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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16965-h.zip b/16965-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6890f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16965-h.zip diff --git a/16965-h/16965-h.htm b/16965-h/16965-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ed0688 --- /dev/null +++ b/16965-h/16965-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4727 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> + +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Queen Victoria, by E. Gordon Browne, M.A.</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin:5%; text-align:justify} --> + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Queen Victoria, by E. Gordon Browne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Queen Victoria + +Author: E. Gordon Browne + +Release Date: October 30, 2005 [EBook #16965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUEEN VICTORIA *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div align="center"><a name="illus1">[Frontispiece: QUEEN VICTORIA]</a></div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><h1>QUEEN VICTORIA</h1></center> +<br> +<br> +<center><i>BY</i></center> +<center><h3>E. GORDON BROWNE, M.A.</h3></center> +<br> +<br> +<center><i>WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS</i></center> +<br> +<center><img src="images/lamp.jpg" alt="Lamp Decoration"></center> +<br> +<br> +<center>LONDON</center> +<center><h4>GEORGE G. HARRAP & COMPANY</h4></center> +<center>2 & 3 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C.</center> +<center><small>MCMXV</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><i>Turnbull & Spears, Printers, Edinburgh, Great Britain</i></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<big><b><i>Contents</i></b></big><br> +<br> +<small>CHAPTER</small><br> + +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" summary="table of contents"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" align="right">I.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap1">A LOOK BACK</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">II.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap2">CHILDHOOD DAYS</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">III.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap3">EARLY YEARS</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">IV.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap4">HUSBAND AND WIFE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">V.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap5">FAMILY LIFE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">VI.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap6">STRIFE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">VII.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap7">THE CHILDREN OF ENGLAND</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">VIII.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap8">MINISTERING WOMEN</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">IX.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap9">BALMORAL</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">X.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap10">THE GREAT EXHIBITION</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XI.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap11">ALBERT THE GOOD</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XII.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap12">FRIENDS AND ADVISERS</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XIII.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap13">QUEEN AND EMPIRE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XIV.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap14">STRESS AND STRAIN</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XV.</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap15">VICTORIA THE GREAT</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<big><b><i>Illustrations</i></b></big><br> + +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" summary="table of illustrations"> + <tr> + <td width="10%"> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus1">QUEEN VICTORIA</a> . . .<i>Frontispiece</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus2">THE QUEEN'S FIRST COUNCIL AT KENSINGTON PALACE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus3">KENSINGTON PALACE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus4">THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KENT</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus5">THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE QUEEN'S ACCESSION</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus6">PRINCE ALBERT</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus7">BUCKINGHAM PALACE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus8">FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus9">QUEEN VICTORIA IN THE HIGHLANDS</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus10">THE ALBERT MEMORIAL</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus11">SIR ROBERT PEEL, LORD MELBOURNE, AND BENJAMIN DISRAELI</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus12">THE SECRET OF ENGLAND'S GREATNESS</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus13">THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap1">CHAPTER I: <i>A Look Back</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>In the old legend of Rip Van Winkle with which the American writer +Washington Irving has made us so familiar, the ne'er-do-weel Rip +wanders off into the Kaatskill Mountains with his dog and gun in order +to escape from his wife's scolding tongue. Here he meets the spectre +crew of Captain Hudson, and, after partaking of their hospitality, +falls into a deep sleep which lasts for twenty years. The latter part +of the story describes the changes which he finds on his return to +his native village: nearly all the old, familiar faces are gone; +manners, dress, and speech are all changed. He feels like a stranger +in a strange land.</p> + +<p>Now, it is a good thing sometimes to take a look back, to try to count +over the changes for good or for evil which have taken place in this +country of ours; to try to understand clearly why the reign of a great +Queen should have left its mark upon our history in such a way that +men speak of the Victorian Age as one of the greatest ages that have +ever been.</p> + +<p>If an Elizabethan had been asked whether he considered the Queen of +England a great woman or not, he would undoubtedly have answered +"Yes," and given very good reasons for his answer. It was not for +nothing that the English almost worshipped their Queen in "those +spacious times of great Elizabeth." Edmund Spenser, one of the +world's great poets, hymned her as "fayre Elisa" and "the flowre of +Virgins":</p> + +<blockquote> Helpe me to blaze<br> + Her worthy praise;<br> +Which, in her sexe doth all excell!</blockquote> + +<p>Throughout her long reign, courtiers, statesmen, soldiers, and +people all united in serving her gladly and to the best of their +powers.</p> + +<p>Yet she could at times prove herself to be hard, cruel, and +vindictive; she was mean, even miserly, when money was wanted for +men or ships; she was excessively vain, loved dress and finery, and +was often proud almost beyond bearing.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all her faults, she was the best beloved of all +English monarchs because of her never-failing courage and strength +of mind, and she made the Crown respected, feared, and loved as no +other ruler had done before her, and none other, save Queen Victoria, +has reigned as she did in her people's hearts.</p> + +<p>She lived for her country, and her country's love and admiration were +her reward. During her reign the seas were swept clear of foreign +foes, and her country took its place in the front rank of Great Powers. +Hers was the Golden Age of Literature, of Adventure and Learning, +an age of great men and women, a New England.</p> + +<p>If an Elizabethan Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep and awakened again +at the opening of Victoria's reign, more than 200 years later, what +would he have found? England still a mighty Power, it is true, +scarcely yet recovered from the long war against Napoleon, with +Nelson and Wellington enthroned as the national heroes. But the times +were bad in many ways, for it was "a time of ugliness: ugly religion, +ugly law, ugly relations between rich and poor, ugly clothes, ugly +furniture."</p> + +<p>The England of that day, it must be remembered, was the England +described so faithfully in Charles Dickens' early works. It was far +from being the England we know now. In 1836 appeared the first number +of Mr Pickwick's travels. <i>The Pickwick Papers</i> is not a great work +of humour merely, for in its pages we see England and the early +Victorians—a strange country to us—in which they lived.</p> + +<p>It is an England of old inns and stagecoaches, where "manners and +roads were very rough"; where men were still cast into prison for +debt and lived and died there; where the execution of a criminal still +took place in public; where little children of tender years were +condemned to work in the depths of coal-pits, and amid the clang and +roar of machinery. It was a hard, cruel age. No longer did the people +look up to and reverence their monarch as their leader. England had +yet to pass through a long and bitter period of 'strife and stress,' +of war between rich and poor, of many and bewildering changes. The +introduction of coal, steam, and mechanism was rapidly changing the +character of the whole country. The revenue had grown from about +£19,000,000 in 1792 to £105,000,000 in 1815, and there +seemed to be no limit to the national wealth and resources.</p> + +<p>But these very changes which enriched some few were the cause of +misery and poverty to struggling thousands. Machinery had ruined the +spinning-wheel industry and reduced the price of cloth; the price +of corn had risen, and, after the close of the great war, other +nations were free once again to compete against our country in the +markets where we so long had possessed the monopoly of trade.</p> + +<a name="illus2"></a> +<center><img width="100%" src="images/firstcouncil.jpg" alt="Queen's First Council"></center> +<center><p>The Queen's first Council at Kensington Palace<br> +<small>Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.</small></p></center> + +<p>The period which followed the year 1815 was one of incessant struggle +for reform, and chiefly the reform of a Parliament which no +longer represented the people's wishes. Considerably more than half +the members were not elected at all, but were recommended by patrons.</p> + +<p>The average price of a seat in Parliament was £5000 for a +so-called 'rotten borough.' Scotland returned forty-five members +and Cornwall forty-four members to Parliament! The reformers also +demanded the abolition of the 'taxes on knowledge,' by which was +meant the stamp duty of fourpence on every copy of a newspaper, a +duty of threepence on every pound of paper, and a heavy tax upon +advertisements. The new Poor Laws aroused bitter discontent. Instead +of receiving payment of money for relief of poverty, as had formerly +been the case, the poor and needy were now sent to the 'Union' +workhouse.</p> + +<p>A series of bad harvests was the cause of great migrations to the +factory towns, and the already large ranks of the unemployed grew +greater day by day. The poverty and wretchedness of the working class +is painted vividly for us by Carlyle when he speaks of "half a million +handloom weavers, working 15 hours a day, in perpetual inability to +procure thereby enough of the coarsest food; Scotch farm-labourers, +who 'in districts the half of whose husbandry is that of cows, taste +no milk, can procure no milk' . . . the working-classes can no longer +go on without government, without being <i>actually</i> guided and +governed."</p> + +<p>Such was Victoria's England when she ascended the throne, a young +girl, nineteen years of age.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap2">CHAPTER II: <i>Childhood Days</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>On the western side of Kensington Gardens stands the old Palace, +built originally in the solid Dutch style for King William and Mary. +The great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, made notable additions +to it, and it was still further extended in 1721 for George the First.</p> + +<p>Within its walls passed away both William and his Queen, Queen Anne +and her husband, and George the Second. After this time it ceased +to be a royal residence.</p> + +<p>The charm of Kensington Gardens, with its beautiful walks and +secluded sylvan nooks—the happy hunting-ground of London children +and the home of 'Peter Pan'—has inspired many writers to sing its +praises:</p> + +<blockquote>In this lone, open glade I lie,<br> + Screen'd by deep boughs on either hand;<br> + And at its end, to stay the eye,<br> + Those black-crown'd, red-boled pine trees stand!<br> +<br> + Birds here make song, each bird has his,<br> + Across the girding city's hum.<br> + How green under the boughs it is!<br> + How thick the tremulous sheep cries come!<br> +<br> + Here at my feet what wonders pass,<br> + What endless, active life is here!<br> + What blowing daisies, fragrant grass!<br> + An air-stirred forest, fresh and clear.<br> + + <big>M</big>ATTHEW <big>A</big>RNOLD</blockquote> + +<p>Beaconsfield spoke of its "sublime sylvan solitude superior to the +cedars of Lebanon, and inferior only in extent to the chestnut +forests of Anatolia."</p> + +<p>Kensington Palace was the birthplace of Queen Victoria, and in the +garden walks she used to play, little knowing that she would one day +be Queen of England. Her doll's house and toys are still preserved +in the rooms which she inhabited as a little girl.</p> +<a name="illus3"></a> +<center><img width="100%" src="images/kensington.jpg" alt="Kensington Palace"></center> +<center><p>KENSINGTON PALACE</p></center> + +<p>Four years had passed since the battle of Waterloo when the Princess +Victoria was born, and England was settling down to a time of peace +after long years of warfare.</p> + +<p>In 1830 George the Fourth died, and was succeeded by his brother, +the Duke of Clarence, as William the Fourth, the 'sailor king.' +Though not in any respect a great monarch, he proved himself to be +a good king and one who was always wishful to do the best that lay +in his power for the country's good.</p> + +<p>He was exceedingly hospitable, and gave dinners to thousands of his +friends and acquaintances during the year, particularly inviting all +his old messmates of the Navy. He had two daughters by his marriage, +and as these both died young it was evident that the Princess Victoria +might some day succeed to the throne.</p> + +<p>Her father, the Duke of Kent, married the Dowager Princess of +Leiningen, who was the sister of Prince Leopold, afterward King of +the Belgians. As a young man the Duke had seen much service, for when +he was only seventeen years of age he entered the Hanoverian army, +where the discipline was severe and rigid. He afterward served in +the West Indies and Canada, and on his return to England he was made +a peer with the title of Duke of Kent. He was afterward General and +Commander-in-Chief in Canada and Governor of Gibraltar.</p> + +<p>At the latter place his love of order and discipline naturally made +him unpopular, and, owing to strong feeling on the part of the troops, +it was considered wise to recall the Duke in 1803.</p> + +<p>In 1816 he settled in Brussels, and soon afterward met his future +wife in Germany. Princess Victoire Marie Louise was the youngest +daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and widow of Prince Charles of +Leiningen, who on his death had left her as the regent of his +principality.</p> + +<p>They were married at Coburg in May 1818. Some months afterward they +came over to England, and on May 24, 1819, their daughter Alexandrina +Victoria was born.</p> +<a name="illus4"></a> +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="illustration 4"> + <tr> + <td width="50%" align="center"><img width="80%" + src="images/dukeofkent.jpg" alt="Duke of Kent"></td> + <td align="center"><img width="80%" src="images/duchessofkent.jpg" alt="Duchess of Kent"></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="center">The Duke of Kent<br><small>Sir Wm. Beechey<br> + Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.</small></td> + <td align="center">The Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria<br> + <small>Sir Wm. Beechey<br>Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.</small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Duke still kept up his simple, soldierly habits, for throughout +his life he had always believed in regularly ordering one's day. He +rose betimes and took a cup of coffee at six o'clock. Each servant +of the household was allotted his or her regular duties, and was +obliged at least once a day to appear before the Duke. There was a +separate bell for each servant, and punctuality in attendance was +insisted upon.</p> + +<p>The christening was attended by members of the Royal Family, and a +dinner was held to celebrate the happy event. The Duke and Duchess +removed soon afterward to Devonshire, and they were both much pleased +with the beautiful surroundings of their new home. The Duke wrote +at this time of his daughter: "My little girl thrives under the +influence of a Devonshire climate, and is, I am delighted to say, +strong and healthy; too healthy, I fear, in the opinion of some +members of my family, by whom she is regarded as an intruder. How +largely she contributes to my happiness at this moment it is needless +for me to say to you."</p> + +<p>The Duke had been determined from the first that his child should +be born in England, for he wished her to be English both in upbringing +and in feeling. His wife, who is described by those who knew her as +being a singularly attractive woman, full of deep feeling and +sympathy, fully shared his views on this point.</p> + +<p>In January 1820, when only fifty-three years of age, the Duke died +quite suddenly from inflammation of the lungs, following upon a +neglected cold. He was a man of deep religious feeling, and once in +talking to a friend about his little daughter's future career he said +earnestly: "Don't pray simply that hers may be a brilliant career, +and exempt from those trials and struggles which have pursued her +father, but pray that God's blessing may rest on her, that it may +overshadow her, and that in all her coming years she may be guided +and guarded by God."</p> + +<p>The widowed mother now returned to London, where the Duchess of +Clarence, afterward Queen Adelaide, interested herself greatly in +little Victoria. The Duchess now devoted herself entirely to the care +of her child, and never did any little girl have a more loving and +devoted mother.</p> + +<p>As much time as possible was spent in the open air, and Victoria went +for rides about Kensington on a donkey, which was led by an old +soldier, a great friend and favourite. She always had her breakfast +and supper with her mother, and at nine o'clock retired to her bed, +which was placed close to her mother's. Until the time of her +accession she led as simple and regular a life as thousands of other +little girls.</p> + +<p>Many stories are told of her early years to illustrate the +thoroughness of her home training. Even as a small child she was +absolutely truthful, and her chief fault—that of wilfulness—was +due to some extent to her high spirits and abundant energy. She was +especially fond of dolls, and possessed a very large number, most +of which were dressed as historical personages. She had practically +no playmates of her own age, and in later life she often spoke of +these early years as being rather dull.</p> + +<p>A description of her at this period runs: "She was a beautiful child, +with the cherubic form of features, clustered round by glossy, fair +ringlets. Her complexion was remarkably transparent, with a soft and +often heightening tinge of the sweet blush rose upon her cheeks that +imparted a peculiar brilliancy to her clear blue eyes. Whenever she +met any strangers in her usual paths she always seemed by the +quickness of her glance to inquire who and what they were."</p> + +<p>There was, as was natural, much correspondence between England and +Saxe-Coburg, the home of the Duchess, for the second son of the Duke +of Coburg, Charles Albert Augustus Emmanuel, was already spoken of +as being destined to be Victoria's husband in the future.</p> + +<p>Prince Albert had been born at Rosenau on August 19, 1819, and was +thus slightly younger than his cousin. He is spoken of as being a +very handsome boy, "like a little angel with his fair curls," and +was for a time much spoilt until his father interfered and +superintended the children's education himself.</p> + +<p>Ernest, the elder son, gives us a charming picture of his father:</p> + +<p>"We children beheld in him, and justly, our ideal of courtesy, and +although he never said a harsh word to us, we bore towards him, +through all our love and confidence, a reverence bordering on fear. +He never lectured, seldom blamed; praised unwillingly; and yet the +effect of his individuality was so powerful that we accomplished more +than if we had been praised or blamed. When he was once asked by a +relative whether we were industrious and well behaved, he answered: +'My children cannot be naughty, and as they know well that they must +learn in order to be worthy men, so I do not trouble myself about +it.'"</p> + +<p>The Duke liked both his sons to listen to the conversation of their +elders and to take an interest in art and literature. Outdoor +exercise, riding, fishing, hunting, and driving formed part of their +education; they were taught from the first to endure cold and +discomfort without complaint or murmur. The religious teaching they +received had a deep and lasting influence upon the two boys, both +at that time and in later years. But they had a thoroughly happy +boyhood and did not suffer from a lack of companions. After their +confirmation their father took them on a visit to several Courts in +Germany, and also to Vienna—a journey which was intended to open +their minds to the great world of which they had learnt so much and +seen so little; and it was about this time that King Leopold, the +brother of the Duke of Coburg, thought it wise to make a careful +inquiry into the life and character of the young Prince.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap3">CHAPTER III: <i>Early Years</i></a></h3></div> +<blockquote><small>God save thee, weeping Queen!<br> +Thou shalt be well beloved!<br> +The tyrant's sceptre cannot move,<br> +As those pure tears have moved!<br> + + E.B. BROWNING</small></blockquote> +<br> +<p>When she was five years old the Princess Victoria began to have +lessons, chiefly with a governess, Miss von Lehzen—"my dearly +beloved angelic Lehzen," as she called her. These two remained +devotedly attached to one another until the latter's death in 1870. +The young Princess was especially fond of music and drawing, and it +was clear that if she had been able to devote more time to study she +would in later years have excelled in both subjects.</p> + +<p>Her education was such as to fit her for her future position of Queen +of England. The Princess did not, however, know that she was likely +at any future time to be Queen. She read much, chiefly books dealing +with history, and these were often chosen for her by her uncle, the +King of the Belgians.</p> + +<p>The family life was regular and simple. Lessons, a walk or drive, +very few and simple pleasures made up her day. Breakfast was at +half-past eight, luncheon at half-past one, and dinner at seven. Tea +was allowed only in later years as a great treat.</p> + +<p>The Queen herself said: "I was brought up very simply—never had a +room to myself till I was nearly grown up—always slept in my mother's +room till I came to the throne."</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott wrote of her at this period of her life: "This little +lady is educated 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."</p> + +<p>In 1830 her uncle, George the Fourth, died, and his brother, William +the Fourth, came to the throne. The young Princess was now the next +in succession. Her governess thought that her pupil should be told +of this fact, and as the Duchess of Kent agreed, the table of +genealogy was placed inside Victoria's history book, where by and +by she found it.</p> + +<p>The story goes that she then said, "I see, I am nearer the throne +than I thought," and giving her hand to her governess added: "I will +be good. I understand now, why you urged me so much to learn, even +Latin. My cousins Augusta and Mary never did, but you told me that +Latin was the foundation of English grammar, and of all the elegant +expressions, and I learned it as you wished. But I understand it all +better now." In later years the Queen recollected crying very much +when she heard of it, but could not recall exactly what had happened.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to note what those who knew little Victoria at this +time say about her. She was, we are told, exceedingly affectionate, +very full of high spirits, fond of life in the open air, and already +possessed a strong sense of duty and religion.</p> + +<p>She had been taught by her devoted uncle Leopold, with whom she +corresponded regularly, how necessary it was for her to understand +thoroughly the duties which fall to the share of a ruler. During the +years which followed she went more into society and paid visits to +the most interesting places in the kingdom. Everywhere she went she +was received with the greatest enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>In 1830 the Duke of Coburg, with his two sons, Ernest and Albert, +arrived at Kensington Palace on a visit, and thus the Princess met +for the first time her future husband. Her uncle Leopold had long +desired to carry out the cherished wish of his mother, the Dowager +Duchess of Coburg, that the two cousins should be united in marriage. +During William the Fourth's lifetime all mention of such a marriage +had to be kept secret, as the King much disliked the Coburg family, +and had more than once been very rude to the Duchess of Kent.</p> + +<p>Victoria wrote to her uncle saying how much she liked Albert in every +way, and that he possessed every quality that could be desired to +render her perfectly happy. She was very anxious that her uncle +should take her cousin under his special protection.</p> + +<p>On May 24, 1837, Victoria attained her majority. She received numbers +of magnificent presents, congratulations from public bodies, and in +the evening a State Ball was given at St James's Palace.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday, June 20 of that year, at twelve minutes past two, King +William the Fourth died. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord +Chamberlain set out at once for Kensington to convey the sad news. +They arrived at five in the morning, and were told that the Princess +was asleep. They replied that they were on important business of +State to the Queen, and even her sleep must give way to that. Our +illustration depicts the scene which then ensued.</p> +<a name="illus5"></a> +<center><img width="50%" src="images/announcement.jpg" alt="Announcement"></center> +<center><p>The Announcement of the Queen's Accession by the<br> +Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor<br> +<small>H.T. Wells, R.A.<br>Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.</small></p></center> + +<p>Even during the first days of her reign, the Queen's dignity, calm, +and knowledge of State affairs astonished her ministers, and were +complete proof of the careful training she had received during her +girlhood days. Greville, Clerk to the Council, wrote: "She presided +with as much ease as if she had been doing nothing else all her +life. . . . 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 excessive interest in all who approach her, +and which I can't help feeling myself."</p> + +<p>In July the Queen and her mother left their home to take up their +residence in Buckingham Palace, formerly known as the Queen's House. +The present palace occupies the site of Buckingham House, which was +erected by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in 1703. It was bought +by George the Third for his wife in 1761, remodelled by George the +Fourth, and completed by William the Fourth, who, however, had never +lived there.</p> + +<p>Four days later the Queen went in State to dissolve Parliament, and +soon afterward removed to Windsor Castle, where she was joined for +a time by her uncle and his wife.</p> + +<p>Prince Albert wrote her a warm letter of congratulation. "You are +now," he said, "Queen of the mightiest land in Europe. In your hands +lie the happiness of millions. May Heaven assist and strengthen you +with its strength in that high but difficult task! I hope that your +reign may be long, happy, and glorious, and that your efforts may +be rewarded by the thankfulness and love of your subjects."</p> + +<p>On Thursday, June 28, 1838, the coronation ceremony took place in +Westminster Abbey. Afterward the Queen made a royal progress and was +greeted by immense crowds of her people with the utmost loyalty and +enthusiasm. In her journal she described it as the proudest day of +her life. Mrs Jamieson, an onlooker, wrote of her as follows:</p> + +<p>"When she returned, looking pale and tremulous, crowned and holding +her sceptre in a manner and attitude which said, 'I have it, and none +shall wrest it from me,' even Carlyle, who was standing near me, +uttered with emotion, 'A blessing on her head!'"</p> + +<p>As a small instance of the Queen's consideration for others, one of +her first thoughts after the ceremony was for the school-children. +She wrote to her minister, Lord Melbourne, asking if it was not usual +to give a week's additional holiday to the schools on such an occasion +as this.</p> + +<p>Lord Melbourne was from the moment of her accession the Queen's chief +adviser, and from the many letters which passed between them it is +extremely interesting to see with what affection the young and +inexperienced girl regarded him. "He is not only a clever statesman +and an honest man," she wrote to her uncle, Leopold, "but a good and +a kind-hearted man, whose aim is to do his duty for his country and +not for a <i>party</i>."</p> + +<p>Lord Melbourne was almost a second father to her, and there is no +doubt that it was largely due to his excellent and homely advice that +the Queen was able during the early years of her reign to develop +in such an astonishing manner and yet at the same time to retain such +a sweet and womanly character. Of her regularity of life and careful +attention to detail we learn from Greville's diary. She rose soon +after eight o'clock, and after breakfast was occupied with business +the whole morning. During this time Lord Melbourne visited her +regularly. At two o'clock she rode out, attended by her suite, and +amused herself afterward for the rest of the afternoon with music, +singing, or romps with children. Dinner was served at eight o'clock +to the whole household, and the Queen usually retired soon after +eleven. "She orders and regulates every detail herself; she knows +where everybody is lodged in the Castle, settles about the riding +or driving, and enters into every particular with minute attention." +She never signed a single document of any importance until she had +thoroughly mastered its contents.</p> + +<p>In October, 1839, her cousins Ernest and Albert paid her a visit, +bringing with them a letter from their uncle Leopold, in which he +recommended them to her care. They were at once upon intimate terms, +and the Queen confided to her uncle that "Albert was very +fascinating." Four days after their arrival she informed Lord +Melbourne that she had made up her mind as to the question of marriage. +He received the news in a very kindly manner and said: "I think it +will be very well received, for I hear that there is an anxiety now +that it should be, and I am very glad of it. You will be much more +comfortable, for a woman cannot stand alone for any time, in whatever +position she may be."</p> + +<p>The Queen described her betrothal as follows: "At half-past twelve +I sent for Albert. He came to the closet, where I was alone, and after +a few minutes I said to him that I thought he would be aware why I +wished him to come, and that it would make me happy if he would consent +to what I wished, namely, to marry me. There was no hesitation on +his part, but the offer was received with the greatest demonstrations +of kindness and affection. . . . I told him I was quite unworthy of +him. . . . He said he would be very happy to spend his life with me."</p> + +<p>She wrote to her uncle: "I <i>love</i> him <i>more</i> than I can say, and I +shall do everything in my power to render the sacrifice he has made +(for a sacrifice in my opinion it is) as small as I can."</p> + +<p>In the following November the news was made public, but it was not +received with any great enthusiasm, as a German alliance was +unpopular. There were other suitors for the Queen's hand, and the +majority would have preferred one of her English cousins to have been +chosen.</p> + +<p>On February 10, 1840, the marriage was solemnized at the Chapel Royal, +St James's. The Queen was described by those who saw her as looking +extremely happy, and to her uncle she wrote of her delight at seeing +the huge crowds which lined the streets to see the procession pass. +"God grant that I may be the happy person, the <i>most</i> happy person, +to make this dearest, blessed being happy and contented! What is in +my power to make him happy, I will do."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap4">CHAPTER IV: <i>Husband and Wife</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>After four short days the Queen and her husband returned to London, +and from this time onward the Prince acted as his wife's secretary, +attending to every little detail of the mass of correspondence and +State documents which grew larger with every succeeding year.</p> + +<p>All the letters received by the Queen during the course of a long +and busy life-time were carefully preserved, and at her death they +amounted to no fewer than five or six hundred large bound volumes. +They include letters from crowned heads of Europe, from her ministers +of State, from her children, and from her friends and relations.</p> + +<p>All these the Queen read and answered. She was thus at all times fully +aware of everything that was happening both at home and abroad, and +in her great Empire, an Empire which was destined to grow greater +and greater in power and extent during her reign. Day by day, year +in, year out, without a single break, this immense correspondence +arrived. Ministers resigned and ministers were appointed, but there +was neither halt nor rest. Truly 'the burden of Empire' is heavy for +those who bear it.</p> + +<p>The young Prince determined from the first to master both national +and European politics, for it must always be remembered that as he +was a foreigner everything in this country was for some time strange +to him. In addition to being his wife's right hand he took a leading +part in all movements which might help to improve the education and +conditions of life of the people. His fine training and sympathetic +nature enabled him, little by little, to be the means of helping on +important reforms. In addition to this, both he and his wife found +time to work at drawing and music, which they studied together under +the best masters. Throughout the Queen's correspondence one reads +of his devotion to her both as husband and helpmate.</p> + +<p>The times were hard; discontent with poverty and bad trade kept the +nation ill at ease, and, as is always the case, there were many who +did their best to stir up riot. As a consequence, possibly, of this +unrest, attempts were made on the Queen's life, once in 1840 and twice +in 1841.</p> + +<p>The relief and joy felt by the whole nation at their young Queen's +lucky escapes from death by an assassin's hand are expressed in the +following lines by an anonymous author:—</p> + +<blockquote>God saved the Queen—all thoughts apart<br> +This crowning joy fills every mind!<br> +She sits within the nation's heart,<br> + An angel shrined.<br> +<br> +The assassin's hand the steel enclosed,<br> +He poised his ruthless hand on high—<br> +But God in mercy interposed<br> + His shadow for her panoply.<br> +<br> +Then let ten thousand lyres be swept,<br> + Let pæans ring o'er sea and land—<br> +The Almighty hath our Sovereign kept<br> + Within the hollow of His hand!</blockquote> + +<p>In July 1840, it was considered necessary to appoint a Regent in case +of the Queen's death. A Bill for this purpose was brought in and +passed, naming the Prince as Regent. This pleased the Queen, for it +was a clear proof of the golden opinions the Prince had won everywhere +since his marriage, and it was passed, as she herself said, entirely +on account of his noble character. At an earlier period it is certain, +as Lord Melbourne assured her, that Parliament would not have passed +such a Bill.</p> + +<p>The Queen was soon to lose her chief adviser and friend, for in June +1841 Parliament dissolved and the Whigs were not returned to power. +Lord Melbourne could, however, resign with an easy mind, for he +himself recognized how valuable a counsellor the Queen now possessed +in her husband. After handing his resignation to the Queen, he wrote +to her: "Lord Melbourne has formed the highest opinion of His Royal +Highness's judgment, temper, and discretion, and he cannot but feel +a great consolation 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." The Queen was exceedingly +proud of these words of praise, coming as they did unasked from a +minister of such long experience.</p> + +<p>It was in the same year that the Prince was appointed Head of the +Royal Commission which had been formed to encourage the study of the +Fine Arts throughout the kingdom. This was work of a kind which he +especially loved, and he was now in a position to influence the +movement which led to the Great Exhibition of 1851.</p> + +<a name="illus6"></a> +<center><img width="50%" src="images/princealbert.jpg" alt="Prince Albert"></center> +<center><p>Prince Albert<br> +<small>F.X. Winterhalter<br>Photo Emery Walker Ltd.</small></p></center> + +<p>But all was not plain sailing for the Prince, who was still regarded, +if not with dislike, at any rate with some mistrust, as being a +foreigner. For a long time yet he felt himself a stranger, the Queen's +husband and nothing more. Still, "all cometh to him who knoweth how +to wait," and he set himself bravely to his uphill task. To use his +own words, "I endeavour to be as much use to Victoria as I can,"—this +was the keynote of his whole life.</p> + +<p>The Prince took sides with neither of the political parties, and +first of all by careful economy he lessened the enormous household +expenses and proved that it was possible for royalty to live without +always being in debt. He established model farms at Osborne and +Windsor, introduced different and better breeds of cattle, and even +made a profit on the undertaking. He persuaded his wife to give up +the late hours which were still usual, and gradually, by kindness +and sympathy, won the household staff over to his way of thinking.</p> + +<p>The Prince's life was an extremely full one. Soon after six o'clock +was his time for rising. Until nine he read and answered letters. +He then looked through all the principal newspapers and gave the +Queen a summary of the most important news. He found time also to +work and play with his children during his short intervals of leisure. +Consultations with ministers, reading and writing dispatches +followed, and then a short time was devoted to open-air exercise. +After lunch he often accompanied the Queen on a drive. More reading +and writing took up his time until dinner, after which there was +either a social evening or a visit to a theatre. He was "complete +master in his house, and the active centre of an Empire whose power +extends to every quarter of the globe. . . . No British Cabinet minister +has ever worked so hard during the session of Parliament, and that +is saying a good deal, as the Prince Consort did for 21 years. . . . +The Prince had no holidays at all, he was always in harness."[1]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 1: Miss C.M. Yonge, <i>Life of H.R.H. the Prince Consort</i>.]</p> + +<p>Louis Philippe, the first French king who had ever visited this +country, except King John, wrote of him: "Oh, he will do wonders; +he is so wise; he is not in a hurry; he gains so much by being known. +He will always give you good advice. Do not think I say so in flattery. +No! No! It is from my heart. He will be like his uncle, equally wise +and good. . . . He will be of the greatest use to you, and will keep +well at your side if a time of vicissitude should come, such as I +hope may never be—but, after all, no one can tell."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap5">CHAPTER V: <i>Family Life</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>"Upon the good education of princes, and especially of those who are +destined to govern, the welfare of the world in these days very +greatly depends."</p> + +<p>The love of children was always a strong connecting link between the +Queen and her people. No trouble was ever spared by her to obtain +the best possible advice on the training of her own family. The +nursery was as well governed as her kingdom.</p> + +<p>Acting upon the advice of Baron Stockmar, the Queen determined to +have some one at the head on whom she could thoroughly rely, as her +many occupations prevented her from devoting so much time to these +duties as she could have wished. Lady Lyttelton, who had been a +lady-in-waiting, was appointed governess to the Royal Family in 1842, +and for eight years she held this post, winning the affection and +respect of her young pupils and the gratitude of the Queen and her +husband.</p> + +<p>From time to time the Queen wrote her views upon the subject. "The +greatest maxim of all is," she declared, "that the children 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 +confidence in them in all things."</p> + +<p>Training in religion, to be of real and lasting value, must be given +by the mother herself, and in 1844 the Queen noted with regret that +it was not always possible for her to be with the Princess Royal when +the child was saying her prayers.</p> + +<p>"I am <i>quite</i> clear," she said, "that she ought to be taught to have +great reverence for God and for religion, but that she should have +the feeling of devotion and love which our Heavenly Father encourages +His earthly children to have for Him, and not one of fear and +trembling; and that the thoughts of death and an after-life should +not be represented in an alarming and forbidding view, and that she +should be made to know <i>as yet</i> no difference of creeds, and not think +that she can only pray on her knees, or that those who do not kneel +are less fervent and devout in their prayers."</p> + +<p>On November 21, 1840, the Queen's first child, Victoria Adelaide Mary +Louisa, the Princess Royal, was born. The Prince's care of his wife +"was like that of a mother, nor could there be a kinder, wiser, or +more judicious nurse." Only for a moment was he disappointed that +his first child was a daughter and not a son.</p> + +<p>The children were all brought up strictly and were never allowed to +appear at Court until a comparatively late age. They were all taught +to use their hands as well as their heads, and at Osborne, in the +Swiss cottage, the boys worked at carpentering and gardening, while +the girls were employed in learning cooking and housekeeping. +Christmas was always celebrated in splendid fashion by the family, +and the royal children were always encouraged to give as presents +something which they had made with their own hands. Lessons in riding, +driving, and swimming also formed part of their training, for the +Queen was wise enough to realize that open-air exercise was very +necessary for the health of her children.</p> + +<p>In 1846 the question arose as to who should educate the Prince of +Wales (born 1841). A pamphlet on the subject had been published and +created general interest. Baron Stockmar was again consulted, and +gave it as his opinion that the Prince's education should be one +"which will prepare him for approaching events"—that is, he was to +be so educated that he would be in touch with the movements of the +age and able to respond sympathetically to the wishes of the nation. +The rapid growth of democracy throughout Europe made it absolutely +necessary that his education should be of a different kind. The task +of governing well was becoming more and more difficult, and reigning +monarchs were criticized in an open fashion, such as had not hitherto +been possible. After much thought the post was given to Mr Henry Birch +(formerly a master at Eton College, and at that time rector of +Prestwich, near Manchester), who had made a very favourable +impression upon the Queen and her husband.</p> + +<p>Plain people as well as princes must be educated, and this fact was +never lost sight of by the Queen and her husband. In 1857 the Prince +called attention to the fact that there were at that time no fewer +than 600,000 children between the ages of three and fifteen absent +from school but known to be employed in some way; he pointed out +also—and this seems in these days difficult to believe—that no less +than <i>two million</i> children were not attending school, and were, so +far as could be ascertained, not employed in any way at all.</p> +<a name="illus7"></a> +<center><img width="100%" src="images/buckingham.jpg" alt="Buckingham Palace"></center> +<center><p>BUCKINGHAM PALACE</p></center> + +<p>The most interesting visitors whom the Queen entertained during her +early married life were the Emperor Nicholas of Russia and Louis +Napoleon of France. The Emperor Nicholas came to England, as he told +the Queen, to see things with his own eyes, and to win, if he could, +the confidence of English statesmen. "I esteem England highly; but +as to what the French say of me, I care not."</p> + +<p>He was, however, undoubtedly jealous of this country's growing +friendship with her old enemy, France, but any attempt to weaken this +met with no encouragement.</p> + +<p>The Queen, in writing to her uncle Leopold, said, "He gives Albert +and myself the impression of a man who is <i>not</i> happy, and on whom +the burden of his immense power and position weighs heavily and +painfully. He seldom smiles, and when he does, the expression is +<i>not</i> a happy one. He is very easy to get on with." In a further letter +she continued, "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 <i>see</i> these great +people, but <i>know</i> them), I got to know the Emperor and he to know +me. . . . He is sincere, I am certain, <i>sincere</i> even in his most +despotic acts—from a sense that that <i>is</i> the <i>only</i> way to +govern. . . . He <i>feels</i> kindness deeply—and his love for his wife and +children, and for all children, is <i>very</i> great. He has a strong +feeling for domestic life, saying to me, when our children were in +the room: 'These are the sweet moments of our life.' One can see by +the way he takes them up and plays with them that he is very fond +of children." And again she wrote: "He also spoke of princes being +nowadays obliged to strive to make themselves worthy of their +position, so as to reconcile people to the fact of their being +princes."</p> + +<p>The effect of this visit was to make France somewhat suspicious, and +the Queen expressed her wish that it might not prevent the visit which +had been promised by King Louis Philippe.</p> + +<p>There was at one time actually danger of war over trouble in the East, +but King Leopold, whose kingdom was in the happy position of having +its independence guaranteed by the Powers,[2] was able to bring his +influence to bear, and the critical period passed over, to the great +relief of the Queen.</p> + +<p>[Footnote 2: This, however, did not protect Belgium in 1914, when +Germany did not hesitate to attack her.]</p> + +<p>In 1844 King Louis Philippe paid his promised visit, of which the +Queen said, "He is the first King of France who comes on a visit to +the Sovereign of this country. A very eventful epoch, indeed, and +one which will surely bring good fruits."</p> + +<p>The King was immensely pleased with everything he saw, and with the +friendly reception he received. He assured the Queen that France did +not wish to go to war with England, and he told her how pleased he +was that all their difficulties were now smoothed over.</p> + +<p>During his stay he was invested with the Order of the Garter—an Order, +it is interesting to recollect, which had been created by Edward the +Third after the Battle of Cressy, and whose earliest knights were +the Black Prince and his companions.</p> + +<p>The Corporation of London went to Windsor in civic state to present +the King with an address of congratulation. He declared in his answer +that "France has nothing to ask of England, and England has nothing +to ask of France, but cordial union."</p> + +<p>But in 1848 the Orleans dynasty was overthrown, France proclaimed +a republic, and King Louis Philippe, his wife and family were forced +to flee to England. Here in 1850, broken in health, the King died. + +<p>In 1852 Louis Napoleon, who had been elected President for life, +created himself Emperor, and in 1855, after the conclusion of the +Crimean War and the death of the Emperor Nicholas, he visited +England.</p> + +<p>A State Ball was held of which the Queen wrote: "How strange to think +that I, the granddaughter of George III, should dance with the +Emperor Napoleon, nephew of England's great enemy, now my nearest +and most intimate ally, in the Waterloo room, and this ally only six +years ago living in this country an exile, poor and unthought of! . . . +I am glad to have known this extraordinary man, whom it is certainly +impossible not to like when you live with him, and not even to a +considerable extent to admire. I believe him to be capable of +kindness, affection, friendship, and gratitude. I feel confidence +in him as regards the future; I think he is frank, means well towards +us, and, as Stockmar says, 'that we have insured his sincerity and +good faith towards us for the rest of his life.'"</p> + +<p>The Queen and her husband paid frequent visits, and made many tours +during their early married life. It was a great source of pleasure +to both of them to feel that everywhere they went they were received +with the greatest delight and enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>In 1847 they visited Cambridge University, of which Prince Albert +was now Chancellor. "Every station and bridge, and resting-place, +and spot of shade was peopled with eager faces watching for the Queen, +and decorated with flowers; but the largest, and the brightest, and +the gayest, and the most excited assemblage was at Cambridge station +itself. . . . I think I never saw so many children before in one morning, +and I felt so much moved at the spectacle of such a mass of life +collected together and animated by one feeling, and that a joyous +one, that I was at a loss to conceive how any woman's sides can bear +the beating of so strong a throb as must attend the consciousness +of being the object of all that excitement, the centre of attraction +to all those eyes. But the Queen has royal strength of nerve."[3]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 3: The Duke of Argyll, <i>Queen Victoria</i>.]</p> + +<p>In 1849 they paid their first visit to Ireland, and received a royal +welcome on landing in Cork. The Queen noticed particularly that +"the beauty of the women is very remarkable, and struck us much; such +beautiful dark eyes and hair, and such fine teeth; almost every third +woman was pretty, and some remarkably so."