The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 25

As to the strength of the Government, he believed it had very little at this moment in the House, and that such would be the case with any Government Lord Palmerston could form, he had foretold him, when Lord Derby had made him the offer to join an Administration of his forming.

At this moment the secession of the Peelites would rather strengthen the Government than otherwise, as, from their connection with Lord Aberdeen, they had been decried in the Country with him, and the Whigs looked upon them with all the personal feelings of men deprived of their offices by them.

He agreed with me that in the present disruption of Parties, the difficulty of obtaining any strong Government consists, not in the paucity of men, but in the over-supply of Right Honourable gentlemen produced by the many attempts to form a Government on a more extended base. There were now at least three Ministers for each office, from which the two excluded were always cried up as superior to the one in power. He said this could not be amended until we got back to two Parties--each of them capable of presenting to the Queen an efficient Administration. Now the one Party did not support its Chief from personal rivalry--and the other, from the very feeling of its own incapacity, became reckless as to the course of its political actions.

He concluded by saying he felt it right to reserve his final determination till the last moment at which it would become necessary.

ALBERT.

[Pageheading: RESIGNATION OF THE PEELITES]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

DOWNING STREET, _21st February 1855_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and feels extreme regret in having to state to your Majesty that Sir James Graham, Mr Gladstone, and Mr Sidney Herbert announced at the Cabinet Meeting to-day their determination to retire from the Government in consequence of their inability to consent to the nomination of Mr Roebuck's Committee.[38] _No other_ Member of the Government has as yet intimated any intention to retire. Viscount Palmerston will a.s.semble the remaining Members of the Government to-morrow at twelve to take into consideration the steps to be taken for supplying the places of the retiring Members.[39]

An endeavour has been made to induce Mr Roebuck to postpone the appointment of the Committee till Monday, but he will not consent to delay it beyond to-morrow, and he will insert in the votes to-night, to be printed to-morrow morning (in accordance with the rules of the House), the proposed list of names which have been settled between the Government and Mr Roebuck, and which seem to be un.o.bjectionable, all things considered....

[Footnote 38: The retirement of the Peelites in a body from Lord Palmerston's Ministry is a curious instance of the tenacity of Party ties, since the prosecution of the enquiry into the conduct of the war affected the Whig as much as the Peelite section of the Aberdeen Cabinet. In reference to their reason for resignation (_viz._ that the investigation was a dangerous breach of a great const.i.tutional principle, and that similar enquiries could never thenceforward be refused), see Parker's _Sir James Graham_, vol. ii. pp. 268-272.

The secession of the Peelites, however, did not make the Ministry a Whig Government. The last Whig Administration was that which left office early in 1852. Had Lord John Russell succeeded in his attempt on the present occasion, the Whig party might have endured _co nomine_; but Palmerston had, notwithstanding Cobden's distrust, been popular with the Radicals, and henceforward his supporters must be known as the Liberal Party.]

[Footnote 39: Sir Charles Wood became First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr. Vernon Smith succeeding him at the Board of Control), Sir George Lewis succeeded Mr Gladstone at the Exchequer, and the Colonial Office was offered to and accepted by Lord John Russell, who was at the moment in Paris on his way to attend the Vienna Conference.]

[Pageheading: CRIMEAN HEROES]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _27th February 1855_.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--Since I last wrote to you, we have again had much trouble, as Van de Weyer will have informed you. We have lost our _three_ best men--certainly from the purest and best of motives--but the result is _unfortunate_. Altogether, affairs are very unsettled and very unsatisfactory. The good people here are really a little _mad_, but I am certain it _will_ right itself; one must only _not_ give way to the nonsense and absurdity one hears.

Lord John's return to office _under_ Lord Palmerston is very extraordinary![40] I hope he may do good in his mission; he is most anxious for it.

Many thanks for your kind letter of the 23rd. The frost has left us, which personally I regret, as it agrees so well with me; but I believe it was very necessary on account of the great distress which was prevalent, so many people being thrown out of employment.

