[Footnote 132: A daughter of George Canning, the Prime Minister.]

[Footnote 133: Afterwards Lord Lytton, the novelist.]

[Footnote 134: The famous country gentleman, "Mr Coke of Norfolk."]

[Footnote 135: Hugh, second Earl, K.G.]

[Footnote 136: The Right Hon. Edward Ellice, M.P. ("Bear" Ellice).]

[Footnote 137: Near Lichfield, a seat of Lord Anglesey.]

[Footnote 138: Lord Fitzwilliam's house, near Rotherham.]

[Footnote 139: Lord Carlisle's house, near York, built by Vanbrugh.]



[Pageheading: HOLLAND AND BELGIUM]

The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.

LAEKEN, 22 October 1841.

... In France there is a great outcry that a Bourbon must be the future husband of the Queen of Spain, etc. I must say that as the Spaniards and the late King changed themselves the Salic custom which Philip V. had brought from France,[140] it is natural for the rest of Europe to wish that no Bourbon should go there. Besides, it must be confessed that the thing is not even easy, as there is great hatred amongst the various branches of that family. The King of the French himself has always been opposed to the idea of one of his sons going there; in France, however, that opinion still exists, and Thiers had it, strongly.

I confess that I regret that Queen Christina was encouraged to settle at Paris, as it gave the thing the appearance of something preconcerted. I believe that a wish existed that Christina would retire peaceably and par la force des circonstances, but now this took a turn which I am sure the King does not like; it places him, besides, into une position ingrate; the Radicals hate him, the Moderates will cry out that he has left them in the lurch, and the Carlists are kept under key, and of course also not much pleased. I meant to have remained in my wilds till yesterday, but my Ministers were so anxious for my return, there being a good many things on the tapis, that I came back on Tuesday, the 19th....

Here one is exactly shut up as if one was in a menagerie, walking round and round like a tame bear. One breathes here also a mixture of all sorts of moist compounds, which one is told is fresh air, but which is not the least like it. I suppose, however, that my neighbour in Holland, where they have not even got a hill as high as yours in Buckingham Gardens, would consider Laeken as an Alpine country. The tender meeting of the old King and the new King,[141] as one can hardly call him a young King, must be most amusing. I am told that if the old King had not made that love-match, he would be perfectly able to dethrone his son; I heard that yesterday from a person rather attached to the son and hating the father. In the meantime, though one can hardly say that he is well at home, some strange mixture of cut-throats and ruined soldiers of fortune had a mind to play us some tricks here; we have got more and more insight into this. Is it by instigation from him personally, or does he only know of it without being a party to it? That is difficult to tell, the more so as he makes immense demonstration of friendly dispositions towards us, and me in particular. I would I could make a chassez croisez with Otho;[142] he would be the gainer in solids, and I should have sun and an interesting country; I will try to make him understand this, the more so as you do not any longer want me in the West.

[Footnote 140: The Pragmatic Sanction of Philip V. was repealed in 1792 by the Cortes, but the repeal was not promulgated by the King. Under the Salic Law, Don Carlos would have been on the throne. See ante, p. 44. (Ch. V, Footnote 9)]

[Footnote 141: William I., who had abdicated in order to marry again, and William II., his son, who was nearly fifty.]

[Footnote 142: The King of Greece, elected in 1833.]



[Pageheading: AMBASSADORS' AUDIENCES]

Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel.

25th October 1841.

With respect to the appointment of Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, the Queen approves of Mr Pennefather[143] for that office. The Queen may be mistaken, for she is not very well acquainted with the judicial officers in Ireland, but it strikes her that Serjeant Jackson belonged to the very violent Orange party in Ireland, and if this should be the case she suggests to Sir Robert Peel whether it would not be better not to appoint him. If, on the other hand, the Queen should be mistaken as to his political opinions, she would not disapprove of his succeeding Mr Pennefather.

The Queen saw in the papers that Lord Stuart de Rothesay is already gone. The Queen can hardly believe this, as no Ambassador or Minister ever left England without previously asking for an Audience and receiving one, as the Queen wishes always to see them before they repair to their posts. Would Sir Robert be so very good as to ask Lord Aberdeen whether Lord Stuart de Rothesay is gone or not, and if he should be, to tell Lord Aberdeen that in future she would wish him always to inform her when they intend to go, and to ask for an Audience, which, if the Queen is well, she would always grant. It is possible that as the Queen said the other day that she did not wish to give many Audiences after the Council, that Lord Aberdeen may have misunderstood this and thought the Queen would give none, which was not her intention. The Queen would be thankful to Sir Robert if he would undertake to clear up this mistake, which she is certain (should Lord Stuart be gone) arose entirely from misapprehension.

The Queen also wishes Sir Robert to desire Lord Haddington to send her some details of the intended reductions in the Fleet which she sees by a draft of Lord Aberdeen's to Mr Bulwer have taken place.[144]

[Footnote 143: Recently appointed Solicitor-General; Sergeant J. D. Jackson now succeeded him.]

[Footnote 144: The statement of the Royal Navy in Commission at the beginning of 1841 sets out 160 vessels carrying 4,277 guns.]



[Pageheading: STOCKMAR AND MELBOURNE]

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S ADVICE]

Memorandum by Baron Stockmar.

25th October 1841.

... I told [Lord Melbourne] that, as I read the English Constitution, it meant to assign to the Sovereign in his functions a deliberative part—that I was not sure the Queen had the means within herself to execute this deliberative part properly, but I was sure that the only way for her to execute her functions at all was to be strictly honest to those men who at the time being were her Ministers. That it was chiefly on this account that I had been so very sorry to have found now, on my return from the Continent, that on the change of the Ministry a capital opportunity to read a great Constitutional maxim to the Queen had not only been lost by Lord Melbourne, but that he had himself turned an instrument for working great good into an instrument which must produce mischief and danger. That I was afraid that, from what Lord Melbourne had been so weak as to have allowed himself to be driven into, against his own and better conviction, the Queen must have received a most pernicious bias, which on any future occasion would make her inclined to act in a similar position similarly to that what she does now, being convinced that what she does now must be right on all future occasions, or else Lord Melbourne would not have sanctioned it. Upon this, Lord Melbourne endeavoured to palliate, to represent the danger, which would arise from his secret correspondence with the Queen as very little, to adduce precedents from history, and to screen his present conduct behind what he imagined Lord Bute's conduct had been under George III.[145] I listened patiently, and replied in the end: All this might be mighty fine and quite calculated to lay a flattering unction on his own soul, or it might suffice to tranquillize the minds of the Prince and Anson, but that I was too old to find the slightest argument in what I had just now heard, nor could it in any way allay my apprehension. I began then to dissect all that he had produced for his excusation, and showed him—as I thought clearly, and as he admitted convincingly—that it would be impossible to carry on this secret commerce with the Sovereign for any length of time without exposing the Queen's character and creating mighty embarrassments in the quiet and regular working of a Constitutional machine.

My representations seemed to make a very deep impression, and Lord Melbourne became visibly nervous, perplexed, and distressed. After he had recovered a little I said, "I never was inclined to obtrude advice; but if you don't dislike to hear my opinion, I am prepared to give it to you." He said, "What is it?" I said, "You allow the Queen's confinement to pass over quietly, and you wait till her perfect recovery of it. As soon as this period has arrived, you state of your own accord to Her Majesty that this secret and confidential correspondence with her must cease; that you gave in to it, much against your feelings, and with a decided notion of its impropriety and danger, and merely out of a sincere solicitude to calm Her Majesty's mind in a critical time, and to prevent the ill effects which great and mental agitation might have produced on her health. That this part of your purpose now being most happily achieved, you thought yourself in duty bound to advise Her Majesty to cease all her communications to you on political subjects, as you felt it wrong within yourself to receive them, and to return your political advice and opinions on such matters; that painful as such a step must be to your feelings, which to the last moment of your life will remain those of the most loyal attachment and devotion to the Queen's person, it is dictated to you by a deep sense of what you owe to the country, to your Sovereign, and to yourself."

[Footnote 145: For some time after the accession of George III., Bute, though neither in the Cabinet nor in Parliament, was virtually Prime Minister, but he became Secretary of State on 25th March 1761. George II. had disliked him, but he was generally believed to have exercised an undue influence over the consort of Prince Frederic of Wales, mother of George III.]



Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel.

26th October 1841.

With respect to Serjeant Jackson, the Queen will not oppose his appointment, in consequence of the high character Sir Robert Peel gives him; but she cannot refrain from saying that she very much fears that the favourable effect which has hitherto been produced by the formation of so mild and conciliatory a Government in Ireland, may be endangered by this appointment, which the Queen would sincerely regret.



Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 26th October 1841.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and returns your Majesty the letters of the King of the Belgians, with many thanks. It certainly is a very unfortunate thing that the Queen Christina was encouraged to fix her residence at Paris, and the suspicion arising, therefore, cannot but be very injurious both to the King of the French and to the French nation.

