| Collection | Victorian Papers, Main Series |
| Description | The Queen is placed in a very difficult and painful position. She has been obliged to object to so many drafts from the Foreign Office on Italy: yet no sooner is one withdrawn or amended than others are submitted of exactly the same tenor, even if couched in new words. The Queen has expressed her views so often that she is almost reluctant to repeat them. She refers to the two enclosed drafts (not on file) which she has just received, the object of which must be to encourage France to break, in the Treaty of Zurich, the leading conditions to which it pledged itself to Austria at Villa Franca. There were 3 provisions concerning Austria: that Austria was to cede Lombardy, that an Italian Confederation should be encouraged, of which Venetia was to form part, though remaining under Austria, and that the Dukes of Tuscany and Modena were to return to their Duchies. The two latter clauses, which should be considered as compensations for the losses caused by the first, are now to be recommended by England, a neutral, to be broken. Either it is expected that this advice will not be listened to (in which case it is hardly useful or dignified to give it), or that France will follow it. If, on finding itself cheated, Austria were to again take up arms, England would be directly responsible for this new war. What would England's alternative then be? Either to leave France in the lurch, which would bring danger and disgrace to England, or to join France in a new war against Austria. This is a question of principle on which the Queen understood the Cabinet to be unanimous, and she asks for her correspondence to be circulated among the Cabinet members, in order to ascertain whether they would be parties to its reversal, and to prevent the need for these frequent discussions which are so painful to the Queen. |