Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

“ Two large streams known as the North and South Saskatchewan unite near Prince Albert, and thence flow E. into Lake Winnipeg. The North Saskatchewan rises in the Rocky Mountains in 52° 07' N..and 117° 06′ W., and flows east, though with many windings, receiving several important tributaries, including the Clearwater, Brazeau and Battle. The South Saskatchewan is formed by the union of the Bow and the Belly, the former and larger of which rises in western Alberta in one of the highest districts of the Rockies. ”

“ Bredin referred briefly to a trip he made east from Athabaska district during the summer of 1906, when he travelled from McMurray up Clearwater river and thence across to Prince Albert. The land on Clearwater river for one hundred miles, in the bottoms, is very good. It appeared to him, from the river, however, to be very sandy back on the high rocks. He should think there would be a good deal of rock and muskeg. From where he left Clearwater river in to Prince Albert, on the North Saskatchewan, the country was more or less of a sandy nature. ”

“ On the formation of the province of Saskatchewan in 1905 the choice of capital was left to the first legislature of the province. Prince Albert, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon all advanced claims, but Regina was decided on as the capital. It probably doubled in population between 1905 and 1907. Its public buildings, churches and residences are worthy of a place of greater pretensions. It is the centre for a rich agricultural district, and for legislation, education, law and other public benefits. ”

“ Available Homesteads.—Northern Saskatchewan has not yet been opened to any extent for settlement. There are approximately 80 million acres beyond the railway at Prince Albert which time, zeal, and railway enterprise will eventually make accessible. Furs, forest wealth, and fisheries are recognized as a national asset, but thousands of acres of fertile land lie beyond the existing lines of railway awaiting development. Northern Saskatchewan has natural resources sufficient to maintain a population equal to that of any European country in corresponding latitude. ”

“ At this time the large expense of an establishment like Prince Albert was meeting opposition in the Church and this, along with the other considerations stated, brought much trouble to the venerable convener in regard to the mission which he loved as a child of his own. In 1872 Dr. Moore, of Ottawa, went as a delegate to the Saskatchewan, in behalf of the General Assembly. ”

“ Candidate for the Liberal Conservatives, Dominion General Election, 1896, when defeated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, elected as member of the House of Commons for the Constituency of Prince Albert in 1911, at the General Elections, which seat he resigned on being appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Saskatchewan, being succeeded by Lt.-Col. Samuel James Donaldson, who was elected to fill the vacancy by acclamation. His lordship has one daughter, Marion. He is a member of the Church of England and a Free Mason, and a Forester. Recreations, shooting, riding, tennis and bowling. ”

“ North of the end of steel extends 75 per cent of this rich Province, yet unexploited. When the railways push into the Athabaska and the Peace, it will be realized that Alberta owns an empire north of the Saskatchewan, a country set apart by nature to provide homes for millions of agrarian people. ”

“ It has been immortalized by his upright character, his rare intellectual gifts, his goodness and grace; by the affection of his countrymen and his noble life-work in England; by the genius of England's greatest living poet, and by the love and sorrow of England's Queen.
While the Prince was yet a baby, his mother wrote of him: "Albert is superb,—remarkably beautiful, with large blue eyes, a delicate mouth, a fine nose, and dimpled cheeks. He is lively and always gay."
Albert was the second son of the Duke and Duchess. ”

“ Not only was Prince Albert remarkably handsome and amiable, but he had sedulously cultivated natural gifts of a very high order. He had made himself a good musician, he had penetrated far in natural science, made a special study of social politics, and was well read in general literature. He was known to have steered a clear course among the temptations which peculiarly beset a young man of princely rank and fortune. All this he might have been, and yet, had there not been something to balance it, he might have proved no fitting consort of the young Queen of the English. ”

“ Pining for what one cannot have, and trying to run after what is pleasantest, invariably ends in disappointment."
As soon as parliament closed in the spring the court removed to Windsor Castle, where Prince Albert's health improved very much. On the first of May a prince was born, and, as he came into the world on the eighty-first birthday of the Duke of Wellington, it was decided to name him after that great general. Arthur William Patrick Albert were the names bestowed on the royal infant at his christening, the old duke and the present Emperor of Germany being sponsors. ”

“ At length a cheer without, and a flourish of trumpets within, announce the arrival of the Queen—and the Prince, who, by the idea of this Exhibition, has given to Royal Consortship a new glory, or, rather, has rendered for ever illustrious, in his own case, a position too often vibrating between the mischievous and the insignificant. Prince Albert has done a great service to humanity, and earned imperishable fame for himself by an idea, the greatness of which, instead of becoming less, will appear still greater as it recedes from us.... ”

“ His father’s sister married the duke of Kent, and her daughter, afterwards Queen Victoria of England, Prince Albert’s wife, was thus his first cousin. They were born in the same year. Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, were close companions in youth, and were educated under the care of Consistorialrath Florschütz, subsequently proceeding to the university of Bonn. There Prince Albert devoted himself especially to natural science, political economy and philosophy, having for teachers such men as Fichte, Schlegel and Perthes ”

“ So you see, that small things are of great importance, after all."
"I thought it was to be a great bazaar, and not a garden, Grandmama," said Frank.
"And you are right, for in the first instance it is destined to receive specimens of the industry of the whole world and a novel and a grand idea it is,—for which we have to thank Prince Albert, who is not only almost the highest person in the land, but also one of the wisest and the best; and often should we thank God for giving us so good a Queen and Prince, so very different to many that you read about in history." ”

“ The queen is popular, and is clearly a woman of great tact. She would do at a crisis. Prince Albert is everything to her. He is a profoundly wise and prudent man, highly educated, and has very superior powers of mind. He is continually making speeches, but they are all marked by adaptation. I have never heard one disrespectful word uttered in England in regard to him. His labors for the exhibition, have been remarkable, and but for the prince the palace never would have been reared. England is happy indeed in having such a man to counsel and support the sovereign. ”

