24 AUGUST 1839, Page 8

Allistellantous.

" It is our duty this day to make to the British people an announcement which they will receive with intense interest, and we hope and believe with unanimous satisfaction. We have received from a correspondent resident at the Court of Brussels, and enjoying the entire confidence of that Court, a communication which enables us to state, in the most distinct and positive terms, that a matrimonial alliance is about to take place between her Britannic Majesty and his Serene Highness the Prince Albert Francis, second son of Ernest the reigning. Duke of Saxe Coburg &oilfield. " The august Prince whom so high and so auspicious a destiny awaits will shortly arrive in this country, accompanied by their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians. Ile will arrive, we believe we may venture to say, to depart no more. Ile will arrive, we ardently hope, to impart new lustre and security to the British Crown, and to constitute the domestic happiness and sustain the social virtues of the illustrious lady by whom, in the ordination of a gracious Providence, the British crown is long, we trust, to be worn. " The Prince Albert Francis of Saxe Coburg was born on the 26th of August 1819. He is, therefore, three months and two days younger than her Majesty. " The father of this Prince, Ernest Duke of Saxe Coburg &oilfield, was been on the 2d of Jauuary178-1; succeeded his father, Francis, (the father also of the King of the Belgians,) on the 9th of December 1806 ; and married, first, Louisa, daughter of Augustus Duke of Saxe Gotha Altenburg, ‘rho died on the 30th of August 1831. The issue of this marriage was the Prince Ernest Augustus, now, together with his illustrious father, on a visit to the British Court, who was born on the 21st of June 1818, and the Prince Albert Francis, the distinguished object of this notice, who was born, as above stated, on the 26th of August in the following year. " The Duke of Saxe Coburg &oilfield, the father of Prince Albert, con- tracted a second anarringe on the 23d of December 1832, with the Princess Maria of Wurtemberg, who was horn on the 17th of December 1792.

" We understand that her Majesty will not be present at the prorogation of Parliament ; from which we infer the probability that the Queen's Speech may contain sonic allusion to the nuptial contract we have felt ourselves authorized to announce.

ale this, however, as it may, we venture confidently to predict that this interesting and important subject will be brought under the notice of the British Parliament early in the next session, and to intimate the probability that the next session of the British Parliament will be accelerated for the pur- pose of its consideration.

" It is gratifying to be enabled to state, that the youthful Prince who is about to acquire so strong a claim to the respect and affection of the British people, is acknowledged by all to whom he is personally known to possess the graces of person and manner, as well as the more valuable and lasting qualities of intellect and disposition, which are calculated to render the respect and affection of a virtuous and intelligent people an easy and a natural tribute.

cancludc this announcement without. breathing m Truer, in

which the whole British nation will fervently unite, that the royal union ' which is about to take place may be productive of happiness to our beloved Sovereign, of augmehted dignity and security to her throne, and of honour and advantage to her people."

The Globe of the same day contradicted the statement so circum- stantially given- " Seine mischievous wag bas sadly practised on the credulity of the Post; whose extraordinary account of the approaching marriage of her Majesty—the name, age, height, and all other particulars, personal, moral, and mental, of her supposed husband, being detailed with most amusing minuteness—we insert in another column. We have reason to believe the extraordinary an- nouncement to be utterly destitute of that which can alone give it interest— the quality of truth. One thing is certain, that the Queen will prorogue Par- fitment in person on Wednesday next. That the Post actually invented this rigmarole, we do not suppose. We do not even regard it as of house manutlic- ture ; and will venture a guess that the letter which brought it bore the post- mark of Brasse/s, and that it was signed by one whose initials are F.

The Morning Post of Friday asserted, that, with the exception of the prorogation in person, its account was strictly correct.

It being now ascertained that the business of the session will be got through on Monday, the prorogation of Parliament, by the Queen in person, will take place on Tuesday, instead of 'Wednesday next, as was first arranged.—Globe, Friday.

Mr. Francis Thornhill Baring is announced by the Globe as about-to- be Chancellor of the Exchequer. So one of the changes announced some weeks since by the Morning Chronicle, but then positively denied by the Treasury scribes, is on the eve of being accomplished. The others, perhaps, will speedily follow. Were the representation of Manchester secure for a partisan of the Government, Mr. Poulett Thomson, we suspect, would not be long on this side of the Atlantic.

The Marquis of Lansdowne embarked at Dover on Sunday, for Ostend.

, Lady Flora Hastings and her wrongs have again been the subject of

correspondence and discussion in the newspapers. First came a letter from the Marquis of Tavistock, elicited by some remarks in the Morn- ing Chronicle on Lady Flora's letter to Mr. Hamilton Fitzgerald, which that gentleman published lately-

" Boston, 16th August 1839.

