The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-01 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1854

An honest delusion was yesterday completely
and triumphantly dissipated. That " honest
delusion," as the Leader of the House of Corn-
MOT'S happily called it; as to the supposed uncon-
stitutional interference of H.R.H. the Prince
ALBERT in the working and the policy of her
MAJESTY'S Government. Nothing could by pos-
sibility have been more manly or more chivalrous
than Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S detailed vindication.
It was altogether conclusive. It dealt categori-
cally with the various calumnies disseminated by
anonymous writers to the prejudice of the Royal
CONSORT of our beloved SOVEREIGN. It met those
calumnies, one by one, with-proofs of their utter
fallacy, with facts constituting for each an explicit
and positive refutation. All this in reference to
the charge directed against the Prince of anything
like "unconstitutional" interference in the aflairs
of Government. An interference of some sort
was at once boldly admitted. An interference
that was already, indeed, notorious from
the day of the Royal marriage. That
allowed to the PRINCE CONSORT in right
of his position as the husband of the QUEEN, still
more, perhaps, than by right of his admitted pre-
rogative as Privy Councillor. It was simply pro-
tested by the Minister of the Crown, on behalf,
we had almost said in the name of, H.R.H., that
that reasonable and acknowledged privilege of in-
terference had never been exaggerated beyond the
limits of what was manifestly constitutional. It
was clearly demonstrated by Lord JOHN RUSSELL
that the authority accorded to the PRINCE CONSORT
by virtue of which he may be present during the
interviews between the Ministers and the Sovr,-
REIGN, was accorded to H.R.H. not as had
been erroneously intimated, for the first time by
Sir ROBERT PEEL, but long before the accession
to supreme power of that illustrious states-
man, by his eminent predecessor, Vis-
COunt MELBOURNE. It was shown, moreover,
that the original concession of that privilege to
H.R3I• was
only decided upon by the then Prime
Minister of England, after it had received the
approval of his Grace the Duke of WELLINGTON.
Not restricting himself, however, to this candid
avowal, the Leader of the 'louse of Commons
proceeded to lay before Parliament a yet more
remarkable series of revelations. Revelations, be
it observed, in every way creditable to the judg-
ment, and we might venture to add,rk •
evaae to
the patriotism, of the CONSORT of the Sov
It was explained by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, among
other notable circumstanc es, how strongly and
urgently the advisability of H.R.H. being ulti-
mately placed at the head of the Horse Guards
was impressed upon the PRINCE CONSORT by the
late Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, the Duke
of WELLINGTON. It was yet more pointedly and
significantly explained to the House by the Noble
Lord, its present Leader, how, and for what rea-
sons, the PRINCE almost immediately decided upon
rejecting- those urgent and-
powerful recommenda-
tions. Not without evident emotion did the
House of Commons, last night, listen to its
Leader's catalogue of those reasons—reasons so
peculiarly honourable to the good sense and the
good heart of the Prince, to his prudence and to
his magnanimity. Neither was it without mani-
fest emotion that Lord JOHN RUSSELL subsequently
offered his grateful 'tribute to the reigning
Sovereign, for those eminently constitutional
qualities which she has displayed uninterruptedly
since the hour of her acceseioD, and which the