VICTORIA. 



forth the national anthem. When the tumult had 

 subsided Trains of peers ascended the steps of the 

 throne to do their homage first touching the 

 crown with the right hand, then bending the knee 

 and kissing the Queen's hand. 



Within a year the court was brought into sud- 

 den disfavor with the country by the political 

 crisis known as the Bedchamber Plot. In May, 

 1839, the Whig ministry had a majority of only 

 five in the House of Commons upon a proposal 

 In suspend the Constitution of Jamaica, and there- 

 fore it resigned. The Duke of Wellington de- 

 clined the premiership, but recommended Sir Rob- 

 ert Peel, who undertook the task of forming an 

 administration, but was met at the beginning by 

 a difficulty for the solution of which there was 

 no precedent. The whole theory of the parlia- 

 mentary responsibility of the ministry had been 

 developed since the time of Queen Anne. Peel 

 stipulated, on forming his Cabinet, that the mis- 

 tress of the robes and the ladies of the bed- 

 chamber who had been appointed by the Whig 

 administration should be removed; but to this 

 the Queen would not consent, and she wrote curtly 

 that the course proposed by Sir Robert Peel was 

 contrary to usage and repugnant to her feelings; 

 the Tory leader then had to inform the House of 

 Commons that, having failed to obtain the proof 

 which he desired of her Majesty's confidence, it 

 was impossible for him to accept oflice. The Whig 

 ministry under Lord Melbourne was recalled, and 

 the Premier declared by resolution in Cabinet that 

 the offices held by ladies in her Majesty's house- 

 hold should be exempt from political changes. The 

 Queen acknowledged later that she had been in 

 the wrong in the matter, and repaired the blunder 

 when the Tories again formed the ministry. 



It had been arranged even in the Queen's in- 

 fancy, by the Duchess of Kent and her two 

 brothers Leopold, whose first wife was the Prin- 

 cess Charlotte of Wales, daughter of George IV, 

 who died in 1817, and who became King of the 

 Belgians in 1831, and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg- 

 Gotha that Victoria should marry Prince Albert, 

 younger son of the latter, who was born in the 

 same year as the Queen. Although the arrange- 

 ment was fully understood and acquiesced in by 

 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Queen 

 wrote to King Leopold in 1839 that she did not 

 wish to marry for some years. A few months 

 later Prince Albert, with his brother. Prince Ernest, 

 arrived in England, and during his visit to Wind- 

 sor Castle the Queen offered him her hand. On 

 Xov. 23, after the return of the prince to his home, 

 the Queen announced to the Privy Council her 

 intended marriage with her cousin. Baron Stock- 

 mar was sent to England in January, 1840, as 

 representative of Prince Albert to settle the treaty 

 of marriage and to make arrangements for the 

 prince's future household. But now the court's 

 quarrel with the Tories in 1839 brought disagree- 

 able consequences. The Queen's announcement of 

 her betrothal was made in the House of Lords on 

 Jan. 16 before a brilliant assemblage of the most 

 eminent people in the land, and it was enthusias- 

 tically received. When the Government proposed 

 that Prince Albert should receive an annuity of 

 50,000 they sustained a severe defeat. An 

 amendment moved by Mr. Hume for reducing the 

 allowance to 21,000 was negatived; but the 

 amendment of Col. Sibthorp a politician of no 

 great repute for making the annuity 30,000 was 

 carried against the ministers by 262 votes to 158, 

 the Tories and Radicals going into the same lobby 

 and many ministerialists taking no part in the 

 division. All this mortified Prince Albert exceed- 



rgly and gave him a poor idea of the welcome 

 VOL. XL. 47 A 



that awaited him in England. Parliament also 

 withheld the title of Prince Consort until 1857, 

 and this left the rank of Prince Albert, uncertain 

 and led to many disputes and mortilirations not 

 only in England, but during the royal visits to 

 the Continental courts. 



The Queen's marriage was solemnized on Feb. 



10, 1840, in the Chapel Royal, St. James's. The 

 one regret of the London people was that a cere- 

 mony so fair did not take place in Westminster 

 Abbey; for Holbein's small chapel in St. James's 

 was ill suited for a great display. However, all 

 that was seen or heard of the wedding pleased 

 the people well. 



During the Queen's reign several attempts were 

 made on her life. The first was by Edward Ox- 

 ford, who fired at the Queen as she was driving 

 with Prince Albert up Constitution Hill in an 

 open carriage; the second attempt was that of 

 John Francis in 1842, at about the same place, 

 and was followed about a month later by that 

 of a hunchback named Bean made as the Queen 

 was passing from Buckingham Palace to the 

 Chapel Royal; in 1882 Robert Maclean fired as 

 the Queen was leaving the station at Windsor, 

 and there were other so-called attacks made with 

 unloaded pistols. 



Queen Victoria had nine children four sons and 

 five daughters namely, Victoria Adelaide, Prin- 

 cess Royal, born Xov. 21, 1840, who married in 

 1858 the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, after- 

 ward Emperor of Germany ; Albert Edward, Prince 

 of Wales, born Xov. 9, 1841, married in 1863 to 

 Princess Alexandra of Denmark; Alice Maud 

 Mary, born April 25, 1843, who was married in 

 1862 to Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and died 

 in 1878; Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke 

 of Edinburgh, born Aug. 6, 1844, married in 1874 

 the Grand Duchess Marie, daughter of Alexander 



11, Emperor of Russia, died in 1900; Helena, Prin- 

 cess Christian, born May 25, 1846. married in 1866 

 Prince Frederick Christian of Schleswig-Holstein ; 

 Louise, born March 18, 1848, married the Marquis 

 of Lome in 1871; Arthur, Duke of Connaught, 

 born May 1, 1850, married Princess Louise of Prus- 

 sia in 1879; Leopold, Duke of Albany, born April 

 7, 1853, married in 1882 Princess Helena of Wal- 

 deck-Pyrmont, died in 1884; and Beatrice, born 

 April 14, 1857, married Prince Henry of Batten- 

 berg in 1885. 



The residences most used by the Queen were 

 Buckingham Palace, Windsor Palace, both belong- 

 ing to the sovereign, and Osborne House, Isle of 

 Wight, purchased by the Queen, who took pos-i>- 

 sion of it in 1843, and Balmoral, in the Scottish 

 Highlands, also purchased by the Queen from the 

 Earl of Aberdeen in 1848. 



In March, 1861, the Queen's mother, the Duchess 

 of Kent, died, and in November of the same year 

 the Prince Consort died. Throughout England 

 the death of the Prince was wholly unexpected, 

 and the news caused great surprise and grief. 

 The Prince was buried in the mausoleum at Frog- 

 more, which the Queen had built. 



The Prince of Wales's marriage was solemnized 

 at Windsor on March 10, 1863. The public entry 

 of the bride-elect into London on March 7 was a 

 sight which afforded a remarkable display of loy- 

 alty and enthusiasm. The Queen witnessed the 

 wedding from the private pew or box of St.George'> 

 Chapel, Windsor, but she wore the deep mourning 

 which she was never wholly to put off to the end 

 of her life, and she took no part in the festivities 

 of the wedding. In January, 1864. a son was 

 born to the Prince of Wales, and was christened 

 Albert Victor after both his grandparents. 



In. 1867 the Queen published The Early Days of 



