Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston.
MILITARY EDUCATION
Osborne, 18th December 1856.
In answer to Lord Palmerston's explanation with regard to Colonel Lefroy's63 appointment, the Queen has to say, that if he is to be made Inspector of Regimental Schools, she has no objection; but she must protest against his being made Director of Education for the Army generally. We want a Director-General of Education very much, but he ought to be immediately under the Commander-in-Chief, if possible a General Officer of weight, assisted by a Board of Officers of the different Arms.
Education ought to be made one of the essential requisites of an officer, and the reports on his proficiency ought to go direct through the proper superior from the bottom to the top, particularly if selection by merit is to receive a greater application for the future. If for his military proficiency and moral discipline, an officer is to be responsible to his Military chief, but for his mental acquirements to a Civil department, the unity of the system will be broken and the Army ruined; and this must be the case if the superintendence of the education is separated from the Military command.
The subject of Military Education has, as Lord Palmerston says, often been discussed in Parliament, which expects that some sufficient arrangement shall be made for it. But the mere creation of a place for an officer, however meritorious, to find him an equivalent for one which has to be reduced, can hardly be so called, and may even defeat the object itself. This subject is a most important one, and ought to be thoroughly examined before acting. The Queen understands that the Duke of Cambridge has transmitted to Lord Panmure a complete scheme, which must be now before him. If Lord Palmerston, Lord Panmure, the Duke of Cambridge, and the Prince were to meet to consider this scheme, and the whole question in connection with it, the Queen would feel every confidence that a satisfactory decision would be arrived at.
Footnote 63: John Henry Lefroy, who now became Inspector-General of Army Schools, was an artillery officer of considerable scientific attainments. Many years later he was K.C.M.G. and Governor of Tasmania.
The Emperor of the French to Queen Victoria.
BESSARABIA
[Undated.]