Lord Melbourne returns his warmest thanks for your Majesty's kind expressions. He felt the greatest pleasure at seeing your Majesty again and looking so well, and he hopes that his high spirits did not betray him into talking too much or too heedlessly, which he is conscious that they sometimes do.

The King Leopold, Lord Melbourne perceives, still hankers after Greece; but Crowns will not bear to be chopped and changed about in this manner. These new Kingdoms are not too firmly fixed as it is, and it will not do to add to the uncertainty by alteration....



[Pageheading: DISPUTE WITH UNITED STATES]

Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria.

WHITEHALL, 28th October 1841.

... Sir Robert Peel humbly assures your Majesty that he fully participates in the surprise which your Majesty so naturally expresses at the extraordinary intimation conveyed to Mr Fox[146] by the President of the United States.[147]

Immediately after reading Mr Fox's despatch upon that subject, Sir Robert Peel sought an interview with Lord Aberdeen. The measure contemplated by the President is a perfectly novel one, a measure of a hostile and unjustifiable character adopted with pacific intentions.

Sir Robert Peel does not comprehend the object of the President, and giving him credit for the desire to prevent the interruption of amicable relations with this country, Sir Robert Peel fears that the forcible detention of the British Minister, after the demand of passports, will produce a different impression on the public mind, both here and in the United States, from that which the President must (if he be sincere) have anticipated. It appears to Sir Robert Peel that the object which the President professes to have in view would be better answered by the immediate compliance with Mr Fox's demand for passports, and the simultaneous despatch of a special mission to this country conveying whatever explanations or offers of reparation the President may have in contemplation.

Sir Robert Peel humbly assures your Majesty that he has advised such measures of preparation to be taken in respect to the amount of disposable naval force, and the position of it, as without bearing the character of menace or causing needless disquietude and alarm, may provide for an unfavourable issue of our present differences with the United States.

Sir Robert Peel fears that when the President ventured to make to Mr Fox the communication which he did make, he must have laboured under apprehension that M'Leod might be executed in spite of the efforts of the general Government of the United States to save his life.

[Footnote 146: British Minister at Washington.]

[Footnote 147: One Alexander M'Leod was tried at Utica on the charge of being implicated in the destruction of the Caroline (an American vessel engaged in carrying arms to the Canadian rebels), in 1837, and in the death of Mr Durfee, an American. The vessel had been boarded by Canadian loyalists when lying in American waters, set on fire and sent over Niagara Falls, and in the affray Durfee was killed. M'Leod was apprehended on American territory, and hence arose the friction between the two countries. M'Leod was acquitted 12th October 1841.]



[Pageheading: PORTUGAL]

Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, 31st October 1841.

The Queen received yesterday evening Lord Aberdeen's letter with the accompanying despatches and draft. She certainly is surprised at the strange and improper tone in which Lord Howard's[148] despatches are written, and can only attribute them to an over-eager and, she fully believes, mistaken feeling of the danger to which he believes the throne of the Queen to be exposed.

The Queen has carefully perused Lord Aberdeen's draft, which she highly approves, but wishes to suggest to Lord Aberdeen whether upon further consideration it might not perhaps be as well to soften the words under which she has drawn a pencil line, as she fears they might irritate Lord Howard very much.

The Queen is induced to copy the following sentences from a letter she received from her cousin, the King of Portugal, a few days ago, and which it may be satisfactory to Lord Aberdeen to see:—

"Je dois encore vous dire que nous avons toutes les raisons de nous louer de la maniere dont le Portugal est traite par votre Ministre des Affaires Etrangeres, et nous ferons de notre cote notre possible pour prouver notre bonne volonte."

[Footnote 148: Lord Howard de Walden, Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon.]



[Pageheading: SECRETARIES OF STATE]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 1st November 1841.

... Now for His Royal Highness's questions....

How the power of Prime Ministry grew up into its present form it is difficult to trace precisely, as well as how it became attached, as it were, to the office of First Commissioner of the Treasury. But Lord Melbourne apprehends that Sir Robert Walpole was the first man in whose person this union of powers was decidedly established, and that its being so arose from the very great confidence which both George I. and George II. reposed in him, and from the difficulty which they had in transacting business, particularly George I., from their imperfect knowledge of the language of the country.

With respect to the Secretary of State, Lord Melbourne is not prepared from memory to state the dates at which the different arrangements of that office have taken place. There was originally but one officer, and at the present the three are but the heads of the different departments of one office. The first division was into two, and they were called the Secretary for the Northern and the Secretary for the Southern department. They drew a line across the world, and each transacted the business connected with the countries within his own portion of the globe. Another division then took place, and the Foreign affairs were confided to one Secretary of State, and the Home and Colonial affairs to the other; but the present arrangement was finally settled in the year 1793, when the junction was formed between Mr Pitt on the one hand, and those friends of Mr Fox who left him because they differed with him upon the French Revolution. The Home affairs were placed in the hands of one Secretary of State, the Foreign of another, and the Colonial and Military affairs of a third, and this arrangement has continued ever since.[149] The persons then appointed were the Duke of Portland,[150] Lord Grenville,[151] and Mr Dundas,[152] Home, Foreign, and Colonial Secretaries.

Writing from recollection, it is very possible that Lord Melbourne may be wrong in some of the dates which he has ventured to specify.[153]

[Footnote 149: A fourth Secretary of State was added at the time of the Crimean War, so as to separate Colonial and Military affairs, and a fifth after the Indian Mutiny to supersede the President of the Board of Control. See Lord Melbourne's letter of 31st December 1837, ante, p. 100. (Ch. VI, 'State Departments')]

[Footnote 150: Third Duke (1738-1809).]

[Footnote 151: William Wyndham, Lord Grenville (1759-1834).]

[Footnote 152: Henry Dundas (1742-1811), afterwards Lord Melville.]

[Footnote 153: See post, pp. 358, 359. (Ch. X, 'The English Constitution', et seq.)]



[Pageheading: THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 4th November 1841.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has this morning had the honour and pleasure of receiving your Majesty's letter of yesterday....

Lord Melbourne sends a letter which he has received from his sister, which may not be unentertaining. Lady Palmerston is struck, as everybody is who goes to Ireland, with the candid warmth and vehement demonstration of feeling. England always appears cold, heartless, and sulky in comparison....

With respect to the questions put to me by your Majesty at the desire of His Royal Highness, Lord Melbourne begs leave to assure your Majesty that he will be at all times most ready and anxious to give any information in his power upon points of this sort, which are very curious, very important, very worthy to be enquired into, and upon which accurate information is not easily to be found. All the political part of the English Constitution is fully understood, and distinctly stated in Blackstone and many other books, but the Ministerial part, the work of conducting the executive government, has rested so much on practice, on usage, on understanding, that there is no publication to which reference can be made for the explanation and description of it. It is to be sought in debates, in protests, in letters, in memoirs, and wherever it can be picked up. It seems to be stupid not to be able to say at once when two Secretaries of State were established; but Lord Melbourne is not able. He apprehends that there was but one until the end of Queen Anne's reign, and that two were instituted by George I., probably because upon his frequent journeys to Hanover he wanted the Secretary of State with him, and at the same time it was necessary that there should be an officer of the same authority left at home to transact the domestic affairs.

Prime Minister is a term belonging to the last century. Lord Melbourne doubts its being to be found in English Parliamentary language previously. Sir Robert Walpole was always accused of having introduced and arrogated to himself an office previously unknown to the Law and Constitution, that of Prime or Sole Minister, and we learn from Lady Charlotte Lindsay's[154] accounts of her father, that in his own family Lord North would never suffer himself to be called prime Minister, because it was an office unknown to the Constitution. This was a notion derived from the combined Whig and Tory opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, to which Lord North and his family had belonged.

Lord Melbourne is very sorry to hear that the Princess Royal continues to suffer from some degree of indisposition. From what your Majesty had said more than once before, Lord Melbourne had felt anxiety upon this subject, and he saw the Baron yesterday, who conversed with him much upon it, and informed him of what had taken place. Lord Melbourne hopes that your Majesty will attribute it only to Lord Melbourne's anxious desire for the security and increase of your Majesty's happiness, if he ventures to say that the Baron appears to him to have much reason in what he urges, and in the view which he takes. It is absolutely required that confidence should be reposed in those who are to have the management and bear the responsibility, and that they should not be too much interrupted or interfered with.

[Footnote 154: Daughter of Lord North (afterwards Earl of Guilford) and wife of Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. John Lindsay. She lived till 1849—a link with the past.]



[Pageheading: SECRETARIES OF STATE]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 5th November 1841.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Not feeling satisfied of the correctness of the information which he had given to your Majesty respecting the office of Secretary of State, he yesterday evening requested Mr Allen[155] to look into the matter, and he has just received from him the enclosed short memorandum, which he has the honour of transmitting to your Majesty. This shows that Lord Melbourne was quite wrong with respect to the period at which two Secretaries of State were first employed, and that it was much earlier than he had imagined.

