1. Sophia Charlotte, Königinn von Preussen: Varnhagen Von Ense. Berlin: 1837.

2. Memoires de Brandenbourg: par Frederic II. Berlin: 1751.

3. Memoires de la Margrave de Bareith. Brunswick: 1812. 4. Anecdotes of Frederick 2nd, King of Prussia, his Court and Family. From the French of Dieudonne Thiebault. London: 1805.

5. Histoire Secréte de la Cour de Berlin: par H. G. R. Comte de Mirabeau. Paris: 1789.

6. Luise, Königinn Von Preussen: Madame Berg (gebohrne Gräfinn Haseler.)

It is a long time, even upwards of sixty years ago, since England saw a Princess Royal wedded, and departing thence to dwell among a foreign people. It was on the 18th day of May, 1797, when Charlotte, eldest daughter of George III, married Frederick William, then hereditary prince, but soon after duke, and finally King of Wurtemberg. The ceremony took place with all due splendour in the Chapel Royal, St. James's. The bride, a fine woman, looked to advantage in her robe of white and silver, relieved by a scarlet mantle, and her coronet of crimson velvet and diamonds. It was remarked that nothing could be more collected, and unembarrassed than her demeanour, while her royal sisters were bathed in tears, and their Majesties, King George and Queen Charlotte, were deeply affected. But the affianced pair were beyond the time of fluttering emotions: the bride was in her thirty-second year; the bridegroom was forty-three, a widower and a father. His matrimonial alliance with England did not make him hesitate subsequently (in 1806) to accept the rank of king from the first Napoleon; the man whom England esteemed her deadliest enemy, and had sworn to overthrow, or to fall in the struggle.

That royal wedding day had its interest, but certainly in a less degree than that now excited, when the youthful daughter of England's popular Queen, contracts an alliance which promises to seat her, as Queen Consort, on a more important throne than that of Wurtemberg (which in 1797 was still but a duchy). Politicians will speculate upon the

His first wife was Augusta of Brunswick, sister of Caroline, then Princess of Wales, of unfortunate memory. The Prince of Wurtemberg had not the reputation of having been a good husband to Augusta one of her daughters, Frederica Catherine, married Prince Jerome Buonaparte.

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future effects of this marriage upon England as a state; close calculators will consider whether the nation is likely to receive anything like quid pro quo for her liberality to Prussia in point of dower. But just now it is early days for forecastings such as these: at this moment, doubtless, the predominant idea is the personal prospects of the fair young girl, who at the early age of seventeen leaves her native shores to occupy, henceforward, an important and responsible position among strangers.

Persons in general are often prone to argue the future from the past; and infer what may be from what has been; and the question suggests itself, what has been the lot of the Queens of Prussia? have they had more or less than the usual share of the thorns that history reveals as lurking within the Regal Circlet? The question is a natural one in this age, when a more than ordinary amount of attention has been fixed upon royal ladies, when far more than ever, in former times, is read and written of the Lives of Queens and Princesses.

A sketch of Prussian Royalties need not be elaborate; for Prussia has had but seven queens and six kings, being but a new kingdom, dated from January 18th, 1701. And the review is more interesting to the English than to, perhaps, any other nation; for of those seven queens all, save two, were Princesses of Hanover, Brunswick, and Mecklenburg, names that are like household words to us, since the termination of the Stuart dynasty.

The first Queen of Prussia, Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, was one of the most celebrated women of her time, and is recorded by her German Biographers, Varnhagen Von Ense, and Von Backer, as "the l'hilosophical Queen" (die philosophisiche Koniginn). She was born in 1668, and was the only daughter of Ernest Augustus, Duke (afterwards Elector) of Hanover, and of Sophia, youngest daughter of Elizabeth Stuart (daughter of James I) the admired Princess Palatine, sometime Queen of Bohemia-that Sophia on whose Protestant descendants the succession to the English throne was settled, and whose eldest son became our George I. Sophia had great talents and took pains with the education of Charlotte, who early displayed abilities of a high order. She learned perfectly Latin, French, Italian, and English, and with the three latter was as familiar as with her native German. She was an excellent musi

cian, and thoroughly skilled in geography. She attained an extensive knowledge of books; and she especially loved the study of philosophy, and from an early age she formed a warm and life-long friendship for the celebrated Leibnitz. Her mind was expanded, and her manners finished by her travels with her parents in France and in Italy.

In 1681 she was with her mother at Pyrmont, and there met the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg (afterwards the first King of Prussia) who had accompanied his invalid wife, Elizabeth of Hesse Cassel, to the Spa. Charlotte was then only thirteen, but her grace, beauty, and accomplishments made a favourable impression on the Electoral Prince.

