sistency in the conduct of the royal pupil and the facts she relates we are blameless.

"I felt very much for the misfortune of Miss Letti. She was dismissed in a very harsh manner. The King sent her word by the Queen that if he had followed his inclination he would have sent her to Spandau; that she was not to appear before him; and that he granted her eight days to quit the court and the country.' I did all I could to comfort her, and show her my friendly regard.

"I was not possessed of much at that time, still I gave her in precious stones, jewels, and plate, what might amount to the value of five thousand dollars, besides what she received from the Queen, and yet she had the wickedness to rob me of every thing. The day after her departure I had not a gown to put on. She had carried off all my robes, and the Queen was obliged to equip me anew from head to foot."

This riddance occurred about the year 1721, when the Princess was twelve years old. Poor young lady! She was slender enough in make, but her mother caused her to be laced so tight that her respiration was impeded, and she became black in the face. Then Madamoiselle Pelnitz would be sent by Lady Arlington to report on the personal qualifications of the prospective Queen of England. The toast of fast men of all times is known to be "Women, war, and wine!" If this lady ever uttered one in sincerity it would have been "Wine, men, and cards." With the frankest impudence she cried out on seeing the little lady, "Heavens, how awkward the Princess looks! What a shape what an appearance for a young person, and how clumsily dressed!" She next proceeded to ask her questions which would be suitably addressed to a child of four years old. On the examinée appearing a little affronted at being so treated, she required her to repeat, by rote and in order, one hundred and fifty fanciful names, after reading them over to her twice. Any reader so disposed may believe that she succeeded in this task. We have her own authority for the fact. The Mrs. Candours of Hanover freely asserted that the Prussian Princess was deformed, excessively plain, wicked and haughty-a little monster in fine; and to ascertain "if this were so," ladies would give a call and

judge for themselves, as to the personal deformity at least. Then poor Wilhelmina would be obliged to present herself without those lendings that hedge princesses and even peasantesses, to convince them that there was no disease of spine or thorax. These proceedings were not calculated to sweeten the temper of mother or daughter.

George I. was always well inclined to the match between his grandson of England and his granddaughter of Prussia. The Queen was most attentive to his wishes, and interested him so much that he gave her husband leave to enlist any gigantic Hanoverian he could hear of (always with the huge fellow's consent, be it understood). But the Countess of Darlington (the elephant) was opposed to the marriage, and other circumstances threw obstacles in the way, and Frederic William became vexed; and when his crimps carried away, against their will, Hanoverian fellows six feet three in their stockings, and the poor victims uttered loud protests, he turned a deaf ear to their cries. His father-in-law remonstrated with him without effect; and just at the moment, the Austrian Emperor wishing to detach him from a trade alliance into which Russia, England, France, Holland, and Denmark had entered, sent him a body of the tallest heyducs he could lay hands on, and invited him to explore his empire and enlist every tall fellow he could find.

Seckendorff, the Austrian plenipotentiary, willing to prevent the union with England at any cost, beset the King with all sorts of snares, even leading him to excesses in drink, till the poor man became subject to hypochondria. Mr. Frank, the eminent preacher of the University of Halle, finding his Majesty in this condition, improved the occasion so well that the court became as serious as a cloister, and scruples were instilled into the Monarch's mind as to the innocency of hunting, music, and other relaxations equally harmless. He (the King) preached a sermon to his household every afternoon, and his valet led off with the hymn, in which all were expected to join. Frederic and Wilhelmina were unable to prevent themselves from laughing outright on some occasions, and this

widened the breach between the father and son.

The King now began to entertain a serious design of retiring with his wife and daughters to the country seat of Wusterhausen. "I," said he, "will take care of the farm; you, Wilhelmina, are clever and shall superintend the linen and washing. Frederica is close-fisted, let her be the store-keeper. Charlotte will make a good market-woman, and your mother will mind the little ones, and cook." He began to arrange his abdication in favour of his son, but this doublescheme not meeting the views of his own nobility nor of the Austrian ambassador, they set their shoulders to the wheel, and induced him to pay a visit to the licentious Court of Saxony. Prince Frederic got himself invited also, to the evident annoyance of his parent. Of the visit we may speak when our English travellers arrive at Dresden. All that need be said here is, that before their return Wilhelmina's hand was promised to the terrible reprobate who then ruled Saxony and Poland, and had already provided a family of three hundred and fifty-four children* for his intended young bride. Prince Frederic was furnished in time with a wife to whom he never rendered a husband's obligations; but, on the occasion here mentioned, he managed to procure the beautiful Formera as mistress.

