CHAPTER XIII.

Anecdotes about the Exchequer Bill Forgery--M. de St. Aulaire

Ambassador in London--Morbid Irritability of the Duke--Macaulay

on Street Ballads--Sir Edmund Head, Poor Law Commissioner--The

Duke's Delusion--The Lord Chief Justice closes the Term--Armorial

Bearings of the Prince of Wales--Relations of Ministers with

the Queen--Lord William Russell recalled from Berlin--Arbitrary

Appointment of Magistrates--Anecdote of Sarah, Duchess of

Marlborough--Lord Spencer on the Corn Laws--Lord Lieutenancy of

Northamptonshire--Visit to Bowood--Mrs. Fanny Kemble--Macaulay's

Conversation--Macaulay's Departure--Lord Ashburton's

Mission--The Chinese War--Unpopularity of Lord Palmerston--A

Diplomatic Squabble--Prussian Treatment of Newspapers--Fire

at Woburn Abbey--Duke of Wellington himself again--King of

Prussia arrives--Proceedings of the Government--The Duke of

Buckingham resigns--Relations with France--Opening of the

New Parliament--King of Prussia's Visit--The Speech from the

Throne--Lord Palmerston's Hostility to France--The Queen and Her

Ministers--Dispute about a Scotch Judge--Corn Laws--A Letter

from Jellalabad--The Corn Law Debate--The Battersea Schools--A

Calm--Sir Robert Peel's Budget--The Disaster at Cabul--Death and

Funeral of the Marquis of Hertford--Sir Robert Peel's Financial

Measures--The Whig View of Peel--Archdeacon Singleton--Lord

Munster's Death--Colonel Armstrong--Theatricals at Bridgwater

House--Summary of the Session--The Occupation of Afghanistan--Lord

Wellesley's Opinion--Afghan Policy of the Government--Lord

Ashburton's Treaty--The Missing Map.

_November 24th, 1841._--If I do not vary the nature and enlarge

the scope of this Journal, I shall very soon be completely aground

and have nothing whatever to put down, for I am placed in very

different circumstances with the present and the late Government. I

have no intimacy or social habits with any of these people, and the

consequence is that I know little or nothing of what is going on. I

have, for a long time past, accustomed myself to what is, I believe,

a very foolish, unprofitable way of writing. I have almost entirely

given up entering anything except such scraps of political information

as I have picked up by one means or another, and consequently have

grown very idle, and my entries have often had long intervals between

them. Somebody remarked the other day what innumerable things were

lost for want of some curious observer and chronicler, who would

be at the trouble of recording and hoarding them in something less

voluminous, and therefore more accessible than the columns of a

newspaper. I was struck with the truth of this, and thought how many

anecdotes, verses, _jeux d'esprit_, and miscellanies of various kinds

I might have rescued from oblivion, but had never thought of doing so,

because they had appeared in newspapers. Partly, therefore, because

it may be more or less interesting and amusing, and partly because I

think I shall have no political facts or circumstances to record, I

have resolved to fill my pages with more general matter, although,

such is the inveterate force of habit, I am anything but sure that I

shall adhere to my resolution.

The other night I heard how the Exchequer Bill affair was first

discovered. Some merchant in the City wrote to the Chancellor of the

Exchequer, and told him that there was some great negligence in the

Exchequer Bill Office, for he was in possession of two bills, both of

the same number. Goulburn sent for Maule, and told him to go to the

Exchequer and enquire into this. He went and told his errand, on which

Smith asked him to go with him into the next room. He went, when Smith

said, 'The fact is, one of these bills is forged. There has been a

system of forgery going on for many years, and I am guilty of being

concerned in it.' Maule asked him if he had any objection to repeat

this confession in the presence of his clerk, who was below, and he

said, none whatever. He might easily have got away, but now they think

his confession was a stroke of policy, and that he made it, believing

that no law will reach him.

[Sidenote: THE FORGERY OF EXCHEQUER BILLS.]

Another curious thing has happened. Lord Sudeley went with his brother

to some sparring exhibition, where their pockets were picked. The

brother had had the precaution to clear his of everything valuable,

but Lord Sudeley lost three Exchequer bills of 1,000_l._ each. He gave

notice of his loss, and the usual means were adopted for recovering

the bills, the numbers stopped, and so forth. Not long ago a man

came into a banker's at Liverpool, and said he was going abroad, and

wanted money, and would be much obliged if they would give him some

in exchange for an Exchequer bill. He handed the bill in, when the

banker, on looking at it, thought it was the same number as one of the

advertised bills, and he told the gentleman that such was the case.

The man expressed ignorance and surprise, but said that of course he

could not expect the money under such circumstances, and begged he

would give him back the bill. The other said he was sorry he could

not do that, as he was bound to detain it. 'Well, then,' said the

man, 'if that is the case, I will call again to-morrow, and you will

be able, in the meanwhile, to enquire further into the business.' But

the banker replied he could not allow him to go either, and was under

the necessity of detaining him as well as the bill. A police-officer

was sent for, and the gentleman was led into another room. Having

secured his person, they concluded that the other Exchequer bills

were probably not far off, and that somebody would call in the course

of the day to make enquiry about the person in custody, and for this

expected visit they set a watch. In a short time a man did come and

enquire, when they told him the gentleman had been obliged to go off

to London. The officer followed the enquirer to his lodging and into

his room, where he explained the object of his visit. The man said

he might make any search he pleased, which he immediately did, but

without success. He was therefore preparing to leave the room, but as

he passed the bed his eye fell upon a waistcoat, which the man had

just taken off and thrown upon it. He had already searched the pockets

before the man had taken it off, but nevertheless was tempted to take

the waistcoat up again, when suddenly the man flew upon him, and

seized him by the throat. A violent struggle ensued, but eventually

the officer was able to examine the waistcoat closely, and concealed

therein were the other two Exchequer bills. Thus all three were

recovered, but they turned out to be all three forged.

I have had a letter from M. Guizot, desiring I would make M. de St.

Aulaire's acquaintance, and be civil to him, and St. Aulaire told

Reeve that he had been desired by Guizot to cultivate him and me as

the two most valuable acquaintances he could make.[16] I have been

presented to him, and we had a long palaver the other night, in which

he was extremely civil and cordial; but I am so out of the habit of

speaking French, that I find myself floundering terribly when I get

into great talk, which is very stupid and mortifying. I have written

to Guizot, and told him I should be very happy to do anything I could

for St. Aulaire, and especially to render any assistance in my power

to _him_, but that I must candidly tell him I do not know half so much

of what was going on now as I had done when the late Government were

in office.

They tell me that Aberdeen is doing very well, working very hard,

taking up every question, writing well on them all, and displaying

much greater firmness than he did before.

[Sidenote: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S CHATTELS.]

The Duke of Wellington is remarkably well. I saw him yesterday for

the first time since the Council at Windsor, and he said he never

was better. But he is altered in character strangely. He has now a

morbid aversion to seeing people, which nearly amounts to madness.

Nobody can get access to him, not even his nearest relations. When

anybody applies for an interview, he flies into a passion, and the

answers which he dictates to letters asking for audiences, or asking

for anything, are so brutally uncivil and harsh that my brother

Algy constantly modifies or alters them. The Duke fancies he is so

engaged that he cannot spare time to see anybody. This peculiarity

is the more remarkable, because formerly his weakness was a love of

being consulted by everybody, and mixed up with everything. Nobody

was ever in a difficulty without applying to him; innumerable were

the quarrels, _tracasseries_, scandals, intrigues, and scrapes which

he had to arrange and compose. He has for a long time past kept up a

correspondence with Raikes, encouraging him to write at great length,

and punctually answering his letters. Raikes came over here to see

what he could get, and the Duke interested himself in his favour, and

spoke to Aberdeen; but although they have so long been correspondents,

Raikes has never been able to obtain an audience at Apsley House,

for though he solicited that favour as soon as he came, the Duke has

never once admitted him. I was yesterday with Messrs. Sidebottom, in

Lincoln's Inn, for the purpose of settling the disputes between Lord

de Mauley and Lord Kinnaird, when they told me what had passed about

the Duke's personal property, when a bill was brought in, upon Douro's

marriage, to settle a jointure on Lady Douro. They urged him to take

that opportunity to entail on the title all the curious and valuable

things which had been given him by emperors and kings, and to have a

clause inserted in the Bill for that purpose. He consented, but when

he saw it, he said he did not like it; he thought the enumeration

_flashy_, and he would have it expunged. At last they hit on an

expedient, and they introduced a clause to the effect that anything

which he should appoint by deed within two years should be entailed on

the title for ever, and they prevailed on him to sign the deed on the

very last day of the two years. The value of the property is said to

amount to half a million, and a great number of things were brought

to light which he did not know that he possessed. If his two sons

die without issue, which is very probable, the disposal of all these

valuables reverts to him.[17]

[Footnote 16: [The Marquis de St. Aulaire arrived about this

time as Ambassador of France at the Court of St. James'. He was

the finished type of a French nobleman and diplomatist of the

old school, remarkable for the elegance of his manners and the

_finesse_ of his conversation. Nor was he devoid of literary

accomplishments. His 'History of the Fronde' was regarded as one of

the best works of the period.]]

[Footnote 17: [The then Marquis of Douro lived to succeed his

father, and became the second Duke of Wellington, dying in 1884

without issue. His brother, Lord Charles Wellesley, died before

him, and the title descended to his son, the third and present Duke

of Wellington.]]

_November 27th._--On Thursday I dined with Milman,[18] to meet

Macaulay, Sydney Smith, and Babbage. Pretty equal partition of talk

between Sydney and Macaulay. The latter has been employing his busy

mind in gathering all the ballads he can pick up, buying strings

of them in the streets, and he gave us an amusing account of the

character of this species of literature, repeating lines and stanzas

without end. The ballad writers, who may be supposed to represent

the opinions and feelings of the masses for whose delectation they

compose, do not, according to Macaulay, exhibit very high moral

sentiments, as they evince a great partiality for criminals, and

are the strenuous opposers of humanity to animals. We dined at the

Prebendal House, once Ashburnham House, very handsome, and with one

of the most elegant staircases I ever saw anywhere, the work of Inigo

Jones. Yesterday I dined with Bingham Baring, Henry Taylor, John Mill

(son of the historian and a very clever man), and Emerson Tennent,

agreeable enough. The day's newspapers announced the sudden death

of Chantrey, the most eminent of contemporary sculptors, but not, I

suspect, for I am no judge, of a high order of genius. His busts were

very happy, but I am not aware of any great work of imaginative art

which he has produced, and his two children in Lichfield Cathedral

have always been quoted as the greatest proof of his power.[19]

[Footnote 18: [Dr. Milman was at this time a Prebendary of

Westminster Abbey, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's.]]

[Footnote 19: [The Lichfield monument was designed by Stothard, and

executed in sculpture by Chantrey.]]

[Sidenote: THE DUKE'S DELUSION.]

