ly felt considerable embarrassment on first taking up
office, as he had given support in the previous year to a motion which
proposed cutting down the Prince's income. But the Prince felt no
resentment, and so frank and cordial was his manner that Peel,
following Lord Melbourne's lead, continued to keep him, from day to
day, thoroughly in touch with the course of public affairs.

The relations between the Queen and her Minister were cordial in the
extreme. Peel appreciated very fully her simple domestic tastes, and
he was able at a later date to bring before her notice Osborne, which
might serve as a "loophole of retreat" from the "noise and strife
and questions wearisome."

The Queen was delighted with the estate. "It is impossible to see
a prettier place, with woods and valleys and _points de vue_, which
would be beautiful anywhere; but when these are combined with the
sea (to which the woods grow down), and a beach which is quite private,
it is really everything one could wish."

In 1845 the Queen asked Lord Aberdeen if she could not show in some
way her appreciation of the courage with which Sir Robert Peel had
brought forward and supported two great measures, in the face of
tremendous opposition. She suggested that he should be offered the
Order of the Garter, the highest distinction possible.

Sir Robert Peel's reply was that he would much prefer not to accept
any reward at all; he sprang, he said, from the people, and such a
great honour in his case was out of the question. The only reward
he asked for was Her Majesty's confidence, and so long as he possessed
that he was content.

When his ministry came to an end the Prince wrote to him, begging
that their relations should not on that account cease. Sir Robert
replied, thanking him for "the considerate kindness and indulgence"
he had received at their hands, and regretting that he should no
longer be able to correspond so frequently as before. The Prince and
he were in the fullest sympathy in matters of politics, art, and
literature, and Peel had supported the Prince loyally through all
the anxieties connected with the arrangements for the Great
Exhibition.

His death in 1850 was a calamity. Prince Albert, in a letter, speaks
of Peel as "the best of men, our truest friend, the strongest bulwark
of the throne, the greatest statesman of his time."

The Duke of Wellington said in the Upper House: "In all the course
of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel I