REVIEW.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 32, 6 February 1877, Page 2

RE VI EW.

The Life of nis Royal Highness the Prince Consort, by Theodore Martin. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1876. ; ■• ; - . r : ;- ' -,_ Those of our readers who werel-ia England on the memorable- Saturday the 14th of December, 1861'; the' day of the Prince'Gonsort's | de&th, and can remember the outburst of a nations grief;; the .deep, and -bitter sorrow which for a time overwhelmed every class of society, too sjjontaneous.and too universal, to be : anything' b'ufc'.genuinej,' must Have often"'' asked themselves since' why the whole nation mourned for a man who was never popular during his! lifetime/ (and who was bitterly^, disliked by many of the^most influential per- i sons in the country. That the grief was sincere there could be no question. ' Women wept as if they had 1Q& a, father or a brotheg-j strong men found their eyes bcdiuimed and their voices choking,as they,, spoke., of. the, rapid illness aud ; the budded death, 'Wd ; a£ what the " poor , Queen" would, feel. t Never was mourning more universal, even to' the "' sombre colors of the dr6sses, the blinds drawn down in. the houses,: the closed; shops,.the hush, of mirth and.reveky;. for the time all public and' private amusements qea^ed, an<t men. felt it almost a crime to laugh, tor. 1 days there was but one topic of conversation, 1 and when the funeral was over the popular feeling f expressed. . itself in getting up'xin? numerable memorials, until every towifliiil the country had a statue or'a hall c or u a'" memorial of some kind or other, which have been undergoing the process of 'inauguration down to the present time. Day after day, week after week, month 'after month, the' periodical press served "up eulogies on the late Prince, descriptions of his character and mode of life, and lamentations over his mature death. The -Queen retired • entirely! from public life. The Court gaieties^ 'such as they had been, and they had' never beehvery much, were of c6urse entirely ■ stopped; a id for a long time a^gloomy pall hung : over society. Then came a reaction'. 1 The- people" began to be tired of a monarchy witho'-it'-'a 1 monarch, qf^a -Court without Royft|,ty^ap"{l-ibf soc ! ety without ahead.' '.Ttie'jr, began f6*"ask whether the-' monarch -was $6 -lie only chine ior signing; State,papers, an,d ; it might not be cheaper and better if a. Republic were substituted for a monarchy in which the monarch did nothing but bury herse f in the Highlands or at .Osbbrne, and£ ca-efully hid herself c.yen when tra veiling bet veen those places from the eyes of her still faithfnl subjects. From the time oi ttie^ death of Prince Consort until the illness of tre Priuce of Wales, the life of the Queen herself only intervened between : monarchy and a Republic." As lougas the Queen lived it was universally acknowledged that nothiug need be changed, but t the prospects. of, ; a Ite° public after her deatli were co.itinually ,?dis- ! cussed in every circle of society " It was during this epoch that thinking men sawhow much we bad lost in the Prince Consort. ; The two volumes of his life already published, which carry the narrative dowqtothe year 1854, the commencement of hostilities between: Russia and Turkey, .give such a minute and complete picture of the Prince's life that we are able to judge of its geueral character as well' as if the biography Were .complete; : We see riow'clea'rly what he- wa3, and what he was noty his excellences aiid his t efects, the reason why he was disliked in" his own' lifetime, never appreciated at his-

