South Street, 9th October 1840.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has just received your Majesty's box. He will do all he can to put everything together, and it does not appear to him that there is any necessity on any side for a decisive step at present. A letter is arrived to-day from Bulwer, which states that the instructions given to Guizot are, through the interposition of the King, of a very pacific character. It would surely be well to see what they are, and whether they will not afford the means of arranging the whole affair.
Lord Melbourne thought with your Majesty that the letter to Lord Granville upon Prince Metternich's proposition was a great deal too short and dry and slight, but the importance of this step is now a good deal superseded by what has taken place, and the position of affairs has already become different from that in which it was resolved upon.
Lord Melbourne very much thanks the Prince for his letter, which may do much service and have an effect upon the antagonists.
Lord Melbourne has just seen Dr Holland.45 Lord Melbourne is very much crippled and disabled. Lord Melbourne does not think that the shooting has had anything to do with it. His stomach has lately been out of order, which is always the cause of these sort of attacks. Lord Melbourne will come down on Sunday if he possibly can, and unless he should be still disabled from moving.
Footnote 45: Dr (afterwards Sir) Henry Holland, Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen, 1850-1873, father of Lord Knutsford.
Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.
South Street, 10th October 1840.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty.... All the question at the Cabinet to-day as to whether we should write a communication to France was fortunately put an end to by Guizot desiring to see Palmerston in the morning and making a communication to him. This communication is very much in substance what Mr. Bulwer's note had led us to expect. It is a strong condemnation of the act of the Porte depriving Mehemet Ali of the Government of Egypt, an expression of satisfaction at having already learned from Lord Palmerston and Count Apponyi46 that Austria and England are not prepared to consider this act as irrevocable, and a threat on the part of France that he considers the power of Mehemet Ali in Egypt a constituent part of the balance of Europe, and that he cannot permit him to be deprived of that province without interfering. It was determined that this intimation should be met in an amicable spirit, and that Lord Palmerston should see the Ministers of the other Powers and agree with them to acquaint the French that they with England would use their good offices to induce the Porte not to insist upon the deprivation of Mehemet Ali as far as Egypt is concerned. Lord Melbourne hopes that this transaction may lead to a general settlement of the whole question.
Lord Melbourne feels himself much fatigued to-night. Though better, he is yet far from well, and he knows by experience that this malady when once it lays hold of him does not easily let go. It was so when he was younger. He fears, therefore, that it will not be prudent for him to leave town so early as Monday, but will do so as soon as he can with safety.