from political considerations. That her happiness should be compatible with filling a great position, was the heart's desire of her father. The Princess who was his favourite child showed from her earliest years that she had inherited his mental abilities. To train these had been his special care. Speaking of her when in her fifteenth year, her uncle the Duke of Saxe-Coburg said that she was almost too advanced in knowledge and skill. "In her the pedagogic and ethic ideals. were in a measure fulfilled, and in the setting up of which my brother had from the earliest times shown a positively inventive skill. In this respect the Princess was entirely the pupil of Prince Albert, and she not only always remained the favourite, but in many things also the image of her father. What peculiarly distinguished her in early youth from those of her own age, was her strict adherence to fixed principles, a peculiarity which my brother himself possessed, and which he succeeded in conferring upon his favourite daughter."

On his part Prince Frederick William was tall and handsome, well set in figure, well disciplined mentally, with a frank and winning manner. In the familiar intercourse which the royal family enjoyed in their Highland home, he had full opportunity of seeing and talking to the Princess with whom he soon fell in love. Six days after his arrival he asked for her parents' assent to his proposal which they freely gave.

At first it was thought best on account of the youth of the Princess Royal-who had not then reached her fifteenth birthday—that the Prince's proposal should be withheld from her until the following spring; but later permission was given him to ask her to become his wife, before he left Balmoral. He availed himself of this in a charming manner for as the young couple climbed the rugged side of Craig-na-Ban one breezy afternoon, he found among the blaze of purple heather a sprig of white which he plucked and presented to her. Reminding the Princess that it was an emblem of good luck, he asked her to ensure its promise by becoming his wife; when he received the answer he desired.

Though Lord Clarendon and Lord Palmerston were told of the engagement and approved of it, it was decided that it should not be officially announced until the following spring. It is probable that the Queen and her Consort foresaw that such an alliance would be unpopular between England and a country which, by refusing to join her before the outbreak of the war, had helped to bring about that calamity; country that owing to the weakness of its King, Frederick William IV., and his reactionary principles, had reduced its prestige in the eyes of Europe. But rumour of the engagement spread outside the royal circle, and to its surprise was made known by The Times, October 3, 1855, in a leading article which

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roundly expressed its contempt for a marriage between the Princess Royal of England with the heir to a "paltry German dynasty." In the light of modern events it is amusing to read among other sentences in this leader of the humiliation which would have to be endured by the Princess, whose future husband was destined to enter the service of Russia, "and to pass these years which flattering anticipation now destines to a crown, in ignominious attendance as a general officer on the levée of his imperial master, having lost even the privilege of his birth, which is conceded to no German in Russia." This article which could not but be offensive to Her Majesty and Prince Albert, was described by the latter as at once truly scandalous in itself and degrading to the country, with a view to provoke hostile public opinion, but happily it has excited universal disgust by its extravagance and discourtesy." Though the marriage was favoured by the German Court it did not receive equal favour from the German Ministry; Bismarck especially being against it. The engagement was announced May 18, 1857, in Parliament which five days later received a message from Her Majesty requesting that provision should be made for the Princess Royal suitable to the dignity of the Crown and the honour of the country. In response the Government granted the bride-elect a dowry of forty thousand pounds, and an annuity of four thousand a year. The marriage was fixed for