hinks it incumbent upon her not to leave Lord Derby in ignorance of
her firm determination not to sanction, under any form, the creation
of a British Army, distinct from that known at present as the Army of
the Crown.

She would consider it dangerous to the maintenance of India, to the
dependence of the Indian Empire on the mother country, and to her
Throne in these realms.

Such an Army would be freed from the proper control of the
constitutional monarchy. It would be removed from the direct command
of the Crown, and entirely independent of Parliament. It would throw
an unconstitutional amount of power and patronage into the hands of
the Indian Council and Government; it would be raised and maintained
in antagonism to the Regular Army of the Crown; and professional
jealousy, and personal and private interests, would needs drive it
into a position of permanent hostility towards that Army.

This hostility has been already strongly marked in the proceedings of
the Commission itself.

Its detrimental effects would not be confined to India alone, but
would form a most dangerous obstacle to the maintenance of the
government of the Regular Army by the Queen. Already, during
the Crimean War, most of the blows levelled at the Army and the
prerogative of the Crown were directed by Indian officers, of whom,
in future, a vast number would be at home, without employment or
recognised position, in compact organisation, and moved by a unity of
feeling.

There may be points of detail, admitting differences of opinion as to
the relative advantages of a purely local or general Military Force
for India; but these are mere trifles, which sink into insignificance
in the Queen's estimation, when she has to consider the duty which she
owes to her Crown and her Country.

The Queen hopes Lord Derby will not consider that she intends, by this
letter, unduly to influence his free consideration and decision as
to the advice he may think it his duty to offer, but merely to guard
against his being taken by surprise, and to prevent, if possible, an
unseemly public difference between herself and Lord Stanley. She is
impelled to the apprehension that such may arise from the manner in
which, since the first transfer of the Indian Government to the Crown,
every act of Lord Stanley has uniformly tended to place the Queen in a
position which would render her helpless and powerless in resisting a
scheme which certain persons, imbued with the old In