creations as it were, of their domestic love, and inwrought with their own
personalities, as statelier Windsor could never be. In the Swiss cottage
at Osborne, with its museum, kitchen, storeroom, and little gardens, the
young people learned to do household work and understand the management of
a small establishment. The parents were invited as guests, to enjoy the
dishes which the princesses had prepared with their own hands, and there
each child was free to follow the bent of its own industrial inclination.
In the Highlands, again, among the reserved and dignified Scottish
peasantry, the children were encouraged to visit freely, to make
themselves acquainted with the wants and feelings of the poor, and to
regard them with an understanding sympathy and affection.

Sir Robert Peel, who succeeded Lord Melbourne in 1841 as prime-minister,
had the following advice from his predecessor as to his conduct in office,
which shows the Queen's good sense: 'Whenever he does anything, or has
anything to propose, let him explain to her clearly his reasons. The Queen
is not conceited; she is aware there are many things she cannot
understand, and she likes to have them explained to her elementarily, not
at length and in detail, but shortly and clearly.

One of the minor posts in the new ministry was filled by a young member of
parliament, who was destined in after-years to become as celebrated as
Peel himself. This was the distinguished scholar and orator, William Ewart
Gladstone, the son of Sir John Gladstone, a Scotch merchant who had
settled in Liverpool. He was already a power in parliament, and every year
after this saw him rising into greater prominence.

In the new parliament, too, though not in the ministry, was another
member, who afterwards rose to high office, and became very famous. This
was Benjamin Disraeli, son of Disraeli the elder, a distinguished literary