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

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I beg my most affectionate love to dearest Louise and the dear
children. The Queen-Dowager is recovering wonderfully.

I beg you to forgive this letter being so badly written, but my feet
are being rubbed, and as I have got the box on which I am writing on
my knee, it is not easy to write quite straight--but you must _not_
think my hand trembles. Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

Pussy is _not_ at all pleased with her brother.

[Footnote 158: His Majesty King Edward VII., born 9th
November.]

[Pageheading: THE INFANT PRINCE]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

TRENTHAM, _1st December 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has had
the honour of receiving here your Majesty's letters of yesterday,
by which he learns with sincere pleasure and satisfaction that your
Majesty is so much recovered as to go to Windsor on so early a day as
your Majesty names. Lord Melbourne hears with great concern that your
Majesty has been suffering under depression and lowness of spirits....
Lord Melbourne well knows how to feel for those who suffer under it,
especially as he has lately had much of it himself.

Lord Melbourne is much rejoiced to hear so good an account of the Heir
Apparent and of the Princess Royal, and feels himself greatly obliged
by the information respecting the intended names and the sponsors.
Lord Melbourne supposes that your Majesty has determined yourself upon
the relative position of the two names, but _Edward_ is a good English
appellation, and has a certain degree of popularity attached to
it from ancient recollections. Albert is also an old Anglo-Saxon
name--the same, Lord Melbourne believes, as Ethelred--but it has not
been so common nor so much in use since the Conquest. However, your
Majesty's feelings, which Lord Melbourne perfectly understands, must
determine this point. The notion of the King of Prussia[159] gives
great satisfaction here, and will do so with all but Puseyites and
Newmanites and those who lean to the Roman Catholic faith. His strong
Protestant feelings, and his acting with us in the matter of the
Syrian Bishop, have made the King of Prussia highly popular in
this country, and particularly with the more religious part of the
community.

Your Majesty cannot offer up for the young Prince a more safe and
judicious prayer than that he may resemble his father. The character,
in Lord Melbourne's opinion, depends much upon the race, and on both
sides he has a good chance. Be not over solicitous about education. It
may be able to do much, but it does not do so much as is expected from
it. It may mould and direct the character, but it rarely alters it.
George IV. and the Duke of York were educated quite like English boys,
by English schoolmasters, and in the manner and upon the system of
English schools. The consequence was that, whatever were their faults,
they were quite Englishmen. The others, who were sent earlier abroad,
and more to foreign universities, were not quite so much so. The late
king was educated as a sailor, and was a complete sailor....

Lord Melbourne will tell your Majesty exactly what he thinks of John
Russell's reply to the Plymouth address. It is very angry and very
bitter, and anger and bitterness are never very dignified. Lord
Melbourne certainly would not have put in those sarcasms upon the Duke
of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, for their change of opinion and
conduct upon the Roman Catholic question. But the tone of the rest
of the answer is, in Lord Melbourne's opinion, just and right. We
certainly delivered the affairs of the country into their hands in a
good state, both at home and abroad, and we should be acting unfairly
by ourselves if we did not maintain and assert this upon every
occasion. Lord Melbourne's notion of the conduct which he has to
pursue is, that it should not be aggressive, but that it must be
defensive. He would oppose no right measures, but he cannot suffer
the course of policy which has been condemned in him to be adopted by
others without observation upon the inconsistency and injustice....

Lord Melbourne concludes with again wishing your Majesty health and
happiness, and much enjoyment of the country.

[Footnote 159: King Frederick William IV., who was to be a
sponsor.]

[Pageheading: PRINCE OF WALES]

_Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _6th December 1841._

Sir James Graham, with humble duty, begs to enclose for the Signature
of your Majesty the Letters Patent creating His Royal Highness,
the Prince of the United Kingdom, Prince of Wales and Earl of
Chester.[160]

Understanding that it is your Majesty's pleasure to have this Creation
inserted in the _Gazette_ of to-morrow night, Sir James Graham has
given directions, which will ensure the publication, though the
Letters Patent themselves may not be completed. The Warrant already
signed by your Majesty is a sufficient authority.

