ained leave, by a large
majority, to introduce an India Bill, vesting the Government
of India in a Council nominated by the Crown. On his accession
to office, Mr Disraeli proposed that the Council should be
half nominative and half elective, and in particular that
London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Belfast should
each be entitled to elect one member. These proposals were
widely condemned, and especially by Mr Bright.]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Malmesbury._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _1st May 1858_.

The Queen has received a draft to Lord Cowley on the Danish
Question,[27] which she cannot sanction as submitted to her. The
question is a most important one, and a false step on our part may
produce a war between France and Germany. The Queen would wish Lord
Malmesbury to call here in the course of to-morrow, when the Prince
could discuss the matter with him more fully.

[Footnote 27: The dispute as to the Duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein. The German Diet had refused to ratify the Danish
proposal that Commissioners should be appointed by Germany and
Denmark to negotiate an arrangement of their differences.
Lord Malmesbury had written that the Governments (including
England) which had hitherto abstained from interference,
should now take measures to guard against any interference
with the integrity of the Danish Monarchy. The Queen and
Prince considered that the attitude of the British Government
was unnecessarily pro-Danish.]

[Pageheading: THE OUDH PROCLAMATION]

_Mr Disraeli to Queen Victoria._

HOUSE OF COMMONS, _7th May 1858_.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer with his humble duty to your Majesty.

At half-past four o'clock, before the Chancellor of the Exchequer
could reach the House, the Secretary of the Board of Control had
already presented the Proclamation of Lord Canning, and the despatch
thereon of Lord Ellenborough, without the omission of the Oudh
passages.[28]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has employed every means to recall the
papers, and make the necessary omissions, and more than once thought
he had succeeded, but unhappily the despatch had been read by Mr
Bright, and a considerable number of members, and, had papers once
in the possession of the House by the presentation of a Minister
been surreptitiously recalled and garbled, the matter would have been
brought before the House, and the production of