We cannot take our leave of the gentle readers who have kindly cheered us on our toilsome track, by the unqualified approbation with which they have greeted every fresh volume, without expressing the satisfaction it has given us to have been able to afford mingled pleasure and instruction to so extensive a circle of friends-friends who though personally unknown to us, have loved us, confided in our integrity, brought our Queens into their domestic circles, associated them with the sacred joys of home, and sent them as pledges of affection to their dear ones far away, even to the remotest corners of the world.

We should be undeserving of the popularity with which this work has been honoured, if we could look upon it with apathy, but we regard it as God's blessing on our labours and their sweetest reward.

REYDON HALL, SUFFOLK,

March 15th, 1848.

ANNE,

QUEEN REGNANT OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

CHAPTER III.

The princess Anne's conduct and feelings on the death of her only child, the duke of Gloucester-She remains at Windsor during his funeral-She exasperates William III. by writing to her father-The princess receives no condolences from William-Her mortification at this neglect-Annoyed at his omission to notify her son's death to Louis XIV.-Disgusted by his meanness in regard to her son's attendants-Resolves to continue their salaries herself―The princess observes the increasing insolence of lady Marlborough-Overhears her unqualified hatred and abuse-Keeps secret her knowledge of it-From this incident commences the princess's dislike to her-Princess receives news of her father's death-Goes in deep mourn. ing for him-Conscious of the failing health of king William-Supposes that her own reign approaches-Commences the study of history-Soon tired of it-Plot to hinder her from succeeding to the throne-Fatal accident to the king-Princess Anne visits him with her consort-Attainder of her brother urged on-This measure effected by her partyThe princess is rudely denied access to king William's sick chamberShe receives half-hourly bulletins of his failing breath-She watches all the night with lady Marlborough, expecting his death-Many persons waiting to bring her the news of her accession-William III. dies March 8, 1702-Succeeded by the princess Anne.

THE contest between good and evil does not affect the human mind so powerfully as the struggle between rights. The lives of the daughters of James II., placed in contradistinction to the Jacobite cause, present strong illustrations of this axiom of ethics. On either side, right has been loudly pleaded. In behalf of the daughters may be urged, that they found it requisite to support the interests of protestantism against their father and his religion. Many who believed in the actual danger of the church of England have sympathized with them, and will continue so

to do. Others will judge them according to the standard of common humanity and moral duty. It is this contest which invests the Jacobite cause with its undying interest.

Wheresoever the influence of royal personages has effected great changes in national property, the light of truth, respecting their private characters and motives, is prevented from dawning on historical biography for centuries after such persons have passed onward to eternity. The testimony of either losers or winners becomes suspicious; vested interests bias the recording pen, for which causes certain characters have remained enveloped like veiled idols, to which were offered clouds of incense, in the semblance of baseless panegyric, or they were hooted at through countless pages of vituperation, in which facts are concealed with sedulous care.

Slowly and surely, however, time does its appointed work; royal personages, in stirring epochs, cannot always give their orders viva voce; letters and autographs are kept in self-defence by their agents; and these given to the public long after the persons they would compromise-nay, even after their great grandchildren—have passed away, cast the required light on characters purposely concealed. Lo! the veiled idols cast aside their mysterious shrouds, and assume the semblance of humanity—erring and perverse humanity, perchance-but yet more attractive and interesting than the mere abstract idea the political historian has given. They are thus seen, not as expediency has painted them, but as they were in life, subject to the same passions and infirmities as ourselves, and acting according to the impulses of anger, generosity, ambition, grief, tenderness, disappointment, revenge and avarice. These impulses, of course, produce varied and even contradictory actions, which, however, when related according to the testimony of eye-witnesses, as much as possible in their very words, are found to blend together into a course of narrative, by no means outraging probability, when one fact is viewed according to its connexion with another. Yet, there are two adverse parties in this country, each imagining that the continuous narrative of facts must be prejudicial to their present interests; each have chosen their political idols or their reprobated characters from the royal personages that have existed from the days of Henry VIII. It is most curious to