</p> + +<p>The royal children were the objects of great admiration. "Oh! Queen, +dear!" screamed a stout old lady, "make one of them Prince Patrick, +and all Ireland will die for you."</p> + +<p>In Dublin, the capital of a country which had very recently been in +revolt, the loyal welcome was, if possible, even more striking.</p> + +<p>The Queen writes: "It was a wonderful and striking spectacle, such +masses of human beings, so enthusiastic, so excited, yet such perfect +order maintained; then the numbers of troops, the different bands +stationed at certain distances, the waving of hats and handkerchiefs, +the bursts of welcome which rent the air—all made a +never-to-be-forgotten scene."</p> + +<p>Lord Clarendon, writing of the results of the Irish tour, said, "The +people are not only enchanted with the Queen and the gracious +kindness of her manner and the confidence she has shown in them, but +they are pleased with themselves for their own good feelings and +behaviour, which they consider have removed the barrier that +hitherto existed between the Sovereign and themselves, and that they +now occupy a higher position in the eyes of the world."</p> + +<p>In 1850 they visited for the first time the Palace of Holyrood. This +was a memorable occasion, for since Mary, Queen of Scots, had been +imprisoned there, no queen had ever stayed within its walls.</p> + +<p>The Queen took the liveliest interest in the many objects of +historical interest which were shown to her. "We saw the rooms where +Queen Mary lived, her bed, the dressing-room into which the murderers +entered who killed Rizzio, and the spot where he fell, where, as the +old housekeeper said to me, 'If the lady would stand on that side,' +I would see that the boards were discoloured by the blood. Every step +is full of historical recollections, and our living here is quite +an epoch in the annals of this old pile, which has seen so many deeds, +more bad, I fear, than good."</p> + +<p>Both the Queen and her husband had an especial love for animals, and +the Queen's suite, when she travelled, always included a number of +dogs. Her favourites were Skye terriers and the so-called +'turnspits' which were introduced into this country by Prince Albert. +One of the Queen's great delights at Windsor was to walk round the +farms and inspect the cattle, which are still, owing largely to the +careful methods of feeding and tending instituted by the Prince, +among the finest in the world. Kindness to animals was a lesson she +taught to all her children, and pictures and statuettes of all her +old favourites were to be found in her homes.</p> + +<center><img width="100%" src="images/royalfamilytree.jpg" alt="Royal Family Tree"></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap6">CHAPTER VI: <i>Strife</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>"Two men I honour, and no third. First, the toilworn Craftsman that +with earth-made Implement laboriously conquers the Earth, and makes +her man's. . . . A second man I honour, and still more highly: Him who +is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable; not daily bread, +but the Bread of Life. . . . Unspeakably touching is it, however, when +I find both dignities united; and he that must toil outwardly for +the lowest of man's wants, is also toiling inwardly for the +highest."[4]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 4: Carlyle, <i>Sartor Resartus</i>.]</p> + +<p>To understand the many and bewildering changes which followed one +another in rapid succession during the early years of Victoria's +reign it is necessary to read the literature, more especially the +works of those writers who took a deep and lasting interest in the +lives and work of the people.</p> + +<p>Democracy, the people, or the toiling class, was engaged in a fierce +battle with those forces which it held to be its natural enemies. +It was a battle of the Rich against the Poor, of the masters against +the men, of Right against Might. England was a sick nation, at war +with itself, and Chartism and the Chartists were some of the signs +of the disease. The early Victorian age is the age of Thomas Carlyle, +the stern, grim prophet, who, undaunted by poverty and ill-health, +painted England in dark colours as a country hastening to its ruin.</p> + +<p>His message was old and yet new—for men had forgotten it, as they +always have from age to age. This was an age of competition, of +'supply and demand'; brotherly love had been forgotten and 'cash +payment' had taken its place. Carlyle denounced this system as "the +shabbiest gospel that had been taught among men." He urged upon +Government the fact that it was their <i>duty</i> to educate and to uplift +the masses, and upon the masters that they should look upon their +workers as something more than money-making machines. The old system +of Guilds, in which the apprentice was under the master's direct care, +had gone and nothing had been put in its place.</p> + +<p>The value of Carlyle's teaching lies in the fact that he insisted +upon the sanctity of work. "All true work is religion," he said, and +the essence of every true religion is to be found in the words, "Know +thy work and do it."</p> + +<p>The best test of the worth of every nation is to be found in their +standard of life and work and their rejection of a life of idleness. +"To make some nook of God's Creation a little fruitfuller, better, +more worthy of God; to make some human hearts, a little wiser, +manfuler, happier—more blessed, less accursed! It is work for a +God. . . . Unstained by wasteful deformities, by wasted tears or +heart's-blood of men, or any defacement of the Pit, noble, fruitful +Labour, growing ever nobler, will come forth—the grand sole Miracle +of Man, whereby Man has risen from the low places of this Earth, very +literally, into divine Heavens. Ploughers, Spinners, Builders, +Prophets, Poets, Kings: . . . all martyrs, and noble men, and gods are +of one grand Host; immeasurable; marching ever forward since the +beginnings of the World."[5]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 5: Carlyle, <i>Past and Present</i>.]</p> + +<p>Carlyle was, above all things, sincere; he looked into the heart of +things, and hated half-beliefs. Men, he said, were accustoming +themselves to say what they did not believe in their heart of hearts. +The standard of English work had become lower; it was 'cheap and +nasty,' and this in itself was a moral evil. Good must in time prevail +over Evil; the Christian religion was the strongest thing in the +world, and for this reason had conquered. He believed in wise +compassion—that is to say, he kept his sympathy for those who truly +deserved it, for the mass of struggling workers with few or none to +voice their bitter wrongs.</p> + +<p>His teachings are a moral tonic for the age, and though for a long +time they were unpopular and distasteful to the majority, yet he +lived to see much accomplished for which he had so earnestly striven.</p> + +<p>Literature was beginning to take a new form. The novel of 'polite' +society was giving place to the novel which pictured life in cruder +and harsher colours. The life of the toiling North, of the cotton +spinners and weavers was as yet unknown to most people.</p> + +<p>In 1848 appeared <i>Mary Barton</i>, a book dealing with the problems of +working life in Manchester. Mrs Gaskell, its author, who is best +known to most readers by her masterpiece <i>Cranford</i>, achieved an +instant success and became acquainted with many literary celebrities, +including Ruskin, Dickens, and Charlotte Brontë, whose Life she +wrote.</p> + +<p><i>Mary Barton</i> was written from the point of view of labour, and <i>North +and South</i>, which followed some years later, from that of capital. +Her books are exact pictures of what she saw around her during her +life in Manchester, and many incidents from her own life appear in +their pages.</p> + +<p><i>North and South</i> shows us the struggle not only between master and +men, as representing capital and labour, but also between ancient +and modern civilizations. The South is agricultural, easy-going, +idyllic; the North is stern, rude, and full of a consuming energy +and passion for work. These are the two Englands of Mrs Gaskell's +time.</p> + +<p>The ways of the manufacturing districts, which seem unpleasing to +those who do not really know them, are described with a faithful yet +kindly pen, and we see that each life has its trials and its +temptations.</p> + +<p>In the South all is not sunshine, and the life of the labourer can +be very hard—"a young person can stand it; but an old man gets racked +with rheumatism, and bent and withered before his time; yet he must +work on the same, or else go to the workhouse."</p> + +<p>In the North men are often at enmity with their masters, and fight +them by means of the strike. "State o' trade! That's just a piece +of masters' humbug. It's rate o' wages I was talking of. Th' masters +keep th' state o' trade in their own hands, and just walk it forward +like a black bug-a-boo, to frighten naughty children with into being +good. I'll tell yo' it's their part—their cue, as some folks call +it—to beat us down, to swell their fortunes; and it's ours to stand +up and fight hard—not for ourselves alone, but for them round about +us—for justice and fair play. We help to make their profits, and +we ought to help spend 'em. It's not that we want their brass so much +this time, as we've done many a time afore. We'n getten money laid +by; and we're resolved to stand and fall together; not a man on us +will go in for less wage than th' Union says is our due. So I say, +'Hooray for the strike.'"</p> + +<p>The story appeared in <i>Household Words</i>, a new magazine of which +Charles Dickens was the editor. He expressed especial admiration for +the fairness with which Mrs Gaskell had spoken of both sides. +Nicholas Higgins, whose words are quoted above, is a type of the best +Lancashire workman, who holds out for the good of the cause, even +though it might mean ruin and poverty to himself—"That's what folk +call fine and honourable in a soldier, and why not in a poor +weaver-chap?"</p> + +<p>Dickens himself wrote <i>Hard Times</i>, dealing with the same subject. +This appeared about the same time, and the two books should be read +and compared, for, although <i>Hard Times</i> is not equal in any way to +<i>North and South</i>, it is interesting. As Ruskin said of Dickens' +stories, "Allowing for the manner of telling them, the things he +tells us are always true. . . . He is entirely right in his main drift +and purpose in every book he has written; and all of them, but +especially <i>Hard Times</i>, should be studied with close and earnest +care by persons interested in social questions."</p> + +<p>During all these years the 'Chartists' had been vainly struggling +to force Parliament to proceed with reform of their grievances. In +1848 a monster Petition was to be presented to both Houses by their +leaders, but London was garrisoned by troops under the Duke of +Wellington on the fateful day, and the Chartist army broke up, never +to be reunited. Quarrels among themselves proved, in the end, fatal +to their cause.</p> + +<p>A new party, the Christian Socialists, took their place; force gave +way to union and co-operation. A new champion, Charles Kingsley, or +'Parson Lot,' stood forth as the Chartist leader.</p> + +<p>The hard winter and general distress of the year 1848 nearly provoked +another rising, and in his novel entitled <i>Yeast</i> Kingsley pictures +the 'condition of England' question as it appeared to one who knew +it from the seamy side. Especially did he blame the Church, which, +he said, offered a religion for "Jacob, the smooth man," and was not +suited for "poor Esau." This was indeed most true as regards the +agricultural classes, where the want was felt of a real religion +which should gain a hold upon a population which year by year was +fast drifting loose from all ties of morality and Christianity.</p> + +<p>The peasantry, once the mainstay of England and now trodden down and +neglected, cannot rise alone and without help from those above them. +"What right have we to keep them down? . . . What right have we to say +that they shall know no higher recreation than the hogs, because, +forsooth, if we raised them they might refuse to work—<i>for us</i>? Are +<i>we</i> to fix how far their minds may be developed? Has not God fixed +it for us, when He gave them the same passions, talents, tastes, as +our own?"</p> + +<p>The farm labourer, unlike his brothers in the North, had no spirit +left to strike. His sole enjoyment—such as it was—consisted in +recalling "'the glorious times before the war . . . when there was more +food than there were mouths, and more work than were hands.'</p> + +<p>"'I say, vather,' drawled out some one, 'they say there's a sight +more money in England now than there was afore the war-time.'</p> + +<p>"'Ees, booy,' said the old man, 'but <i>it's got into too few hands</i>.'"</p> + +<p>The system of 'sweating' among the London tailors had grown to such +an extent that Kingsley was determined, if possible, to put an end +to it, and with this purpose in view he wrote <i>Cheap Clothes and +Nasty</i>.</p> + +<p>The Government itself, he declares, does nothing to prevent +sweating; the workmen declare that "Government contract work is the +worst of all, and the starved-out and sweated-out tailor's last +resource . . . there are more clergymen among the customers than any +other class; and often we have to work at home upon the Sunday at +their clothes in order to get a living."</p> + +<p>He followed this up with <i>Alton Locke</i>, dealing especially with the +life and conditions of work of the journeymen tailors, and the +Chartist riots. Both sides receive some hard knocks, for Kingsley +was a born fighter, and his courage and fearlessness won him many +friends, even among the most violent of the Chartists.</p> + +<p>The character of Alton Locke was probably drawn from life, and was +intended to be William Lovett, at one time a leader in the Chartist +ranks. After a long fight with poverty, when he frequently went +without a meal in order to save the money necessary for his education, +he rose to a position of some influence. He was one of the first to +propose that museums and public galleries should be opened on Sundays, +for he declared that most of the intemperance and vice was owing to +the want of wholesome and rational recreation. He insisted that it +was necessary to create a moral, sober, and thinking working-class +in order to enable them to carry through the reforms for which they +were struggling. Disgust with the violent methods of many of his +associates caused him at last to withdraw from their ranks.</p> + +<p>Kingsley looked up to Carlyle as his master, to whom he owed more +than to any other man. "Of the general effect," he said, "which his +works had upon me, I shall say nothing: it was the same as they have +had, thank God, on thousands of my class and every other."</p> + +<p>When, finally, violent methods proved of no avail and the Chartist +party dissolved, the democratic movement took a fresh lease of life. +As Carlyle had already pointed out, the question of the people was +a 'knife and fork' question—that is to say, so long as taxes were +levied upon the necessities of life, the poorer classes, who could +least of all afford to pay, would become poorer.</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Peel was the first to remove this injustice, by +substituting a tax upon income for the hundred and one taxes which +had pressed so heavily upon the poor. Manufacturers were now able +to buy their raw materials at a lower price, and need no longer pay +such low wages to keep up their profits.</p> + +<p>In 1845 Peel went a step farther, and in order to relieve the famine +in Ireland, he removed the duty on corn. Thus, since corn could now +be imported free, bread became cheaper.</p> + +<p>The Corn Law Repealers had fought for years to bring this about. Their +leader and poet, Ebenezer Elliott, declared that "what they wanted +was bread in exchange for their cottons, woollens, and hardware, and +no other thing can supply the want of that one thing, any more than +water could supply the want of air in the Black Hole of Calcutta." +Bad government </p> + +<blockquote> Is the deadly will that takes<br> + What Labour ought to keep,<br> + It is the deadly power that makes<br> + Bread dear and Labour cheap.</blockquote> + +<p>It was not until there had been many riots and much bloodshed that +the Irish Famine forced Peel at last to give way.</p> + +<p>A third party of reformers were working for the same end. This was +the 'Young England' party, whose leader was Disraeli, a rising young +politician. By birth a Jew, he had joined the English Church and the +ranks of the Tory party. His early works are chiefly sketches of +social and political life and are not concerned with the 'question +of the People.' He took as his motto the words Shakespeare puts into +Ancient Pistol's mouth,</p> + +<blockquote> Why, then the world's mine oyster,<br> + Which I with sword will open,</blockquote> + +<p>thus showing at an early age that he had a firm belief in his own +powers. From the beginning of his career he never hesitated in +championing the cause of the People, and declared that "he was not +afraid or ashamed to say that he wished more sympathy had been shown +on both sides towards the Chartists."</p> + +<p>The people had begun to look upon the upper classes as their +oppressors, who were living in comfort upon the profits wrung from +their poorer brethren.</p> + +<p>Thomas Cooper in his Autobiography describes the reckless and +irreligious spirit which continued poverty was creating among the +half-starved weavers:</p> + +<p>"'Let us be patient a little longer, lads, surely God Almighty will +help us.' 'Talk no more about thy Goddle Mighty,' was the sneering +reply; 'there isn't one. If there <i>was</i> one, He wouldn't let us suffer +as we do.'"</p> + +<p>The Chartists were opposed to the Anti-Corn Law party, for they +thought that the cry of 'cheap bread' meant simply 'low wages,' and +was a trap set to catch them unawares.</p> + +<p>The Young England party believed in themselves as the leaders of a +movement which should save England through its youth. They were, +however, known in Parliament in their early days as "young gentlemen +who wore white waistcoats and wrote spoony poetry."</p> + +<p>'Young England' wished for a return of the feudal relations between +the nobility and their vassals; the nobles and the Church, as in olden +days, were to stretch out a helping hand to the poor, to feed the +hungry, and succour the distressed. National customs were to be +revived, commerce and art were to be fostered by wealthy patrons. +The Crown was once more to be in touch with the people. "If Royalty +did but condescend to lower itself to a familiarity with the people, +it is curious that they will raise, exalt, and adore it, sometimes +even invest it with divine and mysterious attributes. If, on the +contrary, it shuts itself up in an august seclusion, it will be mocked +and caricatured . . . if the great only knew what stress the poor lay +by the few forms that remain, to join them they would make many +sacrifices for their maintenance and preservation."[6]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 6: George Smythe, Viscount Strangford, <i>Historic +Fancies</i>.]</p> + +<p>It was to lay the views of his party and himself before the public +that Disraeli published the three novels, <i>Coningsby</i>, <i>Sybil</i>, and +<i>Tancred</i>. <i>Coningsby</i> deals with the political parties of that time, +and is full of thinly-disguised portraits of people then living; +<i>Sybil</i>, from which a quotation is given elsewhere, is a study of +life among the working-classes; <i>Tancred</i> discusses what part the +Church should take in the government of the people.</p> + +<p>Though the life of the 'Young England' party was short, it succeeded +by means of agitation in and out of Parliament in calling public +attention to the harshness of the New Poor Law and the need for social +reform.</p> + +<p>Carlyle was again the writer who influenced the young Disraeli, for +the latter saw that to accomplish anything of real value he must form +his own party and break loose from the worn-out beliefs and +prejudices of both political parties. Though in later days he will +be remembered as a statesman rather than as a novelist, it is +necessary to study those three books in order to understand what +England and the English were in Victoria's early years.</p> + +<p>Each of these Reform parties had rendered signal service in their +own fashion: Church, Government, and People were no longer disunited, +distinctions of class had been broken down, and with their +disappearance Chartism came to an end. The failure of the "physical +force" Chartists in 1848 had served to enforce the lesson taught by +Carlyle and Kingsley, that the way to gain reform was not through +deeds of violence and bloodshed. Each man must learn to fit himself +for his part in the great movement toward Reform. Intelligence, not +force, must be their weapon.</p> + +<p>After years of bitter strife between the Two Nations, England a last +enjoyed peace within her own borders—that peace which a patriot poet, +Ernest Jones, during a time of bitter trial had so earnestly prayed +for:</p> + +<blockquote>God of battles, give us peace!<br> + Rich with honour's proud increase;<br> + Peace that frees the fettered brave;<br> + Peace that scorns to make a slave;<br> + Peace that spurns a tyrant's hand;<br> + Peace that lifts each fallen land;<br> + Peace of peoples, not of kings;<br> + Peace that conquering freedom brings;<br> + Peace that bids oppression cease;<br> + God of battles, give us peace!</blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><i>Appendix to CHAPTER VI</i></h3> +<br> +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" summary="event summary of Chapter 6"> +<tr> + <td width="10%" align="right" valign="top">1838.</td> + <td valign="top"><p>The Chartist Movement. The Chartists demanded (1) Annual + Parliaments; (2) Manhood Suffrage; (3) Vote by ballot; (4) Equal + electoral districts; (5) Abolition of the property qualification for + members of Parliament; (6) Payment for members of Parliament. The + Reform Act of 1832 had brought the middle classes into power, and + the working classes were now striving to better their own condition.</p> + + <p>The Anti-Corn Law League, formed in this year, was largely a + middle-class agitation supported by merchants and manufacturers. + The great northern towns had been enfranchised by the Reform Bill, + and sent as leaders of the movement Richard Cobden and John Bright. + Both parties in Parliament were opposed to a total abolition of the + Corn Laws.</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1842.</td> + <td valign="top">A motion for Free Trade defeated in Parliament by a large + majority.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1843.</td> + <td valign="top">Agitation in Ireland for the Repeal of the Union. Daniel + O'Connell, the leader, arrested. He was found guilty of conspiracy, + but his sentence was afterward revoked by the House of Lords.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1845.</td> + <td valign="top">Failure of the potato crop in Ireland.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1845.</td> + <td valign="top">Failure of the potato crop in Ireland.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1846.</td> + <td valign="top">Repeal of the Corn Laws, in order to open the ports free to + food stuffs. Free Trade established and the prices of food begin to + fall.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1848.</td> + <td valign="top"><p>The year of Revolution. France proclaims a Republic with Prince + Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I, as its President. Risings in + Austria and Italy.</p> + + <p>Renewal of the Chartist agitation. The meeting in London to present + a Petition to Parliament proves a failure.</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1853-56.</td> + <td valign="top"><p>Years of prosperity owing to Free Trade and growth of + intelligence among the working classes prove the chief causes of the + death of Chartism. The workers now begin to aim at reforms through + their Trades Unions. The Co-operative Movement set on foot in + Rochdale in 1844 leads to the formation of many other branches.</p> + + <p>Between the years 1851 and 1865 national imports nearly treble, and + exports more than double, themselves.</p></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><big>T</big>HOMAS <big>C</big>ARLYLE (1795-1881). His writings more than those of any other +man give us a key to the meaning of the early Victorian Age. 1839. +<i>Chartism</i>. 1841. <i>Heroes and Hero Worship</i>. 1843. <i>Past and +Present</i>. 1850. <i>Latter-Day Pamphlets</i>.</p> + +<p><big>C</big>HARLES <big>D</big>ICKENS (1812-70). 1836. <i>Pickwick Papers</i>. 1838. <i>Oliver +Twist</i> (the evils of the Workhouse). 1850. <i>David Copperfield</i> +(contains sketches of Dickens' early life). 1853. <i>Hard Times</i>. 1857. +<i>Little Dorrit</i> (the Marshalsea prison for debtors).</p> + +<p><big>D</big>ISRAELI, <big>L</big>ORD <big>B</big>EACONSFIELD (1804-81). 1844. <i>Coningsby</i> (political +life and the 'Young England' policy). 1845. <i>Sybil</i> (the claims of +the people). 1847. <i>Tancred</i> (the Church and the State).</p> + +<p><big>E</big>BENEZER <big>E</big>LLIOTT (1781-1849). 1828. <i>Corn Law Rhymes</i> (the poet of +the workers and of sorrow).</p> + +<p><big>E</big>LIZABETH <big>C</big>LEGHORN <big>G</big>ASKELL (1810-65). 1848. <i>Mary Barton</i> +(Industrial Lancashire during the crisis of 1842). 1855. <i>North and +South</i> (the struggle between Master and Man).</p> + +<p><big>C</big>HARLES <big>K</big>INGSLEY[7] (1819-75). 1848. <i>Yeast</i> (the hard lives of the +agricultural labourers). 1850. <i>Alton Locke</i> (life and labour of the +city poor).</p> + +<p>[Footnote 7: The Prince Consort was a great admirer of the works of +Charles Kingsley, which, he said, in speaking of <i>Two Years Ago</i>, +showed "profound knowledge of human nature, and insight into the +relations between man, his actions, his destiny, and God." The Queen +was also one of his admirers, and in 1859 she appointed him one of +her chaplains. Later on he delivered a series of lectures on history +to the Prince of Wales.]</p> + +<p><big>C</big>HARLES <big>R</big>EADE (1814-84). 1856. <i>It is Never too Late to Mend</i> (life +in an English prison). 1863. <i>Hard Cash</i> (an exposure of bad +administration of lunatic asylums).</p> + +<p><big>J</big>OHN <big>R</big>USKIN (1819-1900). 1859. <i>The Two Paths</i>. 1862. <i>Unto this +Last</i>. 1871. <i>Fors Clavigera</i>. (In the last-named book Ruskin +describes the scheme of his St George's Guild, an attempt to restore +happiness to England by allying art and science with commercial +industry.)</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap7">CHAPTER VII: <i>The Children of England</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>"From the folding of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, +abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. . . . They were a boy and a girl. +Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in +their humility. . . . 'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down +upon them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This +boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of +their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see +that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.'"[8]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 8: Charles Dickens, <i>A Christmas Carol</i>.]</p> + +<p>In surveying the long reign of Queen Victoria nothing strikes one +more than the gradual growth of interest in children, and the many +changes in the nation's ideas of their upbringing and education. At +the beginning of her reign the little children of the poor were for +the most part slaves, and were often punished more cruelly by their +taskmasters than the slaves one reads of in <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>.</p> + +<p>When Disraeli, afterward Lord Beaconsfield and Prime Minister, wrote +<i>Sybil</i>, he drew, in that book, a terrible picture of the life of +children in the manufacturing districts and in the country villages. +The following extract speaks for itself:</p> + +<p>"There are many in this town who are ignorant of their very names; +very few who can spell them. It is rare that you meet with a young +person who knows his own age; rarer to find the boy who has seen a +book, or the girl who has seen a flower. Ask them the name of their +sovereign and they will laugh; who rules them on earth or who can +save them in heaven are alike mysteries to them."</p> + +<p>In such a town as Disraeli describes there were no schools of any +kind, and the masters treated their apprentices "as the Mamelouks +treated the Egyptians." The author declares that "there is more +serfdom now in England than at any time since the Conquest. . . . The +people were better clothed, better fed, and better lodged just before +the Wars of the Roses than they are at this moment. The average term +of life among the working classes is seventeen."</p> + +<p>One of the first results of machinery taking the place of human labour +was that an enormous number of women and young children of both sexes +were employed in the factories in place of grown men, who were no +longer needed. Especially in the spinning mills thousands of men were +thrown out of work, and lower wages were paid to those who took their +place. This led directly to the breaking up of the home and home-life. +The wives were often obliged to spend twelve to thirteen hours a day +in the mills; the very young children, left to themselves, grew up +like wild weeds and were often put out to nurse at a shilling or +eighteenpence a day.</p> + +<p>One reads of tired children driven to their work with blows; of +children who, "too tired to go home, hide away in the wool in the +drying-room to sleep there, and could only be driven out of the +factory with straps; how many hundreds came home so tired every night +that they could eat no supper for sleepiness and want of appetite, +that their parents found them kneeling by the bedside where they had +fallen asleep during their prayers."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of the greatest poets of Victoria's +reign, pleads for mercy and human kindness in her "Cry of the +Children."</p> + +<blockquote>Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,<br> + Ere the sorrow comes with years?<br> + They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,<br> + And <i>that</i> cannot stop their tears.<br> + The young lambs are bleating in the meadows,<br> + The young birds are chirping in the nest,<br> + The young fawns are playing with the shadows,<br> + The young flowers are blowing toward the west—<br> + But the young, young children, O my brothers,<br> + They are weeping bitterly!<br> + They are weeping in the playtime of the others,<br> + In the country of the free.<br> +<br> + "For oh," say the children, "we are weary,<br> + And we cannot run or leap;<br> + If we cared for any meadows, it were merely<br> + To drop down in them and sleep.<br> + Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping,<br> + We fall upon our faces, trying to go;<br> + And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping<br> + The reddest flower would look as pale as snow;<br> + For, all day, we drag our burden tiring<br> + Through the coal-dark underground—<br> + Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron<br> + In the factories, round and round."</blockquote> + +<p>In the country the state of affairs was no better. New systems of +industrial production threw large numbers of farm hands out of work, +the rate of wages fell, and machinery, steam, and the work of women +and children took the place of the labourer.</p> + +<p>The children found a champion in Lord Ashley, afterward Lord +Shaftesbury, who succeeded in the face of much opposition in his +efforts to pass laws which should do away with such shameful wrong +and injustice.</p> + +<p>The increased amount of coal used (15½ million tons at the +beginning of the century, 64½ million tons in 1854) naturally led +to the demand for more workers, and it was owing to this that the +proposals of Lord Shaftesbury met with such opposition from the +mine-owners, who feared that if child labour were made illegal they +would not have sufficient 'hands' to work the mines and that they +would have to pay higher wages.</p> + +<p>The Act of 1842 forbade altogether the employment of women and girls +in the mines, and allowed only boys of the age of ten or more to do +such work. The Poor Law Guardians of the time used to send children +into the mines at the age of seven as a means of finding employment +for them. The hours of work were limited to ten daily and fifty-eight +each week.</p> + +<p>Little or no attempt was made in the Bill to give children the means +of obtaining a good education, although considerably more than half +the children in the country never went to school at all, and many +large towns were without a proper school.</p> + +<p>By a previous Factory Act of 1834 all children under fourteen years +of age were compelled to attend school for two hours daily. The +employer was allowed to deduct one penny a week from the child's wages +to pay the teacher. This proved absolutely useless, as the masters +employed worn-out workers as teachers, and in consequence the +children learnt nothing at all.</p> + +<p>It was not until the year 1870 that a Bill was passed in Parliament +to create an adequate number of public elementary schools for every +district in the kingdom. To show the increase in the number of schools +built, there were in the year 1854, 3825, and in the year 1885, +21,976.</p> + +<p>But the children of England owe almost as much to Charles Dickens +as they do to Lord Shaftesbury. He was almost the first, and certainly +the greatest, writer who, with a heart overflowing with sympathy for +little children, has left us in his books a gallery of portraits which +no one can ever forget.</p> + +<p>He himself, "a very small and not over-particularly-taken-care-of +boy," passed through a time of bitter poverty, and his stay at school, +short as it was, was not a period of his life upon which he looked +back with any pleasure.</p> + +<p>The material for his books was drawn from life—from his own and from +the lives of those around him—and for this reason all that he wrote +will always be of great value, as it gives us a good idea of the Early +and Mid Victorian days.</p> + +<p>His ambition was to strike a blow for the poor, "to leave one's hand +upon the time, lastingly upon the time, with one tender touch for +the mass of toiling people."</p> + +<p>Who can ever forget in the <i>Christmas Carol</i> the crippled Tiny Tim, +"who behaved as good as gold and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, +sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever +heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in +the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to +them to remember upon Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk, and +blind men see."</p> + +<p>Other pictures of suffering childhood are 'Little Nell' and 'The +Marchioness' in <i>The Old Curiosity Shop</i>, 'Jo' and 'Charley' in +<i>Bleak House</i>, and 'Smike,' the victim of the inhuman schoolmaster +'Squeers.'</p> + +<p>The cruelty of the times is shown in the case of an unfortunate +sempstress who tried to earn a living by making shirts for +three-halfpence each. Once, when she had been robbed of her earnings, +she tried to drown herself. The inhuman magistrate before whom she +was brought told her that she had "no hope of mercy in this world."</p> + +<p>It was after hearing of this from Charles Dickens that Thomas Hood +wrote the well-known "Song of the Shirt":</p> + +<blockquote> Work—work—work!<br> + From weary chime to chime,<br> + Work—work—work<br> + As prisoners work for crime!<br> + Band, and gusset, and seam,<br> + Seam, and gusset, and band,<br> + Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumbed,<br> + As well as the weary hand.</blockquote> + +<p>The age might well take to heart the lesson taught by the great-souled +writer—that the two chief enemies of the times were Ignorance and +Want.</p> + +<p>The lot of the unfortunate children in the Union Workhouses was no +better. They were treated rather worse than animals, with no sympathy +or kindness, owing to the ignorance of those who were set in authority +over them. Any one who reads <i>Oliver Twist</i> may learn the nature of +the life led by the 'pauper' children in those 'good old days.'</p> + +<p>"The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men; +and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they +found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have +discovered—the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of +public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there +was nothing to pay; a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all +the year round; a brick and mortar elysium, where it was all play +and no work. 'Oho!' said the board, looking very knowing, 'we are +the fellows to set this to rights; we'll stop it all, in no time.' +So, they established the rule, that all poor people should have the +alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they) of being starved +by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With +this view, they contracted with the waterworks to lay on an unlimited +supply of water; and with a corn-factor to supply periodically small +quantities of oatmeal; and issued three meals of thin gruel a day, +with an onion twice a week, and half a roll on Sundays. . . . Relief +was inseparable from the workhouse and the gruel; and that frightened +people."</p> + +<p>A movement which helped, possibly far more than any other, to better +the lot of the children of the Poor commenced with the foundation +of the Ragged School Union, of which the Queen became the patroness.</p> + +<p>Out of this sprang a small army of agencies for well-doing. +Commencing only with evening schools, which soon proved insufficient, +the founders established day schools, with classes for exercise and +industrial training: children were sent to our colonies where they +would have a better chance of making a fair start in life; training +ships, cripples' homes, penny banks, holiday homes followed, and +from these again the numerous Homes and Orphanages which entitle us +to call the Victorian Age the Age of Kindness to Children.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens took the keenest interest in the work of the Ragged +Schools. A letter from Lord Shaftesbury quoted in his Life gives a +clear idea of the marvellous work they had accomplished up to the +year 1871:</p> + +<p>"After a period of 27 years, from a single school of five small +infants, the work has grown into a cluster of some 300 schools, an +aggregate of nearly 30,000 children, and a body of 3000 voluntary +teachers, most of them the sons and daughters of toil. . . . Of more +than 300,000 children, which, on the most moderate calculation, we +have a right to conclude have passed through these schools since +their commencement, I venture to affirm that more than 100,000 of +both sexes have been placed out in various ways—in emigration, in +the marine, in trades and in domestic service. For many consecutive +years I have contributed prizes to thousands of the scholars; and +let no one omit to call to mind what these children were, whence they +came, and whither they were going without this merciful intervention. +They would have been added to the perilous swarm of the wild, the +lawless, the wretched, and the ignorant, instead of being, as by +God's blessing they are, decent and comfortable, earning an honest +livelihood, and adorning the community to which they belong."</p> + +<p>Dickens believed, first of all, in teaching children cleanliness and +decency before attempting anything in the form of education. "Give +him, and his," he said, "a glimpse of heaven through a little of its +light and air; give them water; help them to be clean; lighten the +heavy atmosphere in which their spirits flag and which makes them +the callous things they are . . . and then, but not before, they will +be brought willingly to hear of Him whose thoughts were so much with +the wretched, and who had compassion for all human sorrow."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap8">CHAPTER VIII: <i>Ministering Women</i></a></h3></div> +<blockquote><small>Honour to those whose words or deeds<br> +Thus help us in our daily needs;<br> + And by their overflow<br> + Raise us from what is low!<br> + + LONGFELLOW</small></blockquote> +<br> +<p>No account of the reign of Queen Victoria would be complete without +some reference to the achievements of women, more especially when +their work has had for its chief end and aim the alleviation of +suffering. Woman has taken a leading part in the campaign which has +been and is now being ceaselessly carried on against the forces of +sin, ignorance, and want.</p> + +<p>In the early years of Victoria's reign the art of sick-nursing was +scarcely known at all. The worst type of nurse is vividly pictured +for us by Charles Dickens in <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>:</p> + +<p>"She was a fat old woman, this Mrs Gamp, with a husky voice and a +moist eye, which she had a remarkable power of turning up, and only +showing the white of it. Having very little neck, it cost her some +trouble to look over herself, if one may say so, at those to whom +she talked. She wore a very rusty black gown, rather the worse for +snuff, and a shawl and bonnet to correspond. In these dilapidated +articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out +of mind on such occasions as the present; . . . The face of Mrs Gamp—the +nose in particular—was somewhat red and swollen, and it was +difficult to enjoy her society without becoming conscious of a smell +of spirits."</p> + +<p>For a long time, though it had been recognized that the care of the +sick was woman's work, no special training was required from those +undertaking it. Florence Nightingale did away with all such wrong +ideas. In a letter on the subject of training she wrote: "I would +say also to all young ladies who are called to any particular vocation, +qualify yourselves for it, as a man does for his work. Don't think +you can undertake it otherwise. . . . If you are called to man's work, +do not exact a woman's privileges—the privilege of inaccuracy, +of weakness, ye muddle-heads. Submit yourselves to the rules of +business, as men do, by which alone you can make God's business +succeed; for He has never said that He will give His success and His +blessing to inefficiency, to sketchy and unfinished work."</p> + +<p>She prepared herself for her life's work by years of hard study and +ten years' training, visiting all the best institutions in Germany, +France, and Italy. She gave up a life of ease and comfort in order +to develop her natural gift to the utmost.</p> + +<p>Her opportunity was not long in coming. In 1854 the Crimean War broke +out. Most of the generals in the English army were old men whose +experience of actual warfare dated back to the early days of the +century. Everything was hopelessly mismanaged from the beginning. +In August the English and French allied forces moved against the +fortress of Sebastopol, from which Russia was threatening an attack +on Constantinople. Troops were landed in a hostile country without +the means of moving them away again; there was little or no provision +made to transport food, baggage, or medical stores.</p> + +<p>After the victory of Alma Lord Raglan marched on to Balaclava, and +here the transport utterly broke down. The soldiers, in addition to +undertaking hard fighting, were forced to turn themselves into +pack-mules and tramp fourteen miles through the mud in the depth of +winter in order to obtain food and warm blankets for their comrades +and themselves. Their condition rapidly became terrible. Their +clothing wore to rags, their boots—mostly of poor quality—gave out +entirely. Their food—such as it was—consisted of biscuit, salt +beef or pork, and rum.</p> + +<p>No vegetables could be obtained, and for want of green food scurvy +broke out among the troops. Stores were left decaying in the holds +of transports, and the doctors were forced to see men dying before +their eyes without the means of helping them. The loss of life from +the actual fighting was considerable, but more particularly so from +the insanitary condition of the camp and the wretched hospital +arrangements.</p> + +<p>The actual figures of our losses in the war speak for themselves. +Out of a total loss of 20,656, only 2598 fell in battle; 18,058 died +from other causes in hospital. Several regiments lost nearly all +their men, and during the first seven months of the siege men died +so fast that in a year and a half no army would have been left at +all.</p> + +<p>William Russell, the special correspondent of <i>The Times</i>, first +brought this appalling state of affairs to the notice of the public, +and the nation at last woke up. A universal outburst of indignation +forced ministers to act, and to act quickly.</p> + +<p>Stores were hurried to the front; fresh troops were sent out to +relieve the almost exhausted remnants of the army, and on the 21st +October Florence Nightingale, with a band of nurses, set sail; she +arrived on the very eve of the Battle of Inkerman.</p> + +<p>Within a few months of her arrival it is estimated that she had no +fewer than ten thousand sick men in her charge, and the rows of beds +in one hospital alone measured two and one-third miles in length.</p> + +<p>Her influence over the rough soldiers was extraordinary; one of them +said of her: "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."</p> + +<p>Out of chaos she made order, and there were no more complaints of +waste and inefficiency. She never quitted her post until the war was +at an end, and on her return to England she received a national +welcome. She was received by the Queen and presented with a jewel +in commemoration of her work, and no less than fifty thousand pounds +was subscribed by the nation, a sum which was presented by Miss +Nightingale to the hospitals to defray the expenses of training +nurses.</p> +<a name="illus8"></a> +<div align="center">[Illustration: Florence Nightingale]</div> + +<p>Since this time no war between civilized peoples has taken place +without trained nurses being found in the ranks of both armies, and +at the Convention of Geneva, some years later, it was agreed that +in time of war all ambulances, military hospitals, etc., should be +regarded as neutral, and that doctors and nurses should be considered +as non-combatants. Nursing rapidly became a profession, and from the +military it spread to the civil hospitals, which were used as +training schools for all who took up the work.</p> + +<p>Florence Nightingale's advice was sought by the Government and +freely given upon every matter which affected the health of the +people, and it is entirely owing to her influence and example that +speedy reforms were carried out, especially in the army.</p> + +<p>Her noble work was celebrated by Longfellow, in his poem "Santa +Filomena," often better known as "The Lady with the Lamp":</p> + +<blockquote>Thus thought I, as by night I read<br> + Of the great army of the dead,<br> + The trenches cold and damp,<br> + The starved and frozen camp,<br> +<br> + The wounded from the battle-plain,<br> + In dreary hospitals of pain,<br> + The cheerless corridors,<br> + The cold and stony floors.<br> +<br> + Lo! in that house of misery<br> + A lady with a lamp I see<br> + Pass through the glimmering gloom,<br> + And flit from room to room.<br> +<br> + And slow, as in a dream of bliss,<br> + The speechless sufferer turns to kiss<br> + Her shadow, as it falls<br> + Upon the darkening walls.</blockquote> + +<p>The Queen followed the course of the war with painful interest. "This +is a terrible season of mourning and sorrow," she wrote; "how many +mothers, wives, sisters, and children are bereaved at this moment. +Alas! It is that awful accompaniment of war, disease, which is +so much more to be dreaded than the fighting itself." And again, after +a visit to Chatham: "Four hundred and fifty of my dear, brave, noble +heroes I saw, and, thank God, upon the whole, all in a very +satisfactory state of recovery. Such patience and resignation, +courage, and anxiety to return to their service. Such fine men!"</p> + +<p>Many acts had been passed in previous reigns to improve the +disgraceful state of the prisons in this country, but it was left +to a band of workers, mostly Quakers, led by Elizabeth Fry, to bring +about any real improvement. Any one who wishes to read what dens of +filth and hotbeds of infection prisons were at this time need only +read the account of the Fleet prison in the <i>Pickwick Papers</i> and +of the Marshalsea in <i>Little Dorrit</i>.</p> + +<p>Reform proved at first to be a very slow and difficult matter. New +laws passed in 1823 and 1824 insisted upon cleanliness and regular +labour for all prisoners; chaplains and matrons for female prisoners +were appointed. The public, however, got the idea—as in the case of +workhouses—that things were being made too comfortable for the +inmates, and the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline +was bitterly attacked.</p> + +<p>Mrs Fry had started work in Newgate Prison, then justly considered +to be the worst of all the bad prisons in the country. The condition +of the women and children was too dreadful to describe, and she felt +that the only way to introduce law and decency into this 'hell upon +earth' was by influencing the children.</p> + +<p>She founded a school in the prison, and it was not long before there +was a marked improvement in the appearance and behaviour of both the +children and the women.</p> + +<p>The success of her work attracted public attention, and a Committee +of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the condition +of the London prisons. Mrs Fry was called upon to give evidence, and +she recommended several improvements, <i>e.g.</i> that prisoners should +be given some useful work to do, that rewards should be given for +good behaviour, and that female warders should be appointed.</p> + +<p>She visited other countries in order to study foreign prison systems, +and her work in the prisons led her to consider what could be done +to improve the condition of the unfortunate women who were +transported as convicts. She succeeded in improving matters so much +that female warders were provided on board ship, and proper +accommodation and care on their arrival at their destination.</p> + +<p>Even such a tender-hearted man and friend of the poor as Thomas Hood, +author of "Song of the Shirt," misunderstood Mrs Fry's aims, for in +a poem called "A Friendly Address to Mrs Fry," he wrote:</p> + +<blockquote>No—I will be your friend—and, like a friend,<br> + Point out your very worst defect—Nay, never<br> + Start at that word! But I <i>must</i> ask you why<br> + You keep your school <i>in</i> Newgate, Mrs Fry?<br> +<br> + Your classes may increase, but I must grieve<br> + Over your pupils at their bread and waters!<br> + Oh, though it cost you rent—(and rooms run high)—<br> + Keep your school <i>out</i> of Newgate, Mrs Fry!</blockquote> + +<p>In the face of domestic sorrows and misfortunes, Mrs Fry persevered +until the day of her death in 1845 in working for the good of others.</p> + +<p>The work in this direction was continued by Mary Carpenter, whose +father was the headmaster of a Bristol school. She began her life's +work after a severe outbreak of cholera in Bristol in 1832. At this +time there were practically no reformatory or industrial schools in +the country, and Mary Carpenter set to work with some friends to found +an institution near Bristol. She worked to save children—especially +those whose lives were spent in the midst of sin and wickedness—from +becoming criminals, and in order to bring this about she aimed at +making their surroundings as homelike and cheerful as possible.