between them and the Prince Consort must sometimes have begun with a little feeling of fear on their part lest there should be any interference on his, which might prove a hindrance to the conduct of public affairs. If any such fear, however, existed, it was very soon dispelled; and the pages of this volume abound with expressions showing the entire confidence with which his wisdom and behaviour inspired successive Prime Ministers :—

'Lord Melbourne cannot satisfy himself without again stating to Your Majesty in writing what he had the honour of saying to Your Majesty respecting His Royal Highness the Prince. Lord Melbourne has formed the highest opinion of His Royal Highness's judgment, temper, and discretion, and he cannot but feel a great consideration and security in the reflection that he leaves Your Majesty in a situation in which Your Majesty has the inestimable advantage of such advice and assistance. Lord Melbourne feels certain that Your Majesty cannot do better than have recourse to it whenever it is needed, and rely upon it with confidence.'

'Since the change of Ministry, the Prince had devoted himself more closely than before to the politics of the day. In this he was encouraged both by Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen, who were soon convinced, as Lord Melbourne had been, that Her Majesty had in him an adviser whose capacity and strong practical judgment could not fail to be of infinite value in assisting her decisions. Before Baron Stockmar left England, he had the satisfaction of being told by Lord Aberdeen, how greatly both Ministers were gratified to perceive that the Queen leant upon the Prince's judgment, and showed an obvious desire that he should share her duties. It gave the Prince, Lord Aberdeen added, the moral status and influence to which he was entitled; and they had also remarked with pleasure in their dealings with him, how gently he exercised his authority, never giving a decided opinion on any point without previously consulting the Queen. They thought it most desirable that the Prince should occupy this position, and, as it was with the full concurrence of the Queen, it could be open to no possible objection.'

"Sir Robert Peel," says Lord Kingsdown in his unpublished "Recollections of his Life at the Bar and in Parliament," p. 130," when he introduced me to him (the Prince) in 1841, said that I should find him one of the most extraordinary young men I had ever met with." So, he adds, it proved. "His aptitude for business was wonderful; the dullest and most intricate matters did not escape or weary his attention; his judgment was very good; his readiness to listen to any suggestions, though against his own opinions, was constant; and though I saw his temper often tried, yet in the course of twenty years never once saw it disturbed, nor witnessed any signs of impatience."

And it was with tears in his eyes, and with words of the deepest regret, that Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister

when

when the Prince was taken from us, confided to one in whom he habitually placed confidence, how deeply he deplored for the nation, as well as for the Queen, the death of the Prince. This is the more worthy of record, as it is no secret that the political views of that Prime Minister and of the Prince had occasionally been much at variance.

Some idea may be given of the work before us by describing some one section of each division of labour which occupied the time and thought of the Prince and Queen during that part of His Royal Highness's life which Mr. Martin has already recorded.

In the course of this narrative there were many Royal visits received and returned. Such visits are not without considerable care and anxiety on the part of the entertainers; and they require to be managed with much discretion. In illustration of this we propose to give an account of the late Emperor of Russia's visit to the Queen.

Again, during that time which enters into the narrative of the biographer there are ministerial crises and changes of Ministers. We propose to give an account of one of these, which may serve as a type of the conduct of the Queen and the Prince on these critical occasions.

Thirdly, there is to be shown the interest which the Prince took in all the social affairs of Great Britain, and the encouragement which he gave to art, science, and manufactures.

To commence with the Emperor of Russia's visit to the Queen. On the 30th of May, 1844, the biographer says:

'The Queen and Prince were somewhat taken by surprise by the intelligence that the Emperor of Russia was on his way to visit the English Court, and might be daily looked for. . . . On the 3rd of June he was met at the Slough Station by the Prince, and conducted by him to the Castle. The Emperor was greatly struck—as, indeed, who is not?-by the beauty and magnificence of that noblest of all royal residences; and his reception during the five days of his stay at the English Court impressed him with the conviction, which he repeatedly expressed, that it was conducted on the noblest scale of any Court he had seen. Everything, he said, appeared to be done without effort, and as if nothing more than ordinary were going on.

The object of the Emperor in visiting England was no doubt mainly political. It was an excellent thing, he said to the Queen, to see now and then with one's own eyes, as it did not do always to trust to diplomatists only. Such meetings begot a feeling of friendship and interest, and more could be done in a single conversation to explain one's feelings, views, and motives, than in a host of messages or letters. He avoided discussion on the position of affairs in Europe

with the Queen, but he took frequent opportunities of going into them with the Premier and Lord Aberdeen, and also with Prince Albert, conversing at all times with the greatest apparent unreserve. In all his conversations he professed the utmost anxiety to win the confidence of the statesmen at the head of English affairs, and to convince them of the uprightness and strictly honourable character of his intentions.'

The caution of the Prince Consort is manifested in the following passage, a caution which was no doubt equally exercised in the course of all the other visits from foreign Sovereigns:

'On the Emperor the Prince produced a deep impression. He told Lord Aberdeen he should like to have him for his own son. In their personal communications he treated him with the greatest confidence, and paid him what in the Emperor's opinion was probably the highest testimony of his regard, by expressing a hope, that they might one day meet in the field of battle on the same side. The Prince was on the point of replying, that he trusted they might never see any interruption of the then peaceful state of Europe; but as this would have implied disapproval of the policy, which seemed to assume such an interruption as certain to take place, he checked himself, thinking the remark might be taken amiss.'

