egard to the peace of India,
to the security of our Empire there, and to the happiness of the
people over whom we rule.

DALHOUSIE.

[Pageheading: PALMERSTON'S ITALIAN POLICY]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _7th October 1848._

The Queen sends Lord Palmerston's answer to her last letter, of which
the Queen has sent a copy to Lord John Russell, and encloses likewise
a copy of her present answer. The partiality of Lord Palmerston in
this Italian question really _surpasses all conception_, and makes the
Queen _very uneasy_ on account of the character and honour of England,
and on account of the danger to which the peace of Europe will be
exposed. It is now clearly proved by Baron Wessenberg that upon the
conclusion of the Armistice with Sardinia, negotiations for peace
would have speedily been entered into, had our _mediation_ not been
offered to the King, to whom the offer of Lombardy was too tempting
not to accept, and now that promise is by fair or unfair means to
be made good. The Queen cannot see any principle in this, as the
principle upon which Lord Palmerston goes is _Italian Nationality and
Independence from a foreign Yoke and Tyranny_. How can the Venetian
territory then be secured to Austria? and if this is done, on what
ground can Lombardy be wrung from her? It is really not safe to settle
such important matters without principle and by personal _passion_
alone. When the _French_ Government say they cannot control public
feeling, Lord Palmerston takes this as an unalterable fact, and as
a sufficient reason to make the Austrians give up Lombardy; when,
however, the _Austrian_ Government say they cannot give up Lombardy on
account of the feeling of the Army which had just reconquered it
with their blood and under severe privations and sufferings, Lord
Palmerston flippantly tells the Austrian Government, "if that were so,
the Emperor had better abdicate and make General Radetzky Emperor."
When Charles Albert burned the whole of the suburbs of Milan to keep
up the delusion that he meant to defend the town, Lord Palmerston
said nothing; and now that the Austrian Governor has prohibited
revolutionary placards on the walls, and prolonged the period at which
arms are to be surrendered, at the end of which persons concealing
arms are to be tried by court-martial, he writes to Vienna: "that this
savage proclamation, which savours more of the barbarous usages of
centuries long gone by tha