Serious Illness of the Prince
Following his return from foreign travel and the fulfilment of a brief
round of public functions and duties came the now historic and really
eventful illness of the Prince of Wales. It was a critical period in his
career. Boyhood, youth and the first flush of manhood were gone; his
marriage had taken place and his family been born into a position of
present and future importance; his own training in public duties and
experience in foreign travel and observation had been completed up to a
very high point of efficiency. The one element which seemed to be a
little lacking was that of a full appreciation of his own responsibility
to the nation and the Empire. The brilliant light which blazed around
the Throne could find no fault in the actual performance of any duty;
but the critical eye and caustic pen had been prone for some years to
allege an overfondness for pleasure and amusement and the pursuits of
social life.
Whether true or false in its not very serious origin this impression had
been studiously cultivated in certain quarters at home which had an
interest in the theoretical flash-lights of republicanism; and
extensively propagated abroad by cabled falsehoods and magnified
incidents until actual harm had been done to the reputation and
character of the young Prince amongst those who did not know him and
could never actually expect to know him except through the journalistic
food upon which they were fed.
On the other hand, the English people had hardly learned to appreciate
the important place filled by the Prince of Wales in the community, in
the daily life of the nation, in the hopes of his future subjects, and
deep down in the hearts of the masses. Something was apparently needed
to develop those two lines of feeling--one personal and the other
national--and this came in the illness which struck down the Prince in
the closing months of 1871. During the Autumn he had paid a visit to
Lord Londesborough at Scarborough, and, although not feeling well,
nothing was supposed to be seriously wrong. From there the Prince had
gone to stay with Lord Carington at Gayhurst and thence returned to
Sandringham where he became decidedly ill. The _Times_ of November 22nd
was compelled to state that His Royal Highness was suffering from "a
chill resulting in a febrile attack" which had confined him to his room.
On the following day a bulletin signed by Doctors Jenner, Clayton, Gull
and Lowe stated that the Prince was suffering from typhoid.
ORIGIN OF THE ILLNESS
Amid the anxiety caused by this announcement every one wondered where
the disease had been contracted, and ere long it was known that all the
guests of Lord Londesborough at the time of the Royal visit had become
more or less indisposed; that the hostess herself was seriously ill;
that the Earl of Chesterfield, one of the recent guests, was down with
typhoid and, finally that Blegg, the Prince's groom, had caught the same
disease. Ultimately both peer and peasant died, and the seriousness of
their illness as it developed in the public eye added to the gradually
growing excitement over the condition of the Heir-Apparent.
The growth of popular feeling in the matter was evidently deep and
serious. Bulletins stating that the symptoms of the fever were severe
but regular continued for a time amid ever-increasing manifestations of
interest and, as the weeks passed slowly by and the Queen had gone to
the bedside of her son and something of the devotion of his wife to the
sick Prince became known, this feeling grew in volume. Meanwhile the
Princess Alice had also come to lend her brother the sympathetic touch
and knowledge of nursing for which she was so well known. For a brief
moment on December 1st, the patient roused from his delirium
sufficiently to remark that it was the birthday of the Princess, and for
a week thereafter the news of improvement in his condition was good.
Then came a crisis when the fever had spent itself while the patient had
also become worn out. It was impossible to say whether he could live
another day. The Royal family were summoned to Sandringham on December
9th, and on the following day (Sunday) prayers were offered up in all
the churches of the land and in many other countries, by request of the
Archbishop of Canterbury. In the morning, the Vicar at Sandringham
Church received a note from the Princess of Wales: "My husband being,
thank God, somewhat better, I am coming to church, I must leave, I fear,
before the service is concluded that I may watch by his bedside. Can you
say a few words in prayer in the early part of the service, that I may
join with you in prayer for my husband before I return to him?"
THE CRISIS AND THE RECOVERY
On December 11th the _Times_ stated that "the Prince still lives, and we
may, therefore, still hope." During the following days crowds in every
town surrounded the bulletins and waited in the streets for the latest
newspaper reports; and the Government found it necessary to forward
medical statements to every telegraph office in the United Kingdom as
they were issued. On the 14th of the month a favourable change seemed
apparent, and on the 16th the Prince had a quiet and refreshing sleep.
