The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 8

What is the Naval Force at home?

How much serviceable ammunition is there both of Artillery and small arms in the country?

[Footnote 43: A violently hostile feeling between the Turks and Greeks had culminated earlier in the year in a formidable insurrection among the Sultan's Greek subjects. It was terminated on the 18th of June by an engagement at Kalampaka, in Thessaly.]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _4th July 1854._

The Queen approves the enclosed drafts, and wishes only to remark on one pa.s.sage, where Lord Clarendon says, "that he acts by the unanimous desire of the Cabinet," which she thinks better altered or omitted. If left, it might weaken the authority of future instructions emanating from the Secretary of State alone; moreover, he acts const.i.tutionally under the authority of the Queen, on his own responsibility and not that of the Cabinet.

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _17th July 1854._

The Queen has just received Lord Aberdeen's letter, and has fully considered the contents of it. She has finally decided to make no change in her intended departure, from a conviction that her doing so might shake confidence in the result of this night's Debate. Should anything serious occur, she would be ready to return to-morrow or at any time that her presence in town was considered of importance to the public service.

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _19th July 1854._

The Queen has received Lord John Russell's letter of yesterday, and was very glad to hear that both the meeting and the Debate went off so well. The party which supports the Government is certainly "a strange basis for a Government to rest upon," but such as it is we must make the best of it, and nothing will contribute more to keeping it together than to give it the impression that the Government is thoroughly united.[44]

[Footnote 44: During a desultory discussion on the 13th of July, Mr Disraeli had a.s.sailed the Government and its chief in the Commons, to such purpose that Lord John Russell, stung by his sarcasms, and mortified by his own failure, asked Lord Aberdeen to relieve him of the Leaders.h.i.+p of the House. The Queen, to whom he had also written, entreated Lord John not to let his opponent see that his object in making his attack had been successful. A meeting of the Ministerialists was held on the 17th at the Foreign Office, at which one hundred and eighty members of the House of Commons were present, and some diversity of opinion was expressed; the result of the meeting was that the Government was more satisfactorily supported.]

[Pageheading: INDIAN AFFAIRS]

_Queen Victoria to the Marquis of Dalhousie._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _26th July 1854._

It is a very long time since the Queen has had the pleasure of hearing from Lord Dalhousie, but she supposes that (fortunately) there is very little to say, everything being so quiet and prosperous. The Queen highly appreciates and values Lord Dalhousie's kind offer to remain in India while there is any prospect of difficulty being caused by the present War, which will be a source of great satisfaction and tranquillity to her, as she feels that her Indian Dominions cannot be in safer hands.

The Queen wishes to tell Lord Dalhousie how much interested and pleased we have been in making the acquaintance of the young Maharajah Dhuleep Singh.[45] It is not without mixed feelings of pain and sympathy that the Queen sees this young Prince, once destined to so high and powerful a position, and now reduced to so dependent a one by her arms; his youth, amiable character, and striking good looks, as well as his being a Christian, the first of his high rank who has embraced our faith, must incline every one favourably towards him, and it will be a pleasure to us to do all we can to be of use to him, and to befriend and protect him.

It also interested us to see poor old Prince Gholam Mohammed, the last son of the once so dreaded Tippoo Sahib.

We both hope that Lord Dalhousie's health is good, and the Prince sends him his kind remembrance.

[Footnote 45: This young Prince was born in 1838, and was a younger son of Runjeet Singh, Chief of the Sikhs, who, after a loyal alliance with England for thirty years, died in 1839.

In 1843 Dhuleep Singh was raised to the throne, which had been occupied successively by Runjeet's elder sons. After the Sikh war in 1845, the British Government gave to the boy-king the support of a British force. In 1849, after the destruction of the Sikh army at Gujerat, and the annexation of the Punjab, a pension was bestowed on the young Maharajah on condition of his remaining loyal to the British Government. He became a Christian and was at this time on a visit to England.]

[Pageheading: MILITARY APPOINTMENTS]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Hardinge._

OSBORNE, _6th August 1854._

The Queen has received Lord Hardinge's letter of the 4th.[46] She would for the future wish all papers for signature to be accompanied by a descriptive list showing at a glance the purport of the doc.u.ments, as is done with papers from other Government offices.

The Queen has looked over the lists of Major-Generals made by the last brevet which Lord Hardinge submitted, and must confess that it does not afford a great choice; yet, leaving out the cavalry officers and those disqualified by age or infirmities, there remain some few whom she has marked with an "X," for whose exclusion no adequate reason is apparent. An exclusion of officers who have served in the Guards, _merely on that account_, the Queen would not wish to see adopted as a principle, and the selection of Colonels of the Line (because there are no Generals fit), in preference to Generals of the Guards who are perfectly so, will amount to this. General Eden,[47] moreover, has been in command of a Regiment of the Line, and General Knollys[48] has not been promoted from the Guards, and, in accepting the Governors.h.i.+p of Guernsey, specially begged that this might not exclude him from active service--a circ.u.mstance which he mentioned to the Prince at the time. Both these have the reputation of very good officers.

The Queen does not wish anything to be arranged prospectively now, but would recommend the subject to Lord Hardinge's future consideration.

[Footnote 46: In reply to a letter from the Queen, stating that she had inadvertently signed certain papers in the ordinary course. Her attention had not been drawn to their important features.]

[Footnote 47: Lieut.-General John Eden, C.B., nephew of the first Lord Auckland.]

[Footnote 48: Sir William Knollys, K.C.B., 1797-1883, became in 1855 the organiser of the newly formed Camp at Aldershot.]

[Pageheading: SPECIAL PRAYERS]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

OSBORNE, _21st August 1854._

The Queen must repeat what she has frequently done, that she strongly objects to these _special_ prayers which _are_, in fact, _not_ a sign of grat.i.tude or confidence in the Almighty--for if this is the course to be pursued, we _ought_ to have one for every _illness_, and certainly in '37 the influenza was notoriously more _fatal_ than the cholera had ever been, and _yet no one_ would have thought of having a prayer against _that_. Our Liturgy _has_ provided for these calamities, and we may have frequent returns of the cholera--and yet it would be difficult to _define_ the _number_ of deaths which are to _make_ "a form of prayer" _necessary_. The Queen would, therefore, strongly recommend the usual prayer being used, and no other, as is the case for the prayer in time of War. What is the use of the prayers in the Liturgy, which were no doubt composed when we were subject to other equally fatal diseases, if a new one is always to be framed specially for the cholera?

The Queen would wish Lord Aberdeen to give this as her decided opinion to the Archbishop, at all events, for the present. Last year the cholera quite decimated Newcastle, and was bad in many other places, but there was _no special_ prayer, and _now_ the illness is in _London_ but _not_ in any other place, a prayer is proposed by the Archbishop. The Queen cannot see the difference between the one and the other.

[Pageheading: CIVIL LIST PENSIONS]

_The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria._