impressed the idea upon the minds of his subjects, that he was most profoundly skilled in the transmu→ tation of metals, no murmurs arose at the apparent extravagance which he displayed in the erection of his institutions; for, by the powers of his art, he was supposed to possess an inexhaustible source of riches, and therefore had no cause to apportion the revenues of the state to the promotion of his scientific pursuits. He died, notwithstanding, immensely rich, being more the fruits of rigid economy in his private affairs, than of his skill in the science of alchemy. Wherever he went he always planted stones and seeds of the best and choicest fruits, having always a bag full of them in his pocket. He was succeeded by his son, Christian I., in 1586, who died in 1591, in the 31st year of his age. Of the succeeding branches of the Albertine line, a very brief notice will be necessary, until the elevation to the throne of Poland, on which occasion Frederic Augustus I., to qualify himself for that dignity, exchanged the protestant for the catholic faith, to which his successors have ever since adhered.

Christian II. died in 1611, at the early age of twenty-seven years, and was succeeded by his brother, John George I.; during whose reign Saxony was devastated by the contending armies in the thirty-years' war.

John George II. succeeded his father in 1656, and died in 1680. This prince had three brothers, Augustus, Christian, and Maurice. By these per

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sons the houses of Saxe Weissenfels, Saxe Merseburg, and Saxe Zeitz, were founded. They are all now extinct, and their dominions reverted to the electoral family.

John George III. died in 1691, holding at that time the high appointment of commander-in-chief of the army of the empire employed against the French.

John George IV., in right of his mother, was declared the heir-apparent to the throne of Denmark. He was the first Saxon prince who was honored with the order of the garter. He died in 1694, and was succeeded by

Frederic Augustus I., who, in 1697, was elected king of Poland. Although successful in his wars against the Turks, he experienced the most disastrous defeats in his campaigns against Charles XII.' of Sweden. Some most singular anecdotes are related of the astonishing muscular strength which this prince possessed, and some of them certainly border upon the miraculous. He broke an iron. bar like a stick; he could take a silver or a copper plate, and roll it up like a sheet of paper. He calculated the solidity of his horses' shoes by the facility with which he could break them; and he once snapped the chains of a drawbridge which opposed his entrance into a town. Glafy, in his History of Saxony, designates him the German Sampson, and asserts, that his muscular feats were witnessed by all classes of people. He died in 1733.

Frederic Augustus II. succeeded to the throne of Poland, and died in 1763. Frederic Christian survived his father but two months, and was succeeded by his son, Frederic Augustus III., the present king of Saxony, who, by his adherence to the cause of Buonaparte, was deprived of his acquisitions in Poland, and nearly of one half of his hereditary dominions.

In order to obviate an error which has become general, it is necessary to state, that the house of Saxe-Coburg, and that of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld, to the latter of which Prince Leopold belongs, were two distinct and separate houses.

When the dominions of Ernest the Pious were divided, Coburg was allotted to Albert, who, dying without issue, in the year 1697, this principality became a subject of dispute between the houses of Gotha, Meinungen, Hilburghausen, and Saalfeld. In the year 1735, the dispute was brought to a favorable termination; and the town and district of Coburg were adjudged to the house of Saalfeld; and Sonnenberg and Neuhaus to Meinungen.

The pedigree of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld will, therefore, stand as follows:

ALBERTINE BRANCH, Catholic.

Frederic Augustus, King of Saxony.

ERNESTINE BRANCH, Lutheran.

Saxe-Weimar Eisenach-Duke Charles Augustus, born 3 Sep. 1757. Saxe-Gotha and Altenburgh-Duke Augustus, born 23 Nov. 1772. Saxe-Meinungen-Duke Bernard Eric Freund, born 17 Dec. 1800.

Saxe-Hildburghausen-Duke Frederic, born 29 April 1763. Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld-Duke Ernest Frederic Anthony, born 2 Jan. 1784.

Brothers and Sisters.

1. Sophia Frederica Carolina Louisa, born 10 Aug. 1778, married to Emanuel Count of Mansdorff and Poully, a colonel in the

Austrian service.

2. Antoinetta Ernestina Amelia, born 28 Aug. 1779, married

Duke Charles Alexander Frederic, brother to the King of Wirtemberg, a general in the Russian service, and governor of Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland.

3. Juliana Henrietta Ulrica, born 23 Sept. 1781, married, in 1796, to the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia; when, by the articles of the Greek Church, she assumed the name of Anne Feodoroffna. 4. Ferdinand George Augustus, born 28 March, 1785. 5. Maria Louisa Victoria, born 17 Aug. 1786; married to Ernest Charles Louis, hereditary Prince of Leinengen, by whom she has been left a widow.

6. Leopold George Christian Frederic, born 16 Dec. 1790.

The mother of these illustrious individuals was Augusta Carolina Sophia, daughter of Count Henry XXIV., Reuss of Ebersdorf, who may justly be extolled as one of the brightest patterns of female excellence, and of rigid obedience to the strict performance of the various duties imposed upon her by her exalted station, and by the trying circumstances in which she was placed from the political convulsions of the day. To her constant and indefatigable attention must be ascribed the high degree of mental cultivation which her children received, and which afterwards enabled them to assume and support those important characters

on the stage of life, upon which the political destiny of their country depended. The actions of the heroes of the house of Coburg form a conspicuous figure in the annals of the late wars; and it may with truth be affirmed, that not one single Saxon family can produce so many individuals who have bled in defence of their country, or who, by their diplomatic talents, have secured its liberties, as the family of Coburg. The memorable and victorious campaigns in the Netherlands, where the allied armies were commanded by the Prince of Coburg, notwithstanding the obstructions which were thrown in his way by the court of Vienna itself, are a sufficient testimony of the services which that family has rendered their country; and the historian will transmit them to posterity, as noble examples of martial heroism and patriotic virtue. To the honor of this family, it will ever stand on record, that, whilst the surrounding principalities were crouching at the foot of the Gallic tyrant, the agents of his ambition and of his crimes, and, by their abject submission, increasing the pompous train of his vassals, the princes of the house of Coburg contemned his honors and his alliance; and though obliged, for a time, to yield to the strong tide of adversity which set in against them, yet in their breasts the noble fire of patriotism was never quenched, but merely smothered, to break forth in all its native vigour, whenever the