Your Majesty's servants have again taken into their most serious consideration the other and less improbable event which may happen, of the majority being so narrow as to leave little hope that the Bill, unimpaired as to its essential provisions, would pass the Committee.

Your Majesty's Ministers, referring to what was stated in their former Minute, and by Lord Grey in his conversation with your Majesty, humbly request that this matter may be left open for such advice as, upon a more perfect knowledge of all the circumstances connected with it, they may be enabled to tender to your Majesty, trusting that your Majesty will in the meantime give a favourable consideration to the opinion already submitted by them, that, in the event now under contemplation, a creation of Peers proportioned to the exigency of the case may be required.

They feel confident that your Majesty will justly appreciate their motives in thus explicitly stating the course which, with a view to events possible, but not, as they hope, at all probable, they may be compelled by a sense of duty humbly to recommend.

They feel that a most serious responsibility rests upon them in the position they now occupy, because the internal peace of the country and the stability of its foreign relations may depend upon the result of the approaching discussion; and because, through their repugnance to advise an increase of the Peerage until it should be admitted on all hands to be unavoidable, they have exposed themselves to the charge of not recommending those measures which might have placed the success of the Bill, and all that depends upon it, beyond the reach of accident.

They trust that the event will justify their having encountered this hazard, but they would be without excuse were they to leave a contrary result unprovided for. Under this conviction they find themselves compelled, humbly and dutifully, to urge the necessity of being prepared to carry into immediate execution, if the Bill should be lost, the measures which have already been submitted to your Majesty; and which in that case could, as they believe, alone avert the dangers which would threaten the best interests of your Majesty's subjects and the security of the existing institutions of this country.

No. 393.

The King to Earl Grey.

Windsor Castle, April 5, 1832.

The King feels so deeply the importance of the matter submitted for his consideration and decision in the Minute of Cabinet, dated on the 3rd inst., which he received from Earl Grey yesterday, that His Majesty cannot but sincerely regret that the pressure of circumstances and the urgency of the questions at issue should have allowed him so little time for deliberation. He is, however, anxious to relieve his confidential servants from any uncertainty and suspense as to the view he takes of these questions, and he admits them to have been so much the subject of previous discussion and reflection, as not to have found him unprepared for this communication of their sentiments and wishes.

Before the King enters into any point contained in this Minute of Cabinet, he considers it desirable to refer to the correspondence and communications which have passed on the subjects of which it treats, but more especially to such as have reference to the proposal of creating Peers, for the purpose of carrying the Reform Bill. He does so at the risk of extending this letter to great length and of much repetition; but he does so in order to establish, by such reference, that his sentiments and language have been consistent, and that the hesitation which he feels and shows, to commit himself to the extent which is now required from him, is not produced by any new view of the question, but by a strict adherence to the principle which he has not ceased to profess and to maintain.

6

The King had invariably expressed his apprehensions of a collision between the two Houses of Parliament, in consequence of the introduction of an extensive measure of Reform. He stated in his letter of February 4, 1831, to Earl Grey, that it was natural he should dread, independently of other sources of objection, the introduction into the House of Commons of such measures of Reform as would be likely to be rejected in the. House of Lords, whence must arise a quarrel betwen the two branches of the Legislature, not upon a mere matter of form, not upon the enactment of a common law, but upon a matter affecting a main feature of the constitution of the country, upon a great popular question, and therefore to be viewed as a great national and political calamity.'

This apprehension was again strongly expressed at various periods during the progress of the measure,

and His Majesty had frequently stated his anticipation of opposition in the House of Lords, more powerful, more violent, more persevering, than appeared to be contemplated by his Government, as well as his apprehensions of the difficulties which have arisen. His Majesty had not, when he first urged these considerations, contemplated the possibility of his being eventually called upon to relieve his Government from them by a large creation of Peers. He does not believe the idea of resorting to so violent and (adverting to its extent and to the circumstances under which proposed) so unprecedented an expedient had occurred to his confidential servants; and it is almost unnecessary to say that, when the suggestion grew out of the course of events, His Majesty's aversion to it was expressed in no less a degree than was manifested Earl Grey's reluctance to bring this measure into agitation.

The King believes this feeling in both to have continued undiminished, though it has yielded to the necessity of the case, to the consideration of the state. of affairs which has unfortunately imposed this sacrifice of feeling, and to the desire which duty prescribed of endeavouring to avert more serious evils.

The question of creating Peers was formally brought forward by Earl Grey in a personal communication to the King at Brighton on the 4th of January last, when he stated that, from all the data he had been able to obtain, a difference of twenty votes had left in the House of Lords a majority of twenty-one votes against the Bill; but that, even if it should be carried on the second reading, the opposition in Committce might prove destructive of the Bill. It would, therefore, be

necessary to prevent the loss of the Bill, in either case, by the use of the means which the prerogative of the Crown afforded. It is unnecessary to repeat the arguments used by Earl Grey on that occasion, in support of this representation, as they have not varied since. He admitted the evil, and the objections to a creation of Peers, but considered the alternative necessary for the safety of the country. He stated that much difference of opinion had prevailed among his colleagues on the subject, but that they had finally agreed to authorise him to submit the matter for His Majesty's consideration, on the ground of making a partial addition to the House of Lords, and a further addition afterwards if necessary.

His Majesty at once objected to any measure affecting the permanent character of the House of Lords. Earl Grey stated his wish to limit it as far as possible, and mentioned besides Lord Francis Osborne and Mr. Dundas (to whom the King did not object, as they stood on distinct grounds), the eldest sons of Peers, eight or ten at first in all; next, collateral heirs to Peerages, where no direct heirs were likely to succeed; and that, ‘in this manner, any permanent addition to the Peerage of any consequence might be avoided.' The King objected to creations of Commoners, but stated he should not object, thirdly, to Scotch and Irish Peers, so that the whole Peerage of the United Kingdom should not be augmented. He further desired that the advice of his confidential servants might be submitted to him in writing.

His Majesty having received Earl Grey's Minute of this conversation with him, wrote to him on the follow