CANADA
Woburn Abbey, 12th September 1841.
Lord Melbourne has this morning received your Majesty's letter of yesterday. Lord Melbourne entirely agrees with your Majesty about appointments. He knows, as your Majesty does from experience, that with all the claims which there are to satisfy, with all the prejudices which are to be encountered, and with all the interests which require to be reconciled, it is impossible to select the best men, or even always those properly qualified. He is the last man who would wish that a Minister who has the whole machine of the Government before him should be necessarily thwarted or interfered with in the selection of those whom he may be desirous to employ. Lord Melbourne would therefore by no means advise your Majesty to throw difficulty in the way of the diplomatic arrangements which may be proposed, unless there should be in them anything manifestly and glaringly bad. The nomination of Lord —— would have been so, but otherwise it cannot very greatly signify who is the Ambassador at Vienna, or even at Petersburg or Paris. Stuart de Rothesay94 and Strangford95 are not good men, either of them, but it will be difficult for Lord Aberdeen to neglect their claims altogether. Heytesbury96 is an able man, the best they have. Sir Robert Gordon97 is an honest man, slow but not illiberal. It would be well if your Majesty showed Lord Aberdeen that you know these men, and have an opinion upon the subject of them.
Canada is another matter. It is a most difficult and most hazardous task. There has been recent rebellion in the country. A new Constitution has lately been imposed upon it by Parliament. The two Provinces have been united, and the united Province is bordered by a most hostile and uncontrollable community, the United States of North America. To govern such a country at such a moment requires a man of great abilities, a man experienced and practical in the management of popular assemblies.... It is possible that matters may go smoothly there, and that if difficulties do arise Sir C. Bagot may prove more equal to them than from his general knowledge of his character Lord Melbourne would judge him to be....
Upon the subject of diplomatic appointments Lord Melbourne has forgotten to make one general observation which he thinks of importance. Upon a change of Government a very great and sudden change of all or many of the Ministers at Foreign Courts is an evil and to be avoided, inasmuch as it induces an idea of a general change of policy, and disturbs everything that has been settled. George III. always set his face against and discouraged such numerous removals as tending to shake confidence abroad in the Government of England generally and to give it a character of uncertainty and instability. It would be well if your Majesty could make this remark to Lord Aberdeen.
Footnote 94: The new Ambassador to St Petersburg.
Footnote 95: Percy, sixth Viscount Strangford (1780-1855), formerly Ambassador to Constantinople, whom Byron described as
"Hibernian Strangford, with thine eyes of blue,
And boasted locks of red or auburn hue."
Footnote 96: See post, p. [329].