The coronation of our monarchs presents a wide field of meditation to an
intelligent eye. It is an epitome of the genius of the monarchy, and a
miniature exhibition of the leading events of our annals.
Connected, in point of fact, with the first establishment of
Christianity in this island, it also perpetuates some of the earliest
British notions of public liberty; and while it confirms the hereditary
claims of each succeeding prince, it is introduced by a recognition of
some of the most ancient rights of the people,
"Mighty states, _characterless_, are grated
To dusty nothing,"
says that great dramatist who has so largely alluded to English
coronations in his historical plays. These ceremonies exhibit the
character of each constituent portion of the political body from age to
age; and are chiefly valuable, perhaps, as preserving a chain of
_national identity_, unbroken by conquest, or by civil war; by changing
dynasties, or the most important revolutions of the empire: on the other
hand, they present to us a vast _variety_ of character and events.--They
are associated with the gloom, "the dim religious light" of Anglo-Saxon
history, with the stormy character of the Conquest and the Norman
domination; they bring before us the lofty Plantagenet, the proud Tudor,
and the tyrannical but unfortunate House of Stuart, in all the pomp, and
strife, and vanity of their respective pretensions.
But the general reader will require a _clue_ to this symbolical kind of
instruction: a companion to his recollections of such an exhibition,
which, without destroying the vividness and pleasure of the pageantry,
shall connect its objects with the march of history, the advance of
civilization, and the final settlement of our laws and liberties. "To
converse with historians," says an accomplished writer, "is always to
keep good company;" while, "to carry back the mind _in uniting_ and to
make IT old," is the one great difficulty which Lord Bacon points out in
the study of history. Every effort, therefore, to smooth this difficult
path, and to introduce the rising generation to such company, will be
properly appreciated by the anxious and intelligent parent; and such is
the design of this little volume. It is the especial business of the
historian, certainly, to instruct; but the more he can keep alive our
_interest_ without flattering either our passions or vices, the more
effectually will he accomplish his great object, and swell the train of
the votaries of truth.