If we attempt to estimate the working of this inner power by the evidence of those, whether dead or living, who have been brought in contact with it, we shall find a singular difference.  Both the courtiers of George III. and the courtiers of Queen Victoria are agreed as to the magnitude of the royal influence.  It is with both an accepted secret doctrine that the Crown does more than it seems.  But there is a wide discrepancy in opinion as to the quality of that action.  Mr. Fox did not scruple to describe the hidden influence of George III. as the undetected agency of “an infernal spirit”.  The action of the Crown at that period was the dread and terror of Liberal politicians.  But now the best Liberal politicians say, “We shall never know, but when history is written our children may know, what we owe to the Queen and Prince Albert”.  The mystery of the Constitution, which used to be hated by our calmest, most thoughtful, and instructed statesmen, is now loved and reverenced by them.

Before we try to account for this change, there is one part of the duties of the Queen which should be struck out of the discussion.  I mean the formal part.  The Queen has to assent to and sign countless formal documents, which contain no matter of policy, of which the purport is insignificant, which any clerk could sign as well.  One great class of documents George III. used to read before he signed them, till Lord Thurlow told him, “It was nonsense his looking at them, for he could not understand them”.  But the worst case is that of commissions in the army.  Till an Act passed only three years since the Queen used to sign all military commissions, and she still signs all fresh commissions.  The inevitable and natural consequence is that such commissions were, and to some extent still are, in arrears by thousands.  Men have often been known to receive their commissions for the first time years after they have left the service.  If the Queen had been an ordinary officer she would long since have complained, and long since have been relieved of this slavish labour.  A cynical statesman is said to have defended it on the ground “that you may have a fool for a sovereign, and then it would be desirable he should have plenty of occupation in which he can do no harm”.  But it is in truth childish to heap formal duties of business upon a person who has of necessity so many formal duties of society.  It is a remnant of the old days when George III. would know everything, however trivial, and assent to everything, however insignificant.  These labours of routine may be dismissed from the discussions.  It is not by them that the sovereign acquires his authority either for evil or for good.