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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd November 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 1105, Untitled Article

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      " 7 flE DEATH OF THE KING OF HANOVEB . Kine Ernest erf Hanover is dead . He died on Tuesday morning , about seven o ' clock , in theeightyseSond year of his age : the last of the sons of ° Lon 2 known as the Duke of Cumberland , famous in Enelish annals for his despotic passions , his Soroush , and not wholly censurable , contempt for riublic opi m ° » his staunch Toryism , and fierce partiansbip . no t to me ntion the rumours and accusations of private immorality , the death of Ernest Augustus -a of Borne moment to us . One after another the faction of which he was the chief have died out , until there is scarcely one remaining ; and although the D uke of Cumberland has been politically dead to us for fourteen years , his actual death to a great extent marks a political epoch in the history of

      % jrope . About the Northern Courts , in some corners of France and Italy , and in some odd nooks of Engla , a few relics of the generation of politicians among -whom the Duke of Cumberland took his stand , still survive ; but virtually , the flight of Metternich in , and the general break up of that famous year , killed the party . And by an odd reverse of circumstances , at this critical moment in the history of Toryism , Ernest of Hanover had become a firm constitutional monarch in his little kingdom . These two things constitute the kernel of his history . The very bad English Peer became a more than average constitutional King .

      Prince Ernest Augustus was born on the 5 th . of July , 1771 , at Buckingham Palace , then called the Queen ' s House . His earlier years were spent at Kew in company with his younger brothers , the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge . Their tutors were Mr . Cookson and Dr . Hughes , and the young Prince Ernest is reported , by one of these gentlemen , to have been remarkable for his aptitude in the acquisition of learning . From Kew the three boys were sent to Gottingen , each accompanied by a ' * governor , " a " preceptor , " and a «« gentleman . " Lodged in one mansion , obsequiously attended , magnificently

      supported , Ernest studied German under Meyer , Latin under Heine , theology under Less , and moral philosophy under Heyder . Each of these worthies received £ 400 a year . And thus Prince Ernest was educated apart from English notions , habits , and principles ; and this course of training , combined with his naturally despotic temper , made him the very model of a German Prince of the past century . After he left the University in 1790 , the Prince entered the army and served in theNinth Hanoverian Light Dragoons , a regiment of which he subsequently , in 1793 , became commander . The following year the

      command of the First Brigade of Cavalry , having charge of the outposts , was intrusted to him in Marshal Walmoden ' s army . In the campaign of this summer he is said to have behaved with great courage , to have been an excellent dragoon , and at Tournay he received a severe wound in the arm , and lost his left eye . A short retreat from service ensued , spent in England , Ernest rejoining the army again the same year . He was one in the sortie from Nimeguen , where he performed one of those striking feats of soldiership , which the physically strong alone can accomplish . His sabre was broken , and a French dragoon was in front , with uplifted weapon . Ernest

      parried the stroke with the broken blade , and seizing the Frenchman in his arms , lifted him off his horse , and carried him triumphantly into the British quarters . Otherwise , beyond desperate dragoon practice , his military life was not remarkably brilliant . We find him nominally commanding the rear-guard in the celebrated " retreat through Holland , " commanding in 1795 , at " the line of demarcation in Westphalia" ; retiring into Hanover at the peace between Pitt and Bonaparte ; and commanding the cavalry which never disembarked in the blundering expedition to the Helder . In 1798 he was made a Lieutenant-General , and in 1803 a General ; his Field Marshal ' s commission dates from 1813 .

      After an absence of ten years , he returned to England at the peace , or hollow truce , above mentioned , and remained until near the fall of Napoleon almost unemployed . In 1799 , he was made Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdalo and Earl of Armagh , and a pension of £ 12 , 000 a year was voted to him . Until 1810 nothing remarkable happened to the u * e- Occasionall y George IIL , who disliked him on account of his alleged immoral life , found him petty Q'plomatic appointments connected with the Catholic question , and the University of Dublin elected him ™ eir Chancellor . But during all this period the uko of Cumberland figured in the House of Peers , Peuknig frequently , sometimes with effect , and ways with the fierce intolerance of a partisan , sup-P rung the war and opposing vehemently every step

