sense to classify
and appreciate them....

[Pageheading: MINISTERIAL ANXIETY]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_2nd May 1837._

... You may depend upon it that I shall profit by your excellent
advice respecting Politics. Pray, dear Uncle, have you read Lord
Palmerston's speech concerning the Spanish affairs,[38] which he
delivered the night of the division on Sir Henry Hardinge's motion? It
is much admired. The Irish Tithes question came on last night in the
House of Commons,[39] and I am very anxious for the morning papers,
to see what has been done. Lord Melbourne looks remarkably well, Lord
Palmerston not very well, and as for poor little Lord John Russell,
he is only a shadow of himself. It must be dreadfully fagging work for
them; they sit so very late too, for when the Spanish question came
on, the division only took place at four o'clock in the morning, and I
saw them at the Drawing-Room the same day afterwards....

[Footnote 38: Lord Palmerston indignantly asked whether
England should continue to fulfil her engagement with the
Queen of Spain, or disgracefully abandon an ally whom she had
pledged herself to succour.]

[Footnote 39: The Irish Tithe Bill, a measure to facilitate
the collection of tithes, was abandoned because the Tories
would not consent to any secular appropriation of Church
revenues, and the Whigs would not consent to the withdrawal
of their amendments. A remarkable feature in the Bill was a
proposal that a portion of every clergyman's income should be
applied to education, as was already prescribed by a former
Act.]

_The Princess Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

_9th May 1837._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--It was very kind of you to write to me from your
new chateau; I hardly ventured to hope for my usual letter, and yet I
should have been much disappointed had I not received it. I am sorry
that the house is so bad, but hope you will have found a good position
for a new one....

Pray, dearest Uncle, may I ask such an indiscreet question as, if
Major Stroekens is a clever man; he was so nervous and embarrassed
when he came here, that I could not make him out. He brought me a very
nice letter from Donna Maria.

I am anxiously waiting to hear the issue of the battle between
the Carlists and Christinos, which is, they say, to decide a great
deal.[40]

Now farewell, dearest Uncle. I beg my affectionat