THE PRINCE OF WALES IN HIS ROBES AS A BENCHER OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE.
(From a Photograph by W. and D. Downey.)
obstinacy in pressing on the war crushed the despondent party, who would have ended it at any price after the first disaster at Plevna. When his policy of forcing the Balkan passes triumphed, the same firmness and obstinacy enabled him to curb those who, flushed with success, would have abused their victory. It was by his orders that deference was paid to German and Austrian opinions in the settlement of peace. It was his moderation and loyal desire to live at peace with Britain that enabled Count Schouvaloff to build for Lord Salisbury the golden bridge of retreat which he crossed when he signed the Secret Agreement, that was afterwards expanded into the Treaty of Berlin. No foreign despot ever succeeded to the same extent in winning the personal respect of the most thoughtful portion of the British people. The assassination of the Czar called attention to the extraordinary destructive
THE PRINCESS OF WALES.
(From a Photograph by W. and D. Downey.)
forces which modern science had placed in the hands of the political assassin. That the event produced a profound and prostrating effect on the nerves of the Court was soon seen. The Queen left Windsor for Osborne on the 6th of April, and the public were somewhat alarmed to find that for the first time in her career precautions were taken to protect her life, as if she were a despot travelling amidst a people who thirsted for her blood. The Royal train was not only as usual preceded by a pilot engine, but orders had been given to station patrols of platelayers, each within sight of the other, along the whole line. Every watchman was provided with flags and fog signals, so that on the least suspicion the train could be stopped. The time of the Queen’s departure had been announced for Tuesday. It was at the last moment altered to Wednesday. When she arrived at Portsmouth, the Alberta, in which it was supposed she was to embark, was discarded for the Enchantress, which was suddenly ordered up; and from these and other circumstances it was inferred that the Queen was afraid she might be made the victim of a dark plot like that to which the Czar had succumbed. Fenianism, indeed, was beginning to raise its head again in Ireland under the stimulating application of repressive measures. Soon afterwards attempts which were made to blow up the Mansion House and the Liverpool Town Hall indicated that there was some justification for the Queen’s alarm.
Court life was not so dull during 1881 as it had been in previous years. The Queen was ever flitting to and fro between Windsor and Osborne, and almost every month during the season she held a Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace. State Concerts were not infrequent, and on the 17th of May the King and Queen of Sweden visited Windsor, and the King was invested with the Order of the Garter. On the 20th the Queen left Windsor and proceeded to Balmoral; and on the 24th it was announced that she had determined to revive the ancient Scottish title of Duke of Albany and confer it on Prince Leopold. It was a title of evil omen. The fate of the first prince who bore it supplies a dark and tragic episode to Scott’s “Fair Maid of Perth.” The second Duke of Albany died on the castle hill of Stirling. When conferred on the second son of James II. of Scotland it soon became extinct. Darnley wore it before he was married to Mary Stuart. The second son of James VI. and the second son of Charles I. bore it. Charles Edward Stuart was long known as Count of Albany. It was conferred on Prince Frederick, the second son of George II. Prince Leopold had, by his thoughtful and sagacious speeches in public, attracted to himself much admiration, and his feeble health and devotion to his mother had made him the object of kindly popular sympathy. The announcement of his elevation was therefore hailed with some expression of regret that he should be doomed to wear a title that had invariably brought ill-luck or misfortune to those on whom it was conferred.