nual; and a great
proportion of the Queen's working hours was spent in this mechanical
task. Nor did she show any desire to diminish it. On the contrary, she
voluntarily resumed the duty of signing commissions in the army, from
which she had been set free by Act of Parliament, and from which,
during the years of middle life, she had abstained. In no case would she
countenance the proposal that she should use a stamp. But, at last, when
the increasing pressure of business made the delays of the antiquated
system intolerable, she consented that, for certain classes of
documents, her oral sanction should be sufficient. Each paper was read
aloud to her, and she said at the end "Approved." Often, for hours at a
time, she would sit, with Albert's bust in front of her, while the word
"Approved" issued at intervals from her lips. The word came forth with
a majestic sonority; for her voice now--how changed from the silvery
treble of her girlhood--was a contralto, full and strong.

IV

The final years were years of apotheosis. In the dazzled imagination
of her subjects Victoria soared aloft towards the regions of divinity
through a nimbus of purest glory. Criticism fell dumb; deficiencies
which, twenty years earlier, would have been universally admitted, were
now as universally ignored. That the nation's idol was a very incomplete
representative of the nation was a circumstance that was hardly noticed,
and yet it was conspicuously true. For the vast changes which, out of
the England of 1837, had produced the England of 1897, seemed scarcely
to have touched the Queen. The immense industrial development of the
period, the significance of which had been so thoroughly understood
by Albert, meant little indeed to Victoria. The amazing scientific
movement, which Albert had appreciated no less, left Victoria perfectly
cold. Her conception of the universe, and of man's place in it, and of
the stupendous problems of nature and philosophy remained, throughout
her life, entirely unchanged. Her religion was the religion which she
had learnt from the Baroness Lehzen and the Duchess of Kent. Here, too,
it might have been supposed that Albert's views might have influenced
her. For Albert, in matters of religion, was advanced. Disbelieving
altogether in evil spirits, he had had his doubts about the miracle
of the Gaderene Swine. Stockmar, even, had thrown out, in a remarkable
memorandum on the education of the Prince of Wales, the suggestion th