The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-14 00:00:00

.1c- i

A NOBL TRIBUTR7.--- ,r,rtiA. -v
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(From the Vines 4 This .11fornim 7. ') 1 CI 1
N.,,r, -CV', iz,,,,
His Royal Highness the Prince Goi. tsOA),, '''•-' i. ,-.o`.*
.i.q. a
BonN 26Th AUGUST, 1819.
DiEn—TIVO YEARS AGO TO-DAY-14TH DUCE! 4BER, 1861,
.-i.`t, is two years to-day since the country was
suddeeily roused from one of the fonde st dreams
ever indulged in by short-sighted man, In a pre,
sent beset with troetbles, and through a fute're dark
w-th uncertainties, t. twee was at least one stable
confidence of the .
stitutional tendeeewrnite
trustand
don which the pelf:iv:l found repose. A wise
gentle prince possesner! the whole heart and
absolute reign, and ;used
Isi s a
ppaesr:i on nna t n 1,7 t al
onlyt loyalty wilde x
aamtpeine:
Sove -
that lofty place •
of the country,
whnception. Xll Ct.'
the more immediate "I.'s"'
but even ideal
want of such a or tet home, or M
circumstance's
by a rare fortune
guide,
of Royalty, showed the
Consoit. Tile nation'7 vias
, ti;ehelp, and friend, and such,
sprung oeutil:of':
Pr'sl, to the rierieterene''s
mini
t3n,hdinsei
hsvntaoptahnpa,
ariye
tv.ih):Tor,,,ri:i
oi:;cei,d7e.
yet not without somelooked with much ikope, •
cinhtseerqeus:sretdhat
had
wilt.sheernee" brooded ''
pending connection, and the family, and the es:-
t abnedrespected, one eye that'
Over this ever widening pro,
genial light ; there was
command love, one voice that could
ostilne-esntio
could always,
hold together
never plead in
useful-
vain, one who could at the same time
and distribute over new fields of duty
I pens. With this best of human securities,
ontrasted our happier lot with that of anys formerwe all
on trust, so we criticized and. even re
getseration and any iivi'ng people. We would take
nothieea
stricted witla'..n due limits this boon, which might-
but could not fail. The Prince Con_
be too much,
sort had learnt what he could yo and what he could.
not do; and that little region 0.. c his own, won by
" his own sword and bow," cie•cumscribed, as it
were, by one day's furrow line, a nd watched by
jealous neishboars, he made a dominion. Yet, in
this country of domestic life and unobtrusive in-
fluences, we all thought more of the Prince as the
ad
prop of his household. Indeed, to this
bored
other consideration, so that, whatever else he was
in quality, in hope, in speculation, or oavacity, this
he was alone in fact—the perfection of a Rot
al hus-
band. Then all at once he was taken away, Rot-
and an,
anticipation that already covered Europe anek bah
milind'dsneeytei.me
ab
et
ehni negv
ewnh
a century with a continual presence and a vi Bible
speotwer had become as the bright pageant of a s line
ever difficult to recall tot he
more of oisf
it came out that the Prince Consort
had a necessity than most of us
imagined, and that he had become one with the
Sovereign not
only
in affection and mystic tie—in
heert, mind, and soul-but in every act of Royalty.
By h is aid alone had the Queen been enabled to dis-
charge conscientiously
a great variety of duties either
anxious from their
and r6pegetiavity or burdensome by their
minuteness
have supposed as much" i"'
Common sense might
the state of Ityyselty is and approved as much, but
sensible and es sidl" one upon which it is
easy to be sensible
of eney, of admiration, annderate. It is the object
but not of sympathy, don'twesowe what even of awe,
under ordinary circurastancee pity Sovereigns
key that can ever open to one Land. pity is the only
tery of another, and d:sclose to us the heaet the mys-
difficulties and necessities of each netohyor% vihelming
The outside of a princely career the
position.
met
became as customary as the order of exeye. and
it-
self; but " the sublime life," as it has be:nursecalled, was within, and few indeed of the mull:juts flyi
who saw in the Prince the most fortunate of men
- e
would themselves have borne for a single week hi':
round of duteous toil. A better insight into the:
story of that life only served to prove the greatness
of the loss suffered by the survivor, It i
als believed
that she sought a dreary and ineffectu consola-
tion in a long struggleto do single-handed, without
cheering voice and helping hand, the daily work
that had been lightened in a labour ove. F
or-
tune, however, it was felt, bad brouof l
ght wasdstill bringing a more real alleeiation aud comfort,
and one in proportion to the great scale of the ca la-
mity. No Royal family in the world can be called cio
prosperous and happy to mortal eye as this of ours...
