Her anxiety for the decorum of religion in one instance betrayed her into a measure which reminds us of some enactments urgently demanded by a religious section of the community at this moment, who may draw some idea from the success of Queen Mary in such legislation, of what would be the result of their aim if brought to a similar trial. "At an early period of her regnal labours," says Miss Strickland, "the queen requested her council to assist her in framing regulations for the better observance of the Sabbath. All hackney carriages and horses were forbidden to work on that day, or their drivers to ply for customers. The humanity, however, of this regulation was neutralised by the absurdity of other acts. She had constables stationed at the corner of streets, who were charged to capture all puddings and pies on their progress to bakers' ovens on Sundays, and such ridiculous scenes in the streets took place, in consequence of the owners fighting fiercely for their dinners, that the laws were suspended amid universal laughter."

Mary's chief pleasures, and almost her only sources of expenditure during her husband's continual and long absences, were building palaces and laying out gardens. Under her superintendence chiefly arose Kensington Palace; and the new portion of Hampton Court, with the garden there, are still called by her name. To her care we owe it, too, that the greater part of Greenwich Palace was not swept away by her husband to make way for some Dutch erection; and to her a benevolence that will do her eternal honour-the conversion of that palace into a hospital for invalid or superannuated seamen.

Although Mary has not been honoured with a portrait in this volume, she certainly was entitled to hold a place amongst the Royal Beauties of this country, being tall in person, majestic and graceful in mien, having a serene countenance, a ruddy complexion, and beautiful features. Both mental and personal accomplishments she possessed in a very high degree. Mary's love of reading was very great, though she experienced much annoyance from the painful drawback she found to this in the continual humour in her eyes, from which she was a sufferer, as was also her sister, the Princess Anne, and Anne's only child which survived for any length of time, the Duke of Gloucester. Poetry was Mary's chief delight, of which she was esteemed a good judge, and she also particularly liked the study of history, as presenting her with models for imitation. Nor was this queen desirous only of her own improvement; she very often caused good books to be placed in the way of her attendants,

that when they took their turn in waiting, their time might not be idly spent. Queen Mary was a kind mistress to her servants, and testified a sincere desire not only to reform manners generally, but to confer benefits on those around her. Some of her own leisure, as before said, she devoted to architecture, which was one of her favourite pursuits, her love of which she was accustomed to vindicate, on the ground that it employed so many hands. She was a gracious queen, one of the most obliging of wives, she protected the arts, and was a mother to the distressed; her charities being ever unostentatious ; in short, the character of Mary presents a pattern of every virtue that could adorn a woman.

To Mary the nation owes a debt of eternal gratitude; for, through her wisdom and disinterestedness, combined with her respect and affection for her husband, the Revolution of 1688 was completed, and the British Constitution placed for ever on its present true and immovable basis. The daughter of the king who, more than all other monarchs, had endeavoured to destroy the rights of this kingdom, she at once admitted the plea of William, that he ought not to consent to accept the crown as the hereditary right of his wife, but as the gift of the nation. Thus, by a daughter of the most bigoted and despotic prince who ever sat on the throne of these realms, the mischievous sophism of the divine right of kings was at once, and for ever, annihilated, and the "Bill of Rights" established on the grand truth that "all power proceeds from the people." To this quiet and yet complete revolution, so far, both in theory and in time, in advance of all other revolutions, England owes its long course of unexampled power and glory. Therefore, when we felicitate ourselves on these blessings, we should remember the name of Mary the Second, with the reverence and the gratitude which are due to it.

To the regret of her subjects, this amiable queen expired December 28th, 1695, at Kensington, of the small-pox, being at the time of her death in the thirty-third year of her age. King William was so deeply affected by her loss, that for many weeks after he could neither attend to affairs of state, nor receive the visits of his nobility; and in answer to Tennison, who sought to console him under his affliction, he remarked that "he could not but grieve, since he had lost a wife who for seventeen years had never been guilty of an indiscretion."

ANNE.

ANNE was born of the same parents as Mary the Second, on the 6th of February, 1665, at St. James's Palace, and resembled from childhood, in features and person, the family of her mother, Ann Hyde, rather than the Stuarts. She was but six years old when her mother died, and, two years after, her father, then Duke of York, introduced to her Mary Beatrice, of Modena, as her step-mother.

While yet quite a child, Anne was taught by the celebrated Mrs. Betterton the art of that graceful delivery for which she was, as queen, so much distinguished in her speeches before Parliament. She had, besides, much taste for music, and played well on the guitar. But, partly owing to a defluxion which had fallen upon her eyes, her early education was much neglected. Her faults of spelling are frequent in all her letters extant, and she acquired early a taste for the card-table and minute points of etiquette, instead of having her attention directed to the cultivation of those personal talents which marked her sister's career. Nevertheless, she inherited many counterbalancing qualities, which eventually won her from her subjects the lasting name of "the good Queen Anne."

