Volume III Part 27 (2/2)

After the n Office there seems to have been an end of all notion of any co way on the part of the Government about the clauses in the tithe Bill, and Lord John Russell held very strong language The debate presented nothing remarkable Sheil ca able to vote, as he had paired Great exertions were ed up Sir Watkin Williams Wynn from Wales, very infirm; and had a blind man in the House, led about by Ross The ht to have been twenty-six, just the sa) was shut out, whilst on the other side Lord Arthur Hill's[5] vote was lost by his mother's death, which made him a Peer, and the Lennoxes and Poyntz stayed away The whole thing went off tah; everybody in Parliament kneas to happen, and out of doors people don't care While the revenue presents an excess of twoflourishes, political excitement is impossible The Lords continue to throw out Bills, and many complaints are made of their evident determination to reject as many of the Commons' measures as they can Some of them have been opposed, particularly the Stafford Disfranchisement Bill, by the Ministers themselves The Lords, however, no doubt evince a very imprudent disposition to exercise their power of rejection without grave and sufficient cause, and needlessly to expose thee of wanton and intemperate opposition to the ht of folly to make the line between the two Houses as broad as possible, and to publish to the world on every occasion that the one House is Whig and the other Tory; not but what (in the present rage for legislation, and the careless and hurried way in which h the House of Commons) the revision and watchful superintendence of the House of Lords are more than ever necessary

[5] [Lord Arthur Hill became Baron Sandys on the death of his mother, the Marchioness of Downshi+re, as Baroness Sandys in her own right]

There was a report of General Evans' death the other day, which was believed for soh to show that there would have been a contest for Westminster if it had been true

The accounts froh that while Pal in the House of Commons his conviction of the ultimate success of the Christino cause hehim that it was alo, written in the greatest despondency He said that he had been stopped on his road to St Ildefonso by intelligence that the Carlists were approaching the place, and that the Queen had taken flight He found all the relays of mules ready for her Majesty, and he returned to Madrid It turned out to be a false alarm, and the Queen stayed where she was; but he said that he could only co over table-land It will be a severe blow to Palh perhaps no fault of his policy Had France acted fairly, the result of the Quadruple Alliance would have answered the expectation of its authors, but France, instead of co-operating according to the spirit of that treaty, has thrown every i to hear how Palmerston is spoken of by those who know him well officially--the Granvilles, for exa, thinks his capacity first-rate; that it approaches to greatness froed views, disdain of trivialities, resolution, decision, confidence, and above all his contempt of clamour and abuse She told me that Madame de Flahault had a letter written by Talleyrand soon after his first arrival in England, in which he talked with great conteenerally, Lord Grey included, and said there was but one states them, and that was Palmerston His ordinary conversation exhibits no such superiority; but when he takes his pen in his hand his intellect seeed exclusively in business

August 13th, 1836 {p360}

On Monday last I was riding early in the Park and ether for some time He said that 'he supposed they should be out after this session, and they ought to be out, as they could carry none of their measures, and the Lords rejected Bill after Bill sent up froo on in this way, they must make the experiment and carry on the Government if they could, but they must look for every opposition fros could go on upon their present footing; the country would not stand it, and the Lords es which their own conduct rendered indispensable'

I said to Howick that the appropriation clause s; that I believed they were, on the whole, a very Conservative Govern forward a y? He said they could not do it; their own friends would not support thes could not 'So,' I replied, 'both parties are in such a position that no Conservative s, and no Liberal ones but by the Tories'

Since this there has been a free conference, and the Lords have been bowling down Bills like ninepins This certainly cannot go on; either the Toriesto control the House of Lords, or the Lords must lower their tone and adopt more moderate counsels The latter would be the best, as it is the least probable, of the three alternatives

His Majesty was pleased to be very facetious at the Council the other day, though not very refined A new seal for the Cape of Good Hope was approved, and the impression represented a Caffre, with so asked Lord Glenelg what these _horns_referred his Majesty to Poulett Thomson, to whom he said, 'Well, Mr

Thoallantry, but if you choose to be represented with a pair of horns I am sure I have no objection;' at which sally their lordshi+ps laughed, as in duty bound

August 21st, 1836 {p361}

[Page Head: PARLIAMENT PROROGUED]

Yesterday the King prorogued Parliament with a very moderate, inoffensive Speech The Tories had spread a report that the Ministers wanted to thrust into the Speech some allusions to the conduct of the House of Lords, but no such thing was ever contemplated

