MISS STILICKLAND'S LIVES OP THE QUEENS or ENGLAND.
THE tenth volume of Miss Strickland's work " drags its slow length along" ; completing the life of Mary of Modena as a widow, and carry- ing on that of her daughter-in-law, Mary wife of William the Third, until the Revolution. In noticing the fifth volume of the Lives of the Queens of England, we expressed an apprehension of the extent to which Miss Strickland's minute and gossipy elaboration of collateral questions, or of trifling and subordinate matters, might carry her, as materials increased with the increase of pamphlets, newspapers, memoirs, and so forth. But though we saw that the private and ceremonial lives of the Queens were likely to occupy more than our historians had thought needful to devote to the Kings and the nation, we scarcely anticipated that six balky volumes would be required for the period between Catherine Parr and the two Marks of Modena and Orange. With a Queen regnant like Anne, a ruling Queen like Caroline, a paragon of virtue like Charlotte, and all the delicate investigations connected with George the Fourth and his wife, before us, we feel like Macbeth when he not only beheld the spectral monarchs but the mirror " that showed him many more." If the writer proceeds as she has hitherto done, another decade of volumes will be necessary to complete the work. And unless more of judgment were exercised in their compilation than is the case in the volume before us, very slow affairs they would be. The conclusion of the biography of Mary of Modena is about as dry and heavy a piece of business as it has often been our fortune to meet with. The manuscript diaries, letters, &c. respecting the Jacobite intrigues and the nuns of Chaillot, (with whom the royal widow resided,) placed at the dis- posal of Miss Strickland by M. Guizot, and from which we expected so much, turn out to be of little value. The political information is slight ; the doings of the Jacobites are few, and uninteresting from the want of result. The personal biography of Mary is even duller than the account of her conduct as regent for her son : the letters to the nuns of Chaillot are of the most commonplace kind. The matter of this volume may not be more trivial than that of the early biography of the heroine, or the merit of the writer less ; but it produces less effect upon the reader, from its greater sameness and the want of power in the heroine. In our esti- mate of Mary of Modena when we reviewed the previous volume, we observed that the opinion might be modified by a view of her as regent : and so it is, but not favourably. Instead of appearing with more force of character as exercising power, or with greater dignity under misfor- tune, she sinks into a person of little interest or mark. There was no- thing inherent in her, beyond feminine qualities, not of the highest. All was accidental or adventitious. There was some interest attached to her wooing, from her girlish age and circumstances ; and her position as proximate or actual Queen gave her some weight, from the persons and the fortunes with which she was connected; but when these vanished her importance vanished too. There is more attraction in the life of Mary of Orange, probably from similar causes. She is brought out by connexion- with her husband ; and though William is painted dark and sullen enough, he cannot be de- prived of his policy and force. There is, too, the story of the Dutch policy, and the family intrigues between Mary and her sister Anne rela- tive to the Revolution, with some sketches of the Revolution itself. In- deed, it is properly in the life of William and in these political parts that the interest resides, little as many of them have to do with the biography of the heroine.
The anecdotes also contribute to relieve the life by their variety. The following account of the origin of the favour and family settlement of the Bentineks in England may be new to many readers. " In the midst of the arduous war with France, ust after the battle of Seneffe, William of Orange was seized with the same fatal disease [smallpox] which had destroyed both his father and his mother in the prime of their lives. The eruption refused to throw out, and he remained half dead. His physicians declared, that if some young healthy person who had not had the disease would enter the bed, and hold the Prince in his arms for some time, the animal warmth might cause the smallpox to throw out, and the hope of his country might be saved. This an- nouncement produced the greatest consternation among the attendants of the Prince; even those who bad had the disease were terrified at encountering the in- fection in its most virulent state, for the physicians acknowledged that the experi- ment might be fatal. One of the pages of the Prince of Orange, a young noble of the line of Bentinek, who was eminently handsome, resolved to venture his safe- ty for the life of his master, and volunteered to be the subject of the experiment; which, when tried, was completely successful. Bentinck caught the disease, and narrowly escaped with life: for many years, he was William's favourite and Prime Minister."
The Princess Anne was from her childhood too fond of eating ; in which she was encouraged, if not taught, by her mother. When Queen, she was said to flee from her difficulties to strong waters. The habit was ascribed to the example of her husband, Prince George of Denmark; but from her behaviour at her first communion she would seem to have had a natural taste that way.
" Just before Easter, the young Princess Anne was confirmed, in royal state, at the Chapel of Whitehall, by her preceptor, Compton Bishop of London. Her first communion took place on Easter Sunday. Her tutor, Dr. Lake gives the following account of the extraordinary manner in which she conducted herself. Being Easter-day, for the first time, the Lady Anne received the sacrament: the Bishop of Exeter preached at St. James's (Chapel), and consecrated. Through negligence, her Highness was not instructed how much to drink, but drank of it (the cup) thrice; whereat I was much concerned, lest the Duke of York, her father, should have notice of it.'
" The gross negligence of which Dr. Lake complains must have been the fault of the preceptor of the Princess, Compton Bishop of London; whose thoughts were too busy with polemics to attend to the proper instruction of his charge. The un- seemly conduct of the Princess on this occasion reflects the greatest possible dis- graceon the Prelate; whose duty it was to have prepared her for the reception of this solemn rite, and on whom a greater degree of responsibility than ordinary de- volved on account of her father's unhappy secession from the communion of the Church of England. It is apparent that Compton had not even taken the trouble of reading and explaining to his royal pupil the eleventh chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, verses 21 and 22, or this startling violation of the reverential decorum practised and enjoined by the Church of England could not have occurred."
The above anecdote is from the manuscript diary of Dr. Lake, assist- ant tutor to the Princesses ; who might as well have taught what was fitting as the Bishop. Another anecdote that he gives of their addiction to card-playing does not put any of the parties in a very respectable light.
"rmg Charles II. thought proper to introduce his nieces to the city of London, and took them in state, with his Queen and their father, to dine at Guildhall, at the Lord. Mayor's feast, 1675. [Mary was born in 1662.] They were at this time completely out, or introduced into public life; and the ill effects of such in- troduction began to show itself in the conduct of Lady Mary. Like • her sister Ann; she became a constant card-player; and, not content with devoting her evenings in the week-days to this dangerous diversion, she played at cards on the Sabbath. Her tutor, Dr. Lake, being in her closet with her, led the con- versation to this subject; which gave him pain, and he was moreover apprehen- sive lest it should offend the people. Lady Mary asked him, what he thought bf it?' His answer will be thought, in these times, far too lenient. ' I told her,' he says, could not say it was sin to do so, but it was not expedient; and I aivised her Highness not to do it, for fear of giving offence. Nor did she play at cards on Sunday nights,' he adds, while she continued in England.' Her tutor had not denounced the detestable habit of gambling on Sabbath nights in terms sufficiently strong to prevent a relapse; for he afterwards deplored piteously that the Lady Mary renewed her Sunday card-parties in Holland. It was a noxious sin, and he ought plainly to have told her so. He could have done his duty to his pupil without having the fear of royalty before his eyes; for neither the King nor the Duke of York her father were gamblers. M-- t likely, Dr. Lake was afraid of the ladies about the Princesses; for the English Court, since the time of Henry VIII., had been infamous for the devotion of both sexes to the sin of gambling. The Lady Anne of York is described by her companion, Sarah Jen- rung!, (when, in after life, she was Dutchess of Marlborough,) as a little card- playing automaton; and this vile manner of passing her Sabbath evenings proves that the same corruption had entered the soul of her superior sister."
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