Volume Ii Part 117 (1/2)
The Cabinet is certain not to agree to either of these propositions.
When Lord Aberdeen announced the intended rupture with Lord Palmerston to Lord John, he drily said: ”Well, it would be very awkward for you if Palmerston quarrels one day with you about Reform, and I the next about Turkey!”
There can be no doubt that Lord Palmerston will at once try to put himself at the head of the late Protectionist party, and, with the present indifference of the Country upon Reform, the fate of the Bill is by no means certain. On the question of Peace or War, Lord Aberdeen is quite certain that the House of Commons will adopt no war resolutions.
Much will depend, however, on the line taken by Lord Lansdowne, who has great influence in the House of Lords, and whose secession would spread great alarm over the Country as to the real tendency of the Measure (which the Duke of Newcastle describes as in fact a great increase of power to the land[35]). We agree that the Queen should write to him to prevent any hasty step.
The Queen sanctioned the offer of the Home Office to Sir George Grey, and of a seat in the Cabinet to Mr Cardwell (the President of the Board of Trade).
ALBERT.
[Footnote 35: _I.e._, the landed interest.]
[Pageheading: LORD LANSDOWNE AND REFORM]
_Queen Victoria to the Marquis of Lansdowne._
OSBORNE, _16th December 1853._
The Queen has been made very anxious by the Resignation of Lord Palmerston, but still more so by hearing that Lord Lansdowne has not been able to reconcile himself to the Measure of Reform as now proposed in the Cabinet, which has caused Lord Palmerston's withdrawal. Lord Lansdowne is aware of the paramount importance which the Queen attaches to a safe settlement of that question, and to the maintenance of her present Government; and she would press upon Lord Lansdowne not to commit himself to a final determination before she shall have an opportunity of seeing him. The Queen will go to Windsor on Thursday, and hold a Council on Friday, at which it may perhaps be convenient to Lord Lansdowne to attend, and it will give the Queen the greatest pleasure to find that Lord John Russell has succeeded in removing Lord Lansdowne's objections.
[Pageheading: LORD STRATFORD'S DESPATCH]
_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._
OSBORNE, _17th December 1853._
The Queen returns the enclosed Draft and Despatch to Lord Clarendon.
She has never been so much perplexed respecting any decision she has had to make, as in the present instance. She has read Lord Stratford's Despatch (358) over several times, and she is struck, every time more, with the consummate ability with which it is written and argued; but also with the difficulty in which it places the person reading it to extract distinctly what the Porte will be prepared to concede.
The concluding pa.s.sage of the Draft involves the most important consequences. As the Queen understands it, it promises war with Russia in a given contingency, but the contingency is: Russia rejecting terms which are ”in their spirit and character such as Your Excellency sets forth in your Despatch.” The Queen finds it impossible to make such tremendous consequences dependent upon such vague expressions. The more so, as ”the spirit and character” alluded to, appears to her to be, as if purposely, obscure.
When Lord Stratford says, that the Turks would be satisfied ”with a renewal in clear and comprehensive terms of the formal Declarations and Treaties already existing in favour of the Porte”--the Queen cannot understand what is meant--as all the former Treaties between Russia and Turkey have certainly not been in favour of the Porte.
Nor is it clear to the Queen whether ”the clear and unquestionable deliverance from Russian interference applied to spiritual matters” is compatible with the former treaties.
Whilst the Queen, therefore, perfectly agrees in the principle that, should Russia ”for its own unjustifiable objects, show herself regardless of the best interests of Europe” by rejecting every fair term, the time will have arrived ”for adopting measures of more active coercion against her”--she cannot sanction such a Declaration except on terms which are so clear in themselves as to exclude all misinterpretation.
[Pageheading: SINOPE]
_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._