Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/93

 ing them, acquired in one stride, as it were, the qualities which most men arrive at, if they reach them at all, only after years of experience and effort.

Reference has already been made to his convictions upon the necessity of preserving the purity of the young Queen's Court. This was no effort to himself personally, for he was one of the natures born with a strong preference for whatsoever things are pure. But in the light of the scandals of former reigns, he knew the importance, not only of being free from taint, but of preventing the invention and circulation of scandalous stories relating to himself and his associates. His first request about the gentlemen selected to form his household was that they should be men of good character. He and the Queen always stipulated for this in regard to those household appointments which were part of the political patronage of successive Governments. We hear of this from Greville in his account of the filling of the household appointments in Sir Robert Peel's Administration of 1841: "As to the men, she," the Queen, "had said she did not care who they were, provided they were of good character." A side-light is thrown on the efficacy of this stipulation by an extract from Lord Shaftesbury's Journal, where we read that Peel pressed a household appointment on the then Lord Ashley, on the express ground that he must fill these places with men of unblemished character. Lord Ashley grimly records that Lord, the hero of a recent scandal, who had himself remarked, "Thank God, my character is too bad for a household place," had received a similar compliment from Peel. Therefore, notwithstanding the express wishes of the Queen and Prince, it is evident that the aim they had set before themselves was by no means easy of accomplishment.

In order, not to protect himself, but to protect the