Volume I Part 102 (1/2)
_The Queen of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._
NEUILLY, _21st July 1842._
MY BELOVED VICTORIA,--I was unable to thank you the other day for your kind and feeling letter of the 14th, although I was greatly touched by it, and I trust you will have excused me. I thank you to-day very sincerely for both your letters, and for the share and sympathy you and dear Albert take in our _great misfortune_. I know it is very heart-felt, and we are all very grateful for it. Victoire and my poor mother have already given you news from the unfortunate Helene.
She has sustained and outlived the first shock and shows wonderful courage. She is even well in health, and much better and stronger in all ways than I had expected. She takes very much upon herself on account of the poor children, to prevent that any melancholy or painful feeling should be connected for them with the remembrance of their beloved and unfortunate father. My parents show great fort.i.tude and resignation, but their hearts are for ever broke. They are only sustained by their feeling of duty. My poor mother bears up for my father, and my father bears up to fulfil his duties of father and of king. Their health is, thank G.o.d! good, and my father retains all his strength of mind and quickness of judgment; but they are both grown old in looks, and their hairs are turned quite white.
The first days, my poor father could do nothing but sob, and it was really heartbreaking to see him. He begins now to have more command upon his grief, and the presence of your uncle, whom he dearly loves, seems to do him good. The poor children are well and _merry_ and seem unconscious of their dreadful loss. From time to time only they jump round us as if looking for protection. The contrast of their gaiety with their horrid misfortune is very painful. Paris is looking remarkably well and strong. Robert[53] is much grown, extremely quick and lively, and begins to speak. The remainder of the family is, as you may easily imagine, in the _deepest affliction_. Nemours especially is quite broken down with grief. Chartres was _more_ than a _brother_ to him, as he was _more_ than a _second father_ to us all.
He was the _head_ and the _heart_ and _soul_ of the whole family. We all looked up to him, and we found him on all occasions. A _better_, or even _such_ a brother was never seen; our loss is as great as irreparable; but G.o.d's will be done! He had surely His motives in sending on my unfortunate parents the horrid affliction in their old days, and in removing from us the being who seemed the _most necessary_ to the hope and happiness of all; we must submit to His decrees, hard as they are; but it is impossible not to regret that my poor brother has not at least found the death of a soldier, which he had always wished for, instead of such a useless, horrid, and miserable one! It seems, for no one saw him fall, that he did not jump, as we had thought at first, but that he was thrown from the barouche, while standing; and I like it in some measure better so, as G.o.d's will is still more manifest in this way. It is equally manifest in _all_ the circ.u.mstances attending the catastrophe. My poor brother was not even to have come to Neuilly. He had taken leave of my parents the day before, and would not have gone again if my unfortunate mother had not asked him, and if my parents, who were to go to Paris, had not delayed their departure....
I thank you again and again, my beloved Victoria, for all your interest and sympathy. I was sure you would think of us and of me: you know how much I loved my brother. I little expected to outlive him, as I had done my beloved Mary;[54] but once more, _G.o.d's will be done_. I remain now and ever, yours most devotedly,
LOUISE.
I perceive I forgot mentioning Ernest. Pray thank him for his sympathy also. He knows what a brother is, and may feel for us! We expect on Sat.u.r.day poor Joinville. My father will have thus his four remaining sons round him for the opening of the Session, which takes place on the 26th, and at which he must preside in person. It is a hard duty for him.
[Footnote 53: The young Duc de Chartres, born in 1840.]
[Footnote 54: See _ante_, p. 144. (Ch. VIII, Footnote 8)]
[Pageheading: THE CORN LAWS]
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _23rd July 1842._
Sir Robert Peel, with his humble duty to your Majesty, begs leave to acquaint your Majesty that last night was occupied in the House of Commons with another debate on the Corn Laws, again impeding any progress with the Government business. The debate was entirely confined to those members who act in concert with the Anti-Corn Law League.[55] It continued until twelve, when Mr Cobden, the Member for Stockport, moved an adjournment of the House, on the ground that none of your Majesty's servants had taken a part in the debate....
Several members of the Opposition voted with the Government, and declared that they would not be parties to such vexatious proceedings.
A division on the main question--a Committee to enquire into the state of the country with a view to the Repeal of the Corn Laws--then took place.
The motion was negatived by a majority of 156 to 64--92. The House did not adjourn until three this morning.
[Footnote 55: The Anti-Corn Law League was rapidly gaining importance, and fiscal policy occupied a great part of the session of 1842. Peel was already reducing import duties on articles other than corn. Cobden had been elected at Stockport, for the first time, in 1841.]
[Pageheading: FURTHER PARTICULARS OF ACCIDENT]
_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._
NEUILLY, _22nd July 1842._