</p> + +<p>She even helped to teach the children herself, as she found great +difficulty in finding good assistants. She wished to convince the +Government that her methods were right, and so persuade them to set +up schools of a similar kind throughout the country.</p> + +<p>The great Lord Shaftesbury was her chief supporter, but it was not +until the year 1854 that Mary Carpenter succeeded in her desire, when +a Bill was passed establishing reformatory schools. From this time +her influence rapidly increased, and it is mainly owing to her +efforts that at the present day such precautions are taken to reform +young criminals on the sound principle of "prevention is better than +cure."</p> + +<p>Mary Carpenter also visited India no fewer than four times in order +to arouse public opinion there to the need for the better education +of women, and at a later date she went to America, where she had many +warm friends and admirers. She had, as was only natural, been keenly +interested in the abolition of negro slavery.</p> + +<p>One of the most distinguished women in literature during the +Victorian Age was Harriet Martineau. At an early age it was evident +that she was gifted beyond the ordinary, and at seven years old she +had read Milton's "Paradise Lost" and learnt long portions of it by +heart.</p> + +<p>Her health was extremely poor; she suffered as a child from imaginary +terrors which she describes in her Autobiography, and she gradually +became deaf. She bore this affliction with the greatest courage and +cheerfulness, but misfortunes followed one another in rapid +succession. Her elder brother died of consumption, her father lost +large sums of money in business, and the grief and anxiety so preyed +upon his mind that he died, leaving his family very badly off.</p> + +<p>This, and the loss later on of the little money they had left, only +served to strengthen Miss Martineau's purpose. She studied and wrote +until late in the night, and after her first success in literature, +when she won all three prizes offered by the Unitarian body for an +essay, she set to work on a series of stories which were to illustrate +such subjects as the effect of machinery upon wages, free trade, etc.</p> + +<p>After the manuscript had been refused by numerous publishers, she +succeeded in getting it accepted, and the book proved an +extraordinary success.</p> + +<p>She moved to London, and her house soon became the centre where the +best of literature and politics could always be discussed. She was +consulted even by Cabinet Ministers, but in spite of all the praise +and adulation she remained quite unspoiled.</p> + +<p>The idea of women taking part in public movements was still not +altogether pleasing to the majority of people, who were apt to look +upon 'learned' women as 'Blue-stockings,' a name first used in +England in the previous century in rather a contemptuous way.</p> + +<blockquote>Come, let us touch the string,<br> + And try a song to sing,<br> + Though this is somewhat difficult at starting, O!<br> + And in our case more than ever,<br> + When a desperate endeavour,<br> + Is made to sing the praise of Harry Martineau!<br> +<br> + Of bacon, eggs, and butter,<br> + Rare philosophy she'll utter;<br> + Not a thing about your house but she'll take part in, O!<br> + As to mine, with all my soul,<br> + She might take (and pay) the whole—<br> + But that is all my eye and Harry Martineau!<br> +<br> + Her political economy<br> + Is as true as Deuteronomy;<br> + And the monster of Distress she sticks a dart in, O!<br> + Yet still he stalks about,<br> + And makes a mighty rout,<br> + But that we hope's my eye and Harry Martineau!</blockquote> + +<p>In 1835 she visited the United States, and here she was able to study +the question of slavery. She joined the body of the 'Abolitionists,' +and as a result was attacked from all sides with the utmost fury, +for the Northern States stood solid against abolition. But she +remained unmoved in her opinion, and when in 1862 the great Civil +War broke out, her writings were the means of educating public +opinion. It was largely due to her that this country did not foolishly +support the secession of the Southern States from the Union.</p> + +<p>During a period of five years she was a complete invalid, and some +of her best books, including her well-known stories for children, +<i>Feats on the Fiord</i> and <i>The Crofton Boys</i>, were written in that +time.</p> + +<p>After her recovery her life was busier than ever. She wrote articles +for the daily papers, but her chief pleasure lay in devising schemes +for improving the lot of her poorer neighbours. She organized evening +lectures for the people, and founded a Mechanics' Institute and a +building society.</p> + +<p>During her life-time she was the acknowledged leader on all moral +questions, especially those which affected the lives of women.</p> + +<p>"It has always been esteemed our special function as women," she said, +"to mount guard over society and social life—the spring of national +existence."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap9">CHAPTER IX: <i>Balmoral</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>It was in Balmoral Castle that the husband and wife most loved to +be with their children. Here they could lead a simple life free from +all restraints, "small house, small rooms, small establishment. . . . +There are no soldiers, and the whole guard of the Sovereign consists +of a single policeman, who walks about the grounds to keep off +impertinent intruders and improper characters. . . . The Prince shoots +every morning, returns to luncheon, and then they walk or drive. The +Queen is running in and out of the house all day long, and often goes +about alone, walks into the cottages, and chats with the old women."</p> + +<p>The Queen loved her life here even more than the Prince, and every +year she yearned for it more and more. "It is not alone the pure air, +the quiet and beautiful scenery, which makes it so delightful," she +wrote; "it is the atmosphere of loving affection, and the hearty +attachment of the people around Balmoral which warms the heart and +does one good."</p> + +<p>It was during the year 1848 that the royal couple paid their first +visit to Balmoral. The Queen had long wished to possess a home of +her own in the Highlands where her husband could indulge in some +outdoor sport, and where they both could enjoy a brief rest, from +time to time, from the anxiety and care of State affairs.</p> + +<p>Their life there during the years 1848-61 is described by the Queen +in her diary, <i>Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands</i>. +It was first published after the Prince's death and was dedicated +to him in the words: "To the dear memory of him who made the life +of the writer bright and happy, these simple records are lovingly +and gratefully inscribed."</p> + +<p>The first impressions were very favourable: "It is a pretty little +castle in the old Scottish style. There is a picturesque tower and +garden in front, with a high wooded hill; at the back there is wood +down to the Dee; and the hills rise all around."</p> + +<p>Their household was, naturally, a small one, consisting of the +Queen's Maid of Honour, the Prince's valet, a cook, a footman, and +two maids. Among the outdoor attendants was John Brown, who in 1858 +was attached to the Queen as one of her regular attendants everywhere +in the Highlands, and remained in her service until his death. "He +has all the independence and elevated feelings peculiar to the +Highland race, and is singularly straightforward, simple-minded, +kind-hearted and disinterested; always ready to oblige; and of a +discretion rarely to be met with."</p> + +<p>The old castle soon proved to be too small for the family, and in +September 1853 the foundation-stone of a new house was laid. After +the ceremony the workmen were entertained at dinner, which was +followed by Highland games and dancing in the ballroom.</p> + +<p>Two years later they entered the new castle, which the Queen +described as "charming; the rooms delightful; the furniture, papers, +everything perfection."</p> + +<p>The Prince was untiring in planning improvements, and in 1856 the +Queen wrote: "Every year my heart becomes more fixed in this dear +Paradise, and so much more so now, that <i>all</i> has become my dearest +Albert's <i>own</i> creation, own work, own building, own laying out as +at Osborne; and his great taste, and the impress of his dear hand, +have been stamped everywhere. He was very busy today, settling and +arranging many things for next year."</p> + +<p>Visits to the cottages of the old people on the estate and in the +neighbourhood were a constant source of delight and pleasure to the +Queen, and often when the Prince was away for the day shooting, she +would pay a round of calls, taking with her little presents. The old +ladies especially loved a talk with their Queen. "The affection of +these good people, who are so hearty and so happy to see you, taking +interest in everything, is very touching and gratifying," she +remarked upon them. "We were always in the habit of conversing with +the Highlanders—with whom one comes so much in contact in the +Highlands. The Prince highly appreciated the good breeding, +simplicity, and intelligence, which make it so pleasant, and even +instructive to talk to them."</p> + +<p>In September 1855, soon after moving into the new castle, the news +arrived of the fall of Sebastopol, and this was taken as an omen of +good luck. The Prince and his suite sallied forth, followed by all +the population, to the cairn above Balmoral, and here, amid general +cheering, a large bonfire was lit. The pipes played wildly, the +people danced and shouted, guns and squibs were fired off, and it +was not until close upon midnight that the festivities came to an +end.</p> + +<p>During the same month the Princess Royal became engaged to Prince +Frederick William of Prussia, who was then visiting Balmoral. Acting +on the Queen's advice, Prince Frederick did not postpone his good +fortune until a later date, as he had at first intended, but during +a ride up Craig-na-Ban, he picked a piece of white heather (the emblem +of 'good luck') and offered it to the young Princess, and this gave +him an opportunity of declaring his love.</p> + +<p>These extracts, printed from the Queen's Journals, were intended at +first for presentation only to members of the Royal Family and Her +Majesty's intimate friends, especially to those who had accompanied +her during her tours. It was, however, suggested to the Queen that +her people would take even as keen an interest in these simple records +of family life, especially as they had already shown sincere and +ready sympathy with her personal joys and sorrows.</p> + +<p>"The book," its editor says, "is mainly confined to the natural +expressions of a mind rejoicing in the beauties of nature, and +throwing itself, with a delight rendered keener by the rarity of its +opportunities, into the enjoyment of a life removed, for the moment, +from the pressure of public cares."</p> + +<p>It is of particular interest because here the Queen records from day +to day her thoughts and her impressions in the simplest language; +here she can be seen less as a queen than as a wife and mother. Her +interest in her whole household and in all those immediately around +her is evident on almost every page. To quote again: "She is, indeed, +the Mother of her People, taking the deepest interest in all that +concerns them, without respect of persons, from the highest to the +lowest."</p> + +<p>As a picture of the Royal Court in those days this is exceedingly +valuable, for it shows what an example the Queen and her husband were +setting to the whole nation in the simple life they led in their +Highland home.</p> + +<p>That the old people especially loved her can be seen from the +greetings and blessings she received in the cottages she used to +visit. "May the Lord attend ye with mirth and with joy; may He ever +be with ye in this world, and when ye leave it."</p> + +<a name="illus9"></a> +<center><img width="50%" src="images/victoriahighlands.jpg" alt="Victoria in Highlands"></center> +<center><p>Queen Victoria in the Highlands<br> +<small>G. Amato</small></p></center> + +<p>The Queen was never weary of the beauties of the Highlands, and quotes +the following lines from a poem by Arthur Hugh Clough to describe +'God's glorious works':</p> + +<blockquote> + + The gorgeous bright October,<br> + Then when brackens are changed, and heather blooms are faded,<br> + And amid russet of heather and fern, green trees are bonnie;<br> + Alders are green, and oaks; the rowan scarlet and yellow;<br> + One great glory of broad gold pieces appears the aspen,<br> + And the jewels of gold that were hung in the hair of the birch tree;<br> + Pendulous, here and there, her coronet, necklace, and earrings,<br> + Cover her now, o'er and o'er; she is weary and scatters them from her.</blockquote> + +<p>In the year 1883 the Queen published <i>More Leaves from the Journal</i>, +and dedicated it "To my loyal Highlanders, and especially to the +memory of my devoted personal attendant and faithful friend, John +Brown." They are records of her life in Scotland during the years +1862 to 1882.</p> + +<p>In the August of 1862 a huge cairn, thirty-five feet high, was erected +to the memory of the Prince Consort. It was set on the summit of Craig +Lowrigan, where it could be seen all down the valley.</p> + +<p>A short extract will serve as a specimen of the Queen's style of +writing:</p> + +<p>"At a quarter to twelve I drove off with Louise and Leopold in the +waggonette up to near the 'Bush' (the residence of William Brown, +the farmer) to see them 'juice the sheep.' This is a practice pursued +all over the Highlands before the sheep are sent down to the low +country for the winter. It is done to preserve the wool. Not far from +the burnside, where there are a few hillocks, was a pen in which the +sheep were placed, and then, just outside it, a large sort of trough +filled with liquid tobacco and soap, and into this the sheep were +dipped one after the other; one man took the sheep one by one out +of the pen and turned them on their backs; and then William and he, +holding them by their legs, dipped them well in, after which they +were let into another pen into which this trough opened, and here +they had to remain to dry. To the left, a little lower down, was a +cauldron boiling over a fire and containing the tobacco with water +and soap; this was then emptied into a tub, from which it was +transferred into the trough. A very rosy-faced lassie, with a plaid +over her head, was superintending this part of the work, and helped +to fetch the water from the burn, while children and many collie dogs +were grouped about, and several men and shepherds were helping. It +was a very curious and picturesque sight."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap10">CHAPTER X: <i>The Great Exhibition</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>The idea of a "great exhibition of the Works and Industries of all +Nations" was Prince Albert's. The scheme when first proposed in 1849 +was coldly received in this country. It was intended, to use the +Prince's own words, "To give us a true test and a living picture of +the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived +in this great task, and a new starting-point from which all nations +will be able to direct their further exertions."</p> + +<p><i>The Times</i> led the attack against the proposed site in Hyde Park, +and the public was uneasy at the thought of large numbers of +foreigners congregating in London, and at the expected importation +of foreign goods.</p> + +<p>As showing the absurd things which 'John Bull' could say at this time +in his jealousy and dislike of foreigners the Prince wrote: "The +strangers, they give out, are certain to commence a thorough +revolution here, to murder Victoria and myself, and to proclaim the +Red Republic in England; the Plague is certain to ensue from the +confluence of such vast multitudes, and to swallow up those whom +the increased price of everything has not already swept away. For +all this I am to be responsible, and against all this I have to make +efficient provision."</p> + +<p><i>Punch</i> pictured the young Prince begging, cap in hand, for +subscriptions:</p> + +<blockquote>Pity the sorrows of a poor, young Prince<br> + Whose costly schemes have borne him to your door;<br> + Who's in a fix, the matter not to mince,<br> + Oh! help him out, and Commerce swell your store!</blockquote> + +<p>Such constant worry and anxiety affected the Prince's health, but +the support of Sir Robert Peel and of many great firms gradually wore +down the opposition.</p> + +<p>The building was designed by Paxton, who had risen from being a +gardener's boy in the Duke of Devonshire's service to the position +of the greatest designer of landscape-gardening in the kingdom.</p> + +<p>He took his main ideas for the Crystal Palace from the great +conservatories at Kew and Chatsworth. It was like a huge greenhouse +in shape, nearly one thousand feet long and ninety feet high, with +fountains playing in the naves and a great elm-tree in full leaf under +the roof.</p> + +<p>On May 1, 1851, the opening day, everything went well. The crowds +in the streets were immense, and there were some 34,000 visitors +present in the building during the opening ceremony.</p> + +<p>Lord Macaulay was much impressed with the Exhibition, for he wrote +after the opening: "I was struck by the numbers of foreigners in the +streets. All, however, were respectable and decent people. I saw none +of the men of action with whom the Socialists were threatening us. . . . +I should think there must have been near three hundred thousand +people in Hyde Park at once. The sight among the green boughs was +delightful. The boats, and little frigates, darting across the lake; +the flags; the music; the guns;—everything was exhilarating, and +the temper of the multitude the best possible. . . .</p> + +<p>"I made my way into the building; a most gorgeous sight; vast; +graceful; beyond the dreams of the Arabian romances. I cannot think +that the Cæsars ever exhibited a more splendid spectacle. I was +quite dazzled, and I felt as I did on entering St Peter's. I wandered +about, and elbowed my way through the crowd which filled the nave, +admiring the general effect, but not attending much to details."</p> + +<p>And again on the last day he wrote: "Alas! alas! it was a glorious +sight; and it is associated in my mind with all whom I love most. +I am glad that the building is to be removed. I have no wish to see +the corpse when the life has departed."</p> + +<p>The Royal Party were received with acclamation all along the route. +"It was 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," wrote the Queen. Six million people visited the Great +Fair during the time it remained open.</p> + +<p>In one respect, however, it could scarcely be considered a triumph +for this country. It was still an ugly, and in some respects a vulgar, +age. The invention of machinery had done little or nothing to raise +the level of the public taste for what was appropriate and beautiful +in design. That an article cost a large sum of money to manufacture +and to purchase seemed sufficient to satisfy the untrained mind.</p> + +<p>Generally speaking, the taste of the producers was uneducated and +much inferior to that of the French. Most of the designs in carpets, +hangings, pottery, and silks were merely copies, and were often +extremely ugly. England, at this time the first among the Industrial +Nations, had utterly failed to hold her own in the Arts.</p> + +<p>Machinery had taken the place of handwork, and with the death of the +latter art and industry had ceased to have any relation. Public taste +in architecture was equally bad. A 'revival' of the art of the Middle +Ages resulted only in a host of poor imitations. "Thirty or forty +years ago, if you entered a cathedral in France or England, you could +say at once, 'These arches were built in the age of the +Conqueror—that capital belonged to the earlier Henrys.' . . . Now all +this is changed. You enter a cathedral, and admire some iron work +so rude you are sure it must be old, but which your guide informs +you has just been put up by Smith of Coventry. You see . . . some painted +glass so badly drawn and so crudely coloured it must be old—Jones +of Newcastle."[9]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 9: Fergusson, <i>History of Modern Styles of Architecture</i>.]</p> + +<p>John Ruskin, who was in many ways the greatest art teacher of his +age, was the first to point out the value and the method of correct +observation of all that is beautiful in nature and in art.</p> + +<p>In an address on "Modern Manufacture and Design," delivered to the +working men of Bradford, he declared: "Without observation and +experience, no design—without peace and pleasurableness in +occupation, no design—and all the lecturings, and teachings, and +prizes and principles of art, in the world are of no use, so long +as you don't surround your men with happy influences and beautiful +things. . . . Inform their minds, refine their habits, and you form and +refine their designs; but keep them illiterate, uncomfortable, and +in the midst of unbeautiful things, and whatever they do will still +be spurious, vulgar, and valueless."</p> + +<p>At the time, however, the Exhibition proved a great success, and the +Duke of Coburg carried most favourable impressions away with him. +He says: "The Queen and her husband were at the zenith of their +fame. . . . Prince Albert was not satisfied to guide the whole affair +only from above; he was, in the fullest sense of the word, the soul +of everything. Even his bitterest enemies, with unusual unreserve, +acknowledged the completeness of the execution of the scheme."</p> + +<p>So far from there being a loss upon the undertaking there was actually +half a million of profit. The proceeds were devoted to securing +ground at South Kensington upon which a great National Institute +might be built. This undertaking (the purchase of the ground) was +not carried through without great difficulty and anxiety. The +Queen's sympathy and encouragement were, as always, of the greatest +help to her husband, and he quoted a verse from a German song, to +illustrate how much he felt and appreciated it:</p> + +<blockquote>When man has well nigh lost his hope in life,<br> + Upwards in trust and love still looks the wife,<br> + Towards the starry world all bright with cheer,<br> + Faint not nor fear, thus speaks her shining tear.</blockquote> + +<p>The Great Exhibition was sufficient proof—if any had been +needed—of how the Prince with his wife laboured incessantly for the +good of others. Without his courage, perseverance, and ability there +is no doubt that this great undertaking would never have been carried +through successfully. He recognized the fact that princes live for +the benefit of their people; his desire for the improvement in all +classes was never-ending, and from him his wife learnt many lessons +which proved of the greatest value to her in later life when she stood +alone and her husband was no longer there to aid her with his +unfailing wise advice.</p> + +<p>A second Exhibition was held in 1862, and so far as decorative art +was concerned there were distinct signs of improvement. 'Art +manufacture' had now become a trade phrase, but manufacturers were +still far from understanding what 'Art' really meant. As an instance +of this, one carpet firm sent a carpet to be used as a hanging on +which Napoleon III is depicted presenting a treaty of Commerce +to the Queen. Particular attention had apparently been paid to the +'shine' on Napoleon's top boots and to the Queen's smile!</p> + +<p>The Prince's great wish was to restore to the workman his pride in +the work of his hands, to relieve the daily toil of some of its +irksomeness by the interest thus created in it, and, where the work +was of a purely mechanical nature, and individual skill and judgment +were not called for, he wished the worker to understand the +principles upon which the machine was built and the ingenuity with +which it worked.</p> + +<p>His schemes for the building and equipment of Museums of Science and +Art were arranged with the purpose in view that both rich and +poor should have equal opportunities of seeing what improvements had +been made throughout the ages, and how vast and far-reaching the +effects of such improvements were on the lives of the whole nation.</p> + +<p>It was under his direction that the pictures in the National Gallery +were first arranged in such a manner as to show the history and +progress of art. In his own words: "Our business is not so much to +create, as to learn to appreciate and understand the works of others, +and we can never do this till we have realized the difficulties to +be overcome. Acting on this principle myself, I have always tried +to learn the rudiments of art as much as possible. For instance, I +learnt oil-painting, water-colours, etching, lithography, etc., and +in music I learnt thorough bass, the pianoforte, organ, and +singing—not, of course, with a view of doing anything worth looking +at or hearing, but simply to enable me to judge and appreciate the +works of others."</p> + +<p>It is interesting to note how closely the views of the Prince agreed +with those of John Ruskin in matters of art and literature. Ruskin +declared that it was the greatest misfortune of the age that, owing +to the wholesale introduction of machinery, the designer and maker +were nearly always different people instead of being one and the same +person. He declared that no work of art could really be 'living' or +capable of moving us to admiration as did the masterpieces of the +Middle Ages unless the maker had thought out and designed it himself.</p> + +<p>It was largely owing to his teachings that the 'Arts and Crafts' +movement under William Morris and Walter Crane arose—a movement +which has since that time spread over the whole civilized world.</p> + +<p>In 1862, together with some of his friends, Morris formed a company +to encourage the use of beautiful furniture and to introduce 'Art +in the House.' Morris himself had learnt to be a practical +carpet-weaver and dyer, and had founded the Society for the +Protection of Ancient Buildings.</p> + +<p>All the work of this firm was done by hand as far as possible; only +the best materials were to be used and designs were to be original. +They manufactured stained glass, wall paper, tapestry, tiles, +embroidery, carpets, etc., and many of the designs were undertaken +by Edward Burne-Jones.</p> + +<p>Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the poet-painter, Holman Hunt (best +remembered by his famous picture "The Light of the World ") and others, +formed what was known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to instruct +public taste in creative work in art and literature. At the Kelmscott +Press some of the most beautiful printed books of their kind were +produced under the direction of Morris.</p> + +<p>Ruskin, like so many others of his time, was greatly influenced by +Carlyle, and his views on the 'condition of England' question were +practically the same. He bewailed the waste of work and of life, the +poverty and the 'sweating.' He urged employers to win the goodwill +of those who worked for them as the best means of producing the best +work. He preached the 'rights' of Labour—that high wages for good +work was the truest economy in the end, and that beating down the +wages of workers does not pay in the long run. He declared that the +only education worth having was a 'humane' education—that is, first +of all, the building of character and the cultivation of wholesome +feelings. "You do not educate a man by telling him what he knew not, +but by making him what he was not," was the theory which he +endeavoured to put into practice by experiments such as an attempt +to teach every one to "learn to do something well and accurately with +his hands."</p> + +<p>In common with Wordsworth Ruskin held that the love of Nature was +the greatest of educators. He believed that</p> + +<blockquote>The world is too much with us; late and soon,<br> + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.</blockquote> + +<p>The beauty and the everlasting marvel of Nature's works were, to him +as to the poet of the Lakes, the real road to knowledge:</p> + +<blockquote>Come forth into the light of things,<br> + Let Nature be your teacher.</blockquote> + +<p>An education of not the brain alone, but of heart and hand as well, +all three working in co-operation, was necessary to raise man to the +level of an intelligent being.</p> + +<p>Ruskin's teachings fared no better than those of Carlyle at first, +and though he is spoken of sometimes as being 'old-fashioned,' yet +his lesson is of the old-fashioned kind which does live and will live, +for, like Dickens, he knew how to appeal to the hearts of his readers. +He is one of the most picturesque writers in the language, a man of +great nobility of character and generous feelings, who had a +tremendous belief in himself and knew how to express his thoughts +in the most beautiful language. Some of his books, for example +<i>Sesame and Lilies</i> and <i>Unto this Last</i>, are probably destined for +immortality.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap11">CHAPTER XI: <i>Albert the Good</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>The year 1861 was a black year for the Queen. On March 15th her mother, +the Duchess of Kent, died. She had been living for some time at +Frogmore, a pleasant house in the Windsor Home Park, and here in the +mausoleum erected by her daughter her statue is to be seen.</p> + +<p>She was sincerely loved by every member of her household, and her +loss was felt as one affecting the whole nation. In the words of +Disraeli: "She who reigns over us has elected, amid all the splendour +of empire, to establish her life on the principle of domestic love. +It is this, it is the remembrance and consciousness of this, which +now sincerely saddens the public spirit, and permits a nation to bear +its heartfelt sympathy to the foot of a bereaved throne, and to +whisper solace to a royal heart."</p> + +<p>The death of the Queen's' mother came as a great shock to the Prince +Consort. The Queen was, for a time, utterly unable to transact any +business, and this added to his already heavy burden of cares and +responsibilities.</p> + +<p>In the following November the King of Portugal died. The Prince had +loved him like a son, and this fresh disaster told so severely upon +his health that he began to suffer much from sleeplessness. The +strain of almost ceaseless work for many years was gradually wearing +him out.</p> + +<p>He had never been afraid of death, and not long before his last +illness he had said to his wife: "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. . . . I am sure, if I +had a severe illness, I should give up at once, I should not struggle +for life."</p> + +<p>On the 1st of December the Queen felt anxious and depressed. Her +husband grew worse and could not take food without considerable +difficulty, and this made him very weak and irritable.</p> + +<p>The physicians in attendance were now obliged to tell her that the +illness was low fever, but that the patient himself was not to know +of this. The Ministers became alarmed at his state, and when the news +of his illness became public there was the greatest and most +universal anxiety for news.</p> + +<p>In spite of slight improvements from time to time, the Prince showed +no power of fighting the disease, and on the evening of the 14th +December he passed gently away.</p> + +<p>It is no exaggeration to say that the death of the Queen's beloved +husband saddened every home in the land; it was a sorrow felt equally +by the highest and the lowest. He died in the fulness of his manhood, +leaving her whom he had loved and guarded so tenderly to reign in +lonely splendour.</p> + +<p>In the dedication of <i>Idylls of the King</i> to the memory of Prince +Albert, Tennyson, the poet-laureate, wrote:</p> + +<blockquote>Break not, O woman's-heart, but still endure;<br> + Break not, for thou art Royal, but endure,<br> + Remembering all the beauty of that star<br> + Which shone so close beside Thee that ye made<br> + One light together, but has past and leaves<br> + The Crown a lonely splendour.</blockquote> + +<p>When one looks over the vista of years which have passed since that +mournful day, it is with sadness mingled with regret. For it is too +true that "a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country."</p> + +<p>'Albert the Good' was, like many other great men, in advance of his +times, and not until he was dead did the nation as a whole realize +the blank he had left behind him.</p> + +<p>Even so late as 1854 Greville writes in his Diary of the extraordinary +attacks which were made upon the Prince in the public Press. Letter +after letter, he noted, appeared "full of the bitterest abuse and +all sorts of lies. . . . The charges against him are principally to this +effect, that he has been in the habit of meddling improperly in public +affairs, and has used his influence to promote objects of his own +and the interests of his own family at the expense of the interests +of this country; that he is German and not English in his sentiments +and principles; that he corresponds with foreign princes and with +British Ministers abroad without the knowledge of the Government, +and that he thwarts the foreign policy of the Ministers when it does +not coincide with his own ideas and purposes." And again: "It was +currently reported in the Midland and Northern counties, and +actually stated in a Scotch paper, that Prince Albert had been +committed to the Tower, and there were people found credulous and +foolish enough to believe it."</p> + +<blockquote> But English gratitude is always such<br> + To hate the hand which doth oblige too much.</blockquote> + +<p>These words of Daniel Defoe help to explain something of the attitude +of a part of the nation toward the Prince in his lifetime.</p> + +<p>He had given his life in the service of his wife and his adopted +country, but he was a 'foreigner,' and the insular Briton, brought +up in the blissful belief that "one Englishman was as good as three +Frenchmen," could not and would not overcome his distrust of one who +had not been, like himself, so singularly blessed in his nationality.</p> + +<p>But Time has its revenges, and the services of Prince Albert will +"smell sweet and blossom in the dust" long after the very names of +once famous lights of the Victorian era have been forgotten.</p> + +<p>His home life was singularly sweet and happy, and a great contrast +to that of some of his wife's predecessors upon the English throne. +The Queen, writing to her Uncle Leopold in this the twenty-first year +of their marriage, says: "<i>Very</i> few can say with me that their +husband at the end of twenty-one years is <i>not</i> only full of the +friendship, kindness, and affection which a truly happy marriage +brings with it, but the same tender love of the <i>very first days of +our marriage</i>!"</p> + +<p>The Prince, in a letter to a friend, rejoiced that their marriage +"still continues green and fresh and throws out vigorous roots, from +which I can, with gratitude to God, acknowledge that much good will +yet be engendered for the world." </p> + +<p>The finest tribute to the Prince Consort's memory is to be found in +the Dedication written by Lord Tennyson to his <i>Idylls of the King</i>:</p> + +<blockquote>These to His Memory—since he held them dear,<br> + Perchance as finding there unconsciously<br> + Some image of himself—I dedicate,<br> + I dedicate, I consecrate with tears—<br> + These Idylls.</blockquote> + +<p>Like Arthur, 'the flower of kings,' he was a man of ideals, above +petty jealousies and small ambitions:</p> + +<blockquote>Hereafter, thro' all times, Albert the Good.</blockquote> + +<p>The <i>Idylls</i> produced such a deep impression upon the Prince that +he wrote to the author, asking him to inscribe his name in the volume. +The book remained always a great favourite with him, and Princess +Frederick William was engaged upon a series of pictures illustrating +her favourite passages at the time of his death.</p> + +<p>An enumeration of the varied activities of Prince Albert during his +lifetime would need a volume. His position was always a difficult +one and was seldom made easier by the section of the Press which +singled him out as a target for its poisoned arrows. Only a strong +sense of duty and an unwavering belief in his wife's love could have +sustained him through the many dark hours of tribulation and sorrow. +He rose early all the year round, and prepared drafts of answers to +the Queen's Ministers, wrote letters and had cleared off a +considerable amount of work before many men would have thought of +beginning the day's tasks.</p> +<a name="illus10"></a> +<center><img width="50%" src="images/albertmemorial.jpg" alt="Albert Memorial"></center> +<center><p>THE ALBERT MEMORIAL</p></center> + +<p>No article of any importance in the newspapers or magazines escaped +his attention. Every one appealed to him for help or advice, and none +asked in vain. His wide knowledge and judgment were freely used by +the Queen's statesmen, and the day proved all too short for the +endless amount of work which had to be done.</p> + +<p>In spite of increasing burdens and poor health he was always in good +spirits. "At breakfast and at luncheon, and also at our family +dinners, he sat at the top of the table, and kept us all enlivened +by his interesting conversation, by his charming anecdotes, and +droll stories without end of his childhood, of people at Coburg, of +our good people in Scotland, which he would repeat with a wonderful +power of mimicry, and at which he would himself laugh most heartily. +Then he would at other times entertain us with his talk about the +most interesting and important topics of the present and of former +days, on which it was ever a pleasure to hear him speak."[10]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 10: Queen Victoria's <i>Journal</i>.]</p> + +<p>His rule in life was to make his position entirely a part of the +Queen's, "to place all his time and powers at her command." Every +speech which he made in public was carefully considered beforehand, +and then written out and committed to memory. As he had to speak in +a foreign tongue, he considered this precaution absolutely necessary. +At the same time it often made him feel shy and nervous when speaking +before strangers, and this sometimes gave to those who did not know +him a mistaken impression of coldness and reserve.</p> + +<p>His sympathy with the working classes was sincere and practical. He +was convinced that "any real improvement must be the result of the +exertion of the working people themselves." He was President of the +Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, and +never lost an opportunity of pointing out that, to quote his own words, +"the Royal Family are not merely living upon the earnings of the +people (as these publications try to represent) without caring for +the poor labourers, but that they are anxious about their welfare, +and ready to co-operate in any scheme for the amelioration of their +condition. We may possess these feelings, and yet the mass of the +people may be ignorant of it, because they have never heard it +expressed to them, or seen any tangible proof of it."</p> + +<p>His grasp of detail and knowledge of home and foreign political +affairs astonished every one who met him, ministers and ambassadors +alike. His writing-table and that of the Queen stood side by side +in their sitting-room, and here they used to work together, every +dispatch which left their hands being the joint work of both. The +Prince corrected and revised everything carefully before it received +the Queen's signature. Considering the small amount of time at his +disposal, it was remarkable how much he was able to read, and read +thoroughly, both with the Queen and by himself. "Not many, but much," +was his principle, and every book read was carefully noted in his +diary.</p> + +<p>Even to the last he exerted his influence in the cause of peace. The +American Civil War broke out in 1861, and Great Britain declared her +neutrality. But an incident, known as 'The Trent Affair,' nearly +brought about a declaration of war.</p> + +<p>The Southern States, or 'Confederates,' as they were usually called, +sent two commissioners to Europe on board the British mail steamer +<i>Trent</i>. The <i>Trent</i> was fired upon and boarded by a Federal officer, +who arrested the commissioners.</p> + +<p>This was regarded as an insult to our flag, as it was a breach of +international law to attack the ship of a neutral power. The +Government therefore decided to demand redress, and a dispatch, +worded by Palmerston, was forwarded to the Queen for her signature.</p> + +<p>The Prince realized at once that if the dispatch were forwarded as +it was written it would lead to open war between the Northern States +and our country, and he suggested certain alterations to the Queen, +who agreed to them. A more courteously worded message was sent, and +the Northern States at once agreed to liberate the commissioners and +offered an ample apology.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap12">CHAPTER XII: <i>Friends and Advisers</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>Possibly the person to whom the Queen owed most—next to her +husband—was Lord Melbourne. His position at the time when the young +Queen came to the throne was a unique one. Victoria was just eighteen +years of age—that is to say, if she had been a little younger it +would have been necessary to appoint a Regent until such time as she +came of age. For many years it had not been a matter of certainty +that she would succeed to the throne, and the late King's unreliable +temper had been the means of preventing the matter from being +properly arranged as regards certain advantages which might have +been given to the Princess during his life-time. In many ways, +however, it was fortunate that the Queen came to the throne at such +an early age: if her knowledge of State politics was small, she +possessed, at any rate, a well-trained mind, a sense of duty, and +a clear idea as to the responsibilities of her position as ruler of +a great nation.</p> + +<p>There had been four reigning queens in this country before Victoria, +but all of them had had some previous training for their duties. The +two Tudor queens came of a ruling stock, and were older in years and +experience. The times, too, were very different. Queen Elizabeth, +for example, before coming to the throne possessed an intimate +knowledge of political affairs, and experience—she had been +confined in the Tower of London and narrowly escaped losing her +head—had endowed her with the wisdom of the serpent. The two Stuart +queens were no longer young, and both were married.</p> + +<p>The circumstances in the case of the young Victoria were thus totally +different. She stood alone, and it was clear that some one must help +her to grapple with the thousand and one difficulties which +surrounded her. It was for some time uncertain who would undertake +the duty, until, almost before he had realized it himself, Lord +Melbourne found himself in the position of 'guide, philosopher, and +friend.'</p> + +<p>How he devoted himself to this work can be judged from the fact that +no one—not even any of his opponents—regarded him with the +slightest mistrust or jealousy.</p> + +<p>Melbourne was at this time fifty-eight years of age, an honourable, +honest-hearted Englishman. He was sympathetic by nature, fond of +female society, and, in addition, was devoted to the Queen. His +manner toward her was always charming, and he was in constant +attendance upon her.</p> + +<p>Nor was the training which the Queen received from him limited to +politics, but matters of private interest were often discussed. +Every morning he brought dispatches with him to be read and answered; +after the midday meal he went out riding with her, and, whenever his +parliamentary duties allowed, he was to be found at her side at the +dinner-table. When he retired from office he was able to state with +pride that he had seen his Sovereign every day during the past four +years.</p> + +<p>The news of her engagement to Prince Albert was received by him with +the keenest pleasure, and the Queen in writing to her uncle says: +"Lord Melbourne, whom I of course have consulted about the whole +affair, quite approves my choice, and expresses great satisfaction +at the event, which he thinks in every way highly desirable. Lord +Melbourne has acted in this business, as he has always done toward +me, with the greatest kindness and affection."</p> + +<p>It was a real wrench to the Queen when the time for parting came. +Melbourne, with his easy-going nature and somewhat free and easy +language, had schooled himself as well as his young pupil, and had +become a friend as well as an adviser. Some words of Greville's might +aptly serve for this great statesman's epitaph:</p> + +<p>"It has become his providence to educate, instruct, and form the most +interesting mind and character in the world. No occupation was ever +more engrossing or involved greater responsibility . . . it is +fortunate that she has fallen into his hands, and that he discharges +this great duty wisely, honourably, and conscientiously."</p> + +<p>The Queen was equally fortunate in his successor, Sir Robert Peel, +a statesman for whom she had every confidence and respect, "a man +who thinks but little of party and never of himself."</p> + +<p>Peel was never afraid of making up his mind and then sticking to his +plan of action, although, as often happened, it brought him into +opposition with members of his own party. In his hands both the Queen +and her husband felt that the interests of the Crown were secure.</p> + +<p>Peel naturally felt considerable embarrassment on first taking up +office, as he had given support in the previous year to a motion which +proposed cutting down the Prince's income. But the Prince felt no +resentment, and so frank and cordial was his manner that Peel, +following Lord Melbourne's lead, continued to keep him, from day to +day, thoroughly in touch with the course of public affairs.</p> + +<p>The relations between the Queen and her Minister were cordial in the +extreme. Peel appreciated very fully her simple domestic tastes, and +he was able at a later date to bring before her notice Osborne, which +might serve as a "loophole of retreat" from the "noise and strife +and questions wearisome."</p> + +<p>The Queen was delighted with the estate. "It is impossible to see +a prettier place, with woods and valleys and <i>points de vue</i>, which +would be beautiful anywhere; but when these are combined with the +sea (to which the woods grow down), and a beach which is quite private, +it is really everything one could wish."</p> + +<p>In 1845 the Queen asked Lord Aberdeen if she could not show in some +way her appreciation of the courage with which Sir Robert Peel had +brought forward and supported two great measures, in the face of +tremendous opposition. She suggested that he should be offered the +Order of the Garter, the highest distinction possible.</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Peel's reply was that he would much prefer not to accept +any reward at all; he sprang, he said, from the people, and such a +great honour in his case was out of the question. The only reward +he asked for was Her Majesty's confidence, and so long as he possessed +that he was content.</p> + +<p>When his ministry came to an end the Prince wrote to him, begging +that their relations should not on that account cease. Sir Robert +replied, thanking him for "the considerate kindness and indulgence" +he had received at their hands, and regretting that he should no +longer be able to correspond so frequently as before. The Prince and +he were in the fullest sympathy in matters of politics, art, and +literature, and Peel had supported the Prince loyally through all +the anxieties connected with the arrangements for the Great +Exhibition.</p> + +<p>His death in 1850 was a calamity. Prince Albert, in a letter, speaks +of Peel as "the best of men, our truest friend, the strongest bulwark +of the throne, the greatest statesman of his time."</p> + +<p>The Duke of Wellington said in the Upper House: "In all the course +of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel I never knew a man in whose +truth and justice I had a more lively confidence, or in whom I saw +a more invariable desire to promote the public service. In the whole +course of my communications with him I never knew an instance in which +he did not show the strongest attachment to truth; and I never saw +in the whole course of my life the slightest reason for suspecting +that he stated anything which he did not believe to be the fact." +The Queen writing to her uncle said that "Albert . . . felt and feels +Sir Robert's loss dreadfully. He feels he has lost a second father."</p> + +<p>As a statesman it was said of him that "for concocting, producing, +explaining and defending measures, he had no equal, or anything like +an equal."</p> + +<p>By far the most interesting person who acted as both friend and +adviser to the Queen and her husband was the Baron Christian +Friedrich von Stockmar, who had been private physician to Prince +Leopold, and afterward private secretary and controller of his +household. He took an active part in the negotiations which led to +his master becoming King of the Belgians. Long residence in this +country had given him a thorough knowledge of England and the English, +and he claimed friendship with the leading diplomatists both at home +and on the European continent.</p> + +<p>In 1834 he retired to Coburg, but later was chosen, as we have seen, +to lend his valuable advice toward bringing about a union between +Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, both of whom he knew and admired.</p> + +<p>Immediately before Victoria's accession King Leopold had sent him +to England, where his counsel, judgment, and thorough knowledge of +the English Constitution were placed at the service of the young +Princess. He accompanied Prince Albert on a tour in Italy, and again +returned to England to make arrangements for the Prince's future +household.</p> + +<p>All that he did during this period was done quietly and behind the +scenes, and though he was a foreigner by birth, he worked to bring +about the marriage for the sake of the country he loved so well. He +looked upon England as the home of political freedom. "Out of its +bosom," he stated, "singly and solely has sprung America's free +Constitution, in all its present power and importance, in its +incalculable influence upon the social condition of the whole human +race; and in my eyes the English Constitution is the foundation-, +corner-, and cope-stone of the entire political civilization of the +human race, present and to come."</p> + +<p>He soon became the Prince's confidential adviser, and his unrivalled +knowledge and strict sense of truth and duty proved of the utmost +value.</p> + +<p>He endeared himself to both the Queen and the Prince, and successive +statesmen trusted him absolutely for his freedom from prejudice and +for his sincerity.</p> + +<p>In 1842 he drew up for the Queen some rules for the education of her +children. "A man's education begins the first day of his life," was +one of his maxims. He insisted that "the education of the royal +infants ought to be from its earliest beginning <i>a truly moral and +a truly English one</i>." The persons to whom the children are entrusted +should receive the full support and confidence of the parents, +otherwise "education lacks its very soul and vitality." He suggested +that a lady of rank should be placed at the head of the nursery, as +being better able to understand the responsibilities and duties +attached to the education and upbringing of the Queen's children.</p> + +<p>His advice was again taken when it was necessary to settle upon what +plan the young Prince of Wales should be educated.