Page:The life and times of King Edward VII by Whates, Harry Richard 1.djvu/27

9 THE PRINCE IS CHRISTENED King of Prussia gives great satisfaction with the public. " He is a most amiable here " (we are again indebted to " The man," wrote the Queen to her uncle, Letters of Queen Victoria " for this note the King of the Belgians, " so kind and written by Lord Melbourne in reply to well-meaning, and seems so much be- a letter from the Queen), " and will do so loved. He is so amusing, too. He with all but Puseyites and Newmanites is very anxious that Belgium should and those who lean to the Roman Catholic become liee with Germany, and I think, faith. His strong Protestant feelings dearest uncle, that it would be for the and his acting with us in the matter of real good of Belgium if it could be so." the Syrian Bishop, have made the King Clearly His Majesty improved the occa- of Prussia highly popular in this country, and par- ticularly with the more religious part of the community." No selection could have been more acceptable to Pro- testant sentiments. The other sponsors were the Duchess of Saxe - Coburg, who could not, however, be pre- sent, and was re- presented by the Duchess of Kent, the Duke of Cam- bridge, the Duchess of Saxe-Gotha (represented by the DR. E. B. PUSEY. By Sir G. Richmond, R.A. (By permission of the Dean and Governing Body, Christ Church, Oxford.) sion by talking politics and flatter- ing the Queen's liking for taking a hand in foreign affairs. It had been customary for Royal infants to be baptised in the Palace in which they were born, and this practice had been followed in the case of the Princess Royal ; but the Queen and the Prince Consort wisely deemed that the christening of the Heir to the Throne should be carried out in a consecrated build- Duchess of Cam- bridge), the Princess Sophia (represented ing and in circumstances which would by the Princess Augusta of Cambridge), invest it with its full religious signifi- and Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg. cance and ceremonial dignity. There Only the King of Prussia had no blood could be no nobler scene for the rite relationship with the infant Prince, than the Chapel of St. George, and His Majesty arrived in England a few there a brilliant company of notabilities days before the ceremony, which was gathered on the morning of the 25th. arranged for the 25th of January in St. The Prince Consort, himself a musician of George's Chapel, Windsor, and he made distinction, had arranged for a full choral himself highly popular at the Court and, service, culminating in the " Hallelujah