the daughter of Francis I., Emperor of Germany, and of the celebrated Maria Theresa of Austria, was born at Vienna 2d November, 1755. She had scarcely completed her fourteenth year, when the Duke de Choiseul was entrusted by Louis XV. to ask her in marriage for his grandson, the Dauphin of France, who afterwards, in 1774, became king under the name of Louis XVI. The marriage was celebrated at Versailles on the 10th of May 1770. But Marie Antoinette was not destined to experience much happiness at the corrupt court of France. Habilitated from her earliest years, at the well-regulated court of Maria Theresa, to the enjoyment of privacy and domestic familiarity, she felt a strong dislike to the severe etiquette and stiff reserve which at the French court usurped the place of that candour and simplicity which almost invariably accompany purity of heart and true nobility of character. What was genuinely pure and noble was willingly unknown there; and gay frivolity and wanton licentiousness assumed a guise which was in some measure calculated to deceive the eye of the virtuous. This handsome, kind-hearted, lively and pure-minded German girl could with difficulty conceal her contempt for the heartless society among which she was cast. Prudence might have dictated less demonstration of her ridicule, less ostentation of her love for private life and the sweets of domestic affection; but her disposition was too spontaneous, her habit of mind too thoughtless for such a course, and she was consequently destined to multiply enemies rather than secure friends. Yet there was much in the young queen to attract the enthusiasm of her volatile subjects. If she disliked the stiff formality and polite insincerity of the court, her noble carriage and charming expression won the hearts of the people. When she appeared at first in public, the enthusiastic admiration of the populace was unbounded, and she had often to stand on the steps of her carriage and show herself to the admiring throng. But this interest was gradually dying away before the growing discontent of a distressed people, caused by the luxury of the court, and the exhaustion of the public treasury, when an incident occurred which gave the first direct blow to the popularity of Marie Antoinette. The Countess de la Motte having become aware that the queen had declined the offer of a magnificent diamond necklace from her jeweller, owing to the enormous price of 1,800,000 livres, which he demanded for it, the crafty countess, anxious to obtain possession of the treasure, alleged that she was authorized by the queen, and concluded the bargain. This unprincipled woman succeeded, besides, by a dexterous piece of intriguing, in making the Cardinal de Rohan a party to the negotiation, by beguiling him into the belief that he was met at midnight by Marie Antoinette in the park of Versailles. The fraud was discovered when the first payment was demanded; and, although the infamous countess was condemned to be whipped and branded for the wrong she had done her royal mistress, public suspicion was awakened, and the tongue of scandal let loose against the queen, who is now universally believed to have been innocent of the crimes laid to her charge. At the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 she was regarded with an eye of jealous dislike by the public. She is said to have used all her efforts to induce her feeble and irresolute husband to offer resistance, but without success. She scorned to conciliate the favour of the revolutionary leaders, and even declined the aid of Mirabeau to support the royal interest; a step which drove that powerful orator and extraordinary man to enlist in the ranks of the Revolutionists. Marie Antoinette was imprisoned in the Temple after the popular triumph of the 10th August, 1792. She became known as one of the advisers of the attempted flight of the king, and this served to increase the jealousy and hatred of the public. The armed masses were resolved to annihilate the kingly office, and the poor unfortunate queen was exposed to all manner of insult and persecution. Nevertheless, she was not of a temper to be at once crushed by adversity; she displayed a dignified courage under the most trying circumstances, and exhibited a degree of moral firmness and mild resignation which was truly heroic. She was ever more anxious about the welfare of her husband and of her children than she was about her own. The royal family, on going to prison, had tried to persuade themselves that Danton was their friend, but the bloody fanaticism of the mob, led on by Ami du peuple Marat, soon extinguished any rays of hope that still may have lingered about the prison walls of this unfortunate family. The king was executed on the 21st of January, 1793, and on the following October, the "widow Capet," as the indictment called her, was tried by the tribunal of the Revolution. On appearing before that horrible court, she felt her doom was sealed; that no plea of innocence could save her; yet her fortitude and queenly dignity never forsook her. The foulest and most infamous charges were brought against her, calculated to outrage her feelings as a woman and a mother. Being urged to reply, she exclaimed, turning to the public with vehement indignation, "I appeal to all the mothers here present, and demand of them if this is possible." "This stroke," says a French historian, "was sublime; it produced a great effect; and the president, perceiving this, passed hastily to the other questions." She was, as a matter of course, found guilty and condemned to death; and on the 16th of October, 1793, she was removed from the prison of the Conciergerie, and conducted, bound on a cart, beside a priest and the executioner, to the place of suffering. The foul mockery of her trial was only surpassed by the heartless brutality of the ferocious mob that yelled and vociferated around her for two hours along the streets of Paris. Her trying imprisonment and severe suffering had wasted her strength and destroyed her beauty; her eyesight was greatly injured, and her hair had become quite white. She bore all the indignities which were thus pub- fily heaped upon her with singular firmness and mild dignity, inspiring even that savage mob with wonder and awe. She died by the guillotine on the 16th October, at the age of thirty-seven. Out of a family of four, two children survived her; a son, who subsequently died in prison, and a daughter, who afterwards became the Duchess of Angoulême.

MARIE-AUX-MINES, Sr., a town of France, department of Haut-Rhin, is situated on the Lieporette, 14 miles N.W. of Colmar. The town stretches for about a mile on both sides of the river, and on each side rise thickly wooded mountains which look down upon it. It possesses a council of prud'hommes, a chamber of manufactures, and a Protestant church. The neighbouring district was rich in mines, which in the middle ages produced silver, lead, and copper, in great quantities, though there is now remaining only one mine of argentiferous lead. The principal occupations now pursued in the town consist of the manufacture of linen, cotton, and woollen stuffs, especially handkerchiefs and calicoes. Bleaching, dyeing, paper-making, and tanning, are also carried on to a considerable extent. Pop. 11,600.