THE TWO JUNIOR PRINCES OF SPAIN, AND THEIR SISTER, MARIA ISABELLA. THE Royal Family of Spain, of whom we have taken notice in our preceding Numbers, afford a memorable instance of the decay of greatness, and the uncertain tenure even of Sovereign dignity. The two junior Princes of Spain, sons of the unhappy and dethroned Monarch Charles the Fourth, are now in captivity with the rest of his family. Their characters have never been seen in action, and the privacy with which they have been educated, has afforded no room for the expansion of any of those qualities which distinguish one man from another. Maria Louisa, the eldest daughter of the King and Queen of Spain, has now a crown, and possesses a dignity of which her family has been divested. She is the present Queen of Etruria, and her connection with the Emperor of France affords some presumption that she will not be degraded from her throne.-Maria Isabella, the youngest daughter of their Catholic Majesties, has the empty title of hereditary Princess of Naples. With respect to this family, their star of royalty seems to have set for ever. Like the Bourbons of France, they have been expelled from their patrimony, and their dominions have passed under a stern military yoke. Spain may, perhaps, be fortunate enough to regain her liberty, but the French Emperor will never suffer her ancient rulers to regain their lost sceptre; ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. HYMENEA IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND. "You false reasoners are always in extremes," said Lord Castledowne; "if I say to one of you it is not hell, your next reply is, it must be heaven. Is there no such thing in this wide universe as medium? All I wish to prove is, that there is no necessary connection between low birth and poverty, with a disposition for vanity and extravagance. The heart and mind are the same in any particular man, whether he be born a prince or a peasant; it is proved to you every day. Look into the page of history, cast your eyes around your own circle, and say whether high birth or low birth are, when in elevated stations, the most irrational. Observe our fine ladies, our Duchesses, Countesses, &c. born in the castles of their ancestors, educated in all the pomp of rank, and married according to their quality; do you find them particularly discreet, dignified, and sober? Consider then again, the women who have been drawn by men of rank from the subordinate classes of life, from the stations of private gentlewomen, from even the dairy and the stage; do you see them eminently vain, extravagant and worthless? Far, far from it! their names have not yet branded their noble Irusbands with disgrace in the archives of Doctors' Commons. Suffice some sport with the sons of the whip. Of all follies barouche-driving is the least like a gentleman; and in my heart I believe no man that had not a few drops of Johny with his shoulder-knot in his composition, could addict himself to such low pursuits!" "Again tripping, my precipitate Baronet!" interrupted the Earl. "These sweeping conclusions are the very scythes of spleen and folly."— "Blushing becomes you, Sir Bingham," said Lady Castledowne, interrupting her Lord, as she perceived the Baronet colour rather angrily as the Earl pronounced the word folly; "you look so well in that ingenuous suffusion, that I must beg you will allow my Lord to proceed." Sir Bingham bowed with a gay laugh, and the Earl continued. "Admit my first proposition, that there is no essential difference between the blood of a king and of his vassal, and the whole charge against Olympia and her groom being proved by the groomish propensities of her son, will fall to the ground. And with regard to the folly of barouche-driving as the most ungentlemanly of all follies, being a matter of congratulation to the person who possesses the folly of horseit to say, that it is not the mere circum-racing, billiard-playing, &c. I must assert, stance of birth, but the disposition of the for obvious reasons, than when a folly it is mind, that fits man or woman to act nobly not in any degree worse than any other or ignobly in life." folly which uselessly consumes the time, and dissipates the mind from the proper pursuits of an accountable being." "If we are to judge of men's origin by their pursuits," observed Mr. Courtown, "when we consider the disposition which turns men of rank into coachmen and grooms, while their servants loll at their ease in the carriage, I fear we should be induced to fancy that the Olympias of our modern heroes of the chariot had been visited by far different lovers than Jupiters in disguise." "Then you patronize the barouche. club?" demanded Sir Bingham. Not so," answered the Earl; "I repeat, I approve nothing that wastes our time, renders us worthless to others and contemptible to ourselves. When men of rank make amusements an occupation, when they pervert means of relaxation and salutary exercise, into serious employments and ardent pursuits, then it is that they become blame-worthy. But when a gentle "Well done, brother Brazen-Nose!" cried the Baronet. "If your parsonship grants a license for scandal, I shall certainly patronize the commerce, and haveman, after fulfilling his duty, in perform. | young man of rank, that now occurs to my memory." What would have been the remark of the brothers upon this explanation of the Earl's, I cannot tell, for the stage-bell rang as he ceased speaking, and the curtain immediately drew up. A figure habited in a Sicilian fancy dress stepped forward, and, bowing to the audi the house that "an accident having happened to Lord Buskin, who was to have performed the part of Osmyn in the Mourning Bride, the play had been changed for that of Much ado about Nothing." ing the services his station or situation demands, chuses to mount his barouche, and drive himself from Cavendish-square to Salt-Hill, I see not that he does any thing unbefitting the best nobleman in the land. There is no more shame in driving a carriage than in being driven, the circumstances attending makes it either offensive or indifferent. Should a gentleman give his company to his grooms, should he imi-ence, in a shrill-squeaking voice, informed tate their dress and language, and do as Lord Martindale did, have a tooth punched out that he might spit like a coachnian; then, indeed, barouche-driving becomes a crime, a desertion of his rank, an abandonment of his duties, and a sin against the laws of heaven and earth. When a man is born in a station above his fellow creatures, he brings into the world with him duties as well as privileges; and when he does not perform the one he has no right to exact the other. Contempt must be his portion; and whether he herd with grooms, cock-fighters, or Newmarket racers, it is all the same,—he is a man equally to be despised and avoided." No notice, even by the movement of a single hand, was taken by the audience of this address; and bowing, in the midst of a dead, and what to a public actor would have been a killing silence, the spokesman withdrew. The bell instantly tinkled again, and tơ my curiosity's excessive joy the second curtain was raised, and discovered-the square in Messina in which stood Leonato's house. Leonato and his daughter and niece ap "My Lord," observed Mr. Courtown, "I comprehend the comprehensive stretchproached.