The Duke of Edinburgh (1881),
Though we had arrived in London at the height of the season, for it was now July, we did not anticipate any unusual courtesies from the Queen, but hoped to get a glimpse of high life, a formal presentation at court, and invitations to some social functions where the "swells" of England might be seen. But a bit of bread which the King had cast upon the waters ten years before now floated back to him as a very large loaf. While only a Hawaiian prince he had received the Duke of Edinburgh and Lord Charles Beresford on their visit to the islands mentioned above. The chief entertainment was a feast served in the native style in one of the beautiful valleys near the city, with the mountains rising up on either side, which cast deep shadows over it. The exquisite beauty of the place, the wilderness of native flowers, and the dancing of the native girls, fascinated the Duke, and on his return to England he told the Royal Family, some of whom repeated his story to us, that of all the visits he had made during his long voyage in the "Galatea" the one to the Sandwich Islands was the most charming, so delightful that it was reported in the press soon after his return that the Prince of Wales declared that if he ever made a long cruise his first visit would be to these islands. The Duke, when we arrived, was in command of a warship in the Baltic; but he telegraphed his congratulations to the King on his arrival, and, we were told, had requested the Royal Family to make the King's visit a pleasant one.
The Prince of Wales, as the social chief of the English people, representing the Queen, gave the "tip," or, more decorously speaking, fixed the measure of his reception, and the King at once bounded into the glittering arena as a social lion. This was accepted with excellent humour by the aristocracy, who are always charmed with some new sensation. The King's use of the English language gave him a great advantage over some visiting monarchs; besides, he did not exhibit the habits of the Shah of Persia, who, while occupying Buckingham Palace, turned one of the drawing-rooms into a slaughterhouse for chickens, because it was the custom in Persia to kill and cook in the presence of the ruler, in order to remove the risk of being poisoned. Instead of staying only three days in London, the King remained sixteen days, during which time he was most royally entertained, and, if a lion fattens on attentions, he finally waddled out of England "as fat as a poodle dog."
The Prince of Wales called at once and greeted him pleasantly; the Duke of Albany, the Duke of Connaught, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Teck, Prime Minister and Mrs. Gladstone, Lord Kimberley, Colonel Teesdale, Equerry to the Prince of Wales, Earl Spencer, the Earl and Countess of Clarendon, the Earl and Countess of Breadalbane, the Earl and Countess Dalhousie, the Right Han. George and Mrs. Cavendish Bentinck, Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the foreign Ambassadors and Ministers resident in London, and many other distinguished persons also called and gave the King a cordial greeting. His movements were recorded daily in the "Court Circular" along with the doings of the British court, and with the same conscientious fidelity to detail as that with which the last moments of a criminal on the morning of his execution are described in American newspapers.
The Prince of Wales (1881).
Until we left, one of her Majesty's carriages was at the King's disposal at all times; the driver and footman in red livery during the day and in black during the evening. A card was also given to us on which was inscribed an order granting the right of way in the streets.
On our first evening we attended the Royal Italian Opera, and the King, with his keen sense of good music, enjoyed Patti's singing. It was an event in his life, and when he intimated a wish to visit her she promptly invited him behind the curtain; he handed her a bouquet, which she received "graciously," and no doubt soon tossed on the heap of dead flowers which Crowned Heads had cast at her feet for twenty years. Although a thousand glasses from all parts of the house were directed to-her Majesty's box, in which he was, the King paid no attention to them while Patti sang; it was for him a supreme hour, and he recalled it often with much satisfaction in later years.
The next morning, General S. C. Armstrong, of the Hampton Normal Institute of Virginia, called upon the King. In early days they had been not only schoolmates but collaborators in the publication of a newspaper in the Hawaiian language; the "lion" and his friend roared in the Hawaiian language, the British court passed out of sight, and they were again under the cocoanut palms of Hawaii.
