The procession was at length formed. It was a curious and instructive exhibition, as bringing out in one view all the costly belongings of royalty which could be grouped together in-doors. The king, who was supported on one side by the bishop of Oxford, on the other by the bishop of Lincoln, wore a cap of state adorned with jewels, under a canopy of cloth of gold, borne by sixteen barons of the Cinque Ports. His train was borne by eight eldest sons of peers, assisted by the master and the groom of the robes, with twenty gentlemen pensioners on each side. The numerous officers of state who took part in the procession were clothed in costumes of endless variety, in every imaginable style of decoration, and the most brilliant and striking colours, the fantastic and grotesque reproduction of the magnificent royalty of olden times, when English kings were men of might, who could wield their heavy broadswords, and lead gallant charges on the battle-field. George IV. had not been distinguished in any such way. He had never been anything higher in the army than a colonel, and had never seen any service; but he was preeminently qualified to be the principal figure in a royal pageant, and on this day he did all in his power to prove to the nation that he was the right man in the right place. In contemplating what followed when the heads of the church bestowed their benedictions upon him, and anointed him, we could wish to eliminate his moral character, to forget all about his manner of life, the women he ruined, and the wife he persecuted. A mind that could see through all the imposing pomp and grandeur might have conceived a procession of a different kind-a long train of female victims, abandoned, heart-broken, sunk in poverty and infamy, whom this illustrious prince, with his minions, had made it the chief business of his life to corrupt and ruin. But these were all now forgotten; even the wronged and degraded wife was not allowed a place in the background of the picture.

summer flowers, in which the rose, the tulip and the violet, the snowdrop and the bright blue-bell displayed, contending each in its pride of beauty, and all insisting on pre-eminence. The procession continuing its course-the choirs of the chapel royal and of Westminster, with his majesty's band, to the organ gallery-some little confusion occurred in the filing off of the different bands; but the difficulty was quickly at an end, and upon the entrance of the king into the aisle, a hundred instruments and twice a hundred voices rang out their notes at once, and the loud anthem, attended with the applauding shouts of the spectators, echoed to the very roof of the abbey."

The procession seems to have been too much for the strength of the king. When he arrived at his chair of state opposite the altar, where he first knelt in private devotion, he appeared distressed almost to fainting. It was with uneven steps, and evident difficulty, that he made his way up the aisle. The heat was so great that a lady in one of the galleries swooned, and had to be removed from the building. The king was enormously over-dressed; and we are told that the weight of the state cloak alone, though it had seven supporters, might have overpowered a man in the most vigorous bodily health. The important business of the day was now to be transacted. After the singing of an anthem, and the sounding of trumpets, the ceremony of recognition was proceeded with. The archbishop of Canterbury, the lord chancellor, the lord great chamberlain, the lord high constable, and the earl marshal went each to a different point of the compass, east, south, west, and north, and addressed the people in a loud voice, the king at the same time standing by his chair and showing himself to each side of the theatre, while the archbishop spoke as follows:-" Sirs, I here present unto you king George IV., the undoubted king of this realm: wherefore all you that come this day to do your homage, are ye willing to do the same?" This was answered by loud and repeated acclamations, with cries of "God save king George IV. !"

The trumpets then sounded, another anthem was sung, and the king proceeded to make his first oblation upon the altar, kneeling and uncovered, and being supported in his passage thither by two bishops, the lords carrying the regalia before him. The treasurer of the household then delivered a wedge of gold, a pound weight, to the great chamberlain, which he, kneeling, delivered to the archbishop, and the archbishop to the king, who laid it on the altar. An appropriate prayer was then offered by the archbishop, the communion service was read, with the Nicene creed; then followed a sermon by the archbishop of York, in which, among other good things, he said

