As has been
intimated in a former page, it will be seen hereafter that in 1839 a
similar claim to be allowed to remove some of the ladies of the royal
household, and the rejection of that claim by the sovereign, prevented
Sir R. Peel from forming an administration. And, as that transaction was
discussed at some length in Parliament, it will afford a better
opportunity for examining the principle on which the claim and practice
(for of the practice there is no doubt) rest. For the present it is
sufficient to point out the resemblance between the cases.
But it is remarkable that, unwarrantable as the pretension of the Whig
leaders was to dictate to the Regent to whom he should confide the lead
of the government (if, indeed, Canning be correct in his opinion), yet
it was not one to which the Regent felt any repugnance, since, in 1827,
when Lord Liverpool's illness again left the Treasury vacant, he, being
then on the throne as George IV., proposed to the Duke of Wellington to
desire the remaining members of the administration themselves to select
a chief under whom they would be willing to continue in his service; but
the Duke told him that the plan of allowing them to choose their own
leader would be most derogatory to his position; that the choice of the
Prime-minister was an act which ought to be entirely his own, for that,
in fact under the British constitution, it was the only personal act of
government which the King of Great Britain had to perform.
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