_November 30th._--Graham has made Sir Edmund Head Poor Law

Commissioner, an appointment very creditable to him. The Government

are certainly going on well, and Tufnell, as strong a Whig as any,

told me last night he thought their appointments excellent, and that

they were doing very well. This appointment of Head is what Normanby

was urged, but was afraid, to make. He shrank from it, however, for

very poor reasons, not honourable to himself or to others concerned.

First of all, John Russell's trying to thrust Rich upon him, a man not

for one moment to be compared with Head, and then because Chadwick was

against him. Accordingly he left it to the Tories, fully expecting

they would appoint Colonel A'Court; but Graham has thrown over all

party considerations, and having, after strict enquiry, satisfied

himself that Head is the ablest and the fittest man, he has given him

the situation.

A correspondence has just appeared in the papers between the Duke of

Wellington and the Paisley deputation, which is exceedingly painful

to read, calculated to be very injurious to the Government, whom

their enemies are always accusing of indifference to the public

distress, and which, in my opinion, exhibits a state of mind in the

Duke closely bordering on insanity. This deputation is come up to

represent the distress prevailing at Paisley, and they ask for an

interview to lay the case before the Duke. He refuses to see them,

and writes a letter much in the style of his printed circulars,

alleging that he has no time, and that he holds no office, and has no

influence. They remonstrate temperately and respectfully, still press

for the interview, and then he makes no reply whatever. All this is

lamentable; it is a complete delusion he is under; he has nothing to

do, and he has boundless influence. When we reflect upon his habits

at the time he was Prime Minister, still more when he was in Spain,

with such weight on his Atlantean shoulders, when he would find time

for everything and for everybody's affairs, and when we compare the

language of his despatches, and the conduct they exhibit, with his

present querulous tone and pertinacious seclusion, we are painfully

struck with the great change that has come over his noble spirit, and

it becomes impossible not to regret that in his seventy-third year,

and after three epileptic fits, he was not permitted to hold himself

free from the trammels, cares, and duties of Executive Government.

He might and would have been a great _amicus curiæ_, aiding with his

moral influence the Government, adjusting differences and disputes,

ready to be appealed to, to advise and assist in any case of

necessity, but not wearing himself out by real or imaginary business,

and neither committing the Government by his strange fancies, nor

injuring his own popularity by his mortifying and almost savage

behaviour to the various people who approach him.

[Sidenote: ARMORIAL BEARINGS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.]

_December 3rd._--I dined again with Bingham Baring yesterday and

met Lord FitzGerald, with whom I had a long talk, the first time

I have seen him since he came into office. We discussed the Duke

of Wellington's Paisley correspondence, and he fully confirmed my

impression of the vexation it would cause the Government. It is clear

enough that they would be very glad to be without him; and after

talking of the unhappy and increasing infirmity of his temper, he

expressed his apprehension of the probable consequences in the House

of Lords,[20] and that the Government may be seriously compromised

by some imprudent or intemperate expressions of the Duke; that,

last year, nothing but the extreme forbearance of Brougham, and his

good-nature, had prevented some disagreeable results of this kind;

and it was now the more serious, when the Duke was to be the organ

of the Government, and from his habits and his deafness it would be

impossible for anybody to check or restrain him, Lyndhurst placed afar

off on the woolsack, and the Duke sitting with his head buried in his

chest, and neither consulting with, nor attending to, anyone. In 1835,

he said, it had been the Duke's wish to do what he is now doing--to

lead the House of Lords without a place; but Peel had then thought

this was open to constitutional objections. Why he did not raise the

same objections now, I don't know, unless it was that he found the

Duke bent on forming part of the Government, and that he would have

insisted on the Foreign Office again, if he was not permitted to lead

without one. This, however, is mere conjecture. FitzGerald owned that

it would have been better if he had retired, and kept aloof from

Government. It has been his great misfortune never to have people

about him who ventured to oppose his opinions, and he has always liked

the society of those who applauded to the skies everything he said and

did. As long as his faculties were unimpaired, it is difficult not to

believe that if he had had candid and intelligent friends he would

have listened to and considered their opinions, for his obstinacy is

not the result of pride or vanity, from both of which he is singularly

free, but arises from the habit, become inveterate, of trusting

entirely to himself and to his own judgement. FitzGerald told me that

he had never been more struck by anything than by the despatches and

State-papers of Lord Auckland, and that he had no sort of idea he was

so able a man; that he was, with the sole exception of John Russell,

by far the ablest man of his party. His views most statesmanlike, and

his government of India particularly just. I never heard a warmer

panegyric than he passed upon Auckland.[21]

There has been a great sensation in the courts of law, in consequence

of Lord Denman's suddenly closing the term, on the last day of it, in

consequence of the absence of the counsel. He did it in a passion, and

though there is much difference of opinion, on the whole he is blamed

for it. The evil required a remedy, and the Judges would have done

right to lay down some rules for the future; but they have punished

the innocent suitors by what they did, and most people think it was

wrong in the Chief Justice to vindicate the dignity of his court at

their expense.

[Footnote 20: [The Duke of Wellington took office in Sir Robert

Peel's Government without any department or salary; but he led the

House of Lords. At this very time, however, and long afterwards,

his judgement and power of dealing with public affairs were great

if not unabated. His correspondence with Lord Ellenborough in 1843

and 1844 shows that he paid particular attention to the affairs of

India, read all the papers, and was much more than Lord Ripon the

Minister for India; in 1845 and 1846 it was his influence which

carried the repeal of the Corn Laws in the House of Lords; and in

1848 at the time of the disturbances on April 10, he astonished the

Cabinet by the masterly arrangements he made for the defence of

London.]]

[Footnote 21: [Lord FitzGerald was at this time President of the

Board of Control.]]

_December 5th._--The difficulties and trouble that may be caused by

trifles may be well illustrated by a matter which is now pending. Peel

sent for me the day before yesterday, to talk to me about the armorial

bearings of the Prince of Wales, a matter apparently very simple and

insignificant, but not at all so in fact. The Queen and Prince are

very anxious to allot to this baby his armorial bearings, and they

wish that he should quarter the arms of Saxony with the Royal arms of

England, because Prince Albert is alleged to be _Duke of Saxony_. The

Queen gave the Princess Royal armorial bearings last year by warrant,

but it is conceived that more formal proceedings are necessary in the

case of the Heir Apparent. The last precedent is that of 1714, when

George the First referred to the Privy Council the question of the

Prince of Wales's arms, who reported to His Majesty thereupon. On that

occasion the initiative was taken by the Deputy Earl Marshal, who

transmitted to the Council a draft, which was afterwards approved.

Then, however, the case admitted of no doubt; but now the Heralds, and

others who have considered the matter, think that the Saxon arms ought

not to be foisted upon the Royal arms of England. It is Her Majesty's

predilection for everything German which makes her insist on this

being done, and she wants it to be done offhand at the next Council

without going through the usual forms of a reference and report.

Peel, however, is not disposed to let the thing be thus hurried over;

he thinks that it is a matter in which the dignity of the Crown is

concerned, and that whatever is done should be done with deliberation,

and that if the Privy Council are to advise, they ought to advise what

is right and becoming, and not merely what she and the Prince wish.

The difficulty, therefore, is, how to set the matter going. The Earl

Marshal will not stir without an order to do so. If the Home Office

order him to submit a draft of the armorial bearings of the Prince of

Wales, they can only order him to make out what is right according to

the rules and laws of heraldry, and the Earl Marshal is of opinion

that what the Queen and Prince wish to be done is inconsistent with

those rules. The matter therefore remains in suspense. I have sent to

Lord Wharncliffe, by Peel's desire, to come up from Wortley to meet

Graham, in order that they may put their heads together and settle

this delicate and knotty affair. Melbourne would have made very light

of it; he would have thought it did not signify a straw, which,

in fact, it does not, and that any fancy the Queen had should be

gratified in the most summary way.

[Sidenote: THE QUEEN AND THE NEW MINISTRY.]

_December 8th._--This foolish business of the coat of arms has cost

more trouble than many matters a thousand times more important. Peel

has had to write at least a dozen long letters about that and the

alteration in the Liturgy, and whether _His Royal Highness_ should

be inserted before Prince of Wales. Yesterday Wharncliffe, Graham,

and I had a conference at the Home Office, when Graham produced a

letter from Peel, with one from the Queen to him, pressing for the

speedy arrangement of the affair, and treating it as a thing settled.

Graham said it was not worth while to squabble about it, and better

to gratify her, and he proposed to take it on himself, and let the

Council have nothing to do with it, but, on his own responsibility,

order the Earl Marshal to draw out a coat of arms, with the

achievement according to her wishes, no matter whether right or

wrong. We agreed this was the best way. Peel had written to me about

the Liturgy, and I wrote him word that when Prince Albert's name was

inserted, the Archbishop particularly desired there might be no 'Royal

Highness,' and so it was left out.

_December 9th._--I saw Graham again yesterday about this business.

They have gazetted the child 'Duke of Saxony,' which is very absurd,

and at Lady Holland's, last night, the precedence given to that title

over the English titles was much criticised. It was amusing to hear

Lady Palmerston finding fault, and when I told her it was a particular

fancy of the Queen's, to which she clung very tenaciously, she said

'that it was the duty of the Ministers to tell her it was wrong, but

they had not the courage to do so.' I asked Graham how they were going

on with the Queen. He said, 'Very well. They sought for no favour,

and were better without it. She was very civil, very gracious, and

even, on two or three little occasions, she had granted favours in a

way that was indicative of good will.' He said that they treated her

with profound respect and the greatest attention. He made it a rule to

address her as he would a sensible _man_, laying all matters before

her, with the reasons for the advice he tendered, and he thought this

was the most legitimate as well as judicious flattery that could be

offered to her, and such as must gratify her, and the more because

there was no appearance of flattery in it, and nothing but what was

fit and proper. He said Ellenborough had immediately ingratiated

himself with her, by giving her very good summaries of Indian

intelligence, and explaining everything to her in his own very good

style, so that the moment Peel proposed him to go to India, she said

he was the fittest man he could select. I told him that Ellenborough

might thank me for this, for I had advised him, the day we went to

Windsor, to do so, and told him that she liked to have this done.

_Woburn Abbey: December 15th._--Came here last Thursday. A foolish

party of idle people; no serious man but Lord Spencer, who came the

day before yesterday. I had some talk with the Duke about Lord John's

speech at Plymouth, which he does not approve of any more than I

do, but he can't venture to say so; also about his other brother

William, who is very angry at being recalled from Berlin, though so

far from being angry, he ought to be ashamed of himself for not having

resigned, for with his violent politics and his bitterness against,

and abuse of, the present Government, he ought not to have thought of

staying there. Aberdeen has treated him with great civility, and has

accompanied his recall with many expressions of regret and personal

kindness, for which he ought to be grateful. Palmerston had ordered

all his diplomatic tribe to stick to their places, but William Russell

should have felt in his case that it was impossible. The Duke of

Bedford, however, disapproves of his conduct, and thinks he should

have resigned when the Government was changed.

