revent his
flying on somebody. Lord Lyndhurst was equally furious, and some
sharp words passed which were not distinctly heard. In the midst
of all the din Lord Mansfield rose and obtained a hearing.
Wharncliffe said to him, 'For God's sake, Mansfield, take care
what you are about, and don't disgrace us more in the state we
are in.' 'Don't be afraid,' he said; 'I will say nothing that
will alarm you;' and accordingly he pronounced a trimming
philippic on the Government, which, delivered as it was in an
imposing manner, attired in his robes, and with the greatest
energy and excitation, was prodigiously effective. While he was
still speaking, the King arrived, but he did not desist even
while his Majesty[1] was entering the House of Lords, nor till he
approached the throne; and while the King was ascending the
steps, the hoarse voice of Lord Londonderry was heard crying
'Hear, hear, hear!' The King from the robing-room heard the
noise, and asked what it all meant. The conduct of the Chancellor
was most extraordinary, skipping in and out of the House and
making most extraordinary speeches. In the midst of the uproar he
went out of the House, when Lord Shaftesbury was moved into the
chair. In the middle of the debate Brougham again came in and
said, 'it was most extraordinary that the King's undoubted right
to dissolve Parliament should be questioned at a moment when the
House of Commons had taken the unprecedented course of stopping
the supplies,' and having so said (which was a lie) he flounced
out of the House to receive the King on his arrival. The King
ought not properly to have worn the Crown, never having been
crowned; but when he was in the robing-room he said to Lord
Hastings, 'Lord Hastings, I wear the Crown; where is it?' It was
brought to him, and when Lord Hastings was going to put it on his
head he said, 'Nobody shall put the Crown on my head but myself.'
He put it on, and then turned to Lord Grey and said, 'Now, my
Lord, the coronation is over.' George Villiers said that in his
life he never saw such a scene, and as he looked at the King upon
the throne with the Crown loose upon his head, and the tall, grim
figure of Lord Grey close beside him with the sword of state in
his hand, it was as if the King had got his executioner by his
side, and the whole picture looked strikingly typical of his and
our future destinies.

[1] When Lord Mansfield sat down he said, 'I have spoken
English to them