dens of South-Kensington the first speci | and history will hereafter refer to Queen men of the Wellingtonia gigantea, which, Victoria's tree, as is now does to those in all likelihood, will soon be distributed of Queen Elizabeth, Shakspeare, Milton, over all suitable parts of the kingdom; Chaucer, and Bacon.

FREDERICK THE GREAT.

The

THE name of this great warrior captain | Frederick's accession, when he returned of his age, is renowned in history. We to Berlin. Katt was taken and beheaded. send to the patrons of the ECLECTIC a fine It appears certain that the King had reportrait of the original, as a matter of in- solved to take away his son's life, and that terest and embellishment for the present he was only saved by the intercession of month. A brief biographical sketch will the Emperor of Austria, Charles VI., add value to the portrait. through his ambassador, Count Seckendorf. (Voltaire, Mémoires, etc.) Prince, after he had been released from his strict confinement in the Castle of Custrin, was employed by his father as youngest member of the Chamber of Domains, and not permitted to return to court till the marriage of the Princess Frederica to the hereditary Prince Frederick of Baireuth. In 1733 his father obliged him to marry the Princess Elizabeth Christina, daughter of Ferdinand Albrecht, Duke of Brunswick Bevern. Frederick William gave her the palace of Schönhausen, and to the Prince the county of Ruppin, and in 1734 the town of Rheinsberg, where he appears to have lived happily, chiefly devoting himself to literary pursuits and to music till his accession. The death of his father in 1740 placed him on the throne. Finding a full treasury and a powerful army, his thirst for military glory tempted him to embrace any opportunity that might offer; but there did not appear to be any occasion for great enterprise till the death of the Emperor Charles VI., on the 20th Octo ber, 1740, led the way to his extraordinary and brilliant career which changed the face of Europe. Frederick took this opportunity of asserting the claims of the House of Brandenburg to four principalities in Silesia, the investiture of which his predecessors had not been able to obtain; but he only required from the Queen Maria Theresa, the daughter and heiress of Charles VI., the duchies of Glogau and

FREDERICK the Great, King of Prussia, was the son of Frederick William I. and of Sophia Dorothea, princess of Hanover, and was born on the 24th January, 1712. He passed the first years of his youth under the restraints of a rigid education, the sole object of which was military exercises; but as he had received the rudiments of his education from a French lady, under whose care he acquired considerable knowledge of the language, and as she and his first tutor, M. Duhan, had great influence over him, he imbibed a taste for polite literature. These two persons, together with the Queen, formed in secret a kind of opposition to his father's system of education. The Prince was entirely attached to his mother, and there arose an estrangement between the father and the son, which suggested to the King the idea of leaving the throne to his younger son, Augustus William. Impatient of the tyrannical conduct of his father, Frederick resolved to seek refuge in England with his maternal uncle George II. Only his sister Frederica, and his friends Lieutenants Katt and Keith, were acquainted with the secret of his intended flight, which was to take place from Wesel, whither he had accompanied his father. But some indiscreet expressions which fell from Katt betrayed the Prince's intention. The Prince was overtaken, and sent to Custrin, where he was kept in close confinement. Keith escaped, and lived in Holland, England, and Portugal, till after

Sagan, promising on his side to support | feated them in the dreadful battle of her against all her enemies, to vote for her Zorndoff. The battle of Hochkirchen, husband's elevation to the imperial dig. against Daun, was adverse to his fortunes, nity, and to pay her two million dollars. and he also suffered a severe check at the His proposals being rejected, he took doubtful fight of Cunnersdorff against the possession of Lower Silesia in December, Russians, and in consequence of these re1740, and defeated the Austrian army at peated disasters, Brandenburg and the Mollwitz, on the 27th April, 1741, which capital fell into the hands of the victorious submitted to the conqueror, and his pos- enemy 1761. The defeat of Daun at Torsession was confirmed by the treaty of gan gave a new turn to the affairs of the Breslau in 1743. undaunted monarch, his territories were evacuated by the enemy, and he in every situation displayed such activity, such vi gilance, and such resources of mind, that in 1762 a treaty of peace was concluded with Russia and Sweden, and the next year with France and the Empire, by which Silesia was forever confirmed in his possession. While cultivating the arts of peace, Frederick was still intent on enlarging his dominions, and he joined with Austria and Russia, in 1772, in that unpardonable league which dismembered the defenseless territories of Poland, and added some of its most fertile provinces to his kingdom. In 1777, the death of the Duke of Bavaria without children kindled the flames of discord and of war between Austria and Prussia. Frederick placed himself at the head of his troops, but the differences of the rival princes were settled by the peace of Teschen, 13th May, 1779. The last years of Frederick's life were earnestly devoted to the encouragement of commerce and of the arts, justice was administered with impartiality, useful establishments were created, and the miseries of the indigent and unfortunate were liberal

The following year war was rekindled, and Frederick advanced with one hundred thousand men to the siege of Prague, which he took with sixteen thousand prisoners, and this advantage was soon followed by the decisive battle of Friedburg over Prince Charles of Lorraine. Another treaty, signed at Dresden, 1745, again restored peace to the continent, and Austria ceded to the Prussian conqueror all Silesia with the county of Glatz. In 1755 a new war, called the Seven Years' War, burst forth with increased violence, and while Prussia had for its auxiliary the English nation, Austria was supported by France and by the Elector of Saxony, and Frederick soon saw the number of his enemies augmented by the accession of Russia, Sweden, and Germany. Undismayed in the midst of his powerful enemies, Frederick laid the foundation for victory and success in the strict discipline of his army, and in the fortitude and resignation with which he supported the reverses of fortune, and shared the fatigues of his soldiers. Though France attacked his dominions from Guelders to Minden, and Russia penetrated into Prussia, and the Austrians into Silesia, Frede-ly relieved by the benevolent cares of the rick on all sides rose superior to misfortunes. Though defeated by the Russians, he routed the Austrians, and again suffered a check in Bohemia, but on the 5th November, 1757, he avenged himself by the terrible defeat of the Austrians and French at Rosbach, and by an equally splendid victory the next month over the Austrian forces at Lissa, near Breslau. These important successes appalled his enemies, the Russians and Swedes retir ed in dismay from Prussia, and Frederick, supported by a liberal supply of money from the English government, and by an When reverses in battle occurred, or army of Hanoverians under the Duke of calamities befell him, Frederick never lost Brunswick, penetrated into Moravia, and his firmness of purpose, even when hope laid siege to Olmutz. Though here check- seemed all gone. In a period of extreme ed by Marshal Daun, he rapidly advanced danger, he wrote to Voltaire, who advised against the Russians at Custrin, and de-him to beg mercy from his enemies: "I

monarch. Frederick died 17th August, 1786, aged seventy-five. His works are numerous and respectable. Four volumes in octavo were published in his life-time, and fifteen since his death. The chief of these are Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg-a Poem on the Art of War, a composition of great merit-the History of his Own Time-the History of the Seven Years' War. All these have been collected together in twentyfive volumes octavo, 1790, with an account of his life.