WINDSOR CASTLE, _3rd August 1843._

The Queen returns the enclosed papers, and gives her sanction to the
bringing in of the Bill for Enrolling and Arming the Out-Pensioners
of Chelsea Hospital with great pleasure, as she thinks it a very good
measure at the present crisis, calculated to relieve the troops which
are rather overworked, and to secure a valuable force to the service
of the Government. The Queen hopes that in bringing in the Bill Sir
Robert Peel will make as little of it as possible, in order not to
make it appear a larger measure than it is.

The Regulations strike the Queen as very judicious, and she has little
doubt that they will raise the military spirit in the Pensioners, and
will make the measure popular with them, which cannot fail to attach
them more to the Crown.

_Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _13th August 1843._

The Queen is desirous that whatever is right should be done, but is
strongly of opinion that the King of Hanover's threat (for as such
it must be regarded) not to leave this country till the affair[53] is
decided upon, should in _no way_ influence the transaction, as it is
quite immaterial whether the King stays longer here or not.

[Footnote 53: Of the Crown jewels; _ante_, p. 439.
(Ch. XI, 'Crown Jewels')]

[Pageheading: THE SPANISH MARRIAGE]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _13th August 1843._

The Queen sees with great regret, in Sir Robert Gordon's despatch of
4th August, that Prince Metternich has resumed his favourite scheme
of a marriage between the Queen of Spain and a son of Don Carlos, and
that King Louis Philippe has almost come to a secret understanding
with him upon that point.[54] The Queen is as much as ever convinced
that instead of tending to pacify Spain _this_ combination cannot fail
to call _new_ principles of discord into action, to excite the hopes
of a lost and vanquished party for revenge and reacquisition of power,
and to carry the civil war into the very interior of the family. The
Queen is anxious (should Lord Aberdeen coincide in this view of
the subject, as she believes he does) that it should be _clearly_
understood by Sir Robert Gordon, and Prince Metternich.

[Footnote 54: Since the Quadruple Alliance (of England,
France, Spain, and Portugal) in 1834 to expel Don Carlos and
Dom Miguel from the Peninsula, the question of the marriage
of Queen Isabella (