Of Victoria it must be said that she did associate herself in ...

Of Victoria it must be said that she did associate herself in too lively a manner with the competition for office, she did speak too often on matters which were not within her competence; her distribution of warning and encouragement was far from impartial; and her facility in reproof exposed her to snubs which her wiser consort would never have allowed her to incur. Now that her relations with her ministers are known with some degree of intimacy, it is permissible to say that if she never overstepped the limits of her admitted powers, she did not always behave well within them: she did her duty, but often with a reluctance and temper which in a more critical age might have been even dangerously resented.

In so doing, she undoubtedly weakened the political authority of the Crown. But, more and more fully with advancing years, she was able to satisfy the imagination of her people: such resentment as the followers of Mr Gladstone not unjustly felt-and feel still-could do nothing against a Queen so august, so homely, so doubly armed with the reverence and affection of her people: and rational criticism of the Monarchy was as powerless, because as irrelevant, as

it always is when

applied to any creation of affection, reverence, and imagination.

To go below the respectable class for voters, and to oust the gentlemen from government, is Democracy: and, as the Queen once said 'a democratic monarchy is what she never will belong to'. The elections of 1868 showed a voting strength, in England, of a little over 2,000,000; in Scotland, about 150,000; in Ireland, less than 100,000. The redistribution of seats had left England, south of the Thames, and apart from London, with 119 members, against 101 for the six Northern counties.

...next: >>