d been a particularly
close connection between the Army and the Crown; and Albert had devoted
even more time and attention to the details of military business than
to the processes of fresco-painting or the planning of sanitary cottages
for the deserving poor. But now there was to be a great alteration: Mr.
Gladstone's fiat had gone forth, and the Commander-in-Chief was to
be removed from his direct dependence upon the Sovereign, and made
subordinate to Parliament and the Secretary of State for War. Of all the
liberal reforms this was the one which aroused the bitterest resentment
in Victoria. She considered that the change was an attack upon her
personal position--almost an attack upon the personal position of
Albert. But she was helpless, and the Prime Minister had his way.
When she heard that the dreadful man had yet another reform in
contemplation--that he was about to abolish the purchase of military
commissions--she could only feel that it was just what might have been
expected. For a moment she hoped that the House of Lords would come to
the rescue; the Peers opposed the change with unexpected vigour; but Mr.
Gladstone, more conscious than ever of the support of the Almighty, was
ready with an ingenious device. The purchase of commissions had been
originally allowed by Royal Warrant; it should now be disallowed by the
same agency. Victoria was faced by a curious dilemma: she abominated the
abolition of purchase; but she was asked to abolish it by an exercise of
sovereign power which was very much to her taste. She did not hesitate
for long; and when the Cabinet, in a formal minute, advised her to sign
the Warrant, she did so with a good grace.

Unacceptable as Mr. Gladstone's policy was, there was something else
about him which was even more displeasing to Victoria. She disliked his
personal demeanour towards herself. It was not that Mr. Gladstone,
in his intercourse with her, was in any degree lacking in courtesy or
respect. On the contrary, an extraordinary reverence impregnated
his manner, both in his conversation and his correspondence with the
Sovereign. Indeed, with that deep and passionate conservatism which, to
the very end of his incredible career, gave such an unexpected colouring
to his inexplicable character, Mr. Gladstone viewed Victoria through a
haze of awe which was almost religious--as a sacrosanct embodiment of
venerable traditions--a vital element in the British Constitution--a
Queen by Act of