The year 1782, when the third Secretary of State was abolished, was the period of the adoption of the great measure of Economical Reform which had been introduced by Mr. Burke in 1780.

The present arrangement was settled in 1794, which is about the time which Lord Melbourne stated.

[Footnote 155: Secretary and Librarian at Holland House.]



[Pageheading: LORD MELBOURNE'S POSITION]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 7th November 1841.

... Your Majesty asks whether Lord Melbourne thinks that Prince Metternich holds the opinion of Sir Robert Gordon, which he expresses to Lord Beauvale. It is difficult to say what Prince Metternich's real sentiments are. Lord Melbourne takes him not to have a very high opinion of the abilities of others in general, and he is not unlikely to depreciate Sir Robert Gordon to Lord Beauvale. Sir Robert Gordon is a man of integrity, but he is tiresome, long and pompous, which cannot be agreeable to the Prince, who has about him much of the French vivacity, and also much of their settled and regular style of argument....

With respect to the latter part of your Majesty's letter, Lord Melbourne returns for the expressions of your Majesty's kindness his warm and grateful thanks. Your Majesty may rest assured that he will always speak to your Majesty without scruple or reserve, and that he will never ask anything of your Majesty, or ever make a suggestion, which he does not consider to be for your Majesty's service and advantage. Lord Melbourne is of opinion that his visits to the Palace should not only avoid exciting suspicion and uneasiness in your Majesty's present advisers, a result of which he has very little apprehension, but they should not be so frequent as to attract public notice, comment, and observation, of which he would be more fearful. A public rumour, however unfounded and absurd, has more force in this country than objections which have in them more of truth and reality. Upon these grounds, and as your Majesty will probably not see much company at present, and the parties therefore will be a good deal confined to the actual Household, Lord Melbourne thinks it would perhaps be as well if he were not again to dine at the Palace at present.

The course which it may be prudent to take hereafter will depend very much upon that which cannot now be foreseen, namely, upon the general course which will be taken by politics and political parties. In this Lord Melbourne does not at present discern his way, and he will not therefore hazard opinions which would not be founded upon any certainty, and might be liable to immediate change and alteration.



[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S ADVICE]

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S EXPOSTULATIONS]

Memorandum: Baron Stockmar to Viscount Melbourne.

23 November 1841.

The apprehension which haunts me since my return to England is well known to you. It was my intention to have written to you upon it some time hereafter, but the contents of a certain letter, sent by you just before your departure, accelerates the execution of my design. From your own expressions used some time back, I was led to expect that you would be glad to take advantage of any fair opportunity which might contribute towards that devoutly to be wished for object, viz., to let a certain correspondence die a natural death. You may easily conceive how much I felt disappointed when I heard that you had written again, without a challenge, and that, without apparent cause, you had volunteered the promise to write from time to time. This happens at a moment when your harassing apprehension received new life and strength from two incidents which I think it my duty to make known to you, and of which the one came to pass before, the other after, your departure from here. Some weeks back I was walking in the streets with Dr Praetorius,[156] when, finding myself opposite the house of one of my friends, it came across my mind to give him a call. Praetorius wanted to leave me, on a conception that, as a stranger, he might obstruct the freedom of our conversation. I insisted, however, on his remaining with me, and we were shown into the drawing-room, where in all there were five of us. For some minutes the conversation had turned on insignificant things, when the person talking to me said quite abruptly: "So I find the Queen is in daily correspondence with Lord Melbourne." I replied, "Who told you this?" The answer was, "Mrs Norton; she told me the other evening. Don't you believe that Lord Melbourne has lost his influence over the Queen's mind; he daily writes to her, and receives as many answers, in which she communicates everything to him." Without betraying much emotion I said, "I don't believe a word of it; the Queen may have written once or twice on private matters, but the daily correspondence on all matters is certainly the amplification of a thoughtless and imprudent person, who is not aware of such exaggerated assertions." My speech was followed by a general silence, after which we talked of other things, and soon took our leave. When we were fairly in the open air, Praetorius expressed to me his amazement at what he had heard, and he remained for some time at a loss to comprehend the character of the person who, from mere giddiness, let out so momentous a secret.

The other fact took place the day after you had left. From the late events at Brussels, it had become desirable that I should see Sir Robert Peel. From Belgium we travelled over to Home politics. I expressed my delight at seeing the Queen so happy, and added a hope that more and more she would seek and find her real happiness in her domestic relations only. He evidently caught at this, and assured me that he should at all times be too happy to have a share in anything which might be thought conducive to the welfare of Her Majesty. That no consideration of personal inconvenience would ever prevent him from indulging the Queen in all her wishes relating to matters of a private nature, and that the only return for his sincere endeavours to please Her Majesty he looked to, was honesty in public affairs. Becoming then suddenly emphatic, he continued, "But on this I must insist, and I do assure you, that that moment I was to learn that the Queen takes advice upon public matters in another place, I shall throw up; for such a thing I conceive the country could not stand, and I would not remain an hour, whatever the consequences of my resignation may be."

Fully sensible that he was talking at me, I received the charge with the calmness of a good conscience, and our time being exhausted I prepared for retreat. But he did not allow me to do so, before he had found means to come a second time to the topic uppermost in his own mind, and he repeated, it appeared to me with increased force of tone, his determination to throw up, fearless of all consequences, that moment he found himself and the country dishonestly dealt by.

I think I have now reported to you correctly the two occurrences which of late have added so much to my antecedent suspicions and fears. Permit me to join to this a few general considerations which, from the nature of the recited incidents alone, and without the slightest intervention of any other cause, must have presented themselves to my mind. The first is, that I derive from the events related quite ground enough for concluding that the danger I dread is great and imminent, and that, if ill luck is to have its will, no human power can prevent an explosion for a day, or even for an hour. The second is the contemplation—what state will the Queen be placed in by such a catastrophe? That in my position, portraying to myself all the consequences of such a possibility, I look chiefly to the Queen, needs hardly, I trust, an excuse.... Can you hope that the Queen's character will ever recover from a shock received by a collision with Peel, upon such a cause? Pray illustrate to yourself this particular question by taking a purely political and general survey of the time and period we live in at this moment. In doing so must you not admit that all England is agreed that the Tories must have another trial, and that there is a decided desire in the nation that it should be a fair one? Would you have it said that Sir Robert Peel failed in his trial, merely because the Queen alone was not fair to him, and that principally you had aided her in the game of dishonesty? And can you hope that this game can be played with security, even for a short time only, when a person has means of looking into your cards whom you yourself have described to me some years ago as a most passionate, giddy, imprudent and dangerous woman? I am sure beforehand that your loyalty and devotion has nothing to oppose to the force of my exposition. There are, however, some other and minor reasons which ought likewise to be considered before you come to the determination of trusting entirely to possibilities and chance. For the results of your deliberation you will have to come to will in their working and effects go beyond yourself, and must affect two other persons. These will have a right to expect that your decision will not be taken regardless of that position, which accidental circumstances have assigned to them, in an affair the fate of which is placed entirely within your discretion. This is an additional argument why you should deliberate very conscientiously. A mistake of yours in this respect might by itself produce fresh difficulties and have a complicating and perplexing retro effect upon the existing ones; because both, seeing that they must be sufferers in the end, may begin to look only to their own safety, and become inclined to refuse that passive obedience which till now constitutes the vehicle of your hazardous enterprize.

Approaching the conclusion of this letter, I beg to remind you of a conversation I had with you on the same subject in South Street, the 25th of last month.[157] Though you did not avow it then in direct words, I could read from your countenance and manner that you assented in your head and heart to all I had said, and in particular to the advice I volunteered at the end of my speech. At that time I pointed out to you a period when I thought a decisive step ought to be taken on your part. This period seems to me to have arrived. Placing unreserved confidence into your candour and manliness, I remain, for ever, very faithfully yours,

STOCKMAR.

[Footnote 156: Librarian and German Secretary to Prince Albert.]

[Footnote 157: Ante, pp. 352-3. (Ch. X, 'Stockmar and Melbourne')]



[Pageheading: MELBOURNE'S REPLY]

Viscount Melbourne to Baron Stockmar.

24th November 1841.

(Half-past 10 P.M.)

MY DEAR BARON,—I have just received your letter; I think it unnecessary to detain your messenger. I will write to you upon the subject and send it through Anson. Yours faithfully,

MELBOURNE.



[Pageheading: THE HEIR APPARENT]

Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, 29th November 1841.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,—I have to thank you for four most kind letters, of the 4th, 6th, 19th and 26th; the last I received yesterday. I would have written sooner, had I not been a little bilious, which made me very low, and not in spirits to write. The weather has been so exceedingly relaxing, that it made me at the end of the fortnight quite bilious, and this, you know, affects the spirits. I am much better, but they think that I shall not get my appetite and spirits back till I can get out of town; we are therefore going in a week at latest. I am going for a drive this morning, and am certain it will do me good. In all essentials, I am better, if possible, than last year. Our little boy[158] is a wonderfully strong and large child, with very large dark blue eyes, a finely formed but somewhat large nose, and a pretty little mouth; I hope and pray he may be like his dearest Papa. He is to be called Albert, and Edward is to be his second name. Pussy, dear child, is still the great pet amongst us all, and is getting so fat and strong again.

