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rick, Prince of Wales, was born on the 25th of November, 1743. In the course of his education, he supplied the want of brilliant talent by great diligence, and succeeded in becoming a man of considerable acquirements. From his boyhood he evinced a great predilection for the army; and while yet very young, served with much credit to himself in several continental expeditions. He became colonel of the first regiment of foot-guards and gradually attained the rank of senior field marshal in the British service. He was, however, never intrusted with any important command.

Shortly after attaining his majority, on which occasion he had been created Duke of Gloucester, he became enamoured of Maria, the Countess Dowager of Waldegrave, to whom he was privately married on the 6th of September, 1766. George the Third, his brother, was highly incensed at this match; he refused to receive the bride at court; and, consequently, the duke and duchess proceeded to Italy, where they resided for a considerable time. Their union was not generally known until 1772, when, in consequence of a bill having been brought into parliament, relative to royal marriages, the duke thought proper publicly to acknowledge the duchess as his wife. In 1776, he returned to England; his children by the duchess were shortly afterwards acknowledged as his legal heirs; and a

royal highness and the king.

During the duke's residence in Italy he was presented with several paintings, and exquisite specimens of ancient sculpture, by the pope; from whom he received various flattering marks of civility and respect. It is related, that while the duke was at Rome, his carriage, one exceedingly muddy day, happened to enter at one end of a street precisely as that of his holiness appeared at the other. The pope and the duke, when within a short distance of each other, ordered their respective vehicles to stop, and several messages passed between the parties as to who should move forward first, the pope feeling reluctant to take precedence in this respect of the duke, and the duke of the pope. Meantime, a great number of the populace were silently waiting in the mud to receive the papal benediction. Atlength, this extraordinary dispute of mutual humility was terminated by the duke's carriage being driven slowly past that of the pope, in consequence of his holiness having stated, by one of his messengers, that he should be obliged to return home if his royal highness would not condescend to pass on.

The duke bore the character of a humane, well-meaning man; and, especially during the latter part of his life, enjoyed considerable popularity. He died on the 26th of August, 1805, and his remains were interred in Westminster abbey.

lounger in society, he dissipated his time in the most frivolous amusements, or the practice of low and contemptible vices. By degrees, he rendered himself ridiculously notorious; and, at length, the absurdity of his conduct, when enamoured of the Countess Grosvenor, made him the laughing-stock of the whole country. This lady, whose maiden name was Harriet Vernon, appears to have been respectably connected, but had no fortune. One day, about the year 1764, being caught in a shower of rain, while she was walking in Kensington gardens, Lord Grosvenor, struck with her beauty, offered her, and a young lady who was with her, seats in his carriage. The proposal was accepted, and his lordship accompanied them home. An intimacy between the earl and Miss Vernon ensued; and, in a short time, he led her to the altar. In 1770, as it is stated, the Duke of Cumberland "began to idolize her." On one occasion, his royal highness followed her to Eaton-hall, near Chester; and meetings between them took place in the adjacent fields so frequently as to attract the notice of the neighbourhood. The duke lodged at an obscure public-house in Hanford; and though his real rank was unsuspected, yet the fineness of his linen, the ornaments of his watch, and the splendour of his rings, which, with consummate weakness, he delighted to display, induced the landlord, who probably feared that he was employed in some illegal practices, to hint that his departure would be agreeable. The duke immediately quitted the house, and passed many of the following nights in barns and hovels, near the usual place of his rendezvous with her ladyship. Lord Grosvenor brought an action of crim. con. against him, and obtained a verdict for £10,000 damages. At the trial of the cause, the plaintiff's counsel put in several of the duke's letters to the countess; the perusal of which is said to have been attended with great laughter. One of them contained the following passage:-"I got to supper about nine o'clock, but I could not eat, and so got to bed about ten."

Scarcely had these degrading proceedings ceased to be the subject of public conversation, when, much to the

annoyance of the royal family, the newspapers announced, that the Duke of Cumberland had, on the 2nd of October, 1771, married Lady Ann Luttrell, (a woman much older than himself,) eldest daughter of the Earl of Carhampton, and widow of Mr. Christopher Horton, of Derbyshire. This new act of folly and supposed insult to the sovereign, on the part of his weak-minded brother, not only produced an order, forbidding the duke and his consort from appearing at court, but a message to parliament recommending a legislative provision for preventing any of the royal family from marrying without the consent of the king. Accordingly, a bill was passed though not without violent opposition, enacting that none of the royal family being under the age of twenty-five years, should contract marriage without the sovereign's sanction: but that, on attaining the above age, they might be at liberty, should such sanction be withheld, to solemnize the proposed union, if, after having announced to the privy-council the name of the person they wished to espouse, an entire year should elapse without either house of parliament addressing the king against it.