[Sidenote: THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH'S LETTERS.]

I have seen here a correspondence between the Chancellor and Lord

Carrington about the appointment of Buckinghamshire magistrates,

which is very discreditable to the former, and exhibits an example of

authority exercised directly in the teeth of all the principles laid

down by the Tories in a case very analogous three years ago. On this

occasion the Chancellor, almost immediately after he got the Great

Seal, peremptorily appointed fifteen magistrates, which Carrington of

course knew very well was a list of the Duke of Buckingham's. He was

very angry, and expressed his resentment, but the Chancellor would

not give way, and could not satisfy him. Three years ago Lord Howard

complained, in the House of Lords, of Lord Cottenham for appointing

eight magistrates at Leeds. On that occasion the Duke of Wellington

made a speech, in which he laid down what the Lord Chancellor ought to

do, and what he ought not to do, and if he had made it in reference to

this case, it could not contain a stronger and more applicable censure

of the conduct of Lord Lyndhurst. The circumstances, too, make this a

much stronger and more odious case than the other.

I have been employed in reading the Duchess of Marlborough's

correspondence with her two granddaughters, successively Duchesses

of Bedford, and most amusing it is. I have urged the Duke to publish

it, and, if Lord John, who is going to publish a volume or more of

Bedford papers, does not choose to take the Duchess of Marlborough's

letters in hand, to let me arrange them for the press, which he has

promised to do. I hardly ever read any letters more expressive of

character, and more natural than these, and they abound in shrewd

observation and knowledge of human nature, besides a very good

sprinkling of anecdotes, some very entertaining. I took Lord Spencer

down with me to the librarian's room to look at them, when he told

me two anecdotes of John Spencer, her grandson, to whom, after

quarrelling with him violently, as she did with everybody else, she

left all the property at her disposal.[22] The first was about the

cause of their quarrel. She gave a great dinner on her birthday to

all her family, and she said that 'there she was, like a great tree,

herself the root, and all her branches flourishing round her;' when

John Spencer said to his neighbour that 'the branches would flourish

more when the root was under ground.' This produced great hilarity,

which attracted the notice of old Sarah, who insisted on knowing

the cause, when John Spencer himself told her his own _bon mot_, at

which--and no wonder--she took great offence. She afterwards forgave

him, and desired him to marry. He expressed his readiness to marry

anybody she pleased, and at last she sent him a list, alphabetically

arranged, of suitable matches. He said he might as well take the first

on the list, which happened to be letter C, a Carteret, daughter of

Lord Granville's, and her he accordingly married. Lord Spencer told

me that his father and mother had destroyed a good many papers of old

Lady Spencer's, some of which he much regretted, particularly a series

of gossiping letters of old Lord Jersey's, who was a great friend of

hers, and wrote to her all that was passing in the world every day.

He has kept all his own correspondence while in office, and, since

he went out, that with Brougham on various subjects, which he says

is very voluminous, and will be very curious. It is, however, all in

confusion at present.

We talked a little about Corn Laws and politics. He said that he had

always been persuaded, and was still, that the present Corn Laws could

not be maintained, but that he thought the prevailing distress would

pass away. He had been surprised that no stronger Anti-Corn Law spirit

had been got up during the elections, but people had been indifferent

about it, and still were so. They did not think the distress was owing

to these laws, or that their repeal would bring relief; and though he

thinks Peel must be conscious that in the end they must go, the fact

of there being no pressure on him for change, and very considerable

pressure for standing still, will prevent his doing anything

considerable.

[Footnote 22: He was father of the first Lord Spencer.]

[Sidenote: A PARTY AT BOWOOD.]

_Bowood:_[23] _December 20th._--Came to town on Saturday, and here

to-day. Saw Graham yesterday and told him what a scrape the Chancellor

has got into about the Buckinghamshire magistrates, and discussed

the whole matter with him, not mincing my opinion. He owned it was

bad, but had no better excuse to suggest than that Lord Cottenham had

established a bad principle, and _they_ must therefore carry it out.

He said he should tell Peel. I found they are not going to give the

Northamptonshire Lieutenancy to Lord Spencer, but to Lord Exeter, who

lives in a corner of the county, takes no part in its affairs, and

is already Lieutenant of Rutlandshire. The party would without doubt

have been offended if Lord Spencer had had it, but the question, was

whether so good an opportunity might not and ought not to be taken to

relax the rigorous practice of conferring these appointments always

on political adherents. I found a very different party here from what

I left at Woburn. There nothing but idle, ignorant, ordinary people,

among whom there was not an attempt at anything like society or talk;

here though not many, almost all distinguished more or less--Moore,

Rogers, Macaulay, R. Westmacott, Butler and Mrs. Butler, Dr. Fowler

and his wife, Lady H. Baring, Miss Fox. Mrs. Butler read the three

last acts of 'Much Ado about Nothing,' having read the first two

the night before. Her reading is admirable, voice beautiful, great

variety, and equally happy in the humorous and the pathetic parts.

[Footnote 23: The seat of the Marquis of Lansdowne in Wiltshire.]

_December 23rd._--Three days passed very agreeably. Charles Austin

came yesterday, Dundas and John Russell to-day. Last night Mrs. Butler

read the first three acts of the 'Hunchback,' which she was to have

finished to-night, but she ran restive, pretended that some of the

party did not like it, and no persuasion could induce her to go on.

Another night, Moore sang some of his own Melodies, and Macaulay has

been always talking. Never certainly was anything heard like him. It

is inexhaustible, always amusing and instructive, about everybody

and everything. I had at one time a notion of trying to remember and

record some of the conversation that has been going on, and some

of the anecdotes that have been told, but I find it is in vain to

attempt it. The drollest thing is to see the effect upon Rogers, who

is nearly extinguished, and can neither make himself heard, nor find

an interval to get in a word. He is exceedingly provoked, though

he can't help admiring, and he will revive to-morrow when Macaulay

goes. It certainly must be rather oppressive after a certain time,

and would be intolerable, if it was not altogether free from conceit,

vanity, and arrogance, unassuming, and the real genuine gushing

out of overflowing stores of knowledge treasured up in his mind. We

walked together for a long time the day before yesterday, when he

talked of the History he is writing. I asked him if he was still

collecting materials, or had begun to write. He said he was writing

while collecting, going on upon the fund of his already acquired

knowledge, and he added, that it was very mortifying to find how much

there was of which he was wholly ignorant. I said if he felt that,

with his superhuman memory and wonderful scope of knowledge, what must

ordinary men feel? He said that it was a mistake to impute to him

either such a memory or so much knowledge; that Whewell and Brougham

had more universal knowledge than he had, but that what he did possess

was the ready, perhaps too ready, use of all he knew. I said what

surprised me most was, his having had time to read certain books over

and over again; _e.g._ he said he had read Don Quixote in Spanish,

five or six times; and I am afraid to say how often he told me he had

read 'Clarissa.' He said that he read no modern books, none of the

novels or travels that come out day after day. He had read 'Tom Jones'

repeatedly, but 'Cecil a Peer,' not at all; and as to 'Clarissa,' he

had read it so often that, if the work were lost, he could give a

very tolerable idea of it, could narrate the story completely, and

many of the most remarkable passages and expressions. However, it

would be vain, nor is it worth while, to attempt to recollect and

record all his various talk. It is not true, as some say, that there

is nothing original in it, but certainly by far the greater part is

the mere outpouring of memory. Subjects are tapped, and the current

flows without stopping. Wonderful as it is, it is certainly oppressive

after a time, and his departure is rather a relief than otherwise.

Dundas, who is very agreeable, and very well informed, said to-day

that he was a bore; but _that_ he is not, because what comes from him

is always good, and it comes naturally, and without any assumption

of superiority. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing is the quantity

of trifling matter which he recollects. He gave us verses of James

Parke's,[24] and others of Laurence Peel's,[25] ludicrous lines,

written on different occasions. His memory treasures up all sorts of

trash and nonsense, as well as the most serious and most important

matter; but there is never any confusion.

[Sidenote: SOCIETY AT BOWOOD.]

_December 26th._--Macaulay went away the day before Christmas Day, and

it was wonderful how quiet the house seemed after he was gone, and it

was not less agreeable. Rogers was all alive again, Austin and Dundas

talked much more than they would have done, and Lord Lansdowne too,

and on the whole we were as well without him. It does not do for more

than two or three days; but I never passed a week with so much good

talk, almost all literary and miscellaneous, very little political, no

scandal and gossip. And this is the sort of society which I might have

kept instead of that which I have. I have had all the facilities I

could desire for adopting either description of society, for spending

my time among the cultivated and the wise, or among the dissipated,

the foolish, and the ignorant; and with shame and sorrow I must admit

that by far the largest proportion of my time has been wasted on and

with the latter.[26]

[Footnote 24: [Baron Parke, afterwards Lord Wensleydale.]]

[Footnote 25: [Sir Laurence Peel, formerly Chief Justice of Bengal.

He died in 1884.]]

[Footnote 26: At Bowood there were people professing six, if not

more, different religious opinions: Moore, Catholic; Lady John

Russell, Presbyterian; Mrs. Butler, Unitarian; Butler, Independent;

Rothschilds, Jews; then Church of England people, and what besides

I know not, but the assemblage was uncommon.]

_January 2nd, 1842._--On Monday last I left Bowood, Rogers and I

together, and went to Badminton, where I found a party and habits as

diametrically opposite as possible from that which we left behind.

The stable and the kennel formed the principal topic of interest. On

Saturday came to town.

_January 8th._--Lord Ashburton's appointment to America[27] to settle

all our disputes was much praised at first, but now the public mind

is changed, and there is a general disposition to find fault with it.

People reflect on his vacillation and irresolution, and think age and

absence from affairs are not likely to have cured the defects of his

character; however, it is creditable to him to make the sacrifice.

Accounts from China of fresh successes, but the capture of Amoy is

like an operation in a pantomime rather than in real war. Nobody is

killed or wounded, nothing found in the place, which was directly

after evacuated. Sir George Grey,[28] who called on me yesterday (and

though a ridiculous-looking, not at all a stupid man), said that we

had now gone so far, and made such an exposure of the weakness of the

Chinese Government, that we had no alternative, and must proceed to

the conquest of China, and the foundation or establishment of another

Indian Empire; for if we did not, some other Power (probably the

French) infallibly would. I hope this prediction will not prove true,

but it is worth recording. The only chance, he said, was the timely

submission of the Emperor, and the sagacity of the Chinese Government

being sufficient to enlighten them as to the magnitude and imminence

of their danger.

[Footnote 27: [One of the first measures of Sir Robert Peel

was to send Lord Ashburton to the United States, to settle

the long-pending dispute on the boundary of Maine, which he

accomplished by a compromise, or, as it was termed by Lord

Palmerston, a capitulation; but it was approved by the country.]]

[Footnote 28: [Sir George Grey, formerly Chief Justice of Bengal,

not to be confounded with his namesake the Minister. _This_ Sir

George Grey was a somewhat ludicrous person, and was commonly known

as 'Mr. Pickwick.' He wore a brown coat; but he had some reputation

for wit, and was a member of 'The Club.']]

