Queen Victoria (18 page)

Windsor was reached on the 11th of October. On the 14th the Queen paid her final visit to the Exhibition, which was formally closed on the morrow. Lord John Russell, writing to the Queen on the 17th, sums up its career and results in the following words: “The grandeur of the conception, the zeal, invention, and talent displayed in the execution, and the perfect order maintained from the first day to the last, have contributed together to give imperishable fame to Prince Albert. If to others much praise is due for their several parts in the work, it is to his energy and judgment that the world owes both the original design and the harmonious and rapid execution. Whatever may be done hereafter, no one can deprive the Prince of the glory of being the first to conceive and to carry into effect this beneficent design, nor will the Monarchy fail to participate in the advantage to be derived from this undertaking. No Republic of the Old or New World has done anything so splendid or souseful.” In acknowledging this letter the Queen wrote: “We are both much pleased and touched at Lord John’s kind and gratifying expressions relative to the success of the Great Exhibition, the closing of which we must much regret, as, indeed, all seem to do. Lord John is right in supposing it is particularly gratifying to
her
to see her beloved husband’s name stand ever immortalised by the conception of the greatest triumph of Peace which the world has ever produced, and by the energy and perseverance with which he helped to carry it out. To feel this and to see this so universally acknowledged by a country, which we both daily feel more attached to and more proud of, is indeed a source of immense happiness and gratitude to the Queen… The day of the closing of the Exhibition (which the Queen regretted much she could not witness) was the twelfth anniversary of her betrothal to the Prince, which is a curious coincidence.”

In November of this year the Queen lost her only remaining uncle on her father’s side, by the death of Ernest, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover. On the 2nd of December, 1851, occurred the
coup
d'etat
of Louis Napoleon.

The year 1852 opened more cheerfully with a revival of trade, an influx of gold from Australia causing a season of such unusual animation and gaiety, that King Leopold was afraid of the effects for his nephew and niece. To calm his apprehension, the Queen wrote to him on the 1st of June: “Allow me just to say one word about the London season. The London season consists for us of two State balls and two concerts. We are hardly ever later than twelve o’clock at night, and our only dissipation is going three or four times a week to the play or opera, which is a great amusement and
dilassement
to us both. As for going out, as people do here every night, to balls and parties, and to breakfasts and teas all day long besides, I am sure no one would stand it worse than I should. So you see, dearest uncle, that in fact the London season is nothing to us. The person who really is terribly fagged during the season with business and seeing people so constantly is Albert. This often makes me anxious and unhappy.”

Parliament was prorogued, somewhat early, on the istof July, by the Queen in person, and two days afterwards the Court moved to Osborne. From this centre several pleasant yachting trips were made. Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Mount Edgcumbe were visited, and in the smaller yacht
Fairy
a cruise was made up the Tamar. Tempestuous weather prevented a projected trip to the Channel Islands, but on the 10th August it was found practicable to cross to the Scheldt, and to pay King Leopold a visit at Laeken. Here the Queen and Prince remained until the 14th, and then crossed to England, the weather again being boisterous. On the 30th the Court left Osborne for Balmoral, whence they returned to Windsor on the 14th of October, passing through Edinburgh, Preston, and Chester to Bangor, to see the new tubular bridge built by Mr. Robert Stephenson over the Menai Straits. During this sojourn at Balmoral the news came to the Queen that a large fortune had been left her by a Mr. John Camden Nield. Writing to King Leopold, Her Majesty remarked, “It is astonishing, but it is satisfactory to see that people have so much confidence that it will not be thrown away. And so it certainly will not be.” A sadder message reached Balmoral a few days after, when the great Duke of Wellington on the 14th passed peacefully away at Walmer Castle. A report had been received on the morning of the 16th, but was not generally believed, and it was not till the afternoon when Her Majesty, who was sketching at the
Dhu
Loch
, received a letter from Lord Derby, “which,” the Queen writes, “I tore open; and alas! it contained the confirmation of the fatal news that
England's
, or rather
Britain's
, pride, her glory, her hero, the greatest man she had ever produced, was no more! Sad day! Great and irreparable national loss!… In him centred almost every earthly honour a subject could possess. His position was the highest a subject ever had - above party, looked up to by all, revered by the whole nation, the friend of the Sovereign; and how simply he carried these honours!… He was a link which connected us with bygone times, with the last century. Not an eye will be dry in the whole country.” Immediately on her return from Balmoral, the Queen issued a general order to the army which the deceased soldier had so long commanded. Its closing paragraph ran as follows: “The discipline which he exacted from others, as the main foundation of the military character, he sternly imposed upon himself; and the Queen desires to impress upon the army that the greatest commander whom England ever saw has left an example for the imitation of every soldier, in taking as his guiding principle in every relation of life an energetic and unhesitating obedience to the call of duty.” The public funeral of the Duke was celebrated at St. Paul’s on the 18th of November with great magnificence and solemnity.

