duced, and was recommended by him to the care of the country, just before the battle of Trafalgar.[1]
A numerous party in the House of Commons wished that your Majesty’s Government should propose a special vote for this person and her family; but the Cabinet thought that it would give rise to much scandal and disagreeable debate, and finally recommended Lord Aberdeen to place the three daughters on the Pension List. The circumstances of the case are, no doubt, very peculiar; and although Lord Aberdeen does not feel perfectly satisfied with the course pursued, he thinks it very desirable to avoid the sort of Parliamentary debates to which the discussion of such a subject would necessarily give rise.
The Emperor of the French to Queen Victoria.[2]
Madame et bonne Sœur,—La présence du digne époux de votre Majesté au milieu d’un camp frangais est un fait d’une grande signification politique, puisqu’il prouve l’union intime des deux pays: mais j’aime mieux aujourd’hui ne pas envisager le côté politique de cette visite et vous dire sincèrement combien jai été heureux de me trouver pendant quelques jours avec un Prince aussi accompli, un homme doué de qualités si séduisantes et de connaissances si profondes. II peut être convaincu d’emporter avec lui mes sentiments de haute estime et d’amitié. Mais plus il m’a été donné d’apprécier le Prince Albert, plus je dois être touché de la bienveillance qu’a eue votre Majesté de s’en séparer pour moi quelque jours.
Je remercie votre Majesté de admirable lettre qu’elle a bien voulu m’écrire et des choses affectueuses qu’elle contenait pour l'Impératrice. Je me suis empressé de lui en faire part et elle y a été très sensible.
Je prie votre Majesté de recevoir l’expression de mes sentiments respectueux et de me croire, de votre Majesté, le bon Frère,
- ↑ Horatia, daughter of Nelson and Lady Hamilton, was born on the 29th of January 1801, and married in 1822 the Rev. Philip Ward of Tenterden. She died in 1881.
- ↑ The French Emperor had established a camp between Boulogne and St Omer, and early in the summer had invited Prince Albert to visit him. It was reasonably conjectured at the time that one of the chief purposes of the invitation was by personal intercourse to overcome the prejudice which the Emperor believed prevailed against him. The visit lasted from the 4th till the 8th of September, and the Prince’s impressions were recorded in a memorandum, “the value of which,” writes Sir Theodore Martin, by way of preface to his publication of it, “cannot be overstated; nor is it less valuable for the light which it throws upon the Prince’s character, by the remarkable contrasts between himself and the Emperor of the French, which were elicited in the unreserved discussions which each seems equally to have courted.”
VOL. III
