ether from the Government.

Lord Aberdeen fully admits that this step which he has humbly proposed
to your Majesty may fail to produce any good effect, and that it may
even be turned hereafter to the injury of the Government; but, at
all events, Lord Aberdeen's conscience will be clear; and if Lord
Palmerston has any generous feelings, it is not impossible that he
may appreciate favourably a proceeding which cannot but afford him
personal satisfaction.

[Footnote 22: Lord Aberdeen had suggested that it would be
advisable for several reasons that Lord Palmerston should
be invited to Balmoral as Minister in attendance, and he
accordingly went there on the 15th of September.]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

BALMORAL, _24th September 1853._

The Queen has this morning received Lord Clarendon's letter of the
22nd inst. She has not been surprised at the line taken by Austria,
who, Lord Clarendon will remember, the Queen never thought could
be depended upon, as she is not in that independent position which
renders a National Policy possible. The accounts from Constantinople
are very alarming, and make the Queen most anxious for the future. She
quite approves of the steps taken by the Government. The presence of
the Fleets at Constantinople in case of general disturbance will take
from the Emperor of Russia what Lord Cowley calls his _coup de Theatre
a la Sadlers Wells_, viz.: the part of the generous protector of the
Sultan and restorer of Order.[24]

[Footnote 23: Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell led the
war party in the Cabinet; but the latter was pledged to the
introduction of a Reform Bill, while the former was opposed
to the scheme. Lord Aberdeen's pacific views were making him
increasingly unpopular in the country.]

[Footnote 24: Even after the Russian occupation of the
Principalities, which the Russian Minister, Count Nesselrode,
had described as not an act of war, but a material guarantee
for the concession by Turkey of the Russian demands,
the resources of diplomacy were not exhausted. The Four
Powers--England, France, Austria, and Prussia--agreed, in
conference at Vienna, to present a note for acceptance by
Russia and the Porte, to the effect (_inter alia_) that the
Government of the Sultan would remain faithful "to the letter
and to the spirit of the Treaties of Kainardji and Adrianople
relative to the