given her over the affections of a capricious prince. The determination and perseverance with which she prosecuted her plans, sufficiently testify her energy and talents: if, in effecting the end proposed, she was little scrupulous respecting the means, the Italian character, the circumstances of the times, the disadvantages attending her entrance into the world, subjected to artifice and entangled in fraud, must not be forgotten. Brought up in retirement and obscurity, thrown at once into the most trying situations, her prudence, her policy, her self-government, her knowledge of the human mind, and the means of subjecting it, are not less rare than admirable. She possessed singular penetration in discerning characters, and the weaknesses of those with whom she conversed, which she skilfully adapted to her purposes. By an eloquence, soft, insinuating, and powerful, she prevailed over her friends; while, by insnaring them in their own devices, she made her enemies subservient to her views. Such was the fascination of her manners, that the prejudices of those by whom she was hated, yielded, in her presence, to admiration and delight: nothing seemed too arduous for her talents; inexhaustible in resource, whatever she undertook she found means to accomplish. If

she was an impassioned character, she was uniformly animated by ambition. In her first engagement with Buonaventuri, she seems to have been influenced by a restless enterprising temper, disgusted with inactivity, rather than by love: through every scene of her connection with the duke, her motives are sufficiently obvious. With a disposition like that of Bianca, sensibility and tenderness, the appropriate virtues of the sex, are not to be expected. Real greatness has in it a character of simplicity, with which subtlety and craft are wholly incompatible: the genius of Bianca was such as fitted her to take a part in political intrigues, to succeed in courts, and rise to the pinnacle of power; but, stained with cruelty, and debased by falsehood, if her talents excite admiration, they produce no esteem; and while her accomplishments dazzle the mind, they fail to interest the heart.

Majestic in stature, beautiful in her person, animated, eloquent, and insinuating, she commanded all hearts; a power of which the tranquillity and silence of her own enabled her to avail herself to the utmost. Ill health impaired her beauty at an early period; many portraits of her remain, in all of which she is represented as grand-duchess, when the first bloom of her charms had faded.

A beautiful portrait of her, in the ducal robes, is preserved in the palace of the Capelli at Padua ; several are likewise to be found in the Palazzo Pitti at Florence, and one also, said to be still superior, in the Palazzo Caprara at Bologna.

Life of Bianca Capello, wife to Francesco de Medici,
Grand-duke of Tuscany; from the German of T.P.
Siebenkees, translated by C. Ludger, Sc.

CAROLINA,

WIFE TO GEORGE II.

CAROLINA WILHELMINA DOROTHEA, daughter of John Frederic, marquis of Brandenburg-Anspach, and of Eleanor Erdmutch Louisa, his second wife, was born March 1, 1682-3. She was sought in marriage by Charles III. of Spain, afterwards emperor of Germany, whom the fame of her beauty had attracted. To prepare the way for a connection so flattering to the ambition of her family, every possible method was used to get over the difficulty which the difference of religion opposed to the union; but Carolina, steadily adhering to the principles in which she had been educated, rejected every solicitation and expedient that was proposed to her. Her fortitude, on this

occasion, procured her the esteem of the elector of Hanover, and induced him to make choice of her for the wife of his son, the electoral prince, a circumstance particularly gratifying to all the protestants of Europe. The nuptials were accordingly celebrated at Hanover, August 22d,

1705.

Carolina was crowned (with her husband) queen consort of Great Britain, on the 11th of October, 1727. Four sons and five daughters were the fruits of this marriage. The following character of this princess is extracted from the Memoirs of the Baron de Pollnitz * : "The queen is a woman who commands at once both respect and affection. Her appearance bespeaks majesty, blended with modesty, and softened by good-nature. Her manners are courteous, and her mind, solid and brilliant, is adorned with a thousand fine accomplishments. She disdains the frivolous occupations and amusements of her sex, nor does she affect ornament in her dress. In reading select authors she finds her greatest pleasure: she may with truth be accounted one of the most learned princesses in Europe. Having

lost her father when young, she was placed, on the second marriage of her mother, under the guardianship of Frederic, elector of Brandenburg, afterwards king of Prussia, by which means the early periods of her life were passed at the court of Berlin, where she acquired from the electress, sister to George I. those polished manners and elevated sentiments by which this princess was peculiarly distinguished. Having refused to share the throne of Charles III. of Spain, from attachment to her religion, she afterwards gave her hand to the electoral prince of Brunswick-Lunenburg, with whom she was called to ascend one of the first thrones in Europe. She betrayed no emotion on her advancement to this dignity, which she filled with true moderation. While princess of Wales, her prudence enabled her to conciliate the two parties, into which the royal family were divided. The late king, her fatherin-law, had for her the sincerest regard, which she returned with gratitude and respect. When raised to the dignity of queen, she studied to contribute to the happiness of the people. She was entrusted with affairs of state by the king, who, during his absence, left her regent of the kingdom."

Dr. Clarke also gives a testimony to the merit