The week ending the 8th of June, was the most brilliant that ever
occupied and captivated the fashionable world of a metropolis of two
millions of souls, the head of an empire of two hundred millions. The
recollection runs us out of breath. Every hour was a new summons to a
new _fête_, a new fantasy, or a new exhibition of the handsomest man
of the forty-two millions of Russia proper. The toilettes of the
whole _beau monde_ were in activity from sunny morn to dewy eve; and
from dewy eve to waxlighted midnight. A parade of the Guards, by
which the world was tempted into rising at ten o'clock; a _dejeuner à
la fourchette_, by which it was surprised into _dining_ at three,
(_more majorum;_) an opera, by which those whose hour for going out
is eleven, were forced into their carriages at nine; a concert at
Hanover Square, finished by a ball and supper at Buckingham
palace;--all were among those brilliant perversions of the habits of
high life which make the week one brilliant tumult; but which never
could have been revolutionized but by an emperor in the flower of his
age. Wherever he moved, he was followed by a host of the fair and
fashionable. The showy equipages of the nobility were in perpetual
motion. The parks were a whirlwind of horsemen and horsewomen. The
streets were a levy _en masse_ of the peerage. The opera-house was a
gilded "black hole of Calcutta." The front of Buckingham palace was a
scene of loyalty, dangerous to life and limb; men, careful of either,
gave their shillings for a glimpse through a telescope; and
shortsighted ladies fainted, that they might be carried into houses
which gave then a full view. Mivart's, the retreat of princes, had
the bustle of a Bond Street hotel. Ashburnham House was in a state of
siege. And Buckingham palace, with its guards, cavalcades, musterings
of the multitude, and thundering of brass bands, seemed to be the
focus of a national revolution. But it was within the palace that the
grand display existed. The gilt candelabra, the gold plate, the maids
of honour, all fresh as tares in June; and the ladies in waiting, all
Junos and Minervas, all jewelled, and none under forty-five,
enraptured the mortal eye, to a degree unrivalled in the
recollections of the oldest courtier, and unrecorded in the annals of
queenly hospitality.
But we must descend to the world again; we must, as the poet said,
"Bridle in our struggling muse with pain,
That longs to launch into a nobler strain."
We bid farewell to a description of the indescribable.
During this week, but one question was asked by the universal world
of St James's--"What was the cause of the Czar's coming?"
Every one answered in his own style. The tourists--a race who cannot
live without rambling through the same continental roads, which they
libel for their roughness every year; the same hotels, which they
libel for their discomforts; and the same _table-d'hotes_, which they
libel as the perfection of bad cookery, and barefaced
_chicane_--pronounced that the love of travel was the imperial
impulse. The politicians of the clubs--who, having nothing to do for
themselves, manage the affairs of all nations, and can discover high
treason in the manipulation of a toothpick, and symptoms of war in a
waltz--were of opinion, that the Czar had come either to construct an
European league against the marriage of little Queen Isabella, or to
beat up for recruits for the "holy" hostilities of Morocco. With the
fashionable world, the decision was, that he had come to see Ascot
races, and the Duke of Devonshire's gardens, before the sun withered,
or St Swithin washed them away. The John Bull world--as wise at least
as any of their betters, who love a holiday, and think Whitsuntide
the happiest period of the year for that reason, and Greenwich hill
the finest spot in creation--were convinced that his Majesty's visit
was merely that of a good-humoured and active gentleman, glad to
escape from the troubles of royalty and the heaviness of home, and
take a week's ramble among the oddities of England. "Who shall
decide," says Pope, "when doctors disagree?" Perhaps the nearest way
of reaching the truth is, to take all the reasons together, and try
how far they may be made to agree. What can be more probable than
that the fineness of the finest season within memory, the occurrence
of a moment of leisure in the life of a monarch ruling a fifth of the
habitable globe, roused the curiosity of an intelligent mind,
excited, like that of his great ancestor Peter, by a wish to see the
national improvements of the great country of engineering,
shipbuilding, and tunnelling; perhaps with Ascot races--the most
showy exhibition of the most beautiful horses in the world--to wind
up the display, might tempt a man of vigorous frame and active
spirit, to gallop across Europe, and give seven brief days to
England!
An additional conjecture has been proposed by the papers presumed to
be best informed in cabinet secrets; that this rapid journey has had
for its distinct purpose the expression of the Imperial scorn for the
miserable folly and malignant coxcombry of the pamphlet on the French
navy; which has excited so much contempt in England, and so much
boasting in France, and so much surprise and ridicule every where
else in Europe. Nothing could be more in consonance with a manly
character, than to show how little it shared the conceptions of a
coxcomb; and no more direct mode could be adopted than the visit, to
prove his willingness to be on the best terms with her government and
her people. We readily receive this conjecture, because it impresses
a higher character on the whole transaction; it belongs to an
advanced spirit of royal intercourse, and it constitutes an important
pledge for that European peace, which is the greatest benefaction
capable of being conferred by kings.
