The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 102

_The Queen of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

NEUILLY, _21st July 1842._

MY BELOVED VICTORIA,--I was unable to thank you the other day for your kind and feeling letter of the 14th, although I was greatly touched by it, and I trust you will have excused me. I thank you to-day very sincerely for both your letters, and for the share and sympathy you and dear Albert take in our _great misfortune_. I know it is very heart-felt, and we are all very grateful for it. Victoire and my poor mother have already given you news from the unfortunate Helene.

She has sustained and outlived the first shock and shows wonderful courage. She is even well in health, and much better and stronger in all ways than I had expected. She takes very much upon herself on account of the poor children, to prevent that any melancholy or painful feeling should be connected for them with the remembrance of their beloved and unfortunate father. My parents show great fort.i.tude and resignation, but their hearts are for ever broke. They are only sustained by their feeling of duty. My poor mother bears up for my father, and my father bears up to fulfil his duties of father and of king. Their health is, thank G.o.d! good, and my father retains all his strength of mind and quickness of judgment; but they are both grown old in looks, and their hairs are turned quite white.

The first days, my poor father could do nothing but sob, and it was really heartbreaking to see him. He begins now to have more command upon his grief, and the presence of your uncle, whom he dearly loves, seems to do him good. The poor children are well and _merry_ and seem unconscious of their dreadful loss. From time to time only they jump round us as if looking for protection. The contrast of their gaiety with their horrid misfortune is very painful. Paris is looking remarkably well and strong. Robert[53] is much grown, extremely quick and lively, and begins to speak. The remainder of the family is, as you may easily imagine, in the _deepest affliction_. Nemours especially is quite broken down with grief. Chartres was _more_ than a _brother_ to him, as he was _more_ than a _second father_ to us all.

He was the _head_ and the _heart_ and _soul_ of the whole family. We all looked up to him, and we found him on all occasions. A _better_, or even _such_ a brother was never seen; our loss is as great as irreparable; but G.o.d's will be done! He had surely His motives in sending on my unfortunate parents the horrid affliction in their old days, and in removing from us the being who seemed the _most necessary_ to the hope and happiness of all; we must submit to His decrees, hard as they are; but it is impossible not to regret that my poor brother has not at least found the death of a soldier, which he had always wished for, instead of such a useless, horrid, and miserable one! It seems, for no one saw him fall, that he did not jump, as we had thought at first, but that he was thrown from the barouche, while standing; and I like it in some measure better so, as G.o.d's will is still more manifest in this way. It is equally manifest in _all_ the circ.u.mstances attending the catastrophe. My poor brother was not even to have come to Neuilly. He had taken leave of my parents the day before, and would not have gone again if my unfortunate mother had not asked him, and if my parents, who were to go to Paris, had not delayed their departure....

I thank you again and again, my beloved Victoria, for all your interest and sympathy. I was sure you would think of us and of me: you know how much I loved my brother. I little expected to outlive him, as I had done my beloved Mary;[54] but once more, _G.o.d's will be done_. I remain now and ever, yours most devotedly,

LOUISE.

I perceive I forgot mentioning Ernest. Pray thank him for his sympathy also. He knows what a brother is, and may feel for us! We expect on Sat.u.r.day poor Joinville. My father will have thus his four remaining sons round him for the opening of the Session, which takes place on the 26th, and at which he must preside in person. It is a hard duty for him.

[Footnote 53: The young Duc de Chartres, born in 1840.]

[Footnote 54: See _ante_, p. 144. (Ch. VIII, Footnote 8)]

[Pageheading: THE CORN LAWS]

_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _23rd July 1842._

Sir Robert Peel, with his humble duty to your Majesty, begs leave to acquaint your Majesty that last night was occupied in the House of Commons with another debate on the Corn Laws, again impeding any progress with the Government business. The debate was entirely confined to those members who act in concert with the Anti-Corn Law League.[55] It continued until twelve, when Mr Cobden, the Member for Stockport, moved an adjournment of the House, on the ground that none of your Majesty's servants had taken a part in the debate....

Several members of the Opposition voted with the Government, and declared that they would not be parties to such vexatious proceedings.

A division on the main question--a Committee to enquire into the state of the country with a view to the Repeal of the Corn Laws--then took place.

The motion was negatived by a majority of 156 to 64--92. The House did not adjourn until three this morning.

[Footnote 55: The Anti-Corn Law League was rapidly gaining importance, and fiscal policy occupied a great part of the session of 1842. Peel was already reducing import duties on articles other than corn. Cobden had been elected at Stockport, for the first time, in 1841.]

