THE PRINCE'S INFLUENCE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12975, 30 November 1907, Page 7

THE PRINCE'S INFLUENCE.

I The way in which the Prince was intimately associated with all her thought and work as Sovereign is shown by this statement by the editors of the letters:— ! "The drafts, of the Queen's replies to ! letters are in many cases in the handwriting of the Prince Consort, but dated by herself, and often containing interlinear corrections and additions or her own. Whether the Queen indicated the lines of the replies, whether she dictated the substanco of them, or ■ whether they contain the result of a discussion on the particular matter cannot bo precisely ascertained. But they contain so many phrases and turns of expression which aro characteristic of her outspoken temperament thafc it is clear that she not only followed ever.' detail, but that the sub- ' rtance> of the communication bore in most cases the impress of her mind. A considerable number of drafts, again, ' are in her own hand, with interlinear corrections and additions by the j Prince; and these so strongly resemble in style the drafts in the handwriting of tho Prince that it is clear that ' the Queen did not merely accept suggestions, but that she had a strong opinion of her own on important matters, and that this opinion was duly, expressed." On December 14th, 1861, Prince Albert died, and we may quote, not tho ' J first paroxysm of grief that dictated ' the first letter she wrote to her uncle, King Leopold, but the calm and steady determination which breathes in tho heart-broken and miserable lines which , followed four days later to the same j kindly philosopher and friend. It ' stands out clearly in this book ""that the final greatest achievement of her Consort was this twenty-year-long education, and help for the long forty •years that were to elapse before Queen , Victoria joined her beloved dead. "My beloved "Uncle, — ... lam I anxious to repeat one thing, and that lone is my firm resolve, my irrevocable decision, viz., that his wishes, his plans ' about everything, his views about ! everything, are to be my law! And |no human power will make mo swerve ' from what he decided and wished, and I look to you to support and help mc jin this. I apply this particularly as ■ I regards our children —Bertie, etc. —for < whose future he had traced everything so carefully. I am also determined , that no one person, may he be ever so 1 good, ever so devoted among my servants, is to lead or guide or dictate to ! mc. I know how he would disapprove it. And I live on with him, for him; in fact, I am only outwardly separated from him, and only for a time."