"
It must be that for monarchists born and bred, an anointed head, whether
covered by a silk hat or a straw bonnet, is circled by a
_simulacrum_ of a crown, which dazzles the aim of the would-be regicide,
they are so almost certain to miss, at long or short range. Alas there is
no halo of sovereignty or "hedge of divinity" about our poor Presidents!
It is, perhaps, because of this unsteadiness of nerve and aim, that
Continental regicides are taking to sterner and surer means--believing
that no thrice blessed crown can dazzle off dynamite, and that no most
imperial "divinity" is bomb-proof.
In July an act which was the shadow of a coming event, was passed by
Parliament, and received the Royal assent. It provided that Prince Albert
should be Regent in case that the Queen should die before her next lineal
descendant should attain the age of eighteen years.
In August the Queen prorogued Parliament for the first time since her
marriage, and she brought her handsome husband to show to all the Lords
and gentlemen--bravely attired in his Field-Marshal's uniform, with his
Collars of the Garter and the Bath, and diamond Stars--and she had him
seated only a little lower than herself and very near, in a splendid
chair, gilded, carved, and velvet-cushioned.
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