Laeken, 1st April 1861.
My beloved Victoria,—Your dear letter of the 30th moved me very much. I can see everything, and it makes me shed tears of the sincerest sorrow.
The bereavement, the impossibility, they are what one feels most deeply and painfully, that nothing will bring back the beloved object, that there is a rupture with everything earthly that nothing can remedy. Your good, dear Mamma was without ostentation, sincerely religious, a great blessing, and the only solid support we can find. Happy those whose faith cannot be shaken; they can bear the hardships of earthly life with fortitude.
True it is that if we compare the sorrows of our earthly life with the hope of an eternal existence, though painfully felt, still they shrink as it were in appreciation.
You feel so truly, so affectionately, that even in that you must gratify the dear being we lost. When I think of poor Aunt Julia,12 she was so alone that I cannot help to pity her even in all the objects she valued and left behind; the affectionate care which is shown to everything connected with your dear Mamma could not have existed, and still she was a noble character, and with a warm, generous heart. In all your dear Mamma's letters there will everywhere be found traces of the affection which united us. From early childhood we were close allies; she recollected everything so well of that period which now, since the departure of the two sisters, is totally unknown to every one but me, which, you can imagine, is a most melancholy sensation. Time flies so fast that all dear recollections soon get isolated. Your stay at Osborne will do you good, though Spring, when fine, affects one very much, to think that the one that was beloved does not share in these pleasant sensations. You must try, however, not to shake your precious health too much. Your dear Mamma, who watched your looks so affectionately, would not approve of it.... Your devoted old Uncle,
Footnote 12: Sister of King Leopold, and widow of the Grand Duke Constantine, who had lived in retirement at Geneva for many years, and died at Elfenau on the 15th of August 1860.
Osborne, 9th April 1861.
My dearly beloved Uncle,—Your dear, sad letter of the 5th found a warm response in my poor heart, and I thank you with all my heart for it. I am now most anxiously waiting for an answer to my letter asking you to come to us now. You would, I think, find it soothing, and it would painfully interest you to look over her letters and papers, which make me live in times I heard her talk of when I was a child. It is touching to find how she treasured up every little flower, every bit of hair. I found some of dear Princess Charlotte's, and touching relics of my poor Father, in a little writing-desk of his I had never seen, with his last letters to her, and her notes after his death written in a little book, expressing such longing to be reunited to him! Now she is! And what a comfort it is to think how many very dear ones are gone on before her whom she will find! All these notes show how very, very much she and my beloved Father loved each other. Such love and affection! I hardly knew it was to that extent. Then her love for me—it is too touching! I have found little books with the accounts of my babyhood, and they show such unbounded tenderness! Oh! I am so wretched to think how, for a time, two people most wickedly estranged us!... To miss a mother's friendship—not to be able to have her to confide in—when a girl most needs it, was fearful! I dare not think of it—it drives me wild now! But thank God! that is all passed long, long ago, and she had forgotten it, and only thought of the last very happy years.
And all that was brought by my good angel, dearest Albert, whom she adored, and in whom she had such unbounded confidence....
On Sunday our dear little Beatrice was four years old. It upset me much, for she was the idol of that beloved Grandmamma, and the child so fond of her. She continually speaks of her—how she "is in Heaven," but hopes she will return! She is a most darling, engaging child.... Ever your devoted Niece,
Osborne, 27th May 1861.
The Queen returns the proposed draft of answer to the observations of the Russian Government on Lord John Russell's proposals with regard to the Danish Question. She has to observe that this reverses the whole position taken by us hitherto. Prince Gortschakoff is quite right in reminding us that the engagements taken in 185213 did not contain a formal guarantee (obliging to take up arms for the defence of the object guaranteed) in deference to the opinion of the British Government which, on general principles, has always objected to such engagements. These principles are as important now as ever, and yet Lord John proposes "to renew the guarantee of the integrity of the Danish Monarchy contained in the Treaty of 8th May 1852," thereby giving those engagements the force of a guarantee, which was on principle objected to by us at the time. Both Russia and France in their answers object to such a guarantee now, even with regard to Schleswig alone, as involving the guaranteeing powers in future grave difficulties, and Lord John proposes to extend it to Holstein, a part of Germany and not of Denmark, by way of obviating the difficulty. The Queen cannot give her sanction to this proposal.
