The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1861-01-23
GEORGE Nv. AND QUEEN CAROLINE
sKETCHED BY THACKERY.

| Many OF my hearers, no doubt, have JOurneyed
to the pretty old town of Brunswick, in compa
ny with the most worthy, prudent, and polite
gentleman, the Earl of Malmesbury, and fetched
away Princess Caroline for her longing husband,
the Prince Of Wales Old Queen Charlotte
would have had her eldest son marry a niece OF
her own, that famous Louisa, of Strelitz, after
wards Queen of Prussia, and who shares with Marie
Antoinette in the last age, the sad pTe-eminence
Of beauty and misfortune. But George III had
a niece at Brunswick she was a richer Princess
than her Serene Highness of Strelitz-in fine,
the Princess Caroline was selected 10 marry the
I heir Of the English throne. We follow my Lord
4 Mamesbury iii quest of her; We are Introduced
to her ilustrOus father and royal mother We
witness the balls and fetes of the old court; We
are presented to the Princess herself, with her
| fair hair, blue eyes, and her impertinent shou!-
ders-a lively, bouncing, romping Princess, who
| takes the advice of her cOurtly English Mentor
most generously and kind. We can be present
at her very toilet, il like, regarding which,
and for very good reasons, the British courter
| imp!ores her to be particular. What a strange
court. What a queer privacy OF morals and
manners do We look into, Shall We regard it as
preachers and moralists, and cry, Woe, against
the open vice, and selfshness and corruption ;
or look at it as we do at the king in the panto-
mime, with his pantomime wife, and pantomine
cOurtiers, whose big heads he knocks together,
whom he pokes with his panton.line sceptre,
whom he orders to prison under guard 81 his
pantomime beef eaters, as he sits down 10 dine
on his pantomime pudding? lt is grave, il is
sad, it is theme most curious for moral and
political speculation ; il is monstFoUs, gTOtesque,
laughable, with its prodigiOus liitleHcsS, eti-
quettes cerimonals, sham moralitics; il IS as
serious as a sermon, and as absurd and outra
geous as Punch's puppet show.
Malmesbury tells Us of the private life of the
duke, Princess Catolines father, who was TO
die, like his warlike son, in arms against the
French, presents US to his courtiers; his favo-
rite; his duchess, George HIS sister, grim
old princess, who took the British envoy aside
and told him wicked old stories of wicked old
dead people and times; who came 10 England
afterwards when her nephew was regent, and
lived in a shabby furnished lodging, old and
dingy, and deserted, and grotesque, but some
how royal And We 90 with him TO the duke
to demand the princess hand in form, and we
hear the Brunswick guns fire their adieux Of
salute, as III. X. H., the Princess of Wales, de
| parts in the frost and snow aud visit the
domains of the Prince Bishop Of Osnaburg--the
Duke of York of our early time : and we dodge
about from the French revoutioEists, whose
| ragged legions are pouring over Holland and
Germany, and gaily trampng down the old
word TO the tune of ca ira and we take ship
ping at Sade, and we land at Greenwich, where
the Princess ladies are waiting to receive her
royal highness.
What history followsl Arrived in London,
the bridegroom fastened eagerly to receive his
| bride. When she was first presented TO him,
| Lord Malmesbury SAYS she very properly at
| tempted to kn'o'. He raised her gracefully
1 hnr md inv. al
| said:
"Harris. l am not well; pray get me glass
| of brandy"
l said, ''Sir, he'd you not better have a glass
| of water:'
! Upon which, much out Of humor, he said
with an oath, mo, will 60 to the Queen"
| What could be expected from wedding
which had such beginning such bride.
groom and such bidc? am not going to ear.
| nv you through the scandal of that story, or fol
| low the princess through ali her vagaries; her
balls and her dances, her travels TO Jerusalem
and Naples, her ji-s and junketings and her tears
! As read her trial in history, vote she is not
guilty. l don't say it is an impartial verdict :;
but as one reads her story the heart bleeds for
| the kindly, generous outraged creature. If
wrong there be, let it lie at his door who wick
edIy thrnst her from it. Spite of her follies, the
great, hearty people of England loved, and pro-
tected, and pitied her. "God bless you! we
will bring your husband back to you" said me-
chanic one day, as she told Lady Charlotte Bury
with tears streaming down her cheeks. They
could not bring that husband back; they could
not cleanse that selfish heart. Was hers the
only ore that had been wounded? STEPPED in
selishness, impotent for faithful attachment aud
manly enduring love-had it not survived re-
morse, was it not accustomed to deseItion?
Malmesbury gives us the beginning OF the
marriage story how the prince reeled into
chapel to be married; how he hiccupped out
his vows of fidety-you know how he kept
them; how ne pnrsued the woman whom he had
married; to what a state he brought her; with
what blows he struck her; with what malignity
he pursued her; what his treatment of his daugh.
ter was and what his own life. lie the first
gentlemen of Europe! There is no prouder
satire on the proud English society of that day,
than that they admired George.
No, thank God, We can tell of better gentle.
men and whilst our eyes turn away shocked
from this monstrous image of pride, vanity, weak
ness, they may see in that England over which
the last George pretended to reign, some whc
merit indeed the title of gentlemen, some who
make our hearts beat when We hear their names
and whose memory we fondly salute when tha
Of yonder imperial mankind is tnmbled into ob
lviOn.