_January 11th._--I dined with Lady Holland on Sunday, and had a

talk with Dedel, who said that Palmerston had contrived to alienate

all nations from us by his insolence and violence, so that we had

not now a friend in the world, while from the vast complication of

our interests and affairs we were exposed to perpetual danger--of

which much is true, but it is not true that we are without friends

absolutely. We are very well with Spain and with Austria. Yesterday

I saw Bidwell,[29] who agreed with Dedel about Palmerston, for all

the Foreign Office abhor him. He said that Palmerston's tone on every

occasion, and to every Power, not only had disgusted them all, but

made it very difficult for his successor to adopt another tone without

some appearance of weakness. However, Aberdeen is doing well, avoiding

Palmerston's impertinence of manner, and preserving his energy as to

matter. He has taken a very fair and impartial part in the squabble

between Salvandy and Espartero, and is urging the latter not to insist

upon what is untenable, and contrary to precedent. He is also trying

to get Austria to send a Minister to Madrid, and would probably have

succeeded but for this French quarrel.

[Footnote 29: [Mr. Bidwell was Chief Clerk in the Foreign Office

for many years.]]

[Sidenote: QUARRELS IN SPAIN.]

_January 13th._--While waiting for the greater interest to be excited

by the meeting of our Parliament on the 3rd of next month, all Europe

is thrown into a state of agitation, and the gravest statesmen are

occupied with the quarrel between Espartero and Salvandy, or rather

Louis Philippe, for there seems no doubt that it originates with

him, animated by spite and hatred of the Spanish Regent. This mighty

and important question is neither more nor less than whether the

French Minister shall deliver his credentials to the Regent at once,

or whether he shall deliver them to the Infant Queen, by her to be

placed in the hands of the Regent. On this momentous difference the

political and diplomatic world is divided, a vast deal of irritation

is produced, and, in consequence of it, very important negotiations

are suspended and delayed. Aberdeen is vainly attempting to negotiate

a compromise, and has opposed the pretensions of Espartero (after

disapproving of the original demands of France) in a manner to draw

down a very bitter and able attack upon him, evidently from the pen

of Palmerston, in the 'Morning Chronicle' yesterday. To this the

'Times' has responded this morning very well, and the contest will

be carried on between these not very unequal antagonists. Besides

the question of Salvandy, it embraces several minor and collateral

points. It is impossible for an attack to be more virulent, bitter,

and contemptuous than that of Palmerston upon Aberdeen, and it

becomes rather amusing when we recollect Aberdeen's approbation and

support of Palmerston's anti-Gallican policy in the Syrian campaign.

All Aberdeen's predilections are anti-French, and he never forgets

his old connexion with the Allies, but this does not save him from

the lash of Palmerston, and from the most sarcastic gibes upon his

supposed subserviency to France. It certainly surprises me that

Aberdeen should have adopted the French rather than the Spanish view

of the question, for I cannot but think Espartero in the right, and

the argument in his favour appears to me unanswerable. I agree in

this with Palmerston: the appointment of a Regent presupposes the

incapacity of the Sovereign to discharge the functions of Royalty,

and the Regent is consequently invested with all the authority of the

Crown. All its rights, privileges, and duties appertain to the Regent,

who can and must do everything which the Sovereign would do if of full

age. The age of the Sovereign can make no difference; the incapacity

must be absolute, and the rule, whatever it be, equally applicable

to a baby in arms and to a person within a month of her majority. It

is impossible to determine that the infant Sovereign becomes at some

indefinite period capable of discharging one or more specific acts,

but no others; for who is to decide what acts the infant can do, and

what not, and at what particular age the incapacity shall partially

cease? Supposing the Queen of England now to die, and Prince Albert

become Regent, no Foreign Minister could commit the absurdity of

insisting upon delivering his credentials into the hands of the Prince

of Wales, who is barely two months old; yet the same _principle_ must

be applied in both, and in all cases of minority. It is true that

matters of etiquette admit of great variety, and different precedents

more or less analogous may be brought to bear on the question; but

in this, the last precedent ought to be conclusive, and that is the

practice during the Regency of Christina, when no difficulty was ever

made, and the Ministers presented their credentials at once to her. It

is clear that this could not be in virtue of her own Royal dignity,

for that can have nothing to do with it. Espartero, or whoever may

happen to be Regent, be his rank whatever it may, is entitled to the

same privileges, and to be treated exactly in the same manner as the

Queen Dowager of Spain. Whatever she did, and whatever was done to

her, was done in and to her character of the representative of the

Crown, and had no reference to her own status. But whatever may be

the result, there is no danger of our quarrelling with Spain on the

question, for the Spanish Government know that we are trying to assist

them in a much more important affair, their recognition by the three

Great Powers, which we should probably have brought about already,

but for this untoward dispute. It is not very clear that Palmerston

(though partly well-informed) is aware of this; but his hatred of

Guizot is so great, aggravated by his refusal to sign the Slave Treaty

with _him_, and signing it immediately after with Aberdeen,[30] that

he could not resist any opportunity of flinging out his venom against

France. However, the war that is waged by him, and against him, is

very entertaining; he is an adversary well worth battling with, a

_magnus Apollo_ of newspaper writers.

[Sidenote: A BLUNDER AT BERLIN.]

A ridiculous thing happened the other day. B--, who corresponds with

the editor of the 'State Gazette' at Berlin, sent him a very bitter

philippic against Palmerston, and a severe critical examination of

his _modus operandi_ in the Foreign Office. The article hinted at

a project of his, under certain contingencies, to stay in office

with a Tory Government and a Whig Household, and talked of doing

this with the aid of 'a woman not less able and ambitious than

himself,' evidently alluding to Lady Palmerston. When the article was

translated into German and appeared, it produced a great sensation,

but Burghersh, who does not understand German, and to whom it was

translated, very stupidly fancied that the woman meant the Queen, and

he hurried off to make his complaints of the audacity and insolence

of the article. A great hubbub ensued, and, to satisfy the English

Minister, the order for the dismissal of the editor was signed; but

in the meantime the matter was brought before the King, who had the

good sense to see at once what the real meaning was, put a stop to

the proceedings, and exonerated the editor. Burghersh had, however,

written home on the subject, and told the story to the Foreign Office.

The next day (at Berlin) a softener appeared in the 'State Gazette,'

with some civilities to Palmerston, and the article has fortunately

never found its way into our newspapers.

[Footnote 30: [A Treaty had been negotiated with France to regulate

the Right of Search, which M. Guizot signed on the accession of the

Conservatives to office. But no good came of this, for the Treaty

being violently attacked in the French Chambers, M. Guizot declined

to ratify what his Ambassador had signed.]]

_January 19th._--Went on Friday to Woburn. Charles Austin, Charles

Buller, Le Marchant, Standish, and myself in the train. The house

had been very nearly burnt down the night before, and was saved by a

miracle. It happened in a maid-servant's room. A gown was ignited (as

they supposed); the chair on which it hung was burnt, but the fire

did not reach bed or window-curtains, only attacked the floor. The

smoke was so dense they could not penetrate into the room, but the

servants threw buckets of water in, which went to the right place,

and extinguished the fire. Curiously enough, just before we came away

on Monday morning, there was another alarm from a chimney being on

fire. This was in the librarian's room, where, by accident, I had

gone with some of the men to show them the manuscripts, and while we

were there we discovered it, otherwise there is no saying what damage

might not have been done, for the chimney communicated with others.

However, in half an hour all danger was over. Lord John was there in

great force. He is arranging the Bedford papers for publication, but

he has persuaded the Duke not to let the Duchess of Marlborough's

correspondence be published, because it is so personal and abusive,

which is a very superfluous piece of squeamishness, for it is just

what people enjoy, and as all the objects of her venom, and their

immediate descendants, have long been dead, it can't signify. It was

very agreeable, for Austin, Buller, Clarendon, and Lord John made

excellent society.

[Sidenote: THE KING OF PRUSSIA ARRIVED.]

Came to town on Monday, and yesterday saw the Duke of Wellington. He

came into my brother's room while I was there, and took me into his

own. He was in excellent health, spirits, and humour; talked about the

Spanish quarrel, but did not say much to the purpose, only that both

parties had gone too far, and that with patience and good sense it

might finally be settled. I told him about Lyndhurst and Carrington,

and he spoke like himself. He blamed the Chancellor without reserve,

repeated what he had said before in his speeches, said nothing should

induce him to contradict himself and hold language different from

what he had held before, therefore he should hold his tongue, and the

Chancellor must get out of his scrape as he could. He told me he never

himself made a clergyman a magistrate if he could help it.

_January 24th._--The King of Prussia landed on Saturday at

Greenwich,[31] and was met by the Duke of Wellington in Prussian

field-marshal uniform, with the Black Eagle. The King instantly seized

both his hands and said, 'My dear Duke, I am rejoiced to see you. This

is indeed a great day.'

Met Graham yesterday and walked with him; talked about different

things. He said he thought they were going on well, but trade was

very bad and distress very great, the people very enduring and

well-behaved. He talked of Ireland, and said the Government were

resolved to act upon liberal and impartial principles; that the idea

of restoring the old Orange or any other domination was impossible,

and he only regretted that they had not got some offices of profit

that they might now bestow upon Catholics. They are reproached for

diminishing the number of stipendiary magistrates, but they are strong

enough on that point. As to the Lieutenancy of Northamptonshire, he

said he thought Exeter was the best man on the whole; that Cardigan

was very angry that he had not got it. I told him I thought Exeter

was not a good man, took no part in the business of the county, and

merely lived at a corner of it. 'To whom would you have given it?' I

said, 'To Lord Spencer; by far the fittest man _omnium consensû_.'

He said it was impossible; the party would not have stood it; the

Whigs had never done any such thing when they were in office. A low

view of the matter; but if they are not strong enough to act more

wisely and liberally than their opponents, if they cannot, under any

circumstances, appoint men with reference to their fitness, instead

of to their political connexion, and if the former consideration must

invariably prevail over the latter, why, all one can say is, that

they are to be pitied, and we must hope the time may come when better

maxims and practices can be established.

Met Sutton Sharpe the other night, who told me some amusing stories of

Lord Ellenborough and his treatment of counsel. A man was opening his

speech, and said, 'My Lord, my unfortunate client,' and then repeated

the words again. 'Go on, sir,' said Lord Ellenborough, 'the Court

is with you so far.' Another man said, 'And now, if your Lordship

pleases, I will proceed so and so.' 'Sir, we sit here not to court,

but to endure arguments.'

[Footnote 31: [The King of Prussia came over to be present at

the christening of the Prince of Wales. He was godfather to the

Prince.]]

