V. R. I. : Queen Victoria, her life and empire

Front matter

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Contents

PAGB

CHAP. •■•

Preface -

Chapter I Early Days

I WRITE at a moment of deepest sorrow. I am told that the words that fill in these pages must tell now more than they were intended to tell of the life of the great Queen just lost to us.

A rapid survey of the history of the century had been prepared. Now such a sketch would be colorless and of little interest were the presence of the mother of her people not felt throughout the events of her reign. It is good that this feeling exists. It is a benefit to a nation when all men and women can look on the head of the state with a human interest. It is well that love and sympathy should attend the sovereign, that no mere formal obeisance be made to one who in herself has represented what is best in the history of her time.

The virtues of a nation are the seed of victories. Without the love of hearth and home, the success of arms can only be a passing glamour. From the strong are strong men bred. A people forsaking private and public honor, and yielding to vanity and license, may be artists, but not conquerors. A dwindling population and a fraudulent government will mark its decline. Where scope exists to give an example which will feed the national power by the silent teaching of virtue, one individual man or woman may hold the highest mission.

The occupant of a throne has in Britain such an opportunity; and most noble, most regal, and most womanly has been the Queen's example for the space of the lives of two generations. God be thanked for this! Under the sway of our dear mother He has allowed this nation to be strong in commerce and in colonies. He has blessed it with so manifest an increase that its sons, who have gone over sea founding nations in other lands, have ever turned to the old country for a model whereon to build the new fortunes, fed by new resources in regions altogether unknown to the spacious times of great Elizabeth.

And to our Queen, whose reign has lasted so long that the memory of few now living could recall its beginning, was justly ascribed all majesty and honor in fostering and in furthering the wondrous increase which seemed to speak the blessing of God. In other lands and under other reigns, if a man did anything base, he could say that no man need think evil of his conduct, in that the highest in the land did likewise. With us, through sixty years, it might always be held an incentive to worthy conduct that the head of the State lived a pure and noble life. Her conduct has been a light and guide, and up to the last she has done her work, ever laboring for the welfare of her people. The end has come quickly, after a long life filled with duty done. It has been the sudden quenching of the light of a planet where, as in the tropics, the bright dawn of day comes with little warning.

Before we enter upon the life of the Queen we must see into what kind of an English world that life entered. The long reign of George III. closed on January 29, 1820, and his son, who was known to his friends as the " first gentleman of Europe," succeeded him. Society was full of discussions on the subject of the disagreements between the King and his wife. There was a conspiracy against the ministers of the most desperate kind, and it was only owing to a secret warning given to one of the political leaders that the objects of the conspirators were defeated. A man who had served as a subaltern ofl&cer in the West Indies, named Thistlewood, had returned to England, after having resided in France, where he had become a revolutionist and demagogue. He had actually sent a challenge to Lord Sidmouth after insulting him, and, furious that it was not accepted, determined to try other means of revenge. He gathered around him a reckless crew. The plot they hatched was one which certainly implied the sacrifice of their own lives ; for, as they were a mere handful in number, it was not likely that such open outrage as they contemplated would have allowed them to escape. A certain number were to devote themselves to the assassination of the ministers, another party were to seize upon the artillery in London, while the Mansion House, which was to be seized, was to be fortified by the guns they had taken, and then an attack was to be made upon the Bank, while incendiary fires should distract the attention of the troops and the police. Happily this conspiracy failed, and its authors received their deserts.

Taxation had been very high since the great war with France. One shape which these imposts took was particularly disliked, in that it took the form of a tax on light. For every window used it was necessary to pay so much, the result being that windows were bricked up and houses darkened to escape the tax. The sovereign's income was then £1,057,000. Our navy cost us five and a half millions a year.

