PEMBROKE LODGE, _10th July 1859_.
(7 P.M.)

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has
just received from Lord Palmerston, who is here, the paper, a copy of
which is enclosed.[57]

Lord John Russell has to add that Lord Palmerston and he are humbly of
opinion that your Majesty should give to the Emperor of the French
the moral support which is asked. It is clearly understood that if the
Emperor of Austria declines to accept the propositions, Great Britain
will still maintain her neutral position.

But it is probable that her moral support will put an end to the
war, and your Majesty's advisers cannot venture to make themselves
responsible for its continuance by refusing to counsel your Majesty to
accept the proposal of France.

[Footnote 57: At the seat of war, a series of decisive French
victories had culminated in the battle of Solferino, on
Midsummer Day (see _ante_, Introductory Note to Chapter XXVIII).
But the French Emperor was beginning to think these successes
too dearly purchased, at the expense of so many French lives,
and, actuated either by this, or some similar motive, he
attempted, on the 6th of July, to negotiate through the British
Government with Austria. The attempt was a failure, but an
armistice was signed on the 8th, and again the Emperor sought
the moral support of England. The paper which Lord John
Russell submitted was a rough memorandum of M. de Persigny's,
proposing as a basis of negotiation the cession of Lombardy to
Piedmont, the independence of Venetia, and the erection of an
Italian Confederation.]

[Pageheading: FRANCE AND AUSTRIA]

_Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell._

PAVILION, ALDERSHOT, _10th July 1859_.

The Queen has just received Lord John Russell's letter with the
enclosure which she returns, and hastens to say in reply, that
she does not consider the Emperor of the French or his Ambassador
justified in asking the support of England to proposals he means to
make to his antagonist to-morrow. He made war on Austria in order to
wrest her two Italian kingdoms from her, which were assured to her by
the treaties of 1815, to which England is a party; England declared
her neutrality in the war. The Emperor succeeded in driving the
Austrians out of one of these kingdoms after several bloody battles.
He means to drive her out of the second by diplomacy, and neutral
England is to join him wit