After Albert III. the Electorate was enjoyed successively by Frederick the Warlike, Frederick the Wise, &c. of the Thuringian branch of the Witekindian stem.* Frederick the Wise had two sons, Ernest and Albert: the former was the patriarch of the Ernestine, the latter of the Albertine line of the Saxon princes. The Protestant religion is under the greatest obligations to the princes of the Ernestine line: Frederick, the eldest son of Ernest, was Luther's first patron and defender; and John, the second son of Ernest, was the greatest promoter of the protestation against the church of Rome, from which the Protestants have derived their appellation. John Frederick the Magnanimous, having taken arms against the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and fallen into the hands of that Sovereign after the disastrous battle of Muhlberg, in the year 1547, was by him detained in prison till his death, which happened in 1554; having, in the year follow- || ing his capture, been deprived, by the Emperor, of the Electorate, which was granted by him to Maurice, of the Albertine branch of Saxony, the cousin of John Frederick; in whose posterity-elevated a few years since to the rank of Kings of Saxony -it still continues.† The unfortunate John Frederick, thus despoiled of the ancient inheritance of his ancestors, left two sons: John Frederick, the founder of the old line of Saxe Gotha; and John William, the founder of the old line of Weimar, whose present representative is Charles Augustus, the reigning Duke of Saxe Weimar. From this John William also descended the Princess Augusta of Saxe Gotha, consort of Frederick Lewis, • Foreign genealogists speak of the "Four Fruitful Branches of the Witekindian Trunk; Saxony, Rengleheim, Wettin, and Lippe. John George, the younger nephew of Maurice, above-mentioned, celebrated three jubilees the first, in 1617, in commemoration of Luther; the second, in 1630, in memory of the Augsburgh Confession; and the third in 1655, in memory of the peace of Passau.-In 1697, Frederick Augustus, then the hereditary Prince, afterwards Elector of Saxony, embraced the Roman Catholic religion; "but," says Butler, "neither he nor his successors have attempted to constrain the consciences of their subjects." Prince of Wales, son of George II. King of Great Britain, and grandmother of our present monarch. The existing branches of the House of Saxony are as follows: The Ernestine Branch, comprizing Saxe Gotha, Saxe Meiningen, Saxe Hildburghhausen, Saxe Coburg Saalfeld, and Saxe Weimar Eisenach, which profess the Lutheran religion; and The Albertine Branch, represented by Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony, of the Roman Catholic faith. John Frederick, the eldest son of the deprived Elector, left two sons: John Casimir, the founder of the Coburg line; and John Ernest, from whom the Saxe Eisenach line descends. His Serene Highness John Ernest, Duke of Saxe Coburg Saalfield, died in the year 1729; leaving, by his second Duchess, Charlotte Joanna, daughter of the Prince of Waldeck, Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe Coburg Saalfeld, who died at Rodach on the 15th of September, 1764; leaving, by the Duchess Anne Sophia, daughter of Lewis Frederick, Prince of Schwartzburg Rondelstadt, three sons:- 1st. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe Coburg Saalfield, the grandfather of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, the subject of this memoir;-2d. Christain Francis ;-3d. Frederick Joseph, who was born in the year 1737, who, as a Field Marshal in the Austrian service, distinguished himself during the wars of the French revolution, and who died at Coburg in the year 1815. His Serene Highness Duke Ernest Frederick, married in 1749, Sophia Antoinetta, daughter of Frederick Albert, Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle; and, dying in September, 1800, left issue by his Duchess, who survived him two years, two sons:1st. Francis Frederick Anthony, the late reigning Duke of Saxe Coburg Saalfield, father of the Duchess of Kent; and, 2d. Prince Louis Charles, a General in the Austrian service, who died at Coburg in 1807;-also, a daughter, Carolina Ulrica Amelia, who is still living, and Abbess of Gandersheim. His Serene Highness Francis Frederick Anthony, the late reigning Duke, was born at Coburg on the 15th of July, 1750; and he died there, on the 9th of December, 1806. He espoused, on the 13th of June, 1777, Augusta Carolina Sophia, daughter of Henry, the twenty-fourth Count of Reuss Ebersdorff; and by her Highness, who is still living, had four sons and five daughters. The sons were:-1st. His Serene Highness Charles Louis Anthony, reigning Duke of Saxe Coburg Saalfield, born on the 2d of January, 1784, and married, on the 31st of July, 1817, the Princess Louisa, daughter of Augustus, Duke of Saxe Gotha, by whom he has two sons; 2d. His Serene Highness Ferdinand George Augustus, Prince of Coburg, born on the 28th of March, 1785, and married, on the 2d of January, 1816, the Princess Maria Antoinetta Gabriela, daughter of Prince Francis Joseph de Kohary, by whom he has issue;-3d. His Royal Highness Prince Leopold George Frederick, of Saxe Coburg, &c. K.G., G.C.B., &c. &c., Field Marshal in the British service;-4th. His Serene Highness Prince Maximilian, who died an