name of the linendraper was Wheeler. "As the prince," says Beckford, in his "Conversations," published in the "New Monthly Magazine," "could not obtain her affections exactly in the way he most desired, he persuaded Dr. Wilmot to marry them, which he did at Kew Chapel, in 1759; William Pitt, afterwards lord Chatham, and Ann Taylor, being the parties witnessing, and, for aught I know, the document is still in existence."

listening for something. A pipe and tabor appeared in the street, stopped and played awhile before the house, and scarcely had it ceased, when Hannah Lightfoot was found to have disappeared. On making search for her, her friends learned that she had left the house and been seen to enter a close carriage, which stood in the next street, which then drove rapidly away. The suspicion fell immediately upon the prince. The distracted husband gave chase; and, overWe have always understood that the documentary taking the prince, I believe, at Kew Palace, demanded, evidence of this marriage was carefully preserved in the it is said, on his knees, and with the most passionate family of the descendants, a highly respectable family of the pleading, the restoration of his wife, but in vain.

name of G-1-n. We have often been informed by a quakeress, who resided in London at the time, that the friends of Hannah Lightfoot, aware of the attentions of the prince, were extremely anxious to get her married to a young man of her own society, who was passionately attached to her. The day was fixed-nay, it is asserted that the marriage had actually taken place when, soon after the return of the bridal party from the ceremony, Hannah Lightfoot was observed to be restless, went to the window several times, and appeared to be in an absent state, as if

Now, if it was the fact that George actually thus carried off the wife of another man on his wedding-day, it is a black stain on his memory which no panegyric can wash out. If Hannah Lightfoot was thus married previously, she was not his legal wife, otherwise she had as fair a claim to the queenly crown as Elizabeth Woodville, Anna Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Jane Seymour, Catherine Parr, and Anne Hyde; for it is remarkable that the law forbidding royal marriages with subjects was not then made, but was afterwards passed by George himself. Of his marriage with

Hannah Lightfoot there is, of course, a large amount of conflicting opinion, and it depends entirely on the truth of this wedding-day elopement, whether Charlotte was a wife at all, or a queen at all. If the carrying off had taken place before the wedding ceremony with the young quaker, Hannah Lightfoot would have been de jure and de facto queen of England. It would appear that George III. laid up for himself troubles of the deepest dye by this marriage-troubles affecting the happiness of his favourite daughter, and, probably, the leading cause of his own insanity. Into these, as of a distant date, we enter not here; but we may surmise that these circumstances, not less than the scandalous conduct of his brother, the duke of Cumberland, led him to pass the royal marriage act, forbidding the marriage of any member of the royal family with a subject, except with the express consent of the sovereign.

The earl of Harcourt was dispatched to Strelitz to demand the hand of the princess. He was followed by the duchesses of Hamilton and Ancaster, and lady Effingham, to attend upon her during her journey. Lord Harcourt was received, as may be supposed, with overwhelming courtesy at Strelitz, being always attended by a body-guard, as the representative of England, of which the princess was about to be queen. On the 8th of September Charlotte arrived at St. James's, and that afternoon the marriage took place, the ceremony being performed by the archbishop of Canterbury. The next day the royal couple held a crowded drawing-room and ball, in which the queen was reported to have conducted herself extremely well. On the 22nd the coronation took place with the greatest splendour; and it is noted, not only as a sign of the popularity of the sovereigns, but of the advancing wealth of the country, that the platform from St. Margaret's roundhouse to the abbey door, which at George II.'s coronation let for forty pounds, now let for two thousand four hundred pounds. There was one remarkable spectator of this scene, whose feelings must have been strange; the manwho, had his family ruled wisely, should have there been crowned himself-was Charles Stuart.

