blic question except that which concerned the State Church, and he
reminded Peel that so lately as on the occasion of Lord Grey's
retirement from office the Duke of Wellington had seized the
opportunity of publicly condemning the whole policy of the Whig
Administration. Under these circumstances Lord Stanley declared that,
in his opinion, it would be injurious to his own character and
injurious to the new Government as well if he were to accept the offer
of a place in such an Administration. He had left Lord Grey's
Government because he differed with Lord Grey on one question alone,
which then had to be dealt with, and he could not join a Government of
which {239} Peel and Wellington were to be the leaders, from whom he
had differed on almost every great political question that had engaged
the attention of the country during his time.

[Sidenote: 1834--Peel forms his Ministry]

Peel had nothing for it but to go on with his task and form the best
Administration he could. Lord Lyndhurst was once again to be Lord
Chancellor, and in such a man Peel certainly found a colleague who had
no superior either as a lawyer or a debater in the House of Lords.
Some of us who can still remember having heard Lord Lyndhurst deliver
long and powerful speeches in the House of Lords, compelling the
attention and the admiration of every listener when the orator himself
had long left his eightieth year behind him, will feel sure that Sir
Robert Peel's first Administration was adequately represented in the
hereditary chamber. It is not necessary to introduce here a full list
of the new Ministry, but there are three names which call for special
mention. These are the names of three young men who then entered
ministerial office for the first time, and with whom the world
afterwards became well acquainted, each according to his different way.
One was William Ewart Gladstone, who became Junior Lord of the
Treasury, and whom the world has long since recognized as the greatest
statesman and the greatest master of the House of Commons known to the
reign of Queen Victoria. The second was Sidney Herbert, who was for
many years one of the most ready, accomplished, and brilliant debaters
in that House, and whose premature death cut short a career that had
seemed to be steadily rising from day to day. The third was a man
whose political life has long since been forgotten, but whose name is
well remembered because of his success in quite a differen