GENERAL HISTORY. 



[101 



should attend the Court would 

 appear in dresses entirely of Bri- 

 tish manufacture. In further 

 pursuance of this plan, his Royal 

 Highness ordered all his state and 

 household officers to wear costly 

 dresses of home fabrication, and 

 those dresses were directed to be 

 made into tliree classes of uni- 

 forms, according to the respective 

 ranks of those officers. The first 

 class consists of suits for the Lord 

 Chamberlain, the Lord Steward, 

 and the Groom of the Stole. The 

 coats are of dark purple, with 

 crimson velvet collars, richly or- 

 namented all over with gold. Not 

 only those persons who are imme- 

 diately imder the command of the 

 Prince Regent had complied with 

 the laudable direction of wearing 

 British dresses, but all the com- 

 pany present yesterday showed 

 that they had been equally anxi- 

 ous to afford relief to their suffer- 

 ing countrymen by employment, 

 which is the only permanently 

 useful mode of relief. 



The Court, in honour of the 

 Queen's birth-day, was at first 

 fixed for the b'th of February; but 

 her Majesty being at that time 

 unable, from the effects of her 

 late illness, to bear the fatigues 

 incident to these occasions, it was 

 postponed to the 20th, when her 

 Majesty was entirely recovered. 



The day was announced, as 

 usual, by the ringing of bells and 

 the salute of artillery ; and the 

 people reminded by these intima- 

 tions, flocked in great numbers to 

 the vicinity of the Queen's Palace. 

 The weather, which had been 

 very dull and rainy, began to 

 clear up about 2 o'clock, and the 

 scene became very gay and mag- 

 nificent. The company began to 

 arrive about one, and continued 



to do so till half-past three. The 

 Prince Regent arrived in state 

 about half-past three : his carriage 

 was preceded, surrounded, and 

 followed by a party of life-guards. 

 The procession passed along in 

 perfect silence. Most of the Royal 

 Family went in state. The Duke 

 and Duchess of York arrived first : 

 then the Princess Charlotte and 

 Prince Leopold ,• next the Duke 

 and Duchess of Glocester; and 

 lastly, the Duke of Sussex and the 

 Princess Sophia of Glocester. The 

 Speaker of the House of Commons 

 went in state, and also the Au- 

 strian and Dutch ambassadors. 



Her IMajesty entered the draw- 

 ing-room about two o'clock, and 

 fiist received the congratulations 

 of the foreign ambassadors, of the 

 Cabinet Ministers, and of all who 

 had the privilege of enfre. 



PRTNCE regent's BIRTH-DAY. 



April 23, being St. George's 

 day, had been selected as the day 

 on which the birth of the Prince 

 Regent was in future to be ob- 

 served, instead of the 12th of 

 August, and a drawing-room, and 

 other splendours, were of course 

 appointed : but a sudden indispo- 

 sition of the Queen, which occur- 

 red in the course of the preceding 

 night, prevented the drawing-room 

 from taking place. Her Majesty 

 was taken ill at an early hour of 

 the morning. Sir Henry Halford 

 was immediately sent for, and at- 

 tended the Royal patient twice be- 

 fore nine o'clock. Communica- 

 tions of the unlucky occurrence 

 weredispatched to all the branches 

 of the Royal Family; and, in the 

 course of the morning, the streets 

 leading to Buckingham-house and 

 St. James's were placarded with 

 bills, announcing the indisposi- 

 tion 



