The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3)

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Title: The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3)

Author: Charles Greville

Editor: Henry Reeve

Release date: December 3, 2009 [eBook #30591]
Most recently updated: January 5, 2021

Language: English

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Transcriber's note:

In this work, all spellings and punctuation were
reproduced from the original work except in the very few
cases where an obvious typo occurred. These typos are
corrected without comment.

In the original work, monetary pounds were expressed as
an italicized "l." after the number. For the text
version, I am using the more conventional £100 form for
clarity.

In the original volumes in this set, each even-numbered
page had a header consisting of the page number, the
volume title, and the chapter number. The odd-numbered
page header consisted of the year of the diary entry, a
subject phrase, and the page number. In this set of
e-books, the year is included as part of the date (which
in the original volume were in the form reproduced here,
minus the year). The subject phrase has been converted to
sidenotes, usually positioned where it seemed most
logical but occasionally simply between two paragraphs of
the even-odd pair.

In the original book set, consisting of three volumes,
the master index was in Volume 3. In this set of e-books,
the index has been duplicated into each of the other
volumes. To make the index easier to use in this work,
the page number has been added to each Diary date.

* * * * *

The Greville Memoirs

A JOURNAL OF THE REIGNS
of
KING GEORGE IV.
and
KING WILLIAM IV.

By the Late
CHARLES C. F. GREVILLE, Esq.
Clerk of the Council to Those Sovereigns

Edited by
HENRY REEVE
Registrar of the Privy Council

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. III.

Second Edition

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1874

Contents of the Third Volume

CHAPTER XXI.

Dinner at Greenwich--Monk Lewis--The King's Letter--Lord
Althorp's Finance--Salutes to the Royal Family--Death of Lord
Dover--His Character--Lyndhurst and Brougham on the Local
Courts Bill--Charles Napier captures the Miguelite Fleet--The
Irish Church Bill--The Duke of Wellington and the Bonapartes--
Blount's Preaching--Sir Robert Peel on Political Unions--Mr.
George Villiers appointed to Madrid--Duke of Richmond--
Suspension Clause in Irish Church Bill--Apprenticeship Clause
in West India Bill--State of House of Commons--Lucien and
Joseph Bonaparte--Lord Plunket--Denis Lemarchant--Brougham and
Sugden--Princess Lieven--Anecdotes of the Emperor Nicholas--
Affairs of Portugal--Don Miguel at Strathfieldsaye--Prorogation
of Parliament--Results of the Reform Bill.
Page 1

CHAPTER XXII.

The Speaker a Knight of the Bath--Lord Wellesley Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland--M. Thiers in England--Prince Esterhazy's Opinion of
the State of England--Queen of Portugal at Windsor--The Duke of
Leuchtenberg--Macaulay and Sydney Smith--Brougham's Anecdotes
of Queen Caroline--Judicial Committee of the Privy Council--Sir
Stratford Canning and M. Dedel--Sydney Smith and the 'Siege of
Saragossa'--Edward Irving--The Unknown Tongues--Tribute to Lord
Eldon--W. J. Fox--Lord Tavistock on the Prospects of his
Party--Moore at the State Paper Office--Russia and England--
Belvoir Castle--The Duke of Wellington at Belvoir--Visit to
Mrs. Arkwright--Sir Thomas Lawrence and the Misses Siddons--A
Murder at Runton--Sandon--Lord and Lady Harrowby--Burghley--
Railroads talked of--Gloomy Tory Prognostications--State of
Spain--Parliament opens--Quarrel of Sheil and Lord Althorp--
Unpopularity of Lord Palmerston--Mrs. Somerville--O'Connell's
Attack on Baron Smith--Lord Althorp's Budget--The Pension
List--Lord Althorp as Leader of the House--Sir R. Peel's
Position in the House--Meeting of Supporters of Government--Mr.
Villiers on the State of Spain--Predicament of Horne, the
Attorney-General.
Page 30

CHAPTER XXIII.

Spain--Russia and Turkey--Sir R. Peel's Pictures--Peel and
Stanley--Lord Brougham's Judicial Changes--Lord Brougham's
Defence--Admission of Dissenters to the Universities--Lord
Denman's Peerage--Growing Ascendancy of Peel--An Apology for
Lord Brougham--Personal Reflections--Crime in Dorsetshire--
Spain and Portugal--Procession of the Trades' Unions--Lady
Hertford's Funeral--Petition of the London University for a
Charter--Repeal of the Union--Excitement of the King--Brougham
and Eldon at the Privy Council--Duke of Wellington's Aversion
to the Whigs--Lord Brougham and Lord Wynford--Fête at
Petworth--Lord Brougham's Conduct on the Pluralities Bill--
Crisis in the Cabinet--Prince Lieven recalled--Stanley, Graham,
and the Duke of Richmond resign on the Irish Church Bill--
History of the Crisis--Ward's Motion defeated by moving the
previous Question--Affairs of Portugal--Effects of the late
Change--Oxford Commemoration--Peel's Declaration--Festival in
Westminster Abbey--Don Carlos on his way to Spain--Stanley's
'Thimble-rig' Speech--Resignation of Lord Grey--Mr. Greville's
account of the Causes of his Retirement--The Government
reconstituted by Lord Melbourne--Lord Duncannon Secretary of
State.
Page 68

CHAPTER XXIV.

Taylor's 'Philip Van Artevelde'--Goodwood--Earl Bathurst's
Death--Death of Mrs. Arbuthnot--Overtures to O'Connell--Irish
Tithe Bill--Theodore Hook's Improvisation--Lord Westmeath's
Case in the Privy Council--First Council of Lord Melbourne's
Government and Prorogation--Brougham's Vagaries--Lord Durham's
Exclusion--The Edinburgh Dinner--Windsor and Meiningen--Spencer
Perceval--Lord Grey's Retirement--The Westmeath Case again--The
Queen's Return--Melbourne and Tom Young--Holland House--
Reflections--Conversation on the Poets--Miscellaneous Chat--
Lord Melbourne's Literary Attainments--Lord Holland's Anecdotes
of Great Orators--Execution of Charles I.--Lord Melbourne's
Opinion of Henry VIII.--The 'Times' attacks Lord Brougham--His
Tour in Scotland--His Unpopularity--Cowper's Secret--Canning on
Reform--Lord Melbourne on Palmerston and Brougham--Canning and
Brougham in 1827--Senior--Lord Melbourne and the Benthamites--
His Theology--Spanish Eloquence--The Harley Papers--The Turf--
Death of Lord Spencer--The Westmeath Case heard--Law
Appointments--Bickersteth--Louis Philippe's Position.
Page 114

CHAPTER XXV.

Fall of Lord Melbourne's Government--History and Causes of this
Event--An Intrigue--Effect of the _Coup_ at Holland House--The
Change of Government--The two Camps--The King's Address to the
New Ministers--The Duke's Account of the Transaction--And Lord
Lyndhurst's--Difficult Position of the Tories--Their Policy--
The Duke in all the Offices--Negotiation with Mr. Barnes--Power
of the 'Times'--Another Address of the King--Brougham offers to
be Lord Chief Baron--Mr. Barnes dines with Lord Lyndhurst--Whig
View of the Recent Change--Liberal Views of the Tory
Ministers--The King resolved to support them--Another Account
of the Interview between the King and Lord Melbourne--Lord
Stanley's Position--Sydney Smith's Preaching at St. Paul's--
Lord Duncannon and Lord Melbourne--Relations of the four
Seceders to Peel--Young Disraeli--Lord Melbourne's Speeches at
Derby--Lord John Russell's Speech at Totness--The Duke of
Wellington's Inconsistencies and Conduct.
Page 143

CHAPTER XXVI.

Sir R. Peel arrives--The First Council--The King's Address--Lord
Stanley and Sir J. Graham decline to join the Government--Lord
Wharncliffe and Sir E. Knatchbull join--The Ministers sworn
in--Peel's Address to his Constituents--Dinner at the Mansion
House--Offer to Lord Roden--Prospects of the Election--
Stanley's Want of Influence--Pozzo di Borgo's Views--Russia and
England--Nomination of Lord Londonderry to St. Petersburg--
Parliament dissolved--State of the Constituencies--A
Governor-General for India--Sebastiani and St. Aulaire--Anecdote
of Princess Metternich--The City Elections--Lord Lyndhurst's View
of the Government--Violence of the Opposition--Close Contest at
Rochester--Sydney Herbert--Sir John Hobhouse's Views--
Anecdotes--County Elections--The Queen supposed to be with
Child--Church Reform--Dinner of Ministers--Story of La
Roncière--The King's Crotchets.
Page 174

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Speakership--Temporary Houses of Parliament--Church Reform--
Dissenters' Marriage Bill--Peel's False Position--Burke--
Palmerston's Talents as a Man of Business and Unpopularity--
Sympathy of Continental Courts with the Tories--Abercromby
elected Speaker--Defeat of the Government--Tactics of the
Opposition--The Speaker does not dine with Peel--Meeting of
Stanley's Friends--Debate on the Address--Lord John Russell
leads the Opposition--The Stanley Party--Second Defeat of the
Government--Peel's Ability--The Lichfield House Meeting--Debate
on Lord Londonderry's Appointment--His Speech in the Lords and
Resignation--Sir E. Sugden resigns the Great Seal of Ireland--
Lady Canterbury--Brougham in the House of Lords--Peel's
Readiness and Courage--Lord Canterbury and Stratford Canning
proposed for Canada--Approaching Fall of the Peel Government--
Meetings of the Opposition--Further Defeat--Sir Robert Peel's
own View of the State of Affairs--He resigns.
Page 204

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Lord Grey and Sir James Graham express Conservative Views--
Opinions of Lord Stanley--Lord Grey sees the King, but is not
asked to resume Office--Lord Melbourne's Second
Administration--His Moderation--A Difficulty--Spring Rice--A
Joyless Victory--Exclusion of Brougham--The New Cabinet--Lord
John Russell defeated in Devonshire--Lord Alvanley and
O'Connell--Duel with Morgan O'Connell--Lord Wellesley resigns
the Lord Stewardship--The Eliot Convention--Swift _v._ Kelly--
The Kembles--London University Charter discussed at the Privy
Council--Corporation Reform--Formation of the Conservative
Party--The King's Habits--Secretaryship of Jamaica--Lord
Melbourne's Tithe Bill--The Pope rejects the Recommendation of
the British Government--Relations with Rome--Carlists and
Christinos in Spain--Walcheren--The King's Address to Sir
Charles Grey--Stanley and Graham cross the House--Failure of
Stanley's Tactics--Alava and the Duke of Cumberland--A Sinecure
Placeman--Lord Glenelg and the King--Concert at Stafford
House--The King's Aversion to his Ministers and to the
Speaker--Decision on the Secretaryship of Jamaica--Archbishop
Whateley--Irish Church Bill--Payment of Catholic Clergy--Peel
and Lord John Russell--Factious Conduct of Tory Peers--The
King's Violence--Debate on the Corporation Bill.
Page 248

CHAPTER XXIX.

Resistance of the Lords--Duke of Richmond--Happiness--Struggle
between Lords and Commons--Peel keeps aloof--Inconsistency of
the Whigs on the Irish Church Bill--Violent Language in the
Lords--Lord John Russell and Peel pass the Corporation Bill--
Dissolution of the Tory Party foreseen--Meeting of Peers to
consider the Amendments--King's Speech in Council on the
Militia--Lord Howick's Bitterness against the Lords--Lord
Lyndhurst's Opinion of the Corporation Bill--The King's
Language on the Regency--Talleyrand's View of the English
Alliance--Comparison of Burke and Mackintosh--The St. Leger--
Visit of Princess Victoria to Burghley--O'Connell's Progress
through Scotland--Mackintosh's Life.
Page 290

CHAPTER XXX.

Emperor Nicholas's Speech at Warsaw--His Respect for Opinion in
England--Burdett proposes the Expulsion of O'Connell from
Brooks's--Club Law--George Villiers at Madrid--Lord Segrave
Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire--Dispute between France and
America--Allen's Account of Mackintosh and Melbourne--
Prolongation of a Patent--Should Dr. Arnold be made a Bishop?--
Frederic Elliot--O'Connell's mischievous Influence--Bretby--
Chesterfield MSS.--The Portfolio--Lord Cottenham and Lord
Langdale--Opening of Parliament--The Judicial Committee--
Poulett Thomson at the Board of Trade--Mr. Perceval's
Interviews with the Ministers--Prospects of the Tories--Lord
Stanley's Relations to them--Holland House Anecdotes--
Mischievous Effects of the Division on his Address--The Youth
of Macaulay--Brougham and Macaulay--Lord William Bentinck--
Review of Sir R. Peel's Conduct--Dr. Hampden's Appointment--The
Orange Lodges.
Page 319

CHAPTER XXXI.

Moore and O'Connell--Defeat of the Opposition--The Carlow
Election--Lord Alvanley's Speech to the Tory Peers--Norton _v._
Lord Melbourne--Catastrophe after Epsom--Mendizabal and Queen
Christina--Lord John Russell's Moderation in the Ecclesiastical
Commission--Theatricals at Bridgewater House--Irish Church--
Ministerial Difficulties--Deplorable State of Spain--What was
thought of Lord Palmerston in 1836--Weakness of Government--
Lord Lyndhurst's Summary of the Session--Balance of Parties--
Lady Augusta Kennedy's Marriage--King's Speech to Princess
Victoria--Revolution of La Granja--Rudeness of the King to
Ministers--Irritation of the King at the Duchess of Kent--Scene
at Windsor on the King's Birthday--Prince Esterhazy's View of
the Affairs of Europe--Emperor Nicholas at Vienna--A Crisis in
Trade--State of the Court at Vienna--Duc de Reichstadt.
Page 346

CHAPTER XXXII.

Crisis in the City--The Chancellor of the Exchequer--A Journey to
Paris--Lord Lyndhurst in Paris--Princess Lieven--Parties in
France--Berryer--The Strasburg Conspirators--Rotten State of
France--Presentation at the Tuileries--Ball at the Tuileries--
Bal Musard--Lord Granville--The Due de Broglie--Position of the
Duc d'Orleans--Return to England--Conservative Reaction--
Sheil's Tirade against Lord Lyndhurst--Lyndhurst as a Tory
Leader--Angry Debate on Church Rates--The Government on the
Brink of Resignation--Sir R. Peel's Prospects--The King and
Lord Aylmer--Death of Mrs. Fitzherbert--Ministerial
Compromise--Westminster Election--Majority of the Princess
Victoria--The King's Illness--The King's Letter to the
Princess--Preparations for the Council--Sir E. Peel on the
Prospects of the New Reign--Prayers ordered for the King's
Recovery--Affairs of Lord Ponsonby--Death of King William IV.--
First Council of Queen Victoria--The Queen proclaimed--
Character of William IV.
Page 376

A JOURNAL
of the
REIGN OF KING WILLIAM THE FOURTH

CHAPTER XXI.

Dinner at Greenwich--Monk Lewis--The King's Letter--Lord
Althorp's Finance--Salutes to the Royal Family--Death of Lord
Dover--His Character--Lyndhurst and Brougham on the Local
Courts Bill--Charles Napier captures the Miguelite Fleet--The
Irish Church Bill--The Duke of Wellington and the Bonapartes--
Blount's preaching--Sir Robert Peel on Political Unions--Mr.
George Villiers appointed to Madrid--Duke of Richmond--
Suspension Clause in Irish Church Bill--Apprenticeship Clause
in West India Bill--State of House of Commons--Lucien and
Joseph Bonaparte--Lord Plunket--Denis Lemarchant--Brougham and
Sugden--Princess Lieven--Anecdotes of the Emperor Nicholas--
Affairs of Portugal--Don Miguel at Strathfieldsaye--Prorogation
of Parliament--Results of the Reform Bill.

June 29th, 1833 {p.001}

I am going, if not too lazy, to note down the everyday nothings
of my life, and see what it looks like.

We dined yesterday at Greenwich, the dinner given by Sefton, who
took the whole party in his omnibus, and his great open carriage;
Talleyrand, Madame de Dino, Standish, Neumann, and the Molyneux
family; dined in a room called 'the Apollo' at the Crown and
Sceptre. I thought we should never get Talleyrand up two narrow
perpendicular staircases, but he sidles and wriggles himself
somehow into every place he pleases. A capital dinner, tolerably
pleasant, and a divine evening. Went afterwards to the 'Travellers,'
and played at whist, and read the new edition of 'Horace Walpole's
Letters to Sir Horace Mann.' There is something I don't like in
his style; his letters don't amuse me so much as they ought to do.

A letter this morning from Sir Henry Lushington about Monk Lewis.
He is rather averse to a biographical sketch, because he thinks a
true account of his life and character would not do him credit,
and adds a sketch of the latter, which is not flattering. Lord
Melbourne told me the other day a queer trait of Lewis. He had a
long-standing quarrel with Lushington. Having occasion to go to
Naples, he wrote beforehand to him, to say that their quarrel had
better be _suspended_, and he went and lived with him and his
sister (Lady L.) in perfect cordiality during his stay. When he
departed he wrote to Lushington to say that now they should
resume their quarrel, and put matters in the 'status quo ante
pacem,' and accordingly he did resume it, with rather more
_acharnement_ than before.

Charles Wood came into my room yesterday, and talked of the King's
letter, said he understood the Archbishop had imparted it to the
seven Bishops who had voted, that nothing would come of it, for it
was a private letter which nobody had a right to take up. I see
the Government are not displeased at such an evidence of the
King's goodwill. The King and Taylor both love letter-writing, and
both are voluminously inclined. Wood told me that last year Lord
Grey got one letter from them (for Taylor writes and the King
approves) of seven sheets; what a mass of silly verbiage there
must have been to wade through.[1]

[1] [This is not just. The published correspondence of King
William IV. and Earl Grey proves that the King's
letters were written by Sir Herbert Taylor with the
greatest ability.]

July 3rd, 1833 {p.002}

Nothing to put down these last two days, unless I go back to my
old practice of recording what I read, and which I rather think I
left off because I read nothing, and had nothing to put down; but
in the last two days I have read a little of Cicero's 'Second
Philippic,' Voltaire's 'Siècle de Louis XIV.,' Coleridge's
'Journey to the West Indies;' bought some books, went to the opera
to hear Bellini's 'Norma,' and thought it heavy, Pasta's voice not
what it was. Everybody talking yesterday of Althorp's exhibition
in the House of Commons the night before (for particulars of which
see newspapers and Parliamentary debates). It is too ludicrous,
too melancholy, to think of the finances of this country being
_managed_ by such a man: what will not people endure? What a
strange medley politics produce: a wretched clerk in an office who
makes some unimportant blunder, some clerical error, or who
exhibits signs of incapacity for work, which it does not much
signify whether it be well or ill done, is got rid of, and here
this man, this good-natured, popular, liked-and-laughed-at good
fellow, more of a grazier than a statesman, blurts out his utter
ignorance before a Reformed Parliament, and people lift up their
eyes, shrug their shoulders, and laugh and chuckle, but still on
he goes.

July 4th, 1833 {p.003}

[Page Head: SALUTES TO THE ROYAL FAMILY.]

At Court yesterday, and Council for a foolish business. The King
has been (not unnaturally) disgusted at the Duchess of Kent's
progresses with her daughter through the kingdom, and amongst the
rest with her sailings at the Isle of Wight, and the continual
popping in the shape of salutes to Her Royal Highness. He did not
choose that this latter practice should go on, and he signified
his pleasure to Sir James Graham and Lord Hill, for salutes are
matter of general order, both to army and navy. They (and Lord
Grey) thought it better to make no order on the subject, and they
opened a negotiation with the Duchess of Kent, to induce her of
her own accord to waive the salutes, and when she went to the
Isle of Wight to send word that as she was sailing about for her
amusement she had rather they did not salute her whenever she
appeared. The negotiation failed, for the Duchess insisted upon
her right to be saluted, and would not give it up. Kemp told me
he had heard that Conroy (who is a ridiculous fellow, a compound
of 'Great Hussy' and the Chamberlain of the Princess of
Navarre[2]) had said, 'that as Her Royal Highness's _confidential
adviser_, he could not recommend her to give way on this point.'
As she declined to accede to the proposals, nothing remained but
to alter the regulations, and accordingly yesterday, by an Order
in Council, the King changed them, and from this time the Royal
Standard is only to be saluted when the King or the Queen is on
board.

[2] See Sir C. Hanbury Williams' Poems.

Friday, July 12th, 1833 {p.004}

[Page Head: CHARACTER OF LORD DOVER.]

