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Life of Her Majesty 
 Queen Victoria 
 
QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
Life of Her Majesty 
 
 Queen Victoria 
 
 BY 
 
 MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT 
 New Edition 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 MRS. BRADLEY GILMAN 
 
 And a Chronological List of the Events which occurred 
 
 in her Reign, with a List of the Eighteen Prime 
 
 Ministers and a List of the Members 
 
 of the Royal Family 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 • ' » -. J ». 
 
 Boston 
 
 Little, Brown, and Company 
 
 1901 
 
 u • 
 
THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 CONGRESS, 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 APR. 3 1901 
 
 Copyright entry 
 
 CLASS QjOCc. Nw. 
 
 COPY 8. 
 
 Copyright, i8gs, 
 By Roberts Brothers. 
 
 Copyright, ipoi, 
 By Little, Brown, and Company. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 
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 fHnitersttg Press 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Soon after the death of President Garfield, James Kussell 
 Lowell delivered an address upon him, in Exeter Hall, 
 London. In this address he spoke warmly of the atmos- 
 phere of sympathy, as spontaneous as it was universal, 
 by which he found himself surrounded in England. The 
 sorrow, if it touched more closely one nation, he felt was 
 shared by both ; and English blood, he said, " most plainly 
 vindicates its claim to dominion, when it recognizes kin- 
 ship through sympathy with what is simple, steadfast, 
 and religious in character. When we learn to respect 
 each other for the good qualities in each, we are helping 
 to produce and foster them." 
 
 These same words might have been spoken in regard 
 to the genuine outburst of feeling on both sides of the sea, 
 " of this grasp of a hand across a recent grave," which has 
 followed the death of the great English Queen. It is not 
 a slight matter that two great nations have wept together 
 over the same royal bier; and that the sympathy has 
 been genuine we do not doubt. 
 
 This freshly aroused interest in the late Sovereign of 
 England has led us to think that a new edition of Mrs. 
 Millicent Fawcett's admirable short "Life of Her Maj- 
 esty, Queen Victoria," might meet the needs, at this time, 
 of a large number of readers. 
 
vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The moment has not yet come for a critical, com- 
 plete biography of Victoria, nor will it come at 
 present. Such a volume will doubtless appear in due 
 season. But Mrs. Fawcett's short biography purports 
 only to relate in outline the striking events of the 
 Queen's long reign, so far as they illustrate her personal 
 character. Mrs. Fawcett brought her chronological table 
 of events through 1894 ; and in this introduction to a new 
 edition, the leading events in the Victorian reign which 
 have occurred since that period will be briefly touched 
 upon. A list of all the members of the Eoyal Family and 
 a list of the Queen's Prime Ministers will also be added 
 to the book, as there is at the present time much interest 
 concerning not only the Queen herself, but concerning 
 also all those who were intimately associated with her. 
 
 When Mrs. Fawcett completed her biography, Her 
 Majesty was rapidly approaching her seventy-fourth 
 birthday, and the author was justified in thinking that 
 the most exciting events in her already long reign were 
 over, and that life itself would not in all probability 
 endure many more years. 
 
 At the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee in 1887, she 
 had appeared, followed by children, grandchildren, and 
 great-grandchildren. She was then an aged woman, who 
 had reigned far longer than most of her predecessors; 
 and her grief for the Prince Consort and her many 
 family bereavements had tended to destroy her vitality, 
 and led her to live a life of seclusion and comparative 
 solitude. 
 
 During the ten years which followed the Golden Jubi- 
 lee, the history of England was almost entirely parlia- 
 mentary. The peaceful arts, which the Queen loved, 
 flourished; and representatives of Great Britain joined 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 with the English people, in demonstrating their pride in 
 the Motherland and their devotion to Victoria. 
 
 The Jubilee of 1897, with its great procession of a mile 
 and a half of carriages containing European and Asiatic 
 princes and Colonial premiers, the long lines of British 
 troops, Colonial troops, and brown and yellow auxiliaries, 
 who pressed on to St. Paul's Cathedral, and afterwards 
 returned by the south side of the river back to the palace, 
 amazed all the foreigners, who heard with wonder the 
 immense crowd which accompanied the Queen keep up 
 one continuous roar of enthusiastic acclaim. 
 
 The Queen, who for so long had found " the crown a 
 lonely splendour," Bishops in robes of gold, Salvation 
 Army captains, and beef-eaters in the costume of the 
 Tudors, all joined in the grand Te Deum, the doxology, 
 and national anthem. Never before in the history of 
 England have so many races of people of so many castes 
 sung praises to God at one place, at one time, and with 
 one heart. A great nation celebrated the reign of a 
 great Queen. The prosperity of the Victorian Age 
 seemed to have reached its height. Englishmen thank- 
 fully acknowledged how much they owed their Queen 
 for sixty years of growth and prosperity, and yet for 
 sixty years of internal order and peace. 
 
 Up to the time of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (1897) 
 there had been little competition in colonization. " The 
 world looked on lazily," says Lord Kosebery, " while Eng- 
 land discovered, developed, and annexed the waste or 
 savage territories of the world." 
 
 Perhaps the magnificence of the great " Diamond Jubi- 
 lee " aroused the jealousy of other nations. It certainly 
 was an object lesson to the world, and showed what won- 
 ders the courage and enterprise of the Anglo-Saxon 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 race could accomplish. "A colonial passion is apt to 
 cause an ill-feeling, composed of energy, jealousy, and 
 other hostile tendencies, towards the ancient Colonial 
 Empire." The colonial passion has been aroused now in 
 all the large nations of the civilized world. There is no 
 part of the globe in which there may not arise serious 
 problems for a British minister to solve. 
 
 When Lord Salisbury assumed office on July 2, 1895, 
 Felix Faure was President of France, Nicholas II., Em- 
 peror of Kussia, William II., Emperor of Germany, and 
 Alphonzo XIII., King of Spain. At this time the chief 
 areas of disturbance in Europe were in the Levant. 
 
 The Armenian question was far from being settled, 
 when there arose a dangerous dispute with the United 
 States, upon "The Venezuelan Boundary Question." 
 Trouble broke out in South Africa, caused by Dr. Jame- 
 son's raid into the Transvaal Kepublic, before the flurry 
 over the Venezuelan question had subsided. England 
 was also on bad terms with France over the Egyptian 
 question. 
 
 The Eastern crisis passed, without grave results ; and 
 many hoped, after the Diamond Jubilee, that the remain- 
 der of the century might pass, without engaging England 
 in actual war. The West African dispute with France 
 gave rise to grave apprehension of war, but in March, 
 1899, a treaty was signed conceding that the whole Nile 
 Basin should fall under the English sphere of influence. 
 Thus, although the foreign relations of England with sev- 
 eral countries had been severely strained, for several years 
 all disputes had been finally settled amicably; and it 
 seemed as though the Victorian Age was destined to end 
 in that peace and prosperity which its Queen so earnestly 
 desired. 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 The events which most intimately concerned the royal 
 family, during the last six years of the Victorian reign, 
 were chiefly the marriages and deaths of her children and 
 grandchildren. 
 
 On January 20, 1896, died Prince Henry of Batten- 
 berg, on his way home from the Ashantee War. On July 
 22 of the same year occurred the marriage in London of 
 the Princess Maud of Wales to Prince Charles of Den- 
 mark. On August 5 the Queen received Li-Hung-Chang 
 at Osborne, and in September the Emperor and Empress 
 of Eussia arrived at Leith on their way to visit the 
 Queen at Balmoral. In March of the succeeding year 
 the Queen left England for Nice, and had an interview 
 with President Faure. On April 25 the Princess Vic- 
 toria Alexandra of Teck was born, and on June 10 
 came the birth of the Grand Duchess Tatiana of Eussia. 
 These domestic events preceded the Jubilee. 
 
 The sad death of the Duchess of Teck occurred on 
 October 27, 1897, and, six months later, came the death of 
 the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Lathom. In February, 
 1899, Priuce Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Prince of 
 Saxe-Coburg, lost his only son, who died in the Tyrol, 
 while on a journey in search of health. In May of that 
 same year the Queen went to the south of France for 
 two months, and after her return opened Kensington 
 Palace to the public, and laid the foundation for the 
 Victoria and Albert Museum. Six months later she 
 reviewed the composite regiment of the Household Cav- 
 alry, for active service in South Africa. 
 
 This war in the Transvaal was a great trial to the 
 Queen. She had longed to end her days in peace; and 
 the long strain told upon her already weakened physical 
 strength. Defeat was new to the British troops, and 
 
x INTRODUCTION. 
 
 bitter news for the aged Queen. The public fancied 
 that the South African War would be of short duration, 
 but the greatest army which ever left England has been 
 engaged in war — almost a civil war — six thousand 
 miles away, in which has perished the flower of Eng- 
 land's youth. The last three years, with their tales of 
 horror, made more horrible by the profuse illustrations in 
 the London journals, depicting the hideous scenes on the 
 battlefield — scenes often drawn in London studios — 
 have brought hours of misery to the feeble Queen. She 
 was powerless to avert the war. She had been unable 
 to openly express her deep disapproval of it, but as the 
 news came of one tragic death after another, the lines 
 upon the Queen's face grew deeper, and her mouth 
 drooped more despondently than ever. 
 
 Harriet Martineau, in her diary, writes of the impres- 
 sion which the Queen made upon her, during the first 
 years of her reign. " It so happened that I never saw 
 her when she was not laughing and talking and moving 
 about." What a change from this lively, vivacious girl 
 to the sad, depressed woman who wrote to the First Lord 
 of the Admiralty, George Joachim Goschen, when he sent 
 her a letter saying that he desired to relinquish office, as 
 he was weary of public life, " Your old Queen is weary, 
 too, and longing for rest." 
 
 During the first seven months of the South African 
 War, up to May 12, 1900, there was a total loss of 1,292 
 officers and 19,444 men. The operations against Pieters 
 Hill head the list, with a loss of 113 officers and 1,782 men. 
 Spion Kop cost 87 officers and 1,646 men. At Cronje's 
 capture at Paardeberg the losses were 98 officers and 1,436 
 men. Besides this awful list of deaths 8,421 men had 
 been invalided in England, and 2,000 men were in hos- 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xl 
 
 pitals in South Africa. Is it strange that the ten- 
 der-hearted Queen grew weary of these heart-rending 
 reports, and longed for her release from a world where 
 war could cause such misery? 
 
 Throughout Victoria's life her health was excellent, 
 though her eyesight had been seriously impaired, for the 
 last few years, and she had undergone an operation for 
 cataract on her eyes, which was only moderately success- 
 ful. In April of 1900 the Queen made a visit to Ireland. 
 At her advanced age this was no slight undertaking ; and 
 the memory of her visit, in 1849, with the Prince Consort, 
 must have made the associations connected with the jour- 
 ney peculiarly painful. In spite of her eighty years the 
 Queen reviewed forty thousand school children, laid the 
 foundation stone for the new Nursery Home, in Dublin, 
 visited the Koyal Hospital, and showed her solicitude for 
 her Irish subjects by a keen interest in the welfare of 
 colleges and schools. In the three weeks of her visit 
 in Dublin, she never missed an opportunity of showing 
 herself to the people; and she left behind her an 
 increased feeling of loyalty and devotion. 
 
 Last autumn the Queen grew visibly weaker, although 
 she still transacted business, and made her usual journey 
 to Osborne before Christmas. On January 2d of the new 
 century, she received Lord Koberts, when he returned 
 from South Africa, and handed him the insignia of the 
 Garter, besides questioning him closely concerning the 
 war. This seems to have been her last act of public 
 importance. After a week of illness, came the sad news 
 that the Queen was stricken with paralysis ; and, upon 
 January 22d, at 6.30 P.M., came the official announcement, 
 not only of the death of a great Queen, but of the end of 
 one of the greatest periods of history. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The chief event, in the memory of a generation, took 
 place in a quiet room in Osborne House ; and Victoria 
 passed away from earth, surrounded by her children 
 and her grandchildren, and accompanied upon her last 
 journey by the sympathy and affection of all classes and 
 conditions of men and women, not only in her own 
 empire, but all over the civilized world. 
 
 Around her bedside were gathered her grandson, Kaiser 
 William, who had come alone to take his dying mother's 
 place by the Queen's bedside, the Prince and Princess of 
 Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, Princess 
 Henry of Battenberg, the Duchess of York, Princess 
 Victoria of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Fife, the 
 Duchess of Coburg, Prince and Princess Christian, and 
 Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. The Queen 
 left an heir to succeed her, and her heir has an heir to 
 succeed him. When Victoria ascended the throne, men 
 felt that the girl-Sovereign occupied a position unique in 
 history ; when she died, she had attained, by the power 
 of her own strong will and disciplined personality, a posi- 
 tion equally unprecedented. 
 
 The virtues which made Queen Victoria revered and 
 loved, were the virtues which give the English Nation its 
 highest claim upon the admiration of the world. John 
 Bright said that the Queen was the most truthful human 
 being that he had ever encountered. Her deep sincerity 
 of nature seems to have produced a profound impression 
 upon all her ministers. She made no assertions of inde- 
 pendence of judgment, and yet all who had the privilege 
 of talking with her, came away with a lasting respect for 
 her wisdom and intellectual honesty. She was a woman 
 of convictions, — of the Puritan type, — but her position 
 as a constitutional monarch often prevented her from 
 
INTRODUCTION. xni 
 
 following those convictions. When she was free to act, 
 she acted with a wisdom and a courage which were 
 commended, unqualifiedly, by a statesman as great as 
 Bismarck. 
 
 The historian of the future will know, much better than 
 do any of us, the importance of the political influence 
 of Victoria. Beginning with Lord Melbourne, she saw 
 eighteen changes of Prime Ministers ; and, in the succes- 
 sive change from a conservative to a liberal government, 
 and the long succession of strongly individual men with 
 whom she was brought into intimate relations, the girl- 
 Queen learned patience and diplomacy, and the necessity 
 of yielding her own most cherished wishes to the will 
 of the people. 
 
 Miss Martineau noticed, after the first two years of 
 Victoria's reign, that the expression of her face was 
 greatly altered. From being an exceptionally happy face, 
 Miss Martineau thought that it became a supremely dis- 
 contented face. It is not discontent that we see in the 
 face of the Queen, during her late years, but the submis- 
 sion of a strong, proud nature, to the inevitable servitude 
 of the throne of a " crowned-republic." 
 
 Under the brilliant, arbitrary Queen Elizabeth, Eng- 
 land became one of the first European powers. Queen 
 Bess won the confidence of her subjects, and may be said 
 to have ruled England as kings and queens did rule in 
 bygone days. The England of Elizabeth, and the Eng- 
 land of Victoria needed, however, very different sover- 
 eigns ; and it is because of her great self-restraint and 
 wise adherence to the policy of the ministers chosen by 
 the people, that the whole civilized world to-day praises 
 the English Queen. Never, during her long reign, did 
 she exercise her royal prerogative in a coercive or revo- 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION, 
 
 lutionary spirit. Never did she dissolve Parliament, 
 except in accordance with the advice of her ministers ; 
 and never did she dismiss from her court advisers who 
 commanded a majority in the House of Commons. Yet 
 she was a woman of pronounced character, and of sturdy 
 convictions. She had penetration and foresight enough 
 to perceive the trend of the times, and to recognize that 
 if England were to remain a monarchy, its sovereign 
 must be absolutely loyal to the cabinet chosen by Par- 
 liament, even to a minister with whose policy she did 
 not sympathize. 
 
 If Victoria's political power was comparatively slight, 
 and opened but a limited field for her ambition, she yet 
 had great power in many other directions, and she used 
 it nobly. 
 
 Out of the scandalous life of the Kegency, the Queen 
 and Prince Albert raised the court of England, morally 
 and socially, to a foremost position among Christian 
 nations. The Queen never permitted a divorced woman 
 to be presented at court, and never tolerated a libellous 
 or coarse story. She presented a lofty example of domes- 
 tic and public virtue, and the Hanoverian House culmi- 
 nated in the reign of Queen Victoria, who has set a 
 standard of morality which it will be impossible for suc- 
 ceeding monarchs to ignore. In active benevolence, in 
 personal sympathy, in tender consideration for those who 
 had served the public need, the Queen has been an exam- 
 ple for women, the world over. 
 
 Although during the last few years of her life she 
 secluded herself from society, far more than the English 
 upper classes wished, whenever she did appear, it was 
 with dignity ; and she was always adequate to every 
 occasion, in spite of her years. By her substantial virtues 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 of character, she became worthy of those lines of Ten- 
 nyson, — " 0, Loyal to the Koyal in thyself," — and she 
 has dignified the office and given the throne of England 
 a stable position among the nations of the earth. 
 
 There are writers, even in England, who look forward 
 openly to a change of government, when the Victorian 
 Legend may become as obsolete as is the Elizabethan 
 Legend; but so long as England holds to the ancient 
 traditions, and yet yields to the modern needs of the 
 English people, the old order will not change. 
 
 In an early edition of Mrs. Browning's poems, we find, 
 side by side, two poems, one written at the time of 
 Victoria's coronation and called " Crowned and Wedded," 
 the other written at the time of Napoleon's burial, and 
 called " Crowned and Buried." Could there be, in history, 
 a greater contrast than that between the last hours of 
 Napoleon and the last hours of Victoria ? The man of 
 ungovernable ambition and lawless will, who sacrificed all 
 the moral virtues, to gain an empire, died, bitterly hated 
 by all Europe, without a member of his own family with 
 him, in the distant island of St. Helena. The woman who 
 had consented to submit her personal ambition to the 
 will of the nation which she ruled, and had become an 
 ideal constitutional monarch, died, surrounded by her chil- 
 dren and children's children, enjoying the respect and 
 affection of those in power, all over the civilized world. 
 
 Bertrand, who stayed by his emperor, to the last, and 
 yet whose faithfulness did not deprive him of his judg- 
 ment, said, not in anger, but in a mood of sad sincerity, 
 " The Emperor is what he is ; we cannot change his 
 character. It is because of that character that he has no 
 friends, that he has so many enemies, and, indeed, that 
 we are at St. Helena." 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The homely Saxon virtues so often overlooked, which 
 the faithless, relentless Corsican's character so lamentably 
 lacked, are precisely those for which Victoria is lauded 
 to-day. " Her court was pure : her life serene." The 
 period over which she ruled will go down to history as 
 the " Victorian Age," and the lines of Tennyson, written 
 fifty years ago, fitly voice the prayers of her sorrowing 
 people to-day — 
 
 " And leave us rulers of your blood 
 As noble till the latest day ; 
 May children of our children say, 
 She wrought her people lasting good." 
 
 M. R. F. GILMAN. 
 
 Unity Parsonage, Springfield. 
 February IS, 1901. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It would have been impossible, within the limits of this 
 little book, to narrate, even in barest outline, all the 
 events of the Queen's long life and, reign. In attempting 
 to deal with so large a subject in so short a space, I have 
 therefore thought it best to dwell on what may be con- 
 sidered the formative influences on the Queen's character 
 in her early life, and in later years to refer only to po- 
 litical and personal events, in so far as they illustrate 
 her character and her conception of her political func- 
 tions. Even with this limitation, I am fully aware how 
 far short I have come of being able to produce a worthy 
 record of a noble life. I will only add that I begun this 
 little book with a feeling towards Her Majesty of sin- 
 cere veneration and gratitude, and that this feeling has 
 been deepened by studying more closely than I had done 
 before the ideal place of the Crown in the English Con- 
 stitution, as a power above party, and the important 
 part the Queen has taken now for nearly sixty years in 
 making this ideal a reality. It is not too much to say 
 that, by her sagacity and persistent devotion to duty, 
 she has created modern constitutionalism, and more than 
 any other single person has made England and the Eng- 
 lish monarchy what they now are. 
 
 A list of the books referred to will be found after the 
 chronological table. Among them it is almost unneces- 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 sary to say that I am especially indebted to " The Early 
 Years of the Prince Consort," by General Grey, and to 
 "The Life of the Prince Consort," by Sir Theodore 
 Martin. I also desire to express my respectful thanks 
 to H. K. H. Princess Christian, for help very graciously 
 and kindly given in the selection of a portrait for this 
 little volume. 
 
 MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT. 
 
 April, 2395. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. The Queen's Immediate Predecessors . . 9 
 
 II. Childhood and Education 28 
 
 III. Accession to the Throne 41 
 
 IV. Love and Politics 56 
 
 V. Eocks Ahead 71 
 
 VI. The Prince 79 
 
 VII. The Queen and Peel 94 
 
 VIII. Stockmar 104 
 
 IX. The Nursery 119 
 
 X. Home Life. — Osborne and Balmoral . . 132 
 
 XI. Forty-Three to Forty-Eight 144 
 
 XII. Palmerston 156 
 
 XIII. Peace and War 173 
 
 XIV. A Nation op Shopkeepers 192 
 
 XV. The Valley of the Shadow of Death . . 201 
 
 XVI. Domestic Life after 1861 215 
 
 XVII. The Warp and Woof of Home and Politics 227 
 
 XVIII. The Queen and the Empire 244 
 
 Chronological Table of Events 257 
 
 Ministries during Queen Victoria's Reign . . . 263 
 
 The Royal Family 264 
 
 Books of Reference , 268 
 
 Index 269 
 
VICTORIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 
 
 Every now and then, on the birth of a male heir to 
 any of the great historic kingdoms of Europe, the 
 newspapers and the makers of public speeches break 
 forth into rejoicing and thanksgiving that the country 
 in question is secured from all the perils and evils 
 supposed to be associated with the reign of a female 
 Sovereign. It is of little importance, perhaps, that 
 this attitude of mind conveys but a poor compliment 
 to our Queen and other living Queens and Queen 
 Regents ; but it is not a little curious that the popular 
 opinion to which these articles and speeches give 
 expression, namely, that the chances are that any man 
 will make a better Sovereign than any woman, is 
 wholly contrary to experience ; it is hardly going too 
 far to say that in every country in which the succes- 
 sion to the Crown has been open to women, some of 
 the greatest, most capable, and most patriotic Sov- 
 ereigns have been queens. The names of Isabella of 
 Spain, of Maria Theresa of Austria, will rise in this 
 connection to every mind ; and, little as she is to be 
 admired as a woman, Catherine II. of Russia showed 
 that she thoroughly understood the art of reigning. 
 Her vices would have excited little remark had she 
 been a king instead of a queen. It is an unconscious 
 tribute to the higher standard of conduct queens have 
 
10 VICTORIA. 
 
 taught the world to expect from them, that while the 
 historic muse stands aghast at the private life of the 
 Russian Empress, she is only very mildly scandalized 
 by a Charles V. or a Henry IV., thinking, with much 
 justice, that their great qualities as rulers serve to 
 cover their multitude of sins as private individuals. 
 The brief which history could produce on behalf of 
 Queens, as successful rulers, can be argued also from 
 the negative side. The Salic law did not, to say the 
 least, save the French monarchy from ruin. How far 
 the overthrow of that monarchy was due to a combi- 
 nation of incompetence and depravity in various pro- 
 portions in the descendants of the Capets from the 
 Regent Orleans onwards towards the Revolution, is a 
 question which must be decided by others. Carlyle's 
 view of the cause of the Revolution was that it was 
 due to "every scoundrel that had lived, and, quack- 
 like, pretended to be doing, and had only been eating 
 and misdoing, in all provinces of life, as shoeblack 
 or as sovereign lord, each in his degree, from the 
 time of Charlemagne and earlier. " Women no doubt 
 produced their share of quacks and charlatans in the 
 humble ranks of this long procession of misdoers, but 
 not as sovereigns, because, with the superior logic of 
 the Gallic mind, the French people not only believed 
 the accession of a woman to the throne to be a misfor- 
 tune, but guarded themselves against the calamity by 
 the Salic law. The fact affords a fresh proof that 
 logic is a poor thing to be ruled by, because of the 
 liability, which cannot be eliminated from human 
 affairs, of making a mistake in the premises. The 
 English plan, though less logical, is more practically 
 successful. We speak and write as if a nation could 
 not suffer a greater misfortune than to have a woman 
 at the head of the State ; but we do nothing to bar the 
 female succession, with the result that out of our five 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 11 
 
 Queens Regnant we have had three of eminent dis- 
 tinction as compared with any other Sovereign; and 
 of these three, one ranks with the very greatest of the 
 statesmen who deserve to be remembered as the 
 Makers of England. 
 
 Something more can be claimed than that the Salic 
 law did not prevent the overthrow of the French 
 monarchy. It is probable that the female succession 
 to the throne did save the English monarchy in 1837. 
 Failing the Queen, the next heir would have been the 
 Duke of Cumberland , and from all the records of the 
 time, it does not suffice to say that he was unpopular, 
 he was simply hated, — and with justice. He appears 
 to have conceived it to be his function in Hanover "to 
 cut the wings of the democracy; " if he had succeeded 
 to the English throne and adopted the same policy 
 here, he would have brought the whole fabric of the 
 monarchy about his ears. He was equally without 
 private and public virtues. The Duke of Wellington 
 once asked George IV. why the Duke of Cumberland 
 was so unpopular. The King replied, " Because there 
 never was a father well with his son, or husband with 
 his wife, or lover with his mistress, or friend with 
 his friend, that he did not try to make mischief 
 between them." 
 
 The political power which has in various countries 
 devolved on queens calls to mind one thing that 
 ought to be remembered in discussions upon the 
 hereditary principle in government. Within its own 
 prescribed limitations it applies the democratic 
 maxim, la carriere ouverte aux talents, much more 
 completely than any nominally democratic form of 
 government, and thus has repeatedly given, in our 
 own history, a chance to an able woman to prove that 
 in statesmanship, courage, sense of responsibility, and 
 devotion to duty, she is capable of ruling in such 
 
12 VICTORIA. 
 
 a way as to strengthen her empire and throne by earn- 
 ing the devoted affection of all classes of her subjects. 
 
 Twice in the history of England have extraordinary 
 efforts been made to avert the supposed misfortune of 
 a female heir to the throne; and twice has the 
 " divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how 
 we will, " decreed that these efforts should be in vain, 
 and the dreaded national misfortune has turned out 
 to be a great national blessing. Mr. Froude tells us 
 that five out of Henry VIII. 's six marriages were con- 
 tracted in consequence of his patriotic desire to secure 
 the succession to the throne in the male line. But 
 when the feeble flame of Edward VI. 's life was ex- 
 tinguished, four women stood next in the succes- 
 sion, and England acquired at a most critical moment 
 of her history, in the person of Elizabeth, perhaps the 
 greatest Sovereign who has ever occupied the throne 
 of this country. 
 
 The second occasion was after the death of the 
 Princess Charlotte in 1817. George III., with his 
 fifteen children, had not then a single heir in the 
 second generation. It would not be correct to say 
 that the Royal Dukes were then married by Act of 
 Parliament, no Act of Parliament was necessary; 
 but political pressure was brought on them to marry, 
 and Parliament granted them extra allowances of 
 sums varying from £10,000 to £6,000 a year, and in 
 May and June, 1818, the marriages took place of the 
 Duke of Cambridge to the Princess Augusta of Hesse, 
 of the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV.) to 
 Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, and of the 
 Duke of Kent to Princess Victoria, daughter of the 
 Duke of Saxe-Coburg, widow of the Prince of Leiningen, 
 and sister of Prince Leopold, the husband of Princess 
 Charlotte. The marriage of the Duke of Kent is the 
 only one of these that immediately concerns us. As 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 13 
 
 the fourth son of George III., his children would, 
 under ordinary circumstances, have had but a remote 
 prospect of succeeding to the throne. But of his elder 
 brothers, the Prince Regent had, in consequence of 
 the death of Princess Charlotte, become childless, the 
 Duke of York was also childless, the Duke of Clarence, 
 whose marriage was contracted on the same day as 
 that of the Duke of Kent, 13th June, 1818, took pre- 
 cedence of him as an elder brother, and if he had had 
 legitimate heirs they would have succeeded to the 
 throne. The Princess (afterwards Queen) Adelaide 
 was not childless. She bore two children, but they 
 died in their infancy ; and thus the only child of the 
 Duke and Duchess of Kent, the Princess Alexandrina 
 Victoria, became heiress-presumptive of the English 
 throne. The Duke of Kent took the strongest interest 
 in his baby girl's chances of the succession. Before 
 the birth of the child he urged upon his wife, who 
 was then resident at Amorbach in Bavaria, that the 
 possible future King or Queen of England ought to 
 be born on English soil ; and when she consented to 
 remove to Kensington, it is said he was so keenly 
 anxious for her safety that he drove her carriage the 
 whole of the land journey between Amorbach and 
 Kensington with his own hands. At the present day 
 we should perhaps say that the chances of safety lay with 
 the professional rather than with the amateur coach- 
 man; but the Duke proved his efficiency in handling 
 the reins, and brought his wife in safety to London, 
 where, on the 24th May, 1819, the baby was born who 
 is now Queen of England. It should be noted that 
 the Duchess was attended in her confinement by a 
 woman, following the custom of her own country in 
 this matter, and that the same accoucheuse, Madam 
 Charlotte Siebold, attended a few months later upon 
 the Duchess of Coburg when she gave birth to the 
 
14 VICTORIA. 
 
 child who in after years became the Prince Consort. 
 There are several little anecdotes which illustrate the 
 Duke of Kent's appreciation of the important place 
 his little girl was born to fill. He wanted the baby- 
 to be called Elizabeth, because it was the name of the 
 greatest of England's Queens, and therefore a popular 
 name with the English people ; there were, however, 
 godfathers, Royal and Imperial, who overruled him 
 as to the naming of the child. These were the 
 Emperor of Russia (Alexander I.) and the Prince 
 Regent, and it was therefore proposed to call the 
 baby, Alexandrina Georgiana. But George, Prince 
 Regent, objected to his name standing second to any 
 other, however distinguished. His brother, on the 
 other hand, insisted that Alexandrina should be the 
 first of the baby's names. In consequence of this 
 dispute the little Princess was so fortunate as to 
 escape bearing the name of Georgiana at all; when 
 she was handed to the Archbishop at the font the 
 Prince Regent only gave the name of Alexandrina. 
 The baby's father, however, intervened, and requested 
 that another name might be added, with the result 
 that, as a kind of afterthought, her mother's name 
 was, as it were, thrown in, and the little Princess 
 was christened Alexandrina Victoria. It was in this 
 way that the name Victoria, then almost unknown 
 in England, was given to the baby, and has since 
 become familiar in our mouths as household words. 
 The Duke declined to allow the congratulations that 
 were showered on him at the birth of his child to be 
 tempered by regrets that the daughter was not a son. 
 In reply to a letter conceived in this vein from his 
 chaplain, Dr. Prince, the Duke wrote at the same 
 time that "I assure you how truly sensible I am of 
 the kind and flattering intentions of those who are 
 prompted to express a degree of disappointment from 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 15 
 
 the circumstance of the child not proving to be a son 
 instead of a daughter. I feel it due to myself to 
 declare that such sentiments are not in unison with 
 my own, for I am decidedly of opinion that the decrees 
 of Providence are at all times wisest and best. " As 
 this was addressed to a clergyman and a Doctor of 
 Divinity, it may be inferred that Her Majesty's father 
 was not without a sense of humor. Another story of 
 the Duke is that, playing with his baby when she was 
 a few months old, he held her high in his arms and 
 said, " Look at her well, for she will be the Queen of 
 England. " It must be remembered, however, that at 
 this time there was no certainty that the children of 
 the Duke and Duchess of Clarence would not survive 
 the perils of infancy ; moreover, if the Duke of Kent 
 had lived to have a son, the boy would have become 
 the heir in preference to his sister. The Duke's 
 strongly marked feeling of fatherly pride and affection 
 is almost the only trait in his character by which we 
 are able at this distance of time to conjure him up out 
 of the mists of bygone years. 1 This feeling was soon 
 to receive a melancholy illustration. The Duke and 
 Duchess, with their baby daughter, removed from 
 Kensington to Sidmouth to spend the winter of 
 1819-20. Returning home on a January day, with 
 boots wet with snow, the Duke caught a severe chill 
 from playing with his baby, before changing his 
 boots. 2 The illness developed into acute pneumonia, 
 of which he died in January, 1820, leaving his wife a 
 stranger in a strange land, hardly able to speak the 
 
 1 The Duke of Kent was chiefly known in the army for his extreme 
 insistence in military etiquette, discipline, dress, and equipments. He 
 was, however, the first to abandon flogging, and to establish a regimental 
 school. — Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 2 In reminiscences contributed by the King of the Belgians, as an 
 appendix to " Early Years of the Prince Consort," it is stated that the 
 Duke's fatal cold was caught when visiting Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
16 VICTORIA. 
 
 English language, sole guardian of England's future 
 Queen. The Duchess of Kent must have been a 
 woman of considerable strength of character and 
 power of will. She was in an extremely lonely and 
 difficult position. Pecuniarily, her chief legacy from 
 her husband consisted of his debts, which the allow- 
 ance made to her by Parliament was not sufficiently 
 ample to enable her to pay. Her brother, Prince Leo- 
 pold, widower of Princess Charlotte, and afterwards 
 King of the Belgians, supplemented her income from his 
 own purse. The Duchess and her children (she had 
 two by her first marriage) were frequently his guests at 
 Claremont and elsewhere, and the Queen speaks of 
 these visits as the happiest periods of her childhood. 
 After a few years the death of the children of the 
 Duke and Duchess of Clarence made it practically 
 certain that the Princess Victoria would become 
 Queen. The Court of George IV. was not one which 
 the Duchess of Kent could frequent with any satisfac- 
 tion; she was on bad terms with him, and he often 
 threatened to take her child away from her. His 
 character made him quite capable of doing this ; he 
 was equally heartless and despotic. Matters were 
 not greatly improved as to personal relations between 
 the Sovereign and herself when William IV. became 
 King; the Princess Victoria did not even attend his 
 coronation. There was a strong feeling of antago- 
 nism between the Duchess of Kent and William IV., 
 which occasionally broke out into very unseemly mani- 
 festations, especially on the King's side. His was 
 not a character which could claim respect, and still 
 less evoke enthusiasm. As Duke of Clarence, he had 
 lived for more than twenty years with Mrs. Jordan, 
 the actress, by whom he had ten sons and daughters. 
 His affection for them showed the best side of his 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 17 
 
 character. He did not disown them; they bore the 
 name of Fitz Clarence, and as soon as he was able he 
 provided liberally for them. Greville says that his 
 sons, with one exception, repaid his kindness with 
 insolence and ingratitude. His affection for them did 
 not prevent his desertion of their mother. He sepa- 
 rated from her without any apparent cause, and 
 endeavored to bring about a marriage between him- 
 self and a half-crazy woman of large fortune. The 
 Prince Regent is said to have been the marplot of this 
 scheme, which was never carried out. During the 
 earlier part of his connection with Mrs. Jordan, the 
 Duke of Clarence made her an allowance of <£1,000 a 
 year. At the suggestion of George III. he is said to 
 have proposed by letter to Mrs. Jordan to reduce this 
 sum to £500. Her reply was to send him the bottom 
 part of a play-bill, on which were these words, " No 
 money returned after the rising of the curtain. " 
 When he was a young man on active service in the 
 navy and in command of a ship, he had twice absented 
 himself from foreign stations without leave, and the 
 Admiralty were at their wits' end to know how to 
 deal with him. 
 
 The death of the Princess Charlotte in 1817, and 
 later the death of the Duke of York, gave political 
 importance to the Duke of Clarence's existence, and 
 he was one of the batch of Royal Dukes who married, 
 as we have seen, in 1818, not without unseemly hag- 
 gling with the House of Commons as to the additional 
 allowance to be voted for his support. The <£10,000 
 a year proposed by the Government was cut down to 
 £6,000 by a vote of 193 to 184. Lord Castlereagh 
 then rose and said that " Since the House had thought 
 proper to refuse the larger sum to the Duke of Clarence, 
 he believed he might say that the negotiation for the 
 marriage might be considered at an end ; " and on the 
 
 2 
 
18 VICTORIA. 
 
 next day his Lordship announced to the House that 
 " the Duke declined availing himself of the inadequate 
 sum which had been voted to him." However, as 
 the only practical reply to this was a vote by the 
 House granting c£6,000 a year to the Duke of Cam- 
 bridge, and declining any grant at all for the unpopu- 
 lar Duke of Cumberland, the Duke of Clarence appears 
 to have thought better of his refusal of the grant, and 
 the marriage accordingly took place. But there can 
 be no surprise, under the circumstances, that such a 
 union and the character it revealed awakened no 
 popular interest. It should be said, however, that 
 when he became King it was generally remarked that 
 his elevation improved him. He became, Greville 
 says, " more composed and rational, if not more digni- 
 fied in his behavior." People began to like him, if 
 not for his virtues, at any rate on account of the con- 
 trast he presented to his predecessor. His best quali- 
 ties were frankness and honesty, and he also had the 
 real and rather rare generosity of not bearing a grudge 
 against those who had baffled or defeated him. Thus 
 the Duke of Wellington had, when Prime Minister, 
 removed the Duke of Clarence from the office of Lord 
 High Admiral : but though exceedingly angry at 
 the time, he never bore any grudge against the 
 Duke of Wellington, or wreaked vengeance upon him 
 in any way when he had the power. On the con- 
 trary, when he became King he gave the Duke his* 
 fullest and most cordial confidence, retained him as 
 Prime Minister, and took an early opportunity of 
 publicly showing him honor by dining at Apsle} 7 
 House. It is the more pleasant to recall this instance 
 of magnanimity on the part of William IV. because 
 the annals of the time are full to overflowing of stories 
 to the discredit of nearly all the sons of George III. 
 The character of George IV. is well known. His 
 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 19 
 
 quarrels with his wife and attempt to pass an Act of 
 Divorce against her are notorious. In ghastly con- 
 trast to the pageantry of his coronation, on which it 
 was said X240 000 were spent, those who were present 
 speak of the thrill of horror which ran through the 
 assembly when Queen Caroline was heard knocking at 
 the door of the Abbey for the admittance which tas 
 refused her. « There was sudden silence and conster- 
 nation; it was like the handwriting on the wall." 
 George IV. was almost equally contemptible in every 
 relation of life. His Ministers could with difficulty 
 induce him to give attention to necessary business. 
 Indolent, cowardly, selfish, unfeeling dog " are the 
 words by which he is described by the clerk of his 
 Council. He delighted in keeping those who had 
 business to transact with him waiting for hours while 
 he was chatting about horses, or betting, or any trivial 
 matter. Greville, after many years of close knowledge 
 of George IV., says of him: "The littleness of his 
 character prevents his displaying the dangerous faults 
 that belong to great minds; but with vices and weak- 
 ■T, 8 ^ lowest and most contemptible order it 
 would be difficult to find a disposition more abundantly 
 furnished." It ,s probably not too much to say that 
 no one loved him living, or mourned him dead. Of 
 his funeral Greville says in his cynical way: "The 
 attendance was not very numerous, and when they 
 had all got together in St. George's Hall, a gayer 
 company I never beheld. . . . They were all as 
 merry as grigs." The King's brothers were not a 
 very great improvement on the King. The Royal 
 Dukes seemed to vie with each other in unseemly and 
 indecorous behavior. On one occasion, in July 1829 
 they attacked each other violently in the House of 
 Lords, that is, "Clarence and Sussex attacked Cum- 
 berland, and he them very vehemently, and they used 
 
20 VICTORIA. 
 
 towards each other language which nobody else could 
 have ventured to employ ; it was a very droll scene." 
 With such brothers-in-law the position of the Duchess 
 of Kent must have been one of great difficulty and 
 loneliness, and she was, consequently, thrown, more 
 perhaps than she would otherwise have been, to 
 rely for advice and companionship on her own 
 brother, Prince Leopold. This Prince and his con- 
 fidential secretary and friend, Stockmar, afterwards 
 Baron Stockmar, were the trusted counsellors of the 
 Duchess of Kent with regard to the education of 
 Princess Victoria and her preparation for the diffi- 
 cult and responsible position she was afterwards to 
 occupy. The quarrels and disputes that constantly 
 arose between the Duchess of Kent and William IV. 
 may have been attributable to faults on both sides; 
 but the most innocent and indeed laudable actions of 
 the Duchess, with regard to her daughter's training, 
 seem to have been made the excuse for all kinds of 
 complaint and acrimony on the part of the King. 
 For instance, the Duchess felt that it was proper that 
 her daughter, in view of the position she would here- 
 after occupy, should see as much as possible of the 
 places of interest and importance in the kingdom she 
 would be destined in time to reign over. Accordingly, 
 she took the young Princess about to the chief manu- 
 facturing centres, as well as to places of historic 
 interest, and localities where the rural beauty of 
 England was to be seen in its greatest perfection. In 
 this way she visited Birmingham, Worcester, Cov- 
 entry, Shrewsbury, Chester, Lichfield, and Oxford, as 
 well as Malvern, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Kenil- 
 worth, Powis Castle, Wynnstay, Anglesey, and the 
 Isle of Wight. It appears, however, that these appar- 
 ently praiseworthy proceedings gave great offence at 
 Court. The Duchess was supposed to seek more 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 21 
 
 attention than her position justified her in demand- 
 ing. A Council was summoned at Windsor on one 
 occasion (in 1833) for the sole purpose of checking 
 the manifestations of loyalty which the appearance of 
 the Duchess and her daughter provoked. The King 
 was devoured by spleen on hearing that salutes had 
 been fired at the Isle of Wight in honor of these pro- 
 gresses of the heiress-presumptive and her mother. 
 After absurd negotiations on the subject between the 
 King and his sister-in-law, when neither had the 
 good grace to give way, the fleet was commanded, by 
 Order in Council, not to salute the Royal Standard 
 unless the King or Queen was on board. On another 
 occasion, offence seems to have been taken by the 
 King where none was intended, because an address, 
 received by the Duchess in 1835 at Burghley, alluded 
 to her daughter as " destined to mount the throne of 
 these realms." It was an additional offence that Sir 
 John Conroy, the Duchess's controller of the house- 
 hold, "handed the answer, just as the Prime Minister 
 does to the King." With every action, even on the 
 part of others, thus misinterpreted, it was no wonder 
 that the Duchess could have no cordial feelings 
 towards her husband's family. George IV. openly 
 showed his dislike for her, the Duke of Cumberland 
 never lost an opportunity of aggravating the unfriend- 
 liness of their relations. When William IV. suc- 
 ceeded, the Duchess of Kent wrote to the Duke of 
 Wellington, as Prime Minister, to request that she 
 might be treated as a Dowager Princess of Wales, 
 with an income suitable for herself and her daughter, 
 for whom she also asked recognition as heiress to the 
 throne. These requests met with a positive refusal, 
 at which the Duchess expressed considerable vexation. 
 Afterwards, when a Regency Bill was brought forward 
 to provide for the event of the death of the King while 
 
22 VICTORIA. 
 
 the Princess Victoria was still a minor, although the 
 right thing was done, and the Duchess was named 
 Regent, the old feeling of hostility was not removed 
 between herself and the King and his brothers, and 
 during nearly the whole of William IV. 's seven years' 
 reign there were constant bickerings and disputes 
 between Windsor and Kensington. Matters were 
 made worse by William's love of making speeches, in 
 which he set forth, with more vigor than dignity, his 
 grievances, or what he considered such. Greville 
 says he had a passion for speechifying, and had a 
 considerable facility in expressing himself, but that 
 what he said was generally useless or improper. An 
 instance in point is to be found in the " Life of Arch- 
 bishop Tait," who wrote in his diary, December 4th, 
 1856, that Dr. Langley told him that when he did 
 homage to William IV. on his first appointment as 
 Bishop, no sooner had he risen from his knees than 
 the King suddenly addressed him in a loud voice 
 thus: "Bishop of Ripon, I charge you, as you shall 
 answer before Almighty God, that you never by word 
 
 or deed give encouragement to those d d Whigs, 
 
 who would upset the Church of England." Even 
 when proposing the Princess Victoria's health and 
 speaking kindly of her, he could not resist the public 
 announcement that he had not seen so much of her 
 as he could have wished (Aug., 1836). On another 
 occasion he loudly and publicly expressed to the 
 Duchess his strong disapprobation of her having 
 appropriated apartments at Kensington Palace beyond 
 those which had been assigned to her, and spoke of 
 what she had done as " an unwarrantable liberty. " A 
 still worse outbreak shortly followed. At his birth- 
 day banquet in 1836, in the presence of a hundred 
 people, with the Duchess of Kent sitting next to him 
 and the Princess Victoria opposite, he expressed with 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 23 
 
 more vigor than delicacy the hope that he might live 
 nine months longer, so that the Princess might attain 
 her majority, and the regency of the Duchess never 
 come into operation. He referred to the Duchess as 
 "a person now near me who is surrounded by evil 
 advisers, and who is herself incompetent to act with 
 propriety in the station in which she would be placed." 
 A great deal more in the same style followed; "an 
 awful philippic, " Greville calls it, "uttered with a 
 loud voice and excited manner." The King's ani- 
 mosity against the Duchess was extended to, and may 
 perhaps have been provoked by, her brother. He had 
 given offence by calling on Queen Caroline after the 
 conclusion of the evidence against her in the House of 
 Lords. He appears himself to have thought the action 
 required an excuse, and says, "But how abandon 
 entirely the mother of Princess Charlotte, who, though 
 she knew her mother well, loved her very much ? " 
 George IV. was furious, and never forgave his son-in- 
 law. William IV. shared his brother's sentiments in 
 regard to Leopold, and invariably treated him with 
 coldness, and sometimes with rudeness that amounted 
 to brutality. After he had become King of the 
 Belgians, Leopold visited William IV. at Windsor, 
 and during dinner made an innocent request for 
 water. The King asked, " What 's that you are 
 drinking, sir?" "Water, sir." "God d— it!" 
 rejoined the other King, " why don't you drink wine ? 
 I never allow any one to drink water at my table." 
 The King of the Belgians must have felt like a man 
 living among wild beasts, and it is not surprising to 
 read that he did not sleep at Windsor that night, but 
 went away in the evening. There was not a subject 
 on which they were agreed. William IV. was a Tory 
 of the Tories; Prince Leopold was a Whig. King 
 William's chief political interest was the preservation 
 
24 VICTORIA. 
 
 of the slave trade ; Prince Leopold was deeply inter- 
 ested in its abolition. The same antagonism between 
 them ran through all subjects, great and small. 
 
 These anecdotes of the coarseness and brutality of 
 the Queen's immediate predecessors have been recalled 
 for the purpose of illustrating the extreme difficulty 
 of the position in which the Duchess of Kent found 
 herself from the time of her husband's death to that 
 of her daughter's accession. It also serves to explain 
 an expression used in after years by the Queen in 
 reference to her choice of the name of Leopold for her 
 youngest son, where she says, " It is the name which 
 is dearest to me after Albert, one which recalls the 
 almost only happy days of my sad childhood. " But 
 if the Princess Victoria was unfortunate in some of 
 her uncles, her uncle Leopold went far to redress the 
 balance. At one time the prospect before him, as 
 husband of Princess Charlotte, had been identical 
 with the position afterwards occupied by Prince 
 Albert. He had become a naturalized Englishman, 
 and he had given great thought and study to English 
 Constitutional history, and particularly to the duties 
 and responsibilities of a Constitutional monarch. He 
 had strong personal ambition, disciplined by ability 
 and conscientiousness. In 1817 the death of his wife 
 dashed the cup of ambition from his lips. A con- 
 temporary letter speaks of him as " Adam turned out of 
 Paradise without his Eve." From the important posi- 
 tion of husband of the Heiress Apparent he sunk in 
 one day to that of a subordinate member of the Royal 
 Family, necessarily, as we have seen, out of sym- 
 pathy with them and aloof from them. " Seekest 
 thou great things for thyself ? Seek them not, " was 
 the lesson of 1817 to him. With great power of 
 personal abnegation, his disappointment did not im- 
 bitter him, his ambition did not turn sour. He trans- 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 25 
 
 ferred it and all his plans and all his interest in 
 English constitutionalism to a little niece and nephew 
 who were born respectively on the 24th of May and 
 26th of August, 1819. The little Victoria at Ken- 
 sington and the little Albert at Coburg were destined 
 by their uncle Leopold almost from their birth to play 
 the part that would have been filled by the Princess 
 Charlotte and himself but for her early death. He 
 had, of course, no absolute power to bring this mar- 
 riage about, but he earnestly desired it, and prepared 
 the way for it by every means at his command. He 
 won, as he deserved to win, the Princess Victoria's 
 most ardent affection. She has told us herself how 
 she " adored " her uncle. He took his mother, the 
 Duchess Dowager of Coburg, a very able woman, into 
 his confidence. She wholly shared his views and 
 hopes. From the time he was three years old Prince 
 Albert was accustomed to the idea that when he was 
 old enough he was to marry his cousin, Princess 
 Victoria of England. The first mention of Prince 
 Albert as a husband was made to the Queen by her 
 uncle Leopold. The education of both children was 
 conducted with this end in view. This was no doubt 
 a chief bone of contention between Prince Leopold 
 and his sister the Duchess of Kent on the one hand, 
 and the King and his party on the other. For William 
 IV. highly disapproved of the proposed union, and 
 did everything in his power to stop it, proposing in 
 succession no fewer than five other marriages for the 
 young Princess. It throws a light too on his resent- 
 ment at the degree to which the Princess Victoria was 
 withdrawn from his Court, so that hardly any influence 
 could reach her antagonistic to that of her uncle 
 Leopold. William IV. 's explosions of rage against 
 the Duchess of Kent are illustrative of this ; they are 
 those of a stupid man, nominally in a position of 
 
26 VICTORIA. 
 
 authority, but baffled and outwitted, and consequently 
 furious. It was well for the Princess Victoria and 
 for England too that he was not the predominant 
 influence in her education; but it is not difficult to 
 understand his wrath. The game of cross purposes 
 was constantly going on, and the King was constantly 
 being worsted. The Duchess of Kent selected as her 
 daughter's tutor the Rev. George Davys. The King 
 objected that the education of the heiress-presumptive 
 to the throne should be under the care of some dis- 
 tinguished prelate. The Duchess acquiesced, and, 
 while retaining the services of Dr. Davys, intimated 
 that there would be no objection on her part to his 
 receiving the highest ecclesiastical preferment. A 
 very extensive knowledge of human nature is not 
 needed to know that this sort of thing is to the last 
 degree irritating, nor that the fact of the Duchess and 
 her brother being generally in the right, and the 
 King generally in the wrong, was not soothing to the 
 latter. 1 
 
 In this too stormy atmosphere the heiress of Eng- 
 land was reared. Her naturally happy disposition 
 and healthy physical constitution carried her through 
 with less disadvantage than other less happily endowed 
 natures would have sustained. Among other relatives 
 who were uniformly kind and considerate to the 
 young Princess special mention should be made of the 
 Duke of York, whom she loved like a second father. 
 His death, in 1827, was her first sorrow as a child. 
 Queen Adelaide also was uniformly kind and loving 
 to her niece. Her own two baby girls had died in 
 their infancy, and she transferred a good deal of 
 motherly tenderness to Princess Victoria. A meaner 
 
 1 It should be remarked that whatever the faults and shortcomings 
 of William IV. may have been, the Queen herself never refers to him 
 but in terms of affection and gratitude. 
 
THE QUEEN'S IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS. 27 
 
 nature would have resented the place of her own child 
 being filled by another; but Queen Adelaide showed 
 none of this littleness, and welcomed her niece with 
 cordiality to her rightful place beside the throne. 
 When the second of Queen Adelaide's own little girls 
 died, she wrote to the Duchess of Kent, " My children 
 are dead, but yours lives, and she is mine, too ! " 
 The simple words give the note of a truly noble nature. 
 In 1831, when King William prorogued his first 
 Parliament, Queen Adelaide and Princess Victoria 
 watched from the windows of the Palace the progress 
 of the Royal procession. "The people cheered the 
 Queen lustily, but, forgetting herself, that gracious 
 lady took the young Princess Victoria by the hand, 
 led her to the front of the balcony, and introduced 
 her 1 to the happy and loyal multitude." On several 
 other occasions Queen Adelaide showed a noble, 
 queenly, and motherly spirit towards the young Prin- 
 cess. In 1837 and onwards, Queen Victoria was able, 
 by a number of little nameless acts of kindness and of 
 love, to cheer and soothe the declining years of the 
 Queen Dowager. 
 
 1 G. Barnett Smith, Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The previous chapter dwelt upon some serious draw- 
 backs to the Queen's happiness as a child. But if 
 she was unfortunate in living in an atmosphere too 
 highly charged with contention, her childhood was in 
 another respect remarkably fortunate. Very few heirs 
 to the throne have been brought up from infancy with 
 an education carefully designed as a preparation for 
 their future exalted station, combined with almost all 
 the simplicity and domesticity of private life. But 
 this unusual combination was secured for the Queen 
 by the circumstances of her childhood. At the time 
 of her birth the chances were decidedly against her 
 succession. Even down to the last few months of his 
 life, William IV. continued to speak of her as 
 "Heiress Presumptive," not as "Heiress Apparent" 
 to the throne. He never probably completely relin- 
 quished the hope of having a child of his own to 
 succeed him. In 1835 there had been rumors, which 
 seemed well authenticated, that Queen Adelaide was 
 about to give birth to a child. The absence of abso- 
 lute certainty in the Princess Victoria's prospects of 
 the succession, the reluctance of her uncles and of 
 Parliament to establish her and her mother with an 
 income suitable to their rank and her future position, 
 all worked together, in combination with the good 
 sense of her mother, to secure for the little Princess 
 a childhood free from much of the pomp, formality, 
 and flattery from which an heir to the throne seldom 
 even partially escapes. 
 
 While she was thus protected from many of the dis- 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 29 
 
 advantages associated with her rank, its advantages 
 were not neglected. The Duchess of Kent gathered 
 about her at Kensington Palace a great many of the 
 representatives of the foremost minds of the day in 
 literature, science, and in social reform. Nearly all 
 the memoirs of distinguished men and women of that 
 period contain some mention of their gracious recep- 
 tion at Kensington Palace by the Duchess, and the 
 interest they had felt in seeing the little Princess. 
 Among those who were received in this way may be 
 mentioned Sir Walter Scott, Wilberforce, and Mrs. 
 Somerville. 
 
 The Duchess of Kent made the suitable education 
 of her child the one absorbing object of her lite ; and 
 she seems to have realized that education does not 
 consist in merely learning facts or acquiring accom- 
 plishments, but should also aim at forming the char- 
 acter and disciplining the whole nature, so that it 
 may acquire conscientiousness and the strength which 
 comes from self-government. Keeping this end ever 
 in view, and aided, no doubt, by a responsiveness in the 
 child's own nature, the little Princess was trained in 
 those habits of strict personal integrity which are the 
 only unfailing safeguard for truthfulness and funda- 
 mental honesty in regard to money and other posses- 
 sions. All observers who have been brought into 
 personal relationship with the Queen speak of her as 
 possessing one of the most transparently truthful 
 natures they have ever known. The Right Hon. John 
 Bright, with his Quaker-bred traditions as to literal 
 exactitude in word and deed, said that this was the 
 trait in her character of which he carried away the 
 most vivid impression. An anecdote is given in 
 "The Life of Bishop Wilberforce," illustrative of the 
 Queen's truthfulness as a child. Dr. Davys, Bishop 
 of Peterborough, formerly preceptor to Princess 
 
30 VICTORIA. 
 
 Victoria, told Dr. Wilberforce that when he was 
 teaching her, one day the little Princess was very 
 anxious that the lesson should be over, and was rather 
 troublesome. The Duchess of Kent came in and 
 asked how she had behaved. Baroness Lehzen, the 
 governess, replied that once she had been rather 
 naughty. The Princess touched her and said, "No, 
 Lehzen, twice ; don't you remember ? " 
 
 The financial side of truthfulness is honesty ; and 
 here again the Queen has instituted a new order of 
 things in English royalty. We are so accustomed to 
 the sway of a Sovereign who regards it as dishonest 
 to owe more than she is ready and willing to pay, 
 that we have almost forgotten that this was very far 
 from being the case with her predecessors. Even the 
 highly respectable Prince Leopold could not live 
 within his income of <£50,000 a year, and was <£83,000 
 in debt when he became King of the Belgians in 
 1831. 
 
 Great attention was given to exactitude with regard 
 to money in the Queen's early training. There are 
 many stories of the little Princess visiting shops and 
 relinquishing some desired purchase because she had 
 not money enough to pay for it. One of these anec- 
 dotes is preserved at Tunbridge Wells, and tells how 
 the Princess Victoria, not having money enough to 
 buy some greatly desired toy, so far went beyond her 
 accustomed self-control as to ask the shopkeeper to 
 reserve it for her till she had received a fresh instal- 
 ment of her allowance for pocket-money, and that the 
 child came on her donkey as early as seven o'clock in 
 the morning to claim possession of the object she had 
 set her heart on, the very instant she had the money 
 to pay for it. Perhaps these lessons had their source 
 from the frugal German Court of Coburg; but what- 
 ever their origin, they have stood the Queen in good 
 
W k i "^ ■ 
 
 .£■: y.Mv ■<<!§& 
 
 c^y^t^c^c 
 
 c^a^ 
 
 ■ /o **~/<PO 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 31 
 
 stead, and have enabled her to set a perpetual good 
 example to her subjects of the blessedness of obedience 
 to the injunction, " owe no man anything. " It must 
 not be forgotten, too, that she was not, throughout her 
 girlhood, without an object lesson in the disagreeable 
 consequences of extravagance. Her father had died 
 in debt, and unless his creditors differed from the 
 race of creditors in general, they did not fail during 
 the seventeen years which elapsed between the Duke's 
 death and his daughter's accession to remind his 
 widow of the fact. One of the first acts of the young 
 Queen on ascending the throne was to pay her father's 
 debts, contracted before she was born. 
 
 The scrupulousness with regard to money which 
 was enjoined on her as a child has been one of the 
 Queen's many claims to the loyalty of her people. 
 Miss Martineau, in her " Thirty Years' Peace " (written 
 about 1845), speaking of this aspect of Her Majesty's 
 education and character, has said, " Such things are 
 no trifles. The energy and conscientiousness brought 
 out by such training are blessings to a whole people ; 
 and a multitude of her more elderly subjects, to this 
 day, feel a sort of delighted surprise as every year 
 goes by without any irritation on any hand about 
 regal extravagance — without any whispered stories 
 of loans to the Sovereign — without any mournful 
 tales of ruined tradesmen and exasperated creditors." 
 
 A trifling circumstance may here be mentioned 
 illustrative of the Queen's economy in personal expen- 
 diture. A Paris dressmaker, of world-wide fame, 
 recently (1893) brought an action against a rival who 
 was trading under the same name. In the course of 
 evidence given at the trial the celebrated modiste 
 stated that he had made dresses for every Royal lady 
 in Europe except Her Majesty the Queen of England. 
 Indeed, every one who has seen the Queen, either in 
 
32 VICTORIA. 
 
 public or private, will agree that she is not indebted 
 either to the dressmaker or milliner for the regal 
 dignity which undoubtedly marks her bearing. 
 
