Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/490

Rh 452 ALBERT natural sciences, political economy, and philosophy, having for teachers men of such world-wide fame as Fichte, Schlegel, and Perthes. He also diligently cultivated at this period the sister arts of music and painting, and thus qualified himself for some of the most valuable services he was afterwards to render to the land of his adoption. His feeling for art in all its forms was very sensitive, and his executive skill, both as a musician and painter, very con siderable. In gymnastic exercises he greatly excelled, carrying off the first prize for fencing in a competition with a large number of students. In 1836 the prince visited England in company with his father, and met his future consort for the first time. The idea of a matrimonial alliance between the cousins had occurred to various members of the family, and had been cherished especially by their grandmother the dowager- duchess of Coburg, and their uncle Leopold, the king of the Belgians. From the time of the queen s accession there seems to have been a family understanding on the subject, though, owing to the youth of the prince and his cousin, no formal engagement was entered into till two years later. In the winter of 1838-9 the prince travelled in Italy, accompanied by Mr Seymour, a young English gentle man, who wns selected doubtless out of regard to the pro bable future of his charge. A year later the hopes of many were realised when, on the 23d Nov. 1839, the queen announced to the Privy Council her intended mar riage with her cousin. The circumstances of the engage ment have been fully made known since the prince s death, and they show that the union was founded upon mutual choice, springing from mutual affection. On the 10th February 1840 the marriage was celebrated at the chapel- royal, St James s, amid universal rejoicings. A few days before the event two bills had been passed in parliament, one naturalising the prince as a British subject, and the other providing an annuity of 30,000 a year for the maintenance of his establishment. The ministry had proposed that the sum should be 50,000, following the precedent established in the case of Prince Leopold; but the reduction was made on the motion of Colonel Sibthorpe, who received the support of the radicals and the entire opposition. The result of the vote caused the prince con siderable vexation and disappointment, which were enhanced when difficulties were raised in parliament as to the pre cedence to be accorded to him. The latter question was only settled by an exercise of the queen s prerogative. Letters patent were issued on the 5th March, giving the prince precedence next to the queen. The position in which the prince was placed by his marriage, while it was one of distinguished honour, was also one of peculiar difficulty, and it was only the posses sion of a rare discretion that enabled him to fill it so irreproachably as he did. Published letters and memo randa show how thoroughly he appreciated the delicate nature of his duties, and how clearly he perceived the limits within which his influence must be confined if it was to be legitimately and usefully exerted. A letter to the Duke of Wellington, declining, after mature considera tion, to be designated to the office of commander-in-chief of the army, is especially noteworthy as containing an admirable description of the proper functions of a prince- consort. Generally, his idea was that it was his duty to merge his personality as completely as possible in that of the sovereign, while giving her in all things real but unob trusive advice and support ; and that he acted during his whole life in conformity with this idea those who had the best means of knowing were the readiest to testify. Once, indeed, at the commencement of the Crimean war, it was generally believed that he had overstepped the limits of his position by interfering unwarrantably with the foreign policy of the country and the patronage of the army. The charges were so definite and so widely circulated that it was deemed necessary to take notice of them in parlia ment. They were met by a complete and emphatic denial on the part of the ministry, and no one now believes that they had any real foundation. It was, of course, both natural and proper that the prince should interest himself deeply in the affairs of the country over which, by an Act passed on the 4th Aug. 1840, he had been named regent in the event of the death of the queen before the heir to the crown had attained the age of eighteen years. He had also a right to interest himself in the administration of the army, as being himself a field-marshal and a colonel of hussars. It was fortunate for the prince, shut out as he was by the circumstances of his station from any share in party politics, that he found other and more congenial work sufficient to engage all his energies. He was qualified, as few of his rank are, to deal with those social and scientific problems in the solution of which men of all parties are equally interested. He engaged himself especially in endea vours to secure the more perfect application of science and art to manufacturing industry. The Great Exhibition of 1851 originated in a suggestion he threw out at a meeting of the Society of Arts, and owed the greater part of its success to his intelligent and unwearied efforts. Similar institutions, on a smaller scale but with a kindred aim, always found in him warm advocacy and substantial sup port. It was chiefly at meetings in connection with these that he found occasion for the delivery of addresses cha racterised by profound thought and comprehensiveness of view, a collection of which was published in 1857. One of the most favourable specimens of his powers as a speaker is the inaugural address which he delivered as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science when it met at Aberdeen in 1859, printed in an edition of his speeches which appeared in 18G2. The education of his family and the management of his domestic affairs furnished the prince with another very important sphere of action, in which he employed himself with conscientious devotedness. The training of the Prince of Wales was carried on under his own superintendence, in accordance with a plan he himself had drawn up; and it may be questioned whether so much wisdom and care was ever bestowed on the upbringing of an heir to the British throne. The estates of the Duchy of Cornwall, the here ditary appanage of the Prince of Wales, were so greatly improved under his father s management that the rent-roll rose from 11,000 to 50,000 a year. Prince Albert, indeed, had a peculiar talent for the management of landed estates. His model farm at Windsor was in every way worthy of the name; and the grounds at Balmoral and Osborne, so universally admired, were laid out entirely in conformity with his designs. A character so pure, and a life so useful and well-directed in all its aims, could scarcely fail to secure universal respect. As the prince became better known, the mistrust, of which the adverse votes in parliament were undoubtedly to some extent an expression, gave way, and the people vied with their queen in showering deserved honours upon him. After a keen contest with Earl Powis, he was elected chan cellor of the university of Cambridge in 1847 ; and he was afterwards appointed master* of the Trinity House. In 1857 the formal title of &quot;Prince-Consort&quot; was conferred upon him by letters patent, in order to settle certain difficulties as to precedence that had been raised at foreign courts. As he had previously possessed no distinctive title, the precedence he had received was only by courtesy. It was in the prime of manhood and the full career of his usefulness that the prince-consort was removed by death. He had been greatly occupied during the autumn