some mode
will be found of conciliating Stanley's Bill with the Government
Bill of Irish Registration, and that some measure not quite but
tolerably satisfactory to all parties will be devised, and the
evil complained of, to a certain degree, be checked. These are
advantages of no small moment, and it is very questionable
whether the work of government and legislation is not more wisely
and beneficially done by this concurrence of antagonistic
parties, and compromise and fusion of antagonistic opinions, than
it could be in any other way. All strong Governments become to a
certain degree careless and insolent in the confidence of their
strength, but their weakness renders them circumspect and
conscientious. Governments with great majorities at their back
can afford to do gross jobs, or take strong party measures; but
when their opponents are as strong as themselves, and their
majorities are never secure, they can venture upon nothing of the
kind. All oppositions must affect a prodigious show of political
virtue, and must be vigilant and economical, no matter how lax
may have been their political morality when in power. But no
politician, or party man, has any tenderness for an abuse the
profit of which is to accrue to his adversary, and in this way
good government may happen to be the result of a weak Ministry
and a strong Opposition.

August 24th, 1840 {p.297}

[Page Head: THE TREATY OF JULY.]

Passed the greatest part of last week at the Grove, where
Clarendon talked to me a great deal about the Eastern Question,
and Palmerston's policy in that quarter. Palmerston, it seems,
has had for many years as his fixed idea the project of humbling
the Pasha of Egypt.[11] In the Cabinet he has carried everything
his own way; all his colleagues either really concurring with
him, or being too ignorant and too indifferent to fight the
battle against his strong determination, except Lord Holland and
Clarendon, who did oppose with all their strength Palmerston's
recent treaty; but quite ineffectually. They had for their only
ally, Lord Granville at Paris, and nothing can exceed the
contempt with which the Palmerstonians treat this little knot of
dissentients, at least the two elder ones, who (they say) are
become quite imbecile, and they wonder Lord Granville does not
resign. Palmerston, in fact, appears to exercise an absolute
despotism at the Foreign Office, and deals with all our vast and
complicated questions of diplomac