The questions with regard to giving a more equal measure of power, according as towns might possess a small or large number of people, were already rife. This question of so-called reform continued until far into Queen Victoria's reign. Lord Wellesley, the brother of the famous Duke of Wellington, was Governor and Viceroy of Ireland, and it is to be noted, with some curiosity, that the family originally, as did Wellington himself in his early years, signed themselves "Wesley." The name was the same as that of the famous preacher who founded so large a religious community, and it is not clear why "Wellesley" was assumed in preference. Mr. Canning had been nominated Governor-General of India, a post which would take him away from participation in home politics for a time. The great Napoleon was about to die at St. Helena in the midst of a terrible storm of thunder and lightning; and, amid the volleying discharge of the thunder, he seemed to imagine that he was again on a field of battle, the last words those around his bed could hear being: "Tite d'Armee." Then, again, " Fils" and "France."

In 1821 the King visited Ireland, where there was great overcrowding of the people upon poor land. They imagined that the mere coming of the King might bring about a great change, for it is ever a characteristic of Celtic people to expect the governments and their leaders to do more for them than they can ever do for themselves, and disappointment was proportionately keen when it was apparent that the royal visit could not counterbalance the failure of the potato crop. But the British government placed half a million at once at the disposal of Lord Wellesley, and enormous subscriptions were sent from England to Ireland to mitigate the sufferings of the people, aggravated by fever — a sure comrade of famine.

The personal presence of the King both in Ireland and in Scotland had created a most favorable impression. His manner was most gracious, and his tact in conversation unfailing. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm that was shown at Edinburgh when, in 1822, he landed at Leith, being welcomed there by an immense throng who went with him up to Auld Reekie. He wore a Highland dress of red Stuart tartan, a close-fitting jacket being of the same pattern as the kilt, a proceeding based upon a somewhat fruitless emulation of the Pretender — his cousin — of a previous generation.

An incident that shows the difference between the success of our excise administration of the present day, in contrast to its inefficiency in some respects in those days,

I occurs to me as having been mentioned by an old servant in a house on the Clyde. Describing the success with which smugglers brought in spirits, and also the ease with which it was possible to get illegally made whiskey without payment of the duty, he said that George IV. had been told by George Duke of Argyll that the best whiskey was that made in secret. The King asked him if he could procure any, and he undertook to do so. The native whiskey-makers were communicated with through some secret friend, and were told that a good cask was wanted. They, on their part, stipulated that the Duke must go m a boat alone to the base of a certain ravine where they would meet him, and, appearing according to promise, a good-sized cask was brought down in the darkness to the boat, which was shoved off, and in due time the cargo was presented to the King, "the fountain of law, order, and government," at Edinburgh, and the illegal contents " (Jiscussed.

Among the events of the last years of this King's life was the war undertaken by the Indian government against Burma, a country destined to be annexed to the British Empire late in the Queen's life, when Lord Dufferin was Viceroy of India.

The Greeks, having risen against the Turks, fell before the cruel onslaught of Ibrahim Pasha, and the movement with which the great poet Lord Byron had associated himself ended in blood and ruin. The Turks did a great deal of damage at Atnens to the Parthenon, damage which was never sought to be repaired. It was the ruined condition of the building which led, in after years, Lord Elgin to secure for the British Museum the famous marbles which at that time seemed destined to become a prey to neglect, if they even escaped being burned for lime or destroyed by an enemy. Most of the remains of Attic art taken by Elgin arrived safely in England, but one vessel, with many noble objects of sculpture and decoration, suffered shipwreck off Cerigo. It is only within the last few months that diving operations, at the instance of the King of

Greece, have been undertaken, and bronze statues worthy of the best period of Greek art have been rescued from the water to fill places in those fine museums which it has been the privilege and the pride of the King of the Hellenes to see established on the famous centres of ancient Greek life and action.

Another of Queen Victoria's uncles, the Duke of York, died in 1827. It was he who built the fine house at the corner of the Green Park and Pall Mall, known to our generation as Stafford House. The Duke had not been so careful in money matters as he was in military administration, and being unable to finish the building it was bought by the Duke of Sutherland, who added the whole of the top story, and decorated with the most excellent taste the hall and the fine rooms surrounding it on the two first floors.

