h her moral support in this endeavour.

The Queen having declared her neutrality, to which her Parliament and
people have given their unanimous assent, feels bound to adhere to it.
She conceives Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston ought not to ask
her to give her "moral support" to one of the belligerents. As for
herself, she sees no distinction between moral and general support;
the moral support of England _is_ her support, and she ought to be
prepared to follow it up.

The Queen wishes this letter to be communicated to the Cabinet.[58]

[Footnote 58: The Queen not having been informed whether this
instruction had been complied with, a correspondence took
place on the subject between the Prince and Lord Granville.
See the _Life of Lord Granville_, vol. i. chap. xiii.]

[Pageheading: END OF THE WAR]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

OSBORNE, _12th July 1859_.

The Queen has to acknowledge the receipt of Lord John Russell's letter
reporting to her the result of the deliberations of the Cabinet, which
has very much relieved her mind. Lord John does not say whether
her letter was read to the Cabinet, but from his former letter she
concludes it was. She is most anxious that there should exist no
misapprehension on their part as to the Queen's views. Our position
must be consistent and precisely defined. A negotiation to stop the
effusion of blood, and to attain "a peace which would be for the
interests of all belligerents," is a very vague term. Who is to
judge of those interests? Is M. de Persigny or the Emperor Napoleon's
opinion to be the guide, as they just now proposed to us? Austria must
be considered the exponent of her own interests. Prussia has explained
to us the interests of Germany in the maintenance of the line of the
fortresses on the Mincio, and was answered; her views were entirely
erroneous, and her apprehensions exaggerated. It will require the
greatest caution on our part not to lose our neutral position, nor
to be made the advocate of one side. Are the wishes of the Lombards,
Tuscans, etc., really ascertainable, while their countries are
occupied by French and Sardinian armies? The Queen encloses an extract
of a letter from the first Napoleon to his son, Prince Eugene,[59]
showing how the expression of a wish for annexation has already of old
been used as a means for conquest.

[Footnote 59: Eugene de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, son
of the Empres