judgments-as witnessed by some of his comments on history quoted by the Queen-were considerably more enlightened and sympathetic than hers. It is not good for anyone to be self-separated from his fellows; and there can be little doubt that the Queen's character to some extent suffered because, being a queen, the ideas of the time compelled her to be also a super-woman. The autocratic element in her was certainly not diminished by her practice of regarding herself as a being in more ways than one removed from the common lot. But the blame for any regrettable results must be divided between her and the old-fashioned ideas about women which coincided with her advent to the throne.

With her training on the purely intellectual side the Queen in after years expressed some discontent. Her information was slight, no doubt, as appears clearly enough from the candid pages of her Journal; but perhaps the Dean of Chester and her other teachers were not altogether in fault. Neither here nor elsewhere is there much evidence of her possessing a disinterested love of knowledge, or any great capacity to gain experience from books. Life at first hand, rather than through books, was her concern; and it is probable that, like most women of a practical and positive turn of mind, she only learnt with ease and profit under a directly utilitarian incentive. For the most part, her remarks upon her studies show her interest in them to have been narrowly specialised; reading in history or in Shakespeare, for instance, becoming strictly a means of discovering the good and bad qualities of rulers in the past, with the lessons to be learnt from them for a 19th century purpose. Still more to her taste was the contemplation, under the guidance of her uncle Leopold (who governs Belgium so beautifully'), of living Kings and Queens, and of the constitutions under which they ruled their countries, France, Spain, or Portugal. From the time she was fifteen, Princess Victoria began to express herself upon public affairs and to learn the vocabulary of her craft. This, and her wonderful habits of industry and of accurate observation and statement, were probably the best that she gained from her bringing up. They were not exciting acquisitions, but she might have done worse; and without them it is possible that her enthusiasm would Vol. 218.-No. 434.

not so easily have survived the drudgery of her office. With what zest she came to it is shown in her Journal'I have immensely to do, but I like it very much. . I delight in this work.'

By a pleasant coincidence the successful Queen who sincerely believed that women were not made to govern, got her most masterly schooling at the hands of an instructor who thought it 'tiresome to educate and tiresome to be educated.' Lord Melbourne wore his scholarship and his practised knowledge of men and affairs with a negligent ease which, while it did not deceive, no doubt commended itself to his royal pupil. With all her docility and willingness to learn, Victoria was fastidious about ways and means. The Journal records some girlish strictures upon Croker for his superior tone and want of tact which remind us that the writer in after years was to quarrel with the most powerful of her Prime Ministers because he talked to her as if she were a public meeting. Lord Melbourne's method, if method it can be called, did not err on the side of superiority. His expressed views upon systematic education were of the rather sceptical nature which still appeals to the majority of his countrymen: My opinion is it doesn't much matter what is taught, so long as what's taught is well taught.' The Normal Schools of which there was talk in the spring of 1839 would, he thought, breed the most conceited set of blockheads ever known'; and the education of circumstances was the best.' These are views and prejudices calculated to reassure the half-cultured. From the first the Queen put herself unreservedly in the hands of her Prime Minister who was also her private secretary and tutor. His honest, blunt and amusing' manner not only won her liking but gave her a sense of security, of which she felt a peculiar need in a world which she had already recognised as one of deceit. His politics seemed to her perfectly in accord with those of her uncle Leopold, so that she had no hesitation in accepting them as 'the best there are. She took unremitting pains to make his knowledge her own, unhindered by petty vanities. She was not ashamed to ask questions, nor to confess when she had not understood. I said I was so stupid I must ask him to explain again. He explained like a kind father would do to his child.'

There was no end to the things he had to explain. One day it was the Civil List and the Household Expenditure (his ideas about all these things are so reasonable and so excellent'); on another a difficult question of Army administration, upon which it would be his duty to offer a decided opinion, though the Army is a department of government I do not very well understand'; on a third would be explained' in the clearest manner' the principles of Colonial policy ('an Empire like this cannot stand still-it must go on or slip back'), the position of the Irish Church, or another question of great difficulty, which is the Ballot.' There were besides Foreign Affairs, incessantly, and the stock business of administrationRevenue, Education, Poor-laws, and from time to time what Ministers were about to discuss in the Cabinet; 'it's right you should know.' In addition to the state papers which Lord Melbourne thought it necessary to read to her himself in his fine soft voice, there were boxes of dispatches for her to look through, and important letters that she must see, so that both she and her Minister sometimes confessed themselves quite muzzed' with reading. The Queen worked hard in her own thorough and uncompromising fashion; and, as the instruction proceeded and was assimilated, Lord Melbourne, besides placing before her his decided opinion, began to ask also for hers. Thus, in connexion with the offer of the Irish Mastership of the Rolls to O'Connell, she states that he asked her twice over if she had any particular feeling about it.

