Piccadilly, 18th March 1857.
... Viscount Palmerston begs to state that the Speaker has chosen the title of Eversley, the name of a small place near his residence13 in Hampshire, all the large towns in the county having already been adopted as titles for Peers. The ordinary course would be that your Majesty should make him a Baron, and that is the course which was followed in the cases of Mr Abbot made Lord Colchester, and Mr Abercromby made Lord Dunfermline; but in the case of Mr Manners Sutton a different course was pursued, and he was made Viscount Canterbury. The present Speaker is very anxious that his services, which, in fact, have been more meritorious and useful than those of Mr Manners Sutton, should not appear to be considered by your Majesty as less deserving of your Majesty's Royal favour, and as the present Speaker may justly be said to have been the best who ever filled the chair, Viscount Palmerston would beg to submit for your Majesty's gracious approval that he may be created Viscount Eversley. It will be well at the same time if your Majesty should sanction this arrangement that a Record should be entered at the Home Office stating that this act of grace and favour of your Majesty being founded on the peculiar circumstances of the case, is not to [be] deemed a precedent for the cases of future Speakers.
Lord Canterbury was also made a Grand Cross of the Civil Order of the Bath; it will be for your Majesty to consider whether it might not be gracious to follow in all respects on the present occasion the course which was pursued in the case of Mr Manners Sutton.
Footnote 12: On the 9th, Mr Speaker Shaw-Lefevre had announced in the House of Commons his intended retirement from the Chair, which he had occupied since 1839, when his election had been made a trial of strength between parties. He was voted an annuity of £4,000 a year, and created Viscount Eversley, receiving also the G.C.B.
Footnote 13: Heckfield Place, near Winchfield.
Buckingham Palace, 24th March 1857.
My dearest Uncle,— ... The Opposition have played their game most foolishly, and the result is that all the old Tories say they will certainly not support them; they very truly say Lord Derby's party—that is those who want to get into office coûte que coûte—whether the country suffers for it or not, wanted to get in under false colours, and that they won't support or abide—which they are quite right in. There is reason to hope that a better class of men will be returned, and returned to support the Government, not a particular cry of this or that.... Ever your devoted Niece,
Footnote 14: In his address to the electors of Tiverton, the Premier declared that "an insolent barbarian, wielding authority at Canton, had violated the British flag, broken the engagements of treaties, offered rewards for the heads of British subjects in that part of China, and planned their destruction by murder, assassination, and poison." The courage and good temper displayed by Lord Palmerston, and the energy with which he had carried the country through the Crimean struggle, had won him widespread popularity, and the Peace party were generally routed, the prominent members all losing their seats. The Peelite ranks were also thinned, but Lord John Russell, contrary to general expectation, held his seat in the City. There were one hundred and eighty-nine new members returned, and the Ministry found themselves in command of a handsome majority.
Vicount Palmerston, K.G.
From the drawing by Sir Geo. Richmond, R.A., in the possession of the Earl of Carnwath.
[Undated. ? 19th May 1857.]
Lord Granville presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to submit that the Lord Chancellor made the best statement he has yet done, introducing his Divorce Bill.15... Lord Lyndhurst made a most able speech in favour of the Bill, but wished it to go further, and give permission to a woman to sue for a divorce if she was "maliciously deserted" by her husband.... The Bishop of Oxford pretended that he was not going to speak at all, in order to secure his following instead of preceding the Bishop of London; but upon a division being called he was obliged to speak, and did so with considerable force and eloquence, but betraying the greatest possible preparation. The Bishop of London, after showing that the Bishop of Oxford's speech was a repetition of Mr Keble's speech, made an excellent answer. The Debate was finished by the Duke of Argyll.