The Duke of York's funeral was said to be the cause of Mr. Canning's death, which took place after a period of vigorous participation in public affairs. He was called the first debater and the most dexterous wit of the House of Commons.

The coming of a new reign was heralded by a bill being introduced to allow a stamp to be used for the King's sign manual, for George IV. was near the end of his days, and the signing of so many documents was painful to him. Nothing is more remarkable, as showing the devotion to duty of Queen Victoria, than the extraordinary number of documents which were always signed by her. She wrote easily a fine handwriting. In spite of the daily necessity of writing so many letters, her handwriting was always clear and legible, exhibiting the determined character of the hand which guided the pen. It was seldom that papers accumulated in arrear of work, and quite to the end it was remarkable how seldom any document waited for the sign manual. It was a most unwonted circumstance that a batch of Queen's Counsel had to wait for their "silks," because the signatures necessary for their assumption of the honor had, owing to her illness, not been given.

George IV. bravely met the intimation of the doctors that they could not divert the stroke of death, calmly answering, "God's will be done," and then receiving the sacrament. He lingered for some more days, dying on the night of Friday, June 25th. He shortly before feebly called to an attendant: "O God! I am dying!"

His brother, the Duke of Clarence, William IV., who succeeded him, told the members of the cabinet that he was anxious their services should be continued, a token of good-will which did not prevent them from resigning shortly afterwards. Bluff, sailor-like, outspoken, and wanting the refinement in manner of his brother, he was yet calculated to win more popularity. His chief pleasure had been in entertaining at a very generous table, and he continued throughout his reign to be so hospitable that it was calculated that he gave, on an average, dinners to some thousands of his acquaintances every year. He naturally delighted in having his old messmates of the navy under his roof. Under Canning he had accepted the position of Lord High Admiral, being reckoned therefore to have taken office under that minister. His was the last tenure of that office, which has since remained in abeyance, the work being performed by the Board of Admiralty. This body has always contained among its members many of the best of the superior officers of the navy. They have always been able to meet together in consultation, so that the professional opinion of the service has always been made immediately to bear upon the civil head, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who represents, in Parliament, ministerial responsibility for the efficiency of the navy. Many, therefore, in the army looked to the efficiency of the navy as having been greatly promoted by the free consultation, and therefore by the corporate action, of the professional rulers of the navy at Whitehall. The King was always thoroughly in touch with the spirit of the service. Not only all the admirals were asked, as a matter of course, to his table, but many others who had not attained that rank, but who were able to speak of ancient memories common to them and to the

King. It was said that a nautical freedom prevailed at his house, a freedom which gave a peculiar heartiness to the conversation, and dignity was sometimes lost sight of. It was even declared that the King, the " fountain of honor," had once made a joke on the sacred subject of his own decorations. A gentleman had troubled him often for some distinction, he had complained, but the King continued: "You know how I got rid of him? I made him a Knight of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order." "Serve him right, sir," exclaimed an admiral present, amid much laughter.

The King Uved much at Bushey Park, a melancholy place except in summer, when all the neighborhood of London is pleasant, and the proximity of Hampton Court and the fine chestnut avenues made Bushey pleasant among other places. The ground about the house is very flat and damp in winter. There are some fine clumps of evergreens in the gardens, dedicated apparently to the Goddess of Dulness. There are excellent stables, and the King lived there verj^ happily. He had by his marriage two girls, who both died when babies, and it became evident that the Princess Victoria might succeed to the crown.

During this period important revolutions took place in France and in the Netherlands. Charles X. of France was held to be despotic and bigoted, and he was compelled to fly to England. The disturbances in the Netherlands finally ended in separation between the Dutch and the Belgians, and the constitution of the Belgian monarchy ended in a Coburg — a relation of Prince Albert's — being called to the throne under the title of King Leopold. This King, the father of the present occupant of the throne at Brussels, was notable for the coolness of his judgment, and throughout his life he was a most sincere and valuable friend to Queen Victoria. His knowledge of England was great, for he had been chosen as the husband of Princess Charlotte, the daughter of George IV., who, until the death of herself and her child, was the heir to the English throne.