I beg my most affectionate love to dearest Louise and the dear children. The Queen-Dowager is recovering wonderfully.

I beg you to forgive this letter being so badly written, but my feet are being rubbed, and as I have got the box on which I am writing on my knee, it is not easy to write quite straight—but you must not think my hand trembles. Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

Pussy is not at all pleased with her brother.

[Footnote 158: His Majesty King Edward VII., born 9th November.]



[Pageheading: THE INFANT PRINCE]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

TRENTHAM, 1st December 1841.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has had the honour of receiving here your Majesty's letters of yesterday, by which he learns with sincere pleasure and satisfaction that your Majesty is so much recovered as to go to Windsor on so early a day as your Majesty names. Lord Melbourne hears with great concern that your Majesty has been suffering under depression and lowness of spirits.... Lord Melbourne well knows how to feel for those who suffer under it, especially as he has lately had much of it himself.

Lord Melbourne is much rejoiced to hear so good an account of the Heir Apparent and of the Princess Royal, and feels himself greatly obliged by the information respecting the intended names and the sponsors. Lord Melbourne supposes that your Majesty has determined yourself upon the relative position of the two names, but Edward is a good English appellation, and has a certain degree of popularity attached to it from ancient recollections. Albert is also an old Anglo-Saxon name—the same, Lord Melbourne believes, as Ethelred—but it has not been so common nor so much in use since the Conquest. However, your Majesty's feelings, which Lord Melbourne perfectly understands, must determine this point. The notion of the King of Prussia[159] gives great satisfaction here, and will do so with all but Puseyites and Newmanites and those who lean to the Roman Catholic faith. His strong Protestant feelings, and his acting with us in the matter of the Syrian Bishop, have made the King of Prussia highly popular in this country, and particularly with the more religious part of the community.

Your Majesty cannot offer up for the young Prince a more safe and judicious prayer than that he may resemble his father. The character, in Lord Melbourne's opinion, depends much upon the race, and on both sides he has a good chance. Be not over solicitous about education. It may be able to do much, but it does not do so much as is expected from it. It may mould and direct the character, but it rarely alters it. George IV. and the Duke of York were educated quite like English boys, by English schoolmasters, and in the manner and upon the system of English schools. The consequence was that, whatever were their faults, they were quite Englishmen. The others, who were sent earlier abroad, and more to foreign universities, were not quite so much so. The late king was educated as a sailor, and was a complete sailor....

Lord Melbourne will tell your Majesty exactly what he thinks of John Russell's reply to the Plymouth address. It is very angry and very bitter, and anger and bitterness are never very dignified. Lord Melbourne certainly would not have put in those sarcasms upon the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, for their change of opinion and conduct upon the Roman Catholic question. But the tone of the rest of the answer is, in Lord Melbourne's opinion, just and right. We certainly delivered the affairs of the country into their hands in a good state, both at home and abroad, and we should be acting unfairly by ourselves if we did not maintain and assert this upon every occasion. Lord Melbourne's notion of the conduct which he has to pursue is, that it should not be aggressive, but that it must be defensive. He would oppose no right measures, but he cannot suffer the course of policy which has been condemned in him to be adopted by others without observation upon the inconsistency and injustice....

Lord Melbourne concludes with again wishing your Majesty health and happiness, and much enjoyment of the country.

[Footnote 159: King Frederick William IV., who was to be a sponsor.]



[Pageheading: PRINCE OF WALES]

Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria.

WHITEHALL, 6th December 1841.

Sir James Graham, with humble duty, begs to enclose for the Signature of your Majesty the Letters Patent creating His Royal Highness, the Prince of the United Kingdom, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.[160]

Understanding that it is your Majesty's pleasure to have this Creation inserted in the Gazette of to-morrow night, Sir James Graham has given directions, which will ensure the publication, though the Letters Patent themselves may not be completed. The Warrant already signed by your Majesty is a sufficient authority.

The above is humbly submitted by your Majesty's dutiful Subject and Servant,

J. R. G. GRAHAM.

[Footnote 160: His present Majesty had been referred to in letters of the previous month as the Duke of Cornwall. "Know ye," ran the present Letters Patent, "that we have made ... our most dear son, the Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (Duke of Saxony, Duke of Cornwall ...) Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ... and him our said most dear son, ... as has been accustomed, we do ennoble and invest with the said Principality and Earldom, by girding him with a sword, by putting a coronet on his head, and a gold ring on his finger, and also by delivering a gold rod into his hand, that he may preside there, and may direct and defend those parts...."]



Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.

WINDSOR CASTLE, 7th December 1841.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,—We arrived here sains et saufs with our awfully large Nursery Establishment yesterday morning. It was a nasty warm and very rainy day, but to-day is very bright, clear and dry, and we walked out early and felt like prisoners freed from some dungeon. Many thanks for your kind letter of the 2nd, by which I grieve to see that you are not quite well. But let me repeat again, you must not despond so; you must not be so out of spirits. I have likewise been suffering so from lowness that it made me quite miserable, and I know how difficult it is to fight against it. I am delighted to hear that all the children are so well. I wonder very much who our little boy will be like. You will understand how fervent my prayers and I am [sure] everybody's must be, to see him resemble his angelic dearest Father in every, every respect, both in body and mind. Oh! my dearest Uncle, I am sure if you knew how happy, how blessed I feel, and how proud I feel in possessing such a perfect being as my husband, as he is, and if you think that you have been instrumental in bringing about this union, it must gladden your heart! How happy should I be to see our child grow up just like him! Dear Pussy travelled with us and behaved like a grown-up person, so quiet and looking about and coquetting with the Hussars on either side of the carriage. Now adieu! Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.



[Pageheading: THE APPROACHING CHRISTENING]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

CASTLE HOWARD, 22nd December 1841.

... Lord Melbourne will consider himself most highly honoured by being invited to the christening, and will hold himself in readiness to attend, whenever it may take place. He has written to Mr Anson in answer to the letter which he received from him this morning. Lord Melbourne has been obliged to consent to receive an address from Derby, and has fixed Monday the 27th inst. for that purpose. He could have wished to have avoided this, but it was impossible, and he must make the best of it that he can, which he conceives will be effected by conceiving his reply in very guarded terms, and in a tone defensive of his own administration, but not offensive to those who have succeeded him....

Lord Melbourne is very glad to hear of the feelings of the King of Prussia. For religious matters he is at present very popular with many in this country, and popularity, though transient and uncertain, is a good thing while it lasts. The King of the Belgians should not be surprised or mortified at the conduct of the King of Holland. We must expect that people will act according to their nature and feelings. The Union of Belgium and Holland has been for a long time the first wish and the daily dream of the House of Orange. It has been the great object of their lives, and by the separation, which took place in 1830, they saw their fondest hopes disappointed and destroyed at once. It must be expected that under such a state of things, they will be unquiet, and will try to obtain what they so eagerly desire and have once possessed.

Lord Melbourne is much rejoiced to hear that your Majesty is in the enjoyment of such good health. Your Majesty's observations upon your own situation are in the highest degree just and prudent, and it is a sign of a right mind and of good feelings to prize the blessings we enjoy, and not to suffer them to be too much altered by circumstances, which may not turn out exactly according to our wishes.



[Pageheading: THE UNITED STATES]

The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria.

FOREIGN OFFICE, 24th December 1841.

Lord Aberdeen presents his most humble duty to your Majesty. He ventures to request your Majesty's attention for a moment to the character of your Majesty's present relations with the Government of the United States. Your Majesty is aware that several questions of great difficulty and importance have been long pending between the two Governments.[161] Some of these have become more complicated than they were ten years ago; and any of them might, at any moment, lead to consequences of the most disastrous nature.

Instead of continuing negotiations, necessarily tedious and which promise to be interminable, your Majesty's servants are humbly of opinion that an effort ought to be made, by a Special Mission at Washington, to bring all these differences promptly to an adjustment. The public feeling in the United States at this time does not appear to be unfavourable for such an attempt. Should it be undertaken by a person whose rank, character, and abilities would ensure respect, and whose knowledge of the subjects under discussion, and of the people of the country, together with his conciliatory manners, would render him generally acceptable, your Majesty might perhaps indulge the hope of a successful result.

Lord Aberdeen humbly ventures to think that such a person may be found in Lord Ashburton,[162] whom he submits for your Majesty's gracious approbation.

[Footnote 161: The question of the North-West Boundary had long been one source of dispute; another was the right the British Government claimed of searching vessels suspected of being engaged in the slave trade.]

