Sir Robert Peel thinks this of great importance, and that immediate decision in filling up so eminent a post will have a good effect.
[Footnote 40: Mr Gladstone, by accepting office, vacated the seat at Newark which he had held through the influence of the Protectionist Duke of Newcastle. He did not seek re-election, and though a Secretary of State, remained without a seat in Parliament.]
[Pageheading: THE QUEEN'S ESTIMATE OF PEEL]
_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._
MY DEAREST UNCLE,--Many thanks for your two kind letters of the 17th and 19th, which gave me much pleasure. I have little to add to Albert's letter of yesterday, except my _extreme_ admiration of our worthy Peel, who shows himself a man of unbounded _loyalty_, _courage_, patriotism, and _high-mindedness_, and his conduct towards me has been _chivalrous_ almost, I might say. I never have seen him so excited or so determined, and _such_ a good cause must succeed. We have indeed had an escape, for though Lord John's _own notions_ were _very_ good and moderate, he let himself be entirely twisted and twirled about by his _violent_ friends, and _all_ the moderate ones were crushed....
SIR,--I think Her Majesty and your Royal Highness will have been pleased with the progress I have made in execution of the great trust again committed to me by Her Majesty.
It will be of great importance to conciliate Lord Stanley's support out of office, to induce him to _discourage_ hostile combinations.
I would humbly recommend Her Majesty, when Her Majesty sees Lord Stanley to-day, to receive him with her usual kindness, to say that I had done full justice in my reports to Her Majesty to the motives by which he had been actuated, and to the openness and frankness of his conduct, to regret greatly the loss of his services, but to hope that he might be still enabled not to oppose and even to promote the accomplishment of what cannot now be safely resisted. I have the honour to be, etc., etc., etc.,
We had a Council yesterday, at which Parliament was prorogued to the 22nd of January, then to meet for the despatch of business. Lord Stanley had an audience of the Queen before, and delivered up the Seals of his office. He was much agitated, and had told Sir Robert that he dreaded this interview very much. The Queen thanked him for his services, and begged he would do his best out of office to smooth down the difficulties her Government would have to contend with. At the Council Lord Dalhousie took his seat, and Mr Gladstone received the Colonial Seals. The Queen saw the Duke of Buccleuch and thanked him for the devotion he had shown her during these trying circumstances; the same to the Duke of Wellington, who is in excellent spirits. On my saying, "You have such an influence over the House of Lords, that you will be able to keep them straight," he answered: "I'll do anything; I am now beginning to write to them and to convince them singly of what their duty is."