, 'How? for what could
they have done? They could only get at Poland through Prussia.'
He said they might have sent a fleet to the Baltic with our
concurrence, though we could not urge them to do so. I asked him
what he thought would be the result of the dissolution of
Perier's Government; I said that there appeared to me two
alternatives, a general _bouleversement_ or the war faction in
power under the existing system. He replied he did not think
there would now be a _bouleversement_, but a Ministry of
Lafayette, Lamarque, and all that party who were impatient to
plunge France into war. I said I did not think France could look
to a successful war, for the old alliance would be re-formed
against her. He rejoined that Russia was powerless, crippled by
this contest, and under the necessity of maintaining a great army
in Poland; Austria and Prussia were both combustible, half the
provinces of the former nearly in a state of insurrection; that
the latter had enough to do to preserve quiet, and the French
would rouse all the disaffected spirit which existed in both. I
said 'then we were on the eve of that state of things which was
predicted by Canning in his famous speech.' Here we met Ellis,
and I left them.

I afterwards saw George Villiers, who told me that he knew from a
member of the Cabinet that there had been a division in it on the
question of going out if the Reform Bill should be rejected, and
that it had been carried by a majority that they should. He told
me also a curious thing about Stanley's Arms Bill: that it had
never been imparted to Lord Anglesey, nor to the Cabinet here,
and that Lord Grey had been obliged to write an apology to Lord
Anglesey, and to tell him he (Lord Grey) had himself seen the
Bill for the first time in the newspapers. This he had from Lord C.,
who is a great friend of Lord Anglesey's, and who had seen Lord
Grey's letter before he left Ireland; but the story appears to me
quite incredible, and is probably untrue.

CHAPTER XVI.

Whig and Tory Meetings on Reform--Resolution to carry the Bill--
Holland--Radical Jones--Reform Bill thrown out by the Lords--
Dorsetshire Election--Division among the Tories--Bishop
Phillpotts--Prospects of Reform--Its Dangers--Riots at
Bristol--The Cholera at Sunderland--An Attempt at a Compromise
on Reform--Lord Wharncliffe negotiates with the Ministers--
Negotiation with Mr. Barnes--Proclamation against the Un