 Of the Queen's personal appearance as a child and 
 young woman we have many contemporary records. 
 Some of these speak in enthusiastic terms of her 
 extreme loveliness as a child. One lady writes of a 
 recent visit to the widowed Duchess : " The child is 
 so noble and magnificent a creature that one cannot 
 help feeling an inward conviction that she is to be 
 Queen some day or other." Other writers speak of 
 her lovely complexion, fair hair, and large expressive 
 eyes. Greville is less complimentary ; but he was 
 writing of a later period. Speaking of a child's ball 
 given at Court for the little Queen of Portugal in 
 1829, he says : " It was pretty enough, and I saw for 
 the first time . . . our little Victoria. . . . Our little 
 Princess is a short, plain-looking child, and not near 
 so good-looking as the Portuguese." It was when 
 this ball was first talked of that Lady Maria Conyng- 
 ham gave dire offence to George IV. by saying, "Do 
 give it, sir; it will be so nice to see the two little 
 Queens dancing together." There is no necessary 
 inconsistency in these different accounts of Princess 
 Victoria's appearance. It is possible that a lovely 
 infant may have become a plain child at ten years 
 old. Of her appearance as she approached woman- 
 hood, Mr. N. P. Willis, an American, writing in 
 1835, describing his visit to Ascot, says : " In one of 
 the intervals I walked under the King's stand, and 
 saw Her Majesty the Queen (Adelaide) and the young 
 Princess Victoria very distinctly. They were leaning 
 over the railing, listening to a ballad-singer, and 
 seeming to be as much interested and amused as any 
 simple country folk would be. . . . The Princess is 
 much better looking than any picture of her in the 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 33 
 
 shops, and for the heir to such a crown as that of 
 England, quite unnecessarily pretty and interesting. " 
 Carlyle, in a private letter to his brother (April, 
 1838), gave a vivid picture of the girl-Queen as he 
 saw her then : — ; 
 
 " Going through the Green Park yesterday, I saw her little Majesty 
 taking her bit of departure for Windsor. I had seen her another day 
 at Hyde Park Corner coming in from the daily ride. She is decidedly 
 a pretty-looking little creature : health, clearness, graceful timidity, 
 looking out from her young face, ' frail cockle on the black bottomless 
 deluges/ One could not help some interest in her, situated as mortal 
 seldom was." 
 
 Writing of a later period, Baroness Bunsen, describ- 
 ing the scene in the House of Lords at the opening of 
 Parliament in 1842, says : — 
 
 " The opening of Parliament was the thing from which I expected 
 most, and I was not disappointed. The throngs in the streets, in the 
 windows, in every place people could stand upon, all looking so pleased ; 
 the splendid Horse Guards, the Grenadiers of the Guard ... the Yeo- 
 men of the Body-Guard. Then in the House of Lords, the Peers in their 
 robes, the beautifully dressed ladies with many very beautiful faces; 
 lastly, the procession of the Queen's entry, and herself, looking worthy 
 and fit to be the converging point of so many rays of grandeur. It is 
 self-evident that she is not tall, but were she ever so tall, she could not 
 have more grace and dignity. . . . The composure with which she filled 
 the throne while awaiting the Commons I much admired ; it was a test 
 — no fidget, no apathy. Then her voice and enunciation cannot be 
 more perfect. In short, it cannot be said that she did well, but that she 
 was the Queen, — she was and felt herself to be the descendant of her 
 ancestors." 
 
 These last words exactly describe Her Majesty's 
 bearing in age as well as in youth; and it is this, 
 her intellectual grasp of the situation she fills as the 
 highest officer of the State and the wearer of the 
 crown of the Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, that 
 renders her dignity so entirely independent of mere 
 trappings and finery. It has been remarked that on 
 the occasion of her public appearances, the Queen may 
 have been the worst-dressed lady present, and have 
 had by her side or in the immediate background a 
 
 3 
 
34 VICTORIA. 
 
 galaxy of fair women dressed with all the art that 
 Paris or London could command, and yet she has 
 looked every inch the Queen, and they have looked 
 milliner's advertisements. She has over and over 
 again proved that the saying, "Fine feathers make fine 
 birds,'' is not universally true. 
 
 In those portions of the Queen's Journals which 
 have been published, evidence is not wanting of that 
 pride of race which, if we have interpreted it aright, 
 is the true source of Her Majesty's dignity of bearing. 
 On one of her journeys through the Highlands, General 
 Ponsonby reminded her that the great-great-grand- 
 fathers of the men who were showing her every possible 
 mark of loyalty and affection, had lost their heads 
 for trying to dethrone the Queen's great-great-grand- 
 father. "Yes," adds the Queen, "and J feel a sort of 
 reverence in going over these scenes in this most 
 beautiful country which 1 am proud to call my own, 
 where there was such devoted loyalty to the family of 
 my ancestors; for Stuart blood is in my veins, and 
 I am now their representative, and the people are as 
 devoted and loyal to me as they were to that unhappy 
 race. " 
 
 Returning to the subject of the influence of the 
 Queen's early education and character, the remarkable 
 degree to which her natural conscientiousness was 
 developed is noticeable in a great variety of direc- 
 tions. Her extreme punctuality is an instance in 
 point. She never wastes the time of others by keep- 
 ing them waiting for her. Punctuality has been 
 described as "the courtesy of kings," and it is a 
 courtesy in which the Queen is unfailing. Her care 
 for her servants and household is another manifesta- 
 tion of her conscientiousness. Her " Leaves from the 
 Journal of our Life in the Highlands," and the sub- 
 sequent book, " More Leaves, " are full of little touches 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 35 
 
 illustrative of the Queen's care for those dependent 
 upon her, and her readiness to acknowledge the value 
 of their services. Sir Arthur Helps, writing the 
 introduction to the first of these volumes, draws atten- 
 tion to this feature of the Queen's character. He 
 says : " Perhaps there is no person in these realms 
 who takes a more deep and abiding interest in the 
 welfare of the household committed to his charge than 
 our gracious Queen does in hers, or who feels more 
 keenly what are the reciprocal duties of masters and 
 servants. " 
 
 In one of the Queen's letters to Dean Stanley, on 
 the occasion of the death of a valued servant of his, 
 she says : " I am one of those who think the loss of a 
 faithful servant the loss of a friend, and one who can 
 never be replaced." In 1858, on their first journey 
 to Prussia, to visit the Princess Royal after her mar- 
 riage, the Queen and Prince heard of the sudden death 
 of a valuable servant of the latter, who had been with 
 him since his childhood. The Queen wrote in her 
 Journal : " I turn sick now in writing it. . . . He died 
 suddenly on Saturday at Morges of angina pectoris. I 
 burst into tears. All day long the tears would rush 
 every moment to my eyes, and this dreadful reality 
 came to throw a gloom over the long-wished-for day 
 of meeting with our dear child. ... I cannot think 
 of my dear husband without Cart ! He seemed part of 
 himself. We were so thankful for and proud of this 
 good, faithful old servant. ... A sad breakfast we 
 had indeed." 
 
 The Duchess of Kent made the education of the 
 Princess her one end and aim during the minority of 
 the latter. She was hardly ever out of her mother's 
 sight, sleeping in her mother's room, having her 
 supper, at a little table, by the side of her mother at 
 
36 VICTORIA. 
 
 Idinner. She was instructed in the usual educational 
 subjects, besides, what was then unusual for a girl, 
 Latin, Greek, and mathematics. From an early age 
 she spoke French and German with fluency ; the latter 
 indeed was almost another mother tongue. All her 
 life she has shown delight in languages, and her sub- 
 jects, especially those in Asia, were very interested to 
 hear that, even in old age, she had begun to make a 
 systematic study of Hindustani. From an early age 
 she acquired considerable proficiency in drawing and 
 music, and developed in youth a pleasant mezzo-soprano 
 voice. One of Mendelssohn's letters to his family 
 describes his visit to the Queen and Prince Consort 
 at Buckingham Palace in 1842. She offered to sing 
 one of his songs, and he handed her the album to 
 choose one. " And which, " writes Mendelssohn, " did 
 she choose ? ' Schoner und schoner schmuckt sich ' ! " 
 The exclamation mark is due to the fact that this 
 song was not by Mendelssohn at all, but by his sister 
 Fanny. Germany in the forties would have been 
 scandalized by a woman's name on the titlepage even 
 of a song, so that Mendelssohn's album of songs were 
 enriched by those which had been composed by his 
 sister. The letter continues : " She [the Queen] sang 
 it quite charmingly, in strict time and tune, and with 
 very good execution. Only . . . where it goes down 
 to D and comes up again chromatically she sang D 
 sharp each time. . . . With the exception of this 
 little mistake, it was really charming, and the last 
 long G I never heard better, or purer, or more natural 
 from any amateur. Then I was obliged to confess 
 that Fanny had written the song (which I found very 
 hard, but pride must have a fall), and begged her to 
 sing one of my own also. " 
 
 In the Queen's early childhood the knowledge that 
 she was the probable heir to the throne was carefully 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 37 
 
 kept from her. In Lockhart's " Life of Scott " the fol- 
 lowing entry is given from Scott's Journal, May 19th, 
 1828 : " Dined with the Duchess of Kent. I was very 
 kindly received by Prince Leopold, and presented to 
 the Princess Victoria, the Heir Apparent to the 
 crown, as things now stand. . . . This little lady is 
 educating with much care, and watched so closely 
 that no busy maid has a moment to whisper, ' You are 
 heir of England. ' I suspect if we could dissect the 
 little heart we should find some pigeon or other bird 
 of the air had carried the matter. " The Queen has 
 given her own authority for saying that this very 
 natural surmise was mistaken, and has allowed the 
 publication of the following letter from Her Majesty's 
 governess, Baroness Lehzen, which contains one of the 
 most interesting anecdotes of the Queen's childhood. 
 
 The Regency Bill, which made the Duchess of Kent 
 Regent in the event of the death of William IV. with- 
 out direct heirs while the Princess was still a minor, 
 was passing through Parliament in 1830, and the 
 occasion suggested to the governess that the time had 
 come when her little charge should be made aware of 
 her prospect of succeeding to the throne. Baroness 
 Lehzen wrote in a letter to the Queen, dated 2nd 
 December, 1867 : — 
 
 " I then said to the Duchess of Kent that now, for the first time, your 
 Majesty ought to know your place in the succession. Her Royal High- 
 ness agreed with me, and I put the genealogical table into the historical 
 book. When Mr. Davys [the Queen's instructor, afterwards Bishop of 
 Peterborough] was gone, the Princess Victoria opened the book again 
 as usual, and, seeing the additional paper, said, ' I never saw that before.' 
 ' It was not thought necessary you should, Princess,' I answered. ' I see 
 I am nearer the throne than I thought.' 'So it is, madam,' I said. 
 After some moments the Princess answered, ' Now, many a child would 
 boast ; but they don't know the difficulty. There is much splendor, but 
 there is more responsibility.' The Princess, having lifted up the fore- 
 finger of her right hand while she spoke, gave me that little hand, say- 
 ing, ' I will be good. I understand why you urged me so much to learn, 
 even Latin. My aunts Augusta and Mary never did, but you told me 
 
38 VICTORIA. 
 
 that Latin is the foundation of English grammar and of all the elegant 
 expressions, and I learned it as you wished it; but I understand all 
 better now/ And the Princess gave me her hand, repeating, ' I will be 
 good.' " 
 
 This anecdote gives the key-note to the Queen's 
 character. Her childish resolve, 1 will be good, has 
 been the secret of her strength throughout her reign. 
 She has never shrunk from anything which has pre- 
 sented itself to her in the light of a duty. When she 
 became Queen she did not go through her business in 
 a perfunctory way, giving her signature without ques- 
 tion to whatever documents were placed before her. 
 She required all the State business explained to her 
 to such a degree that Lord Melbourne, her first Prime 
 Minister, said laughingly that he would rather manage 
 ten kings than one queen. On one occasion, in the 
 early years of her reign, the Minister urged her to 
 sign some document on the grounds of " expediency. " 
 She looked up quietly, and said, " I have been taught 
 to judge between what is right and what is wrong, but 
 'expediency ' is a word I neither wish to hear nor to 
 understand." Another word which she objected to 
 was " trouble. " Mrs. Jameson relates that one of the 
 Ministers told her that he once carried the Queen 
 some papers to sign, and said something about manag- 
 ing so as to give Her Majesty "less trouble." She 
 looked up from her papers, and said, " Pray never let 
 me hear those words again ; never mention the word 
 ' trouble. ' Only tell me how the thing is to be done 
 and done rightly, and I will do it if I can. " This has 
 been her principle throughout her reign: to do her 
 work as well as she knew how to do it, without sparing 
 herself either trouble or responsibility. 
 
 It is not only the larger questions of State policy 
 that she follows now, after more than fifty years of 
 sovereignty, with all the knowledge which long expe- 
 rience gives, but she bestows close attention to the 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 39 
 
 details of organization in the different departments of 
 the Government. If any change is proposed of which 
 she does not see the bearing or the necessity, she 
 requires to have the reasons which prompted it laid 
 before her, and would withhold her sanction unless 
 her judgment were convinced. She is a constant 
 and indefatigable worker, and those in attendance 
 upon her have frequently expressed their surprise at 
 her continuing at her work late into the night, and 
 yet being almost unfailingly at her post again in the 
 early morning. The child raising her little hand, 
 and saying, "I will be good," has been in this and 
 in many other ways the mother to the woman. The 
 solemn words of the Coronation Service have not been 
 profaned by her as so many monarchs have profaned 
 them. The Archbishop, delivering the Sword of State 
 into the Sovereign's hand at the Coronation, says: 
 "Receive this kingly sword, brought now from the 
 altar of God, and delivered to you by the hands of us, 
 the servants and bishops of God, though unworthy. 
 With this sword do justice, stop the growth of iniquity, 
 protect the holy Church of God, help and defend 
 widows and orphans, restore the things that are gone 
 to decay, maintain the things that are restored, punish 
 and reform what is amiss, and confirm what is in 
 good order; that doing these things you may be 
 glorious in all virtue, and so faithfully serve our Lord 
 Jesus Christ in this life that you may reign forever 
 with Him in the life which is to come." All through 
 the Queen's reign these words have been turned into 
 actions ; they have inspired her to do her duty faith- 
 fully and courageously and with unfailing self-sacrifice 
 of her own inclinations and wishes. By so living she 
 has revived the feeling of personal affection and loyalty 
 to the throne on the part of her subjects which her 
 immediate predecessors bad done much to destroy. 
 
40 VICTORIA. 
 
 When we reflect upon the contrast which the pure- 
 minded, pure-hearted girl presented to them we shall 
 be able to understand something of the keen emotion 
 of joyful loyalty which was evoked at her accession. 
 But this will be the subject of the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 
 
 It is not easy to realize that in the lifetime of our 
 own fathers and mothers there was in England a plot 
 to change the succession and secure the crown for the 
 "wicked uncle, " to the exclusion of the rightful heir. 
 The whole story savors of romance, or at any rate 
 of a much earlier period in our history, when John 
 Lackland or Richard the Hunchback cheated their 
 young nephews of crown and life. Yet the evidence 
 of history on this point is unmistakable. In 1835 a 
 plot was discovered and laid bare in Parliament, 
 mainly by Joseph Hume, which had for its aim to 
 secure the crown for the Duke of Cumberland and set 
 aside the claims of Princess Victoria. The Duke, to 
 do him justice, does not seem to have supposed that 
 his personal merits and attractions would cause him 
 to be made king by acclamation. But he appears to 
 have thought he could float in on the top of a wave of 
 fanaticism got up over a No-popery cry. The passing 
 of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 by the Tory Govern- 
 ment of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel 
 was not accomplished without a great deal of real 
 terror and misgiving that this act of plain justice to 
 our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects was a breaking 
 down of the barriers against Papal aggression, and 
 that it was merely a step towards undoing the work of 
 the Reformation. Orange Lodges, which up to that 
 time had little vigorous existence out of Ireland, 
 spread all over England, and were formed even in the 
 army. The Duke of Cumberland, a precious champion 
 
42 VICTORIA. 
 
 for any sort of religion, was their grand master. But 
 he was not inconsistent: he had his own personal 
 aggrandizement in view, and appealed to fanaticism, 
 bigotry, and ignorance to help him to attain it. If he 
 was acting a part, he understood his own character, 
 and was not acting out of it. But he and the Orange 
 Lodges too completely misunderstood the nation they 
 were living in. The saying of Charles II. to his 
 brother, afterwards James II. , might have shown them 
 their mistake : " They will never kill me to make you 
 king. " When hard pressed by political necessity, the 
 English people have not shrunk from revolutionary 
 changes in their constitution; but they would never 
 have embarked on a revolution with the object of 
 placing Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, on the throne. 
 The ridiculous plot was rendered still more ridiculous 
 by the assertion made by the conspirators that they 
 feared the Duke of Wellington intended to seize the 
 crown for himself; 1 that the Iron Duke, the most 
 sternly upright and devotedly loyal of subjects, meant 
 to depose William IV., set aside the little Princess 
 Victoria, and become Emperor of the English, as 
 Bonaparte had become Emperor of the French. The 
 assertion had only to be made, and made publicly, to 
 be drowned in the ridicule it excited. However, the 
 plot of the Orange Lodges, the Duke of Cumberland's 
 association with it, the unveiling of the scheme in the 
 House of Commons by Joseph Hume, and Lord John 
 Russell's masterly dealing with the whole matter, Was 
 a nine days' wonder in 1835. An address to the 
 King was unanimously agreed to, praying him to 
 dissolve the Orange Lodges ; even the Orangemen in 
 the House assented to this, and Greville says Lord 
 
 1 In 1829 the Duke of Cumberland had tried to excite George IV.'s 
 jealousy of the Duke of Wellington by habitually speaking of him to 
 his royal brother as " King Arthur." 
 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 43 
 
 John's dignified eloquence melted them to tears. The 
 Duke of Cumberland, seeing which way the cat had 
 jumped, hastened to assure the Home Secretary that 
 the dissolution of the societies of which he was Grand 
 Master had his entire approval and acquiescence, and 
 the whole of the foolish business appeared at an end. 
 
 But this was not so. The elements of disturbance 
 were quite genuine, and had not been removed even 
 by a resolution of the House of Commons : these were 
 the Duke of Cumberland's treachery and the No- 
 popery nightmare. The original scheme had been to 
 depose William IV. on the pretext that his giving the 
 Royal Assent to the Reform Bill of 1832 was a symp- 
 tom of insanity; the next step, the setting aside of 
 the claims of Princess Victoria, was rendered attrac- 
 tive to the Duke of Cumberland by the fact that she 
 was a girl, and young; when, therefore, in 1837, 
 William IV. was removed by death, another futile 
 attempt was made to raise the No-popery cry against 
 the accession of the Queen. Her uncle Leopold, 
 King of the Belgians, had recently married Louise, 
 daughter of Louis Philippe, a Roman Catholic Princess. 
 Another member of the Coburg family, Prince Fer- 
 dinand, cousin of Prince Albert, had also, quite 
 recently, made a Roman Catholic marriage with 
 Maria, Queen of Portugal. This at any rate showed 
 that the Coburg family, who were known to have great 
 influence with Princess Victoria, were not so exclu- 
 sively Protestant as the Royal Family of England. 
 But high as party feeling ran at the time, the bare 
 suspicion that any treachery was intended to the young 
 Queen caused a popular outburst of passionate loyalty 
 such as had not been seen since the House of Bruns- 
 wick had reigned in England. The warmth of this 
 feeling in the curious warp and woof of human affairs 
 was increased by the fact that to be ardently devoted 
 
44 VICTORIA. 
 
 to the young Queen was to be ardently opposed to all 
 the works and ways of the Duke of Cumberland, to be 
 in favor of religious liberty and toleration, to support 
 the Reform Bill and the abolition of slavery. It was 
 Whig to be loyal to the Queen, Tory to be, if not 
 disloyal, full of doubts and fears, imagining that with 
 a young girl at the helm, known to be in sympathy 
 with Whig principles, the ship of State was bound to 
 split on anarchy and popery. These fears very soon 
 disappeared as the Queen showed she had a mind and 
 will of her own, and was no mere puppet in the hands 
 of her Ministers. If at the outset of her reign she 
 showed strong Whig tendencies, she was not long in 
 grasping the fact that, as Sovereign, she was Queen 
 of the whole people, and not the mere head of a party. 
 There was, however, enough of revolutionary storm 
 in the atmosphere to justify the Times in endeavoring 
 to allay the fears of the ultra-Protestant party by 
 reminding them that for the Queen to turn Papist, 
 "or in any manner to follow the footsteps of the 
 Coburg family " in marrying a Papist, " would involve 
 an immediate forfeiture of the British Crown. " This 
 situation of affairs had the rather curious result of 
 making the Irish among the most intensely loyal of 
 the young Queen's subjects. O'Connell's stentorian 
 voice was heard leading the cheers of the crowd out- 
 side St. James's Palace on the day she was proclaimed 
 Queen. He declared later, in a public speech, that if 
 it were necessary he could get " five hundred thousand 
 brave Irishmen to defend the life, the honor, and the 
 person of the beloved young lady by whom England's 
 throne is now filled. " Mr. Henry Grattan, son of the 
 famous orator of the Irish Parliament of 1782-1800, 
 thought the Tories so bent on the Queen's destruction 
 that " If Her Majesty were once placed in the hands 
 of the Tories, I would not give an orange-peel for her 
 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 45 
 
 life. " The expression " orange-peel " was, no doubt, 
 a reference to the soubriquet his Irish opponents had 
 bestowed upon Sir Robert Peel on account of his 
 stanch Protestantism. 
 
 These extraordinary ebullitions of party feeling 
 would be hardly worth recording but for the explana- 
 tion they afford of subsequent events relating to the 
 establishment of Prince Albert, and for the curious 
 contrast they offer to the feelings of political parties 
 at the present time. They also explain why quiet, 
 peace-loving people, taking no special interest in party 
 politics, were so devoutly thankful that the operation 
 of the Salic law in Hanover separated that kingdom 
 from the Crown of England and enabled us to get quit 
 of the Duke of Cumberland. No paper and no party 
 ever pretended to regret him; indeed, it must have 
 become abundantly obvious that his departure was, in 
 a special degree, advantageous to his own party. He 
 could be nothing but a source of weakness to them. 
 "A man's foes are those of his own household" is 
 even more true of political than of private affairs. 
 The anxiety of the Tories to get rid of the Duke of 
 Cumberland is well illustrated by one of Greville's 
 anecdotes. When the late King (William TV.) had 
 evidently only a few days to live, the Duke of Cum- 
 berland consulted the Duke of Wellington as to what 
 he should do. " I told him the best thing he could do 
 was to go away as fast as he could. ' Go instantly, ' 
 I said, ' and take care you don't get pelted. ' " He did 
 go instantly, and his first act as King of Hanover was 
 to suspend the constitution of the country and turn 
 out of their chairs in Gottingen University seven dis- 
 tinguished professors for the crime of holding Liberal 
 opinions. No wonder the Duke of Wellington felt 
 this sort of Toryism would manufacture Liberals and 
 Radicals by the thousand in England. 
 
46 VICTORIA. 
 
 The story has often been told of how the Queen 
 received the news of her accession, and of the extra- 
 ordinarily favorable impression she produced by the 
 youthful dignity and grace with which she presided at 
 her first Council. 
 
 William IV. expired at Windsor about 2.30 a. m. 
 on Tuesday, June 20th, 1837. The Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, Dr. Howley, and the Lord Chamberlain, 
 the Marquis of Conyingham, almost immediately " set 
 out to announce the event to their young Sovereign. 
 They reached Kensington Palace at about five; they 
 knocked, they rang, they thumped for a considerable 
 time before they could rouse the porter at the gates. 
 They were again kept waiting in the courtyard, then 
 turned into one of the lower rooms, where they seemed 
 to be forgotten by everybody. They rang the bell, 
 and desired that the attendant of the Princess Victoria 
 might be sent to inform H. R. H. that they requested 
 an audience on business of importance. After another 
 delay, and another ringing to inquire the cause, the 
 attendant was summoned, who stated that the Princess 
 was in such a sweet sleep she could not venture to 
 disturb her. They then said, ' We are come to the 
 Queen on business of State, and even her sleep must 
 give way to that. ' It did ; and to prove that she did 
 not keep them waiting, in a few minutes she came 
 into the room in a loose white nightgown and shawl, 
 her nightcap thrown off, and her hair falling on her 
 shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her eyes, but 
 perfectly collected and dignified." 1 Another account 
 states that the Queen's first words to the Archbishop 
 on hearing his announcement were, " I beg your Grace 
 to pray for me, " and that her first request to her mother 
 after she had learned that she was Queen was that 
 she might be left for two hours quite alone. On the 
 
 1 Diaries of a Lady of Quality, by Miss Wynn. 
 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 47 
 
 same day, about eleven o'clock in the morning, she 
 held her first Council ; and it may be noted that in 
 Miss Wynn's account of this ceremony it is stated 
 that the first of her subjects who paid her homage was 
 the Duke of Cumberland, who knelt and kissed her 
 hand. "I suppose," says Miss Wynn, "he was not 
 King of Hanover when he knelt to her. " The Diarist 
 goes on to mention that the next to offer homage was 
 the Duke of Sussex; but the young Queen would not 
 allow him to kneel, but rose herself and kissed him 
 on the forehead. This, however, differs slightly from 
 Greville's account of the Queen's first Council, which 
 must be now quoted : — 
 
 " June 2lst. The King died at twenty minutes after two yesterday 
 morning, and the young Queen met the Council at Kensington Palace 
 at eleven. Never was anything like the first impression she produced, 
 or the chorus of praise and admiration which is raised about her manner 
 and behavior, and certainly not without justice. It was very extraordi- 
 nary, and something far beyond what was looked for. Her extreme 
 youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the world concerning her, 
 naturally excited intense curiosity to see how she would act on this try- 
 ing occasion, and there was a considerable assemblage at the Palace, 
 notwithstanding the short notice that was given. The first thing to be 
 done was to teach her her lesson, which, for this purpose, Melbourne 
 had himself to learn. I gave him the Council papers, and explained 
 all that was to be done ; and he went and explained all this to her. He 
 asked her if she would come into the room accompanied by the great 
 officers of State, but she said she would come in alone. When the 
 Lords were assembled the Lord President informed them of the King's 
 death, and suggested, as they were so numerous, that a few of them 
 should repair to the presence of the Queen and inform her of the event, 
 and that their Lordships were assembled in consequence ; and accord- 
 ingly the two Eoyal Dukes, the two Archbishops, the Chancellor, and 
 Melbourne went with him. The Queen received him in the adjoining 
 room alone. As soon as they had returned, the proclamation was read 
 and the usual order passed, when the doors were thrown open and the 
 Queen entered, accompanied by her two uncles, who advanced to meet 
 her. She bowed to the Lords, took her seat, and then read her speech 
 in a clear, distinct, and audible voice, and without any appearance of 
 fear or embarrassment. She was quite plainly dressed, and in mourn- 
 ing. After she had read her speech and taken and signed the oath for 
 the security of the Church of Scotland, the Privy Councillors were 
 sworn, the two Royal Dukes first by themselves ; and as these two old 
 
48 VICTORIA. 
 
 men, her uncles, knelt before her, swearing allegiance and kissing her 
 hand, I saw her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the contrast between 
 their civil and their natural relations. This was the only sign of emo- 
 tion which she evinced. Her manner to them was very graceful and 
 engaging; she kissed them both, and rose from her chair and moved 
 towards the Duke of Sussex, who was farthest from her, and too infirm 
 to reach her. She seemed rather bewildered at the multitude of men 
 who were sworn, and who came, one after another, to kiss her hand ; 
 but she did not speak to anybody, nor did she make the slightest dif- 
 ference in her manner, or show any in her countenance to any individ- 
 ual of any rank, station, or party. I particularly watched her when 
 Melbourne and the Ministers, and the Duke of Wellington and Peel 
 approached her. 1 She went through the whole ceremony, occasionally 
 looking to Melbourne for instruction when she had any doubt what to 
 do, which hardly ever occurred, and with perfect calmness and self- 
 possession, but at the same time with a graceful modesty and propriety 
 particularly interesting and ingratiating. When the business was done 
 she retired as she had entered, and I could see that nobody was in the 
 adjoining room. . . . Peel likewise said how amazed he was at her 
 manner and behavior, at her apparent deep sense of her situation, her 
 modesty, and at the same time her firmness. She appeared, in fact, to 
 be awed, but not daunted ; and afterwards the Duke of Wellington told 
 me the same thing, and added that if she had been his own daughter he 
 c-onld not have desired to see her perform her part better. It was 
 settled that she was to hold a Council at St. James's this day, and be 
 proclaimed there at ten o'clock : and she expressed a wish to see Lord 
 Albemarle, who went to her and told her he was come to take her 
 orders. She said, ' I have no orders to give ; you know all this so much 
 better than I do that I leave it all to you. I am to be at St. James's at 
 ten to-morrow, and must beg you to find me a conveyance proper for 
 the occasion.' Accordingly he went and fetched her in State with a 
 great escort. ... At twelve o'clock she held a Council, at which she 
 presided with as much ease as if she had been doing nothing else all 
 her life ; and though Lord Lansdown and my colleague had contrived 
 between them to make some confusion with the Council papers, she 
 was not put out by it. She looked very well, and though so small a 
 stature, and without much pretension to beauty, the gracefulness of her 
 manner and the good expression of her countenance give her, on the 
 whole, a very agreeable appearance, and with her youth inspire an ex- 
 cessive interest in all who approach her, which I can't help feeling my- 
 self. After the Council she received the Archbishops and Bishops, and 
 after them the Judges. They all kissed her hand, but she said nothing 
 to any of them ; very different in this from her predecessor, who used to 
 harangue them all, and had a speech ready for everybody." 
 
 1 This is evidently in reference to the general belief that the Queen 
 was a strong partisan of the Whig party. 
 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 49 
 
 Greville then describes the young Queers thought- 
 ful consideration for everything that could soothe and 
 cheer the Queen Dowager, and adds : — 
 
 " In short, she appears to act with every sort of good taste and good 
 feeling, as well as good sense ; and, as far as it has gone, nothing can 
 be more favorable than the impression she has made, and nothing can 
 promise better than her manner and conduct do, though it would be 
 rash to count too confidently upon her judgment and discretion in more 
 weighty matters. No contrast can be greater than that between the 
 personal demeanor of the present and the late Sovereigns at their respect- 
 ive accessions. William IV. was a man who, coming to the throne at 
 the mature age of sixty-five, was so excited by the exaltation that he 
 nearly went mad, and distinguished himself by a thousand extravagances 
 of language and conduct to the alarm or amusement of all who witnessed 
 his strange freaks. . . . The young Queen, who might well be either 
 dazzled or confounded with the grandeur and novelty of her situation, 
 seems neither the one nor the other, and behaves with a decorum and 
 propriety beyond her years, and with all the sedateness and dignity, 
 the want of which was so conspicuous in her uncle." 
 
 In this vivid personal description by an eye-witness 
 we see in the grave dignity of the young girl the same 
 dutiful child who, at eleven years old, had said, 
 when she learned her future destiny, " There is much 
 splendor, but there is more responsibility," and, 
 lifting her little hand, added, "I will be good." 
 
 Greville describes the impressron made by the young 
 Queen within the Palace upon her Ministers and 
 servants. Miss Martineau, another contemporary, 
 describes the impression produced outside the Palace, 
 on the crowd in the streets who came to witness the 
 ceremony of the proclamation. She refers to the 
 intense joy of whatever was sound and wholesome in 
 the nation, that the ill-doing sons of George III. no 
 longer occupied the throne, and that it was filled in- 
 stead by a young girl, prudent, virtuous, and conscien- 
 tious, reared in health, simplicity, and purity. She says 
 even exaggerated hopes were awakened by the change ; 
 people seemed to expect that the fact of having a 
 virtuous Sovereign, strong in the energies of youth, 
 
 4 
 
50 VICTORIA. 
 
 was in itself a guarantee that all was to go well: 
 " That the Lords were to work well with the Commons, 
 the people were to be educated, everybody was to have 
 employment and food, all reforms were to be carried 
 through, and she herself would never do anything 
 wrong or make any mistakes." 
 
 Those who represented that it was an injustice to 
 the Queen to expect her to work miracles — 
 
 "were thought cold and grudging in their loyalty, and the gust of 
 national joy swept them out of sight. In truth, they themselves felt 
 the danger of being carried adrift from their justice and prudence when 
 they met their Queen face to face at her proclamation. As she stood 
 at the window of St. James's Palace . . . her pale face wet with tears, 
 but calm and simply grave, — her plain black dress and bands of brown 
 hair giving an air of Quaker-like neatness which enhanced the gravity, 
 — it was scarcely possible not to form wild hopes from such an aspect 
 of sedateness — not to forget that, even if imperfection in the Sovereign 
 herself were out of the question, there were limitations in her position 
 which must make her powerless for the redemption of her people, except 
 through a wise choice of advisers, and the incalculable influence of a 
 virtuous example shining abroad from the pinnacle of society." 
 
 The young Queen's character came out in every- 
 thing she did. Reference has already been made to 
 her tender consideration towards the Dowager Queen 
 Adelaide. The Queen addressed a letter of condolence 
 to her on her husband's death, and addressed it to 
 " Her Majesty the Queen. " It was pointed out to her 
 that the correct address would be " Her Majesty the 
 Queen Dowager." "I am quite aware," said Queen 
 Victoria, "of Her Majesty's altered character, but I 
 will not be the first person to remind her of it. " She 
 placed Windsor Castle at the disposal of Queen 
 Adelaide for as long as it suited her health and con- 
 venience. But while yielding with the utmost grace 
 on various little matters in which her doing so might 
 serve to soothe and console the Queen Dowager, the 
 young Queen showed a knowledge of her own position 
 and what was due to it in substantial privilege, no 
 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 51 
 
 less than on points of etiquette, that quite astonished 
 her Ministers. Thus when she went for the first time 
 after her accession to visit the Queen Dowager at 
 Windsor, she told Lord Melbourne that as the flag on 
 the Round Tower was half-mast high, it might be 
 thought necessary to elevate it on her arrival, and 
 she desired Lord Melbourne to send orders beforehand 
 that this should not be done. Melbourne " had never 
 thought of the flag or knew anything about it, but it 
 showed her knowledge of forms, and her attention to 
 trifles." 
 
 The numerous children of the late King resigned 
 into her hands their various appointments, and the 
 pensions that had been allowed them. She accepted 
 these resignations to show her right to do so, and 
 afterwards reappointed them, behaving with the great- 
 est kindness and liberality. Greville speaks over and 
 over again of the remarkable union she presented 
 of womanly sympathy, girlish naivete, and queenly 
 dignity. He says every one who was about her was 
 warmly attached to her, "but that all feel the impos- 
 sibility of for a moment losing sight of the respect 
 which they owe her. She never ceases to be a queen, 
 but is always the most charming, cheerful, obliging, 
 unaffected queen in the world. " The tears which she 
 shed at her proclamation were due to the intense 
 emotion awakened by her position ; they by no means 
 betokened a morbid or hysterical temperament. The 
 records of the early years of the Queen's reign con- 
 stantly speak of her gayety and good spirits. At her 
 coronation, in 1838, she is said to have looked as 
 radiant as a girl on her birthday. 
 
 The demise of the Crown necessitated a dissolution 
 of Parliament. A general election took place in 
 August, 1837, in which the Whigs were again returned 
 to power, but by a reduced majority. 
 
52 VICTORIA. 
 
 Lord Melbourne was again Prime Minister, and con- 
 tinued to act as the Queen's chief adviser and coun- 
 sellor, not only in public affairs, but also on every per- 
 sonal matter in which she felt she needed the advice 
 of an experienced man of the world. There were some 
 who regretted the Queen's extreme reliance on Lord 
 Melbourne, looking upon him as a man of an essen- 
 tially frivolous and volatile nature; those who held 
 this opinion appear to have misjudged him, but the 
 mistake was one for which Lord Melbourne himself 
 was chiefly responsible. He deliberately put on an 
 affectation of foolish frivolity on many of his appear- 
 ances in public. He would blow a feather about or 
 toy with a sofa-cushion when he was receiving a 
 solemn deputation, with apparently the express object 
 of producing the impression that he was incapable of 
 giving serious attention to serious things. He had to 
 be found out, detected in earnestness as rogues are 
 detected in dishonesty, by close and careful watching 
 when he believed himself unobserved. Sydney Smith 
 was one of those who unmasked him, and showed that 
 with all his air of being hopelessly idle and trivial, 
 he really was an honest and diligent Minister. In 
 his important position as Prime Minister to the girl- 
 Queen, he showed tact, discretion, and devotion, and 
 won her complete confidence and friendship. Until 
 the Queen's marriage, he virtually combined the func- 
 tions of Private Secretary to the Queen with those of 
 Prime Minister. He was much more her intimate 
 friend than a Prime Minister had ever been to a Sov- 
 ereign before. He saw her every day, dined with her 
 constantly, sat next her at table, and had the art of 
 explaining all the business of State without boring 
 her with sermons and long speeches. He never treated 
 her, as Mr. Brett has said, as if she were a public 
 meeting. He had first made a very favorable impres- 
 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 53 
 
 sion upon her on the occasion of the last of the unfor- 
 tunate disputes which took place between William IV. 
 and the Duchess of Kent. Early in June, 1837, 
 Princess Victoria, having then attained her majority, 
 the King offered to settle £10,000 a year on her. 
 The Duchess wished that £6,000 of this should be for 
 herself, and <£4,000 for the Princess. There were the 
 usual unseemly squabbles, and neither would give 
 way. Melbourne conducted the business on the part 
 of the King, and although he must have known that 
 the Princess Victoria would be Queen in a very short 
 time, he yet defended his master's views and interests 
 with a warmth and tenacity which proved him to be 
 no time-server. It is equally to his credit and to that 
 of the young Queen that this circumstance was the 
 foundation of the full confidence and esteem which 
 she afterwards placed in him. Greville describes 
 their relations as being almost like those of father 
 and daughter. "I have no doubt he is passionately 
 fond of her, as he might be of his daughter if he had 
 one, and the more because he is a man with the 
 capacity for loving, without having anything in the 
 world to love. It is become his province to educate, 
 instruct, and form the most interesting mind and 
 character in the world. ... It is a great proof of 
 the discretion and purity of his conduct and behavior 
 that he is admired, respected, and liked by the whole 
 Court." 
 
 If Melbourne was, in the eyes of the world, the 
 Queen's tutor in statesmanship, there was another 
 behind the scenes no less assiduously devoting him- 
 self to her instruction. Shortly before the late King's 
 death, Peel had expressed a hope that Leopold would 
 not come over immediately on his niece's accession,, 
 as his influence and interference would cause jealousy 
 and heart-burning. Leopold did not come, for the 
 
54 VICTORIA. 
 
 excellent reason that he was there already in the 
 person of his alter ego, the faithful friend and trusted 
 servant, Baron Stockmar. Stockmar, though at one 
 time somewhat doubtful whether Prince Albert would 
 prove the right Consort for the Queen of England, 
 had by this time thoroughly identified himself with 
 the realization of Leopold's dream of reproducing in 
 Victoria and Albert the loves and hopes and ambitions 
 which had been so cruelly crushed at Claremont in 
 1817. Charlotte and Leopold were to live again in 
 Victoria and Albert. But in order that the dream 
 should come true, it was necessary that Stockmar and 
 Leopold should have their hand on the " very pulse of 
 the machine," the hearts and the characters of the 
 two young people themselves. King Leopold had 
 Prince Albert with him in Brussels for ten months, 
 from June, 1836, while Stockmar proceeded to Ken- 
 sington to be with the Princess immediately she 
 attained her majority, to aid her by his counsel and 
 advice. Her accession, which followed within less 
 than a month, found him still with her; and from 
 henceforth until her happy marriage in 1840 his time 
 was spent with one or other of the young people. Till 
 infirmity disabled him, he spent much time with them, 
 and remained their intimate friend and most trusted 
 counsellor in all matters, both public and domestic. 
 
 Stockmar, besides his share in bringing about the 
 marriage of the Queen with her cousin, had an 
 extremely important political influence on her, in 
 thoroughly grounding her in the principles of consti- 
 tutional monarchy. Although no Englishman, it was 
 a case of plus royaliste que le Roi. He was more 
 English than the English in his grasp of, and devotion 
 to, our system of government. He wrote to the Prince 
 in 1854 : " I love and honor the English Constitution 
 from conviction; . . . in my eyes it is the foundation- 
 
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 55 
 
 corner and cope-stone of the entire political civilization 
 of the human race, present and to come." He was 
 untiring in impressing upon the Queen, and later on 
 the Prince, that the Sovereign belongs, or should 
 belong, to no party. She must be equally loyal to 
 her Ministers, to whatever party they may belong. 
 Her experience at the head of the State will enable 
 her to detect among her statesmen those who have the 
 good of their country sincerely at heart, while differ- 
 ing, as human beings must differ, as to the means by 
 which that good is to be attained. There will be 
 some in all parties who make the honor and welfare 
 of their country their first object, and there are some 
 in all parties who are willing to dishonor and injure 
 their country, if they think they perceive party 
 advantage to be gained by doing so. To the first of 
 these the Sovereign's confidence should be given, 
 irrespective of party differences. 
 
 Leopold and Stockmar between them formulated 
 the position of a constitutional monarch much more 
 definitely than it had ever been formulated before. 
 Their pupils were the Queen and her husband, towards 
 whose union events were now rapidly tending. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LOVE AND POLITICS. 
 
 The first important political event of the Queen's 
 reign was the insurrection in Canada, which broke 
 out in the late autumn of 1837. The Queen has her- 
 self told us that, notwithstanding all King Leopold's 
 and Stockmar's instructions, she was at this time 
 an ardent Whig in her political sympathies ; but the 
 history of the Canadian insurrection, while ultimately 
 showing the value of colonial self-government as a 
 safeguard against rebellion, demonstrated the wisdom 
 of their maxims that it was the duty of a constitu- 
 tional Sovereign to keep aloof from party, and also 
 was one of a series of events which revealed to the 
 Queen the real character of many of the able states- 
 men of both parties by whom she was surrounded. 
 The first effect of the policy of the Whig Government 
 in Canada was disastrous to them as a Ministry. The 
 Earl of Durham, whom they had appointed High Com- 
 missioner, with very large powers to deal with the 
 insurrection, showed a masterly grasp of principles, 
 combined with a total want of judgment in detail. 
 His failure in details was at first all that was appar- 
 ent ; he went far beyond his large legal powers ; his 
 ordinances were disallowed by Parliament, and he re- 
 signed his office, publishing, before he left his official 
 residence at Quebec, a proclamation attacking the 
 Government which had appointed him. Almost the 
 only group of politicians who supported him at home 
 were the Radicals, who, in or out of Parliament, were 
 influenced by J. S. Mill. 
 
LOVE AND POLITICS. 57 
 
 In the House of Lords the ultra-Liberal Brougham 
 joined with the ultra-Tory Lyndhurst in scathing 
 attacks on Lord Durham and the Government. It 
 was soon evident that Brougham rejoiced in any 
 national calamity in Canada or elsewhere if it afforded 
 him means of damaging the party of which he was 
 a former member. The Duke of Wellington, on the 
 other hand, had a single eye to his country's welfare. 
 The Canadian insurrection placed her in difficulty and 
 danger; and his first thought was how to get her out 
 of the difficulty, and avert the danger. He entirely 
 sank all party considerations in national objects, and 
 as even his enemies were obliged to confess, "that 
 man's first object is to serve his country, with a sword 
 if necessary, or with a pickaxe. " In the first debate 
 in the Lords on Canada, Brougham "delivered a 
 tremendous philippic of three hours. The Duke of 
 Wellington made a very noble speech, just as it 
 befitted him to make at such a moment, and of course 
 it bitterly mortified and provoked the Tories, who 
 would have had him make a party question of it, and 
 thought of nothing but abusing, vilifying, and embar- 
 rassing the Government." On the next occasion, 
 when another party field-day was arranged in the 
 House of Lords, the Duke was expected to make some 
 amends to his party, and explain away the moderation 
 of his former speech; but he made a second speech 
 quite as moderate as the first. Greville's mother told 
 the Duke how angry his party were with him for what 
 he had said, and his only reply was, "Depend upon it, 
 it was true. " This was the course invariably pursued 
 by the Duke; in times of danger he dropped all party 
 considerations, and thought of nothing but how to 
 serve his country. When the China War broke out 
 in 1840, when the Whigs were in office, he supported 
 the Government in the House of Lords with all the 
 
58 VICTORIA. 
 
 strength he could command. Greville told him that 
 his own party were to the last degree annoyed and 
 provoked by his speech. He replied: "I know that 
 well enough, and I don't care one damn. ... J have 
 not time not to do what is right. " 
 
 Peel had shown the same spirit during the general 
 election that followed the Queen's accession. Certain 
 low Tories of the baser sort had not hesitated to make 
 party capital out of the unpopularity of the New Poor 
 Law, passed by the Whigs in 1834. Peel would have 
 nothing to do with this ; for though the Act could not 
 but be unpopular in certain quarters, he was convinced 
 of its necessity, and wholly discountenanced the at- 
 tacks upon it. 
 
 These two incidents in the political warfare of the 
 first months of her reign must have had a considerable 
 influence in forming the young Queen's judgment on 
 men and parties. Events framed themselves into a 
 sort of new version of the judgment of Solomon, and 
 enabled her to distinguish between the .real and false 
 patriots, between those statesmen who really loved 
 their country and acted on conviction, and those who 
 only pretended to love, and acted from self-interest. 
 
 A very brief review of the chief political events of 
 1837-40 will serve to show of what an absorbing 
 nature they must have been to the Queen. The Anti- 
 Corn Law agitation was just beginning to show its 
 great importance; in antagonism with this, and 
 parallel with it, was the more or less revolutionary 
 Chartist movement, associated in these early years of 
 the reign with riots at Birmingham, Manchester, and 
 Newport, Monmouthshire. The country was in a 
 very disturbed state; the Government was weak, 
 and inspired no confidence; moreover, the perennial 
 trouble in Ireland was just then in a more than 
 usually acute stage. 
 
LOVE AND POLITICS. 59 
 
 Besides these larger political interests, there were 
 others of a character more personal to the Queen her- 
 self, which must for a time have occupied and inter- 
 ested her almost to the exclusion of even more weighty 
 matters. The gorgeous ceremonial of the coronation 
 took place in June, 1838. The cheers of the Lon- 
 doners in honor of M'arshal Soult on that occasion, 
 curiously enough, did something to produce a more 
 friendly feeling between France and England, and 
 paved the way for an alliance between the two 
 countries. There are such a number of graphic 
 accounts by eye-witnesses of the coronation that it is 
 unnecessary here to attempt to reproduce them. As 
 usual, the spectators saw what they brought with 
 them the capacity to see. One gives a detailed account 
 of the pageant, the floods of golden light, illuminating 
 gold and jewels and velvet robes ; another sees a 
 young life dedicating itself to the public service. 
 Lord Shaftesbury was one of these latter ; the note in 
 his diary on the coronation is : " It has been a 
 wonderful period, ... an idle pageant, forsooth ! 
 As idle as the coronation of King Solomon, or the 
 dedication of his temple." 
 
 A purely domestic affair, in 1839, must have caused 
 the Queen much anxiety and trouble. One of the 
 ladies attendant on the Duchess of Kent, Lady Flora 
 Hastings, was accused of being with child; and she 
 was ordered not to appear at Court till she could clear 
 herself of the imputation. Subsequent medical exami- 
 nation proved the entire innocence of the unfortunate 
 lady, who was suffering from a disease of which 
 modern surgical skill has very largely reduced the 
 perils. At that time, however, it was supposed to be 
 beyond all human aid, and the poor lady died within 
 a very few months after the humiliation to which she 
 had been subjected. There was naturally an intensely 
 
60 VICTORIA. 
 
 strong feeling of commiseration for her. No one was 
 to blame exactly in the matter ; one can quite under- 
 stand the determination of those who felt themselves 
 the natural protectors of the young Queen, to guard 
 her Court from the scandals and disgraces of a loose 
 standard of conduct ; but it was generally felt that a 
 little more tact, a little more kindness, even suppos- 
 ing the poor lady to have been guilty, would have 
 prevented the report being blazoned all over London 
 and England in the way it was. This scandal very 
 much weakened the Ministry in the estimation of the 
 country, rather unjustly as it seems to us now; for 
 the whole matter was one relating to the Queen's 
 private establishment, and not to her political ad- 
 visers. It was a delicate matter which ought to have 
 been dealt with by an experienced woman, possessed 
 of good feeling and good sense. But Lord Melbourne 
 was blamed, and people said, " What is the use of the 
 Prime Minister being domiciled in the Palace, unless 
 he is able to prevent the shame and mortification of 
 such blunders ? " 
 
 Another of the incidents of 1839 was as much 
 domestic as political. The famous Bedchamber ques- 
 tion excited the Houses of Parliament and the country 
 to a degree which it is difficult now to understand. 
 It was one of Lifers little ironies that the course which 
 events took in this matter led the Whigs to champion 
 Tory principles, and vice versa. Lord Melbourne's 
 Government was virtually defeated on the Jamaica 
 Bill, in May, 1839. Lord Melbourne resigned, and 
 advised the Queen to send for the Duke of Wellington. 
 His opinion had been expressed on a former occasion, 
 that he and Peel would not make good Ministers to a 
 Sovereign who was a young girl. " I have no small- 
 talk," he had said, "and Peel has no manners." The 
 sturdy old lion had yet to learn that a woman could 
 
LOVE AND POLITICS. 61 
 
 appreciate something beyond small -talk. When he 
 saw the Queen after Melbourne's resignation, she told 
 him she was very sorry to lose Lord Melbourne, who 
 had been almost like a father to her since her acces- 
 sion; the Duke was greatly pleased with her frank- 
 ness, but excused himself from serving her, on the 
 grounds of his age and deafness. He also said that 
 the Prime Minister ought to be leader of the House 
 of Commons, and advised her to send for Peel, which 
 she accordingly did. The want of manners proved 
 more serious than the want of small -talk, for -Sir 
 Robert Peel, mainly through a misunderstanding, 
 presently found himself involved in what almost 
 amounted to a personal quarrel with the Queen about 
 the appointment of the ladies of her household. She 
 thought he wanted to dismiss all her old friends, and 
 even her private attendants. She imagined that it 
 might be proposed to deprive her of the services of 
 her former governess, Baroness Lehzen, who had now 
 become one of her secretaries. She felt bound to 
 make a stand against what she considered an encroach- 
 ment on her independence. The Duke of Wellington 
 and Peel saw her again together, but made no impres- 
 sion on her. If they had explained that Peel only 
 wished to remove the ladies who held the offices that 
 are now recognized as political, the dispute would 
 never have arisen ; but as it was there was a deadlock. 
 The Queen wrote to Melbourne : " Do not fear that I 
 was not calm and composed. They wanted to deprive 
 me of my ladies, and I suppose they would deprive 
 me next of my dressers and my housemaids; they 
 wished to treat me like a girl, but I will show them 
 that I am Queen of England ! " Lord Melbourne and 
 Lord John Russell advised the Queen that she was 
 quite right, and supported her in her determination 
 not to give way ; so that the Whigs found themselves 
 
62 VICTORIA. 
 
 defending the principle that the will of the Sovereign 
 is paramount over the advice of her Ministers and 
 public considerations ; while the Tories were defend- 
 ing the opposite doctrine. Angry discussions took 
 place in both Houses ; Lord Brougham in the House 
 of Lords opening the sluice-gates in a three hours' 
 speech of what Greville calls " a boiling torrent of rage, 
 disdain, and hatred.' , The end of it was that Sir 
 Robert Peel declined to undertake to form a Govern- 
 ment, and Lord Melbourne was recalled ; he had been 
 in a very weak position before; but he was still 
 further weakened by the events that had just taken 
 place. 
 
 In after years the Queen, with her accustomed gen- 
 erosity, took the whole blame upon herself. Curiously 
 enough, it was Lord John Russell, who had, in 1839, 
 encouraged the Queen in the line she took on the 
 Bedchamber question, who asked her in 1854, if she 
 had not been advised by some one else in the matter. 
 "She replied with great candor and naivete, 'No, it 
 was entirely my own foolishness. ' " 
 
 These events excited the whole country to an extra- 
 ordinary degree, and it is not astonishing that they 
 were intensely absorbing to the Queen, and that she 
 therefore, for the time, dismissed from her mind all 
 thoughts of marriage. Indeed, she wrote to her uncle 
 Leopold in July, 1839, stating very strongly her 
 intention to defer her marriage for some years. To 
 Stockmar also the Queen expressed the same inten- 
 tion. These diplomatists do not appear to have 
 argued the matter with Her Majesty ; but they thought 
 they knew how to shake her resolution. She had 
 only once seen her cousin Albert, when he had come 
 over to England with his father and his elder brother, 
 Ernest, for a few weeks' visit to the Duchess of Kent, 
 in 1836. He was then a boy, very stout, as the Queen 
 
LOVE AND POLITICS. 63 
 
 herself has told us, but amiable, natural, unaffected, 
 and merry. He had now (1839) greatly improved 
 in appearance and developed in character, and Leo- 
 pold determined on sending him to England on a 
 second visit to his cousin. After his first visit the 
 Princess, as she then was, had written to her uncle 
 Leopold in a strain which showed that she thought 
 her future marriage with her cousin Albert was a 
 practical certainty; she begged her uncle "to take 
 care of the health of one now so dear to me, and to 
 take him under your special protection ; " and she added 
 she trusted " all would go prosperously and well on 
 this subject, now of so much importance to me." 
 
 The Prince wrote immediately on the Queen's acces- 
 sion to congratulate his "dearest cousin, " and to 
 remind her that in her hands now lay " the happiness 
 of millions. " But he said nothing of his own happi- 
 ness; nothing was settled, and the correspondence 
 between the cousins was suffered to drop. The Queen 
 generously blames herself for this. A memorandum 
 made by Her Majesty to "The Early Years of the 
 Prince Consort " is very characteristic. "Nor can 
 the Queen now," she writes, "think without indigna- 
 tion against herself of her wish to keep the Prince 
 waiting for probably three or four years, at the risk 
 of ruining all his prospects for life, until she might 
 feel inclined to marry ! And the Prince has since 
 told her that he came over in 1839 with the intention 
 of telling her that if she could not then make up her 
 mind, she must understand that he could not wait now 
 for a decision, as he had done at a former period when 
 their marriage was first talked about. " 
 
 It is probable that no one but the Queen herself 
 thinks she was to blame in the matter. She had seen 
 her cousin only when he was a boy of seventeen, and 
 she a girl of the same age. She had acquiesced in 
 
64 VICTORIA. 
 
 the wish of her closest advisers that she should regard 
 him as her future husband, but she had at the time of 
 her accession no strong personal feeling in the matter. 
 She did not feel then, as she felt afterwards, that the 
 happiness of her whole future life was involved in 
 this union ; and absorbed as she must have been in the 
 intense interest of being the centre of the inner circle 
 of politics, and in learning the duties and going 
 through the ceremonials of her new position, it is no 
 wonder that for a time she dismissed all thoughts of 
 marriage. Indeed, the happiness of what she so often 
 called her " blessed marriage " might have been 
 marred had she not waited till her heart spoke. 
 
 The Prince Consort's was a singularly pure and 
 disinterested nature. As a child he possessed a 
 remarkable degree of beauty, and a natural disposition 
 almost without flaw. All the associates of his youth 
 agree in speaking of his perfect moral purity, com- 
 bined with gayety and courage; but he was not one 
 of those preternaturally perfect children who hardly 
 exist out of books, and even there are generally 
 destined to an early grave. His childish letters and 
 diaries record that he fought with his brother and 
 cried over his lessons like other little boys. When 
 he was only five years old his father and mother sepa- 
 rated, and were afterwards divorced. He was hence- 
 forth separated entirely from his mother, who died in 
 1831. Prince Albert resembled his mother in person 
 and mind, and although so early taken from her, he 
 retained through life the strongest feeling of affection 
 for her, and one of his first gifts to the Queen was a 
 little pin which had belonged to his mother. She 
 was beautiful, intelligent, and warm-hearted, and 
 had a great fund of drollery and power of mimicry, 
 which her younger son inherited from her. 
 
 Two very affectionate grandmothers, or rather a 
 
LOVE AND POLITICS. 65 
 
 grandmother and a step-grandmother, did what in 
 them lay to supply the mothering of which the Prince 
 and his elder brother were deprived through the unfor- 
 tunate difference between their parents. The two 
 children were fortunate in possessing as a tutor a 
 Herr Florschutz, of Coburg, one of those men who 
 have something of the woman's tenderness for little 
 children. He was often seen playing the part more 
 of a kind nurse than that of a tutor, and carrying the 
 little Albert in his arms. 
 
 The greatest care was bestowed upon Prince Albert's 
 education; his grandmother and his uncle Leopold 
 kept constantly before their eyes and in their hearts 
 the destiny for which they intended him. He pursued 
 his studies of mathematics, jurisprudence, and con- 
 stitutional government partly under tutors, but also 
 at Brussels under his uncle's own immediate super- 
 vision, and later at the University of Bonn. When 
 it was decided that his education should be carried on 
 in a somewhat wider atmosphere than the little Court 
 of Coburg could afford, Berlin was not selected because 
 it was both " priggish " and " profligate ; " Vienna was 
 rejected on account of its peculiar relations towards 
 Germany; the choice fell on Brussels, because he 
 could here study the constitutionalism which would 
 afterwards be such an important factor in his life 
 as husband of the Queen of England. As early as 
 1836 Stockmar congratulated Leopold that the young 
 Prince was beginning to acquire "something of an 
 English look. " 
 
 When Princess Victoria became Queen in 1837, her 
 marriage with her cousin began to form a topic of 
 gossip ; and in order to divert attention from it, King 
 Leopold sent Prince Albert and his brother for a pro- 
 longed tour over South Germany, Switzerland, and 
 Italy. In 1838 King Leopold had a long conversation 
 
 5 
 
66 VICTORIA. 
 
 with his nephew on the subject of the projected mar- 
 riage, and found that he looked at the whole question 
 from the " most elevated and honorable point of view. " 
 "If I am not mistaken in him," wrote the King to 
 Stockmar, "he possesses all the qualities required to 
 fit him for the position which he will occupy in Eng- 
 land. His understanding is sound, his apprehension 
 clear and rapid, and his heart is in the right place. " 
 The young Prince said he was quite ready to submit 
 to any delay in the marriage which the Queen might 
 desire, but that he felt that he had a right to demand 
 some definite assurance from her as to her ultimate 
 intentions. He had no fancy to play the ridiculous 
 part so often forced upon Queen Elizabeth's numerous 
 suitors, of hanging about her for years, having his 
 matrimonial prospects talked of all over Europe, in 
 order at the end to learn that the lady had never had 
 the least intention of marrying him. 
 
 It was either to obtain this definite assurance from 
 the Queen herself, or to withdraw entirely from the 
 whole affair, that he came to England, again accom- 
 panied by his brother, Prince Ernest, on October 10th, 
 1839. On the 15th he was the Queen's betrothed 
 husband. All the Queen's reasons for desiring the 
 postponement of her marriage with her cousin vanished 
 in his presence ; they were overwhelmed by the irre- 
 sistible feeling inspired by the Prince. In the memo- 
 randum by the Queen previously quoted in part, she 
 had stated that no worse school for a young girl, or 
 one more detrimental to all natural feelings and affec- 
 tions, could be imagined than that of being Queen at 
 eighteen. Very few persons are qualified to express 
 an opinion on the point, but it is quite certain that 
 being Queen at eighteen had neither destroyed Her 
 Majesty's capacity of loving, nor her power of inspir- 
 ing love. The letters of the two young lovers to their 
 
LOVE AND POLITICS. 67 
 
 friends, to announce their engagement, are full of 
 the music of overflowing happiness. They both wrote 
 to Stockmar. The Queen said: "Albert has com- 
 pletely won my heart, and all was settled between us 
 this morning. ... I feel certain he will make me 
 very happy. I wish I could say I felt as certain of 
 my making him happy, but I shall do my best. " The 
 Prince's letter says: "Victoria is so good and kind 
 to -me that I am often puzzled to believe that I should 
 be the object of so much affection." . . . More, or 
 more seriously, I cannot write. I am at this moment 
 too bewildered to do so. 
 
