[The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843) by Queen Victoria]@TWC D-Link book
The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843)

CHAPTER X
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Sir EDWARD KNATCHBULL.
[Footnote 75: The Peel Ministry of 1841 was unique in containing three ex-Premiers: Sir Robert Peel himself, the Earl of Ripon, and the Duke of Wellington, who succeeded Lord Goderich as Premier in 1828.

Ripon's career was a curious one; he was a singularly ineffective Prime Minister, and indeed did not, during the course of his Ministry (August 1827-January 1828), ever have to meet Parliament.

He was disappointed at not being invited to join the Wellington Ministry, subsequently joined the Reform Ministry of Lord Grey, but followed Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, and the Duke of Richmond out of it.

In August 1841 he moved the vote of want of confidence in the Melbourne Ministry, and became President of the Board of Trade in Peel's Government.

In 1846 it fell to him, when President of the Board of Control, to move the Corn Law Repeal Bill in the Lords.
The only later instance of an ex-Premier accepting a subordinate office was in the case of Lord John Russell, who, in 1852, took the Foreign Office under Aberdeen, subsequently vacating the office and sitting in the Cabinet without office.
In June 1854, he became Lord President of the Council, and left the Ministry when it was menaced by Roebuck's motion.
When Lord Palmerston formed a Ministry in 1855, Lord John, after an interval, became Colonial Secretary, again resigning in five months.


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