</p> + +<p>Stockmar's judgment of men was singularly correct and just. He formed +the highest opinion of Sir Robert Peel, and on the Duke of +Wellington's death in 1852 he wrote in a letter to the Prince a +masterly analysis of the great commander's character, concluding +with these words: "As the times we live in cannot fail to present +your Royal Highness with great and worthy occasions to distinguish +yourself, you should not shrink from turning them to account . . . as +Wellington did, for the good of all, yet without detriment to +yourself."</p> + +<p>The Prince corresponded regularly with 'the good Stockmar,' and +always in time of doubt and trial came sage counsel from his trusted +friend. In fact, the Prince took both the Queen and his friend equally +into his confidence; they were the two to whom he could unbosom +himself with entire freedom.</p> + +<p>Disraeli, afterward Lord Beaconsfield, obtained the Queen's fullest +confidence and won her friendship to an extent which no Minister +since Melbourne had ever been able to do. 'Dizzy,' the leader of the +'Young England' party, the writer of political novels, was a very +different person from the statesman of later years. It is difficult +to remember or to realize in these days that it was looked upon as +something quite extraordinary for a member of a once despised and +persecuted race, the Jews, to hold high office. The annual +celebrations of 'Primrose Day,' April 19, the anniversary of his +death, are sufficient proof that this great statesman's services to +the British Empire are not yet forgotten.</p> + +<p>Lord Beaconsfield, whom she regarded with sincere affection, +possessed a remarkable influence over the Queen, for the simple +reason that he never forgot to treat her as a woman. He was noted +throughout his life for his chivalry to the opposite sex, and his +devotion to his wife was very touching.</p> + +<p>He was a firm believer in the power of the Crown for good. "The proper +leader of the people," he declared, "is the individual who sits upon +the throne." He wished the Sovereign to be in a position to rule as +well as to reign, to be at one with the nation, above the quarrels +and differences of the political parties, and to be their +representative.</p> + +<p>When quite a young man, he declared that he would one day be Prime +Minister, and with this end in view he entered Parliament against +the wishes of his family. He was an untiring worker all his life, +and a firm believer in action. "Act, act, act without ceasing, and +you will no longer talk of the vanity of life," was his creed.</p> + +<p>His ideas on education were original, and he did everything in his +power to improve the training of the young. In 1870 he supported the +great measure for a scheme of national education. Some years earlier +he declared that "it is an absolute necessity that we should study +to make every man the most effective being that education can +possibly constitute him. In the old wars there used to be a story +that one Englishman could beat three members of some other nation. +But I think if we want to maintain our power, we ought to make one +Englishman equal really in the business of life to three other men +that any other nation can furnish. I do not see otherwise how . . . +we can fulfil the great destiny that I believe awaits us, and the +great position we occupy."</p> + +<p>He did more than any other Minister to raise the Crown to the position +it now occupies, and no monarch ever had a more devoted and faithful +servant. His high standard of morals and his force of character +especially appealed to the English people, and his loyalty to his +friends and colleagues remained unshaken throughout his whole life. +He impressed not only his own countrymen, but also foreigners, with +his splendid gifts of imagination and foresight.</p> + +<p>Bismarck, the man of 'blood and iron,' who welded the disunited +states of Germany into a united and powerful empire, considered that +Queen Victoria was the greatest statesman in Europe, and of the great +Beaconsfield he said: "Disraeli <i>is</i> England."</p> + +<p>Disraeli was a master of wit and phrase, and many of his best sayings +and definitions have become proverbial, <i>e.g.</i> "the hansom, the +'gondola' of London," "our young Queen and our old institutions," +"critics, men who have failed," "books, the curse of the human race."</p> +<a name="illus11"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/primeministers.jpg" alt="Prime Ministers"></center> +<center><p>Sir Robert Peel, Lord Melbourne, Benjamin Disraeli<br> +<small>Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.</small></p></center> + +<p>The central figure of his time was the statesman-warrior, the great +Duke of Wellington, '<i>the</i> Duke.' After the famous Marlborough, +England had not been able to boast of such a great commander. He was +the best known figure in London, and though he never courted +popularity or distinction, yet he served his Queen as Prime Minister +when desired. "The path of duty" was for him "the way to glory." In +1845 the greatest wish of his life was realized when the Queen and +her husband paid him a two days' visit at his residence, +Strathfieldsaye.</p> + +<p>Alfred Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington," in +1852, praises him as 'truth-teller' and 'truth-lover,' and mourns +for him: </p> + +<blockquote>Let the long, long procession go,<br> + And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow,<br> + And let the mournful, martial music blow;<br> + The last great Englishman is low.</blockquote> + +<p>In striking contrast to the 'Iron Duke' was the man whom Disraeli +could never learn to like, Lord John Russell. Generally depicted in +the pages of <i>Punch</i> as a pert, cocksure little fellow, 'little +Johnny,' the leader of the Whig party was a power as a leader. He +knew how to interpret the Queen's wishes in a manner agreeable to +herself, yet he did not hesitate, when he thought it advisable, to +speak quite freely in criticism of her actions.</p> + +<p>His ancestors in the Bedford family had in olden days been advisers +of the Crown, and Lord John thus came of a good stock; he himself, +nevertheless, was always alert to prevent any encroachment upon the +growing powers and rights of the people.</p> + +<p>He was a favourite of the Queen, and she gave him as a residence a +house and grounds in Richmond Park. He was a man of the world and +an agreeable talker, very well read, fond of quoting poetry, and +especially pleased if he could indulge in reminiscences in his own +circle of what his royal mistress had said at her last visit.</p> + +<p>Finally, mention must be made of one who, though he held no high +position of State, can with justice be regarded as both friend and +adviser of the Queen—John Brown. He entered the Queen's service at +Balmoral, became later a gillie to the Prince Consort, and in 1851 +the Queen's personal outdoor attendant. He was a man of a very +straightforward nature and blunt speech, and even his Royal Mistress +was not safe at times from criticism. In spite of his rough manner, +he possessed many admirable qualities, and on his death in 1883 the +Queen caused a granite seat to be erected in the grounds of Osborne +with the following inscription:</p> + +<center><p>A TRUER, NOBLER, TRUSTIER HEART, MORE LOVING<br> +AND MORE LOYAL, NEVER BEAT WITHIN<br> +A HUMAN BREAST.</p></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap13">CHAPTER XIII: <i>Queen and Empire</i></a></h3></div> +<blockquote><small>What should they know of England who only England know?</small></blockquote> +<br> +<p>The England of Queen Elizabeth was the England of Shakespeare:</p> + +<blockquote>This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,<br> + This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,<br> + This other Eden, demi-paradise;<br> + This fortress built by Nature for herself<br> + Against infection and the hand of war;<br> + This happy breed of men, this little world,<br> + This precious stone set in the silver sea,<br> + Which serves it in the office of a wall,<br> + Or as a moat defensive to a house,<br> + Against the envy of less happier lands;<br> + This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.</blockquote> + +<p>In Tennyson's <i>Princess</i> we find an echo of these words, where the +poet, in contrasting England and France, monarchy and republic—much +to the disadvantage of the latter—says:</p> + +<blockquote>God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off,<br> + And keeps our Britain, whole within herself,<br> + A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled.</blockquote> + +<p>But at a later date, in an "Epilogue to the Queen," at the close of +the <i>Idylls of the King</i>, Tennyson has said farewell to his narrow +insular views, and speaks of</p> + +<blockquote>Our ocean-empire with her boundless homes<br> + For ever-broadening England, and her throne<br> + In our vast Orient, and one isle, one isle,<br> + That knows not her own greatness: if she knows<br> + And dreads it we are fall'n.</blockquote> + +<p>He had come to recognize the necessity for guarding and maintaining +the Empire, with all its greatness and all its burdens, as part of +this country's destiny.</p> + +<p>It is a little difficult to realize that the British Empire, as we +now know it, has been created within only the last hundred years. +Beaconsfield, in his novel <i>Contarini Fleming</i>, describes the +difference between ancient and modern colonies. "A modern colony," +he says, "is a commercial enterprise, an ancient colony was a +political sentiment." In other words, colonies were a matter of +'cash' to modern nations, such as the Spaniards: in the time of the +ancients there was a close tie, a feeling of kinship, and the colonist +was not looked upon with considerable contempt and dislike by the +Mother Country.</p> + +<p>Beaconsfield believed that there would come a time, and that not far +distant, when men would change their ideas. "I believe that a great +revolution is at hand in our system of colonization, and that Europe +will soon recur to the principles of the ancient polity."</p> + +<p>This feeling of pride in the growth and expansion of our great +over-seas dominions is comparatively new, and there was a time when +British ministers seriously proposed separation, from what they +considered to be a useless burden.</p> + +<p>The ignorance of all that concerned the colonies in the early years +of Victoria's reign was extraordinary, and this accounted, to a great +extent, for the indifference with which the English people regarded +the prospect of drifting apart.</p> + +<p>Lord Beaconsfield was a true prophet, for this indifference is now +a thing of the past, and in the year 1875 an Imperial Federation +League was formed, which, together with the celebrations at the +Jubilees in 1887 and 1897, helped to knit this country and the +Dominions together in bonds of friendship and sympathy. The rapid +improvements in communication have brought the different parts of +the Empire closer together; the Imperial Penny Postage and an +all-British cable route to Australia have kept us in constant touch +with our kinsmen in every part of the world where the Union Jack is +flown.</p> + +<p>But this did not all come about in a day. Prejudice and dislike are +difficult to conquer, and it was chiefly owing to the efforts of Lord +Beaconsfield that they were eventually overcome.</p> + +<p>Imperialism too often means 'Jingoism,'—wild waving of flags and +chanting of such melodies as:</p> + +<blockquote>We don't want to fight,<br> + But, by Jingo, if we do,<br> +We've got the ships, we've got the men,<br> + We've got the money too.</blockquote> + +<p>The true Imperialism is "defence, not defiance." Beaconsfield looked +back into the past and sought to "resume the thread of our ancient +empire." For him empire meant no easy burden but a solemn duty, a +knitting together of all the varied races and religions in one common +cause. "Peace with honour" was his and England's watchword. He +believed, in fact, like Shakespeare, in saying</p> + +<blockquote> + + + Beware<br> + Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,<br> + Bear't, that th' opposèd may beware of thee.</blockquote> + +<p>He was very particular on the duty of "if necessary, saying rough +things kindly, and not kind things roughly," which was a lesson Lord +Palmerston never seemed to be capable of learning. Another of his +maxims was that it was wiser from every point of view to treat +semi-barbarous nations with due respect for their customs and +feelings. He preached Confederation and not Annexation. "By pursuing +the policy of Confederation," he declared, "we bind states together, +we consolidate their resources, and we enable them to establish a +strong frontier, that is the best security against annexation."</p> + +<p>His whole policy was to foster the growth of independence and build +the foundations of a peace which should be enduring. "Both in the +East and in the West our object is to have prosperous, happy, and +contented neighbours."</p> + +<p>The object of his imperialism was to progress, at the same time paying +due respect to the traditions of the past; he rightly believed that +the character of a nation, like that of an individual, is +strengthened by responsibility.</p> + +<p>"The glory of the Empire and the prosperity of the people" was what +he hoped to achieve.</p> + +<p>During the anxious times of the Indian Mutiny he alone seemed to grasp +the real meaning of this sudden uprising of alien races. He declared +that it was a revolt and not a mutiny; a revolt against the English +because of their lack of respect for ancient rights and customs.</p> + +<p>After the war was ended he declared that the Government ought to tell +the people of India "that the relation between them and their real +ruler and sovereign, Queen Victoria, shall be drawn nearer." This +should be done "in the Queen's name and with the Queen's authority." +He appealed to the whole Indian nation by his 'Royal Titles Bill,' +by means of which the Queen received the title of Empress of India. +This brought home to the minds and imaginations of the native races +the real meaning and grandeur of the Empire of which they were now +a part. The great Queen was now <i>their</i> Empress, or, to use the Indian +title, '<i>Kaiser-i-Hind</i>.'</p> + +<p>The Queen took the deepest interest in the Proclamation to the Indian +people in 1858, and insisted on a number of alterations before she +would allow it to be passed as satisfactory. She wrote to Lord Derby +asking him to remember that "it is a female sovereign who speaks to +more than a hundred millions of Eastern people on assuming the direct +government over them 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 feelings of +generosity, benevolence, and religious feeling, pointing out the +privileges which the Indians will receive in being placed on an +equality with the subjects of the British Crown, and the prosperity +following in the train of civilization."</p> + +<p>Direct mention was to be made of the introduction of railways, canals, +and telegraphs, with an assurance that such works would be the cause +of general welfare to the Indian people. In conclusion she added: +"Her Majesty wishes expression to be given to her feelings of horror +and regret at the results of this bloody civil war, and of pleasure +and gratitude to God at its approaching end, and Her Majesty thinks +the Proclamation should terminate by an invocation to Providence for +its blessing on a great work for a great and good end."</p> + +<p>The amended Proclamation was read in every province in India and met +everywhere with cordial approval by princes and natives alike. The +feeling of loyalty was aroused by the Queen's assurance that "in your +prosperity is our strength, in your contentment our security, and +in your gratitude our best reward."</p> + +<p>On May 1, 1859, in England, and on July 28, 1859, in India, there +was a general thanksgiving for the restoration of peace.</p> + +<p>Although the Queen was never able to visit India in person, in 1875 +the Prince of Wales went, at her request, to mark her appreciation +of the loyalty of the native princes. The welcome given to the future +King of England was truly royal. Reviews, banquets, illuminations, +state dinners followed one another in rapid succession. Benares, the +sacred city of the Hindoos, was visited, and here the Prince +witnessed a great procession which included large numbers of +elephants and camels, and an illumination of the entire river and +city.</p> + +<p>At Delhi, the capital of the Great Mogul, the Prince was met by Lord +Napier of Magdala at the head of fifteen thousand troops, and at +Lucknow an address and a crown set with jewels were presented to him.</p> +<a name="illus12"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/greatness.jpg" alt="Secret of England's Greatness"></center> +<center><p>The Secret of England's Greatness<br> +<small>J.T. Baker<br>Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.</small></p></center> + +<p>It was in the same year that Disraeli, on behalf of the British +Government, purchased a very large number of shares in the Suez Canal, +thus gaining for us a hand in its administration—a vitally important +matter when one realizes how much closer India has been brought by +this saving in time over the long voyage round the Cape.</p> + +<p>To pass in review the growth and expansion of the Empire during the +Queen's reign would be a difficult task, and an impossible one within +the limits of a small volume. The expressions of loyalty and devotion +from the representatives of the great over-seas dominions on the +occasion of the Queen's Jubilee in 1887 were proof enough that +England and the English were no longer an insular land and people, +but a mighty nation with one sovereign head.</p> + +<p>In the address which was presented to the Queen it was stated that +during her reign her colonial subjects of European descent had +increased from two to nine millions, and in Asia and India there was +an increase of population from ninety-six to two hundred and +fifty-four millions.</p> + +<p>After the great ceremony of thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral the +Queen expressed her thanks to her people in the following message:</p> + +<p>"I am anxious to express to my people my warm thanks for the kind, +and more than kind, reception I met with on going to and returning +from Westminster Abbey with all my children and grandchildren.</p> + +<p>"The enthusiastic reception I met with then, as well as on those +eventful days in London, as well as in Windsor, on the occasion of +my Jubilee, has touched me most deeply, and has shown that the labours +and anxieties of fifty long years—twenty-two years of which I spent +in unclouded happiness, shared with and cheered by my beloved husband, +while an equal number were full of sorrows and trial borne without +his sheltering arm and wise help—have been appreciated by my people. +This feeling and the sense of duty towards my dear country and +subjects, who are so inseparably bound up with my life, will +encourage me in my task, often a very difficult and arduous one, +during the remainder of my life.</p> + +<p>"The wonderful order preserved on this occasion, and the good +behaviour of the enormous multitudes assembled, merits my highest +admiration. That God may protect and abundantly bless my country is +my fervent prayer."</p> + +<p>And in laying the foundation-stone of the Imperial Institute, she +said:</p> + +<p>"I concur with you in thinking that the counsel and exertions of my +beloved husband initiated a movement which gave increased vigour to +commercial activity, and produced marked and lasting improvements +in industrial efforts. One indirect result of that movement has been +to bring more before the minds of men the vast and varied resources +of the Empire over which Providence has willed that I should reign +during fifty prosperous years.</p> + +<p>"I believe and hope that the Imperial Institute will play a useful +part in combining those resources for the common advantage of all +my subjects, conducing towards the welding of the colonies, India, +and the mother-country, into one harmonious and united +community. . . ."</p> + +<p>When war was declared in South Africa and the Boer forces invaded +Cape Colony and Natal, contingents from Canada, Australia, New +Zealand, Cape Colony, and Natal joined the British force and fought +side by side throughout that long and trying campaign.</p> + +<p>In 1897 was celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the Queen's reign, +and every colony sent a detachment of troops to represent it. At the +steps of St Paul's Cathedral the Queen remained to return thanks to +God for all the blessings of her reign, and after the magnificent +procession had returned she once again sent a message to her people:</p> + +<p>"In weal and woe I have ever had the true sympathy of all my people, +which has been warmly reciprocated by myself. It has given me +unbounded pleasure to see so many of my subjects from all parts of +the world assembled here, and to find them joining in the +acclamations of loyal devotion to myself, and I wish to thank them +all from the depth of my grateful heart."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><i>Appendix to Chapter XIII</i></h3> +<br> +<center>THE BRITISH EMPIRE</center> +<p>The population of the Empire is estimated to be 355 millions of +coloured and 60 millions of white people.</p> +<br> +<center>CANADA</center> +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" summary="empire summary"> +<tr> + <td width="8%" align="right" valign="top">1840.</td> + <td valign="top">The Act of Union passed. The two colonies of Upper and Lower + Canada united, and a representative Assembly formed.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1867.</td> + <td valign="top">Bill for the Federation of Canada passed. The various provinces + united under the title of Dominion of Canada, ruled by a + Governor-General, nominated by the Crown. The Central Parliament, + which dealt with matters relating to the Dominion, established at + Ottawa.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1885.</td> + <td valign="top">Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which led to the + opening up of the North-West. The great stream of emigration from + Europe commences.</td> +</tr> +</table> +<br> +<center>AUSTRALIA</center> +<p>Australia became a United Commonwealth at the beginning of the +present century.</p> + +<p>From 1851 onward the transportation of convicts was prohibited.</p> + +<p>The expansion of the Commonwealth has taken place to a great extent +during the reign of Queen Victoria. The majority of the settlers are +of British descent.</p> +<br> +<center>SOUTH AFRICA</center> +<p>South Africa finally united in 1910 with self-government.</p> +<br> +<center>INDIA</center> +<p>Disraeli, in 1876, introduced the Royal Titles Bill, by means of +which the Queen was able to assume the title of Empress of India.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap14">CHAPTER XIV: <i>Stress and Strain</i></a></h3></div> +<blockquote><small> Forward, forward let us range,<br> +Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.<br> + + </small>T<small>ENNYSON</small></blockquote> +<br> +<p>The greatest Revolutions are not always those which are accompanied +by riot and bloodshed. England's Revolution was peaceful, but it +worked vast and almost incredible changes.</p> + +<p>We find, in the first place, that after the great Napoleonic Wars +and during the 'forty years' peace' a new class, the 'Middle Class,' +came into being. It had, of course, existed before this time, but +it had been unable to make its power felt. The astonishing increase +of trade and consequently of wealth, the application of steam power +with special influence upon land and sea transit, transformed +England into "the Workshop of the World."</p> + +<p>By the year 1840 railways were no longer regarded as something in +the nature of an experiment, which might or might not prove +a success; they had, indeed, become an integral part of the social +life of the nation. In 1840 the Railway Regulation Act was passed, +followed in 1844 by the Cheap Trains Act, which required that +passengers must be carried in covered waggons at a charge of not more +than one penny a mile and at a speed of not less than twelve miles +an hour.</p> + +<p>From 1844 onward the construction of railways proceeded apace, until +by the year 1874 no less than 16,449 miles had been laid. Ocean +traffic under steam progressed equally rapidly; in 1812 the first +steamer appeared upon the Clyde, and in 1838 the famous <i>Great +Western</i> steamed from Bristol to New York.</p> + +<p>The quickening and cheapening of transport called for new and +improved methods of manufacture; small business concerns grew into +great mercantile houses with interests all over the face of the globe. +Everywhere movement and expansion; everywhere change. A powerful +commercial class came into existence, and power—that is, voting +power—passed to this class and was held by it until the year 1865. +From this year, roughly speaking, the power passed into the hands +of the democracy.</p> + +<p>Education, which had been to a great extent a class monopoly, +gradually penetrated to all ranks and grades of society. In 1867 the +second Reform Act was passed; a very large proportion of the urban +working classes were given the power of voting, and it was naturally +impossible to entrust such powers for long to an illiterate democracy. +Therefore, in 1870, Mr Forster's Education Act was passed, which +required that in every district where sufficient voluntary schools +did not exist a School Board should be formed to build and maintain +the necessary school accommodation at the cost of the rates. By a +later Act of 1876 school attendance was made compulsory. Every effort +was made in succeeding years to raise the level of intelligence among +present and future citizens. Education became national and +universal.</p> + +<p>During the period 1865-85 the population of the kingdom increased, +and the emigration to the British colonial possessions reached its +maximum in the year 1883, when the figures were 183,236.</p> + +<p>The rapid rise in population of the large towns drew attention more +and more urgently to the question of public health. Every city and +every town had its own problems to face, and the necessity for solving +these cultivated and strengthened the sense of civic pride and +responsibility. We find during this period an ever-growing interest +throughout the country in the welfare, both moral and mental, of the +great mass of the workers. Municipal life became the training-ground +where many a member of Parliament served his apprenticeship.</p> + +<p>Municipalities took charge of baths and washhouses, organized and +built public markets, ensured a cheap and ample supply of pure water, +installed modern systems of drainage, provided housing +accommodation at low rents for the poorer classes, built hospitals +for infectious diseases, and, finally, carried on the great and +important work of educating its citizens.</p> + +<p>The power of Labour began, at last, to make itself felt. The first +attempt at co-operation made by the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844 +stimulated others to follow their example, and in 1869 the +Co-operative Union was formed. The Trade Unions showed an increased +interest in education, in forming libraries and classes, and in +extending their somewhat narrow policy as their voting power +increased. Out of this movement sprang Working Men's Clubs attached +to the Unions and carrying on all branches of work, educational and +beneficial, amongst its members.</p> + +<p>The standard of society was continually rising, and it was already +a far cry to the Early Victorian England described in an earlier +chapter.</p> + +<p>The world was growing smaller—that is to say, communications +between country and country, between continent and continent, were +growing more easy. The first insulated cable was laid in 1848, across +the Hudson River, from Jersey City to New York, and in 1857 +an unsuccessful attempt was made to connect the New and the Old World. +In 1866 the <i>Great Eastern</i>, after two trials, succeeded in laying +a complete cable. The expansion of the powers of human invention led +to a great increase in the growth of comfort of all classes. To take +only a few striking examples: at the beginning of the century matches +were not yet invented, and only in 1827 were the 'Congreve' sulphur +matches put on the market; they were sold at the rate of one shilling +a box containing eighty-four matches! In the year 1821 gas was still +considered a luxury; soap and candles were both greatly improved and +cheapened. By the withdrawal of the window tax in 1851 obvious and +necessary advantages were gained in the building of houses.</p> + +<p>In 1855 the stamp duty on newspapers was abolished. In these days +of cheap halfpenny papers with immense circulations it is difficult +to realize that at a date not very far distant from us, the poor +scarcely, if ever, saw a newspaper at all. Friends used to club +together to reduce the great expense of buying a single copy, and +agents hired out copies for the sum of one penny per hour. The only +effect of the stamp duty had been to cut off the poorer classes from +all sources of trustworthy information.</p> + +<p>In 1834 not a single town in the kingdom with the exception of London +possessed a daily paper. The invention of steam printing, and the +introduction of shorthand reporting and the use of telegraph and +railways, revolutionized the whole world of journalism.</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens, on the occasion of his presiding, in May 1865, at +the second annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund, gave his +hearers an idea of what newspaper reporters were and what they +suffered in the early days. "I have pursued the calling of a reporter +under circumstances of which many of my brethren here can form no +adequate conception. I have often transcribed for the printer, from +my shorthand notes, important public speeches in which the strictest +accuracy was required, and a mistake in which would have been to a +young man severely compromising, writing on the palm of my hand, by +the light of a dark lantern, in a post-chaise and four, galloping +through a wild country, and through the dead of the night, at the +then surprising rate of fifteen miles an hour. . . . I have worn my knees +by writing on them on the old back-row of the old gallery of the old +House of Commons; and I have worn my feet by standing to write in +a preposterous pen in the old House of Lords, where we used to be +huddled together like so many sheep—kept in waiting, say, until the +woolsack might want re-stuffing. Returning home from exciting +political meetings in the country to the waiting press in London, +I do verily believe I have been upset in almost every description +of vehicle known in this country. I have been, in my time, belated +on miry by-roads, towards the small hours, forty or fifty miles from +London, in a wheelless carriage, with exhausted horses and drunken +post-boys, and have got back in time for publication, to be received +with never-forgotten compliments by the late Mr Black, coming in the +broadest of Scotch from the broadest of hearts I ever knew."</p> + +<p>During these later years England came to look upon her duties and +responsibilities toward her colonial possessions in quite a +different light. Imperialism became a factor in the political life +of the nation.</p> + +<p>The builders of Empire in the time of Queen Elizabeth took a very +narrow view of their responsibilities; they were not in the least +degree concerned about the well-being of a colony or possession for +its own sake. The state of Ireland in those days spoke for itself. +The horrors of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 was the first lesson which +opened England's eyes to the fact that an Empire, if it is to be +anything more than a name, must be a united whole under wise and +sympathetic guidance.</p> + +<p>The rebellion proved to be the end of the old East Indian Company. +England took over the administration of Indian affairs into her own +hands. An "Act for the better Government of India" was passed in 1858, +which provided that all the territories previously under the +government of the Company were to be vested in Her Majesty, and all +the Company's powers to be exercised in her name. The Viceroy, with +the assistance of a Council, was to be supreme in India.</p> + +<p>In 1867 a great colonial reform was carried out, the Confederation +of the North American Provinces of the British Empire. By this Act +the names of Upper and Lower Canada were changed respectively to +Ontario and Quebec. The first Dominion Parliament met in the autumn +of the same year, and lost no time in passing an Act to construct +an Inter-Colonial Railway affording proper means of communication +between the maritime and central provinces.</p> + +<p>In 1869 the Hudson Bay territory was acquired from the Company which +held it, and after the Red River Insurrection, headed by a half-breed, +Louis Riel, had been successfully crushed by the Wolseley Expedition, +the territory was made part of the Federation. In 1871 British +Columbia became part of the Dominion, on condition that a railway +was constructed within the following ten years which should extend +from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains and connect with the existing +railway system.</p> + +<p>The great Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, opening +out the West to all-comers.</p> + +<p>The rise and growth of the Imperialistic spirit has been greatly +influenced by the literature on the subject, which dated its +commencement from Professor Seeley's <i>Expansion of England</i> in 1883. +This was followed by an immense number of works by various writers, +the chief of whom, Rudyard Kipling, has popularized the conception +of Imperialism and extended its meaning:</p> + +<blockquote>Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone,<br> +But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown.</blockquote> + +<p>The Empire was not, however, to be consolidated without war and +bloodshed, for relations with the two Boer Republics, the Transvaal +and the Orange River, became more and more strained as years went +on. The last years of the Queen's life were destined to be saddened +by the outbreak of war in South Africa.</p> + +<p>The facts which led to the outbreak were briefly these, though it +is but fair to state that there are, even now, various theories +current as to the causes. The discovery and opening up of the gold +mines of the Transvaal had brought a stream of adventurous emigrants +into the country, and it was these 'Outlanders' of whom the Dutch +were suspicious. The Transvaal Government refused to admit them to +equal political rights with the Dutch inhabitants. It was certain, +however, that the Outlanders would never submit to be dependent on +the policy of President Kruger, although the Dutch declared that they +had only accepted the suzerainty of Great Britain under compulsion.</p> + +<p>Negotiations between the two Governments led to nothing, as neither +side would give way, and at last, in 1899, following upon an ultimatum +demanding the withdrawal of British troops from the borders of the +Republic, war broke out. It had undoubtedly been hastened by the +ill-fated and ill-advised raid in 1896 of Dr Jameson, the +administrator of Rhodesia.</p> + +<p>It is scarcely necessary to review the details of this war at any +length. It proved conclusively that the Government of this country +had vastly underrated the resisting powers of the Boers. For three +years the British army was forced to wage a guerilla warfare, and +adapt itself to entirely new methods of campaigning.</p> + +<p>On May 28, 1900, the Orange Free State was annexed under the name +of the Orange River Colony. In June Lord Roberts entered Pretoria, +but the war dragged on until 1902, when a Peace Conference was held +and the Boer Republics became part of the British Empire. Very +liberal terms were offered to and accepted by the conquered Dutch. +But long before this event took place Queen Victoria had passed away. +She had followed the whole course of the war with the deepest interest +and anxiety, and when Lord Roberts returned to this country, leaving +Lord Kitchener in command in South Africa, the Queen was desirous +of hearing from his own lips the story of the campaign.</p> + +<p>The public was already uneasy about the state of her health, and on +January 20th it was announced that her condition had become serious. +On Tuesday, January 22, she was conscious and recognized the members +of her family watching by her bedside, but on the afternoon of the +same day she peacefully passed away. One of the last wishes she +expressed was that her body should be borne to rest on a gun-carriage, +for she had never forgotten that she was a soldier's daughter.</p> + +<p>On the day of the funeral the horses attached to the gun-carriage +became restive, and the sailors who formed the guard of honour took +their place, and drew the coffin, draped in the Union Jack, to its +last resting-place.</p> + +<p>Through the streets of London, which had witnessed two great Jubilee +processions, festivals of rejoicing and thanksgiving, the funeral +cortège passed, and a great reign and a great epoch in history had +come to an end.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="left"><h3><a name="chap15">CHAPTER XV: <i>Victoria the Great</i></a></h3></div> +<br> +<p>The keynote of Queen Victoria's life was simplicity. She was a great +ruler, and at the same time a simple-minded, sympathetic woman, the +true mother of her people. She seemed by some natural instinct to +understand their joys and their sorrows, and this was the more +remarkable as for forty years she reigned alone without the +invaluable advice and assistance of her husband.</p> + +<p>Her qualities were not those which have made other great rulers +famous, but they were typical of the age in which she lived.</p> + +<p>All her life she was industrious, and never spared herself any time +or trouble, however arduous and disagreeable her duties might be. +She possessed the keenest sense of duty, and in dealing with men and +circumstances she never failed to do or say the right thing. Her daily +intercourse with the leading English statesmen of the time gave her +an unrivalled knowledge of home and foreign politics. In short, her +natural ability and good sense, strengthened by experience, made her +what she was, a perfect model of a constitutional monarch.</p> + +<p>During her reign the Crown once again took its proper place: no longer +was there a gulf between the Ruler and the People, and Patriotism, +the love of Queen and Country, became a real and living thing. Pope's +adage, "A patriot is a fool in every age," could no longer be quoted +with any truth.</p> + +<p>Queen Victoria was, above all, a great lover of peace, and did all +in her power for its promotion. Her personal influence was often the +means of smoothing over difficulties both at home and abroad when +her Ministers had aggravated instead of lessening them. She formed +her own opinions and held to them, though she was always willing to +listen to reason.</p> + +<p>The Memorandum which she drew up in the year 1850 shows how firm a +stand she could take when her country's peace seemed to be +threatened.</p> + +<p>Lord Palmerston, though an able Minister in many respects, was a +wilful, hot-headed man, who was over-fond of acting on the spur of +the moment without consulting his Sovereign. His dispatches, written +as they so often were in a moment of feverish enthusiasm, frequently +gave offence to foreign monarchs and statesmen, and were more than +once nearly the cause of war. It was remarked of him that "the desk +was his place of peril, his pen ran away with him. His speech never +made an enemy, his writing has left many festering sores. The charm +of manner and urbanity which so served him in Parliament and in +society was sometimes wanting on paper, and good counsels were dashed +with asperity."</p> + +<p>Lord Palmerston, the Queen complained, did not obey instructions, +and she declared that before important dispatches were sent abroad +the Sovereign should be consulted. Further, alterations were +sometimes made by him when they had been neither suggested nor +approved by the Crown.</p> + +<p>Such proceedings caused England, in the Queen's own words, to be +"generally detested, mistrusted, and treated with indignity by even +the smallest Powers."</p> + +<p>In the Memorandum the Queen requires:</p> + +<p>"(1) That he will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, +in order that the Queen may know as distinctly to what she has given +her royal sanction.</p> + +<p>"(2) Having once given her sanction to a measure, that it be not +arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister. Such an act she must +consider as a failure in sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to +be visited by the exercise of her Constitutional right of dismissing +that Minister. She expects to be kept informed of what passes between +him and the Foreign Ministers, before important decisions are taken, +based upon that intercourse; to receive the Foreign dispatches in +good time and to have the drafts for her approval sent to her in +sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their contents +before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it best that Lord John +Russell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston."</p> + +<p>More than once the alteration of a dispatch by the Queen prevented +what might easily have plunged this country into a disastrous war.</p> + +<p>After the Mutiny in India a proclamation was issued to the native +races, and the Queen insisted upon alterations which would clearly +show that their religious beliefs should in no way be interfered with, +thus preventing a fresh mutiny.</p> + +<p>On rare occasions her indignation got the better of her—once, +notably, when, owing to careless delay on the part of the Ministry, +General Gordon perished at Khartoum, a rescue party failing to reach +him in time. In a letter to his sisters she spoke of this as "a stain +left upon England," and as a wrong which she felt very keenly.</p> + +<p>Her style of writing was as simple as possible, yet she always said +the right thing at the right moment, and her letters of sympathy or +congratulation were models of their kind and never failed in their +effect.</p> + +<p>Few, if any, reigns in history have been so blameless as hers, and +her domestic life was perfect in its harmony and the devotion of the +members of her family to one another. She possessed the 'eye of the +mistress' for every detail, however small, which concerned +housekeeping matters, and though her style of entertaining was +naturally often magnificent, everything was paid for punctually.</p> + +<p>After the visits of King Louis Philippe and the Emperor Nicholas of +Russia, Sir Robert Peel acknowledged that "Her Majesty was able to +meet every charge and to give a reception to the Sovereigns which +struck every one by its magnificence without adding one tittle to +the burdens of the country. I am not required by Her Majesty to press +for the extra expenditure of one single shilling on account of these +unforeseen causes of increased expenditure. I think that to state +this is only due to the personal credit of Her Majesty, who insists +upon it that there shall be every magnificence required by her +station, but without incurring one single debt."</p> + +<p>When one remembers that the Queen had to superintend the household +arrangements of Buckingham Palace, Balmoral Castle, Osborne, and +Windsor, and that the latter alone gave employment, in one way and +another, to two thousand people, it can be realized that this was +a tremendous undertaking in itself. Method and neatness, first +instituted by the Prince Consort, were always insisted upon in place +of the disorder and waste which had reigned supreme before the Queen +became head of the household.</p> +<a name="illus13"></a> +<center><img width="50%" src="images/museum.jpg" alt="Victoria and Albert Museum"></center> +<center><p>THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, SOUTH KENSINGTON</p></center> + +<p>Before her life was saddened by the untimely loss of her husband the +Queen was the leader of English society, and her influence was, as +may be imagined, thoroughly wholesome and good. She was all her life +a deeply religious woman, and though her observance of Sunday was +strict, she never allowed it to become a day of penance. Her religion +was 'humane'—indeed, her intense sympathy with all sorrow and +suffering was one of her supreme virtues, and her early upbringing +made her dislike all elaborate forms of ceremony during the service. +When in the Highlands she always attended the simple little +Presbyterian church, where the congregation was, for the most part, +made up of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>It is this simplicity and 'homeliness' of the Queen which were so +often misunderstood by those who could not realize how much she was +at one with her people. The Queen was never more happy than when she +was visiting some poor sufferer and comforting those in sorrow. Her +memory for the little events which made up the lives and happiness +of those far below her in social rank was amazing. She was a great +and a truly democratic Queen. She gave the greater portion of her +Jubilee present toward a fund to establish institutions to provide +nurses for the sick poor.</p> + +<p>During the latter years of her reign, when she was less and less to +be seen at public functions and ceremonies, many complaints were made +about her reputed neglect of royal duties. She felt the injustice +of such statements very keenly and with good reason. No allowances +were made for her poor health, for her years, for the family losses +which left her every year more and more a lonely woman. Her duties, +ever increasing in number and extent, left her no time, even if she +had possessed the inclination, to take part in pomp and ceremony.</p> + +<p>The outburst of loyalty and affection on the occasion of her two +Jubilee celebrations proved that she still reigned supreme in the +nation's heart.</p> + +<p>The Queen was not only a great monarch, but also a great statesman. +Consider for a moment the many and bewildering changes which took +place in her own and other countries during her reign. Our country +was almost continually at war in some portion of the globe. The +British Army fought side by side with the French against Russia in +the Crimea, and against the rebels in the Indian Mutiny; two Boer +wars were fought in South Africa in 1881, and 1899-1902. There were +also lesser wars in China, Afghanistan, Abyssinia, Zululand and +Egypt.</p> + +<p>The Queen lived to see France change from a Monarchy to a Republic; +to see Germany beat France to her knees and become a united Empire, +thanks to the foresight of her great statesman Bismarck, and her +great general von Moltke. During the same year (1870) the Italian +army entered Rome, as soon as the French garrison had been withdrawn, +and Italy became a united country under King Victor Emmanuel.</p> + +<p>Despite the fact that the map of Europe was continually changing, +England managed to keep clear of international strife, and this was +in no small degree due to the personal influence of the Queen.</p> + +<p>The England of her early years would be an absolutely foreign country +to us, if by some magic touch we were to be transplanted back down +the line of years. It was different in thought, feeling, and outlook. +The extraordinary changes in the modes of travelling, by means of +which numbers of people who had never even thought of any other +country beside their own, were enabled to visit other lands, broke +down, bit by bit, the barrier between the Continent and ourselves. +England became less of an insular and more of a continental power.</p> + +<p>The social changes were, as has been shown, all for good. Education +became not the privilege of the few but the right of all who wished +for it. Step by step the people gained in power and in the right to +govern themselves. The idea of citizenship, of a patriotism which +extended beyond the narrow limits of these isles, slowly took root +and blossomed. Through all these manifold changes the Queen reigned, +ever alert, and even in her last years taking the keenest interest +in the growth of her mighty kingdom.</p> + +<p>"The use of the Queen in a dignified capacity is incalculable," +declared Walter Bagehot in his famous essay on <i>The English +Constitution</i>. He continues: "Without her in England, the present +English Government would fail and pass away." It is interesting to +read the reasons which such a clear and distinguished thinker gives +to explain the hold which the Monarchy retains upon the English +nation as a whole.</p> + +<p>Firstly: there is the Family, of which the Queen is the head; the +Nation looks upon her as its mother, witness its enthusiasm at the +marriage of the Prince of Wales.</p> + +<p>Secondly: The Monarchy strengthens the Government with the strength +of religion. It is the duty of a loyal citizen to obey his Queen; +the oath of allegiance is no empty form. The Queen from her very +position acts as a symbol of unity.</p> + +<p>Thirdly: The Queen is the head of our society; she represents England +in the eyes of foreign nations.</p> + +<p>Fourthly: The Monarchy is the head of our morality. The example of +Queen Victoria's simple life has not been lost upon the nation. It +is now quite a natural thing to expect and to find the domestic +virtues personified in the ruling monarch, and this in spite of the +fact that history has shown what temptations lie in the way of those +possessed of the highest power in the state.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare voiced the feeling of the people for the kingship in the +words which he put into the mouth of Henry V:</p> + +<blockquote>Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,<br> + Our debts, our careful wives,<br> + Our children, and our sins, lay on the king:<br> + We must bear all.<br> + O hard condition! twin-born with greatness,<br> + Subject to the breath of every fool, whose sense<br> + No more can feel but his own wringing!<br> + What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect,<br> + That private men enjoy?<br> + And what have kings that privates have not too,<br> + Save ceremony, save general ceremony?</blockquote> + +<p>And lastly, the actual Government of the country may change but the +Monarch remains, subject to no changes of Parliament, above and aloof +from the strife of political parties, the steadying influence in +times of transition.</p> + +<p>The Sovereign has three rights: "The right to be consulted, the right +to encourage, the right to warn." A comparison of the reigns of the +four Georges with the reign of Queen Victoria shows that it was only +during the latter's reign that the duties of the constitutional +monarch were well and conscientiously performed. The Queen worked +as well as her Ministers, and was their equal and often their superior +in business capacity. To conclude: "The benefits of a good monarch +are almost invaluable, but the evils of a bad monarch are almost +irreparable."</p> + +<p>On the death of the Queen, Mr Arthur Balfour, speaking in the House +of Commons, described his visit to Osborne at a time when the Royal +Family was already in mourning. The Queen's desk was still littered +with papers, the inkstand still open and the pen laid beside it. "She +passed away with her children and her children's children to the +third generation around her, beloved and cherished of all. She passed +away without, I well believe, a single enemy in the world. Even those +who loved not England loved her. She passed away not only knowing +that she was, I had almost said, worshipped and reverenced by all +her subjects, but that their feelings towards her had grown in depth +and intensity with every year she was spared to rule over us."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><i>Appendix</i></h3> +<br> +<p>Victoria Alexandrina, only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth +son of George III. Born at Kensington, May 24, 1819. Became Queen, +June 20, 1837.