Chapter XXVI (2)

[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.