The Earl of Malmesbury to Queen Victoria

London, 25th January 1859.

The Earl of Malmesbury presents his humble duty to the Queen, and regrets to say that he shares your Majesty's apprehensions. The Emperor is extremely irritated at our not concurring in his views on Italy, and Lord Malmesbury believes that nothing will restrain him but the public opinion expressed against them, in France. Austria has, against all our advice and common prudence, made a false move by sending troops into the Papal States against the wish of the Pope, and is now obliged to recall them. The speech of your Majesty is to be discussed in Cabinet to-day. Lord Derby intended to introduce a paragraph stating that your Majesty's Alliance with France remained "unimpaired," but it now appears to us that such a statement might provoke a question "why" it should be made a special one. Lord Malmesbury entirely agrees with your Majesty as to an allusion to Treaties.

Footnote 7: Yet the Emperor had just written to Queen Victoria on 20th January: "Le corps législatif va bientôt s'ouvrir, presque en même temps que le parlement; je tâcherai d'exprimer dans mon discours tout le désir que j'ai de vivre toujours en bonne et sincère intelligence avec votre Majesté et son gouvernement." Early in February the pamphlet Napoléon et l'Italie, nominally written by M. de la Guéronnière, but inspired by the Emperor, foreshadowed the war in Italy, and attempted to justify it.