| Collection | Victorian Papers, Main Series |
| Description | Queen Victoria is not satisfied with Lord Palmerston's reasoning. The union of Lombardy and Piedmont cannot be considered a concession to France for the maintenance of peace, because France does not want it. She entirely agrees that the principal thing to be kept in view is the preservation of the peace of Europe, which is why she regrets that Palmerston's proposals, while not in accordance with the views of France, are almost the only ones which must be most offensive to Austria. Lord Palmerston will have his Kingdom of Upper Italy under Charles Albert [King of Sardinia], to which every other consideration is to be sacrificed, and Lord Normanby's alterations of the terms certainly serve that purpose: but it is quite independent of the question of mediation and the only thing in the whole proceeding which is indefensible in principle. A calamity for ages to come, if the principle becomes part of International Law, namely, that a people can at any time transfer their allegiance from one Sovereign of a State to another by universal suffrage under momentary excitement; yet this is what Lord Normanby [Ambassador at Paris] has taken as the basis of mediation, no doubt according to Lord Palmerston's wishes. Even the 'faits accomplis' , which are a convenient basis to justify any act of injunction, are against Charles Albert. Lord Palmerston's argument regarding Schleswic [?] had no reference to the treaty of 1720. |