'»lfcaM Mterl&lamehßfr'tften. Wd sed f^ om i*P cs c gaemoira allXhef^uiseslol his? S te^ "nppgjilafi^, thggreat is ngl Bft nat s?J w |°? e iifffiincts are eve?, true MM sm™u§jsctesp q ms bofch in |ftida^king^l4f|7attrin|telif^aAdfSVaiK*ing hiS death with heartf elf^orrdw/^ Para- s doxical as it may seem, for once the vox populi was right, and these two volumes quite unconsciously, as far as their author is concerned, show us that the severe criticism r ~S rhi< ? l y } ' r er i )r public act of the Princess proyoked jwas/^just and necessary, 4hd tfiat th& '■jealdusy df-'his intereference in durp'olitM was thoroughly well-founded, yet that we did right to grieve for the tender and faithful husband, theaffiectionatefather, the honorable, upright gentleman who had set the "S^PP^P -example and a model of a blameless life occupied by useful work aud animated ■■by. no ignoblg aoibitipns. . The two great mistakes i ttie Prince made, f d|Sl d ifeft origin of the profound mistrust and of him manifested% every class of Englishmen from; the highest to the lowest swere, that he completely-misunderstood his M r egf«Ms the English uation, and rjH&nHtosely ov^j-estiroated'his own abilities. rsJoJBJi* 16 timefoif'his marriage he acSed as if he were King and not 'only so, but as if he wjere wiser arid j abler foasnany voOhe statesmen* who formed the [Queen's W%™s ies> or r t^ au the nation itself.\ He •"Bad received au,,excellent so far as mere bookidearning was; 1 concerned— an education sucb^no prdii^ar^ Eriglishgentlesiman in those dayg hail anylenance ofViejseir*?**BC:%et if he»had phssed six or seven years £H^ boyhood afca first-cjass English .public tfgtimlmth the result of Tearningf a ; little B^at^and less Greek, ano"*had 'gone, thence the English' Universities to leave it swifeteno more»tb>n 'an ordinary degree he xwouldhave begjfijfar bette"r>educated;fpr the position he was about to assume }than ail that; he learnt from, his ijutors, or at! Heidelberg. If he had c fprmejd one . of a.kJ. Eton ,-s}&Mty a Cambridge* eleven I . he ; would have nadja(shi3 priggisbness knocked outiof J him, s andi,He]would ha.v,e lost none of thoseaoble qualities of the hfeart which endeared'toim to ; s%:7W e and • family, kt -the ' same time, 'possessed as he was of more than 1 average ?#&ss powera and great Industry aadvperae-.-.-I-ejFft?.^. he wguld probably; have 'fixed on KBome:qpe subjfeftt|and made .himself master „pfat r aiid learned] by so doing how vast is the auntofihumaa kriowledge, and how impossi-.ble-it-is for any one mari,-even of the most gigantic intellect, to be master of many branches. As it was he learned a little of everything: he took an interest' in every subject that came before him, and he was so far well informedand so well instructed that in jail questions his views were broader than those of mr-majorify* of mehy though hot - nearly so":deep 'asTthey were Kroad. He was |he;ver profound, and he was never shallow r rota^y T destitute of the sense of humor he ; couid^eet nothing ludicrous in' his attempts to:teach English statesmen how to govern , England, artists howl to paint, Bishops how f.tojperform their duties, sanitary engineers how to : provide -for. the sewerage of great cities, the Duke of Wellington how to govern thparmy, English politicians the nature of . 4^ [English Constitution, the wdrking classes how to. manage; theirown 'afltairs, and the University of Cambridge how to. educate its f undergraduates.., , : He ruiued hjs health by which: he nee&ne/ver havejtouched, and wbJjch-nobody wanted him todoj and brought hitaself- to :;apremature ddath ;by days arid r>'#ts';of- thankless;- and useless toil. I All this resulted from his German education. Every educated German thinks that in the /particular subjects he' has studied he is infallible. - Prince Albert had studied a good many subjects, aud thought himself infallible in them all. The consequence was that when he foand himself placed in a position of great mflienceand some : , power he set" to work prppounding his ideas, putting! forward his .plans, sug o esfc"ug here, ad visiug' there, interfehng every whe:e, : until those w,itlrwhom he -^cajue in contact,. alt'iougli they respected his ; conscientjousnefB, and admired: his abilities, could ,;hardly refrain, from detesting him The present writer was intimately acquainted with an artist who stands at the head of his profession, and who has of ten : related 1 how itheiPrince would come to his studio, interrupt his work', and, quite uriable to enter into his ideas,. woiuld.make sug estidns in a tone or, lofty siipe iorfcy which was inexpressibly annoying. . ""'./..• To the; way in which he meddled with Pq h , fclCJ !- ?J?r j. chapter in Mr Martin's book bears ample witness. In one paragraph it is stated that. in the year. 1848 twenty-eight thousand dispatches' were received and! sent out from the Foreign' Office; and that a copy °, f i fi v « r y{.vjP^- A of- J theoi,was. submitted to Jhe .Queen and Prince. But it wili ' be welt " to quote from Mr Martin's work a page, which wi£l show hdw much unnecessary work the Prince took upon himself, ; work which, what:;ever he may have thought about it, would ;<ha,ve been .done equally well without his interference.. The italics ate ours:— ' I' It wi|l;'giye some idea'of the multifarious nature ot the Prince's pursuits if we mention bqefly d t ;(cw..oi the subjects! which engaged his attentidnSwjLthiu' a few days pf his return to, Winder IGastle on the Hthof October' The nextctay he distributes the prizes of the Wjindsor;j?byal Association. On. the 16th he nieete Lord perby, • Lord Hardinge, Lord John' Manners, the Duke! of, Norfolk, the r Dean'of S.Taul's^the Garter King4t-Arms' and the Secretary of the Office of Works to , bettle the cpjcplicated arrangements for the' fube^aloitherPuke of, Wellington. .•; On the 1 9th he , h , jbusy . ..>vith regociations for, the i purchase by the Exhibition Commissioner of : laid : at 0 -Kensington. Next day iSnda him engaged with Mr Edgar, Bo wring in making, the final; corrections in the Report of the Committee of the Commissioners as to the c disposal of the Exhibition surplus, a very elaborate and masteriy document.: The same day, he. has to raastejr the general results of i the Cambridge University Commission's report, and to comniunicate them in his capacity of Chancellor to the authorities of the University. ' On the 22nd he settles with Mr, ■Henry Cole and Mr Redgrave die design of the Duke of Wellington's funeral car [a hideous object]. Two days afterwards, in a personal * interview. with Lord Derby, he goes into the details of the G vernment measures, which ar<L to | consist, of an acknowledgment of Free Trade, lightening of the burdens of manufactu ffi t & P& agriculture, reduction of the L,malt;, tax, pf the. duty on tea, '&pi , On the 29th 'He presides at a' meeting of the ; Exhibi- ; tiqn Commissioners," at which he persuades : them to adopt his plan for the disposal pf the isurplus, and to 1 vote further sums for the ■jlakl purchases.. . The same day he investigates the results of experiments mqde tpith shrapnels at i Woolwich upon his ' recommendation, and j writes- an elaborate paper to Lord Raglan on ! the subject. Again a day or two afterwards, he : discusses the South Kensington project with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and goes fully into the financial details of the question of. national defences, and then, passing from finance to art, settles with Sir Archibald 1 Macdpnald the music to be played at' tthfj 'Duke; "of Wellington's funeral. These weire only some of many additions to the' usual routine of involved hr keeping pace with the Course of public business, domestic, colonial, and foreign, which the Queen and Prince regarded as their duty.' With what thproughhess this was done has already been' shown."— Pp. 474—5, Vol. II. ; i; Can anything more, preposterous be con-l ceived, than that any one man should be compete.tUoTofferf :even,an opinion on. such varied srbject-? , ;, ::f , .:'. ■-;,-. . • .. , ' - ■'■•:■.': c>C?k $ e ' continued.) []- ",'.". ..... j