my duty fearlessly and conscientiously, and to the best of my ability, and my most anxious desire, as it would be my greatest consolation, is to be associated with your lordships in carrying this Bill into a law, and thereby to secure upon a permanent basis the happiness and tranquillity of the United Kingdom."

Lord Eldon.-"I ceased to call the noble and learned Lord on the woolsack my noble and learned friend, because he accused me of disingenuous insinuations,'-language which I felt to be extremely disrespectful. But if the noble lord can reconcile himself in the House of Commons. with himself as a member of your Lordships' House, I am ready to be reconciled to him, and to forget all that has passed. I feel, in making these remarks, that there is a sort of indecorum in such a dispute between a Chancellor and an ex-Chancellor; but I cannot refrain from expressing my astonishment that the noble and learned lord should attempt to show that he himself had been consistent, by preferring a charge of inconsistency against me. I have read the speech of the noble and learned lord delivered a few months ago in the House of Commons, and from that speech I have drawn all the arguments I have used in this House against the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, and against what is called the Catholic Relief Bill.' Since that speech of the honorable and learned lord, there has been no change in the circumstances of the country, although there is a great change in the circumstances of the noble and learned lord. His sudden conversion may be sincere and disinterested, but surely he is not the man to taunt me with inconsistency. Laying my account with obloquy while I was in office, I hoped to have escaped it when I retired into private life, but I regret to find that it is still thought a pleasant thing in Parliament to have a slash at the ex-Chancellor.""

The bill was passed by a large majority, and we all laughed very much at the ex-Chancellor's fears and prophecies. I by no means regret what was then done; and with a perfect foreknowledge of all that has since happened, I would still have taken the same course; but I am sorry to say that we have not derived from the measure all the benefits which reasonable men expected from it, and some color has been given to the objections of its opponents.

1 21 Hansard, N. S., 190.

Many Roman Catholics in Ireland, not contented with. equality, have aimed at ascendency, and have shown that with power they would be intolerant, denying to others the religious liberty which they had so loudly claimed for themselves. But we can now resist Roman Catholic aggression more effectually than if we had continued liable to the reproach of tyranny and oppression.

Lord Lyndhurst at last carried through his bill for improving the procedure of the Court of Chancery, and the session closed, Goverment had seemed very strong in both houses, but Lord Lyndhurst declared that he had great apprehensions for the future. The party of the Tories, to which he had attached himself, was rent assunder; a large section of them were eager for revenge upon the authors of the Emancipation Bill at any price, and the cry resounded Nusquam tuta fides. Still the Whigs were in sad disrepute, and George IV, who had been for many years their leader,and under whom they had expected to enjoy uninterrupted sway, closed his career as Regent and as King, without once having admitted them to office,

A session of Parliament had been begun on the 4th of February, 1830, but nothing of much interest occurred in it, for his Majesty was understood to be laboring under a mortal malady, and parties were preparing their measures and mustering their forces with a view to a new reign. The current now running powerfully towards law reform, the Chancellor proposed several schemes for mitigating the severty of the criminal code, and for improving the procedure of the courts of equity and common law; but the only bill of any importance which passed was that which he introduced to authorize the use of a stamp instead of the King's sign manual for the purpose of testifying the King's assent to acts of state. The Chancellor took the opportunity to lament very tenderly the necessity for such a departure from constitutional form on account of his Maesty's extreme bodily weakness; and he was no doubt very sincere on this occasion, for he had been a marked favorite at Court ever since his famous speech against Queen Caroline, and the inclinations of the heir to the throne were now supposed to be rather in favor of the party in opposition.

Prudent management might have saved the existing Government. The ultra Tories were exceedingly hostile

to it; but many of the Whigs were disposed to support it, and, with a few concessions to public opinion, it might have permanently stood. William IV. was contented with the Duke of Wellington and Peel, and neither expressed nor felt any desire for a change.

It has ever been a wonder to me that Lyndhurst, who well knew the state of the popular mind, and who himself inwardly approved of liberal measures, should not have striven to induce the Duke of Wellington to accept the aid of that party who had enabled him to carry Catholic emancipation. The Duke thought that any further concession would be mischievous; and his ill-judged policy now was, by assuming a high-Tory tone, to win back those who had been alienated from him by his removal of the disabilities of the Dissenters and the Roman Catholics. In this policy the Lord Chancellor implicitly acquiesced. He abstained from making any public declarations by which he might afterwards be hampered; but in private. he admitted the extreme difficulty which any Government must encounter in now trying to resuscitate the doctrines of political optimism.

