I9 io 1 George V Proclaimed King 303 



he died at 11.40), it fell to Winston as Home Secretary to announce 

 the event to the Lord Mayor of London, and from that moment till 4.30 

 this afternoon there was no Government in England. What authority 

 there is vests in the Lord President of the Council, in this case Crewe, 

 who issues formal notice to each member of the Privy Council to attend 

 a meeting instantly, naming the hour. George showed us his black- 

 edged summons, which I noticed was unsigned by anyone, but sent by 

 hand in an official envelope. He and Arthur had received their sum- 

 monses in London, having had informal notice by telegraph. On ar- 

 rival Arthur would not go to the Carlton Club himself, but sent George 

 to find out all about it, and what clothes they were to wear, and they 

 dressed in uniform, with crape sashes round their sleeves, and walked 

 to St. James's Palace, where the meeting was held. There were 150 

 members of the Council present, more or less, out of 250, the total 

 number, and the Lord Mayor and some Aldermen were there, though 

 these last, not being members, were turned out before the proceedings 

 began. No one sat down except old Lord Cross, who was infirm, and 

 no one shook hands or talked except to exchange a word or two silently. 

 Crewe opened the proceedings, George said, with great dignity. He an- 

 nounced the King's death and the duty of the Council to proclaim his 

 successor briefly and clearly. No one else spoke. Then Prince Christ- 

 ian, as representing the Royal family, went out with the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor, and presently came back with the 

 Prince of Wales, whom they presented to the Council as King, and the 

 King made a short speech, extremely well expressed and with much 

 feeling, and took his seat, and all those present knelt with the right 

 knee upon a cushion placed upon a stool and kissed his hand and swore 

 allegiance on the Book. Thus was King George V proclaimed. ' A 

 mediaeval ceremony,' George said, ' of a most impressive kind, and quite 

 apart from the vulgarities of modern life, there being no reporters or 

 outsiders of any sort, a return to the reality of ancient days, when the 

 King and his Council were the sole legal Government of England, all 

 the rest, the government by Lords and Commons and votes in Parlia- 

 ment and Prime Ministers, being only a modern delegation of authority 

 tolerated, but not strictly legal. At this point old Percy, George's fa- 

 ther, woke up from his half sleep into which he had sunk and said he 

 hoped there would be a return to this primitive form of rule in England 

 before long. It was all he said. ' The Jews of the Privy Council,' 

 George went on, ' took their oaths on the Old Testament and the Cath- 

 olics separately. Amongst these last, to the general surprise, Cassel.' 

 " George told us next how, on the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, 

 he, as Chief Secretary, had proclaimed the late King Edward at Dublin, 

 and how he had been much impressed by King Edward's good sense 

 when he visited Ireland later, especially in connection with words he 



