Neither in London nor at Vienna, however, was M. Pageot able to bring his mission to a successful conclusion. Lord Aberdeen declared emphatically that England could not recognize the right of France to dispose of the hand of Isabella. The British government looked upon the matter "as an exclusively Spanish affair, which ought to be regulated solely by considerations affecting the happiness of the Queen and the welfare of her people." At these words M. Pageot, at once, interposed with the remark that he presumed that he was now at liberty to inform his government that England would not object to her marriage with a French prince. But Aberdeen, with equal promptitude, added an important amendment to his first statement. The marriage of the Queen of Spain with a son of Louis Philippe would, he asserted, upset the balance of power, and England would always oppose any combination calculated to produce political consequences of that nature.[733] Metternich was no less emphatic in protesting against the pretensions of the King of the French to dictate on such a subject to an independent State. Nor was he less decided in declaring that the general interests of Europe would be endangered by Isabella's marriage with a son of Louis Philippe. In his opinion the whole Spanish question might be amicably settled by the betrothal of the Queen to a son of Don Carlos, without any sacrifice of their respective rights, as in the case of Ferdinand and Isabella in the fifteenth century. This was a view of the case, however, with which the British government was unable to concur. "Prince Metternich," wrote Aberdeen,[734] "has been misled by a fancied historical analogy. The solution, he suggests, might have been productive of good whilst the civil war was in progress and whilst Don Carlos was in possession of the northern provinces. But, now that he and his adherents have been driven from Spain as fugitives, it would be regarded with the utmost repugnance by the majority of Spaniards. A marriage of the Queen with a son of Don Carlos, although it might reconcile the personal claims of each, would inevitably bring into fierce and hostile contact the passions and opinions of their adherents."