One London newspaper described it as "a mad final fling before the winter of our discontent." For one brief shining moment last week, Britain forgot its economic troubles and basked in the splendid and stirring pageantry of a royal wedding. Before 1,500 invited guests and a television audience of 500 million people round the world, Princess Anne, 23, Queen Elizabeth's only daughter, married her commoner cavalryman, Captain Mark Phillips, 25, in the Gothic splendor of Westminster Abbey.
London even shed its sodden skies, and the burnished brass and gold leaf of the cavalry and coaches sparkled in the autumn sunshine. About...