Wellington she sent for Sir Robert Peel, and ingenuously telling him that she did not part with her ministers without regret, requested him to form an administration. A list of names was soon laid before the queen and approved of, but to her majesty's dismay the new minister required the dismissal of the ladies of the bedchamber, who were closely connected with the leading whigs, and might possibly exercise in the palace an influence that would be prejudicial to the conservative minister's authority. In principle no doubt Peel was right, but his cold, shy, dry manner had a disagreeable effect upon his royal mistress. He was too precise, not to say positive, in the matter. "His fault was," as Lord Melbourne said, "in not giving the queen time to come round." Her majesty declined the services of Sir R. Peel on the terms proposed. The Melbourne ministry accordingly resumed office, and profited for a time by the outcry which went through the country, that the conservatives had attempted to outrage the queen's private feelings, and deprive her of the services of her personal friends. There was no doubt exaggeration in this, as there was in the angry explosion of feeling that manifested itself in the ranks of the opposition. At the opening of parliament, 16th January, 1840, the speech from the throne commenced with these words—"Since you were last assembled, I have declared my intention of allying myself in marriage with the Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha. I humbly implore that the divine blessing may prosper this union, and render it conducive to the interests of my people, as well as to my own domestic happiness, and it well be to me a source of the most lively satisfaction to find the resolution I have taken approved by my parliament." The marriage thus announced took place on the 10th of February, amid great rejoicings throughout the kingdom. The excellent sense, the manifold accomplishments, and benevolent disposition of the prince who had won the queen's affections, bore fruit in many ways, justifying her majesty's choice, and fully earning for it the approbation of the country, which was graciously referred to in the royal speech. (See Albert.) The abilities of his royal highness found an increasing sphere of action during the twenty-two years of his wedded life, and never was the value of his wise counsel and untiring labour more keenly felt than when the bereaved queen was by the decree of Providence deprived of that assistance. A strange incident occurred not very long after the marriage. A barman named Oxford, stimulated by a morbid desire for notoriety, discharged two pistols at the queen and Prince Albert as they were riding in an open carriage up Constitution Hill. Her majesty with great presence of mind and considerateness immediately drove to the residence of her mother, the duchess of Kent, in order to anticipate the alarming reports which might have reached her royal highness. Oxford was tried at the Old Bailey on the 9th of July, acquitted on the ground of insanity, and placed in a lunatic asylum. An interesting glimpse into the domestic life of her majesty at this period is given by M. Guizot, in his memoirs of the French embassy to England in 1840. In August of the following year the queen was obliged to part with her old friends, the whig ministers, who gave place to Sir Robert Peel and the conservatives. In November her son, the prince of Wales, was born, and was baptized at St. George's chapel, Windsor, the following January, having the king of Prussia for one of his sponsors. "I cannot meet you in parliament assembled," said her majesty at the opening on the 23rd of February, 1842, "without making a public acknowledgment of my gratitude to Almighty God on account of the birth of the prince my son, an event which has completed the measure of my domestic happiness." In 1842 the offence of Oxford was twice repeated. On the 30th of May, a young man named John Francis fired a pistol at the queen as she was returning to Buckingham palace down Constitution Hill in an open carriage with Prince Albert. A rumour of the intended attempt had reached the palace, which had no further effect in changing the settled arrangements of the day than to induce the queen to forbid the attendance of her ladies in waiting during the drive. Francis was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death, but the punishment was commuted to transportation for life. On the 3rd of July, a deformed youth named Bean presented a pistol at her majesty, but his arm was seized by a bystander, and no harm ensued. The absurd motive of these attempts was so obvious that Sir Robert Peel wisely resolved to meet the case by a special enactment, by which the punishment of flogging was allowed for offences of that kind. The law was passed, and proved effectual in preventing similar outrages. The