ote to
me!... Affairs stand now as follows: the studies at Bonn take the
whole of April, and may be concluded at the beginning of May. From May
till the end of August, if you approved of the visit, the time should
be _utilise_. A _sejour_ at Coburg would _not_ be of much use; here
we are generally absent in the summer. To confide therefore the young
gentleman to his Uncle Mensdorff[79] for three months, would give him
so much time for some _manly accomplishments_, which do no harm to a
young man. To make him _enter the Service_ would _not_ do at all. What
you say about his imbibing principles of a political nature, there
is no great fear of that. First of all, Prague is not a town where
politics are at all agitated; these topics are very rarely touched
upon; besides, Albert is clever, and it is not at the eleventh
hour that anybody in three months will make him imbibe political
principles. Perhaps you will turn in your mind what you think on the
subject, and communicate me the result of it....

[Footnote 78: This letter refers to the course of study which
Prince Albert was about to pursue.]

[Footnote 79: Count Emmanuel de Mensdorff-Pouilly, who
married, in 1804, Sophia, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.]

[Pageheading: CANADA]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_27th December 1837._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and acquaints
your Majesty that he has this morning received a letter from
the Speaker[80] consenting to remain until Whitsuntide. This is
inconvenient enough, but the delay relieves your present embarrassment
upon this head, and puts off changes until a period of the Session
when public affairs will be more decisively settled.

Lord Melbourne is sorry to have to inform your Majesty that there was
a good deal of difference of opinion yesterday in the Cabinet upon the
affairs of Canada.[81] All are of opinion that strong measures should
be taken for the repression of the insurrection, but some, and more
particularly Lord Howick, think that these measures of vigour should
be accompanied by measures of amendment and conciliation. We are to
have a Cabinet again upon the subject on Wednesday next, when Lord
Melbourne hopes that some practical result will be come to without
serious difference.

[Footnote 80: Mr James Abercromby, afterwards Lord
Dunfermline. He remained in the Chair till 1839. He had little
hold over the House, and many