the dear Queen, and
referring you for detailed news to the dear Prince, also recommending
to your gracious remembrance Albert, who does not wish to trouble you,
on his part, with a letter, I remain, in unchangeable friendship, dear
Brother, your Majesty's faithful Sister,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _9th July 1850._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--We live in the midst of sorrow and death! My poor
good Uncle Cambridge breathed his last, without a struggle, at a few
minutes before ten last night. I still saw him yesterday morning at
one, but he _did not see me_, and to-day I saw him lifeless and cold.
The poor Duchess and the poor children are very touching in their
grief, and poor Augusta,[29] who arrived just _five hours too late_,
is quite heartbroken. The end was most peaceful; there was no
disease; only a gastric fever, which came on four weeks ago, from
over-exertion, and cold, and which he neglected for the first week,
carried him off.

The good Prince of Prussia you will have been pleased to talk to and
see. Having lived with him for a fortnight on a very intimate footing,
we have been able to appreciate his _real_ worth fully; he is so
honest and frank, and so steady of purpose and courageous.

Poor dear Peel is to be buried to-day. The sorrow and grief at his
death are most touching, and the country mourns over him as over a
father. Every one seems to have lost a personal friend.

As I have much to write, you will forgive me ending here. You will
be glad to hear that poor Aunt Gloucester is wonderfully calm and
resigned. My poor dear Albert, who had been so fresh and well when we
came back, looks so pale and fagged again. He has felt, and feels, Sir
Robert's loss _dreadfully_. He feels he has lost a second father.

May God bless and protect you all, you dear ones! Ever your devoted
Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 29: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 437.]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _19th July 1850._

Before this draft to Lord Bloomfield about Greece is sent, it would be
well to consider whether Lord Palmerston is justified in calling
the Minister of the Interior of Greece "a notorious defaulter to the
amount of 200,000 drachms,"[30] and should he be so, whether it is
a proper thing for the Queen's Foreign Secretary to say in a public
despatch!

[Footnote 30: The Conventi