On the 1st of December of this year the Senate and the Legislative Corps of the French Republic announced to their President that he had been elected Emperor of France by a majority of seven millions and a half of votes. Under the title of Napoleon III, the new Emperor was recognized in England and by the principal foreign powers, with the exception of Russia.

On the 7th of April, 1853, the fourth son of Her Majesty was born at Buckingham Palace. The infant Prince was christened at the same place on the 28th of June by the Archbishop of Canterbury, receiving the names of Leopold George Duncan Albert; the first after the King of the Belgians, the second after his sponsor, the new King of Hanover, and the third as a compliment to Scotland.

At this time the urgent representations of the Queen and the Prince had called the attention of the Ministry to the condition of our naval and military forces. In the early part of the year 1853 Chobham Common was selected for a camp to test the efficiency of the military organization. The idea of a permanent camp of instruction was also pressed upon the Government, and later on resulted in the acquisition of the tract of land where the military station of Aldershot is now fixed.

In the summer the site selected at Chobham was occupied by an encampment of a small, but well-appointed force of about 10,000 men of various branches of the service. The spectacle was novel and interesting to a generation which had not for nearly forty years had the opportunity of seeing a mass of troops together under arms. On the 21st June the Queen and Prince Albert, with whom were the King of Hanover and the Duke of Coburg, witnessed the first trial of field manoeuvres. Her Majesty, mounted on a black charger, wore a military habit. An attack of measles, which ran through the whole family, with the exception of the two youngest children, prevented the Prince from taking the active part in the work of the camp to which he had been looking forward with eagerness; and it was not till the 4th of August that he was able to accompany the Queen to witness the operations, which were on that day carried out by the fresh body of troops who had taken the places of the original occupants of the camp. On the 6th they returned to Chobham with their four eldest children, celebrating by this treat the birthday of the Prince. Of this visit the Queen wrote to King Leopold: “We went twice more to our dear (as I call it) camp, and had two interesting days there. It has been most successful, and the troops have been particularly well all the time. When I think that this camp, and all our large fleet, are, without doubt, the result of Albert’s assiduous and unceasing representations to the late and present government, without which I fully believe very little would have been done, one may be proud and thankful; but, as usual, he is so modest that he allows no praise. He works for the general good, and is sufficiently rewarded when he sees this carried out.”

The camp was broken up on the 20th, having proved a complete success, and a most important and valuable training for the active warfare in which the troops who had taken part in it were so soon to be engaged. The review of the large fleet assembled at Spithead took place on the 11th of August; the force assembled was the most powerful which, up to that time, had ever been brought together, consisting of six ships of the line propelled by steam, three sailing ships of the line, and sixteen steam frigates and sloops, carrying 1,076 guns and nearly 10,000 men. The steam power, it was recorded with admiration at the time, was nominally of 9,680 horses, but really of double the amount, and therefore exceeded the horse-power of the whole collected cavalry of the State! The review had a melancholy interest also; it was the last time when a squadron of sailing ships of the line were watched from the English shores.

