.]

[Footnote 18: Baron Manteuffel and Count Hatzfeldt.]

[Pageheading: THE PRINCESS ROYAL]

_Extract of a Letter from Mr Cobden to a Friend._[19]

MIDHURST, _20th March 1856._

... It is generally thought that the young Prince Frederic William
of Prussia is to be married to our Princess Royal. I was dining
_tete-a-tete_ with Mr Buchanan, the American Minister, a few days ago,
who had dined the day before at the Queen's table, and sat next to
the Princess Royal. He was in raptures about her, and said she was
the most charming girl he had ever met: "All life and spirit, full
of frolic and fun, with an excellent head, and a _heart as big as
a mountain_"--those were his words. Another friend of mine, Colonel
Fitzmayer, dined with the Queen last week, and in writing to me a
description of the company, he says, that when the Princess Royal
smiles, "it makes one feel as if additional light were thrown upon the
scene." So I should judge that this said Prince is a lucky fellow, and
I trust he will make a good husband. If not, although a man of peace,
I shall consider it a _casus belli_....

[Footnote 19: Submitted to the Queen.]

_The Earl of Clarendon to Queen Victoria._

PARIS, _29th March 1856._

Lord Clarendon presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and humbly
begs to say that the Emperor sent General Ney to him this morning to
request that Lord Clarendon would convey the cordial thanks of the
Emperor to your Majesty for the _feu de joie_ fired by your Majesty's
troops in the Crimea upon the announcement of the birth of the Prince
Imperial.

Lord Clarendon was much embarrassed by a letter this morning from
Lord Palmerston, desiring that the signature of the Treaty should be
postponed till Monday, in case the Cabinet should have any amendments
to propose; and Lord Clarendon humbly hopes that your Majesty may not
be displeased at his not having acted upon this injunction, because
he had promised to sign the Treaty to-morrow in accordance with the
general wish of the Congress, notwithstanding that it was Sunday, and
he could not therefore go back from his engagement--every preparation
is made for illuminations, not alone at Paris, but throughout France,
as all the Prefects have been informed of the signature--the odium
that would have fallen [on] us all would have been extreme throughout
Europe it may be said, and it would have been regarded as a last
proof of our unwillingness to make peac