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forever since we were children , and visited the Tower during the Midsummer holidays , we have been fond of lions and unicorns . But hush!—the Lords spiritual and temporal of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland have
assembledthe legislators from the House of Commons summoned , not by the wand of Merlin , but by that of the Usher of the Black Rod , are huddled together in one listening heap ; the King is on the throne ! Hist ! He is about to open his Royal lips . Only listen to the mellifluous voice of Majesty . How silver-toned
the cadences—how clear the enunciation—how graceful the action ! The Archbishops , Bishops , Peers , Barons , Yeomen , Knights of Shires , and Country Gentlemen around—all prick up their ears , lift up their eyes , and are absorbed in attention . Would that every sound falling from such august lips could be
caught , condensed , and preserved , like the crystallized teardrop of Cleopatra , in spirits , to adorn the shelf of a museum !—Only imagine the speeches of all the Kings belonging to the House of Hanover and the House of Brunswick , crystallized and suspended in small stopper-phial bottles , all ranged along a shelf underneath other natural curiosities in the Hunterian
Museum ! But we candidly confess that since we visited the capital of Scotland , and heard the caw-me—caw-thee—after-dinner-style of eloquence of certain professors of the * Belles Lettres / we have been rather sick of speechifying in general . Nothing can be more tedious , for example , than the
speeches made at select vestry meetings , no matter in whatever parish the same be convened ; nothing more mawkish than the majority of electioneering harangues delivered by aspirants for Parliamentary honours ; nay , the last dying speeches and confessions which are blown through tin-horns about the streets of
London have even failed to excite our interest ; but not so the speeches of his Most Gracious Majesty , William IV , the King of Great Britain and all agitated Ireland ! These are gemsthese we grasp with a hand of fervid loyalty . True , we may be waxing rather old in the political service of our country , but
we know the importance of speeches being delivered in propria persotid by Majesty itself . If the King did not go down to open and close the two Houses of Parliament himself , attended by a retinue of Judges , Prelates , and a guard of honour , his subjects might forget that so gracious a Sovereign existed . If he did not open his lips officially once or twice a year , he might become altogether silent . This would be a pity . It is a wise principle , therefore , in our Constitution , and strictly in accordance with what Fielding ' s pundit calls the " eternal fitneas of things / ' that his Majesty should , at the opening and . adjournment of every session , go down in state and deliver an a ^ wft before the ^ sembled Parliament of Great Britain aad
Untitled Article
W 4 Speeches of his Majesty , William IV .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1837, page 174, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1829/page/48/
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