Footnote 32: George Henry Grey, afterwards Lieut.-Colonel of the Northumberland Militia, and Captain in the Grenadier Guards; father of the present Sir Edward Grey, M.P. He predeceased his father in 1874.
Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston.
Windsor Castle, 7th February 1855.
The Queen has just received Lord Palmerston's letter with the List of the Government, which she approves. She entirely agrees with him in the view he takes with respect to Lord Lansdowne's position in the House of Lords, and will write to him on the subject. From what he said, however, the Queen would hope that he would not be disinclined to make the announcement of the Government as well as to take the lead on all occasions of great importance.33
The Queen approves that the office of Secretary at War should remain open at present; but as regards the question itself of these two offices, she reserves her judgment till the subject is submitted to her in a definite form.
Footnote 33: Lord Lansdowne consented, on particular occasions only, to represent the Government, but claimed to be himself the judge of the expediency or necessity of his doing so. The ministerial life of this doyen of the Whig Party spanned half a century, for he had, as Lord Henry Petty, been Chancellor of the Exchequer in the ministry of "All the Talents" in 1806-1807. Lord Granville now assumed the Liberal leadership in the Lords, which, as Lord Fitzmaurice points out, he held, with a brief exception of three years, till his death in 1891].
The Earl of Clarendon to Queen Victoria.
THE VIENNA CONFERENCE
10th February 1855.