Note 42 — LORD BEACONSFIELD. ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY; DELIVERED AT MANCHESTER, APRIL 3, 1872.

Note 42, p. 223.—The daily political duties of the Queen are described somewhat in detail in Ewald’s “The Crown and its Advisers,” where the influence of the crown is held to be much greater than it has sometimes been supposed to be. In 1850 the question was very fully considered by the government, and the requirement of the Queen, that no important action should be taken that had not first received her consideration and sanction, was set forth in a “memorandum” written to the Prime-Minister. Because of a violation of the principles set forth in this memorandum, Lord Palmerston was dismissed in the following year. The details of the controversy, which ended in the more complete establishment of the constitutional principle, are given in McCarthy, “History of Our Own Time,” chap. xxii., Eng. ed., vol. ii., pp. 124–163.