which states that the instructions given to Guizot are,
through the interposition of the King, of a very pacific character. It
would surely be well to see what they are, and whether they will not
afford the means of arranging the whole affair.

Lord Melbourne thought with your Majesty that the letter to Lord
Granville upon Prince Metternich's proposition was a great deal too
short and dry and slight, but the importance of this step is now a
good deal superseded by what has taken place, and the position
of affairs has already become different from that in which it was
resolved upon.

Lord Melbourne very much thanks the Prince for his letter, which may
do much service and have an effect upon the antagonists.

Lord Melbourne has just seen Dr Holland.[45] Lord Melbourne is very
much crippled and disabled. Lord Melbourne does not think that the
shooting has had anything to do with it. His stomach has lately been
out of order, which is always the cause of these sort of attacks. Lord
Melbourne will come down on Sunday if he possibly can, and unless he
should be still disabled from moving.

[Footnote 45: Dr (afterwards Sir) Henry Holland,
Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen, 1850-1873, father of Lord
Knutsford.]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _10th October 1840._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. ... All
the question at the Cabinet to-day as to whether we should write
a communication to France was fortunately put an end to by Guizot
desiring to see Palmerston in the morning and making a communication
to him. This communication is very much in substance what Mr. Bulwer's
note had led us to expect. It is a strong condemnation of the act
of the Porte depriving Mehemet Ali of the Government of Egypt,
an expression of satisfaction at having already learned from Lord
Palmerston and Count Apponyi[46] that Austria and England are not
prepared to consider this act as irrevocable, and a threat on the
part of France that he considers the power of Mehemet Ali in Egypt a
constituent part of the balance of Europe, and that he cannot permit
him to be deprived of that province without interfering. It was
determined that this intimation should be met in an amicable spirit,
and that Lord Palmerston should see the Ministers of the other Powers
and agree with them to acquaint the French that they with England
would use their good offices to induce the Porte not to insist u