The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 115

[Pageheading: THE ROYAL FAMILY AND POLITICS]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROCKET HALL, _2nd February 1843._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and thanks much for the letter of the 30th ult., which he received here yesterday morning. He believes it is more prudent not to go to London, but he greatly regrets that his not doing so will deprive him for so long a time of the honour and pleasure of seeing your Majesty.

The Duke of Suss.e.x acquainted Lord Melbourne and took his opinion before he issued his cards for the dinner. Lord Melbourne does not think that he can have any idea of playing the part to which Lord Erroll alluded. It is better that a dinner should be given somewhere.

He having nothing of the kind would look too much like giving up the whole business and disbanding the party. Lord Melbourne entirely agrees with your Majesty as to the political conduct which ought to be pursued by the members of the Royal Family, but he remembers no time in which they have been induced to act with so much prudence and propriety. Your Majesty will see in Adolphus the very prominent share which the Duke of c.u.mberland,[9] the General of Culloden, took in the Party contentions of those days. He was a strong partisan and in a great measure the founder of the Whig party. Lord Melbourne has often heard George IV. converse upon that subject, and he used to contend that it was quite impossible for a Prince of Wales in this country to avoid taking an active part in politics and political contentions. The fact is, that George III. did not discourage this in his own family sufficiently, and the King of Hanover always said that his father had encouraged him in the active part which he took, and which certainly was sufficiently objectionable.

The a.s.sa.s.sination of Drummond is indeed a horrible event. Lord Melbourne does not see as yet any clear, distinct, and certain evidence of what were the real motives and object of the man. But we shall hear upon his trial what it is that he urges. Your Majesty will, of course, recollect that the Jury acquitted Oxford, and there then was nothing to do but to acquiesce in the verdict. If the Jury should take a similar view of this man's crime, it will be impossible for the Government to do anything to remedy the evil which Lord Melbourne thinks will be caused by such a decision. Lord Melbourne knew Mr Drummond pretty well. He used formerly to be much in Hertfordshire, both at Hatfield and at Gorhambury, and Lord Melbourne has often met him at both places, and thought him with all the rest of the world, a very quiet, gentlemanly, and agreeable man. Lord Melbourne very well remembers the murder of Mr Perceval and Bellingham's trial. Lord Melbourne was then in the House of Commons, but was not present at the time the crime was perpetrated. There were differences of opinion as to the manner in which Sir James Mansfield conducted the trial. Many thought that he ought to have given more time, which was asked for on the part of the prisoner, in order to search for evidence at Liverpool. But the law which he laid down in his charge is certainly sound, correct, and reasonable. Lord Melbourne is very glad to think that your Majesty has not to go to the House of Lords to-day.

[Footnote 9: This Duke died unmarried in 1765, and his nephew, the fourth son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, was created Duke of c.u.mberland in 1766. He in his turn died without issue, in 1790, and in 1799 the fifth son of George III. (afterwards King of Hanover) received the same t.i.tle.]

[Pageheading: THE AMERICAN TREATY]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROCKET HALL, _3rd February 1843._

... Lord Melbourne thinks that the Speech was very well and judiciously drawn; the only paragraph which he does not like is that about the American treaty.[10] It betrays too great an anxiety for peace, and too much fear of war.[11]

[Footnote 10: See _ante_, pp. 368, 370 (Ch. X, 'The United States').

The treaty had been negotiated by Lord Ashburton.]

[Footnote 11: "By the treaty which Her Majesty has concluded with the United States of America, and by the adjustment of those differences which, from their long continuance, had endangered the preservation of peace, Her Majesty trusts that the amicable relations of the two countries have been confirmed."]

_The Queen of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _6th February 1843._

MY BELOVED VICTORIA,--I am quite of your opinion about b.a.l.l.s.

_Nothing_ can change what _cannot change_, and I consider all these things, which have always been _a bore_ to me, as a matter _of duty_ and not otherwise. The duties of station are to be fulfilled like the others, and my _first_ and _most pleasant_ duty is to do _all_ that your Uncle may command or wish. Your Uncle was much _shocked_ by your answer about _Miss Meyer_,[12] whom he considered of _uncommon beauty_. He is quite in love with her picture, and is very anxious to discover who she is. The other pictures of the _book of beauty_ he abandons to you, and they are certainly worthy of a _book of ugliness_.... Yours most devotedly,

LOUISE.

