Princess Sophia of Gloucester, Supported severally by their Gentlemen Ushers. Women of her Majesty's Bed Chamber. At the conclusion of the marriage ceremony their Majesties retired to their chairs of state under the canopy, while the anthem was performing. The evening concluded with very splendid illuminations, and other public demonstrations of joy, throughout the metropolis. Addresses from the City of London, and various other places, were presented on the occasion. Rare is the example of connubial happiness resulting from the matrimonial alliances of royalty. No opportunities are given to study the character, temper, or dispositions of the respective parties, or to excite that admiration of each other which is the basis of mutual love and esteem. Rumour, indeed, is called in to supply the place of actual observation, and in all cases of this nature it generally exaggerates the good qualities, and so qualifies the bad ones, that a relative degree of perfection becomes attached to the character which after experience most wofully contradicts. State policy may demand amongst the continental Powers a stronger bond of union between two individual states, by a matrimonial alliance in their royal or imperial families. The interests of the two states become thereby more identified with each other, their power becomes more consolidated, and their views of ambition or future con E quest more easily realized. With this country it is, however, differently constituted; we stand on the basis of our own strength, able to resist encroachment on our liberties or an infraction of our rights. No aggrandizement, no addition to its power, can result from foreign matrimonial alliances; and, therefore, as far as the illustrious individuals of our Royal Family are concerned, it must be allowed, that in the choice of those persons to be connected to them by marriage, on whom the hereditary succession to the throne 'must necessarily depend,-individual feeling might be more generally consulted, and the happiness of the parties established by a congeniality of sentiment, of dispositions, of temper and pursuits. These reflections have been excited by the sudden and unexpected turn which the marriage of the Prince of Wales assumed; the nation received with joy the tidings of the pregnancy of the Princess, and, although rumour had been busy in circulating reports of a total want of mutual esteem and of confidence subsisting between the royal pair, yet they were considered as the mere effusions of private intrigue, and a very slight degree of importance was attached to them. The liberal and the candid saw in them a base attempt to sully the reputation of a virtuous female, and they who penetrated still deeper into the affair beheld the machinations of those favourites, who had enjoyed the royal counte nance, but who now saw their importance diminished, and their influence on the verge of being destroyed. In the mean time preparations were made for the reception of the royal heir; the bright prospect of a regular succession to the throne was highly pleasing to the nation, and on no occasion was the attachment of the people to the illustrious house of Brunswick more conspicuously displayed. The anxiety evinced by an exalted personage on this occasion, will never be forgotten by those who had the happiness of witnessing it. It was the anxiety of the parent, coupled with the patriotism of the monarch, who sees in legitimate succession a safeguard against civil dissensions and intestine feuds. It was the first of his inquiries in the morning, the last on his retiring to rest; and, with a due sense of that religion, the exercise of which had thrown such a pure and unsullied splendour over a well-spent life, he, morning and night, surrounded by his family, offered up his prayers to that Being, who can soothe the pangs of the mother, and still the cries of the infant." In the latter end of December, 1795, orders were issued to the cabinet ministers and other personages, whose attendance is prescribed on the birth of a royal child, to hold themselves in readiness, and on the 7th January, 1796, at ten in the morning, the Princess of Wales was safely delivered of a daughter, and the accouchement was conducted with the most solemn formalities. The personages present at the birth, were the Duke of Gloucester, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council, the Duke of Leeds, the Lord Chamberlain, Earl Cholmondeley, Lord Thurlow, and the ladies of the Princess of Wales's bed-cham. ber; the Prince of Wales was also present on this interesting and important occasion. At one period of her illness, the life of the Princess was in the most imminent danger, and it was rumoured that it was saved by the intelligent friendship of a distinguished statesman; the young Princess was christened according to the form of the Church of England, and received the name of Charlotte Augusta, the former being the name of her grandmother, the latter ofher mother. The christening was solemnized on Thursday evening, the 11th of February 1796, in the great drawing-room, at St. James's, by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. The sponsors were their Majesties in person, and her Royal Highness the Duchess of Brunswick, represented by her Royal Highness the Princess Mary. Torrents of addresses were poured in from all parts of the country on the birth of the Princess Charlotte Augusta, and the City of London was anxious to present an address of congratulation on the happy event, to his Royal Highness; but, on the 29th of January, the City Remembrancer was informed by Earl Cholmondeley, that his Royal High ness being under the necessity of dismissing his establishment, he was unable to receive those congratulatory compliments, in a manner suitable to his rank, and with the respect due to the capital of the empire; but at the same time he expressed great regret in not having it in his power to shew a proper regard for the good wishes of the City of London towards himself and the Princess of Wales. In the ode for the new year 1796, the Poet Laureat beautifully alludes to the birth of this hopeful scion of royalty. Now strike a livelier chord!-this happy day, Selected from the circling year, To celebrate a name to Britain dear, Than all th' assiduous Muse can bring, A Bud its silken folds displays, That crown thy own ambrosial May. Omens of concord and of love. Bid the loud strain of martial triumph raise, And tune to softer mood the warbling reed of praise. The portentous storm which threatened to sub vert the happiness of the royal pair, and the low |