The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-02 00:00:00

PRINCE ALBERT AND HIS DETRACT

(From the Times.)
The debate of Tuesday night must be a great blow to
a numerous class of political busybodies. How many
who have for weeks enjoyed a reputation for some know-
ledge not generally attainable, or have become
local celebrities by their mysterious hints and con-
fident predictions, must sink into insignificance
when the mighty secrets on which their importance
is founded turn out to he worthless rumours ; and
it appears to the world that, instead of confidants
of the great, they have been merely dupes of the
unprincipled ? We trust those who have been so
busy with the name and reputation of Prince Albert are
now satisfied. Befor the session is a day old the bubble
has burst ; and in a week the matter will be forgotten,
except as a lesson to those who affect to laugh at the
credulity of past ages, and as an additional fact to point
the moral of the instability of popular favour, and to
prove once more that there is always a market for
calumny, and that the best-spent life is no defence
against scandalous inventions, however monstrous their

character, and however vile their source.
As both parties in Parliament have been equally
anxious to express their indignation at these malicious
fictions, the position of a high-minded Conservative
must be difficult indeed. Either he must own that
his views have no respectable representative in the press,
or his party must bear the charge of having turned to the
purposes of faction rumours the most unfounded
and the most absurd, and of having endorsed charges
which it was impossible they could credit, in the
hope that the Minister might share the odium of the
Court, and fall from power through the unjust unpopu-
larity of the Royal couple whom they profess pre-
eminently to respect. For it is no defence to say that
the charges of which all are so much ashamed did not
originate with the Tory press. It was the Tory press,
through its presumed connection with men high in sta-
tion, and supposed to be regardful of truth and honour,
which first gave weight to the charges by adopting
them. We will not name the despicable source of
these fictions ; but every one must be aware that, as
long as they were confined to its columns and those of
congenial organs, whole months of invective and Mis-
statement could have had no effect on the public mind.
Even the frequenters of the haunts where the journal in
question is to be found have sense enough to know that
it represents no one who could possibly be acquaint-
ed with the matter ; and its assertions, however
confidently made, would have failed to impose
even on the credulity, of the taproom. But the
Tory press were on the look out for political capital.
Their principles had been refuted and their predictions
falsified. Their opponents were in power, and had given
them little hold for an attack. The session was a
hand, and something must be done at once. It was
a good thought to represent Lord Aberdeen as a truck-
ler to illegitimate influence. Therefore these special
representatives of the Christian and gentlemanly feel-
ing of the country did not hesitate to avail themselves
of the most malignant of calumnies, derived from the
most degraded of sources. The journal which propagated
the slander became at once "our excellent contemporary;"
and the statements which were unknown or despised
when confined to its columns became invested with
authority when corroborated by a press professing to
represent some who had a few months before sat in the
Councils and shared in the secrets of the Sovereign.
That assertions so confident, so circumstantial, and so
false can be made respecting the highest persons in the
State argues a degree of freedom which men not
illiberal might call license ; but there would be no
danger in such freedom, if that part of the press
which circulates among the educated were to refuse
admission to the statements of unscrupulous writers
and to scandal, pandering to the tastes of a degraded
class. Such was not the course of the Conservative
journals. Instead of ignoring or discrediting these
groundless fables, they blazoned them to the world with
additions of their own, and with all those adventitious
aids of capitals, italics, and notes of admiration to which
they are accustomed to resort. As nothing was too gross
for public credulity, nothing was too monstrous to be
asserted. Prince Albert corresponded with Ambassa-
dors, Prince Albert sent despatches overruling those of
the Foreign Office. Prince Albert was seeking the favour
Lf Russia for dynastic reasons. For one paragraph con-
taining a specific charge there were 20 consisting of inu-
endos, and insinuations too vague to be capable of con.
tradiction. No doubt a sensation was produced, and
this honest delusion was sufficient to justify an authorita-
tive answer even to charges intrinsically absurd. But, as
no such answer could be given, except by Ministers,

of the Crown and before Parliament, the slanderers and
their dupes had it all their own way. It was no matter
that in both cases where a direct charge was brought
(those of the Palmerston pamphlet and the letters to
Lord Westmoreland) an immediate refutation followed;
the calumny did not receive its deathblow till Tuesday
night. The matter is now at an end. The pothouse
journal is doubtless vain of even the contemptuous no-
tice it has received ; but we think that the Tory news-
papers, with their pious and Protectionist readers, must
by this time be heartily ashamed of themselves.
A popular delusion like this is no slight matter. Here
is a person of exalted station, admitted by men who have
no interest in flattery to be of considerable mental attain-
ments, who being placed, on hardly emerging from boy-
hood, in a position most difficult and responsible, in a
country not his own, and singularly ill-understood by
foreigners, has acted for nearly 14 years in such a
manner that the watchful eyes and ready tongues of a
palace have been unable to find a fault - who has, in de-
ference to public opinion and a sense of duty, so tem-
pered his conduct with a gravity beyond his years, that
his detractors are inclined to impute it to him as a fault
—who has laboured with such success to advance the

