kership (of whom
perhaps 20 will not come), so his party make sure of it. Nobody
talks of anything else, and what has been written on the subject
in pamphlets and newspapers would fill volumes. Though it is
become inconceivably tiresome, I cannot help writing and talking
about it myself, so impossible is it to avoid the contagion. I
went yesterday to see the two Houses of Parliament;[1] the old
House of Lords (now House of Commons) is very spacious and
convenient; but the present House of Lords is a wretched
dog-hole. The Lords will be very sulky in such a place, and in a
great hurry to get back to their own House, or to have another.
For the first time there is a gallery in the House of Commons
reserved for reporters, which is quite inconsistent with their
standing orders, and the prohibition which still in form exists
against publishing the debates. It is a sort of public and avowed
homage to opinion, and a recognition of the right of the people
to know through the medium of the press all that passes within
those walls.

[1] [The old Houses of Parliament were burnt down on
October 16, 1834, during Mr. Greville's absence from
town in the autumn. The Houses here spoken of were the
temporary buildings used during the erection of the new
Houses.]

[Page Head: CHURCH REFORM.]

[Page Head: FALSE POSITION OF SIR R. PEEL.]

Lord John said to me, 'Do you remember last year, when we were
talking, I told you I thought the House of Lords would throw out
some measure or other--that there would be a change of Government,
a dissolution; and then we should have a Parliament returned with
which _nobody_ could govern the country? You see we have reached
that point.' According to their several calculations, both the
opposite parties continue to claim a majority, or rather on the
Tory side an equality; and as these are made by men experienced in
the composition of the House, and as almost everybody is pledged
and committed in some way or other, it is a perfect enigma to me
how one or the other can be so deceived. The Whigs, having
discovered that Abercromby must be proposed 'upon a great
principle' (which is great as _omne ignotum_ is _magnificum_--for
they have never given a hint of what the principle is), have now
found out that the English Church Reform which is in agitation is
a very bad move on the part of the Government, as _the people_ do
not care about Church Reform here--do n