1837.] HIS DEATH, AND CHARACTER. 377 York prepared a prayer for his restoration to health, which, on the 16th, was ordered by the Privy Council to be used immediately before the Litany. On Sunday, the 18th of June, the symptoms assumed a more alarming character, and it was announced in the bulletin of the 19th that his majesty on that day had received the sacrament at the hands of the archbishop of Canterbury. On Tuesday, the 20th of June, the last of these official documents was issued. His majesty had expired that morning at twelve minutes past two o'clock. The lapse of a quarter of a century has enabled us to appreciate the justice of those parliamentary eulogies on the character of William the Fourth which immediately followed his death. In the House of Lords, Viscount Melbourne dwelt upon his zeal and assiduity in the discharge of the public business; upon his fairness and sense of justice-"most fair, most candid, most impartial, most willing to hear, to weigh, and to consider what was urged even in opposition to his most favourite opinions." The duke of Wellington bore distinct testimony to the total absence of vindictive feelings in the late king. The opposition of the duke when prime minister to the views of the Lord High Admiral, had compelled him to resign that great office which he was most anxious to retain; and yet on his accession he employed the duke in his service, and manifested towards him the greatest kindness. Earl Grey described him as truly "a Patriot King"-one whose most anxious desire was to decide what was best for the country over which he ruled. Lord Brougham entirely agreed in what had been said of the amiable disposition, the inflexible love of justice, and the rare candour by which the character of William the Fourth was distinguished. In the House of Commons, lord John Russell panegyrized the conduct of the late king towards his ministers as marked by sincerity and kindness. He was in the habit of stating his opinions frankly, fairly and fully; never seeking any indirect means of accomplishing an object, but in a straightforward and manly way confined himself to an open, simple, and plain attempt to impress the minds of others with the opinion which he might at the moment entertain. If his constitutional advisers differed from him, and still continued to be his servants, he left them wholly responsible for carrying into effect the course of policy which they recommended. His devotion during his last illness to the public business was the same as it had been through his whole reign. During a period of great suffering whatever required immediate attention received immediate notice. On the last day of his life he signed one of those. papers in which he exercised the royal prerogative of mercy. Sir Robert Peel bore the same testimony to the king's utter forgetfulness of all amusement, and even of all private considerations, that could for a moment interfere with the most efficient discharge of his public duties. It is impossible to read these testimonies to the public virtues of William the Fourth, given by the most eminent men of the two great parties in the State, without subscribing to their general truth. They did not overdo their praise. They did not attempt to represent their late master as a sovereign of eminent ability, of a highly cultivated understanding, of great refinement. They spoke of him as a man who honestly endeavoured to understand the * See Debates in both Houses on the Queen's Message, June 22-Hansard, vol. xxxviii. 378 CHARACTER OF KING WILLIAM IV. [1837. important questions upon which he had to decide, and faithfully to do his part of letting his ministers work out their own policy without meddling and without intrigue. It was certainly a beautiful part of the character of the king that he did not treasure up the grievances of the duke of Clarence. Queen Caroline's Solicitor-General, who had denounced him as a slanderer, became his Lord Chief Justice. The duke of Wellington, who turned him out of a lucrative office which he could ill-afford to give up, was retained as his Prime Minister when he came to the Crown. It is impossible not to see in how marked a manner, although it might have been without a direct intention, the traits most dwelt upon in the public character of William the Fourth were in forcible contrast with the public and private life of the Regent and of George the Fourth. This contrast was evidently in the mind of the preacher who thus spoke of the monarch then unburied: "When he entered into his palaces he did not say, 'All this is my birthright; I am entitled to it-it is my due. How can I gain more splendour? how can I increase all the pleasures of the senses ?'"* We have noticed one slip in the prudent course of the constitutional government of the sailor-king-his abrupt dismissal of the ministry of lord Melbourne. This mistake has been ascribed, and perhaps not untruly, to the influence of the family by whom he was surrounded. For many years the duke of Clarence enjoyed as much domestic happiness as the Royal Marriage Act permitted to him. Mrs. Jordan, one of the most fascinating of actresses, lived with him in all the relations of a faithful and affectionate wife, except that of the sacred inviolability of the nuptial tie. This lady bore him ten children. The world did not look unkindly upon this union. The five sons and five daughters were affectionately cherished by their father; and when state reasons led the duke of Clarence to marry in 1818, the excellent sense and kindly nature of the princess Adelaide