in mourning assembled on Blackfriars-bridge; and the solemn effect was increased by the stillness of the river, and by the moonlight..

On the following day, business and worldly affairs slowly began to resume their influence over the minds of men-but so it is-and even Nature herself seems to point out to us that, although it is good to sorrow, it is not good to sorrow like men without hope; for, though the desolated parent, the widowed mourner, or the helpless orphan seem, to themselves, wrapped up in obscurity and darkness, yet the sun rises on the morning of their woe, and shines as bright-the genial breath of Heaven blows as fresh and fair-the flowers expand as sweetly--and the feathered songsters sing as cheerfully as on the preceding day, and will continue thus to shine, to breathe, to expand, and sing, until that little hillock, which shrowds their happiness, shall be once more covered with the long, rank grass, nodding to the autumnal blast!

The decorum and sorrow which had shut up all the public places, now gave way to dire necessity, and the theatres again were opened; but to audiences whose paucity of numbers and sombre hue well spoke the public feeling; except in the instance of Drury Lane, where, with a propriety worthy of imitation, a funereal Oratorio was performed during the latter part of that solemn week.

Notwithstanding this necessary recurrence

worldly affairs, yet the afflicting event which has blasted the nation's hope, and involved the whole British family, from its most exalted to its humblest members, in the deepest affliction, continued to be the exclusive subject of our thoughts and conversation. From the capital, the gloom and sorrow were communicated to every part of the kingdom. It is rare to see the bosom of a great country so deeply agitated, and the heart of a noble nation moved, by a burst of emotion, at once so generous, so powerful, and so various. But that manly heart, and those warm emotions, ought now to be relieved from too intense a pressure. Sensibility was given by the wise Creator, not merely for the ornament, but for the use of man; and our best affections are often wounded, that we may be roused more forcibly to a sense of our duties-to think, to resolve, and to reform. Yet the blow has come upon us so like one of those awful convulsions of nature, where no warning voice is heard until all around is ruin and death, that the flattering thought of its impossibility will sometimes start upon us in our more listless moments, as if the whole were some horrible dream, too distressing for memory. Still the sad reality returns, and in the gloomy mood which sorrow generates, the mind hangs with the deepest interest over the minutest details. No man amongst us is able fully to account for the scenes of which he has recently formed a part.

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Fiat of Providence.

Esteem, affection, pity, for the illustrious object, who vanished like a spirit, while the eye still gazed upon her form; disappointment of our own ardent hopes; solicitude for our future, though not immediate prospects;-the combined operation of all these feelings it is difficult, perhaps, to understand. The grief arising out of them is a graceful sentiment in the breast of any individual: and when it pervades an entire nation it becomes elevated and majestic. It certainly does not belong to us to repine at the visitations of Providence, in whose power it is to draw good out of evil: but as the Almighty sometimes, for the most benevolent purposes, deals severe chastisements on mankind, there is nothing impious in grieving for that as a calamity, which appears and is felt to be such, according to the best reason which we can apply to the consideration of it. May we so conduct ourselves as to ward off all the ill effects that might hereafter follow!

When the unhappy event took place, the mournful intelligence spread with amazing rapidity through the whole empire, and every where it was felt like the stroke of death. The provincial papers teemed with accounts of the heart-rending grief for the loss. In many towns the bells were tolled every day, as though every family had lost its dearest member.

Every where all species of amusement was sus

Feelings in the Country.

249

pended; the upper and middling classes voluntarily adopted full suits of black, and persons even in humblest life were not without some mark or emblem of sorrow; exhibiting, in all parts, the sincerest demonstrations of sorrow and respect for the memory of our departed saint. Not only were all the shops, banks, and other places of business closely shut, but a great number of private houses closed their windows, and the inhabitants, with one accord, gave themselves up to religious exercises appropriate, affecting, and truly pious discourses, were delivered by the respective ministers of the parish churches and chapels of ease, to congregations crowded to excess: nor were the Protestant Dissenters less forward in testifying their grief and respect; their meeting houses were clothed in the garb of woe, and the solemn services of the day were performed in the midst of lamentations fervent and sincere.

At some of the churches the service was rendered more peculiarly impressive by the introduction of the most affecting parts of the Burial Service.

At the Universities, considerations of etiquette prevented an official display of public sorrow-but that feeling was not the less manifest.

At Oxford, divine service was announced by muffled bells, and performed at the usual time in Magdalen College Chapel, which was crowded in every part with the principal families and indi

250

The Universities.

viduals of the University and City; the deep silence and attention which prevailed during this solemn ceremony amply evinced the universal sorrow felt here, as well as in every other quarter of the kingdom, and expressed by a spontaneous wish to pay the last melancholy tribute to the memory of an amiable and beloved Princess.

At Cambridge, the melancholy duties of the day were preceded by the tolling of a minute bell, which commenced very early in the morning. Much to the credit of the inhabitants, not a single shop was open, and every appearance of business was entirely suspended. The members of the University assembled at the Senate House, and proceeded to St. Mary's Church. The procession was the most numerous that had ever been remembered, and consisted of almost every resident individual in the University, together with many other gentlemen, non-residents, who returned to it on this solemn occasion, for the purpose of evincing their sorrow for this great and unexpected national loss.

In the Sea-ports, the same manifestation of decent sorrow took place.

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Orders were sent to all the dock-yards to prohibit the usual transaction of business. British vessels, and those of all other nations, hoisted their colours only half-mast high. In some of the seaports, minute guns were directed to be fired at night. In others, at sun-set, twenty-two minute