pulling in opposite directions, or that she had it in her power to take a course to which they were adverse. In May the London conference broke up without arriving at any decision. The war was resumed in June with triumphant results to the German allies, who quickly routed the Danes and occupied the whole of the disputed duchies. Throughout these operations England maintained the strictest neutrality, the full credit of which was laid in diplomatic circles at the queen's door (cf. Duke Ernest's Memoirs ; Count von Beust's Memoirs; Count Vitzthum von Eckstadt's Memoirs.)
Much of this agitation waged round the princess of Wales, and while it was at its height ft new interest was aroused in her. On 8 Jan. 1864 she became, at Frogmore, the mother of a son (Albert Victor), who was in the direct line of succession to the throne. The happy event, which gave the queen, in the heat of the political anxiety, much gratification, was soon followed by her first public appearance in London since her bereavement. On 30 March she attended a flower show at the Horticultural Gardens, while she permitted her birthday on 24 May to be celebrated for the first time since her widowhood with state formalities. In the autumn Duke Ernest and his wife were her guests at Balmoral, and German politics continued to be warmly debated. But she mainly devoted her time to recreation. She made, as of old, many excursions in the neighbourhood of her highland home. For the second time in Scotland she unveiled a statue of the prince consort, now at Perth ; and on her return to Windsor she paid a private visit to her late husband's foundation of Wellington College.
A feeling was growing throughout the country that the queen's seclusion was Complaints of the queen's seclusion. unduly prolonged, and was contrary to the nation's interest. It was not within the knowledge of the majority of her subjects that she was performing the routine business of her station with all her ancient pertinacity, and she had never failed to give public signs of interest in social and non-political questions affecting the people's welfare. On New Year's Day 1865 she, on her own responsibility, addressed a letter to railway companies, calling their attention to the frequency of accidents, and to their responsibilities for making better provision for the safety of their passengers. In London, in March, she visited the Consumption Hospital at Brompton. The assassination of President Lincoln on 14 April called forth all her sympathy, and she at once sent to the president's widow an autograph letter of condolence, which excited enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic, and did much to relieve the tension that English sympathy with the Southern confederates had introduced into the relations of the governments of London and Washington. But it was obvious at the same time that she was neglecting the ceremonial functions of her office. On three occasions she had failed to open parliament in person. That ceremony most effectually brought into prominence the place of the sovereign in the constitution ; it was greatly valued by ministers, and had in the past been rarely omitted. William IV, who had excused his attendance at the opening of parliament in 1837 on the ground of the illness of his sister, the Duchess of Gloucester, had been warned that his absence contravened a principle of the constitution; and Lord Melbourne, the prime minister, wrote to Lord John Russell that that was the first occasion in the history of the country on which a sovereign had failed to present himself at the opening of parliament, except in cases of personal illness or infirmity (Walpole's Russell, i. 275). The queen was known to be in the enjoyment of good health, and, despite her sorrow, had regained some of her native cheerfulness. When, therefore, early 1865 the rumour spread that she would resume her place on the throne at the opening of parliament, signs of popular satisfaction abounded. But she did not come, and the disappointment intensified popular discontent. Radicals, who had no enthusiasm for the monarchical principle, began to argue that the cost of the crown was out of all proportion to its practical use. On 28 Sept. 1865 a cartoon in ' Punch ' portrayed the queen as the statue of Hermione in Shakespeare's ' Winter's Tale,' and Britannia figuring as Paulina was represented as addressing to her the words : ' Tis time ; descend ; be stone no more ' (v. iii. 99). On the other hand, chivalrous defenders pointed to the natural womanly sentiment which explained and justified her retirement. In the first number of the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' which appeared on 7 Feb. 1865, the day of the opening of the new parliament, the first article, headed 'The Queen's Seclusion,' sympathetically sought to stem the tide of censure. Similarly at a great liberal meeting at St. James's Hall on 4 Dec. 1866, after Mr. A. S. Ayrton, member of parliament for the Tower John Bright's defence of her. Hamlets had denounced the queen in no sparing terms, John Bright, who was present, brought his eloquence to her defence and said: 'I am not accustomed to stand up in defence of those who
