divorce were commenced against the Queen, and various depositions, some from her own ladies, were produced. But these measures, so derogatory to the honour of both Crowns, were cut short by the resolute interposition of the King of England. After a captivity of four months the release of Queen Matilda was obtained. She received the first news of her deliverance with eager joy, speedily succeeded by a burst of bitter anguish when she was told of her intended separation from her infant child and nursling. With heavy heart and streaming eyes she was that very day led on board a British man of war, but remained on deck gazing on the castle of Cronenburg so lately her own prison, yet still her dear daughter's abode until its topmost battlements had faded from her view. She was conveyed to the dominion of her fathers, the Electorate of Hanover, where a residence and suitable household at the charge of her Royal brother was assigned her in the castle of Zell. There was not wanting a party in Denmark desiring her return, and planning a counter revolution in her favour. * But after three years of exile and only twenty-four of life Queen Matilda died at Zell of a malignant fever, or rather perhaps of a broken heart.

This unhappy princess, — the daughter, the sister, the wife, and the mother of Kings, and yet to whom the fate of the meanest peasant might seem enviable, - left behind her a dying declaration, recorded on high authority, but up to this time little, if at all, known in England. M. Roques, pastor of the French Protestant church at Zell, spoke of it as follows: "Almost every day Queen Matilda used to send "for me to read or converse with her, or still oftener to con"sult me respecting the poor of my district whom she de"sired to relieve. During the last days of her life I became "still more assiduous in my visits, and I was with her till

*This appears from one of George the Third's confidential letters to Lord North, dated February 9. 1781. That extract, though brief, sufficiently corroborates the detailed narrative of Sir N. Wraxall in his Posthumous Memoirs (vol. i. p. 374-418.), a book which, without some such corroboration, is of no authority.

1772.

66

DEATH OF THE PRINCESS DOWAGER.

323

"just before she drew her last breath. Though very feeble "in body she had preserved all her presence of mind. After "I had recited to her the prayer for the dying, 'M. Roques,' "said she, in a voice that seemed to recover strength in the 'effort, 'I am going to appear before God. I now protest "that I am innocent of the guilt imputed to me, and that I "never was unfaithful to my husband.' - In all my conver"sations with the Queen she had never until that moment "alluded even in the most distant manner to the charges "brought against her." *

Ten days only after the first sorrowful tidings of the arrest and imprisonment of Queen Matilda her mother and the King's, the Princess Dowager, expired at Carlton House. She had not yet completed the fifty-third year of her age, but sunk beneath a grievous and incurable malady, a cancer at the breast. To the last she bore with unshrinking fortitude and firmness both the pangs of disease and the aspersions of party rancour. Thus, only a few months before her death, Alderman Townsend had inveighed against her by name in the House of Commons. "The people," he cried, "consider the Princess Dowager of Wales to be the cause of the calamities that have befallen us, and are an"xious that an inquiry should be made into the influence Her "Royal Highness has upon the councils of the kingdom."** Nay more, some of her ill wishers did not scruple to dwell with unmanly exultation on the anguish of her growing malady.*** During the last few weeks of her life the King and Queen with affectionate duty came to pass every evening at her bedside. On the concluding night of all she took leave

66

* Memoires de Falckenskiold, p. 235, note by the editor of those Memoirs, M. Secretan, "premier juge du canton de Vaud." M. Secretan adds: "Ce que M. Roques me dit je l'écrivis le jour même (à Hanovre le 7 Mars "1780) comme venant d'un homme distingué par l'integrité de son carac"tère."

** Cavendish Debates, vol. ii. p. 447. Lord North replied with much good taste and propriety wholly denying the imputed influence. (Ibid. p. 459.) But as he forbore from any counter-panegyric on the Princess, the author of Junius attempted to found a taunt upon his silence. (Letter signed A WHIG, April 9. 1771.)

*** Woodfall's Junius, vol. i. p. 241*. ed 1812.

of her son as she was wont to do; nor did he perceive any discomposure or change in her demeanour, except that she embraced him with greater warmth and tenderness than usual. She then sank back to her pillow, and before the morning died. *

Such domestic misfortunes and mortifications as had thus in rapid succession befallen the Sovereign of England could admit on one point only of legislative prevention for the future. To that point the King, with a just feeling of wounded dignity, applied his care. A: Royal Message sent

to both Houses recommended to them to consider the state of the law of marriage as applying to members of the Royal Family. Next day the new Bill prepared by the Government under the King's direction was laid upon the Table of the House of Lords. By that Bill every Prince or Princess, the descendant of George the Second, except only the issue of Princesses married abroad, was prohibited from marrying until the age of twenty-five without the King's consent. After the age of twenty-five, should the King's consent be refused, they might apply to the Privy Council, and if within a year of such announcement both Houses of Parliament should not express their disapprobation of the intended marriage it might then be lawfully solemnized. This measure, the "Royal Marriage Bill," was opposed in both Houses very vehemently and on various grounds; it passed nevertheless by large majorities and without any alteration; and happily for us it has continued in force until the present day.

