QUEEN VICTORIA'S LETTER.

when the silence was broken by the king, who

asked in a pleasant Yoice " If we had seen him ? "

To this inquiry we were enabled, without any devi-

ation from the truth, to reply that we certainly

had. After this preliminary we were each of us

introduced by name to the king, who caused a

good deal of amusement to all present by his

attempts to repeat the outlandish words by which

Mr. Mackay designated us. I was always subse-

quently called " Doctor! " by the king, a word which

he could easily remember.

After a good many questions the Queen's letter,

of which we were the honoured bearers, was

presented and read to the king. He was much

pleased with it, and said that he was very anxious

to remain friends with our Queen, adding the

extraordinary remark that Her Majesty and him-

self were the only monarchs in the world worth

the slightest consideration. To this, of course, we

listened with all due gravity, and then read to him the letter from the Church Missionary Society. He listened to this with evident interest, and

stated that it gave him the liveliest satisfaction to

find that people were willing to come so far for

a sight of his gracious person — a sight, how-

ever, which he considered worth any sacrifice and

trouble. He seemed anxious to know the state

of public opinion in Earope with regard to himself

and his realm ; and inquired if much talk about his