Perhaps not the least remarkable incident in connection with this coronation was the absence of the heiress-presumptive to the crown, the Princess Victoria. No place had been assigned to her, nor any preparation made in expectation of her gracing or witnessing the ceremony. It has been said that Earl Grey, the prime minister, obstinately opposed all idea of inviting the Princess to be present. But the grounds for such opposition are so unapparent that it is difficult to give credit to them at all. By others it has been asserted that the Duchess of Northumberland, the governess of the Princess, in the exercise of a superior and enlightened judgment, and in consideration of the then alleged delicate health of her young charge, advised that her pupil should not be present at the coronation of King William and Queen Adelaide. This reason seems hardly to account for the fact. In the absence of a better, it was accepted by those at least who did not throw the blame of that ‘conspicuous absence’ on Queen Adelaide herself and her royal consort; but, as an anonymous writer remarked, ‘Who that knew the good King William and his incomparable Queen would believe that any slight was put by them on their well-beloved niece and the heiress-presumptive to the throne?’ The same enemies also stated that ‘the Duchess of Northumberland was seeking to give a political bias to the education of the Princess, and some uneasiness was therefore created in the palace.’ The ‘Times’ asserted, with iteration, that the Duchess of Kent had ‘refused to attend, yes, refused to attend,’ and reproved Her Royal Highness, in the harsh terms which illustrated many of the controversies of the day, for the impertinence of the widow of a mediatized German Prince, in withholding her daughter from a ceremony at which she could never, at one time, have expected to see daughter of hers, as heiress-presumptive to the crown of England! Other papers made this alleged refusal rest on the course taken by Lord A. Fitzclarence, who, in marshalling the coronation procession on paper, had assigned a place to the Princess Victoria after the other members of the royal family, instead of next to the King and Queen. Finally, the ‘Globe,’ on authority, declared that the Duchess, having pleaded the delicate state of her daughter’s health, had obtained the King’s sanction to her absence--a version of the end of a story which began, nevertheless, more like the current report of it than would seem here to be indicated. As marked an instance of absence as that of the Princess was that of the whole of such members of the preceding administration as happened to be members of the House of Commons. This, however, little affected the King, who, at the subsequent dinner at St. James’s Palace, gave, as a toast, ‘the land we live in,’ and declared that, except as a formality and memorial, the coronation was a useless affair, as far as he was concerned, for no oath he had there taken