Translation

The King of Prussia to Queen Victoria.

THE KING OF PRUSSIA

Sans Souci, 24th May 1854.

Most gracious Queen,— ... My policy, which has been so terribly criticised and derided as "vacillating," has been, since the beginning of this most inauspicious conflict, one and the same, and without a hairsbreadth of deviation either to the right or to the left. As it rests on the unshakable foundation which my conscience as a King and a Christian has laid down, and which does not admit que je fasse la besogne ni de l'un ni de l'autre parti, I am abused and insulted at the Winter Palace, and regarded, by way of contrast in London and Paris, as a kind of simpleton—neither of which is pleasant.

May your Majesty believe my Royal Word: I was, I am, I remain the truest and most faithful friend of Great Britain, as well in principle as from religious feeling and from true affection. I desire and practise a good and honest understanding with France; but when it comes to helping the French—to whom Prussia's geographical position between Paris and Warsaw is very inconvenient—to pull the chestnuts from the fire for them, for such a task I am frankly too good. If the Emperor wishes to force me to assist—as evidently he is inclined to do—it will end by becoming too difficult for him. He ought to thank God that my view of Russian policy and my fidelity to your Majesty have prevented me from making him begin this Turkish War on the other side of his own frontier. The great advantage of this result is totally forgotten in France, and, unfortunately, in England too. Those who every day fill the papers of home and foreign countries with accounts of my vacillations, nay, who represent me as leaping from my own horse on to a Russian one, are inventing lies, in a great measure, deliberately. I tell your Majesty, on my honour and conscience, that my policy is to-day the same as it was nine months ago. I have recognised it as my duty before God to preserve, for my people and my provinces, peace, because I recognise Peace as a blessing and War as a curse. I cannot and will not side with Russia, because Russia's arrogance and wickedness have caused this horrible trouble, and because duty and conscience and tradition forbid me to draw the sword against Old England. In the same degree duty and conscience forbid me to make unprovoked war against Russia, because Russia, so far, has done me no harm. So I thought, so I willed when I thought myself isolated. How then could I now suddenly abandon a steady policy, preserved in the face of many dangers, and incline to Russia at the moment when I have concluded with Austria an Alliance defensive and offensive, in which (if God grant His blessing) the whole of Germany will join in a few days, thus welding, for the entire duration of the War, the whole of Central Europe into a Unity, comprising 72,000,000 people, and easily able to put 1,000,000 men into the field? And yet, most gracious Queen, I do not take up a defiant position on the strength of this enormous power, but I trust in the Lord's help and my own sacred Right; I also believe, honestly and firmly, that the character of a so-called Great Power must justify itself, not by swimming with the current, but by standing firm like a rock in the sea.

I close this letter which, in consequence of various interruptions, is almost a week old, on the 24th of May. This is your birthday, ever dearest, most gracious Queen. On this day I lay at your Majesty's feet the expression of my wishes for every blessing. May God grant your Majesty a joyful day, and a richly blessed year of rule. May He strengthen, preserve, and invigorate your precious health, and may He give you, within the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year of your life which begins to-day, that one day of overabundant blessing, of unspeakable joy, for which I long, for which I pray to God—that blissful day on which you can utter the word Peace.

Now I beg your Majesty from the bottom of my heart not to be angry with me for my unconscionably long letter, nor to worry yourself about sending an answer, but, on the other hand, graciously to keep it secret, communicating it only to the dear Prince. It is a matter of course that the facts which it contains, and the resulting explanations, which may be of importance for your Majesty's Government, must, from their nature, no longer be kept secret, so soon as you think it right to announce them. I embrace the dear Prince tenderly, and commend myself to the grace, goodwill, and friendship of my august Royal Sister, I being your Majesty's most faithfully devoted, most attached Servant and Good Brother,

Frederic William.

In the previous portion of this long letter, here omitted, the King gives a detailed account of his position and policy.