administration. Her Majesty was graciously pleased to accept their resignations; and we, therefore, now hold office only till other ministers shall be appointed to the offices which we respectively hold. I have only further to say, with regard to those in this house with whom I have conducted public affairs for many years, whether they have been my supporters or my opponents, I wish personally to express a hope, that, in all our future relations, there may be no personal bitterness, and if our resignation tends to the future welfare and prosperity of the country, I shall always look back with satisfaction to this day, in which that event has occurred. I now, sir, move that the house, at its rising, do adjourn to Monday next."
Although some hope had been excited in the minds of free traders by Sir Robert Peel's declaration, that he would not pledge himself to uphold the Corn Laws in their existing details, nor even to prevent their repeal, if the circumstances of the country demanded it, his inclusion amongst his colleagues of the Duke of Wellington, Mr. Goulburn, Lord Ripon, and others opposed to all change, held out little prospect of the adoption of a liberal commercial policy, and the country, not grieving much at the resignation of the whig ministers, looked anxiously and doubtingly upon the probable course of their successors. The Queen experienced a disquietude different from that of her people. Miss Martineau says:—
