Lord Aberdeen fully admits that this step which he has humbly proposed to your Majesty may fail to produce any good effect, and that it may even be turned hereafter to the injury of the Government; but, at all events, Lord Aberdeen's conscience will be clear; and if Lord Palmerston has any generous feelings, it is not impossible that he may appreciate favourably a proceeding which cannot but afford him personal satisfaction.
Footnote 22: Lord Aberdeen had suggested that it would be advisable for several reasons that Lord Palmerston should be invited to Balmoral as Minister in attendance, and he accordingly went there on the 15th of September.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon.
Balmoral, 24th September 1853.
The Queen has this morning received Lord Clarendon's letter of the 22nd inst. She has not been surprised at the line taken by Austria, who, Lord Clarendon will remember, the Queen never thought could be depended upon, as she is not in that independent position which renders a National Policy possible. The accounts from Constantinople are very alarming, and make the Queen most anxious for the future. She quite approves of the steps taken by the Government. The presence of the Fleets at Constantinople in case of general disturbance will take from the Emperor of Russia what Lord Cowley calls his coup de Théâtre à la Sadlers Wells, viz.: the part of the generous protector of the Sultan and restorer of Order.24
Footnote 23: Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell led the war party in the Cabinet; but the latter was pledged to the introduction of a Reform Bill, while the former was opposed to the scheme. Lord Aberdeen's pacific views were making him increasingly unpopular in the country.
Footnote 24: Even after the Russian occupation of the Principalities, which the Russian Minister, Count Nesselrode, had described as not an act of war, but a material guarantee for the concession by Turkey of the Russian demands, the resources of diplomacy were not exhausted. The Four Powers—England, France, Austria, and Prussia—agreed, in conference at Vienna, to present a note for acceptance by Russia and the Porte, to the effect (inter alia) that the Government of the Sultan would remain faithful "to the letter and to the spirit of the Treaties of Kainardji and Adrianople relative to the protection of the Christian religion." This was most unfortunately worded, but, however, the clause had obtained the sanction of the English Government, and the Czar expressed his willingness to accept it. Lord Stratford, however, saw the danger underlying the ambiguity of the language, and, under his advice, the Porte proposed as an amendment the substitution of the words "to the stipulations of the Treaty of Kainardji, confirmed by that of Adrianople, relative to the protection by the Sublime Porte of the Christian religion." The Russian Government refused to accept this amendment, and from that moment war was inevitable. The British Fleet under Admiral Dundas had been sent from Malta to the East at the beginning of June.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen.
THE VIENNA NOTE
Balmoral, 25th September 1853.