be a
Conservative at home and a Liberal abroad. There were very good reasons
for keeping the Irish in their places; but what had that to do with it?
The point was this--when any decent man read an account of the political
prisons in Naples his gorge rose. He did not want war; but he saw that
without war a skilful and determined use of England's power might do
much to further the cause of the Liberals in Europe. It was a difficult
and a hazardous game to play, but he set about playing it with delighted
alacrity. And then, to his intense annoyance, just as he needed all
his nerve and all possible freedom of action, he found himself being
hampered and distracted at every turn by... those people at Osborne.
He saw what it was; the opposition was systematic and informed, and
the Queen alone would have been incapable of it; the Prince was at the
bottom of the whole thing. It was exceedingly vexatious; but Palmerston
was in a hurry, and could not wait; the Prince, if he would insist upon
interfering, must be brushed on one side.

Albert was very angry. He highly disapproved both of Palmerston's policy
and of his methods of action. He was opposed to absolutism; but in his
opinion Palmerston's proceedings were simply calculated to substitute
for absolutism, all over Europe, something no better and very possibly
worse--the anarchy of faction and mob violence. The dangers of
this revolutionary ferment were grave; even in England Chartism was
rampant--a sinister movement, which might at any moment upset the
Constitution and abolish the Monarchy. Surely, with such dangers at
home, this was a very bad time to choose for encouraging lawlessness
abroad. He naturally took a particular interest in Germany. His
instincts, his affections, his prepossessions, were ineradicably German;
Stockmar was deeply involved in German politics; and he had a multitude
of relatives among the ruling German families, who, from the midst of
the hurly-burly of revolution, wrote him long and agitated letters once
a week. Having considered the question of Germany's future from every
point of view, he came to the conclusion, under Stockmar's guidance,
that the great aim for every lover of Germany should be her unification
under the sovereignty of Prussia. The intricacy of the situation was
extreme, and the possibilities of good or evil which every hour might
bring forth were incalculable; yet he saw with horror that Palmerston
neither understood nor cared to un