| For the Bill, 47. | Against it, 18. |
Footnote 15: Before this date a divorce could only be obtained in England by Act of Parliament, after sentence in the ecclesiastical Court, and (in the case of a husband's application) a verdict in crim. con. against the adulterer. The present English law was established by the Bill of 1857, the chief amendment made in Committee being the provision exempting the clergy from the obligation to marry divorced persons. Bishop Wilberforce opposed the Bill strenuously, while Archbishop Sumner and Bishop Tait of London supported it. Sir Richard Bethell, the Attorney-General, piloted the measure most skilfully through the Commons, in the teeth of the eloquent and persistent opposition of Mr Gladstone, who, to quote a letter from Lord Palmerston to the Queen, opposed the second reading "in a speech of two hours and a half, fluent, eloquent, brilliant, full of theological learning and scriptural research, but fallacious in argument, and with parts inconsistent with each other."
20th May 1857.
Sir,—I have the honour to inform your Royal Highness that I have had a very long and interesting conversation with M. de Persigny to-day. He told me of the different Utopias which the Emperor had in his head, of His Majesty's conviction that England, France, and Russia ought between them to régler les affaires de l'Europe, of the peu de cas which he made of Austria or any other Power, and of the various little complaints which His Majesty thought he had against Her Majesty's Government, and which had been magnified into importance by the malevolence or the stupidity of the persons who had more or less the ear of the Emperor.16
M. de Persigny told me also that in a conversation with the Emperor at which he had taken care that Count Walewski should be present, he had solemnly warned the Emperor of the danger he would incur if he swerved the least from the path of his true interest which was the English Alliance, that all the Sovereigns who were flattering and cajoling him for their own purposes looked down upon him as an adventurer, and no more believed in the stability of his throne, or the duration of his dynasty, than they did in any other events of which extreme improbability was the character; whereas the English, who never condescended to flatter or cajole anybody, but who looked to the interests of England, were attached to the French Alliance and to the Sovereign of France because peaceful relations with that country were of the utmost importance to England. France was the only country in Europe that could do England harm, and on the other hand England was the only country that could injure France—the late war with Russia had not the slightest effect upon France except costing her money, but a war with England would set every party in France into activity each with its own peculiar objects, but all of them against the existing order of things—l'ordre social serait bouleversé and the Empire might perish in the convulsion.
The result of this and other conversations appears to be an earnest desire of the Emperor to come to England on a private visit to the Queen, if possible at Osborne, and at any time that might be convenient to Her Majesty. M. de Persigny describes him as being intent upon this project, and as attaching the utmost importance to it in order to éclairer his own ideas, to guide his policy, and to prevent by personal communication with the Queen, your Royal Highness, and Her Majesty's Government the dissidences and mésintelligences which the Emperor thinks will arise from the want of such communications.
I fear that such a visit would not be very agreeable to Her Majesty, but in the Emperor's present frame of mind, and his evident alarm lest it should be thought that the Alliance has been in any way ébranlée, I cannot entertain a doubt that much good might be done, or, at all events, that much mischief might be averted by the Emperor being allowed to pay his respects to Her Majesty in the manner he proposes.
I have discussed the matter after the Cabinet this evening with Lord Palmerston, who takes entirely the same view of the matter as I have taken the liberty of expressing to your Royal Highness. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your Royal Highness's most faithful and devoted Servant,
Footnote 16: A difference had arisen as to the future of the Principalities—France, Sardinia, and Russia favouring their union, while England, Austria, and Turkey held that a single state, so formed, might become too Russian in its sympathies.
Osborne, 21st May 1857.
My dear Lord Clarendon,—I have shown your letter to the Queen, who wishes me to say in answer to it that she will, of course, be ready to do what may appear best for the public interest. We shall, therefore, be ready to receive the Emperor, with or without the Empress, here at Osborne in the quiet way which he proposes. The present moment would, however, hardly do, Drawing-rooms and parties being announced in London, Parliament sitting, and the Season going on and the Queen having only a few days from the Grand Duke's visit to her return to Town. The latter half of July, the time at which the Queen would naturally be here and the best yachting season, might appear to the Emperor the most eligible, as being the least forcé.
