The Life of King Edward VII
America, cease this day; but in a private capacity I am about to visit,
before I return home, that remarkable land which claims with us a common
ancestry and in whose extraordinary progress every Englishman feels a
common interest. Before I quit British soil let me once more address
through you the inhabitants of United Canada and bid them an
affectionate farewell. May God pour down his choicest blessings upon
this great and loyal people."
THE PRINCE OF WALES IN THE UNITED STATES
Windsor was reached in the evening and after words of loyal greeting had
been received from its people, the Prince of Wales left Canadian soil
and, accompanied by the Governor of Michigan and the Mayor of Detroit,
crossed the river to United States territory and was welcomed there as
Lord Renfrew--one of his many minor titles. This part of the Royal tour
had been arranged as a result of an invitation received by the Queen
from President Buchanan dated June 4th, 1860, and expressing the hope
that His Royal Highness' visit would be extended to the Republic. This
had been agreed to by the Queen who intimated in reply that, while in
the United States, the Prince would drop all Royal state and travel
under the name of Lord Renfrew as he was accustomed to do on the
Continent of Europe. It may be said, in passing, that this _incognito_
was very slightly observed and that the Royal visitor was welcomed
everywhere as the heir to the British throne and the son of a
much-respected and friendly Sovereign.
At Detroit the Prince parted from the Governor-General of Canada and the
members of the Canadian Government who had hitherto accompanied him and,
after a drive around the city and a brilliant illumination in the
evening, departed on the morning of September 21st for Chicago. A
special car was provided by the Michigan Central Railway. At Chicago
there was no formal welcome or function; no particular enthusiasm or
crowds. The Prince was driven around the great new city of the West and
enjoyed his first experience of the panorama of American development
which that centre even then presented. He did not stay long and on the
22nd departed for Dwight, in the same State, where four days were spent
in shooting. On September 27th he arrived at St. Louis, then a place of
about seventeen thousand people, and here His Royal Highness visited the
State Fair. There were estimated to have been twenty-eight thousand
persons in the amphitheatre of the Fair and a curious incident of the
visit is recorded by a writer, already quoted, who states that a vain
search of the city had been made for a Union Jack to place beside the
American flag on the central building.
From St. Louis the Prince proceeded to Cincinnati, in Ohio, and on the
evening of September 29th attended a ball given by an enterprising
citizen who had just erected a handsome new theatre. On Sunday, St.
John's Church was visited and a sermon preached by Bishop McIlvaine.
Pittsburg was reached on October 1st and an enthusiastic but informal
reception accorded. Harrisburg was the next place visited and it was
noted that, as the Prince and his suite went further east and south, the
curious crowds gave place to increasingly enthusiastic crowds. At
Baltimore immense throngs of people had gathered and thence on October
3rd the Royal party proceeded to Washington which they reached in the
afternoon. The Prince, who had been accompanied through American
territory by Lord Lyons, the British Minister, was welcomed to the
capital by General Cass and then driven to the White House where, in the
evening, a state reception was given in his honour.
On the following day the President held a Levee, accompanied by "Lord
Renfrew," and a great number of people attended. Afterwards a visit was
paid to the handsome public buildings of the city. On October 5th,
President Buchanan, his niece, Miss Harriet Lane, the Prince of Wales
and many members of the American Cabinet and Diplomatic Corps, as well
as the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Lyons, visited Mount Vernon. There,
for a few moments, the descendant of George III. stood with uncovered
head before the tomb of George Washington. In the evening a state dinner
was given by Lord Lyons and on the following day the Prince left
Washington for Richmond. Here his most enjoyable experience is said to
have been, not the historical explanations and hospitable companionship
of Governor Letcher, but the first taste of a mint julep mixed by a
negro of much local fame in the preparation of this cooling drink.
Baltimore was visited on October 8th and Philadelphia on the 10th. At
some of these centres of population the Prince was able to spend a part
of the day, incognito, amongst the people who, in perfect ignorance of
his presence, no doubt taught the future King of Great Britain much that
he would never otherwise have known as to public opinion in a country
where the courses of freedom were uncontrolled by custom and unshackled
by precedent or tradition. A feature of the visit to Philadelphia was a
splendid concert given in the Opera House, at which Patti and others
sang to a brilliant audience amidst striking decorations. To the verses
of "God Save the Queen" were added the following lines:
"Long may the Prince abide,
England's hope, joy and pride,
Long live the Prince;
May England's future King,
Victoria's virtues bring,
To grace his reign.
God save the Prince."
