Queen Victoria (21 page)

The month of May was memorable for the opening of the marvellous Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, a collection of works of art of every kind and description, but more particularly of pictures of all schools, the like of which has hardly ever been brought together. The exhibition afforded a remarkable proof of a fact which before was not generally appreciated, namely, the enormous amount of works of art of the highest class gathered in the private collections throughout this country.

On the 19th of May the official announcement was made to Parliament, in a message from the Queen, of the intended marriage of the Princess Royal to Prince Frederick William of Prussia. The approval of the union by the representatives of the nation was manifested by the almost unanimous vote of the House of Commons to settle a dowry of £40,000, with an annuity of £4,000, upon the Princess Royal. A few weeks afterwards the Princess’s youngest sister was christened in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace, receiving the names of Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodora, the second of which was given in memory of the late Duchess of Gloucester.

On the 25th of June an order of Council was issued, conferring by letters patent the title and dignity of Prince Consort upon His Royal Highness Prince Albert. Hitherto the husband of the Queen had possessed no distinctive title, and no other place in Court ceremonial than that which he held by courtesy.

This anomaly was now rectified. On the next day a ceremony of great interest took place in Hyde Park; this was the distribution to the gallant men who had earned it of the new decoration of the Victoria Cross. Up to this date there had been no badge or mark of distinction peculiarly destined to mark heroic deeds. Her Majesty, therefore, by Royal Warrant, instituted a new naval and military decoration, to be designated “The Victoria Cross,” bearing the inscription “For Valour,” to be given only to men who, serving before the enemy, have performed some signal act of bravery or devotion to their country. Some time necessarily elapsed before the list of those entitled to this honour could be drawn up, and in order to inaugurate the institution of the Order with becoming ceremony, Her Majesty resolved to confer the decoration upon its recipients in person. About 4,000 troops were drawn up in the Park, and more than 100,000 spectators assembled to witness the ceremony; the recipients of the Cross were sixty-two. Her Majesty, wearing a scarlet jacket with a black habit, and mounted on a grey roan, rode to the centre of the ground, and pinned the Cross with her own hands upon the breast of each man as he was called up in turn. After all the brave warriors had received their decorations, Her Majesty reviewed the troops. On the 29th, the Queen and Prince, with their four eldest children, and Prince Frederick William of Prussia, left London, in order to inspect the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, which the Queen had not been able to visit earlier in the year.

Towards the end of this month news arrived in England of the mutiny of the native regiments at Meerut on the 10th of May, and of the massacre by them of numbers of English officers, women and children, followed by the retreat of the mutineers to Delhi, and the spread of mutiny among the troops there. For some time past the disaffection among the native troops had been known, and some regiments disbanded; but the receipt of the news of the outbreak showed that a danger had arisen which imperilled the lives of thousands of English men, women, and children, and menaced the very existence of the British Empire in the East. The Queen was especially grieved that, owing to a mistaken economy, the army at home had been reduced in number, and wrote to Lord Panmure very seriously on the subject, concluding with the words, “If we had not reduced in such a hurry this spring, we should now have all the men wanted.”

The Queen and Prince spent the 17th and 18th of July at Aldershot in order to witness the evolutions of the troops there assembled under General Knollys. Five regiments of cavalry and ten battalions of infantry with a large force of artillery and engineers were engaged. Her Majesty watched the movements of the troops on horseback, wearing her usual military dress. A picture of the scene, painted by G. H. Thomas, is reproduced opposite page 144 by permission. In a memorandum sent by the Queen for communication to the Government on the measures to be taken to render her army able to cope with the demands made upon it by the increase of the Empire, and the pressing emergency of the Indian Mutiny, the concluding paragraph is as follows: “The present position of the Queen’s army is a pitiable one. The Queen has just seen, in the camp at Aldershot, regiments which, after eighteen years’ foreign service in most trying climates, had come back to England to be sent out after seven months to the Crimea, Having passed through this destructive campaign, they have not been home for a year before they are to go to India for perhaps twenty years. This is most cruel and unfair to the gallant men who devote their services to the country, and the Government is in duty and humanity bound to alleviate their position.” Fortunately the heroic defenders of the Empire in India had not to wait for the reinforcements from home. The English regiments which had been despatched for the operations in China were, at the request of Lord Canning, the Governor-General, directed by Lord Elgin to be turned aside to Calcutta. Their arrival had an immediate influence in crushing the rebellion.

