But the assertion that any surplus fund arising from redistribution of the Episcopal revenues ought to belong to the state, not only called forth a vigorous resistance from the whole of the Tory party at its first promulgation, but, when the subject was revived the next year, and one of the supporters of the ministry, Mr. Ward, proposed a resolution that any such surplus might be legitimately applied to secular purposes, it produced a schism in the ministry itself. The resolution was cordially accepted by Lord John Russell, but was so offensive to four of his colleagues, Mr. Stanley and Sir James Graham being among the number, that they at once resigned their offices. The breach thus made was not easily healed; and before the end of the session other dissensions of a more vexatious and mortifying character led to the retirement of the Prime-minister himself. All attempts to deal with the tithe question failed for the time, four more years elapsing before it was finally settled. But, curtailed as it was, the bill of 1833 still deserves to be remembered as a landmark in constitutional legislation, since it afforded the first instance of Parliament affirming a right to deal with ecclesiastical dignities and endowments, thus setting a precedent which, in the next reign, was followed with regard to the Church of England.
Lord Melbourne succeeded Lord Grey at the Treasury; but every one saw that the ministry was greatly weakened. The King, too, had become greatly dissatisfied both with their general policy, especially in regard to the Irish Church-which he took an opportunity of assuring the Irish bishops he was unalterably resolved to uphold-and also with the language and conduct of one or two individual ministers, to which it is not necessary to refer more particularly; and when, on the death of Lord Spencer, father of Lord Althorp, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which took place in November, 1834, it became necessary for Lord Melbourne to propose to him a re-arrangement of some of the cabinet offices, he at once dismissed the whole body of the ministers. It was a somewhat singular step to take, for they had not been defeated in Parliament, and he did not himself allege any special dissatisfaction with anything which they had yet done, though he did apprehend that some of them would press upon him measures disadvantageous to "the clergy of the Church of England in Ireland," to which he had an insuperable objection; and, moreover, that the subject would cause fresh divisions in the ministry, and the resignation of one or two more of its most important members. He had, indeed, six months before, given a practical proof of his distrust of the ability of Lord Melbourne and the colleagues who remained to him to carry on the government of the kingdom satisfactorily, by desiring the new Prime-minister to enter into communication with the leaders of the Opposition, "to endeavor at this crisis to prevail upon them to afford their aid and co-operation toward the formation of an administration upon an enlarged basis, combining the services of the most able and efficient members of each" party.[234] Nor had he relinquished the idea of bringing about such a coalition, till he learned that both Lord Melbourne and Sir Robert Peel considered the differences which divided them to be too deeply founded on principle to render their union in one administration either beneficial to the state or creditable to themselves. And it may be said that the letter in which Lord Melbourne had in November announced to his Majesty the death of Lord Spencer, and the necessity for new arrangements which that event had created, by the expression that "in these new and altered circumstances it was for his Majesty to consider whether it were his pleasure to authorize Viscount Melbourne to attempt to make such fresh arrangements as might enable his present servants to continue to conduct the affairs of the country, or whether his Majesty deemed it advisable to adopt any other course," and that "Lord Melbourne earnestly entreated that no personal consideration for him might prevent his Majesty from taking any measures or seeking any other advice which he might think more likely to conduce to his service and to the advantage of the country," did not only contemplate, but to a certain degree even suggested, the possibility of his Majesty's preferring to have recourse to fresh advisers.
The King's subsequent acts and their result, however, certainly took the kingdom by surprise. He applied to the Duke of Wellington to undertake the formation of a new ministry; and the Duke, explaining to the King that "the difficulty of the task consisted in the state of the House of Commons, earnestly recommended him to choose a minister in the House of Commons," and named Sir Robert Peel as the fittest object for his Majesty's choice. Sir Robert was in Italy at the time; but, on receiving the royal summons, he at once hastened to England, the Duke of Wellington in the mean time accepting the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Secretary of State, as a provisional arrangement, till he should arrive in London.
Sir Robert reached England early in December; and though, if "he had been consulted beforehand, he would have been inclined to dissuade the dismissal of the last ministry as premature and impolitic," he did not consider it compatible "with his sense of duty" to decline the charge which the King laid upon him, and at once accepted the office of Prime-minister, being fully aware that by so doing he "became technically, if not morally, responsible for the dissolution of the preceding government, though he had not had the remotest concern in it."[235] In the formation of his ministry he so far endeavored to carry out the views which the King had suggested to Lord Melbourne in the summer as to invite the co-operation of Mr. Stanley (who, by the death of his grandfather, had recently become Lord Stanley) and Sir J. Graham, who, as has been mentioned before, had retired from Lord Grey's cabinet. A new name, that of "Conservative," had recently been invented for the more moderate section of the old Tory party; and it was one which, though Lord Grey had taunted them with it, as betraying a sense of shame at adhering to their old colors, Peel was inclined to adopt for himself, as characteristic of his feelings and future objects; and perhaps he thought it might help to smooth the way for a junction with him of those who would flinch from proclaiming so decided a change in their opinions as would be implied by their becoming colleagues of one who still cherished the name of Tory. But they declined his offers; and consequently he was forced to select his cabinet entirely from the party of anti-Reformers. He dissolved Parliament, a step as to which it seemed to him that the universal expectations of, and even preparation for, a dissolution, left him practically scarcely any option;[236] but he soon found, as, indeed, he had feared he should find, the attempt to establish a Conservative government premature. The party of the late ministry, following the example set by Mr. Fox in 1784 with better fortune, divided against him in the House of Commons on every occasion, defeating him in every division; and at the beginning of April he retired, and Lord Melbourne and his former colleagues resumed their offices with very little change.