ut on this I must insist, and I
do assure you, that that moment I was to learn that the Queen takes
advice upon public matters in another place, I shall throw up; for
such a thing I conceive the country could not stand, and I would not
remain an hour, whatever the consequences of my resignation may be."

Fully sensible that he was talking at me, I received the charge with
the calmness of a good conscience, and our time being exhausted I
prepared for retreat. But he did not allow me to do so, before he had
found means to come a second time to the topic uppermost in his own
mind, and he repeated, it appeared to me with increased force of tone,
his determination to throw up, fearless of all consequences, that
moment he found himself and the country dishonestly dealt by.

I think I have now reported to you correctly the two occurrences which
of late have added so much to my antecedent suspicions and fears.
Permit me to join to this a few general considerations which, from
the nature of the recited incidents alone, and without the slightest
intervention of any other cause, must have presented themselves to my
mind. The first is, that I derive from the events related quite ground
enough for concluding that the danger I dread is great and imminent,
and that, if ill luck is to have its will, no human power can prevent
an explosion for a day, or even for an hour. The second is the
contemplation--what state will the Queen be placed in by such a
catastrophe? That in my position, portraying to myself all the
consequences of such a possibility, I look chiefly to the Queen, needs
hardly, I trust, an excuse.... Can you hope that the Queen's character
will ever recover from a shock received by a collision with Peel, upon
such a cause? Pray illustrate to yourself this particular question by
taking a purely political and general survey of the time and period
we live in at this moment. In doing so must you not admit that all
England is agreed that the Tories must have another trial, and that
there is a decided desire in the nation that it should be a fair
one? Would you have it said that Sir Robert Peel failed in his
trial, merely because the Queen alone was not fair to him, and that
principally you had aided her in the game of dishonesty? And can you
hope that this game can be played with security, even for a short
time only, when a person has means of looking into your cards whom
you yourself have described to me some years ago as a mo