Victoria R.
Footnote 64: By a singular coincidence, the Princess was to pass away on the anniversary of the Prince's death. She died on the 14th of December 1878.
Sir Charles Wood to Queen Victoria.
DEATH OF LADY CANNING
22nd December 1861.
Sir Charles Wood, with his humble duty, begs to enclose to your Majesty two letters from India, one giving an account of Lord Canning's investing the Indian Chiefs with the Star of India; and the other an account of poor Lady Canning's illness and death, which, even at this sad moment, may not be without interest for your Majesty.
Sir Charles Wood hopes that he may be forgiven if, when having to address your Majesty, he ventures to lay before your Majesty the expression of his heartfelt sympathy in the sorrow under which your Majesty is now suffering, and his deep sense of the irreparable calamity which has befallen your Majesty and the country.
Though it cannot be any consolation, it must be gratifying to your Majesty to learn the deep and universal feeling of regret and sorrow which prevails amongst all classes of your Majesty's subjects, and in none so strongly as in those who have had the most opportunity of appreciating the inestimable value of those services, of which by this awful dispensation of Providence the country has been deprived.