CHAPTER XIV.

1840.

FIRST YEAR OF MARRIAGE.

The Prince's Position.-Formation of his Household.-Settlement of Precedence. Freedom from Partisanship.-General Life in London. -At Windsor, Claremont, etc.-Love for the Country.-Attempt on the Queen's Life.-The Regency Bill.-Birth of the Princess Royal.

THE hereditary prince remained in England with the Queen and his brother till the 8th of May, but with his departure the last tie that bound the Prince to his native land seemed to be severed. England was to be henceforth his home. He was to forget his own country and his father's house; or, if not forget-an impossibility to a heart like his-he was at least to act as though he did. Duty now required at his hands an unreserved dedication of himself of his best energies and abilities—to the land of his adoption; and nobly and unshrinkingly was that duty performed. How great the sacrifice that he was thus called upon to make, few, at that time, could estimate. Many, even now, would admit with difficulty that it could be a sacrifice at all, to exchange the position of a younger son in a comparatively small German dukedom for that of the Consort of the Queen of England. But to any man of warm natural affections, the rending of home ties must, under any circumstances, and however brilliant the future before him, be a sacrifice, and it is now only,

when we have had the privilege of reading the letters quoted in the preceding chapters of this memoir, making us acquainted with the intense love he bore to the home of his infancy, and with the feelings of affection and sympathy that bound him to his own family and the friends of his youth,* that we are able, in some degree, to judge of its nature and extent.

To feel that his beloved native land must no longer occupy the first place in his heart-at all events, must be no longer the first object of his thoughts—that, separated from all he had hitherto held most dear, new family ties were to be entered into-new friendships formed -new habits acquired-could a mind, constituted as was the Prince's, reflect upon all this without feeling that, splendid and important as might be the position he would henceforth fill, it was attained at no common sacrifice-that, namely, of all his early ties and most cherished associations! It was a sacrifice, however, which, accepting it as he did in its fullest extent, was not only made supportable by the thought (to a noble nature like the Prince's, of all thoughts the most inspiriting) of the good which it would enable him to do, but was more than compensated by a degree of domestic happiness which the most devoted and confiding love on both sides is alone capable of affording.

We might well enlarge here on the self-denial and single-hearted devotion with which, from this time forward, the Prince applied himself to the discharge of the duties of his new position. But it is not necessary.

* See particularly the letters to the Dowager Duchess of Gotha and to Prince William of Löwenstein.

These qualities will come out in ever bolder relief as this memoir advances. A strong proof, among others, of the spirit in which he entered upon their performance will be found in the fact that, loving his old home as he did, with an intensity of affection that has been rarely equaled, and certainly has never been surpassed, upward of four years elapsed after his marriage before he paid a short and flying visit to the place of his birth.

It must be admitted, however, that, constantly, unostentatiously, and perseveringly as he now gave himself up to the discharge of his new duties, he was exposed, almost during the whole period of his life in this country, to much misconception and much misrepresentation. Not for that, however, did he for one moment relax in his efforts, or allow his zeal to flag, in seeking to promote all that was for the good of the British people. His actions might be misunderstood-his opinions might be misrepresented (of which there was more than one notable instance),* but, supported by his own conscious rectitude, he still pursued the even tenor of his way. Not a complaint-not a murmur-ever escaped his lips; not a single hasty expression did he ever indulge in, even toward those who were most unjust to him. He accepted such injustice as the inevitable lot of one placed, as he was, in high station, trusting surely to the coming of the time when his motives and actions would be better understood and better appreciated by his adopted country.

The principle on which he always acted was (to use

*NOTE BY THE QUEEN.-Especially at the commencement of the Russian War.

his own noble words) "to sink his own individual existence in that of his wife-to aim at no power by himself or for himself to shun all ostentation. -to assume no separate responsibility before the public;" but, making his position entirely a part of the Queen's, "continually and anxiously to watch every part of the public business, in order to be able to advise and assist her at any moment in any of the multifarious and difficult questions brought before her-sometimes political, or social, or personal-as the natural head of her family, superintendent of her household, manager of her private affairs; her sole confidential adviser in politics, and only assistant in her communications with the officers of the government."*

It was not, however, for some time that the position, as described above, was established. For the first year or two the Prince was not, except on rare occasions and by special invitation, present at the interviews of the Queen with her ministers.† Though taking, the Queen says, "great pains to inform himself about every thing;" and though Lord Melbourne expressed much anxiety "that the Queen should tell him and show him every thing connected with public affairs" "he did not at this time take much part in the transaction of business."+

Nor were there wanting those who would gladly have kept him perfectly estranged from it; and not only so,

*Letter to the Duke of Wellington, in answer to offer of command of the Army.-Speeches, etc., of the Prince Consort, p. 76.

NOTE BY THE QUEEN.-But this was not from any objection on their part. + Memorandum by the Queen.

but who would have denied him, even in the domestic circle, that authority which, in private families, properly belongs to the husband, and without which, it may be added, there can not be true comfort or happiness in domestic life. The Prince himself early saw the necessity of his asserting and claiming that authority. "In my home life," he writes to Prince Löwenstein in May, 1840, "I am very happy and contented; but the difficulty in filling my place with the proper dignity is, that I am only the husband, not the master in the house."

Fortunately, however, for the country, and still more fortunately for the happiness of the royal couple themselves, things did not long remain in this condition. Thanks to the firmness, but, at the same time, gentleness with which the Prince insisted on filling his proper position as head of the family-thanks also to the clear judgment and right feeling of the Queen, as well as to her singularly honest and straightforward nature-but thanks, more than all, to the mutual love and perfect confidence which bound the Queen and Prince to each other, it was impossible to keep up any separation or difference of interests or duties between them. To those who would urge upon the Queen that, as sovereign, she must be the head of the house and the family, as well as of the state, and that her husband was, after all, but one of her subjects, her Majesty would reply that she had solemnly engaged at the altar to "obey" as well as to "love and honor," and this sacred obligation she could consent neither to limit nor refine away.

From the first, too, the Queen, acting on the advice of Lord Melbourne, communicated all foreign dispatches to