fate had determined that the daughter who was taken from him should be
sympathetic, clever, interested in the arts and sciences, and endowed
with a strong taste for memoranda, while not a single one of these
qualities could be discovered in the son who remained. For certainly
the Prince of Wales did not take after his father. Victoria's prayer had
been unanswered, and with each succeeding year it became more obvious
that Bertie was a true scion of the House of Brunswick. But these
evidences of innate characteristics only served to redouble the efforts
of his parents; it still might not be too late to incline the young
branch, by ceaseless pressure and careful fastenings, to grow in
the proper direction. Everything was tried. The boy was sent on a
continental tour with a picked body of tutors, but the results were
unsatisfactory. At his father's request he kept a diary which, on his
return, was inspected by the Prince. It was found to be distressingly
meagre: what a multitude of highly interesting reflections might have
been arranged under the heading: "The First Prince of Wales visiting the
Pope!" But there was not a single one. "Le jeune prince plaisit a
tout le monde," old Metternich reported to Guizot, "mais avait l'air
embarrasse et tres triste." On his seventeenth birthday a memorandum
was drawn up over the names of the Queen and the Prince informing their
eldest son that he was now entering upon the period of manhood,
and directing him henceforward to perform the duties of a Christian
gentleman. "Life is composed of duties," said the memorandum, "and in
the due, punctual and cheerful performance of them the true Christian,
true soldier, and true gentleman is recognised... A new sphere of life
will open for you in which you will have to be taught what to do and
what not to do, a subject requiring study more important than any in
which you have hitherto been engaged." On receipt of the memorandum
Bertie burst into tears. At the same time another memorandum was drawn
up, headed "confidential: for the guidance of the gentlemen appointed
to attend on the Prince of Wales." This long and elaborate document laid
down "certain principles" by which the "conduct and demeanour" of the
gentlemen were to be regulated "and which it is thought may conduce to
the benefit of the Prince of Wales." "The qualities which distinguish a
gentleman in society," continued this remarkable paper, "are:--

(1) His appearance, his deportment an