The Emperor's meditated voyage[41]--though natural in him to wish--I think most alarming; in fact, I don't know how things are to go on without him, independent of the great danger he exposes himself to besides. I own it makes one tremble, for _his life_ is of such _immense importance_. I still hope that he may be deterred from it, but Walewski was in a great state about it.

On Thursday we saw twenty-six of the wounded Coldstream Guards, and on Friday thirty-four of the Scotch Fusileers. A most interesting and touching sight--_such_ fine men, and so brave and patient! _so ready_ to go back and "_be at them again_." A great many of them, I am glad to say, will be able to remain in the Service. Those who have lost their limbs cannot, of course. There were two poor boys of nineteen and twenty--the one had lost his leg, quite high up, by the bursting of a sh.e.l.l in the trenches, and the other his poor arm so shot that it is perfectly useless. Both had smooth girls' faces; these were in the Coldstream, who certainly look the worst. In the Scotch Fusileers, there were also two very young men--the one shot through the cheek, the other through the _skull_--but both recovered! Among the Grenadiers there is one very sad object, shot _dreadfully_, a ball having gone in through the cheek and behind the nose and eye and out through the other side! He is shockingly disfigured, but is recovered.

I feel so much for them, and am _so fond_ of my dear soldiers--so _proud_ of them! We could not have avoided sending the Guards; it would have been their ruin if they had not gone....

I must now conclude. Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 40: For twenty years Lord John Russell had been Leader of the Whig Party in the House, and Lord Palmerston subordinate to him.]

[Footnote 41: The Emperor had announced his intention of going to the Crimea, and a.s.suming the conduct of the war. The project was most unfavourably regarded by the Queen and the Prince, by Lord Palmerston, and by the Emperor's own advisers.

But the intention, which had been carefully matured, was arrived at in full loyalty to the Alliance with this country, and had to be tactfully met. Accordingly, it was arranged that when Napoleon was at the Camp in Boulogne in March, Lord Clarendon should visit him there, and discuss the question with him. Eventually, the Foreign Secretary persuaded the Emperor to relinquish, or at any rate defer, his expedition; a memorandum of what pa.s.sed on the occasion was drawn up by the Prince from the narration of Lord Clarendon, and printed by Sir Theodore Martin. (_Life of the Prince Consort_, vol. iii.

p. 231.)]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _1st March 1855_.

The Queen thanks Lord Clarendon for his letter received this evening, and will return the enclosures to-morrow.

The Queen gathers from what she has read that the Emperor is bent upon going, and that nothing in the shape of remonstrance or argument will turn him from his purpose.

Should the Emperor's journey take place, Lord Cowley's accompanying him appears to the Queen in all respects a most useful step, and the Queen gives accordingly her permission for him to go.

The Emperor's taking the management of the whole Campaign, as well as the command of our Forces, entirely into his own hands, involves so many considerations that it may be worth considering whether we ought not previously to come to a more direct and comprehensive understanding with him, such as full and verbal discussion would alone afford--to which, in some shape or other, his present stay at Boulogne might afford some facilities.

[Pageheading: DEATH OF THE CZAR]

_From Sir Ralph Abercromby._[42]

THE HAGUE. _2nd March 1855_. (Received 3.45 P.M.)

The Emperor Nicholas died this morning at 1 A.M. of Pulmonic Apoplexy, after an attack of Influenza.[43]

[Footnote 42: Who had married the sister of Lady John Russell.]

[Footnote 43: Nothing had been known publicly of the Czar's illness, and the startling news of his death caused a sensation in England of tragedy rather than of joy. Mr Kinglake has vividly depicted the feelings of agony and mortification with which the news of the earlier Russian reverses had been received by Nicholas. On the 1st of March, he received the full account of the disaster at Eupatoria, after which he became delirious, and died on the following day. He had stated, in referring to the horrors of that Crimean winter, that Russia had still two Generals on whom she could rely: Generals Janvier and Fevrier; and Leech, with matchless art, now made his famous cartoon--"General Fevrier turned traitor," depicting Death, in the uniform of a Russian officer, laying his bony hand on the Emperor's heart.]

[Pageheading: THE COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

HOUSE OF COMMONS, _2nd March 1855_.