A " POWER BEHIND THE THRONE."
" Or course," says the Morning Herald, " Lord MELnouaNE must hire a cook, now that his dinners are stopped at the Palace." Not quite "of course." Lord MELBOURNE many be the Palace Premier still. He may be a second Lord BUTE. 1 here are some points in his position not unsimilar to Lord BUTE'S ; and there is reason to believe that the character of the present Queen resembles that of the youthful GEORGE the Third in one quality—self-will. It would be curious if the Tories, who played the household against the Whig Ministers so often and so successfully, should find them- selves embarrassed by the same tactics. Let it be borne in mind, that the principles which made CHARLES Fox and his successors so odious to GEORGE the Third and his sons, and which must always he disagreeable to monarchs, are not held by the Melbourne-Whigs, who have proved themselves even more accommodating than Tories to Royal whims, and have gratified Queen VICTORIA by an extra- Tory Civil List ; while at the same time they have been essenti- ally Conservative in general politics. Nothing in his public pro- ceedings has counteracted the private influence of Lord MEL- BOURNE over his Royal Mistress. It is difficult to conceive that this influence should not continue. The Morning Herald says (and the probable story is but feebly contradicted by the
Standard)—
" The Queen was deeply affected when the Lord Chancellor and Lord Mel- bourne definitively informed her Majesty that the Whig Government was ex- tinct. She wept for a long time, and deplored her situation. The Queen proposed to send to Lord Normality ; but Lord Melbourne had the good sense and the manliness to recommend her to send for the Duke of Wellington, and place the country unreservedly in his hands."
Tory Ministers, for the first time since the death of GEORGE the second, are weak at Court ; and some curious events may be ex- pected to spring out of their somewhat embarrassing relations with the Sovereign.
* This also was written before the fracas about the Women had transpired.
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