Lord Lansdowne is aware of the paramount importance which
the Queen attaches to a safe settlement of that question, and to the
maintenance of her present Government; and she would press upon Lord
Lansdowne not to commit himself to a final determination before she
shall have an opportunity of seeing him. The Queen will go to Windsor
on Thursday, and hold a Council on Friday, at which it may perhaps be
convenient to Lord Lansdowne to attend, and it will give the Queen
the greatest pleasure to find that Lord John Russell has succeeded in
removing Lord Lansdowne's objections.

[Pageheading: LORD STRATFORD'S DESPATCH]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon._

OSBORNE, _17th December 1853._

The Queen returns the enclosed Draft and Despatch to Lord Clarendon.

She has never been so much perplexed respecting any decision she has
had to make, as in the present instance. She has read Lord Stratford's
Despatch (358) over several times, and she is struck, every time more,
with the consummate ability with which it is written and argued; but
also with the difficulty in which it places the person reading it to
extract distinctly what the Porte will be prepared to concede.

The concluding passage of the Draft involves the most important
consequences. As the Queen understands it, it promises war with Russia
in a given contingency, but the contingency is: Russia rejecting terms
which are "in their spirit and character such as Your Excellency sets
forth in your Despatch." The Queen finds it impossible to make such
tremendous consequences dependent upon such vague expressions. The
more so, as "the spirit and character" alluded to, appears to her to
be, as if purposely, obscure.

When Lord Stratford says, that the Turks would be satisfied "with a
renewal in clear and comprehensive terms of the formal Declarations
and Treaties already existing in favour of the Porte"--the Queen
cannot understand what is meant--as all the former Treaties between
Russia and Turkey have certainly not been in favour of the Porte.
Nor is it clear to the Queen whether "the clear and unquestionable
deliverance from Russian interference applied to spiritual matters" is
compatible with the former treaties.

Whilst the Queen, therefore, perfectly agrees in the principle
that, should Russia "for its own unjustifiable objects, show herself
regardless of the best interests of Europe" by rejecting every fair
term, the time will have arrived "for adopt