Parliament,"
as, seventeen years later, she, in the same way, with the cordial
approval of the whole nation, conferred on him the title of Prince
Consort. And apart from its convenience, as avoiding all unseemly
discussions, this would seem to have been the most natural and proper
mode of settling such a matter. The Queen is the fountain of honor in
this kingdom, and at her own court she can certainly confer on any of
her own subjects whatever precedence she may think fit, while it may be
doubted whether any act of a British Parliament could give precedence at
a foreign court. It was, probably, not in his character of Duke of
Cumberland, but as an independent sovereign, that the King of Hanover
maintained his claim to superior precedence; and it was plain that the
most illustrious subject could not possibly at any court be allowed to
rank above a king. With reference to its possible effect on the
subsequent relations of Peel and his followers with the court, it was,
perhaps, well that a few months later they had the opportunity of
proving that no personal objection to the Prince himself had influenced
their course in these transactions, by giving a cordial assent to the
ministerial proposal of conferring the Regency on him in the event of
the Queen giving an heir to the throne, and dying while he was still a
minor. The principle was the same as that which had guided the
arrangements for a Regency ten years before; but it was not
inconceivable that Parliament might have hesitated to intrust so large
an authority to so very young a man, and him a comparative stranger,
such as the Prince still was, had the leaders of the Opposition given
the slightest countenance to such an objection.

Lord Melbourne's ministry was hardly strengthened by the circumstances
under which it resumed office. Yet the close of the same year witnessed
a reform of which it is hardly too much to say that no single measure of
this century has contributed more to the comfort of the whole mass of
the people, with which it has also combined solid commercial benefits.
Hitherto the Post-office had been managed in a singular manner, and the
profit derived from it had been treated as something distinct from the
ordinary revenue of the kingdom. In the reign of Charles II. it had been
given to the Duke of York, and the grant was regarded as conferring on
him such extensive rights, that when, some years afterward, an
enterprising citizen set up a penny post fo