There is no party in the State to which your Majesty can now resort, except that great party which calls itself Conservative, and of that party, his rank, station, reputation, and experience point out the Duke of Wellington as the person to whom your Majesty should apply.
Lord Melbourne therefore advises that your Majesty should send for the Duke of Wellington, and should acquaint him, provided your Majesty so feels, that you were entirely satisfied with your late Government, and that you part from them with reluctance; but that as he and the party of which he is the head have been the means of removing them from office, you naturally look to him to advise you as to the means of supplying their places and carrying on the business of the country.
If the Duke should be unwilling to form the Government himself, and should desire to devolve the task upon Sir Robert Peel, Lord Melbourne would advise your Majesty to accede to that suggestion; but Lord Melbourne would counsel your Majesty to be very unwilling to suffer the Government to be formed by Sir Robert Peel, without the active assistance in office of the Duke of Wellington.
With respect both to measures and appointments, your Majesty should place the fullest confidence in those to whom you entrust the management of affairs, exercising at the same time, and fully expressing, your own judgment upon both.
Your Majesty will do well to be from the beginning very vigilant that all measures and all appointments are stated to your Majesty in the first instance, and your Majesty's pleasure taken thereon previously to any instruments being drawn out for carrying them into effect, and submitted to your Majesty's signature.

It is the more necessary to be watchful and active in this respect, as the extreme confidence which your Majesty has reposed in me may have led to some omission at times of these most necessary preliminaries.
The patronage of the Lord Chamberlain's Department is of the greatest importance, and may be made to conduce at once to the beneficial influence of the Crown, and to the elevation and encouragement of the professions of the Church and of Medicine.

This patronage, by being left to the uncontrolled exercise of successive Lord Chamberlains, has been administered not only wastefully but perniciously.

The physicians to the late King were many of them men of little eminence; the chaplains are still a sorry set.

Your Majesty should insist with the new Ministers that this patronage should be disposed of, not by the Lord Chamberlain, but, as it has hitherto been during your Majesty's reign, by your Majesty upon consultation with your Prime Minister.
[Pageheading: DISTRESS OF THE QUEEN] _Queen Victoria to Viscount Melbourne._ BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _9th May 1839._ The Queen thinks Lord Melbourne may possibly wish to know how she is this morning; the Queen is somewhat calmer; she was in a wretched state till nine o'clock last night, when she tried to occupy herself and try to think less gloomily of this dreadful change, and she succeeded in calming herself till she went to bed at twelve, and she slept well; but on waking this morning, all--all that had happened in one short eventful day came most forcibly to her mind, and brought back her grief; the Queen, however, feels better now; but she couldn't touch a morsel of food last night, nor can she this morning.