The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 8,1857.

really so much engrossed by this one idea, that she never
enters into the light gossiping conversation to which
young women are generally addicted. Peel, who at the
first felt na.urally rather embarrassed with his young
mistress, is now become more at his ease with her; and he
has so much talent and tact that he soon finds a clue to
her good opinion. He gained much ground with her by
the adroit manner in which he offered to Prince Albert the
presidency of a new Society of Arts. He took care first
in a deferential manner to consult her Majesty's wishes on
the subject, stating that the choice would be popular in
the country; and she immediately embraced the idea with
great eagerness. She ordered the young Princess to be
brought down to him, and treated him with great affability.
On a later occasion, when he and Lady Peel were invited
to stay a few days at Windsor, her Majesty, in the course
of conversation, asked him what was the reason of his
great hostility to the system of her late Government. He
immediately took advantage of this to enter into a detail
of the revolutionary tendency of all their measures, and
the bad spirit which they had so wantonly excited in the
country,--a spirit which was rapidly threatening the ruin
of the monarchy, as well as that of the country. He said
that crowned heads should not only think of what was
agreeable to their own feelings, but also what was con-
ducive to the welfare of their posterity. It was in itself
a contradiction that sovereigns should be democrats, or
encourage those principles in their dominions. That in
another month her Majesty might probably give birth to a
son, to whom it must be the object of her anxiety to leave
her crown as a sure and peaceful inheritance ; and how
could that be accomplished by following the system of
concession and revolution, into which she had been
gradually led under the false hope of obtaining a short-
lived and uncertain popularity, at the expense of under-
mining the great props of the Constitution in Church and
State ? As Peel has great eloquence and fluency, it may
be supposed that these arguments could not fail to have a
certain weight.
The " all-absorbing interest" in affairs of State
might be partly attributable, in addition to
her Majesty's high conscientiousness, to the
novelty of her position. The speech of Peel
put into his mouth by Mr. Raikes is not like
what Sir Robert would have said. He would
have alluded to the finances, to the deficits
caused by the Whigs, and in his adroit way
he would have suggested what horrors had
been caused in the French Revolution by the
state of the French finances. His unrivalled
knowledge of money matters, and his com-
plete acquaintance with public business, Ivey()
amongst the means by which Sir R. Peel
obtained his influence with the Queen. But
the Queen exercised a vast influence in return
over Sir R. Peel.

Here are some Court anecdotes, resting on
the authority of the Duke of Wellington ; the
date is September, 1843:

This morning at breakfast the Duke said to me, " Did
you hear what happened at the wedding ?" meaning that
of the Princess ♦ugusta of Cambridge. Replying in the
negative, he continued, " When we proceeded to the sig-
natures, the King of Hanover was very anxious to sign
before Prince Albert, and when the Queen approached the
table, he placed himself by her side, watching his oppor-
tunity. Sh• knew very well what he was about, and just
as the Archbishop was giving her the pen, she suddenly
dodged round the table, placed herself next to the Prince,
then quickly took the pen from the Archbishop, signed,
and gave it to Prince Albert, who also signed next, before
it couli be prevented.
" The Queen was also very anxious to give the prece-
dence at Court to King Leopold before the King of
Hanover, and she consulted Too about it, and how it should
be arranged. I told her Majesty that 1 supposed it should
be settled as we did at the Congress of Vienna. ' How
was that,' said she, 'by first arrival?' No Ma'am,' sail
I,' alphabetically, and then, you know, B. comes before H.'
Thie pleased her very much, and it was done."

The best parts of the diary are those relating
to the Duke of Wellington. In an article in
the current number of the New Quarterly
Review, entitled " Reaction against Peel," there
are some originttl anecdotes, which appear to
be confirmed by passages in this diary. The
life of the Duke at Waltner Castle is thus de-
scribed (date 1842) :

As every memorial will be interesting hereafter of the
habits and characteristics of one whose name will fill the
pages of history, I shall add a few details of the Duke's
daily life at Walmer. He always ri,.es at six o'clock, and
walks on the platform, then returns to his room to dress,
which, as I have said, takes a very long time. He is re-
markably neat in big appearance, always wearing a white
waistcoat and trousers, under which is a good guard of
fleecy hosiery against the cold ; and a blue riding-coat in
the morning.

At ten o'clock he appears at breakfast ; he seems to eat
heartily, and makes mesies of rusks and bread in his tea,
never meat or eggs. He converses the whole time, then
retires, saying, " Well, we shall dine at seven." He
remains in his room, writing letters and despatches, and
making notes, some rather droll and concise, on the
difr•rent letters to be answered by his secretary in his
name ; and Greville's hand is become so like to his, that
ew people can distinguish the difference. Greville showed
me one from Fitzroy Somerset, with details about Ireland.
His note on the margin was, " If i au► to manage the
affairs of Ireland, I had better gu there myself."