The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 13

[Footnote 29: The Princess was to attain her legal majority on 24th May.]

[Footnote 30: George Davys, the Princess Victoria's instructor, Dean of Chester, and afterwards Bishop of Peterborough.]

[Footnote 31: Thomas Vowler Short, Rector of St George's, Bloomsbury, appointed in 1841 Bishop of Sodor and Man.]

[Footnote 32: Lady Catherine Jenkinson, daughter of the Earl of Liverpool, soon after the Queen's accession married Colonel Francis Vernon Harcourt.]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_12th April 1837._

... What you say about the newspapers is very true and very flattering. They are indeed a curious compound of truth and untruth. I am so used to newspaper nonsense and attacks that I do not mind it in the least....

How happy I am that that beloved Aunt is going on so well and does not suffer from the cold, as also the _jeune Philippe_. Leopold must be great fun with his Aunt Marie;[33] does he still say "_pas beau frere!_" or is he more reconciled to his brother? It is very n.o.ble in the Duc de Nemours to have thus given up his _apanage_;[34] I am sorry there were such difficulties about it. There is no Ministry formed yet, I see by the papers.

[Footnote 33: Princess Marie of Orleans, born 1813, daughter of King Louis Philippe, and thus sister to the Queen of the Belgians.]

[Footnote 34: This grant was surrendered in order that due provision might be made by the Legislature for the elder brother, the Duke of Orleans, on the occasion of his marriage with the Princess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.]

[Pageheading: THE IRISH MUNIc.i.p.aL BILL]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_28th April 1837._

MY MOST BELOVED UNCLE,--.... Sir Henry Hardinge's[35] motion was quite lost, I am happy to say, and don't you think, dearest Uncle, that it has almost done good, as it proves that the Tories have lost all chance of getting in? It was a trial of strength, and the Ministry have triumphed. I have been reading in the papers, what I suppose you already know, that it is believed that the Lords _will_ pa.s.s the Irish Corporation Bill;[36] and also that Ministers mean to drop for the present the question about Church Rates,[37] as the Radicals, being angry with Ministers relative to the Canada business, would not support them well.

[Footnote 35: On a motion for going into supply, Sir H.

Hardinge proposed an amendment censuring the Government for the authorisation of the raising of a force of Volunteers to a.s.sist the Spanish Government, and for the method in which that force had been organised. The amendment was lost by a majority of 36, on 19th April.]

[Footnote 36: The Irish Munic.i.p.al Bill, to convert Corporations of Munic.i.p.alities into Electoral Councils, was introduced in the House of Commons on the 15th of February.

The Bill was opposed by the Conservatives, but pa.s.sed the House of Commons. In the Lords an amendment of Lyndhurst's struck out the constructive clauses, and the Act became, on the 18th of May, an Act for the Abolition of Munic.i.p.alities in Ireland. Lord John Russell brought forward a motion to reconstruct the Bill. But the Peers declined to pa.s.s it, and it was postponed.]

[Footnote 37: As Ministers only obtained a majority of 5 in a house of 569, the measure was dropped.]

_The King of the Belgians to the Princess Victoria._

LAEKEN, _28th April 1837._

... I hope you occupy yourself with the several great questions which agitate parties. I think a good mode will be to talk concerning them sometimes with the Dean. He is a good moderate man, and still well able to give you sufficient information. From conversation with clever people, such as dine sometimes with you, much may be very usefully gathered, and you will do well to attend to this. I am no enemy to this way of instruction, and have seen people who were sharp enough to profit wonderfully by it. You hear in this way the opinions of a variety of persons, and it rests with your own good sense to cla.s.sify and appreciate them....

[Pageheading: MINISTERIAL ANXIETY]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_2nd May 1837._

... You may depend upon it that I shall profit by your excellent advice respecting Politics. Pray, dear Uncle, have you read Lord Palmerston's speech concerning the Spanish affairs,[38] which he delivered the night of the division on Sir Henry Hardinge's motion? It is much admired. The Irish t.i.thes question came on last night in the House of Commons,[39] and I am very anxious for the morning papers, to see what has been done. Lord Melbourne looks remarkably well, Lord Palmerston not very well, and as for poor little Lord John Russell, he is only a shadow of himself. It must be dreadfully f.a.gging work for them; they sit so very late too, for when the Spanish question came on, the division only took place at four o'clock in the morning, and I saw them at the Drawing-Room the same day afterwards....

[Footnote 38: Lord Palmerston indignantly asked whether England should continue to fulfil her engagement with the Queen of Spain, or disgracefully abandon an ally whom she had pledged herself to succour.]

[Footnote 39: The Irish t.i.the Bill, a measure to facilitate the collection of t.i.thes, was abandoned because the Tories would not consent to any secular appropriation of Church revenues, and the Whigs would not consent to the withdrawal of their amendments. A remarkable feature in the Bill was a proposal that a portion of every clergyman's income should be applied to education, as was already prescribed by a former Act.]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_9th May 1837._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--It was very kind of you to write to me from your new chateau; I hardly ventured to hope for my usual letter, and yet I should have been much disappointed had I not received it. I am sorry that the house is so bad, but hope you will have found a good position for a new one....

Pray, dearest Uncle, may I ask such an indiscreet question as, if Major Stroekens is a clever man; he was so nervous and embarra.s.sed when he came here, that I could not make him out. He brought me a very nice letter from Donna Maria.

I am anxiously waiting to hear the issue of the battle between the Carlists and Christinos, which is, they say, to decide a great deal.[40]

Now farewell, dearest Uncle. I beg my affectionate love to my dear Aunt, and my most respectful _hommages_ to the Members of the Family with you. Believe me, always, your affectionate Niece,

VICTORIA.

Old Pozzo[41] dined here last Wednesday, and he gave me a long, I must say clever, dissertation about the state of France, during dinner-time.

[Footnote 40: After an obstinate investment by the Carlists, Espartero had relieved Bilbao on Christmas Day, 1836. The Christino commanders then began to concert a combined movement on the Carlist lines, which stretched from Irun to Villafranca.]

[Footnote 41: Count Pozzo di Borgo (1764-1842), Russian Amba.s.sador. By birth a Corsican and a devoted patriot, he was a life-long opponent of Napoleon and his designs. He entered the Russian diplomatic service in 1803, and after Waterloo became Russian Amba.s.sador in Paris. He was Amba.s.sador in London for two years, when his health gave way.]

[Pageheading: THE PRINCESS'S ESTABLISHMENT]

_The King of the Belgians to the Princess Victoria._