OF

QUEEN MARIE AMELIE. THE Consort of His late Majesty King Louis Philippe of France ended, on the 24th of March, in tranquil dignity, a life of many and great vicissitudes.

Marie Amélie de Bourbon, the daughter of Ferdinand IV. of Naples, Third of Sicily, and First of the United Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, was born on April 26, 1782. Her mother was Marie Caroline, Archduchess of Austria, the imperious daughter of Maria Theresa, and sister of Marie Antoinette and of the Emperors Joseph and Leopold. If Ferdinand was the nominal ruler of his kingdom, Marie Caroline was the real Sovereign. How, in spite of her husband and his Cabinet, she served Nelson in his hour of need at the instigation of Lady Hamilton, will be remembered by all Englishmen. Marie Amélie, the future Queen of the French, was one of five sisters, who were most carefully educated under the care of Madame d'Ambrosio. She early displayed the germs of those amiable qualities which distinguished her in after life.

"We

three sisters," said, on one occasion, the widow of Charles Felix, King of Sardinia, to M. Donnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux, "we three sisters in our childhood were called respectively la bella, la dotta, and la santa. La santa was Marie Amélie." The political storms amid which this Princess passed her early years, make the beginning of her life resemble to some extent the youth of her future husband. She was scarcely ten years of age when, in 1792, the French fleet, commanded by Admiral de la Touche Treville, appeared in the Bay of Naples; and from that time onwards, during the period of the first victories of Napoleon, the Royal Family of Naples were kept in a state of per

petual anxiety and alarm. At length, on the conquest of Naples by the French troops under General Championnet, in 1798, Ferdinand and his Queen fled into Sicily with their children. The Princess Marie Amélie remained at Palermo with her mother during the first Neapolitan revolution, and even for some time after the victories of Suwarrow in Northern Italy had compelled the French troops to depart from Naples. In the month of June, 1800, the Queen and her daughters went to Vienna, where they remained for two years, returning to Naples in 1802. Renewed political outbreaks compelled the Royal family again to retire into Sicily; and it was during this second period of residence there that the Princess Marie Amélie for the first time met the Duke of Orleans, like herself, an exile from his country.

In 1808, on his return from the burial in Malta of his brother the Comte de Beaujolais, Louis Philippe received a cordial invitation from Ferdinand to pay a visit to Palermo. He did so, and soon gained the affections of the second of the King's daughters. There appears to be a doubt as to the motives of Queen Caroline in eventually sanctioning their union. It was not to be expected that the sister of Marie Antoinette and the wife of a Bourbon King could look with much favour on the son of one who took a chief part in the persecution of her sister, and in the execution of his King. On the other hand, it has been said that the shrewd Queen early saw the strong points in the character of the Duke of Orleans, and thought that, amid the perils which at the moment surrounded her family, it would be well to attach to their interests a man of his tact and experience. Whatever may have been her motives, there is

no doubt as to the motives of the young people themselves. Their marriage was one purely of affection. Amid all the political misfortunes which afterwards overtook them, their domestic happiness was never for a moment disturbed, and their household virtues became proverbial in Europe. The marriage took place in Palermo, on the 25th of November, 1809; and the Duke and Duchess continued to reside there until 1814, in the enjoyment of a greater amount of tranquillity than had hitherto fallen to the lot of either. In 1814, the restoration of the House of Bourbon summoned the head of the younger branch of the family from this state of comparative seclusion, and established him in his due position in France. In the month of September of this year the Duchess of Orleans arrived in her adopted country; but it was not long before the events of the Hundred Days compelled her to take refuge with her children in England, whence she did not return to Paris till the commencement of the year 1817. From this time down to the Revolution of July her residence was in France; where she attracted the esteem and love even of the enemies of the House of Orleans by the simple beauty of her life, her gentle piety, and her unwearied charity. It has been asserted that in 1830 her Legitimist tendencies led her to view the Revolution with sorrow, though it tended to her own elevation. She is even said to have expressed a strong repugnance to share a throne to which, according to her ideas of right, she had no claim. Whatever truth there may be in these assertions, the unalterable devotion which Marie Amélie bore to her husband, whether in prosperity or in adversity, overcame all her scruples, and she determined on the path of conduct she was for the future to adopt. She took no part in political affairs, but devoted herself to the education of her children and to works of charity.

It was the Queen's unhappy fate, ere she had been many years on the throne, to have her tenderest feelings wounded by more than one domestic affliction. In 1839 the beautiful and accomplished Princess Marie died, and in 1842 a strange and melancholy accident led to the death, in the Queen's arms, of her eldest son, and to the destruction, with him, of the best security for the House of Orleans. Bitter as was this sudden blow, it served only to bring out in stronger colours the beauty of the Queen's nature. She felt that there was one on whom the blow had fallen with even more stunning severity, and she devoted herself to soothe and comfort her afflicted daughter-in-law.

