The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837 to 1843)

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[Footnote 13: Mr Gladstone had been member for Newark since
1832.]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_2nd May 1840._

Mr Cowper has just come in and tells me that they have determined to
begin the disturbance to-night at the Opera, at the very commencement
of the performance.[14] This may be awkward, as your Majesty will
arrive in the middle of the tumult. It is the intention not to permit
the opera to proceed until Laporte gives way.

Lord Melbourne is afraid that if the row has already begun, your
Majesty's presence will not put an end to it; and it might be as
well not to go until your Majesty hears that it is over and that the
performance is proceeding quietly. Some one might be sent to attend
and send word.

[Footnote 14: A _fracas_ took place at the Opera on 29th
April. The Manager, Laporte, not having engaged Tamburini
to sing, the audience made a hostile demonstration at the
conclusion of the performance of _I Puritani_. An explanation
made by Laporte only made matters worse, and eventually the
Tamburinists took possession of the stage.]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_6th May 1840._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has just
received this from Lord John Russell--a most shocking event,[15] which
your Majesty has probably by this time heard of. The persons who did
it came for the purpose of robbing the house; they entered by the back
of the house and went out at the front door.[16] The servants in the
house, only a man and a maid, never heard anything, and the maid, when
she came down to her master's door in the morning, found the horrid
deed perpetrated....

[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 circumstances 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 L600 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 pass 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 assure 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 pronounced 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 pronounced 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 Duchess 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 wishing
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 assassin,[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 assure,
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 Constitution Hill. The Queen, who was
untouched either shot, immediately drove to the Duchess of
Kent's house to announce her safety. On his trial, Oxford was
found to be insane.]

_The King of the French to Queen Victoria._

_11 Juin 1840._

MADAME MA S[OE]UR,--C'est avec une profonde indignation que je viens
d'apprendre l'horrible attentat qui a menace les precieux jours de
votre Majeste. Je rends grace du fond de mon c[oe]ur a la Divine
Providence qui les a miraculeusement conserves, et qui semble n'avoir
permis qu'ils fussent exposes a un si grand danger, que pour faire
briller aux yeux de tous, votre courage, votre sang-froid, et toutes
les qualites qui vous distinguent.

J'ose esperer que votre Majeste me permettra de recourir a son
entremise pour offrir a S.A.R. le Prince Albert, l'expression de tous
les sentiments dont je suis penetre, et qu'elle voudra bien recevoir
l'assurance de tous ceux que je lui porte, ainsi que celle de ma haute
estime, de mon inalterable attachement et de mon inviolable amitie. Je
suis, Madame ma S[oe]ur, de votre Majeste, le bon Frere,

LOUIS PHILIPPE R.

[Pageheading: A PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_11th June 1840._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and returns
your Majesty many, many thanks for your letter. Lord Melbourne was
indeed most anxious to learn that your Majesty was well this morning.
It was indeed a most awful and providential escape. It is impossible
not to shudder at the thought of it.

Lord Melbourne thinks that it will be necessary to have an examination
of this man before such of your Majesty's confidential servants as are
of the Privy Council;[25] it should take place this morning.

Addresses will be moved in both Houses immediately upon their meeting.

[Footnote 25: _I.e._, the Cabinet.]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _13th June 1840._

MY DEAREST AND MOST BELOVED VICTORIA,--I cannot find words _strong
enough_ to express to you my horror at what happened on the 10th, and
my happiness and delight to see your escape from a danger which was
really very great. In your good little heart I hope that it made you
feel grateful to God for a protection which was very signal. It does
good and is a consolation to think that matters are not _quite_ left
to take care of _themselves_, but that an all-powerful Hand guides
them.

Louise I told the affair mildly, as it might have made too great an
impression on her otherwise. She always feels so much for you and
loves you so much, that she was rejoiced beyond measure that you
escaped so well and took the thing with so much _courage_. That you
have shown _great fortitude_ is not to be doubted, and will make a
very great and good impression. I see that the general feeling is
excellent, but what a melancholy thing to see a young man, without
provocation, capable of such a diabolical act! That attempts of that
sort took place against George III., and even George IV., one can
comprehend; but you have not only been extremely liberal, but in no
instance have you hitherto come into contact with any popular feeling
or prejudice; besides, one should think that your being a lady would
alone prevent such unmanly conduct. It shows what an effect bad
example and the bad press have. I am sure that this act is _une
singerie_ of what passes in France, that it is a fancy of some of
those societies _de Mort aux Rois et Souverains_, without knowing
wherefore, merely as a sort of fashion....

[Pageheading: EGYPT AND THE POWERS]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

ST CLOUD, _26th July 1840._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--Your dear letter of the 19th greatly delighted
me....

Let me now add a few words on politics. The _secret_ way in which the
arrangement about the arbitration of the Turco-Egyptian affairs has
been signed, the keeping out of France in an affair so _near_ it
and touching its interests in various ways, has had here a very
_disastrous_ effect.[26] I cannot disguise from you that the
consequences may be very serious, and the more so as the Thiers
Ministry is supported by the movement party, and as _reckless of
consequences_ as your own Minister for Foreign Affairs, even much more
so, as Thiers himself would not be sorry to see everything existing
upset. He is strongly impregnated with all the notions of fame and
glory which belonged to part of the Republican and the Imperial times;
he would not even be much alarmed at the idea of a Convention ruling
again France, as he thinks that _he_ would be the _man to rule_ the
Assembly, and has told me last year that he thinks it for France
perhaps the _most powerful_ form of Government.[27]

The mode in this affair ought to have been, as soon as the Four Powers
had agreed on a proposition, to communicate it officially to France,
to join it. France had but two ways, either to join or to refuse
its adhesion. If it had chosen the last, it would have been a free
decision on her part, and a secession which had nothing offensive in
the eyes of the nation.

