THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 108, 21 March 1862, Page 6

THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.

The following memoir of the late Prince Albert ap pears in Whitty's " Men of the Time : " —

" Albert Franz—August Karl—Einannel Prince Conssort, and Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, is next brother and heir presumptive to the Duke of Saxe Coburg, whose ancesters were Margraves of Meissin in the 12Ui century, and Electors of the Empire from 1425 to 1547, when the electoral dignity passed over to the collateral line of this house, whose preseut head is the King of Saxony, Prince Albert was born 2b'tii August, 4 1819, at the Castle of Rosaau. After receiving a thorough education at the hands of private tutors, he entered the University <Jf iJonn on the 3rd of May, 1837, as a etudent cf jurisprudence. A small house, of most simple aspect, standing behind some yor.ng trees on one side of the Cathedral of Bonn, is shown as the residence of His Itoyal Highness during his University course. Here, surrounded by the memorials of ancient Christendom, and in view of the historical Illiine. the Prince is said to have devoted himself to the studies of the place, v. ith. an ardour which is spoken of with pride by the teachers of the university. It was his custom, they say, to rise, not later than six every morning, and to pursue his studies until seven in the evening, allowing himself an intervM of three hours for dinner and recreation. The labors of the day finished, he would pay visits to families of his acquaintance, or entertain students of worth at his own table. Among the chief professors of Bolm at this time were Dr. Walter, a jurist, celebrated for his thorough mastery of the civil and Germanic lav/, and Dr. Loebell, remarkable for his treatment of the history of Europe. Besides these may be mentioned Professors Booking and Berthes, colleagues of Dr. Walter. The Prince was in the liabit of attending theh; public lectures, and of afterwards receiving their more special assistance at his own residence. Having spent three academical seasons at Bonn, Prince Albert topic his leave of the University at the close of the summer half-year of 1838. In July of the same year, the Prince, with his father aud brother, visited England to attend the coronation of Her Majesty, arid at Michaelmas returned to Cobourg. Prince Albert having for the first time made the acquaintance of Her Majesty, after his departure rumour was busy in England in pointing out Prince Albert as Her Majesty's future consort, and although the report was contradicted by the iijinisterial newspapers, the belief was strengthened by a journey, to England made about this time by Leopold, King of the Belgians, and the subsequent arrival in this country of the young prince himself, during the autumn of 1889. Immediately after the departure of Prince Albert, the Queen caused all the members of the Privy Council to be summoned, to meet at Buckingham Palace on 23rd November, and then and there communicated to her Council her royal intention to form a jnatrinionial alliance with the Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. On the announcement to the House of Lords of Her Majesty's intention, the Duke of Cambridge spoke, from his personal knowledge of Prince Albert, and confidently predicted his future high popularity. The Duke of Wellington expressed his high surprise that the House had not been informed that the Prince was a Protestant, and received the most satisfactory assurances on that head from the Ministry. The Prince was a great admirer of the arts, a ready draughtsman, had skill in music, and had written verses. His popularity in England was greatly increased by his patronage of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, and to him' is due the credit of having suggested that that noble display of human skill should not, as was first intended, be a mere exposition of British productions, but should be an exhibition of the industry of all nations. This notice would be incomplete, without a list of the dignities which was enjoyed liy the Prince. He was mituarlised oir his marriage to Her Majesty, 10th February, 1840, by Act of Parliament, arid received a grant of £3U,000 a-year, the title of Royal Highness by patent, the right to quarter-the royal arms of England, precedence by royal warrant next to tho Queen, and Prince Consort by order in Council in June, 1857. He was a member of the Privy Council, Chief Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, and Lord Warden of the Stannaries, Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle, Grand Hanger of Windsor, St. James', and Hyde Park, a Field Marshal and Colonel-iiirChief of the Kifle Brigade, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, Captain-General and Colonel of the City of Londpn Artjilery Company, a Knight of the Garter, the Thistle, and pf St. Patrick: also G.C.B. G.C. M.G. Acting-Grand Master of the Order of the Bath, and Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. His scholastic dignities in England were—Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, L.L.D. D.C.L. and Ph. D. He was also Master oi the Trinity House, and lie was President of the Royal Comm'siion of the Patriotic Fund for the relief of the Widows and Orphans of soldiers, seamen, and marines, who fell in the war with Russia. H.R.H. was also President of the British Association last, year and of the Royal.Agricultural Association a short time since. '

