Volume II Part 22 (1/2)

Orloff, as looked for like the Messiah, at last reat burly Russian, but no ratification yet[1]

[1] [Of the Belgian Treaty]

[Page Head: THE CHOLERA IN ENGLAND]

I have refrained for a long ti about the cholera, because the subject is intolerably disgusting to me, and I have been bored past endurance by the perpetual questions of every fool about it It is not, however, devoid of interest In the first place, what has happened here proves that 'the people'

of this enlightened, reading, thinking, refor nation are not a whit less barbarous than the serfs in Russia, for precisely the same prejudices have been shown here that were found at St

Petersburg and at Berlin The disease has undoubtedly appeared (hitherto) in this country in a milder shape than elsewhere, but the alarreat that the Government could do no otherwise than take such precautions and ate its consequences

Here it careat inconvenience to trade and coners generally on this country and those we imposed ourselves between the healthy and unhealthy places This begot complaints and disputes, and professional prejudices and jealousies urged a host of coht about the existence or non-existence of cholera, its contagiousness, and any collateral question The disposition of the public was (and is) to believe that the whole thing was a huly plenty of people were found to write in that sense, and the press lent itself to propagate the sa on, the Boards of Health which were everywhere established immediately became odious, and the vestries and parishes stoutly resisted all pecuniary de into effect the recommendations of the Central Board or the orders of the Privy Council In this town the mob has taken the part of the anti-cholerites, and the raceful scenes have occurred The other day a Mr Pope, head of the hospital in Marylebone (Cholera Hospital) came to the Council Office to co removed with his own consent had been taken out of his chair by the mob and carried back, the chair broken, and the bearers and surgeon hardly escaping with their lives Furious contests have taken place about the burials, it having been recommended that bodies should be burned directly after death, and theitself to this recommendation; in short, there is no end to the scenes of uproar, violence, and brutal ignorance that have gone on, and this on the part of the lower orders, for whose especial benefit all the precautions are taken, and for whose relief large sums have been raised and all the resources of charity called into activity in every part of the town The awful thing is the vast extent of misery and distress which prevails, and the evidence of the rotten foundation on which the whole fabric of this gorgeous society rests, for I call that rotten which exhibits thousands upon thousands of hue of radation, with no more of the necessaries of life than serve to keep body and soul together, whole classes of artisans without the means of subsistence However cos, the htful presence and reality, and those whose ingenuity, and experience, and philosophical views radual increase of this distress are totally unable to suggest a res pero on? can any reform ameliorate it? Is it possible for any country to be considered in a healthy condition when there is no such thing as a _general_ diffusion of the co of course with every variety of circumstance which can affect the prosperity of individuals or of classes), but when the extremes prevail of the most unbounded luxury and enjoyine a state of society in which everybody should be well off, or even tolerably well off, would be aas there is a preponderance of vice and folly in the world There will always be effects commensurate with their causes, but it has not always been, and it certainly need not be, that the reat difficulty, struggling to keep themselves afloat, and, what is worse, in uncertainty and in doubt whether they can earn subsistence for themselves and their faeneral uncertainty pervades every class of society, frohest to the lowest; nobody looks upon any institution as secure, or any interest as safe, and it is only because those universal feelings of alarhtly affect each individual ato, laughing, and dancing, and not insensible to the danger, though, apparently indifferent about it

April 4th, 1832 {p280}

[Page Head: A DIFFICULTY AT SCHEDULE A]

Charles Wood[2] ca the various effects of a different qualification from 10 to 40 for the metropolitan districts, to talk over the list, but principally to get me to speak to Harrowby about a foreseen difficulty The first clause in the Bill enacts _that fifty-six boroughs be disfranchised_ This gave great offence in the House of Commons, was feebly defended, but carried by the majority, which was always ready and required no reason; it was an egregious piece of folly and arrogance there, here it presents a real embarrassnance to it, and that the effect would be very bad if they split upon the first point He said he should not defend it, that all reason was against it, but that there it was, and hoas it to be got rid of? I suggested that it should be passed over, and that they should go at once to the boroughs _seriatim_ He said if that clause was omitted a suspicion would i Schedule A, and nothing would avert that but getting through a great part of it before Easter, and that this est time they could expect to sit would be three days in Passion Week He talked a great deal about the country expecting this, and that they would not be satisfied if it was not done, and all the usual jargon of the Reformers, which it was not worth while to dispute, and it ended byto talk to Lord Harrowby about it

This I did last night, and he instantly flew into a rage He said 'he would not be dragged through the mire by those scoundrels It was an insolence that was not to be borne; let them make their Peers if they would, not hell itself should make him vote for _fifty-six_; he would vote for sixty-six or any number but that, that he would not split with the Tories on the first vote; if indeed _they_ would consent to fifty-six he would, or to anything else they would agree to, but if the Governht this forward no consideration on earth should prevent his opposing it' We then discussed the whole matter, with the proposed amendments which Wood and I had talked over with reference to the o to-day and propose that after the second reading is carried they should adjourn till after Easter, and give a little time for the excitement (which there must be) to subside, and to see howthe thing through quietly

