Glimpses of King William IV. and Queen Adelaide Part 4

'My brother was deputed to present the address of condolence from the magistrates to the Dowager Queen. He dreaded it, but he wrote to Lord Howe to know how and when, and was answered--Queen Adelaide receives no addresses; but those she received on the throne from the City, etc., those she must receive. We are delighted at this, as it was too much to impose upon her. Addresses are pouring in from all quarters, and Lord Howe is to receive them.'

As Queen Adelaide received no visitors, except such as she could not refuse, in her widowhood, the King's death closed her intimate intercourse with the c.l.i.therows. It seems, however, just to the memory of both the King and Queen to insert the following testimony to her tender affection for her husband, and her delicacy of feeling respecting his previous relations with Mrs. Jordan.

'BOSTON HOUSE, 'September 23, 1837.

'I dare say you look to me for some true account of our dear Queen Adelaide. We have not seen her, but have been much gratified by her recollection of us. She sent a most kind message by Mr. Wood, with the little book he wrote at her command of William IV.'s last days--a copy to my brother and one to me.

'Very lately we began to doubt whether we ought not to go to Bushey as we used to visit her Majesty at Windsor, and Mrs. c.l.i.therow wrote to consult Lady Denbigh. She acted most kindly to us, for she waited an opportunity of showing the note to the Queen. Her Majesty's answer was, it would be a 'real comfort to her to see Mrs. c.l.i.therow, but it would open the door to so many; she could not without giving great offence.

Lady Denbigh added Her Majesty had received no one yet, except those whom she was obliged to admit.

'Mrs. c.l.i.therow dined in company with Miss Hudson, one of the Dowager's Maids of Honour, whom we know very well. She gave a delightful account of the dear Queen, her mind so peaceful, always occupied, much interested with her sister and her children, constantly doing charitable acts, and for ever talking of the King, and hoping she had thoroughly done her duty. Miss Hudson was in waiting for five weeks, and the first three she was very uneasy about Her Majesty's health, and thought her sadly altered; but the last two her cough had almost entirely ceased, and she had slept remarkably well.

'You have no doubt seen the book I allude to, for 'tis now to be had for sixpence. Could anything be so extraordinary as the conduct of the Bishop of Worcester? Her Majesty sent him a copy, and he sent it to the editor of a newspaper. When the Queen read it in a public paper she was very indignant, and the gentleman who was told by her to discover who "the high dignitary in the Church" was, told us Carr, Bishop of Worcester. The man who has been quite the _Court Bishop_ should have known better.

'One act of the Queen Dowager I must tell you: the Queen sent a message by Colonel Wood and Sir Henry Wheatley requesting she would take anything she chose from the Castle; she selected two--a favourite cup of the King's, in which she had given him everything during his last illness, and the picture from his own room of all his family. It was a singular picture, all the Fitz-Clarences grouped, and in the room Mrs.

Jordan hanging a picture on the wall, the King's bust on a pedestal, and all strikingly like. I think it shows a delicacy of feeling to her King which was beautiful. It was a picture better out of sight for his memory. Now, this you may believe, for Colonel Wood told us. He transacted the business, and Queen Adelaide has the picture.

'Believe me, 'Yours very truly, 'MARY c.l.i.tHEROW.'

Neither Queen Adelaide nor the three friends long survived the kindly monarch they loved so well. Colonel c.l.i.therow died in 1841; his sister, who became totally blind, early in 1847; and his true and honest wife, the last of the Boston House trio, died in March of the same year.

X

AN APPRECIATION OF KING WILLIAM IV. AND HIS REIGN

TO the letters already given, which cover the seven years of William IV.'s reign, it seems appropriate to add two public utterances on the occasion of his death. The cuttings containing them are pasted in a MS.

book belonging to Miss c.l.i.therow's correspondent, himself a writer of repute,[*] and are preceded by the following notes:

[*] The Rev. Edward Nares, D.D., Rector of Biddenden, Kent, and Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford.

'No King ever departed this life with less of blame attached to him as a King, or with more credit as a well-meaning, good-natured, high-minded man. No King ever more truly acted upon the n.o.ble principles of Louis XII. in forgiving, as King, all offences committed against him while Duke of Orleans. When the Duke of Wellington was the Minister of George IV., he saw fit, with a view to retrenchment in the public interest of unnecessary expenditure, to remove H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence from the office of Lord High Admiral. When H.R.H. succeeded to the Crown, not only was this not resented, but nothing could exceed the attentions the Duke of Wellington was in the way of receiving from His Majesty on all anniversaries of the Battle of Waterloo. He constantly honoured the Duke with his company at dinner, and lamented the necessity of being absent on June 18, 1837, only two days before he died.

