The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-28 00:00:00

THE POLITICAL SERVICES OF THE
LATE PRINCE CONSORT.

"The political services of the Prince Consort are brought
out very clearly in the new volume of Mr. Theodore Martin's
biography," remarks the Decay Telegraph in a leader, and
thus proceeds :

We see now tl- at he faithfully fulfilled the ideal
drawn in outlines by himself when he declined the
post of Commander-in-chief pressed upon him by the
Duke of Wellington. He then described what the
Consort of a reigning Queen should be: "The hus-
band should entirely sink his own individual existence
in that of his wife: he should aim at no power by him-
self or for himself; should shun all contention;
assume no separate responsibility before the public;
but make his position entirely a part of hers—
fill up every gap which as a woman she would
naturally leave in the exercise of her regal
functions ; should continually and anxiously
watch every part of the public business in
order to be able to advise and assist her at any
moment in any of the multifarious and difficult ques-
tions or duties brought before her—sometimes in-
ternational, sometimes political, social, or personal.
As the natural head of her family, superintendent
of her household, manager of her private affairs,
sole ccnfidential adviser' in politics, and only
assistant in her communications with the officers of the
Government, he is besides the husband of the Queen,
the tutor of the Royal children, the Private Secretary
of the Sovereign, and her permanent Minister." This
exhaustive estimate reminds one foreibly of the qualifi-
cations of a poet so completely and thoroughly summed
up by the sage in Johnson's celebrated tale; while as
we read we are tempted to paraphrase the reply of
Rasselas "Enough I thou eoneineest ma that it
is impossible to be a successful Prince Consort."
Many men might have erected this high
standard; very few could have acted up to it
through life. That was the merit of Prince Albert.
He brought head and heart and hand to aid the Queen
in every part of her work. Even that very inadequately
expresses his worth. If we compare the political life
of our present Sovereign with that of her three prede-
cessors we see that during the present reign the func-
tions of the wearer of the Crown have been wonderfully
purified and exalted. George 111. meddled much more
ostensibly with politics—nearly always in the wrong
direction, generally to the confusion of public affairs
and sometimes to the grave injary of the realm.
George IV., had less power to affect unfavourably
public business or legislation, but he gave no
guidance or help, and his personal example was
bad. William IV. a . kind-hearted mail, called
late to the throne, knew nothing of higher poliths, and
his only merit is that, except on one or two occasions,
he placed an honourable trust in the Ministers who
possessed the confidence of the Commons. Daring the
reign of our present Queen the steady, permanent in-
fluence of the Crown has increased, and nobody wishes
it diminished. The Court is a centre of political power,
and yet it excites less jealousy than when, as under
our two last Kings its influence was purely personal
and social. To what precise extent this is due to the
Prince Consort it is, of course, impossible to
decide ; it is idle to conjecture what Her
Majesty might have been as a Virgin Queen like
Elizabeth, or married to another man. But
Me. Martin's volume shows abundant proof that the
aspirations. It, as may be naturally supposed, the
around the
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people brought another, in which
love him was a liberal edncation," and nobody
him the historical honour of having
can deny
shared, inspired. and sustained the political
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preciated him was. in itselfhietrs
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career of our hest Constitutional Sovereign.
in which the Prince, acting for and with the
manner
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Queen, ma
ever once departing from the principle that her Ma.
jesty was ready to abide by the advice of her respon-
iantinfligientocetroaf
It is verydienttehree
in office; the Ministers were changed as the con-
fidence of the Commons waned or the accidents
of politics toppled them down. After a time
he therefore commanded a continuous experi-
ence of public questions and of public men which
smibaDleyßeluinciostroerest.aureei.s
few Ministers could equal and none surpass.
Beyond this he had the great advantage of
being removed altogether from party neceseities • he
had not to consult with "the whip" or to calculate
contingencies of division; nor had he to take even the
comparatively wider outlook involved in the perma-
nent prospects of a party; he could afford to look
at every question from a national point of view.
He could regard not the momentary advantage to
England, but its permanent gain. When, there-
fore, any Minister laid before the Queen the
project of a Bill, a treaty, or a despatch, they
found themselves face to face with a living,
thinking, calmly -resolute representative of the
lasting principles that, in the interests of the
country, ought to guide the actions of the Ministry.
It would be too much to say that this influence always
prevailed, but at all events the views at the Prince
constituted a lofty ideal, a high standard, by which
the projects of the day could be compared and mea-
sured. We sometimes feel "in the air," as it were, an
English public opinion higher than all parties, andin-
spired with feelings beyond the passions or prejudices
of the day. This impalpable, immeasurable force,
subtly operating, sometimes dissolves the proudest
parties or be But flies the greatest politicians. u is
seldom embodied as it was in the person of the Prince.
h could
high position above mists and clouds. e cou
From his
and the England that was in his mind's eye
Bee much, h
t merely the generation around but the
was no
England of history and the future with inherited duties
Eng stretching far. It 14 characteristic
and responsibilities
of his keen sight that, even when our warships were
going forth in 1853 to watch and if needful fight back
our statesmen not to
the Czar, he warned oar forget the
second half of their duty—the liberation of the Chris-
i
tiansn
the East from the daily abuses of Turkish
rule. Had peace been made with that duty fulfilled
we should not be in the position we are in to-day,
What Lord Derby has tried to do could have been
• much more easily accomplished by Lord Clarendon in
1856. But one of the worst evils of war is that in the
tempest it arouses too many forget the direction in
which they were previously steering and the port for
which they were originally bound.
That the Prince was in his way a perfect example of
what the husband of a reigning Queen should be seems
to us of comparatively alight importance. The chances
are five to one against another Queen Regnant
in the
next hundred 3 ear,, and probably ten thousand to one
against a Consort like Prince Albert. Here was a
man with the mental power and clear intellect of a
ruler of men- -a born statesman; yet content to live
almost unknown to the public in the shadow of the
Throne, while in reality he was all the time a true
English King. He was a Washington in a palace—
with the Fame absPnee of selfishness, the same quiet
reserve, the far outlook, the tranquil, heroic qoul, the.
steady, conscientious work. To the influence of Beron
Stockmar has sometimes been attributed much of the
Prince's character and success; but it is curious to
trace how the pupil outgrew his master in wise
modesty and common sense. Had he Implicitly fol-
lowed the Bann he woul4 him created A kind of