India, the Force
at home and in the colonies will, when raised to its old strength,
not cost a shilling more than the peace establishment of 1857 settled
under a pressure of financial reduction.

Anything less than this will not leave this country in a safe
condition. The Queen does not ask only for the same number of men as
in 1857-1858, but particularly for Regiments of Cavalry, Battalions
of Infantry and Batteries of Artillery, which alone would enable us in
case of a war to effect the increase to a war establishment.

The Queen encloses her answer to Lord Panmure's last letter.

[Footnote 55: On the 14th of December, the Queen had pressed
the immediate formation of two new Cavalry Regiments.]

[Pageheading: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _24th December 1857_.

The Queen only now returns to Lord Palmerston the Memorandum
containing the Heads of an arrangement for the future Government of
India, which the Committee of Cabinet have agreed to recommend. She
will have an opportunity of seeing Lord Palmerston before the Cabinet
meet again, and to hear a little more in detail the reasons which
influenced the Committee in their several decisions. She wishes only
to recommend two points to Lord Palmerston's consideration: 1st, the
mode of communication between the Queen and the new Government which
it is intended to establish. As long as the Government was that of the
Company, the Sovereign was generally left quite ignorant of decisions
and despatches; now that the Government is to be that of the
Sovereign, and the direction will, she presumes, be given in her name,
a direct official responsibility to her will have to be established.
She doubts whether any one but a Secretary of State could speak in
the Queen's name, like the Foreign Secretary to Foreign Courts, the
Colonial Secretary to the Governors of the Colonies, and the Home
Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and the Lieutenants of
the Counties of Great Britain, the Judges, Convocations, Mayors, etc.,
etc. On the other hand, would the position of a Secretary of State
be compatible with his being President of a Council? The Treasury
and Admiralty act as "My Lords," but they only administer special
departments, and do not direct the policy of a country in the Queen's
name. The mixture of supreme direction, and also of the conduct of the
administration of the department to be directed, has i