MATRIMONIAL ALLIANCES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND PRUSSIA. (From the Times Correspondent.) Berlin, 11th January.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XV, Issue 1134, 11 May 1858, Page 4

MATRIMONIAL ALLIANCES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND PRUSSIA. (From the Times Correspondent.) Berlin, 11th January.

Yonr readers are welt aware, both from their own | historical studies and from former letter* of mine, that tho approaching matrimonial alliance of the two Royal families of Great Britain and Prussia is far from being without precedent ia the joint history of the two countries. Frederick 1,, the first King of Prussia, married Sophia Charlotta, the sister of George 1. of Great Britain; Frederick William 1., the second King of Prussia, married Sophia Dorothea, the sister of George 11., and thus the Electress Sophia of Hanover, to whose lineal descendants, being of the Protestant faith, the present dynasty of Great Britain is confined, is the -common ancestress of the two Houses. That Frederick the Great, of whom the n tion gladly calls to mind 'that he was the offspring of a Prussian Prince and an English Princess, did not marry the Princess Amelia, the daughter of George 11., nor his swter marry the Prince of Wales, was the result of Austrian intrigue at thia Court, taking advantage of the offence that George 11. had unintentionally given to the King, and in spite of the unremitting endeavours of the Queen to bring it •bout. This was the first deviation irora the English alliance that had occurred from the time when the •Great Elector of Brandenburgh .Frederick William, es;poused the cause of William of Orange and Protes•tantism, and lent him his Brandenburghers and his .Marshall Schombcrg to tight their battles in Ireland and elsewhere. To this non-fulfilment of the heart's •longings on the part of Frederick the Great and his mother are to be traced the un-Prussian and un-Pro- . testant policy of Frederick, and his cheerless, childless ' home ; and, however great a man and commander Frederick the Great was, he hereby laid the foundation • of Prussia's present weakness. In the reign of Frederick the Great's brother and successor, Frederick William 11., the father of the late King, the natural and auspicious union of the two families was renewed in the person of the late Duke of % York, who in 1791 married the Princess Frederika of Prussia. The result of this return to the natural alliance, matiomonial and political, of the two countries, •was the ce-operation soon after of the Prussians with the British in the campaign against the French in Holland. The outbreak of the French Revolution and the disasters that befell the arms of Prussia at the handi of Napoleon" and his victorious Generals soon after brought about, not only Prussia's deep degradation, political and moral, but compelled an infidelity on her part to the English alliance, the most flagrant act of which was the occupation of Hanover in 1806. This •tain was again wiped out by the spirited conduct of the nation in the War <Jf Liberation, and the staunch heroism of the Prussian forces under Blucher, whose co-operation with our own army gave the battle of "Waterloo the decisive character of a turning-point to European history for about half a century. So long, however, as the crown of Hanover rested, conjointly •with that of Great Bnitain and Ireland, on one and the same head, Ihe cordial feeling and the olose alliance that had formerly existed between the two Royal families could hardly be restored. Since the accession of opr present Queen, however, this last obstacle has vanished, and the present Princess of Prussia, who in many Other respects also resembles Queen Sophia Dorothea, consort of Frederick William I. is at length about to see her heart's warmest longings realised in the marriage of her son with an English Princess. As •was the case with Frederick the Great, Prince Frederick William has always nurtured, from his earliest youth, the firm determination to marry an English wife, even before he knew or was aware of the existence of the Princess lloyal. As the recollection of the late Duke of York is doubtless still fresh in the memory of many of youi readers, it will perhaps, not seem like diving back into th» dark ages if I reproduce here some particulars connected with his marriage with Princess Frederika ot Prussia, the last instance of a Royal marriage between the two families of Great Britain and Prussia. The education of the Princess Frederica was the object of special care to Frederick the Great, who had for this purpose taken her from her paternal roof, and intrusted her to his own consort, Elizabeth Christine ; and ihe