The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Ii Part 66

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

BROADLANDS, _8th October 1850._

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has had the honour to receive your Majesty's communication of the 4th instant, expressing your Majesty's wish that an alteration should be made in his answer to Baron Koller's[36] note of the 5th of September, on the subject of the attack made upon General Haynau;[37] but Viscount Palmerston begs to state that when Baron Koller was at this place about ten days ago, he expressed so much annoyance at the delay which had already taken place in regard to the answer to his note of the 5th September, and he requested so earnestly that he might immediately have the reply, that Viscount Palmerston could do no otherwise than send him the answer at once, and Baron Koller despatched it the next day to Vienna.

Viscount Palmerston had put the last paragraph into the answer, because he could scarcely have reconciled it to his own feelings and to his sense of public responsibility to have put his name to a note which might be liable to be called for by Parliament, without expressing in it, at least as his own personal opinion, a sense of the want of propriety evinced by General Haynau in coming to England at the present moment.[38]

The state of public feeling in this country about General Haynau and his proceedings in Italy and Hungary was perfectly well known; and his coming here so soon after those events, without necessity or obligation to do so, was liable to be looked upon as a bravado, and as a challenge to an expression of public opinion.

Baron Koller indeed told Viscount Palmerston that Prince Metternich and Baron Neumann had at Brussels strongly dissuaded General Haynau from coming on to England; and that he (Baron Koller) had after his arrival earnestly entreated him to cut off those long moustachios which rendered him so liable to be identified.

With regard to the transaction itself, there is no justifying a breach of the law, nor an attack by a large number of people upon one or two individuals who cannot resist such superior force; and though in the present case, according to Baron Koller's account, the chief injury sustained by General Haynau consisted in the tearing of his coat, the loss of a cane, and some severe bruises on his left arm, and though four or five policemen proved to be sufficient protection, yet a mob who begin by insult lead each other on to outrage; and there is no saying to what extremes they might have proceeded if they had not been checked.

Such occurrences, however, have taken place before; and to go no further back than the last summer, the attacks on Lord Talbot at the Stafford meeting, and on Mr Bankes, Mr Sturt, and others at the Dorchester meeting, when a man was killed, were still more violent outrages, and originated simply in differences of political opinion; whereas in this case the brewers' men were expressing their feeling at what they considered inhuman conduct on the part of General Haynau.

The people of this country are remarkable for their hospitable reception of foreigners, and for their forgetfulness of past animosities. Napoleon Bonaparte, the greatest enemy that England ever had, was treated while at Plymouth with respect, and with commiseration while at St Helena. Marshal Soult, who had fought in many battles against the English, was received with generous acclamation when he came here as Special Amba.s.sador. The King of the French, Mons. Guizot, and Prince Metternich, though all of them great antagonists of English policy and English interests, were treated in this country with courtesy and kindness. But General Haynau was looked upon as a great moral criminal; and the feeling in regard to him was of the same nature as that which was manifested towards Tawell[39] and the Mannings,[40] with this only difference, that General Haynau's bad deeds were committed upon a far larger scale, and upon a far larger number of victims. But Viscount Palmerston can a.s.sure your Majesty that those feelings of just and honourable indignation have not been confined to England, for he had good reason to know that General Haynau's ferocious and unmanly treatment of the unfortunate inhabitants of Brescia and of other towns and places in Italy, his savage proclamations to the people of Pesth, and his barbarous acts in Hungary excited almost as much disgust in Austria as in England, and that the nickname of "General Hyaena" was given to him at Vienna long before it was applied to him in London.

[Footnote 36: The Austrian Amba.s.sador.]

[Footnote 37: General Haynau had earned in the Hungarian War an odious reputation as a flogger of women. When visiting the brewery of Barclay & Perkins, the draymen mobbed and a.s.saulted him; he had to fly from them, and take refuge in a neighbouring house. Lord Palmerston had to send an official letter of apology to the Austrian Government, which, as originally despatched, without waiting for the Queen's approval, contained a paragraph offensive to Austria.]

[Footnote 38: See Lord Palmerston's letter to Sir G. Grey, Ashley's _Life of Lord Palmerston_, vol. i. chap. vi.]

[Footnote 39: Executed for the Salt Hill murder.]

[Footnote 40: Marie Manning (an ex-lady's maid, whose career is said to have suggested Hortense in _Bleak House_ to d.i.c.kens) was executed with her husband, in 1849, for the murder of a guest. She wore black satin on the scaffold, a material which consequently became unpopular for some time.]

[Pageheading: THE DRAFT DESPATCHED]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _11th October 1850._

The Queen having written to Lord Palmerston in conformity with Lord John Russell's suggestion respecting the draft to Baron Koller, now encloses Lord Palmerston's answer, which she received at Edinburgh yesterday evening. Lord John will see that Lord Palmerston has not only _sent_ the draft, but pa.s.ses over in silence her injunction to have a corrected copy given to Baron Koller, and adds a vituperation against General Haynau, which clearly shows that he is not sorry for what has happened, and makes a merit of sympathising with the draymen at the brewery and the Chartist Demonstrations....