'This striking instance of a greatness of mind highly becoming a King of Great Britain was alluded to by the Duke of Wellington in the House of Peers on the first day of their meeting after the King's demise.

There is extant in print what I believe to be a very authentic relation of the magnanimity with which His Majesty, as King, forgave a bold attack upon him as Duke of Clarence in his presence in the House of Lords by the present Chief Justice of England, Lord Denman. I allude to a memorable speech of the latter at the Queen's trial in 1820.

'Praises and commendations of Kings and Queens are so liable to the suspicion of flattery that it cannot but be pleasant to a mind const.i.tutionally loyal to be able to produce testimony to that effect of indisputable authority. In the course of a speech at the nomination of candidates for North Lancas.h.i.+re, Lord Stanley, not long since a member of a Whig Cabinet, said: "The country had just lost a Sovereign whose virtues and transcendent attributes had earned for him an immortal name. Those who knew least of His late Majesty did not hesitate to ascribe to him an ever anxious delight in being kind and affectionate to his people, attached to their wishes, and determined to administer to their comforts. He thought little of himself when promoting the happiness of those around him. Those who had ever an opportunity of coming into immediate contact with the late Sovereign could justly appreciate his excellent qualities. His attention to business, his candour of manner in listening to the arguments of his advisers, manifested a full knowledge of his const.i.tutional duties. He (Lord Stanley) had witnessed how His late Majesty had declined a.s.serting his prerogative when it in the slightest degree seemed to interfere with public officers in the discharge of their public duties.

In the discharge of his duties as a Minister of the Crown it had happened on three occasions that His Majesty had felt a deep interest in the appointment of three individuals to office, and it did so happen that he could not meet the private wishes of the Sovereign in making those appointments, and he intimated to His Majesty the public grounds on which he would rather they were not made. His Majesty immediately with pleasure declined pressing his own views, which, he said, were secondary compared with the public business of the country."'

This eulogium is confirmed by several pa.s.sages in Miss c.l.i.therow's letters. The next extract is prefaced in her correspondent's MS. as follows:

'Of the King's last moments n.o.body had a better account to give than the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was with him, and who had it in his power to bear undeniable testimony to the affectionate and unwearying attentions of the Queen to the very last. Before His Majesty's funeral I had this confirmed to me by the Archbishop himself, who also told me that he had already seen the young Queen preside in three Councils with singular propriety, dignity, and decorum, adding much in praise of the good education she had received.'

Extract from the speech of the Archbishop (Howley) of Canterbury at a meeting of the Metropolitan Churches' Fund:

'I attended on our late Sovereign during the last few days of his life, and, truly, it was an edifying sight to witness the patience with which he endured sufferings the most oppressive, his thankfulness to the Almighty for any alleviations under his most painful disorder, his sense of every attention paid to him, the absence of all expressions of impatience, his anxiety to discharge every public duty to the utmost of his power, his attention to every paper that was brought to him, the serious state of his mind, and the devotion manifested in his religious duties preparatory to his departure for that happy world where we may humbly hope he has now been called. Three different times was I summoned to his presence the day before his dissolution. He received the sacrament first; on my second summons I read the Church Service to him, and the third time I appeared the oppression under which he laboured prevented him from joining outwardly, though he appeared sensible of the consolation I offered him. For three weeks prior to the dissolution the Queen had sat by his bedside, performing for him every office which a sick man could require, and depriving herself of all rest and refection. She underwent labours which I thought no ordinary woman could endure. No language can do justice to her meekness and to the calmness of mind which she sought to keep up before the King while sorrow was preying on her heart. Such constancy of affection, I think, was one of the most interesting spectacles that could be presented to a mind desirous of being satisfied with the sight of human excellence.'

William IV.--a good husband, a good father, a good King, a good friend--was indeed a happy contrast to the selfish, if more gifted, brother who preceded him on the throne. He was an eminently const.i.tutional monarch, popular and patriotic. His reign was short, and, though not free from riot and disturbance, was mainly characterized by peace, retrenchment, and reform. Its social legislation included the Reform Bill, the abolition of slavery, the Factory Acts, the New Poor Law, and the t.i.the Commutation Act, while the modest grant of 20,000 per annum was the first recognition by the State of its duty respecting the education of the people. At the same time, the Empire was expanding, the colony of South Australia was established, and its capital bore the name of the King's devoted and sympathetic consort.

Thus the first steps were taken in many important movements for the welfare of the people and the Empire, which, under his great and good successor, were supported and developed, and the way was made plain for the young Queen, to whom the nation looked with such well-founded hope, whose long and glorious reign has been so abundantly blest, and whose memory will ever be cherished with honour and respect.

G.o.d SAVE THE KING!

THE END