The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 35

VICTORIA R.

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

PICCADILLY, _22nd September 1855_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs, in the first place, to be allowed to offer to your Majesty his most sincere congratulations upon the prospective arrangement which His Royal Highness the Prince Albert announced in his letter to Lord Clarendon, but which, for obvious reasons, should be left to public conjecture for the present. Viscount Palmerston trusts that the event, when, it takes place, will contribute as much to the happiness of those more immediately concerned, and to the comfort of your Majesty and of the Royal Family, as it undoubtedly will to the interests of the two countries, and of Europe in general....

Viscount Palmerston begs to state that the Professors.h.i.+p of Greek at the University of Oxford, which was held by the late Dean of Christchurch,[86] is still vacant, Viscount Palmerston having doubts as to the best person to be appointed. The present Dean of Christchurch admitted that the Professors.h.i.+p ought to be separated from the Deanery; he has now recommended for the Professors.h.i.+p the Rev. B. Jowett, Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, who is an eminent Greek scholar and won the Hertford Scholars.h.i.+p; and Viscount Palmerston submits, for your Majesty's gracious approval, that Mr Jowett may be appointed.

[Footnote 86: The Very Rev. Thomas Gaisford, D.D., who was appointed Regius Professor of Greek in 1811, and Dean of Christchurch in 1831.]

[Pageheading: THE COLONIAL OFFICE]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

PICCADILLY, _31st October 1855_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that he has this morning seen Lord Stanley, and offered to him the post of Secretary of State for the Colonies.[87] Lord Stanley expressed himself as highly gratified personally by an offer which he said he was wholly unprepared to receive, and which was above his expectations and pretensions; but he said that as he owed to his father Lord Derby whatever position he may have gained in public life, he could not give an answer without first consulting Lord Derby.

Viscount Palmerston said that of course in making the proposal, he had taken for granted that Lord Stanley would consult Lord Derby first, because a son would not take a decision on such a subject without consulting his father, even if that father were merely in private life; and next because such a course would be still more natural in this case, considering Lord Derby's political position with reference to those with whom Lord Stanley has more or less been generally acting. Lord Stanley said that he should go down to Knowsley by the five o'clock train this afternoon, and that he would at an early moment communicate his answer to Viscount Palmerston; but he said that if he was to state now his antic.i.p.ation of what Lord Derby would recommend and wish him to do, it would rather be to decline the offer.

[Footnote 87: Sir William Molesworth, who had represented Radicalism in the Cabinets of Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston, died on the 22nd, at the age of forty-five. The Premier thereupon offered the vacant place to Lord Stanley, one of his political opponents, then only twenty-eight, who was the son of the leader of the Conservative Opposition, and had already held office under his father. Lord Stanley's temperament was, in fact, more inclined to Liberalism than that of Lord Palmerston himself, and, twenty-seven years later, he took the office in a Liberal Government which he now declined.]

[Pageheading: MR SIDNEY HERBERT]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

PICCADILLY, _10th November 1855_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that in consequence of some things that pa.s.sed in conversation at Sir Charles Wood's two days ago, when Mr and Mrs Sidney Herbert dined there, Sir Charles Wood is under a strong impression that Mr Herbert would be willing to separate himself from Mr Gladstone and Sir James Graham, and the Peace Party, and to join the present Government. Viscount Palmerston having well considered the matter in concert with Sir Charles Wood and Sir George Grey, is of opinion that it would be advantageous not only for the present, but also with a view to the future, to detach Mr Herbert from the clique with which accidental circ.u.mstances have for the moment apparently a.s.sociated him, and to fix him to better principles of action than those by which Mr Gladstone and Sir James Graham appear to be guided.

For this purpose Viscount Palmerston proposes with your Majesty's sanction to offer to Mr Herbert to return to the Colonial Office, which he held on the formation of the present Government.

Mr Herbert is the most promising man of his standing in the House of Commons, and is personally very popular in that House; he is a good and an improving speaker, and his accession to the Government would add a good speaker to the Treasury Bench, and take away a good speaker from ranks that may become hostile.

He would also supply the place of Lord Canning as a kind of link between the Government and some well-disposed members of both Houses who belonged more or less to what is called the Peel Party. It would be necessary, of course, to ascertain clearly that Mr Herbert's views about the war and about conditions of peace are the same as they were when he was a Member of the Government, and not such as those which Mr Gladstone and Sir James Graham have of late adopted.