 " Das Auge sieht den Himmel offen, 
 Es schwelgt das Herz in Seligkeit." 1 
 
 The Queen's position made it necessary for her to 
 offer herself in marriage to her cousin, not to wait 
 till he sought her love. In her letter to her uncle 
 Leopold, she tells him, " My mind is quite made up. 
 I told Albert this morning of it. The warm affection 
 he showed me on learning this, gave me great pleasure. 
 He seems perfection, and I think I have the prospect 
 of very great happiness before me. I love him more 
 than I can say, and shall do everything in my power 
 to render this sacrifice (for such, in my opinion, it is) 
 as small as I can. . . . The last few days have passed 
 like a dream to me, and I am so much bewildered by 
 it all that I know hardly how to write, but I do feel 
 very happy. . . . Lord Melbourne, whom I have of 
 course consulted about the whole affair, quite approves 
 my choice, and expresses great satisfaction at this 
 event, which he thinks in every way highly desirable. 
 Lord Melbourne has acted in this business, as he has 
 
 1 Heaven opens on the ravished eye, 
 The heart is all entranced in Miss. 
 
 Schiller : Song of the Bell. 
 
68 VICTORIA. 
 
 always done towards me, with the greatest kindness 
 and affection. We also think it better, and Albert 
 quite approves of it, that we should be married very 
 soon after Parliament meets, about the beginning of 
 February." 
 
 King Leopold's answer applied to himself the words 
 of old Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
 depart in peace. " The dearest wish of his heart was 
 as good as accomplished. 
 
 The Prince announced his engagement to his grand- 
 mother, the Dowager Duchess of Gotha, in these 
 words : " The Queen sent for me alone to her room a 
 few days ago, and declared to me in a genuine out- 
 burst of love and affection that I had gained her 
 whole heart, and would make her intensely happy if I 
 would make the sacrifice of sharing her life with her, 
 for she said she looked on it as a sacrifice ; the only 
 thing that troubled her was that she did not think she 
 was worthy of me. The joyous openness of manner 
 in which she told me this quite enchanted me, and I 
 was quite carried away by it. She is really most 
 good and amiable, and I am quite sure Heaven has 
 not given me into evil hands, and that we shall be 
 happy together. Since that moment Victoria does 
 whatever she fancies I should wish or like, and we 
 talk together a great deal about our future life, which 
 she promises me to make as happy as possible. " In 
 these letters one feels that her tone is more generous 
 than his. The Queen's letters, then in the first blush 
 of love, and always wherever her husband is con- 
 cerned, breathe the spirit of Elsa's self-dedication, 
 " Dir geb' ich Alles, was ich bin ! " 
 
 She had then, and preserved to the end of their 
 happy life together, unbounded belief in him and 
 pride in him. To her he was the most beautiful, the 
 wisest and best of human beings. He was always to 
 
LOVE AND POLITICS. 69 
 
 her " my precious Albert, " " my incomparable Albert, " 
 " my beloved Albert, looking so handsome in his uni- 
 form." Sometimes, even in very happy marriages, 
 the King of the fireside has to descend from his throne 
 when the babies arrive ; the wife becomes less the wife 
 and more the mother. This was never so in the case 
 of the Queen ; her husband was always first and fore- 
 most in her heart. She wrote after many years of 
 marriage, during one of the Prince Consort's short 
 absences from home, "You cannot think how much 
 this costs me, nor how completely forlorn I am and 
 feel when he is away, or how I count the hours till he 
 returns. All the numerous children are as nothing 
 to me when he is away. It seems as if the whole life 
 of the house and home were gone." King Leopold 
 had read her rightly, when he wrote immediately 
 after her engagement, that she was one to whom a 
 happy home life was in a special degree indispensable. 
 The cares and anxieties of her political duties made 
 it more necessary for her happiness than even for 
 that of most women, to have her home hallowed by 
 the sympathy, support, advice, and affection of the 
 husband who never ceased to be her lover. 
 
 Most women can sympathize with what the Queen 
 must have felt when she had to announce to her 
 Council her intended marriage. This took place on 
 November 23d 1839. There was a large attendance, 
 eighty Councillors being present. Greville describes 
 the scene in his usual graphic manner : " The folding- 
 doors were thrown open, and the Queen came in, 
 attired in a plain morning gown, but wearing a 
 bracelet containing Prince Albert's picture. She read 
 the declaration in a clear, sonorous, sweet-toned voice, 
 but her hands trembled so excessively that I wonder 
 she was able to read the paper which she held. Lord 
 Lansdowne made a little speech, asking her permis- 
 
70 VICTORIA. 
 
 sion to have the declaration made public. She bowed 
 assent, placed the paper in his hands, and then 
 retired. " 
 
 The Queen describes the same scene in her Journal ; 
 it will be seen she confirms Greville in every particu- 
 lar. "Precisely at two," the Queen writes, "I went 
 in; the room was full, but I hardly knew who was 
 there. Lord Melbourne 1 saw looking kindly at me, 
 with tears in his eyes, but he was not near me. I 
 then read my short declaration. I felt my hands 
 shake, but I did not make one mistake. I felt most 
 happy and thankful when it was over. Lord Lans- 
 downe then rose, and in the name of the Privy Council 
 asked that this most gracious and most welcome com- 
 munication might be printed. I then left the room, 
 the whole thing not lasting above two or three 
 minutes." She adds that the Prince's picture in her 
 bracelet "seemed to give me courage at the Council." 
 The Prince, with the Queen's entire approval, deter- 
 mined to take no English title, thinking that bearing 
 his own name would more distinctly mark his indi- 
 viduality and independence. At this time he felt, as 
 he expressed it in one of his family letters, that 
 whatever changes were in store for him, he should 
 always remain "a true German, a true Coburg and 
 Gotha man. " However sincere and natural this feel- 
 ing may have been, he learned later thoroughly to 
 identify himself with the country of his adoption, and 
 that the true realization of his personality lay in 
 sinking his own individual existence in that of his 
 wife. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ROCKS AHEAD. 
 
 The proverbial troubles that mar the course of true 
 love were not realized in the case of the Queen and 
 Prince Consort, at least so far as their personal rela- 
 tions were concerned. But there were some difficul- 
 ties and annoyances in store for them from outside 
 influences. A foolish attempt was made to circulate 
 the report that the Prince was a Roman Catholic. 
 When the announcement of the Queen's intended 
 marriage was made to Parliament, it contained no 
 reference to the Prince's religious faith, and the omis- 
 sion was severely commented on in both Houses. The 
 Queen thought her subjects were as well informed as 
 she was herself upon the history of the House of 
 Coburg, and believed that the attachment of the 
 Prince's family to the principles of the Reformation 
 was notorious. In the susceptible state of the public 
 mind at that time, and in the light of current events, 
 it was perhaps an error of judgment not to mention 
 the Prince's Protestantism in the announcement of 
 the marriage. Even when it was demonstrated that 
 the Prince was Protestant to the backbone, the Minis- 
 try were roundly accused of suppressing all mention 
 of the fact in order to retain the support of the Irish 
 Roman Catholic members in the House of Commons. 
 The Whig Government was tottering to its fall, and 
 Lady Holland's witty description of the political 
 situation was that in the coming appeal to the country 
 they had "nothing to rely on but the Queen and 
 Paddy. " Even the Puke of Wellington, who usually 
 
72 VICTORIA. 
 
 kept his head when other people lost theirs^ moved 
 and carried an amendment in the House of Lords to 
 insert the word " Protestant " in the address in reply 
 to the Queen's speech announcing her intended mar- 
 riage, "thus showing the public," he said, "that this 
 was still a Protestant State. " 
 
 This little outbreak was only a temporary vexation ; 
 but there appeared to be serious cause for alarm in 
 another quarter. There was, about 1839, a remark- 
 able outbreak of real disloyalty in the Tory party ; it 
 arose partly, no doubt, from the Queen's known sym- 
 pathy with the Whigs ; but one cannot help suspecting 
 that it was augmented by the elements of social cor- 
 ruption which had flourished in the atmosphere of the 
 two previous reigns. When Prince Albert's household 
 was being selected, the only conditions which he 
 insisted on were that it should not be formed exclu- 
 sively of one party, and that it should consist of men 
 of rank, "well educated and of high character." 
 This limited the range of choice, more perhaps than 
 the young Prince was aware of, and did not increase 
 his popularity among those who were excluded. 
 
 A non-gambling, non-drinking, pure-hearted, and 
 clean-living young couple would have against them 
 much that had enjoyed the sunshine of Court favor 
 under the sons of George III. The hounds of the 
 " Great Goddess Lubricity " were in full cry against 
 the Court. The undeserved humiliation suffered by 
 poor Lady Flora Hastings gave them an advantage 
 they were not slow to make the most of ; it gave them 
 the cover they run best in. 
 
 Added to this source of unpopularity which had in 
 it nothing of a party character, there was another of a 
 strictly party nature. The Bedchamber question, the 
 Queen's dislike of Peel, and her desire to keep Lord 
 Melbourne in office, still further aggravated the situa^ 
 
ROCKS AHEAD. 73 
 
 tion, and, towards the end of 1839, Tory members of 
 Parliament broke out into speeches containing violent 
 personal attacks upon the Queen. One of these, 
 " Victorippicks" delivered at a Conservative dinner 
 at Canterbury, Greville describes as "violent and 
 indecent," "a tissue of folly and impertinence;" it 
 was, however, received by the assembled company 
 with shouts of applause. The chief offender on this 
 occasion, Mr. Bradshaw, was called out by Mr. 
 Horsman, a strong Whig and M.P. for Cockermouth; 
 but matters were made worse, as far as the Tory party 
 were concerned, by the fact that Bradshaw 's second 
 was Colonel Gurwood, the confidential friend and 
 secretary of the Duke of Wellington. Another strik- 
 ing manifestation of Tory disloyalty was given about 
 the same time at Shrewsbury, when at a public dinner 
 the company present refused to drink the health of the 
 newly appointed Lord Lieutenant because he was the 
 husband of one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber, 
 the Duchess of Sutherland, with whom the Queen had 
 refused to part when Sir Robert Peel was endeavoring 
 to form a Government in 1839. Stockmar, Greville, 
 and other observers of the current of English politics 
 marked with alarm the decay of loyalty in the party 
 whose traditional principles led them in an exactly 
 contrary direction. 
 
 These fears were augmented by events in the House 
 of Lords and House of Commons, relating to Prince 
 Albert's position and establishment. In the House 
 of Commons, Lord John Russell proposed on the part 
 of the Government an allowance from Parliament for 
 Prince Albert of £ 50, 000 a year. This was the sum 
 which had been voted for Prince Leopold on his mar- 
 riage with Princess Charlotte. Prince George of 
 Denmark, husband of Queen Anne, had enjoyed this 
 income, and the same sum had been voted for a sue- 
 
74 VICTORIA. 
 
 cession of Queens Consort. It seems to have been 
 overlooked that the circumstances of the present case 
 were not quite parallel to these. The Civil List had 
 been readjusted at the beginning of the Queen's reign, 
 not in the direction of increasing it, but on a scale 
 that was believed not only to be ample, but to allow 
 an ample margin for all contingencies; in Prince 
 Albert's case no separate establishment would be 
 needed, and only a very moderate household. More- 
 over, even if no account were taken of the exceptional 
 commercial distress prevailing at the time, 1 the Min- 
 istry would have done well to realize that the time 
 had gone by when the passing of huge sums for the 
 Royal Family would go through as a matter of course. 
 But the Government did not take heed of any of these 
 things, nor did they take the precaution of consulting 
 the leaders of the opposition as to their view on the 
 matter ; on the contrary, Lord John Russell insisted 
 on going on even when he knew he would be beaten, 
 and irritated the Tory party by taunting them with 
 disloyalty. When the vote of £50, 000 was proposed, 
 Mr. Hume moved to reduce to £21,000. This was 
 negatived, but an amendment by Colonel Sibthorpe to 
 reduce the vote to £30,000 was supported by Sir 
 Robert Peel and other leading members of the Tory 
 party, and carried by 262 to 158. It was not a strictly 
 party division, for the majority was composed in part 
 of Whigs and Radicals, as well as Tories. Still it 
 was anticipated that the division would set the Prince 
 against the Tory party. This, however, was not the 
 case. His vexation on hearing of the vote was based 
 on the fear that it indicated that his marriage with 
 the Queen was unpopular in England, and when he 
 
 1 In 1840 wheat was 81s. a quarter; wages were low, and trade de- 
 pressed ; the revenue was steadily failing ; deficits were chronic ; and 
 Chartist riots were common occurrences. 
 
ROCKS AHEAD. 75 
 
 learned that this was not the case, he did not allow 
 the matter to disturb him in any way, although, as 
 will be noted later, he did not forget it. It will be 
 seen that the fact that Sir Robert Peel had taken a 
 prominent part in reducing the vote did not prejudice 
 the Prince against that statesman. When the time 
 came, eighteen months later, that Peel was called on 
 again to form a Cabinet, he was rather uncomfortable 
 in meeting the Prince. But Peel found not a single 
 trace of any personal soreness in his demeanor. " On 
 the contrary, his communications were of that frank 
 and cordial character which at once placed the Min- 
 ister at his ease, and made him feel assured that not 
 only was no grudge entertained, but that he might 
 count henceforward on being treated as a friend." 
 
 The curious in such matters will here note a parallel 
 between the foundation of the Queen's esteem for 
 Melbourne (page 53) and the Prince's esteem for Peel. 
 
 The Queen was much more seriously annoyed by 
 what took place in the House of Lords on the question 
 of the Prince's precedence. This is one of the matters 
 in which it is impossible for the masses to understand 
 the classes. It is like the pea and the real princess 
 in Andersen's tale. Either you feel it or you do not 
 feel it ; but if you do not feel it, you are not a real 
 princess. Questions of precedence appear absolutely 
 unimportant to those who are not born with a natural 
 gift for thinking them important. The Duke of 
 Wellington, even though he was an aristocrat by 
 birth, never acquired the power of grasping the enor- 
 mous importance of precedence and etiquette. When 
 the Earl of Albemarle, who, as Master of the Horse, 
 was extremely sensitive about his right of riding in 
 the Queen's carriage on State occasions, made himself 
 rather troublesome on the subject, the Duke, who was 
 appealed to, said : " The Queen can make Lord Albe* 
 
76 VICTORIA. 
 
 marie sit at the top of the coach, or under the coach, 
 behind the coach, or wherever else Her Majesty 
 pleases. " The Bill for the Prince's naturalization 
 contained a clause enabling the Queen to give him 
 precedence over all other members of the Royal 
 Family. The King of Hanover furiously raged, to- 
 gether with some of his Royal brothers. Objections 
 were raised in the House of Lords. The Duke of 
 Wellington thought it was unnecessary to settle the 
 Prince's precedence by law, and that the Queen could 
 settle it by placing the Prince next herself on all 
 occasions. This common-sense view would have been 
 sufficient for ordinary people; but the fact that the 
 House of Lords allowed the precedence clauses of the 
 Naturalization Bill to drop seems to have caused no 
 little trouble and annoyance. The Queen has added 
 a note to the "Life of the Prince Consort," in which 
 she says : " When I was first married, we had much 
 difficulty on this subject, much bad feeling was shown ; 
 several members of the Royal Family showed bad 
 grace in giving precedence to the Prince, and the late 
 King of Hanover positively resisted doing so." The 
 law of England has provided for the precedence of a 
 Queen Consort, placing her above all other subjects, 
 and giving her rank and dignity next her husband; 
 moreover, relieving her of the legal disabilities of a 
 femme couverte ; but the law takes no cognizance of the 
 possible existence of a husband of a Queen Regnant. 
 As far as his legal position was concerned, the Queen's 
 husband had no rank except what belonged to him as 
 second son of the Duke of Coburg. Greville looked 
 up the authorities, and wrote a pamphlet on the sub- 
 ject, urging that the husband of the Queen ought to 
 have precedence over all other persons. He thought 
 the Tory party had made a serious mistake in the line 
 they had taken in the matter. It was calculated, he 
 
ROCKS AHEAD. 77 
 
 said, to accentuate the Queen's dislike of them as a 
 party, and he also felt that it was ungracious to give 
 the Prince so un cordial a reception. It will render 
 him, he said, " as inimical to them [the Tories] as she 
 is already." In this prediction events proved him to 
 have been mistaken. Both the Queen and the Prince 
 were hurt at what had taken place, but neither of 
 them was imbittered. He first heard of the cutting 
 down of his annuity in the House of Commons, and 
 the lapsing of the Precedence Clauses in the Lords 
 accidentally on taking up a newspaper at Aix, where 
 he stopped for a few hours on his way to England for 
 his marriage. "We came upon it," he wrote to the 
 Queen, February 1st, 1840, " in a newspaper at Aix, 
 where we dined. In the House of Lords, too, people 
 have made themselves needlessly disagreeable. All I 
 have time to say is, that, while I possess your love, 
 they cannot make me unhappy." 
 
 The events just narrated received an importance 
 they did not in themselves deserve, from the fact that 
 they showed a weakening and disintegration of the 
 monarchical principle in the party most bound by 
 their professions to maintain it. Revolutionary doc- 
 trines were almost everywhere making way; a few 
 years later, in 1848, they shook almost every throne 
 in Europe. Aided by the experience and foresight of 
 their friend and mentor, Baron Stockmar, the young 
 Queen and her husband set themselves definitely, con- 
 sciously, and earnestly to the task of strengthening 
 the hold of the monarchy by basing it on the affec- 
 tions of the people, and also by making the crown a 
 real power, above all party, seeking only to increase 
 the welfare of the whole people, and uphold the 
 power and dignity of the Empire. This object is 
 expressed over and over again in the numerous letters 
 and memoranda which passed between the Prince and 
 
78 VICTORIA. 
 
 Stockmar in anticipation of the marriage, and in the 
 years which immediately succeeded it. The Prince 
 was convinced that the dignity and stability of the 
 throne could only be based on the affection and 
 respect of the nation; to earn that affection and 
 respect, the domestic life of the Sovereign must be 
 pure and blameless ; that moreover the Sovereign 
 must be the partisan of no party, but have a single 
 eye to the true welfare of her whole people. We 
 learn incidentally not only that "Melbourne called 
 this ' nonsense,' " but that he said, " This damned 
 morality is sure to ruin everything." l 
 
 But this only illustrates anew that the wisdom of 
 the man of the world is often mere foolishness. 
 
 In speaking of the Queen's childhood, attention was 
 drawn to the peculiarly fortunate circumstances which 
 withdrew her very largely from the influences of Court 
 life and gave her much of the quiet simplicity of a 
 private station. If she was fortunate in her child- 
 hood she was still more fortunate in her marriage ; 
 not only were she and her husband life-long lovers, 
 but she found in him a character and will as strong 
 as her own ; he was a sagacious counsellor, a fearless 
 critic, a far-seeing friend, strengthening her throne 
 by pursuing with her the ends of a worthy ambition. 
 The warning which they both received from the events 
 related in this chapter may have been fortunate too, 
 if they emphasized the resolve they had formed to 
 strengthen the monarchy by making the throne a 
 throne of justice and purity. 
 
 1 Memorandum by Stockmar, Life of the Prince Consort, vol. ii. p. 550. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PRINCE. 
 
 The Queen was married to Prince Albert with every 
 possible circumstance of pomp and magnificence on 
 February 10th, 1840, in the chapel of St. James's 
 Palace. There was a drenching downpour of rain in 
 the morning, so her subjects, although the sun shone 
 later in the day, did not learn the expression " Queen's 
 weather" as early as 1840. Any doubts the Prince 
 may have entertained as to the popularity of the mar- 
 riage with the English people were dispelled by the 
 hearty reception he met with from the crowd on his 
 landing at Dover, and afterwards in London. A 
 letter from the Dowager Lady Lyttelton, then a Lady 
 in' Waiting, descriptive of the ceremony, says : " The 
 Queen's look and manner were very pleasing, her eyes 
 much swollen by tears, but great happiness in her 
 countenance; her look of confidence and comfort at 
 the Prince, when they walked away as man and wife, 
 was very pleasing to see." 
 
 Another account mentions a rather pretty incident: 
 as the Prince and his bride were returning in their 
 carriage to Buckingham Palace, he held her hand in 
 his, but in such a way as to leave the wedding-ring 
 visible to the assembled crowd. 
 
 The good effects of the Queen's marriage soon began 
 to make themselves felt. The Duchess of Kent had 
 been, almost immediately after the accession, not 
 without the pang of feeling that her occupation was 
 gone, and that the child to whom she had devoted 
 herself unceasingly for eighteen years was taken from 
 
80 VICTORIA. 
 
 her ; the Queen was surrounded by councillors not of 
 her choosing, and was sailing away to regions of 
 thought and activity where she could not follow. Her 
 daughter's marriage and her son-in-law's thoughtful 
 kindness did much to soothe these feelings and restore 
 happiness and satisfaction to her heart. 
 
 The Prince quickly made a favorable impression 
 upon those with whom he was brought in contact. 
 The most penetrating observer could detect in him no 
 trace of coldness or resentment towards those who 
 had taken an active part in the events detailed in the 
 last chapter. He was particularly courteous to the 
 Duke of Wellington, who was charmed by him, and 
 said he had never seen better manners. 
 
 Although he bore the rebuffs referred to with per- 
 fect good breeding, he did not forget them. Fourteen 
 years later, after he had been on terms of the closest 
 intimacy and friendship both with the Duke and Peel, 
 he brought up the subject in a letter to Stockmar on 
 the probable causes of an outbreak of hostility against 
 himself, which was very noticeable in 1854. After 
 enumerating the causes of his unpopularity with the 
 Protectionists and the Horse Guards, he adds: — 
 
 " Now, however, I come to that important substratum of the people, 
 in which these calumnies were certain to have a great effect. A very 
 considerable portion of the nation had never given itself the trouble to 
 consider what really is the position of the husband of a Queen Regnant. 
 When I first came over here I was met by this want of knowledge and 
 unwillingness to give a thought to the position of this luckless person- 
 age. Peel cut down my income, Wellington refused me my rank, the 
 Royal Family cried out against the foreign interloper, the Whigs in 
 office were only inclined to concede to me just as much space as I could 
 stand upon. The Constitution is silent as to the Consort of the Queen, 
 even Blackstone ignores him, and yet there he was, and not to be done 
 without." 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the difficulties of his 
 position : the least indiscretion, the least appearance 
 of the usurpation of an authority he did not legally 
 
PRINCE ALBERT, THE PRINCE CONSORT. 
 
THE PRINCE. 81 
 
 possess, would have been both exaggerated and bitterly 
 resented. He was emphatically the wife's husband, 
 a position which, it appears, requires more than an 
 average share of magnanimity for a man to occupy 
 with dignity and ease. His position was one very 
 frequently occupied by a woman, but very rarely by a 
 man. A bishop's wife, for instance, may be a Mrs. 
 Proudie, and goad the most gentle of human beings 
 into insult and revolt by her arrogant assumption of 
 power; or she may be her husband's helper and confi- 
 dential adviser, and his right hand in all his work, 
 making friends and winning over enemies in all direc- 
 tions ; to do this needs a good heart, good sense, and 
 tact. These qualities stood the Prince in good stead ; 
 he was, moreover, strengthened by the aim which he 
 had ever before him, of establishing the English 
 monarchy on a foundation so firm that the coming 
 storms of revolution would be unable to shake it. 
 
 Politically his position was analogous to that of the 
 Queen's private secretary. Previous Sovereigns had 
 had private secretaries of their own appointment, and 
 the Queen had an absolute right to appoint whom she 
 chose. It was for her happiness and also for the 
 good of the nation that she chose her husband, who 
 was also her bosom friend; no one else could have 
 discharged the duties of the post with so much 
 efficiency. 
 
 His firmness, resolution, and self-control would 
 have been remarkable at any age, but they were espe- 
 cially notable in so young a man. It must not be 
 forgotten that at the time of his marriage he was six 
 months under twenty-one. A question arose whether, 
 being under age, he could be sworn of the Privy 
 Council. But boy as he was in years, he showed a 
 firmness of character, a grasp of the principles which 
 
 should rule his conduct, and a persistence in follow- 
 
 6 
 
82 VICTORIA. 
 
 ing them which could not have been excelled at 
 any age. It was a time, perhaps, when age was less 
 afraid of youth than it is at present. Delane became 
 editor of The Times at four-and-twenty. It is only 
 by persistent effort that we can bring ourselves to 
 believe that two generations earlier Pitt was really 
 Leader of the House of Commons and Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, and had declined to be Prime Minister 
 at three-and-twenty, and became Prime Minister at 
 five-and-twenty, and held the post uninterruptedly and 
 with unparalleled power for the next eighteen years. 
 This miracle has been explained by saying that Pitt was 
 phenomenal ; his tutor called him " Mr. Pitt " when 
 he was seven — he was born old ; he did not acquire 
 caution and judgment, as other people do, with years ; 
 he was gifted with them from his cradle. People 
 have sometimes asked themselves whether Prince 
 Albert was not " born old " too. It is true we are told 
 that he had a great fund of drollery in his nature, and 
 a considerable power of mimicry and a turn for draw- 
 ing caricatures ; we also hear of one thoroughly boyish 
 prank which he played in 1839, on the very eve of his 
 engagement — stooping in his travelling carriage when 
 it stopped to change horses in a little village, so that 
 the inhabitants who had assembled to see the Prince, 
 saw nothing but his greyhound, EQs, looking out of 
 the window. This is exactly what any boy might do; 
 but he was on the eve of a crisis in his life which 
 caused all boyishness to be put away. Just as under 
 the weight of a solemn purpose Hamlet disencumbers 
 himself of all the "trivial fond records " of his youth, 
 that 
 
 " Thy commandment all alone shall live 
 Within the book and volume of my brain, 
 Unmixed with baser matter/' 
 
 so the Prince, under the immense responsibilities of 
 his position and his sense of the difficulty of discharg- 
 
THE PRINCE. 83 
 
 ing them, acquired in one stride, as it were, the 
 qualities which most men arrive at, if they reach them 
 at all, only after years of experience and effort. 
 
 Reference has already been made to his convictions 
 upon the necessity of preserving the purity of the 
 young Queen's Court. This was no effort to himself 
 personally, for he was one of the natures born with a 
 strong preference for whatsoever things are pure. 
 But in the light of the scandals of former reigns, he 
 knew the importance, not only of being free from 
 taint, but of preventing the invention and circulation 
 of scandalous stories relating to himself and his asso- 
 ciates. His first request about the gentlemen selected 
 to form his household was that they should be men of 
 good character. He and the Queen always stipulated 
 for this in regard to those household appointments 
 which were part of the political patronage of succes- 
 sive Governments. We hear of this from Greville in 
 his account of the filling of the household appoint- 
 ments in Sir Robert Peel's Administration of 1841: 
 " As to the men, she, " the Queen, " had said she did 
 not care who they were, provided they were of good 
 character." A side-light is thrown on the efficacy of 
 this stipulation by an extract from Lord Shaftesbury's 
 Journal, where we read that Peel pressed a household 
 appointment on the then Lord Ashley, on the express 
 ground that he must fill these places with men of 
 unblemished character. Lord Ashley grimly records 
 
 that Lord , the hero of a recent scandal, who had 
 
 himself remarked, " Thank God, my character is too 
 bad for a household place," had received a similar 
 compliment from Peel. Therefore, notwithstanding 
 the express wishes of the Queen and Prince, it is 
 evident that the aim they had set before themselves 
 was by no means easy of accomplishment. 
 
 In order, not to protect himself, but to protect the 
 
84 VICTORIA. 
 
 throne from the breath of scandal, the Prince laid 
 down for himself a line of conduct which must have 
 been very irksome through the degree to which it 
 infringed his personal freedom. He never went any- 
 where alone. He was always accompanied by his 
 equerry. He felt he must not only be irreproachable, 
 but be able to produce witnesses, if necessary, to 
 prove that he was so. Mr. Anson, the Prince's secre- 
 tary, says that it was remarked to him in 1842, " by 
 a keen observer of character and by no means a good- 
 natured one " (possibly Greville), " that it was most 
 remarkable that the Prince should have been now 
 nearly two years in his most difficult position, and 
 had never given cause for one word to be said against 
 him in any respect." 
 
 The idle apprentice very often has something to say 
 not altogether to the credit of the industrious appren- 
 tice ; and men have to be forgiven their good qualities 
 almost as often as their bad. There were not wanting 
 those who were ready to say that the Prince was — if 
 not a milksop — at any rate wanting in manliness; 
 and it is rather amusing to find that he did himself 
 (1843) more good, as far as popularity in society was 
 concerned, by proving himself a bold rider to hounds, 
 in the Leicestershire country, than he had done by 
 years of prudence, caution, and self-effacement. 
 
 The difficulties of the Prince's position were mini- 
 mized by the generous confidence and unbounded 
 affection with which the Queen regarded him. He at 
 once became, and remained till death parted them, 
 what she herself called her "dearest Life in Life." 
 She associated him with herself in all State business 
 that was not strictly ceremonial. The courtiers 
 quickly appreciated the significance of the fact that 
 the Queen delighted to honor and elevate him. Her 
 partiality for the Whigs became a thing of the past. 
 
THE PRINCE. 85 
 
 She dissociated herself from party predilections. 
 Politically, as well as personally, her husband came 
 first, and it was " stuff o' the conscience " with him 
 that the Sovereign should be loyal to her Ministers to 
 whatever party they might belong. Sir Robert Peel, 
 who became Prime Minister in 1841, formed a very 
 high opinion of the Prince's strong practical judgment 
 and sagacity, and did much to encourage the active 
 part which he took in all State business. Peel and 
 his Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen, were credited 
 with being Prince Albert's tutors, in political affairs, 
 and with having first introduced him into public life. 
 They remarked with satisfaction how modestly he 
 exercised his ever-increasing authority, and never 
 gave a decided opinion without first consulting the 
 Queen. By the end of the Peel Administration the 
 Prince's association with the Queen in all State busi- 
 ness had become definitely established. It was a 
 complete partnership; the Ministers always saw the 
 Queen and Prince together, and " both of them always 
 said We — ' We think, or wish, to do so-and-so ; what 
 had we better do ? ' " &c. 
 
 This union was equally close domestically and 
 politically. We have already seen that to be parted 
 from her husband, even for a day or two, was a serious 
 trial to the Queen. The Prince went to Liverpool for 
 a couple of days in 1846, and the Queen wrote to 
 Stockmar in her husband's absence, "I feel very 
 lonely without my dear master; and though I know 
 other people are often separated for a few days, I feel 
 habit could not make me get accustomed to it. . . . 
 
 Without him everything loses its interest It 
 
 will always be a terrible pang to me to separate from 
 him, even for a few days, and I pray God never to let 
 me survive him. I glory in his being seen and loved." 
 The pathos of the words in the light of after events 
 
86 VICTORIA. 
 
 needs no emphasis; but no one who has loved and 
 been loved as she has, should be called unhappy. It 
 was also to Stockmar that the Prince confided his 
 own most sacred feelings upon the priceless treasure 
 his marriage had brought him. Writing to his 
 trusted friend to pour out his grief on the death of his 
 father, the Duke of Coburg, in 1844, the Prince says : 
 "Just such is Victoria to me, who feels and shares 
 my grief, and is the treasure upon which my whole 
 existence rests. The relation in which we stand to 
 one another leaves nothing to desire. It is a union of 
 heart and soul, and is therefore noble, and in it the 
 poor children shall find their cradle, so as to be able 
 one day to insure a like happiness for themselves. " 
 
 When Prince Albert's political influence first began 
 to be felt, he was generally supposed to be a Tory; 
 Greville repeatedly speaks of him as if he were a 
 Tory; but from the wider knowledge which the publi- 
 cation of his correspondence has given, it is clear 
 that his mind was on many subjects far in advance of 
 even the Whig statesmanship of the day ; for instance, 
 he was a convinced Free Trader at the time when 
 Melbourne was declaring that the repeal of the Corn 
 Laws was the most insane proposal that had ever 
 entered the human brain. He was ardently in favor 
 of the reform of university education so as to bring 
 the universities more closely into touch with the needs 
 of modern life. He foresaw that German unity was 
 the necessary condition of German greatness, 1 and 
 urged the necessity of the smaller German princes 
 making the sacrifices requisite to the attainment of 
 
 1 In this respect his political views were far in advance of those of 
 his English tutors. Greville records a conversation he had in 1849 with 
 Lord Aberdeen about the Prince's politics. " Aberdeen spoke much of 
 the Queen and Prince, of course with great praise. He says the Prince's 
 views were generally sound and wise, with one exception, which was his 
 violent and incorrigible German Unionism" 
 
THE PRINCE. 87 
 
 this great end, which was not achieved till nearly ten 
 years after his own death. The Prince was thoroughly 
 imbued with the sound principle that in politics reform 
 is the best, indeed the only, safeguard against revolu- 
 tion. His mind, politically, was not unlike that of 
 Sir Robert Peel, presenting a combination of Liberal 
 opinions with extreme caution in regard to the time 
 and method of giving effect to them. 
 
 His opinions on matters bearing on religion were 
 wholly free from narrowness and bigotry. He pre- 
 sented an example of that deepening, softening, and 
 strengthening of character which modern writers have 
 described as the special fruit of the Reformation 
 among those peoples which have really assimilated 
 its principles. 1 His deeply religious nature was 
 apparent from very early years ;. in December, 1839, 
 he wrote from Coburg to the Queen that he was about 
 to take the Sacrament, and he adds : " God will not 
 take it amiss, if in that serious act, even at the altar, 
 I think of you ; for I will pray to Him for you, and 
 for your soul's health, and He will not refuse us His 
 blessing. " All through the married life of the Queen 
 and Prince, it was their custom when they received 
 the Sacrament to reserve the day for quietude and 
 privacy. His sympathies in Church matters were 
 decidedly with the party which has since been called 
 "Broad." His influence was always exercised in 
 support of religious toleration. 
 
 In this, as in other matters, the husband and wife 
 were in perfect accord. In later years her most 
 trusted and confidential friend and adviser, among 
 Churchmen, was Dean Stanley; and she fully sym- 
 pathized with his interpretation of what a National 
 Church ought to be. Highly as the Queen and Prince 
 
 1 Kidd's Social Evolution, chap. x. } Marshall's Principles of 
 Economics, vol. i. pp. 34, 35, 
 
88 VICTORIA. 
 
 appreciated the simplicity and dignity of the services 
 of the Church of Scotland, they never professed or 
 practised any approach to Scottish Sabbatarianism. 
 Dr. Wilberforce (afterwards Bishop of Oxford, and 
 later of Winchester) had attracted the notice of the 
 Prince by a powerful anti-slavery speech, and he was 
 appointed one of the Royal Chaplains. Writing from 
 Windsor, after preaching before the Court on Sunday, 
 February 9th, 1845, he notes in his diary, "Chess 
 evening, which I regret, not that my own conscience 
 is offended at it one jot, but that capable of miscon- 
 struction." The views of the Bishop and the Prince 
 became, as time went on, very widely divergent on 
 matters relating to religion and Church government; 
 but earlier in their intercourse they found many sub- 
 jects in which they were in hearty accord. The 
 Prince's views on the functions of the Bishops in the 
 House of Lords were set forth at length in a remark- 
 able letter to Dr. Wilberforce, then Dean of West- 
 minster, dated 1845. His opinion was that the 
 Bishops should not take part in purely political ques- 
 tions, but should come forward when questions of 
 humanity were at stake, such as negro emancipation, 
 education, sanitation, recreation, prevention of cruelty 
 to animals, and factory legislation. " As to religious 
 affairs, " the Prince added, " he " (the Bishop) " cannot 
 but take an active part in them; but let that always 
 be the part of a Christian, not a mere Churchman ; let 
 him never forget the insufficiency of human knowl- 
 edge and wisdom, and the impossibility of any man, 
 or even any Church, to say, ' I am right, I alone am 
 right.' Let him therefore be meek and liberal, and 
 tolerant to other confessions. ... He ought to be a 
 guardian of public morality. ... He should likewise 
 boldly admonish the public, even against its predomi- 
 nant feeling, if this be contrary to the purest standard 
 
THE PRINCE. 89 
 
 of morality. ... In this way the Bishops would 
 become a powerful force in the Lords, and the country 
 would feel that their presence there supplies a great 
 want, and is a great protection to the people." 
 
 A letter like this, accompanied as it was by ex- 
 pressions modestly excusing himself for offering an 
 opinion, is a sufficient revelation of his character, 
 and of his grasp of principles. It was indeed mainly 
 by his character that he was able to exercise the 
 influence he did. Dr. McLeod, in speaking of him 
 after his death, said : " His real strength lay most of 
 all in his character, or in that which resulted from 
 will and deliberate choice, springing out of a nature 
 singularly pure, by God's grace, from childhood." It 
 was this which gradually caused him to stand well 
 with both parties, as the singleness of his aims and 
 life became apparent. The feeling manifested against 
 him in both Houses of Parliament before his mar- 
 riage was changed after closer acquaintance to one of 
 confidence. 
 
 When it was known that the Queen was about to 
 give birth to a child, a Bill naming the Prince as 
 Regent, in the event of her death leaving an infant 
 heir, was passed without difficulty, the only dissent- 
 ing voice being that of the Duke of Sussex, who felt 
 that the dignity of the Royal Family would be best 
 promoted by another arrangement. The Prime Min- 
 ister assured the Queen that the practical unanimity 
 of Parliament in naming the Prince as Regent was 
 entirely owing to his own character. " Three months 
 ago they would not have done it for him. " 
 
 Perhaps the smooth passage of the Regency Bill 
 was promoted by another circumstance. In June, 
 1840, as the Queen and Prince were driving up Con- 
 stitution Hill, in a low carriage, Her Majesty was 
 twice fired at by a young miscreant named Oxford; 
 
90 VICTORIA. 
 
 neither shot took effect ; the Queen and Prince behaved 
 with admirable courage. She ordered the carriage 
 to drive at once to the Duchess of Kent, in order to 
 anticipate any rumor of the attempt which might other- 
 wise have reached her mother. She then continued 
 her drive in the park, escorted now by an immense 
 crowd on horseback and on foot, who gave the most 
 vociferous expression to their feelings of devotion 
 and loyalty. The Queen behaved then, as always, 
 with perfect courage and self-possession, which natu- 
 rally increased the mingled feelings of admiration and 
 sympathy for her, and anger for the perpetrator of 
 the outrage. One other thought, however, quickly 
 succeeded these; it was this: If Oxford's aim had 
 been well directed, and the fair young life laid low 
 before she had given heirs to England, there was 
 nothing between the nation and the succession of the 
 Duke of Cumberland, now King of Hanover, to the 
 throne of England. The knowledge of the escape 
 the country had had, as well as admiration for the 
 beautiful courage of the young wife, caused a great 
 wave of enthusiastic loyalty to herself and her hus- 
 band, and the practical result of Oxford's shot was that 
 the Regency Bill passed through both Houses without 
 a dissentient voice, except that of the Duke of Sussex. 
 It was remarked just now that the Prince's in- 
 fluence was due mainly to his character; it must not 
 be inferred from this that he was not also an extremely 
 able and accomplished man. As he came into close 
 relations with the Queen's successive Prime Ministers, 
 they one and all acknowledged the power of his intel- 
 lect, the extent of his knowledge, and his grasp of 
 principles. Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord 
 John Russell, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Derby, and Lord 
 Palmerston, all formed the highest opinion of the 
 Prince's capacity for statesmanship. With one of 
 
THE PRINCE. 91 
 
 them, Lord Palmerston, the Prince was at one time, 
 as is well known, in sharp conflict with regard to his 
 conduct as Foreign Secretary, and this makes his 
 testimony to the Prince's ability of all the greater 
 value. In 1855, when Palmerston was Prime Minis- 
 ter, one of his political friends, calling on him, 
 expressed a high opinion of the abilities of Napoleon 
 III. Palmerston concurred, but said: "We have a 
 far greater and more extraordinary man nearer home, " 
 referring to the Prince ; he then added, " The Prince 
 would not consider it right to have obtained the 
 throne as the Emperor has done; but in regard to 
 the possession of the soundest judgment, the highest 
 intellect, and most exalted qualities of mind, he is 
 far superior to the Emperor." 
 
 The Prince made an equally favorable personal 
 impression on statesmen of the Tory party. When 
 Lord Derby was Prime Minister for. ten months in 
 1852, Lord Malmesbury was Foreign Secretary, and 
 in that capacity was brought much in contact with 
 the Queen and her husband. He wrote of the latter, 
 " I never met a man so remarkable for his variety of 
 information in all subjects, . . . with a great fund 
 of humor quand il se deboutonne." 
 
 It was not only in statesmanship that his ability 
 was shown. 1 He was a good musician, and excelled 
 as a performer, especially on the organ ; Peel was not 
 
 1 In Lady Bloomfield's Reminiscences, she records a conversation she 
 had with the Prince shortly before his death. " He said his great object 
 through life had been to learn as much as possible, not with a view of 
 doing much himself, — as, he observed, any branch of study or art re- 
 quired a lifetime, — but simply for the sake of appreciating the works 
 of others ; for, he added, without any self-consciousness or vanity, ' No 
 one knows the difficulties of a thing till they have tried to do it them- 
 selves ; and it was with this idea that I learnt oil-painting, water-color, 
 etching, fresco-painting, chalks, and lithography, and in music I studied 
 the organ, pianoforte, and violin, thorough-bass, and singing/" 
 
92 VICTORIA. 
 
 long in discovering that the Prince was an enthusi- 
 astic admirer of early German art and literature. His 
 interest in the arts and in industry was demonstrated 
 by the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was really his 
 creation. As a country gentleman he had not that 
 absorbing delight in killing animals which then, per- 
 haps, even more than now, was considered essential 
 to his position; he appears never to have become a 
 really good shot, and to have enjoyed deer-stalking 
 and other sport more for the sake of the fine air and 
 exercise they brought him, than with the exclusive 
 passion of the real sportsman. As a set-off to this, he 
 took the liveliest interest in agriculture and in stock 
 breeding, and was a frequent visitor at agricultural 
 and cattle shows. He showed considerable skill as a 
 landscape gardener, and the beautiful surroundings 
 of Windsor were still further beautified by him, while 
 the gardens of Buckingham Palace, Osborne, and 
 Balmoral are, to a large extent, in their present form, 
 his creation. In social matters he anticipated a good 
 deal of what has been done in more recent years in 
 the direction of the improvement of workmen's dwell- 
 ings, and in his interest in education and sanitary 
 legislation. Early in his career in England he gave 
 special attention to the suppression of duelling, and 
 proposed, as a substitute, the establishment of courts 
 of honor in the army, where charges could be made 
 and evidence heard in cases which had formerly led 
 to a personal encounter. The courts of honor were 
 never established; but the influence of the Prince 
 undoubtedly discouraged the practice of duelling in 
 England. Up to this time, it had been not at all 
 uncommon, even between civilians; and there were 
 few of the leading politicians in either party who had 
 not been "out," at one time or another, with a 
 political opponent. 
 
THE PRINCE. 93 
 
 The narrative of the succeeding chapters will further 
 illustrate the Prince's character and his multiform 
 activities. Those who had the opportunity of know- 
 ing him intimately never failed to appreciate his 
 really great qualities ; but it is only since his death, 
 and the publication of his private letters and memo- 
 randa, that the general public have really learned to 
 know him and to understand how he devoted all his 
 powers, to the country of his adoption. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE QUEEN AND PEEL. 
 
 From the time of the Queen's accession, the power of 
 the Whig Government under Lord Melbourne had 
 been steadily going down. It sank to zero when they 
 resumed office, in 1839, after Peel had failed to form 
 a Government in consequence of the dispute over the 
 Ladies of the Bedchamber. They had been beaten in 
 the Commons and were in a permanent minority in 
 the Lords ; and it was said with justice that they were 
 holding on, in office but not in power, simply to please 
 the Queen. It would have been a discreditable posi- 
 tion for any Government, but it was particularly 
 damaging to a Whig Government from the fact that 
 their party was specially identified with the prin- 
 ciple of ministerial responsibility and a resistance to 
 personal government. 
 
 The result of their position was that they were 
 powerless to pass their measures. They knew they 
 had lost the confidence of the country, and that the 
 House of Lords could therefore veto the Government 
 Bills with a light heart. Perhaps this was not alto- 
 gether painful to Lord Melbourne. The saying by 
 which he is chiefly remembered by the present genera- 
 tion, " Why can't you let it alone ? " is not indicative 
 of the ardent spirit of the reformer. He may have 
 found consolation in the assistance given by the House 
 of Lords to letting things alone. 
 
 Given his position and all its difficulties, Melbourne 
 behaved loyally and generously to the Queen and to 
 his successors. He knew the days of his own Govern- 
 
THE QUEEN AND PEEL. 95 
 
 ment were numbered, and that Peel would succeed 
 him, and he did his best to bring about a more cordial 
 personal feeling between the Queen and Peel and the 
 Tory party. The Queen tells us that to her his word 
 constantly was, " Hold out the olive-branch to them a 
 little ; " with Peel, he tried to induce the shy, proud 
 man to put on a little of the courtier and the man of 
 the world. At a Court ball in 1840, "Melbourne 
 went up to Peel and whispered to him with the greatest 
 earnestness, ' For God's sake, go and speak to the 
 Queen ; ' Peel did not go, but the entreaty and the 
 refusal were both characteristic." 
 
 When the long-anticipated fall of the Melbourne 
 Administration came, and the election of 1841 resulted 
 in the return of the Tories to power with a majority 
 of over 80, Melbourne, who had worked unceasingly 
 to reconcile the Queen to the impending change, did 
 not desist from his good offices with her new Minis- 
 ters. 1 He could not approach them directly, but he 
 took the opportunity after Peel's Government had 
 been formed of giving them a few hints, through 
 Greville. He met Greville at a dinner-party and took 
 him on one side and said : " ' Have you any means of 
 speaking to these chaps ? ' I said, ' Yes, I can say 
 anything to them. ' ' Well, ' he said, ' I think there 
 are one or two things Peel ought to be told, and I 
 wish you would tell him. Don't let him suffer any 
 appointment he is going to make to be talked about, 
 and don't let her hear it through anybody but him- 
 self ; and whenever he does anything, or has anything 
 
 1 This generosity was thoroughly in keeping with his character. 
 After Melbourne's death, Greville tells how he occupied his room at 
 Brocket, and, " poking about " to see what he could find, came upon 
 several MS. books of the late Prime Minister. In one of these was 
 recorded Melbourne's settled determination "always to stand by his 
 friends," and his conviction that it was more necessary to do so " when 
 they were in the wrong than when they were in the right." 
 
96 VICTORIA. 
 
 to propose, let him explain to her clearly his reasons. 
 The Queen is not conceited; she is aware there are 
 many things she cannot understand, and she likes to 
 have them explained to her elementarily, not at length 
 and in detail, but shortly and clearly; neither does 
 she like long audiences, and I never stayed with her 
 a long time. These things he should attend to, and 
 they will make matters go on more smoothly. ' " 
 Greville conveyed the message, which was taken in 
 exceedingly good part, and from 1841 onwards till 
 his death the relations between Sir Robert Peel and 
 the Queen were all that could be desired. Her former 
 antipathy was changed into cordial respect and admira- 
 tion; when he lost his shyness and reserve, and was 
 able to show himself in his real character, she soon 
 appreciated the very fine qualities of the man, far 
 transcending in real worth those of the Minister whom 
 in the beginning of her reign she had so strongly pre- 
 ferred. When Peel's Ministry had been in office a 
 few months, Greville asked Sir James Graham, the 
 Home Secretary, how they were going on with the 
 Queen. He said, "Very well. They sought for no 
 favor, and were better without it. She was very 
 civil, very gracious, and even on two or three little 
 occasions, she had granted favors in a way indicative 
 of good will." He said that they treated her with 
 profound respect and the greatest attention. He made 
 it a rule to address her as he would a sensible man, 
 laying all matters before her, with the reasons for the 
 advice he tendered, and he thought this was the most 
 legitimate as well as judicious flattery that could be 
 offered to her, and such as must gratify her, and the 
 more because there was no appearance of flattery in 
 it, and nothing but what was right and proper — so 
 right and proper that it is not easy to see where the 
 flattery comes in. The way of explaining business to 
 
THE QUEEN AND PEEL. 97 
 
 a sensible woman must be much the same, one would 
 imagine, as the way of explaining it to a sensible 
 man; but this simple view of the facts was by no 
 means perceived intuitively in 1841, but was only 
 arrived at by demonstration from actual experiment. \ 
 However this may be, when Peel and his colleagues 
 learned their lesson, they learned it thoroughly. In 
 this second series of interviews between the Queen 
 and the leaders of the Tory Party, when a new Min- 
 istry was being formed in 1841, all passed off most 
 satisfactorily. Peel said the Queen behaved perfectly 
 to him ; he was more than satisfied with her bearing 
 towards him. To the Duke of Wellington she was 
 equally gracious. She reproached him for not taking 
 office himself, and he assured her that his one object 
 was to serve her and the country in every way he 
 could, and that he thought he could do this more 
 effectually by making way for some of the younger 
 men. It is true that there was still some talk about 
 Peel's shyness making the Queen shy; and Greville 
 has a little hit about Peel, after dinner at Windsor, 
 talking to the Queen in the attitude of a dancing- 
 master giving a lesson, and says that the Queen would 
 like him better if he would keep his legs still; but 
 this gossip probably reflects Greville's sentiments 
 rather than the Queen's. Her respect for Peel and 
 attachment to him grew with her growing knowledge 
 of his character and powers. In 1843 the Queen 
 wrote of him to her uncle, the King of the Belgians, 
 as " undoubtedly a great statesman, a man who thinks 
 I but little of party, and never of himself. " In February, 
 1846, Lady Canning, who was then in Waiting on the 
 Queen, notes in her journal, " The Queen is very keen 
 about politics, and has an immense admiration for 
 Sir Robert Peel." 
 Before the end of his Administration, she not only 
 
 .7 
 
98 VICTORIA. 
 
 loyally supported him in the face of his growing 
 unpopularity with his own party, but showered every 
 honor upon him that a Sovereign could bestow upon a 
 Minister. She and the Prince visited him at his 
 house at Drayton. She became godmother to his 
 grandchild, and would have given him the Order of 
 the Garter, but that Peel, with the characteristic pride 
 of humility, intimated his desire that it should not 
 be offered him. He said that if his acceptance of the 
 honor would increase his power of serving the Queen 
 he would not hesitate to accept it; but he could not 
 believe this was the case. Personally, he would 
 prefer not to accept it ; he was a man of the people, 
 and the decoration in his case would be misapplied. 
 " His heart was not set upon titles of honor or social 
 distinctions. His reward lay in Her Majesty's confi- 
 dence, of which by many indications she had given 
 him the fullest assurance ; and when he left her ser- 
 vice the only distinction he coveted was that she 
 should say to him, ' You have been a faithful servant, 
 and have done your duty to your country and to 
 me. ' " 
 
 When Peel's Ministry came to an end in 1846, both 
 the Queen and the Prince expressed the hope that his 
 leaving office would not interrupt the cordial relations 
 that had been established between them. His tragic 
 death, from a fall from his horse, in 1850, was bitterly 
 mourned in the Palace. The Queen wrote at the 
 time : " Peel is to be buried to-day. The sorrow and 
 grief at his death are most touching. Every one 
 seems to have lost a personal friend." The Prince 
 on the same day wrote to the same correspondent: 
 " Sir Robert Peel is to be buried to-day. The feeling 
 in the country is absolutely not to be described. We 
 have lost our truest friend and trustiest counsellor, 
 the throne its most valiant defender, the country its 
 
THE QUEEN AND PEEL. 99 
 
 most open-minded and greatest statesman." The 
 Queen offered a peerage to Lady Peel after her hus- 
 band's death, but she declined the honor, acting in 
 accordance with what she knew had been his wishes. 
 The Duke of Wellington, in the tribute he paid to 
 Peel in the House of Lords, spoke with tears stream- 
 ing down his face ; the chief part of his panegyric on 
 his friend and leader was based on Peel's unswerving 
 love of truth. It was this quality, together with his 
 political sagacity, caution, and courage, that had en- 
 deared him to the Queen. No Prime Minister has 
 ever had a more remarkable history. The election of 
 1841 was fought on the Corn Laws, and resulted in 
 the return of Peel with a majority of eighty pledged 
 to Protection. In four years from that time, after a 
 career of brilliant success as a Minister, he repealed 
 the Corn Laws which he had been returned to sup- 
 port, amid the execration of the great bulk of his own 
 party and even that of a considerable number of his 
 former opponents ; 1 and yet those who knew him best 
 loved him chiefly for his absolute integrity and love 
 of truth. The explanation lies in the hard logic of 
 facts. Peel and his immediate followers became con- 
 vinced they were wrong in their protective policy ; in 
 ordinary times the only right thing for them to have 
 done would have been to declare their change and its 
 grounds, resign office and appeal to the country. 
 Some of the Peelites, as they were called, took this 
 course, so far as was possible, as private individuals ; 
 they declared their change and resigned their seats. 
 Lord Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, was one of these. 
 
 1 Lord Melbourne, to whom in 1839 Repeal of the Corn Laws had 
 been " the maddest of all mad projects," and who became a Free Trader, 
 for party purposes, in 1841, spoke of Peel's change of view at a dinner 
 party at the Palace with vehemence which even the presence of a lady, 
 and that lady his Sovereign, could not restrain. " Ma'am, it 's a damned 
 dishonest act " (Greville, vol. v, p. 359). 
 
 LrfC. 
 
100 VICTORIA. 
 
 He had been returned as a Protectionist and became 
 a Free Trader, and therefore, quite rightly, resigned 
 his seat, appealing to his constituents unsuccessfully 
 for re-election. He notes in his diary, " I shall resign 
 my seat and throw up all my beloved projects for 
 which I have sacrificed everything that a public man 
 values, all that I had begun and all that I have de- 
 signed. Nearly my whole means of doing good will 
 cease with my membership of Parliament." He re- 
 fused an offer of £2,000 from the then Whip to enable 
 him to fight his seat, because he would not jeopardize 
 his independence. He was very poor, and he fought 
 and lost. But to lose like that is to win. Why 
 could not Peel have done the same ? The answer is : 
 The Irish Famine. Just as the Emperor Nicholas 
 during the Crimean War said that he relied most of 
 all on his Generals January and February, so Peel's 
 scruples were conquered by the Famine. In Ireland 
 in 1845-6 there were millions of people within meas- 
 urable distance of death from starvation; the measures 
 of relief could, under the best of circumstances, only 
 be partially successful ; they would have been terribly 
 hampered by the continuance, even for another few 
 months, of the import duties on corn. The aim of 
 the Corn Laws was to make bread dear ; the pressing 
 necessity of the moment was to make it cheap, and 
 pour in food supplies to starving Ireland. Peel's 
 feeling may have been, " Better endure the charge of 
 dishonesty rather than add to the fearful total of those 
 who will die of starvation in Kerry and Connemara." 
 As the alarming accounts from Ireland came pouring 
 in, his first desire was to deal with the matter by 
 opening the ports by an Order in Council (November, 
 1845). This would have been by far the best course ; 
 it would have secured a supply of cheap bread without 
 delay, and the war of words over it in Parliament 
 
THE QUEEN AND PEEL. 101 
 
 could have been protracted to any extent without 
 practical mischief; but his Cabinet would not agree 
 to it. Then he resigned office (December, 1845), and 
 left with the Queen a paper, to be given to his suc- 
 cessor, stating that he would give every support to the 
 new Minister to effect a settlement of the question of 
 the Corn Laws. The Queen sent for Lord John 
 Russell, who, however, failed to form a Government, 
 because Lord Grey refused to take office if Lord 
 Palmerston were at the Foreign Office, and Lord 
 Palmerston refused to take any other place. Peel 
 was therefore recalled. It was thus through the 
 absolute necessity of the moment that he repealed the 
 Corn Laws which he had been elected to support. In 
 the House of Commons he confessed the error of his 
 former opinions, and maintained the duty and dignity 
 of owning one's self to have been wrong rather than 
 pretending by casuistical hair-splitting that there had 
 been no change of opinion when there was so striking 
 a change in conduct; he bore with magnanimity the 
 reproaches of those who still shared the error which 
 he had abandoned, and finally appealed to the facts of 
 the situation, the national calamity of impending 
 famine in Ireland; he claimed that as the Govern- 
 ment were responsible for the lives of millions of the 
 Queen's subjects in the sister country, they felt it 
 impossible to take any other course than that of repeal. 
 The majority of the Tories accused him of dishon- 
 esty, but he took with him the flower of his party, 
 both in regard to intellect and character, while he 
 earned the enthusiastic gratitude and respect of the 
 great bulk of the nation, and of the men led by 
 Cobden and Bright and the Hon. Charles Villiers, 
 who had devoted themselves to the cause of repeal. 
 Their favorable verdict has been confirmed by poster- 
 ity. Peel's change was an honest change, and he was 
 
102 VICTORIA. 
 
 forced to give effect to it when he did by the inexo- 
 rable necessities of famine. He did not make a volte 
 face for the sake of place and power. But notwith- 
 standing all that can be urged in his justification, he 
 shattered his party. The Tories had a majority of 
 eighty in the general election of 1841 ; they never 
 were in a majority again till 1874. They had short 
 tenures of office in 1852, and again in 1858-9, and in 
 1866-8 ; but on each occasion they had to govern as 
 best they could with a minority in the House of Com- 
 mons. They were in the wilderness thirty-three years, 
 and never regained the Canaan of politicians, except 
 by the aid of the new electorate called into existence 
 by the Reform Bill of 1867. 
 
 When Peel went out of office he requested the 
 Queen, as a personal favor to himself, never to ask 
 him to form a Government again. He was not 
 defeated on his great measure; his majority was 
 ninety-seven in the House of Commons, and forty- 
 seven in the House of Lords. But the day on which 
 the Corn Bill passed its third reading in the Lords, 
 the Ministry were defeated in the Commons on a 
 Protection of Life in Ireland Bill, introduced on 
 account of an outbreak of midnight murders and mur- 
 derous attacks, such as are now known by the name of 
 " moonlighting. " 
 
 For modesty, dignity, simplicity, and sincerity, 
 Peel's figure stands out conspicuous for greatness 
 among the statesmen of this century. Cobden said of 
 him that he had lost office and saved his country. 
 
 His other great achievement was that of reorganiz- 
 ing and simplifying the fiscal arrangements of the 
 country. It was this that first so highly recommended 
 him to the Queen and Prince. They were good econo- 
 mists in their own private affairs, and wished for 
 good order in national revenue and expenditure also. 
 
THE QUEEN AND PEEL. 103 
 
 When Peel succeeded Melbourne, huge deficits were 
 of constant occurrence ; the revenue was falling, and 
 the expenditure was increasing. Peel evolved order 
 out of this chaos. He inaugurated the era of financial 
 reform. In 1845 import duties were levied on no 
 fewer than 1,142 separate articles. Peel and his 
 pupil and successor, Mr. Gladstone, reduced the 
 number to about five, and Peel was the first to dis- 
 cover the productiveness and utility of the income 
 tax, as a means of raising revenue. The Queen most 
 cordially supported him in his financial reforms, and 
 authorized him to announce in the House of Commons 
 that she did not wish to be exempted from the opera- 
 tion of the income tax. We owe to him more than to 
 any other of the Queen's Prime Ministers that the 
 national accounts almost invariably show a balance 
 on the right side. Peel was a man of whom it was 
 said that it was necessary to know him intimately to 
 know him at all ; and this intimate friendship existed 
 between him and the Queen and her husband from the 
 time he became Prime Minister, in 1841. It was an 
 inestimable advantage for the Royal couple that their 
 political tutor (if one may use the expression) in the 
 early years of the reign was changed from the kindly 
 but frivolous and complaisant Melbourne to the earnest 
 and strenuous Peel, a man gifted beyond most with 
 what Matthew Arnold has called "high seriousness," 
 a quality without some portion of which no character 
 has any solid foundation. Peel's Premiership was a 
 national blessing from his political and economical 
 achievements while he held the reins of power ; and 
 it was also a blessing from its effect on the Queen's 
 political education. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STOCKMAR. 
 
