The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume Iii Part 80

DEAREST UNCLE,--Many thanks for you dear, kind letter of the 30th. G.o.d knows we _are_ in a sad mess. The rashness of the Austrians is indeed a _great_ misfortune, for it has placed them in the wrong. Still there is _one_ universal feeling of _anger_ at the conduct of France, and of _great suspicion_. The Treaty with Russia is _denied_, but I am perfectly certain that there _are engagements_....

Here the Elections are not as satisfactory as could be wished, but the Government still think they will have a clear gain of 25 to 30 seats, which will make a difference of 50 or 60 votes on a Division. It gives unfortunately no majority; still, it must be remembered that the Opposition are very much divided, and not at all a compact body, which the supporters of the Government are.[34]

Lord John has been holding moderate and prudent language on Foreign Affairs, whereas Lord Palmerston has made bad and mischievous speeches, but _not_ at all in accordance with the feelings of the country. The country wishes for strict neutrality, but strong defences, and we are making our Navy as strong as we can.

You ask me if Louis Oporto[35] is grown? He is, and his figure much improved. He is a good, kind, amiable boy whom one must like. He has sailed this morning with the Bridegroom, and on the 16th or 17th we may expect them back with the dear young Bride.

I venture to send you a letter I received some days ago from dear Vicky, and the religious tone of which I think will please you. May I beg you to return it me, as her letters are very valuable to me?...

We are well f.a.gged and worked and worried; we return to Town to-morrow afternoon.

With kindest love to your children, ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 34: After their defeat on the 1st of April on the proposed Reform Bill, the Ministry had dissolved Parliament, and had gained in the elections twenty-five seats--not enough to counterbalance the Palmerstonian triumph of 1857. If, therefore, the various sections of the Liberal Party could unite, the displacement of the Derby Government was inevitable. Such a combination was, in fact, arranged at a meeting at Willis's Rooms organised by Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Mr Bright and Mr Sidney Herbert.]

[Footnote 35: Brother and successor of King Pedro V. of Portugal, and father of King Carlos. The King had married in May 1858 the d.u.c.h.ess Stephanie (born 1837), daughter of Prince Antoine of Hohenzollern.]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _9th May 1859_.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I write to-day instead of to-morrow to profit by the return of your messenger. Many, many thanks for your dear letter of the 6th. What _are_ the Austrians about? They would _not_ wait when they ought to have done so, and _now_ that they should have long ago made a rush and an attack with their overwhelming force, they do _nothing!_ nothing since the 30th! leaving the French to become stronger and more _fit_ for the struggle every day!! It is indeed distracting, and most difficult to understand them or do anything for them. The Emperor leaves Paris for Genoa to-morrow. It is _not_ true that the Empress was so warlike; Lord Cowley says, on the contrary, she is very unhappy about it, and that the Emperor himself is low and altered. Old Vaillant goes with him as General-Major.... Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: POLICY OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON]

_The Earl of Malmesbury to Queen Victoria._

_15th May 1859._

The Earl of Malmesbury presents his humble duty to the Queen, and has the honour to inform your Majesty that Count de Persigny[36] called on him yesterday. He pa.s.sed an hour in attempting to prove what it seems he really believes himself--that the Emperor had no plan or even intention to make war in Italy; that His Imperial Majesty was drawn into it step by step by M. de Cavour, who finally menaced to publish his most confidential correspondence, etc.; that his army was totally unprepared, and is now in a very imperfect state, and that he himself was overcome with surprise and fear when he learnt in the middle of last month that the Austrians had 120,000 men on the Ticino.[37] The Emperor, however, now believes that he will easily gain a _couple_ of victories, and that when he has _rejete les Autrichiens dans leur taniere_ (by which he means their great fortresses), he will return to govern at Paris, and leave a Marshal to carry on the sieges and the war. M. de Persigny's letters of appointment are not yet signed, and must go to Italy to be so. He stated that a week ago he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs, and that Fould,[38] Walewski, and others were to be dismissed, but that two days before the Emperor's departure Madame Walewska[39] and the Empress had on their knees obtained a reprieve, and that M. de Persigny was ordered to come here _sans raisonner_...

[Footnote 36: Who had been re-appointed to London, where Marshal Pelissier, Duc de Malakhoff, had replaced him in 1858.

See _ante_, 23rd March, 1858. Both Malakhoff and Walewski were out of sympathy with the Emperor's present policy.]