A few years more, and she had to display courage of a different sort-a courage and dignity which seemed to belong to her race, and which offered a strong contrast to the irresolution of the King. Lamartine, in glowing terms, describes the scene at the Tuileries, when the Queen, her grey locks contrasting with the fire of her eyes and the animated flush of her cheek, said to the King, in language worthy of the granddaughter of Maria Theresa and the niece of Marie Antoinette, "Go and show yourself to the disheartened troops and to the irresolute National Guard. I will place myself in the balcony with my grandchildren and my daughters, and will see you die in a manner worthy of yourself, of your throne, and of our cominon misfortunes." When the King declared his intention of abdicating, she rebuked him with passionate earnestness. She cared not, she said, what was said in or out of the Tuileries; but, in her estimation, revolution was ever a crime, and abdication a cowardice. "Sire," she concluded energetically, "a King should never lose his crown without making an effort to defend it." According to Lord Normanby's report, her words were:"Sire! n'abdiquez pas; montez à cheval, mettez-vous à la tête de vos troupes, et je prierai Dieu pour vous." When, however, resistance was too late, the Queen subsided again into the wife, and prepared to accompany her husband in his melancholy flight. Worn out by contending emotions and anxieties, she fell senseless to the ground in the attempt to step into the carriage. Soon recovering, she accompanied the King to Evreux, where she separated from him for safety. She rejoined him afterwards at Honfleur, and shared the difficulties of his passage to England. In the quiet seclusion of Claremont she devoted herself to the task of soothing the regrets and cheering the heart of the King. In 1850 she received his last breath.

The only public matter in which the Queen took an interest during her residence in England, was the proposed coalition and fusion of the two branches of the House of Bourbon. The Legitimist partialities of the Queen induced her to advocate, on certain conditions, a fusion which, it is well known, was successfully opposed by the Duchess of Orleans. This difference of opinion did not in the slightest diminish the feeling of reverential love which the Duchess ever entertained towards the Queen; and her daughter-in-law's lamented death, as well as that of the Queen of the Belgians, that of the Duchess of Nemours, and, lastly, that of the King of the Belgians, were

the bitterest afflictions suffered by the Queen in her later days. She was, however, consoled in her old age by the affectionate solicitude of the numerous family still surviving, and by seeing her children's children's children spring up about her. Not only did she enjoy the affection of her children, but also-what was very precious to her-she won the hearts of all the poor people among whom she lived. She was one of the most benevolent of women; and though she was a Catholic of the strictest Neapolitan type, she regarded no distinction of faith in her charities. To all who needed her aid she was ready with help, and every where about Esher the name of the good French Queen was pronounced with affection and veneration.

As in little more than one month she would have completed her eighty-fourth year, it can scarcely be said that the death of the Queen was unexpected; and yet she died in comparative health. Two days before her decease, she had her carriage drive. The day before, she was up as usual, with this only difference, that, feeling rather exhausted, she went to bed in the evening earlier than was her wont. She passed a restless night. On Saturday morning she said, "Je suis mieux"-her last words-and fell asleep. In that sleep she died, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. She was spared the pain of consciously encountering death; also the pain, which to her motherly nature would have been very grievous, of parting with her children. She thus ended, without pain, a life of much suffering.

The late Queen had five sons and three daughters. Her brother succeeded to the throne of Naples, and was the father of the famous Bomba. Her four sisters were married respectively to the Emperor of Austria, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Charles Felix, King of Sardinia, and Ferdinand VII., King of Spain.

The funeral of the late Queen took place on the 3rd of April, her remains being interred in the mausoleum at Weybridge, side by side with those of her husband, Louis Philippe. In accordance with her own wish, she was buried in the dress she wore on leaving France in February, 1818, for her long exile, and in her widow's cap, in order to show "how unalterably faithful she remained to the two guiding feelings of her life-her devotion to her royal spouse, and her love for her adopted country." Besides all the surviving members of the family of the late Queen, there were present at the funeral the King of the Belgians, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Cambridge; the Queen of England being

represented by General Seymour. and Lord Camoys. Among the French gentlemen present were M. Prévost Paradol, M. Thiers, and M. Guizot. Mass was performed by Bishop Grant of Southwark.

THE BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.

