We publish this week a review of the new volume
of Queen Victoria's Letters. In this connexion we were glad to see an admirable appreciation of Queen Victoria's character by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Times of Wednesday. No one has described better how she combined dignity and charm with shyness and humility. We have all come across instances of the inevitable separation of royal persons from some of the phenomena of ordinary life, but we cannot remember a more striking illustration of this than Queen Victoria's remark to the Archbishop that she had never seen a railway ticket. This is perhaps even more memorable than a remark made by • the late Duke of Devonshire. Somebody mentioned napkin rings, and he asked what they were. When it was explained to him that people below a certain level of wealth who wished to use table- napkins but could not afford a fresh one at every meal had hit upon the device of distinguishing their own napkins by means of rings, he exclaimed with equal sincerity and surprise, " Good God I " Even if the Archbishop had had much less of interest to say in his article, it would still have been notable for the finely critical letter which he quotes from Lord Rosebery.
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