assiduous efforts to fit himself for his high destiny. "In another way," he writes to the young Prince, " Vicky is also busy; she has learned much in various directions. She now comes to me every evening from six to seven, when I put her through a kind of general catechising, and, in order

to give precision to her ideas, I make her work out certain subjects by herself, and bring me the results to be revised. Thus she is now engaged in writing a short compendium of Roman history." *

On the 30th of November the King of Sardinia, accompanied by Count Cavour, arrived in London to visit the Queen and Prince Albert. A rough,

Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXVIII.

1855.]

VISIT OF VICTOR EMMANUEL.

665

frank, good-humoured cavalry officer, passionately devoted to field sports, and fired with an ardent love of Italy and a bitter hatred of all foes of Italian Unity-such was our ally, Victor Emmanuel. He had been preceded by his social reputation in Paris, which was, in truth, such as to make the Queen somewhat nervous.

Lord Malmesbury, writing in his Diary on the 29th of

November, says, "The King of Sardinia, who is here (Paris), is as vulgar and coarse as possible."*

However, his Majesty was received with much kindness by the English people, and on the day after his arrival the Queen and Prince took him to see Woolwich Arsenal and the Hospitals, only too well filled with wounded Crimean soldiers. The Artillery Parade on the Common was viewed by the King with great delight. On Monday, the 3rd of December, Prince Albert

*Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 37.

accompanied his Royal guest to Spithead, where they inspected the fleet and went over the old Victory, and a new ship of war, to be named after his Majesty. On Tuesday, the 4th, Victor Emmanuel visited the City of London in State, where he met with an effusive welcome, that greatly impressed him. The reply to the Address presented to him by the Corporation, which was delivered by the King-though "writ in choice Italian " for him by his crafty mentor, Cavour--pledging him to support us to the last in our struggle with Russia if the peace negotiations then going on failed, vastly increased his popularity. Next day he was invested by the Queen with the Order of the Garter, and on Thursday he left at five o'clock in the morning for Boulogne. It was bitterly cold and bleak, yet, to the surprise of Cavour, the Queen was up betimes to bid her guest farewell, with all the cordiality of a true English hostess. Many good stories, most of which will not bear repetition here, were told of this visit. "I was presented," writes Lord Malmesbury on the 5th of December, "to the King of Sardinia by Prince Albert, who told him that I was an‘Ancien Ministre d'Affaires Etrangères.' 'A quelle epoque?' answered the King. I said, ‘In 1852, under Lord Derby's Government.' The King replied, "Que faites-vous à présent?' To which the Prince said, 'Il fait de l'opposition, car il faut toujours faire quelque chose dans ce pays.' 'Ah,' replied the King, donc vous êtes opposé à mon voyage en Angleterre, et à mon alliance.'”* Lord Clarendon, says Mr. Greville, "gave me an account of his conversations both with the King and Cavour. He thinks well of the King, and that he is intelligent, and he has a very high opinion indeed of Cavour, and was especially struck with his knowledge of England, and our institutions and constitutional history. I was much amused after all the praises that have been lavished on Sardinia for the noble part she has played, and for taking up arms in so unselfish a manner, that she has, after all, a keen view to her own interests, and wants some solid pudding as well as so much empty praise." In fact, Sardinia wanted some territorial advantage, which, of course, in view of our relations with Austria at the time, England could not obtain for her. Hence Victor Emmanuel complained that after spending 40,000,000 francs on the war, he had nothing to show his people for it.t "The King and his people," writes Mr. Greville, "are far better satisfied with their reception here than in France, where, under much external civility, there was very little cordiality, the Emperor's intimate relations with Austria rendering him little inclined towards the Piedmontese. Here the Queen was wonderfully cordial and attentive. She got up at five in the morning to see him depart. His Majesty appears to be frightful in person, but a great, strong, burly, athletic man, brusque in his manners, unrefined in his conversation, very loose in his conduct, and eccentric in his habits. When he was at Paris his talk in

* Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 38.

It is now known that Cavour suggested that Austria might be asked to retire from that part of Papal territory which she occupied.

1855.]

VICTOR EMMANUEL IN ENGLAND.

667

society amused or terrified everybody, but here he seems to have been more guarded. It was amusing to see all the religious societies hastening with their addresses to him, totally forgetting that he is the most dissolute fellow in the world; but the fact of his being excommunicated by the Pope and his waging war with the ecclesiastical power in his own country covers every sin against morality, and he is a great hero with the Low Church people and Exeter Hall. My brother-in-law said he looked at Windsor more like a chief of the Heruli or Longobardi than a modern Italian prince, and the Duchess of Sutherland said that of all the Knights of the Garter she had seen, he was the only one who seemed as if he would have the best of it with the Dragon."* If Clarendon expressed to Mr. Greville great admiration for the Sardinian Monarch, he must have been of a singularly forgiving disposition. For Lord Malmesbury says that when Prince Albert presented Lord Clarendon to his Majesty as the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Victor Emmanuel remarked, "J'ai entendu parler de vous," adding, "C'est fini," which, says Lord Malmesbury, in plain English meant-"Be off. I've nothing more to say to you."+

On the 6th of October, 1854, the Queen had issued a Royal Warrant for regulating promotion and retirement in the army, which now caused her much vexation. The warrant enabled lieutenant-colonels, after three years' service, to become by right full colonels. This privilege was confined to line regiments, and the officers of the Guards accordingly sent a memorial to the Crown begging that it should be extended to them also. Prince Albert, as Colonel of the Grenadiers, had signed their petition, and in the middle of December the Times attacked him with great acrimony for pampering the Guards, and charged him with using his influence over the Queen for purposes of military jobbery. The old story, accusing the Prince of interfering with the army and of having intrigued to become Commander-in-Chief, was vamped up again. It has already been seen that these accusations were absolutely false, and the impossibility of contradicting them publicly gave her Majesty great pain. She knew nothing about the Guards' memorial, and all the Prince knew about it was that he had signed it as a matter of formality, because it was only through him as their colonel, that the officers of his regiment could, according to the regulations, forward any petition to the Government. The memorial was dealt with by the Secretary of State, Lord Panmure, who, as a matter of fact, did not grant its prayer. That the Prince sometimes interfered with military administration was quite true. When the War Department broke down he toiled hard to help the Duke of Newcastle to set it on its legs again. When the Queen began to fret over the meagreness of Raglan's despatches, he showed the Department how to draw up a series of forms that would compel Raglan to keep the Secretary of State fully aware from day to * Greville Memoirs, Third Part, p. 303. Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol II., p. 38.

day of the state of the Crimean army. When the Prince of Prussia wrote to him warning him that the conduct of the English officers in the Crimea, who were supposed to be deserting their posts "on urgent private affairs," was bringing disgrace on the name of England, Prince Albert did what ought to have been done by Lord Panmure, when the story was promulgated in the press-that is to say, he sifted the facts, and gave the lie direct to the slanderous fable.* To these attacks the Prince had become indifferent; but they irritated the Queen, who resented their injustice, and chafed against her powerlessness to give them public denial.

"Exclusive of officers who have come back by reason of wounds, sickness, or proinotion to the depôt battalions, only thirty-three out of an army of 52,000 men have come home on private affairs."-Letter of Prince Albert to the Prince of Prussia. Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXIX.