extension of royal prerogative was least expected,that from the moment parliament was made acquainted with the king's incapacity, a right attached to the prince of Wales to exercise the regal functions, in the name of nis father. On the 15th of December, the duke of York rose in the House of Lords, and a profound silence ensued. His royal nighness said, that though perfectly unused as he was to speak in a public assembly, vet he could not refrain from offering his sentiments to their lordships on a subject in which the dearest interests of the country were involved. He said, he entirely agreed with the noble lords who had expressed their wishes to avoid any question which tended to induce a discussion on the rights of the prince. The fact was plain, that no such claim of right had been made on the part of the prince; and he was confident that his royal highness understood too well the sacred principles which seated the house of Brunswick on the throne of Great Britain, ever to assume or exercise any power, be his claim what it might, not derived from the will of the people, expressed by their representatives and their lordships in parliament assembled. On this ground his royal highness said, that he must be permitted to hope that the wisdom and moderation of all considerate men, at a moment when temper and unanimity were so peculiarly necessary, on account of the dreadful calamity which every description of persons must in common lament, but which he more particularly felt, would make them wish to avoid pressing a decision, which certainly was not necessary to the great object expected from parliament, and which must be most painful in the discussion to a family already sufficiently agitated and afflicted. His royal highness concluded with saying, that these were the sentiments of an honest heart, equally influenced by duty and affection to his royal father, and attachment to the constitutional rights of his subjects; and that he was confident, if his royal brother were to address them in his place as a peer of the realm, that these were the sentiments which he would distinctly avow. His majesty in council having declared his consent, under the great seal, to a contract of matrimony between his royal highness the duke of York and her royal high ness the princess Frederique Charlotte Ulrique Catherine of Prussia, eldest daughter of the king of Prussia, on the 29th of September, 1791, the marriage ceremony was performed at Berlin. About six o'clock in the afternoon, all the persons of the blood royal assembled in gala, in the apartments of the dowager queen, where the diamond crown was put on the head of princess Frederica. The generals, ministers, ambassadors, and the high nobility, assembled in the white hall. At seven o'clock, the duke of York, preceded by the gentlemen of the chamber, and the court officers of state, led the princess his spouse, whose train was carried by four ladies of the court, through all the parade apartments; after them went the king, with the queen dowager, prince Lewis of Prussia, with the reigning queen, and others of the royal family to the white hall, where a canopy was erected of crimson velvet, and also a crimson velvet sofa for the marriage ceremony. The royal couple placed themselves under the canopy, before the sofa, the royal family stood round them, and the upper counsellor of the consistory, Mr. Sack, made a speech in German. This being over, rings were exchanged; and the illustrious couple, kneeling on the sofa, were married according to the rites of the reformed church. The whole ended with a prayer. Twelve guns, placed in the garden, fired three rounds, and the benediction was given. The new-married couple then received the congratulations of the royal family, and returned in the same manner to the apartments, where the royal family, and all persons present, sat down to card-tables; after which, the whole court, the high nobility, and the ambassadors, sat down to supper, at six tables. The first was placed under a canopy of crimson velvet, and the victuals served in gold dishes and plates. The other five tables, at which sat the generals, ministers, ambassadors, all the officers of the court, and the high nobility, were served in other apartments. During supper, music continued playing in the galleries of the first hall, which immediately began when the company entered the hall. At the dessert, the royal table was served with a beautiful set of china, made in the Berlin manufactory. Supper being over, the whole assembly repaired to the white hall, where the trumpet, timbrel, and other music were playing; and the flambeau dance was begun, at which the ministers of state carried the torches. With this ended the festivity. The ceremony of the re-marriage of the duke and duchess of York took place at the Queen's Palace, London, on the 23d of November. The duchess of York died on the 6th of August, 1820. THE DANCE OF TORCHES. As a note of illustration on this dance at the Prussian nuptials of the duke and duchess of York, reference may be had to a slight mention of the same observance on the marriage of the prince royal of Prussia with the princess of Bavaria, in the Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 1551. Since that article, I find more descriptive particulars of it in a letter