Denison: 'that if he
had had to legislate, he would, instead of this Bill, have
suspended the laws for five years in Ireland, given the
Lord-Lieutenant's proclamation the force of law, and got the Duke
of Wellington to go there.' He seemed very well pleased at this,
and said, 'Well, that is the way I governed the provinces on the
Garonne in the south of France. I desired the mayors to go on
administering the law of the land, and when they asked me in
whose name criminal suits should be carried on (which were
ordinarily in the name of the Emperor), and if they should be in
the name of the King, I said no, that we were treating with the
Emperor at Chatillon, and if they put forth the King they would
be in a scrape; neither should it be in the Emperor's name,
because we did not acknowledge him, but in that of the Allied
Powers.' In this I think he was wrong (_par parenthese_), for
Napoleon was acknowledged by all the Powers but us, and we were
treating with him, and if he permitted the civil authorities to
administer the law as usual, he should have allowed them to
administer it in the usual legal form. Their civil administration
could not affect any political questions in the slightest degree.

March 4th, 1833 {p.364}

Sir Thomas Hardy told my brother he thought the King would
certainly go mad; he was so excitable, _loathing_ his Ministers,
particularly Graham, and dying to go to war. He has some of the
cunning of madmen, who fawn upon their keepers when looked at by
them, and grin at them and shake their fists when their backs are
turned; so he is extravagantly civil when his Ministers are with
him, and exhibits every mark of aversion when they are away. Peel
made an admirable speech on Friday night; they expect a great
majority.

March 13th, 1833 {p.364}

The second reading of the Coercive Bill has passed by a great
majority after a dull debate, and the other night Althorp deeply
offended Peel and the Tories by hurrying on the Church Reform
Bill. It was to be printed one day, and the second reading taken
two days after. They asked a delay of four or five days, and
Althorp refused. He did very wrong; he is either bullied or
cajoled into almost anything the Radicals want of this sort, but
he is stout against the Tories. The delay is required by decency,
but it ought to have been enough that Peel and the others asked
it for him to concede it. He ought to soften the asperities which
must long survive the battle