case was urgent, and it was only thrown out because the Lord Mayor
and Corporation of Dublin had not been consulted. Now it might
have been very proper to consult these functionaries; it may even
be a culpable omission to have neglected them; but this is not a
time, nor is the House of Lords in circumstances, to be so
fastidious and to stickle for such formalities. Their character
with the nation is at stake, and it is of far greater consequence
that they should do nothing calculated to throw suspicion on their
motives, or odium on their proceedings, than to provide for a
punctilious observance of respect and deference to the Dublin
Corporation. They seem to me to have made a great mistake in
throwing out this Bill, and I am much deceived if they do not hear
more of it hereafter.

September 8th, 1835 {p.310}

Lord John called another meeting at the Foreign Office yesterday
morning, when he proposed, and they agreed to take the Lords'
amendments and finish the business; so this famous Corporation
Bill has got through at last. O'Connell and Warburton concurred
in accepting it. The only man who violently opposed its being
accepted was Tom Duncombe, who made a furious harangue, and
boldly asserted that _he knew_ to a positive certainty that if
the Commons would hold out the Peers would abandon the justices
and wards, and he offered _privately_ to give John Russell a list
of Peers sufficient to carry this, and who, he would answer for
it, were ready to make the concession. Lord John, however, was
too wise to listen to such impudent nonsense, and, though very
reluctantly, it was settled that the Commons should give way.
Both parties probably overrate the value of the disputed clauses,
and it is to be regretted that the two Houses will not part
_amicably_. Government takes the Bill under a sort of engagement
to consider it as an instalment, and that they shall try and get
the difference next year. This is mere humbug, and a poor sop
thrown to the Radicals, but as it answers the immediate purpose
it is very well.

September 9th, 1835 {p.311}

[Page Head: THE KING'S HARANGUE ON THE MILITIA.]

To-day at Court, when his Majesty made one of his most
extraordinary harangues, and much more lengthy than usual. It was
evidently got up with great care and previous determination. The
last article on the Council list was one for the reduction of the
militia, and it was upon this that he descanted with great
vehemence. He gave