CHAPTER VI. 1849-1851. Prince Albert's Industry--His proposal for a Great Exhibition--Adoption of the Scheme--Competing Designs--Mr. Paxton's selected--Erection of the Crystal Palace--Colonel Sibthorp denounces the Scheme--Papal Titles in Great Britain--Popular Indignation--The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill--Defeat of Ministers on the Question of the Franchise--Difficulty in finding a Successor to Russell--He resumes Office--Opening of the Great Exhibition--Its success and close. [Sidenote: Prince Albert's Industry.] Reference has been made already to the wise restraint which Prince Albert imposed upon himself in respect to politics and legislation; but those would greatly misinterpret the motives and impulses of that active intellect who should attribute this reserve either to apathy or constitutional indolence. Prince Albert did not admit that, because he was withheld by recent developments of representative government from personal interference in legislation and diplomacy, it was the less incumbent upon him, as Consort of the Head of the State, to make himself thoroughly informed on all the leading political questions of the day, as well as on the special work of the public departments. Added to this was the active part he took in schemes of social and commercial improvement, and in scientific and artistic progress. An early riser at all times, it was his custom, summer and winter, to dispose of a couple of hours' work before breakfast, and it is no figure of speech to say that few of the Queen's subjects can have been more constantly or more laboriously employed than her husband. The Prince had lived down any popular prejudice which he had to encounter in the early years of his married life; people had come to understand and appreciate his abilities and disposition, and the time had come when his genius and industry were to bear remarkable fruit. [Illustration: _R. T. Pritchett, F.S.A._} {_By permission of J. F. Green, Esq._ THE FIRST STEAM LIFEBOAT, "DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND." Built in 1890; is propelled by a turbine, driven by powerful steam engines, and is capable of being steered by means of the jets of water from the turbine, even if the rudder is disabled. She is 50 feet long, 14 feet 4 inches extreme breadth, 3 feet 6 inches deep, and is built of steel in fifteen watertight compartments. She is stationed at New Brighton, Cheshire; a similar boat is at Harwich; and a third is now being built.] [Sidenote: His Proposal for a Great Exhibition.] [Sidenote: Adoption of the Scheme.]