Back at Osborne House at the royal residence on the Isle of Wight, Queen Victoria wrote to Foreign Secretary Lord Clarendon:
“She has never been so much perplexed respecting any decision she has had to make, as in the present instance. She has read Lord Stratford’s Despatch over several times, and she is struck, every time more, with the consummate ability with which it is written and argued; but also with the difficulty in which it places the person reading it to extract distinctly what the Porte will be prepared to concede.
“The concluding passage of the Draft involves the most important consequences. As the Queen understands it, it promises war with Russia in a given contingency, but the contingency is: Russia rejecting terms which are “in their spirit and character such as Your Excellency sets forth in your Despatch.” The Queen finds it impossible to make such tremendous consequences dependent upon such vague expressions. The more so, as “the spirit and character” alluded to, appears to her to be, as if purposely, obscure.
“When Lord Stratford says, that the Turks would be satisfied “with a renewal in clear and comprehensive terms of the formal Declarations and Treaties already existing in favour of the Porte”—the Queen cannot understand what is meant—as all the former Treaties between Russia and Turkey have certainly not been in favour of the Porte. Nor is it clear to the Queen whether “the clear and unquestionable deliverance from Russian interference applied to spiritual matters” is compatible with the former treaties.
“Whilst the Queen, therefore, perfectly agrees in the principle that, should Russia “for its own unjustifiable objects, show herself regardless of the best interests of Europe” by rejecting every fair term, the time will have arrived “for adopting measures of more active coercion against her”—she cannot sanction such a Declaration except on terms which are so clear in themselves as to exclude all misinterpretation.”
Queen Victoria then writes:
“The Queen has received Lord Clarendon’s letter of the 19th, and enclosures. She approves the Draft to Vienna, and asks to have a copy of it, together with the Despatch from Lord Westmorland [British Ambassador to Austrian Empire] to which it refers.
“She also approves of the Draft to Lord Cowley [British Ambassador to France], with certain exceptions, viz., on the second page our accordance with the views of the French Government “upon the utterly unjustifiable course that Russia has pursued,” etc., is stated. If, as the Queen must read it, this refers to the affair at Sinope, it is a dangerous assertion, as we have yet no authentic account of the circumstances of the case, which would make it possible to judge what degree of justification there might have been. The sentence should, at any rate, be qualified by some expression such as “as far as we know,” or “should present accounts prove correct,” etc. The word “utterly” might under any circumstances be left out, as a state of War is in itself a justification of a battle. On page four the words “by sea” will have to be added to make the statement precise and correct.
“The concluding sentence, the Queen must consider as tantamount to a declaration of war, which, under the guarded conditions however attached to it, she feels she cannot refuse to sanction. It would, in the Queen’s opinion, be necessary, however, distinctly and fully to acquaint the Russian Government with the step now agreed upon.
“Lord Palmerston’s mode of proceeding always had that advantage, that it threatened steps which it was hoped would not become necessary, whilst those hitherto taken, started on the principle of not needlessly offending Russia by threats, obliging us at the same time to take the very steps which we refused to threaten.
“The Queen has to make one more and a most serious observation. The Fleet has orders now to prevent a recurrence of such disasters as that of Sinope. This cannot mean that it should protect the Turkish Fleet in acts of aggression upon the Russian territory, such as an attack on Sebastopol, of which the papers speak. This point will have to be made quite clear, both to Lord Stratford and the Turks.
“The Queen would also wish to have copies of the Draft, when corrected, of Lord Cowley’s Despatch.”