The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 16

[Pageheading: THE UNEMPLOYED]

_Memorandum by the Prince Albert._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _25th December 1845._

We had a Council yesterday, at which Parliament was prorogued to the 22nd of January, then to meet for the despatch of business. Lord Stanley had an audience of the Queen before, and delivered up the Seals of his office. He was much agitated, and had told Sir Robert that he dreaded this interview very much. The Queen thanked him for his services, and begged he would do his best out of office to smooth down the difficulties her Government would have to contend with. At the Council Lord Dalhousie took his seat, and Mr Gladstone received the Colonial Seals. The Queen saw the Duke of Buccleuch and thanked him for the devotion he had shown her during these trying circ.u.mstances; the same to the Duke of Wellington, who is in excellent spirits. On my saying, "You have such an influence over the House of Lords, that you will be able to keep them straight," he answered: "I'll do anything; I am now beginning to write to them and to convince them singly of what their duty is."

We saw afterwards Sir Robert Peel, who stayed more than three hours.

He is in the highest spirits at having got Mr Gladstone and kept the Duke of Buccleuch; he proposed that the Duke should be made President, and Lord Haddington Privy Seal in his stead. (Lord Haddington had behaved very well, had given up his place to Sir Robert, and told him he should do with him just as he liked--leave him out of the Cabinet, shift him to another place, or leave him at the Admiralty, as would suit him best.)

Sir Robert hinted to Lord Ripon that Lord Haddington had behaved so well, but got no more out of him, but "that he would _almost_ have done the same." Sir Robert proposes to see Lord Ellenborough in order to offer him the Admiralty, received the Queen's sanction likewise to Lord St Germans (the Postmaster-General) being put into the Cabinet. I said: "With your Government that has no inconvenience, and even if you had a hundred members in the Cabinet, as you don't tell them but what is absolutely necessary, and follow your own course." He said in reply, that he should be very sorry if he had to have told his Cabinet that he meant to send for Lord Ellenborough. We could not help contrasting this conduct with the subjection Lord John has shown to his people. It is to his _own_ talent and firmness that Sir Robert will owe his success, which cannot fail. He said he had been determined not to go to a general election with the fetters the last election had imposed upon him, and he had meant at the end of the next Session to call the whole Conservative Party together and to declare this to them, that he would not meet another Parliament pledged to the maintenance of the Corn Laws, which could be maintained no longer, and that he would make a public declaration to this effect before another general election came on. This had been defeated by events coming too suddenly upon him, and he had no alternative but to deal with the Corn Laws before a national calamity would _force_ it on. The league had made immense progress, and had enormous means at their disposal. If he had resigned in November, Lord Stanley and the Protectionists would have been prepared to form a Government, and a Revolution might have been the consequence of it. Now they felt that it was too late.

Sir Robert has _an immense scheme in view_; he thinks he shall be able to remove the contest entirely from the dangerous ground upon which it has got--that of a war between the manufacturers, the hungry and the poor against the landed proprietors, the aristocracy, which can only end in the ruin of the latter; he will not bring forward a measure upon the Corn Laws, but a much more comprehensive one. He will deal with the whole commercial system of the country. He will adopt the principle of the League, _that of removing all protection and abolishing all monopoly_, but not in favour of one cla.s.s and as a triumph over another, but to the benefit of the nation, farmers as well as manufacturers. He would begin with cotton, and take in all the necessaries of life and corn amongst them. The experiments he had made in 1842 and 1845 with boldness but with caution had borne out the correctness of the principle: the wool duty was taken off, and wool sold higher than ever before; foreign cattle were let in, and the cattle of England stood better in the market than ever. He would not ask for compensation to the land, but wherever he could give it, and at the same time promote the social development, there he would do it, but on that ground. For instance, one of the greatest benefits to the country would be the establishment of a rural police on the same principle as the metropolitan police. By taking this on the Consolidated Fund, the landowners would be immensely relieved in all those counties which kept a police. One of the heaviest charges on the land was the present administration of law and the carrying on of prosecutions. Sir Robert could fancy this to be very much improved by the appointment of a _public_ prosecutor by the State, which would give the State a power to prevent vexatious, illegal, and immoral prosecutions, and reduce the expenses in an extraordinary degree. Part of the maintenance of the poor, according to the Poor Law, might be undertaken by the State. A great calamity must be foreseen, when the innumerable railroads now in progress shall have been terminated, which will be the case in a few years. This will throw an enormous labouring population suddenly out of employment. There might be a law pa.s.sed which would provide employment for them, and improve the agriculture and production of the country, by enabling the State to advance money to the great proprietors for the improvements of their estates, which they could not obtain otherwise without charging their estates beyond what they already have to bear.

