nciples, and so they will go on, waiting and staring at one
another, till one fine day the Peers will come out in the
'Gazette.' The thing looks ill. Dined with Lord Holland.
Melbourne, who was there, asked me if I had heard from Wharncliffe,
but I did not tell him of Lord Harrowby's refusals.

Falck dined there, and in conversation about the Russian Loan he
told us the original history of it. The Emperor of Russia had
borrowed ninety millions of florins, and when his concurrence and
support were desired to the new kingdom of the Netherlands he
proposed in return that the King of Holland should take this debt
off his hands. The King said he would gladly meet his wishes, but
could not begin by making himself unpopular with his new subjects
and saddling them with this debt. Whereupon England interposed,
and an arrangement was made [in 1815] by which Russia, England,
and the King of the Netherlands divided the debt into three equal
shares, each taking one. With reference to the argument that the
countries being divided we ought no longer to pay our share,
Falck said the King of the Netherlands had not refused to pay on
those grounds, that he had only (with reference to his heavy
expenses) expressed his present inability and asked for time,
which the Emperor of Russia had agreed to. What he meant was that
the kingdoms were not as yet _de jure_ separated, and that the
_casus_ had not yet arrived. This, however, is nothing to the
purpose, for the King and the Emperor understand one another very
well, and it is not likely that the King should do anything to
supply us with a motive or a pretext for refusing our _quota_ to
his imperial ally. Brougham's speech on the Russian Loan
everybody agrees to have been super-excellent--'a continued
syllogism from the beginning to the end.' Lord Holland said, and
the Duke of Wellington (I am told) declared, it was the best
speech he had ever heard.

February 5th, 1832 {p.245}

Met Melbourne yesterday evening, and turned back and walked with
him; talked over the state of affairs. He said Government were
very much annoyed at their division in the House of Commons,
though Brougham had in some measure repaired that disaster in the
House of Lords; that it became more difficult to resist making
Peers as Government exhibited greater weakness. I told him the
Tories were so unmanageable because they wished to drive out the
Government, and thought they could. Dined at the Sheriff's
dinner--no