derstand the niceties of this
momentous problem, but rushed on blindly, dealing blows to right and
left, quite--so far as he could see--without system, and even without
motive--except, indeed, a totally unreasonable distrust of the Prussian
State.

But his disagreement with the details of Palmerston's policy was in
reality merely a symptom of the fundamental differences between the
characters of the two men. In Albert's eyes Palmerston was a coarse,
reckless egotist, whose combined arrogance and ignorance must
inevitably have their issue in folly and disaster. Nothing could be more
antipathetic to him than a mind so strangely lacking in patience, in
reflection, in principle, and in the habits of ratiocination. For to him
it was intolerable to think in a hurry, to jump to slapdash decisions,
to act on instincts that could not be explained. Everything must be done
in due order, with careful premeditation; the premises of the position
must first be firmly established; and he must reach the correct
conclusion by a regular series of rational steps. In complicated
questions--and what questions, rightly looked at, were not
complicated?--to commit one's thoughts to paper was the wisest course,
and it was the course which Albert, laborious though it might be,
invariably adopted. It was as well, too, to draw up a reasoned statement
after an event, as well as before it; and accordingly, whatever
happened, it was always found that the Prince had made a memorandum.
On one occasion he reduced to six pages of foolscap the substance of a
confidential conversation with Sir Robert Peel, and, having read them
aloud to him, asked him to append his signature; Sir Robert, who never
liked to commit himself, became extremely uneasy; upon which the
Prince, understanding that it was necessary to humour the singular
susceptibilities of Englishmen, with great tact dropped that particular
memorandum into the fire. But as for Palmerston, he never even gave one
so much as a chance to read him a memorandum, he positively seemed to
dislike discussion; and, before one knew where one was, without any
warning whatever, he would plunge into some hare-brained, violent
project, which, as likely as not, would logically involve a European
war. Closely connected, too, with this cautious, painstaking
reasonableness of Albert's, was his desire to examine questions
thoroughly from every point of view, to go down to the roots of things,
and to act in strict accord