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

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[Footnote 145: For some time after the accession of George
III., Bute, though neither in the Cabinet nor in Parliament,
was virtually Prime Minister, but he became Secretary of State
on 25th March 1761. George II. had disliked him, but he was
generally believed to have exercised an undue influence over
the consort of Prince Frederic of Wales, mother of George
III.]

_Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel._

_26th October 1841._

With respect to Serjeant Jackson, the Queen will not oppose his
appointment, in consequence of the high character Sir Robert Peel
gives him; but she cannot refrain from saying that she very much fears
that the favourable effect which has hitherto been produced by the
formation of so mild and conciliatory a Government in Ireland, may
be endangered by this appointment, which the Queen would sincerely
regret.

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _26th October 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and returns
your Majesty the letters of the King of the Belgians, with many
thanks. It certainly is a very unfortunate thing that the Queen
Christina was encouraged to fix her residence at Paris, and the
suspicion arising, therefore, cannot but be very injurious both to the
King of the French and to the French nation.

Lord Melbourne returns his warmest thanks for your Majesty's kind
expressions. He felt the greatest pleasure at seeing your Majesty
again and looking so well, and he hopes that his high spirits did
not betray him into talking too much or too heedlessly, which he is
conscious that they sometimes do.

The King Leopold, Lord Melbourne perceives, still hankers after
Greece; but Crowns will not bear to be chopped and changed about in
this manner. These new Kingdoms are not too firmly fixed as it is, and
it will not do to add to the uncertainty by alteration....

[Pageheading: DISPUTE WITH UNITED STATES]

_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _28th October 1841._

... Sir Robert Peel humbly assures your Majesty that he fully
participates in the surprise which your Majesty so naturally expresses
at the extraordinary intimation conveyed to Mr Fox[146] by the
President of the United States.[147]

Immediately after reading Mr Fox's despatch upon that subject, Sir
Robert Peel sought an interview with Lord Aberdeen. The measure
contemplated by the President is a perfectly novel one, a measure of a
hostile and unjustifiable character adopted with pacific intentions.

Sir Robert Peel does not comprehend the object of the President,
and giving him credit for the desire to prevent the interruption of
amicable relations with this country, Sir Robert Peel fears that
the forcible detention of the British Minister, after the demand of
passports, will produce a different impression on the public mind,
both here and in the United States, from that which the President must
(if he be sincere) have anticipated. It appears to Sir Robert Peel
that the object which the President professes to have in view would be
better answered by the immediate compliance with Mr Fox's demand for
passports, and the simultaneous despatch of a special mission to this
country conveying whatever explanations or offers of reparation the
President may have in contemplation.

Sir Robert Peel humbly assures your Majesty that he has advised
such measures of preparation to be taken in respect to the amount of
disposable naval force, and the position of it, as without bearing
the character of menace or causing needless disquietude and alarm, may
provide for an unfavourable issue of our present differences with the
United States.

Sir Robert Peel fears that when the President ventured to make to Mr
Fox the communication which he did make, he must have laboured under
apprehension that M'Leod might be executed in spite of the efforts of
the general Government of the United States to save his life.

[Footnote 146: British Minister at Washington.]

[Footnote 147: One Alexander M'Leod was tried at Utica on
the charge of being implicated in the destruction of the
_Caroline_ (an American vessel engaged in carrying arms to the
Canadian rebels), in 1837, and in the death of Mr Durfee, an
American. The vessel had been boarded by Canadian loyalists
when lying in American waters, set on fire and sent over
Niagara Falls, and in the affray Durfee was killed. M'Leod
was apprehended on American territory, and hence arose the
friction between the two countries. M'Leod was acquitted 12th
October 1841.]

[Pageheading: PORTUGAL]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _31st October 1841._

The Queen received yesterday evening Lord Aberdeen's letter with the
accompanying despatches and draft. She certainly _is_ surprised at the
strange and improper tone in which Lord Howard's[148] despatches are
written, and can only attribute them to an over-eager and, she fully
believes, mistaken feeling of the danger to which he believes the
throne of the Queen to be exposed.

