as held, and, in Russell's words, 'Lord Grey placed before
us the letters containing his own resignation and that of Lord Althorp,
which he had sent early in the morning to the King. He likewise laid
before us the King's gracious acceptance of his resignation, and he gave
to Lord Melbourne a sealed letter from his Majesty. Lord Melbourne, upon
opening this letter, found in it an invitation to him to undertake the
formation of a Government. Seeing that nothing was to be done that
night, I left the Cabinet and went to the Opera.'

Lord Melbourne was sent for in July, and took his place at the head of a
Cabinet which remained practically unaltered. He had been Home Secretary
under Grey, and Duncannon was now called to fill that post. The first
Melbourne Administration was short-lived, for when it had existed four
months Earl Spencer died, and Althorp, on his succession to the peerage,
was compelled to relinquish his leadership of the House of Commons.
William IV. cared little for Melbourne, and less for Russell, and, as he
wished to pick a quarrel with the Whigs, since their policy excited his
alarm, he used Althorp for a pretext. Lord Grey had professed to regard
Althorp as indispensable to the Ministry, and the King imagined that
Melbourne would adopt the same view. Although reluctant to part with
Althorp, who eagerly seized the occasion of his accession to an earldom
to retire from official life, Melbourne refused to believe that the
heavens would fall because of that fact.

There was no pressing conflict of opinion between the King and his
advisers, but William IV. nevertheless availed himself of the accident
of Althorp's elevation to the peerage to dismiss the Ministry. The
reversion of the leadership in the Commons fell naturally to Lord John,
and Melbourne was quick to recognise the fact. 'Thus invited,' says Lord
John Russell, 'I considered it my duty to accept the task, though I told
Lord Melbourne that I could not expect to have the same influence with
the House of Commons which Lord Althorp had possessed. In conversation
with Mr. Abercromby I said, more in joke than in earnest, that if I were
offered the command of the Channel Fleet, and thought it my duty to
accept, I should not refuse it.' It was unlike Sydney Smith to treat the
remark about taking command of the Channel Fleet seriously, when 'he
elaborated a charge' against Lord John on the Deans and Chapters
question; but even the witty Canon could lose his