The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 54

[Footnote 15: The murder of Lord William Russell by his valet, Courvoisier, in Norfolk Street, Park Lane.]

[Footnote 16: This was the original theory.]

[Pageheading: MURDER OF LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_6th May 1840._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Since he wrote to your Majesty, he has seen Mr Fox Maule,[17] who had been at the house in Norfolk Street. He says that it is a most mysterious affair. Lord William Russell was found in his bed, quite dead, cold and stiff, showing that the act had been perpetrated some time. The bed was of course deluged with blood, but there were no marks of blood in any other part of the room; so that he had been killed in his bed and by one blow, upon the throat, which had nearly divided his head from his body. The back door of the house was broken open, but there were no traces of persons having approached the door from without.

His writing-desk was also broken open and the money taken out, but otherwise little or nothing had been taken away. The police upon duty in the streets had neither heard nor seen anything during the night.

In these circ.u.mstances strong suspicion lights upon the persons in the house, two maids and a man, the latter a foreigner[18] and who had only been with Lord William about five weeks. These persons are now separately confined, and the Commissioners of Police are actively employed in enquiring into the affair. An inquest will of course be held upon the body without delay.

Lord Melbourne has just received your Majesty's letter, and will immediately convey to Lord John your Majesty's kind expressions of sympathy.

[Footnote 17: Under-Secretary for Home Affairs; afterwards, as Lord Panmure, Secretary for War.]

[Footnote 18: Courvoisier.]

[Pageheading: MRS NORTON]

[Pageheading: PRINCESS CHARLOTTE]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _22nd May 1840._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--I received yesterday a most kind and dear letter from your august hands. Charles,[19] who wanted to cross yesterday, will have had very bad weather. He _is_ prepared not to make too long a stay in England. He dined here on the 19th. Louise was prepared to come to dinner, but was not quite equal to it; she therefore came after it. He came also to see me on the 20th, before his departure for Ostende. It is very gracious of you to have given him subsidies, but in fact poor Feo stands more in need of it. She really is too poor; when one thinks that they have but 600 a year, and that large castles, etc., are to be kept up with it, one cannot conceive how they manage it. It was a very generous feeling which prompted you to see Mrs Norton, and I have been too much her friend to find fault with it.

True it is that Norton was freely accepted by her, but she was very poor, and could therefore hardly venture to refuse him. Many people will flirt with a clever, handsome, but poor girl, though not marry her--besides, the idea of having old Shery[20] for a grandfather had nothing very captivating. A very unpleasant husband Norton certainly was, and one who had little tact. I can well believe that she was much frightened, having so many eyes on her, some of which, perhaps, not with the most amiable expression.

I was delighted to learn that you meant to visit poor Claremont, and to pa.s.s there part of your precious birthday. Claremont is the place where in younger days you were least plagued, and generally I saw you there in good spirits. You will also _nolens volens_ be compelled to think of me, and maybe of poor Charlotte.

This gives me an opening for saying a few words on this subject. I found several times that some people had given you the impression that poor Charlotte had been hasty and violent even to imperiousness and _rudeness_. I can you a.s.sure that it was _not so_; she was quick, and even violent, but I never have seen anybody so open to conviction, and so fair and candid when wrong. The proverb says, and not without some truth, that ladies come always back to the first words, to avoid any symptom of having been convinced. Generous minds, however, do not do this; they fight courageously their battles, but when they clearly see that they are wrong, and that the reasons and arguments submitted to them are _true_, they frankly admit the truth. Charlotte had eminently this disposition; besides, she was so anxious to please me, that often she would say: "Let it be as it may; provided you wish it, I will do it." I always answered: "I never want anything for myself; when I press something on you, it is from a conviction that it is for your interest and for your good." I know that you have been told that she ordered everything in the house and liked to show that she was the mistress. It was not so. On the contrary, her pride was to make me appear to my best advantage, and even to display respect and obedience, when I least wanted it from her. She would almost exaggerate the feeling, to show very clearly that she considered me as her lord and master.

And on the day of the marriage, as most people suspected her of a very different disposition, everybody was struck with the manner in which she p.r.o.nounced the promise of obedience. I must say that I was much more the master of the house than is generally the case in private life. Besides, there was something generous and royal in her mind which alone would have prevented her doing anything vulgar or ill-bred. What rendered her sometimes a little violent was a slight disposition to jealousy. Poor Lady Maryborough,[21] at all times some twelve or fifteen years older than myself, but whom I had much known in 1814, was once much the cause of a fit of that description. I told her it was quite childish, but she said, "it is not, because she is a very coquettish, dissipated woman." The most difficult task I had was to change her manners; she had something brusque and too rash in her movements, which made the Regent quite unhappy, and which sometimes was occasioned by a struggle between shyness and the necessity of exerting herself. I had--I may say so without seeming to boast--the manners of the best society of Europe, having early moved in it, and been rather what is called in French _de la fleur des pois_. A good judge I therefore was, but Charlotte found it rather hard to be so scrutinised, and grumbled occasionally how I could so often find fault with her.