Deprived of the society of his relations, and generally excluded from the fashionable world by his imprudence, the duke lived very uncomfortably with his wife, who died in his lifetime without issue. A person named Olivia Serres, subsequently to his death, stated herself to be a daughter of the duke by a second marriage: but her claim to the rank of a princess was not recognized by government.

It would be a difficult task to ascertain in which the duke was most defective,-in judgment or in morals. He sinned as often against decency as sense. Perhaps the best excuse for his transgressions will be found in his natural weakness of intellect: he appears to have had neither discrimination to avoid error, nor strength of mind to abandon it when discovered. He died on the 18th of September, 1790, in the fortyfifth year of his age, of an inveterate scrofulous malady, with which he had long been afflicted.

THIS princess, the daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, was SO extremely small and delicate, at her birth, which took place on the 8th of March, 1749, that it was deemed advisable to have her immediately baptized but she passed through the perils of infancy, and seemed, for some time, gradually to gain strength. Her disposition was remarkably gentle; and her intense desire for the acquisition of knowledge, delighted, while it alarmed

her family, lest her health might be injured by too much application. As she advanced towards womanhood, that latent malady, the existence of which had, for some years, been indicated by the peculiarly bright vermillion hue of her cheek, became more developed; and after suffering much from a hectic cough, which at length put on the appearance of a rapid consumption, and rendered all medical skill unavailing, she expired on the 13th of May, 1768.

CAROLINE MATILDA, the posthumous child of Frederick, Prince of Wales, was born on the 11th of July, 1751. The dawn of her life was sorrowful, its meridian stormy, and its close melancholy. She is described as having been a tall, fair, graceful girl, of elegant manners, liberal acquirements, and amiable disposition. The terms of her marriage with Prince Christian, of Denmark, were settled in January, 1765; but on account of the extreme youth of the parties, the ill-fated alliance did not take effect until two years afterwards. During the interval, Princess Caroline lost much of that endearing vivacity, for which she had previously been remarkable; well-founded apprehensions as to her future happiness agitated her mind; and she became pensive, reserved, and evidently unhappy.

In the mean time, Prince Christian ascended the throne of Denmark, and the marriage was at length celebrated by proxy, on the 1st of October, 1766. The young bride, then only in her sixteenth year, embarked for the continent, with deep regret, almost immediately after the ceremony had been performed. From the first moment of her arrival in Denmark she became an object of commiseration. Her husband was a haughty, irritable, jealous, semi-barbarian; repulsive even in his few moments

of fondness; and, at other times, gloomy, remorseless, vindictive, and tyrannical, yet, in some respects, contemptibly weak and pusillanimous.

Soon after his marriage, actuated by a restless desire of change, he abandoned his throne and young bride, to visit foreign countries. In 1768, he arrived in England, where he was treated with formal magnificence but real coldness, on account of the illiberal treatment which the young queen had already experienced at the Danish court, not only from the king himself, but, through his culpable neglect, from her imperious stepmother. His conduct at the British capital appears to have been by no means dignified. "I wish," said his queen, in a letter to one of her sisters, "that the king's travels had the same laudable objects as those of Cyrus: but I find that the chief visitors of his majesty are musicians, fiddlers, and persons designed for employments still more inglorious."

Horace Walpole has thus described this prince :-" He is as diminutive as if he came out of a kernel in the fairy tales. He is not ill made, nor weakly made, though so small; and though his face is pale and delicate, it is not at all ugly, yet has a strong cast of the late king, and enough of the late Prince of Wales, to put one upon one's guard not

to be prejudiced in his favour. Still he has more royalty than folly in his air; and, considering he is not twenty, is as well as one expects any king in a puppet-show to be. He arrived on Thursday, supped, and lay at St. James's. Yesterday evening, he was at the queen's and Carlton-house, and, at night, at Lady Hertford's assembly. He only takes the title of Altesse, (an absurd mezzo-termine,) but acts the king exceedingly; struts in the circle like a cock-sparrow, and does the honours of himself very civilly."

After quitting England, he passed into France and Germany, and returned to his dominions in the course of the following year. On re-assuming the reins of government, he clearly demonstrated that he had gained no valuable accession of knowledge during his absence. A physician, and political adventurer, named John Frederick Struensee, the son of a clergyman at Halle, in Saxony, by whom he had been attended during his travels, acquired so absolute an ascendancy over him, as to obtain the supreme direction of affairs. With the rash presumption incident to sudden and unmerited prosperity, this man attempted various innovations in the state, which rendered him exceed.. ingly odious. The very high favour in which he evidently stood with the queen, who, it is said, had made use of his influence, to bring about a reconciliation between herself and the king, gave rise to imputations against her majesty's character. She was accused of having frequently been alone with him, and of having, on many occasions, treated him with indecorous familiarity.

