Volume II Part 2 (1/2)

[Page Head: THE KING GOES TO WINDSOR]

On Saturday, the 7th, the King and Queen breakfasted at Osterley, on their way to Windsor They had about sixty or seventy people toremarkable I went to Stoke afterwards, where there was the usual sort of party

The King entered Windsor so privately that few people knew hiht be seen On Saturday and Sunday the Terrace was thrown open, and the latter day it was crowded by ht; there were sentinels on each side of the east front to prevent people walking under the s of the living-roo went to Bagshot and did not appear All the late King's private drives through the Park are also thrown open, but not to carriages We went, however, a long string of four carriages, to explore, and got through the whole drive round by Virginia Water, the fa-paGoda, and saw all the penetralia of the late King, whose ghostus (Sefton particularly) scaly enjoyable spot, and pretty, but has not so much beauty as I expected

Came here yesterday and found thirty-two people assembled I rode over the downs three or four htful a country to live in There is an elasticity in the air and turf which coe Head: FRENCH DEMOCRACY]

In therapidly to its consu Montrond, as at Stoke, thinks that France will gravitate towards a republic, and principally for this reason, that there is an unusual love of equality, and no disposition to profit by the power oflike an aristocracy We are so accusto of our constitutional syste upon each other, and so closely interwoven, that we have difficulty in believing that any monarchical Government can exist which is founded on a basis so different This is the great political problem which is now to be solved I think, however, that in the present settlement it is not difficult to see the ele democratical spirit The Crown has been conferred on the Duke of Orleans by the Cha the Chamber of Peers to discuss the question of succession, has at the same time decreed a material alteration in that Chamber itself It has at a blow cut off all the Peers of Villele's great proh the measure may be advisable There is also a question raised of the hereditary quality of the peerage, and I dare say that for the future at least peerages will not be hereditary, not that I think this signifies as to the existence of an aristocracy, for the constant subdivision of propertyto an English House of Lords, and it would perhaps be better to establish another principle, such as that of proreat wealth, influence, and ability, ould constitute an aristocracy of a different kind indeed, but more respectable and efficient, than a host of poor hereditary senators What great men are Lord Lonsdale, the Duke of Rutland, and Lord Cleveland! but strip the the nificant of mankind; but they all acquire a factitious consideration by the influence they possess to do good and evil, the extension of it over multitudes of dependents The French can have no aristocracy but a personal one, ours is in the institution; theirs must be individually respectable, as ours is collectively looked up to In the ained to have a monarchy established in France at all, even for the moment, but some people are alarmed at the excessive adland, and there is a very general conviction that Spain will speedily follow the exaium also Italy I don't believe will throw off the yoke; they have neither spirit nor unanireat to be resisted But Austria will treained has decided the question as to which principle, that of light or darkness, shall prevail for the future in the world

London, August 14th, 1830 {p027}

Stayed at Goodwood till the 12th; went to Brighton, riding over the downs frohtful ride How land to Italy! There we have etation and verdure, fine trees and soft turf; and in the long run the latter are the hton; found things one out of town The French are proceeding steadily in the reconstruction of their Govern de, too, conducts hiives e for equality, and stoops more than he need do; in fact, he overdoes it It is a piece of abominably bad taste (to say no worse) to have conferred a pension on the author of the Marseillaise hymn; for what can be worse than to rake up the old ashes of Jacobinisuish as much as possible this Revolution fro than he ever was as Duke of Orleans, and affect the manners of a citizen and a plainness of dress and de a descendant of Louis XIV

The new Charter is certainly drawn up with great moderation, the few alterations which have been lish Constitution, and in the whole of the proceedings the analogies of our revolution have been pretty closely followed But there has been a reine how it has escaped with so little animadversion here That is the cavalier manner in which the Chamber of Peers has been treated, for the Deputies not only assuislation, and disposed by their authority of the Croithout inviting the concurrence of the other Chamber, but at the same time they exercised an enormous act of authority over the Chareat promotion of Charles X, which, however unwise and perhaps unconstitutional, was perfectly legal, and those Peers had, in fact, as good a right to their peerages as any of their colleagues They have reconstructed the Chahts and privileges; but the pohich can create can also destroy, and it must be pretty obvious after this that the Upper Cha better than a superior Court of Judicature, depending for its existence upon the will of the popular branch There are some articles of the old Charter which I a, but which they may possibly alter[4] at the revision which is to take place next year, those particularly which limit the entrance to the Chaive the initiation of laws to the King But on the whole it is a good sign that they should alter so little, and looks like extrees

[4] They are altered The first translation of the Charter which I read was incorrect

[Page Head: POLIGNAC]

In the , who marches slowly on with his fanac is here, and also that he is taken nobody knows the truth I have heard of his behaviour, however, which orthy of his former imbecility He remained in the sa those who implored him to retract while it was still time that they did not know France, that he did, that it was essentially Royalist, and all resistance would be over in a day or two, till the whole ruin burst on him at once, when he became like a nitude of the calamity and as pusillanimous and miserable as he had before been blind and confident It must be owned that their end has been worthy of the rest, for not one of thee in their fall, nor excited the least syood speech in the Chamber of Peers, and Chateaubriand a very fine one a few days before, full of eloquence in support of the claiainst that of Louis Philippe I

