The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-02 00:00:00

Mr. Bright, in his recent speech at Birmingham,
referred to the complications in foreign politics
which arose from our royal marriages. Without
prejudging the question how far the action of our
Government with reference to foreign states is, or
can be, influenced by the family ties of the Sove-
reign, we may point out some of those connections,
some of which are less known than others.

The Prince of Wales, as every one knows, is mar-
ried to the daughter of the King of Denmark, one
of the parties to this German contest, His eldest
sister, the Princess Royal, is married to the Prince
Royal of Prussia, one of the parties opposed to the
King of Denmark. His second sister, the Princess
Alice, is married to the Prince Louis of Hesse-
Darmstadt, whose mother is a Princess of Prussia,
and whose brother is an officer in the Prussian
army.

These are direct relationships; but there are
others scarcely less so with which the public are not
so well acquained.

Prince Frederick of Augustenburg—the Duke of
Augustenburg, as he is generally called here—
although that title properly belongs to his father,
is a very close connection of our Royal family, and
is much better known to the Court than to the
people of these realms. It will be remembered that
when the mother of Queen Victoria married his
Royal Highness the Duke of Kent she was a widow.
She was first married, in the year 1803, to the Prince
Enrich Charles of Leiningen, who died 4th July,
1814. By this marriage the Duchess of Kent had
one son, born 1804, and one daughter, born 1807,
who were consequently half brother and half sister
of the Queen. •

The Queen's half brother, Charles, Prince of
Leiningen, died 1856, and was succeeded by his
son, Prince Ernest of Leiningen, nephew of the
Queen, who is a captain in the Royal Navy of
Great Britain.

The half sister of the Queen, the Princess Anne
Feodorovna of Leiningen, married in 1828 Ernest
Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. He died in

1860, leaving a widow and five children, the latter
nephews and nieces of the Queen. Of these children,
the third son, Prince Victor of Hehenlohe, who
took the name of " Count de Gleichen" on his
marriage with a daughter of Admiral Sir George
Seymour, is a captain in our Royal Navy. His
next sister, the Princess Adelaide Victoria of
Hohenlohe (born 1835), married in 1866 " Frede-
derick Christian Augustus, Prince Hereditary of
Sleswig - Holstein - Sonderbourg - Augustenburg,"
the Pretender to the sovereignty of the imaginary
State of Schleswig-Holstein, who is by his marriage
the Queen's nephew.

Besides these relationships of our royal family
with the contending parties there are others less im-
mediate. The King Leopold of Belgium is the
Queen's uncle. His eldest son and heir, the Duke
de Brabant, is married to an Archduchess of Austria,
and his daughtex , the Princess Charlotte, is married
to the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, brother of
the Emperor of Austria, another party to the con-
test. Besides these connections the Duchess of Cam-
bridge, who was a Princess of Hesse Cassel, is an
aunt of the Queen of Denmark, who was also a
Princess of Hesse Cassel.

Every party to the Dano-Germanic contest may
therefore be said to be more or less immediately
connected with the royal family of Great Britain.

The Emperor of the French has conferred upon
the Comte de Flahault, lately Ambassador of France
at this Court, the high dignity of Chancellor of the Legion
of Honour. No appointment could be more appropriate.
It associates with the second Empire the most illustrious
surviving representative of the first, and places at the head
of the Order one whose extraordinary career from 1800 to
1815 embraces almost all the principal events of that won-
derful epoch. His commission as General of Division dates
as far back as 1813.

MR. LINCOLN is reported to be a mere shadow of
what he was a year ago. The cares of office are evidently
wearing upon him with fearful effect. He is a man who
devotes his whole attention, night and day, to his officia
duties, allowing himself no relaxation. His friends are
alarmed for his continued ill-health, and insist upon his
allowing himself more leisure for diversion from the dis-
tracting thoughts that press upon his brain. It is said that
he is only kept alive by his joking, which is nearly the death
of others, who are taken ill when at length they see it.