Went to Newmarket on Sunday, came back yesterday, got back at
half-past nine, went to Crockford's, and heard on the steps of the
house that poor Dover had died that morning. The accounts I had
received at Newmarket confirmed my previous impression that there
was no hope; and, indeed, the sanguine expectations of his family
are only to be accounted for by that disposition in the human mind
to look at the most favourable side, and to cling with pertinacity
to hope when reason bids us despair. There has seldom been
destroyed a fairer scene of happiness and domestic prosperity than
by this event. He dies in the flower of his age, surrounded with
all the elements of happiness, and with no drawback but that of
weak health, which until within the last few months was not
sufficiently important to counterbalance the good, and only
amounted to feebleness and delicacy of constitution; and it is the
breaking up of a house replete with social enjoyment, six or seven
children deprived of their father, and a young wife and his old
father overwhelmed with a grief which the former may, but the
latter never can get over, for to him time sufficient cannot in
the course of nature be allotted. Few men could be more generally
regretted than Lord Dover will be by an immense circle of
connections and friends for his really amiable and endearing
qualities, by the world at large for the serious loss which
society sustains, and the disappointment of the expectations of
what he one day might have been. He occupied as large a space in
society as his talents (which were by no means first-rate)
permitted; but he was clever, lively, agreeable, good-tempered,
good-natured, hospitable, liberal and rich, a zealous friend, an
eager political partisan, full of activity and vivacity, enjoying
life, and anxious that the circle of his enjoyment should be
widely extended. George Agar Ellis was the only son of Lord
Clifden, and obtained early the reputation of being a prodigy of
youthful talent and information. He was quick, lively, and had a
very retentive memory, and having entered the world with this
reputation, and his great expectations besides, he speedily became
one of the most conspicuous youths of the day. Having imbibed a
great admiration for Lord Orford (Horace Walpole), he evinced a
disposition to make him his model, and took pains to store his
mind with that sort of light miscellaneous literature in which
Lord Orford delighted. He got into the House of Commons, but never
was able to speak, never attempted to say more than a few words,
and from the beginning gave up all idea of oratorical distinction.
After running about the world for a few years he resolved to
marry, and as his heart had nothing to do with this determination,
he pitched upon a daughter of the Duke of Beaufort's, who he
thought would suit his purpose, and confer upon him a very
agreeable family connection. Being on a tour in the North, he
intended to finish it at Badminton, and there to propose to Lady
Georgiana Somerset, with full assurance that he should not be
rejected; but having stopped for a few days at Lord Carlisle's at
Castle Howard, he there found a girl who spared him the trouble of
going any further, and at the expiration of three or four days he
proposed in form to Lord Morpeth's second daughter, Georgiana
Howard, who, not less surprised than pleased and proud at the
conquest she found she had so unconsciously made, immediately
accepted him. There never was a less romantic attachment, or more
business-like engagement, nor was there ever a more fortunate
choice or a happier union. Mild, gentle, and amiable, full of
devotion to, and admiration of her husband, her soft and feminine
qualities were harmoniously blended with his vivacity and animal
spirits, and produced together results not more felicitous for
themselves than agreeable to all who belonged to their society.
Soon after his marriage, Ellis, who had never been vicious or
profligate, but who was free from anything like severity or
austerity, began to show symptoms of a devout propensity, and not
contented with an ordinary discharge of religious duties, he read
tracts and sermons, frequented churches and preachings, gave up
driving on Sundays, and appeared in considerable danger of falling
into the gulf of methodism; but this turn did not last long, and
whatever induced him to take it up, he apparently became bored
with his self-imposed restrictions, and after a little while he
threw off his short-lived sanctity, and resumed his worldly habits
and irreverent language, for he was always a loose talker. Active
and ambitious in his pursuits, and magnificent in his tastes, he
devoted himself to literature, politics, and society; to the two
first with greater success than would be expected of a man whose
talents for composition were below mediocrity, and for public
speaking none at all. He became the patron of various literary
institutions and undertakings connected with the arts, he took the
chair at public meetings for literary or scientific purposes, he
read a good deal and wrote a little. The only work which he put
forth of any consequence was 'The Life of Frederick II.,' which
contained scarcely any original matter, and was remarkably barren
of original ideas; but as it was a compilation from several very
amusing writers, was not devoid of entertainment.[3] Though unable
to speak in Parliament, he entered warmly into politics, formed
several political intimacies, especially with the Chancellor
(Brougham), and undertook much of the minor Government work of
keeping proxies, making houses (in the House of Lords), and
managing the local details of the House itself. But however
contracted his sphere both in literature and politics, in society
his merits were conspicuous and his success unquestionable.
Without a strong understanding, destitute of fancy and imagination,
and with neither eloquence nor wit, he was a remarkably agreeable
man. He was hospitable, courteous, and cordial; he collected about
him the most distinguished persons in every rank and condition of
life. He had a constant flow of animal spirits, much miscellaneous
information, an excellent memory, a great enjoyment of fun and
humour, a refined taste and perfect good breeding. But his more
solid merit was the thorough goodness of his heart, and the strong
and durable nature of his friendships and early attachments. To
the friends of his youth he was bound to the last moment of his
life with unremitting kindness and never-cooling affection; no
greater connections or more ambitious interests cancelled those
early ties, and though he was not unnaturally dazzled and
flattered by the later intimacies he contracted, this never for a
moment made him forgetful of or indifferent to his first and less
distinguished friends.

[3] [Lord Dover's volume on the 'Man in the Iron Mask'
deserves not to be altogether forgotten, though more
recent researches have proved that his theory
identifying the 'Iron Mask' with Mathioli, the captured
agent of the Duke of Parma, cannot be supported.]

[Page Head: THE LOCAL COURTS BILL DEFEATED.]

The Local Courts Bill was thrown out by twelve. His party made the
_amende honorable_ to Lyndhurst, and went down in a body to back
him. He and Brougham each spoke for two hours or more, and both
with consummate skill, the latter especially in his very best
style, and with extraordinary power and eloquence. It would not
perhaps be easy to decide which made the ablest speech; that of
Lyndhurst was clear, logical, and profound, replete with a sort of
judicial weight and dignity, with a fine and cutting vein of
sarcasm constantly peeping from behind a thick veil of complimentary
phraseology. Brougham more various, more imaginative, more
impassioned, more eloquent, and exceedingly dexterous. Unable to
crush Lyndhurst, he resembled one of Homer's heroes, who, missing
his great antagonist, wreaked his fury on some ignominious foe,
and he fell upon Wynford with overpowering severity. As somebody
told me who heard him, 'He flayed him alive, and kept rubbing salt
upon his back.' It appears to have been a great exhibition. There
was Lyndhurst after his speech, drinking tea, not a bit tired,
elated and chuckling: 'Well, how long will the Chancellor speak,
do you think, eh? we shall have some good fun from him. What lies
he will tell, and how he will misrepresent everything! come, let's
have done our tea, that we mayn't miss him, eh?' The truth seems
to be that the Bill is not a good Bill, and is condemned by the
lawyers, that some such measure is required, but that this is
nothing more than a gigantic job, conferring enormous patronage
upon the Chancellor. The debate, however, appears to have afforded
a grand display of talent.[4]

[4] [The successful efforts of the Tories to prevent the
establishment of a system of Local Courts of limited
jurisdiction, retarded for many years that important
measure to which we, at last, owe the County Courts--now
an institution of the utmost social utility.
Nothing can be more characteristic of the blind bigotry
of the Tory party at that time, and the party spirit of
Lord Lyndhurst; for the measure had no bearing upon
politics, and was simply a cheap and easy mode of
recovering small debts.]

Macaulay is said to have made an admirable speech last night on
the Indian question in the House of Commons. I observe, by the
bye, that very few of the Bishops voted the other night, but all
who did voted with Government; even Exeter went away before the
division, so the King's letter seems to have produced some
effect. I have had a squabble with Lady Holland about some
nonsense, but she was insolent, so I was fierce, and then she was
civil, as she usually is to those who won't be bullied by her.

July 12th, 1833 {p.008}

It is extraordinary how little sensation the defeat of Government
in the House of Lords has caused. Everybody talks of the debate,
nobody thinks of the event, but I find several people expect that
the Church Bill will be thrown out, which would be a much more
serious thing. I betted Stanley five pounds to one yesterday that
they were not beaten on the second reading of the Irish Church
Bill. I have concluded a bargain with Murray for Lewis's journal
and sold it him for 400 guineas, the MSS. to be returned to
Lushington, and fifteen copies for him, and five for me, gratis.

July 14th, 1833 {p.008}

[Page Head: IRISH CHURCH BILL.]

Wharncliffe told me yesterday that the Duke and the Opposition do
not mean to throw out the Irish Church Bill on the second
reading. He had been in great alarm himself after the Duke's
speech lest they should, but had since heard what satisfied him
they would not; he said that Sir John Wrottesley's motion for a
call of the House had given them great offence, and was an
extreme piece of folly, for it was obviously for the purpose of
bullying the House of Lords, who would not be bullied, and this
species of menace only increased the obstinacy of the majority
there, but that the Duke could command the greater number, and
though there might be a division (as some cannot be restrained
from dividing) there would be no endeavour to throw it out. Thus
it is that one folly produces another: the Duke's silly speech
about the Coronation Oath (a piece of nonsense quite unworthy of
his straightforward, manly sense) produced Wrottesley's bravado
in the other House. But Wharncliffe says he is persuaded nothing
can prevent a collision between the two Houses ultimately. There
is a great idea that the Government will fall to pieces before
the end of this year. Tavistock told me that Althorp would
certainly go out in a very few months, and _that he would go on
the turf_! Tom Duncombe is found guilty at Hertford (of a libel),
and recommended to mercy, to the infinite diversion of his
friends.

July 15th, 1833 {p.009}

Yesterday came the news of Captain Napier having captured the
whole of Don Miguel's fleet, to the great delight of the Whigs,
and equal mortification of the Tories. It appears to have been a
dashing affair, and very cowardly on the part of the Miguelites.
The day before the news came, Napier had been struck out of the
British Navy.

Met Duncannon in the morning, who was very gloomy about
Wednesday, at the same time saying he rather hoped the Tories
would throw out the Irish Church Bill, for it was impossible to
go on as they were now doing; that if they did, two motions would
infallibly be made in the House of Commons, an address to the
Crown to make Peers, and a vote for the expulsion of the Bishops,
and that both would be carried by great majorities. He talked
much of the Irish Church, and of the abominations that had been
going on even under his own eyes. One case he mentions of a man
who holds a living of £1,000 a year close to Bessborough, whom he
knows. There is no house, no church, and there are no Protestants
in the parish. He went there to be inducted, and dined with
Duncannon at Bessborough the day after. Duncannon asked him how
he had managed the necessary form, and he said he had been
obliged to borrow the clerk and three Protestants from a
neighbouring parish, and had read the morning and evening service
to them within the ruined walls of the old Abbey, and they signed
a certificate that he had complied with the forms prescribed by
law; he added that people would no longer endure such things,
that no existing interests were to be touched, and that if
remedial measures were still opposed, the whole fabric would be
pulled down. He was still persuaded that the Opposition meant to
throw out the Bill.

In the evening I dined at the Duke of Richmond's, and found
Stanley informed of the result of the meeting at the Duke of
Wellington's in the morning, which was decisive on the question.
The Duke, after his extraordinary speech in the House of Lords,
when he mounted the old broken-down hobby of the Coronation Oath
and cut a curvet that alarmed his friends and his enemies,
assembled the Tories at Apsley House, and there, resuming his own
good sense, though not very consistently, made them a speech, and
told them that some such measure must be passed, for nothing else
could save the Irish Church: that there were things in this Bill
that he did not approve of at all, but he could not resist its
going into committee, and he finished by announcing that he should
either vote for it or not vote at all, according to circumstances.
Lyndhurst goes on the circuit on Wednesday, so that though there
will be a division there will be a large majority for the Bill,
which is the best thing that could happen. Stanley said there
would be a great speech from Lord Grey, talked of his power in
that line, thought his reply at five in the morning on the
Catholic question the most perfect speech that ever was made. He
would rather have made it than four of Brougham's. He gave the
following instance of Lord Grey's readiness and clear-headed
accuracy. In one of the debates on the West India question, he
went to Stanley, who was standing under the gallery, and asked him
on what calculation he had allotted the sum of twenty millions.
Stanley explained to him a complicated series of figures, of terms
of years, interest, compound interest, value of labour, etc.,
after which Lord Grey went back to his place, rose, and went
through the whole with as much clearness and precision as if all
these details had been all along familiar to his mind. It is very
extraordinary that he should unite so much oratorical and
Parliamentary power with such weakness of character. He is a long
way from a great man altogether.

[Page Head: DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND THE BONAPARTES.]

I met the Duke in the evening at the Duchess of Cannizzaro's,
talked of Napier's affair, at which he was extremely amused,
though he thinks it a very bad thing, and not the least bad part
of it that Napier should be lost to the service, so distinguished
as he is. It was he who in 1803 (I believe) was the cause of the
capture of a French squadron by Sir Alexander Cochrane. The
English fell in with and cleared the French fleet, but Napier in
a sloop outsailed the rest, and firing upon the stern of the
French Admiral's flagship, so damaged her (contriving by skilful
evolutions to avoid being hurt himself) that the rest of the
ships were obliged to haul to, to save the Admiral's ship, which
gave time to the British squadron to come up, when they took four
out of the five sail. The Whigs all talk of this action as
decisive of the Portuguese contest; the Duke says it is
impossible to say what the moral effect may be, but in a military
point of view it will not have much influence upon it. Lucien
Bonaparte was there, and was introduced to the Duke. He laughed
and said, 'He shook hands with me, and we were as intimate as if
we had known each other all our lives!' He said he had likewise
called on Joseph, who had called on him, but they had never met:
he added that some civilities had passed between them in Spain.
Before the battle of Salamanca he had regularly intercepted the
French correspondence, and as one of the King's daughters was ill
at Paris, and daily intelligence came of her health, he always
sent it to him. He did not forward the letters, because they
contained other matters, but he sent a flag every day to the
outposts, who said, 'Allez dire au Roi que sa fille se porte
mieux,' or as it might be. There was Lucien running downstairs to
look for his carriage, one brother of Napoleon who refused to be
a king, and another who was King of Naples, and afterwards King
of Spain, both living as private gentlemen in England!

July 16th, 1833 {p.012}

The Cabinet met at the instance of Lord John Russell to take into
consideration Lord Hill's _not voting_ on Brougham's Local Courts
Bill. Nothing came of it, and it is extremely absurd when their
own people continually vote as they please--Duncannon, Ellice,
Charles Grey, etc. On Sunday I went to hear Mr. Blount preach. He
is very popular, and has a great deal of merit, not so clever as
Thorpe, not so eloquent as Anderson, but with a great appearance
of zeal and sincerity, and he is very conscientious and
disinterested, for he refused the living of Chelsea (which Lord
Cadogan offered him) because he thought he could not discharge
the duties belonging to it together with those of his present
cure. Went last night to hear Malibran in the 'Sonnambula,' a
fine piece of acting and fine singing.

July 18th, 1833 {p.012}

I fell in with Sir Robert Peel yesterday in the Park, and rode
with him for an hour or two, never having had so much conversation
with him before in my life. He was very agreeable, told me that he
had just come from the Police Committee, when a member of one of
the political unions had been under examination, who had
acknowledged that they were provided with arms, and exercised
themselves in their use, to be ready for the struggle which they
thought was fast approaching. This evidence will appear in the
Report to the House of Commons, but what will not appear is that
an attempt was made (by Mr. Charles Buller especially) to prevent
its being elicited, and the aforesaid gentleman endeavoured to put
down Peel, who drew it out. The room was cleared, and they had an
angry discussion, but Peel insisted upon asking his question, and
carried his point, even in this Radical Committee. It seems to
have been very curious, and the man was nothing loth to say all he
knew. Peel thinks very ill of everything. I asked him if there was
no way of putting down the Repeal Union. He said none, and that
they had found the impossibility of doing so in Ireland, except by
investing the Lord Lieutenant with extraordinary powers; talked of
the Government and its strange way of going on, spoke highly of
Stanley in all ways.

[Page Head: STANLEY AND ALTHORP.]

Althorp's retirement seems certain, and if the Government goes on
Stanley will be leader, but unless he puts it all on a different
footing it must break up, and unless the Government people can be
brought under better discipline it will fall to pieces, for
nobody will support it on that motion of Wrottesley's for a call
of the House. Both Stanley and Althorp deprecated it in the
strongest way, in the name of their colleagues as well as their
own, with whom Stanley said they had consulted, and that they
felt it would materially embarrass the Government if persisted
in, and after this Duncannon, Kennedy, and Charles Grey voted for
the call, Ellice and Poulett Thomson stayed away. The other night
(I forget on what question) Ellice voted one way and Stanley the
other, and the former said to the latter as he was going out of
the house, 'You will see if the boys don't go with me instead of
with you.' The vote of the night before last against sinecures
was carried in a thin house, only one Cabinet Minister present
(Althorp), no pains taken to secure a majority, and he (Althorp)
saying that it signified more to the Tories than to him, and they
ought to have come down and rejected it. Peel thinks it of great
importance, and very difficult to get out of. However, it will be
got out of by some particular case being tried, on which Hume, or
whoever brings it forward, will be beaten, and then it will sleep
for a time; but there stands and will stand the resolution on the
journals, and the House of Commons has admitted the principle of
dealing with actual vested interests, and not confining their
operation to the future.

There seems every probability of Stanley's West India Bill being
thrown out. The Saints, who at first had agreed to support it,
object to pay the twenty millions for emancipation to take place
twelve years hence, and the present condition of the question
seems to be that all parties are dissatisfied with it, and there
is nearly a certainty that it will be received with horror by the
planters, while the slaves will no longer work when they find the
fiat of their freedom (however conditional or distant the final
consummation may be) has at length gone forth.

July 20th, 1833 {p.013}

I dropped into the House of Lords last night, and heard the
Bishop of London reply severally to the Duke of Newcastle and
Lord Winchilsea, the first of whom muttered, and the latter
bellowed something I could not hear, but I gathered that the last
was on the subject of the King's letter to the Bishops. The
Bishop made very pertinent answers to both, but the Duke of
Wellington got up after Winchilsea, and entreated nothing might
be said upon the subject, and put down discussion with that
authority which the Tories dare not resist, and which he
exercised on this occasion with the good sense and, above all,
consideration for public convenience and disdain of party rancour
which distinguish him above all men I have ever seen, and which
compel one to admire him in spite of the extraordinary things he
occasionally says and does.

George Villiers is going Minister to Madrid, instead of Addington,
who is so inefficient they are obliged to recall him, and at this
moment Madrid is the most important diplomatic mission, with
reference to the existing and the prospective state of things. The
Portuguese contest, the chance of the King of Spain's death and a
disputed succession, the recognition of the South American
colonies, and commercial arrangements with this country, present a
mass of interests which demand considerable dexterity and
judgment; besides, Addington is a Tory, and does not act in the
spirit of this Government, so they will recall him without
ceremony. There is another Ambassador (Frederic Lamb) whose
principles are equally at variance with those of Palmerston, and
who is completely be-Metternich'd, but his removal is out of the
question; he knows it, and no doubt conducts himself accordingly.
George Villiers told me that he touched incidentally one day with
Palmerston on Lamb's conduct in some matter relating to Lord
Granville, and he found that it was sacred ground, and he only
got, 'Ah, aw--yes, _Metternich_ is, I suppose, too old to mend
now.'

July 21st, 1853 {p.014}

[Page Head: DUKE OF RICHMOND.]

The Duke of Wellington did not vote on Friday night, but he made a
bitter speech against Government, and attacked Lord Anglesey very
unnecessarily, when Melbourne retorted on him very well. Lord
Grey's reply appears to have been exceedingly good. I met the Duke
of Richmond last night, and talked to him about the prospects of
Government, and suggested that if Stanley (when Althorp retires)
does not make it a _sine quâ non_ that better discipline should be
observed in their ranks, the Government cannot go on. He agreed,
and said Stanley would, but he thought the House of Lords were
going on in such a way that before three years there would be
none. It appears to me totally impossible for Stanley or anybody
to go on without remodelling the Government, and one of his
difficulties would be in getting rid of Richmond himself. He is
utterly incapable, entirely ignorant, and his pert smartness,
saying sharp things, cheering offensively, have greatly
exasperated many people against him in the House of Commons, and
these feelings of anger have been heightened by his taking
frequent opportunities of comporting himself with acrimony towards
the Duke of Wellington, though he always professes great
veneration for him, and talks as if he had constantly abstained
from anything like incivility or disrespect towards him. It is
remarkable certainly that his colleagues appear to entertain a
higher opinion of him than he deserves, and you hear of one or
another saying, 'Oh, you don't know the Duke of Richmond.' He has,
in fact, that weight which a man can derive from being positive,
obstinate, pertinacious, and busy, but his understanding lies in a
nutshell, and his information in a pin's head. He is, however,
good-humoured, a good fellow, and personally liked, particularly
by Stanley and Graham, who are of his own age, and have both the
same taste for sporting and gay occupations. The Tories threaten
mighty things in the Committee, but I don't think they will
attempt much.