The above is humbly submitted by your Majesty's dutiful Subject and
Servant,

J. R. G. GRAHAM.

[Footnote 160: His present Majesty had been referred to in
letters of the previous month as the Duke of Cornwall. "Know
ye," ran the present Letters Patent, "that we have made ...
our most dear son, the Prince of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland (Duke of Saxony, Duke of Cornwall ...)
Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ... and him our said most
dear son, ... as has been accustomed, we do ennoble and invest
with the said Principality and Earldom, by girding him with
a sword, by putting a coronet on his head, and a gold ring on
his finger, and also by delivering a gold rod into his hand,
that he may preside there, and may direct and defend those
parts...."]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _7th December 1841._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--We arrived here _sains et saufs_ with our awfully
large Nursery Establishment yesterday morning. It was a nasty warm
and very rainy day, but to-day is very bright, clear and dry, and we
walked out early and felt like prisoners freed from some dungeon. Many
thanks for your kind letter of the 2nd, by which I grieve to see
that you are not quite well. But let me repeat again, you _must_ not
despond so; you must not be so out of spirits. I have likewise been
suffering so from _lowness_ that it made me quite miserable, and I
know how difficult it is to fight against it. I am delighted to hear
that all the children are so well. I wonder very much who our little
boy will be like. You will understand _how_ fervent my prayers and
I am [sure] _everybody's_ must be, to see him resemble his angelic
dearest Father in _every, every_ respect, both in body and mind. Oh!
my dearest Uncle, I am sure if you knew _how_ happy, how blessed I
feel, and how _proud_ I feel in possessing _such_ a perfect being as
my husband, as he is, and if you think that you have been instrumental
in bringing about this union, it must gladden your heart! How happy
should I be to see our child grow up _just_ like him! Dear Pussy
travelled with us and behaved like a grown-up person, so quiet and
looking about and coquetting with the Hussars on either side of the
carriage. Now adieu! Ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: THE APPROACHING CHRISTENING]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

CASTLE HOWARD, _22nd December 1841._

... Lord Melbourne will consider himself most highly honoured by being
invited to the christening, and will hold himself in readiness to
attend, whenever it may take place. He has written to Mr Anson in
answer to the letter which he received from him this morning. Lord
Melbourne has been obliged to consent to receive an address from
Derby, and has fixed Monday the 27th inst. for that purpose. He could
have wished to have avoided this, but it was impossible, and he must
make the best of it that he can, which he conceives will be effected
by conceiving his reply in very guarded terms, and in a tone defensive
of his own administration, but not offensive to those who have
succeeded him....

Lord Melbourne is very glad to hear of the feelings of the King of
Prussia. For religious matters he is at present very popular with many
in this country, and popularity, though transient and uncertain, is
a good thing while it lasts. The King of the Belgians should not be
surprised or mortified at the conduct of the King of Holland. We must
expect that people will act according to their nature and feelings.
The Union of Belgium and Holland has been for a long time the first
wish and the daily dream of the House of Orange. It has been the great
object of their lives, and by the separation, which took place in
1830, they saw their fondest hopes disappointed and destroyed at once.
It must be expected that under such a state of things, they will be
unquiet, and will try to obtain what they so eagerly desire and have
once possessed.

Lord Melbourne is much rejoiced to hear that your Majesty is in the
enjoyment of such good health. Your Majesty's observations upon your
own situation are in the highest degree just and prudent, and it is
a sign of a right mind and of good feelings to prize the blessings we
enjoy, and not to suffer them to be too much altered by circumstances,
which may not turn out exactly according to our wishes.

[Pageheading: THE UNITED STATES]

_The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria._

FOREIGN OFFICE, _24th December 1841._

Lord Aberdeen presents his most humble duty to your Majesty. He
ventures to request your Majesty's attention for a moment to the
character of your Majesty's present relations with the Government of
the United States. Your Majesty is aware that several questions of
great difficulty and importance have been long pending between the two
Governments.[161] Some of these have become more complicated than
they were ten years ago; and any of them might, at any moment, lead to
consequences of the most disastrous nature.

Instead of continuing negotiations, necessarily tedious and which
promise to be interminable, your Majesty's servants are humbly of
opinion that an effort ought to be made, by a Special Mission at
Washington, to bring all these differences promptly to an adjustment.
The public feeling in the United States at this time does not appear
to be unfavourable for such an attempt. Should it be undertaken by a
person whose rank, character, and abilities would ensure respect, and
whose knowledge of the subjects under discussion, and of the people of
the country, together with his conciliatory manners, would render him
generally acceptable, your Majesty might perhaps indulge the hope of a
successful result.

