Volume II Part 21 (1/2)

Our list presents forty-seven sure votes besides the doubtful, but not es As to me, I am really puzzled what to wish for--that is, for the success of which party, being equally disgusted with the folly of both My old aversion for the High Tories returns when I see their conduct on this occasion The obstinacy of the Duke, the selfishness of Peel, the pert vulgarity of Croker, and the incapacity of the rest are set in constant juxtaposition with the goodness of the cause they are now defending, but which they will , a fresh overn, and ill rally round him the temperate and the moderate of different parties--men unfettered by prejudices, connections, and above all by pledges, expressed or implied, and who can and will address themselves to the present state and real wants of the country, neither terrified into concession by the bullying of the press and the rant of public one systeovernment and law That the scattered materials exist is probable, but the heated passion of the ti these various atoms that it is difficult to foresee when a cooler temperature may permit their cohesion into any efficient e Head: VIOLENCE OF EXTREME PARTIES]

The ultra-Whigs and ultra-Tories are both outrageous Day after day the 'Tiraphs, evidently manufactured in the Durham shop, about Harrowby's letter, and yesterday there was one which exhibited their , praising the Duke and the Tories, and abusing Harrowby and Wharncliffe and thewith Harrowby for the express purpose of avoiding the necessity of ue and son-in-law, in conjunction with Dover, is (or has been) going about with a paper for signature by Peers, being a requisition to Lord Grey to n this by way of assisting that course of bullying and violence he has long pursued, but happily in vain

Lord Grey is, I believe, really disgusted with all these proceedings; he sub Richmond quarrels with Durham, Melbourne da, sulking, bullying, andall the harm he can Never certainly was there such a Government as this, so constituted, so headed--a chief with an i eloquence, and a character[5] below conteoverned by anybody ill minister to his vanity and presume upon his facility

[5] By character Iin honour and honesty, nor in ability, but in resolution and strength ofremarkable in either House of Parliaave hi that it required to be as _pachyderlutton, for he took it all, and seeo, and was talking to her about politics and political events, and particularly about the memoirs, or journal, or whatever it be, that she has written She said she had done so very irregularly, but that what she regretted was not having kept ian question (which is not yet settled), that it was in its circumstances the most curious that could be, and exhibited more remarkable manifestations of character and 'du coeur huenerally, than any course of events she knew I asked her why she did not give them now She said it was impossible, that the 'nuances' were so delicate and so nuht at the ain

March 9th, 1832 {p266}

Went to Lord Holland's the other night, and had a violent battle with him on politics nobody so violent as he, and curious as exhibiting the opinions of the ultras of the party AboutPeers--wanted to knohat Harrowby's real object was I told hiht an enornify (he said) whether Peers were made now or later? that the present House of Lords never could go on with a Refor opposed to all the wants and wishes of the people, hating the abolition of tithes, the press, and the French Revolution, and that in order to make it harmonise with the Reformed Parliament it must be amended by an infusion of a ue, which oes upon the presumption that his party is that which har, and what hethe character of the House is to add soes upon the condition of becouard to this Government

The 'Times' yesterday and the day before attacked Lord Grey with a virulence and indecency about the Peers that is too much even for those who take the same line, and he now sees where his subserviency to the press has conducted hiht before last, Ministers would have been beaten on the sugar duties if Baring Wall, who had got ten people to dinner, had chosen to go down in tie Head: IRISH NATIONAL EDUCATION]

The principal subject of discussion this last week has been the Education Board in Ireland, the object of which is to coeious part of their instruction that may be coe only certain selections froenerally, while particular days and hours are set apart for the separate religious exercises of each class This will not do for the zealous Protestants, who bellow for the whole Bible as Reformers do for the whole Bill

