The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 6

We never hear any news here. All that does come to us generally comes by way of Europe; another proof of what a miserable country this is.

[Footnote 31: Abdul Medjid, born 1823, who had succeeded to the throne at the time of the Syrian War; see _ante_, vol. i., 19th August, 1839, note 54.]

[Footnote 32: Minister of Foreign Affairs, born 1802, died 1858.]

[Pageheading: THE KING OF PRUSSIA]

_The King of Prussia to Queen Victoria._

[_Translation._]

SANS SOUCI, _24th May 1854._

MOST GRACIOUS QUEEN,--... My policy,[33] which has been so terribly criticised and derided as "vacillating," has been, since the beginning of this most inauspicious conflict, one and the same, and _without a hairsbreadth of deviation_ either to the right or to the left. As it rests on the unshakable foundation which my conscience as a King and a Christian has laid down, and which does not admit _que je fa.s.se la besogne ni de l'un ni de l'autre parti_, I am abused and insulted at the Winter Palace, and regarded, by way of contrast in London and Paris, as a kind of simpleton--neither of which is pleasant.

May your Majesty believe my Royal Word: I was, I am, I remain the truest and most faithful friend of Great Britain, as well in principle as from religious feeling and from true affection. I desire and practise a good and honest understanding with France; but when it comes to helping the French--to whom Prussia's geographical position between Paris and Warsaw is very inconvenient--to pull the _chestnuts from the fire_ for them, for such a task I am frankly too good. If the Emperor wishes to force me to a.s.sist--as evidently he is inclined to do--it will end by becoming too difficult for him. He ought to thank G.o.d that my view of Russian policy and my fidelity to your Majesty have prevented me from making him begin this _Turkish_ War on the _other side of his own frontier_. The great advantage of this result is totally forgotten in France, and, unfortunately, in England too.

Those who every day fill the papers of home and foreign countries with accounts of my vacillations, nay, who represent me as leaping from my own horse on to a Russian one, are inventing lies, in a great measure, deliberately. I tell your Majesty, on my honour and conscience, that my policy is to-day _the same_ as it was nine months ago. I have recognised it as my duty before G.o.d to preserve, for my people and my provinces, peace, _because I recognise Peace as a blessing and War as a curse_. I cannot and will not side with Russia, because Russia's arrogance and wickedness have caused this _horrible_ trouble, and because duty and conscience and tradition forbid me to draw the sword against Old England. In the same degree duty and conscience forbid me to make unprovoked war against Russia, because Russia, so far, has done me no harm. So I thought, so I willed when I thought myself isolated. How then could I now suddenly abandon a steady policy, preserved in the face of many dangers, and incline to Russia at the moment when I have concluded with Austria an Alliance defensive and offensive, in which (if G.o.d grant His blessing) the whole of Germany will join in a few days, thus welding, for the entire duration of the War, the whole of Central Europe into a Unity, comprising 72,000,000 people, and easily able to put 1,000,000 men into the field? And yet, most gracious Queen, I do not take up a defiant position on the strength of this enormous power, but I trust in the Lord's help and my own sacred Right; I also believe, honestly and firmly, that the character of a so-called Great Power must justify itself, _not by swimming with the current_, but _by standing firm like a rock in the sea_.

I close this letter which, in consequence of various interruptions, is almost a week old, on the 24th of May. This is your birthday, ever dearest, most gracious Queen. On this day I lay at your Majesty's feet the expression of my wishes for every blessing. May G.o.d grant your Majesty a joyful day, and a richly blessed year of rule. May He strengthen, preserve, and invigorate your precious health, and may He give you, within the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year of your life which begins to-day, _that_ one day of overabundant blessing, of unspeakable joy, for which I long, for which I pray to G.o.d--_that blissful day on which you can utter the word_ PEACE.

Now I beg your Majesty from the bottom of my heart not to be angry with me for my unconscionably long letter, nor to worry yourself about sending an answer, but, on the other hand, graciously to keep it secret, communicating it only to the dear Prince. It is a matter of course that the facts which it contains, and the resulting explanations, which may be of importance for your Majesty's Government, must, from their nature, no longer be kept secret, so soon as you think it right to announce them. I embrace the dear Prince tenderly, and commend myself to the grace, goodwill, and friendship of my august Royal Sister, I being your Majesty's most faithfully devoted, most attached Servant and Good Brother,

FREDERIC WILLIAM.

[Footnote 33: In the previous portion of this long letter, here omitted, the King gives a detailed account of his position and policy.]

[Pageheading: MARSHAL ST ARNAUD]

_Queen Victoria to the Duke of Newcastle._

OSBORNE, _29th May 1854._

The Queen acknowledges the receipt of the Duke of Newcastle's letter, which she received quite early this morning.

The Duke of Cambridge's letter does _not_ give a flourishing account of the state of Turkey. What alarms the Queen most is the news given by the Duke of Newcastle of the pretensions of Marshal St Arnaud.[34]

She does not quite understand whether he has received the supreme command over the Turkish Army, but at any rate if the Porte should be willing to allow its Army to be placed under Foreign Command, a portion of it ought to be claimed by us for Lord Raglan, which, joined to his English forces, would produce an Army capable of taking the field independently.

The Queen trusts that the Government will take this into serious consideration, and, if they should concur in this view, that no time will be lost.

[Footnote 34: The Duke had written to say that a demand had been made by Marshal St Arnaud upon the Porte that Omar Pasha should be superseded, and the Turkish Army placed under his (St Arnaud's) orders; also that Marshal St Arnaud was desirous of a.s.suming the supreme command of the allied forces. The incident is graphically recorded by Mr Kinglake.]

