| Collection | Correspondence of William IV |
| Description | The Duke proceeds to describe the series of events occurred before he left La Hague - mostly to make sense of the anxiety and irritability of the Grand Duchess Catherine [Pavlovna of Russia].
As soon as the ship arrived the Duke saw the Admiralty's orders relative to which ship should have carried the Grand Duchess - with her son, suite and 37 people with 3 or 4 carriages. The Duke disagrees with the order of putting her on board of the Cheerful Cutter rather than the Frigate Jason], and suggests the opposite should be done - the Cutter is not suitable for the sister of the Emperor Alexander I. Two attempts made by the Duke to convince the Duchess to move ship, failed - as she was reluctant to change the Admiral's orders; he does not know whether the third and last attempt will be successful. This is for the Duke a matter of the utmost importance from which the honour of Britain depends; to demonstrate his point, he refers to the time when George I sent an Admiral and a whole British Fleet to fetch Peter the Great, and now they send a Cutter, instead.
The Duke is still hopeful that things can changed. |