At length, an extraordinary court revolution, conducted by the queen dowager, Prince Frederick, (her son,) and Count Rantzau, overthrew the favourite. On the night of the 16th of January, 1772, they roused the king from his sleep, and, by their assurances that his life was in danger, procured his signature to a warrant for the immediate arrest of Struensee and her majesty. The former was soon after

convicted of high treason, and sentenced to lose his right hand, to be beheaded, and then quartered. In his last moments, he was attended by Dr. Munter, who wrote an elaborate account of his conversion from scepticism. The queen was consigned, with much indignity, to the castle of Cronenburg, and, for some time, her life was in danger; a capital process being meditated against her, with a view to bastardize her issue, in order that Prince Frederick, the king's brother, might become presumptive successor to the throne. Through the strenuous remonstrances of the court of St. James's, backed by the appearance of a British fleet in the Baltic, she was, however, at length, allowed to retire from the Danish dominions, under the conduct of Sir Robert Keith, who conveyed her to the city of Zell, in the electorate of Hanover; where she died, on the 10th of March, 1775, in neglect and obscurity.

As it is impossible to ascertain the truth of the allegations made against Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, any attempt to give a correct estimate of her character must needs be fruitless. There appears to be little doubt of her having betrayed some symptoms of levity; these, however, are asserted, by some of her advocates, to have been the mere innocent sallies of a lively young woman, with her husband's confidential physician; while others boldly, but unsuccessfully, endeavour to justify them by the negligent and unfeeling conduct of the king. If she were only imprudent, the unhappy queen has a strong claim on our commiseration; but if she really dishonoured the king's bed, an offence of which she was accused, but not satisfactorily proved to have been guilty, she was, notwithstanding his improper behaviour, exceedingly culpable; not only for breaking her marital vow, from which his brutality had not absolved her, but for deeply wronging herself, and exposing her issue, and the country, to the horrors of a disputed succession.

THE birth of George Augustus Frederick, eldest son of George the Third and Queen Charlotte, took place at St. James's palace, on the 12th of August, 1762. As heir-apparent, he was born Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, as well as hereditary High Steward of Scotland; and, a few days after his birth, he received, by patent, the title of Prince of Wales. Having acquired the rudiments of learning under the superintendence of his mother, his further education was entrusted, in 1770, to the Earl of Holdernesse, as governor; Dr. Markham, as preceptor; and Cyril Jackson, as subpreceptor.

The young prince was now secluded from society, and coerced to severe application. Dr. Markham, on entering upon his important duties as chief instructor to the heir-apparent and his next brother, had asked George the Third how he wished to have the young princes treated. "Like the sons of any private gentleman," was the reply if they deserve it, let them be flogged: do as you did at Westminster." Markham, it is said, did not fail, when it appeared necessary, to act up to these instructions; and his pupils, by dint of constant study, rapidly acquired such a proficiency in the classics, as was supposed to be highly creditable to themselves and honourable to their teachers. Notwithstanding the clamours that have been raised against the restraint practised at this period of his education, it does not appear, subsequently, to have met with the disapprobation of the prince; who, on the contrary, long after he had reached maturity, expressed his gratitude for the benefits he had derived, as well from the zeal and services of Markham, as those of the sub-preceptor, to whom, so late as 1809, he offered a bishopric; which, however, Jackson, on account of his advanced age, thought proper to refuse. Nor does the severity of his tutors seem to have had the effect of breaking his naturally high spirit.

In 1772, his father, having given him, as he conceived, some unmerited offence, he revenged himself by shouting, at the door of the king's room, "Wilkes and Number Forty-five for ever!"-an expression, than which scarcely anything, at that time, as the prince knew, was more obnoxious to his majesty's

ears.

On reaching his twelfth year, a piece of ground was set apart for the heirapparent, and his brother, the Duke of York, in Kew gardens. They cropped it with wheat, which they reaped, thrashed, winnowed, and ground; they then made the flour into dough, and divided it into loaves; these they baked, and afterwards distributed them among the royal family. In 1776, for some cause, as to the nature of which, conjecture, though busy, was apparently unsuccessful, Lord Holdernesse and the two preceptors resigned. The latter were succeeded by Bishop Hurd and the Rev. Mr. Arnald, and Lord Bruce became the new governor; but, in a few days after his appointment, he either retired or received his dismissal, in consequence, it was reported, of his having committed a blunder in Greek, which his elder pupil had somewhat pertly corrected.

The

The chief direction of the young princes' future education was now confided to the Duke of Montague, to whom the junior members of the royal family had previously been indebted for the restriction of their morning repast to plain oatmeal-porridge. discipline established by Markham and Jackson, appears to have suffered no relaxation during the preceptorship of their successors. Arnald, who had doubtless heard of George the Third's avowed sentiments as to the correction of his sons, personally inflicted the birch on one of the royal pupils, (it does not appear which,) when the latter was fifteen or sixteen years of age. Indignant at his conduct, the two princes, when, on a subsequent occasion, Arnald was about to repeat what they deemed his gross offence,

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