Page:The Letters Of Queen Victoria, vol. 2 (1908).djvu/384

360 Having stated thus much, the Queen gives Lord John full permission to negotiate with Sir James Graham.

Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians. WINDSOR CASTLE, 20th January 1852. ,—Your kind letter of the 16th I received on the 17th, with the newspaper, for which I return my best thanks. The papers which Stockmar communicated to us are most interesting, and do the writer the greatest credit. Watchful we certainly shall and must be. We shall try and keep on the best of terms with the President, who is extremely sensitive and susceptible, but for whom, I must say, I have never had any personal hostility ; on the contrary, I thought that during 1849 and 1850 we owed him all a good deal, as he certainly raised the French Government de la boue. But I grieve over the tyranny and oppression practised since the coup d’état, and it makes everything very uncertain, for though I believe it in every way his wish and his policy not to go to war, still, il peut y étre entrainé.

Your position is a peculiarly delicate one, but still, as I again repeat, I think there is no reason to be alarmed; particularly, I would never show it.

The poor Nemours were here from Saturday till yesterday evening with their dear nice boys, and I think it always does them good. They feel again as if they were in their own position, and they are diverted from the melancholy reality and the great sameness of their existence at Claremont. I found him very quiet and really not bitter, and disposed to be very prudent,—but seriously alarmed at the possibility of losing their property, which would be too dreadful and monstrous. I fear that the candidature and poor Héléne’s imprudence in talking are the cause of this cruel persecution. The poor Orleans have really (and you should write them that) no truer and more faithful friends than we are—and it is for this reason that I urge and entreat them to be entirely passive; for their day will come, I feel convinced!

Now good-bye, my dearest, kindest Uncle. Ever your truly devoted Niece, Victoria R.

Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell. WINDSOR CASTLE, 27th January 1852. The Queen has received Lord John Russell’s letter of yesterday with the draft of Bills, and likewise that of to-day