taste and skill in which the country is deficient that he
has excited the approval of all, and even the injudicious
demonstrations of a large number—who is bound by
every human tie to this country and its prosperity—.
whose children must sit on the Throne, and whose per-
sonal influence in Europe depends on the greatness of
his adopted country. A few weeks ago his popularity
was as general as it is said to be well deserved. ,But
this reputation, the work of years, has been..prdired to
be at the mercy of an anonymous slanderer in an
obscure journal. More than this, professors of un-
bounded loyalty have striven to extract a party benefit
from his injured fame; and men who grieve over the
decay of ancient reverence have not scrupled to antici-
pate with triumph the hisses which would greet the So-
vereign and her Consort on their way to the Legislative
Palace. But there would be few to propagate falsehood
if there were none to believe it. It is for the peo-
ple of England, who have received these slanders,
to reflect on tde consequences of a readiness to
credit all that malignity may invent or commer-
cial enterprise hit upon as a means of noto-
riety. There can be no greater discouragement
to an exemplary life in those of high rank than a feeling
that no good conduct of their own can protect them
from the shafts of popular abuse, and that, whether
they follow the traditional career of Royalty or eadea-
your to fulfil its higher duties, it will be all the same to
the undiscerning multitude, who must compensate them-
selves for conventional homage by personal depreciation.
A. contempt for public opinion is a besetting sin of the
great and powerful ; and if it has little prevailed of late
it is because opinion has been found generally to be
just, discerning, and reasonable. Such a display as that
of the last month is an exception to its general tenour, and,
we hope, a rare exception. The ready refutation which
such things now meet with insures the country against
the consequences of any temporary delusion ; but the
greediness with which the late absurd rumours were
swallowed can only be attributed to the same mental
disease which has lately turned (not the tables, but) the
heads of thousands, even of educated men, and which, in
one shape or another, periodically taints the moral
atmosphere in which we live.

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC IN FIVE DAYS.—The New York
Tribune says :—" The new steamer W. Norris, which is
to make the passage to Europe in five or six days, is ra-
pidly approaching completion. Her outside is nearly
finished, and she may be afloat in a fortnight. This
vessel is simply fiat and sharp, with a good model for
running fast in smooth water. She is made unusually
strong, by her having her timbers strapped diagonally
with bars of iron, and by an iron kelson extending from
the keel to the deck, excepting in the central part of the
vessel, devoted to the engine. This kelson is composed
of two parallel sheets of iron near half an inch in thick-
ness, less than a foot apart, and so fashioned and con-
nected as to form a water tank. On either side of this
kelson are bilge kelsons, formed in the same manner,
also connected with the deck. It is expected that these
unusual supports will give such an amount of strength
and solidity to the steamer as to make her excel allother
vessels of similar dimensions."
PREVENTIVE AND REFORMATORY SCHOOLS. —A depu-
tation, consisting of Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Spooner, M.P ,
the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, M.P., Mr. Pack, Lord
Robert Grosvenor, M.P., Mr. W. Brown, M.P., Mr.
Kettleby. Mayor of Kidderminster ; the Earl of Hai,
rowby, Sir John Pakington, M.P., Mr. M. D. Hill,
Recorder of Birmingham ; Mr. Bass, Mr. Adderley,
Mr. Power, Recorder of Ipswich ; Mr. Monckton Milnes,
Lord Lovaine, the Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. S.
Child, the Hon. Mr. Liddell, M.P., the Marquis
of Blandford, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Calthorpe,
the Hon. and Rev. G. M. Yorke, Mr. A'Court, M.P.,
Mr. W. Scholefield, M.P. Mr. W. Morgan, the Rev.
Sidney Turner, Mr. Charles Ratcliffe, Mr. M'Geachy,
&c., waited on Lord Palmerston, at the Home-office,
shortly after 11 o'clock yesterday morning, with referenc
to Preventive and Reformatory Schools. Sir J. Peking-
ton opened the proceedings by stating that they were in
attendance to submit a memorial calling the attention of
Government to the subject of Preventive and Reforma-
tory Schools, and requesting the Government to adopt
such measures as would have the effect of preventing
destitute children from becoming criminals, and that
such children as were guilty of crime should be sent
to reformatory establishments, and afterwards to be
provided with employment. There was a growing
feeling in the country that some measure to that effect
should be adol.ted, and the deputation earnestly hoped
that the subject would have the attention of the Govern-
ment. Committees had sat on the subject, and re-
ported favourably to the house on the matter. The de-
putation represented very nearly all classes of the coin•
munity, and they hoped his lordship would take the
subject into his serious consideration, with a view to
legislation. Other countries were before them in such a
course, and he trusted that no further delay would take
place in meeting and settling the question. The ques-
tion was one of great social importance, and imperatively
repuired the interposition of the Legislature. Lord R.
Grosvenor, the Hon. Mr. Liddell (who presented a peti-
tion from Liverpool), and other members of the deputa-
tion, expressed themselves to the same effect. Lord
Palmerston said that the subject would receive his best
attention, and the deputation then withdrew.