A.—=Source.=—_The Croker Papers_, vol. ii., p. 346.
(London: 1884.)
_J. W. Croker to the King of Hanover. May 11._
The mission of Sir Robert Peel failed upon what I may call an abstract
principle—the right of the Minister to interfere at all in the female
household. No lady’s name was mentioned by Sir Robert, for on his
saying to the Queen, “As to ladies of the household” her Majesty is
said to have interrupted him at once by saying: “Oh, I do not mean
to make any change among them.” This is the sum of the whole affair.
Sir Robert Peel could not admit the broad principle that all were to
remain. Lady Normanby (whom the Queen particularly wishes for), for
instance, the wife of the very Minister whose measures have been the
cause of the change, two sisters of Lord Morpeth, the sisters-in-law
of Lord John Russell, the daughter of the Privy Seal and Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Your Majesty sees that though Sir Robert might, and I
have no doubt would, have left the great body of the female attendants,
he could not possibly have submitted to have the hostile party thus in
possession of the personal favour, friendship, and confidence of the
Queen. The general opinion is that this scheme was prepared even before
the resignation, and that the whole has been a trick, though for my
part I cannot see how it betters the position of the Whigs....
Her Majesty’s ball last night was, I am told, rather dull, though she
herself seemed in high spirits, as if she were pleased at retaining her
Ministers.
B.—=Source.=—_The Greville Memoirs_: 1837-1852, vol. i., p. 208.
(London: 1885.)
It is a high trial to our institutions when the wishes of a Princess
of nineteen can overturn a great Ministerial combination, and when the
most momentous matters of Government and legislation are influenced
by her pleasure about the ladies of the Bedchamber.... The origin of
the present mischief may be found in the objectionable composition of
the Royal Household at the Accession. The Queen knew nobody, and was
ready to take any ladies that Melbourne recommended to her. He ought
to have taken care that the female part of her household should not
have a political complexion, instead of making it exclusively Whig, as,
unfortunately for her, he did; nor is it little matter of wonder that
Melbourne should have consented to support her in such a case, and that
he and his colleagues should have consented to act the strange,
anomalous, unconstitutional part they have done.... To have met as a
Cabinet, and to have advised her what answer to send to the man who
still held her commission for forming a Government upon points relating
to its formation, is utterly anomalous and unprecedented.