The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 43

[Pageheading: PALMERSTON'S FOREIGN POLICY]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _17th June 1848._

The Queen returns Lord Palmerston's letter. The country is at this moment suffering, particularly with regard to Spain, under the evil consequence of that system of diplomacy, which makes the taking up of party politics in foreign countries its princ.i.p.al object. This system is condemned alike by the Queen, Lord John, the Cabinet, and, the Queen fully believes, public opinion in and out of Parliament. Lord Palmerston's objection to caution our Minister in Portugal against falling into this fault brings it to an issue, whether that _erroneous_ policy is to be maintained to the detriment of the real interests of the country, or a wiser course to be followed in future.

Does Lord John consider this so light a matter as to be surrendered merely because Lord Palmerston is not to add to such a caution a gratuitous attack upon the Queen and Government of Portugal? The Queen thinks it of the utmost importance that in these perilous times this question with regard to the basis of our foreign policy should be _settled_, and has no objection to Lord John showing this letter to Lord Palmerston.

_Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria._

PEMBROKE LODGE, _18th June 1848._

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; he begs to a.s.sure your Majesty that if he was disposed to rest on the known discretion and temper of Sir Hamilton Seymour without specific instruction, it was not from regarding the matter lightly, but from a sense of the inconvenience which might arise to your Majesty's service from raising a question with Lord Palmerston in the present critical state of Europe which might induce a belief that he had not conducted foreign affairs to the satisfaction of his colleagues or of his Sovereign.

Lord John Russell feeling, however, that on the particular point at issue your Majesty has just reason to expect that precautions should be taken against the chance of intrigue with foreign parties against a foreign government, with which this country is on terms of friends.h.i.+p, is ready to insist on an instruction to Sir Hamilton Seymour similar to that which was given to Sir Henry Bulwer to take no part in the struggle of parties, and to refrain from any interference with respect to which he has not specific directions from your Majesty's Government.

But in this case he must take upon himself the whole responsibility of requiring such a note from Lord Palmerston. It would not be conducive to your Majesty's service, nor agreeable to the wholesome maxims of the Const.i.tution to mix your Majesty's name with a proceeding which may lead to the most serious consequences.

It is just to Lord Palmerston to say that his general course of policy has met with the warm approval of the Cabinet, and that the cases of difference of judgment have been rare exceptions.

Lord John Russell submits to your Majesty the letter he proposes to write before sending it to Lord Palmerston. He would wish to have it returned as soon as your Majesty can do so.

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN AND PALMERSTON]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _18th June 1848._

The Queen returns to Lord John Russell his letter to Lord Palmerston,[29] which is excellent, and shows that the Queen's and Lord John's views upon the important question of our foreign policy _entirely coincide_. The Queen is sorry that the trouble of such an altercation should be added to the many anxieties which already press upon Lord John, but she feels sure that his insisting upon a _sound_ line of policy will save him and the country from _far greater_ troubles....

[Footnote 29: The letter was to the effect that Sir H. Seymour was to take no part in the struggle of parties in Portugal, and to refrain from confidential communications with members of the Opposition.]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

CARLTON GARDENS, _26th June 1848._

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and is sorry he is not able to submit to your Majesty the proposed draft to Sir Hamilton Seymour to go by to-night's mail, as he has not succeeded in settling the wording of it with Lord John Russell, and is therefore obliged to defer it till the next mail.

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _26th June 1848._

The Queen sends this letter, which she has just received from Lord Palmerston. No remonstrance has any effect with Lord Palmerston.

Lord John Russell should ask the Duke of Bedford to tell him of the conversation the Queen had with the Duke the other night about Lord Palmerston.

[Pageheading: ENGLAND AND ITALY]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _1st July 1848._

The Queen has not yet answered Lord Palmerston's letter of the 29th.

She cannot conceal from him that she is ashamed of the policy which we are pursuing in this Italian controversy in abetting wrong, and this for the object of gaining _influence_ in Italy.[30] The Queen does not consider influence so gained as an advantage, and though this influence is to be acquired in order to do good, she is afraid that the fear of losing it again will always stand in the way of this. At least in the countries where the greatest stress has been laid on that influence, and the greatest exertions made for it, the _least good_ has been done--the Queen means in Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Neither is there any kind of consistency in the line we take about Italy and that we follow with regard to Schleswig; both cases are perfectly alike (with the difference perhaps that there is a question of right mixed up in that of Schleswig); whilst we upbraid Prussia, caution her, etc., etc., we say nothing to Charles Albert except that if he did not wish to take _all_ the Emperor of Austria's Italian Dominions, we would not lay any _obstacles_ in the way of his moderation. The Queen finds in Lord Palmerston's last despatch to Chevalier Bunsen the following pa.s.sage: "And it is manifest and indisputable that no territory or state, which is not now according to the Treaty of 1815 included in the German Confederation, can be added to that territory without the consent of the Sovereign of that territory or state." How does this agree with our position relative to the incorporation of Lombardy into the states of the King of Sardinia?

[Footnote 30: Lord Palmerston's sympathy had been with the anti-Austrian movement in Northern Italy. For some time after Radetzky's evacuation of Milan, the operations of the King of Sardinia in support of the Lombards were successful, and he had a.s.sistance from Tuscany, Naples, and Rome. The Austrians suffered reverses at Peschiera and Goito, and the independence of Northern Italy seemed to be accomplished. But the tide had begun to turn.]

[Pageheading: LORD MINTO'S MISSION]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _6th July 1848._

The Queen has to acknowledge Lord Palmerston's long Memorandum respecting our relations with Italy, the length of which, however, was fully justified by the importance of the subject.

The mission of Lord Minto has had the Queen's approval at the time, and the policy pursued by him has never been called in question; but it certainly was prejudicial to the Austrians, and imposes upon us additional care not to appear now as the abettors of the anti-Austrian movement, and nothing in Lord Minto's mission can prevent our endeavouring to facilitate and forward a speedy settlement of the present Italian difference.[31] If, therefore, the Italians should be inclined to be moderate, there can be no dereliction of principle in encouraging them to be so. The danger of French interference increases with the delay and is equally great, whether the Austrians maintain themselves in the Venetian Territory or whether Charles Albert unite it to his proposed kingdom of Northern Italy; indeed, the French seem to be anxious for a cause of interference from the line they pursue even with regard to Naples.

Lord Palmerston seeks to establish a difference between the case of Schleswig and of Lombardy, on the fact that Schleswig is to be incorporated into a confederation of States; but this makes the case of Lombardy only the stronger, as this is to be incorporated into the dominions of another Sovereign. With regard to the "Revue Retrospective," the perusal of it has left a different impression upon the Queen from that which it seems to have made upon Lord Palmerston.

It proved to her, that while the retiring att.i.tude which the late Government took with regard to the Spanish marriages, left the French Government to try their different schemes and intrigues and to fail with every one of them, the attempt of Lord Palmerston to re-organise the Progressista Party and regain the so-called _English influence_, brought Queen Christina and King Louis Philippe (who had before seriously quarrelled) immediately together, and induced them to rush into this unfortunate combination, which cannot but be considered as the origin of all the present convulsions in Europe.

[Footnote 31: Lord Minto, the Lord Privy Seal, and father-in-law of the Prime Minister, had been sent to encourage in the path of reform Pope Pius IX., who was halting between progress and reaction: on the sanguinary risings taking place in Lombardy and Venetia, his mission naturally appeared hostile to Austria.]

[Pageheading: AN ANXIOUS PERIOD]