Volume II Part 21 (2/2)

attacking Harrowby and his friends Wharncliffe was so desirous it should be answered that I undertook the job, and it comes out to-day in a 'Letter to Lockhart, in reply,' &c I don't believe anybody read the last I wrote, but as I have published this at Ridgway's, perhaps it may have aof the Bill, after three nights'

debate, by a majority of 116, ended by a very fine speech froh this fight

Stanley closed the debate at five o'clock in the ood and dexterous speech, but which contained a very unnecessary dissertation about the Peers This, together with some words froive me that we shall still have them created for the Committee The conduct of the ultra-Tories has been so bad and so silly that I cannot wish to bring thereat desire to turn the others out As to a moderate party, it is a mere dream, for where is the s the Bill up to the House of Lords, and much indeed depends upon what passes there Harrowby and Wharncliffe will make their speeches, and we shall, I conclude, have the Duke and Lord Grey I expect, and I beg his pardon if I a, that the Duke will make as mischievous a speech as he can, and try to provoke declarations and pledges against the Bill The Ministers are exceedingly anxious that Harrowby should confine hiood can, andinto details Grey, Holland, and Rich to see what can be done with them I should not fear Harrowby but that he is petulant and sour; Wharncliffe is vain, and has been excited in all this business, though with very good and very disinterested motives, but he cannot bear patiently the abuse and the ridicule hich both the extreme ends endeavour to cover him, and he is uneasy under it, and what I dread is that in ht, and to clear his character with a party ill never forgive him for what he has done, and to hatever he says will be words cast to the winds, he will flounder, and say so which will elicit from Lord Grey some declaration that may make matters worse than ever What I hope and trust is that the Governeneralities, and pledge the, and that they will not be provoked by taunts from any quarter to depart from that prudent course

There was another breeze in the House of Lords about Irish Education, the whole bench of bishops in a flaainst the plan--Phillpotts in a furious speech What celestial influences have been at work I know not, but certain it is that the world see mad, individually and collectively The town has been ancies than the affairs of Europe He, in fact, is ain It has been fine talk for the town The public curiosity and love of news is as voracious and universal as the appetite of a shark, and, like it, loves best what is grossest andto personal distress, to crireedily devoured by this monster, as Cowley calls it

I see The h at me; I would at thee, too, foolish City, But thy estate I pity

Should all the wicked o, And all the fools that crowd thee so, Thou, who dost thy thousands boast, Would be a wilderness almost--_Ode to Solitude_

But of all the examples of cant, hypocrisy, party violence, I have never seen any to be compared to the Irish Education business; and there was Rosslyn, an old Whig, voting against; Carnarvon stayed away, every Tory without exception going against the one mad in his own house, Perceval in the House of Co, both Irvingites and believers in 'the tongues' Dudley's madness took an odd turn; he would make up all his quarrels with Lady Holland, to whom he has not spoken for sixteen years, and he called on her, and there were tears and embraces, and God knohat Sydney Smith told her that she was bound in honour to set the quarrel up again when he cos into the _status quo ante pace out of a strait waistcoat, that he had been robbed of all his hatreds and hostilities, and seduced into the house of his oldest foe

March 27th, 1832 {p272}

[Page Head: DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS]

I did the Duke of Wellington an injustice He spoke, but without any violence, in a fair and gentlemanlikeIf there was any disposition on the part of his followers to light a fla went off well; House very full; Harrowby began, and made an excellent speech, with the exception of one mistake He dwelt too much on the difference between this Bill and the last, as if the difference of his own conduct resulted fro up in their h he corrected the iainst him, I have no doubt After him Carnarvon, who alone was violent, but short; then Wharncliffe (I am not sure which was first of these two), very short and rather e his concurrence with Lord Harrowby; then the Bishop of London, short also, but strong in his language, much eneral, harping a little toothat what he said last year bore the interpretation that had been put upon it, and announcing that he would give his best consideration to any aood speech; then the Duke, in a very handsoainst all Reforainst this Bill, because he did not think if it passed it would be possible to carry on the govern that if the Bill went into Coive his constant attendance, and do all in his power to make it as safe a , ust of the violent party I asked Lord Holland if he was satisfied (in the House after the debate), and he said, 'Yes, yes, very well, but the Bishop's theat Lord Grey's I found they were all full of the Bishop Lord Grey said to me, 'Well, you will allow that I behaved very well?' I said, 'Yes, very, but the whole thing was satisfactory, I think' 'Yes,' he said, 'on the whole, but they were a little too strong, too violent against the Bill,' because Harrowby had declared that he felt the same objection to the eous, talked a vast deal of a nonsense, 'that he had never heard such twaddle,' 'but that the success was complete, and he looked on Harrowby and Wharncliffe as the two dom' I have no doubt that all the ultras will be deeply mortified at the ton, and at the success _so far_ of 'the Waverers'

