cision, and as he admits the necessity of being prepared for it, His Majesty will deal with it as a case that has already occurred, although he does not hesitate to express his firm conviction, that the Bill will go to Committee.

The King is sensible that, in the event of the rejection of the Bill on the second reading, only two courses are possible, namely, 'that his actual Ministers should resign their offices, or that immediate steps should be taken for the re-introduction of the Reform Bill, accompanied by such measures as might appear best calculated to insure its success;' and His Majesty rejoices to learn from their Minute that they are not disposed to entertain the first, unless it could be proved to them that His Majesty's personal ease and the good of his service required them to pursue that course.'

6

The King assures them that, in his feeling and opinion, neither his personal ease, nor the good of the service, would be promoted by their resignation, or by a change of Administration. His sentiments upon this subject have been fully stated upon former occasions; and he trusts that the honesty of their expression has been amply proved to them and to the country.

Earl Grey and his colleagues accepted office at a very critical period, and their conduct, under the continuance of almost unparalleled difficulty of various nature, has experienced, as it has merited, His Majesty's confidence and support. It is not in his disposition lightly to withdraw either; and he has not ceased to hold the opinion, more than once expressed, that the interests of this country, and the peace of Europe, which mainly depends upon the consistent policy of this country,

would be seriously compromised by frequent changes of men and measures.

This, therefore, is a risk which it is His Majesty's bounden duty not to incur, so long as he can possibly avoid it. But he must rely upon the moderation and upon the discretion of those who constitute the Administration, not to place him in a position in which the alternative shall cease to be a matter of option.

Earl Grey and his colleagues must be sensible that this question of Reform is that which has been the chief source of embarrassment since their acceptance of office; the only one, in fact, which has ever raised any difficulty which might not be overcome by an able and energetic discharge of duty such as His Majesty has experienced from them; the only one which has placed their existence as an Administration at stake; that which has, in great measure, absorbed the attention of the country, paralysed its faculties and energies, and which still exercises a most prejudicial influence upon its powers of action and the application of its resources.

It is not His Majesty's intention, by this observation, to reflect upon the introduction of the measure, or upon the course which has been pursued during its progress. He believes the first to have been, under all circumstances, unavoidable; he will admit the second to have become so.

But it must be allowed that a very erroneous estimate had been formed of the opposition it might experience; and if, after two failures, after a discussion so often renewed and so extended, after so long a continuance of agitation and irritation, the Bill should be again rejected in the House of Lords, it must become the

duty of His Majesty's Ministers to consider, as it is the King's duty to require of them to consider, not only what measures shall appear best calculated to insure the success of the Bill, but also what measures shall be best calculated to reconcile the feelings and opinions of those who are opposed to the measure, and to prevent the continued agitation, the discomfort, and the serious injury to the country in every respect, which must arise from the renewal of a protracted discussion; and, although His Majesty has pledged himself to sanction an addition to the House of Lords, although that pledge shall be sacred, although his Ministers shall have that resource in reserve, to be applied, however, as had been stipulated, subject to His Majesty's consideration of the nature and extent of the addition, His Majesty cannot view that as being the resource best calculated to insure the success of the measure; and he is sensible that Earl Grey and others of his confidential servants will agree in opinion with him, that it is by no means a desirable expedient, nor one which should be resorted to without extreme hesitation: nay, the King fears, for the reasons assigned with reference to the second supposed case, that this expedient might, after all, prove insufficient, and disappoint their expectations.

But, at any rate, the addition to the strength of the House of Lords cannot prevent the recurrence of one of the most serious evils. The whole question will be re-opened, and the Bill must be re-introduced in the House of Commons, where its discussion may be protracted as on the two former occasions, and may again absorb the whole season.

If there be any foundation for these remarks, if

they be deserving of attention, His Majesty conceives that they should point out the necessity of considering well, before another new Bill is introduced, whether it may not become the duty of those who frame it to communicate freely with the more moderate of those who have opposed the present Bill, and to endeavour to secure their assent to such a degree as may facilitate its progress, and greatly abridge the discussion.

The King has always considered the main principle of the Bill to rest on Schedule A. He believes it to embrace more than many of the most ardent advocates of Reform had contemplated before the construction of this Bill; and he conceives that if this and the additions to the Scotch and Irish representation were the basis assumed by the Government to have been established, other parts of the Bill might become the subject of communication and arrangement between the parties before the Bill should be re-introduced.

This is a suggestion which His Majesty has felt it to be his duty to throw out, upon the same principle on which he urged every possible modification, and every endeavour to conciliate and reconcile the opponents to the measure when it was re-introduced, after its first failure, and after the dissolution of Parliament.

His Majesty is sensible that the suggestion may not accord with the views and sentiments of those whose opinions are wedded to the Bill in its present shape; but he cannot help considering the general interests of the country as being of superior importance to the maintenance of certain provisions of the Reform Bill, upon which opinions are greatly divided; and that the restoration of peace and tranquillity, of confidence and

security, of comfort and good will, and a cessation of irritation and disunion in society, are objects of which the attainment would well reward the endeavours of those concerned in framing a new Bill, to divest it of all that may appear to them, from past experience, calculated to produce a fresh and possibly another useless struggle. WILLIAM R.

No. 390.

Minute of Conversation with the King.

[This Minute was submitted to the King, and the remarks made by His Majesty were written in the margin by Sir H. Taylor (see following letter). The Minute is in my father's handwriting.]

Windsor Castle, April 1, 1832.

His Majesty honoured me with a long conversation this morning, in consequence of the Cabinet Minute which had been addressed to His Majesty on March 27th, and His Majesty's answer thereto.

He began by stating the deep anxiety he felt upon this subject, and his desire to hear from me, without further delay, the observations which I had given His Majesty reason to expect I should have to submit to him on the subject of His Majesty's answer to the Cabinet Minute.

Thus called upon I stated to His Majesty the grateful sense with which those of his Ministers who were in town had received the renewed expression of His Majesty's confidence and approbation, but that there were some points in His Majesty's answer which