VICTORIA'S LETTERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 86, 21 January 1928, Page 5

VICTORIA'S LETTERS

ATTITUDE TO GLADSTONE. REVELATION AS TO CHARACTER. COMMENT BY LONDON PRESS. <Per Press Association— Copyright.) (Received This Day, 9.20 a.m.)- . • LONDON, January 20. "I have a great deal to say. Cnjy one side has been given. As regardls the other, the time ha 6 not arrived for me to speak about my father." This is Viscount Gladstone's- reply to an invitation to comment on references to Gladstone contained in the "Letters of Queen Victoria." - ._ Sir Almeric Fitzroy (formerly Clerk of the Privy Council) who has been m closest touch with Ministries since 188°? says he was surprised at the publication". He .was hot prepared for such a candid revelation of Queen Victorias private views. The Queen's dislike for Gladstone was never concealed: She showed Trim no consideration and hardly courtesy. She never' became recon : ciled to him. Gladstone's eastern policy srst aroused Victoria's resentment. It must be said, to Gladstone's credit, that he never commented on the Queen's attitude and always showed the greatest respect and courtesy for the monThe "Evening Standard" editorially says: "We knew before ' that _ Queen Victoria was hot-tempered and' stubborn, but we did not know how hottempered and stubborn she was. nor the full extent of her fears and "dislikes. It wap entirely natural that a woman of Victoria's character and upbringing should regard the advance of democracy with fear and resentment, and should oppose, it with all the strength at her command. The most surprising thing of alris that notwithstanding her determination and prestige she rarely got her own way. The more one considers this aspect of her reign the more natural it is for one to admire the statesman, who so stoutly resisted the powerful force. One is impelled to ask whether we have any such remaining with us." The S'Star'.' editorially says: "The present monarch is constitutional in "act as well 'as theory. 'We are not satisfied that it is a good thine to bring the letters into the limelight. They might arouse some future monarch to impossible ideas."