that your Majesty's servants had unanimously agreed
to an immediate and total repeal of the Corn Laws, is quite without
foundation.[28]

[Footnote 28: See _Memoirs of the Life of Henry Reeve_, vol.
i. p. 175, for Lord Dufferin's refutation of the story that
Sidney Herbert confided the secret to Mrs Norton, and that she
sold it to the _Times_. The story has obtained a wide currency
through Mr Meredith's _Diana of the Crossways_. Lord Stanmore,
in his _Life of Sidney Herbert_, substantially attributes
the communication to Lord Aberdeen, but does not give the
details.]

_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._[29]

WHITEHALL, _5th December 1845._

(_Friday evening._)

Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and will
wait upon your Majesty to-morrow evening, leaving London by the
half-past twelve train.

Sir Robert Peel will avail himself of your Majesty's kind proposal to
remain at Osborne until Monday morning.

He will come to Osborne with a heart full of gratitude and devotion to
your Majesty, but with a strong conviction (all the grounds for which
he will, with your Majesty's permission, explain to your Majesty) that
in the present state of affairs, he can render more service to your
Majesty and to the country in a private than in a public station.

[Footnote 29: Peel reported to the Queen the Cabinet
discussions on the Corn Law question. The Queen wrote that
the news caused her much uneasiness, and that she felt certain
that her Minister would not leave her at a moment of such
difficulty, and when a crisis was impending.]

[Pageheading: CABINET DISSENSIONS]

[Pageheading: INTERVIEW WITH PEEL]

_Memorandum by the Prince Albert._

OSBORNE, _7th December 1845._

On receiving the preceding letter[30] ... we were, of course, in great
consternation. Yesterday Sir Robert Peel arrived here and explained
the condition of affairs.

[Footnote 30: From Sir Robert Peel, 5th December, _ante._]

On 1st November he had called his Cabinet, and placed before its
members the reports of the Irish Commissioners, Dr Buckland, Dr
Playfair and Dr Lindley, on the condition of the potato crop, which
was to the effect that the half of the potatoes were ruined by the
rot, and that no one could guarantee the remainder. Belgium, Holland,
Sweden, and Denmark, in which states the potato disease had likewise
deprived the poorer class of its usual f