KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN ADELAIDE.
THE King and the Queen have been to Drury Lane ; and the presence of their Majesties seems—to judge by the newspaper criticisms—to have conferred new brilliancy on the School for Scandal. But the event of the evening was one with which SHE- RIDAN'S humour or wit had no concern. The King took coffee ! But that too sinks into insignificance compared with the fact to be noticed in histery—the Queen carefully put cream and sugar into it—yea, even into his Majesty's coffee did she care- fully put cream and sugar. Whereupon the most wise public did raise themselves on their hind-legs, did wave their fore ones, and bray most lustily ; loud were the cheers, and great was the occasion. "In the course of the evening, refreshments having been introduced to the Royal party, thii Queen very eariyislly put cream and sugar into his Majesty's coffee, which she then handed to him. This unaffected but affec- tionate atteotion of her Majesty was noticed while least expected by Her, and drew down from the whole house a hearty manifestation of the sen- timents which it excited."—Morning Herald.
There is certainly something grand in the spectacle of Majesty taking coffee before his people, and more imposing still is Ma- jesty when wielding the sugar-tongs and elevating the cream-jug in the face of the world: no ,wonder that the awe-struck multi- tude cried aloud !
SHENSTONE said of the rat that nibbled away his "Geogra- phy,"
"a sea Was to him a dish of tea, And a kingdom bread and butter."
Doubtless the sapient public had until this time imagined that Kings eat up counties for dinner, and for coffee take colonies. Vast, then, must their delight have been when they saw the good man sip out of china, and his wife handling a cream-pot, and doing it carefully too, and with an affectionate attention. Her Majesty did not rudely, like a boy at school, say—" Here, William, here's your coffee—sugar and milk yourself." No; carefully, affectionately, and unaffectedly, in the front of her box, did she pleasantly perform her matronly duties, as if she had been seated in her own parlour, and then blushed to find them fame. At Naples, the sovereign eats macaroni in his box at the theatre : he takes it in his fingers from the plate before him, and, like the commonest lazzarone, lets it down gradually, curling and winding, into his stomach. The longer the piece, the more popular the monarch : the pit watches every morsel ; and when, as in the case of the late king, he has the art of putting whole yards down as it pends from his finger and thumb upon his gaping mouth, there are no bounds to the people's love and gratitude—San Carlos rings with acclamation. What is a constitution—what reform— what liberty—compared to the pride of having a king who can swallow whole yards of macaroni at a breath, just as the com- monest porter would do ?
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