The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria.
THE EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH
Laeken, 3 June 1853.
My dearest, best Victoria,—... The young Emperor18 I confess I like much, there is much sense and courage in his warm blue eye, and it is not without a very amiable merriment when there is occasion for it. He is slight and very graceful, but even in the mêlée of dancers and Archdukes, and all in uniform, he may always be distinguished as the Chef. This struck me more than anything, as now at Vienna the dancing is also that general mêlée which renders waltzing most difficult.... The manners are excellent and free from pompousness or awkwardness of any kind, simple, and when he is graciously disposed, as he was to me, sehr herzlich und natürlich. He keeps every one in great order without requiring for this an outré appearance of authority, merely because he is the master, and there is that about him which gives authority, and which sometimes those who have the authority cannot succeed in getting accepted or in practising. I think he may be severe si l'occasion se présente; he has something very muthig. We were several times surrounded by people of all classes, and he certainly quite at their mercy, but I never saw his little muthig expression changed either by being pleased or alarmed. I trust that this family connection may mitigate the only impression which in Austria has created a hostile feeling, viz. the suspicions in Palmerston's time that it had become a plan of England to destroy the Austrian Empire. After the attentat on the Emperor the impression on those who are attached to their country was, and still is, that in England a sort of menagerie of Kossuths, Mazzinis, Lagranges, Ledru Rollins, etc., is kept to be let occasionally loose on the Continent to render its quiet and prosperity impossible. That impression, which Lord Aberdeen stated in the House of Lords at the end of April, is strong everywhere on the Continent, in Prussia as it is in Austria, and even here our industriels are convinced of it. About what is to be done by way of graciousness on your part we will consider.... Ever, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
Leopold R.
Footnote 18: Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria.
The Duke of Newcastle to Queen Victoria.
7th June 1853.
The Duke of Newcastle presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour of bringing under your Majesty's notice a desire for some time past felt by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by others interested in the welfare of the Church of England in the Colonies, that the extensive See of Capetown should be divided, and that a new Bishopric of Grahamstown should be erected.
An endowment of £10,000 for the proposed See has lately been provided by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.