Queen Victoria to the Earl of Clarendon

THE NEUTRALISATION CLAUSE

Windsor Castle, 24th November 1855.

The Queen returns Lord Cowley's letter and General Pélissier's telegram. Lord Cowley is quite right in insisting upon a clear understanding between England and France before negotiations are entered into with Austria. To come to a speedy agreement, it will be wise to drop the minor points and insist upon the most important. These the Queen takes to be the incorporation of the Neutralisation Clause in the general Treaty, and the promise on the part of Austria not to accept and communicate to us counter-proposals from Russia. If France agreed to this, we might agree to the rest of the arrangement. General Pélissier's plan has the advantage of setting us free, but deprives us of the Sardinians in the field, an object the French have kept steadily in view. The Duke of Cambridge will come down here to-night, and we may then hear more on the subject.

The Queen of the French has been taken dangerously ill at Genoa; the Duc d'Aumale and Prince de Joinville have been summoned by telegraph. The Queen has asked the Foreign Office to telegraph to enquire after the Queen's state.