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364 WORKMEN AND HEROES was more that of a father and able political instructor than of a formal first min- ister of the crown. He was too experienced not heartily to appreciate the beau tiful character of his young mistress, and the interest he took in her political education, and in everything likely to further her prosperity and happiness, was evidently kindled by warm affection. She was equally favored in having as ad- viser so sagacious a relative as her uncle Leopold, the late King of the Belgians. The Duke of Wellington regarded her almost as a daughter ; and there was also, ever at hand, another, whose trained intellect and loyal heart exercised no little influence on her career Baron Stockmar to whose lofty ideal of the functions of royalty, calmly balanced treatment of all questions of state policy, and high- toned moral sympathies, both the queen and the prince consort have amply ex- pressed their indebtedness. Without touching further on the earjier period of her reign, which was not without many incidents of interest, we turn to the married years of the queen as to a bright and sunny memory. The position of an unmarried or widowed queen necessarily entails a peculiar loneliness. She is surrounded by the rigorous demands of state necessity. If she has to form a judgment upon documents submitted to her, there is no one so close to her and so independent of all other influences as to be truly an alter ego. Faithful servants of the crown may do their best to be of use, but no one of them can be so near as to receive such unguarded confidences as can be given to the husband who shares every joy and sorrow. The queen's married life was ideally perfect. She married the man she loved, and each year deepened her early affection into an admiration, a reverence, and a pride which elevated her love into consecration. There was no home in England made more beautiful by all that was tender, cultured, and noble than that in which " the blameless prince " fulfilled his heroic career of duty, and shed the bright light of his joyous, affectionate, and keenly intellectual life. There were few homes in which a greater amount of trying and anxious work was more systematically accomplished, or in which there was a more exquisite blending of hard thinking with the enjoyment of the fine arts and the fulness of loving family happiness. We have picture after pict- ure given us in the life of the Prince Consort which puts us in touch with these brilliant years, when the queen and he were never parted but for one or two brief intervals. Early hours of close labor were followed by a genial and hearty re- laxation, and at every turn the wife and sovereign felt the blessedness of that presence which ministered to her in sickness with the gentleness of a woman, and which she leaned upon in hours of difficulty with complete trust in the strength and trueness of his wise intellect. There was no decrease on either side in those feelings and utterances of feeling which are so beautiful when they carry into after years the warmth of the first attachment, only hallowed and deepened by experience. There were many fresh features in the kind of life which was introduced by the queen and the consort into the habits of the court. Among these none