erson than the individual who
has now the honour of addressing your Majesty.

"The name and history of the first Earl of Strafford is, of
course, familiar to your Majesty, and I venture to conclude
that your Majesty is not unaware of my being his descendant,
his heir, and his successor. I own his lands, I dwell in his
house, I possess his papers, and, if neither my father nor
myself have ever applied to the Crown for a renewal of his
titles, it has not been because either of us was indifferent
to those honours or to the favour of the Sovereign, but
because we were well aware of the embarrassment which
such applications frequently occasion to the Crown and its
advisers."]

[Pageheading: MISSION TO THE VATICAN]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

ARDVERIKIE, _3rd September 1847._

The Queen has received Lord John Russell's two letters of the 31st
and 1st inst., and is glad to find that the views expressed in the
Prince's Memorandum coincide with those entertained by Lord John and
Lord Palmerston, and also by Lord Minto, as she infers. As it seems
difficult to find a person of inferior rank and position than Lord
Minto, and of equal weight, the Queen sanctions his undertaking
the mission on the understanding that the object of it will be
communicated beforehand to the Courts of Vienna and Paris, and that
both these Governments will be made fully acquainted with the position
England thinks herself bound to take with regard to the Italian
controversy.[9] After this shall have been done, the sending of Sir
William Parker with his fleet to the West Coast of Italy strikes the
Queen as a very proper measure to give countenance to the Sovereigns
engaged in Liberal Reform, and exposed alike to the inroads of their
absolutist neighbour, and to the outbreaks of popular movements
directed by a republican party, and perhaps fostered by the Austrian
Government.

[Footnote 9: Lord John Russell proposed that Lord Minto
should be sent on a special mission to the Vatican. _See_
Introductory Note for the Year, _ante_, p. 115.]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

ARDVERIKIE, _7th September 1847._

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I thank you much for your kind letter of the 28th.
Mamma writes me _such_ a good report of you both, which gives us the
greatest pleasure. I hope you like young Ernest? This horrid Praslin
tragedy [10] is a subject one cannot g