Laeken, 28th April 1837.
... I hope you occupy yourself with the several great questions which agitate parties. I think a good mode will be to talk concerning them sometimes with the Dean. He is a good moderate man, and still well able to give you sufficient information. From conversation with clever people, such as dine sometimes with you, much may be very usefully gathered, and you will do well to attend to this. I am no enemy to this way of instruction, and have seen people who were sharp enough to profit wonderfully by it. You hear in this way the opinions of a variety of persons, and it rests with your own good sense to classify and appreciate them....
The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
MINISTERIAL ANXIETY
2nd May 1837.
... You may depend upon it that I shall profit by your excellent advice respecting Politics. Pray, dear Uncle, have you read Lord Palmerston's speech concerning the Spanish affairs,38 which he delivered the night of the division on Sir Henry Hardinge's motion? It is much admired. The Irish Tithes question came on last night in the House of Commons,39 and I am very anxious for the morning papers, to see what has been done. Lord Melbourne looks remarkably well, Lord Palmerston not very well, and as for poor little Lord John Russell, he is only a shadow of himself. It must be dreadfully fagging work for them; they sit so very late too, for when the Spanish question came on, the division only took place at four o'clock in the morning, and I saw them at the Drawing-Room the same day afterwards....
Footnote 38: Lord Palmerston indignantly asked whether England should continue to fulfil her nengagement with the Queen of Spain, or disgracefully abandon an ally whom she had pledged herself to succour.
Footnote 39: The Irish Tithe Bill, a measure to facilitate the collection of tithes, was abandoned because the Tories would not consent to any secular appropriation of Church revenues, and the Whigs would not consent to the withdrawal of their amendments. A remarkable feature in the Bill was a proposal that a portion of every clergyman's income should be applied to education, as was already prescribed by a former Act.
The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
9th May 1837.