Nothing perhaps speaks such volumes as the _positive fact_ of her manners getting _quite changed_ within a year's time, and that to the openly p.r.o.nounced satisfaction of the very fastidious and not over-partial Regent. To explain how it came that manners were a little odd in England, it is necessary to remember that England had been for more than ten years completely cut off from the rest of the world....

We have bitter cold weather which has given colds to both the children. Uncle Ferdinand [22] is now only arriving _si dice_ on Sunday next. He has been robbed of 15,000 francs in his own room _au Palais-Royal_, which is very unpleasant for all parties.

My letter is so long that I must haste to conclude it, remaining ever, my beloved Victoria, your devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

My love to Alberto.

[Footnote 19: Prince Charles of Leiningen.]

[Footnote 20: The three sisters, Mrs Norton, Lady Dufferin, and Lady Seymour (afterwards d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset), the latter of whom was "Queen of Beauty" at the Eglinton Tournament, were grand-daughters of R. B. Sheridan. Lord Melbourne was much in Mrs Norton's company, and Norton, for whom the Premier had found a legal appointment, sued him in the Court of Common Pleas for _crim. con._; the jury found for the defendant.]

[Footnote 21: Lord Maryborough (1763-1845) was William Wellesley Pole, brother of the Marquess Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington. He married Katherine Elizabeth Forbes, grand-daughter of the third Earl of Granard.]

[Footnote 22: Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, King Leopold's brother.]

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN AND THE PRINCE]

_Memorandum by Mr Anson._

_Minutes of Conversations with Lord Melbourne and Baron Stockmar._

_28th May 1840._

_Lord Melbourne._--"I have spoken to the Queen, who says the Prince complains of a want of confidence on trivial matters, and on all matters connected with the politics of this country. She said it proceeded entirely from indolence; she knew it was wrong, but when she was with the Prince she preferred talking upon other subjects. I told Her Majesty that she should try and alter this, and that there was no objection to her conversing with the Prince upon any subject she pleased. My impression is that the chief obstacle in Her Majesty's mind is the fear of difference of opinion, and she thinks that domestic harmony is more likely to follow from avoiding subjects likely to create difference. My own experience leads me to think that subjects between man and wife, even where difference is sure to ensue, are much better discussed than avoided, for the latter course is sure to beget distrust. I do not think that the Baroness[23] is the cause of this want of openness, though her name to me is never mentioned by the Queen."

_Baron Stockmar._--"I wish to have a talk with you. The Prince leans more on you than any one else, and gives you his entire confidence; you are honest, moral, and religious, and will not belie that trust.

The Queen has not started upon a right principle. She should by degrees impart everything to him, but there is danger in his wis.h.i.+ng it all at once. A case may be laid before him; he may give some crude and unformed opinion; the opinion may be taken and the result disastrous, and a forcible argument is thus raised against advice being asked for the future.

"The Queen is influenced more than she is aware of by the Baroness. In consequence of that influence, she is not so ingenuous as she was two years ago. I do not think that the withholding of her confidence does proceed wholly from indolence, though it may partly arise, as the Prince suggests, from the entire confidence which she reposes in her present Ministers, making her inattentive to the plans and measures proposed, and thinking it unnecessary entirely to comprehend them; she is of necessity unable to impart their views and projects to him who ought to be her friend and counsellor."

[Footnote 23: Baroness Lehzen.]

[Pageheading: OXFORD'S ATTEMPT]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

CARLTON TERRACE, _10th June 1840._

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and though your Majesty must be overwhelmed with congratulations at your Majesty's escape from the aim of the a.s.sa.s.sin,[24] yet Viscount Palmerston trusts that he may be allowed to express the horror with which he heard of the diabolical attempt, and the deep thankfulness which he feels at your Majesty's providential preservation.

Viscount Palmerston humbly trusts that the failure of this atrocious attempt may be considered as an indication that your Majesty is reserved for a long and prosperous reign, and is destined to a.s.sure, for many years to come, the welfare and happiness of this nation.

[Footnote 24: Edward Oxford, a pot-boy, aged eighteen, fired twice at the Queen on Const.i.tution Hill. The Queen, who was untouched either shot, immediately drove to the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent's house to announce her safety. On his trial, Oxford was found to be insane.]