ar it,' he tartly replied, 'but he seems to have given
up the aldermen. I have a great affection for the aldermen.' At
the 'Travellers' I met Strangford, and asked him the same
question. He said, 'I say, Not content.' 'But,' said I, 'you must
take the Bill.' 'Not I, for one; the Lords cannot take it, and if
we are to be ruined I think we had better be ruined by real
Radicals than by sham Tories.' Afterwards I saw Lord Londonderry,
who talked in the same strain, not denying that the Duke of
Wellington had unwillingly come into the measures which Lyndhurst
had adopted, but talking of Lyndhurst's Conservative scruples as a
constitutional lawyer, and such stuff as this. The manner in which
the Duke has been ousted from the leadership, and the alacrity
with which the Lords have followed Lyndhurst, because he led them
into violent courses, is not the least curious part of this
business. (It seems they only meant to make Lyndhurst their leader
_pro hac vice_.)

[2] Peel gave no notice of his intention to come to town.
Hardinge, who is more intimate with him than most of
his political associates, was so sure he would not come
that he told Bradshaw, who asked him, that he certainly
would not be here, and that he (Bradshaw) might go into
the country when he pleased.

[Page Head: PEEL'S CONCILIATORY CONDUCT.]

Bingham Baring and I walked away together, and I went with him to
Lord Ashburton's house, who was not a little astonished at what we
told him, and asserted that Peel was quite wrong about the
aldermen. The violent Whigs were rather provoked at the turn
things took, and Howick, whom I saw under the gallery, said with
great bitterness (mixed with pleasure at Peel's abandonment of the
Lords) that he, for one, 'only consented to these alterations,
which made the Bill so much worse, with a view to obtain future
compensation, and _with interest_.' The English Radicals were very
indignant, and Hume, Grote, and Roebuck spoke one after another
against the Government concessions, but there was no disposition
to listen to them, and an evident satisfaction at the prospect of
an amicable termination of the rising dispute. Nobody apprehends
any other termination, for though the Lords will bluster, and
fume, and fret, and there will be no small fermentation of
mortified pride and vanity, there must be some difference of
opinion at least, and the Duke of Wellington is quite sure t