ur devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 36: At Balmoral the Queen learned in greater detail
of the atrocities which had been committed upon the garrison
at Cawnpore.]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

BROCKET, _10th September 1857_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty and begs
to submit that an impression is beginning to prevail that it would be
a proper thing that a day should be set apart for National Prayer and
Humiliation with reference to the present calamitous state of affairs
in India, upon the same principle on which a similar step was taken
during the Crimean War; and if your Majesty should approve, Viscount
Palmerston would communicate on the subject with the Archbishop of
Canterbury.... It is usual on such occasions that the Archbishop of
Canterbury should attend,[37] but in consideration of the distance his
attendance might well be dispensed with on the present occasion.

[Footnote 37: _I.e._ at the meeting of the Council which was
to be summoned.]

[Pageheading: A DAY OF INTERCESSION]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

BALMORAL, _11th September 1857_.

Lord Palmerston knows what the Queen's feelings are with regard to
Fast-days, which she thinks do not produce the desired effect--from
the manner in which they are appointed, and the selections made for
the Service--but she will not oppose the natural feeling which any
one must partake in, of a desire to pray for our fellow-countrymen and
women who are exposed to such imminent danger, and therefore sanctions
his consulting the Archbishop on the subject. She would, however,
suggest its being more appropriately called a day of prayer
and intercession for our suffering countrymen, than of fast and
humiliation, and of its being on a _Sunday_, and not on a week-day:
on the last Fast-day, the Queen heard it generally remarked, that it
produced more harm than good, and that, if it were on a Sunday, it
would be much more generally observed. However, she will sanction
whatever is proper, but thinks it ought to be as soon as possible[38]
(in a fortnight or three weeks) if it is to be done at all.

She will hold a Council whenever it is wished.[39]

[Footnote 38: It was kept on the 7th of October (a
Wednesday).]

[Footnote 39: Shortly after the date of this letter came the
intelligence from India that Delhi had not fallen, and that
the Lucknow garrison wa