FORMATION OF EARL GREY’S ADMINISTRATION.
WILLIAM IV. 1830—1831
The Tories had lent their votes to displace the ministry, but they had formed no plan, and taken no steps, to ensure to themselves any share in the succession. Earl Grey was authorised by the king to form a new administration, of which he himself should be the head; and his lordship accepted the office on condition that he should have authority to make parliamentary reform a cabinet measure. The ministry was formed in about a week, and it consisted of Whigs, and of those who had been formerly adherents of Messrs. Canning and Huskisson, and who had held office with the leading members of the displaced administration. The greatest difficulty lay in managing Mr. Brougham, who had just declared that no change could affect him, by which it was found he meant that no change would bring him the offer of an office sufficiently high for his ambition. Earl Grey was afraid to leave him neglected or discontented in the lower house, and the honourable gentleman was determined not to sacrifice his importance in that home for any subordinate office. The negotiation ended in Mr. Brougham being made lord-chancellor—a striking instance of the most important judicial functions in the empire being entrusted, as the reward of merely political services, to a man who possessed splendid talents, but who was unprovided with judicial learning, and, above all, destitute of habits and capacity in judicial thinking. No man pitied the fate of Sir James Scarlett, but many thought the Irish chancellor, Sir Anthony Hart, who had stood impartially between contending parties, harshly treated in being made to resign for Lord Plunkett—the new premier considering it necessary to have an Irish chancellor whom he could fully trust and employ in Irish politics. The Duke of Richmond was the only leading member of the old Tory party who entered the new cabinet, and he became postmaster-general. The other members of government were as follows:—Lord Althorp was appointed to lead the house of commons as chancellor of the exchequer; the offices of home, foreign, and colonial secretaries were given respectively to Lords Melbourne, Palmerston, and Goderich; Sir James Graham was made first lord of the admiralty; Lord Lansdowne became president of the council, and Lord Durham privy seal; Messrs. Denman and Home were attorney and solicitors general; Lord Hill was commander-in-chief; Lord Auckland, president of the board of trade, and Mr. C. Grant, of the board of control; Lord Holland, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; the Duke of Devonshire, lord chamberlain; the honourable Agar Ellis, chief commissioner of the woods and forests; Mr. E. Grant, judge-advocate; Lord John Eussell, paymaster of the forces; Mr. Poulett Thompson, vice-president of the board of trade and treasurer of the navy; Sir Edward Paget and Sir Robert Spencer, master and surveyor-general of the board of ordnance; Mr. C. W. Wynne, secretary at war; and Messrs. Ellice and Spring Rice appointed joint secretaries of the treasury. In Scotland there were no offices liable to change except those of the lord-advocate and the solicitor-general, the former of which was given to Mr. Jeffrey, and the latter to Mr. Cockbum, both of them long-tried friends of the lord-chancellor, and at the head of their profession. Ireland received, as its chief governor, the Marquis of Anglesea, with Mr. Stanley as secretary, Lord Plunkett as chancellor, and Mr. Pennefather, attorney-general. It was necessary that the new ministers, who had vacated their seats by taking office, should be reelected, and this afforded an opportunity to the radical party of showing their strength. Thus Mr. Stanley was defeated at Preston by the notorious democrat, Plenry Hunt. After the new ministry had secured seats, no business of importance was transacted during the remainder of the year, except the passing of a regency bill in conformity with the recommendation in the speech from the throne. This bill had been introduced into the house of lords on the day when the fate of the late cabinet was sealed in the commons. It provided that in the event of a posthumous child of the present queen, her majesty should be guardian and regent of the kingdom; and that if such an event did not occur, then the Duchess of Kent was to be guardian and regent during the minority of her daughter, the Princess Victoria, the heir-presumptive. The princess herself was not to marry while a minor without the consent of the king, or, if he died, without the consent of both houses of parliament; and the regency was to be at an end if the Duchess of Kent, while regent, married a foreigner. A select committee was appointed on the 9th of December to inquire what reduction could be made in the salaries and emoluments of offices held during the pleasure of the crown by members of either house of parliament, and to report their opinion and observations thereupon to the house. On the 23rd both houses adjourned to the 3rd of February—ministers declaring that a long adjournment was necessary, in order to enable them to prepare the different measures which they intended submitting to parliament, especially that plan of reform to which they had pledged themselves on accepting office, and by which alone they could hope to retain it.