The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-15 00:00:00

the Committee, to send for every document in the

possession of th Irish ev,ry officer,
however closely connected with that Government, that
they might examine them, and thereby the more tho-
roughly sift into the truth of the assertion, convinced as
he was that it would be found that every effort had been
made by that Government to trace to the utmost the
existence of such a conspiracy when any intimation
of any such thing had ever reached the Government.
He would say just one word in explanation of the mis-
.ftatement which had been made with respect to his oh-
,t2rvaticns on a former occasion. He had not given a
general denial of any conspiracy, but he had denied that
there was any general conspiracy in the country.
Lord RODEN said that he had written to these
gentlemen in Dublin, and had desired them, if they
came before the Committee, to brit-1g these papers with
them, otherwise it would be impossible to put the
country in possession of the entire facts of the
case with retard to the Ribbon conspiracy. These
officers took that letter to Mr. Drummond, and the
Noble Lord had; desired him not to produce the papers
to the Committee. He hoped ere long the Committee

would be able to make a report to the House
The Duke of RICHMOND conceived that Mr.
Drummond would have ill performed his. duty,
if he had permitted those papers to be laid
upon the table of the Committee. Some of
them related to trials which were then pendin,
and they could, not be produced to any Committee
of their Lordships without the utmost danger. He could
not give any opinion as to when the Committee would
report, or as to what that report might be, but tnis he
would say, that he had seldom seen any Committee
more numerously attended.
After a few words from the Marquis of WEsTmEATH
and the Marquis of NORMANBY in explanation, the

