her own and the rights of her family be- faculty of discerning the "signs of a came the central question of European time;" but the most moderate historical politics-will appear in the sequel. But information might at least have prevented other and higher than merely political the ludicrous blunders which crowd her considerations were connected with her volume, from the vignette on the titlefate. In some measure, she may indeed page to the end of the story. The MS. be also regarded as representing the authorities to which our authoress so interests of entire continental Protestant- frequently refers, having been already ism; and in that Thirty Years' War, on sufficiently explored by Mrs. Green, we the issue of which the continuance of the would advise her, in future editions, to new church seemed to depend, Elizabeth bestow her attention on the less recondite Stuart forms throughout the central but more useful subjects of Chronology figure. Lastly, during the forty years of and Geography. In that case she may, her weary exile, continued energy which indeed, continue with lady-like négligence sufferings never paralyzed, and deepening to throw about charges against persons meekness, gentleness, and faith which and parties whom she understands not, energetic action never put into the back- and of whom she knows next to nothing, ground, proved to friend and foe that this but she will at least avoid the smile raised woman was always a princess, and that by introducing the sect of the Taborites this princess always remained and felt as more than one hundred and fifty years after it had entirely ceased to exist, or by declar ing that the road from the Upper Palatinate (which lay along the western boundary of Bohemia) to Prague led through Moravia and Silesia ! Thus much, then, for a volume in which the greatest assurance and the happiest ignorance are lovingly united in a "pictorial style;" thus much also for the literature of the subject generally. And now, with such help as we can get from any or all these sources, do we address ourselves to the history of the first and only "Protestant Queen of Bohemia."

a woman.

From materials such as these, to construct a history might appear no difficult task, especially considering the immense literature which German and British industry has accumulated in connection with the subject. Not a state-paper, letter, controversial tract, or secret negotiation, but will be found in the folios of Londorp or Khevenhiller, or has since yielded its contents to the patient analysis of Aretin, Wolf, Müller, and Mrs. Green; nay, of late, all the archives of Vienna have again been thrown open to F. v. Huter, whose neophyte zeal has undertaken the double task of defending Jesuit religion and Hapsburg policy. These vast chronicles have been condensed by numerous writers with more or less artistic skill and party bias. Unfortunately, however, while each according to the ability or diligence in him, has faithfully copied details, none has succeeded in drawing a portrait. Facts and chapters have followed each other with unerring regularity, but the story wants unity, light, and life. "They have seen the trees, but missed the wood;" and the character both of Elizabeth and of her time remains yet to be studied. The last or anecdotal attempt at reading this period, made by Miss Strickland, need scarcely be noticed at great length, as it can not be ranked with the serious contributions to our history. "Smartness" in historical composition is the latest but the least promising development in literature. Considering Miss Strickland's party bias, it would perhaps have been unreasonable to expect the

For many a year had not more genuine national joy vibrated through the length and breadth of our island than on merry St. Valentine, A.D. 1613. Whitehall chapel was gayly decorated for a bridal ceremony: outside, the streets thronged with joyous, eager multitudes; inside, a royal procession, and by the steps of the altar, a very youthful couple, over which prelates are invoking the blessing of Heaven and the blessing of peoples. Although neither Elizabeth Stuart nor her youthful husband, Elector Frederic of the Palatinate, had completed their seventeenth year, their names were already the watchword of two great parties. In a court whose religious principles were sufficiently loose, Elizabeth was looked upon as the representative and the hope of Protestant Christianity. Without questioning either the zeal or theological acumen of James, the moral instinct of a nation awakening into deep religious earnestness, shrunk from the trifling pedant, as if it felt that his "lararium" was only large enough to

hold one statue in life-size-that of him- twenty-eighth November; Ambassador self. His consort, Anne of Denmark, was Bowes, representing the Virgin Queen of a Papist, and as such had but lately com- England, carried the infant to the font. municated in the private chapel of the Her first seven years were spent chiefly Spanish ambassador, Don Alonzo de at Linlithgow and Dunfermline, under Velasco. Prince Henry of Wales, the the charge of Ladies Livingstone and idol of the nation, and trained a staunch Ochiltree. Early in 1603, James sucProtestant, had a few months ago been ceeded to the throne of England, to snatched by the hand of death; and the which country his consort and family soon slender health of Charles, the only re- followed him. Our countrymen never manent member of the royal family, again saw her, whom afterwards, by a seemed not likely to interpose a lasting special envoy, they claimed as the "eldest barrier between the Princess Elizabeth daughter of Scotland"-in whose cause and the throne of Britain. All the more so much of our best blood was shed, and needful, then, that she should be saved for whose deliverance and success rose so from court intrigues and Popish machina- many and so earnest prayers. In October, tions, and bestowed on one every way so 1603, the education of the Princess was worthy her hand as Frederic, the leading confided to Lord and Lady Harrington. and traditional representative of con- The affectionate child, to whom parting tinental Protestantism. Besides, this from Lady Ochiltree had been so great a union between the most powerful prince calamity, found in Combe Abbey, the of Germany, whose House had long residence of the Harringtons, others to headed the resistance to Papist aggres- love; and the friendships formed in the sions and Hapsburg encroachments, with home of her childhood continued through the daughter of the most puissant Pro- life. Between the Princess and her testant king, whose resources even at that brother Henry, to whom she clung with time might have been almost unlimited, passionate attachment, tender, we had promised to complete the great anti-Papal almost said romantic, letters passed. federation so long planned and essayed. Nothing broke the quiet of her retreat In truth, this marriage was the most-if except the Gunpowder Plot, the design not the only-popular act of James' reign. All Germany regarded it as a significant fact; all Britain, save Popish abettors and conspirators, rejoiced in it as a great national event, as a political triumph, and even a religious achievement.

