1857
_Queen Victoria to Mr Labouchere._
WINDSOR CASTLE, _8th January 1857_.
The despatches from Sir George Grey[1] which the Queen returns are
most interesting. The two chief objects to accomplish appear to be the
bringing the Kaffirs in British Kaffraria within the pale of the law,
so that they may know the blessings of it--and the re-absorption, if
possible, of the Orange River Free State. To both these objects the
efforts of the Government should be steadily directed.
[Footnote 1: See _ante_, 26th July, 1856. The task of dealing with
the Hottentots and Kaffirs, and coming to an understanding
with the recalcitrant Boers, was a difficult one.]
[Pageheading: HOME AND FOREIGN POLICY]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
BROADLANDS, _13th January 1857_.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and he
and Lady Palmerston will have the honour of waiting upon your Majesty
as soon as he is able to move. He is, however, at present on crutches,
and can hardly expect to be in marching order for some few days to
come. With regard to the matters that are likely to be discussed when
Parliament meets, Viscount Palmerston would beg to submit that the one
which has for some months past occupied the attention of all Europe,
namely, the execution of the Treaty of Paris, has been settled in
a manner satisfactory to all parties; and this is not only a great
relief to the Government, but is also a security for the continuance
of the Anglo-French Alliance, which would have been greatly endangered
by the discussions and explanations that might otherwise have been
forced on.
The various questions of difference between your Majesty's Government,
and that of the United States, have also been settled, and the
diplomatic relations between the two countries are about to be
replaced upon their usual footing. This result will have given great
satisfaction to the commercial and manufacturing interests.
Some discussion will take place as to the Expedition to the coast of
Persia, and some persons will, of course, find fault with the whole
policy pursued on that matter; but people in general will understand
that Herat is an advanced post of attack against British India,
and that whatever belongs nominally to Persia must be considered as
belonging practically to Russia, whenever Russia may want to use it
for her own purposes.
The outbreak of hostilities at Canton[2] was the result of the
decision of your Majesty's officers on the spot, and not the
consequence of orders from home. The first responsibility must
therefore rest with the local authorities, but Viscount Palmerston
cannot doubt that the Government will be deemed to have acted right
in advising your Majesty to approve the proceedings, and to direct
measures for obtaining from the Chinese Government concessions which
are indispensable for the maintenance of friendly relations between
China and the Governments of Europe.
Of domestic questions, that which will probably be the most agitated
will be a large and immediate diminution of the Income Tax; but
any such diminution would disturb the financial arrangements of the
country, and it is to be hoped that Parliament will adopt the scheme
which will be proposed by Sir G. C. Lewis, by which the Income Tax
would be made equal in each of the next three years, the amount now
fixed by Law for 1857 being diminished, but the amount now fixed by
Law for 1858 and 1859 being increased....
Viscount Palmerston hears from persons likely to know, that the
Conservative Party are not more united than they were last Session.
That Mr Disraeli and the great bulk of his nominal followers are far
from being on good terms together, and that there is no immediate
junction to be expected between Mr Disraeli and Mr Gladstone.[3]
Mr Cobden has given it to be understood that he wishes at the next
General Election to retire from the West Riding of Yorkshire. The real
fact being that the line he took about the late war has made him so
unpopular with his constituents that he would probably not be returned
again.[4]
Viscount Palmerston has heard privately and confidentially that Lord
John Russell wrote some little time ago to the Duke of Bedford to say
that it had been intimated to him that an offer would be made to him
if he were disposed to accept it, to go to the House of Lords and to
become there the Leader of the Government. In case your Majesty may
have heard this report, Viscount Palmerston thinks it right to say
that no such communication to Lord John Russell was ever authorised
by him, nor has been, so far as he is aware, ever made, and in truth
Viscount Palmerston must candidly say that in the present state
of public opinion about the course which Lord John has on several
occasions pursued, he is not inclined to think that his accession to
the Government would give the Government any additional strength.
[Footnote 2: See _ante_, Introductory Note, to Chapter XXVI.
The difficulty with China had arisen out of her refusal to
throw open the city of Canton to European trade in conformity
with the Treaty of Nankin, _ante_, vol. i. 23rd November,
1842. Sir John Bowring, Chief Superintendent of Trade (and,
in effect, British Plenipotentiary) at Hong-Kong, had
resented this, and the feeling thus engendered had come to
a crisis on the occasion of the seizure of the crew of the
_Arrow_.]
[Footnote 3: The probability of this combination was now
being perpetually mooted, and, in fact, the two ex-Chancellors
combined in attacking the Budget.]
[Footnote 4: He stood instead for Huddersfleld, and was
defeated by an untried politician; one Liberal (the present
Lord Ripon) and one Conservative were returned unopposed in
the West Riding.]
[Pageheading: CHURCH APPOINTMENTS]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _25th February 1857_.
The Queen would wish to know before she approves of the appointment
of Mr Alford, of Quebec Chapel, to the head Deanery of Canterbury,
whether he is a very Low Churchman, as Lord Palmerston will remember
that he agreed in her observation after the appointment of several of
the Bishops, that it would be advisable to choose those who were
of moderate opinions--not leaning too much to either side. Extreme
opinions lead to mischief in the end, and produce much discord in the
Church, which it would be advisable to avoid.[5]
With respect to the Garter, which the Duke of Norfolk has declined,
she approves of its being offered to the Duke of Portland.[6] She
thinks that the one now vacant by the death of poor Lord Ellesmere[7]
might most properly be bestowed on Lord Granville--he is Lord
President and Leader of the House of Lords, and acquitted himself
admirably in his difficult mission as Ambassador to the Emperor of
Russia's Coronation.
Should Lord Palmerston agree in this view he might at once mention it
to Lord Granville.
[Footnote 5: The Deanery was offered to and accepted by Mr
Alford.]
[Footnote 6: William John Cavendish Bentinck-Scott, fifth Duke
(1800-1879). He did not accept the honour, which was conferred
on the Marquis of Westminster.]
[Footnote 7: Lord Francis Egerton had inherited a vast
property from the third and last Duke of Bridgewater (the
projector of English inland navigation), and was created
Earl of Ellesmere in 1846. The Garter was accepted by Lord
Granville.]
[Pageheading: DEBATE ON CHINESE AFFAIRS]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
PICCADILLY, _28th February 1857_.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and
has seen Mr Hayter[8] this morning, and finds from him that the
disposition of the House of Commons is improving, and that many of the
supporters of the Government who had at first thought of voting
with Mr Cobden[9] are changing their minds. It has been suggested to
Viscount Palmerston that it would be useful to have a meeting of the
Party in Downing Street on Monday, and that many wavering members only
want to have something said to them which they could quote as a reason
for changing their intended course; and Viscount Palmerston has given
directions for summoning such a meeting.
Lord Derby has had meetings of his followers, and has told them that
unless they will support him in a body he will cease to be their
leader, as he will not be the head of a divided Party. Viscount
Palmerston can scarcely bring himself to believe that the House of
Commons will be so fickle as suddenly and without reason to turn round
upon the Government, and after having given them last Session and
this Session large majorities on important questions, put them in a
minority on what Mr Disraeli last night in a few words said on the
motion for adjournment described as a Vote of Censure. With regard,
however, to the question put by your Majesty as to what would be the
course pursued by the Government in the event of a defeat, Viscount
Palmerston could hardly answer it without deliberation with his
colleagues. His own firm belief is that the present Government has
the confidence of the country in a greater degree than any other
Government that could now be formed would have, and that consequently
upon a Dissolution of Parliament, a House of Commons would be returned
more favourable to the Government than the present. Whether the state
of business as connected with votes of supply and the Mutiny Act would
admit of a Dissolution, supposing such a measure to be sanctioned
by your Majesty, would remain to be enquired into; but Viscount
Palmerston believes that there would be no insurmountable difficulty
on that score. He will have the honour of waiting upon your Majesty at
a little before three to-morrow.
[Footnote 8: Mr (afterwards Sir) William Hayter, Liberal Whip,
the father of Lord Haversham.]
[Footnote 9: See _ante_, Introductory Note, to Chapter XXVI. Mr
Cobden's motion of censure affirmed that the papers laid on the
table of the House did not justify the violent measures resorted
to by the Government at Canton in the affair of the _Arrow_. He
was supported by Lord John Russell, Mr Roebuck, Mr Gladstone,
and Mr Disraeli, the latter emphatically challenging the Premier
to appeal to the country.]
_The Prince Albert to Viscount Palmerston._
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _3rd March 1857_.
MY DEAR LORD PALMERSTON,--The Queen has this moment received
your letter giving so unfavourable an account of the prospects
of to-night's division. She is sorry that her health imperatively
requires her going into the country for a few days, and having put off
her going to Windsor on account of the Debate which was expected
to close yesterday, she cannot now do so again to-day. She feels,
however, the inconvenience of her absence should the division turn out
as ill as is now anticipated. The Queen could not possibly come to a
decision on so important a point as a Dissolution without a personal
discussion and conference with you, and therefore hopes that you might
be able to go down to-morrow perhaps for dinner and to stay over the
night.
The Queen feels herself physically quite unable to go through the
anxiety of a Ministerial Crisis and the fruitless attempt to form
a new Government out of the heterogeneous elements out of which
the present Opposition is composed, should the Government feel it
necessary to offer their resignation, and would on that account
_prefer any other alternative_.... Ever, etc.,
ALBERT.
[Pageheading: DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._[10]
HOUSE OF COMMONS, _5th March 1857._
(_Quarter to Eight._)
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs
to state that his communication to the House of an intention to give
the constituencies of the country an opportunity of judging between
the present Government and any other administration which might be
formed, has been on the whole well received, and, with the exception
of Mr Gladstone, most of the persons who spoke intimated a willingness
to allow without interruption the completion of such business as may
be necessary before the Dissolution. Mr Disraeli said that he and
those who act with him would give all fair assistance consistent with
their opinions, but hoped nothing would be proposed to which they
could reasonably object. Mr Gladstone, with great vehemence, repelled
the charge of combination, evidently meaning to answer attacks made
out of the House....
The result of what passed seems to be that no serious difficulty will
be thrown in the way of an early Dissolution.
[Footnote 10: Mr Cobden's motion was carried by 263 to 247,
and Lord Palmerston promptly accepted Mr Disraeli's challenge
to dissolve Parliament.]