Her Majesty, in a letter to King Leopold, marked by the incisive perception and graphic force which Her Majesty brings to all her descriptions of men and things, gives her account of this visit of the late Emperor of Russia :

'I will now (having told all that has passed) give you my opinions and feelings on the subject, which I may say are Albert's also. I was extremely against the visit, fearing the gêne and bustle, and even at first I did not feel at all to like it; but by living in the same house together quietly and unrestrainedly (and this Albert, and with great truth, says, is the great advantage of these visits, that I not only see these great people, but know them), I got to know the Emperor and he to know me. There is much about him which I cannot help liking, and I think his character is one which should be understood, and looked upon for once as it is. He is stern and severe, with strict principles of duty which nothing on earth will make him change. Very clever I do not think him, and his mind is not a cultivated one. His education has been neglected. Politics and military concerns are the only things he takes great interest in; the arts and all softer occupations he does not care for; but he is sincere, I am certain-sincere even in his most despotic acts-from a sense that it is the only way to govern. He is not, I am sure, aware of the dreadful cases of individual misery which he so often causes; for I can see, by various instances, that he is kept in utter ignorance of many things which his people carry out in most corrupt ways, while he thinks he is extremely just. He thinks of general measures, but does not look into details; and I am sure much never reaches his ears, and, as you observe, how can it?

'He

...

He asked for nothing whatever-has merely expressed his great anxiety to be on the best terms with us, but not to the exclusion of others-only let things remain as they are. He is very much alarmed about the East, and about Austria. He is, I should say, too frank, for he talks so openly before people, which he should not do, and with difficulty restrains himself. His anxiety to be believed is very great, and I must say his personal promises I am inclined to believe. Then his feelings are very strong. He feels kindness deeply, and his love for his wife and children, and for all children, is very great. He has a strong feeling for domestic life, saying to me, when our children were in the room, "Voilà les doux moments de notre vie!" One can see by the way he takes them up and plays with them, that he is very fond of children.'

At the conclusion of the Emperor's visit, he spoke in the highest praise of the Prince Consort to Sir Robert Peel, saying he wished every Prince in Germany had as much ability and sense.'

Her Majesty, in her letter to King Leopold, makes the following important remark :—

'I hope that you will persuade the King (Louis Philippe) to come all the same in September. Our motives and politics are, not to be exclusive, but to be on good terms with all-and why should we not? We make no secret of it.'

It was with such feelings that the Royal pair exercised their hospitality towards all foreign Sovereigns.

We now proceed to give an account of some political events in which Sir Robert Peel was the principal person concerned, and as regards which it is to be seen what support and comfort he derived from the Queen and the Prince Consort. But before doing so, it is not out of place to say, that nothing can give a higher idea of the principles which governed the relation of the Crown to its Ministers after the marriage of the Queen, than what is revealed in the present volume. Lord Melbourne, always loyal and generous, with all his fatal good-nature and readiness to yield to the pressure of his party, used his best endeavours, as we have seen, to smooth the way for those who were to succeed him in the place he had so long occupied as the confidential adviser of the Crown. Much use had been made, to the prejudice of the Tory party, of their conduct as to the vote on the Prince's allowance, and other matters, at the time of his marriage. Sir Robert Peel felt that he had allowed himself to be carried away, for the moment, by the passion of his party, and that the part he had taken in apparent hostility to the wishes of the Queen and the interests of the Prince might well be remembered to his

prejudice.

prejudice. But however well founded such apprehensions might have been under former reigns, the spirit which now reigned in the Palace was such as quickly to put all such apprehensions to rest. This is very clear from what Mr. Martin tells us (p. 118), and his statement we are in a position to corroborate on the authority of one to whom Sir Robert Peel more than once spoke to the same effect.

'Peel used to say, that he had felt no slight embarrassment on first coming into official contact with the Prince, for the fact was painfully present to his mind, that the serious curtailment of the Prince's income was mainly due to the prominent support which he had given to Colonel Sibthorp's motion the previous year. He was, therefore, not a little touched to find that not a shade of personal soreness could be traced in the Prince's demeanour. On the contrary, his communications were of that frank and cordial character which at once placed the Minister at his ease, and made him feel assured that not only was no grudge entertained, but that he might count thenceforth on being treated as a friend.'

And as a friend he was from that hour welcomed and trusted; and when he was struck down in 1850, in the full tide of his ripened intellectual strength and influence, none mourned his loss more truly than the Queen and Prince, whom he had felt an embarrassment in approaching.

It cannot be said that Mr. Martin is not a master of brevity, for, though these events are narrated in his work with sufficient fulness and admirable clearness, we find the greatest difficulty in condensing his account, and must often let the author speak for himself. It was after a tour in Germany undertaken by the Queen and the Prince, which had afforded both of them great delight, that they returned to encounter a very disastrous state of things at home:—

'The state of affairs at home had not improved within the last six weeks. The rain, which had pursued the Royal tourists on the Rhine, had for many weeks, amidst thunder and storm, deluged the harvest fields of the British islands, and serious fears for the crops had spread from the farmers to the statesmen, whose anxieties such an event were so much calculated to increase. A new and terrible feature of apprehension was added in the reports which continued to crowd in upon them of a strange blight which threatened wholly to destroy the potato crop in Ireland, and to produce serious ravages in England and Scotland also, where, if less relied upon by the population as a staple of food, it was an important source of wealth to the farmers. In the Prince's Journal for October, entry upon entry tells of the prevailing anxiety, which culminates in the beginning of October in the words: "Very bad news from Ireland-fears of a famine." A crisis of the gravest moment was at hand, which had to be grappled with firmly and

at