with his reckless manner of managing the Foreign Office. Pressure was put on him by the concurrence of Lord John Russell, the Duke of Bedford, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Clarendon to take another department, which, however, he refused to do. For the time--confident in his popularity--he was able to hold his position, but ere a year had elapsed her Majesty’s warnings were fulfilled, and Lord John was simply compelled to force him to retire.[16] It must be here told how this whole controversy ended. Before the debate closed, it was announced that we had accepted, with some trifling modifications in detail, the French proposals made on behalf of Greece. The demands of the claimants in support of whom we had been brought to the brink of war with France, were finally assessed at £10,000--about one-thirtieth part of the sum they originally asked! No other question of Foreign Policy agitated the House of Commons in 1850, save Mr. Hutt’s proposal to withdraw the British war-ships engaged in suppressing the West African slave trade. The cost of the squadron had made its maintenance unpopular even with Liberals, and when Lord John Russell threatened to stake the existence of his Ministry on it, the Queen was distressed to learn that there was every prospect of his being defeated, at a time when a change of Government would have produced the utmost confusion. A meeting of the Liberal Party was convened by the Prime Minister at Downing Street, and pressure, which they hardly dared to resist, induced the malcontents to support the Government. Mr. Hutt’s motion was lost, many Ministerialists, however, complaining bitterly that the Prime Minister had concussed them into voting against their convictions. CHAPTER XXIV. SOME EPOCH-MARKING LEGISLATION. The Colonies and Party Government--The Movement for Autonomy--Lord John Russell’s Colonial Bill--Tory Opposition to Colonial Federation--Mr. Adderley’s Plan--Mr. Gladstone’s Scheme for Colonial Church Courts--The Colonial Bills Mangled in the House of Lords--More English Doles for Ireland--An Irish Reform Bill--Lord John Russell Proposes to Abolish the Lord Lieutenancy--The Queen’s Irish Policy--Her offer to Establish a Royal Residence in Ireland--The Bungled Budget--The Demand for Retrenchment--The Tories Insist on a Reduction of Official Salaries--Lord John Russell’s Commission on Establishments--The Queen and the Church--The Ecclesiastical Appeals Bill--The “Gorham Case”--Death of Peel--The Queen’s Sorrow--A Nation in Mourning--Peel’s Character and Career--The Queen’s Alarm about Prince Albert’s Health--The Queen at Work--The Queen’s Reading-Lamp.