The Princess Victoria was henceforward the living symbol of the victory of the middle classes.
The Duke of Cumberland, on the other hand, suffered a corresponding eclipse: his claws had been pared by the Reform Act.

He grew insignificant and almost harmless, though his ugliness remained; he was the wicked uncle still--but only of a story.
The Duchess's own liberalism was not very profound.

She followed naturally in the footsteps of her husband, repeating with conviction the catchwords of her husband's clever friends and the generalisations of her clever brother Leopold.

She herself had no pretensions to cleverness; she did not understand very much about the Poor Law and the Slave Trade and Political Economy; but she hoped that she did her duty; and she hoped--she ardently hoped--that the same might be said of Victoria.

Her educational conceptions were those of Dr.Arnold, whose views were just then beginning to permeate society.