INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

ALBERT-using only the name by which he was known and endeared to the British people-second son of ERNEST I., Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and husband of our beloved Queen, was lineally descended from those great Saxon princes whose names are immortalized in European history by the stand they made in defense of their country's liberties against the encroaching power of the German Emperors, as well as by the leading part they took in the struggle for the emancipation of the human mind from the trammels of Romish bigotry and superstition.

The names of Frederick the Warlike, first Prince Elector of Saxony; of Frederick the Wise, the friend and protector of Luther; and of John Frederick the Magnanimous, selected from a long list of rulers scarcely inferior to them in fame, sufficiently attest the by-gone glories of the race.

But to none of those great ancestors can the present descendants of that illustrious house turn with more just pride than to him whose loss the world finds every day

more cause to mourn.

If goodness and virtue are inseparable from true greatness, where shall we find in history a more perfect combination of all the qualities that make a man truly great?

Eminent ability joined with the purest virtue-unremitting attention to the multifarious duties of a position all but the highest, combined with the most watchful and active benevolence-power and influence only valued as the means of advancing the best interests of mankind!

To him our leading statesmen loved to repair in all questions of doubt and difficulty, sure to find in his grasp of intellect, in his foresight and fertility of resource, in his clear and dispassionate judgment, his practical common sense, a helping hand out of their embarrassments. Upon his knowledge and sound principles the philanthropist could rely with confidence for the safe and ef fectual development of all schemes of improvement and general utility; the man of science for practical assistance in prosecuting his studies, or in making known their result to the world; while the artist-the sculptor and the painter-men of European reputation-were not ashamed to acknowledge their obligation to his fertile genius and cultivated taste.

If to these talents and accomplishments, and to the social qualities that fitted him to shine so eminently in public and private life, we add genuine and unaffected love of virtue and abhorrence of vice*-the latter feeling, however, tempered by the charity that thinketh no evil, springing from innate warmth and kindness of heart -above all, if we look to the childlike purity and innocence of mind, preserved unsullied in deed and in

"Its presence depressed him, grieved him, horrified him. His tolerance allowed him to make excuses for the vices of individual men, but the evil itself he hated."-Introduction to Speeches and Addresses of H. R. H. the Prince Consort, published in 1864, p. 43.

thought, from the cradle to the grave-we have indeed before us a character which may well be held up as a bright and glorious example for the emulation, as well as the love and admiration, of future generations.

How beautiful is the evidence borne to the Prince's goodness and excellence by those who knew him bestby his nearest relatives,* his tutor, and his most intimate friends. What a noble spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty breathes in every line of the beautiful letters to his grandmother, and the friend of his youth, Baron Stockmar, written by him just before his marriage.t Well might it be said of him that "he was one of those few men into whose minds questions of self-interest never enter, or are absolutely ignored when the paramount obligation of duty is presented to them."+

Then, again, what high aspirations after the power of doing good do we find in the same letters-what evidence of the "presence of a large and loving nature, where the lovingness takes heed of all humanity."S

The Prince's extraordinary "good nature and prompt sympathy forbade him to ignore any question that interested his fellow-men." Indeed, to such an extent was this the case, that it may be too truly said of him that his life fell a sacrifice to his unceasing exertions in their

cause.

"To put the cup of this world's gladness to his lips and yet not to be intoxicated-to gaze steadily on all its

* See especially the letter written by his brother, the present reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg, when the marriage was arranged.-Chap. xi., page 212. † Chap. x., pages 191, 196, 198, etc. § Ibid. || Ibid.

Introduction to Speeches, p. 31.

grandeur and yet to be undazzled-plain and simple in personal desires, to feel its brightness and yet defy its thrall-this is the difficult, and rare, and glorious life of God in the soul of man."* And to this the Prince, if any man, most surely attained.

Mixed up as the Prince was of late years with all the most important events of an eventful period, it would be premature to attempt any account of his life which should enter into a detailed history of those events; and without doing this, it would be impossible to do him justice, or to make him known as he ought to be known to a world of which he was so great a benefactor.

We may, however, even now prepare the way for the future biographer, and to do this is the object of the present volume. It will contain a compilation of letters and memoranda, the greater part of those of the Prince himself, and of the Queen, from which materials may, at the proper time, be extracted for such a memoir as may be given to the world. In the mean time, printed privately for the use and study of his children, with such an amount of narrative as appears necessary for their due connection, they will furnish those children, and perhaps children's children to the remotest times, with such an. example of unselfish devotion to duty as may well encourage them, in imitation of their great parent, to strive, as he did, to discharge the duties of their high callings without deviating from the path of virtue and true great

ness.

These letters and memoranda will speak for themselves. We shall be able to trace in them the whole

*Robertson's Sermons, vol. ii., p. 282.

career of the illustrious Prince-his progress from boyhood to manhood-from manhood to the grave. We shall see the boy, scarcely yet emerged from infancy, winning the love as well as the respect of his instructors. * We shall follow him as he advances toward manhood, still keeping the promise of his earliest years, thirsting for knowledge, and laborious and persevering in its acquirement, but seeking after it for the noblest of purposes that he might be better enabled to promote the happiness and to improve the condition of his fellowman.†

Grown to man's estate, and raised to the commanding position of the Consort of England's Queen, we shall find his great character developing itself in ever grander proportions: as a husband and a father, fulfilling every domestic duty with the most affectionate care and the tenderest solicitude; as the adviser and assister of the sovereign in her daily communications with her ministers,

* See Memorandum by his tutor, Herr Florschütz, at the end of Chap. V., page 89 et seq.

"It was for the 'relief of man's estate' that this amiable Prince delighted most in the extension of the bounds of knowledge.”—Preface to Speeches, p. 46.

M. Guizot says, in his introduction to his translation of the Prince's Speeches: "A la fois actif et modeste, ne recherchant point, évitant même toute apparence vaniteuse dans le Gouvernement, bien que très sérieusement préoccupé des affaires publiques de l'Angleterre, et des intérêts de la couronne placée sur la tête de sa femme: il a été, pendant vingt et un ans, le premier sujet et le premier conseiller de la Reine Victoria, son intime et seul secrétaire, associé sans bruit à toutes ses délibérations, à toutes ses résolutions, habile à l'éclairer et à la seconder dans ses rapports avec son Ministère, sans gêner ni offusquer le Ministère lui-même, exerçant à côté du trône une judicieuse et salutaire influence, sans jamais