      ^ warUa Catholic Emancipation . Hi » whole Parliamentary career , in fact , consisted in resisting popular COu Ce 88 ions unt * despising public opinion . And in this wh - * " * nlre < < ly won sufficient unpopularity mas " ' 7 0 » atrag » c event occurred , which , with tho fanf h l ^ V P * sealed hiB bad reputation , and eu . ]/ to " 10 curious and inquiring occasion for « WSH and fruitless gossip . The Duko had a valet JJ ™ J HelUa , and one lnoruing Seilw was found with " « Qat out locked iu his room—the key being on

      the inside . On the previous night the Duke of Cumberland , according to his own statement , had been attacked while in bed , and cut over the head with a sabre , whereupon he rose in the dark , striking at random , and the assassin running away inflicted a wound on the thighs of the Duke . People put the two things together and asserted that the Duke had murdered Sellis ; the jury meanwhile , of which Francis Place was foreman , bringing in a verdict of felo de se . From time to time the charge was revived , and dark hints wrapped around it ; but in 1833 , received its quietus . An action for libel was brought against the publisher of a book reciting the slanderous

      accusation ; the Duke was defended by Sir Charles Wetherell ; and the jury found for the Duke . Since then , critics have recognized pretty generally , that the case was one of great mystery ; and that * in the absence of evidence the accusation ought to be rejected . In 1815 , the Duke was married to the Princess Frederica-Carolina Sophia , third daughter of the then Duke of Mecklenberg-Strelitz , and niece to old Queen Charlotte . The Duchess had been twice married before : from her first husband , Prince Louis of Prussia , she was divorced ; and her second , Prince of Sohns Braunfels , died in 1814 . She was married to the Duke of Cumberland with , the consent of the

      Prince Regent , but against the avowed desire of Queen Charlotte . Consequently , for that or some more recondite cause , the fastidious old Queen who prided herself on the selectness of her Court , refused to receive the new Duchess , and no representations , neither those of foreign potentates nor the King ' s Ministers , could induce her to flinch from her resolve . When George IV . ascended the throne , then the Duchess of Cumberland was duly presented and honoured , but not before . No addition to his pension had been made on his marriage ; but after incessantly worrying the authorities , and being repulsed by the House of Commons , he finalJyy-ir ^ lSlQ , obtained an extra £ 6000 a year .

      From 1820 to his final departure from England on the death of William IV ., the Duke of Cumberland was a kind of political bugbear , menacing the island with despotism in the event of his suceeding to the throne , and thus rendering revolution a necessity . Nor were these fears entirely groundless . The Duke made dragoon charges at every popular measure in the House of Lords . He was against Queen Caroline ; he opposed the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts . He cheered the Duke of York when he

      declared himself against Catholic Emancipation , and he led the Opposition in defiance of the defection of Wellington from the ranks of bigotry . But after the passing of the Relief Act of 1829 , the Duke took little part in politics . He voted , but did not speak , against the Reform Bill . But it was understood at the time that he was prepared to oppose the Reform demonstrations , as Castlereagh and Liverpool would have opposed them , had the King wished it , by force of arms .

      The Duke of Cumberland , as is well known , was a decided Orangeman , indeed Grand Master of the Orange Lodges . In this capacity he was implicated in the questionable proceedings of those bodies from 1830 up to their dissolution by the Government . The Duke was the next heir to the throne to the present Queen of England ; he was chief of this Orange party , and also representative of" absolutist notions in England . In 1835 , it was known that there was great activity in the Orange Lodges , and

      sufficient evidence of treasonous designs oozed out to warrant Mr . Hume in moving for a committee of inq « ir 3 " . The result of that investigation clearly established the fact that a wide-spread and secret organization existed , with branch lodges in the army , the chief of which was the Duke of Cumberland . Ernest himself distinctly denied being privy to the designs of hia supporters ; but there is reason to believe that his denial -was an equivocation . Indirectly , the House of Commons censured him ; and directly , the Government dissolved the Orange

      associations . In 1837 , King William IV . died , and Victoria ascended the throne—the first man to take the oath of allegiance being the Duke of Cumberland—thenceforth King of Hanover . He at once proceeded to take possession of hiw new kingdom . At first the HanoveriaiiH , who had got accustomed to the jog-trot Government of the viceroy Duke of Cambridge , hud no reason to be Ratified with the advent of a king . He was at once vigorously mischievous . Immediately after his arrival he prorogued tho Assembly of Estates . Hin next step wuh to announce in his

      letters patent hia intention of Betting a » idu the constitution , and in a month more he dissolved tho Estates , anil annulled , the existing regime . There was a ferment . The Gottingcn professors refused obedience ; tho Btudentn applauded the professors ; but the King was wilful , and the professors were banished or imprisoned , and the students were put down . The question wiw , however , not merely Hanoverian , but German ; and tho Diet interfered , restoring tho old constitution , and thus after many quarrels between the king and his Parliament , opening the way for his Majesty to grant with a good grace , in 1840 , nearly all that the Estates ,

