more
than the _present_. The fact of a dissension in the Cabinet on a vital
point, which it cannot be hoped will remain concealed, must besides
much impair its vigour and power....

The Queen earnestly hopes that it will not become necessary to change
the course announced by the Government.

[Footnote 16: The India Bill, which passed during the Session,
threw open the lucrative patronage of the Company (whose
existence was continued but with less absolute control) to
competition. The Mutiny, and the resulting legislation of
1858, tended subsequently to overshadow Sir Charles Wood's
measure.]

[Footnote 17: The matter had been referred to a Cabinet
Committee, reported upon, agreed to in full Cabinet, proposed
to and sanctioned by the Queen and announced to Parliament.]

[Pageheading: THE EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

LAEKEN, _3 June 1853._

MY DEAREST, BEST VICTORIA,--... The young Emperor[18] I confess I like
much, there is much sense and courage in his warm blue eye, and it is
not without a very amiable merriment when there is occasion for it.
He is slight and very graceful, but even in the _melee_ of dancers and
Archdukes, and all in uniform, he may always be distinguished as
the _Chef_. This struck me more than anything, as now at Vienna the
dancing is also that general _melee_ which renders waltzing most
difficult.... The manners are excellent and free from pompousness or
awkwardness of any kind, simple, and when he is graciously disposed,
as he was to me, _sehr herzlich und natuerlich_. He keeps every one
in great order without requiring for this an _outre_ appearance of
authority, merely because he is the master, and there is that about
him which gives authority, and which sometimes those _who have the
authority cannot succeed in getting accepted or in practising_. I
think he may be severe _si l'occasion se presente_; he has something
very _muthig_. We were several times surrounded by people of all
classes, and he certainly quite at their mercy, but I never saw his
little _muthig_ expression changed either by being pleased or alarmed.
I trust that this family connection may mitigate the only impression
which in Austria has created a hostile feeling, viz. the suspicions
in Palmerston's time that it had become a plan of England _to
destroy_ the Austrian Empire. After the _attentat_ on the Emperor the
impression on those w