them to your
Majesty with as short and as clear a statement as he can make of a
question which is of a technical and official character, and with
which Lord Melbourne does not feel himself to be very familiar. Lord
Melbourne transmits a copy of the proposed Order in Council to carry
the recommendation of the report into effect, which will acquaint your
Majesty precisely what the powers and duties are which it is intended
to transfer from the Secretary of State[87] to the Secretary-at-War.
It is the more necessary to be cautious, because it can be done
without taking the opinion or having recourse to the authority of
Parliament.

Your Majesty will not suppose that Lord Melbourne by laying before you
the whole case has an idea of throwing the weight of such a decision
entirely upon your Majesty. Lord Melbourne will deem it his duty to
offer your Majesty a decided opinion upon the subject.

Lord Melbourne is much rejoiced to hear that your Majesty enjoys
Windsor. The Duchess of Sutherland,[88] who appreciates both the grand
and the beautiful, could not be otherwise than delighted with it....

Lord Melbourne has the pleasure of wishing your Majesty a happy and
prosperous New Year.

[Footnote 85: Commander-in-Chief.]

[Footnote 86: Master-General of the Ordnance.]

[Footnote 87: The Secretaries of State (then three, now five
in number) have co-extensive authority, that is to say, any
one of them can legally execute the duties of all, although
separate spheres of action are for convenience assigned to
them; at that time the administration of Colonial and Military
affairs were combined, the Secretary-at-War not being a
Secretary of State. After the Crimean War a fourth Secretary
was appointed, and after the Indian Mutiny a fifth was added,
entrusted severally with the supervision of Military affairs
and the administration of India. See letters of Lord Melbourne
of 1st, 4th, and 5th November 1841. (Ch. X, 'Secretaries of State')]

[Footnote 88: Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana, Duchess of
Sutherland (1806-1868), was the daughter of the sixth Earl of
Carlisle, and married her cousin, Earl Gower (1786-1861), who
became Duke of Sutherland in 1833. On the accession of the
Queen, the Duchess of Sutherland became Mistress of the Robes,
a post which she held till 1841, and on three subsequent
occasions. The Duchess was a cultivated woman with many