h.
Even some of his real admirers thought he 'had overdone it,' and
whilst at Brooks's they did not quite know what to make of it, at
the Carlton they were in the same doubt how to interpret
Melbourne's cautious ambiguities. Both, however, were clear
enough: Melbourne meant to say he would 'go no further,' and the
Duke meant to pat him on the back, and promise him that while he
adhered to that resolution he should have no vexatious opposition
to fear; but his meaning was made still more clear, for he told
my brother this afternoon that 'it was of the greatest importance
to nail Melbourne to his declaration, and that they must do what
they could to help the Queen out of the difficulty in which she
was placed.' He looks to the Crown of England; he wants to uphold
_it_ and not to punish _her_; and he does not care to achieve a
Tory triumph at the expense of the highest Tory principle; he
thinks the Monarchy is in danger, and he sees that the danger may
be more surely averted by still enduring the existence of the
present Government, depriving them of all power to do evil, and
converting them into instruments of good, than by accelerating
their fall under circumstances calculated to engender violent
animosities, irreconcileable enmities, wide separation of
parties, and the adoption of extreme measures and dangerous
principles by many who have no natural bias that way. I entirely
concur with him, and if it were possible to restore matters to
something like the state they were in before the Bedchamber
crisis, nothing would be so desirable; nothing so desirable as
that the Whigs and the Radicals should be furnished with fresh
occasion to fall out, and the dissolution of the Government be
the final consequence of their dissensions. Also it is expedient
that time should be given for the angry waters to become smooth
and calm once more, albeit the smoothness is only on their
surface.

Yesterday the Grand Duke Alexander[3] went away after a stay of
some three weeks, which has been distinguished by a lavish
profusion--perhaps a munificence--perfectly unexampled; he is by
no means remarkable in appearance one way or the other, and does
not appear to have made any great impression except by the
splendour and extent of his presents and benefactions: he has
scattered diamond boxes and rings in all directions, subscribed
largely to all the charities, to the Wellington and Nelson
memorials, and most liberally (and curiously) to the J