e House of Commons upon Althorp's and John
Russell's letters to Attwood by Hardinge and Vyvyan. Peel not
there, having hopped off to Staffordshire, to the great disgust
of his party, whom he never scruples to leave in the lurch. They
made wretched excuses for these letters, and could only have
recourse to the pretence of indignation at being thought capable
of fomenting disorders, which is all very well; but they do
foment discord and discontent by every means in their power. With
a yelling majority in the House, and a desperate press out of it,
they go on in their reckless course without fear or shame. Lord
Harrowby made a speech in the House of Lords, and declared his
conviction that the time was come for effecting a Reform, and
that he would support one to a certain extent, which he
specified. In the House he was coolly received, and the 'Times'
hardly deigned to notice what he said. Parliament is to be up on
Thursday next, and will probably not meet till January, when of
course the first thing done will be to bring in the Bill again.
What, then, is gained? For as Ministers take every opportunity of
declaring that they will accept nothing less efficient (as they
call it) than the present Bill, no compromise can be looked for.
Lord Harrowby is the only man who has said what he will do, and
probably he goes further than the bulk of his party would approve
of; and yet he is far behind the Ministerial plan. So that there
seems little prospect of getting off for less than the old Bill,
for the Opposition will hardly venture to stop the next _in
limine_ as they did this. I do not see why they should hope to
amend the next Bill in Committee any more than the last, and the
division which they dreaded the other day is not less likely, and
would not be less fatal upon another occasion. If, then, it is to
pass at last, it comes back to what I thought before, that it
might as well have passed at first as at last, and the excitement
consequent on its rejection have been spared, as well as the
odium which has accrued to the Peers, which will not be forgotten
or laid aside.

The Dorsetshire election promises to end in favour of Ashley, and
there will be a contest for Cambridgeshire, which may also end in
favour of the anti-Reform candidate. These victories I really
believe to be unfortunate, for they are taken (I am arguing as if
they were won, though, with regard to the first, it is the same
thing by contrast with the last elec