During 1848 and the following year there was much in the state of public affairs, at home and abroad, to occupy the attention of the Queen and the Prince Consort, but they were anxiously considering the plans for the future education of the Prince of Wales. In May 1848 negociations had been opened with Mr. Birch, who had been highly recommended as tutor. In the spring of 1849 the appointment was made, and Prince Albert, in a letter to the Dowager Duchess of Gotha, dated Windsor Castle, 10th April, thus wrote, "The children grow more than well. Bertie will be given over in a few weeks into the hands of a tutor, whom we have found in Mr. Birch, a young, good-looking, amiable man, who was a tutor at Eton, and who not only himself took the highest honours at Cambridge, but whose pupils have won especial distinction. It is an important step, and God's blessing be upon it, for upon the good education of Princes, and especially of those who are destined to govern, the welfare of the world in these days very greatly depends." Of the course and conduct of the studies of the Prince, under Mr. Birch, from 1849-1851, and under his successor, Mr. Gibbs, from 1851-1858, it is not necessary to speak. His other teachers were efficient in their departments, such as Mr. Corbould, who taught drawing to all the Royal children; and M. Brasseur, the French teacher, to whom the Prince paid a visit when in Paris in 1888. As in the earlier years, so when he was under tutors, the real education for public life was less in study than in the companionship and the example of his parents. A man of wide knowledge and of varied accomplishments like the Prince Consort had higher views of education than mere scholastic routine. He took his son to all places where a love of arts and sciences might be encouraged and fostered, and hence the Prince obtained knowledge and acquired tastes not universal among young Englishmen, in times before the subjects of academic training and honours had been enlarged, mainly through the influence of the Prince Consort, as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. From his father also he inherited the taste for music which has been since turned to national benefit. But above all, he was often taken to meetings and festivals connected with charitable institutions, a Princely duty in which the son has been proud to follow the example of his lamented father.