ems uncertain whether any one of these Princes
would take the coronet.

_November 14, Saturday._

Cabinet room. Rosslyn and afterwards Lord Bathurst there. Read the Irish
papers, that is, Lord Francis Leveson's private letters to Peel and Peel's
to him, with a letter from Peel to Leslie Foster, asking his opinion as to
education and Maynooth, and Foster's reply. The latter is important. He
thinks the political and religious hostility of the two parties is
subsiding. The chiefs alone keep it up. The adherents are gradually falling
off. To open the questions of education, &c., now, would be to open closing
wounds, nor would anything be accomplished. The priests would resist
everything proposed, and the Protestants would not be satisfied. The
Kildare Street Society, however defective, does a great deal of good, more
than could be expected from any new system we could carry at this moment.

As to Maynooth, to withdraw the grant would not diminish the funds, while
it would increase the bad feeling.

The increased prevalence of outrage, arising more from a disorganised state
of society than from politics or religion, and the _assassination_ plan,
must be met by an extensive police, directed by stipendiary magistrates;
and the expense of this police, and the indemnity to sufferers must be paid
by the barony in which the outrage takes place.

All Peel's letters are very sensible. Lord Francis Leveson's are in an odd
style, rather affected occasionally, and his ideas are almost always such
as require to be overruled. He is a forward boy; but I see nothing of the
statesman in him. We ought to have had Hardinge there.

Dined at the Duke's. A man of the name of Ashe is writing letters to the
Duke of Cumberland threatening his life if he does not give up a book in
MS.

This book of Ashe's is a romance detailing all sorts of scandals of the
Royal Family, and of horrors of the Duke of Cumberland. The book is
actually in the possession of the Duke of Wellington.

The King's violence, when there was an idea of Denman's [Footnote: The King
always resented an offensive quotation of Denman's as counsel during the
Queen's trial.] appearing for the Recorder, was greater, the Duke says,
than what he showed during the Catholic question.

Lady Conyngham has been and is very ill. There is no idea of the Court
going to Brighton.

_November 16._

Cabinet. France, Austria, and England to ask Don Pedro distinctly what he
means to do