ones which must be most offensive to Austria. Lord
Palmerston _will_ have his kingdom of Upper Italy under Charles
Albert, to which every other consideration is to be sacrificed, and
Lord Normanby's alteration of the terms certainly serve _that_ purpose
well; but it is quite independent of the question of mediation,
and the only thing in the whole proceeding which is indefensible in
principle.

It will be a calamity for ages to come if this principle is to become
part of the international law, viz. "that a people can at any time
transfer their allegiance from the Sovereign of one State to that of
another by universal suffrage (under momentary excitement)," and
this is what Lord Normanby--no doubt according to Lord Palmerston's
wishes--has taken as the basis of the mediation. For even the _faits
accomplis_, which are a convenient basis to justify any act of
injustice, are here against Charles Albert.

Lord Palmerston's argument respecting Schleswig,[38] which the Queen
quoted in her last letter, had no reference to the Treaty of 1720.

[Footnote 38: The first act of the _Vor-Parlament_, a body
which had existed temporarily at Frankfort, to pave the way
for the National Assembly of a Consolidated Germany, had been
to treat Schleswig, theretofore part of the Danish dominions,
as absorbed in the German Confederation, and Lord Palmerston's
objections to this proceeding had been treated by the Queen
in a letter of 19th August as inconsistent with his attitude
towards Austria.]

[Pageheading: PRUSSIA AND GERMANY]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

OSBORNE, _29th August 1848._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--Most warmly do I thank you for your very kind and
dear letter of the 26th, with so many good wishes for that _dearest_
of days. It is indeed to me one of eternal thankfulness, for a purer,
more perfect being than my beloved Albert the Creator could _not_ have
sent into this troubled world. I feel that I could _not_ exist without
him, and that I should sink under the troubles and annoyances and
_degouts_ of my _very_ difficult position, were it not for _his_
assistance, protection, guidance, and comfort. Truly do I thank you
for your _great_ share in bringing about our marriage.

Stockmar I do not quite understand, and I cannot believe that he
_really wishes to ruin_ all the smaller States, though his principal
object is that unity which I fear he will _not_ obtain.

I