The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 118

[Pageheading: LEVeES]

_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._

DOWNING STREET, _18th March 1843._

Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs leave to submit to your Majesty that should your Majesty determine that the Prince should hold Levees on behalf of your Majesty, the best course will be to announce the intention from the Lord Chamberlain's Office in terms to the following purport:

"His Royal Highness Prince Albert will, by Her Majesty's command, hold a Levee on behalf of Her Majesty on ----

"It is Her Majesty's pleasure that presentations to the Prince at this Levee shall be considered equivalent to presentations to the Queen.

"Addresses to Her Majesty may be presented to Her Majesty through the Secretary of State, or may be reserved until Her Majesty can hold a Levee in person."

Sir Robert Peel humbly submits to your Majesty that it would not be advisable to _prohibit_ by notice in the _Gazette_ subsequent presentations to your Majesty. It will probably answer every purpose to state that they shall be considered _equivalent_, and when your Majesty shall hold a Levee it may be then notified at the time that second presentations are not necessary.

When the Prince shall hold the Levee, it may be made known at the time, without any formal public notification, that kneeling and the kissing of hands will not be required.

Sir Robert Peel hopes that the effect of holding these Levees may be materially to relieve your Majesty, but it is of course difficult to speak with certainty. He was under the impression that in the reign of Queen Anne, Prince George had occasionally held Levees on the part of the Queen during the Queen's indisposition, but on searching the _Gazette_ of the time he cannot find any record of this.

_Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel._

CLAREMONT, _19th March 1843._

The Queen has received Sir Robert's letter, and quite approves of his suggestions concerning the Levees. The Prince is quite ready to do whatever may be thought right, and the Queen wishes Sir Robert to act upon the plan he has laid before her in his letter of yesterday.

Perhaps it would be right before making anything public to consider the question of Drawing-Rooms likewise, which are of such importance to the trades-people of London. It would be painful for the Queen to think that she should be the cause of disappointment and loss to this cla.s.s of her subjects, particularly at this moment of commercial stagnation. The Queen conceives that it would be the right thing that the same principle laid down for the Levees should be followed with regard to Drawing-Rooms, the Prince holding them for her. The Queen is anxious to have soon Sir Robert's opinion upon this subject. The Queen on looking at the almanac finds that _only_ the _two_ next weeks are available for these purposes _before_ Easter.

_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _27th March 1843._

Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and hastens to reply to your Majesty's note of this date.

Sir Robert Peel a.s.sures your Majesty that he does not think that there is the slightest ground for apprehension on the occasion of the Levee, but Sir Robert Peel will, without the slightest allusion to your Majesty's communication to him, make personal enquiries into the police arrangements, and see that every precaution possible shall be taken.

He begs, however, humbly to a.s.sure your Majesty that there never has reached him any indication of a hostile feeling towards the Prince.

It could only proceed from some person of deranged intellect, and he thinks it would be almost impossible for such a person to act upon it on the occasion of a Levee.

It may tend to remove or diminish your Majesty's anxiety to know that Sir Robert Peel has _walked_ home every night from the House of Commons, and, notwithstanding frequent menaces and intimations of danger, he has not met with any obstruction.

He earnestly hopes that your Majesty will dismiss from your mind any apprehension, and sincerely believes that your Majesty may do so with entire confidence. But nothing shall be neglected.

[Pageheading: THE COMET]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _28th March 1843._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I had the pleasure of receiving your kind letter of the 24th, on Sunday. How lucky you are to have seen the comet![28] It is distinctly _to be seen_ here, and _has been seen_ by many people, but we have till now looked out in vain for it. We shall, however, persevere.

We left dear Claremont with great regret, and since our return have been regaled with regular March winds, which, however, have not kept me from my daily walks. To-day it is finer again.

It is most kind and good of dearest Albert to hold these Levees for me, which will be a great relief for hereafter for me. Besides _cela le met dans sa position_; _he_ and _I_ must be _one_, so that I can _only be represented_ by _him_. I think this, therefore, a good thing for that reason also; and G.o.d knows, he, dear angel, _deserves_ to be the _highest_ in _everything_.

Our Consecration went off extremely well, and the Chapel is delightful, and so convenient. I am sure you will like it.

You will be glad to hear that dear old Eos (who is still at Claremont) is going on most favourably; they attribute this sudden attack to her over-eating (she steals whenever she can get anything), living in too warm rooms, and getting too little exercise since she was in London.

Certainly her wind was _not_ in the _slightest_ degree affected by her accident, for in the autumn she coursed better than all the other young dogs, and ran and fetched pheasants, etc., from any distance, and ran about the very evening she was taken so ill, as if nothing was the matter. Evidently part of her lungs must be _very_ sound still; and they say _no one's_ lungs are _quite sound_. She must be well starved, poor thing, and not allowed to sleep in beds, as she generally does.

[Footnote 28: Its appearance gave rise to much discussion among astronomers. On the 17th Sir John Herschel saw its nucleus from Collingwood in Kent, and on the following night a dim nebula only; so it was probably receding with great velocity.]

[Pageheading: MELBOURNE ON DIET]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROCKET HALL, _2nd April 1843._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He received yesterday morning your Majesty's letter of the 30th ult., for which he sincerely thanks your Majesty. Lord Melbourne is delighted to find that your Majesty was pleased with the bouquet. The daphnes are neither so numerous nor so fine as they were, but there are still enough left to make another bouquet, which Lord Melbourne will take care is sent up by his cart to-morrow, and left at Buckingham Palace.

Lord Melbourne is very much touched and obliged by your Majesty's very kind advice, which he will try his utmost to follow, as he himself believes that his health entirely depends upon his keeping up his stomach in good order and free from derangement. He owns that he is very incredulous about the unwholesomeness of dry champagne, and he does not think that the united opinion of the whole College of Physicians and of Surgeons would persuade him upon these points--he cannot think that a "Hohenlohe" gla.s.s of dry champagne, _i.e._ half a _schoppen_,[29] can be prejudicial. Lord and Lady Erroll[30] and Lord Auckland and Miss Eden are coming in the course of the week, and they would be much surprised not to get a gla.s.s of champagne with their dinner. Lord Melbourne is very glad to learn that the Prince's Levee did well, and feels that His Royal Highness undertaking this duty must be a great relief and a.s.sistance to your Majesty. Lord Melbourne hopes to see the Baron here when he comes. The spring still delays and hangs back, but it rains to-day, which Lord Melbourne hopes will bring it on.

[Footnote 29: A _schoppen_ is about a pint; it is the same word etymologically as "scoop."]

[Footnote 30: William George, seventeenth Earl of Erroll, married a sister of the first Earl of Munster.]

[Pageheading: THE ROYAL CHILDREN]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _4th April 1843._