aper to him, which he said
he would send to Lushington, whom I had begged him to consult. I
met Lyndhurst at Lady Glengall's, and had some talk with him
about it, and found he agreed pretty well with me, and that he is
strongly in favour of appointing a permanent Chief of our court,
for _ministerial_ purposes. The Chancellor has himself been very
unwillingly compelled to propose this scheme of reform, for he
hates all alterations, and does not like to begin cleansing the
Augean stable of the Court of Chancery.

When I was with the Chancellor the other day, he said a
difficulty had been started about making Prince Albert a Privy
Councillor before he was of age, and asked me if there was
anything in it. I found, on looking into the books, that the
Royal Dukes had not been brought into Council till they were of
age, but probably that was because they could not take their
seats in the House of Lords before; but I also found very clear
proofs that George III.'s sons had not been sworn but
_introduced_ in his reign, and this puzzled me, for I remembered
to have sworn several of them at different times, during the
present and two last reigns. I therefore wrote to the Duke of
Sussex, and asked him what had occurred in his case. His reply
cleared the matter up. He said the King's sons are _born_ Privy
Councillors, and that they are declared sworn by the King
whenever he pleases; that accordingly he was merely introduced
into Council in 1807; but after the death of George III., when he
stood in a different relation to the reigning Sovereign, he was
sworn; and again at the accessions of King William IV. and Queen
Victoria. I found an account in the Council Books of the form
with which the Prince of Wales was introduced into Council in
1784, and this I sent to Melbourne to show to the Queen,
suggesting that Prince Albert should be introduced upon the same
terms as Prince George of Denmark had been, and with the same
ceremonies as the Prince of Wales in 1784.

The Duke of Wellington has reappeared in the House of Lords, goes
about, and works as usual, but everybody is shocked and grieved
at his appearance. Lyndhurst expressed his alarm to me, lest he
should go on until it became _desirable_ that he should retire,
and his regret that his friends could not prevail upon him to do
so while he still can with dignity. He dined at the Palace on
Monday, and was treated with the greatest civility by the Queen.
Indeed, she has endeavoure