July 24th, 1833 {p.015}

Divisions in both Houses last night. The Duke of Wellington
proposed an important amendment (which he would afterwards have
withdrawn, but his friends would not let him), and he was beaten
by fourteen. A great division for Government _in the House of
Lords_. In the Commons 166 minority for triennial Parliaments,
and by every sort of whipping and Billy Holmes's assistance a
majority, but only of sixty or seventy; fine work this.

July 25th to 26th, 1833 {p.016}

[Page Head: GOVERNMENT DEFEATED.]

_Half-past two in the morning._--Just come home, having heard of
the division in the House of Lords, in which Ministers were
beaten on what they call the Suspension clause by two. Alvanley,
Belhaven, and Clanricarde got there too late. Gower could not
attend, nor Lord Granville. Lyndhurst came all the way from
Norwich (being on the circuit) to vote. The question is, what
Ministers will do--go on with the Bill, or throw it up, resign,
make Peers, or what? Nothing can be more silly than the
amendment, although it may be questioned whether it signifies
very materially; but the light in which Ministers see it is this:
are they to submit night after night to the vexatious insolence
of the Tories, who are constantly on the watch to find some
vulnerable point, and without intending or daring to throw over
their great measures, to mangle their details as much as they can
venture to do, and hold the Government in a sort of subjugation
and in a state of sufferance? The Tory lords are perfectly rabid,
and reckless of consequences, regardless of the embarrassment
they cause the King, and of the aggravation of a state of things
they already think very bad, they care for nothing but the silly
vain pleasure of beating the Government, every day affording
fresh materials for the assaults that are made upon them by the
press, and fresh cause for general odium and contempt. The Duke
of Wellington has no power over them for good purposes, and they
will only follow him when he will lead them on to some rash and
desperate enterprise. This event has affected people differently
according to their several views and opinions, but all are in
eager curiosity to see what the Government will do.

In the House of Commons things are no better than in the House of
Lords. Stanley was nearly beaten on the Apprenticeship clause in
the West Indian Bill on Wednesday night, Macaulay opposing him;
so yesterday morning he came down to the House and gave it up. It
is remarkable that he made an admirable speech in defence of his
clause, was unusually and enthusiastically cheered, Macaulay's
speech falling very flat, and to all appearance the whole House
with Stanley, yet upon division he only carried it by some seven
or eight votes. It is said that after the vote he could not do
otherwise than give it up, but that if he had taken a higher tone
in his speech, and treated it as a compact fixed and agreed upon,
which nothing could shake, and to which he was irrevocably
pledged, he would have carried the House with him, and have got a
larger majority. But the truth is that the House of Commons is in
such a state that it is next to impossible to say what Ministers
can or ought to do, or what the House will do. There is no such
thing as a great party knit together by community of opinion,
'idem sentientes de republicâ.' The Government conciliate no
attachment, command no esteem and respect, and have no following.
Althorp is liked, Stanley admired, but people devote themselves
to neither; every man is thinking of what he shall say to his
constituents, and how his vote will be taken, and everything goes
on (as it were) from hand to mouth; by fits and starts the House
of Commons seems rational and moderate, and then they appear one
day subservient to the Ministers, another riotous, unruly, and
fierce, ready to abolish the Bishops and crush the House of
Lords, and to vote anything that is violent. The Tories in the
House of Commons are lukewarm, angry, frightened: they say, Why
should we come and support a Government that won't support
itself? the Government from weakness or facility, or motives of
personal feeling and partiality, suffers itself to be bearded and
thwarted by its own people, and does nothing. Duncannon, on the
triennial motion the other night, stayed in the House of Lords
and would not vote, there are some half-dozen of them whose votes
the Ministerial bench cannot count upon. Then it is no small
aggravation to the present difficult state of things that Stanley
does not appear to be a man of much moral political firmness and
courage, a timid politician, _ignavus adversum lupos_. He is bold
and spirited against individuals, but timid against bodies, and
with respect to results. Labouchere went to him some time ago,
and told him that it was evident a feeling was growing up in the
House of Commons against this Apprenticeship clause, and that he
had better make up his mind early what course he should pursue,
that if he meant to stand to it they would support him, but if
not, he had better give it up early and from foresight rather
than from necessity at last, but above all, not to drag them
through the mire by making them support him, and then throwing
them over. He declared he would stand to his clause. They
supported him, and he threw them over. This will not do for a man
who aspires to be leader, and Sandon told me last night that men
would not be led by him, in spite of his talents, that when
Althorp went under Stanley's banner the friends of Government
would not enlist. God only knows how it all will end, and out of
such a mass of confusion, of so much violence and folly and
weakness, and the working of so many bad passions, what will
result, but any day the chance becomes less of the elements of
disorder being resolved into a state of tranquillity and good
government. It is every day more apparent that with such a House
of Commons, so elected, so acted upon, no Government can feel
secure; none can undertake with confidence to carry on the
affairs of the country. It is difficult to describe the state of
agitation into which the minds of people of all persuasions are
thrown by the continual recurrence of these little events, of the
feeling of insecurity, of doubt, of apprehension which pervades
all classes. Nobody thinks the present Government can go on, at
the same time they can see no party and no individual who could
go on as well if they were to retire. The present House of
Commons it is found impossible to manage, but it is believed that
in the event of a dissolution another would be much worse; in
short, all is chaos, confusion, and uncertainty, and the only
thing in which all parties agree is that things are very bad, and
every day getting worse.

[Page Head: THE BONAPARTES.]

I dined the day before yesterday with old Lady Cork, to meet the
Bonapartes. There were Joseph, Lucien, Lucien's daughter, the
widow of Louis Bonaparte, Hortense's son,[5] the Dudley Stuarts,
Belhavens, Rogers, Lady Clarendon, and Lady Davy and myself; not
very amusing, but curious to see these two men, one of whom would
not be a King, when he might have chosen almost any crown he
pleased (conceive, for instance, having refused the kingdom of
Naples), and the other, who was first King of Naples and then
King of Spain, commanded armies, and had the honour of being
defeated at Vittoria by the Duke of Wellington. There they sat,
these brothers of Napoleon, who once trampled upon all Europe,
and at whose feet the potentates of the earth bowed, two simple,
plain-looking, civil, courteous, smiling gentlemen. They say
Lucien is a very agreeable man, Joseph nothing. Joseph is a
caricature of Napoleon in his latter days, at least so I guess
from the pictures. He is taller, stouter, with the same sort of
face, but without the expression, and particularly without the
eagle eye. Lucien looked as if he had once been like him, that
is, his face in shape is like the pictures of Napoleon when he
was thin and young, but Lucien is a very large, tall man. They
talked little, but stayed on in the evening, when there was a
party, and received very civilly all the people who were
presented to them. There was not the slightest affectation of
royalty in either. Lucien, indeed, had no occasion for any, but a
man who had ruled over two kingdoms might be excused for
betraying something of his former condition, but, on the
contrary, everything regal that he ever had about him seemed to
have been merged in his American citizenship, and he looked more
like a Yankee cultivator than a King of Spain and the Indies.
Though there was nothing to see in Joseph, who is, I believe, a
very mediocre personage, I could not help gazing at him, and
running over in my mind the strange events in which he had been
concerned in the course of his life, and regarding him as a
curiosity, and probably as the most extraordinary living instance
of the freaks of fortune and instability of human grandeur.

[5] [This must have been the Emperor Napoleon III.]

The Duke of Sutherland is dead, a leviathan of wealth. I believe
he is the richest individual who ever died, and I should like to
know what his property amounts to, out of pure curiosity.

July 27th, 1833 {p.020}

This affair in the House of Lords blew over. The Patriots at
Brookes' were loud in their indignation, and talked nonsense
about dignity and resignation, and so forth, but Lord Grey took
the better course, and came down to the House with a lecture,
conceived in mild yet firm language, and announced his intention
of going on with the Bill. Accordingly they got through the
Committee last night without further obstructions. The amendment
is in fact so trivial that I don't think he will attempt to
re-establish the original clause on the report, and if he does
not, the Commons (I am told) will not either.

August 7th, 1833 {p.020}

At Goodwood from Saturday se'nnight to Saturday last. Magnificent
weather, numerous assemblage, tolerable racing, but I did not win
the great cup, which I ought to have won, a most vile piece of
ill luck, but good fortune seems to have deserted me, and the
most I can do is not to lose.

George Villiers is appointed to Madrid, but he tells me that he
can neither see nor hear from Palmerston, that though his
appointment is in everybody's mouth it has never been notified to
him. All this negligence is because our Foreign Secretary is
engaged in the conferences, in which, however, he gives no
greater satisfaction to those he is concerned with, for
Talleyrand complains that he invariably makes them wait from one
to two hours, and Dedel says that his manner is so insulting
towards the Dutch nation and King, and that on every occasion he
acts with so much partiality towards Belgium, that it is with the
greatest difficulty he can transact business with him at all.
They say the Duke of Wellington has scarcely missed a day during
this session in his attendance on the House of Lords, always in
his place from the beginning to the end of the debates, speaking
and evidently preparing himself on every subject, doing duty as
the head of a party.

August 8th, 1833 {p.020}

Met Lord Grey in the street; he said this session had nearly done
him up, and he must have repose, he talked of Portugal, of the
desirableness of getting rid of Pedro, and of putting Palmella at
the head of the Government. I said he must take care they did not
establish too liberal a Government. He replied the Portuguese
certainly were not fit for any such thing, and that the
constitution had undoubtedly done all the mischief; spoke of the
Duke of Wellington, and of his being always in the House of
Lords, speaking on anything, and generally not well, that he had
made a most tiresome bad speech on the India Charter question,
etc. Brougham's Privy Council Bill has, I perceive, passed the
House of Commons, having gone through both Houses without a
syllable said upon it in either.

[Page Head: GEORGE VILLIERS MINISTER AT MADRID.]

George Villiers is at last acknowledged Minister to Madrid. He
told me he was with Palmerston at his house yesterday morning,
and was much struck with his custom of receiving all his numerous
visitors and applicants in the order in which they arrive, be
their rank what it may. Neumann told him he had never known him
vary in this practice, or deviate from it in anybody's favour. It
is a merit. There seems little danger of any movement on the part
of Spain, for Zea Bermudez (Palmerston told George Villiers) is
struck to the earth by the events in Portugal, and only anxious
to curry favour with England.

August 15th, 1833 {p.021}

At Council yesterday to swear in James Parke and Bosanquet (who
did not come) Privy Councillors, in order to carry into operation
the Chancellor's new Bill for the establishment of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council.

August 20th, 1833 {p.021}

To Stoke on Saturday with Creevey and Lemarchant, the
Chancellor's secretary. The Chancellor and others of the Ministry
were to have come, but they all dined at Blackwall. Brougham,
Plunket, and John Russell came the next day. Brougham is not so
talkative as he was; his dignities, his labours, and the various
cares of his situation have dashed his gaiety, and pressed down
his once elastic spirits; however, he was not otherwise than
cheerful and lively. Plunket I never met before, he was pretty
much at his ease, and talked sufficiently without exhibiting
anything remarkable. Lemarchant is a clever, industrious fellow,
whom I remember at Eton. The Chancellor's secretaryship must be
no sinecure, and he has particularly distinguished himself by his
reports of the debates in the House of Commons. He goes there
every night, and forwards to the Chancellor from time to time an
account of the debate, and the manner of it, very well executed
indeed. He talked to me of Brougham's labours and their
intensity, which put me in mind of his gasconading to Sefton a
year or two ago about his idleness, and finding the Great Seal a
mere plaything; Lemarchant said that by severe and constant
application he had made himself very tolerably acquainted with
equity law, and very extensively with cases. I find from Sefton
that he means to propose next year that his salary should be
reduced to £8,000 a year, and that the new Equity Judges should
be paid out of what he now has. I believe he is liberal about
money, and not careless, but I have some doubts whether this
project will be executed. Lemarchant told me that the cause of
Sugden's inveterate animosity against Brougham was this--that in
a debate in the House of Commons, Sugden in his speech took
occasion to speak of Mr. Fox, and said that he had no great
respect for his authority, on which Brougham merely said, loud
enough to be heard all over the House, and in that peculiar tone
which strikes like a dagger, 'Poor Fox.' The words, the tone,
were electrical, everybody burst into roars of laughter, Sugden
was so overwhelmed that he said afterwards it was with difficulty
he could go on, and he vowed that he never could forgive this
sarcasm.

[Page Head: LORD BROUGHAM AS CHANCELLOR.]

Sefton talked to me of Brougham's reluctance when the Government
was formed to take the Great Seal; after they had offered him the
Attorney-Generalship, which he so indignantly refused, they sent
Sefton to cajole him and get him to take the Seal. He wanted to
be made Master of the Rolls, and left in the House of Commons,
the Seal being put in Commission. This they would not hear of,
naturally enough not choosing to exist at his mercy in the House
of Commons, and rely upon his doubtful and capricious support. It
was very well for him to act the part of Atlas, and bear the
Government on his shoulders, but they shrewdly enough guessed
that they would not ride on them very comfortably, that they
would be considerably jolted, and perhaps at last shoved off. He,
on the other hand, would not suffer anybody to be Chancellor but
himself; and at last, with many misgivings, he yielded to the
gentle violence which would make him the first officer of the
Crown. Great was his lamentation at this necessity. 'How,' he
said, 'am I fallen! As member for Yorkshire in the House of
Commons, what a position was mine.' Sefton tried to comfort him
by representing that 'the fall' upon the woolsack was somewhat of
the softest, and that a few years ago he would not have
considered it so grievous a misfortune if it had been foretold
him that he should be seated there at such a time.

After dinner on Sunday Brougham talked of the Reform Bill and its
first appearance in the House of Commons. He said that once
allowed to take root there it could not be crushed, and that
their only opportunity was thrown away by the Tories. Had Peel
risen at once and declared that he would not even discuss such a
measure, that it was revolution, and opposed its being brought
in, he would have thrown it out, and if he had then come down
with a moderate measure, it would have satisfied the country _for
the time_. This is exactly what William Banks said to me last
year, and the very thing Peel had intended to do, and from which
he was deterred by Granville Somerset. The Duke of Wellington has
continued to attend in the House of Lords day after day,
proposing alterations and amendments to all the Bills, evidently
reading hard, and preparing himself for each occasion, always
loaded with papers. Lyndhurst said to somebody, 'I shall attend
no more, what's the use of it? The Duke comes down every day, and
tries to make the Bills _better_; if I could make them _worse_, I
would come too.'

August 22nd, 1833 {p.023}

Called on Madame de Lieven yesterday, who is just come back from
Petersburg, _rayonnante_ at her reception and treatment. The
Emperor went out to sea to meet her, took her into his own boat,
when they landed he drove her to the palace, and carried her into
the Empress's room, who was _en chemise_. She told me a comical
anecdote illustrative of the good humour of the Emperor (who, she
says, is an angel), and of the free and frank reception he gives
to strangers. In the midst of some splendid military fêtes, which
terminated with a sham siege by 50,000 of his guards the last
day, word was brought him that two strange-looking men had
presented themselves at the lines, and requested to be allowed to
see what was going on. They said they were English, had come from
Scotland on purpose to see the Russian manoeuvres, and had
started from Petersburg under the direction of a laquais de
place, who had conducted them to where they heard the firing of
the cannon. The Emperor ordered them to be admitted, received
them with the greatest civility, and desired apartments to be
prepared for them in the palace (Peterhof), at the same time
inviting them to dine with him, and be present at a ball he gave
at night. She said that one was a Don Quixote sort of figure;
they called themselves Johnstone. The Emperor asked her if she
knew them. She said no, but that there were many of that name in
England. There they remained, enchanted, astonished, behaving,
however, perfectly well. After seeing all the sights, they were
one evening led into a great hall, where all sorts of pastimes
were going on, and among others a _Montagne Russe_ (of which the
Emperor is passionately fond). He is a very tall powerful man,
and his way is to be placed at the top of the machine, when a man
mounts astride on his shoulders, and another on his, and so on
till there are fourteen; when a signal is given, with the
rapidity of lightning down they go. On this occasion the Emperor
took the Johnstones on his back, and she says their astonishment
at the position they occupied, and at the rapidity of the
descent, was beyond everything amusing. They were asked how they
liked it, and they said they thought it 'very good fun,' and
should like to begin again. So they were allowed to divert
themselves in this way for an hour. Bligh told her afterwards
that these men returned to Petersburg their heads turned, and
utterly bewildered with, such an unexpected reception.

In her serious talk the Princess said that the Emperor was full of
moderation and desire for peace, 's'il y a des orages ce ne sera
pas de ce côté qu'ils viendront,' that he could not comprehend the
English Parliament, nor the sort of language which was held there
about him, that he was 'le plus généreux, le plus humain, le
meilleur des hommes,' that they believed all the lies which were
'débités sur les affaires de Pologne, qui enfin est notre affaire,
qu'il était peu connu ici, qu'elle avait vu en Russie beaucoup de
respects, beaucoup d'amour pour l'Empereur, et voilà tout.' In
short, she is returned in a state of intoxication, and her
adoration for the Emperor is only exceeded by that which she has
for the Empress.

August 24th, 1833 {p.025}

[Page Head: AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL.]

Matters have taken a bad turn in Portugal. Bourmont is marching
on Lisbon with 18,000 men, 'regna il terror nella citta.' William
Russell, in a fit of enthusiasm, says, 'the capital must be saved
even at the hazard of a war.' Admiral Parker says he shall land
1,200 marines and make them occupy the forts. Our Government are
in great confusion and alarm, and have despatched a swift steamer
to Parker to desire him to do no such thing; but the steamer will
probably arrive too late, and if Bourmont is really there, we
shall cut a pretty figure with our non-intervention, for Parker
will probably have to surrender the forts to Miguel. I dined with
Talleyrand yesterday, who is furious, laughing non-intervention
to scorn; and he told me he had for the last ten days been
endeavouring to get the Government to take a decided part. What
he advised was that we should recognise Donna Maria and the
Regency appointed by the Charter; that is, Donna Isabella Regent,
with a Council to be comprised of Palmella, Villa Flor, and any
other; that our Minister should be directed to acknowledge _no
other government_, and at the same time concert with Palmella
that Pedro should be sent away, and the constitution be suspended
till the Queen shall be of age. Pedro has committed, since he was
in Lisbon, every folly and atrocity he could squeeze into so
small a space of time; imprisoning, confiscating, granting
monopolies, attacking the Church, and putting forth the
constitution in its most offensive shape. I suspect we shall have
made a sad mess of this business.

Just come from the Duke of Wellington; talked about Portugal and
the intercepted letters; the writer said that he (the Duke) had
told Neumann he approved of Bourmont's going, whereas he thought
it an objectionable nomination, because he had formerly deserted
from the Portuguese service.[6] He had never had any communication
with these agents, and did not believe Aberdeen had had any
either: he said Lisbon was more defensible than Oporto, but
required more men. Talking of Miguel, the Duke related that he was
at Strathfieldsaye with Palmella, where in the library they were
settling the oath that Miguel should take, Miguel would pay no
attention, and instead of going into the business and saying what
oath he would consent to take (the question was whether he should
swear fidelity to Pedro or to Maria) he sat flirting with the
Princess Thérèse Esterhazy. The Duke said to Palmella, 'This will
never do, he must settle the terms of the oath, and if he is so
careless in an affair of such moment, he will never do his duty.'
Palmella said, 'Oh, leave him to us, we will manage him.' He had
no idea of overturning the constitution and playing false when he
went there, but was persuaded by his mother and terrified by the
lengths to which the constitutional party was disposed to go. The
Duke said the Government would be very foolish to interfere for
Pedro, who was a ruffian, and for the constitution, which was
odious, and that Pedro would never have more than the ground he
stood on; talked of our foreign policy, his anxiety for peace, but
of France as our 'natural enemy!' and of the importance of
maintaining our influence in Spain, which so long as we did we
should have nothing to fear from France.

[6] Bourmont was an emigrant, and went into the Portuguese
service. When Junot came to Portugal he joined him, was
taken into the French service, in which he continued to
rise, till he deserted just before the battle of
Waterloo from Napoleon to Louis XVIII.

September 3rd, 1833 {p.026}

On Wednesday last when the King's speech was read there was no
Council. Brougham brought Sir Alexander Johnston, formerly Chief
Justice in Ceylon, to be sworn a Privy Councillor without giving
any notice, consequently I was not there. The King, therefore,
comes again to-morrow on purpose, and, what is unpleasant,
desired a Clerk of the Council might always be in attendance when
there was anything going on. This, I suppose, His Majesty will
repeat to me himself to-morrow. The Parliament is at last up; it
was a fine sight the day the King went down, the weather
splendid, and park full of people, with guards mounted and
dismounted, making a picturesque show. He was very coolly
received, for there is no doubt there never was a King less
respected. George IV., with all his occasional unpopularity,
could always revive the external appearance of loyalty when he
gave himself the trouble.

[Page Head: RESULTS OF THE REFORM BILL.]

[Page Head: SURVEY OF THE STATE OF AFFAIRS.]

The Parliament is up, and not before people were dead sick of it,
and had dropped out of town one by one till hardly any Parliament
was left. It may be worth while to take a little survey of the
present condition of things as compared with what it was a few
months ago, and consider at this resting time what has been the
practical effect of the great measure of Reform, without going
very deeply into the question. The Reform Bill was carried _in
toto_, the Tories having contrived that everything that was
attempted should be gained by the Reformers. No excuse, therefore,
was left for the Parliament, and if 'the people' did not choose a
good one it was their own fault. It was chosen, and when it met
was found to be composed of a majority of supporters of the
present Government, a certain number of Tories, not enough to be
powerful, and many Radicals, who soon proved to be wholly
inefficient. It speedily became manifest that in point of ability
it was not only inferior to the last, but perhaps to any
Parliament that has sat for many years. There were 350 new members
(or some such number), but not one man among them of shining or
remarkable talent; Cobbett, Silk, Buckingham, Roebuck, and such
men soon found their level and sunk into insignificance. The House
appeared at first to be very unruly, not under the command of
Government, talkative, noisy, and ill-constituted for the
transaction of business. After a little while it got better in
this respect, the majority, however, though evidently determined
to support Government, would not be _commanded_ by it, and even
men in place often took up crotchets of their own, and voted
against Government measures; but whenever the Ministers seemed to
be in danger they always found efficient support, and on the Malt
Tax the House even stultified itself to uphold them. As the
session proceeded the men who gained reputation and established
the greatest personal influence were Peel and Stanley; Macaulay
rather lost than gained; Althorp lost entirely, but the weight of
his blunders and unfitness could not sink him, his personal
character and good humour always buoyed him up. The great
measures, some of the greatest that any Parliament ever dealt
with, were got through with marvellous facility. They did not for
the most part come on till late in the session, when the House had
got tired, and the East India Charter Bill was carried through
most of the stages in empty Houses. The measures have generally
evinced a Conservative character, and the Parliament has not shown
any disposition to favour subversive principles or to encourage
subversive language. It has been eminently liberal in point of
money, granting all that Ministers asked without the slightest
difficulty; twenty millions for the West Indians, a million for
the Irish clergy, were voted almost by acclamation. Hume cut no
figure in this Parliament. Notwithstanding apprehensions and
predictions the Government has contrived to carry on the business
of the country very successfully, and great reforms have been
accomplished in every department of the State, which do not seem
liable to any serious objections, and in the midst of many
troubles, of much complaining and bickering; the country has been
advancing in prosperity, and recovering rapidly from the state of
sickly depression in which it lay at the end of last year. It is
fair to compare the state of affairs now and then, merely reciting
facts, and let the praise rest where it may, whether it be due to
the wisdom of men or the result of that disposition to right
itself which has always appeared inherent in the British
commonwealth. Some months ago there appeared every prospect of a
war in Europe; the French were in Belgium, whence many predicted
they would never be got away; Ireland was in a flame, every post
brought the relation of fresh horrors and atrocities; in England
trade was low, alarm and uncertainty prevalent, and a general
disquietude pervaded the nation, some fearing and others desiring
change, some expecting, others dreading the great things which a
Reformed Parliament would do. The session is over, and a Reformed
Parliament turns out to be very much like every other Parliament,
except that it is rather differently and somewhat less ably
composed than its predecessors. The hopes and the fears of mankind
have been equally disappointed, and after all the clamour,
confusion, riots, conflagrations, furies, despair, and triumphs
through which we have arrived at this consummation, up to the
present time, at least, matters remain pretty much as they were,
except that the Whigs have got possession of the power which the
Tories have lost. We continue at peace, and with every prospect of
so being for some time, we are on good terms with France, and by
degrees inducing the French to extend their incipient principles
of free trade, to the benefit of both countries. In Ireland there
never has been a period for many years when the country was so
quiet; it may not last, but so it is at the present moment. In
England trade flourishes, running in a deep and steady stream,
there are improvement and employment in all its branches. The
landed interest has suffered and suffers still, but the wages of
labour have not fallen with the rents of landlords, and the
agricultural labourers were never better off. Generally there is a
better spirit abroad, less discontent, greater security, and those
vague apprehensions are lulled to rest which when in morbid
activity, carrying themselves from one object to another, are
partly the cause and partly the effect of an evil state of things.
We hear nothing now of associations, unions, and public meetings,
and (compared with what it was) the world seems in a state of
repose.

CHAPTER XXII.

September 5th, 1833 {p.030}

At Court yesterday, the Speaker[1] was made a Knight of the Bath
to his great delight. It is a reward for his conduct during the
Session, in which he has done Government good and handsome
service. He told them before it began that he would undertake to
ride the new House, but it must be with a snaffle bridle.
Bosanquet and Sir Alexander Johnston were made Privy Councillors
to sit in the Chancellor's new Court. The Privy Council is as
numerous as a moderate-sized club, and about as well composed.
Awful storms these last few days, and enormous damage done, the
weather like the middle of winter.

[1] [Rt. Hon. Manners Sutton, afterwards Viscount
Canterbury.]

September 6th, 1833 {p.030}

[Page Head: LORD WELLESLEY.]

Yesterday the announcement of Lord Wellesley's appointment to be
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was received with as great astonishment
as I ever saw. Once very brilliant, probably never very efficient,
he is now worn out and _effete_. It is astonishing that they
should send such a man, and one does not see why, because it is
difficult to find a good man, they should select one of the very
worst they could hit upon. It is a ridiculous appointment, which
is the most objectionable of all. For years past he has lived
entirely out of the world. He comes to the House of Lords, and
talks of making a speech every now and then, of which he is never
delivered, and he comes to Court, where he sits in a corner and
talks (as those who know him say) with as much fire and liveliness
as ever, and with the same neat, shrewd causticity that formerly
distinguished him; but such scintillations as these prove nothing
as to his fitness for business and government, and as he was quite
unfit for these long ago, it is scarcely to be supposed that
retirement and increased age and infirmities should have made him
less so now.[2] They have judiciously waited till Parliament is up
before the appointment was made known. Lord Wellesley is said to
be in the hands of Blake the Remembrancer, a dangerous Jesuitical
fellow.

[2] [This opinion of Lord Wellesley was, however, speedily
changed by his successful and vigorous administration
of Ireland. See _infra_, November 14th.]

September 10th, 1833 {p.031}

At Gorhambury on Saturday till Monday. Dined on Friday with
Talleyrand, a great dinner to M. Thiers, the French Minister of
Commerce, a little man, about as tall as Sheil, and as mean and
vulgar looking, wearing spectacles, and with a squeaking voice.
He was editor of the 'National,' an able writer, and one of the
principal instigators of the Revolution of July. It is said that
he is a man of great ability and a good speaker, more in the
familiar English than the bombastical French style. Talleyrand
has a high opinion of him. He wrote a history of the Revolution,
which he now regrets; it is well done, but the doctrine of
fatalism which he puts forth in it he thinks calculated to injure
his reputation as a statesman. I met him again at dinner at
Talleyrand's yesterday with another great party, and last night
he started on a visit to Birmingham and Liverpool.

After dinner on Friday I had rather a curious conversation with
Esterhazy, who said he wanted to know what I thought of the
condition of this country. I told him that I thought everything
was surprisingly improved, and gave my reasons for thinking so.
He then went off and said that these were his opinions also, and
he had written home in this strain, that Neumann had deceived his
Government, giving them very different accounts, that it was no
use telling them what they might wish to hear, but that he was
resolved to tell them the truth, and make them understand how
greatly they were deceiving themselves if they counted upon the
decadence or want of power of this country; a great deal more of
the same sort, which proves that the Austrian Court were all on
the _qui vive_ to find out that we are paralysed, and that their
political conduct is in fact influenced by their notion of our
actual position. They probably hardly knew what they would be at,
but their hatred and dread of revolutionary principles are so
great that they are always on the watch for a good opportunity of
striking a blow at them, which they know they can only do through
England and France. They would therefore willingly believe that
the political power of England is diminished, and Neumann, who
wrote in the spirit of a disappointed Tory rather than of an
impartial Foreign Minister, no doubt flattered their desires in
this respect. Last night I sat by Dedel, the Dutch Minister, who
told me he knew Neumann had given very false accounts (not
intentionally) to his Government, that Wessenberg took much
juster views, and he (Dedel) agreed with Esterhazy, who said that
nobody could understand this country who had not had long
experience of it, and that he found it impossible to make his
Government comprehend it, or give entire credit to what he said.
Dedel told me that Holland is ruined, that the day of reckoning
will come, when they will discover what a state of bankruptcy
they are in, that the spirit of the nation had been kept up by
excitement, and that therein lay the dexterity of the King and
his Government, but that this factitious enthusiasm was rapidly
passing away. They now pay fifty millions of florins interest of
debt, about four millions sterling, and their population is not
above two millions.

[Page Head: QUEEN OF PORTUGAL IN ENGLAND.]

The young Queen of Portugal goes to Windsor to-day. The King was
at first very angry at her coming to England, but when he found
that Louis Philippe had treated her with incivility, he changed
his mind, and resolved to receive her with great honours. He
hates Louis Philippe and the French with a sort of Jack Tar
animosity. The other day he gave a dinner to one of the regiments
at Windsor, and as usual he made a parcel of foolish speeches, in
one of which, after descanting upon their exploits in Spain
against the French, he went on: 'Talking of France, I must say
that whether at peace or at war with that country, I shall always
consider her as our natural enemy, and whoever may be her King or
_ruler_, I shall keep a watchful eye for the purpose of
repressing her ambitious encroachments.' If he was not such an
ass that nobody does anything but laugh at what he says, this
would be very important. Such as he is, it is nothing. 'What can
you expect' (as I forget who said) 'from a man with a head like a
pineapple?' His head is just of that shape.

The history of the French King's behaviour is that he wanted the
young Queen of Portugal to marry the Duke de Nemours, and when he
found that impossible (for we should have opposed it) he proposed
Prince Charles of Naples, his nephew. This was likewise rejected.
The Emperor Don Pedro wants the Duke of Leuchtenberg, his wife's
brother, to marry her.[3] This Duke went to Havre the other day,
where the Préfet refused to admit him, though he went with (or
to) his sister, pleading the law excluding Napoleon's family. He
went to the Préfet to say that he protested against such
application of the law, but, as he would not make any disturbance
there, desired to have his passports _visé_ for Munich, and off
he went. At the same time he wrote a letter to Palmerston, which
George Villiers, to whom Palmerston showed it, told me was
exceedingly good. He said that though he did not know Palmerston
he ventured to address him, as the Minister of the greatest and
freest country in the world, for the purpose of explaining what
had happened, and to clear himself from the misrepresentations
that would be made as to his motives and intentions in joining
his sister; that it was true that Don Pedro had wished him to
marry his daughter, and that he had written him a letter, of
which he enclosed a copy. This was a very well written letter,
begging the Emperor to pause and consider of this projected
match, and setting forth all the reasons why it might not be
advantageous for her; in short, Villiers says, exhibiting a very
remarkable degree of disinterestedness, and of longsighted views
with regard to the situation of Portugal and the general politics
of Europe.

[3] [Queen Donna Maria did eventually many the young Duke
of Leuchtenberg, son of Prince Eugène Beauharnais and a
Bavarian Princess. But he survived his marriage only a
few months, and died of a fever at Lisbon.]

He told me another anecdote at the same time. Palmerston showed
him a letter he had received from Charles Napier, in which,
talking of the possible interference of Spain, he said; 'Your
Lordship knows that I have only to sail with my fleet (enumerating
a respectable squadron of different sizes) to Cadiz, and I can
create a revolution in five minutes throughout the whole South of
Spain.' Palmerston seems to have been a little amused and a little
alarmed at this fanfaronade, in which there is, however, a great
deal of truth. He said that of course they should not allow Napier
to do any such thing, but as nothing else could prevent him if we
did not, the Spaniards may be made to understand that we shall not
be at the trouble of muzzling this bull-dog if they do not behave
with civility and moderation.

London, November 13th, 1833 {p.034}

[Page Head: SYDNEY SMITH AND MACAULAY.]

Nothing written for nearly two months. I remained in town till the
end of September, when I went to Newmarket, and afterwards to
Buckenham, where I met Sir Robert Peel. He is very agreeable in
society, it is a toss up whether he talks or not, but if he thaws,
and is in good humour and spirits, he is lively, entertaining, and
abounding in anecdotes, which he tells extremely well. I came back
to town on Friday last, the 8th, dined with the Poodle, and found
Rogers, Moore, and Westmacott (the son); a very agreeable dinner.
On Sunday dined with Rogers, Moore, Sydney Smith, Macaulay. Sydney
less vivacious than usual, and somewhat overpowered and talked
down by what Moore called the 'flumen sermonis' of Macaulay.
Sydney calls Macaulay 'a book in breeches.' All that this latter
says, all that he writes, exhibits his great powers and
astonishing information, but I don't think he is agreeable. It is
more than society requires, and not exactly of the kind; his
figure, face, voice, and manner are all bad; he astonishes and
instructs, he sometimes entertains, seldom amuses, and still
seldomer pleases. He wants variety, elasticity, gracefulness; his
is a roaring torrent, and not a meandering stream of talk. I
believe we would all of us have been glad to exchange some of his
sense for some of Sydney Smith's nonsense. He told me that he had
read Sir Charles Grandison fifteen times!

Not a word of news, political or other; the Ministers are all
come, Spain and Portugal potter on with their civil contests and
create uneasiness, though of a languid kind. I came to town for a
meeting at the Council Office, the first under Brougham's new
Bill, to make rules and regulations for the proceedings of the
Court. All the lawyers attended, not much done, but there do not
seem to be any great difficulties. There was Brougham, with Leach
next him, and Lyndhurst opposite, all smirks and civility, he and
Leach quite fondling one another. Dined yesterday with Stanley,
who gave me a commission to bet a hundred for him on Bentley
against Berbastes for the Derby, and talked of racing after
dinner with as much zest as if he was on the turf. Who (to see
him and hear him thus) would take him for the greatest orator and
statesman of the day?

November 14th, 1833 {p.035}

Dined with Sefton yesterday; after dinner came in the Chancellor
in good humour and spirits; talked of Lord Wellesley, who, since
he has been in Ireland, has astonished everybody by his activity
and assiduity in business. He appeared, before he went, in the
last stage of decrepitude, and they had no idea the energy was in
him; but they say he is quite a new man, and it is not merely a
splash, but real and bonâ-fide business that he does. The
Chancellor talked over some of the passages of the Queen's trial,
to which he loves to revert. It was about the liturgy. The
negotiations which had taken place at Apsley House between the
Duke of Wellington and Lord Castlereagh on one part and Brougham
and Denman on the other were broken off on that point. It was
then agreed to refer the matter to others; the Duke and
Castlereagh were to meet Lord Fitzwilliam and Sefton; a queer
choice, old Fitzwilliam a driveller, and Sefton, with all his
sharpness, totally unfit for the office of negotiator in a grave
matter. He can't be grave, life itself is to him a plaything; but
the night before they were to meet, Fitzwilliam took fright, and
backed out. Notice was sent to the other party, but they did not
get it, owing to some mistake. In the morning Brougham came to
Sefton and asked him to drive him up to the Queen's house, and as
they passed through Grosvenor Square, to their amazement they saw
Wellington and Castlereagh alighting (full dressed for the levée)
at Lord Fitzwilliam's door. Sefton went into the house, and found
them already in the dining-room, the table covered with papers,
when an explanation ensued, on which they had to bundle up their
papers again and trot off.

[Page Head: BROUGHAM'S ANECDOTES OF QUEEN CAROLINE.]

When the deputation from the House of Commons went up with the
address to the Queen, entreating her to come to terms (Banks,
Wortley, Acland, and Wilberforce), she had got all her Council
assembled, and before receiving the deputation from the Commons,
she asked their advice. Brougham said that she was disposed to
acquiesce, but wanted _them_ to advise her to do so, and that her
intention was, if they had, to act on that advice, but to save
her popularity by throwing the odium on them, and devoting them
to popular execration. He therefore resolved, and his brethren
likewise, to give no advice at all; and when she turned to him,
and said, 'What do you think I ought to do?' he replied, in a
sort of speech which he gave very comically, 'Your Majesty is
undoubtedly the best judge of the answer you ought to give, and I
am certain that your own feelings will point out to you the
proper course.' 'Well, but what is your opinion?' 'Madam, I
certainly have a strong opinion on the subject, but I think there
cannot be a shadow of doubt of what your Majesty ought to do, and
there can be no doubt your Majesty's admirable sense will suggest
to you what that opinion is.' 'Humph,' said she, and flung from
him; turning to Denman, 'And Mr. Solicitor, what is your
opinion?' 'Madam, I concur entirely in that which has been
expressed by the Attorney-General;' and so they all repeated. She
was furious, and being left to herself she resolved not to agree.
Sefton was on horseback among the crowd which was waiting
impatiently to hear the result of the interview and her
determination. He had agreed with Brougham that as soon as she
had made up her mind he should come to the window and make him a
sign. He _was to stroke his chin_ if she refused, and do
something else, I forget what, if she agreed. Accordingly arrived
Brougham at the window, all in gown and wig, and as soon as he
caught Sefton's eye began stroking his chin. This was enough for
Sefton, who (as he declares) immediately began telling people in
the crowd who were wondering and doubting and hoping that they
might rely upon it she would 'stand by them,' and not accept the
terms.

November 21st, 1833 {p.037}

Another meeting at the Council Office the day before yesterday.
The Chancellor arranging everything, but proposing many things
which meet with opposition, wants people to be allowed to plead
_in formâ pauperis_ before the Privy Council, which they object
to. I have doubts whether this Court will work well after all,
and foresee great difficulty about the rota; everybody had
something to prevent their attendance; however we meet on the
27th for the despatch of business. I have just finished
'Clarissa;' never was so interested or affected by any book.

November 28th, 1833 {p.038}

Yesterday the first meeting under Brougham's new Bill of 'the
Judicial Committee,' the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Baron Parke,
Justice Bosanquet, and Erskine (Chief Judge in Bankruptcy). I
can't perceive that matters are likely to go on a bit better than
when one Judge sat there, though the Chancellor endeavours to
confer all the importance he can on his Committee, that he may
hereafter figure there himself. There has been a lively
controversy between the Whig and Tory papers, of which he has been
the object, the former lauding his law reforms, the latter
attacking his judicial incompetence. It is actually true that
hardly any original causes are brought before him, and he has
little business except appeals which must come into his Court. He
feels himself every day in a more unpleasant predicament, and of
course has a growing impatience to get rid of his judicial duties.
That he will by a series of tricks wriggle out of them there can
be no doubt, for just now he can do whatever he pleases. What he
wants is to be Prime Minister; his restless and versatile mind
will then find sufficient occupation, and there is no department
of Government which he does not think himself capable of presiding
over, leaving as he would do all troublesome details to be worked
out by others.

