MISS STRICKLAND ' S LIVES OF THE QUEENS or ENGLAND.

Tam eighth volume of Miss Strickland's Lives of the English Queens does not greatly differ from its predecessors in general character. There is the same agreeable research and antiquarian knowledge; an equal power of seizing upon pleasant and interesting circumstances, and of telling them in a style of elevated gossip,—all feminine in character, it may be, but none the worse for that, in a work where females are the subject. There is not much of critical acumen applied to political conduct or the higher morals' and what there is is not sound ; but the senti- ment of the subject is felt and agreeably enough presented. The virtues of kings queens, courtiers, and cavaliers, lose nothing at Miss Strick- land's hands, when they happen to have any virtues : their vices are for- gotten in their misfortunes, overbalanced by the manner in which they bore their troubles, or conveniently lost sight of altogether; whilst the wicked doings of "wretched" Roundheads and Democrats—ill-savoured fellows with gaunt countenances, are visited with the weightiest censure of a lady. On the other hand, domestic failings, where the duties of wife, husband, parent, or child are concerned, are presented fairly, treated charitably, and for the most part justly. If there is a difference be- tween the present and former volumes, it consists in a greater mastery of the subject, and the greater interest of the materials, which are now be- coming fuller and more particular, as the writer approaches the age of memoirs, correspondence, and newspapers.

The two heroines of the volume are Henrietta Maria, the unhappy Queen of Charles the First, and Catherine of Braganza, in some sense the equally unhappy wife of Charles the Second. Besides the memoirs and other published works, so numerous relating to the latter part of this period, Miss Strickland has had access, through M. Guizot, to many French ma- nuscript documents connected with Henrietta Maria ; she has even, by the favour of no less a person than the Emperor of All the Hussies, got some assistance from the archivesof St. Petersburg; whilst through Pe- ninsular connexions she has obtained translations of several Portuguese manuscripts for her memoirs of Catherine of Braganza.

Of the two Queens the life of Henrietta Maria has by far the most in- terest. Catherine, submissive, contented, perhaps apathetic, and rather " close-fisted " in the management of her own "peculiars" has little or nothing of a very entrancing interest about her: yet has Miss Strickland contrived to produce a readable life, by descriptions of court ceremonies, dresses, and so forth, ae,connts of matrimonial squabbles and kingly mis- behaviour, together with miscellaneous anecdotes of every thing and every- body connected with the court. he fortunes of Henrietta Maria have more variety and dignity : they would have possessed a tragic interest had that princess but approached the tragic character. Her exertions for her hus- band during the civil wars, the sacrifice of her jewels to raise supplies, the dangers and hardships she willingly underwent in conveying assist- ance to Charles, the destitution to which she was reduced during the civil wars of France and the siege of Paris, as well as the outward devotion ahe always exhibited to the memory of the Martyr, wanted little except principle to rise to heroism. But Henrietta Maria was a foolish French- woman, the mere creature of impulse and temper, with some of the cunning prevailing in such characters, which often enables them to dupe superior minds. She seems never to have been swayed by reason, but by what she "took in her head " ; or if she were accessible to per- suasion, it was through her ignorant bigotry ; her superstition rendering her a tool in the hands of her priests, and her temper in those of her country-people. Her refusal to be crowned by Protestant forms gave the first offence to the country, annoyed her husband, and enabled Crom- well, after the execution of Charles, to reply to Mazarin's claim for pay- ment of her dower, "that she had never been recognized as Queen- consort of Great Britain by the people, and consequently she had no right to this dower,"—a retort which Henrietta felt keenly. Her adop- tion of the feelings and impertinences of her followers caused still more unpopularity, gave greater trouble to Charles, and was a more constant source of family disagreement. Notwithstanding her alleged affection for her husband, her grief at his death, and her veneration for his memory, she no sooner got hold of the young Duke of Gloucester than she attempted to convert him to Romanism, despite of the injunctions of his dying father ; and, at the instigation of a bigoted priest, oppressed him with a revolting cruelty for his adherence to the Church of England. Miss Strickland seems to ascribe the misfortunes of Charles to his ill-assorted marriage : but this is going too far. The Spanish match would at first hive been more unpopular, from the remembrance of the Armada ; but theS_panish gravity or stolidity would in the long run have gained upon the British public, from having a more respectable air than the levity, familiarity, and angry tempers of the little Frenchwoman. That the Queen was very unpopular, is true ; and acquiescence in her follies might have done Charles injury; but his great enemies were his faithlessness and despotic notions, both of which were his own, and ran in the blood.