_February 1st._--For the last week the King of Prussia and his

activity have occupied the world. He has made a very favourable

impression here. In person he is common-looking, not remarkable in any

way; his manners are particularly frank, cordial, and good-humoured;

he is very curious, and takes a lively interest in all he sees, and

has, by all accounts, been struck with great admiration at the conduct

and bearing of the people, as well as the grandeur and magnificence

he has found both at Court and elsewhere. Whether the order, and

more especially the loyalty, he has witnessed, will induce him to

entertain with more complacency the idea of a free constitution for

his own kingdom, remains to be seen, not that what he finds here ought

necessarily to imply that results equally happy would follow the

concession of liberal constitutions in Prussia. He has been in London

almost every day from Windsor, one day breakfasting with Peel, who

collected the men of letters and science and the most distinguished

artists to meet him. On Sunday he went to church at St. Paul's, and

then lunched with the Lord Mayor. Another day he went to Westminster

Abbey, when he evinced great curiosity to learn all the local details

of the Queen's coronation. Yesterday he went in the morning and paid

a visit to Mrs. Fry, with whom he went to Coldbath Fields prison;

in the evening to Drury Lane. He wanted to see one of Shakespeare's

plays, and had no other opportunity, so he got the play acted at six

instead of seven, and made the Duke of Sutherland, with whom he was to

dine, have his dinner at nine. He asked for 'Macbeth,' but they told

him it would take a month to get it up. They gave him the choice of

the 'Merchant of Venice' or the 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,' and he took

the latter. Nothing could exceed the magnificence of the _fête_ the

Duke of Sutherland gave him, dinner and party after it.

[Sidenote: THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM RESIGNS.]

But an interest greater than any which the King of Prussia could

make was produced by the intelligence of the Duke of Buckingham's

resignation. I had been dining at Wharncliffe's Sheriffs' dinner,

where all the Ministers were, except the Duke of Wellington and

Aberdeen (who both dined at Stafford House), Goulburn, who was ill

in bed, and the Duke of Buckingham. I was rather surprised at his

absence, for which no excuse was made, but nobody said anything about

it. They had been concocting the speech all the morning, and as soon

as we had done with the sheriffs, they made me and my colleague

withdraw, and resolved themselves into a Cabinet. Still I suspected

nothing; but the moment I got to Stafford House I heard the news, and

immediately understood the cause of his absence from the dinner, and

saw that it must be true; and directly after it was confirmed. The

time, however, is so near for the Ministerial announcement of their

intentions, that it is not worth while to torment one's self with

speculation. A few hours will show what it is the Duke can't swallow.

All that is now known is that he has not resigned angrily, and that

he promises his general support and continued goodwill. For a long

time speculation has been rife as to the intentions of Peel, and the

Government secret has been so well kept that not a single person seems

to have been apprised of them; indeed, the matter was not, in all

probability, definitively settled before yesterday. The Opposition

papers have been labouring to persuade the world that Peel, though

not unwilling, had proved himself unable to do anything, and that what

they called the Buckingham or landed interest had prevailed. I never

thought this, and a few words that casually fell from Wharncliffe one

day, convinced me it was not true. So thought most of the sensible men

on both sides, when they were staggered by the intelligence that Lord

March was to move the address, which, after the Duke of Richmond's hot

speech last year, was taken as a proof that nothing serious in the

Anti-Corn Law line could be contemplated. This fact, now followed by

the Duke of Buckingham's resignation, sadly perplexes men's minds, and

everybody asks what it can be at which the Duke of Buckingham strains,

but which the Duke of Richmond swallows. The Duke of Bedford, however,

thinks that the Duke of Richmond does not know what is meant, for it

is certain Lord Abercorn, who moves the Address in the House of Lords,

does not. He asked Aberdeen to give him some hints from which he might

frame his speech, and he told him he was unable to do so.

The Dublin election has gone off with remarkable quiet. Dan was not

very violent, and some say he did not wish Morpeth to succeed where he

had failed. The worst thing that has happened lately is the exhibition

of bad feeling towards us in the French Chamber. Guizot has spoken

admirably well, and magnificently defended himself, but he was obliged

to allude coldly to us, and to disavow any _intimacy_ between the two

countries. The close alliance with France is therefore at an end,

and we must count upon her readiness to seize any occasion that may

present itself of injuring our interests and crippling our power. This

we owe to Palmerston's famous diplomacy, who, thinking it a fine thing

to gain a diplomatic advantage over a rival and hostile Government,

overlooked the consequence of exasperating a powerful, susceptible,

jealous, but not _then_ unfriendly nation. He did what neither man,

woman, or nation can forgive: he deeply wounded their vanity and their

pride.

[Sidenote: THE KING OF PRUSSIA IN ENGLAND.]

_February 5th._--Parliament met on Thursday: a great crowd, and

the Queen well enough received. The King of Prussia went down in

state, and sat in the House of Lords on a chair near the woolsack.

On Friday he went away, having made a short but uncommonly active

visit, mightily pleased with his reception by Queen and all classes

of people, from highest to lowest; splendid entertainments from the

rich, and hearty acclamations from the poor. All the world has been

struck with his intelligence, activity, affability, and _appetite_,

for since Louis XIV. I have never heard of a monarch who eats so

copiously and frequently. The oddest thing he did was to go and

lunch with Mrs. Fry, and the way of going not less odd, but that was

the vagary of his rude, unmannered attendant, Lord Hardwicke. After

visiting some prison, Mrs. Fry asked him to lunch at her house some

four or five miles off, through the City, and he agreed. The coachman

represented that the horses could not accomplish this jaunt, when it

was proposed to send for post-horses; but Hardwicke would not have

four, and insisted on a pair being attached as outriggers to the

Queen's coach-horses, to the unspeakable disgust of the coachman, who,

if the spirit of Vatel had been in him, would have cast himself from

his box rather than submit to such an indignity. They say that nothing

has struck the King so much as the behaviour of the people, their

loyalty, orderly, peaceable demeanour, and he is naturally gratified

at the heartiness and cordiality of his own reception. Some think that

what he has witnessed will incline him to grant a free constitution

to his own subjects; but as he can't create the foundations on which

our constitutional system rests, and the various and complicated

safeguards which are intertwined with it, he will hardly be induced to

jump to any such conclusion. He made magnificent presents at parting

to all the officers of the Royal Household: snuff-boxes of 500 guineas

apiece to the Lord Chamberlain, Master of Horse, and Lord Steward;

boxes and watches to others, and he left 1,500_l._ with Charles Murray

to be distributed among the three classes of servants at the Palace.

The Queen's speech was much like all others, but derived an interest

from the notice about Corn.[32] The secret of the measure has been so

well kept, that up to this time nobody knows what they are going to

propose. The Opposition, people affect to consider it a great triumph

for them, and that the Government are disgraced by the adoption of

measures so similar to those by which their predecessors fell; but

they treat the question as if nothing else had ever been laid to

the charge of the late Government, and pass over (as they are quite

right, in a party sense, to do) the fact that they were at their last

gasp when they flung down their Budget, and that there were plenty of

other causes for turning them out. It must be owned, however, that

what is now going to happen is another exemplification of what I have

long seen to be an established fact in politics--viz. that the Tories

only can carry Liberal measures. The Whigs work, prepare, but cannot

accomplish them; the Tories directly or indirectly thwart, discourage,

and oppose them till public opinion compels them to submit, and then

they are obliged to take them up, and to do that which they can do,

but the Whigs cannot do. Francis Baring, who is come over from Paris

to see Lord Ashburton before he goes, tells me that if Palmerston

had continued for a year or two more at the Foreign Office, nothing,

he is persuaded, could have prevented a war between us and France,

for that he intrigued against France in every part of the world, and

with a tenacity of purpose that was like insanity; he was constantly

engaged in thwarting, counteracting, and insulting her, so that the

exasperation against him and against this country was so great and

universal that a collision would have been inevitable.

[Footnote 32: [The paragraph in the speech which foreshadowed Sir

Robert Peel's great commercial reforms, was a recommendation to

Parliament to consider the laws relating to the importation of corn

and other articles the produce of foreign countries. It was this

clause which had caused the Duke of Buckingham to quit the Cabinet.

He was succeeded as Lord Privy Seal by the Duke of Buccleuch.]]

[Sidenote: SIR R. PEEL'S CORN BILL.]

_February 11th._--On Wednesday night Peel produced his modification of

the Corn Law in an elaborate speech (which bored everybody very much)

of nearly three hours long.[33] The expectation, raised by the Duke of

Buckingham's resignation, had been already brought down by a few words

which Peel said on Tuesday, when he was taunted with adopting all

the late Government's measures. His plan was received with coldness

and indifference by his own people, and derision by the Opposition,

and they all cried out that it was altogether useless, and would in

reality effect no change at all. There are, however, a great many

very different opinions on the subject, the result of the whole being

that the measure is preferable to the present scheme; that it will

be quite harmless to the producer, and may be of some service (but

not much) to the consumer; that the settlement of the question is as

remote as ever, this being no approximation to one. That inasmuch as

it satisfies the landed interest it will keep Peel in office, but that

eventually repeal either total or with a fixed duty must come, but in

how many years must depend on the chapter of accidents, the course of

events, and the temper of the people. Wharncliffe owned to me that it

was a mountain producing a mouse, and that he thought it must end in a

fixed duty, but that it would have been absolutely impossible for Peel

to do anything more now, and that time must be given to bring round

the minds of the landed interest to acquiesce in further measures.

Macgregor, who is a man of violent opinions, told me he considered

this plan worse than the present one. Charles Villiers said it was

worthless and not so good as Canning's in 1827. Brougham said it was

worth something as an instalment, an improvement on the old Corn Law,

and might and must be taken as an instalment. Peel's did not seem to

me a good speech; it was too long, and wearied his hearers; too highly

coloured, and the speech of an advocate rather than of a statesman.

But if he could speak his mind, he would no doubt admit that he was

arguing against his own opinion and convictions.

Last night I met Melbourne at dinner, whom I had never seen since our

conversations at Stafford House and at his own home. I asked him what

he knew of the state of matters between the Queen and her Ministers.

He said he believed they were going on very well, that he knew nothing

to the contrary. They seemed to pay great court to the Prince, whom

the Queen delights to honour and to elevate, and that he would

probably acquire greater influence every day. Of all the Ministers she

likes Aberdeen the best. She likes the Duchess of Buccleuch extremely,

and Charles Wellesley is a great favourite. By his account she prefers

her present great officers to their predecessors. Melbourne then

talked to me about Palmerston, of the aversion he had inspired not

only in France, but in all Germany, and said that his notion had been

that everything was to be done by violence; that by never giving way

or making any concession, and an obstinate insistence, every point was

sure to be gained. This was _à propos_ of the French refusal to ratify

the Slave Treaty, and Guizot having delayed to sign it, because he

would have nothing to do with Palmerston.

Last night, in the House of Commons, John Russell exposed himself

miserably and unaccountably in an attack he made on Bushe and Lord

Corehouse on their retirement from the Bench. He got a severe retort

from Peel, and cut a disreputable figure.

