ADDRESS OF CONDOLENCE TO HER MAJESTY. (Hansard, 18 March 1861)

§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

—Sir, the House is already aware of the deep affliction which has befallen Her Majesty in the death of her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and I am sure I am not prematurely asking the House to perform that which is an act of mournful satisfaction, in tendering to Her Majesty the respectful condolence of the House on the melancholy event to which I have just adverted. Sir, I am persuaded that in making this proposal I am only meeting the feelings that animate every Member of this House—in whose breasts glow the most fervent personal attachment to Her Majesty, and who, therefore, take the deepest interest in everything which concerns her happiness and welfare. I am sure there is no occasion on which this House is a more faithful expounder and organ of the feelings of the nation than when they tender to Her Majesty the expression of their sympathy in all that affects her, and of their most ardent attachment to her person as well as of loyalty to her Throne. Sir, the event that we are deploring is one which is a part of the usual dispensations of nature. Parents must be expected not to outlive their children, but whenever that separation happens it is a wrenching of natural ties, which must always be painful, although circumstances must vary the degree of their intensity. It is the usual lot of Royal families that mothers and daughters are 2156 separated at an early period of the life of the children. Marriage takes the daughter to another land from that inhabited by the mother, and, although that separation in no degree diminishes the strength of natural affection, yet, nevertheless, the habitual separation in some degree mitigates and prepares the more perpetual separation which the course of nature may bring about. But that has not been the case in the present instance. From the earliest infancy of Her Majesty, the mother and the daughter have been perpetually together, and their daily intercourse has been that of mutual affection and reciprocal confidence. To the care and attention of the late Duchess of Kent we owe in a great degree that full development which we so much admire of all those great and eminent qualities by which our Sovereign is distinguished; while, on the other hand, the affectionate care of the Sovereign has enabled her to repay by her kindness and attention those advantages which the mother was able to confer in the earliest years of her daughter's existence. Therefore, it is natural that this blow, however in the ordinary course of nature, has come upon Her Majesty with great and intense pain, and I am persuaded that this House will feel that it is but discharging a satisfactory duty in conveying to Her Majesty, by the Address I now propose, the expression of their respectful condolence, their devoted attachment and loyalty to the Crown, and the deep interest which they feel in everything that affects the welfare and happiness of Her Majesty in her domestic circle. I, therefore, propose to the House that they shall agree to an Address which shall express our deep concern at the great loss which Her Majesty has sustained by the death of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and to condole with Her Majesty on this melancholy occasion, and to assure Her Majesty that, animated by feelings of devoted loyalty to Her Majesty's Throne and of affectionate attachment to Her Majesty's Person, we shall ever take a warm interest in all events that concern Her Majesty's domestic happiness.

§ MR. DISRAELI

Sir, I rise to second this Address of condolence to Her Majesty on an occasion of no common sorrow. The ties which united Her Majesty to her lamented parent were not only of an intimate, but of a peculiar character. In the history of our reigning House none were ever placed as this widowed Princess and her Royal child. Never before devolved on a 2157 delicate sex a more august or a more awful responsibility. How those great duties were encountered—how fulfilled—may be read in the conscience of a grateful and a loyal people. Therefore, notwithstanding the serene retirement of her life, the name of the Duchess of Kent will remain in our history from its interesting and benignant connection with an illustrious reign. Sir, for the great grief which has fallen on the Queen there is only one source of human consolation—the recollection of unbroken devotedness to the being whom we have loved and whom we have lost. That tranquilizing and sustaining memory is the inheritance of our Sovereign. It is generally supposed that the anguish of affection is scarcely compatible with the pomp of power, but that is not so in the present instance. She who reigns over us has elected, and all the splendour of empire, to establish her life on the principle of domestic love. It is this—it is the remembrance and consciousness of this which now sincerely saddens the public spirit, permits a nation to bear its heartfelt sympathy to the foot of a bereaved Throne, and whisper solace even to a Royal heart.