The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 31

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _13th July 1855_.

The Queen is much concerned by what Lord Palmerston writes respecting the feeling of the House of Commons. Lord John's resignation, although a severe loss, may possibly a.s.suage the storm which he had chiefly produced. But she finds that Sir E. Lytton's Motion will be equally applicable to the Government after this event as it would have been before it. She trusts that no stone will be left unturned to defeat the success of that Motion, which would plunge the Queen and the executive Government of the Country into new and most dangerous complications. These are really not times to play with the existence of Governments for personal feeling or interests!

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _14th July 1855_.

The Queen has received Lord Palmerston's letter of yesterday, and returns Lord John Russell's letter,[64] which reflects the greatest credit on him. The resignation had become unavoidable, and Lord Palmerston will do well to let the Debate go by before proposing a successor, whom it will be difficult to find under any circ.u.mstances.

Having expressed her feelings on the position of affairs in her letter of yesterday, she will not repeat them here.

She grants her permission to Lord Palmerston to state in Parliament what he may think necessary for the defence of the Cabinet. She could have the Council here on Wednesday, which day will probably be the least inconvenient to the Members of the Government.

The Queen has just received Lord Palmerston's letter of last night, which gives a more cheering prospect.[65]

[Footnote 64: Stating that his continuance in office would embarra.s.s and endanger the Ministry.]

[Footnote 65: In consequence of Lord John's resignation, the motion of censure was withdrawn.]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

OSBORNE, _24th July 1855_.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I feel _quite_ grieved that it must again be _by letter_ that I express to you all my feelings of love and affection, which yesterday morning I could still do _de vive voix_. It was indeed a _happy_ time; I only fear that I was a dull companion--silent, absent, stupid, which I feel I have become since the War; and the constant anxiety and preoccupation which that odious Sebastopol causes me and my dear, brave Army, added to which the last week, or indeed the _whole fortnight_ since we arrived here, was one of such uncertainty about this tiresome scarlatina, that it made me still more _preoccupee_.

The _only_ thing that at all lessened my sorrow at seeing you depart was my thankfulness that you got safe _out_ of our _Hospital_.... Ever your devoted Niece and Child,

VICTORIA R.

[Pagheading: AFFAIRS OF SWEDEN]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

OSBORNE, _27th July 1855_.

The Queen has delayed answering Lord Clarendon's letter respecting Sweden till she received the first letter from Mr Magenis,[66]

omitted in Lord Clarendon's box. Now, having read the whole of these doc.u.ments, she confesses that she requires some explanation as to the advantages which are to arise to England from the proposed Treaty, before she can come to any decision about it. When a Treaty with Sweden was last in contemplation, she was to have joined in the war against Russia and to have received a guarantee of the integrity of her dominions by England and France in return; yet this clause was found so onerous to this Country, and opening so entirely a new field of questions and considerations, that the Cabinet would not entertain it. Now the same guarantee is to be given by us without the counterbalancing advantage of Sweden giving us her a.s.sistance in the war.

[Footnote 66: Mr (afterwards Sir) Arthur Charles Magenis, Minister at Stockholm (and afterwards at Lisbon), had written to say that an attempt was being made to change the partial guarantee of Finmark into a general guarantee on behalf of Sweden and Norway. An important Treaty was concluded between Sweden and Norway, and the Western Powers, in the following November, which secured the integrity of Sweden and Norway.]

[Pageheading: GENERAL SIMPSON'S DIFFICULTIES]

_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._

OSBORNE, _30th July 1855_.

The Queen has received Lord Panmure's letter of yesterday evening, and has signed the dormant Commission for Sir W. Codrington. A similar course was pursued with regard to Sir George Cathcart. The Queen hopes that General Simpson may still rally. He must be in a great state of helplessness at this moment, knowing that he wants, as everybody out there, the advantages which Lord Raglan's name, experience, position, rank, prestige, etc., etc., gave him, having his Military Secretary ill on board, the head of the Intelligence Department dead, and no means left him whereby to gather information or to keep up secret correspondence with the Tartars--Colonel Vico[67] dead, who, as Prince Edward told the Queen, had become a _most important_ element in the good understanding with the French Army and its new Commander, and not possessing military rank enough to make the Sardinian General[68]

consider him as his Chief. If all these difficulties are added to those inherent to the task imposed upon him, one cannot be surprised at his low tone of hopefulness. As most of these will, however, meet every Commander whom we now can appoint, the Queen trusts that means will be devised to a.s.sist him as much as possible in relieving him from too much writing, and in the diplomatic correspondence he has to carry on. The Queen repeats her opinion that a _Chef de Chancellerie Diplomatique_, such as is customary in the Russian Army, ought to be placed at his command, and she wishes Lord Panmure to show this letter to Lords Palmerston and Clarendon, and to consult with them on the subject. Neither the Chief of the Staff nor the Military Secretary can supply that want, and the General himself must feel unequal to it without any experience on the subject, and so will his successor.

Prince Edward told the Queen _in strict confidence_ that General Simpson's position in Lord Raglan's Headquarters had been anything but pleasant, that the Staff had been barely civil to him; he was generally treated as an interloper, so that the Sardinian and French Officers attached to our Headquarters observed upon it as a strange thing which would not be tolerated in their Armies, and that General Simpson showed himself grateful to them for the civility which they showed to a General Officer of rank _aux cheveux blancs_. These little details, considered together with the General's extreme modesty, enable one to conceive what his present feelings must be.[69]

[Footnote 67: Colonel Vico, the French Commissioner attached to Lord Raglan's staff, had died on the 10th.]

[Footnote 68: General La Marmora.]

[Footnote 69: The Russian resources for the defence of Sebastopol, both as to ammunition and provisions, were becoming exhausted, and a supreme effort was to be made, by ma.s.sing more Russian troops in the Crimea, to inflict a decisive blow on the besieging forces of the Allies. Early on the morning of the 16th of August Prince Gortschakoff attacked the French and Piedmontese at the River Tchernaya. The attack on the left was repulsed by the French with the utmost spirit and with very little loss; while the Russian loss, both in killed and wounded, was severe. The Sardinian army, under General La Marmora, were no less successful on the right. The news of this victory did not reach England until the Queen and Prince had left for their visit to Paris.]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

[OSBORNE, _7th August 1855_.]

The Queen has read Sir B. Hall's[70] letter, and must say that she quite concurs in the advantage resulting from the playing of a band in Kensington Gardens on Sunday afternoon, a practice which has been maintained on the Terrace at Windsor through good and evil report, and she accordingly sanctions this proposal.[71] [She would wish Lord Palmerston, however, to notice to Sir B. Hall that Hyde Park, although under the management of the Board of Works, is still a Royal Park, and that all the Regulations for opening and shutting gates, the protection of the grounds and police regulations, etc., etc., stand under the Ranger, who alone could give the order Sir B. Hall proposes to issue....][72]

[Footnote 70: First Commissioner of Public Works; afterwards Lord Llanover.]

[Footnote 71: The Government granted permission for the Band to play, but the practice was discontinued in 1856.

See _post_, 1st June, 1856, note 31.]

[Footnote 72: The portion of the letter within brackets was struck out of the draft by the Queen.]

[Pageheading: VISIT TO PARIS]

[Pageheading: ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._