instead of a good deal of unnecessary abuse, to have the Navy so
organised that it can and must be superior to the French. All beyond
these two points is sheer nonsense.

After talking of Chambord,[43] to my utter horror he is here, and
asked yesterday to see me to-day. It is not fair to do so, as the
legitimists affect to this hour to consider [us] here as rebels.
I could not refuse to see him, as, though distantly, still he is a
relation; but I mean to do as they did in Holland, to receive him, but
to limit to his visit and my visit our whole intercourse. If he should
speak to me of going to England, I certainly mean to tell him _que
je considerais une visite comme tout a fait intempestive_.... Your
devoted Uncle,

LEOPOLD R.

[Footnote 42: On the 4th of August, the Queen and Prince,
accompanied by the Prince of Wales, visited the Emperor and
Empress at Cherbourg.]

[Footnote 43: See _ante_, 16th January, 1854, and note 5.]

[Pageheading: BRITISH COLUMBIA]

_Queen Victoria to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton._

OSBORNE, _24th July 1858_.

The Queen has received Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's letter.[44] If the name
of New Caledonia is objected to as being already borne by another
colony or island claimed by the French, it may be better to give the
new colony west of the Rocky Mountains another name. New Hanover,
New Cornwall, and New Georgia appear from the maps to be the names of
sub-divisions of that country, but do not appear on all maps. The only
name which is given to the whole territory in every map the Queen has
consulted is "Columbia," but as there exists also a Columbia in South
America, and the citizens of the United States call their country
also Columbia, at least in poetry, "British Columbia" might be, in the
Queen's opinion, the best name.

[Footnote 44: Stating that objections were being made in
France to the name of New Caledonia being given to the
proposed colony between the Pacific and the Rocky Mountains.]

[Pageheading: ARMY COMMISSIONS]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

OSBORNE, _29th July 1858_.

The Queen has been placed in a most unpleasant dilemma by the last
vote in the House of Commons;[45] she feels all the force of Lord
Derby's objections to risking another defeat on the same question and
converting the struggle into one against the Royal Prerogative; yet,
on the other hand, she can hardly sit still, and from mere want of
courage become a