over again, and, after a long pause, said: "I was not
aware when I spoke to your Royal Highness that my words would be taken
down, and don't acknowledge that this is a fair representation of my
opinion." He was visibly uneasy, and added, if he knew that what he
said should be committed to paper, he would speak differently, and
give his opinion with all the circumspection and reserve which a
Minister ought to employ when he gave responsible advice; but he had
in this instance spoken quite unreservedly, like an advocate defending
a point in debate, and then he had taken another and tried to carry
this as far as it would go, in order to give me an opportunity of
judging of the different bearings of the question. He did so often in
the Cabinet, when they discussed important questions, and was often
asked: "Well, then, you are quite against this measure?" "Not at
all, but I want that the counter argument should be gone into to the
fullest extent, in order that the Cabinet should not take a one-sided
view."

He viewed the existence of such a paper with much uneasiness, as it
might appear as if he had left this before going out of office in
order to prepossess the Queen against the measures, which her future
Minister might propose to her, and so lay secretly the foundation
of his fall. The existence of such a paper might cause great
embarrassment to the Queen; if she followed the advice of a Minister
who proposed measures hostile to the Irish Church, it might be said,
she knew what she undertook, for Sir R. Peel had warned her and left
on record the serious objections that attached to the measure.

I said that I felt it to be of the greatest importance to possess
his views on the question, but that I thought I would not have been
justified in keeping a record of our conversation without showing it
to him, and asking him whether I had rightly understood him; but if
he felt a moment's uneasiness about this memorandum, I would at once
destroy it, as I was anxious that nothing should prevent his
speaking without the slightest reserve to me in future as he had done
heretofore. I felt that these open discussions were of the greatest
use to me in my endeavour to investigate the different political
questions of the day and to form a conclusive opinion upon them.
As Sir Robert did not say a word to dissuade me, I took it as an
affirmative, and threw the memorandum into the fire, which, I could
see, relieved Sir Robert.

ALBERT.