_Earl Granville to Queen Victoria._
[_Undated._ ? _16th March 1857._]
Lord Granville presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to
submit that Lord Derby made a speech of two hours, in which he glanced
at the present state of affairs.[11] He made a personal attack on Lord
Palmerston, and described his colleagues as cyphers and appendages.
The rest of his speech was of a singularly apologetic and defensive
character. He was quite successful in clearing himself from an
understanding--not from political conversations with Mr Gladstone.
Lord Granville, in his reply, was thought very discourteous by Lord
Malmesbury and Lord Hardwicke, who closed the conversation.
[Footnote 11: Lord Derby's resolutions in the Lords, which
were to the same effect as Mr Cobden's motion, were rejected
by 146 to 110. On the 16th of March Lord Derby took the
opportunity of announcing the views of his chief supporters in
reference to the General Election.]
[Pageheading: RETIREMENT OF THE SPEAKER]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._[12]
PICCADILLY, _18th March 1857_.
... Viscount Palmerston begs to state that the Speaker has chosen the
title of Eversley, the name of a small place near his residence[13]
in Hampshire, all the large towns in the county having already been
adopted as titles for Peers. The ordinary course would be that your
Majesty should make him a Baron, and that is the course which was
followed in the cases of Mr Abbot made Lord Colchester, and Mr
Abercromby made Lord Dunfermline; but in the case of Mr Manners Sutton
a different course was pursued, and he was made Viscount Canterbury.
The present Speaker is very anxious that his services, which, in fact,
have been more meritorious and useful than those of Mr Manners Sutton,
should not appear to be considered by your Majesty as less deserving
of your Majesty's Royal favour, and as the present Speaker may justly
be said to have been the best who ever filled the chair, Viscount
Palmerston would beg to submit for your Majesty's gracious approval
that he may be created Viscount Eversley. It will be well at the same
time if your Majesty should sanction this arrangement that a Record
should be entered at the Home Office stating that this act of grace
and favour of your Majesty being founded on the peculiar circumstances
of the case, is not to [be] deemed a precedent for the cases of future
Speakers.
Lord Canterbury was also made a Grand Cross of the Civil Order of the
Bath; it will be for your Majesty to consider whether it might not be
gracious to follow in all respects on the present occasion the course
which was pursued in the case of Mr Manners Sutton.
[Footnote 12: On the 9th, Mr Speaker Shaw-Lefevre had
announced in the House of Commons his intended retirement from
the Chair, which he had occupied since 1839, when his election
had been made a trial of strength between parties. He was
voted an annuity of L4,000 a year, and created Viscount
Eversley, receiving also the G.C.B.]
[Footnote 13: Heckfield Place, near Winchfield.]
[Pageheading: THE GENERAL ELECTION]
_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _24th March 1857_.
MY DEAREST UNCLE,--... The Opposition have played their game most
foolishly, and the result is that _all_ the old Tories say they
will certainly _not_ support them; they very truly say Lord
Derby's party--that is those who want to get into office _coute que
coute_--whether the country suffers for it or not, wanted to get in
under _false colours_, and that they won't support or abide--which
they are _quite_ right in. There is reason to hope that a better class
of men will be returned, and returned to support the Government, not a
particular cry of this or that.... Ever your devoted Niece,
VICTORIA R.[14]
[Footnote 14: In his address to the electors of Tiverton,
the Premier declared that "an insolent barbarian, wielding
authority at Canton, had violated the British flag, broken
the engagements of treaties, offered rewards for the heads
of British subjects in that part of China, and planned their
destruction by murder, assassination, and poison." The courage
and good temper displayed by Lord Palmerston, and the energy
with which he had carried the country through the Crimean
struggle, had won him widespread popularity, and the Peace
party were generally routed, the prominent members all losing
their seats. The Peelite ranks were also thinned, but Lord
John Russell, contrary to general expectation, held his
seat in the City. There were one hundred and eighty-nine new
members returned, and the Ministry found themselves in command
of a handsome majority.]
_Earl Granville to Queen Victoria._
[_Undated._ ? _19th May 1857._]
Lord Granville presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to
submit that the Lord Chancellor made the best statement he has yet
done, introducing his Divorce Bill.[15]... Lord Lyndhurst made a most
able speech in favour of the Bill, but wished it to go further,
and give permission to a woman to sue for a divorce if she was
"maliciously deserted" by her husband.... The Bishop of Oxford
pretended that he was not going to speak at all, in order to secure
his following instead of preceding the Bishop of London; but upon
a division being called he was obliged to speak, and did so with
considerable force and eloquence, but betraying the greatest possible
preparation. The Bishop of London, after showing that the Bishop
of Oxford's speech was a repetition of Mr Keble's speech, made an
excellent answer. The Debate was finished by the Duke of Argyll.
For the Bill, 47. Against it, 18.
[Footnote 15: Before this date a divorce could only be
obtained in England by Act of Parliament, after sentence in
the ecclesiastical Court, and (in the case of a husband's
application) a verdict in _crim. con._ against the adulterer.
The present English law was established by the Bill of 1857,
the chief amendment made in Committee being the provision
exempting the clergy from the obligation to marry divorced
persons. Bishop Wilberforce opposed the Bill strenuously,
while Archbishop Sumner and Bishop Tait of London supported
it. Sir Richard Bethell, the Attorney-General, piloted the
measure most skilfully through the Commons, in the teeth of
the eloquent and persistent opposition of Mr Gladstone, who,
to quote a letter from Lord Palmerston to the Queen, opposed
the second reading "in a speech of two hours and a half,
fluent, eloquent, brilliant, full of theological learning
and scriptural research, but fallacious in argument, and with
parts inconsistent with each other."]
[Pageheading: THE FRENCH _ENTENTE_]
[Pageheading: THE EMPEROR'S VISIT]
_The Earl of Clarendon to the Prince Albert._
_20th May 1857._
SIR,--I have the honour to inform your Royal Highness that I have had
a very long and interesting conversation with M. de Persigny to-day.
He told me of the different _Utopias_ which the Emperor had in his
head, of His Majesty's conviction that England, France, and Russia
ought between them to _regler les affaires de l'Europe_, of the
_peu de cas_ which he made of Austria or any other Power, and of the
various little complaints which His Majesty thought he had against Her
Majesty's Government, and which had been magnified into importance by
the malevolence or the stupidity of the persons who had more or less
the ear of the Emperor.[16]
M. de Persigny told me also that in a conversation with the Emperor at
which he had taken care that Count Walewski should be present, he had
solemnly warned the Emperor of the danger he would incur if he swerved
the least from the path of his true interest which was the English
Alliance, that all the Sovereigns who were flattering and cajoling him
for their own purposes looked down upon him as an adventurer, and no
more believed in the stability of his throne, or the duration of
his dynasty, than they did in any other events of which extreme
improbability was the character; whereas the English, who never
condescended to flatter or cajole anybody, but who looked to the
interests of England, were attached to the French Alliance and to the
Sovereign of France because peaceful relations with that country were
of the utmost importance to England. France was the only country in
Europe that could do England harm, and on the other hand England was
the only country that could injure France--the late war with Russia
had not the slightest effect upon France except costing her money, but
a war with England would set every party in France into activity each
with its own peculiar objects, but all of them against the existing
order of things--_l'ordre social serait bouleverse_ and the Empire
might perish in the convulsion.
The result of this and other conversations appears to be an earnest
desire of the Emperor to come to England on a private visit to
the Queen, if possible at Osborne, and at any time that might be
convenient to Her Majesty. M. de Persigny describes him as being
intent upon this project, and as attaching the utmost importance to
it in order to _eclairer_ his own ideas, to guide his policy, and to
prevent by personal communication with the Queen, your Royal Highness,
and Her Majesty's Government the dissidences and _mesintelligences_
which the Emperor thinks will arise from the want of such
communications.
I fear that such a visit would not be very agreeable to Her Majesty,
but in the Emperor's present frame of mind, and his evident alarm lest
it should be thought that the Alliance has been in any way _ebranlee_,
I cannot entertain a doubt that much good might be done, or, at all
events, that much mischief might be averted by the Emperor being
allowed to pay his respects to Her Majesty in the manner he proposes.
I have discussed the matter after the Cabinet this evening with Lord
Palmerston, who takes entirely the same view of the matter as I have
taken the liberty of expressing to your Royal Highness. I have the
honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your Royal Highness's
most faithful and devoted Servant,
CLARENDON.
[Footnote 16: A difference had arisen as to the future of the
Principalities--France, Sardinia, and Russia favouring their
union, while England, Austria, and Turkey held that a single
state, so formed, might become too Russian in its sympathies.]
_The Prince Albert to the Earl of Clarendon._
OSBORNE, _21st May 1857_.
MY DEAR LORD CLARENDON,--I have shown your letter to the Queen, who
wishes me to say in answer to it that she will, of course, be ready to
do what may appear best for the public interest. We shall, therefore,
be ready to receive the Emperor, with or without the Empress, here at
Osborne in the quiet way which he proposes. The present moment would,
however, hardly do, Drawing-rooms and parties being announced in
London, Parliament sitting, and the Season going on and the Queen
having only a few days from the Grand Duke's visit to her return
to Town. The latter half of July, the time at which the Queen would
naturally be here and the best yachting season, might appear to the
Emperor the most eligible, as being the least _force_.
Till then a cottage which is rebuilding will, we hope, be ready to
accommodate some of the suite, whom we could otherwise not properly
house.
I have no doubt that good will arise from a renewed intercourse
with the Emperor; the only thing one may perhaps be afraid of is the
possibility of his wishing to gain us over to his views with regard to
a redistribution of Europe, and may be disappointed at our not being
able to assent to his plans and aspirations.
ALBERT.[17]
[Footnote 17: See _post_, 4th August, 1857, note 30.]
_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _16th June 1857_.
MY DEAREST UNCLE,--The christening of little Beatrice[18] is just
over--and was very brilliant and nice. We had the luncheon in the fine
ball-room, which looked very handsome. The Archduke Maximilian (who is
here since Sunday evening) led me to the chapel, and at the luncheon I
sat between him and Fritz. I cannot say how much we like the Archduke;
he is charming, so clever, natural, kind and amiable, so _English_ in
his feelings and likings, and so anxious for the best understanding
between Austria and England. With the exception of his mouth and chin,
he is good-looking; and I think one does not the least care for that,
as he is so very kind and clever and pleasant. I wish you really joy,
dearest Uncle, at having got _such_ a husband for dear Charlotte, as
I am sure he will make her happy, and is quite worthy of her. He may,
and will do a great deal for Italy.[19]...
