Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/193

 so well-informed a politician, and so able a man as Mr. Roebuck, believed, and openly said to the Duke of Newcastle, the War Minister, that of course every one knew that there was a determination "in a high quarter" that the Crimean expedition should not succeed. The Duke thought that the expression, "a high quarter," was directed against himself, and said so. "Oh, no," answered Mr. Roebuck, "I mean a much higher personage than you; I mean Prince Albert."

The Duke immediately endeavored to remove this entirely false impression, and asked Mr. Roebuck if he were not aware that the Queen had been ill with anxiety about her troops. The reply was that no one doubted the Queen's devotion to her country; that when Lord Cardigan was at Windsor, one of the Royal children had said to him, "You must hurry back to Sebastopol and take it, else it will kill mamma." Yet almost in the same breath Mr. Roebuck maintained that the Prince was working behind the Queen's back against the efficient organization of the army, in order to prevent the success of her troops.

An expression made use of by the Prince in a public speech, towards the close of the Crimean War, June, 1855, has become historical. He contrasted the autocratic power of the Czar of Russia, characterized by unity of purpose and action, and when desirable by secrecy, with the Parliamentary Government of the Queen, where every movement of the army or navy, and every stage of every diplomatic negotiation are publicly proclaimed, and have to be explained and defended in Parliament; and he concluded by saying that "Constitutional Government was on its trial," and could only come through it triumphantly if the country granted a patriotic and indulgent confidence to the Ministry. This was twisted by the Prince's enemies into an attack on the principles of constitu-