Queen Victoria to the King of Naples

REPLY TO KING OF NAPLES

Windsor Castle, 3rd November 1860.

Sir, my Brother,—The letter I have received from your Majesty, dated from Gaëta on the 6th of October, is altogether devoted to political considerations.

These considerations have for a long time occupied the thoughts of my confidential advisers, and I have directed them to convey to my Ministers abroad such instructions as occasion appeared to me to require.

I will therefore confine this letter to those topics which are not the immediate subjects of political controversy.

Upon your Majesty's accession to the Throne I lost no time in assuring your Majesty of my sincere wishes for the prosperity of your reign, and the permanence of your dynasty.

At the same time I was fully aware of the difficulties of the period at which your Majesty succeeded to the Crown. That these difficulties should not have been surmounted, and that they should now threaten to overwhelm the Monarchy, of which your Majesty is the heir, is to me a source of deep concern.

It only remains that I should ask your Majesty to express to the Queen my sincere sympathy in her misfortunes. I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to your Majesty the assurance of the invariable friendship and high consideration with which I am, Sir, my Brother, your Majesty's good Sister,

Victoria R.