It was not only the total absence in the army of any reserve which could be of use on emergency which caused the Queen anxiety. On the 19th of August the Royal yacht, with the Queen and Prince and six of the Royal thildren on board, entered the harbour of Cherbourg. The visit was unexpected, and, after a stay of a couple of days, was brought to a close, the
Victoria
and
Albert
conveying Her Majesty to Alderney. Of this visit the Prince writes to Baron Stockmar: “We made a delightful run to Cherbourg and Alderney. Cherbourg is a gigantic work that gives one grave cause for reflection. The works at Alderney, by way of counter-defence, look childish.” The Queen’s own comment was, “It makes me unhappy to see what is done here, and how well-protected the works are, for the forts and the breakwater (which is treble the size of the Plymouth one) are extremely well defended.” What they had seen caused the Queen to call for reports on the progress that had been made with works of defence at Portsmouth and elsewhere, as it was felt to be of the utmost importance that a sudden descent upon our shores should not find the country defenceless.

On the 29th of August, 1857, the Court arrived at Balmoral, where the details awaited them of the tragedy of Cawnpore. Delhi was uncaptured, Lucknow unrelieved. A special day of fast and humiliation was ordered, which was kept on the 7th of October throughout the country with great solemnity. On the 16th of October the Court returned to Windsor, having passed, on the way, a night at Haddo House, on a long-promised visit to Lord Aberdeen. From India news arrived of the capture of Delhi, and the victorious career of General Havelock.

This cheering intelligence was saddened by a private sorrow. The Duchess of Nemours, first cousin to the Queen and the Prince Consort, who had given birth to a daughter on the 28th of October, died suddenly, on November 10th, at Claremont. In a letter to Baron Stockmar the Prince writes: “The fresh disaster to which eventful November has given rise in eventful Claremont will have caused you deep emotion. I thought at once of you and of the old wounds which the similarity of the circumstances would re-open in your heart, just forty years and four days since poor uncle lost his darling wife in child-bed. Nemours has lost his dear, to us all so dear, Victoire! in the room nearly above that in which the Princess Charlotte died.”

On Monday the 25th of January, 1858, the Princess Royal was married at St. James’s to Prince Frederick William of Prussia. The first marriage in the new generation was made the occasion of much rejoicing and festivity in the metropolis. Four State representations were given at Her Majesty’s Theatre; a State Ball was also held at Buckingham Palace. Of the ceremony itself the Queen has recorded in her Diary: “The sun was shining brightly; thousands had been out since very early, shouting, bells ringing,
etc.
Albert and uncle, in Field-Marshal’s uniform, with batons, and the two eldest boys went first. Then the three girls in pink satin, trimmed with Newport lace, Alice with a wreath, and the two others with only
bouquets
in their hair of cornflowers and marguerites; next the four boys in Highland dress… Then the procession was formed, just as at my marriage, mama last before me — then Lord Palmerston with the sword of State, then Bertie and Alfred. I with the two little boys on either side (which they say had a most touching effect) and the three girls behind.” This extract exactly describes the group, reproduced opposite page 152, from the picture by John Philip, R.A., of the marriage ceremony. When this was over, the newly-married couple drove from St. James’s to Buckingham Palace, whence they proceeded to Windsor, to which two days afterwards the Court removed, and on the following day the bridegroom was invested with the Order of the Garter. On the 2nd of February came the parting, the bitterness of which not even the thought of the brilliant future, which lay before the Princess, could soften.

Striking proof was given, at the beginning of the year 1858, that the apprehension of the Queen and Prince as to the state of the army and the national defences, and the want of preparation against sudden danger were not groundless. Ten days before the Royal wedding occurred the attempt by Orsini and others to assassinate the Emperor of the French. The plot, prepared by them in England, was executed on the evening of January 14th, as the Emperor and Empress arrived in their carriage at the Opera House. Though the intended victims escaped almost uninjured, ten of the surrounding crowd were killed and one hundred and fifty-six wounded. The violent language, used in France against this country, not only provoked extreme indignation on this side of the Channel, but led to the subsequent formation of the great Volunteer force, which now is looked upon as a valuable and necessary addition to the forces of the Crown for the purpose of national defence.

On the 2nd of August, 1859, the Queen bestowed the Victoria Cross on twelve men who had won the distinction, some in the Crimea, some in India, and on the same day was published the Act for the transfer of the Government of India to Her Majesty from the old East India Company.