queen's frequent appearance in public, which served to increase her popularity so much, was not confined to the metropolis. From time to time she visited many parts of her dominions, and always had the happiness of being received with an enthusiastic welcome. In 1832, when only thirteen years of age. Princess Victoria had accompanied her mother on a tour through Wales, and received from the loyalty of the principality an ovation of the warmest character. In 1842 her majesty and Prince Albert visited Scotland, where the demesne of Balmoral was subsequently purchased, and a royal residence erected. In the following year the queen and prince paid a visit to Louis Philippe, king of the French, at the Chateau d'Eu, and thence proceeded to Ostend to meet Leopold, king of the Belgians. These royal courtesies were soon returned. Louis Philippe arrived at Windsor castle in October, 1844, not long after the departure of the Czar Nicholas from England. In the autumn of subsequent years, her majesty made several trips to the continent. The year 1846 was the very crisis of free trade legislation, and the queen was called upon more than once to change her ministers. At length Sir R. Peel resumed office and carried the bill for repealing the corn laws. From that date the prosperity of the British dominions has gone on increasing, and the reign of Victoria, famous as it will ever be for triumphs in arms and arts—for victories gained in the fields of India, China, and the Crimea—for the development of the railway system, the perfection of the telegraph, the emancipation of the press from taxation, the introduction of penny postage, the invention of photography, the discovery of gold-fields, &c.—obtained its highest title to glory, in the inauguration of that system which enables English subjects to buy food unrestricted by the trammels of protection. In 1848 the queen had the melancholy satisfaction of affording an asylum to the dethroned king of the French and his family. Seven years afterwards, when England and France were allied in a war against Russia, the Emperor Louis Napoleon, with the Empress Eugenie, were guests at Windsor. The queen's participation in the opening of the Great Exhibition of 1851 was one of the memorable events of her reign. Still more deeply engraved on the memory of her people, is the interest and sympathy with them which she has manifested at times of calamity and trial. She led the way in the measures taken to relieve the Irish during the potato famine, and was among the first to assist the Canadians after the terrible conflagration of Quebec. She cheered the soldiers on their way to the Crimea, and received in her palace the wounded and mutilated who returned from that field of death. She reviewed her mighty fleet at Spithead; her army of volunteers in Hyde Park. She has associated herself with every great enterprise and every good work in which her influence was likely to prove beneficial, and has fairly won the love and admiration of her people. Twenty-two years of domestic happiness and public honour had thus passed. The princess royal was happily married, and arrangements for unions of like happy augury had been made, when suddenly on the 14th December, 1861, the royal partner, who had been her comforter and counsellor in all things, was snatched away from the queen's side. The whole nation fully sympathized with her majesty's deep inconsolable grief. The loss was a national loss. After many months of mourning, the queen has at length (March, 1863) quitted her seclusion to bestow her blessing on the marriage of her son, which like her own, and unlike many royal marriages, is based on genuine mutual affection.—Long may she reign!—R. H.
VICTORIA, François or Franciscus (so called from a town in Navarre where he was born), a celebrated theologian, who belonged to the order of Dominicans and lived in the first half of the sixteenth century. He studied at the university of Paris, became a professor, and after teaching for some years in different places, settled finally at Salamanca, where he died on the 14th of August, 1549. Victoria was one of the greatest lights that ever adorned the famous university of that town His works were published in a collected form after his death under the title of "Theologicæ Relectiones XII." These are—De potestate ecclesiæ; De civili potestate; De potestate concilii et pontificis; De Indis, et jure belli; De matrimonio; De augmento charitatis; De temperantia; De homicidio; De eo, ad quod tenetur perveniens ad usum rationis; De arte magica; De Simonia; De silentii obligatione; Summa sacramentorum ecclesiæ; Confessionaria; &c. Of these several treatises the one De Indis, et jure belli is now most generally interesting. It is a powerful pleading in behalf of the poor unoffending victims of Spanish greed and oppression in the New World. Both Victoria, and his
