The Letters of Queen Victoria
Chapter 221 : The Queen returns the enclosed papers. She will not object to the proposed step[10] sh

The Queen returns the enclosed papers. She will not object to the proposed step[10] should Lord Granville and Lord John Russell have reason to expect that the Pope will receive Sir H. Bulwer; should he refuse, it will be doubly awkward. The Queen finds it difficult to give a decided opinion on the subject, as, first, she does not know how far the reception of Sir Henry at Rome will overcome the objections raised to his reception as Resident at Florence. Secondly, as she has never been able to understand what is to be obtained by a mission to Rome, a step liable to much misrepresentation here....

[Footnote 10: The Tuscan Government declined to receive Sir H.

Bulwer, and it was then proposed to send him to Rome instead.]

[Pageheading: THE PRINCE AND THE ARMY]

_Lord John Russell to the Prince Albert._

CHESHAM PLACE, _16th February 1852._

SIR,--I have seen the Duke of Wellington this morning, and have given him the Depot plan.

It may be useful if your Royal Highness will see him from time to time in relation to the Army. On the one hand, your Royal Highness's authority may overcome the indisposition to change which he naturally entertains; and on the other, his vast experience may be of great use to your Royal Highness in regard to the future. I have the honour to be, Sir, your Royal Highness's most dutiful Servant,

JOHN RUSSELL.

[Pageheading: THE SLAVE TRADE]

_Sir Francis Baring to Queen Victoria._

ADMIRALTY, _15th February 1852._

Sir Francis Baring presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to state to your Majesty that despatches have this evening arrived from Commander Bruce in command of the African Squadron. Commander Bruce gives an account of an attack on Lagos[11] which was completely successful. The town of Lagos was captured and in great part burnt.

The resistance appears to have been obstinate and directed with much skill. Your Majesty's naval Service behaved with their accustomed gallantry and coolness, but the loss amounted to fourteen killed and sixty-four wounded. Sir Francis Baring will forward to your Majesty copies of the despatches to-morrow, with his humble duty.

F. BARING.

[Footnote 11: Notorious as a centre of the Slave Trade. The native king was deposed.]

_Queen Victoria to Sir Francis Baring._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _16th February 1852._

The Queen has received both Sir Francis Baring's letters of the 15th.

The news of the capture and destruction of the town of Lagos has given us the _greatest_ satisfaction, as it will give a most serious blow to the iniquitous traffic in slaves. The Rev. Mr Crowther, whom the Queen saw about two months ago (and whom she believes Sir Francis Baring has also seen), told us that the slave trade on that part of the African coast would be at an end if Lagos, the stronghold of its greatest supporters, was destroyed. The Queen must express to Sir Francis Baring her sense of the services rendered by Commodore Bruce and the Officers under him.

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _17th February 1852._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--Your dear letter of the 13th reached me on Sat.u.r.day here, where we are since Friday afternoon. I am glad that you are satisfied with Lord Granville's answer. The question shall certainly be borne in mind, and you may rely on our doing whatever can be effected to bring about the desired end. I think Louis Napoleon will find his decrees very difficult to carry out. I am very glad to hear that you quietly are preparing to strengthen yourself against the possibility of any attack from France. This will, I think, put Louis Napoleon on his good behaviour....

The extension of the Suffrage[12] was almost unavoidable, and it was better to do it quietly, and not to wait till there was a cry for it--to which one would have to yield. The deal there is to do, and the importance of everything going on at home and abroad, is unexampled in _my_ recollection and _very_ trying; Albert becomes really a _terrible_ man of business; I think it takes a little off from the gentleness of his character, and makes him so preoccupied. I grieve over all this, as I _cannot_ enjoy these things, _much_ as I interest myself in _general_ European politics; but I am every day more convinced that _we women_, _if_ we _are_ to be _good_ women, _feminine_ and _amiable_ and _domestic_, are _not fitted to reign_; at least it is _contre gre_ that they drive themselves to the _work_ which it entails.

However, this cannot now be helped, and it is the duty of every one to fulfil all that they are called upon to do, in whatever situation they may be!

Mme. van de Weyer thinks your children so grown and improved, and Charlotte as lovely as ever. With Albert's love, ever your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 12: See _ante_, pp. 294, 324.]

[Pageheading: THE MILITIA BILL]

_Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria._

CHESHAM PLACE, _20th February 1852._ (9.15 P.M.)

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour to report that Lord Palmerston has just carried his Motion for leaving out the word "Local" in the t.i.tle of the Bill for the Militia.[13]

Lord John Russell then declared that he could no longer take charge of the Bill. Lord Palmerston said he was astonished at the Government for giving up the Bill for so slight a cause.

Lord John Russell then said that he considered the vote as tantamount to a resolution of want of confidence, which remark was loudly cheered on the other side.

Sir Benjamin Hall said he wondered the Government did not resign, on which Lord John again explained that when confidence was withdrawn, the consequence was obvious.

[Footnote 13: Events in France had revived anxiety as to the national defences, and the Government brought in a Bill for raising a local Militia. To this scheme the Duke of Wellington had been unfavourable, and Lord Palmerston, by a majority of eleven, carried an Amendment in favour of re-organising the "regular" instead of raising a "local" Militia.]

[Pageheading: THE MINISTRY DEFEATED]

[Pageheading: RESIGNATION OF THE MINISTRY]

_Memorandum by the Prince Albert._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _21st February 1852._

Lord John Russell came this morning at twelve o'clock to explain that after the vote of yesterday[14] it was impossible for him to go on any longer with the Government. He considered it a vote of censure, and an entirely unprecedented case not to allow a Minister of the Crown even to lay his measure on the Table of the House; that he had expected to the last that the respectable part of the House would see all this, but there seemed to have been a pre-arranged determination between Lord Palmerston and the Protectionists to defeat the Government; that the Peelites also had agreed to vote against them. Sir James Graham and Mr Cardwell had stayed away, but Mr Gladstone and Mr S. Herbert had voted against them, the latter even misrepresenting what Lord John had said. No Government could stand against incessant motions of censure upon every imaginable department of the Executive Government.