prevent the junction of the Russians under Butterlin and
the Austrians under Laudohn. He boldly threw himself
betwixt these two armies, and for a long time defeated
their attempts at a junction. At length, on the 12th of
August, his enemies accomplished their union near Striegau,
in spite of him. There appeared now no other prospect but
that they would completely surround him. But, with great
address, Frederick threw himself into the fortified camp of
Bunzelwitz, under the guns of Schweidnitz, where he had a
strong garrison. This camp was defended by a chain of
formidable works, four-and-twenty terrible batteries, with
mines, deep ditches, and chevaux-de-frise. The allies
attempted to blockade him there and starve him out; but he
obtained corn from the depôts in Schweidnitz, whilst the
country round, being laid waste, the enemy themselves were
assailed by famine. They were daily in expectation of
abundance of provisions from Poland in five thousand
wagons; but Frederick had dispatched a flying column,
under general Platen, to intercept these, which he did
effectually, besides destroying three of their largest magazines
on the Polish frontiers. At this news the allies quitted their
blockade of the Prussian king. Butterlin retired into
Pomerania, and Laudohn to the neighbourhood of Freiburg.
At the end of September Frederick quitted his strong camp,
and marched towards Upper Silesia, but Laudohn instantly
advanced into the vacated position. Instead of taking
Laudohn in the rear, as he intended, Frederick now saw
that general execute the boldest manœuvre of the whole
war. In the night of the 1st of October, which was extremely
dark, he led his troops silently against the walls of Schweid-
nitz. General Zastrow that night was giving a ball to his
officers. The usual precautions were relaxed, and Laudohn,
rushing into the covered way, killed the sentinels, scaled the
outworks, waded the fosse, and mounted the city walls
before the alarm was given. The garrison, four thousand
strong, rushed to the defence, and fought bravely; but they
were overpowered, and, before daybreak, the Austrians were
in full possession of this the great fortress of Silesia, which it
had cost the Prussians months of blockade and hard fighting
to subdue.

This was a stunning blow to Frederick, but he affected to bear it philosophically, whilst the gallant Laudohn was rather censured than applauded by his own court for his exploit. He had undertaken the daring enterprise without consulting the empress or the Aulic council, and the absurd etiquette of Austria was highly offended by it. It required the better sense of the emperor to prevent a formal censure being passed on the hero.

We must now step back a little to observe the war on the continent from the opening of the present campaign. Frederick of Prussia lay encamped during the winter in Silesia, surrounded by difficulties and enemies. His resources of both money and men appeared well nigh exhausted. The end of autumn, 1760, brought him the news of the death of George II., and, from what he could learn of the disposition of his successor and his chief advisers, it was certain that peace would be attempted by England. This depressing intelligence was confirmed in December by the English parliament indeed voting again his usual subsidy, but reluctantly, and he found it paid with still more reluctance and delay. Whilst thus menaced with the total loss of the funds by which he carried on the war, he saw, as the spring ap-great satisfaction, on arriving in Pomerania, that they could proached, the Russians and Austrians advancing against him with more than double his own forces. He had not fifty thousand men, whilst Butterlin, the Russian general, commanded sixty thousand, and Laudohn, the Austrian, seventy thousand. Prince Henry was menaced in Saxony by marshal Daun, and another Russian army, in Pomerania, was marching to the siege of Colberg.

The capture of Schweidnitz enabled the Austrians to winter in Silesia, which they had never yet done during the war; and the Russians under Butterlin also found, to their

winter in Colberg. The Russian division under Romanzow had besieged Colberg both by land and sea, and, spite of the attempts of the Prussians under Platen and Knobloch, sent by Frederick to relieve it, it had been compelled to surrender. Under these discouraging circumstances Frederick took up his winter quarters at Breslau. His affairs never wore a darker aspect. He was out-generaled and more disUnder these circumstances, Frederick endeavoured to comfited this campaign than by a great battle. His enemies

VICTORY OF THE ALLIES AT KIRCII-DENKERN.

The campaign against the French was opened in February by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, by attacking the duke de Broglie, and driving him out of Cassel. In their retreat towards the Maine, the French were attacked by the united forces of the Hanoverian general, Sporken, and the Prussian general Syburg, near Langensalze, who took from them three thousand prisoners, and captured or destroyed all their magazines. Prince Ferdinand followed up this advan-home in their dispatches. Broglie, who had not the same tage by attacking them in Marburg, Göttingen, and Ziegenhain, and applied himself particularly to the siege of Cassel But Broglie, now recovered from his surprise, first defeated the hereditary prince of Brunswick, Ferdinand's nephew, at Stangerode, and then repulsed Ferdinand himself from Cassel.

business, though frank and even jocose in his manner; that he had great influence with the king, even against Madame Pompadour, and that there was disunion in the court, the Dauphin being regarded as favouring the Jesuits, and the Jesuits being charged with being the instigators of Damiens, since so famous as Robert-le-Diable, who stabbed the king in the midst of his guards in 1757.

