Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria.
Pembroke Lodge, 1st November 1851.
Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty; he is deeply sensible of your Majesty's kindness and indulgence. He feels that he is at times overwhelmed by the importance and variety of the questions of which the principal weight lies upon him.
He now lays before your Majesty a copy of the letter he has written to Lord Palmerston.21 With a grateful sense of your Majesty's confidence, he is now of opinion that the Cabinet should decide, and that no part of the burden should be placed upon your Majesty.
He therefore returns the letter to Lord Palmerston.
He summoned the Cabinet for Monday, as so many members of it are at a distance. He does not think Lord Palmerston will come to town before Monday.
Footnote 21: The letter is printed in Lord Palmerston's Life. The Premier stated that the question, being one of grave public importance, must be decided by argument, not passion, and would be considered by the Cabinet on the following Monday. See Walpole's Russell, chap. xxii.
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.
Windsor Castle, 1st November 1851.
The Queen has to acknowledge Lord John Russell's letter of this day, and returns the copy of his to Lord Palmerston. She feels that she has the right and the duty to demand that one of her Ministers should not by his private acts, compromise her and the country, and therefore omitted in her letter to Lord Palmerston all reference to Lord John Russell's opinion; but she of course much prefers that she should be protected from the wilful indiscretions of Lord Palmerston by the attention of the Cabinet being drawn to his proceedings without her personal intervention.22