Having had the opportunity, through your Majesty's gracious consideration, of reflecting upon this point, he humbly submits to your Majesty that he is reluctantly compelled, by a sense of public duty and of the interest of your Majesty's service, to adhere to the opinion which he ventured to express to your Majesty. He trusts he may be permitted, at the same time, to express to your Majesty his grateful acknowledgments for the distinction which your Majesty conferred upon him, by requiring his advice and assistance in the attempt to form an Administration, and his earnest prayers that whatever arrangements your Majesty may be enabled to make for that purpose, may be most conducive to your Majesty's personal comfort and happiness, and to the promotion of the public welfare. [Sidenote: WELLINGTON AND LORD MELBOURNE.] It was generally believed at the time, as Sir Archibald Alison himself confesses, that Peel did not regret this royal rebuff; for "he was by no means sanguine," says the Tory historiographer, "as to the success of his mission, nor annoyed at the failure of the attempt to fulfil it." The _pro_ and _con_ were put with equal terseness and skill by Lord Melbourne and the Duke of Wellington. The words of the latter were:--"It is essential that the Minister should possess the entire confidence of Her Majesty, and with that view should exercise the usual control permitted to the Minister by the Sovereign in the construction of the Household. There is the greatest possible difference between the _Household of the Queen Consort and the Household of the Queen Regnant_--that of the former, who is not a political personage, being comparatively of little importance." Lord Melbourne, on the other hand, thus justified the advice which his Royal Mistress had received from him and adopted:--"I frankly declare that I resume office unequivocally and solely for this reason, that I will not abandon my Sovereign in a situation of difficulty and distress, and especially when a demand is made upon Her Majesty with which, I think, she ought not to comply--a demand inconsistent with her personal honour, and which, if acquiesced in, would render her reign liable to all the changes and variations of political parties, and render her domestic life one constant scene of unhappiness and discomfort."