Till then a cottage which is rebuilding will, we hope, be ready to accommodate some of the suite, whom we could otherwise not properly house.
I have no doubt that good will arise from a renewed intercourse with the Emperor; the only thing one may perhaps be afraid of is the possibility of his wishing to gain us over to his views with regard to a redistribution of Europe, and may be disappointed at our not being able to assent to his plans and aspirations.
Footnote 17: See post, p. 242, note 30.
Buckingham Palace, 16th June 1857.
My dearest Uncle,—The christening of little Beatrice18 is just over—and was very brilliant and nice. We had the luncheon in the fine ball-room, which looked very handsome. The Archduke Maximilian (who is here since Sunday evening) led me to the chapel, and at the luncheon I sat between him and Fritz. I cannot say how much we like the Archduke; he is charming, so clever, natural, kind and amiable, so English in his feelings and likings, and so anxious for the best understanding between Austria and England. With the exception of his mouth and chin, he is good-looking; and I think one does not the least care for that, as he is so very kind and clever and pleasant. I wish you really joy, dearest Uncle, at having got such a husband for dear Charlotte, as I am sure he will make her happy, and is quite worthy of her. He may, and will do a great deal for Italy.19...
I must conclude for to-day, hoping soon to hear from you again. Ever your devoted Niece,
Footnote 18: Princess Beatrice (now Princess Henry of Battenberg) was born on the 14th of April.
Footnote 19: The tragic end of a union which promised so brightly came in 1867, when the Archduke Maximilian, having accepted the Imperial crown of Mexico, offered to him by the Provisional Government, was shot by order of President Juarez. The Empress Charlotte had come to Europe a year earlier to seek help for her husband from the French Emperor. In consequence of the shock caused by the failure of her mission, her health entirely gave way.
Piccadilly, 26th June 1857.
... Viscount Palmerston is sorry to have received the accompanying account of the extension of the Mutiny among the native troops in India, but he has no fear of its results.20 The bulk of the European force is stationed on the North-West Frontier, and is, therefore, within comparatively easy reach of Delhi, and about six thousand European troops will have returned to Bombay from Persia. It will, however, seem to be advisable to send off at once the force amounting to nearly eight thousand men, now under orders for embarkation for India; and when the despatches arrive, which will be about the middle of next week, it will be seen whether any further reinforcements will be required.
The extent of the Mutiny appears to indicate some deeper cause than that which was ascribed to the first insubordination. That cause may be, as some allege, the apprehension of the Hindoo priests that their religion is in danger by the progress of civilisation in India, or it may be some hostile foreign agency.
Footnote 20: Alarming accounts of disturbances in India had been received for some weeks past, but Lord Palmerston failed to grasp the gravity of the situation. Even after the intelligence reached England of the mutiny of the native regiments at Meerut, on the 10th of May, and of the horrible massacres of women and children, the Ministry did not fully realise the peril threatening our Indian possessions.
[Undated, ? June 1857.]
The Queen thinks that the persons decorated with the Victoria Cross might very properly be allowed to bear some distinctive mark after their name.21 The warrant instituting the decoration does not style it "an Order," but merely "a Naval and Military Decoration" and a distinction; nor is it properly speaking an order, being not constituted. V.C. would not do. K.G. means a Knight of the Garter, C.B. a Companion of the Bath, M.P. a Member of Parliament, M.D. a Doctor of Medicine, etc., etc., in all cases designating a person. No one could be called a Victoria Cross. V.C. moreover means Vice-Chancellor at present. D.V.C. (decorated with the Victoria Cross) or B.V.C. (Bearer of the Victoria Cross) might do. The Queen thinks the last the best.
Footnote 21: The Victoria Cross had just been instituted by Royal Warrant, and the Queen had, with her own hand, decorated those who had won the distinction, in Hyde Park, on the 26th of June.
Buckingham Palace, 29th June 1857.
