CHAPTER IV.

A ROYAL FAMILY.

THE House of Hanover made the acquaintance of the English people under unfortunate circumstances: three generations of that family were aliens in the land Fate decreed that they should govern; they lost no opportunity of proving that they were aliens also in language, feelings, and morals; and though in the last generation the language of their subjects began to be tolerably familiar to them, in conduct and sentiment, as one of the wits of the time declared, "there was nothing new under the grandson:" for Prince Frederick was as thoroughly Hanoverian as George I. His Majesty's language had remained obstinately anti-English to the end of his reign; and he so little endeavoured to conceal how entirely he remained the foreigner in the land he was called to govern, that a spirited member of the Imperial Parliament once expressed his opinion of it, as a misfortune that could scarcely be too much lamented.

The feelings of George I. were entirely Hanoverian,

which he took some pains to prove to his loving subjects, for his affections were bestowed upon two females from that country of the most unattractive personal appearance. Both have been frequently painted to the life by contemporary writers; and he who has been once acquainted with their portraits will not easily forget the rival Sultanas of the Hanoverian Harem whom the people of London irreverently chose to style "the May Pole" and the "Elephant and Castle,' for the King, to show his sense of the pleasures of variety, chose his mistresses as nearly as possible contrasts to each other. Though both were so far alike, that they were old and ugly, "the Schulenburg" happened to be old and ugly, and ridiculously thin; while "the Kielmanseck" was old and ugly, and preposterously fat.

Unfortunately for the country, these women exercised considerable influence over the King; and, possessing just as little principle as beauty, they turned their power to their own advantage, without the slightest qualification in favour of justice or honour. They became, as it were, a part of the government, the effect of which was to clog and embarrass the whole machinery, and divert all power and profit to themselves!* This brought them under the notice of the Hanoverian King's English minis

Those who were opposed to Walpole, continually entered into cabals with the King's mistresses. to advance themselves at his expense, and the very dependents of these women were thought worth propitiating. "Even brother Carteret," writes Lord Townshend to

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ters, and Walpole often found the public business impeded by their rapacity, while he experienced personal annoyance from their insolence. Otherwise he may have cared very little when the King's corpulent Dulcinea was raised to the peerage by the several titles of Baroness of Brentford and Countess of Darlington; and probably was not very much shocked when her skeleton rival was allowed to assume the style and dignity of Duchess of Kendal.* A few years subsequently, the same power was exercised in her behalf, to raise her to the more imposing title of Princess of Eberstein; and it was confidently

Sir Robert Walpole, "set out with making his court to Bernstorf, Countess Platen, and Madame de Wendt, an old friend of Lord Sunderland, who is supposed to govern the Countess, and I suppose he hoped to make use of Schruder, Plessen, and such like messengers and intelligencers, brought up to lying and intrigue.""Hardwicke Papers."

* In the year 1716, Madame Schulenburg was ennobled, as far as titles could effect; she was made Baroness of Dundalk, Countess and Marchioness of Dungannon, and Duchess of Munster. It might be supposed that here was nobility enough for such a creature, but she was extremely dissatisfied. The Ministers had thought it prudent not to introduce her into the English peerage,-probably standing in some awe of the indignation of the House of Peers; but this conduct excited the ire of the lady. "That the Duchess of Munster was very angry at not being an English Duchess, is most certain," writes Sir Robert Walpole to Secretary Stanhope, "and that she imputes the whole to my Lord Townshend, and has expressed a particular resentment against him." The King's mistress was, however, all powerful, and the Ministry found that the English Peerage could not avoid the disgrace of numbering her among its members, so she was afterwards created Baroness of Glastonbury, Countess of Faversham, and Duchess of Kendal.

reported that the infatuated monarch put a climax to his amorous absurdities by a marriage with the left hand. There is reason for believing that, whether married or not, the Duchess had a daughter by the King, who passed as her niece; and as the mother was reputed to be as rich as she was ugly, the young one was generally looked upon as the heiress of all the bribes, extortions, pilferings, and cheatings, which a long career of very sharp practice had enabled her mother to accumulate. This reputation caused many young men of family to pay their court to the King's mistress, among whom was the brilliant Earl of Chesterfield, who was not above seeking to obtain the favour of his sovereign through an illegitimate channel; the consequence was, that the King created his natural daughter Countess of Walsingham, and the Earl soon after made her Countess of Chesterfield. It is to be feared that his lordship was not influenced by any sense of honour or good feeling, and therefore it is not to be regretted that the result of this calculating marriage was a complete disappointment. The old harridan thought proper to divide her hoards amongst her German relations, and what the royal father did "for the young people," there are no means of ascertaining.

Owing to a transaction which shall be presently described, Sir Robert Walpole used to declare that "the Duchess of Kendal was so mercenary, she was ready at any time to sell the King's honour to the

highest bidder,*" but we are rather inclined to think that this was the only commodity the bartering Duchess could not have disposed of.

George I had a wife living, imprisoned in a fortress in a remote district of his Hanoverian territories. She was jealously watched, and zealously guarded, and this extraordinary incarceration had continued for more than a quarter of a century, and did continue till, in the thirty-second year of her captivity, that surest of liberators, Death, opened her prison gates, and bade her weary spirit at last be free. The life of the hapless Sophia Dorothea is a romantic tragedy that strongly reminds one of those rude Gothic dramas where vice is represented as a relentless tyrant, absolute, pitiless, and shameless, persecuting virtue with unceasing oppression. It is impossible to follow the Princess of Zell through her melancholy story, without feeling a sense of shame that such disgraceful transactions could have taken place in Christendom without arousing an indignant feeling in the manhood of the time, and rescuing her from her dastard enemies. It was alleged that she had had a criminal intrigue with Count Königsmarke—a handsome military adventurer, who commanded the Electoral Guards-but there is no evidence of any conduct on the part of the Count beyond that admiration and interest it was natural for a brave man to express who was a spectator of the wrongs inflicted on a beautiful and accomplished

* "Minutes of a Conversation with Sir Robert Walpole."