The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 26

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty....

The death of the Emperor of Russia may or may not produce important changes in the state of affairs. It is probable that the Grand Duke Hereditary will succeed quietly, notwithstanding the notion that a doubt would be started whether he, as son of the Grand Duke Nicholas, would not be superseded by his younger brother born son of the Czar.[44] It is possible that the new Emperor may revert to that peaceful policy which he was understood to advocate in the beginning of these transactions, but it is possible, on the other hand, that he may feel bound to follow out the policy of his father, and may be impelled by the headstrong ambition of his brother Constantine. At all events, this change at Petersburg should not for the present slacken the proceedings and the arrangements of the Allies.

The House of Commons has been engaged in discussing Mr Roebuck's proposal that the Committee of Enquiry should be a secret one. This proposal was made by the majority of the Committee on the ground that they antic.i.p.ated a difficulty in conducting their enquiries without trenching on the delicate and dangerous ground of questioning the proceedings of the French. The proposal was objected to by Lord Seymour[45] and Mr Ellice, members of the Committee, by Sir James Graham as unjust towards the Duke of Newcastle, and others whose conduct ought to be enquired into with all the safeguards which publicity secures for justice, and not before a Secret Tribunal in the nature of an Inquisition. The general sense of the House was against secrecy, and Viscount Palmerston expressed an opinion adverse to it, on the ground that it could not be enforced because the Committee could not gag the witnesses, and that the character of secrecy would excite suspicion and disappoint public expectation. Sir John Pakington, a member of the Committee, was for secrecy, Mr Disraeli spoke against it, and the Motion has been withdrawn.

[Footnote 44: The eldest son, the Grand Duke Alexander (1818-1881), succeeded as Czar Alexander II.]

[Footnote 45: Lord Seymour (afterwards Duke of Somerset) drafted the Report of the Committee.]

_Queen Victoria to the Princess of Prussia._ [_Translation._]

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _4th March 1855_.

DEAR AUGUSTA,--The astounding news of the death of your poor uncle the Emperor Nicholas reached us the day before yesterday at four o'clock.

A few hours previously we had learnt that his condition was hopeless.

The news is sudden and most unexpected, and we are naturally very anxious to learn details. His departure from life at the present moment cannot but make a particularly strong impression, and what the consequences of it may be the All-knowing One alone can foresee.

Although the poor Emperor has died as our enemy, I have not forgotten former and more happy times, and no one has more than I regretted that he himself evoked this sad war.[46] To you I must address my request to express to the poor Empress, as well as to the family, my heartfelt condolence. I cannot do it officially, but you, my beloved friend, you will surely be able to convey it to your sister-in-law as well as to the present young Emperor in a manner which shall not compromise me. I have a deep, heartfelt desire to express this. To your dear, honoured mother convey, pray, my condolence on the death of her brother....

[Footnote 46: The Queen records, in the _Life of the Prince Consort_, that she entertained a sincere respect for the Emperor personally, and received the news of his death with regret (vol. iii. p. 225, note).]

[Pageheading: THE HOSPITAL QUESTION]

_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _5th March 1855_.

The Queen is very anxious to bring before Lord Panmure the subject which she mentioned to him the other night, viz. that of Hospitals for our sick and wounded soldiers. This is absolutely necessary, and _now_ is the moment to have them built, for no doubt there would be no difficulty in obtaining the money requisite for this purpose, from the strong feeling now existing in the public mind for improvements of all kinds connected with the Army and the well-being and comfort of the soldier.

Nothing can exceed the attention paid to these poor men in the Barracks at Chatham (or rather more Fort Pitt and Brompton), and they are in that respect very comfortable; but the buildings are bad--the wards more like prisons than hospitals, with the windows so high that no one can look out of them; and the generality of the wards are small rooms, with hardly s.p.a.ce for you to walk between the beds. There is no dining-room or hall, so that the poor men must have their dinners in the same room in which they sleep, and in which some may be dying, and at any rate many suffering, while others are at their meals. The proposition of having hulks prepared for their reception will do very well at first, but it would not, the Queen thinks, do for any length of time. A hulk is a very gloomy place, and these poor men require their spirits to be cheered as much as their physical sufferings to be attended to. The Queen is particularly anxious on this subject, which is, he may truly say, constantly in her thoughts, as is everything connected with her beloved troops, who have fought so bravely and borne so heroically all their sufferings and privations.

