course of his conduct and the
tenour of his speech in his own mind; he thought he had got Lord
John at a great disadvantage, and that the debate would afford
him the opportunity of a signal triumph; and the notion of being
obliged to forego this advantage and triumph, and the perplexity
into which he was thrown between doubt whether it really was
worth while, and fear of sacrificing a great and permanent, to an
accidental and ephemeral interest, threw him into an uncertainty
and embarrassment which disturbed his equanimity. It is at all
events fortunate that I did not go to him myself, for I should
have been met with a cold austerity of manner which would have
disconcerted me, and I should have most certainly quitted him
mortified and disappointed, and without having effected any good.

Peel said to Graham that he should express no opinion, make no
promise, and would not say whether or how his conduct would be
affected by what he had heard. I replied on this, that I did not
desire or expect that he should, and that my object was attained
when he was made aware of what I knew. I repeated that I had no
authority, and he must attach as much or as little importance to
my opinion as he thought it was worth. Graham said that,
notwithstanding his annoyance, he was in fact fully sensible of
the importance of the circumstances, and that he would look with
the greatest solicitude for what fell from John Russell himself,
considering that his speech would afford the test of the
correctness of my impressions, and that if the tenour of that
speech confirmed them, their speeches would be of a corresponding
character; that he might defend the policy of the Government, and
the administration of Ireland, as strenuously as he pleased; but
if he attacked the House of Lords, or truckled to the Radicals,
they must give a vent to the indignant feelings that such conduct
would inevitably excite, and it would be impossible for them to
satisfy their followers by a mere milk-and-water debate, and by
abstaining from the use of their weapons when the other side were
unscrupulous in the use of theirs. I said I did not desire that
they should go into action with their swords in their scabbards,
while their enemies were to have theirs drawn; that I admitted
that this opening speech might be considered a fair test, and
that all I desired was, that if they _could_ be moderate they
_would_, and always keep in sight the motives for moderation.
This, he