_....

There would be nothing unusual in apartments being offered to the Duke
of Cambridge, and declined by him. This was done by the King of the
Belgians only last summer at Berlin and Vienna, without anybody's
construing it into an affront. The Queen adds a list of the Royal
personages who have been in England and never resided at the Palace.
Lord Aberdeen may show this letter to Lord Clarendon.

[Footnote 17: The Duke was going to the Crimea, and it was
arranged that he should stop at Paris on the way.]

[Pageheading: STABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _1st March 1854._

The Queen has to acknowledge Lord John Russell's letter of this
morning. Much as she must regret the postponement of the second
reading of the Reform Bill, she must admit its wisdom under the
present peculiar circumstances;[18] but she doubts the advantage
of naming a precise day after Easter on which it is to come on.
Considering the _importance_ to the country of _preserving_ the
present Government and of not allowing it to be beat on so vital a
question, the opportunity should not be lost of ascertaining the state
of feeling both in the House of Commons and in the country after the
reassembling of Parliament, before the Government decide on entering
upon the struggle which the carrying through of the measure might
entail. It is quite impossible _now_ to conjecture with certainty what
that state of feeling and the general political circumstances at home
and abroad may be at that time. Possibly the country may be more eager
_then for_ the measure--or the War may _disincline_ it _altogether_
towards it.

The Queen seizes this opportunity of expressing her sense of the
_imperative importance_ of the Cabinet being _united_ and of one mind
at this moment, and not to let it _appear_ that there are differences
of opinion within it. The knowledge that there are such is a cause of
GREAT _anxiety_ to the Queen, at a time when she is to enter upon a
European War, of which nobody can confidently predict the extent.

[Footnote 18: See the Queen's letter of the 4th of March,
_post_.]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Aberdeen._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _2nd February (? March) 1854._

In returning these letters to Lord Aberdeen the Queen must express to
him that there are _hints_ in them which give her great uneasiness.
The stability of this Government is not only of _paramou