had himself to learn. I gave him the Council papers and explained all that
was to be done, and he went and explained all this to her. He asked her if
she would enter the room accompanied by the great officers of State, but
she said she would come in alone. When the Lords were assembled, the Lord
President (Lord Lansdowne) informed them of the King's death, and
suggested, as they were so numerous, that a few of them should repair to
the presence of the Queen, and inform her of the event, and that their
lordships were assembled in consequence; and accordingly the two royal
Dukes (the Duke of Cumberland, by the death of William, King of Hanover,
and the Duke of Sussex--the Duke of Cambridge was absent in Hanover), the
two Archbishops, the Chancellor, and Melbourne went with him. The Queen
received them in the adjoining room alone."

It was the first time she had to act for herself. Until then she had been
well supported by her mother, and by the precedence which the Duchess of
Kent took as her Majesty's guardian. But the guardianship was over and the
reign begun. There could be no more sheltering from responsibility, or
becoming deference to, and reliance on, the wisdom of another and a much
older person. In one sense the stay was of necessity removed. The Duchess
of Kent, from this day "treated her daughter with respectful observance as
well as affection." The time was past for advice, instruction, or
suggestion, unless in private, and even then it would be charily and warily
given by the sensible, modest mother of a Queen. Well for her Majesty that
there was no more than truth in what one of the historians of the reign has
said, in just and temperate language, of her character: "She was well
brought up. Both as regards her intellect and her character her training
was excellent. She was taught to be self-reliant, brave, and systematical."

As soon as the deputation had returned, the proclamation was read; "Whereas
it has pleased Almighty God to call to His mercy our late Sovereign Lord,