</p> + +<p>Married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort, born +August 26, 1819, died December 14, 1861.</p> + +<p>Died January 22, 1901, after a reign of sixty-three years.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><i>Summary of Chief Events during the Queen's Reign</i></h3> +<br> +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" summary="event summary"> +<tr> + <td width="8%" align="right" valign="top">1838.</td> + <td valign="top">Commencement of the Chartist Movement.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1840.</td> + <td valign="top">PENNY POSTAGE ESTABLISHED mainly through the efforts of + Rowland Hill.<br> + War with China.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1841.</td> + <td valign="top">Sir Robert Peel appointed Premier.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1842.</td> + <td valign="top">War with Afghanistan. Peace with China. The Chinese cede Hong + Kong.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1843.</td> + <td valign="top">Agitation in Ireland for the Repeal of the Union.<br> + Arrest of Daniel O'Connell.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1845.</td> + <td valign="top">War with the Sikhs.<br> + Failure of potato crop in Ireland, which resulted in a famine + in the following winter.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1846.</td> + <td valign="top">Repeal of the Corn Laws.<br> + Lord John Russell appointed Premier.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1848.</td> + <td valign="top">Revolution in France. Prince Louis Napoleon becomes President + of the Republic.<br> + Chartist Agitation in London.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1849.</td> + <td valign="top">Annexation of the Punjab.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1850.</td> + <td valign="top">Death of Sir Robert Peel.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1851.</td> + <td valign="top">THE GREAT EXHIBITION.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1852.</td> + <td valign="top">Death of the Duke of Wellington.<br> + Louis Napoleon elected Emperor of France.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1853.</td> + <td valign="top">Turkey declares war against Russia.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1854.</td> + <td valign="top">Great Britain and France declare war against Russia.<br> + THE CRIMEAN WAR.<br> + Invasion of the Crimea. The Battle of the Alma (Sept. 20). + Siege of Sebastopol. Battle of Balaclava and Charge of the + Light Brigade (Oct. 25).<br> + Battle of Inkerman (Nov. 5).</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1855.</td> + <td valign="top">Lord Palmerston appointed Premier.<br> + Death of the Emperor Nicholas of Russia.<br> + Fall of Sebastopol (Sept.).</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1856.</td> + <td valign="top">Peace concluded with Russia by the Treaty of Paris.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1857.</td> + <td valign="top">THE INDIAN MUTINY.<br> + The massacre at Cawnpore (July). Capture of Delhi (Sept.).<br> + Sir Colin Campbell relieves Lucknow (Nov.).</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1858.</td> + <td valign="top">Suppression of the Mutiny.<br> + Abolition of the East India Company. The possessions and + powers of the Company transferred to the Crown. The + Queen's Proclamation to India issued by Lord Canning, + first Viceroy.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1859.</td> + <td valign="top">Establishment of the Volunteer Army.<br> + Fenianism in Ireland. Trial of O'Donovan Rossa.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1860.</td> + <td valign="top">Second Chinese War and occupation of Pekin.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1861.</td> + <td valign="top">THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.<br> + Repeal of the duty on paper.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1862.</td> + <td valign="top">The second Great Exhibition.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1865.</td> + <td valign="top">Death of Lord Palmerston. Lord Russell appointed Premier.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1866.</td> + <td valign="top">THE ATLANTIC CABLE LAID. Lord Derby appointed Premier.<br> + The war between Austria and Prussia.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1867.</td> + <td valign="top">THE SECOND REFORM BILL passed. It largely extended the suffrage + in English boroughs.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1868.</td> + <td valign="top">Disraeli appointed Premier.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1869.</td> + <td valign="top">Suez Canal opened.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1870.</td> + <td valign="top">THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT passed, which compelled the + attendance of children at efficient schools.<br> + The Franco-German War.<br> + Halfpenny postcards first came into use.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1871.</td> + <td valign="top">Establishment of the German Empire.<br> + TREATY OF WASHINGTON, which settled by arbitration the Alabama + claims.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1872.</td> + <td valign="top">The Ballot Act passed to secure secret voting at elections.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1874.</td> + <td valign="top">Disraeli appointed Premier for the second time.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1875.</td> + <td valign="top">Purchase of shares in the Suez Canal.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1876.</td> + <td valign="top">Disraeli becomes Earl of Beaconsfield.<br> + THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED EMPRESS OF INDIA.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1878.</td> + <td valign="top">Congress of Berlin to settle the Eastern Question. + Great Britain was represented by Lords Salisbury and + Beaconsfield.<br> + Second Afghan War.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1879.</td> + <td valign="top">War in Zululand.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1880.</td> + <td valign="top">Rising of the Boers in the Transvaal.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1881.</td> + <td valign="top">Defeat of the British at Majuba Hill. Peace concluded in March.<br> + Death of Lord Beaconsfield.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1882.</td> + <td valign="top">OCCUPATION OF EGYPT. Bombardment of Alexandria and the Battle + of Tel-el-Kebir.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1883.</td> + <td valign="top">War in the Soudan. Defeat of Hicks Pasha.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1885.</td> + <td valign="top">Fall of Khartoum and death of General Gordon.<br> + Redistribution Bill.<br> + Number of Members of Parliament increased from 658 to 670.<br> + The Revised Version of the Bible.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1886.</td> + <td valign="top">Annexation of Upper Burmah.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1887.</td> + <td valign="top">JUBILEE CELEBRATION.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1888.</td> + <td valign="top">Death of the Emperor William I. of Germany, and of his son + Frederick III. Succession of William II.<br> + The Local Government Act, by which England and Wales was + divided into counties and county boroughs for purposes of + local government.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1889.</td> + <td valign="top">Charter granted to British South African Co.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1896.</td> + <td valign="top">The Jameson Raid.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1897.</td> + <td valign="top">The 'Diamond' Jubilee.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1898.</td> + <td valign="top">Death of Gladstone.<br> + War in Soudan. Battle of Omdurman.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">1899.</td> + <td valign="top">South African War.</td> +</tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p>[Redactor's note: Thanks to the Woodstock School Library, Mussoorie, Uttar Anchal, India +for providing this volume. Unfortunately, two of the illustrations, +the frontispiece and the picture of Florence Nightingale, have been lost from the original.]</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Queen Victoria, by E. Gordon Browne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUEEN VICTORIA *** + +***** This file should be named 16965-h.htm or 16965-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/9/6/16965/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Gordon Browne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Queen Victoria + +Author: E. Gordon Browne + +Release Date: October 30, 2005 [EBook #16965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUEEN VICTORIA *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +[Frontispiece: QUEEN VICTORIA] + + + + +QUEEN VICTORIA + + +_BY_ +E. GORDON BROWNE, M.A. + + +_WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + + + +LONDON +GEORGE G. HARRAP & COMPANY +2 & 3 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C. +MCMXV + + + + +_Turnbull & Spears, Printers, Edinburgh, Great Britain_ + + + + +_Contents_ + +CHAPTER + I. A LOOK BACK + II. CHILDHOOD DAYS + III. EARLY YEARS + IV. HUSBAND AND WIFE + V. FAMILY LIFE + VI. STRIFE + VII. THE CHILDREN OF ENGLAND +VIII. MINISTERING WOMEN + IX. BALMORAL + X. THE GREAT EXHIBITION + XI. ALBERT THE GOOD + XII. FRIENDS AND ADVISERS +XIII. QUEEN AND EMPIRE + XIV. STRESS AND STRAIN + XV. VICTORIA THE GREAT + + + + +_Illustrations_ + +QUEEN VICTORIA +THE QUEEN'S FIRST COUNCIL AT KENSINGTON PALACE +KENSINGTON PALACE +THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KENT +THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE QUEEN'S ACCESSION +PRINCE ALBERT +BUCKINGHAM PALACE +FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE +QUEEN VICTORIA IN THE HIGHLANDS +THE ALBERT MEMORIAL +SIR ROBERT PEEL, LORD MELBOURNE, AND BENJAMIN DISRAELI +THE SECRET OF ENGLAND'S GREATNESS +THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM + + + + +CHAPTER I: _A Look Back_ + + +In the old legend of Rip Van Winkle with which the American writer +Washington Irving has made us so familiar, the ne'er-do-weel Rip +wanders off into the Kaatskill Mountains with his dog and gun in order +to escape from his wife's scolding tongue. Here he meets the spectre +crew of Captain Hudson, and, after partaking of their hospitality, +falls into a deep sleep which lasts for twenty years. The latter part +of the story describes the changes which he finds on his return to +his native village: nearly all the old, familiar faces are gone; +manners, dress, and speech are all changed. He feels like a stranger +in a strange land. + +Now, it is a good thing sometimes to take a look back, to try to count +over the changes for good or for evil which have taken place in this +country of ours; to try to understand clearly why the reign of a great +Queen should have left its mark upon our history in such a way that +men speak of the Victorian Age as one of the greatest ages that have +ever been. + +If an Elizabethan had been asked whether he considered the Queen of +England a great woman or not, he would undoubtedly have answered +"Yes," and given very good reasons for his answer. It was not for +nothing that the English almost worshipped their Queen in "those +spacious times of great Elizabeth." Edmund Spenser, one of the +world's great poets, hymned her as "fayre Elisa" and "the flowre of +Virgins": + + Helpe me to blaze + Her worthy praise; + Which, in her sexe doth all excell! + +Throughout her long reign, courtiers, statesmen, soldiers, and +people all united in serving her gladly and to the best of their +powers. + +Yet she could at times prove herself to be hard, cruel, and +vindictive; she was mean, even miserly, when money was wanted for +men or ships; she was excessively vain, loved dress and finery, and +was often proud almost beyond bearing. + +Notwithstanding all her faults, she was the best beloved of all +English monarchs because of her never-failing courage and strength +of mind, and she made the Crown respected, feared, and loved as no +other ruler had done before her, and none other, save Queen Victoria, +has reigned as she did in her people's hearts. + +She lived for her country, and her country's love and admiration were +her reward. During her reign the seas were swept clear of foreign +foes, and her country took its place in the front rank of Great Powers. +Hers was the Golden Age of Literature, of Adventure and Learning, +an age of great men and women, a New England. + +If an Elizabethan Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep and awakened again +at the opening of Victoria's reign, more than 200 years later, what +would he have found? England still a mighty Power, it is true, +scarcely yet recovered from the long war against Napoleon, with +Nelson and Wellington enthroned as the national heroes. But the times +were bad in many ways, for it was "a time of ugliness: ugly religion, +ugly law, ugly relations between rich and poor, ugly clothes, ugly +furniture." + +The England of that day, it must be remembered, was the England +described so faithfully in Charles Dickens' early works. It was far +from being the England we know now. In 1836 appeared the first number +of Mr Pickwick's travels. _The Pickwick Papers_ is not a great work +of humour merely, for in its pages we see England and the early +Victorians--a strange country to us--in which they lived. + +It is an England of old inns and stagecoaches, where "manners and +roads were very rough"; where men were still cast into prison for +debt and lived and died there; where the execution of a criminal still +took place in public; where little children of tender years were +condemned to work in the depths of coal-pits, and amid the clang and +roar of machinery. It was a hard, cruel age. No longer did the people +look up to and reverence their monarch as their leader. England had +yet to pass through a long and bitter period of 'strife and stress,' +of war between rich and poor, of many and bewildering changes. The +introduction of coal, steam, and mechanism was rapidly changing the +character of the whole country. The revenue had grown from about +19,000,000 pounds in 1792 to 105,000,000 pounds in 1815, and there +seemed to be no limit to the national wealth and resources. + +But these very changes which enriched some few were the cause of +misery and poverty to struggling thousands. Machinery had ruined the +spinning-wheel industry and reduced the price of cloth; the price +of corn had risen, and, after the close of the great war, other +nations were free once again to compete against our country in the +markets where we so long had possessed the monopoly of trade. + +[Illustration: The Queen's first Council at Kensington Palace +Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.] + +The period which followed the year 1815 was one of incessant struggle +for reform, and chiefly the reform of a Parliament which no +longer represented the people's wishes. Considerably more than half +the members were not elected at all, but were recommended by patrons. + +The average price of a seat in Parliament was 5000 pounds for a +so-called 'rotten borough.' Scotland returned forty-five members +and Cornwall forty-four members to Parliament! The reformers also +demanded the abolition of the 'taxes on knowledge,' by which was +meant the stamp duty of fourpence on every copy of a newspaper, a +duty of threepence on every pound of paper, and a heavy tax upon +advertisements. The new Poor Laws aroused bitter discontent. Instead +of receiving payment of money for relief of poverty, as had formerly +been the case, the poor and needy were now sent to the 'Union' +workhouse. + +A series of bad harvests was the cause of great migrations to the +factory towns, and the already large ranks of the unemployed grew +greater day by day. The poverty and wretchedness of the working class +is painted vividly for us by Carlyle when he speaks of "half a million +handloom weavers, working 15 hours a day, in perpetual inability to +procure thereby enough of the coarsest food; Scotch farm-labourers, +who 'in districts the half of whose husbandry is that of cows, taste +no milk, can procure no milk' . . . the working-classes can no longer +go on without government, without being _actually_ guided and +governed." + +Such was Victoria's England when she ascended the throne, a young +girl, nineteen years of age. + + + + +CHAPTER II: _Childhood Days + + +On the western side of Kensington Gardens stands the old Palace, +built originally in the solid Dutch style for King William and Mary. +The great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, made notable additions +to it, and it was still further extended in 1721 for George the First. + +Within its walls passed away both William and his Queen, Queen Anne +and her husband, and George the Second. After this time it ceased +to be a royal residence. + +The charm of Kensington Gardens, with its beautiful walks and +secluded sylvan nooks--the happy hunting-ground of London children +and the home of 'Peter Pan'--has inspired many writers to sing its +praises: + + In this lone, open glade I lie, + Screen'd by deep boughs on either hand; + And at its end, to stay the eye, + Those black-crown'd, red-boled pine trees stand! + + Birds here make song, each bird has his, + Across the girding city's hum. + How green under the boughs it is! + How thick the tremulous sheep cries come! + + Here at my feet what wonders pass, + What endless, active life is here! + What blowing daisies, fragrant grass! + An air-stirred forest, fresh and clear. + MATTHEW ARNOLD + +Beaconsfield spoke of its "sublime sylvan solitude superior to the +cedars of Lebanon, and inferior only in extent to the chestnut +forests of Anatolia." + +Kensington Palace was the birthplace of Queen Victoria, and in the +garden walks she used to play, little knowing that she would one day +be Queen of England. Her doll's house and toys are still preserved +in the rooms which she inhabited as a little girl. + +[Illustration: KENSINGTON PALACE] + +Four years had passed since the battle of Waterloo when the Princess +Victoria was born, and England was settling down to a time of peace +after long years of warfare. + +In 1830 George the Fourth died, and was succeeded by his brother, +the Duke of Clarence, as William the Fourth, the 'sailor king.' +Though not in any respect a great monarch, he proved himself to be +a good king and one who was always wishful to do the best that lay +in his power for the country's good. + +He was exceedingly hospitable, and gave dinners to thousands of his +friends and acquaintances during the year, particularly inviting all +his old messmates of the Navy. He had two daughters by his marriage, +and as these both died young it was evident that the Princess Victoria +might some day succeed to the throne. + +Her father, the Duke of Kent, married the Dowager Princess of +Leiningen, who was the sister of Prince Leopold, afterward King of +the Belgians. As a young man the Duke had seen much service, for when +he was only seventeen years of age he entered the Hanoverian army, +where the discipline was severe and rigid. He afterward served in +the West Indies and Canada, and on his return to England he was made +a peer with the title of Duke of Kent. He was afterward General and +Commander-in-Chief in Canada and Governor of Gibraltar. + +At the latter place his love of order and discipline naturally made +him unpopular, and, owing to strong feeling on the part of the troops, +it was considered wise to recall the Duke in 1803. + +In 1816 he settled in Brussels, and soon afterward met his future +wife in Germany. Princess Victoire Marie Louise was the youngest +daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and widow of Prince Charles of +Leiningen, who on his death had left her as the regent of his +principality. + +They were married at Coburg in May 1818. Some months afterward they +came over to England, and on May 24, 1819, their daughter Alexandrina +Victoria was born. + +[Illustration: The Duke of Kent +Sir Wm. Beechey +Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.] + +[Illustration: The Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria +Sir Wm. Beechey +Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.] + +The Duke still kept up his simple, soldierly habits, for throughout +his life he had always believed in regularly ordering one's day. He +rose betimes and took a cup of coffee at six o'clock. Each servant +of the household was allotted his or her regular duties, and was +obliged at least once a day to appear before the Duke. There was a +separate bell for each servant, and punctuality in attendance was +insisted upon. + +The christening was attended by members of the Royal Family, and a +dinner was held to celebrate the happy event. The Duke and Duchess +removed soon afterward to Devonshire, and they were both much pleased +with the beautiful surroundings of their new home. The Duke wrote +at this time of his daughter: "My little girl thrives under the +influence of a Devonshire climate, and is, I am delighted to say, +strong and healthy; too healthy, I fear, in the opinion of some +members of my family, by whom she is regarded as an intruder. How +largely she contributes to my happiness at this moment it is needless +for me to say to you." + +The Duke had been determined from the first that his child should +be born in England, for he wished her to be English both in upbringing +and in feeling. His wife, who is described by those who knew her as +being a singularly attractive woman, full of deep feeling and +sympathy, fully shared his views on this point. + +In January 1820, when only fifty-three years of age, the Duke died +quite suddenly from inflammation of the lungs, following upon a +neglected cold. He was a man of deep religious feeling, and once in +talking to a friend about his little daughter's future career he said +earnestly: "Don't pray simply that hers may be a brilliant career, +and exempt from those trials and struggles which have pursued her +father, but pray that God's blessing may rest on her, that it may +overshadow her, and that in all her coming years she may be guided +and guarded by God." + +The widowed mother now returned to London, where the Duchess of +Clarence, afterward Queen Adelaide, interested herself greatly in +little Victoria. The Duchess now devoted herself entirely to the care +of her child, and never did any little girl have a more loving and +devoted mother. + +As much time as possible was spent in the open air, and Victoria went +for rides about Kensington on a donkey, which was led by an old +soldier, a great friend and favourite. She always had her breakfast +and supper with her mother, and at nine o'clock retired to her bed, +which was placed close to her mother's. Until the time of her +accession she led as simple and regular a life as thousands of other +little girls. + +Many stories are told of her early years to illustrate the +thoroughness of her home training. Even as a small child she was +absolutely truthful, and her chief fault--that of wilfulness--was +due to some extent to her high spirits and abundant energy. She was +especially fond of dolls, and possessed a very large number, most +of which were dressed as historical personages. She had practically +no playmates of her own age, and in later life she often spoke of +these early years as being rather dull. + +A description of her at this period runs: "She was a beautiful child, +with the cherubic form of features, clustered round by glossy, fair +ringlets. Her complexion was remarkably transparent, with a soft and +often heightening tinge of the sweet blush rose upon her cheeks that +imparted a peculiar brilliancy to her clear blue eyes. Whenever she +met any strangers in her usual paths she always seemed by the +quickness of her glance to inquire who and what they were." + +There was, as was natural, much correspondence between England and +Saxe-Coburg, the home of the Duchess, for the second son of the Duke +of Coburg, Charles Albert Augustus Emmanuel, was already spoken of +as being destined to be Victoria's husband in the future. + +Prince Albert had been born at Rosenau on August 19, 1819, and was +thus slightly younger than his cousin. He is spoken of as being a +very handsome boy, "like a little angel with his fair curls," and +was for a time much spoilt until his father interfered and +superintended the children's education himself. + +Ernest, the elder son, gives us a charming picture of his father: + +"We children beheld in him, and justly, our ideal of courtesy, and +although he never said a harsh word to us, we bore towards him, +through all our love and confidence, a reverence bordering on fear. +He never lectured, seldom blamed; praised unwillingly; and yet the +effect of his individuality was so powerful that we accomplished more +than if we had been praised or blamed. When he was once asked by a +relative whether we were industrious and well behaved, he answered: +'My children cannot be naughty, and as they know well that they must +learn in order to be worthy men, so I do not trouble myself about +it.'" + +The Duke liked both his sons to listen to the conversation of their +elders and to take an interest in art and literature. Outdoor +exercise, riding, fishing, hunting, and driving formed part of their +education; they were taught from the first to endure cold and +discomfort without complaint or murmur. The religious teaching they +received had a deep and lasting influence upon the two boys, both +at that time and in later years. But they had a thoroughly happy +boyhood and did not suffer from a lack of companions. After their +confirmation their father took them on a visit to several Courts in +Germany, and also to Vienna--a journey which was intended to open +their minds to the great world of which they had learnt so much and +seen so little; and it was about this time that King Leopold, the +brother of the Duke of Coburg, thought it wise to make a careful +inquiry into the life and character of the young Prince. + + + + +CHAPTER III: _Early Years_ + + God save thee, weeping Queen! + Thou shalt be well beloved! + The tyrant's sceptre cannot move, + As those pure tears have moved! + E.B. BROWNING + + +When she was five years old the Princess Victoria began to have +lessons, chiefly with a governess, Miss von Lehzen--"my dearly +beloved angelic Lehzen," as she called her. These two remained +devotedly attached to one another until the latter's death in 1870. +The young Princess was especially fond of music and drawing, and it +was clear that if she had been able to devote more time to study she +would in later years have excelled in both subjects. + +Her education was such as to fit her for her future position of Queen +of England. The Princess did not, however, know that she was likely +at any future time to be Queen. She read much, chiefly books dealing +with history, and these were often chosen for her by her uncle, the +King of the Belgians. + +The family life was regular and simple. Lessons, a walk or drive, +very few and simple pleasures made up her day. Breakfast was at +half-past eight, luncheon at half-past one, and dinner at seven. Tea +was allowed only in later years as a great treat. + +The Queen herself said: "I was brought up very simply--never had a +room to myself till I was nearly grown up--always slept in my mother's +room till I came to the throne." + +Sir Walter Scott wrote of her at this period of her life: "This little +lady is educated 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." + +In 1830 her uncle, George the Fourth, died, and his brother, William +the Fourth, came to the throne. The young Princess was now the next +in succession. Her governess thought that her pupil should be told +of this fact, and as the Duchess of Kent agreed, the table of +genealogy was placed inside Victoria's history book, where by and +by she found it. + +The story goes that she then said, "I see, I am nearer the throne +than I thought," and giving her hand to her governess added: "I will +be good. I understand now, why you urged me so much to learn, even +Latin. My cousins Augusta and Mary never did, but you told me that +Latin was the foundation of English grammar, and of all the elegant +expressions, and I learned it as you wished. But I understand it all +better now." In later years the Queen recollected crying very much +when she heard of it, but could not recall exactly what had happened. + +It is interesting to note what those who knew little Victoria at this +time say about her. She was, we are told, exceedingly affectionate, +very full of high spirits, fond of life in the open air, and already +possessed a strong sense of duty and religion. + +She had been taught by her devoted uncle Leopold, with whom she +corresponded regularly, how necessary it was for her to understand +thoroughly the duties which fall to the share of a ruler. During the +years which followed she went more into society and paid visits to +the most interesting places in the kingdom. Everywhere she went she +was received with the greatest enthusiasm. + +In 1830 the Duke of Coburg, with his two sons, Ernest and Albert, +arrived at Kensington Palace on a visit, and thus the Princess met +for the first time her future husband. Her uncle Leopold had long +desired to carry out the cherished wish of his mother, the Dowager +Duchess of Coburg, that the two cousins should be united in marriage. +During William the Fourth's lifetime all mention of such a marriage +had to be kept secret, as the King much disliked the Coburg family, +and had more than once been very rude to the Duchess of Kent. + +Victoria wrote to her uncle saying how much she liked Albert in every +way, and that he possessed every quality that could be desired to +render her perfectly happy. She was very anxious that her uncle +should take her cousin under his special protection. + +On May 24, 1837, Victoria attained her majority. She received numbers +of magnificent presents, congratulations from public bodies, and in +the evening a State Ball was given at St James's Palace. + +On Tuesday, June 20 of that year, at twelve minutes past two, King +William the Fourth died. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord +Chamberlain set out at once for Kensington to convey the sad news. +They arrived at five in the morning, and were told that the Princess +was asleep. They replied that they were on important business of +State to the Queen, and even her sleep must give way to that. Our +illustration depicts the scene which then ensued. + +[Illustration: The Announcement of the Queen's Accession by the +Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor +H.T. Wells, R.A. +Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.] + +Even during the first days of her reign, the Queen's dignity, calm, +and knowledge of State affairs astonished her ministers, and were +complete proof of the careful training she had received during her +girlhood days. Greville, Clerk to the Council, wrote: "She presided +with as much ease as if she had been doing nothing else all her +life. . . . 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 excessive interest in all who approach +her, and which I can't help feeling myself." + +In July the Queen and her mother left their home to take up their +residence in Buckingham Palace, formerly known as the Queen's House. +The present palace occupies the site of Buckingham House, which was +erected by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in 1703. It was bought +by George the Third for his wife in 1761, remodelled by George the +Fourth, and completed by William the Fourth, who, however, had never +lived there. + +Four days later the Queen went in State to dissolve Parliament, and +soon afterward removed to Windsor Castle, where she was joined for +a time by her uncle and his wife. + +Prince Albert wrote her a warm letter of congratulation. "You are +now," he said, "Queen of the mightiest land in Europe. In your hands +lie the happiness of millions. May Heaven assist and strengthen you +with its strength in that high but difficult task! I hope that your +reign may be long, happy, and glorious, and that your efforts may +be rewarded by the thankfulness and love of your subjects." + +On Thursday, June 28, 1838, the coronation ceremony took place in +Westminster Abbey. Afterward the Queen made a royal progress and was +greeted by immense crowds of her people with the utmost loyalty and +enthusiasm. In her journal she described it as the proudest day of +her life. Mrs Jamieson, an onlooker, wrote of her as follows: + +"When she returned, looking pale and tremulous, crowned and holding +her sceptre in a manner and attitude which said, 'I have it, and none +shall wrest it from me,' even Carlyle, who was standing near me, +uttered with emotion, 'A blessing on her head!'" + +As a small instance of the Queen's consideration for others, one of +her first thoughts after the ceremony was for the school-children. +She wrote to her minister, Lord Melbourne, asking if it was not usual +to give a week's additional holiday to the schools on such an occasion +as this. + +Lord Melbourne was from the moment of her accession the Queen's chief +adviser, and from the many letters which passed between them it is +extremely interesting to see with what affection the young and +inexperienced girl regarded him. "He is not only a clever statesman +and an honest man," she wrote to her uncle, Leopold, "but a good and +a kind-hearted man, whose aim is to do his duty for his country and +not for a _party_." + +Lord Melbourne was almost a second father to her, and there is no +doubt that it was largely due to his excellent and homely advice that +the Queen was able during the early years of her reign to develop +in such an astonishing manner and yet at the same time to retain such +a sweet and womanly character. Of her regularity of life and careful +attention to detail we learn from Greville's diary. She rose soon +after eight o'clock, and after breakfast was occupied with business +the whole morning. During this time Lord Melbourne visited her +regularly. At two o'clock she rode out, attended by her suite, and +amused herself afterward for the rest of the afternoon with music, +singing, or romps with children. Dinner was served at eight o'clock +to the whole household, and the Queen usually retired soon after +eleven. "She orders and regulates every detail herself; she knows +where everybody is lodged in the Castle, settles about the riding +or driving, and enters into every particular with minute attention." +She never signed a single document of any importance until she had +thoroughly mastered its contents. + +In October, 1839, her cousins Ernest and Albert paid her a visit, +bringing with them a letter from their uncle Leopold, in which he +recommended them to her care. They were at once upon intimate terms, +and the Queen confided to her uncle that "Albert was very +fascinating." Four days after their arrival she informed Lord +Melbourne that she had made up her mind as to the question of marriage. +He received the news in a very kindly manner and said: "I think it +will be very well received, for I hear that there is an anxiety now +that it should be, and I am very glad of it. You will be much more +comfortable, for a woman cannot stand alone for any time, in whatever +position she may be." + +The Queen described her betrothal as follows: "At half-past twelve +I sent for Albert. He came to the closet, where I was alone, and after +a few minutes I said to him that I thought he would be aware why I +wished him to come, and that it would make me happy if he would consent +to what I wished, namely, to marry me. There was no hesitation on +his part, but the offer was received with the greatest demonstrations +of kindness and affection. . . . I told him I was quite unworthy of +him. . . . He said he would be very happy to spend his life with me." + +She wrote to her uncle: "I _love_ him _more_ than I can say, and I +shall do everything in my power to render the sacrifice he has made +(for a sacrifice in my opinion it is) as small as I can." + +In the following November the news was made public, but it was not +received with any great enthusiasm, as a German alliance was +unpopular. There were other suitors for the Queen's hand, and the +majority would have preferred one of her English cousins to have been +chosen. + +On February 10, 1840, the marriage was solemnized at the Chapel Royal, +St James's. The Queen was described by those who saw her as looking +extremely happy, and to her uncle she wrote of her delight at seeing +the huge crowds which lined the streets to see the procession pass. +"God grant that I may be the happy person, the _most_ happy person, +to make this dearest, blessed being happy and contented! What is in +my power to make him happy, I will do." + + + + +CHAPTER IV: _Husband and Wife_ + + +After four short days the Queen and her husband returned to London, +and from this time onward the Prince acted as his wife's secretary, +attending to every little detail of the mass of correspondence and +State documents which grew larger with every succeeding year. + +All the letters received by the Queen during the course of a long +and busy life-time were carefully preserved, and at her death they +amounted to no fewer than five or six hundred large bound volumes. +They include letters from crowned heads of Europe, from her ministers +of State, from her children, and from her friends and relations. + +All these the Queen read and answered. She was thus at all times fully +aware of everything that was happening both at home and abroad, and +in her great Empire, an Empire which was destined to grow greater +and greater in power and extent during her reign. Day by day, year +in, year out, without a single break, this immense correspondence +arrived. Ministers resigned and ministers were appointed, but there +was neither halt nor rest. Truly 'the burden of Empire' is heavy for +those who bear it. + +The young Prince determined from the first to master both national +and European politics, for it must always be remembered that as he +was a foreigner everything in this country was for some time strange +to him. In addition to being his wife's right hand he took a leading +part in all movements which might help to improve the education and +conditions of life of the people. His fine training and sympathetic +nature enabled him, little by little, to be the means of helping on +important reforms. In addition to this, both he and his wife found +time to work at drawing and music, which they studied together under +the best masters. Throughout the Queen's correspondence one reads +of his devotion to her both as husband and helpmate. + +The times were hard; discontent with poverty and bad trade kept the +nation ill at ease, and, as is always the case, there were many who +did their best to stir up riot. As a consequence, possibly, of this +unrest, attempts were made on the Queen's life, once in 1840 and twice +in 1841. + +The relief and joy felt by the whole nation at their young Queen's +lucky escapes from death by an assassin's hand are expressed in the +following lines by an anonymous author:-- + + God saved the Queen--all thoughts apart + This crowning joy fills every mind! + She sits within the nation's heart, + An angel shrined. + + The assassin's hand the steel enclosed, + He poised his ruthless hand on high-- + But God in mercy interposed + His shadow for her panoply. + + Then let ten thousand lyres be swept, + Let paeans ring o'er sea and land-- + The Almighty hath our Sovereign kept + Within the hollow of His hand! + +In July 1840, it was considered necessary to appoint a Regent in case +of the Queen's death. A Bill for this purpose was brought in and +passed, naming the Prince as Regent. This pleased the Queen, for it +was a clear proof of the golden opinions the Prince had won everywhere +since his marriage, and it was passed, as she herself said, entirely +on account of his noble character. At an earlier period it is certain, +as Lord Melbourne assured her, that Parliament would not have passed +such a Bill. + +The Queen was soon to lose her chief adviser and friend, for in June +1841 Parliament dissolved and the Whigs were not returned to power. +Lord Melbourne could, however, resign with an easy mind, for he +himself recognized how valuable a counsellor the Queen now possessed +in her husband. After handing his resignation to the Queen, he wrote +to her: "Lord Melbourne has formed the highest opinion of His Royal +Highness's judgment, temper, and discretion, and he cannot but feel +a great consolation 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." The Queen was exceedingly +proud of these words of praise, coming as they did unasked from a +minister of such long experience. + +It was in the same year that the Prince was appointed Head of the +Royal Commission which had been formed to encourage the study of the +Fine Arts throughout the kingdom. This was work of a kind which he +especially loved, and he was now in a position to influence the +movement which led to the Great Exhibition of 1851. + +[Illustration: Prince Albert +F.X. Winterhalter +Photo Emery Walker Ltd.] + +But all was not plain sailing for the Prince, who was still regarded, +if not with dislike, at any rate with some mistrust, as being a +foreigner. For a long time yet he felt himself a stranger, the Queen's +husband and nothing more. Still, "all cometh to him who knoweth how +to wait," and he set himself bravely to his uphill task. To use his +own words, "I endeavour to be as much use to Victoria as I can,"--this +was the keynote of his whole life. + +The Prince took sides with neither of the political parties, and +first of all by careful economy he lessened the enormous household +expenses and proved that it was possible for royalty to live without +always being in debt. He established model farms at Osborne and +Windsor, introduced different and better breeds of cattle, and even +made a profit on the undertaking. He persuaded his wife to give up +the late hours which were still usual, and gradually, by kindness +and sympathy, won the household staff over to his way of thinking. + +The Prince's life was an extremely full one. Soon after six o'clock +was his time for rising. Until nine he read and answered letters. +He then looked through all the principal newspapers and gave the +Queen a summary of the most important news. He found time also to +work and play with his children during his short intervals of leisure. +Consultations with ministers, reading and writing dispatches +followed, and then a short time was devoted to open-air exercise. +After lunch he often accompanied the Queen on a drive. More reading +and writing took up his time until dinner, after which there was +either a social evening or a visit to a theatre. He was "complete +master in his house, and the active centre of an Empire whose power +extends to every quarter of the globe. . . . No British Cabinet +minister has ever worked so hard during the session of Parliament, +and that is saying a good deal, as the Prince Consort did for 21 +years. . . . The Prince had no holidays at all, he was always in +harness."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Miss C.M. Yonge, _Life of H.R.H. the Prince Consort_.] + +Louis Philippe, the first French king who had ever visited this +country, except King John, wrote of him: "Oh, he will do wonders; +he is so wise; he is not in a hurry; he gains so much by being known. +He will always give you good advice. Do not think I say so in flattery. +No! No! It is from my heart. He will be like his uncle, equally wise +and good. . . . He will be of the greatest use to you, and will keep +well at your side if a time of vicissitude should come, such as I +hope may never be--but, after all, no one can tell." + + + + +CHAPTER V: _Family Life + + +"Upon the good education of princes, and especially of those who are +destined to govern, the welfare of the world in these days very +greatly depends." + +The love of children was always a strong connecting link between the +Queen and her people. No trouble was ever spared by her to obtain +the best possible advice on the training of her own family. The +nursery was as well governed as her kingdom. + +Acting upon the advice of Baron Stockmar, the Queen determined to +have some one at the head on whom she could thoroughly rely, as her +many occupations prevented her from devoting so much time to these +duties as she could have wished. Lady Lyttelton, who had been a +lady-in-waiting, was appointed governess to the Royal Family in 1842, +and for eight years she held this post, winning the affection and +respect of her young pupils and the gratitude of the Queen and her +husband. + +From time to time the Queen wrote her views upon the subject. "The +greatest maxim of all is," she declared, "that the children 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 +confidence in them in all things." + +Training in religion, to be of real and lasting value, must be given +by the mother herself, and in 1844 the Queen noted with regret that +it was not always possible for her to be with the Princess Royal when +the child was saying her prayers. + +"I am _quite_ clear," she said, "that she ought to be taught to have +great reverence for God and for religion, but that she should have +the feeling of devotion and love which our Heavenly Father encourages +His earthly children to have for Him, and not one of fear and +trembling; and that the thoughts of death and an after-life should +not be represented in an alarming and forbidding view, and that she +should be made to know _as yet_ no difference of creeds, and not think +that she can only pray on her knees, or that those who do not kneel +are less fervent and devout in their prayers." + +On November 21, 1840, the Queen's first child, Victoria Adelaide Mary +Louisa, the Princess Royal, was born. The Prince's care of his wife +"was like that of a mother, nor could there be a kinder, wiser, or +more judicious nurse." Only for a moment was he disappointed that +his first child was a daughter and not a son. + +The children were all brought up strictly and were never allowed to +appear at Court until a comparatively late age. They were all taught +to use their hands as well as their heads, and at Osborne, in the +Swiss cottage, the boys worked at carpentering and gardening, while +the girls were employed in learning cooking and housekeeping. +Christmas was always celebrated in splendid fashion by the family, +and the royal children were always encouraged to give as presents +something which they had made with their own hands. Lessons in riding, +driving, and swimming also formed part of their training, for the +Queen was wise enough to realize that open-air exercise was very +necessary for the health of her children. + +In 1846 the question arose as to who should educate the Prince of +Wales (born 1841). A pamphlet on the subject had been published and +created general interest. Baron Stockmar was again consulted, and +gave it as his opinion that the Prince's education should be one +"which will prepare him for approaching events"--that is, he was to +be so educated that he would be in touch with the movements of the +age and able to respond sympathetically to the wishes of the nation. +The rapid growth of democracy throughout Europe made it absolutely +necessary that his education should be of a different kind. The task +of governing well was becoming more and more difficult, and reigning +monarchs were criticized in an open fashion, such as had not hitherto +been possible. After much thought the post was given to Mr Henry Birch +(formerly a master at Eton College, and at that time rector of +Prestwich, near Manchester), who had made a very favourable +impression upon the Queen and her husband. + +Plain people as well as princes must be educated, and this fact was +never lost sight of by the Queen and her husband. In 1857 the Prince +called attention to the fact that there were at that time no fewer +than 600,000 children between the ages of three and fifteen absent +from school but known to be employed in some way; he pointed out +also--and this seems in these days difficult to believe--that no less +than _two million_ children were not attending school, and were, so +far as could be ascertained, not employed in any way at all. + +[Illustration: BUCKINGHAM PALACE] + +The most interesting visitors whom the Queen entertained during her +early married life were the Emperor Nicholas of Russia and Louis +Napoleon of France. The Emperor Nicholas came to England, as he told +the Queen, to see things with his own eyes, and to win, if he could, +the confidence of English statesmen. "I esteem England highly; but +as to what the French say of me, I care not." + +He was, however, undoubtedly jealous of this country's growing +friendship with her old enemy, France, but any attempt to weaken this +met with no encouragement. + +The Queen, in writing to her uncle Leopold, said, "He gives Albert +and myself the impression of a man who is _not_ happy, and on whom +the burden of his immense power and position weighs heavily and +painfully. He seldom smiles, and when he does, the expression is +_not_ a happy one. He is very easy to get on with." In a further letter +she continued, "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. . . . He is sincere, I am certain, _sincere_ even in his most +despotic acts--from a sense that that _is_ the _only_ way to +govern. . . . 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: 'These are the sweet moments of our life.' One can see by +the way he takes them up and plays with them that he is very fond +of children." And again she wrote: "He also spoke of princes being +nowadays obliged to strive to make themselves worthy of their +position, so as to reconcile people to the fact of their being +princes." + +The effect of this visit was to make France somewhat suspicious, and +the Queen expressed her wish that it might not prevent the visit which +had been promised by King Louis Philippe. + +There was at one time actually danger of war over trouble in the East, +but King Leopold, whose kingdom was in the happy position of having +its independence guaranteed by the Powers,[2] was able to bring his +influence to bear, and the critical period passed over, to the great +relief of the Queen. + +[Footnote 2: This, however, did not protect Belgium in 1914, when +Germany did not hesitate to attack her.] + +In 1844 King Louis Philippe paid his promised visit, of which the +Queen said, "He is the first King of France who comes on a visit to +the Sovereign of this country. A very eventful epoch, indeed, and +one which will surely bring good fruits." + +The King was immensely pleased with everything he saw, and with the +friendly reception he received. He assured the Queen that France did +not wish to go to war with England, and he told her how pleased he +was that all their difficulties were now smoothed over. + +During his stay he was invested with the Order of the Garter--an Order, +it is interesting to recollect, which had been created by Edward the +Third after the Battle of Cressy, and whose earliest knights were +the Black Prince and his companions. + +The Corporation of London went to Windsor in civic state to present +the King with an address of congratulation. He declared in his answer +that "France has nothing to ask of England, and England has nothing +to ask of France, but cordial union." + +But in 1848 the Orleans dynasty was overthrown, France proclaimed +a republic, and King Louis Philippe, his wife and family were forced +to flee to England. Here in 1850, broken in health, the King died. + +In 1852 Louis Napoleon, who had been elected President for life, +created himself Emperor, and in 1855, after the conclusion of the +Crimean War and the death of the Emperor Nicholas, he visited +England. + +A State Ball was held of which the Queen wrote: "How strange to think +that I, the granddaughter of George III, should dance with the +Emperor Napoleon, nephew of England's great enemy, now my nearest +and most intimate ally, in the Waterloo room, and this ally only six +years ago living in this country an exile, poor and unthought of! . . . +I am glad to have known this extraordinary man, whom it is certainly +impossible not to like when you live with him, and not even to a +considerable extent to admire. I believe him to be capable of +kindness, affection, friendship, and gratitude. I feel confidence +in him as regards the future; I think he is frank, means well towards +us, and, as Stockmar says, 'that we have insured his sincerity and +good faith towards us for the rest of his life.'" + +The Queen and her husband paid frequent visits, and made many tours +during their early married life. It was a great source of pleasure +to both of them to feel that everywhere they went they were received +with the greatest delight and enthusiasm. + +In 1847 they visited Cambridge University, of which Prince Albert +was now Chancellor. "Every station and bridge, and resting-place, +and spot of shade was peopled with eager faces watching for the Queen, +and decorated with flowers; but the largest, and the brightest, and +the gayest, and the most excited assemblage was at Cambridge station +itself. . . . I think I never saw so many children before in one +morning, and I felt so much moved at the spectacle of such a mass +of life collected together and animated by one feeling, and that a +joyous one, that I was at a loss to conceive how any woman's sides +can bear the beating of so strong a throb as must attend the +consciousness of being the object of all that excitement, the centre +of attraction to all those eyes. But the Queen has royal strength +of nerve."