The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 52

_The Earl of Clarendon to Queen Victoria._

FOREIGN OFFICE, _11th November 1856_.

Lord Clarendon presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and humbly begs to transmit the letters which arrived yesterday together with a copy of Count Walewski's despatch.

Lord Clarendon begs to return his thanks to your Majesty for allowing him to see the Empress's letter.... The letter does not seem to require an answer at present.

Lord Clarendon had a conversation of two hours this morning with M. de Persigny, who fought all his battles o'er again, but did not say much beyond what Lord Cowley had reported. He is quite sure that the Emperor is as staunch as ever to the Alliance, and that he believes all his own personal interests as well as those of France are bound up with England. He said, too, that the Empress was not the least taken in by the flatteries of Russia, which she estimates at their _juste valeur_.

M. de Persigny seems to have performed an act of painful duty and rather of true devotion, by giving the Empress some advice about her own conduct and the fate she was preparing for herself if she was not more properly mindful of her position and the obligations it entails.

Lord Clarendon has seldom heard anything more eloquent or more touching than the language of M. de Persigny in describing what he said to the Empress, who appears to have taken it in the best part, and to have begun acting upon the advice the next day. M. de Persigny has no doubt that Count Walewski will soon be removed from his present office, and will be _promoted to St. Petersburg_, but Lord Clarendon will wait to believe this until it is a _fait accompli_, as it is more likely than not that when M. de Persigny is no longer on the spot to urge the Emperor, Count Walewski will resume his influence.

Count Walewski's despatch made a very unfavourable impression upon the Cabinet, who were of opinion that upon such an invitation and such slender a.s.surances respecting the course that Sardinia might take, we ought not to give up our solid and often repeated objections to rea.s.sembling the Congress--at all events it was considered that we ought to have a positive answer from Turin before we gave a final answer....

[Pageheading: SIR ALEXANDER c.o.c.kBURN]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

PICCADILLY, _13th November 1856_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that Sir Alexander c.o.c.kburn[56] accepts the office of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, but expresses a strong wish not altogether to be shut out from Parliamentary functions. His health, which has frequently interfered with his attendance in the House of Commons, makes him feel uncertain as to the future, and he is not desirous of being immediately placed in the House of Lords, but he would be glad to be allowed to look forward to such a favour from your Majesty at some future time if he should find his health stand sufficiently good to give him a fair prospect of being useful in the House of Lords. He says that with the Baronetcy of an uncle he will succeed to an estate of 5,000 a year, independent of what he has realised by his own professional exertions; and that consequently there would be a provision for a Peerage. Viscount Palmerston begs to submit for your Majesty's gracious approval that such a prospect might be held out to Sir Alexander c.o.c.kburn. The Chancellor and Lord Lansdowne and Lord Granville concur with Viscount Palmerston in thinking that much public advantage would arise from the presence of both Sir Alexander c.o.c.kburn, and of the Master of the Rolls,[57] in the House of Lords, and there are numerous precedents for the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and for the Master of the Rolls being Peers of Parliament.[58] Their judicial duties would no doubt prevent them from sitting in the morning on appeal cases, but their presence in the evening in debates in which the opinions and learning of men holding high positions in the legal profession would be required, could not fail to be of great public advantage. Of course any expectation to be held out to Sir Alexander c.o.c.kburn would for the present be a confidential and private communication to himself....

[Footnote 56: Sir Alexander c.o.c.kburn's parliamentary success dated from his speech in the Don Pacifico debate; see _ante_, vol. ii., p. 252, note 23. He was made Solicitor-General shortly after, and then Attorney-General, being reappointed to the latter office in the end of 1852. He had defended both McNaghten and Pate for attacks on the Queen's person. The uncle whom he soon afterwards succeeded as baronet was now Dean of York.]

[Footnote 57: Sir John Romilly, created a peer in 1866.]

[Footnote 58: _E.g._, Lord Eldon in the former office; Lord Langdale in the latter.]

[Pageheading: PRINCE CHARLES OF LEININGEN]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _21st November 1856_.

