will probably bring into contempt the offensively absurd practice, which, in our review of Dr. Watkins's Life of Mr. Sheridan, in our last number, as well as in a former article on the Memoir of Mr. Fox, by Mr. Trotter, we have exposed. Affecting as the subject of this book is felt to be, it is impossible not to proceed through it with a sense of ridicule upon our minds, when we find at the top of these gloomy pages such combinations as the following:-Dancing anecdote, acquirement of taste, anecdotes of art, opposition anecdote, unhappy event, drawing-room fracas, intended tour notified, musical talents, scholastic precision, naval anecdote, matrimonial prospects, nuptial costume, Drury-lane theatre, rural retirement, reflections, declaration of pregnancy, parturient illness, calm preparations, approaching symptoms, connubial resignation, hopes destroyed, she expires!!! fatal news, metropolitan proceedings, exquisite feelings of Leopold. Notwithstanding, however, the imbecility of all this, the volume does comprise some anecdotes which cannot fail to interest every reader of sensibility. We are happy to record two or three of them.

"The Princess received him with the greatest sweetness and affability, and entered into familiar conversation with him; in the course of which she asked him his idea of a death-bed, and how to make it easy. The Clergyman expressed some surprise that her Royal Highness, who could have the benefit of much superior advice, should consult him; to which she replied, that she had put the same questions to several persons, that she wished to collect different opinions, and that she had made it often the subject of conversation with her Grandfather. She added, that she must ever feel greatly indebted to Lady Elgin for her pious instruction, that lady having been the first who had ever put the Hymns of Dr. Watts into her hand-most of which she could repeat from memory." (P. 35, 36.)

It may be recorded here, that her manner to her several preceptors was always easy, attentive, and even endearing; whilst her strict exactitude in conforming to the hours of study set an example which, we believe, was not without its effect in the world of fashion. Yet with her masters she was very precise in her arrangements, expecting the same exactitude from them as she herself was always accustomed to manifest. One of her instructors being half an hour too late, she reproved him for it: he, with a look and accent of great contrition, pleaded in excuse that he had been deceived by the error of his watch, which was a very indifferent one. "Well, then," said her Royal Highness, putting her hand to a table drawer, and pulling out a handsome one, 66 see if this will prevent a similar accident!

(P. 87.)

66

During her residence on the coast, the Princess took occasion to display one of those energetic traits which have so distinguished her conduct. Just before her departure from Weymouth, her Royal Highness being at sea in her yacht, the Leviathan, of 74 guns, sailing near, brought to, and fired a salute to the royal standard flying; and soon after Captain Nixon, who commanded her, rowed on board the yacht, to pay his respects to the Princess. She received him on deck, and, after the usual ceremonies, said, 'Captain Nixon, yours seems a very fine ship of war, I should like much to go on board her.' The Bishop, her aged preceptor, standing by, asked whether she thought her Illustrious Father might not disapprove of her passing in an open boat through a rough sea. The immediate answer to this was, Queen Elizabeth took great delight in her navy, and was not afraid to go on board a man of war in an open boat; then why should I? Pray, Captain Nixon, have the goodness to receive me into your barge, and let me be rowed on board the Leviathan; for I am not only desirous but determined to inspect her.' The necessary preparations were made, and her Royal Highness passed down into Captain Nixon's barge, followed by her two ladies in attendance, with the Bishop; and coming alongside the Leviathan, the yards were instantly manned, and a chair of state let down. The Princess desired it to be re-hoisted, saying, I prefer going up in the manner that a seaman does; you, Captain Nixon, will kindly follow me, taking care of my clothes; and, when I am on deck, the chair may be let down for the other ladies, and the Bishop.' No sooner said than done; and her Royal Highness ascended with a facility that astonished the whole delighted crew. The royal suite being upon deck, the ship's officers were severally introduced. Her Royal Highness expressed great surprise at the space and strength of the ship, and remarked, Well might such noble structures be called the Wooden Walls of Old England!' She now told Captain Nixon that she should not be satisfied with an introduction to his state cabin, as she was very anxious to see every part of his ship between decks, and even below: accordingly he accompanied her Royal Highness down, when she inspected every birth, cockpit, powder magazine, store-holds, &c.; and, on her return upon deck, gave her thanks to Captain Nixon and attendant officers in the most gracious terms, assuring them that they had afforded an exhibition of more in

terest to her mind than any she had hitherto beheld. The Princess having presented a purse to Captain Nixon, desiring him to apply it for the crew, as a token of her respect for them, descended down the ship's side as she went up, under a royal salute, and the more gratifying cheers of the loyal and hearty crew of a British man of war." (P. 96-98.)

