ENGLAND AND CHINA
9th April 1840.
Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour to report that the debate went on yesterday, when Mr Hawes spoke against the motion. In the course of the debate Mr Gladstone13said the Chinese had a right to poison the wells, to keep away the English! The debate was adjourned.
Footnote 13: Mr Gladstone had been member for Newark since 1832.
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.14This 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: Afracastook 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 ofI Puritani. An explanation made by Laporte only made matters worse, and eventually the Tamburinists took possession of the stage.
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,15which 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.16The 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.
MURDER OF LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL
6th May 1840.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Since he wrote to your Majesty, he has seen Mr Fox Maule,17who 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 foreigner18and 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.
MRS NORTON
Laeken,22nd May 1840.
My dearest Victoria,—I received yesterday a most kind and dear letter from your august hands. Charles,19who wanted to cross yesterday, will have had very bad weather. Heisprepared 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 verygenerous 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 Shery20for 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.
PRINCESS CHARLOTTE
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 alsonolens volensbe 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 andrudeness. I can you assure that it wasnot 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 aretrue, 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,21at 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 Frenchde 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 thepositive factof her manners gettingquite changedwithin 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 Ferdinand22is now only arrivingsi diceon Sunday next. He has been robbed of 15,000 francs in his own roomau 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 forcrim. 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, granddaughter of the third Earl of Granard.
Footnote 22: Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, King Leopold's brother.
THE QUEEN AND THE PRINCE
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 Baroness23is 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.
OXFORD'S ATTEMPT
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,24yet 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.
11 Juin 1840.
Madame ma Sœur,—C'est avec une profonde indignation que je viens d'apprendre l'horrible attentat qui a menacé les précieux jours de votre Majesté. Je rends grâce du fond de mon cœur à la Divine Providence qui les a miraculeusement conservés, et qui semble n'avoir permis qu'ils fussent exposés à un si grand danger, que pour faire briller aux yeux de tous, votre courage, votre sang-froid, et toutes les qualités qui vous distinguent.
J'ose espérer que votre Majesté me permettra de recourir à son entremise pour offrir à S.A.R. le Prince Albert, l'expression de tous les sentiments dont je suis pénétré, et qu'elle voudra bien recevoir l'assurance de tous ceux que je lui porte, ainsi que celle de ma haute estime, de mon inaltérable attachement et de mon inviolable amitié. Je suis, Madame ma Sœur, de votre Majesté, le bon Frère,
Louis PhilippeR.
A PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE
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 awfuland 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;25it should take place this morning.
Addresses will be moved in both Houses immediately upon their meeting.
Footnote 25:I.e., the Cabinet.
Laeken,13th June 1840.
My dearest and most beloved Victoria,—I cannot find wordsstrong enoughto 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 notquiteleft to take care ofthemselves, 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 muchcourage. That you have showngreat fortitudeis 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 isune singerieof what passes in France, that it is a fancy of some of those societiesde Mort aux Rois et Souverains, without knowing wherefore, merely as a sort of fashion....
EGYPT AND THE POWERS
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. Thesecretway in which the arrangement about the arbitration of the Turco-Egyptian affairs has been signed, the keeping out of France in an affair sonearit and touching its interests in various ways, has had here a verydisastrouseffect.26I 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 asreckless of consequencesas 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 thathewould be theman to rulethe Assembly, and has told me last year that he thinks it for France perhaps themost powerfulform 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 beingkicked outof 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.
PRINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON
7th August 1840. (10p.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 theconsideration 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.28It 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 Napoléon. 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.
THE CONVENTION OF 1828
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 Augusta29from 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 amfar from thinkingthat the Frenchacted wiselyin the Oriental affair. I must say that I think the Kingmeant well, but I should not haveabstainedfrom the Conference as he did, though, in France, interference with Mehemet Ali was certainly not popular. In England much of thefondis 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 thefirstConvention 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, theTreaty of Adrianople.30Your 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, youmust encourage to speak about this matter. Canning's intention was this: he said we must remain with Russia, and by this meanspreventmischief. 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 powerto stop them." Russia is again in this very snug and comfortable position, thatthe special protection of the Porteis confided to its tender mercies—la chèvre 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 nearlyparedit 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 readthis 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.Seebelow [second letter, 26th September, 1840.].
Footnote 30: Under this treaty (14th September 1829) the Danubian principalities were made virtually independent States, the treaty rights of Russia in the navigation of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles were confirmed, and Greek affairs were arranged, by incorporating in the treaty the terms of the Protocol of 22nd March 1829.
A THREATENED CRISIS
Windsor Castle,26th September 1840.
This is certainly awkward; but the latter part about Peel is most absurd; to him I can never apply, we must do everything but that. But for God's sake do not bring on a crisis;32the Queen really could not go through thatnow, and it might make herseriously illif she were to be kept in a state of agitation and excitement if a crisis were to come on; she has had already so much lately in the distressing illness of her poor Aunt to harass her. I beseech you, think ofallthis, and the consequences it might cause, not only to me, but to all Europe, as it would show our weakness in a way that would be seriously injurious to this country.
