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paid no visits in general society. His visits were to the studio of the artist, to museums of art or science, to institutions for good and benevolent purposes. Wherever a visit from him, or his presence, could tend to advance the real good of the people, there his horses might be seen waiting; never at the door of mere

fashion." To this testimony may be added that of her Majesty, who has recorded that he would frequently return to luncheon at a great pace, and would always come through the Queen's dressing-room, where she generally was at that time, with that bright, loving smile with which he ever greeted her; telling where he had been--what new buildings he had seen-what

studios, &c., he had visited. Riding for mere riding's sake he disliked, and said, "It bores me so!"

By this date his time was fully occupied, for he had undertaken many duties, and was obliged to see many people. In the autumn of 1842 he undertook some of the duties of the Privy Purse, which until then had been discharged by the Baroness Lehzen; and it was about this time that he began to give serious attention to that reorganisation of the Royal Household which has already been described. The demands upon him had indeed become so incessant that he was often obliged to sacrifice his hasty rides. In the December of the same year her Majesty writes to Baron Stockmar to the effect that measures should be taken to prevent his being besieged in London by so many unnecessary people. His health is so invaluable, not only to me (to whom he is more than all-in-all), but to this whole country, that we must do our duty, and manage that he is not so overwhelmed with people." The Prince was in fact a working man in the truest sense of the word. His life was one of almost incessant toil, and the pleasures with which he lightened and relieved it were those of an intellectual inquirer, who could be satisfied with nothing that was frivolous or base.

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In the existing distress at this period of our history, much attention was given to colonisation. On the 28th of April, a meeting was held in London under the Presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a view to raising funds for sending out Bishops to our distant possessions, and a large sum of money was obtained for that purpose. On the same day the preliminary expedition of the second colony to New Zealand sailed under the command of Captain Wakefield, and the colony itself was to be formed on the principle laid down by Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, which provided that the land-produce fund should be applied to the purpose of obtaining labour. Scarcely anything was known of New Zealand until 1769-70, when it was circumnavigated by Captain Cook, and found to be insular, and not continental, as had been supposed. Very little was done in the way of colonisation until 1839, when a New Zealand Company was established, and the town of Wellington was founded. On the 13th of February, 1841, a dinner was given to Lord John Russell, then Colonial Secretary, to celebrate the foundation of England's most recent colony; and in subsequent years the settlement made excellent progress, though often exposed to attack from the Maories. In 1842 a law received the Royal Assent conferring a representative Government on New South Wales; and, from this time forward, the colonies of Great Britain wisely received from the Home Administration and Legislature a greater amount of attention than had been previously bestowed.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.

Renewed Popularity of the Queen-Services of Prince Albert-A Volunteer Poet Laureate-Birth of the Princess Alice-The Whig Deficit, and how Sir Robert Peel dealt with it-The Income Tax, and Reduction of Duties -The Sliding Scale-Advance of Free Trade Principles-Assassination of Mr. Drummond-The Question of Criminal Insanity-Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Cobden-Disturbances in South Wales: "Rebecca" and her Daughters-Condition of Women in Mines and Collieries-Lord Ashley and the Factories Act-Opinion of the Queen and Prince Albert on the Qualities of Sir Robert Peel-Levees held by the Prince-The Frescoes for the Houses of Parliament-Encouragement of Fresco-Painting by the Queen and Prince Albert-The Summer House in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace-Visit of her Majesty and the Prince to Louis Philippe at the Château d'Eu-The Duke of Wellington on the Necessity for a Council of Regency-Designs of France on the Succession to the Spanish Throne-Dishonest Engagement of the French King-English Opinion completely Misled-Royal Visits to Belgium, to Cambridge, and to the Midlands-The Prince as a Fox-hunter-Model Farming-Events in India: Wars in Scinde and Gwalior.

A VERY important and very happy result of Prince Albert's influence was seen in the revived popularity of the Queen after a few years had passed. In 1839, as the reader is aware, the feeling with which her Majesty was regarded by a wide section of the people revealed a danger of no inconsiderable magnitude, and threatened to give a peculiarly acrid character to political discussion. By 1842 this sentiment had very nearly disappeared; and the change was largely due to the companionship and advice of the Queen's consort. We must not forget, however, the excellent guidance which the Prince himself received from Baron Stockmar; and although Englishmen cannot but have felt a little jealous that their political and social state was so much influenced by foreigners, they must have been none the less grateful for the fact, let it come how it might. For the improved state of public feeling Prince Albert obtained no credit at the time. The people knew very little about him, and the aristocracy, who had opportunities of seeing his Royal Highness, considered him somewhat cold and haughty. The opinion was not altogether unwarranted, though it proceeded from a misapprehension. A certain reserve of manner resulted almost inevitably from the severe moral restrictions which the Prince laid upon himself; but who would not purchase so great a gain at the cost of a few external attractions, not necessarily associated with the higher virtues?

