Lord of the Sea
Page 44
XLIV
THE REGENCY
During the next month England was in a general-election turmoil; at thesame time a Land Bill in the French Chamber, and one in the Reichstag,was thrown out: whereupon a _ukase_ from the _Boodah_ announced theraising of sea-rent to 5s. on all ships over 2000 tons after the 1stFebruary, the month of grace over, the "screw tightening".
Already distress in England was great, coal being at three-and-sixpence,bread at nine pence; a cry had arisen for the Union of Britain withthe Sea; and on the 27th of January a plebiscite among the Trade Unionsresulted in an affirmative vote of five millions out of an electorate ofnine.
Now, at this time the bulletins respecting His Majesty were of a settleddepression: he lived, but languished; and it was understood that the newMinistry's first act would be the appointment of a Regency.
Then appeared a rumour: alterations were going forward at BuckinghamPalace on a scale of splendour new to Western mansions; the Prince ofWales had passed three days, from the 17th to the 19th, in the _Boodah_:and the saying went that, on the night of the rejection of the LandBill, a compact had taken place between the Prince and the Sea for athree years' Regency of the latter.
Excitement ensued, the matter becoming an election test: and 180 LabourMembers, with 70 Liberals were returned pledged to support a Regency ofthe Sea.
A definite coalition, meantime, had been announced between the Jews andthe Conservatives.
Never was election so rolled in dust and noise, in the result the Jewshaving the casting vote: and if ever race was looked at askance, it wasthey now by the British.
The session having been opened by Commission, a resolution passed Lordsand Commons that the Prince of Wales be empowered to exercise the RoyalAuthority; whereupon the Prince at the palace, having heard the Address,read a reply, sufficiently startling to the country, though wellforeknown to those present: he laid stress upon the new conditions ofthe world--that phlegmatic eye, which had seen so much, lifting a momentin punctuation to dwell coldly upon his hearers, then coldly readingagain; the difficulties, he said, which he was called upon to face onbehalf of His Majesty were not lightly to be undertaken, and his fulleranswer would be contained in a proposal which he would make in the Lordsas a peer of the realm.
The next night in a crowded House he read a speech distinguished byextraordinary dignity and severity: "My lords", he said at one point,slapping the table, though those eyes remained royally null: "whenwill your lordships learn to recognize the facts of life?" and, havingproposed His Lordship's Majesty, the Lord of the Sea, to be Regentduring His Majesty's illness, such Regency not to exceed a period ofthree years, he recommended a plebiscite.
No plebiscite was taken: for within some days the sense of theconstituencies was revealed, and the Leader in the Lords received sternhints from the Liberal Leader, which damped pride: so their lordshipsabstained from Westminster, their Resolution being passed by just aquorum.
The country wondered at the ease with which the whole went off--notknowing that those who might have led resistance had a thought, and aprospect, inspired by one Pat O'Hara, which comforted them.
And now a Deputation of Five took boat in the _Prince George_, to waitupon the Lord of the Sea in the _Boodah_ Throne Room, where the LordPresident read the information that they were a Committee appointed toattend His Lordship's Majesty with the Resolutions of the Houses.
"We are instructed", he read, "to express the hope which the LordsSpiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, entertain, that His Lordship'sMajesty, from his regard to the interests of His Majesty the King, willbe ready to undertake the weighty and important trust proposed to beinvested in His Lordship's Majesty, as soon as an Act of Parliamentshall have been passed for carrying the same into effect".
He then read, and delivered, the Resolutions.
Hogarth replied, reading: "My Lords and Gentlemen, I receive thecommunication which your two Houses have instructed you to make to mewith those sentiments of regard which I ever entertain for your twoHouses. Deeply impressed with the necessity of tranquillizing the publicmind throughout the world, I do not hesitate to accept the office andsituation proposed to me".
So the Deputation departs; five days later twelve British battleshipssurround the _Boodah_, come to accompany the Lord of the Sea to England;and at eleven on the morning of the 9th, his yacht, borne in on thestrong thunders of a royal salute, drops anchor in Southampton Water.