On the following day the Royal family went to church, where, by special
request, the Royal patient and his dying groom--Blegg--were prayed for
together. The latter died within a few hours, but not before the
Princess had found time to visit him and comfort his relations. Slowly,
but steadily, from that time on the Prince began to make headway towards
recovery, though it was not until Christmas Day that the danger was
thought to be past and his Royal mother could express her feeling to the
nation in a letter which was made public on December 26th: "The Queen is
very anxious to express her deep sense of the touching sympathy of the
whole nation on the occasion of the alarming illness of her dear son,
the Prince of Wales. The universal feeling shown by her people during
these painful, terrible days, and the sympathy evinced by them with
herself and her beloved daughter, the Princess of Wales, as well as the
general joy at the improvement of the Prince of Wales's state, have made
a deep and lasting impression on her heart which can never be effaced."
CELEBRATION OF HIS RECOVERY
The recovery of the Prince took the usual course of the disease and was
protracted in character; but on January 14th the last bulletin was
issued. The Princess of Wales and the Princess Alice had been his nurses
throughout this trying time, and they had never seemed to weary in their
devoted care. Nine days after the issue of the last bulletin Dr. William
Jenner was gazetted a K.C.B. and Dr. William W. Gull a baronet. There
were rumors at this time that the patient had been at one stage actually
_in extremis_, but had been saved by one of those sudden inspirations
which sometimes constitute so important a part of medical practice, and
which consisted in a vigorous and continuous application of old
champagne brandy over the body until returning animation had rewarded
the doctor's efforts. The 14th of December, the anniversary of the
Prince Consort's death and the day upon which the actual turning point
in the disease took place, was commemorated by a brass lectern in the
Parish Church of Sandringham, which bears the following inscription:
To the Glory of God.
A Thank-Offering for His Mercies.
14th December, 1871.
Alexandra.
"When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord, and He heard me."
The good news from Sandringham was received throughout the country with
expressions of the most unbounded popular satisfaction; and the
announcement that an opportunity would be afforded of returning public
thanks to the Almighty for his mercy was universally approved. The day
for the National Thanksgiving was finally settled for February 27th, and
St. Paul's Cathedral as the place; but before that time came Dr.
Stanley--who had now become Dean of Westminster--suggested a private
visit to the Abbey and a personal expression of his feelings by the
Prince. This was done in absolute privacy, with only the Princess and a
few members of the Royal family present. A sermon was preached by the
Dean in which, as he told an intimate friend, he was able for once to
say what he wished to say.
THE NATION UNITED IN A COMMON SYMPATHY
Many of the papers of the country commented upon the event with much the
same freedom as the Dean was able to use on this occasion, and it seemed
to be felt that the unbounded solicitude and affection so evidently and
profoundly shown for the Prince had given a certain right of counsel to
the nation. It was generally admitted that the illness had disclosed to
the people as a whole something like an adequate knowledge of their own
convictions in connection with the monarchy and concerning its
maintenance as a permanent and powerful institution of the realm.
Whatever might be the abstract ideas held by individuals in times when
Mr. Bradlaugh and Sir Charles Dilke were preaching republicanism and Mr.
Chamberlain was suspected of harbouring the same opinions, it had become
apparent that the subjects of the Queen in Great Britain were
practically a unit in their preference for a constitutional monarchy and
in their personal devotion to the Crown and the Royal family. In
addition to the event having awakened the nation to the strength of its
own sentiment in this regard, it was also believed that an important
influence would be found to have been exerted upon the Prince of
Wales--a steadying sense of responsibility resulting from holding such a
place as he did in the hearts of his countrymen.
