The Letters of Queen Victoria
Chapter 322 : The continent of Europe was the scene of a contest between Austria on the one hand, wh

The continent of Europe was the scene of a contest between Austria on the one hand, who was struggling to maintain her position in Italy, and France with Sardinia on the other. Sardinia, under the guidance of Cavour, had joined the alliance of England and France against Russia; and in July 1858 an interview at Plombieres, under rather mysterious circ.u.mstances, between Cavour and Louis Napoleon, led to effective confederacy; a marriage, arranged or suggested at the same time, between Princess Clothilde of Sardinia and a cousin of the Emperor, brought the two ill.u.s.trious houses still closer together. In the spring of 1859, Sardinia prepared to take up arms to resist Austrian predominance, and the a.s.sistance of the guerilla leader, Garibaldi, was obtained. Count Cavour, in reply to interrogatories from the British Government, stated officially his grievances against Austria, while Lord Malmesbury despatched Lord Cowley on a special mission to Vienna to mediate between Austria and France. In April, however, after a curt summons to the Sardinians to disarm had been disregarded, Austria invaded Piedmont, and Victor Emmanuel placed himself at the head of his army. The first engagement took place, with unfavourable results to the Austrians, at Montebello, followed by French victories at Palestro and Magenta. A revolution had meanwhile taken place in Florence. The Grand Duke had fled, and a Commissioner to administer the affairs of the Grand Duchy had been appointed by the King of Sardinia with the a.s.sent of the Tuscans, who now joined the Franco-Sardinian alliance, while risings also took place in Parma and Modena. The Austrians were again defeated at Malegnano, and, on the 8th of June, the French Emperor and King Victor Emmanuel entered Milan amid great enthusiasm. The b.l.o.o.d.y action of Solferino was fought on the 24th of June, but on the 11th of July a treaty of peace was, somewhat unexpectedly, concluded between the French and Austrian Emperors at Villafranca, under which an Italian Confederation was to be erected, Lombardy substantially ceded to Sardinia, the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena reinstated, and Venetia, though included in the Confederation, to remain subject to the Imperial Crown of Austria; these preliminaries were subsequently converted into a definite treaty at Zurich. Meanwhile, the newly const.i.tuted representative a.s.semblies in Tuscany, Romagna, and the Duchies, unanimously p.r.o.nounced for incorporation in the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel.

At home, on the 14th of October, the Queen opened the Glasgow waterworks at the outflow of Loch Katrine, the construction of which had necessitated engineering operations at that time considered stupendous; a few days later an appalling s.h.i.+pping calamity occurred, in the wreck of the _Royal Charter_ near Anglesey, and the loss of 459 lives.

CHAPTER XXVIII

1859

_Queen Victoria to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _7th January 1859_.

The Queen returns Mr Gladstone's letters, and gladly accepts his patriotic offer.[1] He will have difficulty in solving a delicate question, affecting national feeling, against time, but his offer comes most opportunely.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, 1st November, 1858. Mr Gladstone had been sent to enquire into the causes of the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands with their High Commissioner, Sir John Young. He now offered to act himself for a limited time as High Commissioner, should it be decided to recall Sir John.

He was succeeded in February by Sir Henry Storks.]

[Pageheading: NATIONAL DEFENCES]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _13th January 1859_.

As the Cabinet are now meeting, and will probably come to a decision about the estimates for the year, the Queen thinks it her duty to urge upon them in the strongest manner her conviction that, under the present aspect of political affairs in Europe, there will be no safety to the honour, power, and peace of this country except in Naval and Military strength. The extraordinary exertions which France is making in her Naval Department oblige us to exercise the utmost vigour to keep up a superiority at sea, upon which our very existence may be said to depend, and which would be already lost at any moment that France were to be joined by any other country possessing a Navy.[2]

The war in India has drained us of every available Battalion. We possess at this moment only fourteen old Battalions of the Line within the three kingdoms, and twelve Second Battalions newly raised, whilst our Mediterranean possessions are under-garrisoned, and Alderney has not as yet any garrison at all. Under these circ.u.mstances the Queen has heard it rumoured that the Government intend to propose a reduction on the estimates of 9,000 men for this year. She trusts that such an idea, if ever entertained, will upon reflection be given up as inconsistent with the duty which the Government owe to the country.

Even if it were said that these 9,000 men have only existed on paper, and have not yet been raised, such an act at this moment would be indefensible; for it would require a proof that circ.u.mstances have arisen which make it desirable to ask for fewer troops than were considered requisite when the last estimates were pa.s.sed, which really cannot be said to be the case! To be able to raise at any time an additional 9,000 men (in political danger) without having to go to Parliament for a supplementary vote and spreading alarm thereby, must be of the utmost value to the Government, and if not wanted, the vote will entail no additional expense.

England will not be listened to in Europe, and be powerless for the preservation of the general peace, which must be her first object under the present circ.u.mstances, if she is known to be despicably weak in her military resources, and no statesman will, the Queen apprehends, maintain that if a European war were to break out she could hope to remain long out of it. For peace and for war, therefore, an available Army is a necessity to her.

The Queen wishes Lord Derby to communicate this letter to the Cabinet.