 One of the strongest influences, personal and political, 
 in the Queen's earlier life was that of Baron Stockmar. 
 This remarkable man attained, simply by dint of 
 character, the position of being one of the chief of the 
 unseen political forces of Europe. Without any offi- 
 cial political position, he was the friend and confidant 
 of statesmen and princes, and acquired extraordinary 
 influence by his clearness of view and tenacity of pur- 
 pose in political concerns, joined with personal honesty 
 and disinterestedness, and also in a remarkable degree 
 with a singularly firm grasp of "the inexhaustibly 
 fruitful truth that moral causes govern the standing 
 and falling of States." 
 
 The formative influences on his character had been 
 the political misfortunes of Germany under the first 
 Napoleon, in the early part of the century. As a 
 youth he witnessed the bitter humiliation of his 
 country, and later the downfall of her oppressor ; and 
 from henceforth the bed-rock of his character was the 
 belief in the existence of a moral power ruling over 
 the fate of nations and individuals. His son and 
 biographer narrates an event which influenced Stock- 
 mar deeply. During the Napoleonic tyranny in 
 Germany, he formed one of a group of enthusiastic 
 young Germans, some of whom broached the possi- 
 bility of delivering their country by murdering her 
 oppressor. An old Prussian officer who was present 
 reproached the lads for their folly: "This is the 
 
STOCKMAR. 105 
 
 talk, " he said, " of very young people ; " and he went 
 on to express his firm confidence that the rule of the 
 French in Germany was in its very nature evanescent, 
 and must come to an end. His counsel was : " Trust 
 in the natural course of events, " and be ready to 
 take advantage of them. Things that are rotten and 
 hollow decay; those that are sound and healthy 
 flourish and grow. Stockmar saw the crumbling to 
 dust within a few years of what then appeared the 
 overwhelming strength of Napoleon, and never forgot 
 the lesson he had learned. All through his life he 
 really believed what most people profess to believe, 
 that the wages of sin is death. 
 
 From this standpoint of a belief in moral causes as 
 governing the standing and falling of States, he 
 sought to understand the source of the political humil- 
 iation of Germany, and he found it in the petty 
 jealousies and childish narrow-mindedness of the 
 little German States. Once convinced of this, long 
 before the unity of Germany came within the sphere 
 of practical politics he labored earnestly to bring it 
 about. He was not slow to perceive that the arro- 
 gance of Napoleon and the shame and despair of 
 Germany brought with them the germ of a better state 
 of things. In the first place, Napoleon reduced the 
 number of small German States from something like 
 three hundred to thirty. This in itself was no small 
 step towards national unity. In the second place, the 
 anguish and humiliation endured in common by the 
 German populations animated them with a common 
 purpose to throw off the yoke of their oppressor. 
 This was a beginning of a new national life. As 
 Stockmar expressed it, "The people had come to 
 know that hitherto they had had no Fatherland; 
 and from that hour they cherished the resolve to have 
 one. " 
 
106 VICTORIA. 
 
 Stockmar never believed that bad morals could be 
 good politics. It was his creed that wrong-doing 
 brings with it its own inevitable retribution. Imme- 
 diately after the Coup oVctat in December, 1851, he 
 said that out of the elements with which its success 
 had been secured, the devil only could form a stable 
 Government, and that he did not believe in the possi- 
 bility of a permanent rule for his black majesty. His 
 biographer, writing early in 1870, remarks that it 
 yet remained to be seen whether Stockmar 's predic- 
 tion would be fulfilled. Within a few months all 
 doubt on the subject was ended by the cannon of 
 Sedan and the downfall of the Second Empire. 
 
 A character like Stockmar's, with a fixed political 
 and wholly impersonal end in view, is never lacking 
 in self-confidence; he never for a moment swerved 
 from his aim, though after 1848 he realized that he 
 would never probably live to see it accomplished. The 
 fact that practical statesmen thought his dream of 
 German unity under the leadership of Prussia a " bee 
 in his bonnet," did not in the least disturb him. He 
 went on diligently "laying the seed corn," as he 
 himself described it, iu other minds, quietly, almost 
 secretly, knowing that once planted it would grow. 
 After the downfall of the hopes of German unity in 
 1848, Stockmar was not discouraged, nor would he 
 allow discouragement in others. He used to say, 
 "The Germans are a good people, easy to govern; 
 and the German Princes who do not understand this, 
 do not deserve to rule over such a people. Do not be 
 frightened, you younger ones are quite unable to esti- 
 mate how great is the progress which the Germans 
 have made towards political unity. I have lived 
 through it, and I know this people. You are march- 
 ing towards a great future. You will live to see it, 
 not I ; but then think of the old man. " 
 
STOCKMAR. 107 
 
 Stockmar's policy was constantly directed to- 
 wards : — 
 
 1. German unity under the headship of Prussia ; 
 and subsidiary to this : — 
 
 2. A cordial understanding and alliance between 
 England and Germany ; 
 
 3. The harmonizing of democracy with the throne 
 through constitutional monarchy. 
 
 An apparent accident enabled him to obtain a place 
 in the world of European politics, from which he 
 could work for these ends. Born in 1787, the son of 
 a lawyer in the little German town of Coburg, nothing 
 could have appeared less likely than that Christian 
 Friedrich Stockmar would have any weight in settling 
 the affairs of nations. But having been trained for 
 the medical profession, and having distinguished him- 
 self for courage and organizing capacity as an army 
 surgeon, he was appointed physician in the household 
 of Prince Leopold on the occasion of his marriage to 
 Princess Charlotte in 1816. This introduced him to 
 political personages in England. From henceforth 
 we have flashes from the bull's-eye lantern of Stock- 
 mar's letters on the great world of English politics. 
 Nothing escaped his notice, and he gives a series of 
 vignettes of the Royal circle very different in tone 
 from the formal adulation which often characterized 
 such productions. The mulatto countenance of the 
 Queen-mother, Queen Charlotte; the hideous face of 
 the Duke of Cumberland, with one eye turned quite 
 out of its place ; the quiet kindliness of the Duke of 
 Kent; the erect figure, with black hair simply cut, 
 immense hawk's nose, tightly compressed lips, strong, 
 massive under-jaw of the Duke of Wellington, with 
 his easy, simple, friendly manners, and his modera- 
 tion at table, are all noted ; so are Castlereagh's bad 
 French and not very good English ; the Grand Duke 
 
108 VICTORIA. 
 
 Nicholas (afterwards the Emperor Nicholas of the 
 Crimean War), "a singularly handsome, attractive 
 young fellow, . . . very well mannered, with a decided 
 talent for flirting. . . . When Countess Lieven played 
 after dinner on the piano he kissed her hand, which 
 struck the English ladies present as peculiar, but 
 decidedly desirable." Those who are apt to take 
 alarm at the advent of " The New Woman " will per- 
 haps learn with surprise that she is not so very 
 new after all. Mrs. Campbell, Lady-in- Waiting to 
 Princess Charlotte, " opposes everything she sees and 
 hears, and meets everything that men can say or do 
 with such persistent contradiction that we can tell 
 beforehand what will be her answers to our questions. 
 This lady, however, professed man-hater though she 
 was, thought with the rest of the women that the 
 Grand Duke Nicholas was charming." Mrs. Camp- 
 bell could not cease praising him. " What an amiable 
 creature; he is devilish handsome. He will be the 
 handsomest man in Europe," <fec. Stockmar notes 
 the hoidenish manners, good heart, and strong will 
 of Princess Charlotte. " Handsomer than I expected, 
 with most peculiar manners, . . . laughing a great 
 deal, and talking still more." He was, evidently, 
 rather shocked by her want of decorum, but he noted 
 with satisfaction the simplicity and good taste of her 
 dress. He was devoted to his master, and predicts 
 that the Princess's impressionable, generous nature 
 will develop and improve under his influence and that 
 of a refined and affectionate home, which the poor 
 child had never known. The Princess herself said to 
 Stockmar: "My mother was bad, but she would not 
 have become as bad as she was if my father had not been 
 infinitely worse." Stockmar' s affection for Leopold was 
 unbounded ; he spoke of him in a private letter as " My 
 glorious master, a manly prince and a princely man." 
 
STOCKMAR. 109 
 
 Leopold, on his side, spoke of Stockmar as " the most 
 valued physician of his soul and body. " In the Royal 
 household at Claremont he was treated by both the 
 Prince and Princess as a friend, and he fulfilled the 
 duties of private secretary as well as physician to his 
 master. His good sense made him decline to act as 
 medical adviser to Princess Charlotte. This office 
 should, he felt, devolve on an English doctor. This 
 may have been either fortunate for himself or unfor- 
 tunate for the poor Princess, — probably the latter; as 
 there are reasons to believe that he would have pre- 
 scribed a rational treatment in the place of the purg- 
 ing, bleeding, and general lowering of the system 
 which caused her death within a few hours of the 
 birth of her stillborn son. In that dark hour of the 
 loss of all his hopes of domestic happiness and politi- 
 cal ambition, Leopold leant on the firm devotion of 
 Stockmar. He made Stockmar promise never to for- 
 sake him. Kneeling at the bed where his young wife 
 lay dead, Leopold said, "I am now quite desolate. 
 Promise me always to stay with me." He promised. 
 Again later the Prince reminded him of his promise, 
 and asked him if he had considered all that it meant. 
 He renewed the promise ; but even in this moment of 
 supreme emotion he was not carried away, for he did 
 not promise unconditionally. " I said I would never 
 leave him as long as I saw that he confided in me and 
 loved me, and that I could be of use to him." He 
 added, in writing an account of all that had happened 
 to his sister, " I did not hesitate to promise what he 
 may perhaps claim forever, or, perhaps, even next 
 year, may find no longer necessary to him. " TV ith- 
 out building too much on his being permanently 
 necessary to the Prince, he knew that he was necessary 
 to him at the moment. No elder brother was ever 
 more tender than Stockmar to Leopold at the time of 
 
110 VICTORIA. 
 
 his bereavement. He never left him, he slept in his 
 room ; if the Prince woke in the night Stockmar got 
 up and talked him to sleep again. He watched over 
 him morally and physically, and devised remedies 
 and occupations for him. He encouraged him to stay 
 in England and to devote himself to the study of the 
 English language and literature and constitutional 
 history, and to interest himself in the social and 
 political questions of the day. It is probably a uni- 
 versal experience that love and service go together. 
 One never loves, either human beings or causes, till 
 one has done something for them. Therefore the 
 more Stockmar served Leopold the more he loved 
 him; and the relation between them became almost 
 unique in Royal annals. 
 
 He lived with Leopold almost continuously in Eng- 
 land till 1831, when his master was chosen King of 
 the Belgians; the limited monarchy of the Belgian 
 Constitution was as much the work of Stockmar as 
 that of the King. Stockmar returned to England as 
 soon as the birth of the Belgian monarchy was safely 
 accomplished, to wind up the affairs consequent on 
 Leopold's relinquishment of his English annuity ; and 
 when this was completed he retired to Coburg, in 
 1834. Stockmar had strongly advised Leopold on 
 ascending the Belgian throne to give up the .£50,000 
 a year which the House of Commons voted him on his 
 marriage with Princess Charlotte. Leopold consented 
 to do so, charging it, however, with his debts, amount- 
 ing to ,£83,000, and with the keeping up of Claremont, 
 the residue to be repaid to the Treasury. Greville's 
 comment on this arrangement is that the odds were 
 none of it would ever reach the Treasury, and that 
 Leopold would be back before the debts were paid. 
 However, events proved that he had underestimated 
 Leopold's capacity, and the durability of the Belgian 
 
STOCKMAR. Ill 
 
 monarchy. In the storms of 1848, the constitutional 
 thrones of England and Belgium, both of them 
 owing much to Stockmar's political genius, stood firm 
 and strong when nearly every other in Europe was 
 shaken. 
 
 In 1834 it was Stockmar's purpose to retire into 
 private life at Coburg; however, we soon find him 
 engaged in arranging a marriage between Prince 
 Ferdinand of Coburg, a cousin of Prince Albert's, and 
 the Queen of Portugal ; and in May, 1837, he returned 
 to England to furnish help and advice to Princess 
 Victoria immediately upon her attaining her majority. 
 This event took place on May 24th, 1837, and Stock- 
 mar arrived at Kensington on the 25th. The King 
 was even then very ill, and it was certain that the 
 Princess would soon become Queen. Stockmar had 
 known her intimately from her birth, and his presence 
 in England was of the greatest use and assistance to 
 her. George IV. and William IY. had both employed 
 private secretaries. Stockmar arranged that no similar 
 appointment should be made by the young Queen, 
 having in mind that when the time came the proper 
 private secretary would be found in the person of the 
 future husband. The duties of private secretary were 
 therefore divided, as had been seen, between himself, 
 Lord Melbourne, and Baroness Lehzen, formerly the 
 Queen's governess. 
 
 Stockmar's chief work at this time was that of 
 political tutor to the Queen. He drilled her in the 
 principles of constitutional monarchy. In this he 
 was not helped, but was thwarted, by Melbourne, who, 
 as a strong party man, desired to enlist the Sovereign 
 as a partisan of the Whigs. Stockmar's doctrine ever 
 was that the Sovereign was chief, not of a faction, but 
 of the whole nation; that her moderating influence 
 should be brought to bear on successive party leaders, 
 
112 VICTORIA. 
 
 who from time to time might be tempted to sacrifice 
 national interests to party triumphs; that for "the 
 r perfect working of the English constitution, the Sov- 
 ereign should not only set the example of a pure and 
 dignified life, but should be potential in Cabinet and 
 Council, through a breadth of view, unwarped by the 
 bias, and undistracted by the passions, of party, and 
 also, in the case of a long reign, through the weight of 
 an accumulated knowledge and experience, to which 
 not even the most practised statesmen could lay 
 claim. " 
 
 It is needless to say that the eighteen-year-old 
 Queen did not at once appreciate this lofty view of 
 her position and functions. This was reserved for a 
 later period, after she had learned from some of her 
 own mistakes, and when she had associated with her 
 as " permanent Minister, " Stockmar's other pupil, the 
 Prince to whom, in 1840, she gave her hand in 
 marriage. 
 
 We know that Leopold had long ago settled who 
 she Queen's husband should be; but it is character- 
 istic of Stockmar's independence that he was at first 
 by no means sure that his master had made the best 
 choice. He had been so much away from Coburg that 
 he did not know Prince Albert intimately. Leopold 
 sent him as travelling companion to the young Prince 
 on his journey to Italy in 1838, but Stockmar still had 
 his doubts of Prince Albert's strength and energy. 
 He found in him a certain lethargy of mind, and dis- 
 position to spare himself both physically and mentally ; 
 a tendency to impulsiveness, without the continuous 
 motive-force to carry through what he had conceived. 
 He was startled to find in the future husband of the 
 Queen of England an almost entire want of interest 
 in politics; the Prince, in 1838, wished there was 
 only one newspaper, The Augsburg Times ; and he did 
 
STOCKMAR. 113 
 
 not even read that ! Stockmar also found the Prince 
 lacking in ease and grace of manner. He admitted 
 the Prince's many good qualities and great intelli- 
 gence, but wrote, "All this, however, does not yet 
 suffice. He must not only have great capacity, but 
 true ambition and great strength of will. . . . I will 
 watch him closely, and endeavor to become better 
 acquainted with him. If I find that at all points 
 there is sufficient stability in him, it becomes a matter 
 of duty that the first step taken should be to explain 
 to him all the difficulties of the undertaking. " 
 
 It is characteristic of Stockmar that even after he 
 was convinced that he had at first underestimated the 
 Prince, and that it would be impossible to make a 
 better choice of a husband for the Queen, he did not 
 allow politics to exclude morals ; the next step after a 
 suitable education for the Prince was that he should 
 win the affection of the Princess, so that the mar- 
 riage should be founded on a stable basis of mutual 
 love. 
 
 Nothing could be more erroneous than to suppose 
 that Stockmar gained his great influence with the 
 Queen and Prince by judicious flattery. Affection 
 and admiration he had in abundance for both of them ; 
 the Prince especially he came to love as a son; but 
 his rule of conduct with them and with all other Royal 
 personages was to speak out fully and frankly what 
 was in his mind, not at all to echo what he thought 
 was in theirs. He did not in this nor in other things 
 act so much by instinct as by settled rule. " If you 
 are consulted by princes to whom you are attached," 
 he wrote to the Belgian Minister, M. Yan de Weyer, 
 "give your opinion truthfully, boldly, and without 
 reserve. Should your opinion not be palatable, do 
 not, to please or conciliate him, deviate for a moment 
 from what you think the truth. " It was this absolute 
 
114 VICTORIA. 
 
 sincerity which gave his advice its weight and value. 
 His early letters to the Prince are characterized by 
 sharp criticism, such as few young men in any posi- 
 tion would take in good part; and it is very much to 
 the credit of the Prince that he was able to do so ; for 
 instance, on leaving England in 1841, Stockmar wrote 
 a long letter to the Prince, in the course of which he 
 dwells on the tendency he had observed in him to be 
 carried away " by impulses and predilections for men 
 and things which spring from mistaken or perverted 
 feeling. This tendency, which on a close self-scrutiny 
 you will find to be the result either of weakness or 
 vanity, should because of its very origin be most 
 strenuously subdued. The same defect too often leads 
 your Royal Highness, even in matters of moment, to 
 rest satisfied with mere talk, where action is alone 
 appropriate. It is, therefore, not merely unworthy 
 of you, but extremely mischievous." 
 
 Later, in 1847, although his affection for the Prince 
 had grown greatly, and his confidence in his character 
 still more, he calls him sharply to task for regarding 
 the movement in German politics from a too exclu- 
 sively dynastic standpoint, and also, with imperfect 
 information, for expressing an opinion at all ; he tells 
 the Prince that he fails, from lack of knowledge and 
 dynastic prejudice, rightly to grasp and appreciate 
 the actual present condition and wants of the German 
 people; that the current of opinion among thinking 
 people in all classes in Germany was running strongly 
 towards the conviction that the chief impediments to 
 German national life were the dynastic sentiments, 
 the pride and self-seeking of the numerous German 
 princes ; he declares that no men are so ignorant as 
 the German princes of what was going on around 
 them, and that their ignorance, arising from class 
 prejudice, blinds them to their own true interests, 
 
STOCKMAR. 115 
 
 which really lay in the direction of the development 
 of political liberty among their people. He implores 
 the Prince not to come out with a ready-made plan for 
 the regeneration of the Fatherland, which would only 
 betray his ignorance of the vital facts of the situa- 
 tion, and show him to be out of harmony with the 
 spirit and tendency of the age. Nothing could be 
 more outspoken than the whole of the letter, which 
 covers more than seven pages of the biography of the 
 Prince Consort. It shows Stockmar at his best as 
 political preceptor to the Prince, and the Prince at 
 his best as pupil, accepting the lecture with frankness 
 and humility, and without a trace of resentment. 
 
 It appeared from time to time that the Queen was 
 extremely sensitive as to the precedence of the Prince, 
 especially in relation to foreign Sovereigns, and that 
 she desired to confer on her husband the title of King 
 Consort. Stockmar was strongly opposed to this. 
 On a report reaching him in Coburg in 1845, that the 
 matter was about to be broached, he wrote to the 
 Prince : " What can it be which has led to the reopen- 
 ing of that report ? . . . Meanwhile on this head I 
 write a word of warning and entreaty. Never abandon 
 your firm, lofty, powerful, impregnable position in 
 order to run after trifles. You have the substance; 
 stick by it, for the good of your wife and children, 
 and do not suffer yourself to be seduced even by the 
 wishes of affection into bartering substance for show." 
 It was not till 1857 that effect was given to the wishes 
 of the Queen, and the title of Prince Consort was con- 
 ferred on her husband by Letters Patent. In the 
 letter from the Prince conveying this news to Stock- 
 mar he remarks that for nearly nineteen years he has 
 valued above all others his old friend's judgment on 
 matters concerning himself, and he had the satisfac- 
 tion of learning that Stockmar's objection to a change 
 
116 VICTORIA. 
 
 in his title had been abandoned. Stockmar's inde* 
 pendence of Court forms and ceremonies was illus- 
 trated by his habit of slipping away after his numerous 
 and prolonged visits to the Queen and her husband, 
 without telling any one he was going or bidding fare- 
 well to his Royal hosts. They would come to his 
 rooms to find him gone. The same disposition was 
 also shown towards the close of his life by his entirely 
 ceasing to reply to the Prince Consort's constant 
 letters. Stockmar, though not by any means very 
 old, had many of the infirmities of age, and was dis- 
 inclined to write ; therefore he did not write, though 
 the Prince frequently begs quite pathetically for " one 
 little line." 
 
 In the earlier years of the Queen's married life 
 Stockmar watched her development and that of her hus- 
 band with eyes partly parental and partly pedagogic. 
 He wrote to Bunsen in 1847 : — 
 
 "The Prince has made great strides of late. . . . Place weighty- 
 reasons before him, and at once he takes a just and rational view, be the 
 subject what it may. . . . He will now and then run against a post and 
 bruise his shins, but a man cannot become an experienced soldier with- 
 out having been in battle and getting a few blows. . . . His temper is 
 thoroughly free from passion, and he has so keen and sure an eye that 
 he is not likely to lose his way and fall into mistakes. His mind becomes 
 every day more active, and he devotes the greater part of his time to 
 business, without a murmur. The relations between husband and wife 
 are all one could desire. The Queen also improves greatly. She gains 
 daily in judgment and experience. The candor, truthfulness, honesty, 
 and fairness with which she judges of men and things are really delight- 
 ful, and the impartial self-knowledge with which she speaks of herself 
 is thoroughly charming." 
 
 It was Stockmar's habit, rarely departed from 
 between 1840 to 1856, to spend the winter months of 
 each year with the Queen and Prince, and the rest of 
 the year with his own family in Coburg. His politi- 
 cal activity and interests were vigilantly kept up from 
 his own home, but he compares the outlook on politics 
 
STOCKMAR. 117 
 
 in Coburg and London with strong preference for the 
 latter. London, he says, is a high watch-tower, from 
 which he could command the whole of Europe, and 
 Coburg, "a little hole in an old stove." 
 
 He was equally at home in organizing a nursery 
 establishment for the Queen and Prince, in directing 
 the religious and general education of the Royal 
 children, in planning and carrying out extensive 
 reforms in the Royal household, in setting the private 
 financial affairs of the Sovereign on a sound footing, 
 and in far-reaching schemes of political development. 
 He often combined the domestic with the political in 
 a manner that was almost feminine. His chief politi- 
 cal object in life was the unity of Germany under the 
 leadership of Prussia, and secondary to this, the 
 development of a good understanding between Eng- 
 land and Prussia, and the spread of Constitutional 
 monarchy all over the Continent. It was indirectly 
 to serve all these ends that he strongly advised, on 
 the birth of the Prince of Wales, that the King, 
 Frederick William IV., of Prussia should be invited 
 to England to be godfather to the young heir. The 
 King of Hanover, we learn, was furious at this. But 
 Stockmar hoped that the visit of the King of Prussia 
 would promote friendly personal relations between 
 the two Royal Houses ; it is probable that he already 
 had his eye on the little Princess Royal as the future 
 bride of Prince Frederick William of Prussia ; he also 
 expected that the King of Prussia would be favorably 
 impressed by the free political institutions of England, 
 and become less averse to their establishment in his 
 own country. Stockmar's method of recommending 
 Constitutional government to foreign princes was to 
 use every suitable opportunity for having them invited 
 to the English Court, so that the advantages of free 
 institutions might insensibly commend themselves by 
 
118 VICTORIA. 
 
 way of object lessons. Palmerston was also a great 
 admirer of the free institutions of his country; but 
 his way of recommending them to foreign govern- 
 ments was to write despatches from the Foreign Office 
 in London to the English ambassadors in various 
 capitals of Europe, with instructions that these docu- 
 ments were to be communicated to the respective 
 governments to which the ambassadors were accred- 
 ited, to say how vastly superior the English system of 
 government was to that pursued by the benighted 
 foreigner. To have the same end in view and to 
 pursue it by diametrically opposite methods is an 
 almost certain receipt for personal animosity ; and it 
 is not too much to say that Stockmar and Palmerston 
 were actively hostile to each other all through the 
 former's participation in English political life. Yet 
 Palmerston, along with other English statesmen, 
 cordially acknowledged Stockmar's absolute honesty 
 and disinterestedness, and also his great political 
 capacity. Palmerston spoke of Stockmar to Bunsen 
 as the only perfectly disinterested character he had 
 ever met with in the political world; and again on 
 another occasion he said Stockmar had one of the best 
 political heads he had ever known. Stockmar did 
 not return the compliment. He could not forgive 
 Palmerston for pursuing good ends by wrong methods ; 
 he accused him of a narrow insularity, of being flip- 
 pant and obstinate at the same time ; one good quality 
 he allowed him, — that he was not a Frenchman. The 
 antagonism between these two opposing forces in the 
 great world of politics had an important bearing on 
 the personal history of the Queen and her husband, 
 which will be the subject of a future chapter. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NUKSERY. 
 
 The courage of the Queen on the occasion of the 
 attempt by Oxford upon her life was enhanced by the 
 fact that it took place a few months before the birth 
 of her first child. The Queen's natural courage was 
 perhaps fostered on this and other occasions by her 
 having so much to do and to think of besides her own 
 personal concerns. During the months when she was 
 awaiting the birth of her first child, she was up to the 
 eyes in politics. In 1840 there was a premonitory 
 rumbling of the storm in the East, which has so fre- 
 quently broken the rest of Europe. France was frac- 
 tious, and imagined herself slighted by England, and 
 in the summer and autumn of 1840 it looked several 
 times as if the two countries were on the brink of 
 war. The Queen, writing to her uncle, the King of 
 the Belgians, said: "I think our child ought to have, 
 besides its other names, those of Turco-Egypto, as we 
 think of nothing else." If it were true that home 
 duties and political duties were incompatible, the 
 Royal children would have had a sadly-neglected 
 childhood ; but it is a matter of experience that busy 
 people are usually those who find time for everything, 
 and the Queen and her husband were no exception to 
 the rule. There is probably not a mother in England 
 who has given more loving thought and care for her 
 children's welfare than Her Majesty has done. The 
 children and her love for and pride in them are 
 constantly mentioned in the Queen's Journals. In 
 the letters from Princess Alice to the Queen, pub- 
 
120 VICTORIA. 
 
 lished as a memorial of the former, she repeatedly 
 refers to her happy childhood and her desire to pass 
 on a similar training to her own little flock. Under 
 the date of January 1st, 1865, Princess Alice writes 
 to her mother : " All the morning I was telling Louis " 
 (her husband) "how it used to be at home, and how 
 we all assembled outside your dressing-room door to 
 scream in chorus i Prosit Neu jahr, ' and to give to you 
 and papa our drawings, writings, &c, the busy occu- 
 pation of previous weeks. . . . Dear papa bit his lip 
 so as not to laugh. " 
 
 The Princess Royal, now the Empress Frederick of 
 Germany, was born at Buckingham Palace on Novem- 
 ber 21st, 1840. Prince Albert was then having a 
 course of reading in English law with Mr. Selwyn; 
 the tutor arrived on November 23d to continue his 
 instructions. The Prince said : " I fear I cannot read 
 any law to-day. . . . But you will like to see the 
 little Princess. " He took the lawyer into the nursery, 
 and, taking the little hand of the infant in his own, 
 said, " The next time we read it must be on the rights 
 and duties of a Princess Royal. " The Queen made 
 an excellent recovery; then, as always, the Prince 
 was her tender guardian and nurse. No one but him- 
 self ever lifted her from her bed to the sofa, and he 
 always helped to wheel her on her bed or sofa to the 
 next room. However occupied he was, "he ever 
 came," writes the Queen, "with a sweet smile on his 
 face." In short, his care of her was like that of a 
 mother, nor could there be a kinder, wiser, or more 
 judicious nurse. 
 
 At Christmas this year, Prince Albert naturalized 
 the German custom of Christmas-trees in England; 
 there is probably hardly a child in England who has 
 not appreciated their introduction. 
 
 It may be imagined that Stockmar had plenty of 
 
THE NURSERY. 121 
 
 good advice to give the young parents. One of his 
 wise saws was, " A man's education begins with the 
 first day of his life." He undertook in the early 
 years of the Queen's marriage the organization of the 
 nursery department. In one of his letters he says: 
 " The nursery gives me more trouble than the govern- 
 ment of a kingdom would do. " The Princess Royal 
 was always the child nearest his heart. He had an 
 immensely high opinion of her abilities. "I hold 
 her, " he said, " to be exceptionally gifted, even to the 
 point of genius." 
 
 Curiously enough, Melbourne was also consulted 
 (1842) by the Queen and Prince upon the organiza- 
 tion of the nursery, and the choice of a lady to preside 
 over it. 
 
 The Princess showed almost from the day of her 
 birth a very remarkable degree of intelligence. 
 Numerous anecdotes are given of her cleverness and 
 droll sayings as a little girl. The refrain of most of 
 the stories about the Royal children is the Princess 
 Royal's intelligence, and the merry, happy, affection- 
 ate disposition of the Prince of Wales. The little 
 Princess was christened on the anniversary of her 
 parents' marriage, February 10, 1841, and received 
 the names of Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. Two 
 days after this, the Prince had a narrow escape of a 
 painful death, for, in skating on the lake in the gardens 
 of Buckingham Palace, he broke through the ice into 
 deep water. Fortunately the Queen, who was on the 
 bank, did not lose her presence of mind, but did the 
 right thing for affording the Prince the immediate 
 assistance necessary. 
 
 The birth of the Prince of Wales followed very soon 
 after that of the Princess Royal. On Lord Mayor's 
 Day, November 9, 1841, the Queen gave birth to her 
 eldest son. Greville notes with some impatience that 
 
122 VICTORIA. 
 
 the usual formalities were not observed upon this 
 occasion. " From some crotchet of Prince Albert's," 
 he writes, " they put off sending intelligence . . . till 
 so late that several of the dignitaries whose duty it 
 was to assist at the birth, arrived after the event had 
 occurred, particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 and the Lord President of the Council." The Queen 
 probably thought that this was one of the customs 
 more honored in the breach than in the observance, 
 and in this the majority of her subjects would agree 
 with her. The Queen's Diary records that on Novem- 
 ber 21, 1841, the Princess Royal's first birthday, 
 " Albert brought in dearest little Pussy (the Princess 
 Royal) . . . and placed her on my bed, seating him- 
 self next her, and she was very dear and good. And 
 as my precious invaluable Albert sat there, and our 
 little love between us, I felt quite moved with happi- 
 ness and gratitude to God." At Christmas time in 
 this year the Queen's entry is: "To think that we 
 have two children now, and one who enjoys the sight " 
 (of the Christmas-trees) "already, is like a dream." 
 And the Prince, writing to his father on the same 
 occasion, says: "To-day I have two children of my 
 own to give presents to, who y they know not why, are 
 full of happy wonder at the German Christmas-tree 
 and its radiant candles." 
 
 It has been already noted how and why Stockmar 
 urged the selection of the King of Prussia as one of 
 the godfathers of the Prince of Wales, and that the 
 King of Hanover was furious at being passed over. 
 He did not easily forget it when he considered himself 
 slighted, and when the Queen, very magnanimously, 
 invited him to be godfather to Princess Alice in 1843, 
 he vindicated his dignity by arriving too late for the 
 christening. He further endeavored to balance the 
 account between his niece and himself by being rude 
 
EDWARD VII. 
 
 From a photograph taken when he ivas Prince of Wales. 
 
THE NURSERY. 123 
 
 to her husband. Greville says that one day at Buck- 
 ingham Palace he proposed to Prince Albert to take a 
 walk with him in the streets. It has already been 
 mentioned why the Prince never went anywhere un- 
 attended, and the same reason rendered it undesirable 
 that he should be unaccompanied except by the King 
 of Hanover. He therefore excused himself, saying 
 they would be inconvenienced by the crowd of people. 
 The King replied, " Oh, never mind that. I was still 
 more unpopular than you are now, and I used to walk 
 about the streets with perfect impunity." This little 
 pleasantry was pointed by the fact that a feeling of 
 antagonism against Prince Albert was growing up in 
 certain sections of the community, which a few years 
 later reached quite serious dimensions. 
 
 It may be mentioned here that the Queen has all 
 through her life shown herself remarkably free from 
 feeling implacable resentment even against those 
 whose conduct she has at various times most strongly 
 condemned, or against whom she may have been preju- 
 diced. This characteristic, which will be illustrated 
 later by her relations with Lord Palmerston, Lord 
 Beaconsiield, Louis Philippe, and others, was demon- 
 strated now by her magnanimity to her uncle Ernest, 
 King of Hanover. He had plotted against her ; had 
 made things uncomfortable for her mother and herself 
 before her accession; had refused, what she particu- 
 larly valued, to yield precedence to her husband ; had, 
 in a dog-in-the-manger spirit, declined, after he became 
 King of Hanover, to give up apartments in St. James's 
 Palace which were wanted for the Duchess of Kent ; 
 in short, had lost no opportunity of showing himself 
 unfriendly and disagreeable ; yet when her third child 
 was born, Princess Alice, on April 25th, 1843, she 
 invited this uncle, who was a personification of the 
 wicked uncle of fairy tales, to be the new baby's 
 godfather. 
 
124 VICTORIA. 
 
 In 1844, very soon after the birth of a fourth child, 
 Prince Alfred, now Duke of Coburg, the Queen and 
 Prince paid a visit to Scotland, taking the Princess 
 Royal with them. After this the Royal visits to 
 various parts of the kingdom were rendered doubly 
 interesting to the Queen's subjects by the presence of 
 one or more of the blooming group of the rapidly 
 growing family of children. The Prince wrote to his 
 stepmother of this visit to Scotland : " Pussy's cheeks 
 are on the point of bursting, they have grown so red 
 and plump; she is learning Gaelic, but makes wild 
 work with the names of the mountains." 
 
 The Dowager Lady Lyttelton was appointed gov- 
 erness to the Royal children. One of her letters to 
 her own daughter, dated 1844, begins, "Dearest mine 
 daughter, as the Prince of Wales would say." On 
 the third visit to Scotland, in 1847, the two elder 
 children accompanied their parents. The Queen says, 
 in "Leaves from a Journal in the Highlands," "the 
 children enjoy everything extremely, and bear the 
 novelty and excitement wonderfully well." On this 
 occasion the Royal party visited the Duke and Duchess 
 of Argyll at Inverary, and the Queen writes, describ- 
 ing their reception, " Outside stood the Marquis of 
 Lome, just two years old, a dear, white, fat, fair little 
 fellow with reddish hair, but very delicate features, 
 like both his father and mother ; he is such a merry, 
 independent child. " This was the Queen's first sight 
 of her future son-in-law. 
 
 On Her Majesty's first visit to Ireland, 1 in 1849, 
 she took her four eldest children with her (many of us 
 wish she had gone before and gone oftener). She 
 received an intensely enthusiastic welcome. The 
 
 1 The Queen visited Ireland again in 1853 to open the International 
 Exhibition in Dublin; and a third time in 1861, when the Prince of 
 Wales was going through a course of military training at the Curragh. 
 
THE NURSERY. 125 
 
 sight of the Royal squadron entering the magnificent 
 harbor at Kingstown, and the loyalty of the reception 
 of the Queen on landing, made a deep impression. 
 The Times said: — 
 
 " It was a sight never to be forgotten, — a sound to be recollected for- 
 ever. Ladies threw aside the old formula of waving a white pocket- 
 handkerchief, and cheered for their lives, while the men, pressing in so 
 closely as to throng the very edges of the pavilion, waved whatever 
 came first to hand, — hat, stick, wand, or coat, — and rent the air with 
 shouts of joy which never ceased in energy till their Sovereign was out 
 of sight. . . . The Royal children were objects of universal attention 
 and admiration. ' Oh, Queen, dear ! ' screamed a stout old lady, ' make 
 one of them Prince Patrick, and all Ireland will die for you/ " 
 
 Almost every one has a sovereign remedy for Irish 
 disaffection; but few are so easy of application as 
 this. The Queen adopted the old lady's suggestion ; 
 the child born next after the Irish visit, on the Duke 
 of Wellington's birthday, May 1st, 1850, was named 
 Arthur after that great Irishman, and Patrick after 
 Ireland's patron saint; the Irish associations of his 
 name were kept up by his taking the title of Duke of 
 Connaught when he reached man's estate. 
 
 Between the birth of her second and third sons, the 
 Queen had had two more daughters, the Princesses 
 Helena and Louise (now Princess Christian of Schles- 
 wig-Holstein and Marchioness of Lome), born respec- 
 tively on May 25th, 1846, and March 18th, 1848. 
 The name selected for the elder of these two new 
 daughters had a double significance. She was named 
 Helena, not only after her godmother, the Duchess of 
 Orleans, but also to remind English people of what 
 they sometimes forget, that the Empress Helena, 
 mother of Constantine, through whom the Roman 
 Empire was brought over to Christianity, was a 
 British princess, daughter of Coel, King of Camalo- 
 dunum (now Colchester). Prior to the birth of Princess 
 Louise, the Queen had gone through a time of very 
 
126 VICTORIA. 
 
 serious anxiety in regard to political affairs. The 
 revolutionary movement of 1848 was at its height, 
 and though England passed through it safely, yet no 
 one could know at the time that it would do so, and 
 especially that the Chartist movement would not 
 develop in the direction of revolutionary violence. In 
 the early months of this year the Queen had made 
 ready all the rooms at Windsor to receive the fugitive 
 Eoyal Family of France, who arrived one after another 
 in so forlorn a condition that Her Majesty had to 
 clothe as well as shelter them. The Prince's step- 
 grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Gotha, who 
 had been almost a mother to him in his childhood, 
 died just at this time. On every side there appeared 
 trouble and misfortune in both public and private 
 affairs. The Prince wrote on February 29th: — 
 
 " What dismal times are these. . . . Augustus, Clementine, Nemours, 
 and the Duchess of Montpensier, have come to us one by one like people 
 shipwrecked. Victoire, Alexander, the King, the Queen, are still toss- 
 ing on the waves, or have drifted to other shores. . . . France is in 
 flames ; Belgium is menaced. We have a ministerial, money, and tax 
 crisis ; and Victoria is on the point of being confined. My heart is 
 heavy." 
 
 It was in this depression that the courageous heart of 
 the loving woman cheered and sustained that of her 
 husband. As soon as she was able to write after the 
 birth of the new baby, she wrote to her uncle 
 Leopold : — 
 
 " From the first I heard all that passed ; my only thoughts and talk 
 were politics. But I never was calmer, quieter, or less nervous. Great 
 events make me calm ; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves." 
 
 The letter in which the Prince announced to Stock- 
 mar the birth of Princess Louise contains an expres- 
 sion which invites criticism; he writes: "I have good 
 news for you to-day. Victoria was safely delivered 
 this morning, and though it be a daughter, still my joy 
 
THE NURSERY. 127 
 
 and gratitude are very great," &c. The Prince is 
 only responsible for the sentiment, not for the italics ; 
 but why should it be necessary to write in this way of 
 the birth of a daughter even in the dark backward 
 and abysm of time of 1848 ? Mr. George Meredith 
 writes of one of his heroines that she had never gone 
 through the various nursery exercises in dissimula- 
 tion, and "had no appearance of praying forgiveness 
 of men for the original sin of being a woman." But 
 here we have an even more perverted sentiment than 
 that presented by a woman apologizing for being a 
 woman; it is black ingratitude for one of the best 
 gifts God gives to man when either father or mother 
 begrudges a welcome to a new baby on account of its 
 sex. The Queen, we gather, did not give little girls 
 a grudging welcome to this world ; on the birth of her 
 first granddaughter, the Princess Charlotte of Prussia, 
 in 1860, she wrote of the news that "Vicky had a 
 daughter." "What joy! Children jumping about — 
 every one delighted. " The Prince, too, on this occa- 
 sion wrote to the Princess Royal of her little daughter, 
 as " a kindly gift from heaven," and even says, " Little 
 maidens are much prettier than boys. I advise her 
 to model herself on her Aunt Beatrice." 
 
 The birth of Prince Arthur, in 1850, has been 
 already mentioned. He was a magnificent child, 
 and the Queen took all a mother's pride in his beauty 
 and his rapid growth. When Lady Canning was in 
 waiting she tells us of many private visits by the 
 Queen to her in her room to talk about politics and to 
 show the beauty of the latest new baby ; and of Prince 
 Arthur in particular she wrote on September 1st, 
 1850: "The children ... are grown very nice and 
 pretty. Prince Arthur is a magnificent child, and 
 the Queen is quite enchanted to find he is bigger than 
 the keeper's child at Balmoral of the same age, whose 
 
128 VICTORIA. 
 
 measurements she carefully brought back. He has 
 the Royal look I have heard grandmamma talk about, 
 which I think she said was so remarkable in the 
 Queen when a baby." 
 
 The two youngest of the Queen's nine children, 
 Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice, were born 
 respectively on 7th April, 1853, and on 14th April, 
 1857. The Queen's letter announcing Prince Leo- 
 pold's name to her uncle has already been quoted (see 
 p. 24). She said it would recall the days of her 
 childhood to hear " Prince Leopold " again ; among 
 his other names the little Prince was given that of 
 Duncan, in " compliment to dear Scotland. " His deli- 
 cate constitution was a source of anxiety from very 
 early years. He was the only one of the flock of 
 Royal children whose health was not good. It fell to 
 the happy lot of the Princess Beatrice to be the special 
 pet and plaything of her father during the last years 
 of his life, and also, as we all know, to be the com- 
 panion and solace of her mother in later years when 
 all her other daughters had married and left her. 
 There are numerous instances in the later volumes of 
 the " Prince Consort's Life " of his delight in his 
 youngest daughter, "the most amusing baby we have 
 had. " He constantly wrote about her droll ways and 
 sayings to his married daughter in Berlin. Thus in 
 July, 1859, he wrote: "The little aunt makes daily 
 strides, and is really too comical. When she tumbles 
 she calls out in bewilderment, ' She don't like it, 
 she don't like it ! ' and she came into breakfast a 
 short time ago (with her eyes full of tears) moaning, 
 4 Baby has been so naughty, poor baby so naughty,' 
 as one might complain of being ill, or having slept 
 badly," &c. 
 
 In the seventeen years from 1840 to 1857 the Queen 
 had had nine children, all but one of good physical 
 
THE NURSERY. 129 
 
 constitution, all without exception of sound mind, 
 and several very markedly above the average in intel- 
 lectual vigor and capacity. She herself bore the 
 strain of her confinements without any permanent 
 deterioration of her natural vigor. The entry in the: 
 " Prince Consort's Life " in reference to the Queen's 
 health after the birth of her children usually is, " The 
 Queen made a rapid recovery, and was able within a 
 few days to report her convalescence to her uncle at 
 Brussels," or, "The Queen's recovery was unusually 
 rapid." Attention is drawn to these facts in order 
 to controvert the view put forward by the late Mr. 
 Withers Moore, Sir James Creighton Browne, and 
 others, that intellectual activity on the part of women 
 is to be discouraged because it is supposed to be 
 incompatible with the satisfactory discharge of the 
 functions of maternity. The Queen throughout the 
 whole of her married life down to the present time, 
 when she has considerably passed the proverbial three- 
 score years and ten of the allotted span of man's 
 existence, has been immersed in political work, often 
 involving decisions of first-rate importance; she has 
 therefore preserved her vigor of mind and power of 
 work unimpaired; and it is not unfair to conclude 
 that old age has come upon her " frosty but kindly, " 
 partly because she never was satisfied to regard her 
 maternal duties on their physical side only. A cow, 
 a dog, or a lioness has the physical functions and 
 passions of maternity developed in all their beauty 
 and perfection; but a human mother has to aim at 
 being all that animals are to their young, and some- 
 thing more ; if not, she is apt to get into the trough of 
 the wave of mere animalism, and in this case her 
 children will find, when they lose their babyhood, 
 they lose their mother too. The Queen has always as 
 a mother set the best example to her subjects in this 
 
130 VICTORIA. 
 
 respect. Her motherhood has been no mere craze of 
 baby worship. She has ever kept in view high aims 
 for her children and grandchildren, encouraging them 
 to accept nobly the responsibilities and duties of their 
 position. In one of Princess Alice's letters to her 
 mother, written in 1870, she replies to a letter from 
 the Queen upon the bringing up of the little family at 
 Darmstadt; the letter is interesting as throwing a 
 light upon the Queen's own aims in the education of 
 her children. The Princess writes : — 
 
 " What you say about the education of our girls I entirely agree with, 
 and I strive to bring them up totally free from pride of their position, 
 which is nothing save what their personal worth can make it. I read 
 it to the governess, thinking how good it would be for her to hear your 
 opinion. ... I feel so entirely as you do on the difference of rank, and 
 how all important it is for princes and princesses to know that they are 
 nothing better or above others, save through their own merit ; and that 
 they only have the double duty of living for others and being an example 
 good and modest. This I hope my children will grow up to." 
 
 We are not, however, left to infer from the Princess's 
 letters what were the Queen's views on the education 
 of her children; the "Prince Consort's Life" con- 
 tains several memoranda written by Her Majesty her- 
 self on the subject. One of these, written in 1844, 
 says: "The greatest maxim of all is — that the chil- 
 dren should be brought up as simply and in as 
 domestic a way as possible ; that (not interfering with 
 their lessons) they should be as much as possible with 
 their parents, and learn to place their greatest confi- 
 dence in them in all things. " The religious training 
 of the children was given, as much as circumstances 
 admitted, by the Queen herself ; it was based on en- 
 deavoring to implant in the children a loving trust in 
 God as their Father, avoiding all extreme views, and 
 not entering upon the differences of creed. Her 
 Majesty does not approve of the Athanasian Creed 
 forming part of the Church service, and does not 
 
THE NURSERY. 131 
 
 suffer it to be read in her chapels. The Queen's 
 children were not taught to dwell on the supernatural 
 features of the Christian religion, but rather upon the 
 pure and comprehensive morality which it teaches as 
 its essential and indestructible element; they were 
 taught that the conditions of belief in the former may 
 and did vary in various stages of human development, 
 but that the latter was the bed-rock on which the 
 whole structure was founded. 
 
 The Queen and Prince, like other parents, took the 
 keenest and most intense delight in the evidence 
 given from time to time that their children had gifts 
 of mind which would have fitted them to excel in 
 whatever position of life they had been placed. Fre- 
 quent reference will be found in the following pages 
 to their pride in the remarkable intellectual gifts of 
 the Princess Royal, who was described while still a 
 young girl as having "a statesmanlike mind." Their 
 boys were trained as carefully as if no royal road to 
 distinction lay open to them. On returning from 
 their first visit to their married daughter in Prussia 
 in 1858, the Queen and Prince were met by the 
 " delightful news that Affie " (Prince Alfred, aged 14) 
 " had passed an excellent examination " (into the 
 Navy) " and had received his appointment. " He met 
 his father and mother at the private pier at Ports- 
 mouth "in his middle's jacket, cap, and dirk, half 
 blushing and looking very happy. He is a little 
 pulled down from these three days' hard examination, 
 which only terminated to-day. . . . We felt very 
 proud, as it is a particularly hard examination." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOME LIFE. — OSBORNE AND BALMORAL. 
 
 It has already been remarked that the Queen through- 
 out her reign has shown herself a thorough woman in 
 being a good domestic economist. It was quite in 
 accordance with this trait in her character that she 
 and the Prince very early in their married life set 
 themselves the almost Herculean task of the reform 
 of the Royal Household. They found it in thorough 
 disorganization, replete with confusion, discomfort, 
 and extravagance. Various branches of the domestic 
 service in the palaces were under the Heads of Govern- 
 ment Departments; no one was responsible for the 
 order and good administration of the whole. To give 
 some idea of the prevailing confusion, Stockmar's 
 memorandum on the subject may be quoted where he 
 points out that the Lord Chamberlain cleans the 
 inside of the windows, and the Wood and Forests the 
 outside. The degree of light admitted to the palace 
 therefore depended on a good understanding between 
 the two. Again, "The Lord Steward finds the fuel 
 and lays the fire, the Lord Chamberlain lights it. 
 . . . In the same manner the Lord Chamberlain 
 provides all the lamps, and the Lord Steward must 
 clean, trim, and light them." If a pane of glass in 
 the scullery had to be replaced, or a broken lock 
 mended, a requisition had to be signed and counter- 
 signed by no fewer than five different officials before 
 the expenditure was finally sanctioned by the Woods 
 and Forests, or the Lord Steward, as the case might 
 
HOME LIFE. — OSBORNE AND BALMORAL. 133 
 
 be. Some of the servants were under the Lord Cham- 
 berlain, some under the Master of the Horse, some 
 under the Lord Steward; as neither the first nor 
 second of these State officials had any permanent 
 representative in the palace, more than two-thirds of 
 the male and female servants were left without any 
 master or mistress at all. They came and went as 
 they pleased, and sometimes remained absent for hours, 
 or were guilty of various irregularities, and there was 
 no one whose duty it was to control them. There 
 was no one official responsible for the cleanliness, 
 order, and security of the palace ; and if the dormi- 
 tories where the footmen slept, ten and twelve in a 
 room, were turned into scenes of riot and drunken- 
 ness, no one could help it. So little watch was kept 
 over the various entrances to the palaces, that there 
 was nothing to prevent people from walking in unob- 
 served, and, as a matter of fact, shortly after the birth 
 of the Princess Royal, a boy did walk into Bucking- 
 ham Palace in this way, and was accidentally dis- 
 covered at one o'clock in the morning under a sofa in 
 the room adjoining the Queen's bedroom. The stupid- 
 ity, disorganization, and wastefulness of the whole 
 thing were boundless ; the only redeeming point was 
 that there appeared to be no corruption. Her Majesty 
 might find it impossible to get her dining-room 
 warmed because of a coolness between the Lord Cham- 
 berlain's and the Lord Steward's departments; but 
 she was not called upon to pay for fuel she had never 
 received, or for services that had been discontinued 
 since the death of Queen Anne. Some idea of the 
 scale in which the housekeeping at Windsor is con- 
 ducted may be gathered from the fact that in one year 
 (1842), which does not appear to have been in any way 
 exceptional, as many as 113,000 people dined there, 
 so that there was a magnificent scope either for waste 
 
134 VICTORIA. 
 
 or economy. The reform of the Household was carried 
 out on lines suggested by Stockmar, but in a manner 
 thoroughly congenial with English precedent. The 
 three great State officers between whom the control 
 of the Household was shared, were retained, but their 
 duties were delegated to one official, the Master of 
 the Household, who was always to be resident at 
 Court, and who was made responsible for the good 
 government of the Royal establishments. It is easy 
 to mention in three lines that the thing was done, but 
 its actual accomplishment was by no means easy. A 
 good deal of opposition was encountered from the 
 heads of both political parties, as well as from those 
 more directly interested in the abuses of the old system, 
 and the efforts of the Queen and her husband to intro- 
 duce internal economy and order into their home 
 were not crowned with success short of three years' 
 continuous effort, between 1841 and 1844. 
 
 The advantages of these reforms in household man- 
 agement could not but commend themselves to so 
 good an economist as Sir Robert Peel. In 1844 the 
 Queen had entertained at Windsor, on a scale of 
 becoming magnificence, the Sovereigns of Russia and 
 France ; and Peel had the satisfaction of announcing 
 in the House that the Royal visits had not added one 
 farthing to the burdens on the taxpayer. In former 
 times, during the visit, for instance, of the Allied 
 Sovereigns in 1814, the country had to pay for the 
 entertainment of the Royal guests ; but this was now 
 changed, and the Queen provided for her Royal and 
 Imperial guests out of the Civil List. 
 
 The little glimpse that has been given of life in a 
 palace, where the head of the house finds her house- 
 maids under the Lord Steward, and her pages under 
 the Master of the Horse, enables us to understand 
 some of the satisfaction which the Queen enjoyed 
 
HOME LIFE.— OSBORNE AND BALMORAL. 135 
 
 when she became possessed of country homes, one in 
 the Isle of Wight, and the other in Scotland, that were 
 entirely her own. When the purchase of Osborne 
 was just accomplished, the Queen wrote (March 25th, 
 1845) to her uncle at Brussels, " It sounds so pleasant 
 to have a place of one's own, quiet and retired, and 
 free from all Woods and Forests and other charming 
 departments, which really are the plague of one's 
 life. " 
 
 The purchase of the estate and the building of the 
 house, costing something like £200,000, were met by 
 the Queen without difficulty out of her income, so 
 greatly had her resources been practically increased 
 by good management and wise economy in the admin- 
 istration of the household. In the same spirit the 
 estates of the Duchy of Cornwall, the property of the 
 Prince of Wales, were carefully managed for his bene- 
 fit, so that a very large property from them awaited 
 him as soon as he attained his majority. The Prince 
 Consort's love for landscape gardening found ample 
 scope both at Osborne and Balmoral. The work was 
 for several years a constant source of recreation and 
 delight to him. Of Osborne in particular, he felt that 
 he could say that the gardens were his creation ; there 
 was hardly a tree in the grounds that had not been 
 placed there by him. Lady Canning wrote from 
 Osborne in 1846, in one of her private letters, " You 
 will be pleased to hear of this rural retreat. . . . 
 Whatever it is, it perfectly enchants the Queen and 
 Prince, and you never saw anything so happy as they 
 are with the five babies playing round about them. " 
 The Royal children had at Osborne a place that was 
 especially their own, a thing that all children love; 
 thousands of country homes all over England have 
 some Noah's Ark or Pigs' Paradise, where the boys 
 and girls are masters of the situation, and may car- 
 
136 VICTORIA. 
 
 penter, paint, cook, cut their hands and burn their 
 fingers without let or hindrance from nurses or gov- 
 ernesses. The Royal children at Osborne had their 
 Swiss Cottage. Here the boys had a forge and a 
 carpenter's bench, or learnt the art of war by mak- 
 ing fortifications, and the girls had little gardens and 
 kitchens and rooms for their special games and pas- 
 times; there was also a Natural History museum 
 which was a source of much interest and delight. 
 
 There is another feature of the gardens at Osborne 
 which should be mentioned, an immense myrtle-tree 
 which was struck from a sprig of myrtle from the 
 wedding bouquet of the Princess Royal ; every Royal 
 bride in the Queen's family carries a piece of this 
 myrtle with her to the altar on her marriage-day. 
 The Queen has twice sent sprays of this myrtle as far 
 as St. Petersburg, once in 1874, for the bridal bouquet 
 of her daughter-in-law, the Archduchess Marie, now 
 Duchess of Coburg, and once in 1894, for the bouquet 
 of her granddaugher, the Princess Alix of Hesse, now 
 the wife of the Czar of Russia. On the former occa- 
 sion the myrtle was intrusted to the care of Lady 
 Augusta Stanley, and the Queen gave her special 
 instructions how to revive it in tepid water. 
 
 Osborne was a harbor of refuge to which the Queen 
 and Prince could run for a few days' rest at any time 
 when they felt their strength almost exhausted from 
 the constant pressure of political work and responsi- 
 bility ; but they had an even more dearly loved holiday 
 resort in their home in the Highlands at Balmoral. 
 The Prince was always extremely sensitive to good 
 air, and the smoky atmosphere of towns was peculiarly 
 oppressive to him; he used to exclaim on reaching 
 the pure country air, " Now I can breathe ! Now I am 
 happy ! " The fine air of Dee-side was life and breath 
 to him. In addition to the benefit to their health, the 
 
HOME LIFE. — OSBORNE AND BALMORAL. 137 
 
 Royal couple delighted in Scotland for other reasons, 
 the chief of which was that they could enjoy there a 
 degree of freedom to which they were strangers else- 
 where. Highland loyalty is compatible with perfectly 
 good manners, and the poor people round Balmoral 
 did not demonstrate their affection for their Sovereign 
 by staring at her as if she were a waxwork show, or 
 dogging her carriage or her footsteps whenever she 
 went beyond her own gates. The Highland servants 
 combined perfect respect with independence of char- 
 acter. The Queen delighted in them, and found real 
 friends in several of them. The Royal family could 
 make little incognito expeditions in Scotland, and stay 
 at small country inns as Lord and Lady Churchill 
 and party, without any danger of being found out ; or 
 if they were found out, the people who made the dis- 
 covery were too well bred to proclaim it, and showed 
 their loyalty by respecting the wishes of their Sov- 
 ereign to enjoy privacy. In the years before the 
 Prince Consort's death the Queen's Ladies-in-Wait- 
 ing, writing from Scotland, frequently speak of Her 
 Majesty's high spirits, her love of dancing, and her 
 enjoyment of rapid driving. 
 
 Lady Canning wrote in the autumn of 1848 from 
 Balmoral : — 
 
 " The Queen has been up a really high mountain to-day, and has 
 come down quite fresh after many hours. . . . The Queen is more and 
 more delighted with Balmoral. She makes long expeditions alone with 
 the Prince and gamekeepers, and has never been so independent before. 
 . . . She went up Loch-na-gar, . . . and the same evening entertained 
 all the neighbors at dinner, and was as fresh and merry as if she had 
 done nothing." 
 
 Four years later, Lady Canning wrote again from 
 Balmoral : — 
 
 " The Queen is fonder than ever of this place, and the Prince's shoot- 
 ing improves. The children are as merry as grigs, and I hear the 
 Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, who live under me, singing away 
 out of lesson-time as loud as ever they can." 
 
138 VICTORIA. 
 
 Greville gives a description of the Royal Family at 
 Balmoral, which deserves notice, especially as he had 
 seen so much of Kings and Queens, and had no great 
 affection for them ; he was summoned to Balmoral for 
 a Council meeting in 1849, before the present house, 
 which is on a larger scale than the old one, was built ; 
 he writes : — 
 
 " Much as I dislike Courts and all that appertains to them, I am 
 glad to have made this expedition, and to have seen the Queen and 
 Prince in their Highland retreat, where they certainly appear to great 
 advantage. The place is very pretty, the house very small. They live 
 not merely like private gentlefolks, but like very small gentlefolks, — 
 small house, small rooms, small establishment. 1 There are no soldiers. 
 . . . They live with the greatest simplicity and ease. The Prince 
 shoots every morning, returns to luncheon, and then they walk and 
 drive. The Queen is running in and out of the house all day long, and 
 often goes about alone, walks into the cottages, and sits down and chats 
 with the old women. I never before was in the society of the Prince, 
 or had any conversation with him. ... I was greatly struck with him. 
 I saw at once (what I had always heard) that he is very intelligent and 
 highly cultivated, and, moreover, that he has a thoughtful mind, and 
 thinks of subjects worth thinking about. He seemed very much at his 
 ease, very gay, pleasant, and without the least stiffness or air of dignity." 
 
 He then mentions an excursion in the afternoon in 
 two pony carriages to the Highland gathering at 
 Braemar, and that the evening wound up with a visit 
 from a Highland dancing-master, who gave all the 
 party, except himself and Lord John Russell, lessons 
 in reels. 
 
 The Queen's half-brother, Prince Charles of Lei- 
 ningen, had been their companion on one of the very 
 early visits of the Royal Family to Scotland. He 
 died in 1856, and this loss was the first heart grief 
 that the Queen had been called upon to endure. She 
 was very tenderly attached to her half-brother and 
 sister. The letters from the latter 2 in the " Prince 
 
 1 The new house at Balmoral was not finished till 1855. 
 
 2 The Princess Peodore of Hohenlohe. 
 
HOME LIFE. — OSBORNE AND BALMORAL. 139 
 
 Consort's Life " indicate that hers was a noble soul, 
 one of those beautiful natures, strong in love and 
 spiritual insight, who, whether born in the palace or 
 the cottage, are as a sheet-anchor to those who are 
 baffled by the waves of sorrow and suffering. 
 
 A rather curious incident in the Queen's private life 
 may here be mentioned. A perfect stranger to her, 
 Mr. Neale, died in 1852, and left her a legacy of 
 £200,000. Her Majesty, on hearing of this, at once 
 declared that if he had any relatives she would not 
 accept the money ; but it appeared that he had none. 
 
