Third, by seeking aid from the Party which has followed Lord Stanley. This cannot be done by means of official connection; but something might be effected by adopting measures calculated to convince the Landed Interest that their sufferings were not disregarded.
Upon the whole, if the late Ministers are invited by your Majesty to resume office, the easiest course would be to proceed at once with the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. That question disposed of, it would be seen whether the Ministry had sufficient strength to go on; if they had, they might, as occasion arose, seek assistance from other quarters, looking to those with whom there is the greatest agreement of opinion.
Should the Ministry, on the other hand, not receive Parliamentary support sufficient to enable them to carry on the Government, the Queen would be in a position to form a new Government free from the obstacles which have lately been fatal.
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.
Buckingham Palace, 4th March 1851.
... The Queen was in hopes to have heard from Lord John Russell this morning relative to what passed in the House of Commons last night. She wishes likewise to hear what takes place at the meeting of Lord John's supporters to-day. The Queen must ask Lord John to keep her constantly informed of what is going on, and of the temper of parties in and out of Parliament; for no one can deny that the present state of affairs is most critical; and after all that has happened it is absolutely necessary that the Queen should not be in a state of uncertainty, not to say of ignorance, as to what is passing. She can else not form a just opinion of the position of affairs.
Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
Buckingham Palace, 4th March 1851.
My dearest Uncle,—Pray receive my warmest thanks for two kind letters of the 28th, and my excuses for the terribly incoherent scrawl of last Saturday. The dénouement of ten days of the greatest anxiety and excitement I cannot call satisfactory, for it holds out only the prospect of another crisis in a very short time, and the so much wished-for union of Parties has been again frustrated. I have been speaking very strongly about Lord Palmerston to Lord John, and he has promised that if the Government should still be in at Easter, then to make a change.... Lord Stanley can never succeed until he gives up Protection, which he would do, if the country decides against him;12 he has failed solely from the impossibility of finding one single man capable to take the important Offices. He said last night to Lord John Russell, "I am l'homme impossible; they cannot come to me again." Still it would be very desirable that there should be a strong Conservative Party; nothing but the abandonment of Protection can bring this to pass, and Lord Stanley cannot abandon it with honour till after the next Election. This is the state of Parties, which is greatly erschwert by the Papal Question, which divides the Liberals and Conservatives. In short, there never was such a complicated and difficult state of affairs. Ever your devoted Niece,