l and pleasure on the following subject. The King my
father-in-law goes to Eu, where he hopes to remain till the 5th or 6th
of September. Having at his disposition some very fine steamers, his
great wish would be to go over to Brighton, just for one afternoon and
night, to offer you his respects in person. He would in such a
case bring with him the Queen, my Aunt, Clementine,[52] Aumale and
Montpensier. The first step in this business is to know what
your pleasure is, and to learn that very frankly, as he perfectly
understands that, however short such a visit, it must be submitted to
the advice even of some of your Ministers. What renders the thing very
difficult, in my opinion, is that in a country like France, and with
so many Ministerial difficulties, the King to the _last hour_ will
hardly know if he can undertake the thing. As, however, the first
object is to know your will, he begged me to ascertain that, and to
tell you that if you had the _smallest objection_ you would not be
carried away by the apprehension of hurting him by telling me honestly
that you did _not_ see how the affair could be arranged, but to speak
out, that he knew enough how often objections may arise, and that even
with himself he could only be sure of the thing at the last moment.

[Footnote 52: Who afterwards married Queen Victoria's cousin,
Prince Augustus (Gusti) of Coburg.]

[Pageheading: THE NEW SULTAN]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

FOREIGN OFFICE, _19th August 1839._

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and in
submitting the accompanying private letter from the Earl Granville[53]
begs to state that neither Viscount Melbourne nor Viscount Palmerston
are of opinion that it would be expedient that your Majesty should
send an Ambassador Extraordinary to compliment the young Sultan[54]
on his accession. The circumstances connected with his accession are
indeed fitter matter for condolence than for congratulation, and he
would probably be better pleased by the restoration of his fleet than
by the arrival of Ambassadors Extraordinary. Moreover, it has not been
customary for the Sovereign of England to send such missions upon the
accession of Sultans.

[Footnote 53: The first Earl Granville (1773-1846), formerly
Ambassador Extraordinary to the Russian Court, at this time
Ambassador at Paris.]

[Footnote 54: Abdul Medjid, a lad of sixteen, succeeded the
Sultan Mahm