The Queen hopes before long to visit all the Hospitals at Portsmouth, and to see in what state they are.

_When_ will the medals be ready for distribution?

[Pageheader: LORD DALHOUSIE RESIGNS]

_The Marquis of Dalhousie to Queen Victoria._

OOTACAMUND, _14th March 1855_.

The Governor-General presents his most humble duty to your Majesty; and in obedience to the command, which your Majesty was pleased to lay upon him, that he should keep your Majesty acquainted with the course of public events in India, he has the honour to inform your Majesty that he has now felt it to be his duty to request the President of the Board of Control to solicit for him your Majesty's permission to retire from the office of Governor-General of India about the close of the present year.

The Governor-General begs permission respectfully to represent, that in January next, he will have held his present office for eight years; that his health during the last few months has seriously failed him; and that although he believes that the invigorating air of these hills will enable him to discharge all his duties efficiently during this season, yet he is conscious that the effects of an Indian climate have laid such a hold upon him that by the close of the present year he will be wholly unfit any longer to serve your Majesty.

Lord Dalhousie, therefore, humbly trusts that your Majesty will graciously permit him to resign the great office which he holds before he ceases to command the strength which is needed to sustain it. He has the honour to subscribe himself, your Majesty's most obedient, most humble and devoted Subject and Servant,

DALHOUSIE.

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _14th March 1855_.

The Queen returns the letter and Despatches from Vienna. They don't alter her opinion as to our demands. Every concession in form and wording ought to be made which could save Russian _amour-propre_; but this ought in no way to trench upon the _substance_ of our demands, to which Austria must feel herself bound.[47]

[Footnote 47: As has already been stated, the "Four Points"

were the basis of the negotiations at Vienna; the third alone, which the Allies and Austria had defined as intended to terminate Russian preponderance in the Black Sea, caused difficulty.]

[Pageheading: THE VIENNA CONFERENCE]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

OSBORNE, _19th March 1855_.

The Queen has read with the greatest interest Lord Cowley's three reports. The changeableness of the French views are most perplexing, although they have hitherto not prevented a steady course from being followed in the end. Lord Cowley seems to have been a little off his guard when he took the proposal of our taking Sinope as a second Malta or Gibraltar, for a mere act of generosity and confidence towards us. We must be careful not to break down ourselves the barrier of the "abnegation clause" of our original treaty.[48] The Austrian proposal can hardly be serious, for to require 1,200,000 men before going to war is almost ridiculous.

The Queen read with much concern the two simultaneous proposals from the King of Prussia's simultaneous Plenipotentiaries--both inadmissible, in her opinion. A very civil answer would appear to the Queen as the best, to the effect that, as Prussia was evidently not now in a mood to resume her position amongst the great Powers with the responsibilities attaching to it, we could not hope to arrive at any satisfactory result by the present negotiations, but shall be ready to treat Prussia with the same regard with which we have always done, when she shall have something tangible to propose.

[Footnote 48: _I.e._ the formal renunciation by the Allies of any scheme of territorial acquisition.]

[Pageheading: THE BALTIC EXPEDITION]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _19th March 1855_.

With regard to the Expedition to the Baltic[49] the Queen concurs in believing it probable that we shall have to confine ourselves to a blockade, but this should be with the _certainty_ of its being done effectually and free from any danger to the squadron, from a sudden start of the Russian fleet. Twenty sail of the Line (to which add five French) would be a sufficient force if supported by the necessary complement of frigates, corvettes, and gunboats, etc., etc.; alone, they would be useless from their draught of water, and if twenty ships only are meant (not sail of the Line), the force would seem wholly inadequate. The Queen would therefore wish, before giving her sanction to the proposed plan of campaign, to have a complete list submitted to her of what it is intended to const.i.tute the Baltic Fleet.[50]

We ought likewise not to leave ourselves dest.i.tute of any Reserve at home, which the uncertain contingencies of another year's war may call upon at any moment.