n accuses and condemns public men in other countries, acting
in most difficult circumstances and under heavy responsibility,
without having the means of obtaining correct information or of
sifting evidence.

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _16th October 1850._

The Queen is glad to hear from Lord Palmerston that he has given no
countenance to the French and Russian proposal at the suggestion of
Denmark, that England, France, and Russia should, after having signed
the Protocol in favour of Denmark, now go further and send their
armies to aid her in her contest with Holstein.[42] The Queen does not
expect any good result from Lord Palmerston's counter proposal to urge
Prussia and Austria to compel the Holsteiners to lay down their arms.
The mediating power ought rather to make Denmark feel that it requires
more than a cessation of hostilities, a plan of reconciliation, and a
solution of the questions in dispute, before she can hope permanently
to establish peace. The mediating power itself, however, should strive
to arrive at some opinion on the matter in dispute, based, not on
_its own_ supposed interests, as the Protocol is, but on an anxious,
careful, and impartial investigation of the rights and pretensions of
the disputing parties; and if it finds it impossible to arrive at such
an opinion, to fix upon some impartial tribunal capable of doing
so, to which the dispute could be submitted for decision. Common
principles of morality would point out such a course, and what is
morally right only can be politically wise.

[Footnote 42: A strenuous attempt was being made by the Danish
Government to bring pressure to bear on Austria and Prussia,
to put down the nationalist movement in the Duchies, either by
active intervention, or by reassembling the Conference
which had negotiated the Treaty of Berlin. Lord Palmerston
discountenanced both alternatives, but wrote to the Queen
that he and the representatives of France, Russia, and Denmark
thought that Austria and Prussia should be urged to take all
feasible steps to put an end to the hostilities.]

[Pageheading: DEATH OF QUEEN LOUISE]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

OSBORNE, _18th October 1850._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--_This_ was the day I _always_ and for so _many
years_ wrote to _her_, to _our adored Louise_, and I _now_ write to
_you_, to thank you for that _heart-breaking_, touching