THE PUBLIC THANKSGIVING OF THE NATION
The _Illustrated London News_ well embodied this thought in the
following comment: "Doubtless what has occurred during the last few
weeks has also a meaning for the Heir Apparent to the Throne. No man of
the slightest sensibility can witness the emotional effusion of a great
nation towards himself without being deeply impressed with the
responsibilities of his position. The Prince comes back to the British
people from the brink of the tomb, and they who most pathetically
lamented his danger hail his return to health with devout thanksgivings
and acclamations of joy. Can there be a more powerful incentive to that
course of future action which will commend him to their approbation and
their love? That he will recognize and respond to it, we cannot allow
ourselves to doubt." One of the interesting incidents of the illness was
the fact that when the announcement was made that His Royal Highness
might only survive a few hours his obituary was, of course, prepared and
put in type in all the leading newspaper offices in the land to an
extent varying from the pages of a metropolitan daily down to the half
dozen columns of the Provincial press. Proofs of the obituaries were, it
is understood, afterwards collected and sent to the Prince, who had
them pasted into an immense scrap-book at Marlborough House.
The Thanksgiving Day celebration commenced on February 27th at 12
o'clock, when Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by the Prince and
Princess of Wales and the Princess Beatrice and Prince Albert Victor of
Wales, drove through the gates of Buckingham Palace. There were nine
Royal carriages in the procession, containing a number of ladies and
gentlemen of the Court, and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Arthur, Prince
Leopold and Prince George of Wales. With the latter was the Marquess of
Aylesbury, Master of the Horse; Mr. Brand, Speaker of the House of
Commons; Lord Hatherley, the Lord Chancellor. H. R. H. the Duke of
Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief, headed the procession as it passed slowly
through Pall Mall, Charing Cross, the Strand, Fleet Street and Ludgate
Hill to St. Paul's Cathedral. The streets were lined with dense masses
of people, while every shop-window, doorstep, portico and available roof
were black with cheering throngs. Decorations there were of every sort
and range--squalid or simple or splendid--but all representing pleasure
and loyalty. Along Fleet Street and the Strand they took the form of an
actual canopy of banners, standards, streamers and strings of flowers.
Venetian masts, flying pennons, countless trophies and miniature
shields, with varied mottoes and many kinds of loyal wishes, were seen
all along the route. A band of school children numbering 30,000 sang the
National Anthem in Green Park, while soldiers lined the roadway from the
Palace to the Cathedral. Hearty and enthusiastic cheers greeted the
Royal party, and the Queen and Princess were described as looking bright
and happy, and the Prince as being pale, but not thin. The Queen wore a
black velvet dress trimmed with white ermine, the Princess of Wales was
in blue silk covered with black lace, and the Prince was in the uniform
of a British General and wearing the orders of the Garter and the Bath.
At Temple Bar the Queen was formally received by the Lord Mayor and
Sheriffs of London, and the city sword handed to Her Majesty and
returned in the usual way. At one o'clock the Royal party arrived at the
Cathedral and passed up a covered way of crimson cloth to the steps,
where they were received by the Bishop of London, the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul's and the officers of Her Majesty's Household. The vast
interior of the building had been arranged to accommodate 13,000
persons, and was crowded to the doors. Space under the dome was reserved
for the Queen, the Royal family, the House of Lords, the House of
Commons, the Corps Diplomatique and the distinguished foreigners, the
Judges and the dignitaries of the law, the Lords Lieutenant and Sheriffs
of Counties, the representatives of universities and other learned
bodies. The choir was reserved for the Clergy, and the place assigned to
Her Majesty and their Royal Highnesses was slightly raised, made into a
kind of pew and covered with crimson cloth.
The Royal procession as it moved up the aisle included, besides the
members of the Royal family, such well known officials and members of
the Court as Major-General Lord Alfred Paget, Lieutenant-General Sir
John Cowell, Colonel H. F. Ponsonby, Major-General Sir T. M. Biddulph,
General Sir William Knollys, Rear-Admiral Lord Frederick Kerr, the
(late) Lord Methuen, General Lord Strathnairn, the Marquess of
Aylesbury, the Viscount Sydney, the Countess of Gainsborough, the Lady
Churchill, Lady Caroline Barrington, the Hon. Mrs. Grey, the Countess of
Morton and Lord Harris. Most of the great names and great personages of
England were present at this function. There were 200 Peers and
Peeresses; the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and fourteen Bishops;
nearly every member of the House of Commons. Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone
were there as were Mr. Disraeli and Viscountess Beaconsfield. Lord
Northbrook, Mr. W. E. Forster, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Chichester Fortescue,
Mr. Goschen, and Lord Granville were visible. Throngs of ladies,
brilliant in blue and mauve and crimson satin and gems were present,
and, as the sun suddenly shone through what had been sullen clouds, the
spectacle within those parts of the Cathedral touched by the stream of
light was beautiful indeed. It shone upon the bright blue of many
dresses--the Royal colour of the day--mixed up in a confusion of
effective shadings with the dark blue and burnished gold of the
uniforms, the scarlet and white plumes of the officers, the gorgeous
robes of the Peers, the white lawn of the Bishops.
