Crisis in Etiquette 461 To mayors and official delegations he discoursed on the subject of hands-across-the-sea and the responsibilities of the Anglo-Saxon race in its relation to the lesser breeds of men. The British government decided, before Grant arrived in England, that he was to be treated as a distinguished private citizen. This meant that he was to be welcomed with music and speeches, and be given the "freedom" of London and other English cities. He was to meet the Queen and the Prince of Wales, of course, but according to the established etiquette he would rank below royalty and the dukes, the cabinet ministers and the envoys of foreign powers. This arrangement was not at all pleasing to Mr. Edwards Pierrepont, the American minister; nor to Mr. Badeau, the consul-general of the United States. Their idea was that he should be treated as an ex-sovereign; but the English court officials said: "The Americans give their ex-Presidents no rank; why should we?" There was much stirring about, and considerable emotion. The American embassy felt that the crisis was profound. Mr. Pierrepont, who had been one of Grant's attorneys-general, called on Lord Derby, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The genial lord could not at first see the matter eye to eye with Mr. Pierrepont, but finally he did agree that General Grant ought to rank as an ex-sovereign; he was to make the first visit to the royal family, but every other Englishman was to yield him precedence. How about the ambassadors? Lord Derby pointed out that they represented their sovereigns, and would not give precedence to anybody. According to Badeau, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said that if General Grant should go in to dinner ahead of the envoys the affront to foreign powers would be so great that "there would be a war," but I cannot imagine him saying anything so silly. General Grant knew nothing of this palaver; he did not hear of it until afterward. The General arrived in London, and the Prince of Wales in vited him and Mrs. Grant to dinner to "meet their Imperial Majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Brazil.” Badeau, who was an obstreperous, spread-eagle sort of person, considered the Prince of Wales dinner a ghastly failure. He attended it in company with the Grants. When they arrived they passed first into a large ante-chamber where the Prince of Wales was playing with his two boys-one of whom is now King George V. The other guests had not come. The Prince came forward, shook hands with the General, met Mrs. Grant and spoke a word or two to Badeau. Then the Prince went out, and soon after an equerry came in. The guests were ushered into a long waiting room, where they remained for half an hour. After awhile a gentleman-in-waiting appeared and said the Princess desired the ladies to range themselves on one side of the room and the gentlemen on the other. . . . After apparently ten minutes of further waiting in this position, all standing, for no one had been seated or asked to sit since we entered, the great doors at the top of the line on the right were thrown open and the Empress of Brazil came in on the arm of the Prince of Wales. Next came the Princess with the Emperor. They passed directly between the two lines to the dining room. The Empress of Brazil, who had met Mrs. Grant before, stopped and spoke to her, but the other royal personages swept on without speaking to anybody, much to the disgust of Mr. Badeau. Then a number of dukes and lesser nobles were told off to their partners and followed the Empress and the Prince. "After every noble person present was thus assigned," Badeau says, "General Grant was requested to go in with Mrs. Pierrepont, and Mrs. Grant with the Brazilian minister, whom the Emperor of Brazil looked upon as his servant." This made Badeau hate the British Empire, and he says it was perfectly plain to him that the royal family did not intend Princely Ways 463 to follow the arrangement which had been agreed upon by the Foreign Office. After dinner there was music in one of the drawing rooms. There the royalties sat and conversed, while the rest of the company amused themselves outside. Neither Grant nor Mrs. Grant was invited to join this select company. When it got rather late the Prince and Princess came out and courteously bade the Grants good-night. Badeau said the General's feelings were hurt, but it appears that he spoke without authority, for Grant's own comment does not bear him out. The General said to John Russell Young: I received nothing but the utmost kindness from every Englishman from the head of the nation down. Next to my own country, there is none I love so much as England. Some of the newspapers at home invented a story to the effect that the Prince of Wales had been rude to me. It was a pure invention. I cannot conceive the Prince of Wales being rude to any man. The Grants visited the Crystal Palace one night as guests of honor. The sky was a shiver of red and green lines of fire. Grant's head, traced in wiggling pyrotechnics, flared gigantically over the palace dome; and when it faded out, the Capitol at Washington took its place. Then a multitude of white London faces, half-drowned in night, passed before the lofty portico and stared respectfully at the great American. He met Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Anthony Trollope and Thomas H. Huxley at the home of George W. Smalley, then the London correspondent of the New York Tribune. It was a dinner attended only by literary men. Grant had never read any of the books written by these gentlemen, and was not verbose, anyway, in the company of strangers, so one may infer that the affair dragged a little. But that did not matter; it was the customary tribute that culture pays to action, and the shining lights of the literary world got a chance to see the Civil War hero plain, as Browning once saw Shelley. which was probably all they expected. § 3 Now comes another desperate hand-to-hand struggle with royal etiquette, and in this battle the visiting team won. Queen Victoria, through her Lord Steward, invited General and Mrs. Grant to dinner at Windsor Castle on June 26th, and to remain until the following day. The American minister and Mrs. Pierrepont were also included. Young Jesse was left out of the royal invitation. Thereupon Badeau sent a telegram to Sir John Cowell, Master of the Queen's Household, whom he had known for some time, in which he said: Personal and confidential to yourself. I would not, of course, make such a suggestion unauthorized, but if it could be proposed to invite General Grant's son, Mr. Jesse Grant, a young man of nineteen or twenty, it would be a great gratification to General and Mrs. Grant. If this is contrary to etiquette, please consider this telegram not sent. Next morning Jesse received an invitation, and on the afternoon of the twenty-sixth the party set out for Windsor Castle. The Queen's carriages were waiting at the station, but the Queen herself was not there. According to the Court custom she met royalty only in person. When they reached the Castle they were shown into handsome apartments and informed that Her Majesty was out driving in Windsor Park and would not be visible until dinner time. Soon after their arrival Sir John Cowell appeared and explained that Jesse and General Badeau were not to dine at Her Majesty's table, but in another room with the Household. Immediately after dinner they would be taken in and presented to the Queen. |