When Lord John became Prime Minister, there was much politeness, but Lord Melbourne was not asked to join the Cabinet.

He bore the blow with perfect amenity; but he understood, at last, that that was the end.
For two years more he lingered, sinking slowly into unconsciousness and imbecility.

Sometimes, propped up in his chair, he would be heard to murmur, with unexpected appositeness, the words of Samson:-- "So much I feel my general spirit droop, My hopes all flat, nature within me seems, In all her functions weary of herself, My race of glory run, and race of shame, And I shall shortly be with them that rest." A few days before his death, Victoria, learning that there was no hope of his recovery, turned her mind for a little towards that which had once been Lord M."You will grieve to hear," she told King Leopold, "that our good, dear, old friend Melbourne is dying...

One cannot forget how good and kind and amiable he was, and it brings back so many recollections to my mind, though, God knows! I never wish that time back again." She was in little danger.

The tide of circumstance was flowing now with irresistible fullness towards a very different consummation.
The seriousness of Albert, the claims of her children, her own inmost inclinations, and the movement of the whole surrounding world, combined to urge her forward along the narrow way of public and domestic duty.
Her family steadily increased.