same lines as Sir R. Peel and Lord Aberdeen, letting it be seen that England would not look calmly on at any attempt to interfere with Turkey, or at any movement which might close the free passage across Egypt of English commerce or English mails. As to France it would be the policy of England to continue to cultivate a close and friendly alliance with that kingdom. By his political sagacity and his courage the prince produced a deep impression on the emperor, who said of him to Sir R. Peel 'that he wished any prince in Germany had as much ability and sense.'
A visit of the Prince of Prussia (now Emperor of Germany) to the queen in August of this year resulted in the establishment of a very cordial and intimate relation between Prince Albert and himself, which was cemented by four subsequent visits of the Prince of Prussia to England, and by the marriage, in 1858, of his son to the Princess Royal of England.
In October King Louis-Philippe paid a return visit to her majesty at Windsor Castle. The visit was of political importance, as it smoothed down the jealous and angry feelings which had been roused by the recent high-handed conduct of the French in the island of Tahiti. While the prince made the strength of his character and his remarkable abilities felt with Louis-Philippe and the other royal personages with whom he had recently been brought into contact, he was gradually increasing in popularity at home. This was shown whenever he appeared in public with the queen, who, in writing to King Leopold (28 Oct. 1844) of her opening of the Royal Exchange, said : 'My beloved Albert was most enthusiastically received by the people. . . . The papers say "No sovereign was ever more loved than I am" (I am bold enough to say), and this because of our happy domestic home and the good example it presents.' Soon afterwards the prince wrote to Baron Stockmar : 'You always said that if monarchy was to rise in popularity it could only be by the sovereign leading an exemplary life and keeping quite aloof from and above party. Melbourne called this "nonsense." Now Victoria is praised by Lord Spencer, the liberal, for giving her constitutional support to the tories.'
In 1845 the queen and prince were able to gratify a long-cherished desire to possess a place of their own, 'quiet and retired, and free from all Woods and Forests and other charming departments, which really are the plague of one's life,' by purchasing the estate of Osborne in the Isle of Wight. The prince's genius for landscape gardening and for agricultural improvement was exercised with the best results in laying out the grounds, and generally in improving the estate. It was his pride that he made his farming pay, and he lived to see, in the growth of his plantations, how well his plans for beautifying the property had been devised. What Scott said of Abbotsford the prince might have said of Osborne : 'My heart clings to the place I have created. There is scarce a tree in it that does not owe its existence to me.' Here his passionate love for the country found scope for its gratification. The woods and shrubberies were a favourite haunt of the nightingale. Of all birds he loved its song the most, and the queen notes in her journal that he would listen for it 'in the happy peaceful walks he used to take with her in the woods, and whistle to them in their own long peculiar note, which their invariably answered.' One of the attractions of Osborne for the prince was its proximity to Portsmouth, which gave him the ready means of watching the condition of the fleet, a subject to him of the most vital interest. In this year much progress in strengthening it had been made, and on 18 July he writes with great satisfaction to Stockmar : 'Since the war no such fleet has been assembled on the English coast ; and it has this additional interest, that every possible new invention and discovery in the naval department will be tried.'
Watching the current of home politics with keen and anxious eyes, the prince saw that, although Peel was able to carry his measures with very large majorities, his hold over his party was by this time slipping from his grasp. To the prospect of the confusion likely to ensue upon the breaking up of the conservative party the prince looked forward with no small apprehension, as, to use his own words, 'the opposition had as many different opinions and principles as heads.' For the moment, however, the country seemed, at the close of the parliamentary session, to Sir R. Peel, to be both prosperous and happy, and Ireland tranquillised by the measures which he had carried through. The queen and prince, therefore, felt themselves free to carry out a cherished project of paying a visit to Germany, in which the prince might show the queen the scenes where his youth had been passed. Three weeks of August were devoted to this object. After spending some days on the Rhine, during which Bonn was visited, while the prince's old friends and masters were introduced to the queen, Coburg was reached on the 19th. 'How happy, how joyful,' the queen writes in her journal next day, 'we