Sir Robert means to go with Mr Gladstone into all these details.

ALBERT.

[Pageheading: LORD PALMERSTON'S JUSTIFICATION]

[Pageheading: LORD PALMERSTON'S POLICY]

_Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Melbourne._[41]

BOWOOD, _26th December 1845._

MY DEAR MELBOURNE,--I return you with many thanks George Anson's letter, which was enclosed in yours of the 23rd, which I received just as we were setting off for this place. Pray, when next you write to George Anson, say how gratefully I appreciate the kind consideration on the part of H.R.H. Prince Albert, which suggested George Anson's communication. But I can a.s.sure you that although John Russell, in his Audience of the Queen, may inadvertently have overstated the terms in which he had mentioned to me what Her Majesty had said to him about my return to the Foreign Office, yet in his conversations with me upon that subject he never said anything more than is contained in George Anson's letter to you; and I am sure you will think that under all the circ.u.mstances of the case he could hardly have avoided telling me thus much, and making me aware of the impression which seemed to exist upon the Queen's mind as to the way in which other persons might view my return to the Foreign Office.

With regard to Her Majesty's own sentiments, I have always been convinced that Her Majesty knows me too well to believe for an instant that I do not attach the greatest importance to the maintenance, not merely of peace with all foreign countries, but of the most friendly relations with those leading Powers and States of the world with which serious differences would be attended with the most inconvenience. As to Peace, I succeeded, as the organ of Lord Grey's Government and of yours, in preserving it unbroken during ten years[42] of great and extraordinary difficulty; and, if now and then it unavoidably happened during that period of time, that in pursuing the course of policy which seemed the best for British interests, we thwarted the views of this or that Foreign Power, and rendered them for the moment less friendly, I think I could prove that in every case the object which we were pursuing was of sufficient importance to make it worth our while to submit to such temporary inconvenience. There never was indeed, during those ten years, any real danger of war except on three occasions; and on each of those occasions the course pursued by the British Government prevented war. The first occasion was just after the accession of the King of the French, when Austria, Russia, and Prussia were disposed and preparing to attack France, and when the att.i.tude a.s.sumed by the British Government prevented a rupture. The second was when England and France united by a Convention to wrest the Citadel of Antwerp from the Dutch, and to deliver it over to the King of the Belgians.[43] If England had not then joined with France, Antwerp would have remained with the Dutch, or the attempt to take it would have led to a war in Europe. The third occasion was when Mehemet Ali's army occupied Syria, and when he was constantly threatening to declare himself independent and to march on Constantinople; while Russia, on the one hand, a.s.serted that if he did so she would occupy Constantinople, and on the other hand, France announced that if Russia did so, she, France, would force the Dardanelles. The Treaty of July 1840, proposed and brought about by the British Government, and the operations in execution of that Treaty, put an end to that danger; and, notwithstanding what has often been said to the contrary, the real danger of war arising out of the affairs of Syria was put an end to, and not created by the Treaty of 1840.

I am well aware, however, that some persons both at home and abroad have imbibed the notion that I am more indifferent than I ought to be as to running the risk of war. That impression abroad is founded upon an entire mistake, but is by some sincerely felt, and being sincere, would soon yield to the evidence of contradictory facts. At home that impression has been industriously propagated to a limited extent, partly by the legitimate attacks of political opponents, and partly by a little cabal within our own ranks. These parties wanted to attack me, and were obliged to accuse me of something. They could not charge me with failure, because we had succeeded in all our undertakings, whether in Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Syria, China, or elsewhere; they could not charge me with having involved the country in war, because, in fact, we had maintained peace; and the only thing that was left for them to say was that my policy had a _tendency_ to produce war, and I suppose they would argue that it was quite wrong and against all rule that it did not do so.

But notwithstanding what may have been said on this matter, the transaction which has by some been the most criticised in this respect, namely, the Treaty of 1840, and the operations connected with it, were entirely approved by the leaders of the then Opposition, who, so far from feeling any disposition to favour me, had always made a determined run at the Foreign Policy of the Whig Government. The Duke of Wellington, at the opening of the Session of 1841, said in the House of Lords that he entirely approved our policy in that transaction, and could not find that any fault had been committed by us in working it out; and I happen to know that Sir Robert Peel expressed to the representative of one of the German Powers, parties to the Alliance, his entire approval of our course, while Lord Aberdeen said to one of them, that the course I had taken in that affair made him forgive me many things of former years, which he had thought he never should have forgiven.

I am quite ashamed of the length to which this letter has grown, and shall only add, with reference to our relations with France, that I had some very friendly interviews with Thiers, who was my chief antagonist in 1840, and that although we did not enter into any conspiracy against Guizot and Peel, as the newspapers pretended, we parted on very good terms, and he promised to introduce me to all his friends whenever I should go to Paris, saying that of course Guizot would do me the same good office with his supporters. My dear Melbourne, yours affectionately,

PALMERSTON.

