LETTER V.
RUMOURED ABDICATION—OPENING OF PARLIAMENT—THE HOUSE OF COMMONS—MR. DISRAELI—MR. GOLDWIN SMITH—GOSSIP.
A RUMOUR is circulating among men who repeat nothing lightly, that England is soon to have a king. Albert Edward is now in the East completing his princely education by a course of travel in the lands of classical and sacred story. He will return, it is said, on the attainment of his majority, to ascend the throne abdicated by the sorrowing Queen. The great grief that has fallen upon Queen Victoria would naturally incline her to seek retirement; and the latest voice from the Royal seclusion tells us that every day her grief grows deeper. It may be that the rumour of abdication is traceable to what is known of this womanly grief, and what is surmised of the forms in which, if it could find no relief, it would