Miss Strickland touches upon Henrietta's alleged partiality for Lord Jermyn, to dispute the fact. Her chief, or indeed only proofs, are the aforesaid exertions of Henrietta during the civil war, the grief she showed at the death of Charles, and the reverence she paid to his memory, ever wearing the widow's garb. Miss Strickland, by her quotations from the memoirs of persons constantly about the Queen, throws a greater appear- ance of improbability upon the scandal : but persons of Henrietta's cha- racter are so perfectly the creatures of momentary impulse, that she might have gone into fits one hour at her husband's execution, and in the next have exhibited equal intensity of emotion about a paramour. It should be observed, that the documents whence Miss Strickland has drawn the greater part of her materials were written by persons connected with the Queen, and favourably disposed towards her, by country, connexion, and religion.

Bearing in mind this favourable bias of the original authorities, and of the lady ho uses them, we may pronounce the present volume a useful

addition to our lighter literature, and a much more agreeable and satis- factory book than might a priori have been thought possible. A few examples will show the kind of reading Miss Strickland furnishes. '

VILLIERS DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM AND QUEEN HENRIETTA.

Bassompierre was certainly the most sensible and honourable person that France had sent to England since the embassy of the great Due de Sully. His notation of his interviews with the young Queen prove that he neither flattered nor spoiled her. He found her at open hostility with her husband's favourite and Prime Minister, Buckingham, of whom she made the most bitter complaints: they had quarrelled violently, and perhaps their enmity was aggravated by the fact that the Queen knew no English, and Buckingham very little French: no doubt, their angry dialogues were amusing enough. Buckingham, nevertheless, made the Queen understand a speech which she never forgave: she quoted it, long years after his death, in confidence to Madame de Motteville. He Insolently told her "to beware how she behaved; for in England Queens had had their hes& cut off before now."

CONFESSION IN A STORM.

The scene below, as related by the Queen herself, was anything but inviting. When the tempest blew heavily, and the ship laboured and pitched, they were tied in small beds, in all the horrors of sea-sickness. At the tune the storm was at its worst, all the Queen's attendants, even the officers, crowded into her cabin, and insisted on confessing themselves to the capucins of her suite, believing death would ensue every moment. These poor priests were as ill as any one, and were unable to be very attentive; therefore the penitents shouted out their sins aloud, in the hearing of everyone, in order to obtain absolution on the spur of the moment. The Queen, having no terrors of her own to distract her, amused herself with re- marking this extraordinary scene, and made a sly comment on what she heard, saying, "that she supposed that the extremity of their fears took away the shame of confessing such misdeeds in public."

ROYAL PLEDGES.

At this period, Henrietta had recourse to the painful expedient of soliciting personal loans for the service of her royal husband, not only from the female nobility of England, but from private families whom she had reason to believe well-affected to the cause of loyalty. To such as supplied her with these aids she was accustomed to testify her gratitude by the gift of a ring or some other trinket from her own cabinet; but when the increasing exigencies of the lOnes affairs compelled her to sell or pawn in Holland the whole of her plate and most of her jewels for his use, she adopted an ingenious device, by which she was enabled at a small expense to continue her gifts to her friends, and in a form that rendered these more precious to the recipient parties, because they had im- mediate reference to herself. Whilst in Holland, she had a great many rings, lockets, and bracelet-clasps, made with her cipher, the letters H.M.R., Henri Maria Regina, in very delicate filagree of gold, curiously entwined in a monogram, laid on a ground of crimson velvet covered with thick crystal, cut like a table diamond, and set in gold. These were called "the Queen's pledges," and presented by her to any person who had lent her money, or rendered her any particular service, with an understanding that, if presented to her Majesty at any future time when Fortune smiled on the Royal cause, it would command either repayment of the money advanced or some favour from the Queen that would amount to an ample ■equivalent. Many of these interesting testimonials are in existence; and in families where the tradition has been forgotten, have been regarded as amulets which were to secure good fortune to the wearer. One of these royal pledges, a small bracelet-clasp, has been an heirloom in the family of the author of this life of Henrietta; and there is a ring, with the same device, in possession of Philip Darrell, Esq., of Gales Hill, in Kent, which was presented to his immediate an- cestor by that Omen.

