ted constitutior, the natural result of the wounds he had receivedThey also added, that her mother, whom she adored, and whose memory was venerated throughout the canton, had after a long and painful illness, about a year before paid the debt of nature. In short, they concluded by assuring me that the father of this amiable girl derived his chief support from the labour of her hands. (To be continued.). BIOGRAPHY. THE QUEEN OF DENMARK. CAROLINA MATILDA, the youngest sister of his Majesty George III. was born on the 22d of July, 1751, and had the misfortune to be married, in 1766, at the age of fifteen, to Christian VII. of Denmark, who had just succeeded his father Frederic V. in the government of that kingdom. The character of this prince was not calculated to afford a pledge of the future happiness of such a connection. During the reign of his father, no part of his attention had been devoted to the affairs of government. His fiery temper, which had been vigorous ly restrained, bore the curb with impatience. He conceived a strong aversion to every restriction of order and decency, and it was vident that the moment he should be released from the fetters which confined him, he would rush headlong into every species of wanton libertinism. The sequel justified the supposition. He fell into the hands of i men whose seductions, added to his own propensities, led him into the most unbridled extravagance, so that he hated and avoided the sight of every honest and good man, and dreaded the mildest re-monstrances against his conduct. No care had been taken to instil into his mind a proper veneration for religion, which, even in his childhood, he was known to treat with the utmost contempt and derision. He was totally unacquainted with every true principle of morality, destitute of dignity of mind or conduct, and wholly regardless of merit in others. The sanguine hopes which are entertained in every country at the commencement of a new reign, were, as far as they regarded the personal behaviour of his Danish Majesty, in some measure accomplished: but with respect to his attention to the affairs of his dominions, every expectation was disappointed. He dispatched with haste the most important concerns of the state, his dislike to business of every kind increased, and he sunk by degrees into a state of total listlessness and inaction. Such was the character of the monarch to whom the young, ROL - lovely, and inexperienced Carolina Juliana beheld these first effects of the appearance of the youngqueen with heart-felt chagrin.— She well knew the prejudices which the King had conceived against herself and her son she feared that they niht be strengthened by this new.connection, and that the influence she still possessed at court might be entirely destroyed. Her apprehensions were but too well founded. The palace of Friedensburg was assigned for ker residence, and there she lived in a state of exile. Her aversion of the young Queen grew into the bitterest hatred; the most anxious attention on the part of the latter had no effect on the souted mind of Juliana; a cold degree of civity was all that it produced, and sac missed no opportunity of treat ing Matilda with haughty superiority. This disagreeable situation was for some time rendered less irksome to the Queen by the tenderness of her husband, the admiration of the court, and the round of dissipating amusements into which her gay and lively temper caused her to enter with great spirit. This false happiness, however, could not last long; the love of a libertine soon cools. and the King was incapable of a more exalted passion; the admiration of the courtiers was like every feature of their character, inconstant; and the zest of amusements. was lost in their constant repetition. The Queen naturally became indifferent to her husband, and inimical to his step-mother, and her mind was too frank to disguise ker sentiments. The monarch was too deeply engaged in the intoxicasing circle of pleasures prepared for him by his vicious companions. to perceive the change, but it did not escape the vigilant eye of Juliana. The birth of the Prince Royal, which happened in January, 1768, by annihilating all her ambitious prospects, raised her animosity to the highest pitch. Soon after this event the King set out upon his travels; and during his absence the mutual antipatny of the two Queens took a turn which preclt led every hope of reconciliation, and the partizans | riage, or determine upon a single Ma of both strove by all possible means to widen the breach. tilda, forsaken by her husband and hated by his step-mother, endeavoured to draw from the resources of her own mind that comfort which a dull and almost solitary court could not afford. Her life was calm and serene, her hours passed smoothly amid the pleasing cares of maternity, and such occupations as tended to cultivate her understanding. Her mind was naturally susceptible of every improvement; she took great pains to learn the Danish language, and, in a short time, spoke it with a fluency which greatly flattered her subjects. [To be continued] For the Lady's Miscellany. FEMALE INFELICITY. Infelix, nulli bene nuptanarito-Auso xius. Unblest, still doom'd to wed with misery. THE condition of the female sex has been frequently the subject of compassion to medical writers, because their constitution of body is such that every state of life brings its pedaliar diseases: they are placed, according to the proverb, between Scylla and Charibdis, with no other choice than of dangers equally formidable; and whether they embrace mar life, are exposed in consequence of their choice, to sickness, misery, and death. It were to be wished that so great a degree of natural infelicity might not be increased by adventitious and artificial miseries; and that beings whose beauty we cannot behold without admiration, and whose delicacy we cannot contemplate without tenderness, might be suffered to enjoy every alleviation of their