Footnote 1: I.e. of hostilities against the Greek Government, designed to extract compensation for the injuries inflicted on British subjects. See ante, [p. 231].
Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston.
THE DRAFT TO GREECE
Buckingham Palace, 17th February 1850.
The Queen sent the day before yesterday the proposed draft to Mr Wyse back to Lord Palmerston, enclosing a Memorandum from Lord John Russell, and telling Lord Palmerston "that she entirely concurred with Lord John, and wished the draft to be altered accordingly." She has not yet received an answer from Lord Palmerston, but just hears from Lord John, in answer to her enquiry about it, that Lord Palmerston has sent the draft off unaltered.2 The Queen must remark upon this sort of proceeding, of which this is not the first instance, and plainly tell Lord Palmerston that this must not happen again. Lord Palmerston has a perfect right to state to the Queen his reasons for disagreeing with her views, and will always have found her ready to listen to his reasons; but she cannot allow a servant of the Crown and her Minister to act contrary to her orders, and this without her knowledge.
Footnote 2: See Ashley's Palmerston, vol. i. chap. v.
Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria.
PALMERSTON'S EXPLANATION
Carlton Gardens. 17th February 1850.
Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and in reply to your Majesty's communication of this day, he begs to state that upon receiving, the day before yesterday, your Majesty's Memorandum on the proposed draft to Mr Wyse, together with the accompanying Memorandum3 from Lord John Russell, he altered the draft, and sent it to Lord John Russell, and received it back from Lord John Russell with the accompanying note in answer to that which he wrote to Lord John Russell. It was important that the messenger should go off that evening, and the time occupied in these communications rendered it just, but barely, possible to despatch the messenger by the mail train of that evening. The despatch thus altered coincided with the views of your Majesty and Lord John Russell as to the question in regard to the length of time during which reprisals should be suspended to give scope for the French negotiation. The other question as to giving Mr Wyse a latitude of discretion to entertain any proposition which might be made to him by the Greek Government was considered by the Cabinet at its meeting yesterday afternoon, and Viscount Palmerston gave Mr Wyse a latitude of that kind in regard to the claim of Mr Pacifico, the only one to which that question could apply, in a despatch which he sent by the overland Mediterranean mail which went off yesterday afternoon. That despatch also contained some instructions as to the manner in which Mr Wyse is to communicate with Baron Gros,4 and those instructions were the result of a conversation which Viscount Palmerston had with the French Ambassador after the meeting of the Cabinet. Viscount Palmerston was only waiting for a copy of the despatch of yesterday evening, which, owing to this day being Sunday, he has not yet received, in order to send to your Majesty the altered draft of yesterday evening, with an explanation of the circumstances which rendered it impossible to submit them to your Majesty before they were sent off.5