Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhoodGreenwood, Grace
History
Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood
Greenwood, Grace
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
"She is as round as a little barrel"; of whom the mother wrote: "Pussy's
cheeks are on the point of bursting, they have grown so red and plump."
After the domestic reforms in the Palace, no such adventure could have
happened to a guest as that recorded by M. Guizot, who having been unable
to summon a servant to conduct him to his room at night, wandered about
the halls like poor Mr. Pickwick at the inn, and actually blundered into
Her Majesty's own dressing-room. The boy Jones, too, had had his day.
At the very time of the "intrusions" into Buckingham Palace, there was in
London another young man, with a "mania for Palace-breaking," of a
somewhat different sort. He, too, was "without visible means of support,"
but nobody called him a vagabond, or a burglar, but only an adventurer,
or a "pretender." He had his eye particularly on Royal Windsor, and once
a cruel hoax was played off upon him, in the shape of a forged invitation
to one of the Queen's grand entertainments at the Castle. He got himself
up in Court costume, with the aid of a friend, and went, to be told by
the royal porter that his name was not down on the list, and afterwards
by a higher officer of the household that really there must be some
mistake, for Her Majesty had not the honor of knowing him, so could not
receive him. We shall see how it was when he came again, nine or ten
years later.
But after all, the French royal palaces were more to this young man's
taste, for he was French. He longed to break into the Tuileries--not to
hide behind, or under any furniture, but to sit on the grandest piece of
furniture there. He had a strange longing for St. Cloud, and
Fontainebleau, and even stately Versailles. Said of him one English
statesman to another, "Did you ever know such a fool as that fellow is?
Why, he really believes he will yet be Emperor of France."
That "fellow" was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
In August of this year, the Whig Ministry finding themselves a minority
in the new Parliament, resigned, and a Conservative one was formed, with
Sir Robert Peel as Premier. It came hard for the Queen to part with her
favorite Minister and faithful friend, Lord Melbourne, but she soon
became reconciled to his Tory successor, and things went on very
harmoniously. The benign influence and prudent counsels of Prince Albert,
with some lessons of experience, and much study of her constitutional
restrictions, as well as obligations, had greatly modified Her Majesty's
strong partisan prejudices, and any proclivities she may have had toward
personal and irresponsible government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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