Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/85

 learned that this was not the case, he did not allow the matter to disturb him in any way, although, as will be seen later, he did not forget it. It will be seen that the fact that Sir Robert Peel had taken a prominent part in reducing the vote did not prejudice the Prince against that statesman. When the time came, eighteen months later, that Peel was called on again to form a Cabinet, he was rather uncomfortable in meeting the Prince. But he found not a single trace of any personal soreness in his demeanor. "On the contrary, his communications were of that frank and cordial character which at once placed the Minister at his ease, and made him feel assured that not only was no grudge entertained, but that he might count henceforward on being treated as a friend."

The curious in such matters will here note a parallel between the foundation of the Queen's esteem for Melbourne (page 53) and the Prince's esteem for Peel.

The Queen was much more seriously annoyed by what took place in the House of Lords on the question of the Prince's precedence. This is one of the matters in which it is impossible for the masses to understand the classes. It is like the pea and the real princess in Andersen's tale. Either you feel it or you do not feel it; but if you do not feel it, you are not a real princess. Questions of precedence appear absolutely unimportant to those who are not born with a natural gift for thinking them important. The Duke of Wellington, even though he was an aristocrat by birth, never acquired the power of grasping the enormous importance of precedence and etiquette. When the Earl of Albemarle, who, as Master of the Horse, was extremely sensitive about his right of riding in the Queen's carriage on State occasions, made himself rather troublesome on the subject, the Duke, who was appealed to, said: "The Queen can make Lord Albe-