The Queen on Saturday paid a visit to Lord Beaconsfield
in state, received an address at Wycombe, lunched at Hughenden, and returned after an absence of four hours to Windsor. Such a visit is so unusual, and the honour is considered, in Court circles, so great, that the wildest interpretations have been put upon its meaning, Her Majeaty, it is said, has just published through Mr. Theodore Martin a strong party pamphlet against Russia, she has selected the newest Peer in the country for a great social honour because he is anti-Russian, and she must intend to signify that she is personally on the anti-Russian side. Gossip of this kind, as it seems to us, is most derogatory to Her Majesty. Queen Victoria has been through her whole life a strictly Constitutional Sovereign, and devoted to her people, and is as utterly incapable of publicly taking sides in a great political controversy as of assisting to plunge her people into an unjust and unnecessary war. Careers do not break suddenly in that way, and if, on the 18th January, Lord Beaconsfield is turned out, Lord Granville will receive from her Majesty, whatever his policy, a most sincere and loyal support. The peace of the world is not endangered because the Queen pleases to gratify an old servant's love for social dis- tinction, and for those especial reverences which in this country are reserved, very foolishly, for the highly-born. The incident is simply another instance of the Queen's unfailing kindliness to all with whom the Constitution brings her in contact.