The Queen has carefully perused Lord Aberdeen's draft, which she
highly approves, but wishes to suggest to Lord Aberdeen whether upon
further consideration it might not perhaps be as well to _soften_ the
words under which she has drawn a pencil line, as she fears they might
irritate Lord Howard very much.

The Queen is induced to copy the following sentences from a letter she
received from her cousin, the King of Portugal, a few days ago, and
which it may be satisfactory to Lord Aberdeen to see:--

"_Je dois encore vous dire que nous avons toutes les raisons de nous
louer de la maniere dont le Portugal est traite par votre Ministre des
Affaires Etrangeres, et nous ferons de notre cote notre possible pour
prouver notre bonne volonte."_

[Footnote 148: Lord Howard de Walden, Minister Plenipotentiary
at Lisbon.]

[Pageheading: SECRETARIES OF STATE]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _1st November 1841._

... Now for His Royal Highness's questions....

How the power of Prime Ministry grew up into its present form it is
difficult to trace precisely, as well as how it became attached, as
it were, to the office of First Commissioner of the Treasury. But
Lord Melbourne apprehends that Sir Robert Walpole was the first man
in whose person this union of powers was decidedly established, and
that its being so arose from the very great confidence which both
George I. and George II. reposed in him, and from the difficulty which
they had in transacting business, particularly George I., from their
imperfect knowledge of the language of the country.

With respect to the Secretary of State, Lord Melbourne is not prepared
from memory to state the dates at which the different arrangements of
that office have taken place. There was originally but one officer,
and at the present the three are but the heads of the different
departments of one office. The first division was into two, and they
were called the Secretary for the Northern and the Secretary for
the Southern department. They drew a line across the world, and each
transacted the business connected with the countries within his
own portion of the globe. Another division then took place, and the
Foreign affairs were confided to one Secretary of State, and the Home
and Colonial affairs to the other; but the present arrangement was
finally settled in the year 1793, when the junction was formed between
Mr Pitt on the one hand, and those friends of Mr Fox who left him
because they differed with him upon the French Revolution. The Home
affairs were placed in the hands of one Secretary of State, the
Foreign of another, and the Colonial and Military affairs of a third,
and this arrangement has continued ever since.[149] The persons then
appointed were the Duke of Portland,[150] Lord Grenville,[151] and Mr
Dundas,[152] Home, Foreign, and Colonial Secretaries.

Writing from recollection, it is very possible that Lord Melbourne may
be wrong in some of the dates which he has ventured to specify.[153]

[Footnote 149: A fourth Secretary of State was added at
the time of the Crimean War, so as to separate Colonial and
Military affairs, and a fifth after the Indian Mutiny to
supersede the President of the Board of Control. _See_ Lord
Melbourne's letter of 31st December 1837, _ante_, p. 100.
(Ch. VI, 'State Departments')]

[Footnote 150: Third Duke (1738-1809).]

[Footnote 151: William Wyndham, Lord Grenville (1759-1834).]

[Footnote 152: Henry Dundas (1742-1811), afterwards Lord
Melville.]

[Footnote 153: See _post_, pp. 358, 359.
(Ch. X, 'The English Constitution', et seq.)]

[Pageheading: THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _4th November 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has this
morning had the honour and pleasure of receiving your Majesty's letter
of yesterday....

Lord Melbourne sends a letter which he has received from his sister,
which may not be unentertaining. Lady Palmerston is struck, as
everybody is who goes to Ireland, with the candid warmth and vehement
demonstration of feeling. England always appears cold, heartless, and
sulky in comparison....

With respect to the questions put to me by your Majesty at the desire
of His Royal Highness, Lord Melbourne begs leave to assure your
Majesty that he will be at all times most ready and anxious to give
any information in his power upon points of this sort, which are very
curious, very important, very worthy to be enquired into, and
upon which accurate information is not easily to be found. All the
political part of the English Constitution is fully understood,
and distinctly stated in Blackstone and many other books, but the
Ministerial part, the work of conducting the executive government, has
rested so much on practice, on usage, on understanding, that there is
no publication to which reference can be made for the explanation
and description of it. It is to be sought in debates, in protests, in
letters, in memoirs, and wherever it can be picked up. It seems to
be stupid not to be able to say at once when two Secretaries of State
were established; but Lord Melbourne is not able. He apprehends that
there was but one until the end of Queen Anne's reign, and that two
were instituted by George I., probably because upon his frequent
journeys to Hanover he wanted the Secretary of State with him, and at
the same time it was necessary that there should be an officer of the
same authority left at home to transact the domestic affairs.

