there was a great meeting at Apsley House; eighty
Peers present, and four hours' deliberation. They kept their
resolutions a profound secret, but as I knew what they were on
Friday morning, I went to Melbourne and told him, in order that
the Government might be prepared, and turn over in their minds
how matters might be accommodated. The Tories adhered to the
justices and wards, and abandoned the rest. I found Melbourne and
Lord John together; the latter said there would be no difficulty
about the justices, but the amendment about the wards was
impossible.

[Page Head: EFFECTS OF MUNICIPAL REFORM.]

The debate at night was carried on with extraordinary temper and
calmness; Brougham complimented Lyndhurst in very glowing terms.
The matter now stands over till Monday, when the Commons must
determine whether to accept the Bill with these alterations or
reject it on account of them. There is great division of opinion
as to the result, but I cannot bring myself to believe that they
will let the Bill drop for such trifles. I asked Wharncliffe last
night to explain to me in what manner these things would operate
_politically_, and he owned that he thought their political
importance was greatly overrated, but that the division proposed
by Government gave greater influence to numbers, while that
substituted by the Peers gave more to property, and that the
constitution of the town councils, whether they were more or less
Radical or Conservative, would have a political effect in this
way; that in every borough little democracies would be established,
which would be continually exercising a democratic influence and
extending democratic principles, and that the greater the infusion
of Conservative interest you could make in these new bodies the
more that tendency would be counteracted. In my opinion a fallacy
lurks under this argument; they assume the certain democratic,
even revolutionary, character of the new town councils without any
sufficient reason, but if this be so, and if they are correct in
their anticipations, I doubt whether the guards and drawbacks with
which they are endeavouring to counteract the pernicious influence
they dread will be found efficacious. I do not despair of the
prevalence of sound Conservative principles _upon a Liberal
basis_, and it appears to me that the Peers have committed a great
blunder in expressing such violent suspicion and distrust of the
new corporations; that nothing is so likely to m