The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 106

OSBORNE, _9th April 1861_.

MY DEARLY BELOVED UNCLE,--Your dear, _sad_ letter of the 5th found a warm response in my poor heart, and I thank you with all my heart for it. I am _now most_ anxiously waiting for an answer to my letter asking you to come to us _now_. You would, I think, find it soothing, and it would painfully interest you to look over her letters and papers, which make me _live_ in times I heard her talk of when I was a child. It is touching to find how she treasured up every little flower, every bit of hair. I found some of dear Princess Charlotte's, and touching relics of my poor Father, in a little writing-desk of his I had never seen, with his last letters to her, and her notes _after_ his death written in a little book, expressing such longing to be reunited to him! _Now_ she _is!_ And what a comfort it is to think _how many very dear ones_ are gone on before her whom she will find!

All these notes show how very, very much she and my beloved Father _loved_ each other. _Such_ love and affection! I hardly knew it was _to that extent_. Then her love for _me_--it is _too_ touching! I have found little books with the accounts of my babyhood, and they show _such_ unbounded tenderness! Oh! I am so wretched to think _how_, _for a time_, _two people most_ wickedly estranged us!... To miss a mother's friends.h.i.+p--not to be able to have her to confide in--when a girl _most_ needs it, was fearful! I _dare not_ think of it--it drives me _wild_ now! But thank G.o.d! that is all pa.s.sed _long, long_ ago, and she had forgotten it, and only thought of the last very happy years.

And all that was brought by my good angel, dearest Albert, whom _she_ adored, and in whom she had such unbounded confidence....

On Sunday our dear little Beatrice was four years old. It upset me much, for she was the idol of that beloved Grandmamma, and the child so fond of her. She continually speaks of her--how she "is in Heaven,"

but hopes she will return! She is a most darling, engaging child....

Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: THE DANISH QUESTION]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _27th May 1861_.

The Queen returns the proposed draft of answer to the observations of the Russian Government on Lord John Russell's proposals with regard to the Danish Question. She has to observe that this reverses the whole position taken by us. .h.i.therto. Prince Gortschakoff is quite right in reminding us that the engagements taken in 1852[13] did not contain a formal guarantee (_obliging_ to take up arms for the defence of the object guaranteed) in deference to the opinion of the British Government which, on general principles, has always objected to such engagements. These principles are as important now as ever, and yet Lord John proposes "to renew the _guarantee_ of the integrity of the Danish Monarchy contained in the Treaty of 8th May 1852," thereby giving those engagements the force of a guarantee, which was on principle objected to by us at the time. Both Russia and France in their answers object to such a guarantee now, even with regard to Schleswig alone, as involving the guaranteeing powers in future grave difficulties, and Lord John proposes to extend it to Holstein, a part of Germany and not of Denmark, by way of obviating the difficulty. The Queen cannot give her sanction to this proposal.

[Footnote 13: A Treaty was signed by the European Powers on the 8th of May 1852, by which the succession of the line of Sonderburg-Glucksburg to the Danish throne was settled, and the integrity of the kingdom guaranteed. See _ante_, vol. ii., 4th January, 1852.]

[Pageheading: WAR IN AMERICA]

_Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria._

FOREIGN OFFICE, _30th May 1861_.

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; he has the honour to submit letters from the Emperor and Empress of Austria of a private nature. The Cabinet decided yesterday that the ports of your Majesty's Dominions ought to be closed to the s.h.i.+ps of war and privateers of the Belligerents in America.[14] A letter for that object has been sent to the Law Officers of the Crown, and will be, when put into proper form, submitted for your Majesty's approbation.

[Footnote 14: See _ante_, Introductory Note to Chapter x.x.x.]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _30th May 1861_.

The Queen returns these papers. She thinks it of great importance that we should be strong in Canada, and thinks an increase in Artillery as important as the sending of two more battalions, as that Arm cannot be supplied at all by the Colony. The Naval forces would, however, require strengthening even more. It is less likely that the remnant of the United States could send expeditions by land to the North while quarrelling with the South, than that they should commit acts of violence at sea.

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _5th June 1861_.

The Queen has perused the accompanying draft to Sir James Hudson. She is of opinion that so important a step as proposals on our part for the solution of the Roman Question, with which we are not directly concerned, and for the solution of which we are for many obvious reasons perhaps the Power possessing the least favourable position, is a subject of such great importance, that it should not be undertaken without the most mature consideration. Has this draft been brought before the Cabinet? The Queen wishes to have their united advice before giving her decision. Her opinion at present is against our volunteering a scheme which will render us responsible for the result of grave complications, from which we have hitherto stood happily quite clear. The Queen wishes these lines to be communicated to the Cabinet.[15]

[Footnote 15: Lord John Russell had written that the withdrawal of the French troops from Rome would probably be followed by tumults and bloodshed; and as both the Roman party and Garibaldi hated the Government of the Pope, and wished to put an end to his temporal power, he suggested that the Pope should be allowed to retain his sovereignty during his lifetime, in a restricted territory and with restricted powers; that Italian troops should occupy the towns and villages outside a limit of five miles from Rome; and that the King of Italy and the Emperor of the French should agree not to recognise the temporal power of any future Pope.]

[Pageheading: DEATH OF CAVOUR]

_Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria._

PEMBROKE LODGE, _6th June 1861_.

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; the despatch relating to Rome had been sent, seeming to Lord John Russell quite un.o.bjectionable. But your Majesty will see that it was instantly suspended, and that Count Cavour is dying.[16] The despatch was solely intended to save the poor old Pope from insult, and Rome from tumult, but beyond this it is of no consequence, and the death of Cavour may give a new complexion to the affairs of Italy.

Nothing will be done on the despatch at present.

[Footnote 16: Count Cavour died at Turin on the 6th of June.

It is curious to note that the words of the Emperor Napoleon, on hearing of the death of Cavour, appear to have been "Le cocher est tombe du siege; il faut voir maintenant si les chevaux iront s'emporter, ou rentrer a l'ecurie."]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

PICCADILLY, _18th June 1861_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty....

Viscount Palmerston submits a note from Garter King at Arms, by which your Majesty will see that there are now three Garters vacant; and Viscount Palmerston would beg to suggest for your Majesty's consideration that those Garters might appropriately be conferred upon Lord Canning for his great services in India, upon Lord John Russell for his long political services under your Majesty, and upon the Duke of Somerset, senior Duke after the Duke of Norfolk, and the able administrator of an important branch of your Majesty's service.[17]

Viscount Palmerston is not aware whether by the regulations of the Order the Garter could be sent out to Lord Canning in India. If that were possible, it might have the double advantage of strengthening his hands during the remainder of his stay, by affording so public a mark of your Majesty's approval; and moreover of making sure that Lord Canning should receive this mark of your Majesty's royal favour, while the Government is in the hands of an administration similar to that at whose recommendation he was sent out, which perhaps might be more agreeable to his feelings than running the chance, always possible, though Viscount Palmerston hopes it may not be probable, that political combinations might, before his return in May or June 1862, have produced administrative changes.

[Footnote 17: The Duke was First Lord of the Admiralty. All the three Peers mentioned received the Garter early in 1862.]

[Pageheading: DEATH OF LORD CAMPBELL]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._