THE LIFE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE CONSORT BY THEODORE MARTIN " WITH PORTRAITS VOLUME THE SECOND LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1876 Sa [All rights reserved] ΤΟ THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. MADAM, I have now the honour to place in Your Majesty's hands the second portion of the narrative of the Life of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort. In another volume I hope to complete the work. In writing the Life of the Prince, I have felt that I must write what would be in some measure a history of the time. The duties of his position, as the Prince understood them, made it incumbent upon him to be ever on the watch where the welfare of Your Majesty's kingdom was concerned. The interests of England, abroad as well as at home, were not more dear to Your Majesty than they were to him. To help, so far as in him lay, to uphold these interests, and to keep England true to her great name, and worthy of her great inheritance, was with the Prince, as with Your Majesty, the dearest object of his ambition. Seeking no personal triumph, he was content, and more than content, with strengthening the hands, while lightening the labours, of the Sovereign in whose life his own was merged. But this could only be done by taking an active part in her peculiar toils, and by devoting, like her, his best energies to that day-by-day |