through half a century, became an object of interest and respect to the British nation.

It was one of the striking features of the Hanover line, that it for the first time united the blood of the four races of kings, -the British, the Cambro-British, the Scottish, and the English; deducing the succession from Cadwaldr, last king of the Britons, through the seventeen princes of Wales, to Guledys Ddu, sister and heiress of Dafydd, married to Ralph Mortimer, and thence through

19. Roger, their son.

20. Edmund Mortimer, his son.

21. Roger, son of Edmund, first Earl of March. 22. Edmond, son of Roger, married to Philippa, daughter and heiress of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward the Third.

23. Roger, their son.

24. Anne, daughter and heiress of Roger, married to Richard of Conisburg, Earl of Cambridge. 25. Richard, Duke of York, their son.

26. Edward the Fourth, eldest son of Richard. 27. Elizabeth, Edward's eldest sister, married to Henry the Seventh.

28. Margaret, their eldest daughter, married to James the Fourth of Scotland.

29. James the Fifth of Scotland, their son. 30. Mary, Queen of Scots, daughter of James. 31. James the First of England, son of Mary by Lord Darnley.

32. Elizabeth, daughter of James, married to Frederick, Elector Palatine.

33. Sophia, their daughter, married to Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover.

34. George the First, their son.

35. George the Second, his son.

36. Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George the Second.

37. George the Third, his son.

38. George the Fourth, his son.

*

"Yorke's Royal Tribes." Those who desire to search deeper into the antiquities of the Hanoverian line, may examine "Eccard's Origines Guelficæ," "Muratori's Antichita Estense," for the Italian branch; and Sir Andrew Halliday's "Annals of the House of Hanover," for a detail of the various possessions and alliances of the northern.

CHAPTER II.

BIRTH OF THE PRINCE.

ON the 12th of August, the birth of the heirapparent was announced; her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales, the ladies of her majesty's bedchamber, and the chief lords of the privy council, being in attendance.

On this occasion the king's popularity, independently of the great interests connected with the royal succession, had excited the most universal public feeling. As the time of the queen's accouchement drew nigh, the national anxiety increased. It was raised to its height by the intelligence, on the evening of the 11th, that her majesty's illness was immediately at hand. The great officers of state were now ordered to await the summons in the neighbourhood of the royal bedchamber; a precaution which sounds strangely to our ears, but which has been considered a matter of propriety, from the imputations thrown on the birth of the son of James the Second.

The palace was crowded during the night. At four in the morning the Princess Dowager of Wales arrived. The queen had been taken slightly ill some time before. The great officers of state were

in attendance in the ante-room of the royal chamber from five; and at twenty-four minutes past seven the joyful news was spread through the palace that an heir was born to the throne. The sound was caught with enthusiasm by the people, who had long since thronged the avenues of St. James's, was instantly conveyed through London, and was hailed by all as an event which accomplished the singular public prosperity of the new reign.

On those occasions popular feeling delights in seizing on every fortunate coincidence. The day was deemed auspicious, as the anniversary of the Hanover succession. But a more direct popular triumph occurred while the king was yet receiving the congratulations of the nobility.

Of all wars, in those times, the most popular was a Spanish war; and of all prizes, the most magnificent was a Spanish galleon. The Hermione, one of those treasure ships, sailing from Lima, had been taken in May, off Cape St. Vincent, by three English frigates. Rumour had exaggerated the wealth on board to the enormous sum of twelve millions sterling in silver, besides the usual precious merchandise from the Spanish settlements. But the actual treasure was immense; the officers made fortunes, and even the share of a common sailor, though three crews were to divide the capture, was computed at nearly one thousand pounds. The chief cargo was silver, but many bags of gold were found

hidden in the dollar chests, probably to evade some impost at Cadiz, which largely increased the value to the fortunate captors.

The waggons conveying the treasure had arrived in London on the night before, and were on this morning to have passed before the palace in their way to the Tower. Almost at the moment of announcing the royal birth, the cavalcade was seen entering St. James's Street, escorted by cavalry and infantry with trumpets sounding, the enemy's flags waving over the waggons, and the whole surrounded by the multitude that such an event would naturally collect. The sudden spectacle (a striking and even triumphant one) led the king and the nobility to the palace windows. The news of the prince's birth was now spread like flame; and innumerable voices rose at once to wish the young heir prosperity. A Roman would have predicted, that an existence begun under such omens must close without a cloud. The king, in the flower of youth, and with the exultation of a sovereign, and the still deeper delight of a father, was conspicuous in exhibiting his feeling of the public congratulation; and the whole scene was long spoken of as one of the most natural and animated exhibitions of national joy known in the reign.

George the Third had commenced his sovereignty with a manly and generous declaration of his pride in being born a Briton, a declaration