he Duke and Peel saw her, and
endeavoured to persuade her to yield this point, they found her
firm and immoveable, and not only resolved not to give way, but
prepared with answers to all they said, and arguments in support
of her determination. They told her that she must consider her
_Ladies_ in the same light as _Lords_: she said, 'No, I have
Lords besides, and these I give up to you.' And when they still
pressed her, she said, 'Now suppose the case had been reversed,
that you had been in office when I had come to the Throne, and
that Lord Melbourne would not have required this sacrifice of
me.' Finding that she would not give way, Peel informed her that
under these circumstances he must consult his friends; and a
meeting took place at his house yesterday afternoon.

[16] [Lord Ashley, then a member of the House of Commons,
afterwards seventh Earl of Shaftesbury: though a
follower of Sir Robert Peel, he was married to Lady
Emily Cowper, Lord Melbourne's niece, and this
circumstance probably induced Peel to invoke his
assistance.]

In the meantime the old Ministers were apprised of the difficulty
that had occurred, and Lord John Russell, who knew that there was
a meeting at Peel's to consider what was to be done, entreated
Melbourne, if the thing was broken off upon this difficulty, not
to give any advice, but to call the Cabinet and have a general
consultation. At nine in the evening he was summoned to a Cabinet
at Melbourne's house, and from this he inferred that negotiations
with Peel had closed. The ministers were collected from all
quarters: (Hobhouse from dinner at Wilton's, Morpeth from the
opera), and Melbourne laid before them a letter from the
Queen,[17] written in a bitter spirit, and in a strain such as
Elizabeth might have used. She said, 'Do not fear that I was not
calm and composed. They wanted to deprive me of my Ladies, and I
suppose they would deprive me next of my dressers and my
housemaids; they wished to treat me like a girl, but I will show
them that I am Queen of England!' They consulted, and a
suggestion was thrown out that Lady Normanby (and some other I
think) should resign. This was overruled, as was a proposition of
John Russell's, that the Queen should require from Peel a precise
statement of the extent of his demands. The end was, that a
letter was composed for her, in which she simply declined to
place the Ladies of her household