Of more importance than familiarity with the subject matter of government was it to acquire the right tone and attitude proper to the constitutional ruler of England. Here Lord Melbourne had some advantage over King Leopold, who was perhaps more learned in constitutions than in the temper of the English people. Almost every page of these volumes, from the date of the Queen's accession, proves how singularly happy was the accident which brought the young and impressionable Queen at the outset of her career under the influence of this one mind. Saxon, Lord Melbourne defined his ancestry in answer to a question of the Queen. However that may be, he possessed those virtues and that combination of qualities and defects which are generally regarded as belonging to the soil, and in particular a tolerant, easy-going wisdom

and humour that give to his mind and speech a certain outline shapely, sweet and amusing, as Gilbert White saw that of the Sussex Downs. His equability appealed from the first to the Queen, who more than once singles out for approval his 'quietness.' There was in her also, however far her practice at times might fall below her theory, a natural love of soberness and moderation; and she agreed with her Minister in liking to carry these qualities into the higher regions, so that, when he declared that in religion he valued above all 'what is tranquil and stable,' she was able to go with him as well as in his dislike of the hair-splitting controversies which puzzle the mind. Their views about right and wrong might not always tally, but they were both equally persuaded that there could not be anybody who did not know the difference between right and wrong.

Melbourne's attitude towards the monarchy was a characteristic compound of homeliness and reverence. Though, unlike Sir Robert Peel, he was accustomed to talk to kings and knew the whole family and exactly what to say to them, he held transcendental views of the office that were in accord with her own. With tears in his eyes and most emphatically he repeated to her Eldon's words: The King of England is always King; King in the helplessness of infancy, King in the decrepitude of age.' There was in the main the preliminary sympathy between mentor and pupil which Melbourne himself declared to be essential to effective teaching. The rest he accomplished by a process so smooth as to be barely decipherable. It was not instruction so much as himself that he gave her. She found it interesting to converse with him on all subjects; and there was no subject from which she could not extract from him something shrewd or wise that stuck to her memory. The Court after dinner amused themselves with Cup and Ball, and the Bandelore, and Lord Melbourne succeeded with the former. He said the only way to do it was "perfect steadiness, patience, perseverance and tranquillity,which is the only way to do anything." On the palace tables were illustrated books, Portraits of the Female Aristocracy,' Portraits of the Characters concerned in the French Revolution,' 'Sketches of the People and Country of the island of New Zealand'; and 'these sort

of things' it was the Queen's delight to put before him, and to draw out his clever and funny remarks. One Sunday evening at Windsor they ran through 'all sorts of famous people' from John Knox to Mme de Staël.

'It is quite a delight for me to hear him speak about all these things; he has such stores of knowledge; such a wonderful memory; he knows about everybody and everything; who they were, and what they did; and he imparts all his knowledge in such a kind and agreeable manner; it does me a world of good.' ('Diaries,' i, 305.)

The use the Queen made of her Prime Minister's brains was certainly comprehensive. When the mysteries of constitutional government and the elements of polite knowledge were disposed of, he had to turn his mind to new modes of doing the hair and new gowns, to give his opinion upon the Queen's striped dress and her cherrycoloured silk. Some of the entries contrast oddly with the later austerities of the Court. In response to complaints that she was spending too much money out of the country, the Queen protested that she positively must have some French things. She insisted on putting off a fixed journey to Windsor because the royal wardrobe could not be packed in time; Lord Melbourne, she was sure, couldn't have an idea of the number of things women had to pack and take. She had a desire to keep a monkey and gratified it, while another of her pets was the occasion of the one recorded instance in which Lord Melbourne earned her serious displeasure. Tired, under the cloud of an approaching crisis, and disinclined for after-dinner conversation, he so far allowed his humour to get the better of him as to call the Scotch terrier Islay ' a dull dog,'' which really makes me quite angry.' Very prettily sometimes the parts of guardian and ward were reversed, and the Queen addressed maternal remonstrances to her Minister on the subject of his health and diet, or scolded him for talking lightly about religion. 'I have often had doubts about you-have often suspected you.' 'Not of heterodoxy,' he protested, conscious of the patristic theologians-' those old fellows' piled in tomes upon his bedroom floor.

It is one of the charms of the Journal that the Queen