During August the Queen was much troubled as to the issue of the political crisis arising out of the Reform Bill debates, and the threatened conflict between the democracy and the House of Lords. She earnestly deprecated an attack on the Peers during the Recess, and Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues paid due deference to her opinions. She sent twice for Lord Rowton--better known, when Mr. Disraeli’s private secretary, as Mr. Montagu Corry--whom she regarded as the inheritor of Lord Beaconsfield’s ideas, to consult him on the situation. She made it clear to him that she was unwilling to use her Prerogative for the purpose of creating new Peers to force the Reform Bill through the Upper House. From this it was inferred that if the House of Lords resisted to the bitter end, the Queen would prefer to coerce them by a dissolution rather than by Prerogative. Lord Wolseley and Lord Northbrook were also summoned about this time to consult with her on the prospects of a campaign in Egypt. These anxious conferences were held after she had received the Abyssinian Envoys on the 20th of August. They had come to England bearing copies of a Treaty which had been concluded at Adowah with King John of Abyssinia. They were received by the Queen at Osborne, and at their audience they presented her Majesty with letters from King John and with various gifts, among which were a young elephant and a large monkey. Ere the Court left Osborne the Queen surprised the country by announcing her decision to confer the Order of the Garter on Prince George of Wales, for there was no precedent for giving the Garter to a junior member of the Royal Family in his minority. When the Queen came to the Throne there were only four Royal Knights of this Order, and pedants of heraldry now complained that there were twenty-eight, and that the Royal Knights outnumbered the ordinary ones. On the 1st of September the Court proceeded to Balmoral, the Queen being accompanied by the Crown Princess and Princess Beatrice. The arrival of the Court at Balmoral, and the visit of Mr. Gladstone to Invercauld, had filled Braemar to overflowing. On the 18th of September the Queen held a Council at [Illustration: THE QUEEN RECEIVING THE ABYSSINIAN ENVOYS AT OSBORNE.]