QUEEN VICTORIA

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11382, 6 December 1930, Page 9

QUEEN VICTORIA

- ■ ri*— FURTHER letters

CANDID. OPINIONS ON THE i KAISER. •

The Londbri publishing firm of'John Murray .has ..published a further, volume of Queen Victoria’s ■ letters, edited by ' Mrj G. E. ’ Buckle, : covering the period from’ 1886 to 1900.’ ■ ‘ .The' letters .make" even more .pifluaint revelations -of . Queen -Victoria.’s prejudices than the two earlier Volumes. Her- intense dislike of ' Mr. Gladstone, ,apd. ljqr, affection for . Lord Salisbury" are, prominent impressions. She' describes ‘Mr’ Randolph Obufchill as “mad and [odd.’',' ' * .The'.ex-Kaiser was”,constantly upsetting Queen : Victoria: -After, am incident, ' iii - which there 'were differences between the Efnper'or and Edward, Prjnco "of ■' Wales,. the . Queen wrote : “Wo have always been very intimate with' my grandson ; hut. to pretend that he’is ‘to he treated in private as well as in public as His Imperial Ma-jesty-is madness. He must-be-made to’feel that his mother 'and his uncle won’t stand that insolence.”

“Sickening, .indecent, .mad, unhealthy, unfeeling, unnatural,, hotheaded, conceited, wrong-headed” are among the epithets the Queen applied to the Kaiser’s conduct. When - Lord Salisbury exchanged Heligoland for an area in East Africa, ’ the Queen wrote, “That any of my possessions should .thus be.bartered away causes me tho greatest uneasiness.” She 'insisted that.:there should Be no repetition. : .A question once arose concerning divorced persons at . Court, and the Queen- agreed with Lord Salisbury that, men divorced for misconduct should have no social recognition. “Society is too bad now,” -she said. “Some stop must be put to it.” The' Queen once told Lord Salisbury that if Gladstone came' into office she would i refuse; objectionable people.-On this matter she wrote:.. “Sir Charles Dilke I would never accept on account of his , dreadful private character. Lord Salisbury, advises me not to refuse Chamberlain, for it would make him a martyr—nor Morley, a clever but extreme man.”.

: An entry in. the Queen’s journal records a surprising conversation with Gladstone on the subject of education. The. Queen had alluded to, it “being carried too far,” and Gladstone agreed that it ruined the health of the higher classes and rendered the working classes unfitted to he good servants and laborers.

The Queen took an intense interest in Jack the Ripper’s crimes, putting forward ideas about the murders. Regarding the reprieve in the Maybrick poisoning case, she wrote: “Ihe only regret I feel about the decision is that so wicked a woman should escape by a mere legal-quibble.”