[3] + +[Footnote 3: The Duke of Argyll, _Queen Victoria_.] + +In 1849 they paid their first visit to Ireland, and received a royal +welcome on landing in Cork. The Queen noticed particularly that +"the beauty of the women is very remarkable, and struck us much; such +beautiful dark eyes and hair, and such fine teeth; almost every third +woman was pretty, and some remarkably so." + +The royal children were the objects of great admiration. "Oh! Queen, +dear!" screamed a stout old lady, "make one of them Prince Patrick, +and all Ireland will die for you." + +In Dublin, the capital of a country which had very recently been in +revolt, the loyal welcome was, if possible, even more striking. + +The Queen writes: "It was a wonderful and striking spectacle, such +masses of human beings, so enthusiastic, so excited, yet such perfect +order maintained; then the numbers of troops, the different bands +stationed at certain distances, the waving of hats and handkerchiefs, +the bursts of welcome which rent the air--all made a +never-to-be-forgotten scene." + +Lord Clarendon, writing of the results of the Irish tour, said, "The +people are not only enchanted with the Queen and the gracious +kindness of her manner and the confidence she has shown in them, but +they are pleased with themselves for their own good feelings and +behaviour, which they consider have removed the barrier that +hitherto existed between the Sovereign and themselves, and that they +now occupy a higher position in the eyes of the world." + +In 1850 they visited for the first time the Palace of Holyrood. This +was a memorable occasion, for since Mary, Queen of Scots, had been +imprisoned there, no queen had ever stayed within its walls. + +The Queen took the liveliest interest in the many objects of +historical interest which were shown to her. "We saw the rooms where +Queen Mary lived, her bed, the dressing-room into which the murderers +entered who killed Rizzio, and the spot where he fell, where, as the +old housekeeper said to me, 'If the lady would stand on that side,' +I would see that the boards were discoloured by the blood. Every step +is full of historical recollections, and our living here is quite +an epoch in the annals of this old pile, which has seen so many deeds, +more bad, I fear, than good." + +Both the Queen and her husband had an especial love for animals, and +the Queen's suite, when she travelled, always included a number of +dogs. Her favourites were Skye terriers and the so-called +'turnspits' which were introduced into this country by Prince Albert. +One of the Queen's great delights at Windsor was to walk round the +farms and inspect the cattle, which are still, owing largely to the +careful methods of feeding and tending instituted by the Prince, +among the finest in the world. Kindness to animals was a lesson she +taught to all her children, and pictures and statuettes of all her +old favourites were to be found in her homes. + + + + THE ROYAL FAMILY + +QUEEN VICTORIA _m_. PRINCE ALBERT of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha + 1840 + | + | + ------------------------------------------------ + | | | | | | | | | + | | | | | | | | | +Victoria, Princess | Princess Alice | | | | | Princess Beatrice +Royal (Empress | (Grand Duchess | | | | | (Princess Henry of +Frederick of | of Hesse) | | | | | Battenberg) +Germany) born 1840 | born 1843 | | | | | born 1857 + | | | | | | +-------------------- | | | | ----------- +| | | | | | +| ----------------------- | | | | +| | | | | Prince Leopold +| | --------- | | (Duke of Albany) +| Prince Alfred, Duke | | | born 1853 +| of Edinburgh (Duke | | | +| of Saxe-Coburg and Princess Helena | -------- +| Gotha) born 1844 (Princess Christian | | +| of Schleswig- | | +| Holstein) born 1846 | Prince Arthur +| | (Duke of Connaught) +| | born 1850 +| | +| Princess Louise +-------------- (Duchess of Argyll) + | born 1848 + | +Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, _m_. Princess Alexandra of Denmark +born 1841 1863 +(King Edward VII) | + | + ---------------------------------------------------- + | | | | | | + | | | | | | +Albert Victor George Frederick, | | | Prince Alexander +(Duke of Clarence) Prince of Wales, | | | born 1870 +born 1864 born 1865 | | | + (King George V), | | | + _m_., 1893, Princess | | | + Victoria Mary of Teck | | | + | | | + -------------------- | -------------- + | | | + | | | + Princess Louise Princess Victoria Princess Maud + (Duchess of Fife) born 1868 (Queen of Norway) + born 1867 born 1869 + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI: _Strife_ + + +"Two men I honour, and no third. First, the toilworn Craftsman that +with earth-made Implement laboriously conquers the Earth, and makes +her man's. . . . A second man I honour, and still more highly: Him +who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable; not daily +bread, but the Bread of Life. . . . Unspeakably touching is it, +however, when I find both dignities united; and he that must toil +outwardly for the lowest of man's wants, is also toiling inwardly +for the highest."[4] + +[Footnote 4: Carlyle, _Sartor Resartus_.] + +To understand the many and bewildering changes which followed one +another in rapid succession during the early years of Victoria's +reign it is necessary to read the literature, more especially the +works of those writers who took a deep and lasting interest in the +lives and work of the people. + +Democracy, the people, or the toiling class, was engaged in a fierce +battle with those forces which it held to be its natural enemies. +It was a battle of the Rich against the Poor, of the masters against +the men, of Right against Might. England was a sick nation, at war +with itself, and Chartism and the Chartists were some of the signs +of the disease. The early Victorian age is the age of Thomas Carlyle, +the stern, grim prophet, who, undaunted by poverty and ill-health, +painted England in dark colours as a country hastening to its ruin. + +His message was old and yet new--for men had forgotten it, as they +always have from age to age. This was an age of competition, of +'supply and demand'; brotherly love had been forgotten and 'cash +payment' had taken its place. Carlyle denounced this system as "the +shabbiest gospel that had been taught among men." He urged upon +Government the fact that it was their _duty_ to educate and to uplift +the masses, and upon the masters that they should look upon their +workers as something more than money-making machines. The old system +of Guilds, in which the apprentice was under the master's direct care, +had gone and nothing had been put in its place. + +The value of Carlyle's teaching lies in the fact that he insisted +upon the sanctity of work. "All true work is religion," he said, and +the essence of every true religion is to be found in the words, "Know +thy work and do it." + +The best test of the worth of every nation is to be found in their +standard of life and work and their rejection of a life of idleness. +"To make some nook of God's Creation a little fruitfuller, better, +more worthy of God; to make some human hearts, a little wiser, +manfuler, happier--more blessed, less accursed! It is work for a +God. . . . Unstained by wasteful deformities, by wasted tears or +heart's-blood of men, or any defacement of the Pit, noble, fruitful +Labour, growing ever nobler, will come forth--the grand sole Miracle +of Man, whereby Man has risen from the low places of this Earth, very +literally, into divine Heavens. Ploughers, Spinners, Builders, +Prophets, Poets, Kings: . . . all martyrs, and noble men, and gods +are of one grand Host; immeasurable; marching ever forward since the +beginnings of the World."[5] + +[Footnote 5: Carlyle, _Past and Present_.] + +Carlyle was, above all things, sincere; he looked into the heart of +things, and hated half-beliefs. Men, he said, were accustoming +themselves to say what they did not believe in their heart of hearts. +The standard of English work had become lower; it was 'cheap and +nasty,' and this in itself was a moral evil. Good must in time prevail +over Evil; the Christian religion was the strongest thing in the +world, and for this reason had conquered. He believed in wise +compassion--that is to say, he kept his sympathy for those who truly +deserved it, for the mass of struggling workers with few or none to +voice their bitter wrongs. + +His teachings are a moral tonic for the age, and though for a long +time they were unpopular and distasteful to the majority, yet he +lived to see much accomplished for which he had so earnestly striven. + +Literature was beginning to take a new form. The novel of 'polite' +society was giving place to the novel which pictured life in cruder +and harsher colours. The life of the toiling North, of the cotton +spinners and weavers was as yet unknown to most people. + +In 1848 appeared _Mary Barton_, a book dealing with the problems of +working life in Manchester. Mrs Gaskell, its author, who is best +known to most readers by her masterpiece _Cranford_, achieved an +instant success and became acquainted with many literary celebrities, +including Ruskin, Dickens, and Charlotte Bronte, whose Life she +wrote. + +_Mary Barton_ was written from the point of view of labour, and _North +and South_, which followed some years later, from that of capital. +Her books are exact pictures of what she saw around her during her +life in Manchester, and many incidents from her own life appear in +their pages. + +_North and South_ shows us the struggle not only between master and +men, as representing capital and labour, but also between ancient +and modern civilizations. The South is agricultural, easy-going, +idyllic; the North is stern, rude, and full of a consuming energy +and passion for work. These are the two Englands of Mrs Gaskell's +time. + +The ways of the manufacturing districts, which seem unpleasing to +those who do not really know them, are described with a faithful yet +kindly pen, and we see that each life has its trials and its +temptations. + +In the South all is not sunshine, and the life of the labourer can +be very hard--"a young person can stand it; but an old man gets racked +with rheumatism, and bent and withered before his time; yet he must +work on the same, or else go to the workhouse." + +In the North men are often at enmity with their masters, and fight +them by means of the strike. "State o' trade! That's just a piece +of masters' humbug. It's rate o' wages I was talking of. Th' masters +keep th' state o' trade in their own hands, and just walk it forward +like a black bug-a-boo, to frighten naughty children with into being +good. I'll tell yo' it's their part--their cue, as some folks call +it--to beat us down, to swell their fortunes; and it's ours to stand +up and fight hard--not for ourselves alone, but for them round about +us--for justice and fair play. We help to make their profits, and +we ought to help spend 'em. It's not that we want their brass so much +this time, as we've done many a time afore. We'n getten money laid +by; and we're resolved to stand and fall together; not a man on us +will go in for less wage than th' Union says is our due. So I say, +'Hooray for the strike.'" + +The story appeared in _Household Words_, a new magazine of which +Charles Dickens was the editor. He expressed especial admiration for +the fairness with which Mrs Gaskell had spoken of both sides. +Nicholas Higgins, whose words are quoted above, is a type of the best +Lancashire workman, who holds out for the good of the cause, even +though it might mean ruin and poverty to himself--"That's what folk +call fine and honourable in a soldier, and why not in a poor +weaver-chap?" + +Dickens himself wrote _Hard Times_, dealing with the same subject. +This appeared about the same time, and the two books should be read +and compared, for, although _Hard Times_ is not equal in any way to +_North and South_, it is interesting. As Ruskin said of Dickens' +stories, "Allowing for the manner of telling them, the things he +tells us are always true. . . . He is entirely right in his main drift +and purpose in every book he has written; and all of them, but +especially _Hard Times_, should be studied with close and earnest +care by persons interested in social questions." + +During all these years the 'Chartists' had been vainly struggling +to force Parliament to proceed with reform of their grievances. In +1848 a monster Petition was to be presented to both Houses by their +leaders, but London was garrisoned by troops under the Duke of +Wellington on the fateful day, and the Chartist army broke up, never +to be reunited. Quarrels among themselves proved, in the end, fatal +to their cause. + +A new party, the Christian Socialists, took their place; force gave +way to union and co-operation. A new champion, Charles Kingsley, or +'Parson Lot,' stood forth as the Chartist leader. + +The hard winter and general distress of the year 1848 nearly provoked +another rising, and in his novel entitled _Yeast_ Kingsley pictures +the 'condition of England' question as it appeared to one who knew +it from the seamy side. Especially did he blame the Church, which, +he said, offered a religion for "Jacob, the smooth man," and was not +suited for "poor Esau." This was indeed most true as regards the +agricultural classes, where the want was felt of a real religion +which should gain a hold upon a population which year by year was +fast drifting loose from all ties of morality and Christianity. + +The peasantry, once the mainstay of England and now trodden down and +neglected, cannot rise alone and without help from those above them. +"What right have we to keep them down? . . . What right have we to +say that they shall know no higher recreation than the hogs, because, +forsooth, if we raised them they might refuse to work--_for us_? Are +_we_ to fix how far their minds may be developed? Has not God fixed +it for us, when He gave them the same passions, talents, tastes, as +our own?" + +The farm labourer, unlike his brothers in the North, had no spirit +left to strike. His sole enjoyment--such as it was--consisted in +recalling "'the glorious times before the war . . . when there was +more food than there were mouths, and more work than were hands.' + +"'I say, vather,' drawled out some one, 'they say there's a sight +more money in England now than there was afore the war-time.' + +"'Ees, booy,' said the old man, 'but _it's got into too few hands_.'" + +The system of 'sweating' among the London tailors had grown to such +an extent that Kingsley was determined, if possible, to put an end +to it, and with this purpose in view he wrote _Cheap Clothes and +Nasty_. + +The Government itself, he declares, does nothing to prevent +sweating; the workmen declare that "Government contract work is the +worst of all, and the starved-out and sweated-out tailor's last +resource . . . there are more clergymen among the customers than any +other class; and often we have to work at home upon the Sunday at +their clothes in order to get a living." + +He followed this up with _Alton Locke_, dealing especially with the +life and conditions of work of the journeymen tailors, and the +Chartist riots. Both sides receive some hard knocks, for Kingsley +was a born fighter, and his courage and fearlessness won him many +friends, even among the most violent of the Chartists. + +The character of Alton Locke was probably drawn from life, and was +intended to be William Lovett, at one time a leader in the Chartist +ranks. After a long fight with poverty, when he frequently went +without a meal in order to save the money necessary for his education, +he rose to a position of some influence. He was one of the first to +propose that museums and public galleries should be opened on Sundays, +for he declared that most of the intemperance and vice was owing to +the want of wholesome and rational recreation. He insisted that it +was necessary to create a moral, sober, and thinking working-class +in order to enable them to carry through the reforms for which they +were struggling. Disgust with the violent methods of many of his +associates caused him at last to withdraw from their ranks. + +Kingsley looked up to Carlyle as his master, to whom he owed more +than to any other man. "Of the general effect," he said, "which his +works had upon me, I shall say nothing: it was the same as they have +had, thank God, on thousands of my class and every other." + +When, finally, violent methods proved of no avail and the Chartist +party dissolved, the democratic movement took a fresh lease of life. +As Carlyle had already pointed out, the question of the people was +a 'knife and fork' question--that is to say, so long as taxes were +levied upon the necessities of life, the poorer classes, who could +least of all afford to pay, would become poorer. + +Sir Robert Peel was the first to remove this injustice, by +substituting a tax upon income for the hundred and one taxes which +had pressed so heavily upon the poor. Manufacturers were now able +to buy their raw materials at a lower price, and need no longer pay +such low wages to keep up their profits. + +In 1845 Peel went a step farther, and in order to relieve the famine +in Ireland, he removed the duty on corn. Thus, since corn could now +be imported free, bread became cheaper. + +The Corn Law Repealers had fought for years to bring this about. Their +leader and poet, Ebenezer Elliott, declared that "what they wanted +was bread in exchange for their cottons, woollens, and hardware, and +no other thing can supply the want of that one thing, any more than +water could supply the want of air in the Black Hole of Calcutta." +Bad government + + Is the deadly will that takes + What Labour ought to keep, + It is the deadly power that makes + Bread dear and Labour cheap. + +It was not until there had been many riots and much bloodshed that +the Irish Famine forced Peel at last to give way. + +A third party of reformers were working for the same end. This was +the 'Young England' party, whose leader was Disraeli, a rising young +politician. By birth a Jew, he had joined the English Church and the +ranks of the Tory party. His early works are chiefly sketches of +social and political life and are not concerned with the 'question +of the People.' He took as his motto the words Shakespeare puts into +Ancient Pistol's mouth, + + Why, then the world's mine oyster, + Which I with sword will open, + +thus showing at an early age that he had a firm belief in his own +powers. From the beginning of his career he never hesitated in +championing the cause of the People, and declared that "he was not +afraid or ashamed to say that he wished more sympathy had been shown +on both sides towards the Chartists." + +The people had begun to look upon the upper classes as their +oppressors, who were living in comfort upon the profits wrung from +their poorer brethren. + +Thomas Cooper in his Autobiography describes the reckless and +irreligious spirit which continued poverty was creating among the +half-starved weavers: + +"'Let us be patient a little longer, lads, surely God Almighty will +help us.' 'Talk no more about thy Goddle Mighty,' was the sneering +reply; 'there isn't one. If there _was_ one, He wouldn't let us suffer +as we do.'" + +The Chartists were opposed to the Anti-Corn Law party, for they +thought that the cry of 'cheap bread' meant simply 'low wages,' and +was a trap set to catch them unawares. + +The Young England party believed in themselves as the leaders of a +movement which should save England through its youth. They were, +however, known in Parliament in their early days as "young gentlemen +who wore white waistcoats and wrote spoony poetry." + +'Young England' wished for a return of the feudal relations between +the nobility and their vassals; the nobles and the Church, as in olden +days, were to stretch out a helping hand to the poor, to feed the +hungry, and succour the distressed. National customs were to be +revived, commerce and art were to be fostered by wealthy patrons. +The Crown was once more to be in touch with the people. "If Royalty +did but condescend to lower itself to a familiarity with the people, +it is curious that they will raise, exalt, and adore it, sometimes +even invest it with divine and mysterious attributes. If, on the +contrary, it shuts itself up in an august seclusion, it will be mocked +and caricatured . . . if the great only knew what stress the poor +lay by the few forms that remain, to join them they would make many +sacrifices for their maintenance and preservation."[6] + +[Footnote 6: George Smythe, Viscount Strangford, _Historic +Fancies_.] + +It was to lay the views of his party and himself before the public +that Disraeli published the three novels, _Coningsby_, _Sybil_, and +_Tancred_. _Coningsby_ deals with the political parties of that time, +and is full of thinly-disguised portraits of people then living; +_Sybil_, from which a quotation is given elsewhere, is a study of +life among the working-classes; _Tancred_ discusses what part the +Church should take in the government of the people. + +Though the life of the 'Young England' party was short, it succeeded +by means of agitation in and out of Parliament in calling public +attention to the harshness of the New Poor Law and the need for social +reform. + +Carlyle was again the writer who influenced the young Disraeli, for +the latter saw that to accomplish anything of real value he must form +his own party and break loose from the worn-out beliefs and +prejudices of both political parties. Though in later days he will +be remembered as a statesman rather than as a novelist, it is +necessary to study those three books in order to understand what +England and the English were in Victoria's early years. + +Each of these Reform parties had rendered signal service in their +own fashion: Church, Government, and People were no longer disunited, +distinctions of class had been broken down, and with their +disappearance Chartism came to an end. The failure of the "physical +force" Chartists in 1848 had served to enforce the lesson taught by +Carlyle and Kingsley, that the way to gain reform was not through +deeds of violence and bloodshed. Each man must learn to fit himself +for his part in the great movement toward Reform. Intelligence, not +force, must be their weapon. + +After years of bitter strife between the Two Nations, England a last +enjoyed peace within her own borders--that peace which a patriot poet, +Ernest Jones, during a time of bitter trial had so earnestly prayed +for: + + God of battles, give us peace! + Rich with honour's proud increase; + Peace that frees the fettered brave; + Peace that scorns to make a slave; + Peace that spurns a tyrant's hand; + Peace that lifts each fallen land; + Peace of peoples, not of kings; + Peace that conquering freedom brings; + Peace that bids oppression cease; + God of battles, give us peace! + + + + +_Appendix to Chapter VI_ + + +1838. The Chartist Movement. The Chartists demanded (1) Annual +Parliaments; (2) Manhood Suffrage; (3) Vote by ballot; (4) Equal +electoral districts; (5) Abolition of the property qualification for +members of Parliament; (6) Payment for members of Parliament. The +Reform Act of 1832 had brought the middle classes into power, and +the working classes were now striving to better their own condition. + +The Anti-Corn Law League, formed in this year, was largely a +middle-class agitation supported by merchants and manufacturers. +The great northern towns had been enfranchised by the Reform Bill, +and sent as leaders of the movement Richard Cobden and John Bright. +Both parties in Parliament were opposed to a total abolition of the +Corn Laws. + +1842. A motion for Free Trade defeated in Parliament by a large +majority. + +1843. Agitation in Ireland for the Repeal of the Union. Daniel +O'Connell, the leader, arrested. He was found guilty of conspiracy, +but his sentence was afterward revoked by the House of Lords. + +1845. Failure of the potato crop in Ireland. + +1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws, in order to open the ports free to +food stuffs. Free Trade established and the prices of food begin to +fall. + +1848. The year of Revolution. France proclaims a Republic with Prince +Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I, as its President. Risings in +Austria and Italy. + +Renewal of the Chartist agitation. The meeting in London to present +a Petition to Parliament proves a failure. + +1853-56. Years of prosperity owing to Free Trade and growth of +intelligence among the working classes prove the chief causes of the +death of Chartism. The workers now begin to aim at reforms through +their Trades Unions. The Co-operative Movement set on foot in +Rochdale in 1844 leads to the formation of many other branches. + +Between the years 1851 and 1865 national imports nearly treble, and +exports more than double, themselves. + +THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). His writings more than those of any other +man give us a key to the meaning of the early Victorian Age. 1839. +_Chartism_. 1841. _Heroes and Hero Worship_. 1843. _Past and +Present_. 1850. _Latter-Day Pamphlets_. + +CHARLES DICKENS (1812-70). 1836. _Pickwick Papers_. 1838. _Oliver +Twist_ (the evils of the Workhouse). 1850. _David Copperfield_ +(contains sketches of Dickens' early life). 1853. _Hard Times_. 1857. +_Little Dorrit_ (the Marshalsea prison for debtors). + +DISRAELI, LORD BEACONSFIELD (1804-81). 1844. _Coningsby_ (political +life and the 'Young England' policy). 1845. _Sybil_ (the claims of +the people). 1847. _Tancred_ (the Church and the State). + +EBENEZER ELLIOTT (1781-1849). 1828. _Corn Law Rhymes_ (the poet of +the workers and of sorrow). + +ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL (1810-65). 1848. _Mary Barton_ +(Industrial Lancashire during the crisis of 1842). 1855. _North and +South_ (the struggle between Master and Man). + +CHARLES KINGSLEY[7] (1819-75). 1848. _Yeast_ (the hard lives of the +agricultural labourers). 1850. _Alton Locke_ (life and labour of the +city poor). + +[Footnote 7: The Prince Consort was a great admirer of the works of +Charles Kingsley, which, he said, in speaking of _Two Years Ago_, +showed "profound knowledge of human nature, and insight into the +relations between man, his actions, his destiny, and God." The Queen +was also one of his admirers, and in 1859 she appointed him one of +her chaplains. Later on he delivered a series of lectures on history +to the Prince of Wales.] + +CHARLES READE (1814-84). 1856. _It is Never too Late to Mend_ (life +in an English prison). 1863. _Hard Cash_ (an exposure of bad +administration of lunatic asylums). + +JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900). 1859. _The Two Paths_. 1862. _Unto this +Last_. 1871. _Fors Clavigera_. (In the last-named book Ruskin +describes the scheme of his St George's Guild, an attempt to restore +happiness to England by allying art and science with commercial +industry.) + + + + +CHAPTER VII: _The Children of England_ + + +"From the folding of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, +abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. . . . They were a boy and a +girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, +in their humility. . . . 'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking +down upon them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. +This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all +of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow +I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.'"[8] + +[Footnote 8: Charles Dickens, _A Christmas Carol_.] + +In surveying the long reign of Queen Victoria nothing strikes one +more than the gradual growth of interest in children, and the many +changes in the nation's ideas of their upbringing and education. At +the beginning of her reign the little children of the poor were for +the most part slaves, and were often punished more cruelly by their +taskmasters than the slaves one reads of in _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. + +When Disraeli, afterward Lord Beaconsfield and Prime Minister, wrote +_Sybil_, he drew, in that book, a terrible picture of the life of +children in the manufacturing districts and in the country villages. +The following extract speaks for itself: + +"There are many in this town who are ignorant of their very names; +very few who can spell them. It is rare that you meet with a young +person who knows his own age; rarer to find the boy who has seen a +book, or the girl who has seen a flower. Ask them the name of their +sovereign and they will laugh; who rules them on earth or who can +save them in heaven are alike mysteries to them." + +In such a town as Disraeli describes there were no schools of any +kind, and the masters treated their apprentices "as the Mamelouks +treated the Egyptians." The author declares that "there is more +serfdom now in England than at any time since the Conquest. . . . +The people were better clothed, better fed, and better lodged just +before the Wars of the Roses than they are at this moment. The average +term of life among the working classes is seventeen." + +One of the first results of machinery taking the place of human labour +was that an enormous number of women and young children of both sexes +were employed in the factories in place of grown men, who were no +longer needed. Especially in the spinning mills thousands of men were +thrown out of work, and lower wages were paid to those who took their +place. This led directly to the breaking up of the home and home-life. +The wives were often obliged to spend twelve to thirteen hours a day +in the mills; the very young children, left to themselves, grew up +like wild weeds and were often put out to nurse at a shilling or +eighteenpence a day. + +One reads of tired children driven to their work with blows; of +children who, "too tired to go home, hide away in the wool in the +drying-room to sleep there, and could only be driven out of the +factory with straps; how many hundreds came home so tired every night +that they could eat no supper for sleepiness and want of appetite, +that their parents found them kneeling by the bedside where they had +fallen asleep during their prayers." + +Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of the greatest poets of Victoria's +reign, pleads for mercy and human kindness in her "Cry of the +Children." + + Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, + Ere the sorrow comes with years? + They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, + And _that_ cannot stop their tears. + The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, + The young birds are chirping in the nest, + The young fawns are playing with the shadows, + The young flowers are blowing toward the west-- + But the young, young children, O my brothers, + They are weeping bitterly! + They are weeping in the playtime of the others, + In the country of the free. + + "For oh," say the children, "we are weary, + And we cannot run or leap; + If we cared for any meadows, it were merely + To drop down in them and sleep. + Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping, + We fall upon our faces, trying to go; + And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping + The reddest flower would look as pale as snow; + For, all day, we drag our burden tiring + Through the coal-dark underground-- + Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron + In the factories, round and round." + +In the country the state of affairs was no better. New systems of +industrial production threw large numbers of farm hands out of work, +the rate of wages fell, and machinery, steam, and the work of women +and children took the place of the labourer. + +The children found a champion in Lord Ashley, afterward Lord +Shaftesbury, who succeeded in the face of much opposition in his +efforts to pass laws which should do away with such shameful wrong +and injustice. + +The increased amount of coal used (15-1/2 million tons at the +beginning of the century, 64-1/2 million tons in 1854) naturally led +to the demand for more workers, and it was owing to this that the +proposals of Lord Shaftesbury met with such opposition from the +mine-owners, who feared that if child labour were made illegal they +would not have sufficient 'hands' to work the mines and that they +would have to pay higher wages. + +The Act of 1842 forbade altogether the employment of women and girls +in the mines, and allowed only boys of the age of ten or more to do +such work. The Poor Law Guardians of the time used to send children +into the mines at the age of seven as a means of finding employment +for them. The hours of work were limited to ten daily and fifty-eight +each week. + +Little or no attempt was made in the Bill to give children the means +of obtaining a good education, although considerably more than half +the children in the country never went to school at all, and many +large towns were without a proper school. + +By a previous Factory Act of 1834 all children under fourteen years +of age were compelled to attend school for two hours daily. The +employer was allowed to deduct one penny a week from the child's wages +to pay the teacher. This proved absolutely useless, as the masters +employed worn-out workers as teachers, and in consequence the +children learnt nothing at all. + +It was not until the year 1870 that a Bill was passed in Parliament +to create an adequate number of public elementary schools for every +district in the kingdom. To show the increase in the number of schools +built, there were in the year 1854, 3825, and in the year 1885, +21,976. + +But the children of England owe almost as much to Charles Dickens +as they do to Lord Shaftesbury. He was almost the first, and certainly +the greatest, writer who, with a heart overflowing with sympathy for +little children, has left us in his books a gallery of portraits which +no one can ever forget. + +He himself, "a very small and not over-particularly-taken-care-of +boy," passed through a time of bitter poverty, and his stay at school, +short as it was, was not a period of his life upon which he looked +back with any pleasure. + +The material for his books was drawn from life--from his own and from +the lives of those around him--and for this reason all that he wrote +will always be of great value, as it gives us a good idea of the Early +and Mid Victorian days. + +His ambition was to strike a blow for the poor, "to leave one's hand +upon the time, lastingly upon the time, with one tender touch for +the mass of toiling people." + +Who can ever forget in the _Christmas Carol_ the crippled Tiny Tim, +"who behaved as good as gold and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, +sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever +heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in +the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to +them to remember upon Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk, and +blind men see." + +Other pictures of suffering childhood are 'Little Nell' and 'The +Marchioness' in _The Old Curiosity Shop_, 'Jo' and 'Charley' in +_Bleak House_, and 'Smike,' the victim of the inhuman schoolmaster +'Squeers.' + +The cruelty of the times is shown in the case of an unfortunate +sempstress who tried to earn a living by making shirts for +three-halfpence each. Once, when she had been robbed of her earnings, +she tried to drown herself. The inhuman magistrate before whom she +was brought told her that she had "no hope of mercy in this world." + +It was after hearing of this from Charles Dickens that Thomas Hood +wrote the well-known "Song of the Shirt": + + Work--work--work! + From weary chime to chime, + Work--work--work + As prisoners work for crime! + Band, and gusset, and seam, + Seam, and gusset, and band, + Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumbed, + As well as the weary hand. + +The age might well take to heart the lesson taught by the great-souled +writer--that the two chief enemies of the times were Ignorance and +Want. + +The lot of the unfortunate children in the Union Workhouses was no +better. They were treated rather worse than animals, with no sympathy +or kindness, owing to the ignorance of those who were set in authority +over them. Any one who reads _Oliver Twist_ may learn the nature of +the life led by the 'pauper' children in those 'good old days.' + +"The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men; +and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they +found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have +discovered--the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of +public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there +was nothing to pay; a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all +the year round; a brick and mortar elysium, where it was all play +and no work. 'Oho!' said the board, looking very knowing, 'we are +the fellows to set this to rights; we'll stop it all, in no time.' +So, they established the rule, that all poor people should have the +alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they) of being starved +by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With +this view, they contracted with the waterworks to lay on an unlimited +supply of water; and with a corn-factor to supply periodically small +quantities of oatmeal; and issued three meals of thin gruel a day, +with an onion twice a week, and half a roll on Sundays. . . . Relief +was inseparable from the workhouse and the gruel; and that frightened +people." + +A movement which helped, possibly far more than any other, to better +the lot of the children of the Poor commenced with the foundation +of the Ragged School Union, of which the Queen became the patroness. + +Out of this sprang a small army of agencies for well-doing. +Commencing only with evening schools, which soon proved insufficient, +the founders established day schools, with classes for exercise and +industrial training: children were sent to our colonies where they +would have a better chance of making a fair start in life; training +ships, cripples' homes, penny banks, holiday homes followed, and +from these again the numerous Homes and Orphanages which entitle us +to call the Victorian Age the Age of Kindness to Children. + +Charles Dickens took the keenest interest in the work of the Ragged +Schools. A letter from Lord Shaftesbury quoted in his Life gives a +clear idea of the marvellous work they had accomplished up to the +year 1871: + +"After a period of 27 years, from a single school of five small +infants, the work has grown into a cluster of some 300 schools, an +aggregate of nearly 30,000 children, and a body of 3000 voluntary +teachers, most of them the sons and daughters of toil. . . . Of more +than 300,000 children, which, on the most moderate calculation, we +have a right to conclude have passed through these schools since +their commencement, I venture to affirm that more than 100,000 of +both sexes have been placed out in various ways--in emigration, in +the marine, in trades and in domestic service. For many consecutive +years I have contributed prizes to thousands of the scholars; and +let no one omit to call to mind what these children were, whence they +came, and whither they were going without this merciful intervention. +They would have been added to the perilous swarm of the wild, the +lawless, the wretched, and the ignorant, instead of being, as by +God's blessing they are, decent and comfortable, earning an honest +livelihood, and adorning the community to which they belong." + +Dickens believed, first of all, in teaching children cleanliness and +decency before attempting anything in the form of education. "Give +him, and his," he said, "a glimpse of heaven through a little of its +light and air; give them water; help them to be clean; lighten the +heavy atmosphere in which their spirits flag and which makes them +the callous things they are . . . and then, but not before, they will +be brought willingly to hear of Him whose thoughts were so much with +the wretched, and who had compassion for all human sorrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: _Ministering Women_ + + Honour to those whose words or deeds + Thus help us in our daily needs; + And by their overflow + Raise us from what is low! + LONGFELLOW + + +No account of the reign of Queen Victoria would be complete without +some reference to the achievements of women, more especially when +their work has had for its chief end and aim the alleviation of +suffering. Woman has taken a leading part in the campaign which has +been and is now being ceaselessly carried on against the forces of +sin, ignorance, and want. + +In the early years of Victoria's reign the art of sick-nursing was +scarcely known at all. The worst type of nurse is vividly pictured +for us by Charles Dickens in _Martin Chuzzlewit_: + +"She was a fat old woman, this Mrs Gamp, with a husky voice and a +moist eye, which she had a remarkable power of turning up, and only +showing the white of it. Having very little neck, it cost her some +trouble to look over herself, if one may say so, at those to whom +she talked. She wore a very rusty black gown, rather the worse for +snuff, and a shawl and bonnet to correspond. In these dilapidated +articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out +of mind on such occasions as the present; . . . The face of Mrs +Gamp--the nose in particular--was somewhat red and swollen, and it +was difficult to enjoy her society without becoming conscious of a +smell of spirits." + +For a long time, though it had been recognized that the care of the +sick was woman's work, no special training was required from those +undertaking it. Florence Nightingale did away with all such wrong +ideas. In a letter on the subject of training she wrote: "I would +say also to all young ladies who are called to any particular vocation, +qualify yourselves for it, as a man does for his work. Don't think +you can undertake it otherwise. . . . If you are called to man's work, +do not exact a woman's privileges--the privilege of inaccuracy, +of weakness, ye muddle-heads. Submit yourselves to the rules of +business, as men do, by which alone you can make God's business +succeed; for He has never said that He will give His success and His +blessing to inefficiency, to sketchy and unfinished work." + +She prepared herself for her life's work by years of hard study and +ten years' training, visiting all the best institutions in Germany, +France, and Italy. She gave up a life of ease and comfort in order +to develop her natural gift to the utmost. + +Her opportunity was not long in coming. In 1854 the Crimean War broke +out. Most of the generals in the English army were old men whose +experience of actual warfare dated back to the early days of the +century. Everything was hopelessly mismanaged from the beginning. +In August the English and French allied forces moved against the +fortress of Sebastopol, from which Russia was threatening an attack +on Constantinople. Troops were landed in a hostile country without +the means of moving them away again; there was little or no provision +made to transport food, baggage, or medical stores. + +After the victory of Alma Lord Raglan marched on to Balaclava, and +here the transport utterly broke down. The soldiers, in addition to +undertaking hard fighting, were forced to turn themselves into +pack-mules and tramp fourteen miles through the mud in the depth of +winter in order to obtain food and warm blankets for their comrades +and themselves. Their condition rapidly became terrible. Their +clothing wore to rags, their boots--mostly of poor quality--gave out +entirely. Their food--such as it was--consisted of biscuit, salt +beef or pork, and rum. + +No vegetables could be obtained, and for want of green food scurvy +broke out among the troops. Stores were left decaying in the holds +of transports, and the doctors were forced to see men dying before +their eyes without the means of helping them. The loss of life from +the actual fighting was considerable, but more particularly so from +the insanitary condition of the camp and the wretched hospital +arrangements. + +The actual figures of our losses in the war speak for themselves. +Out of a total loss of 20,656, only 2598 fell in battle; 18,058 died +from other causes in hospital. Several regiments lost nearly all +their men, and during the first seven months of the siege men died +so fast that in a year and a half no army would have been left at +all. + +William Russell, the special correspondent of _The Times_, first +brought this appalling state of affairs to the notice of the public, +and the nation at last woke up. A universal outburst of indignation +forced ministers to act, and to act quickly. + +Stores were hurried to the front; fresh troops were sent out to +relieve the almost exhausted remnants of the army, and on the 21st +October Florence Nightingale, with a band of nurses, set sail; she +arrived on the very eve of the Battle of Inkerman. + +Within a few months of her arrival it is estimated that she had no +fewer than ten thousand sick men in her charge, and the rows of beds +in one hospital alone measured two and one-third miles in length. + +Her influence over the rough soldiers was extraordinary; one of them +said of her: "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." + +Out of chaos she made order, and there were no more complaints of +waste and inefficiency. She never quitted her post until the war was +at an end, and on her return to England she received a national +welcome. She was received by the Queen and presented with a jewel +in commemoration of her work, and no less than fifty thousand pounds +was subscribed by the nation, a sum which was presented by Miss +Nightingale to the hospitals to defray the expenses of training +nurses. + +[Illustration: Florence Nightingale] + +Since this time no war between civilized peoples has taken place +without trained nurses being found in the ranks of both armies, and +at the Convention of Geneva, some years later, it was agreed that +in time of war all ambulances, military hospitals, etc., should be +regarded as neutral, and that doctors and nurses should be considered +as non-combatants. Nursing rapidly became a profession, and from the +military it spread to the civil hospitals, which were used as +training schools for all who took up the work. + +Florence Nightingale's advice was sought by the Government and +freely given upon every matter which affected the health of the +people, and it is entirely owing to her influence and example that +speedy reforms were carried out, especially in the army. + +Her noble work was celebrated by Longfellow, in his poem "Santa +Filomena," often better known as "The Lady with the Lamp": + + Thus thought I, as by night I read + Of the great army of the dead, + The trenches cold and damp, + The starved and frozen camp, + + The wounded from the battle-plain, + In dreary hospitals of pain, + The cheerless corridors, + The cold and stony floors. + + Lo! in that house of misery + A lady with a lamp I see + Pass through the glimmering gloom, + And flit from room to room. + + And slow, as in a dream of bliss, + The speechless sufferer turns to kiss + Her shadow, as it falls + Upon the darkening walls. + +The Queen followed the course of the war with painful interest. "This +is a terrible season of mourning and sorrow," she wrote; "how many +mothers, wives, sisters, and children are bereaved at this moment. +Alas! It is that awful accompaniment of war, disease, which is +so much more to be dreaded than the fighting itself." And again, after +a visit to Chatham: "Four hundred and fifty of my dear, brave, noble +heroes I saw, and, thank God, upon the whole, all in a very +satisfactory state of recovery. Such patience and resignation, +courage, and anxiety to return to their service. Such fine men!" + +Many acts had been passed in previous reigns to improve the +disgraceful state of the prisons in this country, but it was left +to a band of workers, mostly Quakers, led by Elizabeth Fry, to bring +about any real improvement. Any one who wishes to read what dens of +filth and hotbeds of infection prisons were at this time need only +read the account of the Fleet prison in the _Pickwick Papers_ and +of the Marshalsea in _Little Dorrit_. + +Reform proved at first to be a very slow and difficult matter. New +laws passed in 1823 and 1824 insisted upon cleanliness and regular +labour for all prisoners; chaplains and matrons for female prisoners +were appointed. The public, however, got the idea--as in the case +of workhouses--that things were being made too comfortable for the +inmates, and the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline +was bitterly attacked. + +Mrs Fry had started work in Newgate Prison, then justly considered +to be the worst of all the bad prisons in the country. The condition +of the women and children was too dreadful to describe, and she felt +that the only way to introduce law and decency into this 'hell upon +earth' was by influencing the children. + +She founded a school in the prison, and it was not long before there +was a marked improvement in the appearance and behaviour of both the +children and the women. + +The success of her work attracted public attention, and a Committee +of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the condition +of the London prisons. Mrs Fry was called upon to give evidence, and +she recommended several improvements, _e.g._ that prisoners should +be given some useful work to do, that rewards should be given for +good behaviour, and that female warders should be appointed. + +She visited other countries in order to study foreign prison systems, +and her work in the prisons led her to consider what could be done +to improve the condition of the unfortunate women who were +transported as convicts. She succeeded in improving matters so much +that female warders were provided on board ship, and proper +accommodation and care on their arrival at their destination. + +Even such a tender-hearted man and friend of the poor as Thomas Hood, +author of "Song of the Shirt," misunderstood Mrs Fry's aims, for in +a poem called "A Friendly Address to Mrs Fry," he wrote: + + No--I will be your friend--and, like a friend, + Point out your very worst defect--Nay, never + Start at that word! But I _must_ ask you why + You keep your school _in_ Newgate, Mrs Fry? + + Your classes may increase, but I must grieve + Over your pupils at their bread and waters! + Oh, though it cost you rent--(and rooms run high)-- + Keep your school _out_ of Newgate, Mrs Fry! + +In the face of domestic sorrows and misfortunes, Mrs Fry persevered +until the day of her death in 1845 in working for the good of others. + +The work in this direction was continued by Mary Carpenter, whose +father was the headmaster of a Bristol school. She began her life's +work after a severe outbreak of cholera in Bristol in 1832. At this +time there were practically no reformatory