ing persons were equally anxious for an interposition;
indeed, the King was obliged to send a message to one who desired an
audience, with this object in view, "that he never talked on political
subjects with any but his Ministers."[34]

[34] Ibid. p. 78.

Another cotemporary Diarist goes to the root of the evil:--"Had some
conversation with Tierney, who looked serious and down. He said
everything was worse and worse out of doors, and he saw no remedy. I
observed, the only remedy, the only possibility of things returning to
their former state was a rebellion, and the troops standing by us, and
quelling it with a high hand. He replied, that was the disease. I said,
neither he nor I should live to see society where it had been and ought
to be; to which he assented. I have no doubt he is sincere, yet he and
his party are the real authors of the spirit we deplore."[35]

[35] Phipps's "Memoirs of R. P. Ward," vol. ii. p. 61.

"Alas!" writes Wilberforce in his Diary, "surely we never were in such
a scrape. The bulk of the people, I grant, are run mad; but then it was
a species of insanity on which we might have reckoned, because we know
their prejudices against foreigners; their being easily led away by
appeals to their generous feelings; and then the doses with which they
are plied, are enough to intoxicate much stronger heads than most of
theirs."[36]

[36] "Life," vol. v. p. 78.

"The middling as well as the higher orders," says another observer,
"are pretty well acquainted with her present Majesty's conduct in
foreign countries; but I am told that the common people are still in
the dark, and disposed to espouse her cause; more, however, out of
hatred to the King than out of regard for her."[37]

[37] Lord Dudley's "Letters," p 242.

Attempts were made to gain over the military, which were not entirely
unsuccessful; one of the regiments of Foot Guards, quartered in the
Mews Barracks, Charing Cross, exhibited such decided symptoms of having
been tampered with, that the Duke of Wellington was sent for, and he at
once ordered them off to Portsmouth. "The night before the last
division marched," says a respectable authority, "a formidable mob
assembled round the barracks at Charing Cross, calling the soldiers
within to come out and join them."[38] They were only subsequently
dispersed by a troop of the 2nd Life Guards.

[38] "Sidmouth's Life," by Pellew, vol. iii. p. 330. Alison's