Footnote 13: A Treaty was signed by the European Powers on the 8th of May 1852, by which the succession of the line of Sonderburg-Glücksburg to the Danish throne was settled, and the integrity of the kingdom guaranteed. See ante, vol. ii. p. 358.
Foreign Office, 30th May 1861.
Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; he has the honour to submit letters from the Emperor and Empress of Austria of a private nature. The Cabinet decided yesterday that the ports of your Majesty's Dominions ought to be closed to the ships of war and privateers of the Belligerents in America.14 A letter for that object has been sent to the Law Officers of the Crown, and will be, when put into proper form, submitted for your Majesty's approbation.
Footnote 14: See Introductory Note, ante, p. 421.
Osborne, 30th May 1861.
The Queen returns these papers. She thinks it of great importance that we should be strong in Canada, and thinks an increase in Artillery as important as the sending of two more battalions, as that Arm cannot be supplied at all by the Colony. The Naval forces would, however, require strengthening even more. It is less likely that the remnant of the United States could send expeditions by land to the North while quarrelling with the South, than that they should commit acts of violence at sea.
Buckingham Palace, 5th June 1861.
The Queen has perused the accompanying draft to Sir James Hudson. She is of opinion that so important a step as proposals on our part for the solution of the Roman Question, with which we are not directly concerned, and for the solution of which we are for many obvious reasons perhaps the Power possessing the least favourable position, is a subject of such great importance, that it should not be undertaken without the most mature consideration. Has this draft been brought before the Cabinet? The Queen wishes to have their united advice before giving her decision. Her opinion at present is against our volunteering a scheme which will render us responsible for the result of grave complications, from which we have hitherto stood happily quite clear. The Queen wishes these lines to be communicated to the Cabinet.15
Footnote 15: Lord John Russell had written that the withdrawal of the French troops from Rome would probably be followed by tumults and bloodshed; and as both the Roman party and Garibaldi hated the Government of the Pope, and wished to put an end to his temporal power, he suggested that the Pope should be allowed to retain his sovereignty during his lifetime, in a restricted territory and with restricted powers; that Italian troops should occupy the towns and villages outside a limit of five miles from Rome; and that the King of Italy and the Emperor of the French should agree not to recognise the temporal power of any future Pope.
Pembroke Lodge, 6th June 1861.
Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; the despatch relating to Rome had been sent, seeming to Lord John Russell quite unobjectionable. But your Majesty will see that it was instantly suspended, and that Count Cavour is dying.16 The despatch was solely intended to save the poor old Pope from insult, and Rome from tumult, but beyond this it is of no consequence, and the death of Cavour may give a new complexion to the affairs of Italy.
Nothing will be done on the despatch at present.
Footnote 16: Count Cavour died at Turin on the 6th of June. It is curious to note that the words of the Emperor Napoleon, on hearing of the death of Cavour, appear to have been "Le cocher est tombé du siège; il faut voir maintenant si les chevaux iront s'emporter, ou rentrer à l'écurie."
Piccadilly, 18th June 1861.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty....
Viscount Palmerston submits a note from Garter King at Arms, by which your Majesty will see that there are now three Garters vacant; and Viscount Palmerston would beg to suggest for your Majesty's consideration that those Garters might appropriately be conferred upon Lord Canning for his great services in India, upon Lord John Russell for his long political services under your Majesty, and upon the Duke of Somerset, senior Duke after the Duke of Norfolk, and the able administrator of an important branch of your Majesty's service.17
Viscount Palmerston is not aware whether by the regulations of the Order the Garter could be sent out to Lord Canning in India. If that were possible, it might have the double advantage of strengthening his hands during the remainder of his stay, by affording so public a mark of your Majesty's approval; and moreover of making sure that Lord Canning should receive this mark of your Majesty's royal favour, while the Government is in the hands of an administration similar to that at whose recommendation he was sent out, which perhaps might be more agreeable to his feelings than running the chance, always possible, though Viscount Palmerston hopes it may not be probable, that political combinations might, before his return in May or June 1862, have produced administrative changes.
