July 20th, 1834
At Court yesterday to swear in Duncannon Secretary of State. He told me he had made Stanley[12] (the man they call Sir Benjamin Backbite, and familiarly Ben) his under-secretary, telling him he must speak, for that he (Duncannon) could not. Auckland and Duncannon will not certainly add much to the oratorical splendour of the Government. Ellice was there, and told me about a grand case the Tories have got hold of against him, growing out of Lord Western’s evidence in Whittle Harvey’s Committee. It there came out that Western had applied to Ellice, then Secretary of the Treasury (at the time of the great Reform election), for money to assist at the Colchester election, and he sent 500ℓ. They want to make out that this was public money, but they won’t catch him. He says several individuals subscribed large sums, which were placed at his disposal to be employed to the best advantage for the cause. He will get out of it. He talked of the Government, said it was a great error to suppose it was inclined to movement principles, and that in point of fact there was very little difference, except on Church matters, between Sir Robert Peel and himself, that there never was so good a House of Commons for the Government, that in all this mess—for mess it was—the Tories could not succeed in getting up a feeling or a prejudice against the Government, and it was clear they were utterly powerless there, that the House only required to be a little cajoled, and was easily led; the word Reform was still potent there, and had only to be uttered on occasions to bring the majority round when they began to show a refractory disposition.
[12] [Afterwards Lord Stanley of Alderney.]
July 21st, 1834
The Chancellor and the Hollands urged Lord Grey to take the Privy Seal. This Sefton told me as a great secret yesterday, but the indignation of the Greys burst through all restraint, and they told it ‘à qui voulait les LORD MELBOURNE’S ADMINISTRATION. entendre,’ with every expression of rage and disgust, ‘adding insult to injury.’ Lord Grey was more philosophical, and rather smiled at the proposition, but he did not repress the pious resentment of his children. The Grey women would murder the Chancellor if they could. It certainly was a curious suggestion. The Hollands think of nothing on earth but how they may best keep the Duchy of Lancaster, and they fancied Lord Grey’s holding the Privy Seal might be of service to the Government, and if they could make him commit such a bassesse so much the better. It is not always easy to discover the Chancellor’s motives, but as he is as vindictive as he is false and tricking, he perhaps took this opportunity of revenging himself for the old offer of the Attorney-Generalship, which he has never forgiven.[13]
[13] [This view of the case is certainly unjust to Lord Brougham, who had more respect and regard for Lord Grey than for any other statesman of the time, as his correspondence with the Earl, now recently published in Brougham’s ‘Posthumous Memoirs’ sufficiently proves.]
[The first Administration of Lord Melbourne was thus constituted:
| First Lord of the Treasury | Viscount Melbourne. |
| Lord Chancellor | Lord Brougham. |
| Lord President | Marquis of Lansdowne. |
| Home Secretary | Viscount Duncannon. |
| Foreign Secretary | Viscount Palmerston. |
| Colonial Secretary | Mr. Spring Rice. |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | Viscount Althorp. |
| Admiralty | Lord Auckland. |
| Board of Control | Mr. Charles Grant. |
| Board of Trade | Mr. Poulett Thomson. |
| Duchy of Lancaster | Lord Holland. |
| Paymaster of the Forces | Lord John Russell. |
| Secretary-at-War | Mr Edward Ellice. |
| Lord Privy Seal | Earl of Mulgrave. |
| Postmaster-General | Marquis of Conyngham. |
| Irish Secretary | Mr. Littleton.] |