At last the following peremptory reproof was addressed to him: 

    Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell, [36]

    Osborne, August 12, 1850

...  The Queen requires, first, that Lord Palmerston will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, in order that the Queen may know as distinctly to what she has given her royal sanction; secondly, having once given her sanction to a measure, that it be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister.  Such an act she must consider as failing in sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to be visited by the exercise of her constitutional right of dismissing that Minister.  She expects to be kept informed of what passes between him and Foreign Ministers before important decisions are taken, based upon that intercourse:  to receive foreign dispatches in good time; and to have the drafts for her approval sent to her in sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their contents before they must be sent off.  The Queen thinks it best that Lord John Russell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston.

[36] “Letters of Queen Victoria,” vol. ii, chap. xix.

Palmerston apologized and promised amendment, but he did not resign, nor did the Prime Minister request him to do so.  His foreign policy had hitherto vigorously befriended liberty on the Continent, and although the Queen and Prince Consort never strained the constitutional limits of the prerogative, these limits are elastic and there was a general feeling among Liberals that the Court might acquire an overwhelming influence in diplomacy, and that certainly at the moment the Prince Consort’s sympathies were too largely determined by his relationship to foreign royal families.  It is clear, however, that as long as the Crown is an integral part of the Executive, the Sovereign must have the fullest information upon foreign affairs.  Palmerston had gone a great deal too far.

    Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby

    LONDON, March 14, 1851

We have now heard from you several times since the crisis, [37] but not since you knew of our reinstatement in place and power, toil and trouble....  I should hardly have thought it possible that Ralph, hearing constantly from Lord Palmerston, had not discovered the change that has come over him since last year, when he took his stand and won his victory on the principles that became a Whig Minister, of sympathy with the constitutionalists and antipathy to the absolutists all over Europe.  Ever since that great debate he has gradually retreated from those principles....  I am not apt to be politically desponding, but the one thing which now threatens us is the loss of confidence of the House of Commons and the country....

[37] The defeat of the Government on Mr. Locke King’s motion for the equalization of the county and borough franchise.