The year 1819 seems far away. In many respects the changes have been enormous, and yet many of the discussions upon the questions of the day seem very familiar. The machinery of government worked smoothly enough. Government succeeded government according to the success of their respective parties in obtaining majorities in the House of Commons. Lnportant as Parliamentary history is, it is somehow very dull to read, except at times of crises. Just as it is tiresome to listen to an old politician's anecdotes of the House of Commons, so it is difficult to interest the casual reader in the talk in the Upper or Lower House unless any speeches immediately effected mighty political movements.

It was said, in describing broadty the reigns of the last three kings, that public and private virtue had especially signalized the sixty years of George III. upon the throne. While this could not be said of his successor, George IV., it was held that his days were notable for national gloryin victories obtained by sea and bj?" land. And William IV., when he became King, although not before, maj^ be said to have shown the blessings of kindness and to have enjoyed happiness.

In the metre much used in the poetry of the day. Miss Knight wrote :

" Of George the Third's long and arduous sway

A reign of worth and virtue we may name ; With George the Fourth we see our isle display

The brilliant scenes of victory and fame ; Affection's kind domestic joj^s we view

In our late William's short benignant reign. Oh! may our Queen her grandsire's steps pursue.

And love and glory as reward obtain.

Possessing in all British hearts the place

Her noble ancestors so justly won; And may the honors of the Brunswick race

Resplendent shine coeval with the sun."

It is wonderful with what indifferent poetry the court of the Georges was satisfied. The flame of Byron, the trumpet notes of Campbell, the ringing verse of Scott, could not entitle them to the laureateship. It was held that anybody would do for that, much as the late William Morris opined.

In painting, also, the pleasing vanities of William Beechey were preferred to the stronger character that the brushes of his more distinguished fellow-painters placed upon the canvas.

The Queen's life of eighty-two years began just as her grandfather's equally long life came to a conclusion. Thus these two lives cover a space of over one hundred and sixty years. Yet the steadfastness of the English character, and the excellence of the Constitution the nation had built up for itself, showed throughout this long period in loyalty to the throne. Any differences in politics between rival parties in the state were comparatively trifling, so that a foreign critic exclaimed in envy, " What are your differences? They are merely shades of variation."

When the Queen first saw the light it was only four years after the battle of Waterloo, when the establishment of peace, after the great war, was to last for many a long day. Not that there lacked occurrences which would have led to events of greater gravity in other countries, and which produced anxiety in this.

As we have seen, the state of Ireland was not one that could be looked upon with satisfaction, and in Britain trade had seldom known a time of greater stagnation.

It was said that the death of the Princess Charlotte, and the consequent failure of her direct succession to the crown, induced several of the royal family to enter into matrimonjT'. The Duke of Clarence was accepted by the Princess of Saxe-Meiningen ; the Duke of Kent by the Dowager Princess of Leiningen, sister of Prince Leopold; and the Duke of Cambridge by the Princess of Hesse. Parliament voted sums for these several couples to maintain the dignity of their position.

There is no one now alive who could tell us much from personal memory of his recollections of the father of Princess Victoria.

The Duke of Kent's tutor had been the same Dr. John Fisher who afterwards taught Princess Charlotte. The Duke had led a very varied life, for at seventeen years of age he left England for Hanover, where he entered the Hanoverian army, well known even then among German armies as favoring an iron discipline. He used to tell how, being placed as a cadet at Hanover, the regiment at duty was dismissed in the usual form after parade. "But," he wrote, "the general commanding happened to forget to dismiss me from the post I had been ordered to take up — such dismissal being always accompanied by a distinct and peculiar ceremony — ^and I continued in a very uneasy position. I was actually forgotten for four hours, when the commanding of&cer rode up and apologized. I should have remained but for this at my post until I should have fainted from fatigue. "

From Hanover he went to Geneva, by direction of his parents, but he returned to England without their leave. For this proceeding he was dismissed to Gibraltar, and in 1791 was ordered to Canada, sailing thence to the West Indies to join Sir Charles Grey. He displayed conspicuous gallantry at the capture of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Three years later he went to Canada, serving as majorgeneral at Halifax till 1798.

