The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 71

As to the right of the Crown to declare war and make peace, it requires not a word of remark; yet Lord Stanley agrees to Mr Gladstone's proposal to make over this prerogative with regard to Indian questions to Parliament under the auspices of the Queen's Government; she is thus placed in a position of less authority than the President of the American Republic.[41]

When a Bill has been introduced into Parliament, after having received the Sovereign's approval, she has the right to expect that her Ministers will not subsequently introduce important alterations without previously obtaining her sanction. In the first of the two instances referred to by the Queen, Lord Stanley introduced the alteration himself; in the second he agreed to it even without asking for a moment's delay; and the Opposition party, which attempted to guard the Queen's prerogative, was overborne by the Government Leader of the House.

The Queen must remind Lord Derby that it is to him as the head of the Government that she looks for the protection of those prerogatives which form an integral part of the Const.i.tution.

[Footnote 41: An important amendment made at the instance of Mr Gladstone provided that, except for repelling actual invasion or upon urgent necessity, the Queen's Indian forces should not be employed in operations outside India, without Parliamentary sanction.]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _16th July 1858_.

MY TRULY BELOVED VICTORIA,--Nothing can be _kinder_ or more _affectionate_ than your dear letter of the 13th, and it would have done _your warm heart_ good to have _seen how much I have been delighted and moved by it_. I can only say that I love you both more tenderly than I could love my own children. When your plans will be nearer maturity, you will have the great kindness to let me know what will be your Royal pleasure, to enable me _de m'y conformer bien exactement_.

The feeling which occasions some grumbling at the Cherbourg visit[42]

is in fact a good feeling, but it is not over-wise. Two things are to be done--(1) To make every reasonable exertion to remain on personal good terms with the Emperor--which can be done. One party in England says it is with the French nation that you are to be on loving terms; this _cannot_ be, as the French dislike the English as a nation, though they may be kind to you also personally. (2) The next is, instead of a good deal of unnecessary abuse, to have the Navy so organised that it can and must be superior to the French. All beyond these two points is sheer nonsense.

After talking of Chambord,[43] to my utter horror he is here, and asked yesterday to see me to-day. It is not fair to do so, as the legitimists affect to this hour to consider [us] here as rebels.

I could not refuse to see him, as, though distantly, still he is a relation; but I mean to do as they did in Holland, to receive him, but to limit to his visit and my visit our whole intercourse. If he should speak to me of going to England, I certainly mean to tell him _que je considerais une visite comme tout a fait intempestive_.... Your devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

[Footnote 42: On the 4th of August, the Queen and Prince, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, visited the Emperor and Empress at Cherbourg.]

[Footnote 43: See _ante_, 16th January, 1854, and note 5.]

[Pageheading: BRITISH COLUMBIA]

_Queen Victoria to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton._

OSBORNE, _24th July 1858_.

The Queen has received Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's letter.[44] If the name of New Caledonia is objected to as being already borne by another colony or island claimed by the French, it may be better to give the new colony west of the Rocky Mountains another name. New Hanover, New Cornwall, and New Georgia appear from the maps to be the names of sub-divisions of that country, but do not appear on all maps. The only name which is given to the whole territory in every map the Queen has consulted is "Columbia," but as there exists also a Columbia in South America, and the citizens of the United States call their country also Columbia, at least in poetry, "British Columbia" might be, in the Queen's opinion, the best name.

[Footnote 44: Stating that objections were being made in France to the name of New Caledonia being given to the proposed colony between the Pacific and the Rocky Mountains.]

[Pageheading: ARMY COMMISSIONS]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

OSBORNE, _29th July 1858_.

