CHAP. VI. 1820. and Lord Hutchinson depart to passage of the Channel; and to Brougham begging him to meet her at St. Omer. She arrived at St. Omer on Tuesday, the 30th of May. The crisis had arrived. The queen was within a few hours' sail of the coast of England. The temporising policy of the Government had brought it face to face with a catastrophe which a few wise concessions might in all probability have averted. Hardly a hope remained that the queen, having come so far, would not come further; yet the Cabinet clung like drowning men to the Brougham slender hope which still sustained them. Brougham was asked to go to St. Omer in the double capacity of adviser to the queen and of a semi-official representative of the ert her. Ministry. Lord Hutchinson was directed to accompany him. Brougham was instructed to lay before the queen the agreement which he had already made with Lord Liverpool, for the grant to her of an annuity of 50,000l., on condition of her residing abroad, under some other title than that of Queen of England. Lord Hutchinson, singularly enough, was not provided with any formal instructions, though he was generally acquainted with the views of the Regent and of the Ministry. These terms, as Lord Hutchinson understood them, seem to have been even less liberal than those which had been agreed upon between Brougham and Lord Liverpool. The queen was not merely to be debarred from taking the title of Queen, she was to refrain from using any title attached to the royal family of England. Brougham and Lord Hutchinson reached St. Omer on Saturday, the 3rd of June. They found the queen surrounded by her Italian attendants; they learned that passports had already been obtained for her suite, and that she had determined to start for England the very next day. She was with difficulty persuaded to delay her journey for a few hours. She complained bitterly to Brougham of the indignities which she had received abroad. One minister had styled her Caroline of Brunswick, another Caroline of England; and her complaints on these heads were so long and so loud that Brougham did not venture to present to her the draft agreement which he had all the time in his pocket. On the Sunday, Brougham persuaded her to receive the proposition which it was understood that Lord Hutchinson was to make. Lord Hutchinson, not having it 'in any specific form of words,' begged for some little delay to enable him to look over his papers. The queen gave him three hours; read his proposal, and rejected his terms in five minutes. Brougham, by her command, retired to write to Lord Hutchinson. The queen withdrew, ordered her carriage, and, with Alderman Wood, Lady Anne Hamilton, and William Austin, drove off to Calais. 'Trifles, light as air,' for which it was not worth while contending, had terminated the negotiations and precipitated the crisis.1 CHAP. VI. 1820. arrives in The queen reached Calais at half-past eleven on Sun- The Queen day night. At Calais she received a strong remonstrance England. from Brougham, who was sincerely anxious to dissuade her from her journey. But she was already on board the packet; her mind was fully made up; and at six the following morning the packet worked its way out of Calais harbour. A few hours' passage brought the boat to Dover; and at one o'clock on Monday, the 5th of June, the queen landed in England. The Commandant, who had received no special instructions, followed the ordinary course and fired a royal salute. An immense multitude assembled and cheered her. The inhabitants presented her with an address, congratulating her on her accession to the throne; and she expressed, in a dexterous reply, 'her hope that she should be permitted to promote the happiness of her husband's subjects.' But the queen 1 Ann. Reg., 1820, Hist., pp. 133, 135. Yonge's Liverpool, vol. iii. pp. 63-69. Brougham's Memoirs, vol. CHAP. VI. 1820. Her progress to London. had come to act, not to bandy compliments. On the evening of the same day she left Dover and reached Canterbury. It was already dark when she arrived at the cathedral city. But a hundred flambeaux showed to her the immense crowd assembled to receive her. The horses were removed from her carriage, and the queen was drawn by the people to the door of her hotel. The Mayor and Corporation, in their robes of office, waited on her with an address; and the queen, still more confident than at Dover, promised in her reply to do anything to make my people happy.' The queen rose at an early hour on the following morning. The weather was unpropitious; but the rain did not deter her Majesty from resuming her journey, or the crowds from thronging to welcome her. Her journey from Canterbury to London was one long triumphal procession. She left Canterbury at half-past ten in the morning, the people not allowing the horses to be put to the carriage, but drawing her out of the town. The