Two days later, the Queen and Prince Consort, with the Prince of Wales, embarked at Osborne to visit in state the great arsenal at Cherbourg, which they had seen privately the year before. The reception to the Royal visitors, given, as it was, at the very height of the friendship between the sovereigns, was, if noise constitutes welcome, hearty indeed. Never, in time of peace, had such a cannonade been heard.

Returning to England, the Queen and Prince Consort embarked, a few days later, for another visit to the Continent, this time as the guests of their daughter in her own home. At Magdeburg they were met by Prince Frederick William, who escorted them to Wildpark Station, where the Princess Royal met her mother for the first time since her marriage. This happy visit lasted till August 27th, and on the 31st the Queen and Prince reached Portsmouth, to learn that Prince Alfred had just passed an excellent examination for the Navy.

On their way to Scotland, on the 6th of September, the Queen and Prince stopped at Leeds, a city which no British sovereign had ever before visited, and opened the New Town Hall - a building second only to St. George’s Hall at Liverpool in size and beauty. The reception accorded to them was enthusiastic in the extreme. From Balmoral the Court moved, on the 19th of October, to Windsor, where another gap in the family circle was created by the departure of Prince Alfred to join the
Euryalus
, which was attached to the Mediterranean fleet for two years.

The first month of the year 1859 brought with it one piece of good news, to mitigate the anxiety caused by the critical condition of affairs on the Continent. This was the birth of the first child of the Princess Frederick William, the Queen thus becoming a grandmother at the age of forty. “The joy and interest taken here,” the Queen writes from England to King Leopold, “are as great as in Prussia, which is very gratifying.”

On the 3rd of February, 1859, Her Majesty opened Parliament in person, and her reception was, owing to the excited state of public feeling, unusually cordial and demonstrative. Questions of reform at home, and danger of war between France and Austria on the question of the possession of Lombardy, were the principal causes of disquietude. By the beginning of May all hope of averting war, though it had not been officially declared, was abandoned; and the struggle which was to end in such momentous consequences to Italy had begun. A dissolution of Parliament had just taken place, followed by a general election, and on the 7th of June Her Majesty opened her new Parliament. In the House of Lords the address was carried without a division, but in the House of Commons an amendment, expressive of want of confidence, was carried, and on the resignation of Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston was entrusted with the formation of the ministry. The prorogation on the 13th of August set the Queen and Prince free to seek fresh air and rest in a short excursion to the Channel Islands, followed by their departure for the Highlands. On the 14th of October, their journey south was interrupted in order that the Queen might open at Loch Katrine the waterworks by which the town of Glasgow was supplied. On the same journey a visit was paid to Penrhyn Castle, near Bangor, where the famous slate quarries were inspected, and the singing of the workmen was much admired. The Princess Royal arrived with her husband from Berlin in time for the Prince of Wales’s birthday on the 9th of November; they stayed till the 3rd of the following month, to the great delight of their parents. Christmas was spent at Windsor.

“We began 1860 very peaceably and happily,” the Queen writes, on the 3rd of January, to King Leopold, “and I never remember spending a pleasanter New Year’s Day, surrounded by our children and dear Mama.” The Queen again opened Parliament on the 24th of January, and was accompanied for the first time by the Princesses Alice and Helena. In the early part of the year was published the first series of the
Idylls
of
the
King
, afterwards dedicated to the memory of Prince Albert. Though the aspect of affairs at home was bright, the Italian policy of the French Emperor and his designs upon Savoy were disquieting. His continued restlessness, the large additions to his army, and the great increase to his fleet, alarmed the country. In response to these threatening demonstrations, the inadequacy of the national defences, and the plans for necessary measures to be taken, were subjects of prolonged debate in Parliament. At the same time, the enthusiasm of the nation, now thoroughly aroused to its danger, caused an enormous increase in the number and efficiency of the Volunteer force. Of these citizen soldiers the Queen held a great review in Hyde Park on the 23rd of June, when 21,000 men passed before Her Majesty. Later in the year, on the way to Balmoral, the Queen at Edinburgh inspected the Scottish volunteers, of whom 18,000 marched past in review order beneath Arthur’s Seat. Of the whole force the Prince, who took the warmest interest in the movement, writes: “The Volunteers have already run up to 124,000 men, and make an excellent appearance - a proof there is no lack of patriotism in the country.” On the 2nd of July the Queen, who had become Patron of the National Rifle Association, opened its first meeting at Wimbledon, and fired the first shot at a target on this historic ground, and made the first bull’s-eye ever scored upon its targets. The Queen’s Prize has always been the blue ribbon of the annual competition.