[Footnote 33: [Sir Robert Peel's measure established a sliding

scale of corn duties, descending from 20_s._ to 1_s._ as the price

rose. It was ill-received by the Anti-Corn Law League, and in the

end signally failed.]]

[Sidenote: THE RETREAT FROM CABUL.]

_February 12th._--The Opposition were silly enough to renew the

question of the Scotch judge last night. It was Fox Maule's doing, I

fancy, for John Russell was not there.[34] There is but one opinion

among his own friends of the folly of his conduct. Ben Stanley told me

so, and said he did it _ex mero motu_, and he could not imagine what

induced him. Nothing weakens the authority of a leader so much as any

exhibition of want of tact and judgement. Castlereagh would never have

made such a blunder as this, but he was reckoned the best leader any

party ever had. I have a great liking for Lord John, but have for

some time discovered that with high qualities and great abilities he

is not a great man or anything like it. But where are we to look for

great men? The generation of them has passed away.

The Corn Law question seems already beginning to settle down into an

admission that this is only the advance of a stage, and that we are

and must be progressing to final repeal. Such is Lowther's opinion: a

Tory, an interested party, but a shrewd and cool observer.

[Footnote 34: After having rolled themselves in the mud, the

Government picked the Opposition out the next night and almost

washed them clean. Fox Maule moved for a return of the late Judge's

sittings in the Jury Court. The Lord Advocate impudently said he

had never been absent. Graham refused the papers, and on a division

Government had only a majority of twenty-six, and not a very

successful debate. Folly on both sides.]

_February 16th._--John Russell made a very good speech on Monday

night, and so did Gladstone. The Government declare that their plan is

well received in the country, and the Opposition assert that it has

excited great indignation. The landed interest are certainly satisfied.

I read yesterday a letter from Mrs. Sale, at Cabul,[35] to her

husband, the General, with an account of the events there, and the

heroic conduct of Captain Sturt: a most remarkable letter, exhibiting

an interesting mixture of masculine courage and understanding of

military details, with touches of feminine nature. The agony of

apprehension, apparent in the despatches, and the pressing entreaties

to Sale to march back to their relief, show the magnitude of the

danger they were in. The feelings of the General must have been bitter

when he could not obey the summons, and was obliged to refuse to make

any attempt to relieve his comrades and his wife.

[Footnote 35: [This is the first reference made by the author of

this Diary to the events in Afghanistan, which most deeply affected

the public during this winter. The disastrous retreat from Cabul

began on January 6th; on the 13th Dr. Brydon reached Jellalabad

alone. They are, however, adverted to later on. The full account

of the disaster at Cabul only reached England on the 7th March, a

singular contrast with the hourly communications of later times.]]

_February 19th._--The Corn Law debate closed very successfully for

the Government; a greater majority than anybody expected, and an

excellent speech from Peel, putting the whole question in the best

possible form, taking the right tone, and giving the right reasons

for doing what he has done, and as he has done it. Palmerston made

a good slashing speech, and Roebuck a very clever one. The question

is now considered by everybody to be settled for a few years; but how

many, and when another change will take place, depends on a thousand

contingencies, idle to argue upon. Everybody admits that it is in a

state of transition, and though the landed interest will fondly hope

that the next steps never will be taken, the prudent among them (a

great minority, I fear) will open their eyes to the reality of their

position, and act accordingly.

I went on Wednesday with Lord and Lady John, Charles Howard and

Macaulay, to the Battersea Schools, Robert Eden's and Dr. Kay's. We

put forward Macaulay to examine the boys in history and geography,

and Lord John asked them a few questions, and I still fewer. They

answered in a way that would have put to shame most of the fine

people's children. These schools are admirable, and the wonderful

thing is, that when people see what can be done by good management at

small expense, and by setting about the work of education in earnest,

they do not turn their thoughts to the adoption of a similar scheme

for the upper classes, who go through a certain process miscalled

education, which leaves boys at the end of it nearly as ignorant as at

the beginning, with the exception of the rudiments of Greek and Latin.

At Eden's school they learn reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing,

history, geography, and certain matters connected with statistics.

At Dr. Kay's the same things, with the higher branches of mechanics,

and especially music, in which they are great proficients. There is

one striking contrast between the boys at Eden's school, and the

aristocratic schoolboys: while the latter consider learning as an

irksome employment, going to school an event full of misery and woe,

and never think of anything but how to shirk their lessons, and find

time for play and idleness, the poor boys rejoice in their school,

love the instruction they receive, and no punishment is so great to

them as exclusion from the schoolroom. Much of this may be accounted

for by the difference of their circumstances and condition of life,

but the necessary result is a far greater aptitude to learn on the

part of the poor than the rich.

[Sidenote: SIR R. PEEL'S BUDGET.]

_March 5th._--Nothing written for many days, principally because I had

nothing particular to say. If I wrote a Journal, and chose to insert

all the trash of diurnal occurrences, the squabbles of the Jockey

Club, and things which had better be forgotten, because they ought

not to happen, I might fill books full in no time, but I can't and

won't do this. There have been no political events. The Government

goes on quietly and safely enough, with no storm in the horizon

at all threatening their political existence. The most alarming

circumstance in our position is the state of affairs in India, where

we are expecting every hour to hear of some catastrophe; but as the

Government are not responsible for this, it will do them no damage,

however disastrous it may be to the country.

_March 13th._--On Friday night in the midst of the most intense and

general interest and curiosity, heightened by the closeness and

fidelity with which the Government measures had been kept secret, Peel

brought forward his financial plans in a speech of three hours and

forty minutes, acknowledged by everybody to have been a masterpiece

of financial statement. The success was complete; he took the House

by storm; and his opponents, though of course differing and objecting

on particular points, did him ample justice. A few people expected an

income tax, but the majority did not. Hitherto the Opposition have

been talking very big about opposing all taxes, but they have quite

altered their tone. It is really remarkable to see the attitude Peel

has taken in this Parliament, his complete mastery over both his

friends and his foes. His own party, _nolentes aut volentes_, have

surrendered at discretion, and he has got them as well disciplined and

as obedient as the crew of a man-of-war. This just measure, so lofty

in conception, right in direction, and able in execution, places him

at once on a pinnacle of power, and establishes his Government on

such a foundation as accident alone can shake. Political predictions

are always rash, but certainly there is every probability of Peel's

being Minister for as many years as his health and vigour may endure.

Only a few weeks ago I heard from my Whig friends of nothing but his

weakness and embarrassments, and of all the difficulties his own

supporters would cause him, what a poor figure he cut, &c.; but now

they have not a word to say, and one of them who had been loudest in

that strain brought to the Travellers', where I was dining, an account

of Peel's speech, and said, 'One felt, all the time he was speaking,

"Thank God, Peel is Minister!"' There can be no doubt that he is now

a very great man, and it depends on himself to establish a lasting

reputation. Wharncliffe told me that the principle of their measure,

the imposition of an income-tax, was settled six weeks after they came

into office, which makes the wonder greater that nothing of it got out.

_March 14th._--The manner in which Peel's measure was received was

creditable to the Opposition; but they are beginning to recover from

their quiescent state, to ask one another what they think of it,

to suggest objections, and to speculate on its unpopularity. There

is, however, a general disposition to accept the measure, and to

acknowledge that Peel is entitled to a fair trial of what must be

considered a great political and financial experiment. Labouchere

owned this to me last night, though he thinks that he might have taken

another and a better course; he might have raised a revenue, according

to their plan, out of sugar, timber, and corn, not have made so great

a sacrifice for Canadian timber, and have found means to get all the

rest that they wanted by some tax less odious than his income-tax.

Great differences of opinion of course there will be, and it remains

to be seen how the country will take it. The press has been hitherto

almost universally acquiescent. All men now admit Peel's power, and

his superior fitness as a Minister. He has taken a very high line,

and acted his part with great dignity as well as dexterity; he is

also singularly favoured by fortune, for the misfortunes which are

now befalling us, the disastrous events in India, are useful to his

political power. In times, too, of difficulty, men feel the mighty

advantage of having a strong Government with a real efficient head

to direct its energies, and predominate in its councils; and the

perpetual contrast which presents itself between the present and

the late, both as to the leaders, composition of the Cabinets and

condition of the parties by which each was supported, extends and

strengthens the impression in favour of Peel. It will be necessary for

him to make some changes. Gladstone has already displayed a capacity

which makes his admission into the Cabinet indispensable, and he must

find some means of getting rid of Knatchbull. The very look of the

man, which is that of a twaddler approaching to the ridiculous, is

enough to make his exclusion an object, and as he is entirely useless

and has fallen into universal contempt in the House of Commons, the

sooner some decent retreat is found for him, the better for himself as

well as for the Government.

[Sidenote: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON ON CABUL.]

The great interest excited by the Budget has in some degree absorbed

that which the melancholy Indian news would otherwise produce, and we

are still so imperfectly informed of the history of these transactions

that we know not what to think of them. The Duke of Wellington told

me at Court on Friday that there must have been either the grossest

treachery, or the most inconceivable imbecility, and very likely a

mixture of both, as they often go together. Auckland, who writes,

as is natural, in great despondency, says that the whole thing is

unintelligible to him, for, as far as they know, the 5,000 British

troops at Cabul were never assailed by above 10,000 or 12,000 Afghans,

irregularly armed with matchlocks and spears, while our force was

provided with artillery, and all the appurtenances of war. According

to all our notions and all former experience, a British force could

always put to flight or destroy native tribes ten times more numerous.

The Duke said that the captivity of the women would produce an effect

from one end of Asia to the other, such as Europeans would form no

idea of. But what reflexions this event gives rise to as to the

uninterrupted current of our past successes, which has been so great

that we had got to fancy no reverse of any sort, or in any quarter,

could possibly befall us! It is a grievous thing to lose 5,000 men,

cut off by a sudden insurrection and perishing, because circumstances

beyond the control of man prevented their obtaining succour; but when

we hear that such a disaster as this has not befallen us for above

fifty years, and we think of all the tremendous defeats, wholesale

destructions of men, and miseries inflicted on other lands and other

nations, we may well, instead of repining, feel grateful for the

impunity we have enjoyed from the evils and afflictions which have

been so abundantly poured upon almost every other nation in the world.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF LORD HERTFORD.]

_March 19th._--This day Lord Hertford[36] is buried at Ragley, a man

whose death excited much greater interest than anything he ever did

in his life, because the world was curious to learn the amount of

his wealth, and how he had disposed of it. A pompous funeral left

Dorchester House three days ago, followed by innumerable carriages

of private individuals,[37] pretending to show a respect which not

one of them felt for the deceased; on the contrary, no man ever lived

more despised or died less regretted. His life and his death were

equally disgusting and revolting to every good and moral feeling.

