Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston

Osborne, 24th July 1861.

The Queen is sorry that she cannot alter her determination about Mr Layard. She fully recognises the importance of the Parliamentary exigencies; but the Queen cannot sacrifice to them the higher interests of the country. Neither Mr Layard nor Mr Osborne ought to be proposed as representatives of the Foreign Office in the House of Commons, and therefore of the Crown to foreign countries. If Lord Palmerston can bring Mr Layard into office in some other place, to get his assistance in the House of Commons, she will not object.

Footnote 24: In the course of July, Lord John Russell, who had entered Parliament for the first time in 1813, was raised to the Peerage as Earl Russell and Viscount Amberley. To supply the loss to the Government of two such powerful debaters as Lord Russell and Lord Herbert, Lord Palmerston had suggested Mr Layard as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, mentioning also the claims of Mr Bernal Osborne.