Lord Aberdeen humbly ventures to think that such a person may be found
in Lord Ashburton,[162] whom he submits for your Majesty's gracious
approbation.

[Footnote 161: The question of the North-West Boundary had
long been one source of dispute; another was the right the
British Government claimed of searching vessels suspected of
being engaged in the slave trade.]

[Footnote 162: Alexander, first Lord Ashburton, who had held
office in Peel's short Ministry, and married Miss Bingham of
Philadelphia. See _post_, p. 461. (Ch. XII, Footnote 10)]

[Pageheading: CHRISTMAS]

_Memorandum by Mr Anson._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _26th December 1841._

Christmas has brought its usual routine of festivity and its agreeable
accompaniment of Christmas presents. The Queen was not at all well
again yesterday, being again troubled with lowness. The Melbourne
correspondence still is carried on, but I think not in its
pristine vigour by any means. He has taken no notice of the Baron's
remonstrance to him, and we are in the dark in what manner, if at all,
he means to deal with it.

I have sat by Her Majesty at dinner several times lately. I should say
that Her Majesty interests herself less and less about politics, and
that her dislike is less than it was to her present Ministers, though
she would not be prepared to acknowledge it. Her Majesty is a good
deal occupied with the little Princess Royal, who begins to assume
companionable qualities. In the evening, instead of her usual
conversation with her old Prime Minister, some round game at cards is
substituted, which always terminates at eleven. The Prince, to
amuse the Queen at this, has nearly left off his chess; his
amusements--shooting or hunting--always commence and terminate between
eleven and two, not to interfere with Her Majesty's arrangements, in
which he is included as her companion.

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

MELBOURNE, _29th December 1841._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He received
here yesterday your Majesty's letter of the 25th inst., upon a paper
adorned with many quaint and humorous Christmas devices, and Lord
Melbourne begs to offer to your Majesty, most sincerely and most
fervently, the good wishes of the Season. Lord Melbourne will be in
town on Friday evening next, and after that day will wait upon your
Majesty, whenever your Majesty is pleased to command....

Lord Melbourne is very glad to hear that the King of the Belgians is
reassured by his journey to Mons and his reception upon it. He need
not mind the King of Holland, if he can keep all right at Paris.

The railway smash[163] is awful and tremendous, as all railway mishaps
are, and Lord Melbourne fears must always be. These slips and falls
of earth from the banks are the greatest danger that now impends over
them, and if they take place suddenly and in the dark, Lord Melbourne
does not see how the fatal consequences of them are to be effectually
guarded against. They are peculiarly likely to happen now, as the
cuttings have been recently and hastily made, the banks are very
steep, and the season has been peculiarly wet, interrupted by severe
frosts.

Lord Melbourne received the deputation from Derby, a large and
respectable one, here on Monday last. The address was very guarded,
temperate, and judicious, and Lord Melbourne strove to construct his
answer in the same manner.

[Footnote 163: This accident took place on 24th December in
the Sonning Hill cutting, two and a half miles from Reading.
Eight persons were killed on the spot.]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

TO CHAPTER XI

THE session was mainly occupied by the great Ministerial measure of
finance, direct taxation by means of income tax being imposed, and the
import duties on a large number of articles being removed or relaxed,
Mr Gladstone, now at the Board of Trade, taking charge of the bills.
Two more attempts on the Queen's life were made, the former again on
Constitution Hill by one Francis, whose capital sentence was commuted;
the latter by a hunchback, Bean, who was sentenced to eighteen months'
imprisonment. An Act was promptly passed to deal with such outrages
in future as misdemeanours, without giving them the importance of high
treason. Lord Ashley's Bill was passed, prohibiting woman and child
labour in mines and collieries. But the Anti-Corn Law League of
Manchester was not satisfied with the policy of the Government and
objected to the income tax; while riots broke out in the manufacturing
districts of the North.

In Afghanistan, the disasters of the previous year were retrieved; Sir
Robert Sale, who was gallantly defending Jellalabad, made a _sortie_
and defeated Akbar Khan; General Nott arrived at Ghuznee, but found it
evacuated; he destroyed the citadel and removed the Gates of Somnauth.
General Pollock swept the Khyber Pass and entered Cabul. The captives
taken on the retreat from Cabul were recovered--Lady Macnaghten and
Lady Sale among them. In retribution for the murder of Macnaghten,
the great bazaar of Cabul, where his remains had been dishonoured,
was destroyed by Pollock; the British force was then withdrawn. Dost
Mahommed made himself again ruler of Cabul, and a proclamation of
Lord Ellenborough announced that the British Government accepted any
Sovereign and Constitution approved by the Afghans themselves.