_Prime Minister_ is a term belonging to the last century. Lord
Melbourne doubts its being to be found in English Parliamentary
language previously. Sir Robert Walpole was always accused of having
introduced and arrogated to himself an office previously unknown to
the Law and Constitution, that of Prime or Sole Minister, and we learn
from Lady Charlotte Lindsay's[154] accounts of her father, that in his
own family Lord North would never suffer himself to be called _prime_
Minister, because it was an office unknown to the Constitution. This
was a notion derived from the combined Whig and Tory opposition to Sir
Robert Walpole, to which Lord North and his family had belonged.

Lord Melbourne is very sorry to hear that the Princess Royal continues
to suffer from some degree of indisposition. From what your Majesty
had said more than once before, Lord Melbourne had felt anxiety upon
this subject, and he saw the Baron yesterday, who conversed with him
much upon it, and informed him of what had taken place. Lord Melbourne
hopes that your Majesty will attribute it only to Lord Melbourne's
anxious desire for the security and increase of your Majesty's
happiness, if he ventures to say that the Baron appears to him to have
much reason in what he urges, and in the view which he takes. It is
absolutely required that confidence should be reposed in those who
are to have the management and bear the responsibility, and that they
should not be too much interrupted or interfered with.

[Footnote 154: Daughter of Lord North (afterwards Earl of
Guilford) and wife of Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. John Lindsay.
She lived till 1849--a link with the past.]

[Pageheading: SECRETARIES OF STATE]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _5th November 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Not feeling
satisfied of the correctness of the information which he had given to
your Majesty respecting the office of Secretary of State, he yesterday
evening requested Mr Allen[155] to look into the matter, and he has
just received from him the enclosed short memorandum, which he has the
honour of transmitting to your Majesty. This shows that Lord Melbourne
was quite wrong with respect to the period at which two Secretaries
of State were first employed, and that it was much earlier than he had
imagined.

The year 1782, when the third Secretary of State was abolished, was
the period of the adoption of the great measure of Economical Reform
which had been introduced by Mr. Burke in 1780.

The present arrangement was settled in 1794, which is about the time
which Lord Melbourne stated.

[Footnote 155: Secretary and Librarian at Holland House.]

[Pageheading: LORD MELBOURNE'S POSITION]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _7th November 1841._

... Your Majesty asks whether Lord Melbourne thinks that Prince
Metternich holds the opinion of Sir Robert Gordon, which he expresses
to Lord Beauvale. It is difficult to say what Prince Metternich's
real sentiments are. Lord Melbourne takes him not to have a very high
opinion of the abilities of others in general, and he is not unlikely
to depreciate Sir Robert Gordon to Lord Beauvale. Sir Robert Gordon is
a man of integrity, but he is tiresome, long and pompous, which cannot
be agreeable to the Prince, who has about him much of the French
vivacity, and also much of their settled and regular style of
argument....

With respect to the latter part of your Majesty's letter, Lord
Melbourne returns for the expressions of your Majesty's kindness his
warm and grateful thanks. Your Majesty may rest assured that he will
always speak to your Majesty without scruple or reserve, and that he
will never ask anything of your Majesty, or ever make a suggestion,
which he does not consider to be for your Majesty's service and
advantage. Lord Melbourne is of opinion that his visits to the Palace
should not only avoid exciting suspicion and uneasiness in your
Majesty's present advisers, a result of which he has very little
apprehension, but they should not be so frequent as to attract public
notice, comment, and observation, of which he would be more fearful.
A public rumour, however unfounded and absurd, has more force in this
country than objections which have in them more of truth and reality.
Upon these grounds, and as your Majesty will probably not see much
company at present, and the parties therefore will be a good deal
confined to the actual Household, Lord Melbourne thinks it would
perhaps be as well if he were not again to dine at the Palace at
present.

