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Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1247, 7 September 1869, Page 4

bfoti^ iitoi&titsi ma btU teaw, as iw pmtes boFor© iIA & piMMfc galled now as &miiiar to us as that of Shakspeare. In all theSe cases we delight to look on, and strife to know still more, and as far as our eyes and ears will help us—and no other knowledge ever eeems equal to that we get through our eyes and ears —the remarkable persons who do these exceptional' and extraordinary things. All this is very intelligible. But many people demand (some of our English critics among them) —"Is.it equally intelligible that we should throng and crowd together, and almost choke each other with dust (laughter), and raise triumphal arches, and make gold trowels, and pawn our pianos, and go into general oonvulsions (prolonged laughter and cheers), on account of one ■whose pre-eminence consists of the accident of rank alone?" One is reminded, whilst urging Biich an inquiry, of the Barber's soliloquy on the nobleman, £n Beaumarcbais's Marriage of Figaro, " What has your lordship done to earn all this ?" " Yous, vous ties donne la peine de naitre. ("You took the trouble to be born." (Continued laughter.) Are ire provided with much more satisfactory explanations than that of the Barber ? Now, these and similar questions have been put to us by English critics about ourselves, as if the conduct upon which they were commenting was something peculiar to colonists, and unknown in" the mother country. One able and caustic writer in the London Spectator went the length of saying, some twelve months back, that we plainly had " Prince upon the brain." (Cheers and laughter.) I therefore propose to show you, before I proceed to inquire further into the natnre of this moral phenomenon, that what some English journalists have called " the extravagance of our enthusiasm" , in connection with the Duke of Edinburgh's first visit to these shores, by no means exceeds English ' extravagance on like occasions. Who can forget the popular enthusiasm in England on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales ? And if English journalists are at a loss for British parallels to some of the more emphatic of our loyal demonstrations, Such parallels may easily be found scattered up and down in English memoirs and diaries. What can well be more ludricious than the account Miss Burney—afterwards Madame D'Arblay, one of the ladies in waiting on Queen Charlotte —gives of the manner of George the Third's bathing at Weymouth. Whenever he went out to take his morning dip in the sea the people used to lie in wait for him, and a Becond bathing-machine, with a band in it (laughter), always pursued him into the water, the band vigorously playing, " God Save the King," until his Majesty had finished his Royal headers, and returned to land. (Eoars of laughter.) Again, no obsequiousness of ours seems to exceed that described by Miss Burney as occurring on another occasion during this Weymouth visit. A deputation, consisting of the mayor and town council, waited on Queen Charlotte to present an address, congratulating her on the restoration of his Majesty's health. The mayor, as he approached the Queen to present the address, was whispered by gold-stick, or silver-stick, or some other stick in waiting (laughter)—the name of whose office I forget—" that the presenters of the address must kneel on one knee whilst passing her Majesty." To the horror and consternation of the whole Court party, " the right worshipful" merely stiffly bowed, and passed on. The official stick pursued the offender, tapped him on the shoulder, and angrily whispered, " You should have knelt, sir." *' I can't," cries the mayor, in an agony, " I've got a wooden leg." (Prolonged laughter and cheers.) To complete the catastrophe —it must have appeared to the people of the court as if the end of the world was at hand—the whole of the councillors, taking the mayor as their standard, filed along in the same fashion; but whether from ignorance of court etiquette, or delicate respect for their chief, Miss Burney does not say. Here, then, have we equal extravagance —if that must be the word—of loyal demonstration in the Mother country as in her Colony. Our own acts and the Home instances may very well keep each other in countenance. They are curious facts in the natural history of the human animal, and are well worthy of further examination. To say that *uch manifestations are peculiar to those who live under kingly government, will not account for them. In the United Stateß a few years back, as dense, and even denser, crowds congregated in streets and assembly rooms to look at the Prince of Wales. The feeling which brought these American crowds together could not be loyalty. What, then, was it ? Was it merely that universal, yet vague feeling of curiosity which is excited by anything of which we have heard much, and know little, and would learn mere ? Is ib that we unconsciously estimate every one, from a king down to a policeman, according to the stamp of authority which society and law have put upon them ? Has this public sanction in gome vague way led us to conceive of a prince, that with all the advantages of education and training any mortal can command, he will natarally have something in Mb own person to show for all this, and that there must surely be come eonoruity and proportion between the individual himself and his most exalted station ? Or is it that ■we throng together in thousands to look at a prince, in obedience to that infinite susceptibility to excitement within us which draws us out in thousands to welcome the arrival of a new governor, to meet an '•'All England Eleven," to witness an execution or a review, or even to gaze at the outside of a house said to be haunted ? (Laughter.) So omnivorous is the human imagination, that there is scarcely anything lying outside its daily experience upon which it cannot be whipped up into temporary excitement; an excitement, too, frequently as superficial and fleeting as it is neiey and demonstrative. I well remember revolving this subject in my own mind on the occasion on which the Governor and the Eoyal Commission were at the Heads awaiting the first arrival of the Galatea. The commissioners were curiously stowed away for the night, throughout the numerous bedrooms of Mr. Adman's Q.ueenscliff Hotel, men of all shades of politics, Loyal Liberals and Constitutionalists together, within easy hail of each other. For once—

" Opposing factions nearly were allied, And thin partitions did their bounds divide."

