announcing the views of his chief supporters in
reference to the General Election.]

[Pageheading: RETIREMENT OF THE SPEAKER]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._[12]

PICCADILLY, _18th March 1857_.

... Viscount Palmerston begs to state that the Speaker has chosen the
title of Eversley, the name of a small place near his residence[13]
in Hampshire, all the large towns in the county having already been
adopted as titles for Peers. The ordinary course would be that your
Majesty should make him a Baron, and that is the course which was
followed in the cases of Mr Abbot made Lord Colchester, and Mr
Abercromby made Lord Dunfermline; but in the case of Mr Manners Sutton
a different course was pursued, and he was made Viscount Canterbury.
The present Speaker is very anxious that his services, which, in fact,
have been more meritorious and useful than those of Mr Manners Sutton,
should not appear to be considered by your Majesty as less deserving
of your Majesty's Royal favour, and as the present Speaker may justly
be said to have been the best who ever filled the chair, Viscount
Palmerston would beg to submit for your Majesty's gracious approval
that he may be created Viscount Eversley. It will be well at the same
time if your Majesty should sanction this arrangement that a Record
should be entered at the Home Office stating that this act of grace
and favour of your Majesty being founded on the peculiar circumstances
of the case, is not to [be] deemed a precedent for the cases of future
Speakers.

Lord Canterbury was also made a Grand Cross of the Civil Order of the
Bath; it will be for your Majesty to consider whether it might not be
gracious to follow in all respects on the present occasion the course
which was pursued in the case of Mr Manners Sutton.

[Footnote 12: On the 9th, Mr Speaker Shaw-Lefevre had
announced in the House of Commons his intended retirement from
the Chair, which he had occupied since 1839, when his election
had been made a trial of strength between parties. He was
voted an annuity of L4,000 a year, and created Viscount
Eversley, receiving also the G.C.B.]

[Footnote 13: Heckfield Place, near Winchfield.]

[Pageheading: THE GENERAL ELECTION]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _24th March 1857_.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--... The Opposition have played their game most
foolishly, and the result is that _all_ the