After walking up the aisle on the arm of the Prince of Wales, with the
Princess on the other side, Her Majesty took her place in the special
pew with the chief members of the Royal family on either side. After a
brief special service of thanksgiving the Archbishop of Canterbury
preached the sermon for the occasion in words of tact and eloquence from
which one quotation may be made: "Just as in one of our own homes when
death threatens, the whole history of the loved object we fear to lose
comes back in the hours of waiting, so England was stirred by a hundred
touching memories when danger threatened the Royal house. And God
doubtless thus touched our hearts to deepen our loyalty and make us
better prize the thousand good things secured in a well-ordered State by
love to the head of the State." At the conclusion of the sermon a
Thanksgiving Hymn was sung and the benediction given. The following was
the concluding verse:
"Bless, Father, him thou gavest
Back to the loyal land,
O Saviour, him Thou savest,
Still cover with Thine Hand:
O Spirit, the Defender,
Be his to guard and guide,
Now in life's midday splendor
On to the eventide."
The Royal party then proceeded in due state to their carriages and the
procession returned through the streets of the city to Buckingham Palace
over the Holborn Viaduct, along Holborn and Oxford street to the Marble
Arch, _via_ Hyde Park to Piccadilly, and thence down Constitution Hill.
Enthusiastic cheering was heard all along the route and decorations were
seen everywhere in the greatest abundance. In the evening London was
brilliant with light. The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Mansion
House, and the two large triumphal arches were particularly bright and
beautiful in their varied colours and illuminations. The Lord Mayor and
Lady Mayoress entertained the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Provincial
Mayors to a banquet at the Mansion House and, all over the United
Kingdom, celebrations of a popular or religious character, holiday
gatherings, crowded meetings and illuminations, marked the day and the
pleasure of the people. Addresses poured in by hundreds and rejoicings
were not confined to the Island portion of the Empire. An incident of
this celebration was the collection of a Thanksgiving Fund for the
completion of St. Paul's Cathedral. To it the Queen gave L1000 and the
Prince of Wales L500. Another feature of the event was the splendid
behaviour of the millions of people who lined the seven-mile route of
the procession and paid loyal tribute to their Queen and to the son who
was heir to all the traditions of his race and the greatness of the
Royal name. On February 29th Her Majesty wrote to Mr. Gladstone a
message intended for the nation:
"The Queen is anxious, as on a previous occasion, to express
publicly her own personal very deep sense of the reception she and
her dear children met with on Tuesday, February the 27th, from
millions of her subjects on her way to and from St. Paul's. Words
are too weak for the Queen to say how very deeply touched and
gratified she has been by the immense enthusiasm and affection
exhibited towards her dear son and herself, from the highest down
to the lowest, on the long progress through the Capital, and she
would earnestly wish to convey her warmest and most heartfelt
thanks to the whole nation for this great demonstration of loyalty.
The Queen, as well as her son and dear daughter-in-law, felt that
the whole nation joined with them in thanking God for sparing the
beloved Prince of Wales's life."
Perhaps the most beautiful and effective presentations of popular
feeling and hopes in connection with this now historic sickness of the
Heir Apparent were the sermons preached by Dean Stanley. No one has ever
been closer in friendship and in personal knowledge to the Prince of
Wales than had this eloquent and saintly ecclesiastic. No one has been
more admired and respected in the Church of England in modern days than
he; nor has any of its clergy possessed a wider view or more generous
heart. Speaking in Westminster Abbey on December 10th, 1871, when the
nation was awaiting in deep anxiety the issue of a struggle which seemed
to be almost fatally and surely decided, he embodied the popular feeling
in beautiful and appropriate words: "On a day like this when there is
one topic in every household, one question on every lip, it is
impossible to stand in this place and not endeavour to give some
expression to that of which every heart is full. We all press, as it
were, round one darkened chamber, we all feel that with the mourning
family, mother, wife, brothers, sisters, who are there assembled, we are
indeed one. The thrill of their fears or hopes passes through and
through the differences of rank and station; we feel that, while they
represent the whole people they also represent and are that which each
family and each member of each family, is separately. In the fierce
battle between life and death, for the issues of which we are all
looking with such eager expectation, we see the likeness of what will
befall every individual soul amongst us; and the reflection which this
struggle, with all its manifold uncertainties suggests, concerns us all
alike."
