on of the 18th of April (see _ante_,
p. 242, note 1) had decided that L8500 should be distributed
among the claimants, and that Don Pacifico's special claim
against Portugal should be referred to arbitration. Ultimately
he was awarded only an insignificant sum.]

[Pageheading: THE FOREIGN OFFICE]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _28th July 1850._

The Queen will have much pleasure in seeing the Duke and Duchess of
Bedford here next Saturday, and we have invited them. She will be
quite ready to hear the Duke's opinions on the Foreign Office. Lord
John may be sure that she fully admits the great difficulties in the
way of the projected alteration, but she, on the other hand, feels
the duty she owes to the country and to herself, not to allow a man
in whom she can have no confidence, who has conducted himself in
_anything but_ a straightforward and proper manner to herself, to
remain in the Foreign Office, and thereby to expose herself to insults
from other nations, and the country to the constant risk of serious
and alarming complications. The Queen considers these reasons as
much graver than the other difficulties. Each time that we were in
a difficulty, the Government seemed to be determined to move Lord
Palmerston, and as soon as these difficulties were got over, those
which present themselves in the carrying out of this removal appeared
of so great a magnitude as to cause its relinquishment. There is no
chance of Lord Palmerston reforming himself in his sixty-seventh year,
and after having considered his last escape as a triumph.... The
Queen is personally convinced that Lord Palmerston at this moment is
secretly planning an armed Russian intervention in Schleswig, which
may produce a renewal of revolutions in Germany, and possibly a
general war.

The Queen only adduces this as an instance that there is no question
of delicacy and danger in which Lord Palmerston will not arbitrarily
and without reference to his colleagues or Sovereign engage this
country.

_Queen Victoria to the King of Denmark._

OSBORNE, _29 Juillet 1850._

SIRE ET MON BON FRERE,--La lettre dont votre Majeste a bien voulu
m'honorer m'a cause un bien vif plaisir comme temoignage que votre
Majeste a su apprecier les sentiments d'amitie pour vous et le desir
d'agir avec impartialite qui m'ont animee ainsi que mon Gouvernement
pendant tout le cours des longues negociations qui out precede la
sig