[Footnote 162: Alexander, first Lord Ashburton, who had held office in Peel's short Ministry, and married Miss Bingham of Philadelphia. See post, p. 461. (Ch. XII, Footnote 10)]



[Pageheading: CHRISTMAS]

Memorandum by Mr Anson.

WINDSOR CASTLE, 26th December 1841.

Christmas has brought its usual routine of festivity and its agreeable accompaniment of Christmas presents. The Queen was not at all well again yesterday, being again troubled with lowness. The Melbourne correspondence still is carried on, but I think not in its pristine vigour by any means. He has taken no notice of the Baron's remonstrance to him, and we are in the dark in what manner, if at all, he means to deal with it.

I have sat by Her Majesty at dinner several times lately. I should say that Her Majesty interests herself less and less about politics, and that her dislike is less than it was to her present Ministers, though she would not be prepared to acknowledge it. Her Majesty is a good deal occupied with the little Princess Royal, who begins to assume companionable qualities. In the evening, instead of her usual conversation with her old Prime Minister, some round game at cards is substituted, which always terminates at eleven. The Prince, to amuse the Queen at this, has nearly left off his chess; his amusements—shooting or hunting—always commence and terminate between eleven and two, not to interfere with Her Majesty's arrangements, in which he is included as her companion.



Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

MELBOURNE, 29th December 1841.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He received here yesterday your Majesty's letter of the 25th inst., upon a paper adorned with many quaint and humorous Christmas devices, and Lord Melbourne begs to offer to your Majesty, most sincerely and most fervently, the good wishes of the Season. Lord Melbourne will be in town on Friday evening next, and after that day will wait upon your Majesty, whenever your Majesty is pleased to command....

Lord Melbourne is very glad to hear that the King of the Belgians is reassured by his journey to Mons and his reception upon it. He need not mind the King of Holland, if he can keep all right at Paris.

The railway smash[163] is awful and tremendous, as all railway mishaps are, and Lord Melbourne fears must always be. These slips and falls of earth from the banks are the greatest danger that now impends over them, and if they take place suddenly and in the dark, Lord Melbourne does not see how the fatal consequences of them are to be effectually guarded against. They are peculiarly likely to happen now, as the cuttings have been recently and hastily made, the banks are very steep, and the season has been peculiarly wet, interrupted by severe frosts.

Lord Melbourne received the deputation from Derby, a large and respectable one, here on Monday last. The address was very guarded, temperate, and judicious, and Lord Melbourne strove to construct his answer in the same manner.

[Footnote 163: This accident took place on 24th December in the Sonning Hill cutting, two and a half miles from Reading. Eight persons were killed on the spot.]



INTRODUCTORY NOTE

TO CHAPTER XI

THE session was mainly occupied by the great Ministerial measure of finance, direct taxation by means of income tax being imposed, and the import duties on a large number of articles being removed or relaxed, Mr Gladstone, now at the Board of Trade, taking charge of the bills. Two more attempts on the Queen's life were made, the former again on Constitution Hill by one Francis, whose capital sentence was commuted; the latter by a hunchback, Bean, who was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. An Act was promptly passed to deal with such outrages in future as misdemeanours, without giving them the importance of high treason. Lord Ashley's Bill was passed, prohibiting woman and child labour in mines and collieries. But the Anti-Corn Law League of Manchester was not satisfied with the policy of the Government and objected to the income tax; while riots broke out in the manufacturing districts of the North.

In Afghanistan, the disasters of the previous year were retrieved; Sir Robert Sale, who was gallantly defending Jellalabad, made a sortie and defeated Akbar Khan; General Nott arrived at Ghuznee, but found it evacuated; he destroyed the citadel and removed the Gates of Somnauth. General Pollock swept the Khyber Pass and entered Cabul. The captives taken on the retreat from Cabul were recovered—Lady Macnaghten and Lady Sale among them. In retribution for the murder of Macnaghten, the great bazaar of Cabul, where his remains had been dishonoured, was destroyed by Pollock; the British force was then withdrawn. Dost Mahommed made himself again ruler of Cabul, and a proclamation of Lord Ellenborough announced that the British Government accepted any Sovereign and Constitution approved by the Afghans themselves.

In China, also, operations were successfully terminated, Chapoo being taken in May, and an attack by Admiral Parker upon Nanking being only averted by the conclusion of a favourable treaty, involving an indemnity, the cession by China of Hong Kong, and the opening of important ports to commerce.

A dispute had arisen between this country and the United States as to the boundary line between the latter country and the British Possessions in North America. Lord Ashburton was accordingly sent out on a special mission to effect the adjustment of this and other disputes, and a treaty was concluded for the purpose of defining each country's territorial rights, and imposing mutual obligations for the suppression of the Slave Trade.



CHAPTER XI

1842

Queen Adelaide to Queen Victoria.

SUDBURY HALL, 4th January 1842.

MY DEAR NIECE,—Most grateful for your very amiable kind letter full of good wishes for me, I hasten to answer it and to assure you that I deeply feel all your affectionate kindness to me in wishing my life to be prolonged. From ill-health I have become such a useless member of your family, that I must wonder you have not long been tired of me. I wish I was more able to be of any use to you which you might like to make of me. My services would be most faithful, I can assure you. Should my life be spared, there may perhaps yet be a time when I can prove to you, that what I say is not merely a facon de parler, but my sincere wish.

Your domestic happiness, dearest Victoria, gives me great satisfaction whenever I think of it, and that is very often. God continue it so, uninterrupted, is my daily prayer.

Your approbation of my little offering to my dear godchild gives me much pleasure. It occupied me several days during my illness to make the drawing, weak as I then was, and it was a pleasant occupation.

We have frost again, with a clear blue sky, which is much better for me than the damp close weather of last week, which oppressed me so much. I breathe again, and my spirits get their usual tone, which they had lost, but I still cough a great deal, which is very fatiguing.

Will you kiss your darlings in my name and bless them, and pray believe me ever, my dear Niece, your most affectionately devoted Aunt,

ADELAIDE.



[Pageheading: WINDSOR]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

BROADLANDS,[1] 5th January 1842.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to return to your Majesty and to His Royal Highness his thanks for all the kindness shown him at Windsor. He was very happy to find himself there again and in your Majesty's society. He has seen many fine places and much fine country, but after all there is nothing like Windsor and the Park. Twenty very fine places might easily be made out of the latter. Lord Melbourne as he drove to Bagshot was very glad to see the plantations at and about Cumberland Lodge and onwards so well and judiciously thinned. He had a very prosperous journey here. It is a lovely place, with the greatest beauty that a place can have, a very swift, clear, natural stream, running and winding in front of the house. The whole place is much improved since Lord Melbourne saw it last; a great deal of new pleasure-ground has been made. The trees, cypresses, elders, planes, elms, white poplars and acacias are very fine indeed....

Lord Melbourne thinks of staying here six or seven days, and then returning to London and going to Brocket Hall and Panshanger, but he has not fixed his plans decidedly, which he is never very fond of doing.

Lord Melbourne was delighted at thinking that he left your Majesty in good health, which he earnestly hopes and fervently prays may, together with every other blessing, long continue.

[Footnote 1: The house of Lord Palmerston in Hants.]



The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria.

FOREIGN OFFICE, 6th January 1842.

... Sir Robert Peel has informed Lord Aberdeen that he had mentioned to your Majesty the suggestion of the King of Prussia to confer the Order of the Black Eagle[2] upon the Prince of Wales, immediately after the christening of his Royal Highness. Lord Aberdeen therefore abstains from troubling your Majesty with any observations on this subject.

[Footnote 2: Founded by Frederick I. in 1701.]



[Pageheading: DISASTERS IN AFGHANISTAN]

Lord Fitzgerald to Queen Victoria.

8th January 1842.

Lord Fitzgerald, with his most humble duty to your Majesty, begs leave humbly to inform your Majesty that despatches have been this day received at the India House from the Earl of Auckland, Governor-General of India, which most officially confirm to too great an extent the disastrous intelligence contained in the public journals of yesterday, the particulars of which the editors of these journals had received by express messengers from Marseilles.[3]

This intelligence is of a most painful character, and though the details which have arrived do high honour to the courage and the gallantry of your Majesty's forces, as well as of the East India Company's Army, yet the loss sustained has been very great, and many valuable officers have fallen the victims of a widespread conspiracy which seems to have embraced within its confederation the most warlike tribes of the Afghan nation.

Lord Fitzgerald begs leave most humbly to lay before your Majesty an interesting despatch from Lord Auckland, comprising the most important details of the late events in Afghanistan.

It is very satisfactory to Lord Fitzgerald to be enabled humbly to acquaint your Majesty that Lord Auckland has decided on waiting the arrival of his successor, Lord Ellenborough, and states to Lord Fitzgerald that he will feel it to be his duty to remain in his [Government], in the present critical state of affairs, until he is relieved by the new Governor-General.

All of which is most humbly submitted to your Majesty, by your Majesty's most dutiful Subject and Servant,

FITZGERALD AND VESCI.

