of his honour. "Can the Queen for an instant
suppose that I would permit my party to urge me on to insist upon
anything incompatible with Her Majesty's dignity, which it would be my
great aim and honour to defend?"

[This was his indignant reply to my remark upon the rumours that his
party would press him to coerce and subdue Her Majesty.]

Sir Robert thinks it better for the Queen to avoid anything in the
shape of a stipulation. He would like what he would have done upon
a former occasion (and upon which, on the honour of a gentleman, his
views had undergone no change) to be taken as a test of what he would
be ready to concede to.

Nothing but misconception, he said, could in his opinion have led
to failure before. "_Had the Queen told me_" (after the question
was mooted, which it never need have been) "_that those three
ladies immediately connected with the Government had tendered their
resignation, I should have been perfectly satisfied_, and should have
consulted the Queen's feelings in replacing them."

Sir Robert said this conversation shall remain sacred, and to all
effect, as if it had never happened, until he saw me again to-morrow
morning.

There is nothing said, he added, which in any way pledges or
compromises the Queen, the Prince, or Lord Melbourne.

[Footnote 24: See Parker's _Sir Robert Peel_, vol. ii. p. 455,
_et seq._, where Peel's memorandum of the interview is set
out.]

[Pageheading: SIR ROBERT PEEL]

[Pageheading: HOUSEHOLD APPOINTMENTS]

_Memorandum by Mr Anson._

INTERVIEW WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL (No. 2).

_10th May 1841._

Peel said: "It is essential to my position with the Queen that Her
Majesty should understand that I have the feelings of a gentleman, and
where my duty does not interfere, I cannot act against her wishes.
Her Majesty doubtless knows how pressed I am as the head of a powerful
party, but the impression I wish to create in Her Majesty's mind is,
that I am bound to defend her against their encroachments."

In regard to Household appointments the holders of which are not in
Parliament, he had not considered the question, but in the meantime he
would in no way commit himself to anyone, or to any understanding
upon the subject, without previous communication. He had no personal
objects to serve, and the Queen's wishes would always be consulted.

He again repeated, that if the Queen's personal feelings would suffer
less by forming an Administration