merston to M. de Persigny
must not be looked upon as the official expression of the opinion of
Her Majesty's Government, and that we disclaim ever having intended
to induce the Emperor to break his engagements made at Villafranca,
whatever they may have been. The Queen does not conceive that Lord
Palmerston can object to this course, nor does he attempt to do so in
his letter.

_P.S._--Since writing the above the Queen has received Lord
Palmerston's letter of the 9th. As she has just written at length,
she does not conceive that it would be necessary to make any further
observations in reply, except to a distinct question put by him in
the latter part of his letter, viz. what the Queen wishes to have
"distinctly guarded against."

It is the danger and inconvenience of private communications with
Foreign Ministers, without a distinct understanding that they are
strictly private, and not to be treated as conveying the opinions of
Her Majesty's Government, where the sanction of the Crown and adhesion
of the Cabinet have not been obtained. Lord John Russell has now
expressed this in a paragraph in one of his drafts to Lord Cowley,
which he will send to Lord Palmerston.

As a proof of the necessity of such caution, the Queen, has only to
refer to the public use made of Lord Palmerston's private letter
to Count Persigny, and the use made to our prejudice by the Emperor
Napoleon at the time of the armistice at Villafranca of a private
communication with Count Persigny, which was represented to imply
assent to certain conditions of peace by England, with a desire of
pressing them on Austria, when no opinion had been expressed by the
Government to justify such an inference.

[Pageheading: ST JUAN]

_The Duke of Newcastle to Queen Victoria._

DOWNING STREET, _26th September 1859_.

The Duke of Newcastle presents his humble duty to your Majesty.

Your Majesty will receive from Sir George Lewis full information
of the serious intelligence which has been received to-day from
Washington and Vancouver Island respecting the Military occupation
by United States troops of the island of St Juan,[76] and of the view
taken of it by your Majesty's Government.

The Duke of Newcastle begs leave to receive your Majesty's
instructions upon the acceptance of an offer made by Lord Clarendon
whilst on a visit at Clumber last week. Lord Clarendon received not
long ago a private letter from the President of the United States. He