portance that the Cabinet should be now announced to the world as
complete, that she is unwilling to throw any difficulties in the way.
At the same time, she must observe that in some instances the changes
are, in her opinion, not for the better. Sir J. Graham will be very
unpopular in the Navy; his achievements at the Admiralty in former
times[65] were all _retrenchments_, and have since proved in many
instances injurious to the Service. The Secretary-at-War ought
properly to be left out of the Cabinet for the well working of the
Army;[66] the President of the Board of Trade has always been in the
Cabinet, and in Lord Granville's case, even the Vice-President.
Lord Granville will have a difficulty as Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster, being one of the chief lessees of the Duchy, and, the Queen
believes, even engaged in a law-suit against it. The Queen has no
objection to Sir William Molesworth[67] at the Office of Works. She
hopes that the Presidency of the Council will be filled at once, for
which Lord Clarendon would be best.

Amongst the Under-Secretaries of State, the Queen wishes merely to
express her objection at seeing Mr B. Osborne[68] at the _Foreign_
Office. The Queen sees Lord Chandos's[69] name as Secretary to the
Treasury; she would be very much pleased to see his services secured.
All the other proposals she approves.

The Queen must repeat in conclusion that she considers the rapid
completion of the Government of the first importance, even if none of
the points the Queen has alluded to should be amended.

[Footnote 65: From 1830 to 1834.]

[Footnote 66: The Secretary-at-War was not a Secretary of
State.]

[Footnote 67: M.P. for Southwark; well known as a
philosophical writer, the first member of the Radical Party
included in any Ministry.]

[Footnote 68: Mr Bernal Osborne, a well-known speaker at the
time, became Secretary of the Admiralty.]

[Footnote 69: Afterwards, as Duke of Buckingham, Secretary for
the Colonies and Governor of Madras.]

[Pageheading: THE NEW CABINET]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _24th December 1852._

The Queen has this moment received Lord Aberdeen's letter, reporting
that new difficulties have arisen in the completion of the Government
by new proposals made by Lord John Russell, since the Queen's sanction
had been given to the arrangements submitted to her by Lord Aberdeen,
which had