Volume II Part 13 (1/2)

The second reading of the Refor by 136 reater than the Opposition had reckoned on Peel ood as either of his others on Reform Goulburn told me that the speech in answer to the Lord Advocate on the Irish Bill, when not 100 people were in the House, was his best The coronation fixed for the 23rd Breakfasted with Rogers; went afterwards to the duchess of Bedford's, where I met Lady Lyndhurst I desired her to tell Lyndhurst all the Duke had said to me about hiether He will be a ham in the House of Lords, for he can be concise, which the other cannot, and the Lords in the long run will prefer brevity to art, sarcase Head: CONTEST IN POLAND]

People are beginning to recover fro that it does not come, and we are now beset with alarms of a different kind, which are those of the Scotch reeable business on our hands, very troublesome, odious, and expensive The public requires that we should take care of its health, the mercantile world that we should not injure their trade All evidence proves that goods are not capable of bringing in the disorder, but we have appointed a Board of Health, which is contagionist, and we can't get them to subscribe to that opinion We dare not act without its sanction, and so we are obliged to air goods This airing requires more shi+ps and lazarets than we have, and the result is a perpetual squabbling, disputing, and co between the Privy Council, the Adone on pretty well hitherto, but row louder, and the disease rather spreads than di proofs of the partiality of the Prussians in the contest between the Russians and the Poles The quarantine restrictions are always dispensed with for officers passing through the Prussian territory to join the Russian ar any quarantine at all, and stores and provisions are suffered to be conveyed to the army, with every facility afforded by the Prussian authorities and every relaxation of the sanitary laws The Duke of Wellington says that the contest will very soon be over, that the Russian army could not act before June, and that between February and June the country is not practicable for military operations They have now so ht of their numerical superiority will crush the Poles Austria and Prussia, too, do their ut every sort of indirect assistance to the Russians and thwarting the Poles as much as they can

July 10th, 1831 {p157}

The last two or three days I have been settling everything for the coronation,[7] which is to be confined to the ceremony in the Abbey and cost as little money and as little trouble as possible; and yesterday I was the reat civilities froo to the Duke and show hi we estion that occurred to him, and to enquire if he would have any objection to attend the Council at which it is to be formally settled on Wednesday, to which Peel and Rosslyn are likewise invited I spoke to the Duke and Peel, and they will both coements for coronations are made by a Committee of the Privy Council, which sits as a Court of Claims]

They have made a fine business of Cobbett's trial; his insolence and violence were past endurance, but he made an able speech The Chief Justice was very tihout; very unlike what Ellenborough would have done The jury were shut up the whole night, and in theeither party, discharged them, which was probably on the whole the best that could be done Denman told me that he expected they would have acquitted hi the box, and this principally on account of Broughaht the Chancellor forward and s, and while this prosecution was hanging over hi he would ask his father for soreat use on the present occasion in quieting the labourers This reat impression, and the Attorney-General never knew one word of the letter till he heard it in evidence, the Chancellor having flourished it off, as is his custootten it The Attorney told me that Gurney overheard one juryman say to another, 'Don't you think we had better stop the case? It is useless to go on' The other, however, declared for hearing it out, so on the whole it ended as well as it ht, just better than an acquittal, and that is all

July 11th, 1831 {p158}

Dined with Lord Grey yesterday In thethat Leopold's conditional acceptance of the Belgian throne had been agreed to by a great ht the news (and left Brussels at five o'clock the day before), came to Lord Grey and told him hat enthusiasm it had been received there Lord Grey wrote to the Chancellor, hoe Head: WELLINGTON AND THE GOVERNMENT]

Thisto attend the Council on Wednesday, and desiring I would i He says that it would give rise to ht to decline It is, however, Peel who has prevented him, I arave, did not seem to like it, and said he must confer with the Duke first, as he should be sorry to do otherwise than he did Yesterday I know the Duke dined with Peel, who I have no doubt persuaded hiht at the Duke's conduct ever since he has been in opposition, which certainly has been very noble, straightforward, gentlemanlike, and without an atoreat honour; he threw over Aberdeen con policy which he introduced soon after thethe Government in their Lieutenancy Bill, and is in constant communication with Melbourne on the subject

July 13th, 1831 {p159}

I took the Duke's note to Lord Grey, who seemed annoyed, and repeated that he had only intended the invitation as aany responsibility from his own shoulders; that as there was a deviation froht the Duke's sanction would have satisfied those who e 'Does he then,' he asked, 'mean to attend _the Committee_?'

