Pray offer my kind regards to all your visitors, even to those whom I do not know. I only hope my dearest husband will tell me all about everything. Vicky is constantly talking and thinking of Charlotte.
[Footnote 28:] Of the Princess Charlotte to the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian at Brussels.
Footnote 29: Sophia Frederica, born 1818, daughter of King William I. of Würtemberg.
Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston.
THE MILITIA
Osborne, 2nd August 1857.
The Queen has to thank Lord Palmerston for his letter of the 27th July.
The embodying of the Militia will be a most necessary measure, as well for the defence of our own country, and for keeping up on the Continent of Europe the knowledge that we are not in a defenceless state, as for the purpose of obtaining a sufficient number of volunteers for the Army.
The Queen hopes, therefore, that the Militia to be embodied will be on a proper and sufficient scale. She must say, that the last accounts from India show so formidable a state of things that the military measures hitherto taken by the Home Government, on whom the salvation of India must mainly depend, appear to the Queen as by no means adequate to the emergency. We have nearly gone to the full extent of our available means, just as we did in the Crimean War, and may be able to obtain successes; but we have not laid in a store of troops, nor formed Reserves which could carry us over a long struggle, or meet unforeseen new calls. Herein we are always most shortsighted, and have finally to suffer either in power and reputation, or to pay enormous sums for small advantages in the end—generally both.
The Queen hopes that the Cabinet will look the question boldly in the face; nothing could be better than the Resolutions passed in the House of Commons, insuring to the Government every possible support in the adoption of vigorous measures. It is generally the Government, and not the House of Commons, who hang back. The Queen wishes Lord Palmerston to communicate this letter to his Colleagues.