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.