o was intimate with the chief statesman concerned, was
wishful to study the crisis on the spot, and in the recital of its
dramatic incidents to find relief from his own political disappointment.

During this visit he used his influence with General Lafayette for the
life of Prince de Polignac, who was connected by marriage with a noble
English family, and was about to be put on his trial. Lord John was
intimately acquainted, not only with Lafayette, but with other leaders
in the French political world, and his intercession, on which his
friends in England placed much reliance, seems to have carried effectual
weight, for the Prince's life was spared.

[Sidenote: WELLINGTON'S PROTEST AGAINST REFORM]

With distress at home and revolution abroad, signs of the coming change
made themselves felt at the General Election. Outside the pocket
boroughs, the Ministerialists went almost everywhere to the wall, and
'not a single member of the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet obtained a seat
in the new Parliament by anything approaching to free and open
election.'[5] The first Parliament of William IV. met on October 26, and
two or three days later, in the debate on the King's Speech, Wellington
made his now historic statement in answer to Earl Grey, who resented the
lack of reference to Reform: 'I am not prepared to bring forward any
measure of the description alluded to by the noble lord. I am not only
not prepared to bring forward any measure of this nature, but I will at
once declare that, as far as I am concerned, as long as I hold any
station in the government of the country, I shall always feel it my duty
to resist such measures when proposed by others.'

This statement produced a feeling of dismay even in the calm atmosphere
of the House of Lords, and the Duke, noticing the scarcely suppressed
excitement, turned to one of his colleagues and whispered: 'What can I
have said which seems to have made so great a disturbance?' Quick came
the dry retort of the candid friend: 'You have announced the fall of
your Government, that is all.' The consternation was almost comic.
'Never was there an act of more egregious folly, or one so universally
condemned,' says Charles Greville. 'I came to town last night (five days
after the Duke's speech), and found the town ringing with his
imprudence and everybody expecting that a few days would produce his
resignation.' Within a fortnight the general expectation was fulfilled,
for on November 1