merly those things were tolerated, now they are
not, and my prospects were formed and destiny determined at a
remote period, while I incur all the odium and encounter all the
risks consequent upon the altered state of public feeling on the
subject.

July 15th, 1835 {p.276}

[Page Head: THE KING AND HIS MINISTERS.]

Sefton told me that a correspondence has taken place between Lord
Glenelg and Sir Herbert Taylor about that speech of the King's at
the Council on Wednesday se'nnight. Glenelg felt himself called
upon to enquire whether the blow was aimed at him, and it was
evident from the tenor of the reply that it was. I heard from
Stephen a day or two afterwards the real truth of this matter. It
was Lord Glenelg that the King intended to allude to in his
speech. Lord Melbourne spoke to his Majesty on the subject,
remonstrated, and said it was impossible to carry on the
government if he did such things. He said that he was greatly
irritated, and had acted under strong feelings in consequence of
what Glenelg had said to him. Melbourne rejoined, 'Your Majesty
must have mistaken Lord Glenelg.' 'Not at all,' said the King,
and he then went into a dispute they had had about the old
constitution of Canada--I forget what, but something the King
asserted which Glenelg contradicted. He repaired to the Colonial
Office and told Stephen, who informed him that the King was right
and he was wrong. (The King, in fact, had got it up, and had the
thing at his fingers' ends.) This was awkward; however, it ended
in the King's making a sort of apology and crying _peccavi_ for
the violence of his language, and this will probably be somewhat
of a lesson to him, though it will not diminish the bitterness of
his sentiments towards his Ministers.

I expressed my astonishment that any man could consent to stay in
office after receiving such an insult as this was, to which
Stephen replied that they were all thoroughly aware of their
position relatively to the King and of his feelings towards them;
but they had undertaken the task and were resolved under all
circumstances to go through with it, and, whatever he might say
or do, they should not suffer themselves to be influenced or
shaken. This is the truth; they do not look upon themselves as
_his_ Ministers, and perhaps they cannot do otherwise as things
now are. It is, however, a very melancholy and mischievous state
of affairs, and does more to degrade the Monarchy than anything
that has