" He did not, indeed, go so far as his late
Attorney-general, Sir J. Campbell, who, in vexation at his loss of
office, had even threatened the Duke with impeachment; but, though he
admitted that the Duke had been free from the guilty intention of
exercising the authority of these offices, he suggested that "the Lords
ought to pass some resolution calculated to prevent so great a breach of
the constitution from being drawn into a precedent."
On the first point thus raised, for the dismissal of the late ministry
without any such cause as is usually furnished by an adverse vote of one
of the Houses of Parliament, Peel frankly admitted that his acceptance
of office rendered him constitutionally responsible, though, as he also
said, it was notorious that in fact he had, and could have had, no
previous knowledge of it; but he denied that any constitutional question
whatever was involved in it, since the King's right was denied by no
one; and he could, therefore, only consent to discuss it as a question
of policy and expediency. And, looking at it in this light, he regarded
his defence as easy and complete. He contended that the events of the
past year, the resignation of several of the subordinate ministers, and
finally of Lord Grey himself, and the proposal which had been made to
him (Peel) and several of his friends to coalesce with Lord Melbourne,
rendered the act by which the late government had been removed perfectly
justifiable on the part both of the King and of himself; that the King
was justified in thinking a wholly fresh arrangement preferable to a
re-arrangement of Lord Melbourne's cabinet; and he himself in obeying
his sovereign's commands to form a new administration.
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