The Queen returns the enclosed despatch to the Duke of Newcastle, which she has read with much pleasure, as bringing before Lord Raglan in an official manner—which will require official enquiry and answer—the various points so urgently requiring his attention and remedial effort. It is at the same time so delicately worded that it ought not to offend, although it cannot help, from its matter, being painful to Lord Raglan. The Queen has only one remark to make, viz. the entire omission of her name throughout the document. It speaks simply in the name of the People of England, and of their sympathy, whilst the Queen feels it to be one of her highest prerogatives and dearest duties to care for the welfare and success of her Army. Had the despatch not gone before it was submitted to the Queen, in a few words the Duke of Newcastle would have rectified this omission.
The Duke of Newcastle might with truth have added that, making every allowance for the difficulties before Sebastopol, it is difficult to imagine how the Army could ever be moved in the field, if the impossibility of keeping it alive is felt in a stationary camp only seven miles from its harbour, with the whole British Navy and hundreds of transports at its command.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen.
Windsor Castle, 13th January 1855.
The Queen has received Lord Aberdeen's letter of the 11th, and has since seen Lord John Russell's letter. It shows that the practice of the Queen's different Cabinet Ministers going to Paris, to have personal explanations with the Emperor, besides being hardly a constitutional practice, must lead to much misunderstanding. How is the Emperor to distinguish between the views of the Queen's Government and the private opinions of the different members of the Cabinet, all more or less varying, particularly in a Coalition Government?
The Queen hopes therefore that this will be the last such visit. The Ambassador is the official organ of communication, and the Foreign Secretary is responsible for his doing his duty, and has the means of controlling him by his instructions and the despatches he receives, all of which are placed on record.3
Footnote 3: The cause of Lord John's visit to Paris had been the illness there of his sister-in-law, Lady Harriet Elliot; but he took the opportunity of conferring both with the Emperor and his Ministers on the conduct of the war.—Walpole's Life of Lord John Russell, chap. xxv.
Lord Raglan to Queen Victoria.
LETTER FROM LORD RAGLAN
Before Sebastopol, 20th January 1855.