It  has,  however,  become  tolerably  clear,  from  correspondence
since  published,  that  during  all  these  years  the  Queen  was  much
more  subject  than  had  at  one  time  been  supposed  to  the  political
influence  of  Prince  Albert,  and  especially  of  Baron  Stockmar  and
King  Leopold,  Thus  the  jealousy  which  still  lingered  in  the
national  heart  toward  the  Prince,  aud  the  reserve  with  which  he
was  treated  by  Lord  Palmerston,  both  then  and  later  on,  is
neither  unexplained  nor  altogether  unjustified.
In  1845  and  1846  the  condition  of  England  and  Ireland  was
highly  critical.  In  the  former  country  there  was  great  social
distress  ;  in  the  latter  there  were  both  distress  and  disaffection,
and  the  Queen  was  obliged  indefinitely  to  postpone  her  visit  to
her  subjects  on  the  other  side  of  St.  George's  Channel.  The
Spanish  marriages  which  were  announced,  and  which  took  place
shortly  after  the  accession  of  Lord  Russell  to  power,  in  1846,  with
Lord  Palmerston  at  the  Foreign  Office,  violating  as  they  did  exist-
ing European  treaties,  were  the  prelude  to  the  first  grave  diplo-
matic complication  of  which  the  Queen  had  had  experience,


EPOCHS    IN    VICTORIA'S    REIGN.
l57


But  such  events  as  the  Polish  insurrection  and  the  Portu-
guese difficulty,  which  immediately  followed  these  marriages,
served  not  only  to  try  the  powers  of  the  Queen,  but  also  demon-
strated that  she  possessed  capacities  of  a  high  order.