 The various attacks that have been made on the 
 Queen's life belong more, perhaps, to her private than 
 to her public life, for they have been the work of 
 half-witted scoundrels rather than of political desper- 
 adoes. In Ireland, when a murder is neither political 
 nor agrarian, it is sometimes described as "merely a 
 friendly affair;" and there is an undoubted satisfac- 
 tion in the fact that the shots fired at the Queen have 
 had no political aim. The first attempt on her life 
 has been already recorded. On the second occasion 
 the Queen again displayed a very remarkable degree 
 of courage, for she drove out alone with the Prince 
 when she knew that very probably she would be the 
 aim of an assassin's bullet. It was in 1842, on Sun- 
 day, May 29, the Queen and Prince were returning 
 from the Chapel Royal, St. James's, in a carriage 
 along the Mall, when the Prince distinctly saw a 
 man step out from the crowd, present a pistol full 
 at them, and pull the trigger. He was only two 
 paces distant, and the Prince heard the trigger snap, 
 so there was no mistake about it. Fortunately, the 
 weapon missed fire, and at first the Prince thought 
 that no one but himself had seen what had happened. 
 However, the attempt had been seen by two persons 
 in the crowd, a boy and an old gentleman; the old 
 
140 VICTORIA. 
 
 gentleman did nothing, but the boy came the next 
 day, and reported what he had seen at the Palace. 
 The Home Office and the police were communicated 
 with, and there was naturally a good deal of excite- 
 ment on the part of the Queen and Prince. They at 
 once determined not to shut themselves up, but to 
 take their drive as usual, although they knew that the 
 would-be assassin was at large. The only difference 
 they made in her usual habits was that they went 
 alone, without either a Lady-in-Waiting or a Maid of 
 Honor in the carriage. They took the precaution of 
 giving orders to drive faster than usual, and the Queen 
 always drove fast, and two equerries on horseback 
 accompanied the carriage. Nearly at the end of their 
 drive, between the Green Park and the garden wall of 
 Buckingham Palace, they were shot at again by the 
 same man who had made the attempt the day before. 
 When he fired he was only about five paces off. The 
 shot, the Prince wrote, must have passed under the 
 carriage. The fellow (John Francis) was immedi- 
 ately seized. He was not crazy, but just a thorough 
 scamp, "a little swarthy, ill-looking rascal." The 
 same evening at dinner the Queen turned to one of 
 her Maids of Honor, who had been rather put out at 
 not being required to attend the Queen on her drive, 
 and said, " I dare say, Georgy, you were surprised at 
 not driving with me this afternoon, but the fact was 
 that as we returned from church yesterday a man pre- 
 sented a pistol at the carriage window, which flashed 
 in the pan, and we were so taken by surprise he had 
 time to escape, so 1 knew what was hanging over me, 
 and was determined to expose no life but my own. " 
 The Queen's uncle, Count Mensdorff, was very proud 
 of his niece's courage, and called her sehr milthig, 
 which pleased her very much, coming, as the compli- 
 ment did, from a soldier who had seen much service. 
 
HOME LIFE. — OSBORNE AND BALMORAL. 141 
 
 Greville's comment on the Queen's conduct is : " Very 
 brave, but very imprudent." A couple of months 
 later, in July, 1842, another of these dastardly 
 attempts was made on Her Majesty's life, this time by 
 a hunchback named Bean. Oxford had been treated 
 as a lunatic, and sent to an asylum ; Francis had been 
 found guilty of high treason, and sentenced to death ; 
 but, at the Queen's strongly expressed wish, the sen- 
 tence had been commuted to transportation for life. 
 This leniency had been made public only the day 
 before Bean's attempt, and the circumstance strength- 
 ened Her Majesty's conviction that an alteration in 
 the law was desirable. Up to this time it was only 
 possible to deal with these outrages either as lunacy 
 or as high treason, for which the penalty was death. 
 After Bean's attempt a Bill was immediately intro- 
 duced, and carried, making such offences punishable, 
 as misdemeanors, by transportation, imprisonment, 
 or whipping. The substitution of an unromantic, but 
 certain, punishment, for a dignified, but uncertain 
 one, had the desired effect, and these scoundrelly 
 attacks upon the Queen ceased to be fashionable in 
 the criminal world. Feints at attempted assassina- 
 tion were made in 1849 by an Irish brickylayer, and 
 in 1872 by a lad named O'Connor, who appears to 
 have been a Fenian; but the weapons used by these 
 worthies were not charged except with powder. In 
 1882 a man named Maclean fired at the Queen as she 
 was entering her carriage at Windsor Station. He 
 was found on trial to be insane. In June, 1850, she 
 was struck on the face with a cane by a man named 
 Pate, who had been a lieutenant in the army. The 
 Prince Consort said this man -was "manifestly de- 
 ranged." The chivalrous nature of Peel was strongly 
 moved by the attacks of Francis and Bean, which 
 took place while he was Prime Minister. After 
 
142 VICTORIA. 
 
 Bean's attempt he hurried up to town to see the 
 Prince, and consult with him on what ought to be 
 done. While he was in conversation with the Prince 
 the Queen entered the room, and Peel's emotion was 
 so great that his habitual self-control left him, and 
 he burst into tears. When it is remembered that 
 only a few months earlier Greville had said, "Peel 
 is so shy he makes the Queen shy," it is impossible 
 not to surmise that this touch of nature may have 
 brought about the final breaking down of reserve and 
 coldness between the Queen and her Prime Minister. 
 
 In various memoirs of the time, little pictures are 
 given of "the Queen at Sea." She is a good sailor, 
 and thoroughly enjoys the element over which Britan- 
 nia rules. She likes sailors, and understands them. 
 Greville tells that nothing could be more easy and 
 agreeable than her demeanor on board her Royal 
 yacht, " conversing all the time with perfect ease and 
 good humor, and on all subjects, taking great interest, 
 and very curious about everything in the ship, dining 
 on deck in the midst of the sailors, making them 
 dance, talking to the boatswain, and, in short, doing 
 everything that was popular and ingratiating." He 
 complains, however, that she was impatient, and 
 always wanted to be going ahead, and to do everything 
 quickly ; whereas the genuine sailor has an unfathom- 
 able capacity for loafing. Lady Bloomfield, when 
 Miss Georgina Liddell, attended the Queen as one of 
 her Maids of Honor on a yachting cruise in 1843. 
 She narrates how the Queen and her ladies settled 
 themselves for reading and work in a very comfortable 
 and sheltered place on deck, when they became aware 
 that the position they had taken up was the subject of 
 something like consternation to the captain and crew. 
 The Queen laughingly inquired if there was about to 
 be a mutiny? The captain in the same spirit replied 
 
HOME LIFE. — OSBORNE AND BALMORAL. 143 
 
 that he could be answerable for nothing unless Her 
 Majesty would be graciously pleased to change her 
 seat. The chairs of the ladies were blockading the 
 grog cupboard ! As soon as the Queen was informed 
 of this, she consented to move her chair, on condition 
 that she was to share the sailors' grog. On tasting 
 it she said, " I am afraid I can only make the same 
 remark I did once before, that I think it would be 
 very good if it were stronger ! " The hint was taken, 
 and the sailors were of course delighted by the Queen's 
 good-nature. 
 
 One more little home touch must conclude this chap- 
 ter. Reference has already been made to the Queen's 
 reluctance to part from the Prince even for a few days. 
 When it was necessary for him to leave her, he kept 
 her constantly supplied with diary-letters, showing 
 that his thoughts and heart were ever with her. On 
 one of these absences, occasioned by the death of his 
 father, the Duke of Coburg, in 1844, Prince Albert 
 was away a fortnight. His own entry in his journal 
 thus records his return: "Crossed on the 11th. I 
 arrived at six o'clock in the evening at Windsor. 
 Great joy. " 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FORTY-THREE TO FORTY-EIGHT. 
 
 The Queen's first visit to a foreign country took place 
 in September, 1843, when she and the Prince visited 
 Louis Philippe and his family at Chateau d'Eu, near 
 Tr^port. It was not only the Queen's first visit to 
 France, but the first time since the Field of the Cloth 
 of Gold that an English reigning sovereign had been 
 in France ; and even then the meeting of the two sov- 
 ereigns had taken place on English territory near 
 Calais. The Queen was enchanted with everything 
 she saw. She had to the full the keen and vivid 
 interest which is almost invariably awakened by see- 
 ing for the first time all those innumerable little 
 differences in every-day things which make a first 
 foreign visit such a revelation. If she was delighted 
 with France, she was no less so with her hosts, the 
 King of the French and his family. She had been for 
 six years Queen of England, and it was, perhaps, a 
 refreshment to her to associate with those who were 
 not her subjects, but her equals. She wrote in her 
 journal, "I feel so gay and happy with these dear 
 people." Louis Philippe, on his part, was extremely 
 anxious to make her visit agreeable to her. He 
 highly appreciated the honor she was conferring on 
 him. The representatives of the ancient monarchies 
 of Europe did not view him with any cordiality. He 
 was not king by divine right, but by the choice of the 
 French people; the rightful King of France, in the 
 view of the Emperors of Russia and Austria, was 
 the exiled Comte de Chambord, Henry V. as they 
 
FORTY-THREE TO FORTY-EIGHT. 145 
 
 called him. Hence Louis Philippe cordially wel- 
 comed the social prestige which he gained by receive 
 ing a visit from the Queen of England. The King 
 expressed his obligations on this score to Prince 
 Albert over and over again. 
 
 The Earl of Aberdeen, the Foreign Secretary of 
 the day, accompanied the Queen and Prince to France. 
 The English Foreign Office at this time regarded with 
 apprehension a scheme which they believed Louis 
 Philippe and his Minister, Guizot, had in view of 
 strengthening French interests in Spain by marrying 
 one of the King's sons to the young Queen Isabella. 
 Louis Philippe, on the occasion of the Queen's visit, 
 assured her most positively, and Guizot said the same 
 thing to Aberdeen, that he had no wish or intention 
 of the kind, that even if his son were asked in mar- 
 riage for the Queen of Spain, he would not consent. 
 The Queen of Spain and her sister the Infanta were 
 then young girls of thirteen and twelve respectively. 
 The French King's assurances to our Queen went so 
 far as a positive promise that even if one of his sons 
 should eventually marry the Infanta, he should not 
 consent to the union until after the Queen of Spain 
 was married and had children. It is unnecessary to go 
 at length into the wretched story. Louis Philippe and 
 Guizot covered themselves with infamy. Through 
 their influence a hateful marriage was forced on 
 Queen Isabella, her consent to it being, it is said, 
 wrung from her under the influence of intoxication; 
 from this marriage it was hoped and believed that no 
 children would be born. At the same time that this 
 so-called marriage was announced, it was also made 
 public that the Infanta would be married to the Due 
 de Montpensier, son of Louis Philippe. The two 
 marriages took place on the same day, October 10th, 
 1846. Well might Stockmar write of this odious 
 
 10 
 
146 VICTORIA. 
 
 transaction, as "a political intrigue which exceeds 
 in immorality and vulgarity everything brought out 
 in modern times on the theatre of politics; a part 
 which would have shut out any one who had attempted 
 to play it in the circle of private life from all 
 respectable society." 
 
 Our Queen was deeply incensed; her whole soul 
 revolted from the wickedness of the scheme, and she 
 had the added bitterness of feeling that Louis 
 Philippe had been guilty of personal deception towards 
 herself. It was he who introduced the subject when 
 she visited him at Eu, and gave her assurances upon 
 it, unsought by her, and lightly broken by him. His 
 way of announcing the project to her did not mend 
 matters. He was ashamed to broach the subject in a 
 formal manner, and he got his wife to tell the Queen 
 as a detail of family news in a private and friendly 
 letter, speaking of it as if it were of no political 
 importance, but simply an event that would add to 
 the domestic happiness ("le seul vrai dans ce monde," 
 the poor Queen Marie Amelie was made to say) of the 
 French Royal Family. Our Queen's reply was exceed- 
 ing dignified, severe, short, and self-restrained. It 
 left no doubt as to her sentiments; and nothing is 
 more indicative of Louis Philippe's bad conscience in 
 the matter than the fact, which he himself admits, 
 that he sat up till four in the morning on three 
 following nights composing a reply in which he 
 endeavored in vain to justify himself. 1 
 
 It is of course quite open to doubt whether the Eng- 
 lish Foreign Office had been justified in regarding 
 
 1 The poor excuse put forward by Louis Philippe was that the 
 English Foreign Secretary, then Lord Palmerston, was manoeuvring to 
 bring about a marriage between a Coburg Prince and the Queen of 
 Spain. There was no foundation for this charge ; but Louis Philippe 
 seems to have had a terror of Lord Palmerston which deprived him of 
 all self-control, and capacity for judging of evidence. 
 
FORTY-THREE TO FORTY-EIGHT. 147 
 
 with apprehension the possible accession of a grandson 
 of Louis Philippe to the troublous royalty of Spain. 
 Cobden and the school he represented in England did 
 not think it mattered a straw to England, from the 
 political point of view, whom the Queen of Spain 
 married. But the transaction could not be looked at 
 as merely political. It was condemned throughout 
 the length and breadth of England as grossly immoral, 
 and the disgust it occasioned was all the greater on 
 account of the pretensions to high motives and to 
 religious principles assumed by the French King and 
 his Minister. 
 
 Events soon confirmed the views of the Queen and 
 Prince, so often inculcated by Stockmar, that sorrow 
 will always be found dogging sin. The Spanish mar- 
 riages took place in October, 1846 : in fifteen months 
 from that time Louis Philippe and the dynasty he 
 hoped to found had been swept away; the little 
 Spanish daughter-in-law whose son he had hoped 
 might wear the crown of Spain was, with other mem- 
 bers of his family, fugitive in England, indebted for 
 shelter and even clothing to our Queen, who forgot 
 all her resentment, and gave them a most kind wel- 
 come. Nothing came about as Louis Philippe had 
 planned. The Queen of Spain had children; her 
 grandson is now the baby King of Spain, and Louis 
 Philippe's great-grandson, exiled from France, is 
 addressing futile 1 proclamations from English soil, 
 to assure the French people that when they want him, 
 which they show no sign of doing, he is ready to 
 ascend the throne of his ancestors. It has been 
 remarked that a strange fatality attended on many 
 of the chief actors in the Spanish marriages. The 
 French Minister at M'adrid, M. Bresson, committed 
 suicide in 1847. Louis Philippe and his dynasty were 
 
 1 See Times, January 18th, 1895. 
 
148 VICTORIA. 
 
 overthrown in 1848. Queen Isabella was deposed in 
 1868. Her son, Alfonso XII., married his cousin 
 Princess Mercedes Montpensier. She died, not with- 
 out suspicions of poisoning, within a year of her 
 marriage ; and he died, while still quite a young man, 
 before the birth of his only son by his second mar- 
 riage. Before the accession of Alfonso XII. , the 
 question of a successor to Queen Isabella was the 
 proximate cause of the French and German War of 
 1870-71. 
 
 Cobden, travelling in France very shortly before the 
 outbreak of 1848, saw nothing which led him to expect 
 any political disturbance; he believed the future to 
 promise nothing but tranquillity and commercial 
 development, and that Free Trade spelt "peace on 
 earth. " 
 
 Stockmar was a Free Trader too, but he had learnt 
 that that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
 which is born of the spirit is spirit. He did not look 
 for spiritual results from purely material causes ; and 
 perhaps his vantage-ground on what he called the 
 watch-tower of London, or even his position at the 
 " hole in the stove " in Coburg, enabled him to gauge 
 more correctly than Cobden the political forces of the 
 time. He had foreseen the outbreak of revolution, as 
 the result to be expected from despotism and bad 
 government on the Continent, added to the misery 
 and destitution of the great masses of the people. 
 The storm of 1848 did not find him unprepared; and 
 in England and Belgium, where the principles of con- 
 stitutionalism, as understood and taught by him, had 
 taken firm hold, were almost the only countries in 
 Europe where revolution did not get the upper hand. 
 
 But although this was so, 1848 was a sufficiently 
 serious time in England. In Ireland the misery of 
 the people had amounted to actual famine, and not- 
 
FORTY-THREE TO FORTY-EIGHT. 149 
 
 withstanding everything that lavish expenditure and 
 devoted services, both by public servants and private 
 individuals, could do, hundreds of thousands perished 
 from starvation or its attendant pestilence. In the 
 Union of Skibbereen nearly the whole population, 
 11,000 persons, perished. The shopkeepers of the 
 little Kerry town of Kenmare told the writer of these 
 pages in 18T0 that during the worst months of the 
 famine of 1847 they seldom took down their shutters 
 in the morning without finding one or two corpses in 
 the street, poor things who had been living in the 
 mountains and had just had strength to crawl down 
 into Kenmare to die. And what was famine in Ire- 
 land was the bitter pinch of scarcity in England and 
 Scotland. In February, 1847, wheat was 102 shillings 
 a quarter ; added to this there was a general sense of 
 alarm and absence of security, bringing with it want 
 of capital, want of employment, want of wages. 
 There was hardly a house, rich or poor, that was not 
 suffering loss ; but while to the rich the loss meant 
 giving up luxuries which only custom had made seem 
 necessaries, to the poor it meant actual want and 
 privation ; 1 when men are low and miserable, and 
 feel they have nothing to lose, is the time when revo- 
 lutionary propaganda works like wildfire among them. 
 There was an avowedly revolutionary political party 
 in Ireland, always ready to take advantage of any 
 difficulty the Government might be in, foreign or 
 domestic, in order to harass and thwart them. 
 " Refuse us this " (repeal of the Union) O'Connell had 
 said in 1840, when war with France hung in the 
 
 1 Greville anticipated that the troubles of the time would affect him 
 to the extent of the loss of half his income. He did not whine, but said, 
 though he should not like it, he hoped and believed he could accommo- 
 date himself to the necessary change in his habits without repining 
 outwardly or inwardly. 
 
150 VICTORIA. 
 
 balance about the Eastern Question, " and then in the 
 day of your weakness dare to go to war with the most 
 insignificant of the powers of Europe. " In 1848, the 
 mantle of O'Connell had fallen on John Mitchel, who, 
 in his paper called The United Irishman, gave instruc- 
 tions for the successful carrying on of revolutionary 
 street warfare; he recommended the covering of the 
 streets with broken glass to lame the horses of the sol- 
 diery, and suggested that the citizens should provide 
 themselves with missiles to throw from the houses; 
 these, he said, could be used with great effect from the 
 elevation of a top story, especially if forethought had 
 been used to provide "boiling water or grease, or, 
 better, cold vitriol if available. Molten lead is good, 
 but too valuable ; it should always be cast in bullets 
 and allowed to cool." This and a great deal of simi- 
 lar rubbish was poured forth day by day, or week by 
 week, in the rebel papers. It would be harmless 
 enough in an ordinary way ; but amid the excitements 
 of 1848, and addressed to such an excitable people, it 
 might have proved a spark in a powder magazine. 
 Mr. Mitchel proclaimed his intention of committing 
 high treason, but he was arrested before he had had 
 an opportunity of doing so. A deputation of Irish 
 revolutionists was sent to the Provisional Government 
 in Paris to demand " what they were sure to obtain, 
 the assistance of 50,000 troops for Ireland." The 
 French Government absolutely declined the proposal, 
 and said they were at peace with Great Britain, and 
 wished to remain so. Mitchel was sentenced to trans- 
 portation, and the heads of the deputation to Paris 
 were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to 
 death. Their sentences were, however, commuted to 
 transportation, and then the fate which so often 
 throws a ludicrous aspect over Irish revolutionary 
 affairs overtook them; they denied the right of the 
 
FORTY-THREE TO FORTY-EIGHT. 151 
 
 Crown to reduce the severity of their sentences, and 
 demanded that they should either be set at liberty, or 
 hanged, drawn, and quartered, — a request which it is 
 needless to say was disregarded. 
 
 But Ireland was not the only source of anxiety; 
 there was a threatening of riot and pillage in Scot- 
 land, and one very serious rising took place near 
 Glasgow. It was suppressed through the personal and 
 moral courage of the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, Sir 
 Archibald Alison; but if it had been successful the 
 whole of the manufacturing district of the West of 
 Scotland would probably have taken fire. In England 
 danger appeared to threaten from the Chartist move- 
 ment. The Chartists gave notice that they intended 
 to assemble at Kennington Common 500,000 strong, 
 on the 10th April, 1848, and to march thence to the 
 House of Commons, there to present their petition, 
 which they said had received nearly 6,000,000 signa- 
 tures. It is rather significant that Englishmen, even 
 when they talk revolution, can, when it comes to 
 action, think of nothing less constitutional than the 
 presenting of a petition to Parliament. Sampson, the 
 servant in Romeo and Juliet, is the typical English 
 revolutionist. " Is the law on our side if I say — ay? " 
 However, the Queen, the Ministry, and the whole 
 country were alarmed. In London thousands of 
 special constables voluntarily enrolled themselves, as 
 a civil force, to help the military, if need were, to 
 maintain order. The Duke of Wellington as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, directed special preparations for the 
 defence of London ; but with this usual good sense he 
 took care that not a single extra soldier or piece of 
 artillery was to be seen on the eventful day. The 
 Admiralty, Horse Guards, and Treasury were strongly 
 garrisoned and filled with arms ; there were 800 men 
 with cannon in Buckingham Palace, and steamers and 
 
152 VICTORIA. 
 
 gunboats lay in readiness on the river. Country 
 gentlemen garrisoned their London houses with their 
 gamekeepers armed with double-barrelled guns. As 
 everybody knows now, it all ended in smoke. The 
 10th of April, 1848, came and went; the Chartists 
 met at Kennington, not 500,000, but about 25,000 
 strong; their petition contained not six million, but 
 about two million signatures, a very large proportion 
 of which were fictitious. About 8,000 men from the 
 mass meeting walked in procession towards West- 
 minster. On being met on the bridge by a police 
 force, and informed they would not be allowed to 
 cross in mass, they bowed to the inevitable, and sent 
 their petition to Parliament in three four-wheeled 
 cabs ! In this humble and unromantic manner ended 
 the English revolution of '48. The whole movement 
 was overwhelmed with ridicule, from which it never 
 recovered, and the ordinary law-abiding people felt 
 ashamed that they had allowed themselves ever to 
 believe in its seriousness. 
 
 Constitutional government was stronger than it 
 knew itself to be. It was easy to be wise after the 
 event ; but before, many brave hearts had failed them 
 for fear. The Queen was, of course, specially affected 
 by events on the Continent, as the monarchs whose 
 rule was being either overturned or threatened were 
 in many instances her relations and friends. She 
 wrote on the 6th March to Stockmar, "I am quite 
 well, indeed particularly so, though God knows we 
 have had since the 25th enough for a whole life, — 
 anxiety, sorrow, excitement." On the very day on 
 which the Queen wrote, a mob had rushed to Bucking- 
 ham Palace, breaking lamps and shouting, "Vive la 
 Republique ! " However, their leader, when arrested, 
 began to cry! so that he could not be considered a 
 dangerous revolutionist. 
 
FORTY-THREE TO FORTY-EIGHT, 153 
 
 It was in the midst of all this excitement that 
 Princess Louise was born, on March 18th, 1848. 
 With all the fear caused by the anticipation of the 
 Chartist movement on April 10th, it is not surprising 
 that the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, strongly 
 urged the removal of the Court to Osborne. It is not 
 impossible that the three-weeks-old baby was even 
 more persuasive than the Prime Minister. However 
 this may be, the Queen left London for Osborne on 
 April 8th, not without some criticism from Greville. 
 Greville was nothing if not critical; he had blamed 
 Sir Eobert Peel for resigning in 1844, and thus caus- 
 ing a ministerial crisis when the Queen was near her 
 confinement, and he now blamed Lord John Russell 
 for advising the Queen to go to Osborne with her 
 new-born infant, in anticipation of a Chartist riot in 
 London on April 10, 1848. 
 
 There was an immense feeling of relief all over 
 the country when the day passed off so quietly. The 
 popular feeling in London was manifested by the 
 cheers which greeted the Duke of Wellington when he 
 turned out early the next morning to his post at the 
 Horse Guards. The Prince wrote to his private 
 secretary on April 11th, " What a glorious day was 
 yesterday for England. . . . How mightily this will 
 tell all over the world ! " The utter inability of the 
 revolutionary germ to thrive in the soil of constitu- 
 tional liberty was the lesson of 1848. Repeated illus- 
 trations of the same fact have been given in more 
 recent times. After the explosion in Greenwich Park 
 in 1894, caused by the Frenchman Bourdin, the police 
 seized an anarchist club near Tottenham Court Road, 
 and caught a gang of eighty men representing the 
 anarchist propaganda in London. Every man but 
 one was a foreigner, and the solitary Englishman 
 was a journalist who had come, not to revolutionize, 
 but to get copy for his paper! 
 
154 VICTORIA. 
 
 With characteristic conscientiousness the Queen and 
 her husband did not rest content with the fact that 
 the social peace of England was not endangered. 
 They felt there never would have been even the anti- 
 cipation of danger, unless there had been much in the 
 condition of the poorer classes which called for 
 redress. They had not been many days at Osborne 
 before they sent for Lord Ashley (better known to this 
 generation as Lord Shaftesbury), and asked his advice 
 as to what could be done to render more happy the 
 condition of the poor. This was a subject which, as 
 is well known, was to Lord Ashley, not merely an 
 occupation, but a passion. His whole life, from youth 
 to old age, was given to it ; almost his last words, at 
 the age of 85, when he knew he was dying, were : " I 
 cannot bear to leave the world, with all the misery 
 in it." The Prince could not, therefore, have sent 
 for a better counsellor. They had a long conversation 
 in the gardens at Osborne. The Prince asked for 
 advice, and how he could best assist towards the com- 
 mon weal. "Now, sir," replied Lord Ashley, "I 
 have to ask your Royal Highness whether I am to 
 speak out freely, or to observe Court form." "For 
 God's sake," said the Prince, "speak out freely." 
 
 Lord Ashley then advised him to throw himself into 
 movements to promote the social well-being of the 
 masses of the people, and to show in public that he 
 was doing so. On the Prince asking for more detail, 
 Lord Ashley urged him to come and see for himself 
 how the poorest people in London lived; to go into 
 their houses, and he offered himself to conduct the 
 Prince over houses in St. Giles, near Seven Dials. 
 He also urged him to take the chair a month later at 
 the meeting of the Laborers' Friend Society, and 
 (with the little bit of worldly wisdom that guileless 
 people so often pride themselves on) to come in semi- 
 
FORTY-THREE TO FORTY-EIGHT. 155 
 
 state, with several carriages, four horses, outriders 
 and scarlet liveries. The Prince felt he ought not 
 to consent to all this without asking Lord John 
 Russell's advice ; hut he gave a conditional consent. 
 Lord John, however, was hostile, and offered strong 
 opposition to the Prince acting on Lord Ashley's 
 advice. However, Lord Ashley stuck to his guns. 
 He admitted that in any strictly political matter the 
 Prince was bound to abide by the advice of the Prime 
 Minister, but on a matter like this he advised the 
 Prince to tell Lord John that " Your Royal Highness 
 is as good a judge as he is." Lord Ashley finally 
 prevailed, and the Prince took the chair at the 
 Laborers' Friend meeting on May 18th, 1848. The 
 outriders and the scarlet liveries were not omitted, 
 and the Prince made a speech which Sir Theodore 
 Martin says first fairly showed the country what he 
 was, and gave a very important impulse to the mani- 
 fold movements towards social improvemeut which 
 have been so marked a feature of the present reign. 
 Thus out of the " nettle, danger," we were enabled " to 
 pluck the flower of safety." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PALMERSTON. 
 
 With none of her Ministers has the Queen ever been 
 in sharper conflict than with Lord Palmerston. From 
 his third Foreign Secretaryship in 1846 till his dis- 
 missal in 1852, the history of their relations was one 
 long struggle. 
 
 Palmerston considered himself the political inheri- 
 tor of Canning's foreign policy, and that he was 
 bound, as the representative of England to foreign 
 Governments, to be the upholder of political liberty 
 and the foe of tyranny and oppression all over Europe. 
 In this he carried with him the whole-hearted sym- 
 pathy of the mass of English public opinion. It was 
 not with his opinions and views, but with his way of 
 giving effect to them, that the Queen quarrelled. But 
 the English people were not in a position at the time 
 the conflict was going on to make the distinction. 
 They knew that the Queen and Lord Palmerston were 
 pulling different ways, and that Lord Palmerston was 
 the friend of Hungary, and Poland, and Italy ; and in 
 proportion as they gave their sympathy to these 
 countries and to Lord Palmerston, they were hostile 
 to the Court. Now, as their personal loyalty to the 
 Queen was very strong, they sought to find a reason for 
 the Queen's opposition to Lord Palmerston, and they 
 found it, or thought they found it, in the person of 
 the Prince. The Queen's husband was supposed to 
 be a power behind the throne thwarting the will of 
 her constitutional advisers in the interests of foreign 
 despots. The popular view was that the Prince ruled 
 
PALMERSTON. 157 
 
 the Queen, and that Stockmar ruled the Prince, and 
 therefore that the policy of the court was not English, 
 but German. That this was a complete misunder- 
 standing, the publication of the "Prince Consort's 
 Life," besides many other political memoirs and 
 memoranda, have abundantly shown. But it was a 
 very natural mistake, and from it arose, not altogether, 
 it is to be feared, without the connivance of Lord 
 Palmerston, a degree of hostility against the Prince 
 which reached an extraordinary height during the 
 early part of the Crimean War. 
 
 The question between the Queen and Lord Palmer- 
 ston is no longer obscured by side issues ; at no time 
 was it based upon a divergence of political views. 
 What the Queen, and the majority of Lord Palmer - 
 ston's colleagues in the Government, no less than the 
 Queen, objected to, was his way of sending despatches, 
 calculated seriously to embroil England with foreign 
 Governments, either entirely without their knowledge 
 and concurrence, or going through the form of sub- 
 mitting despatches to them for their criticism and 
 approval, and then actually sending off something 
 entirely different. The despatches submitted by the 
 Foreign Secretary to the Cabinet and to the Queen, 
 and materially altered by them, would be sometimes 
 recast by Palmerston in accordance with his original 
 draft, and thus the Ministers and Sovereign were 
 made to appear to have consented to that of which 
 they had disapproved. At other times he would send 
 important despatches to the Queen for her approval, 
 allowing her quite an inadequate time to digest their 
 contents, almost forcing the suspicion that he wished 
 her to give her assent without knowing what they 
 contained. When this practice was complained of by 
 the Prime Minister, Palmerston excused himself by 
 saying that the custom of sending off early copies of 
 
158 VICTORIA. 
 
 despatches for the Queen's perusal had been discon- 
 tinued, owing to pressure of work in the office ; " but 
 if it shall require an additional clerk or two, you 
 must be liberal, " he wrote to Lord John Russell, " and 
 allow me that assistance. " This plea of economy 
 came rather strangely from a Foreign Secretary who 
 in 1841 had appointed five new paid attaches without 
 the smallest necessity, and who in one year had spent 
 <£ 11,000 in coach hire to convey messengers to over- 
 take the mails with his letters. The fact is that Lord 
 Palmerston was the sworn foe of despotism every- 
 where, except in the Foreign Office, when he was 
 Foreign Secretary. In the Foreign Office he reigned 
 supreme and absolute, and would suffer no control either 
 from his colleagues or his Sovereign. With all this, 
 it was impossible not to like him. He had a jollity, 
 a bonhomie, a complete absence of rancor against those 
 who had wrestled with him and thrown him, an easy 
 elasticity, a buoyant faith in himself and in England, 
 which won the hearts of his countrymen. He made 
 mistakes and went through humiliations that would 
 have crushed or imbittered any other man, without 
 losing a jot of his buoyancy and self-confidence. He 
 pursued his own line of policy with incomparable 
 nerve and tenacity. If he triumphed, he crowed; if 
 he was defeated, no one would guess it from his 
 demeanor ; he would be cutting his jokes the next day 
 as " game " as ever. No nature could have afforded 
 a greater contrast to that of the Prince Consort; and 
 while one from sheer force and vigor, and the other 
 by position and character, were prominent among the 
 leading politicians of their day, they were certain to 
 be in sharp and almost perpetual conflict. He thought 
 the Prince's hope of German unity a mere dream, 
 impossible of fulfilment, and an alliance between 
 England and Germany, therefore, entirely useless to 
 
PALMERSTON. 159 
 
 ourselves. This brought them into political conflict 
 just as their characters brought them into personal 
 conflict. Two or three instances will suffice to illus- 
 trate what Palmerston was at the Foreign Office. In 
 1849, the Neapolitans being in insurrections against 
 the infamous misgovernment under which they suf- 
 fered, Lord Palmerston supplied them with war mate- 
 rial out of the stores of the English Government 
 without the knowledge or consent of his colleagues. 
 Now it may be right or wrong to sympathize with 
 insurgents ; but for a Government of another country 
 to supply them with arms is an act of war, of which 
 no single Minister has the right to undertake the 
 responsibility. On this occasion Palmerston was 
 compelled to make a formal official apology to the 
 King of Naples. A question asked in the House of 
 Commons was the first intimation the Prime Minister, 
 Lord John Russell, had of what his colleague had 
 done. 
 
 One of the special objects of Palmerston's abhor- 
 rence was Austria ; and it was a state of mind with 
 which there was much sympathy in England. Neither 
 in Italy nor in Hungary could the English people 
 regard the Austrian Government otherwise than as a 
 cruel and perfidious tyranny. This national feeling 
 had burst out in England on the occasion of the visit 
 to London in 1850 of the Austrian General Haynau. 
 In Italy and Hungary the name of this man was asso- 
 ciated with acts of barbarous cruelty in putting down 
 the national movement. He was especially charged, 
 and the charge was universally believed in England, 
 with the responsibility of having ordered the flogging 
 of women among the Hungarian insurgents. When 
 in London he made a visit to Barclay's brewery. The 
 draymen and other employes got wind who their 
 foreign visitor was; they gathered together in the 
 
160 VICTORIA. 
 
 yard of the brewery, and rushed upon him with a 
 torrent of abusive epithets; the general cry was, 
 " Down with the Austrian butcher ; " they dropped a 
 truss of straw upon him, pelted him with small 
 missiles, tore his coat, and knocked his hat over his 
 eyes. He and his friends fought their way out of 
 the brewery, only to find an equally warm reception 
 outside from the people in the streets ; he was again 
 pelted, struck, and dragged along the road by his 
 mustache. He finally got shelter in the upper part 
 of a public-house, and the police contrived his escape 
 by the river. The general feeling in the country was 
 " serve him right ; " but the Queen was seriously 
 annoyed, and dwelt, not without justice, on the cow- 
 ardice of an attack by a whole mob upon a single 
 unarmed man. At the desire of the Queen, Palmerston 
 expressed in person to the Austrian charge d'affaires 
 the regret of the Government at the incident ; but at 
 the same time advised that no prosecution should be 
 instituted by Haynau, as this would involve a minute 
 recapitulation of the barbarities of which he was 
 accused. Palmerston 's private opinion on the affair 
 was expressed in a letter to Sir George Grey, the 
 Home Secretary, in which he says: "The draymen 
 were wrong in the particular course they adopted. 
 Instead of striking him, . . . they ought to have tossed 
 him in a blanket, rolled him in the kennel, and then 
 sent him home in a cab, paying his fare to the hotel." 
 It may be easily imagined that he did not cordially 
 respond to an order to send a formal written apology 
 to the Austrian Government, and there was a pro- 
 longed duel between Lord Palmerston on the one side, 
 and the Prime Minister and the Queen on the other, 
 upon the wording of it. As originally drafted by 
 Palmerston, it contained a paragraph implying that 
 it would have shown better taste on the part of General 
 
PALMERSTON. 161 
 
 Haynau to take his autumn holiday nearer home. 
 This was corrected in the draft by the Prime Minister, 
 and the correction was indorsed by Her Majesty ; the 
 amended despatch was then returned to the Foreign 
 Secretary, who, in the mean time, had sent off to the] 
 Austrian Government the despatch as originally drawn 
 by himself. Then began a regular pitched battle. 
 Palmerston said he would rather resign than withdraw 
 the despatch and substitute the one approved by the 
 Queen and Prime Minister. Sir Theodore Martin 
 says that Palmerston ultimately gave way. Greville 
 says he never did. Mr. Evelyn Ashley says nothing. 
 It is certain that the Haynau incident was for years 
 considered enough to account for the hostility of 
 Austria to England. It was for this that Austria 
 alone of all the great Powers refrained from sending a 
 representative to the Duke of Wellington's funeral; 
 and some people thought it was this, that prevented 
 her joining her forces to those of England and Prance 
 in the Crimean War. Palmerston was not long in giv- 
 ing Austria other items to add to her account against 
 England. 
 
 When Kossuth was in England in 1851, he having 
 been the leader of the unsuccessful Hungarian insur- 
 rection against Austria, he was received with tremen- 
 dous enthusiasm all over England. The Austrians 
 were furious, and their anger was intensified by the 
 report that Lord Palmerston was going to receive him 
 at the Foreign Office. Many politicians thought that 
 this would be regarded by Austria as equivalent to a 
 declaration of war. The Cabinet remonstrated, and 
 Palmerston, to their relief and surprise, yielded. A 
 day or two after this, Greville saw Lord John Russell 
 and Palmerston at Windsor, " mighty merry and cor- 
 dial, laughing and talking together. Those breezes 
 leave nothing behind, particularly with Palmerston, 
 
 .11 
 
162 VICTORIA, 
 
 who never loses his temper, and treats everything with 
 levity and gayety." But Palmerston docile was more 
 dangerous than Palmerston pugnacious. The next 
 week he was receiving addresses at the Foreign Office 
 from Finsbury and Islington, thanking him for the 
 protection he had given to Kossuth, and for the sym- 
 pathy he had shown to the Hungarian cause. In his 
 reply he gave warm expression to his sympathy with 
 Hungary, and spoke of the position of the British 
 Government as that of the " judicious bottle-holder " 
 during the conflict between Hungary and- her foe. 
 The phrase has been remembered after the occasion 
 on which it was used has been forgotten. The people 
 applied it to Palmerston himself, and liked him all 
 the more for it. But the proceeding was strongly and 
 formally censured in the Cabinet and by the Queen. 
 Her Majesty's anger was not appeased by those who 
 told her that although the Emperor of Austria might 
 be angry, the action of the Foreign Secretary was not 
 unpopular with the English people. Her Majesty 
 replied : — 
 
 " It is no question with the Queen whether she pleases the Emperor 
 of Austria or not, but whether she gives him a just ground of complaint 
 or not. And if she does so, she can never believe that this will add to 
 her popularity with her own people." 1 
 
 Lord John communicated the Queen's views to Lord 
 Palmerston, and he was especially cautioned as to the 
 future upon "the necessity of a guarded conduct." 
 Lord John writing to the Queen was sanguine enough 
 to hope that this remonstrance would " have its effect 
 upon Lord Palmerston." The ink of his letter was 
 hardly dry when like a clap of thunder came the news 
 of the coup d'etat in Paris; Louis Napoleon, then 
 President of the Republic, had had his political oppo- 
 nents seized in the night and thrown into prison, 
 
 1 Letter from the Queen to Lord John Russell, Nov. 21st, 1851. 
 
PALMERSTON. 163 
 
 nearly 500 persons were shipped off to Cayenne with- 
 out any form of trial, thousands were shot down in the 
 streets, and the Prince President became first by 
 military force and then by popular election Napoleon 
 III. and Emperor of the French. 
 
 The Queen, true to her principles of non-interven- 
 tion, at once wrote to the Prime Minister, instructing 
 him to caution Lord Normanby, our ambassador in 
 Paris, to observe strict neutrality, and to remain 
 absolutely passive towards the new Government. Lord 
 Palmerston accordingly sent a despatch to Lord 
 Normanby in that sense. At the same time, however, 
 that he was sending his despatch to Paris, he was 
 seeing Count Walewski, the French ambassador in 
 London, and expressing his entire approbation of the 
 coup oVitat and his conviction that the President could 
 not have acted otherwise than he had done ! On the 
 16th December he followed this up by a despatch to 
 Lord Normanby, expressing his conviction that the 
 action of Louis Napoleon was for the benefit of France 
 and also of the rest of Europe. This despatch was 
 sent off without the knowledge or approval of the 
 Queen or the Prime Minister, and in contravention 
 of their express wishes. This was the end. Lord 
 Palmerston was dismissed, not at the instance of the 
 Queen, but with her entire approval. Lord John 
 Russell offered him, as a consolation, the Lord Lieu- 
 tenantcy of Ireland and a British Peerage, both of 
 which were curtly declined. The general opinion of 
 the political world was that Palmerston's career was 
 over. Disraeli spoke of him in the past tense, as if 
 he were dead. There was tremendous rejoicing over 
 his fall in every stronghold of despotism in Europe, 
 especially in Austria, where the heads of the Govern- 
 ment took credit to themselves for his overthrow, and 
 gave balls in honor of the event ; a rhyme was current 
 
164 VICTORIA. 
 
 in Austria at the time which expresses the feelings 
 Palmerston had awakened : — 
 
 " Hat der Teufel einen Sohn, 
 So ist er sicher Palmerston." 1 
 
 In the debate in the House of Commons which fol- 
 lowed these events, Lord John made a most successful 
 speech, in which he showed the impossibility of work- 
 ing with a colleague who deliberately defied the express 
 views of the whole Cabinet ; he read the memorandum 
 drawn up by the Queen for Lord Palmerston's guid- 
 ance on the occasion of a former dispute. In this 
 paper Her Majesty had claimed her right to know 
 distinctly what the proposals were to which she was 
 asked to give her sanction, and, secondly, that, having 
 once given her sanction to a despatch, it was not to be 
 arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister. She 
 also claimed her right to be kept informed of what 
 passed between the Foreign Secretary and the ambas- 
 sadors before important decisions were taken, and to 
 receive the despatches in good time, so that she could 
 acquaint herself with their contents. Lord John 
 Russell completely carried the House with him. It 
 was felt that the demands of the Queen and the Cabinet 
 had been strictly reasonable, and that it would be 
 impossible to carry on the business of the country on 
 any other basis. Lord Palmerston practically had no 
 defence, and he abandoned any attempt to manufacture 
 one. Of the Queen's memorandum he said not a 
 word. Greville says the effect of Lord John's speech 
 was prodigious, and that Palmerston's reply was weak 
 and ineffective. He had resigned the seals of the 
 Foreign Office before Parliament met, and Lord 
 Granville had been appointed his successor. He bore 
 the whole position with admirable good temper. He 
 
 1 If the Devil has a son, 
 Sure his name is Palmerston. 
 
PALMERSTON. 165 
 
 received Lord Granville with the greatest cordiality, 
 spent three hours with him putting him in possession 
 of the threads of his diplomacy, spoke of the Court 
 without bitterness, and in strong terms of the Queen's 
 " sagacity, " and ended by offering to give any infor- 
 mation or assistance that was in his power. He pur- 
 sued the same line of conduct when in a few weeks 
 Lord John Russell's Government fell and was succeeded 
 by Lord Derby's; Lord Malmesbury becoming Foreign 
 Secretary. Palmerston at once came to see him, and 
 offered to coach him in Foreign Office policy. He 
 gave the new Foreign Secretary a masterly sketch of 
 the status quo in Europe, as well as general hints upon 
 the principles by which English policy should be 
 guided; the pith of these was, "Keep well with 
 France. " By this means, though ousted from office, 
 Palmerston remained practically the director of the 
 policy of the Foreign Office. 
 
 All the contemporary records agree upon the main 
 outward and visible facts; but they are provokingly 
 silent upon Palmerston's real motives. He was 
 neither a hot-headed youth, acting on the impulse of 
 the moment, neither was he " an old man in a hurry ; " 
 he was sixty-seven years old, about the prime of life 
 for a statesman, and steeped to the lips in an absorb- 
 ing interest in England's foreign politics. His whole 
 tradition had been to oppose despotism and support 
 civil and political liberty against despots all over 
 Europe. Why did he go out of his way to establish, 
 so far as he could, a cordial understanding with a 
 despot who was also an upstart, and whose Govern- 
 ment was founded on violence, and carried on by 
 crushing every vestige of liberty in France? Some 
 have thought an answer could be found in his hostility 
 to the Orleans family ; but this does Palmerston less 
 than justice. It is true he hated Louis Philippe, and 
 
166 VICTORIA. 
 
 rejoiced in his fall, which he attributed to the King's 
 perfidy about the Spanish marriages. When the 
 French King was fugitive in England, Palmerston 
 had tried to prevent his receiving the shelter of 
 Claremont, although the Government really had no 
 business whatever to interfere, as Claremont had been 
 settled for his life on Leopold, King of the Belgians, 
 and if he chose to lend it to his father-in-law, no one 
 else had any business in the matter. Louis Philippe 
 died in 1850, and in 1851, although Palmerston said 
 the Orleans Princes were plotting for a restoration, 
 and if Louis Napoleon had not struck when he did, he 
 would himself have been overthrown, the excuse was 
 not a good one. Some contend that Palmerston was 
 afraid of the red spectre in France, and thought Louis 
 Napoleon the only man capable of laying it. But 
 Palmerston was not afraid of the reds in any other 
 European country. The real explanation of his con- 
 duct must be sought elsewhere. At the end of 1851, 
 it required no superhuman power of prophecy, espe- 
 cially to one who surveyed Europe from the watch- 
 tower of the London Foreign Office, to foresee that 
 the time was approaching when England would have 
 to face the alternative of either relinquishing her 
 traditional policy of maintaining the integrity of the 
 Ottoman Empire, or fight Russia in order to sustain 
 it. Palmerston, it need hardly be said, was all for 
 fighting ; but the question was whether England would 
 face Russia alone, or whether Russia would restore 
 the Holy Alliance, and thus lead a combination of 
 European powers against England; or whether, as a 
 third possibility, England could succeed in isolating 
 Russia and in obtaining an ally for herself. It is 
 not extravagant to suppose that it was to make this 
 third possibility a probability that Palmerston has- 
 tened to make friends with a man whom he could not 
 
PALMERSTON. 167 
 
 have trusted, and whose cruelty and despotism he 
 must have loathed. It was impossible for England to 
 look for any other ally. Russia, Austria, and Prussia 
 were wild against England, regarding her as the great 
 stronghold of constitutional principles, and believing 
 that to her encouragement was due the revolutionary 
 outbreak of 1848. The immunity of England herself 
 from disorder did not open their eyes to see that it 
 was their own misgovernment which had produced 
 revolution. It only rendered them the more furious, 
 as they believed that England had preached insurrec- 
 tion, while other Governments bore its penalties. It 
 was touch-and-go in the first year of Napoleon III.'s 
 reign whether he would try to put himself at the head 
 of a European combination against us, or whether he 
 would become our ally and fight one of the other 
 Powers. He certainly believed that war was neces- 
 sary in order to divert the attention of France from 
 domestic politics, to conciliate the army, and thus on 
 both sides to consolidate his own position. The 
 almost universal feeling in England was that he was 
 going to fight us. The common opinion was that 
 the new Emperor's first thought would be to avenge 
 Waterloo. By 1853, however, Louis Napoleon had 
 decided not to fight us, but to fight with us against 
 Russia. This was due more to Palmerston than to 
 any other Englishman. 
 
 Greville reports a conversation early in 1853 between 
 himself and Comte de Flahault (afterwards French 
 ambassador in London), who had just returned from 
 Paris, where he had been in constant communication 
 with the Emperor. Flahault said that the rancor and 
 insolence against England on the part of Austria, 
 Russia, and Prussia, were almost inconceivable; he 
 added that Louis Napoleon had had offered to him in 
 the first year of his reign a position which it had been 
 
168 VICTORIA. 
 
 the object of his uncle's life to attain, — the leadership 
 of a European league against us; that he decided to 
 decline these flattering overtures, and to consolidate 
 his alliance with England. Flahault went on to say 
 that he had supported Louis Napoleon in this deter- 
 mination, and had represented to him that the North- 
 ern Powers had long withheld any recognition of his 
 Imperial position ; whereas England had at once recog- 
 nized him, and that if she had not done so, probably 
 the acknowledgment of the other Powers would have 
 been still further delayed. Flahault represented to 
 Greville that, greatly to his surprise, the Emperor 
 had wholly concurred in this view. 
 
 It is needless to say that the importance of this 
 conversation is not derived from its truth, but from 
 its representing what Louis Napoleon wished to be 
 believed in England in the spring of 1853. He was 
 strongly desirous for his own purposes of the English 
 alliance, and knew that it was the only one he could 
 hope for at that time in Europe. So far from declin- 
 ing flattering proposals from the Czar, his vanity had 
 just been bitterly wounded by the absolute refusal of 
 the Russian monarch to greet him as " mon frere." 
 
 There can be little doubt that Palmerston availed 
 himself of the Emperor's isolated position in Europe, 
 and "captured " him as an ally of England. It was 
 the wish to secure him more surely that made Pal- 
 merston endeavor in 1852-3 to promote a marriage 
 between Louis Napoleon and the Queen's niece, the 
 Princess Adelaide of Hohenlohe. There was a defi- 
 nite proposal made to bring this about, the Emperor 
 stating that his wish was to reserrer les liens entre les 
 deux pays. The offer was declined by the Queen on 
 behalf of her niece, on the ground of the latter's youth 
 and inexperience. In 1854, another matrimonial pro- 
 ject between the two families was started with the 
 
PALMERSTON. 169 
 
 same object, between Princess Mary of Cambridge and 
 Prince Jerome Napoleon. Malmesbury heard of it, 
 and said he hoped it was not true, for the sake of the 
 Princess ; but it was strongly pressed by Palmerston 
 on the Queen, and was only put an end to by the 
 Princess's absolute refusal to listen to it 
 
 If Palmerston ever believed in the Emperor's fidelity 
 to the English alliance, he did not do so perma- 
 nently. 1 All through the negotiations which finally 
 led up to the Crimean War, Palmerston and his coad- 
 jutor at Constantinople, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, 
 urged on his country, not only to war, but to imme- 
 diate war. Palmerston knew his man. It was Louis 
 Napoleon's present purpose in 1853 and 1854 to fight 
 on our side ; England's policy, in Lord Palmerston's 
 view, was to clinch the matter before he had turned 
 against us. 
 
 When Palmerston was dismissed in 1851, his 
 defence of himself in the House of Commons at the 
 opening of the Session of 1852 was such a complete 
 failure that people went about saying "Palmerston 
 is smashed. " But the epithet was misapplied. The 
 Government of which he had been the life and soul 
 was smashed. In less than three weeks' time from 
 the debate on his dismissal, the Government was 
 defeated, and the Russell Administration resigned. 
 Palmerston wrote to his brother : " Dear William, — 
 I have had my tit-for-tat with John Russell, and I 
 turned him out on Friday last. " Lord Derby formed 
 a Government which he invited Lord Palmerston to 
 join. The offer was declined, but, as already pointed 
 out, Palmerston continued practically to direct our 
 foreign policy. The Conservative Government was 
 of very short duration. Before the year was out, Mr. 
 
 1 See letter from Lord Palmerston to Lord Clarendon, vol. it 
 p. 127, Ashley's " Life of Palmerston." 
 
170 VICTORIA. 
 
 Disraeli's Budget was defeated, the Government re* 
 signed, and Lord Aberdeen became the head of a 
 Coalition Government formed by a union of the 
 Whigs with the Peelites. In this Government, Lord 
 Palmerston was Home Secretary. Greville mentions 
 that when the Queen went to Scotland in 1853, she 
 desired that Lord Granville should be the Minister-in- 
 Attendance, because she did not wish for the presence 
 of the Home Secretary at Balmoral. But this feeling 
 was not of long duration. Lord Clarendon, the new 
 Foreign Secretary, labored diligently to change it. 
 He told the Queen everything likely to make her 
 regard Palmerston in a more favorable light, and 
 showed her notes and memoranda by him calculated 
 to please her. Lord Aberdeen also used his influence 
 in the same direction. The Queen is never implac- 
 able, and always ready to recognize good service, and 
 before the autumn was out Palmerston took his turn 
 as Minister-in-Attendance on the Queen at Balmoral. 
 An anecdote is told, illustrative of his continued 
 absorption in foreign politics, although he was now 
 Home Secretary. The Queen was much interested in 
 some strikes and labor troubles that were taking 
 place in the North of England, and asked Palmerston 
 for details about fchem which, as Home Secretary, he 
 might be expected to know. However, she found him 
 absolutely without information. " One morning, after 
 previous inquiries, she said to him, ' Pray, Lord Pal- 
 merston, have you any news ? ' To which he replied, 
 ' No, Madam, I have heard nothing; but it seems 
 certain that the Turks have crossed the Danube ! 9 " 
 Palmerston was at the Home Office during the out- 
 break of cholera in 1854. His measures against it 
 were said to have been conceived in the spirit of 
 treating Heaven as if it were a Foreign Power. 
 Palmerston really directed the foreign policy of 
 
PALMERSTON. * 71 
 
 England from the Home Office during the year which 
 led up to the Crimean War. When the Government 
 refused to take his view, he resigned, ostensibly 
 because he did not like Lord John Russell's Reform 
 Bill, really because when the Turks refused to accept 
 the Vienna note, the majority of the Cabinet wished 
 to leave them to their fate. Palmerston took an ex- 
 actly opposite line, and urged the entry of the allied 
 French and English fleets into the Black Sea, which 
 really amounted to an act of war. As soon as he got 
 his own way he rejoined the Government. As some 
 excuse was necessary to the outer world, he had said 
 he was not prepared to sit out debates on the Reform 
 Bill in the House of Commons at "Us time of life." 
 Clarendon said that no one had ever before heard him 
 acknowledge that he had a time of life. 
 
 The Queen in the end went heartily with Palmerston 
 in his war policy. She was convinced of the justice of 
 the Russian War, and that it could not have been avoided. 
 Her intense interest in its progress will be described 
 in the coming chapter. It is sufficient here to say 
 that her former feeling of hostility to Palmerston was 
 very much softened by seeing the whole-hearted devo- 
 tion with which he threw himself into the success of 
 the British arms. As is well known, the events of 
 the war made Palmerston Prime Minister. She gave 
 him her entire confidence in that capacity. On the 
 signing of the Treaty of Peace in April, 1856, she 
 bestowed upon him the Order of the Garter, as a 
 special and public token of her appreciation of his 
 services to his country. 
 
 There was no love lost between Palmerston and 
 Lord John Russell. In 1857-58, there was great 
 uneasiness in the ranks of the Whigs, lest these two 
 should never be able to overcome their mutual hostil- 
 ity. Lady William Russell said of them at this time, 
 
172 VICTORIA. 
 
 "They have shaken hands and embraced, and hate 
 each other more than ever." However, by degrees 
 the stronger nature dominated the weaker, and from 
 1859 till 1865, when Palmerston died, Lord John may 
 be said to have danced to Palmerston's piping. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PEACE AND WAR. 
 
 The year 1851 was memorable to the Queen, for it 
 brought the opening of the Great Exhibition, the 
 crown of success to prolonged efforts made by the 
 Prince against all kinds of opposition and misrepre- 
 sentation. When first the project was mooted, hardly 
 any one had a good word to say for it. Members of 
 Parliament in the House of Commons prayed that hail 
 and lightning might be sent from heaven to destroy 
 it; it was bound to be a financial failure; it would 
 ruin Hyde Park; it would bring into London every 
 desperado and bad character in Europe. Its actual 
 success was beyond all anticipation, and was only 
 heightened by the croaking which had preceded it. 
 The Queen's delight knew no bounds, for she felt not 
 only that the whole thing was a magnificent success, 
 but that it was owing to the Prince that it was so, 
 and therefore was of the nature of a personal triumph 
 for him. The Queen wrote about the opening cere- 
 mony as " the great and glorious first of May, ^ the 
 proudest and happiest day . . . of my happy life." 
 In her journal she wrote : — 
 
 " May 1. The great event has taken place ; a complete and beautiful 
 triumph; a glorious and touching sight, — one which I shall ever be 
 proud of for my beloved Albert and my country. ... Yes ; it is a day 
 which makes my heart swell with pride and glory and thankfulness. 
 
 The only event with which she felt she could com- 
 pare it was the coronation; "but this day's festival 
 was a thousand times superior." The effect produced 
 on her as the view of the interior burst upon her, she 
 speaks of as — 
 
174 VICTORIA. 
 
 "Magical, so vast, so glorious, so touching. One felt — as so many 
 did whom I have since spoken to — filled with devotion, more so than 
 by any service I have ever heard. The tremendous cheers, the joy ex- 
 pressed in every face, the immensity of the building . . . the organ 
 (with 200 instruments and 600 voices, which sounded like nothing), and 
 my beloved husband the author of this ' Peace Festival ' : ... all this 
 was moving indeed, and it was and is a day to live forever." 
 
 It is interesting to compare this account by Her 
 Majesty of her own emotion at the opening of the 
 exhibition with an account of how she impressed a 
 spectator. Dr. Stanley (afterwards Dean Stanley) 
 wrote in a private letter : — 
 
 " I never had so good a view of the Queen before, and never saw her 
 look so thoroughly regal. She stood in front of the chair turning 
 round, first to one side and then to the other, with a look of power and 
 pride, flushed with a kind of excitement which I never witnessed in any 
 other human countenance." 
 
 There were said to have been 34,000 people in the 
 building on the opening day, and nearly a million on 
 the line of route. The Queen, with her husband and 
 eldest son and daughter, drove through this huge 
 multitude with no other guard than one of honor and 
 some policemen who were there, not so much to keep 
 order as to aid the crowd to keep it for themselves. 
 The Home Secretary reported to the Queen the next 
 day that there had not been a single accident, nor had 
 there been a single case of misconduct of any kind 
 calling for the interference of the police. It was a 
 magnificent object-lesson on the advantages of order 
 springing out of liberty. Foreigners present were 
 deeply impressed by the good behavior of the crowd, 
 and also by its loyalty. Jacob Ominum described a 
 dispute he overheard between a German and a French- 
 man as to whether in England loyalty was a principle 
 or a passion. His own comment was that it was both, 
 — a principle even when the Crown behaves badly ; 
 " but let it treat the people well, and this quiet prin- 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 175 
 
 ciple becomes a headlong passion, swelling into such 
 enthusiasm as the Frenchman saw when he jotted 
 down in his notebook, ' In England loyalty is a 
 passion. ' " 
 
 The Duke of Wellington shared with the Royal 
 Family the honors of the day. He was accompanied, 
 according to Lord Palmerston, by a running fire of 
 applause from the men, and of waving of handker- 
 chiefs and kissing of hands from the women. It used 
 to be said that people went to the exhibition as much 
 to see the Duke of Wellington, 1 who was a frequent 
 visitor, as for any other purpose. The total num- 
 ber of visitors to the exhibition during the time it 
 remained open was more than 6,000,000. An old 
 Cornish woman, Mary Keslynack, not wishing to trust 
 herself on a railway, walked to London to see the 
 exhibition and the Queen. Her Majesty notes in her 
 diary the fact that the old lady's wish was gratified. 
 She " was at the door to see me, — a most hale old 
 woman, who was near crying at my looking at her. " 
 
 But this " Peace Festival " could not avert the war- 
 cloud that was hanging over England. It is no part 
 of the scheme of this little volume to discuss the 
 policy of the Crimean War, but only to relate the 
 Queen's part in it, and her intense interest in it. 
 Even this can only be very briefly and inadequately 
 sketched. Some idea of the labor devolving upon a 
 conscientious Sovereign in times of national crisis 
 
 i The Duke of Wellington died in September, 1852, deeply mourned 
 by the Queen and her husband. The Queen wrote to her uncle, " You 
 will mourn with us over the loss we and the whole nation have experi- 
 enced in the death of the dear and great Duke of Wellington. . . . He 
 was the pride, and the good genius, as it were, of this country, the most 
 loyal and devoted subject, and the stanchest supporter the Crown ever 
 had. He was to us a true friend and most valuable adviser. . . . We 
 shall soon stand sadly alone. Aberdeen is almost the only personal 
 friend of that kind left to us. Melbourne, Peel, Liverpool, now the 
 Duke, all gone ! " 
 
176 VICTORIA. 
 
 may be gathered from the fact that the papers at 
 Windsor relating to the Eastern Question and the 
 Crimean War, covering the period between 1853 and 
 1857, amount to no fewer than fifty folio volumes. 
 
