Arts of the
University, is looked to with much interest and anxiety, as likely
to afford no unequivocal sign of which is the strongest party in the
University and amongst the clergy generally. It is expected that Mr
Garbett will be chosen by a large majority....

[Pageheading: THE MORNING CHRONICLE]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _17th January 1842._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to
acknowledge your Majesty's letter of the 15th, which he has received
here this morning.

Lord Melbourne does not think this Puseyite difference in the Church
so serious or dangerous as others do. If it is discreetly managed,
it will calm down or blow over or sink into disputes of little
significance. All Lord Melbourne fears is lest the Bishops should be
induced to act hastily and should get into the wrong. The Puseyites
have the most learning, or rather, have considered the points more
recently and more accurately than their opponents.

Lord Melbourne hopes that the Spanish affair will be settled.
Lord Melbourne cannot doubt that the French are wrong. Even if the
precedents are in their favour, the Spanish Court has a right to
settle its own etiquette and its own mode of transacting business, and
to change them if it thinks proper.[4]

Lord Melbourne was at Broadlands when the Article to which your
Majesty alludes appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_, and he talked
it over with Palmerston. He does not think that Palmerston wrote it,
because there were in it errors, and those errors to Palmerston's
disadvantage; but it was written by Easthope under the impression that
it conveyed Palmerston's notions and opinions. Your Majesty knows very
well that Palmerston has long had much communication with the _Morning
Chronicle_ and much influence over it, and has made great use of it
for the purpose of maintaining and defending his own policy. In this
sort of matter there is much to be said upon both sides. A Minister
has a great advantage in stating his own views to the public, and if
Palmerston in the Syrian affair had not had as devoted an assistant
as the _Morning Chronicle_, he would hardly have been able to maintain
his course or carry through his measures. It has always been Lord
Melbourne's policy to keep himself aloof from the public press and to
hold it at arm's-length, and he considers it the best course, but
it is subject to disadvantages. You are never in that c