Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell

STABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT

Buckingham Palace, 1st March 1854.

The Queen has to acknowledge Lord John Russell's letter of this morning. Much as she must regret the postponement of the second reading of the Reform Bill, she must admit its wisdom under the present peculiar circumstances; but she doubts the advantage of naming a precise day after Easter on which it is to come on. Considering the importance to the country of preserving the present Government and of not allowing it to be beat on so vital a question, the opportunity should not be lost of ascertaining the state of feeling both in the House of Commons and in the country after the reassembling of Parliament, before the Government decide on entering upon the struggle which the carrying through of the measure might entail. It is quite impossible now to conjecture with certainty what that state of feeling and the general political circumstances at home and abroad may be at that time. Possibly the country may be more eager then for the measure—or the War may disincline it altogether towards it.

The Queen seizes this opportunity of expressing her sense of the imperative importance of the Cabinet being united and of one mind at this moment, and not to let it appear that there are differences of opinion within it. The knowledge that there are such is a cause of great anxiety to the Queen, at a time when she is to enter upon a European War, of which nobody can confidently predict the extent.

Footnote 18: See the Queen's letter of the 4th of March, post.