or industrial schools in +the country, and Mary Carpenter set to work with some friends to found +an institution near Bristol. She worked to save children--especially +those whose lives were spent in the midst of sin and wickedness--from +becoming criminals, and in order to bring this about she aimed at +making their surroundings as homelike and cheerful as possible. + +She even helped to teach the children herself, as she found great +difficulty in finding good assistants. She wished to convince the +Government that her methods were right, and so persuade them to set +up schools of a similar kind throughout the country. + +The great Lord Shaftesbury was her chief supporter, but it was not +until the year 1854 that Mary Carpenter succeeded in her desire, when +a Bill was passed establishing reformatory schools. From this time +her influence rapidly increased, and it is mainly owing to her +efforts that at the present day such precautions are taken to reform +young criminals on the sound principle of "prevention is better than +cure." + +Mary Carpenter also visited India no fewer than four times in order +to arouse public opinion there to the need for the better education +of women, and at a later date she went to America, where she had many +warm friends and admirers. She had, as was only natural, been keenly +interested in the abolition of negro slavery. + +One of the most distinguished women in literature during the +Victorian Age was Harriet Martineau. At an early age it was evident +that she was gifted beyond the ordinary, and at seven years old she +had read Milton's "Paradise Lost" and learnt long portions of it by +heart. + +Her health was extremely poor; she suffered as a child from imaginary +terrors which she describes in her Autobiography, and she gradually +became deaf. She bore this affliction with the greatest courage and +cheerfulness, but misfortunes followed one another in rapid +succession. Her elder brother died of consumption, her father lost +large sums of money in business, and the grief and anxiety so preyed +upon his mind that he died, leaving his family very badly off. + +This, and the loss later on of the little money they had left, only +served to strengthen Miss Martineau's purpose. She studied and wrote +until late in the night, and after her first success in literature, +when she won all three prizes offered by the Unitarian body for an +essay, she set to work on a series of stories which were to illustrate +such subjects as the effect of machinery upon wages, free trade, etc. + +After the manuscript had been refused by numerous publishers, she +succeeded in getting it accepted, and the book proved an +extraordinary success. + +She moved to London, and her house soon became the centre where the +best of literature and politics could always be discussed. She was +consulted even by Cabinet Ministers, but in spite of all the praise +and adulation she remained quite unspoiled. + +The idea of women taking part in public movements was still not +altogether pleasing to the majority of people, who were apt to look +upon 'learned' women as 'Blue-stockings,' a name first used in +England in the previous century in rather a contemptuous way. + + Come, let us touch the string, + And try a song to sing, + Though this is somewhat difficult at starting, O! + And in our case more than ever, + When a desperate endeavour, + Is made to sing the praise of Harry Martineau! + + Of bacon, eggs, and butter, + Rare philosophy she'll utter; + Not a thing about your house but she'll take part in, O! + As to mine, with all my soul, + She might take (and pay) the whole-- + But that is all my eye and Harry Martineau! + + Her political economy + Is as true as Deuteronomy; + And the monster of Distress she sticks a dart in, O! + Yet still he stalks about, + And makes a mighty rout, + But that we hope's my eye and Harry Martineau! + +In 1835 she visited the United States, and here she was able to study +the question of slavery. She joined the body of the 'Abolitionists,' +and as a result was attacked from all sides with the utmost fury, +for the Northern States stood solid against abolition. But she +remained unmoved in her opinion, and when in 1862 the great Civil +War broke out, her writings were the means of educating public +opinion. It was largely due to her that this country did not foolishly +support the secession of the Southern States from the Union. + +During a period of five years she was a complete invalid, and some +of her best books, including her well-known stories for children, +_Feats on the Fiord_ and _The Crofton Boys_, were written in that +time. + +After her recovery her life was busier than ever. She wrote articles +for the daily papers, but her chief pleasure lay in devising schemes +for improving the lot of her poorer neighbours. She organized evening +lectures for the people, and founded a Mechanics' Institute and a +building society. + +During her life-time she was the acknowledged leader on all moral +questions, especially those which affected the lives of women. + +"It has always been esteemed our special function as women," she said, +"to mount guard over society and social life--the spring of national +existence." + + + + +CHAPTER IX: _Balmoral_ + + +It was in Balmoral Castle that the husband and wife most loved to +be with their children. Here they could lead a simple life free from +all restraints, "small house, small rooms, small establishment. . . . +There are no soldiers, and the whole guard of the Sovereign consists +of a single policeman, who walks about the grounds to keep off +impertinent intruders and improper characters. . . . The Prince +shoots every morning, returns to luncheon, and then they walk or +drive. The Queen is running in and out of the house all day long, +and often goes about alone, walks into the cottages, and chats with +the old women." + +The Queen loved her life here even more than the Prince, and every +year she yearned for it more and more. "It is not alone the pure air, +the quiet and beautiful scenery, which makes it so delightful," she +wrote; "it is the atmosphere of loving affection, and the hearty +attachment of the people around Balmoral which warms the heart and +does one good." + +It was during the year 1848 that the royal couple paid their first +visit to Balmoral. The Queen had long wished to possess a home of +her own in the Highlands where her husband could indulge in some +outdoor sport, and where they both could enjoy a brief rest, from +time to time, from the anxiety and care of State affairs. + +Their life there during the years 1848-61 is described by the Queen +in her diary, _Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands_. +It was first published after the Prince's death and was dedicated +to him in the words: "To the dear memory of him who made the life +of the writer bright and happy, these simple records are lovingly +and gratefully inscribed." + +The first impressions were very favourable: "It is a pretty little +castle in the old Scottish style. There is a picturesque tower and +garden in front, with a high wooded hill; at the back there is wood +down to the Dee; and the hills rise all around." + +Their household was, naturally, a small one, consisting of the +Queen's Maid of Honour, the Prince's valet, a cook, a footman, and +two maids. Among the outdoor attendants was John Brown, who in 1858 +was attached to the Queen as one of her regular attendants everywhere +in the Highlands, and remained in her service until his death. "He +has all the independence and elevated feelings peculiar to the +Highland race, and is singularly straightforward, simple-minded, +kind-hearted and disinterested; always ready to oblige; and of a +discretion rarely to be met with." + +The old castle soon proved to be too small for the family, and in +September 1853 the foundation-stone of a new house was laid. After +the ceremony the workmen were entertained at dinner, which was +followed by Highland games and dancing in the ballroom. + +Two years later they entered the new castle, which the Queen +described as "charming; the rooms delightful; the furniture, papers, +everything perfection." + +The Prince was untiring in planning improvements, and in 1856 the +Queen wrote: "Every year my heart becomes more fixed in this dear +Paradise, and so much more so now, that _all_ has become my dearest +Albert's _own_ creation, own work, own building, own laying out as +at Osborne; and his great taste, and the impress of his dear hand, +have been stamped everywhere. He was very busy today, settling and +arranging many things for next year." + +Visits to the cottages of the old people on the estate and in the +neighbourhood were a constant source of delight and pleasure to the +Queen, and often when the Prince was away for the day shooting, she +would pay a round of calls, taking with her little presents. The old +ladies especially loved a talk with their Queen. "The affection of +these good people, who are so hearty and so happy to see you, taking +interest in everything, is very touching and gratifying," she +remarked upon them. "We were always in the habit of conversing with +the Highlanders--with whom one comes so much in contact in the +Highlands. The Prince highly appreciated the good breeding, +simplicity, and intelligence, which make it so pleasant, and even +instructive to talk to them." + +In September 1855, soon after moving into the new castle, the news +arrived of the fall of Sebastopol, and this was taken as an omen of +good luck. The Prince and his suite sallied forth, followed by all +the population, to the cairn above Balmoral, and here, amid general +cheering, a large bonfire was lit. The pipes played wildly, the +people danced and shouted, guns and squibs were fired off, and it +was not until close upon midnight that the festivities came to an +end. + +During the same month the Princess Royal became engaged to Prince +Frederick William of Prussia, who was then visiting Balmoral. Acting +on the Queen's advice, Prince Frederick did not postpone his good +fortune until a later date, as he had at first intended, but during +a ride up Craig-na-Ban, he picked a piece of white heather (the emblem +of 'good luck') and offered it to the young Princess, and this gave +him an opportunity of declaring his love. + +These extracts, printed from the Queen's Journals, were intended at +first for presentation only to members of the Royal Family and Her +Majesty's intimate friends, especially to those who had accompanied +her during her tours. It was, however, suggested to the Queen that +her people would take even as keen an interest in these simple records +of family life, especially as they had already shown sincere and +ready sympathy with her personal joys and sorrows. + +"The book," its editor says, "is mainly confined to the natural +expressions of a mind rejoicing in the beauties of nature, and +throwing itself, with a delight rendered keener by the rarity of its +opportunities, into the enjoyment of a life removed, for the moment, +from the pressure of public cares." + +It is of particular interest because here the Queen records from day +to day her thoughts and her impressions in the simplest language; +here she can be seen less as a queen than as a wife and mother. Her +interest in her whole household and in all those immediately around +her is evident on almost every page. To quote again: "She is, indeed, +the Mother of her People, taking the deepest interest in all that +concerns them, without respect of persons, from the highest to the +lowest." + +As a picture of the Royal Court in those days this is exceedingly +valuable, for it shows what an example the Queen and her husband were +setting to the whole nation in the simple life they led in their +Highland home. + +That the old people especially loved her can be seen from the +greetings and blessings she received in the cottages she used to +visit. "May the Lord attend ye with mirth and with joy; may He ever +be with ye in this world, and when ye leave it." + +[Illustration: Queen Victoria in the Highlands +G. Amato] + +The Queen was never weary of the beauties of the Highlands, and quotes +the following lines from a poem by Arthur Hugh Clough to describe +'God's glorious works': + + The gorgeous bright October, + Then when brackens are changed, and heather blooms are faded, + And amid russet of heather and fern, green trees are bonnie; + Alders are green, and oaks; the rowan scarlet and yellow; + One great glory of broad gold pieces appears the aspen, + And the jewels of gold that were hung in the hair of the birch tree; + Pendulous, here and there, her coronet, necklace, and earrings, + Cover her now, o'er and o'er; she is weary and scatters them from + her. + +In the year 1883 the Queen published _More Leaves from the Journal_, +and dedicated it "To my loyal Highlanders, and especially to the +memory of my devoted personal attendant and faithful friend, John +Brown." They are records of her life in Scotland during the years +1862 to 1882. + +In the August of 1862 a huge cairn, thirty-five feet high, was erected +to the memory of the Prince Consort. It was set on the summit of Craig +Lowrigan, where it could be seen all down the valley. + +A short extract will serve as a specimen of the Queen's style of +writing: + +"At a quarter to twelve I drove off with Louise and Leopold in the +waggonette up to near the 'Bush' (the residence of William Brown, +the farmer) to see them 'juice the sheep.' This is a practice pursued +all over the Highlands before the sheep are sent down to the low +country for the winter. It is done to preserve the wool. Not far from +the burnside, where there are a few hillocks, was a pen in which the +sheep were placed, and then, just outside it, a large sort of trough +filled with liquid tobacco and soap, and into this the sheep were +dipped one after the other; one man took the sheep one by one out +of the pen and turned them on their backs; and then William and he, +holding them by their legs, dipped them well in, after which they +were let into another pen into which this trough opened, and here +they had to remain to dry. To the left, a little lower down, was a +cauldron boiling over a fire and containing the tobacco with water +and soap; this was then emptied into a tub, from which it was +transferred into the trough. A very rosy-faced lassie, with a plaid +over her head, was superintending this part of the work, and helped +to fetch the water from the burn, while children and many collie dogs +were grouped about, and several men and shepherds were helping. It +was a very curious and picturesque sight." + + + + +CHAPTER X: _The Great Exhibition_ + + +The idea of a "great exhibition of the Works and Industries of all +Nations" was Prince Albert's. The scheme when first proposed in 1849 +was coldly received in this country. It was intended, to use the +Prince's own words, "To give us a true test and a living picture of +the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived +in this great task, and a new starting-point from which all nations +will be able to direct their further exertions." + +_The Times_ led the attack against the proposed site in Hyde Park, +and the public was uneasy at the thought of large numbers of +foreigners congregating in London, and at the expected importation +of foreign goods. + +As showing the absurd things which 'John Bull' could say at this time +in his jealousy and dislike of foreigners the Prince wrote: "The +strangers, they give out, are certain to commence a thorough +revolution here, to murder Victoria and myself, and to proclaim the +Red Republic in England; the Plague is certain to ensue from the +confluence of such vast multitudes, and to swallow up those whom +the increased price of everything has not already swept away. For +all this I am to be responsible, and against all this I have to make +efficient provision." + +_Punch_ pictured the young Prince begging, cap in hand, for +subscriptions: + + Pity the sorrows of a poor, young Prince + Whose costly schemes have borne him to your door; + Who's in a fix, the matter not to mince, + Oh! help him out, and Commerce swell your store! + +Such constant worry and anxiety affected the Prince's health, but +the support of Sir Robert Peel and of many great firms gradually wore +down the opposition. + +The building was designed by Paxton, who had risen from being a +gardener's boy in the Duke of Devonshire's service to the position +of the greatest designer of landscape-gardening in the kingdom. + +He took his main ideas for the Crystal Palace from the great +conservatories at Kew and Chatsworth. It was like a huge greenhouse +in shape, nearly one thousand feet long and ninety feet high, with +fountains playing in the naves and a great elm-tree in full leaf under +the roof. + +On May 1, 1851, the opening day, everything went well. The crowds +in the streets were immense, and there were some 34,000 visitors +present in the building during the opening ceremony. + +Lord Macaulay was much impressed with the Exhibition, for he wrote +after the opening: "I was struck by the numbers of foreigners in the +streets. All, however, were respectable and decent people. I saw none +of the men of action with whom the Socialists were threatening +us. . . . I should think there must have been near three hundred +thousand people in Hyde Park at once. The sight among the green boughs +was delightful. The boats, and little frigates, darting across the +lake; the flags; the music; the guns;--everything was exhilarating, +and the temper of the multitude the best possible. . . . + +"I made my way into the building; a most gorgeous sight; vast; +graceful; beyond the dreams of the Arabian romances. I cannot think +that the Caesars ever exhibited a more splendid spectacle. I was +quite dazzled, and I felt as I did on entering St Peter's. I wandered +about, and elbowed my way through the crowd which filled the nave, +admiring the general effect, but not attending much to details." + +And again on the last day he wrote: "Alas! alas! it was a glorious +sight; and it is associated in my mind with all whom I love most. +I am glad that the building is to be removed. I have no wish to see +the corpse when the life has departed." + +The Royal Party were received with acclamation all along the route. +"It was 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," wrote the Queen. Six million people visited the Great +Fair during the time it remained open. + +In one respect, however, it could scarcely be considered a triumph +for this country. It was still an ugly, and in some respects a vulgar, +age. The invention of machinery had done little or nothing to raise +the level of the public taste for what was appropriate and beautiful +in design. That an article cost a large sum of money to manufacture +and to purchase seemed sufficient to satisfy the untrained mind. + +Generally speaking, the taste of the producers was uneducated and +much inferior to that of the French. Most of the designs in carpets, +hangings, pottery, and silks were merely copies, and were often +extremely ugly. England, at this time the first among the Industrial +Nations, had utterly failed to hold her own in the Arts. + +Machinery had taken the place of handwork, and with the death of the +latter art and industry had ceased to have any relation. Public taste +in architecture was equally bad. A 'revival' of the art of the Middle +Ages resulted only in a host of poor imitations. "Thirty or forty +years ago, if you entered a cathedral in France or England, you could +say at once, 'These arches were built in the age of the +Conqueror--that capital belonged to the earlier Henrys.' . . . Now +all this is changed. You enter a cathedral, and admire some iron work +so rude you are sure it must be old, but which your guide informs +you has just been put up by Smith of Coventry. You see . . . some +painted glass so badly drawn and so crudely coloured it must be +old--Jones of Newcastle."[9] + +[Footnote 9: Fergusson, _History of Modern Styles of Architecture_.] + +John Ruskin, who was in many ways the greatest art teacher of his +age, was the first to point out the value and the method of correct +observation of all that is beautiful in nature and in art. + +In an address on "Modern Manufacture and Design," delivered to the +working men of Bradford, he declared: "Without observation and +experience, no design--without peace and pleasurableness in +occupation, no design--and all the lecturings, and teachings, and +prizes and principles of art, in the world are of no use, so long +as you don't surround your men with happy influences and beautiful +things. . . . Inform their minds, refine their habits, and you form +and refine their designs; but keep them illiterate, uncomfortable, +and in the midst of unbeautiful things, and whatever they do will +still be spurious, vulgar, and valueless." + +At the time, however, the Exhibition proved a great success, and the +Duke of Coburg carried most favourable impressions away with him. +He says: "The Queen and her husband were at the zenith of their +fame. . . . Prince Albert was not satisfied to guide the whole affair +only from above; he was, in the fullest sense of the word, the soul +of everything. Even his bitterest enemies, with unusual unreserve, +acknowledged the completeness of the execution of the scheme." + +So far from there being a loss upon the undertaking there was actually +half a million of profit. The proceeds were devoted to securing +ground at South Kensington upon which a great National Institute +might be built. This undertaking (the purchase of the ground) was +not carried through without great difficulty and anxiety. The +Queen's sympathy and encouragement were, as always, of the greatest +help to her husband, and he quoted a verse from a German song, to +illustrate how much he felt and appreciated it: + + When man has well nigh lost his hope in life, + Upwards in trust and love still looks the wife, + Towards the starry world all bright with cheer, + Faint not nor fear, thus speaks her shining tear. + +The Great Exhibition was sufficient proof--if any had been +needed--of how the Prince with his wife laboured incessantly for the +good of others. Without his courage, perseverance, and ability there +is no doubt that this great undertaking would never have been carried +through successfully. He recognized the fact that princes live for +the benefit of their people; his desire for the improvement in all +classes was never-ending, and from him his wife learnt many lessons +which proved of the greatest value to her in later life when she stood +alone and her husband was no longer there to aid her with his +unfailing wise advice. + +A second Exhibition was held in 1862, and so far as decorative art +was concerned there were distinct signs of improvement. 'Art +manufacture' had now become a trade phrase, but manufacturers were +still far from understanding what 'Art' really meant. As an instance +of this, one carpet firm sent a carpet to be used as a hanging on +which Napoleon III is depicted presenting a treaty of Commerce +to the Queen. Particular attention had apparently been paid to the +'shine' on Napoleon's top boots and to the Queen's smile! + +The Prince's great wish was to restore to the workman his pride in +the work of his hands, to relieve the daily toil of some of its +irksomeness by the interest thus created in it, and, where the work +was of a purely mechanical nature, and individual skill and judgment +were not called for, he wished the worker to understand the +principles upon which the machine was built and the ingenuity with +which it worked. + +His schemes for the building and equipment of Museums of Science and +Art were arranged with the purpose in view that both rich and +poor should have equal opportunities of seeing what improvements had +been made throughout the ages, and how vast and far-reaching the +effects of such improvements were on the lives of the whole nation. + +It was under his direction that the pictures in the National Gallery +were first arranged in such a manner as to show the history and +progress of art. In his own words: "Our business is not so much to +create, as to learn to appreciate and understand the works of others, +and we can never do this till we have realized the difficulties to +be overcome. Acting on this principle myself, I have always tried +to learn the rudiments of art as much as possible. For instance, I +learnt oil-painting, water-colours, etching, lithography, etc., and +in music I learnt thorough bass, the pianoforte, organ, and +singing--not, of course, with a view of doing anything worth looking +at or hearing, but simply to enable me to judge and appreciate the +works of others." + +It is interesting to note how closely the views of the Prince agreed +with those of John Ruskin in matters of art and literature. Ruskin +declared that it was the greatest misfortune of the age that, owing +to the wholesale introduction of machinery, the designer and maker +were nearly always different people instead of being one and the same +person. He declared that no work of art could really be 'living' or +capable of moving us to admiration as did the masterpieces of the +Middle Ages unless the maker had thought out and designed it himself. + +It was largely owing to his teachings that the 'Arts and Crafts' +movement under William Morris and Walter Crane arose--a movement +which has since that time spread over the whole civilized world. + +In 1862, together with some of his friends, Morris formed a company +to encourage the use of beautiful furniture and to introduce 'Art +in the House.' Morris himself had learnt to be a practical +carpet-weaver and dyer, and had founded the Society for the +Protection of Ancient Buildings. + +All the work of this firm was done by hand as far as possible; only +the best materials were to be used and designs were to be original. +They manufactured stained glass, wall paper, tapestry, tiles, +embroidery, carpets, etc., and many of the designs were undertaken +by Edward Burne-Jones. + +Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the poet-painter, Holman Hunt (best +remembered by his famous picture "The Light of the World ") and others, +formed what was known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to instruct +public taste in creative work in art and literature. At the Kelmscott +Press some of the most beautiful printed books of their kind were +produced under the direction of Morris. + +Ruskin, like so many others of his time, was greatly influenced by +Carlyle, and his views on the 'condition of England' question were +practically the same. He bewailed the waste of work and of life, the +poverty and the 'sweating.' He urged employers to win the goodwill +of those who worked for them as the best means of producing the best +work. He preached the 'rights' of Labour--that high wages for good +work was the truest economy in the end, and that beating down the +wages of workers does not pay in the long run. He declared that the +only education worth having was a 'humane' education--that is, first +of all, the building of character and the cultivation of wholesome +feelings. "You do not educate a man by telling him what he knew not, +but by making him what he was not," was the theory which he +endeavoured to put into practice by experiments such as an attempt +to teach every one to "learn to do something well and accurately with +his hands." + +In common with Wordsworth Ruskin held that the love of Nature was +the greatest of educators. He believed that + + The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. + +The beauty and the everlasting marvel of Nature's works were, to him +as to the poet of the Lakes, the real road to knowledge: + + Come forth into the light of things, + Let Nature be your teacher. + +An education of not the brain alone, but of heart and hand as well, +all three working in co-operation, was necessary to raise man to the +level of an intelligent being. + +Ruskin's teachings fared no better than those of Carlyle at first, +and though he is spoken of sometimes as being 'old-fashioned,' yet +his lesson is of the old-fashioned kind which does live and will live, +for, like Dickens, he knew how to appeal to the hearts of his readers. +He is one of the most picturesque writers in the language, a man of +great nobility of character and generous feelings, who had a +tremendous belief in himself and knew how to express his thoughts +in the most beautiful language. Some of his books, for example +_Sesame and Lilies_ and _Unto this Last_, are probably destined for +immortality. + + + + +CHAPTER XI: _Albert the Good_ + + +The year 1861 was a black year for the Queen. On March 15th her mother, +the Duchess of Kent, died. She had been living for some time at +Frogmore, a pleasant house in the Windsor Home Park, and here in the +mausoleum erected by her daughter her statue is to be seen. + +She was sincerely loved by every member of her household, and her +loss was felt as one affecting the whole nation. In the words of +Disraeli: "She who reigns over us has elected, amid all the splendour +of empire, to establish her life on the principle of domestic love. +It is this, it is the remembrance and consciousness of this, which +now sincerely saddens the public spirit, and permits a nation to bear +its heartfelt sympathy to the foot of a bereaved throne, and to +whisper solace to a royal heart." + +The death of the Queen's' mother came as a great shock to the Prince +Consort. The Queen was, for a time, utterly unable to transact any +business, and this added to his already heavy burden of cares and +responsibilities. + +In the following November the King of Portugal died. The Prince had +loved him like a son, and this fresh disaster told so severely upon +his health that he began to suffer much from sleeplessness. The +strain of almost ceaseless work for many years was gradually wearing +him out. + +He had never been afraid of death, and not long before his last +illness he had said to his wife: "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. . . . I am sure, if +I had a severe illness, I should give up at once, I should not struggle +for life." + +On the 1st of December the Queen felt anxious and depressed. Her +husband grew worse and could not take food without considerable +difficulty, and this made him very weak and irritable. + +The physicians in attendance were now obliged to tell her that the +illness was low fever, but that the patient himself was not to know +of this. The Ministers became alarmed at his state, and when the news +of his illness became public there was the greatest and most +universal anxiety for news. + +In spite of slight improvements from time to time, the Prince showed +no power of fighting the disease, and on the evening of the 14th +December he passed gently away. + +It is no exaggeration to say that the death of the Queen's beloved +husband saddened every home in the land; it was a sorrow felt equally +by the highest and the lowest. He died in the fulness of his manhood, +leaving her whom he had loved and guarded so tenderly to reign in +lonely splendour. + +In the dedication of _Idylls of the King_ to the memory of Prince +Albert, Tennyson, the poet-laureate, wrote: + + Break not, O woman's-heart, but still endure; + Break not, for thou art Royal, but endure, + Remembering all the beauty of that star + Which shone so close beside Thee that ye made + One light together, but has past and leaves + The Crown a lonely splendour. + +When one looks over the vista of years which have passed since that +mournful day, it is with sadness mingled with regret. For it is too +true that "a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country." + +'Albert the Good' was, like many other great men, in advance of his +times, and not until he was dead did the nation as a whole realize +the blank he had left behind him. + +Even so late as 1854 Greville writes in his Diary of the extraordinary +attacks which were made upon the Prince in the public Press. Letter +after letter, he noted, appeared "full of the bitterest abuse and +all sorts of lies. . . . The charges against him are principally to +this effect, that he has been in the habit of meddling improperly +in public affairs, and has used his influence to promote objects of +his own and the interests of his own family at the expense of the +interests of this country; that he is German and not English in his +sentiments and principles; that he corresponds with foreign princes +and with British Ministers abroad without the knowledge of the +Government, and that he thwarts the foreign policy of the Ministers +when it does not coincide with his own ideas and purposes." And again: +"It was currently reported in the Midland and Northern counties, and +actually stated in a Scotch paper, that Prince Albert had been +committed to the Tower, and there were people found credulous and +foolish enough to believe it." + + But English gratitude is always such + To hate the hand which doth oblige too much. + +These words of Daniel Defoe help to explain something of the attitude +of a part of the nation toward the Prince in his lifetime. + +He had given his life in the service of his wife and his adopted +country, but he was a 'foreigner,' and the insular Briton, brought +up in the blissful belief that "one Englishman was as good as three +Frenchmen," could not and would not overcome his distrust of one who +had not been, like himself, so singularly blessed in his nationality. + +But Time has its revenges, and the services of Prince Albert will +"smell sweet and blossom in the dust" long after the very names of +once famous lights of the Victorian era have been forgotten. + +His home life was singularly sweet and happy, and a great contrast +to that of some of his wife's predecessors upon the English throne. +The Queen, writing to her Uncle Leopold in this the twenty-first year +of their marriage, says: "_Very_ 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 the same tender love of the _very first days of +our marriage_!" + +The Prince, in a letter to a friend, rejoiced that their marriage +"still continues green and fresh and throws out vigorous roots, from +which I can, with gratitude to God, acknowledge that much good will +yet be engendered for the world." + +The finest tribute to the Prince Consort's memory is to be found in +the Dedication written by Lord Tennyson to his _Idylls of the King_: + + These to His Memory--since he held them dear, + Perchance as finding there unconsciously + Some image of himself--I dedicate, + I dedicate, I consecrate with tears-- + These Idylls. + +Like Arthur, 'the flower of kings,' he was a man of ideals, above +petty jealousies and small ambitions: + + Hereafter, thro' all times, Albert the Good. + +The _Idylls_ produced such a deep impression upon the Prince that +he wrote to the author, asking him to inscribe his name in the volume. +The book remained always a great favourite with him, and Princess +Frederick William was engaged upon a series of pictures illustrating +her favourite passages at the time of his death. + +An enumeration of the varied activities of Prince Albert during his +lifetime would need a volume. His position was always a difficult +one and was seldom made easier by the section of the Press which +singled him out as a target for its poisoned arrows. Only a strong +sense of duty and an unwavering belief in his wife's love could have +sustained him through the many dark hours of tribulation and sorrow. +He rose early all the year round, and prepared drafts of answers to +the Queen's Ministers, wrote letters and had cleared off a +considerable amount of work before many men would have thought of +beginning the day's tasks. + +[Illustration: THE ALBERT MEMORIAL] + +No article of any importance in the newspapers or magazines escaped +his attention. Every one appealed to him for help or advice, and none +asked in vain. His wide knowledge and judgment were freely used by +the Queen's statesmen, and the day proved all too short for the +endless amount of work which had to be done. + +In spite of increasing burdens and poor health he was always in good +spirits. "At breakfast and at luncheon, and also at our family +dinners, he sat at the top of the table, and kept us all enlivened +by his interesting conversation, by his charming anecdotes, and +droll stories without end of his childhood, of people at Coburg, of +our good people in Scotland, which he would repeat with a wonderful +power of mimicry, and at which he would himself laugh most heartily. +Then he would at other times entertain us with his talk about the +most interesting and important topics of the present and of former +days, on which it was ever a pleasure to hear him speak."[10] + +[Footnote 10: Queen Victoria's _Journal_.] + +His rule in life was to make his position entirely a part of the +Queen's, "to place all his time and powers at her command." Every +speech which he made in public was carefully considered beforehand, +and then written out and committed to memory. As he had to speak in +a foreign tongue, he considered this precaution absolutely necessary. +At the same time it often made him feel shy and nervous when speaking +before strangers, and this sometimes gave to those who did not know +him a mistaken impression of coldness and reserve. + +His sympathy with the working classes was sincere and practical. He +was convinced that "any real improvement must be the result of the +exertion of the working people themselves." He was President of the +Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, and +never lost an opportunity of pointing out that, to quote his own words, +"the Royal Family are not merely living upon the earnings of the +people (as these publications try to represent) without caring for +the poor labourers, but that they are anxious about their welfare, +and ready to co-operate in any scheme for the amelioration of their +condition. We may possess these feelings, and yet the mass of the +people may be ignorant of it, because they have never heard it +expressed to them, or seen any tangible proof of it." + +His grasp of detail and knowledge of home and foreign political +affairs astonished every one who met him, ministers and ambassadors +alike. His writing-table and that of the Queen stood side by side +in their sitting-room, and here they used to work together, every +dispatch which left their hands being the joint work of both. The +Prince corrected and revised everything carefully before it received +the Queen's signature. Considering the small amount of time at his +disposal, it was remarkable how much he was able to read, and read +thoroughly, both with the Queen and by himself. "Not many, but much," +was his principle, and every book read was carefully noted in his +diary. + +Even to the last he exerted his influence in the cause of peace. The +American Civil War broke out in 1861, and Great Britain declared her +neutrality. But an incident, known as 'The Trent Affair,' nearly +brought about a declaration of war. + +The Southern States, or 'Confederates,' as they were usually called, +sent two commissioners to Europe on board the British mail steamer +_Trent_. The _Trent_ was fired upon and boarded by a Federal officer, +who arrested the commissioners. + +This was regarded as an insult to our flag, as it was a breach of +international law to attack the ship of a neutral power. The +Government therefore decided to demand redress, and a dispatch, +worded by Palmerston, was forwarded to the Queen for her signature. + +The Prince realized at once that if the dispatch were forwarded as +it was written it would lead to open war between the Northern States +and our country, and he suggested certain alterations to the Queen, +who agreed to them. A more courteously worded message was sent, and +the Northern States at once agreed to liberate the commissioners and +offered an ample apology. + + + + +CHAPTER XII: _Friends and Advisers_ + + +Possibly the person to whom the Queen owed most--next to her +husband--was Lord Melbourne. His position at the time when the young +Queen came to the throne was a unique one. Victoria was just eighteen +years of age--that is to say, if she had been a little younger it +would have been necessary to appoint a Regent until such time as she +came of age. For many years it had not been a matter of certainty +that she would succeed to the throne, and the late King's unreliable +temper had been the means of preventing the matter from being +properly arranged as regards certain advantages which might have +been given to the Princess during his life-time. In many ways, +however, it was fortunate that the Queen came to the throne at such +an early age: if her knowledge of State politics was small, she +possessed, at any rate, a well-trained mind, a sense of duty, and +a clear idea as to the responsibilities of her position as ruler of +a great nation. + +There had been four reigning queens in this country before Victoria, +but all of them had had some previous training for their duties. The +two Tudor queens came of a ruling stock, and were older in years and +experience. The times, too, were very different. Queen Elizabeth, +for example, before coming to the throne possessed an intimate +knowledge of political affairs, and experience--she had been +confined in the Tower of London and narrowly escaped losing her +head--had endowed her with the wisdom of the serpent. The two Stuart +queens were no longer young, and both were married. + +The circumstances in the case of the young Victoria were thus totally +different. She stood alone, and it was clear that some one must help +her to grapple with the thousand and one difficulties which +surrounded her. It was for some time uncertain who would undertake +the duty, until, almost before he had realized it himself, Lord +Melbourne found himself in the position of 'guide, philosopher, and +friend.' + +How he devoted himself to this work can be judged from the fact that +no one--not even any of his opponents--regarded him with the +slightest mistrust or jealousy. + +Melbourne was at this time fifty-eight years of age, an honourable, +honest-hearted Englishman. He was sympathetic by nature, fond of +female society, and, in addition, was devoted to the Queen. His +manner toward her was always charming, and he was in constant +attendance upon her. + +Nor was the training which the Queen received from him limited to +politics, but matters of private interest were often discussed. +Every morning he brought dispatches with him to be read and answered; +after the midday meal he went out riding with her, and, whenever his +parliamentary duties allowed, he was to be found at her side at the +dinner-table. When he retired from office he was able to state with +pride that he had seen his Sovereign every day during the past four +years. + +The news of her engagement to Prince Albert was received by him with +the keenest pleasure, and the Queen in writing to her uncle says: +"Lord Melbourne, whom I of course have consulted about the whole +affair, quite approves my choice, and expresses great satisfaction +at the event, which he thinks in every way highly desirable. Lord +Melbourne has acted in this business, as he has always done toward +me, with the greatest kindness and affection." + +It was a real wrench to the Queen when the time for parting came. +Melbourne, with his easy-going nature and somewhat free and easy +language, had schooled himself as well as his young pupil, and had +become a friend as well as an adviser. Some words of Greville's might +aptly serve for this great statesman's epitaph: + +"It has become his providence to educate, instruct, and form the most +interesting mind and character in the world. No occupation was ever +more engrossing or involved greater responsibility . . . it is +fortunate that she has fallen into his hands, and that he discharges +this great duty wisely, honourably, and conscientiously." + +The Queen was equally fortunate in his successor, Sir Robert Peel, +a statesman for whom she had every confidence and respect, "a man +who thinks but little of party and never of himself." + +Peel was never afraid of making up his mind and then sticking to his +plan of action, although, as often happened, it brought him into +opposition with members of his own party. In his hands both the Queen +and her husband felt that the interests of the Crown were secure. + +Peel naturally felt considerable embarrassment on first taking up +office, as he had given support in the previous year to a motion which +proposed cutting down the Prince's income. But the Prince felt no +resentment, and so frank and cordial was his manner that Peel, +following Lord Melbourne's lead, continued to keep him, from day to +day, thoroughly in touch with the course of public affairs. + +The relations between the Queen and her Minister were cordial in the +extreme. Peel appreciated very fully her simple domestic tastes, and +he was able at a later date to bring before her notice Osborne, which +might serve as a "loophole of retreat" from the "noise and strife +and questions wearisome." + +The Queen was delighted with the estate. "It is impossible to see +a prettier place, with woods and valleys and _points de vue_, which +would be beautiful anywhere; but when these are combined with the +sea (to which the woods grow down), and a beach which is quite private, +it is really everything one could wish." + +In 1845 the Queen asked Lord Aberdeen if she could not show in some +way her appreciation of the courage with which Sir Robert Peel had +brought forward and supported two great measures, in the face of +tremendous opposition. She suggested that he should be offered the +Order of the Garter, the highest distinction possible. + +Sir Robert Peel's reply was that he would much prefer not to accept +any reward at all; he sprang, he said, from the people, and such a +great honour in his case was out of the question. The only reward +he asked for was Her Majesty's confidence, and so long as he possessed +that he was content. + +When his ministry came to an end the Prince wrote to him, begging +that their relations should not on that account cease. Sir Robert +replied, thanking him for "the considerate kindness and indulgence" +he had received at their hands, and regretting that he should no +longer be able to correspond so frequently as before. The Prince and +he were in the fullest sympathy in matters of politics, art, and +literature, and Peel had supported the Prince loyally through all +the anxieties connected with the arrangements for the Great +Exhibition. + +His death in 1850 was a calamity. Prince Albert, in a letter, speaks +of Peel as "the best of men, our truest friend, the strongest bulwark +of the throne, the greatest statesman of his time." + +The Duke of Wellington said in the Upper House: "In all the course +of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel I never knew a man in whose +truth and justice I had a more lively confidence, or in whom I saw +a more invariable desire to promote the public service. In the whole +course of my communications with him I never knew an instance in which +he did not show the strongest attachment to truth; and I never saw +in the whole course of my life the slightest reason for suspecting +that he stated anything which he did not believe to be the fact." +The Queen writing to her uncle said that "Albert . . . felt and feels +Sir Robert's loss dreadfully. He feels he has lost a second father." + +As a statesman it was said of him that "for concocting, producing, +explaining and defending measures, he had no equal, or anything like +an equal." + +By far the most interesting person who acted as both friend and +adviser to the Queen and her husband was the Baron Christian +Friedrich von Stockmar, who had been private physician to Prince +Leopold, and afterward private secretary and controller of his +household. He took an active part in the negotiations which led to +his master becoming King of the Belgians. Long residence in this +country had given him a thorough knowledge of England and the English, +and he claimed friendship with the leading diplomatists both at home +and on the European continent. + +In 1834 he retired to Coburg, but later was chosen, as we have seen, +to lend his valuable advice toward bringing about a union between +Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, both of whom he knew and admired. + +Immediately before Victoria's accession King Leopold had sent him +to England, where his counsel, judgment, and thorough knowledge of +the English Constitution were placed at the service of the young +Princess. He accompanied Prince Albert on a tour in Italy, and again +returned to England to make arrangements for the Prince's future +household. + +All that he did during this period was done quietly and behind the +scenes, and though he was a foreigner by birth, he worked to bring +about the marriage for the sake of the country he loved so well. He +looked upon England as the home of political freedom. "Out of its +bosom," he stated, "singly and solely has sprung America's free +Constitution, in all its present power and importance, in its +incalculable influence upon the social condition of the whole human +race; and in my eyes the English Constitution is the foundation-, +corner-, and cope-stone of the entire political civilization of the +human race, present and to come." + +He soon became the Prince's confidential adviser, and his unrivalled +knowledge and strict sense of truth and duty proved of the utmost +value. + +He endeared himself to both the Queen and the Prince, and successive +statesmen trusted him absolutely for his freedom from prejudice and +for his sincerity. + +In 1842 he drew up for the Queen some rules for the education of her +children. "A man's education begins the first day of his life," was +one of his maxims. He insisted that "the education of the royal +infants ought to be from its earliest beginning _a truly moral and +a truly English one_." The persons to whom the children are entrusted +should receive the full support and confidence of the parents, +otherwise "education lacks its very soul and vitality." He suggested +that a lady of rank should be placed at the head of the nursery, as +being better able to understand the responsibilities and duties +attached to the education and upbringing of the Queen's children. + +His advice was again taken when it was necessary to settle upon what +plan the young Prince of Wales should be educated. + +Stockmar's judgment of men was singularly correct and just. He formed +the highest opinion of Sir Robert Peel, and on the Duke of +Wellington's death in 1852 he wrote in a letter to the Prince a +masterly analysis of the great commander's character, concluding +with these words: "As the times we live in cannot fail to present +your Royal Highness with great and worthy occasions to distinguish +yourself, you should not shrink from turning them to account . . . +as Wellington did, for the good of all, yet without detriment to +yourself." + +The Prince corresponded regularly with 'the good Stockmar,' and +always in time of doubt and trial came sage counsel from his trusted +friend. In fact, the Prince took both the Queen and his friend equally +into his confidence; they were the two to whom he could unbosom +himself with entire freedom. + +Disraeli, afterward Lord Beaconsfield, obtained the Queen's fullest +confidence and won her friendship to an extent which no Minister +since Melbourne had ever been able to do. 