MR GUEDALLA'S NEW STUDY

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 15

MR GUEDALLA'S NEW STUDY

—-o MIGHTY OPPOSITES The Queen and Mr Gladstone: Volume I. By Philip Guedalla. Hodder and Stoughton. 457 pp. (25s net.) From IV. S. Smart, [Reviev.-ccl by BUBY JMN'DLAY.] The first feeling aroused by reading this book must be one of pleased anticipation that there is a second volume to follow it. Mr Guedalla, in true serial form, has divided his subject at the point of greatest interest. That is to say, the second volume will open with Gladstone's return to office in 1380, after Disraeli had served the Queen with such remarkable success for six

years. This volume deals with the correspondence which took place between the Queen and Gladstone between the years 1845 and 1874. . These were the years of harmony between them. When Gladstone retired in 1874 their friendship was wearing thin ; the Queen was beginning to disapprove of him and was ready to be pleased with Mr Disraeli. The causes of this disapproval are suggested in the commentary, and the course of the relationship can be traced by the correspondence. Mr Guedalla's large public will be pleased that he has not finished with the Victorian period ; for whatever diversity of opinion may exist about his manner of treatment, there can be no doubt that he is perfectly at home with his subject and can carry his mind back a hundred years with an ease which only comes after most diligent and loving enquiry. Hitherto, his fault has been the modern one of too great dramatisation of his characters, due, perhaps, to a very fluent pen and a desire to make those characters as real and alive to his readers as they are to himself. He has, this time, entirely changed his methods of showmanship. In presenting Victoria and her greatest Prime Minister, Mr Guedalla has been most modest and retiring, and for four-fifths of his book is present only in foot-notes, allowing the two indefatigable correspondents to write for themselves.

The Queen's Candid Pen. The historical background provided for these letters by a short introduction is admirably filled in, and with quieter tones than Mr Guedalla usually employs. Any delineation of the Queen's character which has regard to her writings must of necessity be fairly correct; for,-. just as she was careful that the head on the coinage should not. give her people a false idea of the Royal profile, so she has drawn in her enormous correspondence and diaries a portrait of her character and opinions which, for frankness, equals the unwitting self-revelations of Pepys and Bos well. Mr Gladstone is not so easily interpreted. The development which transformed the author of "Church and State" into the author of the "Bulgarian Horrors'' is more difficult to follow and understand than the transformation of Creevy's Victoria into Mr Strachey's. Though impatient of formulae, Mr Guedalla is tempted here to borrow a formula to explain this complexity of character. Someone lias described Gladstone as an Italian in the custody of a Scotsman ; and Mr Guedalla has used this description to explain how the "solid, serious, | silent-minded man" of Carlyle conI tained materia] for the making of I " The People's William."'

The Rising; Star. The correspondence which forms the greater part of this volume contains over 500 documents hitherto unpublished. Most of them passed between the Queen and Gladstone, j and all are chosen with a view to showing their relationship and how it changed as their views on politics diverged. The letters begin in 1845, when the young Colonial Secretary presented his humble duty for the first time, suggesting Lord FitzroySomerset as Governor-General of Canada, subject to Her Majesty's gracious approval of the choice. Her Majesty's gracious approval was bestowed upon this and other suggestions during the ensuing year; and fortune seemed to favour the young man, for when he dined and spent the evening at Windsor, having left his purse at home he did not lose at the unexpected game of cards but won eightpence from Prince Albert. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1852-5 and again 1859-61, Gladstone seemed to find favour both with the Queen and with Prince Albert. He reassured her upon some proposed changes in the elections of civil servants, and exchanged books and articles with the Prince, who was pleased to nominate him to a vacancy among the Elder Brothers of Trinity House. Then the blow fell which was to change the Queen's life utterly and make her public and social duties a burden to her. The Prince Consort, " that adored and perfect Being who was and is her All, but without whom life is utter darkm "," died in December. There is no doubt that Gladstone felt for her deeply. He touched on her sorrow, in his speech at Manchester, with such sympathy and tact as to draw from her a letter of grateful thanks. It begins : " The Queen wishes, from the depth of a heart which bleeds more and more, to tell Mr Gladstone that his speech touched and gratified her much." But even in this letter there are foreshadowed those difficulties which faced him when, six years later, he became her Prime Minister. Sad Isolation. From the time of her husband's death that distaste for her social and public duties, which made the conduct of her business so difficult to her Ministers, grew upon her : The Queen struggles and works—and will devote herself to do what her precious Husband wishes—and desired —and thus to do her duty to the last hour of her life—but her faithful servants and kind friends must not deceive themselves by thinking that her efforts will carry her on :—for the constant longing and pining, the void and suffering to never leave her night and day—accompanied by the great amount of work and responsibility which weighs alone upon her is telling very visibly upon her health and strength ; she "gets much weaker—her health worse, and her nerves terribly shattered. She was pleased by Gladstone's reply to this, which " does her aching heart good" ; and for the remaining lour years of his office her tone to him was kind and approving; so that when she sent for him in 18GG 1o form a Government, he was quite