I must conclude for to-day, hoping soon to hear from you again. Ever
your devoted Niece,
VICTORIA R.
[Footnote 18: Princess Beatrice (now Princess Henry of
Battenberg) was born on the 14th of April.]
[Footnote 19: The tragic end of a union which promised so
brightly came in 1867, when the Archduke Maximilian, having
accepted the Imperial crown of Mexico, offered to him by the
Provisional Government, was shot by order of President Juarez.
The Empress Charlotte had come to Europe a year earlier
to seek help for her husband from the French Emperor. In
consequence of the shock caused by the failure of her mission,
her health entirely gave way.]
[Pageheading: THE INDIAN MUTINY]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
PICCADILLY, _26th June 1857_.
... Viscount Palmerston is sorry to have received the accompanying
account of the extension of the Mutiny among the native troops in
India, but he has no fear of its results.[20] The bulk of the European
force is stationed on the North-West Frontier, and is, therefore,
within comparatively easy reach of Delhi, and about six thousand
European troops will have returned to Bombay from Persia. It will,
however, seem to be advisable to send off at once the force amounting
to nearly eight thousand men, now under orders for embarkation for
India; and when the despatches arrive, which will be about the middle
of next week, it will be seen whether any further reinforcements will
be required.
The extent of the Mutiny appears to indicate some deeper cause than
that which was ascribed to the first insubordination. That cause may
be, as some allege, the apprehension of the Hindoo priests that their
religion is in danger by the progress of civilisation in India, or it
may be some hostile foreign agency.
[Footnote 20: Alarming accounts of disturbances in India had
been received for some weeks past, but Lord Palmerston
failed to grasp the gravity of the situation. Even after
the intelligence reached England of the mutiny of the native
regiments at Meerut, on the 10th of May, and of the horrible
massacres of women and children, the Ministry did not fully
realise the peril threatening our Indian possessions.]
[Pageheading: THE VICTORIA CROSS]
_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._
[_Undated,_ ? _June 1857._]
The Queen thinks that the persons decorated with the Victoria Cross
might very properly be allowed to bear some distinctive mark after
their name.[21] The warrant instituting the decoration does not style
it "an Order," but merely "a Naval and Military Decoration" and
a distinction; nor is it properly speaking an order, being not
_constituted_. V.C. would not do. K.G. means a _Knight_ of the Garter,
C.B. a _Companion_ of the Bath, M.P. a _Member_ of Parliament, M.D. a
_Doctor_ of Medicine, etc., etc., in all cases designating a
person. No one could be called a Victoria Cross. V.C. moreover means
Vice-Chancellor at present. D.V.C. (decorated with the Victoria Cross)
or B.V.C. (Bearer of the Victoria Cross) might do. The Queen thinks
the last the best.
[Footnote 21: The Victoria Cross had just been instituted by
Royal Warrant, and the Queen had, with her own hand, decorated
those who had won the distinction, in Hyde Park, on the 26th
of June.]
[Pageheading: REINFORCEMENTS FOR INDIA]
_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _29th June 1857_.
The Queen has to acknowledge the receipt of Lord Panmure's letter of
yesterday. She had long been of opinion that reinforcements waiting
to go to India ought not to be delayed. The moment is certainly a very
critical one, and the additional reinforcements now proposed will be
much wanted. The Queen entirely agrees with Lord Panmure that it will
be good policy to oblige the East India Company to keep permanently a
larger portion of the Royal Army in India than heretofore. The Empire
has nearly doubled itself within the last twenty years, and the
Queen's troops have been kept at the old establishment. They are the
body on whom the maintenance of that Empire depends, and the Company
ought not to sacrifice the highest interests to love of patronage.
The Queen hopes that the new reinforcements will be sent out in their
Brigade organisation, and not as detached regiments; good Commanding
Officers knowing their troops will be of the highest importance next
to the troops themselves.
The Queen must ask that the troops by whom we shall be diminished at
home by the transfer of so many regiments to the Company should be
forthwith replaced by an increase of the establishment up to the
number voted by Parliament, and for which the estimates have been
taken, else we denude ourselves altogether to a degree dangerous to
our own safety at home, and incapable of meeting a sudden emergency,
which, as the present example shows, may come upon us at any moment.
If we had not reduced in such a hurry this spring, we should now have
all the men wanted!
The Queen wishes Lord Panmure to communicate this letter to Lord
Palmerston. The accounts in to-day's papers from India are most
distressing.
_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _3rd July 1857_.
The Queen has received Lord Panmure's letter of yesterday. She has
sanctioned the going of four Regiments to the East Indies. With regard
to the reduction of the garrison of Malta to four Regiments, she hopes
the Government will well consider whether this will not reduce this
valuable and exposed spot to a state of insecurity.
The Queen is sorry to find Lord Panmure still objecting to a proper
Brigade system, without which no army in the world can be efficient.
We want General Officers, and cannot train them unless we employ them
on military duty, not on clerks' duty in district or colony, but in
the command of troops. The detachment of Regiments is no reason for
having no system, and the country will not pay for General Officers
whose employment is not part of a system; our Army is then deprived
of its efficiency by the refusal to adopt a system on the part of the
Government.
[Pageheading: DELHI]
[Pageheading: GRAVE ANXIETY]
_Viscount Canning to Queen Victoria._
CALCUTTA, _4th July 1857_.
Lord Canning presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and although
unable to give to your Majesty the complete details of the capture
of Delhi, and of the defeat of the rebels in that city,[22] as he has
long desired to do, he can at least announce to your Majesty that the
city is in the possession of the British troops, under Major-General
Sir Henry Barnard; and that nothing remains in the hands of the
insurgents except the Palace or Fort, in which they have all taken
refuge. This was the state of things on the 13th and 14th of June,
the latest day of which any certain accounts have been received from
Delhi; but nothing was likely to interfere with the completion of the
capture within forty-eight hours.
This event has been long and anxiously awaited, and the time which has
elapsed has cost England and India very dear. Many precious lives have
been lost, and much heartrending suffering has been endured, for which
there can be no compensation. The reputation of England's power, too,
has had a rude shake; and nothing but a long-continued manifestation
of her might before the eyes of the whole Indian Empire, evinced by
the presence of such an English force as shall make the thought of
oppositon hopeless, will re-establish confidence in her strength.
Lord Canning much fears that there are parts of India where, until
this is done, a complete return to peace and order will not be
effected. Wherever the little band of English soldiers--little
when compared with the stretch of country over which they have to
operate--which Lord Canning has at his disposal has shown itself, the
effect has been instantaneous.
Except at Delhi, there has scarcely been an attempt at resistance to
an European soldier, and the march of the smallest detachments has
preserved order right and left of the roads. The same has been the
case in large cities, such as Benares, Patna, and others; all going to
prove that little more than the presence of English troops is needed
to ensure peace. On the other hand, where such troops are known not to
be within reach, anarchy and violence, when once let loose, continue
unrestrained; and, until further additions are made to the English
regiments in the disturbed districts, this state of things will not
only continue, but extend itself. The fall of Delhi will act to
some degree as a check; but where rapine and outrage have raged
uncontrolled, even for a few hours, it is to be feared that nothing
but the actual presence of force will bring the country into order.
Lord Canning rejoices to say that to-day the first Regiment of your
Majesty's Forces destined for China has entered the Hooghly. Lord
Canning did not scruple, knowing how much was at stake, earnestly to
press Lord Elgin to allow those forces to be turned aside to India
before proceeding to the support of your Majesty's Plenipotentiary
in China;[23] and to this, so far as regards the first two Regiments,
Lord Elgin readily assented. From what Lord Canning has ventured to
state above, your Majesty will easily understand the satisfaction with
which each new arrival of an English transport in Calcutta is regarded
by him.
As yet no military operations south of Delhi have been undertaken.
Next week, however, a column composed of your Majesty's 64th and
78th (Highland) Regiments will reach Cawnpore[24] and Lucknow, in the
neighbourhood of which it is probable that an opportunity will offer
of striking a decisive blow at the band of rebels which, after that
in Delhi, is the strongest and most compact. But Lord Canning greatly
doubts whether they will await the onset. Unfortunately, they may run
away from the English troops, and yet prove very formidable to any who
are weaker than themselves--whether Indians or unarmed Europeans.
Your Majesty is aware that in the critical condition of affairs which
now exists, Lord Canning has felt himself compelled to adopt the
measure of placing the King of Oudh in confinement in Fort William,
in consequence of the use made of his name by those who have been busy
tampering with the Sepoys; and of the intrigues which there is good
reason to believe that the Minister of the King, who is also in the
Fort, has carried on in his master's name.[25] The King has been, and
will continue to be, treated with every mark of respect and indulgence
which is compatible with his position, so long as it may be necessary
that he should be retained in the Fort.
Lord Canning earnestly hopes that your Majesty and the Prince are in
the enjoyment of good health, and prays your Majesty to be graciously
pleased to accept the expression of his sincere devotion and dutiful
attachment.
[Footnote 22: After the outbreak at Meerut in May, the
fugitive Sepoys fled to Delhi, and endeavoured to capture the
magazine, which, however, was exploded by British soldiers.
Delhi was not captured until September (see _post_, 25th
September, 1857). On the 11th of July, the Government received
intelligence of the spread of the Mutiny throughout Bengal,
and the resulting diminution of the Indian Army.]
[Footnote 23: For Sir George Grey's action at Cape Town, in
reference to the troops destined for China, see his Memoir, in
the _Dictionary of National Biography_.]
[Footnote 24: On the 4th of June, two native regiments had
mutinied at Cawnpore, and the English residents, under General
Sir Hugh Wheeler, were besieged. After many deaths and much
privation, the garrison were induced by the perfidy of Nana
Sahib, who had caused the Cawnpore rising, to surrender, on
condition of their lives being spared. On the 27th of June,
not suspecting their impending fate, the enfeebled garrison,
or what was left of it, gave themselves up. The men were
killed, the women and children being first enslaved and
afterwards massacred. On the 16th of July, General Havelock
defeated Nana Sahib at Cawnpore, the city was occupied by
the English, and a sanguinary, but well-merited, retribution
exacted.]
