This page needs to be proofread.

VICTORIA. 535 accomplishments, but she aimed at forming the character and disciplining the whole nature so that it should acquire con- scientiousness, and the strength which comes from self-govern- ment. Keeping this end in view, and aided no doubt by the responsiveness in the child's own nature, the little Princess was trained to those habits of strict personal integrity which are the only unfailing safeguard for truthfulness and fundamental honesty in regard to money and otjier possessions." The Princess was very fond of her governess, the Baroness Lehzen. A little incident related by her preceptor, Dr. Davys, Bishop of Peterborough, to Dr. Wilber force, illustrates the ex- exact truthfulness of the child. "One day the little Princess was very anxious that the lesson should be over, and was rather troublesome. The Duchess of Kent came in and asked how she had behaved. Baroness Lehzen replied that once she had been rather naughty. The Princess, touching her arm, said : "No, Lehzen, tzvice, don't you remember?" A devoted mother gave the kingdom a devoted Queen, elicit- ing the gratitude and respect of the nation, which commingles with the love and reverence the daughter gives to her mother's memory and to the sacred dust now resting at Frogmore. No less a part of her training was the development of that natural poise and dignity that has ever graced Her Majesty, and the happy faculty of doing the right thing at the right time, the exercise of which won the surprise and admiration of her first ministry as voiced by Greville, who speaks of the "remarkable union she presented of womanly sympathy, girlish naivete, and queenly dignity. She never ceases to be the Queen," he said, "but is always the most charming, cheerful, obliging, unaf- fected Queen in the world." A further quotation from Gre- ville's Memoirs will best give an account of her character then, and connect the passing of William IV. and the proclaiming of the Princess Victoria, Queen of England. "June 21, 1837. — The King died at twenty minutes past two yester- day morning, and the young Queen met the Council at Kensington Palace at Eleven. Never was anything like the first impression she produced, or the chorus of praise and admiration which is raised about her manner and behavior, and certainly not without justice. It was very extraordinary and something far beyond what was looked for. Her extreme youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the world concerning her, naturally excited intense curiosity to see how she would act on this trying occasion, and there was a considerable assemblage at the Palace, notwithstanding the short notice that was given. The first thing to be done was to teach her her lesson, which