aluable life has been spared;
and the Queen trusts that he will not expose himself more than is
absolutely necessary.

The Queen cannot sufficiently express her high sense of the great
services he has rendered and is rendering to her and the country, by
the very able manner in which he has led the bravest troops that ever
fought, and which it is a pride to her to be able to call her own. To
mark the Queen's feelings of approbation she wishes to confer on
Lord Raglan the Baton of Field-Marshal. It affords her the sincerest
gratification to confer it on one who has so nobly earned the highest
rank in the Army, which he so long served in under the immortal
hero, who she laments could not witness the success of a friend he so
greatly esteemed.

Both the Prince and Queen are anxious to express to Lord Raglan their
unbounded admiration of the heroic conduct of the Army, and their
sincere sympathy in their sufferings and privations so nobly borne.

The Queen thanks Lord Raglan for his kind letter of the 28th ultimo.

[Footnote 60: The English loss at the battle of Inkerman was
over 2,500 killed and wounded; the French lost 1,800. The
loss of the enemy was doubtful, but the Russian estimate (much
smaller than our own) was about 12,000 killed, wounded, and
prisoners. The Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael both fought in
the battle.]

[Footnote 61: Besides Sir George Cathcart, Brigadier-Generals
Strangways and Goldie were killed. Sir George Brown was shot
through the arm, Major-Generals Bentinck and Codrington, and
Brigadier-General Adams were all severely wounded, but not so
seriously. Sir de Lacy Evans a few days earlier, being then
in shattered health, had had a fall from his horse, and was
absent from the battle.]

[Pageheading: LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S PROPOSAL]

_The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria._

LONDON, _23rd November 1854._

Lord Aberdeen presents his most humble duty to your Majesty. He
regrets, at a moment of such public interest and importance, to
trouble your Majesty with domestic difficulties; but he thinks it his
duty to lay before your Majesty the enclosed correspondence without
delay.[62] Lord Aberdeen has for some time past expected a proposition
of this kind, and it is impossible not to see that it may be attended
with very serious consequences. At first Lord Aberdeen was in doubt
whether the proposition was made by Lord J. Russell in conce