Most gracious Cousin,—I obey the impulse of my heart in seizing my pen, without any delay, in order to express to you my warmest and most heartfelt thanks for the infinitely gracious and affectionate way with which you and the Prince have treated me during my stay in London.25 It was a melancholy time, that of my arrival. By the sympathetic view which you took of my situation, most gracious Cousin, it became not only bearable, but even transformed into one that became proportionately honourable and dignified. This graciousness of yours has undoubtedly contributed towards the change of opinion which has resulted in my favour, and so I owe to you, to the Prince, and to your Government, a fortunate issue out of my calamities. So it is with a heavy heart that I have now left England, not knowing what future lies before me to meet—and only knowing that I shall need the strengthening rest and tranquillity which my stay in England and an insight into her institutions have afforded me in full measure.
Offering my most cordial remembrances to the Prince, to whom I shall write as soon as possible, I remain, most gracious Cousin, your faithful and most gratefully devoted Cousin,
Prince of Prussia.
Footnote 25: The Prince of Prussia, afterwards the Emperor William I., having become intensely unpopular at Berlin, had been obliged in March to fly for his life, in disguise, viâ Hamburg, to England.
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.
THE ROYAL EXILES
Buckingham Palace, 1st June 1848.
The Queen had not time the other day to talk to Lord John Russell on the subject of the French Royal Family, and therefore writes to him now. As it seems now most probable that they, or at least some of them, will take up their residence for a lengthened period in this country, and as their position is now a defined one, viz. that of exiles, their treatment should be defined and established.
At first everything seemed temporary, and the public were much occupied with them, inclined to criticise all that was done or was omitted by the Court; all their movements were recorded in the papers, etc. The lapse of three months has a good deal altered this. They have lived in complete retirement, and are comparatively forgotten; and their poverty and their resignation to their misfortunes have met with much sympathy! The Queen is consequently anxious to take the right line; particularly desirous to do nothing which could hurt the interests of the country, and equally so to do everything kind towards a distinguished Royal Family in severe affliction, with whom she has long been on terms of intimacy, and to whom she is very nearly related. She accordingly wishes to know if Lord John sees any objection to the following: She has asked her Cousin, the Duchess of Nemours, to come for two or three nights to see her at Osborne when she goes there, quite privately; the Duchess of Kent would bring her with her. The Duke will not come with the Duchess, as he says he feels (very properly) it would be unbecoming in him till their fate (as to fortune, for banished they already are) is decided, to be even for a day at Osborne. The Duchess herself wishes not to appear in the evening, but to remain alone with the Queen and the Prince.
The Queen considers that when she is staying in the country during the summer and autumn, and any of the branches of the French Royal Family should wish to visit her and the Prince, as they occasionally do here, she might lodge them for one or two nights, as the distance might be too great for their returning the same day. They are exiles, and not Pretenders, as the Duc de Bordeaux and Count de Montemolin are (and who are for that reason only not received at Court). In all countries where illustrious exiles related to the Sovereign have been they have always been received at Court, as the Duc de Bordeaux, the Duchesse d'Angoulême, etc., etc., invariably have been at Vienna (even on public occasions), there being a French Ambassador there, and the best understanding existing between France and Austria. The Duke of Orleans (King Louis Philippe) in former times was constantly received by the Royal Family, and was the intimate friend of the Duke of Kent. Probably, if their fortunes are restored to them, the French Royal Family will go out into society in the course of time, and if the state of France becomes consolidated there may no longer exist that wish and that necessity for extreme privacy, which is so obvious now. What the Queen has just mentioned, Lord John must well understand, is not what is likely to take place (except in the case of her cousin, the Duchess of Nemours) immediately, but only what might occasionally occur when we are permanently settled in the country. Of course events might arise which would change this, and which would render it inadvisable, and then the Queen would communicate with Lord John, and ask his advice again upon the subject. All she has suggested refers to the present state of affairs, and, of course, merely to strictly private visits, and on no state occasion. This is a long letter about such a subject, but the Queen wishes to be quite safe in what she does, and therefore could not have stated the case and her opinion in a smaller space.