 The Queen, it will be remembered, had entertained 
 the Emperor Nicholas at Windsor in 1844, and a very 
 favorable personal impression had been made on both 
 sides. Nicholas had then had a conversation with 
 Peel and Aberdeen on the condition of the " Sick 
 Man," as the Czar called Turkey, and the prospective 
 disposition of his effects. The Czar and the English 
 Ministers signed a memorandum favorable to the 
 claims of Russia to protect the Christians in Turkish 
 dominions. Nicholas left England with the impres- 
 sion that he had considerably reduced the antagonism 
 between England and Russia on the Turkish question. 
 Aberdeen was now Prime Minister, and the Czar 
 believed the moment to be favorable for translating 
 into action the scheme which he had laid before the 
 English Ministers in 1844. Moreover he was doubt- 
 less under the impression that England's fighting 
 days were over, and that, therefore, whether England 
 liked the aggression of Russia in the East or not, she 
 would never resist it by force of arms. During the 
 negotiations which preceded the war, the Czar took 
 the unusual course of addressing an autograph letter 
 to the Queen, expressing surprise that any difference 
 should have arisen between himself and the English 
 Government, and calling upon the Queen's "wisdom" 
 and " good faith " to arbitrate between them. The 
 Queen immediately sent the Czar's letter to Lord 
 Aberdeen, as well as a draft of her reply for his 
 approval. Count Nesselrode was very desirous of 
 learning from our ambassador in St. Petersburg if he 
 knew the tenor of the Queen's reply. He answered 
 in the negative, but added, "These correspondences 
 
• PEACE AND WAR. 177 
 
 between Sovereigns are not regular according to our 
 constitutional notions; but all I can say is, that if 
 Her Majesty were called upon to write upon the East- 
 ern affair, she would not require her Ministers' assist- 
 ance. The Queen understands these questions as well 
 as they do. " 
 
 The Cabinet were by no means united in their 
 policy. Aberdeen believed in Nicholas, and was for 
 peace ; Palmerston believed in the Turks, and was for 
 war. 1 Clarendon was the mediator between the two. 
 At first the Queen and her husband were decidedly 
 sympathetic with Aberdeen's policy. They fully 
 acknowledged that the "ignorant, barbarian, and 
 despotic yoke of the Mussulman " had been a curse to 
 Europe, and agreed with Lord Aberdeen that the 
 Turkish system was " radically vicious and inhuman." 
 Against this view Palmerston exerted all his strength. 
 Little by little the war fever, fanned by him and 
 favored by events, grew fiercer and fiercer. It spared 
 neither the palace nor the cottage, and presently there 
 was hardly a voice raised in England for peace except 
 that of Bright and Cobden ; and their influence was 
 weakened by the belief that they would be against all 
 war under all circumstances. There was a very 
 general impression in the country that if Palmerston 
 had been at the Foreign Office no war would have been 
 necessary. Certainly experience forces the convic- 
 tion that the peace-at-any-price party, when in power, 
 is almost certain to land the country in war ; but in 
 this particular instance it appears probable that Pal- 
 merston, having secured the French alliance, thought 
 the moment for fighting favorable, and therefore 
 forced on the war ; and that he would have done so 
 
 1 The only criticism ever made by Palmerston on the Turks was that 
 it was impossible to expect much energy from a people who wore no 
 heels to their shoes ! 
 
 12 
 
178 VICTORIA, 
 
 equally from the Foreign Office as from the Home 
 Office. His whole attention and interest were centred 
 on foreign affairs, and there was an excellent under- 
 standing between him and Lord Clarendon, who was 
 Foreign Secretary. 
 
 It is needless to say that the Queen was thoroughly 
 convinced before war was declared that it could not 
 have been avoided, that our cause was just, and that 
 the claim of Russia to protect the Christian subjects of 
 Turkey was a hypocritical cloak to her aggression and 
 ambition, and that her real object was to seize Constan- 
 tinople and the command of the entrance between the 
 Black Sea and Mediterranean, with an eye ultimately 
 to India and the possessions of England in Asia. 
 
 The Queen and Prince were exceedingly indignant 
 with the King of Prussia for withholding his support 
 and sympathy from England. He was a man of weak 
 and excitable disposition, and very much influenced 
 by his brother-in-law, the Czar. The King's brother, 
 however, then known as the Prince of Prussia (after- 
 wards the Emperor William), and his son, Prince 
 Frederic William (afterwards the husband of the 
 Princess Royal), strongly sympathized with England; 
 and this circumstance naturally strengthened the 
 warm friendship already existing between them and 
 the English Royal Family. How distant at this time 
 must have seemed the realization of Prince Albert's 
 and Stockmar's dream of a united Germany, and of 
 a political alliance between England and Germany. 
 The Prince, however, never lost sight of his goal. 
 He wrote to his stepmother at Coburg, who was 
 strongly Russian in her sympathies, "If there were 
 a Germany and a Crerman Sovereign in Berlin, this 
 [the war] could never have happened. " 
 
 When once war was declared (March, 1854), the 
 Queen threw her whole heart and soul into the cause. 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 179 
 
 She wished she had sons old enough to go, two with 
 the army, two with the navy. Lord Aberdeen had 
 sanctioned the setting apart of a Day of Humiliation 
 and Prayer for the success of our arms by sea and 
 land. The Queen very strongly and quite properly 
 deprecated the use of the expression a Day of Humili- 
 ation. She condemned this as savoring of hypocrisy. 
 She believed her policy to have been directed by un- 
 selfishness and honesty, and therefore felt the only 
 appropriate prayer would be one expressive of our 
 deep thankfulness for all the benefits we had enjoyed, 
 and entreating the protection of the Almighty for our 
 forces on sea and land. She equally objected to 
 imprecations against our enemies, and suggested the 
 use of a form already in the Prayer Book, " To be used 
 before a Fight at Sea. " 
 
 As the war went on, the Queen and the elder 
 Princesses stimulated the activity of. other women 
 throughout England in helping to supply comforts for 
 the wounded, and various articles of warm clothing 
 to be distributed among the troops. The Queen also 
 took a keen maternal interest in the establishment of 
 a fund, afterwards called the Patriotic Fund, to pro- 
 vide for the orphans of those who were killed in the 
 war. She neglected no opportunity of showing her 
 interest in her troops, giving them in person a hearty 
 " Godspeed " on their departure, and a cordial wel- 
 come on their return, and decorating with her own 
 hands the surviving heroes of the various engage- 
 ments. Our soldiers fought with all the old British 
 valor and tenacity, and were successful in every great 
 engagement; but there was a most frightful break- 
 down in the commissariat and stores departments of 
 the army, and in organization generally. No Welling- 
 ton or Marlborough was discovered among our gen- 
 erals, and no Nelson or Duncan among our admirals. 
 
180 VICTORIA. 
 
 The only notable personalities revealed to the nation 
 by the Crimean War were those of Florence Nightin- 
 gale and Dr. W. H. Russell, and the only new piece of 
 military knowledge, the use of women and of special 
 correspondents in war time. Miss Nightingale and a 
 band of other ladies, all trained nurses, were sent out 
 at the instance of Mr. Sidney Herbert to Constanti- 
 nople, and at once proceeded to take charge of the 
 great hospital at Scutari ; they arrived just in time to 
 receive the wounded from the battle of Balaklava. 
 Before their arrival all had been chaos and hugger- 
 mugger, which Miss Nightingale's "voice of velvet 
 and will of steel " soon changed to order, and as much 
 comfort and solace as were possible in such a place. 
 Her gentle tenderness and compassion aroused a pas- 
 sion of chivalrous worship in the roughest soldiers. 
 One of them said afterwards to Mr. Sidney Herbert, 
 "She would speak to one and another, and nod and 
 smile to many more, but she could not do it to all, 
 you know, — we lay there in hundreds,— but we could 
 kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay our heads on the 
 pillow again, content." 
 
 The regular red-tapists of the War Office of course 
 opposed the sending out of Miss Nightingale and the 
 other ladies ; there is no record in the Prince Consort's 
 Life whether he and the Queen favored her mission at 
 the outset or not. But it is certain that they, with 
 the rest of the nation, very speedily recognized the 
 value of the work she was doing. Her letters from 
 the seat of war were among their sources of informa- 
 tion, and were eagerly scanned by the Queen and her 
 husband. After the war was over, in the autumn of 
 1856, she visited the Queen at Balmoral. The entry 
 in the Prince's diary is: "She put before us all the 
 defects of our present military hospital system. We 
 are much pleased with her; she is extremely modest." 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 181 
 
 Is it captious to wonder what they had expected her 
 to be, and if they were surprised to find that she was 
 not a Madame Sans-Gene ? 
 
 The letters of Dr. W. H. Russell in The Times first 
 revealed to the nation the frightful breakdown in 
 our military organization. The special correspondent 
 became, from the date of the Crimean War, a force to 
 be reckoned with. Instead of the cut-and-dried offi- 
 cial despatches, concealing often more than revealing 
 the truth, and intended to lay before the public only 
 just so much of the facts as the military authorities 
 thought it good for them to know, the special corre- 
 spondent publishes for all the world to read, a vivid 
 daily narrative of facts in which blunders and incom- 
 petence, when they exist, are given quite as much 
 prominence as good generalship and victory. If Eng- 
 land was disappointed at the evidence given of her 
 want of efficient military * organization, Russia had 
 much more cause to be so. Russia had put her whole 
 strength into her armaments ; she was nothing if not 
 a great military power; but she was everywhere unsuc- 
 cessful. One of the most dramatic incidents during 
 the war was the death of the Czar, on March 2, 
 1855. It was said that his disease was influenza, fol- 
 lowed by congestion of the lungs; but some people 
 thought he might have been said to have died of a 
 broken heart. Punch's, cartoon, "General Fevrier 
 turned traitor," showing Death, in a general's uni- 
 form, laying his icy hand on his victim, will long be 
 remembered. 
 
 The war fever which had fired the whole of England 
 at the beginning of the campaign perhaps led people 
 to expect more than was possible from the army. 
 There was a bitter cry of anger and disappointment 
 that our military successes in the field were not quickly 
 followed up and taken advantage of by our generals, 
 
182 VICTORIA. 
 
 and especially that the sufferings of our soldiers were 
 needlessly aggravated by the waste, incompetence, and 
 utter muddle reigning over the distribution of the food 
 and stores. Lord Aberdeen, the Prime Minister, was 
 blamed ; he had been dragged into the war, and, it was 
 said, never really cordially approved it. Mr. Glad- 
 stone was blamed ; he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 and thought it his duty to provide the war budget out 
 of income ; " penny wise and pound foolish " was the 
 comment on this. War is one of the things that can- 
 not be done cheap. These and other Ministers who 
 were attacked could defend themselves in Parliament ; 
 but the phials of public wrath were more especially 
 directed against the Prince, who for months bore 
 every kind of imputation and false accusation poured 
 out against him in the press, without having any 
 opportunity of self-defence. Even before the outbreak 
 of the war, it had been said that he was completely 
 anti-English in his sympathies; that we, therefore, 
 had a traitor in our midst, able and willing to use his 
 position on the steps of the Throne to weaken and 
 humiliate England. So diligently were these false 
 reports circulated in the press and by word of mouth 
 that they were the common topic of conversation all 
 over England. At one time a report was current, and 
 was actually believed, that the Prince had been 
 impeached for high treason and sent to the Tower. 
 Thousands of people assembled outside to see his 
 entrance. If this had been the condition of the public 
 mind before the war began, it is not difficult to 
 imagine that the disease of suspicion and distrust 
 broke out again after the beginning of hostilities, 
 when there was so much to criticise in the organiza- 
 tion of the War Department at home. The public 
 wanted a victim, some one to wreak their anger upon, 
 and the Prince served them for this purpose. Even 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 183 
 
 so well-informed a politician, and so able a man as 
 Mr. Roebuck, believed, and openly said to the Duke 
 of Newcastle, the War Minister, that of course every 
 one knew that there was a determination " in a high 
 quarter " that the Crimean expedition should not suc- 
 ceed. The Duke thought that the expression, " a high 
 quarter," was directed against himself, and said so. 
 "Oh, no," answered Mr. Roebuck, "I mean a much 
 higher personage than you ; I mean Prince Albert. " 
 
 The Duke immediately endeavored to remove this 
 entirely false impression, and asked Mr. Roebuck if 
 he were not aware that the Queen had been ill with 
 anxiety about her troops. The reply was that no one 
 doubted the Queen's devotion to her country; that 
 when Lord Cardigan was at Windsor, one of the Royal 
 children had said to him, " You must hurry back to 
 Sebastopol and take it, else it will kill mamma. " Yet 
 almost in the same breath Mr. Roebuck maintained 
 that the Prince was working behind the Queen's back 
 against the efficient organization of the army, in order 
 to prevent the success of her troops. 
 
 An expression made use of by the Prince in a public 
 speech, towards the close of the Crimean War, June, 
 1855, has become historical. He contrasted the auto- 
 cratic power of the Czar of Russia, characterized by 
 unity of purpose and action, and when desirable by 
 secrecy, with the Parliamentary Government of the 
 Queen, where every movement of the army or navy, 
 and every stage of every diplomatic negotiation are 
 publicly proclaimed, and have to be explained and 
 defended in Parliament ; and he concluded by saying 
 that "Constitutional Government was on its trial," 
 and could only come through it triumphantly if the 
 country granted a patriotic and indulgent confidence 
 to the Ministry. This was twisted by the Prince's 
 enemies into an attack on the principles of constitu- 
 
184 VICTORIA. 
 
 tionalism; but it really was an appeal to the good 
 sense and patriotism of the nation, on which, at 
 bottom, Parliamentary Government must rest. 
 
 The Tory and the Radical Press must share the 
 blame of the disgraceful attacks made upon the Prince. 
 The Queen was bitterly wounded by them. Greville, 
 no courtier, as many former extracts prove, said he 
 never remembered anything more atrocious and unjust 
 than these savage libels. That they had been fostered 
 by the hostility between Palmerston and the Prince 
 there can be no doubt. One of the lies in circulation 
 was that there was a pamphlet giving authentic proofs 
 of the Prince's treachery to England, that the Prince 
 had bought up all the copies but six, which were in 
 Palmerston's possession; whereupon the Prince had 
 made his peace with Palmerston, in order to secure 
 the continued suppression of the pamphlet. This 
 called forth an authoritative denial in the columns of 
 The Morning Post from Lord Palmerston. It is prob- 
 able that one motive of the Queen in bestowing the 
 title of Prince Consort upon her husband in 1857, was 
 to give a practical reply to these slanders. It would 
 have been well if this had been preceded by an action 
 for libel against the most conspicuous of the Prince's 
 traducers ; this would have given a chance of the real 
 author of the libels being run to earth. 
 
 The alliance with France during the Crimean War 
 led to the exchange of visits between the two Courts. 
 The Queen and her husband were quite captivated by 
 the loveliness and charm of the Empress Eugenie, 
 and at first thought far better of the Emperor than 
 he deserved. He laid himself out with considerable 
 adroitness to please the Queen, and succeeded. The 
 Emperor and Empress visited the Queen at Windsor 
 in April, 1855. During their visit to England a grand 
 f6te was given in their honor at the Crystal Palace. 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 185 
 
 The Emperor lived in perpetual dread of assassination, 
 and on this occasion he appears to have communicated 
 some of his nervous apprehension to the Queen, who 
 wrote in her diary : — 
 
 " Nothing could have succeeded better. Still I own I felt anxious as 
 we passed through the multitude of people who, after all, were very 
 close to us. I felt, as I walked on the Emperor's arm, that I was pos- 
 sibly a protection for him. All thoughts of nervousness for myself 
 were passed. I only thought of him ; and so it is, Albert says, when 
 one forgets one's self, one loses this great and foolish nervousness." 
 
 Her Majesty's courage and its source are well 
 exemplified in this passage. 
 
 The return visit of the Queen to Paris took place in 
 the autumn of the same year. She was accompanied 
 by her husband and the Prince of Wales and the 
 Princess Royal. Some characteristic incidents con- 
 nected with the Queen's visit to Paris ought to be 
 mentioned, especially that, although overflowing with 
 friendliness and good feeling to the Emperor, she 
 thought it her duty to explain to him that nothing 
 could shake her kindly relations with the Orleans 
 family. She told him that she had been intimate 
 with them when they were in power, and she could 
 not drop them when they were in adversity. Possibly 
 Louis Napoleon remembered this conversation in 1870, 
 when he himself was an exile in England, and expe- 
 rienced the benefit of the Queen's faithfulness to her 
 friends when they were in trouble. In this same 
 conversation he opened the subject of his confiscation 
 of the property of the Orleans family, and the Queen 
 gave frank expression to her own views on the subject. 
 The Queen remarks in her diary : — 
 
 " I was very anxious to get out what I had to say on the subject, 
 and not to have this untouchable ground between us. Stockmar, so 
 far back as last winter, suggested and advised that this course should 
 be pursued." 
 
 After these visits letters were frequently inter- 
 
186 VICTORIA. 
 
 changed between the two Sovereigns. In one of his, 
 Louis Napoleon appears to have plumed himself on 
 the advantages of an absolute monarchy, especially in 
 conducting negotiations with other States, uncon- 
 trolled power of decision vested in the Sovereign 
 alone, and so on. To which the Queen rejoined, 
 "There is, however, another side to this picture, in 
 which I consider I have an advantage which your 
 Majesty has not. Your policy runs the risk of remain- 
 ing unsupported by the nation," and you may be 
 exposed " to the dangerous alternative of either having 
 to impose it upon them against their will, or of having 
 suddenly to alter your course abroad, or even, perhaps, 
 to encounter grave resistance. I, on the other hand, 
 can allow my policy free scope to work out its own 
 consequences, certain of the steady and consistent 
 support of my people, who, having had a share in 
 determining my policy, feel themselves to be identified 
 with it." Here, too, there was food for reflection on 
 the Emperor's part in after years. 
 
 The Royal children greatly enjoyed their visit to 
 Paris, and it is said that when the time came for 
 their departure the Prince of Wales begged the 
 Empress to get permission for him and the Princess 
 Royal to be left behind to prolong their visit. " The 
 Empress said she was afraid this would be impossible, 
 as the Queen and the Prince would not be able to do 
 without them ; " to which the boy replied, " Not do 
 without us ! Don't fancy that, for there are six more 
 of us at home, and they don't want us." 
 
 Very soon after the return of the Court to Balmoral 
 (10th Sept., 1855) the Queen and Prince had the 
 intense satisfaction of hearing of the fall of Sebastopol, 
 an event which brought the end of the war within 
 measurable distance. Peace was concluded in the 
 following spring. 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 187 
 
 It was a source of great pride to the Queen to know 
 that England was stronger at the end of the Crimean 
 War than at the beginning. The country had learnt 
 by its mistakes, and was not exhausted by its sacri- 
 fices. The Indian Mutiny, which quickly succeeded 
 the Crimean War, found England more capable of 
 dealing with it than if it had taken place earlier. 
 This was fully recognized by the Prince Consort. If 
 those who had accused him of an anti-English spirit 
 could have read his private letters they would have 
 had their eyes opened. He wrote to Stockmar August, 
 1857: — 
 
 " The events in India are a heavy domestic calamity for England. 
 Yet, just because of this, there is less reason to despair, as the English 
 people surpass all others in Europe in energy and vigor of character : 
 and for strong men misfortune serves as a school for instruction and 
 improvement." 
 
 The autumn of 1855 brought with it two interesting 
 domestic events for the Royal Family. The new 
 house at Balmoral was occupied for the first time; 
 and, what was much more important, a visit from 
 Prince Frederick William of Prussia resulted in his 
 engagement to the Princess Royal. She was then 
 under fifteen years of age, and it was thought best 
 that there should be no formal betrothal, and no 
 public announcement until after the Princess's con- 
 firmation in the following spring. The first break 
 into the child-life of a family, by the marriage of one 
 of its members, is always an event that awakens many 
 emotions. The Queen and Prince were thoroughly 
 satisfied, and had cause to be, with their future son- 
 in-law ; but the prospect of parting with their eldest 
 child was a bitter pill. The Prussian Prince was 
 heartily in love, and went on year after year, till his 
 tragic death in 1888, becoming more and more a lover 
 and friend to his wife, whom he constantly spoke of 
 
188 VICTORIA. 
 
 as " the ablest woman in Europe. " Lady Bloomfield, 
 whose husband was, in 1855, English Ambassador in 
 Berlin, gives an account of the announcement there 
 by the King at a State dinner of the engagement 
 between his nephew and the English Princess. Lady 
 Bloomfield says that the Prince was in such high 
 spirits, and looked so excessively happy, it was a 
 pleasure to see him. On their arrival in Germany, 
 shortly after their marriage, he telegraphed to the 
 Queen at Windsor, "The whole Royal Family is 
 enchanted with my wife. — F. W. " On the occasion 
 of the Prince of Wales's wedding, in 1863, the Prince 
 of Prussia was overflowing with praise of his wife. 
 Bishop Wilberforce noted in his diary on this occa- 
 sion, "I was charmed with the Prince of Prussia, 
 and the warmth of his expressions as to his wife. 
 ' Bishop, ' he said, ' with me it has been one long 
 honeymoon. ' " 
 
 The story of the betrothal, and how it was asso- 
 ciated with the giving and receiving of a piece of 
 white heather, a proverbial emblem of good luck, is 
 very prettily told by Her Majesty in " Leaves from 
 the Journal in the Highlands. " The chief anxiety 
 the parents had in the matter was on account of the 
 Princess's extreme youth; but her intellect and char- 
 acter were unusually developed, and she had, what so 
 often accompanies fine intellect, a child-like inno- 
 cence and purity of heart which specially endeared 
 her to all in her home circle. Prince Albert wrote 
 at once to Stockmar to tell him the news : " Victoria," 
 he wrote, " is greatly excited ; still, all goes smoothly 
 and prudently. The Prince is really in love, and the 
 little lady does her best to please him. " 
 
 The engagement was not well received by an import- 
 ant section of the English Press. So little could the 
 writer of the articles read the future, that Prussia 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 189 
 
 was sneered at " as a paltry German dynasty, " Prince 
 Frederick William was described as being in " igno- 
 minious attendance " on his " Imperial Master " the 
 Czar, and it was predicted that the Princess would 
 become anti-English in feeling, and also, with not 
 much consistency, that she would be sent back to 
 England at no distant date, "an exile and a fugitive." 
 The ignorance of this attack robbed it of its poignancy. 
 Prince Frederick William and his father were strongly 
 in accord with the policy of England during the 
 Crimean War, and consequently very much out of 
 favor at their own Court and in St. Petersburg. 
 
 Prince Albert had always taken the keenest interest 
 in directing the education of his eldest daughter, and 
 the fact that she was probably destined to occupy in 
 Prussia a position somewhat similar to his own in 
 England, strengthened the already strong bonds of 
 union between them. From the time of her engage- 
 ment he worked with her daily at historical subjects, 
 and spared no pains to equip her well for her future 
 duties. She translated important political pamphlets 
 from German into English under his direction, and 
 he took undisguised fatherly pride in her capacity and 
 in her widening interests in life. An accident, which 
 might have had very serious consequences, happened 
 to the Princess in 1856, which illustrated her self- 
 control and reliance on her father. As she was seal- 
 ing a letter she set fire to the muslin sleeve of her 
 dress, and her right arm was very badly burned ; the 
 wound was terrible to look at, as the muslin was 
 burnt into the flesh ; it must have caused very severe 
 pain, but the Princess never lost her presence of mind 
 or habitual thoughtfulness for others. She did not 
 utter a cry, but said: "Don't frighten mamma, send 
 for papa first. " Her marriage took place on January 
 25th, 1858. She was a very youthful bride, having 
 
190 VICTORIA. 
 
 only lately completed her seventeenth year. Her first 
 child, the present Emperor William II. , was born on 
 January 27th, 1859. His birth nearly cost the life of 
 his young mother. The Queen's daughter has not 
 had a bed of roses in her adopted country, any more 
 than the Queen's husband had a bed of roses here. 
 But in both cases cruel misrepresentation on the part 
 of a section of the public was more than compensated 
 by the loving appreciation and generous confidence 
 which marriage brought them. The Princess Royal 
 and the Prince Consort each had many a drop of 
 bitterness in their cup; but while he lived, Prince 
 Frederick William was her faithful worshipper, just as 
 the Queen was of the Prince Consort. 
 
 On the day of the Princess Royal's marriage the 
 entry in the Queen's Diary runs: — 
 
 " The second most eventful day of my life as regards feelings. I felt 
 as if I were being married over again myself, only much more nervous, 
 for I had not that blessed feeling which I had then, which raises and 
 supports one, of giving myself up for life to him whom I loved and 
 worshipped — then and ever ! " 
 
 Speaking of the ceremony in the Chapel Royal, St. 
 James's, Her Majesty adds : — 
 
 "The drums and trumpets played marches, and the organ played 
 others as the procession approached and entered ; . . . the effect was 
 thrilling and striking as you heard the music gradually coming nearer 
 and nearer. Fritz looked pale and much agitated, but behaved with the 
 greatest self-possession, bowing to us, and then kneeling down in a most 
 devotional manner. Then came the bride's procession, and our darling 
 Mower looked very touching and lovely, with such an innocent, confi- 
 dent, and serious expression. It was beautiful to see her kneeling with 
 Fritz, their hands joined. . . . My last fear of being overcome vanished 
 on seeing Vicky's quiet, calm, and composed manner. . . . Dearest 
 Albert took her by the hand to give her away, my beloved Albert (who, 
 I saw, felt so strongly), which reminded me vividly of having in the 
 same way, proudly, tenderly, confidently, most lovingly, knelt by him, 
 on this very same spot, and having our hands joined there." 
 
 The Queen and the Prince Consort both recalled the 
 series of important Royal marriages between German 
 
PEACE AND WAR. 191 
 
 Princes and English Princesses, beginning with the 
 marriage of Princess Charlotte, heiress to the throne, 
 to Prince Leopold in 1816, then their own in 1840, 
 and, lastly, of their child to the heir to the throne of 
 Prussia, in 1858. The Prince Consort wrote on the 
 wedding-day to the faithful Stockmar : — 
 
 " My heart impels me to send you a line to-day, as I cannot shake 
 you by the hand. In a few hours our child will be a wedded wife ! a 
 work in which you have had a large share, and, I know, will take a 
 cordial interest. It is just eighteen years since you subscribed my mar- 
 riage contract, and were present in the same Chapel Royal at my union 
 with Victoria. Uncle Leopold, whom you, now forty-two years ago, 
 accompanied to London on the occasion of his marriage, will, with my- 
 self, be one of the bride's supporters. These reminiscences must excite 
 a special feeling within you to-day, with which I hope is coupled the 
 conviction that we all gratefully revere in you a dear friend and wise 
 counsellor." 
 
 On a bitter winter day, February 2nd, 1858, the 
 Queen and Prince bade farewell to their darling child 
 on her departure for Germany. The bride's exclama- 
 tion had been, " I think it will kill me to take leave 
 of dear papa." Those who witnessed her departure 
 through London and at Gravesend spoke of her floods 
 of tears, and many a sympathizing thought went with 
 the daughter of England to her new home. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A NATION OP SHOPKEEPERS. 
 
 England had hardly drawn breath from the Crimean 
 War when she was face to face with the Indian 
 Mutiny. The first symptoms of the outbreak were 
 observed in February, 1857. By the summer of that 
 year it had attained appalling dimensions; but the 
 gravity of the calamity brought out the tenacity of the 
 English character, and it was gradually realized by 
 the country that no effort and no sacrifice would be 
 too great in order to preserve intact our hold upon 
 India. The Queen realized this at a very early period, 
 and urged upon the Prime Minister the undesirability 
 of reducing our military establishments at a moment 
 when India might require all our strength. No 
 protracted diplomatic labors, as in the case of the 
 Crimean War, were thrown upon the Sovereign by 
 the Indian Mutiny. The Queen's duty was discharged 
 by keeping a keen look-out upon the development 
 of the Mutiny, by encouraging the despatch of ample 
 military reinforcements for India, by cheering the 
 civil and military commanders there by her constant 
 sympathy and appreciation of their services, and, above 
 all, when the Mutiny was finally suppressed, by cast- 
 ing the weight of her influence and authority in the 
 scale of mercy, and of the policy which gained for 
 Lord Canning, the Governor-General, the nickname, 
 intended in contempt, but remembered now as a true 
 title of honor, of " Clemency Canning." 
 
 Her Majesty wrote to Lord Canning fully approving 
 of stern justice being dealt out to all who had been 
 
A NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS. 193 
 
 guilty either of mutiny or of complicity in the terrible 
 outrages against women and children, but strongly 
 supporting him in his brave and determined opposi- 
 tion to vindictive fury against the natives at large, 
 in which too many of the English in India were ! 
 tempted to indulge. ! 
 
 When the worst of the Mutiny was over, August, 
 1858, and an Act had been passed transferring the 
 Government of India from the East India Company to 
 the Crown, the time had arrived for the issue of a Royal 
 Proclamation to the inhabitants of India. The draft 
 of this Proclamation reached the Queen when she was 
 paying her first visit to her newly married daughter 
 in Prussia. It will throw a little light on those who 
 think that the function of a Sovereign in a Constitu- 
 tional monarchy is simply to indorse everything sub- 
 mitted by the Ministers, to learn that the Queen on 
 reading this draft felt that neither in spirit nor in 
 language was it appropriate to the occasion. Her 
 objections were set forth in detail to Lord Malmesbury, 
 who was the Minister-in-Attendance, and the follow- 
 ing letter was written by the Queen to the Prime 
 Minister, Lord Derby: — 
 
 Babelsbeeg, 15th Aug., 1858. 
 The Queen has asked Lord Malmesbury to explain in detail to 
 Lord Derby her objections to the draft of the Proclamation for India. 
 The Queen would be glad if Lord Derby would write it himself in his 
 excellent language, bearing in mind that it is a female Sovereign who 
 speaks to more than a hundred millions of Eastern people on assuming 
 the direct Government over them, and, after a bloody civil war, giving 
 them pledges which her future reign is to redeem, and explaining the 
 principles of her Government. Such a document should breathe feel- 
 ings of generosity, benevolence, and religious toleration, and point out 
 the privileges which the Indians will receive in being placed on an 
 equality with the subjects of the British Crown, and the prosperity fol- 
 lowing in the train of civilization. 
 
 Lord Malmesbury's memorandum which accompa- 
 nied this letter goes more into detail. Referring to 
 
 13 
 
194 VICTORIA. 
 
 the draft of which Her Majesty had disapproved, Lord 
 Malmesbury remarks that she had specially objected 
 to the expression that she had the " power of under- 
 mining " the Indian religions. " Her Majesty would 
 prefer that the subject should be introduced by a 
 declaration in the sense that the deep attachment 
 which Her Majesty feels to her own religion, and the 
 comfort and happiness which she derives from its con- 
 solations, will preclude her from any attempt to inter- 
 fere with the native religions, and that her servants 
 will be directed to act scrupulously in accordance 
 with her directions." 
 
 It is impossible to imagine a better example than 
 this gives of the value of the influence of a truly 
 womanly woman upon political affairs. The amended 
 Proclamation gave great satisfaction to Lord Canning, 
 and materially aided him in his difficult task of 
 conciliation. He wrote : — 
 
 " To the good effect of the words in which religion is spoken of in 
 the Proclamation, Lord Canning looks forward with very sanguine 
 hope. It is impossible that the justice, charity, and kindliness, as well 
 as the true wisdom which mark these words, should not be appreciated." 
 
 If a mere handful of Englishmen are to continue to 
 hold the two hundred millions of the various native 
 populations of India, they cannot do so by mere brute 
 force, but only by convincing the leaders of the people 
 that the English Government is actuated by feelings 
 of " justice, charity, and kindliness " towards them. 
 The Queen's Proclamation produced the best effect in 
 India. The Times correspondent, writing upon it, 
 said: "Genuineness of Asiatic feeling is always a 
 problem, but I have little doubt it is in this in- 
 stance tolerably sincere. The people understand an 
 ' Empress, ' and did not understand the Company ; " 
 he adds that the general opinion among the masses 
 was " that the Queen had hanged the Company ! " We 
 
A NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS. 195 
 
 have here an example of the informal use of the title 
 " Empress, " the formal adoption of which caused so 
 much excitement and opposition in 1876. It is pos- 
 sible, however, that from the time of the passing of 
 the Government of India Act, 1858, Mr. Disraeli bore 
 it in mind as an addition he would make to the Queen's 
 titles when a favorable opportunity offered. In 1858, 
 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he wrote 
 to the Queen on the progress of the Government of 
 India Bill through the House of Commons, and said, 
 " But it is only the ante-chamber of an imperial palace, 
 and your Majesty would do well to deign to consider 
 the steps which are now necessary to influence the 
 opinions and affect the imaginations of the Indian 
 populations. The name of your Majesty ought to be 
 impressed upon their native life." 
 
 The immediate carrying out of the scheme here 
 hinted at was rendered impossible in consequence of 
 the change of Ministry which took place in the follow- 
 ing year ; but eighteen years later, when Disraeli was 
 Prime Minister, he gave effect to this project as part 
 of a large scheme for bringing home to the Sovereign 
 and her people in every part of the world that England 
 had ceased to be a " little world, a precious stone set 
 in the silver sea," and had expanded into a gigantic 
 empire. 
 
 But the time for this had not come in 1858 and 
 1859, when affairs nearer home became again of 
 engrossing interest. 
 
 The years which immediately succeeded the Crimean 
 War are full of evidence of the growing distrust of 
 Louis Napoleon felt by the Queen and her husband. 
 He had succeeded at the beginning of their intercourse 
 in producing the impression on them of perfect frank- 
 ness; but by 1859 they had discovered that he was 
 " born and bred a conspirator, " and that through all 
 
196 VICTORIA. 
 
 the changes and vicissitudes of life he would ever be 
 scheming and suspicious. Their eyes must have been 
 opened to his real character by the quality of the 
 people by whom he was served and surrounded. 
 Throughout France, with very few exceptions, honest 
 men and women held aloof from him. Greville speaks 
 of the crowd which formed his Court as being more 
 " encanaillees " than ever. The Prince Consort saw 
 and lamented this, and endeavored to convince the Em- 
 peror that no Sovereign could be great without the aid 
 of great Ministers. But great Ministers were not to be 
 had for the asking. Louis Napoleon had so little 
 confidence in his accredited representatives that in 
 matters of first-class importance they were set on one 
 side, and the business was conducted by the Emperor 
 in person. This was not astonishing, as honest men 
 mostly declined to serve him; he had to do as best he 
 could with inferior material, and naturally could not 
 rely on it in moments of emergency. 
 
 Little by little the true character of Louis Napoleon 
 was revealed to the Queen, and under these circum- 
 stances it is easy to understand that though the 
 social intercourse between the two Sovereigns was not 
 abruptly cut short, yet it became very constrained and 
 uneasy. The Queen and Prince paid two visits to 
 Cherbourg: the first was in 1857, and was entirely 
 private and informal ; the Royal couple were accom- 
 panied by six of their children, and the main object 
 of the visit was holiday-making: but their diaries and 
 letters contain significant observations upon the great 
 strength of the Cherbourg fortifications, and the 
 Queen, with her habitual openness, said it made her 
 " very unhappy " to see the enormous strength and 
 size of the forts ; while the Prince, in more diplomatic 
 language, says the gigantic strength of the place had 
 given him "grave cause for reflection." They went 
 
A NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS. 197 
 
 home very strongly impressed by the necessity of 
 increasing our strength both by sea and land, so that 
 it might not compare so very disadvantageously with 
 that of our valued ally. Their second visit to Cher- 
 bourg was in the following year, 1858, and was a 
 grand ceremonial ; they were received by the Emperor 
 and Empress in state, nine line-of-battle ships were 
 drawn up along the breakwater, and all the ugly forts 
 which dominate the harbor belched forth volleys of 
 gunpowder in their honor, and also perhaps to demon- 
 strate afresh the extent and strength of the fortifica- 
 tions. It does not seem to have been a gay visit; the 
 Emperor was embarrassed, " boutonne and silent and 
 not ready to talk " the Queen wrote, while the Prince 
 observed, "Empress looks ill: he is out of humor." 
 When the inevitable time for speech-making came, 
 and the Prince Consort had to return thanks for the 
 toast of the Queen's and his own health, Her Majesty 
 writes that it was a dreadful moment, which she hoped 
 never to have to go through again. " He did it very 
 well, though he hesitated once. I sat shaking, with 
 my eyes clones sur la table." The Emperor and 
 Empress were both very nervous, and the Queen shook 
 so she could not drink her coffee. The reception 
 given to the Queen was magnificent and uncomfortable 
 in the highest possible degree. One flight of rockets, 
 a mere incident in a grand display of fireworks, was 
 said to have cost 25,000 francs. From first to last, 
 the f£te was organized with regard to the highest 
 possible degree of expense. The Queen and Prince 
 were more than ever impressed that the strength of 
 Cherbourg was a menace to England, and called the 
 attention of their own Ministers, who were in attend- 
 ance, to the obvious necessity for England to look 
 more sharply to her coast and naval defences. How 
 thankful Her Majesty must have been when the end 
 
198 VICTORIA. 
 
 of each day's festivity was reached! Even in the 
 diary the mere words form a little oasis, " At twenty 
 minutes to ten we went below, and read and nearly 
 finished that most interesting book, ' Jane Eyre. ' " 
 
 The alarm felt by the Queen and Prince as to the 
 hostile intentions of Louis Napoleon towards England 
 was fully shared by the nation. After the attempt 
 by Orsini, early in 1858, to assassinate the Emperor 
 by the explosion of bombs under his carriage as it was 
 approaching the Opera House, England was accused 
 of having harbored the conspirators, and with having 
 thereby encouraged their crime. It was true that 
 Orsini had come direct from England, and though this 
 did not make England responsible for him, yet some 
 irritation on the part of France was quite excusable. 
 This expression of irritation, however, passed all 
 reasonable bounds. The Emperor received a large 
 number of addresses from Colonels in the French 
 army congratulating him on his escape; and these 
 addresses, which were published at full in the official 
 organ of the French Government, were, in many 
 instances, full of clamorous demands for war with 
 England. One of these effusions spoke of England as 
 " the land of impurity, which contains the haunts of 
 monsters which are sheltered by its laws : " another 
 requested the Emperor to give the word, and the 
 "infamous haunt in which machinations so infernal 
 are planned " — that is, London — " should be destroyed 
 forever. " 
 
 England's answer was the Volunteer movement, 
 and the dismissal from office of Lord Palmerston's 
 Government, because it was believed to have been too 
 subservient to the demands of France. 
 
 The series of events of 1857 and 1858 were a very 
 curious episode in our political history. The general 
 election of 1857 had been in the nature of a personal 
 
A NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS. 199 
 
 triumph for Palmerston. The cry had been "Pal- 
 merston, and nothing but Palmerston ; " and he had 
 carried everything before him. Within the ranks of 
 the Liberal party all his leading opponents, Bright 
 and Cobden representing the Manchester School, lost 
 their seats. But in less than a year the seemingly 
 all-powerful Minister was defeated because he had not 
 maintained with sufficient dignity the honor and inde- 
 pendence of England. "Old Civis Romanus," as he 
 had been nicknamed, was said to have retreated igno- 
 miniously; the British Lion was depicted with his 
 tail between his legs. There was a strong outburst of 
 dissatisfaction; for once Palmerston had not been 
 sufficiently pugnacious: his Government was swept 
 away, and was replaced by that of Lord Derby. 
 
 The Queen and Prince from the first took an im- 
 mense interest in the Volunteers ; they had always anx- 
 iously watched the relatively small military strength 
 of England, and had urged on successive Governments 
 the overwhelming importance of not allowing it to 
 sink to a level incompatible with national security. 
 The spontaneous growth of a great service for internal 
 defence gave them, therefore, peculiar satisfaction, as 
 affording evidence that at heart the spirit of the 
 country was as sound as it had been in the days of the 
 Armada. The Queen reviewed the English Volunteers 
 in Hyde Park in June, 1860. The cheering was so 
 tremendous that Her Majesty was quite overcome. 
 She inaugurated the National Rifle Association in 
 the following month; and she reviewed the Scottish 
 Volunteers on Arthur's Seat in August of the same 
 year. 
 
 It was a splendid sight; 22,000 magnificent men, 
 the flower of a hardy and spirited race ; the surround- 
 ing amphitheatre of the hillside crowded with a 
 cheering multitude; no wonder that the Queen was 
 
200 VICTORIA. 
 
 thrilled with pride and thankfulness. The Duchess 
 of Kent was with her daughter ; the Queen writes that 
 she was so delighted, " dear mamma could be present at 
 this memorable and never-to-be-forgotten occasion." 
 It was the last time they were together at any public 
 ceremonial. 
 
 Lord Tennyson interpreted the national feeling by 
 his song, " Riflemen, form ! " and the lines — 
 
 " True, we have got such a faithful ally 
 That only the Devil can tell what he means " — 
 
 exactly described the sentiments of most Englishmen 
 towards Louis Napoleon. It was said that a foreigner 
 expressed surprise at the military spirit displayed at 
 one of these Volunteer reviews, and said he had under- 
 stood that the English were a nation of shopkeepers. 
 A jolly countryman replied, " So they are, Moosoo ; 
 and these are the boys who keep the shop ! " 
 
 The Volunteer movement has proved no mere flash 
 in the pan, caused by a sudden explosion of passing 
 irritation. It has grown and strengthened, and now, 
 after twenty-six years of existence, it adds more than 
 200,000 men to the internal defences of the country. 
 The annual meeting of the National Rifle Association 
 has furnished proof to the world that the Volunteer 
 force contains a body of skilled marksmen, who, under 
 able generalship, might turn the scale in many a 
 battle. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE VALLEY OP THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 
 
 The year 1861 closed the book of the happy wedded 
 life of the Queen. The hand of death lay heavy upon 
 her, and took from her first her mother, and then her 
 husband. The death of her mother was her first very 
 great sorrow. Her half-brother, Prince Charles of 
 Leiningen, had died in 1856; but his life and hers, 
 during his latter years, had lain very much apart, 
 and though she mourned him deeply and truly, he had 
 not made part of her life, and his death could not 
 be to her what the death of her mother was, who had 
 watched over her from childhood, and with whom she 
 passed part of almost every day; still less could it 
 bring the loneliness and desolation in which the 
 Queen was left by the death of her husband, "her 
 dearest life in life," as she had called him. 
 
 The Duchess of Kent died in March, 1861. There 
 is no consolation in being told that such a loss is 
 common. It is not common to the heart that has to 
 bear it. The Queen felt, as all must feel when death 
 takes from them a beloved parent, that part of her 
 life was gone which nothing could restore. She wrote 
 in the diary so often quoted: — 
 
 " How awful ! How mysterious ! But what a blessed end ! Her 
 gentle spirit at rest, her sufferings over! But I — I, wretched child — 
 who had lost the mother I so tenderly loved, from whom for these forty- 
 one years I had never been parted except for a few weeks, what was my 
 case 1 My childhood — everything seemed to crowd upon me at once. 
 I seemed to have lived through a life, to have become old ! What I had 
 dreaded and fought off the idea of for years, had come, and must be 
 borne. The blessed future meeting, and her peace and rest, must hence- 
 forward be my comfort." 
 
202 VICTORIA. 
 
 In a letter to her uncle, the King of the Belgians, 
 now the last survivor of his generation, the Queen 
 wrote that she felt "so truly orphaned." The Queen 
 was sustained in her sorrow by the tender sympathy 
 of her husband and of her daughter, the Princess 
 Alice, whose strong and beautiful character, already 
 well known in her home circle, was to be revealed to 
 the nation a few months later. The Princess was 
 now entering on womanhood, and had recently been 
 betrothed to Prince Louis of Hesse, nephew of the 
 reigning Grand Duke. After her lamented death in 
 1878, a volume, with extracts from her letters to the 
 Queen, was published as a memorial. In these she 
 repeatedly recurs to the fact that when the Duchess of 
 Kent died, the Prince Consort took his daughter by 
 the hand and led her to the Queen, and told her she 
 " must comfort mamma. " A few months later, when 
 the place in the Palace of the husband and father was 
 vacant, the Princess recalled these words, and accepted 
 them as a sacred trust and bequest. She nobly justi- 
 fied the confidence her father had reposed in her. In 
 this earlier bereavement it was her office to comfort 
 and sustain the Queen, who wrote : " Dear, good Alice 
 was full of intense feeling, tenderness, and distress 
 for me ; she, and all of them, loved ' grandmamma ' 
 so dearly." 
 
 The Queen and Prince appreciated fully all that the 
 former had owed to her mother, — the watchful vigi- 
 lance and wisdom with which, from the date of her 
 husband's death, in 1820, the Duchess had devoted 
 herself to the one object of preparing her baby daughter 
 for the great future which awaited her. Stockmar had 
 been the friend of the Duchess from the hour of her be- 
 reavement ; it was from him that she learned that the 
 illness of her husband could have no other than a fatal ter- 
 mination ; he had stood by her through the long years of 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 203 
 
 her loneliness, surrounded as she was by difficulties, 
 jealousies, and misrepresentations; he had always 
 appreciated her warm heart and innate truthfulness. 
 He wrote of her that "she was by sheer natural 
 instinct truthful, affectionate, and friendly, unselfish, 
 sympathetic, and even magnanimous." All these 
 testimonies to her worth were recalled now with grati- 
 tude and love by the sorrowing Queen. She was 
 deprived of one solace which she might have had, 
 the presence of her half-sister, Princess Feodore of 
 Hohenlohe, the only other surviving child of the 
 Duchess. She had recently been left a widow (April, 
 1860), and could not leave Germany. 
 
 Lady Augusta Bruce (afterwards Lady Augusta 
 Stanley) had been one of the Duchess's ladies-in- 
 waiting, and had been almost a daughter to her in 
 love, and more than her own daughter could be in 
 tender, watchful service. The Queen now transferred 
 Lady Augusta to her own household, nominally as 
 Resident Bed-Chamber Woman, really as assistant 
 secretary ; and from this time a very strong bond of 
 affection was established between them, which was 
 unbroken until Lady Augusta's death. The Queen 
 also received help and consolation from the presence 
 of her eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, who 
 hurried to her parents on hearing of their loss. But 
 notwithstanding all consolations, the Queen's heart 
 was very sore ; her faithful, tender nature is one 
 which clings with tenacious gratitude to the memory 
 of precious friends hid in death's dateless night. 
 Eleven years after her mother's death, Her Majesty's 
 journal for the 17th August, 1872, has the follow- 
 ing entry : " Beloved mamma's birthday. That dear 
 mother, so loving and tender and full of kindness! 
 How often I long for that love ! " The Queen did not 
 attend her mother's funeral. " I and my girls, " she 
 
204 VICTORIA. 
 
 wrote, "prayed at home." A special trial belonging 
 to the position of Royalty must be its isolation. No 
 subject can be on terms of equality with a Sovereign ; 
 crowned heads are therefore thrown almost wholly on 
 their own immediate families for that life-giving sym- 
 pathy and criticism which can hardly exist in perfec- 
 tion except between equals. To the Queen the loss 
 of her mother, followed by the loss of her husband, 
 brought the silencing of the only voices in the world 
 who could say to her, in love, " You have been wrong, 
 you have made a mistake." Consider what it must 
 be never to hear any language except that of homage 
 and respect, never to listen to plain truths put plainly, 
 never to be laughed at, seldom to be laughed with; 
 and then imagine what it must be to lose the few who 
 belong to that close inner circle for whom these for- 
 malities are non-existent. 1 One can only compare it 
 to the position of a man on a desert island, who, 
 having possessed a Bible or a Shakespeare, wakes one 
 morning to find them destroyed or carried away by 
 the tide. It has been sometimes said by English 
 women that the Queen's loss when she lost her hus- 
 band was not greater than that of thousands and mil- 
 lions of women among her subjects ; it has even been 
 said that Her Majesty's loss was not so great : some 
 women, at one blow, by the death of their husbands, 
 are face to face with the wolf of poverty and hunger 
 for themselves and their children. No one can think 
 lightly of such anguish; but if the inner history of 
 
 1 The Queen gave expression to this sense of isolation, as a necessary 
 part of the position of a Sovereign, in a private letter to the Emperor of 
 the French, dated August, 1857. She wrote, after thanking the Em- 
 peror for his expressions of favorable opinion about the Prince Consort : 
 " In a position so isolated as ours, we can find no greater consolation, no 
 support more sure, than the sympathy and counsel of him or her who is 
 called on to share our lot in life ; and the dear Empress, with her gen- 
 erous impulses, is your guardian angel, as the Prince is my true friend." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 205 
 
 such lives could be told, would it not often be found 
 that the curse was turned into a blessing, that the 
 necessity to seek active work, the friends found in 
 seeking it and in doing it, gave relief to the heart- 
 ache, and that the rod of chastisement had been con- 
 verted into the staff of strength ? 
 
 " Get leave to work 
 In this world, — 't is the hest you get at all ; 
 For God in cursing gives us better gifts 
 Than men in benediction. God says, ' Sweat 
 For foreheads ; ' men say, ' Crowns : ' and so we are crowned, 
 Ay, gashed by some tormenting circle of steel 
 Which snaps with a secret spring. Get work, get work ; 
 Be sure 't is better than what you work to get." 
 
 The year preceding the death of the Prince Consort 
 had been, perhaps, fuller than ever of public and 
 private interests. In the autumn of 1860, the Queen 
 and her husband met their daughter, Princess Frederick 
 William of Prussia, with her two children, at Coburg. 
 This was the first sight the Queen had of her grand- 
 son, " Dear little William, . . . such a darling, and 
 so intelligent ; . . . a very pretty, clever child. " Dur- 
 ing this visit to Coburg the Prince was in a serious 
 carriage accident, from which, however, he escaped 
 almost uninjured. The Queen's thankfulness is more 
 touching by the light of after events. She gave 1, 200 
 florins to found an annual gift for apprenticing young 
 men and women in Coburg, to be distributed every year 
 on the anniversary of her husband's escape. Tours 
 had been arranged, and were taking place in 1860, for 
 the Prince of Wales in Canada and the United States, 
 and for Prince Alfred in Cape Colony; the parents 
 constantly received the most gratifying news of the 
 impression made by their sons, and the great loyalty 
 their visits had called forth. Most courteous and 
 cordial letters on the subject of the Prince of Wales's 
 visit were exchanged between the Queen and the 
 
206 VICTORIA. 
 
 President of the United States. The Queen addressed 
 the President as " My good Friend, " being the nearest 
 approach which the circumstances admitted to the 
 exclusively royal " mon cher frere." Special and sym- 
 pathetic reference was made in both letters to the 
 young Prince's visit to the tomb of Washington. 
 Arrangements were made by the Prince Consort for 
 the Prince of Wales's residence on his return from 
 America for a year at the University of Cambridge. 
 Before this, for the ostensible purpose of allowing 
 the Prince of Wales to attend the German military 
 manoeuvres, it was arranged that he should have the 
 opportunity of making the acquaintance of the Princess 
 Alexandra of Denmark. The Prince Consort notes 
 with obvious satisfaction in his diary " that the young 
 people seem to have taken a warm liking for one 
 another. " 
 
 Plans were also made during this autumn for a visit 
 by the Prince of Wales to the Holy Land. 
 
 The cares of a large family were particularly press- 
 ing on the Queen and Prince during this year. Prince 
 Leopold, who was delicate from his birth, had a sharp 
 attack of measles, which caused great anxiety. It 
 was necessary to send him (aged only seven) to Cannes 
 for the winter; and the choice of suitable people to 
 take charge of the delicate little lad was necessarily 
 an anxious one. Among the other engagements of 
 this autumn was included a visit to Ireland, with a 
 hurried excursion to the Curragh to see the Prince of 
 Wales, who was going through a course of military 
 training there. 
 
 With regard to public affairs, foreign politics were 
 more than ordinarily absorbing. It was the year of 
 the triumphal entry of Garibaldi into Naples, and of 
 Victor Emmanuel into the Papal States. The Queen 
 and Prince followed these events with more anxiety 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 207 
 
 and less sympathy than the Ministry or the nation. 
 The Prince dubbed Lord Palmerston and Lord John 
 Russell, "the two old Italian masters. " The Court 
 seems to have failed to appreciate the constructive 
 greatness of Garibaldi, and could see in him little 
 more than a kind of picturesque bandit. The fruit of 
 his labors towards the unification of Italy was now, 
 however, nearly ripe, and before the death of the 
 Prince Consort the English Government had acknowl- 
 edged the title of Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy. 
 On the Eastern Question the Queen and Prince were 
 troubled and perplexed by the tendency of Turkey to 
 relapse into all her old vices of oppression and bad 
 government, and by the evident hesitation of the 
 French Emperor upon the question whether it would 
 not be to his interest to throw over the English and 
 form a Russian alliance. 
 
 At home the Queen and Prince were strenuously 
 backing up the Government in their policy of increas- 
 ing the naval defences of England and in protecting 
 our southern coasts by extensive works of fortifica- 
 tion. This policy was opposed by Mr. Bright and Mr. 
 Cobden, from the ranks of the independent Members 
 of Parliament, and by Mr. Gladstone from within the 
 Cabinet. Palmerston wrote to the Queen that Mr. 
 Gladstone had threatened to resign if the new fortifi- 
 cations could not be paid for out of income ; and the 
 Prime Minister added, in a characteristic passage, 
 "Viscount Palmerston hopes to be able to overcome 
 his objection; but if that should prove impossible, 
 however great the loss to the Government by the 
 retirement of Mr. Gladstone, it would be better to 
 lose Mr. Gladstone than to run the risk of losing 
 Portsmouth or Plymouth. " Throughout this year, 
 amid the constant pressure of work of both a public 
 and a private character, and the deluge of despatches 
 
208 VICTORIA. 
 
 that followed the Royal pair wheresoever they went, 
 there are constant references to the failing health of 
 the Prince Consort; his digestion was a perpetual 
 trouble ; the Queen kept back details of business from 
 him if they were of an anxious nature, because she 
 knew they irritated his delicate stomach. The death 
 of the Duchess of Kent threw a good deal of extra 
 work upon the Prince ; he was left her sole executor, 
 and masses of papers had to be dealt with without the 
 aid of her secretary and controller of the household, 
 who had predeceased his mistress by a few weeks. 
 There was a visible failure of health and energy on 
 the part of the Prince. " I have been far from well 
 of late ; " " my catarrh refuses to give way ; " " yester- 
 day I was too miserable to hold the pen, " are a few 
 expressions taken at random from his private letters 
 in the year preceding his death. He did not, how- 
 ever, relax his habit of diligent work. Summer and 
 winter he rose at seven, and immediately attacked 
 his correspondence, and the reading and writing of 
 despatches for the Queen. They worked together, he 
 writing, she correcting and amending. He would 
 bring letters to the Queen and say, " Read carefully, 
 and tell me if there be any faults in these " (he was 
 never quite secure, it seems, about his English); or, 
 "Here is a draft I have made for you. Read it; I 
 should think it would do. " The last time he rose to 
 work in the early morning in this way was on Decem- 
 ber 1, 1861, when he prepared a draft for the Queen 
 on the Trent affair. Sir Theodore Martin gives it in 
 facsimile in his fifth volume of the Life of the Prince. 
 It stands in the Prince's writing, with the Queen's 
 corrections. As he gave it to the Queen he said, " I 
 am so weak I have scarcely been able to hold the 
 pen. " It was a worthy piece of work to stand as a 
 last memento of a noble life. It was the time of the 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 209 
 
 outset of the American Civil War. Great irritation 
 had been produced between the Governments of Eng- 
 land and the United States by the forcible seizure by 
 the latter on an English ship, the Trent, of two envoys 
 from the Southern States who were proceeding to 
 Europe. It was an entirely unjustifiable piece of 
 high-handedness, condemned by every rule of Interna- 
 tional law. The feeling in England was one of intense 
 indignation, and Lord Palmerston, then Prime Minis- 
 ter, was not the man to soothe or subdue it. A 
 despatch for communication to the American Govern- 
 ment was sent by the Prime Minister to the Queen. 
 If it had been delivered, as originally drafted, the 
 peaceful settlement of the difference between the two 
 countries would have been rendered extremely dim- 
 cult, if not impossible. The Prince Consort virtually 
 remodelled it in such a way as to maintain all the 
 just demands of this country, but to leave to the 
 Government of the United States an honorable path of 
 retreat from the false step which had been taken. 
 This one piece of work alone should keep the Prince's 
 memory green in both countries for many a long year. 
 The news of the pacific settlement of the difference 
 between England and America reached London on 9th 
 January, 1862, less than a month after the Prince 
 Consort's death. The Queen, in communicating with 
 Lord Palmerston on the subject, could not forbear 
 reminding him that the peaceful issue of the quarrel 
 was "greatly owing to her beloved Prince." Pal- 
 merston, in his reply, cordially acknowledged that it 
 was so, and added : " But these alterations were only 
 one of innumerable instances of the tact and judg- 
 ment, and the power of nice discrimination which 
 excited Lord Palmerston's constant and unbounded 
 admiration. " 
 
 At the very outset of the Prince Consort's last ill- 
 
 U 
 
210 VICTORIA. 
 
 ness, his spirits were greatly depressed by the death 
 from typhoid fever of the King of Portugal, Don 
 Pedro, at the early age of twenty-five, and also of his 
 brother, Prince Ferdinand. They were the Prince's 
 cousins, and he was particularly attached to them, 
 especially to the King, to whom he stood in almost a 
 paternal relation. The King had married in 1857, 
 with every apparent prospect of happiness, but his 
 young wife had died of diphtheria in 1859, and now he 
 and his brother were cut off by typhoid. The calam- 
 ity produced an effect on the Prince Consort which he 
 was unable to shake off. This and other anxieties of 
 a private nature preyed upon his mind and deprived 
 him of sleep. He noted in his diary of November 
 24th that for fourteen days his nights had been almost 
 sleepless. It was the beginning of the end. Another 
 sign of low vitality was that he had no strong love of 
 life. He said to the Queen, not long before his fatal 
 illness, " I do not cling to life. You do ; but I set no 
 store by it. If I knew that those I love were well 
 cared for, I should be quite ready to die to-morrow ; " 
 and he added, " I am sure if I had a severe illness I 
 should give up at once. I should not struggle for 
 life. I have no tenacity of life." The event proved 
 that he was right. On Monday, November 25th, he 
 paid a hurried visit to the Prince of Wales at Cam- 
 bridge. He was then feeling far from well, and 
 entered in his diary on his return, " Bin reeht elend " 
 (am very wretched). His last public appearance was 
 on November 28th, at a review of the Eton College 
 Volunteers. That it was a great effort to him to fulfil 
 this engagement is proved by the short note in his 
 diary, the last he ever made, " Unhappily I must be 
 present. " 
 
 The gradually growing anguish of the Queen during 
 the next fortnight can be traced day by day in the 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 211 
 
 pages of Sir Theodore Martin. At first she was " so 
 thankful the illness was not fever ; " then it became 
 clear that it was fever, — typhoid fever, — with its 
 accompanying exhaustion and wandering of mind. 
 She was terribly alarmed, but still clung desperately 
 to every favorable symptom. She tried to gather 
 what the doctors really thought, less by what they 
 said than by how they looked. When they looked 
 grave and sad, " I went to my room and felt as if my 
 heart must break. " When the doctors spoke frankly 
 to her of the course which the fever must run before 
 any improvement could be looked for, " My heart was 
 ready to burst ; but I cheered up, remembering how 
 many people have fever. . . . Good Alice was very 
 courageous, and tried to comfort me. " In the earlier 
 days of the Prince's illness he took pleasure in being 
 read to, and in hearing music, and the little baby 
 daughter, Beatrice, was brought in to say her new 
 French verses, and he held her little hand in his. 
 The Queen recalls with touching minuteness his ten- 
 derness and caressing affection, constantly mani- 
 fested towards herself. " Liebes Frauehen," " gutes 
 Weibchen " (dear little wife, good little wife), he would 
 call her, stroking her face with his wasted hand. On 
 December 11th the Queen's diary records that she 
 supported him while he took his beef -tea. " And he 
 laid his dear head (his beautiful face, more beautiful 
 than ever, is grown so thin) on my shoulder, and 
 remained a little while, saying, ' It is very comfortable 
 so, dear child ! ' which made me very happy. " 
 
 His mind often wandered back to the days of his 
 boyhood at the Rosenau ; but at times it would be as 
 clear as ever, and he would speak to the Queen on 
 public matters, or remind her of some important 
 detail in connection with her despatches. On Decem- 
 ber 13th an alarming change for the worse was 
 
212 VICTORIA. 
 
 noticed, but again he rallied, and again the almost 
 despairing Queen was tempted to listen to the delusive 
 voice of hope. The Princess Alice, acting on her 
 own responsibility, summoned the Prince of Wales 
 by telegraph from Cambridge ; and he travelled 
 through the night, reaching Windsor at three in the 
 morning of December 14th. Prince Alfred was at 
 Halifax, in Nova Scotia; Prince Leopold was at 
 Cannes; 1 and the Prince's darling eldest daughter, 
 the Princess Royal, was in Prussia, and could not be 
 summoned in time. Little Princess Beatrice was too 
 young to know what she was losing. But the other 
 children were gathered round their father's deathbed. 
 About half-past five in the afternoon the Prince spoke 
 to the Queen for the last time. He called her again, 
 " Good little wife, " and kissed her with a sigh, as if 
 he felt he was leaving her. Then he sank into a sort 
 of doze, from which he never fully awoke ; and the life 
 so inexpressibly dear to the Queen, and so valuable to 
 his children and to the nation, gradually ebbed. The 
 end came at a quarter to eleven on Saturday night, 
 December 14th, 1861. The booming of the great bell 
 of St. Paul's at midnight warned London of the 
 calamity that had befallen the Queen and nation. 
 But the sad news did not reach the general public till 
 later. Few who were present at morning service on 
 the following day will forget the thrill of awe and 
 sorrow which ran through the churches when the name 
 of Prince Consort was omitted from the liturgy, and 
 a long pause was made after the word " widows and 
 orphans." To many this was the first intimation of 
 the Prince's death. 
 
