Chapter VIII: The Administration of Sir Robert Peel

Renewed Popularity of the Queen--Services of Prince Albert--A Volunteer Poet Laureate--Birth of the Princess Alice--The Whig Deficit, and how Sir Robert Peel Dealt with It--The Income Tax, and Reduction of Duties--The Sliding Scale--Advance of Free Trade Principles--Assassination of Mr. Drummond--The Question of Criminal Insanity--Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Cobden--Disturbances in South Wales: “Rebecca” and her Daughters--Condition of Women in Mines and Collieries--Lord Ashley and the Factories Act--Opinion of the Queen and Prince Albert on the Qualities of Sir Robert Peel--Levees held by the Prince--The Frescoes for the Houses of Parliament--Encouragement of Fresco-Painting by the Queen and Prince Albert--The Summer House in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace--Visit of her Majesty and the Prince to Louis Philippe at the Château d’Eu--The Duke of Wellington on the Necessity for a Council of Regency--Designs of France on the Succession to the Spanish Throne--Dishonest Engagement of the French King--English Opinion completely Misled--Royal Visits to Belgium, to Cambridge, and to the Midlands--The Prince as a Fox-hunter--Model Farming--Events in India: Wars in Scinde and Gwalior 131