He had set so gorgeous a standard of luxury to Europe, that no onedreamed of making his entry into London an ordinary _fete_; and, as theprocession traversed the triumphal arches of Piccadilly, he, swept tothe gods in the lap of gallant sublimities, plumes, sabres, showeringhoofs, squad-troops, outriders, showed to the Prince beside him and tothe Czarowitz before him a miniature of Rebecca Frankl.
Some streets cheered--not all much: but during the illuminated night allLondon seemed to abandon itself to revelry.
The next morning Hogarth went in state to the Chapel Royal forcertificate of Communion, attended by heralds, Sergeants-at-mace,sword-of-state, the Duke of York; and after "the service" communicatedunder a canopy at the hand of the Bishop of London.
Then, on the 14th, Lords and Commons had a final conference over theRegency Bill, when the Assistant of the Parliaments uttered the worlds:"_Le Roy le Veult_"; and on the 15th, the swearing-in day, a partyof grenadiers with colours and fifes marched into the palace grounds,continuously to play "God Save the King"; while yeomen and ushers,together with servants-in-state of the Lord of the Sea, lined the greathall and staircase, life-guardsmen lining a vista of state-apartmentsending in a Blue-velvet Room, recently decorated; by 2.30 P.M. PrivyCouncillors commenced to arrive, till at 3.45 P.M. the Lord of the Seasent Admiral Quilter-Beckett to the President of the Council, orderinghis presence; and presently was himself seen coming up the vista,accompanied by his own household-officers, to the Blue-velvet Room wherehe sat at the table-head, the Royal personages on each hand, his ownofficers ranged on each side of the entrance-arch; and now one by oneentered the full-dressed Councillors, with bows which he returned,taking seat according to precedence--Canterbury, then the LordChancellor, then York; and last came and sat a certain Mr. Forrest,Keeper of the Records.
Hogarth then rose and said:
"My Lords: I understand that by the Act passed by your Parliamentappointing me Regent of this Empire, I am required to take certainoaths, as prescribed by the said Act: I am now ready to take these oaths".
Whereupon rose the Lord Privy Seal, made a reverence, approached, andread, while Hogarth pronounced after him:
"I sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear trueallegiance to His Majesty King George. So help me, God.
"I do solemnly promise and swear that I will truly and faithfullyexecute the Office of Regent of the King's Empire according to an Actof Parliament entitled 'an Act, etc.', and that I will, etc. So help me,God".
He then subscribed the two oaths, and after him the Privy Councillors,the Lord President first, as witnesses. It was then delivered to theRecord Keeper, who deposited it in a box, while Hogarth presented hisLord's-Supper certificate: whereupon the Lord President bent the kneeand kissed his hand, then the Royal personages, then the Archbishops,advancing in order on both sides.
It was a week of Hope, the turning over of a new leaf, so the spiritof festival reigned, and was deepened when the evening papers that dayannounced that a _ukase_ of the Sea had reduced rent on British ships by1s. 9d. per ton, and was heightened when during that and the followingnights Hogarth dispensed three millions in feting England: hisilluminations having no resemblance to those sickly twinklings,tremulous at their own cost, previously deemed good enough for thejubilee-days of an empire; the people were astonished: ample andplanetary his mind, his hand right royal, and London, bursting intolight, flashed tidings of our earth to Mars. It was incredible then thatany had ever wept, or would weep again; the bitterest foes of the Regentcaught the contagion of world-gala; Europe flocked to
London; theatreswere gratis; the illusion of the comet of the final night was complete,her lurid rays sprawling 2000 feet aloft in stiff portentousness,prophesying Change, the parks all transfigured into universes of moons,crescents, stars, jerbs, Roman-candles, _pots de brin_, girandoles ofrockets, pagodas, marquees, each tree a net of fireflies, while fromfive hundred and thirty balloons, with silent burst, snowed diversefires.
The new reign opened with promise.