The Queen has been placed in a most unpleasant dilemma by the last vote in the House of Commons;[45] she feels all the force of Lord Derby's objections to risking another defeat on the same question and converting the struggle into one against the Royal Prerogative; yet, on the other hand, she can hardly sit still, and from mere want of courage become a party to the most serious inroad which has yet been made upon it. It is the introduction of the principle into our legislation that the Sovereign is no longer the source of all appointments under the Crown, but that these appointments are the property of individuals under a Parliamentary t.i.tle, which the Queen feels bound to resist. Lord John Russell's Motion and Sir James Graham's speech only went to the Civil appointments; but after their Motion had been carried on a division, Lord Stanley gave way to Sir De Lacy Evans also with regard to a _portion of the Army!_ If this principle is recognised and sanctioned by the entire legislature, its future extension can no longer be resisted on const.i.tutional grounds, and Lord John in fact reminded Lord Stanley that the latter had stated that he only refrained from making the application general from thinking it _premature_, himself being of opinion that it ought to be carried further, and yet its extension to the Army reduces the Sovereign to a mere signing machine, as, to carry the case to its extreme consequence, _Law_ would _compel_ her to sign the Commission for the officers, and they might have the right to sue at law for the recovery of their property vested in them by Act of Parliament (viz., their Commissions) if the Crown doubted for any reason the fitness of an appointment!! Have these consequences been considered and brought distinctly before Parliament? It strikes the Queen that all the Commons want is a Parliamentary security against the abolition of the Compet.i.tive System of Examinations by the Executive. Can this not be obtained by means less subversive of the whole character of our Const.i.tution? The Queen cannot believe that Lord Derby could not find means to come to some agreement with the Opposition, and she trusts he will leave nothing undone to effect this.

[Footnote 45: The Lords Amendments on the subject of compet.i.tive examination were rejected by a majority of thirteen in the Commons, and, in the circ.u.mstances, Lord Derby had advised abiding by the decision and not risking another defeat.]

[Pageheading: NAVAL ESTIMATES]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

OSBORNE, _2nd August 1858_.

The Queen feels it her duty to address a few lines to Lord Derby on the subject of the reports made to Sir John Pakington on the subject of the French Naval preparations, to which she has already verbally adverted when she saw Lord Derby last. These reports reveal a state of things of the greatest moment to this country. It will be the first time in her history that she will find herself in an absolute minority of s.h.i.+ps on the sea! and this inferiority will be much greater in reality than even apparent, as our fleet will have to defend possessions and commerce all over the world, and has even in Europe a strategical line to hold extending from Malta to Heligoland, whilst France keeps her fleet together and occupies the centre of that line in Europe.

The Queen thinks it irreconcilable with the duty which the Government owes to the country to be aware of this state of things without straining every nerve to remedy it. With regard to men in whom we are also totally deficient in case of an emergency, a Commission of Enquiry is sitting to devise a remedy; but with regard to our s.h.i.+ps and dockyards we require action, and immediate action. The plan proposed by the Surveyor of the Navy appears to the Queen excessively moderate and judicious, and she trusts that the Cabinet will not hesitate to empower its execution, bearing in mind that 200,000 spent now will probably do more work during the six or nine months for working before us, than 2,000,000 would if voted in next year's estimate, letting our arrears in the dockyards, already admitted to be very great, acc.u.mulate in the interval. Time is most precious under these circ.u.mstances!

It is true that this sum of money would be in excess of the estimates of last Session, but the Queen feels sure that on the faith of the reports made by the Admiralty, the Government would find no difficulty in convincing Parliament that they have been good stewards of the public money, in taking courageously the responsibility upon themselves to spend judiciously what is necessary, and that the country will be deeply grateful for the honesty with which they will have served her.

The Queen wishes Lord Derby to communicate this letter to the Cabinet.

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

BABELSBERG, _15th August 1858_.

The Queen has asked Lord Malmesbury to explain in detail to Lord Derby her objections to the draft of Proclamation for India. The Queen would be glad if Lord Derby would write it himself in his excellent language, bearing in mind that it is a female Sovereign who speaks to more than 100,000,000 of Eastern people on a.s.suming the direct Government over them after a b.l.o.o.d.y civil war, giving them pledges which her future reign is to redeem, and explaining the principles of her Government. Such a doc.u.ment should breathe feelings of generosity, benevolence, and religious feeling, pointing out the privileges which the Indians will receive in being placed on an equality with the subjects of the British Crown, and the prosperity following in the train of civilisation.[46]

[Footnote 46: The draft Proclamation was accordingly altered so as to be in strict harmony with the Queen's wishes. See _post_, 2nd December, 1858, and note 52.]

[Pageheading: PROCLAMATION FOR INDIA]

_Queen Victoria to Lord Stanley._

OSBORNE, _4th September 1858_.

The Queen sends to Lord Stanley a Memorandum embodying her wishes with respect to the transaction of business between herself and the new Secretary of State. He will find that she has omitted any reference to Military appointments, as Lord Stanley seemed anxious to defer a settlement on this point; she expects, however, that in all cases in which her pleasure was taken by the Commander-in-Chief, even during the administration of the East India Company and Board of Control, the same practice will be continued unaltered.

The Queen has received Lord Stanley's letter of yesterday. He has given her no answer with respect to Sir James Melvill.[47]