During the Session of 1878 only one matter personally affecting the interests of the Queen came up for discussion. On the 25th she sent to both Houses a Message announcing the approaching marriage of the Duke of Connaught with the Princess Louise, third daughter of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, the celebrated cavalry leader, popularly known as “The Red Prince.” He was a man of large private fortune, and his daughter was described by Lord Beaconsfield as “distinguished for her intelligence and accomplishments, and her winning simplicity of thought and manner.” As for the Duke of Connaught, Lord Napier of Magdala bore testimony to his efficiency as a soldier. In the House of Commons an addition of £10,000 a year was voted to the Duke’s income, thus raising it to £25,000, of which £6,000 a year was to be settled on his wife in the event of her surviving him. The vote was passed without a division, the only protest made coming from Sir Charles Dilke, who asserted that no good precedent could be cited for such a provision for a Prince, when it was not manifestly a provision for succession to the Crown. The only great public function of the year in which the Queen took part [Illustration: THE QUEEN REVIEWING THE FLEET AT SPITHEAD.] was the Review of the Fleet at Spithead on the 13th of August. The spectacle was marred by the storm of wind and rain, which too often spoils naval reviews, but it was one which had a special interest. It was designed to show the country what kind of naval defence could be organised on short notice, amidst rumours of war, when the Channel Fleet was absent in foreign waters. It represented a naval force which, but for its ordnance which was utterly obsolete and inefficient, would have been equal in strength to the navy of any of the Continental Powers, and the Queen saw for the first time the manœuvring of two malevolent-looking little torpedo boats, which astonished her by dashing about in all directions at the rate of twenty-one knots an hour. At noon the ships were dressed. At half-past three the Royal Yacht with the Queen on deck passed down the lines. Salutes were fired, and yards manned, and her Majesty, accompanied by the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Beatrice, and the Lords of the Admiralty, was enthusiastically cheered. When the Queen’s vessel emerged from the lines it was followed by a gay flotilla of yachts. Those that were sailing craft luffed their wind and, headed by Mr. Brassey’s _Sunbeam_, went round by starboard, the steamers going round by port, and with the Royal Yacht in the centre the brilliant pleasure fleet came back with the Squadron. All evolutions were countermanded on account of the weather, but at night the Fleet was illuminated.