3rd September 1847.
The Queen has received Lord Fitzwilliam's letter of the 31st.8 As she sees Lord Strafford's elevation to an Earldom already announced in the Gazette of the same day, it will be impossible for the Queen to have the question of Lord Fitzwilliam's adverse claim reconsidered. She thinks it right, however, to say, that, knowing that the Wentworth property came to Lord Fitzwilliam, it was only after the Heralds College had proved that Lord Strafford was the representative of the Earl of Strafford of the Second Creation, whilst Lord Fitzwilliam was not properly considered the representative of the first, that the Queen approved the selection of the title of Earl of Strafford for the present Lord. The Queen is very sorry to find that this step should have been annoying to Lord Fitzwilliam, for whom she has ever entertained a sincere regard. She has sent his letter on to Lord John Russell.
Footnote 8: On John, Baron Strafford, who as Sir John Byng had been distinguished in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, receiving the Earldom of Strafford, Lord Fitzwilliam had written: "Your Majesty has, undoubtedly, the power of conferring this, or any other titular dignity, according to your good pleasure, but I venture to hope that, if it be your Majesty's pleasure to revive the Earldom of Strafford, it will not be bestowed upon any other person than the individual who has now the honour of addressing your Majesty.
"The name and history of the first Earl of Strafford is, of course, familiar to your Majesty, and I venture to conclude that your Majesty is not unaware of my being his descendant, his heir, and his successor. I own his lands, I dwell in his house, I possess his papers, and, if neither my father nor myself have ever applied to the Crown for a renewal of his titles, it has not been because either of us was indifferent to those honours or to the favour of the Sovereign, but because we were well aware of the embarrassment which such applications frequently occasion to the Crown and its advisers."
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.
MISSION TO THE VATICAN
Ardverikie, 3rd September 1847.
The Queen has received Lord John Russell's two letters of the 31st and 1st inst., and is glad to find that the views expressed in the Prince's Memorandum coincide with those entertained by Lord John and Lord Palmerston, and also by Lord Minto, as she infers. As it seems difficult to find a person of inferior rank and position than Lord Minto, and of equal weight, the Queen sanctions his undertaking the mission on the understanding that the object of it will be communicated beforehand to the Courts of Vienna and Paris, and that both these Governments will be made fully acquainted with the position England thinks herself bound to take with regard to the Italian controversy.9 After this shall have been done, the sending of Sir William Parker with his fleet to the West Coast of Italy strikes the Queen as a very proper measure to give countenance to the Sovereigns engaged in Liberal Reform, and exposed alike to the inroads of their absolutist neighbour, and to the outbreaks of popular movements directed by a republican party, and perhaps fostered by the Austrian Government.
Footnote 9: Lord John Russell proposed that Lord Minto should be sent on a special mission to the Vatican. See Introductory Note for the Year, ante, [p. 115].