Lord Grey undertook to form a
Government he sent for Lord Lansdowne and Lord Holland, and these
three began to work, without consulting with Brougham or any
member of the House of Commons. Brougham was displeased at not
being consulted at first, but was indignant when Lord Grey
proposed to him to be Attorney-General. Then he showed his teeth,
and they grew frightened, and soon after they sent Sefton to him,
who got him into good humour, and it was made up by the offer of
the Great Seal.--_November 23rd._]

November 20th, 1830 {p.065}

[Page Head: DISCONTENT OF BROUGHAM.]

Here I was interrupted, and broke off yesterday morning. At
twelve o'clock yesterday everything was settled but the Great
Seal, and in the afternoon the great news transpired that
Brougham had accepted it. Great was the surprise, greater still
the joy at a charm having been found potent enough to lay the
unquiet spirit, a bait rich enough to tempt his restless
ambition. I confess I had no idea he would have accepted the
Chancellorship after his declarations in the House of Commons and
the whole tenor of his conduct. I was persuaded that he had made
to himself a political existence the like of which no man had
ever before possessed, and that to have refused the Great Seal
would have appeared more glorious than to take it; intoxicated
with his Yorkshire honours, swollen with his own importance, and
holding in his hands questions which he could employ to thwart,
embarrass, and ruin any Ministry, I thought that he meant to
domineer in the House of Commons and to gather popularity
throughout the country by enforcing popular measures of which he
would have all the credit, and thus establish a sort of
individual power and authority, which would ensure his being
dreaded, courted, and consulted by all parties. He could then
have gratified his vanity, ambition, and turbulence; the Bar
would have supplied fortune, and events would have supplied
enjoyments suited to his temperament; it would have been a sort
of madness, mischievous but splendid. As it is the joy is great
and universal; all men feel that he is emasculated and drops on
the Woolsack as on his political death-bed; once in the House of
Lords, there is an end of him, and he may rant storm and thunder
without hurting anybody.[18]

[18] [Lord Grey's Administration was thus composed:--

First Lord of the Treasury Earl Grey.
Lord Chancellor Lord Brougham.