Two very young people these, on whom to devolve such work, duties, and cares; whose training had indeed supplied all that artificial means could-mostly in eliciting what already existed-but whose native strength must, each of its own kind, be almost gigantic to carry this burden. Providence has destined the few for commanding, the many for obeying; and accordingly among the multitudes who, as circumstances indicate, become respectable councilors, instructors, officers, officials, or peddlers, they are exceptions whose keen glance can penetrate beyond that of the commonalty, whose secret purpose can steadily follow its own object, or whose strong hand can manfully grasp and firmly retain its hold. How ever this may be, the early years of the royal children had passed pleasantly and usefully. Born at Falkland Palace nineteenth August, 1596, Elizabeth had been baptized in Holyrood Abbey on the

of the conspirators being to elevate the Princess to the throne of England. As all other parts of the plot, so the attempt to gain possession of her person, failed through the vigilance of her guardians. It was on this occasion that the youthful Frederic penned his first epistle to his future father-in-law.

Matrimonial pro

jects were at all times a favorite pursuit with "the wisest of fools." Accordingly, before Elizabeth was more than seven years old, he had planned a double alliance with France to which the poor child was made privy. This was in due time followed by numberless other suits; among them, notably one with the widowed and intensely Popish monarch of Spain, strongly supported by Anne and the Papist party, and which the King contemplated with more zest than accords with his Protestant zeal. Had the temper of the people or the character of Elizabeth brooked it, James might not have found it very difficult to assuage his own scruples. The proposal of the youthful Gustavus Adolphus - the only suitor worthy her hand- was put aside from deference to the prejudices of the King of Denmark. Among all the other applicants, the

The marriage-rejoicings in England had | son, Frederic Henry-somewhat in adbeen brought to a somewhat abrupt ter- vance of the slow movements of Lady de mination. Both parties had disbursed Burgh and Mrs. Mercer, sent to her from more money than they could well afford. England; in honor of which occasion, Besides a dower of forty thousand pounds King James entertained nobles, liberated and an annual pension of four thousand prisoners, and settled additional two thoupounds, James had expended upwards of sand pounds on Elizabeth; "Auld Reekie" fifty-three thousand pounds. The young consumed "six score fourteen pound Palatine had been equally lavish with his weight of powder at xvi s. the pound," means, and even more so with his pro- "for joy of the news;" while the chroni mises, agreeing to every absurd claim-cler of "the fair city" records "bonfires, among the rest, to that of giving his wife ringing of bells, and other pastimes," the precedence over himself. But as yet and German knights and burghers may every augury seemed favorable. The be supposed to have again feasted right festivities which had greeted the young loyally. couple in Britain were renewed on a larger scale during their progress over the Continent, from the moment when, amid salvos of artillery, they set foot on Dutch ground, (twenty-ninth April,) to that when, wearied with sham-fights, triumphal arches, florid speeches, and mythological compliments, the bride was locked in the arms of the good Juliana in Heidelberg Castle, (seventeenth June.) The mind gets bewildered amidst all these demonstrations, theological, oratorical, mythological — amidst fireworks, chases, daily consumption of twenty thousand bottles of wine, and other indications of courtly and popular joy, of which the curious reader may find ample and even poetic description in the chroniclers of the time. These past, life in earnest ought to begin, and in some measure, indeed, may be said to have begun. Of Elector Frederic V. we catch occasional glimpses, coursing beside his merry spouse, or in deliberation with his council and German princes on things too high for him, or else buried in deepest melancholy, from which he can scarcely be roused. Already it is evident, that for all rule, even domestic rule, but especially such as now devolves on him in Germany, his hand is too weak. As for Electress Elizabeth, her childhood is not yet past. In vain the methodical Schomberg inculcates the duty of economy, and of learning to say No, converting his aphorisms even into written regulations for "the guidance of her Highness." At length the good man gets quit both of English attendants and of English and other debts -Elizabeth, all the time, only playing, racing, hunting. What she is, lies yet concealed most probably from herself as well as others. On second January, 1614, the young Electress bore her first

Of the three conditions of greatness broad principle, clear vision, and energetic action-poor Frederic possessed not one in degree sufficient to serve him in any good stead. A conscientious Calvinist, a good husband, a laborious man of details, he might have proved an excellent prince, had it not been for such circumstances as constitute the fitting occasion for the development of true power, or the rock on which mediocrity splits. Since the religious treaties of Passau and Augsburg, (1552, 1555,) the contest between the rival parties in Germany had been only delayed, not averted. Apparently a victory to the Protestants, this pacification was in reality a hollow truce, which gave the Popish phalanx time to gather, while the strength of Protestantism was dissipating in controversies worse than useless. A period had been when, at least, the Teutonic race seemed about to break the yoke of Rome. Britain, Sweden, and Denmark were already ruled by Protestant sovereigns; of the seven Electors of Germany, (three clerical and four secular,) three (the Palatinate, Brandenburgh, and Saxony) were attached to the new Church; while the greater part of the minor princes, and even the majority of the subjects of Popish rulers in the Empire, professed the same faith. But all these advantages were more than counterbalanced by the disputes and the incapacity of the Protes tants. If, according to a modern historian*-himself a convert to Popery-half the blame of the Thirty Years' War rests with the Jesuits, the other share must in all fairness be imputed to that sectarian inanity and bitterness without which priestly intrigues would have proved comparatively harmless. No doubt, in

*Gfrörer, Gustav Adolph, p. 261.