her speech in a clear, distinct, and audible voice, and without any appearance of fear or embarrassment. She was quite plainly dressed, and in mourning. After she had read her speech, and taken and signed the oath for the security of the Church of Scotland, the privy councillors were sworn, the two royal dukes first, by themselves; and as these two old men, her uncles, knelt before her, swearing allegiance and kissing her hand, I saw her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the contrast between their civil and their natural relations; and this was the only sign of emotion which she evinced. Her manner to them was very graceful and engaging; she kissed them both, and rose from her chair, and moved toward the Duke of Sussex, who was farthest from her, and too infirm to reach her. She seemed rather bewildered at the multitude of men who were sworn, and who came, one after another, to kiss her hand; but she did not speak to anybody, nor did she make the slightest difference in her manner, or show any in her countenance, to any individual of any rank, station, or party. I particularly watched her when Melbourne and the ministers, and the Duke of Wellington, and Peel, approached her. She went through the whole ceremony, occasionally looking at Melbourne for instruction when she had any doubt what to do, which hardly ever occurred, with perfect calmness and self-possession, but at the same time with a graceful modesty and propriety particularly interesting and ingratiating."

"If she had been my own daughter, I could not have wished her to do better," said the Duke of Wellington. The admiration felt by the principal personages of the kingdom, first admitted to the presence of the young sovereign, rapidly spread throughout the nation; Queen Victoria was saluted with eager delight by a people who, through all the vicissitudes of a long reign, have never forgotten those first transports of affection and of joy.

The accession of the young queen to the English throne was the signal for the separation of Hanover from the crown of England. The electoral dignity of Hanover being hereditary in the male line, the territory united with England by George I. now fell to the share of the eldest of George III.'s surviving sons, the Duke of Cumberland, not long since rendered distinguished by his military achievements, but, with good reason, unpopular in England. The separation of the two crowns, however, caused no regret to the English nation, who had often found themselves entangled in continental affairs on account of the undisguised interest the Hanoverian kings had manifested in the welfare of their hereditary states. The royal house of Hanover henceforth ruled independently its two nations, nor was any one clear-sighted enough to foresee at that time the shocks which were to overthrow the more modest of these two thrones.

The coronation of the young queen did not take place until a year after her accession. On this brilliant occasion it was observed, with a satisfaction not unmingled with surprise, that the populace of London gave an enthusiastic welcome to Marshal Soult, ambassador extraordinary from Louis Philippe. He had been the last in France to fight against the English, at the battle of Toulouse, and the recollection of past feuds added a rare savor to the joys of peace. "The English cried, 'Hurrah for Soult!" he said, some years later, in the Chamber of Deputies; "I had learned to esteem them upon the field of battle, I have learned to esteem them in peace; I am ardently a partisan of the English alliance."

Politics had not occupied a large share in the attention of the young queen, but she had been brought up under the influence of the Whigs, and on ascending the throne she found them in power. Lord Melbourne, the premier, was the least radical of his party, impartial by reason both of indifference