w at Aldershot.]

_The Prince Albert to Viscount Palmerston._

[_9th August 1846._]

MY DEAR LORD PALMERSTON,--The Queen is much obliged for Lord Howard
de Walden's private letter to you, and begs you will never hesitate to
send her such private communications, however unreserved they may
be in their language, as our chief wish and aim is, by hearing all
parties, to arrive at a just, dispassionate, and correct opinion
upon the various political questions. This, however, entails a strict
scrutiny of what is brought before us....

[Pageheading: ENGLAND AND SPAIN]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _17th August 1846._

The Queen has received a draft to Mr Bulwer from Lord Palmerston. The
perusal of it has raised some apprehensions in the Queen's mind,
which she stated to Lord Palmerston she would communicate to Lord John
Russell.

The draft lays down a general policy, which the Queen is afraid may
ultimately turn out very dangerous. It is this:

England undertakes to interfere in the internal affairs of Spain, and
to promote the development of the present constitutional Government of
Spain in a more democratic direction, and this for the avowed purpose
of counteracting the influence of France. England becomes therefore
_responsible_ for a particular direction given to the _internal_
Government of Spain, which to control she has no sufficient means. All
England can do, and will have to do, is: to keep up a particular party
in Spain to support her views.

France, knowing that this is directed against her, must take up the
opposite party and follow the opposite policy in Spanish affairs.

This must bring England and France to quarrels, of which we can hardly
foresee the consequences, and it dooms Spain to eternal convulsions
and reactions.

This has been the state of things before; theory and experience
therefore warn against the renewal of a similar policy.

The natural consequence of this is that Don Enrique would appear
as the desirable candidate for the Queen of Spain's hand, and Lord
Palmerston accordingly for the first time deviates from the line
hitherto followed by us, and _urges_ Don Enrique, which in the eyes of
the world must stamp him as "_an English Candidate_." Lord Palmerston,
from his wish to see him succeed, does, in the Queen's opinion, not
sufficiently acknowledge the obstacles which stand in the way of
this combination, and which all those who are on the sp