The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 26

[Footnote 28: Mr (who a few weeks later became Sir) Charles Wood.]

[Footnote 29: Montem, the triennial Eton ceremony, the chief part of which took place at Salt Hill (_ad montem_), near Slough, was abolished in 1847.]

[Pageheading: A PENINSULAR MEDAL]

_Queen Victoria to the Duke of Wellington._

OSBORNE, _25th November 1846._

The Queen has learned from various quarters that there still exists a great anxiety amongst the officers and men who served under the Duke of Wellington's orders in the Peninsula to receive and wear a medal as a testimony that they a.s.sisted the Duke in his great undertaking. The Queen not only thinks this wish very reasonable, considering that for recent exploits of infinitely inferior importance such distinctions have been granted by her, but she would feel personally a great satisfaction in being enabled publicly to mark in this way her sense of the great services the Duke of Wellington has rendered to his country and to empower many a brave soldier to wear this token in remembrance of the Duke.

[Pageheading: THE DUKE'S VIEW]

_The Duke of Wellington to Queen Victoria._

STRATHFIELDSAYE, _27th November 1846._

Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents his humble duty to your Majesty.

He has just now received your Majesty's most gracious commands from Osborne, dated the 26th instant.

He does not doubt that many of the brave officers and soldiers who served in the armies in the Peninsula under the command of the Duke are anxious to receive and wear a medal, struck by command of the Sovereign, to commemorate the services performed in that seat of the late war.

Many of them have, upon more than one occasion, expressed such desire, in their letters addressed to the Duke, in their pet.i.tions to Parliament, and, as the Duke has reason to believe, in pet.i.tions presented to your Majesty.

Although the Duke has never omitted to avail himself of every occasion which offered to express his deep sense of the meritorious services of the officers and soldiers of the Army which served in the Peninsula, he did not consider it his duty to suggest to the Sovereign, under whose auspices, or the Minister under whose direction the services in question were performed, any particular mode in which those services of the Army should be recognised by the State.

Neither has he considered it his duty to submit such suggestion since the period at which the services were performed, bearing in mind the various important considerations which must have an influence upon the decision on such a question, which it was and is the duty of your Majesty's confidential servants alone to take into consideration, and to decide.

Neither can the Duke of Wellington now venture to submit to your Majesty his sense of a comparison of the services of the Army which served in the Peninsula, with those of other armies in other parts of the world, whose recent services your Majesty has been most graciously pleased to recognise by ordering that medals should be struck, to commemorate each of such services, one of which to be delivered to each officer and soldier present, which your Majesty was graciously pleased to permit him to wear.

Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington humbly solicits your Majesty, in grateful submission to your Majesty upon the subject of the last paragraph of your Majesty's most gracious letter, that, considering the favour with which his services were received and rewarded by the gracious Sovereign, under whose auspices they were performed; the professional rank and the dignity in the State to which he was raised, and the favour with which his services were then and have been ever since received, that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to consider upon this occasion only the well-founded claims upon your Majesty's attention of the officers and soldiers who served in the Army in the Peninsula; and to consider him, as he considers himself, amply rewarded for any service which he might have been instrumental in rendering; and desirous only of opportunities of manifesting his grat.i.tude for the favour and honour with which he has been treated by his Sovereign.

All of which is humbly submitted to your Majesty by your Majesty's most dutiful and devoted Servant and Subject,

WELLINGTON.

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _28th November 1846._

The Queen has just received Lord Palmerston's draft to Mr Southern,[30] and must observe that she does not quite approve the tone of it, as it will be likely only to irritate without producing any effect. If our advice is to be taken, it must be given in a spirit of impartiality and fairness. Lord Palmerston's despatch must give the impression that we entirely espouse the cause of the rebels, whose conduct is, to say the least, illegal and very reprehensible. Lord Palmerston likewise takes the nation and the Opposition to be one and the same thing. What we must insist upon is a return to Const.i.tutional Government. And what we may advise is a compromise with the Opposition. What Ministry is to be formed ought to be left to the Portuguese themselves. It being the 28th to-day, the Queen is afraid the despatch went already yesterday. The Queen hopes in future that Lord Palmerston will not put it out of her power to state her opinion in good time.

[Footnote 30: Secretary of Legation at Lisbon, and Charge d'Affaires in the absence of Lord Howard de Walden.]

[Pageheading: THE PENINSULAR MEDAL]

_Queen Victoria to the Duke of Wellington._

ARUNDEL CASTLE, _1st December 1846._

The Queen has not yet acknowledged the Duke of Wellington's last letter.

She fully appreciates the delicacy of the Duke in not wis.h.i.+ng to propose himself a step having reference to his own achievements, but the Queen will not on that account forgo the satisfaction of granting this medal as an acknowledgment on her part of those brilliant achievements.

The Queen has been a.s.sured by Lord John Russell that her confidential servants will be ready to a.s.sume the responsibility of advising such a measure.

_The Duke of Wellington to Queen Victoria._

ARUNDEL CASTLE, _2nd December 1846._ (_Morning._)

Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He did not receive your Majesty's commands, dated the 1st instant, in this Castle, till seven o'clock in the afternoon; and being under the necessity of attending at [? Dover] in the evening, he has not had it in his power till this time to express his acknowledgment of the receipt of them.

He submits to your Majesty that he has always been aware that it would be impolitic to confer upon the officers and soldiers who served in the Peninsula the wished-for distinction without the concurrence of your Majesty's confidential servants.

They alone can give the orders to carry into execution the measure, and can adopt means to remedy any inconvenience which may result from it; and it is satisfactory to him to learn, from the perusal of your Majesty's note, that Lord John Russell is disposed to adopt it, notwithstanding that the Duke has no personal wish or feeling in the adoption of the measure, excepting to see gratified the wishes of so many gallant officers and brave soldiers, who have so well served.

The few words which he addressed to your Majesty in his last letter of the 27th of November in relation to himself, referred to the expressions in that of your Majesty of the 26th November, to the Duke; from which it appeared to be your Majesty's intention "to empower many a brave soldier to wear this token, in remembrance of the Duke."

Having stated to your Majesty that he would serve your Majesty, and would promote the objects of your Majesty's Government, to the utmost of his power, he has faithfully performed his engagement, as he believes, to the satisfaction of your Majesty's servants.

His whole life being devoted to your Majesty's service, he is most anxious to deserve and receive your Majesty's approbation.

But he wishes that it should be conveyed only when it may be convenient to your Majesty's Government. Your Majesty and your Majesty's servants must be the best judges upon this point, as well as whether the medal in question shall be struck and granted at all or not.

If granted, or whatever may be the mode in which granted, or whether the Duke's name is recalled to recollection or not, the Duke will be equally satisfied, and grateful for your Majesty's gracious favour, and desirous to merit a continuance of it, by his devotion to your Majesty's service.

All of which is humbly submitted by your Majesty's most dutiful Subject and most devoted Servant,

WELLINGTON.