e Duke of Clarence to
the throne as King William IV. The new sovereign's often-expressed
sympathy for him, induced him to hope that now he had a better chance of
obtaining the justice that had been so long withheld. The change of
sovereigns, however, was of small avail while the ministers who had
summarily rejected his former memorial continued to have the direction
of affairs. "To petition or memorialize the King whilst his present
ministers remain in office," he said in a letter written on the 10th of
September, "would be to debase myself in my own estimation, and, I
think, in that of every man of sense and feeling." "I cannot petition
again," he said in another letter; "though I am assured from high
authority it would be attended to. Sir Robert Wilson and others have
obtained favour; but I, who protested against the forging of charts and
public waste of money, have had no mercy shown!" Lord Cochrane
ascertained, about this time, that his memorial of 1828, though sent by
the Duke of Clarence for the consideration of King George IV., had never
reached his Majesty, the Cabinet having preferred to dismiss it at once.
He therefore had good reason for abstaining from further action until a
more friendly ministry should be in power.

He had not long to wait. On the 16th of November, the Duke of
Wellington's Cabinet resigned. In the Administration which succeeded
Earl Grey was Premier, and Mr. Brougham, raised to the peerage, was Lord
Chancellor. Lord Cochrane then lost no time in completing a "Review" of
his case, which he had prepared for publication, and in getting ready
some early copies of the volume to be presented to the King and his
ministers.

The King's copy was forwarded through Lord Melbourne, the Home
Secretary, on the 10th of December, accompanied by a brief petition.
"Assured that the memorial which I laid before your Majesty when Lord
High Admiral," wrote Lord Cochrane, "was honoured with your earnest
consideration, and that your Majesty was graciously pleased to make an
effort in my behalf, with the desire of restoring me to my station in
the navy; assured, too, that, had not the ministers of his late most
gracious Majesty been opposed to the prayer of my memorial, I should
then have been restored; and believing that no such obstacle to your
Majesty's favour would be now interposed, I have every reason to hope
that the auspicious moment is at length arrived when the redress which I
have so long sought will