editor of the 'Times' newspaper.]

November 22nd, 1831 {p.215}

[Page Head: PROCLAMATION AGAINST THE UNIONS]

The King came to town yesterday for a Council, at which the
meeting of Parliament on the 6th of December was settled. The
proclamation against the unions (which was not ready, and the
King signed a blank) and some orders about cholera were
despatched. Lord Grey told me that the union had already
determined to dissolve itself.

My satisfaction was yesterday considerably damped by what I heard
of the pending negotiation concerning Reform. Agar Ellis at
Roehampton talked with great doubt of its being successful, which
I attributed to his ignorance of what had passed, but I fear it is
from his knowledge that the Government mean, in fact, to give up
nothing of importance. George Bentinck came to me in the morning,
and told me he had discovered from the Duke of Richmond that the
concessions were not only to be all one way, but that the altered
Bill would be, in fact, more objectionable than the last, inasmuch
as it is more democratic in its tendency, so much so that Richmond
is exceedingly dissatisfied himself, for he has always been the
advocate of the aristocratic interest in the Cabinet, and has
battled to make the Bill less adverse to it. Now he says he can
contend no longer, for he is met by the unanswerable argument that
their opponents are ready to concede more. I own I was alarmed,
and my mind misgave me when I heard of the extreme satisfaction of
Althorp and Co.; and I always dreaded that Wharncliffe, however
honest and well-meaning, had not calibre enough to conduct such a
negotiation, and might be misled by his vanity. He bustles about
the town, chatting away to all the people he meets, and I fear is
both ignorant himself of what he is about and involuntarily
deceiving others too; he is in a fool's paradise. I spoke to Henry
de Ros about this last night, who seemed by no means aware of it,
and it is difficult to believe that Lyndhurst and Harrowby should
not be perfectly alive to all the consequences of Wharncliffe's
proceedings, or that they would sanction them if they had really
the tendency that George Bentinck gives me to understand.

The cholera, which is going on (but without greatly extending
itself) at Sunderland, has excited an unusual alarm, but it is
now beginning to subside. People seeing that it does not appear
elsewhere take courage, but the preparations are not relaxed, and
they ar