November 30th, 1833 {p.038}

A long sitting of our Court yesterday. The Chancellor comes
regularly. Jenner (the King's Advocate) told me that he believed
the Chancellor's object was to transfer all appeals from the
House of Lords to the Privy Council. Lyndhurst (whom I met at
Mrs. Fox's) said that it was quite true that he had no business
in his own Court, for nobody would plead there, that he wanted to
be Prime Minister, retaining the emoluments and patronage of the
Great Seal, and getting rid of its duties. There can be no doubt
that he does, and if Lord Grey dies, or is ill (in which case he
will resign), he probably will succeed. It is amusing to see
Brougham's tricks in small things; his present object is to raise
the Judicial Committee as much as he can, and bring all the
business there he can collect; in order to increase the appeals
he proposed to allow of them from the Indian Courts _in formâ
pauperis_. This, however, was strenuously resisted by all the
Judges and others present, and as he always takes the lead in all
discussions relating to rules and regulations, when he found that
the unanimous opinion of the Committee was the other way, he
turned himself round and argued against his own proposal, stating
or anticipating the objections of the others, just insinuating
incidentally counter-arguments, and ending by letting the
question remain in abeyance.

[Page Head: STRATFORD CANNING AND DEDEL.]

Madame de Lieven told me an anecdote of Stratford Canning which
highly delighted her, because it justified the resistance which
the Court of Russia made to his nomination to that Embassy. The
other day Dedel called on Palmerston. When shown into the
waiting-room, he said, 'Tell Lord Palmerston that the Dutch
Minister will be glad to see him,' when a man who was there, and
whom he did not know, jumped up and said, 'And I desire you will
tell Lord Palmerston that I have been waiting here these two
hours, and that I expect to see him before anybody else;' and
then, turning to Dedel, 'Sir, this is too bad; two persons have
been already shown in to Lord Palmerston, both of whom came after
me, and I expect that you will not go in to his Lordship till
after me.' Dedel, who is the mildest and civillest of men,
replied, 'Sir, far be it from me to dispute your right, and I
assure you I have no desire to go in before you, but I only beg
that if Lord Palmerston should send for me first you will
understand that I cannot help going;' and then the other, 'Sir, I
am Sir Stratford Canning.' 'And I am Mr. Dedel.' This extraordinary
scene he told Madame de Lieven, not knowing what had passed about
the mission. Touching that affair, there is an understanding that
he shall not go there, and no other Ambassador is to be named till
it is quite convenient to Palmerston.

The day before yesterday I met Sydney Smith at dinner at Poodle
Byng's, when a conversation occurred which produced a curious
coincidence. We were talking of Vaughan, the Minister in America,
how dull he appeared, and yet how smart and successful had been
'The Siege of Saragossa,' which he published at the time of the
Spanish war. Sydney Smith said that the truth was he had not
written a word of it, and on being questioned further said that
he was himself the author. Vaughan, who was a friend of his, had
given him the materials, and he had composed the narrative. He
then went on to say that it was not the only instance of the
kind, for that the celebrated pamphlet which had been attributed
to Lady Canning had not been written by her, not a word of it,
that it had been written by Stapleton. I said that I had it in my
power to contradict this, for that I had been privy to the
composition of it, had seen the manuscript, and had at her
request undertaken the task of revising and correcting it. Thus
were two mistakes accidentally cleared up, by the circumstance of
the only persons who could have explained them being present.

December 2nd, 1833 {p.040}

[Page Head: THE UNKNOWN TONGUES.]

I went yesterday to Edward Irving's chapel to hear him preach, and
witness the exhibition of the tongues. The chapel was formerly
West's picture gallery, oblong, with a semicircular recess at one
end; it has been fitted up with galleries all round, and in the
semicircle there are tiers of benches, in front of which is a
platform with an elevated chair for Irving himself, and a sort of
desk before it; on each side the chair are three arm-chairs, on
which three other preachers sat. The steps from the floor to the
platform were occupied by men (whether peculiarly favoured or not
I don't know), but the seats behind Irving's chair are evidently
appropriated to the higher class of devotees, for they were the
best dressed of the congregation. The business was conducted with
decency, and the congregation was attentive. It began with a hymn,
the words given out by one of the assistant preachers, and sung by
the whole flock. This, which seems to be common to all dissenting
services, is always very fine, the full swell of human voices
producing a grand effect. After this Irving delivered a prayer, in
a very slow drawling tone, rather long, and not at all striking in
point of language or thought. When he had finished, one of the men
sitting beside him arose, read a few verses from the Bible, and
discoursed thereon. He was a sorry fellow, and was followed by two
others, not much better. After these three Spencer Perceval stood
up. He recited the duty to our neighbour in the catechism, and
descanted on that text in a style in all respects far superior to
the others. He appeared about to touch on politics, and (as well
as I recollect) was saying, 'Ye trusted that your institutions
were unalterable, ye believed that your loyalty to your King, your
respect for your nobility, your'--when suddenly a low moaning
noise was heard, on which he instantly stopped, threw his arm over
his breast, and covered his eyes, in an attitude of deep devotion,
as if oppressed by the presence of the spirit. The voice after
ejaculating three 'Oh's,' one rising above the other, in tones
very musical, burst into a flow of unintelligible jargon, which,
whether it was in English or in gibberish I could not discover.
This lasted five or six minutes, and as the voice was silenced,
another woman, in more passionate and louder tones, took it up;
this last spoke in English, and words, though not sentences, were
distinguishable. I had a full view of her sitting exactly behind
Irving's chair. She was well dressed, spoke sitting, under great
apparent excitement, and screamed on till from exhaustion, as it
seemed, her voice gradually died away, and all was still. Then
Spencer Perceval, in slow and solemn tones, resumed, not where he
had left off, but with an exhortation to hear the voice of the
Lord which had just been uttered to the congregation, and after a
few more sentences he sat down. Two more men followed him, and
then Irving preached. His subject was 'God's love,' upon which he
poured forth a mystical incomprehensible rhapsody, with
extraordinary vehemence of manner and power of lungs. There was
nothing like eloquence in his sermon, no musical periods to
captivate the ear, no striking illustrations to charm the
imagination; but there is undoubtedly something in his commanding
figure and strange, wild countenance, his vehemence, and above all
the astonishing power of his voice, its compass, intonation, and
variety, which arrests attention, and gives the notion of a great
orator. I daresay he can speak well, but to waste real eloquence
on such an auditory would be like throwing pearls to swine. 'The
bawl of Bellas' is better adapted for their ears than quiet sense
in simpler sounds, and the principle 'omne ignotum pro magnifico,'
can scarcely find a happier illustration than amongst a
congregation whose admiration is probably in an inverse ratio to
their comprehension.

December 6th, 1833 {p.042}

The Vice-Chancellor, Parke, Bosanquet, and Erskine met yesterday
to consider a judgment, and took three hours to manage it;
business does not go on so quickly with many Judges as with one,
whether it be more satisfactory or not. The Chancellor, the last
time we met, announced to the Bar (very oddly) that for the
future their Lordships would give judgment in turn. (He had
himself delivered the only judgment that had been given.) The
Vice-Chancellor, who I thought was his friend, laughed at this
yesterday with me, and said that he wanted to throw off from
himself as much as he could. I asked him (he had said something,
I forget what, about the Chancery Bill) what would be left for
the Chancellor to do when that Bill was passed. He said,
'Nothing, that he meant to be Prime Minister and Chancellor, and
that it was what he had been driving at all along, that the Bill
for regulating the Privy Council was only a part of his own plan,
and that all his schemes tended to that end.' Setting political
bias aside, it is curious, considering his station, to hear the
lawyers talk of him, the contempt they universally have for him
professionally, how striking the contrast with the profound
respect which is paid to Lord Eldon. The other day, in the action
brought against the Chancellor for false imprisonment, Lord Eldon
was subpoenaed, and he appeared to give evidence; when he entered
the Court, while he was examined, and when he departed, the whole
Bar stood up, and the Solicitor-General _harangued_ him,
expressed in the name of his brethren the satisfaction they felt
at seeing him once more among them. There is something affecting
in these reverential testimonials to a man from whom power has
passed away, and who is just descending into the grave, and I
doubt if, at the close of his career, Brougham will ever obtain
the same.

December 9th, 1833 {p.043}

Went yesterday with Frederic Elliot and Luttrell to hear Fox, a
celebrated Unitarian preacher, at a chapel in South Place,
Finsbury Square. He is very short and thick, dark hair, black
eyes, and a countenance intelligent though by no means handsome;
his voice is not strong, and his articulation imperfect, he cannot
pronounce the s. His sermon was, however, admirable, and amply
repaid us for the trouble of going so far. He read the whole of
it, the language was beautiful, the argument clear and unembarrassed,
the reasoning powerful, and there were occasionally passages of
great eloquence. The conclusion, which was a sort of invocation to
the Deity, was very fine. I like the simplicity of the service:
hymns, a prayer, and the sermon, still I think a short liturgy
preferable--our own, much abbreviated, would be the best.

December 13th, 1833 {p.043}

[Page Head: LORD TAVISTOCK ON THE LIBERAL PARTY.]

Met Tavistock at dinner the other day, and talked about the
Government; from his intimacy with Althorp and connection with
the others he knows their sentiments pretty accurately. He said
that Lord Grey had so high an opinion of Althorp that he made his
remaining a _sine quâ non_, and accordingly he does remain. He
thought Lord Grey would be glad to retire, but that he will go on
as long as he can, because the Government would be placed in such
great embarrassment by his retreat. He did not think Brougham
could succeed him, though he believed his popularity in the
country to be great; that all depended on the part Peel took in
the next session, for in the event of Lord Grey's resignation he
looked to the King's sending for Peel to form a Government (much
as Canning did when Lord Liverpool died), principally composed of
course of the _purest_ materials, but not exclusively, and that
he did not think the great body of the Liberal party would make
any difficulty of accepting office under Peel; that Stanley would
not. He (Tavistock) thinks that Peel could not come into office
_with_ the Duke of Wellington; the Tories (Irvine, e.g.) think he
would not come in _without_ him.

December 18th, 1833 {p.044}

Went with Moore yesterday morning to the State Paper Office, and
introduced him to Lemon.[4] It was at the new office, where the
documents are in course of arrangement, and for the future they
will be accessible and useful. John Allen told Moore the other
day that he considered that the history of England had never
really been written, so much matter was there in public and
private collections, illustrative of it, that had never been made
use of. Lemon said he could in great measure confirm that
assertion, as his researches had afforded him the means of
throwing great light upon modern history, from the time of Henry
VIII. The fact is, that the whole thing is conventional; people
take the best evidence that has been produced, and give their
assent to a certain series of events, until more facts and better
evidence supplant the old statements and establish others in
their place. They are now printing Irish papers of the time of
Henry VIII., but from the folly of Henry Hobhouse, who would not
let the volume be indexed, it will be of little service. In the
evening dined with Moore at the Poodle's. He told a good story of
Sydney Smith and Leslie the Professor. Leslie had written upon
the North Pole; something he had said had been attacked in the
'Edinburgh Review' in a way that displeased him. He called on
Jeffrey just as he was getting on horseback, and in a great
hurry. Leslie began with a grave complaint on the subject, which
Jeffrey interrupted with 'O damn the North Pole.' Leslie went off
in high dudgeon, and soon after met Sydney, who, seeing him
disturbed, asked what was the matter. He told him what he had
been to Jeffrey about, and that he had in a very unpleasant way
said, 'Damn the North Pole.' 'It was very bad,' said Sydney;
'but, do you know, I am not surprised at it, for I have heard him
speak very disrespectfully of _the Equator_.'

[4] [Robert Lemon, Esq., F.S.A., was the Deputy Keeper of
the State Papers, who rendered the greatest services in
the classification of the Records, which at this time
were but little known and had not been opened to
literary investigation.]

December 21st, 1833

[Page Head: HOSTILITY TO RUSSIA.]

There is great talk of war with Russia, which I don't believe will
take place. I had a long talk with Madame de Lieven the day before
yesterday, and was surprised to find her with such a lofty tone
about war. She said that it was '_chance égale_;' that they
neither desired nor feared it; that our tone had latterly been so
insulting that they had no option but that of replying with
corresponding hauteur; that if we sent ships to the Mediterranean
they would send ships: that if those measures were pursued, and
such language held, it was impossible to say that circumstances
might not bring about war, though equally against the wishes and
interests of all parties. In such a case we might destroy their
fleet and burn their harbours, but we could not exclude them from
Turkey, nor once established there get them out again. That we
must not fancy we should be able, in conjunction with France, to
keep the rest of Europe in check; for it was the opinion of the
wisest heads, and of Louis Philippe himself, that a war would
infallibly bring about his downfall. (This latter opinion is
likewise, I find, that of the French ultra-Radicals; but they
think the war must be a war of opinion, and that the extreme
Liberals, who would thereby gain the ascendency, would make the
King the first victim.) She complained bitterly of the language of
our newspapers, and of our orators in Parliament, described the
indignation of the Russian Court, and the dignified resentment
mixed with contempt of the Emperor; in short, talked very big, but
still there will be no war.--I met Dedel afterwards, and he told
me that at Broadlands, where they all met, some explanations in a
tolerably friendly tone did take place. The truth is that we have
divested ourselves of the right of objecting to Russia's measures
with regard to Turkey, although we do not dare acknowledge what we
have done, nor our motives. We were (and we are) in a false
position, and she has played her cards with great dexterity; but
the Treaty[5] is another thing, and is justly calculated to excite
our jealousy and suspicions. We have held this language to Russia
with regard to the Treaty: 'We do not remonstrate, because we
admit your right to make what treaties you think fit; but we give
you notice, that if any attempt is made to enforce the stipulations
of it against us, we shall not endure it, and you must be prepared
for the consequences.'

[5] The treaty of Unkiar Skelesi.

* * * * *

1834.

Belvoir Castle, January 7th, 1834 {p.046}

[Page Head: BELVOIR CASTLE.]

After many years of delay, I am here since the 3rd, to assist at
the celebration of the Duke of Rutland's birthday. The party is
very large, and sufficiently dull: the Duke of Wellington,
Esterhazy, Matuscewitz, Rokeby, Miss d'Este (afterwards Lady
Truro), and the rest a rabble of fine people, without beauty or
wit among them. The place is certainly very magnificent, and the
position of the castle unrivalled, though the interior is full of
enormous faults, which are wholly irretrievable. This results from
the management of the alterations having been entrusted to the
Duchess and Sir John Thurston (the former of whom had some taste
but no knowledge), and they have consequently made a sad mess of
it. There is immense space wasted, and with great splendour and
some comfort the Castle has been tumbled about until they have
contrived to render it a very indifferent house; no two rooms
communicating, nor even (except the drawing-room and dining-room,
the former of which is seldom or never inhabited) contiguous. The
gallery, though unfinished, is a delightful apartment, and one of
the most comfortable I ever saw. The outside of the Castle is
faulty, but very grand; so grand as to sink criticism in
admiration; and altogether, with its terraces and towers, its
woods and hills, and its boundless prospect over a rich and
fertile country, it is a very noble possession. The Duke lives
here for three or four months, from the end of October till the
end of February or March, on and off, and the establishment is
kept up with extraordinary splendour. In the morning we are roused
by the strains of martial music, and the band (of his regiment of
militia) marches round the terrace, awakening or quickening the
guests with lively airs. All the men hunt or shoot. At dinner
there is a different display of plate every day, and in the
evening some play at whist or amuse themselves as they please, and
some walk about the staircases and corridors to hear the band,
which plays the whole evening in the hall. On the Duke's birthday
there was a great feast in the Castle; 200 people dined in the
servants' hall alone, without counting the other tables. We were
about forty at dinner. When the cloth was removed, Esterhazy
proposed His Grace's health, who has always a speech prepared in
which he returns thanks. This time it was more simple than usual,
and not at all bad. To-night there is a ball for the servants,
which could not take place on the real birthday, as it fell on a
Saturday.

I have had snatches of talk with the Duke of Wellington, and
yesterday morning he retired with Matuscewitz, and had a long
conference with him. The absolute Courts have a great hankering
after the Duke, though their Ministers here can hardly look for
his return to office; nor do I believe that if he was to come
back he would be found indulgent to the projects of Russia,
though he might be disinclined to continue so very intimate as we
now are with France. He told me this morning he thought the
French King's speech to his Chambers exceedingly good. He of
course disapproves of all our foreign policy, particularly in the
Peninsula. He says he sees no daylight whatever through the
Portuguese affair. The Spanish may terminate in the success of
the Queen, but only by her opposing Liberalism. He is convinced
that if she introduces Liberal principles she will be lost. He
says that the Spanish Government will be too happy to interfere
in the Portuguese contest (as in fact I know that they have
offered to do), but that we never can allow this, which besides
the consequences of interference (as a principle) would
necessarily make Portugal dependent on Spain. Arbuthnot, who is
here, told me (and he hears these things from the Duke) that
Matuscewitz had expressed the greatest contempt for Palmerston,
and not the less for Lord Grey; and that, with regard to the
latter, he had been much struck with his ignorance. I do not know
on what points he meant, but it must be in history or diplomacy,
which I am surprised at, because I thought he was a man of a
cultivated mind and general information, who would be found, as
far as knowledge goes, competent to any discussion. He likewise
said that he found him slow of comprehension.

Belvoir, January 8th, 1834 {p.048}

There was a ball for all the servants and tenants on Monday,
which the Duke of Rutland opened with Lady Georgina Fane, and the
Duke of Wellington followed with Lady Brownlow. Yesterday half
the people went to Belton; it was nearly impossible to get any
talk with the Duke. He told me that the Russians were in no hurry
to do any overt act in Turkey, and that their policy was as it
had always been--to work very gradually. I asked him if he
thought they really intended a permanent occupation of Turkey. He
said certainly not; that they could not bear the expense of a
war, which in that case would ensue; that the difference of the
expense between their own and a foreign country was as between
10d. and 4s. a man.

To-day I have been all over this Castle; the arrangements are
admirable, and the order and cleanliness of every part of the
offices and the magnitude of the establishment are very
remarkable, and such as I have never seen elsewhere. This
afternoon Gosh [Mr. Arbuthnot] came and sat with me, and talked
over all matters, which I have heard from him before, though he
has forgotten it, which he well may, for his intellect, never
very bright, seems to be almost entirely obscured. I daresay I
have put down these things before, but as they are curious scraps
of history they may as well go down again. It all relates to the
break-up of Lord Grey's Government in '32, and the abortive
attempts of the Duke to form an administration.

The King had given his word that he had never promised to make a
single peer. Doubts arose whether he had not told a lie; they
pressed him on this point (Wellington and Lyndhurst); he
persisted in his denial, upon which they requested Taylor might
be sent for, and all the correspondence produced, when they found
he was pledged up to the throat, and without reserve. The King
then attempted to get out of it by saying he had consented to
call up the sons of Scotch peers and give to Irish peers English
peerages, which he did not consider a creation of peers!

[Page Head: DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND MR. PEEL.]

When the Duke accepted the commission to form a Government, it
was resolved to prorogue Parliament, and Lyndhurst was desired by
the King to go to Lord Grey and tell him such was his pleasure.
Lyndhurst forgot it! In after times, those who write the history
of these days will probably discuss the conduct of the great
actors, and it will not fail to be matter of surprise that such
an obvious expedient was not resorted to, in order to suspend
violent discussions. Among the various reasons that will be
imagined and suggested, I doubt if it will occur to anybody that
the real reason was that it was _forgotten_.

Arbuthnot says they know that Lyndhurst was intriguing with the
Whigs when the Duke was turned out in '30, and that it had been
settled that he was to remain their Chancellor; and so he would
have been if Brougham would have consented to be Attorney-General,
and had not run restive, and given clear indications of his
resolution to destroy the Government if he was left out of it. He
says that notwithstanding the duplicity of Peel's conduct in 1832,
he and the Duke are always on good terms, and no great question is
ever agitated without Peel's coming to the Duke and talking it
over with him; that Peel is determined to have nothing to do with
the Whigs, and told him (Arbuthnot) so very lately, but the High
Tories are just as unmanageable as ever. Chandos came to the Duke
the other day, and told him he thought they ought to get up
petitions against the malt tax. The Duke said he would countenance
no such thing; that he thought the revenue of the country should
be supported; for if it failed, recourse must be had to a property
tax, which would fall on the aristocracy; and so he persuaded him
to let the malt tax alone.