[Footnote 3: See Introductory Note, 1841, ante, p. 254. The rebellion broke out at Cabul on 2nd November, and Sir Alexander Burnes was murdered. (Intro Note to Ch. X)]



[Pageheading: THE OXFORD MOVEMENT]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

BROADLANDS, 12th January 1842.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has this morning received your Majesty's letter of the 10th inst., and is glad to infer from it that your Majesty and the Prince are both well and in good spirits.

With respect to the Oxford affair, your Majesty is aware that for a long time a serious difference has been fermenting and showing itself in the Church of England, one party leaning back towards Popery, and the other either wishing to keep doctrines as they are, or, perhaps, to approach somewhat nearer to the dissenting Churches. This difference has particularly manifested itself in a publication, now discontinued, but which has been long going on at Oxford, entitled Tracts for the Times, and generally called the Oxford Tracts. The Professorship of Poetry is now vacant at Oxford, and two candidates have been put forward, the one Mr Williams, who is the author of one or two of the most questionable of the Oxford Tracts, and the other Mr Garbett, who is a representative of the opposite party. Of course the result of this election, which is made by the Masters of Arts of the University, is looked to with much interest and anxiety, as likely to afford no unequivocal sign of which is the strongest party in the University and amongst the clergy generally. It is expected that Mr Garbett will be chosen by a large majority....



[Pageheading: THE MORNING CHRONICLE]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 17th January 1842.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to acknowledge your Majesty's letter of the 15th, which he has received here this morning.

Lord Melbourne does not think this Puseyite difference in the Church so serious or dangerous as others do. If it is discreetly managed, it will calm down or blow over or sink into disputes of little significance. All Lord Melbourne fears is lest the Bishops should be induced to act hastily and should get into the wrong. The Puseyites have the most learning, or rather, have considered the points more recently and more accurately than their opponents.

Lord Melbourne hopes that the Spanish affair will be settled. Lord Melbourne cannot doubt that the French are wrong. Even if the precedents are in their favour, the Spanish Court has a right to settle its own etiquette and its own mode of transacting business, and to change them if it thinks proper.[4]

Lord Melbourne was at Broadlands when the Article to which your Majesty alludes appeared in the Morning Chronicle, and he talked it over with Palmerston. He does not think that Palmerston wrote it, because there were in it errors, and those errors to Palmerston's disadvantage; but it was written by Easthope under the impression that it conveyed Palmerston's notions and opinions. Your Majesty knows very well that Palmerston has long had much communication with the Morning Chronicle and much influence over it, and has made great use of it for the purpose of maintaining and defending his own policy. In this sort of matter there is much to be said upon both sides. A Minister has a great advantage in stating his own views to the public, and if Palmerston in the Syrian affair had not had as devoted an assistant as the Morning Chronicle, he would hardly have been able to maintain his course or carry through his measures. It has always been Lord Melbourne's policy to keep himself aloof from the public press and to hold it at arm's-length, and he considers it the best course, but it is subject to disadvantages. You are never in that case strongly supported by them, nor are the motives and reasons of your conduct given to the public with that force and distinctness which they might be.

Lord Melbourne has no doubt that your Majesty's assurance is well founded, and that the present Government are anxious for the welfare and prosperity and tranquillity of Spain. It cannot be otherwise.

Palmerston dislikes Aberdeen and has a low opinion of him. He thinks him weak and timid, and likely to let down the character and influence of the country. Your Majesty knows that Lord Melbourne does not partake these opinions, certainly not at least to anything like the extent to which Palmerston carries them.

Lord Melbourne is going down to Panshanger to-morrow, where he understands that he is to meet Lord and Lady Lansdowne and Lord and Lady Leveson.[5] Lord Melbourne will take care and say nothing about Brighton, but is glad to hear that your Majesty is going thither.

[Footnote 4: An Ambassador, M. de Salvandy, had been sent from France to Madrid. Espartero, the Regent, required the credentials to be presented to him and not to the young Queen. The French Ambassador having refused to comply, an unseemly dispute arose, and M. de Salvandy left Madrid.]

[Footnote 5: The late Lord Granville and his first wife, only child of the Duc de Dalberg, and widow of Sir Ferdinand Acton.]



Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.

WINDSOR CASTLE, 18th January 1842.

MY DEAR UNCLE,—Not to miss my day, I write a line to thank you for your kind letters of the 10th and 13th, but shall write fully by the messenger. Our Claremont trip was very enjoyable, only we missed Pussy so much; another time we shall take her with us; the dear child was so pleased to see us again, particularly dear Albert, whom she is so fond of.... We think of going to Brighton early in February, as the physicians think it will do the children great good, and perhaps it may me; for I am very strong as to fatigue and exertion, but not quite right otherwise; I am growing thinner, and there is a want of tone, which the sea may correct.

Albert's great fonction[6] yesterday went off beautifully, and he was so much admired in all ways; he always fascinates the people wherever he goes, by his very modest and unostentatious yet dignified ways. He only came back at twelve last night; it was very kind of him to come. The King of Prussia means, I believe, to cross on the 20th. Now addio. Ever your most affectionate Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 6: The Prince laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Exchange.]



[Pageheading: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON]

The Duke of Wellington to Queen Victoria.

LONDON, 21st January 1842.

Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He is much flattered by your Majesty's most gracious desire that he should bear the Sword of State at the ceremony of the christening of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

He had already received from Sir Robert Peel an intimation of your Majesty's gracious pleasure on this subject. He is in such good health, as to be able to perform any duty upon which your Majesty may think proper to employ him; and he will attend your Majesty's gracious ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday morning, the 25th Jan. inst.

All of which is humbly submitted to your Majesty by your Majesty's most dutiful and devoted Subject and Servant,

WELLINGTON.



Queen Victoria to Viscount Melbourne.

WINDSOR CASTLE, 22nd January 1842.

The Queen cannot say how grieved she is, and the Prince also, at hearing of Lord Melbourne's serious indisposition, by his letter this morning. How very provoking if he cannot come on Tuesday. It will be the only important ceremony during the Queen's reign which Lord Melbourne has not been present at, and it grieves her deeply. It was already a deep mortification not to see him in his old place, but not to see him at all is too provoking. If Lord Melbourne should soon get well we shall hope to see him later during the King's[7] stay. The Prince is gone to Greenwich to meet the King, and I expect them about five o'clock.

The Queen hopes to hear soon of Lord Melbourne's being better, and expresses again her very sincere regret at his being prevented from coming.

[Footnote 7: Frederick Wilham IV., King of Prussia.]



[Pageheading: THE SLAVE TRADE]

The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria.

28th January 1842.

Lord Aberdeen presents his most humble duty to your Majesty. Some time ago, your Majesty was graciously pleased to express a desire to have a copy of the Treaty concluded by your Majesty with the Four Great Powers of Europe, for the more effectual suppression of the Slave Trade.[8] Lord Aberdeen has had one prepared for your Majesty's use, which he humbly begs to lay before your Majesty.

In obeying your Majesty's commands Lord Aberdeen thinks it his duty, at the same time, to state to your Majesty that, with the exception of some alterations and additions of little importance, the Treaty in its present form had existed for a considerable time in the Foreign Office. He found, also, that there had been a reluctance to sign it on the part of the French Government; but as the objection was chiefly of a personal nature, it was speedily removed. The only share, therefore, which Lord Aberdeen can properly be said to have had in this transaction is that of having been enabled to afford your Majesty the great satisfaction of completing this blessed work at an earlier period than would otherwise have been the case.

[Footnote 8: The treaty conferred a mutual right of search.]



Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 1st February 1842.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has to thank your Majesty for the letters of the 28th and the 31st ult., the last of which he received this morning.

Lord Melbourne is very glad that your Majesty opens the Parliament in person. Your Majesty knows Lord Melbourne's opinion, that it ought always to be done, when it can be, without reference to Ministers, politics, or political questions. Lord Melbourne hopes to be able to go to the House in the evening, but he fears that it would be too much for him if he were to attempt to attend also in the morning.

Lord Melbourne was in despair at hearing of poor Eos.[9] Favourites often get shot; Lord Melbourne has known it happen often in his time. That is the worst of dogs; they add another strong interest to a life which has already of itself interest enough, and those, God knows! sufficiently subject both to accident and decay.

Lord Melbourne is sorry to do anything that could trouble your Majesty in the slightest degree, but he doubts not that your Majesty is already aware of the matter, and therefore he has less scruple in sending to your Majesty a letter[10] which he has received from the Duke of Sussex. Upon the plea of not being well, Lord Melbourne has put off seeing the Duke upon this subject until after Monday next, and when he does see him, he will try to keep him quiet, which your Majesty knows when he has got a thing of this sort into his head, is no easy matter.

[Footnote 9: A favourite greyhound of the Prince, accidentally shot by Prince Ferdinand. See King Leopold's letter, 4th February.]

