The Queen has received Lord Aberdeen's letter of the 23rd, and is very thankful to him for this full and lucid statement of the present very critical situation.
She transmits to him a memorandum containing our views, drawn up by the Prince with the desire he might also communicate it to Lord Clarendon.25
The Queen must say she now rejoices the Fleets should be on their way to Constantinople.
God grant that any outbreak at Constantinople may yet be averted.
Footnote 25: The Memorandum stated that it would be fruitless further to attempt to settle the dispute by the "Rédaction" of Notes to be exchanged between Turkey and Russia, or the choice of particular words and expressions in public documents designed in order to avoid naming the real objects in dispute.
"It is evident" (it was added) "that Russia has hitherto attempted to deceive us in pretending that she did not aim at the acquisition of any new Right, but required only a satisfaction of honour and a re-acknowledgment of the Rights she already possessed by Treaty; that she does intend and for the first time lays bare that intention, to acquire new Rights of interference which the Porte does not wish to concede and cannot concede, and which the European Powers have repeatedly declared she ought not to concede....
"If the views of Russia, for instance, with regard to 'Modification III. of the Note,' were to prevail, the extension of the advantages and privileges enjoyed by Christian communities, in their capacity as foreigners, to the Greeks generally, with the Right granted to Russia to intercede for them to this effect, would simply make foreigners of 10,000,000 of the subjects of the Porte, or depose the Sultan as their sovereign, putting the Emperor of Russia in his place."
The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria.
London, 6th October 1853.
... The Cabinet will meet to-morrow; and Lord Aberdeen will have the honour of humbly reporting to your Majesty the result of their discussions. It will be Lord Aberdeen's endeavour to prevent any rash decision; and, above all, to keep open the possibility of peaceful communications. No doubt, it may be very agreeable to humiliate the Emperor of Russia; but Lord Aberdeen thinks that it is paying a little too dear for this pleasure, to check the progress and prosperity of this happy country, and to cover Europe with confusion, misery, and blood.