Other copies of the "Review" having been sent to the Cabinet Ministers, with letters urging its favourable consideration, Lord Cochrane, in nearly every case, received a friendly answer. "I need not say," wrote Earl Grey on the 12th of December, "that it would give me great satisfaction if it should be found possible to comply with the prayer of your petition. This opinion I expressed some years ago in a letter which, I believe, was communicated to you. To the sentiments expressed in that letter I refer, which, if I remember right, acquitted you of all blame, except such as might have been incurred by inadvertence and by having suffered yourself to be led by others into measures of the consequences of which you were not sufficiently aware."
More than a year was to be spent, however, in persevering effort before Lord Cochrane's claim for justice was acceded to. Objection was taken by some to the form in which his address to the King was worded. It was "a letter," they said, and not "a petition;" and Lord Cochrane was distressed at hearing, on the 18th, that the document had been given back by his Majesty to Lord Melbourne without any comment.
"If I have erred as to the form of my petition, which was in the shape of a most respectful and dutiful letter to his Majesty, or as to the channel through which it should have been forwarded," said Lord Cochrane in a letter to Earl Grey, written on the 23rd of December, "I have erred in judgment only; and it would be hard indeed should redress not be accorded by reason of an informality in the mode of my application. I have since been advised that my petition ought to have been forwarded through the First Lord of the Admiralty, whom I have therefore solicited to present another petition, the same in effect, but more brief, and in the regular form. When his Majesty was Lord High Admiral he received a memorial from me by the hands of Sir Robert Preston, and though it had not the effect, of procuring my restoration at that time, yet from the gracious manner in which, I am assured, it was received, I did flatter myself that his Majesty would have pleasure in the opportunity, which appeared to present itself when your lordship's Administration was formed, of originating a measure which all would consider gracious, and most, I hope, believe to be perfectly just. In reference to the letter, in answer to mine, with which your lordship honoured me on the 12th instant, which I cannot but perceive is written with a kindness of feeling which commands my best thanks, I beg only to state that any opinion of me in regard to the crime imputed to me that does not fully acquit me of all knowledge thereof whatever does not do me justice. That crime was contrived and completed so entirely without my knowledge that I had not the most distant idea of its having been meditated until I read of its commission in the public prints." In a brief reply to that letter Earl Grey stated that, the petition having been presented to the King and being now under consideration, no more formal address need be sent in lieu of it.
Thus Lord Cochrane had only to await the result of his application, and he waited for sixteen months. During that interval many friends interceded on his behalf, especially Lord Durham and Lord Auckland, and from time to time his hopes were quickened by information that the subject was still being considered by his Majesty's ministers, who were anxious that right should be done.
But he was often disappointed. "The King," he said, in a letter written on the 1st of April, "has invited all the Knights of the Bath to dine with him on the 12th, which is the anniversary of the affair of Basque Roads, as well as that of Grambier's installation. If nothing is done on that day I shall not obtain justice during the life of William IV. Indeed, I understand that every effort has been made to influence the King to my prejudice."
"I was at an evening party at the Marquess of Lansdowne's on Friday," wrote Lord Cochrane on the 25th of April, "and there I met the Lord Chancellor [Brougham] who was very civil indeed, and told me they had a battle to fight for me, and hoped they would succeed. Since then the electors of the borough of Southwark have sent a deputation to beg me to stand; but hearing that Brougham's brother was also to be a candidate, I have declined opposing him. I had a double motive for this line of conduct, for, had I been returned to Parliament, I could not conscientiously have accepted a favour at the hands of the ministers of the Crown."
Service in the House of Commons was, soon after that, made impossible to Lord Cochrane. His father, Archibald, ninth Earl of Dundonald, died on the 1st of July, 1831. Lord Cochrane then ceased to be a commoner, and became in succession, when he was nearly fifty-six years old, Earl of Dundonald.
As Earl of Dundonald, however, he found it no easier to obtain an answer to his demand for justice than as Lord Cochrane. In September he heard that his opponents were making use of some Admiralty correspondence respecting his conduct in Chili, nearly ten years before, to throw fresh difficulties in his way. He at once applied to Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, for extracts from this correspondence of any parts requiring explanation, in order that he might furnish the same. "I beg leave to state," wrote Sir James in reply, "that it is not usual for his Majesty's Government to produce, from the records of public offices, documents which do not appear to be required for any public purpose. I am therefore under the necessity of declining to comply with your lordship's request." "Is it not astonishing," said Lord Dundonald, in a letter to the Duke of Hamilton, "that Sir James Graham does not consider justice to an individual to be a public object?"
Tired out, at length, by the delays in the settlement of his case, Lord Dundonald wisely resolved to seek a personal interview with the King. With that object he went down to Brighton, and the interview was readily granted to him on Sunday, the 27th of November. He was graciously received, and the King listened attentively to his respectful claim for a fair investigation of the matter, and for permission to rebut any charges that might be brought against him respecting his conduct in connection with the Stock Exchange fraud, his Chilian service, or any other portion of his life that had been or could be complained of. His Majesty promised to see that the case was fairly looked into, and Lord Dundonald was not long in observing the good effects of his bold step.
"Lady Dundonald has seen Lord Grey, and he has expressed his readiness to do all he can," he wrote from London on the 17th of December. "But I understand there is something in the way. Burdett assures me that he will bring the whole affair before Parliament if they do not do me justice."