With Mr. Foster, the Secretary of State for Ireland, I visited the Houses of Parliament, the cradle of British liberty and the home of silk hats. The hat is worn during the sittings as a badge of power, and it stands as a perpetual invitation to the King and the Lords to knock it off and arouse the slumbering energy of the people. While the Chinese indicate rank and power by a peacock's feather, and the wild Indian shows it in that of an eagle or rooster, the British citizen selects the silk hat as the emblem of his supreme power under the Constitution. If a local whirlwind found its way into Westminster during a session of Parliament, and carried off the sacred hats, the empire would tremble on the verge of anarchy. Still, under these hats are the heads that rule one fourth of the people of the earth; were it a rabbit's foot, instead of a hat, it would remain an awful emblem of physical force. Under these hats exists more power than any body of men have held since the beginning of time; a power which, until America has reached the full measure of her dominance, is the best hope of pushing civilisation to the uttermost parts of the earth. In its weakness and strength, in its glory and shame, the British empire presents all the virtues and vices of men. It has seized territory without right, overthrown weaker governments, bombarded defenceless cities, butchered women and children, despised and overthrown the rights of many communities. On the other hand, it has established law and order and the wise administration of justice over one fourth of the globe, and opened a safe commerce with the world to all nations; without reserving special privileges to itself, it puts the Frenchman, the German, the Russian, and the American on the same footing as the Briton in all countries, where, through the prodigal use of its own blood and treasure, it has made commerce safe. These considerations I put before my royal master while we took our breakfast tea; but he, like Tolstoi's tiger looking at the world from his own standpoint, asked, "What is there in all this for me?" The British and the Americans were, after all, one people, and how soon would his monarchy be reorganised out of existence by their hard and restless race? There was no comfort for him in the reflection that he was a grasshopper in a procession of elephants.
The Queen, on the day of our arrival, sent to the King an invitation to attend the review of the volunteer forces next day in Windsor Park. On nearing the Park, we were met by a royal carriage and driven to the tent of Lord Brassey, who commanded a regiment of volunteer marines, where we lunched with a large company and listened to a clever but brief speech from Lady Brassey, who responded to a toast. We were then driven within the grounds of Windsor Castle, from which all others, including the nobility, were excluded. The Duke of Cambridge, the Commander-in-Chief, saluted the King, and assigned to our carriage a place in front of the seats which had been placed, with rising steps, for the nobility of England. The Royal Family, in carriages, escorted by a detachment of the Royal Horse Guards, now appeared, and were so arranged that our carriage was the last, and the only one which contained persons who were not members of the Royal Family. With the Queen were the Princess of Wales and the Crown Princess of Germany. At the flagstaff her Majesty received a royal salute, and the volunteers, numbering over 50,000, marched past her carriage. His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince Frederick of Germany was the honorary commander of a regiment, and as soon as it had saluted and passed the Queen, he left his regiment, rode up to our carriage, saluted, and gave his hand to the King, saying,—"Your Majesty, I am the Crown Prince of Germany. I shall call upon you to-morrow; but permit me now to thank you for your hospitality to my son, Prince Henry, when he visited your kingdom. My father, the Emperor, is at Gastein, but you will be received, if you visit Berlin, by my son, Prince William" [now
Emperor].
He then returned to his place by the side of the Queen's carriage. The Prince of Wales, when his own regiment had passed, also rode up to our carriage, chatted with the King, and told him that he hoped to receive him at a garden party at Marlborough House on the following Tuesday. At the close of the review the Queen's carriage turned and passed us; the Queen had not then received the King, but she bowed to him as she went by. There were cords drawn in front of the seats occupied by the nobility, so that no one could enter the ground where the carriages stood. We then drove back to London.
I had visited England before this and had gazed from curbstones on the nobility and the Queen; I had, by tipping a half-crown to the guard, ridden in a first-class railway coach with a lord, so that I might look upon a creature unknown to American institutions. I had, from the depths, looked up at the beautiful feet of the aristocracy upon the purple mountain tops; but now, by a singular fate, I was permitted (for this occasion only) actually to stand with them on these lofty altitudes; aye, even to breathe the rare and perfumed air in which these social and patrician gods were dwelling in the devout adoration of the British public. Like the gods of Homer, they had many defects, but still they were gods, and the beloved fetish of a great people.
