The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 88

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _4th November 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has this morning had the honour and pleasure of receiving your Majesty's letter of yesterday....

Lord Melbourne sends a letter which he has received from his sister, which may not be unentertaining. Lady Palmerston is struck, as everybody is who goes to Ireland, with the candid warmth and vehement demonstration of feeling. England always appears cold, heartless, and sulky in comparison....

With respect to the questions put to me by your Majesty at the desire of His Royal Highness, Lord Melbourne begs leave to a.s.sure your Majesty that he will be at all times most ready and anxious to give any information in his power upon points of this sort, which are very curious, very important, very worthy to be enquired into, and upon which accurate information is not easily to be found. All the political part of the English Const.i.tution is fully understood, and distinctly stated in Blackstone and many other books, but the Ministerial part, the work of conducting the executive government, has rested so much on practice, on usage, on understanding, that there is no publication to which reference can be made for the explanation and description of it. It is to be sought in debates, in protests, in letters, in memoirs, and wherever it can be picked up. It seems to be stupid not to be able to say at once when two Secretaries of State were established; but Lord Melbourne is not able. He apprehends that there was but one until the end of Queen Anne's reign, and that two were inst.i.tuted by George I., probably because upon his frequent journeys to Hanover he wanted the Secretary of State with him, and at the same time it was necessary that there should be an officer of the same authority left at home to transact the domestic affairs.

_Prime Minister_ is a term belonging to the last century. Lord Melbourne doubts its being to be found in English Parliamentary language previously. Sir Robert Walpole was always accused of having introduced and arrogated to himself an office previously unknown to the Law and Const.i.tution, that of Prime or Sole Minister, and we learn from Lady Charlotte Lindsay's[154] accounts of her father, that in his own family Lord North would never suffer himself to be called _prime_ Minister, because it was an office unknown to the Const.i.tution. This was a notion derived from the combined Whig and Tory opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, to which Lord North and his family had belonged.

Lord Melbourne is very sorry to hear that the Princess Royal continues to suffer from some degree of indisposition. From what your Majesty had said more than once before, Lord Melbourne had felt anxiety upon this subject, and he saw the Baron yesterday, who conversed with him much upon it, and informed him of what had taken place. Lord Melbourne hopes that your Majesty will attribute it only to Lord Melbourne's anxious desire for the security and increase of your Majesty's happiness, if he ventures to say that the Baron appears to him to have much reason in what he urges, and in the view which he takes. It is absolutely required that confidence should be reposed in those who are to have the management and bear the responsibility, and that they should not be too much interrupted or interfered with.

[Footnote 154: Daughter of Lord North (afterwards Earl of Guilford) and wife of Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. John Lindsay.

She lived till 1849--a link with the past.]

[Pageheading: SECRETARIES OF STATE]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _5th November 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Not feeling satisfied of the correctness of the information which he had given to your Majesty respecting the office of Secretary of State, he yesterday evening requested Mr Allen[155] to look into the matter, and he has just received from him the enclosed short memorandum, which he has the honour of transmitting to your Majesty. This shows that Lord Melbourne was quite wrong with respect to the period at which two Secretaries of State were first employed, and that it was much earlier than he had imagined.

The year 1782, when the third Secretary of State was abolished, was the period of the adoption of the great measure of Economical Reform which had been introduced by Mr. Burke in 1780.

The present arrangement was settled in 1794, which is about the time which Lord Melbourne stated.

[Footnote 155: Secretary and Librarian at Holland House.]

[Pageheading: LORD MELBOURNE'S POSITION]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _7th November 1841._

... Your Majesty asks whether Lord Melbourne thinks that Prince Metternich holds the opinion of Sir Robert Gordon, which he expresses to Lord Beauvale. It is difficult to say what Prince Metternich's real sentiments are. Lord Melbourne takes him not to have a very high opinion of the abilities of others in general, and he is not unlikely to depreciate Sir Robert Gordon to Lord Beauvale. Sir Robert Gordon is a man of integrity, but he is tiresome, long and pompous, which cannot be agreeable to the Prince, who has about him much of the French vivacity, and also much of their settled and regular style of argument....

