ess, a Marchioness, or a Countess. The selection is difficult, but
if your Majesty can find a person, it would not be well to consider
either high or low rank as a disqualification.

Lord Melbourne intends to take advantage of his freedom from the
restraints of office in order to see a little of the bloom of spring
and summer, which he has missed for so many years. He has got one or
two horses, which he likes well enough, and has begun to ride again a
little. Lord Melbourne wishes your Majesty much of the same enjoyment,
together with all health, happiness, and prosperity.

[Footnote 22: Near Twickenham, formerly the residence of
Horace Walpole, and filled with his collection of pictures and
_objets de vertu_.]

[Footnote 23: The Duke of Gloucester, brother of George
III., married in 1766 Maria, Countess-Dowager Waldegrave,
illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, and niece of
Horace Walpole. This, and the Duke of Cumberland's marriage in
1771 to Lady Anne Horton, occasioned the passing of the Royal
Marriages Act.]

[Footnote 24: Lord Adolphus FitzClarence (1802-1856), a
Rear-Admiral, brother of the Earl of Munster.]

[Footnote 25: The Earl of Munster had held the office of
Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle, with a salary of
L1,000 a year.]

[Footnote 26: To the Royal children. Lady Lyttelton was
ultimately appointed.]

[Pageheading: PARTY POLITICS]

[Pageheading: THE GARTER]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

BROCKET HALL, _6th April 1842._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has this
morning received your Majesty's very kind and confidential letter, for
which he greatly thanks your Majesty. Your Majesty may depend upon it
that Lord Melbourne will do everything in his power to discourage and
restrain factious and vexatious opposition, not only on account of
your Majesty's wish, but because he disapproves it as much as your
Majesty can possibly do. But everything in his power he fears is but
little. The leaders of a party, or those who are so called, have but
little sway over their followers, particularly when not in Government,
and when they have it not in their power to threaten them with
any very serious consequences, such as the dissolution of the
Administration. Mr Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, is reported to
have said that political parties were like snakes, guided not by their
h