taken of the subject, to the principle on which he has, in consequence, determined to act, and to his sense of the necessity and propriety of adhering to a determination so positively and repeatedly declared, to agree to the introduction of the names of any Commoners, who would make a permanent addition to the Peerage, in the list which he shall be disposed to approve, if an addition to the House of Lords, for the purpose of carrying the Reform Bill, should unfortunately become indispensable.

His Majesty has looked over the lists which accompanied Earl Grey's letter of yesterday, and he finds them to present, independently of those whom he must exclude, thirty-four eldest sons and collaterals, four others on a supplementary list, and Lord Francis Osborne and Mr. Dundas, being forty in all. To the advancement of these to the Peerage he will not object, if the dreaded necessity should occur; nor can he conceive it possible, adverting to the permanent change which may be expected to take place in the votes of the Bishops, that this number should not prove sufficient in any case.

But it is impossible that His Majesty should not be very much struck by the extraordinary difference in the lists of eldest sons now submitted to him by Earl Grey and those communicated by him on the 9th of January last, as offering a number of eldest sons, collaterals, &c., from which a selection might possibly be made. Upon reference to these lists, His Majesty finds (besides those considered doubtful or otherwise ineligible) fifty-two eldest sons of Peers, fifteen collaterals of childless Peers, and seven Scotch and Irish Peers not

likely to have children, and if to these be added Lord Francis Osborne and Mr. Dundas, the total number from which His Majesty was led to believe that a selection might be made was not less than seventy-four.

The King may be told, that many of those whose names appear in the former lists have declared their unwillingness to be brought forward upon this occasion; but as they, or their fathers, have been forward in promoting and supporting the measure for the success of which this extraordinary creation of Peers may be required, His Majesty would, if such should be the case, consider himself justified in expressing his surprise that they should shrink from the test and risk the loss of their cause, rather than make the sacrifice of the doubts which may have arisen in their minds of the eligibility of advancement to the Peerage upon such an occasion, and which can alone account for the absence of so many names from the second list.

*

WILLIAM R.

No. 399.

Minute of Cabinet.

Downing Street, April 7, 1832.

At a Meeting held at the Foreign Office this day,

PRESENT:

[Probably all the Cabinet were present, but in the copy of this Minute which has been preserved, a blank is left for the names, which would of course be filled up in that made for the King.]

Your Majesty's servants have taken into their most serious consideration your Majesty's answer to their

Cabinet Minute of April 3, and also your Majesty's letter to Earl Grey of this day.

Your Majesty's servants beg leave humbly to state their full concurrence in the feeling already expressed by Earl Grey, of the condescending kindness which marks every part of your Majesty's most gracious communication.

They cannot but express their concern that all that is now connected with this question, and with the measures submitted for your Majesty's consideration and decision, should have appeared to your Majesty to be speculative, and calculated to engage your Majesty to commit yourself in that which is uncertain in its. nature, its extent, and its issue.'

Your Majesty's servants trust that they will stand acquitted in your Majesty's opinion of any design to press your Majesty unnecessarily to commit yourself by a premature decision on any matter which could safely be left in a state of uncertainty and doubt.

But feeling, for the reasons already intimated to your Majesty, if the Reform Bill should unfortunately and unexpectedly be rejected, that there could not be the delay even of a single day in adopting one of the alternatives submitted to your Majesty, they conceive it to be their duty to bring fully under your Majesty's consideration all the circumstances which might enable your Majesty, on the occurrence of that event, at once positively to determine which of these courses should be pursued.

Of your Majesty's adherence to a determination more than once expressed, not to allow any permanent ad

dition to the Peerage from the rank of Commoner, they certainly can have no right to complain; and they are fully sensible of your Majesty's goodness in being ready to consent,' if the dreaded necessity should arise,' to the creation of forty Peers, who might be selected from the lists submitted to your Majesty by Earl Grey, who would not be subject to that objection.

But they must beg leave to observe, that this number might possibly be found inadequate to the exigency of the case, up to the full extent of which they had already submitted to your Majesty their opinion, that if Peers were to be created at all, it would be necessary to act.

It might be possible, however, out of the lists before submitted to your Majesty by Earl Grey, and from those of Irish and Scotch Peers, to add a further number, if your Majesty should be disposed to consent to it, though perhaps not of so eligible a description as might otherwise be found.

They think it necessary however, in consequence of the observations made by your Majesty on the lists which have been submitted to your Majesty, to add that the last list consists of a selection from the larger lists before formed by Earl Grey, after deducting such names as, for various reasons, it appeared not to be expedient to propose to your Majesty; and that, even in the present list, there may be some whom they might perhaps eventually be obliged to withdraw.

Your Majesty's servants feel most grateful to your Majesty for your kind acquiescence in Earl Grey's request, in consenting to come to town on Tuesday, an inconvenience to which nothing could have induced them to propose to your Majesty to put yourself, except

the conviction of the absolute necessity of an instant decision as to the course to be taken by your Majesty's Government, upon the possible result of the division in the House of Lords.

All which, &c.

No. 400.

Earl Grey to Sir H. Taylor.

(Private.) Downing Street, April 7, 1832. My dear Sir Herbert,-The Cabinet assembled today between two and three, and we have had so many matters to discuss, that I am again obliged to throw myself on His Majesty's indulgence for having been obliged, in order to save the post, to have the Minute in answer to His Majesty's letter copied by another hand.

It was not thought necessary or right to enter into a more detailed answer to His Majesty's letter; indeed it appeared to me better and more respectful in every sense, to leave the matter where it is till after the second reading, His Majesty being now in full possession of all the materials which are necessary to decide upon the course to be taken upon the event of the division without delay.

The lists, which were delivered to the King on the 9th of January, contained nearly all the names of those who might by possibility be added to the House of Lords without a permanent addition to the Peerage. But I thought I had explained to His Majesty that, when they came to be looked into more accurately,