With respect to the latter part of your Majesty's letter, Lord Melbourne returns for the expressions of your Majesty's kindness his warm and grateful thanks. Your Majesty may rest a.s.sured that he will always speak to your Majesty without scruple or reserve, and that he will never ask anything of your Majesty, or ever make a suggestion, which he does not consider to be for your Majesty's service and advantage. Lord Melbourne is of opinion that his visits to the Palace should not only avoid exciting suspicion and uneasiness in your Majesty's present advisers, a result of which he has very little apprehension, but they should not be so frequent as to attract public notice, comment, and observation, of which he would be more fearful.

A public rumour, however unfounded and absurd, has more force in this country than objections which have in them more of truth and reality.

Upon these grounds, and as your Majesty will probably not see much company at present, and the parties therefore will be a good deal confined to the actual Household, Lord Melbourne thinks it would perhaps be as well if he were not again to dine at the Palace at present.

The course which it may be prudent to take hereafter will depend very much upon that which cannot now be foreseen, namely, upon the general course which will be taken by politics and political parties. In this Lord Melbourne does not at present discern his way, and he will not therefore hazard opinions which would not be founded upon any certainty, and might be liable to immediate change and alteration.

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S ADVICE]

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S EXPOSTULATIONS]

_Memorandum: Baron Stockmar to Viscount Melbourne._

_23 November 1841._

The apprehension which haunts me since my return to England is well known to you. It was my intention to have written to you upon it some time hereafter, but the contents of a certain letter, sent by you just before your departure, accelerates the execution of my design. From your own expressions used some time back, I was led to expect that you would be glad to take advantage _of any fair opportunity_ which might contribute towards that devoutly to be wished for object, viz., to let a certain correspondence die a natural death. You may easily conceive how much I felt disappointed when I heard that you had written again, without a challenge, and that, without apparent cause, you had volunteered the promise to write from time to time. This happens at a moment when _your_ hara.s.sing apprehension received new life and strength from two incidents which I think it my duty to make known to you, and of which the one came to pa.s.s _before_, the other after, your departure from here. Some weeks back I was walking in the streets with Dr Praetorius,[156] when, finding myself opposite the house of one of my friends, it came across my mind to give him a call. Praetorius wanted to leave me, on a conception that, as a stranger, he might obstruct the freedom of our conversation. I insisted, however, on his remaining with me, and we were shown into the drawing-room, where in all there were five of us. For some minutes the conversation had turned on insignificant things, when the person talking to me said quite abruptly: "So I find the Queen is in daily correspondence with Lord Melbourne." I replied, "Who told you this?" The answer was, "Mrs Norton; she told me the other evening. Don't you believe that Lord Melbourne has lost his influence over the Queen's mind; he daily writes to her, and receives as many answers, in which she communicates everything to him." Without betraying much emotion I said, "I don't believe a word of it; the Queen may have written once or twice on private matters, but the daily correspondence on all matters is certainly the amplification of a thoughtless and imprudent person, who is not aware of such exaggerated a.s.sertions." My speech was followed by a general silence, after which we talked of other things, and soon took our leave. When we were fairly in the open air, Praetorius expressed to me his amazement at what he had heard, and he remained for some time at a loss to comprehend the character of the person who, from mere giddiness, let out so momentous a secret.

The other fact took place the day after you had left. From the late events at Brussels, it had become desirable that I should see Sir Robert Peel. From Belgium we travelled over to Home politics. I expressed my delight at seeing the Queen so happy, and added a hope that more and more she would seek and find her real happiness in her domestic relations only. He evidently caught at this, and a.s.sured me that he should at all times be too happy to have a share in anything which might be thought conducive to the welfare of Her Majesty. That no consideration of personal inconvenience would ever prevent him from indulging the Queen in all her wishes relating to matters of a private nature, and that the only return for his sincere endeavours to please Her Majesty he looked to, was honesty in public affairs. Becoming then suddenly emphatic, he continued, "But on this I must insist, and I do a.s.sure you, that that moment I was to learn that the Queen takes advice upon public matters in another place, I shall throw up; for such a thing I conceive the country could not stand, and I would not remain an hour, whatever the consequences of my resignation may be."