Footnote 17: The Duke was First Lord of the Admiralty. All the three Peers mentioned received the Garter early in 1862.
24th June 1861.
The Queen approves of Sir R. Bethell18 as Lord Campbell's successor. Lord Palmerston is aware of the Queen's objections to the appointment; they will have weighed with him as much as with her. If therefore he finally makes this recommendation, the Queen must assume that under all the circumstances he considers it the best solution of the difficulty, and that his Colleagues take the same view.
Footnote 18: Lord Campbell died at the age of eighty-two; his successor was created Lord Westbury.
Stafford House, 26th June 1861.
Madam,—I shall never forget your Majesty and the Prince's kindness.19
I am anxious to tell your Majesty as strongly as it was, what his feeling was of my service to your Majesty; he approved and delighted in it; dear as it was to me—it could not have been if this had not been so, nor those occasional absences, if he had not had devoted children when I was away; still, when the great parting comes one grudges every hour, and the yearning is terrible.
Even in his last illness he showed an anxious feeling, as if he feared I might resign, saying that I knew what an interest it had been to him, how he had liked hearing of the Queen and her family. He spoke very late in life of your Majesty's constant kindness. This feeling and early associations made him take a great interest in the Princess Royal's marriage, which did not leave him. If it ever crossed your Majesty—if your Majesty should ever feel that I might have been devoted, if I had had but one service, pray believe that he took the greatest pleasure and pride in that other great service; and that therefore he really felt it best it should be so.
Since I have written this I have received your Majesty's most kind letter—and the precious gift of the photograph so wonderfully like, and rendering exactly that most kind and loving countenance. I shall like much sending one to your Majesty of my dearest husband.
I repeat to myself the precious word that I am dear to your Majesty again and again; and that my love to your Majesty was returned. How often I shall think of this in my altered life, in my solitude of heart! The admiration I have ever felt for the Prince has been one of the great pleasures of my life; that he should be your Majesty's husband, a constant thankfulness. I feel I owe him much, and that great approbation and admiration are not barren feelings. I have the honour to remain, Madam, your Majesty's devoted Subject,
I fear I have written worse than usual—I can hardly see to do so—weak eyes and tears.
Footnote 19: The Duke of Sutherland had died in the preceding February.
Piccadilly, 8th July 1861.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state that Lord Elcho20 this afternoon moved a Resolution that the new Foreign Office should not be built in the Palladian style. Mr Charles Buxton seconded the Motion. Mr Cowper21 opposed it, stating reasons for preferring the Italian style to the Gothic. Mr Layard was for neither, but seemed to wish that somebody would invent a new style of architecture. Mr Tite,22 the architect, was strongly for the Italian style; Lord John Manners, swayed by erroneous views in religion and taste, was enthusiastic for Gothic;23 Mr Dudley Fortescue confided in a low voice to a limited range of hearers some weak arguments in favour of Gothic; Mr Osborne seemed to be against everything that anybody had ever proposed, and wanted to put off the building till some plan better suited to his own taste should have been invented. Viscount Palmerston answered the objections made to the Italian plan, and Lord Elcho's Motion was negatived by 188 to 75. The House then went into Committee of Supply, and the first estimate being that for the Foreign Office, some of the Gothic party who had not been able to deliver their speeches on Lord Elcho's Motion, let them off on this estimate....
Footnote 20: Now Earl of Wemyss.
Footnote 21: Mr William Cowper, at this time First Commissioner of Works.
Footnote 22: Mr (afterwards Sir) William Tite, was now Member for Bath; he had been the architect entrusted with the task of rebuilding the Royal Exchange.
