Nothing but misconception, he said, could in his opinion have led to failure before. "Had the Queen told me" (after the question was mooted, which it never need have been) "that those three ladies immediately connected with the Government had tendered their resignation, I should have been perfectly satisfied, and should have consulted the Queen's feelings in replacing them."
Sir Robert said this conversation shall remain sacred, and to all effect, as if it had never happened, until he saw me again to-morrow morning.
There is nothing said, he added, which in any way pledges or compromises the Queen, the Prince, or Lord Melbourne.
Footnote 24: See Parker's Sir Robert Peel, vol. ii. p. 455, et seq., where Peel's memorandum of the interview is set out.
Memorandum by Mr Anson.
SIR ROBERT PEEL
Interview with Sir Robert Peel (No. 2).
10th May 1841.
Peel said: "It is essential to my position with the Queen that Her Majesty should understand that I have the feelings of a gentleman, and where my duty does not interfere, I cannot act against her wishes. Her Majesty doubtless knows how pressed I am as the head of a powerful party, but the impression I wish to create in Her Majesty's mind is, that I am bound to defend her against their encroachments."