An important step was taken when, before the birth of the Princess Royal, the Prince, without any opposition in Parliament, was appointed Regent in case of the death of the Queen.  Stockmar, owing to whose intervention with the Tories this happy result had been brought about, now felt himself at liberty to take a holiday with his family in Coburg; but his solicitude, poured out in innumerable letters, still watched over his pupil from afar.  “Dear Prince,” he wrote, “I am satisfied with the news you have sent me.  Mistakes, misunderstandings, obstructions, which come in vexatious opposition to one’s views, are always to be taken for just what they are—­namely, natural phenomena of life, which represent one of its sides, and that the shady one.  In overcoming them with dignity, your mind has to exercise, to train, to enlighten itself; and your character to gain force, endurance, and the necessary hardness.”  The Prince had done well so far; but he must continue in the right path; above all, he was “never to relax.”  “Never to relax in putting your magnanimity to the proof; never to relax in logical separation of what is great and essential from what is trivial and of no moment; never to relax in keeping yourself up to a high standard—­in the determination, daily renewed, to be consistent, patient, courageous.”  It was a hard programme perhaps, for a young man of twenty-one; and yet there was something in it which touched the very depths of Albert’s soul.  He sighed, but he listened—­listened as to the voice of a spiritual director inspired with divine truth.  “The stars which are needful to you now,” the voice continued, “and perhaps for some time to come, are Love, Honesty, Truth.  All those whose minds are warped, or who are destitute of true feeling, will be apt to mistake you, and to persuade themselves and the world that you are not the man you are—­or, at least, may become...  Do you, therefore, be on the alert be times, with your eyes open in every direction...  I wish for my Prince a great, noble, warm, and true heart, such as shall serve as the richest and surest basis for the noblest views of human nature, and the firmest resolve to give them development.”

Before long, the decisive moment came.  There was a General Election, and it became certain that the Tories, at last, must come into power.  The Queen disliked them as much as ever; but, with a large majority in the House of Commons, they would now be in a position to insist upon their wishes being attended to.  Lord Melbourne himself was the first to realise the importance of carrying out the inevitable transition with as little friction as possible; and with his consent, the Prince, following up the rapprochement which had begun over the Regency Act, opened, through Anson, a negotiation with Sir Robert Peel.  In a series of secret interviews, a complete understanding was reached upon the difficult and complex question of the Bedchamber.  It was agreed that the constitutional