Our Napoleon is too wise not to understand that a treaty has a direct political character. And, during the next fifty years of your glorious reign, there will be most probably a great many more treaties and congresses. You may get all sorts of things during that time, but you cannot either by the power of heaven or of earth get a new uncle, who has kept his word twenty-five years; rather an undertaking considering circumstances.... I remain, my dearest Victoria, your devoted Uncle,
_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._
ON BOARD THE _Victoria and Albert_, _14th August 1856_.
DEAREST UNCLE,--You will be surprised to get a letter so soon again from me, and still more on _so_ trivial a subject, but I come as a petitioner for a supply of the cakes or _Oblaten_ which you kindly always send me, but which have come to a dead _stop_, having been too rapidly consumed; _all_ the children having taken to eat them. As I am not a very good breakfast eater, they are often the _only_ things I _can_ take at that time, and consequently I miss them much. May I therefore beg them to be sent?
We are still here; profiting by the _bad_ sea, to visit many beautiful _points de vue_ in this really beautiful country. We saw yesterday one of the loveliest places possible--_Endsleigh_--the Duke of Bedford's, about twenty miles from here.
The weather is so bad, and it blows so hard, that we shall go back to Southampton to-morrow by railroad--a beautiful line which we have never seen. I must close in haste. Ever your devoted Niece,
We went to Saltram, Lord Morley's, this afternoon.
Lord Granville presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs, according to your Majesty's desire, to submit to your Majesty the impressions which he has received during the short time of his stay in this country.
Lord Granville's conversation with the Emperor of Russia, and what he has heard from various reliable sources, have led him to the following conclusions respecting His Imperial Majesty.
He is handsome, but thinner and graver than when he was in England. When speaking with energy to Lord Granville his manner seemed to be rather an imitation of some one else than his own, and he did not look Lord Granville in the face. His usual manner is singularly gentle and pleasing. He does not give the idea of having much strength either of intellect or of character, but looks intelligent and amiable. Although the education of a Cæsarwitch must be subject to pernicious influences, the present Emperor has had advantages which those in his position have not usually had. The Emperor Nicholas came to the throne without having had the confidences of his predecessor. He initiated his son into everything that was going on, while others who knew the good-nature of the Grand Duke Alexander's character, told him that which they did not tell his father. He was supposed to have different tastes from the late Emperor, but, since the death of the latter, he has liked the late Emperor's favourite residence which he himself had formerly disliked, he has taken to all the military pursuits of his father, and is said to have shown undignified haste in issuing regulations about, and in appearing in, new uniforms. He is liked by those who surround him, but is blamed for not having those habits of punctuality and of quick decision in business which characterised the late Emperor.