she visited Wolverhampton to unveil a statue of the prince consort in the market-place. She expressed a desire that her route should be so arranged as to give the inhabitants, both poor and rich, full opportunities of showing their respect. A network of streets measuring a course of nearly three miles was traversed. The queen acknowledged that 'the heartiness and cordiality of the reception' left nothing to be desired, and her spirits rose.
But the perpetuation of her husband's memory was still a main endeavour of her The biography of the prince consort. life, and she now enlisted biography in her service. Under her direction her private secretary, General Grey, completed in 1866 a very minute account of the early years of the prince consort. She designed the volume, which was based on confidential and intimate correspondence, and only brought the prince's life to the date of his marriage, for private distribution among friends and relatives. But in 1867 she placed the book at the disposal of the wider audience of the general public. The work was well received. At the queen's request Wilberforce reviewed it in the 'Quarterly.' He described it as a cry from the queen's heart for her people's sympathy, and he said that her cry was answered (Wilberforce, iii. 236). The queen resolved that the biography should be continued, and on General Grey's death in May 1870 she entrusted the task, on the recommendation of Sir Arthur Helps, clerk of the council, to Sir Arthur's friend, (Sir) Theodore Martin. Much of her time was thenceforth devoted to the sorting of her and her husband's private papers and correspondence, and to the selection of extracts for publication. Sir Theodore Martin's work was designed on an ample scale, the first volume appearing in 1874, and the fifth and last in 1880. Amazement was felt even by her own children at the want of reserve which characterised the prince's biography. The whole truth best vindicated him, she explained, and it was undesirable to wait before telling it till those who had known him had passed away. The German side of his character, which alienated sympathy in his lifetime, could only be apprehended in a full exposition. Both she and he would suffer, she said, were the work not carried through (Princess Alices Letters, pp. 333-5). At the same time she deprecated indiscretion or levity in writing of the royal family, and in 1874 she was greatly irritated by the publication of the first part of the 'Greville Memoirs.' She judged the work, by its freedom of comment on her predecessors, to be disrespectful to the monarchy. Henry Reeve, the editor, was informed of her displeasure, and she was not convinced by his defence that monarchy had been injured by George IV's depravity and William IV's absurdity, and had only been placed on a sure footing by her own virtues (Longman, Memoir of Henry Reeve). To illustrate the happy character of her married life, she privately issued in 1867 some extracts from her diary under the title of 'Leaves from a Journal of our Life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861.' This, too, she was induced to publish at the beginning of the following year (1868). Its unaffected simplicity and naïveté greatly attracted the public, who saw in the book, with its frank descriptions of her private life, proof of her wish to share her joys and sorrows with her people. A second part followed in 1883, covering the years 1862 to 1882.
The year 1867 abounded in political incidents which absorbed the queen's attention. With her new conservative ministers 1867. her relations were invariably cordial. Their views on foreign politics were mainly identical with her own, and there was none of the tension which had marked her relations with Palmerston and Lord Hussell in that direction. As proof of the harmony existing between her advisers and herself, she consented to open parliament in person on 5 Feb. In May she again appeared in public, when she laid the foundation of the Royal Albert Hall, which was erected in her husband's memory. Her voice, in replying to the address of welcome, was scarcely audible. It had been with a struggle, she said, that she had nerved herself to take part in the proceedings.
The chief event of the year in domestic politics was the passage of Disraeli's reform Disraeli's reform bill. bill through parliament. The queen encouraged the government to settle the question. Although she had no enthusiasm for sweeping reforms, her old whig training inclined her to regard extensions of the franchise as favourable to the monarchy and to the foundations of her government.
But foreign affairs still appealed to her more strongly than home legislation. The European sky had not grown clear, despite the storms of the previous year. The queen was particularly perturbed in the early months of 1867 by renewed fear of her former ally, Napoleon III. Although her personal correspondence with him was still as amiable as of old, her distrust of his political intentions was greater than ever, and she