In China, also, operations were successfully terminated, Chapoo being
taken in May, and an attack by Admiral Parker upon Nanking being
only averted by the conclusion of a favourable treaty, involving
an indemnity, the cession by China of Hong Kong, and the opening of
important ports to commerce.

A dispute had arisen between this country and the United States as
to the boundary line between the latter country and the British
Possessions in North America. Lord Ashburton was accordingly sent
out on a special mission to effect the adjustment of this and other
disputes, and a treaty was concluded for the purpose of defining each
country's territorial rights, and imposing mutual obligations for the
suppression of the Slave Trade.

CHAPTER XI

1842

_Queen Adelaide to Queen Victoria._

SUDBURY HALL, _4th January 1842._

MY DEAR NIECE,--Most grateful for your very amiable kind letter full
of good wishes for me, I hasten to answer it and to assure you that I
deeply feel all your affectionate kindness to me in wishing my life to
be prolonged. From ill-health I have become such a useless member of
your family, that I must wonder you have not long been tired of me. I
wish I was more able to be of any use to you which you might like
to make of me. My services would be most faithful, I can assure you.
Should my life be spared, there may perhaps yet be a time when I can
prove to you, that what I say is not merely a _facon de parler_, but
my sincere wish.

Your domestic happiness, dearest Victoria, gives me great satisfaction
whenever I think of it, and that is very often. God continue it so,
uninterrupted, is my daily prayer.

Your approbation of my little offering to my dear godchild gives me
much pleasure. It occupied me several days during my illness to make
the drawing, weak as I then was, and it was a _pleasant occupation_.

We have frost again, with a clear blue sky, which is much better for
me than the damp close weather of last week, which oppressed me so
much. I breathe again, and my spirits get their usual tone, which they
had lost, but I still cough a great deal, which is very fatiguing.

Will you kiss your darlings in my name and bless them, and pray
believe me ever, my dear Niece, your most affectionately devoted Aunt,

ADELAIDE.

[Pageheading: WINDSOR]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROADLANDS,[1] _5th January 1842._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to
return to your Majesty and to His Royal Highness his thanks for all
the kindness shown him at Windsor. He was very happy to find himself
there again and in your Majesty's society. He has seen many fine
places and much fine country, but after all there is nothing like
Windsor and the Park. Twenty very fine places might easily be made out
of the latter. Lord Melbourne as he drove to Bagshot was very glad to
see the plantations at and about Cumberland Lodge and onwards so well
and judiciously thinned. He had a very prosperous journey here. It is
a lovely place, with the greatest beauty that a place can have, a
very swift, clear, natural stream, running and winding in front of the
house. The whole place is much improved since Lord Melbourne saw it
last; a great deal of new pleasure-ground has been made. The trees,
cypresses, elders, planes, elms, white poplars and acacias are very
fine indeed....

Lord Melbourne thinks of staying here six or seven days, and then
returning to London and going to Brocket Hall and Panshanger, but
he has not fixed his plans decidedly, which he is never very fond of
doing.

Lord Melbourne was delighted at thinking that he left your Majesty
in good health, which he earnestly hopes and fervently prays may,
together with every other blessing, long continue.

[Footnote 1: The house of Lord Palmerston in Hants.]

_The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria._

FOREIGN OFFICE, _6th January 1842._

... Sir Robert Peel has informed Lord Aberdeen that he had mentioned
to your Majesty the suggestion of the King of Prussia to confer the
Order of the Black Eagle[2] upon the Prince of Wales, immediately
after the christening of his Royal Highness. Lord Aberdeen therefore
abstains from troubling your Majesty with any observations on this
subject.

[Footnote 2: Founded by Frederick I. in 1701.]

