CHARACTER S. Sketch of their Majesties domestic Life at Kew, during the Summer Season. HEIR majesties rise at six children again pay their duty at Kew house, before they retire to bed; and the same order is observed through each returning day. The sovereign is the father of his family; The morning, and enjoy not a grievance reaches his know the two succeeding hours, which they call their own: at eight the prince of Wales, the Bishop of Os naburgh, the princess Royal, and princes William and Henry, are brought from their several houses, to Kew house to breakfast with their illustrious relations. At nine, their younger children attend to lisp or smile their good morrows, and whilst the five eldest are closely applying to their tasks, the little ones and their nurses pass the whole morning in Richmond Gardens. The king and queen frequently amuse themselves with sitting in the room while the children dine, and once a week, attended by the whole offspring in pairs, make the little delightful tour of Richmond Gardens. In the afternoon the queen works, and the king reads to her, and whatever charms ambition or folly may conceive as at→ tendant on so exalted a situation, it is neither on the throne, nor in the drawing-room, in the splendor or the toys of sovereignity, that they place their felicity; it is, next to the fulfilling of the duties of their station, in social and domestic gratifications, in breathing the free air, admiring the works of nature, tasting and encouraging the elegan cies of art, and in living to their own hearts. In the evening, all the VOL. XVIII. 1775. ledge that remains unredressed; nor is a single character of merit, or ingenuity, ever disregarded; so that his private conduct must be allowed to be no less exemplary, than it is truly amiable. Though naturally a lover of peace, his personal courage cannot in the smallest degree be impeached; he exercises his troops himself, understands every martial manœuvre as well as any private centinel in his service, and has the articles of war at his fingers ends. Topography is one of his favourite studies; he copies every capital chart, takes the models of all the cele brated fortifications, knows the soundings of the chief harbours in Europe, and the strong and weak sides of most fortified towns. He can name every ship in his navy, and he keeps lists of the commanders. And all these are private acquisitions, and of his own chusing. The prince of Wales and the bishop of Osnaburgh bid fair, however, for excelling the generality of mankind in learning, as much as they are their superiors in rank: eight hours close application to the languages and the liberal sciences is daily enjoined them, and their, industry is unremitting: all the ten are indeed fine children, and it does not yet appear that parental partiality is known at court. Exercise, air, and light diet, are the grand fundamental in the king's idea of health and sprightliness; his majesty feeds chiefly on vegetables, and drinks little wine; the queen is what many private gentle women would call whimsically abstemious, for at a table covered with dainties, she culls the plainest and the simplest dish, and seldom eats of more than two things at a meal. Her wardrobe is changed every three months; and, while the nobility are eager to supply themselves with foreign trifles, her care is that nothing but what is English shall be provided for her wear. The tradesmens bills are regularly paid once a quarter for what comes under the childrens department, and the whole is judiciously and happily conducted. writer qualified to do justice to so noble a cause, that the present attempt to present her real character to the English people must derive its excuse. Sacrificed in the bloom of life, being born the 22d of july, 1751, and married the first of October, 1766, she was first sent an inexperienced victim to a court, in which, surrounded with spies and emissaries, who interpreted the most tri fling levities of youth into enormous crimes, the young and unsuspecting Queen could not long remain with out giving her enemies too favour able an opportunity to effect her fall. They succeeded, and induced the wretched King to become the engine of their malevolence, by signing the order for her imprison ment. The interposition of the British court saved her from farther violence, and conducted her to an asylum in the electoral dominions of Hanover. Here she appeared in Character of the late Queen Matilda, her true and native character. Di THE of Denmark. HE writer of the following lines, conscious of his, incapacity to draw, in the masterly manher it deserves, so amiable a character as that of the late Queen Matilda of Denmark, waited in expectation that some more able and eloquent pen would have attempted it. But few persons in this Kingdom were in any degree acquainted with her life or actions, while she resided at Copenhagen; perhaps still fewer had the honour to know that exalted sufferer, during the lat ter years which she spent in her retreat at Zell. To this unacquaintance with her Majesty may, he doubts not, be imputed the almost universal