In the ainst Governns of the tiainst slavery It is astonishi+ng the interest the people generally take in the slavery question, which is the work of the Methodists, and shows the enormous influence they have in the country The Duke (for I have not seen him) is said to be very easy about the next Parliae, it proeable as the last, and is besides very ill coust 20th, 1830 {p029}

On Monday to Stoke; Alvanley, Fitzroy Soall, and Mornay were there Lady Sefton (who had dined at the Castle a few days before) asked the King to allow her to take Stanislas Potocki to see Virginia Water in a carriage, which is not allowed, but which his Majesty agreed to

Accordingly we started, and going through the private drives, went up to the door of the tent opposite the fishi+ng-house They thought it was the Queen co, or at any rate a party froate hoisted all the colours, and the boate to take us across We went all over the place on both sides, and were delighted with the luxury and beauty of the whole thing On one side are a nuether in separate apart-room, and several other small roo-cottage, beautifully orna-rooarden full of flowers, shut out froe boat, in which the band used to play during dinner, and in su dined every day either in the house or in the tents We had scarcely seen everything when Mr Turner, the head keeper, arrived in great haste, having spied us fro co forbidden; he did not know of our leave, nor could we even satisfy hie Head: GEORGE IV'S ILLNESS AND DEATH]

The next day I called on Batchelor (he was _valet de chae IV), who has an excellent aparte, which, he said, was once occupied by Nell Gwynne, though I did not know the lodge was built at that time I was there a couple of hours, and heard all the details of the late King's illness and other things For many months before his death those ere about hier, but nobody dared to say a word The King liked to cheat people withthem think he ell, and when he had been at a Council he would return to his apartments and tell his _valets de chaenerally cheerful, but occasionally dejected, and constantly talked of his brother the Duke of York, and of the si thehton than he used to be, and Knighton's attentions to hiht hier, he always sent for Sir Williaham and her family went into his rooo and sit in hers It is true that last year, when she was so ill, she was very anxious to leave the Castle, and it was Sir Williareat difficulty induced her to stay there At that ti but pray froht However, her conscience does not see passion, avarice, and she went on accuons were loaded every night and sent away from the Castle, but what their contents as not known, at least Batchelor did not say All Windsor knew this Those servants of the King ere about his person had opportunities of hearing a great deal, for he used to talk of everybody before them, and without reserve or reat favourite with the late King The first of his pages, William Holmes, had for so hireat favourite; by appointments and perquisites he had as much as 12,000 or 14,000 a year, but he had spent so entleman that he was nearly ruined There seems to have been no end to the _tracasseries_ between these 's wardrobe in the last weeks, and their dishonesty in the reat detail The King was more than anybody the slave of habit and open to impressions, and even when he did not like people he continued to keep thee

While I was at Stoke news came that Charles X had arrived off Portsmouth He has asked for an asylum in Austria, but when once he has landed here he will not ain, I dare say The enthusiasive way to soust at the Duke of Orleans' conduct, who see, affecting extre aside all the pomp of royalty I don't think it can do, and there is certainly enough to cause serious disquietude for the future

Sefton in the ham and Lord Grey were prepared for a violent opposition, and that they had effected a for convinced that no Government could now be formed without him I asked him if Palmerston was a party to this junction, and he said he was, but the first thing I heard when I got to toas that a negotiation is going on between Palmerston and the Duke, and that the foroodwill to the latter, and how unshackled he is Both these things can't be true, and time will shohich is It seems odd that Pal coalition, which is not unlikely to turn out the present Administration, but it is quite impossible to place any dependence upon public men now-a-days

There is Lord Grey with his furious opposition, having a little while ago supported the Duke in a sort of way, having advised Rosslyn to take office, and now, because his own vanity is hurt at not being invited to join the Governht pretext of the Galway Bill in the last Parliament he rushes into rancorous opposition, and is deterham is to lead this Opposition in the House of Co is to be done but as the result of general deliberation and agreeham in the meanti insulted Martin Stapylton on the hustings, who called hiot what he had said, and slunk aith a disclai with inteood, but at his own dinner he stated so ton that his own partisans bawled out 'No, no,' and it was a complete failure His whole spirit there was as bad as possible, paltry and commonplace That man, with all his talents, never can or will _do_ in any situation; he is base, cowardly, and unprincipled, and with all the execrable judgment which, I believe, often flows from the perversion of enius, eloquence, variety and extent of information, and the char, and the effects of them manifest to anybody ill coust 23rd, 1830 {p033}

[Page Head: CHARLES X IN ENGLAND]

General Baudrand is co Williaoes to Lulworth Castle What are called reatly alarmed at the aspect of affairs in France, but I think the lahich will be carried) of abolishi+ng capital punishment in political cases is calculated to tranquillise men's minds everywhere, for it draws such a line between the old and the new Revolution The Ministers will be tried and banished, but no blood spilt Lord Anglesey went to see Charles X, and told hi laid it all upon Polignac The people of Paris wanted to send over a deputation to thank the English for their sy affair--but the King would not per to see that he can curb in soht It would have given great offence and caused great alarust 24th, 1830 {p033}