seriously considered him quite capable of any plot
or any crime which might secure his own advancement to the throne.
Sanguine persons, indeed, saw a gleam of hope in the fact that the Duke
of Cumberland was in any case the heir to the crown of Hanover. In the
House of Hanover the succession is confined to the male line, and the
Princess Victoria had nothing to do with it. The hope, therefore, was
that the Duke of Cumberland would be content with the prospect of his
succession to the throne of Hanover, and that when the time arrived for
him to become King of Hanover he would betake himself to his new
kingdom and trouble England no more. Still the fact remained that just
as yet he was not King of Hanover, and that if no proper provisions
were made against a contingency he might become the guardian of the
girl, or the child, who was to succeed William the Fourth on the
English throne.

[Sidenote: 1830--The death of Huskisson]

King William, however, did not trouble himself much about all these
considerations. He did not see any reason why people should expect him
to die all of a sudden, and he could hardly be got to give any serious
attention to the question of a regency. It was then part of the
constitutional practice of the monarchy that a dissolution of
Parliament should take place when a new sovereign had come to the
throne. The practice has since ceased to be a part of our
constitutional usages, but in the days when William the Fourth came to
the throne it was a matter of course. The King, for some reason or
other, was anxious that a dissolution should take place as soon as
possible. It may be that he was merely desirous to find out how far
the existing Ministry had the support of the country, although it does
not seem quite likely that William's intelligence could have carried
him so near to the level of statesmanship as to make this elementary
question a {103} matter of consideration in his mind. The King's
principal ministers were the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel.
The most powerful among the leaders of Opposition were Charles, Earl
Grey, in the House of Lords and Henry Brougham and Lord John Russell in
the House of Commons. There was some doubt as to the position which
might be taken up by Canning and Huskisson and their friends. Some of
the Tories believed that they might be won over to support the Duke of
Wellington, in order to assist him in counteracting the efforts of the
more ardent an