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DEAREST UNCLE,--Many thanks for your very kind letter of the 31st, which I received on Sunday, just as our excellent friend Stockmar made his appearance. He made us very happy by his excellent accounts of you _all_, including dearest Louise, and the children he says are _so_ grown; Leo being nearly as tall as Louise! _En revanche_ he will, I hope, tell you how prosperous he found us all; and how surprised and pleased he was with the children; he also is struck with Albert junior's likeness to his dearest papa, which everybody is struck with.
Indeed, dearest Uncle, I will venture to say that not only _no Royal Menage_ is to be found equal to _ours_, but _no other menage_ is to be compared to ours, nor is _any one_ to be compared, take him altogether, to _my dearest_ Angel!...
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _6th April 1843._
Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has this moment received your Majesty's note.
Sir Robert Peel will immediately make enquiry in the first instance in respect to the correctness of the report of the dinner. The omission of the health of the Prince is certainly very strange--it would be very unusual at any public dinner--but seems quite unaccountable at a dinner given in connection with the interests of one of the Royal Theatres.
The toasts are generally prepared not by the chairman of the meeting, but by a committee; but still the omission of the name of the Prince ought to have occurred at once to the Duke of Cambridge, and there cannot be a doubt that he might have rectified, and ought to have rectified, the omission.
Sir Robert Peel is sure your Majesty will approve of his ascertaining in the first instance the real facts of the case--whether the report be a correct one, and if a correct one, who are the parties by whom the arrangements in respect to the toasts were made.
This being done, Sir Robert Peel will then apply himself to the execution of your Majesty's wishes, in the manner pointed out by your Majesty.
He begs humbly to a.s.sure your Majesty that he enters most fully into your Majesty's very natural feelings, and that he shall always have the greatest pleasure in giving effect to your Majesty's wishes in matters of this nature, and in proving himself worthy of the confidence your Majesty is kindly pleased to repose in him.
[Pageheading: THE TOAST OF THE PRINCE]
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _6th April 1843._
Sir Robert Peel, with his humble duty to your Majesty, hastens to make a communication to your Majesty, on the subject of your Majesty's letter of this morning, which he hopes will remove from your Majesty's mind any unfavourable impression with regard to the _toasts_ at the theatrical dinner, or to the conduct of the Duke of Cambridge in reference to them.
Sir Robert Peel, since he addressed your Majesty, has made enquiry from Colonel Wood, the member for Brecon, who was present at the meeting.
In order to have the real statement of the case, Sir Robert Peel did not mention the object of the enquiry. The following were the questions and the answers:--
_Q._ What were the toasts at the theatrical dinner last night?
COLONEL WOOD. The first was _The Queen and the Prince_. The Duke said he thought he could not give the health of the Queen in a manner more satisfactory than by coupling with the name of Her Majesty that of her ill.u.s.trious Consort.
Colonel Wood said that his impression was that the Duke meant to do that which would be most respectful to the Prince, and that he had in his mind when he united the name of the Prince with that of your Majesty, the circ.u.mstances of the Prince having recently held the Levee on behalf of your Majesty.
It might perhaps have been better had His Royal Highness adhered to the usual custom, and proposed the health of the Prince distinctly and separately, but he humbly submits to your Majesty that the _intention_ of His Royal Highness must have been to show respect to the Prince.
The reports of public dinners are frequently incorrect, the reporters being sometimes placed at a great distance from the chairman.
[Pageheading: THE KING OF HANOVER]
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _12th April 1843._
Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and will not fail to forward by the first opportunity the letter to Lord Ellenborough which accompanied your Majesty's note.
In consequence of his conversation yesterday morning with Baron Stockmar, Sir Robert Peel begs to mention to your Majesty that he saw to-day a private letter from Berlin, which mentioned that the King of Hanover had apparently abandoned the intention of visiting England this year, but that on the receipt of some letters from England, which he suspected to be written for the purpose of discouraging his visit, the King suddenly changed his intention and wrote a letter to your Majesty, stating that he had thoughts of such a visit.
It was not stated from whence the letters advising the King to remain on the Continent had proceeded.
This letter also stated that the King of Hanover proposed to waive his rank of Sovereign as far as he possibly could on his arrival in England, and to take his seat in the House of Lords without taking any part in the proceedings.
It added that the King could not, in any event, be in England before the latter end of May or beginning of June, and rather hinted that as his proposed visit was more out of a spirit of contradiction and impatience of obstacles being thrown in the way of it, than from any strong wish on his part to come here, he might probably change his intention and defer his visit, particularly if he should find that there was no particular impediment in the way of it.
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _13th April 1843._
Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs leave to acquaint your Majesty that the Duke of Cambridge having called on Sir Robert Peel this morning, he took an opportunity of asking His Royal Highness whether he thought the King of Hanover had made up his mind to visit England this year.
The Duke's reply was, as nearly as possible, as follows:--
"Oh yes, the King will certainly come, but I can tell you privately he means to have nothing to do with the House of Lords. He will not make his appearance there. The King has taken his servants for six weeks--that is, engaged their attendance upon him for that time.
I know the porter is engaged and the stable servants. The King has written to Her Majesty. His real object in coming is to arrange his private papers, which were left in confusion, and to consult Sir Henry Halford."[31]
This was all that was material that His Royal Highness said.
[Footnote 31: The eminent physician.]
[Pageheading: THE GATES OF SOMNAUTH]
_Lord Ellenborough to Queen Victoria._
CAMP, DELHI, _19th February 1843._
... The gates of the Temple of Somnauth, which have been escorted to Delhi by five hundred cavalry of the protected Sikh States, will be escorted from Delhi to Muttra, and thence to Agra by the same force of cavalry, furnished by the Rajahs of Bhurtpore and Alwar.[32]
While there has been universally evinced a feeling of grat.i.tude to the British Government for the consideration shown to the people of Hindustan in the restoration of these trophies, there has not occurred a single instance of apparent mortification amongst the Mussulmans.