" Sir—My absence from town (together with other circumstances) has been the cause of my not taking earlier notice of an article in the M instant, Morning Chroni- cle of the 12th nstant, uu the subject of Lady Flora Hastings's letter to Mr. Fitzgerald, in which article allusion is made to Lady Tavistock (together with

Lady Portman) as i the two ladies who, manifestly in mistake, too hastily im- parted their unfavourable suspicions to their youthful Sovereign.' When Mr. Fitzgerald's letter appeared (in March last) iu the public papers, I wrote to the Marquis of Hastings to express my regret that his relation had thought proper to state to the world, on mere hearsay evidence, that Lady Tavistock's name had been mentioned as having taken active part against Lady Flora.' His Lordship assured me in reply that he was not responsible for any expression contained in Mr. Hamilton Fitzgerald's letter. With that answer I was satis- fied, and 1 have not hitherto deemed it necessary to take, notice of the many

acrimonious remarks that have since appeared in sonic of the newspapeZ Mr. Fitzgerald's statement ; but I am unwilling any longer to allow his ands; pity for that statement to pass uncontradicted, more especially on ass", the erroneous impression which the comments of the Morniny Caironiciel; calculated to produce on the public ; for while professing to excuse Lady IV vistock's conduct, it does, in fact, admit the gravamen of the charge which hi; been. so pertinaciously urged against her, and, assuming the office of her4, fender, takes upon itself to express her sorrow and contrition for havieg that which it is absolutely false that she ever did, or ever thought of doing, It might have been expected that the complete establishment and universals', mission of Lady Flora's innocence, followed by the melancholy eventofh death, would, out of respect to her memory alone, have put an cud to discos sions and publications which can now have no possible object but that of pas dering to a morbid appetite for scandal, or the still more base and revolting os, of converting that unhappy lady's name and story into a source of peetastr, gain. I shall not minister to this wicked and despicable purpose by mean', unto any explanations, or making any statements, or mentioning any. Iasi beyond what is absolutely necessary fur the prcremptory and effectual contra- diction of a direct assertion and a tangible charge. I content myself, there. fore, with saying that Lady Tavistock never took any part whatever against Lady Flora 'listings; and that, inasmuch as it formed no part of her offidi jestyconcerning it. duty to communicate with her Sovereign on this subject, she iTuivIeris‘Tiolncp:11:4 any suspicions' nor made any communication, direct or indirect, to her Ift- " I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

The Marquis of Hastings, in reply to an address of condolence from his neighbours, the inhabitants of Castle Donington, had intimated by intention of pursuing the inquiry into the particulars of the calmly on his deceased sister-

" However my own feelings may be oppressed with sorrow, I feel I shook ill repay the kind sympathy I have received from you and a large circle of friends, as well as the interest which the world at large has taken iu the sub. ject of our sorrows, were to suffer this painful tragedy to sleep in the dis• tested shape in which[ the prejudiced reports of some, added to the iguotan Statements of many, have now placed it. " I therefore hope, ere long, [my making you more conversant with facts, to place you iu more intimate, possession of my motives, and thereby =daps abler judges of my actions.' ••

Lord Portman, in the following letter, alludes to the above passage- Brvanston, 20th August 1231,

" Sir—My attention has been called this day to a letter from the Merquis of Tavistock in the 'Times of the 19th instant, to an article in the Morning Om- ni& of the 12th of August, and to an article in the Morniny Post, purporting to be a letter from the Marquis of Hastings to his neighbours at Castle Da- nington ; and I therefore take the liberty of addressing you, for the purpose of preventing my continual silence being construed into an admission of the truth of any of the assertions made with reference to the official conduct of Lady Portman at Buckingham Palace in February last ; and for the pup* also of making known, that having hitherto, in submission to the advice of those who are well qualified to give an opinion, abstained from taking notice of the erroneous and abusive remarks made in some newspapers on the conduct of Lady Portman, I shall not be provoked, by the malice of political or of per- sonal enemies nor by the intended kindness of friends imperfectly acquainted with the trudi now to enter into any detail of the case ; but 1 shall await the opportunity, which[ I hope the Marquis of Hastings, by the perfbrmance of the. promise made in the letter to which I have alluded, is about to afford me, of proving that Lady Portman did, on that painful occasion, neither more DOT less than her duty towards the Court, towards Lady Flora Hastings, and to- wards the people of England, to whom, while she was in waiting upon the Sovereign, she was constitutionally responsible. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, PORTMAN''