Queen had paid the debt of nature before any issue of the approaching marriage was born, we should have a king and a Prince of Wales, while Prince Albert would be placed in the anomalous position of a foreign naturalized prince, the husband of a deceased queen, with a higher rank than the Prince of Wales."*

Lord Melbourne and the lord chancellor admitted that the subject of precedence should have been mentioned in the title, and agreed to the postponement of the discussion. It was brought on again on the 31st, when the lord chancellor, with a view to meeting some of the objections urged by Lord Brougham, announced that it was now intended to fix the precedence which the Queen should be empowered to give the Prince "next after any heir apparent to the throne."

This, however, as he refused to add the words suggested by Lord Brougham, in order to limit the precedence thus given to the lifetime of her Majesty, does not appear to have removed the objections which had been taken to the measure. And though the bill was read a second time with little farther discussion (Lord Londonderry only speaking in defense of the interests of the King of Hanover), it was thought expedient, when the House went into Committee on the Bill on the 3d of February, to omit all reference to precedence, and to make the bill what the Duke of Wellington had originally imagined it to be one of simple naturalization.

Lord Brougham on this occasion pressed for information whether or not it was intended to effect the proposed object by the exercise of the Queen's prerogative;

* Hansard, vol. li., p. 579.

but Lord Melbourne declined to say, and the bill passed in its new shape.

It can not be wondered at if the Queen was, as she herself says,* most indignant at what had occurred, or that the first impression made on the young Prince's mind by the proceedings in both houses should have been a painful one. But, as has been already said, he soon understood the nature of our political parties, and that the proceedings in Parliament were only the result of high party feeling, and were by no means to be taken as marks of personal disrespect, or want of kind feeling toward him

self.

*The Queen's Journal.

CHAPTER XIII.

1840.

Departure from Gotha and Arrival in England.

ON the 14th of January, 1840, Lord Torrington and Colonel (now General) Grey left Buckingham Palace with three of the Queen's carriages for Gotha, whence they were to escort Prince Albert to England for his marriage. It had been now settled that this should be celebrated on the 10th of February. They were also bearers of the Garter with which the Prince was to be invested before he left Gotha.

Arriving on the afternoon of the 20th, they were presented the same evening to the duke, by whom and the young princes they were most kindly received. Later in the evening they were presented to the dowager duchess, from whom so many letters have been quoted, at an evening party at her own house. The next morning, after breakfast in their own rooms, the English gentlemen were visited by the two young princes, who remained with them about an hour, impressing them most favorably by the unaffected kindness and cordiality of their manner. Prince Albert was naturally very anxious to hear how the marriage was liked in England-looking forward, as it seemed, with much pleasure, but, at the same time, not without some degree of nervousness, to

the change which was about to take place in his position, and expressing a very natural sorrow at the impending separation from all his old associations. At four o'clock there was a great dinner, and in the evening a masked ball at the theatre, to which the duke and duchess, and all the court, went a little after eight.

It had been arranged that the ceremony of investing Prince Albert with the Garter should take place on the 23d. Accordingly, at half past three on that day the whole court assembled, in full uniform, in the throneroom; the duke on the throne, with Prince Albert on his right, supported by his brother, the Prince of Leiningen, etc. The duchess, the Princess of Leiningen, the Princess of Reuss, etc., were in a box on one side of the room; the ladies of the court in a similar one opposite; while the back of the apartment was filled with as many people from the town as it would hold. The fine corridor leading to the throne-room was lined with soldiers; and when every one had taken his place, Lord Torrington was ushered in by the chamberlain and other officers of the court, supported on one side by Colonel Grey, and on the other by Colonel Bentinck, of the Coldstream Guards (a chance visitor at Gotha at the time), bearing on white satin cushions the insignia of the Garter, with which the duke, himself a Knight of the Order, was, by letters patent, authorized to invest his son. Lord Torrington having delivered and read the letters of which he was the bearer, they were again read in German-the patent of election was presented—and Prince Albert was then duly invested with the various insignia; Prince Leiningen, who was also a Knight of the Order, attaching the Garter.

The ceremony of investiture being concluded, the whole court passed in procession before the duke and duchess, Prince Albert, etc., after which there was a general adjournment to the duchess's apartments. A grand dinner followed, to which 180 persons sat down, shortly before which Count Mensdorff, brother-in-law to the duke, arrived with his two sons. The principal table, at which were all the royal personages, and as many of the more distinguished guests as it would accommodate, ran across the top of the room; and at right angles to it, three other tables ran down the room, which were filled to crowding with the more general guests; the doorway, etc., being filled with as many spectators as could find standing room. Toward the end of the first course the duke proposed the Queen's health, which was drunk by all the company standing, accompanied by several distinct flourishes of trumpets; the band playing "God save the Queen," and the artillery outside firing a royal salute. Shortly afterward Lord Torrington, who, with the other English gentlemen, occupied seats at the principal table immediately opposite the duke and duchess, proposed the health of the duke, of Prince Albert, the new-made Knight of the Garter, and the rest of the ducal family, which was received in a similar manner. A third and last toast followed, given by the duke-the rest of the Knights of the Garter-which was similarly received. This last toast might have been attended with serious consequences. In opening the window to give the signal for the salute to the artillery outside, the wind blew the thin muslin curtains into the flame of the candles, and in one instant they blazed up to the top of the room.