Note 338 — Chapter XV · FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE.

But it was so clumsy in wording that it did not bind the Sovereign. This fact explains the anxiety of Melbourne to see the young Queen Victoria well married. So far as the law went, after her accession she might, if she had chosen, have married a lacquey. William IV., for example, could not have married Mrs. Jordan, who bore a large family to him, when he was Duke of Clarence. But he could have done so when he became King.