On October 11th the Prince of Wales arrived in New York and was welcomed
on his steamer by General Winfield Scott and a reception committee. At
the landing place Mayor Fernando Wood received him with the simple
words: "As Chief Magistrate of this city, I welcome you here and believe
that I represent the entire population without exception." The guest's
reply was equally brief and then, clad in a Colonel's uniform, the
Prince was driven through crowded streets to the City Hall, where six
thousand soldiers were reviewed, and thence to the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
The only unpleasant incident of the visit was the refusal of an Irish
regiment to turn out upon this occasion with the other troops. During
the following day His Royal Highness visited the University of New York,
the Astor Library and the Cooper Institute. At the first-named
institution he listened to an address on the electric telegraph from
Professor Morse. In the evening a splendid ball was given at the Academy
of Music where brilliant decorations vied with the beautiful costumes.
On the following day the Prince, with his suite, visited Brady's
photograph gallery and Barnum's Museum and, in the evening, witnessed a
torch-light procession of five thousand Firemen. At the first-named
place he inspected and asked for portraits of the eminent men of the
United States and especially inquired for one of Secretary W. L. Marcy.
Trinity Church was attended on Sunday and a sermon heard from the Rev.
Dr. Francis Vinton--assisted in the service by a number of other
clergymen. The church was crowded and ten thousand people waited outside
to see the Royal visitor. New York was left on the following morning and
West Point and Albany visited. In the afternoon of October 17th the
Prince and his suite arrived at Boston and were formally welcomed by the
Governor of Massachusetts as representing a country with which the
American people were, he declared, united by "many ties of language, law
and liberty." At luncheon the Hon. Edward Everett was one of the guests
as the Hon. W. H. Seward had been at a dinner in Albany. In the
afternoon a children's concert was given at the Music Hall in honour of
the Prince and an Ode written by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was sung with
enthusiasm to the air of the British National anthem. It commenced with
the following verse:
"God bless our fathers' Land,
Keep her in heart and hand,
One with our own.
From all her foes defend,
Be her brave people's friend,
On all her realms descend
Protect her throne!"
A ball was given in the evening at the Boston Theatre and, on the
following morning, a flying visit paid to Cambridge and to Harvard
University. Incidentally, it may be added, the Prince met Longfellow,
Emerson, Holmes and others during his stay in Boston. On October 20th he
reached Portland and, amid roaring cannon, ringing bells and crowds of
cheering people passed from the shores of America to his ship in the
ranks of a British squadron and thence home to the British Isles. On
November 15th, His Royal Highness arrived at Plymouth and shortly
afterwards the Duke of Newcastle received the Order of the Garter from
the Queen as a token of her appreciation of his conduct during the Royal
tour. Under date of December 8th Her Majesty communicated to the
American President, through Lord Lyons, her great satisfaction at "the
feeling of confidence and affection" which had been shown upon this
occasion by the people of the United States towards herself and her
country.
Speaking on the same date at Nottingham, England, the Duke of Newcastle
stated that during his recent visit to British North America he had
"witnessed such devotion to the Sovereign and these realms as no one who
had not witnessed it himself would be willing to believe. It was a
demonstration of the attachment of the entire people to the throne of
England and of their veneration for the lady who at present occupied it.
It was a loyalty not of creed, nor of party, nor of race." As to the
United States the influence of the Queen's personality had been even
more striking. The reception of the Prince there had been an
extraordinary one. "With one solitary exception they met with nothing
but enthusiasm and, in fact, he did believe that the visit of the Prince
of Wales to America had done more to cement the good feeling between the
two countries than could possibly have been affected by a quarter of a
century of diplomacy."
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Robert Cellem in _Visit of the Prince of Wales_ to Toronto, Canada,
1861.
CHAPTER IV.
The Royal Marriage
Three years after the birth of the Heir to the British Throne, in one of
the historic palaces of his family and country, there was born on
December 1st, 1844, in a comparatively humble home at Copenhagen, the
Princess Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louisa Julia of Denmark. The
house was called a palace, her father was Heir to the Throne of Denmark,
and became King Christian IX. on November 15th, 1863, but the mansion
was, none the less, a quiet and unostentatious place, and the Prince a
personage with hardly more resources or a larger revenue than many an
English country gentleman.
Simplicity and domesticity were the guiding principles of the Princess
Alexandra's education and training. Her mother, the late Queen Louise of
Denmark, was beautiful, graceful and clever, and seems to have possessed
that love of home which is more rare than even the striking combination
of qualities just mentioned. She was passionately fond of music, while
Prince Christian was fond of drawing, and these subjects, together with
languages and needle-work and all the essentials of the most simple home
work and management, were taught to the girls who were respectively to
become Empress of Russia, Queen of Great Britain, and Duchess of
Cumberland in after years.
As the years passed on the Princess Alexandra became probably the most
beautiful girl in the Courts of Europe, and one of the least known
outside a limited family circle. When hardly seventeen, and at a period
in which the marriage of the young Prince of Wales was being seriously
thought of by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he chanced to see a
portrait of the Princess. There seems to be no doubt that it was purely
by accident--unless the wise and far-seeing Prince Consort indirectly