Choiseul made, certainly, large offers for a peace. It was that each power should retain all such of its conquests as should be in its hands, subject to exchanges and equivalents, in Europe, on the 1st of May next; in America, the West Indies, and Africa, on the 1st of July; and in the East Indies on the 1st of September. This would include Canada, Cape Breton, Guadaloupe, Marigalante, Goree, Pondicherry, &c. Minorca and Göttingen he proposed to retain, as well as Amaboo and Acra, on the African coast, some other places being considered as equivalents. But Pitt had declared that he would never make another peace of Utrecht. He considered that we had France down, and he determined to retain everything of value. He therefore replied that the proper period for the uti possidetis principle of treaty to take place was that on which the treaty was really signed, that it might so happen that it would not be signed at the dates named, and he did this in order to complete a scheme, which he had already nearly accomplished, that of seizing on Belleisle, an island on the coast of France, in the Bay of Biscay, eleven miles long and four wide, high and rocky, containing, however, fertile plains, salt-works, and about five thousand inhabitants, mostly fishermen.

The possession of this island, Pitt knew very well, could be of no further use to England than as a humiliation to France, and as a set-off for Minorca. He had sent an armament against it, in April, consisting of nine thousand men, under general Hodgson, and several men-of-war under commodore Keppel. A landing was attempted on the 8th of that month, but was unsuccessful, five hundred men being killed in the endeavour. Pitt, by no means discouraged, sent out fresh reinforcements, and orders to persevere. On the 25th a fresh attempt was made in Locmaria Bay, and, notwithstanding the almost inaccessible nature of the rocks, our men forced their way, and besieged the governor, chevalier de St. Croix, in the strong fortress of Palais. St. Croix made a most gallant defence, seized general Crawford and two of his aides-de-camp, in a sally, killed some hundreds of men, and held out till the town was taken by storm, and then retired into the citadel. As the French had no fleet, and therefore no means of sending him succour, he was eventually compelled to capitulate on the 7th of June, on condition that he and his troops should march out with all the honours of war, and be set safely on the French coast.

He demanded Guadaloupe and Belleisle too, simply in lieu of the French conquests in Germany. He now demurred to the surrender of Cape Breton, or in any case to forego the right of fishing along its coasts. He was not content with Amaboo or Acra; he demanded Senegal or Goree. He demurred also to destroy the fortifications of Dunkirk, raised in contempt of the treaty of Utrecht. All captures made at sea previous to the declaration of war must be restored; and in Germany, though he was willing to withdraw the French troops, it was only on condition that the troops commanded by prince Ferdinand should not reinforce the Prussian army.

The secret of this wonderfully augmented boldness of tone on the part of France soon transpired. Choiseul had been endeavouring to secure the alliance of Spain, and saw himself about to succeed. Spain was smarting under many losses and humiliations from the English during the late war. The old question of England interfering with the traffic of the Spanish South American colonies remained, and had excited renewed bitterness by the daring with which the English merchants continued it. English cruisers had frequently, in pursuit of French ships, made free to mistake Spanish ones for French. Whilst England traded in defiance of Spain with her colonies, the English fishing vessels on the coasts of Newfoundland drove away the fishing vessels from the Basque provinces, which claimed a right to fish there by an article of the treaty of Utrecht. Whilst general Wall, the Spanish minister at Madrid, urged these complaints on the earl of Bristol, our ambassador there, and the conde de Fuentes, the Spanish ambassador in London, urged them on Pitt, and found little regard paid to these statements, Choiseul was dextrously inflaming the minds of the Spanish court against England on these grounds. He represented England as the universal tyrant of the seas, and the sworn enemy of every other maritime state. He offered to assist in the recovery of Gibraltar, and to make over Minorca to Spain. By these means he induced Spain to go into what became the celebrated FAMILY COMPACT—that is, a compact by which France and Spain bound themselves to mutually succour and support each other; to consider the enemy of either power the enemy of both in all quarters of the world; to give to the subjects of each residing in the dominions of the other all the privileges of native subjects; and to admit the king of Naples, the son of the Spanish king, to this compact, but no prince or potentate whatever, except he were of the house of Bourbon.

This was the sort of result of the succession of a Bourbon to the crown of Spain which had been foreseen from the first, which had inspired Louis XIV. with the scheme, and which had equally armed England, Holland, and Austria against it. Besides the general compact, there was a particular one, which engaged that, should England and France remain at war on the 1st of May, 1762, Spain should on that day declare war against England, and should at the same time receive possession of Minorca. The existence of these These reverses were calculated to make France more compacts was kept with all possible secrecy; but Mr. Stanley compliant; yet Pitt was astonished to find, instead of com- penetrated to a knowledge of them in Paris, and his informapliance, a great spirit of resistance. Choiseul would by no tion was fully confirmed from other sources. The lord means admit that Belleisle was an equivalent for Minorca.marischal, who had received a pardon at the entreaty of the

The news of this loss was speedily followed in Paris by that of the loss of Dominica in the West, and of Pondicherry in the East Indies, as well as by the defeat at KirchDenkern.