Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/441

 the lord-lieutenant, acting on the private advice of Brougham, recommended the abandonment of the clauses for the suppression of meetings (19 June 1834), especially as the letter was addressed to the prime minister, not to himself. The ministry resigned over the misunderstanding thus produced, and Melbourne never forgave Wellesley or Brougham.

On the resignation of Grey, Melbourne was summoned by the king, and obeyed, having ascertained that Lansdowne would not be premier. He declined to form a coalition with Wellington, Peel, and Stanley, and reconstructed the old ministry, placing Duncannon, with a seat in the lords, at the home office, and making Hobhouse first commissioner of woods and forests (Letter to the king of 15 July 1834 in Melbourne Papers). A coercion bill was passed minus the meetings clauses, the lords threw out the Tithe Bill, and parliament was prorogued on 15 Aug. It was evident that the government was fast breaking up. O'Connell, whom Melbourne thought irreconcilable, published a violent attack on the whigs; Lansdowne threatened resignation because of blunders connected with the Irish poor-law commission; and Brougham raised a storm of criticism by his tour in Scotland and public altercation with Durham. Lord John Russell also quarrelled with Durham, and, without consulting Melbourne, obtained from the king permission to vindicate himself in parliament. Hence the king was evidently prejudiced against the ministry, and when Althorp's removal to the upper house necessitated a reconstruction of the cabinet, he readily availed himself of Melbourne's hint that he was ready to resign. An audience at Brighton on 14 Nov., at which the king expressed alarm at the inquiry into the Irish church, and thought that Russell would make ‘a wretched figure’ as leader of the commons (, i. 329), was followed by a letter dismissing the ministry. Melbourne bore the summons to Wellington, and wrote that night to Grey: ‘I am not surprised at his (the king's) decision, nor do I know that I can entirely condemn it.’ Incensed by Brougham's communication to the ‘Times,’ the king insisted on the resignation of the ministry before their successors were appointed. His conduct in that instance was high-handed, but throughout the crisis he acted less unadvisedly than is stated in most histories.

Melbourne refused an earldom and the Garter, and retired to Melbourne House. At Derby he made two speeches in explanation of his position, the second of which was considered by Greville to be a retractation of the first, compelled by the menaces and reproaches of Duncannon (, iii. 170). But the speech does not bear out this conclusion. Before Christmas he was in the neighbourhood of London, and in correspondence with Grey and Holland. Holland was eager for an immediate attack on the Peel government. Melbourne hesitated, being afraid of radical violence, and unable to see his way to a coalition with Stanley. He was determined, however, that Brougham, Durham, and O'Connell should be excluded from a future liberal government, and explained his reasons to the first in remarkably plain terms. He was also strongly opposed to the negotiations with O'Connell, of which Duncannon was the agent, and which had issue in the so-called Lichfield House compact. But he acquiesced in the opposition to the re-election of Manners Sutton as the speaker, though he found the rival claims of Spring Rice and Abercromby difficult to adjust, and appears to have raised no objections to the Appropriation resolution, on which Peel was forced to resign (8 April 1835).

Melbourne was again summoned, together with Lansdowne, after Grey had declined to form a ministry, and once more refused to form a coalition government. The great seal was placed in commission in order to soothe Brougham's feelings, but Melbourne was unsuccessful in persuading Grey to accept, and Palmerston to relinquish, the foreign office. At the same time he had some difficulty in disposing of the king's objections, which embraced any attempt to meddle with the Irish church, or to alter the royal household. On 18 April, however, the arrangements were complete, and Melbourne's second government began, supported only by a small majority in the commons, and opposed by the pronounced hostility of the king and a strong majority in the House of Lords. Lord Mulgrave's viceregal entry into Dublin, at which banners bearing inscriptions in favour of repeal were freely displayed, gave great offence. The lords rejected the appropriation clauses of the Irish Tithe Bill, and the measure was lost after Melbourne had made an important speech in its favour (Hansard, 20 Aug. 1835). The legislative measure of the session was that for the reform of the municipal corporations, which became law in spite of the profuse amendments of Lyndhurst, and though the king wished to proceed by granting new charters rather than by act of parliament. The king's anger also found vent on the occasion of Durham's mission to St. Petersburg, and Sir Charles Grey's appointment as member of the Canadian commission. On the first occasion Melbourne manfully took the blame