Commons Sitting of 16 April 1835

MINISTERIAL ARRANGEMENTS.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid: Having had the honour of receiving an intimation similar to that which I received on Monday last, and on which I then proposed an adjournment of the House until this day, I now beg leave to make a similar Motion, and propose that this House, at its rising, do adjourn till Saturday.
The Speaker having put the question,
Mr. Sinclairwished to know from the noble Lord (Lord John Russell) opposite, whether anything definite had yet been done towards the formation of a new Government? In the present aspect of public affairs, when so much anxiety existed in the public mind, it was absolutely necessary, and would be extremely satisfactory, to know how far the new Cabinet

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arrangements had advanced, and whether it would be really worth while to come down to the House on Saturday next. Since the dissolution of the late Administration, the greatest possible anxiety had prevailed in the country; the difficulties which now presented themselves could not be looked upon as in any degree unexpected; they must have been foreseen, or ought to have been, by the noble Lord opposite, and those who acted along with him. Every day since Parliament met, they had been told that practically there was no Government except in the Opposition; and that his Majesty's Ministers had not a leg to stand upon, nor an hour to live. The noble Lord (Lord J. Russell), after many threats, had put his motion in the shape of a decisive resolution with the view of not merely embarrassing, but altogether displacing the Government; but he had found it much more easy to overthrow the Doric column of a Conservative Administration, than to erect in its place one of that composite character of which the heterogeneous materials existed on the other side of the House. The manly and statesmanlike speech of the right hon. Baronet on his retiring from office, together with his whole conduct, had made a great and lasting impression on the country; and the people of England would look with much more confidence to an Opposition of which the right hon. Baronet was the leader, than to any Government of which the noble Lord or any of his friends elsewhere should be the head.
Lord John Russellsaid, I feel it impossible for me to give at present a direct answer to the question put by the hon. Gentleman; and I likewise feel extreme difficulty in making any precise communication to the House. At the same time I am ready to own, that if any portion of the House desire information, it is my duty, so far as I can consistently with the duty I owe to the Crown as well as to the House, at once to make that communication. I have only therefore to state, that on the dissolution of the late Ministry his Majesty sent for Earl Grey, to request his advice on the state of public affairs. By the advice of my Lord Grey, his Majesty sent for Lords Melbourne and Lansdowne to consult with him, and have their opinion on the following day; and the result has been that various communications have since taken place between his
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Majesty and Lord Melbourne. Those communications, however, have been of a preliminary nature, and being of a confidential character, I cannot of course state the nature of them to the House. I may, however, say this; that I do not think until Saturday next Lord Melbourne will be able to say that he is definitively authorised to submit to his Majesty a list of the members of a new Administration.
The Motion of adjournment was agreed to.