The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 84

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--Receive my best thanks for your dear gracious letter of the 2nd, the date of the battle of Austerlitz, and the _coup d'etat_ at Paris. What do you say to it?

As yet one cannot form an opinion, but I am inclined to think that Louis Bonaparte will succeed. The country is tired and wish quiet, and if they get it by this _coup d'etat_ they will have no objection, and let _le Gouvernement Parlementaire et Const.i.tutionnel_ go to sleep for a while.

I suspect that the great Continental powers will see a military Government at Paris with pleasure; they go rather far in their hatred of everything Parliamentary. The President takes a little of Napoleon already. I understand that he expressed himself displeased, as if I had too much supported the Orleans Family. I render perfect justice to the President, that hitherto he has not plagued us; but we have also abstained from all interference. I think that Helene has been imprudent; besides, it is difficult for the poor Family to avoid to speak on these subjects or to express themselves with mildness.

If something like an Empire establishes itself, perhaps we shall for a time have much to suffer, as the _gloire francaise_ invariably looks to the old frontiers. My hope is that they will necessarily have much to do at home, for a time, as parties will run high.... Your devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _6th December 1851._

The Queen has to acknowledge Lord John Russell's letter of yesterday.

She is glad to hear that the Cabinet occupy themselves a.s.siduously with the Reform Question, but hopes that they will not come to a final decision without having first ascertained how the proposed plan will operate when practically applied to the present state of the Franchise and Suffrage. The Queen is very anxious to arrive at a definite opinion on this subject herself.

The Queen sees from the Manchester Speeches that the _Ballot_ is to be made the stalking-horse of the Radicals.

[Pageheading: LORD PALMERSTON'S LETTERS]

_The Marchioness of Normanby to Colonel Phipps._

PARIS, _7th December 1851._

MY DEAR CHARLES,--I have an opportunity of writing to you _not_ through the Foreign Office, which I shall take advantage of, as at present the Post is not to be trusted, and I am afraid I do not think the Office is either.

Palmerston has taken lately to writing in the most extraordinary manner to Normanby.[31] I think he wants to fix a quarrel with him, which you may be sure Normanby will avoid at present, as it would have the worst possible effect; but I do not understand it at all, and I wish you could in any way explain what it means. Palmerston seems very angry because Normanby does not unqualifyingly approve of this step here, and the results; the whole thing is so completely a _coup d'etat_, and all the proceedings are so contrary to and devoid of law and justice and security, that even the most violent Tory would be staggered by them. (For instance, to-day _all_ the English papers, even Normanby's, are stopped and prohibited; they will of course allow Normanby's to come, but it is to be under an envelope), and yet Palmerston, who quarrels with all Europe about a political adventurer like Kossuth, because he was defending the liberties and const.i.tution of his country, now tries to quarrel with Normanby, and really writes in the most impertinent manner, because Normanby's despatches are not sufficiently in praise of Louis Napoleon and his _coup d'etat_. There must be some _dessous des cartes_ that we are not aware of. Normanby has always said, having been undertaken, the only thing now is to hope and pray it may be successful; but that is another thing to approving the way it was begun, or the way it has been carried out. The bloodshed has been dreadful and indiscriminate, no quarter was shown, and when an insurgent took refuge in a house, the soldiers killed every one in the house, whether engaged in the _emeute_ or not....

It is very doubtful whether Normanby will be able to go on with [Palmerston] if this sort of thing continues, for he talks of "I hear this" and "I am told that," with reference to Normanby's conduct here, which no man in his position can stand, as, if Palmerston takes the _on-dits_ of others, and not Normanby's own accounts, there is an end of confidence; but I must say his last letter appears to me a sort of exuberance of anger, which spends itself on many subjects rather than the one which first caused it, and therefore I suspect he has received some rap on the knuckles at home, which he resents here, or on the first person who is not of the same opinion as himself; but it is a curious anomaly that he should quarrel with Normanby in support of arbitrary and absolute Government. All is quiet here now, and will, I hope, continue so till the Elections, when I suppose we may have some more _emeutes_....

