New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-20

pride and selfimportance; and it is recorded
! that, when the intended marriage of the
Queen with the late Prince Consort was an
nOunced, his Grace, in acknowledging the
announcement of the event, which was for
warded to him, minated that he thought
that Her Majesty might have looked nearer
home. which was understood to be his mode
of signifying that he would himself have been
! the most appropriate father-iIi-law for Queen
! Victoria. Eaten up with vanity, he objected
to his son marrying q lady of charming dispo-
! ton, to whom he was deeply attached, be-
cause she was not of the highest rank--al-
though she did, curiously enough, suisse
quently marry Duke; so his son ultimately
married the Youngest daughter of the Grand
Duke of Baden, which brought very great
satisfaction to the foolish old father-inI aw,
insomuch as his daughter-in-law thus gained
recognition abroad as royal, although at the
English Court she occupied only a sort efun-
comfortable semi-royal positiOn.9 ilf-#
The tenth Duke, whose principal occupa-
top in life had for some years been prepa-
ration for his obsequies, which were to include
the placing his body, erllbalmed by methods
for which he had sent to- Egypt, in an enor-
nous black marble. ,nsasoleum, especially
erected for the accommodation of his precious
corpse, died in 1852. Two years before that
event, the decline of this proud family COM
menced. His only daughter had married the
late Duke of Newcastle, when she was
eighteen--the marriage being no doubt
brought about by the desire of her family
to secure so desirable match. In 1850 this
lady, having then a family of several small
children, misconducted herself in a manner
which obliged her husband to seek a divorce.
From that time the whole of her family
have, with one exception, gone wrong. Her
oldest IL "a I-p,n thn,
mixed up with persons of the worst charac-
ter, and to this hour it is considered by many
very doubtful whether the announcement of
his death, followed by a funeral, ofwhich de-
tails were given in the papers, was not in
truth a mere ruse to escape the penalty for
his misdemeanors. A third son misbehayed
himselfin his profession, had to leave it, and
has also been through the Bankruptcy Court
The daughter married drunkark whose mind
gave way through the habits he had con-
tracted. So much for the tenth Duke of
Hamilton's daughter and her children. To
turn to the son. His wife had no taste for
country life, and preferred the atmosphere of
Continental courts, where her pretensions to
royal rank gained full admission. So they
abandoned the princely homes in England
and Scotland, whence they drew seven hun
dred thousand dollars a year, to live princi-
pally at Paris. The ex-Emperor being the
Duchess first cousin, received her with the ut
most emprcssemcnt, and indeed, her Grace was
OF no little use in giving tone to the Imperial
Court, which, being entirely ignored by the
Faubourg, was at one time sadly in need of
the presence of ladies whose rank and posi-
ton were uneXceptionable. -. .
Some ten years ago, London and Paris
were startled to learn that the Duke of HAM
ilton had died suddenly in the latter capital
The details soon followed. He had been
supping at the Maison Dor6e, and had been
challenged by friend to see which of them
could carry the greater number of petifs oe,res
In leaving the house he fell, struck his head
and within few hours the eleventh Duke of
Hamilton and Brandon lay dead. An I'M
perial frgate carried his body to Scotland for
burial in the mausoleum which his father had
erected and his son, then youth of eigh-
teen, reigned in his stead.
Anda fine reign his has been. Hamilton
House, in London, after passing into the
hand of one of the most noted ttTfman of the
day, was sold to the son of successful IRON
master. The same gentleman, so knowing
in horse flesh, and in those who think that
they, too, know about it, rules in Hamilton
Palace, and his presence there is almost cal
culated to bring the grand old Duke out
| of the mausoleum to haunt the "horsey"
| usurper. The Dukes only brother was few
weeks ago in the thees of insolvency, and
his unfortunate sister is, as we read yester-
day, trying to seek refuge for her child from
its father, whom she dreads--all because her
mother preferred making her the wife of a
wretched princeling ola trumpery petty State,
mainly subsisting on the ruined fortunes of
gamblers, to seeing her the wife of some
honest-hearted Scottish genteman.-N. Y.