The Queen has to acknowledge the receipt of Lord Panmure's letter of yesterday. She had long been of opinion that reinforcements waiting to go to India ought not to be delayed. The moment is certainly a very critical one, and the additional reinforcements now proposed will be much wanted. The Queen entirely agrees with Lord Panmure that it will be good policy to oblige the East India Company to keep permanently a larger portion of the Royal Army in India than heretofore. The Empire has nearly doubled itself within the last twenty years, and the Queen's troops have been kept at the old establishment. They are the body on whom the maintenance of that Empire depends, and the Company ought not to sacrifice the highest interests to love of patronage. The Queen hopes that the new reinforcements will be sent out in their Brigade organisation, and not as detached regiments; good Commanding Officers knowing their troops will be of the highest importance next to the troops themselves.
The Queen must ask that the troops by whom we shall be diminished at home by the transfer of so many regiments to the Company should be forthwith replaced by an increase of the establishment up to the number voted by Parliament, and for which the estimates have been taken, else we denude ourselves altogether to a degree dangerous to our own safety at home, and incapable of meeting a sudden emergency, which, as the present example shows, may come upon us at any moment. If we had not reduced in such a hurry this spring, we should now have all the men wanted!
The Queen wishes Lord Panmure to communicate this letter to Lord Palmerston. The accounts in to-day's papers from India are most distressing.
Buckingham Palace, 3rd July 1857.
The Queen has received Lord Panmure's letter of yesterday. She has sanctioned the going of four Regiments to the East Indies. With regard to the reduction of the garrison of Malta to four Regiments, she hopes the Government will well consider whether this will not reduce this valuable and exposed spot to a state of insecurity.
The Queen is sorry to find Lord Panmure still objecting to a proper Brigade system, without which no army in the world can be efficient. We want General Officers, and cannot train them unless we employ them on military duty, not on clerks' duty in district or colony, but in the command of troops. The detachment of Regiments is no reason for having no system, and the country will not pay for General Officers whose employment is not part of a system; our Army is then deprived of its efficiency by the refusal to adopt a system on the part of the Government.
Calcutta, 4th July 1857.
Lord Canning presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and although unable to give to your Majesty the complete details of the capture of Delhi, and of the defeat of the rebels in that city,22 as he has long desired to do, he can at least announce to your Majesty that the city is in the possession of the British troops, under Major-General Sir Henry Barnard; and that nothing remains in the hands of the insurgents except the Palace or Fort, in which they have all taken refuge. This was the state of things on the 13th and 14th of June, the latest day of which any certain accounts have been received from Delhi; but nothing was likely to interfere with the completion of the capture within forty-eight hours.
This event has been long and anxiously awaited, and the time which has elapsed has cost England and India very dear. Many precious lives have been lost, and much heartrending suffering has been endured, for which there can be no compensation. The reputation of England's power, too, has had a rude shake; and nothing but a long-continued manifestation of her might before the eyes of the whole Indian Empire, evinced by the presence of such an English force as shall make the thought of oppositon hopeless, will re-establish confidence in her strength.
Lord Canning much fears that there are parts of India where, until this is done, a complete return to peace and order will not be effected. Wherever the little band of English soldiers—little when compared with the stretch of country over which they have to operate—which Lord Canning has at his disposal has shown itself, the effect has been instantaneous.
Except at Delhi, there has scarcely been an attempt at resistance to an European soldier, and the march of the smallest detachments has preserved order right and left of the roads. The same has been the case in large cities, such as Benares, Patna, and others; all going to prove that little more than the presence of English troops is needed to ensure peace. On the other hand, where such troops are known not to be within reach, anarchy and violence, when once let loose, continue unrestrained; and, until further additions are made to the English regiments in the disturbed districts, this state of things will not only continue, but extend itself. The fall of Delhi will act to some degree as a check; but where rapine and outrage have raged uncontrolled, even for a few hours, it is to be feared that nothing but the actual presence of force will bring the country into order.
