icularly well done. The Serjeants
were present (the five petitioners), and Wilde prompting Follett
all the time. There seemed no difference of opinion among the
Judges, at least with those I talked to, and the King's mandate
(for such it was to the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and
under the sign manual, though countersigned by nobody) will be
declared waste paper, and matters be replaced on their ancient
footing till Parliament may otherwise determine. Brougham
appeared considerably disconcerted, and though he tilted
occasionally with the counsel, he was on the whole quieter than
usual and than I expected he would have been. This order was one
of those things he blurted out in that 'sic volo sic jubeo' style
which he had assumed, and without consideration, probably without
consultation with anybody, or he might easily have avoided the
commission of such a blunder.

[10] [The Serjeants-at-Law had enjoyed from time immemorial
the exclusive right of practising in the Court of
Common Pleas. Upon the advice of Lord Brougham, then
Chancellor, King William IV. had issued a written
mandate to the court to open their bar to the whole
profession. No doubt the act was quite illegal and a
nullity. The Serjeants now petitioned the Queen in
Council to set it aside. But the court was subsequently
opened by Act of Parliament.]

January 18th, 1839 {p.156}

Durham has come down from his high horse, and has at last
condescended to see Howick and Duncannon, the latter through the
mediation of John Ponsonby, who hopes by bringing them together
to pave the way, if not to a reconciliation, to a state of things
less hostile and bitter in feeling and intention between him and
the Government. They are both anxious to avoid blows if possible,
but it is so difficult to avoid mutual inculpation and
accusation, although only professing exculpation, that it will be
very strange if the matter does (as many think it will) blow over
lightly. The personal question between Melbourne and Durham about
Turton appears the most difficult to settle; but if there is a
will there will be a way, and it is easy enough to imagine the
sort of civil, complimentary assurances from one to the other,
that though there had been a great misunderstanding, it was no
doubt unintentional, and all that sort of palaver which is so
familiar to old stagers and parliamentary squabbler