He much enjoyed the sports of that interesting coast, indented with so many bays cutting into its well-wooded and rocky scenery. He hunted deer and moose in the back country, made many expeditions to see his old friends at Quebec, and was popular with every one with the exception of some of the men immediately under his own command.

With one of these old friends. Colonel De Salaberry, he ever afterwards kept up a correspondence. The colonel was in command of the forces which came into collision with invaders at Chateaugay. The invasion was checked through the ability of the French Canadian leader. His

II family still possess many letters from the Duke, who had a great desire to be nominated Governor-General of Canada.

A fall from his horse made the Duke return to England, and in his thirty-second year he obtained his peerage and the title of Duke of Kent, with £12,000 a year to support the dignity. He was general and commander-in-chief in Canada again until 1800, when ill-health made him return home.

But, intent upon pursuing his military career, he undertook the governorship of Gibraltar, where there was a large garrison. He is described as usually rising before the sun, abhorring the excesses of the table, sober almost to a fault, and punctual in the discharge of duties, however numerous and exacting. He never asked for anything he was not ready himself to do. Yet it was found quite impossible for the soldiers to imitate his self-discipline.

He was specially particular in regard to dress and all the minutiae of uniform. No one was allowed to wear his hair except according to an exact pattern. Incessant parades and very strict punishment made his friends in vain give him hints that the discipline was too rigid. He had much to say on his side why soldiers should be thoroughly brought under control. Thej^" were slovenly and insubordinate, the people had complained frequently of the conduct of members of the garrison, and intoxication had been only too common.

The Duke shut up the wine houses, confined the troops to barracks, and insisted upon reports being made in all cases of inebriety. At the end of twelve months of this vigorous action a conspiracy was fortunately discovered just in time to prevent the assassination of the commanding officer.

The feeling among the troops was so hostile to him that it was considered better to have a change, and he returned to England in 1803. Certain it is that, with merits superior to his brothers, he was kept without his peerage longer than any of them; he was kept away from home, and the help given to others of the family who were in debt was denied to liim.

In order to economize, he settled at Brussels in i8i6, and it was from that city that he made an excursion into Gennany, and met Princess Victoire Marie Louise, youngest daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. She had married Prince Charles of Leiningen, a man greatly her senior, who on his death had appointed his widow regent of his principality. When the death of the Princess Charlotte in England made it necessary for the Duke of Kent to think of marriage, he turned to the Princess of Leiningen, and they were married at Coburg in May, 1818. After complying with the conditions of the royal marriage act, they lived at Amorbach, not far from Heidelberg, and, desiring that the child of their marriage might be born in England, came to London two months before that event, lack of means preventing an earlier journey. The Duke of Kent drove the carriage himself the whole way through Germany to the coast, and after the arrival in England he again took the reins.

He continued the same exact life in England. The Duke rose very early, and it was said that one servant had to remain up in order to call him in the morning, not being allowed to go to bed until he had lit an early fire in the dressing-room. At six o'clock a cup of coffee was brought by one man, and another removed the tray. This was according to a system which obliged all the servants to make their appearance in turn.

A bill of the expenses of the previous day was next brought by the house steward, all items being carefully classed. All the bills were numbered. Attention, cleanliness, and smartness were insisted on. So as to give separate signals to the five persons who were regularly in attendance, there were five bells, each for a separate person. Mr. Canning is said to have liked this arrangement so much that the Kensington Palace bell system was copied at the Treasury.

