During the sitting of parliament, business was interrupted by the illness of the king. His majesty’s health had, indeed, for a considerable time been in a precarious state, but the first bulletin was not issued till the 15th of April, when it was announced that he was labouring under a bilious attack, accompanied by an embarrassment of breathing. The disorder was subsequently ascertained to have been ossification of the vessels of the heart. The symptoms continued to vary, the patient enjoying temporary intervals of comparative ease; but they did not give way, and they brought with them such an accession of bodily debility as rendered painful even the slightest exertion.
BILL TO AUTHORISE THE ADHIBITING OF THE SIGN-MANUAL BY STAMP.
In consequence of the illness of his majesty, on the 24th of May a message was sent down to both houses of parliament, stating that his majesty found it inconvenient and painful to sign with his own hand those public documents which required the sign-manual, and requesting the parliament to provide means for the temporary discharge of that function of the crown without detriment to the public service. A bill, therefore, was immediately passed, allowing the sign-manual to be adhibited by a stamp. Before the stamp could be affixed, a memorandum, describing its nature and its objects, signed by three privy-councillors, was to be endorsed upon the document. The stamp was then to be affixed in the presence of his majesty, by some person whom his majesty should command to do so by word of mouth. The presence of certain high officers of state was likewise required to attest what had been done; and the party affixing the stamp was to adjoin to the royal signature the words, “In his majesty’s presence, and by his majesty’s command,” and subscribe the same with his own name. The bill was limited in its duration to the present session.
DEATH OF THE KING, AND ACCESSION OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE, WILLIAM IV.
About the end of May a favourable turn of the disorder of his majesty gave rise to a hope of his recovery. This feeling, however, was soon dispersed, for the chest became affected, the lungs completely decayed, blood was mingled with the expectoration, and general debility rapidly ensued. His end was evidently near; and a short time before it took place his physicians intimated to his majesty that all further endeavours to avert the stroke of death would be unavailing. He calmly answered, “God’s will be done,” and subsequently received the sacrament from the hands of the Bishop of Chichester. Soon after his voice became faint and low, and for several days his words were scarcely articulated; his sleep also was broken and disturbed. At length, on the night of the 25th of June, the angel of death once more approached the palace of the kings of England. He had slept little during the evening, and from eleven to three was in a restless slumber, opening his eyes occasionally when the cough caused great pain. At three o’clock his majesty beckoned to the page in waiting to alter his position, and the couch, constructed for the purpose, was gently raised, and the sufferer lifted to his chair. At that moment, however, a blood-vessel burst, and his attendants hastened to apply the usual stimulants, and to call in the physicians. The royal patient himself perceived that his dissolution was at hand, and exclaimed, “O God, I am dying!” then in a few seconds he added, in a whisper scarcely audible, “This is death!” and when the physicians entered the apartment George IV. had ceased to breathe.
The decease of the monarch had become so much an object of daily expectation, and for years he had lived so much retired from his people, that his death excited less sensation than commonly follows that of English monarchs. Moreover, George IV. was not one of the most popular monarchs in English history.
As soon as the decease of his majesty was known, his next brother, William Henry, Duke of Clarence, was proclaimed by the title of William IV. The new monarch in a short time rendered himself very popular by the plainness of his habits and manners, and by the condescension, or rather the familiarity of his intercourse with his people—qualities which rendered him more popular by a comparison with the secluded life of his predecessors. No immediate change took place in the government, for his majesty, after the usual oaths for the security of the church of Scotland, having signed the instruments requisite at the commencement of a new reign, re-appointed the judges and other great officers of the state to the places which had become vacant, and signified to the members of government that he desired to retain their services.