1909] on The Letters of Queen Victoria. 517 



A young Queen exercises her doubtful prerogative with the support 

 of a Liberal majority in a reformed House of Commons against a 

 powerful Tory combination headed by Sir Robert Peel and the Duke 

 of Wellington. What a paradox is here ! A Liberal Prime Minis- 

 ter of great determination endeavouring to force a measure of Irish 

 Disestablishment through a Tory House of Lords appeals to the 

 Sovereign for assistance, and achieves success through her mediation. 

 What a confusion of democratic ideals is there ! Institutions more 

 hide-bound, less malleable, would not have stood the strain — and 

 these volumes of the Queen's Correspondence contain lessons for all 

 who, for the sake of symmetry, or abstract polity, or momentary con- 

 venience, may desire to substitute dogmatic restriction and a statutory 

 formula for so flexible a medium of Government. 



If I have made my meaning clear, the value of a Monarchical 

 system like ours should be enhanced by a study of the Queen's Corre- 

 spondence. Unqualified eulogy would be unworthy of our subject, 

 and the last thing Queen Victoria would have desired. In her public 

 capacity as Sovereign of these realms she occasionally committed 

 errors of judgment ; but not often. It would be vain to select 

 examples either for praise or blame. We have been engaged upon an 

 examination of causes and results, rather than upon a critical estimate 

 of specific acts. 



Her Majesty's "Only Seeious Ereor." 



This, however, I should like to say. I have had exceptional 

 opportunities of examining at first hand the inner history of a reign, 

 extending over sixty years, during which e^'cry document was pre- 

 served — even the least important of telegrams. It has been my duty 

 to arrange this vast mass of political papers with as much care as I 

 could devote to the task, and I can assert with the fullest conviction, 

 that I have found no trace of any grave mistake committed by the 

 Queen in her capacity as Sovereign. 



Perhaps the only serious error made by the Queen was her seclu- 

 sion during the long period from 1861 to 1874 — when she allowed 

 her deep feelings as a woman to prevail against the claims made upon 

 her as Head of the State. But these claims were of the lesser kind. 

 The greater claims she met during those years in a degree which will 

 only be fully realized, if it should become possible to publish a further 

 selection of her correspondence during that period. She displayed 

 none of the graver faults of the greatest of her predecessors on the 

 Throne. Although often treated with ingratitude she never showed 

 the resentment of Elizabeth. The cold indiiference characteristic of 

 William III. was foreign to her nature. Although she resembled in 

 many ways her grandfather, George III., she could have been relied 

 upon not to misunderstand the American Colonies. 



It is necessary to speak of her private life — it was so bound up 

 with her pubhc life — and upon the connection between these her 



