ecedent of interference
has occurred because the Government has not strength to prevent
it, and because we have the anomaly of a Government beating up
against a hostile majority. The man was utterly unfit, and ought
never to have been appointed, but the case against him (such as it
appears in their hands) is quite insufficient to warrant the
interference of Parliament.

I take it that the effect abroad will be prodigious, for though
Londonderry resigns of his own accord, and Peel says he would
have stood by him if he had not, the simple case is (and such
will be the appearance of it all over Europe) that the King
appointed Londonderry Ambassador to Russia, and the House of
Commons cancelled the appointment.

Everything meanwhile continues in a state of uncertainty. The
Opposition is not united; the Stanley party, with their leader,
observe a suspicious and suspected neutrality, but the Government
is at their mercy whenever they join the Opposition, or, indeed,
if they keep aloof. Such a state of things cannot go on very long,
and the fate of the Government must be settled one way or the
other. Every day produces fresh indications of Peel's superiority,
and his capacity for the lead in the House of Commons, but he does
not appear to have gained much in those points where he was most
deficient--cordiality and communicativeness. Francis Egerton came
to me to-day and complained that on the Londonderry debate,
finding that nobody spoke on the Treasury Bench, he went and sat
by Peel and offered to speak, but could get no answer from him;
and Ashley was furious because when Hume asked for some
information on some point of Navy estimates, on which he (Ashley)
had taken pains to prepare himself, Peel would not let him give
it, but took it out of his hands. All this is very impolitic, and
shows that whatever else he has gained by experience, he has not
gained the art of making himself popular with his own adherents in
the way that Castlereagh and Canning used to be; and therefore,
however he may be looked up to as a Minister, he will never be
followed with the same personal devotion that they commanded.

March 20th, 1835 {p.230}

I have been laid up with the gout all this week, and could not go
out to see and hear what is going on. On Tuesday night Peel
brought in the Dissenters' Marriage Bill, and his plan gave
almost general satisfaction except to those whom nothing can
satisfy. The Opposition papers gave it a sort of