Albert.
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.33
DUTIES OF THE FOREIGN SECRETARY
Osborne, 12th August 1850.
With reference to the conversation about Lord Palmerston which the Queen had with Lord John Russell the other day, and Lord Palmerston's disavowal that he ever intended any disrespect to her by the various neglects of which she has had so long and so often to complain, she thinks it right, in order to prevent any mistake for the future, shortly to explain what it is she expects from her Foreign Secretary. She requires: (1) That he will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, in order that the Queen may know as distinctly to what she has given her Royal sanction; (2) Having once given her sanction to a measure, that it be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister; such an act she must consider as failing in sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to be visited by the exercise of her Constitutional right of dismissing that Minister. She expects to be kept informed of what passes between him and the Foreign Ministers before important decisions are taken, based upon that intercourse; to receive the Foreign Despatches in good time, and to have the drafts for her approval sent to her in sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their contents before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it best that Lord John Russell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston.
Footnote 33: Compare the memorandum suggested by Baron Stockmar, ante, p. 238. This letter was, after much forbearance, written in the hope of bringing Lord Palmerston to a proper understanding of his relation to the Sovereign. Even when the catastrophe came, and its tenor had to be communicated by the Premier to Parliament, the Preamble was generously omitted; but in consequence of its description by Lord Palmerston, in a letter published by Mr Ashley, as an angry memorandum, it was printed in full in The Life of the Prince Consort.
Viscount Palmerston to Lord John Russell.
Foreign Office, 13th August 1850.
My dear John Russell,—I have taken a copy of this memorandum of the Queen and will not fail to attend to the directions which it contains. With regard to the sending of despatches to the Queen, they have sometimes been delayed longer than should have been the case, in consequence of my having been prevented by great pressure of business, and by the many interruptions of interviews, etc., to which I am liable, from reading and sending them back into the Office so soon as I could have wished. But I will give orders that the old practice shall be reverted to, of making copies of all important despatches as soon as they reach the Office, so that there may be no delay in sending the despatches to the Queen; this practice was gradually left off as the business of the Office increased, and if it shall require an additional clerk or two you must be liberal and allow me that assistance.—Yours sincerely,
Palmerston.