Your letter is so interesting and instructive that I could read it over and over again. I hope, dear Uncle, you will in process of time give me the aperçu you mention, which would be so very interesting for me.
I cannot tell you how distressed I was by the late unfortunate contre-révolution manquée at Lisbon,15 and how sorry I was to see by the letter you wrote me, that you were still unaware of it on the 18th. Mamma received a letter from Lord Palmerston yesterday morning, which she has sent you, and which is consolatory, I think. He speaks in the highest terms of our beloved Ferdinand, which proves that he becomes daily more and more worthy of his arduous situation, and says that the Queen's situation "is better than it was," less bad than it might have been "after such an affair," and not so good as it would have been had poor Donna Maria waited patiently till all was ripe for action. Dietz16 wrote Mamma a most desponding letter, so much so, that had we not got Lord Palmerston's letter we must have thought all, all was over.17 I hope, dear Uncle, you will tell me your feeling about the whole, which will only satisfy me; no one else could, for I take an interest in Ferdinand's welfare as though he were my brother.
THE PRINCESS'S NAME
Allow me, dearest Uncle, to say a few words respecting my name, to which you allude. You are aware, I believe, that about a year after the accession of the present King there was a desire to change my favourite and dear name Victoria to that of Charlotte, also most dear, to which the King willingly consented. On its being told me, I said nothing, though I felt grieved beyond measure at the thought of any change. Not long after this, Lord Grey, and also the Archbishop of Canterbury, acquainted Mamma that the country, having been accustomed to hear me called Victoria, had become used to it, enfin, liked it, and therefore, to my great delight, the idea of a change was given up.18
I was sure the death of old Charles X. would strike you....
I thank you much for the Constitution de la Belgique. Those attacks on you are infamous, but must not be minded; they are the language of a few jealous, envious people. En revanche, I enclose a paragraph from a speech of O'Connell's19 I think worth your reading.
Pray, dearest Uncle, say everything most kind to my beloved and dearest Aunt, and thank her in my name for her kind letter, which I shall answer on Friday. I am happy she and the dear little man are well.
Believe me, always, your most devoted and affectionately attached Niece,
Victoria.