-Before either of the ladies of your argument; and I wish from my heart that half the gay ones on the benches beneath were your auditors." "I believe I understand his Lordship pretty well," rejoined Sir Bingham; "but yet I do not see how his classic taste permits this universal rejection of all the exercises of the Gymnasium." spoke, Lady Castledowne whispered to me,-"Now pray, Miss Wellwood, if you can, guess which is the sprightly Beatrice; and in her person discover the bewitching Duchess." I fixed my eyes on both the dramatic ladies. In one I saw a dark complexioned little woman about forty, prodigiously fat, rouged very high, and dressed with all the heavy splendour of green velvet, gold em head and neck jewellery. The other lady was of a graceful height, proportioned with exquisite delicacy, and with no other ornament added to her native beauties of youth and perfect female loveliness, than a slight robe of white satin, and a band of diamonds around her head which confined a luxuriant quantity of fine raven hair, while one long braid of it, as if escaped from its brilliant cestus by accident, hung down far beneath her waist, waving to and fro with the elastic motion of her shape. "Precisely," cried the Earl, "because these games, or what you please to call them, are used as employments, not as ex-broidery, and various coloured gems in her ercises. I would have an accomplished gentleman exercise himself in every thing that becomes a man; but there are seasons for every thing. Instead of trifling away the time lounging in Bond-street or at White's, I would have my sons exercise themselves between the intervals of serious occupation in fencing, sparring, firing at marks, archery, rowing, riding, running; in short, in all exertions of the body which increases its strength and activity; but all must be done with gentlemen, and like gentlemen. I remember, when I was a boy, I read a novel called The Fool of Quality, which then conveyed to me one "You are a witch!" exclaimed Sir Bingof the best systems for the education of a "ham, "to make so good a guess." "That white-robed beauty," cried I, "is the Duchess!" I replied that I did not know any thing about Lady Anne Burleigh; only I must confess that her appearance seemed better adapted for Beatrice's mother than Beatrice's cousin. "The superb Augusta will not bear a rival near the throne," said the Earl; While Lord Castle downe spoke, I thought that Mr. Courtown fixed his intelligent eyes on me with a particular interest. I" Lady Anne, though of one of the first felt myself blush; and at the moment caught a glance of the Barone', who, having observed the expression of his brother's countenance and mine, cast on him a look of evident anger. "But who is that green lady?" asked the Countess; surely we are not to believe that so portly and ordinary a dame means herself for "the beautecus Hero?" "Even so," answered the Baronet, evidently intending by his reply to pique me into estimation of his compliments; "I do not wonder at your thinking that lady, who is ro other than Lady Anne Burleigh, quite a fright by the side of the incomparable Duchess. The greater glory dims the less in these cases; and indeed, I have ever found that let the Duchess be where she will, she always Joanifies every woman in ber presence. "Joanifies?" repeated Mr. Courtown. "Joanifies" repeated we all; "pray," added the Earl, "what do you mean, Sir Bingham, by that word? I declare my ignorance even of its country." "I mean," answered the Baronet, "that she is so imperially beautiful that she makes all women appear no better than so many country Joans, when compared with her." Thank you, brother, for your addition to our vocabulary," cried Mr. Courtown; "though, I must confess, its application does not exactly hold good here. There are twenty women now in this theatre I think much handsomer than your imperial beauty." "I see but one," interrupted Sir Bingham, touching my hand gently with the play-bill he held in his hand; and then sighing, he smiled, and asked me in a gay tone (having got into good humour by this happy turn of gallantry), whether I did not think it a malicious trick in the Duchess to put her old friend, Lady Aune, in so ridiculous a situation as to personify the lovely Hero? and oldest families in England, is poor; and therefore, rather than live in honourable want of the luxuries of life, she submits to be a dependant in the house of newly created nobility; and become a parasite and an object of ridicule that she may sit at a magnificent table, have a splendid equipage at her command, and not be doomed in the decline of life to a private fire-side, a social friend, or her Bible." 'Leonato having put his questions to Don Pedro's messenger, Beatrice broke in upon the conference with her lively inquiries respecting Benedict. But with the first words the spell of her enchantments was broken with me and Mr. Courtown; we both exclaimed at once, we never had heard so discordant a voice. "A very peacock in form and melody!' cried Sir Bingham; "but who attends to the screaming notes when his eyes dwell on such lovely plumage?" We made him no answer, so much were his brother and I absorbed in wonder at the absurdity of the miserable performance before us. Perfect as was the form, features, and complexion of the Duchess, all seemed to vanish when she began to act, Her enunciation was as disagreeable as her voice; the animated language of Shakespeare was cadenced out without judgment or grace; and her action had nothing of the spirit and indescribable elegance we expect in Beatrice; it was at times the romping activity of a rustic girl, and at others the haughty flippancy of an insolent coquet. I was disgusted beyond measure. "That woman is without mind or heart,” whispered Mr. Courtown. "You would not presume so much of the whole of her corps drainatique?" `rejoined I; "that would be one of the sweeping conclusions Lord Castledowne has anathamatized, and yet they all, in their different ways, murder poor Shakespeare!" "And they sacrifice themselves to his |