had better pass the Bill or you
will have a worse. The moderate anti-Reformers would be glad to
suffer the second reading to pass and alter it in Committee, but
they do not dare do so, because the sulky, stupid, obstinate High
Tories declare that they will throw the whole thing up, and not
attempt to alter the Bill if it passes the second reading. Every
man seems tossed about by opposite considerations and the
necessity of accommodating his own conduct to the caprices,
passions, and follies of others.

Riddlesworth, October 10th, 1831 {p.201}

At Newmarket all last week; all the Peers absent; here since
Friday. Yesterday morning the newspapers (all in black[1])
announced the defeat of the Reform Bill by a majority of
forty-one, at seven o'clock on Saturday morning, after five
nights' debating. By all accounts the debate was a magnificent
display, and incomparably superior to that in the House of
Commons, but the reports convey no idea of it. The great speakers
on either side were:--Lords Grey, Lansdowne, Goderich, Plunket,
and the Chancellor, for the Bill; against it, Lords Wharncliffe
(who moved the amendment), Harrowby, Carnarvon, Dudley, Wynford,
and Lyndhurst. The Duke of Wellington's speech was exceedingly
bad; he is in fact, and has proved it in repeated instances,
unequal to argue a great constitutional question. He has neither
the command of language, the power of reasoning, nor the
knowledge requisite for such an effort. Lord Harrowby's speech
was amazingly fine, and delivered with great effect; and the last
night the Chancellor is said to have surpassed all his former
exploits, Lyndhurst to have been nearly as good, and Lord Grey
very great in reply. There was no excitement in London the
following day, and nothing particular happened but the Chancellor
being drawn from Downing Street to Berkeley Square in his
carriage by a very poor mob. The majority was much greater than
anybody expected, and it is to be hoped may be productive of good
by showing the necessity of a compromise; for no Minister can
make sixty Peers, which Lord Grey must do to carry this Bill; it
would be to create another House of Lords. Nobody knows what the
Ministers would do, but it was thought they would not resign. A
meeting of members of the House of Commons was held under the
auspices of Ebrington to agree upon a resolution of confidence in
the Government this day. The majority and the magnificent display
of eloquence and ability