As Lord Yarmouth he was known as a sharp, cunning, luxurious,

avaricious man of the world, with some talent, the favourite of

George IV. (the worst of kings) when Lady Hertford, his mother, was

that Prince's mistress. He was celebrated for his success at play,

by which he supplied himself with the large sums of money required

for his pleasures, and which his father had no inclination to give

him, and the son had none to ask of him. He won largely, not by any

cheating or unfairness, but by coolness, calculation, always backing

the best players, and getting the odds on his side. He was a _bon

vivant_, and when young and gay his parties were agreeable, and he

contributed his share to their hilarity. But after he became Lord

Hertford and the possessor of an enormous property he was puffed

up with vulgar pride, very unlike the real scion of a noble race;

he loved nothing but dull pomp and ceremony, and could only endure

people who paid him court and homage. After a great deal of coarse

and vulgar gallantry, generally purchased at a high rate, he formed

a connexion with Lady Strachan, which thenceforward determined all

the habits of his life. She was a very infamous and shameless woman,

and his love after some years was changed to hatred; and she, after

getting very large sums out of him, married a Sicilian. But her

children, three daughters, he in a manner adopted; though eventually

all his partiality centred upon one, Charlotte by name, who married

Count Zichy-Ferraris, a Hungarian nobleman. She continued to live

with Hertford on and off, here and abroad, until his habits became

in his last years so ostentatiously crapulous that her residence in

his house, in England at least, ceased to be compatible with common

decency. She was, however, here till within a week or ten days of his

death, and her departure appears curiously enough to have led to the

circumstances which immediately occasioned it. There has been, as

far as I know, no example of undisguised debauchery exhibited to the

world like that of Lord Hertford, and his age and infirmities rendered

it at once the more remarkable and the more shocking. Between sixty

and seventy years old, broken with various infirmities, and almost

unintelligible from a paralysis of the tongue, he has been in the

habit of travelling about with a company of prostitutes, who formed

his principal society, and by whom he was surrounded up to the moment

of his death, generally picking them up from the dregs of that class,

and changing them according to his fancy and caprice. Here he was

to be seen driving about the town, and lifted by two footmen from

his carriage into the brothel, and he never seems to have thought it

necessary to throw the slightest veil over the habits he pursued.

For some months or weeks past he lived at Dorchester House, and the

Zichys with him; but every day at a certain hour his women, who were

quartered elsewhere, arrived, passed the greater part of the day, and

one or other of them all the night in his room. He found the presence

of the Countess Zichy troublesome and embarrassing to his pleasures,

and he made her comprehend that her absence would not be disagreeable

to him, and accordingly she went away. He had then been ill in bed

for many days, but as soon as she was gone, as if to celebrate his

liberation by a jubilee, he got up and posted with his seraglio down

to Richmond. No room was ready, no fire lit, nevertheless he chose

to dine there amidst damp and cold, drank a quantity of champagne,

came back chilled and exhausted, took to his bed, grew gradually

worse, and in ten days he died. And what a life, terminating in what a

death! without a serious thought or a kindly feeling, lavishing sums

incalculable on the worthless objects of his pleasures or caprices,

never doing a generous or a charitable action, caring and cared for

by no human being, the very objects of his bounty only regarding him

for what they could get out of him; faculties, far beyond mediocrity,

wasted and degraded, immersed in pride without dignity, in avarice and

sensuality; all his relations estranged from him, and surrounded to

the last by a venal harem, who pandered to the disgusting exigencies

_lassatæ sed nondum satiatæ libidinis_. He left vast sums to the

Strachan family, a considerable legacy to Croker, to whom he had been

formerly under obligations, largely provided for his servants, and,

with the exception of a few bequests to his executors and one or two

other people, and a very large property to an old mistress (formerly

Lady Strachan's maid), he left everything to his son Lord Yarmouth,

with whom he had always been on very moderate terms.

[Footnote 36: [Francis Charles, third Marquis of Hertford, born

March 11, 1777; married Maria Fagniani in 1798; died March 1,

1842.]]

[Footnote 37: The Duke of Bedford wrote to me: 'I see Peel's

carriage followed Lord Hertford's remains out of London! What is

the use of character and conduct in this world, if after such a

life, death and will as Lord Hertford's, such a mark of respect is

paid to his memory by the First Minister of this great country, and

this not "the loose and profligate Lord Melbourne," but the good

and honest and particular Sir Robert Peel?']

[Sidenote: THE WHIGS ON PEEL'S MEASURES.]

_March 20th._--Peel's financial measures are, of course, discussed in

every quarter, but the general feeling in the country about them is

not yet known. The Opposition, who, at first, had not made up their

minds what to do, have now resolved to oppose the whole scheme, and

they took the field in force on Friday night, and flatter themselves,

so John Russell told me, that they had the best of the debate. The

'Times' opposes the income-tax and supports the tariff. Various

objections are raised in different quarters with more or less reason,

the principal one with regard to the income-tax being the unfairness

of taxing incomes derived from temporary to the same extent as those

which are derived from permanent sources, and there is a great

disposition to criticise his measure with regard to timber, and the

sacrifice he has made for the sake of Canadian timber. As to sugar,

it is pretty clear that he is preparing for a great measure, and if

it succeeds, it will be a very fine stroke of policy. He will make

a treaty with the Brazils, imposing conditions (which they will not

keep) for the abolition of slavery, and then let in their sugar. This

will give him all the advantage of the plan of the late Government,

without compromising his own consistency or the character of the

country.

_March 23rd._--Dined on Sunday at Lady Holland's, with Melbourne and

a number of Whigs. Much talk about Peel and his measures, and what

would be the conclusion. Melbourne, to do him justice, is destitute

of humbug, does not see things through the medium of his wishes or

prejudices, but thinks impartially, and says what he thinks. He said

Peel would carry all his points, and that there would be no serious

opposition in the country, for if any public meetings were called,

the Chartists would be sure to outvote any resolution against the

income-tax. Then he thought the regular war which the Opposition had

declared was very useful to him, as it was the very thing which would

keep his own party together, silence their objections, and make them

come down and vote steadily with him. The rest would not gainsay

this, though they don't like such a view of the state of the case.

They all said Peel lost his temper the other night, and so he seems

to have done. He has certainly taken a very imposing attitude, but he

ought carefully to avoid any appearance of domineering, and to keep

his temper under constant restraint. They will do all they can to

provoke him. On Monday night the Opposition were very troublesome and

factious, but that, however inconvenient to public business, will do

him no harm, and he was so well aware of it that he never lost his

self-command.

Death has been busy here of late, sweeping away men of very different

estimation, and leaving behind them very unequal regrets. A few days

ago died Archdeacon Singleton, a man who will be more remembered as

the correspondent of Sydney Smith in his inimitable letters on Church

Reform than for any acts of his own; but he was nevertheless a very

excellent and valuable man. He was the intimate friend and counsellor

of the Duke of Northumberland; and if that dullest of all bores was

enabled to get through the Irish Lieutenancy with credit, it was

because Singleton's sense informed him, and directed every act of his

official career.

On Sunday Lord Munster[38] shot himself. He had been in low spirits

for some time, and was tainted with the hereditary malady. He was a

man not without talent, but wrongheaded, and having had the folly to

quarrel with his father, and estrange himself from Court during the

greater part of his reign, he fell into comparative obscurity and real

poverty, and there can be no doubt that the disappointment of the

expectations he once formed, together with the domestic unhappiness of

a dawdling, ill-conditioned, vexatious wife, preyed upon his mind, and

led to this act. The horror of the deed excited a momentary interest,

but he will be soon forgotten.

Last night died very suddenly Colonel Armstrong, a man who will leave

many social regrets behind him. He was formerly A.D.C. to the Duke of

York, and equally a favourite of his and of the Duchess. He had very

little general knowledge, and had never received much education, but

he was very quick and intelligent, with a strong turn for humour and

drollery, and perfectly good-humoured, inoffensive, and well-bred.

Nobody ever heard him say a spiteful or ill-natured thing, and he was

always lively and agreeable without ever being obtrusive in society.

He was an excellent specimen of a man of the world, who lived upon its

passing events without mixing himself up in its malignities and its

quarrels, and who was universally respected and esteemed. The regrets

of the world are of a very light and transitory nature, but Armstrong

leaves a void in the society which he frequented, and this is all

the sensation which anybody without public importance can expect to

produce.

[Footnote 38: [George Fitzclarence, the eldest of the illegitimate

sons of King William IV., was raised to the Peerage soon after

his father's accession to the throne, with the title of Earl of

Munster. He was born January 22, 1794, and married a daughter of

the Earl of Egremont in 1819. He died by his own hand March 20,

1842.]]

[Sidenote: DEATH OF COLONEL ARMSTRONG.]

_June 5th._--I have not written one line since March 23--a longer

interval, I think, than has ever passed since I first began to

journalise. The principal reason for this cessation has been that my

mind has been disquieted and unsettled. The racing and racehorses, and

all things appertaining thereto, the betting, buying, selling, the

quarrels and squabbles, the personal differences and estrangements,

the excitement and agitation produced by these things, have had the

effect on my mind of withdrawing my attention from public affairs,

from literature, from society, from all that is worth attending to and

caring for, from everything that is a legitimate object of interest,

and wasting my thoughts, faculties, and feelings on all that is most

vile, most worthless, and most morally and mentally injurious. This is

the confession that I am obliged to make, for this is the true cause

why I have left unnoticed and unrecorded every event or circumstance

that has occurred for many weeks past. It is also, in some degree,

owing to the circumstance of my knowing very little of what is going

on. While the late Ministry were in office, my intimacy with so many

of them or their near connexions put me in the way of information; but

I have no intimacy with any of these people, and consequently I know

nothing but what everybody else knows. The history of the last two

months may be very briefly told, and a short sketch will suffice for

all that is essential of it.

Peel's government has been acquiring fresh power and solidity every

day till now; there is hardly any opposition to it in Parliament

or out. The whole country is prepared, if not content, to take his

measures, and let him have his own way without let or hindrance. For

the last few weeks bribery and fancy balls have excited much greater

interest than income-tax and tariff. The distress in the country

does not diminish, but its miseries are neither seen nor felt amidst

the 'fumum et opes, strepitumque Romæ;' and as nobody thinks that

the 'sanguine cloud' has 'quenched the orb of day,' that it arises

from any other than temporary and accidental causes, the world waits

patiently for some beneficial change.

Last week the Queen was shot at, very much in the same manner and

on the same spot as two years ago. She was aware that the attempt

had been meditated the day before, and that the perpetrator was at

large, still she would go out, and without any additional precautions.

This was very brave, but imprudent. It would have been better to

stay at home, or go to Claremont, and let the police look for the

man, or to have taken some precautionary measures. It is certainly

very extraordinary, for there is no semblance of insanity in the

assassin, and no apparent motive or reason for the crime. This young

Queen, who is an object of interest, and has made no enemies, has

twice had attempts made on her life within two years. George III.,

a very popular king, was exposed to similar attempts, but in his

case the perpetrators were really insane; while George IV., a man

neither beloved nor respected, and at different times very odious and

unpopular, was never attacked by anyone.

