Page:King Edward VII, his life & reign; the record of a noble career 1.djvu/22



About noon on November 9, 1841, the sound of the guns on the platform in front of the Tower, and in St. James's Park, was booming and re-echoing over the capital. Their thunders announced a most important event, one of joyous significance for the realm, to the loyal subjects of Queen Victoria. Her second child, the first son, Albert Edward, seventeenth Prince of Wales, had been born at Buckingham Palace about a quarter to eleven o'clock that morning. His sex fulfilled a cheerful prediction made by the Queen on the birth of his sister, the Princess Royal, nearly a year previously. When Prince Albert displayed some disappointment on the arrival of a girl, his wife exclaimed: "Never mind, the next will be a boy", and expressed a hope that she might have as many children as her grandmother, Queen Charlotte. The birth of the heir apparent was attended by the presence in the chamber itself of Dr. Clark and Dr. Locock, Mrs. Lilley the nurse, and the father of the child. In the anteroom were other doctors, and in accordance with custom, some high officials and other personages in Church and State. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, had been unable to arrive at short notice, and was represented by Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of London. With him were the Prime Minister (Sir Robert Peel), the Lord Chancellor (Lord Lyndhurst), Sir James Graham (Home Secretary), and the most illustrious subject of the Crown, the Duke of Wellington. At the request of Prince Albert, the Bishop held a brief service of prayer for the safety of the sovereign, and the distinguished visitors departed after a brief view of the child, presented by the nurse. The spread of the news caused universal joy, and we may note some particulars which show the difference of past and present facilities for that purpose. The electric telegraph was still in a very early stage of development, and the wires conveyed tidings from London only to some of