The Sikh nation have forced the necessity upon us. Having resolved at once, and fully, to meet it, I shall proceed with all speed to the frontier, and shall endeavour by every exertion, and by all the means in my power, to carry into effect vigorously the measures on which the Government of India has resolved, and which, in my conscience I believe, are imperatively called for by regard to the peace of India, to the security of our Empire there, and to the happiness of the people over whom we rule.
Dalhousie.
Footnote 43: See Introductory Note for 1849, post, [p. 208].
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.
PALMERSTON'S ITALIAN POLICY
Osborne, 7th October 1848.
The Queen sends Lord Palmerston's answer to her last letter, of which the Queen has sent a copy to Lord John Russell, and encloses likewise a copy of her present answer. The partiality of Lord Palmerston in this Italian question really surpasses all conception, and makes the Queen very uneasy on account of the character and honour of England, and on account of the danger to which the peace of Europe will be exposed. It is now clearly proved by Baron Wessenberg that upon the conclusion of the Armistice with Sardinia, negotiations for peace would have speedily been entered into, had our mediation not been offered to the King, to whom the offer of Lombardy was too tempting not to accept, and now that promise is by fair or unfair means to be made good. The Queen cannot see any principle in this, as the principle upon which Lord Palmerston goes is Italian Nationality and Independence from a foreign Yoke and Tyranny. How can the Venetian territory then be secured to Austria? and if this is done, on what ground can Lombardy be wrung from her? It is really not safe to settle such important matters without principle and by personal passion alone. When the French Government say they cannot control public feeling, Lord Palmerston takes this as an unalterable fact, and as a sufficient reason to make the Austrians give up Lombardy; when, however, the Austrian Government say they cannot give up Lombardy on account of the feeling of the Army which had just reconquered it with their blood and under severe privations and sufferings, Lord Palmerston flippantly tells the Austrian Government, "if that were so, the Emperor had better abdicate and make General Radetzky Emperor." When Charles Albert burned the whole of the suburbs of Milan to keep up the delusion that he meant to defend the town, Lord Palmerston said nothing; and now that the Austrian Governor has prohibited revolutionary placards on the walls, and prolonged the period at which arms are to be surrendered, at the end of which persons concealing arms are to be tried by court-martial, he writes to Vienna: "that this savage proclamation, which savours more of the barbarous usages of centuries long gone by than of the spirit of the present times, must strike everybody as a proof of the fear by which the Austrian Commander is inspired," etc., etc., etc.
Venice was to have been made over to Austria by the Armistice, and now that this has not been done, Austria is not even to retake it, in order (as Lord Normanby says) to keep something in hand against which Austria is to make further concessions. Is all this fair? In the meantime, from the account of our Consul at Venice, the French agents are actively employed in intrigues against Austria in that town, and have asked him to assist, which he refused. Lord Palmerston merely approved his conduct, and did not write a line to Paris about it. Now the question at issue is not even to be submitted to a Conference of European powers, but to be settled by the French Republic and Lord Palmerston alone, Lord Normanby being the instrument who has pledged himself over and over again for Italian independence (so called). If Austria makes peace with Sardinia, and gives her Italian provinces separate National Institutions with a liberal constitutional Government, who can force upon her another arrangement?