ays, your devoted
Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 13: Achille Charles, Duc de Broglie, ex-Minister of
Foreign Affairs.]

_Mr Goulburn[14] to Queen Victoria._

DOWNING STREET, _30th April 1845._

Mr Goulburn submits with his humble duty to your Majesty that several
representations have been made to the Treasury as to the convenience
which the public would derive from the circulation of silver
threepenny-pieces. Such pieces are lawfully current under your
Majesty's Proclamation of the 5th July 1838. But as such pieces have
been hitherto reserved as your Majesty's Maundy money, and as such
especially belong to your Majesty's service, Mr Goulburn considers
that a coinage of them for general use could not take place without a
particular signification of your Majesty's pleasure.

Mr Goulburn therefore humbly submits for your Majesty's gracious
consideration the signification of your Majesty's pleasure as to the
issue of such a coinage.

[Footnote 14: Chancellor of the Exchequer.]

[Pageheading: PUBLIC EXECUTIONS]

_Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _13th May 1845._

Sir James Graham, with humble duty, begs to lay before your Majesty
the enclosed Memorial.

The proceedings in Newgate on the occasion of the last condemned
sermon and on the morning of the execution have been fully
investigated;[15] and the report established the necessity of
legislative interference to prevent the recurrence of scenes so
disgraceful and demoralising. The policy of depriving capital
executions of their present publicity is well worthy of careful
revision; and Sir James Graham, in obedience to your Majesty's desire,
will bring the subject under the notice of his colleagues. He is
disposed to think that the sentence might be carried into execution in
the presence of a Jury to be summoned by the Sheriff with good effect;
and that the great body of idle spectators might be excluded, without
diminishing the salutary terror and awful warning which this extreme
punishment is intended to produce on the public mind. In dealing,
however, with a matter in which the community has so deep an interest,
it is prudent not to violate public opinion, and caution is necessary
before a change of the long-established usage is proposed.[16]

Sir James Graham deeply regrets the part taken by the newspapers in
seeking to indulge the general curiosity with respect to all details
of the conduct, habits, and demean