ing all hope, while the wretched parents have been for
weeks past agitated with all the alternations of hope and
despair, and suffering a protracted torture worse than any
certainty. So much for private woes.

In the world of politics we have had an interval of repose till
after the recess, when Government sustained two defeats on the
Irish Registration Bill,[15] and Walter came in for Nottingham on
an Anti-Poor-Law cry, and by the union of Chartists and Tories to
defeat the Whig candidate. After the first division, Clarendon
wrote to me as follows: 'The defeat last night was a signal one.
We have had a Cabinet about it, and I went there fully expecting
that resignation would be the order of the day--_the word never
crossed the lips of anyone!_ Various expedients were suggested,
but, except by me, the thought of going out was not entertained.
The result is, that another trial of strength is to be had, and
if we are beaten the Bill is to be withdrawn for the year. How
Stanley's is afterwards to be opposed remains to be seen, but for
that we trust to luck and O'Connell's ingenuity in devising
delays--not very creditable or satisfactory, but as John has to
defend his course, he is the best judge of what he should do. He
quite scouted to me afterwards the idea of resigning, though he
admitted the Tory chances had advanced prodigiously, and that
Peel's language was quite that of determination, and of a man
ready to take the government.' Nobody has a guess what will
happen--whether Government will try and go on, dissolve or
resign; and a thousand speculations, and, of course, lies, are
afloat.

[15] [Lord Morpeth's Irish Registration Bill was withdrawn,
two amendments having been carried by the Opposition by
291 to 270 votes. Mr. Walter was elected at Nottingham
by a majority of 296 over the Government candidate.]

The affairs of the East are still unsettled, but there seems a
chance of their being patched up, though not in a way very
creditable or consistent. Metternich is now threatening the
Porte, that unless she consents to what the Conference shall
suggest he will quit the concern. Palmerston, meanwhile, talks of
again licking Mehemet Ali, while Ponsonby is as furious as ever
at Constantinople, and would blow up the coals again if he knew
how. The manner in which things are mystified, and facts
perverted from the truth, is curiously exemplified in the matter
of the recent Hatti-sh