Lord Mayor's day has brought with it many messages of high political import to the British people; but perhaps the most momentous of all these was the announcoment, on this day of the year 1841, that Quovn Victoria had given birth to her first son. At the Guildhall Banquet that night the health of the Queen was drunk with a fervency which had never been felt before, seeing that she had presented the nation with an heir male to the crown, and great was the jubilation all over the Empire. "Is it a boy 1" asked the Duke of Wellington, who, as one of the great officers of State, had been waiting for the expected birth' at Buckingham Palace. It's a Prince, your Grace," replied the nurse, with an implied reprimand in her exultant tone, though, as a matter of fact, this was only as yet a courtesy title. It. was more than three weeks before that of Prince of Wales, which is not an here-diary title, was conferred by royal patent on the baby who had been born into the world as Duke of Cornwall with a silver
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.