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN'S REPLY]

[Pageheading: INVASION OF THE PRINc.i.p.aLITIES]

[Pageheading: FRIENDLY RELATIONS]

_Queen Victoria to the King of Prussia._

[_Translation._]

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _June 1854._

DEAREST SIR AND BROTHER,--Your faithful Bunsen has handed me your Majesty's long explanatory letter, and has taken his leave of us,[35]

with tears in his eyes, and I can a.s.sure your Majesty that I, too, see with pain the departure of one whom I have been accustomed to consider as the faithful mirror of your feelings, wishes, and views, and whose depth and warmth of heart I esteem no less highly than his high mental gifts. Sympathy with his fate is general here. I entirely recognise in your letter the expression of your friendship, which is so dear to me, and which does not admit any sort of misunderstanding to exist between us, without my endeavouring at once to clear it up and remove it.

How could I meet your friendship otherwise than by equally absolute frankness, allowing you to look into my inmost heart! Though you have shown me a proof of your gracious confidence in giving me, down to the smallest detail, an account of your personal and business relations with your servants, I still believe that I have no right to formulate any judgment. Only one thing my heart bids me to express, viz., that the men with whom you have broken were faithful, veracious servants, warmly devoted to you, and that just by the freedom and independence of spirit, with which they have expressed their opinions to your Majesty, _they have given an indisputable proof_ of having had in view, not their own personal advantage and the favour of their Sovereign, but his true interests and welfare alone; and if just such men as these--among them even your loving brother, a thoroughly n.o.ble and chivalrous Prince, standing next to the throne--find themselves forced, in a grave crisis, to turn away from you, this is a _momentous sign_, which might well give cause to your Majesty to take counsel with yourself, and to examine with anxious care, whether perhaps the hidden cause of past and future evils may not lie in your Majesty's own views?[36] You complain, most honoured Sire and Brother, that your policy is blamed as _vacillating_, and that your own person is insulted at home and abroad (a thing which has often filled me with _deep grief and indignation_), and you a.s.severate that your policy rests upon a firm basis, which the conscience of "a King and a Christian has laid down for it." But should it be possible to discover in your Majesty's fundamental views something self-contradictory, then necessarily, the more consistently and conscientiously these fundamental views are revealed in their consequences, the more contradictory must your actions appear to those who are not intimately aware of your intentions, and cannot but force upon the world the impression that your views themselves were wavering.

You will not take it amiss in a true friend and sister, if she endeavours to place before you her impressions on this matter, as frankly as they appear to her.

Your Majesty has acknowledged in the face of the world that Russia has addressed to the Porte demands which she had no right to make. You have further acknowledged that the forcible taking possession of two Turkish provinces with the intention of enforcing the demand was a political wrong. You have, together with Austria, France, and England, several times declared in Protocols the preservation of the integrity of the Turkish empire to be a European interest. Notwithstanding all this, Russia continues to occupy the Danube princ.i.p.alities, penetrates further into Turkey, and, by forcing on a sanguinary and exhausting war, leads the unhappy and _suffering_ empire on to the brink of the grave. What should Europe then do under these circ.u.mstances?

It could not possibly be the intention of the Powers to declare the preservation and integrity of the Porte to be a matter of European concern, solely in order to allow that empire to be destroyed before their very eyes! As to Prussia, I can conceive a line of policy, not that indeed which I should think in harmony with the generosity and chivalry of your rule, but still one possible in itself, by which she would say to herself: "The preservation of this integrity I have indeed declared to be a matter of European concern, but I wish to leave England and France to defend that policy with their wealth and blood, and reserve to myself only a _moral_ co-operation." But what am I to think if, after England and France with courageous readiness have taken upon themselves alone this immense responsibility, sacrifice, and danger, your Majesty is now mainly considering the erection of a barrier of 72,000,000 of men between them and that Power, against whose encroachment the European interest is to be defended? What am I to say to the threat uttered against the _West_ as well as against the _East?_ and to your even asking from the West grat.i.tude for "the enormous advantage" that you do not, into the bargain, yourself join in attacking it!! For your Majesty says expressly in your letter: "The Emperor ought to thank G.o.d that my view of Russian policy, my _fidelity_ to your Majesty, have prevented me from making him begin the Turkish war on the other side of his own frontier. The enormous advantage of this abstention is totally forgotten in France, and, unfortunately, in England too!"

Dearest Sir and Brother, this language shows a contradiction in your own mind, which fills me with the greatest anxiety for possible consequences, an anxiety not diminished by your kindly adding: "Duty, Conscience, and Tradition forbid you to draw the sword against Old England."

I shall gladly with you bless the day on which the word of Peace can be uttered. Your Majesty can, by vigorous co-operation, help to usher in that day, just as you might have--in my conviction--contributed, by vigorous co-operation to prevent the War altogether.

Whatever these troublous times may bring us, I harbour the firm confidence that the warmth of our friendly relations cannot be troubled by anything, and rejoice in the circ.u.mstance that the personal relations of the two Sovereigns are, in this matter, so entirely in harmony with the interests of the two nations.

Albert sends you his homage, and I remain, with most cordial remembrance to the dear Queen, and with thanks for the kind wishes expressed by both of you, ever your Majesty's faithful Sister and Friend,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 35: The influence of Russia over the King had been proved by the recall of Baron Bunsen, and the dismissal of all those Ministers who had opposed the policy of the Czar in Turkey.]

[Footnote 36: The Prince of Prussia had shown his dissatisfaction with the King's policy by quitting Berlin.]

[Pageheading: THE WAR OFFICE]

_Minute of Interview by the Prince Albert._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _8th June 1854._