were obliged to try and do away its effect by making out that he
did not mean what he said. On the division the Government had
greater numbers than usual. It then remained to be seen what Lord
John Russell would do, and it was reported that he meant to
retaliate by postponing the Tithe Bill, but he did no such thing.
He came down and declared that they would regularly go on with
all their bills, and moreover, that while they retained the
confidence of the House of Commons they would not resign; so
again it seems likely that the compromise originally anticipated
will take place at last, and there will be no change. This
declaration of Lord John's is at variance with his former
resolution, and so I told Tavistock it would appear to be. He
admitted that it would, but said that John claimed for himself to
judge of the fit moment for his resignation; that whenever he was
satisfied that he had no reasonable prospect of carrying his
measures, he should retire, but not till then; and that one
defeat ought not to make him throw up the game. However, he owned
that this qualification ought to have formed part of his original
declaration, in order to obviate all misrepresentation.

During the last week the Westminster election[7] has absorbed
everything else. Though the Government were by way of taking no
part, all Brooks's moved heaven and earth for Leader, and until
the day of nomination they were confident of his success. Bets
were two to one in his favour, and a great deal was lost and won.
On the other hand the Tories worked hard for Burdett. He appeared
on the hustings at the nomination, and was received quite as well
as his opponent, and the show of hands was in his favour. This
reduced the betting to even, but nobody was prepared for the
great majority by which Burdett won. It was certainly a great
triumph to the Conservative cause, and a great disappointment to
the violent Whigs, and still more to the Radicals. The Government
affect to make light of it. Melbourne is probably sincere when he
says he is very glad of it, and for this reason, 'that the
Radicals are very difficult to manage as it is, and if they had
carried this election there would be no doing anything with
them.' A great many people on both sides would not vote. I would
not, for one. I hate Leader's politics, and don't like Burdett's;
nobody can tell what he is, for his answers and explanations are
of a shuffling, ambiguous character, and he disgusted me b