tion,
and that the Duke had a right so to consider it; that in the
Duke's conduct there appeared a want of courtesy and an anxiety
to get rid of him which it would have been more fair to avow and
defend than to deny; that on both sides there was a mixture of
obstinacy and angry feeling, and a disposition to treat the
question rather as a personal matter than one in which the public
interests were deeply concerned. But the charge which is made on
one side that Huskisson wanted to embarrass the Duke's Government
and enhance his own importance, and that on the other of the
Duke's insincerity, are both unfounded.

Some circumstances, however, contributed to place the Duke's
conduct in an unfavourable point of view. These were the
extravagant and unconcealed joy of the High Tories and of his
immediate friends, and his attending at the same time the Pitt
dinner and sitting there while Lord Eldon gave his famous 'one
cheer more' for Protestant ascendency. That he treated Huskisson
with some degree of harshness there is no doubt, but he was
angry, and not without reason; the former brought it all upon
himself. During the debate upon East Retford, when Huskisson was
called upon by Sandon to redeem his pledge, he told Peel that he
could not help himself, and must vote against him; but he begged
him to put off the question till the following week, that it
might be considered again. This Peel refused; had he acceded, all
this would not have taken place.

When the King saw Huskisson he was extremely gracious to him,
expressed the utmost regret at losing him, and said that he had
wished not to see him at first, that he might avoid receiving his
resignation, and in hopes that the matter would have been
arranged.[5] However, the other party say that the King is very
glad to have got rid of him and his party.

[5] [Huskisson solicited an audience, which his Majesty
refused for some days to grant: he would not see him
until he had written again to the Duke of Wellington.]

In the middle of all this Madame de Lieven is supposed to have
acted with great impertinence if not imprudence, and to have made
use of the access she has to the King to say all sorts of things
against the Duke and the present Government. Her dislike to the
Duke has been increasing ever since that cessation of intimacy
which was caused by Canning's accession to power, when she
treated him very uncivilly in order to pay court to Canning.