silence respecting her; and it is from the appearance of no other vested of the retinue and pomp which, on the throne of Denmark, veiled her in a great degree from the inspection of nice observers, the qualities of her, heart displayed themselves in her little court at Zeil, and gained her universal love. Her person was dignified and grace. ful: she excelled in all the exercises befitting her sex, birth, and station. She danced the finest minuet in the Danish court, and managed the horse with uncommon address and spirit. She had a taste in mu sic, and devoted much of her time, while at Zell, to the harpsichord. The characteristic stile of her dress was simplicity, not magnificence; that of her deportment, an affability, which in a personage of such high rank might be termed extreme condescension. Her talents were were liberal and diffusive; and, cultivated by reading, displayed themselves on all occasions. She conversed with the most perfect fa cility in French, English, German, and Danish; and to those extraor dinary attainments she added a tho rough knowledge of the Italian, which she studied and admired for its beauty and delicacy. Her man ners were the most polished, soft, and ingratiating; and even the contracted state of her finances could not restrain that princely munificence of temper, which made her purse ever open to distress or misery. Naturally chearful and happy in her disposition, adored and beloved to the highest degree by the circle of her court, even the dark cloud of adversity could not alter the sweet ness and serenity of her temper. Banished, with every circumstance of indignity, from the throne of Denmark, she yet retained no sentiment of revenge or resentment against the authors of her fall, or against the Danish people. Her heart was not tinctured with ambition, and she looked back to the diadem which had been torn from her brow, with a calmness and superiority of soul, which might have made a Philip the Fifth, or a Victor Amadeus, blush. It was not the crown she regretted; her children only employed her care; the feelings of the sovereign were absorbed in those of the mother; and, if she wept the day when she quitted the island of Zealand, it was because she was then bereft of those dear objects of her maternal fondness. Two or three months before her death, she shewed, with transports of joy, to Madam d'O-, her first lady of the bed-chamber, a little portrait of the prince-royal her son, which she had just received. It happened that this lady, some few days after, entered the Queen's apartment at an unusual hour. She was surprized at hearing her majesty talk, though quite alone. While she stood in this attitude of astonishment, unable to retire, the Queen turned sud denly round, and addressing herself to her with that charming smile, which she alone could preserve at a moment, when her heart was torn with the most acute and agonizing sensation," What must you think (said she) of a circumstance so extraordinary as that of hearing me talk, though you find me perfectly alone? But it was to this dear and cherished image I addressed my conversation; and what do you ima gine I said to it? nearly the same verses which you sent not long ago to a child, sensible to the happiness of having found her father; verses (added she) which I changed after the manner following: douceur *"Eh! qui donc, comme moi, gouteroit la [cur! De rappeller mon fils, d'etre chers a ton Toi qu'on arrache aux bras d'un mere sensible, i ne pleure que toi, dans ce destin terrible." Madam d'O could not speak ; she burst into tears, and, overcome with her own emotion, retired' hastily from the royal presence. When she was first apprehended to be in danger from the disorder which seized her, anxiety and con sternation were spread through her * TRANSLATION attempted. B 2 whole whole court, which idolized her; but when she expired, no language can express the horror and grief visible in every apartment of the palace. Leyser, the physician, who attended her Majesty through the course of her illness, dreaded the event from the first moment. She saw it, and, impressed with a pre sentiment of her approaching death, which proved but too true," You have twice (said she to him) extricated me from very dangerous indispositions since the month of October, but this exceeds your skill: I know I am not within the help of medicine". Leyser desired that the celebrated Ziminermann might be called in to his aid from Hanover: he was so but her Majesty's illness, which was a most malignant spotted fever, baffled every endeavour. Its violence even in the beginning was such, that her pulse beat an hundred and thirty-one strokes in a minute; but during the last two days it became impossible to count them. She bore the pains of her distemper with exquisite patience, and even shewed the most generous and delicate attention to the ladies who waited by her. She preserved her senses, speech, and understanding to the last moment, and only a short time before her death (the 10th of May, 1775) expressed the most perfect forgiveness of all those enemies who had persecuted and calumniated