In three years afterwards the long declining Electoral Princess died: and the widower offered his hand to the young and lovely Hanoverian. The Duchess Sophia considered him an excellent parti; and the marriage was decided on without any reference to Charlotte's sentiments, which were unfortunately but too repugnant. The Electoral Prince was not more than 26, but he was very plain in face, ungainly in person, sickly, deformed, and solemnly frivolous in manner, and his mind was of a lower tone than Charlotte's. She was only 17; very handsome, with a charming expression, fair complexion, jet black hair, and clear blue eyes, beaming with sweetness and intelligence. Her figure was full, but not tall; yet her air was graceful and majestic.

The wedding took place 21st September, 1684. During theceremony a memorial ring bearing the motto "A Jamais, which the Electoral Frince had formerly given to his first wife, and which since her death, he had constantly worn himself, broke and fell from his finger to the ground; a circumstance which the superstition of the age considered an inauspicious omen.

In November the bridal pair entered Berlin, where the Electoral family offered no cheerful prospect to the young wife. The Elector Frederick was old, and completely governed by his second wife (Dorothea of Brunswick Lunenberg) who lived on bad terms with the children of her predecessor (Louisa of Orange) and had endeavoured to thwart the marriage of the Electoral Prince. The Margrave Philip, own brother of the latter, was married, and lived much retired: and the children of the Elector's

second marriage were fond of frivolities which Charlotte disdained. She lived with her husband at Kopeneck: and all the different households kept up a mere formal inter

course.

Charlotte went through the duties of her station with a placid indifference; but her manners to her husband were invariably cold and distant. She might have been happy in a high degree, had she but suffered her heart to do justice to her husband, who loved and admired her with intensity. He thought no woman could compare with her in mind and person; and throughout her life he had her portrait repeatedly painted for him from time to time. He even endeavoured to adapt himself to her tastes, (and he was by no means illiterate) and he gave her full liberty to form a literary society around her, in which she lived a kind of esoteric life, devoted to philosophy.

In 1688 the Elector died; and his son and successor Frederic, proved his magnanimity by the liberality and kindness with which he treated his stepmother and her children, after all the ill offices she had endeavoured to do for him. The court was now free from quarrels, and Frederic gratified his inclination for pomp and ceremonies, for which he soon had opportunity on the birth of a son, who was afterwards King William 1st of Prussia, and who remained the only child of Charlotte. She had previously borne a son, named Ernest Augustus; but the infant had died at the age of three months, to her great affliction.

And now the young Electress pursued her own course in the fullest freedom. She never took any interest in public affairs (unlike her active and clear-sighted mother) but withdrew herself as much as possible from her husband's court, and kept one of her own at the castle of Monbijou (near Berlin) on the Spree, where she spent her days in music, reading, and correspondence with philosophers, especially Leibnitz; and where she held receptions (apart from court days) for foreigners, with whom she conversed in their own languages. She particularly affected the society of the French Protestant Refugees, then numerous in Germany; and appointed a French Hugonot for her own chaplain. She had the fault of being un-national she gave no encouragement whatever to German Literature,

and the habitual language at her residence was French; by which she unwisely made a chasm between the court and the people.

Subsequently she removed from Monbijou to the Castle of Lützenberg, also near Berlin, and on the Spree and the Elector spared neither pains nor expence to adorn and enlarge the castle and the gardens for her gratification. There she lived as she had done at Monbijou, but on a more extended scale of enjoyment; balls, concerts, amateur operas, and theatricals varied and enlivened the literary occupations; and she collected a splendid library.

In 1692 her father, the duke of Hanover, was elevated to the rank of elector by the Emperor of Germany, Leopold 1st, to the great joy of the ambitious Sophia, his wife, who was destined to be still more gratified by the still higher elevation of her daughter's husband.

Charlotte had many sources of gratification: she had the privilege of frequently seeing her parents, to whom she was much attached; she had a favorite residence of her own, with full powers over her household; and uncontrolled indulgence of her tastes; and she possessed the strong love and admiration of her husband, whom she influenced to bestow favours on literati whom she patronized; to institute an academy of sciences at Berlin, and to send for her friend Leibnitz from Hanover, to preside over the arrangements. The inauguration of the grave academy was celebrated in the private theatre of Lützenberg by a comic masquerade of a village fair, in which the Elector and Electress, their son, and their principal nobles represented the peasants, mountebanks, jugglers, quack doctors, gipsies, &c. &c. and sang and danced in character.

Charlotte seems to have been one of those persons who like to have a pet grievance: in the midst of all her chosen companions, her books and amusements, she complains, in her letters, of solitude, and want of variety. She might have been doubtlessly singularly happy, if she could but have allowed her husband to win a small portion of the regard he so warmly sought; but she never admitted him. to any share of her confidence, met him as seldom as possible, and when they did meet behaved to him with cold reserve. At length Frederic, hopeless of finding a friend and companion in his wife, was literally impelled by her to