The Portland daily press., 1873-01-03
IFrOm the Boston Post.
The House of Brunswick.

The advanced age of the present Duke of
Brunswick, who being a bachelor has no heir
apparent, has induced his Ministers to declare
that the right Of succession belongs the
house of Hanover. This is only the formal
announcement of the existing fact, that the
King of Hanover is the presumptive heir of
the Brunswick throne. But a question
traught with some difficulty will perhaps arise
on the death of the Duke August Ludwig,
and the accession of George of Hanover to
mis- sovereignty. Hanover was absorbed by
Prussia N 1866; and George has no royal
habitation or name. Shall Prussia also alb
sorh the heritage which will descend to him
from his remote Brunswick cousin? Or shall
the bind Old ex-king, now wanderer among
sympathetic anti-Prussan courts, exiled from
his little capital, acquire unmolested his new
realm? Tue matter is not, perhaps, one VI
grave political import to Europe, as russia
IN any case will be pretty sure 10 eonToi
BrunswicH, whether she formally ahnexes II
or not; but readers Of history cannon help
being interested in the fate of dukedom,
which has so long played part in the worlds
events Brunswick was a sovereignty seven
centuries ago Ohio the Young, Of Guelph,
the progentor of The German branch of tne
family whose surname the Queen OF England
bears, reigned there as long ago as 1895. If
Brunswick has n yer itself risen to be king
dom, it has furnished other ma ions with
eign fam ly has mingled itself with the Hottest
royal blood of Europe; and amid countless
ramiiicauons, has reigned, in the persons of
coilaterals or direct descendants, on almost
every throne west of the Caucasus.
By Ihe marriage Of the Duke Ernest August
OF Biunswick-Luneburg, who was also Elec-
tor of Hanover, with Sophia, granddaughter
OF James l. of England, his son George ac-
CURED title to the English crown; Sophia
was the daughter OF the unhappy Electress
Elizabeth, the sister of Charles |. Brunswick
furnished two queens, both named Sophia
Dorothea, to the royal house of Prussia; one
of them was the mother of Frederick the
Great. From Brunswick came third Sophia
DorJthea, the wreiched consort of George L.,
OF lSagla.id, who, for her supposed relations
with Count Kongsberg, was imprisoned for
life In German castle, and never saw tn.
island realm over which her husband was
after wards called to rule. Yet another I'M
fortunate Queen did Brunswick furnish to
Engand-Caroline, the detested wife of the
hearfless George w., who attempted to force
herself upon the coronation ceremonies at
Westminster, was tried for her mistlemeanors
by the House of Lords, and finally died, it is
thought, of the prosecutions to which her
odious old spouse subjected her. The Bruins
wick Dukes seem to have been until latterly
warlike lace, enterprising in war and brave
in action. Throughout the Seven Years
War, and the wars of the French Revolution
and of Napoleon, there was almost always an
Ernest, August, or Friedrich Of Brunswick in
the field. There was Ferdinand of Bruins
wick at the taking of Prague, Carl of Bruns-
wick CO nmanding at Jena, and Friedrich
Wilhelm of Brunswick, who fell MORALLY
wounded at Quatre-Bras. Of the more re-
cent sovereigns, the last Duke before his
present Highness, was he who fled from
throne and country when Brunswick city
rose in instruction in 1880, and was declared
incapable of reigning by the estates of the
petty realm. This scion of the house con
soled himself for the loss of his dukedom by
slngulat occupations. He dressed in the most
youthful extravagancies of the fashion, was
made up'' by his Wallets every morning and
taken to pieces again every night, was ad-
dicted to paint and enamel, drove the fiashiest
of turn-outs, and won fame as the possesser
the rarest collection of diamonds in the
world The old ex-Dake is still living.
though his diamonds have teen stolen by an
ungrateful hireling; and is occasionally heard
OF as oscillatirg between Paris and London,
in both of which capitals he ia phenomenon
of fashion, and character who will be- sorely
missed when death removes him.