Between July, 1834, and April, 1835, there were three ministries, two Melbourne administrations being interrupted by Sir Robert Peel's first and {237} brief government. Lord Wellesley's second viceroyalty lasted a few months--from September, 1833, to April, 1834--and although in 1835 he intimated to Lord Melbourne that he would not be averse to a third term, the premier appointed Lord Mulgrave, and Wellesley had to be content with the gilded post of Lord Chamberlain. The Marquis Wellesley lived until 1842. The viceroyalty of the Earl of Haddington was as colourless as it was brief. He had been in Parliament some years before he was given a peerage, and succeeding to the earldom shortly afterwards, passed into an obscurity from which he never emerged, even when Peel, on December 29, 1834, made him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. That ministry resigned in the April following, and Lord Melbourne formed his second Cabinet, sending Lord Mulgrave to Ireland. [Sidenote: The Irish party in Parliament] The return to power of Lord Melbourne marked a new epoch in the history of the British Parliament. For the first time English statesmen realized that the Irish vote could be capable of controlling the destinies of an English party. Hitherto the Irish members had been regarded as of no account; ever since the Union one or other of the great parties had been able to act independently of the Irish members, but the kaleidoscopic ministerial changes that had taken place since the termination of Lord Liverpool's record premiership had gradually given the Irish members the balance of power between the two parties. In eight years seven distinct Cabinets were formed, and when the seventh, Lord Melbourne's, received {238} their seals from William IV., they knew as well as O'Connell himself that their existence depended upon the Irish vote. It was only natural that O'Connell and his followers were delighted. They foresaw the time when England would tire of the domination of the Irish minority in Parliament, and would gladly send them back to College Green, and so certain were they of this that O'Connell agreed to suspend his demand for the repeal of the Union, and give Melbourne and his colleagues an opportunity of doing something great for Ireland. It was a strong Government and rich in statesmen. Lord John Russell was Home Secretary, and Palmerston was Foreign Secretary. The Cabinet had many long and anxious consultations on Irish affairs, and the ministers did their best to keep their bargain with O'Connell. The House of Lords, however, blocked the way, and the Melbourne Government fell in the autumn of 1841.