CHAPTER XXXI. ALREADY the days were beginning to be too short for the vast amount of work which the Prince had to crowd into them. He held it to be one of the duties of the Sovereign, whose other self he was, that she should be, if possible, the best informed person in her dominions as to the progress of political events and the current of political opinion, both at home and abroad. That our Constitution demands a passive indifference on the part of the Sovereign to the march of political events, was in his view a gross misconception. Nowhere,' he states in a private memorandum written in 1852, 'would such indifference be more condemned and justly despised than in England. Why,' he continues, are Princes alone to be denied the credit of having political opinions based upon an anxiety for the national interests, their country's honour, and the welfare of mankind? Are they not more independently placed than any other politician in the State? Are their interests not most intimately bound up with those of their country? Is the Sovereign not the natural guardian of the honour of his country? Is he not necessarily a politician?' Ministries change, and when they go out of office, lose the means of access to the best information which they had formerly at command. The Sovereign remains, and to him this information is always open. The most patriotic Minister has to think of his party. His judgment therefore is often insensibly warped by party considerations. Not so the Con 160 PRINCE'S ACCURACY OF OBSERVATION. 1849 stitutional Sovereign, who is exposed to no such disturbing agency. As the permanent head of the nation, he has only to consider what is best for its welfare and its honour; and his accumulated knowledge and experience, and his calm and practised judgment, are always available in Council to the Ministry for the time without distinction of party. The extent and accuracy of the Prince's information on every subject of political importance impressed all with whom he came in contact. Ministers of State found him as familiar as themselves with the facts immediately connected with the working of their own departments. Ambassadors returning from their legations were struck to find how completely he had at command every significant detail of what had happened within the sphere of their special observation.1 Diplomatists proceeding for the first time to some Foreign Court learned, in an interview with the Prince, not merely the exact state of affairs which they would find awaiting them, but very frequently had the characters of the Sovereigns and statesmen with whom they would have to deal sketched for them with a clearness and precision which they afterwards found of the utmost practical service. This mastery of details could only be gained by great and systematic labour, in itself quite sufficient to absorb the energies of a busy man. But to the claims of politics had to be added those, which science and art, and questions of social improvement, were constantly forcing upon the Prince's attention. An extensive correspondence also took up much. time, and thus a comparatively small portion of every day was left for that domestic and social intercourse for which For example, Lord Normanby returning to his post at Paris, after a hasty visit to England, writes to his brother Colonel Phipps (2nd April, 1849): 'I was very much struck, during the conversation with which the Prince honoured me, by the accurate recollection he retained of the small details of the many great events of the last year, and by the correct judgment which he had formed upon that sound foundation.' 1849 HIS ACTIVE HABITS. 161 the Prince was, by his quick observation and natural brightness of spirits, peculiarly fitted, and in which he delighted to throw off for the time the weight of graver cares. He was habitually an early riser. Even in winter he would be up by seven, and dispose of a great deal of work before breakfast, by the light of the green German lamp, the original of which he had brought over with him, and which has since become so familiar an object in our English homes. The Queen shared his early habits; but before Her Majesty joined him in the sitting-room, where their writing-tables stood always side by side, much had, as a rule, been prepared for her consideration,-much done to lighten the pressure of those labours, both of head and hand, which are inseparable from the discharge of the Sovereign's duties. In the following letter to the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, we have a picture of the Prince stealing a quiet moment to send a few welcome words to the old home, before the rest of the world had begun to stir : 'It seems a long time since I wrote to you, and this idea brings all at once into conjunction pen, ink, and paper, and my villanous hand (villanous, but greatly in request), and here I sit at my writing-table in the stillness of the morning, before the noisy bustling world is awake, in order that I may converse with you. That it is not hard for me to concentrate my thoughts upon you for this purpose, you will readily believe. 'These are the days in which last year all the tidings of evil burst in upon us. The French Revolution, the arrival of the fugitives, and Brandenstein with the woeful news from Gotha. Poor good Grandmama! I cannot thank Heaven sufficiently that it did not suffer her to survive the year that is gone it would have made her too unhappy. 'Here everything goes on its quiet course, quiet in com 162 OPENING OF PARLIAMENTARY SESSION. 1849 parison with the new epoch on the Continent. We shall retreat to-day for a fortnight to the Isle of Wight, towards which we evermore turn from time to time with longing hearts; and, to our great delight, a violent storm, which has been raging for the last three days, and blown down a number of fine old trees in the garden here and in the parks, has abated. A storm is an uncommendable contribution to a sea voyage. I ought, however, scarcely to give that name to our short crossing. I hope to be able, one day, to show you our little retreat. You have only to wait for a thoroughly calm fine summer's day in Ostend, and then four hours will bring you to us. 'With this pious wish I am forced again to take leave of you; yet I must tell you that I was present yesterday evening at the London Vocal Union in Exeter Hall, and heard Händel's Israel in Egypt, which brought our old "Singverein" vividly back to my mind. 'Buckingham Palace, 2nd March, 1849.' Though the course of affairs at home since the close of 1848, had been, as the Prince says, comparatively quiet, it had not been uneventful. Parliament, which was opened by the Queen in person on the 1st of February, had shown by the discussions in both Houses on the Address, that the Ministry would have hard work to hold their own. A violent attack was made upon their foreign policy, in Italy especially, where it had given offence to the reigning Sovereigns without substantially advancing the cause of the national party; and an amendment to the Address, moved by Lord Derby in the House of Lords, was only defeated by a majority of two. In the Lower House the attack of the Opposition was conducted by Mr. Disraeli, who, appearing for the first time as the successor of Lord George Bentinck, showed that he was prepared to continue the hopeless battle of Protection with unabated 1849 DEBATE ON ADDRESS. 163 vigour, and to oppose a determined resistance to the repeal of the Navigation Laws, which the Ministry had announced as part of their programme for the session. On this side, however, the Government were invulnerable; and although Mr. Disraeli amused the House and carried it with him, while speaking of the chaotic confusion into which Republican crotchets had brought the Continent, and of the inglorious results of our intervention in Italy and elsewhere, he did not venture to press his amendment to a division. It was identical with Lord Derby's, and, read in connection with the language maintained by both its movers, it implied approval of a reactionary policy, which the FreeTrade majority of the House of Commons was sufficiently numerous to defeat. The state of Ireland was still so critical, that on the 6th of February the Home Secretary brought in a Bill to renew for six months the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. This was carried through the Houses by immense majorities, and on the 7th, by way of counterpoise, the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved in committee for a grant of 50,000l. for the purpose of affording relief to certain of the Poor Law Unions. So much had already been granted to Ireland from the Imperial Treasury, that this proposal was strongly contested, and it was only conceded upon irresistible evidence in the course of the debate, that the money was indispensable 2 Look at the state of France,' said Mr. Disraeli, look at the state of the whole centre of Europe. . . . I find in France a Republic without Republicans, and in Germany an Empire without an Emperor; and this is progress!!... There wanted but one ingredient in the mess to make the incantation perfectly infernal. A Republic without Republicans, an Empire without an Emperor, required only mediation without an object to mediate about; and the saturnalia of diplomacy would mix with the orgies of politics.' The sarcastic allusion to the pending mediation between Austria and Sardinia derived fresh force, when a few weeks afterwards Sardinia rushed into war. But the fact remains, that by engaging France in that mediation, Lord Palmerston bound France to a peace policy in the North of Italy, and thereby averted the hazard of an European war. |