Before the settlement of this burning question, her Majesty had, on the 6th of August, given birth to a second son at Windsor Castle. The Royal child was afterwards christened Alfred, but is better known to the present generation as the Duke of Edinburgh. Writing to King Leopold shortly after her confinement, the Queen said:--“The only thing, almost, to mar our happiness is the heavy and threatening cloud which hangs over our relations with France, and which, I assure you, distresses and alarms us sadly. The whole nation here are very angry.... God grant all may come right, and I am still of good cheer; but the French keep us constantly in hot water.” On the 27th of August her Majesty again wrote to the Belgian sovereign:--“The impending political cloud, I hope, looks less black and lowering. But I think it very unwise in Guizot not to have at once discovered D’Aubigny for what you yourself call an ‘outrage,’ instead of allowing it to drag on for four weeks, and letting our people get excited.” After the matter had been settled, the Queen remarked that they must try to prevent such difficulties in the future; [Illustration: THE MARBLE HALL, BUCKINGHAM PALACE. (_From a Photograph by H. N. King._)] but this, unfortunately, is impossible while nations are so apt to set up a false standard of honour in the place of justice. One of the pacific successes of the Peel Administration was the conclusion of the Ashburton Treaty with the Government of the United States. A good deal of mutual irritation had existed for several years, owing to the absence of a distinct and undisputed boundary between Canada and the State of Maine. The matter had at one time been referred to the arbitration of the King of the Netherlands; but neither party would accept his award. Sir Robert Peel, therefore, sent out a special negotiator in the person of Lord Ashburton, a member of the great commercial family of the Barings. The American representative was the Secretary of State, Mr. Webster--a man of the highest ability, both as an orator and a statesman; and, after much discussion, a treaty was signed at Washington on the 9th of August, 1842. The boundary thus established was said to give England a better military frontier than she had [Illustration: THE QUEEN AND THE REAPERS AT BLAIR CASTLE. (_See p. 171._)]