t the
Lords go on with their evidence while they pleased to hear it, and
then reassemble the Commons in case the Bill was sent back to
them. Hobhouse said, 'Depend upon it, it is the _commencement de
la fin_'. It does certainly appear to me that these Tory Lords
will never rest till they have accomplished the destruction of the
House of Lords. They are resolved to bring about a collision with
the House of Commons, and the majority in each House grows every
day more rabid and more desperate. I am at a loss to comprehend
the views by which Lyndhurst, the ablest of the party, is
actuated, or how he can (if it be so, which from Stuart's account
is probable) fancy that any object is attainable which involves in
it a breach or separation between Peel and the great body of the
Tories. I would give much to see the recesses of his mind, and
know what he really thinks of all these proceedings, and to what
consequences he believes that they will lead.

[14] [Mr. Knight Bruce, afterwards Lord Justice in Equity.]

August 6th, 1835 {p.284}

Yesterday to Brighton, to see my horse Dacre run for the Brighton
stake, which he won, and back at night. The day before I met the
Vice-Chancellor[15] at Charing Cross, going down, to the House of
Lords. 'Well,' said he, shrugging his shoulders, 'here I am going
to the House of Lords, after hearing evidence all the morning, to
hear it again for the rest of the evening.' 'What is to happen?'
I asked him. 'O Lord, it is the greatest bore; they have heard
Coventry and Oxford; they got something of a case out of the
first, but the other was beyond anything tiresome; they are sick
to death of it, and Brougham and Lyndhurst have agreed that _it
is all damned nonsense_, and they will hear nothing more after
Saturday next.' So this is the end of all this hubbub, and here
are these two great comedians thundering against each other in
the House of Lords overnight with all imaginable vehemence and
solemnity, only to meet together the next morning and agree that
_it is all damned nonsense_. There is something very melancholy
and very ludicrous in all this, and though that great bull calf
the public does not care about such things, and is content to
roar when he is bid, there are those on the alert who will turn
such trilling and folly to account, and convert what is half
ridiculous into something all serious. Winchelsea and Newcastle
after all did not vote the other night; they said they wanted no