sorrows. But however it has happened, the custom of the world seems to have been formed in a kind of conspiracy against them, though it does not appear but they had themselves an equal share in its establishment; and prescriptions which, by whomsoever they were begun, are now of long continuance, and by consequence of great authority, seem to have almost eluded them from content, in whatever condition they shall pass their lives. If they refuse the society of men, and continue in that state which is reasonably supposed to place happiness most in their power, they seldom give those who frequent their conversation any exalted notions of the blessings of liberty; for whether it be that they are angry to see with what inconsiderate eagerness other heedless females rush into slavery, or with what absurd vanity the married ladies boast the change of their embracing Marriage, though a a certain security from the reproach and solitude of antiquated virginity, has yet as it is usually conducted, many disadvantages, that take away much from the pleasure which society promises, and might afford, if pleasures and pains were honestly shared, and mutual confidence inviolably preserved condition, and condemn the heroines who assert the natural dignity of their sex: whether they are conscious, that like barren countries, they are free only because they were never thought to deserve the trouble of conquest, or imagine that their sincery is not always unsuspected, when they declare their contempt of men; it is certain that they generally appear to have some great and incessant cause of uneasiness, and that many of them have at fast been persuaded, by powerful rhe-exations, are to be considered toricians so try the life which they had so long contemned, and put on the bridal ornaments, at a time when they least became them. What are the real causes of the impatience which the ladies discover in a virgin state, I shall perhaps take some other occasion to examine. That it is not to be envied for its happiness, appears from the solicitude with which it is avoided: from the opinion universally prevalent r mong the sex, that no woman continues long in it but because he is not invited to forsake it; from the disposition always shown to treat old maids as the refuse of the world; from the willingness with which it is often quitted at last by those whose experience has enabled then to judge at leisure, and decide with authority. Yet such is life, that whatever is proposed, it is much easier to And reasons for rejecting than The miseries, indeed, which many ladies suffer under conjuga with great pity, because their husbands are not often taken ey them as objects of affection, but forced upon them by authority and violence, or by persuation and mportunity, equally resistless, when urged by those whom they have. always been accustomed to reverence and oley; and it very seldom appears, that those who are thus despotic in the disposal of their children, pay any regard to their domestic or personal felicity, or think it so much to be enqui: -ed whether they will be happy, as whether they will be rich. It may be urged in extenuation of this crime, which parents, not in any other respect to be num-bered with robbers and assassins, frequently commit, that in their estimates, riches and happiness are equivalent ternis. They have passed their lives with no other wish than that of adding acre to acre, and filling ane bag after another, and imagine the advanTM tage of a daughter sufficiently considered, when they have secured her a large jointure, and given her reasonable expectations of living in the midst of pleasures with which she had seen her father and mother solacing their agc. There is an economical oracle received among the prudential part of the world, which advises fathers to marry their daughters lest they should marry themselves— by which I suppose it is implied that women left to their conduct generally unite themselves with such partners as contribute very little to their felicity. Who was the author of this maxim, or with what intention it was originally uttered, I have not yet discovered, but imagine that, however solemn ly it may be transinitted, or however implicitly received, it can confer no authority which nature has denied; it cannot license Titius to be unjust, lest Caia should be imprudent, nor gives right to imprison for life, lest liberty should be ill employed. That the ladies have sometimes incurred imputations which might naturally produce edicts not much in their favor, must be confessed by their warmest advocates; and I have indeed seldom observed, that when the tenderness or virtue of their parents has preserved them from forced marriage, and left them at large to chuse their own path in the laby rinth of life, they have made any great advantage of their liberty: they commonly take the opportunity of independence, to trifle away youth, and lose their bloom in a hurry of diversions, recurring in a succession too quick to leave room for any settled reflection; they see the world without gaining experience, and at last regulate their choice by motives trif ling as those of a girl and mercenary as those of a miser. PREMATURE INTERMENT. Hasty interment is still a prevalent custom in Russia; and even premature burials are said to be not quite unknown. A short time previous to my departure, the fullowing horrid circumstance was related at St. Petersburgh: A young nobleman, who had squandered away his fortune, found his sister, to whom he ap. plied for assistance, not the least inclined to sacrifice her patrimony to his taste for dissipation. As he considered himself her heir, the wicked thought arose in his breast, to make himself master of her fortune. With this view he found means to give the unfortunate lady a sleeping draught. She was now considered as dead, and, with every appearance of the deepest sorrow, her interment was resolved upon. The corpse was already placed before the altar, when one of her |