aper containing a paragraph which I have
marked, and which relates to a pretended transaction in
your Lordship's house. I think it necessary and proper to
contradict this statement, which I need not say is a
gross falsehood, and I wish, therefore, to have the
authority of Lady Lyndhurst for contradicting it.
'I am, my Lord, yours sincerely,
'Ernest.'

This was the sense of the letter, though it was not so worded; it
was civil enough. The Chancellor answered:--'The Lord Chancellor
with his duty begs to acknowledge the favour of your Royal
Highness's letter. The Lord Chancellor had never seen the
paragraph to which your Royal Highness alludes, and which he
regards with the most perfect indifference, considering it as one
of that series of calumnies to which Lady Lyndhurst has been for
some time exposed from a portion of the press, and which she has
at length learnt to regard with the contempt they deserve.' He
said that he thought it better to let the matter drop, and he
wrote this answer by way of waiving any discussion on the
subject, and that the Duke might contradict the paragraph himself
if he chose to do so. To this the Duke wrote again:--'My Lord,--I
have received your Lordship's answer, which is not so explicit as
I have a right to expect. I repeat again that the statement is
false and scandalous, and I have a right to require Lady
Lyndhurst's sanction to the contradiction which I think it
necessary to give to it.' This letter was written in a more
impertinent style than the other. On the receipt of it the
Chancellor consulted the Duke of Wellington, and the Duke
suggested the following answer, which the Chancellor sent:--'The
Lord Chancellor has had the honour of receiving your Royal
Highness's letter of ----. The Lord Chancellor does not conceive
it necessary to annoy Lady Lyndhurst by troubling her upon the
subject, and with what relates to your Royal Highness the Lord
Chancellor has no concern whatever; but with regard to that part
which states that your Royal Highness had been excluded from the
Lord Chancellor's house, there could be no question that the
respect and grateful attachment which both the Chancellor and
Lady Lyndhurst felt to their Sovereign made it impossible that
any brother of that Sovereign should ever be turned out of his
house.' To this the Duke wrote another letter, in a very sneering
and impertinent tone in the thi