Volume II Part 23 (2/2)

Yesterdaywas finally settled, everything turning upon the ter they should avail themselves of this opportunity to th; theLord Grey hi the King's feelings and using their victory withthat the only condition on which they could return was the certainty of carrying the Reform Bill unaltered, either by a creation of Peers or by the secession of its opponents Up to the presentat the s, just as averse as ever toto press hi at each other, the Tories broken and disco no further resistance to the Reforht

Peel, who has kept hi anything but sorry for the dileot hied him to persevere, with promises of present support and future co-operation, with a shrewd anticipation of the fate that awaited hiive credit to this, for I well remember the wrath of Peel when the Duke's Government was broken up in 1830, and the various instances of secret dislike and want of real cordiality which have peeped from under a decent appearance of union and friendshi+p Nothing can be h spirits in thevery well as it is, and that the salvation of character is everything; and this from him, who fancies he has saved his own, and addressed to those who have forfeited theirs, is aht was to be his deliverance fro the Duke of Wellington in possession of everything that had taken place between hiard to the creation of Peers, ad he had been subjected to every species of persecution His ignorance, weakness, and levity put hiht, and prove hientlemen in his doreat dinner to the Jockey Club, at which (notwithstanding his cares) he seemed in excellent spirits; and after dinner he made a number of speeches, so ridiculous and nonsensical, beyond all belief but to those who heard the the saether such a h and blush at the sareed to try and forreed to support hiths, even to that of sing the whole Bill if necessary; the Duke of Newcastle particularly would do anything These were the ht to support amendments even, unless they were pernats out of office and sing camels in It is reratiate hi the detestation and abuse of the Whigs, and their reproach of bad faith, the for no notice of his fronorance of their plans and intentions, never inviting hih a communication was made by Lyndhurst to Harrowby (they wanted Harrowby to be Prime Minister), the latter was not at liberty to impart it to Wharncliffe It is not possible to be more deeply mortified than he is at the treat so cohout these proceedings, I strongly suspect that (if he lives) he will go mad While the Duke and Lyndhurst ith hiet nohich) he said, 'I have been thinking that soard to Hanover Duke, you are nowyou will think of this; I should like to have a slice of Belgium, which would be a convenient addition to Hanover Pray remember this,'

and then resumed the subject they were upon

May 19th, 1832 {p302}

The night before last the Duke made his statement It was extremely clear, but very bald, and left his case just where it was, as he did not say anything that everybody did not know before His friends, however, extolled it as a masterpiece of eloquence and a complete vindication of himself The Tory Lords who spoke after him bedaubed him with praise, and vied with each other in expressions of adton There was not one word from the Duke (nor from the others) indicative of an intention to secede, which hat the Government expected His speech contained a sort of covert attack upon Peel; in fact, he could not defend hiht in taking office the otherto join hi, however, which was h out of the House the Duke's friends do not conceal their anger that Peel would not embark with hily able, highly excited, very eloquent, and contrived to ood one It was a fine display and very short Carnarvon and Mansfield were outrageously violent, but both in their way clever, and parts of the speech of the latter were eloquent Lord Grey was excellent, short, very te rave at the end

[Page Head: THE KING'S LETTER TO THE PEERS]

The debate, however interesting, left the whole an again What was to be done--Peers or no Peers? A Cabinet sat nearly all day, and Lord Grey went once or twice to the King He, poor man, was at his wits' end, and tried an experi to a nu them to withdraw their opposition to the Bill These letters ritten (I think) before the debate On Thursday nothing was settled, and at anotherto offer again the sa Before this was acted upon Richmond, who had been absent, arrived, and he prevailed upon his colleagues to cancel it In the ton, Lyndhurst, and other Peers had given the desired assurances to the King, which he communicated to Lord Grey These were accepted as sufficient securities, and declarations ly in both Houses of Parlia with this advice, it is impossible to say hoould have ended, for he had already been obstinate, and ht have continued so on this point, and he told Lord Verulaht it would be contrary to his coronation oath to ations imposed by their coronation oath

On Thursday in the House of Coreat civility and many expressions of esteem and admiration of the Duke, he pronounced as bitter a censure of his conduct, while apparently confining himself to the defence of his own, as it was possible to do, and as such it was taken I have not the least doubt that he did it _con amore_, and that he is doubly rejoiced to be out of the scrape himself and to leave others in it