The proposal of this measure led, however, to the resignation of Charles Fox. Lord Holland had ever regarded with the keenest animosity the Marriage Bill of Lord Hardwicke. That feeling appeared to have descended to his children; and the new statute might be said not only to extend, but also to confirm and ratify, the provisions of the former. Charles Fox therefore threw up his office, thus being at liberty both to oppose the Royal Marriage Bill, and

* Gentleman's Magazine, 1772, p. 89.

1772.

REVOLUTION IN SWEDEN.

325

to propose (as he did without success) the repeal of Lord Hardwicke's Act. At this period Gibbon writes as follows to a private friend: "Yesterday Charles Fox resigned the "Admiralty. He is commenced patriot, and is already at"tempting to pronounce the words COUNTRY, LIBERTY, COR"RUPTION, and so forth; with what success time will dis"cover." But the patriotism, as it is here termed, of Mr. Fox extended no further at this juncture than to the question of Marriage. That question being disposed of, there was no motive to prevent his renewed connexion with Lord North. Thus in the January following we find him restored to Downing Street as one of the Lords of the Treasury; if not the same post, yet precisely the same rank, as he had held before.

In Sweden there took place a revolution nearly contemporaneous with the one in Denmark, but differing from it altogether in every circumstance except its time. The Senate on the death of Charles the Twelfth had usurped, and ever since had held fast, by far the larger portion of the Royal prerogatives. These prerogatives Gustavus the Third, a young and ambitious monarch, who had recently succeeded to the throne, was eager to resume. Considering how much the Swedish oligarchy had abused its power the object might be free from blame, but in pursuing it the King did not shrink from false professions and violated oaths. After some cautious delays he succeeded, by fomenting an insurrection in Scania and a military movement at Stockholm. He had also been assisted by a subsidy from the Court of Versailles which hoped to resume its ancient influence in Sweden, while George the Third in a more rightful spirit had refused to contribute, as was required, large sums of money on the other side. **

The war between the Ottoman Porte and the Czarina still continued. Several bloody battles had been fought in the

p. 77.

*To Mr. Holroyd, February 21. 1772. Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii. ** Letter to Lord North, February 28. 1771.

provinces adjoining the Danube; victory always inclining to the Russian side. But it was in truth, what King Frederick of Prussia with caustic wit has termed it, victory of the oneeyed over the blind. In the Turkish ranks the old religious enthusiasm had waned, not as yet succeeded by any portion of military discipline. Among the Russians, on the other hand, the soldiers were newly levied and ill-cared for; the Generals for the most part favourites of Catherine, promoted only from her partiality, and altogether destitute of skill or experience. Thus even when a battle had been bravely won it could seldom be judiciously improved. For naval operations the Empress had planned an enterprise, up to that time without a parallel, and by which she expected both to awe her rivals and to overwhelm her adversaries. A formidable fleet being equipped in the Baltic was ordered to sail round the continent of Europe into the Mediterranean and attack the Turkish dominions on that side. The nominal command was bestowed upon Count Alexis Orlof, a man wholly unversed in maritime affairs, and wanting even in personal courage, but brother of the ruling favourite. At the same time, however, the true efficient Admirals and Captains as Elphinstone and Greig were of British race. Appearing off the coast of the Morea in the spring of 1770 the Russians found little difficulty in raising an insurrection among the Greek inhabitants, but that insurrection being ill supported was soon suppressed. The Russians throve better with their schemes in the July following when they encountered the Turkish fleet; it was first defeated off the coast of Scio, and then destroyed by conflagration in the Bay of Tchesmé.

The victory of the Russians was great and might have been decisive. They proceeded to blockade the Dardanelles, and as a first step to further conquests laid siege to the castle of Lemnos. Thus assailed both by land and sea the Ottoman empire seemed in imminent peril and verging to its fall. But at this crisis it was saved by the genius and valour of one man, Gazi Hassan. Born on the frontier of Persia; sold in