But there is a material difference between leaving a company from
motives of one's own, or being _kicked out_ of it. I must beg you to
speak seriously to Lord Melbourne, who is the head of your Government,
on these important affairs; they may upset everything in Europe if the
mistake is not corrected and moderated.

I shall write again to you next Friday from hence, and on Saturday,
1st August, we set off. Ever, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

[Footnote 26: On the 15th of July a convention was signed in
London by representatives of England, Russia, Austria, and
Prussia, offering an ultimatum to the Viceroy of Egypt. The
exclusion of France was hotly resented in Paris. Guizot,
then Ambassador in London, had been kept in ignorance of the
project, but the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, denied
that there had been any discourtesy intended, or want of
consideration shown.]

[Footnote 27: Louis Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877), who through
the Press had contributed to the downfall of the Bourbons, had
held various Cabinet offices under Louis Philippe, and, from
March to October 1840, was for the second time Premier.]

[Pageheading: PRINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_7th August 1840._ (10 P.M.)

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. The House of
Lords lasted until eight, and Lord Melbourne might by an exertion have
got to the Palace to dinner, but as he had the Speech, by no means an
easy one, to prepare for the consideration of the Cabinet to-morrow,
he thought it better to take this evening for that purpose, and he
hopes therefore that your Majesty will excuse his not coming, which is
to him a great sacrifice to have made.

Your Majesty will have probably seen by this time the report from
your Majesty's Consul at Boulogne of the mad attempt of Louis
Bonaparte.[28] It is rather unfortunate that it should have taken
place at this moment, as the violent and excited temper of the French
nation will certainly lead them to attribute it to England. It will
also be highly embarrassing to the King of the French to have in
his possession a member of the family of Bonaparte and so many
Bonapartists who have certainly deserved death but whom it may not be
prudent or politic to execute.

[Footnote 28: The Prince, afterwards the Emperor Napoleon
III., descended on Boulogne with fifty-three persons, and
a tame eagle which had been intended, with stage effect, to
alight on the Colonne de Napoleon. He was captured, tried
for high treason, and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. He
effected his escape, which was undoubtedly connived at by the
authorities, in 1846.]

[Pageheading: THE CONVENTION OF 1828]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

WIESBADEN, _22nd September 1840._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--I was most happy in receiving this morning per
messenger your dear little letter of the 15th, though it is grown a
little elderly. The life one leads here is not favourable to writing,
which, besides, is prohibited, and easily gives me palpitation enough
to sing "_di tanti palpiti!_" I get up at half after six and begin to
drink this hot water; what with drinking and walking one comes to ten
o'clock or half after ten for breakfast. Then I read papers and such
like things. At one o'clock I have been generally bored with some
visit or other till two o'clock. I try to finish some writing, and
then I walk and ride out till dinner-time, generally at seven. In the
evening I have written sometimes, but it certainly does one harm. You
see that there remains but little time for writing.

I am most happy to find that you are well; the papers, which don't
know what to invent to lower the Funds, said that you had been unwell
on the 10th, which, God be praised! is not at all true.

I pity poor Princess Augusta[29] from all my heart. I am sure that if
she had in proper time taken care of herself she might have lived to
a great age. I have not time to-day to write at any length on the
politics of the day, but I am _far from thinking_ that the French
_acted wisely_ in the Oriental affair. I must say that I think
the King _meant well_, but I should not have _abstained_ from the
Conference as he did, though, in France, interference with Mehemet Ali
was certainly not popular. In England much of the _fond_ is logical,
but the form towards France was, and is still, harsh and insulting. I
don't think France, which these ten years behaved well, and the poor
King, who was nearly murdered I don't remember how often, deserved
to be treated so unkindly, and all that seemingly to please the great
Autocrat. We must not forget what were the fruits of the _first_
Convention of July 1828--I think the 16th or 26th of that month; I
ought to remember it, as I took its name in vain often enough in the
Greek affair.

This first Convention brought about the battle of Navarino and the
second campaign of the Russians, which ended with, in fact, the demise
of the poor old Porte, the _Treaty of Adrianople_.[30] Your Majesty
was then afflicted with the age of ten, in itself a good age, and may
not remember much about it except that in 1829 the affair about my
going to Greece began, and that your affectionate heart took some
interest in that. Lord Melbourne, however, you _must encourage to
speak about this matter_. Canning's intention was this: he said we
must remain with Russia, and by this means _prevent_ mischief. The
Duke of Wellington, who came to me shooting at Claremont in 1828,
really did cry, though he is not of a crying disposition, and said
"_by this Convention the Russians will have the power of doing all
they never would have dared to do single-handed_, and shielded by
this infernal Convention, it will not be in our power _to stop them_."
Russia is again in this very snug and comfortable position, that
_the special protection of the Porte_ is confided to its tender
mercies--_la chevre gardant le chou_, the wolf the sheep, as I suppose
I must not compare the Turcs to lambs. The Power which ruined the
Ottoman Empire, which since a hundred and forty years nearly _pared_
it all round nearly in every direction, is to be the protector and
guardian of that same empire; and we are told that it is the most
scandalous calumny to suspect the Russians to have any other than the
most humane and disinterested views! "_ainsi soit-il_," as the French
say at the end of their sermons. This part of the Convention of the
15th of July 1840 strikes impartial people as strange, the more so
as nothing lowers the Porte so much in the eyes of the few patriotic
Turks who remain than the protection of the arch-enemy of the concern,
Russia. I beg you to read this part of my letter to my good and dear
friend, Lord Melbourne, to whom I beg to be kindly remembered.

[Footnote 29: Princess Augusta, second daughter of George III.
_See_ p. 230. (Ch. IX, 26th September 1840)]