The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 86

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

_17th October 1841._

The Queen received Lord Aberdeen's letter yesterday evening, and quite approves of the draft to Mr Aston, and of Lord Aberdeen's having sent it off at once. Her earnest wish is that the English Government should be firm, and uphold the Regent as far as it is in our power. The Queen has perused M. Guizot's letter with great attention, but she cannot help fearing that a.s.sistance and encouragement has been given in some shape or other to the revolts which have taken place. The Queen Christina's residence at Paris is very suspicious, and much to be regretted; every one who saw the Queen and knew her when Regent, knew her to be clever and _capable_ of governing, had she but attended to her duties. This she did not, but wasted her time in frivolous amus.e.m.e.nts and neglected her children sadly, and finally left them.

It was her _own_ doing, and therefore it is not the kindest conduct towards her children, but the very _worst_, to try and disturb the tranquillity of a country which was just beginning to recover from the baneful effects of one of the most b.l.o.o.d.y civil wars imaginable.

The Queen is certain that Lord Aberdeen will feel with her of what importance it is to England that Spain should not become subject to French interests, as it is evident _France wishes_ to make it. The marriage of Queen Isabel is a most important question, and the Queen is likewise certain that Lord Aberdeen sees at once that we could never let her marry a French Prince. Ere long the Queen must speak to Lord Aberdeen on this subject. In the meantime the Queen thought it might be of use to Lord Aberdeen to put him in possession of her feelings on the state of Spain, in which the Queen has always taken a very warm interest.

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

PANSHANGER, _21st October 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He received here yesterday your Majesty's letter of the 19th inst., and he earnestly hopes that your Majesty has arrived quite safe and well in London. Besides the family, we have had hardly anybody here except Lady Clanricarde.[132] Yesterday Sir Edward L. Bulwer[133] came, beating his brother hollow in ridiculousness of attire, ridiculous as the other is. He has, however, much in him, and is agreeable when you come to converse with him....

Lord Melbourne is rather in doubt about his own movements. Lord Leicester[134] presses him much to go to Holkham, where Lord Fortescue,[135] Mr Ellice[136] and others are to be, and considering Lord Leicester's age, Lord Melbourne thinks that it will gratify him to see Lord Melbourne again there. But at Holkham they shoot from morning until night, and if you do not shoot you are like a fish upon dry land. Lord Melbourne hardly feels equal to the exertion, and therefore thinks that he shall establish himself for the present at Melbourne, where he will be within reach of Trentham, Beau Desert,[137] Wentworth,[138] and Castle Howard,[139] if he likes to go to them. The only annoyance is that it is close to Lord and Lady G----, whom he will be perpetually meeting.

[Footnote 132: A daughter of George Canning, the Prime Minister.]

[Footnote 133: Afterwards Lord Lytton, the novelist.]

[Footnote 134: The famous country gentleman, "Mr c.o.ke of Norfolk."]

[Footnote 135: Hugh, second Earl, K.G.]

[Footnote 136: The Right Hon. Edward Ellice, M.P. ("Bear"

Ellice).]

[Footnote 137: Near Lichfield, a seat of Lord Anglesey.]

[Footnote 138: Lord Fitzwilliam's house, near Rotherham.]

[Footnote 139: Lord Carlisle's house, near York, built by Vanbrugh.]

[Pageheading: HOLLAND AND BELGIUM]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _22 October 1841._

... In France there is a great outcry that a Bourbon must be the future husband of the Queen of Spain, etc. I must say that as the Spaniards and the late King changed themselves the Salic custom which Philip V. had brought from France,[140] it is natural for the rest of Europe to wish that no Bourbon should go there. Besides, it must be confessed that the thing is not even easy, as there is great hatred amongst the various branches of that family. The King of the French himself has always been _opposed_ to the idea of one of his sons going there; in France, however, that opinion still exists, and Thiers had it, strongly.

I confess that I regret that Queen Christina was encouraged to settle at Paris, as it gave the thing the appearance of something preconcerted. I believe that a wish existed that Christina would retire peaceably and _par la force des circonstances_, but now this took a turn which I am sure the King does not like; it places him, besides, into _une position ingrate_; the Radicals hate him, the Moderates will cry out that he has left them in the lurch, and the Carlists are kept under key, and of course also not much pleased. I meant to have remained in my wilds till yesterday, but my Ministers were so anxious for my return, there being a good many things on the _tapis_, that I came back on Tuesday, the 19th....

Here one is exactly shut up as if one was in a menagerie, walking round and round like a tame bear. One breathes here also a mixture of all sorts of moist compounds, which one is told is fresh air, but which is not the least like it. I suppose, however, that my neighbour in Holland, where they have not even got a hill as high as yours in Buckingham Gardens, would consider Laeken as an Alpine country. The tender meeting of the old King and the new King,[141] as one can hardly call him a young King, must be most amusing. I am told that if the old King had not made that love-match, he would be perfectly able to dethrone his son; I heard that yesterday from a person rather attached to the son and hating the father. In the meantime, though one can hardly say that he is well at home, some strange mixture of cut-throats and ruined soldiers of fortune had a mind to play us some tricks here; we have got more and more insight into this. Is it by instigation from him personally, or does he only know of it without being a party to it? That _is_ difficult to tell, the more so as he makes immense demonstration of friendly dispositions towards us, and me in particular. I would I could make a _cha.s.sez croisez_ with Otho;[142] he would be the gainer in solids, and I should have sun and an interesting country; I will try to make him understand this, the more so as you do not any longer want me in the West.