As the procession moved on to the abbey, the crowd was dazzled with its splendour. Various personages were the objects of cheers or hisses, according as they were acceptable or not to the parties of the king or queen. At length his majesty appeared in the distance. The crowd were then silent, and all eyes were fixed intently on that figure, the most showy and gorgeous impersonation of royalty, perhaps, that ever the people of any European nation had beheld. The following is a lively description of the scene within the abbey, by one who had the privilege of witnessing it:-"The herbwoman with her maids, and the sergeant-porter, remained at the entrance within the west door; the drums and trumpets filed off to the gallery over the entrance door. The abbey at this moment began rapidly to fill. The peeresses-their natural" that it behoved royalty to be strenuous in giving examattractions heightened by every aid which art or fancy could supply, their dresses sparkling with jewels, and their white feathers waving in the wind - thronged into the seats appointed for them immediately below the choir, and ranged in rows, to the number of one hundred and fiftyfive, without a single creature of the grosser sex to disturb the uniformity or break the delicacy of the scene; with robes of every colour, various as the rainbow, and plumes of hues almost as many, their box showed like a bed of

ples of purity in its own person; that the king should never forget that his virtues form the strongest ties between him and his people. Every page in history proved that people were neither regardless of the character of their sovereign nor blind to his merits." One might suppose from the foregoing remarks that the most reverend preacher meant to be personal, and that he took that solemn occasion to rebuke the king for his vices. But he had no idea of the kind; on the contrary, he poured out the fragrant

A.D. 1821.]

CEREMONIES AT THE CORONATION.

37

At the sight of this the people, with loud and repeated shouts, cried, "God save the king!" The trumpets sounded, and the great guns from the Tower responded. When the noise ceased, the archbishop addressed to the king a brief exhortation, and an anthem was sung. The archbishop and the other prelates then approached the king, and delivered him the Bible, with the exhortation to do the things contained therein.

oil of flattery very copiously. He said, "Our prudence, our morality, were proverbial amongst other nations, and the virtues of our present king seemed to secure a permanency of that feeling!" After some general reflections on the duties of sovereigns, and praise of the house of Hanover, the archbishop said, "It was a consolation to see the son and worthy successor of George III. treading in the same steps; and, indeed, the past conduct of his majesty had given every reason to hope the best from him And now, the king having been thus anointed and for the future!" Then the archbishop administered the crowned, and having received all the ensigns of royalty,

coronation oath, and the ceremony of anointing followed, preceded by the singing of an anthem and prayer.

The investiture now commenced, when his majesty was girt with the sword of state, the armill, or emblem of mercy, and royal robe. The royal or purple robe of state, furred with ermine, was then put on, also the annulum, or ring, the ensign of kingly dignity, and of the defence of the catholic faith. A pair of gloves were next put on his majesty, and the archbishop delivered him the sceptre and the rod of mercy. The crowning here took place. While his majesty sat in king Edward's chair, the dean of Westminster brought the crown from the altar, and the archbishop reverently placed it on the king's head.

108.-NEW SERIES.

the archbishop solemnly blessed him; all the bishops standing about him, with the rest of the peers, adding a loud and hearty " Amen."

The blessing being thus given, the king sat down in his chair, and kissed the archbishop and bishops assisting at his coronation, they kneeling before him one after another. Then the choir began to sing the Te Deum, and the king went up to the theatre on which the throne is placed, all the bishops, great officers, and other peers attending him, while he sat down and reposed himself in his chair below the throne. Another anthem having been sung, his majesty was enthronised, holding the sceptre in his right hand, and the orb in his left, all the great officers, those

A.D. 1821.]

DEATH OF QUEEN CAROLINE.

39

countrymen. This, indeed, was not a time that the king could stoop to feel; it was the general holiday of hypocrisy and dissimulation. After the day of the coronation, the mask dropped from the royal face. The carnival was over, and the royal actor approached the crisis of his policy. The blow had taken effect; it had struck on the heart of the unhappy queen. Private insult and secret persecution she could endure; but open insult, in the presence of the people, who but a few days before had attended her in triumph, accomplished her destruction. Her former invincible resolution failed to support her. She saw what the innocent look to, after trial and acquittal, to be of no use to her. She was still persecuted, still overlooked, and even her judges shunned her. "Their triumph," she said, "only precedes mine by a few hours. It is their turn next, and may God forgive them!

