t that it was because they _would_
not fight, that if they _would_ have fought they must have beat
the mob, and reminded him of the French at Madrid, and asked him
if he did not think his regiment would beat all the populace of
London, which he said it would. He described the whole affair as
it has taken place, and said that there can be no doubt that the
moneyed men of Paris (who are all against the Government) and the
Liberals had foreseen a violent measure on the part of the King,
and had organised the resistance; that on the appearance of the
edicts the bankers simultaneously refused to discount any bills,
on which the great manufacturers and merchants dismissed their
workmen, to the number of many thousands, who inflamed the public
discontent, and united to oppose the military and the execution of
the decrees. He said positively that we should not take any part,
and that no other Government ought or could. He does not like the
Duke of Orleans, and thinks his proclamation mean and shabby, but
owned that under all circumstances his election to the Crown would
probably be the best thing that could happen. The Duke of Chartres
he had known here, and thought he was intelligent. The Duke
considered the thing as settled, but did not feel at all sure they
would offer the Crown to the Duke of Orleans. He said he could not
guess or form an opinion as to their ulterior proceedings.
After discussing the whole business with his usual simplicity, he
began talking of the Duke of Cumberland and his resignation of the
command of the Blues. Formerly the colonels of the two regiments
of Life Guards held alternately the Gold Stick, and these two
regiments were under the immediate orders of the King, and not of
the Commander-in-Chief. When the Duke of Wellington returned from
Spain and had the command of the Blues, the King insisted upon his
taking the duty also; so it was divided into three, but the Blues
still continued under the Commander-in-Chief. But when the Duke of
Cumberland wanted to be continually about the King, he got him to
give him the command of the Household troops; this was at the
period of the death of the Duke of York and the Duke of
Wellington's becoming Commander-in-Chief. The Duke of Cumberland
told the Duke of Wellington that he had received the King's verbal
commands to that effect, and from that time he alone kept the Gold
Stick, and the Blues were withdrawn from the authority of the
Commander-in-Chief. The
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