and enlargement of the Infirmary; a new building for the Ragged School; public baths and wash houses; an ornamental clock at the Archway; and a statue at Warrior square. But the voice of the Queen herself has now been heard, and perhaps those of her people who have spoken in a contrary sense will henceforth be silent – not, however, in sullen submission to authority, but in ready and cheerful acquiescence. That the form of the monument should be settled speedily and definitely was most desirable. Anything like a struggle between various interests striving to make a profit out of the nation’s sympathy would have shocked her Majesty’s feelings, whilst something of the kind would have been almost inevitable if the matter had not been finally set at rest by the official declaration of her Majesty’s wishes. This declaration has been made in a peculiarly affecting manner, two letters having been received by the Lord Mayor of London as chairman of the Albert Memorial committee. These letters very beautifully exhibited the deep affection which her Majesty entertained for her illustrious Consort and the reverence and devotion in which she holds his memory. In the first one the Queen expresses her gratitude for the sympathy the nation has displayed with her in her affliction; and then, going to the point of the communication, she suggests that the Albert Memorial should consist of an obelisk on the site of the 1851 Exhibition in Hyde Park. At the base of the obelisk there would be room for the display of groups of statuary “each of which might be entrusted to a separate artist”. This is the Queen’s idea which she desires to be worked out by the assistance of a committee appointed to confer with her. This is the substance of the first letter in which her Majesty speaks as Queen. In the second one it is as wife she speaks; and in that capacity she asks “to join with the nation in the expression of a nation’s gratitude to one to whom it owes so much”. In a matter of this sort the Queen’s will becomes our will as soon as it is known; not only because she is our Queen, and claims our obedience by virtue of a principle which, in the present crisis of human affairs we have learned to value more highly and cling to more tenaciously than ever, but because we are all anxious this Albert Memorial should serve a double purpose; that it should keep green in our hearts the memory of the Prince, and mitigate in some degree the overwhelming sorrow of the Queen. It is of but slight mitigation at most that such sorrow is capable, but inasmuch as it would have been aggravated if the people of England had failed to appreciate Prince Albert’s worth, it must be softened in some measure by their eagerness to raise any monument to him which the Queen may think best.
The above unbiased and fairly written article having evoked a criticism as absurd as it was malicious, a second article on the subject appeared in the Gazette, a week later as follows:-
