The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-18 00:00:00

-_.

PRINCE ALBERT AGAIN !

(From, the Times.)
Many people may be aware—and many people,
We trust, are not aware—that for some time past
rumours have been afloat to the effect that the
Prince Consort has meddled in the most out-
rageous manner with the affairs of the State. It has
been said that Prince Albert has cancelled instruc-
tions prepared by the Ministers at home for Lord
Stratford at Constantinople ; it has been said that,
When Ministers refused to admit of these altera-
tions, the Prince despatched a messenger on his
own account to the East, concurrently with the
emissary of the Foreign-office, and in contradic-
tion of the despatches of which he was the bearer ;
it has been said that Prince Albert warned the
Russian Ambassador of the contemplated move-
ment of the combined fleets into the Black Sea,
and thus enabled the Czar to save his ships by
'withdrawing them to Sebastopol ; it has been said
that the reigning Prince of Saxe Coburg, not the
Autocrat of All the Russias, is the ogre of whom
United Europe should stand in dread. Saxe
Coburg will invade us all, Prince Albert pre-
paring the way for the triumph of that great
military Power by his most " base, bloody,
brutal," and perfidious machinations. For the
last few weeks the town has been entertained with
such skimble-skamble stuff as this. A portion
of the press has not been ashamed—though we
are almost ashamed to record the fact—to give
Publicity to as silly and unsupported a calumny as
anY which we can remember during a long
course of years. What are the proofs ? There can
be no proofs of these charges as they stand at
Present. Has the Queen turned Queen's evidence ?
---or Lord Aberdeen ?—or Lord Clarendon ?—or
Lord Palmerston ? or Lord Stratford ? Who heard
the order given to " Jerningham" to bring the
garters ? No man of candid mind could originate
or for a moment entertain against his fellow any
accusation not susceptible of proof. In the pre-
Bent case it is absolutely impossible that there
should be anything like direct testimony. What
is there of circumstantial evidence ? Is there so
much of proof in either shape as would induce a
Jury to convict a little boy of stealing a pewter
Rot ? " But everybody believes it," says Tom
voozle of the Travellers, to Sir Marmaduke
Clodpole, of the Carlton. We simply reply, that
a few months ago everybody believed that tables
Were endued with prophetic power, and were in
the confidence of the Prince of Darkness—whether
they are made of rosewood, mahogany, or even
Walnut, mattered not. Is there any man in the
three kingdoms who could put down upon a
sheet of paper such grounds for believinc, in the
guilt of the Prince Consort as would induce any
other person of sane mind to admit the fact as
true ? Raised eyebrows, shrugged shoulders, pre-
sumptions by the °offload, are not arguments,
still less proofs. If they were, there is not a
roan in all England who might not be executed
at the Old Bailey for participation in the Acton
murder ere six weeks were out.
The accusation as it Stands is one far more inju-
rious to the Queen and to her Ministers than to
the Prince Consort. What is he, after all, but the
first subject in the realm ? If the Queen have be-
trayed her coronation oath—if Lord Aberdeen and
his fellows are traitors to their country—English
history is not devoid of precedents which may
guide our conduct even under such circumstances
as these. These, however, are very grave matters
indeed ; the people of England are happily endowed
Fah too great a sobriety of temper, as well as with
too clear a judgment, to proceed to such extremi-
ties without due cause, and without very sufficient
proof. No one presumes that in the confidence of
married life the Queen and her husband may not
converse upon public affairs. When the English
nation deliberately accept a foreign Prince as the
consort of their Queen they must needs accept this
co•
nsequence,—this inconvenience, if they will. It
a lesser inconvenience than would arise from
the adoption of any other course. But, because
,
is not to be expected from human nature that
two persons in so intimate an alliance should never
open their lips to each other upon subjects of the
greatest interest to them both, does it therefore fol-
low that the Prince Consort must necessarily be mad
enough to propose, and the Queen be mad enough
to acquiesce in, suggestions contrary to the inte-
rests of the country ? Besides, what becomes of the
Ministers of State and of majorities in the Houses
of Parliament ? The wicked and silly people who
set these rumours afloat were so ill-instructed in
their trade of calumny, and so ignorant of the
matter in hand, that at the outset they literally
confounded together as the same thing the Cabinet
Council and the Privy Council. Because Prince
Albert was a member of the " Privy Council,"
therefore he was supposed to exercise a great and
decisive influence upon the councils of the Cabinet.
Such is the state of this ridiculous controversy,
Which was hatched up by the despair of one
by
political party, and greedily caught up
1.!,3" another. The same rumour which accused the
,rince cast the province of accuser upon Mr.
Roebuck. " Roebuck was to get up in the
Souse of Commons, and then we should see
_what we should see." We had just the same
7ason for believing that Mr. Roebuck had under-
iron the functions of accuser as we had for be-
lieving in the guilt of Prince Albert. The real
nature of the case, as far as Mr. Roebuck is
concerned,o may be seen in another portion
our columns this day, in the form of a most
7.1_4411Y and sensible letter which he has just ad-
%tressed to that one of our contemporaries from
Nth
„„ 'eh he had received his brief. " Rumour,"
IlLY's Mr. Roebuck, " has taken. an unwarrantable
nth with my name." His is not the only name
much
Which rumour has of late occupied itself, and
Bete
in the same way. We have no doubt that a
days will silence the most obstreperous and
ate'errained grumblers among all those who have
6. °ix" forward to bring accusations without proof
.gaiust an innocent man. The Prince Consort is
"ticl)rely well aware by this time that he has nothing
do with the duties of government. He well
bows that any attempt to step out of his legiti-
Ate province would be firmly repelled ; and he is
iarittoo wise a man to sacrifice his well-earned po-
y for any such foolish schemes of political
I"°Wer as his calumniators have imputed to him.
"8 to what remains, when the mob of accusers
COo have been so busy with his name have re-
vered from their temporary vertigo, they will be
eager to make him fulsome amends for their pre-
"ells injustice.