1900] on The Letters of Queeii Victoria. 511 



the author of "Tancred" fired in 1877 by the Empress-Queen, of 

 whom forty years before he had written — " We will acknowledge the 

 Empress of India as our Suzerain, and secure for her the Levantine 

 Coast. If she like, she shall have Alexandria as she now has Malta : 

 it could be arranged. Your Queen is young ; she has an amnirr 

 Never was there a more curious example of a statesman who " wrought 

 in brave old age what youth had planned." I choose Mr. Gladstone 

 because he was a Minister of the Crown three years before Queen 

 Victoria ascended the Throne, and his death preceded hers by less 

 than three years ; because his long life coincided with hers, and 

 because, as is well known, there was no great sympathy at any time 

 between what has been so deftly called the Queen's fixity of nature 

 and Mr. Gladstone's eager, mobile, versatile range. 



The Throne as an Institution. 



On one occasion, at the most tragic moment of the Queen's life, 

 in December 1861, it is true that for a short while these two un- 

 sympathetic temperaments came into close harmony. 



Of the vast number of letters of condolence received by the 

 Queen on the death of the Prince, all of which were carefully pre- 

 served, she must have conceived some preference for Mr. Gladstone's, 

 as it is noteworthy that he was the only writer who received a reply 

 begging him to write again. But this Avas a mere flash. If Mr. 

 Gladstone idealized the Throne as an institution, and if he recognized 

 the Queen's sincerity, frankness, and love of truth, his judgment may 

 be accepted as unswayed by intimate association with the Sovereign. 

 If he spared neither time nor toil in endeavours to explain his policy 

 and actions to the Queen, it was not from motives of personal devo- 

 tion, so much as because he felt deeply, to use his own words, that 

 those responsible for decisions of State " should make it their business 

 to inform and persuade the Sovereign, not to oveiTule him." 



If Mr. (Jladstone's masterful nature, charged with popular sym- 

 pathies, thought it worth while to give time and toil to the task of 

 informing and persuading the Sovereign, it could only have been 

 from a strong sense of the value to the people of this country of the 

 Throne as an institution. His biographer suggests that Mr. Gladstone 

 was deeply moved by his sense of chivalry and his sense of an august 

 tradition, and I would not venture to disagree, but 1 feel confident 

 that Mr. Gladstone was also largely influenced by his long Ministerial 

 experience and his intimate knowledge of tlie inner working of the 

 Constitution. If that is true, and if Mr. Gladstone's formed judg- 

 ment was based on fact and experience, it is justified by much of 

 what has been revealed in the published correspondence of Queen 

 Victoria. 