They have been told at the Clubs that they may meet, but they are not to talk politics. In short, I do not suppose that despotism ever reached such a pitch.... You may suppose what the French feel; it serves them all quite right, but that does not prevent one's feeling indignant at it. And this is what Palmerston is now supporting without restriction. We are entirely without any other news from England from any one. Would you not send me or Normanby a letter through Rothschild? I am rather anxious to know whether this is a general feeling in England; it could not be, if they know all that had happened here. Mind, I can quite understand the policy of keeping well with Louis Napoleon, and Normanby is so, and has never expressed to any one a hostile opinion except in his despatches and private letters to Palmerston.... I shall send this by a private hand, not to run the risk of its being read. Ever yours affectionately,

M. NORMANBY.

[Footnote 31: On the 6th, Lord Palmerston wrote to Lord Normanby the strange letter printed by Mr Evelyn Ashley in the _Life_, censuring Lord Normanby's supposed hostility to the French President; Lord Normanby in reply defended his att.i.tude, and asked for an explicit statement as to the Foreign Secretary's approval or otherwise of the conduct and policy of the President.]

[Pageheading: AFFAIRS IN FRANCE]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

OSBORNE, _9th December 1851._

DEAREST UNCLE,--Your kind letter of the 5th reached me on Sunday morning. Much blood has been shed since you wrote....

What you say about arbitrary and military Government in France is very true, and I daresay will do for a time; but I do not know _how_ Louis Napoleon is to proceed, or how he will get over the anger and enmity of those he imprisoned. Still, I see that the Legitimists have all given in their adhesion. Every one in France and elsewhere _must wish_ order, and many therefore rally round the President.

A most extraordinary report was mentioned to me yesterday, which, however, I never could believe, and which is besides _physically impossible_, from the illness of the one and the absence of the other, viz. that Joinville and Aumale had gone or were going to Lille to put themselves at the head of the troops,[32] which would be a terrible and a very unwise thing. It would be very awkward for _you_ too.

I must now conclude, hoping soon to hear from you. You should urge the poor Orleans family to be very prudent in what they say about pa.s.sing events, as I believe Louis Napoleon is very _sore_ on the subject, and matters might get still worse. Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 32: Mr Borthwick, of the _Morning Post_, had so stated to Lord Palmerston on the authority of General de Rumigny; seven years later Palmerston wrote the Memorandum on the subject printed in his _Life_.]

[Pageheading: PALMERSTON AND NORMANBY]

[Pageheading: LORD PALMERSTON'S INSTRUCTIONS]

[Pageheading: LORD PALMERSTON'S APPROVAL]

_The Marchioness of Normanby to Colonel Phipps._[33]

PARIS, _9th December 1851._

MY DEAREST CHARLES,--I had written a long letter to the Queen, and upon second thoughts I have burnt it, because events have now become so serious between Normanby and Palmerston that I do not think that I should be the person to inform Her Majesty of it, in case anything was to be said upon the subject in Parliament. And yet as the affront has been given in Palmerston's private letters, I feel sure she does not know it. You have all probably seen Normanby's public despatches, in which, though as an Englishman he deprecates and deplores the means employed and the pledges broken--in short, the unconst.i.tutional illegality of the whole _coup d'etat_--yet he always says, seeing now no other refuge from Rouge ascendency, he hopes it may succeed. One would have supposed, from the whole tenor of his policy, from his Radical tendencies, and all that he has been doing lately, that Palmerston would have been the last person to approve of this _coup d'etat_. Not a bit! He turns upon Normanby in the most flippant manner; almost accuses him of a concealed knowledge of an Orleanist plot--never whispered here, nor I believe, even imagined by the Government of Paris, who would have been too glad to seize upon it as an excuse; says he compromises the relations of the country by his evident disapproval of Louis Napoleon--in short, it is a letter that Morny might have written, and that it is quite impossible for Normanby to bear. The curious thing is that it is a letter or rather letters that would completely ruin Palmerston with _his_ Party. He treats all the acts of the wholesale cruelties of the troops as a joke--in short, it is the letter of a man half mad, I think, for to quarrel with Normanby on this subject is cutting his own throat.... He has written also to Lord John. Louis Napoleon knows perfectly well that Normanby cannot approve the means he has taken; he talks to him confidentially, and treats him as an honest, upright man, and he never showed him more attention, or friends.h.i.+p even than last night when we were at the Elysee, though Normanby said not one word in approval....

