ished at the eloquence of it. It is said that
Phillpotts composed it for him, but there are some internal marks
of its emanating from himself. It is certainly remarkably good of
the kind, and I think it more probable that he spoke what he
thought and felt, and that Phillpotts reported it and made the
best of it.

September 1st, 1835 {p.303}

Lord John Russell assembled his Whigs and Radicals at the Foreign
Office yesterday morning, and announced to them the course he
proposed to adopt with regard to the Corporation Bill, the
amendments he would accept, those he would modify, and those he
would decline. Hume made a violent speech, deprecating any
concessions, but O'Connell made a very moderate one, recommending
a compromise, and saying that great alarm prevailed among many
well-meaning and conscientious persons lest Reform should proceed
too far; that it was highly expedient to quiet these apprehensions,
and upon every account therefore he recommended a moderate and
conciliatory course. There were between two and three hundred
present at this meeting. Accordingly in the afternoon John Russell
stated over again in the House of Commons pretty much what he had
said in the morning, and made a very temperate and conciliatory
speech. Peel, who had arrived suddenly and unexpectedly in
town,[2] rose after him, and, as everybody said (some with joy,
others with rage), 'threw over the Lords.' He declared his
concurrence in those amendments which John Russell agreed to, and
his acquiescence in most of the other provisions without the
amendments of the Lords; to the aldermen for life he objected, and
to some other particulars, as his speech shows. The only amendment
to which he subscribed (and that was objected to by Government)
was the exclusion of Dissenters from the disposal of Church
patronage, and I was very much surprised to hear him stand out for
this upon (as I think) very insufficient grounds. Nothing could
exceed the dismay and the rage (though suppressed) of the
Conservatives at his speech. He was not a bit cheered by those
behind him, but very heartily by those opposite. One silly, noisy
fellow, whose principal vocation in the House of Commons is to
bellow, came near me under the gallery, and I asked him why they
did not cheer, when he sulkily answered, 'he was so well cheered
by the other side that it was not necessary.' Lord Harrowby was
under the gallery. I asked him what he said to Peel's speech. 'I
did not he