Fully sensible that he was talking at me, I received the charge with the calmness of a good conscience, and our time being exhausted I prepared for retreat. But he did not allow me to do so, before he had found means to come a second time to the topic uppermost in his own mind, and he repeated, it appeared to me with increased force of tone, his determination to throw up, fearless of all consequences, that moment he found himself and the country dishonestly dealt by.

I think I have now reported to you correctly the two occurrences which of late have added so much to my antecedent suspicions and fears.

Permit me to join to this a few general considerations which, from the nature of the recited incidents alone, and without the slightest intervention of any other cause, must have presented themselves to my mind. The first is, that I derive from the events related quite ground enough for concluding that the danger I dread is great and imminent, and that, if ill luck is to have its will, no human power can prevent an explosion for a day, or even for an hour. The second is the contemplation--what state will the Queen be placed in by such a catastrophe? That in my position, portraying to myself all the consequences of such a possibility, I look chiefly to the Queen, needs hardly, I trust, an excuse.... Can you hope that the Queen's character will ever recover from a shock received by a collision with Peel, upon such a cause? Pray ill.u.s.trate to yourself this particular question by taking a purely political and general survey of the time and period we live in at this moment. In doing so must you not admit that all England is agreed that the Tories must have another trial, and that there is a decided desire in the nation that it should be a fair one? Would you have it said that Sir Robert Peel failed in his trial, merely because the Queen alone was not fair to him, and that princ.i.p.ally you had aided her in the game of dishonesty? And can you hope that this game can be played with security, even for a short time only, when a person has means of looking into your cards whom you yourself have described to me some years ago as a most pa.s.sionate, giddy, imprudent and dangerous woman? I am sure beforehand that your loyalty and devotion has nothing to oppose to the force of my exposition. There are, however, some other and minor reasons which ought likewise to be considered before you come to the determination of trusting entirely to possibilities and chance. For the results of your deliberation you will have to come to will in their working and effects go beyond yourself, and must affect two other persons. These will have a right to expect that your decision will not be taken regardless of that position, which accidental circ.u.mstances have a.s.signed to them, in an affair the fate of which is placed entirely within your discretion. This is an additional argument why you should deliberate very conscientiously. A mistake of yours in this respect might by itself produce fresh difficulties and have a complicating and perplexing retro effect upon the existing ones; because both, seeing that they must be sufferers in the end, may begin to look only to their own safety, and become inclined to refuse that pa.s.sive obedience which till now const.i.tutes the vehicle of your hazardous enterprize.

Approaching the conclusion of this letter, I beg to remind you of a conversation I had with you on the same subject in South Street, the 25th of last month.[157] Though you did not avow it then in direct words, I could read from your countenance and manner that you a.s.sented in your head and heart to all I had said, and in particular to the advice I volunteered at the end of my speech. At that time I pointed out to you a period when I thought a decisive step ought to be taken on your part. This period seems to me to have arrived. Placing unreserved confidence into your candour and manliness, I remain, for ever, very faithfully yours,

STOCKMAR.

[Footnote 156: Librarian and German Secretary to Prince Albert.]

[Footnote 157: _Ante_, pp. 352-3. (Ch. X, 'Stockmar and Melbourne')]

[Pageheading: MELBOURNE'S REPLY]

_Viscount Melbourne to Baron Stockmar._

_24th November 1841._

(_Half-past 10_ P.M.)

MY DEAR BARON,--I have just received your letter; I think it unnecessary to detain your messenger. I will write to you upon the subject and send it through Anson. Yours faithfully,

MELBOURNE.