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August 4th, 1835 {p.283}

[Page Head: TORY PEERS AND THE CORPORATION BILL.]

Came to town on Sunday, having slept at Winchester on Saturday
night to see the town and the cathedral, and hear the service in
the latter, which was very moderate; the cathedral, however, is
worth seeing. When I got to town I found the Tory Lords had been
worked into a frenzy by Wetherell and Knight[14] at the bar of the
House of Lords (the latter of whom is said to have made a very
able speech), and Newcastle and Winchelsea bellowed and blustered
in grand style. Lord Rosslyn had told me some time ago that the
Duke would have great difficulty in managing his people, but that
I think was _a propos_ of the Church Bill. Yesterday at two
o'clock there was a great assemblage of Peers at Apsley House to
determine what was to be done, and amazed was I when I learnt at
about five o'clock that they had resolved to move that evidence
should be heard against the principle of the Municipal Corporation
Bill, which was accordingly moved by Carnarvon last night. At
dinner I met Stuart, to whom I expressed my astonishment at the
course they had adopted, and he owned that it was 'rather
hazardous,' and said that it was adopted at the suggestion of
Lyndhurst, who had insisted upon it at Apsley House, and that the
Duke had given way. He said that this had followed as a necessary
consequence of Brougham proposing that counsel should be heard
upon the details, as it appeared that the evidence on which the
Bill was founded was not to be relied on. He owned that it was
probable Peel would disapprove of the proceedings of the Lords,
and a breach between him and them be the consequence. He told me
that at a dinner on Saturday, at which the Dukes of Wellington and
Cumberland, Peel, and Wetherell were present, the question had
been argued; that Sir Charles Wetherell had urged all the leading
arguments he had used in his speech, and Peel had contested every
part and particle of his argument, while the Duke of Cumberland
did not utter a word. Stuart added that he heard the Government
meditated something very strong, and I repeated what Hobhouse had
told me in the morning, when I met him in the Park--that Melbourne
would probably adjourn the House, that there would be a call of
the House of Commons, and some strong resolution proposed there.
Some Whigs, however, who were present last night, suggested that
it would be better to adjourn the House of Commons, and le