CHAPTER XVIII

Debate in the House of Lords--Lord Harrowby's Position--Hopes of a Compromise--Lord Melbourne's View--Disturbances caused by the Cholera--The Disfranchise's Hesitation--'The Hunchback'--Critical Position of the Waverers--Bill carried by Nine in the Lords-- The Cholera in Paris--Moderate Speech of Lord Grey--End of the Secession--Conciliatory Overtures--Negotiations carried on at Newmarket--Hostile Division in the Lords--Lord Wharncliffe's Account of his Failure--Lord Grey resigns--The Duke of Wellington attempts to form a Ministry--Peel declines-- Hostility of the Court to the Whigs--A Change of Scene--The Duke fails--History of the Crisis--Lord Grey returns to Office--The King's Exciterace of the Tories-- Conversation of the Duke of Wellington--Louis XVIII--Mada Great Men-- Petition against Lord W Bentinck's Prohibition of Suttee heard by the Privy Council--O'Connell and the Cholera--Irish tithe Bill--Irish Difficulties--Mr Stanley--Concluding Debates of the Parliaiuy--Dinner at Holland House--Anecdotes of Johnson--Death of Mr Greville's Father-- Madaustus of Prussia--Captain Hess--Hostilities in Holland and in Portugal--The duchesse de Berri--Conversation with Lord Melbourne on the State of the Governe Head: LORD HARROWBY'S PATRIOTIC CONDUCT]

There appear to have been as many differences of opinion as of people on the discussion in the House of Lords when the Bill was brought up, and it seeh it was on the whole satisfactory, nobody was satisfied Lord Grey complained to me that Lord Harroas too stiff; Lord Harrowby co about the bush of compromise, but never would commit himself fairly to concession

Melbourne coracious ardly, that he hated the eous 'that he gave up everything without reason or cause;' the ultra-Whigs equally furious 'that he had sho little way he was disposed to go in Committee; his object was to turn out the Government;'

and what is comical, neither party will believe that Harrowby really is so obnoxious to the other as he is said to be Each is convinced that he is acting in the interests of the other What a position, what injustice, blindness, folly, obstinacy, brought together and exhibited! If ever there was a man whose conduct was exempt from the ordinary motives of a, it is Lord Harrowby, and yet there is no reproach that is not cast upon him, no term of abuse that is not applied to him, no motive that is not ascribed to him No wonder a man who has seennow is thought of but the _lists_, and of course everybody has got one The Tories still pretend to a majority of seven; the Government and Harrowby think they have one of from ten to twenty, and I suspect fifteen will be found about theis that neither of our cocks is good for fighting, not froracious and unpopular, and Wharncliffe carries no great weight To be sure neither of them pretends to make a party, but then their opponents insist upon it that they do, andsupposed to enlist) under Wharncliffe's banner However, notwithstanding the violence of the noisy fools of the party, and of the women, there is a more rational disposition on the part of practical h yesterday, and told hiarded as traitors by all of them, he did hope that when the Bill caether, and try and co with the question, that it was absurd to be standing aloof at such a reed with him, was anxious to do so, and intended to advise his friends to take that course

April 1st, 1832 {p276}

Wharncliffe got Lord Grey to put off the second reading for a few days on account of the Quarter Sessions, which dren a precious attack from Londonderry, and was in fact very foolish and unnecessary, as it looks like a concert between them, of which it is very desirable to avoid any appearance, as in fact none exists

The violence of the Tories continues unabated, and there is no effort they do not make to secure ait to a near thing In the ed Dover, who , whipping-in, busy work of the party, ht the Bill would get through without Peers The Governreed to make the Peers if it turns out to be necessary, and especially if the Bill should be thrown out, it seeo out, but ather from Richmond, and he as the , is now ready to make any number if necessary There is, however, I hope, a disposition to concession, which, if ereat deal to do in Committee, is neither prudent nor popular The Tories are obstinate, sulky, and indisposed to agree to anything reasonable It is the unity of object and the coth Charles Wood told me the other day that they ell disposed to a compromise on two special points, one the exclusion of town voters fro for counties, the other the metropolitanfor a town in right of a 10 house should have a vote for the county in right of any freehold in that town That would be half-way between Wharncliffe's plan and the present The second, that Marylebone should return two members, and Middlesex two more--very like Grey's proposition which Harrowby rejected--but I suggested keeping the whole and varying the qualification, to which he thought no objection would lie

[Page Head: CONVERSATION WITH LORD MELBOURNE]

At the duchesse de Dino's ball the night before last I had a very anxious conversation with Melbourne about it all He said that 'he really believed there was no strong feeling in the country for the measure' We talked of the violence of the Tories, and their notion that they could get rid of the whole thing I said the notion was absurd _now_, but that I fully agreed with hiht it not be thrown out?'--a consummation I really believe he would rejoice at, if it could be done I said because there was a great party which would not let it, which would agitate again, and that the country wished ardently to have it settled; that if it could be disposed of for good and all, it would be a good thing indeed, but that this was now becoues were impressed as he ith this truth, and he said, 'No' I told hi possible to enforce it, and to make them moderate, and induce them to concede, to which he replied, 'What difficulty can they have in sing the rest after they have given up the rotten boroughs? That is, in fact, the essential part of the Bill, and the truth is _I do not see how the Government is to be carried on without them_

Some means may be found; a remedy may possibly present itself, and it may work in practice better thanof, but I am not aware of any, and I do not see how any Government can be carried on when these are swept away' This was, if not his exact words, the exact sense, and a pretty avowal for a man to make at the eleventh hour who has been a party concerned in this Bill during the other ten I told hireed in every respect, but that it was too late to discuss this now, and that the rotten boroughs were past saving, that as to the ht them of importance, looked upon them as securities, compensations, and moreover as ould save their own honour, and that the less their real iht they be conceded We had a great deal more talk, but then it is all talk, and _a quoi bon_ with a man who holds these opinions and acts as he does? Let it end as it may, the history of the Bill, and the ht forward, supported, and opposed, will be most curious and instructive The division in the Lords must be very close indeed