those great departments of public utility which he has made so peculiarly his own, and that he would have hidden them contentedly under the cloak of a learned retirement.

A touching passage in one of his speeches shows, with the interest which he felt at once even for our most quaint and bygone institutions, the principle on which he abstained, in small things as in great, from all that could compromise the young and generous Sovereign at his side. This speech was uttered at a dinner at the Merchant Taylors' Company, when, thanking them for his admission as a freeman, the Prince added, I remember well with what regret, when, shortly after I came of age, the Companies of the Goldsmiths and Fishmongers offered me their freedom, I found myself compelled to decline this honour; being informed that, identified as they were by historical traditions with two opposite parties, and still representing these parties, I could make a choice only of one of them; and being fully sensible that, like the Sovereign to whom I had just been united, and to devote my whole existence to whom it had become my privilege, I could belong only to the nation at large-free from the trammels and above the dissensions of political parties.'

But if it was right and wise to forbear all exercise of personal influence, until convinced of its compatibility with that Dignity and that Pleasure which alone he studied, it was as difficult, most would have supposed, to know how to apply it within the limits of his position, when convinced that he might do so with propriety. And here the intellectual superiority of the mind at once asserts itself. As Raphael compelled the unfavouring spaces of the Farnesina to minister to the inspiration of some of his finest compositions, so it has ever been the test of true greatness to convert untoward conditions into occasions of the highest success. We find one chief clue to the Prince's unparalleled career in one of those pregnant sentences-we shall later quote it with its context-addressed to a large and cultivated assembly, which startled his hearers into the recognition of a new and remarkable individuality. Gentlemen, I conceive it to be the duty of every educated person closely to watch the time in which he lives, and, as far as in him lies, to add his humble mite of individual exertion for the accomplishment of what he conceives Providence to have ordained.' These are the words of a man, who, under the modest profession of studying his own time, was ever reaching forward to convictions far in advance of it; and who, while supposed to be denied the field of politics, quietly instructed the world in that truest science of the politician, which prevents evil by anticipating the coming need.

In a country where scarcely a day passes without examples of

the

the oratory of the most gifted and practised of her children, it was no small test of a Prince, foreign in birth and education, to enter the lists of public speaking, and measure himself against a standard no less peculiar to ourselves than high in mark. But here again the lofty tone of the mind, in all its parts, ensured his success. Casting aside all ambition of personal display, he sought simply and grandly to fathom the principles of whatever subject he had in hand, bringing to bear upon it a profoundness of thought and unstudied nobility of language, which, for all the national self-complacency, will ever remain the newest thing an English public can hear. And the truth was mighty and always prevailed, and the most eloquent of his hearers acknowledged that a new grace, beyond the reach of art, had been won in their own national accomplishment. The man who sees clearly, thinks correctly, reasons profoundly, and knows largely, has power over all subjects fitted for the human mind to investigate. Wonder therefore ceases as admiration and respect rise, as we view the varied topics over which this gifted individual showed equal

power.

These speeches have a further and incidental interest as the record of the characteristic Associations which have grown in this country during these last fastest and fullest years; marking nothing more strikingly than the decline of that sphere of party for which it was the Prince's gain, not loss, to be ineligible.

It may be observed that Prince Albert had, from an early period, been solicited to become the President of such philanthropic Societies as were supposed not to commit him on any political topics; a chary compliment which he turned in the end nobly against us.

The first occasion on which His Royal Highness took part in a public meeting was one which the 'Speeches' do not record. It was held on the 1st June, 1840, when, as President of the 'Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade,' he took the chair at Exeter Hall. Here he spoke a few words upon the object of the meeting, which, there is no reason to doubt, were in every sense his own; showing, as they do, a simplicity and fitness which link them naturally with his maturer expressions. But his extreme youth (he was then not twenty-one) caused little importance to be attached to this appearance. He was thought a great catch for a benevolent party, but the very allusions made in his presence to the necessity for banishing politics for that day, the merit claimed for the intention, and the obvious difficulty of adhering to it, betrayed the total absence of that larger spirit which was mainly to be fostered by that then little known youthful President. A second occasion, also unnoticed in the collection of 'Speeches,'

occurred

occurred on the 11th May, 1842, when Prince Albert filled the chair at the Anniversary Dinner of the Literary Fund Society, supported by the Duke of Cleveland and the Marquis of Lansdowne. Here, in addition to the necessary forms of proposing the Queen's health, and the prosperity of the Institution, he addressed the assembly in a short speech, expressing sentiments of appreciation for those who pursue the grand career of the cultivation of the human mind,'-taken for words of form at the time, but since recognised as words of earnest truth. Here the Prince listened to the voices of Moore and Campbell, probably for the first and last time.