During the first few years of her reign the Queen had not the benefit (such as it is) of those poetical eulogiums which are reasonably to be expected by a court which maintains a Poet Laureate. Although Southey, the then holder of the office, did not die until 1843, his mental state had for some years been such as to render all intellectual work impossible. In this interregnum of Parnassus, Leigh Hunt-who, a generation earlier, had been imprisoned for libelling the Prince Regent, but who was converted to courtliness by the liberal development of modern times-addressed some verses to the Queen, in the earliest of which, with the quaint familiarity of his genius, he commends her Majesty for possessing

"the ripe Guelph cheek, and good, straight Coburg brow," which were held to be significant of "pleasure and reason." The poet afterwards alludes to the recent birth of the Princess Royal in lines of touching beauty. Still speaking of the Queen herself, he writes:

"May her own soul, this instant, while I sing.

Be smiling, as beneath some angel's wing,

O'er the dear life in life, the small, sweet, new.
Unselfish self, the filial self of two,

Bliss of her future eyes, her pillow'd gaze,

On whom a mother's heart thinks close, and prays."

Another poem, more particularly addressed to the Princess Royal, "Three Visions occasioned by the Birth and Christening of the Prince of Wales," and some "Lines on the Birth of the Princess Alice" (which occurred on the 25th of April, 1843), appeared in due succession. But the poetical interregnum came

to an end in the spring of 1843, when, owing to the death of Southey, Wordsworth succeeded to the post; and the volunteer lyrist was heard no more on such topics. His few courtly poems are singularly pervaded by that profound faith in the speedy coming of a kind of golden age of peace, wisdom, health, gentleness, and universal prosperity, which characterised the earlier years of the present century, and especially the mind of Leigh Hunt, but which, in the disappointments and gathering melancholy of the present day, wears an aspect at once mournful and tender. The conclusion of the poem to the Princess Alice is worth quoting, because of the sad failure of its aspiration, combined with its remarkable truthfulness in other respects. Still harping on that wondrous age of human perfection which seems as far off as ever, the poet exclaims:

"Thee, meantime, fair child of one

Fit to see that golden sun,

Thee may no worse lot befall

Than a long life, April all;

Fuller, much, of hopes than fears,
Kind in smiles and kind in tears,

Graceful, cheerful, ever new,

Heaven and earth both kept in view,
While the poor look up, and bless

Thy celestial bounteousness.

And, when all thy days are done,
And sadness views thy setting sun,
Mayst thou greet thy mother's eyes,
And endless May in Paradise."

Shortly after the birth of the Princess Alice the Queen wrote to the King of the Belgians:-"Albert has been, as usual, all kindness and goodness. Our little baby is to be called Alice, an old English name, and the other names are to be Maud (another old English name, and the same as Matilda), and Mary, as she was born on Aunt Gloucester's birthday. The sponsors are to be the King

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of Hanover, Ernestus Primus (now the Duke of Coburg), poor Princess Sophia Matilda, and Feodore; and the christening [is] to be on the 2nd of June." The ceremony went off very well; but the King of Hanover arrived too late to be present. In after years the Princess Alice became the wife of the Grand Duke of Hesse, and was well known for her intelligent benevolence and charity. She died on the 14th of December, 1878.

Unfettered by indirect influences, the Government of Sir Robert Peel was

now acquiring the confidence of the country by the masterly way in which its chief handled the great questions of the hour. One of the first things to be dealt with was the financial deficit left by the Whigs, which had reached the alarming total of more than ten millions for the previous six years. This was met by the creation of an Income Tax of sevenpence in the pound; and in the memorable statement which Sir Robert Peel made to the House of Commons on the 11th of March, 1842, a confident expectation was held out that the proceeds of such an impost would not merely fill up the deficit, but yield a surplus such as would enable the Ministry to reduce the taxes on commodities to an immense extent. All incomes below £150 were to be exempt from the new, or