Victoria R.
Stockmar has been an immense comfort to us in our trials, and I hope you will tell him so.
Footnote 12: The Queen's judgment was amply confirmed by the events of 1852. See post, [p. 404] note 50.
Memorandum by the Queen.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY
Buckingham Palace, 5th March 1851.
The Queen would give every facility to the selection of a good site for a new National Gallery, and would therefore not object to its being built on to Kensington Palace or anywhere in Kensington Gardens; but does not see why it should exactly be placed upon the site of the present Palace, if not for the purpose of taking from the Crown the last available set of apartments. She is not disposed to trust in the disposition of Parliament or the public to give her an equivalent for these apartments from time to time when emergencies arise. The surrender of Kensington Palace will most likely not be thanked for at the moment, and any new demand in consequence of such surrender would be met with lavish abuse. As to economy in the construction, it will most likely be best consulted by building on a spot perfectly free and unencumbered.
Lord John Russell to the Prince Albert.
Chesham Place, 14th March 1851.
Sir,—I cannot undertake to make any change in the Foreign Office. Our Party is hardly reunited, and any break into sections, following one man or the other, would be fatal to us. I need not say that the Queen would suffer if it were attributed to her desire, and that as I have no difference of opinion on Foreign Policy, that could not fail to be the case.