The events just related bring us near the period of the visit of our travellers; but we must go back to notice two other visits made to the Court of Berlin before they had set out on their journey.

Czar Peter I., who was fond of travelling, took it into his head to make a short sojourn at Berlin on his return from Holland. Peter, who rather objected to pageants and the restraints of court life, asked leave of his royal brother to occupy the Queen's private residence (Mon Bijou already mentioned). The Queen was very unwilling to surrender her little paradise to the bears of Petersburg, but as she could not refuse, she did the next best thing; she got all the nice or fragile furniture removed before their arrival.

Czarina, and their suit, Peter grasping Frederic William's hand, frankly cried, "I am glad to see you, brother Frederic." He would have kissed the Queen, but she kept him at arm's length. There were many well-dressed women (supposed to be ladies) in the train of the visiters, several of them bearing each a richly attired child. They were in reality only servants, chiefly of the German States, here personating Maids of Honour. The Czarina kissed the Queen's hands several times, and then introduced the Duke and Duchess of Mecklenburg, but could not induce her to notice the ladies with the babes. In return she treated the Prussian Princesses of the blood with much coldness.

At the State reception Peter saluted Princess Wilhelmina with such vehemence that his rough moustaches and the stubbles of his beard drew blood from her delicate skin. She boxed his ears and cried out, but her fury only made him laugh. However, when peace was made, the little lady spoke to him so prettily about his fleets and his conquests, that he swore to the Czarina he would give one of his finest provinces for such a daughter. It would be a pity to contract or enlarge the account of their Majesties, as left by the frank little victim.

"The Czarina was short and stout, very tawny, and her figure was altogether destitute of gracefulness. Its appearance sufficiently betrayed her low origin. To have judged by her attire one would have taken her for a German stage actress. Her robe had been purchased at an old clothesbroker's; it was made in the antique fashion, and heavily laden with silver and grease. The front of her stays was adorned with jewels singularly placed. They represented a double eagle badly set, the wings of which were of small stones. She wore a dozen orders and as many portraits of saints and relics fastened to the facing of her gown; so that when she walked, the jumbling of all these orders and portraits, one against the other, made a tinkling noise

like a mule in harness.

"The Czar was tall and pretty well made. His face was handsome, but it had some

beckoned to her fool and conversed with her in Russian. This poor creature was a

Princess Gallitzin, who had been necessitated to fulfil that office in order to preserve her life. Having been implicated in a plot against the Czar, she had twice undergone the punishment of the knout. I do not know what she said to the Czarina, but the latter every now and then laughed aloud.

"The Czar had been poisoned in his youth. A very subtile venom had, in consequence, attacked his nerves, and he continued subject to certain involuntary convulsions. Being seized with a fit whilst at table, he made many contortions; and as he was violently gesticulating with a knife near the Queen, the latter was afraid, and wanted several times to rise from her seat.

The Czar begged her to be easy, protesting that he would do her no harm, and at the same time he seized her hand, which he squeezed so violently, that the Queen screamed for mercy, which made him laugh heartily, and he observed that the bones of her Majesty were more delicate than those of his Catharine. Everything was prepared for a ball after supper, but he ran away as soon as he arose from the table, and went back alone and on foot to Mon Bijou,"

The next day, on looking over a collection of antiques, he singled out one of the most disreputable of the heathen divinities, and in his delight he insisted on the Czarina kissing it. She at first refused, but he uttered in her ear in his imperfect German, Knopf ab" (head off!) and she dreaded him too much to persevere in her refusal. His eye was caught by a very valuable cabinet lined with amber, and directly he asked for it and the nasty idol.

If comparisons are as odious as they are represented, our times, at least, need not fear judgment as far as natural politeness and decency are concerned, when placed beside the early part of the eighteenth century. Their Majesties of Prussia must have been well disposed to speed the parting guests, however they may have felt towards their coming.

"Two days afterwards this court of bar barians at length set out on their journey back. The Queen immediately hastened to Mon Bijou, and what desolation was there visible! I never beheld any thing like it. Indeed I think Jerusalem after its siege and capture could not have presented such another scene.

This elegant palace was left

by them in such a ruinous state that the Queen was absolutely obliged to rebuild nearly the whole of it."

