ainst
Palmerston, accepted the memorandum, and thereby implicitly allowed the
claim of the Crown. More than that; after the dismissal of Palmerston,
among the grounds on which Lord John justified that dismissal in the
House of Commons he gave a prominent place to the memorandum of 1850. It
became apparent that the displeasure of the Sovereign might be a reason
for the removal of a powerful and popular Minister. It seemed indeed
as if, under the guidance of Stockmar and Albert, the "Constitutional
Monarchy" might in very truth be rising "to a height of power,
stability, and symmetry, which had never been attained."

But this new development in the position of the Crown, grave as it
was in itself, was rendered peculiarly disquieting by the unusual
circumstances which surrounded it. For the functions of the Crown were
now, in effect, being exercised by a person unknown to the Constitution,
who wielded over the Sovereign an undefined and unbounded influence. The
fact that this person was the Sovereign's husband, while it explained
his influence and even made it inevitable, by no means diminished its
strange and momentous import. An ambiguous, prepotent figure had come
to disturb the ancient, subtle, and jealously guarded balance of the
English Constitution. Such had been the unexpected outcome of the
tentative and fainthearted opening of Albert's political life. He
himself made no attempt to minimise either the multiplicity or the
significance of the functions he performed. He considered that it was
his duty, he told the Duke of Wellington in 1850, to "sink his
OWN INDIVIDUAL existence in that of his wife--assume no separate
responsibility before the public, but make his position entirely a part
of hers--fill up every gap which, as a woman, she would naturally leave
in the exercise of her regal functions--continually and anxiously watch
every part of the public business, in order to be able to advise and
assist her at any moment in any of the multifarious and difficult
questions or duties brought before her, sometimes international,
sometimes political, or social, or personal. As the natural head of her
family, superintendent of her household, manager of her private affairs,
sole CONFIDENTIAL adviser in politics, and only assistant in her
communications with the officers of the Government, he is, besides,
the husband of the Queen, the tutor of the royal children, the private
secretary of the Sovereign, and her permanent min