The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 63

_Queen Victoria to the King of Prussia._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _6th July 1850._

SIRE, MY MOST HONOURED BROTHER,--I have to express to you my thanks for the pleasure which the visit of your dear brother has given us, who, as I hope, will remit these lines to you in perfect health. That things go so well with you, and that the healing of your wound has made undisturbed progress, has been to us a true removal of anxiety.

You will no doubt have learnt that I too have been again the object of an attempt, if possible still more cowardly. The criminal is, _as usual_, this time too, insane, or will pretend to be so; still the deed remains.

All our feelings are, in the meanwhile, preoccupied by the sorrow, in which your Majesty and all Europe will share, at the death of Sir Robert Peel. That is one of the hardest blows of Fate which could have fallen on us and on the country. You knew the great man, and understood how to appreciate his merit. His value is now becoming clear even to his opponents; all Parties are united in mourning.

The only satisfactory event of recent times is the news of your conclusion of peace with Denmark. Accept my most cordial congratulations on that account.

Requesting you to remember me cordially to the dear Queen, and referring you for detailed news to the dear Prince, also recommending to your gracious remembrance Albert, who does not wish to trouble you, on his part, with a letter, I remain, in unchangeable friendship, dear Brother, your Majesty's faithful Sister,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _9th July 1850._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--We live in the midst of sorrow and death! My poor good Uncle Cambridge breathed his last, without a struggle, at a few minutes before ten last night. I still saw him yesterday morning at one, but he _did not see me_, and to-day I saw him lifeless and cold.

The poor d.u.c.h.ess and the poor children are very touching in their grief, and poor Augusta,[29] who arrived just _five hours too late_, is quite heartbroken. The end was most peaceful; there was no disease; only a gastric fever, which came on four weeks ago, from over-exertion, and cold, and which he neglected for the first week, carried him off.

The good Prince of Prussia you will have been pleased to talk to and see. Having lived with him for a fortnight on a very intimate footing, we have been able to appreciate his _real_ worth fully; he is so honest and frank, and so steady of purpose and courageous.

Poor dear Peel is to be buried to-day. The sorrow and grief at his death are most touching, and the country mourns over him as over a father. Every one seems to have lost a personal friend.

As I have much to write, you will forgive me ending here. You will be glad to hear that poor Aunt Gloucester is wonderfully calm and resigned. My poor dear Albert, who had been so fresh and well when we came back, looks so pale and f.a.gged again. He has felt, and feels, Sir Robert's loss _dreadfully_. He feels he has lost a second father.

May G.o.d bless and protect you all, you dear ones! Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 29: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 437.]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _19th July 1850._

Before this draft to Lord Bloomfield about Greece is sent, it would be well to consider whether Lord Palmerston is justified in calling the Minister of the Interior of Greece "a notorious defaulter to the amount of 200,000 drachms,"[30] and should he be so, whether it is a proper thing for the Queen's Foreign Secretary to say in a public despatch!

[Footnote 30: The Convention of the 18th of April (see _ante_, p. 242, note 1) had decided that 8500 should be distributed among the claimants, and that Don Pacifico's special claim against Portugal should be referred to arbitration. Ultimately he was awarded only an insignificant sum.]

[Pageheading: THE FOREIGN OFFICE]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _28th July 1850._

The Queen will have much pleasure in seeing the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Bedford here next Sat.u.r.day, and we have invited them. She will be quite ready to hear the Duke's opinions on the Foreign Office. Lord John may be sure that she fully admits the great difficulties in the way of the projected alteration, but she, on the other hand, feels the duty she owes to the country and to herself, not to allow a man in whom she can have no confidence, who has conducted himself in _anything but_ a straightforward and proper manner to herself, to remain in the Foreign Office, and thereby to expose herself to insults from other nations, and the country to the constant risk of serious and alarming complications. The Queen considers these reasons as much graver than the other difficulties. Each time that we were in a difficulty, the Government seemed to be determined to move Lord Palmerston, and as soon as these difficulties were got over, those which present themselves in the carrying out of this removal appeared of so great a magnitude as to cause its relinquishment. There is no chance of Lord Palmerston reforming himself in his sixty-seventh year, and after having considered his last escape as a triumph.... The Queen is personally convinced that Lord Palmerston at this moment is secretly planning an armed Russian intervention in Schleswig, which may produce a renewal of revolutions in Germany, and possibly a general war.

The Queen only adduces this as an instance that there is no question of delicacy and danger in which Lord Palmerston will not arbitrarily and without reference to his colleagues or Sovereign engage this country.

_Queen Victoria to the King of Denmark._

OSBORNE, _29 Juillet 1850._

SIRE ET MON BON FReRE,--La lettre dont votre Majeste a bien voulu m'honorer m'a cause un bien vif plaisir comme temoignage que votre Majeste a su apprecier les sentiments d'amitie pour vous et le desir d'agir avec impartialite qui m'ont animee ainsi que mon Gouvernement pendant tout le cours des longues negociations qui out precede la signature de la Paix avec l'Allemagne. Votre Majeste peut ais.e.m.e.nt comprendre aussi combien je dois regretter le renouvellement de la guerre avec le Schleswig qui ne pourra avoir d'autre resultat que l'accroiss.e.m.e.nt de l'animosite et l'affaibliss.e.m.e.nt des deux n.o.bles peuples sur lesquels vous regnez. Dieu veuille que cette derniere lutte se termine pourtant dans une reconciliation solide, basee sur la reconnaissance des droits et des obligations des deux cotes. Je me trouve poussee a vous soumettre ici, Sire, une priere pour un Prince qui s'est malheureus.e.m.e.nt trouve en conflit avec votre Majeste, mais pour lequel les liens de parente me portent a plaider, le Duc de Holstein-Augustenburg. Je suis persuadee que la magnanimite de votre Majeste lui rendra ses biens particuliers, qu'elle a juge necessaire de lui oter pendant la guerre de 1848, ce que je reconnaitrais bien comme une preuve d'amitie de la part de votre Majeste envers moi.

En faisant des v[oe]ux, pour son bonbeur et en exprimant le desir du Prince, mon Epoux, d'etre mis aux pieds de votre Majeste, je suis, Sire et mon bon Frere, de votre Majeste la bonne S[oe]ur,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: DENMARK AND SCHLESWIG]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _31st July 1850._

The Queen must draw Lord John Russell's attention to the accompanying draft[31] with regard to Schleswig, which is evidently intended to lay the ground for future foreign armed intervention. This is to be justified by considering the a.s.sistance which the Stadthalterschaft of Holstein may be tempted to give to their Schleswig brethren "as an invasion of Schleswig by a German force."

Lord John seems himself to have placed a "?" against that pa.s.sage.

This is, after two years' negotiation and mediation, _begging the question_ at issue. The whole war--Revolution, mediation, etc., etc.--rested upon the question whether Schleswig was part of Holstein (though not of the German Confederation), or part of Denmark and not of Holstein.

[Footnote 31: In this draft, Lord Palmerston was remonstrating with the Prussian Government against the orders given by the Holstein Statthalters to their army to invade Schleswig, after the signature of the peace between Prussia and Denmark.]