Lord Melbourne came down from town after the House of Lords. I went with him to his room for an hour after the Queen had retired. He said the main struggle would take place on the Sugar Duties on Friday. His impression was that the Government would be beat, and he must then decide whether to go out or dissolve. He leaned to the former. I said, "I trusted he would not dissolve unless he thought there was some prospect of increasing his strength, and begged him to remember what was done would not be considered the act of the Government but that of himself and the Queen, and that he individually would be held as the responsible person."
He said he had not written to the Queen to prepare H.M. for coming events and the course that it would be incumbent upon her to take, for he felt it extremely difficult and delicate, especially as to the use she should make of the Prince, and of her mode of communication when she required it with Lord Melbourne. He thought she ought never to ask his advice direct, but if she required his opinion there would be no objection to her obtaining it through the Prince.
He said H.M. had relied so implicitly upon him upon all affairs, that he felt that she required in this emergency advice upon almost every subject. That he would tell H.M. that she must carefully abstain from playing the same part she did, again, on Sir R. Peel's attempt to form a Ministry, for that nothing but the forbearance of the Tories had enabled himself and his colleagues to support H.M. at that time. He feared Peel's doggedness and pertinacity might make him insist, as a point of honour, on having all discretion granted to him in regard to the removal of Ladies. I told him of the Prince's suggestion that before the Queen saw Sir R. Peel some negotiation might be entered into with Sir Robert, so that the subject might be avoided by mutual consent, the terms of which might be that Sir Robert should give up his demand to extort the principle. The Queen, on the other hand, should require the resignation of those Ladies objected to by Sir Robert. Lord Melbourne said, however, that the Prince must not have personal communication with Sir Robert on this subject, but he thought that I might through the medium of a common friend.
Memorandum by Mr Anson.
LORD MELBOURNE'S ADVICE
Windsor Castle, 5th May 1841.
Saw Lord Melbourne after his interview this morning with the Queen. He says Her Majesty was perfectly calm and reasonable, and seemed quite prepared for the resignation of the Government. He said she was prepared to give way upon the Ladies if required, but much wished that that point might be previously settled by negotiation with Sir R. Peel, to avoid any discussion or difference. Lord Melbourne thinks I might do this. He would also like Peel to be cautioned not to press Her Majesty to decide hastily, but to give Her Majesty time, and that he should feel that if he acted fairly he would be met in the same spirit by the Queen.
With regard to future communication with Lord Melbourne, the Queen said she did not mean that a change should exclude her from Lord Melbourne's society, and when Lord Melbourne said that in society Her Majesty could not procure Lord Melbourne's opinion upon any subject, and suggested that that should be obtained through the Prince, Her Majesty said that that could pass in writing under cover to me, but that she must communicate direct.
The Queen, he says, leans to sending for the Duke of Wellington. Lord Melbourne advised that Her Majesty should make up her mind at once to send for Sir Robert. He told me that it would not be without precedent to send for both at once; this it appears to me would obviate every objection. The Queen, he thinks, has a perfect right to exercise her judgment upon the selection of all persons recommended to Her Majesty for Household appointments, both as to liking, but chiefly as to their character and as to the character of the husband or wife of the person selected. He would advise the Queen to adopt the course which King William did with Lord Melbourne in 1835, viz. desiring Lord Melbourne, before His Majesty approved of any appointments, to send a list of those proposed even to the members of every Board, and the King having them all before him expressed his objections to certain persons, which Lord Melbourne yielded to.