VI. 1821. CHAP. grave,' as Byron put it in the tremendous philippic which he wrote on the occasion, the king crossed over to Dublin. The wind was contrary; and the king, leaving his yacht, embarked on board the Lightning' steam-packet. A favourable passage of only six hours brought him to Howth. His carriage was in readiness for him; but the citizens generally had not expected his arrival. A signal gun, however, announced that he had touched the Irish shore. The Irish poured forth from street and alley to welcome his arrival. The king, who had been drinking all the way from Holyhead to Howth, was in a condition of rollicking good-humour.1 He shook hands with scores upon scores of his subjects who crowded round his carriage; and, surrounded by the multitude, drove slowly to the Phoenix Park. There he addressed the people in one of the most singular speeches which ever proceeded from the mouth of a monarch. He thanked them all; he thanked them for escorting him to his very door; he might not be able to express his feelings as he wished; he had travelled far; besides which peculiar circumstances, known to them all, had occurred, of which it was better at present not to speak; he left it to delicate and generous hearts to appreciate his feelings. Generous and delicate hearts were the very last which could have appreciated the feelings of the monarch at the death of his injured wife. They might have imagined that, on the first tidings of her death, her husband might have had the decency to forget his own feelings and to think a little. of her wrongs. Had they any such anticipations the king's next sentence must have rudely disabused them. 'This,' the king went on, this is one of the happiest days of my life. I have long wished to visit you. My heart has always been Irish. From the day it first beat I have loved Ireland.' The lying compliment was fol 1 Fremantle, repeating the gossip of the day to Lord Buckingham, says he was 'in the last stage of intoxication.'-Buckingham's George IV., vol. i. p. 194. lowed by one touch of truth. Go and do by me as I shall do by you-drink my health in a bumper. I shall drink all yours in a bumper of good Irish whisky.' The king remained in Ireland for rather more than three weeks. During the whole of that time his appearance was everywhere welcomed with enthusiasm. Is it madness or meanness which clings to thee now? Their fanciful spirits to pamper his pride. The scathing satire with which Byron celebrated the occasion was justified by the extraordinary enthusiasm which the king everywhere excited. From his first arrival at Howth to his last departure from Dunleary the Irish were never tired of pouring out to welcome him and to cheer him. In compliment to him the name of the port from which he embarked to England was changed from Dunleary to Kingstown; and statesmen seemed justified in anticipating that the happiest consequences would result from the royal visit. It will be necessary in a future chapter to relate the miserable disappointment which followed these anticipations. The boisterous greeting with which the Irish had welcomed George IV. was, in fact, no more trustworthy than the favourable breeze which wafted the king from the shores of Ireland. The royal squadron sailed from Kingstown for Portsmouth on Wednesday, the 5th of September; but contrary winds compelled it to return, and it did not reach Milford Haven till the following Sunday. It was detained in Milford till Tuesday, the 11th, when it sailed with the hope of reaching the Land's End. But the appearance of the morning was again deceptive. As the night came on the wind shifted, a violent tempest arose, and the royal party were glad to put back to Milford, where CHAP. VI. 1821. VI. 1821. CHAP. they arrived on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 12th. A whole week had been consumed in the journey from Kingstown to Milford; and, sick of the sea, the king left his yacht and proceeded by land to London. On the 20th of September he again left England, on a visit to his Continental Kingdom of Hanover.1 INDEX ΤΟ THE FIRST VOLUME. - ABB ABBOT, Charles. See Colchester Abbott, Mr. Justice, afterwards Abingdon, corruption in, 145 - Lord, buys seat for Oxford, 145 Adams, Dr., counsel for king in 1820, a retired soldier, one of the Cato - Dr., Lord Sidmouth's father, 280 Addison, 325; his views on the stamp in 1816 on property tax, 409; and Albemarle, Lord, reception of regi- Alexander, Czar of Russia, his charac- ARU ter, 16; his views of government, 17 Algiers, description of, 227, 229; Xi. Alliance, the Holy, formed by Alex- ander, at the instigation of Madame America, discovery of, 114. See also Anderson, the author of the 'History Anglesey, no contest in, for fifty Lord, his place at the coronation, Anson, Admiral, 225 Appleby, Lord Lonsdale's borough, ASH Ashburton, Lord, Bentham's 'Frag- Assaye, battle of, 264 Assessed taxes, the, their amount in Athlone, Tierney sits for, 309 Austerlitz, its consequences, 23, 128 Australia, its population in 1816, 115 War upon, 7; her losses during the Avon, the river, its advantage to BAILE AILEY, Dr., attends Princess Char- Baker, Sir R., police magistrate in Bakewell, his improvements in agri- Bamford, the Radical,' his arrest in 1817, 466, n.; his conviction and Bandon Bridge, Tierney sits for, 309 Bankes, Mr., patron of Corfe Castle, 141 Bankruptcies in 1817, 417; in 1818, Barbadoes, Lord Seaforth Governor Barbarossa, Horuc and Hayradin, Barbary, the States of (see also Al- Baring, Sir Francis, answers Boyd's Barnes, Thomas, editor of the 'Times,' 381 Barracks, erection of, 221 Barrington, Shute, Prince Bishop of Barrow, its condition in 1815, 107 BLA Canning at the Board of Control, Bayley, Mr. Justice, presides on Pe- Beaufort, Duke of, his Parliamentary Beaumont, his duel with Lambton Beccaria, originator of the greatest Bedfordshire, education in, 213 Belfast, its progress in the nineteenth Belgium annexed to Holland in 1815, Bell, Dr. Andrew, his new system of - Henry, builds the Comet,' 92 Benbow, Admiral, 225 Bentham, Jeremy, his 'Panopticon,' Bentinck, Lord W., his offices, 147 Berkshire, its disproportionate repre- Bethnal Green, distress in, 181 son, 174; patron of Beeralston, 141 Bilston, men of, draw loaded wagons Birch, constable, shot by the Radi- Birkenhead, condition of, in 1816, 'Black Dwarf,' the, prosecution of, in Blackstone, his opinion of the Game |