The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 29

To-night we are going to the Opera in state, and will hear and see Jenny Lind[5] (who is perfection) in _Norma_, which is considered one of her best parts. Poor Grisi is quite going off, and after the pure angelic voice and extremely quiet, perfect acting of J. Lind, she seems quite _pa.s.see_. Poor thing! she is _quite_ furious about it, and was excessively impertinent to J. Lind.

To-morrow we go to a ball at Stafford House, and on Thursday to one at Gloucester House. Ever your truly devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 4: The Government were severely attacked by a coalition of Radicals and Protectionists for their intervention in Portugal. A hostile motion of Lord Stanley's in the House of Lords was opposed by the Duke of Wellington and defeated, while one of Mr Hume's in the House of Commons was talked out, Sir Robert Peel supporting the Ministry.]

[Footnote 5: She made her _debut_ in London on the 4th of May in _Roberto il Diavolo_. The Queen had heard her sing previously at Stolzenfels. In May 1849, after singing for two years to enthusiastic audiences, she retired from the stage, and made extended concert tours in Europe and America.]

[Pageheading: THE WELLINGTON STATUE]

_The Duke of Wellington to Queen Victoria._

LONDON, _12th July 1847._ (_Five in the afternoon_.)

Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He submits to your Majesty the expression of his sorrow and shame that your Majesty should be troubled for a moment by anything so insignificant as a statue of himself.

When he first heard of the intention to remove the statue from the pedestal on which it had been placed, he was apprehensive that the measure might be misconstrued and misrepresented in this country as well as abroad.

That feeling was increased when the probable existence of such misconstruction was adverted to in one of the printed papers circulated by the Committee for the erection of the statue; and still farther when the removal became the subject of repeated discussions in Parliament. His daily experience of your Majesty's gracious reception of his endeavours to serve your Majesty; and the events of every day, and the repeated marks which he received of your Majesty's consideration and favour proved clearly, as the Duke stated in his letter to Lord John Russell, that there was no foundation for the misconstruction of the intended act--which undoubtedly existed. The apprehension of such misconstruction had from the first moment created an anxious wish in the mind of the Duke that the removal should be so regulated and should be attended by such circ.u.mstances as would tend to relieve the transaction from the erroneous but inconvenient impression which had been created.

The Duke apprehended that he might find it impossible to perform the duties with which he had been entrusted, and therefore, when Lord John Russell wrote to him, he deprecated the measure in contemplation; and he rejoices sincerely that your Majesty has been most graciously pleased to countermand the order for the removal of the statue.

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

WELLINGTON.[6]

[Footnote 6: The Duke of Wellington wrote to Croker, 19th of December 1846:--"I should desire never to move from my principles of indifference and non-interference on the subject of a statue of myself to commemorate my own actions."

And again, on the 14th of June 1847, the Duke wrote to Croker:--"It has always been my practice, and is my invariable habit, to say nothing about myself and my own actions.

"More than forty years ago Mr Pitt observed that I talked as little of myself or my own acts as if I had been an a.s.sistant-surgeon of the army....

"I follow the habit of avoiding to talk of myself and of what I have done; with the exception only of occasions when I am urging upon modern contemporaries measures which they don't like, and when I tell them I have some experience, and have had some success in these affairs, and feel they would experience the benefit of attending to my advice, I never talk of myself.

"These are the reasons for which they think that I don't care what they do with the statue.

"But they must be idiots to suppose it possible that a man who is working day and night, without any object in view excepting the public benefit, will not be sensible of a disgrace inflicted upon him by the Sovereign and Government whom he is serving. The ridicule will be felt, if nothing else is!"...]

_Queen Victoria to Lord Palmerston._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _12th July 1847._

The Queen has been informed by Lord John Russell that the Duke of Wellington is apprehensive that the removal of his statue from the Arch to another pedestal might be construed as a mark of displeasure on her part. Although the Queen had hoped that her esteem and friends.h.i.+p for the Duke was so well known to the public in general as not to render such a construction possible, and although she had thought that another pedestal would have been more suitable for _this_ statue, and that the Arch might have been more becomingly ornamented in honour of the Duke than by the statue _now_ upon it, she has given immediate direction that the Statue should remain in its present situation, and only regrets that this monument should be so unworthy of the great personage to whose honour it has been erected.

[Pageheading: INDIAN AFFAIRS]

_Viscount Hardinge to Queen Victoria._

_27th July 1847._

Lord Hardinge, with his most humble duty to your Majesty, humbly acknowledges the letter in which your Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve of his conduct in the Government of your Majesty's Eastern Empire, and to sanction his return to Europe the end of this year.

It will always be a source of happiness to Lord Hardinge to have contributed his efforts towards maintaining the stability of your Majesty's Indian possessions committed to his charge, and he feels, in the performance of these duties, that the approbation of his Sovereign is the most grateful distinction to which honourable ambition can aspire.

The Governor-General entertains the most sanguine expectations that peace has been securely established beyond the north-west frontiers, as well as throughout India, and in this confidence he has ordered nearly 50,000 men of the native force to be reduced, which reductions have caused no discontent, being for the most part voluntary on the part of the men and accompanied by gratuities in proportion to the service performed.

As regards internal dangers, there is no native power remaining able to face a British army in the field. The people are very generally engaged in trade and agriculture, and to a great extent in the British Provinces no longer carry arms. Confidence in the protection of the Government has superseded the necessity. Formerly trade and wealth were concentrated in a few large cities--and Indian manufactures have been ruined by cheaper goods sent from England; but wealth and comfort have, under British rule, been more extensively diffused through the agricultural districts, and all cla.s.ses, including the warlike tribes, are becoming more devoted to the happier and safer pursuits of peace.

In this state of things Lord Hardinge entertains a very confident expectation that the Government of India, by judicious attention to the native army in time of peace--which may have its peculiar dangers--will maintain due subordination in its ranks; and by abstaining from all interference in the religious prejudices of the people, will secure their loyal attachment to your Majesty, and their willing obedience to the Governor acting in your Majesty's behalf.

Lord Hardinge has the honour to subscribe himself your Majesty's most humble and dutiful Subject and Servant,

HARDINGE.

[Pageheading: A GENERAL ELECTION]

_Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria._

PEMBROKE LODGE, _5th August 1847._

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour to state that he considers the elections which have taken place since he last addressed your Majesty as satisfactory.

The Liberal gains, upon the whole, have been upwards of thirty, and when the elections are concluded will probably be upwards of forty.

The rejection of so distinguished a man as Mr Macaulay[7] is the most disgraceful act in the whole election. It has only a parallel in the rejection of Mr Burke by the city of Bristol.

The result of the whole elections will be, even if Sir George Grey is defeated in Northumberland, that neither Lord John Russell or any other Minister will have the command of a regular party majority.

But it is probable that Government will be sufficiently strong to resist both a reaction against free trade, and any democratic movement against the Church or the aristocracy.

[Footnote 7: In consequence of his vote on Maynooth. The poem he wrote on the present occasion will be remembered.]