Page:King Edward VII, his life & reign; the record of a noble career 1.djvu/25

 the larger towns in Great Britain. The birth of a prince was quickly known in the Midlands and the North, but in Dublin only on November 10, by means of a special train to Liverpool and a steamer thence to the Irish capital. Meanwhile Buckingham Palace was invested by crowds of joyful citizens, and the air was filled with the clangour of bells pealing from every steeple and tower.

A curious point arose in connection with the precise time of the birth. The alleged custom, for which there was found, on enquiry, to be no precedent, was that, on the birth of a royal child, the officer on guard at St. James's Palace was to be promoted to the rank of major. The guard was relieved at 10.45, and at that time the new guard marched into the Palace Yard. The bulletin posted up at Buckingham Palace for public view, at half-past eleven a.m., with the signatures of four doctors appended, stated that the Queen was delivered of a Prince at forty-eight minutes past ten o'clock. The question arose as to which officer could rightly have promotion. The' officer of the fresh guard claimed it on the ground that the relief marched in three minutes before the birth, and the keys were then delivered to him. The other officer based his claim on the assertion that the sentries had not been actually changed when the child was born, and that his men were still on guard; and he disputed the fact of the delivery of the keys as having, most probably, not taken place before the moment of birth, The matter was referred to the Commander -in-chief, Lord Hill, the veteran who was distinguished in the Peninsular War as Sir Rowland Hill, and also held a prominent command at Waterloo, and he awarded the promotion to the officer of the guard relieved.

It will have been observed that the day of birth coincided with what is popularly known as "Lord Mayor's Day". At that time the civic progress to Westminster was made by water with a procession including a great and gorgeous "State Barge" and other gaudy vessels starting from London Bridge westwards. The guns announced the birth at the time when the municipal party was setting out from Guildhall for the waterside. There are those