[Footnote 12: Eugenie Meyer, step-daughter of Colonel Gurwood, C.B., married the first Viscount Esher, Master of the Rolls.

The Queen had written that she did not admire that style of beauty.]

[Pageheading: KING LEOPOLD AND PEEL]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _10th February 1843._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--... I am very much gratified by your having shown my hasty scrawl to Sir Robert Peel, and that the sincere expression of a conscientious opinion should have given him pleasure.

It was natural at first that you should _not_ have liked to take him as your Premier; many circ.u.mstances united against him. But I must say for you and your family, as well as for England, it was a great blessing that so firm and honourable a man as Peel should have become the head of your Administration. The State machine breaks often down in consequence of mistakes made forty and fifty years ago; so it was in France where even Louis XIV. had already laid the first foundation for what happened nearly a hundred years afterwards.

I believe, besides, Sir Robert sincerely and warmly attached to you, and as you say with great truth, _quite above_ mere party feeling.

Poor Lady Peel must be much affected by what has happened.... Your truly devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROCKET HALL, _12th February 1843._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He received here on Friday last, the 10th, your Majesty's letter of the 8th, which gave him great pleasure, and for which he gratefully thanks your Majesty. Lord Melbourne is getting better, and hopes soon to be nearly as well as he was before this last attack, but he still finds his left hand and arm and his left leg very much affected, and he does not recover his appet.i.te, and worse still, he is very sleepless at night, an evil which he is very little used to, and of which he is very impatient....

Lord Melbourne adheres to all he said about Lord Ashburton and the Treaty, but he thinks more fire than otherwise would have taken place was drawn upon Lord Ashburton by the confident declaration of Stanley that his appointment was generally approved. The contrary is certainly the case. There is much of popular objection to him from his American connection and his supposed strong American interests. Lady Ashburton, with whom he received a large fortune, is a born American. But he is supposed to possess much funded property in that country, and to have almost as strong an interest in its welfare as in that of Great Britain. With all this behind, it is a bad thing to say that his appointment was liable to no suspicion or objection. It seems to Lord Melbourne that what with Ellenborough with the Gates of Ghuznee upon his shoulders,[13] and Ashburton with the American Treaty round his neck, the Ministry have nearly as heavy a load upon them as they can stand up under, and Lord Melbourne would not be surprised if they were to lighten themselves of one or the other.

[Footnote 13: The Somnauth Proclamation created a good deal of ridicule.]

[Pageheading: POSITION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROCKET HALL, _13th February 1843._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has just recollected that in the letter which he wrote yesterday, he omitted to advert to a part of your Majesty's last to which your Majesty may expect some answer. He means the part relating to the character and situation of a Prince of Wales in this country. George IV. was so conscious of having mixed himself most unrestrainedly in politics, and of having taken a very general part in opposition to his father's Government and wishes, that he was naturally anxious to exonerate himself from blame, and to blame it upon the necessity of his position rather than upon his own restless and intermeddling disposition. But Lord Melbourne agrees with your Majesty that his excuse was neither valid nor justifiable, and Lord Melbourne earnestly hopes that your Majesty and the Prince may be successful in training and instructing the young Prince of Wales, and to make him understand correctly his real position and its duties, and to enable him to withstand the temptations and seductions with which he will find himself beset, when he approaches the age of twenty-one. It is true that Sir John made the observation, which Lord Melbourne mentioned to your Majesty, and which you now remember correctly. He made it to Sir James Graham, when he went to talk to him about the offence which William IV. had taken at the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent's marine excursion; and at the receiving of royal salutes. Your Majesty was not very long in the situation of an acknowledged, admitted, and certain Heir Apparent, but still long enough to be aware of the use which those around you were inclined to make of that situation and of the pet.i.tions and applications which it naturally produced from others, and therefore to have an idea of the difficulties of it.

Lord Melbourne heartily wishes your Majesty every success in the interesting and important task in which you are engaged of forming the character and disposition of the young Prince.

[Pageheading: DOMESTIC HAPPINESS]