      not very clamorous , had wanted . Since 1840 , the king and his subjects have been on good terms . As German kings go , he has been a good king , which is saying very little for him ; and in 1848 , when there were revolutions all over Europe , he evinced a tact and discretion of which few believed him capable , and , by his timely concessions , kept out of his dominions that torrent of dangerous sentiment and dreamy sedition , which were so disastrous to so many other crowned heads in Germany . He called Herr Stiibe , the liberal and long-imprisoned deputy for Osnabruck , to his councils ; he promised the

      enfranchisement of the press ; and he talked vague nothings , which were wiser than open rejection , in reference to " German unity . " The latter idea he never entertained , and his triumph was in the confusion which other monarchs produced by their timid encouragement of it . But there is no reason to doubt that he meant , so far as they were practicable , all the other reforms demanded from him ; and his language , at once of firmness and conciliation , certainly induced his people to put confidence in him . Democracy in Hanover was at no time of a very eager description , and since 1848 , has received no sympathetic aid from without . The mild form of liberalism with which

      he had to deal , the king , well advised , was easily enabled to manage ; and that he has managed it , generally with good and really national results , is the news of the day . Had he not , during 1849 and 1850 , laid a solid foundation of popularity , he would never have been able to carry , in 1851 , his commercial concessions to Prussia . Such was Ernest Augustus , Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover . In England the mere dragoon of politicians , haughty , bigotted , insolent , fierce ; in

      Hanover , still a dragoon } but a responsible king , instead of being irresponsible . He said what he meant , and never retrograded from a concession he had once made . But on the whole , although he had good points , yet were they so few and so marred by instinctive and acquired habits of thought and action , that Ernest of Hanover , Duke of Cumberland , will descend to posterity in the same category with his infamous ancestor , the victor of Culloden and the butcher of Glencoe , as the enemy of civilization and the bigoted antagonist of real progress .

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      THE BRITISH NAVY AND THE AUSTRIAN BLOCKADE . ( From the Daily News . ) Lest any particle of free opinion might penetrate into the remote provinces of the Austrian empire , the roads from Vienna have not only been for a long time virtually closed by the refusal of passports , but the Government has thought proper to prohibit the use of their seaports to the men of war of foreign powers—id est , of England . Venice is on no account whatsoever to be entered . At Trieste the commander of a man of war is to state for what purpose he has come , and how long he intends to stay , but the latter will depend on the governor of the harbour . Stress of weather will be taken as an excuse for sailing into Pola or Lissa , but no other pretence will suffice . To fully understand the importance of these regulations , it must be remembered that the trade between England and its Mediterranean possessions , with the Adriatic ports , is daily becoming of greater importance . The traffic which used formerly to be carried on between Dalmatia , Albania , and Venice , is being fast concentrated at Corfu , whence it is conveyed to Trieste chiefly in English bottoms . It is , therefore , necessary for the security of our traders that we should have cruisers on the Adriatic station , and consequently there has always been one , either at Venice or Trieste . But of all seas the Adriatic is the most stormy , and when the Bora , or North-East wind , sweeps down from the mountains , in the course of a few hourB a fearful sea arises , and makes it necessary to run into the nearest harbour for shelter . Now , the Italian shore being , with the exception of Brindisi , Ancona , and Venice , deficient in harbours , ships are obliged to make for the east coast , and it is therefore for this reason that Pola and Lissa have been exempted . Ii is , however , a most difficult point to decide when a man of war should run into a harbour fiom stress of weather ; if it is a friendly one , people are willing to put into them as soon as it comes on to blow freak ; but when people are obliged to Bay that they put in becaune they were afraid to keep out at sea any longer , that puts them on their mettle , and many would be apt to run all risks sooner than accept auch hospitality . But let us look at the regulations attending a vessel which has to put into an Austrian port , and let us bear in mind that they are relative to men of war of friendly powers , at a time supposed to be of profound peace . 1 . There shall not be admitted , at any one time , within gunshot of the harbour batteries , more than one large or two small sailing vessels of the same flag , except in cane of a previous uanction of the Austrian Government . 2 . Kach ship or steamer of war shall proceed and anchor in such place only ua shall be pointed out by the authorities . 3 . If the armament of Hiich ship allow of it , such ship should forthwith salute tho Austrian / lag .

      4 . On tho arrival of a ship of war of a foreign fiag , her commander must aoquuint the governor of the port of the cause of his visit and intended length of Btay , which he m not to prolong without leave . [) . Foreign men of war will not be allowed to ino morning or evening guns in the harbour . Now the mciming <* f these intttrnctioiiH ih nothing more or less than thiit the Austrian authorities nro in a oon-Btunt ntjtto of alarm at the night of more than one man of war and that , therefore , such a force must remain out of

      Untitled Article

      Nov . 22 , 1851 . ] &f ) $ % t& * tt . 1105

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 22, 1851, page 1105, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1910/page/5/