to his left side than to his right, or pronounced the former more ignoble than the latter.  The consciences both of princely and noble persons in Germany are quieted, if the more plebeian side is married to one who would degrade the more illustrious moiety-but, as if the laws of matrimony had no reference to the children to be thence propagated, the children of a left-handed alliance are not entitled to inherit.  Shocking consequence of a senseless equivocation, that only satisfies pride, not justice; and calculated for an acquittal at the herald’s Office, not at the last tribunal.

Separated the Princess Dorothea certainly was, and never admitted even to the nominal honours of her rank, being thenceforward always styled Duchess of Halle.  Whether divorced (75) is problematic, at least to me; nor can I pronounce, as, though it was generally believed, I am not certain that George espoused the Duchess of Kendal with his left hand.  As the Princess Dorothea died only some months before him, that ridiculous ceremony was scarcely deferred till then; and the extreme outward devotion of the Duchess, who every Sunday went seven times to Lutheran chapels, seemed to announce a realized wife.  As the genuine wife was always detained in her husband’s power, he seems not to have wholly dissolved their union; for, on the approach of the French army towards Hanover, during Queen Anne’s reign, the Duchess of Halle was sent home to her father and mother, who doted on their only child, and did retain her for a whole year, and did implore, though in vain that she might continue to reside with them.  As her son too, George ii., had thoughts of bringing her over and declaring her Queen Dowager, one can hardly believe that a ceremonial divorce had passed, the existence of which process would have glared in the face of her royalty.  But though German casuistry might allow her husband to take another wife with his left hand, because his legal wife had suffered her right hand to be kissed in bed by a gallant, even Westphalian or Aulic counsellors could not have pronounced that such a momentary adieu constituted adultery; and therefore of a formal divorce I must doubt-and there I must leave that case of conscience undecided, till future search into the Hanoverian chancery shall clear up a point of little real importance.

I have said that the disgraced Princess died but a short time before the King. (76) It is known that in Queen Anne’s time there was much noise about French prophets.  A female of that vocation (for we know from Scripture that the gift of prophecy is not limited to one gender) warned George I. to take care of his wife, as he would not survive her a year.  That oracle was probably dictated to the French Deborah by the Duke and Duchess of Zell, ‘who might be apprehensive lest the’ Duchess of Kendal should be tempted to remove entirely the obstacle to her conscientious union with their son-in-law.  Most Germans are superstitious, even such as have few other