The course which it may be prudent to take hereafter will depend very
much upon that which cannot now be foreseen, namely, upon the general
course which will be taken by politics and political parties. In this
Lord Melbourne does not at present discern his way, and he will
not therefore hazard opinions which would not be founded upon any
certainty, and might be liable to immediate change and alteration.

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S ADVICE]

[Pageheading: STOCKMAR'S EXPOSTULATIONS]

_Memorandum: Baron Stockmar to Viscount Melbourne._

_23 November 1841._

The apprehension which haunts me since my return to England is well
known to you. It was my intention to have written to you upon it some
time hereafter, but the contents of a certain letter, sent by you just
before your departure, accelerates the execution of my design. From
your own expressions used some time back, I was led to expect that you
would be glad to take advantage _of any fair opportunity_ which might
contribute towards that devoutly to be wished for object, viz., to let
a certain correspondence die a natural death. You may easily conceive
how much I felt disappointed when I heard that you had written
again, without a challenge, and that, without apparent cause, you had
volunteered the promise to write from time to time. This happens at
a moment when _your_ harassing apprehension received new life and
strength from two incidents which I think it my duty to make known to
you, and of which the one came to pass _before_, the other after, your
departure from here. Some weeks back I was walking in the streets with
Dr Praetorius,[156] when, finding myself opposite the house of one
of my friends, it came across my mind to give him a call. Praetorius
wanted to leave me, on a conception that, as a stranger, he might
obstruct the freedom of our conversation. I insisted, however, on his
remaining with me, and we were shown into the drawing-room, where
in all there were five of us. For some minutes the conversation had
turned on insignificant things, when the person talking to me said
quite abruptly: "So I find the Queen is in daily correspondence with
Lord Melbourne." I replied, "Who told you this?" The answer was, "Mrs
Norton; she told me the other evening. Don't you believe that Lord
Melbourne has lost his influence over the Queen's mind; he daily
writes to her, and receives as many answers, in which she communicates
everything to him." Without betraying much emotion I said, "I don't
believe a word of it; the Queen may have written once or twice on
private matters, but the daily correspondence on all matters is
certainly the amplification of a thoughtless and imprudent person, who
is not aware of such exaggerated assertions." My speech was followed
by a general silence, after which we talked of other things, and
soon took our leave. When we were fairly in the open air, Praetorius
expressed to me his amazement at what he had heard, and he remained
for some time at a loss to comprehend the character of the person who,
from mere giddiness, let out so momentous a secret.

The other fact took place the day after you had left. From the late
events at Brussels, it had become desirable that I should see Sir
Robert Peel. From Belgium we travelled over to Home politics. I
expressed my delight at seeing the Queen so happy, and added a hope
that more and more she would seek and find her real happiness in her
domestic relations only. He evidently caught at this, and assured me
that he should at all times be too happy to have a share in anything
which might be thought conducive to the welfare of Her Majesty. That
no consideration of personal inconvenience would ever prevent him from
indulging the Queen in all her wishes relating to matters of a private
nature, and that the only return for his sincere endeavours to please
Her Majesty he looked to, was honesty in public affairs. Becoming then
suddenly emphatic, he continued, "But on this I must insist, and I
do assure you, that that moment I was to learn that the Queen takes
advice upon public matters in another place, I shall throw up; for
such a thing I conceive the country could not stand, and I would not
remain an hour, whatever the consequences of my resignation may be."

Fully sensible that he was talking at me, I received the charge with
the calmness of a good conscience, and our time being exhausted I
prepared for retreat. But he did not allow me to do so, before he had
found means to come a second time to the topic uppermost in his own
mind, and he repeated, it appeared to me with increased force of tone,
his determination to throw up, fearless of all consequences, that
moment he found himself and the country dishonestly dealt by.

