He received from Sir Robert Peel what
seemed a kind and re-assuring answer; but although Sir Robert, in his
letter to the Queen of the 8th of December, told her Majesty he would
support the new Government in carrying out the principles, to carry out
which a majority of the members of his own Cabinet refused to aid him;
still he did not, when interrogated on the subject, pledge himself to
support Lord John who then saw the promised aid could not be relied on;
for any change in the programme might be regarded as a change of
principle, and no minister takes up the precise programme of his
predecessor. Still, on the 18th Lord John undertook to form a
Government; on the 20th, he writes to the Queen to say he found it
impossible to do so. It was no secret, that Lord Grey's objection to
_one_ appointment was the immediate cause of this failure, nor was it a
secret, that the person objected to was Lord Palmerston.[86] Some,
however, thought that this incident was cleverly laid hold of by Lord
John, to free himself from an untenable position. On the same day Sir
Robert Peel found himself again in the Queen's presence, who at once
announced to him, that instead of taking leave of him, she must request
him to continue in her service.
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