If Mr Herbert were to accept, Sir George Grey, who has a strong disinclination for the Colonies, would remain at the Home Office; and if Lord Harrowby would take the Post Office, which must be held by a Peer, the Duchy of Lancaster, which may be held by a Commoner, might be offered to Mr Baines[88] with a seat in the Cabinet, and Mr Baines might perhaps, with reference to his health, prefer an office not attended with much departmental business of detail, while he would be thus more free to make himself master of general questions. Such an arrangement would leave the Cabinet, as stated in the accompanying paper, seven and seven; and if afterwards Lord Stanley of Alderley were added in the Lords, and Sir Benjamin Hall in the Commons, which, however, would be a matter entirely for future consideration, the equality of division would still be preserved.[89]

Viscount Palmerston finds that Mr Herbert is gone down to Wilton, and as Viscount Palmerston is going this afternoon to Broadlands to remain there till Tuesday morning, he proposes during the interval to communicate with Mr Herbert, Wilton being not much more than an hour's distance from Broadlands by the Salisbury railway.

[Footnote 88: Mr. Matthew Talbot Baines died prematurely in 1860. His abilities were of a solid rather than a brilliant kind.]

[Footnote 89: Mr. Labouchere became Colonial Secretary. See List of Cabinet as it stood in 1858, _post_, 25th February, 1858.]

[Pageheading: MR HERBERT DECLINES OFFICE]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

BROADLANDS, _11th November 1855_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that he has seen Mr Sidney Herbert, who declines joining the Government, because he thinks that his doing so would expose both him and the Government to the suspicion of having altered their opinions.

The difference between him and the Government is not as to the necessity of prosecuting the war with vigour, but as to the conditions of peace with which he would be satisfied. He would consent to accept conditions which he is aware that the country would not approve, and to which he does not expect that the Government would agree. Viscount Palmerston will have to consider with his Colleagues on Tuesday what arrangement it will be best for him to submit for the sanction of your Majesty.

[Pageheading: PEACE NEGOTIATIONS]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _13th November 1855_.

The Queen returns the enclosed most important letters. She has read them with much interest, but not without a very anxious feeling that great changes are taking place in the whole position of the Eastern Question and the War, without our having the power to direct them or even a complete knowledge of them.[90] Should Austria really be sincere,--if the Emperor Napoleon is really determined not to carry on the war on a large scale without her joining, we shall be obliged by common prudence to follow him in his negotiations. He may mistrust our secrecy and diplomacy, and wish to obtain by his personal exertions a continental league against Russia. The missions to Stockholm and Copenhagen, the language to Baron Beust and M. von der Pfordten and M.

de Bourqueney's single-handed negotiation, seem to point to this.

Can Russia have secretly declared her readiness to accept the "Neutralisation"? It is hardly possible, and if so it would be a concession we cannot refuse to close upon. Whatever may be the case, the Queen thinks it the wisest course not to disturb the Emperor's plans, or to show suspicion of them, but merely to insist upon the importance of the Army in the Crimea being kept so imposing that Russia cannot safely arrange her plans on the supposition of a change of policy on the part of the Western Powers.

Had the Queen known of Lord Cowley's letter a few hours earlier, she could have spoken to the Duke of Cambridge, who was here; as it was, both she and the Prince were very cautious and reserved in what they told him.

The Queen thought it right to let Sir Hamilton Seymour, who is staying here, see the letters, as his thorough acquaintance with the present position of affairs is most important.

[Footnote 90: The Emperor was now bent on the termination of hostilities, and the French and Austrian Governments had concerted proposals for peace to be submitted to Russia, with which they somewhat peremptorily demanded that England should concur. Lord Palmerston announced that, rather than make an unsatisfactory peace, he would continue the war without the aid of France. States such as Saxony and Bavaria favoured Russia, and Baron Beust and M. von der Pfordten, their respective Prime Ministers, had interviews with the Emperor, who was anxious for peace on the basis of the Third Point, on which, since the fall of Sebastopol, the Allies were in a better position to insist.]

_Queen Victoria to Sir Charles Wood._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _16th November 1855_.

The Queen wishes to draw Sir Charles Wood's attention to a subject which may become of much importance for the future. It is the absence of any Dockyard for building and repairing out of the Channel, with the exception of Pembroke. Should we ever be threatened by a combination of Russia and France, the absence of a Government establishment in the north would be very serious. It strikes the Queen that the present moment, when our yards hardly supply the demands made upon them, and when attention is directed to the Baltic, is a particularly favourable one to add an establishment in the Firth of Forth, for which the Queen believes the Government possess the ground at Leith. Such a measure would at the same time be very popular in Scotland, and by making the Queen's Navy known there, which it hardly is at present, would open a new field for recruiting our Marine.

Whether Cork in Ireland should not also be made more available is very well worth consideration.

The Queen would ask Sir Charles to communicate this letter to Lord Palmerston, who has always had the state of our powers of defence so much at heart.