Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/83

 tion, and, towards the end of 1839, Tory members of Parliament broke out into speeches containing violent personal attacks upon the Queen. One of these, "Victorippicks," delivered at a Conservative dinner at Canterbury, Greville describes as "violent and indecent," "a tissue of folly and impertinence;" it was, however, received by the assembled company with shouts of applause. The chief offender on this occasion, Mr. Bradshaw, was called out by Mr. Horsman, a strong Whig and M.P. for Cockermouth; but matters were made worse, as far as the Tory party were concerned, by the fact that Bradshaw's second was Colonel Gurwood, the confidential friend and secretary of the Duke of Wellington. Another striking manifestation of Tory disloyalty was given about the same time at Shrewsbury, when at a public dinner the company present refused to drink the health of the newly appointed Lord Lieutenant because he was the husband of one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber, the Duchess of Sutherland, with whom the Queen had refused to part when Sir Robert Peel was endeavoring to form a Government in 1839. Stockmar, Greville, and other observers of the current of English politics marked with alarm the decay of loyalty in the party whose traditional principles led them in an exactly contrary direction.

These fears were augmented by events in the House of Lords and House of Commons, relating to Prince Albert's position and establishment. In the House of Commons, Lord John Russell proposed on the part of the Government an allowance from Parliament for Prince Albert of £50,000 a year. This was the sum which had been voted for Prince Leopold on his marriage with Princess Charlotte. Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne, had enjoyed this income, and the same sum had been voted for a suc-