The queen considered this step as a personal insult, as well as an attempt to prejudice her in the opinion of her subjects: she therefore ordered the publisher to be taken into custody.

At this period the princess Sophia died, in the eighty-fourth year of her age; and her death was intimated to the queen by baron Bothmar, who arrived in England with the character of envoy-extraordinary from the elector of Hanover.

This princess was the fourth and youngest daughter of Frederick, elector Palatine, king of Bohemia, and Elizabeth daughter of king James I.of England.

She enjoyed from nature an excellent capacity, which was finely cultivated; and was in all respects one of the most accomplished princesses of the age in which she lived.

At her death the court of England appeared in mourning; and the elector of Brunswick was prayed for by name in the liturgy of the church of England.