Laeken 31st May 1841.
My dearest Victoria,—Your Mother48 is safely arrived, though she was received close to Ostende by a formidable thunderstorm. I had given directions that everywhere great civilities should be shown her. She stood the fatigues better than I had expected, and is less sleepy than in England. She seems to be pleased with her séjour here, and inclined in fact to remain rather than to go on; but I am sure, when once in Germany she will be both pleased and interested by it. It will amuse you to hear from herself her own impressions.
I cannot help to add a few political lines. I regret much, I must confess, that the idea of a dissolution has gained ground, and I will try to show in a very few words why I am against it.
In politics, a great rule ought to be to rule with the things which one knows already, and not to jump into something entirely new of which no one can do more than guess the consequences. The present Parliament has been elected at a moment most favourable to the present Administration after a most popular accession to the throne, everything new and fresh, and with the natural fondness of the great mass of people, a change is always popular; it was known that you were kindly disposed towards your Ministers, everything was therefore à souhait for the election of a new Parliament. In this respect Ministers have nothing like the favourable circumstances which smiled upon them at the last general election. Feeling this, they raise a cry, which may become popular and embarrass their antagonists about cheap bread! I do not think this is quite befitting their dignity; such things do for revolutionaries like Thiers, or my late Ministers.... If the thing rouses the people it may do serious mischief; if not, it will look awkward for the Ministers themselves. If you do not grant a dissolution to your present Ministers you would have, at the coming in of a new Administration, the right to tell them that they must go on with the present Parliament; and I have no doubt that they could do so. The statistics of the present House of Commons are well known to all the men who sit in it, and to keep it a few years longer would be a real advantage.
You know that I have been rather maltreated by the Tories, formerly to please George IV., and since I left the country, because I served, in their opinion, on the revolutionary side of the question. I must say, however, that for your service as well as for the quiet of the country, it would be good to give them a trial. If they could not remain in office it will make them quieter for some time. If by a dissolution the Conservative interest in the House is too much weakened the permanent interests of the country can but suffer from that. If, on the contrary, the Conservatives come in stronger, your position will not be very agreeable, and it may induce them to be perhaps less moderate than they ought to be. I should be very happy if you would discuss these, my hasty views, with Lord Melbourne. I do not give them for more than what they are, mere practical considerations; but, as far as I can judge of the question, if I was myself concerned I should have no dissolution; if even there was but the very banale consideration, qu'on sait ce qu'on a, mais qu'on ne sait nullement ce qu'on aura. The moment is not without importance, and well worthy your earnest consideration, and I feel convinced that Lord Melbourne will agree with me, that, notwithstanding the great political good sense of the people in England, the machine is so complicated that it should be handled with great care and tenderness.
To conclude, I must add that perhaps a permanent duty on corn may be a desirable thing, but that it ought to be sufficiently high to serve as a real protection. It may besides produce this effect, that as it will be necessary, at least at first, to buy a good deal of the to be imported corn with money, the currency will be seriously affected by it. The countries which would have a chance of selling would be chiefly Poland in all its parts, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, the South of Russia on the Black Sea, and maybe Sicily. Germany does not grow a sufficient quantity of wheat to profit by such an arrangement; it will besides not buy more from England for the present than it does now, owing to the Zollverein,49 which must first be altered. But I will not bore you too long, and conclude with my best love to little Victoria, of whom her Grandmama speaks with raptures. Ever, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
Leopold R.
Footnote 48: The Duchess of Kent had left England for a tour on the Continent.
Footnote 49: After the fall of Napoleon, the hopes of many Germans for a united national Germany were frustrated by the Congress of Vienna, which perpetuated the practical independence of a number of German States, as well as the predominance within the Germanic confederation of Austria, a Power largely non-German. One of the chief factors in the subsequent unification of Germany was the Zollverein, or Customs Union, by which North Germany was gradually bound together by commercial interest, and thus opposed to Austria. The success of this method of imperial integration has not been without influence on the policies of other lands.