inly requires explanation. She is very
hostile to the Duke, which is natural, as he is anti-Russian, and
they have never got over their old quarrel. Saldanha got up a
_coup de theatre_ on board his ship. When Walpole fired on him a
man was killed, and when the English officer came on board he had
the corpse stretched out and covered by a cloak, which was
suddenly withdrawn, and Saldanha said, 'Voila un fidele sujet de
la Reine, qui a toujours ete loyal, assassine,' &c.

Went from thence to Mrs. Arbuthnot, who declaimed against
O'Connell and wants to have a provision in the Bill to prevent
his sitting for Clare, which I trust is only her folly, and that
there is no chance of such a thing. The Duke came in while I was
there. He said he had no doubt he should do very well in the
House of Lords, but up to that time he could only (that he knew
of for certain) reduce the majority of last year to twenty. He
did not count bishops, of whom he said he knew nothing, but the
three Irish bishops would vote with him. There were many others
he did not doubt would, but he could only count upon that number.
He held some proxies, which he said he would not make use of,
such as Lord Strangford's, as he could not hear from him in time,
and would not use anybody's proxy for this question who had voted
against it before. I told him how peevish the Duke of Rutland,
and Beaufort, and others of the High Tories were, but he only
laughed. In the evening Fitzgerald told me that the Convocation
at Oxford had accepted Peel's resignation of his seat for the
University, but left the time to him. It seems to me that this
affair was mismanaged. In the first instance Peel wrote to the
Dean of Christ Church, but he and Lloyd[2] agreed that he ought
to write to the Vice-Chancellor, which he did. The Vice-Chancellor
did not read his letter till after they had voted the address
to Parliament by three to one, after which it was difficult for
them to express anything but disapprobation of Peel's conduct;
whereas if the Vice-Chancellor had read it first, probably the
petition would not have been carried, or at any rate not by so
large a majority. He had better have carried his Bill through
and then resigned, when I have no doubt he would have been
re-elected; very likely he may be as it is.

[2] [The Bishop of Oxford, one of Sir Robert Peel's most
intimate friends.]

Tom Duncombe is going to make another appearance on the boards of
St. Ste