Source:
The letters of Queen Victoria: a selection from Her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1831 and 1861: published by authority of His Majesty the King, edited by Arthur Christopher Benson and Viscount Reginald Baliol Brett Esher, 1907
Above: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Ireland, painted by Sir William Ross.
Above: Leopold I, King of the Belgians, painted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
The letter:
PAVILION, BRIGHTON, 25th October 1837.
... Now, dearest Uncle, I must speak to you un peu de Politique. I made Lord Melbourne read the political part of your letter. He wished me to communicate to you part of the contents of a letter of Lord Granville's which we received yesterday. Lord Granville complains a good deal of Molé, and says, that though he is apparently very cordial and friendly towards us, and talks of his desire that we should be on a better footing as to our foreign Ministers than we have hitherto been, that whenever Lord Granville urges him to do anything decisive (to use Lord G's own words) "he shrinks from the discussion," says he must have time to reflect before he can give any answer, and evades giving any reply, whenever anything of importance is required. This, you see, dear Uncle, is not satisfactory. I merely tell you this, as I think you would like to know what Molé tells our Ambassador; this differs from what he told you. What you say about Louis Philippe I am sure is very true; his situation is a very peculiar and a very difficult one. ...
Note: "un peu de Politique" = "a bit about Politics."
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