[Footnote 25: The ex-King had been living under the protection
of the Indian Government. The arrest took place early in June
at his residence at Garden Beach.]
[Pageheading: DEBATE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
PICCADILLY, _27th July 1857_.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs
to state that Mr Disraeli this afternoon, in a speech of three hours,
made his Motion on the state of India. His Motion was ostensibly for
two papers, one of which does not exist, at least in the possession of
the Government, and the other of which ought not to be made public,
as it relates to the arrangements for defending India against external
attack. He represented the disturbances in India as a national revolt,
and not as a mere military mutiny; and he enumerated various causes
which in his opinion accounted, for and justified this general revolt.
Some of these causes were various measures of improved civilisation
which from time to time during the last ten years the Indian
Government had been urged by Parliament to take. Mr Vernon Smith
followed, and in a very able speech answered in great detail Mr
Disraeli's allegations. Sir Erskine Perry,[26] who evidently had
furnished Mr Disraeli with much of his mistaken assertions, supported
his views. Mr Campbell, Member for Weymouth, who had been many years
in India, showed the fallacy of Mr Disraeli's arguments, and the
groundlessness of many of his assertions. Mr Whiteside supported
the Motion. Lord John Russell, who had after Mr Disraeli's speech
communicated with the Government, expressed his disapprobation of
Mr Disraeli's speech, and moved as an Amendment an Address to your
Majesty expressing the assurance of the support of the House for
measures to suppress the present disturbances, and their co-operation
with your Majesty in measures for the permanent establishment of
tranquillity and contentment in India.[27] Mr Mangles, the Chairman
of the Directors, replied at much length, and very conclusively to Mr
Disraeli's speech. Mr Liddell, with much simplicity, asked the Speaker
to tell him how he should vote, but approved entirely of Lord John
Russell's address. Mr Ayrton moved an adjournment of the Debate, which
was negatived by 203 to 79. Mr Hadfield then shortly stated in his
provincial dialect that "we can never keep our 'old upon Hindia by
the Force of Harms." Mr Disraeli then made an animated reply to the
speeches against him, but in a manner almost too animated for the
occasion. Mr Thomas Baring set Mr Disraeli right, but in rather strong
terms, about some proceedings of the Committee on Indian Affairs
in 1853, with regard to which Mr Disraeli's memory had proved
untrustworthy. Viscount Palmerston shortly made some observations on
the Motion and the speech which had introduced it; and the Motion was
then negatived without a division, and the Address was unanimously
carried.
[Footnote 26: Chief Justice of Bombay 1847-1852, and M.P. for
Devonport 1854-1859.]
[Footnote 27: "One of those dry constitutional platitudes,"
said Mr Disraeli in reply, "which in a moment of difficulty
the noble lord pulls out of the dusty pigeon-holes of his
mind, and shakes in the perplexed face of the baffled House
of Commons." Mr Disraeli was admittedly much annoyed by the
statesmanlike intervention of Lord John.]
[Pageheading: MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE]
_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._
OSBORNE, _27th July 1857_.
MY DEAREST UNCLE,--At _this_ very _moment_ the marriage[28] is going
on--the _Knot_ is being tied which binds your lovely sweet child to a
thoroughly worthy husband--and I am sure you will be much moved. May
every blessing attend her! I wish _I_ could be present--but my dearest
_Half_ being there makes me feel as I were there myself. I try to
picture to myself how _all_ will be. I could not give you a greater
proof of my love for you all, and my anxiety to give you and dearest
Charlotte pleasure, than in urging my dearest Albert to go over--for I
encouraged and _urged_ him to go though you cannot think _combien
cela me coute_ or how completely _deroutee_ I am and _feel_ when he
is away, or how I count the hours till he returns. _All_ the numerous
children are as _nothing_ to me when _he is away_; it seems as if the
whole life of the house and home were gone, when he is away!
We do all we can to _feter_ in our very _quiet_ way this dear day.
We are all out of mourning; the younger children are to have a
half-holiday, Alice is to _dine_ for the first time in the evening
with us; we shall drink _the Archduke and Archduchess's_ healths; and
I have ordered _wine_ for our servants, and _grog_ for our sailors to
do the same.
Vicky (who is painting in the Alcove near me) wishes me to say
everything to you and the _dear young couple_, and pray tell dear
Charlotte _all_ that we have been doing....
Here we are in anxious (and I fear many people in very _cruel_)
suspense, for news from India. They _ought_ to have arrived the day
before yesterday.
On Thursday, then, we are to have Prince Napoleon, and on the
following Thursday the Emperor and Empress; and after them for _one_
night, the Queen of Holland,[29] whose activity is astounding--and she
sees everything and everybody and goes everywhere; she is certainly
clever and amiable....
Now, with our children's affectionate love, ever your devoted Niece,
VICTORIA R.
Pray offer my kind regards to _all_ your visitors, even to those whom
I do _not_ know. I only hope my dearest husband will tell me _all_
about everything. Vicky is constantly talking and thinking of
Charlotte.
[Footnote 28: Of the Princess Charlotte to the Archduke
Ferdinand Maximilian at Brussels.]
[Footnote 29: Sophia Frederica, born 1818, daughter of King
William I. of Wuertemberg.]
[Pageheading: THE MILITIA]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
OSBORNE, _2nd August 1857_.
The Queen has to thank Lord Palmerston for his letter of the 27th
July.
The embodying of the Militia will be a most necessary measure, as
well for the defence of our own country, and for keeping up on the
Continent of Europe the knowledge that we are not in a defenceless
state, as for the purpose of obtaining a sufficient number of
volunteers for the Army.
The Queen hopes, therefore, that the Militia to be embodied will be
on a proper and sufficient scale. She must say, that the last accounts
from India show so formidable a state of things that the military
measures hitherto taken by the Home Government, on whom the salvation
of India must mainly depend, appear to the Queen as by no means
adequate to the emergency. We have nearly gone to the full extent of
our available means, just as we did in the Crimean War, and may be
able to obtain successes; but we have not laid in a store of troops,
nor formed Reserves which could carry us over a long struggle, or meet
unforeseen new calls. Herein we are always most shortsighted, and have
finally to suffer either in power and reputation, or to pay enormous
sums for small advantages in the end--generally both.
The Queen hopes that the Cabinet will look the question boldly in the
face; nothing could be better than the Resolutions passed in the House
of Commons, insuring to the Government every possible support in the
adoption of vigorous measures. It is generally the Government, and not
the House of Commons, who hang back. The Queen wishes Lord Palmerston
to communicate this letter to his Colleagues.
[Pageheading: THE NAVY]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
OSBORNE, _4th August 1857_.
The defenceless state of our shores, now that the Army has been
reduced to eighteen effective Battalions, and the evident inclinations
of the Continental Powers, chiefly France and Russia, to dictate to us
with regard to the Oriental Question, makes the Queen naturally turn
her attention to the state of our naval preparations and force.
To render it possible to salute the Emperor[30] when he comes here,
the old _St Vincent_ has been brought out of the harbour, but has been
manned chiefly by the men of the _Excellent_ gunnery ship; and we
have been warned by the Admiralty not to visit the _Excellent_ in
consequence. This does not show a very brilliant condition! But what
is still more worthy of consideration is, that our new fleet, which
had been completed at the end of the Russian War, was _a steam_ fleet;
when it was broken up at the Peace the dockyard expenses were also
cut down, and men discharged at the very moment when totally new and
extensive arrangements became necessary to repair and keep in a state
of efficiency the valuable steam machinery, and to house our gunboat
flotilla on shore. To render any of these steamships fit for sea,
now that they are dismantled, with our _small_ means as to basins and
docks, must necessarily cost much time.
The Queen wishes accordingly to have a report sent to her as to the
force of screw-ships of the Line and of other classes which can be got
ready at the different dockyards, and the time required to get them to
sea for actual service; and also the time required to launch and get
ready the gunboats. She does not wish for a mere general answer from
the Lords of the Admiralty, but for detailed reports from the Admirals
commanding at the different ports, and particularly the Captains in
command of the Steam Reserve. She would only add that she wishes no
unnecessary time to be lost in the preparation of these reports. She
requests Lord Palmerston to have these, her wishes, carried out.
[Footnote 30: The Emperor and Empress of the French arrived
at Osborne on the 6th of August on a visit to the Queen
and Prince, lasting for four days, during which time much
discussion took place between the Prince and Emperor on
affairs in Eastern Europe.]
[Pageheading: DEATH OF SIR HENRY LAWRENCE]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
OSBORNE, _22nd August 1857_.
The Queen is afraid from the telegram of this morning that affairs in
India have not yet taken a favourable turn. Delhi seems still to hold
out, and the death of Sir H. Lawrence[31] is a great loss. The Queen
must repeat to Lord Palmerston that the measures hitherto taken by the
Government are not commensurate with the magnitude of the crisis.
We have given nearly all we have in reinforcements, and if new efforts
should become necessary, by the joining of the Madras and Bombay
Armies in the Revolt, for instance, it will take months to prepare
Reserves which ought now to be ready. Ten Battalions of Militia to
be called out is quite inadequate; forty, at least, ought to be the
number, for these also exist only on paper. The augmentation of the
Cavalry and the Guards has not yet been ordered.
Financial difficulties don't exist; the 14,000 men sent to India are
taken over by the Indian Government, and their expense saved to
us; and this appears hardly the moment to make savings on the Army
estimates.
[Footnote 31: On the previous day, the Queen and Prince had
returned from a visit to Cherbourg, and found very disquieting
news from India. Sir Henry Lawrence was the Military
Administrator and Chief Commissioner of Oudh; on the 30th of
May, the 71st N.I. mutinied at Lucknow, but Sir Henry drove
them from their position and fortified the Residency. Some
weeks later, on sallying out to reconnoitre, the English were
driven back and besieged in the Residency; Sir Henry dying
from the effects of a wound caused by a shell.]
[Pageheading: RECRUITING]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
DOWNING STREET, _22nd August 1857_.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty....