infant. His Royal Highness Prince Leopold, the third son of His Serene Highness Francis Frederick Anthony, was born on the 16th of December, 1790; and on the 2d of May, 1816, he was married at Carlton House, to Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, the only child of his present Majesty King George the Fourth; whose premature decease, on the 6th of November, 1817, threw the whole empire into a state of inexpressible grief. His Serene Highness Alexander Frederick Charles, Duke of Wurttemburg, brother of the late King of Wurttemburg;-3d. Her Serene Highness Princess Juliana Henrietta Ulrica, married in 1796, His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Constantine, brother of Alexander, Emperor of all the Russias-the grand Duchess, on the occasion of her marriage, assuming the name of Anna Feodorowna ;-4th. Her Serene Highness Victoria Maria Louisa, Princess of Saxe Coburg;-5th. Her Serene Highness the Princess Marianne Charlotte, who died young. Her Serene-now Her Royal-Highness Victoria Maria Louisa, the fourth daughter of their Serene Highnesses Francis Frederick Anthony and Augusta Carolina Sophia, was born at Coburg, on the 17th of August, 1786. This illustrious Princess was married, on the 1st of December, 1803, to His Screne Highness Charles Louis, Prince of Leiningen; by whom, who departed this life at Amorbach, on the 4th of July, 1814, she had issue an only son, His Serene Highness Charles Frederick William Enrich, Prince of Leiningen, born on the 12th of September, 1804; and a daughter, Her Serene Highness, the Princess Anne Feodora Augusta Charlotte Wilhelmina, born in 1807. On the 29th of May, 1818, this Princess was married, at Coburg, according to the Lutheran rites, to His late Royal Highness Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathern, &c., and fourth son of our late revered monarch, King George the Third. The Royal Pair having arrived in England, the marriage was again solemnized at Kew Palace, on the 11th of July following. Persevering in the economical plan which he had formed previously to his marriage, the Duke, a few weeks after the perform The five daughters of their Serene High-ance of the second ceremony, returned nesses, Francis Frederick Anthony and Augusta Carolina Sophia, were:-1st. Her Serene Highness Princess Sophia Frederica Carolina Louisa, married, on the 22d of February, 1804, to Emanuel Count de Mensdorff;-2d. Her Serene Highness Princess Antoinetta Ernestina Amelia, married, at Coburg, in the year 1798, to HARRAL'S Claremont, with his Royal Bride to Amorbach, the residence of the Duke of Leiningen; which the Duchess, who had been left by the will of her late husband guardian of her son, and Regent of the principality during his minority, had occupied in her widowhood. It was during their Royal Highnesses' retirement at this spot, that the Duchess proved enceinte; and as Her Royal Highness fully concurred in the sentiments en tertained by her illustrious consort, as an Englishman, that her child ought to draw its first breath on British ground, they both revisited this country, where the Duchess gave birth to a daughter, named Alexandrina Victoria, who was born at Kensington Palace on the 24th of May, 1819. In the winter of that year, His Royal Highness took his Duchess and their lovely offspring into Devonshire, that they might enjoy the benefit of a purer air and a milder climate. There, as it must be yet fresh in the recollection of the reader, the Duke unhappily, and to the nation's inexpressible and lasting regret, fell a victim to a sudden attack of pulmonary inflammation, so violent and so rapid in its progress, as to baffle the utmost efforts of medical skill. It was on Thursday, the 13th of January, 1820, that His Royal Highness, in a long walk with Captain Conroy, in the beautiful environs of Sidmouth, found his boots soaked through with wet. On his return to Woolbrook Cottage, attracted by the smiles of his infant Princess, with whom he sat a considerable time in fond parental play, he neglected, until he dressed for dinner, to change his boots and stockings. Before night, however, he experienced a sensation of cold and hoarseness, when his physician, Dr. Wilson, prescribed for him an antifebrile draught. Advice was again neglected. In his usual confidence in constitu tion, and dislike of medicine, His Royal Highness considered that a night's rest would carry off every uneasy symptom. The event proved the contrary. In the morning, the febrile and inflammatory symptoms were found exacerbated; and, although His Royal Highness subsequently lost a hundred-and-twenty ounces of blood, from the arms, and by cupping, the progress of the disease could not be arrested, and he finally sank beneath its power, on the forenoon of Sunday, the 23d of January, 1820. What were the feelings, the sufferings of the amiable and afflicted Duchess at this heart-rending period! She was indefatigable in her attentions on her beloved consort-all his medicines were administered to him by her own hands-for five successive nights she never took off her clothes-she never left his bedside, but, in the agony of her soul, to give vent to that bursting sorrow which threatened the destruction of her own existence ! "O, Woman! in our hours of ease, By the light quivering aspen made; O, in the hour of death, may our pillow be smoothed, our eyes closed, by the angelic hand of woman! Such was the tenderly sublimely soothing lot of him whose departure we record. Since the decease of the Duke, Her Royal Highness has passed a life of comparative privacy-chiefly at Kensington Palacecherishing the tenderest recollections, and solacing her widowed heart by sedulously superintending the early education of her infant charge.