her during her life. Mons. de Lichtenstein, Grand Mareschal of the court of Hanover, presided at the funeral rites, which were conducted with a pomp suited to her royal dignity. Her Majesty's body was interred with her maternal ancestors, the Dukes of Zell. The streets and the great church were thronged with crowds of people, drawn by the sincerest grief of condolence to behold the mournful obsequies of their royal benefactress pass along. It was a scene the most affecting and awful to be imagined; and when the fu neral-sermon was preached over her remains, the numerous audience melted into tears, and were impres sed with emotions of sorrow and lamentation only to be compared with those which the famous Bourdaloue excited by his oration on a very similar occasion, the death of Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, in the last century. But the most striking proof of the love and attachment borne to her Majesty's memory after death, and the impression which her virtues had made among all ranks of people in the country where she died, is the resolution which the states of Lunen burg framed at Hanover on the 10th of last month. It was as follows: The Nobility and the States of the duchy of Lunenburg assembled, have resolved on the 10th of June, in their last session, to present a request to the King of GreatBritain, to obtain the permission of erecting at Zell a monument, in memory of the qualities of mind and heart of the late Queen of Denmark, as well as of the devotion and veneration which they have borne to that Princess. They intend chusing the most exquisite artists for the execution of it; and they hope, by this avowed proof of their zeal, to transmit, to the most remote posterity, both the profound grief, which the premature death of that young Queen has spread through a whole province which adored her, and the homage which they rendered to that true greatness, which the catastrophes and adversities the most cruel only render more respectable.” The The author of this address to the públic does not wish to be known he has no interest in offering a tribute of adulation to a departed Queen. He was only induced, by the most lively conviction of her virtues and undeserved calamities, to attempt to display the image of their Princess to the English people. The eulogium is due to her memory; it is an atonement to her injured shade. blind out ment XII.) was ten years of the twelve that he reigned; and it may be judged from thence, whether the treasurers or receivers had not then good eyes. Orsini (Benedict XIII.) of the order of the brother preachers, too sanctified to suspect any ill, was incessantly imposed upon by the unfortunate cardinal Coscia, who, though only the son of a barber in the kingdom of Naples, enriched himself at the cost of the holy see, became a prisoner in the castle of St. Ange, and died Memoirs of the late Pope Clement in 1755, loaded with riches and IT XIV. T is commonly said in Italy, that a pope never sees the truth but when he reads the gospel. Clement, without employing spies, the resource of low and little minds, cast his eyes about him, and saw himself what it was necessary for him to know; whereby as a prince who knew how to reign, he rewarded and punished; he declared himself, or he dissembled. Providence (said he) has placed me as a centinel, only carefully to watch over Israel. It is true, his extraordinary vigilance created murmurs; but he was convinced that a people is happy only in proportion as their sovereign pays attention to every minutia that relates to their welfare; and those who filled offices and employments were obliged to be very careful in conducting themselves properly, which was not the case in the former reign, when malversation was practised with impunity. Lambertini (Benedict XIV.) attained the reputation of a great doctor, and was respected abroad, without abilities to govern his dominions. The Romans, in speaking of him, used to say, Magnus in folio, parvus in solio. Corsini (Cle the public indignation. The duties of a prince and pastor are very difficult to reconcile; policy often exacts what religion does not allow if the character of a pope inspires clemency, that of a sovereign enjoins severity. Thus we read that Sixtus V. was a great monarch without being a bigot; and that S. Pius was a good pope and a poor prince. This made an historian say, that such pontiffs as had been taken from the order of the Cordeliers, and were six in number, were all possessed of the talent of governing well; and those who had been of the order of the Dominicans, were more'capable of edifying. Ganganelli, the late pope, whose Christian names were Francis Laurence, was born at Saint Angelo, in the duchy of Urbino, the 31st of October, 1705; and chosen pope, though not yet a bishop, the 19th of May, 1769; at which time, as the reader may recollect, the s:2 of Rome was involved in a most disagreeable and dangerous contest with the house of Bourbon. was the pope who most united the above qualities, as a manly piety is more analogous with sovereignty, than an effeminate and pusillani B 3 He mous |
