modesty, and at the same
time her firmness. She appeared, in fact, to be awed, but not
daunted, and afterwards the Duke of Wellington told me the same
thing, and added that if she had been his own daughter he could
not have desired to see her perform her part better. It was
settled that she was to hold a Council at St. James's this day,
and be proclaimed there at ten o'clock, and she expressed a wish
to see Lord Albemarle, who went to her and told her he was come to
take her orders. She said, 'I have no orders to give; you know all
this so much better than I do, that I leave it all to you. I am to
be at St. James's at ten to-morrow, and must beg you to find me a
conveyance proper for the occasion.' Accordingly, he went and
fetched her in state with a great escort. The Duchess of Kent was
in the carriage with her, but I was surprised to hear so little
shouting, and to see so few hats off as she went by. I rode down
the Park, and saw her appear at the window when she was
proclaimed. The Duchess of Kent was there, but not prominent; the
Queen was surrounded by her Ministers, and curtsied repeatedly to
the people, who did not, however, hurrah till Lord Lansdowne gave
them the signal from the window. At twelve she held a Council, at
which she presided with as much ease as if she had been doing
nothing else all her life, and though Lord Lansdowne and my
colleague had contrived between them to make some confusion with
the Council papers, she was not put out by it. She looked very
well, and though so small in stature, and without much pretension
to beauty, the gracefulness of her manner and the good expression
of her countenance give her on the whole a very agreeable
appearance, and with her youth inspire an excessive interest in
all who approach her, and which I can't help feeling myself. After
the Council she received the Archbishops and Bishops, and after
them the Judges. They all kissed her hand, but she said nothing to
any of them, very different in this from her predecessor, who used
to harangue them all, and had a speech ready for everybody.

[9] The Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex. The Duke of
Cambridge was in Hanover.

[Page Head: QUEEN VICTORIA PROCLAIMED.]

Conyngham, when he came to her with the intelligence of the King's
death, brought a request from the Queen Dowager that she might be
permitted to remain at Windsor till after the funeral, and she has
written her a letter couched in the kindest