[Pageheading: FURTHER PARTICULARS OF ACCIDENT]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

NEUILLY, _22nd July 1842._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--I was anxious to write to you on the 18th, but I was so overpowered with all that surrounded me that I could really not. Yesterday I received your dear letter of the 19th, and I will answer it, so as to give you a clear view of the sad case. On the 12th, Tuesday, Chartres had taken leave, as he meant to go to St Omer, the 13th; however, in the family the Queen and others said he ought to come once more to see them. The King had ordered his carriage to go to town on the 13th, to a Council; Chartres meant to have called shortly after ten.

It is necessary to tell you all this, as it shows how strangely circ.u.mstances turned fatally. Chartres did not want to return once more to Neuilly, and the King, if exact, might see him once more in town. Chartres, however, instead of coming early, set off after eleven; his Off. d'Ordonnance, M. Bertin de Veaux, his _valet de chambre_, a German, Holder, begged him not to go quite alone in that small phaeton through Paris, as he was in uniform, but all this did not avail; he insisted to go in the phaeton and to go _alone_. He set out later than he expected, and if the King had set out _exactly_ as he had named, the parents and the son would probably have met on the rising avenue of the Champs Elysees, towards the Barriere de l'etoile and Arc de Triomphe. However, the King delayed his departure and the son set off. At the place where from the great avenue one turns off towards Neuilly, the horses, which were not even young horses, as I am told that he has had them some years, moved by that stupid longing to get to Neuilly, where they knew their stables, got rather above the postillion, and ran _quasi_ away. Chartres got up and asked the postillion if he could hold his horses no longer; the boy called out "Non, Monseigneur"; he had looked back when he said this, and saw his master for the last time _standing_ in the phaeton. People at some distance saw him come out of his carriage and describe a sort of semicircle falling down. n.o.body knows exactly if he jumped out of the carriage, or if he lost his position and fell out. I am inclined to think that, trusting to his lightness and agility, he wanted to jump out, forgetting the impulse which a quick-going carriage gives, as there were marks on his knees as if he had first fallen that way. The princ.i.p.al blow was, however, on the head, the skull being entirely fractured. He was taken up senseless, that is to say confused, but not fainting, and carried into a small inn. At first his appearance, sitting in a chair, was so little altered that people thought it was nothing of any consequence.

He _knew_ no one, and only spoke a few incoherent words in German. The accident happened about a quarter before twelve, and at four he was no more.

I refer for some other details to Albert. Poor Louise looks like a shadow, and only her great devotion for me supports her. It may serve as a lesson how fragile all human affairs are. Poor Chartres, it seems, with the prospect of these camps and altogether, was _never in better spirits_. But I must end. Ever, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

[Pageheading: SIR EDWARD DISBROWE]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _27th July 1842._

The Queen thanks Lord Aberdeen for the letter she has this morning received.

The Queen thinks that a reprimand would hardly do, as it is not so much from any particular despatch that she has formed this opinion of Sir Edward Disbrowe, but more from the general tenor of his conduct and despatches; therefore she thinks it would be difficult to censure him, which would probably not have the desired effect.[56] For this reason the Queen would prefer his being removed without his being told that it was for his conduct, and without his being able to find this out, which, the Queen concludes from Lord Aberdeen's letter, could easily be done.

[Footnote 56: _See_ p. 409. Lord Aberdeen had suggested sending Sir Edward Disbrowe a private admonition.]

(Ch. XI, 16th July, 1842)

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _2nd August 1842._

DEAREST UNCLE,--I had the pleasure of receiving your kind letter of the 29th, late on Sunday evening. You know _all_ we have felt, and do _feel_, for the dear and exemplary French family. Really it is too dreadful, but G.o.d's will be done! Perhaps poor Chartres is saved great sorrow and grief. _Him_ we must _not_ pity!

G.o.d grant all may go off well on these dreadful days, and may He support the dear afflicted parents, widow, and brothers and sisters!

My dearest Louise! I hope and trust that her dear children will occupy her and divert her attention; only don't let her swallow and suppress her grief and keep it to herself; that is dreadful, and very hurtful.

Let her give way to her sorrow, and talk of it to her.

Pray, dearest Uncle, will not and ought not Paris to be Duke of Orleans now? Helene is sole guardian, is she not?...

Dear Louise will, I trust, excuse my not answering her kind letter to-day; pray give her my best love, and believe me, always, your most devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.