Chapter XI: The Bedchamber Plot

Resignation of Lord Melbourne's Cabinet--Sir Robert Peel sent
for--Fails to Form a Cabinet--His Explanation--The Queen Refuses to
Dismiss her Ladies of the Bedchamber--Supported by her late
Ministers--Sir Robert Peel's Objections--The Queen will not give
way--The Whigs recalled to Power--Public Opinion on the Dispute--The
Whig Ministers blamed, but the Queen exculpated.

In April, 1839, Lord Melbourne's administration, which had been rapidly losing its once great popularity, obtained only the small and nominal majority of five, in a very important matter connected with the government of Jamaica. The Ministers accordingly tendered their resignations early in May, and Her Majesty was graciously pleased to accept them. As usual under such circumstances, the Parliament was prorogued for a few days. After the lapse of a week, the Houses re-assembled, and Lord John Russell, who had been the Whig leader of the House, immediately rose and said that since he had last addressed them, Sir Robert Peel had received authority from Her Majesty to form a new Administration, and that the attempt of the Right Honourable Baronet having failed, Her Majesty had been graciously pleased to permit that gentleman to state the circumstances which had led to that failure.

On her accession, the Queen had left the selection of the Ladies of the Household entirely to her uncle Sussex, and Lord Melbourne--the one of whom had been a Whig all his life, and the other, though but a comparatively recent convert, was the head of the Whig party. They had somewhat indiscreetly selected at least all the important female members of the Household, those to whom a young girl would be likely to look up confidingly for information and guidance, from the ranks of the Whig aristocracy. On Tuesday, the 29th of May, the resignations of the Melbourne Cabinet were announced to Parliament. The next day, at two o'clock, in answer to her summons, Sir Robert Peel waited upon the Queen. She had first sent for the Duke of Wellington, but he recommended his former lieutenant and future leader as premier. The Queen, with characteristic truthfulness, which was none the less admirable that it was too girlishly outspoken to be judicious, or at all in accordance with the spirit of the constitution, at once greeted Sir Robert with an avowal that she was much grieved to part with her late Ministers, whose conduct she entirely approved. This was rather an awkward beginning. Nevertheless, he proceeded with the formation of his Cabinet, and the next day submitted a list of names to the Queen, including the Duke of Wellington, Lords Lyndhurst, Aberdeen, Ellenborough, Stanley, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Goulburn. As to the Household, he had hardly thought about it, and indeed he said he did not know who constituted the female part of it. He took the Red Book to learn who they were, and was at once struck with the completeness of the arrangements for surrounding the Queen with the nearest relations of the Whig Ministers. For example, he afterwards put this point most strongly to the House:--

Sir, let me take that particular question on which my difficulty would
arise. Who can conceal from himself that my difficulties were not
Canada; that my difficulties were not Jamaica; that my difficulties
were Ireland? (ironical cheers). I admit it freely, and thank you for
the confirmation of my argument which these cheers afford. And what is
the fact? I, undertaking to be a Minister of the Crown, and wishing to
carry on public affairs through the intervention of the present House
of Commons, in order that I might exempt the country from the
agitation, and, possibly, the peril of a dissolution--I, upon that
very question in a minority of upwards of twenty members. A majority
of twenty-two had decided in favour of the policy of the Irish
Government [that is, of the Irish policy of Lord Melbourne]. The chief
members of the Irish Government, whose policy was so approved of, were
the Marquis of Normanby, and the noble lord opposite, the member for
Yorkshire [Lord Morpeth, afterwards the Earl of Carlisle]. By whom are
the chief offices in the Household at this moment held? By the sister
of Lord Morpeth [the Duchess of Sutherland], and the wife of the
Marquis of Normanby. But the question is--Would it be considered by
the public that a Minister had the confidence of the Crown, when the
relatives of his immediate political opponents held the highest
offices about the person of the Sovereign? My impression decidedly was
that I should not appear to the country to be in possession of that
confidence; and that impression I could not overcome; and upon that
impression I resolved to act. Who were my political opponents? Why, of
the two I have named, one, the Marquis of Normanby, was publicly
stated to be a candidate for the very same office which it was
proposed I should fill--namely, the office of Prime Minister. The
other noble lord has been designated as the leader of this House; and
I know not why his talents might not justify his appointment, in case
of the retirement of his predecessor. Is it possible--I ask you to go
back to other times; take Pitt, or Fox, or any other Minister of this
proud country, and answer for yourselves this question--is it fitting
that one man shall be the Minister, responsible for the most arduous
charge that can fall to the lot of man, and that the wife of the
other--that other his most formidable political enemy--shall, with his
express consent, hold office in immediate attendance on the
Sovereign? Oh no! I felt it was impossible--I could not consent to
this. Yes, feelings more powerful than reasoning on those precedents
told me that it was not for my own honour or the public interests that
I should consent to be Minister of England. The public interests may
suffer nothing by my abandonment of that high trust; the public
interests may suffer nothing by my eternal exclusion from power; but
the public interests would suffer, and I should be abandoning my duty
to myself, my country, and, above all, to the Queen my sovereign, if I
were to consent to hold power on conditions which I felt to be--which
I had the strongest conviction were--incompatible with the authority
and with the duty of a Prime Minister.

