in fact no choice. Mr Rich would this afternoon bring forward a Motion in the House of Commons for the consolidation of all military offices under one Department and a Civil Head, and Lord John Russell, to whom Lord Aberdeen had said that the Queen still hesitated about admitting the separation of the duties of Secretary of State, declared to him angrily, if that was so, he would go down to the House and vote for Mr Rich’s Motion !! The Motion would be carried without fail in the House.
So this important measure had been carried by storm (as the Queen could only give way under these circumstances), and carried without a definite plan, leaving everything to the future !!
Lord John is to be Lord President, and he insisted upon Sir George Grey taking the Colonies. Lord Aberdeen fears much dissatisfaction from Lord Canning, Mr Cardwell, and Mr Peel, and just dissatisfaction ; the Cabinet are very angry at the whole proceeding. Lord Granville behaved exceedingly well, putting himself and his office entirely at Lord Aberdeen’s disposal.[1]
It is supposed that in the House expressions will be dropped in favour of Lord Palmerston’s taking the conduct of the War in his hands. The Duke of Newcastle, whom we saw, also states the extreme difficulty of defining the duties of the Secretary of State, but promises to do so, as far as possible, for the Queen’s convenience. ALBERT.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE, 26h June 1854.
The Queen has not yet acknowledged Lord Aberdeen’s
letter of the 24th. She is very glad to hear that he will take
an opportunity to-day of dispelling misapprehensions which
have arisen in the public mind in consequence of his last speech
in the House of Lords, and the effect of which has given the
Queen very great uneasiness.[2] She knows Lord Aberdeen so well that she can fully enter into his feelings and understand
- ↑ Lord Fitzmaurice, in his Life of Lord Granville, points out that Mr Strutt was really the person who had a right to complain. He was abruptly removed from the Chancellorship of the Duchy, and replaced by Lord Granville to suit Lord John’s convenience.
- ↑ The speech of Lord Aberdeen, to which the Queen here refers, had created a very unsatisfactory impression. On the 19th of June the venerable Lord Lyndhurst had denounced the aggressive policy and the perfidy of Russia; in the debate which followed, Lord Aberdeen spoke coldly, in a strain of semi-apology for Russia, and with an unlucky reference to the Treaty of Adrianople. Popular feeling against Russia being then at a white heat, the speech was considered indicative of apathy on behalf of the Government in the prosecution of the war. Accordingly, by moving on a later day for a copy of his own despatch of 1829, relative to the Treaty, the Premier obtained an opportunity of dispelling some of the apprehensions which his speech had excited.