minutes every bottle on the table was emptied. A fresh acting, in direct opposition to the general voice of their supply was soon obtained from the cellarettes. "From liquids the operators proceeded to solids, and here the work of destruction was equally fierce. Sweetmeats, pastry, and confectionery of all sorts vanished with the rapidity of lightning." When the ravening selfishness of the hungry crowd was satisfied, the gentlemen recovered their politeness, and began to think of the ladies. Groups of beautiful women then found their way to the tables, and every effort was made to afford them the refreshment of which they stood so much in need. In the meantime, the plunderers took advantage of the confusion to enrich themselves with trophies, breaking and destroying the table ornaments to obtain fragments of things too cumbrous to carry away. Thus, baskets, flower-pots, vases, and figures were everywhere disappearing, and these were followed by glasses, knives, forks, salt-spoons, and, finally, the plates and dishes. The last were engraved with the royal arms and the letters "Geo. IV.," and were therefore specially coveted as memorials. The dirty statement. of the articles, however, was rather out of keeping with the costly dresses; but the ladies and gentlemen got over the difficulty by wrapping up the articles in their pockethandkerchiefs. Having thus secured all the spoils they could, they made all possible haste to their carriages. At a subsequent period, it was with the greatest difficulty that the royal plate could be kept from being carried away by the multitude outside, when the barriers were removed. "The excitement occasioned by the gaudy pageant of the coronation," says a contemporary writer, "had no sooner subsided, than the attention of the people was turned to the enormous expenses incurred, and which were to be defrayed from the public purse. The single item of twenty-five thousand pounds for the robes of the king, which were only worn for a few hours, and then to be deposited as useless lumber on the shelves of the royal wardrobe, naturally met with the indignant reprobation of the people. They beheld their interests sacrificed, their distresses aggravated, their feelings trifled with, for the mere purpose of gratifying an inordinate love of pomp and pageantry. With the last light that was extinguished at the banquet scene at which an hour before shone the pride of English beauty and of English chivalry—with the last retiring step from the deserted hall-gradually subsided the public interest in the pageant; and it was then discovered that, with the exception of the aristocracy and the imme-She had painted their characters in vivid colours in her diate dependents of the court, its retainers and its minions, the public voice deprecated the ceremony; and that so far from adding to the popularity of the monarch, it abrogated from him all claim and title to the character of a patriotic king. The venal crew hired for the purpose to exclaim 'God save the king!' and to hiss the queen, were people of a different stamp and character from those who but a few days before had led the ranks and filled up the van of public opinion. They were the vain, the aristocratic, and the wealthy, who could pay for such exhibitions; while the spacious area in view was filled by the king's partisans, selected from subordinate stations in society. Many even of these hung their heads with shame, as if conscious to themselves of the mean and dastardly part they were

After the coronation, the queen resided at Brandenburgh House, determined to lead a life of dignified retireBut the violent agitation and excitement, and the terribly painful mortification to which she was subjected in her ill-advised attempt to form part of the coronation pageant, were too much for her constitution. The functions of the body were therefore wholly deranged. An obstruction of the bowels took place, which terminated in inflammation and mortification. As soon as it was evident that her end was approaching, much public sympathy was excited, and the vicinity of her residence was incessantly thronged with persons of all classes making anxious inquiries about her health, and solicitous for her restoration. On the 4th of August, when her professional advisers were receiving instructions about the disposition of her property, one of them suggested the propriety of sending a messenger to Italy to seal up her papers, in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of her enemies. "And what if they do?" she exclaimed; "I have no papers that they may not see. They can find nothing, because there is nothing, nor ever has been, to impeach my character." One of them said that he was aware of that, but her enemies might put there what they did not find. She replied, "I have always defied their malice, and I defy it still." Nevertheless, it was her conscious failure in her efforts to make the public believe this, coupled with the public humiliation to which she had been subjected, that bowed down her spirit at last, and gave the victory to her enemies.

private diary, and might have transmitted their punishment to posterity, had she ordered it to be preserved and published; but she gave directions to have it destroyed, and it was burnt in her presence, by one of her foreign maids. After suffering intensely for four or five days, she sank into a stupor, from which she never woke, and on the 7th of August, after an entire absence of sense and faculty for more than two hours, expired Caroline of Brunswick, queen consort of George IV., in the fifty-fourth year of her age. She had by her bedside in her last hours her faithful friends and constant attendants, lord and lady Hood, and lady Anne Hamilton; alderman Wood, who had been devoted to

• Memoirs of George IV." by Robert Huish, vol. ii., p. 218.