Footnote 138: Lord Fitzwilliam's house, near Rotherham.
Footnote 139: Lord Carlisle's house, near York, built by Vanbrugh.
The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.
HOLLAND AND BELGIUM
Laeken, 22 October 1841.
... In France there is a great outcry that a Bourbon must be the future husband of the Queen of Spain, etc. I must say that as the Spaniards and the late King changed themselves the Salic custom which Philip V. had brought from France,140 it is natural for the rest of Europe to wish that no Bourbon should go there. Besides, it must be confessed that the thing is not even easy, as there is great hatred amongst the various branches of that family. The King of the French himself has always been opposed to the idea of one of his sons going there; in France, however, that opinion still exists, and Thiers had it, strongly.
I confess that I regret that Queen Christina was encouraged to settle at Paris, as it gave the thing the appearance of something preconcerted. I believe that a wish existed that Christina would retire peaceably and par la force des circonstances, but now this took a turn which I am sure the King does not like; it places him, besides, into une position ingrate; the Radicals hate him, the Moderates will cry out that he has left them in the lurch, and the Carlists are kept under key, and of course also not much pleased. I meant to have remained in my wilds till yesterday, but my Ministers were so anxious for my return, there being a good many things on the tapis, that I came back on Tuesday, the 19th....
Here one is exactly shut up as if one was in a menagerie, walking round and round like a tame bear. One breathes here also a mixture of all sorts of moist compounds, which one is told is fresh air, but which is not the least like it. I suppose, however, that my neighbour in Holland, where they have not even got a hill as high as yours in Buckingham Gardens, would consider Laeken as an Alpine country. The tender meeting of the old King and the new King,141 as one can hardly call him a young King, must be most amusing. I am told that if the old King had not made that love-match, he would be perfectly able to dethrone his son; I heard that yesterday from a person rather attached to the son and hating the father. In the meantime, though one can hardly say that he is well at home, some strange mixture of cut-throats and ruined soldiers of fortune had a mind to play us some tricks here; we have got more and more insight into this. Is it by instigation from him personally, or does he only know of it without being a party to it? That is difficult to tell, the more so as he makes immense demonstration of friendly dispositions towards us, and me in particular. I would I could make a chassez croisez with Otho;142 he would be the gainer in solids, and I should have sun and an interesting country; I will try to make him understand this, the more so as you do not any longer want me in the West.
Footnote 140: The Pragmatic Sanction of Philip V. was repealed in 1792 by the Cortes, but the repeal was not promulgated by the King. Under the Salic Law, Don Carlos would have been on the throne. See ante, p. [44].
Footnote 141: William I., who had abdicated in order to marry again, and William II., his son, who was nearly fifty.