[Footnote 140: The Pragmatic Sanction of Philip V. was repealed in 1792 by the Cortes, but the repeal was not promulgated by the King. Under the Salic Law, Don Carlos would have been on the throne. See _ante_, p. 44. (Ch. V, Footnote 9)]

[Footnote 141: William I., who had abdicated in order to marry again, and William II., his son, who was nearly fifty.]

[Footnote 142: The King of Greece, elected in 1833.]

[Pageheading: AMBa.s.sADORS' AUDIENCES]

_Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel._

_25th October 1841._

With respect to the appointment of Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, the Queen approves of Mr Pennefather[143] for that office. The Queen may be mistaken, for she is not very well acquainted with the judicial officers in Ireland, but it strikes her that Serjeant Jackson belonged to the very violent Orange party in Ireland, and if this should be the case she suggests to Sir Robert Peel whether it would not be better _not_ to appoint him. If, on the other hand, the Queen should be mistaken as to his political opinions, she would not disapprove of his succeeding Mr Pennefather.

The Queen saw in the papers that Lord Stuart de Rothesay is already gone. The Queen can hardly believe this, as no Amba.s.sador or Minister _ever_ left England without previously asking for an Audience and receiving one, as the Queen wishes always to see them before they repair to their posts. Would Sir Robert be so very good as to ask Lord Aberdeen whether Lord Stuart de Rothesay is gone or not, and if he should be, to tell Lord Aberdeen that in future she would wish him always to inform her when they intend to go, and to ask for an Audience, which, if the Queen is well, she would always grant. It is possible that as the Queen said the other day that she did not wish to give many Audiences after the Council, that Lord Aberdeen may have misunderstood this and thought the Queen would give none, which was _not_ her intention. The Queen would be thankful to Sir Robert if he would undertake to clear up this mistake, which she is certain (should Lord Stuart be gone) arose entirely from misapprehension.

The Queen also wishes Sir Robert to desire Lord Haddington to send her some details of the intended reductions in the Fleet which she sees by a draft of Lord Aberdeen's to Mr Bulwer have taken place.[144]

[Footnote 143: Recently appointed Solicitor-General; Sergeant J. D. Jackson now succeeded him.]

[Footnote 144: The statement of the Royal Navy in Commission at the beginning of 1841 sets out 160 vessels carrying 4,277 guns.]

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR AND MELBOURNE]

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S ADVICE]

_Memorandum by Baron Stockmar._

_25th October 1841._

... I told [Lord Melbourne] that, as I read the English Const.i.tution, it meant to a.s.sign to _the Sovereign in his functions a deliberative part_--that I was not sure the Queen had the means within herself to execute this deliberative part properly, but I was sure that the only way for her to execute her functions at all was to be strictly honest to those men who at the time being were her Ministers. That it was chiefly on this account that I had been so very sorry to have found now, on my return from the Continent, that on the change of the Ministry a capital opportunity to read a great Const.i.tutional maxim to the Queen had not only been lost by Lord Melbourne, but that he had himself turned an instrument for working great good into an instrument which must produce mischief and danger. That I was afraid that, from what Lord Melbourne had been so weak as to have allowed himself to be driven into, _against his own and better conviction_, the Queen must have received a most pernicious bias, which on any future occasion would make her inclined to act in a similar position similarly to that what she does now, being convinced that what she does _now_ must be right on all future occasions, or else Lord Melbourne would not have sanctioned it. Upon this, Lord Melbourne endeavoured to palliate, to represent the danger, which would arise from his secret correspondence with the Queen as very little, to adduce precedents from history, and to screen his present conduct behind what he imagined Lord Bute's conduct had been under George III.[145] I listened patiently, and replied in the end: All this might be mighty fine and quite calculated to lay a flattering unction on his own soul, or it might suffice to tranquillize the minds of the Prince and Anson, but that I was too old to find the slightest argument in what I had just now heard, nor could it in any way allay my apprehension. I began then to dissect all that he had produced for his excusation, and showed him--as I thought clearly, and as he admitted convincingly--that it would be impossible to carry on this secret commerce with the Sovereign for any length of time without exposing the Queen's character and creating mighty embarra.s.sments in the quiet and regular working of a Const.i.tutional machine.

My representations seemed to make a very deep impression, and Lord Melbourne became visibly nervous, perplexed, and distressed. After he had recovered a little I said, "I never was inclined to obtrude advice; but if you don't dislike to hear my opinion, I am prepared to give it to you." He said, "What is it?" I said, "You allow the Queen's confinement to pa.s.s over quietly, and you wait till her perfect recovery of it. As soon as this period has arrived, you state of your own accord to Her Majesty that this secret and confidential correspondence with her must cease; that you gave in to it, much against your feelings, and with a decided notion of its impropriety and danger, and merely out of a sincere solicitude to calm Her Majesty's mind in a critical time, and to prevent the ill effects which great and mental agitation might have produced on her health.

That this part of your purpose now being most happily achieved, you thought yourself in duty bound to advise Her Majesty to _cease all her communications_ to you on political subjects, as you felt it wrong within yourself to receive them, and to return your political advice and opinions on such matters; that painful as such a step must be to your feelings, which to the last moment of your life will remain those of the most loyal attachment and devotion to the Queen's person, it is dictated to you by a deep sense of what you owe to the country, to your Sovereign, and to yourself."

[Footnote 145: For some time after the accession of George III., Bute, though neither in the Cabinet nor in Parliament, was virtually Prime Minister, but he became Secretary of State on 25th March 1761. George II. had disliked him, but he was generally believed to have exercised an undue influence over the consort of Prince Frederic of Wales, mother of George III.]