The sermon which followed was a skillful presentation of thoughts
suggested by the text, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." It
concluded with an earnest hope that the Royal life which might so
greatly influence the national destinies might still be preserved--"a
life which, if duly appreciated and fitly used, contains within it
special opportunities for good such as no other existence in this great
community possesses; a life which may, if worthily employed, stimulate
all that is noble and beneficent and discourage all that is low and base
and frivolous." In these and other words he concluded a sermon which
could not but have had its influence in after days upon the life and
character of the Prince who so greatly respected and regarded the
preacher. A week later the cloud had lifted from Sandringham and the
life which had been so much prayed for in so many lands was slowly
passing into the region of safety and strength. It gave the opportunity
to Dean Stanley to speak again at the historic Abbey in a strain of
instruction and to draw a national moral from the events of the past few
months. He referred to the spontaneous outburst of every class and every
party which had, to his mind, proved the permanent supremacy of the
British Crown in a Christian State. "There are nations and there have
been times in which the devotion to the reigning family has been a thing
separate and apart from the love of country. There have been times and
places when the love of country has existed with no loyal feeling to the
reigning family. Let us thank God that in England it is not so. Loyalty
with us is the personal, romantic side of patriotism. Patriotism with us
is the Christian, philosophic side of loyalty. Long may the two flourish
together, each supporting and sustaining the other."
On the Sunday following the Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's--March
3rd--the Dean preached for the last time upon this subject in
Westminster Abbey. After stirring references to the wonderful scene of
national enthusiasm lately witnessed and to the gathering in St. Paul's
Cathedral of representatives of every creed and religious division in
Great Britain (except those of one exclusive body) to offer
thanksgivings in "the venerable forms of the National Church" he
expressed his belief that the demonstration as a whole was "the response
in every English heart to the sense of union--too subtle for analysis
yet true and simple as the primitive instincts of our race--which binds
the people of England to their Monarchy and the Monarchy to the people."
He dealt with the functions and character of that institution in most
striking words. "No other existing throne in Europe reaches back to the
same antiquity, none other combines with such an undivided charm the
associations of the past with the interests of the present. It is the
one name and place which, being beyond the reach of personal ambition,
beyond the need of private gain, has the inestimable chance of guiding,
moulding, elevating the tastes, the customs, the morals of the whole
community. It is the one name and place which, being raised high above
all party struggles, all local jealousies, over all classes,
ecclesiastical as well as civil, is the supreme controlling spring which
binds together in their widest meaning all the forces of the State and
all the forces of the Church. It is the one institution which by very
nature of its existence unites the abstract idea of country and of duty
with the personal endearments of family life, of domestic love, of
individual character."
It was the greatness of this national possession--one which had steadied
national progress and promoted peace in the midst of tumults and freedom
in the midst of disorder--which had, Dean Stanley thought, helped to
make the people pray that its destined heir should be worthy of his
noble inheritance. And then the speaker pointedly and clearly pictured
the increased and increasing responsibilities of the Prince of Wales
upon whom, henceforth, "as by a new consecration and confirmation,
devolves the glorious task of devoting to his country's service that
life which is in a special sense no longer his but ours, for which his
country's prayers, his country's thanksgivings, have been so earnestly
offered." The sermon concluded with a description of these great
responsibilities; an appeal to the Prince to begin life afresh and to
take the lead in all that was true and holy, just and good; a warning
that "of him to whom much has been given, much shall be required;" a
picture of a Christian England fighting evil in every form and in every
place and growing greater in all the elements of higher national and
individual life.