erence convened, and
that a formal notification had been made by the Four Powers to
the Turkish Ministers of their disapprobation of the firman, and
this seems to have been done in a way he considers satisfactory.

March 19th, 1841 {p.388}

The Bishop of Exeter got a heavy fall in the House of Lords the
other night on the St. Sulpice question.[14] He brought it
forward in an elaborate speech the week before, with his usual
ability and cunning; and he took the Duke of Wellington in; for,
after hearing the Bishop protest, and apparently make out, that
'a great blow had been struck at the Reformation,' he got up,
and, in total ignorance of the subject, committed his potential
voice and opinion to an agreement with the Bishop's dictum. The
truth, however, was that there was no case at all; the Government
had not only done what they were justified in doing, but they had
acted in precise conformity with the conduct held by all their
Tory predecessors, colonial secretaries, and with that of the
Duke of Wellington himself, who had forgotten all that had
occurred and the part he had previously taken. The consequence
was that the Tories resolved to throw the Bishop over, and so
they did, greatly to his rage and disgust and to the satisfaction
of all the bigots; not even a solitary Bishop or high Tory had a
word to say in his favour. He was detected in the course of the
debate of having sent a report to the 'Times' of his former
speech containing a very essential paragraph which he had omitted
in the speech itself. He tried to back out of it, and brought the
'Times' reporter as his witness; but he stood convicted in
general opinion.

[14] [This related to the Catholic foundation of St. Sulpice
in Canada.]

Reeve is gone to Paris. He saw Guizot on his arrival, who
announced to him what he meant to do. He waits till the Four
Powers have settled the Eastern Question, in which he will not
meddle in the slightest degree; and when it is settled, he will
be ready to join in the Convention. Bourqueney has signed the
document _de bene esse_; this is his wisest and most dignified
course.

March 30th, 1841 {p.388}

Nothing new for the last fortnight, the Eastern Question
apparently progressing to a settlement through some not very
important obstacles, and, what is of much greater consequence, a
fair prospect of an amicable arrangement with America. The new
President's inaugural speech, pedantic and ridiculous as