Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/296

282 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1837- CHAPTER XIII. FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE QUEEN TO THE CLOSE OF THE MELBOURNE ADMINISTRATION (1837-1841). THE death of the King relieved the Melbourne Ministry in two ways. It removed a sovereign who was unfriendly to them and their policy, replacing him by one who would at all events be impartial, if not absolutely favourable, and who would not obtrude personal opinions and prejudices into the sphere of regal duty. Then it gave them an opportunity of obtaining a dissolution of Parliament, without first trying if Peel could form an Administration, and this it was pretty certain William IV. would not have allowed. They had, too, a prospect of retaining the Government influence in certain constituencies, and of securing for themselves the consideration due to the actual advisers and ministers of the young Queen. These were very considerable advantages, especially in the low ebb of their fortunes in the existing Parliament. Their relations with the late King had been to ministers a constant source of irritation and danger. William IV. had the same desire which his father and brother had manifested to interfere directly in forming the policy of the country ; but his fitful and changing temper made his intervention more annoying than the settled purpose of a more determined man would have been. From his youth he had shown the same unsteady disposition, and when he entered the navy he was too wayward and erratic to be allowed to continue in any responsible command. His character had not been modified by any systematic training for the high position to which he