Ostensibly we were all here to await the coming of the Eoyal visitor, in order to escort him to Melbourne. What depth or earnestness of sentiment, thought I, is there at the bottom of this proceeding ? In how many and in which of the commissioners' minds may the feeling most operate ? Whose loyalty will keep him awake to-night? Here, like Don Quixote watching his armour, are we supposed to be watching the arrival of the Prince. How many people under this roof are seriously thinking about this business, or speculating as to what it may indicate or portend? Now that the Australias are assuming almost the proportions of independent states, a Royal personage condescends to come, or is judiciously shipped, to look at us. We are regarded at home as a somewhat democratic community; is Eoyalty commissioned to fascinate us by its superior morals and manners? Now that the supply of princes in Europe is so rapidly exceeding the demand —(great laughter)— may it not be that home Governments are on the look-out for " pleasant fields and pastures new" for Eoyal supernumeraries ? (Eenewed laughter.) In the midst of my reflections, which kept me awake some time—for, like Brindley, I can think most comfortably in bed-a familiar voice struck on my ear. It was that of a high legislative functionary, the rotundity and comeliness of whose figure proved that devotion to our Constitution by no means necessitated any foolish and uncalled for neglect of his own. As the energy and impatience of this high legislative voice showed me that, for the nonce, its owner was in some way, and for some moving reason or other, #fc present among the noncontents, curiosity drew my head out of the bedfllothes to listen. (Laughter.) What ailed him at this dead hour of the night ? He soon made his «ase clear. " Waiter! waiter! where is my nightshirt? (Great laughter.), What has become of my night-shirt?" (xeJaimed he. "leant sleep without my night-shirt." (Continued laughter.) Now lam free to admit—as they cay in Parliament—that I strongly sympathised, with the caller, for I labor under the same sort of infirmity myself. " Has he," thought I, "forgotten to bring a night-shirt witli him, or has some fellow commissioner furtively appropriated that indispensable garment." (Fresh iwgWtr.) In tho intensity of toy I w