The succeeding account of the ancestry of Prince Albert is from Mr. G. R. French's work:—

" John, tho Constant, was nt the head of the Princes of Germany who made their famous Protestant Confession ot Faith, and Prince Albert has frequently alluded with becoming pride to his descent from so illustrious a friend of the Reformation. John the Constant who died in 1532, married Sophia, daughter of Magnus, Duke of Mecklenlmrgh, by whom he was father of his successor John Frederick •1., who also took Ha father's place as head of the Piotestant League; and in a battle fought in 1547; he was taken prisoner by the Emperor Charles V., who, on the Elector's refusal to recant his Protestant principles, deprived him,'of all. his dominions, and kept him a dose prisoner for five years. His oonsdrt was Sybilla. who died before him, the daughter of John, third Duke of Cloves; by her he had two sons. John Frederick 11. who, endeavouring to recover the dominions of which his father had been stripped, lost his own liberty. He died in 1595, leaving two sons, who died without issue. John William, Duke of Saxe Weimar, second son of John Frederick married Dorothy Susanna, daughter of Frederick 111. Elector Palatine by whom he had Wo sons—Frederick William, first Duke'of Saxe Altenburg; and John, second Duke of Saxe Weimar Gotlm, whose wife was Dorothy Maria, daughter of Joachim Ernest Prince of Hanhalt, by whom Tie had seven sons. He died in 1605. . Ernest, called the Pious, Duke of Saxe Gotka, was the seventh son of John, Duko of Saxe Weimar; he married his cousin Elizabeth Sophia, daughter of John Phillip, Duke of Saxe Altenburg, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters. The eldest, Frederick, Duke of Saxe Gotha, by his wife Magdalen Sybilla, daughter of Augusta. Duke of Saxe Halle, was father of Frederick 11., Duke of Saxe Gotha, who married Magdalen Augusta', daughter of Charles William, Prince of Anhalt Zerlist, and their fifteenth child was Augusta, who by her marriage with Frederick, Prince of Wales, bacame the mother of George 111.

Prince Albert is derived from Ernest, the Pious, through his seventh son, John Ernest, Duke of Saxe Saalfeldt, who, by his second wife, Charlotte Jane, dauahter-of Josias, also a seventh son who became Duke of Saxe Co burg ; he died in 17C0, and -\yas succeeded by his son Ernest Frederick, whose wife was Sophia Antoinette, of Brunswick, a descendant of Henry the Lion and Maud Plantagenet, by whom he had a son, F-ancis Fred Anthony, who succeeded as Duke of Saxe Ceburg Saalfield in ISQO, and who by his second wife. Augusta Sophia, daughter of Henry 24th, Count of Beuss-Ebersdorf, had several children ; 1, his successor, the Duke of Saxe Coburg, the father of Prince Albert; 2. Sophia Frederica, who married the Count Mensdorf; 3, Juliana, who married the late Grand Duke Constantine ;: 4. Ferdinand, whose eldest son Ferdinand married the Queen of Portugal ; 5. Maria Louisa, Victoria,-the late Duchess of Kent and mother of our Gracious Sovereign Queen Victoria ; 6. Leopold, whose first wife v/as the Princess Charlotte of Wales, and who is now King'of the Belgians. Prince Albert's father, Ernest Anthony Charles Lewis, Duke of Saxe Coburg, succeeded his father in 1806* and by his first wife and cousin, Dorothy Louisa' daughter of Augustus Duke of Saxe Altsnburp by Louisa Charlotte, the daughter of Frederick, Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin, ho was father of Ernest Charles, Priuce of Saxe Coburg, and of Albert Frances Augustus Charles Emanuel, born 2(3th August, 1819, who was married 10th February, 1840 to his first cousin, Victoria, Queen of England. '