Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/27

Rh quarrels with his wife and attempt to pass an Act of Divorce against her are notorious. In ghastly contrast to the pageantry of his coronation, in which it was said £240,000 were spent, those were present speak of the trill of horror which ran through the assembly when Queen Caroline was heard knocking at the door of the Abbey for the admittance which was refused her. "There was sudden silence and consternation; it was like the handwriting on the wall." George IV. was almost equally contemptible in every relation of life. His Ministers could with difficulty induce him to give attention to necessary business. "Indolent, cowardly, selfish, unfeeling dog" are the words by which he is described by the clerk of his Council. He delighted in keeping those who had business to transact with him waiting for hours while he was chatting about horses, or betting, or any trivial matter. Greville, after many years of close knowledge of George IV., says of him: "The littleness of his character prevents his displaying the dangerous faults that belong to great minds; but with vices and weaknesses of the lowest and most contemptible order it would be difficult to find a disposition more abundantly furnished." It is probably not too much to say that no one loved him living, or mourned him dead. Of his funeral Greville says in his cynical way: "The attendance was not very numerous, and when they had all got together in St. George's Hall, a gayer company I never beheld. … Merry were all, as merry as grigs." The King's brothers were not a very great improvement on the King. The Royal Dukes seemed to vie with each other in unseemly and indecorous behavior. On one occasion, in July, 1829, they attacked each other violently in the House of Lords, that is, "Clarence and Sussex attacked Cumberland, and he them very vehemently, and they used