The Earl of Clarendon to Queen Victoria

The Grove, 22nd December 1856.

Lord Clarendon presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and humbly begs to transmit a letter from Lord Cowley, which contains the report of a curious conversation with the Emperor, and which might make a despatch not very unlike Sir H. Seymour's when he reported the partitioning views of the Emperor Nicholas.

It is curious that in both cases the bribe to England should be Egypt. The Emperor of the French said nothing about the share of the spoils that France would look for, but His Majesty means Morocco, and Marshal Vaillant talked to Lord Clarendon of Morocco as necessary to France, just as the Americans declare that the United States are not safe without Cuba....

Footnote 65: See ante p. 27, note 30. The Queen does not appear to have preserved a copy of Lord Cowley's letter.

Footnote 66: Minister of War.