January 26th, 1834 {p.049}

I left Belvoir on Friday, the 10th, and went to Mrs. Arkwright's,[6]
at Stoke, where I found nobody but her own family. I was well
enough amused for two days with her original conversation and her
singing, and her cousin, Miss Twiss, who, with a face of uncommon
plainness and the voice of a man, is sensible and well informed.
Then they both liked to have me, and that is a great charm; a
little agreeableness goes a great way in the Peak, and it is not
difficult to procure a triumph to one's vanity from people who,
with a good deal of power of appreciation, have very little
opportunity for comparison, and are therefore easily satisfied.
Arkwright told me that it was reported by those who were better
informed than himself of his father's circumstances, that he is
worth from seven to eight millions. His grandfather began life as
a barber, invented some machinery, got a patent, and made a
fortune. His son gave him offence by a marriage which he
disapproved of, and he quarrelled with him, but gave him a mill.
Arkwright, the son, saw nothing of his father for many years, but
by industry and ability accumulated great wealth. When Sir Richard
served as Sheriff, his son thought it right to go out with the
other gentlemen of the county to meet him, and the old gentleman
was struck with his handsome equipage, and asked to whom it
belonged. Upon being informed, he sought a reconciliation with
him, and was astonished to find that his son was as rich as
himself. From that time they continued on good terms, and at his
death he bequeathed him the bulk of his property.

[6] [Mrs. Arkwright was a Kemble by birth, and had much of
the musical and dramatic genius of that gifted family.
Her singing was most touching, and some of her musical
compositions were full of originality and expression.]

Mrs. Arkwright told me the curious story of Sir Thomas Lawrence's
engagements with her two cousins, the daughters of Mrs. Siddons.
They were two sisters, one tall and very handsome, the other
little, without remarkable beauty, but very clever and agreeable.
He fell in love with the first, and they were engaged to be
married. Of course under such circumstances he lived constantly
and freely in the house, and after some time the superior
intelligence of the clever sister changed the current of his
passion, and she supplanted the handsome one in the affection of
the artist. They concealed the double treachery, but one day a
note which was intended for his new love fell into the hands of
the old love, who, never doubting it was for herself, opened it,
and discovered the fatal truth. From that time she drooped,
sickened, and shortly after died. On her deathbed she exacted a
promise from her sister that she would never marry Lawrence, who
firmly adhered to it. He continued his relations with her with
more or less intimacy up to the period of her death, the date of
which I do not recollect.

[Page Head: A MURDER NEAR RUNTON.]

From Stoke I went on Monday, 13th, to Drakelow, which Sir Roger
Gresley has lent to Craufurd, and stayed there two nights. It is
a miserable place, with the Trent running under the windows, and
Lord Anglesey's land close to the door. Thence on Wednesday to
Runton Abbey--Lord Lichfield's--who has added to it a farm-house,
and made a residence in the midst of his property, where he has
the best shooting in England. He and I went out the day after I
got there, and killed 41 pheasants, 74 hares, 24 rabbits, 8
woodcocks, and 8 partridges. He is a fine fellow, with an
excellent disposition, liberal, hospitable, frank and gay, quick
and intelligent, without cultivation, extravagant and imprudent,
with considerable aptitude for business; between spending and
speculating, buying property in one place, selling in another,
and declining to sell in a third, he has half ruined a noble
estate.

Just before I got there a murder had been committed close to his
house under very curious circumstances, of which some notice
appeared in the newspapers. A soldier in the Artillery got a
legacy of £500, with which he bought his discharge, went down to
the village near Runton, and took a very pretty girl of
indifferent character to live with him. He gave her shawls and
trinkets, and spent a good deal of money on her. Having addicted
himself immoderately to drink, he soon spent all his money, and,
to supply himself with the means of getting drunk, he began
robbing his mistress of the articles he had given her. It
happened that about this time somebody in the village who had
been robbed consulted a cunning man of great repute in the
neighbourhood, and so alarmed was the thief at the bare idea of
what this oracle might utter, that the stolen property was
secretly restored. The girl upon hearing of this restitution
resolved to have recourse to the cunning man, and invited her
lover to escort her to his abode. After endeavouring in vain to
dissuade her they set out together, but he was so overcome with
terror as he went along that he stopped short in the road and
refused to proceed. On this the girl said that it was easy to see
who was the thief, and that the reason he would not face the
conjuror was that he was conscious of his own guilt. Upon this
they fell to high words, then to blows, and he finished by
murdering her. He did not attempt to escape, but repaired to a
public-house, where he was soon after taken into custody. He
acknowledged the crime, and said he was weary of life, and
deserved to be hanged. Here is an example of the miserable
effects of good fortune upon a man who was unfit to use it, and
of the strange superstition of the common people. The murderer
will be tried at the next assizes.

[Page Head: CHARACTER OF LORD HARROWBY.]

I stayed at Runton till Sunday, 19th, when I came here,[7] where
there was nobody but the family and Ralph Sneyd. The place is
exceedingly beautiful, and arranged with excellent taste. It has
been very agreeable. Lady Harrowby is superior to all the women I
have ever known; 'her talk is so crisp,' as Luttrell once said of
her. She has no imagination, no invention, no eloquence, no deep
reading or retentive memory, but a noble, straightforward,
independent character, a sound and vigorous understanding,
penetration, judgment, taste. She is perfectly natural, open and
sincere, loves conversation and social enjoyment; with her
intimate friends there is an _abandon_ and unreserved communion
of thoughts, feelings, and opinions which renders her society
delightful. Of all the women I ever saw she unites the most
masculine mind with the most feminine heart. Lord Harrowby[8] has
all the requisites of disagreeableness, a tart, short, provoking
manner, with manners at once pert and rigid; but he is full of
information, and if made the best of may yield a good deal of
desirable knowledge. Though not illiberal in politics, he has
fallen into the high Tory despondency about the prospects of the
country, and anticipates every evil that the most timid alarmist
can suggest. Still, justice should be rendered to Lord Harrowby;
a purer and more disinterested statesman never existed. He was
always devoid of selfishness and ambition, honourable and
conscientious to a degree which rendered him incapable of a
sordid or oblique action. Always acute, but sometimes crotchety,
he had the same fault in politics which was the reproach of Lord
Eldon in law--indecision; and this in no small degree impaired
both his efficacy and his authority. His great idol was Pitt,
and, after him, he was the friend and admirer of Perceval. Bred
in their school, and a Tory by taste, by habit, and in opinion,
it is not a little to his honour that he was able to comprehend
the mighty changes which time and circumstances had effected, and
to perceive that an inflexible adherence to high Tory maxims was
dangerous, because their practical operation was no longer
possible; but justice must be rendered to him hereafter, for he
will never obtain it in his own time. By endeavouring to steer
between two great and exasperated factions he became thoroughly
obnoxious to both. After having refused the post of Prime
Minister, no one can doubt the sincerity of his desire to retire
from public life, and in the consciousness of rectitude, the
disgust of parties, and a calm and dignified philosophy, he finds
ample consolation for all the obloquy with which he has been
assailed.

[7] [This must have been written at Sandon, Lord Harrowby's
seat in Staffordshire, but the entry is not dated.]

[8] [Dudley Ryder, second Baron and first Earl of Harrowby,
born in 1762; married in 1795 Susan, a daughter of the
Marquis of Stafford.]

Burghley, January 28th, 1834 {p.053}

Came here yesterday, and found Lady Clinton, Lady Frederic
Bentinck, Lyne Stephens and Irby, not amusing. Captain Spencer
came to-day. I had almost forgotten the house, which is
surprisingly grand in all respects, though the living rooms are
not numerous or handsome enough. I just missed Peel, who went to
Belvoir yesterday. I heard wonderful things of railroads and
steam when I was in Staffordshire, yet by the time anybody reads
what I now write (if anybody ever does), how they will smile
perhaps at what I gape and stare at, and call wonderful, with
such accelerated velocity do we move on. Stephenson, the great
engineer, told Lichfield that he had travelled on the Manchester
and Liverpool railroad for many miles at the rate of a mile a
minute, that his doubt was not how fast his engines could be made
to go, but at what pace it would be proper to stop, that he could
make them travel with greater speed than any bird can cleave the
air, and that he had ascertained that 400 miles an hour was the
extreme velocity which the human frame could endure, at which it
could move and exist.

February 1st, 1834 {p.054}

Lord Wharncliffe has been here and is gone. He, like Harrowby, is
very dismal about the prospects of the country, and thinks we are
gravitating towards a revolution. He says that the constituency
of the great towns is composed of ultra-Radicals, and that no
gentleman with really independent and conservative principles can
sit for them, that the great majority of the manufacturers and of
the respectable persons of the middle class are moderate, and
hostile to subversion and violent measures, but that their
influence is overwhelmed by the numerical strength of the low
voters, who want to go all lengths. He says that he has received
greater marks of deference and respect in his own county, and
especially at Sheffield, where a short time ago he would have
been in danger of being torn in pieces, than he ever experienced,
but that he could no more bring a son in for Sheffield than he
could fly in the air. Sir John Beckett is just gone to stand for
Leeds, and certainly the catechism to which he was there forced
to submit is very ominous. A seat in the House of Commons will
cease to be an object of ambition to honourable and independent
men, if it can only be obtained by cringing and servility to the
rabble of great towns, and when it shall be established that the
member is to be a slave, bound hand and foot by pledges, and
responsible for every vote he gives to masters who are equally
tyrannical and unreasonable. I know nothing more difficult than
to form a satisfactory opinion upon the real state and prospects
of the country amidst the conflicting prejudices and impressions
of individuals of different parties and persuasions, and there
are so many circumstances that tell different ways, that at this
moment my judgment is entirely suspended on the subject.

[Page Head: STATE OF SPAIN.]

George Villiers gave a deplorable account of the state of Spain,
but he (unlike the Duke of Wellington) thinks that the only
chance of safety for the Queen is to make common cause with the
Liberals. He has been greatly instrumental to Zea's removal,
having conveyed to the Queen Regent that England by no means
considered his continuance in the Ministry indispensable, and
this intimation, together with the storm which assailed him from
all parts, determined her to dismiss him. Palmerston has never
written to George Villiers once since _October_. I heard the same
thing of him in some other case, I forget which.

February 6th, 1834 {p.055}

Returned to town yesterday from Newmarket, which I took in my way
from Burghley. Parliament had opened the day before, with a long
_nothingy_ (a word I have coined) speech from the throne, in
which the most remarkable points were a violent declaration
against O'Connell, that is, against Irish agitation, and strong
expressions of amity with France. It is comical to compare the
language of the very silly old gentleman who wears the crown, in
his convivial moments, and in the openness of his heart, with
that which his Ministers cram into his mouth, each sentiment
being uttered with equal energy and apparent sincerity. Lord Grey
is said to have made a very good speech on the Address. The House
of Commons has commenced with all the dulness imaginable, but it
was enlivened last night by a squabble on the Hill and Sheil
business[9] (dragged on by O'Connell), and the ultimate arrest of
Althorp and Sheil by the Serjeant-at-arms, a very foolish affair,
which must end as it began, in much declaiming and swearing, and
no positive conviction, though complete moral certitude. It
afforded much amusement, as everything personal does. The present
expectation is that the session will go off rather quietly.

[9] [Mr. Hill, a member of Parliament, had stated in a
speech that some of the Irish members most vehemently
opposed to the Coercion Bill in the House of Commons
had nevertheless privately stated to members of the
Government that they were glad the Act should be
renewed. This charge was denied with great heat by the
Irish members in the House when Parliament met. But
upon Mr. Sheil's calling upon Lord Althorp to state
whether he was one of the members alluded to, Lord
Althorp replied that the honourable gentleman was one
of them. Sheil immediately denied it in the most solemn
and emphatic terms; and as it was feared that a hostile
meeting might ensue between him and Lord Althorp, they
were both taken into custody by the Serjeant-at-arms.
Further explanations ensued, and Lord Althorp
subsequently withdrew the charge, stating that he
believed Mr. Sheil's asseveration, and that he must
himself have been misinformed.]

February 13th, 1834 {p.056}

[Page Head: UNPOPULARITY OF LORD PALMERSTON.]

It is observed by everybody that there never was a session of
Parliament which opened with such an appearance of apathy as
this. After the violent excitement which has almost incessantly
prevailed for the last two years or more, men's minds seem
exhausted, and though the undergrowl of political rancour is
still heard, and a feeble cry of the Church is in danger, on the
whole there is less bitterness and animosity, and a tolerably
fair promise that things will go on in a smooth and even course.
The storm that impended over Europe has blown off, and there
seems to be no danger of any interruption of the peace. Esterhazy
and Madame de Lieven both told me last night that they thought so
now, and the former that he had told Palmerston that we might
rely upon Austria's not being an indifferent spectator of the
political conduct of Russia, and if we would place confidence in
them, they would not only prevent any dangerous aggression on the
part of Russia in Europe, but would take such measures as should
contribute largely to the security of our Eastern dominions,
though that was no object of immediate interest to them. Madame
de Lieven told me that it was impossible to describe the contempt
as well as dislike which the whole corps diplomatique had for
Palmerston, and pointing to Talleyrand, who was sitting close by,
'surtout lui.' They have the meanest opinion of his capacity, and
his manners are the reverse of conciliatory. She cannot imagine
how his colleagues bear with him, and Lord Grey supports him
vehemently. The only _friend_ he has in the cabinet is Graham,
who has no weight. His unpopularity in his own office is quite as
great as it is among the foreign ministers, and he does nothing,
so that they do not make up in respect for what they want in
inclination. George Villiers complains that for above three
months he has not received a single line from him, and he is a
young minister, unpractised in the profession, to whom is
committed the most delicate and difficult mission in Europe. He
spends his time in making love to Mrs. P---- whom he takes to the
House of Commons to hear speeches which he does not make, and
where he exhibits his conquest, and certainly it is the best of
his exploits, but what a successor of Canning, whom by the way he
affects to imitate. What would be Canning's indignation if he
could look from his grave and see these new Reformers, who ape
him in his worst qualities, and who blunder and bluster in the
seat which he once filled with such glory and success. It must be
owned that we are in a curious condition, and if the character of
the Government, moral and intellectual, be analysed, it will
exhibit a very astonishing result: with a great deal of loose
talent of one sort or another scattered about it, but mixed with
so much alloy, that, compounded as it is, the metal seems very
base. However, we are not likely to get anything better, and
these people will very likely hammer on tolerably well.

Since Parliament met, the foolish business of Sheil and Hill has
been the sole topic of discussion, to the unspeakable disgust of
every sensible person in and out of the House. All feel the
embarrassment, the ridicule, the disgrace of such an occupation,
and the members of Parliament are provoked that the affair was
not strangled at the outset. The Speaker is now generally blamed
for not having prevented Althorp from answering O'Connell's
question, which he ought to have done, at least ought to have
warned the House of the consequences, when undoubtedly the matter
would have been stifled. They say Althorp did what he had to do
very well, like a gentleman and man of honour, and in excellent
style and taste, though many think he need not have said so much.
The committee began to sit yesterday; it was not a secret
committee, but they agreed to request members not to come in;
however, the tail would go in, and they found it would be a
difficult matter to exclude them, for which reason, and because
Sheil had no friend on the committee, they unanimously agreed
that the House should be invited to add O'Connell to it, and
after some difficulty raised by John Russell, this was consented
to.

February 14th, 1834 {p.058}

Last night at Miss Berry's met Mrs. Somerville, the great
mathematician. I had been reading in the morning Sedgwick's
sermon on education, in which he talks of Whewell, Airy, and Mrs.
Somerville, mentioning her as one of the great luminaries of the
present day. The subject of astronomy is so sublime that one
shrinks into a sense of nothingness in contemplating it, and
can't help regarding those who have mastered the mighty process
and advanced the limits of the science as beings of another
order. I could not then take my eyes off this woman, with a
feeling of surprise and something like incredulity, all
involuntary and very foolish; but to see a mincing, smirking
person, fan in hand, gliding about the room, talking nothings and
nonsense, and to know that La Place was her plaything and Newton
her acquaintance, was too striking a contrast not to torment the
brain. It was Newton's mantle trimmed and flounced by Maradan.

February 17th, 1834 {p.058}

In the House of Commons the Sheil committee came to a sudden
termination. It was a silly and discreditable business, and
people were glad it ended. The course adopted was this: they took
the 'Examiner' newspaper, containing the paragraph inculpatory of
Sheil, and they called on Hill to prove his case. Hill called
witnesses, one of whom, Macaulay, refused to speak. He said he
would not repeat what had passed in private conversation. The
committee approved, and Hill threw up his case, held out his hand
'with strong emotion' to Sheil, made ample apologies, and Sheil
was acquitted. Then came the apologies in the House of Commons.
Peel told me that he was convinced Sheil really had never said
what was imputed to him; but that he said something tantamount,
though very loosely, is probable, and the people who had told
Althorp would not come forward to bear him out, so that he was
forced to apologise too, but he did it very reluctantly. The
Irishmen, however, had not done, and O'Dwyer (formerly a
reporter) attacked Pease, asked for explanations, his card and
address. Pease, who is a Quaker, said 'he gave no explanations
but on his legs in the House of Commons, had no card and no
address.'

[Page Head: O'CONNELL'S ATTACK ON BARON SMITH.]

But there was a more serious matter than Sheil and Hill's
trash--O'Connell's attack upon Baron Smith, the circumstances of
which exemplify the way the House of Commons is managed under
Althorp's auspices, and the general mode of proceeding of the
Government there. O'Connell gave notice of a motion for an address
to the Crown to remove the Baron. Government resolved to oppose it.
Littleton authorised Shaw to write to him and say so, and that he
would say nothing in the debate offensive to him, though he could
not but disapprove of his charge. Nobody thought of any support the
motion would receive beyond that of the tail. The Ministers came
down to the House in this mind. Stanley and Graham went away for
some purpose or other, and when they came back they found that
O'Connell had altered the terms of his motion, and that Althorp,
Littleton, and the Solicitor-General had agreed to support it; in
short, that O'Connell had laid a trap for them, and they had gone
ding-dong into it. Stanley was very angry and much annoyed, but the
thing being done he knocked under, and tried to bolster up the
business. Graham would not, and in a maudlin, stupid sort of speech
declared his opposition, which was honest enough. All this annoyed
the Government very much, and now O'Connell is said to be quite
satisfied with what he has done, and does not want to have a
committee, but (having thrown a slur on the Judge by the vote of
Parliament) to let the matter drop. Spring Rice also voted against
the Government, and said that he had never known a worse case since
he sat in Parliament, and that nothing could be more mischievous
than the effect such a vote would produce in Ireland. Scarlett,
Peel, and Spankie made very good speeches; Stanley, John Russell,
and Campbell as bad.

[Page Head: STATE OF THE TORY PARTY.]

The same night Althorp made his financial statement, exhibiting a
surplus revenue and reduction of taxation, all very flourishing
and promising; but in announcing his intended reduction of the
House Tax, he said without any disguise that he did not think it
an objectionable tax, but that he took it off on account of the
clamour against it. Here are three exhibitions in one week, and
this is the Minister of our finances and organ of Government in
the House of Commons. No matter how he blunders in word or deed,
he smiles in dogged good-humour at ridicule or abuse; his
intentions are good, his mind is straightforward, and his
conscious rectitude, his personal popularity, enable him to
commit his blunders with impunity; but the authority of
Government suffers in his hands; maxims get into vogue which are
incompatible with good and strong government, and the effects of
his weakness and facility may be felt long after the cessation of
their immediate operation.

February 19th, 1834 {p.060}

Last night Whittle Harvey's motion on the Pension List. He made
admirable speeches; but had a majority of nine against him. This
division is not a bad exemplification of the state of parties and
of the House of Commons. Some of the Tories voted (in the
majority of course), many others would not. I asked one of them
(Henry Hope, a man of no consequence, certainly) if he was not
going to vote. 'No,' he said, 'I shall not vote, the Government
must manage their own business as they can.' He would not vote
against a proposition he must regard with the greatest aversion,
because he would thereby be supporting the Government and prefers
the chance of giving a victory to the Radicals, establishing a
dangerous principle, and doing a great injury to a host of
individuals, the greater part of whom are of his own party or
among his own friends, because he thinks that the result may be
productive of some embarrassment to Ministers. This is one of the
cases in which the conduct of Government has been such as their
bitterest enemies must applaud, when they risk their popularity
to support a very unsightly list of pensions, not granted by
themselves, or to their friends, from a sense of justice; and yet
these high Tories will not support them even in fighting such a
battle as this. On the other hand, the Government reject their
support when they might avail themselves of it against the
Radicals and ultra-Whigs, in such a case as that of Baron Smith
the other night; and so ill blood is constantly increasing
between them, while O'Connell and his tail and the Radical
blackguards sit by and chuckle at the evils these mutual
jealousies and antipathies produce. Richmond told me yesterday
that Stanley was greatly annoyed at Baron Smith's affair; but
finding the mischief done, and feeling the embarrassment that
would arise from his opposing Althorp, he threw himself into the
breach; said he had advised him never to do so again. The conduct
of Althorp, Littleton, and Campbell is inconceivable, unless it
were to give a fresh triumph to O'Connell (he has just carried
Dungarvan, Jacob _v._ Barron; 'it is the voice of _Jacob_ but the
hand of _Esau_'), who has had his own way hitherto in this
Parliament. In this business and in Sheil's he has done just what
he pleased, and made the Government appear in as pitiful a light
as he could possibly desire. O'Dwyer told the Speaker that
O'Connell had never expected _or even wished_ that Ministers
should give way to him to the extent they did.