George I., as is pretty generally

known, possessed a decided talent for silence. At the earnest instance of

his daughter, the Queen, he paid a visit to Berlin, to try how he should feel towards his grand-daughter as the future British queen. On his arrival he embraced the young lady, and turning to her anxious mother, observed: "She is very tall for her age." On being conducted to his chamber by his awe-struck relatives, he took a wax light, and examined her from head to foot; then without a word, turned away, and conversed with her brother Frederic for some time. The English gentlemen in his suite were well pleased with her as she was able to converse with them in their own language; but George took occasion to ask if she was always so grave. On being told that her present silence proceeded from awe of him, he shook his head, but "word spake

none."

At supper he preserved his accustomed silence, and on rising from table had a fit which kept him on the floor for an hour. On his recovery he would not retire to his apartment till he had conducted the Queen to hers. He took his departure the next day as coolly as he had begun his visit.

His daughter and son-in-law were to return his visit at Ghoer, a hunting box of his near Hanover. The Queen finding herself unable to bear the journey, the King was on the point of setting out next day, when suddenly in the night, she found herself seized with the pangs of labour. Neither physician, nurse, linen, nor cradle was at hand. There was no one but her husband and a waiting-maid, yet she was safely brought to bed of a princess. Frederic William took great credit to himself for his success in this emergency, and enjoyed some hearty laughs when boasting of his rare luck among his favourites.

Princess Wilhelmina showed conin her sketch of her grandfather whom siderable penetration and judgment she dreaded so much.

"The King of England was a prince who valued himself on his sentiments, but un

fortunately he had never applied to the enlightening of his mind. Many virtues

carried to an extreme become vices. This was his case. He affected a firmness which

degenerated into harshness, and a tranquillity which might be called indolence. His generosity extended only to his favourites

and mistresses, by whom he suffered himself to be governed; the rest of mankind were excluded. Since his accession to the crown, bis haughtiness had become insupportable. Two qualities, equity and justice, rendered him estimable. He was by no means an evil-disposed prince, but rather constant in his benevolence. His manners were cold; he spoke little, and listened only to puerilities."

She is scarcely just to her uncle George II., or to his gifted and estimable queen.

"The Prince (George II.) had not more genius than his father. He was hot, passionate, haughty, and avaricious to an unpardonable extreme. His Princess had a powerful understanding, and great knowledge. She had read much, and had a singular aptitude for public affairs. On her arrival in England she gained the hearts of all. Her manners were gracious; she was affable, but she had not the good-fortune to retain the affections of the people. Means were found to ascertain her real character, which

did not correspond to her exterior. She was imperious, false, and ambitious. She has frequently been compared to Agrippina. Like that Empress, she might have exclaimed: 'Let all perish, so I do but rule.'"

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Queen Caroline was a chaste woman, and an exemplary wife. She should not have been mentioned in the same sentence with the mother of Nero. The writer of the above remarks was not much dazzled with the English prospect, notwithstanding these cheering words, addressed to her by her mother: The Prince (Frederic) has a good heart, but a very narrow mind. He is rather plain than handsome, and even a little deformed. Provided you can have the complaisance to put up with his debauches, you may then govern him entirely, and be more king than he at his father's death."

At the period of our Englishmen's sojourn in Berlin, the King of Poland and Saxony was on a visit, and they had an opportunity of enjoying the spectacle in the state room of the palace, where Augustus the dissolute, his strictly moral son, and their retinue of three hundred nobles, all magnificently dressed, were mingled with the simply and stiffly-clad Prussians; and the Queen, Princesses, and ladies of the Court, regally attired, enjoyed the show, themselves forming its brightest and most attractive feature. The habits of Frederic William

and his people presented a dry and bizarre appearance beside the rich and picturesque costume of the Saxon and Polish nobility. King and courtiers wore the prescribed regimental dress of Potsdam.

"Their coats were so short that they could not have served as fig-leaves to our first parents; and so strait that they did not dare to move for fear of rending them. Their summer small-clothes were of white linen, as well as their spatterdashes, without which they dared not appear. Their hair was powdered, but not curled, and twisted behind with a riband into a queue. The King himself was dressed precisely in the

same manner.

The grand dinner was a dreary affair. Many toasts were drunk, but there was scarcely any conversation. The Britons had the honour of enduring the ceremony by special favour of the Queen, who never lost an opporbeing grandmother of King or Queen tunity of forwarding her ambition of of the British Isles. Before the visit terminated, the two kings and their most trusted nobles enjoyed a confidential dinner thus arranged. A dumbwaiter was near each guest, and on it he laid a paper, on which he had written the name of the particular thing he wanted. He tapped the floor, the machine descended into the chamber beneath, and reappeared very soon, charged with the thing demanded. From the beginning to the end of this dinner, which lasted from one o'clock to ten, and witnessed the consumption of much liquor, no living attendant was visible. diners were men of seasoned heads. They were, at the close of the entertainment, quite capable of conversing with the Queen and her ladies from ten to twelve, and of allowing themselves to be cheated at cards by the fair creatures. The Saxon king then returned to his libations, and, without the aid of sleep, started homewards some three hours later. This was pretty well for such a bon vivant and extensive pater-familiarum at the ripe age of fifty.

