142 King William the Fourth. [Aue. 



period of peace. He had in the Regency been appointed Admiral of 

 the Fleet, and had in that capacity escorted the Emperor of Russia and 

 King of Prussia across the Channel, on their visit to the Prince Regent 

 in 1815. 



But on Mr. Canning's being made minister, the prospect grew still 

 brighter for the duke, by the restoration of the old office of Lord High- 

 Admiral, in which his Royal Highness was placed ; the minister having 

 by this manreuvre, ensured the approbation of the duke as prince, and 

 fairly reckoning upon his remembrance of the favour if he should be 

 king. 



But Mr. Canning's death in 1827, dislocated this arrangement. The 

 Duke of Wellington became minister, and as it is the secret policy of 

 that noble personage to engross all patronage, he could not but look 

 with a jealous eye upon the share of patronage and public influence 

 which must be claimed by the Admiralty, while it had a prince, the 

 brother of the King, at its head. The probability of his Royal Highness's 

 speedy accession to the throne did not happen to strike the premier in 

 so clear a light as the advantage of getting rid of an authority which 

 might derogate so much from the supremacy of the Horse Guards. 

 Among the very first performances of the Duke of Wellington, there- 

 fore, was the dismissal of his Royal Highness, and the restoration of the 

 old official serving-men, who instinctively look upon every premier as 

 endowed with sagacity supernatural. The mode of his dismissing his 

 Royal Highness was quite a la militaire, and we may rely upon his not 

 forgetting the favour, nor the mode of doing it. 



The fatal indispositon of his late Majesty again drew the Duke of 

 Clarence before the national eye. The symptoms of the King's disorder 

 were from the beginning pronounced to be such as precluded complete 

 recovery, and might bring on immediate dissolution. It is but justice to 

 the duke to say, that his public conduct on this melancholy occasion 

 was as decorous, as his private intercourse with his King and brother was 

 affectionate. In the last week of June the symptoms of death were 

 visible, and on the 26th, at three in the morning, his Majesty died. 



In a few hours after, the Duke of Wellington made his appearance at 

 Bushy Park, in full mourning, and did homage to His Royal Highness 

 as King of the British empire. On the following Monday His Majesty 

 was proclaimed, in London, by the title of King William the Fourth, 

 amid great acclamations. The same ceremony was performed through- 

 out the county towns, and with the strongest demonstrations of good-will 

 and loyalty. The King has since led a life of constant activity ; every 

 day being completely occupied, from an early hour, with reviewing 

 troops, receiving ambassadors, holding levees, and the other fatiguing 

 and tedious, but necessary forms of royalty. Not content with this 

 fatigue, he generally drives out with the Queen, and some of the younger 

 branches of the royal family, after the ceremonial of the day is done, 

 and makes a tour of the environs, without guards, or more formality 

 than a private gentleman. A great many curious instances are told of his 

 disregarding the inconvenient burthens of court etiquette, and following 

 his old easy and natural habits, learned originally in a Sailor's life. In 

 passing down St. James' s-street, unattended, as is his custom, he wanted to 

 see a newspaper of the evening the door of a coffee-house was open before 

 him he walked in, and read his newspaper at his ease. His first military 

 operation was the popular and amusing one of ordering all the cavalry 



