'this Bill would not be final if it
was not found to work as well as the people desired,' which is
sufficiently impudent considering that hitherto they have always
pretended that it was to be final, and that it was made so
comprehensive only that it might be so; this has been one of
their grand arguments, and now we are never to sit down and rest,
but go on changing till we get a good fit, and that for a country
which will have been made so fidgety that it won't stand still to
be measured. Hardinge, whom I found at dinner at the Athenaeum
yesterday, told me he was convinced that a revolution in this
country was inevitable; and such is the opinion of others who
support this Bill, not because they think concession will avert
it, but will let it come more gradually and with less violence. I
have always been convinced that the country was in no danger of
revolution, and still believe that if one does come it will be
from the passing of this Bill, which will introduce the principle
of change and whet the appetites of those who never will be
satisfied with any existing order of things; or if it follows on
the rejection of this Bill, which I doubt, it will be owing to
the concentration of all the forces that are opposed to our
present institutions, and the divisions, jealousies, rivalships,
and consequent weakness of all those who ought to defend them.
God only knows how it will all end. There has been but one man
for many years past able to arrest this torrent, and that was
Canning; and him the Tories--idiots that they were, and never
discovering that he was their best friend--hunted to death with
their besotted and ignorant hostility.

[Page Head: ELLEN TREE.]

I went to the play last night at a very shabby little house
called the City Theatre--a long way beyond the Post Office--to
see Ellen Tree act in a translation of 'Une Faute,' one of the
best pieces of acting I ever saw. This girl will turn out very
good if she remains on the stage. She has never been brought
forward at Covent Garden, and I heard last night the reason why.
Charles Kemble took a great fancy for her (she is excessively
pretty), and made her splendid offers of putting her into the
best parts, and advancing her in all ways, if she would be
propitious to his flame, but which she indignantly refused; so he
revenged himself (to his own detriment) by keeping her back and
promoting inferior actresses instead. If ever she acquires fame,
which is very proba