Volume III Part 4 (1/2)

[Page Head: A MURDER NEAR RUNTON]

Froer Gresley has lent to Craufurd, and stayed there two nights It is aunder the s, and Lord Anglesey's land close to the door Thence on Wednesday to Runton Abbey--Lord Lichfield's--who has added to it a farm-house, and made a residence in the land He and I went out the day after I got there, and killed 41 pheasants, 74 hares, 24 rabbits, 8 woodcocks, and 8 partridges He is a fine felloith an excellent disposition, liberal, hospitable, frank and gay, quick and intelligent, without cultivation, extravagant and imprudent, with considerable aptitude for business; between spending and speculating, buying property in one place, selling in another, and declining to sell in a third, he has half ruined a noble estate

Just before I got there a murder had been committed close to his house under very curious circumstances, of which some notice appeared in the newspapers A soldier in the Artillery got a legacy of 500, hich he bought his discharge, went down to the village near Runton, and took a very pretty girl of indifferent character to live with hiood deal ofaddicted himself immoderately to drink, he soon spent all hisdrunk, he began robbing his iven her It happened that about this tie who had been robbed consulted a cunning hbourhood, and so alarht utter, that the stolen property was secretly restored The girl upon hearing of this restitution resolved to have recourse to the cunning man, and invited her lover to escort her to his abode After endeavouring in vain to dissuade her they set out together, but he was so overco that he stopped short in the road and refused to proceed On this the girl said that it was easy to see as the thief, and that the reason he would not face the conjuror was that he was conscious of his own guilt Upon this they fell to high words, then to blows, and he finished byher He did not attempt to escape, but repaired to a public-house, where he was soon after taken into custody He acknowledged the cried Here is an exaood fortune upon a e superstition of the common people The e Head: CHARACTER OF LORD HARROWBY]

I stayed at Runton till Sunday, 19th, when I came here,[7] where there was nobody but the faly beautiful, and arranged with excellent taste It has been very agreeable Lady Harrowby is superior to all the women I have ever known; 'her talk is so crisp,' as Luttrell once said of her She has no i or retentive htforward, independent character, a sound and vigorous understanding, penetration, judgment, taste She is perfectly natural, open and sincere, loves conversation and social enjoyment; with her intimate friends there is an _abandon_ and unreserved cos, and opinions which renders her society delightful Of all the women I ever saw she unites the most masculine mind with the most fereeableness, a tart, short, provoking id; but he is full of inforood deal of desirable knowledge Though not illiberal in politics, he has fallen into the high Tory despondency about the prospects of the country, and anticipates every evil that the est Still, justice should be rendered to Lord Harrowby; a purer and more disinterested statesman never existed He was always devoid of selfishness and aree which rendered him incapable of a sordid or oblique action Always acute, but sometimes crotchety, he had the same fault in politics which was the reproach of Lord Eldon in law--indecision; and this in no sree ireat idol was Pitt, and, after him, he was the friend and admirer of Perceval Bred in their school, and a Tory by taste, by habit, and in opinion, it is not a little to his honour that he was able to coes which time and circumstances had effected, and to perceive that an inflexible adherence to high Tory erous, because their practical operation was no longer possible; but justice must be rendered to him hereafter, for he will never obtain it in his own tireat and exasperated factions he beca refused the post of Prime Minister, no one can doubt the sincerity of his desire to retire from public life, and in the consciousness of rectitude, the disgust of parties, and a calnified philosophy, he finds ample consolation for all the obloquy hich he has been assailed

[7] [This must have been written at Sandon, Lord Harrowby's seat in Staffordshi+re, but the entry is not dated]

[8] [Dudley Ryder, second Baron and first Earl of Harrowby, born in 1762; hter of the Marquis of Stafford]

Burghley, January 28th, 1834 {p053}

Came here yesterday, and found Lady Clinton, Lady Frederic Bentinck, Lyne Stephens and Irby, not aotten the house, which is surprisingly grand in all respects, though the living rooh I just missed Peel, ent to Belvoir yesterday I heard wonderful things of railroads and steam when I was in Staffordshi+re, yet by the time anybody reads what I norite (if anybody ever does), how they will sape and stare at, and call wonderful, with such accelerated velocity do we ineer, told Lichfield that he had travelled on the Manchester and Liverpool railroad for many miles at the rate of a ines could be o, but at what pace it would be proper to stop, that he could reater speed than any bird can cleave the air, and that he had ascertained that 400 miles an hour was the extreme velocity which the human frame could endure, at which it could move and exist