* The particulars of the life of His late Royal Highness the Duke of Kent are too well known to require, in this place, any deNovember, 1767. He was educated in part, by the Rev. Dr. Fisher, late Lord Bishop of Salisbury, who died on the 8th of May, in the present year. His Royal High..ess completed his studies in Germany, residing on the Continent from his eighteenth to his twenty-second year. In 1790 he went to Gibraltar, as Colonel of the 7th Fusileers; in 1791 he was removed to Canada; and, in the spring of 1794, he was at the reduction of St. Lucie, in the West Indies, by the army under the late Lord Grey. At the close of the campaign of 1794, he returned to British North America, and served at Halifax as Major-General, till 1796, and as Lieutenant-General, till 1798, when, in consequence of a fall from his horse, he was obliged to return to England. In April, 1799, His Royal Highness was created a Peer by the titles of Duke of Kent and Strathern, and Earl of Dublin. The following month he was promoted to the rank of General in the army, and appointed Commander-in-Chief in North America. In March, 1802, he was appointed Governor-in-Chief of the fortress of Gibraltar, tailed notice. He was born on the 2d of which office he held till the time of his decease. At that lamented period His Royal Highness was a Knight of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick; a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath; Keeper and Paler of Hampton Court Park, Colonel of the Royal Scots Regiment of Foot, and, from the year 1805, a Field Marshal in the army. PARSEE RIGOUR.* we reflect that our own are considered surprising and ridiculous in their turn. As we were nearing this curious Golgotha, we beheld about forty men and women, whom we recognized as forming a Parsee funeral procession. Amidst them was a corpse, which we afterwards found to be the body of a young female, on a cot, or low bed, that served for her bier. They all seemed to be her near relations ; and instead of the solemn decency which I had before observed at such ceremonies, this exhibited hurry and secresy: the hour was unusually early; the lamentations were not loud; there was no beating of the breast by the women; but, in long dresses smeared with ashes and paint, and with dishevelled hair streaming to the morning-breeze, they were uttering low groans and imprecations. Tears were flowing copiously down two of the women's cheeks; and we could hear them lament that ever they had been born, and utter wildly-suppressed rejoicings that she whom they bore along, was dead. When they arrived at the receptacle, instead of unlocking the door, and placing the body on the platform with tenderness, it was thrown with apparent detestation from the parapet, and we heard the echo of its fall with a chill of horror. B and I calculated, that, by the time we could reach our own sweet little island, we should, on the long neck of land, leading to it from the ferry, meet one of our brother officers marching at the head of the relief-guard to Bombay, impenetrable as a tortoise, in his cloak, blue trowsers, and Wellington boots. Now, either laughing or quizzing was naturally to be expected by men in soiled silk stockings, and full military costume, who had omitted even to bring a boat-cloak as a wrap in case of the weather's changing. To avoid this exposure we agreed to half an hour's delay; and, in search of the sublime and curious, I led my friend towards the Parsee cemetery on the sea-shore. The Parsees neither burn nor bury the bodies of their dead, but expose them in two receptacles, one for males and the other for females, made of solid masonry, and open only at the top for the admission of birds of prey. Having deposited the corpse in one of these sepulchres, through a door at the bottom, it is left, slightly covered with a muslin cloth, to be devoured. The bones are then carefully collected, and buried in an urn, with certain ceremonies. This mode of sepulture was common, in ancient times, in some parts of Persia. It excites surprise now by its seeming barbarism; and that it should be practised by such an enlightened and humane tribe as the Parsees of Bom-mongee and Monagee, to the latter of bay, who are very justly called the Quakers of the East, is strange. Precept and example will, however, school the human mind to any thing; and, therefore, we need not wonder at strange customs, when The remarkable and melancholy facts here recorded, in illustration of the customs and morals of the Parsees, in India, are from the original manuscript of the same interesting work-" Forty Years in the World, or Sketches and Tales of a Soldier's Life"-from which we last month (LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE, Vol. I. page 239) were indulged in the favour of extracting "The Vow," a tale of Eastern superstition. The work alluded to-which, it will be recollected, is by the author of "Fifteen Years in India," "Memoirs of India," &c.is now on the point of publication. No. 7.