The Prince Imperial of Germany (1881).
As we entered the city after the review, our carriage got into a jam of waggons at a crossing. A drunken cabby, pointing to the King, who sat with dignity in the royal carriage, shouted: "There goes me father, hit's the big one!" A policeman cried out, "Make room for the Queen's carriage!" and directed cabby to turn aside. The cabby turned on him with a drunken leer and answered: "I belongs to this ere royal party."
On the next day, Sunday, we attended the services in Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley was unable to be present, owing to illness; but he sent to the King a kindly message and directed that he should be taken to the interesting parts of the Abbey.
The King looked reverently on the effigies and tombs. "Those who are buried here," said his friend, "take all the fame just now. But when the 'Society for the Propagation of the Names of the Deserving Dead, Which Have Been Omitted,' reconstructs the Abbey, five hundred years from now, and publishes a revised list of Immortals, some of them will go into the rubbish heap."
In the afternoon there was a trip up the Thames in a small yacht belonging to Lord Beresford, the King's genial friend, filled with a party of high-born people whose conversation instructed the King greatly in the use of colloquial language and idiomatic terms. "Lord Charles," as he was called, was a humourous Englishman, and his strong, healthy spirits made him the staunch friend of the Prince of Wales. After dining at Lord William Beresford's place in Maiden-head we returned to the city.
The Princess of Prussia (1881).
CHAPTER XXIV
Luncheon at Earl Granville's with Mr. Gladstone and Members of the Cabinet — Visit to the Queen at Windsor Castle — Her Majesty Inquires for Queen Emma — Luncheon at the Castle — Visit from the Crown Prince of Germany — Call at Marlborough House — The Prince and Princess of Wales — Lunch with the Prince at Lord Charles Beresford's — American Women — Lord Beresford's Escapade in Hawaii — The Prince of Wales's Visit to the United States — Garden Party at Marlborough House — The Queen Present — Mr. Lowell, the American Minister — An Informal Gathering of Royalty and Its Friends — The King Approved of — Lambeth Palace and the Archbishop of Canterbury — Reception to Prince and Princess of Wales at Kensington Museum — Earl Spencer's Mistake — A Royal Procession — Aristocratic Life a Bore.
AN interview with the Queen was now arranged. Accordingly, the next day we took luncheon with Earl and Lady Granville. Mr. Gladstone, Sir Charles Dilke, Lord Kimberley, and other members of the Cabinet were there. With due observance of etiquette the Prime Minister of the greatest empire of the world and the Minister of the smallest kingdom of the world were placed opposite each other. Mr. Gladstone said little. No startling aphorism sprang from his lips. But much pudding went into his mouth, which, by the mysterious transmutation of nature, was converted into a brief and admirable speech on the Transvaal, in Parliament that evening.
After luncheon with Lord Granville we drove to the Paddington station, whence we went to Windsor by train. There we were met by royal carriages and a detachment of the Horse Guards, and taken to the castle, where we were to be presented to the Queen.
Gentlemen-in-waiting received us at the entrance and led us into a room where there were basins and looking-glasses, wherewith we could prevent dirt from offending the august eye. We were in morning dress. After passing through several chambers and galleries we entered the Green Drawing-room. The King and Lord Granville stood alone; we of the suite, with Mr. Synge, stood aside. There was silence for a moment, as if we were on a trap door and about to be launched, like criminals, into eternity; then the doors were suddenly thrown wide open, and the British Queen entered the room, advanced toward the King, and shook his hand. With her were the Princess Louise and Princess Beatrice, the Duke of Albany, and the Duke of Hesse. It is at this moment of introduction to the royal presence that fear and tremblings distress many who are presented, much like the "buck fever" in America, which affects an amateur hunter when he tries his first shot at a deer. But we, now well acclimated in the atmosphere of royal splendours in the Orient, were not stricken with it. The King stood, large, impassive, graceful. Her Majesty and the King were then seated, and she at once spoke of the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to his Majesty's islands, and declared that they must be very beautiful, for the Duke often spoke of them.