February 1st, 1834 {p054}

Lord Wharncliffe has been here and is gone He, like Harrowby, is very disravitating towards a revolution He says that the constituency of the great towns is coentleman with really independent and conservative principles can sit for thereat majority of the manufacturers and of the respectable persons of the middle class are moderate, and hostile to subversion and violent measures, but that their influence is overwhelo all lengths He says that he has received greater marks of deference and respect in his own county, and especially at Sheffield, where a short ti torn in pieces, than he ever experienced, but that he could noa son in for Sheffield than he could fly in the air Sir John Beckett is just gone to stand for Leeds, and certainly the catechism to which he was there forced to submit is very ominous A seat in the House of Commons will cease to be an object of ambition to honourable and independentand servility to the rabble of great towns, and when it shall be established that the es, and responsible for every vote he gives to masters who are equally tyrannical and unreasonable I know nothing more difficult than to form a satisfactory opinion upon the real state and prospects of the country a prejudices and impressions of individuals of different parties and persuasions, and there are so many circue Head: STATE OF SPAIN]

George Villiers gave a deplorable account of the state of Spain, but he (unlike the Duke of Wellington) thinks that the only chance of safety for the Queen is to reatly instruent that England by no means considered his continuance in the Ministry indispensable, and this intiether with the storm which assailed him from all parts, determined her to dise Villiers once since _October_ I heard the saet which

February 6th, 1834 {p055}

Returned to town yesterday frohley Parliay_ (a word I have coined) speech from the throne, in which the ainst O'Connell, that is, against Irish agitation, and strong expressions of ae of the very silly old gentleman ears the crown, in his convivial moments, and in the openness of his heart, with that which his Ministers cra uttered with equal energy and apparent sincerity Lord Grey is said to have ood speech on the Address The House of Coinable, but it was enlivened last night by a squabble on the Hill and Sheil business[9] (dragged on by O'Connell), and the ultimate arrest of Althorp and Sheil by the Serjeant-at-aran, in , and no positive conviction, though complete moral certitude It affordedpersonal does The present expectation is that the session will go off rather quietly

[9] [Mr Hill, a member of Parliament, had stated in a speech that some of the Irish members most vehemently opposed to the Coercion Bill in the House of Commons had nevertheless privately stated to lad the Act should be renewed This charge was denied with great heat by the Irish members in the House when Parlia upon Lord Althorp to state whether he was one of the entleman was one of them Sheil immediately denied it in the most solemn and eht ensue between him and Lord Althorp, they were both taken into custody by the Serjeant-at-arms

Further explanations ensued, and Lord Althorp subsequently withdrew the charge, stating that he believed Mr Sheil's asseveration, and that he must himself have been e Head: UNPOPULARITY OF LORD PALMERSTON]

It is observed by everybody that there never was a session of Parliament which opened with such an appearance of apathy as this After the violent excitement which has almost incessantly prevailed for the last two years or rowl of political rancour is still heard, and a feeble cry of the Church is in danger, on the whole there is less bitterness and anio on in a smooth and even course

The storm that impended over Europe has blown off, and there seeer of any interruption of the peace Esterhazy and Madaht so now, and the forht rely upon Austria's not being an indifferent spectator of the political conduct of Russia, and if ould place confidence in theression on the part of Russia in Europe, but would take such ely to the security of our Eastern doh that was no object of immediate interest to them Madame de Lieven told me that it was impossible to describe the contempt as well as dislike which the whole corps diplo to Talleyrand, as sitting close by, 'surtout lui' They have the meanest opinion of his capacity, and his ine how his colleagues bear with him, and Lord Grey supports him vehemently The only _friend_ he has in the cabinet is Grahaht His unpopularity in his own office is quite as great as it is a, so that they do not e Villiers cole line fro minister, unpractised in the profession, to whom is committed the most delicate and difficultlove to Mrs P---- whom he takes to the House of Commons to hear speeches which he does not make, and where he exhibits his conquest, and certainly it is the best of his exploits, but what a successor of Canning, who's indignation if he could look frorave and see these new Reformers, who ape him in his worst qualities, and who blunder and bluster in the seat which he once filled with such glory and success It must be owned that we are in a curious condition, and if the character of the Government, moral and intellectual, be analysed, it will exhibit a very astonishi+ng result: with a great deal of loose talent of one sort or another scattered about it, but mixed with so much alloy, that, compounded as it is, the et anything better, and these people will very likely hammer on tolerably well

Since Parliament met, the foolish business of Sheil and Hill has been the sole topic of discussion, to the unspeakable disgust of every sensible person in and out of the House All feel the erace of such an occupation, and the members of Parlialed at the outset The Speaker is now generally bla O'Connell's question, which he ought to have done, at least ought to have warned the House of the consequences, when undoubtedly the matter would have been stifled They say Althorp did what he had to do very well, like a gentleh many think he need not have said so an to sit yesterday; it was not a secret coreed to request o in, and they found it would be a difficult matter to exclude them, for which reason, and because Sheil had no friend on the coreed that the House should be invited to add O'Connell to it, and after some difficulty raised by John Russell, this was consented to

February 14th, 1834 {p058}

Last night at Miss Berry's reat wick's sermon on education, in which he talks of Whewell, Airy, and Mrs