result of this care was that a lively intellect and fair talents were found united to a pleasing person and attractive exterior. At the death of Frederick the Great, in 1786, the Court of Prussia seemed to awake from the long winter of stiff and cold military precision that had been enforced on it during his reign, and it soon developed a sunny life of music, poetry, art*, pleasures, and enjoyments of all kinds. The Princes* was just then 19 years of age, and as soon as she was recalled to her father's court, on his accession, she became at once the centre of all its attractions, and the pi mmm mobile of all its amusements. The Duke of York had come over to Prussia, under the name of tha JB.h\of > Ulster, to study strategy in the school of Frederick »he Great ; and in the year 1787 we read in private memoirs* that the Princess Frederica, at a grand field day, had stored her carriage with a " good supply of Malaga, sausage, and tongue" she styled herself Vivandiere, and found ihe Earl of Ulster and the Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin her two best customere. At all the reviews and military inspections, both in Berlin, Potsdam, and the provinces, the Earl of Ulster was a constant attendant during the closing reign of Frederick the Great and the opening of his successor's. The flirtation that seems to have commenced at ffite review progressed into a courtship, under the influence of the frequent Court festivities, and ripened into a matrimonial engagement, which ended in a marriage in the autumn of 1791, In the spring of that year the Duke came over, attended by the Duke of Manchester, and the two English Dukea appear to have been veryproranent figures in the gaiety of those days. Among other amusements the Duke of York introduced horse-racing here, which up to that time was unknown in the sandy plains of Brandenburg. The racecourse was at that arranged juit outside the Hallesche Thor, and the chronicles of those days nairate that the English officers who rode on the occasion were distanced by Prussian officers, and hissed for their want of equestrian skill by the delighted Berliners. Among the almost - daily fetes that were then given we find the Duke entertainihg the Royal family and Court to a drjeuner »t the Hasenheide, a water party on the Spree, and a and a fete ckampetre at Stralati. (There is a Freemasons' Lodge here called the lloyal York, after him.) The actual espousals of the Duke of York with the Princess Prederica weie first mentioned as a settled thing on the 31st July, when the Royal family was assembled at dinner at the Queen's palace of Monbijou, where the English rhapel now is ; the betrothed couple then exchanged rings, and the Duke presented his Jiancee with a bouquet, a ring, and thimble set with 'diamonds. Now that he was the acknowledged future 'future husband of the Princess, the Duke took possession of the suite of apartments in the Royal Schloss that every bridal couple of this Royal family has temporarily occupied ever since, and which will be the • provisional residence of the Princess Royal and Prince Frederick William till their own palace is ready for -them. The marriage took place 29th September, and was followed by a gala or grand state dinner, which -was succeeded by the prescriptive Fackeltanz. The "GDuke, as we learn from the journals of those days, wore at his wedding his English General's uniform, and the Princeis had on the Prussian Princess's crown ; her dress was embroidered with diamonds ; she wore a bouquet of diamonds in front, and her boddice was entirely covered with brilliants. The necklace of diamonds, which the King gave her on the occasian, of course became her property ; but the other diamond* Just mentioned were doubtless Crowh jewels, which are used only on the marriage of a Princess ; the dress, or at any rate the boddice, is always sent to the Crown Jewel office, and when the diamonds have been sewn on it is brought to the Palace under an escort of the Body Guard, who also stand as sentries at all the approaches to tha rooms where the very precious Princess is. On the following day — viz., Sept. 30, 1791, the Here•ditary Prince of Orange was married to the Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, sister to the Duchess of York. The festivities that took place on occasion of this twoibld marriage in the Royal family were about the last that Prussia witnessed before the dark days of adversity broke on her ; for in the following year the war ■with France broke out, the first set of which closed with Jen* ; the second with the separation of the Prussian force, under Yorck, from the Frtnch army when in full retreat from Russia ; and the third and final «ct at La Belle Alliance.