[Illustration: _Sir D. Wilkie, R.A._} {_From the Royal Collection._ HER MAJESTY'S FIRST COUNCIL, AT KENSINGTON PALACE, June 20, 1837.] [Illustration: 1. HER MAJESTY. 2. Duke of Argyll, Lord Steward. 3. Earl of Albemarle, Master of the Horse. 4. The Right Honourable G. Byng, Comptroller. 5. C. C. Greville, Esq., Clerk of the Council. 6. Marquess of Anglesea. 7. Marquess of Lansdowne, President of the Council. 8. Lord Cottenham, Lord High Chancellor. 9. Lord Howick, Secretary at War. 10. Lord John Russell, Secretary of State for the Home Department. 11. The Right Honourable T. Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Exchequer. 12. Viscount Melbourne, First Lord of the Treasury. 13. Lord Palmerston, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 14. The Right Honourable J. Abercrombey, Speaker of the House of Commons. 15. Earl Grey. 16. The Earl of Carlisle. 17. Lord Denman, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench. 18. The Right Honourable F. Erskine, Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court. 19. Lord Morpeth, Chief Secretary for Ireland. 20. The Earl of Aberdeen. 21. Lord Lyndhurst. 22. The Archbishop of Canterbury. 23. His Majesty the King of Hanover. 24. The Duke of Wellington. 25. The Earl of Jersey. 26. The Right Honourable J. W. Croker. 27. The Right Honourable Sir R. Peel, Bart. 28. H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex. 29. Lord Holland, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 30. Sir J. Campbell, Her Majesty's Attorney-General. 31. Marquess of Salisbury. 32. Lord Burghersh. 33. The Right Honourable T. Kelly, Lord Mayor of London. Of all the illustrious personages here represented, Her Majesty is now the sole survivor.] [Sidenote: Her early training.] For the seclusion in which the Princess Victoria had been brought up, sufficient cause will be apparent to those who have studied the domestic annals of the Court during the reigns of her uncles George IV. and William IV., which were, in truth, in accord with the worst traditions of Royalty. The Duke of Kent had died shortly after the birth of his daughter, and his widow, over-anxious, perhaps, to screen the young life from contagion of evil, sought to protect the Princess Victoria by a training which, in most modern families, would be regarded as unnecessarily severe. But deep-rooted custom requires drastic treatment to remove it. On weak or light natures such discipline is too often seen to work disastrous reaction; happily, the young Queen was inspired by an intellect of such fibre, and a spirit of such temper, that she responded to her early training by establishing and maintaining in her Court such a high moral ideal as has never been known since the days of the mythical Round Table. [Illustration: KENSINGTON PALACE.