Crown.' This is very true."

[Pageheading: KING LEOPOLD'S SYMPATHY]

_The King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria._

TUILERIES, _14th May 1841._

MY DEAREST VICTORIA,--I am deeply grateful for your kind letter, which
reached me this morning. Letters from hence ought not to be longer
on their way than, at the longest, forty hours; forty-eight is the
maximum. I fear that they are delayed at the Foreign Office; here it
cannot be, as for instance these lines go this evening.

I can easily understand that the present crisis must have something
very painful for you, and you will do well for your health and comfort
to try to take it as philosophically as possible; it is a part of
the Constitutional system which is for the Sovereign very hard to get
over.

_Nous savons tous des paroles sur cet air_, as the French say. I was
convinced that Lord Melbourne's right and good feeling would make him
pause before he proposed to you a dissolution. A general election in
England, when great passions must be roused or created to render
it efficacious for one party or another, is a dangerous experiment,
always calculated to shake the foundations on which have hitherto
reposed the great elements of the political power of the country.
Albert will be a great comfort to you, and to hear it from yourself
has given me the sincerest delight. His judgment is good, and he is
mild and safe in his opinions; they deserve your serious attention;
young as he is, I have really often been quite surprised how quick and
correct his judgment is....

[Pageheading: TORY DISSENSIONS]

_Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria._

WILTON CRESCENT, _16th May 1841._

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has
the honour to state that the general effect of last week's debate[29]
has been greatly in favour of the measures of your Majesty's
Ministers.

The speeches of Mr Labouchere, Sir George Grey, and Lord Howick, with
the powerful argument of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday
night, have not been met by any corresponding ability on the other
side.

In fact the Opposition seem to have concealed their own views of
policy, and to have imagined that the Anti-Slavery feeling would carry
them through successfully. But this expectation has been entirely
disappointed; debate has unmasked the hollow pretence of humanity,
and the meetings at Exeter Hall and in the country have completely
counteracted the impressions