She attained her legal majority—eighteen years—on May 24, 1837, and her birthday was celebrated throughout the country. On June 20, 1837, King William died childless. It became the immediate duty of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham to inform the young princess of her uncle’s death and her own right of accession. She held out her hand to the Archbishop to be kissed, and said, “I ask your prayers on my behalf.” A meeting of the privy council was called for eleven o’clock. The princess was known to but few of the members, and there was a universal desire to ascertain what manner of person she might be. She appeared before this august body of a hundred leading nobles and statesmen with modest composure, bowed to the lords, took her seat, and read her declaration. The members of the council were then sworn to allegiance, kneeling and kissing her hand. The foreign ambassadors were then received one by one. All were captivated by the easy dignity of their girl-queen. Her speech was generally remarked upon for its perfect elocution. Of her speech a few months after, upon the dissolution of Parliament, Charles Sumner, who heard it, said, “I was astonished and delighted. I think I never heard anything better read.” And of the same speech Fanny Kemble said: “I think it is impossible to hear a more excellent utterance than that of the Queen’s English by the English queen.”
Victoria promptly reformed her court, which was sadly in need of correction, and removed the royal residence to Windsor Castle. Public admiration for her ability and grace of manner grew into enthusiasm, so that on the day of her coronation at Westminster Abbey, June 28, 1838, the pageant was not only one of unsurpassed splendor, but the populace were described as “coronation mad.” This was the manifestation of a radically changed public sentiment as to royalty, for the eclipse of monarchy under the four Georges had long been accepted as a humiliating fact, and respect for the throne had been well-nigh lost during William’s reign. Altogether it was a bad time for a girlish queen to assume power; yet her guiding hand was soon favorably and powerfully felt, and it has been said by more than one good authority that her accession at that special crisis was the salvation of monarchy in Great Britain.
QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1840.
(After a painting by Wm. Fowler.)
Her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, received at an early date a touch of her quality, when, after vainly urging her to sign a certain document, he testily withdrew it with the remark that it was not of paramount importance. “Sir,” replied the queen instantly, “it is with me a matter of the most paramount importance whether or not I attach my signature to a document with which I am not thoroughly acquainted.” And on another occasion, when her signature was asked to a document on the ground of “expediency,” she replied, “I have been taught, My Lord, to judge between what is right and what is wrong, but expediency is a word I neither wish to hear nor to understand.” The beginning of her reign was coincident with the inauguration of transatlantic steam navigation. In the second year of her reign the Whig ministry, at whose head stood Lord Melbourne, lost its working majority in Parliament. The queen immediately summoned the Tory leader, Duke of Wellington, to form a new government. Wellington suggested Sir Robert Peel as better qualified for the task. He accepted, but when the queen found that the change would affect all the ladies of her Bedchamber and household she repudiated Peel, and recommissioned Melbourne. For this she and her premier were taunted as being at the head of what was called the “Bedchamber Plot.” Subsequently, when Peel succeeded Melbourne, the queen found in him and Wellington warm friends and trusted advisers. Among the other notable events of this year (1839) of her reign, were the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League, and the occupation of Cabul and Aden by the British forces.
The queen’s hand was sought in marriage by many kings, dukes, and princes of Europe. Her choice fell upon her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It was a love-match, mingled with not a little diplomacy on the part of her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, and Albert’s uncle, King Leopold. The wedding was celebrated with stately splendor at the Chapel Royal in St. James’s Palace, on February 10, 1840. The marriage proved a happy one. All that the most affectionate and unselfish wife could be, she was to her husband. And the Prince Consort not only returned her affection in full, but became her faithful, laborious, vigilant, discreet adviser and helper, lifting from her shoulders the crushing load of state affairs, and opening a new era in her life. Careful and well informed observers have ranked Prince Albert among the statesmen of his day, and some have said that for the greater part of his twenty-one years of married life he was practically King of England.
On November 21, 1840, their first child, afterwards Empress Frederick of Germany, was born. An economic triumph of the year was the introduction of cheap postage in England. In 1841 Sir Robert Peel succeeded Lord Melbourne as premier. British arms greatly extended political and commercial influence in the Orient by the taking of Canton and Amoy. On November 9 the Prince of Wales, who, January 23, 1901, succeeded to his mother’s throne, was born. In 1842 two attempts were made to assassinate the queen. It became the foreign policy of the government not to further complicate the Indian question by pushing conquest in Afghanistan, so the British forces were withdrawn. The commercial prestige of England was greatly advanced in the Orient by the acquisition of Hong Kong as a port, and the general opening of all the Chinese ports to foreign trade. This year also witnessed the permanent foothold of Great Britain in South Africa, by absorbing the Boer republic of Natal.
On April 25, 1843, Princess Alice was born. British possessions in India were enlarged by the annexation of Scinde. The queen and her husband paid a friendly visit to Louis Philippe of France, and received a return visit. In 1845 Mr. Gladstone became premier. England and France joined in war against the Argentine republic. The year witnessed the outbreak of the formidable Sikh rebellion. In the following year, 1846, this rebellion was suppressed and the Sikh territory was ceded to the East India Company. The aggravated question of the Northwest boundary of the United States was settled by treaty. The great famine in Ireland, and a somewhat indignant public sentiment in England, conduced to the repeal of the Corn-laws. For several years the Irish situation was serious, famine and insurrection going hand in hand. In 1848 Princess Louise was born. The Sikh rebellion was renewed. The Boer territory in South Africa was further trenched upon, and the farmers trekt across the Vaal River to establish the Transvaal republic. In 1849 the queen paid her first visit to Ireland, the Sikh rebellion was suppressed, and the Punjaub was annexed to British India. 1850 witnessed the conclusion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty with the United States. In 1851 the queen opened the great Exposition in London. In 1852 the first Derby ministry came into power. In 1854 Great Britain participated with France in the Crimean War against Russia. For several years the vigorous foreign policy of the government led to serious complications. In 1860 the Prince of Wales visited America. During the Civil War in the United States, the queen’s sympathies were with the Union cause, and the very last public act of the Prince Consort was to sign in the name of the queen the paper which modified the demand of the ministry upon the United States with reference to seizure of the Confederate envoys Mason and Slidell. The paper in its unmodified form would have been equivalent to a declaration of war by England.