THE QUEEN'S SCHOOLMASTER.
IT seems, the frequent attendance of Lord MELBOURNE at the Palace, which has been so frequently and with so much levity commented upon, was rendered necessary by his conscientious at- tention to the discharge of a most important office. In addition to the onerous duties of Prime Minister, his Lordship has most sedu- lously (and we believe gratuitously, except in so far as he had, like Dr. O'Toole, " the run of the kitchen") discharged those of her Majesty's private tutor. The Duke of WELLINGTON is our au- thority for this fact. "I have always," said his Grace on Tuesday evening, "considered the noble Viscount as having rendered the greatest possible service to her Majesty : I have reason to know that her Majesty herself entertains the opinion that the noble Vis- count did render her the greatest possible service, in 'making her acquainted with the laws, policy, and customs connected with the government of this country, over which she was by right destined to preside; and God long protect her in it!" The illustrious Duke has no great confidence in Lord MELBOURNE as a Prime Minister, for he joins with Sir ROBERT PEEL to turn him out ; but he has the highest opinion of his talents as a private tutor, and, not con- tented with the eulogium we have already quoted, he again returned to the subject—" I have always respected the noble Viscount for the service which I know be has rendered to her Majesty." We know not whether the Liberal party may be altogetherinclined to augur favour- ably of the system of tuition which meets with such unqualified ap- probation from the Duke of WELLINGTON. It is something for Lord MELBOURNE, however, that he can produce so good a character from his last place. We say this on the supposition that his services will not be much longer required—or rather permitted—at the Palace. To say nothing of Sir ROBERT PEEL, the Duke himself seems rather to question the expediency of prescribing such themes in political economy to her Majesty as that which was read in the House of Lords last Tuesday as a sample of her proficiency. But the Duke's recommendation will go a great way ; and the young Queens of Spain and Portugal may be inclined, with such a certificate, to profit by Lord MELBOURNE'S prelections, now that Queen VICTORIA'S Lehr-jahre are at an end. The emphatic man- ner in which the Duke dwells upon her Majesty's satisfaction with her tutor, might indeed induce persons addicted to " petty and snarling misrepresentations " to imagine Lord MELBOURNE a peda- gogue of the Pangloss or O'Toole class : but that might, after all, be no drawback in the estimation of his pupils. The new Whig doctrine, that the Royal Speech is to be received with reverential humility as the speech of the Sovereign, (so strikingly contrasted with the sturdy doctrine of CHARLES Fox, that it was to be treated according to its deserts as the speech of the Ministers,) is well cal- culated to find favour in the eyes of young lady Sovereigns. We wonder whether in his prelections Lord MELBOURNE used a text-book of his own, (if he did, he may be induced to publish it as an amusement for his retirement,) or adopted the works of some popular writer? LARDNER has some that might serve—of course we mean the editor of the Cyclopedia.
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