The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 117

The Cabinet is certain not to agree to either of these propositions.

When Lord Aberdeen announced the intended rupture with Lord Palmerston to Lord John, he drily said: "Well, it would be very awkward for you if Palmerston quarrels one day with you about Reform, and I the next about Turkey!"

There can be no doubt that Lord Palmerston will at once try to put himself at the head of the late Protectionist party, and, with the present indifference of the Country upon Reform, the fate of the Bill is by no means certain. On the question of Peace or War, Lord Aberdeen is quite certain that the House of Commons will adopt no war resolutions.

Much will depend, however, on the line taken by Lord Lansdowne, who has great influence in the House of Lords, and whose secession would spread great alarm over the Country as to the real tendency of the Measure (which the Duke of Newcastle describes as in fact a great increase of power to the land[35]). We agree that the Queen should write to him to prevent any hasty step.

The Queen sanctioned the offer of the Home Office to Sir George Grey, and of a seat in the Cabinet to Mr Cardwell (the President of the Board of Trade).

ALBERT.

[Footnote 35: _I.e._, the landed interest.]

[Pageheading: LORD LANSDOWNE AND REFORM]

_Queen Victoria to the Marquis of Lansdowne._

OSBORNE, _16th December 1853._

The Queen has been made very anxious by the Resignation of Lord Palmerston, but still more so by hearing that Lord Lansdowne has not been able to reconcile himself to the Measure of Reform as now proposed in the Cabinet, which has caused Lord Palmerston's withdrawal. Lord Lansdowne is aware of the paramount importance which the Queen attaches to a safe settlement of that question, and to the maintenance of her present Government; and she would press upon Lord Lansdowne not to commit himself to a final determination before she shall have an opportunity of seeing him. The Queen will go to Windsor on Thursday, and hold a Council on Friday, at which it may perhaps be convenient to Lord Lansdowne to attend, and it will give the Queen the greatest pleasure to find that Lord John Russell has succeeded in removing Lord Lansdowne's objections.

[Pageheading: LORD STRATFORD'S DESPATCH]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

OSBORNE, _17th December 1853._

The Queen returns the enclosed Draft and Despatch to Lord Clarendon.

She has never been so much perplexed respecting any decision she has had to make, as in the present instance. She has read Lord Stratford's Despatch (358) over several times, and she is struck, every time more, with the consummate ability with which it is written and argued; but also with the difficulty in which it places the person reading it to extract distinctly what the Porte will be prepared to concede.

The concluding pa.s.sage of the Draft involves the most important consequences. As the Queen understands it, it promises war with Russia in a given contingency, but the contingency is: Russia rejecting terms which are "in their spirit and character such as Your Excellency sets forth in your Despatch." The Queen finds it impossible to make such tremendous consequences dependent upon such vague expressions. The more so, as "the spirit and character" alluded to, appears to her to be, as if purposely, obscure.

When Lord Stratford says, that the Turks would be satisfied "with a renewal in clear and comprehensive terms of the formal Declarations and Treaties already existing in favour of the Porte"--the Queen cannot understand what is meant--as all the former Treaties between Russia and Turkey have certainly not been in favour of the Porte.

Nor is it clear to the Queen whether "the clear and unquestionable deliverance from Russian interference applied to spiritual matters" is compatible with the former treaties.

Whilst the Queen, therefore, perfectly agrees in the principle that, should Russia "for its own unjustifiable objects, show herself regardless of the best interests of Europe" by rejecting every fair term, the time will have arrived "for adopting measures of more active coercion against her"--she cannot sanction such a Declaration except on terms which are so clear in themselves as to exclude all misinterpretation.

[Pageheading: SINOPE]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

(Undated.)

The Queen has received Lord Clarendon's letter of the 19th, and enclosures. She approves the Draft to Vienna, and asks to have a copy of it, together with the Despatch from Lord Westmorland to which it refers.