[Pageheading: DISASTERS IN AFGHANISTAN]

_Lord Fitzgerald to Queen Victoria._

_8th January 1842._

Lord Fitzgerald, with his most humble duty to your Majesty, begs
leave humbly to inform your Majesty that despatches have been this
day received at the India House from the Earl of Auckland,
Governor-General of India, which most officially confirm to too great
an extent the disastrous intelligence contained in the public journals
of yesterday, the particulars of which the editors of these journals
had received by express messengers from Marseilles.[3]

This intelligence is of a most painful character, and though the
details which have arrived do high honour to the courage and the
gallantry of your Majesty's forces, as well as of the East India
Company's Army, yet the loss sustained has been very great, and many
valuable officers have fallen the victims of a widespread conspiracy
which seems to have embraced within its confederation the most warlike
tribes of the Afghan nation.

Lord Fitzgerald begs leave most humbly to lay before your Majesty an
interesting despatch from Lord Auckland, comprising the most important
details of the late events in Afghanistan.

It is very satisfactory to Lord Fitzgerald to be enabled humbly to
acquaint your Majesty that Lord Auckland has decided on waiting
the arrival of his successor, Lord Ellenborough, and states to Lord
Fitzgerald that he will feel it to be his duty to remain in his
[Government], in the present critical state of affairs, until he is
relieved by the new Governor-General.

All of which is most humbly submitted to your Majesty, by your
Majesty's most dutiful Subject and Servant,

FITZGERALD AND VESCI.

[Footnote 3: _See_ Introductory Note, 1841, _ante_, p. 254.
The rebellion broke out at Cabul on 2nd November, and Sir
Alexander Burnes was murdered. (Intro Note to Ch. X)]

[Pageheading: THE OXFORD MOVEMENT]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROADLANDS, _12th January 1842._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has this
morning received your Majesty's letter of the 10th inst., and is glad
to infer from it that your Majesty and the Prince are both well and in
good spirits.

With respect to the Oxford affair, your Majesty is aware that for a
long time a serious difference has been fermenting and showing itself
in the Church of England, one party leaning back towards Popery, and
the other either wishing to keep doctrines as they are, or, perhaps,
to approach somewhat nearer to the dissenting Churches. This
difference has particularly manifested itself in a publication, now
discontinued, but which has been long going on at Oxford, entitled
_Tracts for the Times_, and generally called the Oxford Tracts. The
Professorship of Poetry is now vacant at Oxford, and two candidates
have been put forward, the one Mr Williams, who is the author of one
or two of the most questionable of the Oxford Tracts, and the other Mr
Garbett, who is a representative of the opposite party. Of course the
result of this election, which is made by the Masters of Arts of the
University, is looked to with much interest and anxiety, as likely
to afford no unequivocal sign of which is the strongest party in the
University and amongst the clergy generally. It is expected that Mr
Garbett will be chosen by a large majority....

[Pageheading: THE MORNING CHRONICLE]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _17th January 1842._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to
acknowledge your Majesty's letter of the 15th, which he has received
here this morning.

Lord Melbourne does not think this Puseyite difference in the Church
so serious or dangerous as others do. If it is discreetly managed,
it will calm down or blow over or sink into disputes of little
significance. All Lord Melbourne fears is lest the Bishops should be
induced to act hastily and should get into the wrong. The Puseyites
have the most learning, or rather, have considered the points more
recently and more accurately than their opponents.

Lord Melbourne hopes that the Spanish affair will be settled.
Lord Melbourne cannot doubt that the French are wrong. Even if the
precedents are in their favour, the Spanish Court has a right to
settle its own etiquette and its own mode of transacting business, and
to change them if it thinks proper.[4]

Lord Melbourne was at Broadlands when the Article to which your
Majesty alludes appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_, and he talked
it over with Palmerston. He does not think that Palmerston wrote it,
because there were in it errors, and those errors to Palmerston's
disadvantage; but it was written by Easthope under the impression that
it conveyed Palmerston's notions and opinions. Your Majesty knows very
well that Palmerston has long had much communication with the _Morning
Chronicle_ and much influence over it, and has made great use of it
for the purpose of maintaining and defending his own policy. In this
sort of matter there is much to be said upon both sides. A Minister
has a great advantage in stating his own views to the public, and if
Palmerston in the Syrian affair had not had as devoted an assistant
as the _Morning Chronicle_, he would hardly have been able to maintain
his course or carry through his measures. It has always been Lord
Melbourne's policy to keep himself aloof from the public press and to
hold it at arm's-length, and he considers it the best course, but
it is subject to disadvantages. You are never in that case strongly
supported by them, nor are the motives and reasons of your conduct
given to the public with that force and distinctness which they might
be.