Lord Canning rejoices to say that to-day the first Regiment of your Majesty's Forces destined for China has entered the Hooghly. Lord Canning did not scruple, knowing how much was at stake, earnestly to press Lord Elgin to allow those forces to be turned aside to India before proceeding to the support of your Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China;23 and to this, so far as regards the first two Regiments, Lord Elgin readily assented. From what Lord Canning has ventured to state above, your Majesty will easily understand the satisfaction with which each new arrival of an English transport in Calcutta is regarded by him.
As yet no military operations south of Delhi have been undertaken. Next week, however, a column composed of your Majesty's 64th and 78th (Highland) Regiments will reach Cawnpore24 and Lucknow, in the neighbourhood of which it is probable that an opportunity will offer of striking a decisive blow at the band of rebels which, after that in Delhi, is the strongest and most compact. But Lord Canning greatly doubts whether they will await the onset. Unfortunately, they may run away from the English troops, and yet prove very formidable to any who are weaker than themselves—whether Indians or unarmed Europeans.
Your Majesty is aware that in the critical condition of affairs which now exists, Lord Canning has felt himself compelled to adopt the measure of placing the King of Oudh in confinement in Fort William, in consequence of the use made of his name by those who have been busy tampering with the Sepoys; and of the intrigues which there is good reason to believe that the Minister of the King, who is also in the Fort, has carried on in his master's name.25 The King has been, and will continue to be, treated with every mark of respect and indulgence which is compatible with his position, so long as it may be necessary that he should be retained in the Fort.
Lord Canning earnestly hopes that your Majesty and the Prince are in the enjoyment of good health, and prays your Majesty to be graciously pleased to accept the expression of his sincere devotion and dutiful attachment.
Footnote 22: After the outbreak at Meerut in May, the fugitive Sepoys fled to Delhi, and endeavoured to capture the magazine, which, however, was exploded by British soldiers. Delhi was not captured until September (see post, p. 249). On the 11th of July, the Government received intelligence of the spread of the Mutiny throughout Bengal, and the resulting diminution of the Indian Army.
Footnote 23: For Sir George Grey's action at Cape Town, in reference to the troops destined for China, see his Memoir, in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Footnote 24: On the 4th of June, two native regiments had mutinied at Cawnpore, and the English residents, under General Sir Hugh Wheeler, were besieged. After many deaths and much privation, the garrison were induced by the perfidy of Nana Sahib, who had caused the Cawnpore rising, to surrender, on condition of their lives being spared. On the 27th of June, not suspecting their impending fate, the enfeebled garrison, or what was left of it, gave themselves up. The men were killed, the women and children being first enslaved and afterwards massacred. On the 16th of July, General Havelock defeated Nana Sahib at Cawnpore, the city was occupied by the English, and a sanguinary, but well-merited, retribution exacted.
Footnote 25: The ex-King had been living under the protection of the Indian Government. The arrest took place early in June at his residence at Garden Beach.
