he British
Government.

[Footnote 42: Lord Cowley wrote that he had heard through
Count Metternich that the Emperor of the French would never
consent to the annexation of Naples to Piedmont, that he
wished the Pope to retain Umbria and the Marches, and that the
Romagna should be an independent State.]

[Pageheading: REPLY TO KING OF NAPLES]

_Queen Victoria to the King of Naples._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _3rd November 1860._

SIR, MY BROTHER,--The letter I have received from your Majesty, dated
from Gaeta on the 6th of October, is altogether devoted to political
considerations.

These considerations have for a long time occupied the thoughts of
my confidential advisers, and I have directed them to convey to my
Ministers abroad such instructions as occasion appeared to me to
require.

I will therefore confine this letter to those topics which are not the
immediate subjects of political controversy.

Upon your Majesty's accession to the Throne I lost no time in assuring
your Majesty of my sincere wishes for the prosperity of your reign,
and the permanence of your dynasty.

At the same time I was fully aware of the difficulties of the period
at which your Majesty succeeded to the Crown. That these difficulties
should not have been surmounted, and that they should now threaten to
overwhelm the Monarchy, of which your Majesty is the heir, is to me a
source of deep concern.

It only remains that I should ask your Majesty to express to the
Queen my sincere sympathy in her misfortunes. I avail myself of this
opportunity to renew to your Majesty the assurance of the invariable
friendship and high consideration with which I am, Sir, my Brother,
your Majesty's good Sister,

VICTORIA R.

[Pageheading: RETURN OF PRINCE ALFRED]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _13th November 1860_.

MY BELOVED UNCLE,--... Here we have the happiness of having our dear
Alfred back since the 9th, who gives _very_ interesting accounts of
his expedition, and has brought back _many_ most interesting trophies,
splendid horns of _all_ those wonderful animals, photographs, etc. He
_is_ grown, though very _short_ for his age, but I think less so than
his brother at the same age. Major Cowell[43] gives an _excellent_
report of him in _every way_, which, as you will readily believe,
makes us _very_ happy. He is really such a dear, gifted, handsome
child, that it makes one doubly an