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QUEEN VICTORIA A BIOGRAPHY BY SIDNEY LEE EDITOR OF THE DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY WITH PORTRAITS, FACSIMILE, AND MAP NEW AND REVISED EDITION LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1904 PEEFAGE TO THE NEW EDITION I AM grateful for the welcome which was accorded this work by the press and the public at home, in the Colonies, and in the United States of America, on its publication at the end of 1902. I hope that this cheaper edition may extend the ranks of its readers. In revising the biography for re-issue I have taken advantage of the communications of correspon dents who have been kind enough to send me some corrections and additional information A few of these correspondents were in one capacity or another in close relations with the late Queen, and have given me the results of first-hand knowledge. Of the new light which Mr. John Moiieys lately published Life of Gladstone has thrown on Queen Victorias personal relations with the longest-lived of her Prime Ministers I have also availed myself in this revision of my work. Mr. Morleys volumes form a contribution of first-rate importance to the history of the Queens reign, and they place 11 Vi QUEEN VICTOBIA students of tlie subject under vast obligations. One or two other books, which illustrate in a compara tively small way episodes in the Queens career, have come into my hands for the first time in the course of recent months. These volumes include The His tory of Lord Lyttons Indian Administration, 1876-1880, by Lady Betty Balfour 1899 Eecollections of a Eoyal Parish by Mrs. Patricia Lindsay 1902 and Letters of a Diplomats Wife by Mary King Waddington 1903. Although the new details which I have derived from such sources areslight in them selves, they help, I think, to make my picture a little more complete. During my absence in America through the first half of last year, my publishers found it necessary to omit a few passages from the third and fourth im pressions of the book. These omissions did not affect the general narrative, but it was not possible for me at the time personally to supervise the making of them. This the present re-issue has given me the opportunity of doing. None of the alterations or additions which the text has undergone since it was first presented to the public in any way affects the scheme or tone of the biography. My endeavour has been throughout to pay due respect alike to the honoured memory of the late Queen, and to those just and independent principles which alone give historical writing any value. R. L P Januai-y 2, 1904, PREFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION THIS work is based on the biographical notice of Queen Victoria which was published in the third Supplementary Volume of the Dictionary of National Biography in October 1901. I undertook that article at the earnest request of the public-spirited proprietor of the Dictionary, the late Mr. George Smith, who impressed on me the imperative need of observing in the notice of the Queen that sense of proportion and that regard for exact detail which distinguished other contributions to the Dictionary and were essential characteristics of its general scheme. I set to work on the memoir with some misgiving. I was fully conscious of its difficulty. But I did what I could to execute the task in the spirit in which it was confided to me. The article in the Dictionary was on its publica tion favourably received by the press and the publicas a first serious attempt at an exhaustive account of 1 A few words are omitted in this reprint of the original preface. a viii QUEEN VICTORIA the Queens long and varied life, and of her relations with public affairs. A general wish was at once expressed for the independent re-issue of the article, and with that wish I have here complied. In order to fit the memoir for separate publication, I have found it necessary substantially to re-write it...

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