Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston.
LORD PALMERSTON'S DESPATCHES
17th November 1847.
The Queen has been struck by the concluding passage of the accompanying draft to Mr Bulwer. It gives an official declaration of the views of England with respect to a point of the greatest gravity and importance, and upon which the Queen apprehends that the mind of the Cabinet is not yet made up. The Queen herself has come to no determination upon it, and it may involve the question of peace or war. Surely our line of policy under future and uncertain contingencies ought not to be pledged beforehand and in such an indirect way. The Queen wishes Lord Palmerston to speak to Lord John Russell upon the subject, and to show him the draft and these remarks of the Queen upon it.
Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria.
Foreign Office, 17th November 1847.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and in compliance with your Majesty's wishes he has omitted the whole of the latter part of the proposed despatch to Mr Bulwer.
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.
(Undated.)
The Queen has seen with surprise in the Gazette the appointment of Mr Corigan,23 about which she must complain to Lord John Russell. Not only had her pleasure not been taken upon it, but she had actually mentioned to Lord Spencer that she had her doubts about the true propriety of the appointment. Lord John will always have found the Queen desirous to meet his views with regard to all appointments and ready to listen to any reasons which he might adduce in favour of his recommendations, but she must insist upon appointments in her Household not being made without her previous sanction, and least of all such as that of a Physician to her person.