from baron Bielfeld, giving an account of the marriage of the prince of Prussia with the princess of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, at Berlin, in 1742. The baron was present at the ceremonial. "As soon as their majesties rose from table, the whole company returned into the white hall; from whence the altar was reinoved, and the room was illuminated with fresh wax lights. The musicians were placed on a stage of solid silver. Six lieutenant generals, and six ministers of state, stood, each with a white wax torch in his hand, ready to be lighted, in conformity to a ceremony used in the German courts on these occasions, which is called the dance of torches,' in allusion to the torch of Hymen. This dance was opened by the new married prince and princess, who made the tour of the hall, saluting the king and the company. Before them went the ministers and the generals, two and two, with their lighted torches. The princess then gave her hand to the king, and the prince to the queen; the king gave his hand to the queen mother, and the reigning queen to prince Henry; and in this manner all the princes and princesses that were present, one after the other, and according to their rank, led up the dance, making the tour of the hall, almost in the step of the Polognese. The novelty of this performance, and the sublime quality of the performers, made it in some degree agreeable. Otherwise the extreme gravity of the dance itself, with the continual round and formal pace of the dancers, the frequent going out of the torches, and the clangour of the rumpets that rent the ear, all these I say made it too much resemble the dance of the Sarmates, those ancient inhabitants of the prodigious woods of this country." in which forty pounds of gunpowder being deposited, a number of most curious warlike instruments, which his royal highness had collected on the continent, were de stroyed. Many of the guns and other weapons were presented from the king tinction, and to each piece was attached its of Prussia, and German officers of dishistory. By the seasonable exertions of the from spreading to the main part of the neighbourhood, the flames were prevented building. The duchess was at Oatlands at her sleeping apartment, in the centre of the the time, and beheld the conflagration from mansion, from which the flames were prevented communicating by destroying a gateway, over the wing that adjoined to the house. Her royal highness gave her orders with perfect composure, directed abundant refreshment to the people who were extinguishing the flames, and then retired to the rooms of the servants at the stables, which His majesty rode over from Windsor-castle are considerably detached from the palace. to visit her royal highness, and staid with her a considerable time. On the 8th of April, 1808, whilst the duke of York was riding for an airing along dog crossed, and barked in front of the the King's-road towards Fulham, a drover's horse. The animal, suddenly rearing, fell backwards, with the duke under him; and stirrup, dragged him along, and did him the horse rising, with the duke's foot in the further injury. When extricated, the duke, with great cheerfulness, denied he was the back of his head and face contused, and much hurt, yet two of his ribs were broken, gentleman in a hack chaise immediately one of his legs and arms much bruised. A alighted, and the duke was conveyed in it highness was put to bed, and in due time to York-house, Piccadilly, where his royal recovered to the performance of his active duties. On the 6th of August, 1815, the duke of York, on coming out of a shower-bath, at Oatlands, fell, from the slippery state of the oilcloth, and broke the large bone of his left arm, half way between the shoulder and the elbow-joint. His royal highness's excellent constitution at that time assisted the surgeons, and in a fortnight he again attended to business. On the 11th of October, in the same year, his royal highness's library, at his office in the Horse-guards consisting of the best military authors, and a very extensive collection of maps, were removed to his new library (late her majesty's) in the Green-park. The assemblage is the most perfect collection of works on military affairs in the kingdom. It appears, from the report of the commissioners of woods, forests, and land revenues, in 1816, that the duke of York purchased of the commissioners the following estates: 1. The manor of Byfleet and Weybridge, with Byfleet or Weybridgepark, and a capital messuage and offices, and other messuages and buildings there. 2. The manor of Walton Leigh, and divers messuages and lands therein. 3. A capital messuage called Brooklands, with offices, gardens, and several parcels of land, situated at Weybridge. 4. A farm-house, and divers lands, called Brooklands-farm, at Weybridge. 5. A messuage and lands, called Childs, near Weybridge. 6. Two rabbit-warrens within the manor of Byfleet and Weybridge. To this property was to be added all lands and premises allotted to the preceding by virtue of any act of enclosure. The sale was made to his royal highness in May, 1809, at the price of £74,459. 38.; but the money was permitted to remain at the interest of 34 per cent. till the 10th of June, 1815, when the principal and interest (amounting, after the deduction of property-tax, and of the rents, which, during the interval, had been paid to the crown, to £85,135. 