It is possible that one so intelligent felt that, in presiding over such dinners for charitable purposes, he was only filling a place for which an Englishman of note would never be found wanting, and thus contributing no additional advantage to his adopted country; for this was the first and last time that we find him, as we now feel it, so inappropriately employed. Nor are we aware that he appeared on any public occasion requiring an address, until May 18, 1848, when he presided at a Meeting of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes.' The object of this Society is to build model houses for the dwellings of the Poor, to establish the field-garden and allotment system, and loan societies on sound principles. Here the lapse of time, which had converted him from a youth into a man, is perceived at once. His speech is a canon of true principles on that subject,-namely, how best to assist our poorer fellow creatures,-which history proves to have been the most puzzling in this world; while the pure philosophy on which he took his ground, emanated with startling force from royal lips:

'Depend upon it, the interests of classes too often contrasted are identical, and it is only ignorance which prevents their uniting for each other's advantage. To dispel that ignorance, to show how man can help man, notwithstanding the complicated state of civilized society, ought to be the aim of every philanthropic person; but it is more peculiarly the duty of those who, under the blessing of Divine Providence, enjoy station, wealth, and education.

'Let them be careful, however, to avoid any dictatorial interference with labour and employment, which frightens away capital, destroys that freedom of thought and independence of action which must remain to every one if he is to work out his own happiness, and impairs that confidence under which alone engagements for mutual benefit are possible.

'God has created man imperfect, and left him with many wants, as it were to stimulate each to individual exertion, and to make all feel that it is only by united exertions and combined action that these im

perfections

perfections can be supplied and these wants satisfied. This presupposes self-reliance and confidence in each other. To show the way how these individual exertions can be directed with the greatest benefit, and to foster that confidence upon which the readiness to assist each other depends, this Society deems its most sacred duty.

"There has been no ostentatious display of charity or munificence, nor the pretension of becoming the arbiter of the fate of thousands, but the quiet working out of particular schemes of social improvement; for which, however, as I said before, the Society has only established examples for the community at large to follow.'

The next occasion was the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, held at York, July 13, 1848. This Society, formerly called The Board of Agriculture,' had been dissolved a quarter of a century before, in consequence of such inveterate party feeling as frustrated its very object; whereupon it was reconstituted with a particular statute curiously forbidding 'reference to any matter to be brought forward or pending in either House of Parliament.' The Prince's attendance at the tenth annual Meeting further endorsed this veto. The admirable working of the farms at Balmoral, and of the model farm at Windsor, have proved to the world that the Prince was no mere theoretical tiller of the earth; so that his ever leading doctrine of Progress, so hard to dibble into the brains of the old-fashioned English farmer, comes with perfect justice from the man who had made his doctrine, even in this department, pay. Science and mechanical improvement,' he says, 'have in these days changed the mere practice of cultivating the soil into an industrial pursuit, requiring capital, industry, machinery, and skill and perseverance in the struggle of competition. This, while a great change, we must also consider as a great progress, as it demands higher efforts, and a higher intelligence.'

The laying the first stone of the Great Grimsby Docks follows, April 18, 1849, the Prince's presence being appropriately given for an object partaking both of a national and state character. Here the speech is the more interesting as exhibiting the view an intelligent foreigner would take of an occasion so purely English in character.

'We have been laying the foundation not only of a Dock as a place of refuge, safety, and refitment for mercantile shipping, and calculated even to receive the largest steamers in Her Majesty's Navy, but, it may be, and I hope it will be, the foundation of a great commercial Port, destined in after times-when we shall long have quitted this scene, and when our names even may be forgotten-to form another centre of life to the vast and ever-increasing commerce of the World, and an important link in the connection of the East and the West. Nay, if I contemplate the extraordinary rapidity of development which characterizes

characterizes the undertakings of this age, it may not even be too much to expect that some of us may live yet to see this prospect in part realized.

"This work has been undertaken, like almost all the national enterprises of this great country, by private exertion, with private capital, and at private risk; and it shares with them likewise that other feature so peculiar to the enterprises of Englishmen, that, strongly attached as they are to the institutions of their country, and gratefully acknowledging the protection of those laws under which their enterprises are undertaken and flourish, they love to connect them in some manner directly with the authority of the Crown and the person of their Sovereign; and it is the appreciation of this circumstance which has impelled me at once to respond to your call as the readiest mode of testifying to you how strongly Her Majesty the Queen values and reciprocates this feeling.'

The humane attention of His Royal Highness to the conduct and welfare of the servants of the Royal household—an attention paid in like measure by very few private gentlemen—has been since partially known. It is therefore now no matter of wonder that he should have expressed himself as only fulfilling a duty to the country in taking the chair at a meeting of the Servants' Benevolent Society. It was strange, however, then to hear this young, stately, and royal man-to many invested with a kind of mystery as standing in so intimate a relation with the Head of the State-entering into careful details regarding small incomes, deposits, and 301. annuities. Yet it was natural that this very speech, abounding in practical sense, and teeming with affectionate interest for a question which came so closely home to every worthy household in the land, should have attracted greater wonder and attention than any previous one.

From a subject so peculiarly connected with the study of his own time, we find him, a month later, June 11th, 1849, dining with the Merchant Taylors' Company, an ancient institution the original intention and need of which time had long reduced to nought, though its forms have remained, like others, wedged too tight among the living things of subsequent generations to be swept away. Here again he takes advantage of his foreign point of view to compliment the country of his adoption:- Anybody may indeed feel proud to be enrolled a member of a Company which can boast of uninterrupted usefulness and beneficence during four centuries, and holds to this day the same honourable position in the estimation of the country which it did in the time of its first formation, though the progress of civilisation and wealth has vastly raised the community around it; exemplifying the possibility in this happy country of combining the general progress of mankind with a due reverence for the institutions and

even