One of the first things to be considered was the formation of the Royal Household, and in this matter the Queen had something to say. She uttered a wish on the 20th of June that Lady Lansdowne should be her principal lady, either as Mistress of the Robes or as First Lady in Waiting. Lady Lansdowne accepted the post of First Lady in Waiting, and two days later Victoria invited the Duchess of Sutherland to become Mistress of the Robes, and asked Lady Tavistock to be one of her Ladies.
Inquiry had been made into the Household of Queen Anne, and it was found that she had had eleven Ladies of the Bedchamber, but Victoria thought that this was too cumbrous an attendance, and eventually decided upon one Mistress of the Robes, seven Ladies in Waiting, and eight Women of the Bedchamber. Lady Portman, Lady Lyttelton, and the Countess of Durham were among the Ladies, while Miss Davys, her preceptor’s daughter, was appointed Resident Woman of the Bedchamber, including in her duties those of private secretary in so far as private correspondence was concerned. The Queen and Miss Davys had been friends for years, and once when Victoria’s opinion was asked on some subject discussed by that lady, she replied: “If you really wish me to speak my mind I must say I perfectly agree with Miss Davys. How, indeed, should I do otherwise, for have we not both been educated by her father?”
Thus some of her ladies were chosen from among those whom she liked, while others were recommended to her by Melbourne or her uncle, but the result was that they were all, or nearly all, related to the Whigs. Croker touched upon this subject in the Quarterly Review for July, 1837, pointing out that it was impolitic that the Queen should be surrounded with many members of the same families, “however respectable,” and also that it was neither constitutional in principle nor convenient in practice that her private life should be exposed to the fluctuations of political change, or that political changes should be either produced or prevented by private favour or personal attachments; meaning thereby that her ladies should be chosen from both parties, so that when the Government was changed her Household should be to a certain extent stable. However, the mistake was made, and in 1839 it had to be paid for.
As to her Lords in Waiting, Queen Victoria retained five gentlemen who had been Lords of the Bedchamber to King William, and added to them three from the supporters of Lord Melbourne.
Others besides Croker discussed the formation of the Household, only they did not content themselves with philosophical disquisitions or allude chiefly to the future. One paper said that “the indecent usurpation of nominating Her Majesty’s Household—of surrounding her person by a female brigade of political spies—had in one instance produced a dignified and determined resistance.” Alluding probably to the fact that the Countess of Rosebery had declined to serve. They declared that Her Majesty’s wishes had been “most sternly thwarted, even where they ought in kindness and courtesy to have been deemed supreme—so far is the distribution of offices from affording any index of the Queen’s opinions”; and averred that Victoria wished to make the Duchess of Northumberland, a Tory, who had resigned her position a few months earlier, her Mistress of the Robes, only the Duchess of Kent and “the Irish bombardier, Sir John Conroy,” thought otherwise, so the honour fell to the Marchioness of Lansdowne. The more volatile Tory papers begged her piteously to dismiss the Whigs, and the Age went on its knees to her in the following and many other effusions:—
“If your Majesty would reign in the hearts of your subjects, nor hold a barren sceptre in your hand, you will enquire for the confidential advisers of your family (and you will not find them among your present Ministers), solicit their advice, and learn from them the real nature of your Royal office, the true state of your loyal subjects, the present position of your dominions in all their political relations—internal, foreign, and commercial.”
An early matter for discussion was whether Her Majesty should be allowed a private secretary, after the example of the two last Sovereigns. George III. had done all his own work until 1805, when he became blind, and, much to the disgust of politicians, paid Colonel Herbert Taylor out of funds at the disposal of the Crown to be his private secretary. When the Prince Regent made Colonel McMahon his secretary, and asked that his salary should be paid out of the public funds, Parliament opposed the suggestion to such an extent that the salary had to be paid from the Privy Purse. The appointment itself was attacked in Parliament, the contention being that it was highly unconstitutional, for the secrets of State would thus pass through a third party—other than the King and the Ministers—and that a private secretary would constitute a Court of Revision above the Cabinet. Fortunately, the Ministers defended the appointment. Prior to this the poor Monarch had had personally to sign thousands of documents every year, and in the absence of the secretary had to seal and address the communications; thus the services of an assistant were absolutely essential if the Sovereign were not to become a sort of automatic machine for doing mechanical work.
KING LEOPOLD OF THE BELGIANS.
From the Drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.