ls of the Guards who are
perfectly so, will amount to this. General Eden,[47] moreover, has
been in command of a Regiment of the Line, and General Knollys[48] has
not been promoted from the Guards, and, in accepting the Governorship
of Guernsey, specially begged that this might not exclude him from
active service--a circumstance which he mentioned to the Prince at the
time. Both these have the reputation of very good officers.

The Queen does not wish anything to be arranged prospectively now, but
would recommend the subject to Lord Hardinge's future consideration.

[Footnote 46: In reply to a letter from the Queen, stating
that she had inadvertently signed certain papers in the
ordinary course. Her attention had not been drawn to their
important features.]

[Footnote 47: Lieut.-General John Eden, C.B., nephew of the
first Lord Auckland.]

[Footnote 48: Sir William Knollys, K.C.B., 1797-1883, became
in 1855 the organiser of the newly formed Camp at Aldershot.]

[Pageheading: SPECIAL PRAYERS]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

OSBORNE, _21st August 1854._

The Queen must repeat what she has frequently done, that she strongly
objects to these _special_ prayers which _are_, in fact, _not_ a sign
of gratitude or confidence in the Almighty--for if this is the
course to be pursued, we _ought_ to have one for every _illness_, and
certainly in '37 the influenza was notoriously more _fatal_ than the
cholera had ever been, and _yet no one_ would have thought of having
a prayer against _that_. Our Liturgy _has_ provided for these
calamities, and we may have frequent returns of the cholera--and yet
it would be difficult to _define_ the _number_ of deaths which are
to _make_ "a form of prayer" _necessary_. The Queen would, therefore,
strongly recommend the usual prayer being used, and no other, as is
the case for the prayer in time of War. What is the use of the prayers
in the Liturgy, which were no doubt composed when we were subject
to other equally fatal diseases, if a new one is always to be framed
specially for the cholera?

The Queen would wish Lord Aberdeen to give this as her decided opinion
to the Archbishop, at all events, for the present. Last year the
cholera quite decimated Newcastle, and was bad in many other places,
but there was _no special_ prayer, and _now_ the illness is in
_London_ but _not_ in any other place, a prayer is proposed by the
Archbishop. Th