r,
1863. He was the father of His Majesty Frederick VIII., the
present King of Denmark, and of Her Majesty Queen Alexandra
of England; King Christian died in 1906, Queen Louise having
predeceased him in 1898.]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _15th January 1852._

The Queen has received Lord John Russell's letter last night, and
wishes now shortly to repeat what she desired through the Prince, Sir
Charles Wood to explain to Lord John.[2]

The Queen hopes that the Cabinet will fully consider what their object
is before the proposed negotiation with Sir James Graham be opened.

Is it to strengthen their _case_ in Parliament by proving that no
means have been left untried to strengthen the Government? or really
to effect a junction with the Peelites?

If the first is aimed at, the Cabinet will hardly reap any of the
desired advantages from the negotiation, for, shrewd as Sir James
Graham is, he will immediately see that the negotiation has been begun
without a desire that it should succeed, and this will soon become
generally known.

If the latter, the Queen must observe that there are two kinds of
junctions--one, _a fusion_ of Parties; the other, _the absorption_ of
one Party by the other. For a _fusion_, the Queen thinks the Peelites
to be quite ready; then, however, they must be treated as a political
Party, and no _exclusion_ should be pronounced against particular
members of it, nor should it be insisted upon that the new Government
and Party is still emphatically the _Whig_ party.

An _absorption_ of the most liberal talents amongst the Peelites into
the Whig Government, the Queen considers unlikely to succeed, and she
can fully understand that reasons of honour and public and private
engagement must make it difficult to members of a political Party to
go over to another in order to receive office.

Having stated thus much, the Queen gives Lord John full permission to
negotiate with Sir James Graham.

[Footnote 2: Lord John Russell having vainly attempted to
secure the co-operation of the Duke of Newcastle, announced
the wish of the Cabinet to make overtures to Sir J. Graham.]

[Pageheading: LOUIS NAPOLEON]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _20th January 1852._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--Your kind letter of the 16th I received on the
17th, with the newspaper, for which I return my best thanks. The
papers which