THE GOLDEN BOOK OF
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canst protect me. Bless dear Papa, Mama, my brothers and sisters, and make me a good boy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Under the care of governesses and tutors, the little Albert Edward was educated as the heir of England,—and might indeed have been rather over-educated, had not his natural sense of fun preserved him. But he was "an affectionate, dear little fellow." anxious to do kindnesses, and acutely sympathetic. At ten years of age he made his first speech to the Newcastle Corporation, in return for the present of a handsome paper-cutter;—but his words are not recorded,—and at eighteen, he was informed by the Queen that he was now to consider himself his own master. It was not however, until two years later, that the death of his father, the Prince Consort, left the Prince of Wales, a youth of twenty, in as difficult a position, perhaps, as any young man has ever occupied: serving a long apprenticeship to royalty for forty years: being obliged to perform the most irksome and tedious tasks that can fall to a Sovereign's share, without any actual authority: acting as a deputy King, it may be said, minus all the pride and the kudos of Kingship.
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