Part 42 (2/2)

Now, at this time the bulletins respecting His Majesty were of a settled depression: he lived, but languished; and it was understood that the new Ministry's first act would be the appointment of a Regency.

Then appeared a rumour: alterations were going forward at Buckingham Palace on a scale of splendour new to Western mansions; the Prince of Wales had pa.s.sed three days, from the 17th to the 19th, in the _Boodah_: and the saying went that, on the night of the rejection of the Land Bill, a compact had taken place between the Prince and the Sea for a three years' Regency of the latter.

Excitement ensued, the matter becoming an election test: and 180 Labour Members, with 70 Liberals were returned pledged to support a Regency of the Sea.

A definite coalition, meantime, had been announced between the Jews and the Conservatives.

Never was election so rolled in dust and noise, in the result the Jews having the casting vote: and if ever race was looked at askance, it was they now by the British.

The session having been opened by Commission, a resolution pa.s.sed Lords and Commons that the Prince of Wales be empowered to exercise the Royal Authority; whereupon the Prince at the palace, having heard the Address, read a reply, sufficiently startling to the country, though well foreknown to those present: he laid stress upon the new conditions of the world--that phlegmatic eye, which had seen so much, lifting a moment in punctuation to dwell coldly upon his hearers, then coldly reading again; the difficulties, he said, which he was called upon to face on behalf of His Majesty were not lightly to be undertaken, and his fuller answer would be contained in a proposal which he would make in the Lords as a peer of the realm.

The next night in a crowded House he read a speech distinguished by extraordinary dignity and severity: ”My lords”, he said at one point, slapping the table, though those eyes remained royally null: ”when will your lords.h.i.+ps learn to recognize the facts of life?” and, having proposed His Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty, the Lord of the Sea, to be Regent during His Majesty's illness, such Regency not to exceed a period of three years, he recommended a plebiscite.

No plebiscite was taken: for within some days the sense of the const.i.tuencies was revealed, and the Leader in the Lords received stern hints from the Liberal Leader, which damped pride: so their lords.h.i.+ps abstained from Westminster, their Resolution being pa.s.sed by just a quorum.

The country wondered at the ease with which the whole went off--not knowing that those who might have led resistance had a thought, and a prospect, inspired by one Pat O'Hara, which comforted them.

And now a Deputation of Five took boat in the _Prince George_, to wait upon the Lord of the Sea in the _Boodah_ Throne Room, where the Lord President read the information that they were a Committee appointed to attend His Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty with the Resolutions of the Houses.

”We are instructed”, he read, ”to express the hope which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, entertain, that His Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty, from his regard to the interests of His Majesty the King, will be ready to undertake the weighty and important trust proposed to be invested in His Lords.h.i.+p's Majesty, as soon as an Act of Parliament shall have been pa.s.sed for carrying the same into effect”.

He then read, and delivered, the Resolutions.

Hogarth replied, reading: ”My Lords and Gentlemen, I receive the communication which your two Houses have instructed you to make to me with those sentiments of regard which I ever entertain for your two Houses. Deeply impressed with the necessity of tranquillizing the public mind throughout the world, I do not hesitate to accept the office and situation proposed to me”.

So the Deputation departs; five days later twelve British battles.h.i.+ps surround the _Boodah_, come to accompany the Lord of the Sea to England; and at eleven on the morning of the 9th, his yacht, borne in on the strong thunders of a royal salute, drops anchor in Southampton Water.

He had set so gorgeous a standard of luxury to Europe, that no one dreamed of making his entry into London an ordinary _fete_; and, as the procession traversed the triumphal arches of Piccadilly, he, swept to the G.o.ds in the lap of gallant sublimities, plumes, sabres, showering hoofs, squad-troops, outriders, showed to the Prince beside him and to the Czarowitz before him a miniature of Rebecca Frankl.

Some streets cheered--not all much: but during the illuminated night all London seemed to abandon itself to revelry.

The next morning Hogarth went in state to the Chapel Royal for certificate of Communion, attended by heralds, Sergeants-at-mace, sword-of-state, the Duke of York; and after ”the service” communicated under a canopy at the hand of the Bishop of London.

Then, on the 14th, Lords and Commons had a final conference over the Regency Bill, when the a.s.sistant of the Parliaments uttered the worlds: ”_Le Roy le Veult_”; and on the 15th, the swearing-in day, a party of grenadiers with colours and fifes marched into the palace grounds, continuously to play ”G.o.d Save the King”; while yeomen and ushers, together with servants-in-state of the Lord of the Sea, lined the great hall and staircase, life-guardsmen lining a vista of state-apartments ending in a Blue-velvet Room, recently decorated; by 2.30 P.M. Privy Councillors commenced to arrive, till at 3.45 P.M. the Lord of the Sea sent Admiral Quilter-Beckett to the President of the Council, ordering his presence; and presently was himself seen coming up the vista, accompanied by his own household-officers, to the Blue-velvet Room where he sat at the table-head, the Royal personages on each hand, his own officers ranged on each side of the entrance-arch; and now one by one entered the full-dressed Councillors, with bows which he returned, taking seat according to precedence--Canterbury, then the Lord Chancellor, then York; and last came and sat a certain Mr. Forrest, Keeper of the Records.

Hogarth then rose and said:

”My Lords: I understand that by the Act pa.s.sed by your Parliament appointing me Regent of this Empire, I am required to take certain oaths, as prescribed by the said Act: I am now ready to take these oaths ”.

Whereupon rose the Lord Privy Seal, made a reverence, approached, and read, while Hogarth p.r.o.nounced after him:

”I sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King George. So help me, G.o.d.

”I do solemnly promise and swear that I will truly and faithfully execute the Office of Regent of the King's Empire according to an Act of Parliament ent.i.tled 'an Act, etc.', and that I will, etc. So help me, G.o.d”.

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