AN UNCOCRTLY PHYSICIAN.

Meantime, Sir Theodore Mayerne arrived at Exeter, May 28th: he travelled from London in the Queen's chariot with Sir Martin Lister. Although so faithful in his prompt attendance to the summons of his royal master in behalf of the Queen, he was rough and uncompromising enough m his professional consulta- tions. The Queen, feeling the agony of an overcharged brain' said, one day, at Exeter, pressing her hand on her head, "Mayeme, I sin afraid that I shall go mad some day." "Nay," replied the caustic physician, "your Majesty need not fear going mad; you have been so some time." The Queen, when she related this incident to Madame De Motteville, mentioned the incident as llayeme's serious opinion of her bodily health: but his reply is coached more like a political sneer than a medical opinion.

ROYAL DESTITUTION.

Cardinal Be Reta, the principal leader of the Fronde paid a visit of inquiry on the 6th of January, to learn what had become of the desolate Queen of kngland, after a series of furious skirmishes and slaughters which had convulsed Tans during the days immediately preceding the 6th of January. It was well that he had not forgotten her; for her last loaf was eaten, and her last faggot had been consumed, and she was destitute of the means of' purchasing more. The Car- dinal, who was one of the leading spirits of his age, was a friend of the Queen. He found her without any fire, though the snow was falling dismally; she was sitting by the bedside of her little daughter, the Princess Henrietta; it was noon, but the child was still in bed. "You find me," said the Queen, calmly, "keeping company with my Henrietta: I would not let the poor child rise to-day, for we have no Ere." The little Princess was bat four years old when she was thus sharing with her mother the extremes of destitution. The Cardinal sent Queen Henrietta assistance immediately from his own resources' which she accepted thankfully. The same day he flew to the Parliament of Paris, with which he was all-powerful, and represented, with a burst of passionate eloquence, the dire distress to which the daughter of their Henri Quatre was reduced. They instantly voted her a subsidy of 20,000 livres.

"OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT" IN 1649.

Yet the Queen's ever sanguine temperament gave a certain buoyancy to her manners in the day-time: it was in the silent watches of the night that har full heart was relieved by tears. The English newspapers of the day contrived, not- withstanding the siege of Paris, to obtain accurate knowledge of the real state of her feelings. "The Queen," they said, "is returned from her devotions in the house of the Carmelites, where she bath been for divers days: she seems not de- jected at the state of her husband in England, yet her ladies declare that he nights are more sad than usual".

HARDSHIPS OF CHARLES.

Sometimes the unfortunate Monarch starved; sometimes the entry in the journal is "dinner in the field." "No dinner" is the entry for several successive days. Another, "Sunday, no dinner; supper at Worcester—a cruel day." The King himself; writing to Nicholas, mentions receiving a letter from the Queen, when marching over Broadway Hills, in Worcestershire: he mentions it as if he were too mach harassed in mind and body to note well its contents. This seems to have been the march mentioned in the "'ter Carolinum " as the long march, that lasted from six in the morning till midnight. Once it is noted, ' that his Majesty lay in the field all night, at Boconnock Dovm." Again, his Majesty had his meat and drink dressed at a very poor widow's. Sir Henry Slingeby declares, that when the King and his tired attendants were wandering among the moun- tains of Wales, he was glad to sup on a pullet and some cheese: "1 he goodwife who ministered to his wants having but one cheese, and the King's attendants • Moderate Intelligenoer, from Dec. 28 to Jan. 4, 1649. being importunate in their hunger," she came in and carried it of from the myal table. Unties was too true a soldier to pine at this incident; he was glad that Ins faithful followers had wherewithal to satisfy their famine, though with homely viands. "For," said he, "my rebel subjects have not left enough from my revenue to keep us from starving." One Rosewell, a Dissenting minister, when a boy, by accident beheld the fugitive King sitting with his attendants resting under the shelter of a tree in a lonely field. The canopy was not very costly; bat, from the demeanour of the Monarch, the beholder received the most reverential idea of his Majesty. Rosewell had been bred an enemy, yet he did not find "ma- jesty a jest divested of its externals." He never forgot the personal elegance, the manly beauty of Charles; the grace reflected from a highly-cultivated mind, which gave him as kingly an air under one of England's broad oaks as beneath a golden canopy at WhitebalL