Footnote 23: Mr Gilbert Scott had made his first designs for the new Foreign Office in the Gothic style; his appointment as architect for the building was made by the Derby Government, but the scheme which they favoured, for a Gothic building, was opposed by Lord Palmerston, and Scott adopted the Italian style in deference to his views.
Osborne, 24th July 1861.
The Queen is sorry that she cannot alter her determination about Mr Layard.24 She fully recognises the importance of the Parliamentary exigencies; but the Queen cannot sacrifice to them the higher interests of the country. Neither Mr Layard nor Mr Osborne ought to be proposed as representatives of the Foreign Office in the House of Commons, and therefore of the Crown to foreign countries. If Lord Palmerston can bring Mr Layard into office in some other place, to get his assistance in the House of Commons, she will not object.
Footnote 24: In the course of July, Lord John Russell, who had entered Parliament for the first time in 1813, was raised to the Peerage as Earl Russell and Viscount Amberley. To supply the loss to the Government of two such powerful debaters as Lord Russell and Lord Herbert, Lord Palmerston had suggested Mr Layard as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, mentioning also the claims of Mr Bernal Osborne.
94 Piccadilly, 24th July 1861.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and regrets very much to find that he has not succeeded in removing your Majesty's objections to Mr Layard as Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign Department; but he still hopes that he may be able to do so. If he rightly understands your Majesty's last communication on this subject, he is led to infer that your Majesty's main objection is founded on a dislike that Mr Layard should be the representative and organ of the Foreign Policy of the Crown in the House of Commons.
With regard to his being a subordinate officer in the Foreign Office, your Majesty's sanction to that was obtained in 1851-52, when Mr Layard was Under-Secretary to Lord Granville. His tenure of office at that time was short; not from any fault of his, but because the Government of that day was overthrown by Viscount Palmerston's Motion in the House of Commons in February 1852 about the Militia; and Lord Granville speaks highly of Mr Layard's performance of his official duties at that time. There is no reason, but the reverse, for thinking him less competent now than then; and an Under-Secretary of State is only the instrument and mouthpiece of his principal to say what he is told, and to write what he is bid.
With regard to Mr Layard's position in the House of Commons, he would in no respect be the representative of the Foreign Policy of the country; that function will belong to Viscount Palmerston, now that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will be removed to the House of Lords, and it will be Viscount Palmerston's duty and care to see that nobody infringes upon that function. Mr Layard would be useful to answer unimportant questions as to matters of fact, but all questions involving the Foreign Policy of the country will be answered by Viscount Palmerston as head of the Government, as was done when Lord Clarendon was Foreign Secretary and in the House of Lords. But there are not unfrequently great debates on Foreign Affairs in the House of Commons, and there are many members, some of them not perhaps of great weight, who join in attacks on such matters. It is of great importance to your Majesty's Government to have a sufficient number of speakers on such occasions. Lord John Russell and Lord Herbert were ready and powerful. Mr Gladstone is almost the only one on the Treasury Bench who follows up foreign questions close enough to take an active part; it would be of great advantage to Viscount Palmerston to have as assistant on such occasions a man like Mr Layard, knowing the details of matters discussed, able to make a good speech in reply to Mr Fitzgerald, or Mr Baillie Cochrane,25 or Mr Hennessy,26 or Sir G. Bowyer,27 and who would shape his course in strict conformity with the line which might be chalked out for him by Viscount Palmerston. Your Majesty need therefore be under no apprehension that Mr Layard or anybody else, who might in the House of Commons hold the office of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, would appear to the world as the organ or representative of the Foreign Policy of your Majesty's Government. With respect to giving Mr Layard any other office of the same kind, there is none other in which he could be placed without putting into the Foreign Office somebody far less fit for it, and putting Mr Layard into some office for which he is far less fit. His fitness is for the Foreign Department, and to use the illustration, which was a favourite one of the late Mr Drummond, it would be putting the wrong man into the wrong hole. Viscount Palmerston has, as charged with the conduct of the business of the Government in the House of Commons, sustained a severe loss by the removal of two most able and useful colleagues, Lord Herbert and Lord John Russell, and he earnestly hopes that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to assist him in his endeavours, not indeed to supply their place, but in some degree to lessen the detriment which their removal has occasioned.
