500 Right Hon. Viscount Esher [March 5, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, March 5, 1909. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S., Treasurer 

 and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The RianT Hon. Viscount Esher, G.C.B. 

 G.C.V.O. D.L. M.A. 



The Letters of Queen Victoria* 



(By the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, Patron of the 

 Royal Institution.) 



It has been said that the characteristic of EngUsh Monarchy is that 

 it retains the feeUngs by which the heroic kins^s governed their rude 

 age, and has added the feelings by which the Constitutions of later 

 Greece ruled in more refined ages. Possibly this idea might have 

 been expressed in more elegant language, but the idea itself is sound, 

 and true. Our system of government — Constitutional Monarchy — 

 is a happy blending of the personal influence of an hereditary rule 

 with the organized expression of popular opinion. The will of the 

 majority is the decisive factor, but it is subject to the indirect guid- 

 ance of a monarchical sentiment acting and reacting through the 

 person of the Sovereign. 



Few things are more difficult to explain than the precise value 

 and force of the influence of the Crown in public affairs. Perhaps 

 there is no advantage in trying to elucidate the mystery, for it is to 

 an atmosphere of mystery, to the unrent veil between the Crown and 

 the People, that the influence of the Sovereign upon national policy 

 is largely due. I am not generalizing, but am speaking of England 

 — of our country — and of the times in which we are living. It is a 

 fact tliat thoughtful men did not always look with favour upon the 

 mystery of which I have spoken. Mr. Fox declaimed against the 

 hidden influence of George III., as the undetected agency of " an 

 infernal spirit." Later on, how^ever, a great change occurred, and 

 forty years ago wise and hberal-minded politicians were in the habit 

 of saying with reverence, " We shall never know% but when history is 

 written, our children may know what we owe to the Queen and Prince 

 Albert." This attitude of faith towards the beneficent influence of 

 the Sovereign power was a new thing, unregarded by the statesmen 

 of the House of Hanover. History, as the secrets of the past three 

 decades slowly leak out in memoirs and correspondence, has revealed 



* Published in " The Times " of Saturday, March 6. 



