[[A.D. 1825.]] When she was six years of age the Rev. George Davys was appointed her preceptor, and the Baroness Lehzen became her governess. The young princess had reached her eleventh year before she was made aware of her claim to the succession. Then William IV. ascended the throne, and his two children were already dead. Princess Victoria's education from that period was conducted in a manner that would best prepare her for the lofty position she was to occupy, and she had a mind capable of profiting by it. She gained a good knowledge of history {318}and geography, as well as of the lives of all the scholars, statesmen, inventors, discoverers, poets, and divines who had ever benefited the human race. Long before she became queen she spoke English, German, and French with equal fluency, read Italian, could translate some of the Latin poets, and showed decided talent for mathematics. Besides, she sang well, danced prettily, and sketched from nature. [Illustration: 9324] Her religious training was such as to fit her for the Christian nation over whom she was to rule, and she has proved in her domestic life the excellence of her early impressions. The Duke of Kent died in debt, which his wife and daughter were so anxious to liquidate that they practiced great economy in order that they might be able to do so. Still this worthy task was not completed until the princess ascended the throne, when she drew on her own privy purse for that purpose. [[A.D. 1837.]] On the seventeenth of July her majesty proceeded in state to the House of Lords, where she made her first speech. It had been carefully prepared, and gave a great deal of satisfaction. A proclamation appeared in the "Gazette" the same evening dissolving parliament. Three months later the youthful sovereign paid a state visit to the {319}city of London, where a grand banquet had been prepared for her by the Lord Mayor. She was accompanied by her mother, her two aunts, the Duchesses of Gloucester and Cambridge, the royal Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, her uncles, and Prince George of Cambridge. She was attended in her state carriage by the Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes, and the Earl of Albermarle. The ambassadors, cabinet ministers, and other noble ladies and gentlemen followed in a train of two hundred carriages, that extended for a mile and a half. They left Buckingham Palace at two in the afternoon, and passed through Temple Bar,--which was at that time considered the entrance +.o the city proper,--with the usual ceremonies.