Volume 2 — DEATH OF THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE, &c.

Before we proceed to record the transactions of the campaign that succeeded these preparations, we shall take notice of some domestic events, which, though not very important in themselves, may nevertheless claim a place in the History of England. In the beginning of the year, the court of London was overwhelmed with affliction at the death of the princess dowager of Orange and Nassau, governante of the United Provinces in the minority of her son, the present stadtholder. She was the eldest daughter of his Britannic majesty, possessed of many personal accomplishments and exemplary virtues; pious, moderate, sensible, and circumspect. She had exercised her authority with equal sagacity and resolution, respected even by those who were no friends to the house of Orange, and died with great fortitude and resignation.*

* Feeling her end approaching, she delivered a key to one of her attendants, directing him to fetch two papers, which she signed with her own hand. One was a contract of marriage between her daughter and the prince of Nassau Weilburgh; the other was a letter to the states-general, beseeching them to consent to this marriage, and preserve inviolate the regulations she had made touching the education and tutelage of the young stadtholder. These two papers being signed and sealed, she sent for her children, exhorted them to make proper improvements on the education they had received, and to live in harmony with each other. Then she implored Heaven to shower its blessings on them both, and embraced them with the most affecting marks of maternal tenderness. She afterwards continued to converse calmly and deliberately with her friends, and in a few hours expired.

In her will she appointed the king her father, and the princess dowager of Orange her mother-in-law, honorary tutors, and prince Louis of Brunswick acting tutor to her children. In the morning after her decease, the states-general and the states of Holland were extraordinarily assembled, and having received notice of this event, proceeded to confirm the regulations which had been made for the minority of the stadtholder. Prince Louis of Brunswick was invited to assist in the assembly of Holland, where he took the oaths, as representing the captain-general of the union. Then he communicated to the assembly the act by which the princess had appointed him guardian of her children. He was afterwards invited to the assembly of the states-general, who agreed to the resolution of Holland, with respect to his guardianship; and in the evening the different colleges of the government sent formal deputations to the young stadtholder, and the princess Caroline, his sister, in whose names and presence they were received, and answered by their guardian and representative. A formal intimation of the death of the princess was communicated to the king her father, in a pathetic letter, by the states-general; who condoled with him on the irreparable loss which he as well as they had sustained by this melancholy event, and assured him they would employ all their care and attention in securing and defending the rights and interest of the young stadtholder and the princess his sister, whom they considered as the children of the republic. The royal family of England suffered another disaster in the course of this year, by the decease of the princess Elizabeth-Caroline, second daughter of his late royal highness Frederick prince of Wales, a lady of the most amiable character, who died at Kew in the month of September, before she had attained the eighteenth year of her age.