avoided all connection with politics without sacrifice of his dignity or concealment of his opinions on the social duties of life. As the Consort of the Queen, peculiar perils beset him, and any error in this respect might have subjected him to the charge of ambition or meddlesomeness on the one hand, or of insensibility or indifference on the other; but from these and other dangers his heart and his intellect both aided in preserving him, and he gained the respect and general approbation of the people. Scandal never but once breathed upon his name, and even then more softly than is her wont. Thus he fulfilled the duties of a gentleman and good citizen in such manner as to be an exemplar to all around and beneath him, and to make the most illustrous(sic) home in the country the most happy in all relations of life. But he has shared the common fate of all, and the Angel of Death has loosed his shaft upon the good and great Prince Albert. Sudden and sorrowful as has been this event, it cannot be said to have been an entirely unlooked for visitation. The royal sufferer, during his illness had himself a presentiment of his death, and the calm and dignified composure of our bereaved Sovereign under the most trying event of her life would seem to indicate her reliance on the inscrutable will of the Almighty, and her belief that His fiat had gone forth for other and holier purpose than that which falls within the scope of mortal men. Be this as it may, those of our readers who place faith in astrological deductions, will feel interested in a few curious facts and quotations which we are about to lay before them, and which may serve as another illustration of there being more in Heaven and Earth than is dreamt of in man’s philosophy. Singularly enough as we write these words, having Zadkiel’s Almanack before us, two persons are in serious conversation within our hearing upon the many fulfilled predictions during the last fourteen years of the renowned author of that annual publication. But, to our task! At page 41 of the said almanack for 1861, Zadkiel says – “The stationary position of Saturn in the third degree of Virgo will be very evil for all persons born on the 26th of August [Prince Albert’s birthday] and among the sufferers I regret to see the worthy Prince Consort”. At page 23 the author says, “And in Old England the square of the moon to Mars in the Royal horoscope brings national troubles; wailing in high places!” Again, at page 23, we read – “The great conjunction of last month [Jupiter and Saturn in Virgo] fell just on the ascending degree of Prince Alfred, and will raise him into an important position ere long. I know, but do not choose to say all that it will effect; let the student examine certain Royal horoscopes, for the wise shall-
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From Historical Hastings
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