Austria would hardly attempt any new aggression on Italy, unless she were assisted by France.
Italy as one Power would derive strength from the declaration of Great Britain, as a disinterested friend.
A letter of Lord Cowley will show your Majesty the suspicions and doubts which exist as to French policy in Italy.42 All these projects will be scattered to the winds by the word of the British Government.
Footnote 42: Lord Cowley wrote that he had heard through Count Metternich that the Emperor of the French would never consent to the annexation of Naples to Piedmont, that he wished the Pope to retain Umbria and the Marches, and that the Romagna should be an independent State.
Queen Victoria to the King of Naples.
REPLY TO KING OF NAPLES
Windsor Castle, 3rd November 1860.
Sir, my Brother,—The letter I have received from your Majesty, dated from Gaëta on the 6th of October, is altogether devoted to political considerations.
These considerations have for a long time occupied the thoughts of my confidential advisers, and I have directed them to convey to my Ministers abroad such instructions as occasion appeared to me to require.
I will therefore confine this letter to those topics which are not the immediate subjects of political controversy.