Viscount Palmerston has had the honour of receiving your Majesty's
communication of this morning. It is, no doubt, true that the
telegraphic account received yesterday evening does not show, that at
the dates mentioned from India, any improvement had taken place in the
state of affairs, and the loss of Sir Henry Lawrence and of General
Barnard,[32] but especially of the former, is deeply to be lamented.
With regard, however, to the measures now taking to raise a force to
supply the place of the troops sent to India, and to enlist recruits
to fill up vacancies in the Regiments in India, Viscount Palmerston
would beg to submit that the steps now taking seem to be well
calculated for their purpose. The recruiting for the Army has gone on
more rapidly than could have been expected at this particular time of
year, and in a fortnight or three weeks from this time will proceed
still more rapidly; the ten thousand Militia to be immediately
embodied will be as much as could probably be got together at the
present moment without much local inconvenience; but if that number
should be found insufficient, it would be easy afterwards to embody
more. But, if the recruiting should go on successfully, that number
of Militiamen in addition to the Regulars may be found sufficient.
Viscount Palmerston begs to assure your Majesty that there is no wish
to make savings on the amount voted for Army Services, but, on the
other hand, it would be very inconvenient and embarrassing to exceed
that amount without some urgent and adequate necessity....
[Footnote 32: He died of cholera at Delhi, on the 5th of
July.]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
OSBORNE, _22nd August 1857_.
In answer to Lord Palmerston's observations on our Military
preparations, the Queen must reply that, although Lord Palmerston
disclaims, on the part of the Government, the intention of making a
saving on the Army estimates out of the fearful exigencies caused by
the Indian Revolt, the facts still remain. The Government have sent
fourteen Battalions out of the country and transferred them to the
East India Company, and they mean to replace them only by ten new
ones, whose organisation has been ordered; but even in these, they
mean for the present to save four Companies out of every twelve. The
Queen, the House of Lords, the House of Commons, and the Press, all
call out for vigorous exertion, and the Government alone take an
apologetic line, anxious to do as little as possible, to wait for
further news, to reduce as low as possible even what they do grant,
and reason as if we had at most _only_ to replace what was sent out;
whilst if new demands should come upon us, the Reserves which ought
now to be decided upon and organised, are only then to be discussed.
The Queen can the less reconcile herself to the system, of "letting
out a little sail at a time," as Lord Palmerston called it the other
day, as she feels convinced that, if vigour and determination to
get what will be eventually wanted is shown by the Cabinet, it will
pervade the whole Government machinery and attain its object; but that
if, on the other hand, people don't see what the Government really
require, and find them satisfied with a little at a time, even that
little will not be got, as the subordinates naturally take the tone
from their superiors. Ten Militia Regiments would not even represent
the 10,000 men whom Parliament has voted the supplies for. A Battalion
will probably not reach 600 for a time, and from these we hope to draw
volunteers again!
The Queen hopes the Cabinet will yet look the whole question in the
face, and decide while there is time what they must know will become
necessary, and what must in the hurry at the end be done less well
and at, probably, double the cost. The Queen can speak by very recent
experience, having seen exactly the same course followed in the late
War.
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
OSBORNE, _23rd August 1857_.
The Queen approves of Lord Fife[33] and Lord R. Grosvenor being
made Peers, and of an offer being made to Mr Macaulay, although she
believes he will decline the honour....
[Footnote 33: James, fifth Viscount Macduff and Earl of Fife
in the peerage of Ireland, was, on the 1st of October, created
a Baron of the United Kingdom; he was the father of the
present Duke of Fife. Lord Robert Grosvenor became Lord
Ebury, and Mr Macaulay Lord Macaulay of Rothley Temple (his
birthplace), in the county of Leicester.]
[Pageheading: THE ARMY RESERVES]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
OSBORNE, _25th August 1857_.
The Queen has received Lord Palmerston's letter of yesterday, and must
say that she is deeply grieved at her want of success in impressing
upon him the importance of meeting the present dangers by agreeing on,
and maturing a general plan by which to replace _in kind_ the troops
sent out of the country, and for which the money _has_ been voted by
Parliament.[34] To the formation of the full number of Battalions, and
their full strength in Companies, Lord Palmerston objects that the men
will not be found to fill them, and therefore it is left undone; to
the calling-out of more Militia, he objects that they ought not to be
used as Recruiting Depots, and if many were called out the speed with
which the recruiting for the Army went on, would oblige them to be
disbanded again. The War Office pride themselves upon having got 1,000
men since the recruiting began; this is equal to 1,000 a month or
12,000 a year, the ordinary wear and tear of the Army!! Where will the
Reserves for India be to be found? It does not suffice merely to get
_recruits_, as Lord Palmerston says; they will not become _soldiers_
for six months when got, and in the meantime a sufficient number of
Militia Regiments ought to be drilled, and made efficient to relieve
the Line Regiments already sent, or yet to be sent, for these also are
at present necessarily good for nothing.
The Queen must say that the Government incur a fearful responsibility
towards their country by their apparent indifference. God grant that
no unforeseen European complication fall upon this country--but we are
really tempting Providence.
The Queen hopes Lord Palmerston has communicated to the Cabinet her
views on the subject.
[Footnote 34: After referring to the necessity for supplying
by fresh drafts the gaps created in the regiments in India,
Lord Palmerston had written:--
"If the Militia officers were to find that they were
considered merely as drill sergeants for the Line, they would
grow careless and indifferent, and many whom it is desirable
to keep in the Service would leave it.
"With regard to the number of Militiamen to be embodied, the
question seems to be, What is the number which will be wanted
for the whole period to the 31st of March, because it would be
undesirable to call out and embody now Militia Regiments which
would become unnecessary during the winter by the progress of
recruiting, and which, from there being no funds applicable to
their maintenance, it would become necessary to disembody. The
men would be now taken from industrial employment at a time
when labour is wanted, and would be turned adrift in the
winter when there is less demand for labour.
"With respect to recruiting for the Army, every practicable
means has been adopted to hasten its success. Recruiting
parties have been scattered over the whole of the United
Kingdom, and the permanent staff of the disembodied Militia
have been furnished with Beating Warrants enabling them to
enlist recruits for the Line; and the recruiting has been
hitherto very successful. The only thing to be done is to
raise men as fast as possible, and to post them as they are
raised to the Regiments and Battalions for which they engage.
The standard, moreover, has been lowered...."]
[Pageheading: LORD LANSDOWNE]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
PICCADILLY, _31st August 1857_.
... Viscount Palmerston would beg to submit for your Majesty's
consideration whether he might be authorised by your Majesty to offer
to Lord Lansdowne promotion to the title of Duke. Your Majesty may
possibly not have in the course of your Majesty's reign, long as it is
to be hoped that reign will be, any subject whose private and public
character will during so long a course of years as those which have
been the period of Lord Lansdowne's career, have more entitled him
to the esteem and respect of his fellow-countrymen, and to the
approbation of his Sovereign.
Lord Lansdowne has now for several years given your Majesty's
Government the great and valuable support of his advice in council,
his assistance in debate, and the weight of his character in the
country, without any office. His health and strength, Viscount
Palmerston cannot disguise from himself, have not been this year such
as they had been; and if your Majesty should contemplate marking at
any time your Majesty's sense of Lord Lansdowne's public services,
there could not be a better moment for doing so than the present; and
Viscount Palmerston has reason to believe that such an act of grace
would be very gratifying to the Liberal Party, and would be deemed
well bestowed even by those who are of opposite politics.[35]
Mr Macaulay accepts the Peerage with much gratitude to your Majesty.
[Footnote 35: Lord Lansdowne declined the honour.]
[Pageheading: THE INDIAN MUTINY]
_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._
BALMORAL CASTLE, _2nd September 1857_.
DEAREST UNCLE,--... We are in sad anxiety about India, which engrosses
all our attention.[36] Troops cannot be raised fast or largely enough.
And the horrors committed on the poor ladies--women and children--are
unknown in these ages, and make one's blood run cold. Altogether, the
whole is so much more distressing than the Crimea--where there was
_glory_ and honourable warfare, and where the poor women and children
were safe. Then the distance and the difficulty of communication is
such an additional suffering to us all. I know you will feel much for
us all. There is not a family hardly who is not in sorrow and anxiety
about their children, and in all ranks--India being _the_ place where
every one was anxious to place a son!
We hear from _our_ people (not Fritz) from Berlin, that the King is in
a very unsatisfactory state. _What_ have you heard?...
Now, with Albert's love, ever your devoted Niece,
VICTORIA R.
[Footnote 36: At Balmoral the Queen learned in greater detail
of the atrocities which had been committed upon the garrison
at Cawnpore.]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
BROCKET, _10th September 1857_.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty and begs
to submit that an impression is beginning to prevail that it would be
a proper thing that a day should be set apart for National Prayer and
Humiliation with reference to the present calamitous state of affairs
in India, upon the same principle on which a similar step was taken
during the Crimean War; and if your Majesty should approve, Viscount
Palmerston would communicate on the subject with the Archbishop of
Canterbury.... It is usual on such occasions that the Archbishop of
Canterbury should attend,[37] but in consideration of the distance his
attendance might well be dispensed with on the present occasion.
[Footnote 37: _I.e._ at the meeting of the Council which was
to be summoned.]
[Pageheading: A DAY OF INTERCESSION]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
BALMORAL, _11th September 1857_.
Lord Palmerston knows what the Queen's feelings are with regard to
Fast-days, which she thinks do not produce the desired effect--from
the manner in which they are appointed, and the selections made for
the Service--but she will not oppose the natural feeling which any
one must partake in, of a desire to pray for our fellow-countrymen and
women who are exposed to such imminent danger, and therefore sanctions
his consulting the Archbishop on the subject. She would, however,
suggest its being more appropriately called a day of prayer
and intercession for our suffering countrymen, than of fast and
humiliation, and of its being on a _Sunday_, and not on a week-day:
on the last Fast-day, the Queen heard it generally remarked, that it
produced more harm than good, and that, if it were on a Sunday, it
would be much more generally observed. However, she will sanction
whatever is proper, but thinks it ought to be as soon as possible[38]
(in a fortnight or three weeks) if it is to be done at all.
She will hold a Council whenever it is wished.[39]
[Footnote 38: It was kept on the 7th of October (a
Wednesday).]