The Emperor may be said to have come direct from St Petersburg, as
his stops on the road were only momentary. He reached Berlin from his
capital with courier's speed, in four days and six hours, on Sunday
fortnight last. His arrival was so unexpected, that the Russian
ambassador in Prussia was taken by surprise. He travelled through
Germany incognito, and on Thursday night, the 30th, arrived at the
Hague. Next day, at two o'clock, he embarked at Rotterdam for
England. Here, two steamers had been prepared for his embarkation.
The steamers anchored for the night at Helvoetsluys. At three in the
following morning, they continued the passage, arriving at Woolwich
at ten. The Russian ambassador and officers of the garrison prepared
to receive him; but on his intimating his particular wish to land in
private, the customary honours were dispensed with. Shortly after
ten, the Emperor landed. He was dressed in the Russian costume,
covered with an ample and richly-furred cloak. After a stay of a few
minutes, he entered Baron Brunow's carriage with Count Orloff, and
drove to the Russian embassy. The remainder of the day was given to
rest after his fatigue.
On the next morning, Sunday, Prince Albert paid a visit to the
Emperor. They met on the grand staircase, and embraced each other
cordially in the foreign style. The Prince proposed that the Emperor
should remove to the apartments which were provided for him in the
palace--an offer which was politely declined. At eleven, the Emperor
attended divine service at the chapel of the Russian embassy in
Welbeck Street. At half-past one, Prince Albert arrived to conduct
him to the palace. He wore a scarlet uniform, with the riband and
badge of the Garter. The Queen received the Emperor in the grand
hall. A _dejeuner_ was soon afterwards served. The remainder of the
day was spent in visits to the Queen-Dowager and the Royal Family.
One visit of peculiar interest was paid. The Emperor drove to Apsley
House, to visit the Duke of Wellington. The Duke received him in the
hall, and conducted him to the grand saloon on the first floor. The
meeting on both sides was most cordial. The Emperor conversed much
and cheerfully with the illustrious Duke, and complimented him highly
on the beauty of his pictures, and the magnificence of his mansion.
But even emperors are but men, and the Czar, fatigued with his round
of driving, on his return to the embassy fell asleep, and slumbered
till dinner-time, though his Royal Highness of Cambridge and the
Monarch of Saxony called to visit him. At a quarter to eight o'clock,
three of the royal carriages arrived, for the purpose of conveying
the Emperor and his suite to Buckingham palace.
On Monday, the Emperor rose at seven. After breakfast he drove to
Mortimer's, the celebrated jeweller's, where he remained for an hour,
and is _said_ to have purchased L.5000 worth of jewellery. He then
drove to the Zoological gardens and the Regent's park. In the course
of the drive, he visited Sir Robert Peel, and the families of some of
our ambassadors in Russia. At three o'clock, he gave a _dejeuner_ to
the Duke of Devonshire, who had also been an ambassador in Russia.
Dover Street was crowded with the carriages of the nobility, who came
to put down their names in the visiting-book.
At five, a guard of honour of the First Life-Guards came to escort
him to the railway, on his visit to Windsor; but on his observing its
arrival, he expressed a wish to decline the honour, for the purpose
of avoiding all parade. The Queen's carriages had arrived, and the
Emperor and his suite drove off through streets crowded with
horsemen. On arriving at the railway station, the Emperor examined
the electrical telegraph, and, entering the saloon carriage, the
train set off, and arrived at Slough, a distance of nearly twenty
miles, in the astonishingly brief time of twenty-five minutes.
At the station, the Emperor was met by Prince Albert, and conveyed to
the castle.
The banquet took place in the Waterloo chamber, a vast hall hung with
portraits of the principal sovereigns and statesmen of Europe, to
paint which, the late Sir Thomas Laurence had been sent on a special
mission at the close of the war in 1815. Sir Thomas's conception of
form and likeness was admirable, but his colouring was cold and thin.
His "Waterloo Gallery" forms a melancholy contrast with the depth and
richness of the adjoining "Vandyk Chamber;" but his likenesses are
complete. The banquet was royally splendid. The table was covered
with gold plate and chased ornaments of remarkable beauty--the whole
lighted by rows of gold candelabra. The King of Saxony, the Duke of
Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the chief noblemen of
the household, were present at the entertainment.