Footnote 31: The letter, to which this is a reply, seems not to have been preserved. The Queen's letter, having been shown to Lord John Russell and copied by him, has hitherto been supposed to be a letter from Lord Melbourne to Lord John Russell.SeeWalpole'sRussell, vol. i., chap. xiii.
Footnote 32: The Cabinet met on the 28th to consider the Oriental Question. The Government was on the verge of dissolution, as Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell were in conflict. The meeting was adjourned till 1st October.
FRANCE AND THE EAST
Windsor Castle,26th September 1840.
My dearest Uncle,—I have unfortunately very little time to-day, but I will try and answer your kind letters of the 13th and 19th briefly. You know now that the sufferings of good excellent Aunt Augusta were terminated on the 22nd of this month. I regret hervery, verysincerely, though for herself we are all most thankful for the release of such unexampled sufferings, borne with such unexampled patience. Almost the last thing she said when she was still conscious, the day before she died, was to Mr More (the apothecary), who wrote me every morning a Report: "Have you written to my darling?" Is this not touching? The Queen-Dowager had her hand in hers when she died, and closed her eyes when all was over; all the Family were present.
I have seen your letters to Palmerston, and his answer to you, and I also send you a paper from Lord Melbourne. I assure you that Idogive these affairs mymost seriousattention: it would be indeedmostdesirable if France couldcome back to us, and I think what Metternich suggests very sagacious andwell-judged.33You must allow me to state thatFrancehasput herselfinto this unfortunate state.Iknow (as I sawallthepapers) how she was engaged to join us—and I know how strangely she refused; I know also, that Franceagreesin theprinciple, but only doubts theefficacyof the measures. Where then is "La France outragée"? wherefore arm when there isnoenemy? wherefore raise the war-cry? But this has beendone, and has takenmoreeffect than I think the French Governmentnowlike; andnowshe has to undo all this and to calm the general agitation and excitement, which is not so easy. Still, though France is in the wrong, andquitein the wrong, stillIam most anxious, as I am sure my Government also are, that France should be pacified and should again take her place amongst the five Powers. I am sure she might easily do this....
Albert, who sends his love, is much occupied with the Eastern affairs, and is quite of my opinion....
Footnote 33: Metternich's suggestion was that if other means of coercion failed, the allies should renew their deliberations in conjunction with France.
Windsor Castle,30th September 1840.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He is quite well, and will be ready at half-past one.
The Prince's34observations are just, but still the making an advance to France now, coupled with our constant inability to carry into effect the terms of our Convention, will be an humiliating step.
Lord Melbourne sends a letter which he has received this morning from Lord Normanby, whom he had desired to see Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, and try what he could do.
Lord Melbourne also sends a letter which he has received from Lord Lansdowne.
Lord Melbourne would beg your Majesty to return them both.
Footnote 34: Prince Metternich.
Downing Street,1st October 1840.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. We have had the Cabinet and it has passed over quietly. We have agreed to make a proposition to France founded upon the communication of Prince Metternich to the King of theBelgians.35Palmerston will propose to-morrow to Neumann,36the Prussian Minister, and Brunnow,37that he should write to Granville, authorising him to acquaint Thiers that if France will concur in respecting the principle of the treaty, we, without expecting her to adopt coercive measures, will concert with her the further course to be adopted for the purpose of carrying the principle into effect. This is so far so good. Lord Melbourne trusts that it will get over the present entanglement, but of course we must expect that in a matter so complicated and which we have not the power of immediately terminating, further difficulties will arise.
Footnote 35:Seep.231.
Footnote 36: Austrian Minister.
Footnote 37: Russian Minister.
MEHEMET ALI
Downing Street,2nd October 1840.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. We have just had another Cabinet,38which was rendered necessary by Brunnow and the Prussian Minister refusing to concur in what we determined yesterday without reference to their Courts and authority from them. This makes it impossible for us to take the step in the way we proposed, but we have now settled that Palmerston should direct Granville to submit the proposition to Thiers, and ask him how he would be disposed to receive it if it were formally made to him. This, so far as we are concerned, will have all the effect which could have been attained in the other way.
Very important despatches of the 14th inst. have come from Constantinople. The Ministers of the Porte held the last proposition of Mehemet Ali as a positive refusal of the terms of the Convention, and proceeded by the advice of Lord Ponsonby39at once to divest Mehemet Ali of the Pashalik of Egypt; to direct a blockade of the coasts both of Syria and Egypt, and to recall the four Consuls from Alexandria. These are serious measures, and there are despatches from Lord Beauvale40stating that Prince Metternich is much alarmed at them, and thinks that measures should be immediately taken to diminish and guard against the effect which they may have in France. Lord Melbourne humbly begs your Majesty's pardon for this hurried scrawl upon matters of such importance, but LordMelbourne will have the opportunity of speaking to your Majesty more fully upon them to-morrow.
Footnote 38: The peace party in the Cabinet were defeated and Palmerston triumphant.
Footnote 39: British Ambassador at Constantinople.
