(*) In 1889 it was officially stated that the Queen's total
savings from the Civil List amounted to L824,025, but that
out of this sum much had been spent on special
entertainments to foreign visitors. Taking into
consideration the proceeds from the Duchy of Lancaster,
which were more than L60,000 a year, the savings of the
Prince Consort, and Mr. Neild's legacy, it seems probable
that, at the time of her death, Victoria's private fortune
approached two million pounds.

In order to conciliate public opinion, the Queen opened Parliament in
person, and the vote was passed almost unanimously. But a few months
later another demand was made: the Prince Arthur had come of age, and
the nation was asked to grant him an annuity of L15,000. The outcry was
redoubled. The newspapers were filled with angry articles; Bradlaugh
thundered against "princely paupers" to one of the largest crowds that
had ever been seen in Trafalgar Square; and Sir Charles Dilke expounded
the case for a republic in a speech to his constituents at Newcastle.
The Prince's annuity was ultimately sanctioned in the House of Commons
by a large majority; but a minority of fifty members voted in favour of
reducing the sum to L10,000.

Towards every aspect of this distasteful question, Mr. Gladstone
presented an iron front. He absolutely discountenanced the extreme
section of his followers. He declared that the whole of the Queen's
income was justly at her personal disposal, argued that to complain
of royal savings was merely to encourage royal extravagance, and
successfully convoyed through Parliament the unpopular annuities, which,
he pointed out, were strictly in accordance with precedent. When, in
1872, Sir Charles Dilke once more returned to the charge in the House
of Commons, introducing a motion for a full enquiry into the Queen's
expenditure with a view to a root and branch reform of the Civil
List, the Prime Minister brought all the resources of his powerful
and ingenious eloquence to the support of the Crown. He was completely
successful; and amid a scene of great disorder the motion was
ignominiously dismissed. Victoria was relieved; but she grew no fonder
of Mr. Gladstone.

It was perhaps the most miserable moment of her life. The Ministers,
the press, the public, all conspired to vex her, to blame her, to
misinterpret her actions, to be unsympathetic and disrespectful in
every way. She was "a cruelly m