Volume Ii Part 29 (1/2)
To-night we are going to the Opera in state, and will hear and see Jenny Lind[5] (who is perfection) in _Norma_, which is considered one of her best parts. Poor Grisi is quite going off, and after the pure angelic voice and extremely quiet, perfect acting of J. Lind, she seems quite _pa.s.see_. Poor thing! she is _quite_ furious about it, and was excessively impertinent to J. Lind.
To-morrow we go to a ball at Stafford House, and on Thursday to one at Gloucester House. Ever your truly devoted Niece,
VICTORIA R.
[Footnote 4: The Government were severely attacked by a coalition of Radicals and Protectionists for their intervention in Portugal. A hostile motion of Lord Stanley's in the House of Lords was opposed by the Duke of Wellington and defeated, while one of Mr Hume's in the House of Commons was talked out, Sir Robert Peel supporting the Ministry.]
[Footnote 5: She made her _debut_ in London on the 4th of May in _Roberto il Diavolo_. The Queen had heard her sing previously at Stolzenfels. In May 1849, after singing for two years to enthusiastic audiences, she retired from the stage, and made extended concert tours in Europe and America.]
[Pageheading: THE WELLINGTON STATUE]
_The Duke of Wellington to Queen Victoria._
LONDON, _12th July 1847._ (_Five in the afternoon_.)
Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He submits to your Majesty the expression of his sorrow and shame that your Majesty should be troubled for a moment by anything so insignificant as a statue of himself.
When he first heard of the intention to remove the statue from the pedestal on which it had been placed, he was apprehensive that the measure might be misconstrued and misrepresented in this country as well as abroad.
That feeling was increased when the probable existence of such misconstruction was adverted to in one of the printed papers circulated by the Committee for the erection of the statue; and still farther when the removal became the subject of repeated discussions in Parliament. His daily experience of your Majesty's gracious reception of his endeavours to serve your Majesty; and the events of every day, and the repeated marks which he received of your Majesty's consideration and favour proved clearly, as the Duke stated in his letter to Lord John Russell, that there was no foundation for the misconstruction of the intended act--which undoubtedly existed. The apprehension of such misconstruction had from the first moment created an anxious wish in the mind of the Duke that the removal should be so regulated and should be attended by such circ.u.mstances as would tend to relieve the transaction from the erroneous but inconvenient impression which had been created.
The Duke apprehended that he might find it impossible to perform the duties with which he had been entrusted, and therefore, when Lord John Russell wrote to him, he deprecated the measure in contemplation; and he rejoices sincerely that your Majesty has been most graciously pleased to countermand the order for the removal of the statue.
All of which is most humbly submitted to your Majesty by your Majesty's most dutiful Subject and most devoted Servant,
WELLINGTON.[6]
[Footnote 6: The Duke of Wellington wrote to Croker, 19th of December 1846:--”I should desire never to move from my principles of indifference and non-interference on the subject of a statue of myself to commemorate my own actions.”
And again, on the 14th of June 1847, the Duke wrote to Croker:--”It has always been my practice, and is my invariable habit, to say nothing about myself and my own actions.
”More than forty years ago Mr Pitt observed that I talked as little of myself or my own acts as if I had been an a.s.sistant-surgeon of the army....
”I follow the habit of avoiding to talk of myself and of what I have done; with the exception only of occasions when I am urging upon modern contemporaries measures which they don't like, and when I tell them I have some experience, and have had some success in these affairs, and feel they would experience the benefit of attending to my advice, I never talk of myself.
”These are the reasons for which they think that I don't care what they do with the statue.
”But they must be idiots to suppose it possible that a man who is working day and night, without any object in view excepting the public benefit, will not be sensible of a disgrace inflicted upon him by the Sovereign and Government whom he is serving. The ridicule will be felt, if nothing else is!”...]
_Queen Victoria to Lord Palmerston._
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _12th July 1847._