-Vol. II. All this naturally aroused my curiosity; and through the instrumentality of Hor whom I promised my interest respecting the canteen, by way of bribe, for divulging the secrets of his tribe, I received the following particulars, which, I have every reason to believe, are perfectly true, and in strict accordance with Parsee usage. Limgee Dorabjee, a respectable trader in jewels, had a daughter called Yamma, whose beauty equalled the lustre of the finest diamond. She appeared, among the virgins of her tribe, as a gem of Golconda amidst beads of glass. Her parents saw in her, as in a flattering mirror, their fondest wishes. They pearled her jet black hair with many a costly transparent row; their rubies in burning glow were pendant from her delicate ears; their sapphires from her graceful nose; while many a far-famed B mine glittered on her bosom, sparkled on her fingers and arms, and shed its light on her toes and ankles. Gold and silver gave splendour to her dress: in short, in the impassioned phrase of Lord Byron, and perhaps with less of poetical hyperbole "She was a form of life and light, That seen became a part of sight.' he be desirous of preserving fidelity to his departed half. The same rule holds if the husband die: his family are bound to find a widower, in compliance with a wish on the subject, indicated by the lady's friends. By this judicious arrangement the frailties of human nature are restrained, and even converted into a public benefit. The Parsee women receive the advantages of education; many of them can read, write, play on the Indian guitar, make up accounts accurately; and, in some transactions I have had with them, they appeared very sensible and intelligent. All public business, however, is transacted by the The women do not appear in mixed company; but in influencing affairs, and in private negociations, they are powerful instruments. men. This charming young Parsee, or Peri, was about fourteen years old, an age at which the female figure attains the round perfection of beautiful ripeness in India. Indeed marriage takes place generally at a much earlier period of life; but in Yamma's case, the young man to whom she was affianced had been detained at Surat nearly two years by important commercial affairs, in which he was deeply concerned, and the expensive ceremony, on solemnization of wedlock, had been postponed from time to time, in anxious expectation || her fate to be rescued from imminent peril of his return. Such was the lovely Yamma, and such were the promises of hope, when it was by the intrepidity of Captain S-. She Yamma's prospects were bright as the had accompanied her mother in a covered star of Venus. In her tribe women are and gorgeously decorated hackery, to a treated with great consideration. They garden-house which belonged to her father act an important part in the public and on Colabah. They staid in the garden private concerns of their husbands, go un- rather longer than their attendants wished, veiled, and in point of personal freedom || pleased with its cooling fruits, neat walks, they are under no restraint, beyond that silver streams, and shady trees. The golwhich delicacy and the custom of their den banana, glittering mangoe, and imperial mothers impose. The Parsee usages with jack attracted their gaze and touch. At respect to marriage are founded upon the length their bullocks, in splendid housings, happiness of domestic life, and they pro- proud of the music of the silver bells vide for the preservation of purity in the which played in suspension from their fair sex so effectually, that it is the boast necks, approached the bed of the tide, of this admirable class of the Indian com- which I have before described as separating munity, that their wives never prove un- the island of Colabah from Bombay. The faithful, nor is there an instance of prosti-raft was beginning to ply in the lower part tution among their daughters: indeed their of the channel, but the carriage-road along character in this respect is so well esta- the crest of the high rocks was practicable, blished at Bombay, that it is believed every though the rising tide might be seen glitaberration from virtue in their tribe is pu- tering in streams across its black ravines. nished with immediate death, and the no- The drivers and runners calculated that toriety of the family disgrace carefully the bullocks would cross before the tide suppressed. The Parsee laws and usages covered the rocks, and they urged them at are so well framed for the prevention of full speed. A strong breeze, however, crime and the adjustment of disputes, that came into Bombay harbour with the flow an instance scarcely ever occurs of a re- from the ocean, and before the hackery ference to British justice. A Parsee can reached the shore, the ladies saw with have but one wife. If she die, her family terror that the devouring element was are bound to find a widow for the forlorn's floating them, that their footmen were second mate; for he is not allowed to swimming and in great agitation, striving to marry a young girl, as with us, in his old keep the bullocks' heads towards the land. age; nor is he obliged to wed again, should || Alarm soon finds utterance. The mother |