"Je dois encore vous dire que nous avons toutes les raisons de nous louer de la manière dont le Portugal est traité par votre Ministre des Affaires Étrangères, et nous ferons de notre côté notre possible pour prouver notre bonne volonté."
Footnote 148: Lord Howard de Walden, Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon.
Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.
SECRETARIES OF STATE
South Street, 1st November 1841.
... Now for His Royal Highness's questions....
How the power of Prime Ministry grew up into its present form it is difficult to trace precisely, as well as how it became attached, as it were, to the office of First Commissioner of the Treasury. But Lord Melbourne apprehends that Sir Robert Walpole was the first man in whose person this union of powers was decidedly established, and that its being so arose from the very great confidence which both George I. and George II. reposed in him, and from the difficulty which they had in transacting business, particularly George I., from their imperfect knowledge of the language of the country.
With respect to the Secretary of State, Lord Melbourne is not prepared from memory to state the dates at which the different arrangements of that office have taken place. There was originally but one officer, and at the present the three are but the heads of the different departments of one office. The first division was into two, and they were called the Secretary for the Northern and the Secretary for the Southern department. They drew a line across the world, and each transacted the business connected with the countries within his own portion of the globe. Another division then took place, and the Foreign affairs were confided to one Secretary of State, and the Home and Colonial affairs to the other; but the present arrangement was finally settled in the year 1793, when the junction was formed between Mr Pitt on the one hand, and those friends of Mr Fox who left him because they differed with him upon the French Revolution. The Home affairs were placed in the hands of one Secretary of State, the Foreign of another, and the Colonial and Military affairs of a third, and this arrangement has continued ever since.149 The persons then appointed were the Duke of Portland,150 Lord Grenville,151 and Mr Dundas,152 Home, Foreign, and Colonial Secretaries.
Writing from recollection, it is very possible that Lord Melbourne may be wrong in some of the dates which he has ventured to specify.153