Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/165

 state, with several carriages, four horses, outriders and scarlet liveries. The Prince felt he ought not to consent to all this without asking Lord John Russell's advice; but he gave a conditional consent. Lord John, however, was hostile, and offered strong opposition to the Prince acting on Lord Ashley's advice. However, Lord Ashley stuck to his guns. He admitted that in any strictly political matter the Prince was bound to abide by the advice of the Prime Minister, but on a matter like this he advised the Prince to tell Lord John that "Your Royal Highness is as good a judge as he is." Lord Ashley finally prevailed, and the Prince took the chair at the Laborers' Friend meting on May 18th, 1848. The outriders and the scarlet liveries were not omitted, and the Prince made a speech which Sir Theodore Martin says first fairly showed the country what he was, and gave a very important impulse to the manifold movements towards social improvement which have been so marked a feature of the present reign. Thus out of the "nettle, danger," we were enabled "to pluck the flower, safety."