The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of
3), 1837-1843), by Queen Victoria

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Title: The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843)
A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence Between the
Years 1837 and 1861

Author: Queen Victoria

Editor: Arthur Christopher Benson and Viscount Esher

Release Date: December 5, 2006 [EBook #20023]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A Transcriber's Note is at the end of the book.

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[Illustration: QUEEN VICTORIA RECEIVING THE NEWS OF HER ACCESSION TO
THE THRONE, JUNE 20, 1837

From the picture by H. T. Wells, R.A., at Buckingham Palace

_Frontispiece, Vol. I._]

THE LETTERS OF
QUEEN VICTORIA

A SELECTION FROM HER MAJESTY'S
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE YEARS
1837 AND 1861

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF
HIS MAJESTY THE KING

EDITED BY ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON, M.A.
AND VISCOUNT ESHER, G.C.V.O., K.C.B.

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. I.--1837-1843

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1908

_Copyright in Great Britain and Dependencies, 1907, by_ H.M. THE KING.

_In the United States by_ Messrs LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.

_All rights reserved._

PREFACE

Entrusted by His Majesty the King with the duty of making a selection
from Queen Victoria's correspondence, we think it well to describe
briefly the nature of the documents which we have been privileged to
examine, as well as to indicate the principles which have guided us
throughout. It has been a task of no ordinary difficulty. Her Majesty
Queen Victoria dealt with her papers, from the first, in a most
methodical manner; she formed the habit in early days of preserving
her private letters, and after her accession to the Throne all her
official papers were similarly treated, and bound in volumes. The
Prince Consort instituted an elaborate system of classification,
annotating and even indexing many of the documents with his own hand.
The res