[Footnote 39: Shortly after the date of this letter came the
intelligence from India that Delhi had not fallen, and that
the Lucknow garrison was not yet relieved. This news, coupled
with the tidings of fresh outbreaks, and the details of the
horrors of Cawnpore, generated deep feelings of resentment in
the country.]
_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._
BALMORAL CASTLE, _23rd September 1857_.
The Queen hopes that the arrival of troops and ships with Lord Elgin
will be of material assistance, but still it does not alter the state
of affairs described by the Queen in her letter, which she wrote to
Lord Palmerston, and which she is glad to see Lord Clarendon agrees
in. Though we might have perhaps wished the Maharajah[40] to express
his feelings on the subject of the late atrocities in India, it was
hardly to be expected that he (naturally of a negative, though gentle
and very amiable disposition) should pronounce an opinion on so
painful a subject, attached as he is to his country, and naturally
_still_ possessing, with all his amiability and goodness, an _Eastern
nature_; he can also hardly, a deposed Indian Sovereign, _not very_
fond of the British rule as represented by the East India Company,
and, above all, impatient of Sir John Login's[41] tutorship, be
expected to _like_ to hear his country-people called _fiends_ and
_monsters_, and to see them brought in hundreds, if not thousands, to
be executed.
His best course is to say nothing, she must think.
It is a great mercy he, poor boy, is not there.
[Footnote 40: Lord Clarendon had written that he was "sorry to
learn that the Maharajah (Dhuleep Singh) had shown little or
no regret for the atrocities which have been committed, or
sympathy with the sufferers."]
[Footnote 41: Sir John Spencer Login, formerly surgeon at the
British Residency, Lucknow, guardian of the Maharajah Dhuleep
Singh, 1849-1858.]
[Pageheading: LETTER FROM LORD CANNING]
[Pageheading: SIR COLIN CAMPBELL]
[Pageheading: INDIA]
[Pageheading: THE POLICY OF CLEMENCY]
_Viscount Canning to Queen Victoria._
CALCUTTA, _25th September 1857_.
Lord Canning presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and asks leave
again to address your Majesty, although the desire which he has felt
that his next letter should announce to your Majesty the fall of
Delhi, and the first steps towards a restoration of your Majesty's
Authority throughout the revolted Districts, cannot as yet be
accomplished. But although it is not in Lord Canning's power to report
any very marked success over the Rebels, he can confidently assure
your Majesty that a change in the aspect of affairs is gradually
taking place, which gives hope that the contest is drawing to a close,
and the day of punishment at hand....
Another ground for good hopes is the appearance of things at Lucknow.
News just received from Sir James Outram announces that he has joined
General Havelock's force at Cawnpore, and that the Troops crossed the
Ganges into Oudh on the 19th, with hardly any opposition. The European
force now advancing on Lucknow is about [....][42] strong, well
provided with Artillery. The beleaguered Garrison was in good spirits
on the 16th of September, and had provisions enough to last to the
end of the month. They had lately inflicted severe losses on their
assailants, and some of the latter had dispersed. The influential
proprietors and chiefs of the country had begun to show symptoms of
siding with us.
This is a very different state of things from that which existed when
General Havelock's force retired across the Ganges in July; and Lord
Canning prays and believes that your Majesty will be spared the
pain and horror of hearing that the atrocities of Cawnpore have been
re-enacted upon the brave and enduring garrison of Lucknow. Every
English soldier who could be made to reach Cawnpore has been pushed
on to General Outram, even to the denuding of some points of danger
in the intervening country, and General Outram's instructions are to
consider the rescue of the garrison as the one paramount object to
which everything else is to give way. The garrison (which, after all,
is nothing more than the House of the Resident, with defences hastily
thrown up) contains about three hundred and fifty European men, four
hundred and fifty women and children, and one hundred and twenty sick,
besides three hundred natives, hitherto faithful. The city, and even
the province, may be abandoned and recovered again, but these lives
must be saved now or never; and to escape the sorrow and humiliation
of such barbarities as have already been endured elsewhere is worth
any sacrifice. It is in consideration of the state of things at
these two most critical points, Delhi and Lucknow, that Lord Canning
ventures to ask your Majesty to look hopefully to the events of the
next few weeks; notwithstanding that he is unable to announce any
signal success....
Sir Colin Campbell has been in a state of delight ever since his
favourite 93rd landed five days ago.[43] He went to see them on board
their transport before they disembarked, and when Lord Canning asked
how he found them, replied that the only thing amiss was that they had
become too fat on the voyage, and could not button their coats. But,
indeed, all the troops of the China force have been landed in the
highest possible condition of health and vigour. The 23rd, from its
large proportion of young soldiers, is perhaps the one most likely
to suffer from the climate and the hardships of the Service--for,
although no care or cost will be spared to keep them in health and
comfort, Lord Canning fears that hardships there must be, seeing how
vast an extent of usually productive country will be barren for a
time, and that the districts from which some of our most valuable
supplies, especially the supply of carriage animals, are drawn,
have been stripped bare, or are still in revolt. As it is, the
Commander-in-Chief has most wisely reduced the amount of tent
accommodation for officers and men far below the ordinary luxurious
Indian allowance.
The presence of the ships of the Royal Navy has been of the greatest
service. At least eleven thousand seamen and marines have been
contributed by them for duty on shore, and the broadsides of the
_Sanspareil_, _Shannon_, and _Pearl_, as they lie along the esplanade,
have had a very reassuring effect upon the inhabitants of Calcutta,
who, until lately, have insisted pertinaciously that their lives and
property were in hourly danger.[44]
No line-of-battle ship has been seen in the Hooghly since Admiral
Watson sailed up to Chandernagore just a hundred years ago;[45] and
certainly nothing in his fleet was equal to the _Sanspareil_. The
natives stare at her, and call her "the four-storied boat."
For the future, if Delhi should fall and Lucknow be secured, the work
of pacification will go forward steadily. Many points will have to be
watched, and there may be occasional resistance; but nothing like
an organised contest against authority is probable. The greatest
difficulties will be in the civil work of re-settlement. The recent
death of Mr Colvin,[46] the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western
Provinces, has removed an officer whose experience would there have
been most valuable. He has died, fairly exhausted; and is the fourth
officer of high trust whose life has given way in the last four
months.
One of the greatest difficulties which lie ahead--and Lord Canning
grieves to say so to your Majesty--will be the violent rancour of a
very large proportion of the English community against every
native Indian of every class. There is a rabid and indiscriminate
vindictiveness abroad, even amongst many who ought to set a better
example, which it is impossible to contemplate without something like
a feeling of shame for one's fellow-countrymen. Not one man in
ten seems to think that the hanging and shooting of forty or fifty
thousand mutineers, besides other Rebels, can be otherwise than
practicable and right; nor does it occur to those who talk and write
most upon the matter that for the Sovereign of England to hold and
govern India without employing, and, to a great degree, trusting
natives, both in civil and military service, is simply impossible. It
is no exaggeration to say that a vast number of the European community
would hear with pleasure and approval that every Hindoo and Mohammedan
had been proscribed, and that none would be admitted to serve the
Government except in a menial office. That which they desire is to see
a broad line of separation, and of declared distrust drawn between us
Englishmen and every subject of your Majesty who is not a Christian,
and who has a dark skin; and there are some who entirely refuse
to believe in the fidelity or goodwill of any native towards any
European; although many instances of the kindness and generosity
of both Hindoos and Mohammedans have come upon record during these
troubles.
To those whose hearts have been torn by the foul barbarities inflicted
upon those dear to them any degree of bitterness against the natives
may be excused. No man will dare to judge them for it. But the cry is
raised loudest by those who have been sitting quietly in their homes
from the beginning and have suffered little from the convulsions
around them unless it be in pocket. It is to be feared that this
feeling of exasperation will be a great impediment in the way of
restoring tranquillity and good order, even after signal retribution
shall have been deliberately measured out to all chief offenders.[47]
Lord Canning is ashamed of having trespassed upon your Majesty's
indulgence at such length. He will only add that he has taken the
liberty of sending to your Majesty by this mail a map which has just
been finished, showing the distribution of the Army throughout India
at the time of the outbreak of the Mutiny. It also shows the Regiments
of the Bengal Army which have mutinied, and those which have been
disarmed, the number of European troops arrived in Calcutta up to the
19th of September, and whence they came; with some few other points of
information.
There may be some slight inaccuracies, as the first copies of the map
have only just been struck off, and have not been corrected; but Lord
Canning believes that it will be interesting to your Majesty at the
present moment.
Lord Canning begs to be allowed to express his earnest wishes for the
health of your Majesty, and of His Royal Highness Prince Albert,
and to offer to your Majesty the humble assurance of his sincere and
dutiful devotion.
[Footnote 42: Word omitted in the original.]
[Footnote 43: At the battle of the Alma, Sir Colin Campbell,
in command of the 2nd or Highland Brigade of the 1st Division,
had, with his Highlanders in line, routed the last compact
column of the Russians. On the 11th of July 1857, he was
appointed Commander-in-Chief in India, and started literally
at one day's notice, reaching Calcutta on the 14th of August.]
[Footnote 44: The services of the Naval Brigade, at the relief
of Lucknow, were warmly recognised by Sir Colin Campbell, and
especially the gallantry of Captain Peel of the _Shannon_.]
[Footnote 45: In retribution for the atrocity of the Black
Hole of Calcutta, Watson, under instructions from Clive,
reduced Chandernagore on the 23rd of March 1757; the battle of
Plassey was fought on the 23rd of June.]
[Footnote 46: John Russell Colvin, formerly Private Secretary
to Lord Auckland, had been Lieutenant-Governor since 1853.]
_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._
BALMORAL, _28th September 1857_.
The Queen is much surprised at Lord Clarendon's observing that "from
what he hears the Maharajah was either from nature or early education
cruel."[48] He must have changed very suddenly if this be true, for
if there was a thing for which he was remarkable, it was his extreme
gentleness and kindness of disposition. We have known him for three
years (our two boys intimately), and he always shuddered at hurting
anything, and was peculiarly gentle and kind towards children and
animals, and if anything rather timid; so that all who knew him said
he never could have had a chance in his own country. His valet, who
is a very respectable Englishman, and has been with him ever since
his twelfth year, says that he never knew a kinder or more amiable
disposition. The Queen fears that people who do not know him well have
been led away by their present very natural feelings of hatred and
distrust of all Indians to slander him. What he might turn out, if
left in the hands of unscrupulous Indians in his own country, of
course no one can foresee.