We will only add two other short incidents which seem to be well authenticated, and which, by their agreeable contrast, place the character of this Princess in a very interesting point of view, and convey, perhaps, a more decided testimony than any which have been presented to the public.

"Some years ago a foreigner (whom it is unnecessary to name) gave lessons to the Princess in singing and music. On one occasion her Royal Highness performed to a large party at Warwick House, and was of course highly applauded; but she was conscious she did not then deserve it. Turning round to her teacher, she asked his opinion: he said that she sung delightfully, and played charmingly. Her Royal Highness took no further notice of the matter then; but when signior called next, one of the household was desired to pay him, and at the same time to say, that her Royal Highness could not expect to profit by the instructions of a person who was mean enough to flatter her against his reason, and who had not candour to tell her when she was wrong, but suffer her to expose herself!'" (P. 135, 136.)

"Sitting one day at the piano-forte, when the Bishop of Salisbury was present, the Princess requested his attention whilst she performed a difficult sonata. This she, perhaps intentionally, ran over in haste, slurring the finest passages, and disregarding the time; then turning to the Bishop, asked if he were not pleased with her execution. The worthy Prelate told her very candidly that he was not; upon which she started up from the instrument, ran to him, and, seizing his hand, exclaimed,Now I know you are my friend; for I have convinced myself that you do not flatter me when you are pleased to approve!'" (P. 55.)

Among the sermons preached upon the occasion of this national loss, that of Dr. Chalmers has attracted our more particular attention; and why it has so done the reader will see, if we have not already exhausted his patience, in the observations which follow.

It appears by the advertisement to the second edition of this sermon, that the motive to the publication was the correction of a perverse misconception which had gone abroad respecting one passage contained in it, and which it was rightly judged would be best answered by "bringing it forward as nearly as possible in the literal terms of the delivery." What passage in particular is alluded to we do not know, but we can readily conceive that the sermon contains many passages, which, if selected from the rest, and exhibited without the context, might afford matter of censure and suspicion to the loyal reader. But where a writer is

drawing the line of discrimination between opposite extremes, and properly discommending each in its turn, it is manifest injustice towards him to present only what he says on the one side or the other, independently of the contrast, or the final issue of the argument.

The whole performance bears the marks of that precipitance with which Dr. Chalmers appears generally to compose, and has all that mannerism to which we should have been glad to have found him less enslaved by his habits. All his periods have nearly the same construction. His sentences are so many steps up a ladder, carrying the reader with a breathless hurry through the series, to the verge of downright weariness and exhaustion. His Oh's and his aye's and his yes's are but feeble helps to us in this panting course; they serve rather to identify the manner of the writer, and to produce an effect of monotony and satiety. There is also in the style of expression an untasteful mixture of solemn and colloquial, fine and coarse, sublime and creeping diction; a very striking specimen of which occurs in the 22d and 23d pages of this discourse.

"I am merely teaching them a lesson, of which they seem to be ignorant, that if you loosen the hold of Christianity over the hearts of the population, you pull down from their ascendancy all the virtues of Christianity, of which loyalty is one. Yes, and I will come yet a little closer, and take a look of that loyalty which exists in the shape of an isolated principle in their own bosoms. I should like to gauge the dimensions of this loyalty of theirs, in its state of disjunction from the general principle of Christianity. I wish to know the kind of loyalty which characterizes the pretenders to whom I am alluding-the men who have no value for preaching, but as it stands associated with the pageantry of state-the men who would reckon it the most grievous of all heresies, to be away from church on some yearly day of the king's appointment, but are seldom within its walls on the weekly day of God's appointment-the men who, if ministers were away from their post of loyalty, on an occasion like the present, would, without mercy, and without investigation, denounce them as suspicious characters; but who, when we are at the post of piety, dispensing the more solemn ordinances of Christianity, openly lead the way in that crowded and eager emigration, which carries half the rank and opulence of the town away from us. What, oh! what is the length, and the breadth, and the height, and the depth of this vapouring, swaggering, high-sounding, loyalty? It is nothing better than the loyalty of political subalterns, in the low game of partizanship, or of whippers-in to an existing administration-it is not the loyalty which will avail us in the day of danger-it is not to them that we need to look, in the evil hour of a country's visitation;-but to those right-hearted, sound-thinking Christian men, who, without one interest to serve, or one hope to forward, honour their king, because they fear their God." (P. 22-23.)