I think I have now reported to you correctly the two occurrences which
of late have added so much to my antecedent suspicions and fears.
Permit me to join to this a few general considerations which, from
the nature of the recited incidents alone, and without the slightest
intervention of any other cause, must have presented themselves to my
mind. The first is, that I derive from the events related quite ground
enough for concluding that the danger I dread is great and imminent,
and that, if ill luck is to have its will, no human power can prevent
an explosion for a day, or even for an hour. The second is the
contemplation--what state will the Queen be placed in by such a
catastrophe? That in my position, portraying to myself all the
consequences of such a possibility, I look chiefly to the Queen, needs
hardly, I trust, an excuse.... Can you hope that the Queen's character
will ever recover from a shock received by a collision with Peel, upon
such a cause? Pray illustrate to yourself this particular question by
taking a purely political and general survey of the time and period
we live in at this moment. In doing so must you not admit that all
England is agreed that the Tories must have another trial, and that
there is a decided desire in the nation that it should be a fair
one? Would you have it said that Sir Robert Peel failed in his
trial, merely because the Queen alone was not fair to him, and that
principally you had aided her in the game of dishonesty? And can you
hope that this game can be played with security, even for a short
time only, when a person has means of looking into your cards whom
you yourself have described to me some years ago as a most passionate,
giddy, imprudent and dangerous woman? I am sure beforehand that
your loyalty and devotion has nothing to oppose to the force of my
exposition. There are, however, some other and minor reasons which
ought likewise to be considered before you come to the determination
of trusting entirely to possibilities and chance. For the results of
your deliberation you will have to come to will in their working and
effects go beyond yourself, and must affect two other persons. These
will have a right to expect that your decision will not be taken
regardless of that position, which accidental circumstances have
assigned to them, in an affair the fate of which is placed entirely
within your discretion. This is an additional argument why you should
deliberate very conscientiously. A mistake of yours in this respect
might by itself produce fresh difficulties and have a complicating and
perplexing retro effect upon the existing ones; because both, seeing
that they must be sufferers in the end, may begin to look only to
their own safety, and become inclined to refuse that passive obedience
which till now constitutes the vehicle of your hazardous enterprize.

Approaching the conclusion of this letter, I beg to remind you of a
conversation I had with you on the same subject in South Street, the
25th of last month.[157] Though you did not avow it then in direct
words, I could read from your countenance and manner that you assented
in your head and heart to all I had said, and in particular to the
advice I volunteered at the end of my speech. At that time I pointed
out to you a period when I thought a decisive step ought to be
taken on your part. This period seems to me to have arrived. Placing
unreserved confidence into your candour and manliness, I remain, for
ever, very faithfully yours,

STOCKMAR.

[Footnote 156: Librarian and German Secretary to Prince
Albert.]

[Footnote 157: _Ante_, pp. 352-3. (Ch. X, 'Stockmar and Melbourne')]

[Pageheading: MELBOURNE'S REPLY]

_Viscount Melbourne to Baron Stockmar._

_24th November 1841._

(_Half-past 10_ P.M.)

MY DEAR BARON,--I have just received your letter; I think it
unnecessary to detain your messenger. I will write to you upon the
subject and send it through Anson. Yours faithfully,

MELBOURNE.

[Pageheading: THE HEIR APPARENT]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _29th November 1841._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I have to thank you for four most kind letters, of
the 4th, 6th, 19th and 26th; the last I received yesterday. I would
have written sooner, had I not been a little bilious, which made
me very low, and not in spirits to write. The weather has been so
exceedingly relaxing, that it made me at the end of the fortnight
quite bilious, and this, you know, affects the spirits. I am much
better, but they think that I shall not get my appetite and spirits
back till I can get out of town; we are therefore going in a week at
latest. I am going for a drive this morning, and am certain it will
do me good. In all _essentials_, I am better, if possible, than last
year. Our little boy[158] is a wonderfully strong and large child,
with very large dark blue eyes, a finely formed but somewhat large
nose, and a pretty little mouth; I _hope_ and _pray_ he may be like
his dearest Papa. He is to be called _Albert_, and Edward is to be his
second name. Pussy, dear child, is still _the_ great pet amongst us
all, and is getting so fat and strong again.