The night before last, the play of 'The Hunchback' was acted at

Bridgewater House by Mrs. Butler, Adelaide Kemble, Vandenhoff (instead

of Sheridan Knowles, who was to have done it), my brother Henry, and

some other amateurs. The dining-room made but a middling theatre, the

actors and audience being too near each other. This materially injured

the effect, still it went off well, and Mrs. Butler acted as well as

Fanny Kemble did ten or twelve years ago, but, with all her power,

genius, and voice, she is not a first-rate actress.

[Sidenote: REVIEW OF THE SESSION.]

Last night I went to Hullah's choral meeting, at Exeter Hall, where

the Queen Dowager appeared. It was fine to see, and fine and curious

to hear; but the finest thing was when the Duke of Wellington came

in, almost at the end. The piece they were singing stopped at once;

the whole audience rose, and a burst of acclamation and waving of

handkerchiefs saluted the great old man, who is now the idol of the

people. It was grand and affecting, and seemed to move everybody but

himself.

_September 1st._--During the whole of the past Session, besides

having been occupied with other things than politics, I have had

no communication with politicians, and have seen nothing of public

affairs. My knowledge, therefore, is no greater than that of any

casual observer, and all I could have done was to note and record the

various floating opinions which have come across me in my intercourse

with society.

Peel began the Session with his great financial measures, which were

received, on their first appearance, with considerable applause by the

Opposition, and with a sulky acquiescence on the part of the Tories.

The former, however, soon began to change their note and to pick

holes, but probably this rather was of service to him than otherwise,

for the semblance of an Opposition--and it was no more--kept together

the masses of the Government party, and the tone of superiority and

even supremacy which he assumed from the beginning has imposed upon

both friend and foe, and enabled him to get through a very laborious

and troublesome session without any serious difficulty. John Russell

not only showed no disposition to lead his party in regular attacks on

the Government, but he very soon became impatient to go and seek rural

recreation, and some time before the close of the session he abandoned

them to their fate. Before his departure, however, a sort of guerilla

warfare had begun, which afterwards became more desultory, but more

brisk and incessant. Charles Buller, Tom Duncombe, Hawes, and Vernon

Smith took different departments, and, Palmerston taking the post of

leader, they all kept up an incessant fire upon the Treasury Bench.

The Whigs were exceedingly provoked with Lord John for quitting his

post, and equally delighted with Palmerston for retaining his with

such constancy and for taking so active a part. Nothing, however,

occurred very remarkable in the way of debate till the last night of

the session, when Palmerston made a grand attack upon the Government,

_à la_ Lyndhurst, in a speech of great ability, as his opponents

themselves allow. Peel, however, replied to him in a still abler

speech, and, with this brilliant single combat, which took place in a

very empty House, the session ended.

Parliament was no sooner up, than the riots broke out,[39]

sufficiently alarming but for the railroads, which enabled the

Government to pour troops into the disturbed districts, and extinguish

the conflagration at once. The immediate danger is over, but those

who are best informed look with great anxiety and apprehension to the

future, and only consider what has recently happened as the beginning

of a series of disorders. It is remarkable that whilst England and

Scotland have been thus disturbed, Ireland has been in the profoundest

tranquillity, and when everybody, themselves included, feared that

Ireland would be hardly governable under Tory rule, they have not

had the slightest difficulty in that quarter. O'Connell has been

much quieter since Peel came into office than he was before, and is

evidently doing all he can to keep the country quiet. The Queen, too,

is to all appearance on just as good terms with the present Government

as she was with the last. There is no such intimacy with anybody as

there was with Melbourne, but she is very civil to all her Ministers,

invites them constantly to her house, and, what is curious, hardly

ever takes any notice of those members of the late Government and

Household whom she appeared not to be able to live without; even

Melbourne is very rarely a guest either at Windsor or Buckingham

House.

[Footnote 39: [On August 4 serious disturbances broke out at

Staleybridge and Manchester. Troops were sent down and a conflict

took place. At Preston and at Burslem some persons were killed. The

riots were caused by a threatened reduction of wages.]]

[Sidenote: WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN.]

_September 3rd._--One of the topics on which Palmerston attacked the

Government with the greatest bitterness was the supposed abandonment

of Auckland's policy with respect to Afghanistan, and the withdrawal

of the troops from that country. He asserted that such was Lord

Ellenborough's intention, but that he had been compelled to change or

suspend it, by instructions from home, and then he thundered away on

the disgrace of a retreat, the advantages of a permanent occupation,

and asked, but without eliciting any reply, what Government really

meant to do. Just after this speech and the close of the session,

Lord Auckland arrived in England. He had an interview with Peel,

with which both seemed satisfied. Auckland said that Peel received

him with great civility and cordiality; and Graham told me that Peel

had found Auckland by no means disposed to adopt and countenance

all Palmerston's views and opinions; that he had been very guarded,

and said nothing indicative of any difference of opinion between

himself and his political friends, but that he had spoken like an

honest man, looking to the true interests of the country under

actual circumstances, and not to any mere party purpose. It was the

impression of Peel, clearly, that Auckland does not contemplate the

reoccupation of that country, unless it be merely for the purpose of

recovering our honour and restoring our supremacy. A few days ago

I met Sir Charles Metcalfe, the greatest of Indian authorities. He

was decidedly opposed to the expedition originally, and he told me

he never could understand how Auckland could have been induced to

undertake it. But, he thinks that we have now no alternative, and

must reoccupy Cabul, and re-establish our authority. When we have

done so, he says, we ought to leave to the Afghans the choice of

their ruler, and then make a treaty with him, whoever he may be, and

such a one as it is his interest to keep, for he will not keep any

other. The Opposition continually taunt the present Government with

having approved of Auckland's policy, when it appeared likely to be

successful, and now finding fault with it, when unexpected failure and

disaster have occurred. Graham, however, told me that his party had

all along disapproved of it, that the four greatest authorities on

Indian affairs had been opposed to it; viz. the Duke of Wellington,

Lord Wellesley, Sir Charles Metcalfe, and Mountstuart Elphinstone,

and that he had got up the whole question with the intention of

bringing it before the House of Commons, and had only been prevented

by the Duke of Wellington, who would not suffer it to be done. The

Duke, who, from the moment when any question has assumed a national

character, sets aside every party object, said that we had now gone

so far, and the country was so completely committed in this measure,

that nothing must be done calculated to mar its execution, and that

it would produce a very serious and prejudicial effect if a large

minority of the House of Commons should pronounce a condemnation of

it. Accordingly Graham was obliged to be silent, and the consequence

of that silence is, to afford the Opposition a fair pretext for saying

that their policy met with no opposition and no objections, while

success appeared likely to crown it. When Graham was getting up this

case, he saw Lord Wellesley two or three times, who on one occasion

had dressed himself with great care, and delivered a very eloquent

oration on the subject, which lasted upwards of two hours, and was

very good indeed. This is what he delights in doing. He continually

talks of taking his seat in the House of Lords, and of the speeches

he will make there, but it is only talk. In his own room he will hold

forth, and though he requires a great deal of preparation and getting

up, all those who hear him say that he exhibits wonderful ability and

remarkable powers of memory in these _tête-à-tête_ displays, for he

never makes his speeches to more than one auditor at a time.

[Sidenote: THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON.]

_September 11th._--A day or two after I wrote the above, I dined

with Auckland to meet General Ventura, the General of Runjeet Singh,

where there was a great deal of Indian talk. Ventura thought that

if Pollock had pushed on at once to Cabul after he had joined Sale,

he would have occupied the place without resistance, and met with

no obstacles in his march; but Willoughby Cotton, who was there,

said they could not move for want of camels, and that it was quite

impossible for any force to proceed without the means of transport,

which were totally wanting. Auckland differs with Metcalfe, and

thinks we ought to reoccupy Cabul with the intention of establishing

our authority permanently in these countries. The Whig papers are

attacking Ellenborough with the greatest asperity, and doing all they

can to divert public attention from the original expedition and its

subsequent disasters, and to fix the general indignation upon him

for the policy he is disposed to adopt. It is still, however, very

little known to the world what has occurred, and what is meditated,

but I cannot doubt from the tenor of the few observations I have heard

from both Graham and FitzGerald, that Government have made up their

minds to renounce all idea of permanent conquests and establishment

in Afghanistan. The English public will be satisfied if we get back

the prisoners, which is what they think most about, and though they

will be dissatisfied and disappointed if some sort of vengeance is

not executed upon Akbar Khan, they will on the whole be happy to be

extricated from such an embarrassing and expensive scrape.

There is a very general feeling of satisfaction at the termination of

the boundary dispute with the Americans,[40] and it will be impossible

for Palmerston, who is ready to find fault with everything the Foreign

Office does, to carry public opinion with him in attacking this

settlement. He showed his disposition in a conversation he had lately

with M. de Bacourt (just come over from America), to whom he said

that we had made very important concessions. But Charles Buller, who

was with me when M. de Bacourt told me this, said he for one would

defend Lord Ashburton's Treaty, let Palmerston say what he would. He

never would quarrel with any tolerable arrangement of such a question

as that. I heard yesterday a curious thing relating to this matter.

Lemon, of the State Paper Office, called on me, and told me that about

three months ago they were employed by the Foreign Office in searching

for documents relating to the original discussions on the Boundary

question. There was a great deal of correspondence, much of which was

copied for the use of Government. While thus occupied, he recollected

that there was an old map of North America, which had been lying

neglected and tossed about the office for the last twenty-five years,

and he determined to examine this map. He did so, and discovered a

faint red line drawn all across certain parts of it, together with

several pencil lines drawn in parallels to the red line above and

below it. It immediately occurred to him that this was the original

map supposed to be lost (for it never could be found), which was used

for marking and settling the Boundary question, and he gave notice to

the Foreign Office of what he had discovered. The map was immediately

sent for and examined by the Cabinet, who deemed it of such importance

that they ordered it to be instantly locked up and that nobody should

have access to it. First, however, they sent for the three most

eminent and experienced men in this line of business, Arrowsmith and

two others, and desired them to examine closely this map and report

their opinions, separately and without concert, upon certain questions

which were submitted to them. These related principally to the

antiquity of the red and pencil lines, and whether the latter had been

made before or after the former. They reported as they were desired to

do. They all agreed as to the age of the line, and they proved that

the pencil marks had been made subsequently to the red line. I forget

the other particulars, but so much importance was attached to the

discovery of this map, which was without doubt the original, that an

exact account of its lines and marks was made out for Lord Ashburton,

and a messenger despatched to Portsmouth with orders to lay his hands

on the first Government steamer he could find, no matter what her

destination or purpose, and to go off to America forthwith. As soon

afterwards as possible the Boundary question was settled, and it is

certainly reasonable to suppose that this discovery had an important

effect upon the decision.

[Footnote 40: [The Treaty signed at Washington on August 9, 1842,

by Lord Ashburton and Mr. Webster, settled the disputed question

of the north-east boundary between Canada and the State of Maine,

and terminated some other differences between Great Britain

and the United States. It was denounced by Lord Palmerston as

'a capitulation,' but generally accepted and applauded by both

nations.]]

[Sidenote: THE MISSING MAP.]