Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/82

 kept his head when other people lost theirs, moved and carried an amendment in the House of Lords to insert the word "Protestant" in the address in reply to the Queen's speech announcing her intended marriage, "thus showing the public," he said, "that this was still a Protestant State."

This little outbreak was only a temporary vexation; but there appeared to be serious cause for alarm in another quarter. There was, about 1839, a remarkable outbreak of real disloyalty in the Tory party; it arose partly, no doubt, from the Queen's known sympathy with the Whigs; but one cannot help suspecting that it was augmented by the elements of social corruption which had flourished in the atmosphere of the two previous reigns. When Prince Albert's household were being selected, the only conditions which he insisted on were that it should not be formed exclusively of one party, and that it should consist of men of rank, "well educated and of high character." This limited the range of choice, more perhaps than the young Prince was aware of, and did not increase his popularity among those who were excluded.

A non-gambling, non-drinking, pure-hearted, and clean-living young couple would have against them much that had enjoyed the sunshine of Court favor under the son of George III. The hounds of the "Great Goddess Lubricity" were in full cry against the Court. The underserved humiliation suffered by poor Lady Flora Hastings gave them an advantage they were not slow to make the most of; it gave them the cover they run best in.

Added to this source of unpopularity which had in it nothing of a party character, there was another of a strictly party nature. The Bedchamber question, the Queen's dislike of Peel, and her desire to keep Lord Melbourne in office, still further aggravated the situa-