sty, and was deeply gratified
by your gracious reception.

I am glad to find that you like Brighton better than last year. I
think Brighton very agreeable at this time of the year, till the east
winds set in. It also gives the possibility of seeing people without
having them on one's hands the whole day, as is the case in the
country. The Pavilion, besides, is comfortable; that cannot be denied.
Before my marriage it was there that I met the Regent. Charlotte
afterwards came with old Queen Charlotte. How distant all this
already, but still how present to one's memory.

The portrait of your Aunt and Leopold is nicely done. Don Leopoldo is
like, and has at times even a more intelligent look; he would amuse
you--he is very original and very sly. I often call him the little
tyrant, because nobody knows so well _de faire aller le monde_.... My
most beloved Victoria, your devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

[Footnote 46: Sir Hamilton Seymour, Minister at Brussels.]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

TO CHAPTER VIII

THE chief political event of the year (1839) at home arose out of the
troubles in Jamaica. In addition to the apprenticeship question,
the state of the prisons, much overcrowded owing to the planters'
severity, had excited attention, and an Imperial Act was passed for
their regulation. To this action the Colonial Assembly showed marked
hostility, and, after the dissolution by Sir Lionel Smith, the
Governor, the new House was no more placable. Accordingly, the home
Government brought in a Bill, in April, to suspend temporarily the
Jamaica Constitution, but on a division had a majority of five only
in a house of five hundred and eighty-three. The Ministers therefore
resigned, and Sir Robert Peel was sent for; a difficulty as to
the Ladies of the Household, commonly called the Bedchamber Plot,
compelled him to resign the task, and the Whigs, much injured in
reputation, resumed office. Some changes took place, Macaulay joining
the Ministry, and Lord Normanby, who had succeeded Lord Glenelg at the
Colonial Office, exchanging places with Lord John Russell, the Home
Secretary. The trial of strength over the Speakership ended in a
victory for the Ministerial candidate, Mr Shaw Lefevre, by a majority
of eighteen in a house of six hundred and sixteen.

Penny Postage was introduced by an Act of this session.

The Princes Ernest and Albert of Saxe-Coburg arrived on a visit to the
Queen in October, and on the 14th the Queen's