The Queen encloses likewise a copy of her letter to Lord Palmerston, and hopes Lord John will write to him.[41]

[Footnote 41: Lord John insisted on the note being withdrawn, and another subst.i.tuted with the offensive pa.s.sage omitted.

After threatening resignation, Lord Palmerston somewhat tamely consented.

Lord John Russell wrote to the Prince Albert that he would be "somewhat amused, if not surprised, at the sudden and amicable termination of the dispute regarding the letter to Baron Koller. The same course may be adopted with advantage if a despatch is ever again sent which has been objected to, and to which the Queen's sanction has not been given." See the Queen's letter of the 19th of October.]

[Pageheading: LORD PALMERSTON CENSURED]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _12th October 1850._

The Queen has received Lord Palmerston's letter respecting the draft to Baron Koller. She cannot suppose that Baron Koller addressed his note to Lord Palmerston in order to receive in answer an expression of his _own personal opinion_; and if Lord Palmerston could not reconcile it to his own feelings to express the regret of the Queen's Government at the brutal attack and wanton outrage committed by a ferocious mob on a distinguished foreigner of past seventy years of age, who was quietly visiting a private establishment in this metropolis, without adding _his censure of the want of propriety_ evinced by General Haynau in coming to England--he might have done so in a private letter, where his personal feelings could not be mistaken for the opinion of the Queen and her Government. She must repeat her request that Lord Palmerston will rectify this.

The Queen can as little approve of the introduction of Lynch Law in this country as of the _violent_ vituperations with which Lord Palmerston accuses and condemns public men in other countries, acting in most difficult circ.u.mstances and under heavy responsibility, without having the means of obtaining correct information or of sifting evidence.

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _16th October 1850._

The Queen is glad to hear from Lord Palmerston that he has given no countenance to the French and Russian proposal at the suggestion of Denmark, that England, France, and Russia should, after having signed the Protocol in favour of Denmark, now go further and send their armies to aid her in her contest with Holstein.[42] The Queen does not expect any good result from Lord Palmerston's counter proposal to urge Prussia and Austria to compel the Holsteiners to lay down their arms.

The mediating power ought rather to make Denmark feel that it requires more than a cessation of hostilities, a plan of reconciliation, and a solution of the questions in dispute, before she can hope permanently to establish peace. The mediating power itself, however, should strive to arrive at some opinion on the matter in dispute, based, not on _its own_ supposed interests, as the Protocol is, but on an anxious, careful, and impartial investigation of the rights and pretensions of the disputing parties; and if it finds it impossible to arrive at such an opinion, to fix upon some impartial tribunal capable of doing so, to which the dispute could be submitted for decision. Common principles of morality would point out such a course, and what is morally right only can be politically wise.

[Footnote 42: A strenuous attempt was being made by the Danish Government to bring pressure to bear on Austria and Prussia, to put down the nationalist movement in the Duchies, either by active intervention, or by rea.s.sembling the Conference which had negotiated the Treaty of Berlin. Lord Palmerston discountenanced both alternatives, but wrote to the Queen that he and the representatives of France, Russia, and Denmark thought that Austria and Prussia should be urged to take all feasible steps to put an end to the hostilities.]

[Pageheading: DEATH OF QUEEN LOUISE]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

OSBORNE, _18th October 1850._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--_This_ was the day I _always_ and for so _many years_ wrote to _her_, to _our adored Louise_, and I _now_ write to _you_, to thank you for that _heart-breaking_, touching letter of the 16th, which you so _very kindly_ wrote to me. It is _so_ kind of you to write to us. _What_ a day Tuesday must have been! _Welch einen Gang!_ and _yesterday!_ My _grief_ was _so great_ again yesterday.

To _talk_ of her is my _greatest consolation!_Let us _all try_ to imitate _her!_My poor dear Uncle, we wish so to be with you, to be of _any use_ to you. You will allow us, in three or four weeks, to go to you for two or three days, _quite quietly_ and alone, to Laeken without _any_ one, without _any_ reception anywhere, to cry with you and to talk with you of _Her_. It will be a great comfort to us--a _silent tribute_ of _respect and love to her_--to be able to mingle our tears with yours over _her_ tomb! And the affection of your two devoted children will perhaps be _some slight balm_. My _first_ impulse was to _fly at once_ to you, but perhaps a few weeks' delay will be better. It will be a _great_ and melancholy satisfaction to us. _Daily_ will you feel more, my poor dear Uncle, the _poignancy_ of _your dreadful_ loss; my _heart breaks_ in thinking of _you_ and the poor dear children. _How_ beautiful it must be to see that _your whole country_ weeps and mourns _with_ you! For this country and for your children you must _try_ to bear up, and feel that in _so doing_ you are doing _all_ SHE wished. If only _we_ could be of use to you! if _I_ could do _anything_ for dear little Charlotte, whom our blessed Louise talked of _so_ often to me.

May I _write_ to _you_ on _Fridays_ when I used to write to her, as well as on Tuesdays? You need _not_ answer me, and whenever it bores you to write to me, or you have no time, let one of the dear children write to me.

May G.o.d bless and protect you ever, my beloved Uncle, is our anxious prayer. Embrace the dear children in the name of one who has almost the feelings of a mother for them. Ever your devoted Niece and loving Child,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN AND PALMERSTON]