derived the inestimable advantage of receiving her education under the superintendence of her aunt, his wife, the accomplished Sophia Charlotte, sister of George the First. No less amiable than intellectually gifted, the Queen of Prussia was honoured and beloved for her patronage of literature, science, and art; and her death, when only thirty-seven, was universally lamented. This melancholy event occurred in 1705, the same year in which her niece gave her hand to George, then Electoral Prince of Hanover.

It would be difficult to overrate the advantages Caroline must have derived from her early residence at the court of Berlin, or to say how much of her subsequent patronage and apparent appreciation of men of learning may have arisen from the happy bias and strong impressions her mind received in youth. However much biographers may differ on the minor points of her character, there seems little reason to doubt that Caroline was distinguished by an earnest integrity of purpose, above and beyond the standard of her day; and though by no means devoid of ambition, and rigorous very frequently, even on points of etiquette, she did not consider that obtaining the world's high places was the end or aim of existence. Her rejection of the hand of Charles, son of Leopold the First, was honourable to her principles, whether it proceeded from personal indifference or was, as it was considered, a striking proof of her adherence to the Protestant faith.

On reviewing the aspect of Europe at the commencement of the last century, it does not appear that the Electoral Prince of Hanover could have been thought a sufficiently "great match" to present any plausible temptations for forcing Caroline's inclinations; and taking into account that she had completed her twenty-second year, and had no father living to exert parental authority over her, it is fair to assume that the marriage was quite as much one of mutual regard as princes are, or more especially were, permitted to know. It is

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true that his grandmother, the Electress Sophia, became, on the accession of Anne, the next Protestant heir to the throne of England; but the petty courts of Germany, spectators of the English revolution, had seen too many sudden changes and seeming inconsistencies, to entertain, one would think, any very certain expectations on the subject of the succession. However sturdily the people, ultimately a nation's sure legislators, might have determined to exclude that branch which had rooted itself in the errors of popery, and borne the fruit by which it might be known, there was a counter influence which must have weighed down the other scale to nearly an even balance. Great kings and petty potentates alike yielded their sympathies to the exiled Stuarts; nor were partizans of the fallen family altogether wanting round the Elector's own hearth. A loyalty which was almost a religious sentiment glowed, and was well known to glow, in the hearts of thousands whose swords for a time perforce were sheathed, whose lips perforce were silenced. And the calmest of judges, or most clear-sighted of statesmen, could scarcely have predicted the issue.

There is no doubt the Electoral Prince was as truly and warmly attached to his bride as it was possible for a nature essentially coarse and phlegmatic to be; and abundant evidence also proves that his affection increased with years, as did her influence over his mind and actions. Caroline must have been eminently discreet in her conduct, or she could not have steered her difficult course as she did through the different cabals which began early in her married life. Long before the accession of George the First, the misunderstanding between him and his son took place; originating probably from several causes, not the least being that the Electoral Prince doted on his mother, the unfortunate, and, there is every reason to believe, cruelly maligned Sophia of Zell. The discovery of the assassination of Count Konigsmark, which

took place certainly by the order, and it is even said in the presence of, George the First, was made in after years, and to Caroline only were the details of the murder, and of the finding of the body, made known by her husband. It was indeed a dreadful secret, which the most unloving son might well desire to keep. By his mother, too, George the First seemed to be scarcely more warmly regarded than by his son; while the evident partiality of the Electress Sophia for her grandson was another cause of jealousy and estrangement between him and his father.

On the accession of the latter to the throne of England, they came over together in apparent harmony; but the fire of their old feuds was by no means extinguished, and burst out again more violently than ever. The flame was fanned by the partizan spirit to which it gave birth; one party voting a separate revenue of a hundred thousand a year to be settled on the Prince of Wales, and the other negativing it with equal fervour. While absent in Hanover, the king was in a measure compelled to cede the reins of government to the heir apparent, but he did it with ungracious reluctance; and instead of bestowing on him the expected and customary title of Regent, appointed him "Guardian of the Realm and Lieutenant." During all this "stormy weather," the Princess of Wales seems to have maintained the respect, if she never won the regard, of her very unloveable father-in-law. Indeed, he seems to have hated her rather more than he hated his son; and the manner in which he used to speak of her as cette diablesse, Madame la Princesse, was characteristic of the man and of his feelings.

Horace Walpole describes a scene worth recording, as he heard it from an eye-witness, which is curiously illustrative of the open warfare which was maintained, and the pertinacity on both sides about affairs not apparently of the greatest moment. The Princess of Wales had given birth to her second

son, and it was the wish of the prince that his uncle, the Duke of York, and the King, should be godfathers. His majesty, however, insisted that the Duke of Newcastle should be sponsor, and the christening took place accordingly. The ceremony was performed in the princess's chamber; but no sooner had the bishop concluded than the prince crossed the room in a rage, "stepped up to the Duke of Newcastle, and holding up his hand and fore-finger in a menacing attitude, said You are a rascal, but I shall find you!' meaning, in his broken English, I shall find a time to be revenged.'

The consequence of this outbreak was renewed persecution from his father, who chose to understand his threat to the duke as a challenge. The prince was put under arrest, and though that was soon taken off, he and the princess were ordered to leave the palace, and retired to the house of her chamberlain. the Earl of Grantham, in Albemarle Street. Notice was also given that no persons who paid their respects to the Prince and Princess of Wales should be received at court; and they were deprived of their guard, and all other marks of distinction.

One could almost fancy that family quarrels were but the development of son e hereditary tendency among the earlier Georges; for, twenty years afterwards, we find a very similar drama performed, George the Second sustaining now the rôle of the enraged father. The same house even, in Leicester Square, which had been occupied by himself when exiled from St. James's, found a tenant in Frederick Prince of Wales, under precisely the same circumstances; and his indignation at the apparently necessitated arrangements connected with the birth of George the Third, was to the full as vexatious and tyrannical as that he had experienced on his quarrel with the Duke of Newcastle; who, by the way, was by this time restored to favour, and holding offices of trust under the government.