I did not then know; but yesterday in the House of Lords I asked the Duke, and he said 'No, for the same reasons,' that upon consideration he was sure he had better not go, that by so doing he ood by exercising a powerful influence over theood would be i hiements was settled, he should have no objection to lend a helping hand, if wanted, to the details hich he was very conversant I wrote on a slip of paper that he would _not_ co Peel did not write to e Head: RESERVE OF MR PEEL]

The Belgian deputation caues were in the House of Lords We had been proha speech; the latter spoke civilly and dully; and Brougham not at all, so it ended in sood ht, but the Opposition were not only ed at the conduct of Peel (their leader, as they considered hiot up in the middle of Herries' speech, walked out and was heard of no ave any notice of his intention not to vote The moral effect of this upon his party is immense, and has served to destroy the very little confidence they had in him before It is impossible to conceive by what motives he is actuated, because if they were purely selfish it would seeusting and alienating his party, when although they cannot do without him, it is equally true that he cannot do without theely into the whole question of Peel's extraordinary disposition and conduct, and said how disheartening it was, and what a blow to those who looked to him as a leader in these troublous times Henry Currey (no important person, but whose opinion is that of fifty other like him) told me that his conduct had been _atrocious_, and that he had hiainst his opinion because he thought it right to sacrifice that opinion to the interests of his party The fact is, if Peel had iht have prevented their dividing on this question with the greatest ease There is nothing they are not ready to do at his bidding, but his coldness and reserve are so impenetrable that nobody can ascertain his sentiments or divine his intentions, and thus he leaves his party in the lurch without vouchsafing to give them any reason or explanation of his conduct In the meantime the other party (as if each was destined to suffer more from the folly of its friends than the hostility of its foes) has been thrown into great confusion by Lord Milton's notice to propose an alteration in the franchise, and awas called of all the friends of Government at Althorp, when Milton ht round of Fox, Pitt, Burke, and others having sat for rotten boroughs They were annoyed to the last degree, and thethat it was for him Althorp had been led to spend an immense sum of money, and compromise his character besides in the Northamptonshi+re election His obstinacy and impracticability are so extre could be uess, however, that they will find so hiainst 284 on the question of hearing counsel for the condeood a division for the minority as they expected, and after a very powerful speech of Attwood's, to which nobody listened

There is a fresh access of alarm on account of the cholera, which has broken out at St Petersburg, and will probably spread over Germany The cordon of troops which kept it off last year fro appears to have been withdrahich is no doubt the cause of its appearance there We have constant reports of supposed cases of disease and death, but up to this period it does not appear to have shown itself here, though a case was transly like it The sick man had not come froreat alarenerally think we shall have it From all I can observe from the facts of the case I areatly diminished by the influence of sea air, for which reason I doubt that it will be brought here across the water If it does co of Prussia has at last insisted upon a rigid execution of the quarantine laws in his dominions Marshal Paskiewitch was detained on his road to take the co to request hethe importance of the Emperor to have his report of the state of the ar refused, and sent word that the Emperor hiht do the same

July 14th, 1831 {p162}

The effects of Peel's leaving the party to shi+ft for itself were exhibited the night before last He went away (there was no reason why he should not, except that he should have stayed to _e_ the debate and keep his people in order), and the consequence was that they went on in a vexatious squabble of repeated adjourn, when Governradually dwindled down to twenty-five people, headed by Stormont, Tullaether to the last; between parties so animated and so led there can be no doubt on which side will be the success The Governue well repaid by the display of devotion on the part of their friends and of factious obstinacy on that of their enehts it is i ceased to exist for all the practical and legitimate ends of political association--that is, as far as the House of Coht There is still a rabble of Opposition, tossed about by every wind of folly and passion, and left to the vagaries and eccentricities of Wetherell, or Attwood, or Sadler, or the intemperate zeal of such weak fanatics as the three Lords above rave, deliberative, efficient Opposition there seeer the elements, or they are so scattered and disunited that they never can coht have collected, and fors leave to be excused It is a wretched state of things and can portend no good If there had not been prognostications of ruin and destruction to the State in all ti from all parties, which the event has universally falsified, I should believe that the consummation of evil was really at hand; as it is I cannot feel that certainty of destruction that h I think we are more seriously er is of a very different description

But there is an elasticity in the institutions of this country, which s, and in the very uncertainty of what endered by such e Head: PREPARATIONS FOR THE CORONATION]

Yesterday a Council was held at St James's for the coronation; the Princes, Ministers, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of London were present The King read an address to the Lords desiring that his coronation ht be dispensed with except those in the church

Lord Grey had co say that these ceree we live in, and suited to another period of society; but the Archbishop objected to these expressions, and thought it better to give the injunction without the comments; so Lord Grey wrote another and shorter paper, but he showed the first to Lord Lansdowne and ht the Archbishop was right and that the second paper was the best The Duke of Gloucester was very indignant at not having been summoned in a more respectful way than by a common circular, and complained to the Lord President[8] I told hi to the Duke of Sussex before, who did not care Leopold was tooto attend, so he came to the levee (but _en prince_ only) and not to the Council

Lieven told me it was true that the Grand Duke Constantine was dead, and that it was a very good thing

[8] [It is customary to summon the Royal Dukes to a Council by a letter This formality seems to have been overlooked in this instance]