LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 174, 22 July 1916, Page 14

LITERARY.

THE WIDOWHOOD OS , QUEEN VICTORIA. By CLABE JERBOLD. Eveleigh Nash Company, Ltd. The picture of Queen Victoria presented in this volume is one that will surprise and provoke indignant dissent from readers of the present generation, whose impressions of the venerated sovereign were formed during the later years of her reign. And although the author no doubt represents one phase of feeling which prevailed towards the Queen during the long years of her morbid seclusion from the public performance of her duties, we think that undue prominence is given to what, after all, was an incidental discord in the nation's general admiration for Queen Victoria and its recognition of the splendid national achievements that were only made possible by the wise exercise of her prerogatives as sovereign. The historian of the future will, we believe, regard the reign of Queen Victoria as one of the most brilliant in the records of our great Empire. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the evidence given, on royal authority, upon the publication of Theodore Martin's "Life of the Prince Consort," shewing the influence exercised by the Prince Consort, Baron Stockmar, and the King of the Belgians over the English Court, gave the people of England Art unpleasant 6hock, and the extraordinary resolution of the Queen to carry out her duties after her Consort's death upon lines which she believed he would have followed, justifies some of the criticism tbut is expressed in the following passage regarding the Queen's deference to Prince Albert'e opinion: "Through the remainder of her married life, though the Prince carried hie peculiarly German ideas of royal responsibility to a pitch most disconcerting to the Queen's Ministors, and succeeded in making himself unpopular with all classes. But in all ilillicultiea he himself referred to his own tutor, Stockmar, and thue the ultimate royal word upon the government of Rngland was in all great, and often in little things, uttered by a German baron, whose knowledge of English statecraft was purely academic. So the reactionary Teutonic theory of the divine right of kings and the subserviency of Ministers wae planted on the English Constitution, and for half a century enjoyed a precarious existence."

After the Prince Consort's death. Queen Victoria wrote to King Leopold: '■[ am also anxious to repeat one thing, and that one thing is my firm resolve, my irrevocable decision, viz., that hie wishes—bis plans—about everythine, his viewe about everything are to be my law! And no human power will make mc ewerve from what he decided and wished." The author further observes: "One of the most remarkable sentiments held by Queen Victoria was her affection for Germany in general and Prussia in particular, she regarding these countries as a sacred care bequeathed to her by her beloved prince, and whenever she mentioned his deeire for 'A Strong rVussia, , she would add a pious refer once to the departed Albert." This feeling was greatly strengthened by the marriage of Victoria's eldest daughter to William.Frederick, Crown Prince oi Germany, for Victoria was always most aesiduous in promoting the interests of fcer children and grandchildren, and her repeated appeale to Parliament for grants to them aroused a good deal of popular antagoniem.

Victoria's deeply-rooted dislike of Mr. Gladstone and her partiality for Disraeli wore largely the outcome of her autocratic views of tho sovereign's position in the State: 'at has co often been stated that Queen Victoria was a true constitutional eoTereign, that her power, over State affaire was purely nominal, and that she abided most loyally by the decision of her Ministers that many people have believed it. No greater mistake concerning the Queen wae ever made. She considered it her duty to exprese hex opinion on every eubject, anJ as far as was consistent, with eafety to impose her will upon her Ministers. In extreme cases ehe would give way and sanction something which she dUlikcd, but this was only done to avoid come dangerous crisis, the moot notable instances being the passing of the Irish Church Bill and the abolition of purchase of commissions in the Army." We think the writer's contention that Victoria believed in the "divine right of kings" is very fairly supported by passages quoted in the book, but that she ever attempted to restrain the action of her Ministers, as George 111., for example, did systematically, or as the Kaiser does to-day, is manifestly untrue. And her Imperialism, co faT as it exercised any influence upon the policy of hej Ministers, was a salutary check to the Manchester school of politicians, who contemplated with eqnanimity the disintegration of the Empire. A good deal of space in this biography is devoted to the negotiations which took place in connection with the marriages of the Queen's children and grandchildren. Prominence is also given to the inner life of the court and to the circumstances connected with the extraordinary influence exercised for many years over the Queen by John Brown, her Highland attendant, which gave rise at times to no little public comment. "There are various allusions in the Queen'e journals which show that Brown's opinion on everything was of import. . . . This whole John Brown incident is typical of Victoria's character. From the very first she had been unable to stand alone; she needed a stronger personality to support her. Melbourne, Prince Albert, John Brown, these had each in his turn afforded that support.

... John Brown slid insensibly into the position of confidential helper and stay, and she discussed everything with him, being delighted with his shrewd answers. At a time when she was lonely, overworked by her own indiseriminatinp will, the subject of her people's bitter disappointment and discontent, bearing many sorrows caused by death, this man, strong, devoted, capable, stood by her side. The mere personal proximity during so many years, combined with lomo natural sympathy between their natures, drew him into the position of close friend as well as of attentive servant." It ia a curious fact that Queen Victoria, although I animated by the conviction that she must personally satisfy herself of the wisdom of the measures she was asked to endorse, had no real confidence in the general capacity of women for work outside the domestic sphere. She was a vigorous opponent of the women's rights movement, even when led by such able exponents as Harriet Martineau and Frances i Power Cobb, and writing with reference to one member of the aristocracy who had identified herself with the propaganda, declared that "she ought to get a good whipping."