 1 By a sad coincidence, the governor chosen for Prince Leopold, Sir 
 Edward Bowater, died on the same day as the Prince Consort. The 
 poor little hoy, on hearing of his father's death, is said to have ex- 
 claimed in the midst of his tears, " I must go to my mother. I want 
 my mother." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 213 
 
 One of the Queen's chief titles to the love of her 
 people is that she sorrows with their sorrows : — 
 
 " Queen as true to womanhood as queenhood. 
 Glorying with the glories of her people, 
 Sorrowing with the sorrows of the lowest." 
 
 The whole nation now mourned with the Queen, 
 and with many the bitter cup was not unmingled with 
 remorse. The lamentations for the dead are often 
 sorest when the accusing conscience joins its forces 
 to those of natural grief. Injustice, misrepresenta- 
 tion, ungenerosity during life, add an almost intoler- 
 able torture to the pain of the mourner. Fortunately, 
 from this worst anguish the Queen was wholly free. 
 She could look back over the whole of her twenty-two 
 years' union with her beloved Prince, and could find 
 nothing but an unbroken chain of confidence and 
 love; it may safely be said that she had missed no 
 opportunity of actively contributing to her husband's 
 happiness by every device which ingenious watchful 
 affection could contrive. She therefore belonged to 
 those mourners of whom it may be truly said that they 
 are blessed, and shall be comforted. On the last 
 anniversary of her wedding-day before her husband's 
 death, the Queen had written to the King of the 
 Belgians to give renewed expression to the feelings 
 awakened by the day. She spoke again of "our 
 blessed marriage," and "the incalculable blessing" it 
 had brought ; and added, " Yery few can say with me 
 that their husband at the end of twenty-one years is 
 not only full of the friendship, kindness, and affection 
 which a truly happy marriage brings with it, but of 
 the same tender love as in the very first days of our 
 marriage. " Death itself could not rob her of this 
 enormous happiness. It was true he was gone, and 
 she was left alone to bear the weight of the crown and 
 sceptre unsupported except by his memory; but for 
 
214 VICTORIA. 
 
 nearly twenty-two years he had been to her in her 
 own words, "Husband, father, lover, master, friend, 
 adviser, and guide." Many will be disposed to 
 murmur, "Happy woman, happy wife," even in face 
 of the crushing grief which now overwhelmed her. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE AFTER 1861. 
 
 After the death of the Prince Consort the available 
 materials for a life of Her Majesty are much less 
 ample. It is true that in giving directions to Sir 
 Theodore Martin for writing the Life of the Prince, 
 Her Majesty's desire was that only so much of her 
 own life was to be revealed as was absolutely neces- 
 sary for the continuity of the story ; but the two lives 
 were so completely one that it was impossible to write 
 an account of one that was not almost equally an 
 account of the other. They realized, as long as the 
 Prince lived, the dream of Tennyson's " Princess " : 
 
 " Everywhere 
 Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, 
 Two in the tangled business of the world, 
 Two in the liberal offices of life." 
 
 Sources of information from political memoirs and 
 biographies also became rarer, till they disappear 
 altogether as we approach recent years. The burning 
 political questions of the present day cannot be handled 
 as those can that have been cooling for nearly half-a- 
 century. Her Majesty's published diaries and the 
 Memoir of Princess Alice studiously exclude nearly 
 all references to the multifarious and constant politi- 
 cal duties and interests devolving on the Head of the 
 State ; it is only every now and then and, as it were, 
 accidentally, that Her Majesty's political activities, 
 during the thirty-four years since her husband's death, 
 have been made known to the mass of her subjects ; 
 whereas, during the twenty-one years of her married 
 
216 VICTORIA. 
 
 life, they have been set forth in full detail. There 
 is, however, every reason to know that Her Majesty 
 is fully as active, and certainly has been as efficient, 
 in the discharge of her political duties since she has 
 stood alone as she was when her " permanent Minister " 
 was by her side. 
 
 When the blow of her husband's death fell upon 
 her, the effect on the Queen was overwhelming. She 
 was stunned by it. In after years she could hardly 
 remember those dreadful days of the first realization 
 of her loss ; the effect of her anguish was like that of 
 a physical blow, producing insensibility, or at least 
 the inability to record in the tables of the memory the 
 sharp pangs she then endured. Her principal com- 
 forter and supporter was her daughter, Princess Alice. 
 In a few days the young girl of 18 developed into a 
 thoughtful, helpful woman. She was for a time the 
 medium of communication between the Queen and 
 her Ministers. Fears were entertained, especially by 
 Leopold, King of the Belgians, that residence at 
 Windsor would involve risk to the Queen's health and 
 even to her life, and he induced her Ministers to 
 bring great pressure to bear on her to leave the castle 
 and go to Osborne even before the funeral of the 
 Prince Consort. At first, very naturally, the Queen 
 entirely declined to entertain the idea; but King 
 Leopold insisted, and it was finally through the per- 
 suasion of the Princess Alice that the Queen was 
 induced to yield. Broken-hearted as she was, she 
 did not forget the duty she owed to her country 
 and family. In after years Princess Alice wrote that 
 it was cruel and wrong to force her mother to leave 
 Windsor at such a moment ; but the motive, whether 
 misplaced or not, was anxiety for the Queen's health, 
 and this was paramount over other considerations. 
 The responsibility thrown on Princess Alice in two 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE AFTER 1861. 217 
 
 directions, to support and console the Queen, and also 
 as the medium of communication for a time with the 
 Ministers, to understand and follow the political 
 movements and events of the time, wonderfully 
 developed the character of the young girl. To the 
 end of her life she combined these two characteristics 
 in a pre-eminent degree. She was one of those women 
 who are born to seek that which was lost, to bind up 
 that which was broken, and strengthen that which 
 was sick; and she also took the keenest and most 
 intelligent interest in politics, following the move- 
 ments for the unity of Germany, the development of 
 constitutional liberty in various countries, and the 
 education and employment of women, not only with 
 sympathy, but with practical knowledge and a con- 
 stant wish to forward all these movements by personal 
 exertions and sacrifices. She was very soon to leave 
 her mother's home for her husband's.. Her marriage 
 with Prince Louis of Hesse took place on July 1st, 
 1862 ; but though her home was henceforth in Germany, 
 the country of her birth remained the country of her 
 heart : she loved England as the home of liberty and 
 as the country which was leading the way of advance- 
 ment both for men and women. It is a touching 
 incident that, dying as she did at Darmstadt in 1878, 
 her last request to her husband was that the Union 
 Jack might be laid on her coffin. 
 
 Her devotion to the Queen in the hour of her deso- 
 lation greatly endeared her to the English people ; the 
 memory of that sacred time of common sorrow made 
 a special bond between the mother and daughter. It 
 will not be forgotten that when, in 1871, the Prince 
 of Wales had a desperate attack of the same illness 
 (typhoid fever) that had been fatal to his father ten 
 years earlier, the Princess Alice helped the Princess 
 of Wales to nurse him safely through it ; the anniver- 
 
218 VICTORIA. 
 
 sary of the Prince Consort's death, December 14th, 
 was the day on which the illness of his son took a 
 favorable turn. On the first anniversary of the turn- 
 ing point in the Prince of Wales's illness, December 
 14th, 1872, Princess Alice wrote to the Queen that 
 the day must always be one of mixed recollections 
 and feelings, of thankfulness as well as of sorrow, 
 and that in both respects it would always be " a day 
 hallowed in our family." Six years later it was on 
 this very day, December 14th, 1878, that the beloved 
 and gifted Princess breathed her last. 
 
 All the contemporary records speak of the Queen as 
 
 having borne her terrible grief with courage. She is 
 
 said to have been more outwardly composed than she 
 
 had been after the death of her mother. She began 
 
 after a few days to transact necessary business. On 
 
 the 20th December, one of the family wrote from 
 
 Windsor that she had signed some papers, and had 
 
 seen Lord Granville. One of her political letters to 
 
 Lord Palmerston, written in January, 1862, has been 
 
 already quoted. It is entirely characteristic of her 
 
 that her first public utterance after the death of her 
 
 husband was an expression of tenderest sympathy with 
 
 the wives and children of 204 poor men who were 
 
 killed in the Hartley Colliery explosion in January, 
 
 1862. Her own misery, the Queen said, made her 
 
 feel the more for them. A little later she received 
 
 visits of sympathy and condolence from her uncle, 
 
 King Leopold, and from her half-sister, Princess 
 
 Peodore of Hohenlohe. To a nature like hers, work 
 
 and the sympathy of loving friends are the best of all 
 
 balms; but she was intensely forlorn; she had lost 
 
 the source of joy and happiness, and nothing could 
 
 bring it back. The joyous young woman, radiant 
 
 with light-hearted happiness, ceased to exist on 
 
 December 14th, 1861. Henceforward our Queen has 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE AFTER 1861. 219 
 
 been a careworn woman, acquainted with grief. She 
 has herself told how her sad and suffering heart was 
 cheered by the solemn beauty of her beloved High- 
 lands, and especially that she was taught many a 
 lesson of resignation and trust by her faithful Scottish 
 servants. One of these, John Grant, wheeling her 
 chair, or leading her pony along the mountain paths, 
 taught her that she must not look upon the days espe- 
 cially associated with her husband's memory — his 
 birthday, August 26th, or even the day of his death, 
 December 14th — as days of mourning. " That 's not 
 the light to look at it," he said, and helped her to feel 
 that they were beloved and blessed days, because they 
 were so full of the memories of the blessed past. In 
 recording this the Queen writes, "There is so much 
 true and strong faith in these good, simple people." 
 The lesson was not forgotten, and we find, by various 
 notes in the diary, that the Queen keeps her husband's 
 birthday by trying to make it a happy day for those 
 about her, celebrating it by giving presents to her 
 children, ladies and gentlemen in attendance, and 
 servants, so that all should feel they had been borne 
 in mind, and had received some " remembrance of the 
 dear day. " In the same spirit of gratitude for past 
 happiness, Her Majesty's note in her diary for October 
 15th, 1867, is, "Our blessed engagement day! A 
 dear and sacred day — already twenty-eight years ago. 
 How 1 ever bless it ! " In contrast with this, we find 
 the entry for her own birthday, May 24th, 1863, just 
 three words, " My poor birthday ! " 
 
 Chief among her Highland friends, the Queen had 
 the good fortune to reckon Dr. Norman Macleod. 
 His strong faith and his power of sympathy, combined 
 with a wonderful gift of expression and indefatigable 
 kindness, gave him a peculiar power in saying the 
 right thing, and giving just the help and support that 
 
220 VICTORIA. 
 
 the Queen wanted when she felt most forlorn. He 
 had also the strong sense of humor which so often 
 makes the crooked straight, and the rough places 
 plain. The Queen felt she could talk openly to him 
 about her sorrow ; he helped her to look, not down, 
 but up. When showing him a drawing of the Prince's 
 mausoleum, his exclamation was, "Oh, he is not 
 there. " He would lead her away from her own grief, 
 to realize, and help to soothe, the sorrows of others. 
 He told her of a beautiful expression of a poor Scottish 
 woman who had lost her husband and several of her 
 children. The poor woman had said, referring to her 
 husband's death, " When he was ta'en, it made sic a 
 hole in my heart that a' other sorrows gang lichtly 
 through. " 
 
 It is interesting to note that on October 3d, 1869, 
 the Queen asked Dr. Macleod his opinion of the 
 Marquis of Lome. The Doctor assured her that he 
 knew Lord Lome well, and had prepared him for 
 confirmation, and thought very highly of him, — 
 " good, excellent and superior in every way. " Exactly 
 a year from that day, October 3d, 1870, the Princess 
 Louise became engaged to the Marquis of Lome, and 
 they were married on March 21st, 1871. 
 
 The Queen was greatly attracted by the simplicity 
 and dignity of the services of the Scottish Church. 
 She was present at the Communion Service at Crathie 
 in 1871. The Journal says : — 
 
 " It would be impossible to say how deeply we were impressed by the 
 grand simplicity of the service. It was all so truly earnest, and no de- 
 scription can do justice to the perfect devotion of the whole assemblage. 
 It was most touching, and I longed much to join in it." 
 
 Since 1873, this wish on the part of the Queen has 
 been gratified, and she has joined in the communion 
 at Crathie every autumn. 
 
 Although Princess Alice's marriage in July, 1862, 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE AFTER 1861. 221 
 
 had deprived the Queen of the constant companion- 
 ship of this dearly loved daughter, yet the Princess 
 continued to spend part of almost every year with her 
 mother. She returned to England in November, 1862, 
 and stayed with the Queen till after the birth of her 
 first baby, in April, 1863. The Queen was a most 
 tender nurse, and always took a special interest in the 
 granddaughter and god-daughter who had been born 
 under her roof. It was Princess Alice who encouraged 
 the Queen to emerge a little from the seclusion to 
 which she had clung since her widowhood. She pro- 
 moted little mountain excursions, in which the Queen 
 was induced to take part, in the autumn of 1863. 
 She, and also the Princess Royal, accompanied the 
 Queen in the same year to the ceremony of the unveil- 
 ing of the Prince's statue at Aberdeen. It is easy to 
 understand what a trying ordeal this must have been 
 to the Queen. There were dense crowds, loyal and 
 kindly, but silent and full of mournful sympathy; 
 there was no music even, 1 the bands having been for- 
 bidden to play, — such a contrast, as the Queen wrote, 
 to " former blessed times. " No wonder that she was 
 "terribly nervous, and longed not to have to go 
 through this fearful ordeal." The Queen had been 
 present before this at family ceremonies, the mar- 
 riages of Princess Alice in 1862, and of the Prince of 
 Wales on March 10th, 1863; but the first of these had 
 been of quite a private character, and in the second 
 the Queen had taken no part, merely watching the 
 service from the Royal Closet in St. George's Chapel, 
 Windsor ; but this was her first appearance since her 
 
 1 It was nearly five years after her husband's death before the Queen 
 could bear to listen to music. In 1866, Princess Alice wrote to her 
 mother : " I am really glad to hear that you can listen to a little music. 
 Music is such a heavenly thing, and dear Papa loved it so much, that I 
 can't but think that now it must be soothing, and bring you near to 
 him." 
 
222 VICTORIA. 
 
 husband's death at a public ceremony. She "prayed 
 for help. " But, however painful, she felt it was right 
 that she should make the effort, and it helped her to 
 overcome her extreme reluctance to take her part once 
 more in the pageantry and glitter of royalty. Little 
 by little she took up this burden also, helped and 
 encouraged by her children, and from 1866 has from 
 time to time opened Parliament in person, and taken 
 her part as Sovereign in the public functions devolv- 
 ing on her position. There was at one time an under- 
 current of rather mean resentment that she did not, 
 after her widowhood, enter into social gayety and 
 lead fashionable life as of old. The loss of her direct 
 personal influence from the social world has been a 
 very real one. But there are limits to human strength 
 and endurance ; and those who grumbled because the 
 Queen absented herself from the world of fashion, 
 were probably thinking more of the number and bril- 
 liancy of Court functions, and of the supposed benefit 
 to trade accruing therefrom, than of the value of a 
 pure-hearted woman's influence at the head of society. 
 Mr. John Bright in 1868 gave a trenchant rebuke from 
 a public platform to one of these grumblers, who 
 asserted at a meeting of working-men that the Queen 
 was so absorbed in her own grief as to have lost all 
 sympathy with her people. He said : — 
 
 " I am not accustomed to stand up in defence of those who are the 
 possessors of crowns. But I could not sit here and hear that observa- 
 tion without a sensation of wonder and of pain. I think there has been, 
 by many persons, a great injustice done to the Queen in reference to 
 her desolate and widowed position. And I venture to say this, that a 
 woman, be she queen of a great realm, or be she the wife of one of your 
 laboring men, who can keep alive in her heart a great sorrow for the 
 lost object of her life and affection, is not at all likely to be wanting in 
 a great and generous sympathy with you." 
 
 The whole meeting responded to the simple, generous 
 words, touching as they did the chord of universal 
 human feeling. 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE AFTER 1861. 223 
 
 The Queen's love for Scotland and the Scottish 
 people has made it easier for her to take part in ordi- 
 nary social life in the neighborhood of Balmoral than 
 in the crowded whirl of London. She has joined in 
 the torch-carrying on Halloween, in gillies' balls, 
 in marriages and christenings in Scotland, and made 
 herself one with her people there in all their joys and 
 sorrows. Her faithful Scotch servant, John Brown, 
 was for many years a familiar figure, in his Highland 
 dress, behind the Queen's carriage. He served her 
 with tact and fidelity, which she rewarded with grate- 
 ful and unstinted appreciation. He died in 1883. 
 The last words in "More Leaves from a Journal of a 
 Life in the Highlands," are a tribute to his memory; 
 while the book itself is dedicated, "To my Loyal 
 Highlanders, and especially to the memory of my 
 devoted personal attendant and faithful friend, John 
 Brown." She attended the funeral service held in 
 his mother's house on the occasion of his father's 
 death, and stayed with the widow to soothe and com- 
 fort her when the funeral procession left the house. 
 Only the heavy rain prevented her accompanying the 
 other mourners to the grave. It is no doubt the free- 
 dom from formality, the genuine simplicity of the life 
 around her at Balmoral, which makes it congenial to 
 the Queen. There the gayeties are really gay; the 
 mournings are really sad, dignified, and solemn, and 
 not a mocking travesty of pretended woe. One of the 
 luxuries the Queen allows herself in Scotland is the 
 building of what may be called " pic-nic " houses in 
 attractive situations in the neighborhood. These are 
 little more than cottages, only just large enough for 
 the Queen, and one or two of her children, and the 
 necessary attendants and servants, generally built in 
 wild and rather inacessible spots among the hills. 
 One of these, Altnagiuthasach, was built before the 
 
224 VICTORIA. 
 
 Prince Consort's death. After her widowhood, the 
 Queen felt she could not go there alone, and she built 
 another at Glassaltshiel, the house-warming of which 
 she celebrated in 1868. When the little festivity, 
 with its reel-dancing and whiskey-toddy drinking, was 
 over, the Queen's Journal records, " The sad thought 
 struck me that it was the first widow'* s house, not built 
 by him " (the Prince), " nor hallowed by his memory. 
 But I am sure his blessing does rest on it, and on 
 those who live in it. " Another of these little houses, 
 a much smaller one, with only two rooms and a 
 kitchen, is Glengeldershiel ; it is within a short drive 
 from Balmoral. In the neighborhood of these retired 
 cottages the Queen could walk, accompanied by her 
 friends, her children, and her dogs, without the fear 
 of the tourist or the much-dreaded reporter before her 
 eyes. 
 
 It must not, however, be represented that it was 
 only in Scotland that Her Majesty found any means of 
 social enjoyment. The following letter from Thomas 
 Carlyle (first published in The Athenoeum, in January, 
 1895) shows that this was not the case. It is too 
 picturesque to be cut up; the ill-natured and unjust 
 references to Lady Augusta Stanley and Mrs. Grote 
 must be tolerated for the sake of the rest of the letter. 
 It would not be characteristic of Carlyle if it were 
 bowdlerized so as to leave the impression that he was 
 in charity with all mankind. The letter is addressed 
 to his sister, Mrs. Aitken : — 
 
 Chelsea, March 11th, 1869. 
 
 Dear Jean, — Mary, I find, has inserted for you a small letter 
 along with the one that belongs to the Doctor. I have nothing of my 
 own in the form of news beyond what that " child of Nature " will have 
 said. 
 
 All busy here, — March winds " snell " as possible (one's new cape 
 not useless), but not unwholesome : fine, dry, and cold, instead of the 
 wet, tepid puddle we have long had, and, in consequence, sleep a little 
 better than then. 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE AFTER 1861. 225 
 
 But my present business is to tell you exclusively of the Queen's 
 interview, for which great object I have only a few minutes. Swift 
 then, if my poor hand but would ! " Interview " took place this day 
 gone a week. Nearly a week before that the Dean and Deaness (who 
 is called Lady Augusta Stanley, once Bruce, an active, hard and busy 
 woman) drove up here and, in a solemnly mysterious, half -quizzical: 
 manner, invited me for Thursday, 4th, at 5 p. m. — " must come ; a very' 
 high, indeed highest personage has long been desirous," &c, &c. I saw 
 well enough it was the Queen's incognita, and briefly agreed to come. 
 " Half-past four, come you," and then went their ways. 
 
 Walking up at the set time, I was ushered into that long drawing- 
 room in their monastic edifice. I found no Stanley yet there ; only at 
 the further end a tall old year-pole (?) of a Mrs. Grote, the most 
 wooden-headed woman I know in London, or the world, who thinks 
 herself very clever, &c, and the sight of whom led me to expect Mr. 
 too, and perhaps others, as accordingly in a few minutes fell out. 
 Grote and wife, Sir Charles Lyell and ditto, Browning and myself : 
 that I saw to be our party. " Better than nothing," thought I, " these 
 will take off the edge of the thing, if edge there be " — which it had n't, 
 nor threatened to have. 
 
 The Stanleys and we were all in a flow of talk, and some flunkys 
 had done setting coffee-pots and tea-cups of a sublime pattern, when 
 Her Majesty, punctual to the minute, glided in, escorted by her dame- 
 in-waiting (a Duchess Dowager of Athol), and by the Princess Louise, 
 decidedly a very pretty young lady, and clever too, as I found out in 
 talking to her afterwards. The Queen came softly forward, a kindly 
 little smile on her face, gently shook hands with all the three women, 
 gently acknowledged with a nod the silent bows of us male monsters ; 
 and directly in her presence every one was at ease again. She is a 
 comely little lady, with a pair of kind, clear, and intelligent gray eyes ; 
 still looks almost young (in spite of one broad wrinkle which shows on 
 each cheek occasionally) ; is still plump ; has a fine, low voice, soft; 
 indeed, her whole manner is melodiously perfect. It is impossible to 
 imagine a politer little woman ; nothing the least imperious ; all gentle, 
 all sincere, looking unembarrassing, — rather attractive even ; makes 
 you feel, too (if you have any sense in you), that she is Queen. 
 
 After a little word to each of us — to me it was, " Sorry you did not 
 see my daughter " (Princess of Prussia), or " all sorry," perhaps so ; which 
 led us to Potsdam, Berlin, &c, for an instant or two. To Sir Charles 
 Lyell I heard her say, " Gold in Sutherland " — but quickly and deli- 
 cately cut him short in responding. To Browning, " Are you writing 
 anything 1 " (who has just been publishing the absurdest things !) To 
 Grote I did not hear what she said, but it was touch-and-go with every- 
 body — Majesty visibly without interest, or nearly so, of her own. 
 
 After this, coffee (very black and muddy ) was handed round, Queen 
 and three women taking seats, Queen in the corner of a sofa, Lady Dean- 
 ess in opposite corner, Mrs. Grote in a chair intrusively close to Majesty; 
 
 15 
 
226 VICTORIA. 
 
 Lady Lyell modestly at the diagonal corner ; we others obliged to stand 
 and hover within call. 
 
 Coffee fairly done, Lady Augusta called me gently to come and 
 speak to Her Majesty. I obeyed, first asking, as an old, infirmish man, 
 Her Majesty's permission to sit, which was graciously conceded. Noth- 
 ing of the least significance was said, nor needed ; however, my bit of 
 dialogue went very well. " What part of Scotland I came from 1 " 
 " Dumfries (where Majesty might as well go sometimes). Carlisle, 
 Caer Lewel, a place of about the antiquity of King Solomon (according 
 to Milton)," whereat Majesty smiled. Border Ballads and old James 
 Pool slightly alluded to, not by name. Glasgow, and grandfather's 
 ride thither, ending in more psalms, and streets vacant at 9J p. m. — 
 hard, sound Presbyterian root of what has now shot up to such a mon- 
 strously ugly cabbage-tree and hemlock-tree ! all which Majesty seemed 
 to take rather well : whereupon Mrs. Grote rose good-naturedly and 
 brought forward her husband cheek by jowl with Majesty, who evidently 
 did not care a straw for him, but kindly asked — " Writing anything 1 " 
 and one heard "Aristotle, now that I have done with Plato " (but only 
 for a minimum of time). Majesty herself (and I think apropos of some 
 question about my shaky hand) said something about her own difficulty 
 in writing to dictation, which brought forward Lady Lyell and husband, 
 mutually used to the operation ; after which, talk becoming quite trivial, 
 Majesty gracefully retired with Lady Augusta, and, in ten minutes more, 
 returned, to receive our farewell bows, which, too, she did very prettily, 
 and sailed out as if moving on skates, and bending her head to us with 
 a smile. 
 
 By the underground railway I was home before seven, and out of 
 the adventure, with only a headache of little moment. 
 
 Froude tells me there are foolish myths about the poor business, 
 especially about my share of it ; but this is the real truth, worth to me 
 in strictest truth all but nothing, in the myths less than nothing. 
 
 Tell the Dr. I intended writing him, but it is already (horrible to 
 think !) a quarter-past four. 
 
 Adieu, dear Sister, 
 
 Yours ever, T. C. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE WARP AND WOOF OP HOME AND POLITICS. 
 
 Between 1858 and 1885 all the Queen's nine children 
 married ; and every one knows that she took just as 
 much delight and interest in their prospect of form- 
 ing happy homes of their own as any other mother in 
 her wide dominions could have done. In other words, 
 politics and political responsibilities of the weightiest 
 kind have not unsexed her. In arranging the mar- 
 riages of her three elder children, Her Majesty had 
 had the advantage of the knowledge and judgment of 
 the Prince Consort. It can hardly be by accident 
 that the brides and bridegrooms of our Royal House 
 have not been brought up in the full blast of the hot- 
 house atmosphere of Court life. We know that the 
 Queen and Prince Consort looked upon this atmos- 
 phere as dangerous and pernicious, and kept their own 
 children as much apart from it as was possible ; their 
 sons and daughters-in-law, with one exception, were 
 selected from those who had not passed their earliest 
 and most impressionable years as the children of 
 reigning Sovereigns. 
 
 It has been already noted that the Queen did not 
 allow her private inclinations, which would doubtless 
 have been gratified by keeping the Princess Alice 
 with her, to postpone the marriage which had been 
 sanctioned by the Prince Consort. Prince Louis, 
 indeed, thought that his betrothed wife would not 
 have held to her engagement after her father's death, 
 seeing how her mother depended on her for comfort 
 in her great sorrow; but he was mistaken, and the 
 
228 VICTORIA. 
 
 marriage took place not long after the date originally 
 fixed, on July 1st, 1862. In the autumn of the same 
 year the Queen, who visited her uncle, King Leopold, 
 at Laeken, arranged to meet, for the first time, her 
 future daughter-in-law, the Princess Alexandra of 
 Denmark. Later, in 1862, the beautiful young Prin- 
 cess visited the widowed Queen at Windsor, and 
 received a mother's welcome from that warm, tender 
 heart. All references to the Princess of Wales 
 throughout the Queen's journals and the Princess 
 Alice's letters are most loving and tender. "Dear, 
 sweet, gentle Alix," are among the many endearing 
 epithets bestowed on her by her mother and sister-in- 
 law. The marriage of the Prince and Princess of 
 Wales on March 10th, 1863, took place in St. George's 
 Chapel, Windsor. It was a most magnificent cere- 
 monial, and was the first Royal marriage celebrated 
 in that Chapel since that of Henry I. in 1122. At 
 the wedding Prince William of Prussia, aged four, 
 was placed between his two little uncles, Arthur and 
 Leopold, who were instructed to keep him quiet. 
 Bishop Wilberforce says that he resented any inter- 
 ference, and bit his uncles on their " bare Highland 
 legs " if they tried to control him. 
 
 The good feeling among the various members of the 
 English Royal Family was soon after this put to a 
 severe test. The Schleswig-Holstein quarrel between 
 Denmark and Germany came to a head in 1864, and 
 war was declared, with the inevitable result that the 
 little kingdom of Denmark was completely beaten by 
 her powerful opponents, the combined Powers of 
 Austria and Prussia. The King of Prussia was father- 
 in-law of our Princess Royal. She and Princess 
 Alice, as wife of another German Prince, naturally 
 espoused the German side in the quarrel ; the Prince 
 and Princess of Wales, as naturally, espoused that of 
 
QUEEN ALEXANDRA. 
 
 From a photograph taken when she was Princess of Wales. 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 229 
 
 Denmark, and felt that the little kingdom had been 
 unfairly browbeaten and bullied by its powerful neigh- 
 bors. There was a very strong feeling in England in 
 support of Denmark. Lord John Russell had undoubt- 
 edly led her on to suppose that in the event of war, 
 she would receive the armed assistance of England. 
 A powerful section of the Tory party was also in favor 
 of war. Votes of censure for not helping Denmark were 
 moved against the Government in both Houses ; the vote 
 was carried in the Lords, and only averted in the Com- 
 mons by a narrow majority. In this crisis, it was the 
 nearest thing in the world that England was not pre- 
 cipitated into war with Germany. The Emperor of the 
 French was urging it, and offering his alliance. He had 
 already begun to talk about the Rhine frontier being 
 " an absolute necessity " for France, and would have 
 liked nothing better than an alliance with England 
 against Germany. The Queen averted the catas- 
 trophe, and we learn from Lord Malmesbury's Memoirs 
 that she "would not hear of going to war with 
 Germany." "No doubt," he adds, "this country 
 would like to fight for the Danes, and from what is 
 said, 1 infer that the Government is inclined to sup- 
 port them also, but finds great difficulties in the 
 opposition of the Queen." Her immense knowledge 
 of foreign politics and grasp of a continuous and defi- 
 nite line of action saved England from the enormous 
 blunder of involving this country in war about the 
 succession to the German Duchies. Probably very 
 few people in England really understood the question 
 at issue at the time; and it was the Queen's knowl- 
 edge and strong common-sense which saved us from 
 a serious national disaster. 
 
 The family aspects of the quarrel called forth the 
 good qualities of the woman, just as its national 
 aspects had called forth those of the Queen. The war 
 
230 VICTORIA. 
 
 and the crushing of poor Denmark left a feeling of 
 soreness and resentment which did not subside for 
 many a year. The war took place in 1864; it was 
 not till 1867 that there was a friendly meeting between 
 the King of Prussia and the Prince and Princess of 
 Wales. Princess Alice wrote from Darmstadt in 
 October of that year : — 
 
 " Bertie and Alex [the Prince and Princess of Wales] have been here 
 since Saturday afternoon. , . . The visit of the King [of Prussia] went 
 off very well, and Alex was pleased with the kindness and civility of 
 the King. I hear that the meeting was satisfactory to both parties, 
 which I am heartily glad of. Bearing ill-will is always a mistake, 
 besides its not being right." 
 
 Another marriage in the Royal Family still further 
 complicated the Schleswig-Holstein question from the 
 domestic point of view, for in 1866 Princess Helena, 
 the Queen's third daughter, married Prince Chris- 
 tian of Schleswig-Holstein, the second son of the 
 German claimant of the Duchies. The Queen gave her 
 daughter away. The Princess and her husband have 
 made their home in England. 
 
 It was in this year that the war between North and 
 South Germany, headed respectively by Prussia and 
 Austria, about the disposal of the Schleswig-Holstein 
 Duchies, had the effect of bringing the Queen's two 
 sons-in-law, Prince Frederick William of Prussia and 
 Prince Louis of Hesse, into the field of battle on oppo- 
 site sides. This was a severe trial. The Princess 
 Alice's letters showed that it caused her intense 
 anguish. She, like her father, longed for the unity 
 of Germany under the headship of Prussia, and was 
 quite ready to submit to the sacrifices this would 
 entail on the smaller German Princes; but this war 
 of brother against brother, and friend against friend, 
 was a thing which she felt to be too fearful to con- 
 template. In this hour of great trial, the love and 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 231 
 
 confidence between the sisters and their respective 
 husbands never wavered. Prince Louis went to Berlin, 
 before the actual outbreak of hostilities, to see his 
 brother-in-law, and he then made sure that though 
 their respective allegiance brought them into conflict 
 as soldiers, yet as men they would remain brothers 
 and friends. North Germany under Prussia was, as 
 every one knows, successful in the conflict, and the 
 victorious Prussian army marched into Darmstadt 
 just at the time of the birth of Princess Alice's third 
 daughter (July 11th, 1866). The newly made mother 
 lay in bed hearing the shouts of her husband's victors, 
 at the very time knowing that he was still under fire, 
 and that she was unable to get any news of his safety. 
 The christening of the little Princess was put off till 
 it could take place on the day on which the treaty of 
 peace was ratified at Berlin ; the baby then received 
 the name of Irene, in commemoration of the event. 
 The poor little Princess of peace had very warlike 
 godfathers, — the whole of the cavalry brigade which 
 had been commanded by her father in the late war. 
 It is significant that just before this war Princess 
 Alice had written to the Queen using the expression : 
 " I long to . . . know that your warm heart is acting 
 for Germany. " That is the woman all over : to feel, 
 is to translate feeling into action wherever power to 
 do so is not lacking. The warp and woof of home and 
 politics are ever conspicuous in the Princess Alice's 
 letters. When the Schleswig-Holstein question first 
 began to threaten war, she wrote to the Queen, filling 
 the first part of the letter with her speculations on the 
 political situation, and then passing to her baby's 
 first tooth, " She makes such faces if one ventures to 
 touch her little mouth ; " and the Princess then goes on 
 to mention some of her activities in trying to set the 
 hospital at Darmstadt in good order, and to interest the 
 
232 VICTORIA. 
 
 burgomaster and town councillors in the work, and 
 the provision she was making for the safety and well- 
 being of poor women in childbirth. She was indeed 
 a very political woman, and a very womanly politician. 
 
 In 1870, when the Franco-German War broke out, 
 the Queen's sympathies, it is almost needless to say, 
 went wholly with Germany; she had looked for the 
 unification of Germany as steadily as old Stockmar 
 and the Prince Consort, and the year 1871 saw this 
 vision become an accomplished fact. King William 
 of Prussia was proclaimed the German Emperor by 
 the assembled German Princes in the banqueting hall 
 of Versailles. 
 
 In 1868, when Prince Alfred was absent in Australia, 
 he was shot at and wounded by a Fenian named 
 O'Farrell. When telegraphic news of this was re- 
 ceived in cipher at the Colonial Office, it was at first 
 impossible to make out whether the Prince had been 
 killed or only wounded. Another telegram on the 
 following day set the worst anxieties at rest, and 
 further despatches brought word that the ball had 
 been extracted, and that the Prince was doing well ; 
 but it can easily be understood what a shock the event 
 must have been to the Queen. Prince Alfred, who 
 had been created a peer under the title of Duke of 
 Edinburgh, married in 1874 the Grand-Duchess Marie, 
 only daughter of Emperor Alexander II. of Russia. 
 In 1893, on the death of the Prince Consort's brother, 
 Duke Ernest of Coburg, the Duke of Edinburgh suc- 
 ceeded him, and is now the reigning Duke of Saxe- 
 Coburg-Gotha. When Prince Alfred's engagement to 
 the Grand-Duchess Marie was impending, but not yet 
 settled, he joined his sister, Princess Alice, on a 
 tour in Italy, the Empress of Russia and her daughter 
 being at Sorrento. Visits were made to them by the 
 English Prince and Princess; the latter of whom 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 233 
 
 wrote to the Queen that the bride-elect had an attack 
 of fever, and she added, "We remained at Rome a 
 day longer on account of poor Alfred. He is very- 
 patient and hopeful." This was in April, 1873. The 
 betrothal took place in July of the same year, and the 
 marriage in January, 1874, at St. Petersburg. This 
 was the only one of the marriages of the Queen's 
 children at which she was unable to be present. All 
 the others have married from their mother's house. 
 Dean Stanley attended the Duke of Edinburgh's mar- 
 riage, and performed the English part of the service, 
 by the Queen's express command. 
 
 It was in May, 1873, that the most terrible sorrow 
 fell upon Princess Alice, — the sudden, violent death of 
 her little boy, Prince Frederick William (Frittie), aged 
 two and a half years. This dear child had been born 
 during the Franco-German War; Prince Louis had 
 parted from his wife to take the command of the Hes- 
 sian troops in July, 1870. " Frittie " was born on 7th 
 October, and the husband and wife did not meet again 
 till the end of the war, March 31st, 1871. In the 
 interval, Princess Alice had suffered great anxiety on 
 account of the war, and the danger to which her hus- 
 band was exposed ; she also exerted herself far beyond 
 her strength in nursing the sick and wounded. But 
 this was not a time when a generous nature counts 
 the cost of personal services. She was in the hospital 
 every day, late and early, and besides this, nursed 
 wounded soldiers in her own house. She faced typhus 
 and small-pox, and on one occasion (mentioned by 
 Lady Bloomfield) helped to lift a wounded man who 
 had small-pox full out upon him. The child born 
 during these months of mental and physical strain 
 was delicate from his birth ; he had a tendency to 
 hemorrhage which was very alarming, and during 
 his short life he had many illnesses and ailments. 
 
234 VICTORIA. 
 
 He was, perhaps for this very reason, the special 
 object of his mother's love. On the May 29th, 1873, 
 Princess Alice having lately returned from her tour 
 in Italy, her two little boys, Ernie and "Frittie," were 
 brought to her room, before she was up, to bid her 
 " Good-morning. " By her wish they were left in the 
 room to play about. The elder of the two little boys 
 having run into the adjoining dressing-room, his 
 mother followed him ; during her momentary absence, 
 the younger fell out of the open window of the bed- 
 room on to the stone terrace below : he was alive when 
 he was picked up, but was insensible, and only sur- 
 vived a few hours. No one ever knew exactly how 
 the accident happened, but the horror and anguish of 
 the poor mother can be imagined. It was a blow 
 from which she never really recovered. The Queen's 
 heart bled for her daughter. The poor Princess wrote 
 to her mother in August, 1873, "Many thanks for 
 your dear letter! I am feeling so low and weak 
 to-day that kind words are doubly soothing. You 
 feel so with me, when you understand how long and 
 deep my grief must be. And does one not grow to 
 love one's grief, as having become part of the being 
 one loved, — as if through this one could still pay a 
 tribute of love to him to make up for the terrible 
 loss ? " All through this cruel anguish she relied 
 with perfect confidence on her mother's sympathy. In 
 September, 1873, she wrote to the Queen, "You ask 
 me if I can play yet ? I feel as if I could not, and I 
 have not yet done so. In my own house it seems to 
 me as if I never could play again on that piano, where 
 little hands were nearly always thrust when I wanted 
 to play. . . . Mary Teck (Duchess of Teck) came to 
 see me, and remained two nights, so warm-hearted 
 and sympathizing. I like to talk of him to those who 
 love children, and can understand how great the gap, 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 235 
 
 how intense the pain, the ending of a bright little 
 existence causes." The resemblance between the 
 mother and daughter came out in their grief. After 
 the Prince Consort's death, the Queen's chief comfort 
 was to speak of him constantly to those who had 
 known and loved him ; and the Princess Alice's letters 
 continually dwell on her darling child whom she had 
 lost in such a terrible way. 
 
 Several of the Queen's daughters, notably the Em- 
 press Frederick and Princess Alice, have shown the 
 greatest sympathy with what is known in England 
 as the women's movement. They have promoted 
 by every means in their power improved opportu- 
 nities of education and employment for women, and 
 greater social liberty for them. The Queen, it must 
 be confessed, has never shown that she sympathizes 
 with her daughters in their attitude on this question. 
 Princess Alice's letters show that Her Majesty was 
 rather anxious and nervous about the women's meet- 
 ings and associations promoted by the Princess, and 
 not really pleased at the ceaseless activity of her 
 daughter's mind on these subjects. She inquired 
 anxiously if Princess Alice took counsel with her 
 mother-in-law, Princess Charles of Hesse, upon them ; 
 when the Princess was studying anatomy and phy- 
 siology, she, as it were, apologized to her mother for 
 her interest in them, and said it might even be useful 
 to be not entirely ignorant on such things : she added 
 that she knew her mother did not like such studies, 
 but affirmed that for her own part, instead of finding 
 them disgusting, they filled her with admiration to 
 see how wonderfully the human body was made. 
 Though, on the whole, the Queen has been very far 
 from giving encouragement, except by the magnificent 
 example of her own life and character, to the modern 
 movement among women for sharing in political work 
 
236 VICTORIA. 
 
 and responsibility, she testified her interest in their 
 higher education by opening in person, in 1887, the 
 palatial buildings of Holloway College. It was rather 
 a singular coincidence that the year in which the 
 Queen did this (which was also the year of her Jubilee) 
 a young lady, Miss Agneta Ramsay, occupied the then 
 unprecedented position of Senior Classic in the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge. This made 1887, in a very 
 special way, a woman's year. 
 
 Another of the modern women's movements which 
 the Queen has promoted is their entrance into the 
 medical profession. In 1881, a medical missionary 
 from India, Miss Beilby, was the bearer of a message 
 from the Maharanee of Punnah to the Queen, telling 
 Her Majesty of the terrible sufferings of Indian women 
 from the want of duly-qualified women doctors. The 
 Queen was deeply moved by the tale of unnecessary 
 suffering, and of valuable lives thrown away or 
 blighted by the want of skilful and properly trained 
 women to attend native women in sickness. Lord 
 Dufferin was not long after appointed Governor- 
 General of India, and before he left, the Queen 
 especially charged Lady Dufferin with the task of 
 instituting a fund to . promote a regular supply of 
 fully trained women doctors for India. This fund 
 was inaugurated by the Marchioness of Dufferin, and 
 is known by her name, and it has since been under 
 the special protection of each successive Governor- 
 General's wife. 
 
 During the later years of her reign, Her Majesty 
 has suffered many bereavements of those near and 
 dear to her. Her uncle, who had been a second father 
 to her, King Leopold, died in 1865. He had remained 
 very faithful to his love for England and English con- 
 stitutionalism. Many small indications show how 
 his heart clung to the memories of his first marriage. 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 237 
 
 The eldest daughter of the second marriage was named 
 Charlotte, after his first wife (she afterwards married 
 the unfortunate Archduke Maximilian, who assumed 
 the title of Emperor of Mexico, and was shot by 
 Juarez in 1867). When King Leopold knew he was 
 dying, he desired that he might be buried at Windsor, 
 by the side of the wife of his youth ; but his wishes 
 were not carried out. 
 
 The outbreak of diphtheria at Darmstadt in 1878, 
 in which the Queen lost her dearly loved second 
 daughter and one of her grandchildren, has been 
 already referred to. In June, 1879, the Prince Impe- 
 rial, only son of the exiled Empress of the French, 
 was killed by the Zulus in a skirmishing expedition 
 in South Africa. The Queen's feelings of grief were 
 all the harder to endure because the young Prince 
 had been serving with her army. Her sensibility on 
 the point of national honor was deeply wounded. She 
 was ashamed that the lad had not been defended by 
 the Englishmen who were with him; her heart bled 
 for the mother who had lost her only child. The 
 same autumn, with her usual thoughtful kindness, 
 she induced the widowed Empress Eugenie to accept 
 the loan of Abergeldie Castle, near Balmoral; and 
 nothing was spared which it was possible to do to 
 console and cheer her aching heart. 
 
 The next great sorrow was the death of Prince 
 Leopold, Duke of Albany, which took place, almost 
 suddenly, at Cannes, in March, 1884. The Prince 
 had been delicate from his youth, and more than once 
 had hovered between life and death. The Princess 
 Alice wrote after one of his illnesses in 1868 : — 
 
 " For a second and even a third time that life has been given again, 
 when all feared that it must leave us. . . . Indeed, from the depth of 
 my heart, I thank God with you for having so mercifully spared dear 
 Leo, and watched over him when death seemed so near." 
 
238 VICTORIA. 
 
 The Prince had seemed to gain strength with years, 
 and in 1882 he married Princess Helen of Waldeck, 
 sister of the present Queen -Regent of Holland. A 
 little girl was born to him and his wife in 1883, 
 named Alice, after the sister whose words of love 
 have just been quoted ; but a little son, born in 1884, 
 did not see the light for some four months after his 
 father's death. The Queen's loving, motherly tender- 
 ness protected and sustained her young daughter-in- 
 law in her sorrow and loneliness. 
 
 Almost as much as for the death of her children, 
 the Queen mourned the loss of the gallant General 
 Gordon at Khartoum early in 1885. She wrote from 
 Osborne to Miss Gordon in February of that year : — 
 
 Dear Miss Gordon, — How shall I write to you, or how shall I 
 attempt to express what 1 feel ! To think of your dear, noble, heroic 
 brother, who served his country and his Queen so truly, so heroically, 
 with a self-sacrifice so edifying to the world, not having been rescued. 
 That the promises of support were not fulfilled — which I so frequently 
 and constantly pressed on those who asked him to go — is to me grief 
 inexpressible I indeed, it has made me ill ! My heart bleeds for you, his 
 sister. . . . Some day I hope to see you again, to tell you all I cannot 
 express. . . . Would you express to your other sisters and your elder 
 brother my true sympathy, and what I do so keenly feel, the stain left 
 upon England for your dear brother's cruel, though heroic fate ! Ever, 
 dear Miss Gordon, yours sincerely and sympathizingly. V. R. I. 
 
 A few weeks later, Miss Gordon presented her 
 brother's Bible (which he had constantly carried with 
 him) to the Queen, and again Her Majesty wrote a 
 letter, vivid with her grief and shame and high appre- 
 ciation of the hero whose life had been sacrificed. 
 This second letter was left by Miss Gordon to the 
 nation, and may now be seen, one of the most inter- 
 esting of the collection of royal autographs, in the 
 British Museum. The well-worn Bible now lies open 
 in an enamel and crystal case, called the St. George's 
 Casket, in the south corridor of the private apartments 
 at Windsor. 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 239 
 
 The death of her dearly loved eldest son-in-law in 
 1888 was a real heart-sorrow to the Queen. Those 
 who saw the Jubilee procession in 1887 retain a vivid 
 recollection that among all that splendid retinue there 
 was no figure more noble and impressive than that of 
 the Prince Imperial of Germany. His tall figure, 
 martial bearing, and bronzed, manly face, set off by 
 the white uniform he wore, made him conspicuous 
 among the crowds of Princes and notabilities. But 
 a cruel disease had already laid hold of him, and 
 almost exactly a year after his apparently magnificent 
 physique had attracted universal admiration in the 
 crowds collected for the Jubilee, he was gathered to 
 his fathers, and his son, our Queen's eldest grand- 
 son, William 11., reigned in his stead. The Emperor 
 Frederick reigned for three months only; his aged 
 father, the Emperor William I., having died in 
 March, 1888. Many noble hopes and ambitions died 
 with the Emperor Frederick. He had been one of the 
 chief authors of the unity of Germany, and was the 
 constant representative in German politics of the prin- 
 ciple of constitutional liberty. When he took his 
 bride from England, on a bitter winter's day in 1858, 
 the little Princess cried bitterly at parting from her 
 parents and her native country. Her tears were mis- 
 interpreted by the crowd, from whom a shout pro- 
 ceeded, " If he does n't treat you well, come back to 
 us. " The implied distrust of the Prince was wholly 
 uncalled for ; he adored his wife, and those two shared 
 the burdens and hopes and responsibilities of their 
 position in a way that any husband and wife might 
 envy. It had been from first to last a marriage of 
 true minds. 
 
 The death of the Duke of Clarence, the eldest son 
 of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and heir to the 
 throne in the second generation, on January 14th, 
 
240 VICTORIA. 
 
 1892, was another heavy blow to the Royal House. 
 The Duke had only lately become engaged to the 
 Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, when all the prepara- 
 tions for the wedding were ended by the death of the 
 bridegroom-elect. Influenza, followed by acute pneu- 
 monia, was the cause. The whole nation mourned 
 with and for the Queen. The tragic circumstances of 
 the unexpected transition from wedding to funeral, 
 from the throne to the bier, called forth a genuine 
 expression of deep feeling from all classes. But just 
 as a discord sometimes serves to prepare the ear for 
 the full sweetness of a harmony, so in this case one 
 of the most touching expressions of sympathy was 
 called forth by the refusal of some boorish members of 
 the Miners' Federation at Stoke to pass a vote of con- 
 dolence to the Queen on the death of her grandson and 
 heir. There were women in the immediate neighbor- 
 hood, widows of men who had perished in the Oaks 
 Colliery explosion, twenty-six years earlier. They re- 
 tained a lively recollection of the Queen's sympathy 
 with them in their bitter grief, and the aid she had 
 given to the fund for their relief ; and to think that 
 any men connected with coal mining should now 
 refuse to express sympathy with the Queen, was 
 enough, they felt, to make the very stones cry out. 
 Little accustomed as these poor women were to address 
 letters to great personages, they sent the following to 
 Her Majesty : — 
 
 " To our beloved Queen, Victoria. 
 " Dear Lady, — We, the surviving widows and mothers of some of 
 the men and boys who lost their lives by the explosion which occurred 
 in the Oaks Colliery, near Barnsley, in December, 1866, desire to tell 
 your Majesty how stunned we all feel by the cruel and unexpected blow 
 which has taken Prince Eddie from his dear grandmother, his loving 
 parents, his beloved intended, and an admiring nation. The sad news 
 affected us deeply, we all believing that his youthful strength would 
 carry him safely through the danger. Dear Lady, we feel more than 
 we can express. To tell you that we sincerely condole with your 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 241 
 
 Majesty and the Prince and Princess of Wales in your and their sad 
 bereavement and great distress is not to tell you all we feel ; but the 
 widow of Albert the Good and the parents of Prince Eddie will under- 
 stand what we feel when we say that we feel all that widows and mothers 
 feel who have lost those who were as dear as life to them. Dear Lady, 
 we remember with gratitude all that you did for us Oaks widows in the 
 time of our great trouble, and we cannot forget you in yours. We have 
 not forgotten that it was you, dear Queen, who set the example, so 
 promptly followed by all feeling people, of forming a fund for the relief 
 of our distress, — a fund which kept us out of the workhouse at the 
 time, and has kept us out ever since. Dear Lady, we cannot make you 
 understand how grieved we all are to learn that a miner, and that miner 
 a Barnsley miner, though, happily, not a native of Barnsley, should have 
 forgotten not only all that you have done for the widows and orphans 
 of miners, but also for the suffering, the afflicted and desolate of every 
 other class of workers in England, and that he should have shown him- 
 self so devoid of all human feeling as to refuse, and lead others to refuse, 
 your Majesty and poor Eddie's parents one kind word of sympathy in 
 your and their great sorrow. We feel ashamed of that man, for he has 
 covered us all with disgrace, and filled our hearts with pain. We hope 
 he may live to feel ashamed of himself, and to know what it is to be 
 refused any sympathy in any great trouble he may have. We wish it 
 were in our power, dear Lady, to dry up your tears and comfort you, 
 but that we cannot do. But what we can do, and- will do, is to pray 
 God, in His mercy and goodness, to comfort and strengthen you in this 
 your time of great trouble. Wishing your Majesty, the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales, and the Princess May, so cruelly bereaved and 
 utterly disconsolate, all the strength, consolation, and comfort which 
 God alone can give, and which He never fails to give to all who seek 
 Him in truth and sincerity, we remain, beloved Queen, your loving and 
 grateful though sorrowing subjects, The Oaks Widows." (Signed on 
 behalf of the widows by Sarah Bradley, one of them.) 
 
 " Poor Eddie ! to die so young, and so much happiness in prospect. 
 Oh! 'tis hard." 
 
 The secretary to the fund, Mr. G. W. Atkinson, of Barnsley, having 
 been requested to forward the letter to Her Majesty, accompanied it 
 with a note to Her Majesty's private secretary, in which he stated that 
 " the poor people seemed greatly troubled at the misfortune which had 
 befallen the Koyal Family of England." 
 
 The following reply was sent by Her Majesty : — 
 
 "The Queen has been much touched by the genuine feeling of 
 sympathy manifested by those connected with the Oaks Colliery 
 which is so warmly expressed in the address you have enclosed, 
 and Her Majesty commands me to ask you to convey her sincere 
 thanks to the senders for their kind words of condolence with her in 
 her sorrow." 1 
 
 1 Times, January 26th, 1892. 
 16 
 
242 VICTORIA. 
 
 To appreciate all that this touching letter from 
 working-women to their Queen means, would be to 
 understand the great national work which Her Majesty 
 has accomplished by her life. The throne has become 
 once more a living power for good in our national 
 life mainly through the unceasing devotion to her 
 duty, high character, and practical sagacity of its 
 present occupant. Compare the warm human feeling 
 of genuine affection and sorrow which breathes 
 through every line of this letter with Greville's 
 description of the funeral of George IV. : " A gayer 
 company I never beheld. . . . They were all as merry 
 as grigs, " and so on. Two more such kings as George 
 IV. would have seen out the English monarchy. Mr. 
 R. L. Stevenson said in one of his stories that the 
 first service a patriot ought to render his country was 
 to be a good, man. Being a good woman underlies all 
 our Queen's services to her country, and it is this 
 which has established her throne in righteousness. 
 
 Her Majesty was deeply touched by the many expres- 
 sions of affectionate sympathy which reached her from 
 every class and from her subjects all over the world. 
 She replied by a letter to her people setting forth in 
 strong and simple words her mingled feelings of grief 
 for her loss, gratitude for the sympathy expressed by 
 the nation, and her sources of consolation : — 
 
 Osborne, January 26, 1892. 
 
 I must once again give expression to my deep sense of the loyalty 
 and affectionate sympathy evinced hy my subjects in every part of my 
 Empire on an occasion more sad and tragical than any but one which 
 has befallen me and mine, as well as the Nation. The overwhelming 
 misfortune of my dearly loved Grandson having been thus suddenly cut 
 off in the flower of his age, full of promise for the future, amiable and 
 gentle, and endearing himself to all, renders it hard for his sorely 
 stricken Parents, his dear young Bride, and his fond Grandmother to 
 bow in submission to the inscrutable decrees of Providence. 
 
 The sympathy of millions, which has been so touchingly and visibly 
 expressed, is deeply gratifying at such a time, aDd I wish, both in my 
 
WARP AND WOOF OF HOME AND POLITICS. 243 
 
 own name and that of my children, to express, from my heart, my warm 
 gratitude to all. 
 
 These testimonies of sympathy with us, and appreciation of my 
 dear Grandson, whom I loved as a Son, and whose devotion to me was 
 as great as that of a Son, will be a help and consolation to me and mine 
 in our affliction. 
 
 My bereavements during the last thirty years of my reign have 
 indeed been heavy. Though the labors, anxieties, and responsibilities 
 inseparable from my position have been great, yet it is my earnest 
 prayer that God may continue to give me health and strength to work 
 for the good and happiness of my dear Country and Empire while life 
 lasts. 
 
 Victoria, R. I. 
 
 The noble and touching words of the last sentence 
 fitly recall the child of eleven years old who, on first 
 learning that she was next in the succession, lifted 
 her little hand and said, "I will be good." 
 
 The Duke of York, Prince George of Wales, occu- 
 pies, by the death of his elder brother, the next place 
 in the succession after his father. The union, in 
 1893, of the young Prince with Princess Victoria Mary 
 of Teck (Princess May, as she was generally called) 
 resulted in the birth of a son in May, 1894. This 
 baby, who bears the fine historic title of Prince 
 Edward of York, is now the third in the direct line 
 of the succession. Pictures of the four generations, 
 the Queen, her son, grandson, and great-grandson, 
 have ornamented all the illustrated papers, and have 
 been looked at with loyal interest by millions of Eng- 
 lish men and women all over the world who have 
 mingled with their good wishes to the Royal House 
 a heartfelt prayer that it may yet be many a long 
 year before the Crown of England passes to another 
 head. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE. 
 
 Reference was made in the last chapter to the cele- 
 bration of the Queen's Jubilee in 1887. It was kept 
 with all kinds of appropriate festivals in every part of 
 the British Empire. But the centre and kernel of 
 the whole celebration was the beautiful and touching 
 national ceremony in Westminster Abbey on June 
 21st. On the same spot where as a young girl the 
 Queen had knelt and had sworn fidelity to the consti- 
 tution of her kingdom, and to govern according to law, 
 justice, and mercy, the aged Queen again appeared, 
 followed by a troop of children, grandchildren, and 
 great-grandchildren, to return thanks to the Almighty 
 for the blessings of her reign and the augmenting 
 power, prosperity, and numbers of her people. In 
 1837 her people had looked to her with the enthusiasm 
 of hope ; in 1887 they looked upon her with the enthu- 
 siasm of gratitude, with the memory of fifty wonderful 
 years behind them, griefs and joys in common, com- 
 mon pride in the greatness and glories of England, 
 common shame for her shortcomings ; but in spite of 
 these a common faith that earth's best hopes rest with 
 England, and that her growing greatness promotes 
 the happiness and well-being of mankind. In this 
 national festival the Queen was felt to be the emblem 
 of national unity, the one political power in the nation 
 that is dissociated from party, with its petty squab- 
 bles and ignoble sacrifices. While statesmen too often 
 stand merely for their party, and may be willing to 
 sacrifice the true and obvious interests of the whole 
 
THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE. 245 
 
 nation to gain a party majority, the Queen is more 
 and more felt to stand for the nation that is above and 
 beyond all party. That was the real meaning of the 
 Jubilee, compared to which personal congratulations 
 to a lady who had filled an important position with 
 credit for fifty years held only a very secondary place. 
 It may be claimed for the Queen that she has 
 realized, as no other modern Sovereign of this country 
 has done, and as only a section of the public dimly 
 appreciate, the true value of the Crown as a power 
 which is above party, and therefore representative of 
 the whole nation. Her function has been to check 
 Ministers who have been ready to make national sac- 
 rifices to promote party ends ; constantly, for instance, 
 to keep before the heads of successive Governments 
 the importance of maintaining the efficiency of the 
 national defences. How many Prime Ministers and 
 Chancellors of the Exchequer may have been tempted 
 to procure a surplus, and thus obtain for their party 
 the popularity of a remission of taxation, by neglect- 
 ing to build ships and keep up our naval supremacy, 
 but for the unwearying attention given by the Queen 
 to all matters connected with internal and external 
 defence. When the records of the later years of this 
 reign come to be fully written, innumerable proofs 
 will be given to the public that when statesmen have 
 from time to time disdained to seize a party triumph 
 which would bring with it a national disaster, they 
 have either been inspired by the direct counsels of the 
 Queen, or have received from her, after the event, 
 immediate proof that she has watched their course of 
 conduct with sympathy and appreciation. All govern- 
 ment, including party government, only exists for the 
 welfare of the governed; that is, the whole nation. 
 It is quite natural that party leaders should often for- 
 get this; it is the function of the Crown never to 
 
246 VICTORIA. 
 
 forget it, and to exert all its influence to prevent 
 the interests of the nation being sacrificed for the 
 supposed benefit of a section of it. 
 