He

The Right Rev. George Edward Lynch Cotton, D.D., Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan in India and Ceylon, was accidentally drowned on the 6th of October at Kooshtea, on the Gorai river, while disembarking from a steam-boat, to the deep regret of his friends, and the great loss of the Church in India over which he presided. The Bishop was a connexion of the family of Lord Combermere, and was born at Chester on Oct. 29th, 1813. was the son of Captain Thos. Cotton, of the 7th Fusiliers, who was killed only a month after the birth of the future Bishop, at the head of his brigade, in storming the fortress of Nivelle in the Peninsula. The boy was sent at an early age to Westminster School, from whence he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1832, taking with him a fairly high character for scholarship, though he himself always spoke most modestly of his own attainments. At Cambridge he read hard, though he made it a rule never to work after twelve o'clock at night. Among his especial friends were Dr. Vaughan of Harrow, Dr. Howson of Liverpool, the late Mr. Conybeare, and Mr. Simpkinson. He was always in the first class in the college examinations; he also obtained the declamation prize, and the prize for reading in the college chapel. Whilst at Cambridge, he appears to have been especially drawn, "by the attraction of a kindred spirit," towards Dr. Arnold, who was then rising rapidly to the zenith of his fame at Rugby, and to whom he was introduced by Dr. Vaughan. Having taken his B.A. degree in 1836 as a senior optime, and eighth in the classical tripos, he was appointed by Dr. Arnold to a mastership in Rugby School, where he had the charge of a boarding-house, and also of a form of some fifty boys. Shortly afterwards he was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College; but he did not allow the attractions of University life to tear him away from his work at Rugby. About 1840 or 1841 he succeeded to the mastership of the fifth form, the highest form except the sixth, and including about forty boys. At Rugby, to judge from the evidence of one who was under him, Mr. Cotton had up-hill work; but he threw himself heartily into the spirit of Dr. Arnold's system, and made himself the

personal friend as well as the master of his boys. His boarding-house accordingly became one of the most popular in Rugby. Mr. Cotton was also an effective tutor "out of school," and one of whom it may well be said that he thoroughly realized the words of Juvenal

"Di præceptorem sancti voluere parentis Esse loco."

Close acquaintances and friendships were thus formed during the half-year with his pupils, and they were maintained during the holidays, and, after school-life had ended, by letters and mutual visits, and occasionally by tours on the Continent, when he threw off all the position and character of a "don," visiting in their company France, Germany, and Switzerland.

In 1852 Mr. Cotton was elected Head Master of Marlborough College, which was then at a very low ebb, financially and otherwise, but which, under his hands, rapidly achieved a high position among our leading public schools. He was fortunate in the selection of his assistant masters, and in the possession of a large fund of Rugby experience, and of the rare faculty of "organization." His patience, honour, justice, self-devotion, industry, and cheerfulness bore their proper fruit in time. After his six years' mastership the school wore an altered appearance, which was evinced not only in the increase of its numbers, but in the general amelioration of manners and morals.

He preached the consecration sermon of the present Bishop of London at Whitehall in 1856, and in 1858 was nominated, on the death of Dr. Daniel Wilson, formerly of Islington, to the metropolitan see of Calcutta, where his high personal character and powers, his industry, his strength of mind, and large and tolerant religious views rendered him widely and extensively beloved. He died deeply and sincerely regretted, not only at Rugby and Marlborough, but on the shores of the Ganges; and his death was not only sudden, but untimely-he was taken from India just when India needed him most.

Dr. Cotton was the 6th Bishop who has held the see of Calcutta since its foundation, in 1814. The first was Dr. Thomas Fanshawe Middleton, who died in 1822; the second was Reginald Heber, who died in 1827; next came Dr. James, who held it scarcely two years; then Dr. Turner, whose tenure of it was scarcely longer. To him succeeded Dr. Wilson, in 1832; on whose death the see was offered to, and accepted by, Dr. Cotton.

The late Bishop married, 26th of June, 1845, Sophia Anne, eldest daughter of the late Rev. Henry Tomkinson, of Rease

heath, near Chester, by whom he has left issue one son and a daughter. The Governor-General of India, in a formal minute, recorded his sense of the loss which the Church and the whole population of India had sustained through the Bishop's sudden death.

CAPTAIN FOWKE, R.E.

Francis Fowke was born in 1823. Hav. ing received his first commission in 1842, he was appointed to Bermuda and stationed there for several years, during which he so greatly distinguished himself as a military architect as to be employed, on returning home, to erect the Raglan Barrack at Devonport, an edifice which is remarkable on account of the excellent accommodation it affords to the inmates, the application of constructive ingenuity to sanitary purposes, and, taking into ac count the number of men accommodated in it, the cheapest construction of its class in this country. In this work many comforts and facilities were included which were novelties in barracks, and were afterwards adopted, with modifications, by the Sanitary Commission which reported on the general subject. The Raglan Barrack is, in fact, the model of its class now in In 1853, Captain Fowke was made inspector of the Science and Art Department, and, at a later date, architect and engineer to the same. In the course of duty attached to these offices, he produced some of the most convenient of our recent public buildings. In 1854, he undertook the charge of the machinery sent by the English to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855, and was, at a somewhat later period, appointed secretary to the English Commission attached to that great gathering; at this time he wrote two Reports: the one on "Civil Construction," as then represented, a work of considerable value to practical builders; the other, on "Naval Construction," which was highly appreciated by those to whom it was addressed.

use.

Captain Fowke was appointed, in 1858, a member of the International Technical Commission, the attention of which was directed to the improvement of the navigation of the Danube; he made, indepen dently, a Report on a scheme, the essential part of which consisted of a canal direct from the sea to a point in the stream, above that section of its course where the process of deposition begins. This plan was adopted by the Commission, but, owing to extraneous influences, it was not carried into effect.

He was employed in making additions