The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 9

[Footnote 5: Leading characters in _The Heiress of Bruges_, by Grattan.]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_9th August 1836._

MY BELOVED UNCLE,-- ... I was sure you would be very much pleased with Ernest and Albert as soon as you knew them more; there cannot be two more good and sensible young men than they are. Pray, dear Uncle, say everything most kind from me to them.

We go to Buxted[6] to-morrow morning, and stay there till next Monday.

All the gaieties are now over. We took leave of the Opera on Sat.u.r.day, and a most brilliant conclusion to the season it was. Yesterday I took my farewell lesson with Lablache,[7] which I was very sorry to do. I have had twenty-six lessons with him, and I look forward with pleasure to resume them again next spring.

[Footnote 6: Lord Liverpool's house. Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, third Earl of Liverpool, was fifty-three years old at the time of the Queen's accession. He was a moderate Tory, and had held office as Under-Secretary for the Home Department in 1807, and in 1809 as Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies. He succeeded to the Earldom in 1828. The t.i.tle, since revived, became extinct on his death in 1851. He was a friend of the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, who often stayed with him at Buxted Park in Suss.e.x, and at Pitchford in Shrops.h.i.+re. At three successive visits at the latter house the Princess occupied the same small room without a fireplace.]

[Footnote 7: Luigi Lablache (1794-1858), a famous opera-singer, was the Princess's singing-master.]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_2nd September 1836._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,-- ... The state of Spain is most alarming and unfortunate.[8] I do hope something will be done. The news were rather better yesterday and the day before. The Christinos had gained a victory over the Carlists.[9] I take a great interest in the whole of this unfortunate affair. I hope and trust Portugal may not suffer by all the affairs of Spain, but much is to be feared. Dieskau will have told you much about the internal affairs, which seem to go on very prosperously. Pray has the d.u.c.h.ess of Braganza[10] written to you or Aunt Louise since Ferdinand's marriage?

You did not send me the King of Naples'[11] letter, as you said you would; pray do so in your next letter. I hope he will come here next year. You do not mention France, so I hope all is quiet. The Duke of Orleans is quite well again, I am happy to hear from Aunt Louise. Now I must conclude, begging you to believe me, always, your most truly attached and really devoted Niece,

VICTORIA.

[Footnote 8: See Introductory Note for the year, _ante_, p. 44.

(to Ch. V)]

[Footnote 9: The civil war was favourable to the Carlists at this time, General Gomez obtaining a victory on 30th August.

By the end of the year he had twice traversed the kingdom, hampered with plunder and prisoners, and surrounded by armies greater than his own, and in no district did he find the inhabitants disposed to act against him.]

[Footnote 10: Step-mother of the Queen of Portugal.]

[Footnote 11: Ferdinand II., commonly named "Bomba." He married _en secondes noces_, the Archd.u.c.h.ess Theresa of Austria.]

[Pageheading: A FAREWELL LETTER]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._[12]

CLAREMONT, _21st September 1836._

MY MOST DEARLY BELOVED UNCLE,--As I hear that Mamma is going to send a letter to you which will reach you at Dover, and though it is only an hour and a half since we parted, I must write you one line to tell you how _very, very sad_ I am that you have left us, and to repeat, what I think you know pretty well, _how_ much I love you. When I think that but two hours ago we were happily together, and that now you are travelling every instant farther and farther away from us, and that I shall with all probability not see you for a _year_, it makes me cry.

Yes, dearest Uncle, it is dreadful in this life, that one is destined, and _particularly unhappy me_, to be almost always separated from those one loves most dearly. I live, however, in the hopes of your visit next year with dear Aunt, and I cannot say how thankful and happy I am that we have had you here for six short, and to me _most bright happy_ days! I shall look back with the greatest delight on them.

Believe me, always, your ever devoted and most affectionately attached Niece and _Child_,

VICTORIA.

[Footnote 12: Written at the conclusion of the King's visit to England.]

[Pageheading: THE PRINCESS AND THE CHURCH]

_The King of the Belgians to the Princess Victoria._

LAEKEN, _11th November 1836._

MY VERY DEAR CHILD,-- ...I know attempts have been made to represent you as indifferent to the established Church. You know that in England the Sovereign is the head of the Church, and that the Church looks upon the Protestant religion as it is established as the _State_ Religion. In times like the present, when the Crown is already a good deal weakened, I believe that it is of importance to maintain as much as possible this state of affairs, and I believe that you will do well, whenever an occasion offers itself to do so without affectation, to express your sincere interest for the Church, and that you comprehend its position and count upon its good-will. The poor Church will be a good deal persecuted, I have no doubt, but it would be desirable that the men belonging to it should be united, _sensible_, and moderate....

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

RAMSGATE, _14th November 1836._

... What you say to me relative to Church matters I quite comprehend, and always am very thankful for advice from you.

I am reading away famously. I like Mrs. Hutchinson's Life of her husband[13] only _comme cela_; she is so dreadfully violent. She and Clarendon are so totally opposite, that it is quite absurd, and I only believe the _juste milieu_....

Your speech interested me very much; it is very fine indeed; you wrote it yourself, did you not?

Belgium is indeed the happiest country in the world, and it is _all, all_ owing to your _great care_ and _kindness_. "Nous etions des enfans perdus," General Goblet[14] said to me at Claremont, "quand le Roi est venu nous sauver." And so it is....

Pray, dear Uncle, say everything most kind from me to Ernest and Albert, and believe me, always, your affectionate Niece,

VICTORIA.

Pray, dear Uncle, is the report of the King of Naples' marriage to the Archd.u.c.h.ess Theresa true? I hear the king has behaved uncommonly well at Naples during the cholera panic. I enclose the measure of my finger.

[Footnote 13: The regicide, Colonel Hutchinson's, fame rests more on his wife's commemoration of him than on his own exploits. She was the daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and highly educated. Between 1664 and 1671 she wrote the biography of her husband, first published in 1806. "The figure of Colonel Hutchinson," says J. R.

Green, "stands out from his wife's canvas with the grace and tenderness of a portrait by Van Dyck."]

[Footnote 14: The Belgian General, Albert Joseph Goblet. Count d'Alviella.]