ROYAL VISITS.
In 1849, Dublin had the honor of a Royal visit, which was regarded by all classes as a most gratifying event. On the 5th of August, her Majesty Queen Victoria arrived in Kingstown Harbour, accompanied by Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Prince Alfred, and the Princess Alice. The Victoria and Albert yacht was escorted by ten war steamers, and the squadron anchored about eight o'clock in the evening. The Queen made a public entry into Dublin on the following day, and remained in Ireland until the 10th. Having a perfect recollection of George the Fourth's visit in 1821, I presume to say that the reception of Victoria was most respectful and cordial, and did not indicate the slightest approach to sycophantic adulation. I would not apply the same terms in describing the popular demonstrations which her uncle's visit produced; for if ever a community manifested unanimous servility and insane enthusiasm, it was when his Irish subjects accorded to George the Fourth a homage almost idolatrous. Both visits occurred in the same month, but with an interval of twenty-eight years. I hope that I shall not be deemed too discursive in mentioning that the King was received by the municipal authorities, with the usual ceremonies, at the northern end of Upper Sackville Street, where a gate had been constructed for his admission; and over the external side there appeared a very conspicuous inscription, derived from the sixth book of Virgil's Æneid—
"Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis,
Augustus."[9]
The meaning of this quotation did not seem a difficult attainment, even to those who had never previously seen a Latin word. It was generally construed by such persons, "Here he is; it is all right; he has come, as he promised, in August."
It was during the King's sojourn at the Viceregal Lodge in the Phœnix Park, that an anecdote became current of a question having been addressed by him to an Irish footman as to whether there was any person in the establishment who understood German? to which the interrogated domestic replied, "Please your Majesty, I don't know anyone who spakes Jarman, but I have a brother who plays the Jarman flate."
In 1849, when it became known that Queen Victoria would visit Dublin, a great influx of the nobility and gentry was reasonably expected. The city became also very attractive to persons of a different and objectionable description. Great numbers of mendicants arrived, and the increase of beggars on our streets became most disagreeably apparent. The Commissioners of Police immediately told off constables in plain clothes on the special duty of repressing the nuisance, and so vigilant and active were they, that our thoroughfares were less infested by beggars during the Royal visit than I ever knew them to be at any other period. The committals were generally for ten or fourteen days; and many of the vagrants were by no means slow in attributing their confinement to special orders from the Queen herself to have the beggars locked up while she was in Dublin. A woman, who was committed by me for a fortnight on a conviction for mendicancy, exclaimed, as she was leaving the police-court, "Mr. Porter is sending us to jail in hopes of getting himself made Sir Frank."
During the Queen's progress through the city on the 6th of August, the whole line of the procession was densely crowded, the windows were occupied, and banners, emblematic of respect and welcome, abundantly displayed; and she was universally hailed with enthusiastic shouts of applause. In the evening there was a general and most brilliant illumination. The whole day passed without the slightest tumult or accident, until about eleven o'clock at night, when the vast crowds were dispersed by the heaviest rain that I ever witnessed in Ireland. The shower lasted about an hour. During the succeeding four days, Her Majesty visited the principal public institutions, and held a levee in Dublin Castle, the most numerous and influential that had ever been assembled there, and a drawing-room which exhibited an unprecedented display of rank, fashion, and beauty. On the 10th of August, she embarked at Kingstown, amidst the acclamations of assembled thousands, and sailed for England. She afforded signal acknowledgments of her appreciation of the reception she had experienced from her Irish subjects, for on leaving the pier at Kingstown, she ordered the Royal standard to be lowered and raised again on board the Royal yacht, a mark of honor never before employed except for a Royal personage. In a short time after her visit of 1849, she created her eldest son Earl of Dublin.