Queen Victoria | Page 7

in my power to render the sacrifice he has made (for a
sacrifice in my opinion it is) as small as I can."
In the following November the news was made public, but it was not
received with any great enthusiasm, as a German alliance was
unpopular. There were other suitors for the Queen's hand, and the
majority would have preferred one of her English cousins to have been
chosen.
On February 10, 1840, the marriage was solemnized at the Chapel

Royal, St James's. The Queen was described by those who saw her as
looking extremely happy, and to her uncle she wrote of her delight at
seeing the huge crowds which lined the streets to see the procession
pass. "God grant that I may be the happy person, the most happy person,
to make this dearest, blessed being happy and contented! What is in my
power to make him happy, I will do."
CHAPTER IV
: Husband and Wife
After four short days the Queen and her husband returned to London,
and from this time onward the Prince acted as his wife's secretary,
attending to every little detail of the mass of correspondence and State
documents which grew larger with every succeeding year.
All the letters received by the Queen during the course of a long and
busy life-time were carefully preserved, and at her death they amounted
to no fewer than five or six hundred large bound volumes. They include
letters from crowned heads of Europe, from her ministers of State, from
her children, and from her friends and relations.
All these the Queen read and answered. She was thus at all times fully
aware of everything that was happening both at home and abroad, and
in her great Empire, an Empire which was destined to grow greater and
greater in power and extent during her reign. Day by day, year in, year
out, without a single break, this immense correspondence arrived.
Ministers resigned and ministers were appointed, but there was neither
halt nor rest. Truly 'the burden of Empire' is heavy for those who bear
it.
The young Prince determined from the first to master both national and
European politics, for it must always be remembered that as he was a
foreigner everything in this country was for some time strange to him.
In addition to being his wife's right hand he took a leading part in all
movements which might help to improve the education and conditions
of life of the people. His fine training and sympathetic nature enabled
him, little by little, to be the means of helping on important reforms. In

addition to this, both he and his wife found time to work at drawing and
music, which they studied together under the best masters. Throughout
the Queen's correspondence one reads of his devotion to her both as
husband and helpmate.
The times were hard; discontent with poverty and bad trade kept the
nation ill at ease, and, as is always the case, there were many who did
their best to stir up riot. As a consequence, possibly, of this unrest,
attempts were made on the Queen's life, once in 1840 and twice in
1841.
The relief and joy felt by the whole nation at their young Queen's lucky
escapes from death by an assassin's hand are expressed in the following
lines by an anonymous author:--
God saved the Queen--all thoughts apart This crowning joy fills every
mind! She sits within the nation's heart, An angel shrined.
The assassin's hand the steel enclosed, He poised his ruthless hand on
high-- But God in mercy interposed His shadow for her panoply.
Then let ten thousand lyres be swept, Let paeans ring o'er sea and
land-- The Almighty hath our Sovereign kept Within the hollow of His
hand!
In July 1840, it was considered necessary to appoint a Regent in case of
the Queen's death. A Bill for this purpose was brought in and passed,
naming the Prince as Regent. This pleased the Queen, for it was a clear
proof of the golden opinions the Prince had won everywhere since his
marriage, and it was passed, as she herself said, entirely on account of
his noble character. At an earlier period it is certain, as Lord Melbourne
assured her, that Parliament would not have passed such a Bill.
The Queen was soon to lose her chief adviser and friend, for in June
1841 Parliament dissolved and the Whigs were not returned to power.
Lord Melbourne could, however, resign with an easy mind, for he
himself recognized how valuable a counsellor the Queen now
possessed in her husband. After handing his resignation to the Queen,

he wrote to her: "Lord Melbourne has formed the highest opinion of
His Royal Highness's judgment, temper, and discretion, and he cannot
but feel a