58. 9d.) were paid into the Bank of England, to the account of the commissioners for the new street. His royal highness also purchased about twenty acres of land in Walton, at the price of £1294. 28. 3d. While the duke was in his last illness, members on both sides of the House of Commons bore spontaneous testimony to his royal highness's impartial administration of his high office as commander-in-chief; and united in one general expression, that no political distinction ever interfered to prevent the promotion of a deserving officer. A statement in bishop Watson's Memoirs, is a tribute to his royal highness's reputation. "On the marriage of my son in August, 1805, I wrote," says the bishop, "to the duke of York, requesting his royal highness to give him his protection. I felt a consciousness of having, through life, cherished a warm attachment to the house of Brunswick, and to those principles which had placed it on the throne, and of having on all occasions acted an independent and honourable part towards the government of the country, and I therefore thought myself justified in concluding my letter in the following terms:- I know not in what estimation your royal highness may hold my repeated endeavours, in moments of danger, to support the religion and the constitution of the country; but if I am fortunate enough to have any merit with you on that score, I earnestly request your protection for my son. I am a bad courtier, and know little of the manner of soliciting favours through the intervention of others, but I feel that I shall never know how to forget that consciousness, I beg leave to submit them, when done to myself; and, under myself 'Your Royal Highness's 'Most grateful servant, 'R. LANDAFF.' "I received a very obliging answer by the return of the post, and in about two months my son was promoted, without purchase, from a majority to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the Third Dragoon Guards. After having experienced, for above twenty-four years, the neglect of his majesty's ministers, I received great satisfaction from this attention of his son, and shall carry with me to my grave a most grateful memory of his goodness. I could not at the time forbear expressing my acknowledgment in the following letter, nor can I now forbear inserting it in these anecdotes. The whole transaction will do his royal highness no discredit with posterity, and I shall ever consider it as an honourable testimony of his approbation of my public conduct. 'Calgarth Park, Nov. 9, 1805.' Do, my lord of Canterbury, But one good turn, and he's your friend for ever.' Thus Shakspeare makes Henry VIII. speak of Cranmer; and from the bottom of my heart, I humbly entreat your royal highness to believe, that the sentiment is as applicable to the bishop of Landaff as it was to Cranmer. 'The bis dat qui cito dat has been most kindly thought of in this promotion of my son; and I know not which is most dear to my feelings, the matter of the obligation, or the noble manner of its being conferred. I sincerely hope your royal highness wil pardon this my intrusion, in thus expressing my most grateful acknowledgments fo them both 'R. LANDAFF.'' Mr. Charles Lamb. To the Editor. DEAR SIR, John, not being able to bring Matilda, the chaste daughter of the old Baron Fitzwater, to compliance with his wishes, causes her to be poisoned in a nunnery. SCENE. John. The Barons: they being John. Hubert, interpret this apparition. A sad-writ Tragedy, so feelingly Would weep to lay their ears to, and (admiring Men more than savage, themselves rational. Told thee thou had'st a daughter. Oh look here! Barons. Matilda! It is not unknown to you, that about sixteen years since I published "Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, who lived about the Time of Shakspeare." For the scarcer Plays I had recourse to the Collection bequeathed to the British Museum by Mr. Garrick. But my time was but short, and my subsequent leisure has discovered in it a treasure rich and exhaustless beyond what I then imagined. Contrived, and acted; that wild savages In it is to be found almost every production in the shape of a Play that has appeared in print, from the time of the old Mysteries Their wildness mildness to this deed, and call and Moralities to the days of Crown and D'Urfey. Imagine the luxury to one like me, who, above every other form of Poetry, have ever preferred the Dramatic, of sitting in the princely apartments, for such they are, of poor condemned Montagu House, which I predict will not speedily be followed by a handsomer, and culling at will the flower of some thousand Dramas. It is like having the range of a Nobleman's Library, with the Librarian to your friend. Nothing can exceed the courteousness and attentions of the Gentleman who has the chief direction of the Reading Rooms here; and you have scarce to ask for a volume, before it is laid before you. If the occasional Extracts, which I have been tempted to bring away, may find an appropriate place in your Table Book, some of them are weekly at your service. By those who remember the "Specimens," these must be considered as mere after-gleanings, supplementary to that work, only comprising a