went to St. James's. The King saw
Peel and the Speaker. Nothing is known of the formation of the
Cabinet, but the reports were first that Alexander Baring was to
be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and since that he has refused on
account of his health, and that Lyndhurst is to go to the King's
Bench, Tenterden to retire, and the Great Seal to be put in
commission.

The first act of the Duke was to advise the King to reject the
address of the Birmingham Union, which he did, and said he knew of
no such body. All very proper. In the morning I called upon Wood
at the Treasury, to explain to him that I had never been cognisant
of the late proceedings in the House of Lords, and that I was far
from approving the conduct of my old associates. He said he had
never believed that I was any party to it, and regretted that I
had not been in town, when it was just possible I might have
persuaded them of the unworthiness of the course they were taking.
He said that I did not know how bad it was, for that Wharncliffe
had distinctly said that if such a thing was proposed he should
oppose it, and that Palmerston was present when he said so. This
Wharncliffe positively denies, and yesterday he went to Palmerston
to endeavour to explain, taking with him a minute which he said he
had drawn up at the time of all that passed, but which he had
never before shown or submitted for correction, and which
Palmerston told him was incorrect, inasmuch, as it omitted that
engagement. They are at issue as to the fact. The position of the
respective parties is curious. The Waverers undertook a task of
great difficulty with slender means, and they accomplished it with
complete success. All turned out as they expected and desired,
but, after having been in confidential communication with both
parties, they have contrived mortally to offend both, and to
expose themselves to odium from every quarter, and to an universal
imputation of insincerity and double-dealing, and this without any
other fault than mismanagement and the false position in which
they found themselves, without influence or power, between two
mighty parties. The Tories, who have exhibited nothing but
obstinacy and unreasonableness, and who thwarted the Waverers by
every means they could devise, have reaped all the benefit of
their efforts, and that without admitting that they were right or
thanking them for bringing matters to this pass. They are
triumphant, in spite of all they did to preve