The

King Frederic William, though feeling little sympathy in many of his wife's most cherished wishes, such as the marriage alliance with England, was yet very much devoted to her in his own rough way. Grumkau and Anhalt, who loved not Sophia Dorothea, as they aspired after other ma

trimonial alliances for the Princess, and did not like her influence over the King, played the part of Iago to some purpose, and frequently raised jealous feelings in her royal husband. During this visit of the licentious Saxon monarch and his courtiers, who, of course, copied the example of their sovereign, our travellers could see that Frederic William was on a bed of thorns. Their departure he hailed with heartfelt satisfaction.

He was, taking all things into account, a model king in respect to conjugal fidelity, the only backsliding we choose to recollect being the following, which we prefer to give in the words of our authority :

"The Queen had about her person a young lady of the name of Paunewitz, who

was her first maid of honour. She was beautiful as an angel, and as virtuous as handsome. The King, whose heart had hitherto been unmoved, could not resist her charms; he began at this time to pay her much attention. His Majesty was not a man of gallantry. Sensible of his deficiency in this respect, he foresaw that he never should be able successfully to imitate the manners of a coxcomb, or the style of a

melting lover; and unwilling to disguise

his natural disposition, he commenced the

intrigue by bluntly proposing that in which it generally ends. He gave Miss Paunewitz a very slippery description of his love, and asked whether she would be his mistress. The fair maid being highly offended at the proposal, treated the King with great disdain. He, however, nothing disheartened, continued to speak love to her for a twelvemonth. The termination of this adventure was rather singular. Miss Paunewitz having attended her Majesty to Brunswick, where my brother's nuptials were to be celebrated, met the King on a back staircase which led to the Queen's rooms. He caught her in his arms, and attempted to salute her. But the enraged maid of honour gave him such a vigorous slap in the face, that the blood gushed from his mouth and nose. He was not a bit angry with her, and contented himself with calling her ever after 'the savage witch.''

The Princess was petted and illtreated alternately by both father and mother, but from an early age Prince Frederic seemed to be an object of steady dislike to the King. He had practical knowledge of the weight of the regal fist, was prevented from pursuing favourite studies, music included, could not sympathize with his father's devotional tendencies,— found family prayers an insupportable

grievance, and not being under Christian influences of any kind—a practical unbeliever in fact he indulged in forbidden pleasures when opportunity offered. Keith, one of his dissolute mentors, having quitted the court, was succeeded by Katt, a still worse companion. This youth was distinguished by thick, black eye-brows, and a tawny countenance marked with the small-pox. He affected to be a free-thinker, and though ambitious, was dissolute in conduct. He encouraged the Prince in his abandoned courses. It is little to be wondered at, that a man, religious at heart, and taking pleasure in all pious moralities, should feel the deepest chagrin at beholding a child of his, devoted heart and mind to worldly pursuits and sensuality, and as insensible to the claims of religion as the ass or ox. Still severity, much less brutal correction, will only produce open rebellion or hypocrisy. The following particulars of the family jars came to the ears of Peregrine and his friend during their sojourn in Berlin, and were afterwards confirmed by the Princess Royal in her memoirs.

One time while the king was suffering from gout, he would not stay quietly in bed, but, settling himself in an arm-chair furnished with castors, he was rolled through the various apartments, followed by his children, whom he made to suffer in harsh words their share of the tor

ments by which he was afflicted. We are unwilling to mention some particulars of the wretched style in which their meals were served to these miserable young people. During this fit of illness he communicated to his family while at table, the approaching marriage of one of the princesses to the Margrave of Anspach. The young lady did not conceal her satisfaction at the news, but frankly told the irritable and miserly King that she would make good cheer in her new home, and not force her children to eat such coarse vegetables as did not agree with them, and would not stay on their stomachs. This observation so sorely tried his temper that he flung a plate at Frederic's head, on the principle of punishing little B for the fault of great A. The shot not succeeding, he took aim at the Princess with plate No. 2, which happily was turned aside by some