aiktesfeii til ptiiii ttg 6ki .#^iliii p $>#& bu6 pfuddhfeto NlWltt^ th&ti ifc.Wo'uld be a i|( Ma uncoiafortable fife for hiiiwi(mudli laughter)^! kept it; myself, and Bank to Sleep Vaguely wondering about this mission wo were all upon. Here wa3 one of the most loyal of us, an important legislative functionary to boot, and yet his loyalty had never in my hearing imparted such moving tones to his voice as those which the loss of his bed-gown extracted from him that night. (Laughter.) Do I condemn or complain of this (at first sight) small querulousness on a great; occasion ? By no means. Which of us can say with perfect sincerity that our common creature wants have never kept fine sentiments waiting until a more convenieut time ? On the following day occurred other events, which showed us how we are apt to consider ourselves first and loyalty afterwardß. With fear and trembling I noted this as we came up tbo bay. You remember that bay programme, and the now historical escorting flotilla of steamers. Perhaps some of you were on board a portion of that flotilla. If so, you will not easily forget the scene; for, on the whole, it was certainly one of the most animating and interesting the eye could rest on. The day, opening sullenly in clouds, had cleared itself up ; and our blue sky, and the almost equally blue waters of our bay, seemed to join in the general joy. The hour had come, and the man ; and as withiu a few minutes to one o'clock the noble frigate rolled and plunged through the rip, reverently and loyally mustered our flotilla to take the Eoyal visitor into affectionate custody. Salutes blazed away from the Queenscliff battery, from the Victoria, aud the Pharos; and the Galatea herself thundered a salute as her Majesty's representative approached her tall side. But here, unfortunately for Captain Norman's beautifully arranged programme, the G-alatea seemed to become altogether unconcious of our existence. Instead of waiting to be escorted—according to our pre-arranged plans—the frigate took to her Eoyal heels, and went straight ahead for Melbourne, leaving us all in the lurch. Thus this long-meditated elaborately prepared escort was not only knocked into a " a cocked hat" at the very outset (as one figurative gentleman called it,) but at the shortest notice it was converted into a hopeless chase—a chase, too, as ludicrous as that of the wooden legged man pursuing the hare, when the longer he ran the further he fell behind. (Laughter.) Never did I behold longer faces than on that occasion. I trembled for the cause of colonial loyality. I had been for many days past a member of a commission of thirteen, consisting of Ministers (past and present,) of the President of the Legislative Assembly, of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, of the mayor, and ex-mayor of Melbourne. Most of us had given many meetings for the exclusive purpose of making the best arrangements we should devise for receiving and entertaining with becoming respect our illustrious visitor. A very prominent portion of thsse arrangements consisted of this flotilla, most liberally contributed by the owners of the different steamers. Commodore Norman having previously unfolded to us on paper his impressive plans for the port and starboard lines of vessels, the time had now arrived to see how it all looked on blue water, and now the blue water knew it not. Each and every steamer seemed to come driving on, smoking away on her own particular and private account —the little Pharos nearly last, and apparently in the highest stite of asthma, but struggling along with a " never say die" look about her intermittent paroxysms of smoke which was absolutely touching. (Laughter.) Nobody said much, so I suppose everybody thought the more. One dejected and almost spirit-crushed commissioner did, with suppressed emotion, say to me that "Such behaviour was not nice in the "Prince at all." (Laughter.) I could think of no more original rejoinder than — " I'd excuse you, my dear, for disguising your love; But why do you kick us down stairs ?" Eoyalty, decidedly, was not now shining on us, and we were, as it seemed to me, doing or endeavoring to do, Butler's sun-dial under difficulties. lam disposed to think that many even moderate and unexacting people thought on this occasion that the Gralatea authorities might, and even ought to have reflected that both the (Government and the owner 3 of these steamers had put themselves to much trouble and expense in the spirited • exhibition of these reception courtesies, and that a loyalty to be warranted proof against any amount of contempt and indifference from its object would, possibly, in our age and generation, require a larger amount of nursing and weather-fending than it was likely to receive. Other and subsequent incidents connected with the Soyal visit were calculated to excite similar reflections. On the Western tour the Prince and his suite aud attendants rushed through Colac towards that clay's haven of refuge, Mr. Eobertson's house. Divers Colacians were known to be cruising in the neighborhood with " a loyal address." The Prince, however, ran the blockade—the only blockade, I believe, he contrived to run throughout his country trips. (Laughter.) Did he exult? If so, I cannot but think he did not know all. Colac loyalty apparently never hefore received bo rude a shock. A day or two after, the Colac Observer came out in the following startling terms—(laughter) :—" The woll-known loyalty of this journal—(renewed laughter) —forbids its attempting to give publicity to the bitterness of feeling openly expressed, and replied to only by an ominous silence on the part of the more guarded, who felt that an opportunity had been lost of cementing more closely the union which exists between this loyal colony and the glorious empire from which tho majority of its inhabitants are privileged to hail." Now here we see what great events may from simple causes spring. (Laughter.) To anvo-himself four or five minutes of a hot and dusty interview hi Cokic, the Prince had alienated a large number of persons. He is told that his few minutes' stay would have furnished an opportunity of cementing more closely this colony to the mother country. But he would not stay, find therefore although the Colac cement may be undinrinished in quantity, the " ominous silence" shows that some of the adhesive quality of the article is gone. (Laughter.) Now, we smile at this little extract from the Colac Observer, and I confess I laughed at it very heartily when I first road it. But let us make the Colac case our own. Suppose that, on the day of the levee, the Prince, at an end of the presentations, had rushed clown the middle of the Exhibition Building to luncheon, and said he would not be bored with addresses at all, how would all our he-gowned and gorgeously got up presenters of addresses have looked under such portentous circumstances ? Would they have felt their own cement affected ? Had they, like the Colac Observer, done "the ominoiis" towards .the British Empire that self-complacent British Empire might c'en have laughed at us, as we laugh at the ominous silence of Colac. Everything is comparative. Is there any more incongruity in Colac thaw in Melbourne, or in Melbourne than in London, fearing for the integrity of the British Empire by reason of a Prince's impatience in one place or in another? Taking with us, then, the little indications of indifference or impatience to which I have referred as furnished from Adman's Hotel, from the bay, and from Colac, is it too much to say that loyalty of this kind is in large measure formal and mechanical ? that it more unpleasantly resembles the mere instinctive, bustling and buzzing of bees round their queen j than an operation of man's reason ; ; and that withal, it is at the same time so complicated with our own selflove that it is very apt to turn absolutely sour, unless the vessel that contains it has been previously well cleaned out from small vanities and foolish desires for personal notice ? I will not however, ventui'e to say that I do not greatly admire or respect this noisy and demonstrative loyalty, without also giving you specific, and I trust not altogether unsatisfactory reasons, for he want of faith within mo.

(To le continued.)