[Footnote 48: See _ante_, 23rd September, 1857, note 40.]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
WINDSOR CASTLE, _17th October 1857_.
The Queen has received yesterday evening the box with the Dockyard
Returns. It will take her some time to peruse and study them; she
wishes, however, to remark upon two points, and to have them pointed
out also to Sir Charles Wood,[49] viz. first, that they are dated some
as early as the 27th August, and none later than the 10th September,
and that she received them, only on the _17th October_; and then
that there is not one original Return amongst them, but they are all
copies! When the Queen asks for Returns, to which she attaches great
importance, she expects at least to see them in original.
[Footnote 49: First Lord of the Admiralty.]
[Pageheading: MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL]
_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._
WINDSOR CASTLE, _25th October 1857_.
The Queen returns these letters. It would be well if Lord Clarendon
would tell Lord Bloomfield not to _entertain_ the _possibility_ of
such a question as the Princess Royal's marriage taking place at
Berlin.[50] The Queen _never_ could consent to it, both for public
and private reasons, and the assumption of its being _too much_ for a
Prince Royal of Prussia to _come_ over to marry _the Princess Royal
of Great Britain_ IN England is too _absurd_, to say the least. The
Queen must say that there never was even the _shadow_ of a _doubt_ on
_Prince Frederick William's_ part as to _where_ the marriage should
take place, and she suspects this to be the mere gossip of the
Berliners. Whatever may be the usual practice of Prussian Princes, it
is not _every_ day that one marries the eldest daughter of the Queen
of England. The question therefore must be considered as settled and
closed....
[Footnote 50: The marriage took place at the Chapel Royal, St
James's.]
[Pageheading: DEATH OF THE DUCHESS DE NEMOURS]
_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._
WINDSOR CASTLE, _12th November 1857_.
The Queen thanks Lord Clarendon much for his kind and sympathising
letter, and is much gratified at Count Persigny's kind note. He _is_
a good, honest, warm-hearted man, for whom we have sincere esteem.
The news from India was a great relief and a _ray_ of sunshine in our
great affliction.[51] The Queen had the happiness of informing poor
Sir George Couper of the relief of Lucknow, in which for four months
his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren were shut up. The loss of
two such distinguished officers as Generals Nicholson and Neill, and
alas! of many inferior ones, is, however, very sad.
We visited the house of mourning yesterday, and _no words can_
describe the scene of woe.[52] There was the venerable Queen with
the motherless children, admirable in her deep grief, and her pious
resignation to the Will of God! yet even now the support, the comfort
of all, thinking but of others and ready to devote her last remaining
strength and her declining years to her children and grandchildren.
There was the broken-hearted, almost distracted widower--_her
son_--and lastly, there was in one room the lifeless, but oh! even in
its ghostliness, most beautiful form of his young, lovely, and angelic
wife, lying in her bed with her splendid hair covering her shoulders,
and a heavenly expression of peace; and in the next room, the dear
little pink infant sleeping in its cradle.
The Queen leaves to Lord Clarendon's kind heart to imagine what this
spectacle of woe must be, and how _deeply_ afflicted and impressed _we
must be_--who have only so lately had a child born to us and have been
so fortunate! The Prince has been _completely_ upset by this; and she
was besides like a dear sister to us. God's will be done! But it
seems _too_ dreadful almost to believe it--too hard to bear. The dear
Duchess's death must have been caused by some affection of the heart,
for she was perfectly well, having her hair combed, suddenly exclaimed
to the Nurse, "Oh! mon Dieu, Madame"--her head fell on one side--and
before the Duke could run upstairs her hand was cold! The Queen
had visited her on Saturday--looking well--and _yesterday_ saw her
lifeless form in the very same spot!
If Lord Clarendon could give a slight hint to the _Times_ to say a few
words of sympathy on the awful and unparalleled misfortune of these
poor exiles, she is sure it would be very soothing to their bleeding
hearts.... The sad event at Claremont took place just five days later
than the death of poor Princess Charlotte under very similar
circumstances forty years ago; and the poor Duchess was the niece of
Princess Charlotte's husband.
[Footnote 51: Havelock, in consequence of the strength of the
rebels in Oudh, had been unable to march to the assistance of
Lucknow immediately after the relief of Cawnpore. He joined
hands with Outram on the 10th of September, and reinforced the
Lucknow garrison on the 25th.]
[Footnote 52: In a pathetic letter, just received, the Duc de
Nemours (second son of Louis Philippe) had announced the death
of his wife, Queen Victoria's beloved cousin and friend. She
was only thirty-five years of age, and had been married at
eighteen. She had seemed to make a good recovery after the
birth of a child on the 28th of October, but died quite
suddenly on the 10th of November, while at her toilette.]
[Pageheading: CRISIS IN THE CITY]
[Pageheading: SUSPENSION OF BANK CHARTER ACT]
_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._
DOWNING STREET, _12th November 1857_.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs
to state that the condition of financial affairs became worse to-day
than it was yesterday.[53] The Governor of the bank represented that
almost all private firms have ceased to discount bills, and that the
Reserve Fund of the Bank of England, out of which discounts are made
and liabilities satisfied, had been reduced last night to L1,400,000,
and that if that fund should become exhausted the bank would have
to suspend its operations. Under these circumstances it appeared to
Viscount Palmerston, and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that a
case had arisen for doing the same thing which was done under somewhat
similar circumstances in 1847--that is to say, that a letter should
be written by the first Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to the Governor of the Bank of England, saying that if under
the pressure of the emergency the bank should deem it necessary to
issue more notes than the amount to which they are at present confined
by law, the Government would apply to Parliament to grant them an
indemnity.
This Measure, in 1847, had the effect of stopping the then existing
panic, and the necessity for making such an issue did not arise; on
the present occasion this announcement will, no doubt, have a salutary
effect in allaying the present panic, but as the bank had to discount
to-day bills to the amount of L2,000,000, which they could not have
done out of a fund of L1,400,000, unless deposits and payments in,
to a considerable amount, had been made, the probability is that
the issue thus authorised will actually be made. The Governor and
Deputy-Governor of the bank represented that the communication,
in order to be effectual and to save from ruin firms which were in
imminent danger, ought to be made forthwith, so that they might be
enabled to announce it on the Stock Exchange before the closing of
business at four o'clock. Viscount Palmerston and Sir George Lewis
therefore signed at once, and gave to the Governor of the bank the
letter of which the accompanying paper is a copy, the pressure of the
matter not allowing time to take your Majesty's pleasure beforehand.
The state of things now is more urgent than that which existed in
1847, when the similar step was taken; at that time the Reserve Fund
was about L1,900,000, last night it was only L1,400,000; at that time
the bullion in the bank was above L8,000,000, it is now somewhat
less than L8,000,000; at that time things were mending, they are now
getting worse.
But however necessary this Measure has been considered, and however
useful it may be expected to be, it inevitably entails one very
inconvenient consequence. The Government have authorised the bank to
break the law, and whether the law shall actually be broken or not,
it would be highly unconstitutional for the Government not to take
the earliest opportunity of submitting the matter to the knowledge of
Parliament. This course was pursued in 1847. The letter from Lord John
Russell and Sir Charles Wood to the Governor of the bank was dated on
the 25th October, Parliament then stood prorogued in the usual way
to the 11th November, but a council was held on the 31st October, at
which your Majesty summoned Parliament to meet for the despatch of
business on the 18th November; and on that day the session was opened
in the usual way by a Speech from the Throne. It would be impossible
under present circumstances to put off till the beginning of February
a communication to Parliament of the step taken to-day.
Viscount Palmerston therefore would beg to submit for your Majesty's
approval that a Council might be held at Windsor on Monday next, and
that Parliament might then be summoned to meet in fourteen days. This
would bring Parliament together in the first days of December, and
after sitting ten days, or a fortnight, if necessary, it might be
adjourned till the first week in February.[54]
Viscount Palmerston submits an explanatory Memorandum which he has
just received for your Majesty's information from the Chancellor of
the Exchequer....
[Footnote 53: The financial crisis had originated in numerous
stoppages of banks in the United States, where premature
schemes of railway extension had involved countless investors
in ruin; in consequence, the pressure on firms and financial
houses became even more acute than in 1847; see _ante_, vol.
ii., 14th October, 1847. The bank rate now rose to 10 per cent.
as against 9 per cent. in that year, and the bank reserve of
bullion was alarmingly depleted.]
[Footnote 54: Parliament accordingly met on the 3rd of
December, and the Session was opened by the Queen in person.
The Act of Indemnity was passed without serious opposition,
and a select committee re-appointed to enquire into the
operation of the Bank Charter Act.]
[Pageheading: ARMY ESTABLISHMENT]
_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._
OSBORNE, _18th December 1857_.
The Queen has had some correspondence with Lord Panmure upon the
Establishment of the Army for the next financial year.[55] She wishes
now to lay down the principle which she thinks ought to guide our
decision, and asks Lord Palmerston to consider it with his colleagues
in Cabinet. Last year we reduced our Army suddenly to a low peace
establishment to meet the demand for reduction of taxation raised in
the House of Commons. With this peace establishment we had to meet the
extraordinary demands of India, we have sent almost every available
regiment, battalion, and battery, and are forced to contemplate the
certainty of a large increase of our force in India as a permanent
necessity. What the Queen requires is, that a well-considered and
digested estimate should be made of the additional regiments, etc.,
etc., so required, and that after deducting this number from our
establishment of 1857-1858, that for the next year should be brought
up again to the same condition as if the Indian demand, which is
foreign to our ordinary consideration, had not arisen. If this be done
it will still leave us militarily weaker than we were at the beginning
of the year, for the larger English Army maintained in India will
require proportionally more reliefs and larger depots.
As the Indian finances pay for the troops employed in India, the Force
at home and in the colonies will, when raised to its old strength,
not cost a shilling more than the peace establishment of 1857 settled
under a pressure of financial reduction.
Anything less than this will not leave this country in a safe
condition. The Queen does not ask only for the same number of men as
in 1857-1858, but particularly for Regiments of Cavalry, Battalions
of Infantry and Batteries of Artillery, which alone would enable us in
case of a war to effect the increase to a war establishment.