[Page Head: LORD ALTHORP'S DEFECTS AS LEADER.]

Knatchbull has given notice of a motion to reverse the decision
for a committee on the case of Baron Smith, and in conjunction
with Peel. It must embarrass the Government, but it is not, I
think, judicious, because it is not the same question, and affords
them the opportunity of treating it on different grounds. In the
division last night the three Lennox's all voted with the
minority, brothers of a Cabinet Minister, and all their sisters
being on the Pension List. Molyneux was going out, and was
forcibly retained by Stanley. It looks as if the whipping in was
very unskilfully managed. Notwithstanding the present prosperity
and tranquillity, it is impossible not to be disturbed at the mode
in which business is conducted in the House of Commons, and at the
state and animus of parties, and above all at Althorp being the
leader there. His character is peculiarly fitted to do mischief in
these times, and his virtues are unfortunate, for they serve to
bolster him up, and to keep him where he is in spite of his
blunders. His temper is so admirable, his personal popularity so
great, that there is an impression that the House will be led by
him more easily than by Stanley, who alone, of the present
Government, could aspire to that post. Nobody imputes to Althorp a
spark of ambition, and ample credit is given him for the most
disinterested motives, and for making a great personal sacrifice
in retaining his present situation. The consciousness of this
makes him comparatively indifferent to victory or defeat, and
careless of that nice management which formerly was indispensable
in a leader. He seems totally blind to the consequences of his
errors, and the advantage that is taken of them by those who not
only meditate mischief to the Administration, but to the great
interests they are bound to protect. Occurrences and circumstances
that would have filled former leaders with vexation, and their
followers with dismay, seem to pass over him without ruffling his
serenity or alarming his mind. He acts as if in utter unconsciousness
of a restless spirit of popular aggrandisement, as if the House of
Commons was an innoxious and manageable machine, as if it was
sufficient to mean well, and he lets matters take their chance,
without any of that vigilant and systematic direction which, if
guided by a nice discrimination, might regulate the movements and
check the eccentricities of this vast and unruly body. Since the
opening of this session, all that he has said and done has proved
his utter unfitness for the place he occupies. First, his
imprudent answers to O'Connell, and the turn he gave to that
affair. Then, in bringing forward his financial statement, the
naïveté with which he admitted that he had submitted to the
clamour against the House Tax, and withdrawn it contrary to his
own judgment; then the facility with which he gave in to
O'Connell's motion about the Irish Judge, and threw over his
colleagues and his party without an apparent reason or motive. It
produces a feeling allied to despair, all security is at an end,
for that which would be produced by his good intentions is
destroyed by reflecting on his miserable judgment; half republican
in his principles, and incredulous of any danger to be apprehended
from the continual increase of popular influences in the House of
Commons, he does not perceive how much the authority of a leader
is diminished in his hands, and how difficult it will be for any
successor of his to gain that sort of ascendency which is
indispensable for the effective conduct of public business, and
the moral character of the Government. To effect this, besides
great talents, great tact, discretion, sagacity, and temper will
be required; more, I fear, than fall to the share of Stanley, who
is better qualified to be a debater than a leader. Moderate men,
who do not approve of this Government, but who do not desire to
turn them out, if they would only act upon tolerably conservative
principles, are thrown into despair by the behaviour of Althorp,
and regard with consternation the inevitable increase of anarchy
in the House of Commons, and consequent prevalence of Radical
principles, from the sluggish, inert, vacillating, unforeseeing
character he displays.[10]

[10] [These remarks made at the time are not altogether just
to Lord Althorp, and it is now well known from other
sources, equally authentic, that he was more conscious
than anyone else was of his own shortcomings, and
passionately desirous to be released from office. But
it was notorious that the retirement of Lord Althorp
from the leadership of the House of Commons would be
the signal for the dissolution of Earl Grey's
Government, and so within a few months the result
proved.]

February 22nd, 1834 {p.063}

[Page Head: SIR ROBERT PEEL'S FUTURE.]

Went to the House of Commons last night, where I have not been
for many years. A great change, and hardly a human being whose
face I knew. I heard the end of the debate on Chandos' motion,
when Peel gave O'Connell a severe dressing, and I heard the
debate on rescinding the order for a committee on Baron Smith.
Shaw, who held the Baron's brief, made a very fine speech, but
afforded a memorable example of the danger of saying too much,
and of the importance of knowing when to stop. Not contented with
a very powerful and eloquent appeal, which he wound up with an
energetic peroration, he suffered himself to be led away into a
tirade about O'Connell's enmity to religion, and instead of
ending as he might have done with shouts of applause, was coughed
and 'questioned' to the close. Stanley made a wretched speech;
O'Connell very bad, affecting to be moderate, he was only dull.
Peel spoke very shortly, but very well indeed. Peel's is an
enviable position; in the prime of life, with an immense fortune,
_facile princeps_ in the House of Commons, unshackled by party
connections and prejudices, universally regarded as the ablest
man, and with (on the whole) a very high character, free from the
cares of office, able to devote himself to literature, to
politics, or idleness, as the fancy takes him. No matter how
unruly the House, how impatient or fatigued, the moment he rises
all is silence, and he is sure of being heard with profound
attention and respect. This is the enjoyable period of his life,
and he must make the most of it, for when time and the hour shall
bring about his return to power, his cares and anxieties will
begin, and with whatever success his ambition may hereafter be
crowned, he will hardly fail to look back with regret to this
holiday time of his political career. How free and light he must
feel at being liberated from the shackles of his old connections,
and at being able to take any part that his sense of his own
interests or of the public exigencies may point out! And then the
satisfactory consciousness of being by far the most eminent man
in the House of Commons, to see and feel the respect he inspires
and the consideration he enjoys. It is a melancholy proof of the
decadence of ability and eloquence in that House, when Peel is
the first, and, except Stanley, almost the only real orator in
it. He speaks with great energy, great dexterity--his language is
powerful and easy; he reasons well, hits hard, and replies with
remarkable promptitude and effect; but he is at an immense
distance below the great models of eloquence, Pitt, Fox, and
Canning; his voice is not melodious, and it is a little
monotonous; his action is very ungraceful, his person and manner
are vulgar, and he has certain tricks in his motions which
exhibit that vulgarity in a manner almost offensive, and which is
only redeemed by the real power of his speeches. His great merit
consists in his judgment, tact and discretion, his facility,
promptitude, thorough knowledge of the assembly he addresses,
familiarity with the details of every sort of Parliamentary
business, and the great command he has over himself. He never was
a great favourite of mine, but I am satisfied that he is the
fittest man to be Minister, and I therefore wish to see him
return to power. Stanley told me yesterday how very glad they
were at having been defeated on Baron Smith's case, and that they
were thereby relieved from a great embarrassment. Times are
mightily altered, when such defeats and such scrapes produce no
effect upon Government, and when they can go on upon two
majorities of 4 and 8 and one defeat.

February 25th, 1834 {p.065}

There has been a meeting at Althorp's to-day, numerously
attended, in which he talked with some effect as it is said, the
audience having gone away in a humour to support Government. He
took occasion, on somebody hinting at the disunion among
themselves, to say that though there might exist differences of
opinion on some minor points, he believed there never had existed
a Cabinet of which the members were more firmly knit together by
private friendship and political concurrence.

It was Methuen who harangued, and who said that the meeting was
very unsatisfactory. Althorp began by saying that unless
gentlemen would more regularly and consistently support the
Government it could not be carried on, when Paul[11] rejoined
that the Government did not support itself, and that they seemed
divided. Moreover, that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer
himself talked with so much doubt and uncertainty about reducing
particular taxes, he must not be surprised if everybody tried to
get what they could for themselves in the general scramble.

[11] [Paul Methuen, Esq., M.P. for Wiltshire. It was to him
that O'Connell made the memorable but somewhat profane
retort, 'Paul, Paul, why persecutest thou me?']

There are letters from George Villiers to-day (not to me, but to
his mother), in which he gives a deplorable account of Spain,
that Carlos has a large party in the north, where the Queen's
person is odious, the monks have persuaded the people that she is
atheistical and republican, that she has not force enough to
crush the rebellion, and what she has is scattered on different
points, without being able to make any combined or vigorous
efforts, that she has no money. The Cortes is to be assembled,
but they (I suppose the Ministers) have rejected all good advice
on this subject, and nobody can anticipate the effect that will
be produced by 300 or 400 individuals meeting in a legislative
capacity. If Miguel had resolved to give effectual aid to Carlos,
and dashed into Spain, he might certainly have placed him on the
throne, and then secured him as a powerful ally to himself in his
own contest. Miguel's own case he (George Villiers) by no means
considers hopeless, thinks him much better off than Pedro was
when at Oporto. The stories of the Queen's[12] gallantries are
true. He does not say so _totidem verbis_, because he does not
dare, but he manages to convey as much in answer to a question
his mother asked him. He thinks that the great probability is
that universal anarchy will convulse that country with civil war
of the most destructive character, and that the provinces,
kingdoms, and districts will be arrayed against each other. The
Carlists of Spain being in the north, and those of France in the
south, it is very likely they will endeavour to make common
cause, in which case it will be difficult for France not to
interfere, so he thinks; so do not I, and am more disposed to
believe that Louis Philippe is too prudent to run his head into
such a hornet's nest, and that he will content himself with
keeping matters quiet in France, without meddling with the
Spanish disputes. He had not yet received any letters from
Palmerston.[13]

[12] [Queen Christina the Regent is here meant. Queen
Isabella II. was a young child.]

[13] [Within a few days of the date of this note the
Ministry of March 1st was formed in France, with M.
Thiers (for the first time) at the head of it. The
avowed object of that Minister was to induce the King
to interfere more actively in Spain in conjunction with
England, 'Nous entraînerons le Roi' was a boast he was
heard to utter. But he utterly failed. Mr. Greville's
prediction turned out to be correct, and in a few
months Thiers was again out of office.]

February 26th, 1834 {p.067}

[Page Head: HORNE AND BROUGHAM.]

Horne, the late Attorney-General, seems likely to fall between
the stools. When Brougham proposed to him to take a puisne
judgeship, he said he had been an equity lawyer all his life, and
had no mind to enter on a course of common law, for which he was
not qualified, and proposed that he should not go the circuits,
and be Deputy-Speaker of the House of Lords. Brougham told him
there would be no difficulty, and then told Lord Grey he had
settled it with Horne, but did not tell him what Horne required.
The general movement was made, and when Horne desired to see Lord
Grey he told him that his terms could not be complied with, so he
became a victim to the trickery and shuffling of the Chancellor,
who wanted to get him out, and did not care how. I hear that his
colleagues are quite aware of all his tricks and his intrigues,
and have not the slightest confidence in him. He thinks of
nothing but the establishment of political power on the basis of
patronage, and accordingly he grasps at all he can. All the
commissions of enquiry which are set on foot afford him the means
of patronage, but I doubt all will not do. He is emasculated by
being in the House of Lords, and he will hardly get anybody to do
his business for him in the House of Commons.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Spain--Russia and Turkey--Sir R. Peel's Pictures--Peel and
Stanley--Lord Brougham's Judicial Changes--Lord Brougham's
Defence--Admission of Dissenters to the Universities--Lord
Denman's Peerage--Growing Ascendency of Peel--An Apology for
Lord Brougham--Personal Reflections--Crime in Dorsetshire--
Spain and Portugal--Procession of the Trades' Unions--Lady
Hertford's Funeral--Petition of the London University for a
Charter--Repeal of the Union--Excitement of the King--Brougham
and Eldon at the Privy Council--Duke of Wellington's Aversion
to the Whigs--Lord Brougham and Lord Wynford--Fête at
Petworth--Lord Brougham's Conduct on the Pluralities Bill--
Crisis in the Cabinet--Prince Lieven recalled--Stanley, Graham,
and the Duke of Richmond resign on the Irish Church Bill--
History of the Crisis--Ward's Motion defeated by moving the
previous question--Affairs of Portugal--Effects of the late
Change--Oxford Commemoration--Peel's Declaration--Festival in
Westminster Abbey--Don Carlos on his way to Spain--Stanley's
'Thimble-rig' Speech--Resignation of Lord Grey--Mr. Greville's
account of the Causes of his Retirement--The Government
reconstituted by Lord Melbourne--Lord Duncannon Secretary of
State.

March 12th, 1834 {p.068}

I have been laid up with the gout for the greater part of a
fortnight, but went to Newmarket for two days to get well, and
succeeded. Weather like summer, nothing particularly new, a long
debate on the Corn Laws, which being called an open question, the
Ministers voted different ways--that is, all the Cabinet voted
one way, but the underlings took their own course. Half the
Ruralists are furious with Government for their indecision and
way of acting on this question, but I am so totally ignorant upon
it that I cannot enter into their indignation, or exactly
understand from what it proceeds. It was pretty to see Graham and
Poulett Thomson, like two game-cocks got loose from one pen,
pecking at and spurring one another. Everybody agrees that the
debate was very dull, and that is all they do agree upon.

George Villiers writes to his family from Spain, that nothing can
be worse and more unpromising than the state of that country.
Notwithstanding his Liberal opinions and desire to see a system of
constitutional freedom established in the Peninsula, he is obliged
to confess that Spain is not fit for such a boon, and that the
materials do not exist out of which such a social edifice can be
constructed. He regards with dismay and sorrow the tendency
towards irremediable confusion and political convulsions, and sees
no daylight through the dark prospect. He appears to regret Zea,
to whose removal he contributed, and finds more difficulties in
dealing with the present Ministers than he had with him.

March 14th, 1834

[Page Head: RUSSIA AND TURKEY.]

There is a fresh _démêlé_ with Russia on account of a new treaty
concluded by Achmet Pacha at St. Petersburg. By this Russia
agrees to remit six millions of the ten which Turkey owes her,
and to give up the Principalities, but she keeps the fortress of
Silistria and the military road, which gives her complete command
over them. The Sultan, 'not to be outdone in generosity,' in
return for so much, kindly cedes to Russia a slip of sea-coast on
the Black Sea, adjoining another portion already ceded by the
Treaty of Adrianople as far south as Poti. This territorial
acquisition is not considerable in itself, but it embraces the
line of communication with Persia, by which we have a vast
traffic, and which Russia will be able at any time to interrupt.
This new transaction, so quietly and plausibly effected, has
thrown our Government into a great rage, and especially his
Majesty King William, who insisted upon a dozen ships being sent
off forthwith to the Mediterranean. Nothing vigorous, however,
has been done, and Palmerston has contented himself with writing
to Lord Ponsonby, desiring him to exhort the Sultan not to ratify
this treaty, and rather to pay (or more properly, continue to
owe) the whole ten millions than accede to the wily proposal.
This advice will probably seem more friendly than disinterested,
and I have not the slightest idea of the Sultan's listening to
it. He has, in fact, become the vassal of Russia, and his lot is
settled in this respect, for from Russia he has most to fear and
most to hope. The conduct of our Government in this question, has
been marked by nothing but negligence and indecision, vainly
blustering and threatening at one moment and tamely submitting
and acquiescing at another, 'willing to wound and yet afraid to
strike,' treating Russia as if she was the formidable foe of
Turkey, and allowing her so to act as to make Turkey think her an
ally and protectress, and finally to throw herself into Russia's
arms.

I went yesterday morning to Peel's house, to see his pictures;
since we met at Buckenham we have got rather intimate. The fact
is that, though I have never been a great admirer of his
character, and probably he is not improved in high-mindedness, I
am so sensible of his capacity, and of the need in which we stand
of him, that I wish to see him again in power, and he is a very
agreeable man into the bargain. His collection is excellent, and
does honour to his taste. We talked of various matters, but the
thing that struck me most was what he said had passed between him
and Stanley the night before indicative of such good feeling
between them. It was about the job of Lord Plunket's with regard
to the Deanery of Down (concerning which they say there is a very
good case; not that it will do, be it ever so good, for Plunket
has a bad name, and public opinion will not pause or retract in
any concern of his). He and Stanley met at Madame de Lieven's
ball, and Peel said to him, 'Why did you let that appointment
take place?' Stanley replied, 'The fact is, I could not give the
true and only excuse for Plunket, viz., that he had signed the
report, but had never read it.' Peel said, 'You had better give
him some other deanery and cancel this appointment.' They talked
for a long time, but this tone and this advice exhibit a state of
sentiment by no means incompatible with a future union, when
matters are ripe for it. I found Peel full of curiosity to know
for what purpose Brougham and Denman had been hunting each other
about the County of Beds. The Chief Justice was on the circuit at
Bedford, and the Chancellor sent to him by special messenger to
appoint a meeting. The Chancellor went to Ampthill, and then to
Bedford. The Chief Justice had left Bedford in the morning, and
went towards London. Brougham had left his carriage at Ampthill
and hired a job one, that he might enter Bedford incognito.
Somewhere between Barnet and St. Albans they met, and returned to
town together in the Chancellor's job coach. They went to Lord
Grey's, and the next day Denman returned to the circuit, which he
had left without notice to his brother judge or to anybody--a
mystery.

March 16th, 1834 {p.071}

[Page Head: LORD BROUGHAM'S JUDICIAL CHANGES.]

Heard last night the explanation of the above. Brougham found
that Williams would not do in the Exchequer, so he shuffled up
the judges and redealt them. Williams was shoved up to the Common
Pleas, Bosanquet sent to the King's Bench, and James Parke put
into the Exchequer. I thought this was odd, because the Exchequer
is an inferior court; but I was told that Parke likes to be with
Lord Lyndhurst, who has now made the Court of Exchequer of
primary importance. 48,000 writs were issued from the Exchequer
last year, and only 39,000 from the King's Bench. I forget what
the proportions used to be, but enormously the other way. It is
quite ludicrous to talk to any lawyer about the Chancellor; the
ridicule and aversion he has excited are universal. They think he
has degraded the profession, and his tricks are so palpable,
numerous, and mean, that political partiality can neither screen
nor defend them. As to the separation of the judicial from the
ministerial duties of his office, it is in great measure
accomplished without any legislative act, for nobody ever thinks
of bringing an original cause into his Court. He has nothing to
hear but appeals, which _must_ come before him, and lunacy and
other matters, over which he has sole jurisdiction.

March 19th, 1834 {p.071}

The night before last Sheil brought on a debate on the Turkish
question, when Palmerston made a wretched speech, and Peel
attacked him very smartly, as it is his delight to do, for he
dislikes Palmerston. Talleyrand said to me last night, 'Palmerston
a très-bien parlé.' I told him everybody thought it pitiable. He
certainly took care to flatter France and not to offend Russia. In
the Lords Brougham took occasion, in replying to some question of
Ellenborough's, to defend himself from the charges which have been
brought against him of negligence and incapacity in his judicial
office, and he made out a good case for himself as far as industry
and despatch are concerned. Nobody ever denied him the merit of
the former quality. The virulent attacks of the Tory press (that
is, of the 'Morning Post,' by Praed, for the 'Standard' rather
defends him) have overshot their mark, and, though the general
opinion of the Bar seems to condemn him as a bad Chancellor, he is
probably not near so bad as they endeavour to make him out. A mind
so vigorous as his will master difficulties in a short time at
which an inferior capacity would in vain hammer away for years;
but his life, habits, and turn of mind seem all incompatible with
profound law-learning. He said to Sefton, after he had spoken,
'They had better leave me alone. I was afraid that when
Londonderry was gone nobody would attack me, and I did not think
Ellenborough would have been damned fool enough.' They certainly
can't get the best of him at the _gab_.

George Villiers continues to give a deplorable account of Spanish
affairs--of the imbecility of the Government, and of the conduct
of the Queen, about whom the stories of gallantry are quite true,
and he says it has done irreparable injury to her cause. An
embassy had arrived from Pedro, with a proposition that they
should concert a combined operation for crushing the Miguelites
and the Carlists both, beginning with the former. George Villiers
seems to think it feasible, but doubts if the Spanish Government
has sufficient energy and courage to undertake such an operation.