Piccadilly, 27th July 1857.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that Mr Disraeli this afternoon, in a speech of three hours, made his Motion on the state of India. His Motion was ostensibly for two papers, one of which does not exist, at least in the possession of the Government, and the other of which ought not to be made public, as it relates to the arrangements for defending India against external attack. He represented the disturbances in India as a national revolt, and not as a mere military mutiny; and he enumerated various causes which in his opinion accounted, for and justified this general revolt. Some of these causes were various measures of improved civilisation which from time to time during the last ten years the Indian Government had been urged by Parliament to take. Mr Vernon Smith followed, and in a very able speech answered in great detail Mr Disraeli's allegations. Sir Erskine Perry,26 who evidently had furnished Mr Disraeli with much of his mistaken assertions, supported his views. Mr Campbell, Member for Weymouth, who had been many years in India, showed the fallacy of Mr Disraeli's arguments, and the groundlessness of many of his assertions. Mr Whiteside supported the Motion. Lord John Russell, who had after Mr Disraeli's speech communicated with the Government, expressed his disapprobation of Mr Disraeli's speech, and moved as an Amendment an Address to your Majesty expressing the assurance of the support of the House for measures to suppress the present disturbances, and their co-operation with your Majesty in measures for the permanent establishment of tranquillity and contentment in India.27 Mr Mangles, the Chairman of the Directors, replied at much length, and very conclusively to Mr Disraeli's speech. Mr Liddell, with much simplicity, asked the Speaker to tell him how he should vote, but approved entirely of Lord John Russell's address. Mr Ayrton moved an adjournment of the Debate, which was negatived by 203 to 79. Mr Hadfield then shortly stated in his provincial dialect that "we can never keep our 'old upon Hindia by the Force of Harms." Mr Disraeli then made an animated reply to the speeches against him, but in a manner almost too animated for the occasion. Mr Thomas Baring set Mr Disraeli right, but in rather strong terms, about some proceedings of the Committee on Indian Affairs in 1853, with regard to which Mr Disraeli's memory had proved untrustworthy. Viscount Palmerston shortly made some observations on the Motion and the speech which had introduced it; and the Motion was then negatived without a division, and the Address was unanimously carried.
Footnote 26: Chief Justice of Bombay 1847-1852, and M.P. for Devonport 1854-1859.
Footnote 27: "One of those dry constitutional platitudes," said Mr Disraeli in reply, "which in a moment of difficulty the noble lord pulls out of the dusty pigeon-holes of his mind, and shakes in the perplexed face of the baffled House of Commons." Mr Disraeli was admittedly much annoyed by the statesmanlike intervention of Lord John.
Osborne, 27th July 1857.
My dearest Uncle,—At this very moment the marriage28 is going on—the Knot is being tied which binds your lovely sweet child to a thoroughly worthy husband—and I am sure you will be much moved. May every blessing attend her! I wish I could be present—but my dearest Half being there makes me feel as I were there myself. I try to picture to myself how all will be. I could not give you a greater proof of my love for you all, and my anxiety to give you and dearest Charlotte pleasure, than in urging my dearest Albert to go over—for I encouraged and urged him to go though you cannot think combien cela me coûte or how completely déroutée I am and feel when he is away, or how I count the hours till he returns. All the numerous children are as nothing to me when he is away; it seems as if the whole life of the house and home were gone, when he is away!
We do all we can to fêter in our very quiet way this dear day. We are all out of mourning; the younger children are to have a half-holiday, Alice is to dine for the first time in the evening with us; we shall drink the Archduke and Archduchess's healths; and I have ordered wine for our servants, and grog for our sailors to do the same.
Vicky (who is painting in the Alcove near me) wishes me to say everything to you and the dear young couple, and pray tell dear Charlotte all that we have been doing....
Here we are in anxious (and I fear many people in very cruel) suspense, for news from India. They ought to have arrived the day before yesterday.
On Thursday, then, we are to have Prince Napoleon, and on the following Thursday the Emperor and Empress; and after them for one night, the Queen of Holland,29 whose activity is astounding—and she sees everything and everybody and goes everywhere; she is certainly clever and amiable....
Now, with our children's affectionate love, ever your devoted Niece,
Pray offer my kind regards to all your visitors, even to those whom I do not know. I only hope my dearest husband will tell me all about everything. Vicky is constantly talking and thinking of Charlotte.
Footnote 28: Of the Princess Charlotte to the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian at Brussels.
Footnote 29: Sophia Frederica, born 1818, daughter of King William I. of Würtemberg.
Osborne, 2nd August 1857.
The Queen has to thank Lord Palmerston for his letter of the 27th July.
The embodying of the Militia will be a most necessary measure, as well for the defence of our own country, and for keeping up on the Continent of Europe the knowledge that we are not in a defenceless state, as for the purpose of obtaining a sufficient number of volunteers for the Army.