While the whole syste to dust under their feet, while the Church is prostrate, property of all kind threatened, and robbery,over the land, these wise legislators are debating whether the brats at school shall read the whole Bible or only parts of it They do nothing but rave of the barbarisnorance of the Catholics; they know that education alone can better their ious tenets prohibit the admission of any system of education (in which Protestants and Catholics can be joined) except such an one as this, and yet they would rather knock the systeood that ood old rules of Orange ascendency and Popish subserviency and degradation, knowing too, above all, that those who are to read and be taught are equally indifferent to the whole Bible or to parts of it, that they comprehend it not, have no clear and definite ideas on the subject but as matter of debate, vehicle of dispute and dissension, and alious hatred and disunion, and that when once they have escaped from the trammels of their school, not one in a hundred will trouble his head about the Bible at all, and not one in a thousand attend to its moral precepts

March 10th, 1832 {p268}

Yesterday ive me an account of the conversation the other day between him and Harrowby on one side and Lords Grey and Lansdowne on the other Harroas headachy and out of sorts However, it went off very satisfactorily; the list was laid before Grey, as satisfied, and no Peers are to be ; but he said that if the Bill should be carried by so small a majority as to prove that the details could not be carried in Co Peers _then_ At this Harroinced, but Wharncliffe said he thought it fair; and in fact it is only in conformity with the protocol that was drawn up at the last conversation They entered into the details, and Lord Grey said the stir that had been ht raise difficulties, and then asked would they agree to this, to give members to Marylebone and throw over the rest? To this Harroould not agree, greatly to Wharncliffe's annoyance, ould have agreed, and I think he would have been in the right It would have been as well to have nailed Grey to this, and if Harrowby had not had a headache I think he would have done so

With regard to the 10 clause, Wharncliffe _thinks_ they will not object to a modification Grey spoke of the press, and with just wrath and indignation of the attacks on hiood The capture of Vandamme was the consequence of a bellyache, and the metropolitan representation depended on a headache If the truth could be ascertained, perhaps reatest events in history turned upon aches of one sort or another Montaigne ht have written an essay on it

March 12th, 1832 {p269}

Durham made another exhibition of temper at the Cabinet dinner last Wednesday While Lord Grey was saying so he rudely interrupted him, as his custom is Lord Grey said, 'But,to say,' when the other jumped up and said, 'Oh, if I a the bell, ordered his carriage, andto propose writing a paot an article against his party I suggested instead that an attempt should be made by Sandon (who has been in some communication with the editor about thisHerald' to support us, and reed to, and was to propose it to Sandon last night We have no advocate in the press; the Whig and Tory papers are equally violent against us Yesterday I saw a letter which has been circulated a Lord Redesdale to Lord Bathurst, a sort of counter-arguh not an answer, as it ritten before he had seen that document; there is very little in it

March 16th, 1832 {p269}

[Page Head: IRISH titHES]

Lord Grey made an excellent speech in the House of Lords in reply to Aberdeen's questions about Ancona, and Peel made another in the House of Coround and a strong position, but doing nothing towards settling the question He forgets that the syste on a false foundation, and that it has worked ill and been bolstered up by hier be supported, and it threatens to carry aith it that which is good in itself We owe these things to those ilfully introduced a moral confusion of ideas into their politicalthe essential distinction between right and wrong, have deprived the things which are right of the best part of their security I have never been able to understand why our system should be made to rest on artificial props when it did not require thee paradox which a certain school of statesmen have always inculcated, that institutions of admitted excellence required to be conjoined with others which were founded in crime and error, and which could only be supported by power This has brought about Reform; it would be easy to prove it The Ancona affair will blow over

George Villiers writes me word that it was a little escapade of Perier's, done in a hurry, a mistake, and yet he is a very able oes on well; the world is out of joint

fanny Keht with complete success, written when she was seventeen, an odd play for a girl to write The heroine is tempted like Isabella in 'Measure for Measure,' but with a different result, which result is supposed to take place between the acts

March 26th, 1832 {p270}

[Page Head: REFORM BILL IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS]

Ten days since I have written anything here, but _en revanche_ I have written a pamphlet An article appeared in the 'Quarterly,'