“ On the contrary, the Prince had evidently persuaded himself that his daughter’s marriage would be very popular in Germany—more popular than it happened to be just then in England. Like most men of high, strong, narrow character, Prince Albert never allowed himself to perceive what at the moment he did not wish to see.
This view is entirely borne out by the letters which Prince Albert wrote then and later to the Prince of Prussia. Even when addressing one who was far older than himself, and already in the position of a ruler, he always assumed the attitude of mentor rather than of adviser ”

“ During the three years that had passed since his former visit Prince Albert had grown tall, and had developed into a handsome man. He had a sweet expression, a bright, intelligent countenance, broad forehead, and clear blue eyes. The young queen was perfectly delighted with the change that had taken place in him, and on the very day of his arrival at Windsor Castle wrote her uncle: "Albert's beauty is most striking, and he is most amiable and unaffected,—in short, very fascinating. The young men are amiable, delightful companions, and I am very happy to have them here." ”

“ The prince and his brother Alfred during the Crimean war were busy over miniature fortifications in the grounds.
The gravest defect in Prince Albert's deliberate scheme of education was the practical isolation which it imposed on the prince from boys of his own age. Prince Albert to a greater extent than the queen held that members of the royal family and especially the heir-apparent should keep aloof from their subjects, and deprecated intercourse save in ceremonial fashion. He had a nervous fear of the contaminating influence of boys less carefully trained than his own sons. ”

“ One of her uncle Leopold’s most cherished plans was that the princess should marry her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg; and when she was seventeen, he arranged that Prince Albert, who was a few months younger, should visit England with his father and elder brother. The visit was a great success. The princess wrote to her uncle: “They are both very amiable, very good and kind, and extremely merry, just as young people should be. Albert is extremely handsome ... they are excessively fond of music, like me.” ”

“ French ambition. With a view to foiling it she urged her daughter to follow the example alike of the English queen and of the queen of Portugal, and marry into the Saxe-Coburg family. In 1841, when the notion was first put forward, Prince Albert's elder brother Ernest, who was as yet unmarried, was suggested as a desirable suitor ; but on his marriage to another in 1842, Queen Christina designated for her son-in-law Ernest and Albert's first cousin, Prince Leopold, whose brother was already prince consort of Portugal. Prince Albert, who had entertained the young man at Windsor, was consulted. ”

“ But the king looked with no favour on Prince Albert as a suitor for his niece's hand. At any rate, he was resolved to provide her with a wider field of choice, and he therefore invited the prince of Orange and his two sons and Duke William of Brunswick to be his guests at the same period that the Saxe-Coburg princes were in England, and he gave the princess every opportunity of meeting all the young men together. His own choice finally fell on Alexander, the younger son of the prince of Orange. ”

“ As they grew older the girls studied natural history and made large collections of birds and insects. The boys learned something of fortifications under the direction of their father. Prince Albert, both by precept and example, endeavored to make his sons feel the responsibilities belonging to their station. Perhaps he felt that in these days of increasing democratic tendencies only a wise king can maintain his place.
After the death of Prince Albert, the Queen felt it desirable to place in enduring form tributes to his memory. ”

“ Prince Albert has now become one of us. He is, actually, now an English subject. He is tied to us by law and self-interest. Let us bind him to us by gratitude and affection. The happiness of our youthful Queen is now in his hands. He has the means of so directing and assisting her future footsteps, as to retrieve for Her Majesty (we speak with frankness, but with all respect) all she has forfeited in the hearts of the most loyal, enlightened and virtuous of her subjects, through her unhappy bias towards persons and principles which are hourly undermining the deep foundations of her Throne. ”

“ But at Aix-la-Chapelle, in a newspaper which he came across, Prince Albert read the debates and votes in the Houses of Parliament that cut down the ordinary annuity of the English sovereign's consort, and left unsettled the question of his position in the country. The first disappointment told in two ways. Young and sensitive—though he was also resolute and cheerful-minded—he had been a little nervous beforehand about the reception which might be accorded to him in England; he now received a painful impression that the marriage was not popular with the people. ”

“ Of course the life of this queen of the greatest of all European countries, and that of her husband, were not all made up of pleasant domestic duties, and journeyings from Buckingham Palace to Osborne, the summer home on the Isle of Wight, and to Balmoral in Scotland; infinite in number were the demands made by the State on Victoria’s time and on her clear intelligence. Prince Albert, too, was unweariedly busied on public matters. No great enterprise was considered fairly launched, no public building was thought properly opened without a speech from the Prince Consort. ”

“ The king much appreciated the office of god-father. He was chosen instead of the queen's beloved counsellor and maternal uncle, King Leopold of Belgium, for fear of giving offence to her difficult-tempered uncle, King Ernest of Hanover, but the plan hardly produced the desired effect of conciliation. The other German sponsors were absent. They were Prince Albert's stepmother, the duchess of Saxe-Coburg, who was represented by Queen Victoria's mother, the duchess of Kent; Prince Albert's widowed kinswoman, the duchess of Saxe-Gotha, who was represented by the duchess of Cambridge ”

“ Lady Normanby gave a concert at which—wrote a Court lady to a friend—all “sang divinely, the Queen was charmed, and Cousin Albert looked beautiful and slept as quietly as usual, sitting by Lady Normanby.” I have also come across such comments as these: “We hear a great deal of the beauty and pleasing qualities of Prince Albert, [335] who seems to be admired by all.” Stockmar recorded about this time, “The Prince improves morally and politically. I can say with truth that I love him like my son, and that he deserves it.” ”