Volume I Part 119 (1/2)
DEAREST UNCLE,--Many thanks for your very kind letter of the 31st, which I received on Sunday, just as our excellent friend Stockmar made his appearance. He made us very happy by his excellent accounts of you _all_, including dearest Louise, and the children he says are _so_ grown; Leo being nearly as tall as Louise! _En revanche_ he will, I hope, tell you how prosperous he found us all; and how surprised and pleased he was with the children; he also is struck with Albert junior's likeness to his dearest papa, which everybody is struck with.
Indeed, dearest Uncle, I will venture to say that not only _no Royal Menage_ is to be found equal to _ours_, but _no other menage_ is to be compared to ours, nor is _any one_ to be compared, take him altogether, to _my dearest_ Angel!...
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _6th April 1843._
Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has this moment received your Majesty's note.
Sir Robert Peel will immediately make enquiry in the first instance in respect to the correctness of the report of the dinner. The omission of the health of the Prince is certainly very strange--it would be very unusual at any public dinner--but seems quite unaccountable at a dinner given in connection with the interests of one of the Royal Theatres.
The toasts are generally prepared not by the chairman of the meeting, but by a committee; but still the omission of the name of the Prince ought to have occurred at once to the Duke of Cambridge, and there cannot be a doubt that he might have rectified, and ought to have rectified, the omission.
Sir Robert Peel is sure your Majesty will approve of his ascertaining in the first instance the real facts of the case--whether the report be a correct one, and if a correct one, who are the parties by whom the arrangements in respect to the toasts were made.
This being done, Sir Robert Peel will then apply himself to the execution of your Majesty's wishes, in the manner pointed out by your Majesty.
He begs humbly to a.s.sure your Majesty that he enters most fully into your Majesty's very natural feelings, and that he shall always have the greatest pleasure in giving effect to your Majesty's wishes in matters of this nature, and in proving himself worthy of the confidence your Majesty is kindly pleased to repose in him.
[Pageheading: THE TOAST OF THE PRINCE]
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _6th April 1843._
Sir Robert Peel, with his humble duty to your Majesty, hastens to make a communication to your Majesty, on the subject of your Majesty's letter of this morning, which he hopes will remove from your Majesty's mind any unfavourable impression with regard to the _toasts_ at the theatrical dinner, or to the conduct of the Duke of Cambridge in reference to them.
Sir Robert Peel, since he addressed your Majesty, has made enquiry from Colonel Wood, the member for Brecon, who was present at the meeting.
In order to have the real statement of the case, Sir Robert Peel did not mention the object of the enquiry. The following were the questions and the answers:--
_Q._ What were the toasts at the theatrical dinner last night?
COLONEL WOOD. The first was _The Queen and the Prince_. The Duke said he thought he could not give the health of the Queen in a manner more satisfactory than by coupling with the name of Her Majesty that of her ill.u.s.trious Consort.
Colonel Wood said that his impression was that the Duke meant to do that which would be most respectful to the Prince, and that he had in his mind when he united the name of the Prince with that of your Majesty, the circ.u.mstances of the Prince having recently held the Levee on behalf of your Majesty.
It might perhaps have been better had His Royal Highness adhered to the usual custom, and proposed the health of the Prince distinctly and separately, but he humbly submits to your Majesty that the _intention_ of His Royal Highness must have been to show respect to the Prince.
The reports of public dinners are frequently incorrect, the reporters being sometimes placed at a great distance from the chairman.
[Pageheading: THE KING OF HANOVER]