A Remarkable Visit to Kensington Palace-Death of King William IV.-Details of his Last Days-Parliamentary Eulogies on his Character-Progress in the Last Half-Century-Ancestry of Queen Victoria-Her Descent traced to Odoacer, King of Italy-Saxon Ancestors of her Majesty-Liberal Views of the Duke of Kent, Father of the Queen-State of the Succession after the Death of the Princess Charlotte-Marriage of the Duke of Kent, and Birth of the Princess Victoria-Christening at Kensington Palace - The name "Victoria," and its Associations-Death of the Duke of Kent-Kensington Palace in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries-Early Training of Victoria by her Mother-Child-life of the Princess-False Rumours of Ill-health-Anecdotes of Juvenile Years The Princess and George IV.-Accession of William IV.-The Regency Bill-Prince Leopold and the Throne of Belgium - Studies of the Princess-Her Life of RetirementHome Tours in Various Parts of England-Visit to the Cotton Mills of the Messrs. Strutt at BelperReception at Oxford and at Southampton-Benevolence to an Actress-Her Royal Highness declared of Age on the 24th of May, 1837.

were shown into one of the lower rooms, where a long time passed without any attention being paid them. Growing impatient, they rang the bell (as we read in the interesting narrative of Miss Wynn), and desired that the attendant on the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform her Royal Highness that they requested an audience on business of importance. Another long delay ensued, and again the bell was rung, that some explanation might be given of the difficulty which appeared to exist. On the Princess's attendant making her appearance, she declared that her Royal Highness was in so sweet a sleep that she could not venture to disturb her. It was now evident that stronger measures must be taken, and one of the visitors said, "We have come on business of State to the Queen, and even her sleep must give way to that." The attendant disappeared, and a few minutes afterwards the young sovereign came into the room in a loose white robe and shawl, her fair hair falling over her shoulders, her feet in slippers, her eyes dim with tears, but her aspect perfectly calm and dignified.* Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister, was at once sent for, and arrived at nine o'clock, when, after an interview of half an hour with the Queen, he addressed himself to a rapid study of the ceremonials to be observed at the approaching Privy Council. Some time after, the Lord Mayor and other members of the Corporation reached the Palace, and the chief members of the Privy Council soon thronged the rooms.

Although the final illness of the late King had been rather brief, William had for some time been in declining health, and the nation had only to hope that his life would be prolonged until his niece, the Princess Victoria, had attained an age which could be regarded as constituting her majority. This had occurred on the 24th of the previous month, when the Princess completed her eighteenth year, which had been declared by Act of Parliament to be sufficient. William IV. was a man of very moderate abilities; but a certain simplicity and geniality of character had secured for him the regard and respect of the people, and had carried him through the revolutionary epoch of the Reform Bill with no great loss of popularity, even at a time when he was supposed to be unfriendly to the measure. For the last two years he had ceased to take any interest in the political tendencies of the day, while discharging the routine duties of his high office with conscientious regularity. Brought up in the midst of totally different ideas, he could not, at his time of life, accommodate himself to the flood of novel· principles which had recently set in, and which he was equally unable to accept and powerless to resist. The result was that, as a well-qualified observer records, "he submitted to what he could not help, but evidently with a sense of weariness." In the previous April he had been distressed by the death of his eldest daughter, Lady de Lisle, and of the Duchess-Dowager of SaxeMeiningen, mother of Queen Adelaide. Great physical prostration ensued shortly afterwards, and by June it was evident that the end could not be far

Diaries of a Lady of Quality, by Miss Frances Williams Wynn. 1864.

Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of William IV. and Victoria, by the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.

1861.

1837.]

DEATH OF WILLIAM IV.

3

distant. His Majesty was attended by the Queen with the most affectionate devotion; but the weakness steadily increased, and soon reached a fatal termination.

Owing to the state of the King's health, the Duke of Wellington proposed to dispense with the usual Waterloo Banquet at Apsley House; but on the 17th of June the dying monarch sent a message to the illustrious Field-Marshal, desiring that the occasion should be observed in the customary manner, and wishing the host and guests a pleasant day. On the anniversary of the great battle (the 18th), the Duke transmitted to Windsor, in accordance with the prescribed form, the banner by the presentation of which he held his estates. Lord Muncaster presented it to the King, who, raising himself up, grasped the folds of the flag, and exclaimed, "Ah! that was a glorious day for England!"* The eulogies pronounced in Parliament on the character of the deceased sovereign may have been somewhat affected by the conventional or official tone inseparable from such utterances; but they probably contain a fair amount of truth, with no more than the usual omissions. The disposition of William IV. was certainly superior to that of his brother George; and the country recognised the difference with the true instinct of a free people.

The Modern Age, in its most distinctive developments, is almost coeval with the reign of his successor. It is true that the Railway service had already begun; but it was still in its infancy when Queen Victoria ascended the throne, and had not yet effected any great revolution in the sentiments or habits of society. The Electric Telegraph, though fully born in the brains of scientific speculators, had received no practical application. Steam and machinery had still to achieve some of their greatest triumphs. The Postal system of those days seems barbarian to our modern eyes. The Newspaper Press was an insignificant force compared with what it is at the present day. Education, in the popular sense, hardly existed. Nation with nation held but little intercourse, and the prejudices of Englishmen were scarcely less gross than they had been in the days of Hogarth. Manners were far more coarse and brutal than they are now; the laws were more complicated and uncertain; social order was less secure; the arts had not attained so wide and general a culture; medicine, surgery, chemistry, geology, and other sciences, were less cultivated; taste was less diffused and less instructed; the luxuries, and even the comforts, of domestic life were almost unknown to the poorer classes; and political power was held by only a small proportion of the community. The England of 1837 was so different from the England we now behold, that the "Pickwick Papers," belonging to that date, require explanatory notes for the benefit of a younger generation. The history of these vast changes-in which the personal character and influence of her Majesty have had no small share-must be of the deepest interest to all thinking men; and it is this history which we propose to relate.

* Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, by the Right Hon. the Earl of Malmesbury. 1884.