A Sovereign Lady.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13650, 18 July 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Sovereign Lady.

MEMORIES OF QUEEN VICTORIA. On May 20th last, Sir Theodore Martin published his "Memories of Queen Victoria." The following review is taken from the London "Daily Chronicle": "Put on your hat, 1 ' said Queen Victoria once, with peremptory playfulness, to Sir Theodore, Martin; "put on your hat or I wilLnob epeak to you—l know you suffer from neuralgia." ; That little anecdote illustrates tho interest of Sir Theodore Martin's volume — its picture of the Queen as a woman, its winning lights on her as a personality. Those who sit on thrones are in danger of being so viewed, apart from that "one touch ot nature" which unites us all, and it is their loss. But high as she sat among the world's counsellors, Queen Victoria sat still higher in the hearts of her people, especially as her life and reign lengthened into their golden autumn. Now we ore getting peeps behind that relationship and beginning to understand, in detail, the qualities in the Queen on which it was based. The three volumes of her "Letters." which Mr John Murray published lasfc-autwnu: reflect her Queenship and herself, frouv her accession' in 1837 to 1861,' when Prince ''Albert died. It was the writing of the Life that brought Sir Theodore Mai-tin into the circle of the Queen's' friends, and the present pages give his memories and impressions'of her. The volume was issued privately a few years after her death, and to-day, with, the approval of the King, it k made public, which is good. SHY WITH STRANGERS.

Sir Theodore's first meeting' with Queen Victoria—at Windsor, in 'he winter of 1866—left a vivid impression on his mind. Here is part of 1 hat impression: " I her face I read at a- glance marked traces of the great sorrow she had undergone. Serene and full of quiet dignitv as it was, I seemed to perceive in the Queen's bearing combining of that nervousness, almost accounting to shyness, which, as I came to know afterwards, her Majesty always seamed to feel in first meeting a stranger—a shyness so little to be expected in a Sovereign who had pone through so many exciting scenes, and had known nearly all the most distinguished men in -Europe." Four years following the death of her husband, the Queen appeared less in public than, as some .commentators thought, the duties of Jit-r station demanded. Her letters to Sir Theodore Martin show that these criticisms hurt her deeply. In •Jauuary, 1868, she wrote exclaiming what kept her " secluded to a certain extent," namely :' her overwhelming work and her health, which is greatly shaken by her sorrow, and the totally overwhelming amount of work and .responsibility—work which t-ue feels really wears her out. From the hour ehc gets out of bed till the hour she gets into it again there is work, work, work—letter-boxeKi questions, eic. which are dreadfully exhausting—and if she had not comparative rest and quiet in the evening, she would most likely not be alive. Her brain i*i constantly overtaxed. Could ths truth not be openly put before people r So much has been told them, they should know fdiis very important fact, for some day she may quite break down. "CRUELLY MISUNDERSTOOD." " Complaints ceased for a .tirnej" as .Sir Theodore notes, but they were renewed, and, -writing to him after a serious illness which she had" in 1871, the Qiieen said:

"The unjust attacks tin's year, the great worry and anxiety and hard work for ton years, alone, unaided, with increasing age and never very strong health, broke the Queen down, and almost drove her to despair. The result has been the very, very serious illness—the severest, except one (a typhoid fever iu 1835), she ever had—and more suffering than she has ever endured in her life. Now (hat people are frightened and kind, the Queen will be kindly treated in future; but it is very hard! that it was necessary she should have the severe illness and great suffering,, which has left her very weak, to make people feel for . and -understand her :.

She:added, and her remarks are only one more evidence of her attachment to Scotland and her Highland home there: " The sympathy in dear Scotland has been great, and their Press was the first to raise their voice in defence, of a cruelly rnisnnderstood woman.."

"After this," says Sir Theodore, "her Majesty had no reason to .complain, thatshe was '.cruelly, misunderstood' by any section of her people." The wedded life of the Queen and Prince Consort is a love idyll known to all, but lo that romance Sir Theodore also has additions to make—delightful additions. " 1 never." she wrote incidentally in some letter, " bought a-dress or.-bonnet without consulting, him, and his taste was always good. She. rejoiced in this loving overlordship, this looking up to her husband, and when he said of a frock or a bonnet, "That you shall not wear," she was happy to—well, obey. It was the woman following her heart, and as to that we get' a, piquant anecdote from Sir Theodore Martin :

"In ber anxiety to throw light ' for me upon the Prince's character, she sent mo a'copy of a letter (July 13, 1848) in which he rebuked her; tenderly but firmly, for writing to him when lie had gone from home on n public occasion, in what she calls ■'» very discreditable; lit of pettishness. which she was humiliated to have to own,' to the effect that he could do without her, and did nob take her miniature with him. In her letter to me she says she would not have written no "she did had she not been spoilt by his never really leaving her. . 'the Prince's reply is too sacred to quote in lull, but what wife's heart would not leap witdi joy to read the concluding worde ?" They werei in German, and Sir Theodore translates them: :

" Thy dear image I beay within me, and what miniature can coin© up to that? Ku need to place one on my table to remind me of you." .."■/' NEW TO A THRONE:

There is a winning ingenuousness, typical, Sir Theodore says, of tilie 'Queen,' in a not©, which she wrote him explaining why she could'not send, for the purpose of the Prince Consort's biography, her letters during .the lirst years .after her accession. it . i>i i« ' he third person, likemosti of heiv/.comai.unjcatipiis: ," The Queen's; own ieiters.. bctiveen 1837 and 1840. are : indeed, rather:: pajilf'ur,''to; hejfself;■ ■ It was the time iu dier -whole life,iknd;:she4 M » u •destroy: a-great- many: /^Thatlife-of -constant amusement, ilatteiy,. e'xcitejnetit,,' andhieie politiui;had >jt bad'veffect .-(as;:it must diaw . upon; any : ou;.her. : naturally siiuulu. iiiid s«rious.= '-naCiii)e.;> /But alt changed mi aB4O '-.'(witlh Ihßr^narriage).'^ ; How many.> of .-; usroAuhoV v d\Velt .jou ■> the plains, • nob p;:on^:the".heights, •;would; be o ''^^^ l ?'' so ■ wisely f-'i ' : Strong' ; coiimbn-£«nse, • Sir

Theodore- .Martin declares, was the dominant .quality in Queen Victoria's eharacter. "She took things as they came, as she knew they must bo"—so she'-.re-called to him her feelings when she; : knew she had to fa.ee the ceremonial of her Coronation, and, he adds, " is was so with her through life." Of her " a.cute .arid characteristic- remarks"—her obiter dicta —Sir Theodore gives us notable examples, and three may ba quoted : " The wisest and best people are sadly weak and foolish about Great Marriages. The Queen cannot comprehend it. "What worth, what talent, what real greatmss exist, unknown and uniniagined, though not by the Great Judge? of' all men!"

In speaking to me about Georgo. Eliot's " Middicmarcu" she remarked:. "After all, fine as it is, it is a disappointing book; all lh« people are failures"— meaning not in the way they were drawn, but in the issues of their lives, as in truth ther are."

In is a gleam on the fineness, of her character and the trials and difficulties of her great station to read, " Oh, nobody can tell of what value it is to me to bear the truth." She was frank, forthright herself as witness what she wrote to Sir Theodore about the Woman's Righto outcry of the Seventies: '

'•The Queen is most anxious to enlist eVcry one who can speak or Mrit-e to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Woman's Rights,' with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sens© of womanlv feeling and propnet y. Lady ought, to get a good whipping." ° •

Who was Lady ? And what do .tie Suffragists think of that? We see in -Sir Theodore Martin's book something of the Queen's attitude Jowards, Gladstone; and Beaconsfield. the laiter a 'favourite with her, the . former scerccly a favourite. Says Sir Theodore, no doubt a good Tory himself: . "lb© Queen's distrust of Mr. GladstbmV —not her 'predijudice' against ,him—wo« ; of a much earlier date than; his first Premiership. It was deeply seated, and ; i<St reasons that grew more and more -serious as the years rolled on." '. '. • A trifle cryptic and vague is it Perhaps it means no more than the>mee'i>-' ing on political affairs of two' strong" characters, both of whom liked to have their way. ~ ■ ■- -. • '.-' TWO ON A TOWER. ,:. • " With him the Queen's wish in such matteis was paramount," says SirTlieo"dore Martin about Beaconstield, and tlie granting- of a Civil Service pension t){> somebody. May: tlie remark not help us to understand the relative positions of 'Dizzy' and the G. O. M. witri the Queen As to the former, says Sir Tiie6dore: ..-.._■.'. , ■; " Among the otfher qualities for which; she admired him were the constancy of' his devotion to Lady- Beacoiisfield, :and* the honour .which he paid to her memory upon her deah. 'How touching'' she writes to me (December 26; 1872), : ■•■ is the account of Lady Beaconsfield's funeral I He is a veiy fine example to set before us in these days- of want of affection and devotion, and of- belief in what is true, unselfish and chivalrous'." ■'; v ' Apart from any personal clement, ■■'it was natural, inevitable, if you like;necessary and wise, that the Queen should >b£ conservative in outlook. When . Gladstone ,s Ministry fell in 1874 ,she ■ wrote to Sir Theodore Martin: " The result of the elections is astounding. Wha*! an important turn the elections have taken! It shows that the country is not Radical. What a triumph, too, Mr. Disraeli has obtained,, arid what a good sign this large Conservative majority is of the state of the country,; which really required {as foremerly) a s.rong Conservative party." ■■.'■'' ' A last story, and it concents the Emperor Frederick of Germany and his wife, Gueen Victoria's gifted eldest, daughter. ■Sir Theodore made their abquaintjance>*t Windsor, and - '. '"

"Do you know," he Eaid to me, "what Ivor father ■said of .her?" "Oh Frit'*;"' the Princess broke in, anticipating what hewas going toj tell me, ' you Rhoiilcl.'.' not; speak of such a thing." "I will speak 4 of. it," he continued, looking at eyes of. affectionate pride. I not? Iti is only the truth. The Prince Con.sort said, 'She- has the liear£ o{: a child, the brain of a man I'" No courtier's. book merely is th'sj. but one -written with insight and candour, as also with reverence—a book of yaluable personal chronicle. and illuminating .comment. '".''