The session ound up by an oration of Lyndhurst's in the House of Lords, introduced with a considerable note of preparation It was announced a day or two before that he was going down to deliver a vindication of thethe session, and the expectation which was raised was not disappointed It seereat display, and sufficiently well answered by Melbourne As his opponents universally admit that Lyndhurst's speech was of consummate ability, while his friends confess that it was not discreet and well judged, we may safely conclude that it deserves both the praise and the blaton rose afterwards and made a speech of reht it necessary to temper the violence of Lyndhurst by a more conciliatory tone When I say _his friends_ have expressed the opinions above stated, I should say that I have conversed with only two--Lords Bathurst and Ripon--and they both expressed themselves to this effect Lord Holland, who endeavoured to answer it, said he thought Lyndhurst's one of the best speeches he had ever heard in Parlianified vindication of the proceedings of the House of Lords (that is, of his own), and had abstained frouage reflecting on the Commons, perhaps it would have been a wise measure, but it cannot be wise to widen the differences which already exist between the two Houses, and to render all the animosities of public men more bitter and irreconcilable than they were before The Tories are convinced that they are beco more andbehaviour of the Lords The Whigs insist that the apathy of the country (which theybut the i from prosperity and full employment, but that if adverse circumstances arise a storm will burst on the Lords, and they will see how one too far, and though a vast deal of crude legislation co reat alteration, they have shown an anin to the usual habits of the House of Lords, and which is in itself an important innovation The truth is, it is not (as has been represented) a contest between _the two Houses_, but between the two great _parties_ very nearly balanced, of which the stronghold of one is in the Lords, and that of the other in the Commons It can scarcely cross the minds of either party, or of any individual of either, that the substantive power of Governht to be transferred from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, and Lyndhurst and the Tories would not venture to make the havoc which they do in the Government Bills if they were not persuaded that if ever a crisis is produced by the collision their party will succeed in obtaining the sanction of the country and an ascendency in the other House

If they have estith and the real disposition of the country, their Parliaame which they play is a very desperate one, for if it fails the House of Lords can hardly avoid suffering very materially from the conflict However, much is to be said on the subject when considered in all its bearings

The King at his last levee received Dr Allen to do hoe for the see of Ely, when he said to him, 'My Lord, I do not mean to interfere in any ith your vote in Parliament except on one subject, _the Jews _, and I trust I ust 30th, 1836 {p363}

[Page Head: MARRIAGE OF LADY AUGUSTA FITZCLARENCE]

At Hillingdon froreat festivities at Windsor during the Eghausta was 's birthday not one of the Ministers was invited to the Castle, and none except the Household in any way connected with the Government At the Queen's birthday a short time before not one individual of that party was present Nothing can be 's aversion to his Ministers, and he seems resolved to intimate that his compulsory reception of theh he can't help seeing theainst theenerally those who have distinguished themselves by their violence or are noted for their extreme opinions--Winchilsea and Wharncliffe, for example, of the former, and the Duke of Dorset of the latter sort At the dinner on his birthday the King gave the Princess Victoria's health rather well Having given the Princess Augusta's he said, 'And now, having given the health of the oldest, I will give that of the youngest member of the Royal Family I know the interest which the public feel about her, and although _I have not seen so much of her as I could have wished_, I take no less interest in her, and the reater pleasure it will give racious that it could hardly be taken ill, but the young Princess sat opposite, and hung her head with not unnatural e a cohter of King William IV by Mrs Jordan, married first, on the 5th of July, 1827 to the Hon John Kennedy Erskine, and secondly, on the 26th of August, 1836, to Lord John Frederick Gordon She died in 1865]

While London is entirely deserted, and everything is quiet and prosperous here, there is a stor in Spain which has already had an effect in France, by producing the dissolution of Thiers's Ministry,[7] anddisturbances in that country and e Europe The cons of the King, his relations with the great Powers of Europe, and the personal danger to which he is exposed fro hostility and disaffection, rendered doubly perilous from the mixture of unnatural exciteely enter into it, present a very curious and very interesting subject of political observation and speculation for those who have theit closely

[7] [M Thiers can Affairs and head of the Government on the 22nd of February, 1836 He had boasted that he should be able to engage the King in aQueen--'Nous entrainerons le Roi' was his expression--but in this he was deceived, and his Administration came to a speedy termination Lord Palmerston proposed on the 14th of March that some of the ports on the coast of Biscay should be occupied by British seaes, Fontarabia, and the valley of Bartan should be occupied by the French This scheh M Thiers illing to assent to it The Revolution of La Granja in August only increased the repugnance of Louis Philippe to interfere actively in Spain, and early in September the Thiers Cabinet was dissolved Mr