DEMOCRACY IN PRUSSIA
Berlin, 5th November 1861.
Lord Clarendon presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and humbly begs to say that as he leaves Berlin to-morrow, the Princess Royal has most kindly just given him an Audience of leave, although Her Royal Highness was still suffering considerable pain in her ear, and was quite unfit for any exertion. Her Royal Highness's countenance bears traces of the severe illness of the last few days, but Lord Clarendon trusts that the worst is now over, and that care alone is necessary for her complete recovery. Her Royal Highness is still so weak that she was obliged to desist from writing, which she attempted this morning, and Lord Clarendon took the liberty of earnestly recommending that the journey to Breslau, upon which Her Royal Highness appeared to be bent, should be given up. Lord Clarendon intends to repeat the same advice to the Queen, whom he is to see this evening, as there are to be four days of rejoicings at Breslau, for the fatigue of which the Crown Princess must be utterly unfit.
Her Royal Highness is much alarmed at the state of things here, and Lord Clarendon thinks with great reason, for the King has quite made up his mind as to the course that he will pursue. He sees democracy and revolution in every symptom of opposition to his will. His Ministers are mere clerks, who are quite content to register the King's decrees, and there is no person from whom His Majesty seeks advice, or indeed who is capable or would have the moral courage to give it. The King will always religiously keep his word, and will never overturn the institutions he has sworn to maintain, but they are so distasteful to him, and so much at variance with his habit of thought and settled opinions as to the rights of the Crown, that His Majesty will never, if he can avoid it, accept the consequences of representative Government, or allow it to be a reality. This is generally known, and among the middle classes is producing an uneasy and resentful feeling, but as far as Lord Clarendon is able to judge, there is no fear of revolution—the Army is too strong, and the recollection of 1848 is too fresh to allow of acts of violence.
Lord Clarendon had the honour of an Audience of the King on Sunday. His Majesty was most friendly and kind, but evidently unwell and irritable. Lord Clarendon therefore thought that it would be neither prudent nor useful to say the many things that the Queen had wished that the King should hear from Lord Clarendon. He touched upon the subject of Constitutional Government, and His Majesty said: "I have sworn to maintain our Institutions, and I declare to you, and I wish you to inform your Government, that I will maintain them."
Lord Clarendon proposes to remain Friday at Brussels, and hopes to have the honour of seeing the King.
Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
DEATH OF KING OF PORTUGAL
Windsor Castle, 12th November 1861.