Footnote 25: Afterwards Lord Lamington.
Footnote 26: Mr (afterwards Sir) John Pope Hennessy, M.P. for King's County.
Footnote 27: M.P. for Dundalk.
Osborne, 25th July 1861.
The Prince has reported to the Queen all that Lord Palmerston said to him on the subject of Mr Layard; this has not had the effect of altering her opinion as to the disqualifications of that gentleman for the particular office for which Lord Palmerston proposes him. This appointment would, in the Queen's opinion, be a serious evil. If Lord Palmerston on sincere self-examination should consider that without it the difficulty of carrying on his Government was such as to endanger the continuance of its success, the Queen will, of course, have to admit an evil for the country in order to avert a greater. She still trusts, however, that knowing the nature of the Queen's objections, he will not place her in this dilemma.
94 Piccadilly, 26th July 1861.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to be allowed to make his grateful and respectful acknowledgments for your Majesty's gracious and condescending acquiescence in his recommendation of Mr Layard for the appointment of Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign Department. It is always a source of most sincere pain to Viscount Palmerston to find himself differing, on any point, in opinion with your Majesty, a respect for whose soundness of judgment, and clearness of understanding, must always lead him to distrust the value of his own conclusions when they differ from those to which your Majesty has arrived. But the question about Mr Layard turned mainly upon considerations connected with the conduct of public business of your Majesty's Government in the House of Commons.
Viscount Palmerston sits in that House four days in every week during the Session of Parliament, from half-past four in the afternoon to any hour however late after midnight at which the House may adjourn. It is his duty carefully to watch the proceedings of the House, and to observe and measure the fluctuating bearings of Party and of sectional associations on the present position of the Government, and on its chances for the future; and he is thus led to form conclusions as to persons and parties which may not equally strike, or with equal force, those who from without and from higher regions may see general results without being eye- and ear-witnesses of the many small and successive details out of which those results are built up.
It was thus that Viscount Palmerston was led to a strong conviction that the proposed appointment of Mr Layard would be a great advantage to your Majesty's Government as regards the conduct of business in the House of Commons, and the position of your Majesty's Government in that House; and he is satisfied that he will be able to prevent Mr Layard in any subsidiary part which he may have to take in any discussion on foreign questions, from departing from the line which may be traced out for him by Lord John Russell and Viscount Palmerston....
Osborne, 13th August 1861.
My beloved Uncle,—Since Saturday we have great heat. Our King of Sweden28 arrived yesterday evening. We went out in the yacht to meet him, and did so; but his ship going slow, the dress of the hohen Herrn only arrived at a quarter to nine, and we only sat down to dinner at a quarter past nine! The King and Prince Oscar29 are very French, and very Italian! I think that there is a dream of a Scandinavian Kingdom floating before them. The King is a fine-looking man.... He is not at all difficult to get on with, and is very civil. Oscar is very amiable and mild, and very proud of his three little boys. They leave again quite early to-morrow.
Our dear children leave us, alas! on Friday quite early, for Antwerp.30 It will again be a painful trial! Their stay has been very pleasant and gemüthlich, and we have seen more of and known dear Fritz more thoroughly than we ever did before, and really he is very excellent, and would, I am convinced, make an excellent King. The little children are very great darlings, and we shall miss them sadly.
On the 16th we go to poor, dear Frogmore, and on the 17th we shall visit that dear grave! Last year she was still so well, and so full of life; but it was a very sad birthday, two days after the loss of that dear beloved sister, whom she has joined so soon! Oh! the agony of Wehmuth, the bitterness of the blank, do not get better with time! Beloved Mamma, how hourly she is in my mind!
The King of Prussia will have great pleasure in visiting you at Wiesbaden; he will arrive at Ostend on the 16th....
Good-bye, and God bless you, dearest Uncle. Ever your devoted Niece,
Footnote 28: Charles XV., who succeeded to the throne in 1859.