On the 29th of the same month the Queen, accompanied by Prince Albert and their two eldest sons, arrived at Kingstown from Holyhead to pay their long-expected visit to the Exhibition of Irish Industry, which had been opened earlier in the year at Dublin. They were received by the Lord Lieutenant and proceeded to the Viceregal Lodge, and on the following day visited the Exhibition. The Queen says of it, “Everything was well conducted, and the people most kind.” In deplorable weather the Queen and Prince paid a visit the same day to Mr. Dargan, at whose sole expense the Exhibition building had been constructed. His demeanour is noted as “trustingly simple and modest. I would have made him a Baronet, but he was anxious it should not be done.” After a week’s stay in Dublin, during which every morning was devoted to the Exhibition, the Royal visitors left Ireland on the 3rd of September. Writing on that date Her Majesty says: “A beautiful morning, and this the very day we are going away, which we felt quite sorry to do, having spent such a pleasant, gay, and interesting time in Ireland… We drove quietly, though not at a foot’s pace, through Dublin, which was unusually crowded (no soldiers lining the streets), to the station, where again there were great crowds. In eight minutes we were at Kingstown, where again the crowds were immense, and most enthusiastic. The evening was beautiful and the sight a very fine one - all the ships and yachts decked out and firing salutes, and thousands on the quay cheering.” On the following morning they crossed to Holyhead, and journeyed by rail to Balmoral. Here on the 28th the foundation-stone of the new house was laid with much ceremony.

It was in the early part of this year that the Prince had commenced a work which was a source of keen enjoyment to him for the rest of his life, and helped to distract his mind from the worry and turmoil of foreign politics. With the Queen he had been paying much attention not only to the literary treasures with which, under the care of Mr. Glover, the new Royal Library was being gradually filled; he had also carefully examined, and superintended the rearrangement of, the great mass of drawings and engravings by old masters, left by George III, to which was added the priceless collection of portrait miniatures collected from the different palaces. Every evening, when time could be spared, the Queen and Prince would visit the Library, and spend hours in arranging these treasures, and here the Prince conceived the idea of illustrating the life and work of one great master - Raphael - by a complete series of reproductions of his designs, arranged systematically, with fac-similes of every known study for, and variation of, each subject. The acquisition of the early engravings and of the photographs necessary for a complete elucidation of the master’s work in painting fresco or tapestry, was a matter of long and arduous labour, but the Prince lived to see a great mass of the work completed, and the catalogue of the collection, which has since been printed, remains as a lasting record of his power of organization, and a work of permanent interest to every student of art.

In the winter of 1853 and the early part of the next year the Queen had much trouble to endure. War had been declared between Russia and Turkey, and public feeling in England, already vehemently excited, was raised to a supreme pitch by the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Sinope.

The resignation of Lord Palmerston, who represented the warlike spirit of the people, inflamed the public mind; a loud outcry was raised in the Press about Court intrigues, and absurd rumours were circulated that Prince Albert was acting as a hostile influence behind the throne. It was impossible for the Queen not to feel very keenly the injustice of these unfounded and mischievous attacks. In a letter to Lord Aberdeen of the 4th of January, 1854, she wrote: “In attacking the Prince, who is one and the same with the Queen herself, the throne is assailed; and, she must say, she little expected that any portion of her subjects would thus requite the unceasing labours of the Prince.” On the 30th of January Parliament was opened by the Queen in person; the calumnies were completely refuted by the Ministerial leaders in both Houses, and the reception accorded to the Queen and the Prince is described by Her Majesty as “very friendly.” In the course of the same letter, to Baron Stockmar, she writes: - “We are both well, and I am sure will now recover our necessary strength and equanimity to meet the great difficulties and trials which are before us.”

These difficulties and trials were the most serious with which, since her accession, the Queen had been called upon to cope. For the first time she had been obliged to commence hostilities against one of the European Powers, and, as was stated in Her Majesty’s declaration on the 28th of March, 1854, actuated “by a desire to divert from her dominions most disastrous consequences, and to save Europe from the predominance of a Power which had violated the faith of treaties, and defied the opinion of the civilised world, to take up arms, in conjunction with the Emperor of the French, for the defence of the Sultan. Her Majesty is persuaded that in so acting she will have the support of her people; and that the pretext of zeal for the Christian religion will be used in vain to cover an aggression undertaken in disregard of its holy precepts and of its pure and beneficent spirit.” Before this formal declaration troops had already been despatched to the East. Of one detachment, the Queen in a letter to King Leopold, on February 28th, says: - “The last battalion of the Guards (Scots Fusiliers) embarked today. They passed through the courtyard here at seven o’clock this morning. We stood on the balcony to see them. The morning fine, the sun shining over the towers of Westminster Abbey, and an immense crowd collected to see the fine men, and cheering them immensely as with difficulty they marched along. They formed line, presented arms, and then cheered us very heartily, and went off cheering. It was a touching and beautiful sight. Many sorrowing friends were there, and one saw the shake of many a hand. My best wishes and prayers will be with them all.”