Morganatic Marriages

Jrjvcrybody has hoard of tho term "morganatie marriages," and rnany people supposc tlmt marriages of this kiud ore a species of concubiiiBge, in wbich tlic Kings and Priuocs of Europe are fond of indulging. This is not the cnse, however. A niorganatic murriage is just as binding on the part'es as any other marriage. The torm is deriveil fiom the Germán niorgengabe, which memis a dowry. It sigitifies a matri moniiil contract in which ono of the partieg is greatly superior in rank to the other. If it be the bride that is ('f infèiior rank, shc agrees that slie and her ehildren shall be tntitkd neithor to the rank nor the estáte of hor husband, and that the dowry ivhich is .-cttled upon her at tho time of the niarriago slinll be accepted in lieu of all other privileges. If tho man bo the inferior, he gives consent to tiuiilar conditions. In the bridal ceremony the party of superior rank gives the left iiand, instcad 01' the right, to the other - whence the marriages are sometiiues called "left-handed." One of the most famous marriages of this class was that of Frederick VVilliam the Third, of Pruseia, to tbc Countess Augusta, of Harraeh, upon whom her husbaud conferrecl tho rank of Princess of Liopuitz - a niarriage eonsummated in 1824, long after tho death of the Kiug's legitímate spouse, the beautiful Queftn Louisa. The Princess of Liepnitz is still living- .n widow eince 1S40. Another morganalie niarriago was that of the late King of Denmark, Frederick tho Seventh, who, after being divorced from two priocesaeS, married morgnnaiically a plnin drfssmaker by the naine of RaetnasiéD, witB whom be üved bappily till bis deatli. Ho first cncountered her uiider very singular circumstances. It is tbc custom of Oopenhagon, when f large firo occurs, for one of the princes to atteud it, and to tako command of the detachmeut of troops which is alwaya c:il!ed out to keep order whilo tho firomen endcavor to estiuguish tho conllagration. Frederic, the Crown Prince, was once performine this duty, wheo his eye caught sight of a wax figure in a window of a dressmaker's shop, in the second story of a burning building. Ia the hurry and excitcment of the moment he mistook tliis figure for a human person endeavoring to escipe from the window. Leaping from his horse he plunged into (he building and ascended the stair case. On his way to the rooms he discovered thu owner of the dressmaking establishment, who waa bewildered in the smoke and whom he conducted to a place of lafe'ty. This was tho iroman he subsequei tly married, giving her the title of Couutess Danner, and settling upon her u larga dowry. She survived him only % year or two. Amorg the existing membcrs of princely houses who have contractid this kind )f niarriage may be mentioned Prince Leopold, of Saxony, Prince Charles, of Bavaria, and Princo Aloxander, of Wuriumburg. It is a son of the last named, ' in offcprirg of this morganaüo marrige, who, under the name of Princo l'esk, lately married Queen Victoria's :ousin, the Prineess Mary of Cambridge. iS. singular instance of morganatie union is that of Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimer, wlio is married in this manner to a daughtcr of the proud Duke of ïtichmond, whilo onother English nobleman, the Duke of Uamilton, wedded on terms of perfect equaüty a Princesa of the Grand Ducal House of Baden, whoso rank is certainly as high as that of Prioce Edward. The only modern case with which we are familiar of a morganatio marriago in wbich tbe bride was a person of superior rank, is that of the Princess Elizabeth, of Italy, sister-in-law of Victor Emmanuel, who was married with tlie left haud in 1855 - a year after the death of her husband, Priuca Ferdinand - to the Marquis Itapaoo. Yictor Emmanuel himself is satd to have boen more than once on the pointof oontractÍDg a morgauatic unión with some of bis favoritos, but has been prevented by the advice of Lis Ministers, who, somehow or other, deemed it better for the interests of the state that he should live in a moro reprehensible manner. The reigning dynasty of Baden pre sents an isolated instanco of tho scion of morganatic marrisge through the trammeliog precisión vi such a unión, and succeediDg to the rank of his parent in the samo way as tho offspring of an cqual anion. In 1830, with the death of the Grand Duke Louis, the striotly legitímate line of thia ancient princess came to an end. King Louis of Bavaria was on the point of taking poísession of the country as nest of kin, when Leopold, the offspring of a morganatic ïnarriage of the presiding Grand Duke Challes Frederiek with Madame Geyserberg, suddeuly proclaimcd him3elf Grand Duke. He was supported by tho peo pie, who admired his character and boldnesa. Bavaria threatened war, and marehed her armies through the Baden frontier, but tho outbreak of the French revolutiön of 1830, which was followed by disturbances in various parts of Germany, induccd King Louis to pause, and he fiually conlented htmaelf with issu'mg a soleiun protest against what he called a usurpation of tho crown. Tbe reigning family of Badon has since then never been fully reeognized by tho Germán powers. Leopold's son Frederic is now on the throne, and is married to a sister of the present Kiog of Pruesia. One more iustance of a morganatic union is that of tbe deepotic Elector of Hesse, whose dominions l'russia recently annexcd, to the great joy of his subjects. In 1831 he feil in lovo with Gertrude Lehmann, the pretty wife of a non coinmissioned officer in the Prussian artny. A little pecuniary arrangement was mado with her husband, a divorce obtained, and immediately aflerward the Elector Frederick William took her to Wife morganatically. He mado her first Countess of Schaumburg, and then Princess of Haanan. She has borne him sis sons and three daughtors, who have taken their titles from their mother. It was said that he ntended to declare his eldest son heir to Ihe throco, notwithstanding the legal hindrance in the way; but Prussia, by her summary proceeding, has prevented tho esceution of any such project. Thero aro seventcen thousand female voters 'w Vienna.