war, the Reform Bill was withdrawn, Lord John Russell, on announcing
the fact in Parliament, being overcome, and giving way to tears.
In the short session, which took place during the latter half of
December, a Foreign Enlistment Act was passed, providing for a force
of 10,000 foreigners, to be drilled in this country.

The Exhibition Building, which had been constructed in Hyde Park
in 1851, and had been re-erected at Sydenham, was opened with great
ceremony by the Queen, and was henceforth known as the Crystal Palace.

CHAPTER XXIII

1854

_The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria._

LONDON, _6th January 1854._

LORD ABERDEEN presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He cannot
wonder at the indignation expressed by your Majesty at the base and
infamous attacks made upon the Prince during the last two or three
weeks in some of the daily papers.[1] They are chiefly to be found in
those papers which represent ultra-Tory or extreme Radical opinions;
but they are not sanctioned by the most respectable portion of the
Press. Lord Aberdeen has received some information respecting the
origin of these attacks; but it is vague and uncertain. At all events
he believes that your Majesty may safely make yourself at ease upon
the subject, as he is satisfied that these hostile feelings are shared
by few. It is much to be desired that some notice of the subject may
be taken in Parliament, when, by being treated in a proper manner,
it may be effectually stopped. Lord Aberdeen has spoken to Lord
John Russell, who will be quite prepared to moot it in the House of
Commons.

It cannot be denied that the position of the Prince is somewhat
anomalous, and has not been specially provided for by the Constitution;
but the ties of Nature, and the dictates of common sense are more
powerful than Constitutional fictions; and Lord Aberdeen can only say
that he has always considered it an inestimable blessing that your
Majesty should possess so able, so zealous, and so disinterested an
adviser. It is true that your Ministers are alone responsible for the
conduct of public affairs, and although there is no man in England whose
opinion Lord Aberdeen would more highly respect and value, still if he
had the misfortune of differing from His Royal Highness, he would not
hesitate to act according to his own convictions, and a sense of what
was due to your Majesty's service.

The Prince has now been so long before the eyes of the whole countr