My dearest Victoria,—... I am very much gratified by your having shown my hasty scrawl to Sir Robert Peel, and that the sincere expression of a conscientious opinion should have given him pleasure.
It was natural at first that you should not have liked to take him as your Premier; many circumstances united against him. But I must say for you and your family, as well as for England, it was a great blessing that so firm and honourable a man as Peel should have become the head of your Administration. The State machine breaks often down in consequence of mistakes made forty and fifty years ago; so it was in France where even Louis XIV. had already laid the first foundation for what happened nearly a hundred years afterwards.
I believe, besides, Sir Robert sincerely and warmly attached to you, and as you say with great truth, quite above mere party feeling. Poor Lady Peel must be much affected by what has happened.... Your truly devoted Uncle,
Leopold R.
Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.
Brocket Hall, 12th February 1843.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He received here on Friday last, the 10th, your Majesty's letter of the 8th, which gave him great pleasure, and for which he gratefully thanks your Majesty. Lord Melbourne is getting better, and hopes soon to be nearly as well as he was before this last attack, but he still finds his left hand and arm and his left leg very much affected, and he does not recover his appetite, and worse still, he is very sleepless at night, an evil which he is very little used to, and of which he is very impatient....
Lord Melbourne adheres to all he said about Lord Ashburton and the Treaty, but he thinks more fire than otherwise would have taken place was drawn upon Lord Ashburton by the confident declaration of Stanley that his appointment was generally approved. The contrary is certainly the case. There is much of popular objection to him from his American connection and his supposed strong American interests. Lady Ashburton, with whom he received a large fortune, is a born American. But he is supposed to possess much funded property in that country, and to have almost as strong an interest in its welfare as in that of Great Britain. With all this behind, it is a bad thing to say that his appointment was liable to no suspicion or objection. It seems to Lord Melbourne that what with Ellenborough with the Gates of Ghuznee upon his shoulders,13 and Ashburton with the American Treaty round his neck, the Ministry have nearly as heavy a load upon them as they can stand up under, and Lord Melbourne would not be surprised if they were to lighten themselves of one or the other.
Footnote 13: The Somnauth Proclamation created a good deal of ridicule.