s of last year as much as he can, and
avoid shocking what he may consider the prejudices of the
vanquished party. It was worse than impolitic; it was stupid and
uncourteous, and missing an opportunity of being gracious which
he ought to have seized.

[Page Head: LORD BROUGHAM'S PRIVY COUNCIL BILL.]

I have been again worried with a new edition of Brougham's Privy
Council Bill,[2] and the difficulty of getting Lord Lansdowne to
_do_ anything. This is the way Brougham goes to work:--He
resolves to alter; he does not condescend to communicate with the
Privy Council, or to consult those who are conversant with its
practice, or who have been in the habit of administering justice
there; he has not time to think of it himself; he tosses to one
of his numerous _employes_ (for he has people without end working
for him) his rough notion, and tells him to put it into shape;
the satellite goes to work, always keeping in view the increase
of the dignity, authority, and patronage of the Chancellor, and
careless of the Council, the King, and the usages of the
Constitution. What is called _the Bill_ is then, for form's sake,
handed over to the Lord President (Lord Lansdowne), with
injunctions to let nobody see it, as if he was conspiring against
the Council, secure that if he meets with no resistance but what
is engendered by Lord Lansdowne's opposition he may enact
anything he pleases. Lord Lansdowne sends it to me (a long Act of
Parliament), with a request that I will return it '_by the
bearer_,' with any remarks I may have to make on it. The end is
that I am left, _quantum impar_, to fight this with the
Chancellor.

[2] [This was the Bill for the establishment of a Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, which eventually became
the Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., cap. 41, and definitively
created that tribunal. Mr. Greville objected to several
of the provisions of the measure, because he regarded
them as an unnecessary interference of Parliament with
the authority of the Sovereign in his Council. The
Sovereign might undoubtedly have created a Committee of
the judicial members of the Privy Council: but the Bill
went further, and by extending and defining the power
of the Judicial Committee as a Court of Appeal it
undoubtedly proved a very useful and important
measure.]

March 15th, 1833 {p.365}

Ministerial