Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston

Osborne, 13th July 1855.

The Queen is much concerned by what Lord Palmerston writes respecting the feeling of the House of Commons. Lord John's resignation, although a severe loss, may possibly assuage the storm which he had chiefly produced. But she finds that Sir E. Lytton's Motion will be equally applicable to the Government after this event as it would have been before it. She trusts that no stone will be left unturned to defeat the success of that Motion, which would plunge the Queen and the executive Government of the Country into new and most dangerous complications. These are really not times to play with the existence of Governments for personal feeling or interests!