[Footnote 37: Sir James Hudson, in a letter written at Turin on the 28th of February, and shown to Queen Victoria, described an interview with Cavour, who, in answer to the direct question, "Do you mean to attack Austria?" replied that the Italian question was becoming so complex that it was impossible to say what might happen. Sir J. Hudson added that he had learned confidentially that the understanding on the same subject between Cavour and the Emperor Napoleon was complete, and that it had been expressed thus: "Non seulement nous prendrons la premiere occasion de faire la guerre a l'Autriche, mais nous chercherons un pretexte."]

[Footnote 38: Achille Fould, a Jewish banker, was a colleague of Walewski, though not a loyal one, in the French Government.]

[Footnote 39: Madame Walewska was a Florentine by birth, descended on her mother's side from the princely family of Poniatowski.]

[Pageheader: ATt.i.tUDE OF RUSSIA]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Malmesbury._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _20th May 1859_.

The Queen was much surprised to receive the enclosed telegram. An alliance with Russia to _localise_ and _arrest_ the war by joint interference, which is here proposed to Russia, is a policy to which the Queen has not given her sanction, and which would require very mature deliberation before it could ever be entertained. The Queen is much afraid of these telegraphic short messages on principles of policy, and would beg Lord Malmesbury to be most cautious as they may lead us into difficulties without the possibility of previous consideration. How can we propose to join Russia, whom we know to be pledged to France? The Queen hopes Lord Malmesbury will stop the communication of this message, to Prince Gortschakoff.[40]

[Footnote 40: A telegram had been received from St Petersburg, saying that Prince Gortschakoff entirely coincided with Lord Malmesbury's views as to localising the war; and Lord Malmesbury had proposed to send a telegraphic reply containing the words: "We are anxious to unite with Russia, not only in localising the war, but in arresting it."]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

OSBORNE, _22nd May 1859_.

In answer to Lord Derby's letter of yesterday referring to the importance of concerting with Russia the best modes of preventing the extension of the war, the Queen wishes merely to observe: That Russia has acknowledged her desire to see the Austrians defeated, and her indifference to the maintenance of the Treaties of 1815; France wages war to drive the Austrians out of Italy, wresting from them the Italian provinces secured to them by those treaties; and that the Queen has declared from the Throne her adhesion to these treaties to which Parliament unanimously responded. France and Russia may therefore have an interest, and indeed _must_ have one, in not being disturbed in any way in the prosecution of their Italian scheme.

England can have no such interest. If France prove successful, the territorial arrangements of Europe, in which England has found safety, and which she helped to establish in order to obtain safety against France after a war of twenty years' duration, will be subverted, and she herself may some day (perhaps _soon_) have her own safety imperilled. The Saxon provinces of Prussia will be in much greater danger when France shall have destroyed Austria in Italy and ruined her at home, than while the latter remains a powerful member of the German Confederation. What the Queen is naturally anxious to guard against is our being drawn by degrees into playing the game of those who have produced the present disturbance, and whose ulterior views are very naturally and very wisely by them concealed from us. The Queen is glad to hear that the telegram in question was not sent, having been alarmed by its being marked as having been despatched "at noon" on the 20th. The Queen wishes Lord Derby to show this letter to Lord Malmesbury.

[Pageheader: ILLNESS OF d.u.c.h.eSS OF KENT]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

OSBORNE, _25th May 1859_.

DEAREST UNCLE,--Thousand thanks for your dear kind letter and good wishes for my old birthday, and for your other dear letter of the 21st. Albert, who writes to you, will tell you how dreadfully our _great, great_ happiness to have dearest Vicky, flouris.h.i.+ng and so well and gay with us, was on Monday and a good deal too yesterday, clouded over and spoilt by the _dreadful_ anxiety we were in about dearest Mamma. Thank G.o.d! to-day I feel another being--for we know she is "in a satisfactory state," and improving in every respect, but I am thoroughly shaken and upset by this _awful_ shock; for it came on _so suddenly_--that it came like a thunderbolt upon us, and I think I _never_ suffered as I did those four dreadful hours till we heard she was better! I hardly myself _knew how_ I loved her, or how _my whole_ existence seems bound up with her--till I saw looming in the distance the fearful possibility of _what_ I will _not_ mention. She was actually packing up to start for here! _How_ I missed her yesterday I cannot say, or how gloomy my poor birthday on first getting up appeared I _cannot_ say. However, that is pa.s.sed--and please G.o.d we shall see her, with care, restored to her usual health ere long. I trust, dearest Uncle, you are quite well now--and that affairs will not prevent you from coming to see us next month?

Dear Vicky is now a most dear, charming companion--and so _embellie!_

I must end, having so much to write. Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

I shall write again to-morrow or next day how dear Mamma is.

[Pageheader: THE QUEEN'S SPEECH]