May 31st, 1832 {p304}

Since I came back from Newmarket there has not been ht Schedules A and B were galloped through the Committee, and they finished the business On Thursday next the Bill will probably be read a third time In the House of Lords some dozen Tories and Waverers have continued to keep up a little skire has been bandied about, in which the Whigs, being the winners, have shown the best temper In society the excitement has ceased, but the bitterness remains The Tories are, however, so utterly defeated, and the victory of their opponents is so complete, that the latter can afford to be moderate and decorous in their tone andup each other with ratulation and praise, but aware that in the opinion of the mass of race Peel and the Duke are ostensibly great friends, and the ridiculous farce is still kept up of each ad what he would not do himself, but what the other did

June 1st, 1832 {p305}

[Page Head: FAVOURITES OF LOUIS XVIII]

Met the Duke of Wellington at dinner yesterday, and afterwards had a long talk with him, not on politics I never see and converse with hi myself for the sort of hostility I feel and express towards his political conduct, for there are a siood-hureat a man We talked of Duht the 'Meenuine He said he was sure they were, that they bore the strongest internal evidence of being so, particularly in their accuracy as to dates, that he was the best chronologist in the world, and that he knew the day of the week of every event of importance He once asked the Duke when he was born, and when he told him the day of the month and year, he at once said it was on a Tuesday; that he (the Duke) had rehout the book the day of the as always mentioned, andtell He then talked of him, and I was surprised to hear hie of the world went, though Louis XVIII wasthe history and end of each [Nothing could be more mistaken and untrue than this opinion] That Louis XVIII was always governed, and a favourite indispensable to hiress of Vienna the Duke was deputed to speak to M de Blacas, his then favourite, and tell hireat in France that it was desirable he should not return there

Blacas replied, 'You don't know the King; he must have a favourite, and he had better have o; he will have another, and you should take pains to put a _gentle the first person that finds access to hi him' He added that he should not wonder if he took Fouche He did not take Fouche, as not aware of the part he overned him entirely This continued till the Royal Fa to make an _esclandre_ and leave the chateau they at last succeeded, and De Cazes was sent as A wrote to hi him verses and literary scraps The place remained vacant till accident threw Madahter of Talon, who had been concerned in the affair of the Marquis de Favras, and she sent to the King to say she had so to that affair, which she should like to give into his own hands He saw her and was pleased with her The Royal Faet rid entirely of De Cazes, and even the duchesse d'Angoule to him to have a woman as a man, and there was no sexual question in the matter, as what he wanted was , consult with on all occasions, and hom he could bandy literary trifles Madame du Cayla, as clever, was speedily installed, and he directly gave up De Cazes He told the Duke that he was _brouille_ with De Cazes, who had behaved very ill to hiainst hiht to have been

The Ministers paid assiduous court to Madaot her to say what they wanted said to the King; she acted all the part of a mistress, except the essential, of which there never was any question She got great sums of money from him and very valuable presents

[9] [This lady has already been noticed in a previous portion of these Meland See vol i p 215 [July 10th, 1829]]

June 18th, 1832 {p306}

[Page Head: CHARACTER OF WILLIAM IV]

Breakfasted on Thursday with Rogers, and yesterday at the Athenaeum with Henry Taylor, and met Mr Charles Austin, a lawyer, cleveron and there is a cos swear that the Reformed Parliament will be the most aristocratic we have ever seen, and Ellice told le improper person likely to be elected for any of the new places [Their choice did not correspond with this statement of their disposition] The metropolitan districts want rank and talent The Govern is, and it is very aht they had him fast, he was very honest and rather wise; now they find hily silly When Nor to Jaue in favour of the slave trade, of which he has always been a great admirer, and expressed sentiments for which his subjects would tear hireat evils of the recent convulsion that the King's imbecility has been exposed to the world, and in his person the regal authority has fallen into contempt; his own personal unpopularity is not of rade his office; that of George IV never did, so little so that he could always as King cancel the bad impressions which he made in his individual capacity, and he frequently did so Walter Scott is arrived here, dying A great reat men; Goethe, Perier, Champollion, Cuvier, Scott, Grant, Mackintosh, all died within a feeeks of each other