conversation dropped.
Petitions in favour of a uniform system of penny
postage were presented by Lord Galway, the M .rquis
of Tavistock, Earl Fitzwilliam, and other Noble Lo ds.
Lord GLENELG presented a petition from a place
in Scotland, praying for Church Extension in Scotland.
The Bishops' Residences Bill was read a third time
and passed.
MINISTERIAL EXPLANATION.
Viscount MELBOURNE sail he believed he owed
their Lordships some excuse.or apology for the silence
he had maintained on a former occasion. He felt
that he had to throw himself upon the consider-
ation of their Lordships for having, after the announce-
ment he made on Tuesday last of his having tendered
to her Majesty his resignation, and of her Majesty
having accepted the same, and of her Majesty having
been graciously pleased to request himself and
his colleagues to retain their offices until her
Majesty had made such arrangements as might
be necessary for the appointment of their successors—
he repeated, he felt he owed some apology to their
Lordships for having appeared one single night as a
Minister of the Crown upon that Bench, without at
the same time seizing that opportunity of explaining
what had taken place, and the grounds upon which he
had departed from his previous intention. But
it appeared to him not unnatural that these
negociations having been conducted by others,
and he necessarily being ignorant of them, that they
being known only to two persons, one of whom, as had
been well expressed, alone was in Parliament—he re-
peated it was not unnatural to expect that those engaged
in these negociations,orsome persons on their part, should
have explained those parts of the transactions of which they
were witnesses. He (Viscount Melbourne) had some
expectation that such a course would have been pur-
sued in that House. He was almost certain, from the
communications which had taken place, that it would
be pursued, as it had been in another place, and he
thought it would tend to the calm, the deliberate, the
comprehensive, and dispassionate consideration of
the suhject,.that the statement of those parts of the con-
versation that had taken place should be made by
those who were conversant with them, and that then,
from the statements and documents produced, it
would be seen how far it might be necessary for
him to make a supplementary statement, or pro-
duce any other document, or consider whatever
was necessary to be done in order to place the matter
before their Lordships' House in the fullest, and
in the most satisfactory manner. These were
the reasons which had induced him to delay any
explanation upon a former occasion, and for so doing
lie then begged their Lordships' pardon. The permis-
sion given by her Majesty to Sir R.-Peel and the Duke
of Wellington to lay the whole of the proceedings before
either House, relieved them from the obligation of
the oaths they had taken as Privy Couecillors, and it
was in their power to make those explanations
when and how they pleased. He would then proceed
very succinctly to state the part he had borne in the
proceedings. On Tuesday morning, the House of
Commons came to the vote on the Jamaica Bill, which
induced him and his colleagues to tender their resigna-
tion to her Majesty, and at the meeting of the House on
that day he had declared the, fuct.to their Lordships.
On the Wednesday the Duke of Wellington was sent
for, and waited upon her Majesty, and afterwards Sir
Robert Peel had several interviews. On the Thursday
evening he was again summoned to attend her Ma-
jesty, and on being admitted into the presence of the
Sovereign, her Majesty said the negociations with Sir
R. Peel were, in flact, closed and terminated. Her
Majesty stated that Sir R. Peel had had two audiences
—that the Right Hon. Baronet had had an audience
that. morning—that the principal arrangements had been
made, but that towards the close of the audierice, Sir
Robert Peel propo,ed to her Majesty that he should
have power to dismiss the Ladies of
.the Bedchamber
—not stating how many or whom it was his inten-
tion to remove, but asking generally for the power
of removing the Ladies of the Household. It cer-
tainly was asked for in such a manner as to leave
a strong impression upon the mind of her Ma-
jesty, that it was intended to employ that power
to a very great extent, that at all events it was in-
tended to remove all the Ladies of the Bedchamber, as
well as some of those Ladies filling inferior situations.
(Here there were several expressions of dissent from
the Opposition.) Most undoubtedly such was the im-
pression upon her Majesty's mind, though perhaps it
%vas not the intention of Sir Robert Peel.—( Hear,
hear.) Her Majesty stated that she considered
the negotiation to be at an end, and said she would
send him a final answer. Meanwhile she again
had recourse to his (Lord Melbourne's) advice as to the
manner in which she should communicate her deter-
mination to Sir Robert Peel. The question was, of
course, too grave for him to decide alone, so he sum-
moned his colleagues, and having laid before them
the whole case, it was their opinion that
it was not advisable, that it was not fit-
ting, that it was not proper that either
by her Majesty's present Ministers, or by any future
Cabinets, that the Ladies of her Majesty's Household
should be subject to the changes of political movements.
—(Cheers.) And her Majesty in accordance with this
advice wrote the following answer to Sir Robert
Peel :—" Buckingham Palace, May 10th.—The
Queen basing considered the proposal made to her
by Sir Robert Peel to remove the Ladies of the Bed-
chamber, cannot consent to a course which she conceives
to he contrary to usage, and which is repugnant to
her feelinge''—and to this answer the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet in the course of two or three hours replied.—
[The Noble Viscount here read'Sir Robert Peel's reply to
her Majesty's note, for which see The Sun of yesterday.]
He (Lord M.) was bound to say, that he agreed
in time principle laid down by her Majesty, and that he
considered it was not advisable to agree to the proposal
of Sir Robert Peel ; and with his colleagues he had
come to the resolution to support her Majesty in her
determination.—( Cheers.) In coming to that de-
termination, he knew that all his colleagues, and him-
self more pat titularly, would expose themselves to every
kind of insinuation and obloquy—that they would be
charged with intrigue—with having preconcerted the
objection with a view of rendering abortive the attempt
to form another Administration. Such charges, he was
aware, had not been made in either House of Parlia-
ment—but they had been made in quarters which
had considerable weight and influence—and they
could not remain unnoticed or uncontradicted ;
hut he also knew the unfortunate situation in
which any person stood who had nothing to
oppose to such charges but his bare assertion.
He would freely admit to their Lordships that on the
following Wednesday he thought it his duty to her
Majesty to tender to her such advice as the unprece-
dented situation in which she was placed required, but
he would assure their Lordships, without using asseve-
ration, or protestation, for he considered the use of them
would induce their Lordships to doubt perhaps the truth
of the statement—but without asseveration or protes-
tation he would state most distinctly and decidedly that
he did not give her Majesty any advice with respect
to the Ladies of her Household. On that subject he
did not give her Majesty any advice whatever, be-
cause he did not expect, he did not anticipate, nor
could he for a moment have conceived that the
proposition which had been made to her Majesty
would have been brought forward.—(Great cheering
from the Ministerial side of the House.) He had not
anticipated such a course, and therefore he had given
no advice to her Majesty upon the subject, indeed, he
had never mentioned the subject to her Majesty.—
There were many reasons in his opinion why the pro-
position should not have been made to her Majesty ;
he would say nothing of the policy or expediency
of the proposition. It was not for him to instruct such
persons as the Noble Duke opposite, the Right Hon.
Baronet, and those who acted ssith them, who had
much greater experience than himself in the
practical conduct of affairs in the Royal House-
hold ; he had had however some experience
on these subjects in the late reign, and he could assure
their Lordships that these personal matters—these
strokes of force, gave a tone and a character to the con-
nexion between the Sovereign and his Minister
which never produced any good ; but on the con-
trary, ended in alienation and feelings of irritation.
He did not deny there were difficultiesand inconveniences
on the part of the Noble Lords opposite, but the House
I might depend upon it, that however exaggerated those