Footnote 40: Frederick James Lamb, younger brother of Lord Melbourne, and his successor in the title (1782-1853). He was at this time Ambassador at Vienna, having previously been Ambassador at Lisbon.
PALMERSTON AND FRANCE
Wiesbaden,2nd October 1840.
... There is an idea that Mehemet Ali suffers from what one callsun charbon, a sort of dangerous ulcer which, with old people, is never without some danger. If this is true, it only shows how little one can say that the Pashalik of Aleppo is to decide who is to be the master of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia, the Sultan or Mehemet? It is highly probable that if the old gentleman dies, his concern will go to pieces; a division will be attempted by the children, but that in the East hardly ever succeeds. There everything is personal, except the sort of Caliphate which the Sultan possesses, and when the man is gone, his empirealso goes. Runjeet Singh41is a proof of this; his formidable power will certainly go to the dogs, though the Sikhs have a social link which does not exist in the Egyptian concern. If we now were to set everything in Europe on a blaze, have a war which may change totally all that now exists, and in the midst of it we should hear that Mehemet is no more, and his wholeboutiquebroken up, would it not bereally laughable, if it was notmelancholy? And still the waronce raging, it would no longer put a stop to it, but go on forother reasons.
I cannot understand what has rendered Palmerston soextremely hostile to the Kingand Government of France. Alittle civilitywould have gone a great way with the French; if in your Speech on the 11th of August some regret had been expressed, it would have greatly modified the feelings of the French. But Palmerstonlikes to put his foot on their necks!Now, no statesman must triumph over an enemy that is not quite dead, because people forget a real loss, a real misfortune, but they won't forgetan insult. Napoleon made great mistakes that way; he hated Prussia, insulted it on all occasions, but stillleft it alive. The consequence was that in 1813 they rose to a man in Prussia, even children and women took arms, not only because they had been injured, but because they had been treated withcontemptandinsulted. I will here copy what the King wrote to me lately from Paris:
VIEWS OF LOUIS PHILIPPE
"Vous ne vous faites pas d'idée à quel point l'approbation publique soutient les armements, c'est universel. Je regretteque cela aille bien au-delà, car la fureur contre l'Angleterre s'accroît et un des points que je regrette le plus, c'est que tout notre peuple est persuadé que l'Angleterre veut réduire la Franceau rang de Puissance secondaire, et vous savez ce que c'est que l'orgueil national et la vanité de tous les peuples. Je crois donc bien urgent que la crise actuelle se termine bientôt pacifiquement. Plus je crois que l'union de l'Angleterre et de la France est la base du repos du monde, plue je regrette de voir susciter tant d'irritation entre nos deux Nations. La question est de savoir ce que veut véritablement le Gouvernement Anglais. J'avoue que je ne suis pas sans crainte et sans inquiétude à cet égard quand je récapitule dans ma tête tout ce que Lord Ponsonby a fait pour l'allumer et tout ce qu'il fait encore. Je n'aurais aucune inquiétude si je croyais que le Gouvernement suivrait la voix de sa Nation, et les véritables intérêts de son pays qui repoussent l'alliance Russe et indiquent celle de la France, ce qui est tout-à-fait conforme à mes vœux personnels. Mais ma vieille expérience me rappelle ce que font les passions personnelles, qui prédominent bien plus de nos jours que les véritables intérêts, et ce que peut le Gouvernement Anglais pour entraîner son pays, et je crains beaucoup l'art de la Russie ou plutôt de l'Empereur Nicolas de captiver, par les plus immenses flatteries, les Ministres Anglais, preuve Lord Durham. Or si ces deux Gouvernements veulent ou osent entreprendrel'abaissementde la France, la guerre s'allumera, et pourmon compte alors je m'yjetteraià outrance, mais si comme je l'espère encore, malgré mes soupçons, ils ne veulent pas la guerre, alors l'affaire de l'Orient, s'arrangera à l'amiable, et le cri de toutes les Nations fera de nouveau justice de ces humeurs belliqueuses et consolidera la paix générale, comme cela est arrivé dans les premières années de mon règne."
I think it right to give you this extract, as it is written from the very bottom of the King's heart, and shows the way in which he considers the present position of affairs. Perhaps you will be so kind to read it or to let it be read by Lord Melbourne. It is thisabaissement de la Francewhich now sticks in their throats. Chartres42has quite the same feeling, and then the refrain is,plutôt périr que de souffrir cette ignominie!
Really my paper is abominable, but it is a great shame that in the residence of such a rich Prince nothing can be had. My letter being long, I conclude it with my best blessings. Ever, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
Leopold R.
Footnote 41: Runjeet Singh, known as the Lion of the Punjab, had died in 1839, having consolidated the Sikh power. As an outcome of the Sikh wars in 1846 and 1848, the Punjab was annexed by Great Britain in 1849.
Footnote 42: Ferdinand, Duke of Orléans, who died 13th July 1842, was generally called Chartres in the family circle; this title, which he had previously borne, was conferred on his younger son, born 9th November 1840.