Clarendon then talked of the Court, and confirmed what I had heard before, going into more detail. He said that the manner in which the Queen in her own name, but with the assistance of the Prince, exercised her functions, was exceedingly good, and well became her position and was eminently useful. She held each Minister to the discharge of his duty and his responsibility to her, and constantly desired to be furnished with accurate and detailed information about all important matters, keeping a record of all the reports that were made to her, and constantly recurring to them, e.g. she would desire to know what the state of the Navy was, and what ships were in readiness for active service, and generally the state of each, ordering returns to be submitted to her from all the arsenals and dockyards, and again weeks or months afterwards referring to these returns, and desiring to have everything relating to them explained and accounted for, and so throughout every department. In this practice Clarendon told me he had encouraged her strenuously. This is what none of her predecessors ever did, and it is in fact the act of Prince Albert, who is to all intents and purposes King, only acting entirely in her name. All his views and notions are those of a Constitutional Sovereign, and he fulfils the duties of one, and at the same time makes the Crown an entity, and discharges the functions which properly belong to the Sovereign. I told Clarendon that I had been told the Prince had upon many occasions rendered the most important services to the Government, and had repeatedly prevented their getting into scrapes of various sorts. He said it was perfectly true, and that he had written some of the ablest papers he had ever read.
Clarendon said he had recently been very much pleased with the Duke of Cambridge, who had shown a great deal of sense and discretion, and a very accurate knowledge of the details of his office, and that he was a much better Commander-in-Chief than Hardinge. He had been lately summoned to the Cabinet on many occasions, and had given great satisfaction there. Clarendon talked of Vernon Smith, of whom he has no elevated opinion, but still thinks him not without merit, and that at this moment it would not be easy to replace him by some one clearly better fitted. He takes pains, is rather clever, and did better in the House of Commons than anybody gave him credit for last session; he makes himself well informed upon everything about his office, and is never at a loss to answer any questions that are put to him, and to answer them satisfactorily.