we have a
Levee, where 1,700 are to be presented, and the next day a Review, and
in the evening the Drawing-Room, when 900 ladies are to be presented.

George[17] is here, and has a command here. He rode on one side of our
carriage yesterday. You see more ragged and wretched people here than
I ever saw anywhere else. _En revanche_, the women are really very
handsome--quite in the lowest class--as well at Cork as here; such
beautiful black eyes and hair and such fine colours and teeth.

I must now take my leave. Ever your most affectionate Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 17: The late Duke of Cambridge.]

_The Earl of Clarendon to Sir George Grey._

VICE-REGAL LODGE, _14th August 1849._

MY DEAR GREY,--If I had known where to direct I should have thanked
you sooner for your two welcome letters from Belfast, where everything
seems to have gone off to our hearts' desire, and the Queen's
presence, as the Stipendiary Magistrate writes word, has united all
classes and parties in a manner incredible to those who know the
distance at which they have hitherto been kept asunder.

The enthusiasm here has not abated, and there is not an individual
in Dublin that does not take as a personal compliment to himself the
Queen's having gone upon the paddle-box and having ordered the Royal
Standard to be lowered three times.

Even the ex-Clubbists,[18] who threatened broken heads and windows
before the Queen came, are now among the most loyal of her subjects,
and are ready, according to the police reports, to fight any one who
dare say a disrespectful word of Her Majesty.

In short, the people are not only enchanted with the Queen and the
gracious kindness of her manner and the confidence she has shown in
them, but they are pleased with themselves for their own good feelings
and behaviour, which they consider have removed the barrier that
hitherto existed between the Sovereign and themselves, and that they
now occupy a higher position in the eyes of the world. Friend Bright
was with me to-day, and said he would not for the world have missed
seeing the embarkation at Kingston, for he had felt just the same
enthusiasm as the rest of the crowd. "Indeed," he added, "I'll defy
any man to have felt otherwise when he saw the Queen come upon the
platform and bow to the people in a manner that showed her heart was
with them." He didn't disguise either that the Monarchical principle
had made great way with him since Friday. Ever