ay, having done much
good, and communicated largely with the Secretary of State. The
Government are full of compliments and respects to him, and the
Chancellor wrote him a letter entreating he would name any
gentleman to be added to the Special Commission which was going
down to the county over which he 'so happily presided.' He named
three.

[Page Head: DISTURBED STATE OF THE COUNTRY.]

There has been nothing new within these three days, but the alarm
is still very great, and the general agitation which pervades
men's minds unlike what I have ever seen. Reform, economy, echoed
backwards and forwards, the doubts, the hopes and the fears of
those who have anything to lose, the uncertainty of everybody's
future condition, the immense interests at stake, the magnitude
and imminence of the danger, all contribute to produce a nervous
excitement, which extends to all classes--to almost every
individual. Until the Ministers are re-elected nobody can tell
what will be done in Parliament, and Lord Grey himself has no
idea what sort of strength the Government will have in either
House; but there is a prevailing opinion that they ought to be
supported at this moment, although the Duke of Wellington and
Peel mean to keep their party together. Lyndhurst's resignation
with his colleagues (added to his not being invited to join this
Government) has restored him to the good graces of his party, for
Lord Bathurst told me had behaved very honourably. He means now
to set to work to gain character, and as he is about the ablest
public man going, and nearly the best speaker, he will yet bustle
himself into consideration and play a part once more. Peel,
Lyndhurst, and Hardinge are three capital men for the foundation
of a party--as men of business superior to any three in this
Cabinet. But I doubt if the Duke will ever be in a civil office
again, nor do I think the country would like to see him at the
head of a Government, unless it was one conducted in a very
different manner from the last. For the present deplorable state
of things, and for the effervescence of public opinion, which
threatens the overthrow of the constitution in trying to amend
it, Peel and the Duke are entirely responsible; and the former is
the less excusable because he might have known better, and if he
had gone long ago to the Duke, and laid before him the state of
public opinion, told him how irresistible it was, and had refused
to carry on the Government in the