Instinctively conservative, he nevertheless looked askance at the repressive Russian regime. In the autumn of 1905, he had instructed Hardinge to convey personally to his nephew ‘my hope that he may find himself able to grant a more liberal form of Government to his Country’.16 Even so, nothing could excuse such an insult to a foreign sovereign who was also a close relation. Three of the MPs who had caused him particular offence were duly scratched from the guest list of a garden party to be held at Windsor Castle.
