Some young Marcellus with a better fate:
Some infant Frederick, or some George, to grace
The rising records of the Brunswick race.
If these set ringing the most harmonious of the echoes which Parnassus could raise on the occasion, the other metrical essays must have been wretched things indeed. But the Muse at that time was not a refined muse. If a laureate would only find rhyme, decency and logic were gladly dispensed with.
The prince was very zealous and painstaking in introducing his bride to the people. For this purpose they were often together at the theatre. On one of these occasions the princess must have had but an indifferent idea of the civilisation of the people over whom she fairly expected one day to reign as queen-consort. The occasion alluded to was on the 3rd of May 1736, when great numbers of footmen assembled, with weapons, in a tumultuous manner, broke open the doors of Drury Lane Theatre, and fighting their way to the stage-doors, which they forced open, they prevented the Riot Act being read by Colonel de Veal, who nevertheless arrested some of the ringleaders and committed them to Newgate. In this tumult, founded on an imaginary grievance that the footmen had been illegally excluded from the gallery, to which they claimed to go gratis, many persons were severely wounded, and the terrified audience hastily separated; the prince and princess, with a large number of persons of distinction, retiring when the tumult was at its highest. The Princess of Wales had never witnessed a popular tumult before; and, though this was ridiculous in character, it was serious enough of aspect to disgust her with that part of ‘the majesty of the people’ which was covered with plush.
The King, in spite of Sir Robert Walpole’s threat, proceeded to Hanover in the month of May. Before he quitted England he sent word to his son that, wherever the Queen Regent resided, there would be apartments for the Prince and Princess of Wales. Frederick looked upon this measure in its true light, namely, as making him a sort of prisoner, and preventing the possibility of two separate courts in the King’s absence. The prince determined to disobey his father and thwart his mother. When the Queen removed from one residence to another, he feigned preparations to follow her, and then feigned obstructions to them. He pleaded an illness of the princess which did not exist, and was surprised that his medical men declined to back up his lie by another of their own. The Queen on her side, feigning anxious interest in her daughter-in-law, visited her in her imaginary illness; but the patient, who was first said to be suffering from measles, then from a rash, and finally was declared to be really indisposed with a cold, was kept in a darkened room, and was otherwise so trained to deceive that Caroline left the bed-side as wise as when she went to it. In this conduct towards his mother Frederick was chiefly influenced by his ill-humour at the Queen’s being appointed regent. When she opened the commission at Kensington, which she always did as soon as she received intelligence of the landing of the King in Holland, Frederick would not attend the council, but contrived to reach the palace just after the members had concluded their business.
CHAPTER VI.
AT HOME AND OVER THE WATER.
The Queen and Walpole govern the kingdom—The bishops reproved by the Queen—Good wishes for the bishops entertained by the King—Anecdote of Bishop Hare—Riots—An infernal machine—Wilson the smuggler and the Porteous mob—General Moyle—Coldness of the Queen for the King—Walpole advises her Majesty—Unworthy conduct of Caroline and vice of her worthless husband—Questionable fidelity of Madame Walmoden—Conduct of the Princess at the Chapel Royal—The Princess and her doll—Pasquinades, &c. on the King—Farewell royal supper at Hanover—Dangerous voyage of the King—Anxiety of the Court about him—Unjust blame thrown on Admiral Wager—The Queen congratulates the King on his escape—The King’s warm reply—Discussions about the Prince’s revenue—Investigation into the affairs of the Porteous mob—The Queen and the Bill for reduction of the National Debt—Vice in high life universal—Represented on the stage, occasions the censorship—Animosity of the Queen and Princesses towards Prince Frederick.
Though the King delegated all royal power to the Queen, as regent during his absence, he exercised his kingly office when in Hanover by signing commissions for officers. The Queen would not consent that objection should be taken to this course followed by her husband, or that any representation should be made to him on the subject. Such acts, indeed, did not interfere with her great power as regent—a power which she wielded in union with Walpole. These two persons governed the kingdom according to their own councils; but the minister, nevertheless, placed every conclusion at which he and the Queen had arrived before the cabinet council, by the obsequious members of which the conclusions, whatever they were, were sanctioned, and the necessary documents signed. Thus Walpole, by the side of the Queen, acted as independently as if he had been King; but of his acts he managed to make the cabinet share with him the responsibility.
The office exercised by the Queen was far from being a sinecure or exempt from great anxieties; but it was hardly more onerous than that which she exercised during the King’s residence in England. Her chief troubles, she was wont to say, were derived from the bishops.