The Earl of Derby to Queen Victoria.
THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA
Downing Street, 21st February 1859.
Lord Derby, with his humble duty, and in obedience to the commands which he had the honour of receiving from your Majesty last night, submits the following suggestions, as embodying the substance of what, in his humble judgment your Majesty might address with advantage in a private letter to the Emperor of Austria.
Your Majesty might say, that deeply penetrated with the conviction of the duty imposed upon your Majesty of acting on the principles enunciated in the speech from the Throne, of exercising whatever influence your Majesty could employ for the preservation of the general peace, your Majesty had looked with anxiety to the circumstances which threatened its continued existence. That your Majesty was unable to see in those circumstances, any which were beyond the reach of diplomatic skill, if there were only a mutual desire, on the part of the Chief Powers concerned, to give fair play to its exercise. That the only source of substantial danger was the present state of Italy; and that even in that there would be little danger of interruption to the general tranquillity, were it not for the antagonism excited by interests and engagements, real or supposed, of France and Austria.
That your Majesty believed that the supposed divergence of these interests and engagements might be capable of reconciliation if entered into with mutual frankness, and with a mutual disposition to avoid the calamities of war; but that, as it appeared to your Majesty, neither party would be willing to invite the other to a friendly discussion of the points of difference between them.
That in this state of affairs your Majesty, as a mutual friend of both Sovereigns, and having no individual interests to serve, entertained the hope that by the spontaneous offer of good offices, your Majesty might be the means of establishing certain bases, on which the Powers mainly interested might subsequently enter into amicable negotiations with regard to the questions chiefly in dispute, or threatening serious results.
Of these, the most pressing are those which relate to the Italian Peninsula.
That your Majesty, anxiously revolving in your mind the question how your Majesty's influence could best be brought to bear, had come to the conclusion that your Majesty's Ambassador at Paris, having the fullest knowledge of the views entertained by that Court, and possessing your Majesty's entire confidence, might usefully be intrusted with a highly confidential, but wholly unofficial mission, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were any possibility consistently with the views of the two Courts of offering such suggestions as might be mutually acceptable as the basis of future arrangements; and, if such should happily be found to be the case, of offering them simultaneously to the two parties, as the suggestions of a mutual friend.
That your Majesty trusted His R.I.A.15 Majesty would look upon this communication in the truly friendly light in which it was intended, and that Lord Cowley, in his unofficial and confidential character, might be permitted fully to develop the views which your Majesty entertained, and to meet with the most favourable consideration of his suggestions from His R.I.A. Majesty.