Draft letter from Prince Albert to Lord John Russell

Draft letter from Prince Albert to Lord John Russell acknowledging receipt of his memorandum of 12 August and returning both his, and the Queen's observations. He writes that the Queen agrees a new scheme of total reform would be too disruptive and also that a mixture of boroughs, large and small, are required to maintain balance. Prince Albert believes that suffrage ought to be considered a privilege rather than a right and that if universal suffrage was granted the onus would be on the ruling class to prove people unfit to vote. Both he and the Queen request that Russell provide statistics to compare the status quo with the scheme being proposed.

Related Material: For related material see VIC/MAIN/F/9/4.