oderation. He
owned that much was to be said on the side of the question which
he does not espouse, but the reasons by which he says he is
mainly governed are these: that it is of vital importance to
preserve the consistency of the party to which we are to look for
future safety, and that when this excitement has passed away the
conduct of the anti-Reformers will have justice done to it. But
there is a contradiction which pervades his argument, for he
treats the subject as if all hope had vanished of saving the
country, 'desperat de republica,' and he does not promise himself
present advantage from the firmness and consistency of the
Tories, but taking it in connection with the folly and wickedness
of the other party (who he is persuaded bitterly regret their own
precipitate violence and folly), he expects it to prove
serviceable as an example and beacon to future generations. All
the evils that have been predicted may flow from this measure
when carried into complete operation, but it is neither
statesmanlike nor manly to throw up the game in despair, and
surrender every point, and waive every compensation, in order to
preserve the consistency of himself and his own party, not that
their consistency is to produce any advantage, but that hereafter
it

May point a moral or adorn a tale.

So senseless is this, that it is clear to me that it is not his
real feeling, and that he promises himself some personal
advantage from the adoption of such a course. Peel 'loves'
himself, 'not wisely but too well.'

February 9th, 1832 {p.249}

[Page Head: CONVERSATION WITH LORD GREY.]

Yesterday I met Lord Grey and rode with him. I told him that the
Tories were pleased at his speech about the Irish Tithes. He said
'he did not know why, for he had not said what he did with a view
to please them.' I said because they looked upon it as an
intimation that the old Protestant ascendency was to be restored.
He rejected very indignantly that idea, and said he had never
contemplated any ascendency but that of the law and the
Government. I said I knew that, but that they had been so long
used to consider themselves as the sole representatives of the
law and the Government, that they took the assertion he had made
as a notification that their authority was again to be exercised
as in bygone times. He then asked me if I knew what Lord Harrowby
had done, said he had spoken to him, that he was placed in a
difficult positio