To this question Mr. Canning replied at once:
“Foreign Office, April 11, 1827.
“My dear Duke of Wellington,
“I believed it to be so generally understood that the King usually entrusts the formation of an Administration to the individual whom it is his Majesty’s gracious pleasure to place at the head of it, that it did not occur to me, when I communicated to your Grace yesterday the commands which I had just received from his Majesty, to add that in the present instance his Majesty does not intend to depart from the usual course of proceeding on such occasions. I am sorry to have delayed some hours the answer to your Grace’s letter; but from the nature of the subject, I did not like to forward it, without having previously submitted it (together with your Grace’s letter) to his Majesty.
“Ever, my dear Duke of Wellington, your Grace’s sincere and faithful servant,
(Signed)
“George Canning.”
The Duke of Wellington’s retirement from office and from the command of the army immediately followed, and now the whole anti-Catholic party definitely seceded.
VI.
At a cooler moment such an event might have seriously startled George IV., but the pride of the Sovereign overcame the fears and doubts of the politician. “He had not altered his policy; he had merely chosen from amongst his Ministers, a vacancy occurring in the Premiership, a particular individual to be Prime Minister. It was his clear right to select the Prime Minister. Who was to have this nomination? The Duke of Newcastle forsooth!” Thus spoke those of his circle whom Mr. Canning had had the address to gain.