r English Books. We abridge from watery Pollnitz, taking care of any
sense he has. This is what ran in certain high-frizzled heads then
and there: and was dealt out in whispers to a privileged few, watery
Pollnitz's informers among them, till they got a myth made of it.
Frederick Duke of Edinburgh, second hope of England at this time, he is
the hero.

It appears, this loose young gentleman, standing in no favor with his
sovereign Father, had never yet been across to England, the royal Parent
preferring rather not to have him in sight; and was living idle at
Hanover; very eager to be wedded to Wilhelmina, as one grand and at
present grandest resource of his existence. It is now May, 1728; and
Frederick Duke of Edinburgh is twenty-one. He writes to his Aunt and
intended Mother-in-law, Queen Sophie (date not ascertainable to a
day, Note burnt as soon as read): "That he can endure this tantalizing
suspense no longer; such endless higgling about a supreme blessedness,
virtually agreed upon, may be sport to others, but is death to him. That
he will come privately at once, and wed his Wilhelmina; and so make
an end; the big-wigs to adjust it afterwards as they can and may."
Whereupon Sophie Dorothee, gladdest of women, sends for Dubourgay the
British Ambassador (Brigadier Dubourgay, the respectable old gentleman
who spells ill, who is strong for the Double-Marriage always), to tell
him what fine news there is, and what answer she has sent. Respectable
Dubourgay stands silent, with lengthening face: "Your Majesty, how
unfortunate that I of all men now hear it! I must instantly despatch
a courier with the news to London!" And the respectable man, stoically
deaf to her Majesty's entreaties, to all considerations but that of his
evident duty, "sends the courier" (thinks Pollnitz);--nips thereby that
fine Hanover speculation in the bud, sees Prince Fred at once summoned
over to England, and produces several effects. Nearly the whole of
which, on examining the Documents, [Dubourgay's Despatches (1728: 29
May, 1 June, 5 October), in the State-Paper Office here.] proves to be
myth.

Pollnitz himself adds two circumstances, in regard to it, which are
pretty impossible: as, first, that Friedrich Wilhelm had joyfully
consented to this clandestine marriage, and was eagerly waiting for it;
second, that George II. too had privately favored or even instigated the
adventure, being at heart willing to escape the trouble of Messages to
Parlia