[Footnote 41: Submitted to the Queen by Lord Melbourne.]

[Footnote 42: 1830-1834, and 1835-1841.]

[Footnote 43: The English and French came in 1832 to the a.s.sistance of the Belgians, who some time before had entered Antwerp, but failed to take the Citadel.]

[Pageheading: THE MINISTRY REINSTATED]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the French._

CH. DE W., _le 30 Decembre 1845._

SIRE ET MON TReS CHER FReRE,--Votre Majeste me pardonnera si je viens seulement maintenant vous remercier de tout mon c[oe]ur de votre lettre si bonne et si aimable du 16, mais vous savez combien j'etais occupee pendant ces dernieres 3 semaines. La Crise est pa.s.see et j'ai tout lieu de croire que le Gouvernement de Sir R. Peel va s'affermir de plus en plus, ce que je ne puis que desirer pour le bien-etre du pays. Je dois cependant dire a votre Majeste que si le Ministere eut change, j'ai la cert.i.tude que le nouveau se serait empresse de maintenir, comme nous le desirons si vivement, cette entente cordiale si heureus.e.m.e.nt etablie entre nos deux Gouvernements.

Permettez-moi, Sire, de vous offrir au nom d'Albert et au mien nos felicitations les plus sinceres a l'occasion de la nouvelle Annee, dans lequel vous nous donnez le doux espoir de vous revoir. Nous avons lu avec beaucoup d'interet le Speech de V.M., dans lequel vous parlez si aimablement du "friendly call" a Eu et des cooperations des 2 pays dans differentes parties du monde, et particulierement pour l'Abolition de la Traite des noirs.

Ayez la grace, Sire, de deposer nos hommages et nos felicitations aux pieds de la Reine et de votre S[oe]ur. Agreez encore une fois, les expressions d'amitie et d'attachement sincere avec lesquelles je suis, Sire et mon bien cher Frere, de votre Majeste, la bien bonne S[oe]ur et fidele Amie,

VICTORIA R.

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _30th December 1845._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--Many thanks for your kind letter of the 27th, by which I see how glad you are at our good Peel being again--and I sincerely and confidently hope for many years--my Minister. I have heard many instances of the confidence the country and _all_ parties have in Peel; for instance, he was immensely cheered at Birmingham--a most Radical place; and _Joseph Hume_ expressed great distress when Peel resigned, and the greatest contempt for Lord John Russell. The Members of the Government have behaved extremely well and with much disinterestedness. The Government has secured the services of Mr Gladstone and Lord Ellenborough,[44] who will be of great use. Lord E.

is become very quiet, and is a very good speaker.

We had a very happy Christmas. This weather is extremely unwholesome.

Now, ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 44: Lord Ellenborough was one of the few Conservative statesmen of the day who, after remaining faithful to Sir Robert Peel till the middle of 1846, subsequently threw in his fortunes with Lord Derby and Mr Disraeli. He was President of the Board of Control with those Ministers in 1858 for the fourth time.]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

TO CHAPTER XV

The closing days of the year 1845 had been marked by startling political events, and Lord John Russell's failure to form a Government, and Sir Robert Peel's resumption of office, with Mr Gladstone subst.i.tuted for Lord Stanley, were now followed by the Ministerial measure for the Repeal of the Corn Laws. Embarra.s.sed as he now was by the attacks of his old supporters, led by Bentinck and Disraeli, Peel was supported whole-heartedly but in a strictly const.i.tutional manner by the Queen and the Prince. Amid bitter taunts, the Premier piloted the measure through Parliament, but on the night that it finally pa.s.sed the Lords he was defeated on an Irish Coercion Bill by a factious combination in the Commons between the Whigs and Protectionists, and resigned. Lord John Russell on this occasion was able to form an administration, though he failed in his attempt to include in it some important members of the outgoing Government.

Thus, owing to the Irish famine, the Tory party which had come into power in 1841 with a majority of ninety to support the Corn Laws, was shattered; after Peel's defeat it became clear that no common action could take place between his supporters in the struggle of 1846 and men like Bentinck and Disraeli, who now became leaders of the Protectionist party. For the remainder of the year Peel was on the whole friendly to the Russell Government, his chief care being to maintain them in office as against the Protectionists.

In India the British army was successful in its operations against the Sikhs, Sir Harry Smith defeating them at Aliwal, and Sir Hugh Gough at Sobraon. Our troops crossed the Sutlej, and terms of peace were agreed on between Sir Henry Hardinge (who became a Viscount) and the Sirdars from Lah.o.r.e, peace being signed on 8th March.