'Dizzy,' the leader of the +'Young England' party, the writer of political novels, was a very +different person from the statesman of later years. It is difficult +to remember or to realize in these days that it was looked upon as +something quite extraordinary for a member of a once despised and +persecuted race, the Jews, to hold high office. The annual +celebrations of 'Primrose Day,' April 19, the anniversary of his +death, are sufficient proof that this great statesman's services to +the British Empire are not yet forgotten. + +Lord Beaconsfield, whom she regarded with sincere affection, +possessed a remarkable influence over the Queen, for the simple +reason that he never forgot to treat her as a woman. He was noted +throughout his life for his chivalry to the opposite sex, and his +devotion to his wife was very touching. + +He was a firm believer in the power of the Crown for good. "The proper +leader of the people," he declared, "is the individual who sits upon +the throne." He wished the Sovereign to be in a position to rule as +well as to reign, to be at one with the nation, above the quarrels +and differences of the political parties, and to be their +representative. + +When quite a young man, he declared that he would one day be Prime +Minister, and with this end in view he entered Parliament against +the wishes of his family. He was an untiring worker all his life, +and a firm believer in action. "Act, act, act without ceasing, and +you will no longer talk of the vanity of life," was his creed. + +His ideas on education were original, and he did everything in his +power to improve the training of the young. In 1870 he supported the +great measure for a scheme of national education. Some years earlier +he declared that "it is an absolute necessity that we should study +to make every man the most effective being that education can +possibly constitute him. In the old wars there used to be a story +that one Englishman could beat three members of some other nation. +But I think if we want to maintain our power, we ought to make one +Englishman equal really in the business of life to three other men +that any other nation can furnish. I do not see otherwise how . . . +we can fulfil the great destiny that I believe awaits us, and the +great position we occupy." + +He did more than any other Minister to raise the Crown to the position +it now occupies, and no monarch ever had a more devoted and faithful +servant. His high standard of morals and his force of character +especially appealed to the English people, and his loyalty to his +friends and colleagues remained unshaken throughout his whole life. +He impressed not only his own countrymen, but also foreigners, with +his splendid gifts of imagination and foresight. + +Bismarck, the man of 'blood and iron,' who welded the disunited +states of Germany into a united and powerful empire, considered that +Queen Victoria was the greatest statesman in Europe, and of the great +Beaconsfield he said: "Disraeli _is_ England." + +Disraeli was a master of wit and phrase, and many of his best sayings +and definitions have become proverbial, _e.g._ "the hansom, the +'gondola' of London," "our young Queen and our old institutions," +"critics, men who have failed," "books, the curse of the human race." + +[Illustration: Sir Robert Peel, Lord Melbourne, Benjamin Disraeli +Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.] + +The central figure of his time was the statesman-warrior, the great +Duke of Wellington, '_the_ Duke.' After the famous Marlborough, +England had not been able to boast of such a great commander. He was +the best known figure in London, and though he never courted +popularity or distinction, yet he served his Queen as Prime Minister +when desired. "The path of duty" was for him "the way to glory." In +1845 the greatest wish of his life was realized when the Queen and +her husband paid him a two days' visit at his residence, +Strathfieldsaye. + +Alfred Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington," in +1852, praises him as 'truth-teller' and 'truth-lover,' and mourns +for him: + + Let the long, long procession go, + And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow, + And let the mournful, martial music blow; + The last great Englishman is low. + +In striking contrast to the 'Iron Duke' was the man whom Disraeli +could never learn to like, Lord John Russell. Generally depicted in +the pages of _Punch_ as a pert, cocksure little fellow, 'little +Johnny,' the leader of the Whig party was a power as a leader. He +knew how to interpret the Queen's wishes in a manner agreeable to +herself, yet he did not hesitate, when he thought it advisable, to +speak quite freely in criticism of her actions. + +His ancestors in the Bedford family had in olden days been advisers +of the Crown, and Lord John thus came of a good stock; he himself, +nevertheless, was always alert to prevent any encroachment upon the +growing powers and rights of the people. + +He was a favourite of the Queen, and she gave him as a residence a +house and grounds in Richmond Park. He was a man of the world and +an agreeable talker, very well read, fond of quoting poetry, and +especially pleased if he could indulge in reminiscences in his own +circle of what his royal mistress had said at her last visit. + +Finally, mention must be made of one who, though he held no high +position of State, can with justice be regarded as both friend and +adviser of the Queen--John Brown. He entered the Queen's service at +Balmoral, became later a gillie to the Prince Consort, and in 1851 +the Queen's personal outdoor attendant. He was a man of a very +straightforward nature and blunt speech, and even his Royal Mistress +was not safe at times from criticism. In spite of his rough manner, +he possessed many admirable qualities, and on his death in 1883 the +Queen caused a granite seat to be erected in the grounds of Osborne +with the following inscription: + + A TRUER, NOBLER, TRUSTIER HEART, MORE LOVING + AND MORE LOYAL, NEVER BEAT WITHIN + A HUMAN BREAST. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII: _Queen and Empire_ + +What should they know of England who only England know? + + +The England of Queen Elizabeth was the England of Shakespeare: + + This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, + This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, + This other Eden, demi-paradise; + This fortress built by Nature for herself + Against infection and the hand of war; + This happy breed of men, this little world, + This precious stone set in the silver sea, + Which serves it in the office of a wall, + Or as a moat defensive to a house, + Against the envy of less happier lands; + This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. + +In Tennyson's _Princess_ we find an echo of these words, where the +poet, in contrasting England and France, monarchy and republic--much +to the disadvantage of the latter--says: + + God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off, + And keeps our Britain, whole within herself, + A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled. + +But at a later date, in an "Epilogue to the Queen," at the close of +the _Idylls of the King_, Tennyson has said farewell to his narrow +insular views, and speaks of + + Our ocean-empire with her boundless homes + For ever-broadening England, and her throne + In our vast Orient, and one isle, one isle, + That knows not her own greatness: if she knows + And dreads it we are fall'n. + +He had come to recognize the necessity for guarding and maintaining +the Empire, with all its greatness and all its burdens, as part of +this country's destiny. + +It is a little difficult to realize that the British Empire, as we +now know it, has been created within only the last hundred years. +Beaconsfield, in his novel _Contarini Fleming_, describes the +difference between ancient and modern colonies. "A modern colony," +he says, "is a commercial enterprise, an ancient colony was a +political sentiment." In other words, colonies were a matter of +'cash' to modern nations, such as the Spaniards: in the time of the +ancients there was a close tie, a feeling of kinship, and the colonist +was not looked upon with considerable contempt and dislike by the +Mother Country. + +Beaconsfield believed that there would come a time, and that not far +distant, when men would change their ideas. "I believe that a great +revolution is at hand in our system of colonization, and that Europe +will soon recur to the principles of the ancient polity." + +This feeling of pride in the growth and expansion of our great +over-seas dominions is comparatively new, and there was a time when +British ministers seriously proposed separation, from what they +considered to be a useless burden. + +The ignorance of all that concerned the colonies in the early years +of Victoria's reign was extraordinary, and this accounted, to a great +extent, for the indifference with which the English people regarded +the prospect of drifting apart. + +Lord Beaconsfield was a true prophet, for this indifference is now +a thing of the past, and in the year 1875 an Imperial Federation +League was formed, which, together with the celebrations at the +Jubilees in 1887 and 1897, helped to knit this country and the +Dominions together in bonds of friendship and sympathy. The rapid +improvements in communication have brought the different parts of +the Empire closer together; the Imperial Penny Postage and an +all-British cable route to Australia have kept us in constant touch +with our kinsmen in every part of the world where the Union Jack is +flown. + +But this did not all come about in a day. Prejudice and dislike are +difficult to conquer, and it was chiefly owing to the efforts of Lord +Beaconsfield that they were eventually overcome. + +Imperialism too often means 'Jingoism,'--wild waving of flags and +chanting of such melodies as: + + We don't want to fight, + But, by Jingo, if we do, + We've got the ships, we've got the men, + We've got the money too. + +The true Imperialism is "defence, not defiance." Beaconsfield looked +back into the past and sought to "resume the thread of our ancient +empire." For him empire meant no easy burden but a solemn duty, a +knitting together of all the varied races and religions in one common +cause. "Peace with honour" was his and England's watchword. He +believed, in fact, like Shakespeare, in saying + + Beware + Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, + Bear't, that th' opposed may beware of thee. + +He was very particular on the duty of "if necessary, saying rough +things kindly, and not kind things roughly," which was a lesson Lord +Palmerston never seemed to be capable of learning. Another of his +maxims was that it was wiser from every point of view to treat +semi-barbarous nations with due respect for their customs and +feelings. He preached Confederation and not Annexation. "By pursuing +the policy of Confederation," he declared, "we bind states together, +we consolidate their resources, and we enable them to establish a +strong frontier, that is the best security against annexation." + +His whole policy was to foster the growth of independence and build +the foundations of a peace which should be enduring. "Both in the +East and in the West our object is to have prosperous, happy, and +contented neighbours." + +The object of his imperialism was to progress, at the same time paying +due respect to the traditions of the past; he rightly believed that +the character of a nation, like that of an individual, is +strengthened by responsibility. + +"The glory of the Empire and the prosperity of the people" was what +he hoped to achieve. + +During the anxious times of the Indian Mutiny he alone seemed to grasp +the real meaning of this sudden uprising of alien races. He declared +that it was a revolt and not a mutiny; a revolt against the English +because of their lack of respect for ancient rights and customs. + +After the war was ended he declared that the Government ought to tell +the people of India "that the relation between them and their real +ruler and sovereign, Queen Victoria, shall be drawn nearer." This +should be done "in the Queen's name and with the Queen's authority." +He appealed to the whole Indian nation by his 'Royal Titles Bill,' +by means of which the Queen received the title of Empress of India. +This brought home to the minds and imaginations of the native races +the real meaning and grandeur of the Empire of which they were now +a part. The great Queen was now _their_ Empress, or, to use the Indian +title, '_Kaiser-i-Hind_.' + +The Queen took the deepest interest in the Proclamation to the Indian +people in 1858, and insisted on a number of alterations before she +would allow it to be passed as satisfactory. She wrote to Lord Derby +asking him to remember that "it is a female sovereign who speaks to +more than a hundred millions of Eastern people on assuming the direct +government over them 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 feelings of +generosity, benevolence, and religious feeling, pointing out the +privileges which the Indians will receive in being placed on an +equality with the subjects of the British Crown, and the prosperity +following in the train of civilization." + +Direct mention was to be made of the introduction of railways, canals, +and telegraphs, with an assurance that such works would be the cause +of general welfare to the Indian people. In conclusion she added: +"Her Majesty wishes expression to be given to her feelings of horror +and regret at the results of this bloody civil war, and of pleasure +and gratitude to God at its approaching end, and Her Majesty thinks +the Proclamation should terminate by an invocation to Providence for +its blessing on a great work for a great and good end." + +The amended Proclamation was read in every province in India and met +everywhere with cordial approval by princes and natives alike. The +feeling of loyalty was aroused by the Queen's assurance that "in your +prosperity is our strength, in your contentment our security, and +in your gratitude our best reward." + +On May 1, 1859, in England, and on July 28, 1859, in India, there +was a general thanksgiving for the restoration of peace. + +Although the Queen was never able to visit India in person, in 1875 +the Prince of Wales went, at her request, to mark her appreciation +of the loyalty of the native princes. The welcome given to the future +King of England was truly royal. Reviews, banquets, illuminations, +state dinners followed one another in rapid succession. Benares, the +sacred city of the Hindoos, was visited, and here the Prince +witnessed a great procession which included large numbers of +elephants and camels, and an illumination of the entire river and +city. + +At Delhi, the capital of the Great Mogul, the Prince was met by Lord +Napier of Magdala at the head of fifteen thousand troops, and at +Lucknow an address and a crown set with jewels were presented to him. + +[Illustration: The Secret of England's Greatness +J.T. Baker +Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.] + +It was in the same year that Disraeli, on behalf of the British +Government, purchased a very large number of shares in the Suez Canal, +thus gaining for us a hand in its administration--a vitally important +matter when one realizes how much closer India has been brought by +this saving in time over the long voyage round the Cape. + +To pass in review the growth and expansion of the Empire during the +Queen's reign would be a difficult task, and an impossible one within +the limits of a small volume. The expressions of loyalty and devotion +from the representatives of the great over-seas dominions on the +occasion of the Queen's Jubilee in 1887 were proof enough that +England and the English were no longer an insular land and people, +but a mighty nation with one sovereign head. + +In the address which was presented to the Queen it was stated that +during her reign her colonial subjects of European descent had +increased from two to nine millions, and in Asia and India there was +an increase of population from ninety-six to two hundred and +fifty-four millions. + +After the great ceremony of thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral the +Queen expressed her thanks to her people in the following message: + +"I am anxious to express to my people my warm thanks for the kind, +and more than kind, reception I met with on going to and returning +from Westminster Abbey with all my children and grandchildren. + +"The enthusiastic reception I met with then, as well as on those +eventful days in London, as well as in Windsor, on the occasion of +my Jubilee, has touched me most deeply, and has shown that the labours +and anxieties of fifty long years--twenty-two years of which I spent +in unclouded happiness, shared with and cheered by my beloved husband, +while an equal number were full of sorrows and trial borne without +his sheltering arm and wise help--have been appreciated by my people. +This feeling and the sense of duty towards my dear country and +subjects, who are so inseparably bound up with my life, will +encourage me in my task, often a very difficult and arduous one, +during the remainder of my life. + +"The wonderful order preserved on this occasion, and the good +behaviour of the enormous multitudes assembled, merits my highest +admiration. That God may protect and abundantly bless my country is +my fervent prayer." + +And in laying the foundation-stone of the Imperial Institute, she +said: + +"I concur with you in thinking that the counsel and exertions of my +beloved husband initiated a movement which gave increased vigour to +commercial activity, and produced marked and lasting improvements +in industrial efforts. One indirect result of that movement has been +to bring more before the minds of men the vast and varied resources +of the Empire over which Providence has willed that I should reign +during fifty prosperous years. + +"I believe and hope that the Imperial Institute will play a useful +part in combining those resources for the common advantage of all +my subjects, conducing towards the welding of the colonies, India, +and the mother-country, into one harmonious and united +community. . . ." + +When war was declared in South Africa and the Boer forces invaded +Cape Colony and Natal, contingents from Canada, Australia, New +Zealand, Cape Colony, and Natal joined the British force and fought +side by side throughout that long and trying campaign. + +In 1897 was celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the Queen's reign, +and every colony sent a detachment of troops to represent it. At the +steps of St Paul's Cathedral the Queen remained to return thanks to +God for all the blessings of her reign, and after the magnificent +procession had returned she once again sent a message to her people: + +"In weal and woe I have ever had the true sympathy of all my people, +which has been warmly reciprocated by myself. It has given me +unbounded pleasure to see so many of my subjects from all parts of +the world assembled here, and to find them joining in the +acclamations of loyal devotion to myself, and I wish to thank them +all from the depth of my grateful heart." + + + + +_Appendix to Chapter XIII_ + + +THE BRITISH EMPIRE + +The population of the Empire is estimated to be 355 millions of +coloured and 60 millions of white people. + + +CANADA + +1840. The Act of Union passed. The two colonies of Upper and Lower +Canada united, and a representative Assembly formed. + +1867. Bill for the Federation of Canada passed. The various provinces +united under the title of Dominion of Canada, ruled by a +Governor-General, nominated by the Crown. The Central Parliament, +which dealt with matters relating to the Dominion, established at +Ottawa. + +1885. Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which led to the +opening up of the North-West. The great stream of emigration from +Europe commences. + + +AUSTRALIA + +Australia became a United Commonwealth at the beginning of the +present century. + +From 1851 onward the transportation of convicts was prohibited. + +The expansion of the Commonwealth has taken place to a great extent +during the reign of Queen Victoria. The majority of the settlers are +of British descent. + + +SOUTH AFRICA + +South Africa finally united in 1910 with self-government. + + +INDIA + +Disraeli, in 1876, introduced the Royal Titles Bill, by means of +which the Queen was able to assume the title of Empress of India. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV: _Stress and Strain_ + + Forward, forward let us range, +Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change. + TENNYSON + + +The greatest Revolutions are not always those which are accompanied +by riot and bloodshed. England's Revolution was peaceful, but it +worked vast and almost incredible changes. + +We find, in the first place, that after the great Napoleonic Wars +and during the 'forty years' peace' a new class, the 'Middle Class,' +came into being. It had, of course, existed before this time, but +it had been unable to make its power felt. The astonishing increase +of trade and consequently of wealth, the application of steam power +with special influence upon land and sea transit, transformed +England into "the Workshop of the World." + +By the year 1840 railways were no longer regarded as something in +the nature of an experiment, which might or might not prove +a success; they had, indeed, become an integral part of the social +life of the nation. In 1840 the Railway Regulation Act was passed, +followed in 1844 by the Cheap Trains Act, which required that +passengers must be carried in covered waggons at a charge of not more +than one penny a mile and at a speed of not less than twelve miles +an hour. + +From 1844 onward the construction of railways proceeded apace, until +by the year 1874 no less than 16,449 miles had been laid. Ocean +traffic under steam progressed equally rapidly; in 1812 the first +steamer appeared upon the Clyde, and in 1838 the famous _Great +Western_ steamed from Bristol to New York. + +The quickening and cheapening of transport called for new and +improved methods of manufacture; small business concerns grew into +great mercantile houses with interests all over the face of the globe. +Everywhere movement and expansion; everywhere change. A powerful +commercial class came into existence, and power--that is, voting +power--passed to this class and was held by it until the year 1865. +From this year, roughly speaking, the power passed into the hands +of the democracy. + +Education, which had been to a great extent a class monopoly, +gradually penetrated to all ranks and grades of society. In 1867 the +second Reform Act was passed; a very large proportion of the urban +working classes were given the power of voting, and it was naturally +impossible to entrust such powers for long to an illiterate democracy. +Therefore, in 1870, Mr Forster's Education Act was passed, which +required that in every district where sufficient voluntary schools +did not exist a School Board should be formed to build and maintain +the necessary school accommodation at the cost of the rates. By a +later Act of 1876 school attendance was made compulsory. Every effort +was made in succeeding years to raise the level of intelligence among +present and future citizens. Education became national and +universal. + +During the period 1865-85 the population of the kingdom increased, +and the emigration to the British colonial possessions reached its +maximum in the year 1883, when the figures were 183,236. + +The rapid rise in population of the large towns drew attention more +and more urgently to the question of public health. Every city and +every town had its own problems to face, and the necessity for solving +these cultivated and strengthened the sense of civic pride and +responsibility. We find during this period an ever-growing interest +throughout the country in the welfare, both moral and mental, of the +great mass of the workers. Municipal life became the training-ground +where many a member of Parliament served his apprenticeship. + +Municipalities took charge of baths and washhouses, organized and +built public markets, ensured a cheap and ample supply of pure water, +installed modern systems of drainage, provided housing +accommodation at low rents for the poorer classes, built hospitals +for infectious diseases, and, finally, carried on the great and +important work of educating its citizens. + +The power of Labour began, at last, to make itself felt. The first +attempt at co-operation made by the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844 +stimulated others to follow their example, and in 1869 the +Co-operative Union was formed. The Trade Unions showed an increased +interest in education, in forming libraries and classes, and in +extending their somewhat narrow policy as their voting power +increased. Out of this movement sprang Working Men's Clubs attached +to the Unions and carrying on all branches of work, educational and +beneficial, amongst its members. + +The standard of society was continually rising, and it was already +a far cry to the Early Victorian England described in an earlier +chapter. + +The world was growing smaller--that is to say, communications +between country and country, between continent and continent, were +growing more easy. The first insulated cable was laid in 1848, across +the Hudson River, from Jersey City to New York, and in 1857 +an unsuccessful attempt was made to connect the New and the Old World. +In 1866 the _Great Eastern_, after two trials, succeeded in laying +a complete cable. The expansion of the powers of human invention led +to a great increase in the growth of comfort of all classes. To take +only a few striking examples: at the beginning of the century matches +were not yet invented, and only in 1827 were the 'Congreve' sulphur +matches put on the market; they were sold at the rate of one shilling +a box containing eighty-four matches! In the year 1821 gas was still +considered a luxury; soap and candles were both greatly improved and +cheapened. By the withdrawal of the window tax in 1851 obvious and +necessary advantages were gained in the building of houses. + +In 1855 the stamp duty on newspapers was abolished. In these days +of cheap halfpenny papers with immense circulations it is difficult +to realize that at a date not very far distant from us, the poor +scarcely, if ever, saw a newspaper at all. Friends used to club +together to reduce the great expense of buying a single copy, and +agents hired out copies for the sum of one penny per hour. The only +effect of the stamp duty had been to cut off the poorer classes from +all sources of trustworthy information. + +In 1834 not a single town in the kingdom with the exception of London +possessed a daily paper. The invention of steam printing, and the +introduction of shorthand reporting and the use of telegraph and +railways, revolutionized the whole world of journalism. + +Charles Dickens, on the occasion of his presiding, in May 1865, at +the second annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund, gave his +hearers an idea of what newspaper reporters were and what they +suffered in the early days. "I have pursued the calling of a reporter +under circumstances of which many of my brethren here can form no +adequate conception. I have often transcribed for the printer, from +my shorthand notes, important public speeches in which the strictest +accuracy was required, and a mistake in which would have been to a +young man severely compromising, writing on the palm of my hand, by +the light of a dark lantern, in a post-chaise and four, galloping +through a wild country, and through the dead of the night, at the +then surprising rate of fifteen miles an hour. . . . I have worn my +knees by writing on them on the old back-row of the old gallery of +the old House of Commons; and I have worn my feet by standing to write +in a preposterous pen in the old House of Lords, where we used to +be huddled together like so many sheep--kept in waiting, say, until +the woolsack might want re-stuffing. Returning home from exciting +political meetings in the country to the waiting press in London, +I do verily believe I have been upset in almost every description +of vehicle known in this country. I have been, in my time, belated +on miry by-roads, towards the small hours, forty or fifty miles from +London, in a wheelless carriage, with exhausted horses and drunken +post-boys, and have got back in time for publication, to be received +with never-forgotten compliments by the late Mr Black, coming in the +broadest of Scotch from the broadest of hearts I ever knew." + +During these later years England came to look upon her duties and +responsibilities toward her colonial possessions in quite a +different light. Imperialism became a factor in the political life +of the nation. + +The builders of Empire in the time of Queen Elizabeth took a very +narrow view of their responsibilities; they were not in the least +degree concerned about the well-being of a colony or possession for +its own sake. The state of Ireland in those days spoke for itself. +The horrors of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 was the first lesson which +opened England's eyes to the fact that an Empire, if it is to be +anything more than a name, must be a united whole under wise and +sympathetic guidance. + +The rebellion proved to be the end of the old East Indian Company. +England took over the administration of Indian affairs into her own +hands. An "Act for the better Government of India" was passed in 1858, +which provided that all the territories previously under the +government of the Company were to be vested in Her Majesty, and all +the Company's powers to be exercised in her name. The Viceroy, with +the assistance of a Council, was to be supreme in India. + +In 1867 a great colonial reform was carried out, the Confederation +of the North American Provinces of the British Empire. By this Act +the names of Upper and Lower Canada were changed respectively to +Ontario and Quebec. The first Dominion Parliament met in the autumn +of the same year, and lost no time in passing an Act to construct +an Inter-Colonial Railway affording proper means of communication +between the maritime and central provinces. + +In 1869 the Hudson Bay territory was acquired from the Company which +held it, and after the Red River Insurrection, headed by a half-breed, +Louis Riel, had been successfully crushed by the Wolseley Expedition, +the territory was made part of the Federation. In 1871 British +Columbia became part of the Dominion, on condition that a railway +was constructed within the following ten years which should extend +from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains and connect with the existing +railway system. + +The great Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, opening +out the West to all-comers. + +The rise and growth of the Imperialistic spirit has been greatly +influenced by the literature on the subject, which dated its +commencement from Professor Seeley's _Expansion of England_ in 1883. +This was followed by an immense number of works by various writers, +the chief of whom, Rudyard Kipling, has popularized the conception +of Imperialism and extended its meaning: + + Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone, + But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown. + +The Empire was not, however, to be consolidated without war and +bloodshed, for relations with the two Boer Republics, the Transvaal +and the Orange River, became more and more strained as years went +on. The last years of the Queen's life were destined to be saddened +by the outbreak of war in South Africa. + +The facts which led to the outbreak were briefly these, though it +is but fair to state that there are, even now, various theories +current as to the causes. The discovery and opening up of the gold +mines of the Transvaal had brought a stream of adventurous emigrants +into the country, and it was these 'Outlanders' of whom the Dutch +were suspicious. The Transvaal Government refused to admit them to +equal political rights with the Dutch inhabitants. It was certain, +however, that the Outlanders would never submit to be dependent on +the policy of President Kruger, although the Dutch declared that they +had only accepted the suzerainty of Great Britain under compulsion. + +Negotiations between the two Governments led to nothing, as neither +side would give way, and at last, in 1899, following upon an ultimatum +demanding the withdrawal of British troops from the borders of the +Republic, war broke out. It had undoubtedly been hastened by the +ill-fated and ill-advised raid in 1896 of Dr Jameson, the +administrator of Rhodesia. + +It is scarcely necessary to review the details of this war at any +length. It proved conclusively that the Government of this country +had vastly underrated the resisting powers of the Boers. For three +years the British army was forced to wage a guerilla warfare, and +adapt itself to entirely new methods of campaigning. + +On May 28, 1900, the Orange Free State was annexed under the name +of the Orange River Colony. In June Lord Roberts entered Pretoria, +but the war dragged on until 1902, when a Peace Conference was held +and the Boer Republics became part of the British Empire. Very +liberal terms were offered to and accepted by the conquered Dutch. +But long before this event took place Queen Victoria had passed away. +She had followed the whole course of the war with the deepest interest +and anxiety, and when Lord Roberts returned to this country, leaving +Lord Kitchener in command in South Africa, the Queen was desirous +of hearing from his own lips the story of the campaign. + +The public was already uneasy about the state of her health, and on +January 20th it was announced that her condition had become serious. +On Tuesday, January 22, she was conscious and recognized the members +of her family watching by her bedside, but on the afternoon of the +same day she peacefully passed away. One of the last wishes she +expressed was that her body should be borne to rest on a gun-carriage, +for she had never forgotten that she was a soldier's daughter. + +On the day of the funeral the horses attached to the gun-carriage +became restive, and the sailors who formed the guard of honour took +their place, and drew the coffin, draped in the Union Jack, to its +last resting-place. + +Through the streets of London, which had witnessed two great Jubilee +processions, festivals of rejoicing and thanksgiving, the funeral +cortege passed, and a great reign and a great epoch in history had +come to an end. + + + + +CHAPTER XV: _Victoria the Great_ + + +The keynote of Queen Victoria's life was simplicity. She was a great +ruler, and at the same time a simple-minded, sympathetic woman, the +true mother of her people. She seemed by some natural instinct to +understand their joys and their sorrows, and this was the more +remarkable as for forty years she reigned alone without the +invaluable advice and assistance of her husband. + +Her qualities were not those which have made other great rulers +famous, but they were typical of the age in which she lived. + +All her life she was industrious, and never spared herself any time +or trouble, however arduous and disagreeable her duties might be. +She possessed the keenest sense of duty, and in dealing with men and +circumstances she never failed to do or say the right thing. Her daily +intercourse with the leading English statesmen of the time gave her +an unrivalled knowledge of home and foreign politics. In short, her +natural ability and good sense, strengthened by experience, made her +what she was, a perfect model of a constitutional monarch. + +During her reign the Crown once again took its proper place: no longer +was there a gulf between the Ruler and the People, and Patriotism, +the love of Queen and Country, became a real and living thing. Pope's +adage, "A patriot is a fool in every age," could no longer be quoted +with any truth. + +Queen Victoria was, above all, a great lover of peace, and did all +in her power for its promotion. Her personal influence was often the +means of smoothing over difficulties both at home and abroad when +her Ministers had aggravated instead of lessening them. She formed +her own opinions and held to them, though she was always willing to +listen to reason. + +The Memorandum which she drew up in the year 1850 shows how firm a +stand she could take when her country's peace seemed to be +threatened. + +Lord Palmerston, though an able Minister in many respects, was a +wilful, hot-headed man, who was over-fond of acting on the spur of +the moment without consulting his Sovereign. His dispatches, written +as they so often were in a moment of feverish enthusiasm, frequently +gave offence to foreign monarchs and statesmen, and were more than +once nearly the cause of war. It was remarked of him that "the desk +was his place of peril, his pen ran away with him. His speech never +made an enemy, his writing has left many festering sores. The charm +of manner and urbanity which so served him in Parliament and in +society was sometimes wanting on paper, and good counsels were dashed +with asperity." + +Lord Palmerston, the Queen complained, did not obey instructions, +and she declared that before important dispatches were sent abroad +the Sovereign should be consulted. Further, alterations were +sometimes made by him when they had been neither suggested nor +approved by the Crown. + +Such proceedings caused England, in the Queen's own words, to be +"generally detested, mistrusted, and treated with indignity by even +the smallest Powers." + +In the Memorandum the Queen requires: + +"(1) That he will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, +in order that the Queen may know as distinctly to what she has given +her royal sanction. + +"(2) Having once given her sanction to a measure, that it be not +arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister. Such an act she must +consider as a failure in sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to +be visited by the exercise of her Constitutional right of dismissing +that Minister. She expects to be kept informed of what passes between +him and the Foreign Ministers, before important decisions are taken, +based upon that intercourse; to receive the Foreign dispatches in +good time and to have the drafts for her approval sent to her in +sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their contents +before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it best that Lord John +Russell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston." + +More than once the alteration of a dispatch by the Queen prevented +what might easily have plunged this country into a disastrous war. + +After the Mutiny in India a proclamation was issued to the native +races, and the Queen insisted upon alterations which would clearly +show that their religious beliefs should in no way be interfered with, +thus preventing a fresh mutiny. + +On rare occasions her indignation got the better of her--once, +notably, when, owing to careless delay on the part of the Ministry, +General Gordon perished at Khartoum, a rescue party failing to reach +him in time. In a letter to his sisters she spoke of this as "a stain +left upon England," and as a wrong which she felt very keenly. + +Her style of writing was as simple as possible, yet she always said +the right thing at the right moment, and her letters of sympathy or +congratulation were models of their kind and never failed in their +effect. + +Few, if any, reigns in history have been so blameless as hers, and +her domestic life was perfect in its harmony and the devotion of the +members of her family to one another. She possessed the 'eye of the +mistress' for every detail, however small, which concerned +housekeeping matters, and though her style of entertaining was +naturally often magnificent, everything was paid for punctually. + +After the visits of King Louis Philippe and the Emperor Nicholas of +Russia, Sir Robert Peel acknowledged that "Her Majesty was able to +meet every charge and to give a reception to the Sovereigns which +struck every one by its magnificence without adding one tittle to +the burdens of the country. I am not required by Her Majesty to press +for the extra expenditure of one single shilling on account of these +unforeseen causes of increased expenditure. I think that to state +this is only due to the personal credit of Her Majesty, who insists +upon it that there shall be every magnificence required by her +station, but without incurring one single debt." + +When one remembers that the Queen had to superintend the household +arrangements of Buckingham Palace, Balmoral Castle, Osborne, and +Windsor, and that the latter alone gave employment, in one way and +another, to two thousand people, it can be realized that this was +a tremendous undertaking in itself. Method and neatness, first +instituted by the Prince Consort, were always insisted upon in place +of the disorder and waste which had reigned supreme before the Queen +became head of the household. + +[Illustration: THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, SOUTH KENSINGTON] + +Before her life was saddened by the untimely loss of her husband the +Queen was the leader of English society, and her influence was, as +may be imagined, thoroughly wholesome and good. She was all her life +a deeply religious woman, and though her observance of Sunday was +strict, she never allowed it to become a day of penance. Her religion +was 'humane'--indeed, her intense sympathy with all sorrow and +suffering was one of her supreme virtues, and her early upbringing +made her dislike all elaborate forms of ceremony during the service. +When in the Highlands she always attended the simple little +Presbyterian church, where the congregation was, for the most part, +made up of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. + +It is this simplicity and 'homeliness' of the Queen which were so +often misunderstood by those who could not realize how much she was +at one with her people. The Queen was never more happy than when she +was visiting some poor sufferer and comforting those in sorrow. Her +memory for the little events which made up the lives and happiness +of those far below her in social rank was amazing. She was a great +and a truly democratic Queen. She gave the greater portion of her +Jubilee present toward a fund to establish institutions to provide +nurses for the sick poor. + +During the latter years of her reign, when she was less and less to +be seen at public functions and ceremonies, many complaints were made +about her reputed neglect of royal duties. She felt the injustice +of such statements very keenly and with good reason. No allowances +were made for her poor health, for her years, for the family losses +which left her every year more and more a lonely woman. Her duties, +ever increasing in number and extent, left her no time, even if she +had possessed the inclination, to take part in pomp and ceremony. + +The outburst of loyalty and affection on the occasion of her two +Jubilee celebrations proved that she still reigned supreme in the +nation's heart. + +The Queen was not only a great monarch, but also a great statesman. +Consider for a moment the many and bewildering changes which took +place in her own and other countries during her reign. Our country +was almost continually at war in some portion of the globe. The +British Army fought side by side with the French against Russia in +the Crimea, and against the rebels in the Indian Mutiny; two Boer +wars were fought in South Africa in 1881, and 1899-1902. There were +also lesser wars in China, Afghanistan, Abyssinia, Zululand and +Egypt. + +The Queen lived to see France change from a Monarchy to a Republic; +to see Germany beat France to her knees and become a united Empire, +thanks to the foresight of her great statesman Bismarck, and her +great general von Moltke. During the same year (1870) the Italian +army entered Rome, as soon as the French garrison had been withdrawn, +and Italy became a united country under King Victor Emmanuel. + +Despite the fact that the map of Europe was continually changing, +England managed to keep clear of international strife, and this was +in no small degree due to the personal influence of the Queen. + +The England of her early years would be an absolutely foreign country +to us, if by some magic touch we were to be transplanted back down +the line of years. It was different in thought, feeling, and outlook. +The extraordinary changes in the modes of travelling, by means of +which numbers of people who had never even thought of any other +country beside their own, were enabled to visit other lands, broke +down, bit by bit, the barrier between the Continent and ourselves. +England became less of an insular and more of a continental power. + +The social changes were, as has been shown, all for good. Education +became not the privilege of the few but the right of all who wished +for it. Step by step the people gained in power and in the right to +govern themselves. The idea of citizenship, of a patriotism which +extended beyond the narrow limits of these isles, slowly took root +and blossomed. Through all these manifold changes the Queen reigned, +ever alert, and even in her last years taking the keenest interest +in the growth of her mighty kingdom. + +"The use of the Queen in a dignified capacity is incalculable," +declared Walter Bagehot in his famous essay on _The English +Constitution_. He continues: "Without her in England, the present +English Government would fail and pass away." It is interesting to +read the reasons which such a clear and distinguished thinker gives +to explain the hold which the Monarchy retains upon the English +nation as a whole. + +Firstly: there is the Family, of which the Queen is the head; the +Nation looks upon her as its mother, witness its enthusiasm at the +marriage of the Prince of Wales. + +Secondly: The Monarchy strengthens the Government with the strength +of religion. It is the duty of a loyal citizen to obey his Queen; +the oath of allegiance is no empty form. The Queen from her very +position acts as a symbol of unity. + +Thirdly: The Queen is the head of our society; she represents England +in the eyes of foreign nations. + +Fourthly: The Monarchy is the head of our morality. The example of +Queen Victoria's simple life has not been lost upon the nation. It +is now quite a natural thing to expect and to find the domestic +virtues personified in the ruling monarch, and this in spite of the +fact that history has shown what temptations lie in the way of those +possessed of the highest power in the state. + +Shakespeare voiced the feeling of the people for the kingship in the +words which he put into the mouth of Henry V: + + Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls, + Our debts, our careful wives, + Our children, and our sins, lay on the king: + We must bear all. + O hard condition! twin-born with greatness, + Subject to the breath of every fool, whose sense + No more can feel but his own wringing! + What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect, + That private men enjoy? + And what have kings that privates have not too, + Save ceremony, save general ceremony? + +And lastly, the actual Government of the country may change but the +Monarch remains, subject to no changes of Parliament, above and aloof +from the strife of political parties, the steadying influence in +times of transition. + +The Sovereign has three rights: "The right to be consulted, the right +to encourage, the right to warn." A comparison of the reigns of the +four Georges with the reign of Queen Victoria shows that it was only +during the latter's reign that the duties of the constitutional +monarch were well and conscientiously performed. The Queen worked +as well as her Ministers, and was their equal and often their superior +in business capacity. To conclude: "The benefits of a good monarch +are almost invaluable, but the evils of a bad monarch are almost +irreparable." + +On the death of the Queen, Mr Arthur Balfour, speaking in the House +of Commons, described his visit to Osborne at a time when the Royal +Family was already in mourning. The Queen's desk was still littered +with papers, the inkstand still open and the pen laid beside it. "She +passed away with her children and her children's children to the +third generation around her, beloved and cherished of all. She passed +away without, I well believe, a single enemy in the world. Even those +who loved not England loved her. She passed away not only knowing +that she was, I had almost said, worshipped and reverenced by all +her subjects, but that their feelings towards her had grown in depth +and intensity with every year she was spared to rule over us." + + + + +_Appendix_ + + +Victoria Alexandrina, only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth +son of George III. Born at Kensington, May 24, 1819. Became Queen, +June 20, 1837. + +Married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort, born +August 26, 1819, died December 14, 1861. + +Died January 22, 1901, after a reign of sixty-three years. + + + + +_Summary of Chief Events during the Queen's Reign_ + + +1838. Commencement of the Chartist Movement. + +1840. PENNY POSTAGE ESTABLISHED mainly through the efforts of + Rowland Hill. + War with China. + +1841. Sir Robert Peel appointed Premier. + +1842. War with Afghanistan. Peace with China. The Chinese cede Hong + Kong. + +1843. Agitation in Ireland for the Repeal of the Union. + Arrest of Daniel O'Connell. + +1845. War with the Sikhs. + Failure of potato crop in Ireland, which resulted in a famine + in the following winter. + +1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws. + Lord John Russell appointed Premier. + +1848. Revolution in France. Prince Louis Napoleon becomes President + of the Republic. + Chartist Agitation in London. + +1849. Annexation of the Punjab. + +1850. Death of Sir Robert Peel. + +1851. THE GREAT EXHIBITION. + +1852. Death of the Duke of Wellington. + Louis Napoleon elected Emperor of France. + +1853. Turkey declares war against Russia. + +1854. Great Britain and France declare war against Russia. + THE CRIMEAN WAR. + Invasion of the Crimea. The Battle of the Alma (Sept. 20). + Siege of Sebastopol. Battle of Balaclava and Charge of the + Light Brigade (Oct. 25). + Battle of Inkerman (Nov. 5). + +1855. Lord Palmerston appointed Premier. + Death of the Emperor Nicholas of Russia. + Fall of Sebastopol (Sept.). + +1856. Peace concluded with Russia by the Treaty of Paris. + +1857. THE INDIAN MUTINY. + The massacre at Cawnpore (July). Capture of Delhi (Sept.). + Sir Colin Campbell relieves Lucknow (Nov.). + +1858. Suppression of the Mutiny. + Abolition of the East India Company. The possessions and + powers of the Company transferred to the Crown. The + Queen's Proclamation to India issued by Lord Canning, + first Viceroy. + +1859. Establishment of the Volunteer Army. + Fenianism in Ireland. Trial of O'Donovan Rossa. + +1860. Second Chinese War and occupation of Pekin. + +1861. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. + Repeal of the duty on paper. + +1862. The second Great Exhibition. + +1865. Death of Lord Palmerston. Lord Russell appointed Premier. + +1866. THE ATLANTIC CABLE LAID. Lord Derby appointed Premier. + The war between Austria and Prussia. + +1867. THE SECOND REFORM BILL passed. It largely extended the suffrage + in English boroughs. + +1868. Disraeli appointed Premier. + +1869. Suez Canal opened. + +1870. THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT passed, which compelled the + attendance of children at efficient schools. + The Franco-German War. + Halfpenny postcards first came into use. + +1871. Establishment of the German Empire. + TREATY OF WASHINGTON, which settled by arbitration the Alabama + claims. + +1872. The Ballot Act passed to secure secret voting at elections. + +1874. Disraeli appointed Premier for the second time. + +1875. Purchase of shares in the Suez Canal. + +1876. Disraeli becomes Earl of Beaconsfield. + THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED EMPRESS OF INDIA. + +1878. Congress of Berlin to settle the Eastern Question. + Great Britain was represented by Lords Salisbury and + Beaconsfield. + Second Afghan War. + +1879. War in Zululand. + +1880. Rising of the Boers in the Transvaal. + +1881. Defeat of the British at Majuba Hill. Peace concluded in March. + Death of Lord Beaconsfield. + +1882. OCCUPATION OF EGYPT. Bombardment of Alexandria and the Battle + of Tel-el-Kebir. + +1883. War in the Soudan. Defeat of Hicks Pasha. + +1885. Fall of Khartoum and death of General Gordon. + Redistribution Bill. + Number of Members of Parliament increased from 658 to 670. + The Revised Version of the Bible. + +1886. Annexation of Upper Burmah. + +1887. JUBILEE CELEBRATION. + +1888. Death of the Emperor William I. of Germany, and of his son + Frederick III. Succession of William II. + The Local Government Act, by which England and Wales was + divided into counties and county boroughs for purposes of + local government. + +1889. Charter granted to British South African Co. + +1896. The Jameson Raid. + +1897. The 'Diamond' Jubilee. + +1898. Death of Gladstone. + War in Soudan. Battle of Omdurman. + +1899. South African War. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Queen Victoria, by E. 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