Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/413

 time she was informed of the king's peaceful end. The princess clasped her hands and anxiously asked for news of her aunt (, i. 272).

The prime minister, Lord Melbourne, arrived before nine o'clock, and was at once received in audience. The queen's uncle, the Duke of Sussex, and the Duke of Wellington, the most popular man in the state, also visited her. But, in accordance with the constitution, it was from the prime minister, Lord Melbourne, alone that she could receive counsel as to her official duties and conduct. The privy council was hastily summoned to meet at Kensington at 11 A.M. on the day of the king's death. On entering the room the queen was met by her uncles, the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex, and having taken her seat at once read the speech which Lord Melbourne had written for her some days before in consultation with Lord Lansdowne, the veteran president of the council. She was dressed very plainly in black and wore no ornaments. She was already in mourning for the death of Queen Adelaide's mother. She spoke of herself as 'educated in England under the tender and enlightened care of a most affectionate mother ; she had learned from her infancy to respect and love the constitution of her native country.' She would aim at securing the enjoyment of religious liberty and would protect the rights of all her subjects. She then took the oath, guaranteeing the security of the church of Scotland ; the ministers gave up their seals to her and she returned them ; they then kissed hands on reappointment, and the privy councillors took the oaths. Although she was unusually short in stature (below five feet), and with no pretensions to beauty, her manner and movement were singularly unembarrassed, modest, graceful, and dignified, while her distinct and perfectly modulated elocution thrilled her auditors. ' She not merely filled her chair,' said the Duke of Wellington, ' she filled the room.' Throughout the ceremony she conducted herself as though she had' long been familiar with her part in it (cf., Life of Stratford Canning, 1888, ii. 45 ; Croker Papers, ii. 359; , Life of Palmerston, i. 340).

The admirable impression she created on this her first public appearance as queen was fully confirmed in the weeks that followed. Next day she drove to St. James's Palace to attend the formal proclamation of her accession to the throne. While the heralds recited their announcement she stood in full view of the public between Lord Melbourne and Lord Lansdowne, at the open window of the privy council chamber, looking on the quadrangle nearest Marlborough House. The crowd cheered vociferously, and prominent in the throng was Daniel O'Connell, who waved his hat with conspicuous energy. 'At the sound of the first shouts the colour faded from the queen's cheeks,' wrote Lord Albemarle, her first master of the horse, who was also an onlooker, 'and her eyes filled with tears. The emotion thus called forth imparted an additional charm to the winning courtesy with which the girl-sovereign accepted the proffered homage' (, Fifty Years of my Life, p. 378).

After the proclamation the queen saw Lord Hill, the commander-in-chief, the lord-chancellor, and other great officers of state. At noon her second council was held at St. James's Palace, and all the cabinet ministers were present. Later in the day the proclamation was repeated at Trafalgar Square, Temple Bar, Wood Street, and the Royal Exchange.

Although the queen signed the privy council register at her first council in the name of Victoria only, in all the official documents which were prepared on the first day of her reign her name figured with the prefix of Alexandrina. In the proclamation she was called 'Her Royal Majesty Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom.' But, despite the sentiment that had been excited against the name Victoria, it was contrary to her wish to be known by any other. Papers omitting the prefix 'Alexandrina' were hastily substituted for those in which that prefix had been introduced, and from the second day of the new reign the sovereign was known solely as Queen Victoria. Thenceforth that name was accepted without cavil as of the worthiest English significance. It has since spread far among her subjects. It was conferred on one of the most prosperous colonies of the British empire in 1851 and since on many smaller settlements or cities, while few municipalities in the United Kingdom or the empire nave failed to employ it in the nomenclature of streets, parks, railway-stations, or places of public assembly. Abroad, and even in some well-informed quarters at home, surprise was manifested at the tranquillity with which the sentiment nation saw the change of monarch regarding effected. But the general enthusiasm that Queen Victoria's accession evoked was partly due to the contrast she presented with those who had lately oc-