1830.] oh Affairs in General. 575 



froze between the teeth of the marrying men, the pressures of the 

 hands were all of the most selfish description and occupied in thawing 

 each other, and the only flame in the whole generation of beaus and 

 belles was the flame of Newcastle coal. But this desperate time has 

 luckily come to an end, and, like Iceland music after a thaw, the sup- 

 pressed melody of the passions is now ringing round the fashionable 

 world all is marrying and giving in marriage. 



First of the first, the Duke of Brunswick, who seems to be the 

 maddest of sovereigns, which is something beyond the " maddest of 

 March hares," is flirting with all the opulent of France, and has sadly 

 puzzled Prince Leopold the poor, and Mademoiselle Orleans the rich. 

 The lady would take either, and either would take the lady. But the 

 point of perplexity is, that Prince Leopold has not yet got his cap of 

 sovereignty, and the Duke of Brunswick may be not far from losing his. 

 Greece may have heard the cabbage-gooseberry speculations of the one, and 

 utterly fling out the green-grocer ; as the empire of Brunswick may re- 

 fuse to lay itself at the mercy of a vulgar despot, with no more brains 

 than his own walking-stick. But in England the genius of manoeuvring 

 thrives, and the spinsters are -getting rid of their singleness as fast as they 

 can. These are but a few of the votaries or victims of Hymen : A mar- 

 riage is in contemplation between the eldest of the Ladies Bertie, daughter 

 to Lord Abingdon and the Hon. and Rev. Charles Bathurst ; Lady Alicia 

 Howard, youngest daughter of the late Earl of Wicklow, is shortly to be 

 married to William Bissett, Esq., nephew of the Bishop of Raphoe ; 

 a union between Lord Ashley and Lady Emily Cowper ; one between 

 the Hon. William Ashley and Miss Baillie ; and last, not least, a marriage 

 between Prince Schwartzenberg and Lady Ellenborough are announced. 

 The Schwartzenberg affair however is said to threaten a delay, which 

 must be peculiarly hurtful to the delicacy of Miss Digby's feelings. 

 The little Emperor of Austria, who is a great marrier himself, is said to 

 have taken a sudden idea into his head, that the lady's example would 

 be by no means necessary to his domestic comforts, and, in short, that 

 the gentle court of Vienna has quite exhibitions enough of those charm- 

 ing liaisons, without importing any in the shape of English contraband 

 goods. Such is the rumour of the day, which we understand has thrown 

 Miss Digby into great dejection at the cruelty of emperors in thwarting 

 the virtuous passions of the sex. But it is also whispered, that the 

 Emperor of Austria does not care a lock of his moustaches about the 

 affair, and that the report has been compiled for the purpose of satisfying 

 Miss Digby that she is not to be a princess : the gallant prince finding 

 Paris pleasant, champagne dear, and Miss Digby almost as intolerable 

 a burthen as if she were a wife. 



The most valuable affair of the season was a furious quarrel between 

 Madame Vestris and Anderson, an experimentalist in opera. The 

 stage chroniclers say, that Anderson was a worshipper of the beauties of 

 Josephine, sister of Madame, the fact of which offended Madame ; the 

 rumour offended Josephine; and the compound of fact and rumour 

 prodigiously offended Anderson. 



In this condition of the tempers on all sides, the fire was brought to a 

 focus, as philosophers say, by Anderson declining to play Macheath 

 until he had learned the part, no bad reason, and by Vestris taking 

 it, she having triumphed in it before. Madame, however, was hissed by 

 some malcontent in the shilling gallery. This kind of criticism was new 

 to the clever little actress, and she and her friend, or friends, made that 