There is another question upon which Normanby has a right to complain, which is, that two days before Palmerston sent his instructions here, he expressed to Walewski his complete approval of the step taken by Louis Napoleon, which was transmitted by Walewski in a despatch to Turgot, and read by him to many members of the Corps Diplomatique a day before Normanby heard a word from Palmerston. You will perhaps think that there is not enough in all this to authorise the grave step Normanby has taken, but the whole tone of his letters shows such a want of confidence, is so impertinent--talk of "we hear this," and "we are told that,"--bringing a sort of anonymous gossip against a man of Normanby's character and standing, that respect for himself obliges Normanby to take it up seriously.... In the meantime our Press in England is, as usual, _too_ violent against Louis Napoleon. _We_ have no friends or true allies left, thanks to the policy of Lord Palmerston; as soon as the peace of the country is restored the Army _must_ be employed; it is the course of a Military Government; as much as an absolute Government is destroyed by the people, and the democracy again, when fallen into anarchy, is followed by Military Government. Louis Napoleon must maintain his position by acts: they will find out that Belgium should belong to France, or Alsace, or Antwerp, or something or other that England will not be able to allow, and then how are we prepared for the consequences?...

The more I think of Palmerston's letters, the less I can understand them; every sentence is in direct contradiction to his acts and words.

He ridicules the idea of the Const.i.tution; turns to scorn the idea of anything being due to the Members of the a.s.sembly; laughs and jokes at the Club being fired into, though the English people in it were within an ace of being murdered by the soldiers; says that Normanby is pathetic over a broken looking-gla.s.s,[34] forgetting that the same bullet grazed the hand of an Englishman, "_a Roman citizen!_" who was between the window and the gla.s.s--in short, as I said before, he is quite incomprehensible, except, as I cannot help thinking, he read the private letter Normanby wrote to the Duke of Bedford upon the Kossuth business, wis.h.i.+ng to take his advice a little upon a grave question, but which did not actually interfere with his position here. This would account for his extreme irritation....

All at present is quiet in Paris. There are Socialist risings in many parts of the country, but all these will do the President good, and strengthen his hands, for even the people who have been treated with indignity will pardon him if their chateaux are saved from an infuriated and brutal peasantry. The President told Normanby last night that the accounts of the cruelties and attacks in parts of the country were very serious, but he hoped they would soon be put down....

M. NORMANBY.[35]

[Footnote 33: Submitted to the Queen by Colonel Phipps.]

[Footnote 34: The tone of Lord Palmerston's private letters to Lord Normanby at this time is best ill.u.s.trated by the following extract:--

"Your despatches since the event of Tuesday have been all hostile to Louis Napoleon, with very little information as to events. One of them consisted of a dissertation about Kossuth, which would have made a good article in the _Times_ a fortnight ago: and another dwells chiefly on a looking-gla.s.s broken in a Club-house; and you are pathetic about a piece of broken plaster brought down from a ceiling by musket-shots during the street fights. Now we know that the Diplomatic Agents of Austria and Russia called on the President immediately after his measure on Tuesday morning, and have been profuse in their expressions of approval of his conduct."]

[Footnote 35: Lady Normanby wrote later:--

"I told you yesterday the President had no faith in him (Palmerston). The Treaty signed with Buenos Ayres, the Greek business, and the reception of Kossuth had long destroyed his confidence in Palmerston, and I believe he hates him and sees through his present adulations...."]