The Prince hid done his work, and his reward was
to his
come. His children were responding care,
and were rising, one by one, either to take his place
in the Royal councils or to establish homes and
houses of their own. How many would gledlY die
well.
if by so doing they could leave their families
on with the world, started fair, and giving iutppY
earnest of a brilliant future ! So all hoped that the
Queen would look to the future, not in order to forget
the past, out to see the past in the future, and the
absent in the group that met the eye. Perheps it
was too natural to contrast her case with that of the
typical widow, desolate, frieedless, perhaps childless,
destitute, with a blank wheee there should be a
future, and, as if more were eventing, robbed, in-
suited, and persecuted. But in these matters, un-
less we have more sympathy than falls to the shareh
of most natures, we are the slaves of types and cone
-
ventions. Experience shows that anythinp.; t
de--in
sufferer has, or receives, or expects, or has tover so
a word, the whole outside world, be it e
splendid, is clothed with the dark hue and loaded
with the dull weight of the one master sorrow. Oah-
side things only reflect the light A
within. A.
darkened palace is not so bright as the dell that is
penetrated by the smallest ray. A. routine
lea-
.ne of p d
sant occupation may become crushing bon age
when it has to be borne alone. What should be
happiness is misery where there is none to
ehare
So the nation, slow to learn, perrhaps,
un-
but yet by no means thoughtless
feeling, has seen without marmuriog a ROYal
retirement without a precedent in our h is-
tory. It has seen troops of princes fluttering,
about, more than Royal pageants, and a g10r..-
ous future anticipated in the splendours of the hour,
at the time that the true Sovereign of our allegiance
was out of sight, but never out of mind. We believe
that her Majesty would hitherto have fbund it abso-
lutely impossible to break from the world of memo_
rtes in which she has been living. It is vain to tell
the absent that they ought to be present. You may
summon the human spirit from that vasty deep, but
it will not come when you do call for it. Nature
will take its course, and for a time there is no break-
ing the spell in which are interwoven all the 1
sures and all the pains of a life. yet, s p ea--
ooner or
later, there comes a time when the Continual con-
templation of one who is gone leaves c',
omething to
be desired which life and Getion alone can supply.
He still lives, and it must be in
the living world.
lie is not a memory, an itt sge ) b
His works are in the world, a but a real existence.
and the world continues
his work and asks his aia
spirits of men, and still deal He dealt with the
s
advance and to improve - • It was his nature to
all about him ; he has
not stopped—there is
provement he quickenedstill the progressive hp':
still room for all b and shared. There io
word of wisdom e did, and occasion for every'
admirer, the most l that he uttered. The warmeet
that the (Mkt
of laving heart could never imagine'
at once into la its regards if worthy, was to slate
the clay. All
ethingness When the spirit had left
by death is n es on still, and the interval created
or 0 more than that created by distance
any ether
Prince h temporary obstacle. What would the
day a . ave wished could he have foreseen this
in tombs
sepulchral life in the past ? A dwellmeg
A shadowy haunting of sites ?
NA grief
deaf and
dumb to this waking world ? 0. I.
due time changes its gam
the most pious memory
death itself shines through the past in the light of
a victory, and what we naturally celebrate under a
revered name is a living history and a present
power.
The Prince Consort, it must be considered, was
eminently a practical character. This is a quality
not to be measured by the work actually done, for
that work may have but narrow opportunities ; tt
may lie under the surfacers it may even consist
much in prevention. It w practical to meet diffi-
culties with the quiet force of a sound judgment ; it
was a pro(); of practical sense to enjoy the respect of
successive Ministries degree sovereigns abroad. lt
required a high of practical power
as well as rare devotion to do so much in
so short a time for the encouragement of
British art and science, and for improvement
all matters relating to health, materiel llb -in
• we eta,
and mental elevation. Many of our Prince have-,
had their ideal as marked in their memoriess
their lives, but those ideals hnve gene as
in
rally an
the sentimental order. it was either a -1 —ell cf
heroism, or a wild spirit of adventure, superstitious
pomp and pagcantS, or, a gallantry, ' or a taste ',or
or a rivalry, or a foppery, or some il or a bigotry
with the boor. 'l' tie Pritleo C l°.-Y
curb to ''
v `),lnsott betterpass
ciated his adopted countr ' appre-
aimed at practical beneft7s "-lathe, °ccasion. He
land his home, he resolve ''' Having made Fnge
it. Such a name eto leave his mark u'p--
power, and suggests shouldline
Still have pr actpractical
honourable nehievetnt 4 -Ine
44
duty, sacrifices
called on to live and ,T,,t' A rinmerous fam,ilaynia
and to win the 1,-,.,0 -t in . the spirit of its fatter,
and usefulness. That (.?: nations bY active goodness
or reltraptahad. It -,e a movement to be sustained
her strength could only he from a distrust of
lead a work
80that her Majesty would hesitate to
the security 0.. necessary to the NN elfare of nations,
world. iiil. I Governments, and the peace of the
value, for ees in these days must prove their
was thug they
are taken at what they do. It
a position that the Ptlece Consort wade for himself
Eng-
land his
better than NVO gave him, add left
debtor, his thus that his survivors must
prove their affection for his memory,
and
perveta,;.te
his moral presence among us.