Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.
NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE
Claremont, 6th October 1840.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. The King's letter to Lord Melbourne is in many respects just and true.43 The practical measure which it recommends, namely, that Lord Granville should make to Thiers a general proposition for settling the whole matter, is very much the same as that which we agreed upon at the Cabinet should be adopted. Lord Melbourne expects that this has been carried into effect, and if it has not, Lord Melbourne has urged that it should be done without delay.
These affairs are very troublesome and vexatious, but they are, unfortunately, more than troublesome, they are pregnant with danger.
Footnote 43: The King of the Belgians had written a letter to Lord Melbourne on 1st October, which he had sent to Queen Victoria, asking her to read it and forward it to Lord Melbourne.
The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.
Wiesbaden, 6th October 1840.
... It is to-day the poor King of the French's birthday; he is sixty-seven years old, and these last ten years he has had a pleasant time of it. And now he has this serious and difficult complication to deal with, and still I find him always fair and amiable in his way of looking at all these things, and bearing the almost unbearable annoyance and plagues of his arduous position with a degree of firmness and courage worthy of kinder treatment from the European Powers than he has received....