officers of the cavalry regiment stationed at Canterbury escorted her as far as Sittingbourne. The clergy, in their gowns and bands, showed their indifference to the rumours of her Majesty's conduct by waiting on her at Sittingbourne. But the respect which was shown to her by the Army and the Church formed the least gratifying portion of the remarkable reception. At every village through which she passed all business was suspended, and the bells of every parish church rang out a merry peal of welcome. The entire nation seemed animated by one universal enthusiasm in her cause. Chatham, Rochester, and Strood poured forth their tens of thousands to do honour to their queen. At Gravesend she was again drawn by the people from one end of the town to the other. Hundreds of vehicles swelled the procession as it reached the metropolis. 'Deptford and Greenwich poured out in indiscriminate concourse СНАР. VI. all ranks and conditions of their inhabitants; Blackheath resembled some great Continental fair. All classes of the people, men and women, old and young, grave and 1820. gay, shared in the universal enthusiasm. The queen, overcome with the fatigue and excitement of her journey, rested for twenty minutes at this point before she resumed her approach to the capital. The weather improved as she reached the metropolis. Her carriage was thrown open; and, amidst the acclamations of a countless multitude, swelling into a louder and louder strain, the journey was resumed. The queen's equipage was mean and miserable. The carriage in which she sat was shabby. That beast Wood,' alderman and fishmonger, sat by her side. Lady Anne Hamilton, sister to the duke, occupied the opposite seat. Six or seven carriages, filled with the queen's suite, followed her own. The queen was in mourning for the late king, and bowed her acknowledgments to the multitude which was welcoming her. The vast throng, forming one compact mass, rolled over Westminster Bridge, through Parliament Street and Whitehall to Pall Mall. As the queen's carriage passed Carlton House, the king's residence, Alderman Wood stood up and gave three cheers. The sentries at the gates, following the example of the Commandant at Dover, presented arms. The cavalcade rolled on up St. James's Street till it reached the residence of Alderman Wood, in South Audley Street, where the queen alighted. The multitude did not disperse till her Majesty had bowed her acknowledgments from the balcony. mediate canses of larity. The enthusiasm with which the queen was greeted has The improbably had no parallel in the history of England; yet it was due to very simple causes, and affords a striking her popu testimony to Alderman Wood's sagacity. It was attributable to two motives which have a strong influence in the English character: an admiration of pluck and CHAP. 1820, a hatred of oppression. Up to the date of her Majesty's landing at Dover one of these motives alone had influenced the people. They thought her oppressed, and they gave her their sympathy; but they were ignorant of her courage, and they withheld from her their admiration. She landed, and, in the words of a contemporary chronicler, the calm was changed into a storm.' Journals which, on the Monday, would only grant her a few lines, and those expressed with the utmost caution, now sounded the trumpet of alarm throughout the land, and called on the friends of innocence to avenge the past insults of their queen, and to protect her against them for time to come.' The calmest and gravest intellects caught the general infection. If her father had advanced to Paris,' wrote Ward, as fearlessly as she advanced to London, we might have been spared five-and-twenty years' war.' 'She approaches wisely, because boldly,' wrote Wilberforce, on the eve of her entry into the metropolis; how deeply interested all are-indeed, I feel it myself-about her! One can't help admiring her spirit, though I fear she has been very profligate.' Yet, though everyone admired her courage and sympathised with her in her misfortunes, few, if any, believed in her innocence. Brougham, on the morning after her arrival, disclosed for the first time all his apprehensions to Denman, and finished a long series of awkward statements by saying, 'So now we are in for it, Mr. Denman!' The Whigs espoused the queen's cause; but the Whig ladies did not call upon her.1 Mrs. Denman was extremely anxious to do so, but Denman begged her to wait till Mrs. Brougham had left her name, 'dreading that such scenes of vice and debauchery would be proved as would overwhelm with shame any woman who had formed any acquaintance with the criminal.' The mob 1 So say Denman (vol. i. p. 149) and Bootle Wilbraham, in Colchester, vol. iii. p. 142. The latter, however, excepts Lady Tavistock. He might also have excepted the Dowager Lady Lansdowne, Lady Harrington, and Mrs. Damer.—Ann. Reg., 1820, Chron., p. 219. |