ration, we should be
glad to have the additional weight of that authority, but that could
not be made a _sine qua non_, any more than the signature of Austria
and Prussia themselves, for I think that the Protocol ought to be
signed by as many of the proposed Powers as may choose to agree to
it, bearing always in mind that it is only a record of opinions and
wishes, and does not decide or pretend to decide anything practically.
Yours sincerely,

PALMERSTON.

[Footnote 19: The Protocol was to record the desirability
of the following points:--(1) that the several states which
constituted the Danish Monarchy should remain united, and
that the Danish Crown should be settled in such manner that it
should go with the Duchy of Holstein; (2) that the signatory
Powers, when the peace should have been concluded, should
concert measures for the purpose of giving to the results
an additional pledge of stability, by a general European
acknowledgment.]

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN'S OPINION]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _25th June 1850._

The Queen has received Lord John Russell's letter enclosing those of
Lord Palmerston and Lord Lansdowne. The _misconception_ on the Queen's
part, which Lord Palmerston alleges to exist, consists in her taking
the essence of the arrangement for the mere words. Lord Palmerston
pretends that the Protocol "does not decide upon the fate of Holstein
nor attack Germany." However, the only object of the Protocol is the
fate of Holstein, which is decided upon--

(1.) By a declaration of the importance to the interests of Europe to
uphold the integrity of the Danish Monarchy (which has no meaning, if
it does not mean that Holstein is to remain with it).

(2.) By an approval of the efforts of the King of Denmark to keep it
with Denmark, by adapting the law of succession to that of Holstein.

(3.) By an engagement on the part of the Powers to use their "_soins_"
to get the constitutional position of Holstein settled in a peace
according to the Malmoe preliminaries, of which it was one of
the conditions that the question of the succession was to be left
untouched.

(4.) To seal the whole arrangement by an act of European
acknowledgment.

If the declarations of importance, the approval, the "_soins_" and
the acknowledgments of _all_ the great Powers of Europe are to decide
nothing, then Lord Palmerston is quite right; if they de