iness with a chance of success.

The Queen was glad therefore to see that Sir Robert Peel did not ask
for a Dissolution, and she _entirely concurs_ in the opinion expressed
by him in his last speech in the House of Commons, when he said:

"I feel strongly this, that no Administration is justified in advising
the exercise of that prerogative, unless there be a fair, reasonable
presumption, even a strong moral conviction, that after a Dissolution
they will be enabled to administer the affairs of this country through
the support of a party sufficiently powerful to carry their measures.
I do not think a Dissolution justifiable to strengthen a party. I
think the power of Dissolution is a great instrument in the hands of
the Crown, and that there is a tendency to blunt that instrument if it
be resorted to without necessity.

"The only ground for Dissolution would have been a strong presumption
that after a Dissolution we should have had a party powerful enough in
this House to give effect practically to the measures which we might
propose. I do not mean a support founded on a concurrence on _one
great question of domestic policy_, however important that may be, not
of those who differ from us on almost all questions of public policy,
agreeing with us in one; but that we should have the support of a
powerful party united by a general concurrence of political opinions."

The Queen is confident that these views will be in accordance with
Lord John Russell's own sentiments and opinions upon this subject.

[Footnote 20: In pursuance of the policy of free trade, the
Ministry introduced and passed a Bill reducing the duties
on foreign slave-grown sugar, with the ultimate intention of
equalising them with those on Colonial produce.]

[Pageheading: LORD MELBOURNE'S VIEWS]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _21st July 1846._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He has just
received your Majesty's letter of yesterday, and is much delighted at
again hearing from your Majesty.

What your Majesty says of the state of public affairs and of parties
in Parliament is true. But in November last Sir Robert Peel had
a party which might have enabled him to have long carried on the
Government if he had not most unaccountably chosen himself to scatter
it to the winds.

Lord Melbourne is much gratified by the intimation that your Majesty
would not have been displeased or u