confident of being able to please her. i Dean Wellesley, who had ample] means of observing the Queen's reactions to public events, wrote him a helpful letter telling him to expect Her Majesty to differ from him on the subjects of disestablishment and the Foreign Office. He added some hints on general demeanour : Everything depends on your manner of approaching the Queen. Her nervous susceptibility has much increased since you had to do with ner before and you cannot show too mucn. regard, gentleness, I might say even tenderness, towards her. Where you differ it will be best not at first to try and reason her over to your side, but pass the matte:- lightly over with expression of respectful regret, and reserve it—for there is no one with whom more is gained by getting her into the habit of intercourse with you. First Stresses.

Gladstone knew then what his difficulties with the Queen would be and was ready for them. Unfortunately for her Ministers, her happiest memories were associated with Osborne and Balmoral; and, supported by her physician, Sir William Jenner, whose favourite prescription for all ills was the unquestionable one of rest and quiet, she made a habit of retreating to Scotland or the Isle of Wight, regardless of what business had to be transacted between herself and her Ministers. She yielded to Gladstone's firm insistence that she should remain in London during the passing of the Irish Church'Bill in 1869, when she contemplated retreating to Osborne ; but when, in 1871, her annual holiday to Balmoral threatened to be postponed by a prolonged sitting of the House, she was firm in her refusal to be delayed : " The Queen will not remain where she is, worked and worried and worn, if she is to become the servant of Parliament and to be responsible to them for all she does." So she went North and Gladstone was bitterly disappointed. He wrote to Ponsonbv • "We have done all we can. She will decide. Of course, if challenged, I shall take the responsibility, but this shield will not wear very long."

Two Problems. In the following years two difl'i-j cutties presented themselves con-1 stantlv to the Government, the en- j forced idleness of the Prince <■ \ Wales and the ever-growing clis- j content in Ireland. Although her j social duties were so distasteful to j the Queen, she was unwilling tc ! delegate any of these to her son. - Towards the Irish tenantry she was , definitely unsympathetic. Glad-1 stone, for some time worried by Ihoj Irish question, thought he saw a solution which might cover both these difficulties. An offer had been made of a Royal Residence is; Dublin, to be occupied during part of each year by a member of the Roval Family. Why not send the Prince of Wales to Dublin, there to practise such arts of diplomacv and government as would fit him for his future career? Gladstone was fond of his scheme and insisted on it through several pleading letters; but the Queen was obdurate. She never liked the Prince to visit Ireland. His weakness was for racing ; and where better could a man go to pursue this pastime? Any employment would be welcome which would necessitate the Prince's absence from the London season ; but she was sure that if this scheme were consented to, lie would choose another time of the year for residence in Dublin and return to London for the early summer. Her directions to Gladstone with regard to his reply 1o the offer were short and very expressive :

The object lof his letter I should be to show the Queen's sense of the liberality of Mr Lat.niche's oiler and to mark the interest she lakes in the welfare of Ireland, without committing' her in way to any particular manner of showing it.

Thus thev began to drift apart. Mr Gladstone began to be importunate, the Queen to resent his importunities. It must have been a relief to both to dissolve their partnership when, in 1874, she received in his place that perfect knight, Mr Disraeli. This is as far as the first volume takes us, an exciting place to pause. For the next six years, under the careful flattery of Disraeli, the Queen was to develop her taste for government and her belief m monarchy, while Mr Gladstone was to go up and down the country declaiming against the Government, with a solution of the Irish question growing bigger and bigger in his head. Only six years, and he was to return to Westminster at the head of a great Liberal majority. As Mr Guedalla remarks: "What would the Queen do now?"