[12] [Afterwards Lord Stanley of Alderney.]
[Page Head: LORD MELBOURNE'S ADMINISTRATION.]
The Chancellor and the Hollands urged Lord Grey to take the Privy Seal. This Sefton told me as a great secret yesterday, but the indignation of the Greys burst through all restraint, and they told it 'à qui voulait les entendre,' with every expression of rage and disgust, 'adding insult to injury.' Lord Grey was more philosophical, and rather smiled at the proposition, but he did not repress the pious resentment of his children. The Grey women would murder the Chancellor if they could. It certainly was a curious suggestion. The Hollands think of nothing on earth but how they may best keep the Duchy of Lancaster, and they fancied Lord Grey's holding the Privy Seal might be of service to the Government, and if they could make him commit such a _bassesse_ so much the better. It is not always easy to discover the Chancellor's motives, but as he is as vindictive as he is false and tricking, he perhaps took this opportunity of revenging himself for the old offer of the Attorney-Generalship, which he has never forgiven.[13]
[13] [This view of the case is certainly unjust to Lord Brougham, who had more respect and regard for Lord Grey than for any other statesman of the time, as his correspondence with the Earl, now recently published in Brougham's 'Posthumous Memoirs' sufficiently proves.] [The first Administration of Lord Melbourne was thus constituted: First Lord of the Treasury Viscount Melbourne. Lord Chancellor Lord Brougham. Lord President Marquis of Lansdowne. Home Secretary Viscount Duncannon. Foreign Secretary Viscount Palmerston. Colonial Secretary Mr. Spring Rice. Chancellor of the Exchequer Viscount Althorp. Admiralty Lord Auckland. Board of Control Mr. Charles Grant. Board of Trade Mr. Poulett Thomson. Duchy of Lancaster Lord Holland. Paymaster of the Forces Lord John Russell. Secretary-at-War Mr. Edward Ellice. Lord Privy Seal Earl of Mulgrave. Postmaster-General Marquis of Conyngham. Irish Secretary Mr. Littleton.]
Taylor's 'Philip van Artevelde'--Goodwood--Earl Bathurst's Death--Death of Mrs. Arbuthnot--Overtures to O'Connell--Irish Tithe Bill--Theodore Hook's Improvisation--Lord Westmeath's Case in the Privy Council--First Council of Lord Melbourne's Government and Prorogation--Brougham's Vagaries--Lord Durham's Exclusion--The Edinburgh Dinner--Windsor and Meiningen--Spencer Perceval--Lord Grey's Retirement--The Westmeath Case again--The Queen's Return--Melbourne and Tom Young--Holland House-- Reflections--Conversation on the Poets--Miscellaneous Chat-- Lord Melbourne's Literary Attainments--Lord Holland's Anecdotes of Great Orators--Execution of Charles I.--Lord Melbourne's Opinion of Henry VIII.--The 'Times' attacks Lord Brougham--His Tour in Scotland--His Unpopularity--Cowper's Secret--Canning on Reform--Lord Melbourne on Palmerston and Brougham--Canning and Brougham in 1827--Senior--Lord Melbourne and the Benthamites-- His Theology--Spanish Eloquence--The Harley Papers--The Turf-- Death of Lord Spencer--The Westmeath Case heard--Law Appointments--Bickersteth--Louis Philippe's Position.