The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 115

Mr Thomas Davies Lloyd, a rich and highly respectable gentleman of the county of Carnarvon.

Mr Rich, to whom the Government is under great obligation, for having of his own accord and without any condition vacated last year his seat for Richmond in Yorks.h.i.+re, and having thus enabled the Government to obtain the valuable services of Mr Roundell Palmer as your Majesty's Solicitor-General.

Viscount Palmerston has put into this box some private letters which Lord Russell thinks your Majesty might perhaps like to look at.

[Footnote 66: Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke was on the Executive Committee of the Exhibition of 1851, and on the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1862. He died in 1869.]

[Footnote 67: Mr Edgar Bowring's Companions.h.i.+p was conferred on him for services in connection with the earlier Exhibition.

He was afterwards M.P. for Exeter, 1868-1874.]

[Footnote 68: Mr Brown became a baronet in 1863.]

[Pageheading: COMFORT AND HOPE]

_Queen Victoria to Earl Canning._

OSBORNE, _10th January 1862_.

Lord Canning little thought when he wrote his kind and touching letter of the 22nd November, that it would only reach the Queen when _she_ was _smitten_ and _bowed_ down to the earth by an event similar to the one which he describes--and, strange to say, by a disease greatly a.n.a.logous to the one which took from him _all_ that he loved best. In the case of her adored, precious, perfect, and great husband, her dear lord and master, to whom this Nation owed more than it ever can truly know, however, the fever went on most favourably till the day previous to the awful calamity, and then it was congestion of the lungs and want of strength of circulation (the beloved Prince had always a weak and feeble pulse), which at the critical moment, indeed only two hours before G.o.d took him, caused this awful result. To lose one's partner in life is, as Lord Canning knows, like losing _half_ of one's _body_ and _soul_, torn forcibly away--and dear Lady Canning was such a dear, worthy, devoted wife! But to the Queen--to a poor helpless woman--it is not that only--it is the stay, support and comfort which is lost!

To the Queen it is like _death_ in life! Great and small--_nothing_ was done without his loving advice and help--and she feels _alone_ in the wide world, with many helpless children (except the Princess Royal) to look to her--and the whole nation to look to her--_now_ when she can barely struggle with her wretched existence! Her misery--her utter despair--she _cannot_ describe! Her _only_ support--the _only_ ray of comfort she gets for _a moment_, is in the _firm conviction_ and certainty of his nearness, his undying love, and of their eternal reunion! Only she prays always, and pines for the latter with an anxiety she cannot describe. Like dear Lady Canning, the Queen's darling is to rest in a garden--at Frogmore, in a Mausoleum the Queen is going to build for him and herself.

Though ill, the Queen was able to tell her precious angel of Lord Canning's bereavement, and he was deeply grieved, recurring to it several times, and saying, "What a loss! She was such a distinguished person!"

May G.o.d comfort and support Lord Canning, and may he think in his sorrow of his widowed and broken-hearted Sovereign--bowed to the earth with the greatest of human sufferings and misfortunes! She lived but _for_ her husband!

The sympathy of the many thousands of her subjects, but above all their sorrow and their admiration for him, are soothing to her bleeding, pierced heart!

The Queen's precious husband, though wandering occasionally, was conscious till nearly the last, and knew her and kissed her an hour before his pure spirit fled to its worthy and fit eternal Home!