that the times were not very propitious for asking even the most just and
reasonable Parliamentary grants. The usual recurring sufferings from
insufficient harvests and from stagnation of trade were depressing the mind
of the country. Parliament was called on to act on the occasion of the
Queen's marriage, and the House was not only divided into two hostile
parties, the hostility had been envenomed by recent _contretemps_,
notably that which prevented Sir Robert Peel and the Tories from taking
office and kept in the Whig Government. The unpalatable fruits of the
embroilment had to be eaten and digested at the present crisis. Accordingly
there were carping faultfinding, and resistance--even defeat--on every
measure concerning the Prince brought before the Lords and Commons.

The accusation of disloyal retaliation was made against the Tories. On the
other hand the Whigs in power showed such a defiant attitude, in the
absence of any attempt to conciliate their antagonists, even when the
welfare of the Government's motions, and the interests and feelings of the
Queen and the Prince demanded the first consideration, that Lord
Melbourne's party were suspected of a crafty determination to let matters
take their course for the express purpose of prejudicing Prince Albert
against the Tories, and alienating him from them in the very beginning.

Lord Melbourne at least did not deserve this accusation. Whatever share he
had in the injudicious attitude of the Government, or in the blunders it
committed, must be attributed to the sort of high-handed carelessness which
distinguished the man. His singular fairness in the business is thus
recorded by Baron Stockmar. "As I was leaving the Palace, I met Melbourne
on the staircase. He took me aside and used the following remarkable and
true words, strongly characteristic of his great impartiality: 'The Prince
will doubtless be very much irritated against the Tories. But it is not the
Tories alone whom the Prince has to thank for the curtailment of his