The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 98

[Pageheading: AFFAIRS IN FRANCE]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

OSBORNE, _27th May 1852._

The Queen returns the enclosed most interesting letters. It is evident that the President is meeting with the first symptoms of a reviving public feeling in France; whether this will drive him to hurry on the Empire remains to be seen. All the Foreign Powers have to be careful about is to receive an a.s.surance that the _Empire_ does _not_ mean a _return to the policy of the Empire_, but that the existing Treaties will be acknowledged and adhered to.

The session seems to advance very rapidly. The Queen hails Lord Derby's declaration of his conviction that a majority for a duty on corn will not be returned to the new Parliament, as the first step towards the abandonment of hostility to the Free Trade on which our commercial policy is now established, and which has produced so flouris.h.i.+ng a condition of the finances of the country.

Mr Disraeli's speech about Spain was very good, though he had certainly better not have alluded to Portugal.

We return to Town to-morrow.

_Mr Disraeli to Queen Victoria._

HOUSE OF COMMONS, _21st June 1852._ (_Nine o'clock._)

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, with his humble duty to your Majesty, reports to your Majesty that Lord John Russell introduced to the notice of the House of Commons to-night the recent Minute of the Committee of Council on Education.

Lord John Russell made a languid statement to a rather full House. His speech was not very effective as it proceeded, and there was silence when he sat down.

Then Mr Walpole rose and vindicated the Minute. He spoke with animation, and was cheered when he concluded.

Sir Harry Verney followed, and the House very much dispersed; indeed the discussion would probably have terminated when Sir Harry finished, had not Mr Gladstone then risen. Mr Gladstone gave only a very guarded approval to the Minute, which he treated as insignificant.

It was not a happy effort, and the debate, for a while revived by his interposition, continued to languish until this hour (nine o'clock), with successive relays of mediocrity, until it yielded its last gasp in the arms of Mr Slaney.

The feeling of the House of Commons, probably in this representing faithfully that of the country, is against both the violent parties in the Church, and in favour of a firm, though temperate, course on the part of the Crown, which may conciliate a vast majority, and tend to terminate dissension.

[Pageheading: DISTURBANCES AT STOCKPORT]

_Queen Victoria to Mr Walpole._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _1st July 1852._

The Queen is much distressed at the account she has read in the papers of the dreadful riot at Stockport,[36] alas! caused by that most baneful of all Party feelings, _religious_ hatred,[37] and she is very anxious to know what Mr Walpole has heard.

[Footnote 36: The Church question was brought into the political arena in the General Election, which was now in progress; much violence was manifested during the contest.]

[Footnote 37: "It is additional proof, if more were wanting,"

wrote Mr Walpole in reply, "that all Parties should forbear as much as possible from the ostentatious parade of anything that can provoke either the one or the other."]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _23rd July 1852._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--... We are very much plagued by our Treaty with France. Victor Hugo has written a book against Louis Napoleon, which will exasperate him much, and which he publishes _here_; we can hardly keep Victor Hugo here after that.[38] The great plague of all these affairs is their constant return without the least advantage to any one from the difficulties they created.... Your devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

[Footnote 38: Victor Hugo (1802-1885) had founded the journal, _L'Evenement_, in 1848: he was exiled in 1851, and published _Napoleon le Pet.i.t_ in Belgium. After the fall of the Empire he returned to France, and in 1877 published his _Histoire d'un Crime_.]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

OSBORNE, _26th August 1852._

The Queen has been considering the subject of the vacant Garter, and the names which Lord Derby proposed to her. She is of opinion that it would not be advisable on the whole to give the Garter to Lord Londonderry; that the Duke of Northumberland has by far the strongest claim to this distinction. At the same time, the Queen would have no objection to bestow it on Lord Lonsdale, if this is desirable, in order to facilitate any Ministerial arrangements which Lord Derby may have in contemplation.

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN INHERITS A FORTUNE]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _10th September 1852._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--... That Mr Neild[39] should have left that great fortune to you delighted me; it gives the possibility of forming a private fortune for the Royal Family, the necessity of which n.o.body can deny. Such things only still happen in England, where there exists loyalty and strong affection for Royalty, a feeling unfortunately much diminished on the Continent of Europe, though it did exist there also....

[Footnote 39: John Camden Neild, an eccentric and miserly bachelor, nominally a barrister, died on the 30th of August, bequeathing substantially the whole of his fortune (amounting to half a million) to the Queen. As there were no known relatives, the Queen felt able to accept this legacy; but she first increased the legacies to the executors from 100 to 1000 each, made provision for Mr Neild's servants and others who had claims on him, restored the chancel of North Marston Church, Bucks, where he was buried, and inserted a window there to his memory.]

[Pageheading: DEATH OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON]

_Memorandum by the Prince Albert._

BALMORAL, _17th September 1852._