Footnote 29: Brother and heir to Charles XV., whom he succeeded, as Oscar II., in 1872; died 1907.
Footnote 30: The Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, accompanied by their two children, were on a visit to the Queen.
Downing Street, 14th August 1861.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and hastens to answer the enquiry contained in your Majesty's note, which was delivered to him at Southampton. He must, in the first place, explain that much of what was said to him by the King of Sweden and by Prince Oscar was not clearly understood by him. They would both speak English—which they spoke with difficulty and in an indistinct utterance of voice—and he did not like to break the conversation into French, because to have done so would have looked like a condemnation of their English, of any imperfection of which they did not seem to be at all conscious.
The King was very guarded in all he said about France; the Prince spoke with more freedom and with less caution. The result of what Viscount Palmerston gathered from their conversation, and perhaps for this purpose they may be put together, because they probably both feel and think nearly alike, though the Prince lets his thoughts out more than the King, may be summed up as follows.
They were much pleased and flattered by the kind and friendly reception given them by the French Emperor, and both he and they seem to have had present to their minds that the existing Royal Family of Sweden is descended from General Bernadotte—a General in the Army of the First Napoleon. They think the French Emperor sincerely desirous of maintaining his alliance with England, believing it to be for his interest to do so. But they consider the French Nation essentially aggressive, and they think that the Emperor is obliged to humour that national feeling, and to follow, as far as the difference of circumstances will allow, the policy of his Uncle. They consider the principle of nationalities to be the deciding principle of the day, and accordingly Venetia ought to belong to Italy, Poland ought to be severed from Russia, and Finland ought to be restored to Sweden. Holstein should be purely German with its own Duke, Schleswig should be united to Denmark, and when the proper time comes, Denmark, so constituted, ought to form one Monarchy with Sweden and Norway. But they see that there are great if not insuperable obstacles to all these arrangements, and they do not admit that the Emperor of the French talked to them about these things, or about the map of Europe revised for 1860. They lamented the dangerous state of the Austrian Empire by reason of its financial embarrassments, and its differences between Vienna and Hungary. They admitted the difficulty of re-establishing a Polish State, seeing that Russia, Prussia, and Austria are all interested in preventing it; but they thought that Russia might make herself amends to the Eastward for giving up part of her Polish possessions.
They said the Swedes would be more adverse than the Danes to a Union of Denmark with Sweden. They said the Finns are writhing under the Russian yoke, and emigrate in considerable numbers to Sweden. They think Russia paralysed for ten years to come by her war against England and France, by her internal changes, and her money embarrassments. When the Prince asked Viscount Palmerston to sit down, it was for the purpose of urging in the strongest and most earnest manner that some British ships of war, or even one single gunboat, if more could not be spared, should every year visit the Baltic, and make a cruise in that sea. He said that the British Flag was never seen there, although Great Britain has great interests, commercial and political, in that sea. That especially for Sweden it would be a great support if a British man-of-war were every year to show itself in Swedish waters. He said that our Navy know little or nothing of the Baltic, and when a war comes, as happened in the late war with Russia, our ships are obliged, as it were, to feel their way about in the dark; that the Russians send ships of war into British ports—why should not England send ships of war into Russian ports? That we survey seas at the other side of the Globe, why should we not survey a sea so near to us as the Baltic; that as far as Sweden is concerned, British ships would be most cordially received. I said that this should receive due consideration; and in answer to a question he said the best time for a Baltic cruise would be from the middle of June to the latter end of August.
They both thought the Emperor of the French extremely popular in France—but, of course, they only saw outward demonstrations. They are very anxious for the maintenance of the Anglo-French Alliance; and they think the Emperor obliged to keep a large Army and to build a strong Navy in order to please and satisfy the French Nation. Such is the summary of the impression made upon Viscount Palmerston by the answers and observations drawn out by him in his conversations with the King and the Prince; most of these things were said as above reported, some few of the above statements are perhaps inferences and conclusions drawn from indirect answers and remarks.