After a few moments of conversation her Majesty arose, presented the King to the other members of the Royal Family, and, turning toward the suite, received us with Lord Cranville's presentation. She said to me: "His Majesty speaks our language easily; how did he learn it?" I replied that he learned it in the missionary schools when young. She asked about Queen Emma (the Queen Dowager, the widow of one of the King's predecessors; she had visited England, and was a guest at Windsor for some days), saying, "She is a charming young woman; I was very fond of her." She then asked the King if he would walk about the castle, or drive to Virginia Water. He said he preferred to see the interior of the castle. She said that she hoped his Majesty would enjoy his visit; she had always been much interested in his kingdom; he might feel assured that he was very welcome in London. She then retired.
Queen Victoria and the Princess Beatrice (1881).
With the Duke of Hesse and the Duke of Albany we then sat down in another room, overlooking the park, to luncheon. We were taken through the many rooms of the castle, and the Dukes repeated the story of each apartment. Again taking the royal carriages, surrounded with Horse Guards, we returned to the station, where we took the train for London. We learned, soon after this, that the Queen had been in excellent humour during the King's visit; it pleased her especially that he spoke the English language so easily and with an English accent; no other foreign sovereign who had visited England spoke it as fluently.
As a project for an alliance between the royal families of Japan and Hawaii was still pending, it was not practicable for the King to propose one between the Royal Family of Great Britain and that of Hawaii. The suite were therefore not to be surprised by a sudden and secret visit of the King to Windsor Castle with intent to put a British steel rod into the uneasy throne of Hawaii.
Our days and nights were now spent in constant intercourse with the superior beings who constitute the highest class of British social and political life. But at times there came to us evidence of the fact that exaltation of rank does not remove the unpleasant environments of life; that the prince and the pauper have much in common; in fact, one who was familiar with the court life told me that it was full of annoyances and tribulations in spite of the sweet air of adoration which pervaded it.
The Crown Prince of Germany called in the morning, and again thanked the King for his kind services to his son, Prince Henry. We quickly returned his call at Buck
ingham Palace, where we were received also by the Crown Princess, who, though born in England and the daughter of the Queen, spoke with a slight German accent. She spoke as if she had an active mind and was by no means indifferent to public affairs; the Crown Prince we admired almost above all men we had met in our travels; his face was an open one, and in his blue Teutonic eye was kindness and warmth.
We called upon the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough House; their children were present, and the Princess spoke of the beautiful islands of which she had so often heard. Standing near her, it was easy to understand how Tennyson wrote that the English were
"All Danes in our welcome of thee."
The Prince took the King in his carriage, with the suite following, to luncheon at Lord Charles Beresford's in Eaton Square, where we met the clever American, Lady Mandeville, now Dowager Duchess of Manchester, whom I had met before in the United States,—a woman with the rare gift for telling a story well; also Mrs. Sands, one of the AmeriCan beauties of "the Prince's set." After luncheon, while we were smoking in the balcony, the Prince again spoke of his brother's visit to the King's country and of his desire to see it. Lord Beresford, at the time of his brother's visit, was a midshipman on the "Galatea," and in one of his frolics on shore had removed at night the sign of the American Consul to the front of a Chinese junk-shop; for his indiscretion, which had greatly incensed the people of the town, and had stirred the local American Eagle to frantic screams, he duly apologised. We did not dream that the political unrest in Egypt which we detected at the banquet of the Khedive would in the next year invite the bombardment of Alexandria, the burning of the great palace in which we were received, and be the occasion for the signal daring of Lord Beresford in fighting his warship at close range to the Egyptian forts.
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