LETTER TO MRS. RUSH, FROM LONDON: ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM THE FOURTH, AND ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA TO THE BRITISH THRONE. LETTER TO MRS. RUSH. DEATH OF WILLIAM THE FOURTH, AND ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA TO THE THRONE. LONDON, June 21, 1837. MY DEAR WIFE: Not long after my letter in December describing my visit to Grove Park, Lord Clarendon came to town. The festivities in England in the country at Christmas, begin to draw to a close after Twelfth Night, as you know. The members of Parliament generally come back to London from their country homes on the assembling of the two houses in February, except those who choose to remain longer to indulge in rural sports or for any other reason. Lord C., not being of these for the present season at least, came to town in good time; and more than once I have again found myself at his table in his ancient looking town house, North Audley Street, as in days of yore when we first knew him as Mr. Villiers. 261 I was about to tell you of a dinner there a few weeks ago, chiefly for the sake of what was said of Washington and General Jackson, in connection with the Duke of Wellington. Our hospitable entertainer, in speaking of the Duke, said, that after the battle of Waterloo he, the duke, dined with Lord Fitzroy Somerset, one of his aids, in Brussels; Lady Fitzroy Somerset, who is connected with the Bagots, as the Duke also is, being at that time indisposed in Brussels.* When the crowning victory just won over Napoleon was dwelt on with joy, the Duke's eyes were seen to be moistened with tears; and he said that the next painful thing in war after being defeated was to gain a victory, from the number of the killed among those you loved. Lord C. here added, that three men renowned for success in war, Washington, Jackson and the Duke, had each inculcated upon their respective nations the maxims of peace, and each within his sphere endeavored to maintain it. I intended to write to you about this and other things that passed on that occasion, from your acquaintance with several of the names at table; but interruptions that came upon me thwarted my intention. * Lord Fitzroy Somerset was long and closely connected with the Duke of Wellington. He lost an arm in battle whilst his aid. He afterwards, as Lord Raglan, commanded the British force sent to the Crimea in 1854. But to-day I will write you some account of what passed at dinner there yesterday, lest anything should chance to thwart my purpose this time, or delay it; for now I am to tell you of something that does not happen here every day, namely, the death of the king and a new sovereign ascending the throne. To give it in the connection in which I had it, I must mention that I dined at the Marquis of Lansdowne's the day preceding, with a somewhat large company. The guests, as they successively arrived, among whom were the Archbishop of York and others of distinction, were full of the announcement, which a second edition of some of the evening papers contained, of the King's death; but Lord Lansdowne, as President of the council of ministers, was able to contradict it, having the latest intelligence by express from Windsor. He said, however, that the event might be looked for every hour, the King being extremely ill, and the physicians considering a recovery hopeless. The conversation in anticipation of the event became engrossing. The steps to invest the young Princess Victoria with the regal power; the novelty of the occasion; the fact that more than a century had elapsed since a female reign in England; the careful training the young Princess had been going through; the assiduity with which it was stated she had attended to her studies, under the best direction, |