Osborne, 18th August 1861.
The Queen is very much obliged to Lord Palmerston for his detailed account of his conversation with the King of Sweden, and sends both Memorandums back to him in accordance with his wishes, in the expectation of having them returned to her after they shall have been copied.
The King may have been embarrassed by the presence of the Crown Prince of Prussia here at Osborne, and have on that account postponed speaking openly to Lord Palmerston. His desire to acquire Denmark and Finland is not unnatural, and would not be very dangerous; but the important part of the matter is, that the Emperor Napoleon has evidently tried to bribe him for his schemes by such expectations. After having established a large kingdom, dependent upon him and possessing a fleet, in the South of Europe on his right flank, he evidently tries to establish by the same means a similar power on his left flank in the North. If then the Revolution of Poland and Hungary takes Germany also in the rear, he will be exactly in the all-powerful position which his Uncle held, and at which he himself aims, with that one difference: that, unlike his Uncle, who had to fight England all the time (who defended desperately her interests in Europe), he tries to effect his purposes in alliance with England, and uses for this end our own free Press and in our own free country!
The Polish and Hungarian Revolutions (perhaps the Russian) and the assistance which may be (nobly?) given to them by Sweden, can easily be made as popular in this country as the Italian has, and efforts to produce this result are fully visible already. The position and prospects of the Ally, when the Emperor shall have the whole Continent at his feet, and the command of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, will not be a very pleasant one. Moreover, the Ally will probably have irritated him and the French Nation all the time by abusing them, and by showing that, although we may have approved of her policy, we did not intend that France should reap any benefits from it. All this is probably not thought of by our journalists, but requires the serious attention of our statesmen.
Lord Palmerston will perhaps show this letter to Lord Russell when he sends him the copies of the Memoranda, which he will probably do.
Osborne, 20th August 1861.
My beloved Uncle,—Before I thank you for your dear letter of the 14th, or at least before I answer it, I wish to tell you how soothed I was by that visit to that lovely peaceful Mausoleum at Frogmore.
We parted from our dear children and grandchildren with heavy hearts at seven on the morning of the 16th, for their visit, excepting the blank which clouds over everything, has been most peaceful and satisfactory, and we have learnt to know and most highly appreciate the great excellence of dear Fritz's character; noble, high-principled, so anxious to do what is right, and to improve in every way, and so sweet-tempered and affectionate—so, beyond everything, devoted to Vicky.
I thought much of poor, dear Aunt Julia on the 15th; that loss was the signal for my irreparable one!
We went that afternoon (16th) to Frogmore, where we slept. The first evening was terribly trying, and I must say quite overpowered me for a short time; all looked like life, and yet she was not there! But I got calmer; the very fact of being surrounded by all she liked, and of seeing the dear pretty house inhabited again, was a satisfaction, and the next morning was beautiful, and we went after breakfast with wreaths up to the Mausoleum, and into the vault which is à plain-pied, and so pretty—so airy—so grand and simple, that, affecting as it is, there was no anguish or bitterness of grief, but calm repose! We placed the wreaths upon the splendid granite sarcophagus, and at its feet, and felt that only the earthly robe we loved so much was there. The pure, tender, loving spirit which loved us so tenderly, is above us—loving us, praying for us, and free from all suffering and woe—yes, that is a comfort, and that first birthday in another world must have been a far brighter one than any in this poor world below! I only grieve now that we should be going so far away from Frogmore, as I long to go there; only Alice and dear Augusta Bruce31(who feels as a daughter of hers) went with us. The morning was so beautiful, and the garden so lovely!...
The news from Austria are very sad, and make one very anxious. The King of Sweden is full of wild notions put into his head by the Emperor Napoleon, for whom he has the greatest admiration!...
It is high time I should end my long letter. With Albert's affectionate love, ever your devoted Niece,
Footnote 31: Lady Augusta Bruce, who bad been living with the Duchess of Kent at the time of her death, was appointed by the Queen to be her resident Bedchamber Woman.