o as to afford any hope, though Chambers says
his recovery is not impossible. Although the bulletins tell so
little, everybody is now aware of his Majesty's state. He
dictates these reports himself, and will not allow more to be
said; he continues to do business, and his orders are taken as
usual, so he is resolved to die with harness on his back.
Yesterday Lord Lansdowne sent for me to beg in the first place
that everything might be ready, and in the next to say that they
were perplexed to know what steps, if any, they ought to take to
ascertain whether the Queen is with child, and to beg me to
search in our books if any precedent could be found at the
accession of James II. But they had forgotten that the case had
been provided for in the Regency Bill, and that in the event of
the King's death without children, the Queen is to be proclaimed,
but the oath of allegiance taken with a saving of the rights of
any posthumous child to King William. They ought to have known
this, but it is odd enough that there is nobody in office who has
any personal knowledge of the usual forms at the first Council,
for not one of these Ministers was in office at the accession of
William IV. My colleague, Buller, who was present as Clerk of the
Council, is dead, and I was abroad.

[Page Head: PRAYERS ORDERED FOR THE KING.]

In the morning I met Sir Robert Peel in the Park, and talked with
him about the beginning of the new reign. He said that it was very
desirable that the young Queen should appear as much as possible
emancipated from all restraint, and exhibit a capacity for the
discharge of her high functions; that the most probable as well as
the most expedient course she could adopt, would be to rely
entirely upon the advice of Melbourne, and she might with great
propriety say that she thought it incumbent on her to follow the
example which had been set by her two uncles, her predecessors,
William IV. having retained in office the Ministers of his
brother, and George IV., although his political predilections were
known to lean another way, having also declined to dismiss the
Government of his father. Peel said that he concluded King Leopold
would be her great adviser. If Leopold is prudent, however, he
will not hurry over here at the very first moment, which would
look like an impatience to establish his influence, and if he
does, the first result will be every sort of jealousy and discord
between him and the Duchess of Kent. The el