The Queen encloses her answer to Lord Panmure's last letter.
[Footnote 55: On the 14th of December, the Queen had pressed
the immediate formation of two new Cavalry Regiments.]
[Pageheading: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA]
_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._
WINDSOR CASTLE, _24th December 1857_.
The Queen only now returns to Lord Palmerston the Memorandum
containing the Heads of an arrangement for the future Government of
India, which the Committee of Cabinet have agreed to recommend. She
will have an opportunity of seeing Lord Palmerston before the Cabinet
meet again, and to hear a little more in detail the reasons which
influenced the Committee in their several decisions. She wishes only
to recommend two points to Lord Palmerston's consideration: 1st, the
mode of communication between the Queen and the new Government which
it is intended to establish. As long as the Government was that of the
Company, the Sovereign was generally left quite ignorant of decisions
and despatches; now that the Government is to be that of the
Sovereign, and the direction will, she presumes, be given in her name,
a direct official responsibility to her will have to be established.
She doubts whether any one but a Secretary of State could speak in
the Queen's name, like the Foreign Secretary to Foreign Courts, the
Colonial Secretary to the Governors of the Colonies, and the Home
Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and the Lieutenants of
the Counties of Great Britain, the Judges, Convocations, Mayors, etc.,
etc. On the other hand, would the position of a Secretary of State
be compatible with his being President of a Council? The Treasury
and Admiralty act as "My Lords," but they only administer special
departments, and do not direct the policy of a country in the Queen's
name. The mixture of supreme direction, and also of the conduct of the
administration of the department to be directed, has in practice
been found as inconvenient in the War Department as it is wrong in
principle.
The other point is the importance of having only _one_ Army, whether
native, local, or general, with one discipline and one command,
that of the Commander-in-Chief. This is quite compatible with first
appointments to the native Army, being vested as a point of patronage
in the members of the Council, but it ought to be distinctly
recognised in order to do away with those miserable jealousies between
the different military services, which have done more harm to us in
India than, perhaps, any other circumstance.
Perhaps Lord Palmerston would circulate this letter amongst the
members of the Committee who agreed upon the proposed scheme?
[Pageheading: DEATH OF HAVELOCK]
_Viscount Canning to Queen Victoria._
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA, _24th December 1857_.
Lord Canning presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs
permission to express to your Majesty at the earliest opportunity the
respectful gratitude with which he has received your Majesty's most
gracious letter of the 9th of November.
However certain Lord Canning might have been as to the sentiments with
which your Majesty would view the spirit of bitter and unreasoning
vengeance against your Majesty's Indian subjects with which too many
minds are imbued in England as well as in this country, it has been
an indescribable pleasure to him to read what your Majesty has
condescended to write to him upon this painful topic. Your Majesty's
gracious kindness in the reference made by your Majesty to what is
said by the newspapers is also deeply felt by Lord Canning. He can
truly and conscientiously assure your Majesty of his indifference to
all such attacks--an indifference so complete indeed as to surprise
himself.
Lord Canning fears that the satisfaction which your Majesty will have
experienced very shortly after the date of your Majesty's letter, upon
receiving the news of Sir Henry Havelock's entry into Lucknow, will
have been painfully checked by the long and apparently blank interval
which followed, and during which your Majesty's anxieties for the
ultimate safety of the garrison, largely increased by many precious
lives, must have become more intense than ever. Happily, this suspense
is over; and the real rescue effected by a glorious combination of
skill and intrepidity on the part of Sir Colin Campbell and his troops
must have been truly gratifying to your Majesty.[56] The defence of
Lucknow and the relief of the defenders are two exploits which,
each in their kind, will stand out brightly in the history of these
terrible times.
... Lord Canning has not failed to transmit your Majesty's gracious
message to Sir Colin Campbell, and has taken the liberty to add your
Majesty's words respecting his favourite 93rd, which will not be
less grateful to the brave old soldier than the expression of your
Majesty's consideration for himself.
Your Majesty has lost two most valuable officers in Sir Henry Havelock
and Brigadier-General Neill. They were very different, however. The
first was quite of the old school--severe and precise with his men,
and very cautious in his movements and plans--but in action bold
as well as skilful. The second very open and impetuous, but full of
resources; and to his soldiers as kind and thoughtful of their comfort
as if they had been his children.
With earnest wishes for the health and happiness of your Majesty and
the Prince, Lord Canning begs permission to lay at your Majesty's feet
the assurance of his most dutiful and devoted attachment.
[Footnote 56: Sir Colin Campbell had relieved Lucknow on
the 17th of November, but Sir Henry Havelock (as he had now
become) died from illness and exhaustion. General Neill had
been killed on the occasion of the reinforcement in September,
_ante_, 12th November, 1857.]
[Pageheading: ARMY ORGANISATION]
_Queen Victoria to Lord Panmure._
WINDSOR CASTLE, _29th December 1857_.
The Queen has received Lord Panmure's letter and Memorandum of the
24th. She must say that she still adheres to her views as formerly
expressed. Lord Panmure admits that the two plans don't differ
materially in expense. It becomes, then, a mere question of
organisation and of policy. As to the first, all military authorities
of all countries and times agree upon the point that numerous _cadres_
with fewer men give the readiest means of increasing an army on short
notice, the main point to be attended to in a constitutional and
democratic country like England. As to the second, a system of
organisation will always be easier defended than mere numbers
arbitrarily fixed, and Parliament ought to have the possibility of
voting more or voting fewer men, according to their views of the
exigencies of the country, or the pressure of finance at different
times, and to be able to do so without deranging the organisation.
The Queen hopes Lord Panmure will look at our position, as if the
Indian demands had not arisen, and he will find that to come to
Parliament with the Cavalry borne on the estimates reduced by three
regiments (as will be the case even after two shall have returned from
India, and the two new ones shall have been formed), will certainly
not prove _too little_ anxiety on the part of the Government to cut
down our military establishments.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
TO CHAPTER XXVII
On the 25th of January of the new year (1858) Prince Frederick William
of Prussia (afterwards the Emperor Frederick) was married, with
brilliant ceremonial, to the Princess Royal, at the Chapel Royal, St
James's, an event marked by general national rejoicings; another event
in the private life of the Queen, but one of a melancholy character,
was the death of the Duchess of Orleans at the age of forty-four.
A determined attempt was made by Orsini, Pierri, and others, members
of the Carbonari Society, to assassinate the Emperor and Empress of
the French by throwing grenades filled with detonating powder under
their carriage. The Emperor was only slightly hurt, but several
bystanders were killed, and very many more wounded. The plot had been
conceived, and the grenades manufactured in England, and a violently
hostile feeling was engendered in France against this country, owing
to the prescriptive right of asylum enjoyed by foreign refugees. The
French _militaires_ were particularly vehement in their language,
and Lord Palmerston so far bowed to the demands of the French Foreign
Minister as to introduce a Bill to make the offence of conspiracy
to murder, a felony instead of, as it had previously been, a
misdemeanour. The Conservative Party supported the introduction of the
Bill, but, on the second reading, joined with eighty-four Liberals
and four Peelites in supporting an Amendment by Mr Milner Gibson,
postponing the reform of the Criminal Law till the peremptory demands
of Count Walewski had been formally answered. The Ministry was
defeated and resigned, and Lord Derby and Mr Disraeli returned to
Office. Orsini and Pierri were executed in Paris, but the state trial
in London of a Dr Bernard, a resident of Bayswater, for complicity,
ended, mainly owing to the menacing attitude of France over the
whole question, in an acquittal. The Italian nationality of the chief
conspirators endangered, but only temporarily, the important _entente_
between France and Sardinia.
Before the resignation of the Ministry, the thanks of both Houses of
Parliament were voted to the civil and military officers of India for
their exertions in suppressing the Mutiny; the Opposition endeavoured
to obtain the omission of the name of Lord Canning from the address,
till his conduct of affairs had been discussed. The difficulties in
India were not at an end, for Sir Colin Campbell had been unable to
hold Lucknow, and had transferred the rescued garrison to Cawnpore,
which he re-occupied. It was not till the end of March that Lucknow
was captured by the Commander-in-Chief, who was raised to the peerage
as Lord Clyde, after the taking of Jhansi and of Gwalior in Central
India, by Sir Hugh Rose, had virtually terminated the revolt.
In anticipation of the capture of Lucknow, the Governor-General had
prepared a proclamation for promulgation in Oudh, announcing that,
except in the case of certain loyal Rajahs, proprietary rights in the
soil of the province would be confiscated. One copy of the draft was
sent home, and another shown to Sir James Outram, Chief Commissioner
of Oudh, and, in consequence of the latter's protest against its
severity, as making confiscation the rule and not the exception, an
exemption was inserted in favour of such landowners as should actively
co-operate in restoring order. On receiving the draft in its unaltered
form, Lord Ellenborough, the new President of the Board of Control,
forwarded a despatch to Lord Canning, strongly condemning his action,
and, on the publication of this despatch, the Ministry narrowly
escaped Parliamentary censure. Lord Ellenborough himself resigned,
and was succeeded by Lord Stanley. Attempts had been made by both Lord
Palmerston and Lord Derby to pass measures for the better government
of India. After two Bills had been introduced and withdrawn, the
procedure by resolution was resorted to, and a measure was ultimately
passed transferring the Government of India to the Crown.
The China War terminated on the 26th of June, by the treaty of
Tien-tsin, which renewed the treaty of 1842, and further opened up
China to British commerce. A dispute with Japan led to a treaty
signed at Yeddo by Lord Elgin and the representatives of the Tycoon,
enlarging British diplomatic and trade privileges in that country.
The Budget of Mr Disraeli imposed for the first time a penny stamp on
bankers' cheques; a compromise was arrived at on the Oaths question,
the words "on the true faith of a Christian" having hitherto prevented
Jews from sitting in Parliament. They were now enabled to take the
oath with the omission of these words, and Baron Rothschild took his
seat for the City of London accordingly.
Among the other events of importance in the year were the satisfactory
termination of a dispute with the Neapolitan Government arising out
of the seizure of the _Cagliari_; a modified union, under a central
Commission, of Moldavia and Wallachia; the despatch of Mr Gladstone
by the Conservative Government as High Commissioner to the Ionian
Islands; and the selection of Ottawa, formerly known as Bytown, for
the capital of the Dominion of Canada.