Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston

SWEDEN AND DENMARK

Osborne, 18th August 1861.

The Queen is very much obliged to Lord Palmerston for his detailed account of his conversation with the King of Sweden, and sends both Memorandums back to him in accordance with his wishes, in the expectation of having them returned to her after they shall have been copied.

FRANCE AND SWEDEN

The King may have been embarrassed by the presence of the Crown Prince of Prussia here at Osborne, and have on that account postponed speaking openly to Lord Palmerston. His desire to acquire Denmark and Finland is not unnatural, and would not be very dangerous; but the important part of the matter is, that the Emperor Napoleon has evidently tried to bribe him for his schemes by such expectations. After having established a large kingdom, dependent upon him and possessing a fleet, in the South of Europe on his right flank, he evidently tries to establish by the same means a similar power on his left flank in the North. If then the Revolution of Poland and Hungary takes Germany also in the rear, he will be exactly in the all-powerful position which his Uncle held, and at which he himself aims, with that one difference: that, unlike his Uncle, who had to fight England all the time (who defended desperately her interests in Europe), he tries to effect his purposes in alliance with England, and uses for this end our own free Press and in our own free country!

The Polish and Hungarian Revolutions (perhaps the Russian) and the assistance which may be (nobly?) given to them by Sweden, can easily be made as popular in this country as the Italian has, and efforts to produce this result are fully visible already. The position and prospects of the Ally, when the Emperor shall have the whole Continent at his feet, and the command of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, will not be a very pleasant one. Moreover, the Ally will probably have irritated him and the French Nation all the time by abusing them, and by showing that, although we may have approved of her policy, we did not intend that France should reap any benefits from it. All this is probably not thought of by our journalists, but requires the serious attention of our statesmen.

Lord Palmerston will perhaps show this letter to Lord Russell when he sends him the copies of the Memoranda, which he will probably do.