of Saxe Meiningen were shown in her treatment of the Fitzclarences. When she became queen, her own court was a model of correctness; but the presence there of her husband's offspring was no offence against its decorum, except to the few whose strictness bordered on uncharitableness. This family were freely received into the highest society. There, however successful had been the reforms of the Greys and Russells, Toryism, and indeed very mild Whiggism, looked with apprehension upon any further progress in the battle against decayed institutions. For a season the king caught the fears of those around him, and he changed his government. When lord Melbourne returned to office he had not to complain of an obstructive power behind the throne. It was five o'clock on the morning of the 20th of June when the doors of Kensington Palace, where the princess Victoria dwelt with her mother, were opened to the archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chamberlain, and the physician of William IV., Sir Henry Halford. They had come direct from the dark chamber of death at Windsor, to tell the youthful princess, who had attained the age of eighteen on the 25th of May, that she was Queen of one of the greatest amongst the nations. The intelligence had been momently * Sydney Smith--"Sermon at St. Paul's." 1837.] ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 379 expected. The household was astir at that early hour of the sunny morning; the three messengers were at once in the presence of their Sovereign Lady. Lord Melbourne had an audience at nine o'clock. At eleven the state apartments of Kensington Palace were filled with members of the Privy Council of the late king-Peers, Cabinet Ministers, the two Archbishops, the Lord Mayor of London, Right Honourable Commoners. The duke of Cumberland, now king of Hanover, and the duke of Sussex, were conspicuous in that historical group which Wilkie has painted. The doors of the Council Chamber were opened; and Queen Victoria, entering with the duchess of Kent,-pale, but perfectly self-possessed,-took her seat at the head of the Council table. The Lord Chancellor administered the oaths prescribed for the sovereign's accession; the Privy Councillors took the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and then for the first time was heard by her assembled subjects that exquisitely modulated voice which for a quarter of a century has lent a charm to the formal periods of a speech from the throne. The opening sentence of the Queen's Declaration had a graceful simplicity, which appeared more like the natural effusion of the heart than the elaborate composition of a ministerial adviser: "The severe and afflicting loss which the nation has sustained by the death of his majesty, my beloved uncle, has devolved upon me the duty of administering the government of this empire. This awful responsibility is imposed upon me so suddenly, and at so early a period of my life, that I should feel myself utterly oppressed by the burden, were I not sustained by the hope that Divine Providence, which has called me to this work, will give me strength for the performance of it, and that I shall find in the purity of my intentions, and in my zeal for the public welfare, that support and those resources which usually belong to a more mature age, and to long experience." The queen's demeanour on that eventful morning impressed every one who was present, not only with profound admiration, but with confident hope of a glorious future. Truly did sir Robert Peel say of this demeanour that there is something which art cannot imitate and lessons cannot teach. There was evidence of a high and generous nature in her solemn expression of regret at the domestic calamity which had just occurred; in her manifestation of a deep and awful sense of the duties she was called upon to fulfil; in the becoming and dignified modesty of all her actions. When the newspapers described how, on the next day, Victoria, the queen, appeared at a window overlooking the courtyard of St. James's Palace, " dressed in black silk, with a crape scarf over her white tippet, and a little black chip bonnet,"—when they told how, looking "paler than usual," she wept as she acknowledged the plaudits of the people, such plaudits "as never could be surpassed" *-there were few amongst her subjects who did not put up a prayer for the happiness of this young creature, exposed so early to all the temptations of luxury and all the bewilderments of power. But there was little fear. There was confidence, as she had been brought up in the unobtrusive simplicity of her mother's life as her natural abilities had been diligently cultivated—as from her childhood she had learnt the great lessons of self-denial-as she was well - 380 ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. [1837. grounded in religious principle-that the perils of such greatness would be escaped. Never were the feelings of the nation more nobly expressed than by a voice from the pulpit of the metropolitan cathedral: "What limits to the glory and happiness of our native land, if the Creator should in his mercy have placed in the heart of this Royal Woman the rudiments of wisdom and mercy; and if, giving them time to expand, and to bless our children's children with her goodness, He should grant to her a long sojourning upon earth, and leave her to reign over us till she is well stricken in years! What glory! what happiness! what joy! what bounty of God!"* * "Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith," vol. iii. p. 320. |