longer period. You must be content with sometimes a scene, sometimes a song; a speech, or passage, or a poetical image, as they happen to strike me. I read without order of time; I am a poor hand at dates ; and for any biography of the Dramatists, I must refer to writers who are more skilful in such matters. My business is with their poetry only. Your well-wisher, January, 27, 1827. C. LAMB. Garrick Plays. No. I. [From "King John and Matilda,” a Tragedy by Robert Davenport, acted in 1651.] Fitzwater. By the lab'ring soul of a much-injured It is my man, child Matilda! Bruce. Sweet niece! Leicester. Chaste soul! Good Oxford, do I move? stand I not still To watch when the griev'd friends of wrong'd Matilda These shed but sailing heat-drops, misling showers. Hubert. Unmatch'd Matilda; Fitzwater. Not to be a Queen, Would she break her chaste vow. Truth crowns your reed; Unmatch'd Matilda was her name indeed. * Fitzwater son of water. A striking instance of the compatibility of the serious pun with the expression of the profoundest sorrows. Grief, as well as joy, finds ease in thus playing with a word. Old John of Gaunt in Shakspeare thus descants on his name: Gaunt, and gaunt indeed;" to a long string of conceits, which no one has ever yet felt as ridiculous. The poet Wither thus, in a mournful review of the declining estate of his family, says with deepest nature: The very name of Wither shows decay. Pathetic epithets to illustrate passion, And steal true tears so sweetly from all these, [Peruses the Motto and Emblems on the hearse. | "To Piety and Purity" and "Lillies mix'd with Roses" How well you have apparell'd woe ! this Pendant, Insinuates a chaste soul in a clean body, To make our griefs ingenious. Let all be dumb, Chester. His very soul speaks sorrow. John. Hail Maid and Martyr! lo on thy breast, I offer (as my guilt imposes) Thy merit's laurel, Lillies and Roses; Lillies, intimating plain Thy immaculate life, stuck with no stain; Roses red and sweet, to tell How sweet red sacrifices smell. Hang round then, as you walk about this hearse, songs of holy hearts, sweet virtuous verse. Fitzwater. Bring Persian silks, to deck her monument; John. Arabian spices, quick'ning by their scent; Fitzwater. Numidian marble, to preserve her praise, John. Corinthian ivory, her shape to praise : Fitzwater. And write in gold upon it, In this breast Virtue sate mistress, Passion but a guest. John. Virtue is sweet; and, since griefs bitter be, Strew her with roses, and give rue to me. Bruce. My noble brother, I've lost a wife and son ;* You a sweet daughter. Look on the king's penitence; His promise for the public peace. Prefer A public benefit. When it shall please, Let Heaven question him. Let us secure And quit the land of Lewis. Fitzwater. Do any thing; Song. Matilda, now go take thy bed In the dark dwellings of the dead; Rest there, chaste soul, fix'd in thy proper sphere, This scene has much passion and poetry in it, if I mistake not. The last words of Fitzwater are an instance of noble temperament; but to understand him, the character throughout of this mad, merry, feeling, insensible-seeming lord, should be read. That the venomous John could have even counterfeited repentance so well, is out of nature; but supposing the possibility, nothing is truer than the way in which it is managed. These old playwrights invested their bad characters with notions of good, which could by no pos sibility have coexisted with their actions Without a soul of goodness in himself, how could Shakspeare's Richard the Third have lit upon those sweet phrases and induce ments by which he attempts to win over the dowager queen to let him wed her daughter. It is not Nature's nature, but Imagination's substituted nature, which. does almost as well in a fiction. (To be continued.) Literature. GLANCES AT NEW BOOKS ON MY TABLE. "CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY of original and selected Publications" is proposed to consist of various works on important and Do all things that are honorable; and the Great King Popular subjects, with the view of supply Make you a good king, sir! and when your soul Shall at any time reflect upon your follies, John. Back unto Dunmow Abbey.. There we'll pay Also cruelly slair by the poisoning John. + i. e. of peace; which this monstrous act of John's In this play comes to counteract, in the same way as the discovered Death of Prince Arthur is like to break the composition of the King with his Barons in Shakspeare's Play. ing certain chasms in the existing stock of useful knowledge; and each author or subject is to be kept separate, so as to enable purchasers to acquire all the numbers, or volumes, of each book, distinct from the others. The undertaking commenced in the first week of the new year, 1827, with the first number of Captain Basil Hall's voyage to Loo-Choo, and the complete volume o that work was published at the same time. "EARLY METRICAL TALES, including the History of Sir Egeir, Sir Gryme, and Sir Gray-Steill." Edinb. 1826. sm. 8vo. 9s. (175 copies printed.) The most remarkable poem in this elegant volume is the rare Scottish romance, named in the title-page, editor, 1 The Dauphin of France, whom they had called in, which, according to its present as in Shakspeare's Play. "would seem, along with the poems of sir |