[Footnote 10: This letter is not preserved among the Queen's papers.]



[Pageheading: THE KING OF PRUSSIA]

Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.

WINDSOR CASTLE, 1st February 1842.

MY DEAR UNCLE,—I have to thank you for a kind, short note of the 27th inst., which I received on Sunday. I gave your kind message to the King of Prussia, who was much touche by it. He is a most amiable man, so kind and well-meaning, and seems so much beloved. He is so amusing too. He is very anxious that Belgium should become liee with Germany, and I think, dearest Uncle, that it would be for the real good of Belgium if it could be so. You will have heard how perfectly and splendidly everything went off on the 25th. Nothing could have done better, and little Albert (what a pleasure that he has that dearest name!) behaved so well. The King left us yesterday morning to go to town, where we follow him to-morrow; he was quite sad to leave Windsor, which he admired so much. He dined with the Sutherlands yesterday, and dines with the Duke of Wellington to-day, and the Cambridges to-morrow. On Thursday he dines with us (he lodges in Buckingham Palace), and on Friday takes his departure. He is really a most agreeable visitor, though I must own that I am somewhat knocked up by our great exertions.

Uncle Ferdinand is very well, and we are delighted with dear Leopold;[11] he is so much improved, and is such a modest, sensible boy.

I can't say much for poor Gusti,[12] though I love him, but he is really too odd and inanimate. I hope Louise will see the King of Prussia. You have heard our great misfortune about dear Eos; she is going on well, but slowly, and still makes us rather anxious. It made me quite ill the first day, and keeps me fidgety still, till we know that she is quite safe. Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

We were grieved to hear Papa had been so ill.

[Footnote 11: Son of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, and brother of the King of Portugal, afterwards a candidate for the hand of Queen Isabella of Spain. See post, p. 487. (Ch. XII, Footnote 54)]

[Footnote 12: Prince Augustus, afterwards married to the Princess Clementine, daughter of King Louis Philippe.]



[Pageheading: THE KING OF PRUSSIA]

[Pageheading: BETROTHAL OF PRINCE ERNEST]

The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.

LAEKEN, 4th February 1842.

MY DEAR VICTORIA,—Thousand thanks for your kind letter of the 1st, which I received yesterday.

The King of Prussia is a very delightful person;[13] he is so clever and amiable, and, owing to his good-nature, not by any means fatiguing. I fear you had cold weather yesterday for the opening of Parliament. To-day we have here a tremendous fog; Heaven grant that it may not be so heavy on the Thames! else the King's journey will be rendered difficult.

We expect him to-morrow about eleven o'clock; he wishes to be at Antwerp at five, which would indicate his departure from hence at three o'clock. There can be no doubt that nothing could be better than to link this country as much as possible to Germany. The public feeling was and is still favourable to this, but in Germany some years ago they were childishly ultra, and kicked us off most unnecessarily, which renders everything of the sort now much less easy. In a political point of view the King's journey will prove useful, as it takes him still more out of the clutches of Russia and gives him more correct views of what is going on in the West of Europe.

I wish the King may also talk to his helter-skelter cousin in Holland; if the man goes on in his wild intrigues, though he will get most probably nothing by it himself, he may do a great deal of harm, and may force us to incline more towards France for fear of his intrigues with France.

I was extremely sorry to hear the accident which befell dear Eos, a great friend of mine. I do not understand how your uncle managed it; he ought rather to have shot somebody else of the family. Ernest has then been going on fast enough; all I hear of the lady is very satisfactory.[14] I don't yet know when he means to come here.

Now I must conclude. In haste, ever, my dear Victoria, your affectionate Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

[Footnote 13: Lord Aberdeen wrote to Madame de Lieven: "I passed a great deal of time with the King of Prussia when he was in this country, and perfectly subscribe to the truth of the description you gave me of him before his arrival—intelligent, high-minded, and sincere. Like all Germans, he is sometimes a little in the clouds, but his projects are generous, and he wishes to do what is right."]

[Footnote 14: He married the Princess Alexandrina of Baden on 3rd May 1842.]



Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.

WINDSOR CASTLE, 8th February 1842.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,—I thank you de tout mon c[oe]ur for your kind letter of the 4th, which I received the day before yesterday. You have now seen our good, kind, amiable King of Prussia, for whom I have really the greatest affection and respect. We were quite sorry to lose him, and he was much affected at going. He is so open and natural, and seems really so anxious to do good whenever he can. His liberality and generosity here has been immense. He is very much displeased with his "helter-skelter cousin,"[15] and quite unhappy at the state of things in that country....

Ernest's marriage is a great, great delight to us; thank God! I say, as I so ardently wished it, and Alexandrina is said to be really so perfect. I have begged Ernest beforehand to pass his honeymoon with us, and I beg you to urge him to do it; for he witnessed our first happiness, and we must therefore witness his.

Leopold is a dear, sweet boy, really, so full of feeling, and so very good-tempered and modest; the King was charmed with him and he with the King. I am happy to say faithful Eos is quite convalescent; she walks about wrapped up in flannel.

We are off for Brighton the day after to-morrow; I can't say I like it at all. We were, and the boy too, all three, vaccinated from the same child yesterday! Now adieu! Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

Fanny Jocelyn is taking her first waiting, and makes a most excellent and sedate Dame d'Honneur. I am sorry she is so very thin still.

[Footnote 15: The King of Holland. See King Leopold's letter of 4th February.]



[Pageheading: CHRISTENING OF PRINCE OF WALES]

Queen Adelaide to Queen Victoria.

MARLBOROUGH HOUSE, 5th February 1842.

MY DEAR NIECE,—I thank you a thousand times for your kind letter, just received, and am delighted with the hope of seeing you, if you have time to spare, when you come to town next week. I hardly dare to expect it, but it will make me very happy should you be able to fulfil your kind intention.

I was happy to hear how well the holy ceremony went off on Tuesday, and how splendid the whole was. The earnest attention of the King of Prussia to the ceremony, and the manner with which he read the responses, was universally remarked and admired. May your dear child, our beloved Prince of Wales, follow his pious example in future, and become as truly estimable and amiable and good as his Godfather really is. He is indeed most charming, and so very agreeable and affable to every one, that he must be loved and respected by all who have the good fortune to approach him. I hope he does not over-fatigue himself, for he does a great deal in the short time of his stay in England. He expresses himself delighted with his reception.

I regret to find that your dear little girl is still suffering so much from her teeth. God bless and guard her and her brother!—who by all descriptions must be a very fine babe. The King of Prussia admires little Victoria very much; he described her to me as the most lovely child he ever saw.

I enclose the impression of my seal, according to your wish....

With my best love to dear Albert, I beg you to believe me ever, dearest Victoria, your most attached and devoted Aunt,

ADELAIDE.

May I ask you to give my affectionate respects to the King of Prussia, and my love to your Mamma?



Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria.

WHITEHALL, 14th February, Monday Night. (Half-past 1 A.M.)

Sir Robert Peel, with his humble duty to your Majesty, begs leave to acquaint your Majesty that Lord John Russell proposed this evening in the House of Commons a resolution condemnatory of the principle of the plan for the adjustment of the Corn Laws, brought forward by your Majesty's servants.

Lord John Russell was followed in the debate by Mr Gladstone, the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, who vindicated the plan....

Sir Robert Peel had a meeting yesterday of the friends of the Government in the House of Commons, and he is convinced that although many may have wished that the plan of the Government had given an increased degree of protection to agriculture, the great body will support the measure, and that we shall have no difficulty in resisting any detached efforts that may be made to add to the duties on foreign corn.



[Pageheading: PEEL AND PRINCE ALBERT]

Sir Robert Peel to the Prince Albert.

WHITEHALL, 15th February(?) 1842.

SIR,—When I had the honour of last seeing your Royal Highness at Windsor Castle, I stated to your Royal Highness that it would give me great satisfaction to have the opportunity from time to time of apprising your Royal Highness of the legislative measures in contemplation of Her Majesty's servants, and of explaining in detail any matters in respect to which your Royal Highness might wish for information.

In conformity with this feeling on my part, I take the liberty of sending to your Royal Highness two confidential Memoranda prepared for the information of Her Majesty's servants on the important subjects respectively of the state of Slavery in the East Indies, and of the Poor Laws in this country.

They may probably be interesting to your Royal Highness, and if your Royal Highness should encourage me to do so, I will, as occasion may arise, make similar communications to your Royal Highness. I have the honour to be, Sir, with sincere respect, your Royal Highness's most faithful and humble servant,

ROBERT PEEL.

P.S.—I do not think that the measure which I have brought forward for the diminution of the duties on the import of foreign corn, will deprive us of any portion of the support or goodwill of our friends. Many wish that the reduction had not been carried so far, but almost all are aware of the consequences of rejecting or obstructing the measure.



[Pageheading: AFGHANISTAN]

Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci to Queen Victoria.

INDIA BOARD, 1st March 1842.