Although upon a dissolution of Parliament the elections ran considerably in favor of the Whigs, still the Iron Duke's resolution was maintained to set them at defiance.

One symptom of a liberal tendency was at this time openly exhibited by Lyndhurst. He always declared the doctrine, and acted upon it, that the holder of the Great Seal has the exclusive right of appointing the puisne judges, and ought proprio marte to take the pleasure of the Sovereign upon their appointment, without any communication with the Prime Minister or any other of his colleagues. Two years before, although a notorious Whig, I had been placed at the head of the Real Property Commission. This was Peel's doing; but now Lyndhurst, in a very handsome manner, addressed to me a laudatory epistle, offering to make me a puisne judge of the Court of King's Bench. I had recently been returned to the House of Commons for the borough of Stafford, and from my position at the bar, I was not prepared to be so shelved. But I was nevertheless obliged to him, and I accompanied my refusal of the offer with very warm thanks for his kind

ness.

The public remained in suspense as to the policy of the government till the delivery of the King's speech on the opening of the session, and the inference drawn from this was fatally confirmed by the Duke of Wellington's memorable declaration that the existing state of parliamentary representation did not require and did not admit of any improvement. The ultra-Tories were in no degree appeased, and they loudly vociferated that they would sooner see in office men who had always consistently supported Whiggism than men who had treacherously paltered with their vows to defend Church and King. The Duke of Wellington's government was therefore doomed to destruction, and it ingloriously fell by a division on a trifling motion in the House of Commons for a committee to inquire into the expenditure of the civil list.

L

CHAPTER CCXVIII.

LORD CHIEF BARON.

YNDHURST, who had already been Chancellor under three successive premiers holding very opposite opinions, was not without hopes that he might have continued to hold his office under a fourth, and he would have been very ready to coalesce with the new Whig Government, pleading as his excuse that it was to comprise his old chief Lord Goderich, now Earl of Ripon, the Duke of Richmond, who had been a conspicuous Tory, and the once Tory Lord Palmerston, with other associates of Canning. Strange to say, Lord Grey was by no means disinclined to this arrangement. He expressed high respect for the talents of the Duke of Wellington's Chancellorparticularly as displayed in his exposition of the Regency Bill, which was still pending in the House, and which "it was desirable he should carry through." This bill Lord Lyndhurst had introduced in the House of Lords the very same night in which the disastrous division had taken place in the House of Commons on the Civil List. The object of it was to make the Duchess of Kent Regent in case William IV. should die before the Princess Victoria, then

heir presumptive to the crown, and only twelve years old, should have completed her eighteenth year.

In laying it on the table the Chancellor certainly did take a most masterly view of the constitutional law upon the subject,--illustrated by very interesting allusions to what had been done in this and other countries on similar occasions. He likewise alluded, with much delicacy, to the contingency of the Queen being enceinte at the death of the King, and giving birth to a child after the Princess Victoria should be placed upon the throne. However, there was little difference of opinion as to the fitness of the measure; and it might easily have been carried through its subsequent stages, even if it had been opposed by its versatile author. Lord Grey's real motive, I believe, was, that he might avoid handing over the Great Seal to Brougham, of whose temerity and insubordination he had a most distressing anticipation. Some alleged that, not insensible in old age to the influence of female charms, the venerable Whig Earl had been captivated by the beauty and lively manners of Lady Lyndhurst, and that her bright eyes were new arguments shot against the transfer of the Great Seal. However this may be, it is certain that he offered Brougham the office of Attorney-General, meaning to soften the proposal with an enumeration of some of the illustrious men who had held the office, and a representation of the importance to the new Government that the newly elected member for the county of York should remain in the House of Commons. But Brougham burst away from Lord Grey with indignation; and this being the very day fixed, by a notice which he had given in the House of Commons before the Duke of Wellington's resignation, for his motion on parliamentary reform, he hurried down to St. Stephen's with the determination of immediately bringing it on. As such a step would have destroyed the new Government while yet in embryo, he was earnestly entreated to desist from his purpose; and he yielded, but making use of language which clearly indicated that he would only consent to become a supporter of Lord Grey's administration on his own terms:

"I beg it to be understood that what I do, I do in deference to the wishes of the House. And further, as no change that can take place in the administration can by any possibility affect me, I beg to be understood that, in