Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/216

 President of the United States. The Queen addressed the President as "My good Friend," being the nearest approach which the circumstances admitted to the exclusively royal "mon cher frère." Special and sympathetic reference was made in both letters to the young Prince's visit to the tomb of Washington. Arrangements were made by the Prince Consort for the Prince of Wales's residence on his return from America for a year at the University of Cambridge. Before this, for the ostensible purpose of allowing the Prince of Wales to attend the German military manoeuvres, it was arranged that he should have the opportunity of making the acquaintance of the Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The Prince Consort notes with obvious satisfaction in his diary "that the young people seem to have taken a warm liking for one another."

Plans were also made during this autumn for a visit by the Prince of Wales to the Holy Land.

The cares of a large family were particularly pressing on the Queen and Prince during this year. Prince Leopold, who was delicate from his birth, had a sharp attack of measles, which caused great anxiety. It was necessary to send him (aged only seven) to Cannes for the winter; and the choice of suitable people to take charge of the delicate little lad was necessarily an anxious one. Among the other engagements of this autumn was included a visit to Ireland, with a hurried excursion to the Curragh to see the Prince of Wales, who was going through a course of military training there.

With regard to public affairs, foreign politics were more than ordinarily absorbing. It was the year of the triumphal entry of Garibaldi into Naples, and of Victor Emmanuel into the Papal States. The Queen and Prince followed these events with more anxiety