 The Queen fully realized, and has over and over 
 again expressed, in the most definite way, the truth 
 that in England the real ultimate power is the will of 
 the people. They may decide wrong, but their deci- 
 sion is the ultimate authority. Her own private 
 opinions on various political questions have no weight 
 in opposition to the will of the people. A large 
 number of her Ministers have left on record their 
 experience of the Queen's complete loyalty to this 
 fundamental principle. She will never let her private 
 feelings or opinions stand in the way of her duty as a 
 constitutional Sovereign. This being so, an impres- 
 sion has gained ground in some quarters that a Con- 
 stitutional Monarch is only a sort of Chinese mandarin, 
 mechanically nodding assent to whatever is proposed 
 by the Ministers. This is very far from being true. 
 All the executive officers of the Crown are directly 
 responsible to the Queen, and she keeps a watchful 
 eye over their departments, requiring constant reports, 
 and to have proofs of their efficiency submitted to her. 
 Then in matters involving conflict between parties, 
 she exercises a moderating influence, inducing the 
 " outs " to use their position with a due sense of 
 responsibility to national interests, and not to think 
 that these may be sacrificed for the mere purpose of 
 defeating the "ins." In matters involving conflict 
 between the Lords and Commons, the present Sov- 
 ereign has again and again prevented matters coming 
 to a deadlock, reminding the leaders of the House of 
 Lords of the fundamental fact that the will of the 
 people is the ultimate source of authority, and induc- 
 ing the leaders of the House of Commons to act in a 
 spirit of statesman-like conciliation and moderation. 
 
THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE. 247 
 
 Two examples will suffice to show how invaluable the 
 exercise of these functions may be, and how they serve 
 to oil the rather cumbrous machinery of the constitu- 
 tion. After the election of 1859, Lord Palmerston 
 was again returned to power, but with a considerably 
 reduced majority compared to that of 1857. The 
 Conservatives had fought the election with immense 
 vigor. Their leader, the Earl of Derby, had given 
 £20,000 to the war-chest for the elections. When 
 the new Parliament met, Lord Derby's Government 
 was only beaten on an amendment to the Address by 
 thirteen, so the parties were very nearly balanced. 
 The Conservatives had expected to win, and had 
 made immense efforts, and were proportionately dis- 
 appointed. The slashing vigor of Lord Derby's elo- 
 quence had gained for him the title of the Rupert of 
 Debate. The expectation was that he would lead 
 repeated sallies against the Government; but, con- 
 trary to expectation, he was unusually moderate and 
 pacific. The reason came out when the last volume 
 of the Greville Memoirs was published, in 1887. The 
 Queen sent for Lord Derby, when he had left office in 
 1859, and entreated him not to use the power he had, 
 from the nearly balanced state of parties, to upset 
 Lord Palmerston's Government. She urged the great 
 objections there were to constant changes, and that 
 in the critical state of foreign politics nothing ought 
 to be done to weaken the Government. Lord Derby 
 entirely concurred, and promised to act in conformity 
 with her wishes. Greville says, "He has entirely 
 done so. Nothing could be more temperate and harm- 
 less than the few remarks he made on Tuesday night. " 
 The circumstance brings out the value of having at 
 the head of the State an officer who is neither nomi- 
 nated by, nor responsible to, party. It also gives a 
 good illustration of the Queen's power of subordinat- 
 
248 VICTORIA. 
 
 ing her own private inclinations to the national wel- 
 fare; because, although her feelings were softened 
 towards Lord Palmerston, they were hardly cordial, 
 and she strongly dissented from the view which he 
 represented with so much vigor on the questions then 
 at issue between Italy and Austria. 
 
 An example of the success of the Queen's efforts to 
 prevent conflict between the two Houses of Parliament 
 is given in full detail in the Life of Archbishop Tait. 
 It will be within the recollection of many readers 
 that the election of 1868 was fought mainly on the 
 question of the Disestablishment of the Church in 
 Ireland, and that an enormous majority was returned 
 to the House of Commons favorable to its disestablish- 
 ment. The House of Lords, by a large majority, 
 were in favor of the Establishment. Here, then, was 
 a fine field for a battle between the two Houses. The 
 new Parliament was opened on February 16th, 1869. 
 On that morning the Archbishop of Canterbury re- 
 ceived an autograph letter from the Queen, expressing 
 her anxiety on the subject of the proposed measure, 
 and adding: — 
 
 " The Queen has seen Mr. Gladstone, who shows the most conciliatory- 
 disposition. He seems to be really moderate in his views, and anxious, 
 so far as he can properly and consistently do so, to meet the objections 
 of those who would maintain the Irish Church." 
 
 She then pointed out the desirability of a conference 
 between Mr. Gladstone and the Archbishop on the 
 subject of the forthcoming Disestablishment Bill ; she 
 had already paved the way for this in conversation 
 with the Prime Minister, and was confident that while 
 he would strictly maintain the principle of disestab- 
 lishment, there were many matters connected with 
 the question which might be open to discussion and 
 negotiation. The interview between Mr. Gladstone 
 and the Archbishop took place almost immediately. 
 
THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE. 249 
 
 It is hardly necessary to draw attention to the sagac- 
 ity which prompted the Queen to bring about this 
 meeting before the introduction and publication of the 
 Bill, rather than after. It is much easier to prevent 
 an irreconcilable hostility by friendly negotiation, 
 than to charm it away after it has once sprung into 
 existence. Before seeing Mr. Gladstone, the Arch- 
 bishop drew up a short memorandum of four points 
 which he considered absolutely essential; after the 
 interview he added a note to his MS. to the effect 
 that he had not read it to Mr. Gladstone, "As the 
 interview took the form of an exposition of his policy 
 by Mr. G. " In fact he rehearsed to the Archbishop, 
 on February 19th, 1869, the famous speech which he 
 made in the House of Commons on March 1st. The 
 Archbishop, however, heard with great satisfaction 
 that the four essential conditions which he had noted 
 down prior to the interview, were practically observed 
 by Mr. Gladstone in his proposed measure. He im- 
 mediately communicated this to the Queen, and 
 expressed his satisfaction upon it, and his desire to 
 aid by any means in his power a course of moderation 
 and conciliation. The Bill passed through the House 
 of Commons practically unaltered; all amendments 
 were rejected by immense majorities ; there was, in a 
 word, every indication that the Bill was a practical 
 expression of the national will. Then came its fate 
 in the Lords to be considered; and again the Arch- 
 bishop, by the Queen's commands, put himself in 
 communication with the Prime Minister on the sub- 
 ject, with the view of averting a collision between the 
 two Houses. The Archbishop gave his strenuous sup- 
 port to the Lords adopting the policy of passing the 
 second reading, and amending the Bill in committee. 
 The ordinary Conservative majority in the Lords in 
 1869 was about sixty ; and the practical question was 
 
250 VICTORIA. 
 
 how many of the opposition could be induced either to 
 abstain from voting or to support the second reading. 
 Much, the Archbishop wrote to the Queen, would 
 depend on Lord Granville's tone in introducing the 
 Bill in the Lords. He ventured to suggest that Her 
 Majesty should represent this to him. He also wrote 
 to Mr. Disraeli, and begged him to influence his 
 friends in the House of Lords to allow the Bill to 
 pass a second reading, in order to amend it in com- 
 mittee. The Archbishop spoke in this sense in the 
 debate in the Lords, but abstained from voting ; Lord 
 Salisbury, among other well-known Conservative 
 leaders, voted with the Government in favor of the 
 second reading, which was carried by a majority of 
 thirty- three. The first danger to the Bill was thus 
 safely passed ; but the acute stage of the fight between 
 the Lords and Commons occurred over the Lords' 
 amendments, which were both numerous and import- 
 ant. The Archbishop was again in almost hourly 
 communication with the Queen, constantly urged by 
 her that a spirit of moderation must be shown on both 
 sides, in order to secure a successful issue. In one 
 of his letters to the Queen, while the war on the 
 amendments was being waged (July 8th, 1869), the 
 Archbishop suggested that, rather than yield on one 
 point connected with the endowments, it would be 
 better to defeat the Bill and risk another year of agi- 
 tation. The Queen immediately replied, deprecating 
 this course, and expressing her fear that another year 
 of political warfare would result in worse, rather than 
 better, terms being forced upon the Church. She 
 herself had all along favored the plan of concurrent 
 endowment, but the majority in the House of Com- 
 mons was strongly against it, and all the amendments 
 in this direction introduced by the Lords were disal- 
 lowed. Mr. Gladstone spoke with great vehemence in 
 
THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE. 251 
 
 the House of Commons against the whole of the Lords' 
 amendments. His unyielding language delighted his 
 followers, and there was a corresponding feeling of 
 exasperation among his opponents, especially in the 
 Lords. But when the first heat caused by his speech 
 had subsided, and the actual points of irreconcilable 
 difference between the two Houses were calmly con- 
 sidered, it was felt that though Mr. Gladstone had 
 spoken daggers, he had used none; the Government 
 were, as a matter of fact, prepared to give way on the 
 clause relating to the disposal of the surplus, to accord 
 terms more favorable to the commuting clergy of the 
 Disestablished Church, and to concur in the postpone- 
 ment of the date of disestablishment. On the other 
 hand, they nailed their colors to the mast against con- 
 current endowment. This indicates the basis of the 
 compromise ultimately arrived at, and without doubt 
 it was largely due to the efforts made by the Queen to 
 bring it about. The Archbishop wrote in his diary, 
 July 25th, 1869 : — 
 
 "A messenger from Windsor waiting for me with a further letter 
 from the Queen about the Irish Church. It is a great blessing that the 
 Queen takes such a vivid interest in the welfare of her people, and is 
 (e. g.) so earnest to ward off a collision between the two Houses of 
 Parliament." 
 
 He then gives a narrative of his personal activity 
 in bringing about the compromise, and his negotiations 
 with Lords Salisbury, Cairns, Grey, and Carnarvon 
 on the one side, and Mr. Gladstone and Lord Gran- 
 ville on the other, and adds, " We have made the best 
 terms we could, and, thanks to the Queen, a collision 
 between the two Houses has been averted. " 
 
 Through the publication of the Archbishop's life, a 
 detailed account of the Queen's activity in this matter 
 has been given to the public; but in order fully to 
 appreciate it, it should be borne in mind that the 
 
252 VICTORIA, 
 
 circumstances just narrated are only a specimen of 
 what is constantly going on of the Queen's unweary- 
 ing watchfulness over national interests, so that 
 necessary changes take place without unnecessary fric- 
 tion and violence. There is a passage in one of the 
 Queen's letters to her uncle, published in the "Life 
 of the Prince Consort," in which Her Majesty ex- 
 presses (in 1852) her weariness of political strife, and 
 says, " We women are not made for governing." As 
 this passage meets the eye one can hardly forbear the 
 remembrance that St. Paul wrote of himself, no douht 
 sincerely, as the chief of sinners. No Sovereign has 
 ever shown more diligence, tact, and courage in the 
 fulfilment of Royal duties than the Queen, and there 
 can be no doubt, not only of her vast knowledge, but 
 also of her intense interest in her work, and of its 
 high utility to the nation. 
 
 There has been no space in this little book to dwell 
 upon the colonial expansion of England during the 
 Queen's reign, nor yet upon the great development of 
 man's powers over the forces of nature during the 
 same period, making the England of to-day more 
 different from the England of 1819 than the England 
 of 1819 was from the England of Elizabeth. Neither 
 has space allowed even a reference to the wonderful 
 social progress that has accompanied this material 
 development. Disraeli was perhaps the first among 
 statesmen to grasp the fact of what England's Colonial 
 and Indian Empire meant, and the new place it gave 
 this country in the world. It should not, however, 
 be forgotten that the conception of England as a great 
 Imperial Power is as much due to the philosopher as 
 to the statesman. Sir John Seeley, in the field of his- 
 torical research, has contributed to it as much as the 
 practical politician. He has pointed out that "the 
 main fact of all facts is the expansion not only of 
 
THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE. 253 
 
 the English race, but of the English State all over the 
 globe." The English people, it has been said, have 
 conquered and peopled half a world in a fit of absence 
 of mind ; and it required a Jewish statesman and a 
 Cambridge professor to point out to them that there 
 was anything noticeable in the achievement. Disraeli 
 had not perceived it in 1852. In that year he, as 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote to Lord Malmes- 
 bury, as Foreign Secretary, " These wretched colonies 
 will all be independent in a few years, and are a mill- 
 stone round our necks." What a change between this 
 remainder biscuit of an effete doctrine of the Manches- 
 ter School, and the Imperial statesman of later years ! 
 When a full account of his life is written it will be 
 interesting to see when and how he developed the 
 Imperialism with which his name is now associated. 
 His passing of the Bill in 1876 which made the Queen 
 Empress of India has been already referred to. The 
 Queen valued him as a statesman and as a friend 
 more than any Prime Minister since the days of Sir 
 Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen. Whether he derived 
 his Imperialism from her, or she hers from him, will 
 not be known till the history of both lives can be fully 
 revealed. She honored him with her regard and 
 friendship, entirely abandoning the distrust and sus- 
 picion with which at the outset of his political career 
 she had regarded him. In Hughenden Church she 
 placed after his death a memorial tablet with the 
 following inscription, written by herself: — 
 
 To the dear and honored memory of 
 
 Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, 
 
 This memorial is placed by 
 
 His grateful and affectionate Sovereign and Friend, 
 
 Victoria, R. I. 
 
 "Kings love them that speak right." — Prov. xvi. 13. 
 
 She wrote at the time of Lord Beaconsfield 's death 
 to Dean Stanley : — 
 
264 VICTORIA. 
 
 " The loss of my dear, great friend . . . has completely overwhelmed 
 me. His devotion and kindness to me, his wise counsels, his great 
 gentleness combined with firmness, his one thought for the honor and 
 glory of the country, and his unswerving loyalty to the throne, make 
 the death of my dear Lord Beaconsfield a national calamity. My grief 
 is great and lasting." 
 
 The Queen's words, "his one thought or the honor 
 and glory of the country," are illust ative of what 
 Her Majesty most values in her counselors; they also 
 indicate her conception of Royalty as a means of 
 representing the nation, and the fusion of party differ- 
 ences. With the wider and wider extension of the 
 suffrage, the House of Commons stands in danger, by 
 its very representative character, of representing only 
 the people who vote for it, and these are only a hand- 
 ful in the great world of the British Empire. The 
 Queen has 378,000,000 subjects; of these only about 
 six millions vote for the Members of the House of 
 Commons. There is danger of the six millions acting 
 with something less than justice to the unrepresented 
 372,000,000. The Queen constantly watches against 
 this danger, and her well-trained eye quickly detects 
 those among the statesmen of both parties who are 
 able to grasp the larger conception of the duties of 
 government, who are not prepared to destroy the 
 Empire to buy a party majority, or who steadily 
 decline to buy, for example, thirty seats in Lancashire, 
 by the sacrifice of Indian fiscal interests. To such 
 men she gives her support and encouragement, and 
 she has consequently been, throughout her long reign, 
 a steady influence with both parties on the side of 
 prefering national to party ends. 
 
 That she has achieved much in this direction is 
 undoubted, and it is also undoubted that she has 
 achieved it mainly by the absolute sincerity of her 
 own character, and by its spontaneous power of dis- 
 tinguishing between the false and the true, the noble 
 
THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE. 255 
 
 and the ignoble. With all the temptations of her 
 position, the possession of almost unlimited power 
 from girlhood, she has chosen to live simply and to 
 live laboriously; with everything before her that 
 wealth could offer in the way of pleasure, she has 
 never found her amusements in pursuits that bring to 
 others sorrow and misery. She has ever been the 
 true woman, and because a true woman therefore a 
 
 great Queen. 
 
 In the earlier chapters of this little book an attempt 
 was made to indicate the formative influences on the 
 Queen's character, and a chief place was given, in 
 this connection, to Baron Stockmar and to the Prince 
 Consort. The bed-rock of the character of all three 
 is the value they put on Love and Duty. Stockmar, 
 towards the close of his life, wrote : — 
 
 " Were I now to be asked by any young man just entering into life, 
 • What is the chief good for which it behooves a man to strive ? ' my only 
 answer would be, < Love and Friendship ! ' Were he to ask me, What 
 is a man's most priceless possession? ' I must answer, The conscious- 
 ness of having loved and sought the truth, of having yearned for the 
 truth for its own sake ! ' All else is either vanity or a sick man s dream. 
 
 With a similar unconscious self-revelation, the 
 Prince Consort wrote to his eldest daughter, almost 
 immediately after her marriage, counselling her not 
 to think of herself, but to think of duty and service. 
 " If " he said, " you have succeeded in winning people's 
 hearts by friendliness, simplicity, and courtesy, the 
 secret lay in this, that you were not thinking of your- 
 self Hold fast this mystic power ; it is a spark from 
 heaven " The Queen's nature was full of responsive 
 sympathy with these "spirits finely touched to fine 
 issues " In her correspondence she too gives her 
 conception of the secret of happiness. Character- 
 istically enough, she finds her illustration in the 
 person of her husband, and says how people are 
 
256 VICTORIA, 
 
 struck, not only by his great power and energy, but 
 also by his great self-denial, and constant wish to 
 work for others. And "this," adds the Queen, "is 
 the happiest life. Pining for what one cannot have, 
 and trying to run after what is pleasantest, invariably 
 end in disappointment." 
 
 This is the spirit which has enabled Her Majesty to 
 fill her great position so worthily, and to have been, 
 therefore, of untold service to the country she has 
 loved so well. 
 
CHKONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 
 
 1819. Birth of Princess Victoria at Kensington Palace, May 24th. 
 
 1820. Death of Duke of Kent. — Death of George III. — Accession of 
 
 George IV. — Trial of Queen Caroline begun in House of 
 Lords in October ; abandoned in November. 
 1822. Suicide of Lord Londonderry (Castlereagh). — Canning becomes 
 Foreign Secretary. 
 
 1826. General Election. — Lord Liverpool Prime Minister. 
 
 1827. Death of Lord Liverpool. — Canning becomes Prime Minister, 
 
 and dies in August of same year. — Lord Goderich succeeds 
 him. 
 
 1828. Duke of Wellington Prime Minister 
 
 1829. Catholic Emancipation. 
 
 1830. Death of George IV. — Accession of William IV. — Regency 
 
 Bill passed. — Revolution in Paris. — Charles X. deposed. — 
 Louis Philippe, King of the French. — General Election. — 
 Whig majority. — Earl Grey Prime Minister. 
 
 1831. Prince Leopold (widower of Princess Charlotte) becomes King 
 
 of the Belgians. — First Reform Bill defeated. — Dissolution. 
 — Large majority in favor of Reform, and Bill immediately 
 reintroduced. 
 
 1832. Reform Bill carried. 
 
 1833. Abolition of Slavery in British Dominions; £20,000,000 voted 
 
 to compensate West Indian slave-owners. 
 
 1834. New Poor Law passed. 
 
 1835. The Orange Plot. — Lord Melbourne Prime Minister. 
 
 1836. First meeting between Princess Victoria and Prince Albert of 
 
 Coburg. 
 
 1837. Death of William IV. — Accession of Queen Victoria, June 
 
 20th. — Insurrection in Canada. 
 
 1838. Coronation. 
 
 1839. Sir Robert Peel's unsuccessful attempt to form a Ministry. — 
 
 Bedchamber question. — -Queen's betrothal to Prince Albert. 
 
 1840. Queen's marriage. — Oxford's attempt on her life. — Birth of 
 
 Princess Royal. 
 
 1841. General Election. — Tory majority. — Sir R. Peel Prime Minis- 
 
 ter. — Birth of Prince of Wales. 
 
 1842. Afghan War. — Queen's first visit to Scotland. — Second and 
 
 third attempts on her life. 
 17 
 
258 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 
 
 1843. Birth of Princess Alice. — Queen's visit to Louis Philippe at 
 
 Chateau d'Eu. 
 
 1844. Visit of the Czar Nicholas to the Queen at Windsor. — Birth 
 
 of Prince Alfred. — Louis Philippe's visit to Windsor. 
 
 1845. The Queen's first visit to Germany. — Peel resigns, but is re- 
 
 called. — Purchase of Osborne. 
 
 1846. Birth of Princess Helena. — Spanish marriages. — Irish Famine. 
 
 — Repeal of the Corn Laws. — Fall of Peel's Government. — 
 Lord John Russell becomes Prime Minister, and Lord Palmer- 
 ston Foreign Secretary. — Lord George Bentinck the leader 
 of Protectionist party. 
 
 1847. Irish famine. — General Election. — Whig majority. 
 
 1848. Revolution in Paris. — Fall of Louis Philippe, who takes refuge 
 
 in England. — Chartist movement in England. — Irish Rebel- 
 lion. — Birth of Princess Louise. — Purchase of Balmoral. 
 
 1849. The Queen's first visit to Ireland. — Enthusiastic reception. — 
 
 1850. Birth of Prince Arthur. —Death of Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 1851. Opening of Great Exhibition. — Coup d'Etat in Paris — Dis- 
 
 missal of Lord Palmerston. 
 
 1852. Fall of Lord John Russell's Ministry. — Earl of Derby forms Gov- 
 
 ernment, which lasts ten months. — General Election. — Earl 
 of Aberdeen, Prime Minister. — Death of Duke of Wellington. 
 
 — Recognition of Louis Napoleon as Emperor of the French. 
 
 1853. Birth of Prince Leopold. — Second visit to Ireland. — Outbreak 
 
 of unpopularity against Prince Albert. — Marriage of Louis 
 Napoleon. 
 
 1854. Alliance with Louis Napoleon. — Crimean War. 
 
 1855. Fall of Lord Aberdeen's Government. — Lord Palmerston Prime 
 
 Minister. — Death of the Czar. — Visits exchanged between 
 English and French Courts. — Fall of Sebastopol. — Betrothal 
 of Princess Royal to Prince Frederick William of Prussia. — 
 Visit of Victor Emmanuel to Windsor. 
 
 1856. Death of Queen's half-brother. — Birth of Prince Imperial. 
 
 1857. Birth of Princess Beatrice. — Title of Prince Consort conferred 
 
 on Prince Albert. — Indian Mutiny. — General Election. — 
 Palmerston triumphant. 
 
 1858. Marriage of Princess Royal. — State visit of Queen to Cher- 
 
 bourg. — Visit to Germany to Princess Royal. — Orsini's 
 attempt to assassinate French Emperor. — Fall of Lord 
 Palmerston's Government on Conspiracy Bill. — Earl of 
 Derby's Second Administration, lasting sixteen months. 
 
 1859. Birth of Queen's first grandchild, now Emperor William II. 
 
 of Germany. — Volunteer Movement. — General Election. — 
 Lord Palmerston again Prime Minister. — War between France 
 and Austria on Italian Question. 
 
 1860. Betrothal of Princess Alice to Prince Louis of Hesse. — Tri- 
 
 umphal Entry of Garibaldi into Naples. — Abdication of King 
 of Naples. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 259 
 
 1861. Death of Duchess of Kent. — Visit of the Queen to Coburg. — 
 
 Third visit of Queen to Ireland. — Victor Emmanuel pro- 
 claimed King of United Italy. —Death of the Prince Consort. 
 
 — American Civil War. — The Trent Incident. 
 
 1862. Marriage of Princess Alice. — Crown of Greece offered to Prince 
 
 Alfred. 
 
 1863. Marriage of Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. 
 
 — Grandchild born (Princess Alice's child) at Windsor.— 
 Unveiling of Prince Consort's statue in Aberdeen. 
 
 1864. Birth of a son to the Prince and Princess of Wales, heir to the 
 
 throne in the second generation. — Schleswig Holstein. War 
 
 between Denmark and Germany. 
 
 1865. —Death of King Leopold of Belgium. — Death of Lord Palmer- 
 
 ston. — General Election. — Lord John Russell Prime Minister. 
 
 1866. Queen opens Parliament in person for first time since her widow- 
 
 hood. — Marriage of Princess Helena to Prince Christian of 
 Schleswig-Holstein. — Fall of Lord Russell's Government. — 
 Earl of Derby succeeds him. — War between North and South 
 Germany. 
 
 1867. Publication of " Early Years of the Prince Consort." — Opening 
 
 of Albert Hall.— The Passing of Mr. Disraeli's Reform Bill, 
 giving Household Suffrage in towns. 
 
 1868. Mr. Disraeli Prime Minister. — General Election. — Liberal 
 
 Majority. — Mr. Gladstone becomes Prime Minister. — At- 
 tempted Assassination of Duke of Edinburgh. 
 
 1869. Disestablishment of Irish Church. 
 
 1 870. Eranco-German War. — Fall of Louis Napoleon. — English Edu- 
 
 cation Act. 
 
 1871. German Unity accomplished. — King William of Prussia de- 
 
 clared German Emperor at Versailles. — Illness and recovery 
 of the Prince of Wales. — Marriage of Princess Louise to 
 Marquis of Lome. 
 
 1872. Thanksgiving Service for recovery of the Prince of Wales.— 
 
 Death of the Queen's half-sister, Princess Feodore of Hohenlohe. 
 
 1873. Fatal accident to Princess Alice's little boy. 
 
 1874. Marriage of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, to the Grand 
 
 Duchess Marie of Russia. — General Election. — First Con- 
 servative Majority since 1841. —Lord Beaconsfield (Disraeli) 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 1876. Royal Titles Bill passed. — Bulgarian atrocities. — Servia and 
 
 Montenegro declare war against Turkey. 
 
 1877. Russia declares war against Turkey. 
 
 1878. Death of Princess Alice. — Marriage of the Queen's eldest grand- 
 
 daughter, Princess Charlotte of Prussia. — Treaty of Berlin. — 
 Death of Lord Russell. 
 
 1879. Marriage of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, to Princess 
 
 Louise of Prussia. — Birth of the Queen's first great-grand- 
 child. — Death of the Prince Imperial in South Africa. 
 
260 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 
 
 1880. — General Election. — Large Liberal majority. — Mr. Gladstone 
 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 1881. War in Egypt. — Tel-el-Kebir. 
 
 1882. Marriage of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, to Princess Helen 
 
 of Waldeck. — The Queen fired at by a Lunatic. 
 
 1884. Death of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. — Birth of his posthu- 
 
 mous son. — Passing of Mr. Gladstone's Reform Bill giving 
 Household Suffrage in Counties. 
 
 1885. Marriage of Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg. — 
 
 Death of Geueral Gordon at Khartoum. — Fall of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's Ministry. — Marquis of Salisbury Prime Minister. — 
 General Election. — Parties very nearly balanced. — Mr. 
 Gladstone declares himself in favor of Home Pule. 
 
 1886. Lord Salisbury's Government defeated. — Mr. Gladstone forms 
 
 Government and introduces First Home Rule Bill, defeated 
 in the House of Commons, June. — General Election, July. — 
 Large Unionist Majority. — Lord Salisbury Prime Minister. 
 
 1887. The Jubilee. 
 
 1888. Death of German Emperor, William I., March. — Accession of 
 
 the Queen's son-in-law, the Emperor Frederick. — His death, 
 June 15th. 
 
 1892. Death of the Queen's heir in the second generation, the Duke 
 
 of Clarence. — Death of her son-in-law, Prince Louis of Hesse. 
 — General Election. — Liberal majority. — Mr. Gladstone 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 1893. Betrothal and marriage of Duke of York to Princess Victoria 
 
 Mary of Teck. — Second Home Rule Bill defeated in the 
 House of Lords. 
 
 1894. Birth of Prince Edward of York. — Death of the Czar, Alexan- 
 
 der II. — Accession of the young Czar, Nicholas II. — His 
 marriage to the Queen's granddaughter, Princess Alix of 
 Hesse. — Mr. Gladstone retires, and is succeeded in the 
 Premiership by the Earl of Rosebery. 
 
 1 895. Lord Rosebery retired in June, and Lord Salisbury was chosen as 
 
 Premier. — Letter concerning Venezuelan Dispute sent to Mr. 
 Bayard, American minister in England, in July. — President 
 Cleveland's message to Congress declaring the British action in 
 the Venezuelan Boundary dispute was a breach of the Mon- 
 roe Doctrine, December 1 7th. — November 1 5th, Birth of Grand 
 Duchess Olga of Russia. — November 21st, Death of Sir Henry 
 F. Ponsonby, C. M. G. ; private secretary of Her Majesty the 
 Queen from 1870 to 1895. —December 14th, Birth of Prince 
 Albert of York. 
 
 1896. January 20th, Death of Prince Henry of Battenberg on his 
 
 way home from the Ashantee War. — July 22d, Marriage 
 in London of the Princess Maud of Wales to Prince 
 Charles of Denmark. — August 5th, The Queen received Li 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 261 
 
 Hung Chang at Osborne. — September 22d, The Emperor 
 and Empress of Russia arrived at Leith in their tour to 
 Balmoral to pay a visit to the Queen. — September 23d, The 
 Queen at this date had reigned longer than any sovereign of 
 England. 
 
 1897. February 5th, Inauguration of the Prince of Wales Hospital 
 
 Fund, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Queen's 
 reign. — March 11th, The Queen left England for Nice and 
 had an interview with President Faure ; Her Majesty returned 
 to England April 30th. — April 25th, Birth of Princess Vie- 
 toria Alexandria of Teck. — June 10th, Birth of Grand 
 Duchess Tatianaof Russia. — June 20th, Thanksgiving Service 
 for the Queen's reign. — June 22d, Celebration of Diamond 
 Jubilee. — July 1st, The Queen reviewed 30,000 troops. — 
 October 27th, Death of Duchess of Teck. 
 
 1898. October 31st, Lord Kitchener visited the Queen at Balmoral. — 
 
 November 19th, Death of the Earl of Latbom (Lord Chamber- 
 lain). — December 3d, The Queen visited the wounded in 
 Netley Hospital. 
 
 1899. February 6th, Death of Prince Alfred of Coburg. — March 1 1 th, 
 
 The Queen left Windsor for Cimiez. — May 4th, The Queen 
 returned from Continent. — May 15th, The Queen visited 
 Kensington Palace, her birthplace thenceforth to be open to 
 the public. — May 17th, The Queen laid the foundations for the 
 Victoria and Albert Museum. — May 23d, First report that the 
 Queen was suffering from a cataract on the eyes. — May 24th, 
 The Queen completed her 80th year. — May 2Gth, The Queen 
 reviewed the divisional troops under the command of Gen. 
 Buller. — October 11th, Boer War began. — November 11th, 
 The Queen arrived at Windsor and reviewed the composite 
 regiment of the Household Cavalry for service in South 
 Africa. — November 20th, The German Emperor and Empress 
 and two sons arrive to visit the Queen. 
 
 1900. March 7th, The Queen ordained that in Recognition of the Gal- 
 
 lantry of the Irish Regiment in South Africa they .should 
 henceforth wear a sprig of shamrock on St. Patrick's Day. — 
 March 31st, A son born to the Duke and Duchess of Teck. — 
 April 2d, The Queen started upon her last visit to Ire- 
 land, remaining in Dublin three weeks and being received 
 with loyalty and enthusiasm. — May 4th, The Queen was 
 visited by the King and Queen of Norway. — luly 80th, 
 The Shah of Persia abandoned his visit to the Queen, 
 owing to the death of the Duke of Saxe Coburg Goth a 
 at Roseman Castle. — October 29th, Prince Christian of Sehles- 
 wig Holstein, grandson of Queen Victoria, died in the Trans- 
 vaal War. 
 
 1901. The Queen received Lord Roberts, January 2d. — January 18th, 
 
262 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS. 
 
 Serious reports of the health of the Queen. — January 19th, 
 The Queen stricken with paralysis. — January 22d, The Queen 
 died. — January 23d, Parliament assembled and Edward VII. 
 proclaimed King. — February 2d, Funeral of Queen Victoria 
 in St. George's Chapel; her body placed in Frogmore 
 Mausoleum. 
 
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THE ROYAL FAMILY 
 
 FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF 
 VICTORIA TO THAT OF EDWARD VII. 
 
 [Stars designate deceased members.] 
 
 THE SOVEREIGN. 
 
 *Her Majesty Victoria, born May 24, 1819, succeeded to the Throne 
 June 20, 1837, on the death of her uncle, William IV. ; crowned 
 June 28, 1838 ; married, February 10, 1840, to his late Royal High- 
 ness Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel, Prince Consort, 
 Duke of Saxony, Prince of Coburg and Gotha, who was born 
 August 26, 1819, and died December 14, 1861; proclaimed Em- 
 press of India, January 1, 1877 ; died January 22, 1901. Her 
 Majesty had issue — 
 
 Prince of Wales (Albert Edward), now Edward VII., King of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India. Born November 9, 1841. 
 
 *Duke of Saxe-Coburg (Alfred Ernest Albert). Born August 6, 1844, 
 
 died July 30, 1900. 
 Duke of Connaught (Arthur William Patrick Albert). Born May 
 
 1, 1850. 
 *Duke of Albany (Leopold G. D. A.). Born April 7, 1853, died March 
 
 28, 1884. 
 Empress (Frederick) op Germany (Victoria Adelaide Maria Louisa). 
 
 Born November 21, 1840. 
 *Grand Duchess of Hesse (Alice Maud Mary). Born April 25, 1843, 
 
 died December 14, 1878. 
 Princess Christian op Schleswig-Holstein (Helena Augusta Vic- 
 toria). Born May 25, 1846. 
 Marchioness op Lorne (Louise Caroline Alberta). Born March 18, 
 
 1848. 
 Princess Henry of Battenberg (Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore). 
 
 Born April 14, 1857. 
 
THE ROYAL FAMILY 265 
 
 FAMILY OF PRINCE OF WALES, H. M. 
 EDWARD VII. 
 
 Residences. — Sandringham Hall, Norfolk ; Marlborough House. 
 
 H. M. married, March 10, 1863, Princess Alexandra Caroline Marie 
 Charlotte Louisa Julia, born December 1, 1844, eldest daughter 
 of King of Denmark, and has had issue — 
 
 *Duke of Clarence (Albert Victor). Born January 8, 1864, died Janu- 
 ary 14, 1892. 
 
 Duke of York (George Frederick Ernest Albert). Born June 3, 1865, 
 married, July 6, 1893, Victoria Mary of Teck, and has issue — 
 
 Prince Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David 
 of York. Born June 13, 1894. 
 
 Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George of York. Born Decem- 
 ber 14, 1895. 
 
 Princess Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary of York. Born April 25, 
 1897. 
 
 Prince Henry William Frederick Albert. Born March 31, 1900. 
 
 Duchess of Fife (Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar). Born February 
 20, 1867, married July 27, 1889, the Duke of Fife, and has 
 issue — 
 
 Lady Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise Duff. Born May 
 
 17, 1891. 
 Lady Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgia Bertha Duff. Born April 
 
 3, 1893. 
 
 Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary. Born July 6, 1868. 
 Princess Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria. Born November 26, 1869, mar- 
 ried, July 22, 1896, Crown Prince of Denmark. 
 * Alexander. Born April 6, 1871, died April 7, 1871. 
 
 FAMILY OF THE LATE DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG. 
 
 Residence. — Clarence House, St. James. 
 
 H. R. H. married, January 23, 1874, the Grand Duchess Marie Alexan- 
 drovna of Russia, born October 17, 1853, and had issue — 
 
 *Prince Alfred Alexander William Ernest Albert. Born October 15, 
 
 1874, died February 6, 1899. 
 Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria. Born October 29, 1875, married, 
 
 January 10, 1892, Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Roumania, and 
 
 has issue — 
 
 Prince Carol. Born October 15, 1893. 
 Princess Elizabeth. Born October 11, 1894. 
 
266 THE ROYAL FAMILY 
 
 i 
 
 Princess Victoria Melita. Born November 25, 1876, married, April 19, 
 1894, Grand Duke of Hesse, and has issue — 
 
 Princess Elizabeth Marie Alice Victoria. Born March 11, 1895. 
 
 Princess Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria. Born September 1, 1878, mar- 
 ried, 1896, Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and has 
 issue — 
 Prince Godefroi. Born March 24, 1897. 
 
 Princess Beatrice Leopoldine Victoria. Born April 20, 1884. 
 
 FAMILY OF THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT. 
 
 Residence. — Bagshot Park, Surrey. 
 
 H. R. H. married, March 13, 1879, Princess Louise Margaret Alex- 
 andra Victoria Agnes, born July 25, I860, daughter of Prince 
 Frederick Charles of Prussia, and has issue — 
 
 Princess Margaret Victoria Augusta Charlotte Norah. Born January 
 
 15, 1882. 
 Prince Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert. Born January 13, 1883. 
 Princess Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth. Born March 17, 1886. 
 
 FAMILY OF THE LATE DUKE OF ALBANY. 
 
 Residence. — Claremont, Esher, Surrey. 
 
 H. R. H. married April 27, 1882, Princess Helen, born February 17, 
 1861, daughter of the late Prince George of Waldeck. Died March 
 28, 1884, and has issue — 
 
 Princess Alice Mary Victoria Augusta Pauline. Born February 25, 
 
 1883. 
 Duke of Albany and Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Leopold Charles 
 
 Edward George Albert). Born July 19, 1884. 
 
 FAMILY OF THE EMPRESS FREDERICK. 
 
 Residence. — Friedrichshof Castle, Cronberg, Germany. 
 
 H. R. H. married, January 25, 1858, late Frederick Crown Prince of 
 Prussia, afterwards German Emperor, and has issue — 
 
 William II., German Emperor. Born January 27, 1859. 
 Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen. Born July 24, 1860. 
 Prince Henry of Prussia, K.G., G.C.B. Born August 14, 1862. 
 Princess Victoria of Schaumburg-Lippe. Born April 12, 1866. 
 Princess Sophia, D.U.A., Duchess of Sparta. Born June 14, 1870. 
 Princess Margaret Beatrice F. of Hesse. Born April 22, 1872. 
 
THE ROYAL FAMILY 267 
 
 FAMILY OF THE LATE PRINCESS ALICE, 
 GRAND DUCHESS OF HESSE. 
 
 Residence. — New Palace, Darmstadt. 
 
 H. R. H. married, July 1, 1862, the late Grand Duke of Hesse, and has 
 issue — 
 
 Princess Louis of Battenberg (Victoria). Born April 5, 1863. 
 Grand Duchess Serge of Russia (Elizabeth). Born November 1, 1864. 
 Princess Henry of Prussia (Irena Marie). Born July 11, 1866. 
 Grand Duke of Hesse, K.G. (Ernest Louis). Born November 25, 1868. 
 Empress of Russia (Victoria Alice). Born June 6, 1872, married the 
 Czar, November 26, 1894, and has issue — 
 
 The Grand Duchess Olga. Born November 15, 1895. 
 
 The Grand Duchess Tatiana. Born June 10, 1897. 
 
 The Grand Duchess Marie. Born June, 1899. 
 
 FAMILY OF THE PRINCESS HELENA. 
 
 Residence. — Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Park. 
 
 H. R. H. married, July 5, 1866, Prince Frederick Christian C. A. of 
 Schleswig-Holstein, born January 22, 1831, and has issue — 
 
 *Prince Christian Victor, G.C.B. Born April 14, 1867. Died 
 
 October 29, 1900. 
 Prince Albert John, C. F. A. George. Born February 26, 1869. 
 Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Born May 3, 1870. 
 Princess Aribert of Anhalt (Louise). Born August 12, 1872. 
 
 PRINCESS LOUISE. 
 
 Residence. — Roseneath, Dunbartonshire, N. B. 
 
 H. R. H. married, March 21, 1871, Marquis of Lome, K.T., G.C.M.G., 
 born August 6, 1845. 
 
 FAMILY OF THE PRINCESS BEATRICE. 
 
 Residence. — Osborne Cottage, Whippingham, Isle of Wight. 
 
 H. R. H. married, July 23, 1885, the late Prince Henry Maurice of 
 Battenberg, who died January 20, 1896, and has issue — 
 
 Prince Alexander Albert. Born November 23, 1886. 
 Princess Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena. Born October 24, 1887. 
 Prince Leopold Arthur Louis. Born May 22, 1889. 
 Prince Maurice Victor Donald. Born October 3, 1891. 
 
268 BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 
 
 BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 
 
 Early Years of the Prince Consort. By Sir Theodore Martin. 
 
 Life of the Prince Consort. By General Sir Charles Grey.] 
 
 Memoir of Princess Alice. 
 
 Leaves from a Journal of our Life in the Highlands. 
 
 More Leaves. 
 
 Earl of Malmesbury's Autobiography. 
 
 The Greville Memoirs. 
 
 History of Our Own Times. By Mr. J. McCarthy, M. P. 
 
 Life and Letters of Dean Stanley. 
 
 Life of Archbishop Tait. 
 
 Lady Bloomfield's Reminiscences. 
 
 Diaries of a Lady of Quality. 
 
 Miss Martineau's Thirty Years' Peace. 
 
 Two Noble Lives. 
 
 Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 
 Life of Bishop Wilberforce. 
 
 Life of Viscount Palmerston. By Hon. Evelyn Ashlej. 
 
 Life of Baron Stockmar. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen, Earl of, 85, 145, 175, 182. 
 
 Aberdeen, unveiling of Prince Con- 
 sort's statue at, 221. 
 
 Addresses of the French colonels, 
 1858, 198. 
 
 Adelaide, Princess, of Hohenlohe, 
 asked in marriage by Napoleon 
 III., 168. 
 
 Adelaide, Queen, 12, 13, 27, 28. 
 
 Albany, Duke of. See Leopold. 
 
 Albert, Prince, birth of, 14 ; childhood 
 of, 25, 65 ; education of, 65 ; first visit 
 to England of, 62; character of, 64, 
 81, 86, 89, 255; projected marriage, 
 25, 65; tour in Italy, 65; second 
 visit to England, betrothal to the 
 Queen, 66, 70; rumored to be a 
 Roman Catholic, 71 ; allowance 
 cut down in House of Commons, 
 74 ; precedence disallowed in House 
 of Lords, 75, 76; marriage of, 79; 
 favorable impression produced by, 
 80, 90, 91; difficulties of position of, 
 80; growing political influence of, 
 85; Queen's devotion to, 67, 69, 85; 
 political opinions of, 86, 178; reli- 
 gious views of, 87 ; accomplishments 
 and tastes of, 91, 92; McLeod, Dr., 
 on, 89; Stockmar's influence on, 
 112, 118; title of Prince Consort 
 conferred on, 115; devotion of, to 
 his children and home, 120, 143 ; on 
 the strength of Constitutionalism, 
 153 ; consults Lord Shaftesbury, 154; 
 and Lord Palmerston, 156, 171, 209; 
 outbreak of unpopularity against, 
 157, 182, 183 ; and the Great Exhi- 
 bition, 173; on betrothal of his eldest 
 daughter, 188 ; at Cherbourg, 196-7 ; 
 despatch of, on Trent affair, 208; 
 death of, 201-12; unveiling of statue 
 of; 221. 
 Alexandra, Princess of Wales, 206, 
 
 217, 228, 239. 
 Alfred, Prince, Duke of Edinburgh 
 and Duke of Coburg, 124, 131, 137, 
 232, 233. 
 Alice, Princess, Grand Duchess of 
 Hesse, 119, 123, 130, 201, 212, 215, 
 216, 220, 230, 231, 233, 234, 235. 
 
 Alix, Princess of Hesse Darmstadt, 
 
 136. 
 Anti-Corn Law agitation, 58, 99, 101. 
 Arthur, Prince, Duke of Connaught, 
 
 127. 
 Ashley, Lord. See Shaftesbury. 
 Assassination, attempted, of Prince 
 
 Alfred in Australia, 232. 
 Attempts on the Queen's life, 89, 90, 
 
 119, 139, 140, 141. 
 
 Balmoral, 135, 136, 137, 138. 
 
 Beatrice, Princess Henry of Batten- 
 berg, 127, 128. 
 
 Bedchamber question, 60, 72. 
 
 Belgians, King of the. See Leopold. 
 
 Bloomfield, Lady, 91 w., 142; on be- 
 trothal of Prince Frederick William 
 and Princess Royal, 187 ; on Prin- 
 cess Alice, 233. 
 
 Bright, the Rt. Hon. John, 29, 101, 
 177, 207, 222. 
 
 Brocket, Greville at, 95 n. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, 57, 62. 
 
 Brown, Mr. John, 223. 
 
 Bunsen, Baron, letter from Stockmar 
 to, 116. 
 
 Bunsen, Baroness, 33. 
 
 Cambridge, marriage of Duke of, 12. 
 Cambridge, Princess Mary of, 169, 
 
 234. 
 Cambridge, Prince of Wales at, 210. 
 Canada, insurrection in, 56. 
 Canning, Lady, 97, 127, 135. 
 Canning, Lord, in India, 192, 194. 
 Carlyle, Mr. Thomas, on the Queen, 
 
 33, 224-6. 
 Caroline, Queen, 19, 23. 
 Cart, death of, the Prince's valet, 35. 
 Castlereagh, Viscount, 107. 
 Catholic Emancipation, 41. 
 Charlotte, Princess, 12, 16, 17, 107-110. 
 Charlotte, Princess of Prussia, 127. 
 Charlotte, Queen, 107. 
 Chartism, 58-74 re., 126. 
 Cholera, 170. 
 Christmas-trees, 120. 
 Civil War in the United States, Trent 
 
 affair, 208. 
 
270 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Claremont, 109, 166. 
 
 Clarence, Duke of. See William TV. 
 
 Clarence, Duke of, Prince Albert Vic- 
 tor of Wales, 239. 
 
 Clarendon, Earl of, 170, 171, 177. 
 
 Cobden, Richard, 101, 147, 148, 177, 
 207. 
 
 Coburg, Duchess of, 13, 25. 
 
 Coburg, death of Duke of, 143. 
 
 Coburg, Duke Alfred of. See Alfred. 
 
 Connaught, Duke of. See Arthur. 
 
 Corn Laws, repeal of, 9S-101. 
 
 Coronation of George IV., 19. 
 
 Coronation of William IV., 16. 
 
 Coronation of Queen Victoria, 39. 
 
 Coronation service, 39. 
 
 Coup d'tiat, 106, 162, 163. 
 
 Crimean War, 157, 169, 170, 171, 175- 
 187. 
 
 Cumberland, Ernest, Duke of, 11, 18, 
 41, 45, 47, 76, 107, 122, 123. 
 
 Darmstadt, diphtheria at, 237. 
 
 Davys, Rev. George. See Peter- 
 borough, Bishop of. 
 
 Derby, Earl of, 90, 169, 199, 247. 
 
 Disraeli, the Rt. Hon. B., Earl of 
 Beaconsfield, 163, 170, 195, 250, 252. 
 
 Dufferin, Marchioness of, and medical 
 women in India, 236. 
 
 Durham, Earl of, 56. 
 
 " Early Years of Prince Consort," 63. 
 East India Company extinguished, 
 
 193. 
 Edinburgh, Duke of. See Alfred. 
 Empress Eugenie, 184, 197, 237. 
 Empress Frederick, 117, 120, 131, 133, 
 
 185, 186, 187, 189, 190, 221. 
 Eos, the Prince's greyhound, 82. 
 Exhibition of 1851, 173. 
 
 Financial Reforms of Sir Robert Peel, 
 103. 
 
 Fortifications of south coast, 207. 
 
 France, death of Prince Imperial of, 
 237. 
 
 Franco-German War, 232. 
 
 Frederick William I., King of Prussia, 
 122, 178. 
 
 Frederick William II., King of Prus- 
 sia and Emperor of Germany, 187, 
 228, 239. 
 
 Garibaldi, 206. 
 
 General Election, 1837, 51. 
 
 " " 1841, 95. 
 
 " " 1857, 198. 
 
 " " 1859, 247. 
 
 George III., 12. 
 
 George IV., 11, 16, 18. 
 
 German Unity, 86, 105, 107, 117, 178, 
 239. 
 
 Gladstone, the Right Hon. W. E 
 103, 182, 207, 248, 249. 
 
 Gordon, death of General, 238. 
 
 Graham, Sir James, Home Secretary 
 96. 
 
 Granville, Earl, 164, 169, 218. 
 
 Greville's account of Queen's acces- 
 sion, 47 ; description of Queen's an- 
 nouncement of her betrothal, 69 ; on 
 Roval Famity at Balmoral, 138. 
 
 Grey; Earl, 101. 
 
 Guizot and the Spanish marriages, 
 145. 
 
 Hanover, Ernest, King of. See Cum- 
 berland. 
 Hartley Collier}' explosion, 218. 
 Hastings, Lady Flora, 59, 72. 
 Haynau, General, 159-161. 
 Helen, Princess of Waldeck, Duchess 
 
 of Albany, 238. 
 Helena, Princess (Princess Christian 
 
 of Schleswig-Holstein), 125, 230. 
 Herbert, the Hon. Sidnev, 180. 
 Hesse, Prince Louis of, 202, 217, 225, 
 
 228. 
 Hesse, Princess Louis of. See Alice, 
 
 Princess. 
 Hohenlohe, Princess Adelaide of, 168. 
 Hohenlohe, Princess Feodore of, 138, 
 
 139, 218. 
 Holland, Lady, 71. 
 Hollo way College opened by the 
 
 Queen, 236. 
 Hume, Mr. Joseph, 41, 74. 
 
 Imperial, death of Prince, 237. 
 India, Empress of, 194. 
 India, medical women for, 236. 
 India, Queen's proclamation after 
 
 Mutinv, 192. 
 Indian Mutiny, 187, 193. 
 Ireland, Queen's visits to, 124, 125, 205. 
 Irish Church Disestablishment Bill, 
 
 248-51. 
 Irish famine, 100, 149. 
 Italy, Victor Emmanuel, King of, 206 
 
 Jameson, Mrs., on the Queen, 38. 
 
 Jordan, Mrs., 17. 
 
 Juarez, 237. 
 
 Jubilee, the Queen's, 236, 239, 244. 
 
 Kennington Common, Chartist assem- 
 bly on, in 1848, 151. 
 
 Kent, Duchess of, 16, 17, 20, 21, 29, 
 35, 37, 79, 123, 200, 201. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 271 
 
 Kent, Duke of, 12, 15, 16, 107. 
 Kossuth in England, 161. 
 
 " Leaves from the Journal of our Life 
 
 in the Highlands," 34, 188. 
 Lehzen, Baroness, 30, 37, 61, 111. 
 Leiningen, Prince Charles of, 138. 
 Leopold, Prince, afterwards King of 
 
 the Belgians, 16, 20, 23, 24, 25, 30, 
 
 54, 63, 106, 108, 109, 110, 166, 202, 
 
 212, 213, 236. 
 Leopold, Prince, Duke of Albany, 
 
 24, 128, 206, 212, 236. 
 " Life of the Prince Consort," 76. 
 Lome, Marquis of, 124, 220. 
 Louis Philippe, 144, 146, 147, 165, 
 
 166. 
 Louise, Princess, Marchioness of 
 
 Lome, 125, 153, 220. 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, 57. 
 Lyttleton, the Dowager Lady, 124. 
 
 Malmesbury, Earl of, 91, 165, 169, 193, 
 
 229, 253. 
 Marie, Archduchess of Eussia, Duchess 
 
 of Coburg, 136, 232. 
 Martineau, Miss Harriet, on Queen's 
 
 early training, 31; on Queen's ac- 
 cession, 49. 
 McLeod, Dr., 89, 220. 
 Medical women in India, 236. 
 Melbourne, Viscount, 52, 60, 78, 94, 
 
 95 n., 99 n., Ill, 121. 
 Mendelssohn on the Queen's singing, 
 
 36. 
 Mexico, Emperor Maximilian and 
 
 Empress Charlotte, 237. 
 Mill, Mr. J. S., 56. 
 Mitchel, Mr. John, 150. 
 " More Leaves from a Journal of our 
 
 Life in the Highlands," 34, 223. 
 
 Napoleon III., 162, 166, 167, 168, 184, 
 
 185, 195-8. 
 Neale's, Mr., legacy to the Queen, 139. 
 Neapolitan insurrection and Lord 
 
 Palmerston, 159. 
 Newcastle, Duke of, 183. 
 New Poor Law of 1834, 58. 
 Nicholas I., Emperor of Russia, 108, 
 
 134, 176, 181. 
 Nicholas II., Emperor of Russia, 136. 
 Nightingale, Miss Florence, 180. 
 Nursery establishment, the Queen's, 
 
 117, 119-131. 
 
 Oaks Colliery explosion, letter from 
 
 widows to Queen, 240. 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 44, 149. 
 
 Orange plot in 1835, 41. 
 
 Orleans family, the, 126, 166. 
 
 Orsini plot, the, 198. 
 
 Osborne, purchase of, 135 ; gardens of, 
 
 92, 136; Swiss cottage at, 135, 136. 
 Oxford's attempt on the Queen's life, 
 
 90, 119. 
 
 Palmerston Administration, defeat of, 
 in 1858, 198, 199. 
 
 Palmerston, Viscount, 91, 101, 118, 
 146 n., 156-172, 177, 184, 207-209. 
 
 Paris, Queen's visit to, 185. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 45, 58, 61, 74, 83, 85, 
 95-103, 134, 142. 
 
 Peterborough, Bishop of, Queen's pre- 
 ceptor, 29. 
 
 Portugal, death of King of, 210. 
 
 Precedence of Prince Albert disallowed 
 in House of Lords, 77. 
 
 Press attacks on Prince Albert, 183 ; 
 on Princess Royal's betrothal, 188. 
 
 Prince Consort. 'See Albert. 
 
 Prince of Wales. See Wales. 
 
 Princess Royal. See Empress Fred- 
 erick. 
 
 Prussia, Frederick William I., King 
 of. See Frederick William I. 
 
 Prussia, Prince of. See William I., 
 King of, and Emperor of Germany. 
 
 Prussia, Frederick William, King of, 
 and Emperor of Germany. See 
 Frederick William II. 
 
 Queen. See Victoria. 
 Queen's Titles Act, 195. 
 Queen's Jubilee, 236, 239, 244. 
 
 Reform Bill, Lord Palmerston's objec- 
 tions to, 171. 
 
 Regency Bill, 1830, 37. 
 
 Regency Bill, 1840, 89. ! 
 
 Royal Household, reform of, 132-4. 
 
 Russell, Lord John, 42, 61, 62, 101, 
 158, 161, 163, 171, 229. 
 
 Russell Administration defeated, 1852, 
 169. 
 
 Russell, Lady William, 171. 
 
 Russell, Dr. W. H., 180. 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein War, 228. 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein, Prince Christian 
 of, 230. 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Christian 
 of. See Helena. 
 
 Scotland, disturbances in, in 1848, 151. 
 
 Scotland, Queen's love of, 137, 219, 
 223. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, reference to Prin- 
 cess Victoria, 37. 
 
272 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Scottish Church, Queen's reverence 
 
 for, 220. 
 Sebastopol, 183, 186. 
 Seeley, Sir John, 252. 
 Shaftesbury, Earl of, 59, 83, 99, 154, 
 
 155. 
 Spanish marriages, the, 145-8, 166. 
 Stanley, Dean, 35, 174, 233. 
 Stanley, Lady Augusta, 136, 203. 
 Stockmar, Baron, 54, 55, 62, 65, 66, 73, 
 
 77, 85, 104-118, 145, 148, 191, 202, 
 
 255. 
 Sussex, Duke of, 19, 47, 89, 90. 
 
 Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, 248. 
 Teck, Duchess of. See Cambridge. 
 Teck, Princess Victoria Mary of, 234, 
 
 240. 
 Tory Party, outbreak of disloyalty in, 
 
 73. 
 
 United Irishman, The, 150. 
 United States, Civil War, Trent affair, 
 208. 
 
 Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, 206. 
 
 Victoria, Queen, birth of, 13; chris- 
 tening of, 14; education of, 20, 28, 
 34; great affection of, for her uncle 
 Leopold, 25; appearance of, 32, 33; 
 Carlyle on, 33, 224-6; Baroness 
 Bunsen on, 33; care of, for her 
 household and servants, 34; as a 
 musician, 36 ; Whig sympathies of, 
 44, 71 ; accession of, 46 ; considera- 
 tion of, for Queen Adelaide, 49, 50 ; 
 on the bedchamber question, 62; 
 wishes to defer her marriage, 62, 63 ; 
 betrothal to Prince Albert, 66; an- 
 nounces her engagement to the 
 Council, 69 ; unpopularity with the 
 Tories, 72, 77; marriage of, 79; 
 efforts of, to preserve the purity of 
 her Court, 83; religious views of, 
 88, 130, 131, 219; and Lord Mel- 
 bourne, 52, 53, 94; and Sir James 
 Graham, 96; and Sir Robert Peel, 
 61, 72, 94-103; Stockmar' s influence 
 on, 111-118 ; attempts on life of, 90, 
 119, 139, 140,141 ; birth of children, 
 119-128 ; magnanimity of, 123 ; good 
 health of, 129, 137; as"a mother, 129, 
 
 130, 131; legacy to, 139; a good 
 sailor, 142, 143 ; first visit to France, 
 144; and Viscount Palmerston, 
 156-172; on the Haynau incident, 
 161; at the opening of the Great 
 Exhibition, 173, 175; and Emperor 
 Nicholas, 176; disapproves of Day 
 of Humiliation for Crimean War, 
 178; visits Paris, 185; and Cher- 
 bourg, 196, 197; on her daughter's 
 marriage, 189 ; Indian Proclamation, 
 193, 194; reviews the Volunteers, 
 199, 200; death of mother, 201; 
 death of husband, 201-211; unveil- 
 ing the Prince's statue at Aberdeen, 
 221; children's marriages, 227; pre- 
 vents war with Germany, 229; in- 
 terest in providing medical women 
 for India, 236; letter of, to Miss 
 Gordon, 238 ; letter of, to the nation, 
 on death of Duke of Clarence, 242 ; 
 activity of, in preventing disputes 
 between the Houses of Parliament, 
 246-252 ; on the secret of happiness, 
 255. 
 
 Villiers, the Hon. Charles, 101. 
 
 Volunteer movement, the, 198. 
 
 Wales, Prince of, 117, 121, 185, 187, 
 205, 217, 228, 239. 
 
 Wales, Princess of, 206, 215, 228, 239. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 18, 41, 42, 45, 57, 
 60, 71, 107, 125, 151, 161, 175. 
 
 Whigs, the Queen's sympathies with, 
 44, 72. 
 
 Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, 
 29, 88, 188, 228. 
 
 William I., King of Prussia and Em- 
 peror of Germany, 178, 239. 
 
 William II., King of Prussia and Em- 
 peror of Germany, 205, 228, 239. 
 
 William IV., 12, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 
 24, 46, 51, 111. 
 
 Windsor, housekeeping at, 134. 
 
 Wynn, Miss, account by, of Queen's 
 accession, 47. 
 
 York, Duchess of, 243. 
 
 York, Duke of, Queen's uncle, 17. 
 
 York, Duke of, Prince George of 
 
 Wales, 243. 
 York, Prince Edward of, 243. 
 
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