I left London for the Doncaster races I have travelled near
1,200 miles. At Riddlesworth the Duke of York told me a great
deal about the Queen and Brougham, but he was so unintelligible
that part I could not make out and part I do not remember. What I
can recollect amounts to this, that the Emperor of Austria was
the first person who informed the King of the Queen's conduct in
Italy, that after the enquiry was set on foot a negotiation was
entered into with the Queen, the basis of which was that she
should abdicate the title of Queen, and that to this she had
consented. He said that Brougham had acted a double part, for
that he had acquiesced in the propriety of her acceding to those
terms, and had promised that he would go over to her and confirm
her in her resolution to agree to them; that he had not only not
gone, but that whilst he was making these promises to Government
he had written to the Queen desiring her to come over. The Duke
told me that a man (whose name he did not mention) came to him
and said, 'So the Queen comes over?' He said, 'No, she does not.'
The man said, 'I know she does, for Brougham has written to
her to come; I saw the letter.' If Lord Liverpool and Lord
Londonderry had thought proper to publish what had been done on
the part of Brougham, he would have been covered with infamy; but
they would not do it, and he thinks they were wrong. The rest I
cannot remember.[11]

[11] [This is an erroneous and imperfect account of this
important transaction, the particulars of which are
related by Lord Brougham in his 'Memoirs,' cap. xvi.
vol. ii. p. 352, and still more fully by Mr. Yonge in
his 'Life of Lord Liverpool,' vol. iii. p. 52. Mr.
Brougham had sent his brother James to the Queen at
Geneva to dissuade her from setting out for England,
but, as he himself observes, 'I was quite convinced
that if she once set out she never would stop short.'
He met her himself at St. Omer, being the bearer of a
memorandum dated the 15th of April, 1820, which
contained the terms proposed by the King's Government.
He went to St. Omer in company with Lord Hutchinson,
but Mr. Brougham, and not Lord Hutchinson, was the
bearer of these propositions. Lord Hutchinson had no
copy of the document. The extraordinary part of Mr.
Brougham's conduct was that he nev