LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE QUEEN AND LORD HARTINGTON IN 1880.. [To THE ROME OF THE " SPACTATOH."] SIR,—Your account of what took place on the change of Government in 1880 is, I believe, essentially correct, except perhaps in one particular. You speak of " the summons which, on Lord Beaconsfield's counsel," Lord Hartington "received from the Queen." Now, I question if that " counsel " was asked or given. It is, I believe, the established rule of constitutional practice, as laid down long ago by Sir Robert Peel, that the outgoing Minister does not volunteer advice as to the choice of his successor. That is a matter in which the Sovereign
acts on her own discretion. Should she feel any uncertainty about the choice, she can ask the outgoing Minister for his advice, and, of course, he will not refuse it. But the occasions where such uncertainties can arise must be very rare. In 1880, it would be natural for her Majesty to turn in the first instance to Lord Hartington, as the titular leader of the victorious party in the House of Commons, and one cannot doubt that she would have felt fully competent to take that step without Lord Beaconsfield's " counsel ;" though certainly, had that counsel been asked, we can pretty well guess what it would have been.—I am, Sir, &c., CONSTITUTIONALIST.
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