The Queen hopes, therefore, that the Militia to be embodied will be on a proper and sufficient scale. She must say, that the last accounts from India show so formidable a state of things that the military measures hitherto taken by the Home Government, on whom the salvation of India must mainly depend, appear to the Queen as by no means adequate to the emergency. We have nearly gone to the full extent of our available means, just as we did in the Crimean War, and may be able to obtain successes; but we have not laid in a store of troops, nor formed Reserves which could carry us over a long struggle, or meet unforeseen new calls. Herein we are always most shortsighted, and have finally to suffer either in power and reputation, or to pay enormous sums for small advantages in the end—generally both.
The Queen hopes that the Cabinet will look the question boldly in the face; nothing could be better than the Resolutions passed in the House of Commons, insuring to the Government every possible support in the adoption of vigorous measures. It is generally the Government, and not the House of Commons, who hang back. The Queen wishes Lord Palmerston to communicate this letter to his Colleagues.
Osborne, 4th August 1857.
The defenceless state of our shores, now that the Army has been reduced to eighteen effective Battalions, and the evident inclinations of the Continental Powers, chiefly France and Russia, to dictate to us with regard to the Oriental Question, makes the Queen naturally turn her attention to the state of our naval preparations and force.
To render it possible to salute the Emperor30 when he comes here, the old St Vincent has been brought out of the harbour, but has been manned chiefly by the men of the Excellent gunnery ship; and we have been warned by the Admiralty not to visit the Excellent in consequence. This does not show a very brilliant condition! But what is still more worthy of consideration is, that our new fleet, which had been completed at the end of the Russian War, was a steam fleet; when it was broken up at the Peace the dockyard expenses were also cut down, and men discharged at the very moment when totally new and extensive arrangements became necessary to repair and keep in a state of efficiency the valuable steam machinery, and to house our gunboat flotilla on shore. To render any of these steamships fit for sea, now that they are dismantled, with our small means as to basins and docks, must necessarily cost much time.
The Queen wishes accordingly to have a report sent to her as to the force of screw-ships of the Line and of other classes which can be got ready at the different dockyards, and the time required to get them to sea for actual service; and also the time required to launch and get ready the gunboats. She does not wish for a mere general answer from the Lords of the Admiralty, but for detailed reports from the Admirals commanding at the different ports, and particularly the Captains in command of the Steam Reserve. She would only add that she wishes no unnecessary time to be lost in the preparation of these reports. She requests Lord Palmerston to have these, her wishes, carried out.
Footnote 30: The Emperor and Empress of the French arrived at Osborne on the 6th of August on a visit to the Queen and Prince, lasting for four days, during which time much discussion took place between the Prince and Emperor on affairs in Eastern Europe.
Osborne, 22nd August 1857.
The Queen is afraid from the telegram of this morning that affairs in India have not yet taken a favourable turn. Delhi seems still to hold out, and the death of Sir H. Lawrence31 is a great loss. The Queen must repeat to Lord Palmerston that the measures hitherto taken by the Government are not commensurate with the magnitude of the crisis.
We have given nearly all we have in reinforcements, and if new efforts should become necessary, by the joining of the Madras and Bombay Armies in the Revolt, for instance, it will take months to prepare Reserves which ought now to be ready. Ten Battalions of Militia to be called out is quite inadequate; forty, at least, ought to be the number, for these also exist only on paper. The augmentation of the Cavalry and the Guards has not yet been ordered.
Financial difficulties don't exist; the 14,000 men sent to India are taken over by the Indian Government, and their expense saved to us; and this appears hardly the moment to make savings on the Army estimates.
Footnote 31: On the previous day, the Queen and Prince had returned from a visit to Cherbourg, and found very disquieting news from India. Sir Henry Lawrence was the Military Administrator and Chief Commissioner of Oudh; on the 30th of May, the 71st N.I. mutinied at Lucknow, but Sir Henry drove them from their position and fortified the Residency. Some weeks later, on sallying out to reconnoitre, the English were driven back and besieged in the Residency; Sir Henry dying from the effects of a wound caused by a shell.