March 25th, 1834 {p.072}

[Page Head: DINNER AT SIR ROBERT PEEL'S.]

Dined with Peel on Saturday; a great dinner with the Duke of
Gloucester and the Ambassadors. The day before, in the House of
Lords, Lord Grey presented a petition from certain members of the
University of Cambridge, praying for the admission of Dissenters
to take degrees, which he introduced with a very good speech. The
Duke of Gloucester, who, as Chancellor of the University, ought
properly to have said whatever there was to say, was not there (in
which Silly Billy did a wise thing), so the Duke of Wellington
rose to speak in his stead. It may have been that considering
himself to stand in the Duke of Gloucester's shoes, he could not
make too foolish a speech, and accordingly he delivered one of
those harangues which make men shrug their shoulders with pity or
astonishment. It is always a matter of great regret to me when he
exposes himself in this manner. After dinner at Peel's I talked to
Lyndhurst about it, who said, 'Unlucky thing that Chancellorship
of Oxford; it will make him commit himself in a very inconvenient
manner. The Duke is so very obstinate; if he thought that it was
possible to act any longer upon those High Church principles it
would be all very well, but you have transferred power to a class
of a lower description, and particularly to the great body of
Dissenters, and it is obvious that those principles are now out of
date; the question is, under the circumstances, What is best to be
done?' Lord Ellenborough entirely threw the Duke over, and made a
very good speech, agreeing to the prayer of the petitioners, with
the reservation only of certain securities which Lord Grey himself
approves of. I dined with him the day following, and he said so,
adding at the same time, 'though I dare say they will consider
them as an insult, and make great complaints at their imposition.
However, I don't care for that, and if they don't choose to accept
what is offered them on such conditions, they may go without it.'
There are two things which strike one (at least strike me) in the
discussion--that of the two principal actors the Duke of
Wellington is incomparably a man of a more vigorous understanding,
and of greater firmness, energy, and decision than Lord Grey, but
that Lord Grey appears like an accomplished orator, and prudent,
sagacious, liberal statesman, while the other exhibits bigoted,
narrow-minded views, ignorance almost discreditable, and nothing
but a blind zeal in deference to the obstinate prejudices of the
academical body with which he has connected himself. Who would
imagine (who heard the two men and knew nothing more of them) that
the latter is in reality immensely superior to the former in mind
and understanding? Nor must it be supposed that the Duke of
Wellington, if he came into power, would act in a manner
corresponding with his declared opinions. Very far from it; he
would do just as he did with regard to the Test Act and the
Catholic question, and if he was at the head of the Government, he
would calculate what sort and amount of concession it was
necessary to make, and would make it, without caring a farthing
about the University of Oxford or his own former speeches. The
'Times' in its remarks on his speech was very insolent, but
excessively droll.

Denman's peerage is much abused; it is entirely the Chancellor's
doing. Denman has no fortune and a feeble son to succeed him, and
it was hoped that the practice of making all the Chief Justices
Peers would have been discontinued in his person. Brougham wrote
to Lyndhurst, ostensibly to inform him of this event, but really
to apologise for the misstatements he had made in his speech
about the business he (Lyndhurst) had done in the House of Lords
and in the Court of Chancery. Lyndhurst said (to me), 'What
nonsense it is. He has done all he could do, and so did his
predecessors before him; he has sat as long as he could, and if
he has not got through as much business it is because counsel
have made longer speeches, for I am told his practice is never to
interrupt them, to take away his papers, and come down a few days
after and deliver a written judgment.'

On Sunday at dinner at Lord Grey's I sat next to Charles Grey,
who talked of the House of Commons, and said that there could be
no question of Peel's superiority over everybody there, that
Stanley had not done so well this session, had displayed so much
want of judgment now, as well as formerly, that he was evidently
not fit to be leader. He owned that Peel's conduct was very fair
as well as prudent, and said that if his father was to resign, he
himself, and he believed many others, would be willing to support
a Government headed by Peel. It is remarkable how men's minds are
gradually turning to Peel. I was amused yesterday with Poulett
Thomson, who told me that Peel had been very courteous to him,
and that they had some important points of coincidence of
opinion; that Peel did not like Graham, Palmerston, or Grant, but
to the rest of the Government he was remarkably civil. I think he
reckons without his host if he calculates upon Peel's politeness
extending to the offer of a place to our Vice-President in the
event of his coming in.

March 29th, 1834 {p.075}

[Page Head: ADMISSION OF DISSENTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.]

At the beginning of the week there was a discussion in the House
of Commons which lasted for three mornings on the Cambridge
petition. Spring Rice, O'Connell, Stanley, and Palmerston spoke
for it; Goulburn, Inglis, and Peel against it. Old Cobbett made as
mischievous a speech as he could to blow the coals between the
parties. Peel spoke last, and as usual very well; but several
people expected he would have supported it, and have abstained
(from prudential motives) from saying anything likely to offend
the Dissenters. I expected no such thing; he was not violent, and
addressed his argument to the weak parts of his adversaries'
speeches rather than against the general principles of toleration;
and I still think that when the great question of concessions to
the Dissenters comes to be argued he will not be found in the
ranks of their virulent and uncompromising opponents. It would
have been an extraordinary thing indeed if he had all of a sudden
stood forth in the character of an anti-Churchman, for such he
especially would have been considered if he had united himself
with the petitioners, and he would have disgusted and alienated
all the High Churchmen and High Tories to a degree which must have
made a fresh and irreconcilable breach between them. This would
not have been judicious in his position, and I am satisfied that
he took the most prudent course. I am the more satisfied of it
from the circumstance that his speech by no means gave unalloyed
pleasure to the 'Standard,' which is the organ of the High Church
party. I feel it a strange thing to find myself the advocate and
admirer of Peel; but there is such a dearth of talent, his
superiority is so obvious, and it is so very desirable that
something like strength should be infused into the Government,
that I am compelled to overlook his faults without being the least
blind to them. I ascribe to him no more elevation of character
than I did before; but we must take what we can get and make use
of the existing materials, and for this reason I watch with
anxiety his conduct, because I am persuaded that he is under
present circumstances our best and only refuge.

The Vice-Chancellor[1] called on me the other day, and talking
over the business that had been done by Brougham, and the recent
discussion about it, he said that he had taken the trouble to
examine the returns of hearings, decrees, and orders, and he found
that there was scarcely a shade of difference between what had
been done severally by Eldon, Lyndhurst, and Brougham in equal
spaces of time. (Eldon and Lyndhurst had the Bankruptcy business
besides.) This is a clear case for the Chancellor, and it is only
fair that it should be known. His friends think him much altered
in spirits and appearance; he has never shaken off his unhappiness
at his brother's death, to whom he seems to have been tenderly
attached. It is only justice to acknowledge his virtues in private
life, which are unquestionably conspicuous. I am conscious of
having often spoken of him with asperity, and it is some
satisfaction to my conscience to do him this justice. When the
greatest (I will not say the best) men are often influenced by
pique or passion, by a hundred petty feelings which their
philosophy cannot silence or their temperament obeys, it is no
wonder that we poor wretches who are cast in less perfect moulds
should be still more liable to these pernicious influences; and it
is only by keeping an habitual watch over our own minds and
thoughts, and steadily resolving never to be turned from
considerations of justice and truth, that we can hope to walk
through life with integrity and impartiality. I believe what I
have said of Brougham to be correct in the main--that he is false,
tricking, ambitious, and unprincipled, and as such I will show him
up when I can--but though I do not like him and he has offended
me--that is, has wounded my vanity (the greatest of all
offences)--I only feel it the more necessary on that account to be
on my guard against my own impressions and prejudices, and to take
every opportunity of exhibiting the favourable side of the
picture, and render justice to the talents and virtues which
cannot be denied him.

[1] [Sir Lancelot Shadwell, Vice-Chancellor of England.]

April 3rd, 1834 {p.077}

[Page Head: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS.]

Yesterday I was forty years old, an anniversary much too
melancholy to think of; and when I reflect how intolerably these
forty years have been wasted, how unprofitably spent, how little
store laid up for the future, how few the pleasurable recollections
of the past, a feeling of pain and humiliation comes across me
that makes my cheeks tingle and burn as I write. It is very seldom
that I indulge in moralising in this Journal of mine; if anybody
ever reads it, what will they care for my feelings and regrets? It
is no reason, they will think, that because I have wasted my time
they should waste theirs in reading the record of follies which
are nothing more than the great mass of the world are every day
committing; idleness, vanity, and selfishness are our besetting
sins, and we are perpetually whirled about by one or other of
them. It is certainly more amusing, both to other people and to
myself (when I look back at what I have written), to read the
anecdotes and events of the day than all this moral stuff (by
which I mean stuff as applied to me, not as being despicable in
itself), but every now and then the fancy takes me, and I think I
find relief by giving vent on paper to that which I cannot say to
anybody. 'Cela fait partie de cette doctrine intérieure qu'il ne
faut jamais communiquer' (Stendhal). _Jam satis est_, and I will
go to other things--the foreign or domestic scraps I have picked
up.

Parliament being _en relâche_, there are few people in town.
William Ponsonby, whom I met the other evening, told me he had
just returned from the assizes at Dorchester, where some men had
been convicted of illegal association. On the event of this
trial, he said, the lower and labouring classes had their eyes
fixed, and the conviction was therefore of great consequence; any
relaxation of the sentence would have been impossible under the
circumstances, and though a great disposition was evinced, partly
by the press, by petitions, and by some speeches in Parliament,
to get them left off more easily, Melbourne very wisely did not
wait for more manifestations, but packed them off, and they are
gone. William Ponsonby told me that the demoralisation in that
part of the country is very great--the distress not severe, no
political disaffection, but a recklessness, a moral obtuseness,
exceedingly disgusting. There was a certain trial, or rather case
(for the grand jury could not find a bill), in which a woman had
murdered a child, got by her son out of a girl who lodged in her
cottage. The only evidence by which she could have been convicted
would have been that of the son himself, and he refused to speak.
The crime went unpunished; but I mention this to introduce what
grew out of it. One of the lawyers said that in the course of the
investigations which this case had occasioned it had been
discovered (though not in a way which admitted of any proofs
being adduced and any measures adopted upon it) that there was a
woman whose trade was to get rid of bastard children, either by
procuring abortions or destroying them when born, and that she
had a regular price for either operation.[2] I don't suppose that
the average state of morals is much worse in one county than in
another; but it is very remarkable that while education has been
more widely diffused than heretofore, and there is a strong
Puritanical spirit at work and vast talk about religious
observances, there should be such a brutish manifestation of the
moral condition of the lower classes, and that they should be
apparently so little humanised and reclaimed by either education
or religion. In this country all is contrast--contrast between
wealth the most enormous and poverty the most wretched, between
an excess of sanctity and an atrocity of crime.

[2] [The same thing was proved more than thirty years
later, on the trial of Charlotte Winsor, who eventually
escaped the fate she deserved on the ground of some
legal technicality which was taken up to the House of
Lords, and though it was decided against the prisoner,
the Government refused, after a considerable lapse of
time, to have her executed.]

George Villiers and Howard write equally bad accounts from their
respective Courts, neither seeing any hope of the termination of
the Peninsular contests, and each of them alike disgusted with
the men they have to deal with. Howard says that we could put an
end to the Portuguese affair whenever we chose, and that they
would submit to British power without thinking it a degradation;
that Miguel is not popular in Portugal, but that the priests have
made a crusade against Pedro and Liberal principles, and that
they drive the peasantry into the Miguelite ranks by the terrors
of excommunication; that the only reason why Pedro's military
operations are successful is that he has got an English corps,
against which the Portuguese will not fight.

April 21st, 1834 {p.079}

[Page Head: OXFORD ADDRESS TO THE KING.]

At Buckenham and Newmarket for the last fortnight, and all things
forgotten but racing. Seymour Bathurst's sudden death called me
up to town on Tuesday night, to go to Court on Wednesday. Then I
saw the Duke of Wellington march up at the head of the Doctors to
present the Oxford petition, attired in his academical robes; and
as I looked at him thus bedight, and then turned my eyes to his
portraits in the pictures of his battles which adorn the walls, I
thought how many and various were the parts he had played. He
made a great boggling of reading his petition, for it was on a
long and broad parchment, and he required both hands to hold it
and one to hold his glasses. This is the day for the procession
of the Trade Unions, and all London is alive with troops,
artillery and police. I don't suppose anything will happen, and
so much has the general alarm of these Unions subsided that there
is very little apprehension, though some curiosity to see how it
goes off.

April 23rd, 1834 {p.079}

Nothing could go off more quietly than the procession on Monday.
There were about 25,000 men, mostly well dressed, no noise or
tumult, a vast crowd. It was a failure altogether; Melbourne's
answer was good. They say 250,000 men are enrolled in the Unions,
and the slang name for those who won't belong to them is 'dungs;'
the intimidation used is great. There was quite as great a crowd
assembled yesterday to see old Lady Hertford's funeral go by. The
King sent all the royal carriages, and every other carriage in
London was there, I believe--a pompous piece of folly, and the
King's compliment rather a queer one, as the only ground on which
she could claim such an honour was that of having been George
IV.'s mistress. Brougham made one of his exhibitions in the House
of Lords the other night about the Cambridge petition, quizzing
the Duke of Gloucester with mock gravity. It was very droll and
very witty, I fancy, but very unbecoming his station. Last night
O'Connell spoke for five hours on the repeal of the Union.

April 25th, 1834 {p.080}

[Page Head: LONDON UNIVERSITY CHARTER.]

Yesterday the Privy Council met to hear the London University
petition, praying for a charter, and the counter-petitions of
Oxford and Cambridge and the medical bodies. The assemblage was
rather curious, considering the relative political position of
some of the parties. All the Cabinet Ministers were summoned;
Lords Grey and Holland were there, the Chancellor, Denman,
Lyndhurst, Eldon, the two Archbishops, and the Bishop of London.
Old Eldon got a fall as he came into the house and hurt his head.
Brougham and the rest were full of civilities and tenderness, but
he said 'it was of no consequence, for the _brains_ had been
knocked out long ago.' Wetherell made an amusing speech, and did
not conclude. It is seldom that the sounds of merriment are heard
within those walls, but he made the Lords laugh and the gallery
too. There were Allen of Holland House and Phillpotts sitting
cheek by jowl to hear the discussion.

May 11th, 1834 {p.080}

More than three weeks, and _rebus Newmarketianis versatus_, I
have written nothing. The debate on the repeal of the Union was
more remarkable for the length than the excellence of the
speeches, except Spring Rice's, which was both long and good, and
Peel's, the latter supereminently so. O'Connell spoke for five
hours and a quarter, and Rice for six hours; each occupied a
night, after the manner of American orators. The minority was
much smaller than was expected. Since that the only question of
consequence in the House of Commons has been the Pension List, on
which Government got a larger majority than they had hoped for,
and such an one as to set the matter at rest for some time. Peel
again spoke very well, and old Byng made a very independent,
gentlemanlike speech. Independence now-a-days relates more to
constituents than to the governing power. Nobody is suspected of
being dependent on the Crown or the Minister, and the question is
if a man be independent of the popular cry or of his own
constituency.

The King has been exhibiting some symptoms of a disordered mind,
not, however, amounting to anything like actual derangement, only
morbid irritability and activity--reviewing the Guards and
_blowing up_ people at Court. He made the Guards, both horse and
foot, perform their evolutions before him; he examined their
barracks, clothes, arms, and accoutrements, and had a musket
brought to him, that he might show them the way to use it in some
new sort of exercise he wanted to introduce; in short, he gave a
great deal of trouble and made a fool of himself. He was very
angry with Lord de Saumarez for not attending Keat's funeral, and
still more angry because he would begin explaining and apologizing,
first at the levee and then at the drawing-room; and he
reprehended him very sharply at both places. An explanation
afterwards took place through Lord Camden, to whom he said that he
was angry because de Saumarez would prate at the levee, when he
told him that it was not a proper place for discussing the
subject.

The debate at the Council Board terminated after two more days'
speaking. It was tiresome on the whole. Brougham is a bad
presiding judge, for he will talk so much to the counsel, and
being very anxious to abbreviate the business, he ought to have
avoided saying pungent things, which elicited rejoinders and
excited heat. The extreme gravity and patient attention of old
Eldon struck me forcibly as contrasted with the air of _ennui_,
the frequent and audible yawns, and the flippant and sarcastic
interruptions of the Chancellor. Wetherell made a very able
speech, which he afterwards published. The most striking incident
occurred in an answer of Bickersteth's to one of the Chancellor's
interruptions. He said, talking of degrees, 'Pray, Mr. Bickersteth,
what is to prevent the London University granting degrees _now_?'
to which, he replied, 'The universal scorn and contempt of
mankind.' Brougham said no more; the effect was really fine. There
was a little debate upon Portugal in the House of Commons on
Friday, in which Palmerston got roughly handled by Baring. A
report was believed that Don Carlos had sailed for England, and
that an agreement had been concluded between Miguel and Pedro, but
it turned out to be false. Nobody, however, doubts that the
quadruple alliance will settle the Portuguese business, if not the
Spanish.

May 12th, 1834 {p.082}

There was a report yesterday that Palmerston was out and Durham
in his place. The latter was under the gallery when Palmerston
made that woful exhibition the other night, and must have been
well satisfied. I met Peel at dinner yesterday, and after it he
talked to me of this report, which he concluded was not true; but
he said that Palmerston had seemed bereft of his senses, and that
in his speech he had attempted a new line quite unusual with
him--that of humour--and anything so miserable he had never
heard. He then talked of Stanley; expressed his indignation at
hearing O'Connell bepraised by the men he is always vilifying,
especially by Stanley himself, of whom he had spoken in the early
part of the same night in such terms as these: 'The honourable
gentleman, with his usual disregard of veracity, ...' and again
'he attacked him, but took care how he attacked others, who he
knew were not restrained by obligations such as he was under to
bear with his language;' in other words, calling him a liar and a
coward; and after this Stanley condescended to flatter him and
applaud his speech. He said that he had expected better things of
Stanley, and was really distressed to hear it.

[Page Head: DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND THE WHIGS.]

I dined with the Duke of Wellington on Saturday. Arbuthnot was
there, and he said the Duke is in a state of unutterable disgust
with the present Government and their proceedings, particularly
with their foreign policy, which he fancies they shape in
systematic and wilful opposition to his own. This, of course, is
merely his imagination, and rather a preposterous notion. He says
the Duke does not think well of the state of the country, but
that he grasps with eagerness at any symptoms of returning or
increasing prosperity, and (what is rather inconsistent with his
bad opinion of affairs) he is always telling the foreigners (i.e.
the Ambassadors) who talk to him that they will fall into a great
error if they think the power or resources of England in any way
impaired. His antipathy to the Whigs, is, however, invincible,
and of very ancient date, as this proves. Arbuthnot said that he
was looking over a box of papers the other day, and hit upon the
copy of a letter he had written to Lord Liverpool, by desire of
some of his principal colleagues, to dissuade him from quitting
office, which, he thought of doing at the time of the first Lady
Liverpool's death. With it there was a scrap on which was
written, 'Taken down from the Duke of Wellington's own lips;' and
this was an argument that, in the event of his refusing, he (the
Duke) should think himself at liberty to join any other party or
set of men, but that his great object was to keep the Whigs out
of power, as he was convinced that whenever they got in they
would ruin the country. Lord Liverpool said that they (The
Tories) had been too long in possession of the Government.

May 23rd, 1834 {p.083}

Newmarket, Epsom, and so forth. Nothing remarkably new. In the
House of Commons the Poor Law Bill has been going on smoothly; in
the House of Lords little of note but one of Brougham's
exhibitions. Old Wynford brought in a very absurd Bill for the
better observance of the Sabbath (an old sinner he, who never
cared three straws for the Sabbath), which Brougham attacked with
excessive virulence and all his powers of ridicule and sarcasm.
His speech made everybody laugh, very heartily, but on a
division, the Bishops all voting with Wynford, the latter carried
the second reading by three in a very thin House. The next day
the Chancellor came down with a protest, written in his most
pungent style, very smart, but more like a bit of an article in
the 'Edinburgh Review' than a Parliamentary protest. Wynford was
in the House when he entered his protest, and he called out to
him, 'Holloa, _Best_, look at my protest!'

There

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