Queen Victoria to Mr Gladstone.
WINDSOR CASTLE, 7th February 1854. The Queen must apologise for having kept the enclosed papers so long, and in now sending them back she does so without feeling sure in her mind that she could with safety sanction Mr Gladstone’s new and important proposal.[1] The change it implies will be very great in principle and irretrievable, and the Queen must say that Lord John Russell’s apprehensions as to the spirit it is likely to engender amongst the future civil servants of the Crown have excited a similar feeling in her mind. Where is moreover the application of the principle of public competition to stop, if once established? and must not those offices which are to be exempted from it necessarily degrade the persons appointed to them in public estimation?
Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria.
ADMIRALTY, 9th February 1854. Sir James Graham, with humble duty, begs to lay before your Majesty certain important considerations which were discussed at the Cabinet yesterday with respect to the selection of a Commander-in-Chief for the Fleet about to be appointed for Service in the Baltic.[2]...
Lord Dundonald[3] is seventy-nine years of age; and though his energies and faculties are unbroken, and though, with his accustomed courage, he volunteers for the Service, yet, on the whole, there is reason to apprehend that he might deeply commit the Force under his command in some desperate enterprise, where the chances of success would not countervail the risk of failure and of the fatal consequences, which might ensue. Age has not abated the adventurous spirit of this gallant officer, which no authority could restrain; and being uncontrollable it might lead to most unfortunate results. The Cabinet, on the most careful review of the entire question, decided that the appointment of Lord Dundonald was not expedient. . . .
Sir Charles Napier is an excellent seaman, and combines
- ↑ Mr Gladstone had written on the 26th of January on the subject of competitive examinations for the Civil Service; in reply to the Queen’s letter, he referred to the discontent existing in the Service with the system of appointment by favour, and of promotion by seniority alone.
- ↑ War had not yet been declared, but the Russian Ambassador left London on the 7th of February, and Sir Hamilton Seymour was recalled from St Petersburg on the same day.
- ↑ This was the Lord Cochrane who had been unjustly convicted in 1814, under the direction of Lord Ellenborough, Chief Justice, of conspiracy to defraud. His naval honours were restored to him in 1832. He is said to have stipulated, on this occasion, that he should be allowed to destroy Cronstadt by a chemical process invented by himself.
