Page:The Letters Of Queen Victoria, vol. 3 (1908).djvu/29

1854] There would be nothing unusual in apartments being offered to the Duke of Cambridge, and declined by him. This was done by the King of the Belgians only last summer at Berlin and Vienna, without anybody’s construing it into an affront. The Queen adds a list of the Royal personages who have been in England and never resided at the Palace. Lord Aberdeen may show this letter to Lord Clarendon. Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, 1st March 1854. The Queen has to acknowledge Lord John Russell’s letter of this morning. Much as she must regret the postponement of the second reading of the Reform Bill, she must. admit its wisdom under the present peculiar circumstances; but she doubts the advantage of naming a precise day after Easter on which it is to come on. Considering the importance to the country of pre- serving the present Government and of not allowing it to be beat on so vital a question, the opportunity should not be lost of ascertaining the state of feeling both in the House of Commons. and in the country after the reassembling of Parliament, before the Government decide on entering upon the struggle which the carrying through of the measure might entail. It is quite impossible now to conjecture with certainty what that state of feeling and the general political circumstances at home and abroad may be at that time. Possibly the country may be more eager then for the measure—or the War may disincline it altogether towards it.

The Queen seizes this opportunity of expressing her sense of the imperative importance of the Cabinet being united and of one mind at this moment, and not to let it appear that there are differences of opinion within it. The knowledge that there are such is a cause of GREAT anxiety to the Queen, at a time when she is to enter upon a European War, of which nobody can confidently predict the extent.

Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen. BUCKINGHAM PALACE, 2nd February (? March) 1854, -In returning these letters to Lord Aberdeen the Queen must express to him that there are hints in them which give her great uneasiness. The stability of this Government is not only of paramount importance at the commencement of the War, but throughout it; the moment for negotiation may arrive much sooner than we now expect—and then, more