lords and gentlemen sometimes are,
but they were drunk like porters. Lyndhurst was not there, though
invited. He dined at Holland House. It is pretty clear, however,
that he will vote for the second reading, for his wife is
determined he shall. I saw her yesterday, and she is full of pique
and resentment against the Opposition and the Duke, half real and
half pretended, and chatters away about Lyndhurst's not being
their cat's paw, and that if they choose to abandon him, they must
not expect him to sacrifice himself for them. The pretexts she
takes are, that they would not go to the House of Lords on Tuesday
and support him against Brougham on the Bankruptcy Bill, and that
the Duke of Wellington wrote to her and _desired_ her to influence
her husband in the matter of Reform. The first is a joke, the
second there might be a little in, for vanity is always uppermost,
but they have both some motive of interest, which they will pursue
in whatever way they best can. The excuse they make is that they
want to conceal their strength from the Government, and
accordingly the Duke of Wellington has not yet entered any of his
proxies. The truth is that I am by no means sure _now_ that it is
safe or prudent to oppose the second reading; and though I think
it very doubtful if any practicable alteration will be made in
Committee, it will be better to take that chance, and the chance
of an accommodation and compromise between the two parties and the
two Houses, than to attack it in front. It is clear that
Government are resolved to carry the Bill, and equally clear that
no means they can adopt would be unpopular. They are averse to
making more Peers if they can help it, and would rather go quietly
on, without any fresh changes, and I believe they are conscientiously
persuaded that this Bill is the least democratical Bill it is
possible to get the country to accept, and that if offered in time
this one will be accepted. I had heard before that the country is
not enamoured of this Bill, but I fear that it is true that they
are only indifferent to the Conservative clauses of it (if I may
so term them), and for that reason it may be doubtful whether
there would not be such a clamour raised in the event of the
rejection of this Bill as would compel the Ministers to make a new
one, more objectionable than the old. If its passing clearly
appears to be inevitable, why, the sooner it is done the better,
for at least one immense object will be