with consummate art and extraordinary felicity, he annihilated
his enemies. The hostile motion was defeated, and Palmerston was once
more the hero of the hour. Simultaneously, Atropos herself conspired
to favour him. Sir Robert Peel was thrown from his horse and killed. By
this tragic chance, Palmerston saw the one rival great enough to cope
with him removed from his path. He judged--and judged rightly--that
he was the most popular man in England; and when Lord John revived the
project of his exchanging the Foreign Office for some other position in
the Cabinet, he absolutely refused to stir.

Great was the disappointment of Albert; great was the indignation
of Victoria. "The House of Commons," she wrote, "is becoming very
unmanageable and troublesome." The Prince, perceiving that Palmerston
was more firmly fixed in the saddle than ever, decided that something
drastic must be done. Five months before, the prescient Baron had
drawn up, in case of emergency, a memorandum, which had been carefully
docketed, and placed in a pigeon-hole ready to hand. The emergency had
now arisen, and the memorandum must be used. The Queen copied out the
words of Stockmar, and sent them to the Prime Minister, requesting him
to show her letter to Palmerston. "She thinks it right," she wrote, "in
order TO PREVENT ANY MISTAKE for the FUTURE, shortly to explain WHAT
IT IS SHE EXPECTS FROM HER FOREIGN SECRETARY. She requires: (1) That he
will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, in order
that the Queen may know as distinctly to WHAT she has given her Royal
sanction; (2) Having ONCE GIVEN her sanction to a measure, that it be
not arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister; such an act she
must consider as failing in sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to
be visited by the exercise of her Constitutional right of dismissing
that Minister." Lord John Russell did as he was bid, and forwarded the
Queen's letter to Lord Palmerston. This transaction, which was of grave
constitutional significance, was entirely unknown to the outside world.

If Palmerston had been a sensitive man, he would probably have resigned
on the receipt of the Queen's missive. But he was far from sensitive; he
loved power, and his power was greater than ever; an unerring instinct
told him that this was not the time to go. Nevertheless, he was
seriously perturbed. He understood at last that he was struggling with
a formidable adversary, whose skill and strengt