ies which God has imposed on us.

You will have heard of our crisis, and of the resignation of the
Government; its overthrow was inevitable; but we must now get a strong
and durable Government, one combined of the best Conservatives and
Liberals, which is what the country expects, demands, and requires.
Lord Aberdeen has undertaken the task, but I cannot yet announce, as
I wish I could, the formation of the new Government. Ever your devoted
Niece,

VICTORIA R.

You will receive a small parcel for my dear Charlotte for Christmas
Eve, and I have directed some prize Christmas beef to be forwarded to
Leo, which I hope he will approve of.

[Pageheading: LORD DERBY'S JUSTIFICATION]

_The Earl of Derby to Queen Victoria._

ST JAMES'S SQUARE, _22nd December 1852._

Lord Derby, with his humble duty, learns with the deepest regret,
by the note which he has just had the honour of receiving, that the
statement which he felt it his duty to make in the House of Lords has
appeared to your Majesty not calculated to render easier the difficult
task which has been thrown upon your Majesty by the resignation
of himself and his colleagues. Lord Derby begs humbly, but most
sincerely, to assure your Majesty that nothing could have been farther
from his intention than to let fall a single word which could increase
the difficulties of the present position. He feels the full extent of
those difficulties, and he may perhaps be forgiven if he entertains a
strong opinion that a due appreciation of their magnitude might have
been expected to have some weight with those Conservative statesmen,
whose opposition thrown into the adverse scale turned the balance
against your Majesty's servants, and rendered their retirement from
office inevitable. Lord Derby does not affect to deny that he thinks
he has some reason, personally and politically, to find fault with the
course which they have pursued: but to suffer any such consideration
to influence his public conduct, with regard to the Government now in
process of formation, would be entirely at variance with his sense of
public duty, and inconsistent with the deep gratitude which he must
ever feel for the confidence with which your Majesty has honoured him.
Lord Derby confesses himself at a loss to understand in what manner
Lord Aberdeen can be enabled to reconcile the many and serious
discrepancies, in matters both of Church and State, which would appear
to exist among his presumed fut