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--On Vicky's sixteenth birthday I cannot write on black-edged paper, it looks too gloomy, and I begin by wis.h.i.+ng you joy on this day, with the sincere hope that it will also _dans l'avenir_ prove to you one of satisfaction and happiness. I must now turn to your kind and affectionate letter of the 19th. I was sure that your warm heart would feel deeply the loss we have sustained.[59] You must, however, remember that you were ever a most affectionate sister, and that Charles was fully aware and most grateful for these your kind and sisterly sentiments. The real blow was last year; if that could have been mitigated, life might have been preserved under tolerable circ.u.mstances. As things, however, proceeded, if the present attack could have been warded off, Charles's existence would have been one of the most awful suffering, particularly for one whose mental disposition was quick and lively. Your sentiments on this occasion do you honour; it is by feelings like those you express that evidently _der Anknupfungs.p.u.n.kt_ with a future life must be looked for, and that alone with such sentiments we can show ourselves fit for such an existence.

For your precious health we must now claim that you will not permit your imagination to dwell too much on the very melancholy picture of the last moments of one whom you loved, however natural it may be, and however difficult it is to dismiss such ideas.

Feo feels all this in a most beautiful and truly pious way. It is strange that November should be so full of sad anniversaries. I can well understand what Vicky must have suffered, as it could not be expected that Fritz Wilhelm could quite understand her grief....

Now I must leave you, remaining ever, my beloved Victoria, your truly devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

My best love to Albert.

[Footnote 59: The Queen's half-brother, Prince Charles of Leiningen, had died on the 13th.]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _24th November 1856_.

The Queen approves the recommendation of Mr Bickersteth[60] for the vacant Bishopric of Ripon, but she cannot disguise from herself that however excellent a man Mr Bickersteth may be, his appointment will be looked upon as a strong party one, as he is one of the leaders of the Low Church Party; but perhaps Lord Palmerston may be able in the case of possible future appointments to remove any impression of the Church patronage running unduly towards party extremes.

[Footnote 60: Mr Bickersteth (a nephew of Lord Langdale, a former Master of the Rolls) was then Rector of St Giles'. Lord Palmerston had written that he thought him well qualified for a diocese "full of manufacturers, clothier-workmen, Methodists, and Dissenters."]

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN'S GRIEF]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _26th November 1856_.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I was again prevented from writing to you yesterday as I intended, by mult.i.tudinous letters, etc. I therefore come only to-day with my warmest thanks for your most kind, feeling, and sympathising letter of the 23rd, which I _felt deeply_.

Poor dear Charles, I loved him _tenderly_ and _dearly_, and feel every day _more_ how impossible it is that the great blank caused by his loss should _ever_ be filled up, and how _impossible it is to realise_ the dreadful thought that I shall never see his dear, dear face again in this world! All the accounts of his peaceful death, of his fine and touching funeral, seem to me to be the descriptions of _another person's_ death and burial--not poor dear Charles's.

Don't fear for my health, it is particularly good--and _grief_ never seems to affect it; little worries and annoyances fret and irritate me, but _not great_ or sad events. And I _derive_ benefit and _relief_ both in my body and soul in _dwelling_ on the sad object which is _the_ one which fills my heart! The having to think and talk of other and indifferent things (I mean _not_ business so much) is very trying to my nerves, and does me harm.

Vicky is well again, and the young couple seem really very fond of each other. We have from living [together] for twelve days--as we did entirely alone with him and Vicky in our own apartments--got to know him much more intimately, and to be much more _a notre aise_ with him than we could be in the London season, and he is now quite _l'enfant de la maison!_ He is excellent and very sensible. I hope that you may be equally pleased and satisfied with _your_ future son-in-law.

I must now conclude in great haste; excellent Stockmar is particularly well and brisk. Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _8th December 1856_.

Lord Palmerston's explanation of Lord Panmure's object in proposing the appointment of a Director-General of Education of the Army in the Civil Department of its Government has but confirmed the Queen's apprehensions as to the effect of that step, if sanctioned. The Queen has for some time been expecting the proposal of a well-digested and considered plan for the education of the officers of the Army, and knows that the Duke of Cambridge has had such a one elaborated.

Surely, in the absence of any fixed and approved system of education, it would be most imprudent to establish an Office for the discharge of certain important functions which are not yet defined. The Queen must therefore ask that the system of education to be in future adopted should first be submitted to her, and afterwards only the plan for the machinery which is to carry this out, the fitness of which can only be properly judged of with reference to the object in view.