period, in order that you may be apprised of a matter so highly important
to me and to my kingdom, and which, I persuade myself, will be most
acceptable to all my loving subjects."

The Queen returned to Windsor with the Duchess of Kent the same evening.

On the 16th of January, 1840, the Queen opened Parliament in person, and
made a similar statement. "Since you were last assembled I have declared my
intention of allying myself in marriage with the Prince Albert of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. I humbly implore that the Divine blessing may
prosper this union, and render it conducive to the interests of my people
as well as to my own domestic happiness, and it will be to me a source of
the most lively satisfaction to find the resolution I have taken approved
by my Parliament. The constant proofs which I have received of your
attachment to my person and family persuade me that you will enable me to
provide for such an establishment as may appear suitable to the rank of the
Prince and the dignity of the Crown."

To see and hear the young Queen, still only in her twenty-first year, when
she went to tell her people of her purpose, multitudes lined the streets
and cheered her on her way that wintry day, and every seat in the House
"was filled with the noblest and fairest of the land" ready to give her
quieter but not less heartfelt support. It is no mere courtly compliment to
say that Queen Victoria's marriage afforded the greatest satisfaction to
the nation at large. Not only was it a very desirable measure on political
grounds, but it appealed to the far deeper and wider feelings of humanity.
It had that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin. Sir Robert
Peel's words, when he claimed the right of the Opposition to join with the
Government in its felicitations to both sovereign and country, were not
required to convince the people that their Queen was not only making a