The Duke was fond of having many clocks with musical chimes, so that one might be audible in every apartment. He was always active in charitable work, scarcely ever refusing to help any well-known and established institution, although himself frequently pressed for money.

One of the doctors who attended him said that his last words to his wife were : " Act uprightly, and trust in God."

There was nothing in the state of the country to make the parents of the expected child do anything but rejoice at the great prospects which might open to their ofTspring. The Duke and Duchess of Kent came at a time of the year when London was looking its best, when the parks were full of well-equipped carriages with horses coveted and bought by all the world. Much attention had already been given to those which had to work in harness as well as to the racers and the hacks, which were acknowledged to be the best in the world.

The beautiful alleys of Kensington Gardens were getting into leaf. The white blossoms of the chestnuts and the red and white of the may were only just coming into bloom, and the wonderful greenness so characteristic of England was already mantling the country. The pleasant apartments, looking on the one side to the High Street of Kensington, which then was bordered by houses not built so high as to overlook the gardens, had been arranged for the Duke and Duchess. The set of these rooms swept round to the eastward, where another private garden looked towards the Round Pond and Hyde Park.

It was in one of these that the Duchess took up her abode, and it was here that Princess Victoria was born. All the old palace was full of historical memories. The higher main block of buildings, wdth brick pilasters and crowned by the great decorated vases in the centre of the south front, had been completed by William the Third after the melancholy death of his wife, who died of small-pox in a room facing the main court. You may read the date of this building from the stamp on the leaden water-pipes. Formerly it was the custom to stamp with initials not only one's water-pipes, but even one's wine bottles. Each bottle was stamped on the shoulder, and each water-pipe wa^ stamped in every joint with the initials of the person to whom the house belonged. Double "R's," standing for Rex and Regina, with the "M" of Mary and the " W" of William between them, formed a cipher, like two joints of one of the sliding folding-gates which nowadays bar the access to lifts in houses. Thus, if these evidences have been allowed to remain on any buildings, you may tell the age of the wall by the plumber's work upon it.

Stretching above the southern rooms which the Duke and Duchess occupied was the great gallery called the King's, where King William III., after his return from Hampton Court, where he had been hurt by the fall of his horse, had thought himself sufficiently recovered to take a walk on the arm of his physician. It was there that a sudden shivering attacked him, and from thence he retired to the bed which he was never more to leave alive. It was in a room at the head of the open staircase, which was afterwards replaced by a marble one, that the Jacobite members of the Privy Council had assembled when Queen Anne was dying — in one of the rooms in which the Queen's toys are now exhibited — with the intention of proclaiming Queen Anne's brother, known to his Protestant adversaries as the Old Pretender, as Charles III. It was there that this Jacobite cabal had been surprised by seeing the doors suddenly thrown open and the figures of the Whig Dukes of Argyll and Somerset appearing uninvited to take their places at the table and to thwart their intentions. Thackeray, who long afterwards lived in a house near the present barracks, tells how these dukes foiled the conspiracy which had been carefully matured. The Jacobites had gone so far as to bring the Pretender over to London, and arranged an interview for him with the Queen in the grounds of the palace. Certain it is that she was seated in these grounds and gardens in front of the old Orangery, recently restored, when the Duke of Hamilton brought to her the agreement which consummated the legislative union between England and Scotland. The palace had been built hastilj^ in King William's time before his return from Ireland. The somewhat heavy panelling and cornices — to be seen also in Castle Howard — may be witnessed even now as William and Anne saw them executed entirely in oak. The woodwork is the best thing in the house, but the material of the yellow bricks was poor and not calculated to stand, while the cornice and all the parts finished in superior red brick have until the present day well withstood the effects of the ever-increasing murkiness of the London air. The chimney-pieces are almost all of marble, with a great bevelled moulding, but with no marble shelf. They are surmounted by oak panelling, on which hung pictures, a fine collection of which filled the rooms.