"Can the Queen for an instant suppose that I would permit my party to urge me on to insist upon anything incompatible with Her Majesty's dignity, which it would be my great aim and honour to defend ?" [This was his indignant reply to my remark upon the rumours that his party would press him to coerce and subdue Her Majesty.] Sir Robert thinks it better for the Queen to avoid anything in the shape of a stipulation.

He would like what he would have done upon a former occasion (and upon which, on the honour of a gentleman, his views had undergone no change) to be taken as a test of what he would be ready to concede to.
Nothing but misconception, he said, could in his opinion have led to failure before.

"_Had the Queen told me_" (after the question was mooted, which it never need have been) "_that those three ladies immediately connected with the Government had tendered their resignation, I should have been perfectly satisfied_, and should have consulted the Queen's feelings in replacing them." Sir Robert said this conversation shall remain sacred, and to all effect, as if it had never happened, until he saw me again to-morrow morning.
There is nothing said, he added, which in any way pledges or compromises the Queen, the Prince, or Lord Melbourne.
[Footnote 24: See Parker's _Sir Robert Peel_, vol.ii.p.

455, _et seq._, where Peel's memorandum of the interview is set out.] [Pageheading: SIR ROBERT PEEL] [Pageheading: HOUSEHOLD APPOINTMENTS] _Memorandum by Mr Anson._ INTERVIEW WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL (No.

2).
_10th May 1841._ Peel said: "It is essential to my position with the Queen that Her Majesty should understand that I have the feelings of a gentleman, and where my duty does not interfere, I cannot act against her wishes.
Her Majesty doubtless knows how pressed I am as the head of a powerful party, but the impression I wish to create in Her Majesty's mind is, that I am bound to defend her against their encroachments." In regard to Household appointments the holders of which are not in Parliament, he had not considered the question, but in the meantime he would in no way commit himself to anyone, or to any understanding upon the subject, without previous communication.