fect will
be of this vote practically in Ireland on the condition of the
clergy, and upon public opinion here.

[1] [The Irish Tithe Bill was thrown out by the House of
Lords by 189 to 122.]

It is difficult to understand why the Lords did not alter the
Bill in Committee and restore it to its original state, that
which Ellenborough said he would not have opposed, and which had
been already sanctioned by a great majority of the House of
Commons upon the report of a Committee. If they had done this,
either the Bill must have passed in this less obnoxious shape or
the odium of its rejection would have been thrown upon the
Commons, and the Lords would undoubtedly have had an excellent
case to present to the country. But if there is a wall they are
sure to run their heads against it, and if there is none they
build one up for the purpose. What puzzles me most is the
opposition of the clergy; they are the parties most immediately
and most deeply interested in this Bill, and yet the great
majority of them appear to be opposed _totis viribus_ to it.

August 13th, 1834 {p.118}

[Page Head: THEODORE HOOK.]

Dined at Roehampton yesterday with Farquhar. Mrs. Norton and Mrs.
Blackwood and Theodore Hook dined there among others. After
dinner he displayed his extraordinary talent of improvisation,
which I had never heard but once before, and then he happened not
to be in the vein. Last night he was very brilliant. Each lady
gave him a subject, such as the 'Goodwood Cup,' the 'Tithe Bill;'
one 'could not think of anything,' when he dashed off and sang
stanzas innumerable, very droll, with ingenious rhymes and
excellent hits, 'his eye begetting occasion for his excellent
wit,' for at every word of interruption or admiration, every look
or motion, he indulged in a digression, always coming back to one
of the themes imposed upon him. It is a _tour de force_, in which
I believe he stands alone, and it is certainly wonderfully well
worth hearing and uncommonly amusing.

August 14th, 1834 {p.119}

Yesterday there was a bother with the Chancellor about Lord
Westmeath's case pending before the Privy Council.[2] He took it
into his head (probably having been got at by Lady Westmeath or
some of her friends) to have it decided forthwith, and sent to
desire a Committee might be convened. Westmeath's counsel was out
of town; Follett, whom he relies on, is on the Northern Circuit,
but his other counsel is to be had, b