The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 29

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_10th August 1838._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to inform you that the Cabinet have determined to advise your Majesty to disallow Lord Durham's ordinance, and to announce the same to the House of Lords.[25]

This is absolutely necessary, but very disagreeable, and will be very much so to Lord Durham.

[Footnote 25: _See_ Introductory Note for the year, _ante_, p. 102.

(Introductory Note to Ch. VII)]

_The Queen of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

_25th September 1838._

MY MOST BELOVED VICTORIA,--I can never thank you enough for the dear letter which I found on my table on arriving here, Sunday evening. It was most kind of you to have written so soon after our departure, and such an affectionate, good, kind letter. The tears came to my eyes as I read it, and I felt quite moved. Short as has been our stay, and great, as always, the pain of leaving you, it has been a _great happiness_ for me to see you again, a happiness for which I shall always thank G.o.d, you, and your dear Uncle. I need not add how _very precious_ is your affection to me, and how _very grateful_ I am for every new proof of it. You know my feelings on this point, and you know they are better _felt_ than _expressed_. Your calling me _Louise_, and in such a kind way, gave me great pleasure. Almost all those dear to me call me so, and I think it looks more affectionate; I would fain say now _sister-like_, although I am rather an old sister for you now....

Leopold is half crazy with the steam-engine, and particularly with the _tools_ which you sent him. I enclose here the expression of his grat.i.tude. I wrote exactly what he told me to write, and I did not add a word. He has found again his kie (key), and he wears it suspended to his neck by a blue riband, with the d.u.c.h.ess's little seal. He felt deeply the attention you had to have an _L_ engraved on each tool, and after his letter was closed he charged me to thank you for it, and to tell you that it gave him great pleasure. An _iron spade_ was the greatest object of his ambition, and he worked so hard yesterday with it, that I feared he would hurt himself with the exertion. He will go to-day to the races with us, in the Scotch dress which the d.u.c.h.ess had the kindness to send him. It fits very well, and he is very proud of having a coat shaped _like that of a man_....

[Pageheading: IRELAND AND O'CONNELL]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_25th October 1838._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty....

Mr Stanley of the Treasury[26] arrived in London yesterday, and acquaints me that Lord Normanby makes no secret of his willingness, and indeed his desire, to undertake the government of Canada. It would have been better if Lord Normanby had acquainted Lord Melbourne quietly of this, and not made it at once public to all the world. It is not necessary to do anything at present. If Lord Durham remains, which Lord Melbourne does not, however, think likely, there will be no successor to be appointed, and if he returns, the authority of Governor of Lower Canada will devolve upon Sir John Colborne,[27] in whose hands it may be very safely left for the present.

If Ireland should be vacant, there is a strong feeling amongst many that it would be nice to name the Duke of Suss.e.x. It is said that it would be popular in Ireland, that the name of one of the Royal Family would do good there, and that it would afford to O'Connell a pretext and opportunity for giving up his new scheme of agitation. It is also added that the Duke would suffer himself to be guided on all essential matters by the advice of his Chief Secretary, and that he would content himself with discharging the ceremonial duties. Here are the reasons for it--your Majesty is so well acquainted with the reasons on the other side, that it is unnecessary for me to detail them.

I am afraid that times of some trouble are approaching, for which your Majesty must hold yourself prepared; but your Majesty is too well acquainted with the nature of human affairs not to be well aware that they cannot very well go on even as quietly as they have gone on during the last sixteen months.

[Footnote 26: "Ben" Stanley, afterwards Lord Stanley of Alderley, Secretary to the Treasury.]

[Footnote 27: Field-Marshal Sir John Colborne, afterwards Lord Seaton, had been Military Secretary to Sir John Moore, had commanded a brigade with much distinction in the Peninsula, and had contributed greatly to the success of the British arms at Waterloo.]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_4th November 1838._

Lord Melbourne is very well, but Sir James Clark,[28] a Scotchman and a physician, and therefore neither by country nor by profession very religious, detained him from Church in order to go through the report upon the state of Buckingham Palace. This is not a very good excuse, but it is the true one. Lord Melbourne is very grateful to your Majesty for your enquiries, and having some letters to submit, will be happy to attend upon your Majesty.

[Footnote 28: Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen.]

[Pageheading: DEATH OF LADY JOHN RUSSELL]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _6th November 1838._

MY DEAR UNCLE,--.... We have all been much distressed by the melancholy and untimely death of poor Lady John Russell,[29] which took place on the 1st. She was safely confined on the 20th of October with a little girl, who bears my name, and seemed to be going on very well; but on Wednesday she began to sink from weakness, not disease, and died at three o'clock on Thursday. It is a dreadful blow to _him_, for he was _so_ attached to her, and I don't believe two people ever were happier together. I send you his pretty letter to me, which I think you may be interested to see; he is _dreadfully_ beat down by it, but struggles manfully against his grief, which makes one pity him more. She has left four children by her first husband, _now orphans_, the eldest a sweet girl twelve years old, and two little girls by Lord John; the eldest of these two is two and a half, and the youngest a _fortnight_. I had known her _very_ well and liked her, and I a.s.sure you I was dreadfully shocked at it. You may also imagine what a loss she is to poor Miss Lister, who has no mother, and whose only sister she was. I fear, dear Uncle, I have made a sad and melancholy letter of this, but I have been so much engrossed by all this misery, and knowing you take an interest in poor Lord John, that I let my pen run on almost involuntarily.

We have very good accounts of the Queen-Dowager from Gibraltar.

Please return me Lord John's letter when you have done with it.

Lord and Lady Howard[30] have been here, and I urged him to _bear_ Dietz as an inevitable evil, and I think he seems very anxious to do what is right. I have likewise written to Ferdinand, urging _him_ and Dietz to be reasonable.

Will you tell Aunt Louise that she will receive a box containing the Limerick lace dress (just like mine), which I lay at her feet. I fear, dear Uncle, you will think I'm making you my commissioner _de toilette_, as in these two letters I have plagued you with commissions on that subject....

[Footnote 29: Daughter of Mr Thomas Lister. She had been widow of the second Lord Ribblesdale, and married Lord John Russell in April 1835.]

[Footnote 30: Charles Augustus, sixth Lord Howard de Walden, was the British Minister at Lisbon, and afterwards (1846-1868) at Brussels.]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _9th November 1838._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--Your kind and interesting letter of the 6th reached me yesterday morning. I hail in you those simple and unaffected feelings which it contains. May you _always_ preserve that great warmth and truth of character which you now possess, and rest a.s.sured that it will be an ornament to you, and the means of finding the same truth and warmth of feeling in others. Those who serve, from whatever motive it may be, have always their eyes wide open on their superiors, and no qualities impose so much on them the necessity of respect, which they _gladly avoid_, than a warm and n.o.ble character that knows how to feel for others, and how to sympathise with their sorrows. I pity Lord John from all my heart, having always had for him sentiments of the sincerest regard. I fear that as a political man it may prove also a severe blow. All depends on how he takes it, if he will wish to forget his grief by occupying himself with political strife or if his greater sensibility will make him wish to indulge it in solitude....

[Pageheading: LORD JOHN RUSSELL]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _12th November 1838._