The hereditary Prince of Hanover, afterwards George the First, was, in 1680, a suitor for the hand of the Princess Anne. She married, however, on the 28th of July, 1683, George, brother of Christian the Fifth, King of Denmark. He was a very amiable man and affectionate husband, of moderate abilities and a somewhat retiring disposition.

Anne was, beyond a doubt, ambitious and vain. It is impossible to acquit her, as princess, of much want of affection towards her father. All the fondness which he used to lavish upon Mary before her marriage, became centred in Anne from that time. He made her a very handsome provision on ascending the throne, yet, in 1688, she is found secretly corresponding with William and Mary in their intrigues for the

British throne; and it was with her that the report originated, in the same year, of the spurious origin of the new-born prince, who was afterwards generally designated the Pretender. When the crisis of the great political revolution arrived, Anne made her escape by night from her residence at the Cockpit at Whitehall, during the absence of King James with the army. He had confided in her to the last, without the remotest suspicion of her hostile intentions. She proceeded to Nottingham, headed a large body of troops, and openly espoused the cause of the Prince of Orange. And on the very night when her father was making his retreat over a rather stormy sea, Anne of Denmark, having returned to her old quarters in London as if nothing unusual had happened, went to the play! Her zeal for the Protestant religion, in which she had been strictly educated, cannot palliate or account for such an unfilial and needless display of ingratitude.

On the 24th of July, 1689, the Princess Anne gave birth to a son, who was created Duke of Gloucester. Anne had thirteen children, but this was the only one that lived; and, indeed, it was with difficulty that this one survived to the age of eleven, when, after a display of much precocity under the frequent ailments incidental to water on the brain, he died of an attack of scarlet fever. This loss was one of the keenest pangs which Anne suffered, for the depth of her affection as a mother has never been questioned.

During the reign of William and Mary, this princess was repeatedly at difference with them, and, instead of reaping the benefits which her former intrigues in their favour might have warranted her to expect, she found herself subjected to frequent indignities at their hands. The sisters are said to have been on ill terms to the last, although Anne certainly sent a message of reconciliation to the death-bed of Mary. It was notorious that William hated his sister-in-law in his heart, and his true feeling towards her is tolerably evinced by his refusal to see her when about to die.

From the time of the Duke of Gloucester's birth, Anne increased greatly in person, and became a martyr to frequent attacks of dropsy, which rendered her unable to walk. She had recourse to cold baths and hunting. She was excessively fond of the latter recreation, which she pursued in a chaise during the summer months, according to the custom then in vogue. On a much later occasion, when queen, she is known to have driven herself forty miles during one hunt.

The death of her son was speedily followed by that of her father at St. Germains; and on the 8th of March in the following year, 1702,

she succeeded to the British crown by the death of William the Third. Just previously, a struggle had commenced between France and Austria for the throne of Spain; and, by siding with the Austrian claimant, William had succeeded in entailing upon his successor, an inevitable European war, which was protracted through nearly the whole of her reign.

On attaining the supreme power, the generosity of her character and her genuine attachment to her subjects at large became signally apparent. In her first speech in the House of Lords, in the course of which she styled herself entirely English, she voluntarily gave back 100,000l. of the handsome revenue unanimously voted to her. Her coronation took place on April 23, 1702; she was afflicted with gout at the time, and was carried through some of the ceremonials in an arm-chair. One of the first and greatest acts of her reign was that which still claims the grateful remembrance of many, under the denomination of "Queen Anne's Bounty." The sovereign had a right to the first-fruits of every benefice conferred by the crown; but she declined to arrogate these gains to herself, and created instead a fund therewith, to augment the livings of the half-starved poorer clergy.

The name of Marlborough is inseparably associated with the reign of Queen Anne. Its history is little else but a history of the court intrigues of the parvenue duchess of that name, and the brilliant successes of the military genius of that age, the duke. A slight sketch of their lives and characters is requisite for a just comprehension of the acts of this monarch.

Sarah Jennings, from having been the playmate of Anne in infancy, became the favourite companion of her youth, and, after her marriage with Colonel Churchill, was regularly attached to the household of the princess. The secret correspondence which Anne carried on with Mary in Holland, and the subsequent intrigues by which she aided. the downfall of her father, were not merely advised upon with Sarah Churchill, but in great measure instigated by her. She thus fell into a dangerous dependence upon the confidence of her favourite; and when, soon after the accession of William and Mary, the Earl of Marlborough was suspected of treason, and Mary desired her to harbour them no longer about her person, the pertinacity of Anne's refusal may be well understood. She had believed in their disinterested friendship for her until after the period of her sister's decease; but between that date and her own accession it is certain that her mind underwent a change concerning the character and professions of