42

CHARTIST RIOTS.

1848

arms in their hands on Buckingham Palace to demand that he should be set at liberty. These mobs came into conflict with the police, but without any serious result. Writing to Baron Stockmar, the Prince says of their proceedings:

. . . We have Chartist riots every night, which result in numbers of broken heads. The organisation of these people is incredible. They have secret signals, and correspond from town to town by means of carrier pigeons. In London they are from 10,000 to 20,000 strong, which is not much out of a population of two millions; but if they could, by means of their organisation, throw themselves in a body upon any one point, they might be successful in a coup-de-main. Up to this time they have been dealt with only through the police; and if it is possible to keep them in check without military force, the troops will certainly not be allowed to come into conflict with them. The loyalty of the country on the whole is, besides, very great; and it is impossible, so far as the person of the Sovereign is concerned, that it should ever be greater.

'Buckingham Palace, 6th May, 1848.'

Notwithstanding the manifest impatience and indignation everywhere shown throughout the country against an agitation, the mischievous objects of which it was impossible to doubt, its ramifications were too wide and its leaders too unscrupulous to forego their purposes without a further struggle. London, Manchester, Stockport, Oldham, Liverpool, Birmingham, and other places were for a time thrown into excitement by the assemblage of multitudes, who were only kept from becoming dangerous by the energetic measures of the Government and the local authorities. Nor were these tumultuous gatherings brought to an end until several of the most conspicuous of their leaders had been arrested, and

1848

NATIONAL LOYALTY.

43

the futility of their plans demonstrated even to themselves by the disclosure, in the course of the trials which followed, of the fact that their most secret deliberations were instantly made known to the authorities by more than one of their most trusted associates.

6

It will thus be seen, that it was not alone the state of affairs on the Continent, which at this time filled the minds of the Queen and Prince with anxious thoughts. They were not for a moment disquieted as to the national loyalty. But it was impossible for them to see without many a pang the distress under which the country was labouring aggravated by the uneasiness which these turbulent proceedings were calculated to excite. Commerce,' the Prince writes to Stockmar, on the 29th of April, is at a dead lock, and manufactures depressed; numbers of citizens are out of work, and the prospects of the revenue are gloomy.' Still, amid so much to alarm and to depress at home and abroad; with the eye bent on every detail of what was happening or surmised, that was furnished not merely by his private correspondence, but by the Government despatches, the Prince never bated one jot in heart or hope, but steered right onward,' in full reliance that the sound heart of the nation would carry it through every emergency.

The brief stay at Osborne,' which had been dictated by uncertainty as to what might happen on the 10th of April, with the pleasant rural pursuits by which their other labours could there be relieved, came to an end on the 2nd of May.

1 'Being with Prince Albert and the Queen,' Madame Bunsen writes, on the occasion of a visit by her husband to Osborne at this time, 'is always a refreshment to Bunsen. The sympathy and interest with which they receive and encourage all his outpourings is as remarkable in itself as it is rare; and his consciousness of the insight and judgment of Prince Albert grows in proportion as he becomes better acquainted with his manner of thinking on various subjects.'-Bunsen's Memoirs, ii. 176.

44

HABITUAL CHEERFULNESS OF PRINCE. 1848

6

6

"We are going to town to-day,' the Queen writes to King Leopold, with great regret, as the occupation of farming, gardening, planting, improving, &c. is so very soothing, and does one's wearied, worried mind so much good.' 'Albert,' Her Majesty adds, 'is my constant pride and admiration, and his cheerfulness and courage are my great comfort and satisfaction; but, believe me, I am often very sad.' Grave and earnest, as the general current of the Prince's thoughts at this time was, the admirable gift of humour which never failed him, no less than the wise cheerfulness' (to use Wordsworth's happy phrase) of a mind that had disciplined itself to take a broad and patient view of the vicissitudes of life, stood him in excellent stead at this time, and helped to sustain the spirits of Her Majesty, and of others about him, upon whom they acted as a salutary tonic. It is he,' the Queen writes in another letter to her uncle at this period, who always makes dear Victoire (the Duchess of Nemours) quite merry, when she comes here. He has that happy gift of constant cheerfulness, which is a treasure in these times.'

