Footnote 21: Lord Maryborough (1763-1845) was William Wellesley Pole, brother of the Marquess Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington. He married Katherine Elizabeth Forbes, granddaughter of the third Earl of Granard.
Footnote 22: Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, King Leopold's brother.
Memorandum by Mr Anson.
Minutes of Conversations with Lord Melbourne and Baron Stockmar.
THE QUEEN AND THE PRINCE
28th May 1840.
Lord Melbourne.—"I have spoken to the Queen, who says the Prince complains of a want of confidence on trivial matters, and on all matters connected with the politics of this country. She said it proceeded entirely from indolence; she knew it was wrong, but when she was with the Prince she preferred talking upon other subjects. I told Her Majesty that she should try and alter this, and that there was no objection to her conversing with the Prince upon any subject she pleased. My impression is that the chief obstacle in Her Majesty's mind is the fear of difference of opinion, and she thinks that domestic harmony is more likely to follow from avoiding subjects likely to create difference. My own experience leads me to think that subjects between man and wife, even where difference is sure to ensue, are much better discussed than avoided, for the latter course is sure to beget distrust. I do not think that the Baroness23 is the cause of this want of openness, though her name to me is never mentioned by the Queen."
Baron Stockmar.—"I wish to have a talk with you. The Prince leans more on you than any one else, and gives you his entire confidence; you are honest, moral, and religious, and will not belie that trust. The Queen has not started upon a right principle. She should by degrees impart everything to him, but there is danger in his wishing it all at once. A case may be laid before him; he may give some crude and unformed opinion; the opinion may be taken and the result disastrous, and a forcible argument is thus raised against advice being asked for the future.
"The Queen is influenced more than she is aware of by the Baroness. In consequence of that influence, she is not so ingenuous as she was two years ago. I do not think that the withholding of her confidence does proceed wholly from indolence, though it may partly arise, as the Prince suggests, from the entire confidence which she reposes in her present Ministers, making her inattentive to the plans and measures proposed, and thinking it unnecessary entirely to comprehend them; she is of necessity unable to impart their views and projects to him who ought to be her friend and counsellor."