Italy, and established her son as king of that country, which afterwards contained Rome. She found it inhabited by a savage race, without religion, without courtesy, without agriculture. She taught them to sow grain, she polished them by introducing poetry and music, and she built their first temple, and lifted their thoughts to a superintending Deity. For these great benefits she was revered as prophetess, priestess, and queen, and received her celebrated name of Carmenta, in allusion to the oracular power with which she was supposed to be gifted.
That she was a woman of great genius and a remarkably practical mind, there can be little doubt; as the Romans would not otherwise have acknowledged, for such a length of time, her talents and merits. In their proudest days, they never forgot the honours due to the benefactress of their rude ancestors. Cicero speaks of an officer in his day called Flamen Carmentalis, who had charge of the rites instituted by this ancient prophetess. Virgil alludes to this remarkable woman in the eighth book of the Æneid:—
——"Dehinc progressus, monstrat et aram,
Et Carmentalem Romano nomine imrtam,
Quam memorant Nymphæ priscum Cannentis honorem
Vatis fatidicæ."
It is supposed to be from her name that verses were called Carmina by the Latins. She was well skilled in the Greek language, and of extraordinary learning for the age in which she lived.
CAROLINE AMELIA ELIZABETH,
Wife of George the Fourth of England, was the daughter of Charles William Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, and was born May 17th., 1768. She married the Prince) of Wales on the 8th. of April, 1795, and her daughter, the Princess Charlotte, was born on the 7th. of January, 1796. Dissensions soon arose between her and her husband, and in the following May they were separated, after which she resided at Blackheath. In 1806, being accused of some irregularities of conduct, the king instituted an inquiry into the matter by a ministerial committee. They examined a great number of witnesses, and acquitted the princess of the charge, declaring at the same time, that she was guilty of some imprudences, which had given rise to unfounded suspicions. The king confirmed this declaration of her innocence, and paid her a visit of ceremony. She afterwards received equal marks of esteem from the princes, her brothers-in-law. The Duke of Cumberland attended the princess to court and to the opera. The reports above-mentioned were caused by the adherents of the Prince of Wales, and the court of the reigning queen, who was very unfavourably disposed towards her daughter-in-law. On this occasion, as on many others, the nation manifested the most enthusiastic attachment to the princess. In 1813, the public contest was renewed between the two parties; the Princess of Wales complaining, as a mother, of the difficulties opposed to her seeing her daughter. The Prince of Wales, then regent, disregarded these complaints. Upon this, in July, 1814, the princess obtained permission to go to Brunswick, and, afterwards, to make the tour of Italy and Greece. She now began her celebrated journey through Germany, Italy, Greece, the Archipelago, and Syria, to Jerusalem,
