e for about five hours, with no
apparent effort, with perfect self-possession, and with hardly an
exception to the fixed attention with which the House listened to the
exposition of the views of your Majesty's servants. It was altogether
a most masterly performance, and he kept alive the attention of
the House with the greatest ability, introducing the most important
statements, and the broadest principles of legislature, just at the
moments when he had excited the greatest anxiety to learn the precise
measures which the Government intended to introduce. The Irish part of
the question was dealt with with remarkable dexterity, though probably
a great part of the point will be lost in the newspaper reports. It
is difficult to foresee the ultimate result, but Lord Derby has
no hesitation in saying that the general first impression was very
favourable, and that, as a whole, the Budget seemed to meet with the
approval of the House.

[Footnote 52: Increase of the House Tax, reduction of the Malt
and Tea duties, and relaxation of Income Tax in the case of
farmers, were the salient features of the Budget.]

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN TO THE EMPEROR]

_Queen Victoria to the Emperor of the French._

OSBORNE HOUSE, _4th December 1852._

SIR, MY BROTHER,--Being desirous to maintain uninterrupted the union
and good understanding which happily subsist between Great Britain
and France, I have made choice of Lord Cowley, a peer of my United
Kingdom, a member of my Privy Council, and Knight Commander of
the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, to reside at your Imperial
Majesty's Court in the character of my Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary. The long experience which I have had of his talents
and zeal for my service assures me that the choice which I have made
of Lord Cowley will be perfectly agreeable to your Imperial Majesty,
and that he will prove himself worthy of this new mark of my
confidence. I request that your Imperial Majesty will give entire
credence to all that Lord Cowley shall communicate to you on my part,
more especially when he shall assure your Imperial Majesty of my
invariable attachment and esteem, and shall express to you those
sentiments of sincere friendship and regard with which I am, Sir, my
Brother, your Imperial Majesty's good Sister,

VICTORIA R.

To my good Brother,[53] the Emperor of the French.

[Footnote 53: The Czar persisted in addressing him as _Mon
cher Am