Page:The Letters Of Queen Victoria, vol. 1 (1908).djvu/29

Rh was the widow of Emich Charles, Prince of Leiningen, whom she had married in 1803, and who had died in 1814, leaving a son and a daughter by her.

The Duke of Kent died prematurely—though he had always been a conspicuously healthy man—at Sidmouth, on the 23rd of January 1820, only a week before his father.

A paper preserved in the Windsor archives gives a touching account of the Duke’s last hours. The Regent, on the 22nd of January, sent to him a message of solicitude and affection, expressing an anxious wish for his recovery. The Duke roused himself to enquire how the Prince was in health, and said, “If I could now shake hands with him, I should die in peace.” A few hours before the end, one who stood by the curtain of his bed heard the Duke say with deep emotion, “May the Almighty protect my wife and child, and forgive all the sins I have committed.” His last words—addressed to his wife—were, “Do not forget me.”

The Duchess of Kent was an affectionate, impulsive woman, with more emotional sympathy than practical wisdom in worldly matters. But her claim on the gratitude of the British nation is that she brought up her illustrious daughter in habits of simplicity, self-sacrifice, and obedience.

As a testimony to the sincere appreciation entertained by the politicians of the time for the way in which the Duchess of Kent had appreciated her responsibilities with regard to the education of a probable heir to the Crown of England, we may quote a few sentences from two speeches made in the House of Commons, in the debate which took place (27th May 1825) on the question of increasing the Parliamentary annuity paid to the Duchess, in order to provide duly for the education of the young Princess.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Robinson, afterwards Lord Ripon, said:

“The position in which this Princess stood with respect to the throne of the country could not fail to make her an object of general interest to the nation. He had not himself the honour of being acquainted with the Duchess of Kent, but he believed that she had taken the greatest pains with her daughter’s education. She had been brought up in principles of piety and morality, and to feel a proper sense, he meant by