[2] [Mr Charles Wood, afterwards Viscount Halifax, but at this tihter he married]

April 6th, 1832 {p281}

I called on the Duke of Rich, and told him what had passed between Wood and me, and Lord Harrowby and retted it the ht have to defend it in the House of Lords He wishedStreet and see Lord Grey hiested that the words fifty-six ht be left in blank by Lord Grey's own motion, that this would be in confor at home on my way found Lord Harrowby at my door He ca; he was ree to fifty-six, though anxious to have the matter compromised in some way Lord Harroanted to adjourn after the second reading, but owned that the best effect would be to get through Schedule A before Easter Yesterday I saw Wood; he harped upon the difficulty and the old strain of the country I suggested the point of form which Richmond had mentioned, but he said that could not be _now_ in the Bill, as it was sent up from the Commons, that if they were beaten on fifty-six the country would consider it tantahly approve of a creation of Peers, and that, in fact (if they wished it), it would be the best opportunity they could have I told him that it would heap ridicule upon all the antecedent proceedings, and the pretext must be manifest, as it would appear in the course of the discussions what the real reason was In the middle of our conversation Ellice came in, and directly asked if my friends would s fifty-six, to which I said, 'No' We had then a vehement dispute, but at last Wood turned hireed that I should ask Lord Harrohether, if Lord Grey of his own accord proposed to leave out the words fifty-six, but with an expression of his opinion that this must be the nu declaration that he objected to the specification of the nu to the extent of the disfranchise always understood that what passes between us is unauthorised talk, and to commit nobody--'without prejudice,' as the lawyers say

[Page Head: THE KING'S RELUCTANCE TO MAKE PEERS]

I heard yesterday, however, froeon, and sees him when he is in town), that he saw his Majesty after the levee on Wednesday, and that he was ill, out of sorts, and in considerable agitation; that he enquired of hi said he had s passed there (pointing to the Cabinet, out of which he had just coreeable, and that he had had ' Keate said he was very sure fro unpleasant had occurred This was, I have since discovered, the question of a creation of Peers again brought forward, and to which the King's aversion has returned so much so that it is doubtful if he will after all consent to a large one

It seems that unless the Peers are han; at least so they threaten I have seen enough of threats, and doubts, and scruples, to be satisfied that there is no certainty that any of them will produce the anticipated effects, but I am resolved I will try, out of these various ele which h the materials I have to ith are scanty The Ministers were all day yesterday settling who the new Peers shall be, so seriously are they preparing for the _coup_ They had already fixed upon Lords Molyneux, Blandford, Kennedy, Ebrington, Cavendish, Brabazon, and Charles Fox, Littleton, Portman, Frederick Lawley, Western, and many others, and this would be what Lord Holland calls assi the House of Lords to the spirit of the other House, andsense of the people

April 8th, 1832 {p283}

Lord Harroas out of tohen I called there on Friday, so I wrote to him the substance of my conversation with Wood

Yesterday he returned In the evening I met Wood at dinner at Lord Holland's, when he told me that he found on the part of his friends ive up the fifty-six, that he had done all he could to persuade thereat objections Moreover he had had a conversation with Sandon which he did not quite like, as he talked so ether All this was to make me think they are stouter than they really are, for I a I gotLord Grey went to hi that he shouldwas thrown out[3] To this he deh alarot back to Windsor he wrote two letters, explaining his sentireat reluctance, that he will do it, but will not give any pledge beforehand, that he objects to increasing the Peerage, and wants to call up eldest sons and make Irish and Scotch Peers, that he did not say positively he would make the Peers, but that he would be in the way, and come up when it was necessary They think that he has soh in fact he did so two ht be drawn into an improper precedent However this reat deal may be made of it, as it is probable (if he continues in the same mind, and is not turned by some violence of the Opposition) that he will resist stillPeers when the Bill is in Committee to carry the details, some of which he hireat

It is impossible to communicate with the Tory leaders; they will not believe what you tell the's scruples they would iht presume upon them to any extent, and stand out ht, and is, which I shall do to nobody else To Wharncliffe I dare not He is not indisposed to Wood's compromise, and I trust this will be settled, but he still leans to putting off the second reading till after Easter, and if the Tories also resolve upon that (which they are htily disposed to do) he will not separate from them on that point, and they are sure to carry it Unless this was accompanied with some declaration froreat principles of the Bill, I think the Government would consider it such an indication of hostility as to call for an i could or would resist There are many reasons why it would be desirable to -place, and adjourn then till after Easter, provided all parties consented, but it would be very unwise to make it the subject of a contest, and nobody would ever believe that the real reason was not to get rid of Schedule A by hook or by crook, or of a good deal of it Harroill, I aive it up; that there are means of resistance, if they were judiciously applied, I am sure, and if there were teht be licked into a very decent shape