The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 61

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

BALMORAL, _28th September 1857_.

The Queen is much surprised at Lord Clarendon's observing that "from what he hears the Maharajah was either from nature or early education cruel."[48] He must have changed very suddenly if this be true, for if there was a thing for which he was remarkable, it was his extreme gentleness and kindness of disposition. We have known him for three years (our two boys intimately), and he always shuddered at hurting anything, and was peculiarly gentle and kind towards children and animals, and if anything rather timid; so that all who knew him said he never could have had a chance in his own country. His valet, who is a very respectable Englishman, and has been with him ever since his twelfth year, says that he never knew a kinder or more amiable disposition. The Queen fears that people who do not know him well have been led away by their present very natural feelings of hatred and distrust of all Indians to slander him. What he might turn out, if left in the hands of unscrupulous Indians in his own country, of course no one can foresee.

[Footnote 48: See _ante_, 23rd September, 1857, note 40.]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _17th October 1857_.

The Queen has received yesterday evening the box with the Dockyard Returns. It will take her some time to peruse and study them; she wishes, however, to remark upon two points, and to have them pointed out also to Sir Charles Wood,[49] viz. first, that they are dated some as early as the 27th August, and none later than the 10th September, and that she received them, only on the _17th October_; and then that there is not one original Return amongst them, but they are all copies! When the Queen asks for Returns, to which she attaches great importance, she expects at least to see them in original.

[Footnote 49: First Lord of the Admiralty.]

[Pageheading: MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _25th October 1857_.

The Queen returns these letters. It would be well if Lord Clarendon would tell Lord Bloomfield not to _entertain_ the _possibility_ of such a question as the Princess Royal's marriage taking place at Berlin.[50] The Queen _never_ could consent to it, both for public and private reasons, and the a.s.sumption of its being _too much_ for a Prince Royal of Prussia to _come_ over to marry _the Princess Royal of Great Britain_ IN England is too _absurd_, to say the least. The Queen must say that there never was even the _shadow_ of a _doubt_ on _Prince Frederick William's_ part as to _where_ the marriage should take place, and she suspects this to be the mere gossip of the Berliners. Whatever may be the usual practice of Prussian Princes, it is not _every_ day that one marries the eldest daughter of the Queen of England. The question therefore must be considered as settled and closed....

[Footnote 50: The marriage took place at the Chapel Royal, St James's.]

[Pageheading: DEATH OF THE d.u.c.h.eSS DE NEMOURS]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _12th November 1857_.

The Queen thanks Lord Clarendon much for his kind and sympathising letter, and is much gratified at Count Persigny's kind note. He _is_ a good, honest, warm-hearted man, for whom we have sincere esteem.

The news from India was a great relief and a _ray_ of suns.h.i.+ne in our great affliction.[51] The Queen had the happiness of informing poor Sir George Couper of the relief of Lucknow, in which for four months his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren were shut up. The loss of two such distinguished officers as Generals Nicholson and Neill, and alas! of many inferior ones, is, however, very sad.

We visited the house of mourning yesterday, and _no words can_ describe the scene of woe.[52] There was the venerable Queen with the motherless children, admirable in her deep grief, and her pious resignation to the Will of G.o.d! yet even now the support, the comfort of all, thinking but of others and ready to devote her last remaining strength and her declining years to her children and grandchildren.

There was the broken-hearted, almost distracted widower--_her son_--and lastly, there was in one room the lifeless, but oh! even in its ghostliness, most beautiful form of his young, lovely, and angelic wife, lying in her bed with her splendid hair covering her shoulders, and a heavenly expression of peace; and in the next room, the dear little pink infant sleeping in its cradle.

The Queen leaves to Lord Clarendon's kind heart to imagine what this spectacle of woe must be, and how _deeply_ afflicted and impressed _we must be_--who have only so lately had a child born to us and have been so fortunate! The Prince has been _completely_ upset by this; and she was besides like a dear sister to us. G.o.d's will be done! But it seems _too_ dreadful almost to believe it--too hard to bear. The dear d.u.c.h.ess's death must have been caused by some affection of the heart, for she was perfectly well, having her hair combed, suddenly exclaimed to the Nurse, "Oh! mon Dieu, Madame"--her head fell on one side--and before the Duke could run upstairs her hand was cold! The Queen had visited her on Sat.u.r.day--looking well--and _yesterday_ saw her lifeless form in the very same spot!

If Lord Clarendon could give a slight hint to the _Times_ to say a few words of sympathy on the awful and unparalleled misfortune of these poor exiles, she is sure it would be very soothing to their bleeding hearts.... The sad event at Claremont took place just five days later than the death of poor Princess Charlotte under very similar circ.u.mstances forty years ago; and the poor d.u.c.h.ess was the niece of Princess Charlotte's husband.

[Footnote 51: Havelock, in consequence of the strength of the rebels in Oudh, had been unable to march to the a.s.sistance of Lucknow immediately after the relief of Cawnpore. He joined hands with Outram on the 10th of September, and reinforced the Lucknow garrison on the 25th.]

