uke and all the Privy Councillors were
summoned. After greeting them all, and desiring them to sit down, he
began a speech nearly as follows:--'Having thought proper to make a
change in my Government, at the present moment I have directed a new
commission to be issued for executing the office of Lord High
Treasurer, at the head of which I have placed the Duke of
Wellington, and his Grace has kissed hands accordingly upon that
appointment. As by the Constitution of this country the King can do
no wrong, but those persons are responsible for his acts in whom he
places his confidence--as I do in the Lords now present--it is
necessary to place the seals of the Secretary of State for the Home
Department in those hands in which I can best confide, and I have
therefore thought proper to confer that office likewise on his
Grace, who will be sworn in accordingly.' Here the Duke came round,
and, after much fumbling for his spectacles, took the oath of
Secretary of State. The King then resumed, 'It is likewise necessary
for me to dispose of the seals of the other two Secretaries of
State, and I therefore place them likewise for the present in the
same hands, as he is already First Lord of the Treasury and
Secretary of State for the Home Office.' Then, turning to me, he
asked if there was any business, and being told there was none,
desired me to retire. When I was gone he began another harangue, to
the effect that he had endeavoured, since he had been upon the
throne, to do for the best, and that he could not fill up any of the
other offices at present.

Now for what I learned from the Duke and Lyndhurst. The former
told me that he was just going out hunting when the messenger
arrived; that the letter merely said that the King wished to see
him, to consult with him as to the steps he should take with
regard to the formation of another Government. He went off
directly, and at once told the King that the best thing he could
do was to send for Sir Robert Peel, and that until he arrived he
would undertake to carry on the Government by a provisional
arrangement, and would do nothing more until Peel's return. So
the matter accordingly stands, and no other appointment will be
made except that the Great Seal will be transferred to Lyndhurst,
without, however (at present), his becoming Chancellor. He talked
a great deal about the state of the late Government, and what
passed between Melbourne and the King, but I heard this still
more in