Lord Dalhousie, therefore, humbly trusts that your Majesty will graciously permit him to resign the great office which he holds before he ceases to command the strength which is needed to sustain it. He has the honour to subscribe himself, your Majesty's most obedient, most humble and devoted Subject and Servant,
Dalhousie.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon.
Buckingham Palace, 14th March 1855.
The Queen returns the letter and Despatches from Vienna. They don't alter her opinion as to our demands. Every concession in form and wording ought to be made which could save Russian amour-propre; but this ought in no way to trench upon the substance of our demands, to which Austria must feel herself bound.47
Footnote 47: As has already been stated, the "Four Points" were the basis of the negotiations at Vienna; the third alone, which the Allies and Austria had defined as intended to terminate Russian preponderance in the Black Sea, caused difficulty.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon.
THE VIENNA CONFERENCE
Osborne, 19th March 1855.
The Queen has read with the greatest interest Lord Cowley's three reports. The changeableness of the French views are most perplexing, although they have hitherto not prevented a steady course from being followed in the end. Lord Cowley seems to have been a little off his guard when he took the proposal of our taking Sinope as a second Malta or Gibraltar, for a mere act of generosity and confidence towards us. We must be careful not to break down ourselves the barrier of the "abnegation clause" of our original treaty.48 The Austrian proposal can hardly be serious, for to require 1,200,000 men before going to war is almost ridiculous.