[Sidenote: THE QUEEN AND SIR ROBERT PEEL.]

Sir Robert had informed Her Majesty that he did not propose any change in the offices in question below the grade of Ladies of the Bedchamber. He took it for granted that the ladies who held higher offices would save him any appearance of want of courtesy by voluntarily resigning. Ere this, however, had been stated, the Queen having expressed a desire that her own and her mother's old friend, Lord Liverpool (who, it may be remarked, was of the Tory party), should be appointed to some office, Sir Robert at once requested the Queen's permission to offer him the office of Lord Steward, or any other which he might select. The only other names which he submitted to her were those of Lords Ashley (now Shaftesbury), and Sydney. So far all was well. But when he went on to say that he was most ready to apply a similar principle to, and consult Her Majesty's wishes in, the selection of her ladies, the Queen remarked that she should reserve all these appointments, and indeed did not intend to make any present change. In a subsequent interview with the Duke of Wellington, the Queen reiterated the same desire and intention. Meanwhile, after her interviews with Peel and Wellington, Her Majesty sent for Lord John Russell, and put the direct question to him, Was she right in her determination? He at once replied that she was right; on which she naively asked him to support her now, as she had supported the Cabinet of which he had been a member. Lord John having consulted Lord Melbourne, they called their ex-colleagues together, and advised the Queen to send the following note to Sir Robert Peel, which she did:--

Buckingham Palace, May 10, 1839.

The Queen, having considered the proposal made to her yesterday by Sir
Robert Peel, to remove the Ladies of her Bedchamber, cannot consent to
adopt a course which she conceives to be contrary to usage and
repugnant to her feelings.

On receipt of this, Sir Robert Peel, acting in perfect concert with the Duke of Wellington, communicated with Her Majesty in a remarkably courteous letter, of which this was the concluding and decisive paragraph:--

Having had the opportunity, through your Majesty's gracious
consideration, of reflecting upon this point, he humbly submits to
your Majesty that he is reluctantly compelled, by a sense of public
duty and of the interest of your Majesty's service, to adhere to the
opinion which he ventured to express to your Majesty. He trusts he may
be permitted, at the same time, to express to your Majesty his
grateful acknowledgments for the distinction which your Majesty
conferred upon him, by requiring his advice and assistance in the
attempt to form an Administration, and his earnest prayers that
whatever arrangements your Majesty may be enabled to make for that
purpose, may be most conducive to your Majesty's personal comfort and
happiness, and to the promotion of the public welfare.

[Sidenote: WELLINGTON AND LORD MELBOURNE.]

It was generally believed at the time, as Sir Archibald Alison himself confesses, that Peel did not regret this royal rebuff; for "he was by no means sanguine," says the Tory historiographer, "as to the success of his mission, nor annoyed at the failure of the attempt to fulfil it." The _pro_ and _con_ were put with equal terseness and skill by Lord Melbourne and the Duke of Wellington. The words of the latter were:--"It is essential that the Minister should possess the entire confidence of Her Majesty, and with that view should exercise the usual control permitted to the Minister by the Sovereign in the construction of the Household. There is the greatest possible difference between the _Household of the Queen Consort and the Household of the Queen Regnant_--that of the former, who is not a political personage, being comparatively of little importance."

Lord Melbourne, on the other hand, thus justified the advice which his Royal Mistress had received from him and adopted:--"I frankly declare that I resume office unequivocally and solely for this reason, that I will not abandon my Sovereign in a situation of difficulty and distress, and especially when a demand is made upon Her Majesty with which, I think, she ought not to comply--a demand inconsistent with her personal honour, and which, if acquiesced in, would render her reign liable to all the changes and variations of political parties, and render her domestic life one constant scene of unhappiness and discomfort."

The public at large, even those who thought her _action_ wrong, accorded to the Queen sympathy rather than blame. It was well known that she had been dexterously surrounded by the wives and sisters and daughters of the great Whigs, and that on these ladies all her ardent and girlish affections were bestowed. This made the people all the more angry that the male heads of the Whig houses now gave her unconstitutional advice. Not only her youth and inexperience, but the very warmth of the affection which she had displayed, and, above all, the fact that she was the chief sufferer on the occasion, all pleaded for her. Indeed, it may be said that the quickly-forgotten "Bedchamber Plot" rather endeared the Sovereign to her subjects than otherwise. Both of her uncles who preceded her on the throne had been exceedingly capricious and disloyal to their ministers. Under these reigns there was a constant sense, in the breasts of ministers and in the breasts of the people, of the precariousness of the existence of even the most popular cabinets. It certainly cannot be said that in the early summer of 1839 Lord Melbourne's cabinet was popular. Nevertheless, though the ministers were blamed, the people were charmed by the Queen's ingenuousness, bravery, and steadiness of attachment. It is but just to state that on every future occasion of the change of an Administration, the Queen has, without the slightest demur, conceded the point, the consideration of which we now dismiss. And with the transparent candour of her nature, Her Majesty has caused it to be made known that the Prince Consort had much to do with producing this result.