Lord Fitzgerald, with his most humble duty to your Majesty, requests permission humbly to submit to your Majesty, that the communications received yesterday at the India House present a dark and alarming picture of the position and danger of the British troops in Afghanistan.[16]

Although the Governor-General's despatch announcing these melancholy tidings also states that no strictly official intelligence had reached him from Cabul, yet the opinion of Lord Auckland evidently is, that the reports on which his despatch is founded are but too likely to be true.

From them it would appear that a numerous and excited native population had succeeded in intercepting all supplies, that the army at Cabul laboured under severe privations, and that in consequence of the strict investment of the cantonments by the enemy, there remained, according to a letter from the late Sir William Macnaghten to an officer with Sir Robert Sale's force, only three days' provision in the camp.

Under such circumstances it can perhaps be but faintly hoped that any degree of gallantry and devotion on the part of your Majesty's forces can have extricated them from the difficulties by which they were encompassed on every side.

Capitulation had been spoken of, and it may, unhappily, have become inevitable, as the relieving column, expected from Candahar, had been compelled by the severity of an unusual season to retrace its march.

The despatches from Calcutta being voluminous, and embracing minute unofficial reports, Lord Fitzgerald has extracted and copied those parts which relate to the military operations in Afghanistan, and most humbly submits them to your Majesty.

He at the same time solicits permission to annex a precis of some of the most important of the private letters which have been forwarded from India; and, as your Majesty was graciously pleased to peruse with interest some passages from the first journal of Lady Sale, Lord Fitzgerald ventures to add the further extracts, transmitted by Lord Auckland, in which Lady Sale describes successive actions with the enemy, and paints the state of the sufferings of the army, as late as the 9th of December.

Nothing contained in any of these communications encourages the hope of Sir Alexander Burnes's safety. In one letter the death of an individual is mentioned, who is described as the assassin of that lamented officer.

All of which is most humbly submitted to your Majesty by your Majesty's most dutiful Subject and Servant,

FITZGERALD AND VESCI.

[Footnote 16: See Introductory Note, ante, pp. 254, 370. (Intro Note to Ch. X; Intro Note to Ch. XI)]



[Pageheading: A MARINE EXCURSION]

Queen Victoria to Viscount Melbourne.

PAVILION, 4th March 1842.

The Queen thanks Lord Melbourne for his kind letter, received the day before yesterday, by which she is glad to see he is well, and Fanny got safe to Dublin.

Our excursion was most successful and gratifying. It rained very much all Monday evening at Portsmouth, but, nevertheless, we visited the St Vincent and the Royal George yacht, and the Prince went all over the Dockyards.

It stormed and rained all night, and rained when we set off on bord the Black Eagle (the Firebrand that was) for Spithead on Tuesday morning; it, however, got quite fine when we got there, and we went on board the Queen, and a glorious sight it was; she is a magnificent ship, so wide and roomy, and though only just commissioned, in the best order. With marines, etc., her crew is near upon a thousand men! We saw the men at dinner, and tasted the grog and soup, which pleased them very much. Old Sir Edward Owen is very proud of her.

It was a great pleasure for the Queen to be at sea again, and not a creature thought even of being sick. The saluting of all those great ships in the harbour at once, as we came out and returned, has a splendid effect.

The Queen was also much pleased at seeing four of the crew of the Emerald again whom she knew so well nine years ago! The Prince was delighted with all he saw, as were also our Uncle and Cousins; these last, we are sorry to say, leave us on Monday,—and we go up to Town on Tuesday, where the Queen hopes to see Lord Melbourne soon.

The Queen sends Lord Melbourne a letter from the Queen of Portugal, all which tends to show how wrong it is to think that they connive at the restoration of the Charter....

Lady Dunmore is in waiting, and makes an excellent Lady-in-Waiting. Lord Hardwicke the Queen likes very much, he seems so straightforward. He took the greatest care of the Queen when on board ship.

Was not his father drowned at Spithead or Portsmouth?[17]

The Queen hopes to hear that Lord Melbourne is very well.

[Footnote 17: "His father, Sir Joseph Yorke," Lord Melbourne replied, "was drowned in the Southampton River, off Netley Abbey, when sailing for pleasure. The boat was supposed to have been struck by lightning. His cousin, Lord Royston, was drowned in the year 1807 in the Baltic, at Cronstadt" [according to Burke in 1808, off Lubeck, aet. twenty-three], "which event, together with the death of two younger sons of Lord Hardwicke, gave the earldom ultimately to the present Lord."]



Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.

PAVILION, 7th March 1842.

MY DEAR UNCLE,—As I wrote you so long a letter yesterday, I shall only write you a few lines to-day, to thank you for your kind letter of the 4th, received yesterday. Our dear Uncle and dear Cousins have just left us, and we are very sorry to see them go; for the longer one is together the more intimate one gets, and they were quite become as belonging to us, and were so quiet and unassuming, that we shall miss them much, particularly dear Leopold, whom poor Uncle Ferdinand recommended to my especial care, and therefore am really very anxious that we should settle something for his future. Uncle Ferdinand likes the idea of his passing some time at Brussels, and some time here, very much, and I hope we may be able to settle that. Uncle and Cousins were sorry to go.

You will have heard how well our Portsmouth expedition went off; the sea was quite smooth on Tuesday, and we had a delightful visit to the Queen, which is a splendid ship. I think it is in these immense wooden walls that our real greatness exists, and I am proud to think that no other nation can equal us in this....

Now addio! Ever your most affectionate Niece,

VICTORIA R.



[Pageheading: THE FALL OF CABUL]

Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci to Queen Victoria.

10th March 1842.

Lord Fitzgerald, with his most humble duty to your Majesty, begs leave most humbly and with deep sorrow to lay before your Majesty reports which he has only within this hour received.

They are to be found in a despatch from the Governor and Council of Bombay, and unhappily confirm, to an appalling degree, the disastrous intelligence from Afghanistan. The commercial expresses, which reached London yesterday, gave to the public some of the details of the fall of Cabul; and Lord Fitzgerald laments that it is his painful duty most humbly to inform your Majesty that the despatches just arrived confirm to their full extent the particulars of Sir William Macnaghten's fate, and of the fate of that remnant of gallant men who, on the faith of a capitulation, had evacuated that cantonment which they had defended with unavailing courage.

In addition to the despatch from the Council of Bombay, Lord Fitzgerald humbly ventures to submit to your Majesty a letter addressed to him by Mr Anderson, the Acting-Governor of that Presidency, with further details of these melancholy events.

The despatches from the Governor-General of India come down to the date of the 22nd of January (three days previous to the tragical death of Sir William Macnaghten). Lord Auckland was then uninformed of the actual state of the force in Cabul, though not unprepared for severe reverses.



[Pageheading: THE GARTER]

Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria.

WHITEHALL, 20th March 1842.

Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and will take an opportunity to-morrow of ascertaining your Majesty's pleasure with respect to the remaining Garter which still remains undisposed of, as your Majesty may probably think it advisable that the Investiture of all the Knights selected for the vacant Garters should take place at the same time.

Sir Robert Peel humbly represents to your Majesty that those Peers who may severally be considered from their rank and station candidates for this high distinction, have behaved very well in respect to it, as since Sir Robert Peel has had the honour of serving your Majesty he has never received, excepting in the cases of the Duke of Buckingham and recently of Lord Cardigan, a direct application on the subject of the Garter.

Of those who from their position and rank in the Peerage, and from the Garter having been heretofore conferred on their ancestors or relations, may be regarded as competitors, the principal appear to Sir Robert Peel to be the following:—

The Duke of Cleveland The Duke of Montrose The Marquis of Hertford The Marquis of Bute The Marquis of Abercorn The Marquis Camden The Marquis of Londonderry.

Sir Robert Peel names all, without meaning to imply that the pretensions of all are very valid ones. He would humbly represent for your Majesty's consideration, whether on account of rank, fortune and general character and station in the country, the claims of the Duke of Cleveland do not upon the whole predominate.[18]

His Grace is very much mortified and disappointed at Sir Robert Peel's having humbly advised your Majesty to apply the general rule against the son's succeeding the father immediately in the Lieutenancy of a county to his case in reference to his county of Durham.

Sir Robert Peel thinks it better to write to your Majesty upon this subject, as your Majesty may wish to have an opportunity of considering it.

[Footnote 18: The Garter was conferred on the Duke of Cleveland.]



[Pageheading: THE EARL OF MUNSTER]

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN AND THE INCOME TAX]

Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.

SOUTH STREET, 21st March 1842.

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. A letter from Charles Fox to Lady Holland, and which she has sent to me, informs me of the shocking end of Munster,[19] which your Majesty will have heard long before you receive this. Charles Fox attributes it entirely to the vexatious and uneasy life which he led with Lady Munster, but he was always, as your Majesty knows, an unhappy and discontented man, and there is something in that unfortunate condition of illegitimacy which seems to distort the mind and feelings and render them incapable of justice or contentment.