6

In the midst of his multifarious occupations at this period, the Prince had found time to adapt the music of a chorale, which he had written some years before, to the hymn In life's gay morn' (now well known as the Gotha tune') for the service at the christening of the Princess Louise. This ceremony took place on the 13th of May, in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace, when the Princess received the names of Louise Caroline Alberta, the leading name of Louise being given after that of the Prince's mother, and of the Queen of the Belgians. It was followed by a state banquet, in honour of the occasion; and the whole month, in which the birthdays of both the Queen and of the Princess Helena fell, was enlivened by an unusual number of court balls and receptions. That the hearts of the royal hosts should often have been very heavy in the midst of

1848

LETTER OF PRINCESS HOHENLOHE.

6

45

these gaieties was but natural. That they were so, a few words in a letter to the Queen from her sister, the Princess Hohenlohe, show very clearly. For the birthday of dear little Helena,' the Princess writes, accept my best wishes. I can well understand how the fêtes, balls, &c. you have to give are rather a burden to you this year, instead of an amusement as they were in other times. When we know those we love, or are interested in, are in sorrow or danger, these gaieties become quite a duty to perform, the mind being occupied with far different things.'

From the same kind hand came the following birthday greeting to the Queen. What comfort must not its simple loving words and trust have brought into the stillness of the royal chamber!

'Stuttgart, May 19, 1848.

'Let me wish you joy and happiness for your birthday. You well know what my love and attachment for you are; therefore my prayers for your happiness are every day the same; but with delight I take advantage of every occasion upon which I can repeat to you, how true and warm my feelings are for you. How could they be otherwise for a sister, such a dear kind sister as you have ever been to me? Thank God, there never came a shade over our affection in sad days, as in happy ones, which we have passed in our lives; and now these hard, trying times will only add, if it is possible, to my gratitude and affection for you; and I feel that your sympathy and kindness is as warm as it ever was for us and our children, which you have shown us more than once lately, and for which we are most deeply grateful.

2 It is the infant Princess Helena, who appears in the arms of the Queen, in the portrait which forms the frontispiece of the present volume. Lady Lyttelton gives one of her admirable word-pictures of the young Princess in a letter of this period: 'It is cheery to get my frequent peeps at Princess Helen, who is an image of life in its prime; . . . . her cheeks like full-blown roses. and her nose like a bud.'—Private Correspondence above cited, p. 398.

....

46

SYMPATHY WITH WORKING CLASSES.

1848

'May it be the will of the Almighty that the storms that are raging in Europe pass by your dominions, as they have done until now, without shaking the foundations of the laws and constitution, and without troubling the minds of your faithful subjects, as those of our countrymen are put out of the right way in so lamentable a manner, making it almost impossible for any sensible man to keep to his post!'

An opportunity arose, during this month, for the Prince to take the position before the world, which he afterwards occupied with so much honour, as the advocate of measures for improving the condition of the labouring classes. Four years previously he had testified his interest in the subject,— one that always lay nearest to his heart,-by becoming the President of the Society which had been established with this special object. The Society, in the meanwhile, had been making its way steadily but slowly, for public attention had yet to be awakened to the importance of the subject; and it was considered by Lord Ashley and others of its active promoters, that the appearance of the Prince in the chair at a public meeting to advocate its interests at this time might be attended with excellent results. The Prince, ever ready to show his sympathy and interest for that class of our community which has most of the toil, and least of the enjoyments of this world,' at once fell in with their views. But it became a question whether his appearance on the platform of a public meeting, even for so benevolent a purpose, might not provoke some unseemly demonstration on the part of the noisy demagogues, who were then making themselves conspicuous by their tirades against monarchy and the upper classes. The Prince had no apprehensions himself upon the subject. Some members of the Govern

3

3 His own words in his speech at the meeting of the Society, 18th May, 1848.