I am glad to find that you like Brighton better than last year. I think Brighton very agreeable at this time of the year, till the east winds set in. It also gives the possibility of seeing people without having them on one's hands the whole day, as is the case in the country. The Pavilion, besides, is comfortable; that cannot be denied. Before my marriage it was there that I met the Regent. Charlotte afterwards came with old Queen Charlotte. How distant all this already, but still how present to one's memory.
The portrait of your Aunt and Leopold is nicely done. Don Leopoldo is like, and has at times even a more intelligent look; he would amuse you—he is very original and very sly. I often call him the little tyrant, because nobody knows so well de faire aller le monde.... My most beloved Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
Leopold R.
Footnote 46: Sir Hamilton Seymour, Minister at Brussels.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
TO CHAPTER VIII
The chief political event of the year (1839) at home arose out of the troubles in Jamaica. In addition to the apprenticeship question, the state of the prisons, much overcrowded owing to the planters' severity, had excited attention, and an Imperial Act was passed for their regulation. To this action the Colonial Assembly showed marked hostility, and, after the dissolution by Sir Lionel Smith, the Governor, the new House was no more placable. Accordingly, the home Government brought in a Bill, in April, to suspend temporarily the Jamaica Constitution, but on a division had a majority of five only in a house of five hundred and eighty-three. The Ministers therefore resigned, and Sir Robert Peel was sent for; a difficulty as to the Ladies of the Household, commonly called the Bedchamber Plot, compelled him to resign the task, and the Whigs, much injured in reputation, resumed office. Some changes took place, Macaulay joining the Ministry, and Lord Normanby, who had succeeded Lord Glenelg at the Colonial Office, exchanging places with Lord John Russell, the Home Secretary. The trial of strength over the Speakership ended in a victory for the Ministerial candidate, Mr Shaw Lefevre, by a majority of eighteen in a house of six hundred and sixteen.
Penny Postage was introduced by an Act of this session.
The Princes Ernest and Albert of Saxe-Coburg arrived on a visit to the Queen in October, and on the 14th the Queen's engagement to the latter was announced by herself to Lord Melbourne. A few weeks later the Queen announced her betrothal at a meeting of the Privy Council.