d of saving candle-ends; but he held on his course, and
before long the admirable administration of the royal household was
recognised as a convincing proof of his perseverance and capacity.

At the same time his activity was increasing enormously in a more
important sphere. He had become the Queen's Private Secretary, her
confidential adviser, her second self. He was now always present at her
interviews with Ministers. He took, like the Queen, a special interest
in foreign policy; but there was no public question in which his
influence was not felt. A double process was at work; while Victoria
fell more and more absolutely under his intellectual predominance, he,
simultaneously, grew more and more completely absorbed by the machinery
of high politics--the incessant and multifarious business of a great
State. Nobody any more could call him a dilettante; he was a worker,
a public personage, a man of affairs. Stockmar noted the change with
exultation. "The Prince," he wrote, "has improved very much lately.
He has evidently a head for politics. He has become, too, far more
independent. His mental activity is constantly on the increase, and he
gives the greater part of his time to business, without complaining."

"The relations between husband and wife," added the Baron, "are all one
could desire."

Long before Peel's ministry came to an end, there had been a complete
change in Victoria's attitude towards him. His appreciation of the
Prince had softened her heart; the sincerity and warmth of his nature,
which, in private intercourse with those whom he wished to please, had
the power of gradually dissipating the awkwardness of his manners,
did the rest. She came in time to regard him with intense feelings of
respect and attachment. She spoke of "our worthy Peel," for whom, she
said, she had "an EXTREME admiration" and who had shown himself "a man
of unbounded LOYALTY, COURAGE patriotism, and HIGH-MINDEDNESS, and his
conduct towards me has been CHIVALROUS almost, I might say." She dreaded
his removal from office almost as frantically as she had once dreaded
that of Lord M. It would be, she declared, a GREAT CALAMITY. Six years
before, what would she have said, if a prophet had told her that the day
would come when she would be horrified by the triumph of the Whigs? Yet
there was no escaping it; she had to face the return of her old
friends. In the ministerial crises of 1845 and 1846, the Prince played a
dominating part. Eve