She also approves of the Draft to Lord Cowley, with certain exceptions, viz., on the second page our accordance with the views of the French Government "upon the utterly unjustifiable course that Russia has pursued," etc., is stated. If, as the Queen must read it, this refers to the affair at Sinope,[36] it is a dangerous a.s.sertion, as we have yet no authentic account of the circ.u.mstances of the case, which would make it possible to judge what degree of justification there might have been. The sentence should, at any rate, be qualified by some expression such as "as far as we know," or "should present accounts prove correct," etc.

The word "utterly" might under any circ.u.mstances be left out, as a state of War is in itself a justification of a battle.

On page four the words "by sea" will have to be added to make the statement precise and correct.

The concluding sentence, the Queen must consider as tantamount to a declaration of war, which, under the guarded conditions however attached to it, she feels she cannot refuse to sanction. It would, in the Queen's opinion, be necessary, however, distinctly and fully to acquaint the Russian Government with the step now agreed upon.

Lord Palmerston's mode of proceeding always had that advantage, that it threatened steps which it was hoped would not become necessary, whilst those hitherto taken, started on the principle of not needlessly offending Russia by threats, obliging us at the same time to take the very steps which we refused to threaten.

The Queen has to make one more and a most _serious_ observation. The Fleet has orders now to prevent a recurrence of such disasters as that of Sinope. This cannot mean that it should protect the Turkish Fleet in acts of aggression upon the Russian territory, such as an attack on Sebastopol, of which the papers speak. This point will have to be made quite clear, both to Lord Stratford and the Turks.

The Queen would also wish to have copies of the Draft, when corrected, of Lord Cowley's Despatch.

[Footnote 36: On the 30th of November the Russian Fleet from Sevastopol attacked the Turkish squadron in the harbour of Sinope, a naval station in the Black Sea, and destroyed it.

The feeling in the country against Russia was greatly inflamed by the incident, which was referred to as the "ma.s.sacre of Sinope."]

[Pageheading: PUBLIC FEELING]

_Memorandum by the Prince Albert._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _25th December 1853._

Lord Aberdeen had an Audience of the Queen yesterday afternoon.

He reported that some of his colleagues, Sir C. Wood, the Duke of Newcastle, and Mr Gladstone, had been very anxious that Lord Palmerston should be readmitted into the Cabinet; they had had interviews with him in which he had expressed his hope to be allowed to reconsider his step. Lady Palmerston had been most urgent upon this point with her husband. All the people best conversant with the House of Commons stated that the Government had no chance of going on with Lord Palmerston in opposition, and with the present temper of the public, which was quite mad about the Oriental Question and the disaster at Sinope. Even Sir W. Molesworth shared this opinion.

Lord Palmerston had written a letter to Lord Aberdeen, in which he begs to have his resignation considered as not having taken place, as it arose entirely from a misapprehension on his part, his having believed that none of the details of the Reform Measure were yet open for consideration, he had quite agreed in the principle of the Measure! Lord Aberdeen saw Lord John and Sir J. Graham, who convinced themselves that under the circ.u.mstances nothing else remained to be done. Lord Aberdeen having asked Lord John whether he should tell the Queen that it was a political _necessity_, he answered: "Yes, owing to the shabbiness of your colleagues," to which Lord Aberdeen rejoined: "Not shabbiness; _cowardice_ is the word."

Lord Aberdeen owns that the step must damage the Government, although it ought to damage Lord Palmerston still more. Lord John's expression was: "Yes, it would ruin anybody but Palmerston."

Lord Aberdeen thinks, however, that he can make no further difficulties about Reform, and he, Lord John, and Graham were determined to make no material alterations in the Bill. Graham is suspicious lest the wish to get Palmerston in again, on the part of a section of the Cabinet, was an intrigue to get the Measure emasculated. Lord Aberdeen does not believe this....

Lord Aberdeen describes Lord John's feeling as very good and cordial towards him. He, Lord John, had even made him a long speech to show his grat.i.tude for Lord Aberdeen's kindness to him.

ALBERT.