stated by Sir Robert Peel, not to advise dissolution. If Sir
Robert Peel does not receive your Majesty's commands to wait upon your
Majesty in the course of to-day, Sir Robert Peel will be at Osborne
about half-past three to-morrow.

[Pageheading: PEEL'S RESIGNATION]

_Memorandum by the Prince Albert._

OSBORNE HOUSE, _28th June 1846._

Sir Robert Peel arrived yesterday evening and tendered his
resignation. He is evidently much relieved in quitting a post, the
labours and anxieties of which seem almost too much for anybody to
bear, and which in these last six months were particularly onerous.
In fact, he said that he would not have been able to stand it much
longer. Nothing, however, would have induced him to give way before
he had passed the Corn Bill and the Tariff.[10] The majority upon the
Irish Bill was much larger than any one had expected; Sir Robert was
glad of this, however, as it convinced his colleagues of the necessity
of resigning. He told them at the Cabinet that, as for himself
personally, he had made up his mind to resign, and on being asked
what he advised his Cabinet to do, he recommended them to do the
same, which received general concurrence. The last weeks had not been
without some intrigue. There was a party headed by Lord Ellenborough
and Lord Brougham, who wished Sir Robert and Sir James Graham to
retire, and for the rest of the Cabinet to reunite with the Protection
section of the Conservatives, and to carry on the Government. Lord
Ellenborough and Lord Brougham had in December last settled to head
the Protectionists, but this combination had been broken up by Lord
Ellenborough's acceptance of the post of First Lord of the Admiralty;
Lord Brougham then declared for free trade, perhaps in order to follow
Lord Ellenborough into office. The Duke of Wellington had been for
dissolution till he saw the complete disorganisation of his party
in the House of Lords. The Whigs, having been beat twice the evening
before by large majorities on the Roman Catholic Bill, had made every
exertion on the Coercion Bill, and the majority was still increased by
Sir Robert's advising the Free Traders and Radicals, who had intended
to stay away in order not to endanger Sir Robert's Government, not to
do so as they would not be able to save him. Seventy Protectionists
voted with the majority.

[Footnote 10: By a remarkable coincidence the Corn Bill passed
through the Lords on the same night that t