[Footnote 52: In a pathetic letter, just received, the Duc de Nemours (second son of Louis Philippe) had announced the death of his wife, Queen Victoria's beloved cousin and friend. She was only thirty-five years of age, and had been married at eighteen. She had seemed to make a good recovery after the birth of a child on the 28th of October, but died quite suddenly on the 10th of November, while at her toilette.]

[Pageheading: CRISIS IN THE CITY]

[Pageheading: SUSPENSION OF BANK CHARTER ACT]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

DOWNING STREET, _12th November 1857_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that the condition of financial affairs became worse to-day than it was yesterday.[53] The Governor of the bank represented that almost all private firms have ceased to discount bills, and that the Reserve Fund of the Bank of England, out of which discounts are made and liabilities satisfied, had been reduced last night to 1,400,000, and that if that fund should become exhausted the bank would have to suspend its operations. Under these circ.u.mstances it appeared to Viscount Palmerston, and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that a case had arisen for doing the same thing which was done under somewhat similar circ.u.mstances in 1847--that is to say, that a letter should be written by the first Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Governor of the Bank of England, saying that if under the pressure of the emergency the bank should deem it necessary to issue more notes than the amount to which they are at present confined by law, the Government would apply to Parliament to grant them an indemnity.

This Measure, in 1847, had the effect of stopping the then existing panic, and the necessity for making such an issue did not arise; on the present occasion this announcement will, no doubt, have a salutary effect in allaying the present panic, but as the bank had to discount to-day bills to the amount of 2,000,000, which they could not have done out of a fund of 1,400,000, unless deposits and payments in, to a considerable amount, had been made, the probability is that the issue thus authorised will actually be made. The Governor and Deputy-Governor of the bank represented that the communication, in order to be effectual and to save from ruin firms which were in imminent danger, ought to be made forthwith, so that they might be enabled to announce it on the Stock Exchange before the closing of business at four o'clock. Viscount Palmerston and Sir George Lewis therefore signed at once, and gave to the Governor of the bank the letter of which the accompanying paper is a copy, the pressure of the matter not allowing time to take your Majesty's pleasure beforehand.

The state of things now is more urgent than that which existed in 1847, when the similar step was taken; at that time the Reserve Fund was about 1,900,000, last night it was only 1,400,000; at that time the bullion in the bank was above 8,000,000, it is now somewhat less than 8,000,000; at that time things were mending, they are now getting worse.

But however necessary this Measure has been considered, and however useful it may be expected to be, it inevitably entails one very inconvenient consequence. The Government have authorised the bank to break the law, and whether the law shall actually be broken or not, it would be highly unconst.i.tutional for the Government not to take the earliest opportunity of submitting the matter to the knowledge of Parliament. This course was pursued in 1847. The letter from Lord John Russell and Sir Charles Wood to the Governor of the bank was dated on the 25th October, Parliament then stood prorogued in the usual way to the 11th November, but a council was held on the 31st October, at which your Majesty summoned Parliament to meet for the despatch of business on the 18th November; and on that day the session was opened in the usual way by a Speech from the Throne. It would be impossible under present circ.u.mstances to put off till the beginning of February a communication to Parliament of the step taken to-day.

Viscount Palmerston therefore would beg to submit for your Majesty's approval that a Council might be held at Windsor on Monday next, and that Parliament might then be summoned to meet in fourteen days. This would bring Parliament together in the first days of December, and after sitting ten days, or a fortnight, if necessary, it might be adjourned till the first week in February.[54]

Viscount Palmerston submits an explanatory Memorandum which he has just received for your Majesty's information from the Chancellor of the Exchequer....

[Footnote 53: The financial crisis had originated in numerous stoppages of banks in the United States, where premature schemes of railway extension had involved countless investors in ruin; in consequence, the pressure on firms and financial houses became even more acute than in 1847; see _ante_, vol.

ii., 14th October, 1847. The bank rate now rose to 10 per cent.

as against 9 per cent. in that year, and the bank reserve of bullion was alarmingly depleted.]

[Footnote 54: Parliament accordingly met on the 3rd of December, and the Session was opened by the Queen in person.

The Act of Indemnity was pa.s.sed without serious opposition, and a select committee re-appointed to enquire into the operation of the Bank Charter Act.]

[Pageheading: ARMY ESTABLISHMENT]

_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._

OSBORNE, _18th December 1857_.

The Queen has had some correspondence with Lord Panmure upon the Establishment of the Army for the next financial year.[55] She wishes now to lay down the principle which she thinks ought to guide our decision, and asks Lord Palmerston to consider it with his colleagues in Cabinet. Last year we reduced our Army suddenly to a low peace establishment to meet the demand for reduction of taxation raised in the House of Commons. With this peace establishment we had to meet the extraordinary demands of India, we have sent almost every available regiment, battalion, and battery, and are forced to contemplate the certainty of a large increase of our force in India as a permanent necessity. What the Queen requires is, that a well-considered and digested estimate should be made of the additional regiments, etc., etc., so required, and that after deducting this number from our establishment of 1857-1858, that for the next year should be brought up again to the same condition as if the Indian demand, which is foreign to our ordinary consideration, had not arisen. If this be done it will still leave us militarily weaker than we were at the beginning of the year, for the larger English Army maintained in India will require proportionally more reliefs and larger depots.