The attitude of the Queen towards the Prince of Wales, whom she shut com-, pletely out of her confidence in relation to State policy, ia strongly animadverted upon. I*. i« de**iy shewn, however, that]

the glamour which was exercised hy everything German over Victoria did not extend to the Heir Apparent, and hie many journeys abroad resulted in the} acquisition of a knowledge of European' affairs which bore good fruit when he ultimately came to the throne. Many sidelights on the character of the Kaiser are reflected in the references to his personal relations with his grandmother and maternal uncles; the hatred o£ Bismarck for Empreae Frederick and everything English, aud the unscrupulous methods by which he attained his ends, are also specially interesting just now, in view of the outcome of that German Imperialism which he worked so assiduously to promote. The last fourteen years of Victoria's life, when she finally emerged from her seclusion and endeavoured to bring herself into sympathy with her people, form the most agreeable epoch in her long reign, for which the author frankly expresses admiration, and especially testifies to the fact that Queen Victoria rehabilitated royalty, and restored the thYcne. to the nation's respect by creating a' wholesome moral atmosphere, which it had conspicuously lacked in the reigns preceding her accession. Somebody who has seen Sir George Reid's reminiscences in manuscript says| that it will be regarded as something in the nature of a cookery-book; co many ere roasted in it. Messn Metbnen and Co. have now added to their attractive shilling library Myrtle Reed's novel "A Romance of Love Triumphant." This library now includes 135 volumes of recent fiction by the most popular and representative of English novelists. The etory ie told that two cultivated j young American women while visiting' England once called upon the poet Tennyson. Naturally, Tennyson, who was an admirer of Whitman, began talking about the old Bard of Camden, and learned to his astonishment that his I callers did not know whom he was talk-j ing about. Turning to an Englishman! present he eaid, "Only one poet in! America, and they never heaTd of him! Even when we thought ourselves most modern in our speech, we were merely employing the coinage of Shakespeare, said Professor W. Nacneill Wxon at a special meeting of the Library Association at Westminster. The professor quoted the following every-day phrases in support of his assertions: — Aβ poor as Job. Aβ sound as a bell. The piping times of peace. A wild goose cbase. All these and a numbeT of other Shakespeare phrases were daily used by many pereoas. When 1919 arrives we shall have England and America shaking hands over more than half-a-dozen literary centen-

ariee. John Ruekin, George Eliot, Ohas. Kingeley, Russell Lowell, Walt Whitman, and Julia Ward Howe were all born in 1819. 60 -were Herman Melville, the author of " Typee " and " Omoo," and Arthur Uugh Clough, the poet of thoec lines for our times:— For not by eastern windows only. When daylight comes, comes in the Ugnt; In front the euu climbs slow, how elowly! Bat westward, look, the land is bright! In his interesting book, " Through Central Asia," Mr. Stephen Graham observes that always Ruesian colonists were overtaking him or being overtaken, cheerfully journeying for months perhaps thousands' of miles to Seven Rivera Land or elsewhere. At noon perhaps you might come up with a caravan and find not a peasant walking or in eight. " Only the creaking, elowly moving patient carts and the clumsy straining oxen or little ponies, going on by themselves without the nick of a whip or the wbisper of a master's voice, ever elowly on, through the blaze of the Asian noonday, over the desert, towards the happy valleye of the East. Whcreae 10 years ago the population of Canada was greater than that of Siberia, in 1911 Siberia had 2,000,000 more inhabitants. He wishes Britain would take a tip from Russia and allow her subjects to travel anywhere in the Kmpire for a pound or co, paying for food according to a normal tariff. Such ie the happy case of the Russian emigrant.

The Eight Hon. W. M.. Hughes is the subject of two popular biographies written to satisfy the interest in hie career aroused by his visit to Great Britain. Mr. Douglas Sladen, who is well qualified for the task, Ls the author of one of thcee brochures, entitled " From Boun-dary-rider to Prime Minister," to which the Right Hon. Andrew Fisher contributes an introduction. We all know, of course, without the High Commissioner of Australia's frank testimony, what an extraordinarily interesting personality and career Mr. Hughes presents. Five chapters deal with his career, five with his speeches and writingß. The extracts from his book entitled " The Case for Labour," including the essay on Socialism, prove the width of hie sympathies, nnd hie saving sense of humour, set forth with an extraordinarily lively pen. The address on "Compulsory Military Training" before the National Service League, under the chairmanship of Lord Roberts, which ia reproduced, coming as it doee from one of the most advanced Labour leaders in the world, has a special interest at the present time, and is a fine specimen of his breezy patriotism and pithy β-peak-ing, while hie monograph on " Labour in Power " is interesting as giving the history of the Labour party's rise to power in Australia from the pen of its principal organiser. Typical extracts from his speeches are given to show his attitude to the five great questions which have received most attention from him in Britain, viz., the duty of Australia to herself, the Motherland, and civilisation, and especially what she has done for defence; the duty of England to herself, the Dominions, her Allies and the freedom of the worid; the necessity for freeing the trade of England, the Dominions, and the Allies from the tentacles of the Geiman octopus; the consequent necessitj for organisation; and the mission of the Labour party in Australia. The book concludes with an attempt to give a record of the celebrations of Anzac Day, including a full account of the proceedings in Westminster Abbey. The publkheiß are Hatch ineon and Co.

A biographical sketch of the Right Hon. W. M. Hughes, "the strong man of Australia," by Stanhope W. Sprigg, published by C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd., is prefaced by a message from Mr Hughes to the young people of the Empire, in which he states: "This war feas come to teach us many things, to purge us of weakness and selfishness and narrowness of outlook. This war will create many problems, and will solve many. To the young people this war opens the portals of a new world fillvl with many and great opportunities. That they will set themselves resolutely to achieve to the full the glorious barrest of tbeir great heritage I for one do do* doubt"