Volume I Part 13 (1/2)

Mr Goulburn, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Mr Charles Grant, President of the Board of Trade

Mr Herries, Master of the Mint

Viscount Melville, President of the India Board

Lord Dudley, Mr Huskisson, Mr Grant, and Lord Palmerston (Secretary at War, not in the Cabinet) were the four CanningiteThey were replaced by Lord Aberdeen, Sir George Murray, Mr Vesey Fitzgerald, and Sir Henry Hardinge respectively]

All the Ministers (old and neere at Windsor the other day; but it was contrived that they should notin one room and Lansdowne and Carlisle in another, and it was afterwards discovered that in a third room by himself was Goderich This Lord Sefton told me, and he had it fro and confirham His Majesty was re had a scene with the Duke of Devonshi+re, whoh he tried hard Scarlett has resigned the Attorney-Generalshi+p, but not very willingly He wrote to Milton and asked his advice Milton advised hiered the Tories is the Duke's not having consulted Lord Eldon, nor offered hih he did not want the seals again, he would have been very glad to take office as President of the Council

[Page Head: IRRITATION OF THE WHIGS]

February 25th, 1828 {p126}

There is one advantage in writing at intervals of soular diary; I can take ainto many errors, which it would be afterwards necessary to correct I went to Newmarket and stayed there three weeks for my health While I was there Huskisson made his speech at Liverpool[2] The Tories were furious, and in the House of Lords the Duke of Wellington contradicted it, or rather said he did not believe it was faithfully reported, for all that he was reported to have said about _the guarantee_ was untrue I returned to town in tireatest excite As to Huskisson, he had offended the Tories, the Whigs, and Lady Canning, and everybody condemned him Parties were split to pieces, there was no Opposition, and no hbour, scarcely what his own Lady Canning was in a state of great rage and resente Bentinck with the same sentiments Clanricarde had been sent down by her to the House of Lords furnished with extracts of Canning's letters to throw in the teeth of his old friends and his old enemies, and she threatened fresh disclosures and fresh documents which were to confound all whory colloquy took place at a dinner at Warrender's between Lord Seaford and George Bentinck, in which the latter violently attacked Mr Canning's friends for joining the present Government, and quoted Huskisson's declaration that he would never act with the ry, and asked George what he knew of that declaration and what his authority was for quoting it To which George replied that he had it from himself--from Lord Seaford at Paris This confounded the noble Lord, and altogether there was a pretty violent altercation, which greatly annoyed both hiretted by all their common friends Two days after this came on the debate in the House of Commons and the explanations of Huskisson and Herries Their speeches were both satisfactory enough till Tierney spoke, who entirely knocked over their cases, or at least that of Herries, for against Huskisson he proved nothing, except that he h I think this reproach applies more to Lord Goderich than to hiard to Herries was as unfavourable as possible

[2] [The speech made by Mr Huskisson on his re-election at Liverpool on the 5th of February, 1828, is printed in vol iii of his 'Collected Speeches,' p 673 It contains a full account of these transactions The passage which gave so much offence to the Tories was that 'if the Government was such as satisfied the view I took of the interests of the country, and provided such arrangeuarantee_ that the principle I approved should not be departed froain, 'The presence in office of such men as Lord Dudley, Lord Palmerston, Mr Grant, and Mr

Laeneral principles of our foreign and coed, and that Ireland would be governed with the strictest impartiality in respect to the Catholic question'

These declarations of Mr Huskisson had aafterwards took place]

[Page Head: TOM DUNCOMBE'S MAIDEN SPEECH]

The great event of the night was Duncombe's[3] speech, which was delivered with perfect self-possession and cohed at hih they were amused with his impudence and at the style and objects of his attack However, the next day it was discovered that he had perforratulated on all sides, and made into the hero of the day

His faht, when Herries again came before the House and when Tommy fired another shot at his called at his door and eagerly sought his acquaintance Those who love fun and personality cheered hireatest et up and abuse anybody on the Treasury bench To s that

[3] [Thosby Duncouished for his Radical opinions, MP

for Finsbury after the Reform Bill He sat at this time for Hertford; and the incident related in the text appears to have been his _debut_ in political life]

The history of To, for it is a curious proof of the facility hich the world ious effect which may be produced by the smallest means, if they are aided by some fortuitous circumstances and happily applied Tommy came to Henry de Ros and told him that his constituents at Hertford were very anxious he should ed Henry to supply him with the necessarynew, and having received his assurance that he should be able to recollect anything that he learned by heart, and that he was not afraid of his courage failing, Henry composed for hi the slender capacity of histhe speech in his hands, but adopted every precaution which his ingenuity suggested to avert the danger of his breaking down He made him learn the speech by heart, and then e of his own, justly fearing that if he should forget any of the inal it would appear sadly botched by his own interpolations He then instructed hi hi links, and by the help of which hespeeches I saw Henry de Ros the day before the debate, when he toldthat occurred upon the subject, and at the same time repeated to me the speech hich he had armed his hero

I hinted h he was not without sorounded) confidence in Duncombe's extraordinary nerve and intrepidity

His speech on the second night was got up precisely in the sah it appeared to arise out of the debate and of those which preceded it, the matter had been all crammed into him by his invisible Mentor The amusement to him and to me (especially at the honours that have been thickly poured upon him and the noise which he has ent

Thus Duncoreat sensation, and he has the reputation (nothrown the eneuage than anybody has ever done, because nobody has ever before dared to norant reat promise, of boldness, quickness, and decision, and the uproar that is made about hih notion of his consequence

Knighton is gone abroad, I have very little doubt, in consequence of what passed, and as nobody enquires very et apparent ones with ease, it is said and believed at once that Duncoiven the first blow to that secret influence which has only been obscurely hinted at before and never openly attacked These are great and i any consequences which the authors of the speech anticipated froents who have produced such an effect? A man of ruined fortune and doubtful character, whose life has been spent on the race-course, at the gareen-roonorant, and without any stock but his i purpose, and craht and every word that he uttered

[Page Head: DISPUTES IN THE CABINET]

June 12th, 1828 {p130}

We have now got a Tory Governone[4] The case of the Duke of Wellington and Huskisson is before the world, but nobody judges fairly

Motives are attributed to both parties which had no existence, and the truth is hardly ever told at first, though it generally oozes out by degrees After the explanations in February the Government went on to all appearance very well, but there lurked under this semblance of harmony some seeds of jealousy and distrust, not I believe so ues, and the Canningites on their side certainly felt no cordiality even towards the Duke himself They said that he never could nor would understand anything; that he said a thing one day and forgot it the next, and instead of that clearness of intellect for which he had credit, nothing could becould absolve him from the suspicion of duplicity and insincerity but the conviction that his auous conduct on various occasions arose from a confusion of ideas On the other hand, Lord Bathurst told ht they (Huskisson and his friends) were too ether as a party in the Cabinet; and it is clear that the Duke thought so too, and that this feeling and the resentendered in his mind are the real reasons of his conduct on the late occasion