contracting parties, not to desire in any case to derive from the War any advantage for themselves.
Your Majesty could not have given a more powerful proof of your unselfishness than by the very fact of attaching your signature to this Treaty.
To come to a close. You suppose that War may already have been declared; you express, however, at the same time, the hope that it may not already have actually broken out. I cannot unfortunately hold out any hope that the sentence will be followed by any stay of execution. Shakespeare’s words :
“Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee,”
are deeply engraved on the hearts of all Englishmen. Sad that they are to find an application at this crisis, in a nation with whom previously nothing prevailed but friendship and affection! And how much more melancholy must be the present emotions of your Majesty’s heart and mind to see such words applied to a beloved brother-in-law, whom yet—however much you love him—your conscience cannot absolve from the crime of having brought upon the world wilfully and frivolously such awful misery!
May the Almighty take you under His protection!
With Albert’s most cordial compliments, and our united greetings to the dear Queen, I remain, my much honoured Sir and Brother, your Majesty’s faithful Sister and Friend, Victoria R.
Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen.
1st April 1854,
The Queen rejoices to see the Debate was favourable in the
House of Lords, and that it was concluded in the House of
Commons.?
She is rather startled at seeing Lord Aberdeen’s answer to
Lord Roden upon the subject of a day of humiliation, as he has
never mentioned the subject to her, and it is one upon which
she feels strongly. The only thing the Queen ever heard about
1 The King afterwards agreed to the proposed protocol for the preservation of the
integrity of Turkey, which was signed at Vienna on the 7th of April.
2 On the 27th of March the Queen announced to Parliament that the negotiations with
the Czar had terminated, and that she felt bound “‘ to afford active assistance to her ally,
the Sultan.” Next day the Declaration of War was issued, containing a narrative of
the events which finally led tothe rupture. The debates on the Address in answer to the
message took place on the 31st of March, Mr Bright, in the Commons, censuring the
declaration, and being replied to by Lord Palmerston. Theaddresses were presented to
the Queen on the 3rd of April.