[Footnote 2: The French Emperor had signalised the opening of a new year by an ominous speech. To M. Hubner, the Austrian Amba.s.sador at Paris, who had attended, with the other foreign representatives, to offer the usual congratulations on the 1st of January, he observed: "I regret that the relations between our two Governments are not more satisfactory; but I beg you to a.s.sure the Emperor that they in no respect alter my feelings of friends.h.i.+p to himself."]

[Pageheading: THE POPE]

[Pageheading: THE POPE AND LORD PALMERSTON]

_Mr Odo Russell[3] to Mr Corbett._[4]

(_Submitted to Queen Victoria_.)

ROME, _14th January 1859_.

SIR,--I had the honour of being received by the Pope at a private audience this morning at the Vatican. No one else was present.

His Holiness, whose manner towards me was most kind and benevolent, said: "You are appointed to succeed a very good man,[5] for whom I felt great affection, and I regret that he has left Rome. You may be as good as he was, and we shall become friends, but I do not know you yet, and Mr Lyons I had known for many years; he is going to America, I hear, and he will find the Americans far more difficult to deal with than with us.

"I am much gratified to hear that the Prince of Wales is likely to visit Rome, and Her Majesty, I feel sure, has done well to allow him to prosecute his studies here. It will be an honour to me to receive him at the Vatican, and I beg that you will confer with Cardinal Antonelli[6] as to the best means of making the Prince's visit here useful and pleasant. We are anxious that all his wishes should be attended to, that he may preserve a pleasant recollection of Rome in the future. Alas! so many erroneous impressions exist about this country that I hope you will not judge of us too rashly. We are advised to make reforms, and it is not understood that those very reforms, which would consist in giving this country a Government of laymen, would make it cease to exist. It is called 'States of the Church' (_etats de l' eglise_), and that is what it must remain. It is true I have lately appointed a layman to a post formerly held by an ecclesiastic, and I may do so again occasionally; but, however small we may be, we cannot yield to outer pressure, and this country must be administered by men of the Church. For my part, I shall fulfil my duties according to my conscience, and should Governments and events turn against me they cannot make me yield. I shall go with the faithful to the Catacombs, as did the Christians of the early centuries, and there await the will of the Supreme Being, for I dread no human Power upon earth and fear nothing but G.o.d."

"But, Holy Father," I said, "you speak as if some great danger threatened Rome--is there any [real?] cause for apprehension?"

"Have you not heard," His Holiness answered, "that great excitement prevails throughout Italy?--the state of Lombardy is deplorable; evil spirits are at work even in my dominions, and the late speech of the King of Sardinia is calculated to inflame the minds of all the revolutionary men of Italy. It is true he says he will observe existing Treaties, but that will scarcely counter-balance the effect produced by other portions of his speech. News has also reached me of an extensive amnesty granted by the King of Naples--he did not yield to outer pressure, and he was right--but now, on the occasion of the marriage of his son, an act of clemency on his part is well advised."

"Is it true," I said, "that political prisoners are included in that Amnesty?"

"Yes," His Holiness answered; "I saw the name of Settembrini, and I think also of that other man in whom your Government took so much interest--his name begins with a 'P' if I remember rightly----"

"Poerio," I suggested.

"That is the name," the Pope continued; "and I fancy that all the other political prisoners will be released; they are to be sent to Cadiz at the expense of the King, they are to be clothed and receive some money, I believe, and after that arrangements have been made with the Minister of the United States to have them conveyed to that country; they are to be exiled for life. I hope this event may have the effect of making your Government and that of France renew diplomatic relations with Naples; I always regretted that rupture, but the King was right not to yield to outer pressure.

"It is lucky," the Pope ended with a smile, "that Lord Palmerston is not in office; he was too fond of interfering in the concerns of foreign countries, and the present crisis would just have suited him. _Addio, caro_," the Pope then said, and dismissed me with his blessing.

I then, according to usage, called on Cardinal Antonelli, and recounted to him what had pa.s.sed. He confirmed all the Pope had said, but denied that there was any very serious cause for immediate apprehension of any general disturbance of the peace of Italy. I have, etc.,

ODO RUSSELL.

[Footnote 3: Secretary of Legation at Florence, resident in Rome, afterwards Lord Ampthill.]

[Footnote 4: Secretary of Legation at Florence, afterwards successively Minister at Rio Janeiro and Stockholm.]

[Footnote 5: Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, who had just been transferred from Rome to Was.h.i.+ngton. He had recently succeeded his father, the Admiral, in the Barony of Lyons, and was himself subsequently promoted to an Earldom.]

[Footnote 6: Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the Papal States.]

_The Earl of Malmesbury to Queen Victoria._

LONDON, _18th January 1859_.

The Earl of Malmesbury presents his humble duty to the Queen, and has the honour to inform your Majesty that he has seen the French Amba.s.sador to-day, who came of his own accord to say that we need be in no apprehension, of a war _at present_, as the public opinion in France, especially in the large towns, had been so strongly p.r.o.nounced against a war that it was impossible. Lord Malmesbury is also glad to inform your Majesty that the Cabinet has agreed to-day to make a great addition to the effective force of your Majesty's Navy.

Your Majesty's commands are obeyed respecting the telegram to Berlin.